Mad Cow! Holiday Computer building (1 Viewer)

[Mad Cow]

Been able to play Empire: Total War, Just Cause 2 and Homefront with all settings maxed out. Pretty nice.With the exception of the rear exhaust, the machine runs pretty quiet. If I crank up that exhaust and the CPU and GPU all get working, watch out, because this thing sounds like it's ready for takeoff. Sicne I normally am gaming with headphones on so that's not a big deal.

What do you think of E:TW? I LOVED Rome and both Medievals, but just never got into Empire. Did a little more with Shogun 2, but not too much more, either.

 

[Drifter]

Been able to play Empire: Total War, Just Cause 2 and Homefront with all settings maxed out. Pretty nice.With the exception of the rear exhaust, the machine runs pretty quiet. If I crank up that exhaust and the CPU and GPU all get working, watch out, because this thing sounds like it's ready for takeoff. Sicne I normally am gaming with headphones on so that's not a big deal.

What do you think of E:TW? I LOVED Rome and both Medievals, but just never got into Empire. Did a little more with Shogun 2, but not too much more, either.

Didn't do any more than the tutorials because I really just wanted to see how the machine performed. I could see myself getting into the naval battles because I love tall ship battles. Would love if Pirates! did something more like that.

 

[Mad Cow]

Been able to play Empire: Total War, Just Cause 2 and Homefront with all settings maxed out. Pretty nice.With the exception of the rear exhaust, the machine runs pretty quiet. If I crank up that exhaust and the CPU and GPU all get working, watch out, because this thing sounds like it's ready for takeoff. Sicne I normally am gaming with headphones on so that's not a big deal.

What do you think of E:TW? I LOVED Rome and both Medievals, but just never got into Empire. Did a little more with Shogun 2, but not too much more, either.

Didn't do any more than the tutorials because I really just wanted to see how the machine performed. I could see myself getting into the naval battles because I love tall ship battles. Would love if Pirates! did something more like that.

Pirates! was a great game for when it came out. Fun enough for what it was, but certainly not a tall ship battle sim.

 

[belljr]

Been able to play Empire: Total War, Just Cause 2 and Homefront with all settings maxed out. Pretty nice.With the exception of the rear exhaust, the machine runs pretty quiet. If I crank up that exhaust and the CPU and GPU all get working, watch out, because this thing sounds like it's ready for takeoff. Sicne I normally am gaming with headphones on so that's not a big deal.

What do you think of E:TW? I LOVED Rome and both Medievals, but just never got into Empire. Did a little more with Shogun 2, but not too much more, either.

Thinking about buying Rome:Total War for $10. Alway wanted to play that. I might install my Orange Box lolAnyone know where I turn of the audio for hdmi when I run the dual monitor? Is it under speaker settings?

 

[Drifter]

Been able to play Empire: Total War, Just Cause 2 and Homefront with all settings maxed out. Pretty nice.With the exception of the rear exhaust, the machine runs pretty quiet. If I crank up that exhaust and the CPU and GPU all get working, watch out, because this thing sounds like it's ready for takeoff. Sicne I normally am gaming with headphones on so that's not a big deal.

What do you think of E:TW? I LOVED Rome and both Medievals, but just never got into Empire. Did a little more with Shogun 2, but not too much more, either.

Thinking about buying Rome:Total War for $10. Alway wanted to play that. I might install my Orange Box lolAnyone know where I turn of the audio for hdmi when I run the dual monitor? Is it under speaker settings?

Should be something like that - you should be able to choose your outputs and disable the digital out at a high level or possibly the HDMI at a more detailed level.

 

[Mad Cow]

Been able to play Empire: Total War, Just Cause 2 and Homefront with all settings maxed out. Pretty nice.With the exception of the rear exhaust, the machine runs pretty quiet. If I crank up that exhaust and the CPU and GPU all get working, watch out, because this thing sounds like it's ready for takeoff. Sicne I normally am gaming with headphones on so that's not a big deal.

What do you think of E:TW? I LOVED Rome and both Medievals, but just never got into Empire. Did a little more with Shogun 2, but not too much more, either.

Thinking about buying Rome:Total War for $10. Alway wanted to play that. I might install my Orange Box lolAnyone know where I turn of the audio for hdmi when I run the dual monitor? Is it under speaker settings?

You want to go to Device Manager and disable the sound controller on your video card.

 

[Drifter]

Has everybody gone ahead and overclocked their 2500k processors (if that's what you bought)? No reason not too if you bought a CPU cooler. Very easy to do and you can get about a 40% performance boost.

