Desktop Computers

My 3570K does 4.2 on stock volts (with Load Line Calibration set to Auto) with a CM 212+ cooler. I could push for 4.4-5 GHz with a little more volts, but the CPU fan is audible at that point.

mkopec_sl said:

Ill do some more testing tonight but thats (4.2) what I have it set at. Reading a bit about it on the nets basically tells me that you do in fact need to fuck with the vcore to get it to OC to the range of 4.4 and over with huge temp increase so Im not sure if its even worth it.

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Yeah, not worth it for me. I'd have to delid/resize/lap the heat spreader on the CPU to get the volts and temps down at 4.5 GHz. Not such a bargain for an extra 300 MHz.

Is the AMD 7950 the best card for $300-ish? Seems like it smokes every other card in the price range. Looking at something like this maybe for my Shimian monitor:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125414

No real interest in the games right now, so spose I could just ebay them for another $80 or something. Thought I read something recently about some new cards coming out that may drive prices down a bit but not sure if it's worth waiting for.

the 7950 and the Geforce 660Ti are the 2 comparable products(based on price) and they offer fairly similar performance. The 7950 is better in some games/engines, the 660Ti in others. The main difference basically comes down to the 660Ti having a higher base clock speed, and the 7950 having a bigger memory bandwith.

Check out these benchmark comparisons, and go with whichever card performs better in more of the games that you play

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/550?vs=647

For instance, the 660Ti performs better in the Batman Arkham games, Portal 2 and Battlefield 3, while the 7950 performs better in Crysis and Metro 2033. Maybe do a bit of research on upcoming games you want to play, and what graphics engine they use. For instance, Mass Effect 4 is said to be using the Battlefield 3 engine and I can only assume if/when there is a Half Life 3 it'll be most closely related to the engine used for Portal 2(if any) while the Crysis/Crytek 3 engine that the 7950 is great at will obviously be Crysis 3 and games like Mechwarrior Online.

Al that being said, they're really damn near interchangeable and I'd just go with whichever one you can find the best deal on, or which comes with the most games you would actually want. Use the above criteria to break any ties in the case that they have the same price/bundles.

Personally, I went with a 3gb 660Ti, because at the time they were giving away a free game that I wanted...I can't even remember what it was now, maybe Far Cry 3?

This is my result with a 6950 modded to 6970 @ 840/1325. Did you change the quality to extra or something ? I just ran it with the default settings.

This doesn't help you at all, since I can't run the same resolution, but here is where a 3MB 660Ti comes in on Ultra with 8x AA


Thats at 1920x1200, running it 2x1 on both monitors at a resolution of 3840x1200 cuts the FPS damn near right in half, to like 18.1 FPS.
Thats with my 3570K CPU overclocked to 4.6ghz and my video card cranked pretty good as well, a +70Mhz offset core clock and +704MHZ offset memory clock, taking them to 1337MHz and 3708Mhz respectively

If I had to completely speculate, since 3840x1200 is rougly 30% higher resolution than 2560x1440, and seems like my 660Ti scales pretty linearly going over 1920x1200(doubling the resolution cut the performance almost in half), I'd have to guess my machine with it's 660Ti would clock in right around 22-23 FPS at 2550x1440

That's a pretty impressive benchmark Intrinsic, are you really just running one 670? Those numbers are something I would expect more from dual cards.

You guys think you have bad ass machines? Well, FUCK YOU! Ain't nothing gonna touch my new mega machine! Whip your dick out, cuz here it is:

wtf, optical drive doesn't match.

I call hoax.

Silence_sl said:

wtf, optical drive doesn't match.

I call hoax.

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That's a l33t upgrade, bro. Went from 1x to 2x to get my burnin' on!

I know it's a long shot but has anyone just upgraded video cards and want to sell or trade + cass? Looking for a Nvidia card better than a HD6850.

I have Heatware, let me know.

So I was in the market for a new monitor and wanted one that could do 2560x1440/1600. Started looking around and found that there are a few Korean companies that sell very affordable monitors that run at those resolutions for a fraction of the price you'd pay for the big boy names (Dell, Apple, HP, etc.).Crossover 27Qis what I ended up going with. Holy dickshit, this thing is amazing if you don't mind it being basically featureless except for amazing picture quality. From everything I've read it uses the same LG IPS panel that Apple uses in its Thunderbolt monitor. Also, free shipping and it shipped *from* Korea and showed up at my doorstep earlier today (Wednesday) after ordering it Sunday. No speakers, no HDMI, no USB. Just a dual-link DVI input, but if you're only using it for a desktop PC that's really all you need. $450 normally and I had a $200 gift card credit from Christmas, so in the end I paid $250 for a monitor that's essentially the same display as Apple's for less than half the [base] cost. I'd call that a win, so for those of you in the market for a nice desktop monitor but don't want to break the bank, give the 27Q a try.

No it's not, specially if you're US based and have access to SquareTrade Warranty and whatever the one from Amazon is called. Yeah, it can have dead pixels / arrive defective , but you can RMA it just like any other device.

I got mine 7-8 months ago directly from ebay for 315$ shipped to Romania. Friends and relatives bought another 8-10 monitors from different users / models and none had any problems. Yeah, if you look on the forums you'll see some complaints, but when you see ebay users with over 1000 monitors sold in a 30 days auction, ofcourse some of them will have issues.

TLDR : korean monitors are awesome, go buy one.

hey guys, i'm pretty much a computer building noob and need a little help deciding what to do with my setup.

the situation:

i have a 5 year old p.o.s. hp media all in one - don't ask, it was a gift - that i have been slowly upgrading a bit here and there and now it's all over the place, no case, wires everywhere, a real mess. my kid is about to start walking and i need to baby-proof the room so what better time to finish this project.

a couple years ago i upgraded it to a evga gtx 570 and got a new psu - 550w - and an aftermarket cooler.

i use it mostly for gaming and a little video editing. it is connected to a 24 inch monitor for gaming and a 60 inch plasma for watching movies.

i'd like to keep it all under a grand total and basically I?m wondering how to get the best bang for my buck and whether i can build a new system around my current card.

the quandary:

i was thinking about getting another 570 and going sli but they are actually proving hard to find and even pricier than what I bought it for so I?m wondering if that?s worth it or if I could/should go sli with a different card or just stick with my card or get a new single card.

i would like to use my existing drives if possible just because I?m not sure how to transfer my os and everything else over but I don?t have to and would like to add an ssd.

i guess i would need a new psu but not sure how big.

also need a new cpu (looking at i7), motherboard, case and memory.

i've been looking at diy packages in the usual places but i'm pretty confused at this point.

the plea:

can anyone tell me if i'm on the right track with my thinking and/or recommend some components?

thanks very much in advance.

You can use your existing drives, but you're pretty much going to have to reinstall Windows. Windows will NOT like being swapped into a new PC with a new motherboard. That's just WAY too much hardware to change to not cause Windows massive problems(if it even boots at all)

As far as the video card, a 570 is still decent, I'd honestly keep it a little longer in the new PC that you build and then either upgrade to a 670/680 once their prices drop significantly with an announcement/release of the next gen of Nvidia cards. If you want to stick to your $1000 budget, get a quality CPU, motherboard, RAM, SSD(for boot drive) case, and PSU(550 is probably cutting it a little close, especially if you eventually upgrade the GPU), then plan on plunking down another $250-$300 for a nice video card upgrade in 6 months to a year.

I say spend most of your budget on the CPU/MOBO/PSU/Case now, as those are things that aren't easily upgraded down the line. Get as much bang for your buck, and you'll probably end up upgrading video cards multiple times over the life of the computer.