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"I need a New PC!" 2013 Part 1. Haswell, Crysis 3, and secret fairy sauce. Read da OP

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RavenHawk

Member
I haven't had an AMD card since my old ATI 9800 PRO...is there a preferred/recommended driver version for a new Sapphire 7950 owner (13.1 currently installed)?
 
Hi Computer Gaf... Here's a quandary I've got:

I'm developer and my primary development rig is a Mac Mini, it's a great little device (16GB Ram, 2.7 i7, 500gb SSD), and I love it on my Thunderbolt LED Cinema Display. My PC is aging and I'll be looking to buy a new PC at some point in the next 6 months. Here is my quaundary:

The Apple Thunderbolt Cinema Display only gets video from Thunderbolt. As far as I know there is no other way to push video to this monitor. If you know of a way, then that'd be great.

There are a handful of Intel PC motherboards that support thunderbolt for display but I have no idea how these work. Apparently, you still have a videocard, your whatever top-tier card, and that gets passed through to the thunderbolt output on your motherboard, which then get's passed to the Thunderbolt Cinema display. I really don't care about extending the display to do the docking stuff that it supports, really, I'm only interested in using this display as a PC monitor.

Questions:

  • Does anybody have any experience pushing video out to an Apple Thunderbolt cinema display from a PC?
  • Any recommendations for motherboard?
  • How does this video pass through thing work?
  • Any other experiences related to this??

Thanks!
 

comu

Neo Member
Right, I'm ordering Windows 8.

The new features don't look like it will be a problem for me, and I actually like new things :)
 

Archon473

Member
My motherboard failed in November and I still cannot afford to build a new PC. In the meantime, I want to pull some very small files (mainly text files) from my hard drive. I was looking at these two IDE to USB adapters but there is either too little information (ex. Best Buy) or contrasting positive and negative info (ex. Newegg). Are either of these products worth purchasing if I would only use them a single time to rescue some work files?

Vantec IDE to USB adapter
eForCity USB to SATA/IDE adapter
 

iavi

Member
You guys have any recommendations for a wireless mechanical keyboard? if there's even such a thing. Upgrading from this cheapo board and do a lot of comfy couch gaming
 

mkenyon

Banned
Hi Computer Gaf... Here's a quandary I've got:

I'm developer and my primary development rig is a Mac Mini, it's a great little device (16GB Ram, 2.7 i7, 500gb SSD), and I love it on my Thunderbolt LED Cinema Display. My PC is aging and I'll be looking to buy a new PC at some point in the next 6 months. Here is my quaundary:

The Apple Thunderbolt Cinema Display only gets video from Thunderbolt. As far as I know there is no other way to push video to this monitor. If you know of a way, then that'd be great.

There are a handful of Intel PC motherboards that support thunderbolt for display but I have no idea how these work. Apparently, you still have a videocard, your whatever top-tier card, and that gets passed through to the thunderbolt output on your motherboard, which then get's passed to the Thunderbolt Cinema display. I really don't care about extending the display to do the docking stuff that it supports, really, I'm only interested in using this display as a PC monitor.

Questions:

  • Does anybody have any experience pushing video out to an Apple Thunderbolt cinema display from a PC?
  • Any recommendations for motherboard?
  • How does this video pass through thing work?
  • Any other experiences related to this??

Thanks!
Displayport and Thunderbolt are pretty much the same thing. You can get an adapter.

*edit*

Actually now that I research it, it looks like you can go DP->Thunderbolt, but the opposite is a bit more difficult and not certain.

With that being said, you can get a motherboard with a Thunderbolt and push the video through the motherboard while having the GPU render it using Lucid Virtu MVP.

The gigabyte Z77 UP5-TH and UP4-TH are both great motherboards.
 

comu

Neo Member
Are there any additional case coolers that I get for the Fractal R4, that can be connected to adjust fan speed?
 

nbthedude

Member
I also have access to Windows Embedded 7 through that site but I have no idea what that is.

The description:

Developers can create advanced commercial and consumer devices that run thousands of existing Windows applications and drivers with Windows Embedded Standard 7, which delivers the power, familiarity and reliability of the Windows 7 operating system in a componentized form.
Note: When installing the Windows Embedded Standard 7
This product has multiple disks that will need to be downloaded and installed.

If I am reading this right, it is the full Windows 7 if you download all the components, correct?
 
Displayport and Thunderbolt are pretty much the same thing. You can get an adapter.

