Support NeoGAF

[NoRéN]

Any recommendations for case fans?

So far I've found these that seem good for the price.

Cooler Master SickleFlow 120mm Blue LED Computer Case Fan (R4-L2R-20AC-GP)

Cooler Master R4 Series Silent 140mm Case Fan R4-S4S-10AK-GP

and this is the best deal here

Cooler Master 120mm Silent Case Fan 4-in-1 Value Pack - (R4-S2S-124K-GP)

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Well, I was going to get a Samsung 830 128gb but the seller was shady. Had to opt out and went with this OCZ Technology 128GB Vertex 4 Series SATA 6.0 GB/s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) With Industry's Highest 120K IOPS And 5-Year Warranty - VTX4-25SAT3-128G right from Amazon. These SSD's all seem really good so I hope I made the right choice.

Any owners of the OCZ in particular?

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Any recommendations for case fans?

So far I've found these that seem good for the price.

Cooler Master SickleFlow 120mm Blue LED Computer Case Fan (R4-L2R-20AC-GP)

Cooler Master R4 Series Silent 140mm Case Fan R4-S4S-10AK-GP

and this is the best deal here

Cooler Master 120mm Silent Case Fan 4-in-1 Value Pack - (R4-S2S-124K-GP)

I have the blue LED version of the 140mm R4, and the first one I received died after the first power on. Second one has been trucking.

Will hopefully have two of the SickleFlow ones for Christmas, (and I'll be ordering them myself if not), so we should let each other know how it goes, whoever gets them first.

 

[GK86]

Any recommendations for case fans?

So far I've found these that seem good for the price.

Cooler Master SickleFlow 120mm Blue LED Computer Case Fan (R4-L2R-20AC-GP)

Cooler Master R4 Series Silent 140mm Case Fan R4-S4S-10AK-GP

and this is the best deal here

Cooler Master 120mm Silent Case Fan 4-in-1 Value Pack - (R4-S2S-124K-GP)

I was going to recommended this one, but yours are a better deal. I'm probably going to buy that 4 pack, a great deal.

 

[Calibrated Chaos]

Any way I could make my machine quieter? Or an effective way to find out what's making so much noise? I pretty much have to wear headphones or blast the speakers any time I watch/play anything.

 

[n64coder]

Any way I could make my machine quieter? Or an effective way to find out what's making so much noise? I pretty much have to wear headphones or blast the speakers any time I watch/play anything.

What kind of CPU and graphics card do you have? I would suggest opening the case up and then unplug or stop a fan with your finger and see which one is making the noise.

 

[GK86]

Any way I could make my machine quieter? Or an effective way to find out what's making so much noise? I pretty much have to wear headphones or blast the speakers any time I watch/play anything.

Unplug the case fans, see if the noise is coming from them. If it is, replace them with silent fans that Noren posted.

 

[Calibrated Chaos]

What kind of CPU and graphics card do you have? I would suggest opening the case up and then unplug or stop a fan with your finger and see which one is making the noise.

Radeon 5770 and AMD Athlon II X4

 

[Lucky Forward]

Any way I could make my machine quieter? Or an effective way to find out what's making so much noise? I pretty much have to wear headphones or blast the speakers any time I watch/play anything.

Have you tried blowing the dust out of your PC?

http://www.nmbtc.com/nmb-component-applications/office-equipment/computer-fan-noise/

 

[NoRéN]

I have the blue LED version of the 140mm R4, and the first one I received died after the first power on. Second one has been trucking.

Will hopefully have two of the SickleFlow ones for Christmas, (and I'll be ordering them myself if not), so we should let each other know how it goes, whoever gets them first.

Part of me wants the blue LED one. But that 4 pack seems like a great deal. It would leave me with two extras which I can keep as backups or something.

I was going to recommended this one, but yours are a better deal. I'm probably going to buy that 4 pack, a great deal.

It's pretty hard to pass up this deal.

Would a 140mm provide a much better airflow than a 120mm?

 

[Dali]

Its kind of after the fact now... and also sort of off topic as its not for a gaming rig... but I was wondering if its worth it to bring my hp pavilion dv5 1251nr back to life or buy a new laptop/notebook for the amount it would take it t revive the machine. New OS and hd was $150. New battery and ram upgrade is another $170 or so. So can a new laptop in the $300 to $400 range compete with my 2009 laptop? Off the top of my head it has core 2 duo t6400 and a low level nvidia mobile card. My thinking was the graphics card makes anything I get in the price range less capable.

 

[Ty4on]

Radeon 5770 and AMD Athlon II X4

Like they said, unplug fans, listen to where the sound comes from etc etc.

