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Space Gopher posted:What game, what settings, what specs, where in the game does it slow down? I'm not asking this because I want to stalk you; I'm asking because it's necessary if you want an informed answer to your question. Stacraft 2, medium graphic settings with slowdowns when a mass of units come on-screen. My computer: *Intel Pentium E2160 @ 2.8Ghz 2GBs of pc2 6400 ddr2 RAM Leadtek PX8600GT with 512MB of RAM Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Sorry if I garbled those specs, I'm not sure what is or isn't relevant. Thanks for the help. * This is overclocked, but I did it so long ago I really don't remember the method behind changing those settings. I'm still essential clueless beyond how to get into the bios, but I'll fiddle with those settings if that would help.
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Oct 21, 2010 22:58
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Gothmog1065 posted:This is a general Lithium-Ion battery question, didn't know where else to put it. It's all bullshit. The phone/battery will handle overcharge protection and also govern whether it should do a trickle charge or a quick charge. I definitely wouldn't cut charges short on a routine basis. I bet the reason he thinks it's working is because he's throwing calibration off.
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Oct 21, 2010 23:15
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El Kabong posted:Stacraft 2, medium graphic settings with slowdowns when a mass of units come on-screen. Yeah, for something like SC2, and I'm not even a gamer, that seems like something to run it on low as hell settings. Mass units will eat a processor alive if what I'm told is correct.
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Oct 21, 2010 23:51
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El Kabong posted:Stacraft 2, medium graphic settings with slowdowns when a mass of units come on-screen. Overall, I'd say upgrade the videocard (the new AMD cards come out tomorrow, so wait until next week at least then reevaluate, since prices are going to change a lot on everything), upgrade the RAM to at least 4GB, read up and overclock the CPU as far as you can, and if you're still using Windows XP then upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. If you're using Vista that's fine, but if you're using a 32-bit version of either Vista or 7 then reinstall using a 64-bit disc and your current key.
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Oct 22, 2010 00:19
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Alereon posted:Overall, I'd say upgrade the videocard (the new AMD cards come out tomorrow, so wait until next week at least then reevaluate, since prices are going to change a lot on everything I upgraded to 64-bit windows 7, managed to eek 3Ghz out of my processor, and I want to get a new videocard, but like you said, new ones are coming out. Do the prices drop soon after the new releases, should I hold out till November and try to get a deal on black friday? Given that I can't afford anything greater than $100, is it worth waiting? Good candidate? Thanks again for the help. El Kabong fucked around with this message at 09:27 on Oct 23, 2010 |
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Oct 23, 2010 09:14
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I'd try to hold off, below the 5700-series performance drops off a cliff, and since the lower end cards aren't that much cheaper it stops being worth it. The Radeon HD 5750 1GB for $109.99 AR is basically the lowest you can go and still get decent gaming performance. On the 5670, for a 10% price drop performance is cut by almost 50%. That said, even a 5670 1GB is still a huge upgrade from your card, and if its all you can afford then its all you can afford. This Anandtech review of the HD 5670 512MB compares it to a 9500GT, a card slightly faster but comparable to yours, and it comes in about 2.5-3X as fast. A 5670 1GB would probably be 3-4X as fast as your 8600GT 512MB. That benchmark is from before SC2, but it at least should give you an idea of what to expect, and includes numbers from the 5750 and 5770 cards for comparison. There will likely also be a Radeon HD 6670 launching in November, but we don't really know any details about it.
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Oct 23, 2010 09:59
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Wouldn't these 4850's be even better than a 5750 at less than $100? There's even a few 1GB models on there.
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Oct 23, 2010 13:33
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Would my motherboard's PCIe 1.0 bottleneck any of these cards?
