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[comu]

Hello

This is £70 on Amazon

WD RE4 1TB 3.5 inch 7200rpm SATA 3GB/s 64MB Enterprise Internal Hard Drive (Western Digital OEM)


Is it a good price? I'm thinking about using it for a RAID 1 with my current
HITACHI Deskstar Internal 3.5" SATA Hard Drive - 1TB
in a new build in April.

Will those be compatible?

the Hitachi has been working for over 1 year


Edit: Only 8 left in stock

 

[kennah]

I'm always leery of mixing drive types in a RAID, but maybe others will have a better answer

 

[JoseDFrog]

I think I put a declared value of $50. Good luck!!


Jose what case did you get?

Define XL R2, it's like the opposite of the Mercury.

 

[mkenyon]

Still one of the greatest cases on the market though.

 

[kennah]

Define XL R2, it's like the opposite of the Mercury.

I'm still considering the R4, but I'm gunning for teeny tiny these days. It sits in my living room.

Now to choose what colour to get it painted... Considering the same Blue that is on my Subaru.

 

[JoseDFrog]

Oh certainly, it's whisper quiet and all the space made it a pleasure to work with. Here's what it looks like. https://www.dropbox.com/s/606tmnmm1hj0h48/2013-03-01 23.01.30.jpg It's just that it'd be cool to have something small and not weigh 50lbs that I'd be willing to carry around. Too bad it would take a complete rebuild and ain't nobody got time

Spoiler

money

for that.

 

[kennah]

That's awesome, so much room to stretch out in there.

 

[Digital-Hero]

I can hear my stock an on my i5 3570 I just built. Anyone have any suggestions for a replacement fan?

 

[Kipp]

I'm still considering the R4, but I'm gunning for teeny tiny these days. It sits in my living room.

Now to choose what colour to get it painted... Considering the same Blue that is on my Subaru.

This color blue: http://paintref.com/mustang/2011/2011_00060_01.jpg

Or white with a black racing stripe. Haha

...Or McLaren Orange.

Edit: I'll bet navy blue would look great. (Or that Subaru blue, like you said)

 

[Mad Hatter]

I can hear my stock an on my i5 3570 I just built. Anyone have any suggestions for a replacement fan?

You're using the stock cooler? Most recommend the Hyper 212 Plus or Evo. I have the 212+ with a NF-F12 fan and it's basically completely silent and cool as a cucumber on load @ 4.2Ghz, although I have an i5 2500k.

 

[kennah]

This color blue: http://paintref.com/mustang/2011/2011_00060_01.jpg

Or white with a black racing stripe. Haha

...Or McLaren Orange.

Edit: I'll bet navy blue would look great. (Or that Subaru blue, like you said)

It's that blue (Midnight Blue Pearl) not their Rally Blue. But it would be pretty funny to have my case match my car.

 

[Kipp]

It's that blue (Midnight Blue Pearl) not their Rally Blue. But it would be pretty funny to have my case match my car.

That's perfect. Do it.

Then you could take glamour shots with your matching car and case. Haha

But really, if my imagination is at all accurate, that color would look really cool.

 

[Akai__]

I fucking got it. Didn't had to pay anything. Turns out, that the German custom office is just lazy. :lol

Huge thanks to kennah for giving away his 6850. I'm really happy right now.

 

[Noaloha]

I have a 2TB HDD in my machine and I've just recently started tooling around with capturing video in games. Compressed 1080p footage works fine, but I'm curious about capturing losslessly and this HDD ain't got the read/write rate to handle it.

I'm cautiously considering trying out setting up a RAID0 array, bumping the HDDs to 4x2TB. Thing is, I know next to nothing about RAID set-ups other than they're not too difficult to set-up and that RAID0 is the performance one.

Can anyone succinctly sum up the considerations of going RAID0? I'm mainly looking for the negatives that I should be aware of (outside of the "there's four HDDs that could break rather than just one" aspect). Like, does it screw with other elements of a build? Is power supply a concern? Temps?

