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[captive]

Would you guys kindly allow me to rant a bit? Thanks.


On a side note, I am really tempted to make me another one of those for home use. PC hardware is hella cheap these days.

Anyway, back to the driver situation.
Has ATis driver setup always sucked so much? Holy shit, they don't even include the .NET2 runtime, just pop up a messagebox ("You be needing .NET 2.x durr" - [OK] ) stating the requirement and regardless of .NET being installed or not proceed with the installation - including several steps where they actually invoke .NET executables to install the CCC. This, of course, doesn't work, so it pops up not one, not two, no, a whole barrage of cryptic error messageboxes. What the fuck. I know I shouldn't have trusted Abits shitty "Q-Installer", but please check if your runtime environment is installed before relying on it, and fail gracefully, you jackasses.

Oh god the CCC. What a load of bullcrap. The last time I seriously used an ATi card was in the days of the Radeon 8500, and I always remembered the clean and unobstrusive control panel with the incredibly well thought out and accessible features, e.g. Theater mode. One click, and any overlay would be zoomed to fullscreen on the second monitor. ONE FUCKING CLICK. After getting my 6600GT I always complained about how NVidia has a hopelessly convoluted setup, but I guess I'll have to shut up now. Jesus H. tap-dancing Christ on a popsicle stick, what a messy and resource-intensive interface. And for what? You can "skin" it, ooooh. That's just great.

On top of that the shitty installer included a WOW ad/installation - It simply drops a shortcut to a "Free WoW trial" on the desktop, no questions asked. What the flying fuck. And since when do I need to register my hardware at ATi anyway?

ARRRRGH. What a load of crap. I just needed to setup a simple SoHo machine. I did not want to battle a huge-ass driver full of bloatware that doesn't check for or install all needed runtimes. I do not want game installers copied to my HDD without my consent, and certainly not by a chipset/graphic card driver installer. What the fuck, Ati?


Whew, thanks for listening. I feel better now.

Haha wow you are madder about ccc.exe than I was.
Though the installer does give you the option to not put the Wow trial on your computer. That doesnt excuse its absolute shittyness.

 

[chespace]

Haha wow you are madder about ccc.exe than I was.
Though the installer does give you the option to not put the Wow trial on your computer. That doesnt excuse its absolute shittyness.

No it doesn't. My ability to uncheck the WoW trial shortcut bullshit was grayed out.

 

[Minsc]

No it doesn't. My ability to uncheck the WoW trial shortcut bullshit was grayed out.

I recently got extra-annoyed with ATI's drivers, damned CCC wouldn't update and no matter how much I tried to get it out of my system, the installations kept fucking up.

So, now I'm running the Omega drivers instead, and haven't had any more problems. Just another year or so, and I'm extremely tempted to screw the cheaper cost of the 4870 (or its equivalent a year from now) and go with the 280 equivalent, or something nVidia.

 

[captive]

No it doesn't. My ability to uncheck the WoW trial shortcut bullshit was grayed out.

Interesting, I know for a fact on my clean install it didnt install, because on the first time i just did defaults and it did install. I believe i checked "custom install" or whatever it is to that effect.

 

[Chiggs]

No it doesn't. My ability to uncheck the WoW trial shortcut bullshit was grayed out.

Even funnier, I unchecked the option on two consecutive occasions, and it still put the trial on the desktop.

What the fuck, Ati?

Indeed.

 

[McLovin]

I have a ram question. I saw this add on newegg for 4gb(2x2gb) for 50 something dollars. I went to check my manufacturers website to see what type of ram I have and I saw something that kinda bugged me. They way they worded it.. it seemed like my pc only supports 2gb memory sticks if its running with a 64bit OS. My pc has 3gb of ram but it uses up all the slots! I was thinking about selling the 3gb and getting 2x2gb memory sticks and have the room left over for later. I know that getting 8gb on windows vista 32bit is kinda pointless since it won't really utilize it. But I would still like to have the option available in case I go up to a 64bit OS later. So.. I should be ok if I get the 2x2gb memory right?

 

[larvi]

I have a ram question. I saw this add on newegg for 4gb(2x2gb) for 50 something dollars. I went to check my manufacturers website to see what type of ram I have and I saw something that kinda bugged me. They way they worded it.. it seemed like my pc only supports 2gb memory sticks if its running with a 64bit OS. My pc has 3gb of ram but it uses up all the slots! I was thinking about selling the 3gb and getting 2x2gb memory sticks and have the room left over for later. I know that getting 8gb on windows vista 32bit is kinda pointless since it won't really utilize it. But I would still like to have the option available in case I go up to a 64bit OS later. So.. I should be ok if I get the 2x2gb memory right?

