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[MisterNoisy]

Thank you man. These past few days my little brothers computer went from aggravating freezing issues(ended up being the wireless pci card) that I thought was a broken mobo to now having a few upgrades that will make his system really nice come next week. He'll be ecstatic.

I made my younger brother build this beast last Christmas after I'd bought the parts (he needed to learn how to do this stuff).

I fear that all Christmas gifts hence will fail to live up to that one, since I served up knowledge and parts.

I hope that your brother's problems are solved with proper airflow.

 

[RumblingRosco]

Just a heads-up, but Newegg now lists the 2x4 GB of Samsung 30 nm RAM as "Discontinued" and it's also out of stock. Amazon recently jumped the price from $35 to $42. Newegg does still carry individual 4 GB sticks for $20 each. I'm not sure if this RAM is actually discontinued or not, but people sitting on the fence may want to consider grabbing some just in case it really is gone for good.

Personally, I cannot imagine why it'd be gone unless they're replacing it with something even better, because it seems to be selling like hotcakes.

 

[Exuro]

I made my younger brother build this beast last Christmas after I'd bought the parts (he needed to learn how to do this stuff).

http://i.imgur.com/sYesy.jpg[img]

I fear that all Christmas gifts hence will fail to live up to that one, since I served up knowledge and parts. :(

I hope that your brother's problems are solved with proper airflow. :)[/QUOTE]That looks really nice. I had to manage a $600 build for him and ended up getting a 2500k and 6850 lastish year. Did some weird craigslisting where I bought a pc for $200 bucks that i gave to my roomate(it was a really good deal, had a 5770) and took the case off it to give to my bro. I did a lot of weird money saving things to keep the price, so getting a good case wasn't a high priority back then. A new case with proper cooling and cable management combined with a few new parts I have wrapped up should have him set up.

His 6850 has the absolute worst sounding cooler on it though. Rattles like crazy when he plays games like portal 2. Hoping the case + fans masks the sound better than the current one. Would like to eventually find/install a quiter cooler for it.

 

[GK86]

In honor of MisterNoisy generous gift, I'm giving away the following:

Warhammer GOTY (steam key) gone
Red Faction: Armageddon Path to War DLC (steam key)
Just Cause 2 (steam gift) gone

First to quote which game they want, will get it.

 

[neoanarch]

Just Cause 2

I KEEP MISSING THOSE STEAM SALES

THANKS

 

[snack]

In honor of MisterNoisy generous gift, I'm giving away the following:

Warhammer GOTY (steam key)
Red Faction: Armageddon Path to War DLC (steam key)
Just Cause 2 (steam gift)

First to quote which game they want, will get it.

Warhammer?
ty

 

[neoanarch]

Thanks again gk86.


Also not to turn this into a "good home for free stuff ver 2" but I have a Torchlight key in my Steam inventory if anyone is interested. Thats the original not the sequel.

 

[androvsky]

Thanks again gk86.


Also not to turn this into a "good home for free stuff ver 2" but I have a Torchlight key in my Steam inventory if anyone is interested. Thats the original not the sequel.

Yes please? My wife might like that game...

edit: Awesome, thanks

 

[crimzonflame]

Posting from my new PC.

A few minor/major things though, if someone doesn't mid help me out. I bought DDR3-1600 RAM, but under Bios it says that the speed is set at 1300. How do I change this? I have a ASUS P8Z77-V Lk motherboard.

Also my Bios detects my second hard drive ( WD 2 TB) but its not showing up in Windows. How do I add my second hardrive?

Edit: Got Windows to recognize the 2nd HD. Its all good.

 

[The Frankman]

Question: I was installing the Crucial m4 firmare for my SSD and after a restaart got a message that Windows had to restart again due to software changing. After that it did, but outside of 4 files being created on my USB I can't find a folder where the firmware resides on my drive.

 

[TheD]

Question: I was installing the Crucial m4 firmare for my SSD and after a restaart got a message that Windows had to restart again due to software changing. After that it did, but outside of 4 files being created on my USB I can't find a folder where the firmware resides on my drive.

