This makes me incredibly happy, I had no idea such software existed, although it makes perfect sense that it comes from Starwind since they're a bunch of crazy people. My first question was "how do the contents of the RAMdisk survive a reboot?". The answer is: they don't. Brilliant.
A buddy of mine is actually using a proper hardware RAMdisk (or was at least). Don't know which make or model, but apparently it's pretty nuts and entirely too expensive. I do love me some ridiculous storage tech.
So is there any reason at all to go Ivy Bridge 2570k instead of Sandy Bridge 2500k unless you were for some reason sticking with Intel graphics and not getting a discrete GPU?
The 2500k at this point is $30 cheaper and overclocks better from all accounts. Am I missing anything that would make me want to go with the Ivy Bridge chip?
I'm asking myself a very similar question. Anyone is welcome to correct me, but isn't PCIe 3.0 not a Sandy Bridge thing? Not that it's really relevant right this second.
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Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
Oh yeah, you can get PCI Express RAMdisk setups. They're stupid expensive though.
So is there any reason at all to go Ivy Bridge 2570k instead of Sandy Bridge 2500k unless you were for some reason sticking with Intel graphics and not getting a discrete GPU?
The 2500k at this point is $30 cheaper and overclocks better from all accounts. Am I missing anything that would make me want to go with the Ivy Bridge chip?
I'm asking myself a very similar question. Anyone is welcome to correct me, but isn't PCIe 3.0 not a Sandy Bridge thing? Not that it's really relevant right this second.
This got BOTP'ed, so I'll repost:
The Ivy Bridge is better if you are going to run at stock, as it will run cooler with less power. Outside of that, no, there is no reason.
And PCI-e 3.0 shouldn't factor in to your decision right now. PCI-e 3.0 cards will go in 2.0 slots, and no card currently available can make use of the PCI-e 3.0 bandwidth. If you want to be "future proof", make sure the motherboard you get supports the full PCI-e 3.0 standard, but other than that, just go with the flow.
Hi, I finally got around to saving up enough money for a computer. This is my first time building a computer. I'd like to put a GTX 680 in it but I can't find a place to buy one I've looked on NewEgg and Amazon. I just wanted to double check that these parts would work with a GTX 680:
It's going to be a windows machine and I'd like it to be able to run the newest games at the highest settings on a 1920x1080 monitor. I've also got one other question. All of the guides I've seen recommend shopping from NewEgg. I live in a state where NewEgg has a distribution center so if I buy from them I have to pay tax. Are there any other good site to shop from? Thanks for the help.
You could buy a better case for less, and the 680 isn't really necessary for a single 1080p screen. It's a newer card in high demand with limited quantity released so far, so a lot of outlets (Newegg and Amazon included) are sold out entirely. Amazon, Tiger Direct, and NCIX are your other major online options. Microcenter is a good brick and mortar store than often has CPU/Motherboard deals.
What's your budget for this PC? Your build above is kind of mixed and matched, and there's a lot I'd do differently. If you give me an idea of how much you'd like to spend on it, I can give you a better recommendation on what to go with.
I've saved up about $1600.
Do you already have a TV/monitor? Do you need a mouse/keyboard?
I do think a LGA1155 based system is the best option for you. Do you plan to do more with the PC than just gaming/general use?
I'll put something together for you when I get home. It's tough to do recommendation type posts on my phone.
Yeah, I'm starting college in the fall and am going to major in digital animation, so it would have to be able to run those programs which I assume will be CPU intensive. That's the only reason I went with an i7 over an i5. I've already got a monitor and a keyboard/mouse. I'd like something that I wouldn't have to really worry about upgrading for the next couple of years.
So is there any reason at all to go Ivy Bridge 2570k instead of Sandy Bridge 2500k unless you were for some reason sticking with Intel graphics and not getting a discrete GPU?
The 2500k at this point is $30 cheaper and overclocks better from all accounts. Am I missing anything that would make me want to go with the Ivy Bridge chip?
I'm asking myself a very similar question. Anyone is welcome to correct me, but isn't PCIe 3.0 not a Sandy Bridge thing? Not that it's really relevant right this second.
This got BOTP'ed, so I'll repost:
The Ivy Bridge is better if you are going to run at stock, as it will run cooler with less power. Outside of that, no, there is no reason.
And PCI-e 3.0 shouldn't factor in to your decision right now. PCI-e 3.0 cards will go in 2.0 slots, and no card currently available can make use of the PCI-e 3.0 bandwidth. If you want to be "future proof", make sure the motherboard you get supports the full PCI-e 3.0 standard, but other than that, just go with the flow.