I'm running a Sabertooth Z77 in AHCI currently, 3570K, Win64 on an SSD. I have this niggling suspicion that there are drawbacks which I'm not considering.

 

[kennah]

I fucking got it. Didn't had to pay anything. Turns out, that the German custom office is just lazy. :lol

Huge thanks to kennah for giving away his 6850. I'm really happy right now.

YYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Enjoy. Sorry I didn't give it a good dusting before sending

 

[Akai__]

YYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Enjoy. Sorry I didn't give it a good dusting before sending

No problem. A little bit compressed air and it's like new.

The problem is, that my PC won't start now. My old PSU died, so I put an even older PSU in it, which has 400W. Recommended are 500W, so I'm 100W short. :lol

But my Corsair AX850 is already on it's way. Should be on Monday here, I think.

---

Edit: Nevermind, I'm stupid... Forgot to plug in the 4pin CPU power connector....

 

[kennah]

Haha yeah, I had to upgrade my CPU because of that card too. Couldn't get it to boot on 400W myself, so you're not alone.

 

[Zeth]

Since I moved to a fresh Win7 install on my SSD I've been using my 1TB spinner as a storage drive, still formatted with my original OS install. Doesn't seem to cause any real issues besides most of my save games going missing when I launch games from the spinner that I played pre-SSD. I've tried hunting the save files down and moving them but it's kind of a pain. Not a big deal, because it's only a few games. Is there anything wrong with what I'm doing?

 

[csquared587]

Ok, I am getting my bonus this week and think I finally want to try a sli setup. I have a couple of questions before I order a second card though.


1. I have a reference EVGA 670, but I find that it runs kind of hot. I think I want to pair it up with something like the Gigabyte windforce or EVGA 670 FTW. I would kind of like two EVGA cards, but I am not against using different brands, which would you guys recommend?

2. I currently have an i5 2500k @ 4.0ghz, would this bottleneck me enough to make the upgrade unsubstantial?

3. Are some of the issues I hear about SLI overblown? Stuff like micro stuttering and confusing sli profiles? I guess is there anything important I should know before making the upgrade.

It's kind of an expensive upgrade, so I am just trying to make sure I do it right. Thanks for any help.

 

[Akai__]

Haha yeah, I had to upgrade my CPU because of that card too. Couldn't get it to boot on 400W myself, so you're not alone.

Not sure if you saw my edit, but it works now.
SC2 on Ultra is awesome.

 

[kharma45]

I don't need a new PC.

I want to play Arma III and I do need a new CPU (and motherboard, I guess).

Also want to be able to play the quad-core optimised games (GTAIV etc.) I bought but didn't like the framerates of.

But new consoles are just coming out, and will likely push 8-core CPUs into the consumer front. But those aren't available yet.

My current CPU is an Core 2 Duo E8400 3Ghz. My graphics card is an ati 4850, which as I only play at 768p I find still serves me just fine in every game and I don't think I need to upgrade anytime soon.

So, my brief:

I want a cheap quad-core CPU and motherboard combination. I do not need to overclock.

It's only to last me for a few years (3ish, maybe) before 8core CPUs become common and cost-effective, not a long-term investment.

Ideally we're talking the £150 price point or less if it's possible. Not more than £200. Would prefer Intel.

I don't particularly want to step down at all from a 3Ghz clock speed, as emulation is important for me, and that tends to favour high clockspeed over multi-core efficiency.

Also, when new motherboard and CPU are bought, can I just swap in my current HDD without having to reinstall Windows, or would reformat be the best course of action?

Well here's a couple of options. You're not going to get a quad core Intel for sub £150 incl. a motherboard.

First up is this build http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/htz2

You get an Intel Core i5-3470 coupled with an ASROCK B75 Pro3M motherboard. Works out at £198.

