Building a computer? Need advice/suggestions? Come here!

The AX series of PSU's are a little old now, I'd get this TX version. Honestly, if I had to pick one component in my system to buy the best of it would be the PSU. A faulty PSU can destroy the rest of your system if it has a catastrophic breakdown.

Video memory only matters depending on the resolution you're running really. What resolution do you plan to run at? I wouldn't bother with the 2GB unless you're at 2560x1600 or greater.

CPU's come with their own fans that you install onto the motherboard, this is probably the trickiest thing to install when doing a PC build. The one that Intel will supply is decent, if you want to overclock or just prolong the life of your CPU I'd get a better third-party cooler though. This Noctua NH-D14 is one of the best air coolers on the market right now.

Integrated graphics are basically disabled if you have a dedicated graphics card installed in your system, so it doesn't matter.

im approaching the point where i actually order this stuff now. i found this monitor deal on newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824254055. the fact that its on sale makes it even more desirable. thoughts on monitors other than this? the details say it is not LED backlit. is that a problem?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236099
this one is about $50 more, but it seems pretty much superior to the first one.

E: should i mess with RAID arrays at all, or is just one hard drive ok?

Get a Samsung monitor, they are the best IMO. I have one of these and it's amazing.

Get a single Intel SSD around 200GB - 300GB for your OS/Programs/Games if you can afford it.

For file storage you can then get a couple 2TB 5,200/5,900 RPM storage drives and put them in RAID 1 (mirror). That way if one drive goes you won't lose any data, just replace the drive and rebuild and you'll be saved.

That would be the best solution.

Hey guys should this be like it is?:



It's the thermal pad from my GPU.

post pic of your GPU with cooling shit off of it

the gpu looks fine, perfectly clean and doesn't look burnt. My camera is dead atm :\

e:
This card, or this card? (no i'm not getting an Nvidia, these are going above my price range as it is.)

Plague that's probably a protector to keep thermal paste off everything else besides the gpu core

Wait, so why did you take the HSF off to begin with?

Buying this stuff this week because I wanna get some actual high-res video for BF3:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition - $119.00
MB: ASUS M5A97 AM3+ ATX - $95.00
RAM: Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 2x2G 1600Mhz DDR3 - $38.00

The RAM timings are slow, but I don't give a fuck, this is a budget build. The prices written into the hyperlinks are different than newegg because those are the prices I'm getting these items for at my local computer shop.

I'm pairing the above items with these things that I already have:

GPU: Sapphire ATi Radeon HD 5750 Vapor-X 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
Case: Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Mid Tower ATX

ThePlague recommended this CPU cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Plus. It's cheap and it gets unreal reviews. I think I'll use that to OC the 955 Black, after all, that's what the Black edition is for. My only concern is that coolermaster doesn't say that it's compatible with AM3+ motherboards, but I'm sure it'll work no problem since the mounting hasn't changed for AMD boards since the AM2 socket I think.

What do you guys think?

Can people donate money to help me get a new graphics card? :C This thing is seriously fucked.

It's your own fault for gutting it and screwing it up. You should have RMA'd that thing. It'd still be under warranty.

He didn't register it with XFX within 30 days, so no warranty for him.

He told me he did.

I said I did the other day, not within the time :\

:/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Freelancer

He didn't register it with XFX within 30 days, so no warranty for him.

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... you can register it any time.... I did this for a 7900GT lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by InnerGoat

... you can register it any time.... I did this for a 7900GT lol

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Nope.

Select North America / Radeon HD and you'll see the following for yourself:

Quote:

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If you register the product online at http://www.xfxforce.com/ within 30 days of purchase, your limited warranty will be EXTENDED for the duration of your life. Registration within 30 days of the date of purchase is a condition precedent to receiving the lifetime warranty.***

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Speaking of warranties and how awesome lifetime ones are when you actually register... Awhile ago one of my GTX 285's failed and I sent it in for RMA, I got a GTX 285 back which failed in just shy of a month. I sent the replacement back for RMA as well and now they're sending me a GTX 470 1.2GB version. I called them up today and explained my situation (I use SLI to power three monitors using Nvidia Surround etc...) and now they are going to take my other GTX 285 and replace it with another GTX 470 1.2GB!

So since one of my cards failed, and the replacement they sent me failed, now I'm' getting a free upgrade from GTX 285's to GTX 470's.

Now, here's a question for you guys... My motherboard only support PCI-E 1.0, it didn't bottleneck my SLI GTX 285's. Do you think it will bottleneck my GTX 470's in SLI? If it does I will be on the hunt for a 780i chipset motherboard, they support PCI-E 2.0 and DDR2 + my 775 socket processor.

***Batteries not included

*** The limited warranty for XFX Limited Edition graphics cards lasts for a period of two years and is non-transferable.

But yeah.

so nobody's going to comment on my build?

