Help Me Build My PC Catch-All

Citizen86 wrote:

@Bonus

As far as I know, overclocks are software based. It's possible you have a card that is OC'd from the factory, but 50% is very high.

Well, not quite 50%, I guess. Its listed GPU/RAM clock speeds are 732/1464MHz, respectively. It was initially set to 950/1900, so almost 30% overclocked. Ran like a dream after I cranked it down.

Yeah, like was previously mentioned, either it was a factory OC, or someone flashed the video card with a new BIOS with an overclock on it. I'd think it's the former though. What brand is it? EVGA?

Good you figured it out though. Is it possible it was overheating and after you downclocked it, it's running cooler?

Citizen86 wrote:

Yeah, like was previously mentioned, either it was a factory OC, or someone flashed the video card with a new BIOS with an overclock on it. I'd think it's the former though. What brand is it? EVGA?

Good you figured it out though. Is it possible it was overheating and after you downclocked it, it's running cooler?

Yup, EVGA GTX 570 Classified. The temperature never went above 41C, the fan never went above 30% speed, and it just went black and crashed the NVIDIA driver if I spun around too fast or as soon as anything pretty showed up.

TempestBlayze wrote:
TigerBill wrote:

Am I crazy for thinking of importing a Korean 1440P 27" monitor?

I was going to get the Asus 27" 120hz but, the more I look at it I don't play any twitch shooters on my PC (that's what consoles are for silly. ) I would like to try a 120hz monitor at some point though. Going the Korean route has the slight possibility of solving both problems.

I dont think your crazy at all. I am thinking about doing the same. It was so cheap but now that they are getting popular they are a bit more money

www.Tested.com just wrote and article about it. You should have a read

Also check out this article from the wirecutter, which is a great site for "tell me the one thing I should buy"

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:
Citizen86 wrote:

Yeah, like was previously mentioned, either it was a factory OC, or someone flashed the video card with a new BIOS with an overclock on it. I'd think it's the former though. What brand is it? EVGA?

Good you figured it out though. Is it possible it was overheating and after you downclocked it, it's running cooler?

Yup, EVGA GTX 570 Classified. The temperature never went above 41C, the fan never went above 30% speed, and it just went black and crashed the NVIDIA driver if I spun around too fast or as soon as anything pretty showed up.

Not sure if that's one of the stock overclocked ones or not. Doesn't sound like it was overheating though. So... I dunno

Anyways, so here is my new baby.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/fX6nV.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/XZRtk.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/G8z3f.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/axZNO.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/jXoKI.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/ARMZG.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/FegDB.jpg)

I am pretty much fed up with Eyefinity/Surround. I've been eying this beauty ever since it was announced. Yeah, you pay through the nose for it, but good grief, it is beautiful. Also, good grief, the colors are incredible. The photos from my DSLR look ridiculous. I heartily recommend trying the cheap Korean imports if you want a bargain just to get to the 2560x1440 resolution. This resolution is, just, relaxing. Also, the pixel density is perfect at 27".

Anyways, the reviews for this monitor are all great, it's just that being expensive is the main caveat. Now, it's time to try some games.

Ah yes, I should probably include an old photo of the GPUs that are gonna be powering this monster.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/arTWcl.jpg)

Many pages ago I had tapped the collective for some assistance on CPU overheating issues. Just wanted to touch base with the outcome. I RMA'ed the Corsair H60 cooler. And I got a brand new one back via UPS. I take that as a tacit response that the original was defective. The original was about 1.5 years old. While waiting on the RMA process I had reinstalled the i5 2500K stock cooler, which in a non-OC application, was keeping the CPU just as cool at idle and under load as the H60. So, the H60, and the new Corsair high-static pressure 120mm fans I got from Newegg, are still in their respective boxes.

My take from this experience is that if you do not intend to overclock your new CPU, stick with the stock cooler.

Heretk wrote:

My take from this experience is that if you do not intend to overclock your new CPU, stick with the stock cooler.

Yeah, with Sandybridge and Ivybridge, you could probably even overclock with the stock cooler. I'm still running a 920 @ 3.8 GHz which definitely benefits from the aftermarket cooler. At any rate, sounds like Corsair continues to be pretty decent with their customer service. I've only heard good things. I believe that Corsair and EVGA are the 2 PC component brands with awesome customer service.

Alright gang, this year's write-offs and PC upgrades have been purchased from Amazon.

Getting...

One (1) Biostar TZ77XE3

and

One (1) i5-3570K

My plan was to perform a simple backup of my important files on a separate HD, then just swap my old MOBO and processor out, then turn the computer back on and see what happens. Later I plan to add an SSD to the mix and do a full re-install of Win7. But for now I'd prefer not to.

Is this a crazy idea?

Question 2: I'm looking to sell my old Biostar MOBO (TA880GB+ I believe), and an AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black. What should I ask for those? $125? Selling to a friend.

That won't work, unfortunately. You will have to reinstall W7 when you put in a new motherboard. Don't worry, it's always refreshing to have a fresh Windows install. Just make sure to back everything up. Also, your steamapps folder is pretty easy to just backup and then apply to a new install. Google that if you haven't done it before.

