[Everardo Montano]

Originally by Powerslide
LET'S MAKE THIS WORK PEOPLE!

Okay, now as anyone could see there are HUNDREDS of tech threads floating around in CD - ranging from questions about graphics hardware, to questions about pricier graphics hardware and other tech such as monitors, hard drives and Processors to announcement threads of new technology and more. (I accede - I'm not being very eloquent here)

Any questions you have, tech news or ANYTHING related to buying/selling/information/announcements of new hardware should go here.

For example, if you come to the forums to ask "What is the better graphics hardware" or "What sort of RAM should I put in my PC?" then it should go here - I'm a little hazy, I know - but please keep all those graphics card and tech questions to one thread! Please!
So here's the summary, all:

• Announcements and queries on new or unreleased tech
  
• Benchmarks and results of hardware/discussion
  
• Questions on what sort of hardware you need/want for your machine
  
• Questions about existing tech and/or function
  
• Pricing and recommendations

Should be kept to THIS THREAD.

This has been A-okayed by CCNA for all who were wondering - it's up to you to stop filling CD with the same topics again and again that ask what the most powerful card in existence is so you can (not) buy it.

If you feel you have a question or can answer one - please feel free to do so.


Thanks all.
Adding more links shortly, thank you for your patience.

(Threads 1-85 have been all pruned, may they rest in peace)

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1079401-the-community-tech-thread-%2386/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1084024-the-community-tech-thread-no-87/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1090141-the-community-tech-thread-no-88/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1094900-the-community-tech-thread-no-89/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1102258-the-community-tech-thread-no-90/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1108118-the-community-tech-thread-no-91/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1112884-the-community-tech-thread-no-92/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1118559-the-community-tech-thread-no-93/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1145193-the-community-tech-thread-no-94/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1153130-the-community-tech-thread-no-95/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1160717-the-community-tech-thread-no-96/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1167952-the-community-tech-thread-no-97/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1176772-the-community-tech-thread-no-98/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1180239-the-community-tech-thread-no-99/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1188969-the-community-tech-thread-no-100/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1199194-the-community-tech-thread-no-101/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1207079-the-community-tech-thread-no-102/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1217232-the-community-tech-thread-no-103/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1224422-the-community-tech-thread-no-104/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1227492-the-community-tech-thread-no-104/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1228926-the-community-tech-thread-no-106/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1233177-the-community-tech-thread-no-107/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1241366-the-community-tech-thread-no-108/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1247846-the-community-tech-thread-no-109/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1297566-the-community-tech-thread-no-110/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1328500-the-community-tech-thread-no-111/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1348566-the-community-tech-thread-no-112/


Do I also have to put a big glowing neon sign to this in my signature? THERE ARE TOO MANY TECH THREADS - THIS IS NOT A FORUM FOR YOUR TECH WOES!

But we will gladly help you anyway. [img]http://www.gamesas.com/images/smilie/wink.gif[/img]

Honour list:
Nottheking
Lord Athanar (SUPER-PINK!)
Insaneturbo13
Anothercanadian
Tig Ol' Bitties (Moderator)
Dogsbody
CCNA (Moderator)
Níeh?ggr
wolfpup
Wierd
Softnerd
wingus
DEFRON
Qwaxalot
iGuess
Starforce9
Sivartus


Oh and PLEASE, if you want us to "Build" you a PC, please indicate the following:
1.) your budget in your country's currency
2.) what country you reside if not listed in your avatar area
3.) pre-assembled PC? ...or can you build your own?
4.) what is needed other than the PC tower? Monitor, speakers, mouse, keyboard, Windows OS disc? All these can jack up the price.
5.) product preferences, preferred seller, and intended aim

but please, no "I want teh superererest Peecee evar1!!!!11!1", because really, only Bill Gates has that much moolah.