 

[jamil]

needing another SATA cable so I thought I would check Monoprice and of course they have them. Anybody try their SATA cables? I get all my HDMI and optical cables from them... just wondering about the SATA III's, especially with no reviews.

 

[Mad Cow]

needing another SATA cable so I thought I would check Monoprice and of course they have them. Anybody try their SATA cables? I get all my HDMI and optical cables from them... just wondering about the SATA III's, especially with no reviews.

I am having a hard time believing that anyone needs an extra sata cable. I could send you one for shipping. I probably have ten lying around.

 

[jamil]

needing another SATA cable so I thought I would check Monoprice and of course they have them. Anybody try their SATA cables? I get all my HDMI and optical cables from them... just wondering about the SATA III's, especially with no reviews.

I am having a hard time believing that anyone needs an extra sata cable. I could send you one for shipping. I probably have ten lying around.

its my first build. haha.

 

[Mad Cow]

needing another SATA cable so I thought I would check Monoprice and of course they have them. Anybody try their SATA cables? I get all my HDMI and optical cables from them... just wondering about the SATA III's, especially with no reviews.

I am having a hard time believing that anyone needs an extra sata cable. I could send you one for shipping. I probably have ten lying around.

its my first build. haha.

Well if you need an SATA cable, let me know.

 

[belljr]

needing another SATA cable so I thought I would check Monoprice and of course they have them. Anybody try their SATA cables? I get all my HDMI and optical cables from them... just wondering about the SATA III's, especially with no reviews.

I am having a hard time believing that anyone needs an extra sata cable. I could send you one for shipping. I probably have ten lying around.

I had to buy one, my third hdd didn't come with one This was prior to getting a new mobo etc. My old pc.

 

[Pick]

Has everybody gone ahead and overclocked their 2500k processors (if that's what you bought)? No reason not too if you bought a CPU cooler. Very easy to do and you can get about a 40% performance boost.

I have no clue how to do this.

 

[belljr]

nerdformation complete!!!! Came with an HDMI to DVI cable PERFECT!!!!! My only issue is the power cable is a bit short THANKS NERDS

ETA: Do you play max resolution for games? I'm running 1900x1200 desktop is that preferred for games etc?

 

[Zasada]

This thread is all about value when building a gaming rig, and here I will take the value concept and stomp all over it:

I have this arriving tomorrow.

The in-laws and wife got together and decided to treat me for the holidays.

Finally I will be able to run 2560x1600 with AA on.

Also the HTPC is built. I'll report back on that this weekend. In short, XBMC is pretty awesome.

 

[TLEF316]

Has everybody gone ahead and overclocked their 2500k processors (if that's what you bought)? No reason not too if you bought a CPU cooler. Very easy to do and you can get about a 40% performance boost.

I have no clue how to do this.

Very easy. Just search "overclock 2500K" on youtube and there are plenty of videos to walk you through all the steps.Its just a matter of going into the bios and tweaking some settings. If you have an aftermarket cooler, there is almost no risk.

 

[Mad Cow]

nerdformation complete!!!! Came with an HDMI to DVI cable PERFECT!!!!! My only issue is the power cable is a bit short THANKS NERDS ETA: Do you play max resolution for games? I'm running 1900x1200 desktop is that preferred for games etc?

Well in a perfect world, yes. What is your video card? If the gpu isn't up to full res and all the eye candy, then sometimes it is better to lower the res and turn on more features like aniso and AA.

 

[Mad Cow]

This thread is all about value when building a gaming rig, and here I will take the value concept and stomp all over it:

I have this arriving tomorrow.

The in-laws and wife got together and decided to treat me for the holidays.

Finally I will be able to run 2560x1600 with AA on.

Also the HTPC is built. I'll report back on that this weekend. In short, XBMC is pretty awesome.

Who's jealous? This guy I need to see who has them in stock.

 

[belljr]

nerdformation complete!!!! Came with an HDMI to DVI cable PERFECT!!!!! My only issue is the power cable is a bit short THANKS NERDS ETA: Do you play max resolution for games? I'm running 1900x1200 desktop is that preferred for games etc?

Well in a perfect world, yes. What is your video card? If the gpu isn't up to full res and all the eye candy, then sometimes it is better to lower the res and turn on more features like aniso and AA.