Oh piss. I bet you're right. Shoot.

So... Do I have to uninstall Win7 or something?

Oh this sucks.

TheWanderer wrote:

Oh piss. I bet you're right. Shoot.

So... Do I have to uninstall Win7 or something?

Oh this sucks.

It's been awhile, but I'm pretty sure you can straight up reformat the whole drive when you go through the process of re-installing Windows 7. Yeah, it's a bit of a pain.

Just hit the F8 IIRC key upon boot and boot from the DVD drive instead of your hard drive to initiate the process.

TheWanderer wrote:

Alright gang, this year's write-offs and PC upgrades have been purchased from Amazon.

Getting...

One (1) Biostar TZ77XE3

and

One (1) i5-3570K

My plan was to perform a simple backup of my important files on a separate HD, then just swap my old MOBO and processor out, then turn the computer back on and see what happens. Later I plan to add an SSD to the mix and do a full re-install of Win7. But for now I'd prefer not to.

Is this a crazy idea?

Question 2: I'm looking to sell my old Biostar MOBO (TA880GB+ I believe), and an AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black. What should I ask for those? $125? Selling to a friend.

Woot standalone DayZ ready

And flight sims. 2013 I get back on the sim sauce

Wow tuffalobuffalo. I just wandered into this thread but those pictures have me lusting for gaming PC setup like that - in part just to work on photo processing.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
TheWanderer wrote:

Oh piss. I bet you're right. Shoot.

So... Do I have to uninstall Win7 or something?

Oh this sucks.

It's been awhile, but I'm pretty sure you can straight up reformat the whole drive when you go through the process of re-installing Windows 7. Yeah, it's a bit of a pain.

Just hit the F8 IIRC key upon boot and boot from the DVD drive instead of your hard drive to initiate the process.

I reformatted my drive after I plugged it into my new PC. Didn't even have to get another copy of Windows because of a registry trick.

Hi all - I've been out of the loop on video cards for a while. I have a 5770 that has gone across the last two builds and worked pretty well, but it's starting to show its age in games like Skyrim on Ultra.

I have a budget in my head of about $200-$250, which puts me squarely into 7870 territory. Is that going to be noticeable? Is there anything coming out in the near future that I should be waiting on? I don't have any strong loyalty to AMD, but if there's a compelling nvidia card that's a better value in that range I would be open to it.

Here's what I currently have to go along with it (the i5 is actually running at 4.3 GHz). My resolution is 1920x1080.

Summary Operating System MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1 CPU Intel Core i5 2500K @ 3.30GHz 30 °C Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology RAM 8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 824MHz (9-9-9-24) Motherboard ASUSTeK Computer INC. P8P67 (LGA1155) 27 °C Graphics DELL ST2310 (1920x1080@60Hz) ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (ATI) 40 °C Hard Drives 625GB Western Digital WDC WD6400AAKS-22A7B2 ATA Device (SATA) 27 °C 977GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG HD103SJ ATA Device (SATA) 25 °C Optical Drives ASUS DRW-24B1ST a ATA Device Audio PreSonus FirePod WDM

edit: For more info, the current card I have is here, and the PSU is a Corsair 600W with fairly beefy single rail 12V supply. (46A, I just went and checked.)

Heck, I might as well list the upgrade I've had sitting in my amazon cart the last few days for peer review:

i5-3570K
Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Vengeance Memory Two Module Kit - Corsair
Gigabyte SKT-1155 H77M-D3H Motherboard

Arctic Silver 5 3.5g Thermal Paste - Arctic Silver
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 CPU Cooler

LG GH24NS90.AUAA50B 24x SATA Bare Internal DVD Rewriter - Black - LG
Serial ATA Sata Hard Drive Data Cable Lead - Accenter

Total: £305

New DVD drive because I'll be losing PATA (finally!). I could drop to a i5-3470 and lose the heatsink/AS5 (use stock cooler) to save £45 and try something like this, but I'm feeling a bit apathetic to it right now, and as much as futureproofing is throwing darts while blindfolded, the little extra grunt would be good I think in the coming years.

Michael wrote:

Hi all - I've been out of the loop on video cards for a while. I have a 5770 that has gone across the last two builds and worked pretty well, but it's starting to show its age in games like Skyrim on Ultra.

I have a budget in my head of about $200-$250, which puts me squarely into 7870 territory. Is that going to be noticeable? Is there anything coming out in the near future that I should be waiting on? I don't have any strong loyalty to AMD, but if there's a compelling nvidia card that's a better value in that range I would be open to it.

Here's what I currently have to go along with it (the i5 is actually running at 4.3 GHz). My resolution is 1920x1080.

Summary Operating System MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1 CPU Intel Core i5 2500K @ 3.30GHz 30 °C Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology RAM 8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 824MHz (9-9-9-24) Motherboard ASUSTeK Computer INC. P8P67 (LGA1155) 27 °C Graphics DELL ST2310 (1920x1080@60Hz) ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (ATI) 40 °C Hard Drives 625GB Western Digital WDC WD6400AAKS-22A7B2 ATA Device (SATA) 27 °C 977GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG HD103SJ ATA Device (SATA) 25 °C Optical Drives ASUS DRW-24B1ST a ATA Device Audio PreSonus FirePod WDM

edit: For more info, the current card I have is here, and the PSU is a Corsair 600W with fairly beefy single rail 12V supply. (46A, I just went and checked.)

