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[Aranath]

Could well be the GPU, the coil whine could be a result of the GPU acceleration in your browser.

Should it be happening all the time, though? I could understand when it's only getting pushed to the max, but this is constant and unbearable.

I think it could be coming from one of the capacitor on the MB.

Yeah, doing some Googling, this seems to be a common cause. Is there a way to test for that? Ugh, I hope it's not. The motherboard is one of the more difficult parts for me to replace if it's faulty.

 

[JayDub]

Do we know (approx) when nvidia will be launching their new cards? I'm wanting to upgrade my rig soon in preparation for Crysis 3 - and my 560Ti is really beginning to show its age in Far Cry 3. I'm considering the GTX680, but I'd like to be able to run games released this year (and hopefully early next year) at 1080p/60fps. I can't stand anything below 54-60.

My current specs if curious: [email protected] 16GB RAM, 480GB SSD, 560Ti 1GB VRAM

Those are great specs! Even the 560ti! What settings are you running in FC3 and what frames you getting?

 

[MarshMellow96]

So my audio only seems to work when I have Windows Media Player open, and onboard audio output on the rear panel just doesn't work.

Should I just start again or something?

 

[DTKT]

Should it be happening all the time, though? I could understand when it's only getting pushed to the max, but this is constant and unbearable.



Yeah, doing some Googling, this seems to be a common cause. Is there a way to test for that? Ugh, I hope it's not. The motherboard is one of the more difficult parts for me to replace if it's faulty.

I don't think there is a specific way to test for coil whine on the MB, but you could try the tube technique and just listen over each cluster of capacitors.

 

[dr3upmushroom]

Man, can't wait until I pull the trigger next week and go from spending time building and using the PC instead of obsessing over components.

I've been back and forth between an i3/ 5870 vs i5/ 660 ti build for the last few days, trying to find benchmarks to see if the difference in performance is worth the added price. Then this AMD deal comes up and makes the 7950 look really, really tempting.

Would an i3 bottleneck a 7950? Is the next round of intel CPUs going to use the 1150 socket? If so I think it'd be better to get an i3 now and upgrade later. If the next CPUs will be a different socket I think I'd be better off getting an i5 (or even i7 if that $230 deal is still going on next week, there's a Fry's right by me).

 

[Ty4on]

Man, can't wait until I pull the trigger next week and go from spending time building and using the PC instead of obsessing over components.

I've been back and forth between an i3/ 5870 vs i5/ 660 ti build for the last few days, trying to find benchmarks to see if the difference in performance is worth the added price. Then this AMD deal comes up and makes the 7950 look really, really tempting.

Would an i3 bottleneck a 7950? Is the next round of intel CPUs going to use the 1150 socket? If so I think it'd be better to get an i3 now and upgrade later. If the next CPUs will be a different socket I think I'd be better off getting an i5 (or even i7 if that $230 deal is still going on next week, there's a Fry's right by me).

Today the regular socket for Intel is 1155 and for the next Haswell it will be 1150. Bottleneck depends on the game, planning to play games that love fast CPUs like Planetside 2?

Can't say anything now, Haswell could be amazing and overclock well over 5Ghz, but it is looking like the upgrade will mostly be in laptop battery life (turning the CPU off as much as possible).

 

[BioHazard]

Hey guys, I have a question about a possible upgrade. Below is what I currently have and I am thinking about doubling my memory and upgrading to a 680. Does anyone know if I need to upgrade anything else or if I will I run into any problems with the rest of my existing hardware?

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912
Motherboard: GIGABYTE P67A-UD4-B3
RAM: 8GB
Video: NVIDIA GTX 570
CPU: Intel i5-2500k 3.3

Thanks!

 

[Koroviev]

Hey guys, I have a question about a possible upgrade. Below is what I currently have and I am thinking about doubling my memory and upgrading to a 680. Does anyone know if I need to upgrade anything else or if I will I run into any problems with the rest of my existing hardware?

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912
Motherboard: GIGABYTE P67A-UD4-B3
RAM: 8GB
Video: NVIDIA GTX 570
CPU: Intel i5-2500k 3.3

Thanks!

If you can, pursue that $230 i7 from Micro Center. Memory is fine. A 680 is a damned fine card.

 

[kharma45]

Hey guys, I have a question about a possible upgrade. Below is what I currently have and I am thinking about doubling my memory and upgrading to a 680. Does anyone know if I need to upgrade anything else or if I will I run into any problems with the rest of my existing hardware?

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912
Motherboard: GIGABYTE P67A-UD4-B3
RAM: 8GB
Video: NVIDIA GTX 570
CPU: Intel i5-2500k 3.3

Thanks!