You forgot already?!?!?!? What my set up was before I joined this thread and the video card you picked PowerColor AX6790 1GBD5-DH Radeon HD 6790 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131397G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBXLhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231426AMD A8-3850 Llano 2.9GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 6550Dhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103942MSI A75MA-G55 FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboardhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130605That is the basics/ Let me know if you need anything else ETA: TowerCOOLER MASTER Elite RC-310-OWR460 Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case RS-460-PSAR-J3, Elite 460W Power Supplyhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119218I bought a 550 Rosewill PSU since my video card required 500W.

 

[belljr]

This thread is all about value when building a gaming rig, and here I will take the value concept and stomp all over it:

I have this arriving tomorrow.

The in-laws and wife got together and decided to treat me for the holidays.

Finally I will be able to run 2560x1600 with AA on.

Also the HTPC is built. I'll report back on that this weekend. In short, XBMC is pretty awesome.

holy crap - That's more than my PC I had MC pick me out a video card for 100 bucks

 

[Zasada]

The in-laws and wife got together and decided to treat me for the holidays.

holy crap - That's more than my PC I had MC pick me out a video card for 100 bucks

Yup, definitely not a value -- do as I say and not as I do!It's pretty hard to be 10 time zones away when I get an email from my wife that reads "your video card arrived, what do you want me to do with it". When do I get my buttery smooth anti-aliased BF3 goodness?!? I have to wait until the weekend? Agh...

 

[Corporation]

Really tired of waiting on cards to drop. If anyone is interested in starting this up again, let's start finding parts for yours truly:

CPU

Mobo

RAM

Video Card

SSD

PS

I'll keep my current HD, optical drive, case for now.

I saw a deal for a 600W PS (OCZ I think) that comes with a dvd drive from new egg for $35 after rebate. I know some people don't like OCZ. Still getting the VC last hopeful for the long awaited price drop.

 

[Corporation]

 

[belljr]

I'd love to help but don't know much about hardware (well what's better than others, etc)... I just picked a package and had some one min approve it

 

[Mad Cow]

Really tired of waiting on cards to drop. If anyone is interested in starting this up again, let's start finding parts for yours truly:CPUMoboRAMVideo CardSSDPSI'll keep my current HD, optical drive, case for now.I saw a deal for a 600W PS (OCZ I think) that comes with a dvd drive from new egg for $35 after rebate. I know some people don't like OCZ. Still getting the VC last hopeful for the long awaited price drop.

What's your budget, Cooleyo?

 

[Corporation]

Really tired of waiting on cards to drop. If anyone is interested in starting this up again, let's start finding parts for yours truly:CPUMoboRAMVideo CardSSDPSI'll keep my current HD, optical drive, case for now.I saw a deal for a 600W PS (OCZ I think) that comes with a dvd drive from new egg for $35 after rebate. I know some people don't like OCZ. Still getting the VC last hopeful for the long awaited price drop.

What's your budget, Cooleyo?

Looking for the best values. Would like to spend 150 - 175 on a VC. I've heard a lot of good things about the 2500k. Don't really have a set budget, but I don't want bleeding edge prices.

 

[Courtjester]

I am going to come in and piggy back on Corporation's request, except I am looking to build a NAS unit. So right now I am looking for a case with lots of room for HDs. I would love to have 8-10 tbs running in there--so cooling might also be an issue. But besides Newegg, is there any other place that you guys frequent to find good deals on cases, mobos etc....

Oooh sort of like this one case

 

[Corporation]

 

[Corporation]

 

[Drifter]

I got the most traction in the thread by going out and finding deals and posting here asking if they were good or not.For CPU/MoBo the first question is - Is there a Microcenter near you?

 

[UOFI_316]

I have a computer crashing issue and figured here would be a good place to ask. A few weeks ago I got the blue screen of death (have a 5+ year old Dell) rebooted and things worked fine. Turned off machine, when I turned it on the next day the Windows splash screen never fully loaded, like it was at 50% brightness and the scrolling blue bar never moved. Shut down and could restart in Safe Mode. Figured it was a windows error so I wiped the partition and reloaded Windows. After the 3rd reboot while reloading software the same problem happened, the splash screen never fully loaded.

Is this a hard drive issue, or some other component not loading?? I know when memory goes bad the computer beeps out a code and that did not happen.

Thanks.

 

[Drifter]

I have a computer crashing issue and figured here would be a good place to ask. A few weeks ago I got the blue screen of death (have a 5+ year old Dell) rebooted and things worked fine. Turned off machine, when I turned it on the next day the Windows splash screen never fully loaded, like it was at 50% brightness and the scrolling blue bar never moved. Shut down and could restart in Safe Mode. Figured it was a windows error so I wiped the partition and reloaded Windows. After the 3rd reboot while reloading software the same problem happened, the splash screen never fully loaded.Is this a hard drive issue, or some other component not loading?? I know when memory goes bad the computer beeps out a code and that did not happen.Thanks.