Alternatively you could go AMD with one of their 8 'core' CPUs with this build http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/lhZZ

That one consists of the AMD FX-8320 coupled with the ASRock 970 Extreme3 motherboard. I've also taken you over budget by £12 too by adding in a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo as well as since the AMD is an unlocked CPU it makes sense to make use of it and overclock it. You could of course remove the CPU cooler if you do not wish to and it'll take £25 out of the cost of the bundle.

Lastly you can trawl eBay and hope to get lucky as I did and snag a CPU on there for good money. I got the 2500K brand new for £120 but it took me weeks to find it. Up above is pretty much what you're limited to, that i5 from Intel or that AMD FX 8320. If it were me though I'd probably go AMD at this price point.

 

[haikira]

Searching around online, i'm fairly sure i'm fine. But would put my mind to rest if you guys gave it the OK.

Is that a good temperature for two hours of Prime 95? It's a 2500k running at 4.5.

 

[Noaloha]

I have a 2TB HDD in my machine and I've just recently started tooling around with capturing video in games. Compressed 1080p footage works fine, but I'm curious about capturing losslessly and this HDD ain't got the read/write rate to handle it.

I'm cautiously considering trying out setting up a RAID0 array, bumping the HDDs to 4x2TB. Thing is, I know next to nothing about RAID set-ups other than they're not too difficult to set-up and that RAID0 is the performance one.

Can anyone succinctly sum up the considerations of going RAID0? I'm mainly looking for the negatives that I should be aware of (outside of the "there's four HDDs that could break rather than just one" aspect). Like, does it screw with other elements of a build? Is power supply a concern? Temps?

I'm running a Sabertooth Z77 in AHCI currently, 3570K, Win64 on an SSD. I have this niggling suspicion that there are drawbacks which I'm not considering.

Quoting myself for the new page, sorry! I drew the shitty limbo-post zone. And if the general response is one akin to "Google more, you lazy tit", I can accept that. There's just so much noise out there when trying to search for basics / commonly accepted opinions.

Further to the above-mentioned potential hobby project (capturing in-game footage at 1080p lossless quality), is that a thing which an upgrade from an i5 to an i7 would see a distinct boost to? (I'm still not 100% clear what specific tasks hyper-threading is optimal for.)

Searching around online, i'm fairly sure i'm fine. But would put my mind to rest if you guys gave it the OK.

Is that a good temperature for two hours of Prime 95? It's a 2500k running at 4.5.

Under-60s on max temps is golden. You could probably push it further if you wanted. Mid-60s for max temps is acceptable under Prime95 stressing I believe.

 

[zbarron]

I currently have an i7 920 overclocked to 4.0 on a True 120. Would getting a newer cooler like the corsair H60 let me overclock it higher or would I just need a newer CPU? I'm not bottlenecked in any PC games but I do a lot of emulation and more speed is always better.

 

[mkenyon]

Console '8 cores', like the current AMD '8 cores' are for all intents and purposes Quad Cores with Hyperthreading.

I have a feeling this might be my most used sentence in the next year on GAF.

*edit*
Also, the frequency on the consoles is so incredibly low that the idea of a 4.5GHz Ivy/Sandy Quad somehow limiting performance is unfathomable to me.

The AMD '8 Cores' are also on-par in gaming performance with the Lynnfield/Clarkdale series of Intel processors, to give you an idea of where they are at.

I currently have an i7 920 overclocked to 4.0 on a True 120. Would getting a newer cooler like the corsair H60 let me overclock it higher or would I just need a newer CPU? I'm not bottlenecked in any PC games but I do a lot of emulation and more speed is always better.

Bottlenecks aren't an either/or thing. They always exist on all parts. Kind of an old wives tale that X part would bottleneck performance when coupled with Y part.

The True will generally outperform the H60 when paired with some good fans. What fans do you have on it currently?

Is there anything wrong with what I'm doing?

Nope, golden.

 

[Corky]

In terms of emulation, mostly dolphin.

How much of a benefit would one see ( if any ) in going from 2600k to 3770k?

