OT: PC Gaming Hardware Thread

[drbaseball]

Yes, performance will suffer with extreme heat. If you've got no case fans, you've just got component fans (CPU, VIDEO) that are just cranking hot air into the system. With no exhaust, you're just recycling hot air. Not a recipe for high performance.

The shop just called and said they had to replace the fans. They now have the CPU at 38c. I have to go to Tucson this evening so I will be out of pocket for a while.

If I run 3dmark and continue to get really low scores would you consider the damage permanent?

[dbdynsty25]

Stop running the f'n 3d Mark. Usually components will slow down a bit if they are hot, but won't stay that way if they are properly cooled. They either die or run...you usually don't get partial damage when it comes to heat.

[drbaseball]

Stop running the f'n 3d Mark. Usually components will slow down a bit if they are hot, but won't stay that way if they are properly cooled. They either die or run...you usually don't get partial damage when it comes to heat.

Just got home. The computer will stay on for a few seconds while booting and then shut itself off. I suspect they fixed one thing but broke something else. GRRRRRR!

[dbdynsty25]

Damn, that sucks.

[DChaps]

What i'm really concerned about is whether I can play GTR2 with 36 cars on the track, full details and run the game at a solid 60FPS. That's more important than what any 3D Mark score tells me.

Hey Rodster, what you just described is literally my holy grail of PC gaming. Are you actually able to achieve this with your rig? If so what resolution and AA/AF settings do you run in GTR2? I upgraded to a 8800 GTS 320 and I still can't get above 30 fps with even 20 cars on track, let alone 36. I think I must have CPU bottleneck at this point (AMD Athlon 64 3500+).

[dbdynsty25]

I think I must have CPU bottleneck at this point (AMD Athlon 64 3500+).

Absolutely. 4 years ago, you were the man!

[Rodster]

What i'm really concerned about is whether I can play GTR2 with 36 cars on the track, full details and run the game at a solid 60FPS. That's more important than what any 3D Mark score tells me.

Hey Rodster, what you just described is literally my holy grail of PC gaming. Are you actually able to achieve this with your rig? If so what resolution and AA/AF settings do you run in GTR2? I upgraded to a 8800 GTS 320 and I still can't get above 30 fps with even 20 cars on track, let alone 36. I think I must have CPU bottleneck at this point (AMD Athlon 64 3500+).

I just upgraded from a AMD 4000+ Clawhammer to an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHZ CPU. It's paired with a nVidia 7900GTO 512MB video Ram, 4GB of G-Skill system ram running in XP.

I'm running in 1280x1024 because that's the max resolution for my 4 year old Viewsonic flat panel. All settings are maxed and i'm running 4xAA, 4xAF, Image Quality = High Quality. Also i'm running everything stock, no need to overclock the CPU, System RAM or the Video Card.

As db said your bottle neck is your CPU. I was able to achieve higher FPS with my 4000+ CPU, and 1GB of ram. GTR2 is very dependent on the CPU.

[fsquid]

What i'm really concerned about is whether I can play GTR2 with 36 cars on the track, full details and run the game at a solid 60FPS. That's more important than what any 3D Mark score tells me.

Hey Rodster, what you just described is literally my holy grail of PC gaming. Are you actually able to achieve this with your rig? If so what resolution and AA/AF settings do you run in GTR2? I upgraded to a 8800 GTS 320 and I still can't get above 30 fps with even 20 cars on track, let alone 36. I think I must have CPU bottleneck at this point (AMD Athlon 64 3500+).

I just upgraded from a AMD 4000+ Clawhammer to an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHZ CPU. It's paired with a nVidia 7900GTO 512MB video Ram, 4GB of G-Skill system ram running in XP.

I'm running in 1280x1024 because that's the max resolution for my 4 year old Viewsonic flat panel. All settings are maxed and i'm running 4xAA, 4xAF, Image Quality = High Quality. Also i'm running everything stock, no need to overclock the CPU, System RAM or the Video Card.