Is it a buzzing/humming? It could be vibrations from fans/HDDs. Push stuff (panels etc) and see if the noise goes away. My FT03-m stops humming when the rear panel is pushed and my brothers HAF-X stops clicking when the front panel is pushed
Is it a high pitched whine? It could be coil whine which you just have to live with.
Does it go away when the computer is idle? It could be the CPU/GPU fan ramping up in which case you should remove dust. It could also be coil whine.
Is it just fan noise all the time? Reduce the speed of the case fans or get silent/low RPM fans. Remember to plug the fans to the motherboard unless you have a fan controller of some sort. That way you have a chance of controlling the fan speed.

Would a 140mm provide a much better airflow than a 120mm?

Bigger fans push more air, but 120mm is such a common size they get most of the tech. Mkenyon actually recommends 120mm fans over 140mm fans if you case has mounts for both because of that.

With identical fans I don't know the excact difference, but 140^2*3.14 is 36.111...% bigger than 120^2*3.14 if that helps you

 

[NoRéN]

Bigger fans push more air, but 120mm is such a common size they get most of the tech. Mkenyon actually recommends 120mm fans over 140mm fans if you case has mounts for both because of that.

With identical fans I don't know the excact difference, but 140^2*3.14 is 36.111...% bigger than 120^2*3.14 if that helps you

Thanks for the info.
Didn't know about the Mkenyon seal of approval.

I think I'll go with the 120mm just to keep the sizes uniform.

 

[Ty4on]

Thanks for the info.
Didn't know about the Mkenyon seal of approval.

I think I'll go with the 120mm just to keep the sizes uniform.

Found his post!

[...]

Additional fans aren't really necessary. 140mm fans are pretty much garbage. What the companies do is design specific technology around 120mm and then just try to scale it up. You end up with noisier, less efficient fans. If you want, you can take a look at grabbing some extras. Spectre Pros are good at the $10 mark, Corsair AP/AF (AP for rads/heatsinks, AF for case fans) are good at $15, and Noiseblockers are good in the $20+ range.

 

[mkenyon]

Thanks for the info.
Didn't know about the Mkenyon seal of approval.

I think I'll go with the 120mm just to keep the sizes uniform.

Made me blush.

TBH, I'm pretty clueless about fans that are sub $10 aside from Yate Loons. I really like their 1200ish RPM fans. Not a super long life, but will certainly last years with great performance.

The Cooler Master fans seem to never really make it on my radar as they don't have the best fans when it comes to static pressure (how well they perform when obstructed), which is becoming more and more important to me.

Really, it's hard to go wrong when you are picking out a 1000-1400 RPM case fan as long as you stick to the knowns, unless you have specific requirements like heatsink/radiator duty, or it is obstructed by a ton of case parts.

*edit*

Finished my new workstation setup. Pretty happy with the lighting. Thinking I should rotate the XL2420T to portrait for a more compact viewing area.

 

[Wendel Clark]

I may buy the BenQ XL2420T but I don't know if I will go with a 120Hz monitor. =(

GTX 670 vs MSI GTX660 Ti OC goes, some benchmark images have them pretty much equal, but the 660 is almost 100 dollars cheaper...

Is there any reason to go with Windows 8?

Has anyone here used MemoryExpress? How is their service? Getting ready to order my parts (pretty much the Excellent build in the OP), just need to settle on the GPU and monitor =]

 

[mkenyon]

I may buy the BenQ XL2420T but I don't know if I will go with a 120Hz monitor. =(

GTX 670 vs MSI GTX660 Ti OC goes, some benchmark images have them pretty much equal, but the 660 is almost 100 dollars cheaper...

Is there any reason to go with Windows 8?

Has anyone here used MemoryExpress? How is their service? Getting ready to order my parts (pretty much the Excellent build in the OP), just need to settle on the GPU and monitor =]

BenQ and Samsung S23A are both really good for different reasons. The gloss screen on the Samsung gives it some pretty famazing colors. If you are questioning 120hz or not, then you have no question. The answer is yes. Always yes.

660Ti has much worse memory bandwidth than the 670 and will perform much worse when games start to use more VRAM. Or, in games where more than 1.5GB of VRAM is being used. BF3, modded Skyrim, and anything with AA cranked comes to mind.

No real reason to go with 8 as of yet.

 

[Lkr]

before i start working on my overclocking, is there a good reference to what kind of improvements i'll see at each clock range for a 3570?

 

[thefil]

Question: If I'm building new and want to run Steam in Linux, am I better off going NVidia or ATI? I'm assuming the drivers will be worse regardless, but is one better than the other in Linux?

