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[ixix]

Got a question about RAID. I've never done this and I wanted to try it with some old IDE HDDs just for the hell of it (meaning I don't really mind if there is no major benefit, I just want to see if I can do it). Is it even possible to do it with IDE drives and what are the requirements for doing so?

It's possible to put IDE hard drives in RAID, but you're going to need a dedicated RAID controller card unless your motherboard happens to be one of the scant few that ever supported on-board IDE RAID. If you're just looking to mess around with RAID, something like this should do the trick for not much money. In my experience a lot of cheap add-in RAID controllers are finicky about where they are in the boot order, so you'll probably want to check to make sure a card you buy is up to whatever task you want to put it to.

 

[BigJonsson]

More a question regarding the mobo, RAM, HD and video card than the CPU

 

[MWS Natural]

There is a logical reason, I go with what I know always works which is why I'm sticking with Intel and BFG/Nvidia

:lol Surprised the thread went this long without posts like this. "ATI iz teh suxorzz NVidia rox!!11"

 

[Fredescu]

Hey guys, my 500gb sata drive got a "SMART status bad backup and replace" error. I'm wondering if any of you know what the deal is behind this. From google, it looks like drive failure is imminent, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I'm using Windows 7 and the error occurred right after I got my new firewire card and started capturing some video to the drive.

And if I have to replace the drive, anyone know of super cheap ones or even if I should move to a solid state drive since I'm tired of buying new drives. I bought this one in 2007, that's kind of recent!

SMART is built in monitoring on the drive that tries to predict failures. There's a chance it won't fail, but I wouldn't bank your data on it. If you're sick of buying drives, get a Western Digital with a 5 year warranty: http://support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp?custtype=end&lang=en . Solid state drives are a bit expensive and immature for the mainstream. They are very fast, but not really worth it unless you don't mind being on the bleeding edge. Give it a year or two.

 

[brain_stew]

More a question regarding the mobo, RAM, HD and video card than the CPU

Can all be exactly the same regardless of what CPU you choose. The motherboard you choose can be manufactured from the exact same company that manufacturers the Intel board you were planning to use, Gigabyte/Asus/DFI, they all make baords for both sockets.

 

[BigJonsson]

Can all be exactly the same regardless of what CPU you choose. The motherboard you choose can be manufactured from the exact same company that manufacturers the Intel board you were planning to use, Gigabyte/Asus/DFI, they all make baords for both sockets.

Ok so why do you think AMD is better?

 

[Fredescu]

Ok so why do you think AMD is better?

You're framing it in manufacturer terms still. It's not that AMD is better than Intel or vice versa, it's that at the price point of the E8400, the PII 720BE is better value. You get almost the same clock speed and an extra core for less (in Aus at least) money. Various processors are better value at different price points, and you're much better off evaluating the performance of a particular processor than you are the company as a whole.

 

[brain_stew]

:lol Surprised the thread went this long without posts like this. "ATI iz teh suxorzz NVidia rox!!11"

Well with video cards I can kind of understand it. I mean the drivers, control panel, extras (Physx, 3D vision etc..) are quite different, and the "consistancy" of performance is also quite different between the brands. I mean its a well known fact taht ATI make great cards for HTPCs but on the other hand CCC sucks balls and nHancer is all kinds of awesome.

But with CPUs? Yeah, there's nothing like that to differentiate the two, and hardware reliability has been beyond excellent with both for many, many years now, CPUs last a very long time no matter who makes them, the same is not always true for GPUs. In this case its just people choosing to be bad consumers.

I'll stress again I don't personally care whther you go with the Intel rig instead, but don't try and convince me its for anything other than nonsensical, and outright stupid reasons.

 

[BigJonsson]

The 8400 is 30 dollars more

 

[Fredescu]

The 8400 is 30 dollars more

With one less core and a locked multiplier.

 

[brain_stew]

Ok so why do you think AMD is better?

