The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition [page 283/301]

AfterDawn Addict

15 product reviews

20. December 2013 @ 13:39

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Sam's more into Star Trek. The Star Wars nut here would be me ;)

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 4GHz(20 x 200) 1.5v 3000NB 2000HT, Corsair Hydro H110 w/ 4 x 140mm 1500RPM fans Push/Pull, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, 8GB(2 x 4GB) G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz CL9 1.55v, Gigabyte GTX760 OC 4GB(1170/1700), Corsair 750HX
Detailed PC Specs: http://my.afterdawn.com/estuansis/blog_entry.cfm/11388

AfterDawn Addict

7 product reviews

20. December 2013 @ 14:29

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I border on hatred, for star wars. But, people feed me all the info at arms length :p Star trek, I can watch that if I'm dead tired, and not pass out!

To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question!

AfterDawn Addict

15 product reviews

20. December 2013 @ 15:08

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I like Star Wars quite a bit, bordering on maniacal fanaticism at times :) Am very interested in the science behind it and the political back and forth. It has just as much, if not more, basis in reality in comparison to Star Trek. The problem with Star Wars is that it has been overly commercialized to the point of intense market saturation. Most REAL Star Wars fans regret that fact as it's led to some abominations. It's lead to some rather good things as well.

The best bits of the series including by far the most fully realized and interesting characters are in the books. I highly recommend ANYONE look into the Heir to the Empire trilogy and the Hand of Thrawn duology which together form a complete saga. Superb quality works of fiction, that flesh out the universe and its struggles and triumphs far better than ANY of the movies. Grand Admiral Thrawn is one of the single most complex, likeable, and respectable villains ever materialized on the pages of a book. You're inwardly rooting for him the whole time even though it's been made clear that morals are not an obstacle for him. He's not a good guy in any capacity, but he detests evil for the sake of evil as well. Genius on the same level of JK Rowling's implementation of Severus Snape(perhaps one of the greatest and best written characters in literary history), or the winding, round-about way in which JRR Tolkien had Gandalf influencing every single person in Middle Earth.

About 95% of Star Wars doesn't exist in a television series or feature-length film. It exists in books and games. By the way, a great many of those games are considered all-time, genre-defining classics that are on any top 100 game list. Rogue Squadron/X-Wing, KoTOR, and Jedi Knight II: Dark Forces ring a bell? Each of them completely transformed flight games, RPGs, and FPSs respectively into what we have today. Game mechanics that those titles pioneered are still in wide use today in their original form. Their influence is still direct and profound.

Star Wars is a great passion for me, much like computer graphics and firearms. I am a very hard core Star Wars fan.

BTW, Went back and played most of the way through the original Baldurs Gate series. A gargantuan project of over a year. Two exceedingly long and complex games plus a long expansion for each. Modded to the gills for maximum graphical quality and function of course :)

The sheer scale, length, and quality of these games really makes me wonder where BioWare wants to take themselves. The first Mass Effect was absolutely superb and one of the best moves they've made in years. Mass Effect 2 and 3, while both being exceptional in their own right, lack the same sheer depth, feeling of freedom, and complexity. BioWare reduced things they should have expanded on and improved... In contrast, Baldurs Gate is so uncompromisingly free, endlessly open/huge, and stunningly deep/complex that even the magnificent magnum opus Mass Effect 1 looks like a joke in comparison.

The new Mass Effect has been effectively announced by BioWare casually releasing some development notes and news. Obviously trying to gain some fervor. Their actual quality has never diminished, but their effort towards sheer content, length, and complexity is nowhere near what it used to be. I would love to see all the mechanical improvements from Mass Effect 3(basically ME1s satisfying equipment system with ME2s great shooting) plus their very good grasp of what makes a game look and feel good, end up in making a better game. The only true argument I have with BioWare is their craptastic amount of DLC that affects the story directly, and how they ended Mass Effect 3, and that's really a creative decision, not a matter of quality. Just give us a real BioWare RPG :)

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 20. December 2013 @ 17:25

AfterDawn Addict

4 product reviews

20. December 2013 @ 18:06

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Originally posted by ddp:
yes & appears sam didn't catch it.

