[Jessie Rae Brouillette]

Thank you very much. I knew I forgot something; I'm planning to run modern games like Crysis 2, and anticipating things like Battlefield 3 and Skyrim. Right now I'm using a GTX280, so I assume moving to a 6850 would be a huge step up from what I'm experiencing.


Would that be dangerous like overclocking?

Not sure about "huge", but it's a respectable increase:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/317?vs=291

THe GTX 285 is around 10% faster than the GTX 280.


Flashing the BIOS with a 6850 is far more riskier than flashing the 2GB 6950 since it doesn't have the dual BIOS option like the 2GB 6950. If the 6850 gets a bad flash, the card is bricked and there's no back-up BIOS. I honestly don't find it worth it as the BIOS flash to the 6870 doesn't even unlock shaders on the 6850.

I got another one.

An Asus Eee PC
Intel Atom 1.66GHz
1GB RAM,
160GB
Windows XP

for $90 Good price?


Thanks. I know it never needed a extra power supply when I used it before. Mabey it might need it now, will have to look for it, or try and find some cables for it.

For $90...shyeah :thumbsup:

What could this mean?
http://i.imgur.com/lZCLN.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Vg951.jpg

I just installed a new motherboard, could dust have gotten into the socket or is my CPU busted?

I doubt the CPU is busted. You wouldn't even be able to see that or take a screen shot if that was the case.

Mobo: ASUS P8P67 LE This is what I just installed
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) I just added 2 more sticks of this too
CPU: i5 2500k

EDIT: I set the RAM clock to 1600mhz in the EFI menu (it was set to 1333mhz) and I'm not getting any errors anymore.... hopefully it stays that way.

EDIT2: I spoke too soon. :facepalm:

Perhaps you should just use your original pair of RAM sticks taking the new pair out. Perhaps even try with just one RAM stick.

May even be a bad board. If you still have the old board, see if the problem replicates with it.

So, 4-ish years ago I came here asking for wisdom about buying a new PC. It all went well, and I enjoyed using my PC for the full 4 years.

Now, it's time for a repeat. I pretty much need a new PC meant for gaming. I've been doing some (slight) research myself. I'm looking to build an almost purely gaming PC. I'll listen the occasional music or watch a movie, but that shouldn't change anything.

I was looking at the 2500K and the HD6970 or HD6950.

The questions here:
Which do you recommend? Is the difference between these two big enough to be worth the extra money?
Which motherboard do you suggest?
Any specific case that's a good cost:looking decent ratio?

I'm looking to spend about 1200 Euro's. I live in the Netherlands. That means Newegg will not ship to me. If you want to, making a full build would be much appreciated as a source information.

Thanks!

With the right 2GB Radeon 6950 (reference designs), you can easily unlock them to perform just as well as a Radeon 6970. I have the XFX version and have done just that. Here's a reference design:
http://www.alternate.nl/html/product/Grafische_kaarten_AMD_Radeon_HD6000/SAPPHIRE/Radeon_HD6950/499737/?

For motherboard, Asus P8P67 (plain), Pro, or Deluxe:
http://www.alternate.nl/html/summaryListing.html?searchCriteria=p8p67&cat1=016&cat2=515&cat3=000

1200 Euro is a nice budget. I'll lay out the rest for you if you can tell me more on what you need. Is this just the tower? Or do you need an OS disc, speakers, monitor, mouse, KB ,etc etc etc....

[Lily Evans]

Ah right, my apologies. I just need the tower, yes. I've got a mouse, keyboard, two monitors, headset, etc. Just want a pure hardware upgrade.
Thanks!

[Red Sauce]

Yesterday while playing some Stalker the computer suddenly crashed weirdly and it hasn't been running well since:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s272/Tribler/Weirdness2.png
I get wavy yellow lines across the screen (especially over moving windows), moving blue flashes across the screen (especially on dark surfaces) and the computer enforces a low resolution.

I've tried reverting to older graphics drivers, I've tried upgrading to newer drivers, but no luck. I think my graphics card may have given the ghost?

[Joey Bel]

I think the DVD drive on my laptop is finally on its way out. I put in a DVD to watch a movie and it spins up and down repeatedly or makes a very loud noise. I don't really want to get an external since that is extra stuff I have to carry around but I looked on Amazon and Ebay for a replacement drive an found none. Anyone have a suggestion where to look? The laptop is outside of warranty so I am assuming HP won't sell me one or charge a large amount for it and require shipping.

