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Computer Build Thread: Old Dead Thread, Read New Thread

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  • mojojoeomojojoeo A block off the park, living the dream.Registered User regular
    The 912 is a real easy case to build in. great thermals too, especially if you stick a few 200mm fans in it

    went with a 4 pack of 120's that are rated extra quiet.

    Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
  • cardboard delusionscardboard delusions USAgent PSN: USAgent31Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    Ugh, my onboard bluetooth stopped working on my p8z68-v pro. Was using it fine with motionjoy then no love. Uninstalled all drivers and motion joy and now the Atheros Win 7 driver install is failing. Anyone have success with this?

    edit. I was persistent in installing the drivers and it started to work. I don't know I just am glad it is back.

    cardboard delusions on
  • EriktheVikingGamerEriktheVikingGamer Registered User regular
    Okay, having problems with my build. Currently have my P8P67 PRO mobo, my pair of mushkin 4gbs, i5-2500k, and Gigabyte 560ti plugged in. I'm getting the red MemOK! light, the green power light, all fans turn on. However, I'm not get any visuals when I test boot. Also, several seconds in the fans drop, the cpu led light flashes on for a second, then off, then on and fans cycle back up again. Any help?

    Steam - DailyFatigueBar
    FFXIV - Milliardo Beoulve/Sargatanas
  • Day of the BearDay of the Bear The Qun demandsRegistered User regular
    edited February 2012
    If you haven't already, make sure all your power cords are plugged in. 24 pin power, 8 pin CPU power, and your PCIE power cables.

    If you've done all that I'd try pulling one stick of ram and booting, if that doesn't work try with the other stick in. If you still get nothing you can try reseating the CPU and repeating all of the above.

    edit: I don't suppose you have any other components around to swap in as test parts do you?

    Day of the Bear on
    m6eoUgQ.jpg
  • EriktheVikingGamerEriktheVikingGamer Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    And fix'd! Pushing the DIMMs in until the locks click into place on their own is apparently not just a guideline that lets you know it's secure. It's what you're actually supposed to do.

    EriktheVikingGamer on
    Steam - DailyFatigueBar
    FFXIV - Milliardo Beoulve/Sargatanas
  • Day of the BearDay of the Bear The Qun demandsRegistered User regular
    hah!

    Glad it was a simple fix at least.

    m6eoUgQ.jpg
  • facetiousfacetious a wit so dry it shits sandRegistered User regular
    It depends on your motherboard. I had a system that started off with very similar specs. The motherboard I used will support, after bios updating, all the way up to some phenom II x4s

    At this point your GPU will also hold you back in a lot of games, although you could certainly drop in a new one of those as well.

    What kind of power supply do you have?

    Okay got it:

    motherboard: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2/M2NSLI/
    Power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171013

    It's this weird tradeoff between the relative ease of just buying a new rig versus, well, the cost obviously. But I suspect it's at the point where I should probably just upgrade wholesale regardless, really.

    "I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
    Real strong, facetious.

    Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
  • Day of the BearDay of the Bear The Qun demandsRegistered User regular
    edited February 2012
    You're in luck if you decide to stick with that board.

    That's almost the exact same board I've got in my amd rig, and with a bios flash that one will support up to a phenomIIx4 945. I've seen a few reports that while it isn't officially supported the board will run even the black edition pIIx4s as well.

    That's an older PSU but it'll probably be able to handle a single card solution alright, especially if you're going the budget route. You could also look around for a nice quality 430-500, since they can be had for not a terrible amount.

    Basically it comes down to how much you are willing/able to spend.

    A p2x4 running at 3ghz or so won't bottleneck any low to midrange GPUs and should run you maybe a little more than an i3 costs right now, because they seem to be getting more scarce.

    If you go the new build route you're looking at the cost of a motherboard and new ram on top of the CPU. I'm assuming a new PSU/GPU either way here.

    Day of the Bear on
    m6eoUgQ.jpg
  • facetiousfacetious a wit so dry it shits sandRegistered User regular
    edited February 2012
    I have a decently-sized budget I guess. It's just a matter of saving up for however much I'm going to end up spending. Which is part of my dilemma, really: there's no reason I couldn't do it, it's just a matter of making the ultimate decision. Which I'm bad at.

    Actually I guess that's a good time to ask, I could probably save up $2kish in a few months if I decided I wanted to buy a whole new rig. What kind of PC would that get me these days? I've never been up-to-date with PC specs as it is and I've fallen completely out of the loop since I bought this computer and stopped thinking about it entirely.

    facetious on
    "I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
    Real strong, facetious.

    Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
  • EriktheVikingGamerEriktheVikingGamer Registered User regular
    AND BUILT! Installing starts later today! Need to work on my cord management. Corsair 400R was easy to work with considering it's my first time, so I definitely recommend it to any newer builder if you've got the budget. Also, modular PSU all the way. Thanks for the help in deciding parts and troubleshooting everyone and I should be posting from it tomorrow! :)

    Steam - DailyFatigueBar
    FFXIV - Milliardo Beoulve/Sargatanas
  • mtsmts Dr. Robot King Registered User regular
    mts wrote: »
    I'd check in the catalyst control center to see if it says CFX is enabled.

    see thats where i am iffy. if i go to the crossfire tab, there is a check in the box next to enable crossfire, but the actual text looks like it is greyed sort of like it wasn't an option. however, i can select disable crossfire and apply that

    if i do that, it won't let me reclick enable and apply

    What I would do is fully uninstall the catalyst drivers, then do a reinstall of the latest version with both cards present in the system.

    After doing this my cfx setup was happily enabled in everything

    well crossfire was enabled. so i don't know why steam is saying it is not

    camo_sig.png
  • GriswoldGriswold that's rough, buddyRegistered User regular
    mts wrote: »
    so according to steam i don't have crossfire enabled while i took the CS:GA survey

    i have this motherboard
    ASRock P55 Pro LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel
    and my 6770 is in the blue slot on it, which is the primary as far as i can tell, and the crossfire logo pops up, so why doesn't it say i am crossfired?

    is it something really stupid like, you don't have a crossfire bridge installed?

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  • TheCanManTheCanMan GT: Gasman122009 JerseyRegistered User regular
    edited February 2012
    facetious wrote: »
    I have a decently-sized budget I guess. It's just a matter of saving up for however much I'm going to end up spending. Which is part of my dilemma, really: there's no reason I couldn't do it, it's just a matter of making the ultimate decision. Which I'm bad at.

    Actually I guess that's a good time to ask, I could probably save up $2kish in a few months if I decided I wanted to buy a whole new rig. What kind of PC would that get me these days? I've never been up-to-date with PC specs as it is and I've fallen completely out of the loop since I bought this computer and stopped thinking about it entirely.

    $2k is a massive budget. Typically, the highest budget we'll suggest (well, at least for the reasonably sane people; i.e. not Day of the Bear, Minor Incident, Alecthar, etc.) is ~$1.5k with the other peripherals, like monitor(s), additional to that. For just the tower components, anything much more than $1500 is really better saved up for future upgrades. If you save the extra $500 for a GPU upgrade next year, you'll extend the high-end lifespan of your system further than spending all of that money now.

    Here's a monster of a build for ~$1500 (with $70 in MIRs):
    CPU: i5-2500k
    HSF: Cooler Master Hyper 212+
    GPU: GIGABYTE GV-R795WF3-3GD Radeon HD 7950 3GB
    HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM
    SSD: OCZ Agility 3 120GB
    RAM: G.SKILL Ares 2 x 4GB DDR3 1600
    MoBo: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3
    PSU: OCZ ZT Series 650W Fully-Modular 80PLUS Bronze
    Case: Corsair Carbide Series 400R
    OS: Win7 Home Premium 64-bit

    TheCanMan on
  • Day of the BearDay of the Bear The Qun demandsRegistered User regular
    Yeah, for pure gaming spending much more than that you start to run into a game of diminishing returns.

    Unless you run other resource heavy tasks besides games on your machine, care significantly about running things on ULTRAMAX at resolutions higher than 1200p, or you really want to make sure your machine is noiseless, that's a very very good build there.

    As a semi related note I'm not as big a fan of the gigabyte boards as I am asus so I went poking on newegg to make some recommendations, and has newegg just completely drawn down their stock of the p67/z68 asus boards in preparation for the ivy boards soon? Or is their search feature hating. Because I can't find anything other than open box versions of a number of the nice solid mid range asus boards.

    But on that note it looks like if you're in the market for a p67/z68 board newegg has a ton of great open box asus boards right now.

    m6eoUgQ.jpg
  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    holy crap you're right.

  • Day of the BearDay of the Bear The Qun demandsRegistered User regular
    Like I wanna grab a motherboard just because all of my favorite 1155 boards are open box there right now.

