Support NeoGAF

[Hazaro]

Laptop-GAF and TechSupportGAF - Visit our friends here
Race your PC Thread - Benchmark and Overclock (With Guides) your new or old PC here
Mechanical Keyboard |OT| / Mech KB Talk - Talk about buying expensive and loud clacky things here
Use Ctrl+F or your search function to help find what you are looking for

New Thread >> 2013 Thread Part 1<< New Thread
2012 Thread Part 1 + Part 2
2011 Thread Part 1 + Part 2
2010 Thread
2009 Thread
2008 Thread

by Rosti

This OP is a constant work in progress. If you have something to correct, add, or critique please PM me.

08/24/2012: Inside the Second (A look at CPU performance in gaming) - TechReport
08/04/2012: Two useful cooling articles: Case Fan Temps and Positioning - (Bit-Tech), 60 Fans Tested (Vortez)
09/09/2011: Inside the second: A new look at game benchmarking Why FPS isn't everything, and Multi-GPU still has issues.

If you want help with a build fill this out AND try making one of your own from the resources in the OP
Use PCPartPickerhttp://pcpartpicker.com/ to find the best prices and have a nice list of parts. I highly recommend Amazon and Newegg in North America.
Basic Desktop Questions:

• Your Current Specs: CPU / RAM (DDR2/DDR3) / Motherboard / GPU / PSU
• Budget: Price Range + Country
• Main Use: Light Gaming, Gaming, Emulation (PS2/Wii), Video Editing, HD Streaming, 3D work, General Usage (Word, Web, 1080p playback). Rate importance on a 1-5 scale. (5 Being highest)
• Monitor Resolution: What resolution will you be playing your games at? Are you going to upgrade later? Are you buying a new monitor?
• List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Self Explanatory. Also is 30FPS acceptable? 60? 120?
• Looking to reuse any parts?: List make and model (e.g. Corsair 520HX 520W, 640GB SATA HDD, CM Centurion 5)
• When will you build?: What time frames are doable? Are you building this weekend? Do you need it in a week or so? Can you wait a month or two?
• Will you be overclocking?: Yes, No, Maybe (This means yes)

General guides:
FALCON GUIDE &#8211; This is a general ~monthly updated guide with lots of price segments and a ton of accessible information at the bottom.
Tech Report System Guide - Updated once a season, it proves I'm not crazy by picking things I usually agree with.

Picking your parts
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU12/ - !!CPU and GPU Benchmarks!!
A great resource. Note the speed benchmarks are run at, and some games and tasks work better on one setup versus another. e.g. Video Editing (multi core), RTS (core speed), and Games (AMD/nVidia optimizations).

Video Card Cooler Guide by mkenyon(ZFZ) - Picking a GPU cooler right for you
Intro to dual cards: SLI & Crossfire - I'd only suggest dual cards if you are willing to plunk down $400+ for each GPU. Otherwise go single.

How much power do I need? - For low-mid end systems a good PSU that can deliver 380W on the 12V is enough so a 450-550W is often the good buy. Above that 650W-750W for systems looking for dual card capability or top end single cards plus overhead are common. A high end 850W-1200W unit for more graphics. Check the News + Review section below for more info on PSUs.


Hazaro's PC Builds: http://bit.ly/Q4_2012_Haz - http://bit.ly/GAFSFF

Choosing a case: Picking a case reflects what you are looking for and your personal tastes. Note that some cases might not be able to fit taller rifle coolers (Like the CM 212 Plus, or more commonly a ThermalRight Silver Arrow) or longer video cards (Like a custom 7950 or GTX 680). Some LED fans in cases can have off switches.
Thank your friendly neighborhood feist and TheExodu5. Last Updated 04/26/12.


