Quote :

"which are both epeen games that are kinda mediocre"

haha not at all. The latest (3rd) stalker game is great. I enjoyed crysis a bunch. I can keep naming games if you want. GTA4, Bad Company 2, World in Conflict will all dip below 30-40 with everything cranked up (AA and AF). I'm just saying if money is no issue and people really WANT to max out any game out there at 2560 by 1600 then a 5970 or a couple 5870's are not completely overkill. Not to mention if they wanted 3 or 4 monitors they would need the extra card.

I mean Crysis alone hits only 30 fps with dual 5870's WITHOUT AA or AF. Maxed out I'm sure it would play around 10-15 FPS.

[Edited on March 22, 2010 at 4:07 PM. Reason : s]

3/22/2010 4:05:28 PM

almost no one would be able to tell a medium settings game from a high settings game of bfbc2 during actual game play at least...

3/23/2010 3:25:41 PM

I just beat BC2 and I can tell a difference. I'm running at 1920 by 1200 and I originally had everything at high but had to turn it down to medium. I guess it all depends how close you're sitting to your screen. Plus you can really tell the difference between high and low AA and AF. Lines and focus are easy to see.

3/23/2010 3:31:12 PM

shrug, i play at 1680x1050 all set on medium for better frame rate

3/23/2010 3:50:55 PM

Is anyone running a 5870 card and having problems? At first mine was crashing 5 secs into any game. I just installed the 10.3 beta drivers and it ran for about 20 mins before crashing. Its better but now what I expect when I pay that much for a graphics card. I have even backed down the clock speed which helped some but I still get crashes when playing a game. I will try the official 10.3 drivers that come out tomorrow. If that doesn't fix it then I will return it to newegg.

3/23/2010 9:28:15 PM

Is is over heating? Temps look alright?

3/23/2010 10:09:13 PM

They never get a chance to get about 60C. Fan never gets about 26%. I have a log file from gpu-z if anyone is interested in seeing it.

3/23/2010 10:31:01 PM

did you plug in all the power it needs? (and supplying that power?)

3/24/2010 12:24:26 PM

Quote :

"The latest (3rd) stalker game is great."

That was my first impression, now I see just how little it has to offer. 3 maps and 2 of them are nearly identical. No unique weapons/armor to give a reason to track down a stash. Largely empty world with no real factions.

The first holds up as the best, the second would have been great if not for all the bugs, and the third is just... stable. That's all it really has over its predecessors... and man was that city of Pripyat a letdown when compared to the first two.

/threadjack

3/24/2010 6:52:02 PM

Quote :

"did you plug in all the power it needs? (and supplying that power?)"

Yep,

using a corsair hx750. I have 2 PCI-express 6 pin connectors plugged into it. PSU came with 4 of these cables, I have tried all 4 and get the same results.

I installed the ATI 10.3 drivers this afternoon and still get the crashes. I have a ticket open with XFX support. If they can't fix this fairly quickly I will RMA the card with newegg and get something different.

3/24/2010 8:15:57 PM

what OS you running? 32 or 64bit? cause if it's not the card itself i'm wondering if the drivers are just shit for it right now.

3/25/2010 8:17:23 AM

Quote :

"almost no one would be able to tell a medium settings game from a high settings game of bfbc2 during actual game play at least..."

Just got my ATI 5970 yesterday, BFBC2 on max setting does look quite awesome.

3/25/2010 9:10:19 AM

I play BC2 on a single 4890 at 1680x1050 on all settings jacked but HBAO and can *easily* tell the difference from medium quality.

3/25/2010 12:17:08 PM

Yeah BFBC2 reminds me of Crysis with the destructible environment. Not as good looking though. no 3d ground textures, and the foliage doesn't move when you walk through it, but still looks pretty cool.

3/25/2010 1:52:42 PM

Anybody have thoughts on the OCZ Vertex SSDs? Newegg has their 30gb drive for $80, and I'm thinking of getting one for the operating system (upgrading to Windows 7).

3/25/2010 6:56:26 PM

^ I dont have the particular SSD but yes.... it's awesome for your OS drive, very fast boot time. 30gb kind of sucks.... but for $80 it's not a bad deal.

Most SSDs are rather comparable to each other... the Intel X25 are really good but you'll prob pay a premium. The biggest leap you'll see in terms of performance from lower end SSD to high end are the new ones that are using SATA 6.0 Gbs standard.

[Edited on March 25, 2010 at 8:34 PM. Reason : .]

3/25/2010 8:33:31 PM

X25-M were the best of the 1st gen SSD's but so many newer SSD's have much better write times, X25's average 70-100MB/s (unless you look at the X25-E) whereas newer SSD's are at 150-200MB/s, as for SATAIII (6Gbps) drives, there are only a couple that are on the market and are cost prohibitive, although we'll likely see the price drop when SATAIII becomes mainstream on motherboards, SSD's certainly have the capability now to max out the SATAII interface

[Edited on March 25, 2010 at 8:52 PM. Reason : ,]

3/25/2010 8:49:48 PM

30GB is clearly too small, so would you just install the OS on that and use a mechanical drive for real storage?

