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

[4 IN 1 0]

US only? Me pass.

Update: After looking at the price of i7and compare the performance with my old work horse Q9650, I think for the time being I will just sticking with my Q9650, overclocking a bit and only move to a new case, PSU, new water cool system, add some RAM, OR may be even a 120GB SSD or 2:p (with the money that needed for a faster CPU + MB +RAM that don't come with built in gpu, yeah thats a better way.)

Update 2: My new system is up and running! After switching the case and having some hairy moment when installing the new SSD(have to say, those tinny SSDs looks and sounds like they will break anytime if too much force applyed), I do run into problem when using USB to try to install pre-loaded SP1 and have format/creat/delete partitions(which is NOT a good thing to do on a SSD...)so I when on install windows from the disk. I could only hope that my mishandle of SSD won't destory the SSD....FPDR

Edited February 4, 2012 by 4 IN 1

[RealBigSwede 1]

I have a zboard and would love to have a help to make a "Ideazon Mods" for it I have tried and I just screws it up. Anyone like to help me.. I have checked and dl all modes in the zboards update part but no Arma, Arma2 mods, I like to learn to use the keyboard I have always played with controller but it have so many restrictions.

Thanks In advanced,

RBS

Edited February 6, 2012 by RealBigSwede

[boneboys 0]

People, I'm going to upgrade my computer.

It will be an i52500k with 8g of ram.

The problem that I have is which Intel chipset/MB should I go for.

The latest Z68 or the older P8P67.

Now, good sense tells me that I should go with the latest Z68 with the intergrated graphics available.

So the finished rig should look something like this :

Asus (P8Z68 or P8P67) MB

i52500k

8 g ram

460 gtx

Win7 64x.

The question =has anybody any experience with the new Z68 boards and does the intergrated graphic cause problems in anyway.

Thanks for any feedback...

[PuFu 4600]

The latest Z68 or the older P8P67.

Now, good sense tells me that I should go with the latest Z68 with the intergrated graphics available.

The Z68 is how the P67 should have been. I had a P67 board before my current z68. There is no difference in performance, just got it because i was thinking about a SSD...

So the finished rig should look something like this :

Asus (P8Z68 or P8P67) MB

i52500k

8 g ram

460 gtx

Win7 64x.

The question =has anybody any experience with the new Z68 boards and does the intergrated graphic cause problems in anyway.

Thanks for any feedback...

There is no problem with the integrated boards (i have another p67 board for some sort of server, running of the integrated gfx board via (the one and nly) hdmi output)....

[boneboys 0]

Thanks PuFu for the reply.

I'v gone with what I have in my pocket :

i5 2500k

Asus P8Z68-V LX

8 go of ram.

I have already...

Nv460 gtx

SB X-Fi gamer

500 giga IBM/Hitachi HD

Track IR5

G5 gaming mouse

X4 sidewinder KB

5+1 SB speaker set.

..............................................

An SSD (320(?) in the near future.

Moved over from an E8400 2core @3.00ghz and 4 go of ddr2.

I'll let you know if I'm impressed or not

[CTCCoco 1]

I'm planning to buy a new computer, my old computed is 7 years old, with an epic AMD Athlon 64 3700+.

I have select some components, but I'm not sure if this will run ArmA 3 smoothly...

AMD FX 6100.

8 gb RAM DDR3 HyperX 1600 Kingston.

AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 shappire.

Normal HDD with 500gb.

It'll be enough? What's your opinion about ArmA 3 requeriments?

Thank you!

[Bee8190 10]

That build look solid alright but if you can wait for the latest of HW I'd strongly suggest to wait.

AMD will be realeasing some more / revisited CPU's later this year afaik + intel new 22nm architecture will most definitely kick ass.

My advice - wait, even if you **can't**.A month or two before A3 Apha realease should be enough, plus WE will know by than a lot more about HW reqiurements

[MissileMoose 10]

I'm planning to buy a new computer, my old computed is 7 years old, with an epic AMD Athlon 64 3700+.

I have select some components, but I'm not sure if this will run ArmA 3 smoothly...

AMD FX 6100.

8 gb RAM DDR3 HyperX 1600 Kingston.

AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 shappire.

Normal HDD with 500gb.

It'll be enough? What's your opinion about ArmA 3 requeriments?

Thank you!

That should be enough to run ArmA 3, though nobody could be certain about what performance would be like.