At your budget, you basically get an extra core for the same price. The difference in single and dual threaded applications is pretty negligable but in apps that make use of it that extra core really makes the difference. A recent in depth look into the difference multiple cores made, pretty conclusively proved that three cores is the sweet spot for a gamer right now. You get a good bump over two cores, but no loss in performance compared to quad cores.

Intel hold the performance crown with i7, but in the midrange, they have some very nice offerings, the x3 720 is an awesome little CPU, its value can't be matched by anything else out there.

Edit: $30 less? Well there you go, its pretty simple, you get more performance for less money and you're not stuck in a dead end platform with no future upgrade options. Surely spelling it out like that helps you understand why I made the comments I did earlier?

PC GAF is the king of "bang for buck" that's why the X3 720, GTX 260 (216) and now the 4770 are so championed around here so much, a lot of us appreciate getting as much for our money as we can.

 

[BigJonsson]

At your budget, you basically get an extra core for the same price. The difference in single and dual threaded applications is pretty negligable but in apps that make use of it that extra core really makes the difference. A recent in depth look into the difference multiple cores made, pretty conclusively proved that three cores is the sweet spot for a gamer right now. You get a good bump over two cores, but no loss in performance compared to quad cores.

Intel hold the performance crown with i7, but in the midrange, they have some very nice offerings, the x3 720 is an awesome little CPU, its value can't be matched by anything else out there.

Edit: $30 less? Well there you go, its pretty simple, you get more performance for less money and you're not stuck in a dead end platform with no future upgrade options. Surely spelling it out like that helps you understand why I made the comments I did earlier?

Are the motherboards the same price? Warranties the same length? Power consumption etc....

 

[brain_stew]

Are the motherboards the same price? Warranties the same length? Power consumption etc....

There's a huge choice of motherboards and chipsets to suit any budget just like socket 775, manufactured by the exact same companies that make Intel boards, so warranties are generally the same. The Phenom iis are very competitve on power consumption.

The socket you want is AM2+ or if you want to be really future proofed you could go with DDR3 memory and socket AM3.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

It's possible to put IDE hard drives in RAID, but you're going to need a dedicated RAID controller card unless your motherboard happens to be one of the scant few that ever supported on-board IDE RAID. If you're just looking to mess around with RAID, something like this should do the trick for not much money. In my experience a lot of cheap add-in RAID controllers are finicky about where they are in the boot order, so you'll probably want to check to make sure a card you buy is up to whatever task you want to put it to.

Oh, if I gotta buy something to try it then I'm not even going to bother :lol Thanks for the info anyway.

 

[Gully State]

With one less core and a locked multiplier.

I thought you can overlock an E8400 pretty high..

 

[MWS Natural]

Well with video cards I can kind of understand it. I mean the drivers, control panel, extras (Physx, 3D vision etc..) are quite different, and the "consistancy" of performance is also quite different between the brands. I mean its a well known fact taht ATI make great cards for HTPCs but on the other hand CCC sucks balls and nHancer is all kinds of awesome.

But with CPUs? Yeah, there's nothing like that to differentiate the two, and hardware reliability has been beyond excellent with both for many, many years now, CPUs last a very long time no matter who makes them, the same is not always true for GPUs. In this case its just people choosing to be bad consumers.

I'll stress again I don't personally care whther you go with the Intel rig instead, but don't try and convince me its for anything other than nonsensical, and outright stupid reasons.

Good point, I didn't mean graphics cards especially just the whole idea of company warz basically. I have no company loyalty, just whoever offers me the highest quality product for my money.

 

[Mr. Enigma]

Question. NewEgg always bundles CPUs & motherboards in their combo deals that are compatible with each other, right?

 

[mAcOdIn]

Question. NewEgg always bundles CPUs & motherboards in their combo deals that are compatible with each other, right?

I've never seen one that wasn't but they could always make an error.

Something that I have seen on newegg or really any site that sells pc stuff is that they may bundle a CPU that is technically compatible with the motherboard but the motherboard that ships is an older revision motherboard that doesn't already have the newer firmware available that would allow it to work.