And, speaking of building your own PC, two sets of good how-to videos from Newegg:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIXAtNGGCw&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxaVBsXEiok&feature=related

Thanks to SpankyTheElf for finding these additional ones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CStOC0hET8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3buj5cIh2Bs&feature=related



Other useful links

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/983941-a-freeware-guide/page__p__14225246__fromsearch__1#entry14225246
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/2
http://www.overclock.net/graphics-cards-general/502403-graphics-card-ranking-5th-time-last.html
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/articles.php?articleid=132
http://www.memtest86.com/
http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/
http://entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm
http://www.irfanview.com/
http://www.knoppix.org/
http://www.jonnyguru.com/
http://www.overclock.net/power-supplies/183810-faq-recommended-power-supplies.html
http://www.overclock.net/power-supplies/715889-psu-articles.html#post9110838
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php
http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/
http://tftcentral.co.uk/
http://www.apple.com/itunes/
http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark06/
http://www.fraps.com/
http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.php?wpid=1&front_id=12

[Eve Booker]

Still can't get my 'Network Controller' drivers to update no matter what I try. I've been to the Packard Bell website and tried every single WLAN Driver listed for my model (TM97). Now that I have a wired connection, I have access to the net, yet windows cannot automatically find any drivers when it searches for them through the Device Manager. Not sure what else I can do other than use it as a wired connection from now on.

Fixed that.

Also wondered if anyone knows why I can't delete the 'Windows.old' files after my new installation on a new partition. I've managed to get rid of most of it, but ~25gb of stuff still remains due to the fact that I don't have access to delete it. Any tips on how I can remove it for good, since I already have everything I need and this is now just wasting space.

Thanks.

[Soph]

Quick question, I was thinking about getting a second Radeon 6850 for Crossfire at some point (probably not for another 6 months or so when it will hopefully be pretty cheap), and I noticed that the second PCI Express slot on my http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157185 only runs at x4. Should this cause a significant reduction in performance compared to a motherboard that supports full speed on both slots? If it's not a huge loss it's no big deal, as I'll most likely be buying a new motherboard and CPU once Haswell rolls out next year. But if there would be a significant loss, then I might as well save the money and wait to do a CPU and GPU upgrade at the same time.

[Julie Serebrekoff]

Today I got extra SCSI discs from work and am now able to setup my second server but I have an issue. I am trying to install the free version of the VMWare Hypervisor to run a few different VMs but it says the server does not have a 64bit CPU and I know it does.

The server in question is a HP ProLiant DL380 G4. It has only a single 3.2ghz Xeon in it and 1GB of RAM. I realize 1GB isn't much for running VMs but I have 4GB more on order and only plan to run an OpenBSD DHCP/DNS server so it won't need more then 256MB of RAM at most for the small number of clients.

Anyone have any idea why this would tell me it is not 64bit? I think it should still register as such even if I have less than 4GB of RAM. I could drop back to an older version of the hypervisor but I would rather stay current if possible. Is there another utility I can run to test this theory that it is for sure 64bit?

[Lifee Mccaslin]

Today I got extra SCSI discs from work and am now able to setup my second server but I have an issue. I am trying to install the free version of the VMWare Hypervisor to run a few different VMs but it says the server does not have a 64bit CPU and I know it does.

The server in question is a HP ProLiant DL380 G4. It has only a single 3.2ghz Xeon in it and 1GB of RAM. I realize 1GB isn't much for running VMs but I have 4GB more on order and only plan to run an OpenBSD DHCP/DNS server so it won't need more then 256MB of RAM at most for the small number of clients.

Anyone have any idea why this would tell me it is not 64bit? I think it should still register as such even if I have less than 4GB of RAM. I could drop back to an older version of the hypervisor but I would rather stay current if possible. Is there another utility I can run to test this theory that it is for sure 64bit?

VMWare ESXi is highly picky on what you can install on it, you need to verify motherboard, bus adapter, even the quirks of a specific CPU can cause it to throw a fit. You should always verify hardware compatibility before considering using ESXi on a hand-me-down or whitebox.

[Alisia Lisha]

VMWare ESXi is highly picky on what you can install on it, you need to verify motherboard, bus adapter, even the quirks of a specific CPU can cause it to throw a fit. You should always verify hardware compatibility before considering using ESXi on a hand-me-down or whitebox.