I am honestly incredibly excited to potentially combine work/gaming PCs.

 

[mkenyon]

before i start working on my overclocking, is there a good reference to what kind of improvements i'll see at each clock range for a 3570?

Nope, working on this question ATM.

 

[Wendel Clark]

Yeah, I need a new monitor so might as well go with the best (120Hz). Probably the BenQ. Thanks for the answers. Gonna order tomorrow.

 

[Whiteshirt]

BenQ and Samsung S23A are both really good for different reasons. The gloss screen on the Samsung gives it some pretty famazing colors. If you are questioning 120hz or not, then you have no question. The answer is yes. Always yes.

660Ti has much worse memory bandwidth than the 670 and will perform much worse when games start to use more VRAM. Or, in games where more than 1.5GB of VRAM is being used. BF3, modded Skyrim, and anything with AA cranked comes to mind.

No real reason to go with 8 as of yet.

The Benq is honestly not that great, its only "good" because the smaller Asus and Samsung monitors have been EOLed or something similar. Compared to the competition, its expensive and worse at what its designed to do: play games and produce good quality images.

I still think the Asus VG236H is still the best all round 120hz monitor since its the only 120hz monitor that has everything: multiple inputs, height adjustment, gloss screen, solid RTC circuitry, low input lag in both 60hz and 120hz modes.

If you can still find the Asus VG236H, its a better option. The Samsungs are better options too but the physical design prevents any form of height adjustment to make up for TN's shortcomings.

 

[n64coder]

Its kind of after the fact now... and also sort of off topic as its not for a gaming rig... but I was wondering if its worth it to bring my hp pavilion dv5 1251nr back to life or buy a new laptop/notebook for the amount it would take it t revive the machine. New OS and hd was $150. New battery and ram upgrade is another $170 or so. So can a new laptop in the $300 to $400 range compete with my 2009 laptop? Off the top of my head it has core 2 duo t6400 and a low level nvidia mobile card. My thinking was the graphics card makes anything I get in the price range less capable.

What is currently wrong with the laptop? What kind of things do you want to do with the laptop?

Personally, I wouldn't invest $300+ into the laptop. A new battery would be as far as I would go.

 

[mkenyon]

The Benq is honestly not that great, its only "good" because the smaller Asus and Samsung monitors have been EOLed or something similar. Compared to the competition, its expensive and worse at what its designed to do: play games and produce good quality images.

I still think the Asus VG236H is still the best all round 120hz monitor since its the only 120hz monitor that has everything: multiple inputs, height adjustment, gloss screen, solid RTC circuitry, low input lag in both 60hz and 120hz modes.

If you can still find the Asus VG236H, its a better option. The Samsungs are better options too but the physical design prevents any form of height adjustment to make up for TN's shortcomings.

Agreed, but as you said, they are hard to find.

The BenQ does have the amazing stand going for it too.

 

[iavi]

SSD came in the other day, and the Biostar and free ram came in this morning. Couple those with the case and PSU that came a couple weeks ago, and I've got a torturous tempting stack of PC parts just waiting for the final pieces here. I'm dying, I want to get this all assembled so bad.

 

[NoRéN]

Made me blush.

TBH, I'm pretty clueless about fans that are sub $10 aside from Yate Loons. I really like their 1200ish RPM fans. Not a super long life, but will certainly last years with great performance.

The Cooler Master fans seem to never really make it on my radar as they don't have the best fans when it comes to static pressure (how well they perform when obstructed), which is becoming more and more important to me.

Really, it's hard to go wrong when you are picking out a 1000-1400 RPM case fan as long as you stick to the knowns, unless you have specific requirements like heatsink/radiator duty, or it is obstructed by a ton of case parts.

*edit*

Finished my new workstation setup. Pretty happy with the lighting. Thinking I should rotate the XL2420T to portrait for a more compact viewing area.

Thanks for the info. This coupled with your post that was quoted right before means I went with the Corsair AF.

 

[Dali]

What is currently wrong with the laptop? What kind of things do you want to do with the laptop?

Personally, I wouldn't invest $300+ into the laptop. A new battery would be as far as I would go.

Hard drive died. And that's why I asked. Could I get a new one that would be as powerful for the same price as fixing and upgrading?

 

[garath]

I may buy the BenQ XL2420T but I don't know if I will go with a 120Hz monitor. =(

GTX 670 vs MSI GTX660 Ti OC goes, some benchmark images have them pretty much equal, but the 660 is almost 100 dollars cheaper...

Is there any reason to go with Windows 8?