It is firmware, it is the SSD's EPROM, not on the NAND storage itself and thus you will never find it on the drive.

 

[The Frankman]

It is firmware, it is the SSD's EPROM, not on the NAND storage itself and thus you will never find it on the drive.

ah, thanks. I guess I can start optimizing the SSD tomorrow then.

 

[androvsky]

Okay, two things. One, I take it the mechanical HDD market is still kinda crappy? Are there any nice deals I should look out for in terms of big (1.5TB+), cheap drives?


Also, when I hit refresh on this thread before starting this post, I got a giant, full-screen Myspace ad for several seconds. It's not the first time I've gotten it, I see it every once in a while, generally when going to neogaf or refreshing a thread. First time I saw it, I ran a virus and malware scan, didn't turn up much. Still get it from time to time (maybe once every couple of weeks), and it's always myspace.com...

Except this time, I'm using Chrome in Ubuntu. WTF.

edit: Although I do have the Windows version of Steam running in wine currently (completely separate from my Windows Steam install), my Chrome is the linux version.

 

[crimzonflame]

What files should I keep on my SSD and which should I keep on my other hd? Right now I have browsers (and profiles I assume), and various drivers installed onto it.

 

[Plasmid]

I completely forgot, am i going to need a wireless card? or are they included in most motherboards nowadays or?

 

[androvsky]

I completely forgot, am i going to need a wireless card? or are they included in most motherboards nowadays or?

I get the impression they're relatively rare. A motherboard I put into a system at my work had a wifi add-on, but it was a crazy high-end ASUS board that included a Thunderbolt port too. I didn't see wifi on any of the cheap boards I was looking at for myself.

 

[Mandoric]

I completely forgot, am i going to need a wireless card? or are they included in most motherboards nowadays or?

It's pretty rare. I've personally had good luck with the (nice and cheap!) TP-Link TL-WN722N USB adapter, which was also recommended a few days ago upthread.

 

[Happypwnstar]

Quick question could windows 7 be messing with my GPU and games? If so could I maybe get a free examples of how.

 

[Mandoric]

Quick question could windows 7 be messing with my GPU and games? If so could I maybe get a free examples of how.

If you upgraded from XP and have a -really- marginal card, the light overhead from Aero could push it over the edge. Basically that means your card is either terrible or about to die, though.

 

[Daante]

"Why PC gaming is far from dead"

http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/pc/why-pc-gaming-is-far-from-dead-1118383

Interesting article, and i think the editor is spot on with most of the things he/she brings up (its a bit Nvidia influenced but other than that worth a read imo)

 

[iavi]

Looks like a great build and those three free games on the Radeon run out December 31st. That is a considerable value especially if you are interested in them. I say go for it.

Wait. Really? Looks like I'll have to fast-track my 7950 purchase then, if this is really the case. It was either it or the 3570k next check, and I was going to buy it last in hopes of catching a really good deal-aside from the games.

 

[n64coder]

don't bother with that stuff, the programs are probably useless and the actual drivers on those CDs are pretty much always outdated

I always just use the regular drivers that Windows installs through Windows Update

only exceptions:

1. Always install latest GPU drivers
2. Official (Intel) SATA drivers if you're running a RAID config (OS won't install otherwise)
3. Any drivers not found by Windows; get them from the site of your motherboard manufacturer to ensure you get the latest version. (In device manager, sort by connection if you can't figure out which driver is missing)

optional:

4. Intel® Chipset Device Software (INF Update Utility) --> though these should be included in the Windows Update, installing the latest version can't hurt (there might be an AMD chipset equivalent but I can't really remember right now...)



under [PC Health] or something like that (where you can see all the temperatures and voltages) there is probably some Fan Control option

Asus calls it Q-Fan for example, different manufacturers have different names

Even though the drivers on the disc will be updated, you should still install them. If you don't have a DVD drive, just copy the disc to a USB stick and install from there. Then once you're connected, you can use Windows Update although I prefer to just go to the chipset manufacturer's website and pull the latest drivers since Windows doesn't always get the latest ones.

