Hardware Discussion Thread

Monotype

There used to be a few and they were good at the time because usb 3 and SATA 6Gbps was rare in ITX boards but they seem to be all discontinued, unfortunately. I think FM2 itx is likely. I think I saw a preview from some company demoing their boards. You usually won't get them on launch with other boards.

..Brian..

Anyone know what's going on with the NZXT Hue? Can't seem to find it in any of the usual euro retailers

Bazzo

so the Amazon 550W is out of stock again and I will be ordering very(really, I mean it!) soon now.

Thinking of this instead: be quiet! Pure Power 530 Watt / BQT L7

Anyone got any horror stories about it or anything?

Monotype

Looks an okay PSU. Not bad but the Amazon is better. Bequiet are kind of mixed bag. If I had the funds, I think the next one I'd look at would be the Antec HCG.
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/500+-+600+Watts/49529/Antec+High+Current+Gamer+HCG-520.article

On the other hand, you can get the XFX 550W for just as cheap from amazon.co.uk or dabs
http://www.amazon.co.uk/XFX-P1-550S-XXB9-PRO550W-Edition-Supply/dp/B004RJ8EKI/

smileyj1987

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/500+-+600+Watts/48792/Corsair+Builder+Series+CX600+V2%2C+600+Watt.article

This Corsair would be my choice after the Superflower Amazon .

RUCKING FETARD

Monotype wrote: »

.

What age are you? What do you work at? How do you keep up to date on stuff?

Im not a nosey bastard really!

Edit:Swear filter is broke!

Edit2:Ignore me if you want

Monotype

Eh? Are you drunk?

PS: The XFX 550W PSU would be a better buy than the CX600. Much higher rating on the 12V rail, so you're getting a better PSU despite the CX being described as "600W".
The XFX is also more efficient.

RUCKING FETARD

Monotype wrote: »

Eh? Are you drunk?

Nope.

Bazzo

Fair enough. Of those two, Monotype, which would you prefer? I can go for either, but would prefer the handiness of getting it all in 1 order from HWVS.

Tea_Bag

definitely get the XFX. ordering it from the UK will also mean you get a usable kettle lead, which is a Cherry on top.

smileyj1987

Monotype wrote: »

Eh? Are you drunk?

Nope I just rate Corsair very highly especially after my HX 650 broke they sent me out a HX 750 watt PSU as a replacement . After dealing with corsair I would always recommend their products .

Bazzo

ordered the XFX just now, will be ordering the rest from HWVS tonight, thanks guys.

Monotype

The 520W Antec HCG would be fairly equivalent to the CX600, but I'd put the HCG as a skim better since it's got the higher efficiency rating. €2 of a difference is a fair price.

The XFX 550W would be better than both. It's made by Seasonic who also make the HCG and many of Corsair's PSUs. You can still order it with amazon.co.uk for £50 free delivery, although I see it's out of stock. You might be waiting a while, therefore, and would be best off with the HCG.

Oh... well looks like you've ordered it now that I've turned the page. You got the best PSU and I hope you get it fast.

smileyj1987 wrote: »

Nope I just rate Corsair very highly especially after my HX 650 broke they sent me out a HX 750 watt PSU as a replacement . After dealing with corsair I would always recommend their products .

Haha, no I was actually commenting about Rucking Fetard's random barrage of questions. Corsair are a good brand - I've bought loads of their stuff. However, you have to watch out PSUs - from any manufacturer - Corsair don't manufacture a single one of their PSUs so it's good to know where they're coming from. They've built a name for themselves in their relatively short time in the market and wouldn't do anything overly hasty to tarnish their efforts. The CX line is questionable though - first [430, 500, 600] release was slated by many as not being up to the 'Corsair level', given that the original CX400 was good. The new CX430 was much worse being over-rated, no guarantees on efficiency and a miserly 2 years warranty. Similar for the CX500 and CX600. They quickly replaced those with a CX version 2 which at least has the 80+ efficiency, 3 year warranty and a few improvements. They're not bad PSUs, but they're still not great for the money. The CX600 is equivalent to a good 520W PSU, while the CX500 is maybe a 450W. They're fine if you get a good price and you know what you're buying.
The problem is that people are paying above what they're worth when the see the Corsair brand. Caveat emptor!
Know what you're buying, especially in the computing world.

