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[Grayman]

I don't know if it would give him an error message when it came back up though.

 

[MiniDitka]

I don't know if it would give him an error message when it came back up though.

I just did a memory test and it came back fine. Hard-drive perhaps?

 

[Grayman]

If you passed memtest you should be good. I don't know about harddrive, I only had the memory example because mine went to shit a couple years ago.

 

[MiniDitka]

If you passed memtest you should be good. I don't know about harddrive, I only had the memory example because mine went to shit a couple years ago.

Maybe I'll try reinstalling windows and see if that works. Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[MWS Natural]

Anyone think its worth upgrading now or waiting for the new ATI cards to come out? What price do you think they will debut at $500+?

 

[Zombie James]

Play with your computer in Safe Mode for a few hours. If you get none of the same issues in Safe Mode, then it's most likely a bad driver.

 

[rohlfinator]

Anyone think its worth upgrading now or waiting for the new ATI cards to come out? What price do you think they will debut at $500+?

The 4800 series launched at $200, $300, and $400, so I'm hoping they'll follow roughly the same model. They seem to be sticking to a pretty similar architecture for their chips, so it seems like a good possibility.

 

[MiniDitka]

Play with your computer in Safe Mode for a few hours. If you get none of the same issues in Safe Mode, then it's most likely a bad driver.

I'll give that a try,thanks.

 

[TheRagnCajun]

Just recently upgraded:

26415 Corsair TX750W 750W ATX 12V 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 140MM

32687 NZXT Tempest EATX Mid Tower Case Black 3X5.25 1X3.5 8X3.5INT No PS Front USB Firewire Audio (Part#: Tempest)

35710 OCZ Gold OCZ3G1600LV6GK 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 CL 8-8-8-24 Triple Channel Memory Kit (Part#: OCZ3G1600LV6GK)

37088 MSI 790FX-GD70 ATX AM3 790FX DDR3 4PCI-E16 CrossFire 1PCI-E1 2PCI eSATA SATA GBLAN Motherboard (Part#: 790FX-GD70)

38047 AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Quad Core Processor AM3 3.2GHZ 8MB Cache 125W 45NM Retail Box (Part#: HDZ955FBGIBOX)

I'm keeping my 7800GT from my old rig until the next generation of videocards.
I know I splurged on the PS and Case. The PS was on sale and I know ill be sticking a monster of a videocard in there in 2 years time. The case is similar to the Antec 900 and got a great review on TomsHardware.

The ram is 'optimized' for a i7 rig, but i think some of that is just BS. Besides, it was on sale and <3 OCZ ram, I've never heard of anyone having an issue.

 

[rohlfinator]

The ram is 'optimized' for a i7 rig, but i think some of that is just BS. Besides, it was on sale and <3 OCZ ram, I've never heard of anyone having an issue.

I think they just say that because it's 3 modules to match the i7's triple-channel memory controller. The Phenom II only supports dual-channel memory. You shouldn't have any compatibility problems with it, but your processor might not be able to run all 3 modules in dual-channel mode.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Memtest86 for testing RAM. It's very accurate.

If you have multiple memory modules installed in the system, an alternative would be to remove the modules one at a time and see if the system becomes stable.

This, basically. It's a lengthy mistake I missed once - RMAed all sorts of things and eventually found out that slot 2 on my motherboard went bad. Whenever your PC is having crazy problems like this, it's a good idea to test the memory one stick at a time for a bit, because there's no easy diagnostic for the power supply.

 

[TheRagnCajun]

I think they just say that because it's 3 modules to match the i7's triple-channel memory controller. The Phenom II only supports dual-channel memory. You shouldn't have any compatibility problems with it, but your processor might not be able to run all 3 modules in dual-channel mode.

Yeah i figured as much. The voltage @1.65V is a little high for the mobo too but I should be able to get it stable.

 

[Tendo]

So I'm looking to update my graphics card from an aging 256 mb 8800. I am looking at this card. Is this a good upgrade? Am I better saving ~60 bucks and getting a 9800?

Installation wise I'm still learning. I had a pal throw together the pieces in my current rig. If I take the 8800 out and put that card in, will I need to buy any heat paste or anything, or should it come with everything ready to go. I have an antec case with lots of fans and good ventilation, and the case is huge so it won't be in close quarters with anything.

I feel like such an idiot whenever I have to ask these questions help me gaf!