[Mashystar]

Not sure about "huge", but it's a respectable increase:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/317?vs=291

THe GTX 285 is around 10% faster than the GTX 280.

Flashing the BIOS with a 6850 is far more riskier than flashing the 2GB 6950 since it doesn't have the dual BIOS option like the 2GB 6950. If the 6850 gets a bad flash, the card is bricked and there's no back-up BIOS. I honestly don't find it worth it as the BIOS flash to the 6870 doesn't even unlock shaders on the 6950.

Thank you for the link and the info mate, interesting site there I don't think I'd want to try flashing then if it seems to have low reward for the risk.

[Kelly Upshall]

I think the DVD drive on my laptop is finally on its way out. I put in a DVD to watch a movie and it spins up and down repeatedly or makes a very loud noise. I don't really want to get an external since that is extra stuff I have to carry around but I looked on Amazon and Ebay for a replacement drive an found none. Anyone have a suggestion where to look? The laptop is outside of warranty so I am assuming HP won't sell me one or charge a large amount for it and require shipping.

I found this on google, but they look crazy expensive:
http://www.laptoppartsworld.com/cdrw-dvd-drives/

I think you need to get a specific replacement from the manufacturer for your model of laptop, they don't use a universal format like hard drive replacements.

[brandon frier]

Why does my dvd drive make a buzzing sound when I eject the tray?

[Charlie Sarson]

This might sound like a stupid question but I'm wondering which graphics card is better?
The two I'm look at is the GeForce GTX 550 and GeForce GTX 450. Both our roughly the same price for me. I'm guessing the 550 is better since it is a larger number, but I hope somebody who knows computer stuff can confirm this for me.
Oh I currently have a Gefore GTX 240 and I'm getting one of these is because I have a 10% discount from being subscribed to EVE online. :happy face:

[Liv Staff]

This might sound like a stupid question but I'm wondering which graphics card is better?
The two I'm look at is the GeForce GTX 550 and GeForce GTX 450. Both our roughly the same price for me. I'm guessing the 550 is better since it is a larger number, but I hope somebody who knows computer stuff can confirm this for me.
Oh I currently have a Gefore GTX 240 and I'm getting one of these is because I have a 10% discount from being subscribed to EVE online. :happy face:

The 550 is a bit better on the graphics comparison list, assuming it is a 1GB model.

[Lalla Vu]

This might sound like a stupid question but I'm wondering which graphics card is better?
The two I'm look at is the GeForce GTX 550 and GeForce GTX 450. Both our roughly the same price for me. I'm guessing the 550 is better since it is a larger number, but I hope somebody who knows computer stuff can confirm this for me.
Oh I currently have a Gefore GTX 240 and I'm getting one of these is because I have a 10% discount from being subscribed to EVE online. :happy face:

Get the GTX 460. The 550TI is completely worthless considering it's price. It just can't compete in the price range Nvidia put it in. 460 is better for the same price.

[Frank Firefly]

Can anyone recommend a Linux program that repairs bad sectors on hard drives?

My friend gave me her netbook because the Windows XP partition is damaged. I installed Ubuntu alongside another partition so I could boot and check it out. It has 13 bad sectors according to the disk utility.

I found a program called Testdisk, but I tried for hours trying to just install it and figure out how to run it. I need something I can get off the software and package downloader.

[Cheville Thompson]

Get the GTX 460. The 550TI is completely worthless considering it's price. It just can't compete in the price range Nvidia put it in. 460 is better for the same price.

The 450 or 460? The 460 I saw (and getting the discount on) was $219 and the 550 was $119 the same price as the 450.

[Horse gal smithe]

This might sound like a stupid question but I'm wondering which graphics card is better?
The two I'm look at is the GeForce GTX 550 and GeForce GTX 450. Both our roughly the same price for me. I'm guessing the 550 is better since it is a larger number, but I hope somebody who knows computer stuff can confirm this for me.
Oh I currently have a Gefore GTX 240 and I'm getting one of these is because I have a 10% discount from being subscribed to EVE online. :happy face:

I don't think there is a GTX450.

Comparing the GTX550 with the GTS450, I'd probably go with the 550. This is from a pure specs standpoint, I have not much experience with Nvidia.