AMD's Bulldozer was a huge let-down so to guarantee decent performance, I would go with an i5 2500k or similar from the soon to be released 'Ivy Bridge' series. As for the graphics card, I would seriously consider buying one from Nvidia. I upgraded from a single 6870 to a duel card setup, performance worsened significantly. Taking into account the bad driver support from AMD (My opinion), my future builds will only contain Nvidia cards. That's until I hear about improvements from AMD's side. A Solid State Drive would also be a very wise investment. Crucial M4's are very good all-rounders. Bulldozer review.

I'm unsure of your budget, but I've put together a few components below with a total of £1000 in mind.

YOUR BASKET

1 x MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti OC Twin FrozR II 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £219.95

1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99

1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98

1 x Corsair Graphite 600T Midi Tower Case - Limited Edition White £139.99

1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750M High Performance 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020003-UK) £99.98

1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT064M4SSD2) £77.99

1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £63.98

1 x Corsair Hydro H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/AM2/AM3) £62.99

1 x Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95

2 x Akasa AK-FN058 Apache Black Super Silent 120mm Fan - 4 Pin PWM £13.99 (£27.98)

Total : £1,057.49.

----------

You could probably save some more money on the graphics card if you wait until the new 'Kepler' card series has been released from Nvidia. That would probably mean waiting until April/May. By doing so, you would almost certainly save money on other products in the list above. Please note that the two fans would replace current ones on the CPU cooler (Corsair H60), they would increase airflow and in-turn, cooling performance for Overclocking. RAM/Memory is also very cheap at the moment, so adding another 8GB pack would be recommended. However, the increased HDD prices make up for your saving. The current situation in Thailand is to blame, poor buggers.

I have taken out the product links as I do not want to directly advertise. Prices have been taken from Overclockers UK.

I do hope this helps.

[Shinko47 1]

I have a question I discovert arma last summer a buy a pc a pay 450 for this pc and I play whit minimum graphique and this pc broke so i will buy a new pc and I whont to know if this pc will work whit arma 2 and 3

This is the pc

Stunning graphics for your games: Achieve game-winning performance from your graphics — the new Aurora can support dual graphics cards up to 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 69503.

Ultimate power under your control: Hurl yourself into the action with the powerful processing capabilities of the new Aurora, featuring the Intel® Six Core™ 3000 series CPUs.

Amazing chassis at your command: With a huge capacity for upgrades, brilliant internal component layout and liquid cooling for a high-performance processor, you can take charge of this gaming powerhouse and make it your own

[Shinko47 1]

I have a question I discovert arma last summer a buy a pc a pay 450 for this pc and I play whit minimum graphique and this pc broke so i will buy a new pc and I whont to know if this pc will work whit arma 2 and 3

The pc is the neuw alienware aurora

Stunning graphics for your games: Achieve game-winning performance from your graphics — the new Aurora can support dual graphics cards up to 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 69503.

Ultimate power under your control: Hurl yourself into the action with the powerful processing capabilities of the new Aurora, featuring the Intel® Six Core™ 3000 series CPUs.

Amazing chassis at your command: With a huge capacity for upgrades, brilliant internal component layout and liquid cooling for a high-performance processor, you can take charge of this gaming powerhouse and make it your own.

[froggyluv 2136]

^^^ Alienware is overpriced. Try building one here http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

Here is an example build for similar price of that Alien Aurora but with watercooling, 23" Widescreen Monitor, 8gb's 1600 DDR3, a 3gb 7950 video card and I7 3930k Six Core. (http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1DYREX). Imo you can get a better build for even cheaper if you mix and match just right.

Edited February 24, 2012 by froggyluv

[MissileMoose 10]

I have a question I discovert arma last summer a buy a pc a pay 450 for this pc and I play whit minimum graphique and this pc broke so i will buy a new pc and I whont to know if this pc will work whit arma 2 and 3

The pc is the neuw alienware aurora

Stunning graphics for your games: Achieve game-winning performance from your graphics — the new Aurora can support dual graphics cards up to 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 69503.

Ultimate power under your control: Hurl yourself into the action with the powerful processing capabilities of the new Aurora, featuring the Intel® Six Core™ 3000 series CPUs.

Amazing chassis at your command: With a huge capacity for upgrades, brilliant internal component layout and liquid cooling for a high-performance processor, you can take charge of this gaming powerhouse and make it your own.

Hello,

Welcome to the forum. Please read the rules and avoid spamming.

