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DrPlump posted:worst case if the power supply breaks... Not...exactly... 
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| # ? May 17, 2013 14:51 |
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| # ? May 19, 2013 05:35 |
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Bob Morales posted:Worst case it goes bad and damages your whole system. What are the chances of that happening? I remember buying a power supply from the Goon recommended list at the time and paying a bit extra for it. All my research into power supplies mentioned only buying quality I never saw anything about age being a factor. Is this how all power supplies fail or just the lovely ones? I can change out the power supply at the same time I upgrade the card if you think I need to.
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| # ? May 17, 2013 15:07 |
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DrPlump posted:What are the chances of that happening? I remember buying a power supply from the Goon recommended list at the time and paying a bit extra for it. All my research into power supplies mentioned only buying quality I never saw anything about age being a factor. Is this how all power supplies fail or just the lovely ones? I can change out the power supply at the same time I upgrade the card if you think I need to. You can't pin an exact number on it - the point is ANY chance of that is unacceptable. It's not worth saving $60 to put a $1000 system at risk. That being said, if you bought a quality supply the chances of that should be minimal/nonexistant, because quality PSUs have protections in place to prevent a system-melting. If you can tell us the brand/model of the PSU it should be easy to tell you if you have potential time bomb on your hands. Even if it's a good brand, you should plan on replacing it in the near future. After 5 years or so all PSUs have increased chance of failure, although it's only the bad ones where a failure is likely to blow up everything.
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| # ? May 17, 2013 15:12 |
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PSU failures are the one and only failure that can and often will damage more components.
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| # ? May 17, 2013 15:19 |
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Is rubbing alcohol still more or less the only way to clean thermal paste off a CPU?
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| # ? May 17, 2013 20:34 |
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There's some specialty cleaner stuff you can buy too, but rubbing alcohol, as high of a % as you can get, is the best common household remover for it.
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| # ? May 17, 2013 20:48 |
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The other option is acetone. Just use isopropyl alcohol, 'cause acetone is a pain.
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| # ? May 17, 2013 21:27 |
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This is probably a stupid question, but better safe than sorry I guess. A friend told me that micro ATX boards generate more heat than full sized ones. Is that true?
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| # ? May 17, 2013 21:49 |
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Foreign Tourist posted:This is probably a stupid question, but better safe than sorry I guess. No. Even if he's right, any heat difference would is miniscule as to be completely irrelevant. So basically, ignore all his advice before clearing it through us. 
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| # ? May 17, 2013 21:51 |
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So I got my Thermaltake Urban S31 set up today. Sorry no photos (I can post some tomorrow if anyone wants, I just don't have a lot of bright lighting in here at night), but the case is very nicely built. It has a lot of nice features (nice cabling is simple, tool-free HDD installation), and some that are less common (filters on the front/top/sides that are easy to clean, a hot swappable drive slot on top, noise-reducing foam). All around nice, solid construction, very easy and fast to get set up. Looks very nice too, with a black brushed aluminum front and a blue light along the top. I believe it's a "mid tower", but it's the larger side, partially because of the room on the top for even more fans (and 1 120mm slot on the bottom). It is DEAD QUIET. I have 3 fans running in it right now (3 Cougar fans, 1 on the front, 1 on the back, 1 on my CM212) and I can't hear a thing, even with everything in the room off. Wanted to check out if it would get too hot with the noise reducing foam, so I fired up Core Temp and prime95 and let it run for ~20 minutes at 100% load. Cores maxed at 60, 63, 56, and 59 (all C) with all cores at roughly 35 when idle. Note: I'm running an i5-3570K OCed up to 4.2GHz. The model below this one is cheaper, and doesn't have the hot swapping or noise reduction. Here's the best image of the setup now. It's a bit dark in here (computer is on the bottom left next to the other AV gear, not the laptop screen at the bottom left):  Sorry it's pretty crappy in low light. For size reference next to it in the AV furniture is a Wii with a PS3 next to it, and the shelf above that has an Xbox 360 (it's on right now, you can see the green light).
