PC Discussion Thread - All PC related in here.

[echo1 0]

What sort of CPU do you have? If you have an old Pentium 4 or Pentium D, that is somewhat normal as they run at quite high temperatures.

[MehMan 0]

Barton 2600+.

EDIT 1:

Hmm, tops out at 72°C in ArmA...

EDIT 2:

And 74°C at 3ds max. then it takes it 9 minutes to drop to idle.

Now is the zalman mounted properly? I guess it is? Oh well, this rig is getting replaced in a month anyway, so, mneh .

[Deadfast 43]

I had the same CPU.

Ran pretty hot too (up to 60C idle), but that was with the boxed "cooler"

[echo1 0]

Did either of you have those chips overclocked? I remember at the time, the Barton cored CPUs were the most overclockable thing around, seems odd that they'd run so hot. Then again, I never owned one so I cant say much

[MehMan 0]

Mine's not, I did fiddle at one time with it but I reverted back to the factory settings. The heatsink might not be installed properly, but I do have some doubts about that though, I doublechecked when putting it on, the layer wasn't too thick nor too thin. I guess it's just a shitty case. I did however clean up all the cables and such to improve airflows, I can see where one stores cables at the back, I need only one IDE cable and one power supply cable. Just the HDD and DVD drive. Plus removed the never used firewire. Pretty neat.

EDIT:

hurr, the CPU cooked out at 75°C with a close case, but never went above 60°C with an open case today. yay and nay. It's a bit loud but better cooling than before, heh.

[Supernova 0]

Quote[/b] ]

Judging by the calculator it is as i feared and the planned Phenom 9850 will cause a need of over 100 watts more than the PSU has.

I'd get the Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe and the 9950 Black Edition.

Quote[/b] ]Get something with P45 chipset. I have MicroStar P45 NEO2-FR with the same configuration (Q6600, HD4870, 2x 2GB Kingston) and I have no problem with it.

Microstar is one of the worst motherboard manufacturers. Stick to DFI/ASUS.

Quote[/b] ]

CPU - Q6600 is the best to get in that category. With Intel's new chips just around the corner, spending more money on CPUs that will soon be outclassed is pointless.

Nehalem won't be better in games. Infact the Current Core 2 CPU's will be better at gaming than Bloomfield due to high L2 cache.

Quote[/b] ]

Case - My standard answer here is the Antec P180. However, there are plenty of good cases out there. I'd suggest reading into it.

You might want to consider the Antec Twelve Hundred or the new Cooler Master HAF 932.

[Deadfast 43]

Microstar is one of the worst motherboard manufacturers. Stick to DFI/ASUS.

We've already been there, haven't we?

[Placebo 29]

I've had MSI motherboards in the past with no problems at all, stable, overclockable, only thing I didn't like IIRC is they had some crappy browser based liveupdate system that only worked with IE.........

[MehMan 0]

Mwahahaha, this new screens is HUGE! It's a joy flying in Lomac in 1680x1020! Bye bye 1024x768 in games!

Although, I'm having some problems with contrast and such, it's a wee bit excessive but I guess my monitor profile isn't setup correctly.

[echo1 0]

Quote[/b] ]

CPU - Q6600 is the best to get in that category. With Intel's new chips just around the corner, spending more money on CPUs that will soon be outclassed is pointless.

Nehalem won't be better in games. Infact the Current Core 2 CPU's will be better at gaming than Bloomfield due to high L2 cache.

We've been through this before haven't we? - The benchmarks show that Core i7 chips will be 20-30% on average compared to a Core 2 chip of the same clock speed, and at any rate - Cache isnt all that relevant to gaming performance, it will be balanced out by the fact that the Core i7 CPUs will be faster and more efficient than their predecessors.

Quote[/b] ]We've already been there, haven't we?

This is a self-confessed ASUS fanboy you're talking to, what do you expect? :P

[Deadfast 43]

I've had MSI motherboards in the past with no problems at all, stable, overclockable, only thing I didn't like IIRC is they had some crappy browser based liveupdate system that only worked with IE.........

Yeah, MSI improved a lot in the past few years.

Except for the mentioned LiveUpdate...

Didn't get it to work even though I lowered myself to use IE (guess it needs v6)

Had to download the Live Monitor which worked fine for me (to the part where it said that "MD5 checksum destroyed!" and PC rebooted just to work fine. Good way to scare the F word out of me).

The only thing they yet have to improve is their English.

Quote from the Core Center:

Quote[/b] ]Bios SmartFan is enable! you can not adjust it again!