To answer your question in short, it most probably will. However Dell Alienware are massively over-priced and shocking. The only reason Dell are still selling Alienware products is because they lure in those who are not hardware-literate. If you could provide the forum with your budget and need of any computer peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse, operating system ect) we will happily assist in specifying you the components for you to build yourself. This will work out much cheaper than a pre-built system, as you cut out the middle man who needs to be paid for building it. We'll also happily assist you in the build of the machine itself, though there are hundreds of tutorials online.

tl;dr - Alienware is overpriced, avoid it like the plague. Everybody else here would.

---------- Post added at 03:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:38 AM ----------

3gb 7950 video card and I7 3930k Six Core

Just some constructive criticism here, I hope you don't mind. :)

Firstly, if the rumours about Nvidia's Kepler are true (performance wise) then AMD would be expected to drop their prices to compete with their competition. It would be a very wise move to wait until the Kepler (Nvidia GTX 6XX) series is fully released, then you could decide which route to go down. There are also some rumours about SandyBridge-E and IvyBridge-E compatability, if they were true then it would mean that you could upgrade to IB-E using the current X79 based motherboards for SB-E. So in my opinion it would be wise to go for the 3820 if you had to buy it right now, depending on the performance of IB-E of course. There is still no reason not to go with an i5 2500k or i7 2700k - save money and get a decent monitor.

[Shinko47 1]

thank you. but I not good in computer and I am redy to pay 1000 to 2000 so if you got a idea juste show my were I can buy it :) sorry for my mistake I speek francait and I try to learn my anglish

[froggyluv 2136]

Just some constructive criticism here, I hope you don't mind. :)

Firstly, if the rumours about Nvidia's Kepler are true (performance wise) then AMD would be expected to drop their prices to compete with their competition. It would be a very wise move to wait until the Kepler (Nvidia GTX 6XX) series is fully released, then you could decide which route to go down. There are also some rumours about SandyBridge-E and IvyBridge-E compatability, if they were true then it would mean that you could upgrade to IB-E using the current X79 based motherboards for SB-E. So in my opinion it would be wise to go for the 3820 if you had to buy it right now, depending on the performance of IB-E of course. There is still no reason not to go with an i5 2500k or i7 2700k - save money and get a decent monitor.

Not at all. I agree and would more then likely get what I have now - the I5 2500k. To add the 7950 was only like $170.00 or so which seems like a very good option above the 6950 he was looking at. Of course waiting to see how Kepler performs is wise and prudent but if he ready to Alien -well, lets just say the words don't always have much meaning in dem circles ;P

SHINKO47: Ill help you build one from that site if you want -just gotta tell me what you prefer in terms of components and also what you'd like to spend.

[MissileMoose 10]

thank you. but I not good in computer and I am redy to pay 1000 to 2000 so if you got a idea juste show my were I can buy it :) sorry for my mistake I speek francait and I try to learn my anglish

Not at all. I agree and would more then likely get what I have now - the I5 2500k. To add the 7950 was only like $170.00 or so which seems like a very good option above the 6950 he was looking at. Of course waiting to see how Kepler performs is wise and prudent but if he ready to Alien -well, lets just say the words don't always have much meaning in dem circles ;P

SHINKO47: Ill help you build one from that site if you want -just gotta tell me what you prefer in terms of components and also what you'd like to spend.

It would be best if he build it himself, as said above it would cut out the middle man so he wouldn't have to pay for the labour. Depending on his location, he could purchase from somewhere like Newegg, NCIX or Overclockers UK. Shink, could you please reply with your current location? :)

[Shinko47 1]

Canada Quebec Montréal :D

[froggyluv 2136]

Absolutely building your own is without question the best route as you really save alot of money, learn new skillz about how things work and where they go. Its a great hobby -but not for everyone as well. Personally I get all parts from NewEgg without a second though and try to do speed builds -under 19 minutes till it'll post (forget Windows install)

Edited February 24, 2012 by froggyluv

[MissileMoose 10]

Absolutely building your own is without question the best route as you really save alot of money, learn new skillz about how things work and where they go. Its a great hobby -but not for everyone as well. Personally I get all parts from NewEgg without a second though and try to do speed builds -under 19 minutes till it'll post (forget Windows install)

Speed builds aren't my forte unfortunately. It probably takes me longer to build it than it does to specify the parts, and I'm picky when it comes to choosing components. :p

Spec:

YOUR BASKET

1 x XFX HD 7950 Double D Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £389.99

1 x Intel Core i5-2550K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £173.99

1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98

1 x Corsair Graphite 600T Midi Tower Case - Limited Edition White £139.99

1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 850W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CMPSU-850TXV2UK) £104.99

1 x Corsair Hydro H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/LGA2011/AM2/AM3) £84.98

1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT064M4SSD2) £77.99

1 x Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9) £73.99

1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £63.98

Total : £1,272.59 (includes shipping : £14.75).