*edit*

Actually now that I research it, it looks like you can go DP->Thunderbolt, but the opposite is a bit more difficult and not certain.

With that being said, you can get a motherboard with a Thunderbolt and push the video through the motherboard while having the GPU render it using Lucid Virtu MVP.

The gigabyte Z77 UP5-TH and UP4-TH are both great motherboards.

Excellent, thanks!

I ran into the same thing once I researched it. Seemed obvious like it would work, but then a little research turned up that it would not. I'll definitely take your advice ansd look at those boards. Only other headache is controlling the brightness on windows, but I'm not that worried about it.
 

comu

Neo Member
I'm not sure I understand. Are you asking about additional fan controllers?

I guess I'm asking whether the fan speed of any additional coolers, that are installed into the R4, can be adjusted using the R4's built in fan controller.
 

Dave_6

Member
Hmm, got another one you would recommend? I do have a 120GB SSD as well that I'm guessing I will install Windows 7 on to.
 

brentech

Member
Now that spring is rolling in here, the idle temps are going up a bit. Sitting around 30C +/- a few (as opposed to 26C-28C at idle).
I plan to upgrade the video card when the next generation of cards comes about (and a little extra time for revisions). When I do that I might add water cooling to the mix.

Everything else I'm really happy with at this point. My R4 should be here later this week. I'll be interested to what the change of case does to my cooling and temps.
 

Bleeether

Member
@mkenyon

Do you have a link for uninstalling the Lightboost hack? I cant seem to find a resource.

My Benq gets extremely dark and I've messed with the contrast but it throws the colors off too much for my casual gaming use.
 
Alright, I did my gpu temperature test.

This is with a Gigabyte GTX 660 OC which has a factory overclock as well as their Windforce cooling system.

With the FT03 in standard upright position I was getting idle temps around 25C. I then ran 3DMark a few times in a row and saw load temps occasionally hit 59C - which is about as warm as I like to see my gpu's get.

Next I laid the FT03 on it's front, putting the video card in the traditional horizontal position (albeit 'upside down', with the fans on top). After running 3DMark a couple more times like this I saw load temps briefly touch 56C.

So there is definitely a difference between orientation, although probably not enough for me to be concerned or regret a purchase.

Then just for shits I placed the FT03 back in it's upright position and ran it a couple more times. Again the temps went back to 58-59C.

Again, this is with a custom 120mm fan I installed at the rear of the case, blowing right on the gpu, which at this point I'm pretty glad I did.

One thing that really impressed me is that while under load the gpu fans hit 100%. Now I've never had gpu's run at 100% fans before without it sounding like a jet engine. The Gigabyte was somewhat audible during this time (sitting about 7 feet away), but perfectly acceptable for a silence-whore like me. That's why I was so surprised when I saw it was at 100%.
 

mkenyon

Banned
One thing that really impressed me is that while under load the gpu fans hit 100%. Now I've never had gpu's run at 100% fans before without it sounding like a jet engine. The Gigabyte was somewhat audible during this time (sitting about 7 feet away), but perfectly acceptable for a silence-whore like me. That's why I was so surprised when I saw it was at 100%.
I bet your fans aren't hitting 100% with the case on the side, think you could run 3DMark11 on loop for 20 mins to see? Would be very very appreciated, as I'm currently parting together an FT03 for a friend.
@mkenyon

Do you have a link for uninstalling the Lightboost hack? I cant seem to find a resource.

My Benq gets extremely dark and I've messed with the contrast but it throws the colors off too much for my casual gaming use.
I do not :(
Hmm, got another one you would recommend? I do have a 120GB SSD as well that I'm guessing I will install Windows 7 on to.
'okay' is about as good as it gets for recommended drives at this point. HDD market is really bad. WD Blacks are reliable but loud as hell, WD RE4's are dead reliable.
 

friday

Member
So I got some M-audio bx8a monitors that I would like to hook up to my PC. So far I think my best option will be to use an external soundcard that interfaces through USB. I would also like something with a line-in so I can hookup my PS3 to the speakers.

So far the only external cards that seem like what I am looking for are the Creative soundblaster x-fi surround and the Creative sound blaster x-fi HD. I only need stereo sound because I will be using monitors. I dont completely get why the HD is more expensive, I guess because it has higher quality audio in support. I could also go with something like a PreSonus AudioBox USB 2x2, but that seems a bit overkill and starting to get a little pricy.