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Oct 23, 2010 20:34
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El Kabong posted:I upgraded to 64-bit windows 7, managed to eek 3Ghz out of my processor, and I want to get a new videocard, but like you said, new ones are coming out. Do the prices drop soon after the new releases, should I hold out till November and try to get a deal on black friday? Given that I can't afford anything greater than $100, is it worth waiting? If you can save up a bit of extra cash while you wait, there's currently an Nvidia/AMD slapfight going on in a slightly higher price tier. Since the new 6800-series cards are a bit faster and cheaper than the Nvidia equivalents, GTX 460 prices are falling. That puts the GTX 460 perilously close to the Radeon 5700-series prices, so those are falling, as well. Right now, the GTX 460 768MB, which is nearly twice as fast as the 4850, is available for about $160; a few cards have rebates that take the final price below $150. The 5770, which is slower than the 460 768MB but still quite a bit faster than the 4850, can be had for $140/$125 after rebate (with further cuts probably to come soon). If you can't afford anything over $100 at all (and in this economy, who could blame you?), the 4850's a fairly good choice. It will certainly stomp all over the 8600GT's performance. However, in the $100 range you're a bit below the price/performance sweet spot for the moment. There are some seriously good deals going on in a slightly higher pricing tier. Finally, one potential caveat: I don't think that 8600 has a PCI express power connector. You'll want to make sure your power supply has one before you order a hotter video card (or two, for the 460). El Kabong posted:Would my motherboard's PCIe 1.0 bottleneck any of these cards? It's not a problem. The only difference from an end-user standpoint is that PCIe 1.0 has half the bandwidth - but people run PCIe 2.0 x8 SLI setups without any performance trouble. Since 8 lanes of PCIe 2.0 is equivalent to 16 lanes of PCIe 1.x, you're fine.
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Oct 23, 2010 22:31
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Is there a way to make my hard drive stop making noise? My computer's in my bedroom, and it starts clicking while I try to sleep sometimes. I have a SSD, but have a mechanical drive for storage, which is what clicks. I use Windows 7, and suspect it may be indexing or def-ragging it, or something. How can I stop this, or tell the computer not to use the drive unless I open a file on it?
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Oct 24, 2010 16:25
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Dominoes posted:How can I stop this, or tell the computer not to use the drive unless I open a file on it? Not sure if it'll help, but check power settings and see if the drive is set to turn off after a certain amount of time. Though I don't know if that'll stop windows turning it on again if it wants to access it.
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Oct 24, 2010 17:31
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I don't know the difference between hardware and software. Sorry. Delete this.
Gimpalimpa fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Oct 25, 2010 |
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Oct 25, 2010 01:45
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Space Gopher posted:stuff I'll wait a month and come back to see what you guys think then. Much appreciated.
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Oct 25, 2010 03:43
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Having massive problems with my Radeon HD4890. Not overclocking the card and my case has plenty of ventilation so at worst case the card reaches 70 degrees under load. What is happening is that either five or 30 minutes into playing any game under any graphic settings the drivers for the card crash, resulting in: 1) black and white checkered screen that flickers before game comes back up, error message in the corner saying that the drivers have crashed, then the game will hang and this will repeat multiple times until it clears itself up or 2) audio still plays, monitor reports no connection detected, computer needs to be reset, or 3) crash to blue screen, computer resets before I can get an error code. What the hell is going on? If it is seriously a heat issue then I can easily pop off the side of my case for better venting, but I am using one of these and the case is generally cool. Tried searching for similar errors on google and checked ATI's forums to no avail as well as contacted XFX (the manufacturer) who have not even bothered to contact me back after having a tickets open for weeks. CPU: Intel Core i5 CPU 750 Motherboard: Intel BOXDP55WB LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W RAM: OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 OS: Windows 7
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Oct 25, 2010 17:00
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Check your drivers. I know there's a new CCC for your computer, uninstall the old one and drivers, and reinstall the entire pack.
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Oct 25, 2010 19:28
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Space Gopher posted:Right now, the GTX 460 768MB, which is nearly twice as fast as the 4850, is available for about $160; a few cards have rebates that take the final price below $150. The 5770, which is slower than the 460 768MB but still quite a bit faster than the 4850, Don't recommend the 460 gtx 768mb card without mentioning that it's a (completely) different, significantly less powerful core than the 460 gtx 1gb. There's a reason why they're so cheap. Spend the extra $40 and get the 1gb. Enzer posted:Having massive problems...the card reaches 70 degrees under load...it is seriously a heat issue Looks like you solved your own problem!  70c = 158F
Hadlock fucked around with this message at 05:21 on Oct 26, 2010 |
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Oct 26, 2010 05:19
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70C is downright cool for a videocard. 80-90C is absolutely normal for any kind of modern card.
