Support NeoGAF

[Romance Pie]

Man waiting for my baby to arrive is so painful :lol

I don't have a single computer that meets the minimum requirements of Dragon Age and I have a copy sitting right in front of me. Oh the torture!

I'm currently looking into getting a new mouse and keyboard and I haven't come accross anything that I really want.

I was hoping maybe some of you could give me some suggestions.

I currently have a Logitech G11 keyboard and a G5 mouse. the keyboard is the first revision and has really shitty coating on the keys. It really feels like a cheap plastic toy and sounds like one to boot. Some keys stop working sometimes at which point I'll pick up the keyboard with my two hands and twist the body a little. Works like a charm!

My trusty G5 still works perfectly to this day. I got it when it first came out and I was coming from an Mx510. I was very disappointed it only had one side button but I lived! I also felt a huge loss in accuracy because the laser wasn't placed front and center under the mouse which is what I'm used to.

I'm looking for a keyboard that is sturdy, has stiff keys, has backlighting and possibly some media controls.

For my mouse, I'm just looking for something that feels good with my small hands. The only hard requirement is that I have the laser/sensor placed front and center under the mouse.

Everything wired please.

I currently have a logitech illuminated keyboard and love it. It is barely 10mm high, has the same scissor keys of a high end dinovo (pretty similar to a good laptop) and is backlit with white LEDs. I had a problem of wearing out the WASD keys with previous keyboards, but I have had this keyboard for nearly a year and they still look sweet as.
This is used with my MX518 (games) and MX revolution (work mouse).

By the sounds of it you use your wrists to move your mouse? I got taught in ergonomics classes to move the mouse your elbow so you don't wear out your carpal tunnels. So dropping your sensitivity and making bigger sweeps can help lessen the chance (plus it is pretty handy for accuracy in css) and the the placement of the laser won't matter.
Sorry to come across as some ergo nerd, but being able to play games when your 90's would be rad :]

 

[neoism]

Yep. You could even put a second one in there if you wanted to.

 

[markot]

Ooook.

Um, I cloned my hard drive, but it still boots and runs from my main old one >.>

How do I get my new one to be C: and make it the... one?!

 

[Minsc]

Ooook.

Um, I cloned my hard drive, but it still boots and runs from my main old one >.>

How do I get my new one to be C: and make it the... one?!

You're likely better off asking around / reading in acronis' forums, or wherever, but it sounds like you have to change your master boot record on the drives, there were options when in acronis when cloning them I believe. It may even be simpler, I'm not sure

Last time I did this stuff you had to move jumper pins around in the back of the drives, to set master / slave, but I'm not sure that's necessary any more. You don't want to mess anything up, so make sure you take the advice of someone who's done it before (all my uses of acronis involved either restoring to completely new drives in a single drive system, or restoring to the same drive I cloned in a multi-drive system). Definitely look in to the program's forums, and you are entitled to free support with acronis I believe, so that's another option to consider.

 

[Animal]

I currently have a logitech illuminated keyboard and love it. It is barely 10mm high, has the same scissor keys of a high end dinovo (pretty similar to a good laptop) and is backlit with white LEDs. I had a problem of wearing out the WASD keys with previous keyboards, but I have had this keyboard for nearly a year and they still look sweet as.
This is used with my MX518 (games) and MX revolution (work mouse).

By the sounds of it you use your wrists to move your mouse? I got taught in ergonomics classes to move the mouse your elbow so you don't wear out your carpal tunnels. So dropping your sensitivity and making bigger sweeps can help lessen the chance (plus it is pretty handy for accuracy in css) and the the placement of the laser won't matter.
Sorry to come across as some ergo nerd, but being able to play games when your 90's would be rad :]

I'd rather have normal desktop keyboard sized keys than thin laptop keys because the later usually aren't stiff enough for my liking. I know I'm difficult :lol

My mouse habits are a bit of a combination of both wrist and arm but you're right. Their is allot of wrist in my movement. I guess I should make more room on my desk for larger movements and use my arm more.

I use an MX518 at work and I love it. The only thing that scares me are the dreaded teflon feet that always come off. All the MX510 and MX518 mice I've come across have had this problem. Maybe I could get an MX518 and use some high powered glue on the feet.

