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[GHG]

Why the 1000w power PSU? Do you have future plans for SLI or something like that...?

If it is mainly for gaming you could save 100 bucks and go for the i5...

but you seem to have a big budget anyway....lucky!

Even if he does plan on going SLI that's not needed. 750w should be enough headroom for SLI and some overclocking if you want.

Drop the 3770k to the 3570k, drop the 1000w PSU for something in the 700-800w range. You'll save a lot of money that way.

 

[Smokey]

I can't seem to post from my USB stick on my Asus p8z68 board. I've changed the boot order around in BIOS. I've pressed F8 to select boot device. One option says Corsair Slider...I picked that one and it brought me to "Remove any disks, media" "Press any key to restart". Press a key and it starts Win 7. The other option says UEFI: Corsair slider...I select that and it still starts Windows 7. The USB stick is FAT32 formatted..

Any suggestions on this?

 

[teh_pwn]

Anyone use floor mats for the case to improve cooling?

 

[SquiddyCracker]

I love just going to town with a vacuum cleaner on really dusty computers.

 

[BeekleMatter]

Do you guys mount your PSUs with the fan facing up or down? Just curious.

 

[mkenyon]

I can't seem to post from my USB stick on my Asus p8z68 board. I've changed the boot order around in BIOS. I've pressed F8 to select boot device. One option says Corsair Slider...I picked that one and it brought me to "Remove any disks, media" "Press any key to restart". Press a key and it starts Win 7. The other option says UEFI: Corsair slider...I select that and it still starts Windows 7. The USB stick is FAT32 formatted..

Any suggestions on this?

You should be able to select the USB device to boot into directly from BIOS. Like, "force boot X/Y/Z device" or some such business.

Either that or you need to format it to FAT32

Anyone use floor mats for the case to improve cooling?

Wat

 

[Smokey]

You should be able to select the USB device to boot into directly from BIOS. Like, "force boot X/Y/Z device" or some such business.

Either that or you need to format it to FAT32

Yeah I've changed that and I mentioned it has already been formatted to F32.

Weird.

 

[Whooter]

Do you guys mount your PSUs with the fan facing up or down? Just curious.

In my case, it's down. It's an intake and I have vents on the bottom of my case (Define R4).

 

[teh_pwn]

Wat

Well if you have carpet any bottom ventilation is choked.

 

[scogoth]

Well if you have carpet any bottom ventilation is choked.

Do you have 70's shag carpeting?

 

[Anton668]

Anyone use floor mats for the case to improve cooling?

naw. but than I always avoid setting it on carpeting.

Do you guys mount your PSUs with the fan facing up or down? Just curious.

down as my case is designed with intake and filter as such

 

[teh_pwn]

Do you have 70's shag carpeting?

It's about average I guess. I guess what I'm asking is not a thing.

Everytime I've cleaned my old cosmos PC the bottom air vent is caked with dust.

naw. but than I always avoid setting it on carpeting.

Yeah, I'd rather not either, but apartment space is getting tight. Tossing away all of my money into various ETFs for a house. When I get that I'll have a whole damn room for PCs/office, and use proper shelves and stuff.

Now I'm leaning towards finding a small shelf.

 

[Stuggernaut]

Ok so I have been sitting on the "building" fence for many months now. I am in a never ending loops of tweaking builds, second guessing part choices, changing my mind over and over again.

I have 3-4 different builds on New Egg, and a couple on Amazon as well.

All in the $1200-$1500 range.

I am starting to realize that I may never pull the trigger at this point and I was browsing around pre-made system sites listed in the first post and saw the quick ship options from Maingear.

http://www.maingear.com/custom/desktops/vybe/customize.php

Can someone tell me if these things are horrible? The "Better" and the "Best" are right in my price range and some of the components are the same (or better) than the ones in some of my builds.

I am becoming very tempted by a new system within a week that I don't have to build myself ;P

 

[BeekleMatter]

In my case, it's down. It's an intake and I have vents on the bottom of my case (Define R4).

down as my case is designed with intake and filter as such

I'm have the Antec vp450 and a Source 210 Elite which doesn't have dust filters or anything on the bottom vents. Would it be any benefit to mount it upside down?

 

[Anton668]

I'm have the Antec vp450 and a Source 210 Elite which doesn't have dust filters or anything on the bottom vents. Would it be any benefit to mount it upside down?

looks to be designed to be down. only thing with no dust filter is you'll have to clean it more often. or grab a aftermarket filter if you really feel the need

 

[mkenyon]

It makes basically no different to have it fan up or fan down. It's just preference based on aesthetics mostly.

