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Official 2008 "I Need A New PC" Thread

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Hajaz said:
Cooler is a Tuniq Tower actually
and its a new cpu... voltage limits are going to be different from c2d

82658442sn5.png


temps look good

>Suicide Air
>Voltage requirements go DOWN as nm shrinks, so no
>1M doesn't get hot, those are basically idle temps

I'd put my money on 3.6/3.8 daily
 
Quick question for the PC experts:

I've been having a really hard time getting my mouse to feel right while playing Left 4 Dead. It feels jumpy, unpredictable. Not smooth. I thought it might be a performance problem, so I drastically lowered the resolution. No change.

I have a decent mouse, one of those newish MS Sidewinders.

Would using a mouse pad make a big difference? I usually use my mouse right on the desk (and it never seemed to bother me in Team Fortress 2).

Any other suggestions?
 

ghst

thanks for the laugh
Robert Ashley said:
Quick question for the PC experts:

I've been having a really hard time getting my mouse to feel right while playing Left 4 Dead. It feels jumpy, unpredictable. Not smooth. I thought it might be a performance problem, so I drastically lowered the resolution. No change.

I have a decent mouse, one of those newish MS Sidewinders.

Would using a mouse pad make a big difference? I usually use my mouse right on the desk (and it never seemed to bother me in Team Fortress 2).

Any other suggestions?

turn v-sync off!
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
brain_stew said:
Yixian change your CPU cooler to the Akasa 965, its easily the best budget cooler around and I can't recommend it enough. You're going to get nowhere trying to OC on that other cooler, it'll be the best £10 you've ever spent, it can outperform coolers 2-3x its price:

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=535&pageid=4

Also rebranded under newegg as their "Rosewill" coolers.

Top budget coolers.

ghst said:
turn v-sync off!

I actually found it smooth with it on, and I almost never use v-sync
 

Blizzard

Banned
Hazaro said:
Also rebranded under newegg as their "Rosewill" coolers.

Top budget coolers.



I actually found it smooth with it on, and I almost never use v-sync

Since Hazaro complained about me spamming the PC thread, I'm going to have to do it again (just kidding).

I am curious about vsync, though. Playing with a 60Hz 1680x1050 Acer LCD monitor, I fired up something like Portal without vsync, and had HORRIBLE (what I assume to be) screen tearing. Like parts of the screen would jump around, or split in half, etc. I seem to recall the fps being 80-200 or so, depending on where you were.

Then I turned on vsync and everything became incredibly smooth and fine. What kind of problems do you get turning vsync on? Is it only a problem if your computer can't handle the game at 60 fps?
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Blizzard said:
Since Hazaro complained about me spamming the PC thread, I'm going to have to do it again (just kidding).

I am curious about vsync, though. Playing with a 60Hz 1680x1050 Acer LCD monitor, I fired up something like Portal without vsync, and had HORRIBLE (what I assume to be) screen tearing. Like parts of the screen would jump around, or split in half, etc. I seem to recall the fps being 80-200 or so, depending on where you were.

Then I turned on vsync and everything became incredibly smooth and fine. What kind of problems do you get turning vsync on? Is it only a problem if your computer can't handle the game at 60 fps?

vsync give you full frames while with it off it lets the information run rampant and you get tearing.

However, it also gives faster responses so if you feel any sort of lag using vsync (Mainly in fast paced games) then it might be better to turn it off.

I didn't complain, just mentioned it
redface.gif
 

bee

Member
Hazaro said:
I actually found it smooth with it on, and I almost never use v-sync

i don't :S left4dead is almost a twitch shooter, feels horrible with vsync on, turning it off got rid of the imprecise laggy feeling for me

try cl_showfps 2 see what fps your getting
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
bee said:
i don't :S left4dead is almost a twitch shooter, feels horrible with vsync on, turning it off got rid of the imprecise laggy feeling for me

try cl_showfps 2 see what fps your getting

Capped at 60 all the time of course. When I hit fraps it can dip down to 45-60, but mostly 60.