How didn't I catch it? Did you not notice how I worded my response?

Afterdawn Addict // Silent PC enthusiast // PC Build advisor // LANGamer Alias:Ratmanscoop
PC Specs page -- http://my.afterdawn.com/sammorris/blog_entry.cfm/11247
updated 10-Dec-13

AfterDawn Addict

7 product reviews

20. December 2013 @ 18:11

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Originally posted by sammorris:

Originally posted by ddp:
yes & appears sam didn't catch it.
How didn't I catch it? Did you not notice how I worded my response?

Yoda grammar? Sentence structure?

To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question!

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 20. December 2013 @ 18:11

AfterDawn Addict

4 product reviews

20. December 2013 @ 18:42

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Yes, that :)
A back to front sentence, it was.

cincyrob

AfterDawn Addict

4 product reviews

30. December 2013 @ 10:01

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wow!!!!!!! things still look the same here...lol for the good. :) its been a long while for me. hows everyone doing? Merry belated Christmas and a happy new years to all.

Ripper

AfterDawn Addict

30. December 2013 @ 10:15

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Hello Rob! Hope you're taking care.

cincyrob

AfterDawn Addict

4 product reviews

30. December 2013 @ 16:13

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Originally posted by Ripper:
Hello Rob! Hope you're taking care.

yes i am. been very busy with work and my sons football and basketball. been doing some coaching as well. i do miss this stuff.. im way out of the loop so to to say with the new technology out.

hope your doing well also.

along with everyone else here that is a familiar face/name i see.

AfterDawn Addict

4 product reviews

30. December 2013 @ 16:50

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Long time no see Rob, welcome back :)

Afterdawn Addict // Silent PC enthusiast // PC Build advisor // LANGamer Alias:Ratmanscoop
PC Specs page -- http://my.afterdawn.com/sammorris/blog_entry.cfm/11247
updated 10-Dec-13

FredBun

Senior Member

31. December 2013 @ 06:50

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Happy New Year Guys

Senior Member

31. December 2013 @ 18:39

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And to you too Fred

ddp

Moderator

31. December 2013 @ 21:25

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same to you guys.

AfterDawn Addict

15 product reviews

4. January 2014 @ 23:08

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Got myself a little treat. Two new 140mm fans and two new 230mm fans, all slightly higher performance than the stock Cooler Master jobs. All four of them BitFenix Spectre Pros. I know not the highest quality fans, but the best options available for the price and with the LEDs I wanted, as they aren't terrible like most LED fans. Retiring my CCL kit to save on wiring, heat, and because they're getting dim. I do depend on the lighting in my PC for some small amount of ambient working light. Also, the fans were aging, and it was high time to get some slightly better ones and bolster my cooling.

Also finally bit the bullet and ordered my 990FXA-UD5 from Newegg for $160. Just hope it's a rev 3.0 board and not one of the problematic earlier revisions. I am quite interested to see what it changes in my overclocking situation. It's a full two chipset generations newer, as well as being a much higher-end and more fully-featured board from the get-go. Our late friend Russ was convinced that the chipset really makes the difference with these Thuban CPUs, and that they allow for better clocks at vastly lower voltages and temps, as well as providing some raw performance benefits over 790 and 890. He showed me several pages of results, comparing different chipsets and CPUs, and I have to agree. Hopefully the practical results will reflect that hypothesis and testing. A solid 4.4GHz with my NB at 2800MHz(the optimal NB setting, but requiring a high core speed) would be fantastic. Even an OC'd Vishera couldn't compete with it, and it would be well within the realm of the large majority of i7s.

