The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

Really nice PC Shaff, that's the good news, the bad news is you take crappy pictures, maybe we need to take a collection and get you a better camera, and last you better clean up that room lol.

 

Not used ff since the travesty that was 3.5.
You say extra power, there is no extra power, certainly not for gaming, and not really for anything else. Unless you routinely use the sort of apps that can make use of how the i7 differs from the i5 (few outside professional stuff), using an i7 is wasted TDP and wasted money. Clock for clock, an i7 needs to be 4.1Ghz to take a 4Ghz i5 in games, and the i5s are if anything easier to overclock than i7s, partly due to the considerably reduced TDP.
Buying 8GB of RAM is not especially expensive any more, and being limited to 8x for dual graphics (if you even use it) is no issue.
If you're desperate not to brim your RAM Slots, buy 2x4GB modules. Doing that is actually going to be pretty similar in price to buying an i7.
i7 930, X58A-UD3R, 6GB PC3 1600mhz C9: £469 from Scan, £480 from CCL
i5 760, P55A-UD3, 4GB PC3 1600mhz C9: £344 from Scan, £338 from CCL
i5 760, P55A-UD3, 8GB (4GBx2) 1333mhz C9: £392 from Scan
i5 760, P55A-UD3, 8GB (4GBx2) 1600mhz C9: £514 from Scan, £527 from CCL

Listed both Scan and CCL as Scan have severe stock issues with i5/i7 systems at present.

 

I think I already said this but I'm waiting until SB launches to see if they're worth it. From what I heard OCing SB is going to be different than what we're used to, not non-existent; no guarantees but that's what I'm hoping for.

 

i5 it may very well be then well imma check out benches for the 6 series first and see if they take much if any a hit on dual 8x mode. are there benches for dual GTX460s on 8x/8x?

i7s are slower for gaming? (with HT turned off?)

how are the sata 6GBs controllers on x58/p55, (no difference i assume as they are third party, but just wondering if either SB hinders the external controller?)

though i probably will get the hotpoint rocket sata 6GB/s for the next gen intel (IF they are sata 3, if they are still sata 2 then no need.

cheers fred, was an old setup, with a 3MP camera, plus i never claimed to even be half decent at taking photos i suck i know

 

Shaff really great looking PC, nice work, the bad news your pic's are crappy, we might need to take up a collection and get you a better camera, and last clean up your room lol.

 

Wow is this thread doing goofy things, I tried posting twice and didn't get any where plus everything is jumping all over the place.

 

Firefox = epic win

I prefer firefox over every other browser I've tried. Only a few though Google chrome, and Internet explorer are the others. Just haven't seen the need to explore others.

I'm now wondering if my Velociraptor hiccups are something else. The curious video stutter that's been occurring, may be related with another bug I've witnessed. At times, while I'm typing highly rapidly, The text will pause for a moment, and then start again. The length of time that it occurs feels almost exactly like the video stutters. I find that very curious. I now wonder if it's some background process that happens at regular intervals. Given the stutters aren't always happening, I suspect this to be a high probability. I'll be running every scan I can think of starting now

Can anyone explain how such a simple process such as typing can be slowed down even on a powerful system?

 

There are benches for GTX480s in SLI on 8x/8x mode. The performance drop is about 1% for average frame rates and 2-2.5% for minimum frame rates. I don't see the HD6870 being any worse than that.
i7s are pretty much slower for gaming even with HT off, drastically slower with HT on in many cases. The i5 isn't hugely ahead overall, but the fact it's never behind for games is a considerable asset when you consider its price.
S-ATA 6Gbps is largely unused on pretty much anything, so I can't say what impact it has on bandwidth, but in Gigabyte's case, when S-ATA3 or USB3 are set to full speed mode in BIOS, the second slot is set to 4x (which is again tested with the GTX480 and causes a 2-3% drop in minimum fps and a 4-7% drop in average frame rates).

Omega: Northbridge is being interrupted, either by being unstable due to overclocks/faults/heat or there's a program causing interrupts. The only program I've seen that spams interrupts in the last few years is Everest, the longer you leave it open the worse it gets until eventually your northbridge grinds to a halt and the PC crashes.

Creaky: Crucial Ballistix isn't very good memory, and it hasn't been good memory for years. It was my first suspicion that's what happened when you first said you had problems again, I'm not surprised to see it true. If I were you I'd try and work your way over to using another brand.

 

Yeah, hence me saying 'work your way other to' rather than 'replace with'. No critical urgency and it's obviously going to be expensive but I do wonder how many more times you'll end up suffering this scenario :S

 

I've had this problem several times, and invariably it is a run-away task. Check with Task Manager to see which task it is, and kill it if it is not a system task, otherwise re-boot, which has normally fixed the problem for me.

Best of luck

 

mmm its only started happening in the last couple months, and now seems to frequent more. I will try jumping to chrome and see what's what (xmarks ftw ) but does chrome have the major FF add ons? Im thinking it might be flash now aswell, or some flash add that's causing the problem.

 

Unfortunately programs that hang a system completely (though briefly) usually don't show much CPU usage. In the non-Windows 98 days, even if a program uses 100% usage a PC is still useable (Linpack is a good example).
Chrome has the vast majority of firefox's useful addons as far as I know, adblock being one of them.
Creaky: Yeah I need to start getting some backup drives so I can organise my multimedia by content. I'm using 10.3TB of my 11.2 (12.25 actual) but because all the free space is split across all the drives due to the stuff they hold, it's getting a bit tight, and every drive holds at least 3 types of content (TV/Films/Games etc).
The good thing is you can buy WD20EARS drives for £83 each now, an impressive GB/£ ratio.

 

1080p vs 720p isn't so clear cut on a 30" monitor, as it will interpolate 1080p content, but display 720p natively via pixel quadrupling. With a 1080p HDTV though, 1080p content blows 720p away. The backup drive system is something I want to implement but have not yet done so, so to set that in motion, get my data into categorical form, and have a backup for everything means buying seven 2TB HDDs, which is still a hefty £580.
I wouldn't bother getting another Q6600, they're legacy tech now, and even the 45nm Quads are overpriced due to having been succeeded by LGA1156/1366. Your best bet is probably to find a cheap dual like the E5 or E7 series if you really want to stick something in it.
Right now, my space sums around 1.7TB for games, 2.6TB for HD Films, 4.3TB for TV (which is mostly 480p and 720p, very rarely 1080), and 1.0TB for everything else - music/software/SD Films/pictures/documents and so on.

 

Good to hear. As for bigger drives, as yet there aren't any!