I wouldn't use it either, it's not a quality PSU
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"I need a New PC!" 2012 Thread. Ivy, SSDs, and reading the OP. [Part 2]
- Thread starter Hazaro
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I wouldn't use it either, it's not a quality PSU
fierrotlepou
Member
Posting again for the new page. Someone help me, please! 
So guys, I think my Macbook Pro's (2011, 15", 2.2GHz) HDD is dying. Before I buy a new one (SSD) I'd like to be sure, of course. A scan from SMART utility shows me these results.
I'm guessing that it's really FUBAR?
The symptoms:
- everything runs rather slow, a format doesn't really help for long
- rebooting takes ages
So guys, I think my Macbook Pro's (2011, 15", 2.2GHz) HDD is dying. Before I buy a new one (SSD) I'd like to be sure, of course. A scan from SMART utility shows me these results.
I'm guessing that it's really FUBAR?
The symptoms:
- everything runs rather slow, a format doesn't really help for long
- rebooting takes ages
Edvardelis
Member
Posting again for the new page. Someone help me, please!
Replace it. Every drive has spare sectors in case some go bad, and you're approaching the limit of remaining good ones.
centracore
Member
Will I need (or should I have) any additional fans for this build above and beyond the two 140mm included with the Define R4?
Anton668
Member
yeah... dont think i'll get the moneyz in time(ever)
Soodanim
Member
Coincidentally enough, I have been planning (for the most part) identical build and have just been wondering the same thing. Especially as yesterday I read about positive pressure being good for dust, which is apparently where you have more air being pumped in through the fans (filtered) than is being pushed out, which doesn't leave the case trying to pull air in through any gap it can (not filtered).
With that in mind, if I do go for the R4 I think I'll add one more fan at some point do have that positive airflow, but I think with the removable HDD cage you already have a fair amount of airflow so it probably won't get that hot.
DJ_Lae
Member
Yay, I can finally order parts! The wait has been killing me.
http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/ww3H
(already own the SSD, case, and power supply)
Is the AS Rock Extreme 4 motherboard decent? It's not the pro listed in the OP but it seems to have good reviews. There also seem to be good deals on the MSI Z77A-GD65 but I don't know if it's a better bet (I prefer the look of the AS Rock too, which I realize is silly).
Other than that the only real tricky part at the moment is the video card, as I missed some of the bigger Boxing Day sales and finding a card that still includes the never settle game bundle is ridiculous. This one is pretty much the only bundled 7970 I can find that's not over $500, but I have no idea if XFX is a decent brand or not.
Maybe I'm better off ordering some stuff but holding off on the video card until tomorrow when some more sales cycle.
http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/ww3H
(already own the SSD, case, and power supply)
Is the AS Rock Extreme 4 motherboard decent? It's not the pro listed in the OP but it seems to have good reviews. There also seem to be good deals on the MSI Z77A-GD65 but I don't know if it's a better bet (I prefer the look of the AS Rock too, which I realize is silly).
Other than that the only real tricky part at the moment is the video card, as I missed some of the bigger Boxing Day sales and finding a card that still includes the never settle game bundle is ridiculous. This one is pretty much the only bundled 7970 I can find that's not over $500, but I have no idea if XFX is a decent brand or not.
Maybe I'm better off ordering some stuff but holding off on the video card until tomorrow when some more sales cycle.
I'd change to 8GB of RAM, 16GB is overkill unless you're doing media work and in that case you should be ideally going i7.
DJ_Lae
Member
That's true. I just feel compelled because it's relatively inexpensive to make the jump to 16 at this point.
Doesn't Crysis 3 need 8GB Ram or something on max settings? I'm not really familiar with the pro's and con's on having 16GB, but that seems like a long term build and the next gen consoles are around the corner. So 16GB doesn't seem that crazy with a build that's going all out. Though you could always easily upgrade the ram at a later date. Don't take this as a recommendation for 16GB, just wondering.
DJ_Lae
Member
I should confess I've overextended a bit of my build as I can claim a portion of it through work, so a small amount for more memory is only partially coming out of my pocket. I figure 16GB should be good for a while so I don't have to worry about that in the future.
It's why I'm going with a 7970 where I would have probably just gone 7870 on my own, though the game bundle did help too (it's why it's so frustrating that it's basically gone now).
Also, the last time I built my computer I put 4GB (the going amount) into it, and wanted to upgrade it a couple of years after...except memory prices had skyrocketed since and another 4GB would have cost more than twice what I originally paid. It's kind of nice that it's come back down since then.