Thanks for the clarification -- I'll have to do some thinking on this when I actually get my build together. Have never really gotten serious about overclocking, but it was a lot more of an ordeal it seems back in the day when I was more up on system building. Will probably make the call based on pricing when the time comes.
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IanatorGaze upon my works, ye mightyand facepalm.Registered Userregular
Now that Ivy Bridge has hit Newegg, my final shopping list is:
"FPB" stands for "Free Performance Boost" (basically, factory OC'd).
The only thing I'd change would be the Win 7 Professional. Unless there's something specific in Professional that you know for a fact that you want, it's probably a waste of $40.
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AlectharAlan ShoreWe're not territorial about that sort of thing, are we?Registered Userregular
CanMan, did you end up with the ASRock Pro Gen3? If so, how's it running?
CanMan, did you end up with the ASRock Pro Gen3? If so, how's it running?
Nah, ended up with a Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3. Needed to steal some budget from the MoBo to afford going from a 560 to a 560Ti. Plus it had a $30 MIR that it appears I'll never see.
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IanatorGaze upon my works, ye mightyand facepalm.Registered Userregular
edited April 2012
Done. Subtotal is $1,488.88 - I might actually be able to afford this in a month or two after the ol' Tax Return gets here.
Can anyone give me the lowdown on what the real life differences are between the different EVGA 560ti cards? Specifically things that would make me choose one model over another.
The first two I can't really tell what the differences are... both are slightly overclocked. The third is stock speeds but comes with a gig more memory. What specifically would having that extra gig of video memory improve?
Nintendo ID: Incindium
PSN: IncindiumX
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
More video memory is useful for larger textures and larger resolutions, as the buffers involved require more and more memory. Unless you are doing greater than 1080p gaming, that much video RAM probably isn't worth much. 1GB should be fine.
More video memory is useful for larger textures and larger resolutions, as the buffers involved require more and more memory. Unless you are doing greater than 1080p gaming, that much video RAM probably isn't worth much. 1GB should be fine.
And the difference between the first two is the warranty (as designated by the 'AR' and 'KR').
This makes me incredibly happy, I had no idea such software existed, although it makes perfect sense that it comes from Starwind since they're a bunch of crazy people. My first question was "how do the contents of the RAMdisk survive a reboot?". The answer is: they don't. Brilliant.
A buddy of mine is actually using a proper hardware RAMdisk (or was at least). Don't know which make or model, but apparently it's pretty nuts and entirely too expensive. I do love me some ridiculous storage tech.
Ramdisk Plus evidently has options in it to save the Ramdisk image out manually or on reboot...
This makes me incredibly happy, I had no idea such software existed, although it makes perfect sense that it comes from Starwind since they're a bunch of crazy people. My first question was "how do the contents of the RAMdisk survive a reboot?". The answer is: they don't. Brilliant.
A buddy of mine is actually using a proper hardware RAMdisk (or was at least). Don't know which make or model, but apparently it's pretty nuts and entirely too expensive. I do love me some ridiculous storage tech.
Ramdisk Plus evidently has options in it to save the Ramdisk image out manually or on reboot...
That is something I'll be playing with the trial version at least if I ever manage to decide on and purchase a new build.
Good find. Current rig has 12gb of RAM so I may experiment with that as well.
Speaking of RAM -- I see a lot of 8GB systems getting built. Is the prevailing wisdom that there aren't significant performance advantages to running more than 8GB in most games?
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AlectharAlan ShoreWe're not territorial about that sort of thing, are we?Registered Userregular
They used to (and still do in enterprise environments) have DRAM based SSDs that retained data on power down by having a backup battery or a trickle charge of some kind via the PSU.
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Most games won't see performance benefits past 4GB of RAM, because most games are 32-bit. The point in having a ton of RAM is multi-tasking. I have 16GB of RAM because I do a shit ton of multi-tasking, and I hate closing windows/tabs. My Chrome tabs get out of control when I am in the heat of a programming project, because I'll open 50+ and keep them open, plus multiple copies of Visual Studio...plus I'll take a break and play a game without needing to close any of it.
Most games won't see performance benefits past 4GB of RAM
Erm, isn't the operating system capable of handling that FOR the game?
I suppose it is moot... as there is basically no such thing as a game that would even REQUIRE 4GB of active non-negotiable space for textures and vertices that I can think of
1GB of VRAM is pretty good for Most Mere Mortals
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WulfDisciple of TzeentchThe Void... (New Jersey)Registered Userregular
Oh man. New build underway. Processor should be here tomorrow, and then I can finally get things really rolling.
Going to be transferring my m4 256 gig SSD, my 7870's and my ram from my current machine to it, but other than that...
Most games won't see performance benefits past 4GB of RAM
Erm, isn't the operating system capable of handling that FOR the game?