Yeah I've changed that and I mentioned it has already been formatted to F32.

Weird.

Yeah yeah, what I'm saying is that outside of "boot order" there should be an option where you get to select a boot device to just boot into straight FROM BIOS. Like, it will list all available boot drives and you can pick from one. Not boot order. This feels strange to explain.

Also, switch USB ports.

Ok so I have been sitting on the "building" fence for many months now. I am in a never ending loops of tweaking builds, second guessing part choices, changing my mind over and over again.

I have 3-4 different builds on New Egg, and a couple on Amazon as well.

All in the $1200-$1500 range.

I am starting to realize that I may never pull the trigger at this point and I was browsing around pre-made system sites listed in the first post and saw the quick ship options from Maingear.

http://www.maingear.com/custom/desktops/vybe/customize.php

Can someone tell me if these things are horrible? The "Better" and the "Best" are right in my price range and some of the components are the same (or better) than the ones in some of my builds.

I am becoming very tempted by a new system within a week that I don't have to build myself ;P

Any chance you live in the Pac NW?

 

[TimeEffect]

PC GAF, please halp, this is urgent!

I am picking up a PC TODAY, but cannot decide between getting a pre-built PC in the $500-$600 range, or making that $550 PC in the OP...

I am Canadian, can anyone tell me if the PC's going on Best Buy, Futureshop, etc. are any good? Any prebuilt recommendations?

I want to be able to run Battlefield 3 at 60+ FPS and medium to high graphics (as well as play games like Sim City, Skyrim, etc).

Thank you!

 

[BeekleMatter]

Alright thanks fellas! I'm just waiting on my graphics card to get here on Monday so I can finish up my first build.

 

[mkenyon]

PC GAF, please halp, this is urgent!

I am picking up a PC TODAY, but cannot decide between getting a pre-built PC in the $500-$600 range, or making that $550 PC in the OP...

I am Canadian, can anyone tell me if the PC's going on Best Buy, Futureshop, etc. are any good? Any prebuilt recommendations?

I want to be able to run Battlefield 3 at 60+ FPS and medium to high graphics (as well as play games like Sim City, Skyrim, etc).

Thank you!

OP build. Stuff at Best Buy/Futureshop is not meant for gaming. Builds that are listed as such are generally spec'd with stuff you don't need and/or are overpriced. Alienware X51 at the $1000 mark is the only pre-built I know of that is actually decent value.

 

[Stuggernaut]

Any chance you live in the Pac NW?

Yep. Just north of Seattle (I work in Seattle).

Why do you ask?

 

[Anton668]

Ok so I have been sitting on the "building" fence for many months now. I am in a never ending loops of tweaking builds, second guessing part choices, changing my mind over and over again.

I have 3-4 different builds on New Egg, and a couple on Amazon as well.

All in the $1200-$1500 range.

I am starting to realize that I may never pull the trigger at this point and I was browsing around pre-made system sites listed in the first post and saw the quick ship options from Maingear.

http://www.maingear.com/custom/desktops/vybe/customize.php

Can someone tell me if these things are horrible? The "Better" and the "Best" are right in my price range and some of the components are the same (or better) than the ones in some of my builds.

I am becoming very tempted by a new system within a week that I don't have to build myself ;P

wow, on that "best" one they list the 3770K as a $180 upgrade when that cpu is only $100 more(less if you find a deal) than the 3570K. hell I got mine at micro center for only $20 more.. yeah, that cpu is still only $229 at microcenter...

really, just build it yourself. theres so many here willing to help. hell theres many willing to put it together for you(myself included) if you happen to be in the area.

 

[kennah]

PC GAF, please halp, this is urgent!

I am picking up a PC TODAY, but cannot decide between getting a pre-built PC in the $500-$600 range, or making that $550 PC in the OP...

I am Canadian, can anyone tell me if the PC's going on Best Buy, Futureshop, etc. are any good? Any prebuilt recommendations?

I want to be able to run Battlefield 3 at 60+ FPS and medium to high graphics (as well as play games like Sim City, Skyrim, etc).

Thank you!

Where are you? Prebuilts you would pickup today would be far from awesome

 

[Whooter]

Yep. Just north of Seattle (I work in Seattle).

Why do you ask?

I expect he's fixing to offer to build you one or help you build one that'll be better and cheaper than the ones you listed.

 

[mkenyon]

Yep. Just north of Seattle (I work in Seattle).

Why do you ask?