Don't waste your money upgrading your memory, there is no need to if you're just gaming. Instead put that money towards a good third party cooler if you don't already have one and OC the nuts off your 2500K, it'll actually see a performance boost unlike adding more RAM.

What is your PSU for the 680? I'd imagine it'll be fine but just to be on the safe side.

 

[Echoplx]

What is your PSU for the 680? I'd imagine it'll be fine but just to be on the safe side.

680 actually uses less power than the 570 from what I can see, will be fine.

 

[kharma45]

680 actually uses less power than the 570 from what I can see, will be fine.

It does, but I wouldn't want to run a fancy new piece of kit off something that is just barely up to the job like one of those no brand 750w PSUs.

 

[scogoth]

Soooo couldn't wait any longer.

Everything else should arrive early this week then lots of fun redoing my loop again!

 

[Echoplx]

It does, but I wouldn't want to run a fancy new piece of kit off something that is just barely up to the job like one of those no brand 750w PSUs.

True, I just assumed people don't actually buy those xd

 

[Aranath]

I'm currently running without my GPU inside and the sound is still there, so it's not that.

I'm trying to isolate the sound with some rolled up paper, but it's so damn loud, it's really difficult. Although, it's definitely not coming from the top of the motherboard, like I thought. It's in the lower half below the 1st GPU slot. I can't tell if it's coming from the PSU or around the Z77 chipset on the motherboard. It seems to get a little bit louder when I listen in on those areas.

I just wonder, with it getting louder in FurMark (and the Windows Experience Index, for that matter), would a faulty capacitor on the MB cause that? Or is it perhaps the PSU pumping more power and, thereby, increasing this damn sound?

I'm guessing I'm going to be sending something back to the retailers, but I just need to work out what.

 

[garath]

Soooo couldn't wait any longer.

You bought a dog? Congratz!!!

 

[Shambles]

Soooo couldn't wait any longer.

I like how your dogs eyes are looking at you asking 'why?!'.

 

[kharma45]

True, I just assumed people don't actually buy those xd

There was one guy a not too ago who did and it blew on him with a nice new 670 inside, so now I always try to check just to be safe.

 

[scogoth]

You bought a dog? Congratz!!!

They are waaaaay overrated. She's currently chewing a squeaky toy and throwing it at me to get me to play. I want to build!

 

[Koroviev]

There was one guy a not too ago who did and it blew on him with a nice new 670 inside, so now I always try to check just to be safe.

Wow, poor guy!

 

[kharma45]

Wow, poor guy!

Thankfully the PSU took no other components with it bar itself so he was very lucky. Again, it's why I always want to check with people just to be sure as you never know!

 

[Koroviev]

Thankfully the PSU took no other components with it bar itself so he was very lucky. Again, it's why I always want to check with people just to be sure as you never know!

My 500W Corsair has served me reliably for the past year or so, but I might use the prospect of a higher tier of card as an excuse to get a higher wattage modular PSU

What would be a worthwhile upgrade from a 7850?

 

[Ty4on]

Don't waste your money upgrading your memory, there is no need to if you're just gaming. Instead put that money towards a good third party cooler if you don't already have one and OC the nuts off your 2500K, it'll actually see a performance boost unlike adding more RAM.

P67 :/

My 500W Corsair has served me reliably for the past year or so, but I might use the prospect of a higher tier of card as an excuse to get a higher wattage modular PSU

What would be a worthwhile upgrade from a 7850?

Lot's of people running even a 680 with a 450W PSU.

 

[Koroviev]

P67 :/


Lot's of people running even a 680 with a 450W PSU.

But...but it's not modular! I'm not cool yet

 

[kharma45]

My 500W Corsair has served me reliably for the past year or so, but I might use the prospect of a higher tier of card as an excuse to get a higher wattage modular PSU

What would be a worthwhile upgrade from a 7850?

Stick with both for now. OC your 7850 if you haven't, most can exceed 7870 performance easily and get near stock 7950 levels.

P67 :/

P67 can overclock.

 

[Ty4on]

But...but it's not modular! I'm not cool yet

So happy with my modular PSU. Just look at how neatly the PSU cables have to go around the HDD and how quiet it (SF45SF-G) is with its gold rating compared to the cheaper, non modular, bronze rated SF45SF.

T_T

Spoiler

Sarcasm off, it's a decent PSU, but the fan placement means idle fan speed is really high and the modular interface is kinda useless when you have to use every cord. If you opt for no optical drive you can skip the molex (laptop drive adapter needs it), that's it unless you go for no GPU which needs extra power and/or mount the SSD to the mSATA on the mobo. If you're building a FT03-mini go for the bronze PSU unless you really need to save power as it's only noisier on load when the GPU will be much noisier.

P67 can overclock.