Well I found out that 5.0 need something else special with the CPU. I did find a version (also free from VMware) of 4.1 that is specific to HP Proliant servers so I went ahead and downloaded that but due to my server only having 1GB of RAM it won't install. Just placed an order for 4GB of RAM on Ebay, which I verified it is ECC and the same type currently in the box, so that should help. If not I can try Xen again, but for now I think I will just install OpenBSD as it is and use it for now like that and when I get the new RAm then virtualize.

[Matt Fletcher]

Hello

I set up a thread in another forum about buying a new PC but was told to come here as apparently building one would be a LOT cheaper than the "beast" I wanted to pay a lot of money for!

I don't know ANYTHING at all about building PC....so, I was hoping you nice people would build one for me

Just to prove I read the start of the thread

Oh and PLEASE, if you want us to "Build" you a PC, please indicate the following:
1.) My budget is just over ￡2000
2.) I live in England, United Kingdom
3.) It HAS to be pre-assembled, as I am an idiot. But I WILL go to a website and choose all the best options on there, if THEY put it together for me
4.) I have a monitor (but I am after a FULL HD TV, I will buy this later though). I'm also after a surround sound system for my room.
5.) Product Preferences - Like I said I know NOTHING about PC's, so erm, the best I guess

My aim is to have da most sooperist compooter eva...

Seriously though, I want to be able to have a PC that can run the full Skyrim 2k HD Textures along with Warzones Civil unrest in Skyrim and quite a few other mods as well. In ULTRA Quality. I would also be using the computer for editing short films with Sony Vegas, so something that can handle that would be good....But I have heard "A gaming PC can handle school work, but a school work PC can't handle gaming".

EDIT: Oh, I also use FRAPS, so something that can handle that recording at the same time as 2k HD textures and countless other mods, without a massive drop of FPS

Apologies for me being such an idiot

[Sammygirl]

It HAS to be pre-assembled

No it doesn't. Have you made it through middle-school? Then you can build a PC yourself.

[jennie xhx]

No it doesn't. Have you made it through middle-school? Then you can build a PC yourself.

I didn't go to Middle School, however I did go college...

I'm guessing by Build, you mean on a website?
Anyway, what's the point in making a reply when I ask for help if you're not going to provide anything constructive?

[Gwen]

No it doesn't. Have you made it through middle-school? Then you can build a PC yourself.

I didn't go to Middle School, however I did go college...

I'm guessing by Build, you mean on a website?
Anyway, what's the point in making a reply when I ask for help if you're not going to provide anything constructive?

Ugh... again? Both of you stop it. Do I have to get Tig down here again?

Iguess, what i think he is getting at is he does not want to take the chance of messing something up, or he does not have the time or mindset to do so. What he wants is to get a list of parts and have a local computer shop or a friend build it for him, because he does not feel confident in doing it himself. Heck, even when I built my first one, i had my friend with me to make sure i didn't screw it up.

No need to get defensive. Just think before you act. I always try to, that and also there is a reason I do not speak my mind, but that is a whole other subject.
The point is, this is a FORUM. you can revise before you post. If you cannot understand that we are all friends here, then you will not fit in well in this forum and you can go elsewhere.
I am getting off topic here... I could put together a build in USD for you, but it may not be completely accurate because prices differ from country to country.

I did the math, and this build fits within your price range.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135252
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181017&Tpk=corsair%20H100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231507
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131701
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442 (for operating systems and stuff you know you will not get rid of)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121429 (get two)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116997
This leaves plenty of room for changes in prices, plus you could actually order this parts list at a local computer shop and they will get the parts, put it together, tune it up, and give you the finished product, but they will charge a fee. Your local nerd will do it for you for free. Nerds love putting things together.

[Steeeph]

I didn't go to Middle School, however I did go college...

I'm guessing by Build, you mean on a website?
Anyway, what's the point in making a reply when I ask for help if you're not going to provide anything constructive?

No, I mean order the parts, and put them together. "Building a PC" and "buying a pre-assembled PC" are mutually exclusive.. It takes 2 hours at the most, and the chance of messing anything up as long as you take your time is very small. About the worst thing that happens is a part arrives dead and you have to figure out that it's dead and then RMA it.

Many, many people, I'm sure much less intelligent or technologically savvy than yourself have assembled their own computers. Everyone has their "first time" doing it. Just... do it. Order the parts, save money, learn something in the process. Don't go the "pre-assembled" route.