If you don't install the drivers from the DVD, you'll often find that networking doesn't work because there's no proper driver for it. I had this issue with the Z77 board from Intel.

I was ready to come in here with mostly positive stories of having built my first PC last week and doing several successful overclocking runs throughout the day, but then?

Windows won't boot. Everything was looking extremely normal, but after changing the clock multiplier in the BIOS and exiting to boot, it gave me a blinking cursor in the upper-left and nothing I do seems to bypass it. I reset the BIOS to manufacturer settings, it recognizes the hard drive, RAM, processor, and my other components, but Windows just doesn't boot.

I doubt it's a hard drive issue, as it's new, had been working perfectly fine, and is recognized by the MOBO. Google isn't being much of a help.

Any ideas?

Edit: I should point out that right before this, Windows (Windows 8) installed an update.

Reboot the machine and press F8 (I think?) to boot Windows from last known good configuration. THis will allow you to go to a configuration prior to the last update so you can see if the new update is causing the issue.

So...
Long story short my i7-860 is Now old (4 years old at least), so it's time to SHAPE up!
Worth it waiting for haswell or i should go for high range current gen (price range about 2k eur)?
Consider i swap my pc once every 3-4 years, no less...
Nothing gets changes lest it breaks...

Every year, there are new updates. If you have a need for a new cpu/motherboard, then just do it now. If you don't, then wait until you have a need.

i7-860 is not really that old and is still good. I was doing stuff on a Pentium 4 (8 year old) just fine until I upgraded this year.

 

[n0n44m]

Even though the drivers on the disc will be updated, you should still install them. If you don't have a DVD drive, just copy the disc to a USB stick and install from there. Then once you're connected, you can use Windows Update although I prefer to just go to the chipset manufacturer's website and pull the latest drivers since Windows doesn't always get the latest ones.

If you don't install the drivers from the DVD, you'll often find that networking doesn't work because there's no proper driver for it. I had this issue with the Z77 board from Intel.

that's why you preferably do all those things before on another pc/notebook and put everything on a USB stick

 

[Gowans]

Sweet, I've got a potential build then

Xfx Proseries 450w Power Supply Unit (core Edition) - £36.50 from Ebuyer http://www.ebuyer.com/413804-xfx-proseries-450w-power-supply-unit-core-edition-p1-450s-x2b9

Asus P8H61-MX USB3 Socket 1155 VGA DVI 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard - £37.79 from Ebuyer http://www.ebuyer.com/392930-asus-p...-channel-audio-matx-motherboard-p8h61-mx-usb3

Intel Pentium Dual-Core G826 - £50.13 from Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005JBPS48/

TP Link TL-WN881ND 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Express Adapter - £13.97 from Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006BSPTAQ/

Corsair CML8GX3M2A1600C9 LP Vengeance 8GB RAM - £32.68 from Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00569K7LM/

MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC with Far Cry 3 and Sleeping Dogs - £149.99 from Overclockers https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-154-MS (They charge for delivery if you don't live nearby to pick up)

Come to a total of £321.06, so you've money left over to play about with to say get a better GPU, money towards an SSD, a new case, better motherboard

Still waiting on my PSU, Memory, CPU, Motherboard & Network card but my Graphics Card has shown up.

If I put it in my current rig will it blow up?????


Also any tips on pulling a WD External USB drive out and putting it in my system?

 

[hwalker84]

Just a heads-up, but Newegg now lists the 2x4 GB of Samsung 30 nm RAM as "Discontinued" and it's also out of stock. Amazon recently jumped the price from $35 to $42. Newegg does still carry individual 4 GB sticks for $20 each. I'm not sure if this RAM is actually discontinued or not, but people sitting on the fence may want to consider grabbing some just in case it really is gone for good.