I have been researching others' results with similar boards on several forums, and a large percentage are achieving my desired goal with even weaker cooling on the average. My current setup as it is rivals some of the best air coolers there are. Ducting and overpowered server fans being what closes the gap. The idea being that, if the newer chipset allows lower voltages for the same clocks, that instantly translates to less heat, and heat is the deciding factor in ANY AMD overclock. It's currently why 4GHz is my wall. If I simply had a more powerful cooler, I would be well capable of pushing higher. The catch is, why would I upgrade my already powerful cooler if I can achieve the same results through simply better hardware? The new fans are also a little extra step towards that goal. I know listed specs are always a bit dubious, but these fans should be just a slight boost regardless due to their more aggressive blades and a slightly higher RPM on the 140mms.

Also, if I feel so inclined, I can use x16/x16 SLI/Crossfire or use a Vishera CPU. A basically free 1100T is also floating around my small clutch of friends, so I might pull for that and try it out if my 1090T doesn't give the best results.

The option of getting some newer, lower latency RAM has also surfaced. Would there be much benefit going to 16GB considering I don't do any actual hardcore number crunching? I can get an 8GB kit at the same speed but with lower latencies for very good price, but would be willing to pay if 16GB would help me avoid future issues like I had with my video cards.

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 5. January 2014 @ 00:10

Senior Member

5. January 2014 @ 08:02

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I just put together a UD3 Rev.4 board with a Vishera 3.5GHz and 2x8GB 9 CAS G.Skill Aries and it OC'd easier then my UD7 Rev.2 board with 2x8GB G.Skill Sniper. I was able to push the 3.5GHz to 4.0GHz quickly where as my UD7 board started to be problematic at around 4.5GHz. This could be due to the chips being based on the same die masks since I didn't throw the 4.0GHz into the UD3 to see how well it OC'd but I was impressed with the UD3 and it made me think that if I didn't need the extra features of the UD7 why spend the extra money for it. I also liked the Mouse GUI BIOS but it has one major flaw, you can't use the mouse effectively as there is no acceleration which equates to the mouse moving extremely slow always lagging. It works just fine though with just using the arrow keys but it would be nice if they would fix the mouse issues.

Buying quality RAM is the key but if those factors are the same then low CAS is the way to go. I've had low CAS perform worst then better quality higher CAS RAM so I wouldn't say that low CAS is the only factor. If you don't need 16GB then get 2x4's, you can still add another set of 2x4's for 16GB later if you need and if that exact memory is still available when you upgrade, it is never a good idea to mix memory on today's MB's.

Heat is always the factor when OC'n on any system. That is why when people push any system they go to great extremes to keep them cool.

AfterDawn Addict

15 product reviews

5. January 2014 @ 17:45

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Quote:
I just put together a UD3 Rev.4 board with a Vishera 3.5GHz and 2x8GB 9 CAS G.Skill Aries and it OC'd easier then my UD7 Rev.2 board with 2x8GB G.Skill Sniper.

I believe the UD3 Rev. 4 is the newest board in the series. Quite a bit to like about it. I went with the UD5, hopefully getting a Rev 3, so I could have some extra VRM cooling. I intend to run 1.5v plus. My current board is an 890XA-UD3(all 890 components except a 790X chipset) and needed some modifications to handle the heat. The heatpipe cooler off of a 790X-UD4P with some Arctic Ceramique, plus a 50mm CPU fan. Runs quite cool after that little change :)

The general consensus seems to be that the 990FXA-UD5 has always been somewhat finicky with Bulldozer/Vishera CPUs. Nothing too bad as far as reliability, but a strange bug where the thermal throttling for the VRMs is set way too low when a Bulldozer or Vishera is installed. You basically have to install a fan over the VRM for some extra cooling if you want to run those CPUs, even though it doesn't get hot enough to warrant it. All versions of the board are known to be somewhat buggy at times. The Rev. 1.1 is generally accepted as the best for BD/PD, while the Rev. 3.0 is considered the best for Thuban. Nothing truly deal-breaking, just the usual Gigabyte quirks.