 

[brain_stew]

I currently have a logitech illuminated keyboard and love it. It is barely 10mm high, has the same scissor keys of a high end dinovo (pretty similar to a good laptop) and is backlit with white LEDs. I had a problem of wearing out the WASD keys with previous keyboards, but I have had this keyboard for nearly a year and they still look sweet as.
This is used with my MX518 (games) and MX revolution (work mouse).

By the sounds of it you use your wrists to move your mouse? I got taught in ergonomics classes to move the mouse your elbow so you don't wear out your carpal tunnels. So dropping your sensitivity and making bigger sweeps can help lessen the chance (plus it is pretty handy for accuracy in css) and the the placement of the laser won't matter.
Sorry to come across as some ergo nerd, but being able to play games when your 90's would be rad :]

Its all about moving it from the shoulder

 

[Mrbob]

Got my ram and GTX 260 up and running, everything pretty good. I only play at 1440 X 900 res right now, but may upgrade in the near future. Even at this rez though and my e2160 at 3ghz I am cpu limited....little surprised but with all my tests this what happened! The processor speed is fast, but it only has 1mb of cache and I think this is a limiting factor. I've overclocked my BFG GTX 260 from 590/999/1240 to 700/1100/1420 without breaking a sweat, staying cool. Damn this card is crazy...but! I hardly get any fps increase (minimum frames), so that means my CPU is holding things up! I could push my GTX more but I'm gonna hold off until I get a new processor. The GTX is already helping in borderlands...I could hit 60fps on my 8800gt but when things got hectic it would drop to the 30s and sometimes mid 20s. Now even in hectic scenes it holds in the mid 40s, but I want more! :lol

My E2160 has served me well the last couple years. I'm thinking the E7500 might be the sweet spot for price/performance. Especially since I plan on buying another Arctic Cooler Freezer Pro 7 (<3 that cooler) to put on it like I have on my E2160 currently. I've been reading up on cache sizes, and going from 1 to 2 is pretty signficant, 2 to 3 is decent but not huge...and most of the time after 3 is diminishing returns at the point for price/performance. Most of the info I'm reading says to stay with a dual core and just O/C the heck out of it. My motto will be 3.6ghz or bust with the e7500 chip, possibly more!

I'm still looking into the whole dual core/quad core situation though. I don't think I'll be able to push a quad as high, and the price to performance will not be as good. Everything I'm reading still says a higher clocked dual core is better for gaming performance than a quad core, but I'm open to reading any info to the contrary? Any links I can read up on the topic of dual core/quad core gaming performance?

 

[brain_stew]

Got my ram and GTX 260 up and running, everything pretty good. I only play at 1440 X 900 res right now, but may upgrade in the near future. Even at this rez though and my e2160 at 3ghz I am cpu limited....little surprised but with all my tests this what happened! The processor speed is fast, but it only has 1mb of cache and I think this is a limiting factor. I've overclocked my BFG GTX 260 from 590/999/1240 to 700/1100/1420 without breaking a sweat, staying cool. Damn this card is crazy...but! I hardly get any fps increase (minimum frames), so that means my CPU is holding things up! I could push my GTX more but I'm gonna hold off until I get a new processor. The GTX is already helping in borderlands...I could hit 60fps on my 8800gt but when things got hectic it would drop to the 30s and sometimes mid 20s. Now even in hectic scenes it holds in the mid 40s, but I want more! :lol

My E2160 has served me well the last couple years. I'm thinking the E7500 might be the sweet spot for price/performance. Especially since I plan on buying another Arctic Cooler Freezer Pro 7 (<3 that cooler) to put on it like I have on my E2160 currently. I've been reading up on cache sizes, and going from 1 to 2 is pretty signficant, 2 to 3 is decent but not huge...and most of the time after 3 is diminishing returns at the point for price/performance. Most of the info I'm reading says to stay with a dual core and just O/C the heck out of it. My motto will be 3.6ghz or bust with the e7500 chip, possibly more!

I'm still looking into the whole dual core/quad core situation though. I don't think I'll be able to push a quad as high, and the price to performance will not be as good. Everything I'm reading still says a higher clocked dual core is better for gaming performance than a quad core, but I'm open to reading any info to the contrary? Any links I can read up on the topic of dual core/quad core gaming performance?

Meh, as long as you're getting close to 60fps, any extra fps aren't all that necessary. Start slapping Nvidia's SSAO and transparency supersampling or flat out supersampling AA on your games and the bottleneck will quickly switch back to your CPU (and your games will look more stunning than ever to boot!)