Personally, I cannot imagine why it'd be gone unless they're replacing it with something even better, because it seems to be selling like hotcakes.

I just ordered 32GB's worth. It seems the 4GBx2 returned from discontinued but I was only able to order 1.

 

[rjfs]

Ok GAF, I need your help. I'm looking to purchase a new computer in the next week or so and I don't know where to look. My last pc was a dell and it was expensive, huge, and kind of a piece of shit. My company is paying for it so I really would prefer it not to be a gaming pc or have neon lights etc. Something real powerful but boring sounding from a well known vendor would be ideal. Budget is up to 2k, I don't need a monitor.

FTR I have built my own in the past, I realize it's better and cheaper it just doesn't fit me needs right now.

Thanks!

 

[ithorien]

Also, whats the norm these days when building a new PC for gaming 8GB or 16GB?

Would there be any obvious benefits of going for 16GB over the 8GB?

While gaming right at this very moment might not take advantage of it, if you do any sort of heavy multitasking you might actually cap.

I upgraded from 8 to 16 a few months back for this very reason. When I'm at my "peak" I'm probably using about 10-11 right now out of the 16.

 

[EternalGamer]

Ok GAF, I need your help. I'm looking to purchase a new computer in the next week or so and I don't know where to look. My last pc was a dell and it was expensive, huge, and kind of a piece of shit. My company is paying for it so I really would prefer it not to be a gaming pc or have neon lights etc. Something real powerful but boring sounding from a well known vendor would be ideal. Budget is up to 2k, I don't need a monitor.

FTR I have built my own in the past, I realize it's better and cheaper it just doesn't fit me needs right now.

Thanks!

Read the OP. It is frequently updated and has a great chart for different build tiers.

 

[rjfs]

Read the OP. It is frequently updated and has a great chart for different build tiers.

Thanks for the reply, but as I said I need to buy a complete system and I'm not looking to build my own.

 

[Infinite Justice]

Ok GAF, I need your help. I'm looking to purchase a new computer in the next week or so and I don't know where to look. My last pc was a dell and it was expensive, huge, and kind of a piece of shit. My company is paying for it so I really would prefer it not to be a gaming pc or have neon lights etc. Something real powerful but boring sounding from a well known vendor would be ideal. Budget is up to 2k, I don't need a monitor.

FTR I have built my own in the past, I realize it's better and cheaper it just doesn't fit me needs right now.

Thanks!

Vendor machines are usually hit or miss due to the shit you can get or the jacked up prices so i would say avoid and get some parts from the OP to build it imo.

If you can't build it now there is a store that allows you to buy the parts you want and with a small fee (IIRC $50 or so) they will build it for you then ship that. The parts + fee might be still cheaper than a similarly spec vendor system.


There are other posters who will have better info on actual good/reasonable vendors since i hardly deal with them anymore.

 

[scogoth]

Ok GAF, I need your help. I'm looking to purchase a new computer in the next week or so and I don't know where to look. My last pc was a dell and it was expensive, huge, and kind of a piece of shit. My company is paying for it so I really would prefer it not to be a gaming pc or have neon lights etc. Something real powerful but boring sounding from a well known vendor would be ideal. Budget is up to 2k, I don't need a monitor.

FTR I have built my own in the past, I realize it's better and cheaper it just doesn't fit me needs right now.

Thanks!

You need to be more specific on your needs. What kind of work are you doing, what programs do you use, etc. $2000 can be a lot or a little depending on what your work is.

 

[kennah]

Thanks for the reply, but as I said I need to buy a complete system and I'm not looking to build my own.

Then you're in the wrong place. Complete systems usually use generic parts that don't offer good performance/are overpriced. It is really easy to build your own and you save a couple hundred dollars while doing it/get a better system for the money. Or if you're in the Pacific NW mkenyon would build it for you

 

[rjfs]

You need to be more specific on your needs. What kind of work are you doing, what programs do you use, etc. $2000 can be a lot or a little depending on what your work is.