[Etta Hargrave]

I'm guessing by Build, you mean on a website?

There are some excellent tutorials on YouTube on how to build your own computer. It's not as hard to do as it seems. IMO, the key is not to let yourself get overwhelmed.

Here is one such tutorial on how to build a pc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIXAtNGGCw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxaVBsXEiok&feature=relmfu

[Mizz.Jayy]

Getting a pre-assembled customized computer (a la Alienware, except I don't recommend Alienware) is fine. One thing pre-assembled computers have over a completely self build computer is that it is thoroughly tested before you get it.

Even though building your own computer from scratch is fairly easy it can be overwhelming for the novice. It _can_ go smoothly and it can be a nightmare. Obviously pre-assembled computer are more expensive, but if you avoid the larger corporations it is reasonable.

Pre-assembled computer are not completely plug and play, as the shipping process can loosen parts and cause them not to work correctly until checked. However even with major problems it is easier to RMA the computer as a whole then to RMA individual components, as when dealing with defective components during a self-build [assembled] session.

***

I don't recommend assembling your own computer until you learn how to troubleshoot and configure individual components. Getting "thrown" into assembling your own when you aren't ready can lead to you giving up and buying a cookie-cutter special at your local Best Buy (or similar) or even getting an Apple ( ).

Unfortunately, I don't know a builder that ships in the UK.

[Liv Brown]

At the risk of sounding stupid, I need help with a new gaming rig. I do not know anything regarding computer parts, specs, ect. I would love to get back into PC gaming with a good rig that can run newer games on Medium-High settings. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[Poetic Vice]

No, I mean order the parts, and put them together. "Building a PC" and "buying a pre-assembled PC" are mutually exclusive.. It takes 2 hours at the most, and the chance of messing anything up as long as you take your time is very small. About the worst thing that happens is a part arrives dead and you have to figure out that it's dead and then RMA it.

Many, many people, I'm sure much less intelligent or technologically savvy than yourself have assembled their own computers. Everyone has their "first time" doing it. Just... do it. Order the parts, save money, learn something in the process. Don't go the "pre-assembled" route.

Ah, I must apologise, I thought you were having a go at me for being stupid!
In my defence, I had just come off a 16 hour shift at work and was a little stressed out!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135252
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181017&Tpk=corsair%20H100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231507
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131701
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148442 (for operating systems and stuff you know you will not get rid of)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121429 (get two)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116997
This leaves plenty of room for changes in prices, plus you could actually order this parts list at a local computer shop and they will get the parts, put it together, tune it up, and give you the finished product, but they will charge a fee. Your local nerd will do it for you for free. Nerds love putting things together.

Thanks

Unfortunately, I'm from the UK so can't use this site, but I will look at getting all those components
My mate is an "uber computer nerd" and I'm sure I can get him to build it for me. He's worked in gaming shops before so I know he knows what he's talking about.

[Rudy Paint fingers]

PC hardware: $650
Windows OS: $100
Yelling 'IT'S ALIIIIVE!' after finally getting it put together and powered up: priceless.

[Dean Ashcroft]

At the risk of sounding stupid, I need help with a new gaming rig. I do not know anything regarding computer parts, specs, ect. I would love to get back into PC gaming with a good rig that can run newer games on Medium-High settings. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

First, you will need a budget. How much are you willing to spend?
Next, what will you spend this budget on? Do you need a new screen, new mous, new keyboard, new speakers?
Do you want a whole new pc, or could you transfer some hardware from your old pc? Like hard-disks or cd/dvd-drive.

If you just want a new pc (a case with hardware) without a mous, screen, keyboard and speakers, you could buy a pre-assembled one.
Or you could assemble one yourself.

