Guys, I have in mind a 5850(x1) setup that I plan on crossfiring later. I was originally eyeing an i5 setup, but I read something about i5 supporting only 8/8 instead of 16/16 for crossfire or sli (I don't even know what I'm talking about). My question is, should I get a chip that supports this 16/16 thingie for crossfire if I want to get my eyefinity going on or is it really a non-issue?
I figured this might be a good thread to see if any of you dudes would be interested in my old settup. It has been a rock solid system which has run every game I have thrown at it but I got some parts cheap and upgraded.
Here is a gist of the specs but if really interested I will get more specific with pictures via PM. All were bought at retail and high-end at the time.
Antec Sonata II case with PSU
Gigabyte Mobo with built in video (sorry keeping my GTX260 so you will have to buy a card if you want to game)
AM2 5000+ Black Edition (OC's easily to 3.2)
4GB DR2 PC 6400 Ram
500GB Hard Drive
Win Vista (Can get you Windows 7 for $60)
Asking about $300 and change fully assembled and ready to go. PM me if really interested.
If this is not appropriate let me know and I will edit my post but I figured some on a very old system and in the market for a new system might want to save some bucks.
Okay, got some new RAM (2x2GB DDR2) that I'm pairing with my other 2x1GB RAM... I read about timing and stuff like that and I have no idea what it means... Right now its 5-5-5-15 for the new RAM. What do I need to know? :-(
I tend to agree, but the reviews for the g35 (which is 7.1) are just so universally strong. I can get the HD-555's for the same price though, so I may look into that. I had a friend in college who had them, and I do love them.
As they were for the "Medusa 5.1" headset I bought, didn't stop it from being the most terrible piece of crap I've ever wasted money on. I fell for it, please learn from my mistake.
Its not hard to work out really, you're paying the same amount of money for 8 speakers with the Logitech's as you are for 2 with the Sennheisers, it doesn't take a genius to work out that compromises had to be made. The surround effect in these units is totally borked as well, 3D positional audio wasn't designed around the front and rear speakers being placed an inch away from each other.
Forgetting all that, Sennheiser just flat out make better heaphones, you won't find any audiophile going anywhere near a Logitech product, but plenty will be happy using some Sennheiser cans.
Okay, got some new RAM (2x2GB DDR2) that I'm pairing with my other 2x1GB RAM... I read about timing and stuff like that and I have no idea what it means... Right now its 5-5-5-15 for the new RAM. What do I need to know? :-(
Switched an 4770 for the 4870, got 1600 instead of 1333 ram, got a different, probably better case with built in psu instead of the corsair 550vx, and got a samsung drive instead of the WD I wanted. I'm only paying 7 dollars more than with my other configuration and this will be much better for gaming. The psu probably isn't as good, and the hdd has really good ratings but who knows about the long term reliability. I was able to get some good combo deals with this setup.
Unless you need to move it around, your speed and latency will suffer pretty harshly (i.e. Half).
I think having an external SATA port fixes that problem though.
I am not very good with HDD's so someone feel free to correct me.
Timedog said:
Here's my final parts list I just ordered.
The psu probably isn't as good, and the hdd has really good ratings but who knows about the long term reliability. I was able to get some good combo deals with this setup.
Ok so I read up some on the Antec 900 fans. Each fan has the speed controller and a 4 pin molex cable attached to it. Theres a total of 4 of these.
Coming from the PSU are several cables, some of which are indentical to the molex ones on the fans. Can I pretty much use any of the molex cables coming from the PSU and run them to the fans to get power to them? It doesnt matter which?
What do the little labels on each connector from the PSU mean? P1, P2, P3.
Ok so I read up some on the Antec 900 fans. Each fan has the speed controller and a 4 pin molex cable attached to it. Theres a total of 4 of these.
Coming from the PSU are several cables, some of which are indentical to the molex ones on the fans. Can I pretty much use any of the molex cables coming from the PSU and run them to the fans to get power to them? It doesnt matter which?
What do the little labels on each connector from the PSU mean? P1, P2, P3.