It's why I'm going with a 7970 where I would have probably just gone 7870 on my own, though the game bundle did help too (it's why it's so frustrating that it's basically gone now).
Also, the last time I built my computer I put 4GB (the going amount) into it, and wanted to upgrade it a couple of years after...except memory prices had skyrocketed since and another 4GB would have cost more than twice what I originally paid. It's kind of nice that it's come back down since then.
I bought a second Fractal R4 Silent Fan. You probably wont need it but I got one just for more air flow. They are so silent it won't add any noise.
centracore
Member
Where are you putting it in the case? I am leaning towards getting an extra one but am unsure of where it would make the most difference..
Irobot82
Member
In My R4 I have two in the front, with the top HDD tray removed. One on the bottom, and one on the top. I have 2 120's sandwiching a radiater on the back for my CPU. That one makes all the noice all the others are silent.
Its a single-module with two integer cores and a single floating-point unit. I think the APUs that came before it were proper dual and quad cores though.
Irobot82
Member
I thought that might be the case. I'm sure it'll do for fine for HTPC demands....
I did some pretty extensive testing with fan placement. The case comes with two 140mm fans. With adding a pretty decent 1200rpm 120mm fan, I found that having the two 140s in the front, with a single 120 in the rear netted me the best results. I did have a 7970 Matrix in there, which dumps a fair amount of heat directly in the system. With a Kepler card, or a lower power AMD card, I wouldn't think that it would even be necessary.
As Kharma says, it all depends on what you want to do with it. That overhead most certainly can be used with specific applications, whether it be rendering videos or specific monitor requirements outside of 60hz 1080p.
I tried to exchange the motherboard today, the guy at the store went out and tested it, only to come back and tell me there was nothing wrong with it at all. Came back home, super carefully put only the bare essentials together(with a new cpu and psu, both of which work on another PC) and still the $&@"ing thing won't post. I've retested every component and it just won't work! I'm currently installing a different version of windows to see if maybe the disk was bad, what else can I do other than toss the whole thing in the trash?
Are you in the Pac NW?
My best guess is that you've got a short somewhere, bad memory, or you have incorrectly plugged something in.
Did the guy at the store try with your memory, or his own?
sorijealut
Member
Thinking about either af120s or af140s with my stock fans in my R4 case.
Could the 120s have any benefits over its larger brother?
btw, the 20% promo was sent to me by Newegg for buying my 7950.
Obviously not a huge difference in price, but I don't know... haha.
Could the 120s have any benefits over its larger brother?
btw, the 20% promo was sent to me by Newegg for buying my 7950.
The 120mm appears to be a twin pack, so you'd be buying 4 fans?
You perhaps already know this, just thought I should point it out just in case
sorijealut
Member
The 120mm appears to be a twin pack, so you'd be buying 4 fans?
You perhaps already know this, just thought I should point it out just in case
lol oops, fixed now.
Go for the 120s. This is a huge generalization and I don't know if it is applicable to the AF series, but when you have 140mm versions of a fan line, they're never as good. They take the same design and slap a new motor on it rather than design it as a 140mm from the ground up, which can lead to wildly different acoustic signatures.
Plus, 120 is the standard that is not going anywhere for years.
*edit*
Lots of Lian Li cases on sale at Newegg for 20% off. The PC-7HX is just over $100 with free shipping.
Hey GAF!
I'm going to New York next month and I'm thinking about buying a new VGA.
My current VGA is Geforce GTX 570, and I'm gonna buy a GTX 680 MSI Lightning. What do you think about? ANyone recomends another Nvidia card for the same price range? (I don't like ATI very much, I had a lot of problems and I just can't forgive =/).
I'm going to New York next month and I'm thinking about buying a new VGA.
My current VGA is Geforce GTX 570, and I'm gonna buy a GTX 680 MSI Lightning. What do you think about? ANyone recomends another Nvidia card for the same price range? (I don't like ATI very much, I had a lot of problems and I just can't forgive =/).
No I'm not.
He used his own, but I've pulled memory from a working PC and still nothing.
Just finished installing windows, it goes to prepare my desktop and then proceeds to just shut down and reset in an endless cycle, never posting.
sorijealut
Member
I'd suggest considering more of the fans which come with the R4 too, since their specs compare favourably.
