Random Question Thread: Tech

**Fereydoon** · 2011-10-31 18:05

Originally Posted by Zerocool

Probably something like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...755247-_-Combo if you're willing to go up to 800. Seems like the best bang for the buck and should be everything you need to get started.

Wouldn't this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.759542 be almost the same for cheaper? I'd lose ~500GB in harddrive space, but that seems to be about it. I can always chuck another HDD in there when I get more money. I'd also lose a blu-ray player, but I doubt I'd ever use one, I never use my current disc drive as is, only for installations/cd rips. I'd really rather not go under 700, and would I need to buy any cables or what not with either of them?

**Zerocool** · 2011-10-31 18:18

Originally Posted by Fereydoon

Wouldn't this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.759542 be almost the same for cheaper? I'd lose ~500GB in harddrive space, but that seems to be about it. I can always chuck another HDD in there when I get more money. I'd also lose a blu-ray player, but I doubt I'd ever use one, I never use my current disc drive as is, only for installations/cd rips. I'd really rather not go under 700, and would I need to buy any cables or what not with either of them?

Well I think that would be fine for a starter system some of the parts are of lesser quality than the other one. And with that one, if you wanted to upgrade in the future, like say throw in a second 6950 you would have to replace the motherboard and PSU since that one is only 520w. And then yeah, you also lose 500gb on the hd, which depending on what you're doing with it might not affect you much if at all. But yeah, both out of the box should perform similarly. And it should probably come with all the cables you would need. Most motherboards will have sata cables in the box for connecting the drives, and the psu will provide the rest of the plug-ins.

**Jojimbo** · 2011-10-31 18:30

I personally wouldn't buy that one, budget MB and pos PSU.

None combo you could do something like this ($650)

Spoiler: show

955 BE, HD 6850, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD (prices shot up recently ;; ), MB has SATA/USB 3. Oh I guess I forgot to include cooler (those combo's were missing any as well) this ($26) is the best budget CPU cooler afaik.

**Fereydoon** · 2011-10-31 18:32

Originally Posted by Zerocool

Well I think that would be fine for a starter system some of the parts are of lesser quality than the other one. And with that one, if you wanted to upgrade in the future, like say throw in a second 6950 you would have to replace the motherboard and PSU since that one is only 520w. And then yeah, you also lose 500gb on the hd, which depending on what you're doing with it might not affect you much if at all. But yeah, both out of the box should perform similarly. And it should probably come with all the cables you would need. Most motherboards will have sata cables in the box for connecting the drives, and the psu will provide the rest of the plug-ins.

I wouldn't mind a pricier upgrade in the future, as long as that's a fine starter, similar to that HP, ya? I currently have a 160GB HDD, so anything more is a godsend. xD Do I need to buy anything else? I saw something called thermal paste earlier in the thread, would I need that? Just trying to make sure I don't get all these parts, and end up needing something else. There was something else called, like, a static wristband? Would I need that?

On the brightside, with the one I posted, I'd have enough left over for a new monitor.

Edit: If that combo has a bad MB and PSU I could also do the combo Jojimbo posted. Would you be willing to link that cart?

**Jojimbo** · 2011-10-31 18:34

Originally Posted by Fereydoon

I wouldn't mind a pricier upgrade in the future, as long as that's a fine starter, similar to that HP, ya? I currently have a 160GB HDD, so anything more is a godsend. xD Do I need to buy anything else? I saw something called thermal paste earlier in the thread, would I need that? Just trying to make sure I don't get all these parts, and end up needing something else. There was something else called, like, a static wristband? Would I need that?

On the brightside, with the one I posted, I'd have enough left over for a new monitor.

If you brought a 3rd party cooler (like Hyper 212 I mentioned) then you would need thermal paste, otherwise with stock cooler you don't (however you can't OC the CPU on a stock cooler).

One you linked will probably do, but that PSU got a bad review.

**Fereydoon** · 2011-10-31 18:37

I most likely won't be OCing, if I decided to I'd get a cooler. So everything in that cart, then? Won't need the cooler as I'm not OCing, ya? Anything on that wristband thing?

Edit: Reading that reviews for that PSU, the one really bad review was a failure to get his rebate, it seems. The other reviews liked it, but mentioned that it had a weird configuration for connectors.