I'm looking for gaming performance. I don't use anything that demanding for work and all I really need for that is a lot of ram.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...&cid=72662&lid=1838870&acd=000011,,901pdb6671

Is there a better monitor out there for the money? I can't seem to find one. Opinions?

 

[DietRob]

Oh whew, took a second but I found you guys.

So I got green-lit on building a new gaming PC. I'm going with the 'enthusiast' build. However, I'm debating something.

Would it be better off for me to pick up another 5850 as a compliment to my current one. I have no issues with the games I play now. Or would I be better off getting 1 gfx card that dwarfs them?

Also I'm a bit leery moving from AMD to Nividia so somebody help me make my decision easier. Better driver support? Any other advantages?

 

[kennah]

Read back the last couple pages about a guy's difficulty with Crossfire and how the $300 card he bought to replace them blows it out of the water.

Yes, go all new. Sell your 5850 and put that money towards your GPU.

 

[DietRob]

Read back the last couple pages about a guy's difficulty with Crossfire and how the $300 card he bought to replace them blows it out of the water.

Yes, go all new. Sell your 5850 and put that money towards your GPU.

Great thank you. I'll read back through in a few.

 

[Wendel Clark]

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...&cid=72662&lid=1838870&acd=000011,,901pdb6671

Is there a better monitor out there for the money? I can't seem to find one. Opinions?

I've heard nothing but good things about the BenQ XL2420T. And it's 120Hz so it can display up to 120fps, which I've also heard nothing but good things from people that have upgraded to 120Hz displays. Usually the only thing stopping people from buying them is the cost.

 

[rjfs]

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...&cid=72662&lid=1838870&acd=000011,,901pdb6671

Is there a better monitor out there for the money? I can't seem to find one. Opinions?

I have two of these at the office and I'm really happy with them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236153

Also you could get two for the same price.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

I have two of these at the office and I'm really happy with them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236153

Also you could get two for the same price.

I've heard nothing but good things about the BenQ XL2420T. And it's 120Hz so it can display up to 120fps, which I've also heard nothing but good things from people that have upgraded to 120Hz displays. Usually the only thing stopping people from buying them is the cost.

thank you for the suggestions. I'll give them both a close look.

I was really hoping for 16:10 options for business reasons (the more real estate, the better), but I'll give these a hard look.

 

[sorijealut]

How does this 660 Ti look?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133466
It is OOS now. I was just wondering if anyone knows anything about them.
Kind of want a twin cooler really bad though. I'm sad I missed the Asus card from before.

thank you for the suggestions. I'll give them both a close look.

I was really hoping for 16:10 options for business reasons (the more real estate, the better), but I'll give these a hard look.

Buy this one, it's the one I have, the difference between 247 vs. 248 is that 247 has a brighter screen (300cd vs 250)
As for your Dell IPS screen, That looks like a superb monitor.

 

[Tattooth]

I'm not really sure if this is the right place to ask, but its still relevant.

Starting today, whenever I boot up my windows 8 pc, it boots straight to recovery saying the pc needs to be repaired and a device that is needed can't be accessed. I have trying booting from a USB stick I have with win 8 on it but the same error still shows up.
The pc was working fine this afternoon, but after I turned it off and then booted it up again later on the error code: 0xc0000000e comes up.

 

[EternalGamer]

Great thank you. I'll read back through in a few.

That was me who had the dual Radeon 6870s that I recently replaced. It isnt all bad but here are the downsides:

-dual cards are noisier
-many new games take months to implement good dual card support
-some games, like Rage, never run well and force you to disable one card
-say goodbye to any other PCI expansions since modern graphics cards are so big
-stability issues can and did arise for me on occasion requiring me to roll back drivers
-micro stuttering is a significant concern

If you can afford it, definitely go single card. radeon 7800 line on a tight budget or or 7900 line if you have a bit more cash.

