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[Bronetta]

where can I find this offer?

also any adapter seems ok, got a generic one that works fine

It was straight from Microsoft. Expired now I think since I can't find it.

Grab another $10 wireless adapter.
I used to have one for my controllers and it worked flawlessly.
Plenty of them on eBay for cheap.

$13 shipping to Canada kills this offer.

I went with this instead:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PC-Wireless-Gaming-USB-Receiver-Adapter-for-Microsoft-Xbox-360-Controller-White-/140943320325?

 

[Granadier]

I went with this instead:

That's the same thing, so you're all set. Your computer should recognize it when you plug it in and load the drivers automatically. Then just sync it up like you would with a 360.

 

[Bronetta]

That's the same thing, so you're all set. Your computer should recognize it when you plug it in and load the drivers automatically. Then just sync it up like you would with a 360.

Awesome, thanks for the quick assistance.

 

[anchorman128]

where can I find this offer?

also any adapter seems ok, got a generic one that works fine

Ya I was wondering this as well, a quick Google search only pulled up a page for the Afterglow X1 controller for $8.99. However it isn't a student deal, so I am inclined to believe this isn't the deal you are talking about.

fake edit: Seems like I found a link to this page on March 10th, however it looks like the deal is over. http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...152000&tduid=a93cdd6e2f9e8f22c932e83bd302851d I'm chatting to a rep right now to make sure

real edit: Looks like the deal is over for now, and the bundle is actually out of stock currently. Shame I missed the original sale.

 

[DirtyLarry]

So around December I expressed interest in possibly building a new gaming PC as my current one was starting to show it's age, and I was told to wait it out because Intel had some new CPU's coming out this year. I believe people were saying to wait for the Broadwells.

Well now that they seem to not be releasing until at least Q4 of 2014, I am not sure if it is worth the wait anymore.

So is it worth the wait still? Or should I look at upgrading to a current Haswell?

 

[mkenyon]

So around December I expressed interest in possibly building a new gaming PC as my current one was starting to show it's age, and I was told to wait it out because Intel had some new CPU's coming out this year. I believe people were saying to wait for the Broadwells.

Well now that they seem to not be releasing until at least Q4 of 2014, I am not sure if it is worth the wait anymore.

So is it worth the wait still? Or should I look at upgrading to a current Haswell?

I'm not sure why someone told you to wait. Go for it.

 

[Pratfall]

Welp, my 27 inch Dell UltraSharp just died. I was holding out for the first round of gsync monitors but I will probably need to get a monitor right away. Any good, not that expensive, 1080p monitors (24 inch prob)? Would be willing to dip into 120Hz if not that expensive. Anyone know how gsync and multiple monitors work? DO both need to be gsync?

 

[Ashhong]

Use windirstat to figure out what is taking space.

The thing is, the "Available Space" number is not the problem. My question is that, Samsung Magician said I wrote 20gb in one day, but I am not short 20gb of space. In fact my SSD is only maybe 2gb or so less than it was the day before. So some kind of temporary files?

 

[chickdigger802]

been wondering, why in 2014, do computer parts still have box art and naming of something that might be cool in the 90s?

its kinda embarrassing describing the parts of your pc build outloud :V

stupid ram lol.

 

[Lizardus]

been wondering, why in 2014, do computer parts still have box art and naming of something that might be cool in the 90s?

its kinda embarrassing describing the parts of your pc build outloud :V

stupid ram lol.

Because if you ain't EXTREME TO DA MAX, you ain't worth sweet fucking nothing-all.

 

[scogoth]

The thing is, the "Available Space" number is not the problem. My question is that, Samsung Magician said I wrote 20gb in one day, but I am not short 20gb of space. In fact my SSD is only maybe 2gb or so less than it was the day before. So some kind of temporary files?

Probably write amplification. Its a behaviour of SSDs based on how they write information and are especially bad with writing random data.