    But I have absolutely no reason to grab a new 1155 board right now.

    m6eoUgQ.jpg
  • minor incidentminor incident expert in a dying field njRegistered User regular
    Like I wanna grab a motherboard just because all of my favorite 1155 boards are open box there right now.

    But I have absolutely no reason to grab a new 1155 board right now.

    That sounds like reason enough to me.

    Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
  • mtsmts Dr. Robot King Registered User regular
    Griswold wrote:
    mts wrote: »
    so according to steam i don't have crossfire enabled while i took the CS:GA survey

    i have this motherboard
    ASRock P55 Pro LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel
    and my 6770 is in the blue slot on it, which is the primary as far as i can tell, and the crossfire logo pops up, so why doesn't it say i am crossfired?

    is it something really stupid like, you don't have a crossfire bridge installed?

    unless it is somehow installed wrong, then no. i have a bridge on

    camo_sig.png
  • cardboard delusionscardboard delusions USAgent PSN: USAgent31Registered User regular
    I have an SSD, my raptor is all Steam, but I'm going to have to get another drive soon as I've just breached over 200gb from the folder alone... #1stworldproblems

  • Day of the BearDay of the Bear The Qun demandsRegistered User regular
    Like I wanna grab a motherboard just because all of my favorite 1155 boards are open box there right now.

    But I have absolutely no reason to grab a new 1155 board right now.

    That sounds like reason enough to me.

    Minor you are not helping!

    m6eoUgQ.jpg
  • mojojoeomojojoeo A block off the park, living the dream.Registered User regular
    Any tips on an SSD as a boot drive?

    anything i should diable in win 7?

    My parts should be here wednesday!

    Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
  • TheCanManTheCanMan GT: Gasman122009 JerseyRegistered User regular
    mojojoeo wrote: »
    Any tips on an SSD as a boot drive?

    anything i should diable in win 7?

    My parts should be here wednesday!

    I bookmarked these the previous time someone answered this question.

    http://www.overclock.net/t/664738/how-to-setup-ssd-boot-drive-with-secondary-hard-disc-optimization

    http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-guide-optimization-for-ssds-hdds

  • Day of the BearDay of the Bear The Qun demandsRegistered User regular
    So I got a naughty new toy. It'll be a bit before the rest of what I need to switch over arrives but here's a few quick teaser shots anyway.

    IMG_0209.jpg

    IMG_0210.jpg

    IMG_0211.jpg

    m6eoUgQ.jpg
  • AlectharAlecthar Alan Shore We're not territorial about that sort of thing, are we?Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    So I got a naughty new toy. It'll be a bit before the rest of what I need to switch over arrives but here's a few quick teaser shots anyway.
    IMG_0209.jpg

    IMG_0210.jpg

    IMG_0211.jpg

    You have problems, man. I'm going to enjoy the inevitable shot of the bottom filled with distilled water, though.

    Alecthar on
  • Day of the BearDay of the Bear The Qun demandsRegistered User regular
    I can't wait!

    m6eoUgQ.jpg
  • AlectharAlecthar Alan Shore We're not territorial about that sort of thing, are we?Registered User regular
    I can't wait!

    "and that's why we put clamps on our barbs, DotB..."

  • Day of the BearDay of the Bear The Qun demandsRegistered User regular
    Hey, if the water goes on the components that means I'm keeping them cool, right?

    How it gets on there is no concern of mine

    m6eoUgQ.jpg
  • facetiousfacetious a wit so dry it shits sandRegistered User regular
    I guess part of my reticence is also just being wary of having to actually install everything myself.

    I'm not sure I trust myself. :P

    But yeah, thanks for the advice, guys. I got the information I needed to make an informed decision. (I am bad at decisions!)

    "I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
    Real strong, facetious.

    Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
  • IanatorIanator Gaze upon my works, ye mighty and facepalm.Registered User regular
    Almost time for another build! I've actually got a budget in mind as well, ~$1,200 before monitor and KBaM. Some questions before I commit:

    -HDD: Heard that Seagate wasn't as good as Western Digital. Has this changed at all recently, or should I still avoid them at all cost?

    -More HDD: Since I need one of those anyways, could I just grab an External and use that for whatever won't go on the SSD (until I grab a proper Internal HDD when prices normalize)?

    -Video Card: I'm aiming for a single-card setup, probably nVidia. Is this one a good choice for cost vs long-term performance?