Is it crashing after it's been on a while or immediately? Have you run chkdsk?

 

[jplvr]

I have a computer crashing issue and figured here would be a good place to ask. A few weeks ago I got the blue screen of death (have a 5+ year old Dell) rebooted and things worked fine. Turned off machine, when I turned it on the next day the Windows splash screen never fully loaded, like it was at 50% brightness and the scrolling blue bar never moved. Shut down and could restart in Safe Mode. Figured it was a windows error so I wiped the partition and reloaded Windows. After the 3rd reboot while reloading software the same problem happened, the splash screen never fully loaded.Is this a hard drive issue, or some other component not loading?? I know when memory goes bad the computer beeps out a code and that did not happen.Thanks.

This happened to me one time. Actually, I still use the laptop at home. A Windows update killed my video card, basically. I uninstalled the NVidia driver, and now it runs off some sort of generic setting which allows it to work, but it's not perfect, and video playback is often compromised, like with WMP movies.I'm not saying this is your issue, but it sounds similar to the problem I had a while back.

 

[Drifter]

I have a computer crashing issue and figured here would be a good place to ask. A few weeks ago I got the blue screen of death (have a 5+ year old Dell) rebooted and things worked fine. Turned off machine, when I turned it on the next day the Windows splash screen never fully loaded, like it was at 50% brightness and the scrolling blue bar never moved. Shut down and could restart in Safe Mode. Figured it was a windows error so I wiped the partition and reloaded Windows. After the 3rd reboot while reloading software the same problem happened, the splash screen never fully loaded.Is this a hard drive issue, or some other component not loading?? I know when memory goes bad the computer beeps out a code and that did not happen.Thanks.

This happened to me one time. Actually, I still use the laptop at home. A Windows update killed my video card, basically. I uninstalled the NVidia driver, and now it runs off some sort of generic setting which allows it to work, but it's not perfect, and video playback is often compromised, like with WMP movies.I'm not saying this is your issue, but it sounds similar to the problem I had a while back.

That would be the other question - have you updated or installed anything recently?

 

[belljr]

I have a computer crashing issue and figured here would be a good place to ask. A few weeks ago I got the blue screen of death (have a 5+ year old Dell) rebooted and things worked fine. Turned off machine, when I turned it on the next day the Windows splash screen never fully loaded, like it was at 50% brightness and the scrolling blue bar never moved. Shut down and could restart in Safe Mode. Figured it was a windows error so I wiped the partition and reloaded Windows. After the 3rd reboot while reloading software the same problem happened, the splash screen never fully loaded.

Is this a hard drive issue, or some other component not loading?? I know when memory goes bad the computer beeps out a code and that did not happen.

Thanks.

Is it crashing after it's been on a while or immediately? Have you run chkdsk?

I can be useful, woohoo... Do the bolded

 

[UOFI_316]

I had not updated anything the first time it happened, although there may have been a windows update that ran over night. When it happened after the windows reload I had just gotten through all the Windows updates (my disk is SP2 so it had to catch up to SP3), and ran ninite to install all those programs. It was on the reboot after those were done that it happened again.

I will run chkdsk when I get home.

Also after it happened the first time, I used safe mode for a while to get all my files copied off the main drive. After running safe mode for a few days I tried a reboot and it went fine then stalled on the next power up. So it is not happening every time I try to boot which has me confused.

 

[belljr]

I had not updated anything the first time it happened, although there may have been a windows update that ran over night. When it happened after the windows reload I had just gotten through all the Windows updates (my disk is SP2 so it had to catch up to SP3), and ran ninite to install all those programs. It was on the reboot after those were done that it happened again.I will run chkdsk when I get home.Also after it happened the first time, I used safe mode for a while to get all my files copied off the main drive. After running safe mode for a few days I tried a reboot and it went fine then stalled on the next power up. So it is not happening every time I try to boot which has me confused.

If there is an issue you can then run chkdsk -r to try to repair any sectors. But it sounds like you ended up with a corrupt install.If chkdsk finds nothing I would try a restore point from prior to you doing everything and then trying the updates again but "slowly"

 

[MaxThreshold]

I'm fixing to buy a larger SSD drive. I'd like to get a 240gb so if anyone discovers any great or out-of-this world deals let me know!

 

[Pick]

Getting into Rome a lot more this time around.