 

[Hazaro]

Ahhhhhhhh I need to update the OP.
Screw work and education.

The thing is, the "Available Space" number is not the problem. My question is that, Samsung Magician said I wrote 20gb in one day, but I am not short 20gb of space. In fact my SSD is only maybe 2gb or so less than it was the day before. So some kind of temporary files?

See my previous post with the chart.

It wrote that much data. It didn't save it.

been wondering, why in 2014, do computer parts still have box art and naming of something that might be cool in the 90s?

its kinda embarrassing describing the parts of your pc build outloud :V

stupid ram lol.

Are you hating on the G1 SN1P3R motherboard with KILLER NIC and GUN SHAPED RAM. Or the MSI GAMER board with DRAGON HEATSINKS. Or the 1337 motherboards? Or Fatal1ty anything? lol
It's because performance and features are nearly the same across all the major brands and RAM performance is nearly non existent, they just make halo products and color schemes.

 

[daycru]

Put in an extra standoff while installing motherboard, so it only kind of worked. After a harrowing few hours of trouble shooting, I just rebuilt the thing. No problems since. Saints Row IV melts my eyes. Playing Binary Domain again, completely different experience from PS3. You can actually see the art. It's incredible. Going to play Deus Ex Human Revolution Director's Cut after wrapping up those two. Think I'll do Gone Home when the GF gets back.

 

[maneil99]

Weird thing is, when I go to the BIOS fan monitor, it says the fan is going at 579RPM or something and it's stated in red like it's a bad thing.

Motherboard assumes you are using a stock heatsink in which case that fan speed would be very bad, however since you are using a third party cooler its fine, hence the warnings. You can disable the warnings in the Bios under fan speed warning/monitoring.

 

[scogoth]

Are you hating on the G1 SN1P3R motherboard with KILLER NIC and GUN SHAPED RAM. Or the MSI GAMER board with DRAGON HEATSINKS. Or the 1337 motherboards? Or Fatal1ty anything? lol
It's because performance and features are nearly the same across all the major brands and RAM performance is nearly non existent, they just make halo products and color schemes.

Dat bling tho

 

[NoRéN]

Is that a close up of a rapper's mouth?

 

[Tablo]

Is that a close up of a rapper's mouth?

LMAO!!!

 

[Ashhong]

Ahhhhhhhh I need to update the OP.
Screw work and education.
See my previous post with the chart.

It wrote that much data. It didn't save it.
.

Ah ok I didn't see that chart. I understand now. I was just worried because I didn't know if it would continue to write that much data, because 20gb a day is a lot to me. I am a cheap bastard and want to make sure my stuff lasts. I can't help but look at this stupid Magician program every time I turn on my comp lol.

So I also decided to try out Sleep mode on my desktop with my SSD. As long as it's not hibernating, and showing like "Resuming Windows" on boot, I am in sleep and not writing any data to my SSD correct?

 

[Objectively Bad Opinion]

Dat bling tho

I actually

Spoiler

like

that color scheme.

I have the Z87-Pro. It was on special.

 

[Hazaro]

That's just ASUS's dumb gold colors though.

http://www.l337gaming.com/

GB

Ah ok I didn't see that chart. I understand now. I was just worried because I didn't know if it would continue to write that much data, because 20gb a day is a lot to me. I am a cheap bastard and want to make sure my stuff lasts. I can't help but look at this stupid Magician program every time I turn on my comp lol.

So I also decided to try out Sleep mode on my desktop with my SSD. As long as it's not hibernating, and showing like "Resuming Windows" on boot, I am in sleep and not writing any data to my SSD correct?

Just don't think about it dude. Did you see the chart? 30 years. Who gives a shit?

Sleep and SSDs used to sometimes cause issues last I checked, but they probably fixed those resume sleep bugs by now.

 

[neurosisxeno]

That 1337 Gaming motherboard is giving me retinal cancer...