What? I could get better translation from Google

[echo1 0]

I had a cheap MSI board that I used with a spare PC. On the box it had the words - "Support for 90nm Prescott - Fly into next saga!". I'm not sure what they meant, but in my books, a saga is a long and grueling tale of something that is unpleasant for some reason or other. I think they need to work on the whole marketing end of things :P

[Supernova 0]

Quote[/b] ]We've been through this before haven't we? - The benchmarks show that Core i7 chips will be 20-30% on average compared to a Core 2 chip of the same clock speed, and at any rate - Cache isnt all that relevant to gaming performance, it will be balanced out by the fact that the Core i7 CPUs will be faster and more efficient than their predecessors.

http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=480. Again read that.

Quote[/b] ]

This is a self-confessed ASUS fanboy you're talking to, what do you expect? :P

Yea , I'm very much a fanboy when I have built in the past systems using MSI motherboards. A fanboy is somebody who sticks to one brand and I don't do that.

[echo1 0]

http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=480. Again read that.

Read it before. It seems to ignore the actual benchmarks on the chip which show it to be an improvement in general purpose tasks, not just server stuff. It reads to me more like speculation than actual statement of how things will be.

Quote[/b] ]Yea , I'm very much a fanboy when I have built in the past systems using MSI motherboards. A fanboy is somebody who sticks to one brand and I don't do that.

Well, you are the one who tells everyone that every other brand other than ASUS is shit (including respected names such as Gigabyte, Abit and MSI.) You're also the one that said "I'm an ASUS fanboy" a few dozen pages back. QED.

[Deadfast 43]

Yea , I'm very much a fanboy when I have built in the past systems using MSI motherboards. A fanboy is somebody who sticks to one brand and I don't do that.

Right, you stick to 2

No, seriously, if you had used MSI anytime recently you would surely notice that they're far from what they used to be.

[Shadow NX 1]

Just another quick question.

I finally received my new Phenom and installed it right away on my Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H that i installed a few days ago.

I started and finally i saw a sign of life on my screen again but as expected the next problem popped up.

The Keyboard is connected via the boards back USB slots nbut doesnt seem to get any power from there as it doesnt light up and doesnt react to me pressing any buttons.

I also used a new HD so no windows is intalled yet so i only get to the point where it ries to boot from cd.

What could be the cause of the non working back USBs?

Setup:

- GA-MA78G-DS3H Mainboard

- AMD Phenom X4 9850 BE

- Samsung Spinpoint 320GB HD

- Case Top USBs and Front Cardreader but both arent connected right now ( mainly because i have no clue where they go - the pins that is- )

[echo1 0]

I'm assuming that this is a bog-standard keyboard that doesnt require special drivers or the like. First off, use a USB stick to test the ports, and another computer to test the keyboard to make sure there are no problems with either of them. Assuming that there are no problems, go into the BIOS (I hope you have a PS/2 keyboard lying around for this :P) and then look for an option in the manual with a name to the rough effect of "Legacy USB support", "Dos USB emulation" or "USB keyboard support" depending on the BIOS. Try turning this on to see if it works. Usually this is only needed for keyboard support before Windows turns on, but maybe it could work. Let us know if it doesnt.

[Shadow NX 1]

Was about to try this out pushed the power switch and oh wonder nothing happened... after thinking if i should throw it out of the window for a minute i decided that it goes to a pc service now because my nerves are getting pretty thin...

[echo1 0]

Such are the joys of building your own PC... I think the frustration involved with getting my PCs to work properly have probably knocked a year or two off my life at this stage

[Infam0us 10]

Such are the joys of building your own PC... I think the frustration involved with getting my PCs to work properly have probably knocked a year or two off my life at this stage  

Here Here! Also my manual dexterity has come on leaps and bounds fitting all those small parts!

[froggyluv 2135]

@Shadow NX- Are you sure you mounted the Mobo properly and it's not touching any metal? It sounds like a short some where. I just built my new pc a couple days ago and even though I've built them before, somehow never heard of 'mounting screws' for my mobo. So after taking an hour to build, excitedly hit switch....nothing. Went to a tech forum and first thing guy asked, "did you mount your mobo?"-Doh!

Anyways after righting that wrong runs beautifully p5q-pro;

E8500; 4gig ram; 4870; Vista 64 (love it).

