PC Discussion Thread - All PC related in here.

[Lepardi 0]

Ha, love the URL joke.  

Anyway back on topic.

I just picked up a PC mag and they claim that the Radeon 4870 is vastely superior to the 9800 series. (In terms of performance vs Price, so please dont say the obvious that the GTX 980 is better because.. Duh its 3X the cost of course its better)

I have been having trouble finding some comparative charts. If this is the case, maybe one or two of these cards is an ideal path to follow when i come around the upgrading.

What magazine, I would be interested to read it!

And I thought the HD4870 was the fastest card in the market?

You get it for around ~200€, while you can get the GTX280 for ~400€, and the difference is marginal. In some games like CoD 4 the HD 4870 is actually faster than GTX 280, but the 280 will be a bit faster in most.

HD 4870X2 is the fastest card out there, but some games like ArmA lack a proper support for two core GPU's.

[MehMan 0]

Awright, my new rig, all up to date and what not. Now for some stress testing in ArmA.

EDIT:

pretty neat, the FPS was nice and fluid at mostly high/v high.

Question, how do you turn off spellcheck in google chrome?

EDIT2: googled it, fixed it, no more red lines.

[SHWiiNG 0]

Whoops, it is the latest issue of Custom PC..

Just a small snippet, not a feature length article though

[Infam0us 10]

Whoops, it is the latest issue of Custom PC..

Just a small snippet, not a feature length article though

Been thinking of getting a subscription, are they a good magazine to follow?

[echo1 0]

I've been reading them for about three years now... They get my thumbs up!

[MehMan 0]

Does anybody have any expirence with Dx10 under XP? Using the alky project?

[echo1 0]

I think the Alky project halted about a year ago, they just werent able to deliver a satisfactory implementation. However, they did release some drivers and software, not sure how effective it is. At any rate, by the time we all need DirectX 10 (As opposed to now where certain games support it, but don't require it). Vista will long be replaced, and hopefully this Windows 7 malarky will be half usable..

[SHWiiNG 0]

I've been reading them for about three years now... They get my thumbs up!

to be honest being a student and the price of PC mags, i cant afford to buy one every month. This time was on a whim as i just thought hmm this looks in depth and accurate..

But its down to personal opinion. but they do seem to be a solid magazine if you are constantly after the newest hardware

[Infam0us 10]

I've been reading them for about three years now... They get my thumbs up!

to be honest being a student and the price of PC mags, i cant afford to buy one every month. This time was on a whim as i just thought hmm this looks in depth and accurate..

But its down to personal opinion. but they do seem to be a solid magazine if you are constantly after the newest hardware

Same here, the subscription price in the UK seems fairly reasonable though. Only £15.99 for 6 issues, I like the fact that they address issues such as how to tweak drivers and other performance factors rather than just reviewing games which I could go online for. Sure, I could find XP Tweaks online, but it seems more reliable if it comes from a magazine.

[echo1 0]

I've been reading them for about three years now... They get my thumbs up!

to be honest being a student and the price of PC mags, i cant afford to buy one every month.

I should also point out that alot of their reviews are on their website. Hah, now you have me questioning my own regular purchase of this mag!

[Infam0us 10]

I've been reading them for about three years now... They get my thumbs up!

to be honest being a student and the price of PC mags, i cant afford to buy one every month.

I should also point out that alot of their reviews are on their website. Hah, now you have me questioning my own regular purchase of this mag!

Do they have the exact same articles aswell? I think there was something about how to tweak startup times in XP in this months issue?

[Shashman 0]

Custom PC's a good mag, but only really worth it if you're on the lookout for a new PC/components.

I've just spent over a grand (GBP) on my new system so I don't really need reviews on the latest and greatest hardware, as I already have it all

Oh and you can 'subscribe' to it for 3 issues and you get a free PC toolkit for 1GBP. Basically it's like a tester, to see if you're interested. You can extend it to a full subscription (which to be fair at around 30GBP shouldn't break the bank) after or just cancel it.

[dm 9]

Oh and you can 'subscribe' to it for 3 issues and you get a free PC toolkit for 1GBP. Basically it's like a tester, to see if you're interested. You can extend it to a full subscription (which to be fair at around 30GBP shouldn't break the bank) after or just cancel it.

I did that back in the start of uni.

Even tho its only a pound, dont bother. You're getting what you pay for, thing fell apart in a matter of days, and I twisted the heads off of every single bit (cross and flat head) waste of time and effort.

[Shashman 0]

To be honest, what do you expect for a quid?

Anyway, most normal people would get that offer for the 3 issues, which otherwise cost 4.25GBP each

[-Snafu- 77]

Hey guys I have just had kick in the balls. I have been doing important work in Microsoft Office Word 2007 for the past few days. I just went to open the file to continue and the thing is corrupt. It's really important so I need the file recovered. I would appreciate it if anyone could tell me how to fix it, point me in the direction of site/forum that could help me or show me a (free preferably) recovery tool.

[mr burns 131]

Getdataback - it´s meant to recover deleted files, but maybe you can find another version of your now corrupted document somewhere. Good luck.

Other than that, there´s google search  

[-Snafu- 77]

Hey guys I have just had kick in the balls. I have been doing important work in Microsoft Office Word 2007 for the past few days. I just went to open the file to continue and the thing is corrupt. It's really important so I need the file recovered. I would appreciate it if anyone could tell me how to fix it, point me in the direction of site/forum that could help me or show me a (free preferably) recovery tool.

I get this error message when I open the document:

Quote[/b] ]The Open Office XML BOM Essay cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents.

Details: The File is corrupt and cannot be opened.

I click OK then this pops up:

Quote[/b] ]Word found unreadable content in "BOM Essay". Do you want to recover the contents of this document? If you trust the source of this document, click Yes.

