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Hello all,

Basically im building a new PC. Ive gone through all the hardware and I think all the stuff compatible, but I would please LIKE a secondary opinion, or even third
So here it all is:

Mobo: Asus B85-PLUS Intel B85
(http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-579-AS)

Case: Antec 302 Three Hundred Two Ultimate Gaming Case - Black
(http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-174-AN)

PSU: Cooler Master B Series 600w Power Supply
(http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-330-CM)

Graphics: GTX 760
(http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-223-EA)

Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K
(http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-404-IN&groupid=701&catid=6)

I dont need to purchase any RAM as I have some, its just standard Kingston 1333. I have 8GB via 4x2GB sticks. Im aware that the case isn't great but I'm not especially bothered. Its big enough. Finally, the processor and motherboard I have osme queries about. The mobo says it is 1150 socket, and im 99% sure that that is the one that my Ivy Bridge processor uses. Its just the mobo says nothing about Ivy Bridge, just Haswell.
So yes, any confirmation that this will all be OKAY would be great.
Thanks all

ChrisIvy Bridge and  Haswell are not the same.
For the link you gave it says:
Quote

- LGA1150 socket for 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7/ i5/ i3/Pentium®/Celeron® Processors
- Supports 22nm CPU

LGA 1150,[1] also called Socket H3, is an Intel microprocessor compatible socket which supports the Intel Haswell microprocessor and its future successor, Broadwell.  LGA 1150 is designed as a replacement for the LGA 1155 (known as Socket H2). LGA 1150 has 1150 protruding pins to make contact with the pads on the processor.

Windows 7
Firefox browser. (Also tried with Opera and IE)
COMODO firewall.
AVAST anti spyware
Winpatrol
Spyware blaster.

Don't blame anyone not speaking to me, but now my computer speakers have ceased working! They worked yesterday and I have not changed anything.

Tried a set of speakers that WORK on another PC. They play Windows start and close down noise. Also work when PLAYING CD. But nothing on You Tube or elsewhere on line.
I have checked volume control set high.

Done Fujitsu system check.

Checked for nasties by running scans with Avast, Malwarebytes, Superantispyware. All clear.
Problem is only on line. USE any program on computer and it make appropriate noise!

Any helpful suggestions please? UPDATE:

Can play tunes from :
http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/1915.htm

But still not on You Tube. I must be missing something?You might have tried but an obvious check - While playing youtube, there is a volume control slider below the video itself. Try moving it to higher SIDE and check. Quote from: PCdoc on October 05, 2013, 09:17:29 AM

You might have tried but an obvious check - While playing youtube, there is a volume control slider below the video itself. Try moving it to higher side and check.

Would this rig setup work out? 
It's not exactly my money that I'm spending, some one is being nice enough to help me upgrade my computer a little bit, so I can't really be suggested higher performance parts.. this really fills my budget to the brim.

http://www.gooeypc.com/beta/gooeygui.aspx?public_rigid=13461

I might add that I have a rosewill RD600, a 600 watt power supply. The site BUGS out when I attempt to add it to the rig. I also have a basic usb 2.0 keyboard, and a 19" monitor that connects through DVI. I already have most of these parts, I'm just trying to "upgrade" a little, with the motherboard, cpu, memory, case, mouse, and hard drive.

I just want to know if all of this is compatible with each other, I've looked into the specs, and all seem to match, like the cpu to the motherboards AM3+ socket and that the motherboard supports FX cpu's. Stuff like that I checked out, but I'm calling on professionals to see if I missed anything.
The CPU supposedly comes with the fan and heatsink and the "coolant gel". 

Thank you for your time! 

Edit: Oh! and the video card doesn't exactly match mine. The one I have is PCIe 2.0, and it's Sapphire.The RD600 PSU isn't amazing, but it's not terrible.  I would suggest going with a better unit, though.
Everything is compatible, yes, but I wouldn't get an MSI motherboard due to reliability, and I wouldn't get the Western Digital Black HDD either as they're usually priced higher than the competition without the performance to justify it, unless you really *really* want the 5 year warranty.
I know you didn't ask for suggestions, but if you let us know your budget & where you're buying from, we may be able to suggest a better build without increasing the cost.I also AGREE with Callum in his points. MSI are not well known for their build quality. A recommended motherboard would be an ASUS brand board, some argue Gigabyte is good too but over all my years dealing with computers I have had the least trouble with ASUS boards .

Again agreeing with Callum the WD black is only really worth it if you are looking for the extended warranty. A WD green or WD blue would likely give you a bit more storage capacity with a very small (if any) reduction in transfer speeds. I have WD Green drives and still regularly see transfer rates of 80-100MB/s between drives.

To answer your main question however yes another +1 to this set would work together.Not to be blunt but never..ever suggest a WD Green HDD...
Highest failure rate in the industry. Quote from: patio on October 02, 2013, 05:56:13 PM

Not to be blunt but never..ever suggest a WD Green HDD...
Highest failure rate in the industry.

......real shame when they (WD, sic) bought Hitachi and Samsung bought Seagate.

In  no way did i intend to cast aspersions on WD as a manufacturer...
I've had nothing but good luck with both the Caviar and Black lines of HDD's...

I simply meant to state the Green series are pure junk.

I personally have never had an issue with them. My WD Greens run practically 24/7 and have been going strong for 4+ years. I have had more issues with Seagate drives dying on me. Perhaps different countries / working environments for our drives. Best drives I have ever had. When working in a repair environment I saw many broken Seagate, Samsung, Toshiba, and Hitachi drives. We dealt solely in WD replacements and never had a return.