Anyone have experience with this stuff?

so nobody has experience with this stuff? I think I am going to pick up the Sound blaster HD soon.
 

kennah

Member
You're running into the 'expensive gear needs expensive gear needs expensive gear' problem. Those speakers are kinda designed to be used hooked up to a mixing console in a studio setting.
 

LAUGHTREY

Modesty becomes a woman
Your Current Specs: Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 2.13GHz / 4 gigs of this (DDR2) / Motherboard / GPU (Graphics) / PSU (Power Supply) / Case
Budget: 600-700 dollars, US.
Main Use: Rate 1-5. 5 being Highest: Gaming, and WoW.
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well:WoW is what I mostly play on my PC, and even Bioshock Infinite ran pretty smoothly on Medium. I don't want to be too restricted for future games though, 30fps is acceptable.
Looking to reuse any parts?: I bought my last PC in 2007, so everything is too worn out or old to be worth sticking in a new one.
When will you build?: 1-2 months.
Will you be overclocking?: No


I built my own and it's come out to $644 shipped:


Case: NZXT Source 210 ATX Mid Tower
CPU: Intel Core i5-3350P
GPU: EVGA GeForce GT 640
Motherboard: ASRock B75 PRO3
Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB
PSU: Antec VP-450 450W
HDD:Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB


I'd put myself at a tier below enthusiast as far as PC building goes. I can fit the parts together since they're essentially legos, but anything more than that I wish I was ignorant of the ripoff that is Alienware or I'd just buy one of those.

I'm pretty sure I matched everything together, afaik the important thing is matching the CPU to the motherboard socket. I would like to eventually get a SSD for games down the line, but right now it's more important that I get a PC that stops making me pull my hair out, then worry about anything extra.

Any glaring mistakes or suggestions before I pull the trigger would be awesome.
 

comu

Neo Member
Do I need to set AHCI mode for an SSD for OS, and RAID mode for two seperate hard drives (for hardware raid), or does it not work like that and it's either AHCI or RAID for all sata ports?

Thanks
 

mkenyon

Banned
Do I need to set AHCI mode for an SSD for OS, and RAID mode for two seperate hard drives (for hardware raid), or does it not work like that and it's either AHCI or RAID for all sata ports?

Thanks
Each controller has to be one or the other, and you likely have 3 total controllers. Intel 6GB, Intel 3GB, and then probably a Marvell Controller.

You can also do a software RAID. I've had lots of success with them in the past.
Your Current Specs: Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 2.13GHz / 4 gigs of this (DDR2) / Motherboard / GPU (Graphics) / PSU (Power Supply) / Case
Budget: 600-700 dollars, US.
Main Use: Rate 1-5. 5 being Highest: Gaming, and WoW.
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well:WoW is what I mostly play on my PC, and even Bioshock Infinite ran pretty smoothly on Medium. I don't want to be too restricted for future games though, 30fps is acceptable.
Looking to reuse any parts?: I bought my last PC in 2007, so everything is too worn out or old to be worth sticking in a new one.
When will you build?: 1-2 months.
Will you be overclocking?: No


I built my own and it's come out to $644 shipped:


Case: NZXT Source 210 ATX Mid Tower
CPU: Intel Core i5-3350P
GPU: EVGA GeForce GT 640
Motherboard: ASRock B75 PRO3
Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB
PSU: Antec VP-450 450W
HDD:Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB


I'd put myself at a tier below enthusiast as far as PC building goes. I can fit the parts together since they're essentially legos, but anything more than that I wish I was ignorant of the ripoff that is Alienware or I'd just buy one of those.

I'm pretty sure I matched everything together, afaik the important thing is matching the CPU to the motherboard socket. I would like to eventually get a SSD for games down the line, but right now it's more important that I get a PC that stops making me pull my hair out, then worry about anything extra.

Any glaring mistakes or suggestions before I pull the trigger would be awesome.
That is actually not too far off from the baseline X51, and would likely perform slightly worse due to the GT 640 vs. rebranded GTX 560.

I'm not sold on the non-K i5's being worth it. Seems like if you go budget, go budget, and put the money in a GPU.

*edit 2*

Both of the games you listed only use a max of 2 threads as well. Not really worth it to go with the i5, IMO.

*edit 3*

Your old videocard is better than the GT 640.
 

Demon Ice

Banned

comu

Neo Member
Each controller has to be one or the other, and you likely have 3 total controllers. Intel 6GB, Intel 3GB, and then probably a Marvell Controller.