Motherboards can usually be upgraded with newer firmware to allow them to accept processors that are a new core released after the motherboard but the thing is, if that firmware isn't installed on the motherboard before you put the system together and you get a motherboard with an old firmware and a new CPU that the old firmware doesn't support you won't be able to boot or update the firmware on the motherboard to get it to work. Only way to really do it would be replace the bios chip on the mobo or somehow get a hold of a processor that the older bios does support, flash the bios then install the new processor.

Edit: You should be able to email them with a question to make sure it's shipping with newer firmware if that's a problem.

 

[Mr. Enigma]

I'm worried that the bundle I'm looking at isn't compatible.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.190736

It says the HyperTransports on the CPU is 3600MHz, but the motherboard says 2600MHz (5200 MT/s). I'm not really familiar with AMD compatibility.

EDIT: AMD's compatibility website said they were compatible. That makes me feel better.

 

[mAcOdIn]

I'm worried that the bundle I'm looking at isn't compatible.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.190736

It says the HyperTransports on the CPU is 3600MHz, but the motherboard says 2600MHz (5200 MT/s). I'm not really familiar with AMD compatibility.

It should work.

Mislabeled. Hypertransport terminology is fubared IMO. It's really a 1,800 mhz hypertransport speed, possible 2,000mhz so the mobo more than handles it.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/19/4
I don't believe there is a 3,600mhz hypertransport part even on the market yet.

From Biostars website it looks like it should work as well as it's on their cpu list:
http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/t-series/cpu_support.php?S_ID=377

Only thing that gives me pause is the Bioware site says that it's for PCB revision 5 which means that there are theoretically 4 earlier versions of the same motherboard and they didn't list any compatibility for previous PCB versions. Doesn't mean much though as revisions 1-4 could have been internal revisions that were never released, really no telling.

I would assume it being a new chipset(790GX with the 750 southbridge is as new as it gets for AMD) that it's good to go out of the box, but if you wanted to be on the safe side you could email newegg and ensure you get a revision 5 motherboard, they usually have a sticker on the box so that they can tell.

 

[Spy]

I ordered 2x2GB of RAM from Newegg and after I installed the sticks my computer wouldn't startup. It just kept beeping so I removed one of the sticks and it started up just fine, I assumed it was a bad stick at this point. Now whenever I shutdown my computer and try to turn it back on it will start beeping and won't start up. If I go into the BIOS settings (don't' have to change anything) and exit it will start just fine.

Any idea on what the problem could be?

 

[mAcOdIn]

I ordered 2x2GB of RAM from Newegg and after I installed the sticks my computer wouldn't startup. It just kept beeping so I removed one of the sticks and it started up just fine, I assumed it was a bad stick at this point. Now whenever I shutdown my computer and try to turn it back on it will start beeping and won't start up. If I go into the BIOS settings (don't' have to change anything) and exit it will start just fine.

Any idea on what the problem could be?

Could be something silly like enough "juice" hasn't started flowing to the ram yet or something.

In fact voltage is pretty damn important on ram, might wanna check the specs of the ram and see what voltage it requires for it's normal performance and cross that with what voltage your motherboard can give to ra. There's a chance you can raise it a little somewhere in the motherboard if you're right on the line.

 

[BigJonsson]

Lets say I go with the AMD Phenom II X3 720, want to use 3-4 gigs of DDR 2 1006 RAM, and get the 260GTX..........

And I don't want to overclock, just use one HD, one optical drive.........

What motherboards should I consider off newegg?

I'm lost when it comes to Motherboards.........

 

[Lime]

Lets say I go with the AMD Phenom II X3 720, want to use 3-4 gigs of DDR 2 1006 RAM, and get the 260GTX..........

And I don't want to overclock, just use one HD, one optical drive.........

What motherboards should I consider off newegg?

I'm lost when it comes to Motherboards.........

Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P:

Gigabyte's GA-MA790X-UD4P has almost everything you'd want for a build like the Utility Player: two physical PCI Express x16 slots with CrossFire support, eight Serial ATA ports with RAID support, Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, and integrated audio with Dolby Home Theater certification. It's surprisingly cheap, too, so we really have no incentive to find something more stripped-down.

