Random Technology Questions

[sivispacem]

MSI apparent have been having some real quality control issues at the moment. Heard lots of recent reports about DOA stuff and intermittent failures. Asus Maximus VII Hero is c.£140 but exactly suits your theme.

 

The Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 3 is on Scan at the moment for £104 with a free case as a bundle.

[GreatGig]

I saw the Asus a while ago and loved it so I might just save that little bit extra and see if I can catch it on sale.

 

The Gigabyte is quite tempting too, but I don't have the money right now so I might miss out on the offer. Thanks for the heads up though.

 

So now that I've narrowed down my mobo choices, I now have to find a good CPU. The other list I made for the AMD build had the FX6300 Black Edition. It's cheap and seems as though it would do the job. Is there an Intel CPU that's close to this one or can I get more bang for my buck?

[cactus.]

Has anybody used Chromecast? Giving it serious consideration to purchase this week.

 

I've heard there's issues with lag when simply viewing a live stream from a random web page (as opposed to using an official Netflix/Hulu app, etc.)

[sivispacem]

If you want a bang-for-buck system I'd go FX8320. Circa £200 for a processor/motherboard combo which will be at worst a couple of FPS behind most i5 builds at 66% of the price. My overclocked one has similar overall benchmark performance to the average i7-3770k and significantly higher than the average 4670k if Passmark is to be believed.

[GreatGig]

My overclocked one has similar overall benchmark performance to the average i7-3770k and significantly higher than the average 4670k if Passmark is to be believed.

 

Wow, I had no idea overclocking could have such a big impact. I wasn't looking to oc my PC but I might look into it. The FX8320 sounds excellent. I'll definitely be sticking with AMD simply because, as you pointed out, I'll save just over 30%. Although, I cant find any red mobo's aside from the Asrock 990FX and that's more than twice as much as the Asus M5A97 I was going to get originally, so I might end up going with a blue theme instead.

 

Anyway, thanks for the help and advice, much appreciated. I'll share my build when it's eventually done.

[Flachbau]

I was going to recommend the Asus MAXIMUS VII Ranger, but it's out of your budget. It also follows the black/red color scheme.

[sivispacem]

 

My overclocked one has similar overall benchmark performance to the average i7-3770k and significantly higher than the average 4670k if Passmark is to be believed.

Wow, I had no idea overclocking could have such a big impact. I wasn't looking to oc my PC but I might look into it. The FX8320 sounds excellent. I'll definitely be sticking with AMD simply because, as you pointed out, I'll save just over 30%. Although, I cant find any red mobo's aside from the Asrock 990FX and that's more than twice as much as the Asus M5A97 I was going to get originally, so I might end up going with a blue theme instead.

 

Anyway, thanks for the help and advice, much appreciated. I'll share my build when it's eventually done.

 

My system theme was black and red before I went FX, as I was running an Asus Crosshair IV. You could get a Crosshair V, but they're very expensive for a board that's actually less feature-rich and arguably worse for overclocking than the Sabertooth, which is what I run.

 

For a midpriced motherboard that won't look silly with a black and red theme, try the Gigabyte 990FX-UD3.

[Flachbau]

I just realized I made a complete fool of myself. My apologies, I thought you were looking for an Intel board. That's what I get for not reading everything correctly.

Edited August 20, 2014 by Android

[sivispacem]

He was originally, I only suggested AMD because of the serious bang-for-buck advantage.

[Vanto]

I had a microSD card for a while, and it worked perfectly for the first month or two, and since then, whenever I introduce in a computer (already tried with two), via USB or SD card port, it doesn't recognize. I also tried with another device in a console, but didn't recognize it. I've looked up different solutions, but neither worked. What do I do to make it recognizable?

[GreatGig]

Apologies for the confusion. I'll definitely be sticking with AMD, the prices are far better.

 

That Gigabyte board looks great and has all of what I need. Also, one of the bundles offers some stuff I could really use (thermal paste, anti-static band, cable management kit) so that's an excellent find, man. Thanks for that.

 

Using pcpartpicker.com I've found that I've got a better build for only £20 more. Bloody brilliant.

 

Do any of you folks use a hybrid drive at all? I want SSD speeds but with a much lower price so I found a 1Tb Seagate drive for £54. Reviews are good and people seem pleased with it. I've even thought about using the Seagate drive as my main one and then buying a smaller SSD for the OS and a few games. What would you guys recommend?

[sivispacem]

Personally I'd buy a 120gb midrange SSD as a boot disk and 1tb standard 7200rpm HDD for a total cost of about £90. A Kingston SSDNOW is £45 on Amazon and you could probably pick up a Caviar Blue for under £40. If you could make do with a smaller boot drive (60gb) you could get both for under £70.

 

But to be honest a hybrid drive would probably be the best of both worlds.

[GreatGig]

I think I'll stick with the hybrid for now then, they're a great balance between cost and performance so I'm happy.

 

Once again, thanks for the advice. Much appreciated. Now, I'm off to try and put Windows 7 on an old Mac and then try to resurrect and old PC of mine. Wish me luck.

[yoječ]

Just as a side note, I'd avoid Kingston SSDs. They lost all the reputation in my eyes since they've ruined V300 series without even announcing it. Now they're hands down the worst SSDs the money can buy.

[sivispacem]

The SSDNow is older stock AFAIK but if you want a budget one you could do a lot worse than a Crucial M100

[Stinky12]

Anyone here visit forums.overclockers.co.uk?

