Search results

  1. J

    GTX980 SLI temps

    thx guys for the responses! i just ordered the parts last night, two msi gtx980 gaming 4g cards, and on the mobo there will be one slot of gap between the two cards so hopefully that'll be fine (if no gap i would've gone reference i think). the case is a define r5, and i plan to add a 140mm...
  2. J

    GTX980 SLI temps

    I'm building a 2x GTX980 rig, but a bit worried about the temperatures because I will only have one slot of spacing between the cards. I chose the MSI Gaming series which does not use the reference blower style cooler. I'm curious, for people who are running similar 2x GTX980 SLI setups on air...
  3. J

    Time to upgrade Corsair TX750?

    Yes I noticed. But I think even with the OC, the GTX 460s shouldn't consume *that* much more power than a pair of GTX 470s? After all the GF104 core is much more power efficient than the GF100 core.
  4. J

    Custom Cooler for GTX 470?

    Thanks for the tip, I think this is a very nice mod. Do you have any pictures of the mod? Also how did you take off just the casing and not the fan/backplate?
  5. J

    Time to upgrade Corsair TX750?

    That seems awfully high for a pair of GTX 460s. A pair of GTX 470s with an i7 @ 4Ghz will only pull 541W, albeit in 3dMar06 Batch Render test and not Furmark + Linpack. Also note in the article where it says "after extensive testing, we have found that simply plugging in a power meter to a wall...
  6. J

    Custom Cooler for GTX 470?

    Hi guys: What's a good custom cooler for reference design GTX 470? I'm trying to lower my temps and noise. Have about $50 to spend. I know about the TR Spitfire (a bit over my budget) and the GELID Icy Vision (which does not work on the GTX 470). Right now I have my eyes on the Zalman...
  7. J

    HD4850 + L4D2 + 4xAA = 30FPS or less?!

    I have the same card, and I can't play L4D2 with 4xAA. I don't think my average frame rate is below 30, but definitely in action intense scenes. Turning AA off while leaving everything else on max makes my frame rate a lot smoother (60+). Screen resolution by the way, is 1920x1080.
  8. J

    Gigabyte GA-X58A-UDP9

    Looks like Gigabyte is finally going to compete in the "7-PCI-E slot" motherboard business. Their GA-X58A-UDP9.
  9. J

    Trying to decide... Asus P6T SE or MSI X58 Pro-E (for $60 less)?

    Just so you know, some MSI X58 Pro-E boards have badly seated northbridge heatsinks. The X58 IOH would idle at ~70C and go up to 80C-90C on load. Performance wise it is a good board though. If you do get the high temps, just re-seat the heatsink with better thermal compound and it will be fine...
  10. J

    Is Laptop RAM Inherently Inferior to Desktop RAM?

    The issue used to be price. SO-DIMMs cost more to produce than DIMMs, so in desktops where space wasn't a big concern, the cheaper, larger DIMMs were used. Even though (as someone mentioned above) the price of the two are pretty much the same now, it's become more of an accepted standard. No...
  11. J

    What's up with high hard drive failure rates?

    You can't use Newegg reviews to judge the failure rates of hard drives, as most people (whose drives are operating normally) don't write Newegg reviews. People who get failed/DOA parts are more likely to write a review than those with working parts, so obviously the percent of bad reviews is...
  12. J

    11 GTX480 vs. 5870 reviews in one chart (Updated with temps & OCs)

    But by then the ATI 6800 series will probably be out...
  13. J

    WinXP 32bit maximum drive size

    Just to be correct, the limitation is not on the total size of the disk, but on the "total sectors" field of the MBR. As it's only 8 bytes, it has a maximum value of 4,294,967,296 sectors. At 512 bytes per sector (which most HDDs are at the moment), that comes out to be 2TB. Newer drives are...
  14. J

    x58 Motherboard advice sought

    I would get the Gigabyte X58A-UD7 and 6GB of fast RAM (unless you need 12GB). Having all six DIMM slots occupied lowers your memory throughput. The Rampage III is going to be awesome too, so I think my choice would be between these two. As for video cards, I'd wait one more day until the Fermi...
  15. J

    Which HD is better? WD WD1001FALS or Samsung HD103SJ

    yasasvy, the Caviar SE16 is not Caviar Black, it's an enterprise HDD. And to OP: I own two WD1001FALS drives, they've been in my computer for more than a year, and have had no problems with them at all. The Caviar Black 1TB is one of the fastest drives available (slower only to the Caviar Black...
  16. J

    Intel i7 or AMD Phenom II?

    AMD's 6-core lineups are going to be released soon, and they are at very attractive prices ($200-$300). So I'd wait a bit and see some benches of these chips first.
  17. J

    Is THIS 500w good enough for Q9550 + GTS250?