$40-60

$70-$100

$120-$200

$40 - BitFenix Merc Alpha/Beta ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

$80 - Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced ,,,,,,

$130 - Cooler Master HAF XM/Corsair 500R/SilverStone RV02 (RV03/FT02)​

$40 - NZXT Source 210/210 Elite/220 ,,,,,,,,

$100 - Fractal Design Arc/Lian Li PC-K63 ,,,,,,,

$150 - BitFenix Shinobi XL/NZXT Switch 810/Corsair 600T​

$45 - Diablotek Evo/Rosewill Challenger ,,,,

$100 - Antec Eleven Hundred/Corsair 400R ,,,,

$180 - Cooler Master HAF X/CM Storm Trooper/Xigmatek Elysium​

$60 - Cooler Master HAF 912/922 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

$100 - SilverStone KL04/TJ04-E ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

$ 200 - Lian Li PC-V700/PC-V750/Various Lian Li (~$100-200+)​

[QUIET OPTIONS]

$60 - BitFenix Shinobi ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

$100 - Fractal Design Define R3/Define XL ,,,,

$120 - Anidées AI-6B/Antec P280​

Putting it all together
Thermal Paste: Apply as a ~4mm ball to the CPU. Press the heatsink down and tighten. Line method is ok. Application matters way less than you think. If you take the heatsink off, clean it with alcohol and reapply or you will trap air.
mkenyon(ZFZ) - Build Guide & Cable Management Guide
Video Build Guides: TechReport PC Building Guide 15 minute video how-to / 40 Minute how-to / Tested March 15th $1,500 build (100 minutes, but entertaining) / How to Build a Gaming Computer 2012 (Carey Holzman - 150 minutes) / Newegg - 40 minutes / TimeToLive Build (75 minutes)

Accessories (Rough, will be changing format and adding image thumbnails later). TY Mekenyon.

Headsets - If a good mic isn't as important, check out Headphone GAF. The headphones there will always be better quality than the ones listed here (for the price).

• Plantronics .Audio 655 - $35
• Fatal1ty - $40-50, CM STORM Sonuz - $70
• ROCCAT Kave - $110, ASUS Vulcan - $120
• Sennheiser PC-350/360 - $150/$225 - Best microphone, worth it for that alone.

Microphones - Standalone

• Zalman Clip on Mic - $9 - Works for a budget
• Logitech USB Mic - $15 (eBay) - Much clearer, but picks up a lot if you aren't talking
• ModMic - $35 Preorder - TBD

Keyboards - MX Brown = Quiet tactile, MX Blue = loud tactile, MX Black = stiff linear, MX Red = soft linear. Get Thermaltake/Razer if you need a numpad.

• Rosewill RIKB - $10, Logitech K200 - $25
• Razer Arctosa - $44, ROCCAT Arvo - $40-55, Logitech K750 - $60-70 - Membrane keyboards with decent build quality, K750 and Arctosa have scissor switches.
• CM Storm - Quickfire Rapid - $80, Thermaltake Meka/Razer Blackwidow - $80
• Filco Majestouch 2 Tenkeyless - $140, Noppoo Choc - $100, Happy Hacking Pro - $344

Mice

• Logitech SBF-96 - $15, CM Storm Xornet - $30 - Xornet is the best buy in mice below $60.
• CM Storm Spawn - $40, ROCCAT Kova - $50, SteelSeries Kana - $55 - Spawn for claw, Kova for palm, Kana for smallish hand palm.
• SteelSeries Sensei RAW - $60 - Best mouse.
• SteelSeries Sensei - $100 - Best mouse with a little more.

Help! PC won't Turn on/POST/Boot
Under construction

Newegg (Parts)
Amazon (Parts)
NCIXUS (Parts)
Chief Value (Parts)
Micro Center (Parts)
Performance-PCs (Parts)
Tiger Direct (Parts, Bing Cashback)
Mwave (Parts)
AVADirect (Custom Built)
Falcon Northwest (Custom Built)
MAINGEAR (Custom Built)

NCIX (Parts, Assembly, Price Match)
Amazon (Parts)
Canada Computers (Parts)
DirectCanada (Parts)
Memory Express (Parts, Assembly, Price Match)
Newegg (Parts)
Tiger Direct (Parts)
PriceBat (Price Comparison)
PriceCanada (Price Comparison)
Shopbot (Price Comparison)

Novatech (Parts)
Overclockers UK (Parts)
Aria PC (Parts)
Ebuyer (Parts, Custom Built)
Microdirect (Parts)
HardwareVersand (Parts)
Misco (Parts)
Scan (Parts)
Dino PC (Custom Built)
YoYoTech (Custom Built)

PC Case Gear (Parts)
Scorpion Technology (Parts)
MSY (Parts)
Umart (Parts)
staticICE (Product Finder)

(And reviews)

AnandTech
The Tech Report
TechPowerUp
Guru3D
HardOCP
Hardware Canucks
Overclockers
Tom's Hardware
X-bit labs
+Jonnyguru - LEGIT PSU reviews
+HardwareSecrets - LEGIT PSU reviews
+Silent PC Review - Silent Computing

Steam Mover / Steam Tool for SSDs
Ninite A batch downloader and installer for popular programs. A fantastic time saver for any new PC build.