Is there typically extra cables coming from the PSU that I wont be using? Im going purely on what I think since I dont have all of the parts in front of me but it sure as hell doesnt look like Id have that many cables to connect.
I really should just wait until tomorrow when everything is here but I cant help but familiarize myself with it. Im a little obsessed I think.
Hey guys, I don't know jack about laptops but my cousin's looking into getting a new one. Anything you would recommend that could easily be bought at like a Best Buy or something in the $600-800 range? We could go higher but I'm under the impression that's a good amount to get a decent laptop these days. The one she has currently she paid like $1500 for almost four years ago I think and she's really happy with it even though I thought it was a little on the pricey side. I'm not sure what model her current is other than some Toshiba Satellite. So, yeah, any suggestions?
Is there typically extra cables coming from the PSU that I wont be using? Im going purely on what I think since I dont have all of the parts in front of me but it sure as hell doesnt look like Id have that many cables to connect.
I really should just wait until tomorrow when everything is here but I cant help but familiarize myself with it. Im a little obsessed I think.
We've got an Antec 900 case and you can use any of the molex connectors. And unless you have a ton of HDDs it's more than likely that you'll some unused power cables coming out of the PSU.
Well, there is at least one case for external drives, where if all you're using the drive for is media storage, then I don't like internal myself. Speed is of no importance for a media drive. Drive of choice is the WD Passport, no extra power needed, or the 2TB WD Mirror (which uses the Caviar Green drivers). I much prefer the portability.
I just got a new PC and it has a slim case, not standard tower size but fairly big still. However I don't have any internet access since the computer is in my room and I'll need a wireless network adapter. I huit up NCIX and such but I'm getting a lot of conflicting reports or what's good: USB/PCI/PCI-E and varying models.
Q: What is a good wireless network adapter? My router is a DIR-655 Draft N router.
PCI is probably best, but I honestly get fairly blazing speeds with a silly Rosewill NX-1 USB adapter. 801.11n is really the tops, you probably can't go wrong except that using up a PCI-E slot for this would be absolute madness.
Alright, PCGaf, my new prebuilt+customizations+OS install is complete. I'm typing from it now. I'll try not to go overboard with pics here but I am fucking stoked with this thing
so please indulge me a tiny bit :[
.
In honor of someone in the original Slick Deals thread who said the case looked like something out of HL2, and the recent GAF HL2+Eps replay that I will be finishing on this rig, I have named it ALYX (I always do 4-character names, I don't know why).
Sorry about the tilt in these, the table I did my setup on is kind of tapered... and also, most of them were taken unfortunately with a camcorder, thus the not great quality. Sowwy!
Didn't read the manual, spent 20 minutes unable to get the side door open because I didn't realize the front sliding door had to come off :lol (just 4 supersized thumbscrews, took 10 seconds). Here's just after I did that but before taking the side off:
Front with side and front doors off:
The flash killed the case lights so here's a super blurry but awesome noflash pic:
Then began my work:
BEFORE:
Note the liquid cooling/airflow redirectors. Some say the latter are pointless but once you know how to get them off, they do at least make things look tidier.
DURING:
AFTER:
I then threw in my old 500GB HDD into one of the front access drive bays while the PC was on and running *geekgasm* Bays 2 and 4 going from the left are occupied.
Finally, my only (admittedly sort of silly) cosmetic mod... found this old fan grate from a few builds ago and thought it might look cool... wonder if Alienware could track me down for misleadingly using their logo
I am loving the G11 keyboard so far, hadn't even realized it was backlit. The only disappointment so far was that it didn't include the G5 mouse as pictured in promotional material (and the damn manual!), but I went back and looked at my buy and sure enough it wasn't explicitly listed like the G11 was. Still, the Acer Optical was a step up from the crappy Dell mouse I'd somehow still been using.
Finally here's my new dxdiag next to my old I particularly like how i7 hyperthreading can actually trick dxdiag into believing there are 8 cores.
