PC Discussion Thread - All PC related in here.

[Hoot1988 0]

Strange, Ebuyer.com where i get my computer supplies form is selling the new HD3870 512mb GPU for £150, but stills elling the HD2900XT 512mb for £300 even though specs wise the 3870 out does it. anyone know reason for this?

[echo1 0]

Sometimes older parts are more expensive than newer ones. Another more likely reason is that because the 3870 has only come out recently, the site may not have adjusted the price of the older model accordingly yet.

EDIT: Ive read reviews to the effect that the 3870 is slower than the slightly more expensive GeForce 8800GT and barely any faster than the cheaper 3850, you might want to check these other cards out.

[Hoot1988 0]

on spec it doesnt seem to be, maybe the drivers arnt, i ordered a 3870 anyway. was going to get a 1950 for £100 but this is £160 so ill jt not go out alot this week:P

fool me if its crap and i just wasted it on a impluse buy, but seems pritty good. especially for the price. the site i was looking at only did the 3850 with 256 ram too and the 3870 is 512.

figured id prob have to buy a DX10 or 10.1 card for Arma 2 anyway so this is a bit of a investment, instead of going back to a DX9 card...

[echo1 0]

I wasnt aware of the RAM difference, but in that case it was a better by than the 3850. Whether its better than the Nvidia card, I dont know. Then again, I tend to have something of an nvidia bias

[Hoot1988 0]

just a little addition the 3870 card ive got runs arma fine with everything on high, Very impress for the price i paid.

[R3MF 0]

the rumoured G92 based GTS with all 128 SPU's enabled sounds like a winner to me.

about time i replaced this 7950GT

[wex-q 0]

Does anyone have a 8800GT for ArmA? I'm getting my gamingcomputer some time into the new year, so I've configured it with 8800GT.

The GFX is following:

XFX GeForce 8800GT 512MB XXX 2XDVI DDR3 PCI-E

Accompanied with an Asus P5K (P35), Q6600, 4GB PC2-6400 RAM and a Silverstone 600W SLI-Certified PSU (good amps, but is 600W enough?).

Thanks for answers (and input on the rest of the system).

[froggyluv 2136]

Lately I've been having trouble with my PC randomly going into 'Hibernation' mode in which no input will restore short of restarting my system. I've disabled 'Hibernate' yet it still happens. Sometimes while playing Arma, the screen will go black with the monitor power switch blinking yet i can still hear the action for a few seconds before that fizzles out as well.

Any suggestions? Oh yeah I'm running on XP

[echo1 0]

Randomly turning off and hibernating could be some sort of hardware problem. Does it only happen during games? What sort of specs does your system have?

[froggyluv 2136]

Randomly turning off and hibernating could be some sort of hardware problem. Does it only happen during games? What sort of specs does your system have?

Yeah- it has happened during Arma and even just reading e-mail. Sometimes I'll get 3 beeps when I hit the reset button and i'm not sure what that means.

specs- Asus Commando mobo

          e6400 oced to 3ghz but has always been stable

          7900 gs factory speeds

          2 gigs ddr2 800

         

We have had some power lull's down here in the tropics lately and I'm wondering if something didn't get partly fried

[JdB 151]

Sometimes I'll get 3 beeps when I hit the reset button and i'm not sure what that means.

specs- Asus Commando mobo

e6400 oced to 3ghz but has always been stable

7900 gs factory speeds

2 gigs ddr2 800

We have had some power lull's down here in the tropics lately and I'm wondering if something didn't get partly fried

Those beeps are like morse-code, the beeps give you an indication of what the problem is. You can find a list for a few different BIOS vendors [here].

(Restart your computer to see what vendor the BIOS is from)

[Balschoiw 0]

Thought about sharing this experience I had today.

I got up early at 5.00 am to finish some stuff and started my comp. It started and booted up and while doing so, the speaker crackled and it rebooted again. This kept going and I eventually managed to get into windows where I was able to work for a while.

Then, bang, rebooting again.

I was seriously worried as all temps seemed to be ok. So my 1st guess was, Power box defunct. I pulled my comp from under the table, openened the case, unstripped the motherboard and hardware and replaced the power box with another one I had.

After reconnecting all the stuff, testing. Same problem.

Doh. My 2nd guess, short circuit in hardware. Unplugged all peripherals one by one, booting, no effect, still the same trouble.

In the end I had already removed my motherboard from the case and had it plain on the table with nothing in it. No Ram, no external connectors, no hd, just connected to the powerbox and

to the case switches to turn it on and off.

No effect, still the same problem.

Ok, at this point I removed the CPU heatsink and cleaned the CPU, put fresh thermal grease on it and remounted it. Even dissasembled the CPU cooler itself and cleaned it.

You guessed it, same problem.

I seriously was running out of options and I thought:

Ok, either the CPU has fried or motherboard has deceased.

Both options made me shiver as this would mean a lot of money to spend as I basically had to buy a new computer because of the components.