I'll try it off, but I haven't had any issue at all.
 
ghst said:
turn v-sync off!

Never!!

Download Rivatuner and set D3DOverrider to run at startup and get the exact same performance as no v-sync, without the tearing. It only costs ~10MB+ of VRAM (depending on resolution), so long as you have it spare there will be no performance hit at all, and no game destroying tearing. This isn't console gaming folks, there's no need to be dealing with tearing.
 
Once I get more serious about this, I'll probably jump over to a more PC-centric forum in order to get more detailed advice, but for now I'd appreciate it if someone could take a look at this tentative setup and point out any red flags:


Right away, is there any bottlenecking happening in this setup? I'm worried about the 4850 being held back by the processor. With this mobo and this RAM, is there room for overclocking the E7300 without the need for expensive cooling? Down the road I can buy another 2x1GB kit to get me up to 4GB of RAM (the mobo has four slots), but 2GB will get me through the latest games playing on XP, right? The last couple Western Digital drives I've owned have gone kaput, please tell me Seagate is more reliable.
 
BrodiemanTTR said:
Once I get more serious about this, I'll probably jump over to a more PC-centric forum in order to get more detailed advice, but for now I'd appreciate it if someone could take a look at this tentative setup and point out any red flags:



Right away, is there any bottlenecking happening in this setup? I'm worried about the 4850 being held back by the processor. With this mobo and this RAM, is there room for overclocking the E7300 without the need for expensive cooling? Down the road I can buy another 2x1GB kit to get me up to 4GB of RAM (the mobo has four slots), but 2GB will get me through the latest games playing on XP, right? The last couple Western Digital drives I've owned have gone kaput, please tell me Seagate is more reliable.

2GB is fine for XP gaming but honestly, Vista 64 is a much better operating system and it will fly with 4GB, I've just made the upgrade and I don't regret it one bit. Superfetch really makes a world of difference to performance when you have 4GB+, XP feels so archaic in comparison. I'm not sure about in the US but over here as a student, I was able to get a copy of Vista Ultimate X64 cheap as chips through Microsoft's Ultimate Steal initiative, if you qualify for a similar plan in the US, then you'd be crazy not to take advantage of it.

800mhz RAM is fine unless you want to achieve a crazy 4.4ghz+ clock or something on that E7200. So why not spend a mere $15 and get this 4GB G Skill set, it means that you have the option of 8GB later on if its ever needed and will also improve performance right now (especially if you plan to use Vista at some point).

I wouldn't be too confident with that Biostar motherboard, spend a little extra and get the Gigabyte P43-DS3L would be my vote, an excellent motherboard, for a very reasonable price, can't recommend it enough.

640GB drives are faster than their 500GB counterparts due to the higher density, not essential really but worth knowing, given the very small price difference, heck given that pretty much the fastest drive on the market has twice the space of that 500GB drive and is still a very reasonable $115 its worth looking into. I've just ordered one of those myself, easily the best HDDs on the market atm.

Given its basically the same price I'd probably take the Corsair 450w PSU instead but the one you chose is fine.

Oh, and pick up a $20 Rosewill CPU cooler while you're on, it'll mean that E7200 will be able to manage some very serious overclocks but even if you don't plan on going that route its a sound investment anyway. Heck given you'll be able to get an OEM CPU you might not be paying much more anyway.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
BrodiemanTTR said:
Once I get more serious about this, I'll probably jump over to a more PC-centric forum in order to get more detailed advice, but for now I'd appreciate it if someone could take a look at this tentative setup and point out any red flags:



Right away, is there any bottlenecking happening in this setup? I'm worried about the 4850 being held back by the processor. With this mobo and this RAM, is there room for overclocking the E7300 without the need for expensive cooling? Down the road I can buy another 2x1GB kit to get me up to 4GB of RAM (the mobo has four slots), but 2GB will get me through the latest games playing on XP, right? The last couple Western Digital drives I've owned have gone kaput, please tell me Seagate is more reliable.