I'm having a hard time joining that site.

 

Create my first account and activated it, got a e-mail saying it need a while for them to add me to the forums, so I looked it up as to how long it would take. Some say at least 24 hours and "allow admins to e-mail you" must be enabled. I had it disabled when I registered, so I decied to create a new one with a different e-mail address.

Now I created my 2nd accout with a different e-mail address, everything was fine, except for the password section, there was some glitch where the password I created was not acceptable. I created a few other ones, but none of them worked when I submit my registration. Then when I tried again, it says I was already registered and my e-mail was already is use. I went to check my e-mail and they send me a link to activated it and so I did.

I created my 3rd account with another different e-mail address and this time everything went smoothly and also activated my account and waited until they added me to the forums.

A few days later, out of all the accounts I submitted, they decided to add me to the forums with my 2nd account, the account that had a broken password glitch. So now I cannot login in because all the password I've tried does not work. I clicked on their forgot password link and all I get is a blank page.

I looked up their maintenance page for help and they say to contact one of their "Commissarios". I tried to contact one of them and the problem is I'm not allow to view their profile, therefore I can't send them a e-mail for help.

I found a link on their site that says "Contact US", but it sends to a webmaster, I doubt I'll get any response from that.

[El Oso Blanco]

So I'm doing my first PC build. Few questions...

-if my gpu+cpu combo is able to run modern games at high/max with decent FPS?

I currently picked out an Intel i5 4690k quad core 3.5 ghz (not sure about overclocking yet)

with my gpu being a Gigabyte Radeon R9 280x (which seems budget to me compared to expensive higher end cards)

 

-secondly, I'm wondering what size/brand of case I should get to house these parts with an ATX motherboard (ASRock brand incase it matters)

 

-Lastly, a reliable brand of HDD? (Will upgrade to SSD in future.) Looking anywhere from 500 GB to 1 TB.

 

I haven't pulled the trigger with any of current selected parts. Just looking for some feedback as I like to hear reviews from others, especially since it's my first build.

[WesternMotorcycleCo.]

Can someone tell me if these PCs are any good? I'll be using it for FSX, GTA V/IV/SA/VC

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/VIBOX-Submission-Computer-Graphics-Operating/dp/B007PBH4BU/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1409948236&sr=1-2

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/OCHW-4-0GHZ-NVIDIA-GT-COMPUTER/dp/B008AB03QM/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=1-3

 

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gaming-Bulldozer-OVERCLOCKED-Graphics-Operating/dp/B00B4TV03M/ref=reg_hu-rd_add_1_dp

[yoječ]

@El Oso Blanco: the combo you chose is good. As for the HDD - ST1000DM003 or WD10EZEX

 

@TPenterprise: first two are definitely not worth it, the last one is nothing stellar either. To be honest, it'll be hard to find a decent prebuilt PC.

[WesternMotorcycleCo.]

Can someone give me advice on this PC?

 

SECOND HAND

 

Dell Optiplex 3020 Gaming PC.

Latest Gen i3-4130 3.4Ghz
6GB DDR3 Ram
2GB MSI GTX750Ti Twin Frozr OC
32GB aData SSD
500GB Hard Drive
Keyboard/Mouse
Win 7 64-bit

 

Owner says he can swap out the i3 for an i7 4790 for extra cash (not yet sure how much) would this make a significant difference?

 

Owner claims it can run new games at 1080p on high settings, and judging from youtube videos of similar machines I don't doubt him. Would this be able to run GTA V to a decent standard? He will take a swap for my PS4 which I don't even use so it's a fair trade imo.

Edited September 5, 2014 by TPenterprise

[yoječ]

Swapping i3 to i7 is definitely not worth it as far as gaming's concerned. If anything, i5-4460/4590 would be ideal.

Edited September 6, 2014 by yojo2

[RoadRunner71]

My PC fell down to the floor (hit the bottom part) and now doesn’t start up. Could the hard drive be damaged?

[yoječ]

Presumably yes, although you must specify what exactly happens when you try to boot it up.

Also check inside for any unplugged components/cables, etc.

[RoadRunner71]

Nothing in principle. I tried to boot as soon as it happened and it didn’t start up or make any kind sound.

 

Oh man... I can’t loose the hd and all its data again...

[yoječ]

Well, is there even any reaction when pushing the power button? If not, then I'd start with most obvious - checking if the button is still connected.

Edited September 6, 2014 by yojo2

[RoadRunner71]

I think it is, I can see it too well as theres some kind of grille that covers it though. There are some cables that are not connected but I don't know if they were already like this before this happened (you can see I dont have the less idea about this kind of stuff...).

 

EDIT: see the black and yellow cables that lie in the bottom of the case? Those are disconnected

 

Edited September 6, 2014 by RoadRunner71

[Flachbau]

If I'm not mistaken, those are either for LED lights for the button, or they're the power up cables. Both are connected to the front button.

 

I could be wrong.

[RoadRunner71]

I don’t see anywhere where it can be plugged in. I guess I can only wait till I take it to be repaired and hope I haven’t lost my data

[Flachbau]

Check if any other cables are loose, take a picture of them closely. Maybe we could help you out further.

[Ai®a©ob®a]

Anybody here have the Hauppauge Capture?

 

I can't get picture on my TV or PC...

 

I am using the HDMI in and HDMI out

Edited September 7, 2014 by AiraCobra