The GTX460 and GTX560 look a lot better though, if your budget can be stretched.

[john page]

I don't think there is a GTX450.

Comparing the GTX550 with the GTS450, I'd probably go with the 550. This is from a pure specs standpoint, I have not much experience with Nvidia.

The GTX460 and GTX560 look a lot better though, if your budget can be stretched.

Ok, I'm going with the 550 then, since it seams to have the best price/power ratio.

Thanks a lot guys.

[Eve(G)]

Does the "date last modified" property for a file in windows rely on some cheksum or just some meaningless metadata?

[Lisha Boo]

Can anyone recommend a Linux program that repairs bad sectors on hard drives?

My friend gave me her netbook because the Windows XP partition is damaged. I installed Ubuntu alongside another partition so I could boot and check it out. It has 13 bad sectors according to the disk utility.

I found a program called Testdisk, but I tried for hours trying to just install it and figure out how to run it. I need something I can get off the software and package downloader.

You can't repair bad sectors, the best you can do is map around them

You can't map around bad sectors on an NTFS drive in Linux (AFAIK), you need to have access to chkdsk to try and do that.

If you are have just a damaged partition, then TestDisk is your best shot. TestDisk is available in the Ubuntu repos, so you should install it that way. I'm not certain, but I think TestDisk also needs root permissions, so you may need to sudo testdisk to get it to work.

[lucy chadwick]

The 450 or 460? The 460 I saw (and getting the discount on) was $219 and the 550 was $119 the same price as the 450.

At $119, the 550Ti isn't a bad choice at all. Still, for an extra $30-40 or so you can get a nice performance boost with a GTX 460/Radeon 6850. (this is going by newegg prices)

[Ice Fire]

Ah right, my apologies. I just need the tower, yes. I've got a mouse, keyboard, two monitors, headset, etc. Just want a pure hardware upgrade.
Thanks!

Do you even need a new case or a DVD drive? Oh well, I put them in anyways. If you're planning on doing any Folding, then a Nvidia card is more advisable and the GTX 570 or, if you can, the GTX 580 are options. The GTX 580 is the fastest single GPU card on the market. Here's a build for you....

CASE: https://www.alternate.nl/html/product/Behuizingen_Midi_Tower/Cooler_Master/CM_690_II_Advanced/391155/?
CPU: https://www.alternate.nl/html/product/CPUs_Socket_1155/Intel%28R%29/Core_en_trade_i5-2500K/483770/?
MOBO: https://www.alternate.nl/html/product/Moederborden_Socket_1155/ASUS/P8P67_-=Rev.3.0=-/526152/?
RAM: https://www.alternate.nl/html/product/Geheugen_DDR3-1333/G.Skill/8_GB_DDR3-1333_Kit/372327/?
GPU: https://www.alternate.nl/html/product/Grafische_kaarten_AMD_Radeon_HD6000/SAPPHIRE/Radeon_HD6950/499737/?
SSD: https://www.alternate.nl/html/product/Solid_State_Drive_2,5_inch_SATA/OCZ/OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G/433830/?
Storage HDD: https://www.alternate.nl/html/product/Harddisks_3,5_inch_SATA/Samsung/HD103SJ/358022/?
PSU: https://www.alternate.nl/html/product/Voedingen_meer_dan_600_Watt/Corsair/CMPSU-650HX/365069/?
CPU Cooler: https://www.alternate.nl/html/product/CPUs_Koelers/Cooler_Master/Hyper_212_Plus/348472/?
DVD: https://www.alternate.nl/html/product/DVD-reWriters_Serial-ATA/ASUS/DRW-24B3ST/477645/?


That subtotals about € 1.035. After taxes, it should be around your budget range. The better cooler is very important for the Core i5 2500K especially if/when you overclock the chip.

Here are some guides I personally suggest to apply thermal compound, OC the CPU, and unlock the video card...

Thermal Compound Application for CM Hyper 212+:
http://www.overclock.net/12487558-post1222.html


OC Guides for SandyBridge:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1578110
http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclocking/39184-p67-sandy-bridge-overclocking-guide-beginners.html


Unlocking the Radeon 6950 by modified 6950 BIOS:
http://www.overclock.net/ati/923129-hd-6950-810-1250-mhz-shader.html

The 450 or 460? The 460 I saw (and getting the discount on) was $219 and the 550 was $119 the same price as the 450.