Another dual core really isn't going to make much difference at all, trust me I've used both an e2180 and e5200, if you want to upgrade your CPU you absolutely need to get a quad core to notice any real worthwile performance boost. The faster dual core for gaming advice is outdated. Left 4 Dead 2 and Dragon Age are the two biggest recent PC releases and both see huge gains from quads, the market has moved on.

Actually in reality triple cores are the sweet spot these days, they see a real noticeable boost over dualies but any extra cores don't help all that much but since Intel only offers duals or quads, the choice is simple.

Download nhancer.

 

[Mrbob]

Hahaha, I'm getting some 60fps OCD here....so close I can taste it. :lol

I'll download nhancer first later tonight and test it out first!

 

[NIN90]

I'm looking for a keyboard that is sturdy, has stiff keys, has backlighting and possibly some media controls.

For my mouse, I'm just looking for something that feels good with my small hands. The only hard requirement is that I have the laser/sensor placed front and center under the mouse.

Everything wired please.

Keyboard:
Microsoft SideWinder X6 Keyboard

Mouse:
Just take one of the holy trifecta
Logitech MX518
Razer Deathadder
Microsoft Intellimouse 3.0

 

[brain_stew]

Go with a Q8400, you should be able to get 3.6-3.8ghz with half decent cooling.

 

[Mrbob]

Left 4 Dead 2 and Dragon Age will probably be my most played PC games over the next year, so I'll look into the Q8400 if both those games are getting big quad core boosts! Thanks!

Besides Starcraft 2 of course...and who knows when that will be out. :lol

 

[brain_stew]

Left 4 Dead 2 and Dragon Age will probably be my most played PC games over the next year, so I'll look into the Q8400 if both those games are getting big quad core boosts! Thanks!

Besides Starcraft 2 of course...and who knows when that will be out. :lol

Then the choice is simple, both games are CPU limited and will only get a constant 60fps with a quad core. Heck, you won't even get a 60fps average without a quadcore for Dragon Age but then you shouldn't drop a single frame below 60fps with a nicely clocked quad. You'll see at least a 50% boost in both games, Dragon Age can see as much as a 75% boost, which is huge for a game that doesn't stress the GPU too much.

 

[kinggroin]

Then the choice is simple, both games are CPU limited and will only get a constant 60fps with a quad core. Heck, you won't even get a 60fps average without a quadcore for Dragon Age but then you shouldn't drop a single frame below 60fps with a nicely clocked quad. You'll see at least a 50% boost in both games, Dragon Age can see as much as a 75% boost, which is huge for a game that doesn't stress the GPU too much.

I get a constant 60fps in Left 4 Dead 2, and mostly 60fps in DA everything maxed with 4xaa on a core 2 duo

Spoiler

at 4ghz

 

[Chairhome]

So I got my new PSU, CPU and mobo... I'm about to put this stuff together, but I noticed that the CPU and stock cooler did not come with thermal paste... is this a big deal if I install without it? Should I wait till I can get some?

NEVER MIND.
Just read that there is pre-applied thermal compound.

 

[Mrbob]

I would get some arctic silver 5 first.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...07&cm_re=arctic_silver-_-35-100-007-_-Product

 

[brain_stew]

I get a constant 60fps in Left 4 Dead 2, and mostly 60fps in DA everything maxed with 4xaa on a core 2 duo

Spoiler

at 4ghz

You measured it with fraps through a whole level? Its pretty hard to spot the drops when the horde swarms round you put those sort of instances cause pretty major drops in the framerate.

 

[shintoki]

Would these be a good 4gig set?

 

[kinggroin]

You measured it with fraps through a whole level? Its pretty hard to spot the drops when the horde swarms round you put those sort of instances cause pretty major drops in the framerate.

With fraps good buddy. Dont see why not. It goes as high as 90fps with no vysnc, and with the d3doverrider, stays locked at 60fps. My GPU is a 4870 if that helps any.

By comparison, the much more visually demanding RE5 is locked at 60fps at 1920x1200 max settings 2xaa

 

[Salaadin]

Im frequently getting "hl2.exe has stopped working" errors since starting HL2 Ep 1 this morning. Google shows this as something common with a whole variety of fixes but I havent found a complete fix yet. I played HL2 all night yesterday and had no issues. It all seems to happen when I play Episode 1.

Because of this, I started to worry about my GPU again. I removed the faulty RAM the other day and the screen freezes and Aero crashes are gone but I just want to make sure theres no other underlying issues.