3/25/2010 8:57:25 PM

Oh yeah, I have two 500gb WD drives that I would put in RAID for everything besides the OS. If I got an SSD, it would save me the trouble of doing some convoluted setup where I stripe one partition in the RAID for the OS and mirror the remainder for the data.

3/25/2010 9:09:11 PM

what kind of performance increase would one expect to see using a SSD for swap and OS?

3/25/2010 9:15:21 PM

Um... right now with Kingston 128 SSD... 15-20 boot time (until everything is loaded)

Just as point of reference... in Mass Effect 2, when I change decks on Normandy, the load time is <1 sec.

3/25/2010 11:27:41 PM

^ I don't think changing decks in ME2 is a good measure. I have a regular HD (WD Black) and the load times for changing decks seems to be around 1 second or less.

3/26/2010 1:02:34 PM

Quote :

"Is anyone running a 5870 card and having problems? At first mine was crashing 5 secs into any game. I just installed the 10.3 beta drivers and it ran for about 20 mins before crashing. Its better but now what I expect when I pay that much for a graphics card. I have even backed down the clock speed which helped some but I still get crashes when playing a game. I will try the official 10.3 drivers that come out tomorrow. If that doesn't fix it then I will return it to newegg."

Return it and get another one, because mine has had ZERO problems and is a DREAM.

3/26/2010 3:16:50 PM

Quote :

"Anybody have thoughts on the OCZ Vertex SSDs? Newegg has their 30gb drive for $80, and I'm thinking of getting one for the operating system (upgrading to Windows 7)."

I have 2 of those in R0 and can say that they work well. I haven't used any other SSD's but its very noticeable when I get on my work machine that has a 10k hdd.

3/26/2010 3:30:27 PM

I'm trying to build a cheap Home Server with 6x SATA drives and a gigabit nic. I have the HDD's already and don't need a DVD drive. The cheapest combo I could build on newegg costs $225 before MIR.

Do you guys have any alternatives or suggestions?

Here is the config I came up with:

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=12625525

3/26/2010 3:47:10 PM

Quote :

"Return it and get another one, because mine has had ZERO problems and is a DREAM."

What card did you get?

I have the XFX XXX version that was overclocked from them. I was actaully able to get my card running stable by backing the clock speed back down to stocks speeds. Played BF BC2 last night for 2 hours with no problems.

3/26/2010 5:36:38 PM

get this memory, ddr800 for same price:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211066

and buy a cheaper case with one of these to have 6 spaces, $4 shipped:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220575590888

that's all i got, can't get much cheaper unless you go with crappy equipment or legacy hardware.

3/26/2010 5:37:11 PM

lol i just built an origin pc with the new fermi cards in triple sli, i maxed it out at 13k

3/26/2010 11:02:10 PM

Is 2GB too much for WHS or Windows Server 2008?

3/27/2010 1:20:11 AM

dp

[Edited on March 27, 2010 at 1:23 AM. Reason : dp]

3/27/2010 1:23:43 AM

I meant to ask what the minimum should be. I know a few of you on here use it.

3/27/2010 6:28:58 PM

yes, min 1GB min for backing up only, i'd suggest 2GB if you're going to stream any content

[Edited on March 28, 2010 at 1:50 PM. Reason : .]

3/28/2010 1:49:22 PM

April 16th the Fermi cards come out.

I'm debating upgrading my 9800GX2 either with 2x 5770 CF for ~$350 or GTX 470, not sure.

Anyone think it's worth upgrading if I'm still on a E8400 & Velociraptor or should I look at Corei7 & SSD first?

3/28/2010 9:47:01 PM

^Oh man, that's actually a really hard choice. I kinda of took it halfway and got an i5 with a HD5870 GPU, which has been amazing. I really, really think you should go for a new GPU--though personally I'd recommend an HD5870 over those other choices, but it depends on your flavor.

The i7 and SSD might be more profitable in the long-run, though.





And whoever asked about my 5870, I have a Sapphire because of a combo deal I got. I like XFX (especially their special-editions) but just didn't get one--granted I like Sapphire too.

3/28/2010 11:28:22 PM

^5870 really isn't any faster than 5770 in CF (and on average 5770 in CF is faster!) and two 5770's are about $100 less

[Edited on March 29, 2010 at 12:09 AM. Reason : ,]

3/29/2010 12:08:53 AM

^Yeah but two 5770's doesn't really give you the option to upgrade. If you bought one 5870 then you have the option to get a second 5870 in the near future.

In terms of c2d versus i7. The GPU makes much more of a difference. A nice quad core core 2 duo is going to perform just as well as an i7 in games. Same is true with a dual core versus a dual core i5. Although if you do have the money it is nice upgrading to an i7 for other things.

3/29/2010 3:51:55 AM

looking to update my box after 2005 finally.

thoughts?



I will be adding a dell perc5 or perc6 card with 256mb of cache for the raid controller. with cable adapters and such, this should run around $1000

I can't decide between building this and getting a 3rd monitor or getting an m11x and staying with my decent desktop now

[Edited on March 31, 2010 at 5:36 PM. Reason : I'm rarely home, I have a netbook and aging 17" dell]

3/31/2010 5:24:01 PM

That's not a great price for a card of that level.