Here are a few basics on hardware. These rules arent always correct, but they should get you started:
-Memory / RAM: Usually more = better. Older pc's or family pc's usually use 1Gb of RAM. Older game pc's run on 2Gb RAM. My 5 year old game-pc runs on 4Gb. Depending on your budget, you might want to go for 4Gb or 8Gb. (Start worying about the brand and latency later)

-Graphic / Video card: We have 2 well known brands. ATI/AMD and Nvidea. Usually a videocard exists out of a few numbers and letters. For example, I have a 8600 GTS Nvidea card. This means: 8000 series, card 600. In this case the 600 means that it's a medium gaming card. The 8200 GT card would be the same generation of cards, but only has the number 200, which would mean it's a basic non-gaming card. An 8800 GT card would be better. Since it is the same generation, but has the number 800. Do not be fooled by the generation number! A 9200 GT card might seem better, because it's a later generation (9000 series), but it's still a 200 card. 200 Cards are not meant for gaming.
The same rules apply for ATI/AMD. A 6970 card is usually better then a 6950 card.
The new Nvidea cards follow different rules. They have names like GTX 450, GTS 450 and GT 450. In this case, GTX is the best, and GT the worst. GTX 550 would be better then a GTX 450.
Keep in mind, that this is usually how the naming works. There is much more to video cards then numbers in names.
Just pick a card that fits in your budget (or pick a pre-assembled pc with a card you think is good) and ask the members in this thread what they think.

Processor: This might be the hardest part of the PC. As a very rough indicator, more cores and higher speed is better. But there are about a few million examples where this indicator is horribly wrong.
Lets take the current Intel processors as an example. They have names like "Intel Core i7" or "Intel Core i5". Usually an i7 is better then an i5, and an i5 better then an i3.
But we have multiple versions of the i5. For example "Intel Core i5-650" and "Intel Core i5-660". In this case the i5-660 is better then the i5-650.
Again, just pick a few processors that fit in your budget, and compare them. Again, ask the members in this thread what they think when you made a selection.

Motherboard: This can be a real pain if you don't know anything about hardware. I picked my first motherboard like this:
-Does my processor fit? (correct socket?)
-Does my video-card fit? (Does it have a PCI-e slot or PCI slot? Depending on the video-card)
-Does the RAM fit? (How many slots do I need, and how many does the board have?)
If the answer to all these questions is YES, the board is good enough.
Of course, you also need to make sure all your hard-disks can be connected, etc etc. But this shouldn't be a problem with any modern-day board.
(There is much more to motherboards then this, but I won't be explaining all that here. Couldn't even explain it if I wanted to )

Power supply / PSU: Pick a good brand, with enough power. You don't want some cheap knock-off that catches on fire when you game to much.

Case: Make sure it's big enough. Make sure it has cooling fan.

Hard-disks / HD: Depending on how much you want to store on this pc, just pick one. Most of the time, HD's have an RPM mentioned in the specifications. In general, more RPM is better.

cd/dvd-drive: Just pick one that does what you want. You might want to consider blue-ray.

I hope this helps a bit.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And now for my own question:

I want to buy a new gaming-rig.

Budget roughly 2000 euro's. Preferably a bit less. 2k is the hard max.
I will need a complete new case, and screen. (So a complete computer, minus the mouse, keyboard and speakers)
I already have Windows-7 ready to install. (This is excluded from the budget)

I was thinking about the following specs:

Motherboard: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-dx79to.html (210 euro)
RAM: http://www.kingston.com/dataSheets/KHX1600C9D3K8_32GX.pdf (1 kit 200 euro)
Processor: http://ark.intel.com/products/63697/Intel-Core-i7-3930K-Processor-(12M-Cache-3_20-GHz) (490 euro)
CPU cooling: scythe mugen 3 res-b (40 euro, because the 3930K doesn't come with cooling)
GPU: Don't know yet. I was thinking about the HD7970 (530 euros)
PSU: Corsair 850 watt 80 gold plus voiding (160 euro)
Case: Corsair 600t white kast (150 euro)
drive: a simple cd/dvd reader/burner (20 euro)
screen: Don't know yet (150 euro)
HD: Don't know yet, but I want 500 Gb at least. (100 euro)

This is a total of 2050, which is over budget. BUT current prices of HD's are quite high. And I might wait a month or two for the CPU and GPU prices to drop.

My concerns and questions:
The amount of ram is quite high. The motherboard has quad-channel, and 8 ram-slots. To make full use of the bandwidth, I want to fill all 8 slots.
Since the price between 2Gb and 4Gb RAM-units is very small currently, I figured I'd use 8 x 4Gb instead of 8 x 2Gb. Is this correct?