Perhaps NZ gets all the good Green drives?

Hey, I just got my custom built pc in the mail TODAY and I want to transfer music and files from my old HDD to the new one. I have  a Seagate 1TB Goflex External HDD that I have disassembled. I am trying to use the usb connector of the external and attach it to the internal hdd that is mounted in a bracket outside of my pc. The connector shows it is getting power, but is not being read from my pc. Any help or suggestions are appreciated Is windows running on this new computer when you CONNECT the USB cable to introduce this old hard drive? With windows running, it should detect this drive as an external if the old drive is healthy and if the external USB/SATA guts are good.Im not using the actual external HDD. Just the connector piece that is attached to the case, to which the usb cable connects to the external. Im using it to go from Internal to InternalWhy not just simply hook up the old drive internally as a slave in the new PC ? ?The way that the BRACKETS are inside I would have to disassemble a lot of the PC just to mount it. I just went old school and tossed it back in the old pc and am using a spare 1tb external to transfer.Also... if the external hard drive is one that normally houses a 2.5" Laptop type HDD and you attach a 3.5" Desktop type HDD to it, you will run into troubles as for there are different power requirements between 2.5" and 3.5" HDD's.

If the drive that came in the external is the same size in dimensions as the drive you are attaching to it then this shouldnt be the cause.

If it is a 3.5" desktop type hard drive that the external houses, then you also have to have the power supply connected to this setup, the same as how it would be powered normally as an external 3.5" drive. The 2.5" external drives are powered off of USB power on most of them. Quote from: reaper2191 on OCTOBER 02, 2013, 07:58:33 AM

The way that the brackets are inside I would have to disassemble a lot of the PC just to mount it. I just went old school and tossed it back in the old pc and am using a spare 1tb external to transfer.

I have an AMD FX 6300 on an ASRock 970. We built the computer in the spring and have had it working since (There have been some problems in the meantime that mgiht be relevant, I'll get to them later). Last week, the computer stopped working entirely: I power it on, and after about 10 seconds I get a 5-beep error code. Nothing is POSTed on the monitor (the monitor doesn't even power on to indicate it's receiving signal). I can't find my mobo manual anywhere, but cursory googling tells me that 5 beeps is a processor problem. We've tried booting without hard drives or graphics cards, problem persists. There's no obvious damage to the CPU or board.

Additional background:

• Since the computer was built, I've had a very strange bug. I discovered it when I was trying to install a Linux (Mint KDE 14). As weird as it sounds, if I sit too long in anything EXCEPT Windows, the monitors stop receiving signal. This includes sitting in BIOS.
  
• For the past month or so occasionally after rebooting, Windows tells me that one of my partitions is corrupted and needs to be chkdsk'ed. I let disk repair run and usually that's the end of it for a week or so. However, this problem is made worse by the above, because chkdsk requires me to sit outside Windows for several minutes. However, it seems that even though the monitors stop receiving signal, the computer still runs, because chkdsk finishes even after the signal goes out.

I had the same error code of 5 beeps. I swapped processors, and had the same error code in my case. The 8150 tested fine on an m5a97 in another case.
Thankfully, I continued reading replies, and after despairing, swapped cases. I'd been working in a Raidmax Scorpio, which doesn't have the best reputation. After rebuilding in a quality Thermaltake Armor case, the system worked pefectly. Hooray!

I have always wanted to get myself an SSD. Imagine, everything opening up on click, tiny boot times, no freezes, but the price for a full blown 64gb SSD was way more than I could afford so I started looking for smaller sizes and eventually this turned up. A tiny SSD made by KingSpec, supposedly good Chinese firm that specializes in SSD's. The price was great and the size was enough for me to use it for caching and to install some small apps on it. Now here's the question.

While I was checking the specifications, I noticed it said "SUSTAINED read" and "Sustained write" speeds. Read speed is 50MB/s and write speed is 14MB/s. Now, multiple benchmarks of my hard drive show that it can easily reach up to 120MB/s sequential read speed. This is a little fishy to me, SSD being slower than a hard drive. Could anybody please expand on "sequential" and "sustained" speeds. Is this SSD worth getting and is it faster than my hard drive? The speed graph is in the attachment if anybody needs it for comparison and here's the link for the SSD.

Link removed...

Thanks upfront.

[recovering disk space, attachment deleted by admin](For anyone who does not want to follow the link, it leads to an eBay ad for a "Kingspec 8GB 2CH 2.5″ SATA II SSD 50MB/S MLC NAND Flash Solid State Hard Disk" for $17.99

Quote from: CrashBX on October 01, 2013, 07:03:42 AM

This is a little fishy to me, SSD being slower than a hard drive.

Could anybody please expand on "sequential" and "sustained" speeds.

Really?  How odd, I've never encountered a chipset that wouldn't work at all with an SSD.

If you fancy just trying out an SSD, to see how well it works, I have a few spare smaller drives, wouldn't mind loaning you one to see how it goes.

I have an emachine that the vga output broke on, I don't have any idea how it HAPPENED. I need the files that are on the desktop and that's it. I've been trying to hook my laptop to it via network and a usb to vga cable but cant figure it out. It's an older machine so i don't want to spend money to fix it. Please any help WOULD be greatly appreciated.If you only have the laptop, get ONE of these for the desktop hard drive.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002
Thanks for the immediate response, is that the only way though? Is there any way, other then the network, to hook my laptop to it.
 The method suggested by computer_commondo is better and easy than network. The converter shown above CONVERTS your desktop hard drive to usb. the hard drive can be attached EXTERNALLY to your laptop just like external hdd and is easy to transfer data.