AF140
Fractal R2 140mm
In particular I'd point to 67.8 vs 66.0 CFM in favour of the Corsairs, but 24dbA vs 18.5dbA in favour of the Fractal fans.
sorijealut
Member
Hm... yeah I'd never considered the specs of Fractal R2 fans, but they seem quite good.
Another plus would be matching fans throughout.
That sounds like a thermal issue. Let it rest for 20 mins or so, then boot up and go into BIOS. Take a look at the CPU temperature.
You generally can't believe any of those numbers posted on fans. The only companies to my knowledge that accurately test CFM and dB are Corsair, Noiseblocker, and Noctua. Everything else is wildly different than real performance.
Well that's not very consumer friendly of them! Fair enough, I thought I'd stumbled across something useful, haha.
sorijealut
Member
Sorry, just 2 more questions:
Comparison
So the CFM loss is not that important?
and, would a 12cm look silly when used side-by-side with my stock 14cms?
Comparison
So the CFM loss is not that important?
and, would a 12cm look silly when used side-by-side with my stock 14cms?
Just did that, after about 5 min of being on it sits at about 23-24 degrees.
Weird.
So, the same issue exists with different memory. It exists with a different CPU and PSU. You can at least get to windows install, but then it won't post ever again?
IMO, 22-25dB is the level when fans get 'too loud', at least subjectively for me.
I think the 120s in here look fine
Cannon Goose
Member
Is the Coolermaster Hyper 101 decent or is the 212 pretty much the one to get? My local PC place doesn't have the 212 in stock but they've got that other one.
Hey GAF, finally building my own PC and have the parts picked out. Just want to run it by everyone here, to make sure it's all looking good.
GPU - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti
Case - Silverstone Redline ATX Tower Case
Motherboard - ASUS P8Z77-V Lk ATX LGA1155 Z77
CPU - Intel Core i5 3570K
Heatsink - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
RAM - Corsair Vengeance Blue Lowprofile 8GB
HDD - Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM
PSU - Antec Basiq BP550 Plus 550W
Most components are from Hazaro's builds, so my only real concern is the case and PSU. Just want to be sure everything will fit, and the PSU has enough power.
Edit: I'm actually not getting the GPU right away, as I am short on funds. I need the PC though, since my other one died. Between now and when I buy it, I might find a 670 on sale, so would probably go for that if so. Would the PSU be enough for that contingency as well?
GPU - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 Ti
Case - Silverstone Redline ATX Tower Case
Motherboard - ASUS P8Z77-V Lk ATX LGA1155 Z77
CPU - Intel Core i5 3570K
Heatsink - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
RAM - Corsair Vengeance Blue Lowprofile 8GB
HDD - Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM
PSU - Antec Basiq BP550 Plus 550W
Most components are from Hazaro's builds, so my only real concern is the case and PSU. Just want to be sure everything will fit, and the PSU has enough power.
Edit: I'm actually not getting the GPU right away, as I am short on funds. I need the PC though, since my other one died. Between now and when I buy it, I might find a 670 on sale, so would probably go for that if so. Would the PSU be enough for that contingency as well?
Yup. Ive tried about every possible combination of parts, with The only thing that remains the same being the motherboard. Also keep in mind that I've built a few computers before, never ran into a problem like this before.
sorijealut
Member
Oh wow, that is a brilliant rig. Didn't think you had a personal example!!
Someday I'll fetch a liquid-cooler in place of my 212+ like you.
I'm going to move my fractals as intakes as well.
Does it have positive pressure, then?
Thanks again, please be my R4 build - mentor lol.
P.S. I start building today, whenever my gfx card arrives - are there any tips you have for me?
Very odd.
Have you made sure that the boot device is set to the disk that windows was installed to?
Thanks!
The closed loop coolers are really about aesthetics more than anything. But, they do help clean up a system.
As far as tips, just take your time. There's a guide in the OP about cable management in an Arc Mini which works pretty well for the R4 as well. It's exciting to have all of the parts, but if you are super thorough, you'll have a system that performs a bit better thermally as well as have something that stays a bit more dust free.
Just get yourself a pack of zip ties, and always try to route cables through the back side.
Ah, excellent, thanks!
My current card is giving me checkerboard patterns in random places in windows. It has done for a while, but it's far more noticable in windows 8, because it affects "graphics" rather than the desktop wallpaper or text or anything. No problems at all while playing games, and the temperature is fine, so there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it but replace it.
Fuck. That sucks. Sounds like an overheating issue like mkenyon said.
This is why Im glad I bought most of my parts on amazon.
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