Nope.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Amit

Buying this stuff this week because I wanna get some actual high-res video for BF3:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition - $119.00
MB: ASUS M5A97 AM3+ ATX - $95.00
RAM: Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 2x2G 1600Mhz DDR3 - $38.00

The RAM timings are slow, but I don't give a fuck, this is a budget build. The prices written into the hyperlinks are different than newegg because those are the prices I'm getting these items for at my local computer shop.

I'm pairing the above items with these things that I already have:

GPU: Sapphire ATi Radeon HD 5750 Vapor-X 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
Case: Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Mid Tower ATX

ThePlague recommended this CPU cooler: CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Plus. It's cheap and it gets unreal reviews. I think I'll use that to OC the 955 Black, after all, that's what the Black edition is for. My only concern is that coolermaster doesn't say that it's compatible with AM3+ motherboards, but I'm sure it'll work no problem since the mounting hasn't changed for AMD boards since the AM2 socket I think.

What do you guys think?

---

I'm an Intel fanboy but the 955 Black is a pretty nice CPU.

The motherboard is pretty good, I've started to dislike some of the newer things Asus has been making and their customer service/support isn't the greatest.

The memory is decent, I was looking into the exact same stuff earlier for a build. The 9-9-9-24 timings aren't bad but the 1.65v power draw it requires isn't good. Try and find some RAM that only uses 1.5v since the 1.65v stuff is a little less stable from what I've read.

That CPU cooler should work.

I'm Intel all the way, but their cheap offerings are bullshit. I don't have $200 to spend on a CPU. SO i'm venturing into unknown territory of AMD with a relatively safe build. I don't plan to overclock the RAM, so voltage should be fine. Or is it just general stability that is the issue?

Only really matters if you're overclocking.

That CPU will downclock your RAM to 1333.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Patrickssj6

That CPU will downclock your RAM to 1333.

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Only if you leave the BIOS controlled ratio for that at Auto... Haven't seen many motherboards lately that don't let you unlink the CPU and Memory ratio.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Freelancer

Only if you leave the BIOS controlled ratio for that at Auto... Haven't seen many motherboards lately that don't let you unlink the CPU and Memory ratio.

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This. I don't have to overclock the RAM just to get the manufacturer tested speeds.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Freelancer

Nope.

Select North America / Radeon HD and you'll see the following for yourself:
Speaking of warranties and how awesome lifetime ones are when you actually register... Awhile ago one of my GTX 285's failed and I sent it in for RMA, I got a GTX 285 back which failed in just shy of a month. I sent the replacement back for RMA as well and now they're sending me a GTX 470 1.2GB version. I called them up today and explained my situation (I use SLI to power three monitors using Nvidia Surround etc...) and now they are going to take my other GTX 285 and replace it with another GTX 470 1.2GB!

So since one of my cards failed, and the replacement they sent me failed, now I'm' getting a free upgrade from GTX 285's to GTX 470's.

Now, here's a question for you guys... My motherboard only support PCI-E 1.0, it didn't bottleneck my SLI GTX 285's. Do you think it will bottleneck my GTX 470's in SLI? If it does I will be on the hunt for a 780i chipset motherboard, they support PCI-E 2.0 and DDR2 + my 775 socket processor.

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Oh so maybe they changed something around since then. Also nice to see how that RMA turned out. Can't say that I've seen a situation like that ~ grats on your cards!

Also your CPU is old, why not upgrade everything else at once

Quote:

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Originally Posted by InnerGoat

Oh so maybe they changed something around since then. Also nice to see how that RMA turned out. Can't say that I've seen a situation like that ~ grats on your cards!

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I've seen it many times, but only with EVGA. Seriously, I wish they made Radeon cards. Sapphire cards just work, though. No need to RMA those babies.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by InnerGoat

Oh so maybe they changed something around since then. Also nice to see how that RMA turned out. Can't say that I've seen a situation like that ~ grats on your cards!

Also your CPU is old, why not upgrade everything else at once

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Thanks heh. EVGA is now my most favorite PC related company, followed by Logitech.

Not upgrading cause the system I plan to build in April next year will probably be like $4,800 - $5,000 just for the tower... I'm slowly upgrading some of my peripherals right now that I can get from Best Buy for staff price though. Keyboard will be next, I was going to get a Razer Black Widow Ultimate but then I tried it... I really don't like mechanical keyboards apparently, so I'm going with a Logitech G110 instead.

I've got a G110 Keyboard. It'd pretty rad. I had to get used to the spacing of the keys. They are smaller due to the addition of the macro keys on the left. I don't really use them. I wish I didn't spend $100 on this thing, mainly because I don't use it for what it was created for. I use it a lot in LOTRO, but I hardly play that anymore. Backlighting LUA scripts are cool, but I dunno. I still prefer my Thinkpad keyboard. I might purchase the separate keyboard+touch from lenovo later.

