"I need a New PC!" 2012 Thread. Ivy, SSDs, and reading the OP. [Part 2]

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mkenyon said:
Woo! Finally, after about a month of searching I find a trader for my 690. Incoming 3x4GB 670s.

So GAF, what say you.

The former (Heatkiller blocks) would look stunning, but I think I would need a totally different case/motherboard. I'm not saying this is a giant roadblock, but it needs to be taken into consideration.

The latter would look fantastic in my current case with the acrylic SLI bridge to see that green fluid moving throughout my loop. Choices, choices.
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I really don't like the new EK design, but with an Acrylic SLI bridge + dyed water + inverted ATX they would look pretty damn cool I imagine :)
 
scitek said:
I'd heard that it was. I guess I'm mainly curious about the recommendation of a dual-core. Is that still a viable option now? I was under the impression a quad is what you'd want to go with now, but I haven't kept up.
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This is a really complicated answer. Basically, frequency is more important than anything in terms of performance for games that are bottlenecked by the CPU. But again, that's not entirely accurate and a bit of a simplification.

The i3 will have a bit longer shelf life then the Pentiums, but will have pretty much identical performance in those CPU bound games. The i5s are better in most current games not because they are quads, but because they are clocked higher.
n0n44m said:
I really don't like the new EK design, but with an Acrylic SLI bridge + dyed water + inverted ATX they would look pretty damn cool I imagine :)
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Yeah, I'm flopping back and forth between the heatkiller and xspc now. I was initially worried about restriction on the XSPC blocks, but I've also decided to drop my D5 for a MCP35x. Worried about noise a bit, but I am going to try to decouple as much as possible and turn down the speed. Plus, that gives me a set of fittings and D5 pump/red to install on a second computer!
 
Anyone have any experience with Samsung or Plextor's warranty process with their SSD's?

I'll probably get either the M5 Pro or the 840 Pro. I don't really care about the speed difference that much as at that point I probably won't notice it, and they are probably both extremely reliable, so I'm just curious about whether their warranty service are decent for their SSD's
 
jsrv said:
Anyone have any experience with Samsung or Plextor's warranty process with their SSD's?

I'll probably get either the M5 Pro or the 840 Pro. I don't really care about the speed difference that much as at that point I probably won't notice it, and they are probably both extremely reliable, so I'm just curious about whether their warranty service are decent for their SSD's
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Any answer to this is going to be anecdotal.

They're probably both fine though.
 
sk3tch said:
Salsa - if you bought an EVGA card head over to their forums to report your problem. They are really quick to help and will bend over backwards to make sure you get what you need. They have company reps that patrol the forum. This is why I prefer EVGA over all other brands. The best support - period.

http://www.evga.com/forums/tt.aspx?&forumid=80&p=1
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Good idea. Just made an account there and posted about the underperformance issues, since I figure they cant do nothing about the coil whine
 
mkenyon said:
wXBPYl.jpg


+

6Bfxjl.jpg
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Definitely option 2. I have the EK WB previous to these on my 7970 and they are fantastic, though I'm pissed of they changed design mid generation because I can't find a second block to match my current one when I eventually get a second 7970...
 
What would be a good upgrade from a i5 setup? I'm running an i5 750 @ 3.8, 8GB DDR3, using a EVGA P55 Sli board? Something possibly ~$300-$400 max.
 
Ok PC-GAF, I have two questions for you.

To keep the story short, I just got a brand new Samsung SSD 830 series 128 GB.
I want to setup a dual boot system with Windows7 (still unsure which one, 32 or 64... I had some serious issues with 64 edition at work, got burned by this I'd say) and Linux (xubuntu 64 bit) on it BUT... I currently have XP and Linux, and it would be nice if I wasn't forced to upgrade to Win7.

1. any anecdotal information about moving a Win7 OEM licence from a notebook to a desktop? Here it says you can do that by deactivating the active one first, but it wouldn't hurt to have some first hand confirmations...

