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

[NeMeSiS 11]

I dont know if you can fix it, but if you have multiple DIMMs you can take the faulty one out and work with less RAM for a while.

[Placebo 29]

Shouldn't pretty much all RAM be coming with life warranties these days? If it's DDR3 it can't be that old?

[PuFu 4600]

there is NO way to fix it, no. Faulty ram needs to be replaced.

ram nowadays have pretty much life time warranty, or so are the ones i got (just checked, around 99 months :) )

check your warranty, might be in a bit of a luck.

[Matthewkunx 3]

Hey guys, just wanna see what you think about the build I am currently working on for fixing up my old PC as well as a new PC that I am building for general gaming since I am not always looking to set everything on ultra.

Here are the specs for both PC's;

My old/build-from-scrap Gaming computer (Or as I would call, my "Minmatar Computer" If you get the reference) :p

Asus A8N SLI Deluxe NVIDIA Socket 939 Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 4400+ @ 2.21GHz (without overclocking)

4x PNY 512MB PC3200 = 2GB RAM

2x WD5000AADS 500GB HDD (Had some laying around)

DVD RW

Swapping out my old Radeon 256MB card with a Sapphire 100322L Radeon HD 6450 Video Card - 1GB, GDDR3, PCI-Express 2.0

Running Win 7 Ultimate

This is my general gaming rig;

(Including prices of each part)

GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-S2P AMD 760 Motherboard (54.99)

AMD HDT45TWFGRBOX Phenom II X6 1045T Processor (139.99)

Crucial BLS2G3D1609DS1S00 Ballistix 2GB DDR3 (probably would get a second one and at 18 bucks its nice)

Seagate ST1000DM003 Barracuda 1TB HDD (90.00)

DVD RW (another thing I got sitting around

XFX HD-667X-ZHF3 Radeon HD 6670 1GB (65.00)

Got an ATX tower sitting around and a Diablotek PSDA600 DA Series 600W ATX (Got this PSU for 34.99)

So I am looking at eh...around $421+ for this build plus 30 bucks for the graphics card for my old PC. So, thoughts?

---------- Post added at 04:30 ---------- Previous post was at 04:24 ----------

I could also use some advice...

I am currently using a laptop which was not bought for gaming. i have now changed my mind and want to get into PC gaming rather than console. I used the sytemrequirementslab tosee if my laptop was good enough to handle games like arma 2, bf3 etc. Everything came back a pass other than my video card which failed.

Is there any way of upgrading this (external video card etc.)??

Here is my laptops spec:

Operating sytem: windows 7 homw premium 64-bit

Processor: Intel® Core i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30GHz

Memory: 4096MB RAM

Display: Intel® HD Graphics Family

thanks

Aron

Some new high performance laptop and portable computer manufacturers are coming out with models that enable users to upgrade the video card or video accelerator it came shipped with. Unless your one of the lucky few who have one of these laptops or portable computer you will not be able to upgrade your video card. Try contacting your manufacture or google it bro.

[Epillus 1]

hello everyone, this is my first time posting in this community and hopefully it's in the right place :P. I have a couple of links to some builds I've been working on.. I'm going to be building some very lightweight gaming rigs, and would like some advice. Some games I plan on downloading/playing are ARMA II, and Minecraft(not worried about) and prohbaly some lightweight games because I do play alot of games on xbox like BF3 and saints row. As of right now i'm looking at a budget of $600, I don't need a monitor and most likely not a mouse or a keyboard because i have some. Also it does not have to be windows, I am fairly comfortable using a linux distro.

BUILD 1

BUILD 2

BUILD 3

[Bee8190 10]

[/color]Unfortunately none of those builds meets the minimum requirements. I would recommend at least one of those high clocked i3 or obviously better yet i5.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?119512-Arma-3-Confirmed-features-info-amp-discussion&highlight=arma+minimum

[-Coulum- 35]

Okay total computer noob here. Starting to narrow down parts I want for a new computer and one I am having trouble with is the mother board. How important is this to gaming (arma in particular)?. Should I be looking to get a really good one, or should I simply be looking to get something that "gets the job done"? Thanks in advance for any help.

[irishrocky 10]

hey folks, i need a new pc as i've donated alot of parts to friends and family in need so what would people reccomend ??

ive no bias between brands but would ideally play Arma II & such at 40 fps on good settings & A3 on reasonable, im not fussy about running max AA and the likes just stable decent fps/view distance etc makes me happy as larry....

pc would be running SSD only and preferably the gpu would be a single unit ( i.e 2gb 78xx+ or nividia equiv... )

would it be doable for say, sub 600 euro with a case already + mouse keyboard & monitor ?