Has anyone here used MemoryExpress? How is their service? Getting ready to order my parts (pretty much the Excellent build in the OP), just need to settle on the GPU and monitor =]

Hardocp just did a benchmark comparison of the 670 vs the 660ti at the same clock speed to see how much of an impact the memory bandwidth difference has. The short answer is 15% more frames with the higher bandwidth of the 670. It's completely up to you if the extra $100 is worth 15% more performance.

Any recommendations for case fans?

So far I've found these that seem good for the price.

Cooler Master SickleFlow 120mm Blue LED Computer Case Fan (R4-L2R-20AC-GP)

Cooler Master R4 Series Silent 140mm Case Fan R4-S4S-10AK-GP

and this is the best deal here

Cooler Master 120mm Silent Case Fan 4-in-1 Value Pack - (R4-S2S-124K-GP)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007RESG7G/?tag=neogaf0e-20

These Corsair fans are more expensive than what you linked but they are VERY good. Super quiet, great airflow. I've had some vibration issues in my case and these fans are fantastic replacements. Each mounting point is rubber so it dampens quite a bit.

I replaced a 200mm with 2 of these and my back 120 with it. Very happy with the change.

 

[GK86]

SSD came in the other day, and the Biostar and free ram came in this morning. Couple those with the case and PSU that came a couple weeks ago, and I've got a torturous tempting stack of PC parts just waiting for the final pieces here. I'm dying, I want to get this all assembled so bad.

The torture comes when waiting for the last part to arrive. Because there is always one that's gonna take their sweet time lol.

 

[Revengeance]

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

SAMSUNG S23A950D Black 23" 47% off

Thanks for the suggestion - bought. Free 3 day shipping from newegg too <3

 

[Ty4on]

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.

You found the first gen U2410, don't know if the old one is much better, but they now have the newer U2412m.

The other monitors linked have one thing in common TN and in some 120hz. If you want a fast monitor go for that, but if you want the best picture then the Dells with much better screen tech will give you viewing angles that aren't crap.

Like most things, screen preference is very personal. The input lag in the TFTCentral review is 10ms which is decent, at 60fps each frame will stay on the screen for 16.7ms.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Well, I was going to get a Samsung 830 128gb but the seller was shady. Had to opt out and went with this OCZ Technology 128GB Vertex 4 Series SATA 6.0 GB/s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) With Industry's Highest 120K IOPS And 5-Year Warranty - VTX4-25SAT3-128G right from Amazon. These SSD's all seem really good so I hope I made the right choice.

Any owners of the OCZ in particular?

Anyone have any advice other than updating the FW prior to windows install? I have this coming tomorrow and I also have a few crucial questions....

I want this migration to be seamless and am currently using an F3 1TB HDD as my OS/primary drive. When I get this SSD installed, can I somehow get everything working smoothly or will I have to re-install stuff like Steam on the SSD for it to recognize things? I am entertaining the possibility of doing a clean reformat on the 1TB drive and then just installing all my main apps on that and mainly putting stuff like the browser, media players, essential apps, and a few games on it.

So other than updating the FW pre-install (I have DL'd the OCZ toolkit in advance so I'm ready for that, setting the thing to ACHI in bios, among other things - will I have to do anything else to prep things?

Again, my main concern is data migration really. I don't really want to make an image since I don't have portable storage. Any solutions would be appreciated.

 

[Shambles]

I may buy the BenQ XL2420T but I don't know if I will go with a 120Hz monitor. =(

GTX 670 vs MSI GTX660 Ti OC goes, some benchmark images have them pretty much equal, but the 660 is almost 100 dollars cheaper...

Is there any reason to go with Windows 8?

Has anyone here used MemoryExpress? How is their service? Getting ready to order my parts (pretty much the Excellent build in the OP), just need to settle on the GPU and monitor =]

Memory Express is my go to place for parts. They have an amazing price-beat policy where if you find another Canadian retailer online with a better price they'll not only match it but beat it. You can also get free shipping matched from a separate store. So you can price match newegg on the product and match the free shipping that NCIX may be offering (You have to add the shipping-match in the comments of your order).

If you're near one of their brick and mortar stores their service is quite good. Most staff are knowledgeable and helpful. They sort of expect customers to walk up to the cashiers without knowing what they want. They'll be more than happy to walk you through options and their advice is usually very good.

 

[n64coder]

I am entertaining the possibility of doing a clean reformat on the 1TB drive and then just installing all my main apps on that and mainly putting stuff like the browser, media players, essential apps, and a few games on it.