The GTX 550 is a good amount faster than the GTS 450, so you made a good choice and the price is cheaper than what I've seen thus far. Here is a review for the card:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4221/nvidias-gtx-550-ti-coming-up-short-at-150/1

[Katy Hogben]

For some reason with Excel 2007 I keep getting the "Cannot send the command to the program" error and cannot seem to fix it. I already unchecked theone option I keep seeing on Google but no luck. Anyone have any other suggestions?

[Fanny Rouyé]

I hate to repost, but I would really like a second opinion.

Yesterday while playing some Stalker the computer suddenly crashed weirdly and it hasn't been running well since:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s272/Tribler/Weirdness2.png
I get wavy yellow lines across the screen (especially over moving windows), moving blue flashes across the screen (especially on dark surfaces) and the computer enforces a low resolution.

I've tried reverting to older graphics drivers, I've tried upgrading to newer drivers, but no luck. I think my graphics card (9800GTX) may have given the ghost?

I'm almost hoping it's the video card because I was planning an upgrade anyway
If I replaced it with a GTX460, would my processor (E8400, 3Ghz Core 2 Duo) lag very far behind? And can I even install it on my P5N32-E motherboard?
I might also take the opportunity to install Win7 64bit. Would that be a problem with those components?

[Christina Trayler]

If you're planning on doing any Folding, then a Nvidia card is more advisable and the GTX 570 or, if you can, the GTX 580 are options. The GTX 580 is the fastest single GPU card on the market.

The new V7 FAHClient has hit open beta and includes support for OpenCL ATi gpus. I use nVidia and haven't seen a lot of feedback on the new ATi core, but it's out there.
http://folding.typepad.com/news/2011/03/client-version-7-now-in-open-beta.html
http://folding.typepad.com/news/2011/03/core-16-for-ati-released-also-note-on-nvidia-gpu-support-for-older-boards.html

[Quick Draw III]

Just wondering what you guys though of Corsair's SP2500 speakers?

They seem pretty good, although they simple look, and with 230W (232 I think actually) it should be pretty powerful. I found those at 180-190 euros so it's about 30-40 euros more expensive the either the Z623 or the Soundsticks III, which I was talking about earlier. So what do you think ?

[Dan Scott]

Here's something more advanced (or i'm just stupid :blush:), I want to set up my PC (with Windows 7) to work as a wireless Access Point (Asus P5K-E Wifi-AP motherboard, so it should be able to :hehe:) for a PS3 and a Wii to connect to internet trough, but my googling fails to find any info on how this is done. Can anyone help?

[phil walsh]

Here's something more advanced (or i'm just stupid :blush:), I want to set up my PC (with Windows 7) to work as a wireless Access Point (Asus P5K-E Wifi-AP motherboard, so it should be able to :hehe:) for a PS3 and a Wii to connect to internet trough, but my googling fails to find any info on how this is done. Can anyone help?

Your edit makes things harder. Making a WAP on Linux is well-detailed.

Doing an ad-hoc network is simple enough: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/21943/share-an-internet-connection-between-wireless-machines-with-an-ad-hoc-network-in-windows-7/, though an ad-hoc network is less-then ideal for long-term use and some devices have issues connecting to it (I know Nintendo DSes do: I could never get mine to as it would've been the perfect solution to WEP on demand)

This is what my googling brings up:

http://tameyourpc.blogspot.com/2009/07/windows-7-as-wireless-access-point.html

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/howto_turn_your_windows_7_pc_wireless_access_point

I've not tried either, so I don't know how well #1 works or how good the software for #2 is

[Marcin Tomkow]

I've been thinking about a new PC, but before I make the purchase I wanna throw it out here and see if I can get any suggestions to lower price, or get better hardware etc.

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129100 - I want a full tower
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130582
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102909
HD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136795
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009

Then I just have a DVD rom drive by Asus, I don't burn anything so all I need is the ROM for games. If you think you can make this cheaper, then throw some suggestions at me cause the cheaper the better. Or if you think something can give better performance at a not much higher price. I won't be OCing anything, which is why I opted for the 2400 over the 2500 i5. I rather not have to get a separate CPU cooler if it's not necessary. The easier this build is, to build..the better..I'm no tech savant.

The grand total with Win7 brings this rig up to $1,130 or so with shipping.