 

[TheD]

There is no difference between high and insane on most textures so don't bother upgrading your GPU just for Titanfall. Most games shouldn't run into the same issues, Titanfall is unique because it's a "next gen" game that doesn't use tiled resources so it is very heavy on the vram for no reason. If you're into Skyrim modding though 4gb may come in handy. And if Titanfall gets a community texture mod (and my god does it need it), then it might come in handy then too.

The VRAM usage is caused by really shit texture usage (possibly upscaling low res textures for no reason), not lack of tiled resources.

And the SSD, I would wait until they go on sale. I bought a 512GB SSD last year for 200 bux which I thought was okay. I personally would wait until they're in the same ballpark to make the jump. Smaller SSDs are too restrictive for me personally, I like to keep my most played games on it, and games are getting really big lately.

SSDs like the Crucial M500 480GB are on sale for about that much ATM.

 

[DarkFlow]

GB

Lol holy shit, it even has a bullet in the clip.

 

[sol_bad]

I have a question, I just bought and installed a Sound Blaster Z.
I also have 2 graphics cards in my PC, a GTX670 and a GTX285. I have the GTX285 set up to handle PhysX.

Ignoring the dust on my PSU do you guys think it's safe to have the cards installed in this manner or could heat be a potential issue?
If it is an issue do you think I need to GTX285 for PhysX duties?

 

[CyanideFuse]

Well, all my bits and pieces have arrived (Amazon have been so sloooooow) and I am ready to undertake my first build. I'll give the videos a good watch from page one.

I am quite looking forward to building the PC. I am more concerned about the Windows 7 key I bought from the Reddit software page in the event it doesn't work.

 

[Pachimari]

YES! I should get a new EVGA GeForce GTX 780 on Thursday from the store!

 

[jfoul]

XFX Radeon R9 280X Double Dissipation with Battlefield 4 - $299.99 with Code: WKF120385

HardOCP Review

AnandTech Review

 

[mug]

I have a question, I just bought and installed a Sound Blaster Z.
I also have 2 graphics cards in my PC, a GTX670 and a GTX285. I have the GTX285 set up to handle PhysX.

Ignoring the dust on my PSU do you guys think it's safe to have the cards installed in this manner or could heat be a potential issue?
If it is an issue do you think I need to GTX285 for PhysX duties?

Don't worry about needing a dedicated card for physx with a 670 - you won't notice a difference in performance and you'll be spending more on heat and electricity. Plus the 285 is a giant heater of a card.

 

[sol_bad]

Don't worry about needing a dedicated card for physx with a 670 - you won't notice a difference in performance and you'll be spending more on heat and electricity. Plus the 285 is a giant heater of a card.

So definitely get rid of it you think?

*EDIT*
What the hell!!!!
I just ran the PhysX Fluidmark test with my GTX670 and GTX285 and then ran the test again without the GTX285.
With the GTX285 I got 31fps.
Without the GTX285 I got 66fps.

Does this test mean much???

 

[H4r4kiri]

I'm not sure why someone told you to wait. Go for it.

why isnt it better to wait ?

 

[Sorral]

Just wanted to share this Google Spreadsheet that has info on a lot of video capture devices on the market. Credit to Robin

I bought this and I have no regrets so far (unlike the Elgato which I'm returning):

 

[LilJoka]

why isnt it better to wait ?

Its always better to wait, but you can wait forever and not have any fun in the meantime.

 

[knitoe]

So definitely get rid of it you think?

*EDIT*
What the hell!!!!
I just ran the PhysX Fluidmark test with my GTX670 and GTX285 and then ran the test again without the GTX285.
With the GTX285 I got 31fps.
Without the GTX285 I got 66fps.

Does this test mean much???

It seems:
With: 285 running physx
Wihtout: 670 running physx.

Try running a game using physx instead, like the Batman games.

 

[appaws]

why isnt it better to wait ?

Wait, schmait. You can wait for Broadwell...and then when it is out someone will tell you it is better to wait for Inkwell or Snackwell, or whatever the next thing is.