 

[kharma45]

Console '8 cores', like the current AMD '8 cores' are for all intents and purposes Quad Cores with Hyperthreading.

I have a feeling this might be my most used sentence in the next year on GAF.

Yeah the only true 8 cores we're likely to see is with IB-E if Intel want to roll them out, but at that price point they've almost no need as they've nothing to rival them.

 

[mkenyon]

In terms of emulation, mostly dolphin.

How much of a benefit would one see ( if any ) in going from 2600k to 3770k?

Probably a reduction as you won't be able to OC as high unless you delid it.

*edit*

Render from a build log on OCN:

EVIL TEMPTRESS

 

[SirBukkake]

Hmm...
I ordered the final part of my PC, and got them delivered last night. Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB (4/4GB) Ram. I bought it...used :X

So after hours of frustration and sore fingertips, it looks like I might have a faulty ram stick. For some reason, Windows does not boot up at all when all 4 sticks are installed. It'll BSOD and restart or just restart and go back to the bios. Doing any recovery measures (even when using my USB window's drive or my old Vista recovery CD) will freeze after the "Window's is loading files..." part comes up. However, after taking out one of my sticks, it works fine.

I'll do more experimentation this weekend, but my questions are: Should I just return the 4/4GB and get 2/8GB sticks? Just buy an extra 4GB stick and try it out? I'm almost inclined to just keep the 12GB installed, unless there's a discernible gaming difference between having 12 or 16GB ram. (Also, I'm getting too tired of dealing with shipping parts for return and waiting for new stuff to get delivered)

This is going in an Asrock Z77 Extreme4 MoBo, fyi.

 

[rohlfinator]

Console '8 cores', like the current AMD '8 cores' are for all intents and purposes Quad Cores with Hyperthreading.

Doesn't Jaguar have independent cores? It's not a derivative of Bulldozer/Steamroller from what I understand.

 

[mkenyon]

Doesn't Jaguar have independent cores? It's not a derivative of Bulldozer/Steamroller from what I understand.

I had to recheck information based on this, and you're absolutely right.

the company confirmed that the chip is made on TSMC's 28nm HKMG process and that it has four x86-64 cores that, unlike Bulldozer, are completely independent, they only share a 2MB L2 cache.

Still. They're soooooooo slow.

Hmm...
I ordered the final part of my PC, and got them delivered last night. Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB (4/4GB) Ram. I bought it...used :X

So after hours of frustration and sore fingertips, it looks like I might have a faulty ram stick. For some reason, Windows does not boot up at all when all 4 sticks are installed. It'll BSOD and restart or just restart and go back to the bios. Doing any recovery measures (even when using my USB window's drive or my old Vista recovery CD) will freeze after the "Window's is loading files..." part comes up. However, after taking out one of my sticks, it works fine.

I'll do more experimentation this weekend, but my questions are: Should I just return the 4/4GB and get 2/8GB sticks? Just buy an extra 4GB stick and try it out? I'm almost inclined to just keep the 12GB installed, unless there's a discernible gaming difference between having 12 or 16GB ram. (Also, I'm getting too tired of dealing with shipping parts for return and waiting for new stuff to get delivered)

This is going in an Asrock Z77 Extreme4 MoBo, fyi.

You won't have any impact on gaming going from 4GB to 8GB, let alone 16GB. That much is for people who want to keep dozens of browser tabs open, heavy multitasking, or multimedia creation.

 

[Suairyu]

I don't need a new PC.

I want to play Arma III and I do need a new CPU (and motherboard, I guess).

Also want to be able to play the quad-core optimised games (GTAIV etc.) I bought but didn't like the framerates of.

But new consoles are just coming out, and will likely push 8-core CPUs into the consumer front. But those aren't available yet.

My current CPU is an Core 2 Duo E8400 3Ghz. My graphics card is an ati 4850, which as I only play at 768p I find still serves me just fine in every game and I don't think I need to upgrade anytime soon.