Hi i was just thinking is there any way i can upgrade my acer aspire one netbooks cpu, ram, or my gpu.

Here are my specs

MODEL: ACER ASPIRE ONE 725

OS: Windows 7 64 - BIT Home Premium Service Pack 1

Processor: AMD C-60 APU 1.0 GHz - 1.333 GHz

RAM: 4096 MB

GPU: AMD RADEON 6290


Unfortunately...No.
It is what it is.then can i at least upgrade the ram to 6 or 8 Gigabytes Not that i saw in the laptops reviews...the Acer site is down right now.well do you know any good games i can play on itI'm not a Gamer...however we have a whole section dedicated to it...you may WANT to ask in there.With a NETBOOK like that your limiting factor is your CPU/APU - 4gb of RAM is plenty.

You cannot replace the CPU/GPU.

Netbooks really aren't designed for gaming - They are fine for office tasks and web browsing but if you want a machine for gaming your best bet would be to sell the netbook and put the money towards a new machine.

On a machine like that, UPGRADING the RAM beyond 4gb will make no difference so you would just be wasting money.then do you know of any good gaming laptops/desktops i can get for under $800Just MHO but the terms gaming and laptop should never be used in the same sentence...
Just opinion.As patio stated you are usually better with a desktop for gaming, as you already have a netbook for portable stuff getting a nice desktop would probably be your best bet.

For gaming the two best options would be to build it yourself (My choice) or to buy it from a specialised custom computer manufacturer such as Cyberpower.  If you find ANYTHING you would like an opinion on or would like advice on building one yourself I'd be happy to help.

I'm pretty much a newb  and I need some HELP... Is the HP ENVY Sleekbook 6, unmodified, a computer that comes WITHOUT a CD drive?   http://www.cnet.com/laptops/hp-envy-sleekbook-6/4507-3121_7-35339027.html

Stats do not include optical driveIt's very COMMON nowadays for laptops to not include optical DRIVES.  The drives themselves are pretty LARGE and as a result they need to be removed to allow laptops to be smaller/thinner/lighter.

I never feel the need for optical drives in a laptop nowadays (Haven't had a laptop with one for over a year and never missed it) but you can always get an external one to connect over USB if you ever need one.

I have this older emachine w3502 with xp. I couldn't get it to even turn on, so I got my HD READER out and CONNECTED the HD to my other computer and formatted it. Well without thinking now I have no os on it LOL.....so I took one of my other HD laying around and connected that to the xp computer and nothing come up. My question is....what do I do now? I also tried to plug that HD that I formatted into my computer again and tried to load the os back on with the cd but it wouldnt let me. What can I do now to get it working? Please help.

Lisa Quote from: lisa38 on October 08, 2013, 10:16:15 AM

I have this older emachine w3502 with xp. I couldn't get it to even turn on...

No power or computer does not turn on

Hi,
I have the above PRINTER which I can't SEEM to GET printing at the 1440dpi, it states it can do that size but all I seem to get is 720 on any photo PAPER, any help is truly appreciated.
Many thanks, WAYNE.

4th Gen CORE i5
Intel DB85FL motherboard
6450 AMD Radeon 2GB Graphics Card
4 GB RAM
500GB HDD

Is 450w smps sufficient or does the above config require minimum 500W SMPS?450w SOUNDS good.

Trying to print images(4X6) and every print(regardless of the image) comes out with a faded 1/4 inch panel on the LAST inch of print. Tried printing on another printer and they are fine. Any suggestions WOULD be GREATLY appreciated. The printer is a Canon Pixma iP6600D. Thank youCan you PLEASE post a scanned image or a snapshot of the print as an example?

My sister has a problem chatting over Skype. She's using a Turtle Beach X12 HEADSET, which she plugs into the mic and headphone JACKS on the laptop. Sometimes during the call she wants to switch over and talk without a headset. When she unplugs the headphone jack (green), the computer defaults BACK to the built-in laptop speakers. When she unplugs the mic cable, though, the built in laptop mic is muted so I can barely hear her. Her OS is Windows 7. Anybody have any idea what the problem might be here and how to FIX it? Thanks.Rather than unplugging the headset just leave it plugged in and go into skype settings then audio/video settings and change the audio devices drop down boxes to the laptop speaker/mic.

Hi, I recently bought my Computer (this summer), with pretty good specs so I know it's more than capable than running what I am trying to run but simply doesn't.

I'm trying to run:

League of Legends client (Online game)

TeamSpeak 3

Google Chrome, 2 or 3 tabs of SAY Facebook/YouTube for example.

when I have these open, my FPS will drop from say 400 to 190, or if I have it capped at 60, it will drop to say 40. Also the whole computer begins to 'lag' as sound begins to buffer/stutter from music or on TeamSpeak, my ping ingame will sometimes increase, and everything will just be massively slow, even when moving my mouse across the screen it will seem like my whole Computer is running on 5FPS. Something must be wrong but I have no idea what, I run Malwarebytes/CCleaner EVERY week or so and there's rarely ever problems but when there is they are MINOR and fixed immediately and it does also appear my fan is working, but it seems to be gradually getting worse and I don't know how to fix it.

These are my specs:





It's really frustrating only being able to run one of these processes when my CPU usage with all of them open barely even scratches the 10% mark.