I choose Yes then this appears:

Quote[/b] ]The Open Office XML file BOM Essay cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents.

Details: Microsoft Office cannot open this file because some parts are missing or invalid.

Never have I had this happen before. One thing though: I was working on the file on Monday, decided to save it then Vista froze. I couldn't shut it down or use the on off switch so I had to let the laptop run out of power (if someone could tell me why this happens I would appreciate it). I had only done a couple sentences after I saved. When I could use my laptop later on that night I opened Word and this message appeared where it had done an 'auto-save' so I could continue where I left off. I did so and saved the auto-saved doc and closed the 'original' (the one I saved before Vista froze). It could have something to do with that. Then again I had no problems with it on Tuesday.

EDIT:

Thanks Mr Burns. I'll give those a go.

[-Snafu- 77]

W00t!

Problem solved, I just opened it up in Word pad and it was all there.

[Colossus 2]

Anyone know how to convert a PDF-file in to a Word or OpenOffice format?  

Copy & paste won't do here, that won't set the text correctly. Nor give the correct size and font.

[echo1 0]

I'm not completely familiar with OpenOffice, but I know that it has the capibility to convert Word into PDF. Have you tried opening the document in Open Office writer and looking for an export option?

[Balschoiw 0]

Ok, I´m finally giving my old PC-system a rest. It´s simply not fast enough anymore. Changing components and upgrading it over 5 years always kept me happy but now it´s time to say Good-bye

As my old system still uses IDE drives and an AGP gfx card I will most likely go for a completely new computer.

I have around 1000 Euro to spend.

For now I have had an eye on a setup like this:

Intel® Core 2 Quad

4 x 3,3GHz OC/Q6600

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 mit Intel® P45 Chipsatz

4GB OCZ Platinum XTX Edition DDR2-1066 RAM CL5

nVidia - GF GTX280 1024MB, DX 10 HDMI

Samsung SH-S223Q 22fach SATA DVD-Brenner

Samsung 500 GB, HD502LJ , 16 MB / 7200 U/min

COMBAT POWER 750 W - Gaming Edition - 13,5 cm fan

Realtek RTL8111B Gigabit Ethernet

DTS 7.1 Surround

Is the setup ok ?

What can I expect from the system ?

Do you have different suggestions ?

Thx for input.

[echo1 0]

Intel® Core 2 Quad

4 x 3,3GHz OC/Q6600

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 mit Intel® P45 Chipsatz

4GB OCZ Platinum XTX Edition DDR2-1066 RAM CL5

The new Core i7 chips are just around the corner (i.e. next week) and the benchmarks are quite formidable - the basic 2.66Ghz model is equivalent to a 3.2Ghz Core 2 Quad Extreme (That's before you overclock it). It also features a "Turbo Mode" that will shut down unused cores and overclock the remaining ones automatically. You also get the benefit of not buying into the LGA775 platform for which no new chips will be released. The only problem is that motherboards and DDR3 are quite expensive, which might be a problem with a budget. If you are prepared to overclock and save money, then I guess the Q6600 isnt that bad of an option. The basic 2.66Ghz model is only about €290 compared with about €160 for a Q6600.

EDIT: I just realized that a LGA1366 costs in and around €300-400, so perhaps jumping on the Nehalem bandwagon isnt quite a good idea if youre on a budget. If youre prepared to wait, it would be worth it though.

Quote[/b] ]COMBAT POWER 750 W - Gaming Edition - 13,5 cm fan

Never trust non-brand name PSUs. Get a Corsair or BeQuiet unit.

Some might question the choice of the GTX 280 when the Radeon 4870 is nearly as fast but a good deal cheaper. But if you want the best performance for money, then its the card to get.

[Supernova 0]

Q9550 instead of Q6600. The difference is price is worth it.

Never buy a be-quiet power supply , best power supply brands are Antec , Ultra , Corsair and Thermaltake and of course the expensive PC Power and Cooling.

Core i7 is not worth it at all because it only provides a 5-10% performance boost while in some games it gains a negative performance boost.

Motherboard: Asus Maximus II formula.

Hard Drive: better stick to WD or Seagate

Video Card: 4850 X2 (Sapphire) or 2 4850's in Crossfire.

Memory: OCZ Reaper HPC 2X2GB DDR2 1066 (PC2-8500).

[echo1 0]

Q9550 instead of Q6600. The difference is price is worth it.

Considering the plans to overclock, surely the more overclockable Q6600 is a better choice? Even at stock speeds, its questionable whether paying almost twice the price for a 20% increase in speed is really worth it. The money is better spent on a better graphics card or more RAM.

Quote[/b] ]Never buy a be-quiet power supply

Why not? They have excellent reviews.

Quote[/b] ]Core i7 is not worth it at all

Try reading some actual reviews as opposed to making up random crap. Here and here are good places to start.

Quote[/b] ]Hard Drive: better stick to  WD or Seagate

Why? Samsung make excellent disks, their F1 750GB/1TB in particular are excellent.

Quote[/b] ]Video Card: 4850 X2 (Sapphire) or 2 4850's in Crossfire.

Considering the unreliability of Crossfire systems, especially with ArmA, one single-GPU card is always the best. The GTX280 is the fastest such card currently available.

[Supernova 0]

Oh please don't give me that bollocks as you folks like to say over there . I read over 20+ reviews the day the NDA was lifted on Core i7 and in certain applications such as 3d rendering it gets a healthy boost while in others the performance difference is not worth justifying a new upgrade. It isn't using the same socket and it means upgrading the big three , memory/cpu/motherboard. I'd personally wait to see how Deneb does against Core i7 before moving from LGA 775 to a newer socket. As for be-quiet that's what they said about Silverstone power supplies till they went poof.