I suppose it is moot... as there is basically no such thing as a game that would even REQUIRE 4GB of active non-negotiable space for textures and vertices that I can think of
1GB of VRAM is pretty good for Most Mere Mortals
I think we are talking about different things here. Yes, if you have 16GB of RAM, the OS will happily find 2GB of it and map that to the games address space and all is well. In fact, if it's large address aware, your game will get 4GB of addressable space...but it literally can't have more than that, so adding more RAM above 4GB is purely for multi-tasking purposes, not to make a game perform better in a relative vacuum.
Now, when developers finally get around to making 64-bit builds of their games common place, this restriction goes away.
Couple of questions that probably have an obvious answer but with not upgrading/following the tech in a while they popped up.
My build over the last couple of pages included an SSD. When I first looked into them a few years ago the lifespan wasn't great. I know they will still decay but I imagine the lifespans have gotten a lot better.
Also Crossfire/SLI. Again going back a few years it always seemed like a single new card was better, has that improved as well? Included a 750 watt PSU so that I could grab another 7850 in a couple of years if needed.
Couple of questions that probably have an obvious answer but with not upgrading/following the tech in a while they popped up.
My build over the last couple of pages included an SSD. When I first looked into them a few years ago the lifespan wasn't great. I know they will still decay but I imagine the lifespans have gotten a lot better.
Also Crossfire/SLI. Again going back a few years it always seemed like a single new card was better, has that improved as well? Included a 750 watt PSU so that I could grab another 7850 in a couple of years if needed.
SSD's still degrade with write/delete operations over time, but it's much better. It takes millions and millions of ops to get to the point that your NAND's lifespan starts to wear out. That is the reason a lot of us are so careful with our SSD setups though, to keep the number of writes to the SSD to a bear minimum. (This is also the primary reason your page file shouldn't be on your SSD, if you care at all about write longevity).
Dual graphics cards are certainly going to get you more power, but for what purpose? Unless you are multi-head gaming, or gaming at obscene resolutions, you aren't going to take advantage of it, and it's just going to be a big pain. There are also games that just don't play nice with dual setups, and would require you to force single card for them anyway. If you want to do double cards, it's best to wait for cards like the 690 to release, which is essentially two 680's bolted together. Saves all the hardware headache of a dual card setup, but the software headache is still there.
Couple of questions that probably have an obvious answer but with not upgrading/following the tech in a while they popped up.
My build over the last couple of pages included an SSD. When I first looked into them a few years ago the lifespan wasn't great. I know they will still decay but I imagine the lifespans have gotten a lot better.
Also Crossfire/SLI. Again going back a few years it always seemed like a single new card was better, has that improved as well? Included a 750 watt PSU so that I could grab another 7850 in a couple of years if needed.
SSD's still degrade with write/delete operations over time, but it's much better. It takes millions and millions of ops to get to the point that your NAND's lifespan starts to wear out. That is the reason a lot of us are so careful with our SSD setups though, to keep the number of writes to the SSD to a bear minimum. (This is also the primary reason your page file shouldn't be on your SSD, if you care at all about write longevity).
Dual graphics cards are certainly going to get you more power, but for what purpose? Unless you are multi-head gaming, or gaming at obscene resolutions, you aren't going to take advantage of it, and it's just going to be a big pain. There are also games that just don't play nice with dual setups, and would require you to force single card for them anyway. If you want to do double cards, it's best to wait for cards like the 690 to release, which is essentially two 680's bolted together. Saves all the hardware headache of a dual card setup, but the software headache is still there.
Thinking about the future really, I mean from what I've seen the 7850 will be plenty of card for the next couple of years, but after that if I can pick up another it will give me more time before the outlay for a brand new card.
Couple of questions that probably have an obvious answer but with not upgrading/following the tech in a while they popped up.
My build over the last couple of pages included an SSD. When I first looked into them a few years ago the lifespan wasn't great. I know they will still decay but I imagine the lifespans have gotten a lot better.
Also Crossfire/SLI. Again going back a few years it always seemed like a single new card was better, has that improved as well? Included a 750 watt PSU so that I could grab another 7850 in a couple of years if needed.
SSD's still degrade with write/delete operations over time, but it's much better. It takes millions and millions of ops to get to the point that your NAND's lifespan starts to wear out. That is the reason a lot of us are so careful with our SSD setups though, to keep the number of writes to the SSD to a bear minimum. (This is also the primary reason your page file shouldn't be on your SSD, if you care at all about write longevity).
Dual graphics cards are certainly going to get you more power, but for what purpose? Unless you are multi-head gaming, or gaming at obscene resolutions, you aren't going to take advantage of it, and it's just going to be a big pain. There are also games that just don't play nice with dual setups, and would require you to force single card for them anyway. If you want to do double cards, it's best to wait for cards like the 690 to release, which is essentially two 680's bolted together. Saves all the hardware headache of a dual card setup, but the software headache is still there.
