[Rude_Bitch_420]

So I am thinking about doing a complete overhaul of my gaming/encoding machine. (Sig) I am thinking about possibly making the jump to Intel. I do a ton of video encoding in 1280x720 or sometimes 1920x1080 on here using Handbrake, which will use all the cores/threads it can. I was thinking about something like this....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070&cm_re=2600k-_-19-115-070-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128493
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231417
I would keep everything else from my current build. Also about Windows, since its a new motherboard will I have to buy a complete new serial key? I currently am using an upgrade version of 7 (on a clean install), would it be possible to just transfer the license from this machine to my new build? Another thing, I was originally waiting for the AMD Bulldozer class to be released, anything new about them that would make Bulldozer better then Sandybridge? Thanks

You could do that and the 2600K will be a nice upgrade from that overclocked Phenom, but make use of combo deals:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.652035

And this RAM is a Shell Shocker deal for now ($80):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231445

Memorial Day sale on this RAM ($75):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL052411&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL052411-_-EMC-052411-Index-_-DesktopMemory-_-20145345-L0B

And this one is faster and cheaper:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231460&cm_re=sniper_8gb-_-20-231-460-_-Product


If you will no longer be using your current Windows install and board, then you can transfer the license over to the new build. Will probably have to make a phone call to MS for activation though.

[Becky Palmer]

Interesting - so if I'm going with a SB CPU, then it is probably better to buy the cheaper, 1333MHz RAM, correct?

Yes, unless you plan to over clock at some point!

I have an I7 950 OC'd from 3.07 to 4.2GHZ. (200x21) if I used 1333MHz RAM, it would be OCing to 1600MHz (200x4=800x2 for 1600MHz) and more than likely failing. It would be fine at the stock clocks however.

So yeah, if you do not plan to OC, 1333MHz is fine and what the CPU is rated to use.

[jess hughes]

Yes, unless you plan to over clock at some point!

I have an I7 950 OC'd from 3.07 to 4.2GHZ. (200x21) if I used 1333MHz RAM, it would be OCing to 1600MHz (200x4=800x2 for 1600MHz) and more than likely failing. It would be fine at the stock clocks however.

So yeah, if you do not plan to OC, 1333MHz is fine and what the CPU is rated to use.

That's the thing wolf....FSB is taken out of the equation here for Sandybridge. OCing with SNB is so easy now that it doesn't matter what speed the RAM is really...OCing is done with just the multitplier and voltage bump. Like I mentioned earlier, I've seen people take a 2500K up 4.8GHz on value RAM DDR3 1333. I've built a couple SNB machine with cheap DDR3 1333 G, Skill Ripjaws and have also been able to get 4.5GHz easily.

If there is one chip that pretty much requires to overclock, it's the SNB K series.

[JeSsy ArEllano]

That's the thing wolf....FSB is taken out of the equation here for Sandybridge. OCing with SNB is so easy now that it doesn't matter what speed the RAM is really...OCing is done with just the multitplier and voltage bump.


Like I mentioned earlier,

:facepalm:

Right, forgot about that. Apologies for the miss information BootySweat.

I have not been here in weeks, and now regret jumping to the last couple of posts rather than reading the whole thing. :blush:

Off topic side question: Is this site running slow for others or is it just me? Gifs are pausing for seconds at a time. edit: restarting Firefox seems to have fixed it. :shrug:

[Heather beauchamp]

Well, I've been looking for a monitor wall mount that fits some sort of difficult criteria, and was hoping maybe someone could help find something.

It needs to be able to hold the monitor at least four feet to the side of the spot on the wall where it is mounted, with the monitor still parallel to the wall. More would be better so that the monitor could be further out from the wall. It also needs to be able to tilt down far enough that the screen is actually facing back towards the wall where it is mounted. I really doubt this exists, or if it does it costs hundreds of dollars, but I figured I'd post anyway just in case.

[quinnnn]

I seem to be having another minor problem with the new desktop I built, the eSATA port on the front of my case doesn't seem to work. I'm going to go ahead and assume I plugged the cable into the wrong port on the motherboard or something, I plugged it into one of the SATA 3GB/s ports. I've never had an eSATA port on a desktop before, so I actually have no idea where it is supposed to plug in.

[Tarka]

First off, congrats on 100 threads! :celebration: I think I've been around since 75 or something

Just a quick question: Are there any stores, websites or programs that let me trade in my gpu for credit towards a better one? I currently have a Gigabyte HD 5670 1GB And I'm afraid it won't run The Witcher 2 at high enough settings to appease me seeing as it can barely run the first Witcher at 1280x720 with medium settings on without getting cripplingly slow whenever I fight more than 2 people.