Fuck yes. First time someone has answered yes to this!

I'll build your PC if you'd like. I'm just outside of Oly in Rainier.

*edit*

Also to be clear, this is a free service. I accept donations in the form of proper NW beer or Whiskey.

 

[Whooter]

Fuck yes. First time someone has answered yes to this!

I'll build your PC if you'd like. I'm just outside of Oly in Rainier.

It was bound to happen eventually!

 

[Anton668]

maybe we should add a list of GAFers willing to build/help build and the areas they cover in the OP?

 

[KalBalboa]

For video editing, do you think it's worth dropping an additional $100 to go from a 660ti to a 670? I'm going to have an i7 3770k & 16 gigs of RAM along with a Samsung SSD, but a $400 video card seems to be a bit much.

 

[TimeEffect]

Where are you? Prebuilts you would pickup today would be far from awesome

OP build. Stuff at Best Buy/Futureshop is not meant for gaming. Builds that are listed as such are generally spec'd with stuff you don't need and/or are overpriced. Alienware X51 at the $1000 mark is the only pre-built I know of that is actually decent value.

GTA

Um, OK, so can I walk into a store like Canada Computers with the list in the OP and expect to be given all those parts at the listed price?

And then what? I just mush them together (build it myself)?

I've never built... I assume it's fairly straightforward. Must I buy a case as well, or what?

Anyway that I can use the casing/hardware I already own and exchange those parts? It's an XP desktop I have, I mean, it can't be hard to remove and insert....

Anything in the standard version in OP that you would modify? I think Im going to go to the store and show them the OP list. I presume I can run BF3/Sim City at 60+ FPS and medium to high graphics...

 

[Dave_6]

How much space does Windows 7 take up? I've got a 120GB SSD and I am wondering if I really need to buy a HD right now to get my build going.

 

[teh_pwn]

wow, on that "best" one they list the 3770K as a $180 upgrade when that cpu is only $100 more(less if you find a deal) than the 3570K. hell I got mine at micro center for only $20 more.. yeah, that cpu is still only $229 at microcenter...

really, just build it yourself. theres so many here willing to help. hell theres many willing to put it together for you(myself included) if you happen to be in the area.

Aww...no Austin locations.

How are they selling that cheap? Is it a front for a drug business? I assumed CPUs were low margin for retail.

How much space does Windows 7 take up? I've got a 120GB SSD and I am wondering if I really need to buy a HD right now to get my build going.

Something like 20 GB after you run powercfg --off in CMD.

You could always install steam games to a second HDD or junction existing installs there.

 

[mkenyon]

GTA

Um, OK, so can I walk into a store like Canada Computers with the list in the OP and expect to be given all those parts at the listed price?

And then what? I just mush them together (build it myself)?

I've never built... I assume it's fairly straightforward. Must I buy a case as well, or what?

Anyway that I can use the casing/hardware I already own and exchange those parts? It's an XP desktop I have, I mean, it can't be hard to remove and insert....

Is there some circumstance that makes the purchase a requirement for today only? Should order your parts from NCIX and/or Memory Express.

For video editing, do you think it's worth dropping an additional $100 to go from a 660ti to a 670? I'm going to have an i7 3770k & 16 gigs of RAM along with a Samsung SSD, but a $400 video card seems to be a bit much.

Premier or Vegas?

 

[sk3tch]

Aww...no Austin locations.

How are they selling that cheap? Is it a front for a drug business? I assumed CPUs were low margin for retail.



Something like 20 GB after you run powercfg --off in CMD.

They hope that you'll buy the CPU and the rest of your build there. Profit comes from the rest. It's a loss leader. A lot of industries do it.

For video editing, do you think it's worth dropping an additional $100 to go from a 660ti to a 670? I'm going to have an i7 3770k & 16 gigs of RAM along with a Samsung SSD, but a $400 video card seems to be a bit much.

If it's just for video editing, save your $100. Even for gaming...the 660 Ti is pretty solid although the 670 is better...but $100 is a decent margin.

 

[teh_pwn]

When does the next memory shrink happen? SSD has been $1 per GB for high end 250 GB SSDs for a while now. Seems overdo.

 

[KalBalboa]

Premier or Vegas?

If it's just for video editing, save your $100. Even for gaming...the 660 Ti is pretty solid although the 670 is better...but $100 is a decent margin.

CS5, so Premiere and After Effects. Loved Vegas back in the day. I do a lot of music video and short film effects/editing.

And yeah, that $100 has me wanting to either wait for the 670 to drop in price or spend it on an extra hard drive.