Moving the pagefile will negate some pretty significant performance advantages if you swap to disk, though. I was under the impression that isn't standard operating procedure anymore, am I just wishfully thinking?
Okay, switching gears I have two additional things:
1. The Fractal Design Define R3 -- I'm debating between the Corsair 300R and this. The 300R seems like a better case, but I really like the aesthetics of the R3 better, I like that the extraneous vents can be sealed, and that it might be a slightly quieter build. I'm hearing generally very positive things about it, but there seem to be some weird negative comments about cable management and build quality. Anyone have any experiences, good or bad?
2. CPU coolers -- looking for something that does not sound like a leaf blower. Have only ever bought Zalman coolers before. Thoughts?
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Couple of questions that probably have an obvious answer but with not upgrading/following the tech in a while they popped up.
My build over the last couple of pages included an SSD. When I first looked into them a few years ago the lifespan wasn't great. I know they will still decay but I imagine the lifespans have gotten a lot better.
Also Crossfire/SLI. Again going back a few years it always seemed like a single new card was better, has that improved as well? Included a 750 watt PSU so that I could grab another 7850 in a couple of years if needed.
SSD's still degrade with write/delete operations over time, but it's much better. It takes millions and millions of ops to get to the point that your NAND's lifespan starts to wear out. That is the reason a lot of us are so careful with our SSD setups though, to keep the number of writes to the SSD to a bear minimum. (This is also the primary reason your page file shouldn't be on your SSD, if you care at all about write longevity).
Dual graphics cards are certainly going to get you more power, but for what purpose? Unless you are multi-head gaming, or gaming at obscene resolutions, you aren't going to take advantage of it, and it's just going to be a big pain. There are also games that just don't play nice with dual setups, and would require you to force single card for them anyway. If you want to do double cards, it's best to wait for cards like the 690 to release, which is essentially two 680's bolted together. Saves all the hardware headache of a dual card setup, but the software headache is still there.
Thinking about the future really, I mean from what I've seen the 7850 will be plenty of card for the next couple of years, but after that if I can pick up another it will give me more time before the outlay for a brand new card.
Couple of questions that probably have an obvious answer but with not upgrading/following the tech in a while they popped up.
My build over the last couple of pages included an SSD. When I first looked into them a few years ago the lifespan wasn't great. I know they will still decay but I imagine the lifespans have gotten a lot better.
Also Crossfire/SLI. Again going back a few years it always seemed like a single new card was better, has that improved as well? Included a 750 watt PSU so that I could grab another 7850 in a couple of years if needed.
SSD's still degrade with write/delete operations over time, but it's much better. It takes millions and millions of ops to get to the point that your NAND's lifespan starts to wear out. That is the reason a lot of us are so careful with our SSD setups though, to keep the number of writes to the SSD to a bear minimum. (This is also the primary reason your page file shouldn't be on your SSD, if you care at all about write longevity).
Dual graphics cards are certainly going to get you more power, but for what purpose? Unless you are multi-head gaming, or gaming at obscene resolutions, you aren't going to take advantage of it, and it's just going to be a big pain. There are also games that just don't play nice with dual setups, and would require you to force single card for them anyway. If you want to do double cards, it's best to wait for cards like the 690 to release, which is essentially two 680's bolted together. Saves all the hardware headache of a dual card setup, but the software headache is still there.
Moving the pagefile will negate some pretty significant performance advantages if you swap to disk, though. I was under the impression that isn't standard operating procedure anymore, am I just wishfully thinking?
Okay, switching gears I have two additional things:
1. The Fractal Design Define R3 -- I'm debating between the Corsair 300R and this. The 300R seems like a better case, but I really like the aesthetics of the R3 better, I like that the extraneous vents can be sealed, and that it might be a slightly quieter build. I'm hearing generally very positive things about it, but there seem to be some weird negative comments about cable management and build quality. Anyone have any experiences, good or bad?
2. CPU coolers -- looking for something that does not sound like a leaf blower. Have only ever bought Zalman coolers before. Thoughts?
I really like my Fractal Design Define R3. Getting all the cables behind the case was kind of a pain in the ass, it could definitely have used like 1mm more space, but aside from that (and sometimes the rubber grommet things will fall off when youre trying to shove shit through them, but most of the time its pretty easy to put them back on) I have no complaints.
My CPU cooler is a Corsair H70 with 2 Gentle Typhoon fans so its probably the quietest thing in my system (although the 2 fans the case comes with are both really quiet and seem to move a decent amount of air, even at full speed theyre much quieter than the Scythe Slipstreams at 60%).
