[Computer Build Thread] - The thread is going down! Abandon thread, abandon thread!

BrocksMullet

Day of the Bear wrote: »

gigabyte's spec sheet lists it as supporting up to 16 gigs so i assume it is fine at handling 4gig sticks.

If you're currently running 2x2 you could either drop in 2x4 to bring it up to twelve or replace the 2x2 with 2x4 to get up to 8. I'd recommend the latter, although you can definitely get away with mismatched sticks on many boards

e: you should be able to get a 1600mhz 2x4gig kit for less than that corsair would run you.

Thanks, haven't had a chance to check my motherboard at home,is there a way to check if it's 2x2 in the console? Why would mismatched sticks be a problem. Again, thanks, I'm on pretty shakey ground here.

BTW: The corsair package seems to be 47.99 for 3x4 sticks.

Day of the Bear

Mismatched sticks could mean different sub timings, which may in some cases lead to instability. It's not a major concern but using matched sticks is preferable.

I totally missed those corsairs being a triple kit, in which case the price is fine although a solid 2x4Gig kit might still make more sense.

As far as checking if you're already running two sticks just crack your case open and take a look. I'd be very surprised if the ram wasnt in a two stick configuration.

BrocksMullet

Day of the Bear wrote: »

Mismatched sticks could mean different sub timings, which may in some cases lead to instability. It's not a major concern but using matched sticks is preferable.

I totally missed those corsairs being a triple kit, in which case the price is fine although a solid 2x4Gig kit might still make more sense.

As far as checking if you're already running two sticks just crack your case open and take a look. I'd be very surprised if the ram wasnt in a two stick configuration.

It appesrs to be a 4 slots, 2 sticks right now, so 2x2. Is it worth getting 12gb? If not now, 3-4 years from now?

Foomy

8gb is about all anyone really needs, you only need more then that for a few specific applications, like VM's, video editing, rendering,advanced physics simulations,etc. But if your into those things you would know that you want more ram.

for just general computer use and gaming, 8 is all your ever going to need, and you probably won't even use half of it 99% of the time.

Dehumanized

really the only reason to get more than 4, for most users, is just because it's so damned cheap

Foomy

Running up against 4 isn't that hard if you say don't feel like closing firefox with 50 tabs open, and are watching a video while playing Skyrim

6gb most people probably never max out, but the price difference between 3gb and 4gb ram sticks is so very tiny you might as well just for 8gb.

GnomeTank

I have 16GB, and I am regularly at 50-60% memory usage. Having that much RAM changes your usage patterns, and you find yourself closing a lot less stuff. I keep Visual Studio open pretty much 24/7, I have anywhere between 10-50 Chrome tabs, differing amounts of explorer Windows, Sublime Text, several instances of Console2, Steam...and I'll fire up a game whenever I please, and not really care.

So the answer to how much RAM is "How much can you open on your PC that you would want to keep open?". Not everyone is a programmer, so not everyone is going to have the myriad windows open that I do at any given time.

Donovan Puppyfucker

How much RAM?

How much can your MOBO take?

If you can smoosh 64 gigs in it, go for it and set up a 48 gig RAM drive for windows to use as a cache for your RAIDed SSDs...

What's that you say? Overkill?

No such thing...

BrocksMullet

Thanks for the help, went for the 2x4.

Alecthar

Foomy wrote: »

Running up against 4 isn't that hard if you say don't feel like closing firefox with 50 tabs open, and are watching a video while playing Skyrim

6gb most people probably never max out, but the price difference between 3gb and 4gb ram sticks is so very tiny you might as well just for 8gb.

6GB kits are always 3x2GB DIMMs. I assume they could make 3GB DIMMs if they wanted to, but I'd bet it's only marginally less expensive to make in terms of materials, but not worth the time a company would spend doing so.

The Wolfman

I still haven't fully acclimated to having 8 gigs. My old computer basically got me into the habit of closing everything, because if I didn't, I'd pay for it later. I would leave Opera running, but eventually the memory bloat would get so high that it would bring the browser to a standstill. Shutting down normally would take forever, and I was forced to kill it through the task manager. Fuck, you know you have a problem when even some flash would run horribly slow.

Now? I'm still in the habit of closing stuff I don't need. Even though if my computer could speak, it would be saying "No man it's cool. Seriously, it's cool. I can handle it. It's nothing. Which is compounded by the fact that Windows 8 and Metro's default habits essentially force you having multiple apps and stuff open at once. I've just got so used to cleaning up it's hard to adjust in an enviroment where you don't need to be so diligent.

Task Manager is telling me I'm using 2.1 gigs, 27% RAM. And my gut reaction is to organize by memory and see what I can do to cut that down. :P

Donovan Puppyfucker

16 gigs of RAM, currently using 1.1.

*cough*

bowen

Need to run more VMs, like me. Running 2 at the moment. Linux server and hackintosh.

bowen

I really should make some build slaves for different archs for the fuck of it.

GnomeTank

Look at that quaint Windows 7 task manager. Huehue.

bowen

Hah.

At least I have my sanity still. No but we were expecting windows 8 because my boss' cousin works for MS, I was going to trial it out. Didn't get it in time so I said fuck it.

Incindium

I see zero reason to move to Win 8 until the inevitable SP1 version that'll allow you to select a "Make things like Win 7" option out of the box.

Donovan Puppyfucker

Incindium wrote: »

I see zero reason to move to Win 8 until the inevitable SP1 version that'll allow you to select a "Make things like Win 7" option out of the box.

