GR ~ PC Hardware thread

[selfish]

holy shit those are amazing, what kind of price tag do those setups run?

[Burnzoire]

So I'm looking at some new PC parts, as my PC is currently non-functional. I don't want to turn this thread into tech support, so I'll be brief - when I boot it up, I get 7 beeps most of the time, but sometimes 8 beeps, sometimes 3 beeps and sometimes 6 beeps (virtual mode exception error, faulty/missing gfx card, 64k base RAM error, and keyboard error respectively). This to me says dead mobo, but it could be something else, so I have to consider replacing any or all of the core components, and it may be more sensible to replace the CPU/MB/GFX as a set with a modern setup that is known to gel well together, rather than try to find parts piecemeal.

Parts I may need to replace are:
3.0ghz dual core 775 socket CPU, 4gb RAM, mobo, 460W psu, gfx card.

If anyone can give advice on narrowing down the issue more accurately, it'd be appreciated. I don't game on the PC, and I don't want to spend 500-1000 bucks replacing parts when a 150 dollar mobo is all I need... but I don't want to spend 150 on a mobo and then kill it because one of the other components was causing the fault.

Anyway. Recommendations for a replacement?

Before looking at replacing parts, try flashing your BIOS with the latest ROM. I had the weirdest problem just lastnight and flashing the BIOS (surprisingly) fixed it. I'm over the moon as I was looking at having to replace the mobo and thus the CPU too... The other solution is to just take it to a repair shop where they can easily determine which part is faulty. You can do this yourself if you have the parts & patience of course.

[Pariah]

So I'm looking at some new PC parts, as my PC is currently non-functional. I don't want to turn this thread into tech support, so I'll be brief - when I boot it up, I get 7 beeps most of the time, but sometimes 8 beeps, sometimes 3 beeps and sometimes 6 beeps (virtual mode exception error, faulty/missing gfx card, 64k base RAM error, and keyboard error respectively). This to me says dead mobo, but it could be something else, so I have to consider replacing any or all of the core components, and it may be more sensible to replace the CPU/MB/GFX as a set with a modern setup that is known to gel well together, rather than try to find parts piecemeal.

Parts I may need to replace are:
3.0ghz dual core 775 socket CPU, 4gb RAM, mobo, 460W psu, gfx card.

If anyone can give advice on narrowing down the issue more accurately, it'd be appreciated. I don't game on the PC, and I don't want to spend 500-1000 bucks replacing parts when a 150 dollar mobo is all I need... but I don't want to spend 150 on a mobo and then kill it because one of the other components was causing the fault.

Anyway. Recommendations for a replacement?

first clear the cmos...your motherboard manual will tell you how..

after that try booting up with only 1 ram stick in...try both sticks individually..

slowly narrow down the problem from there..if you can list the make and model of the motherboard, ram (type as well..DDR2 or DDR3) and psu that would help...

you can replace a 775 motherboard from $47 to $73 at MSY...depending on your ram (DDR3 or DDR2)...

http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

if you decide to go with replacing the MB RAM and CPU going with something faster let me know what case you have and i can help you pick the best parts for your budget...also there should be no need to replace the GPU if you want to save money...unless youre looking for better performance in games..

Before looking at replacing parts, try flashing your BIOS with the latest ROM. I had the weirdest problem just lastnight and flashing the BIOS (surprisingly) fixed it. I'm over the moon as I was looking at having to replace the mobo and thus the CPU too... The other solution is to just take it to a repair shop where they can easily determine which part is faulty. You can do this yourself if you have the parts & patience of course.

unless the board is at least booting up to the post screen he wont be able to update the bios...from the beep error codes he has listed that seems to be the case

thats why first and foremost clearing the cmos is the thing to do after that testing the ram..

[Burnzoire]

yeah you're probably right if he's getting that nasty terminal beeping with a black screen. Oh well, I was just glad to have fixed my prob and thought I'd share

FYI I was getting garbled packets through the network for some bizarre reason. The network wasn't reporting any errors but nothing was working. By far the weirdest thing was that when I opened a web browser I could get some of the ascii through but much of it was missing or completely garbled. For example, my router homepage would show broken HTML, and upon viewing the source i'd see some really odd tags and even the JS code was swedish. "furr i=0; i<harr; i++"... WTF! It was happening on separate windows installs on different hdds, and not on my laptop over the same cat5, so it was either hardware or bios. So weird, but glad it's fixed. Virus on the BIOS? Who knows.

[Sveky]

holy shit those are amazing, what kind of price tag do those setups run?

I shudder to think what my Bro's spent on pc gear. I guess its a hobby and it is fucking awesome playing games maxed out 60fps plus no matter what.

Dirt2 3x 26inch lcds in infinity @ 5780 x 1200 res with 4x AA @ 40 plus fps with a decent wheel is an experience.