Personally prefer the WD6400AAKS, but if you are hesitant go for the 750GB version of Seagate.
Get 4GB of RAM for $50: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122
Get a E7200 if you are going to OC, if not, just get an E8400.

Not sure about the PSU quality, you might want to check that out.

Not a fan of the Biostar's either, I'd get a Gigabyte board:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128347
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128345

*Edit :lol :lol
I was even going to say the Corsair 450w, but I refrained :lol
 
Hazaro said:
Personally prefer the WD6400AAKS, but if you are hesitant go for the 750GB version of Seagate.
Get 4GB of RAM for $50: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122
Get a E7200 if you are going to OC, if not, just get an E8400.

Not sure about the PSU quality, you might want to check that out.

Not a fan of the Biostar's either, I'd get a Gigabyte board:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128347
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128345

Great minds think alike, ;)

I didn't realise how cheap the DS3L was over in the US, its a no brainer at that price.
 
Wow, spooky. One question: the Gigabyte board requires a 24-pin power connection. The selection of 24-pin PSUs seems pretty slim. Does a 20+4-pin connector (which the Corsair 450w has) work with a 24-pin motherboard?
 
BrodiemanTTR said:
Wow, spooky. One question: the Gigabyte board requires a 24-pin power connection. The selection of 24-pin PSUs seems pretty slim. Does a 20+4-pin connector (which the Corsair 450w has) work with a 24-pin motherboard?

Yes, any modern PSU will be fine.
 
I know you both recommended the Corsair 450w, but while taking a look at the WD6400AAKS drive you recommended, Hazaro, I saw a combo deal for a 500w OCZ PSU that can save me about $40. I've taken a look at reviews for PSUs in the ModXStream family rated at other wattages and they were very positive. Is the Corsair so vastly superior or can I save some money on the OCZ?
 
BrodiemanTTR said:
I know you both recommended the Corsair 450w, but while taking a look at the WD6400AAKS drive you recommended, Hazaro, I saw a combo deal for a 500w OCZ PSU that can save me about $40. I've taken a look at reviews for PSUs in the ModXStream family rated at other wattages and they were very positive. Is the Corsair so vastly superior or can I save some money on the OCZ?

That looks a very nice deal you've got there, go for it. That OCZ PSU has 432w on its 12V rails which is more than enough for absolutely any single GPU rig out there and it would even run a good many multi GPU setups just fine.

Edit: $90 after rebate?! Hot damn, I'd recommend that to most any GAFer, you're getting two high quality components for a little more than you'd expect to pay for one of them, that's too good to ignore. Excellent find.
 

LordK

Member
Okay guys.

I just ordered my gtx 260 core 216 OC. But that's not why I'm posting.

Recently I was screwing around with desktop monitor (1680x1050 res) and my HDTV (1920x1080 res). I was dual monitoring them and trying to sent out a massive resolution that my desktop monitor couldn't handle. Due to the fact that I could dual monitor them, I was able to pass a 1920x1080 signal to my desktop monitor. Then, I could only see 1680x1050 of the 1920x1080 and as I dragged my mouse to the edges of the monitor, the window would scroll so I could see the portions I was missing.

Now, my question is can I force a ridiculous resolution (say something fitting of 30 inch res... whatever that is... 2560x?) onto my desktop monitor and get the "scrolling effect" where the monitor gives me 1680x1050 res of whatever res I pass it and I can use my mouse to scroll to each side to see the rest of the passed in res. I'd like to do this without having to have a 30 inch monitor around. :p I've tried having nvidia force 1920x1080 on my desktop monitor which it attempts to do... but isn't successful. I'm thinking there has to be a way to pass my monitor something greater than it's native resolution and get my monitor to only show part of what's passed to it at any given time.