If I were in your shoes and had to purchase right this second, the above is probably what I would go for. Minus the graphics card. I would still wait for the release of Kepler and IvyBridge from Nvidia and Intel.

[froggyluv 2136]

Friend of mine just bought a PC from CyberPC yesterday and is very happy with the increase in Arma playability.

This build cost only $1038.00 (extra discount if you type 'myspace' in the codebox. http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Gamer_Xtreme_1000_SE/

[jacknorrisuk 146]

I'm currently using a HP Envy 17-1190 laptop for my Arma-ing, well, and most other things too. It runs Arma2 extremely well for a laptop, but then its not exactly a portable laptop. I would be playing it on my desktop computer, but for some reason Arma 2 has some severe difficulties being friends with the 9800 GTX + Windows 7...

[4 IN 1 0]

with my new spec up and running, I have discover a slight problem when I try to play a blu ray disk, as I tried all available player on the market all of them fail to play the disk with proper colour, which ended up overly dim and have wried colour polarization, I have tried all the driver for my display card driver, but none of them fix the problem, while dvd and all other format are played normally, anyone have an idea on what is wrong ?

[PuFu 4600]

with my new spec up and running, I have discover a slight problem when I try to play a blu ray disk, as I tried all available player on the market all of them fail to play the disk with proper colour, which ended up overly dim and have wried colour polarization, I have tried all the driver for my display card driver, but none of them fix the problem, while dvd and all other format are played normally, anyone have an idea on what is wrong ?

You really need to put more info on the bolded parts:

what is your spec, what is your driver, what software are you using for playing dvds and blue-rays

[4 IN 1 0]

Windows 7 64bit

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650

Gigabyte EP43T-UD3L

12GB DDR3 SDRAM

HIS AMD RADEON HD7970

1X Corsair Force 3 120GB SSD

1X Seagate 160GB HDD

1X Seagate 320GB HDD

Lite-on iHES212 Blu-ray drive

The only thing that worth notice is the new HD7970 that I mentioned just a few page ago

by all version of available driver I mean ALL available driver for 7970

and by all available software I mean ALL available software that is possible to get my hands on

[JdB 151]

I'm looking for a laptop for my parents. The only things they want to do with it is browse the internet, e-mail, write some letters, watch non-HD Youtube videos, very basic stuff. A built-in webcam is also necessary since we have some family abroad but it doesn't have to be a fancy one, and they're not interested in gaming. The budget is €400 max for at least a 15,6" laptop. I've been looking at some shops and then CPU benchmark sites, and the best performing CPU in this pricerange seems to be the i3-370M (on average about 30-40% better), the AMD E-300 and E-450 are far more common, but they come out really poorly in every benchmark I've seen so far. The main trade-off seems to be either an i3-370M with 320GB HDD or E-300/E-450 with 500GB. As simple tasks do not require that much space, I'd prefer a faster CPU.

HP Compaq Presario CQ57-366SD

Processor: Intel Core i3-370M (2,4 GHz)

Cores: 2

Chipset: Intel HM55 Express

RAM: 4 GB RAM (1333 MHz)

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics

Shared graphical memory: Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0

HDD: 320 GB (5400 rpm)

HDD type: Serial ATA-300

Screen size: 15,6 inch

Resolution: 1366 x 768 pixels

Screen type: TFT actieve matrix, HD BrightView

Optical drive: Dual-layer dvd+/-r/rw drive

Operating system: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (since they are pretty much newbies and therefore unbiased in their OS choice, I am considering to install a basic Linux version like Xubuntu instead so the chances of me having to reinstall because of a mountain of viruses and malware every week is much smaller)

Battery type: Lithium-ion (6-cell)

Flash memory cards supported: SD, MultiMediaCard

WLAN (standards): 802.11b/g/n

Other: Bluetooth, card reader, integrated webcam and microphone, headphone, 3x USB 2.0, VGA, LAN (RJ-45)

Is the above a good choice, or do you know of any better options I should be looking at? This one costs €399.

Does anyone have any bad experiences with certain brands? (product quality or support)

Edited March 11, 2012 by JdB

[kmossco 9]

The Core i3 is way better than the AMD part. And for 399 I don't think you can find much better than that.