Please help!You need to scour the MSI website (it'll be painful ) to see how to utilise the i7 fully on that board...
Best of Luck.
Shouldn't have scrimped on the MBoard.I would perhaps try a BIOS update as there are several FIXES listed in the revisions since your current BIOS version.
Also, try running GPU-Z or MSI Afterburner to monitor your GPU usage and temperatures.  I suspect it's maxing your GPU, in which case disabling hardware acceleration in Flash and Chrome may help.

I have a Toshiba satellite C660-11k that wont power up. the external power light shows and when I hit the start button the laptop light comes on for a minute then goes off. No fans are heard no optical drive STARTS up. I have bought a new battery, tried installing from disc, and removed optical drive in case that was fouling the start up. I have come to the conclusion it may be a motherboard issue. I have fixed my own laptops with several software and hardware faults but never done a motherboard and with the cost of a new one it may be worth scrapping and buying another laptop. I would be very happy for other ideas or CONFIRMATION of my conclusion. Thanks in a advance If you are able to take your laptop apart, take out the motherboard (mobo). Place it on a clean and dry table (As a  precaution, keep a newspaper with at least 2-3 folds between table and mobo)

1) Connect the charger / ADAPTER to the mobo and try powering on. You may need to only connect part of or the whole panel of the laptop which contains power button. (if power button is not soldered on the mobo). If still same problem, try next.
2) Take out RAM modules, clean the socket of the RAM with a clean / un used paint BRUSH. Clean firmly, never apply too much or any pressure. NEVER USE CLOTH to clean mobo or nearby components. If you have two RAM modules, try with one by one.
3) Re-seat CMOS battery.
4) When you turn on the motherboard,  keep your one finger (dry) on the heatsink / CPU and check if you feel heat.
5) check fans
6) Re-seat processor.

Post back results.Thank you. I shall wait until I build up my courage and the house is empty and then try what you suggest and let you know. I have never taken the laptop apart quite that far before lol. It may be a short while before I come back with results once I have had the CHANCE to do the job. Mind you I have little to lose because without trying what you suggest the thing dosnt work anyway !!

Windows Vista

Trying to upload video from a Canon GL2 through my firewire.

I have not used the firewire for about 8 months but it worked then and now it does not recognize my camera.

The DEVICE manager shows the firewire is working and I have tried updating the DRIVERS, it says that I have the most CURRENT drivers.

Any HELP WOULD be greatly appreciated.

Thanx

Hello, I was wondering if someone can help me to fix this problem I have since I cleaned the printhead. It prints horizontal blue lines like the ones in the pic.... What is wrong?
thank you for any advice! 

[recovering disk space, attachment deleted by admin]Try running a PRINT head alignment from the MENU on the printer or if it does not have one from the printer configuration window. If that does not solve your issue try another cleaning.

If neither of those solves your issue I would SUGGEST looking for a new printer. With a good deal you can get a new printer with new INK cartridges for the same price as a set of new cartridges. If your printer is a recent MODEL you should be abel to find another printer that will take your existing cartridges too.I tried already the alignment with no significant results.... Apart from print alignment there should be more options like Clean Print roller. Try all of them. If it still prints those lines, your printer needs a service. For which you may have to take it to nearby service center or any repair shop that services a printer.thank you... if I can't save it I think it will end in the garbage.... unfortunately a new one will cost less than a service by an expert...

Hi I have a new COMPUTER, a Dell Ispiron15 and I print coupons. I am trying to get this computer to do what my old one did, which is I tell a particular coupon to print on a particular website and it goes to print que until I hook up printer, this computer is  asking to SAVE to file unless I am hooked up to printer right then. Is there a way to get it just accumulate my print items? I do not have my printer accessible at all times and coupons are all over the place on web , its a big inconvenience to hook up at each site. Or MAYBE there is a quick way to save all these files then print enmass? I did not know if its my new computer, WINDOWS 8 or a printer ISSUE? Thanks DariaWindows has a provision to save your documents to files. Later, these can be printed. Keeping documents in the printer spool is not the recommnd3d method. Well, it sounds good to me. And sometimes I do that. But MS does not listen to people like me. You have to do it their way.

So.. Here is how .they want us to do it.
Print to the Microsoft XPS Document Writer
Quote

XPS documents are easy to share because you can view them on any computer where an XPS viewer is installed, even if the computer doesn't have the same programs that you used to create the original documents.

I would like to replace my 13 yr old  Compaq CRT monitor with something a little bigger and more modern looking. I am considering an ASUS  VS 228H-P which seems to get good REVIEWS and fits my budget. My PC is also old - about 6 years. It is a HP Pavillon a1600n. Would the new ASUS plug into and work with my old PC? Thanks.

If it matters, I do not do gaming or watch movies on my PC. My main concerns are larger easier to read text and aesthetics.I dnt think that will matter
I could replace my CRT (2002 build) with a samsung LED 6 MONTHS back.
But I believe, 13 year old computer is something you should consider changing. Should save a lot of our precious time.
The only thing you really need to consider is EOL (End of life) technology. Your CRT is going to be a VGA plug which is considered EOL. THe ASUS will have DVI and HDMI plugins. I would consider adding an updated video card and CONTINUE to move forward with upgrading to the most current hardware you can afford. This will save you money in the long run. Just make sure you get a video card that will work on your older PC.

And yes, I would consider updating your PC. Even if you have systems/software that you need to run on the older OS, there are ways around tha. Quote from: chinju on October 14, 2013, 06:55:31 AM

I dnt think that will matter
I could replace my CRT (2002 build) with a samsung LED 6 months back.
But I believe, 13 year old computer is something you should consider changing. Should save a lot of our precious time.