In the meantime, months of incredible gaming is going by....

 

[gregor7777]

So definitely get rid of it you think?

*EDIT*
What the hell!!!!
I just ran the PhysX Fluidmark test with my GTX670 and GTX285 and then ran the test again without the GTX285.
With the GTX285 I got 31fps.
Without the GTX285 I got 66fps.

Does this test mean much???

My guess here is that the 285 processing physx is much slower than the 670 doing the same thing.

I'm not sure how the fluidmark test works, but I wonder if you have the 670 at full load if that story would change. By itself though it doesn't surprise me.

 

[Tabris]

Please elaborate? Most monitors in the range you want are nondescript matte "midnight gray" boxes that will be right at home in a soul crushing cubicle. There are no monitors that are a fashion statement in that range.

That's why I also said TV because most of them are that ugly midnight gray box.

 

[chickdigger802]

how does buying used gpu's work? warranty's are tied to cards now, so a 1 year old card shoudl still have its 3 year warranty... but say if you buy a refurb off newegg... thats a 1 year limited warranty?

 

[TheDanger]

is it okay to slightly undervolt a fx-4100 cpu so it doesn't get to hot?

It seems to be working, coretemp shows 19 degrees in idle. Speed is still the same.

 

[kennah]

is it okay to slightly undervolt a fx-4100 cpu so it doesn't get to hot?

It seems to be working, coretemp shows 19 degrees in idle. Speed is still the same.

I did that with my grandmas computer so it could run off of passive cooling.

 

[scogoth]

why isnt it better to wait ?

Cause then you won't have a computer. Always build when you are ready to build unless it is officially announced that the new stuff is coming out within your build window.

 

[LilJoka]

is it okay to slightly undervolt a fx-4100 cpu so it doesn't get to hot?

It seems to be working, coretemp shows 19 degrees in idle. Speed is still the same.

How hot is it getting, because if its less than 60C, there is no point in bothering.

 

[-COOLIO-]

So around December I expressed interest in possibly building a new gaming PC as my current one was starting to show it's age, and I was told to wait it out because Intel had some new CPU's coming out this year. I believe people were saying to wait for the Broadwells.

Well now that they seem to not be releasing until at least Q4 of 2014, I am not sure if it is worth the wait anymore.

So is it worth the wait still? Or should I look at upgrading to a current Haswell?

broadwell will likely be focused on power efficiency like both of it's recent predecessors. the gains made there are mostly negligible for desktop builds. I believe that the mobos for broadwell will only support ddr4 which will be expensive at release. maxwell miiiight be worth waiting for but it'll be very expensive at launch if last years trend stays true this year, and also for sometime after if cryptocurrency mining keeps up since the new cards are power efficient.

also, maxwell details are likely to drop around the end of the month. so youll have more info to work with then.

 

[TheDanger]

How hot is it getting, because if its less than 60C, there is no point in bothering.

it's about 40 to 50 degrees in idle with default voltage settings, problem is under load it exceeds 85 degrees so it throttles my cpu to 1,3 GHz. The undervolt wasn't working unfortunately, pc restarted after a few minutes of heavy load. Now I underclocked it to 3,3 GHz so I can undervolt. Now I can finally play games above 15 fps.

 

[Water]

Hey everyone. I need advice. I need a 30-40" monitor / tv to go on my desk.

The requirements are:

1) As low response time as possible, while still ensuring #2 is met.
2) It has to look good (all of these ASUS / DELL / etc monitors look like garbage)
3) If it can be 2560 x 1440, that's even better, but I haven't seen any that match with #2 except Thunderbolt Display which suffers from lack of apple updates.
4) It will be hooking up to an Apple Macbook Pro through HDMI or display link/thunderbolt.

Price isn't an object (within reason - nothing above $2-3k). What do you recommend?