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  • Lord_SnotLord_Snot Живу за выходные American ValhallaRegistered User regular
    Which'd you guys recommend, one of those corsair cooling blocks, or a really good air heatsink? I ask because this machine will probably be used in 30 degree temperatures, so I need good cooling.

  • proyebatproyebat GARY WAS HERE ASH IS A LOSERRegistered User regular
    Who here has one of AMD's new cards? I need to know how long idle works. Can it be toggled through software/key combination/turning a monitor off? How quiet would you rank your computer in long idle?

    455Bo4O.png
  • AlectharAlecthar Alan Shore We're not territorial about that sort of thing, are we?Registered User regular
    Ianator wrote: »
    Almost time for another build! I've actually got a budget in mind as well, ~$1,200 before monitor and KBaM. Some questions before I commit:

    -HDD: Heard that Seagate wasn't as good as Western Digital. Has this changed at all recently, or should I still avoid them at all cost?

    -More HDD: Since I need one of those anyways, could I just grab an External and use that for whatever won't go on the SSD (until I grab a proper Internal HDD when prices normalize)?

    -Video Card: I'm aiming for a single-card setup, probably nVidia. Is this one a good choice for cost vs long-term performance?

    In order:

    Seagate's fine.

    Just go external for now, yeah.

    That's a very solid card, though with a $1200.00 you might be able to fit more horsepower in if you wanted to. If you have a rough list in mind, post that and we can take a look at what exactly you're looking to get for that kind of money.
    Lord_Snot wrote: »
    Which'd you guys recommend, one of those corsair cooling blocks, or a really good air heatsink? I ask because this machine will probably be used in 30 degree temperatures, so I need good cooling.

    Air cooling is your CPU is universally more cost-effective than closed loop water cooling, purely of terms of dollars spent vs. temps achieved. Closed-loop water cooling can potentially be quieter, it has some clearance advantages (your RAM can be as big as you'd like it to be) and some disadvantages (some cases have fan placement issues depending on the size of the radiator, the fans you use and how many of them are on the rad) and I'd say that the kits I prefer (Corsair H60, H80, H100) are probably easier to install than the majority of air coolers. If you're willing to spend H80/H100 money, you'll get very good cooling performance, but the same temps will cost you less if you're comfortable with air cooling.

  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    Hey, if the water goes on the components that means I'm keeping them cool, right?

    How it gets on there is no concern of mine

    If you're using barb fittings, pick a colour and use silicone automotive heater hose. Compression fittings you can use shitty clear plastic tubing with.

  • EriktheVikingGamerEriktheVikingGamer Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    First post from my new computer! Locating and installing the ASUS mobo and nVidia drivers was painlessly easy but Windows Update took forever to find, download, and then finally install all the updates. Also, my i5-2500k cpu is currently sitting at ~ 50C and doesn't seem to deviate from that temperature much and my mobo is at 30C. Should I be concerned?

    EriktheVikingGamer on
    Steam - DailyFatigueBar
    FFXIV - Milliardo Beoulve/Sargatanas
  • Day of the BearDay of the Bear The Qun demandsRegistered User regular
    Nope, those temps are fine.

    m6eoUgQ.jpg
  • AlectharAlecthar Alan Shore We're not territorial about that sort of thing, are we?Registered User regular
    Hey, if the water goes on the components that means I'm keeping them cool, right?

    How it gets on there is no concern of mine

    If you're using barb fittings, pick a colour and use silicone automotive heater hose. Compression fittings you can use shitty clear plastic tubing with.

    What's the difference? If you're using barbs, you should be using clamps, so standard tubing should be fine.

  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    I just don't trust 'standard' tubing. It splits so easily... And it dries out and stains over time, so you have to keep replacing it.

  • RobesRobes Registered User regular
    So I take it that HDD's labelled "green" are unimpressive if they are primarily used for gaming?

    "Wait" he says... do I look like a waiter?
  • Day of the BearDay of the Bear The Qun demandsRegistered User regular
    Normally "green" drives have a lower spindle speed as compared to other drives, giving lower power consumption but also lower performance across the board.

    They're a good pick for data drives that don't need high throughput, as the lowered cost, as well as less heat/power consumption are bonuses. As a system drive or an app/gaming drive I'd stick with something in the 7200rpm range, if you can't spring for an SSD.

    m6eoUgQ.jpg
  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    why is it so hard to find a motherboard speaker to do post diagnostics? I had to order one on amazon after exhausting my area and I paid over twice the price of the speaker in shipping.

This discussion has been closed.