The only thing you really need to consider is EOL (End of life) technology. Your CRT is going to be a VGA plug which is considered EOL. THe ASUS will have DVI and HDMI plugins. I would consider adding an updated video card and continue to move forward with upgrading to the most current hardware you can afford. This will save you money in the long run. Just make sure you get a video card that will work on your older PC.

And yes, I would consider updating your PC. Even if you have systems/software that you need to run on the older OS, there are ways around tha.

Hi is there anyone who KNOWS if i can build a $200 PC that can at least play BF3 in low SETTINGS?Sure.
But first, is this what you mean?
http://www.battlefield.com/battlefield3

If so, could you just list what you think are the lowest settings?
How about limit colors to 256? No?
Maybe a screen of only 800 by 600? In not, what?
What about FPS? Would 24 fps do for you? Has some kicker and jitter.


What I an saying is CH is not a chat room. It really helps if you can state the full details on the first post.

Minimum requirements for Battlefield 3

    OS: Windows Vista or Windows 7
    Processor: Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or Althon X2 2.7 GHz
    RAM: 2GB
    Graphic card: DirectX 10 or 11 compatible Nvidia or AMD ATI card, ATI Radeon 3870 or higher, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT or higher.
    GRAPHICS card memory: 512 MB
    Sound card: DirectX compatibl sound card
    Hard drive: 15 GB for disc version or 10 GB for digital version

Do you already have a legal copy of Vista or Windows 7?



yes i do mean battlefield 3 and what i mean by the lowest settings i mean everything on video settings set down to the lowest so i can play it at least 30 fps and yes i do have a legal copy of windows 7.all that i want to know is if i can build a pc for $200 that can at least play battlefield 3 at 30 fpsOK. Here is what I think. Get a goof used PC that has no OS and no video card. They almost give them away. Here is one I saw on eBay:

DELL OPTIPLEX 740 2.3 GHZ Dual Core AMD
2GB RAM 160 GB HARD DRIVE,  KB/MOUSE

The price is under  $150. The on board video is so-so. But for the money you save, you could buy a good used NVIDIA card. Look around and maybe find one that does not need a lot of power.

I imagine you have a old monitor. If not, maybe a friend has one they will just give you. Even old monitors look good with the right video card.

IMO, the AMD CPU should give  BIT better performance for the money.
The simple answer is no, unfortunately.  You'll need to up your budget significantly for any kind of modern gaming.
The PC linked above has an ancient CPU, and won't take a decent graphics card.

My laptop currently has a 320 GB HDD, which I upgraded from the ~200 GB HDD back in 2012 after I bought it on ebay.  this laptop has a Core 2 DUO 2 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 256 MB Nvidia graphics card, I'm very glad I bought this laptop, all's fine with it, etc.

but I'd like to upgrade it to a 1 TB HDD using this drive new HDD I bought and a month ago I bought a SATA HDD enclosure for notebook HDD's. My Dell laptop can be set from the BIOS either for IDE or SATA. currently I have it set for IDE b/c of the 320 GB HDD upgrade I did on it after I got it. this laptop has XP_sp3 on it, and I hope to keep it that way as the host OS so I can use a NUMBER of guest OS's on it thru VMWare Player, and use other applications on it.
 
I understand that in order to use this new 1 TB HDD I have to set it to SATA, but before I do this, I'd like to clone my OS/desktop using one of these cloning utilities ***here***   on my current OS/installed applications/desktop/settings/device drivers, etc so before I do anything, could you guys please chime in and let me know which of these cloning software (I wish to stick with this free software on this webpge I linked to, please) I should use that would best fit my needs?

Additionally, could you please tell me what to do step by step please (I've never did this before, but I'd love very much to do so)?

thanks in advance.I have Ghosted Windows XP Pro SP3 from a smaller drive to a larger drive using a USB external drive before, but havent played with Ghost and drives larger than 500GB.

Its too bad its not Windows 7 because windows 7 has a great built in image utility that I was introduced to by a member here when i was looking for a way to Ghost Image 7, and it works really well and its free.

Acronis True Image you might be able to use if your hard drive is WD or another brand that supports its use as part of the drive purchase.

What is the make/model# of the 1TB hard drive ... to see if there is a tool available to make this as painless as possible for you?Keep your BIOS settings the same - it sounds as if it's in IDE emulation mode at the minute, changing it to SATA (probably meaning AHCI) will mean the storage driver won't cope, so it involves a bit more messing around for no gains on a HDD.  If you were upgrading to an SSD, I'd say differently, because AHCI mode makes a huge difference on those.
Anyway, I would recommend Macrium Reflect, I've been using it for years and never had a problem.  The basic process is as follows.  Format the drive you want to clone to, and have it connected up via USB.  Open Reflect, and there's an option, simple as that, to clone the entire drive.  Clone your current drive to the drive connected via USB, wait for it to finish.  Power down, swap the drives, power on, and you're good to go.
It really is that simple, Reflect makes this sort of thing really easy. Quote from: DaveLembke on September 07, 2013, 08:10:38 PM

What is the make/model# of the 1TB hard drive ... to see if there is a tool available to make this as painless as possible for you?

Keep your BIOS settings the same - it sounds as if it's in IDE emulation mode at the minute, changing it to SATA (probably meaning AHCI) will mean the storage driver won't cope, so it involves a bit more messing around for no gains on a HDD.  If you were upgrading to an SSD, I'd say differently, because AHCI mode makes a huge difference on those.