How extensive is the backlighting? Can you do anything like on my Alienware? I know there's only red/blue LED's so you can only do those and the shade combinations in between but I liked how you can hit MR, G1-12, record the macro you want, then MR again and you're done. That's awesome for some things I do, administrative and game wise.

The backlighting isn't very bright. You can turn it off and it looks just like a normal black keyboard with white letters, but the only way to tweak brightness is by the shade of the colour. Since you only get red and blue and the shades between, the full red is the brightest and most clear colour you get out of it. Full blue is similar, but it feels like the light is physically lower in the keys than the red. The red pops out almost like 3D when compared to the blue. But that's the nature of the colour red, isn't it? It's also hard to see the keys clearly with the blue lighting with room lights turned off, but it's not piercing like the red (which you do get used to in the dark). The best and my favourite shade would be the brightest Purple/Violet. It's easy on the eyes in the dark, easy to see, and it's just a nice colour. For my M1 setting I use full red, for M2 I use full blue, and for my M3 setting I use a wave mod that fades through most of the shades in increments of 4. The higher you set the increment the faster the wave will go through the shades. I think it was set to 10 originally or something. I changed it to 4 because it's not too fast and not to slow. You can tell it's changing, but it's not distracting. Also, the USB port on the keyboard works great, I have my mouse plugged into that, but the USB headset features of the G110 kind of suck. Note that the USB port does not provide power, but flash drives and input devices work fine. My WD MyBook External HDD doesn't work with it for some reason. The MyBook has it's own power source and everything. The Mic input is fine, but the low quality sound OUTput is pretty bad. You can actually hear the degradation of quality. It sounds crackled. Thankfully my AX 180 headset allows USB (since fucking lenovo removed mic inputs on the T series of thinkpads).

For the past month and a half I've seen the G510 for just $10 at best buy in this area. When I saw that I grudged my purchase even more. I would suggest you get that keyboard instead since it's got the screen and it has green and yellow added to the backlighting for the full rainbow mods. Since you're a Best Buy employee, I'd think you'd get it for around $100.

I was looking at the G510 today but decided to go with the G110 anyway. I honestly hate the gimmicky screen that Logitech has been putting on some of its keyboards and I think the G110 is wide enough as is without the extra G-keys that the G510 would of provided. I've got it home and setup now and I see what you mean about the red vs blue lighting, though you're absolutely correct in saying that it's the nature of red to "pop" more to the eye. I'll be using red during the day (M1) and blue during the night (M2). Send me that script key for your transitioning and I'll set it to my M3 as well, or even the link to the place you found the transitioning script.

Hey, how good would this card do in BC2/BF3?

Because it's either I get something like that next week, or wait a long while longer to get a 6870.

Wait a while longer. That thing is basically the same as my HD 5750 (cuz mine performs like a HD 5770 :D). The HD 6700 series is pretty much a rebranded HD 5700 series, except with newer tech and an added 6790 model. So, basically, you're be going in the opposite direction. And from what I've seen from benchmarks, the HD 6870 is about the same level as the HD 5850. So you'd still be going backwards with that. Get this Sapphire HD 6870 and give me the Dirt 3 code as a referral :D everyone wins.

I think i'm going to get this card. The price is right, and it's got great reviews. It also seems to perform pretty good with the Battlefield 3 Alpha. I'll only be running it at 1600x900 though, so mine will probably do better than that.

XFX support ticket reply, as of 3 hours ago:

Quote:

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Hi John, We are more than happy to RMA the card and test it out, and then if repair or replacement is necessary we can arrange it. Be sure your online account information has a full first and last name, best shipping address for signature delivery (no PO boxes), and an up to date phone number filled out in the Account Details Section. All that information will be needed to proceed with warranty servicing. Let us know when thats confirmed. - Erik

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:-3

Anyone have any idea when the next refresh on CPUs and video cards is going to be? Looking to build a dedicated workstation the next couple of months to last me at least four years. Would hate to buy and have new stuff out a month later.

Considering AMD/nVidia have crammed two cards into one, I'm guessing we're up for a new gen next release. Never been too fond of having to buy at this point in the cycle :\.

April 2012 for Intel's Ivy Bridge/Socket 2011 with PCI-E 3.0. Since PCI-E 3.0 is coming with socket 2011 I would assume new GPU series will be as well.

Bleh, not really in a position to wait six months. Anything stupid here? Whenever grant money comes in, I'm thinkin that this is along the lines of what I'll pick up.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115070 2600k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131702 long warranty mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233184 (two of these for 16GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136803 (thinking about two of these for RAID)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145493 (storage)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130655 GTX 580
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153131 (last time I bought a PSU, 500 watts was super duper high end and CPUs were 120nm process)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133192 (99% won't get this because of the price but my room is next to the laundry and there's a stupid amount of dust and lint that floats in. Filters are very appealing to me.)