Pariah its D0 stepping i believe. He does run 5ghz + occasionally but only when benching.

[Sveky]

Well I just finished building a PC for a mate last night.

Core i5-760
GA-P55-UDR3 mobo
5870
8GB GEIL CL8 1600MHz
Twin Barracuda 7200.11 1TB matrix raided
Antec Truepower 750W (just in case he wants to go XF in a few months)
Lian Li K62 case

The Lian Li K62 is the best budget case ever. The *WHOLE* PC install is toolless. I shit you not.

Nice how is the motherboard attached to the case?

[Pariah]

Pariah its D0 stepping i believe. He does run 5ghz + occasionally but only when benching.

oh ok...if you know the batch number post it up..

Nice how is the motherboard attached to the case?

pre-installed stand offs with hand screws..

[Talez]

Well I just finished building a PC for a mate last night.

Core i5-760
GA-P55-UDR3 mobo
5870
8GB GEIL CL8 1600MHz
Twin Barracuda 7200.11 1TB matrix raided
Antec Truepower 750W (just in case he wants to go XF in a few months)
Lian Li K62 case

The Lian Li K62 is the best budget case ever. The *WHOLE* PC install is toolless. I shit you not.

Nice how is the motherboard attached to the case?

Thumb screws for the mobo mounts, PSU has a giant ass metal clip holding it in place, 5.25" drive bays have clips that you push and they release and then you slide the optical drive in and push the clip back in, 3.5" drive bays have a guard rail that gets shifted up and then the bays slide out and have clips that hold the 3.5" drive in place in the bay and the expansion card slots have giant aluminium pins that hold the cards in place insanely well.

[Pariah]

most of my stuff has come in...

ordered and waiting on 3x gentle typhoon fans for the rad [amazing fans] $24 a pop at pccasegear.com

going to draw up a diagram of the loop and airflow..

[Pariah]

Almost done with the water cooling setup boys...

just leak testing now..

[Sveky]

Very tidy man. I guessing its going tobe near silent now?

[Pariah]

yup..its near fucking silent man still testing

I had cut two new slots in the case for wiring...one near the power input and the other for the SATA HDD cables to the MB..

than I used U-Channel edge moulding for that neat and clean look

The only part i'm waiting on atm is the WHITE LAMPTRON FLEXLIGHT PRO...for a bit of lighting which wont be overboard or anything

[Pariah]

an update on the water cooling setup...been going good for a few days now..

295GTX overclocked heavily..and never goes above 48c with both cores maxed out 100%..without my fan profile the thing would reach 75-80c+ easy..

i'm dumping about 550-600watts [if not more?? ] of heat in the loop with both GPU + CPU maxed out in benchmarks and it handles it with no fucking problems what so ever..

heh..next project i'm thinking of adding a water chiller..would love to hear some thoughts from your brother on this Sveky

best thing about this all is how fucking silent it is...

[Sveky]

Looks awesome !

Actually my bro has been busy making a cooler for someone. Its a a pretty tidy unit and will give sub 0 temps np.







I dont know much about this shit but from what he's told me its basically a fridge

[Burnzoire]

Nice setup pariah. I reckon I'll go for a quiet rig next time I replace everything. Which won't be for a while

Anyways, I'm looking at getting a new monitor... looks like the dvi port on my current (crappy) 22" has died which is as good an excuse as any to upgrage. What do you blokes think of this? http://www.asus.com.au/product.aspx?P_I" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... N0KfKlMiPE ? Can get it for under 500 here http://www.scorptec.com.au/computer/37865-ve276q/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Pariah]

you can get it for around $469 at umart and http://www.pccasegear.com.au" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I personally dislike TN panels for displays...but from what i've read about this is one of the better bigger TN panels on the market, however if you want the best colours, blacks, and viewing angles you might want to look at picking up a IPS panel from dell or the like..

still $469 is not a bad price..just keep in mind it's cheaper than these IPS panels due to the tech..

if you can try to view the panel yourself in a store [don't have to buy from them] if it looks nice and seems fit for what you want to use it mark it down as a "maybe buy" because it's worth while not to decide right away since you'll end up using the display for a long time so it's best to view a few displays ranging from IPS panels to TN..and really go for the one which fits within your budget and offers you the viewing experience you want

------

Sveky that is freaking awesome man.. did your brother say what kind of temps the guy can expect??

[Burnzoire]

Yeah I've heard very good things about it even though it's a TN panel - I've seen pics from all sorts of angles and it's surprisingly good. No backlight bleed either. IPS generally have slower response time unless you spend big bucks and as usual I'm on a budget (unlike you lot with your custom fridges!! ). Thanks for the links, I'm tryin real hard to convince the missus

[Sonic Jam]

Ok I wanna upgrade to a high end i7 cpu + mobo + ram + SSD, what the hell do I buy!