At one point the system totally failed. No beep, nothing, just fans working but no output whatsoever. My girlfriend called me at that point and I was already painting dramatic pictures of doom, horror and lots of money...

I mean, I had the Mobo in front of me with no RAM, no Gfx card, nothing attached, nada and it still didn´t even make a beep while running. What would you think other than exitus and byebye ?

After some crazy scientist thinking I exchanged the reset button with the power button on the mobo and the board reacted, not for long, but still.

I was like "Huh?"

Finally I removed the reset plug from the mobo and it started. I still was sceptical and reattached some peripherals (mobo still on my desk and not in the case) and it ran fine. I connected the drives and it booted.

In the end I connected a voltmeter to the reset switch and it showed me that the damn 5 Cent thing has gone to trigger-heaven and has a shortcut that causes it to "flicker" all the time. So basically my computer got rebooted all the time because of that defunctinioning switch, that off course works when pressed, but also "works" when not pressed on it´s own.

This operation has cost me 4 hours and lead me through some serious valleys.

So...

If anyone should have a frantic rebooting computer that does this by surprise more and more, you´d better check your reset-switch first

Sideeffect: The comp is now perfectly clean again, has fresh heatlube on all components a fresh BIOS, all fans cleaned BUT no reset button anymore...for now...

[der bastler 0]

Does anyone have a 8800GT for ArmA? I'm getting my gamingcomputer some time into the new year, so I've configured it with 8800GT.

I am ordering a new desktop flagship tomorrow (so I can tinker with all the little parts during my holidays starting next week), but sadly it seems that I cannot buy an 8800 GT. Money is not the point, those cards are just not available. So I have to stick with a cheap 8600 GT and will upgrade in spring 2008...

Setup:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750, boxed

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R

2x1024 MiB Samsung DDR2-RAM (PC2-800)

Club 3D CGNX-G866DD

250 GB WD HDD (WD2500AAKS)

Enermax Liberty 400 W

Lian Li PC-7 SE-B III

Eizo S1931SH-BK

Well, I am unsure about the monitor, but that's a component I want to see in action before I buy exactly the one I have seen in action...

[echo1 0]

Randomly turning off and hibernating could be some sort of hardware problem. Does it only happen during games? What sort of specs does your system have?

Yeah- it has happened during Arma and even just reading e-mail. Sometimes I'll get 3 beeps when I hit the reset button and i'm not sure what that means.

specs- Asus Commando mobo

e6400 oced to 3ghz but has always been stable

7900 gs factory speeds

2 gigs ddr2 800

We have had some power lull's down here in the tropics lately and I'm wondering if something didn't get partly fried

What sort of power unit do you have? and I'd make sure to check out the aforementioned beep codes in your mobo's manual

[froggyluv 2136]

thanks for replies fellas

psu-OCZ 750 I believe and less than a year old. I'm pretty sure you guys were right about the 3 beeps which in my case would be memory problems. Not coincidentally I've also been getting new memory errors when playing large/modded Arma missions lately. Ok well I'm going to try Memtest out this weekend...

[echo1 0]

You say that youve overclocked your PC. Try reseting the motherboard back to its default settings and playing some games for a while. You might have pushed it past its limit.

[maatz 1]

is it better to buy two Geforce 8800GT with 512mb and SLI then each or one 8800GTX with 768mb?

I still could not decide, which ones to take, because from the price its almost the same, and in future i could update with a sencond 8800GTX if I go with one first.

any ideas?

[wex-q 0]

According to tomshardware, 2 8800GT in SLI beats 1 8800GTX (can't find wherever they posted that, but anyways), but 2 8800GTX should beat anything, although, the price tag is very high.

Here is some reading

Cheers

[CameronMcDonald 146]

...anything but two 8800 Ultras in SLI.

[wex-q 0]

...anything but two 8800 Ultras in SLI.

Oh, yeah. Forgot :P

[echo1 0]

One fast card is always better than two slightly slower cards, as not all games reap the full benefit of SLI. Also, take into account other concerns such as cooling, noise and energy consumption. Why not just get a single 8800GT? I hear theyre nearly as fast a GTX, and if theyre half the price, then it seems like a bargain to me.

[wex-q 0]

Here's a good graph, the 8800GT beats the old GTS-card.

[maatz 1]

hey guys! thanks a lot for that much information you delivered! great! yeah i think i'll go with one 8800GT and if needed i always can get a 2nd one after, some time, when really necessary...

thx a lot

*thumbsup*

oh btw, does anyone already have experience with this card? i know it's quite new, but could be... :-)

[bigstone 48]

For those of you who have GeForce 8800 GTX 768mb. What settings do you have in nvidia panel for the best performance and graphics settings for ofp? Also what drivers are you using? Thank you

[Infam0us 10]

Not sure if this belongs in here, but I was wondering if it was possible to build your own Laptop? As many of the sites that I used when I built my desktop only give you the option to buy premade ones? If not, where are some good places to look for good quality, well priced laptops ... I quite like the new Dell XPS, but from my expierence with desktops Dell aren't exactly known for their good prices Thanks