So, my brief:

I want a cheap quad-core CPU and motherboard combination. I do not need to overclock.

It's only to last me for a few years (3ish, maybe) before 8core CPUs become common and cost-effective, not a long-term investment.

Ideally we're talking the £150 price point or less if it's possible. Not more than £200. Would prefer Intel.

I don't particularly want to step down at all from a 3Ghz clock speed, as emulation is important for me, and that tends to favour high clockspeed over multi-core efficiency.

Also, when new motherboard and CPU are bought, can I just swap in my current HDD without having to reinstall Windows, or would reformat be the best course of action?

GTAIV isn't optimized for anything. It's just an awful port.

And yes, I would recommend a fresh install.

Bad example, but you get my point. Lot of games now only play nice with tri core or more.

Any recommendations?

 

[kharma45]

Bad example, but you get my point. Lot of games now only play nice with tri core or more.

Any recommendations?

For CPU? See my post up above, you've not that many options if you want quad core within that price range.

 

[mkenyon]

Bad example, but you get my point. Lot of games now only play nice with tri core or more.

Any recommendations?

Actually, what matters more than anything to this day is per-thread performance.

If you have a low clocked or inefficient (see: AMD) quad core, it'll get bested by a dual core that is higher clocked generally.

CPU bottlenecks in games are almost entirely exclusive to single/dual threaded engines with a few exceptions.

This is why we push people towards the 2500K/3570K. At 4.5GHz, you're pretty much pushing the limits of what a modern day CPU can accomplish, no matter how much money you throw at it.

 

[mrklaw]

Mkenyon, did you ever update your SFF build post?

 

[Suairyu]

Well here's a couple of options. You're not going to get a quad core Intel for sub £150 incl. a motherboard.

First up is this build http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/htz2

You get an Intel Core i5-3470 coupled with an ASROCK B75 Pro3M motherboard. Works out at £198.

Alternatively you could go AMD with one of their 8 'core' CPUs with this build http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/lhZZ

That one consists of the AMD FX-8320 coupled with the ASRock 970 Extreme3 motherboard. I've also taken you over budget by £12 too by adding in a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo as well as since the AMD is an unlocked CPU it makes sense to make use of it and overclock it. You could of course remove the CPU cooler if you do not wish to and it'll take £25 out of the cost of the bundle.

Lastly you can trawl eBay and hope to get lucky as I did and snag a CPU on there for good money. I got the 2500K brand new for £120 but it took me weeks to find it. Up above is pretty much what you're limited to, that i5 from Intel or that AMD FX 8320. If it were me though I'd probably go AMD at this price point.

Hm, thanks.

Guess £150 was unrealistic.

Will re-assess budget, though £200 and up it stops being throw-away money and I have to think about it lasting longer.

 

[mkenyon]

Buy a used 2500K and Z68. Done deal.

Mkenyon, did you ever update your SFF build post?

Nope, not much to update other than prices and the Node 304 as one of the options.

 

[kharma45]

Hm, thanks.

Guess £150 was unrealistic.

Will re-assess budget, though £200 and up it stops being throw-away money and I have to think about it lasting longer.

Ideally the best mid range set up is a 3570K and a good Z77 board, but then you're talking £170 for the CPU alone, another £80 or so for the motherboard and then to make the most out of the CPU £25 for a good cooler.

eBay is worth a look as I say, I snagged a new 2500K for £120.

 

[Suairyu]

Ideally the best mid range set up is a 3570K and a good Z77 board, but then you're talking £170 for the CPU alone, another £80 or so for the motherboard and then to make the most out of the CPU £25 for a good cooler.

eBay is worth a look as I say, I snagged a new 2500K for £120.

You're talking about overclocking, I presume?

On the note of cooling, can anyone recommend quiet case fans? I'm getting a little tired at how loud my PC is and so wouldn't mind swapping out the current case fans for quieter models while I'm at it.

