PC Discussion Thread II - All PC related discussion goes here.

[Tonci87 163]

So I´ll get myself a nice PSU, a nice HD5850 and maybe I´ll overclock my Quad-Core. I wonder how many FPS I´ll get in OA......

EDIT: There are many HD 5850 Variants out there, which one is the best?

Edited September 24, 2010 by Tonci87

[Barely-injured 0]

Hey guys i have an HD4850 And performance wise I have no complaints about it whatsoever. However It tends to heat up really bad causing the fans to spin really fast making lots of noise. Recently I have decided I have had enough with the noise as its starting to impede on my enjoyment of the few high demanding games that i have including ArmA 2 (I even had a few restarts due to overheating incidents). Its time to get a new card.

My requirements are #1 a card that doesn't heat up badly or if it does that it's fan/s don't make a lot of noise cooling. #2 I wish to avoid having to upgrade my PSU if at all possible, I have 400W PSU that seems to handle the 4850 quite well. #3 Obviously i still want it to be better in performance than my 4850 as its still an upgrade after all.

From my research I think a GTX460 seems like a good candidate. So I want to ask is 400W enough for it ?. and I also would appreciate any alternative cards that you guys can suggest for me for those requirements that are more or less in the same price line as the 460.

Thanks

[Tonci87 163]

Ok I´m starting to think about buying this:

http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a506736.html?v=k

or even this

http://geizhals.at/deutschland/a518181.html

@Barely-injured, do it like me, get a decent PSU and a good Card.

[Barely-injured 0]

@Barely-injured, do it like me, get a decent PSU and a good Card.

Unfortunately I cant afford a 5850 right now nor the extra PSU that it will require :o .

And after the Heating issues with my 4850 i am not super excited about the idea either.

[LordHorusNL 0]

I'm looking into buying a new game/workstation to run Arma 2 and photoshop/3ds max with a lot of multitasking going on.

This is what i was thinking:

Intel Core i7 950

Asus Rampage 3 Gene

Scythe Mugen 2 Rev.B

Corsair Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D

OCZ Vertex 2 SATA II 2.5" SSD 60GB

Western Digital Caviar GreenPower WD20EARS, 2TB

Cooler Master HAF 922

Cooler Master Silent Pro M850

EVGA GeForce GTX 460 SuperClocked 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E

Samsung Synmaster p2470h

I want to add another video card in the near future but i'm still up in the air about getting the EVGA GTX 460 X2 or the Sapphire 5850 x2. What would be best for arma?

Also do you guys think i could run this with a 600 watt psu? 850 might be a bit much. I might add another 6 gigs soon and the second video card.

Might switch the Scythe mugen 2 for a corsair H70? With no oc'ing no more cooling should be needed i hope:)

First system i've built in a while so i'm not to sure, any comments/tips would be appreciated.

Thanks

[kavoven 4]

Can anyone tell me the real important differences between Adobe Premiere Elements and the matching Pro CS Version?

I really like filming and editing. My cam can film in full HD but the stupid software (Its a Panasonic SD-9) won't let me to save a video in a greater resolution than 720. I was fine with that for the past year but now its starting to upset me, considering the amount of quality I lose with the editing process.

So I searched the web for tools to read their AVCHDL whatever format, which led me after many tries back to the Adobe Products.

I'm willing to pay the 450 Euros for the CS5 Student Edition, but just before ordering I noticed that you need a 64bit system to run it. (By the way - my computer is a Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 @2.4 ghz - is this a 64bit system? Guess not...I didn't follow any hardware trends for 4 years :o

Edit - Oh just read that it CAN handle 64 bit... so I just need a new windows?)

It seems like Elements doesn't need a 64 bit system, but the screenshots looked like Windows Movie Maker :rolleyes:

For now I'm using the Trial Version of Pinnacle Studio 14 for reading the stupid format and converting it into something thats real HD and readable for my current Premiere Version. (No comments on that)

Last but not least - is there a way to buy Adobe Premiere Pro CS 4 Student Editon? The normal one still costs 1000 euros at Amazon and thats really too much.