I recommend putting the SSD in as your boot drive, doing a clean re-installation of Windows and leave your 1TB drive alone except to wipe out \windows, \program files\* directories.
I would put the OS and all applications on the new SSD. The 1TB drive will be used for data. So if you're using ITunes, you'll want to tell it to use d:\ (or some other drive) instead of C:

 

[GHG]

I'm so confused at the moment with the amount of choice in the Intel market right now. Can somebody rank the following processors for me with gaming in mind:

i5 3570k
i7 3820
i7 2700k

What will the difference in gaming between those be? Also, bear in mind that this is for an SLI rig.

Also, what the hell is going on with the amount of chipset variety out there for Intel at the moment? This shit is simple on the AMD side, it seems like an absolute mess on the Intel side.

Z68, H77, Z77, X79. Can GAF please explain to me what the hell is going on and what chipset I need to be looking at. dependent on what the best processor is from the above?

And people are talking about wanting AMD to go out of business... this is Intel making a mess for consumers and its not even a monopoly yet!

 

[mkenyon]

You found the first gen U2410, don't know if the old one is much better, but they now have the newer U2412m.

The other monitors linked have one thing in common TN and in some 120hz. If you want a fast monitor go for that, but if you want the best picture then the Dells with much better screen tech will give you viewing angles that aren't crap.


Like most things, screen preference is very personal. The input lag in the TFTCentral review is 10ms which is decent, at 60fps each frame will stay on the screen for 16.7ms.

I don't think you've ever seen the Samsung S23 series in person. The old "IPS vs every monitor so I don't have to look it up" argument isn't as valid in this case.

120hz is so much more important than viewing angles.

 

[JambiBum]

So my laptop screen currently looks like this.

It's done it before and it eventually goes away. Is there anything I can do to fix it on my own or am I waiting for my gpu to just die?


Edit: Apparently it doesn't actually show up in the picture. I have a bunch of green dots all over my screen currently.

 

[GHG]

I'm so confused at the moment with the amount of choice in the Intel market right now. Can somebody rank the following processors for me with gaming in mind:

i5 3570k
i7 3820
i7 2700k

What will the difference in gaming between those be? Also, bear in mind that this is for an SLI rig.

Also, what the hell is going on with the amount of chipset variety out there for Intel at the moment? This shit is simple on the AMD side, it seems like an absolute mess on the Intel side.

Z68, H77, Z77, X79. Can GAF please explain to me what the hell is going on and what chipset I need to be looking at. dependent on what the best processor is from the above?

And people are talking about wanting AMD to go out of business... this is Intel making a mess for consumers and its not even a monopoly yet!

Sorry to quote myself, but added the i7 2700 to the list

 

[Ty4on]

I'm so confused at the moment with the amount of choice in the Intel market right now. Can somebody rank the following processors for me with gaming in mind:

i5 3570k
i7 3820
i7 2700k

What will the difference in gaming between those be? Also, bear in mind that this is for an SLI rig.

Also, what the hell is going on with the amount of chipset variety out there for Intel at the moment? This shit is simple on the AMD side, it seems like an absolute mess on the Intel side.

Z68, H77, Z77, X79. Can GAF please explain to me what the hell is going on and what chipset I need to be looking at. dependent on what the best processor is from the above?

And people are talking about wanting AMD to go out of business... this is Intel making a mess for consumers and its not even a monopoly yet!

Z68 can overclock Sandy Bridge.
H77 supports Ivy Bridge features, cannot overclock.
Z77 is same as H77, but can also overclock.
X79 is a different socket (2011) and can overclock Sandy Bridge-E.

For gaming Z77 with a 3570k is best, the k means unlocked for overclocking. The 3770k is identical only it has hyper threading, the extra four threads make it 20+% better at threaded tasks, but few games show a difference.

On socket 1155 the 2XXX chips are Sandy while 3XXX chips are Ivy. Ivy uses less power and has a slight increase in performance, but they are harder too cool due to a smaller die and possibly worse thermal interface. On the desktop i3 means dual core with hyper threading, i5 means quad core while i7 means quad core with hyperthreading. K series CPUs are unlocked, without this overclocking 1155 chips much above the turbo is pretty much impossible.

Socket 2011 is expensive, but will probably last a little longer. They only have Sandy and no integrated graphics, but the 3930k and 3970x are hexa core CPUs. The quad core 3820 is a decent budget i7 as it can overclock pretty well despite not being fully unlocked and still has hyper threading, but for gaming a 3570k is cheaper and easier to overclock.

 

[n64coder]

I'm so confused at the moment with the amount of choice in the Intel market right now. Can somebody rank the following processors for me with gaming in mind:

i5 3570k
i7 3820
i7 2700k

What will the difference in gaming between those be? Also, bear in mind that this is for an SLI rig.