I choose the cheapest version of this motherboard. The more expensive version is http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-dx79si.html. But the only real difference would be an extra card-slot, which I wont use. Is this correct?

I could buy the http://ark.intel.com/products/63698/Intel-Core-i7-3820-Processor-(10M-Cache-3_60-GHz) instead of the 3930K CPU. But this one just seems significantly better. Is this correct?

All other things are just picked at random. PSU from a good brand, with enough power. cd/dvd Drive would just be some cheap thing from a random brand. Case is just a good looking case with enough space. CPU cooling is just something that seemed decent. Am I missing something here?

So, what do you guys think?
Your view on this setup would be appreciated

EDIT:
Added link for memory
Corrected error about RAM

[Monika Fiolek]

NVM.

[Calum Campbell]

I am having another computer problem.

I have an NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 video card that is just over a year old. NVIDIA came out with a new driver sometime last week. I updated the driver and things seemed fine for a day or two then I started having a problem; my PC completely freezes and the display turns pink/purple-ish and distorts a bit, but not completely. I have to power the machine off to reboot it.

I rolled the driver back and it didn't change anything. I haven't been gaming much but all of the crashes have been while I was on the interenet, none while gaming. The problem seemed to get worse yesterday, it crashed twice in just a couple of hours. That was the first time it happened more than once in a day.

[meg knight]

I am having another computer problem.

I have an NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 video card that is just over a year old. NVIDIA came out with a new driver sometime last week. I updated the driver and things seemed fine for a day or two then I started having a problem; my PC completely freezes and the display turns pink/purple-ish and distorts a bit, but not completely. I have to power the machine off to reboot it.

I rolled the driver back and it didn't change anything. I haven't been gaming much but all of the crashes have been while I was on the interenet, none while gaming. The problem seemed to get worse yesterday, it crashed twice in just a couple of hours. That was the first time it happened more than once in a day.

Try disabling the Nvidia plugins for your browser and disabling hardware acceleration for flash

[CHANONE]

Just figured out that my grandpa's year of endless computer trouble was due to a bad stick of RAM, then got [censored] by Best Buy because all they carry is insanely overpriced PNY crap (no other computer stores nearby, and I wouldn't be able to come back and install it for a few months if I had ordered online).

On the bright side, computer is fixed!

[FLYBOYLEAK]

At the risk of sounding stupid, I need help with a new gaming rig. I do not know anything regarding computer parts, specs, ect. I would love to get back into PC gaming with a good rig that can run newer games on Medium-High settings. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Answer some questions first...

1.) your budget in your country's currency
2.) what country you reside if not listed in your avatar area
3.) pre-assembled PC? ...or can you build your own? Willing to build your own?
4.) what is needed other than the PC tower? Monitor, speakers, mouse, keyboard, Windows OS disc? All these can jack up the price.

And now for my own question:

I want to buy a new gaming-rig.

Budget roughly 2000 euro's. Preferably a bit less. 2k is the hard max.
I will need a complete new case, and screen. (So a complete computer, minus the mouse, keyboard and speakers)
I already have Windows-7 ready to install. (This is excluded from the budget)

I was thinking about the following specs:

Motherboard: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-dx79to.html (210 euro)
RAM: http://www.kingston.com/dataSheets/KHX1600C9D3K8_32GX.pdf (1 kit 200 euro)
Processor: http://ark.intel.com/products/63697/Intel-Core-i7-3930K-Processor-(12M-Cache-3_20-GHz) (490 euro)
CPU cooling: scythe mugen 3 res-b (40 euro, because the 3930K doesn't come with cooling)
GPU: Don't know yet. I was thinking about the HD7970 (530 euros)
PSU: Corsair 850 watt 80 gold plus voiding (160 euro)
Case: Corsair 600t white kast (150 euro)
drive: a simple cd/dvd reader/burner (20 euro)
screen: Don't know yet (150 euro)
HD: Don't know yet, but I want 500 Gb at least. (100 euro)

This is a total of 2050, which is over budget. BUT current prices of HD's are quite high. And I might wait a month or two for the CPU and GPU prices to drop.