Anyway, I would recommend Macrium Reflect, I've been using it for years and never had a problem.  The basic process is as follows.  Format the drive you want to clone to, and have it connected up via USB.  Open Reflect, and there's an option, simple as that, to clone the entire drive.  Clone your current drive to the drive connected via USB, wait for it to finish.  Power down, swap the drives, power on, and you're good to go.
It really is that simple, Reflect makes this sort of thing really easy.

currently the maximum storage capable in a laptop hard drive is 500GB this is because the hard drive platter (disk) is smaller than a desktop hard drive and so less space is available..

Why in the world would they believe it wouldn't work?  I would hazard a guess they may not be as tech......

I have a GATEWAY NV57h50u laptop with Windows 7. The other day I went to wake it up by opening the lid and pushing the POWER button like I always do. I noticed that the power bottun was light up but there was no reply when I moved the mouse so I hit the power button and ever since then when I try to charge it the power light and two lights, one is the battery and the other looks like a lightbulb, have been FLASHING. I have shut the COMPUTER off and RESTARTED it. I have also change the tip. Could I have messed something up when I logged into the laptop after I noticed the light for the power being on?Hi,

If you have not tried earlier, please try these methods:

1) While the laptop is powered off, take off the battery from the laptop, plug in the charger and try to turn on the laptop without the battery. If does not work try next.
2) Try a different charger and / or check DC voltages of the charger using a volt meter.
3) Try to re-seat RAM modules. Also try one by one if you have two modules.
4) Try a power reset. Instructions on how to do can be found on this link: http://tinyurl.com/kajwno4

Please post back results.

HI

My computer hang sometime while playing games, play high quality movies after force restart computer hang on windows loading or hang on windows system tray icon loading screen it's happen 2-3 time  after that computer works smooth no hang.

windows not give any ERROR/ no BSOD code about hang problem
It's not regular problem ( happen only sometime )

CPU : 2.53 Celeron
MB   : 845gv MAIN board
RAM : 1gb(400 Mhz) and 256mb (333 Mhz)
OS   : Windows 7

Plz Help me to solve this problem
Thanks In advance1) Using different frequencies on a motherboard can make your comp SLOW as your motherboard will use the lowest speed possible.
2) Your computer CONFIGURATION is too old and ancient for the operating system and applications you are running.
You can try installing windows xp as it will be more compatible in terms of performance. If xp also experiences issues, then surely your hardware needs diagnosed. I would have to disagree -- Microsoft says:
 
If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it takes:

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver Quote from: giardmi09 on October 07, 2013, 06:30:19 AM

I would have to disagree -- Microsoft says:
 
If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it takes:

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Need suggestion in buying a new CPU. I have the LCD monitor of old computer.

What I plan is to buy a 
1) ASUS mother board  (Any other preference?)
2) AMD processor
3) Should have USB 3.0 SUPPORT
3) DDR3 RAM
4) For HDD, SSD drives if cost allows or else the fastest SATA ( Dono what the number is )
5) Finally a suitable cabinet.

Plan to buy everything individually online and assemble that myself.

Any suggestions from you guys will surely help me to google more.

Usage : Home use and work and I will have to OPEN up a LOT of browser windows/tabs  (15+) at a time.
Need some video converting too (Processing power consumed I guess)Budget ? ? 15K - 20KThat is a really healthy budget. My last office server budget was only 4k. Have you considered a click and build program? You select each feature you want and comes pre-built to your standard.

You can do this at almost any of the majors; Alienware.com CDW.com, Dell.com

For example on Alienware I just built a:
6TB Raid 6
Intel  i7
Dual Card (2 30in Monitors)
And 4 year support on everything for 5k

This was just an example. I only have a laptop.

But my warehouse manager has an Innovo Desktop with a quad card and 5 monitors (which he does need) and total for that was only about 1k. If you really do want to build it piece by piece, I would start with the tower and then go from there to ensure everything is compatible. Quote from: Chrisxs5 on October 14, 2013, 07:16:22 AM

That is a really healthy budget. My last office server budget was only 4k.

15K - 20K

Which currency??

While working on my computer, the monitor suddenly displays no signal and then it goes off even the computer is running but no display.
It happened to me 5 times.
What could be the problem?Could you give us some more details please?
Your system specifications would be very helpful, also did anything change or did you do anything before this problem started?OS: Windows 7 (64bit)
RAM: 3GB
Processor:  Pentium(R) Dual-Core  CPU      E5800  3.20GHz
HD: 500GB
Computer manufacturer is HCL