[Placebo 29]

Everyone gets to ask one dumb question a day right? Here's mine! ;)

So I buy a new SSD http://www.kingston.com/us/ssd/vplus/#svp200s3 it says it has the following specs:

Sequential reads: SATA Rev. 3.0 - 535MB/s

Sequential writes2:SATA Rev. 3.0 -120GB – 480MB/s

Sustained Random 4k Read/Write2: 120GB – 20,000/44,000 IOPS

Max Random 4k Read/Write2: 120GB – 85,000/55,000 IOPS

I run AS SSD Benchmark and get this:

My motherboard is an ASUS M5A97 motherboard which is Sata3 and I'm using Sata3 rated Sata cables to connect it to the motherboard

I think this was the result from when I was using the generic MS Sata driver on my old Sata2 motherboard:

So despite upgrading to a newer supposedly much faster motherboard the SSD speeds have actually pretty much gone down, and either way the speeds I'm getting are nothing like the supposed 535MB/s reads and 480MB/s writes advertised? Am I missing something obvious here and/or being dumb or is something not configured/working right in my system?

[tonygrunt 10]

Do a bench with Atto or HDtune then you should see the advertised speeds.

And I believe AMD sata controllers are slower than the Intel ones, so expect to lose a bit from that.

[Placebo 29]

Do a bench with Atto or HDtune then you should see the advertised speeds.

And I believe AMD sata controllers are slower than the Intel ones, so expect to lose a bit from that.

Thanks I tried both of those:

(Pics spoilered so they don't kill the thread)

Not sure I really understand what either of those mean but some of the bars go higher toward 500mb/s so I'm guessing that's a good thing? ;)

[Bee8190 10]

Okay total computer noob here. Starting to narrow down parts I want for a new computer and one I am having trouble with is the mother board. How important is this to gaming (arma in particular)?. Should I be looking to get a really good one, or should I simply be looking to get something that "gets the job done"? Thanks in advance for any help.

Well I could never justify spending (too) much on the motherboard as I'd say you can't really go wrong with any MB of today's lineup, from any well known manufacturers. (gigabyte, asus, ASrock, MSI, Intel...)

It's usually down to what features you require, like CPU power phase to madly OC your CPU , ( 2 or 4 way GFX setup ) or how many USb 2.0 - 3.0 you will need, reset CMOS and power on\off button on MB, how many SATA 6 and SATA 3, e-SATA, firewire, thunderbolt or even integrated Wi-Fi etc etc..

It goes even bit beyond all this but it difference may come down to what audio codecs are implemented, what ethernet driver it uses etc etc...too many factors I can cover here :) BUT once you understand the basics and what to look for its way easier to comprehend it all.

Now you might find a MB that has all this features on it and will cost you 300$ up, or you can find one that has only Crossfire or\and SLI slots, some USB 2 and 3 ports but deosnt have integrated wi-fi, has weaker CPU power phase, cheaper codecs and fewer **insert feature here** ports, driving the price of used components and \or licenses down.

There's just too much to cover but if you have any or more specific questions I'll (try to :) ) and gladly answer them here

@Placebo, the atto benchmarks look alright to me....( is the SSD on AHCI by the way as its recommended?)

[Placebo 29]

@Placebo, the atto benchmarks look alright to me....( is the SSD on AHCI by the way as its recommended?)

Yes it is.

[BasileyOne 10]

flash-based SDD's tend to [start]degrade after 1.5-2 months of usage in speed/size/reliability.

best-rated controller for SSD's is LAMD, presently acquired by SK Hynx with developer/designer.

and indilux/Marvel v4 - second in charts.

about "iNtel vs AMD storage controllers" topic. they comparable, AMD even better[but Nvidia even better than AMD], a bit, but drivers... quite opposite.

basically you don't need driver for both during usage in modern operating systems and motherboard, both because AHCI support[de-facto standard of storage interface/driver] and legacy/IDE [optional]HDD/SSD emulation by motherboard firmware.

generally AHCI also provide less CPU overhead.

[Dallas 9]

[edit]misposted sorry

Edited August 6, 2012 by Dallas

[Placebo 29]

[edit]misposted sorry

In answer to your original question, you could post here: Congratulations Bohemia Interactive

[sesdelta38 10]

It's been quite a long time since I last posted in these forums. I remember posting in this thread to get help on building a gaming computer. I need help with that again.

