Random Technology Questions

[sivispacem]

My enormous, triple-slot GTX680 came today.

 

Unfortunately, it's about an inch too long for my case. Can anyone recommend a decent, full-size tower capable of fitting a 310mm GPU in it? Preferably under £100.

[xI Jakk Ix]

My enormous, triple-slot GTX680 came today.

 

Unfortunately, it's about an inch too long for my case. Can anyone recommend a decent, full-size tower capable of fitting a 310mm GPU in it? Preferably under £100.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/nzxt-phanto...-usb-30-w-o-psu

[Finn 7 five 11]

My enormous, triple-slot GTX680 came today.

 

Unfortunately, it's about an inch too long for my case. Can anyone recommend a decent, full-size tower capable of fitting a 310mm GPU in it? Preferably under £100.

Why not that antec case that the fellow here reviewed? The name escapes me, he made a topic about PC cases here though.

[sivispacem]

Picked up a Corsair Vengeance C70 at a big discount, in keeping with my "everything made by Asus or Corsair" theme. The Phantom was going to be my second choice.

Finn, was the Antec the 900?

[anus]

This isn't exactly a "tech" question, it's more of a warranty thing. My WD 1TB external drive has been giving me trouble lately. I'm often getting a "cyclic redundancy check" when downloading torrents straight onto it. So far the only programs reporting this issue are torrent clients, but I'll take that as an early sign of incoming trouble. Anyway, I've dug up the bill and warranty for the drive, but there's a bit of an issue. The store I bought the drive from offers one-year warranty while the manufacturers (WD themselves) offer a 2 year warranty for it. It's been a bit over a year since I've bought it, but nowhere near two. So, where does that leave me? I know it's not unheard of to contact the manufacturer and ask them for help (In fact, my friend contacted Logitech about a broken Performance MX mouse, and they sent him a brand new one even though he was a few months late for his warranty), but I'm wondering how I should get around to doing this.

 

Also, any general tips about the "cyclic redundancy check" error? I know what it means, but I'm having no trouble with it other than torrents. I was kinda wondering if it's even smart to download directly to it, since it's an external drive and all? I've tried several disk checks and they report fixing a few bad clusters, but I keep getting the error in a matter of minutes. Am I right to assume that this will keep getting worse and worse as time progresses?

Contacting the manufacturer directly is your only option now. This page has two addresses for RMAing in Russia (one is walk-in and the other address you can only ship to).

 

As for the error, get HDTune and run a test and post a screenshot.

[Narcis_speed6]

Picked up a Corsair Vengeance C70

Great choice, the design is amazing and has a little military theme in it.

[sivispacem]

Picked up a Corsair Vengeance C70

Great choice, the design is amazing and has a little military theme in it.

When I eventually upgrade my processor and mobo I'll probably go Sabertooth and water cooled (not aio, something custom) so it should suit the theme well.

[Evil.Tim]

This isn't exactly a "tech" question, it's more of a warranty thing. My WD 1TB external drive has been giving me trouble lately. I'm often getting a "cyclic redundancy check" when downloading torrents straight onto it. So far the only programs reporting this issue are torrent clients, but I'll take that as an early sign of incoming trouble. Anyway, I've dug up the bill and warranty for the drive, but there's a bit of an issue. The store I bought the drive from offers one-year warranty while the manufacturers (WD themselves) offer a 2 year warranty for it. It's been a bit over a year since I've bought it, but nowhere near two. So, where does that leave me? I know it's not unheard of to contact the manufacturer and ask them for help (In fact, my friend contacted Logitech about a broken Performance MX mouse, and they sent him a brand new one even though he was a few months late for his warranty), but I'm wondering how I should get around to doing this.

 

Also, any general tips about the "cyclic redundancy check" error? I know what it means, but I'm having no trouble with it other than torrents. I was kinda wondering if it's even smart to download directly to it, since it's an external drive and all? I've tried several disk checks and they report fixing a few bad clusters, but I keep getting the error in a matter of minutes. Am I right to assume that this will keep getting worse and worse as time progresses?