So many options available, and I haven't bought anything pc related in a while so I have no idea. I'll be pairing it with my 4870x2 for now while I wait for the 6-series to release.

Will need to fit in my antec p182 case, no real budget but I tend to go for the best bang for buck of the high end parts.

[Pariah]

Intel Core i7-950 3.06Ghz $358 @ MSY (YAY for price drops.. )

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R $252 @ MSY

6GB Mushkin 998681 Blackline PC3-16000 $189 @ PCCasegear http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?mai" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... s_id=15478

Mushkin Callisto Deluxe 60GB SSD (Sandforce!) $169 @ PCCasegear http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?mai" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... s_id=14819

or

Mushkin Callisto Deluxe 120GB SSD $329 @ PCCasegear http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?mai" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... s_id=14820

i think i might order another SSD that Mushkin Callisto is looking like a fucking steal

Edit: 60GB Mushkin ordered..should go great along with the 80GB intel

[Raven]

Upgrading soon, please critique my list so far and answer the questions I have:

Intel Core i7 950 - $337
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Mboard OR Asus P6X58D-E - $245/$275
OCZ DDR3 PC3-16000 Reaper 3x2GB - $259
CoolerMaster CM690 II Advanced - $125
OCZ Vertex 2 3.5" 120GB E Series SSD - $289
Western Digital 2TB SATAII - $150
CoolerMaster V8 CPU Cooler - $69
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM - $109

Already own - GeForce GTX 285

Total - $1500-1600, depending on best prices.

Questions:
- Is it worth using SSD for Windows and standard SATA for games, or will gaming speeds be handicapped by the slower drive? Not sure of how it works.
- I won't be utilizing SLI/Crossfire in the foreseeable future as I've always been a single graphics card man - does that mean I can find cheaper mboard alternatives that don't support it?
- I've heard that people often fall into the trap of buying RAM that's too fast for their CPU to utilize in terms of Mhz... I haven't done that, have I? I've mainly read up on clock speed so far.

Cheers guys!

[Pariah]

Using the SSD for windows is fine...using the 2TB WD for games will just mean they load slower than they would if you installed them to a SSD..though that 2TB WD still performs very well for a traditional HDD (just make sure you buy the black and not the green crap)

i'd stick with those two motherboards because for the price they are great...and almost all socket 1366 MB that are in stock these days support SLI

that ram is fine..and if you overclock it should provide enough headroom. btw those MBs can easily set the ram ratio higher than needed so faster ram so it can be utilized regardless of if you have your i7 at stock speed via the bios

also go for the Prolimatech Mega Shadow heatsink over the coolermaster...

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?mai" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... s_id=12514

team it up with a Zalman ZM-F3 fan

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?mai" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... s_id=15465

and if you want to check the other fans you could team the heatsink up with

http://www.overclockers.com/65-fans-tested-megahalems/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

as you can see the Zalman is a great balance between cost // performance // noise

the mega shadow is an amazing air cooler.. it was the last air cooler i used before i went to water

it will outperform that v8 even though you need to spend a slight bit more due to it not coming with a fan [well well fucking worth it though]

[Burnzoire]

Building my first WHS box - what do you think?
Lian Li PC-Q08B Black HTPC Case $159.00
* 6 internal drive bays, aluminium build, quiet & cool.

Corsair VX-450 Power Supply $85.00
* Efficient, quiet & reliable. 6 SATA cables.

Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 Mini-ITX Motherboard $135.00
* Mini-ITX, but only 4 SATAII. Relatively cheap.

Intel Core i3 530 $125.00
* Cheap & powerful for transcoding.

OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 Gold 2x2GB OCZ3G1333LV4GK $95.00
* Dual channel DDR3 kit.

Western Digital Green 2TB WD20EARS x2 $270.00
* With existing 1TB drive, the storage pool starts with 5TB over 3 drives. Room to add one more drive for more spindle redundancy.

Samsung SH-S223C SATA DVDRW Drive $26.00
* Could do without but I may as well for easier installs.

I'm aiming for just enough power for running WHS 2 (Vail) & live transcoding (Air Video etc). Still, I want to minimize cost as much as possible. I'd love to get a Mini-TX mobo with 6x SATA but that's gonna ramp the price up a bit too much. I guess I can always add a SATA card to this if I needed to fill all 6 bays of the case.

Anyone done something similar?

[Pariah]

Looks solid for what you'll be using it for

[Raven]

Cheers, Pariah, awesome advice. I'll definitely look into the Mega Shadow coupled with the Zalman. Can't say I've heard of Prolimatech actually, not that that'd stop me.

[Pariah]

Prolimatech are very well known in overclocking community...they burst on the scene like 2009 and released their megahalems cooler which pretty much owned everything else on the market when it came to air cooling...

They make amazing air coolers