3/31/2010 6:04:21 PM

Personally I'd go with Corsair over OCZ, stay away from HEC cases and a WD drive would be faster with better warranty than the Seagate, I know it's a little more money, but worth higher grade, faster, more compatible products, this would be my recommendation:

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=13568612

Save some cash and buy another 5770 to do 5770 CF and it will scream...

[Edited on March 31, 2010 at 6:14 PM. Reason : .]

3/31/2010 6:09:16 PM

im looking for something that does eyefinity. I'd rather not get a board with 3x pcie 16x slots since one of my slots will be dedicated to the perc card

[Edited on March 31, 2010 at 6:36 PM. Reason : .]

3/31/2010 6:10:27 PM

any reason to stay away from hec? the drives are just chosen for their price point, in raid0 with the perc card they will fly. also, what exactly do you mean by "more compatible"? it's a motherboard, the interfaces on it are ieee standards are they not? from my experience and believe me when I say I've tested a lot of motherboards, DFI and asus were the only brands to really be head and shoulders above the rest. I don't plan on overclocking much if at all.

[Edited on March 31, 2010 at 6:16 PM. Reason : I'm also looking for more debate on the merits of the m11x vs building this.]

3/31/2010 6:16:07 PM

I was talking about the memory in terms of compatibility, G.Skill is by far the most compatible, best timings and lower voltages than most others, it helps. I used to have OCZ and got sick of manually setting SPDs and voltages all the time.... went to G.Skill and haven't had any issues, right out of the box.

WD Black Edition drives also carry a 5-year warranty.

HEC cases have been cheap build quality in my experience.

But to each their own. Desktop/Laptop that's entirely up to you. Are you going to be at home more or on the road more? Where will you need a faster computer more?

3/31/2010 6:35:30 PM

Prospero the WD black drives are not good for using on the perc raid cards because they will drop out randomly. It has to do with the TLER timing out and the raid array thinking it is a bad drive. Although there is a utility to change the default black drives to match the WD RE3 Enterprise drives but I wouldnt trust it with that much critical data.

[Edited on April 1, 2010 at 7:38 AM. Reason : :]

4/1/2010 7:38:07 AM

well that's the thing. I have a competent desktop at home
gts250
4400+ x2 with 1mb L2/core
2gb ram
velociraptor 300

but it is clearly aging. it will play wow and when im at home and not playing wow, it's typically a console game.

I currently have a dell e1705 with a 7900gs and coreduo 1.83ghz. it gets the job done for mobile gaming and productivity, but it's heavy and the battery sucks. I also have an asus 1005ha. I get 6+ hours of actual use out of it, but the performance isn't quite enough for my productivity patterns and I'm forced to carry my psp if I want any entertainment.

I'm thinking I might get the m11x, move my e1705 to the gf's house for gaming there, and push back a desktop refresh until there's a big dell deal and all I have to do is drop in a raid controller and a video card. ~$1000 just seems like a lot of money for marginal gains adding maybe 3 or 4 titles to my library. If I sold the e1705 and moved my current desktop to my gf's house, the net cost for the upgrade would be ~$600

4/1/2010 8:05:13 AM

Not a total new build, more an upgrade.

Ive a current system with a Q9450 and a GA-EP35-DS3P mobo. One or both of those need to be replaced. Also in the system is a 450W PS, 8800GTS vid card, 6gb DDR2 800mhz memory about 4 hds, some in a raid setup. The trick is I dont think I can find the proc and mobo any more. Proc maybe but its gonna be expensive, Mobo is easy to find (and cheaper) the upgraded P45 version of it.

Should I
1. Replace parts as such
2. Replace with closely matching upgraded parts (probably a Q9550, and the P45 version mobo)
3. Replace both with i series cpu and mobo (also requires a memory upgrade to ddr3) (offer suggestions with this).

Id rather keep this slightly cheap, but if you can suggest a reasonable i series upgrade Im willing to go for it.

Thx!

4/7/2010 1:09:15 PM

Can i have your Q9450?

4/7/2010 1:14:48 PM

choice 2 would be a useless upgrade^^

Also, I really want a Core 2 Quad now that BC2 rapes hell out of my e6750

4/7/2010 6:21:49 PM

Quote :

"2. Replace with closely matching upgraded parts (probably a Q9550, and the P45 version mobo)"

Yeah you could just overclock the 9450 easy. Get an i7.

4/7/2010 6:33:53 PM

Srry, Im not really looking for an "upgrade". Its more replacement parts as I doubt I can get the exact parts.

I said choice 2 like I did as its quite expensive (Ive looked) plus they are rare to find to replace a q9450. Best I can find reasonably is a q9550. this is based on a 45nm quadcore with virtualization tech and a decent cache size. q9400 doesnt cut it nor does the q8300 (i think this is right). That or I can go down to a 65nm chip like a q6600.

4/7/2010 9:40:57 PM

Oh, I read your post wrong. So your parts shat themselves? If so I guarantee it's just the mobo that's dead.

4/7/2010 10:42:42 PM