Why the questions anyway Rucking Fetard?

N64

You SSD owners are going to be happy about this :P



http://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/zolls/support_for_custom_install_directories_found_in/

Monotype

It's about time they added this kind of functionality. Now when will they add download speed control.

ShadowHearth

N64 wrote: »

You SSD owners are going to be happy about this :P



http://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/zolls/support_for_custom_install_directories_found_in/

It's not official yet though? I wonder when will they add this officially?

N64

ShadowHearth wrote: »

It's not official yet though? I wonder when will they add this officially?

This update was added in with the "steam big mode" update, so most likely when it goes out of beta.

Eboggles

http://news.softpedia.com/news/AMD-Slashed-Prices-on-Its-Radeon-HD-7000-Series-Video-Cards-291278.shtml

That's right, a HD7950 for $290? Hell yeah!

Monotype

More cuts? That's good. I don't believe their currency conversion, but it's still nice. I'd really like a card around the €150 mark. Many people that come here looking for builds would be suited to a bit more than what the 7770 has to offer but the 7850 still eats into the budget a bit too much. Mind you, the 1GB 7850 at €170 is looking like a good contender now.

Gbear

Eboggles wrote: »

http://news.softpedia.com/news/AMD-Slashed-Prices-on-Its-Radeon-HD-7000-Series-Video-Cards-291278.shtml

That's right, a HD7950 for $290? Hell yeah!

So it's now cheaper than the 660ti?

Holy butts I can get one! Probably not even necessary but why not?!:D

Eboggles

Gbear wrote: »

So it's now cheaper than the 660ti?

Holy butts I can get one! Probably not even necessary but why not?!:D

HD7950 has been the exact same price as the 660ti for a while... The cheapest 660ti is €289, and the HD7950 is €290 (or maybe it's the other way round?).

Either way, I hope this incites nVidia to make some cuts of their own.

ShadowHearth

lads, got komplett.ie newsletter and this cought my eye:

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/Site/Catalog/ItemDetail.aspx?ItemNo=20106666&utm_source=Komplett_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=12-09-12&s2m_channel=102&s2m_type=3

for that price ( i presume even lower in other places as komplett.ie never was cheap ) it might be quite a cool option?

p.s. amd droping price on 7950 again?! :mad: WTS gtx680 WTB 2x7950

Bazzo

damnit, I was about to order my build when I came across this! Might hold off another few days to see how the price cuts affect the price of my planned 7870, still though, savings are saving.

..Brian..

..Brian.. wrote: »

Anyone know what's going on with the NZXT Hue? Can't seem to find it in any of the usual euro retailers

Anyone?

thewheel2.0

Hey lads I'm looking to get a graphics card to complete my build I made a few months back. Im looking at a budget of 200 - 250. I read a review of the EVGA GTX 660 €240 @ overclockers.co.uk and I'm leaning towards this one. Is the 660 the one to get at this price point?

Eboggles

thewheel2.0 wrote: »

Hey lads I'm looking to get a graphics card to complete my build I made a few months back. Im looking at a budget of 200 - 250. I read a review of the EVGA GTX 660 €240 @ overclockers.co.uk and I'm leaning towards this one. Is the 660 the one to get at this price point?

I think the HD7870 is the better buy, due to the fact that some of them overclock like demons. They seem to be about £10 more expensive on OCUK.

smileyj1987

Eboggles wrote: »

I think the HD7870 is the better buy, due to the fact that some of them overclock like demons. They seem to be about £10 more expensive on OCUK.