Check out Techreport's guide to building a computer, as of April 2009.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16721/4

 

[Echoes of Pink]

Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P:

Gigabyte's GA-MA790X-UD4P has almost everything you'd want for a build like the Utility Player: two physical PCI Express x16 slots with CrossFire support, eight Serial ATA ports with RAID support, Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, and integrated audio with Dolby Home Theater certification. It's surprisingly cheap, too, so we really have no incentive to find something more stripped-down.

Check out Techreport's guide to building a computer, as of April 2009.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16721/4

Listen to this man. I built the computer listed in the article with that same motherboard, and it's awesome.

 

[BigJonsson]

Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P:

Gigabyte's GA-MA790X-UD4P has almost everything you'd want for a build like the Utility Player: two physical PCI Express x16 slots with CrossFire support, eight Serial ATA ports with RAID support, Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, and integrated audio with Dolby Home Theater certification. It's surprisingly cheap, too, so we really have no incentive to find something more stripped-down.

Check out Techreport's guide to building a computer, as of April 2009.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16721/4

Hmm I dunno

How does the GA-MA78GM-US2H stack up?


Edit - Yea, that build looks very similar to the one I'm thinking of.........just trying to cut the fat I guess

 

[brain_stew]

Lets say I go with the AMD Phenom II X3 720, want to use 3-4 gigs of DDR 2 1006 RAM, and get the 260GTX..........

And I don't want to overclock, just use one HD, one optical drive.........

What motherboards should I consider off newegg?

I'm lost when it comes to Motherboards.........

Stick with 800mhz RAM, you'll see no benefit from 1066mhz RAM which is only really useful if you plan to OC, even then its not really necessary.

Hmm I dunno

How does the GA-MA78GM-US2H stack up?


Edit - Yea, that build looks very similar to the one I'm thinking of.........just trying to cut the fat I guess

That's a micro-ATX board, best avoided as they're often too restrictive.

The UD4P board really is hard to beat, it uses the absolute latest chipset, and has every feature you could hope to have in a motherboard whilst still being very reasonably priced.

I'm a huge fan of Gigabyte boards myself, really great bang for buck.

 

[brain_stew]

Oh, for any UK GAFFers taht want the benefits of a custom built rig but don't fancy putting it together, www.yoyotech.co.uk seem to be the best of the bunch in the UK right now. Don't know how I missed them before. This monster watercooled, pre-OCed Phenom ii monster should give you a bit of an idea of just how good value their machines are:

http://www.yoyotech.co.uk/

 

[BigJonsson]

Stick with 800mhz RAM, you'll see no benefit from 1066mhz RAM which is only really useful if you plan to OC, even then its not really necessary.




That's a micro-ATX board, best avoided as they're often too restrictive.

The UD4P board really is hard to beat, it uses the absolute latest chipset, and has every feature you could hope to have in a motherboard whilst still being very reasonably priced.

I'm a huge fan of Gigabyte boards myself, really great bang for buck.

Thanks, lets see what the price difference is like on the RAM


18 dollars less, not bad

 

[rohlfinator]

Thanks, lets see what the price difference is like on the RAM


18 dollars less, not bad

Also, make sure to go with 4GB. There's no reason not to at today's prices. 3GB limits you from running in dual-channel mode (not that it makes a huge difference in most cases, but it's nice to have).

 

[mAcOdIn]

Also, make sure to go with 4GB. There's no reason not to at today's prices. 3GB limits you from running in dual-channel mode (not that it makes a huge difference in most cases, but it's nice to have).

Lies! You can buy two 1024MB sticks and two 512MB sticks and do dual channel!

Kidding aside, I agree with you, go for 4.