2. TRIM; as far as I understand there's no XP support, only Linux and Win7. Question is, I don't really understand (yet) at what level TRIM operates: I mean, if I kept a dual boot system with XP and Linux, with the latter apparently fully supporting TRIM operations, would it be possible to avoid upgrading the Microsoft OS? In other words: in a dual boot system like this (XP/Linux), would TRIMming under Linux be enough to keep the whole SSD "clean", or would the TRIM operation only affect the Linux partition(s)?
 
Freewheelin' said:
How can I even get into the Bios if I can't even see what to do? :lol

I'm at my wits end here! Arghhhhh
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post a pic of the whole backside of the case :)

krzy123 said:
the weird thing is the half darker blue section on that serial port, it seems to indicated it can be video ... weird

model of pc?
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they sometime do that on branded pc's where the same model can accommodate different motherboards layouts

:)
 
The 256gb 830 is $170 at Amazon again, but they are saying 2 to 5 weeks for delivery. I put an order in just in case.
 
Probably not the right thread to ask, but how can I prevent a standard user from terminating processes? I don't want to restrict them from using task manager, but I would like to prevent them from terminating processes that I want to be always running.

I have Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit btw.

It would be awesome if I can hide certain programs and processes in a standard user's task manager, but still be able to see the processes when I click the "Show processes from all users" button which comes with an admin password prompt.

This one for example
vj0tj.jpg


Google-fu suggests I run processes as a services, but all the info I can find about it is for Windows 2000. Help!
 
3 years ago I bought a Radeon HD 5770 at less than $200 and lasted for a good while, it still run games like a champ... just not at the highest settings and strugling a little to get to 60 fps on some, so I'm thinking it is time to upgrade. I'm considering Nvidia as my next choice since it seems that they have really stepped it up lately.

So my question is how would you guys rate these two?

The EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SUPERCLOCKED 2048MB GDDR5 DVI mHDMI DP Graphics Card 02G-P4-2662-KR
51Him-TeWsL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


vs

The MSI GTX 660 Ti Power Edition Graphics Card with Triple Overvoltage and Enhanced PWM Design (N660TI PE 2GD5/OC)
51esk2%2BemFL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


There's a $70 difference between them which I think is pretty big. Is the difference in quality that great to justify that price?

What could I expect from the non ti 660?
Any other good cards around the $200 range? How does the GTX660 compare to the Radeon HD 7850?
 
kennah said:
I liked how you scribbled out the .exe's but not the descriptions :)
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He's hiding porns.exe and grannyaction.dll. Sick man that one :(

= = = = =


OH JOY! My FT03B an my GTX 670 (I have my 3930K from last week) just came yesterday and all the remaining parts are coming in today. I stripped my case of the stock fans and will be replacing it with some nice <10 dB fans.... man what a beautiful case.
 
What mATX X79 motherboard did you end up going with?
Ifrit said:
What could I expect from the non ti 660? Any other good cards around the $200 range?
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660 not really worth it IMO. 660Ti isn't either. AMD has a pretty srtong grip on the <$325 market. To answer your question directly, the $70 difference gets you quite a bit of performance. Whether or not it is worth it is entirely up to you. I'm a strong believer in the 'buy the best videocard you can within your budget'. There's very few times that going up in price isn't really worth it. The only case of that right now is the 670/7970->680. Pretty much everything $400 or under is priced appropriately.
Q8D3vil said:
in the market to buy 2 hard drive, i want one for games and one for storage.
what are your suggestions.
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As the OP points out, HDD market is pretty shit right now. WD Reds + flash for storage, WD Blacks for reliability and speediness (but they are loud), and SSDs for just about everything else.
Turrican3 said:
2. TRIM; as far as I understand there's no XP support, only Linux and Win7. Question is, I don't really understand (yet) at what level TRIM operates: I mean, if I kept a dual boot system with XP and Linux, with the latter apparently fully supporting TRIM operations, would it be possible to avoid upgrading the Microsoft OS? In other words: in a dual boot system like this (XP/Linux), would TRIMming under Linux be enough to keep the whole SSD "clean", or would the TRIM operation only affect the Linux partition(s)?
Click to expand...
No idea on question 1, but TRIM is a OS level process that basically does garbage collection on an SSD to increase the life of it. It's less necessary with current gen SSDs as they all have firmware level garbage collection. Unless you want this SSD to last you a really long time (7+ years), it's not something I would really worry about.
 