Edited October 7, 2010 by kavoven

[CameronMcDonald 146]

(By the way - my computer is a Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 @2.4 ghz - is this a 64bit system? Guess not...I didn't follow any hardware trends for 4 years :o

Edit - Oh just read that it CAN handle 64 bit... so I just need a new windows?)

Intel processors natively support x64 OSs, so yeah, all you need is a x64 version of Windows. :)

[Pyronick 21]

Intel processors natively support x64 OSs, so yeah, all you need is a x64 version of Windows. :)

Intel processors from Core 2 up and all AMD's after 2003.

[echo1 0]

Well, also certain variants of the Pentium 4 (600 series) and Pentium D (900 series), but that's largely incidental.

[kavoven 4]

Edit

Delete please

Edited October 27, 2010 by kavoven

[Shadow NX 1]

Been a while but now another problem popped up and maybe one of the experts here has a idea / solution.

Situation:

I have a ATI HD4870 and two HDMI cables attachted to it with a DVI adapter.

One cable is for the monitor ( HP W2207h ) and one is attached to my TV ( Panasonic ) T-XP42GW20.

My Soundcard is a onboard Realtek HD Audio ( Driver v.5.10.0.5532 )

Now i want to get the PC sound to the TV over the HDMI cable, in the Realtek menue i got a option to switch output to "HDA HDMI Out" which is good but that only leads to sound over my Monitors crappy speakers.

There is no option for a second output saddly.

Also switching cables didnt help, still same.

Plugging out the Monitor HDMI cable so only the TVs is left leads to the HDMI Output option dissapearing as if the TV wouldnt be recognized as potencial target for sound output.

So this drives me insane, watching Films or Playing games ( Emulation mainly ) over the TV with no sound from the source of the picture is pretty annoying.

I also tried a cable with a normal audio jack and the usual white and red plugs for left and right but with that i also didnt get sound, possibly that must be activated somwhere in the menue?

Yet there is no option at all.

Anyone has a idea?

---EDIT---

Riddle solved, after lots of googeling i found out that only the original ATI DVI to HDMI adapter allows to get sound over the DVI port of the card.

I switched out the cables and oh joy now all works perfectly fine.

So for those that made the same mistake, only use the original adapter for your TV for the PC monitor any DVI adapter will do.

Edited November 3, 2010 by Shadow NX

[dmarkwick 261]

So what's the current Gold Standard for motherboards? I was favouring Asus and the Rampage III Extreme, however if there's a motherboard that can take at least 2x i7 quad CPUs and > 24 GB RAM and still have a good write-up, I'm all ears :)

[bangtail 0]

For 2 processors, EVGA SR-2 (although you will have to go Xeon for 2 processors)

Specs :

http://www.evga.com/articles/00537/

Review:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/evga-classified-sr2-review/

For single CPU, I favor Gigabyte over ASUS (although there is nothing wrong with ASUS).

The UD9 is an excellent motherboard, I'm very happy with it (The whole X58A-UDx series is great).

Specs:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3434#ov

Review:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte-x58a-ud9-review/1

Of course, if you want the best, I would wait for Sandy Bridge E/Waimea Bay in Q2 2011 :D

Edited November 13, 2010 by BangTail

[archsceptic. 10]

Guys,

Yesterday I received my new ati 6870 graphics card, to replace my ati 4870 X2. After installing the card and booting up windows I get the bsod. I tried starting in safe mode - which avoided the bsod - but was then unable to install drivers off the bundled dvd without the install aborting.

I emailed the supplier about the problem, expecting them to say the card was probably a dud, but they have just suggested:

"We have found that with the newer ATI cards there is compatibility issue with older drivers. If you can, please reinstall windows".

This to me is nonsensical. I've told them that re-installing windows is an inconvenience I could do without - I'm waiting for a reply.

Used with Win7 64bit, Intel X58 Platinum mobo, i7 940.

What do you think????