I ran the FurMark stability test for 30 mins and it didnt crash or anything. Good sign? Anything else I can do to ensure that there are no other issues?

Im going to run Prime 95 in a bit and see how that goes.

Any other suggestions on how I can give this PC the full workaround and make any problems appear (if there are any) so I can try and fix them? I checked the OP for tests (thats where Prime95 and memtest came from) but Im wondering if there are any others that havent been updated into the OP.

 

[entremet]

Have any of you guys experimented with the small bare bones kits? Such as this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00258MCL0/?tag=neogaf0e-20

I really hate huge tower style monstrosities, so I don't mind paying the premium.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Does anyone know a really good mouse, with a least 6 buttons for about 60!

As others have mentioned, the MX518. Awesome mouse. Only downside is those shitty little thingies on the bottom that keep falling off.

 

[Polk]

Keyboard:
Microsoft SideWinder X6 Keyboard

I have one beef with this keyboard. F1 is where ESC should be. It's so stupid.

 

[Helmholtz]

Keyboard:
Microsoft SideWinder X6 Keyboard

Mouse:
Just take one of the holy trifecta
Logitech MX518
Razer Deathadder
Microsoft Intellimouse 3.0

I'm interested in that keyboard as well, but I heard it has some problems such as not being able to reload while crouch moving, and no adjustable height. Do you have the keyboard, and can you confirm/deny these reports? thanks

 

[drkOne]

My gaming rig is still kinda new… built it around March, but reading about the Quad benefits, the new DX11 cards, and a friend who might be interested in buying some of my components, I'm thinking about changing some stuff.

Current build:

Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 - 512MB
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (OC'd at 3.7ish)
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 DDR2
OCZ 1x2GB 6400 DDR2

I was going to get at least 2x2GB and maybe a 4770. Can I do 6 more months with this board, DDR2 RAM and a Q8400? Should I consider upgrading to a i7 and compatible mobo/RAM already?

 

[NIN90]

I'm interested in that keyboard as well, but I heard it has some problems such as not being able to reload while crouch moving, and no adjustable height. Do you have the keyboard, and can you confirm/deny these reports? thanks

Hm, I don't know how you have your crouch and reload bound (the popular C+R I guess, in that case you should rethink about your very existence) but I can reload and crouch just fine (CRTL+R) and do stuff that I couldn't do with my old keyboard like strafejumping backwards (S+D+spacebar wouldn't register) .

Yeah, height is not adjustable. This standard height is pretty comfortable to me tho. I guess you would need to try it out for yourself.

It also makes nice clicky sounds while typing which is key to a great PC experience!

 

[Decado]

Left 4 Dead 2 and Dragon Age are the two biggest recent PC releases and both see huge gains from quads, the market has moved on.
.

They're also two pretty mediocre looking games that shouldn't require that much power...

(though your point is probably just that studios are taking advantage of quads)

 

[JRW]

They're also two pretty mediocre looking games that shouldn't require that much power...

(though your point is probably just that studios are taking advantage of quads)

Source engine games have always been CPU dependant, even more so with L4D1 & 2.

 

[SapientWolf]

Fry's has a Biostar T5XE-CFX-SLI / i5 750 combo for $229 after rebates ($15). Usually when they do this the mobo isn't worth using but I've seen someone overclock an i7 860 to 5GHz on that mobo and it appears to have 8x/8x crossfire/SLI support.

They also did a similar deal on the Gigabyte P55-UD3R last week.

 

[brain_stew]

With fraps good buddy. Dont see why not. It goes as high as 90fps with no vysnc, and with the d3doverrider, stays locked at 60fps. My GPU is a 4870 if that helps any.

By comparison, the much more visually demanding RE5 is locked at 60fps at 1920x1200 max settings 2xaa

The game is CPU bottlenecked on most rigs is why I asked. Adding Nvidia's SSAO and transparency multisampling doesn't affect my framerate one bit at 1080p for example. I'm running an E5200 @3.6ghz and it can go as low as the low 40s at times though its mostly locked to my refresh rate. I didn't think the extra cache, faster FSB and faster clockspeed would have such an impact is all.

Its rare, granted. most of the time its completely locked @ my 50hz refresh rate but there's definitely a few drops here and there. Mind the ambient occlusion kind of makes up for it.