EDIT: I should add, this is my mobo I see that card requires pci E 2.0. I'm assuming my mobo has it, but I'm not sure, it just says PCI-E

 

[Hazaro]

So I'm looking to update my graphics card from an aging 256 mb 8800. I am looking at this card. Is this a good upgrade? Am I better saving ~60 bucks and getting a 9800?

Installation wise I'm still learning. I had a pal throw together the pieces in my current rig. If I take the 8800 out and put that card in, will I need to buy any heat paste or anything, or should it come with everything ready to go. I have an antec case with lots of fans and good ventilation, and the case is huge so it won't be in close quarters with anything.

I feel like such an idiot whenever I have to ask these questions help me gaf!

EDIT: I should add, this is my mobo I see that card requires pci E 2.0. I'm assuming my mobo has it, but I'm not sure, it just says PCI-E

Good upgrade.

You can wait until another good sale or drop comes by and the price lowers to about $150 AR, but if you want the games included go for it. XFX also has a double lifetime warranty.

As for swapping it out, it's just replacing the card so there is nothing to worry abotu besides unplugging the power cable and swapping the cards.
PCI-E 2.0 just means it supports it, it will not matter.

What power supply do you have?

 

[Slavik81]

The ram is 'optimized' for a i7 rig, but i think some of that is just BS. Besides, it was on sale and <3 OCZ ram, I've never heard of anyone having an issue.

Look back about a page for my post.
Although, I still want to try a few more tests to figure out precisely what's wrong.

 

[Tendo]

This one.

Blerg, I see I am 10 watts below the minimum 630. I don't know much about the power side of things. Am I boned because of ten watts?

 

[Diablohead]

Everyone needs to buy the GTX 260, it's the GAF graphics card of the moment.

To add, I get my hands on my machine tomorrow, can't wait! i'm excited like a kid at christmas.

 

[Tendo]

Well it looks like a new PSU to put me above 630 is going to run me another 100 bucks. Dammit.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Everyone needs to buy the GTX 260, it's the GAF graphics card of the moment.

To add, I get my hands on my machine tomorrow, can't wait! i'm excited like a kid at christmas.

My 8800GT in sli are more powerful.

 

[Hazaro]

Well it looks like a new PSU to put me above 630 is going to run me another 100 bucks. Dammit.

Now way, that PSU will handle it easily. I am running my GTX 260 on my Corsair 520w.

That minimum is just for crummy parts that meet up to spec.

 

[peppermints]

So my brother's Macbook is on the fritz and he's looking for me to help him build a relatively cheap (sub 500) PC. He's not really looking to do any hardcore gaming on it. Nothing he couldn't do on his Macbook, except for Starcraft 2. Ever since I went to the Mac side of things I've been really out of the loop when it comes to computer hardware.

I guess my question is, what should I look for? What are some good mid-level GPUs? CPUs? Everything else I can figure out on my own, but I have no idea who's on top of things now days. The last computer I build had an Nvidia 6600GT .

Again, I'm hoping to keep this below $500.

Thanks GAF!

 

[Hazaro]

So my brother's Macbook is on the fritz and he's looking for me to help him build a relatively cheap (sub 500) PC. He's not really looking to do any hardcore gaming on it. Nothing he couldn't do on his Macbook, except for Starcraft 2. Ever since I went to the Mac side of things I've been really out of the loop when it comes to computer hardware.

I guess my question is, what should I look for? What are some good mid-level GPUs? CPUs? Everything else I can figure out on my own, but I have no idea who's on top of things now days. The last computer I build had an Nvidia 6600GT .

Again, I'm hoping to keep this below $500.

Thanks GAF!

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16721/2

Alternatively the 4770 also just came out, GTX 260 also an option, so is a small Phenom platform.

 

[Tendo]

Now way, that PSU will handle it easily. I am running my GTX 260 on my Corsair 520w.

That minimum is just for crummy parts that meet up to spec.

Thanks Haz, just ordered it. Can't wait to screw up installing it next week

 

[NinjaFridge]

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16721/2

Alternatively the 4770 also just came out, GTX 260 also an option, so is a small Phenom platform.

Have the 4770 driver problems been sorted yet?

 

[pj]

Is there any alternative to the Acer Aspire Revo for HTPC applications? I'm getting tired of waiting, but I don't want a tower in my tv area because it's crowded enough as is.

 

[gregor7777]

Have the 4770 driver problems been sorted yet?

I believe everyone is using the drivers that ship with the cards still.

Which is odd: Why doesn't ATI feel confident enought about the shipped driver to put it up on the site?