_____
CPU-Z gathers information on your Motherboard, BIOS, CPU, FSB, VCORE voltage and memory timings.
GPU-Z gathers information (Speed, architecture, temps) on your video card and GPU.
Real Temp / Core Temp allows you to monitor the temperature of your CPU core(s).
HWMonitor allows you to monitor fan speed, temperature, voltage, etc.
Piriform Speccy overall computer hardware monitoring
ATTO / CrystalDiskMark Tests read and write speed of your hard drives.
MSI Afterburner (aka RivaTuner) allows you to manage GPU overclocking, fan speed/profiles and chart many aspects of your GPU.

FURMark allows you to stress test your video card.
Fraps allows you to record real time video, take screen captures and display your FPS.
Memtest86+ allows you to run a full memory scan to deal with the blue screen of death and system errors.
MemtestG80 allows you to test for soft errors in GPU memory for NVIDIA CUDA-enabled GPUs.
nHancer/Radeon Pro allows you to optimize the display, improve the performance and fully utilize your NVIDIA graphics card.
OCCT / Prime95 allows you to stress test your CPU and GPU. allows you to stress test the stability of your computer.
Dxtory/nVidia driver options allows you to limit the frame rate on most games. Excellent for older games or just getting a locked 45FPS

SSD Setup and Tweaking
Online Security Thread
2011 High-res PC screenshot thread + 2012
Triple buffering: "Why we love it"
PC games blog list

 

[Hazaro]

MedIC86's Advanced Information Guide - Ctrl + F is your friend.

Current mainstream sockets:
Intel: LGA1155/2011
AMD: AM3/AM3+

Overclocking:

Is it safe? Mostly. Computer parts are pretty damn durable and there are a ton of safeguards in place to auto throttle down a CPU, increase fan speed, and even shut down before any harm happens.
How hot is too hot? In general it is wanted to keep temperatures under 65C using a CPU load program (Like in the OP, Prime95). A little over is fine. Idle temperatures are not that important and are often reported inaccurately. Temperature variation across cores is normal.
My CPU is not fast as others It happens. Every person is not going to get 4.8Ghz out of an i5 2500K. 1.3V and 4.4Ghz is a good benchmark for many though.

In general, the most resources you want are found by simply using Google. 'Processor + Motherboard' will give you a lot of good results. 'How to overclock (processor)' as well.

A popular 2500K (P67) guide is clunk's, here: http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclocking/39184-p67-sandy-bridge-overclocking-guide-beginners.html

Motherboards:

- Socket Type (Which processors will work with your motherboard. Make sure it matches or is compatible with the CPU you are buying.)
- Chipset (Different chipsets (H67,P67,Z68,770,880,990) determine what possible connections and extras motherboards can support. In general the performance gains are not noticible and it is used mainly to tell how many PCI-E lanes a motherboard can support)
- Memory (Does it use DDR2 or DDR3? 1.5V or 1.65V? Most use 1.5V DDR3 today)
- Expansion slots (How many expansion slots do you need? PCI-E x16? PCI? Do you want two GPU's and a wireless PCI-E card? A PCI sound card?)
- Connectors/features (Do you need HDMI out? USB 3.0 ports? On board digital out?)
- Formfactor (Your case will have room for a certain formfactor of motherboard (ATX[normal], mATX[small]. Some cases only fit mATX and are labeled as such)
- Compatibility (On rare occasions there are incompatibilities between certain cards and memory with motherboards)
- Brand (Most brands on the market today are solid. Newegg reviews are generally helpful to determine a DOA rate. MSI, ASUS, ASRock, and Gigabyte in no particular order are some of the most known.)
- Quality (You pay more for more features. Higher end boards will also have more power regulations, use less power, and keep voltage in check more than cheaper boards)
- Overclock-ability (Usually nearly equal across the board. If you want a slightly higher overclock, you can pay more for a motherboard with better power regulation)
- Price (Always try to find the best bang for your buck, don't buy a mobo with features that you will never use!)