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Oct 26, 2010 05:42
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Hadlock posted:Don't recommend the 460 gtx 768mb card without mentioning that it's a (completely) different, significantly less powerful core than the 460 gtx 1gb. There's a reason why they're so cheap. Spend the extra $40 and get the 1gb. The 460 768MB is definitely a slower card than the 1GB version (it's down one memory controller/rasterizer unit out of four), but it's not horribly gimped, and it's still faster than anything else you'll find for $150. If $40 extra is available, I'd wait for a 6850 to come back in stock and jump on it, but El Kabong says he doesn't have more than a hundred bucks handy. The jump in performance from a $100 4850 to a $150ish 460 768MB is substantial enough that I thought it might be worth it to throw it out there, but when you get into 460 1GB and 6000-series territory you're getting close to twice the original budget. Since we're not defense contractors, I cut off the "a bit more money could get you quite a bit more performance" recommendations there.
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Oct 26, 2010 06:57
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Im not a huge fan of spending ludicrous amounts of money on computer parts either, but after going budget bargain bin on my last card (8600GT) and suffering terribly for that decision for two years (2008-2010), I'm of the opinion that it's a worthwhile investment if you play games more than 10 hrs a week. As I see it, a $200 card should last you 2 years. That's $100 a year, or about $8 a month. I spend more on lunch every day than that. And that should get you 60fps in most bleeding edge games with all the settings on ultra. Buy a 2-year card for $200 and be very happy, or buy a 12 month card for $150 and be adequately satisfied. Of course, the equation is easier to put together in your head when you're out of school working full time.
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Oct 27, 2010 02:25
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Hadlock posted:Buy a 2-year card for $200 and be very happy, or buy a 12 month card for $150 and be adequately satisfied. The only upcoming PC games I have an interest in is Diablo 3, and maybe the next Blizzard MMO. I want to upgrade the video card for Starcraft 2 and I'm hoping that Diablo 3 won't be much more intensive, which means I may have the same video card for five years or more. I'm expecting to have a bit more spare cash next month, so another $40-50 is possible.
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Oct 27, 2010 22:06
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Hadlock posted:Im not a huge fan of spending ludicrous amounts of money on computer parts either, but after going budget bargain bin on my last card (8600GT) and suffering terribly for that decision for two years (2008-2010), I'm of the opinion that it's a worthwhile investment if you play games more than 10 hrs a week. As I see it, a $200 card should last you 2 years. That's $100 a year, or about $8 a month. I spend more on lunch every day than that. And that should get you 60fps in most bleeding edge games with all the settings on ultra. I think you're overgeneralizing a bit based on past experiences. The 8600GT/GTS was never anything more than "adequate," and buying one in 2008 was false economy when the $200ish 8800GT was more than twice as fast. However, that's not the case here. The 460 768 is pretty close to the 1 GB version, all things considered - it's got three quarters the memory bandwidth, cache, and ROP count, and the same number of shader clusters. The full 1GB card is definitely faster, but by a factor of 10-25% rather than 100% or more. When you bought your 460*, the 1GB version carried about a 15% price premium. That meant it was the better choice from a price/performance standpoint - in most titles, the performance increased faster than the price. However, with the market shakeup after AMD's 6-series launch, the current price separation is a bit over 20% (after rebates, Newegg's cheapest 768 is $140, and the cheapest 1GB is $30 more). That means the price/performance ratio between the two is close to even, tilting one way or the other on specific titles, and it makes the 768 a decent mid-budget choice if it fits well with the user's performance requirements. * Which, I'm pretty sure, was in part because of my recommendation! Space Gopher fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Oct 28, 2010 |
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Oct 28, 2010 01:24
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Space Gopher posted:* Which, I'm pretty sure, was in part because of my recommendation! I'm still waiting on your steam id so I can gift you a game for saving me $200 on going i5 instead of i7
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Oct 28, 2010 02:38
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My girlfriend recently broke one of the hinges on her laptop that connects the screen to the rest. The place she took it to to get fixed quoted $400aud for fixing it. This seems pretty exorbitant to me, but I'm not familiar with pricing for these kinds of things. Is this a reasonable price, or are they trying to rip her off?
