I am a Weak, Weak Man

[WalkinTarget]

I don't see a storage drive, and I think you will fill that 120gb SSD up in a HURRY. You can pick up a Samsung F4 1tb for under $50, so I would recommend adding a large storage drive so that your SSD isn't filling up faster than you want it to.

If anyone cares, we could take up a spare parts collection for Juneau and put together a nice budget quad core for him.

Hey Juneau, want to buy my old Q6700 box ?? Its running at 3.5ghz and would be a nice step up from that dually that you loved oh so much

[goldenfooler]

I've had 2 other pcs coming UPS ground (Dell, Velocity Micro) and they've been fine. Cyberpower had a $19 packaging upgrade but I wasn't up for that. I figure they really can't get far away from large styrofoam cutouts and that should be enough for pc cushioning.

I'm more worried about a bad part that screws up a whole build and having to RMA everything than the time to build. That happened to me before I bought my current Velocity Micro machine. Something went wrong, I couldn't diagnose it properly because literally every part of the system aside from the sound card and video card were new technology, and I had to RMA everything and eat the cost of Windows. I've already got an active RMA on an Asus router that cuts my connection speed in half, and I don't have the money and time for shipping and calls back and forth.

I ain't doing that again, and I don't have time to mess with the RMA process if I want a machine ready for BF3.

-Rand

Thats why i built my computer through digital storm. Everything has been working fine but getting the sound right when I crash to desktop because of teamspeak.

[Apache Warrior]

I don't see a storage drive, and I think you will fill that 120gb SSD up in a HURRY. You can pick up a Samsung F4 1tb for under $50, so I would recommend adding a large storage drive so that your SSD isn't filling up faster than you want it to.

I will pop in my current Creative card and my current 1TB drive to become the application drive until I go RAID on that puppy in the future.
-Rand

As I know old age is a pitiful thing. And the eyes are the first thing to go.
Apache

[WalkinTarget]

Nah, its called 'posting over a lunch break' and I rarely have time to read the entire post. It gets me in trouble all the time, so you think I'd know by now to read at least the OP in detail.

Yea, now that I read it again, it is in there

[Quamin]

Just pulled the trigger on a new pc via Cyberpower (reasons: I don't have time to build; they can build and give me warranty for almost pennies more than Newegg parts alone; Bank of America has put a buying hold on Newegg forcing me to verify everything I buy from them; RMA experience on Asus router this week makes me skittish about possible returns and ground shipping).

I blame you guys first, with all your talk of upgrades wearing down my willpower. I blame BF 3 as a very close second, being utterly unplayable to me even at 800x600 and everything to low. My 4.5 year old system no longer cuts the gravy.

I cut back on some costs by going with just a single, SSD drive and leaving out a sound card. I managed to cut $150 out of the pricing over the weekend playing with acceptable sacrifice vs. longevity potential.

I will pop in my current Creative card and my current 1TB drive to become the application drive until I go RAID on that puppy in the future. I'm also going to stable-overclock the chip ASAP, multiplier only.

Here's what I got:



I'm hoping I also get the free game coupons for Arkham City and Just Cause 2. It would only let me select one free game, but all three should apply. I'll have Arkham City on PS3 and already beat Just Cause 2, so if I get them you guys get first dibs.

Couldn't select no keyboard and mouse, so those are backups. I have a brand-spanking new, less than 1 week old G500 mouse, and my old G15 until I can upgrade to the G19 or some similar board. Asus 24" monitor will remain. Free upgrades through today on the 2500k, the 850 watt power supply, and cheaper RAM; Mail-in-Rebate on the case and maybe 1-2 other things.

You guys suck.

-Rand

Hey, if you still need a sound card, drop me a line. I got an X-Fi Gamer Edition to spare (I believe they are gamer/Fatality editions) and I'm all about empowering people to have better audio standards!

[Rand{CLR}]

I'm good on the card, just going to reuse my current one. My wife already told me she doesn't feel the need for my current box (she's on my now 7 year old dell for her 3 telework days a week, and that's ok with her). I was going to get a wireless card and use the current box as a network drive until I realized this morning that "duh, you're taking the 1TB drive out of it, moron."

But uninstalling Steam will clear 100 gigs off the prime drive, and stopping regular backups will keep the secondary drive fairly clear, so it'll probably still work for that purpose. Now if only I had a ventilated but out of the way place to store the thing...

And WT, what the old man said. The 1TB drive should be sufficient until I can afford a pair of (likely Samsung Pinpoint) 1TBs down the road.

