PC Discussion Thread - All PC related in here.

[h - 169]

No I mean I have tried 3 new different cards and all of them had the same problem.

I'm betting the problematic card version was the older one with the "weird" 640 or 320Mb memory?

To me it always sounded like the "non-conventional" memory stuff was the cause for the problems..

I have had the newer 8800 GTS 512mb since it was released and I have had no problems in ArmA with it, nor in any game I have thrown at it.

ArmA runs everything except AAx2 (and terrain on normal) maxed at 1920x1200 resolution smoothly..

[MehMan 0]

Damn it. This still sucks. Gainward sent me a cable with a resistor on it and it's slightly less noisy than before. Not the peace I was hoping for when I had the cable unplugged. I've emailed the place where I bought the card from if they have the option of exchanging this card for the 1GB version where this has been solved by connecting both cables to the 4pin connector and the card is supposedly silent. My card is also silent, you can't hear it when the small fan is off. It's JOY! But the heat tends to be a problem.

Edited May 7, 2009 by MehMan

[txalin 2]

Hi all,

I'm going to fly to EEUU on July and i will buy a new computer on the same month more or less, so i'm thinking on buying the cpu and gpu on the states, as the prices are more cheaper then here in spain.

Someone can give me a link to a shop on the states (preferibly on New York) so i can take a look to the prices?

And second question, do you know where can i take a llok to the taxes that i need to pay on the airport?

Thx and regards.

[MehMan 0]

So I can't replace my 512MB for a 1GB version. Suck. Looking for third party cooler. Got any clues?

[echo1 0]

Akasa Vortexx Neo or the Zalman ZF1000 are once I've seen good reviews for. I'm not entirely sure which is better, but I know the Akasa one is much cheaper. I'd google both of them and read reviews etc.

[MehMan 0]

Doing that right now. I've narrowed down four different coolers that I can get that fit on my card. The Akasa is not available here and I don't feel like like importing.

[SWAT_BigBear 0]

Any GTX260 users around?

My bottom 8800gtx sli card died about 2 weeks ago, and Asus are unable to fix it at this time. They've offered me an ENGTX260/HTDP/896M.

I'm waiting on a reply from them concerning my SLI.

I'm wanting to trade both 8800gtx for a newer upto date single card.

This pc of mine is just over 2 yrs old, but still feels very strong. I'm on the original install of Vista. I'm wanting (actually waiting) to format the Raid and install W7 RC.

I will be doing this once I get my hands on ArmA II, since I will not need the ArmA server that is currently on the Raid.

[echo1 0]

The 260 is a pretty decent card, not quite as fast as the HD4870, but in the same territory (I think it uses less power and outputs less heat for what it is worth) Not sure how it would stack up against two 8800GTXs, but considering the hassle that one has to go through to get SLI working, a single GTX260 is probably a better choice in the long run.

[MehMan 0]

Seems that most aftermarket coolers are pretty shitty when it comes to cooling the VRMs. Need to dig deeper.

[echo1 0]

Is VRM heat an issue with HD4870s? (I've never owned one myself, just curious)

[Supernova 0]

Any GTX260 users around?

My bottom 8800gtx sli card died about 2 weeks ago, and Asus are unable to fix it at this time. They've offered me an ENGTX260/HTDP/896M.

I'm waiting on a reply from them concerning my SLI.

I'm wanting to trade both 8800gtx for a newer upto date single card.

This pc of mine is just over 2 yrs old, but still feels very strong. I'm on the original install of Vista. I'm wanting (actually waiting) to format the Raid and install W7 RC.

I will be doing this once I get my hands on ArmA II, since I will not need the ArmA server that is currently on the Raid.

I'd recommend a HD 4890 instead.

[echo1 0]

I was under the impression he was getting it for free. Free kinda outweighs the speed benefits of the HD4890 :p

[MehMan 0]

Is VRM heat an issue with HD4870s? (I've never owned one myself, just curious)

Apparently yes with nonrefrence coolers.

Check this and VRM temps:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/twinturbo-musashi_12.html

Or here:

http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=65900

One more question, how can I check VRM temp in RivaTuner and XP64? I've got the plugin loaded but it doesn't work, I can't get the graph to show, just isn't any option to turn it on. Is it an XP64 fault?