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| # ? May 18, 2013 02:41 |
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OK, so, I was just checking MSY, and it seems they're having a nice deal on the Asus 2GB GTX 680. It's on sale for AU$459 - for reference, that's cheaper than the AU$465 4GB 670 I was planning on getting, and the competing 2GB 680s from MSI (the OC-TwinFrozr version) and Gigabyte are AU$519/529. The thing is that, I won't actually have the cash to buy the rest of the parts until June 8th or so, though I do have the money for just the card right now. Coupled with the imminent release of the new 700-series cards that likely mean pricedrops on the older models, it makes me worried about jumping the gun. What do you guys think - do I go with this deal and buy the 680 right now, or do I wait until I buy the rest of the parts on June 8th, by which time the 700-series may have really changed the game?
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| # ? May 18, 2013 02:46 |
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I picked up a used Gateway FX4710-UB802A Desktop Computer about six months ago for a cool $250, as I only wanted something to play Starcraft 2 and DotA 2, and it managed that task perfectly. Unfortunately, the video card just died. Would this be a suitable replacement? Are video cards interchangeable like that? It looks to be exactly the same (9800gt, 512mb) to me. Ninja edit: I can already see from rechecking the link that the video card I posted has "GDDR3" in the title, and I know for a fact the desktop has DDR2 ram in it. This sounds like a problem already.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 03:06 |
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Advice posted:I picked up a used Gateway FX4710-UB802A Desktop Computer about six months ago for a cool $250, as I only wanted something to play Starcraft 2 and DotA 2, and it managed that task perfectly. Unfortunately, the video card just died. Would this be a suitable replacement? Are video cards interchangeable like that? It looks to be exactly the same (9800gt, 512mb) to me. Just get this and stop buying 8 year old graphics cards. It'll handle your listed games, while using less power and heat.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 03:12 |
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Advice posted:I picked up a used Gateway FX4710-UB802A Desktop Computer about six months ago for a cool $250, as I only wanted something to play Starcraft 2 and DotA 2, and it managed that task perfectly. Unfortunately, the video card just died. Would this be a suitable replacement? Are video cards interchangeable like that? It looks to be exactly the same (9800gt, 512mb) to me. System RAM (DDR2) and VRAM (GDDR3) are not the same, and I don't think it matters if you have a video card that has newer VRAM than your system RAM. I think you should probably have more system RAM than VRAM, but I'm not even sure if that's necessary. The 9800GT is a few years old. If you want something in a comparable price range, I'd get something like a GTX640. Here's one on NewEgg for $80. Rageaholic Monkey fucked around with this message at May 18, 2013 around 03:34 |
| # ? May 18, 2013 03:15 |
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Well, and I mean this in no way to be rude, but I'm not so financially stable right now as to justify spending $115 on the capability to play video games again. I only asked about the posted card because it's 35 freaking dollars and I can spend that much more comfortably.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 03:17 |
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I just got a job assembling computers, would it be ok for me to post builds that customers have bought for you guys to critique? The aim of this would be so I could better advise customers on what they need to meet their wants. I've read the thread, so I know the common pitfalls, i.e. go intel for game, don't cheap out on the PSU, buy a computer for now and not for tomorrow etc.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 06:18 |
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Keep in mind we'd also want to know their needs, what they want to do with the machine. Otherwise, just go by the guidelines in the OPs.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 10:19 |
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A friend has commissioned me to build a gaming PC for him. It's been a couple years since I've built a rig, just want to make sure I'm not missing anything obvious. He gave me a budget of $1500 for the PC itself, no monitors or peripherals. It will be for 1080p gaming. I was also gonna do a light OC. Is it acceptable nowadays to do that with the motherboards auto-OC features? http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/P...Number=17263634 Look good? Or did I do anything stupid?