So I watched some reviews/unboxings before I bought my fan controller, the Lamptron FCT. I bought it as I could no longer use the my current one with knobs once I switch cases from my 800D to the 550D. Anyways I got a pleasant suprise as all the cables now come sleeved as appose to the everything I had previously seen.

8071160140_5689975d7e_z.jpg
 
This thread and a few others inspired me to finally OC my aging I7 920... bought a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus (so inexpensive!), and am at 3.6GHz stable at the moment (about 42 idle, 65-68 full load). Have a feeling 4GHz will be a little too hot, but I'm going to mess with it and see if I can do it. I'm only running 1 fan on the 212 at the moment, but will add another later this week. No issues whatsoever so far, though, which has been nice. It's made this older rig fun to tinker around with, and if something goes wrong, not too big of a deal.

The CM 212 install was a bit of a PITA, though. While I get why that backplate is needed, I had to completely remove the mobo from my case to get access to a couple of the mounting holes. Took way longer than I was expecting, but once that was done, the rest of the install was simple. For the price and performance (I was overheating previously on the stock cooler at only 3.2GHz under load), I suppose I really shouldn't complain.

New RAM incoming too. Still on 6GB DDR 1333. 8GB of DDR 1600 arriving tomorrow. Nice thing about our household is that my wife gets the hand-me-downs, so when I upgrade, so does she.

Thanks again for this thread. Some of your guys' builds are just fantastic, and you can tell a lot of thought went into them.
 
Grats on the OC! Those processors are pretty much right on par with SB/IB when clocked at similar speeds, so there's still a lot of life in them.

Before you add another fan, you will generally get better performance from a better fan than two okay ones. Part of the reason why the CM212 is so inexpensive is that the included fan isn't great. Depending on your tolerance for noise, there's a host of choices out there, but ultimately you want something with high static pressure and CFM.

As long as that Nehalem says in the 70s for average core temp (take Core #0-3 and average to base this), you are golden.
 
mkenyon said:
What mATX X79 motherboard did you end up going with?

660 not really worth it IMO. 660Ti isn't either. AMD has a pretty srtong grip on the <$325 market. To answer your question directly, the $70 difference gets you quite a bit of performance. Whether or not it is worth it is entirely up to you. I'm a strong believer in the 'buy the best videocard you can within your budget'. There's very few times that going up in price isn't really worth it. The only case of that right now is the 670/7970->680. Pretty much everything $400 or under is priced appropriately.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the answer, but what card would you recommend at that price ($200)? I was considering an Nvidia GPU, but I can go for a Radeon if that's the best choice.
 
mkenyon said:
... Part of the reason why the CM212 is so inexpensive is that the included fan isn't great. Depending on your tolerance for noise, there's a host of choices out there, but ultimately you want something with high static pressure and CFM...
Click to expand...

What are the best options right now? Noise isn't a huge concern for me.
 
If noise isn't a big deal, then a Scythe Gentle Typhoon AP-15 is pretty much the best. Corsair SP High Performance edition as well, but they're about the same price and the GT is better.
 
As the OP points out, HDD market is pretty shit right now. WD Reds + flash for storage, WD Blacks for reliability and speediness (but they are loud), and SSDs for just about everything else.
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i read it but i thought it was outdated.
thanks man.
 
mkenyon said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102984

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127688

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125419

One of those.
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Thank you, I'll look into those, but I'm not really a fan of newegg since they don't accept interntional CC, gonna have to check some similar cards on amazon.