[SWAT_BigBear 0]

I was under the impression he was getting it for free. Free kinda outweighs the speed benefits of the HD4890 :p

Yes free,

The email I recieved this morning said they would send me the GTX260 asap since they could not fix the 8800. I inquired of my other 8800 and the SLI would not actually be a proper SLI setup.

Awaiting a response, hoping they will offer a 285 or 295 for the 2 8800's. (Which I dought them doing so).

Either way.... I may just do some extreme work with my other 8800 until it also needs replaced. :)

Change to an ATI? It's an Nvidia chipset, would that be an issue?

[Deadfast 43]

Well, Nvidia chipsets are a sort of a problem on their own :D

But no, it won't matter if you put an ATi in.

[von_paulus 0]

Either way.... I may just do some extreme work with my other 8800 until it also needs replaced. :)

Maybe stoping the fan will help... :p

[Pyronick 21]

Well, Nvidia chipsets are a sort of a problem on their own :D

nForce chipsets... The horror! :eek:

[evilnate 0]

Howdy,

I'm preparing to build a new system for arma 2. Here's my plans...

CPU - Intel i7 920

I want to overclock this with air cooling. I've done a fair amount of research/learning and it looks like I should be able to clock a retail version to atleast 3.2Ghz and possibly 3.6. I'm planning to get the best air cooler on the market (coolermaster V8). Does anyone on these boards have any exp. overclocking these? I could spend the mula to get the stock 3.2Ghz EE, but if I can save here it can go towards the VGA.

VGA - Not sure, whatever the best card on the market is.

Looking for your opinions. I would say that I don't want to spend >$600

RAM - Not sure either, money is no object for this component.

MOBO - Considering the ASUS P4T (or whatever the i7 mobo is)

Sound Card - Need help here. For years I've been buying the usual $40 creative sound cards and their ok. I searched newegg and found some that cost ~$200. Does anyone know if the price delta is worth it? Anyone have any super sound cards?

HDD's - Most likely going to buy a pair of 300GB velociraptors. Many years ago I bought 2 74GB raptors and had them striped, I still have them and don't have any complaints. Is there a better/faster configuration? SSD's?

Thanks for your opinions. :)

Edited May 11, 2009 by EvilNate
Forgot the range of clock speeds in article I read.

[echo1 0]

Hey -

CPU Cooler - I believe the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme is a better choice. Not sure how much it costs versus the Coolermaster, but I've seen several places says its the best CPU cooler that you can get, including some that compared it against the V8.

Motherboard - The Gigabyte EX58-UD5 is meant to be a good one for the Core i7.

Sound cards - Wouldn't bother really. Unless you have a really fancy set of surround speakers. Motherboards provide quite good sound quality these days.

RAM - I'm not entirely sure what the best overclocker's DDR3 is these days. All I know is that OCZ and Corsair both make good stuff. I'd do some research into their stuff and see what's best for overclocking.

Hard Drives - Forget the Raptors, SSDs are the way to go now. I'd get a 60GB OCZ Vertex drive (EDIT: These things have seem to gone up in price an awful lot recently, they're still probably the best value for money SSDs) for the OS and games, and a 1TB Samsung F1 for large data storage. Get the best of both worlds without screwing around with RAID :)

Btw, with Core i7s (particularily the latest stepping that are out now) you can expect to get quite close to 4GHz easily enough.

EDIT: Forget about graphics cards - you'd be mad to want to spend $600 on a card now when the DirectX11 cards are just around the corner. ATI ones are due in June, and nVidia ones are due sometime later. If you want a really fancy graphics card - I'd seriously consider waiting a little while to see if they're any good. If you want something more affordable - an nVidia GTX 275 is a good choice.

Edited May 11, 2009 by echo1

[xav 0]

Is it worth replacing my C2Duo E6300 (1.87Mghz) from about 3 years ago with the brand new Intel Pentium Dual Core E6300 coming out this month ?

[Supernova 0]

Howdy,

I'm preparing to build a new system for arma 2. Here's my plans...

CPU - Intel i7 920

I want to overclock this with air cooling. I've done a fair amount of research/learning and it looks like I should be able to clock a retail version to atleast 3.2Ghz and possibly 3.6. I'm planning to get the best air cooler on the market (coolermaster V8). Does anyone on these boards have any exp. overclocking these? I could spend the mula to get the stock 3.2Ghz EE, but if I can save here it can go towards the VGA.