One last shot of ALYX in all its glory:
Sorry if this was a totally obnoxious post :lol People did ask for pics! BTW, I am running and fucking LOVE the Win7 RTM. I used the Snipping Tool to chop up these pics.
Anyway, best nine-hundred thirty eight dollars I have ever spent. This thing is an absolute beast. Haven't done any extreme benchmarking yet but it tears through all the standards like butter.
For those looking to make or buy a rig under $1000- you can't do much better than this, though sadly the deal lasted only 4 hours :'( Substitute the 920 for the i7 940, ditch the liquid cooling and go for an Antec case. If you're not interested in SLI you can shave off some $ from the motherboard. If you're not wanting to build your own, tigerdirect.com has prebuilts and barebones with much of what I just described at great prices.
I then threw in my old 500GB HDD into one of the front access drive bays while the PC was on and running *geekgasm* Bays 2 and 4 going from the left are occupied"
Then don't come over, steal it, and put it on your case! sheesh
SLI GTX 260s. The one in red is an EVGA superclocked; around the R180 drivers Nvidia added the ability to run two cards even at different clocks and still take advantage of the highest clock on each card. I haven't played around with running PhysX on the faster card or overclocking the slower, not sure how necessary any such tweaks would be at all at this point.
Crysis, Far Cry 2, and Batman are for tomorrow. Now is for sleeeep. night night hazaro and gaf.
I haven't had any complaints, everyone can hear me fine it can sometimes pick up background sounds but that can be adjusted. I truly don't mind the surround sound having just experienced actual surround sound ( roomate got it setup in our apartment living room ) it's not as good as the real thing but for a headset it aint bad.
The hissing shouldn't be a worry, you only hear it when you have nothing else going on with the mic, and even then if you adjust the mic position it goes away. The crackling on the other hand can drive you wild if stuff like that bothers you. I'm probably going to get a different headset for general computer usage and just use the g35 for games.
Thanks, man. You've been a huge help. I ordered the NC2000, looks like it's a better fit than the 1000. Gonna have to pick up some extra hours at work to cover all these costs :lol
I have a question about SSD's and cases. I've been looking for some models (still indecently expensive, though. Waiting for less than 2/GB) and I've noticed all of them are 2.5". How do I secure them in a 3.5" standard HDD bay?
he'd have to make sure the micro atx fits in his case if its very old, and having micro atx seems bad for upgrading especially if he has a large graphics card that takes up room. I think he should be able to get the 4870 for slightly cheaper though unless he doesn't care to wait 3-4 months for that rebate.
I have a question about SSD's and cases. I've been looking for some models (still indecently expensive, though. Waiting for less than 2/GB) and I've noticed all of them are 2.5". How do I secure them in a 3.5" standard HDD bay?
Thanks! That was a great read. I'm not so keen on that kind of benchmark datasheets but got the idea: run away from JMicron controllers and OCZ Vertex offers the best quality/price ratio.
Anyway, I'm waiting until they finally drop prices. Tough I can afford 200 for 60GB, there's a psychological barrier telling me not to.
I finally had time to install my new Asus P5Q mobo last night. I also installed a Freezer 7 cpu HS with it. With the new board I was able to successfully OC my q6700 to 3.0 ghz (cpu volt 1.28). For anyone with experience OCing this particular cpu I have a question.
Before OCing the cpu I was getting 32c idle temp. After the OC I'm getting close to 44c idle. That seems like quite a jump to me. While running prime95 for close to 20 minutes I see my temps reach 70c (very hot IMO). I'm using Coretemp for my readings BTW.
What kinds of temps are acceptable for the q6700? What is the Idle/Load temp ranges I should try to shoot for?
The HS came with a preapplied thermal paste. I was too lazy to scrape it off and reapply the arctic 5 compound I have. I'm thinking now I probably should of. Thanks for any suggestions.
I finally had time to install my new Asus P5Q mobo last night. I also installed a Freezer 7 cpu HS with it. With the new board I was able to successfully OC my q6700 to 3.0 ghz (cpu volt 1.28). For anyone with experience OCing this particular cpu I have a question.