The reason I wanna do this is because I'm a capture whore. I wanna see what shit can look like at the max. So I'd like to run a game at a crazy resolution with everything cranked up... cap it and just take a look at it. I like being impressed. Of course it's not playable in this form much less will my future computer even run it well. But I like to see what's possible.


Thanks!
 

Broseybrose

Member
copybeaver said:
Okay guys.

I just ordered my gtx 260 core 216 OC. But that's now why I'm posting.

Recently I was screwing around with desktop monitor (1680x1050 res) and my HDTV (1920x1080 res). I was dual monitoring them and trying to sent out a massive resolution that my desktop monitor couldn't handle. Due to the fact that I could dual monitor them, I was able to pass a 1920x1080 signal to my desktop monitor. Then, I could only see 1680x1050 of the 1920x1080 and as I dragged my mouse to the edges of the monitor, the window would scroll so I could see the portions I was missing.

Now, my question is can I force a ridiculous resolution (say something fitting of 30 inch res... whatever that is... 2560x?) onto my desktop monitor and get the "scrolling effect" where the monitor gives me 1680x1050 res of whatever res I pass it and I can use my mouse to scroll to each side to see the rest of the passed in res. I'd like to do this without having to have a 30 inch monitor around. :p I've tried having nvidia force 1920x1080 on my desktop monitor which it attempts to do... but isn't successful. I'm thinking there has to be a way to pass my monitor something greater than it's native resolution and get my monitor to only show part of what's passed to it at any given time.

The reason I wanna do this is because I'm a capture whore. I wanna see what shit can look like at the max. So I'd like to run a game at a crazy resolution with everything cranked up... cap it and just take a look at it. I like being impressed. Of course it's not playable in this form much less will my future computer even run it well. But I like to see what's possible.


Thanks!
i dont know of any particular way of doing what you suggest. but i can tell you that 1920 is plenty of screen real estate to ogle (and PLAYABLE TOO).
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
copybeaver said:
Then, I could only see 1680x1050 of the 1920x1080 and as I dragged my mouse to the edges of the monitor, the window would scroll so I could see the portions I was missing.

The reason I wanna do this is because I'm a capture whore. I wanna see what shit can look like at the max. So I'd like to run a game at a crazy resolution with everything cranked up... cap it and just take a look at it. I like being impressed. Of course it's not playable in this form much less will my future computer even run it well. But I like to see what's possible.

Thanks!

I have never heard of that. Also you are kind of crazy. :lol
I only did it for Crysis once, but all the extra pixels you are shoving is just additional view area which looks a little better if scaled down.
 

LordK

Member
Broseybrose said:
i dont know of any particular way of doing what you suggest. but i can tell you that 1920 is plenty of screen real estate to ogle (and PLAYABLE TOO).

1920 is absolutely a nice amount of real estate which is why I won't get butt hurt if I can't do what I'm trying to do. I certainly won't game in something like 2560xwhatever on a 1680x1050 monitor since like I could only see part of the screen. :lol

I'd just like to think there was a way to cap something at any res I want despite my lcd's native resolution.

Hazaro said:
I have never heard of that. Also you are kind of crazy. :lol
I only did it for Crysis once, but all the extra pixels you are shoving is just additional view area which looks a little better if scaled down.

I know I'm crazy. :lol

I'm certainly not gonna be scaling it down. I'm gonna just be panning over the image in Photoshop admiring that I have a huge ass resolution image. :D
 

zoku88

Member
JSnake said:
Hey guys, I think I have a bit of a problem. Basically I feel I'm getting worse performance than my system is capable of. I asked the [H] forum so I'm just gonna link to the thread I made there.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1363548
You said that the processor was the same as yours, but what about the RAM configuration. How much RAM do you have?

Any background processes running?

Did you build your computer yourself or wasi premade? The windows installation may suck.
 