VGA - Not sure, whatever the best card on the market is.

Looking for your opinions. I would say that I don't want to spend >$600

RAM - Not sure either, money is no object for this component.

MOBO - Considering the ASUS P4T (or whatever the i7 mobo is)

Sound Card - Need help here. For years I've been buying the usual $40 creative sound cards and their ok. I searched newegg and found some that cost ~$200. Does anyone know if the price delta is worth it? Anyone have any super sound cards?

HDD's - Most likely going to buy a pair of 300GB velociraptors. Many years ago I bought 2 74GB raptors and had them striped, I still have them and don't have any complaints. Is there a better/faster configuration? SSD's?

Thanks for your opinions. :)

You want to go I7 and yet you didn't even do the proper research required. Forget about going i7 just go Phenom II.

CPU - Forget about the 965 EE or the 975 EE. Unless you plan on overclocking with Phase Cooling or Liquid helium/nitrogen then those 965 EE's and 975 EE's will hit a wall at 4ghz. I had a 965 EE and I replaced it with my current D0 stepping 920 and I've been running 4ghz 24/7 stable.

VGA - I'd recommend pairing up 2 ATI Radeon HD 4890's in Crossfire.

MOBO - The motherboard is called P6T and it has many variants and it's made by Asus not P4T.

SOUND CARD- I use the Auzentech X-Fi Forte. It's one of the best audiophile sound cards out there on the market and it's relatively cheap too.

HDD - SSD's are the best out there but they are expensive and cost more as the capacity and speed increases. I'd recommend holding out on SSD's till next year when Windows 7 will be released and SSD's will have fallen in price by then.

Bottom line: You want an I7 system and yet didn't even do preparatory research. I'd recommend going with a Phenom II system configuration as the i7's aren't really better at gaming than their previous counterparts. Phenom II 955 almost matches a I7 920 and yet overall system cost with a Phenom II 955 is lower so you get excellent price/performance for your buck.

[echo1 0]

VGA - I'd recommend pairing up 2 ATI Radeon HD 4890's in Crossfire.

With the next-gen ATI cards around the corner? You'd have to be mad.

SOUND CARD- I use the Auzentech X-Fi Forte. It's one of the best audiophile sound cards out there on the market and it's relatively cheap too.

Creative cards, and cards based on them like the Auzentech have terrible drivers. If you have a fancy set of speakers, go get an ASUS Xonar instead.

HDD - SSD's are the best out there but they are expensive and cost more as the capacity and speed increases.

The guy is prepared to go out and buy two WD Raptors, obviously money isn't a problem here. :p

It's kinda funny that you lash out at people for not doing research when you supposedly have the PC that you have, and you repeatedly give out about Core i7s, nVidia cards and now SSDs...

Edited May 11, 2009 by echo1

[Supernova 0]

With the next-gen ATI cards around the corner? You'd have to be mad.

Actually RV870 and R800 won't be appearing this summer nor will GT300 be appearing as well. Q4 for RV870/R800 and Q4 2009/Q1 2010 for GT300. Don't believe me well look it up.

It's kinda funny that you lash out at people for not doing research when you supposedly have the PC that you have, and you repeatedly give out about Core i7s, nVidia cards and now SSDs...

Because EvilNate didn't do his research for the system. He cannot properly identify the motherboard or even give preliminary choices for his upcoming build. That's why he came here and asked us to build a system for him. I spent a good amount of time before I built my system researching my components well in advance. Don't get me wrong I think my i7 system is a great investment but it's really overhyped and I can't tell any difference between my Phenom II 955 comparison system.

Creative cards, and cards based on them like the Auzentech have terrible drivers. If you have a fancy set of speakers, go get an ASUS Xonar instead.

Auzentech don't have terrible drivers and if you have ever owned an Auzentech sound card you will realize that.

Edited May 11, 2009 by Supernova

[echo1 0]

Actually RV870 and R800 won't be appearing this summer nor will GT300 be appearing as well. Q4 for RV870/R800 and Q4 2009/Q1 2010 for GT300. Don't believe me well look it up.

I did. Couldn't find anything that confirmed that. ATI's new cards are out next month. The nVidia are a bit later in the year. Point is - spending $600 on graphics cards at the moment when the latest and greatest is just around the corner is pointless.