Also, what the hell is going on with the amount of chipset variety out there for Intel at the moment? This shit is simple on the AMD side, it seems like an absolute mess on the Intel side.

Z68, H77, Z77, X79. Can GAF please explain to me what the hell is going on and what chipset I need to be looking at. dependent on what the best processor is from the above?

And people are talking about wanting AMD to go out of business... this is Intel making a mess for consumers and its not even a monopoly yet!

For gaming, the focus should be on the GPU (Graphics Card), not CPU. Regarding the Intel processors, ending with K means that it's unlocked which allows you to overclock.

I think the i3 is dual-core, i5 is dual-core with Hyper Threading, and the i7 is quad core with hyper threading. The first number after the i3/i5/i7 designates the generation. So 2700K means the 2nd generation (Sandy Bridge). 3570K is 3rd generation (Ivy Bridge).

The Z68/H77/Z77 are different chipsets that support certain processors and provide functionality for stuff like USB 3.0. An example, the Z68 board supports the Sandy Bridge processors but didn't offer USB 3.0 support. Motherboard vendors will add a third party chip to provide USB 3.0 for Z68 boards. That went away with Z77 which supports the Ivy Bridge processors.

 

[Frostburn]

So my laptop screen currently looks like this.

It's done it before and it eventually goes away. Is there anything I can do to fix it on my own or am I waiting for my gpu to just die?


Edit: Apparently it doesn't actually show up in the picture. I have a bunch of green dots all over my screen currently.

You can try different drivers but it is likely heat or GPU related in a way that can't be fixed without RMAing the laptop.

 

[Ty4on]

I don't think you've ever seen the Samsung S23 series in person. The old "IPS vs every monitor so I don't have to look it up" argument isn't as valid in this case.

120hz is so much more important than viewing angles.

I haven't seen it in person, but he seemed to look for a decent display for work (16:10) so I just told him there are non-TN displays if you don't need 120hz.

Sucks they didn't make more flat (ish) CRTs for those who want everything

I think the i3 is dual-core, i5 is dual-core with Hyper Threading, and the i7 is quad core with hyper threading. The first number after the i3/i5/i7 designates the generation. So 2700K means the 2nd generation (Sandy Bridge). 3570K is 3rd generation (Ivy Bridge).

Intel is confusing, but the Pentiums are dual cores without HT, i3 DC with HT, i5 QC without HT and finally i7 QC with HT. Laptops are even worse, all laptop i3s and i5s and some laptop i7s are DC with HT for whatever reason...

 

[scogoth]

I'm so confused at the moment with the amount of choice in the Intel market right now. Can somebody rank the following processors for me with gaming in mind:

i5 3570k
i7 3820
i7 2700k

What will the difference in gaming between those be? Also, bear in mind that this is for an SLI rig.

Also, what the hell is going on with the amount of chipset variety out there for Intel at the moment? This shit is simple on the AMD side, it seems like an absolute mess on the Intel side.

Z68, H77, Z77, X79. Can GAF please explain to me what the hell is going on and what chipset I need to be looking at. dependent on what the best processor is from the above?

And people are talking about wanting AMD to go out of business... this is Intel making a mess for consumers and its not even a monopoly yet!

Heres how it goes!

the iX 3XXX CPUs are ivy bridge which is the latest generation of CPUs OR if 3820 or above are Sandy Bridge E, the enthusiast line of CPUs
the iX 2XXX are sandy bridge last generations CPUs.
The sockets for both are compatible however ivy bridge matched with the latest generation of chipset brings new features like native USB3
The socket for sandy bridge E is NOT compataible and requires X79
The K denotes unlocked multiplier, aka overclockable and best for gaming
Z68 is last generation chipset which is overclockable but PCIe 2.0 and USB 3.0
H77 is not overclockable
Z77 is this generations Z68 with PCIe and USB 3.0
X79 is a different socket type and offers a lot more PCIe lanes from the CPU (good for SLI) and more RAM slots

whew.... if you have to money go for X79 and i7 3930k
If you want to save money and have virtually the same performance 3570K with Z77

 

[kharma45]

For gaming, the focus should be on the GPU (Graphics Card), not CPU. Regarding the Intel processors, ending with K means that it's unlocked which allows you to overclock.

I think the i3 is dual-core, i5 is dual-core with Hyper Threading, and the i7 is quad core with hyper threading. The first number after the i3/i5/i7 designates the generation. So 2700K means the 2nd generation (Sandy Bridge). 3570K is 3rd generation (Ivy Bridge).