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| # ? May 18, 2013 20:12 |
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The 3GB version of the 660 Ti doesn't do anything for you over the 2 GB version. Windows 8 (+ Start8 for $5, if you hate the Metro start screen), not Win 7. You can use the auto-overclocking feature, but really it's marginally easier and probably better overall just to switch the multiplier to 42 and forget it.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 20:41 |
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^^ That too. Don't waste the extra money on the 3GB version. You're not going to see any performance differences in the really high-end cards as they are for driving displays at resolutions higher than 1080p.A Proper Uppercut posted:A friend has commissioned me to build a gaming PC for him. It's been a couple years since I've built a rig, just want to make sure I'm not missing anything obvious. He gave me a budget of $1500 for the PC itself, no monitors or peripherals. It will be for 1080p gaming. I was also gonna do a light OC. Is it acceptable nowadays to do that with the motherboards auto-OC features? I have a machine that is for gaming/a media center, with a very similar build. The only main difference is that I have this mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16813157293), and a GTX 660 instead of a 660 Ti. The ASRock board was easy to OC with (I'm running my i5-3570K @ 4.2GHz). The only other thing is that PSU. It may be fine, but personally I haven't heard of it. I bought this Corsair: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16817139048 (note: not builder series), it's modular, 600W, and only $60 right now after a mail-in rebate. e: Just because he has a budget of $1500, doesn't mean you need to hit it. My build (i5-3570K, the mobo and PSU I linked, 16GB of RAM, EVGA 2GB GTX660, 1TB HDD, 256 GB SSD, with a CM212 all in a Thermaltake Urban S31 with 3 Cougar fans) put me out ~$850, though I did already have the SSD. Oh, and the way I got it all that cheap was a little patience and watching for deals. booshi fucked around with this message at May 18, 2013 around 20:56 |
| # ? May 18, 2013 20:51 |
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I seem to remember PC Power and Cooling being a good brand, at least from the last time I got involved in this. That PSU was recommended in the thread's OP, also. Thanks for the advice on the card, I'll change it to the 2GB version. As for the OS, he specifically said he wanted 7, not 8. I think he tried using it before and wasn't comfortable with it. Does that Start8 thing really make it pretty much like windows 7? I see you can have it boot directly to the desktop and also adds a Start menu. Thanks for the help guys.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 20:59 |
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booshi posted:The only other thing is that PSU. It may be fine, but personally I haven't heard of it. I bought this Corsair: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16817139048 (note: not builder series), it's modular, 600W, and only $60 right now after a mail-in rebate. PCP&C is in the OP. Meanwhile, the Corsair CX is the Builder series. Good job. 
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| # ? May 18, 2013 21:06 |
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Factory Factory posted:PCP&C is in the OP. Meanwhile, the Corsair CX is the Builder series. Good job. Ah, poo poo, I need to shut up about PSUs, as that's the only thing I'm really out of the loop on. Thanks for pointing that out. I should have read more closely, as Corsair no longer calls any of them the builder's series (at least one Newegg listings), and just calls them the CX now. What is is about these PSUs that makes them not a good choice? Just curious now that I'm stuck with one, but it has been working fine for me.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 21:17 |
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Factory Factory posted:PCP&C is in the OP. Meanwhile, the Corsair CX is the Builder series. Good job. booshi posted:Ah, poo poo, I need to shut up about PSUs, as that's the only thing I'm really out of the loop on. Thanks for pointing that out.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 21:25 |
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Really shoddy build quality and mediocre at best electronics. If they work, they're fine (our standards for PSUs are really, really high in this thread), but they have a greater-than-average rate of suddenly not working. It's possible this problem has been fixed but it might take some time on the market for units to get re-reviewed and complaints of failures to stop before we trust those parts again, if ever.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 21:26 |
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A Proper Uppercut posted:As for the OS, he specifically said he wanted 7, not 8. I think he tried using it before and wasn't comfortable with it. Does that Start8 thing really make it pretty much like windows 7? I see you can have it boot directly to the desktop and also adds a Start menu. Yes. I've been running Windows 8 with Start 8 since like November, and aside from the windows in desktop mode being totally square (which I like), it runs exactly like Windows 7 (which I ran for 2.5 years), and even better in some ways. I never see the new Metro interface unless I really want to (which is practically never). It boots straight into desktop mode.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 21:37 |