I spent a good amount of time before I built my system researching my components well in advance.

This of course explains why you bought a 1000 euro CPU and then deemed it necessary to replace it with a 250 euro model because it could overclock slightly better.

Auzentech don't have terrible drivers and if you have ever owned an Auzentech sound card you will realize that.

Either way, you'd want to be using the finest speakers around if you were going to buy a $180 sound card. Seems pretty pointless otherwise.

[evilnate 0]

You want to go I7 and yet you didn't even do the proper research required. Forget about going i7 just go Phenom II.

Research

Research

Research

Even more research

I did some research before I made my post and it seems that if you can afford it, the i7 is the better performer currently.

CPU - Forget about the 965 EE or the 975 EE. Unless you plan on overclocking with Phase Cooling or Liquid helium/nitrogen then those 965 EE's and 975 EE's will hit a wall at 4ghz. I had a 965 EE and I replaced it with my current D0 stepping 920 and I've been running 4ghz 24/7 stable.

I don't plan on clocking higher than 3.6Ghz so I won't have to worry about hitting that wall. :)

VGA - I'd recommend pairing up 2 ATI Radeon HD 4890's in Crossfire.

My last system I bought 2 X1900 cards and the expensive mobo (P5B) to support it. I was totally disappointed with the results and swore that I would never do the crossfire thing again (mostly because arma didn't support it and it's the main game I play).

MOBO - The motherboard is called P6T and it has many variants and it's made by Asus not P4T.

You're right it's the P6T and I know who the mfg. is :)

For some reason I just couldn't remember the numeric.

SOUND CARD- I use the Auzentech X-Fi Forte. It's one of the best audiophile sound cards out there on the market and it's relatively cheap too.

Thanks for the advice. What is the improvement over onboard output? Sound quality? Better gaming performance?

HDD - SSD's are the best out there but they are expensive and cost more as the capacity and speed increases. I'd recommend holding out on SSD's till next year when Windows 7 will be released and SSD's will have fallen in price by then.

I'll check the prices, again thanks for the advice.

Bottom line: You want an I7 system and yet didn't even do preparatory research. I'd recommend going with a Phenom II system configuration as the i7's aren't really better at gaming than their previous counterparts. Phenom II 955 almost matches a I7 920 and yet overall system cost with a Phenom II 955 is lower so you get excellent price/performance for your buck.

Yeah i'm still in the process of researching, and thanks to you guys i'm learning even more. Price isn't too much of a factor for me so I don't mind buying the better performer (i7). I was thinking about waiting for Intel's 35nm process to come out but I've put off upgrading for a while now and I have to pull the trigger sometime.

RE: 4890's

With the next-gen ATI cards around the corner? You'd have to be mad.

If waiting wasn't a option, and I was mad, what card would you recommend?

Creative cards, and cards based on them like the Auzentech have terrible drivers. If you have a fancy set of speakers, go get an ASUS Xonar instead.

I want fancy headphones since I live in a apartment. Would a fancy headphone compliment the fancy sound cards?

Because EvilNate didn't do his research for the system. He cannot properly identify the motherboard or even give preliminary choices for his upcoming build. That's why he came here and asked us to build a system for him. I spent a good amount of time before I built my system researching my components well in advance. Don't get me wrong I think my i7 system is a great investment but it's really overhyped and I can't tell any difference between my Phenom II 955 comparison system.

Asking you guys for your advice and opinions is part of my research, and I appreciate it very much. Thank you. :)

I did. Couldn't find anything that confirmed that. ATI's new cards are out next month. The nVidia are a bit later in the year. Point is - spending $600 on graphics cards at the moment when the latest and greatest is just around the corner is pointless.

Very interesting. I wouldn't want to make that kind of mistake. I'll talk to "the guy" at my local computer shop and ask him when he expects the next-gen cards to come out.

This of course explains why you bought a 1000 euro CPU and then deemed it necessary to replace it with a 250 euro model because it could overclock slightly better.

I was wondering that myself. Maybe some people are true enthusiasts who can afford these lifestyles of the rich and famous. :icon_lol:

Either way, you'd want to be using the finest speakers around if you were going to buy a $180 sound card. Seems pretty pointless otherwise.

Again, what about finest headphones around?

I seriously appreciate your opinions, keep em coming. :D