:(

Edited November 16, 2010 by archsceptic.
Senility

[bangtail 0]

Guys,

Yesterday I received my new ati 6870 graphics card, to replace my ati 4870 X2. After installing the card and booting up windows I get the bsod. I tried starting in safe mode - which avoided the bsod - but was then unable to install drivers off the bundled dvd without the install aborting.

I emailed the supplier about the problem, expecting them to say the card was probably a dud, but they have just suggested:

"We have found that with the newer ATI cards there is compatibility issue with older drivers. If you can, please reinstall windows".

This to me is nonsensical. I've told them that re-installing windows is an inconvenience I could do without - I'm waiting for a reply.

Used with Win7 64bit, Intel X58 Platinum mobo, i7 940.

What do you think????

:(

I too had problems getting the 6870 installed and most of the 'experts' suggested a full reinstall of Windows which is just not an option for me when switching video cards, it's an utterly ridiculous concept.

Here is what solved my problems with AMD's drivers:

This is an old thread, but it's one of the top search results for "ccc won't run" so I wanted to post another possible solution here. My solution was to clear out the Windows GAC (Global Assembly Cache). In Windows 7, you can browse directly to "C:\Windows\assembly". Sort by "Public Key Token", then delete everything with the Token "90ba9c70f846762e" (ATI's key). You'll obviously need Administrator privileges. No reboot needed either. Reinstalled CCC and it ran perfectly!

The GAC lets you share DLL's that are the same version number. If it's in the GAC, any installer will NOT install a new DLL - it'll use the one in the GAC. If the GAC DLL is corrupted, you're majorly SOL.

When I reinstalled the CCC, it took longer to install then it had before. Presumably, this was due to the installer copying all the correct DLL's to my hard drive. And no ATI DLL's have made it back into my GAC.

Original Thread:

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/mobility-radeon-drivers-support/186707-problems-installing-catalyst-control-center.html

Clearing the GAC, doing a driver sweep etc should solve your problems but I offer no guarantee :(

Edited November 16, 2010 by BangTail

[archsceptic. 10]

Thanks BangTail, I'll look into this.

You dont expect to have to re-install windows if you change your gpu - what's the world coming to?

:mad::confused::(

[chris330 0]

Hi had to re-post this I posted in the wrong section - haven't been around here for a while :p

****

Hi :)

I'm looking to start playing wwiionline again, but I've sold all my old hardware :rolleyes:

I know a bit about code but bugger all about hardware. I'm looking for a middle of the road graphics card and straight forward PSU to back it up. I don't want to spend a load of money on some fancy Corsair PSU again if I don't need to.

Can anyone recommend a reasonable power supply unit and graphics card to go with it? I'm a bit worried about buying PSU's which are not 'single rail' as I've heard these are prone to problems, but I wouldn't have a damn clue what any of it means. I'm thinking of a PSU up around 500W with just a basic card costing around £40.

Any ideas - thanks for any help offered ;)

[larsiano 12]

If you get a low-end videocard 500W will be more then enuigh. But if you say you sold all your hardware it mean you need a complete new sys? as 40pound is not that much to start with you have little choice. Or if you mean to spend it on just the PSU look for a nice 520W or 600W of any make! Middle of the road PGU would be a EN270 or ATI56xx serie (+ or minus a few numbers) IF you like to play games a lot like Arma that is. I dont know if you have a good monitor or not so a little more info on all this might help decide what you need and want, :)

[chris330 0]

Thanks for the reply! 500W sounds ok then thanks :)

I just need a new PSU (present one is very weak) and a card. I think I've got a PSU nailed down but unsure on the card.