So in short, when buying a motherboard try to follow these points:
1. Determine the platform (Chipset + Socket)
2. Determine what functions you deem necessary for the motherboard to have
3. Make a shortlist of all motherboards that have your demands
4. Pick the board that has good reviews and has the best price

Speed and latency for RAM (e.g. 1333 9-9-9-24 vs 1666 8-8-8-24) is not a big deal. In many cases it is just 1-4% difference. 1333Mhz DDR3 is perfectly fine for most. Save your money unless a sale is on, our you want to buy neat looking RAM. Just make sure the tall RAM heatsinks don't block your CPU heatsink!
4GB is enough for gaming. 8GB if you do a lot of multitasking or video work.
DDR3 prices are currently quite low and shouldn't drop much farther.

CAS vs. SPEED
DDR2 & DDR3
Memory Overclocking

When you are in the market for a new GPU follow the same rules as with the motherboard. Determine your budget, features that you need etc.**CHECK REVIEWS FROM OP SITES!**

Question: There are many different brands in videocards, do they differ?
Answer: Most cards are very similar. Brands are there for warranty and support. Sometimes a brand will use a custom cooler.
If the card uses the reference PCB, there is **NO** difference per brand, its the same card they just slap a different sticker on it.
But if you have a pre-factory overclocked card or they are using another cooler then the reference design there might be a difference, check hardware review sites for these GPU's.

Imaging your old HDD to your SSD
Some SSD Setup and Tweak guides in this post
Crucial Firmware
Samsung Support

SSD is a abbreviation for 'Solid State Drive': a 'drive' with no mechanical parts, but with a conventional disk-interface (usually SATA).
An ssd contains memory chips (flash memory) to store the data.
The biggest advantage is data is almost immediately available, without the need of moving a mechanical head to the area on the hard drive where the desired data is stored.
At this moment pc-components such as the processor, memory (ram), graphics processor and other components, perform well enough to meet the demand of the most users. Still we have to wait while using a computer...
So where can performance still be increased dramatically? The answer: SSD's!

Terminology:

- Garbage collection: part of the functionality of the firmware of ssd's that automatically merges fairly unused memory blocks for better performance
- Under-partitioning: leave blank space for better performance
- Wiping: OCZ method (tool) to improve performance
- Aligning: creating a partition with a size that is exactly the cluster size multiplied by a factor
- TRIM: a ATA (contoller) command from the operating system to an ssd, that can tell that a memory block on the ssd can be erased to improve write performance - It's a feature of Windows 7 but keep in mind that your SSD must support it!
- Wear leveling: spreading write-actions on memory cells evenly over the whole ssd - this prevents wear of the flash cells increasing their lifetime
- MLC / SLC: Multi Level Cell or Single Level Cell - the latter lasts longer, is theoretically faster but more expensive, so mlc-based ssd's are now sold more, especially to consumers.

Tips for SSD's on a Windows based system:

- Firmware: YES (check if there is new firmware out and if so install it, usually gets speed increases)
- Partition alignment: YES (Windows Vista (SP1 and later) and Windows 7 always create aligned partitions.)
- Defragmentation: NO (it's important that you turn off automatic defragging on the SSD. see below)
- Indexing: NO (its better for the drive durability + speed to turn this off. right click on the SSD in "my computer" and uncheck "Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties" you will probably get some error for some files that cant be accessed just skip them)
- AHCI: preferably enabled (this is a bit tricky since not all motherboards can actually do this. To enable ACHI also differs from pc per pc but there are some steps that are necessary. you can google this easily enough. -> be warned tho! there is no guarantee that this will speed up your SSD, also enabling ACHI requires to be done before installing Windows, you can hack it into the registry later but that can make your system unstable, so read up if you want to do this)

How to check if TRIM is enabled in Windows 7?
Go to the command prompt (run -> CMD) and key in "fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify" if you get a 0 (zero) TRIM is working. To enable it key in "
fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0"

Here is a list with some good tweaks for your SSD (*WARNING* as always be careful what you change, most of these are quiet harmless but there are never guarantees!)

Disable indexing
Description: Indexing creates and maintains a database of file attributes. This can lead to multiple small writes when creating/deleting/modifying files.