I'll nab an OEM copy of Win7 64bit and cannibalize an optical drive from somewhere. Come January, I'll pick up a pair of 24" Ultrasharps and put them on the DVIs and HDMI to my current 24". It'll go on the left for start menu and icons while the other two are for productivity software on the center and right.

Would a 6970 be a better deal? It's loads cheaper for 10-20% less performance. While that wouldn't be much of a deal now, would the 580 be worth buying for say three or four years from now? You say PCI 3.0 is coming so I'm wondering if the increase in bandwidth will leave what's here now in the dust. Not like I could cheaply upgrade a few components when the time comes though.

Also, whatever happened to Creative's stranglehold on the sound card market? Did the switch to digital output kill them off or something? The buzz from onboard sound always bugged the hell out of me when I had my last desktop. Is that a problem anymore?

Man somebody's got money to blow.

A couple 2,000MHz 4GB memory DIMMs would probably give you all the performance you need, and then some.

An SSD would give you better performance but less storage space for that cost.

Personally, I'd RAID-1 or RAID-5 two or three storage drives instead of running a RAID-0 for the OS/Programs performance.

GTX 580 is an amazing card, when running single card I think I'd rather take the CUDA+PhysX benefits instead of the slightly faster AMD offerings.

Get a Corsair PSU, they have legendary customer service and generally make great products.

Do the raptors even saturate a sata 2 pipe? I know most solid states can, but where do the Raptors line up alongside that? Just wondering if the sata 3 on them is really necessary. Even if they aren't, the price point on the sata 3 drives are very close over their supposedly less potent siblings.

Was planning on RAID-1 for the raptors, but apparently their reliability has gone way up over the past 8 years; I could probably RAID-0 them and be fine really (lawl). The raptors are so fucking big now I'd probably never fill one. Unless I decide to make an .iso for everything I can grab, the largest file I'd work with would be a couple gigabyte photoshop file I'd be sending off to a 60" wide printer. The 3TB drive is only gonna be for weekly archives of dev projects.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136697
RAID-5 on that with 4d1p would be overkill in terms of storage for me while being cheaper. I'm really more interested in the drives speed than its storage potential. SSDs have come a long way, but I'm still not ready to hop on the bandwagon yet; might be something I'd upgrade more than a year from now perhaps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Amit

Man somebody's got money to blow.

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Yes, I've finally become so poor, they're paying me to go to school. It's a welcome change.

I top out my OS/Programs drive around 300GB. That's with most of my games installed including the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta client which is 27.2GB (and I have the other one that's 51GB on the C: drive right now as well). I'm fairly certain that even the new raptors in RAID-0 don't tpo out SATA II let alone SATA III. Just get one of these instead of the two raptors for $440 and you'll probably be fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227744

Max Sequential Read
Up to 1500 MB/s

Max Sequential Write
Up to 1225 MB/s

:O

i have that exact same motherboard, and i approve.

If Zeph buy's his CPU before Tuesday, he'll get $15 off :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Amit

If Zeph buy's his CPU before Tuesday, he'll get $15 off :D

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converted into real world money that's like 10 breadcrumbs

I doubt he cares since he says that place is paying for his computer.

I'll probably be getting it the middle of next month at the latest. Semester starts two weeks later than I thought >_<.

Little bump.

I saw that the 590s have dropped down from a thousand bucks, and are relatively close to the 580s so I'm thinking about nabbing one if they become available. This may seem like one of the stupidest questions ever, but can you actually use more than two monitors out of it? I was under the assumption that nVidia had issues with multi-display and SLI. The 590s are two 580s in SLI on one platter aren't they? Does the multi-display issue only effect multiple PCIe SLI or something? I mean, it seems just silly that they'd put 3 DVI ports on the card if only a max of two could be used but there was nothing about it on the nVidia website.

Another question:

Since I have literally been in the woods for the last two months, anybody have any info about Bulldozer or the Radeon HD7000 series that I might have missed? I came back and saw that the FX CPUs were not released like they said they would be. I can't build a new PC until that part becomes available.

^^ Soon™

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zeph

Little bump.

I saw that the 590s have dropped down from a thousand bucks, and are relatively close to the 580s so I'm thinking about nabbing one if they become available. This may seem like one of the stupidest questions ever, but can you actually use more than two monitors out of it? I was under the assumption that nVidia had issues with multi-display and SLI. The 590s are two 580s in SLI on one platter aren't they? Does the multi-display issue only effect multiple PCIe SLI or something? I mean, it seems just silly that they'd put 3 DVI ports on the card if only a max of two could be used but there was nothing about it on the nVidia website.