You can also do a software RAID. I've had lots of success with them in the past.

Thanks, I'll look into it. But won't software RAID reduce system performance, or is it not substantial enough to make a difference? I'll be using win8 and an i3 3225.
 

demented

Member
So with my new build I'll be having 128 gb SSD and I'm gonna format, once I transfer all the stuff I need, my 2 600gb hdds.
Should I just keep them both as storage or do some sort of raid with them?
 

LAUGHTREY

Modesty becomes a woman
That is actually not too far off from the baseline X51, and would likely perform slightly worse due to the GT 640 vs. rebranded GTX 560.

I'm not sold on the non-K i5's being worth it. Seems like if you go budget, go budget, and put the money in a GPU.

*edit 2*

Both of the games you listed only use a max of 2 threads as well. Not really worth it to go with the i5, IMO.

*edit 3*

Your old videocard is better than the GT 640.

It's not the ONLY games I want to play though, just the most important. If I can get something that won't suck for AC4 or any other games coming out this year it would be ideal.
The GPU in that build is extremely weak. Don't be fooled by the fact that it has 4 GB of VRAM. I'd step it up to either the GTX 650 Ti Boost if you want NVIDIA or the HD 7850 if you want AMD.

Other than the video card (which you pegged with the 4gb RAM why I picked it) though, I'm good to go right?
 

mkenyon

Banned
Well, if you live anywhere near a microcenter you could pick up a Z77 and 3570K for the same price you have outlined. That'll definitely be a huge jump in performance for you.
 

brentech

Member
Damn. Got a crash playing BF3. System doesn't lock up, just a game full crash.

Code:
Faulting application name: bf3.exe, version: 1.6.0.0, time stamp: 0x511c9356
Faulting module name: nvwgf2um.dll, version: 9.18.13.1407, time stamp: 0x5116d87b
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00003fff
Faulting process id: 0x1228
Faulting application start time: 0x01ce357cb595da90
Faulting application path: M:\Origin\Origin Games\Battlefield 3\bf3.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\nvwgf2um.dll
Report Id: 90dc1014-a171-11e2-bd5c-bc5ff485261c

nvwgf2um.dll

Ran across a post on Nvidia forums, and one of their own people says it's a common error on that DLL for GPUs not using the reference specs, ie, factory overclocks included.
Suggests underclocking the card to reference specs to fix, but I don't know if I care to do that. Only have a few games on the system at this point. I suppose if I run into with other games, I'll have to look further into it.
 

mkenyon

Banned
I'd say increase voltage, but alas....

You might actually just try nudging up the voltage, as it might be crashing as it is winding up or down with the dynamic voltage. Having it constant might help a smidge.
 

RavenHawk

Member
I have a question for GAF's Graphic Card Gurus:

The basics: 2600K at 4.5 (1.32 v) on a ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 with 8 gigs of Kingston 1333. Main system (Win 7) and all programs are on a Crucial MX4 128 SSD, with all games on 2TB Seagate HD.

The dilemna: I recently purchased a Sapphire 7950 with "boost" which runs at 925MHz core and 1250 MHz memory. I have been able to run it stable at 1150MHz core and 1500 MHz memory on stock voltage using Afterburner. Hardware Monitor reports that the card idles at 0.95v and maxes out at 1.25 while benchmarking , no matter if it is overclocked or not. To me, I am not seeing a significant difference in FPS between stock and overclocked when I use various in-game benchmarks. So my question is; given the folowing information, what would be your educated guess as to the increase in FPS I should expect with this overclock? (I can post my results if it would help).

Thanks!
 

LCGeek

formerly sane
I have a question for GAF's Graphic Card Gurus:

The basics: 2600K at 4.5 (1.32 v) on a ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 with 8 gigs of Kingston 1333. Main system (Win 7) and all programs are on a Crucial MX4 128 SSD, with all games on 2TB Seagate HD.

The dilemna: I recently purchased a Sapphire 7950 with "boost" which runs at 925MHz core and 1250 MHz memory. I have been able to run it stable at 1150MHz core and 1500 MHz memory on stock voltage using Afterburner. Hardware Monitor reports that the card idles at 0.95v and maxes out at 1.25 while benchmarking , no matter if it is overclocked or not. To me, I am not seeing a significant difference in FPS between stock and overclocked when I use various in-game benchmarks. So my question is; given the folowing information, what would be your educated guess as to the increase in FPS I should expect with this overclock? (I can post my results if it would help).