 

[brain_stew]

Im frequently getting "hl2.exe has stopped working" errors since starting HL2 Ep 1 this morning. Google shows this as something common with a whole variety of fixes but I havent found a complete fix yet. I played HL2 all night yesterday and had no issues. It all seems to happen when I play Episode 1.

Because of this, I started to worry about my GPU again. I removed the faulty RAM the other day and the screen freezes and Aero crashes are gone but I just want to make sure theres no other underlying issues.

I ran the FurMark stability test for 30 mins and it didnt crash or anything. Good sign? Anything else I can do to ensure that there are no other issues?

Im going to run Prime 95 in a bit and see how that goes.

Any other suggestions on how I can give this PC the full workaround and make any problems appear (if there are any) so I can try and fix them? I checked the OP for tests (thats where Prime95 and memtest came from) but Im wondering if there are any others that havent been updated into the OP.

Try launching it in 32 bit mode, add -32bit -32 (can't remember which) to the "set launch properties" option under properties.

 

[brain_stew]

My gaming rig is still kinda new… built it around March, but reading about the Quad benefits, the new DX11 cards, and a friend who might be interested in buying some of my components, I'm thinking about changing some stuff.

Current build:

Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 - 512MB
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (OC'd at 3.7ish)
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 DDR2
OCZ 1x2GB 6400 DDR2

I was going to get at least 2x2GB and maybe a 4770. Can I do 6 more months with this board, DDR2 RAM and a Q8400? Should I consider upgrading to a i7 and compatible mobo/RAM already?

I'd add another 2GB of RAM and hold fire until Sandy Bridge launches next year, personally.

 

[brain_stew]

They're also two pretty mediocre looking games that shouldn't require that much power...

(though your point is probably just that studios are taking advantage of quads)

Well, your both right and wrong. Neither game pushes the graphics side of things all that much but to get the best performance CPU demands are kind of steep, which is why you'll find they're CPU bottlenecked on most rigs. Given their excellent multicore scaling, you'll see huge benefits from upgrading from a dual core in both games and this comes from a dual core hold out.

 

[El_Six]

The game is CPU bottlenecked on most rigs is why I asked. Adding Nvidia's SSAO and transparency multisampling doesn't affect my framerate one bit at 1080p for example. I'm running an E5200 @3.6ghz and it can go as low as the low 40s at times though its mostly locked to my refresh rate. I didn't think the extra cache, faster FSB and faster clockspeed would have such an impact is all.

Its rare, granted. most of the time its completely locked @ my 50hz refresh rate but there's definitely a few drops here and there. Mind the ambient occlusion kind of makes up for it.

Gotcha. I'm running with an e8400 so maybe the slightly higher fsb and cache is helping me (in addition to running at 4ghz)? I dunno, even with that e5200, I'd figure the game to NEVER drop lower than 50...

Does the difficulty play into it at all btw? Maybe there are more zombie mobs at higher difficulty. I only play at normal :/


edit: Oh shit.... posting on my brother's PC. This is actually kinggroin


edit2: Um.... forgot to mention one tiny little critical part of my setup...



I'm running at 1600x1200

 

[Romance Pie]

I'd rather have normal desktop keyboard sized keys than thin laptop keys because the later usually aren't stiff enough for my liking. I know I'm difficult :lol

My mouse habits are a bit of a combination of both wrist and arm but you're right. Their is allot of wrist in my movement. I guess I should make more room on my desk for larger movements and use my arm more.

I use an MX518 at work and I love it. The only thing that scares me are the dreaded teflon feet that always come off. All the MX510 and MX518 mice I've come across have had this problem. Maybe I could get an MX518 and use some high powered glue on the feet.

Ohh it is a full size keyboard with numeric pad
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/keyboards/keyboard/devices/4740&cl=us,en
The keys aren't soft, they have a real nice bit of resistance and have a nice clicky sound even though the site says it is quiet. Best bet is to pop down to a shop that have a bunch of keyboards out on display and clack away down there like keyboard cat.

I wonder if there has been a gaming wrist strap like with ten pin bowling to prevent wrist movement :0
I could only move up and down using my shoulder Mr Stew D:

I've had my mx518 for over two years and I haven't had any feet pop off at all. Guess wearing out all those razer exact mats help keep them in place? I know you can buy replacement feet for them online and they are covered with a 3 year warranty so you could give logitech a call. I've switched to the razer sphex though since they are way cheaper, really flat and have a similar rough texture to the exact mat

 

[purvispisgah]

Does any one know what the best aftermarket cooler for a 4890 is? Specifically, I'm looking for one that is quiet. During heavy gaming, the stock fan is just ridiculously loud. I know people were having problems using the coolers for the 4870s a few months back because of VRMs overheating.