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Those can do multi-display just fine. Nvidia cards need to be in SLI to use more than two displays :v:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by InnerGoat

Those can do multi-display just fine. Nvidia cards need to be in SLI to use more than two displays :v:

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I still find that retarded. What are you doing nVidia?

Nvidia cards need to be in SLI to use three displays in spanned mode for gaming purposes. If they're not in SLI you can use up to two monitors per card.

There's no 1155 socket motherboard that will run two PCI-E slots at full x16 speeds is there? Well this sucks... I was about to run over to Memory Express and grab an i5-2500k ad a Gigabyte P67A-UD4 along with 8GB of DDR3 memory since they've got a pretty nice sale on the UD4 right now. I'm still going to hold off for Ivy Bridge though I think, so long as my current rig lasts that long since it should be able to run two PCI-E cards at full x16 speeds.

I woke up this morning and my rig wouldn't even POST. Had to take out both GPU's and all my RAM, reseat the RAM, then reseat 1 GPU for it to POST. It barely POST'ed then (had to reboot a couple times) so I reset the motherboard back to factory settings. I think I'll leave it there for now until I can get an Ivy Bridge setup.

Damned if you upgrade now, damned if you don't. Same here. Just plugging away on the old machine.

That said, there are x16/x16 capable 1155 motherboards, but they are approaching the $350 mark.

Yeah well if I were to upgrade now I'd try and keep all three components below $400... So that's not going to happen. Would there be much of a visible performance difference running both my GTX 470's at 8x instead of 16x speeds?

This is what I was thinking of getting:
• Intel Core™ i5-2500K Processor, 3.30GHz w/ 6MB Cache
• Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3
• GSKILL Sniper Series 8GB PC3-12800 Dual Channel DDR3 Kit (2 x 4GB)

It comes out to $399.97 or $419.97 with tax. Does anyone have any suggestions that could make that better (products available on Memory Express please) while keeping the price under $420 without tax? Just so you know, I try and match my RAM to my motherboard colors. Obviously it's not the primary choice but it's something to consider, if another set of RAM will get me a tiny performance increase but it's red or something silly I probably won't go for it.

I really wish I could get my hands on a quality socket 775 board that would take DDR2 but include PCI-E 2.0 spec.

There would be little to no performance difference running your GTX 470s at x8/x8 instead of x16/x16 assuming the PCIe spec is 2.0 or 3.0 and not 1.0 or 1.1. Only the highest end cards can approach saturating the bandwidth available.

What 1155 boards do you know of that will allow me to run at least PCI-E slots at x8 speeds? My RAID card also needs a PCI-E x8 slot, and I'm reading that if I move up to the UD5 the two for my GPU's will run at x8 but the third will only run at x1.

It looks like the UD7 does what I want, but it's A LOT more money... I'd also have to stick my 470's right next to each other. Curse this stupid 1155 design with bad PCI-E management!

From what I've seen, generally all the boards with four pcie slots are 1x16 or 3x8+1x1. Newegg is a good way to find boards due to its search parameters. Look for a model that does, then see if your web shop carries it.

Yeah, looking at the EVGA P67 boards that they recently released. They have 6 PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots but will only operate 1 at x16, otherwise you get limited to 5 at x8.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813188082

It's a nice board but it's also Extended ATX, which I'm not sure will fit well in my mid-tower.

Oh well, I just sorted out my latest issue so I think I'll attempt to stick with this system until Ivy Bridge comes out and I can run x16/x16/x8. Having a system that has problems that require a day of diagnosis every two weeks isn't getting on my good side though.

Question: is there still no Nvidia card that allows you to run three monitors simultaneously (with one card)? If not, are there any planned?

There are specialty cards that can run more than 2, but they're either low end crap or high end workstation cards. Gamers are stuck with using the dual-gpu cards like the gtx590 still.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130693

There is also this gimmick that has weird resolution limits (please don't buy this)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500174

So I finally got my state tax return back, and I'm now looking at getting a new laptop. These are my choices:

Option one is considerably cheaper.
Drawbacks:Windows Vista,processor isn't up to par.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220822

Option two is a bit more expensive.
It's bigger, runs Windows 7, processor is significantly better.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834158017

I'm slightly wary about both being re-certified, however my budget is 500$. Advice and suggestions?

For three hundred bucks, I'd go with that. Not like you'd be doing anything intensive with either for sub 500 dollars.

or you could go with this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834230108

I'm looking for something with a Dedicated card. I'm going to be doing SOME gaming, and I doubt integrated graphics will go for it.

Second-gen Core i-series integrated graphics is better than that G105M for sure. The 5470 stomps all over both, though.

So here's what's been happening for the last week with my system... I'll be using my computer for the complete variety of tasks I use it for, gaming, IM'ing, video editing, browsing, etc... My GPU drivers will suddenly up and quit on me and leave all three of my monitors black. It seems to be completely random and after a few days of this I started diagnosing last week.