Thanks!

I tend find GPU overclocks effect the minimum and average fps more than peaks.

In the case of your card doesn't seem to do much. Seems odd consideringthe 7850 is a beast if you oc it.
 

RavenHawk

Member
m
I tend find GPU overclocks effect the minimum and average fps more than peaks.

In the case of your card doesn't seem to do much. Seems odd consideringthe 7850 is a beast if you oc it.

Thanks for the quick reply, and for the chart you linked to. I do not have Crysis 2, so I can't check to see what my results would be , but given the Sapphire 7950 they used, there was (what I would consider to be) a significant jump when they bumped up the core speed by only 125 MHz (almost 6 FPS). I am not seeing this type of difference on my end.

I know that no 2 cards are identical, but for the increase I am getting on my card (roughly 20%), I thought I would see some tangible results. For example, of the 4 games I have used the in-game benchmark, Metro 2033 has given me the most significant difference after 3 passes (1920x1080 / "High" setting / 16AF / No DF or Physics enabled):

Stock setting with AAA - 83 avg (161.39 highest, 16.55 lowest)
Stock setting with 4xMSAA - 65.33 avg (126.71 highest, 9.37 lowest)

OC setting with AAA - 86.33 avg (192.60 highest, 12.56 lowest)
OC setting with 4xMSAA - 68.33 avg (149.14 highest, 16.15 lowest)

When it came to Sleeping Dogs and Hitman Absolution, I basically saw no difference, and with Just Cause 2, I saw a 1 FPS increasse with the overclock. Am I wrong for thinking that something is not right with these results?
 

brentech

Member
I'd say increase voltage, but alas....

You might actually just try nudging up the voltage, as it might be crashing as it is winding up or down with the dynamic voltage. Having it constant might help a smidge.
I'll have to read more about GPU voltages and such to feel confident about doing anything there. Wasn't worried in the slightest about my first CPU overclock, but just don't have much to go on so far on the GPU overclock or voltage changing.

I imagine that's all done in afterburner.
 

Echoplx

Member
An i3 3220/650ti should handle most games well at 1360*768 right? Building a budget PC for my younger brother who wants to play dayz.
 

Pandemic

Member
Alrighty, think my build quote is done, and about to send it off to get built,
Here's what I have,
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 OC 4GB
Hard Drive: Western Digital WD Black 2TB WD2002FAEX
CPU Cooler: Enermax Liquid CPU Cooler ELC240
Sound Card: ASUS Xonar DGX
Optical Drive: Pioneer DVR-220LBKS Black 24x DVDRW OEM
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770K
Wireless: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 450Mbps Wireless N PCIe Adaptor
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit with SP1 OEM
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB SSD
RAM: Corsair Vengeance CML16GX3M2A1600C10 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl
MOBO: MSI Z77 MPOWER Motherboard
PSU: CoolerMaster Silent Pro Hybrid M850 850W

Any final thoughts would be appreciated. This will mainly be used for gaming, and a bit of work. Hopefully last me a few years (1-3 years) before I need to start upgrading anything. Pretty pumped to get it built already after all this waiting. :p

Thanks.
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
So apparently my HDD has slowed to the point where I can no longer capture footage with my Black Magic Intensity Pro. It stutters and there are sync issues. Sad times. I was planning on upgrading to an SSD this year but I would still require an HDD for all the storage space. So now instead of just getting an SSD, I'm forced to get a new HDD. Obviously I'm looking for something with good speed.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

There's my old one. It recorded with the capture card great for about a year and a half now. Now I need a replacement. I'm basically looking for a very similar HDD in terms of space (1-2TB) and I guess something faster(???, or the same speed would work I guess). What do you guys have? What do you guys like?

Thanks,

Tashi
 

ArynCrinn

Banned
I have saved my money for about 3 months, and I'm debating on whether or not to replace my SLI GTX 690's with SLI GTX Titans? Worth it right now, or wait for something better?

Also considering a mobo upgrade to upgrade my 2600k 4.4 OC, with a similar top of the line CPU at a similar clock.
 

AndyBNV

Nvidia
An i3 3220/650ti should handle most games well at 1360*768 right? Building a budget PC for my younger brother who wants to play dayz.

You might be better waiting for the standalone version before making any buying decisions, because it will run on a new significantly more optimized engine.
 
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