Searching for files will still work.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Services - > Right-Click Windows Search -> Startup type: Disabled -> OK

Disable defragmentation
Description: Defragmenting a hard disk's used space is only useful on mechanical disks with multi-millisecond latencies. Free-space defragmentation may be useful to SSDs, but this feature is not available in the default Windows Defragmenter.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Services - > Right-Click Disk Defragmenter -> Startup type: Disabled -> OK

Disable Write Caching (Depends on SSD. Crucial M4 SSD leave on (as of 9/19/2011)
Description: There is no cache on the SSD, so there are no benefits to write caching. There are conflicting reports on whether this gains speed or not.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Manage -> Device Manager -> Disk drives -> Right-Click STEC PATA -> Properties -> Policies Tab -> Uncheck Enable write caching -> OK

Firefox - Use memory cache instead of disk cache
Description: If you use Firefox, there's a way to write cached files to RAM instead of the hard disk. This is not only faster, but will significantly reduce writes to the SSD while using the browser.
Instructions: Open Firefox -> Type about:config into the address bar -> Enter -> double-click browser.cache.disk.enable to set the value to False -> Right-Click anywhere -> New -> Integer -> Preference Name "disk.cache.memory.capacity" -> value memory size in KB. Enter 32768 for 32MB, 65536 for 64MB, 131072 for 128MB, etc. -> restart Firefox

Free up extra drive space
Disable the Page File
Description: Eliminate writing memory to the SSD, free over 2GB of disk space. Warning - If you run out of memory the program you're using will crash.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Settings (Performance) -> Advanced Tab -> Change -> Uncheck Automatically manage -> No paging file -> Set -> OK -> Restart your computer
Alternatively, if you want to play it safer, you can set a custom size of 200MB min and max.

Disable System Restore
Description: Don't write backup copies of files when installing new programs or making system changes. Can free up between a few hundred MB to a couple GB. Warning - Although unlikely, if a driver installation corrupts your system, there won't be an automatic way to recover.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> System Protection Tab -> Configure -> Turn off system protection -> Delete -> OK

Disable Hibernate
Description: You may free up 1GB of space on the SSD if you have 1GB of memory, 2GB of space if you have 2GB memory. You will lose the hibernation feature which allows the equivalent of quick boots and shutdowns.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Type cmd -> Right-Click the cmd Icon -> Run as Administrator -> Type powercfg -h off -> Type exit

And finally the ever important question: What SSD should i buy ?

Unfortunately there is no definitive answer for this question, technology changes and evolves all the time. So if you are planning on buying an SSD read up some reviews on trusted sites (see the websites in the link section).

Links to useful SSD tools:
Crystal Mark Bench + NFO Tool
AS-SSD TOOL
Steam Mover Tool

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

Great thread as usual.

 

[Hazaro]

Going to be trimming and editing the OP along with adding the long awaited Accessories section in the near future.

Possibly some more focus on build capability as well if people can help me with that who have used the guide.

Most of my issues with the OP is lack of focus on things not parts/cases and how everything is presented even if I'm restricted to forum posting. So I'm hoping to make it look nicer while still being readable, searchable, and information dense (aka not super long).

*It seems really short to be honest, going over the whole thing again.

Sample stuff:
Edit
Update
Trim the SSD section
Make the info flow more like a build progress
Add a Windows/OS section
Add Accessories

20k crept up quickly on me so it's not done atm. :/

Also if any graphic / organizing people have input or suggestion please let me know!

 

[cjkeats]

Awesome job as always. Now it's time for me to pretend like I'm going to buy a pc when really I'm gonna blow it all on bargain bin console games. I'm so weak.

 

[Fantasmo]

Gonna re-post this since it was the last post before the new thread. I mentioned I needed Dolby Digital Live or DTS connect because my receiver doesn't have HDMI input and then mrklaw asked me this:

does your receiver accept multichannel analog inputs?

Holy CRAP! I think it does!

All these years and I never knew it! It has DVD IN which has individual RCA inputs for front surround center and sub. Had this thing since 2009 and I never bothered to figure out what it was!

Hahahahaah, no more weird sound cards for me mofos! Bwahahaahahahaha

(I am right aren't I ? This is what you were asking and I have it right?)

 

[kennah]

Ok everyone we only have three months to get to 20,000 posts. We can do this!

 

[Hazaro]

Ok everyone we only have three months to get to 20,000 posts. We can do this!

Not that much exciting in tech. Hopefully Haswell kicks it up, AMD comes back, and the next GPU jump is a nice increase in power.
HAHAHAHAHA. Yeah right. Mobile trends, low power, and no point in investing in smaller fabs wooooo.