As db said your bottle neck is your CPU. I was able to achieve higher FPS with my 4000+ CPU, and 1GB of ram. GTR2 is very dependent on the CPU.

I think I got hard reading that.

[dbdynsty25]

I just upgraded from a AMD 4000+ Clawhammer to an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHZ CPU. It's paired with a nVidia 7900GTO 512MB video Ram, 4GB of G-Skill system ram running in XP.

Why do you have 4gb of ram? XP can't even use that much. 3GB is the max that can be allocated in XP. Vista on the other hand...but it's not like any software even comes close to using even half that.

[drbaseball]

Stop running the f'n 3d Mark. Usually components will slow down a bit if they are hot, but won't stay that way if they are properly cooled. They either die or run...you usually don't get partial damage when it comes to heat.

Just got home. The computer will stay on for a few seconds while booting and then shut itself off. I suspect they fixed one thing but broke something else. GRRRRRR!

This morning the shop couldn't even get to the bios screen. The technician began taking things apart. In the process, he noticed that whoever built the system had not even bothered to remove the protective film from the GTS8800 video card that they installed. Nice. I can't imagine that was helping the heating situation, either.

It will probably be several days before I see my new computer. My confidence that this machine will ever run like I think it should is just about down to 0.

[dbdynsty25]

This morning the shop couldn't even get to the bios screen. The technician began taking things apart. In the process, he noticed that whoever built the system had not even bothered to remove the protective film from the GTS8800 video card that they installed. Nice. I can't imagine that was helping the heating situation, either.

It will probably be several days before I see my new computer. My confidence that this machine will ever run like I think it should is just about down to 0.

You should seriously tell them to build you a new one. There is no way you'll know in the future if an issue you see is because it's a new symptom or if this beating it is taking now is the cause (long term).

[drbaseball]

This morning the shop couldn't even get to the bios screen. The technician began taking things apart. In the process, he noticed that whoever built the system had not even bothered to remove the protective film from the GTS8800 video card that they installed. Nice. I can't imagine that was helping the heating situation, either.

It will probably be several days before I see my new computer. My confidence that this machine will ever run like I think it should is just about down to 0.

You should seriously tell them to build you a new one. There is no way you'll know in the future if an issue you see is because it's a new symptom or if this beating it is taking now is the cause (long term).

Yeah, I'm actually hoping as many parts as possible are fried, thus forcing them to supply new components. I can't believe I spent $1,400 for this kind of aggrevation.

[Rodster]

I just upgraded from a AMD 4000+ Clawhammer to an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHZ CPU. It's paired with a nVidia 7900GTO 512MB video Ram, 4GB of G-Skill system ram running in XP.

Why do you have 4gb of ram? XP can't even use that much. 3GB is the max that can be allocated in XP. Vista on the other hand...but it's not like any software even comes close to using even half that.

You're right db. I got the extra 2GB cause it was on sale at newegg for $80 plus free shipping. I just turned off the swap file. Once MS gets it's ass in gear with Vista IF that ever happens my system will be ready for the OS.

Also it's exactly the same G-Skill RAM I purchased in my initial upgrade.

[Rodster]

This morning the shop couldn't even get to the bios screen. The technician began taking things apart. In the process, he noticed that whoever built the system had not even bothered to remove the protective film from the GTS8800 video card that they installed. Nice. I can't imagine that was helping the heating situation, either.

It will probably be several days before I see my new computer. My confidence that this machine will ever run like I think it should is just about down to 0.

You should seriously tell them to build you a new one. There is no way you'll know in the future if an issue you see is because it's a new symptom or if this beating it is taking now is the cause (long term).

Yeah, I'm actually hoping as many parts as possible are fried, thus forcing them to supply new components. I can't believe I spent $1,400 for this kind of aggrevation.

