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

[Colossus 2]

Both interesting and boring info and sales points, of course, about Nvidia's upcoming

GF100-chipset and DX11. Hope it's a bit usefull at least.

-XfbUiRTwOI

I found the part about tesselation very interesting.

Edited January 21, 2010 by colossus

[rksl-rock 1300]

Core i7s are about 20% more clock efficient than Core 2 Duos. For example, one of their 2.66GHz Core i7s give the same performances as a 3.2GHz Core 2 Extreme.

I know thats the theory, but I've seen ArmA2 run like a 486DX2 on a i7 920 desktop. I'm hoping someone that has actually tried it will pop up. So far Ive heard good things about other games but we all know ArmA2 is very CPU dependant and clock speed is key.

[echo1 0]

I dont have personal experience with the i7 as such, but I think that's to do with ArmA 2's problem with HT, disabling of which can solve all sorts of problems. Could also be an issue with the graphics card. There are very few things where raw clock speed = better peformance, and I doubt ArmA 2 is one of those things. Again, no personal experience here, just my 2c.

[Pyronick 21]

In the best scenario, they entire ArmA 2 executables and libraries should be recompiled with the latest SSE extensions and Hyperthreading support.

The Intel compiler now has various AMD extensions, so no reason to not use some crappy FOSS compiler anymore.

[echo1 0]

Problem with compiler optimizations is that you end with a different binary for every different type of CPU around there. Still, given that most things are either i386 or i586 optimized, they could do much better. Of course, if you compile the thing for 64 bit Windows, and declare the minimum requirements to be a dual core CPU, you can get away with having SSE3 optimizations, and yet be able to run on just about every applicable machine.

Really what we need is a better CPU architecture that doesn't have all these hacks, but oh well...

[-DirTyDeeDs--Ziggy- 0]

... There are very few things where raw clock speed = better peformance, and I doubt ArmA 2 is one of those things. Again, no personal experience here, just my 2c.

I overclocked my C2D e7400 from 2.8 to 3.8 and gained about 25% fps in Arma2. (GTX 275)

I guess Arma2 is 'one of those things' after all ;)

[echo1 0]

I think you're missing the point.

If you have two identical CPUs - CPU A and CPU B, and B has twice the clockspeed of A, you'll expect B to be much faster than A.

If you then introduce CPU C, which is of a much more efficient design than A and B, you'll find that it won't need as high a clockspeed as CPU B to give the same performance.

Of course overclocking your CPU will make your computer run games better. It doesn't mean that a chip running at say only 3GHz could actually be faster than your chip when running at 3.8GHz.

[sesdelta38 10]

@ ch 123: It's been awhile since I've posted on this forum, but I'll be posting the of gaming PC parts I gathered. Maybe you can look at the list once I post it to see if it's a good enough list? I assure you that I did research the parts to see if they were compatible.

[echo1 0]

Sure yeah, fire ahead.

[jasonnoguchi 11]

Anyone here using 3D monitor for ArmA2? Hows the effect like? :)

Just made an impulse order for the Zalman's 22" 3D monitor without much research... anyone else using? :)

Edited February 2, 2010 by jasonnoguchi

[Nixo 10]

Problem Problem. Sorry if someone has posted this already but here I go.

Monday - computer works fine. Tuesday - Computer wont BOOOOOT!

Appearently my computer cant find my hard drive anymore. I have not touched my box. I have cleaned it. But that was a couple of weeks ago so dust and stuff can not be the problem. Cables are not loose. I have unplugged the hard drive and plugged it back in. But nothing works.... I can feel and hear the Hard drive running.

The BIOS can't find the Hard drive either.

Could someone please tell me... What could be wrong? what to do?

I would rather not spend about 200-300 euros on a new operating system and a new 500gb/1tb hard drive.

Thanks.

[echo1 0]

What specific error does it give?

Can you go into the BIOS/Setup and see if the drive shows up there?

[h - 169]

I had pretty similar problem at one point with my PC, it would BSOD with some completely uninformative error (as in without any code or specific dll) and upon rebooting it would claim that I had no longer a system HDD installed.

This would also happen from time to time after shutting down the PC and starting it up the next morning.

This was usually fixed by turning off the power from the PSU and left it turned of from 5 minutes to several hours even and all would work as usual for even weeks until the same problem appeared again..

Changin OS's had no effect, it would appear completely randomly to a point that I went and replaced my system HDD and all worked well for couple of months until it started to happen again. In the end it was fixed by changing the system HDD data cable (sata) and spraying contact cleaner in every single contact point except the CPU...