Before OCing the cpu I was getting 32c idle temp. After the OC I'm getting close to 44c idle. That seems like quite a jump to me. While running prime95 for close to 20 minutes I see my temps reach 70c (very hot IMO). I'm using Coretemp for my readings BTW.
What kinds of temps are acceptable for the q6700? What is the Idle/Load temp ranges I should try to shoot for?
The HS came with a preapplied thermal paste. I was too lazy to scrape it off and reapply the arctic 5 compound I have. I'm thinking now I probably should of. Thanks for any suggestions.
That is hot. Are all your fans set to run max? Hitting 70c while running Prime95 isn't a bad thing necessarily, but it should take longer than that. The Q6700 has a pretty substantial operating range, so you likely won't do any permanent damage at those temps, but it'd be better for performance/longevity/not scalding yourself to bring them down.
I finally had time to install my new Asus P5Q mobo last night. I also installed a Freezer 7 cpu HS with it. With the new board I was able to successfully OC my q6700 to 3.0 ghz (cpu volt 1.28). For anyone with experience OCing this particular cpu I have a question.
Before OCing the cpu I was getting 32c idle temp. After the OC I'm getting close to 44c idle. That seems like quite a jump to me. While running prime95 for close to 20 minutes I see my temps reach 70c (very hot IMO). I'm using Coretemp for my readings BTW.
What kinds of temps are acceptable for the q6700? What is the Idle/Load temp ranges I should try to shoot for?
The HS came with a preapplied thermal paste. I was too lazy to scrape it off and reapply the arctic 5 compound I have. I'm thinking now I probably should of. Thanks for any suggestions.
As a rule of thumb, socket 775 CPUs are OK as long as they're not above 60ºC. Also, put clean paste and be sure everything is tightly stuck in place. I have an E8400 with those very same mobo and heatsink OC'd to 3.6GHz and the most I get is 55ºC at full load with Prime95.
Just an idea: go to the BIOS, search for the Power/Fan options and activate the intelligent control + Silent Profile for the CPU FAN (don't remember the exact name). That way, it will be almost completely silent (~1000rpm) when idle and will ramp up automatically in order to have everything fresh when it gets loaded.
Edit: also be sure you mounted it the right way. You should have the heatsink fan facing directly the RAM in order to blow air to the back extraction fan of your case.
By default the p5q mobo set all of the fans (2 120m case fans) and the CPU fan to TURBO. It seriously sounded like a hovercraft. I turned down the case fans to the 'silent profile with intelligent control like beje mentioned. I left the CPU fan at turbo since I was getting so Hot.
also be sure you mounted it the right way. You should have the heatsink fan facing directly the RAM in order to blow air to the back extraction fan of your case.
I'm in the market for a stop-gap PC to last me (hopefully) 'til I graduate from university in about a year and a half. Been relying on an awesome but impractical desktop-replacing notebook with a pretty paltry 8700m gt card for the last two. The thing's hit the end of its warranty and funnily enough it's on death's door so it's time to start shopping around. I'd like to go small form factor with my small room, does anyone have any advice for good cases and motherboards? Since even Ati 48 cards can be pretty long length is unavoidable but I see all these media centre style cases and realise I can put all kinds of crap on top.
Simply put, is a small form factor case worth it or not? Specs wise it needn't be so tough since I'm on a budget. Probably a Core 2 duo or quad with 2/4gig ram and mid-range gpu so it should fit unless I'm mistaken.
EDIT: Oh and any recs for good value gpus to take on UT3 at 720p in a nice framerate? My course revolves around modeling levels and characters for it. Cheers!
Yup. you have it the other way round. In a fan, the air always goes from the side with the brand sticker to the other side so now you're blowing the hot air your CPU produces directly to your RAM and is left inside the case.
Anything nifty I can add to the extra two 5.25 bays I have left? I dont see the need for a BR drive since I have a PS3. I was looking at some of the Aero cool stuff but have no idea if theyre any good.