 

[gregor7777]

So, I'm giving Windows 7 RC 64 a shot and right off the bat hit a problem. Steam installs, but when I click Install game under any of my games, I get "Steam has stopped working" which shuts down the program.

Tried running in compatibility mode for Vista 64, tried running as an administer.

Anyone have this issue? I don't see anything online or in their support.

Vanilla install, updated ATi drivers, few program downloads (FF, Flash, Adobe Reader, Steam).

EDIT: arghh, found the problem. I had UAC turned off as a matter of habit. That was causing the issue. For whatever reason, Steam bombs out when I try to install any of my games unless UAC is turned on. Turning it back off and trying to install another game bombs it out as expected.

Balls. I don't want to run my PC with UAC on.

 

[asdad123]

Im getting a new PC that I will use mainly for gaming (Going to hook it up to my 42" HDTV)
Is it worth it to go with the i7 2.66GHz or should I get the Q9550 and overclock it? I will be getting a dell so it will either be the Dell XPS 435T or the XPS 630 (Which is apperently overclockabe)

 

[Diablohead]

Can you install then disable UAC?

Posting from my new pc feels so good, windows 7 rc installed and patched, sound is working, I checked the inside of my new machine and everything is there and in place, good good. New keyboard and mouse are sweet too, it's so nice to have everything super fresh and new!

I need to install steam too but first I shall give a disc install game a try, either lost planet or halo 2 so I can make sure the graphics driver (200 series win7 beta driver) is up to scratch.

wooooooooo

 

[gregor7777]

I suppose, but I have a feeling I'm going to run into issues when I go to run the games.

Plus, I don't really care to have to reboot every time I want to install a game. And I have to run with UAC off for ATT to run. Blah.

 

[squicken]

The thread seems to have more questions than answers, but I'll post mine anyway. I recently bought a PC at BB.

CPU: AMD Phenom™ X4 9100e
MOBO: AMD 780G


I'm running Vista 64. There's 4 GB of RAM installed, and I have two open slots so I can add 4 more for like $50.

Additionally, I want to upgrade my GPU and power supply. My goal/budget with the GPU is just to have a good balance with the CPU. I want it so that I'm not sitting with tons of unused GPU b/c I'm CPU bound, or vice versa.

Based on that, what is PC-GAFs recommendation?

The thing is I'm not particularly adept at such things. I know how to handle the software side, but opening the case and disconnecting stuff is a bit scary. Is it easy to swap a power supply? GPU? Should I just buy the parts and pay someone to install them? Any compatibility issues I need to know about as far as physically connecting stuff?

 

[Diablohead]

I ran the windows 7 performance assessment for my machine and everything is quite even, 6.4's and 6.3's across everything apart from HDD at 5.9

I installed Lost Planet colonies first and it runs smooth as silk with 8x aa ni 1400x900 (my native) but for some reason it's given me huge black boarders along the top and bottom which squish the image, it's not my screen doing it so I need to work out what is wrong.

Halo 2 runs great but it's rather old looking now.

Cabal Online also runs brilliantly with everything on max at 75hz vsync on, so. damn. smooth.

TF2 is downloading overnight, can't wait to play that with vsync on.

 

[Tendo]

Ok, another quick question. Isn't it true if I have 2 nvidia cards running I can use one to run as a phsyx processor? Or will I be running tight on power and room?

 

[Alf]

Alright, I need some guidance in building a cheap PC for a relative, used as a home office PC. Budget is $400-500 canadian or $350-$450 US. Uses will primarily be non-intensive in nature (internet, MS Office, tax software). Here's what I've come up with searching from a local computer shop website (bare in mind that I know very little and often chose the cheapest option):

Gigabyte GA-EG31M-ES2L $64
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 Dual Core Processor $87
Antec Three Hundred Mini Tower Gaming Case 300 $65
Seasonic M12 II 430W Power Supply $70
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB $65
Kingston HyperX PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 $62
LG GH22NS30 Black DVD+RW 22X8X16 $27
MS KB/Mouse $30
Total: $470 Cdn or about $415 US

Anything there that I can switch out for better bang for buck? Given that my relative will not be playing games or even watching movies on it, I don't think a video card is necessary. Don't need a monitor or OS. Also, is it worth the upgrade to go to a Core 2 Duo at $150? I would like to keep that soft cap of $500 but I can go bit over budget as long as it's justifiable. Any comments will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Hazaro]

Ok, another quick question. Isn't it true if I have 2 nvidia cards running I can use one to run as a phsyx processor? Or will I be running tight on power and room?

nVidia bought PhysX so recent cards will run physX auto if you enable it in the game.