Couple of questions that probably have an obvious answer but with not upgrading/following the tech in a while they popped up.
My build over the last couple of pages included an SSD. When I first looked into them a few years ago the lifespan wasn't great. I know they will still decay but I imagine the lifespans have gotten a lot better.
Also Crossfire/SLI. Again going back a few years it always seemed like a single new card was better, has that improved as well? Included a 750 watt PSU so that I could grab another 7850 in a couple of years if needed.
SSD's still degrade with write/delete operations over time, but it's much better. It takes millions and millions of ops to get to the point that your NAND's lifespan starts to wear out. That is the reason a lot of us are so careful with our SSD setups though, to keep the number of writes to the SSD to a bear minimum. (This is also the primary reason your page file shouldn't be on your SSD, if you care at all about write longevity).
Dual graphics cards are certainly going to get you more power, but for what purpose? Unless you are multi-head gaming, or gaming at obscene resolutions, you aren't going to take advantage of it, and it's just going to be a big pain. There are also games that just don't play nice with dual setups, and would require you to force single card for them anyway. If you want to do double cards, it's best to wait for cards like the 690 to release, which is essentially two 680's bolted together. Saves all the hardware headache of a dual card setup, but the software headache is still there.
Moving the pagefile will negate some pretty significant performance advantages if you swap to disk, though. I was under the impression that isn't standard operating procedure anymore, am I just wishfully thinking?
Well, this is hard for me to answer definitively, because I have 16GB of RAM, and thus rarely swap...but I don't notice a lot of issues with my swap file being on my spindle drive. I'd have to see pretty rock solid evidence that in the past two years it's become a good idea to put your swap file on the OS SSD before I did it.
Couple of questions that probably have an obvious answer but with not upgrading/following the tech in a while they popped up.
My build over the last couple of pages included an SSD. When I first looked into them a few years ago the lifespan wasn't great. I know they will still decay but I imagine the lifespans have gotten a lot better.
Also Crossfire/SLI. Again going back a few years it always seemed like a single new card was better, has that improved as well? Included a 750 watt PSU so that I could grab another 7850 in a couple of years if needed.
SSD's still degrade with write/delete operations over time, but it's much better. It takes millions and millions of ops to get to the point that your NAND's lifespan starts to wear out. That is the reason a lot of us are so careful with our SSD setups though, to keep the number of writes to the SSD to a bear minimum. (This is also the primary reason your page file shouldn't be on your SSD, if you care at all about write longevity).
Dual graphics cards are certainly going to get you more power, but for what purpose? Unless you are multi-head gaming, or gaming at obscene resolutions, you aren't going to take advantage of it, and it's just going to be a big pain. There are also games that just don't play nice with dual setups, and would require you to force single card for them anyway. If you want to do double cards, it's best to wait for cards like the 690 to release, which is essentially two 680's bolted together. Saves all the hardware headache of a dual card setup, but the software headache is still there.
Moving the pagefile will negate some pretty significant performance advantages if you swap to disk, though. I was under the impression that isn't standard operating procedure anymore, am I just wishfully thinking?
Okay, switching gears I have two additional things:
1. The Fractal Design Define R3 -- I'm debating between the Corsair 300R and this. The 300R seems like a better case, but I really like the aesthetics of the R3 better, I like that the extraneous vents can be sealed, and that it might be a slightly quieter build. I'm hearing generally very positive things about it, but there seem to be some weird negative comments about cable management and build quality. Anyone have any experiences, good or bad?
2. CPU coolers -- looking for something that does not sound like a leaf blower. Have only ever bought Zalman coolers before. Thoughts?
I really like my Fractal Design Define R3. Getting all the cables behind the case was kind of a pain in the ass, it could definitely have used like 1mm more space, but aside from that (and sometimes the rubber grommet things will fall off when youre trying to shove shit through them, but most of the time its pretty easy to put them back on) I have no complaints.
My CPU cooler is a Corsair H70 with 2 Gentle Typhoon fans so its probably the quietest thing in my system (although the 2 fans the case comes with are both really quiet and seem to move a decent amount of air, even at full speed theyre much quieter than the Scythe Slipstreams at 60%).
OOooooh I like the look of that Corsair. It might be total overkill for my rig, but it's tempting. Is the performance significantly better than an air system? I'm assuming a closed-system watercooler doesn't work as well as a proper watercooling rig, but I actually have clue about watercoolers -- that always seemed like way too big a hassle.
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Most of us recommend the Coolmaster Hyper 212+ when people ask about coolers. It's a monster, but it works. If you aren't OC'ing, you might as well use the stock cooler. If you are OC'ing, you might as well use the best.