If you were willing to spend a little more and aren't opposed to Nvidia cards you could get the 660ti here for $269 (after rebate).

Here's some comparisons between the 7850 and 660ti

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Produ...

Also the non ti 660 beats out the 7850 in most comparisons and it can be had for $215 at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-1...

Those are some useful comparison charts... but the card I was looking at is the 7870. That's about the same price and looks like it performs about the same. It's probably six of one and half a dozen of the other.

Michael wrote:

Those are some useful comparison charts... but the card I was looking at is the 7870. That's about the same price and looks like it performs about the same. It's probably six of one and half a dozen of the other.

A lot of us have jumped ship on AMD because their drivers are so behind AMD's (usually). Even if the AMD card benchmarks better, Nvidia cards are generally easier on the eyes because the FPS fluctuations are less due to the better drivers.

That being said, if you have been fine with AMD drivers in the past, you might as well go for the best price/performance ratio.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

A lot of us have jumped ship on AMD because their drivers are so behind AMD's (usually).

I know what you mean, buuuuuut... try again

Citizen86 wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

A lot of us have jumped ship on AMD because their drivers are so behind AMD's (usually).

I know what you mean, buuuuuut... try again :lol:

Damn it.

Michael wrote:

Those are some useful comparison charts... but the card I was looking at is the 7870. That's about the same price and looks like it performs about the same. It's probably six of one and half a dozen of the other.

Doh. Sorry don't know where I got 7850 from.

edit: nothing new here, just fixed a really nasty, jumbled sentence. Sorry.
****

Followup on my bum H80 - as it turns out, it was probably fine. The exhaust fan had gotten choked with dust (it's in a very dusty environment) and, because it was facing up, I didn't see that until I had a replacement in hand, and had started taking it out. I went ahead with the replacement just in case, but I think that H80 will be just fine in another build, if I ever add a gaming server.

I used an Intel-branded liquid cooler that looks quite similar; I bought it because I like that form factor, and I trust the Intel name. It's actually made by Asetek, and it seems pretty effective, but I think I may have made an error in heatsink application, as one of my cores is getting *extremely* good temps. I'm suspicious that it's how things SHOULD look, and the other cores aren't quite right. So I'll try a re-gooping in the next couple of evenings.

Overall, it's quite good; at low RPM, the included fan is nice and quiet, and it seems very capable. I don't especially like the mounting system, though. It uses a ring mount, which you're supposed to stick the actual cooler into, twist, and then lock down. It sounds fine until you actually try it, at which point it becomes fairly difficult to get the cooler under the bracket on all sides at the same time. It's quite possible, and it ends up holding the cooler on very snugly, but it's more of a hassle than it should be.

I'd call it about equivalent to the H80, at least so far. If I can get all four cores running as well as Core 0, it will be a dramatic improvement.

Hey guys, I figured this is the most related topic, unless I go to the Trading Post thread.

I just wanted to see what everyone thought of these prices, I have some RAM and a HDD I pulled from a few laptops. I put them on Craigslist but haven't gotten any messages or calls about them:

2x1gb DDR3-1066 Micron RAM - pulled from a Macbook - $10
4x2gb DDR3-1333 Samsung RAM - 2 sets of 4gb, pulled from my Clevo laptop - $18 per set, $30 for all 4
160gb Fujitsu SATA 5400rpm hard drive - pulled from same Macbook, dated Jan 2009 - $30

I might put them up for sale in the Trading post, was hoping to try to avoid dealing with shipping though.

The MacBook RAM is worthless IMHO. That is the RAM from the base configuration. Everybody has that much or more. Might get a hit or two on ebay from someone needing RAM for a repair/rebuild but I wouldn't expect much for it. I have thrown away like 3 pairs just like that. No idea about the other RAM but I wouldn't buy a 4 year old used HDD. The one in my early 2009 MacBook died a long time ago.

I assume the HDD was already replaced, it came out of a late 2008 Macbook, but it's possible it was a later production I suppose.

I agree with the 2gb of ram though, I figured the only reason someone would buy it would be to replace sticks that died. My only hope might be for the 4gb sets.

Now that my new PC is running smoothly and my previous PC parts have been given to my wife, I am interested in turning my now unused PC parts into a home theater PC if possible.

It's a single core AMD FX-55 64 bit with 4 gb of ram.

Is there a good HTPC case under say, $70 that looks like a cable box or 360 on its side? It needs to be able to fit an ATX motherboard. I would like to put it in my TV stand.

I also need a cheap video card that only needs to play HD video.

Let me know if its even doable with an ATX board and a single core CPU. I will most likely be putting Ubuntu on it.

TempestBlayze wrote:

Let me know if its even doable with an ATX board and a single core CPU.

I'd get the vid card first and try to play what you want to play prior to spending the money on the case. You should be able to buy a usable HTPC card for $20-$30 if you watch deals. Either brand makes good options at that price these days.