I dont know how it starts but i tell you that it happend to me frequently when i run Zune software,
you may be thinking that zune may be the problem but not in fact, this problem started earlier before installing zune.Alright, thanks for the additional info.  Could you also please get a report from Speccy and post it here?  That will give us more in depth detail about your computer.  It's likely to be either a graphics driver or graphics card problem, but to direct you further we'll need the full specifications of your machine which Speccy can get easily.Operating System
   Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
CPU
   Intel Pentium E5800 3.20GHz   40 °C
   Wolfdale 45nm Technology
RAM
   3.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 399MHz (6-6-6-15)
Motherboard
   ECS G41T-R3 (CPU 1)   30 °C
Graphics
   HCMELWBN11 ([email protected])
   Intel G41 Express CHIPSET (Elitegroup)
Hard Drives
   466GB Seagate ST3500413AS ATA Device (SATA)   38 °C
Optical Drives
   TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S223C ATA Device
Audio
   High Definition Audio DeviceGraphics
      Monitor
         Name   HCMELWBN11 on Intel G41 Express Chipset (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM 1.1)
         Current Resolution   1366x768 pixels
         Work Resolution   1366x728 pixels
         State   Enabled, Primary, Output devices support
         Monitor Width   1366
         Monitor Height   768
         Monitor BPP   32 bits per PIXEL
         Monitor Frequency   60 Hz
         Device   \\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0
      Intel G41 Express Chipset
         Manufacturer   Intel
         Model   G41 Express Chipset
         Device ID   8086-2E32
         Revision   4
         Subvendor   Elitegroup (1019)
         Current Performance Level   Level 0
         Driver version   8.15.10.1749
            Count of performance levels : 1
               Level 1Motherboard
   Manufacturer   ECS
   Model   G41T-R3 (CPU 1)
   Version   IA001507
   Chipset Vendor   Intel
   Chipset Model   G41
   Chipset Revision   A3
   Southbridge Vendor   Intel
   Southbridge Model   82801GB (ICH7/R)
   Southbridge Revision   A1
   System Temperature   30 °C
      BIOS
         Brand   American Megatrends Inc.
         Version   02/17/2011
         Date   17-02-2011
      Voltage
         +3.3V   3.744 V
         CPU CORE   1.088 V
         VIN3   2.340 V
         VSB3V   3.760 V
      PCI DataCPU
      Intel Pentium E5800
         Cores   2
         Threads   2
         Name   Intel Pentium E5800
         Code Name   Wolfdale
         Package   Socket 775 LGA
         Technology   45nm
         Specification   Pentium Dual-Core CPU E5800 3.20GHz
         Family   6
         Extended Family   6
         Model   7
         Extended Model   17
         Stepping   A
         Revision   R0
         Instructions   MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, Intel 64, VMX
         Virtualization   Supported, Enabled
         Hyperthreading   Not supported
         FAN Speed   2529 RPM
         Bus Speed   199.5 MHz
         Rated Bus Speed   798.0 MHz
         Stock Core Speed   3200 MHz
         Stock Bus Speed   200 MHz
         Average Temperature   40 °C
            Caches
               L1 Data Cache Size   2 x 32 KBytes
               L1 Instructions Cache Size   2 x 32 KBytes
               L2 Unified Cache Size   2048 KBytes
            Core 0
               Core Speed   1196.9 MHz
               Multiplier   x 6.0
               Bus Speed   199.5 MHz
               Rated Bus Speed   798.0 MHz
               Temperature   44 °C
                  Thread 1
                     APIC ID   0
            Core 1
               Core Speed   1196.9 MHz
               Multiplier   x 6.0
               Bus Speed   199.5 MHz
               Rated Bus Speed   798.0 MHz
               Temperature   35 °C
                  Thread 1
                     APIC ID   1RAM
      Memory slots
         Total memory slots   2
         Used memory slots   2
         Free memory slots   0
      Memory
         Type   DDR3
         Size   3072 MBytes
         Channels #   Dual
         DRAM Frequency   399.0 MHz
         CAS# Latency (CL)   6 clocks
         RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD)   6 clocks
         RAS# Precharge (tRP)   6 clocks
         Cycle Time (tRAS)   15 clocks
         Command Rate (CR)   2T
      Physical Memory
         Memory Usage   45 %
         Total Physical   2.93 GB
         Available Physical   1.61 GB
         Total Virtual   5.87 GB
         Available Virtual   4.56 GB
      SPD
         Number Of SPD Modules   2
            Slot #1
               Type   DDR3
               Size   2048 MBytes
               Manufacturer   Hyundai Electronics
               Max Bandwidth   PC3-10700 (667 MHz)
               Part Number   DMT125U6TFR8C-H9
               Serial Number   196A01B9
               Week/year   12 / 11
               SPD Ext.   EPP
                  JEDEC #4
                     Frequency   685.7 MHz
                     CAS# Latency   9.0
                     RAS# To CAS#   9
                     RAS# Precharge   9
                     tRAS   25
                     TRC   34
                     Voltage   1.500 V
                  JEDEC #3
                     Frequency   609.5 MHz
                     CAS# Latency   8.0
                     RAS# To CAS#   8
                     RAS# Precharge   8
                     tRAS   22
                     tRC   30
                     Voltage   1.500 V
                  JEDEC #2
                     Frequency   533.3 MHz
                     CAS# Latency   7.0
                     RAS# To CAS#   7
                     RAS# Precharge   7
                     tRAS   20
                     tRC   27
                     Voltage   1.500 V
                  JEDEC #1
                     Frequency   457.1 MHz
                     CAS# Latency   6.0
                     RAS# To CAS#   6
                     RAS# Precharge   6
                     tRAS   17
                     tRC   23
                     Voltage   1.500 V
            Slot #2
               Type   DDR3
               Size   1024 MBytes
               Manufacturer   Strontium
               Max Bandwidth   PC3-10700 (667 MHz)
               Part Number   SRT1G88U1-H9H
               Serial Number   193E0000
               Week/year   15 / 11
               SPD Ext.   EPP
                  JEDEC #4
                     Frequency   685.7 MHz
                     CAS# Latency   9.0
                     RAS# To CAS#   9
                     RAS# Precharge   9
                     tRAS   25
                     tRC   34
                     Voltage   1.500 V
                  JEDEC #3
                     Frequency   609.5 MHz
                     CAS# Latency   8.0
                     RAS# To CAS#   8
                     RAS# Precharge   8
                     tRAS   22
                     tRC   30
                     Voltage   1.500 V
                  JEDEC #2
                     Frequency   533.3 MHz
                     CAS# Latency   7.0
                     RAS# To CAS#   7
                     RAS# Precharge   7
                     tRAS   20
                     tRC   27
                     Voltage   1.500 V
                  JEDEC #1
                     Frequency   457.1 MHz
                     CAS# Latency   6.0
                     RAS# To CAS#   6
                     RAS# Precharge   6
                     tRAS   17
                     tRC   23
                     Voltage   1.500 V



And what else information you require??