Speaking of SSDs losing their write functionality... Not that I expect to still HAVE the drive by the time it happens, but how do you know when it happens? Does the OS have the courtesy to tell you that your SSD is now read-only, or what?
Most of us recommend the Coolmaster Hyper 212+ when people ask about coolers. It's a monster, but it works. If you aren't OC'ing, you might as well use the stock cooler. If you are OC'ing, you might as well use the best.
I've seen you mention that, but how noisey is it? I'm on the fence about OC'ing so I may just rock a stock cooler at first. I'm also considering overcompensating the cooling so that I can run my box in a more constricted space and get my tower off the floor, but the more I consider that the less of a good idea it seems to be. I've had great success running PCs (or scores of PCs) inside things like closets, but they were never systems that I cared about.
kingmetal on
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Speaking of SSDs losing their write functionality... Not that I expect to still HAVE the drive by the time it happens, but how do you know when it happens? Does the OS have the courtesy to tell you that your SSD is now read-only, or what?
You don't just lose write capability, you lose whatever is on the NAND. Most modern SSD's actually clone your data across more than one NAND block. You probably won't notice anything until enough NAND starts to go bad that you start losing disk space, or when the NAND that had the backup of the data in another NAND also goes, and you start getting corruption/bad "sectors".
If you have SMART turned on, and setup, I believe most SSD's will send SMART events if they begin to detect degradation.
I hear for most modern SSD's, it can take years to start to wear out the NAND with normal use. You can probably get it down to six or eight months with constant writes to the disk, but that's a very non-standard setup for a desktop machine.
Most of us recommend the Coolmaster Hyper 212+ when people ask about coolers. It's a monster, but it works. If you aren't OC'ing, you might as well use the stock cooler. If you are OC'ing, you might as well use the best.
I've seen you mention that, but how noisey is it? I'm on the fence about OC'ing so I may just rock a stock cooler at first. I'm also considering overcompensating the cooling so that I can run my box in a more constricted space and get my tower off the floor, but the more I consider that the less of a good idea it seems to be. I've had great success running PCs (or scores of PCs) inside things like closets, but they were never systems that I cared about.
No, it's not that loud. The fan is variable speed, so if you find it's a bit loud, and your CPU is staying cool, just change the fan range it runs at. Most BIOS's support this in some way.
If you like the look and design of the Fractal Design cases the Arc Midi is also worth a look. It's falls in between the R3 and 300R price wise, and I'm extremely happy with mine. However, I did swap out and add a few additional 140mm fans to improve cooling and noise level over the stock configuration.
As far as CPU cooling goes the Cooler Master Hyper 212+ is a great affordable, high performing, low noise level recommendation. Two other coolers worth considering that cost a bit more but do perform a bit better are the Thermalright HR02 Macho and the TRUE Spirit 120 or 140. I wanted something a little different from what everyone else seems to have bought (the Hyper 212+) so I bought a HR02 Macho instead. It's absolutely gigantic but it's inaudible over anything else in my case and cools extremely well.
Most of us recommend the Coolmaster Hyper 212+ when people ask about coolers. It's a monster, but it works. If you aren't OC'ing, you might as well use the stock cooler. If you are OC'ing, you might as well use the best.
From what I remember, the H70 performs better than the 212+ but it costs more (212+ is still like $25 right? If so its probably has the best performance:cost ratio of any cooler on the market) but if you move your case around frequently itll put less stress on your motherboard since the bulk of the weight of the cooler is put on the case. I got mine for $70 when it was retailing for around $100, and I dont regret the purchase at all, but if I was looking to build my system today Id probably at least check out the H100 (Im pretty sure the H80 is just the H70 radiator with the H60 mount and pump).
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
The Corsair H series are evaporation water coolers. I am sure they do perform better than the 212+, but I am not sure how it's entirely relevant, since we are discussing air cooling.
The Corsair H series are evaporation water coolers. I am sure they do perform better than the 212+, but I am not sure how it's entirely relevant, since we are discussing air cooling.
OOooooh I like the look of that Corsair. It might be total overkill for my rig, but it's tempting. Is the performance significantly better than an air system? I'm assuming a closed-system watercooler doesn't work as well as a proper watercooling rig, but I actually have clue about watercoolers -- that always seemed like way too big a hassle.
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This makes me incredibly happy, I had no idea such software existed, although it makes perfect sense that it comes from Starwind since they're a bunch of crazy people. My first question was "how do the contents of the RAMdisk survive a reboot?". The answer is: they don't. Brilliant.
A buddy of mine is actually using a proper hardware RAMdisk (or was at least). Don't know which make or model, but apparently it's pretty nuts and entirely too expensive. I do love me some ridiculous storage tech.