First thing I did was boot to safe mode, uninstall the GPU drivers, reboot to safe mode again, run driver sweeper, reboot normally and install a different driver. I tried this with the last FIVE WHQL certified Nvidia drivers and they were all blacking out. I tried reseating the graphics cards, tried one at a time, tried both without and SLI bridge, etc, etc... Nothing gave me a good result. Since I have pretty much all the things I need to keep on my 6TB RAID I just backed up a few things and reformatted my C: drive with a fresh copy of Windows last night.

Now, I did what I normally do which is install all the Windows updates first, install AVG, chipset drivers, and then display drivers. I tried 275.33 and it seemed to work initially, but then suddenly my PC rebooted... After the reboot the drivers appeared to have just vanished. I was back to 800x600 default resolution and right-clicking on the desktop didn't show the NVIDIA Control Panel like it should have. So I wonder over to the Device Manager and low and behold, one of my GPU's is displaying an error code.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Device Manager

Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)

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*takes a look online*

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Microsoft

One of the drivers controlling the device notified the operating system that the device failed in some manner. For more information about how to diagnose the problem, see the hardware documentation.

---

Well what the fuck. I try reseating the GPU's again and that seems to fix the Code 43, so I do a safe mode uninstall/driver sweeper session and then decide to try the 270.61 drivers. Everything seems to be working now, I've installed a few things, run a few stress tests on the CPU and GPU... So I decide to try some CPU overclocking since I always reset to stock when installing Windows to increase the chances of it working properly...

So I set my BIOS to its saved 2.4GHz - 3.0GHz overclock that I know is stable. POST goes like it should, Windows logo starts up, nvlddmkm.sys BSOD right off the bat. This now prevents me from booting into Windows unless I go the safe mode route. So now I'm sitting here after a safe mode uninstall/driver sweeper session with the 270.61 drivers and NO overclock because I think my 6 year old Asus Striker Extreme motherboard has just gave up on trying to deal with PCI-E 2.0 graphics cards.

What else do you guys think it could be? I've researched every solution I can find online about this issue and tried a few different fixes but I'm stumped. If you can think of something, let me know and I'll try it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All that aside, my birthday is coming up here and my grandparents heard about this PC issue (as I'm lucky [sometimes unlucky] enough to have them live near to me) and they sent me some money for new components since I may have vaguely said that I probably need new stuff over the phone. So here's what I'm thinking of upgrading to:

EVGA P67 FTW - $279.99 ($10 mail in rebate after this, special order from my local parts wholesaler)
Intel Core i5 2500k - $209.99
GSKILL Sniper Series 8GB PC3-12800 Dual Channel DDR3 Kit (2 x 4GB) - $59.99

However I'm a little stumped on the memory, I went with that stuff because it's 1.5v (good for Sandy Bridge) and has good timings. It's also low-profile and shouldn't interfere with my Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme CPU cooler (getting a kit to let me use it on the 1155 mobo). It looks like this RAM is exactly the same but has larger heat-spreaders and may interfere with the CPU cooler, however it's $10 cheaper cause it's on sale... If it'll fit I'll get that instead. Then there's a third option, I could get this 1866MHz RAM but I'm not sure if the increased cost and slightly worse timings are worth it. If someone can vouch for the 1866MHz stuff I'll get that instead.

Suggestions on the RAM or comments on other components would be appreciated!

I'm also debating between the EVGA P67 FTW or the Gigabyte P67 UD7. The UD7 is $319.99 vs the P67 FTW at $279.99...

AVG? Problem found lol. The hardware's aged a bit by now so you might need some extra voltage to run what was once stable. What are you using to stress test? Maybe it's too light of a load to bring out any problems? LinX is quite rough on the CPU and memory, and furmark would point out any GPU cooling or power issues (by frying a card, usually) ... :)

SB loves fast ram. It doesn't care too much for tight timings, just high clockspeed. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/s...he-best-ddr3/1 Also your motherboard is expensive as fuck. Guess you're stuck with it if you want to SLI though...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by InnerGoat

AVG? Problem found lol. The hardware's aged a bit by now so you might need some extra voltage to run what was once stable. What are you using to stress test? Maybe it's too light of a load to bring out any problems? LinX is quite rough on the CPU and memory, and furmark would point out any GPU cooling or power issues (by frying a card, usually) ... :)

SB loves fast ram. It doesn't care too much for tight timings, just high clockspeed. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/s...he-best-ddr3/1 Also your motherboard is expensive as fuck. Guess you're stuck with it if you want to SLI though...

---

I was using Intel Burn Test (based on LinX or something I think, I remember reading something like that), Prime95, and many runs of Heaven 2.5 to test the GPU's. I used to use Furmark to test the GPU's but I find that running a benchmark like Heaven gets you better "real world" results.