That's for the next thread anyway.

What you can look forward to now: SSD prices dropping on the Samsung 830 and Crucial M4. <$0.80 a GB. So nice.

 

[mrklaw]

Gonna re-post this since it was the last post before the new thread. I mentioned I needed Dolby Digital Live or DTS connect because my receiver doesn't have HDMI input and then mrklaw asked me this:


Holy CRAP! I think it does!

All these years and I never knew it! It has DVD IN which has individual RCA inputs for front surround center and sub. Had this thing since 2009 and I never bothered to figure out what it was!

Hahahahaah, no more weird sound cards for me mofos! Bwahahaahahahaha

(I am right aren't I ? This is what you were asking and I have it right?)

yep, you should be good with just 3.5mm-RCA cables.

 

[n0n44m]

from the previous topic

-last year, auto-updating to the latest Nvidia drivers killed 2 of my GPUs, my little brother's, and my friend's. We were reformatting, swapping them around, and I even tried installing them in a new PC I built in frustration because of this issue but they would always cause blue screens after that driver update. Note that this is not a BIOS update, just nvidia's whql drivers.

wtf ? what cards got killed?

AFAIK only the GTX590 had an issue with the early drivers which allowed for too much voltage when using a tweaking program like Afterburner, which could lead to burning VRMs

never heard of any Nvidia card killing whql driver

 

[Why would you do that?]

A few formatting issues which confused me, but very informative and helpful OP. I am planning on doing a mini-ITX build hopefully soon, which will include me using an SSD for the first time, so the SSD portion of the OP I am particularly grateful for.

Very excited for my future build... All said and done, it will wow me with the SSD speed, plus fit in my backpack.

 

[chaosblade]

New GPU news would be nice. Depending on how power and pricing turns out I'm considering a 8870/8950 to move on from my 5850. Haven't seen as much about whatever NV is cooking up.

Subbed even though I don't really post in here all that often.

 

[Shambles]

Another proud thread by the PC crowd.

 

[Fantasmo]

yep, you should be good with just 3.5mm-RCA cables.

The funny part is this is going to cost me $40 in RCA cables anyway. I have to run the cables in my ceiling because the door to the room is in the way. So it's either 1 50' Optical and a sound card or 6 50' RCA cables. Hahah

 

[Dark Octave]

Cool. I wasn't expecting this, but cool.

 

[Grief.exe]

New thread. Time to get more people hooked up into the world of PC gaming.

Its fairly cheap, and one of the best times to switch over. I'm thinking more and more people will get tired of the high prices, low fidelity, and anti consumer practices of consoles as this generation stretches on.
What certainty helps is a mid range PC now already is significantly more powerful than the rumored next gen console specs, so the gap is going to be even wider in the years to come.

 

[Kenka]

What is GAF opinion of the HD Radeon 7770? I would like to build a PC for a cousin of mine. He should be able to play Flash games, watch 1080p movies and play games like Skyrim at 30 FPS at 1080p if possible.

 

[kagete]

from the previous topic



wtf ? what cards got killed?

AFAIK only the GTX590 had an issue with the early drivers which allowed for too much voltage when using a tweaking program like Afterburner, which could lead to burning VRMs

never heard of any Nvidia card killing whql driver

2x MSI 460s
1x Palit 460
Plus my friend's but I forgot what his specific card was.

It all happened in the same week we updated, and we live in different places so its not an electrical thing at home (GA, NJ, Canada). It took us more than 2 weeks before we stopped trying to fix things altogether and all just built new PCs. Plugging any of our old cards in the new PCs gave us instant blue screens too. I remember googling endlessly at the time and finding a forum post about a user that said that the driver forced his card to basically run out of spec for a while until the onboard memory eventually failed. We all compared our bluescreens and we had the exact same error code reported.

Please note that I am not bashing NV at all and will definitely buy from them and even recommend them again (depending on build/price/availability of course).

 

[ss_lemonade]

What is GAF opinion of the HD Radeon 7770? I would like to build a PC for a cousin of mine. He should be able to play Flash games, watch 1080p movies and play games like Skyrim at 30 FPS at 1080p if possible.

I'm pretty sure (well based on reviews I've seen before) a 7770 should be able to handle skyrim @ high settings 30fps 1080p.