Personally I think it's a waste, DDR2 memory prices have been falling and should continue to fall for the near future. So chances are, if and when you do go to a 64bit OS it should be cheaper and a 32bit OS isn't going to be able use much more than 3GB. In fact I just picked up 4Gb (2x2) Ram for my Vista 64 machine for $19.99 after rebate so $50 isn't even that great of a deal unless it's super high performance ram and you are planning on overclocking.

 

[rc213]

Finally done, Had to put in some plastic motherboard standoffs because it's shorter than my last board. Only thing left for now is to replace that black Antec fan which completely sucks.


So glad to be done with the hell that was nForce 4!!! DIE NVIDIA!

 

[Zzoram]

Even funnier, I unchecked the option on two consecutive occasions, and it still put the WoW trial on the desktop.

Actually it just puts a shortcut to download the WoW trial if you say you don't want it. That's easy enough to remove. ATI and Blizzard signed a deal not too long ago, so that's probably why ATI drivers advertise WoW, and Battle.net banner ads show ATI cards. Hopefully it also means that ATI cards will work perfectly with Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3.

 

[Zzoram]

Finally done, Had to put in some plastic motherboard standoffs because it's shorter than my last board. Only thing left for now is to replace that black Antec fan which completely sucks.


So glad to be done with the hell that was nForce 4!!! DIE NVIDIA!

So wait, what are you specs again? I keep forgetting everyone's specs, we need them in a sig. Everyone on GAF should have a sig with PSN/Gamertag/Friend Code/Steam/PC Specs

 

[Chiggs]

Actually it just puts a shortcut to download the WoW trial if you say you don't want it. That's easy enough to remove. ATI and Blizzard signed a deal not too long ago, so that's probably why ATI drivers advertise WoW, and Battle.net banner ads show ATI cards. Hopefully it also means that ATI cards will work perfectly with Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3.

Incredibly smart deal for them because Diablo 3/Starcraft 2 are going to be so huge they'll redefine huge. I just wish they didn't put shit like that in their drivers. Same with Nvidia and Valve.

 

[rc213]

So wait, what are you specs again? I keep forgetting everyone's specs, we need them in a sig. Everyone on GAF should have a sig with PSN/Gamertag/Friend Code/Steam/PC Specs

Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Gigabyte HD 3450 (Passive Cooling)
Kingston 4GB DDR2 800mhz


Everything else was carried over from my old pc. Antec P180, Antec SP-500w PSU, Samsung SATA DVD-+RW, 2x WD 250GB SATA HDD.

 

[Kadey]

Got my mini today. Spicing it up with games and programs. Yay!!!

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Gigabyte HD 3450 (Passive Cooling)
Kingston 4GB DDR2 800mhz


Everything else was carried over from my old pc. Antec P180, Antec SP-500w PSU, Samsung SATA DVD-+RW, 2x WD 250GB SATA HDD.

Case is begging for some GTX280/4870 love.

 

[rc213]

Case is begging for some GTX280/4870 love.

That is next, Just had to jump on the chance to upgrade when I was asked to build a super cheap for a friends kids.





I got a second fan port that has the PWN function, Is it worth getting a PWN fan?

 

[chespace]

Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Gigabyte HD 3450 (Passive Cooling)
Kingston 4GB DDR2 800mhz


Everything else was carried over from my old pc. Antec P180, Antec SP-500w PSU, Samsung SATA DVD-+RW, 2x WD 250GB SATA HDD.

You got room in there for a 4870x2. Do it.

 

[CTLance]

Haha wow you are madder about ccc.exe than I was.
Though the installer does give you the option to not put the Wow trial on your computer. That doesnt excuse its absolute shittyness.

I wasn't aware that I'd need to disable adware at the time, so I just chose Express setup. I mean, I run into shitty driver installers from time to time, but dagnabbit, this is ATi we're talking about. ATi. Not some chinese startup with three kids on an assembly line and one guy writing the software in Visual Basic. ATi. Like in, not NVidia ATi. It simply blew my mind when I encountered that I had been "betrayed" like that.

First the damn Installer barfs up a plethora of errors, then I find a WoW setup file on my desktop. After that, the kick in the nads with the still unusable CCC. I'll admit I was naive, but still... ATi. This is Nintendo levels of customer depreciation.

I didn't run into a single hitch otherwise. Everything else went swimmingly. Which makes ATis shortcoming all the more severe in my eyes.