I'll look into some 1866MHz memory then. The Sniper Series has some of the same style stuff that I had selected in 1866MHz for $30 more, maybe I can cheapen it out a little by bargaining.

You can't believe how pissed off I was when I realized that a Gigabyte P67A-UD4 wouldn't do what I needed, I was pumped to get a motherboard for $129.99!! Fuck PCI-E requirements.

Update!

So I ended up going with the following:
Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7-B3 - $239.99
and
GSKILL Sniper Series 8GB PC3-14900 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (2 x 4GB) - $84.99

I got the motherboard for $239.99 instead of $319.99 because apparently Gigabyte discontinued their P67 line already in favor of Z68... So The UD7 was on clearance and they even had it in-stock! Unfortunately the memory I ordered is special order, and they were out of the i5 2500k's but have more coming in next week sometime. The memory should come in around the same time as the processor.

Memory Express offers a free "quick mount" service where they install your memory and processor onto a motherboard and do a quick test to make sure everything is running, but only if you purchase a motherboard/memory/processor within 7 days of each other. So to take advantage of this I just left the motherboard with them after putting a deposit on it.

I done good?

No point in building an Ivy Bridge system when it comes out; the performance gain over that build will be negligible in any practical application.

I was going to go with the unannounced Octocore Ivy Bridge Extreme processor when that happens, and dedicate it to gaming (none of this hybrid server/gaming system I have now) by going with Triple or Quadruple SLI/Crossfire depending on what gets the best performance. I was also going to go with 2133MHz or faster memory on the Ivy Bridge build, depending on what's available of course.

I still think I'll sell off my 470's when Ivy Bridge comes out, get a $20 graphics card for this system, and retire it to the home server role.

EDIT: Big question, can someone please confirm if the following means what I think it means?

Quote:

---

1. 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1, PCIEX16_2)
   * For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16_1 slot; if you are installing two PCI Express graphics cards, it is recommended that you install them in the PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slots.
2. 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1, PCIEX8_2)
   * The PCIEX8_1 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16_1 slot and the PCIEX8_2 slot with PCIEX16_2. The PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_2 slot will operate at up to x8 mode when the PCIEX8_1/PCIEX8_2 is populated.
3. 1 x PCI Express x1 slot
   (All PCI Express slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
4. 2 x PCI slots

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/2...nsionslots.jpg

---

Based on the above image you get:
PCI-E X1_1
PCI-E X16_1
PCI-E X8_1
PCI-E X16_2
PCI
PCI-E X8_2
PCI

It means that if I put my graphics cards in PCI-E X16_1 and PCI-E X16_2 and my RAID card in PCI-E X8_2 then the graphics cards will both run at x16 and the RAID card at x8? Or will the graphics cards be reduced to x8 speed regardless because I install my RAID card in the x8 slot?

If the graphics cards are going to be reduced to x8 speeds because I plug in the RAID card then I'll put my first GPU in PCI-E X16_1, the RAID card in PCI-E X16_2, and the second GPU in PCI-E X8_2. That will give me better cooling potential on the GTX 470's since they aren't mashed together.

Sounds like you'll get a full 16x on 16x_1, but 16x_2 will share it's bandwidth with the bottom 8x_2 slot. Fuck computers!

But if x16_2 gets knocked down to x8 and x16_2 is in SLI with x16_1, won't both cards run at x8?

No one should stay at 16x and the other at 8x afaik

LED:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...4&sku=320-2676

LCD:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...4&sku=320-8277

Is there any particular reason why I'd want an LCD ultrasharp over an LED one other than the LED having 25% less maximum brightness? We're talking basement dwelling usage here.

LED will give you better contrast ratio and better color in general, at least that's the case with the two LED's I have.

Still looking at this Laptop.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834158017

Would it be sufficient to play me some BF3 or should I save up for this one?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834127452

The 5470 is a slightly better card, I'd go with the first one.

That said, neither will run BF3 at high settings.

The processor is what's killing it, will keep looking.

EDIT: This one would probably be my ideal bet.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834158016

6370M is not as good as the 5470M, I don't think. Remember the AMD GPU number shift went downward, i.e. x800-class is now the x900-class.

Disregard whats been posted. I'm building a desktop at the moment. So far I'm at 536.76 without the OS. Here's what I've got:
CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103921

Graphics Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102908

RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231253

Computer Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811815004

Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138318

Wireless Adapter:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320048

Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151094

CD Drive and Hard Drive Bundle:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.696137

Any recommends on what I can do to make it cheaper or have I hit the nail on the head?

You've basically hit the nail on the head, but I'd probably find a motherboard that can do Crossfire. ASRock makes a good one.