**Zerocool** · 2011-10-31 19:04

The antistatic wrist strap is just kind of an added precaution to ground yourself so that your electrostatic discharge doesn't affect the parts when you're installing them. But I think most newer parts made today already have better protection against ESD so it's not as big of a deal. But still, you can get them pretty cheap if you don't want to chance it.

**Fereydoon** · 2011-10-31 19:08

If it's that cheap I might as well. Unfortunately the GPU in the combo I posted sold out. I'll probably go with what Jojimbo posted, as long as that stuff doesn't sell out by tomorrow I should be fine! Thanks!

**Fereydoon** · 2011-10-31 19:20

Really sorry to double, but, while adding that cpu to cart, I found: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.752642 Would it be worth it to get that, and just add one of the GPU's in any of the posted carts? Only really skimmed the deal.

**Kerberoz** · 2011-10-31 20:10

Wrist strap is worthless. Keep the case grounded, take your socks off, and rest a toe on it.

**Mugekuge** · 2011-10-31 21:08

Originally Posted by Isiolia

Hm, do you have a PS3 or 360 hooked up to it? Either of those is DLNA compatible.

Yea, i have a ps3 hooked to it via HDMI.

**Ghost_Wheel22** · 2011-11-01 21:14

Ongoing problem trying to log into EA's Origin. Several people have reported that flashing their BIOs makes it work. That said, am I to look for a BIOs update or...what? Tempted to take a shit in my BF3 case and mailing it back to EA.

Motherboard ASUS M2N-E ACPI BIOS Revision 1102
Phoenix AWARD BIOS v6.00PG

**TacoTaru** · 2011-11-02 09:28

I'm wanting to test run some video capturing for FFXIV to make sure my PC can handle it under a full load, but I'm no entirely sure what is best and free. I've used FRAPS in the past, but it only records for 30s and has that watermark. I've been told it's not hard to get a cracked copy of FRAPS, but I'm paranoid I'd download one that has a virus attached to it. Is there any better software out there that's free or does anyone have a direct link to a cracked version of FRAPS?

**Purrrfect** · 2011-11-02 10:20

Originally Posted by TacoTaru

I'm wanting to test run some video capturing for FFXIV to make sure my PC can handle it under a full load, but I'm no entirely sure what is best and free. I've used FRAPS in the past, but it only records for 30s and has that watermark. I've been told it's not hard to get a cracked copy of FRAPS, but I'm paranoid I'd download one that has a virus attached to it. Is there any better software out there that's free or does anyone have a direct link to a cracked version of FRAPS?

Afterburner has video recording functionality now. I don't know how it compares with others as far as being efficient or what not, but I have used it and it seems good to me. IIRC there are not many settings for recording I think.

**TacoTaru** · 2011-11-02 10:32

Unfortunately I have an EVGA card; unless of course I can use Afterburner without having an MSI card?

**Jojimbo** · 2011-11-02 10:59

Works with any card, doesn't matter on manufacturer (I'm using it with two sapphire 5770s)

**Kiehl** · 2011-11-03 12:26

New MB has 2 PCIe 2.0 slots. One is x16 and the other is x4. What do I use the x4 one for?

**Isiolia** · 2011-11-03 12:58

Originally Posted by Kiehl

New MB has 2 PCIe 2.0 slots. One is x16 and the other is x4. What do I use the x4 one for?

Other expansion cards, if you have something you want to put in. The number just indicates how many PCIe lanes the slot has, and thus bandwidth. The ones with fewer lanes essentially take the place of old school PCI slots - you can get sound cards, wireless/network cards, USB cards, etc that go in them. Most consumer-level devices only tend to need an x1 slot.

**Jojimbo** · 2011-11-03 12:58

Nothing if you have no other PCI-E cards.

Could put soundcard/RAID Controller/PCI-E SSD/GPU (not sure how badly performance will be hit at x4, I know x8 isn't an issue) in it though.

**Elesirdur** · 2011-11-03 17:46

Posted this in the build thread incorrectly yesterday, maybe I'll have more luck here:

Quick question to anyone with a Z68 mobo who's running Virtu: Is it worth it to set up your system for Virtu if you're not doing a lot of media encoding? A pre-release version review on Anandtech earlier this year showed about a 2%-10% fps loss in games when running Virtu. Have they gotten better lately? Also, if running in the Virtu setup do you still get access to your nVidia control panel for forcing AA, AF, etc?

Asking this as I'm just building my new Sandy Bridge rig with an i5 2500k and a Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P mobo which supports Virtu.

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