The Z68/H77/Z77 are different chipsets that support certain processors and provide functionality for stuff like USB 3.0. An example, the Z68 board supports the Sandy Bridge processors but didn't offer USB 3.0 support. Motherboard vendors will add a third party chip to provide USB 3.0 for Z68 boards. That went away with Z77 which supports the Ivy Bridge processors.

The i5 3570K is a quad core with no HT, there are very few dual core i5's around now, the i5 3470T is the only one I know of.

 

[JambiBum]

You can try different drivers but it is likely heat or GPU related in a way that can't be fixed without RMAing the laptop.

It might be heat related because the last thing I did on my laptop was play a game for a few hours and then I put it away until today. The thing is is that my laptop doesn't really get that hot. I'd say the temps are what an average temp should be when playing games. I have no idea how to change drivers on my laptop though, even though I can manage my desktop and everything related to it just fine.

 

[Insane Metal]

My OCZ 550 ZT Series has arrived!

Now I just need the i5 3570k, the 7970, and the motherboard. =|

 

[Tattooth]

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.

I have two sticks. I tried to boot with one, but I don't know if it works like that, and I still got the same message. Another odd thing is that when I got into bios and select what to boot from, my main OS SSD doesn't show up? Does that mean there is something wrong with the SSD?

 

[GHG]

Z68 can overclock Sandy Bridge.
H77 supports Ivy Bridge features, cannot overclock.
Z77 is same as H77, but can also overclock.
X79 is a different socket (2011) and can overclock Sandy Bridge-E.

For gaming Z77 with a 3570k is best, the k means unlocked for overclocking. The 3770k is identical only it has hyper threading, the extra four threads make it 20+% better at threaded tasks, but few games show a difference.

On socket 1155 the 2XXX chips are Sandy while 3XXX chips are Ivy. Ivy uses less power and has a slight increase in performance, but they are harder too cool due to a smaller die and possibly worse thermal interface. On the desktop i3 means dual core with hyper threading, i5 means quad core while i7 means quad core with hyperthreading. K series CPUs are unlocked, without this overclocking 1155 chips much above the turbo is pretty much impossible.

Socket 2011 is expensive, but will probably last a little longer. They only have Sandy and no integrated graphics, but the 3930k and 3970x are hexa core CPUs. The quad core 3820 is a decent budget i7 as it can overclock pretty well despite not being fully unlocked and still has hyper threading, but for gaming a 3570k is cheaper and easier to overclock.

For gaming, the focus should be on the GPU (Graphics Card), not CPU. Regarding the Intel processors, ending with K means that it's unlocked which allows you to overclock.

I think the i3 is dual-core, i5 is dual-core with Hyper Threading, and the i7 is quad core with hyper threading. The first number after the i3/i5/i7 designates the generation. So 2700K means the 2nd generation (Sandy Bridge). 3570K is 3rd generation (Ivy Bridge).

The Z68/H77/Z77 are different chipsets that support certain processors and provide functionality for stuff like USB 3.0. An example, the Z68 board supports the Sandy Bridge processors but didn't offer USB 3.0 support. Motherboard vendors will add a third party chip to provide USB 3.0 for Z68 boards. That went away with Z77 which supports the Ivy Bridge processors.

Heres how it goes!

the iX 3XXX CPUs are ivy bridge which is the latest generation of CPUs OR if 3820 or above are Sandy Bridge E, the enthusiast line of CPUs
the iX 2XXX are sandy bridge last generations CPUs.
The sockets for both are compatible however ivy bridge matched with the latest generation of chipset brings new features like native USB3
The socket for sandy bridge E is NOT compataible and requires X79
The K denotes unlocked multiplier, aka overclockable and best for gaming
Z68 is last generation chipset which is overclockable but PCIe 2.0 and USB 3.0
H77 is not overclockable
Z77 is this generations Z68 with PCIe and USB 3.0
X79 is a different socket type and offers a lot more PCIe lanes from the CPU (good for SLI) and more RAM slots

whew.... if you have to money go for X79 and i7 3930k
If you want to save money and have virtually the same performance 3570K with Z77

Cheers for the opinions and info guys. Think I'll go with the X79 with a i7 3820.

I don't like the fact that the i5 3rd gen seems to run hot and has no hyperthreading. Plus the SLI support on the X79 chipset motherboards seems to be better - most are Tri SLI capable (nice to have the option for the future I guess...).

Just to give some perspective on where I'm coming from, I've currently got a Phenom 965 and a 480 GTX. I can deal with the GPU's giving off heat and noise but if the CPU has a tendency to run hot as well... then I've got a problem with that!