Also, what is a good card to get for under $200? I want DX11 and I want it to work, not like on my current card where I turn it on in any game and it immediately becomes unplayable

Thanks people

[Adam]

Just a quick question: Are there any stores, websites or programs that let me trade in my gpu for credit towards a better one? I currently have a Gigabyte HD 5670 1GB And I'm afraid it won't run The Witcher 2 at high enough settings to appease me seeing as it can barely run the first Witcher at 1280x720 with medium settings on without getting cripplingly slow whenever I fight more than 2 people.

ebay, craigslist

Also, what is a good card to get for under $200? I want DX11 and I want it to work, not like on my current card where I turn it on in any game and it immediately becomes unplayable

It depends a bit on the resolution of your monitor, but the following three cards are pretty much entry level DX11, should be able to handle most games at 1920x1080.
1GB NVIDIA GTX 460 (~$130-150)
1GB NVIDIA GTS 450 (~$100-120)
1GB AMD 5770 (~$110-130)

[kirsty joanne hines]

I seem to be having another minor problem with the new desktop I built, the eSATA port on the front of my case doesn't seem to work. I'm going to go ahead and assume I plugged the cable into the wrong port on the motherboard or something, I plugged it into one of the SATA 3GB/s ports. I've never had an eSATA port on a desktop before, so I actually have no idea where it is supposed to plug in.

You should be able to plug the eSATA header into any SATA port on your header (as long as the header uses a SATA type plug, as the eSATA type plug isn't L shaped). eSATA unless designated as eSATAp isn't powered so devices still need a power source (ie AC/DC adapter). eSATA is just configured for better hot-swap protection.

Now I don't know if thet SATA port needs to be in legacy SATA 1.5Gb/s mode or if the SATA AHCI (adds hot-swap support) driver needs to be loaded and configured.


edit: Most likely the header is simply an extension to a normal SATA port with enhanced hot-swap protection... nothing more. Oh and the plug fits an eSATA device.

[Brandi Norton]

Sweet mother, me and my girlfriend are having some Battle.net problems. See, she's had about three different accounts now, and only the first one she ever made worked. Once. She went to login one day to play D2 again with me, and it said her password was wrong. Okay...so I tell her to request a new one, since she may have forgotten it. It gets emailed to her. She changes it again with the new one. "Password is wrong".

Seriously? So now, I made an account FOR her, which I can login to every single time. She gets a "password is wrong" message still. Her realm is the same as mine, I can still login to the account I made for her, this...is getting ridiculous. Could a firewall possibly be causing this on her end? I've never heard of a firewall causing a network to display a message about a wrong password. Then again, I've never had an issue like this with Battle.net before.

Anyone know what in the [censored] is going on?

[Michelle davies]

ebay, craigslist




It depends a bit on the resolution of your monitor, but the following three cards are pretty much entry level DX11, should be able to handle most games at 1920x1080.
1GB NVIDIA GTX 460 (~$130-150)
1GB NVIDIA GTS 450 (~$100-120)
1GB AMD 5770 (~$110-130)

Hmmm... I wanted to avoid selling on ebay if I could, but since mine is the second version of the card I might be able to get $70 for it. They're selling new ones there for $90-$115. I might not get much for it though since it is used, if so, I think I'll definately be going with that GTX 460 you mentioned.
If could get at least $70 for it I would want to get something that would "future proof" me for at least a year or two. I was looking at the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150506&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Video+Cards-_-XFX-_-14150506 or the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150515&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Video+Cards-_-XFX-_-14150515.
Are those good cards for their price range? Anything in the range blow them away?
My psu is only a cheap 550. I'll upgrade as necessary.

[Hella Beast]

Hmmm... I wanted to avoid selling on ebay if I could, but since mine is the second version of the card I might be able to get $70 for it. They're selling new ones there for $90-$115. I might not get much for it though since it is used, if so, I think I'll definately be going with that GTX 460 you mentioned.
If could get at least $70 for it I would want to get something that would "future proof" me for at least a year or two. I was looking at the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150506&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Video+Cards-_-XFX-_-14150506 or the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150515&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Video+Cards-_-XFX-_-14150515.
Are those good cards for their price range? Anything in the range blow them away?
My psu is only a cheap 550. I'll upgrade as necessary.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card-game-performance-radeon-hd-6670,2935-3.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card-game-performance-radeon-hd-6670,2935-4.html

[GRAEME]

Hmmm... I wanted to avoid selling on ebay if I could, but since mine is the second version of the card I might be able to get $70 for it. They're selling new ones there for $90-$115. I might not get much for it though since it is used, if so, I think I'll definately be going with that GTX 460 you mentioned.
If could get at least $70 for it I would want to get something that would "future proof" me for at least a year or two. I was looking at the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150506&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Video+Cards-_-XFX-_-14150506 or the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150515&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Video+Cards-_-XFX-_-14150515.
Are those good cards for their price range? Anything in the range blow them away?
My psu is only a cheap 550. I'll upgrade as necessary.