Forgot it used to stand for performance, so used to Ivy which won't overclock on anything but Z77 though. Looks like they work after a BIOS update!

 

[bro1]

I wonder if whatever controller they are going to use on Xbox 720 will work on the PC

 

[kpjolee]

I wonder if whatever controller they are going to use on Xbox 720 will work on the PC

More likely than not.

 

[aristotle]

If he can get his hands on an old XP disk and a 64-bit Win8 .iso, then he can install XP on the drive (no need to activate; just load the Win8 .iso when XP reboots after formatting the drive) and do a clean install of Windows 8. The upgrade installer is simply looking for a Windows partition.

Right. That's what I planned on doing myself since I had to buy 2 different versions.

Bolded parts are incorrect. A Windows product key doesn't care which bit version you're running, they apply to both 32/64-bit versions.

Go to www.mswos.com, log in with order details, download installer on a 64-bit machine (run it in W7 compatibility+admin mode if it's a W8 machine). Save the .iso when you're asked. Use Windows USB/DVD Tool. Install using that. Boom, done.

Good to know. Like I said, I wasn't 100% sure and I just stated what I had to do. I wish they would've let you pick which version you wanted to DL though. it would've saved more than a few people some headaches.

 

[scogoth]

New mouse. Obligatory zfz logo pic and now need to design a new mouse logo

 

[teh_pwn]

Forgot it used to stand for performance, so used to Ivy which won't overclock on anything but Z77 though.

I don't know about P67, but that's not true. I've overclocked Ivy on Z68 after a BIOS update.

 

[Ty4on]

I don't know about P67, but that's not true. I've overclocked Ivy on Z68 after a BIOS update.

Then it probably works on P67! I just read that they couldn't change the multi, but that was probably because the BIOS update wasn't there. Thanks!

 

[dragonballjoseph]

AMD mentioned that they would have a bundle with Bioshock and Tomb Raider back in October, so I waited. I'm sad that Tomb Raider is only bundled with the 7800 series though.

Gonna pick up this bad boy within the month. ^_^
Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7950 3GB

 

[Horse Detective]

Can anyone speak for the 660ti and performance on games like BF3?

 

[Koroviev]

Can anyone speak for the 660ti and performance on games like BF3?

Looks good to me: http://www.techspot.com/review/565-nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-ti/page4.html

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Final tally as I face the remaning parts coming in Monday.

Intel 3930k
16GB Samsung DDR3 1600mhz (will be OC'ing)
2 670's in SLI
ASUS Sabertooth x79
Seasonic x850
Corsair H100i+2 pairs of SP120 High Performance fans
Corsair 500R
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB HDD
Lite-on 24x DVD writer

I also ordered a 27" IPS monitor and I got the CM Storm Spawn earlier this week.

Should have the rig up by Wednesday as I'm waiting for the GPU's to ship.

 

[Lulubop]

Best OC guides for 680/3570k? Thanks.

 

[kennah]

In the OP friend

 

[electricpirate]

Everything ordered but the storage disk, build scheduled for 2 weeks from now, so I'll cruise deal sites to try and get a decent 1 TB drive for ~60, otherwise I"ll grab something for 75 to 80.

Final cost is about ~930 after rebates.

Final build PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($33.16 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($148.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Samsung 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung Spinpoint F3 EG 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.88 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Crucial M4 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($192.16 @ Adorama)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($45.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $1045.11
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-02 23:13 EST-0500)

That's the backup HD if I don't find a good deal this week. List is missing one extra 120mm fan, since the case only comes with one fan. PC part picker price is a bit out of date, and I was agressive in my deal finding. After rebates this will have set me back about 930 or so. So far, every component has been on sale/ or had a nice rebate attached. My goal was to build the beastliest PC on about 900 I could, and I think I did pretty well. My wife and I are going to build it together, should be fun.

Thanks for all your help everyone all the tips and suggestions have been AMAZING. I would have ended up with a shitty SSD, bad ram, and overpaying like crazy. I figure this thing is good to go for at least a couple of years of coding and gaming, at which point I'll need a new GPU probably.

 

[Hazaro]

As noted in the OP the current Samsung F3 1TB's are rebadged Seagates (and thus not so great) unless something has changed.

I'd just plop down on a WD Blue and make sure your stuff is backed up as well.

 

[Koroviev]

Everything orddered but the storage disk, build scheduled for 2 weeks from now, so I'll cruise deal sites to try and get a decent 1 TB drive for ~60, otherwise I"ll grab something for 75 to 80.

Final build PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($33.16 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($148.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Samsung 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung Spinpoint F3 EG 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.88 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Crucial M4 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($192.16 @ Adorama)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($45.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $1045.11
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-02 23:13 EST-0500)

That's the backup HD if I don't find a good deal this week. PC part picker price is a bit out of date, and I was agressive in my shopping. After rebates this will have set me back about 930 or so. My goal was to build the beastliest PC on about 900 I could, and I think I did pretty well. My wife and I are going to build it together, should be fun.