Edited February 4, 2010 by h -

[Nixo 10]

Have to test that... I have changed the cable... 3 different... Nothing... Now it has been lying powered off for a day... so i'll go and test it.

[kernriver 4]

Have to test that... I have changed the cable... 3 different... Nothing... Now it has been lying powered off for a day... so i'll go and test it.

Same thing happened to me once, so I plugged HDD into different SATA controller on the motherboard. It worked for me, no harm in trying yourself.

Odd thing is, after a while I plugged HDD back into the same controller, and it works to this day ... strange.

[Nixo 10]

Any idea if I can run Windows 7 64bit.

intel core2duo e8400 @3.0ghz

MSI NX8800gt T2D512E

I think I have a Intel Desktop Board DQ35JO

Then the rest is not that important... I think.

Well I have some kind of Maxtor 500gb SATA hard drive.

[echo1 0]

Then the rest is not that important... I think.

You left out the most important thing - RAM. But if you have a PC that recent, you should have no issues.

[Spawn Squad 10]

hello everyone, i just want you to know that i joined the game. i see you in action :coop:

[Nixo 10]

You left out the most important thing - RAM. But if you have a PC that recent, you should have no issues.

I don't know for sure what I have but it should be 2x Kingston 2gb DDR2

... can't be more specific.

[eble 3]

this is weird, I have almost the same problem, Sata 500gig HD stopped being seen by my computer, this is what happened:

computer working fine, then I would have the monitor go to sleep, but the computer according to my LCD screen on my keyboard was working fine.

this happended about 4 times(over a week) making me keep rebooting the computer, the 5th time the computer booted but could no longer see the sata drive.

most times the computer would start 'fail to get to boot at all?'

I gave up thinking the sata HD had died.

I then used a a 320 gig IDE drive I had about, this worked fine until yesterday, then my monitor went to sleep again and I restarted the computer it failed to boot, yet the fans/HD seemed to spin up as normal?

Any ideas, I'm starting to think it's the motherboard as the IDE drive works fine in another computer and now.

system specs:

Intel Q9450

Evga 780I

Corsair DDR2 4 gig

Win 7 64

Inno3d 9800Gx2

HELP! :)

Edited February 10, 2010 by Eble

[riffleman 20]

My notebook showing message of your system is infected.

I have avira.is this enough for removing spyware.

[echo1 0]

Microsoft Security Essentials is the best free anti virus. It handles spyware too.

[Pyronick 21]

Problem with compiler optimizations is that you end with a different binary for every different type of CPU around there. Still, given that most things are either i386 or i586 optimized, they could do much better. Of course, if you compile the thing for 64 bit Windows, and declare the minimum requirements to be a dual core CPU, you can get away with having SSE3 optimizations, and yet be able to run on just about every applicable machine.

Really what we need is a better CPU architecture that doesn't have all these hacks, but oh well...

What about precompiled packages, with the game running in a VM like id Tech engines do?

That would make porting and developing a lot easier. It could mean the end of Wintel!

[sesdelta38 10]

@ ch 123: I'm gonna be posting my gaming PC Parts list right. However, this is not the complete list, so I'm only gonna post the parts I have written now and will the complete list later.

Motherboard- EVGA 121-BL-E756-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 Micro ATX SLI Micro Intel Motherboard-$199.99

CPU- Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHZ 4x256 KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor-$569.99

Hard Drive- Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache STA 3.0 GB/S 3.5" Internal Hard Drive-$84.99

Graphics Card- EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB 256-Bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card-$139.99

Memory- OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR2 1600 Low

Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK-$149.99

As for the graphics card, I was think of getting two for a two-way SLI. So what do you think of my list so far? I researched all of the parts, so I'm pretty sure they are compatible.

[Sertorius21 10]

@ ch 123: I'm gonna be posting my gaming PC Parts list right. However, this is not the complete list, so I'm only gonna post the parts I have written now and will the complete list later.

Motherboard- EVGA 121-BL-E756-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 Micro ATX SLI Micro Intel Motherboard-$199.99

CPU- Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHZ 4x256 KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor-$569.99

Hard Drive- Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache STA 3.0 GB/S 3.5" Internal Hard Drive-$84.99

Graphics Card- EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB 256-Bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card-$139.99

Memory- OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR2 1600 Low

Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK-$149.99

As for the graphics card, I was think of getting two for a two-way SLI. So what do you think of my list so far? I researched all of the parts, so I'm pretty sure they are compatible.

I'll throw in my two pence here. I'd get an i7 920 and a decent custom cooler; You'll save money and you can overclock to virtually the same speed. Also, SLI is kind of dubious with some games; you might do better with buying one really good card. Just my thoughts.