The GTX 560 is a hell of a card just under $200 and it's faster than any of those.

...my bad, the GTX 560 Ti is the card better than those, but is out of your budget range. The Radeon 6870 is actually better than the plain GTX 560 and is probably the best you can get within your budget.

[Crystal Clear]

The GTX 560 is a hell of a card just under $200 and it's faster than any of those.

...my bad, the GTX 560 Ti is the card better than those, but is out of your budget range. The Radeon 6870 is actually better than the plain GTX 560 and is probably the best you can get within your budget.

Yeah I was looking at some benchmarks last night and noticed that the 6870 was seeming to beat out the 560 by a small margin. So I just assumed you were talking about the Ti. I was looking at the 6870 though and I think I'm gonna go with that regardless of how much my current card sells for. As long as it can run The Witcher 2 maxed out I'll be more than content with it.

Thanks for the help people. No wonder this thread reached #100. You guys must have helped hundreds of people by now. You should be getting paid for this, Tig

[Tinkerbells]

I have a problem using a cd for my pc with data I put on it from a mac. It was a blank cd that I'm using as a data cd but it won't let me see the files with my computer. It can only let me prepare it as a blank disk erasing what's already on it.

[Prisca Lacour]

Yeah I was looking at some benchmarks last night and noticed that the 6870 was seeming to beat out the 560 by a small margin. So I just assumed you were talking about the Ti. I was looking at the 6870 though and I think I'm gonna go with that regardless of how much my current card sells for. As long as it can run The Witcher 2 maxed out I'll be more than content with it.

Thanks for the help people. No wonder this thread reached #100. You guys must have helped hundreds of people by now. You should be getting paid for this, Tig

BTW you shouldn't buy a reference card, even though a "custom" one may be 50 bucks more expensive I'd say it's worth it. The MSI 6870 Hawk for example is 40 euros more expensive than the reference one but I recommend you buying something like that

[Emzy Baby!]

BTW you shouldn't buy a reference card, even though a "custom" one may be 50 bucks more expensive I'd say it's worth it. The MSI 6870 Hawk for example is 40 euros more expensive than the reference one but I recommend you buying something like that

There's nothing inherently wrong with reference cards. Depending on the reference design, some don't have the greatest cooling attributes, but others range from fine to great. It really depends on the card/GPU. Sometimes it's worth it to spend the extra cash on a custom design and other times it's not. You really just have to research the card/GPU and see if the reference design cools the GPU well, fits in your case, etc.

[mimi_lys]

There's nothing inherently wrong with reference cards. Depending on the reference design, some don't have the greatest cooling attributes, but others range from fine to great. It really depends on the card/GPU. Sometimes it's worth it to spend the extra cash on a custom design and other times it's not. You really just have to research the card/GPU and see if the reference design cools the GPU well, fits in your case, etc.

I get what you're saying but I personally can't stand a reference card...they're ugly as hell plus they don't exactly have the best cooling abilities and lack some extra features only custom versions get. All that plus the pre OC (usually) makes it a no braienr for me :shrug:

[Laura Ellaby]

I get what you're saying but I personally can't stand a reference card...they're ugly as hell plus they don't exactly have the best cooling abilities and lack some extra features only custom versions get. All that plus the pre OC (usually) makes it a no braienr for me :shrug:

Like I said, it really depends on the card. I have a reference 5870 (well, one of several reference designs for the 5870). It's a VERY cool and quiet card, looks very nice (plain, but who cares...it's inside the case), and the OC'd versions barely get 1%-5% more FPS depending on the game. It totally wouldn't have been worth extra money to get a custom version of that card (which, in my experience, have no extra features...or at least none that I care about aside from the occasional free game).

Now, I also have a GTX 285 in my HTPC/living room PC. Because the reference GTX 285's could be loud I got a custom version with a beefed-up cooler. That one was worth it. Again, really depends on the card. :shrug:

[Rachel Cafferty]

Well, I just got my computer in the mail after shipping it from Hawaii to California. It boots, fans spin, LEDs come on, but there's no POST beep, then it just shuts off, and re-boots, and repeats. It stays on much longer than it would normally take for it to POST before it shuts off, and nothing shows up on the monitor. I checked to make sure the mobo speaker was working by removing the power to my GPU, and it gave me the right beep for that, so it is working. I'm guessing it's the PSU that's broken, but I'm just checking if anyone else has any ideas what might cause this.