I am making some modifications to my case cooling as well which should help somewhat with heat. My Modded Hyper 212 Evo is an excellent CPU cooler and the better fans plus the exhaust ducting boosted its wattage dissipation by quite a bit. My CPU is at 1.525v on air and never goes above about 55-58*C on Prime95. That's rivaling much more powerful air coolers, if not outright beating them.

As far as the RAM goes, it's the same brand, speed, and voltage as my current kit, just lower latency. 8-8-8-24 vs 9-9-9-24. For overclocking AMD you generally don't want more than two sticks of RAM. So it would either have to be 2 x 4 or 2 x 8. I know 2 x 8 is much more expensive though, and I'm really not sure if I need it. Even if I switch to Windows 8.2, it'll just use even less RAM and resources than the already fairly lightweight Windows 7 I'm currently using.

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 5. January 2014 @ 17:49

Senior Member

5. January 2014 @ 19:37

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You are right my UD7 is a bit quarky and I've bought but not installed a hard drive fan cooling system which I'll use placed over the NB/VRM area of the board which should provide more stability when OC'n.

As to OC'n RAM, only some boards have problems when over clocking a full bank of RAM, MSI's high end boards are such. But even MSI boards can handle a full RAM bed if it is there preferred memory so it totally depends. And as long as you have memory that is all the same you should be able to use both banks.

I would have to see how Windows 8.2 pans out to actually switch to that platform. One huge problem even when you get by the Start Menu issues is compatibility which is horrible with Windows 8. So for the little bit of performance you might gain with less overhead, I don't know if it is a smart move, at least for me at this venture.

I must re-iterate that I really was impressed with the UD3 I built for my sister and actually she was too.

ddp

Moderator

5. January 2014 @ 22:15

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Mr-Movies, win8.2?

Senior Member

5. January 2014 @ 22:42

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They are bringing back the real Start Menu from Windows 7 in Windows 8.2 release, supposedly.

AfterDawn Addict

7 product reviews

5. January 2014 @ 23:56

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Being the go-to computer guy. It's a love-hate relationship LOL!

Sometimes, I'm so irritated by some of the requests I get. Most the time, it's just their timing. I'm busy with some kind of project, and don't wanna spread myself thin. But it certainly has its rewards ;) :D

My aunt just gave me an Optiplex gx620. Outdated, Yes! But the case is what I find most interesting. It allows me to build a Cheap HTPC, while not paying for the case. Assuming the buyer finds it aesthetically pleasing ;)

Definitely in need of some state of the art tech!

Oh, I see it has 4 different models. This is what it looks like.

Well, scratch that. The motherboard is quite specific to the case. Eh.... it wasn't that good looking anyhow :p

To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question!

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 6. January 2014 @ 14:53

AfterDawn Addict

4 product reviews

6. January 2014 @ 17:48

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Yep, a Dell is only good for being a Dell I'm afraid. They're not customisable, especially not the small form factor ones.

Afterdawn Addict // Silent PC enthusiast // PC Build advisor // LANGamer Alias:Ratmanscoop
PC Specs page -- http://my.afterdawn.com/sammorris/blog_entry.cfm/11247
updated 10-Dec-13

AfterDawn Addict

7 product reviews

6. January 2014 @ 18:04

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Originally posted by sammorris:
Yep, a Dell is only good for being a Dell I'm afraid. They're not customisable, especially not the small form factor ones.

Rub it in :p LOL!

I suppose I can sell it as is. It's good for web surfing anyhow.

To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question!

AfterDawn Addict

15 product reviews

6. January 2014 @ 21:38

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Nothing a little drilling and dremeling can't change right? Worst case scenario, you wrecked an old Dell and can gut it for parts.

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 6. January 2014 @ 21:39

Senior Member

6. January 2014 @ 22:21

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It might not be worth the effort really....