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Oct 28, 2010 03:13
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MonsterUnderYourBed posted:My girlfriend recently broke one of the hinges on her laptop that connects the screen to the rest. The place she took it to to get fixed quoted $400aud for fixing it. This seems pretty exorbitant to me, but I'm not familiar with pricing for these kinds of things. Is this a reasonable price, or are they trying to rip her off? Wow. Hinges are usually USD $10-12 a pair on eBay, especially if it's a model that's been around for a little while. Prices may be a little higher in clockwise-toilet land, but 4000% markup is a ripoff in any country. Even if they're trying to factor in labor, it's a 10-20 minute job that's not at all hard to do. I'd probably charge $50 including parts to do the repair, maybe less if it's a really fast job. What model laptop is this, by the way? Did any cosmetic bits get damaged when the hinge broke that might also need to be replaced? Zorilla fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Oct 28, 2010 |
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Oct 28, 2010 03:40
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Yes, that's overpriced. The hinges on the TiBooks are historically the hardest to replace, and when they were still new (in 2001) cost $400 to have replaced, with next day air shipping both ways included. Nowdays the DIY kit is ~$150. They probably priced it that high because they just don't want to do it.
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Oct 28, 2010 03:53
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Thanks, that's what I thought. In terms of cosmetics there's about a 2cm*3cm piece of panelling around the hinge on the front that's come off. Not sure of exact model but it's a ~2 year old acer. Thanks for the help, I'll go to a guy ive used a fair bit and trust.
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Oct 28, 2010 04:15
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I'd say ask the shop if they're going to replace the hinges only, or do they have to replace the entire assembly. The shop I used at work as couldn't order hinges only. We'd have to order the entire lid assembly (sometimes only with LCD) to do those types of repair. $400 was not out of the norm for a repair like that. They may not be trying to rip you off, they just may not be able to do the repair for any cheaper. Either way, there's no harm in shopping around.
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Oct 28, 2010 17:45
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Question about my CPU/HD. When playing Civ5, during the late-game, inbetween turns (i.e. while the CPU is working the hardest), I sometimes hear a scratching noise coming out of the computer. I kind of assumed it's the hard drive but I haven't been able to find anything on Google about HD issues stemming from heavy CPU load... and my knowledge of computers is minimal. I've just found lots of stuff about hard drives failing when the suspicious sounds are heard basically all the time, regardless of what the computer is actually doing. The CPU is an i5-750 and the HD is a Spinpoint F3; the whole computer is only 7 months old. I never hear it under any other circumstances. I've since stopped playing Civ5 since it's started crashing for me anyway, but is there anything I can do to better diagnose the problem? I'm prepared for a HD failure but it'd be nice to avoid it if it's not inevitable. Or maybe it's not even the HD?
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Oct 28, 2010 23:14
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Glare Seethe posted:Question about my CPU/HD. When playing Civ5, during the late-game, inbetween turns (i.e. while the CPU is working the hardest), I sometimes hear a scratching noise coming out of the computer. I kind of assumed it's the hard drive but I haven't been able to find anything on Google about HD issues stemming from heavy CPU load... and my knowledge of computers is minimal. I've just found lots of stuff about hard drives failing when the suspicious sounds are heard basically all the time, regardless of what the computer is actually doing. Sounds like noisy caps or coils in a power supply. It might also explain the crashes.
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Oct 29, 2010 00:31
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Zorilla posted:Sounds like noisy caps or coils in a power supply. It might also explain the crashes. I think the crashes are the game because they only started happening after it was patched and they happened in the first 50 turns or so, not in the end like this sound. And others have had the same crashes since the patch from what I've read. I looked up some videos on youtube of PSU coil noises. In this one you can hear that kind of rattle/scratch sound, which is exactly what I have, except in my case it's not accompanied by any high-pitch squealing (though maybe I just didn't hear it) and it's not continuous, just happens for a few seconds every time. So as I understand it this isn't cause for replacing the PSU, right? If it's not actually causing damage or risking hardware failure then I don't mind it.
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Oct 30, 2010 08:53
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Glare Seethe posted:I think the crashes are the game because they only started happening after it was patched and they happened in the first 50 turns or so, not in the end like this sound. And others have had the same crashes since the patch from what I've read. My PSU and/or video card make these noises every once in a while, usually when cold. It's more annoying than anything. I wouldn't worry about it unless it gets much worse.