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Factory Factory posted:Really shoddy build quality and mediocre at best electronics. If they work, they're fine (our standards for PSUs are really, really high in this thread), but they have a greater-than-average rate of suddenly not working. Ah, thanks for the info. I just looked at a tear down of a unit and I see some of the issues. I'll keep it for now, and see how it works. You can get an idea of my load from my post with my build/OC info. If/when it craps out, I'll buy something much better, and probably post in the thread of how long it lasted. The machine is also always on, as I access media remotely from it, so it's time to run this PSU into the ground. e: Rageaholic Monkey posted:Yes. I've been running Windows 8 with Start 8 since like November, and aside from the windows in desktop mode being totally square (which I like), it runs exactly like Windows 7 (which I ran for 2.5 years), and even better in some ways. Yeah, it's easy to get Metro out of the way, but honestly it's useful, even if you don't use any Metro tiles. The whole "hit the super(Windows) key, start typing what you want" is how a lot of distros of Linux are, and I like it (plus I'm used to it as I'm on Linux if I'm not gaming). booshi fucked around with this message at May 18, 2013 around 21:47 |
| # ? May 18, 2013 21:45 |
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Hit Start -> begin typing has been a standard thing in Windows since Vista.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 22:04 |
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Factory Factory posted:Hit Start -> begin typing has been a standard thing in Windows since Vista. Ah, I haven't really been much of a heavy user of Windows in a while (was Mac for a long time, have been on Linux for 3 years now). And when I have used Windows, I usually just go right into Steam or XBMC. This thread is showing me that the deeper I get into my CS PhD, the less I know about more "general" things.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 22:09 |
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Yeaaaah, that happens. I went to a big CS school, and many CS students were so into low-level stuff that they had practically as much troubleshooting/general 'puter stuff acumen as an art student. Given that it was such a nerdy school, our art students were okay at computers, but still.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 22:22 |
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Factory Factory posted:Yeaaaah, that happens. I went to a big CS school, and many CS students were so into low-level stuff that they had practically as much troubleshooting/general 'puter stuff acumen as an art student. Just finished my first year, so yeah it's new for me to not be on top of it. Plus, my degree I'm working on is a joint CS/CS PhD (the second CS is cognitive Science), so I focus more on computational models of cognitive science and brain-computer interfacing. So I can answer about that, but I had no idea I bought the wrong PSU.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 22:28 |
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That thread has been really helpful. Would be great if any of you guys could look through what I came up with and tell me if there is anything wrong with it I didn't see: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/Y56u On top of that I already have a 2 TB HD, DVD burner, case and 1600x1200 monitor. I intend to hook up a second monitor (1920x1200) at a later point. I will use this system mainly for (non-high end) gaming and intend to hook up a second monitor (1920x1200) at a later point. This system should allow me to play games - if at reduced detail settings - for 4 to 5 years. My budget is 600 - 700 $, without peripherals and software. Any suggestions?
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| # ? May 18, 2013 22:49 |
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Default Settings posted:That thread has been really helpful. Would be great if any of you guys could look through what I came up with and tell me if there is anything wrong with it I didn't see: We usually recommend against Gigabyte. Get the video card from Asus, EVGA, or Zotac. That Sandisk drive is also recommended against, being a Sandforce-based drive with a power-of-two capacity. For Sandforce drives, drives with RAISE enabled are recommended, which have multiple-of-ten capacities like 120 or 240 GB. See the SSD thread for more info/specific recommendations. Low priority: 2x4GB of RAM is slightly preferable to 1x8 for performance reasons. It's not make-or-break, but if the cost is the same or within a few bucks, go for a 2x4GB kit.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 23:30 |
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| # ? May 19, 2013 05:35 |
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Thank you, I altered the build accordingly and will get a EVGA GeForce and Sandisk Extreme SSD instead.
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| # ? May 19, 2013 04:47 |
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