Sorry to hear about your hassles with that builder. That's why I ALWAYS BUILD MY OWN SYSTEMS! I have a higher standard of putting things together than the average computer shop.

You should not have all those problems if they knew what they were doing which they obviously don't. My Intel upgrade only cost me $500 and that included a 400GB Samsung HDD.

[drbaseball]

You should seriously tell them to build you a new one. There is no way you'll know in the future if an issue you see is because it's a new symptom or if this beating it is taking now is the cause (long term).

Yeah, I'm actually hoping as many parts as possible are fried, thus forcing them to supply new components. I can't believe I spent $1,400 for this kind of aggrevation.

Sorry to hear about your hassles with that builder. That's why I ALWAYS BUILD MY OWN SYSTEMS! I have a higher standard of putting things together than the average computer shop.

You should not have all those problems if they knew what they were doing which they obviously don't. My Intel upgrade only cost me $500 and that included a 400GB Samsung HDD.

Thanks for the condolences.

I seriously thought about finally building my own. I know enough to be able to determine what I want, but am not confident enough to think I could put it together on my own. I am 100% sure, however, that I would have remembered to take the protective sleeve off the video card.

[Rodster]

Thanks for the condolences.

I seriously thought about finally building my own. I know enough to be able to determine what I want, but am not confident enough to think I could put it together on my own. I am 100% sure, however, that I would have remembered to take the protective sleeve off the video card.

It's actually quite easy to assemble a computer. It's actually quite difficult to muck it up like that shop did, if we can call them that. It usually takes me around 45 minutes on average to assemble a computer. That includes starting from scratch with a new Case.

[drbaseball]

Thanks for the condolences.

I seriously thought about finally building my own. I know enough to be able to determine what I want, but am not confident enough to think I could put it together on my own. I am 100% sure, however, that I would have remembered to take the protective sleeve off the video card.

It's actually quite easy to assemble a computer. It's actually quite difficult to muck it up like that shop did, if we can call them that. It usually takes me around 45 minutes on average to assemble a computer. That includes starting from scratch with a new Case.

Yeah, I keep hearing that. I am one of those people who is well educated (PhD) but zero mechanical/engineering skill. What overwhelms me the most are all the electrical hookups coming from the power supply.

It is starting to look like I may end up with a system that can't do a darn thing. If that is the case I can practice taking things apart and putting them back together in advance of building my own system.

[LAking]

Thanks for the condolences.

I seriously thought about finally building my own. I know enough to be able to determine what I want, but am not confident enough to think I could put it together on my own. I am 100% sure, however, that I would have remembered to take the protective sleeve off the video card.

It's actually quite easy to assemble a computer. It's actually quite difficult to muck it up like that shop did, if we can call them that. It usually takes me around 45 minutes on average to assemble a computer. That includes starting from scratch with a new Case.

Yeah, I keep hearing that. I am one of those people who is well educated (PhD) but zero mechanical/engineering skill. What overwhelms me the most are all the electrical hookups coming from the power supply.

It is starting to look like I may end up with a system that can't do a darn thing. If that is the case I can practice taking things apart and putting them back together in advance of building my own system.

You need almost zero mechanical/engineering skills to build a PC. Knowing what parts to buy is probably the hardest part unless you have to make some changes in the BIOS, which is normally not the case for a standard build. Every kind of power connector or what not will only fit into one place, and that's the right place. If you can't find a place for it than it's probably not needed.

[drbaseball]

This morning the shop couldn't even get to the bios screen. The technician began taking things apart. In the process, he noticed that whoever built the system had not even bothered to remove the protective film from the GTS8800 video card that they installed. Nice. I can't imagine that was helping the heating situation, either.

It will probably be several days before I see my new computer. My confidence that this machine will ever run like I think it should is just about down to 0.

You should seriously tell them to build you a new one. There is no way you'll know in the future if an issue you see is because it's a new symptom or if this beating it is taking now is the cause (long term).