This has been discussed time and time again, even on these forums.

Just click the tile that says Desktop in the bottom left corner of the Start screen, or press Winkey + d.

BAM, Windows 7, only faster and more stable.

Day of the Bear

The only reason my main machine is still running 7 is because I am too lazy to do a clean os install just now

Hamurabi

Guys: surge protector or UPS? I figure the power goes out rarely enough that a UPS isn't worth the expense. Is a UPS typically substantially more expensive?

bowen

UPS tends to be like $100.

If you'd prefer it to be shut down properly, UPS, if you don't give a shit, surge protector.

Incindium

If you want a nice surge protecter... I just got this one
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JE9LD4

The pivoting plugs are nice.

Day of the Bear

UPS is better if you can afford a decent one with enough capacity.

Hamurabi

I need to power pretty much everything in my room, which is on two different power strips right meow and uses a total of maybe 12 plugs. I'd prefer something with 16 outlet, and UPSes don't seem to go that high in my price range (<$100). Looks like a surge protector it is.

bowen

You can surge protector off the UPS, if you need to expand.

Assuming the circuit can support the load you're putting on it.

Day of the Bear

Yeah on that budget a surge protector is the right answer

Hamurabi

My local Best Buy has the surge protector Incindium linked for $34. Think I'll pick that up.

Day of the Bear

bowen wrote: »

You can surge protector off the UPS, if you need to expand.

Assuming the circuit can support the load you're putting on it.

This is accurate but I doubt any ups that can be had at or under $100 with enough juice to run everything would be worth a damn

bowen

Well, you could probably get a 30 minute UPS to run for 5 minutes at full load!

Day of the Bear

I guess it depends on how much stuff is in the room.

Needless to say a surge protector should be fine unless you're someplace where grid power can fluctuate

Hamurabi

I wouldn't be running everything in the event of a power outage -- I'd be wondering how the hell the power went out in South Florida outside of hurricane season. My PC should be fine with just a surge protector, right?

Djeet

Surge protector is not going to protect you against voltage drops or power sags (brown outs) while UPS would. Though 12 plugs into one circuit is a lot of goddamn plugs. Can't say for sure since I don't know power ratings for each thing needing a plug, but if you power-cycled everything (which is what might happen in a power out or brown out) you have a very good chance of drawing more current than your standard household breaker can handle (15 A). For example I have a microwave and a toaster oven plugged into same circuit and cannot run both at once (well maybe I can, but when I last did there was smoke and sparks, and the breaker tripped, and there's now black marks on the outlet when there weren't beforehand).

Day of the Bear

Basically you should ALWAYS have at least a decent surge protector on your computer.

You need to step up to a UPS if: you live in an area that gets brownouts or outtages often, or even just notable grid voltage fluctuation, AND/OR unexpected shut down could cause loss of important data.

Or you just want to be extra sure.

bowen

Brown outs and voltage drops won't hurt your computer, unless this happens frequently. Surges will. I've never had a computer damaged to a brown out.

Djeet

Most of our workstations will force power down or reboot on a brown out, but not our servers sitting on UPS. I cannot say that the machines are being damaged by this, but also cannot think this is a good thing for mobo caps and PSUs. There's also a few switches we have not on UPS that will get retarded and need to be power cycled if there's even a sag that does not affect the puters or lights.

Day of the Bear

the sudden shutdown that a brownout or big voltage fluctuation can cause would be why you'd want the ups. Probably the machine will be fine but randomly having your machine shut down during use is obnoxious.

Bolthorn

Honestly, just get yourself a UPS. Even if you have to budget for one for awhile. The number of times I've been able to just power down my machine when the power goes off have been quite useful. The frequency has been slim, however, 2 of those times were in the middle of mixing an album. It's the sort of thing you don't happen to think about until it happens to you the first time without a UPS, then you go buy one.

Malkor

I keep waiting for the next generation of video cards so I can start salivating. My 5870 is holding up beautifully, but I think I'm ready for something newer.

Gdiguy

bowen wrote: »

Brown outs and voltage drops won't hurt your computer, unless this happens frequently. Surges will. I've never had a computer damaged to a brown out.

Won't hurt the computer electrically, but I've had a hard drive wipe it's filetable on an unclean shutdown on a brownout. (That was an enormous pain in the ass to get data off of afterwards).

I'd highly recommend a UPS, but for consumer-grade the only thing that really needs to be on it is a computer (or something with a hard drive). Yeah, you could get one big enough to keep your router/monitor/computer/tv/etc all running, but it'll cost a ridiculous amount and they'll still only work for a half hour or less. The cheapish UPS's (something like this) won't last that long on battery, but will either give you enough time to cleanly shut down or (in many cases) actually come with a usb connection and software to auto-shutdown on power loss.

ultimakay

So I have a conundrum build thread, I am currently in the process of building my new PC and hit a snag. I am using an Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 mobo, define R4 case and the cooler master 212 evo cpu cooler. I decided to put in the mobo before installing the backplate since the R4 has space cut out for the backplate. However after getting the mobo in and attempting to put on the backplate I found that the window didn't have enough clearance to accommodate the backplate and there wasn't enough space between the mobo and the case for it to fit. Anyone got any suggestions for how to proceed? I was thinking since I don't absolutely need the evo 212 right now I might just slap the stock fan+heatsink on for the time being and try to diagnose whats wrong later.