Will be getting 2 3GB 660's (not decided whether I'm going with the Ti versions or non Ti versions yet...) to SLI with it. And before anyone suggests I just SLI my 480, no I will not consider it!

This is the case I'm gonna go with as well:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-304-CM&groupid=2362&catid=29&subcat=

It make so much sense. All components lay flat, less stress on sockets/slots and all heat goes up directly out of the case! Plus, this will look a lot better next to my entertainment center than my current obvious tower case.

 

[mkenyon]

Cheers for the opinions and info guys. Think I'll go with the X79 with a i7 3820.

I don't like the fact that the i5 3rd gen seems to run hot and has no hyperthreading. Plus the SLI support on the X79 chipset motherboards seems to be better - most are Tri SLI capable (nice to have the option for the future I guess...).

Just to give some perspective on where I'm coming from, I've currently got a Phenom 965 and a 480 GTX. I can deal with the GPU's giving off heat and noise but if the CPU has a tendency to run hot as well... then I've got a problem with that!

Will be getting 2 3GB 660's (not decided whether I'm going with the Ti versions or non Ti versions yet...) to SLI with it. And before anyone suggests I just SLI my 480, no I will not consider it!

This is the case I'm gonna go with as well:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-304-CM&groupid=2362&catid=29&subcat=

It make so much sense. All components lay flat, less stress on sockets/slots and all heat goes up directly out of the case! Plus, this will look a lot better next to my entertainment center than my current obvious tower case.

Keep in mind that NVIDIA doesn't officially support PCI-E 3.0 on X79. It is a crapshoot on whether or not the board will flash to it. Mine did not.

With 3820s, you will need to overclock via BCLK as well as multiplier, as the multiplier is capped at 43. This requires a few things to make sure it is working well. For one, you need to hit the silicon lottery in order to get a good IMC (internal memory controller). Two, you need RAM that clocks well. Three, you need a motherboard that handles all of this fairly well. Worst case scenario, you'll be stuck at 4300MHz. Good case scenario, with a good cooler, you can maintain a 5.0GHz 24/7 clock.

Additionally, I'd really suggest going with a single good card over two 660s. They are extremely limited in memory bandwidth compared to the 670 or any 78xx/79xx AMD card. This means when you start using a decent amount of VRAM, performance completely tanks. Beyond that, you have the constant hassle of making sure you have the latest SLI profiles, or even using multiple workarounds to create your own for games. To give you an idea, I had to spend about 3 hours troubleshooting BLOPS2 to get SLI to work, and even then, it was really poorly optimized. This same instance will be repeated for most new releases.

Finally, for the case, check out the Fractal Node 605 as well. It's p'sweet.

I haven't seen it in person, but he seemed to look for a decent display for work (16:10) so I just told him there are non-TN displays if you don't need 120hz.

Tell me about it. As soon as someone releases an IPS panel with <8MS refresh rate that can display 120hz, I will gladly pay upwards of $800 for this piece of tech. If its a 27" 1440p, I'd throw $1200 at it.

These BS 'overclocked' IPS screens can't even display 120hz because of the panels refresh rate. Such a scam.

Until that time though, I am really really happy with my S23A. I swear the colors are every bit as good as the Crossover 27Q.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

Guys, besides being on a tight budget I don't think I will be able to get a new gaming rig for the next few years, so I think I might have to look at upgrades.


Currently I'm on a Corsair 650D and I love it, but it's very noisy(I have 8 fans though running at 100%.. only way to keep the OCed SLI Fermi cards cool enough) but I want to move back into my Fractal R2, with my own Excalibur fans.


Rig;

3,0 Ghz Quadcore 950 i7

12 Gigs of Ram

6 TB Green WD drives

Corsair SSD Force Series 3 120GB x2 (raid0)

2x Gigabyte OCed Nvidia 470 2GB vRam in SLI ( http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gv-n470SO-13I-super-overclock-geforce-gtx-470,2713.html )





I am beginning to feel the sluggishness. And I wonder what my options are. If I start saving 6-8 months for GPU in the next generation of Nvidia graphics, like the Nvidia 780, would I get good performance and better temps?
The worst part about Fermi is the high temperatures. I should have gotten a referenced card so it would blow the hot air out the back instead.

But If I get the next generation GPUs, is it likely that my Quadcore i7 950 would be bottlenecking, performance wise? (Im trying to mainly game at 2560x1440... not too fond of 1080p).


Also my SSDs are beginning to feel it. Maybe I should do a Win8 upgrade. I havent formatted in over 2 years.


As for moving back into the Fractal Design R2, what are my options for good cooling when on the budget?