I pray to god I'll never meet whoever thought of (/designed) that double abortion of an installer and control panel. On second thought, there's not a single judge that would convict me.

 

[VictimOfGrief]

That is next, Just had to jump on the chance to upgrade when I was asked to build a super cheap for a friends kids.





I got a second fan port that has the PWN function, Is it worth getting a PWN fan?

Depends on if you want the extra noise I suppose.... other than that, doesn't hurt.

You got room in there for a 4870x2. Do it.

All depends on his resolution. I plan on upgrading to a 22" from my 19" here in Feb/Mar time frame and am planning on getting the next NV card after the 280 for my needs. The X2 cards are nice but if you game below 1680x1050, there's no point.

 

[TheWolf]

that pic really makes me want to clean up my wires...

 

[godhandiscen]

You got room in there for a 4870x2. Do it.

The 4870x2 isn't the answer to everything.

 

[DarthWoo]

Finally got around to DLing and trying the Crysis demo. Game looks damn pretty even on 1280x960 with just high (wouldn't let me try very high) settings and 4x AA. Ran pretty smoothly too, although it did have some slowdown near the end whenever the cinematic pointed my view toward the frozen boat. My CPU didn't even get too hot running it, or at least RealTemp says it was at 31C right after exiting.

Am I the only one who tried swimming out to the cruiser only to get blown up?

 

[careful]

OK, I'm looking for a good PC gamepad to play the odd console port. The 360 pad would seem like a logical choice, but the shitty d-pad kinda ruins it. What's a good pad that's exactly like the 360 pad but with a decent d-pad? Is there a way to hookup a dualshock 3 if I'm running XP?

 

[Hazaro]

OK, I'm looking for a good PC gamepad to play the odd console port. The 360 pad would seem like a logical choice, but the shitty d-pad kinda ruins it. What's a good pad that's exactly like the 360 pad but with a decent d-pad? Is there a way to hookup a dualshock 3 if I'm running XP?

Yes, I've done it before with Joy2Key like a year ago.

There's probably something better now.

Finally got around to DLing and trying the Crysis demo. Game looks damn pretty even on 1280x960 with just high (wouldn't let me try very high) settings and 4x AA. Ran pretty smoothly too, although it did have some slowdown near the end whenever the cinematic pointed my view toward the frozen boat. My CPU didn't even get too hot running it, or at least RealTemp says it was at 31C right after exiting.

Am I the only one who tried swimming out to the cruiser only to get blown up?

CPU temp can drop 30C in 2 seconds, so that's not really a good indication.

Getting nuked by cruisers and eaten by sharks is always fun.

 

[SapientWolf]

OK, I'm looking for a good PC gamepad to play the odd console port. The 360 pad would seem like a logical choice, but the shitty d-pad kinda ruins it. What's a good pad that's exactly like the 360 pad but with a decent d-pad? Is there a way to hookup a dualshock 3 if I'm running XP?

I'm going to go against popular opinion and say that I've used some XBox 360 controllers with decent d-pads. Not all of them are good, but I think the wired PC branded ones may be a little better. You can't really go wrong with either one. First party gamepads have excellent build quality.

 

[godhandiscen]

OK, I'm looking for a good PC gamepad to play the odd console port. The 360 pad would seem like a logical choice, but the shitty d-pad kinda ruins it. What's a good pad that's exactly like the 360 pad but with a decent d-pad? Is there a way to hookup a dualshock 3 if I'm running XP?

I don't know of a PC game for which you will use the dpad constantly. Get the wired 360 controller. It is awesome. The wireless+dongle solution sucks.

 

[Hazaro]

I don't know of a PC game for which you will use the dpad constantly. Get the wired 360 controller. It is awesome. The wireless+dongle solution sucks.

Cheap too. I prefer it over the DS3.

Having the buttons mapped helps on a lot of games too.

 

[rc213]

that pic really makes me want to clean up my wires...

Yeah, I kind of went overboard on that part of my rebuild. I was constantly undoing everything when I found a better way to wire something half way through.


By the way, Anyone here connected the front panel audio ports from their board to their case?

 

[Hazaro]

Yeah, I kind of went overboard on that part of my rebuild. I was constantly undoing everything when I found a better way to wire something half way through.


By the way, Anyone here connected the front panel audio ports from their board to their case?

I had them hooked up before my onboard started clicking and wheezing at me.
Picked up a AV-710

Worked fine for me before it was pooped out, what's up?