 

[UOFI_316]

I had not updated anything the first time it happened, although there may have been a windows update that ran over night. When it happened after the windows reload I had just gotten through all the Windows updates (my disk is SP2 so it had to catch up to SP3), and ran ninite to install all those programs. It was on the reboot after those were done that it happened again.I will run chkdsk when I get home.Also after it happened the first time, I used safe mode for a while to get all my files copied off the main drive. After running safe mode for a few days I tried a reboot and it went fine then stalled on the next power up. So it is not happening every time I try to boot which has me confused.

If there is an issue you can then run chkdsk -r to try to repair any sectors. But it sounds like you ended up with a corrupt install.If chkdsk finds nothing I would try a restore point from prior to you doing everything and then trying the updates again but "slowly"

Chkdsk did not find any bad sectors but did find a bad file structure. I had it fix that and so far so good. I am thinking since I am just a week into this install I will start from scratch again and install things one at a time to try and see what may have caused the issue.

 

[Zasada]

I got the most traction in the thread by going out and finding deals and posting here asking if they were good or not.For CPU/MoBo the first question is - Is there a Microcenter near you?

I think the reason you're not seeing much feedback is because nothing has really changed since before the holidays. The parts and prices are still roughly the same.

 

[belljr]

I had not updated anything the first time it happened, although there may have been a windows update that ran over night. When it happened after the windows reload I had just gotten through all the Windows updates (my disk is SP2 so it had to catch up to SP3), and ran ninite to install all those programs. It was on the reboot after those were done that it happened again.I will run chkdsk when I get home.Also after it happened the first time, I used safe mode for a while to get all my files copied off the main drive. After running safe mode for a few days I tried a reboot and it went fine then stalled on the next power up. So it is not happening every time I try to boot which has me confused.

If there is an issue you can then run chkdsk -r to try to repair any sectors. But it sounds like you ended up with a corrupt install.If chkdsk finds nothing I would try a restore point from prior to you doing everything and then trying the updates again but "slowly"

Chkdsk did not find any bad sectors but did find a bad file structure. I had it fix that and so far so good. I am thinking since I am just a week into this install I will start from scratch again and install things one at a time to try and see what may have caused the issue.

You installing XP or 7? It may not matter.I had an issue because of the auto update with win 7. Basically with my fresh pc, I installed some updates for win 7. Then I started to update all my MOBO drivers etc, then when it had to do a restart it started to install some new downloaded win 7 updates and that fubared the whole thing, crap got corrupted because of all the multiple installs kind of happening at the same time.When I redid it - install the OS, check for updates then install them. THEN this is important especially with Win 7. Check for updates again. You literally have to do this like 5 or 6 times to have ALL the new updates. It does this because you will update say the .Net framework, then win will be like oh you installed this Update Well that triggers these 5 updates. Once you get those all done with your multiple restarts then start installing the other stuff. I turned off the auto update when I was installing all my drivers etc

 

[cstu]

If you have one near you, Microcenter has the 2600k for $199, in-store pickup.

 

[Pick]

Highlight of vacation was driving by a Microcenter.

 

[MaxThreshold]

If you have one near you, Microcenter has the 2600k for $199, in-store pickup.

I have this in my PC and it screams. I have it overclocked to 4.3GHZ just by setting it the default XMP Profile of my DDR3 2133 Memory. No water-cooling either. All air, baby.

 

[Iron_Far]

Anyone know if :Intel Core i5-2400 processor (2.5GHz,6MB Cache) is 'better' than Intel Core i3-2120 Processor (3.3GHz,3MB Cache) for a gaming rig?

Assume I won't be overclocking at all.

 

[footballnerd]

Anyone know if :Intel Core i5-2400 processor (2.5GHz,6MB Cache) is 'better' than Intel Core i3-2120 Processor (3.3GHz,3MB Cache) for a gaming rig?Assume I won't be overclocking at all.

I'd get the cheaper one and put the savings to a really nice graphics card

 

[MaxThreshold]

Looks like an SSD price war is about to erupt. Good news for consumers!

 

[Mad Cow]

Anyone know if :Intel Core i5-2400 processor (2.5GHz,6MB Cache) is 'better' than Intel Core i3-2120 Processor (3.3GHz,3MB Cache) for a gaming rig?Assume I won't be overclocking at all.

Generally for gaming, it comes down to the L2 and now L3 cache. The bigger that is, the better for gaming.

 

[Mad Cow]

I really want to build a new rig, but my home is currently an i7-950 overclocked with 12 GB of RAM and a 6970 and my office is an i5-750, 8GB of RAM and a 5850.