 

[GMM]

For video editing, do you think it's worth dropping an additional $100 to go from a 660ti to a 670? I'm going to have an i7 3770k & 16 gigs of RAM along with a Samsung SSD, but a $400 video card seems to be a bit much.

No, going with the 6xx line outside of the really high performing cards like the GTX 680 and GTX 690 is a pretty bad idea from what i have read. A 5xx card would outperform a matching 6xx card in terms of raw performance due to the CUDA mangement limits of the 6xx series.

A GTX 570 would outperform a GTX 670 in certain aspects when it comes to CUDA accelerated software, not to say the savings on your wallet.

 

[Anton668]

How are they selling that cheap? Is it a front for a drug business? I assumed CPUs were low margin for retail.

um... what were we talking about?

 

[teh_pwn]

um... what were we talking about?

Come for the cheap CPUs, stay for the cocaine.

Basically I'm preparing for my next build mid to late this year. But if I could get a 3770K for $220, I'd build now. At that cheap, I'd be okay with Haswell knocking it out the park and making the Ivy a high end HTPC.

 

[Bucket-o-roadkill]

Guys, having some really annoying Windows 8 issues. Cant enable my 7670m on my laptop, I'm stuck with the onboard graphics. Tried going back to 12.10 cats, anyone else ran into this issue?? Running the kombustor program it clearly shows the 7670m isnt being used!! the switchable graphics options are all correctly configured, profiles set up, maximum performance settings selected, etc

 

[mkenyon]

CS5, so Premiere and After Effects. Loved Vegas back in the day. I do a lot of music video and short film effects/editing.

I only asked as AMD cards do much better in Vegas. Stick with the 660Ti.

When does the next memory shrink happen? SSD has been $1 per GB for high end 250 GB SSDs for a while now. Seems overdo.

DDR3 not going to get any cheaper than it is. Samsung has 30nm RAM that is constantly in and out of stock. We'll see when everyone else starts picking it up. TMK, Micron (Crucial) and Samsung provide most of the chips for everyone else.

 

[kennah]

Yep. Just north of Seattle (I work in Seattle).

Why do you ask?

You just won the 'nice looking computer' lottery

 

[KalBalboa]

No, going with the 6xx line outside of the really high performing cards like the GTX 680 and GTX 690 is a pretty bad idea from what i have read. A 5xx card would outperform a matching 6xx card in terms of raw performance due to the CUDA mangement limits of the 6xx series.

A GTX 570 would outperform a GTX 670 in certain aspects when it comes to CUDA accelerated software, not to say the savings on your wallet.

You know, I read some people saying the same thing on Tom's hardware but with varying confidence. Cuda management is definitely sounding like a big deal for the volume of nested After Effects compositions I use, so should I find a 570? Would a 5xx work well with an i7? (I'm partially ignorant on CPU/videocard relationships).

 

[Anton668]

Basically I'm preparing for my next build mid to late this year. But if I could get a 3770K for $220, I'd build now. At that cheap, I'd be okay with Haswell knocking it out the park and making the Ivy a high end HTPC.

hmmm.. I wonder how much shipping would be for that. I'd be half tempted to grab it for you and ship it depending on circumstances

 

[TimeEffect]

Is there some circumstance that makes the purchase a requirement for today only? Should order your parts from NCIX and/or Memory Express.

Premier or Vegas?

I dont want to order online, essentially I can get $500 off a PC through work benefits, I'm going off of this site:

http://www.canadacomputers.com/

to shop for the $550 model in OP, but I cant seem to find some of these parts. I dont know if the in-store employees would try to screw me if I just hand the list to them, or if they'd start asking me questions I dont know the answers to.

I doubt all these are in their store, and I dont know if Id be able to understand any alternatives... Im assuming the guys at the store would be able to adjust for all this if I hand them the OP list...

 

[teh_pwn]

Guys, having some really annoying Windows 8 issues. Cant enable my 7670m on my laptop, I'm stuck with the onboard graphics. Tried going back to 12.10 cats, anyone else ran into this issue?? Running the kombustor program it clearly shows the 7670m isnt being used!! the switchable graphics options are all correctly configured, profiles set up, maximum performance settings selected, etc

Is there a new driver? I've had issues at work with October drivers after some updates this year.

If not, I would try disabling fast startup (control panel, change what power button does) so you can refresh the kernel. I think restart might do that regardless. Basically the hybrid shutdown feature allows bugs to persist because you don't really reboot.

hmmm.. I wonder how much shipping would be for that. I'd be half tempted to grab it for you and ship it depending on circumstances

I appreciate the thought, but don't go to that trouble. I'm currently on Sandy bridge. I've just got the upgrade bug.