I'm asking myself a very similar question. Anyone is welcome to correct me, but isn't PCIe 3.0 not a Sandy Bridge thing? Not that it's really relevant right this second.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/05/ddrdrives-ram-based-ssd-is-snappy-costly/
This got BOTP'ed, so I'll repost:
The Ivy Bridge is better if you are going to run at stock, as it will run cooler with less power. Outside of that, no, there is no reason.
And PCI-e 3.0 shouldn't factor in to your decision right now. PCI-e 3.0 cards will go in 2.0 slots, and no card currently available can make use of the PCI-e 3.0 bandwidth. If you want to be "future proof", make sure the motherboard you get supports the full PCI-e 3.0 standard, but other than that, just go with the flow.
Yeah, I'm starting college in the fall and am going to major in digital animation, so it would have to be able to run those programs which I assume will be CPU intensive. That's the only reason I went with an i7 over an i5. I've already got a monitor and a keyboard/mouse. I'd like something that I wouldn't have to really worry about upgrading for the next couple of years.
Thanks for the clarification -- I'll have to do some thinking on this when I actually get my build together. Have never really gotten serious about overclocking, but it was a lot more of an ordeal it seems back in the day when I was more up on system building. Will probably make the call based on pricing when the time comes.
Case: Corsair Carbide 500R
Power: OCZ ZT-series 550W Full Modular 80+ Bronze (comes with $20 gift card)
Mobo: ASUS P8P77-V
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K
Cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
RAM: G.SKILL Ares 8GB (2x 4GB)
SSD : Crucial M4 128GB
HDD : Seagate Barracuda 1TB
Optical: ASUS DVD Burner
Video: EVGA GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) (what's FPB stand for?)
Monitor: ASUS VS238H-P 23" Widescreen LED Backlight
OS: Win 7 Professional
As usual, KBaM are not a problem. Anything that I'm obviously doing wrong here?
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
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Aside from that it looks fine.
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The only thing I'd change would be the Win 7 Professional. Unless there's something specific in Professional that you know for a fact that you want, it's probably a waste of $40.
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Nah, ended up with a Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3. Needed to steal some budget from the MoBo to afford going from a 560 to a 560Ti. Plus it had a $30 MIR that it appears I'll never see.
EDIT: And a static strap!
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
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EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604
vs
EVGA 01G-P3-1561-KR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130623
vs
EVGA 02G-P3-1568-KR GeForce GTX 560 Ti
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130683
The first two I can't really tell what the differences are... both are slightly overclocked. The third is stock speeds but comes with a gig more memory. What specifically would having that extra gig of video memory improve?
Nintendo ID: Incindium
PSN: IncindiumX
And the difference between the first two is the warranty (as designated by the 'AR' and 'KR').
Ramdisk Plus evidently has options in it to save the Ramdisk image out manually or on reboot...
http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/ramdisk.php
That is something I'll be playing with the trial version at least if I ever manage to decide on and purchase a new build.
Nintendo ID: Incindium
PSN: IncindiumX
Good find. Current rig has 12gb of RAM so I may experiment with that as well.
Speaking of RAM -- I see a lot of 8GB systems getting built. Is the prevailing wisdom that there aren't significant performance advantages to running more than 8GB in most games?
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Erm, isn't the operating system capable of handling that FOR the game?
I suppose it is moot... as there is basically no such thing as a game that would even REQUIRE 4GB of active non-negotiable space for textures and vertices that I can think of
1GB of VRAM is pretty good for Most Mere Mortals
Going to be transferring my m4 256 gig SSD, my 7870's and my ram from my current machine to it, but other than that...
i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4Ghz
Thor V2 Full ATX Tower
Asus Sabertooth Z77
Corsair H100 Cooler
Going to post the pictures of each stage when I finally have the whole thing together, but damn, I already love this case, so much room and places to put cables!
I think we are talking about different things here. Yes, if you have 16GB of RAM, the OS will happily find 2GB of it and map that to the games address space and all is well. In fact, if it's large address aware, your game will get 4GB of addressable space...but it literally can't have more than that, so adding more RAM above 4GB is purely for multi-tasking purposes, not to make a game perform better in a relative vacuum.
Now, when developers finally get around to making 64-bit builds of their games common place, this restriction goes away.
My build over the last couple of pages included an SSD. When I first looked into them a few years ago the lifespan wasn't great. I know they will still decay but I imagine the lifespans have gotten a lot better.
Also Crossfire/SLI. Again going back a few years it always seemed like a single new card was better, has that improved as well? Included a 750 watt PSU so that I could grab another 7850 in a couple of years if needed.