My concerns and questions:
The amount of ram is quite high. The motherboard has quad-channel, and 8 ram-slots. To make full use of the bandwidth, I want to fill all 8 slots.
Since the price between 2Gb and 4Gb RAM-units is very small currently, I figured I'd use 8 x 4Gb instead of 8 x 2Gb. Is this correct?

I choose the cheapest version of this motherboard. The more expensive version is http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-dx79si.html. But the only real difference would be an extra card-slot, which I wont use. Is this correct?

I could buy the http://ark.intel.com/products/63698/Intel-Core-i7-3820-Processor-(10M-Cache-3_60-GHz) instead of the 3930K CPU. But this one just seems significantly better. Is this correct?

All other things are just picked at random. PSU from a good brand, with enough power. cd/dvd Drive would just be some cheap thing from a random brand. Case is just a good looking case with enough space. CPU cooling is just something that seemed decent. Am I missing something here?

So, what do you guys think?
Your view on this setup would be appreciated

EDIT:
Added link for memory
Corrected error about RAM

My opinion, pick up a X79 board from Gigabyte, Asus, or AsRock. These guys do boards better than what Intel can do.

Goodness, quad-channel. 8GB to me is already overkill for a typical gamer. If you do video stuff (rendering, encoding, editing) or Fold a lot, even 16GB is still overkill to me. 32GB is just ridiculous. Save some money here.

Need to ask yourself if you really need a 3930K. It's a six-core CPU, but can you actually utilize the extra two cores and 4 threads it has over the 3820? Very few games can even utilize a quad-core chip efficiently and we're still in dual-core era with most game releases. I find the 3820 would still hold you down for the next few years....it's no slouch by any means, but the chip is pretty much on par with the 2600K on the cheaper LGA 1155 socket side of things. The 3930K is the cheapest Intel 6-core chip right now and can be useful if you have applications that are heavily threaded.

You don't really need a 850W PSU for your system specs. Even the 750W Corsair is already overkill....can crossfire two 7970s on a 750W Corsair. For a single card, the 650W Corsair would already be enough.

Get the cheapest 500GB HDD you can find right now...the prices are still inflated. Preferably a Samsung F3, but Western Digital and Hitachi is fine. Seagate if can't find anything else, but their quality has waned over the years since the acquisition of Maxtor.

What you're missing in this build is an SSD. Spending that much on a system warrants one. Try to pick up a Crucial M4 SSD, 128GB preferably.

As for monitor, Asus has plenty of gorgeous displays and they can be had rather cheap these days. These models are well known:
Asus VH236H
Asus VH238H
Asus VH242H
Asus VW246H

[(G-yen)]

My opinion, pick up a X79 board from Gigabyte, Asus, or AsRock. These guys do boards better than what Intel can do.

Could you elaborate?
What exactly is better?

Goodness, quad-channel. 8GB to me is already overkill for a typical gamer. If you do video stuff (rendering, encoding, editing) or Fold a lot, even 16GB is still overkill to me. 32GB is just ridiculous. Save some money here.

I did some more searching on RAM, and found http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/KHX1600C9D3K4_8GX.pdf. 2 Of those kits would still get me 8 banks to fully utilize the bandwidth, but it's almost half the price.
This would give me 16GB of RAM, which is still a lot, as you mentioned.
The main concern would be: Is this KHX1600C9D3K4/8GX Kit the same as the KHX1600C9D3K8/32GX Kit, but less?

Need to ask yourself if you really need a 3930K.

I did ask myself that. The 3930K is clearly better then the 3820K, even for gaming. But the benchmarks show very little difference.
I'm also getting a lot of negative comments from friends on this one. For the same reason. It's a lot more money for not so much more performance.

You don't really need a 850W PSU for your system specs. Even the 750W Corsair is already overkill....can crossfire two 7970s on a 750W Corsair. For a single card, the 650W Corsair would already be enough.

Thanks for this! I'm always having trouble picking the right PSU.