Thanks for all your help everyone .

You done good!

 

[LiquidMetal14]

As noted in the OP the current Samsung F3 1TB's are rebadged Seagates (and thus not so great) unless something has changed.

I'd just plop down on a WD Blue and make sure your stuff is backed up as well.

In my build, this is the same one I bought 2 years ago. It's now discontinued on Newegg.

 

[electricpirate]

As noted in the OP the current Samsung F3 1TB's are rebadged Seagates (and thus not so great) unless something has changed.

I'd just plop down on a WD Blue and make sure your stuff is backed up as well.

Cool, I'll keep an eye for a good WD Blue deal, or just grab one this week. I already pay for an online backup service, so I'll keep with that, though a raid 0 is tempting .

You done good!

Thanks! Deal hunting was pretty fun, If i'd been a bit smarter I could have even saved a bit more, but I figured 10-15% savings was a pretty good target.

 

[RapidCancel]

About to start buying parts tonight and just wanted to check if theres anything I should change or add.

• CPU: i3 3220
• RAM: 8GB Samsung 30nm
• Mobo: Asus P8H77-I
• PSU: Antec VP450
• GPU: Gigabyte GTX660
• Case: Cooler Master Elite 120
• Storage: 128GB SSD & 1TB HDD
• Other: Scythe Gentle Typhoon

 

[ss_lemonade]

Can anyone speak for the 660ti and performance on games like BF3?

My 6970 runs it very well at max settings 1080p with fxaa. Near 60fps most of the time in single player, and 30-60 in multiplayer. That's coupled with a 4.5 2500k though and I believe bf3 multiplayer likes fast cpus.

Anyway, the 660ti is faster so you should be fine.

 

[Whiteshirt]

Gentle Typhoons aren't good if they're not hooked up to a heatsink. I'd swap them out for something like Nexus Real Silents (aka legit Yate Loons) or Scythe Slipstreams. I haven't kept up with fans for a long time so I dunno what the new king of quiet is but I can tell you that Gentle Typhoons aren't them.

 

[RapidCancel]

Gentle Typhoons aren't good if they're not hooked up to a heatsink. I'd swap them out for something like Nexus Real Silents (aka legit Yate Loons) or Scythe Slipstreams. I haven't kept up with fans for a long time so I dunno what the new king of quiet is but I can tell you that Gentle Typhoons aren't them.

Ah..if you had to pick the Real Silents or Slipstreams, which one would you pick?

 

[Horse Detective]

I can't tell why my perspective on video card performance is so inaccurate. Maybe it is because the one I currently have is bad or something.

I wonder what the cheapest gpu capable of playing BF3 on high settings is.

 

[dr3upmushroom]

My 6970 runs it very well at max settings 1080p with fxaa. Near 60fps most of the time in single player, and 30-60 in multiplayer. That's coupled with a 4.5 2500k though and I believe bf3 multiplayer likes fast cpus.

Anyway, the 660ti is faster so you should be fine.

I thought the 660ti was neck and neck with the 6950.

I can't tell why my perspective on video card performance is so inaccurate. Maybe it is because the one I currently have is bad or something.

I wonder what the cheapest gpu capable of playing BF3 on high settings is.

Hopefully the 7850, I've decided to just go with that. It'd be cool to have a screaming GPU but I can use the money for more important things, and realistically coming from consoles I'm sure the 7850 will blow me away.

I came to the decision after playing the Alan Wake games on my 360 today. American Nightmare looks way better than the original game and it's resolution is like 570p compared to 540p for the original. If that difference is so noticeable I'm sure 1080p games will be awesome even if I can't run crazy settings.

 

[Hazaro]

I thought the 660ti was neck and neck with the 6950.

Hopefully the 7850, I've decided to just go with that. It'd be cool to have a screaming GPU but I can use the money for more important things, and realistically coming from consoles I'm sure the 7850 will blow me away.

660Ti is like 50% faster than a 6950. Check TechPowerUp or the Anandtech BENCH banner in the OP.

A fast CPU matters a ton in BF3, though GPU is important.

 

[curlycare]

I have a gigabyte gtx 670 and tried overclocking it the other night. It was quite a good one and reached stable 1320 Mhz core Boost clock and 7400 Mhz effective on the memory and I was too afraid to go any further.

So you guys with oc'd 670, what are your 24/7 clocks? I think these that I got are too high for everyday use as it would degrade the gpu, overheat the VRM's and whatnot. Or am I being overly cautious?

Edit: Oh and temps were below 70c so no thermal throttling.