SSD's still degrade with write/delete operations over time, but it's much better. It takes millions and millions of ops to get to the point that your NAND's lifespan starts to wear out. That is the reason a lot of us are so careful with our SSD setups though, to keep the number of writes to the SSD to a bear minimum. (This is also the primary reason your page file shouldn't be on your SSD, if you care at all about write longevity).
Dual graphics cards are certainly going to get you more power, but for what purpose? Unless you are multi-head gaming, or gaming at obscene resolutions, you aren't going to take advantage of it, and it's just going to be a big pain. There are also games that just don't play nice with dual setups, and would require you to force single card for them anyway. If you want to do double cards, it's best to wait for cards like the 690 to release, which is essentially two 680's bolted together. Saves all the hardware headache of a dual card setup, but the software headache is still there.
Thinking about the future really, I mean from what I've seen the 7850 will be plenty of card for the next couple of years, but after that if I can pick up another it will give me more time before the outlay for a brand new card.
Moving the pagefile will negate some pretty significant performance advantages if you swap to disk, though. I was under the impression that isn't standard operating procedure anymore, am I just wishfully thinking?
Okay, switching gears I have two additional things:
1. The Fractal Design Define R3 -- I'm debating between the Corsair 300R and this. The 300R seems like a better case, but I really like the aesthetics of the R3 better, I like that the extraneous vents can be sealed, and that it might be a slightly quieter build. I'm hearing generally very positive things about it, but there seem to be some weird negative comments about cable management and build quality. Anyone have any experiences, good or bad?
2. CPU coolers -- looking for something that does not sound like a leaf blower. Have only ever bought Zalman coolers before. Thoughts?
Make sure your board has 2x PCI-e 16x slots then.
I really like my Fractal Design Define R3. Getting all the cables behind the case was kind of a pain in the ass, it could definitely have used like 1mm more space, but aside from that (and sometimes the rubber grommet things will fall off when youre trying to shove shit through them, but most of the time its pretty easy to put them back on) I have no complaints.
My CPU cooler is a Corsair H70 with 2 Gentle Typhoon fans so its probably the quietest thing in my system (although the 2 fans the case comes with are both really quiet and seem to move a decent amount of air, even at full speed theyre much quieter than the Scythe Slipstreams at 60%).
Well, this is hard for me to answer definitively, because I have 16GB of RAM, and thus rarely swap...but I don't notice a lot of issues with my swap file being on my spindle drive. I'd have to see pretty rock solid evidence that in the past two years it's become a good idea to put your swap file on the OS SSD before I did it.
OOooooh I like the look of that Corsair. It might be total overkill for my rig, but it's tempting. Is the performance significantly better than an air system? I'm assuming a closed-system watercooler doesn't work as well as a proper watercooling rig, but I actually have clue about watercoolers -- that always seemed like way too big a hassle.
I've seen you mention that, but how noisey is it? I'm on the fence about OC'ing so I may just rock a stock cooler at first. I'm also considering overcompensating the cooling so that I can run my box in a more constricted space and get my tower off the floor, but the more I consider that the less of a good idea it seems to be. I've had great success running PCs (or scores of PCs) inside things like closets, but they were never systems that I cared about.
You don't just lose write capability, you lose whatever is on the NAND. Most modern SSD's actually clone your data across more than one NAND block. You probably won't notice anything until enough NAND starts to go bad that you start losing disk space, or when the NAND that had the backup of the data in another NAND also goes, and you start getting corruption/bad "sectors".
If you have SMART turned on, and setup, I believe most SSD's will send SMART events if they begin to detect degradation.
I hear for most modern SSD's, it can take years to start to wear out the NAND with normal use. You can probably get it down to six or eight months with constant writes to the disk, but that's a very non-standard setup for a desktop machine.
No, it's not that loud. The fan is variable speed, so if you find it's a bit loud, and your CPU is staying cool, just change the fan range it runs at. Most BIOS's support this in some way.
As far as CPU cooling goes the Cooler Master Hyper 212+ is a great affordable, high performing, low noise level recommendation. Two other coolers worth considering that cost a bit more but do perform a bit better are the Thermalright HR02 Macho and the TRUE Spirit 120 or 140. I wanted something a little different from what everyone else seems to have bought (the Hyper 212+) so I bought a HR02 Macho instead. It's absolutely gigantic but it's inaudible over anything else in my case and cools extremely well.
From what I remember, the H70 performs better than the 212+ but it costs more (212+ is still like $25 right? If so its probably has the best performance:cost ratio of any cooler on the market) but if you move your case around frequently itll put less stress on your motherboard since the bulk of the weight of the cooler is put on the case. I got mine for $70 when it was retailing for around $100, and I dont regret the purchase at all, but if I was looking to build my system today Id probably at least check out the H100 (Im pretty sure the H80 is just the H70 radiator with the H60 mount and pump).