 

[yanhero]

Hey guys,

So I want to be able to output both video and audio through HDMI from my GTX260 to my receiver, seems like I need one of these cables http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=203-EV-1130-01&family=Accessories - Hardware does anyone know if there is a cheaper place I can get them from?? EVGA sells that package for $15 + another $15 for shipping. =(

Thx

 

[brain_stew]

Hey guys,

So I want to be able to output both video and audio through HDMI from my GTX260 to my receiver, seems like I need one of these cables http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=203-EV-1130-01&family=Accessories - Hardware does anyone know if there is a cheaper place I can get them from?? EVGA sells that package for $15 + another $15 for shipping. =(

Thx

That should have came with your GPU. Have a look on Ebay, there very well may be some people selling one if they're not using it.

Be warned though, I've found the HDMI audio out to be rather flaky, I know I couldn't get it working with my sound card for one.

I'd personally recommend just using the analog outs, sure its 3 extra cables but it saves a lot of headaches.

 

[yanhero]

Didn't come with my EVGA GTX260 =(

 

[madmook]

Hey guys,

So I want to be able to output both video and audio through HDMI from my GTX260 to my receiver, seems like I need one of these cables http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=203-EV-1130-01&family=Accessories - Hardware does anyone know if there is a cheaper place I can get them from?? EVGA sells that package for $15 + another $15 for shipping. =(

Thx

monoprice.com has dvi-hdmi adapters/cables cheap. Don't know what s/pdif is.

 

[Crazymoogle]

monoprice.com has dvi-hdmi adapters/cables cheap. Don't know what s/pdif is.

Sony-Philips Digital Interface - basically, the standard PC digital audio out.

The GTX series don't have an onboard audio processor like the HD4x00 series, so the only way the HDMI adapter can pass on audio is by connecting a cable directly to the sound card SPDIF or (sometimes) motherboard SPDIF.

 

[peppermints]

Hey guys,

Building a computer right now and I'm not sure how to tell if my heatsink came with preapplied thermal compound. It's an Intel Wolfdale Core 2 Duo at 2.5GHz.

 

[Hazaro]

Hey guys,

Building a computer right now and I'm not sure how to tell if my heatsink came with preapplied thermal compound. It's an Intel Wolfdale Core 2 Duo at 2.5GHz.

Is there gray goop on it y/n?

Most coolers over $25 don't have pre-applied paste as well.

 

[peppermints]

There are three gray sections on it with rough textures.. but it's not gooey..

 

[TheHeretic]

X3 720 > E8400, period. If you want fanboy advice go PC build on gamefaqs.

 

[Hazaro]

There are three gray sections on it with rough textures.. but it's not gooey..

Like this? Yeah that's paste.

 

[peppermints]

Okay, sweet! So no need to apply more?

 

[Hazaro]

Okay, sweet! So no need to apply more?

Nope, if you have other paste you should use it, but the difference in negligible.

 

[peppermints]

Okay, now we're not getting any power.

We think we have everything plugged in correctly. There are some blue LEDs on the front of the case that flash briefly when the power is pressed, but nothing more.

Any ideas?

 

[Grayman]

Okay, now we're not getting any power.

We think we have everything plugged in correctly. There are some blue LEDs on the front of the case that flash briefly when the power is pressed, but nothing more.

Any ideas?

When I did that it was because I did not plug power into my SATA harddrive, just the SATA plug.

 

[peppermints]

When I did that it was because I did not plug power into my SATA harddrive, just the SATA plug.

Well, we don't have anything else in other than CPU, heatsink and RAM. We just turned it on to see if we could get the heatsink fan going and the case LEDs.

 

[Hazaro]

Well, we don't have anything else in other than CPU, heatsink and RAM. We just turned it on to see if we could get the heatsink fan going and the case LEDs.

Go ahead and plug in the rest, you are going to anger it.

Make sure you do video card power and 24 pin + 4 or 8 pin power.

 

[peppermints]

So just go ahead and get everything else set up then give it ago?

 

[Hazaro]

So just go ahead and get everything else set up then give it ago?

Yeap

 

[peppermints]

Okay, well do you have any ideas why the LEDs would only flash once and nothing else would work? I'm a bit concerned since not even the heatsink fan would spin up.