Any suggestions at all? Doesn't have to be too much;)

[larsiano 12]

if your happy to play Arma2 on low settings you can get a 8800GT for around 25pound (here at least at computer club/site) or a little higher @ around 100pound a:

normal:

http://tweakers.net/aanbod/283190/club3d-nvidia-gtx465-1-gb-dx-11.html

http://tweakers.net/aanbod/283051/msi-n260gtx-t2d896.html

http://tweakers.net/aanbod/283105/sapphire-vapor-x-hd5770-1gb-gddr5-pcie.html

cheap:

http://tweakers.net/aanbod/283178/xfx-9800gt-met-zalman-vf950-led.html

http://tweakers.net/aanbod/282899/asus-en8800gt-g-htdp-512m.html

sry for the dutch site but its just to show you some 2th hand options available for me (local is better then Ebay sinds it cheaper)

[dmarkwick 261]

For 2 processors, EVGA SR-2 (although you will have to go Xeon for 2 processors)

Specs :

http://www.evga.com/articles/00537/

Review:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/evga-classified-sr2-review/

For single CPU, I favor Gigabyte over ASUS (although there is nothing wrong with ASUS).

The UD9 is an excellent motherboard, I'm very happy with it (The whole X58A-UDx series is great).

Specs:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3434#ov

Review:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte-x58a-ud9-review/1

Of course, if you want the best, I would wait for Sandy Bridge E/Waimea Bay in Q2 2011 :D

Hmm, thanks for that, I eventually went for the Gigabyte X58A-UD7 motherboard after looking really hard at online reviews etc :) and, rather unpredictably, the decision between Asus and Gigabyte was based mostly on the number of PS2 ports. I have a dual monitor KVM that uses PS2 connections so that made the decision for me :)

But, I'm very happy with the new setup. Not overclocked it yet from factory settings, I figure I'll wait a few weeks and guage it's native stability first. So far, so good :)

Populated it with an i7 950, 12gb RAM (doubling soon) and put my nVidia GTX 280 from my old machine into it, and a couple of Barracuda 2tb SATA3 drives, no RAID. It needs to run Lightwave 9.6/10 and Vue xStream 9 so that's why all the memory.

Most importantly, it runs ArmA2 great and my script-lag has gone :)

[chris330 0]

if your happy to play Arma2 on low settings you can get a 8800GT for around 25pound (here at least at computer club/site) or a little higher @ around 100pound a:

normal:

http://tweakers.net/aanbod/283190/club3d-nvidia-gtx465-1-gb-dx-11.html

http://tweakers.net/aanbod/283051/msi-n260gtx-t2d896.html

http://tweakers.net/aanbod/283105/sapphire-vapor-x-hd5770-1gb-gddr5-pcie.html

cheap:

http://tweakers.net/aanbod/283178/xfx-9800gt-met-zalman-vf950-led.html

http://tweakers.net/aanbod/282899/asus-en8800gt-g-htdp-512m.html

sry for the dutch site but its just to show you some 2th hand options available for me (local is better then Ebay sinds it cheaper)

That's great thanks for your help! I've just ordered one, cheers ;)

[bangtail 0]

Hmm, thanks for that, I eventually went for the Gigabyte X58A-UD7 motherboard after looking really hard at online reviews etc :) and, rather unpredictably, the decision between Asus and Gigabyte was based mostly on the number of PS2 ports. I have a dual monitor KVM that uses PS2 connections so that made the decision for me :)

But, I'm very happy with the new setup. Not overclocked it yet from factory settings, I figure I'll wait a few weeks and guage it's native stability first. So far, so good :)

Populated it with an i7 950, 12gb RAM (doubling soon) and put my nVidia GTX 280 from my old machine into it, and a couple of Barracuda 2tb SATA3 drives, no RAID. It needs to run Lightwave 9.6/10 and Vue xStream 9 so that's why all the memory.

Most importantly, it runs ArmA2 great and my script-lag has gone :)

The UD7 is an equally good motherboard.

Glad you are enjoying your new setup :D

[Rich_R 1087]

My current set up is as follows;

I7-960 processor

2 5870's in crossfire

12 GB ram

Win 7 64 bit

My question is this, will I see any dramatic performance increase if I change over to a Nvidia 580?

The main complaints I have with ATI cards are the texture popping (although I don't think its as near as bad as some people) and just the messy way ATI releases its drivers (never work properly don't really clean the old ones out that well, etc)

I'm looking for feedback from both Nvidia and ATI crossfire users.

Thanks

[Sinzan 10]

I went from 2 HD5850's to a GTX480 I have no regrets.