Get the cheapest 500GB HDD you can find right now...the prices are still inflated. Preferably a Samsung F3, but Western Digital and Hitachi is fine. Seagate if can't find anything else, but their quality has waned over the years since the acquisition of Maxtor.

Thanks for the brand-suggestions! Will look into that.

What you're missing in this build is an SSD. Spending that much on a system warrants one. Try to pick up a Crucial M4 SSD, 128GB preferably.

Could you elaborate?
An SSD has great performance, but they are very expensive for very little capacity.

As for monitor, Asus has plenty of gorgeous displays and they can be had rather cheap these days. These models are well known: Asus VH236H Asus VH238H Asus VH242H Asus VW246H

These models are indeed exactly the size and price range I'm looking for.
Thanks for the suggestions


Tig, once again you have been a great help.
Thank you very much. Very appreciated!

[Gemma Flanagan]

Awhile back I got some old servers from work. I got 10 x 72.8GB hard drives, and 2 x 146.6GB drives (odd sizes due to them being SCSI) with them at no cost. I just spent about $27.00 to order 4GB more RAM for the newer of the two servers, each one had 1GB when I got it, in order to run a bunch of virtual servers if I can get VMware ESXi or Citrix XenServer installed on it.

I am wondering how much would be reasonable to put into the servers since I don't have too much extra but can spare around $100 more if I wanted. I was thinking about maybe adding a second CPU to the newer of the servers, again for the virtualization, but not sold on the idea yet. I have small hard drives so I cannot go as crazy as I would like with virtual machines but they all won't be running at the same time since some will be just test platforms. Some will run all the time like a DHCP/DNS server.

My older server is just a file server running FreeNAS so it really doesn't need much horse power. Even with 4 people transferring files the 1GB of RAM, which is under the recommended amount was fine.

Do you guys think it will be worth it to put more RAM or a second CPU into the newer of the two or should I just leave them as is for now since it isn't in a position to majorly impact my network.

[Franko AlVarado]

Could you elaborate?
What exactly is better?


I did some more searching on RAM, and found http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/KHX1600C9D3K4_8GX.pdf. 2 Of those kits would still get me 8 banks to fully utilize the bandwidth, but it's almost half the price.
This would give me 16GB of RAM, which is still a lot, as you mentioned.
The main concern would be: Is this KHX1600C9D3K4/8GX Kit the same as the KHX1600C9D3K8/32GX Kit, but less?


I did ask myself that. The 3930K is clearly better then the 3820K, even for gaming. But the benchmarks show very little difference.
I'm also getting a lot of negative comments from friends on this one. For the same reason. It's a lot more money for not so much more performance.


Thanks for this! I'm always having trouble picking the right PSU.


Thanks for the brand-suggestions! Will look into that.


Could you elaborate?
An SSD has great performance, but they are very expensive for very little capacity.


These models are indeed exactly the size and price range I'm looking for.
Thanks for the suggestions


Tig, once again you have been a great help.
Thank you very much. Very appreciated!

While Intel is responsible for the motherboard chipsets required to run a Intel CPU, they don't exactly make the best motherboards. It's not really their forte and past history has shown that Intel boards tend to be more underfeatured (ie overclocking capabilities). For a basic no frills board, one can choose Intel. But the other brands I mentioned cater more to the enthusiasts and are always releasing quality boards every year.

The Kingston RAM you linked is pretty much the same model line...only slight difference is the last number indicating capacity. And 16GB really is plenty and will save you money.

It doesn't seem the 6-core CPU would be much use to you in the immediate future then. Socket 2011 will supposedly have a long lifeline of CPUs coming out for it. When the time comes that you even need a 6-core (I doubt it), it should be cheaper. Still, 4-core and 8 threads on the 3820 isn't going to hold you back any time soon.

Yes, the SSD being too expensive for too little capacity is still the big reason why many haven't jump on the technology yet, but prices have been dropping to the point where one can be had for $1/GB. But the performance boost really is significant as they say in everyday daily tasks or anything that needs to be. Most games won't see much of a difference when running, but for Bethesda games an SSD certainly helps with those stutters in between loading cells within the gameworld. And it will certainly cut down on the load times. It's up to you though. Is it necessary? No. But it certainly is something to consider especially with the budget you have.