Yeah, I'm actually hoping as many parts as possible are fried, thus forcing them to supply new components. I can't believe I spent $1,400 for this kind of aggrevation.

Stoppped by this afternoon thinking they might have things fixed. The latest news is that the data on the hard drive is corrupted due to so many "bad sectors." The owner then asked me how the sectors could be bad when this is a brand new drive? How the heck am I supposed to know?? I then had to go home and retrieve my system disks.

So, on top of everything else, all of my work in Bioshock (75% complete) and Madden 08 (in the AFC Championship game) is hosed. GRRRRRRR!!

[Rodster]

Stoppped by this afternoon thinking they might have things fixed. The latest news is that the data on the hard drive is corrupted due to so many "bad sectors." The owner then asked me how the sectors could be bad when this is a brand new drive? How the heck am I supposed to know?? I then had to go home and retrieve my system disks.

So, on top of everything else, all of my work in Bioshock (75% complete) and Madden 08 (in the AFC Championship game) is hosed. GRRRRRRR!!

Did you pay with a credit card for this nightmare? If so call your credit card company ASAP and ask them if you qualify for a product guarantee.

This is from experience as I use to work on midrange and mainframe systems back in the 80's. What probably caused data corruption is due to excessive HEAT. If a hard drive becomes to hot the platters expands with the heat. So if you write data to a disk surface that has physically expanded from heat. The data will not be in the same location when the hard drive cools down.

You mentioned the fans were not working and you were doing 3d mark test. That in itself will drive the internal temperature of the system too high especially when the system starts to throttle back due to excessive heat in the system. When that happens the hard drive will also get to hot as well.

I had this happen to me with a system I had purchased from MicronPC back in the late 90's. The used a similar system much like the Xbox 360 where they closed off the front and used rear exhaust fans to blow out all the hot air in the systems. Well I used the system as a gaming rig. The system got so hot that I could feel the heat from my disk drives.

I went to turn on the system one day and it wouldn't boot. It said their was no operating system...huh? It was right what happened was that the drive got so hot that all the data on the drive was no longer being read after it cooled down. I had to format the drive and start over. This happened several times so finally my solution was to remove the side cover and the problem went away for good.

That was the last prebuilt system I ever purchased. Ever since I have built my own PC's. Demand your money back from theose morons.

p.s. Cheap ass power supplies can cause this problem as well. You could also have a bad drive from the heat in the system when it was running with no fans. I like how they put the blame on you when they disconnected the fans and left the plastic wrapping on the videocard, nice.

[drbaseball]

You should seriously tell them to build you a new one. There is no way you'll know in the future if an issue you see is because it's a new symptom or if this beating it is taking now is the cause (long term).

Yeah, I'm actually hoping as many parts as possible are fried, thus forcing them to supply new components. I can't believe I spent $1,400 for this kind of aggrevation.

Stoppped by this afternoon thinking they might have things fixed. The latest news is that the data on the hard drive is corrupted due to so many "bad sectors." The owner then asked me how the sectors could be bad when this is a brand new drive? How the heck am I supposed to know?? I then had to go home and retrieve my system disks.

So, on top of everything else, all of my work in Bioshock (75% complete) and Madden 08 (in the AFC Championship game) is hosed. GRRRRRRR!!

Now they are saying the CPU is fried. I guess this is good news as they have ordered a replacement. They claim that everything else is good.

We'll see.

[fsquid]

I'm also in the category of thinking I would feck up something by trying to put one together.

[Rodster]

I'm also in the category of thinking I would feck up something by trying to put one together.

I seriously doubt that. Today's PC components are geared for the D.I.Y.'s. There is very little thought required in putting a system together. But if you really feel unnerved by the whole experience then your best bet would be to buy a customized system by Dell.

If drbaseball had gone the Dell route not only would he have saved money but also a lot of aggravation as well.

[fsquid]

How many parts go into a system?

[fsquid]

How many parts go into a system?