UPDATE: I reset the CMOS, tried booting, and it powered on, fans spinning, and LEDs on, but the CPU fan never re-started spinning (which is would do before), and then went into endless reboots.

Then I removed one stick of RAM, and it powered on, CPU fan doing its normal thing of spinning up, stopping, and then starting up again (which normally would coincide with a POST beep), but with no beeps, and it never shut off. Just sat there powered on indefinitely until I turned it off. No beeps, no monitor signal. I tried the other stick of RAM, same thing. Then I tried with both sticks of RAM again, and... same thing. So now, even back to its original configuration, it never reboots. Just powers on, but doesn't boot, and stays on.

[Gemma Flanagan]

As long as it can run The Witcher 2 maxed out I'll be more than content with it.

If by "maxed out" you mean ultra settings, 1920x1080 or greater resolution with ubersampling enabled, the only way to get playable frame rates would be with SLI or Crossfire dual/triple video card configuration.

My understanding is that the ubersampling feature was designed with dual or triple high end cards in mind.

Not to worry, however, as Witcher 2 looks excellent on my laptop even with ubersampling disabled.

[Cartoon]

Yeah I was looking at some benchmarks last night and noticed that the 6870 was seeming to beat out the 560 by a small margin. So I just assumed you were talking about the Ti. I was looking at the 6870 though and I think I'm gonna go with that regardless of how much my current card sells for. As long as it can run The Witcher 2 maxed out I'll be more than content with it.

Thanks for the help people. No wonder this thread reached #100. You guys must have helped hundreds of people by now. You should be getting paid for this, Tig

Hey, I'll take donations to my paypal account

Eh, after years of making money off building systems in the past for people, I don't mind giving back by giving free advice. It's a pet peeve of mine to see so many people wasting money or getting ripped off when PC/components shopping.

[Georgia Fullalove]

Are SDII files all raw like wav or aiff or can they have encryptions on them?

[bimsy]

Hi all,

I've been thinking of upgrading my graphics card in preparation of the big games coming out this year (Skyrim, Deus Ex, etc), and the ATI Radeon HD 5870 has caught my eye. But I don't know whether it's worth upgrading from my current card, or if my computer can take it.

My specs:

- Windows 7
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 @ 3.00 GHz
- 4 GB RAM @ 800 MHz
- Gigabyte P43-ES3G Motherboard
- Enermax 600w power unit
- ATI Radeon HD 4670 (Sapphire) <-- Card to be replaced

Also my budget limit is ￡150.

This is the link to the card: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-xfx-hd-5870-pci-e-21-%28x16%29-4800mhz-gddr5-gpu-850mhz-1600-cores-dp-hdmi-2-x-dl-dvi-i

Thank you in advance!

[BethanyRhain]

Well, I just got my computer in the mail after shipping it from Hawaii to California. It boots, fans spin, LEDs come on, but there's no POST beep, then it just shuts off, and re-boots, and repeats. It stays on much longer than it would normally take for it to POST before it shuts off, and nothing shows up on the monitor. I checked to make sure the mobo speaker was working by removing the power to my GPU, and it gave me the right beep for that, so it is working. I'm guessing it's the PSU that's broken, but I'm just checking if anyone else has any ideas what might cause this.

UPDATE: I reset the CMOS, tried booting, and it powered on, fans spinning, and LEDs on, but the CPU fan never re-started spinning (which is would do before), and then went into endless reboots.

Then I removed one stick of RAM, and it powered on, CPU fan doing its normal thing of spinning up, stopping, and then starting up again (which normally would coincide with a POST beep), but with no beeps, and it never shut off. Just sat there powered on indefinitely until I turned it off. No beeps, no monitor signal. I tried the other stick of RAM, same thing. Then I tried with both sticks of RAM again, and... same thing. So now, even back to its original configuration, it never reboots. Just powers on, but doesn't boot, and stays on.

Boot with a Memtest86+ CD. Most likely its defective memory (RAM). Defective memory doesn't always give a beep error code. It can cause any seemingly random issues. For example I had video corruption at POST, restarting CPU and Chassis fans (power on 2 seconds, off, power on 2 seconds, etc...), crashing during Windows boot, freezing during boot, BSoD after login, etc...