    The 12V rails of that PSU seem a bit weak, so it could be your problem. I would probably opt for one from a better brand (Corsair). Remember wattage label isn't everything and that smaller brands tend to be over-confident in their wattage labels. And yeah the Q9550 is a 95W CPU, far from the...
  18. J

    Power supply enough

    The PSU included is this Antec EarthWatts 500W PSU, which is perfectly fine for your setup.
  19. J

    Adding second vid card for SLI

    The only chipsets that support SLI are: nVidia's chipset and Intel's P55 + X58. I used to own the same board as yours; it is based on AMD's 790 chipset, and only support ATI CrossFire (@ x8 x8).
  20. J

    Vid card upgrade recommendation please

    If you don't game at all, just get a 5750. But if you don't game, what performance bump are you looking for?
  21. J

    X25-M G2 Model Question

    The H doesn't really mean high performance, I think it's a batch number or something. I bought the exact drive for $235 from Newegg three days ago and the model number I received is the exact same as the NCIX one. The most important bit is the G2, which means it uses 34nm chips.
  22. J

    Benchmarking - Anandtech, please include this concept

    I know how you feel. Real world user experience is more importantly to me than synthetic and controlled benchmarks in the lab as well. The problem is not everybody uses their computers the same way. You may only reboot once every few weeks, but I reboot daily, and some people may reboot even...
  23. J

    Aftermarket cooling 4870

    The Thermaltake DuOrb cooler is pretty good, though it's a bit on the loud side. Get the second gen with automatic fan speed control for quieter operation. It cools the 4800 series beautifully. My 4850 was hitting the high 80s with stock cooler; with DuOrb it maxes out at mid 40s.
  24. J

    Possible Fermi Pricing

    Here. GeForce GTX 480 : 512 SP, 384-bit, 295W TDP, US$499 GeForce GTX 470 : 448 SP, 320-bit, 225W TDP, US$349
  25. J

    SSD need help on a question. **Update - Install Results**

    I had an almost 5-years old 400GB Hitachi SATA 7200 RPM, which got a 5.5 in WEI. My HDD went from being the slowest component in my system to the fastest after the upgrade. I updated to the 02HD firmware as well, before my OS install. BTW what is SR?
  26. J

    SSD need help on a question. **Update - Install Results**

    So it seems that AHCI does make a big difference in SSD performance. I too have just received and installed the Intel X25-M 80GB G2 SSD that I bought. My motherboard has AHCI support, so I turned it on before an OS reinstall. WEI HDD score is 7.7, and Photoshop launches in under 2 seconds...
  27. J

    New to SSD's

    Ah, I see, thank you.
  28. J

    New to SSD's

    Then how come when I tried the command on my computer, which has no SSDs at all, it returns 0? TRIM for mechanical drives?
  29. J

    New to SSD's

    Are you sure about the result? I tried it on my computer (my new SSD will be here tomorrow :D) and it returned 0.
  30. J

    New to SSD's

    XP doesn't have native support for TRIM, so you need to rely on Intel's software, which isn't optimal. I recommend upgrading to Windows 7 if you want to use an SSD.
  31. J

    New build w/ Intel X25-M 80GB G2 SSD - any prep work beforehand?

    I'm in the exact situation as OP. Just bought an Intel X25-M 80GB G2 SSD, plan to install Win7 on it. I was wondering if it is crucial to update the firmware to the latest on these G2 drives. I heard they have TRIM support built-in, and flashing the firmware is always a bit risky, so I'm not...
  32. J

    Random Hiccups

    Hey guys: I've been experiencing some random hiccups on my computer in the past few days. Specs as as follows. Intel Core i7 920 (no OC) Gigabyte EX58-UD5 (F7 BIOS) G.SKILL DDR3 1333 3x2GB (timing and volts all set correctly) ATI HD4850 512MB 4 year-old Hitachi 400GB HDD (single partition, OS...
  33. J

    small space+passive cooling+single slot=???

    GT240 is not passive, but it's as cool and quiet as an actively cooled single slot card can get. And it's not slouch in performance, essentially a 9800GT.
  34. J

    HD 4850: OC or replace

    Just a heads up, if you are running multiple monitors, you cannot OC the 4850. Any change in the clock speed (even by 5 Mhz) will make both of your monitors go crazy.
  35. J

    Difference btwn GA-P55A-UD3 and GA-P55A-UD3P?

    Compared to the UD3, the UD3P has more ports on the back IO panel, more phases for the CPU, and support for TPM encryption. You probably don't really need the TPM or the extra power phases, but if you want eSATA ports on the back of your computer, get the UD3P.
  36. J

    Simple video card question

    If his power supply is up for it (has at least one six-pin PCI-E connector), get a used 4850 or 9800GT. If not get a GT240.
  37. J

    GeForce GTX 480 Box Shot

    Box shots of a GeForce GTX 480. Interesting info: amount of RAM and power requirement.
  38. J

    Where does mobo get cpu frequency, multiplier, voltage data? CPU or BIOS?

    Have the voltage setting on auto, without any OC, the voltage you see supplied by the motherboard is what the CPU is asking for. You can check the value in the BIOS or using a utility like CPU-Z (though to get a "true" highest voltage in CPU-Z you need to put some load on your CPU or disable any...
  39. J

    Where does mobo get cpu frequency, multiplier, voltage data? CPU or BIOS?

    By default the motherboard only feeds the CPU what it asks for ("what the CPU says it should be"). These basic information are stored as special instructions in the CPU (eg. CPUID), and when your computer first turns on, the motherboard reads from these instructions and sets the voltages etc...
  40. J

    Buying used processor - best way and how to test?

    Actually I'd say test it with both IBT and P95, just because I've heard stories of people passing 10 hrs+ of P95 but fail after a few passes of IBT, and the other way around. Either one alone could miss something (very rarely I'd say), but testing with both would be better.