JSnake

Member
zoku88 said:
You said that the processor was the same as yours, but what about the RAM configuration. How much RAM do you have?

Any background processes running?

Did you build your computer yourself or wasi premade? The windows installation may suck.

Specs are in my [H] sig. I also posted my 3DMarks score in the posts after the OP, just in case you were wondering.

re: background processes. yes, but none that suck up too much resources.

Premade, but they installed a clean Windows at my request. To make sure, I reinstalled Windows when I got the computer.
 

zoku88

Member
JSnake said:
Specs are in my [H] sig. I also posted my 3DMarks score in the posts after the OP, just in case you were wondering.

re: background processes. yes, but none that suck up too much resources.

Premade, but they installed a clean Windows at my request. To make sure, I reinstalled Windows when I got the computer.
This is a long shot, but you might as well check how much RAM is being taken up when you play the game.
 

zoku88

Member
JSnake said:
I do. Typically less than 70%. When playing something like Crysis, it can go to 80 - 90%.
How about chhecking the amount of hard faults you get when playing the games (although, I'm guessing taht alt+tabbing would increase the number of hard faults.)
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
You... don't run 06 in 720 resolution.

1280x1024 is standard. If you are only getting that low in 720 res...

8800GT gets ~13k with that set-up and the 4850 is faster than that.

*I think you already checked this, but your 4850 is plugged in right? Maybe try another 6 pin if you have it. Also check the clocks while playing, or see the log with Rivatuner.

What Mhz is it running in 3D mode?
 

ghst

thanks for the laugh
JSnake said:
I do. Typically less than 70%. When playing something like Crysis, it can go to 80 - 90%.

i'm not sure about far cry 2, but crysis used to hiccup alot for me when i was running on 2gigs of ram, since buying another 2 it runs like a slip and slide in mid january. i'm on xp32 so i realize that i'm only actually using 2.8 gigs or so, but that tiny memory boost was enough to accommodate crysis' needs which were apparently lacking.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
ghst said:
i'm not sure about far cry 2, but crysis used to hiccup alot for me when i was running on 2gigs of ram, since buying another 2 it runs like a slip and slide in mid january. i'm on xp32 so i realize that i'm only actually using 2.8 gigs or so, but that tiny memory boost was enough to accommodate crysis' needs which were apparently lacking.

Crysis work perfectly with 2GB for me, iirc it only used a max of 1.3GB
The 512MB on my 8800GT did cause the frames to choke once in a while though.
 

zoku88

Member
Does anybody know any good HDD diagnostic tools? I think there might be a problem with mine, but I'm not sure. (I've been having freezing problems during some (steam) games. My RAM had errors, so I had that replaced, but the problems sort of persist.)


EDIT; Oh, it seems as though this new RAM is giving me problems. Any reason why this could be happening besides the RAM itself (the RAM was freshly replaced.) Like, could it be a BIOS problem (I won't explain why there could be one) or could it be something about the motherboard?
 

JSnake

Member
Hazaro said:
*I think you already checked this, but your 4850 is plugged in right? Maybe try another 6 pin if you have it. Also check the clocks while playing, or see the log with Rivatuner.

What Mhz is it running in 3D mode?

If it wasn't plugged in, I wouldn't get a display. Don't have another 6 pin.

How would I check?
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
JSnake said:
If it wasn't plugged in, I wouldn't get a display. Don't have another 6 pin.

How would I check?

Cards can draw 75W from the PCI-E slot from the motherboard, that's why if it wasn't the card wouldn't be able to go fullspeed. It would still work.

Open the case and see if there is a cable going into your 4850.

4850-card-rear.jpg


*Download RivaTuner/GPU-Z and check your speeds.
 
Are you using Vista? Far Cry 2 has a very noticeable performance boost under Directx 10 ad Vista. Go 4 gigs and Vista x64, you won't regret it, I just made the switch and there's no looing back.
 