Wait for the next week or so and they should come down in price

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/amd-gpu-radeon-graphics-card,news-40028.html

thewheel2.0

Eboggles wrote: »

I think the HD7870 is the better buy, due to the fact that some of them overclock like demons. They seem to be about £10 more expensive on OCUK.

Argh, such a tough decision and everyone seems to disagree. My PSU is the Amazon 450w so would that rule out overclocking? And to be honest my PC is so fast that I haven't overclocked it yet cause I prefer the stability and there is no need at the moment.

So I don't know what to get. They seem to beat each other at different games but I just want the best all rounder and going on a review I read the 660 is the best all rounder by 6%.

EDIT: EVGA 660 review I'm talking about

Eboggles

There'd be a ton of headroom for overclocking on that PSU.

Whichever one you go for you won't be disappointed, I'll just say that the GTX 660s reference design is not quiet (if it's the same cooler as the 660ti, 670 etc.), so get a different card with a better cooler. I think the ASUS DCII cooler works well on these Kepler cards...

thewheel2.0

Eboggles wrote: »

There'd be a ton of headroom for overclocking on that PSU.

Whichever one you go for you won't be disappointed, I'll just say that the GTX 660s reference design is not quiet (if it's the same cooler as the 660ti, 670 etc.), so get a different card with a better cooler. I think the ASUS DCII cooler works well on these Kepler cards...

I'll be making my final decision on either September or Octobers pay check. I never thought of noise, my PC is quiet enough at the moment, I should try keep it that way I suppose.

Monotype

7870 doesn't use that much power:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_7870_Flex/26.html

150W seems to be the upper limit. You should be fine for standard CPU and GPU overclocking.

glynf

..Brian.. wrote: »

Anyone?

They seem to have it for sale on their site, looks well worth 20 odd yoyo's if you're into your lights.

PseudoFamous

glynf wrote: »

Had similar before but with ATI cards-think what worked for me:

Uninstall all drivers again, restart in safe mode and delete all Nvidia stuff using Driver Sweeper.

Then reboot, enter BIOS choose optimised defaults, save and reboot. If you have on-board graphics, you could try physically removing the GPU and use on-board graphics as well, this sorted it for me.

Edit: Another thing you could do is stick the win 7 disk in and boot from same, then repair windows, might solve it. Also if you have more than one HDD, disconnect all but the drive with your OS on it.

Ended up trying all this today (bar repairing windows), no dice. So I went and uninstalled some Asus shovelware (GamerOSD) and boom, it's fine.

Just in case someone googles this, if your asus nvidia card needs to reinstall drivers on every boot, uninstall Asus GamerOSD, and reinstall the drivers once again. All should be well.

Eboggles

HD8870 and HD8850 specs leaked + release date/pricing

This is confusing, I was going to upgrade to a HD7950 at Christmas, but now I'm not so sure...

Tea_Bag

Eboggles wrote: »

HD8870 and HD8850 specs leaked + release date/pricing

This is confusing, I was going to upgrade to a HD7950 at Christmas, but now I'm not so sure...

if its launching Jan 2013 there will be a lot more noise about it around Christmas.

looks excellent if they keep to that performance on 'mid range' cards. I hope the price is reasonable.

Serephucus

Holding out for a GTX 780 myself. My financial situation recently took a hugely positive turn, so a 3570K upgrade is very likely. I'd then throw in a 780 whenever it comes to market assuming AMD doesn't provide something better.

It's nice to see manufacturers focusing on power consumption a lot more in this and (hopefully) future generations. Makes things very easy for quiet, compact WC setups and the like.

thewheel2.0

Damn I don't want to wait till January. Think I'll just go for the 7870/7850. I am currently on Intel 3570k internal graphics don't think I can hold out any longer!