DDR3 not going to get any cheaper than it is. Samsung has 30nm RAM that is constantly in and out of stock. We'll see when everyone else starts picking it up. TMK, Micron (Crucial) and Samsung provide most of the chips for everyone else.

They use DDR3 in SSDs? That seems like overkill at 6 Gb/s.

Still that's unfortunate for business reasons. We use a massive amount of memory for FPGA compilation, and as crazy as it is we could benefit from 32 GB sticks.

 

[Mogwai]

I'm on the verge of ordering a Hyper 212 Evo CPU cooler for my rig. I was planning to get some MX-4 thermal paste as well, but I've realized that Coolermaster bundles some of their own paste along with cooler. Is this worth using or should I stick to getting some MX-4?

 

[Smokey]

Alright. I am trying to 'upgrade' to Win 8 from my USB drive. I went through that process of buying it and have a key from when it was at the cheaper price. So I clicked setup from the files that were saved on my USB drive. W8 prompt comes up and I get to "Choose what to keep". I click "Nothing". Then comes back and tells me I need to free up space on my SSD as I don't have enough for installation. Well yes...I want to obviously reformat the drive and put W8 on here but can't proceed because I don't have enough space..

Trying to boot off of a USB drive does nothing. When I disabled all other options but the USB stick it tries, and then goes to BIOS. I know it sees the USB drive because it shows up under the motherboard option to upgrade the bios.

I feel like I'm missing something here. First time I've tried to do this off a USB stick so...

 

[Anton668]

to shop for the $550 model in OP, but I cant seem to find some of these parts. I dont know if the in-store employees would try to screw me if I just hand the list to them, or if they'd start asking me questions I dont know the answers to.

I doubt all these are in their store, and I dont know if Id be able to understand any alternatives... Im assuming the guys at the store would be able to adjust for all this if I hand them the OP list...

bring a cell phone and have a GAFer on standby! lol

 

[teh_pwn]

Alright. I am trying to 'upgrade' to Win 8 from my USB drive. I went through that process of buying it and have a key from when it was at the cheaper price. So I clicked setup from the files that were saved on my USB drive. W8 prompt comes up and I get to "Choose what to keep". I click "Nothing". Then comes back and tells me I need to free up space on my SSD as I don't have enough for installation. Well yes...I want to obviously reformat the drive and put W8 on here.

Trying to boot off of a USB drive does nothing. When I disabled all other options but the USB stick it tries, and then goes to BIOS. I know it sees the USB drive because it shows up under the motherboard option to upgrade the bios.

I feel like I'm missing something here. First time I've tried to do this off a USB stick so...

Bootable USB compatibility is very hit/miss with different motherboards. You could try different ports (different controllers have varying compatibility) but unfortunately some motherboards just aren't compatible at all. But when it is compatible, it's fucking awesome. USB 3.0 installs OSes in less than 2 minutes.

Also try forcing legacy boot. UEFI seems to have issues.

 

[kennah]

GTA

Um, OK, so can I walk into a store like Canada Computers with the list in the OP and expect to be given all those parts at the listed price?

And then what? I just mush them together (build it myself)?

I've never built... I assume it's fairly straightforward. Must I buy a case as well, or what?

Anyway that I can use the casing/hardware I already own and exchange those parts? It's an XP desktop I have, I mean, it can't be hard to remove and insert....

Anything in the standard version in OP that you would modify? I think Im going to go to the store and show them the OP list. I presume I can run BF3/Sim City at 60+ FPS and medium to high graphics...

Depends on the case you already have. Sometimes they aren't compatible. Modern video cards and cpu fans can be quite large.

Someone else will have to answer this but I think BF3 at 60fps for $500 or less canadian is a pretty impossible request.

However. Once you decide on parts, going into Canada Computers with the list is a great plan. They have decent prices and I think they Price Match as well. They might even assemble for you at an extra charge.

 

[Koroviev]

Depends on the case you already have. Sometimes they aren't compatible. Modern video cards and cpu fans can be quite large.

Someone else will have to answer this but I think BF3 at 60fps for $500 or less canadian is a pretty impossible request.

However. Once you decide on parts, going into Canada Computers with the list is a great plan. They have decent prices and I think they Price Match as well. They might even assemble for you at an extra charge.

Blasphemy! Burn the heretic! >:|