 

[rc213]

I had them hooked up before my onboard started clicking and wheezing at me.
Picked up a AV-710

Worked fine for me before it was pooped out, what's up?

Thanks for the offer but I got it up and running. Seems almost every complaint about P180 HD Audio front panel connector was fixed with v1.1 case which is what I have. They added a Intel HD Audio compliant connector to the v1.1 along with all the other fixes. This case turned out to be a even better than deal than I originally thought for $50.

Even the auto-sensing and cut-off works!

 

[Chiggs]

I can't get over the performance I'm getting with my new 9800GX2. For all the crap I've heard about how awful the drivers are and how terrible the microstuttering is, I have seen nothing but flawless performance in my games. (using the 178.24 drivers) I can, on average, run Crysis about 7-8 fps faster than my old 1 GB 4870 at the same resolution and same settings.

A 7-8 fps gain in Crysis is nothing to sneeze at. In any other game, yes.

 

[kakashi08]

Ok, ive got a problem. This is my first time building a pc. Everything is connect (wires). So when i press the power button on the case, the fans spin for half a second and then theirs nothing. nothing happens. Wont turn on at all. There is a green light also when i turn on the psu. Im sure everything is connected correctly. I called the tec support for the motherboard and told them. They said to put electric tape between the case and the motherboard. Should i try that?

 

[rc213]

Ok, ive got a problem. This is my first time building a pc. Everything is connect (wires). So when i press the power button on the case, the fans spin for half a second and then theirs nothing. nothing happens. Wont turn on at all. There is a green light also when i turn on the psu. Im sure everything is connected correctly. I called the tec support for the motherboard and told them. They said to put electric tape between the case and the motherboard. Should i try that?

What are you specs? Check that the CPU Heatsink/Fan is properly seated. Did you plug in the 4pin ATX12v/8pin EPS12v is connected to your motherboard.

 

[Cheeto]

Ok, ive got a problem. This is my first time building a pc. Everything is connect (wires). So when i press the power button on the case, the fans spin for half a second and then theirs nothing. nothing happens. Wont turn on at all. There is a green light also when i turn on the psu. Im sure everything is connected correctly. I called the tec support for the motherboard and told them. They said to put electric tape between the case and the motherboard. Should i try that?

Electrical tape would prevent a short, which would cause your machine to not power on at all. You're describing an automatic shut off if the CPU fans aren't connected. I would check your motherboard manual and make sure that you have CPU fan 0 or 1 whichever is the lowest plugged in... You may have plugged the CPU fan into a power slot, but not the one that is checked at startup.

 

[VaLiancY]

Finally done, Had to put in some plastic motherboard standoffs because it's shorter than my last board. Only thing left for now is to replace that black Antec fan which completely sucks.


So glad to be done with the hell that was nForce 4!!! DIE NVIDIA!

So clean.

 

[bigGIRLSblouse]

I hope it is ok if I ask it here.. I do not want to create a new thread. I am looking at getting into PC gaming but I also do not want to spend more than $1000. Not sure if I want to build another PC ( I built one a few years ago for every day tasks, not gaming). I was looking around at some pre-built ones and found the one below. Could any of you who are PC experts let me know if this PC would do the job for most games and allow me to expand and play future games.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9023022&type=product&id=1218009477085

Any input would be great... I looked at many PC forums and few if anyone were willing to help.

Thanks

 

[fatigues_gasolini]

I hope it is ok if I ask it here.. I do not want to create a new thread. I am looking at getting into PC gaming but I also do not want to spend more than $1000. Not sure if I want to build another PC ( I built one a few years ago for every day tasks, not gaming). I was looking around at some pre-built ones and found the one below. Could any of you who are PC experts let me know if this PC would do the job for most games and allow me to expand and play future games.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9023022&type=product&id=1218009477085

Any input would be great... I looked at many PC forums and few if anyone were willing to help.

Thanks

It looks like a pretty good system. I was worried they would give you a 32bit OS with 8GB of ram. Im gonna say what everyone else is gonna say: "Building it yourself would be cheaper, and net you a better computer"

 

[Cheeto]

I hope it is ok if I ask it here.. I do not want to create a new thread. I am looking at getting into PC gaming but I also do not want to spend more than $1000. Not sure if I want to build another PC ( I built one a few years ago for every day tasks, not gaming). I was looking around at some pre-built ones and found the one below. Could any of you who are PC experts let me know if this PC would do the job for most games and allow me to expand and play future games.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9023022&type=product&id=1218009477085

Any input would be great... I looked at many PC forums and few if anyone were willing to help.