If it is an older card you can, but there's really not much benefit to PhysX...

Alright, I need some guidance in building a cheap PC for a relative, used as a home office PC. Budget is $400-500 canadian or $350-$450 US. Uses will primarily be non-intensive in nature (internet, MS Office, tax software). Here's what I've come up with searching from a local computer shop website (bare in mind that I know very little and often chose the cheapest option):

Gigabyte GA-EG31M-ES2L $64
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 Dual Core Processor $87
Antec Three Hundred Mini Tower Gaming Case 300 $65
Seasonic M12 II 430W Power Supply $70
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB $65
Kingston HyperX PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 $62
LG GH22NS30 Black DVD+RW 22X8X16 $27
MS KB/Mouse $30
Total: $470 Cdn or about $415 US

Anything there that I can switch out for better bang for buck? Given that my relative will not be playing games or even watching movies on it, I don't think a video card is necessary. Don't need a monitor or OS. Also, is it worth the upgrade to go to a Core 2 Duo at $150? I would like to keep that soft cap of $500 but I can go bit over budget as long as it's justifiable. Any comments will be greatly appreciated!

If ncix has a Antec Case/PSU combo that would work well, and I would get a low end 9 or 4000 series video card to have good playback for DVD's, HD movies, HD youtube, etc, and maybe a few odd games that they might play.

 

[Tendo]

nVidia bought PhysX so recent cards will run physX auto if you enable it in the game.

If it is an older card you can, but there's really not much benefit to PhysX...

If ncix has a Antec Case/PSU combo that would work well, and I would get a low end 9 or 4000 series video card to have good playback for DVD's, HD movies, HD youtube, etc, and maybe a few odd games that they might play.

Will my 8800 GT do it? The PhysX stuff in Mirrors edge and Cryostasis look like fun to play with.

 

[rohlfinator]

Anything there that I can switch out for better bang for buck? Given that my relative will not be playing games or even watching movies on it, I don't think a video card is necessary. Don't need a monitor or OS. Also, is it worth the upgrade to go to a Core 2 Duo at $150? I would like to keep that soft cap of $500 but I can go bit over budget as long as it's justifiable. Any comments will be greatly appreciated!

The 430W power supply is probably overkill, especially with no video card. You could probably shave off $50 or so by going with a different Antec case with a built-in power supply. You might want to use a power supply calculator to figure out how much power that machine really needs (I think there's a link to one in the OP). I would think 200-250W would be plenty.

For non-intensive programs, I think the Pentium Dual Core should be plenty. Core 2 Duos only perform about 10% better at the same clock speed (IIRC), which isn't going to be noticeable during light usage.

 

[Fio]

Will my 8800 GT do it?

Yes.

 

[Alf]

If ncix has a Antec Case/PSU combo that would work well, and I would get a low end 9 or 4000 series video card to have good playback for DVD's, HD movies, HD youtube, etc, and maybe a few odd games that they might play.

Hmm on second thought, it might be worthwhile to throw in a video card primarily for HD youtube. NCIX has a Gigabyte Radeon HD4350 for $25 after $15 mail-in rebate. Is this a good buy? I'm not expecting much out of this but the price is cheap enough.

 

[Hazaro]

Hmm on second thought, it might be worthwhile to throw in a video card primarily for HD youtube. NCIX has a Gigabyte Radeon HD4350 for $25 after $15 mail-in rebate. Is this a good buy? I'm not expecting much out of this but the price is cheap enough.

Yup, any new series will do fine.

 

[gregor7777]

Just an update. Got my Steam issues sorted, then only to find out that if I'm running ATT games won't load if they're Steam based.:lol I figure it has something to do with getting ATT started with ATTLoader, but who knows.

So, I backed down to Vista 64, ran RBE, flashed the BIOS for my 4830 with the clocks I wanted (4830 @ 775/1000) uninstalled ATT, and now I'm smooth sailing.

 

[PikaBitca]

Hey there guys,

First off wanted to say that this thread is most awesome! Helped me buy a new computer and saved tons on excess stuff like a quad core and what not!

Anyway, just got a new computer with an E 8400 CPU, P5Q pro mobo, 4GB DDR2 800mhz ram, and an 4870 GPU running Windows XP SP3 connected to my Samsung plasma.