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Oct 30, 2010 16:11
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Zorilla posted:My PSU and/or video card make these noises every once in a while, usually when cold. It's more annoying than anything. I wouldn't worry about it unless it gets much worse. Good to hear. Thanks for the help!
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Oct 30, 2010 16:53
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Should I only get a 1080P 32" TV LCD for my computer because of the quality or can I use a 720P and still have it look crisp and nice for gaming? Have a GTX280 so video card isn't much of a worry.
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Oct 31, 2010 05:28
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Why are you considering a TV instead of a computer monitor? TVs are meant for video, and may not work well at all for gaming.
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Oct 31, 2010 06:07
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Alereon posted:Why are you considering a TV instead of a computer monitor? TVs are meant for video, and may not work well at all for gaming. I want something bigger than my 22", but don't have the money to spend on a proper huge rear end monitor.
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Oct 31, 2010 06:18
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Remember that if you get a larger screen, the pixels will be proportionally larger, so unless you're sitting much farther away from the screen, you'll need to turn up antialiasing very high to keep everything from looking terribly blocky. This effect will be much worse on a 720p display, to the point where it would basically be unusable for normal computing tasks. Other major problems with using a TV as a computer monitor include video processing lag and getting it to properly synch to a signal from your videocard without cutting off the edges due to overscan or messing with the picture.
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Oct 31, 2010 06:35
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Alereon posted:Remember that if you get a larger screen, the pixels will be proportionally larger, so unless you're sitting much farther away from the screen, you'll need to turn up antialiasing very high to keep everything from looking terribly blocky. This effect will be much worse on a 720p display, to the point where it would basically be unusable for normal computing tasks. Other major problems with using a TV as a computer monitor include video processing lag and getting it to properly synch to a signal from your videocard without cutting off the edges due to overscan or messing with the picture. Thanks, 1080P would be the only option because it'd be 1900x1200. And those are expensive so I'm not really sure what to do now...
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Oct 31, 2010 07:02
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Brace posted:Thanks, 1080P would be the only option because it'd be 1900x1200. And those are expensive so I'm not really sure what to do now... Sounds like you want the biggest, cheapest 1080p unit you can find, TV (1920x1080) or monitor (1920x1200). If you're in the US, you may want to wait for Black Friday coming up. Just bear in mind the caveats he outlined if you get a TV.
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Oct 31, 2010 13:30
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I'm moving into a cottage and the homeowner provides access to her wifi for free as part of the lease agreement. I'd like to take advantage of it but I have never messed with wifi before in my life (I've always preferred the simplicity and straightforwardness of setting up hardlined). Basically, I'd like to understand whether this is going to be a giant crapshoot. I don't own a laptop, just a home built, megathread "sweet spot" box from about two years ago, so the first issue is getting the right wireless adapter -- I've poked around on newegg and found what looks like a few winners (this and this) but was wondering if someone more savvy has a better recommend. For instance, pci or usb, or does it not really make a difference? But also, how likely is it that I'm going to run into bandwidth issues (fair amount of gaming/steam downloads/streaming video/etc) with the little old lady that owns the house? I know, kind of an unanswerable question because I don't know her browsing habits, but has anyone else at least been in a similar situation?
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Nov 4, 2010 19:04
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Unless you get lucky and she happens to have a really good and stable wireless router you are probably going to be living in a hell of unstable, connection losing, bad ping, poor bandwidth connections. Unless she happens to have a newer wireless router or for some reason has an older one with DD-WRT or something then it is most likely the one she has is either stable for only basic browsing and will be crushed under the load of downloading/torrenting. Also wireless connections on cheap routers love to temporarily lose signal and drop you from online games while speeds or connections get renegotiated over the wireless link. A lot also has to do with where the router located is compared to your computer. Is it an upstairs/downstairs type thing or is it a cottage near a house that is hosting the wireless or what? Either way I find that range going to exterior buildings or through floors is often not very good for your signal quality. If at all possible you would probably be best served finding a non-invasive way to run a cable from the router to your computer (through cold air return ducts or some such). Alternatively as a last resort if it does turn out to be bad perhaps you could convince her to replace her existing wireless router with one suggested in this thread that is going to be more stable and with a better connection. But hey, maybe you'll be lucky and it will work nicely I can't offer advice on a wireless card for you unfortunately, I've only dealt with laptop wireless for the most part.
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Nov 4, 2010 19:21
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