Thanks

The graphics card is not really good. It should play most games at medium or so, but you should look at upgrading that.

 

[Hazaro]

I hope it is ok if I ask it here.. I do not want to create a new thread. I am looking at getting into PC gaming but I also do not want to spend more than $1000. Not sure if I want to build another PC ( I built one a few years ago for every day tasks, not gaming). I was looking around at some pre-built ones and found the one below. Could any of you who are PC experts let me know if this PC would do the job for most games and allow me to expand and play future games.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9023022&type=product&id=1218009477085

Any input would be great... I looked at many PC forums and few if anyone were willing to help.

Thanks

ATI RADEON HD 3650 graphics

You'll have to swap out a card, maybe a better power supply, but otherwise it's fine.

A better option (imo) is to buy a prebuilt from Dell and put in a 8800GT/9800GT/3870 since Dell PSU's can power those. Will be cheaper and you'll get a nice monitor too.

 

[rc213]

NoOoooOoooOOoOooOOo!

Looks like the internal fan on my Antec SP-500 bit the big one. I actually think it's been dead for a while I just never noticed. =X

Don't want to risk my beautiful new hardware so I ordered a Antec Earthwatts EA650 PSU from newegg. Apparently it's a Delta built PSU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015

Review says it's a steal at $65!!!

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=110

 

[Gully State]

I hope it is ok if I ask it here.. I do not want to create a new thread. I am looking at getting into PC gaming but I also do not want to spend more than $1000. Not sure if I want to build another PC ( I built one a few years ago for every day tasks, not gaming). I was looking around at some pre-built ones and found the one below. Could any of you who are PC experts let me know if this PC would do the job for most games and allow me to expand and play future games.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9023022&type=product&id=1218009477085

Any input would be great... I looked at many PC forums and few if anyone were willing to help.

Thanks

The video card on that one isn't really optimized for gaming. I highly recommend building one if your budget is below $1000. You can build a high end rig with $1000. I myself overhauled my on computer for $550 (Power supply, CPU, videocard, MOBO, and RAM). You can get a case/HDD/DVD-ROM and OS for under $450 easily if you're willing to shop around.

 

[Chiggs]

Badass! The factory recertified EVGA 9800GX2 I bought from NewEgg for $219.99 turned out to be their SSC version which is the fastest 9800GX2 out there. Clocks are 75mhz higher, shader is 174mhz higher, and the ram is 100mhz higher.

 

[kakashi08]

yessss. my pc know working.just build my own.

e8500
4gb
4870 1gb powercolor

ok, know the problem (lol) is that i installed bf2 and it starts, but when the map is loading the computer shuts down. i updated the catalyst drivers from the ati website. but you think its the fan speed? how do i set the fan speed.???

 

[chespace]

The 4870x2 isn't the answer to everything.

No, of course it isn't if your PSU, mobo, or CPU can't handle it.

But for those who meet the requirements, why wouldn't it be the answer?

 

[Cheeto]

Badass! The factory recertified EVGA 9800GX2 I bought from NewEgg for $219.99 turned out to be their SSC version which is the fastest 9800GX2 out there. Clocks are 75mhz higher, shader is 174mhz higher, and the ram is 100mhz higher.

Where does that card stand in the scheme of things...between 4850, 4870, 260, 280??

 

[Chiggs]

Where does that card stand in the scheme of things...between 4850, 4870, 260, 280??

Equal to or greater than the 280, but that's not to say the 280 is without its advantages.

 

[Cheeto]

Equal to or greater than the 280, but that's not to say the 280 is without its advantages.

Hmm...I see that they still have the $220 recert on NewEgg...very tempting. Do they have the power adaptor on newegg or did your supply have the right connection?

 

[chespace]

Equal to or greater than the 280, but that's not to say the 280 is without its advantages.

Greater than a GTX280 at that price??

Wow. That is a steal.

 

[Chiggs]

Hmm...I see that they still have the $220 recert on NewEgg...very tempting. Do they have the power adaptor on newegg or did your supply have the right connection?

My power supply had the connection, but you can find them on New Egg for cheap.

 

[Zzoram]

Greater than a GTX280 at that price??

Wow. That is a steal.

The 9800GX2 has impressive average framerates, but it has lower minimums.

 

[Chiggs]

The 9800GX2 has impressive average framerates, but it has lower minimums.

It's also the biggest and heaviest card I've ever seen or held. Gotta say, I like the enclosed style of Nvidia cards. You can handle them without feeling scared you're gonna screw something up.