 

[Lucky Forward]

Ok GAF, I need your help. I'm looking to purchase a new computer in the next week or so and I don't know where to look. My last pc was a dell and it was expensive, huge, and kind of a piece of shit. My company is paying for it so I really would prefer it not to be a gaming pc or have neon lights etc. Something real powerful but boring sounding from a well known vendor would be ideal. Budget is up to 2k, I don't need a monitor.

FTR I have built my own in the past, I realize it's better and cheaper it just doesn't fit me needs right now.

Thanks!

http://www.pugetsystems.com/desktop.php

I just bought a custom-built gaming PC from Puget Systems (a Deluge i5 3570K, GTX 680). They were very good to deal with and, aside from gaming, they offer a number of systems marketed as "business & government" PCs. Since you can configure your system how you like, you can give it some nice gaming capabilities.

Puget Systems emphasizes that all the components they use are selected for reliability, so you don't get stuck with a cheap power supply or other sub-standard parts, and they do extensive testing of your PC before it ships. Yeah, they're on the expensive side, but you wouldn't have any trouble validating your new gaming PC as a "business purchase."

 

[EternalGamer]

http://www.pugetsystems.com/desktop.php

I just bought a custom-built gaming PC from Puget Systems (a Deluge i5 3570K, GTX 680). They were very good to deal with and, aside from gaming, they offer a number of systems marketed as "business & government" PCs. Since you can configure your system how you like, you can give it some nice gaming capabilities.

Puget Systems emphasizes that all the components they use are selected for reliability, so you don't get stuck with cheap power supply or other sub-standard parts, and they do extensive testing of your PC before it ships. Yeah, they're on the expensive side, but you wouldn't have any trouble validating your new gaming PC as a "business purchase."

Not a bad suggestion. I just played around with their "Spirit" PC Business oriented build. I was able to customize a build with 8gb of RAM, a i5 3570k, and a Radeon 7970 for $1800, which is an extremely powerful machine and still under his budget. It even had a ton of expansion slots and a 650w power supply.

Obviously nowhere near as cheap as building yourself but definitely more bang for the buck than Alienware or Ibuypower.

 

[mkenyon]

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...&cid=72662&lid=1838870&acd=000011,,901pdb6671

Is there a better monitor out there for the money? I can't seem to find one. Opinions?

Samsung S23AxxD, BenQ XL2420T.

 

[Wendel Clark]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ction-_-cables-_-na-_-na&Item=N82E16824001473

SAMSUNG S23A950D Black 23" 47% off

 

[EternalGamer]

Samsung S23AxxD, BenQ XL2420T.

I don't know anything about the Samsung, but I own that Dell monitor and I can say it is extremely impressive. Now whether or not it is worth the difference in price, I certainly am in no position to judge.

 

[n64coder]

I'm not really sure if this is the right place to ask, but its still relevant.

Starting today, whenever I boot up my windows 8 pc, it boots straight to recovery saying the pc needs to be repaired and a device that is needed can't be accessed. I have trying booting from a USB stick I have with win 8 on it but the same error still shows up.
The pc was working fine this afternoon, but after I turned it off and then booted it up again later on the error code: 0xc0000000e comes up.

If you booted with a usb stick and still get the same error, I wonder if there's something wrong with your memory? How much memory do you have? If you have 4 sticks, could you take out 2 sticks and see if the error still happens? If it still does, then try swapping out the other two sticks.

0xC000000E is KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR.

Are you able to boot the PC in safe mode? I think pressing F8 when the machine boots up will give you that option.

 

[mkenyon]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ction-_-cables-_-na-_-na&Item=N82E16824001473

SAMSUNG S23A950D Black 23" 47% off

Oh shit. I've not been happy about having my BenQ XL2420T next to the S23A750D. This might alleviate that issue! Great price on this. If I were in the market for another 120hz monitor, this would be the deal I'd grab in a heart beat.

I don't know anything about the Samsung, but I own that Dell monitor and I can say it is extremely impressive. Now whether or not it is worth the difference in price, I certainly am in no position to judge.

Samsung is 120hz. Dell is not.