The brands you think "look like garbage" tend to make the best large displays that are humanly affordable. I'm not sure what you find that offensive about their looks; is it the large logos? If so, maybe an Eizo would be OK? I like mine a lot, and the understated look is a part of why; the display just disappears and you only see the picture. You can even disable the power-on light. It's a high-end brand; they are known for very high-end color correct stuff, but have branched out to good generalist displays like the EV2736 above, and excellent gaming displays like the FG2421 and FS2333 (the gaming displays are 24" and under though).

Do you really need that much size for a computer display? A 27" 1440p display right in front of your face is pretty big already, and there's a lot of choice in models. Above that, the choices become slim, and the practical thing to do is to add more displays. As overpriced as the Apple display is, it might be the way to go if you end up going with 2x 27" since you can chain them and only need to connect one Thunderbolt cable to your laptop.

The only display at 30" or over that has decent latency is probably a Dell 30xx which is 2560x1600. There are $3000ish 4k displays with IGZO panels from Asus and some other companies at 31.5", but if I recall correctly, the models so far all have quite a bit of latency.

If none of those will do, then you'll have to go to a TV, but a >30" display on a desk with just 1080p resolution is insanity. You'd see the pixels instead of the picture.

 

[scogoth]

it's about 40 to 50 degrees in idle with default voltage settings, problem is under load it exceeds 85 degrees so it throttles my cpu to 1,3 GHz. The undervolt wasn't working unfortunately, pc restarted after a few minutes of heavy load. Now I underclocked it to 3,3 GHz so I can undervolt. Now I can finally play games above 15 fps.

Thats not right, check your heatsink mount.

 

[Hazaro]

how does buying used gpu's work? warranty's are tied to cards now, so a 1 year old card shoudl still have its 3 year warranty... but say if you buy a refurb off newegg... thats a 1 year limited warranty?

Refurbs have refurb warranties.

 

[industrian]

been wondering, why in 2014, do computer parts still have box art and naming of something that might be cool in the 90s?

its kinda embarrassing describing the parts of your pc build outloud :V

stupid ram lol.

Taiwanese companies have no concept of branding.

 

[Calibur]

Hi i wondering if anyone could help me out, I do a lot 3D, animation and video editing, plus i like game now and again. I was thinking to get a pretty powerful Origin PC, but i have decided on getting a custom built PC with a budget of £1600 i don't really won't to go to far off this mark.

I want it to be future proof and upgradable to upto 3 years, this is a spec i got from https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-2011-extreme/

Case - STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU) - Intel® Core™i7 Six Core Processor i7-4930K (3.4GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard - ASUS® P9X79 LE: INTEL® SOCKET LG2011
Memory (RAM) - 16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 8GB KIT)
Graphics Card - 3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk-120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk - 1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
DVD Drive - 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader - INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply - CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling - INTEL SOCKET LGA2011 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste - ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card - ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking - 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options - MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable - 1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System - Genuine Windows 8.1 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence

Quote Value: £1,684.00

Could i get a better custom built PC, for around that price or less?

 

[Hazaro]

Yes, fill out the OP bullet point list.

 

[RumblingRosco]

Tech support question: my PC is locking up randomly. Literally just comes to a halt, no blue screen or anything even after a ten minute wait. Happens whether just running Chrome or a game or anything. Was happening after a few hours of use but today it would happen within ten minutes of booting up. If I hard reset I can start-up just fine. Now, I am running Windows Memory Diagnostic in the "Extended" test which I know takes much longer but is more thorough, I believe. If that turns up negative, what's the next test?

One time in the past week I walked away and came back to my PC attempting to reboot (I guess it crashed while I was away), but stating it could not find a boot drive. I tried to proceed anyway and it hung up at the Asrock splash screen; after a hard reset it booted up just fine. I have a sinking feeling it is my OS SSD that is dyong, so I am not sure how to test that if so. It is an OCZ Vertex 2 40 GB.

Running Windows 7 64-bit. Any advice is appreciated.