Anyway, any help with aftermarket cooling for a 4890 would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[Chairhome]

Ah, the joys of upgrading...

Troubleshooting help needed :-(.

Installed new cpu, mobo, psu. When I boot up, nothing is shown on the monitor and I hear no startup beeps or any kind of beeps at all. The mobo and components do seem to be getting power. Any suggestions?

 

[markot]

Unplug everything, then redo it. To make sure you didnt miss anything!

 

[Chairhome]

I did miss something, thanks! Apparently, I needed to plug in a second 8 plug connector into the mobo. I heard the startup beep, but it wasn't connected to the monitor, so I'll do it now, I think its gonna work out. :-D

 

[Chairhome]

Everything seems to be working great! I re-ran the SFIV and RE5 benchmarks and the machine did amazingly better than with my old CPU and mobo. Can't wait to see how pcsx2 runs on this!

 

[thunker 9000]

Whats holding me back, GAF? Recent games like Borderlands and Dragon Age have not been up to snuff. they look great at times, but in some circumstances it chugs like no other. ):

MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775
Intel Core Duo E6550 2.33Ghz
EVGA 8800 GTS - 1gig
2 x 1 Gb DDR2 800

 

[markot]

I am guessing your cpu... maybe. Some more ram wouldnt hurt.

What kind of settings do you run your games at?

 

[thunker 9000]

I run at 1280x768 usually High/Medium. When I turn on dynamic shadows or AA it totally owns my framerate.

I'm guessing upgrading CPU would remedy that, right? More ram is a no-brainer. Just worried that I might have to get a new GPU ):

 

[Hazaro]

http://www.woot.com/ has the razer salmosa mouse for $18 shipped.

Review here: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Razer/Salmosa/5.html

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

I run at 1280x768 usually High/Medium. When I turn on dynamic shadows or AA it totally owns my framerate.

I'm guessing upgrading CPU would remedy that, right? More ram is a no-brainer. Just worried that I might have to get a new GPU ):

At that resolution from Dragon's Age you should be ok for gpu. Everything I've seen has said that Dragon's Age is more CPU dependent so if you get a cooler and overclock and get a gig or two more of ram you should see a nice boost.

 

[drkOne]

I'd add another 2GB of RAM and hold fire until Sandy Bridge launches next year, personally.

Reading that it is supposed to come out early 2011. I guess I'll add the 2GB for now and see how it handles the new games.

L4D2 has sudden frame rate drops, like freezing, it runs really smooth at around 60FPS, and then randomly it freezes for some secs (not only on hordes). Had a similar thing happening to me with Crysis (max settings for both).
Might this be related to lack of RAM? The fact I'm on a Dual Core?

 

[alisdair]

L4D2 has sudden frame rate drops, like freezing [...]
Might this be related to lack of RAM?

That could be swapping to disk. Start a single-player game of L4D, switch to Task Manager, and see how much memory is available (performance tab). Another 2GB stick must be so cheap that it's worth a shot.

 

[Salaadin]

I ran memtest for over 3 hours on what I thought was my only good stick of RAM. An error pops up on pass 10 right as I was just about to shut off the program. What the hell.

Is it possible to receive two bad sticks of RAM in the same package or is this something else...like the motherboard?

Im also having zero issues now since I removed that stick. No Aero crashing or screen lockups and hl2 is working like a charm once I started launching it in 32bit mode.

 

[Hazaro]

I ran memtest for over 3 hours on what I thought was my only good stick of RAM. An error pops up on pass 10 right as I was just about to shut off the program. What the hell.

Is it possible to receive two bad sticks of RAM in the same package or is this something else...like the motherboard?

Im also having zero issues now since I removed that stick. No Aero crashing or screen lockups and hl2 is working like a charm once I started launching it in 32bit mode.

It's possible yes, are you running at the higher end of the recommended voltage? 2.0-2.2V usually for DDR2.

 

[Salaadin]

Its running at 1.5. Thats what was listed on Gskills website. DDR3 btw.
The only thing I adjusted were the timings. The mobo wanted to set them to 9-9-9-24 but Gskill said 8-8-8-24.