However, I'm looking for help on building one from scratch(my friends are helping with that). I want to know if their is any way to turn my Dell desktop into a low-end gaming computer.

If anyone can help, I will appreciate it greatly.

EDIT: Is there at least some possibility of putting in a new processor?

Edited August 17, 2012 by sesdelta38

[Meyer_USA 1]

So I've been looking around and am planning to buy my first computer dedicated to gaming. (ARMA lol) It would be a first for me in general as I never really had a decent computer.

Anyways I'm looking for input on what anybody thinks of this setup. Think it would be able to run ARMA 2 and possibly 3 in the future on high settings with a decent FPS?

I plan on buying this from CyberPowerPC

Case: * Azza Genesis 9000 Full Tower Gaming Case w/ 2 x 230mm fans, 4x Easy Swap HDD, Dual Power

Supply Support, & front USB 3.0 Port (Black Color)

Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Maximum 120MM Case Cooling Fans for your selected case

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-3820 Quad-Core 3.60 GHz 10MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011 (All Venom OC Certified)

Performance Tuning Protection Plan by Intel: Intel® Core™ i7-3820 Performance Tuning Protection Plan by Intel

Venom Boost Fast And Efficient Factory Overclocking: Extreme OC (Extreme Overclock 20% or more)

Cooling Fan: Asetek 510LC Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Enhanced Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA) (Single Standard 120MM Fan)

Coolant for Cyberpower Xtreme Hydro Water Cooling Kits: Standard Coolant

Motherboard: (4-Way SLI Support) GIGABYTE X79-UP4 Intel X79 Chipset Quad Channel DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ 3D UEFI Bios, Ultra Durable 5, 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 4 Gen3 PCIe x16, 2 PCIe x1 & 1 PCI

Memory: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Quad Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 2GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

Power Supply Upgrade: 1,000 Watts - Standard Power Supply - SLI/CrossFireX Ready

Hard Drive: 2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Drive)

Optical Drive: LG 12X Internal Blu-ray Drive & DVDRW, 3D Playback Combo Drive (BLACK COLOR)

Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

What do you guys think of this rig? Should I change anything, or should I go with an alternative option?

[batto 17]

@Meyer_USA: looks great

[Tonci87 163]

Guys I need a new gaming mouse.

Suggestions?

Currently I´m looking at

http://www.amazon.de/Logitech-G500-Gaming-Maus-schnurgebunden/dp/B002LVTP6Q/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1345575391&sr=8-4

It should have enough extra buttons and should be of high quality.

Any suggestions?

[PuFu 4600]

steel series > razer > roccat > logitech. (my 2 cents anyways).

If you can find a razer deathadder at a decent price don't wait on it. Great mouse that is.

btw, currently running a steel XAI laser mouse (Highly recommended, but more pricey than what you got there). Had a deathadder before that.

[batto 17]

SteelSeries Xai here too. Good mouse but backlight on bottom LCD stopped working. Logitech MX518 is also good and cheaper. I had MX510 which is like MX518 (except max DPI) but there are no drivers for Win > WinXP (needed to switch to 800 DPI from 400 default). Before I got Xai I considered Logitech G9. It has replacable "weight modules" (so you can tune weight of the mouse) and the mousewheel can be pushed to right and left which could be good for leaning in ArmA.

[froggyluv 2136]

+1 Deathadder -serves me well and works ace for Warband dueling which is mousewear in the extreme!

@Meyer: Good build but are you paying for them to OC your chip when they're installing a water based cooling system? Its not that hard or much of a gamble when cpu has little risk of heating up. Also, what is your monitor and resolution expectancy?

[Tonci87 163]

What do you guys think of this one?

http://www.roccat.org/Products/Gaming-Mice/ROCCAT-Kone-/

Does someone have experience with it?

I´ll check your suggestions when I get home from work.

[jagheterjan 10]

Yes, I owned three of them. All of them broke after about six months. In all cases it was the supporting structure that held the mouse wheel in position - it broke away from the main body, causing the mouse wheel and associated buttons to go inop and sending shards of plastic into the mouse, causing all sorts of annoyances. I used the mouse mainly for work in 3ds max and Mudbox which tend to put quite some strain on the middle mouse button and wheel. Third time it happened, I went for a Logitech G500. Never looked back once.

Edited August 22, 2012 by jagheterjan
Fixed some numbers