But those HD 7850 seem to be pretty good, was considering getting one of those. Price seems right I guess, even though for like $10 I could get a GTX 660, which according to the Falcon guide in the OP it is better than the 7850. Really hard to pick one :S
 
7850 has quite a bit of OC headroom, the 660 does not. The 660, while advertised as 2GB, isn't really 2GB. Having that bit of VRAM headroom seems like a really good idea going forward the next few years. Considering they trade back and forth depending on the game in performance, it is less expensive, has higher OC headroom for higher overall performance, and more VRAM, I don't think there's much of a comparison to be had.
 
well broken fan 560ti is back. Whiny 670 back at the guy who sold it to me. He's gonna try going back to the importer with it and they would supposedly check it to see the condition and if they'll "allow" me to exchange it for another one. Maybe even a regular FTW model (instead of the LE) OR an ASUS gtx670 DCII, wich i'd vastly prefer. Fingers crossed.

should take a week+. Looks like im stuck playing XCOM and Dishonored with the 560ti. Shouldnt be much of an issue since they're both UE3.
 
mkenyon said:
Grats on the OC! Those processors are pretty much right on par with SB/IB when clocked at similar speeds, so there's still a lot of life in them.

Before you add another fan, you will generally get better performance from a better fan than two okay ones. Part of the reason why the CM212 is so inexpensive is that the included fan isn't great. Depending on your tolerance for noise, there's a host of choices out there, but ultimately you want something with high static pressure and CFM.

As long as that Nehalem says in the 70s for average core temp (take Core #0-3 and average to base this), you are golden.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tips! Good point on the fans. Already have that extra one on the way, so if I run into any issues in 4GHz territory, I'll look to replace the first one (or upgrade the cooler). Right now, though, I'm loving the extra 'snap' in everything I'm doing on my PC.

Main bottleneck right now is my Gigabyte GTX 285. Picked up a Gigabyte GTX 670, so I can't wait for that. :) Thanks again for this thread!
 
SalsaShark said:
well broken fan 560ti is back. Whiny 670 back at the guy who sold it to me. He's gonna try going back to the importer with it and they would supposedly check it to see the condition and if they'll "allow" me to exchange it for another one. Maybe even a regular FTW model (instead of the LE) OR an ASUS gtx670 DCII, wich i'd vastly prefer. Fingers crossed.

should take a week+. Looks like im stuck playing XCOM and Dishonored with the 560ti. Shouldnt be much of an issue since they're both UE3.
Click to expand...

You need to open the case and put an obnoxiously large and loud fan next to it.
I had to do that at work once.
 
mkenyon said:
7850 has quite a bit of OC headroom, the 660 does not. The 660, while advertised as 2GB, isn't really 2GB. Having that bit of VRAM headroom seems like a really good idea going forward the next few years. Considering they trade back and forth depending on the game in performance, it is less expensive, has higher OC headroom for higher overall performance, and more VRAM, I don't think there's much of a comparison to be had.
Click to expand...

7850 it is then

Thanks again mkenyon
 
Ugh. I think I'm going to be sick.

Got the splitter finally, installed the video card. I power up the PC, everything seems okay(PC and card haven't fried). Unfortunately the driver disc sez there isn't any XFX hardware installed. What the fuck

Go to xfxforce.com to register the card and now I've gotta put up with their shitballs connection(an hour to download 145 megs?!) which is taking forever just to download the latest driver.

I probably plugged the card into the power supply wrong or something. Maybe I shouldn't have went with the splitter and just got a new PSU.
Fuck this fucking fuck of fucker fuck.

EDIT: Now I'm reading reviews at Newegg. Why the fuck am I doing this to myself?!
Also I'm connected via HDMI because apparently VGA cables have changed a lot since I've been living in my cave.

Hahahaha holy shit

Some guy on Newegg said:
My problem with this card is the annoying process of installing the drivers. The included CD remarked "Can not find an XFX product installed" and "Click OK to install drivers manually". I know for a fact that the card was installed and running, because I was using it for my only display at the time!
Anyway, when I tried to install the drivers, it told me I had to go to their website to install them. Frustrating, but okay.
Then the website forced me to verify my serial # AND a personal activation code (cleverly hidden on the silly "do not disturb" hanger they included), as well as register my email address, before I could download my display driver!
It's installing now while I type this on a low-res no-drivers display. Stupid.
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I would high-five this dude if I could.
 
You installed an AMD card, not an XFX card :P

Go to www.amd.com and download the drivers for it there. Don't even bother going to the XFX website. They're just an AIB.

---------------------------------------

Keyboards @ Newegg 15% off - EMCJNNA233

If you've been on the fence about a mechanical board, now is the time to strike!
 
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