Tea_Bag

got my 3570K and more water cooling parts the other day. I'm so busy with work, interview stuff and college work (after only being back a week!) that I haven't even had time to rebuild the PC.

chances of winning the silicon lottery with ivy bridge is much lower than Sandy though

Serephucus

Let me know how you get on. Very interested to hear RL experiences of 3570K OCing. Pretty sure I checked into it a while back, and based on performance gains going from Sandy to Ivy, a 4.3-ish GHz overclock is the same as around a 4.8GHz OC on a Sandy chip.

..Brian..

glynf wrote: »

They seem to have it for sale on their site, looks well worth 20 odd yoyo's if you're into your lights.

Alas they don't ship to Europe. Will just have to keep an eye out I guess.

N64

Right so I think my current PSU is starting to act up - plus the whine coming out of it is annoying. I am looking to crossfire anyway so I think a psu upgrade is needed

anybody know of a decent modular psu for under €100 delivered? I had a look and I found a OCZ PSU on dabs for decent price however the reviews on newegg seem to be bad (although , people only seem to give reviews when they are extremely happy with it, or when they get a DOA product)

Its still a real shame that that adata psu seemed to disappear of the face of the earth! Such a bargain for the price

weisses

N64 wrote: »

Right so I think my current PSU is starting to act up - plus the whine coming out of it is annoying. I am looking to crossfire anyway so I think a psu upgrade is needed

anybody know of a decent modular psu for under €100 delivered? I had a look and I found a OCZ PSU on dabs for decent price however the reviews on newegg seem to be bad (although , people only seem to give reviews when they are extremely happy with it, or when they get a DOA product)

Its still a real shame that that adata psu seemed to disappear of the face of the earth! Such a bargain for the price

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/power_supplies/20076120/corsair_enthusiast_tx650_v2_650_watt/details.aspx

Tea_Bag

weisses wrote: »

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/power_supplies/20076120/corsair_enthusiast_tx650_v2_650_watt/details.aspx

TX isn't modular, HX is.

weisses

N64 wrote: »

Right so I think my current PSU is starting to act up - plus the whine coming out of it is annoying. I am looking to crossfire anyway so I think a psu upgrade is needed

anybody know of a decent modular psu for under €100 delivered? I had a look and I found a OCZ PSU on dabs for decent price however the reviews on newegg seem to be bad (although , people only seem to give reviews when they are extremely happy with it, or when they get a DOA product)

Its still a real shame that that adata psu seemed to disappear of the face of the earth! Such a bargain for the price

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/power_supplies/20094104/corsair_enthusiast_modular_tx550m_550_watt/details.aspx

weisses

Tea_Bag wrote: »

TX isn't modular, HX is.

Not completely true but you were right with this psu

Eboggles

Dell U2713HM review out

Saw this on Hardwarecanucks and thought a few people might be interested.

Tea_Bag

new bios out for asrock z77 extreme4 owners. I know a few here have it. some forums are saying that they're achieving previous OCs at lower vcore.

Headshot

Tea_Bag wrote: »

new bios out for asrock z77 extreme4 owners. I know a few here have it. some forums are saying that they're achieving previous OCs at lower vcore.

my mobo

any point upgrading for me, tea?

Tea_Bag

Headshot wrote: »

my mobo

any point upgrading for me, tea?

definitely. I could do it for you next time you're down. fairly sure I was being a Muppet last time and you might be on a very old bios.

Serephucus

Eboggles wrote: »

Dell U2713HM review out

Saw this on Hardwarecanucks and thought a few people might be interested.

They seem to love that monitor, and it certainly goes a long way to explaining its price; I've been confused for a while as to why the "value" option from Dell was as expensive as the older U2711, but I guess it's just plain worth the money. New monitor, here I come! (after I find a place to live...)

Tea_Bag wrote: »

new bios out for asrock z77 extreme4 owners. I know a few here have it. some forums are saying that they're achieving previous OCs at lower vcore.

Have you had a chance to use an Extreme4 yet Tea? Just wondering how it compares to the 6. Having trouble deciding on one. Only factor for consideration really is OC ability at this point.