 

[Fantasmo]

Jesus christ! I ordered the Samsung 830 256GB SSD from Newegg yesterday and it's being delivered today?! I mean, I live in NJ, but I didn't rush the order and I did free shipping. The rest of my stuff probably isn't even coming for a week. Damn, I've never had that happen with anything before.

 

[Birbo]

Bookmarked. Been thinking of finally putting together a capable HTPC/Gaming computer to hook up to my TV. Looking forward to the small form factor build.

 

[Kenka]

I'm pretty sure (well based on reviews I've seen before) a 7770 should be able to handle skyrim @ high settings 30fps 1080p.

Then it's a deal. Thanks georaldc!

 

[Smokey]

We hit 20,000 posts in the last thread? Didn't even notice!

 

[CRS]

Not forgetting to subscribe to this one.

 

[RibbedHero]

OT2!!!!

 

[ss_lemonade]

Then it's a deal. Thanks georaldc!

I think there are better options than a 7770 though like a 6870 for a little bit more, or even a 6850. Looking at this comparison:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/536?vs=540

seems like the 6870 does much better overall. Skyrim runs a bit slower though, but the settings being used are higher than normal (4xMSAA + 1920x1200) so you could improve performance with 1920x1080 and using some form of FXAA.

You could also go nvidia with a 560ti

 

[Corky]

Let's do this pc-gaf.

 

[TommyT]

New thread oh yeah!

 

[Daante]

Bookmarked. Been thinking of finally putting together a capable HTPC/Gaming computer to hook up to my TV. Looking forward to the small form factor build.

I pulled the trigger this summer and did that.
Now i dont wanna sound like a hyper-bole or anything, but its like i have a next gen console already with my gaming htpc.

Playing most multiplatform titels in 60 fps and real
HD resolution with some AA looks fantastic and feels so good on the tv!

Put steam on your system, Invest in a wireless 360 pad and a solid wireless Mouse/keyboard and well you will be a happy man!

 

[ExMachina]

A shiny new thread to sub to! Awesome job as always, Haz.

Didn't post much in the last one, but I pointed it out to my cousin and it helped him put together his first build. Needless to say, he's thrilled with it coming from a laptop with an i-gpu.

 

[Noaloha]

More rig pics this time yo!

Doesn't have to be a new build even, just open up your case and take a snap!

People wanna see your PC's innards!

Exclamation mark!

My motherboard's covered in a large piece of stupid plastic!

 

[n0n44m]

pics ?

tubes everywhere !

 

[sk3tch]

(click to enlarge)


(click to enlarge)


(click to enlarge)

4x EVGA GTX 680 Classified - 131%-100-400 - i7 3960X @ 4.8Ghz 1.48v - 16GB Mushkin Redline 993997 @ 2133 - Asus Rampage IV Extreme - H100 - 3DMark 11 Score

 

[Birbo]

I pulled the trigger this summer and did that.
Now i dont wanna sound like a hyper-bole or anything, but its like i have a next gen console already with my gaming htpc.

Playing most multiplatform titels in 60 fps and real
HD resolution with some AA looks fantastic and feels so good on the tv!

Put steam on your system, Invest in a wireless 360 pad and a solid wireless Mouse/keyboard and well you will be a happy man!

So what kind of build did you make and how much did it run you? I was initially inspired by this article on Lifehacker to do this. I really like the small form factor, but want it to be powerful enough to run games at a high level.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Nice, a new thread. I haven't been very active but I like to check in here from time to time. I'm going to resist any major upgrades myself until the next generation of consoles appear and I have a better idea of how they will impact requirements. At this point, I'll have to basically build a new system when the time comes.

 

[Salaadin]

You guys are your awesome looking, clean cases.


I only have this old before/after shot of mine:

Had to drill holes in the side just to get it that clean and it still isnt all that great. Im getting a new case with my next major upgrade, whenever that is.

 

[beje]

I would be ashamed of showing my PC innards. I swear I will organize those cables with zip ties. One of these days. Maybe.

I only have this old before/after shot of mine:
http://i.imgur.com/MmdQZ.jpg[img]
Had to drill holes in the side just to get it that clean and it still isnt all that great. Im getting a new case with my next major upgrade, whenever that is.[/QUOTE]

OMG at that heatsink.

 

[RS4-]

I hate you sk3tch.