 

[mkenyon]

For case fans:

Cheap - Low RPM Yate Loons

Not as cheap - Arctic Cooling F12

Nice - Corsair AF120 Quiet Editions

 

[Suairyu]

For case fans:

Cheap - Low RPM Yate Loons

Not as cheap - Arctic Cooling F12

Nice - Corsair AF120 Quiet Editions

Are we talking magnitudes of difference between each of these tiers?

And for the Arctics do you mean this?, as that seems too cheap almost.

 

[Ty4on]

Searching around online, i'm fairly sure i'm fine. But would put my mind to rest if you guys gave it the OK.

Is that a good temperature for two hours of Prime 95? It's a 2500k running at 4.5.

My 3570k wasn't much cooler at stock ^^

Don't know what effect safe temps (below Intels limits) have on long term life. The recommended temp seems to be sub 70 at load, but I do not know of any studies of long term effects of high temp or temps changing a lot. Maaany years ago Pentium 4 using Northwood architecture would die after a while when overclocked with a high voltage (over 1.6/1.7V), but it happened on all chips even those running cool at sub 50 under load.

 

[kharma45]

You're talking about overclocking, I presume?

I am, yes.

 

[mrklaw]

Buy a used 2500K and Z68. Done deal.

Nope, not much to update other than prices and the Node 304 as one of the options.

Thanks. Have you looked at the node? What would be your sweet spot in terms of size, if you wanted a quiet i5 with say a 670 and SSD+HDD?

 

[Setre]

Curious to know if you guys think my PC is good for another year or should I go ahead and upgrade. Here’s my specs:

OS: Windows 7 64 Bit
Motherboard: Intel DP67BG
Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz
RAM: 8GB Patriot Division2 G2 DDR3-1600
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB GDDR5

 

[TheGreyHulk]

Curious to know if you guys think my PC is good for another year or should I go ahead and upgrade. Here’s my specs:

OS: Windows 7 64 Bit
Motherboard: Intel DP67BG
Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz
RAM: 8GB Patriot Division2 G2 DDR3-1600
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB GDDR5

what resolution do you game @?

the only thing i can see that would need an upgrade is the GPU.

the cpu & ram will last you more than another year. just overclock your cpu to 4ghz

 

[GMM]

Curious to know if you guys think my PC is good for another year or should I go ahead and upgrade. Here’s my specs:

OS: Windows 7 64 Bit
Motherboard: Intel DP67BG
Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz
RAM: 8GB Patriot Division2 G2 DDR3-1600
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB GDDR5

Unless you plan on dropping a lot of money for a really high end machine i don't see too much of a reason to upgrade with that setup, especially not if you use CUDA accelerated tools like the ones from Adobe.

If you don't already have an SSD, i would drop some money there first to complement what you already have.

 

[NoRéN]

For case fans:

Cheap - Low RPM Yate Loons

Not as cheap - Arctic Cooling F12

Nice - Corsair AF120 Quiet Editions

These have been great for me so far.

 

[Setre]

what resolution do you game @?

the only thing i can see that would need an upgrade is the GPU.

the cpu & ram will last you more than another year. just overclock your cpu to 4ghz

1920 x 1080 is the resolution I play at. I, uh, don't know how to overclock.

Unless you plan on dropping a lot of money for a really high end machine i don't see too much of a reason to upgrade with that setup, especially not if you use CUDA accelerated tools like the ones from Adobe.

If you don't already have an SSD, i would drop some money there first to complement what you already have.

I have no idea what CUDA is so I don't use it. As far as an SSD goes I tried installing one once but it didn't work right.

I've always bought the parts for my PC and had my brother build it for me. For the one I use now I bought it from Maingear.

If I were to get a new graphics card should I get the Nvidia Titan or a Nvidia 600 series?

 

[kharma45]

1920 x 1080 is the resolution I play at. I, uh, don't know how to overclock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBEeXajbG2o

Or read a guide if you don't have time, it's literally changing two values with 1155.