Contacting the manufacturer directly is your only option now. This page has two addresses for RMAing in Russia (one is walk-in and the other address you can only ship to).

 

As for the error, get HDTune and run a test and post a screenshot.

Okay, so. I've scanned the disk with HD tune, but there was some sort of error about 85% through (after I had left it on the entire day while I was out) and the scan had stopped. I thought it was some kind of "pause" so I pressed the start button again because I didn't know it's start the process all over again. But, before I did that, I saw that there were a few red squares indicating bad clusters or sectors, and the percentage of those was 0,6% (there were probably more in the remaining 15% of the disk yet to be scanned).

 

You've confused your flags a bit, this is a Serbian one, not Russian. But it doesn't matter, I've entered my serial number and location into the warranty checker on WD's website and they say it's still under warranty. I just have to mail it to them and they'll either fix it or mail a new one back. Now I'm just wondering if they'll accept the small percentage of bad clusters as a disk malfunction and if they'll consider it falls under the warranty policy.

 

I'm letting HD tune scan it again overnight to see what's going on in the unscanned area. I'll post a screenshot tomorrow hopefully.

[Sneakerhead.]

Me and my dad are going to build a gaming PC, and we need some good specs that are between $500-1,000 and can play games like GTA IV on highest settings with no lag and 30FPS+.

 

Oh yeah, so does anyone have some good specs that I can use that are $1,000 or lower?

 

[yoječ]

If you will be overclocking your CPU:

 

$214,99 Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819116504

 

$379,99 SAPPHIRE 100351SR Radeon HD 7970 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card OC with Boost

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814202008

 

$134,99 ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813157293

 

$69,99 Western Digital WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822236339

 

$38,99 G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231416

 

$89,99 SeaSonic G Series SSR-550RM 550W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817151119

 

$16,99 LG 24X DVD Burner - Bare Drive 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model GH24NS95 - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827136259

 

$79,99 COOLER MASTER RC-692A-KKN5 Black Steel body / Plastic + Mesh bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811119259

 

$47,99 ZALMAN CNPS10X Performa 120mm Long life CPU Cooler

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835118059

 

= $1 073,91

 

If you won't:

 

$239,99 Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 69W Quad-Core Server Processor BX80637E31230V2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819117286

 

$379,99 SAPPHIRE 100351SR Radeon HD 7970 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card OC with Boost

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814202008

 

$89,99 MSI B75A-G43 LGA 1155 Intel B75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813130651

 

$69,99 Western Digital WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822236339

 

$38,99 G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231416

 

$89,99 SeaSonic G Series SSR-550RM 550W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817151119

 

$16,99 LG 24X DVD Burner - Bare Drive 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model GH24NS95 - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827136259

 

$79,99 COOLER MASTER RC-692A-KKN5 Black Steel body / Plastic + Mesh bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811119259

 

= $1 005,92

 

The first rig has different CPU, motherboard and better CPU cooler. i5-3570k is highly overclockable, but on the other hand Xeon E3-1230V2 is basically an i7 with much lower price tag.

 

Alternatively, you can go for GTX670 instead of HD7970, but I find the latter to be a bit better. You can also go for HD7950/GTX660Ti and throw in an SSD, like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820147192

Edited December 15, 2012 by yojo2

[Sneakerhead.]

Ok, now I nderstand everything you said except for 'Overclocking', can you explain to me what that means?

 

Are those specs good enough to play games like Battlefield 3 and Crysis 3?

Edited December 15, 2012 by GTAction99

[yoječ]

Overclocking means (to put it shortly) increasing the CPU clocks to increase performance (heat output and power draw will increase as well). This also includes raising the voltages if necessary. It's a bit time consuming to get every parameter right, but it's not terribly hard.

 

BF3 should run on maximum settings Crysis 3 probably too, but it's hard to tell before its release.

[Sneakerhead.]

Overclocking means (to put it shortly) increasing the CPU clocks to increase performance (heat output and power draw will increase as well). This also includes raising the voltages if necessary. It's a bit time consuming to get every parameter right, but it's not terribly hard.

So if I overclock, I can get better game performance? (Higher FPS for example?)