A couple of questions:

1) I'm running Crysis on high settings without a hitch, but at random times the game seems to lock up and restart the computer. I'm running the 1.2 patch of the game. It's weird because sometimes it crashes and sometimes it runs just fine. I'm wondering if there are hardware problems causing the crashes (eg I installed something wrongly and it's overheating). Any way to systematically rule this out?

2) Is there a guide out there to teach us how to overclock ram? I only bought 800mhz ones because i read somewhere that it's simple to overclock it.

 

[Bill Squabber]

I built a new PC recently.

Vista 64bit
EVGA X58 (132-BL-E758-A1)
Core i7 920
ATI Sapphire 4890
6 gigs GSkill Ram 1600
1TB WD HDD
LiteON 24x DVD Burner
Corsair 750w PSU

I have a problem and I need some help. For some reason im getting like 10fps a sec on Bioshock's lowest settings and 11fps on 3d Mark Vantage.

What could be the problem?

 

[Grayman]

I built a new PC recently.

Vista 64bit
EVGA X58 (132-BL-E758-A1)
Core i7 920
ATI Sapphire 4890
6 gigs GSkill Ram 1600
1TB WD HDD
LiteON 24x DVD Burner
Corsair 750w PSU

I have a problem and I need some help. For some reason im getting like 10fps a sec on Bioshock's lowest settings and 11fps on 3d Mark Vantage.

What could be the problem?

Did you plug the extra power plugs into your video card? my GTX260 needed 2 6 ended plugs from the PSU

 

[Bill Squabber]

Did you plug the extra power plugs into your video card? my GTX260 needed 2 6 ended plugs from the PSU

Yeah.
Could it be that one of them is broken?

 

[Timedog]

Here is my dilemma. I need something dual core because my old ass DAW music program (cubase SX3) apparently doesn't work well with intels that have more than 2 cores. I guess I could get AMD 2+ core, but that doesn't seem to be en vogue these days. I also bought a Zalman CNPS9500 cpu cooler like 2 years ago thinking I'd be buying a new computer soon, but never did. It fits these type of sockets:

All dual core cpus
All pentium 4 cpus (socket 775/478)
All AMD sempron/AMD 64 cpus (socket 754/939/940)

What is a cool cpu/motherboard I could get that is modern, but will work with my cooler and is a good bang for your buck?

I've noticed that there are some sweet intel dual cores that fit socket 775, and overclock really well, but i'm not sure if 775 is somehow way outdated, and if I should just say "fuck it" and get a motherboard with a different type of socket and buy a new cpu cooler. I don't know shit about shit.

Another question: I know Windows 7 has XP compatibility mode. I'm wondering if you can set it so that that mode only uses a certain number of cores. Like maybe I could get a quad core, run windows 7, and have the XP mode only running with 2 cores so there's no problems with my music production program.

 

[Hazaro]

Yeah.
Could it be that one of them is broken?

Use CPU-Z and GPU-Z to check that your PCI-E bandwidth is at 16x when running the games instead of 1x.

Help

775 I think will be solid for a bit. I'm going to try and hold out until after i7 with my 775 rig anyhow.

Exactly how much money would you be spending?

An E5200 or E7200 is great, but neither of them support Windows 7's XP compatability mode.

However the dualcore E8400 does, as do most Intel Quads.
Also, I'm not sure how the XP system works in Win7, but you can assign priority of programs to cores via task manager in Windows.

p.s. Did you cut yourself installing the 9500?

 

[bigswords]

I ran the windows 7 performance assessment for my machine and everything is quite even, 6.4's and 6.3's across everything apart from HDD at 5.9

I installed Lost Planet colonies first and it runs smooth as silk with 8x aa ni 1400x900 (my native) but for some reason it's given me huge black boarders along the top and bottom which squish the image, it's not my screen doing it so I need to work out what is wrong.

Halo 2 runs great but it's rather old looking now.

Cabal Online also runs brilliantly with everything on max at 75hz vsync on, so. damn. smooth.

TF2 is downloading overnight, can't wait to play that with vsync on.

For Lost Planet, look for the option aspect correction in the video options see whether that helps.

 

[Bill Squabber]

Use CPU-Z and GPU-Z to check that your PCI-E bandwidth is at 16x when running the games instead of 1x.

Yeah they say 16x.
I have reinstalled the gpu drivers about 3 times.
Should I reinstall windows? What about my motherboard drivers?

 

[Darklord]

Yeah.
Could it be that one of them is broken?

Obvious question but have you got the very latest graphics drivers? My old PC ran bioshock like a dog until I got the latest drivers, it boosted by FPS from 5 to 30.