Yeah that looks good to me at the price point, I'm so out of date on AMD stuff that I don't even know if that's a decent processor or not tbh. I'd like to recommend that you not cheap out on the PSU though, you'll just end up replacing it in 2 or 3 years. Get a good Corsair, Silverstone, etc...

To be honest, I've found that all these recommendations to "not cheap out" on PSUs to be bogus. I had a Rosewill in this machine that lasted me six years under heavy load and sparse cleaning, and I have had no-name ones last me longer. Just read the reviews and you'll do fine.

As for the CPU, it's solid as far as AMD CPUs go, but obviously any Black Edition would be better. Ideally, a Phenom II X4 955, since after that point you are paying for nothing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Warsaw

To be honest, I've found that all these recommendations to "not cheap out" on PSUs to be bogus. I had a Rosewill in this machine that lasted me six years under heavy load and sparse cleaning, and I have had no-name ones last me longer. Just read the reviews and you'll do fine.

---

How many systems have you built using cheaper PSU's? I've built 8 or 9 systems with cheaper PSU's because the client I was building them for wanted to keep costs down as much as possible, 3 or maybe 4 of those have crapped out in 2-4 years of usage. Out of the other PC's I've built, admittedly only 6 or so, with good quality PSU's none have crapped out (again though, two of them are only a year or two old).

The PSU is a very critical component, it's never happened out of the ones I've had that have failed but a failed PSU can fry the rest of your components as well. It's also something that you can't really replace with a cheaper version when it goes out either, so better to spend an extra $30-$50 initially.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Warsaw

As for the CPU, it's solid as far as AMD CPUs go, but obviously any Black Edition would be better. Ideally, a Phenom II X4 955, since after that point you are paying for nothing.

---

Yeah, for $20 more, the 955 Black is very overclockable if you get a decent aftermarket HSF for it. I'm still looking at it for my BF3/RO2 build (Yeah, my iMac barely runs RO2 Beta at 35 FPS on high settings).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Freelancer

The PSU is a very critical component, it's never happened out of the ones I've had that have failed but a failed PSU can fry the rest of your components as well. It's also something that you can't really replace with a cheaper version when it goes out either, so better to spend an extra $30-$50 initially.

---

Yeah, it's really not good to skimp on the PSU. I've used lower end brands like Raidmax and Rosewill before and they are quite decent. I doubt you'll have much trouble with either of those. It's worth noting that even higher end PSU's like OCZ have been known to fail, as well and you can't really avoid it. I would say the sweet spot for a PSU is a Coolermaster 500W - 550W. If you want Crossfire-X you'll probably need a 650W PSU and SLI you should have 750W or higher. (depending on what cards you have).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Freelancer

How many systems have you built using cheaper PSU's? I've built 8 or 9 systems with cheaper PSU's because the client I was building them for wanted to keep costs down as much as possible, 3 or maybe 4 of those have crapped out in 2-4 years of usage. Out of the other PC's I've built, admittedly only 6 or so, with good quality PSU's none have crapped out (again though, two of them are only a year or two old).

The PSU is a very critical component, it's never happened out of the ones I've had that have failed but a failed PSU can fry the rest of your components as well. It's also something that you can't really replace with a cheaper version when it goes out either, so better to spend an extra $30-$50 initially.

---

I've built 6 or 7 computers, all using the PSUs that came with the case (because I don't usually buy a separate PSU). Mine is the only one with an expensive after-market PSU. The problem is that it's usually not an extra $30-$50, it's an extra $50-$80 for a desirable PSU. As long as it has a high comment to egg ratio with five eggs, it's fine.

Like I said, he could just buy a Rosewill and save money. They are good PSUs and they have generally excellent reviews.

I could go for these.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817152028

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817339001

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817822003

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817101048

This one has great reviews while still being cheap.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817339022

The Hec Orion has gotten great reviews while still being dirt cheap. If I go with that it will put my grand total at 510.71.

Freelancer just doesn't like buying anything under $100.

This is the PSU I bought, but with the promo code it went down to $99. Or you could go with this one, which was my fallback.

Spending a lot on a PSU is worth it, because that's one of the crucial parts you can keep when you upgrade in a few years.

I stand corrected.

My grand total would be 492.41 before shipping. I think I'm going to go with this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139027
(free shipping, $49.99 after $10 rebate)

If you don't do this I'll come and do something to you TeeKup!! Something very very not-gay!!

Potentially using this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817152035

Cleaning off thermal paste.

Isopropanol.

It's 99% Isopropyl Alcohol and the rest is water.

Is this appropriate?

Rubbing alcohol works just fine. I do it all the time.

I ran out of rubbing alcohol but I have this stuff.

Since most rubbing alcohol is 70 - 90% this 99% should be fine as well?

i think thats what i used. alcohol evaporates pretty quickly anyway, and a concentration change from 90% to 99% isnt going to hurt anything


you know, unless fire gets involved.