[yoječ]

Yup. Though, you probably won't need the extra performance right away - but in the future it might come in handy.

[Sneakerhead.]

Yup. Though, you probably won't need the extra power right away - but in the future it might come in handy.

Ok, well I know which build that I am going with then.

Thanks for the help, in about 2-3 months, I will become a PC gamer.

[yoječ]

No problem. Just make sure to ask again about a week before purchase - in 2-3 months these rigs will probably become outdated (i.e. there might be better parts to be bought for similar price).

Edited December 15, 2012 by yojo2

[Sneakerhead.]

 

No problem. Just make sure to ask again about a week before purchase - in 2-3 month these rigs will probably become outdated (i.e. there might be better parts to be bought for similar price).

 

Edited December 16, 2012 by GTAction99

[Sneakerhead.]

Most Likely PC

 

Is this a good gaming PC? Can it play IV and V on the highest settings with no lag?

[yoječ]

Can you make a screenshot? This site doesn't seem to work for me.

[Sneakerhead.]

Can you make a screenshot? This site doesn't seem to work for me.

Is it ok if I post the specs?

Memory Type DDR3

Memory Speed PC3-10600

Memory Speed MHz 1333MHz

Total Memory Size = 8GB

Memory Slots (Total) = 2

Memory Slots (Available) 0

Memory Configuration = 2 x 4GB

Maximum Memory Supported 16GB

 

Processor Brand Intel

Processor Class Core i3

Processor Number i3-3220

Processor Speed 3.3GHz

Processor Interface FCLGA1155

 

Hard Drives Included 1

Interface SATA III

Capacity 1TB

Hard Drive Types Hard Disk Drive

Speed 7,200RPM

 

Graphics Description Dedicated Graphics

GPU/VPU ATI Radeon HD 7750

Video Memory 1GB

 

Is this good enough for 2010-2012/3 games?

[sivispacem]

In a word, no.

[yoječ]

Not really a good build, unless you aim for medium settings.

[Sneakerhead.]

Well what would need to be upgraded/changed?

Also, I would be able to (probably) play GTA V, but on Low-Medium?

[Shiva.]

Probably, the processor and the graphic card.

 

 

[Sneakerhead.]

Probably, the processor and the graphic card.

Ah ok, well I am still not sure, as my dad is still looking for some good rigs.

But if we do go with this one, than I suppose that it won't be too hard to replace.

Also, when PC gamers eplace parts, do they just throw away the old ones?

[yoječ]

They sell them. Though, if you buy a rig and want to immediately upgrade it... then it's a bit of a nonsense.

[Sneakerhead.]

They sell them. Though, if you buy a rig and want to immediately upgrade it... then it's a bit of a nonsense.

Oh no, I wasn't going to replace the parts as soon as I buy the rig, I was going to play games like IV on it for about a month or two, then upgrade it.

[Andreas]

 

Most Likely PC

 

Is this a good gaming PC? Can it play IV and V on the highest settings with no lag?

The CPU is not strong enough to max all games out. GTA IV is very performance-hungry if it comes to the CPU and a Quad Core is a must if you want to put the vehicle density on full settings with a high detail distance. The weakest part of that rig is the graphic card. The HD7750 is too weak for high settings. You need at least a HD7850/HD7870/GTX660/GTX660Ti to be able to play newest games on high settings in Full HD, and perhaps a HD7950/GTX670 and higher to max all games out (at Full HD) without any performance issues. Okay, it's hard to say this in general but it runs fairly like this.

 

 

Oh no, I wasn't going to replace the parts as soon as I buy the rig, I was going to play games like IV on it for about a month or two, then upgrade it.

That is still very soon. It's better to buy the hardware that fits to you and then upgrade certain parts, of course only if it's necessarily, every couple of years or so. It's a waste of money to buy a new PC and then upgrade it a few months later. There are people who play games on high settings with a PC from 2008 where only the GPU was upgraded recently.

[Sneakerhead.]

So all I need is a better CPU and Graphics card?

If I buy the rig as it is, will it be able to play IV with 50-60 FPS+?

[yoječ]

Definitely not on maximum settings.