[echo1 0]

Yes, often the blank screen of death comes after I mess around with the innards of my machine. Reseting the CMOS a few times, ripping out the battery for a few minutes and even removing the motherboard and setting it up on top of a box covered with anti-static generally will eventually get rid of it. Also, make sure the beep speaker is set up, its very useful for diagnostics.

[Praelium 0]

Ok, so I'm upgrading my computer and using the old parts to rebuild a second computer. Since I'm going to keep my current optical drive and case I'll need to buy those for the second computer.

I went and did a bunch of research and found most of the old parts to help ensure everything will be compatible. Unfortunately, most of them are deactivated so I can't combine them as a Wish List. So..

New

<span style='font-size:7pt;line-height:100%'>Motherboard*

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186148

Processor*

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115052

Videocard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143081

RAM*

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227124

Powersupply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341010

Hard Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262

CD/DVD Drive

Liteon SOHW-1693S (Sorry, I couldn't find a link. I have the box with the specs so any questions can probably be answered.)

Case

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16811129152

Sound Card(?)

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102011</span>

Old

<span style='font-size:7pt;line-height:100%'>Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16813152049

Processor

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16819103501

Videocard

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16814122201

RAM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145440

Powersupply

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16817103934

Hard Drive(?)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148019R

CD/DVD Drive*

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129023

Case*

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119047

Sound Card

None</span>

* means that those are the new parts I'm going to order next month. In total they cost about $380, however, I didn't want to over $300 to start with. Anywhere I can take off a few dollars would be great.

I know it's a lot to ask for, but could someone check that the the parts within each computer will be compatible? If there are any better deals/parts then I'd like to see them.

[echo1 0]

Ok, so I'm upgrading my computer and using the old parts to rebuild a second computer. Since I'm going to keep my current optical drive and case I'll need to buy those for the second computer.

I went and did a bunch of research and found most of the old parts to help ensure everything will be compatible. Unfortunately, most of them are deactivated so I can't combine them as a Wish List. So..

New

<span style='font-size:7pt;line-height:100%'>Motherboard*

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186148

Processor*

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115052

Videocard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143081

RAM*

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227124

Powersupply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341010

Hard Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262

CD/DVD Drive

Liteon SOHW-1693S (Sorry, I couldn't find a link. I have the box with the specs so any questions can probably be answered.)

Case

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16811129152

Sound Card(?)

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102011</span>

Old

<span style='font-size:7pt;line-height:100%'>Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16813152049

Processor

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16819103501

Videocard

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16814122201

RAM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145440

Powersupply

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16817103934

Hard Drive(?)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148019R

CD/DVD Drive*

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129023

Case*

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119047

Sound Card

None</span>

* means that those are the new parts I'm going to order next month. In total they cost about $380, however, I didn't want to over $300 to start with. Anywhere I can take off a few dollars would be great.

I know it's a lot to ask for, but could someone check that the the parts within each computer will be compatible? If there are any better deals/parts then I'd like to see them.  

No compatibility problems are jumping out at me here. I would have recommended a different graphics card if you were buying one now, but Im judging by your post that you have already bought it. I also wouldnt have bothered getting a sound card, but again, you already have one. Of the new things you are buying, the only recommendation I have that would save you money is getting a Gigabyte EP45-DS3L motherboard (my favourite low-price motherboard at the moment) which would save you $20 it seems. I would consider a more substantive CPU like the Q6600, but that's going to lump on another $50 or so onto your price. I would still think it worth it though. No problems with the RAM, OCZ is good stuff. If you really wanted to save some more money. you could get Corsair Value RAM. Unless you plan on doing overclocking, you'd never noticed the difference, and save about $5 in the process.

EDIT: What does the (?) beside the 80GB Hard Drive mean?

[Praelium 0]

The question mark next to the hard drive and sound card means that I'm not 100% sure they are the same model as what I actually own.

As for the video card, yeah, it's not the best deal. However, I bought it from Bestbuy when they had it for $100 off normal price a year or two ago.  

The sound card, yeah, I already have it. Someone told me that it would actually be better to just use soundboard though, because it's gotten more advanced than the Sound Blaster 4. If necessary I can just stick it in the second computer.

The OCZ RAM includes $20 mail in rebate, making it less than $20 in the end, (of course, I'm assuming that the rebate actually comes).

I looked at the Gigabyte EP45-DS3L before, though didn't really get good reviews. However, you're the second guy to suggest it so I'm now leaning towards buying it.

With the new processor and motherboard the total is $435.63. It's higher than I wanted to pay, however, I won't necessarly be buying it all at once, (as long as I get it all by the end of November), so it won't be too bad.

Anything else?