 

[n0n44m]

We hit 20,000 posts in the last thread? Didn't even notice!

because you were too busy posting !

Hall of Fame

4x EVGA GTX 680 Classified - 131%-100-400 - i7 3960X @ 4.8Ghz 1.48v - 16GB Mushkin Redline 993997 @ 2133 - Asus Rampage IV Extreme - H100 - 3DMark 11 Score

double my GPU score lol ... so what is the actual MHz on those cores & memory?

2x MSI 460s
1x Palit 460
Plus my friend's but I forgot what his specific card was.

It all happened in the same week we updated, and we live in different places so its not an electrical thing at home (GA, NJ, Canada). It took us more than 2 weeks before we stopped trying to fix things altogether and all just built new PCs. Plugging any of our old cards in the new PCs gave us instant blue screens too. I remember googling endlessly at the time and finding a forum post about a user that said that the driver forced his card to basically run out of spec for a while until the onboard memory eventually failed. We all compared our bluescreens and we had the exact same error code reported.

Please note that I am not bashing NV at all and will definitely buy from them and even recommend them again (depending on build/price/availability of course).

weird stuff ... I mean I definitely believe the cards are dead, but the 460 is one of the most sold cards of the past few years

surely if some official WHQL driver would start killing them Nvidia would have a problem

 

[Salaadin]

Stuff

I dont even...what is going on here?!

OMG at that heatsink.

Scythe Mugen 2 Rev B. Its a beast. Heavy, hard to put on (needed a second set of hands), but it works great.

 

[mkenyon]

My rig pics for page one.

Sometimes I wish I would just aggregate all of the money on parts into one build to not let Sk3tch get away with that benching rig of doom.

 

[Canis lupus]

Subscribing. @mkenyon: thats a nice rig!

 

[Salaadin]

My rig pics for page one.

http://i.imgur.com/Hdamah.jpg

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/rfBnCh.jpg

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/LmMnWh.jpg



Sometimes I wish I would just aggregate all of the money on parts into one build to not let Sk3tch get away with that benching rig of doom.[/QUOTE]


What case is that?

 

[Smokey]

(click to enlarge)


(click to enlarge)


(click to enlarge)

4x EVGA GTX 680 Classified - 131%-100-400 - i7 3960X @ 4.8Ghz 1.48v - 16GB Mushkin Redline 993997 @ 2133 - Asus Rampage IV Extreme - H100 - 3DMark 11 Score

Not impressed. No SR-X mobo/dual Xeon processors. Fail. Not high end enough.

ALSO RIP BoobPhysics101

 

[Kenka]

I think there are better options than a 7770 though like a 6870 for a little bit more, or even a 6850. Looking at this comparison:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/536?vs=540

seems like the 6870 does much better overall. Skyrim runs a bit slower though, but the settings being used are higher than normal (4xMSAA + 1920x1200) so you could improve performance with 1920x1080 and using some form of FXAA.

You could also go nvidia with a 560ti

Yes, but then I'll have to pay quite a bit more. For the cuzzie, I guess, it's alright. All games are run smoothly at max settings with a 560ti (that I own) at 1920 x 1200 but on the other side, they are all also very playable at 1680 x 1050 on a HD Radeon 7770. Also, the latter's consumption is way less.

 

[mkenyon]

What case is that?

Shinobi XL

Not impressed. No SR-X mobo/dual Xeon processors. Fail. Not high end enough.

ALSO RIP BoobPhysics101

RIP indeed. Dude was a wealth of knowledge.

I think dual Xeons in an SR-X would be a bottleneck. You can't overclock them. I think what he is missing is copper pots and some LN2.

 

[Shambles]

Mmmmm BitFenix cases are delicious. It's a shame when I replaced mine in June that they didn't have distribution in my part of Canada.

 

[CadetMahoney]

lovely work here. Shinobi XL looks good but I don't dig white for cases, mine get dirty and I'm lazy.

 

[Jzero]

New thread

 

[Smokey]

Shinobi XL

RIP indeed. Dude was a wealth of knowledge.

I think dual Xeons in an SR-X would be a bottleneck. You can't overclock them. I think what he is missing is copper pots and some LN2.

Yeah but in terms of pure outrageousness having dual processors on a single board is pretty high up there!

Imagine how much much more amazing sk3tch's setup would look if those four 680s had water flowing through them. Mmmmm