-Rand

[Quamin]

Sounds good then - and we can all use a good file server at home

[slice]

Awesome and congrats on the purchase. That is a really nice system you have. The 2500k OCs so easy. All I did was change my multi to 45 and I was sitting at 4.5ghz easy stable.

One nice thing is you can always add a second GTX560 and run SLI if you need it.

[Cain]

wuss

[{CLR} Cobalt]

Getting someone else to build your machine isnt all that bad if you can choose the parts. Unlike some sellers out there.

Goody for you Rand, I understand all the ranting and raving about how everyones game looked. I finally had to get the Vid card I been holding back on. Everything else is up to speed.

See you in game.

[WalkinTarget]

The 2500k OCs so easy. All I did was change my multi to 45 and I was sitting at 4.5ghz easy stable.

Did you just change your multi ? That doesn't lock down your voltages, so make sure you keep a keen eye on your temps, as your voltage (if its on auto) will scale up along with your CPU speed. All boards are different, but for my Gigabyte board I'd set it as such:

CPU clock ratio: 45

Go into <advanced CPU core features>

enable internal CPU PLL overvoltage
enable real-time ratio changes in OS
disable c1e and all c3/c6 states
disable EIST (this is not essential, but can help stability)

set multi-step load-line to level 4
cpu vcore 1.35v
qpi/vtt voltage 1.1v

I'd be surprised if your chip wasn't jumping up to 1.4v which over time will make a lot of heat. Again, its not necessarily a bad thing if you have VERY good cooling, but its worth keeping an eye on it at least.

[slice]

Did you just change your multi ? That doesn't lock down your voltages, so make sure you keep a keen eye on your temps, as your voltage (if its on auto) will scale up along with your CPU speed. All boards are different, but for my Gigabyte board I'd set it as such:

CPU clock ratio: 45

Go into <advanced CPU core features>

enable internal CPU PLL overvoltage
enable real-time ratio changes in OS
disable c1e and all c3/c6 states
disable EIST (this is not essential, but can help stability)

set multi-step load-line to level 4
cpu vcore 1.35v
qpi/vtt voltage 1.1v

I'd be surprised if your chip wasn't jumping up to 1.4v which over time will make a lot of heat. Again, its not necessarily a bad thing if you have VERY good cooling, but its worth keeping an eye on it at least.

I understand your concerns, but as a veteran OCer, you can rest assured! LOL.

using Prime and similar software, my voltage does not see more than 1.28 under 100% load. I would normally set my voltage to its optimal level, but my board handles the scaling so well There is no need.

I leave all the C1E states and SpeedStep etc on. I run @ 1.6ghz when doing normal surfing. It will idle @ <.9 volts at this speed. When I ramp up to 4.5ghz playing a game or stress test, it has yet to exceed 1.28 for the voltage.

With these SB chips, you do not need to do much. They handle themselves extremely well.

My max Temps I have seen this far is around 60c under load. This is with just a CM Hyper 212+. I will be moving up to either a Corsair H80 or H100 at some point soon.

[WalkinTarget]

Sounds good, slice !! I was just making sure .. didn't want you to not know about the overvolt, but it seems like your chip is staying very low even with its higher end OC.

I toyed around with mine last night, setting it to 4.1 for a start. I'm embarrassed to say I used the Gigabyte Windows utility known as 'Touch BIOS' to OC it. Needless to say, that's not what I will rely upon in the future, but I was again just toying with it and seeing what it offered. My H80 shows idle temps of 25°c so I know I have plenty of headroom before the chip warms up.

To test your stability, I recommend LinX:
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads...nX_v0.6.4.html

[slice]

Sounds good, slice !! I was just making sure .. didn't want you to not know about the overvolt, but it seems like your chip is staying very low even with its higher end OC.

I toyed around with mine last night, setting it to 4.1 for a start. I'm embarrassed to say I used the Gigabyte Windows utility known as 'Touch BIOS' to OC it. Needless to say, that's not what I will rely upon in the future, but I was again just toying with it and seeing what it offered. My H80 shows idle temps of 25°c so I know I have plenty of headroom before the chip warms up.

To test your stability, I recommend LinX:
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads...nX_v0.6.4.html

Ah yes LinX! Yeah it is definitley better than Prime.

Yeah, you know surprisingly, the auto OC feature on these boards (I have an Asus P8Z68-Pro) work decently well. Of course they seem to set the voltages slightly higher than needed.

How are you liking the H80? I am really considering getting it.

[Cain]

Rand what were you running before that was so bad for BF3 ?? CPU, Chipset and Video card??