JSnake

Member
Hazaro said:
Cards can draw 75W from the PCI-E slot from the motherboard, that's why if it wasn't the card wouldn't be able to go fullspeed. It would still work.

Open the case and see if there is a cable going into your 4850.

4850-card-rear.jpg


*Download RivaTuner/GPU-Z and check your speeds.

Yes, the cord is plugged in. In games, the clock speed is 625 for the core, and 993 for the memory.

brain_stew: Yes I am using Vista, although it's the 32-bit version.
 
Lv99 Slacker said:
Question: If I'm building a HTPC with a 5.1 speaker setup (non-pc speakers) and I'm using a receiver, getting a sound card like the HT Omega Claro Halo would be a waste if the two are connected via coaxial/optical, right? Yeah. I don't know anything about A/V hardware - just the bare minimum to operate the shit. Does the source (soundcard) matter if it's the receiver that does all of the audio processing for movies like DTS and junk? I may or may not have some incorrect presumptions on how any of this stuff works with to begin with. I have no idea. Onboard mobo audio may be sufficient for all I know :p

I use onboard S/PDIF output to my receiver and it works just fine. No need for anything else imo.
If you wan to play games you should look for an onboard chip that does DD Live or DTS Connect so that you can encode games in 5.1 on the fly for your receiver to decrypt but if not, anything with S/PDIF out will work well.
 
Askia47 said:
Im starting too look at new laptops, as my macbook pro may not last too long. id like to be able to play a good amount of games on a new laptop.


hows this one on new egg?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834147787

For games? A disaster on pretty much every level. If you want to play PC games but want a portable machine as well, then build a desktop and pick up a cheap netbook. Going the "gaming laptop" route iss never going to make you satisfied with any area of it, no matter how much you pay.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
JSnake said:
Yes, the cord is plugged in. In games, the clock speed is 625 for the core, and 993 for the memory.

brain_stew: Yes I am using Vista, although it's the 32-bit version.

Not sure...

I know it's probably been asked, but you have the most recent drivers 8.10/8.11? and amde sure they are 32-bit while you removed the older ones with driver cleaner? (If DC even works now)
 

Askia47

Member
brain_stew said:
For games? A disaster on pretty much every level. If you want to play PC games but want a portable machine as well, then build a desktop and pick up a cheap netbook. Going the "gaming laptop" route iss never going to make you satisfied with any area of it, no matter how much you pay.

hmm, a desktop isnt really in the cards at the moment. I really need something thats portable and under $1000. theres gotta be some decent mid range stuff.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Askia47 said:
hmm, a desktop isnt really in the cards at the moment. I really need something thats portable and under $1000. theres gotta be some decent mid range stuff.

Wait for a Dell deal, they have some decent sales that go up, even better scope out for Black Friday.
 

JSnake

Member
Hazaro said:
Not sure...

I know it's probably been asked, but you have the most recent drivers 8.10/8.11? and amde sure they are 32-bit while you removed the older ones with driver cleaner? (If DC even works now)

I'm using the latest hotfix driver for 8.10. I tried reinstalling using DC but still no dice. :(
 
brain_stew and Hazaro: eerily enough, both of you recommended the Gigabyte P43-DS3L and 4GB of G.SKILL DDR2 800 RAM. The DS3L's memory standard is listed as "DDR2 1200(O.C) / 1066." It's been a long time since I've messed around with RAM, but are those two compatible? Will the motherboard "come down" to the level of the RAM so to speak or do I have to go for 1066 sticks?
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
BrodiemanTTR said:
brain_stew and Hazaro: eerily enough, both of you recommended the Gigabyte P43-DS3L and 4GB of G.SKILL DDR2 800 RAM. The DS3L's memory standard is listed as "DDR2 1200(O.C) / 1066." It's been a long time since I've messed around with RAM, but are those two compatible? Will the motherboard "come down" to the level of the RAM so to speak or do I have to go for 1066 sticks?

It's all the same shit.
You only need 667.
 
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