[recovering disk space, attachment deleted by admin]Thanks, that's very helpful indeed.  Just for future reference, and I should've said this at first - you can save the output as a text file from within Speccy, and you could've attached it to your post, it just would've saved you a little bit of time.
Not a problem though
So, the first thing I would advise you do is update your graphics driver, you can grab that here.  Try that, and see if it helps.How to check whether it works or not!!!
The problem occurs when it wishes... There's little point in giving you a long list of things to try, because then you'll have no idea which one resolved the issue so you won't know what was causing it.  Try one thing at a time, and see how it goes.  If the problem is infrequent, yes, it can be difficult to know when it's been resolved, but try one thing at a time, and if the problem happens again, then post back and we can try something else.So, till the problem occurs again I will be assuming that the problem has been fixed and when it occurs again I will come back.That's pretty much all you can do if the problem doesn't occur all the time...try something and see how it goes.  There's no way you can know if it's fixed until it happens, or doesn't happen.After downloading the file when i try to install it says " The computer does not meet the minimum requirement for installing the software"

Greetings.

I decided to REBUILD my old AMD athlon gaming machine after a terrible incident and had a few cards lying around. I looked on GPUreview.com to compare them which one is better but i dont know what to compare them by other then memory.

The two cards are

ATi RADEON 9200 SE 128mb AGP card
OR

nvidia GeForce4 MX440 with 64mb AGP card

here is the link to gpureview can you guys point out what im supposed to look for?

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=127&card2=391

ThanksThe MX 440 is faster than the 9200 SE.Ok but can you show me how did you come up with that answer?Mainly just Googling and looking at benchmarks.  You can't compare cards even between different generations, let alone different manufacturers, on core count and clock SPEEDS alone, so benchmarks and reviews are the best way to compare.

Edit: I should add, gpureview.com although not always 100% accurate is a good way to look up certain things at a glance.  The main thing which makes the MX440 faster is the 128 bit bus compared to the crippled 64 bit bus on the 9200SE.  The MX440 is older THOUGH so as you can see, it only supports DX7 and OGL 1 vs DX8.1 and OGL 1.4 for the 9200SE.ok thanks a lot for the help. See what im doing is rebuilding an old computer for classic gaming. what i put together is

AMD athlon k7 1600+
512mb DDR Ram
40gb HDD
and as of right now im using the ATi ccard as i found win 98 drivers for it and the mmx i didnt. but i might switch over. Thanks again for the help. No problem, glad to have helped.

I up graded the memory on my HP pavilion 23 all in one desktop and after that it started running faster but it started glitching. It seems like it keeps refreshing on all programs on the web or the desktop. could it be the hard drive or a driver?Was it the CORRECT RAM ? ?Yes it was. I can't write because it starts glitching and skipping key punches.I was expecting more info on the RAM and the SYSTEM itself...
On that note all in ones have a tendency to overheat...check your Temps.Sorry it takes pc3 ddr3 12800 i had 4 gig to start with room to go to 16 gig. i put a 8 gig so i can have 12 gig. How do i check the temperature? HP Pavilion 23-b012 All-in-One Desktop PCFor  GENERAL  reference:

It dows temperatures and voltages.
You can buy one of these, or something like it, for under $30 plus shipping.

Anybody who works on their own COMPUTERS should have something like this at hand.

P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
Intel 3rd Generation Core i5-3570K CPU
Asus nVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti Graphics Card

I currently have this 3 components in my computer,
i would like to upgrade my computer so that i am able to play Battlefield 4 on max settings and GTA V early next year. I currently have no idea where to start looking for possible upgrades. If possible i would like to use the same motherboard.

i'm sorry if my english confuses you, and i would really appreciate any opinion you give me. Thanks in advance!What's your budget?
What power supply do you have, make & model?
And, what resolution do you play at?
All you'll really need is a graphics card upgrade, assuming you have a decent about of RAM already. Quote from: Calum on October 13, 2013, 10:52:13 AM

What's your budget?
What power supply do you have, make & model?
And, what resolution do you play at?
All you'll really need is a graphics card upgrade, assuming you have a decent about of RAM already.

Alright, you should be good to go with just a graphics card upgrade then.  What's your budget?

In that case, pick up either an AMD 7970 for £200-250, an R9 280 for around the same price (also the same card so just pick whichever is cheapest) or on the Nvidia side, a GTX 680 or GTX 770 (also the same card) for a little more, around £250-280.

All are excellent choices and will last you well, I would go for the AMD 7970 as it's the better bang for buck right now.

Indeed, it's definitely the best value for money card with the prices at the minute.

You would be best off uninstalling the Nvidia drivers and software before installing the 7970 - you can use this tool (DDU) to do that.

The procedure would be: download latest AMD drivers and save to desktop or somewhere accessible -> run the DDU tool, check all three boxes, and choose the bottom option on the left -> DDU will uninstall Nvidia drivers and software and shut down the PC -> swap the cards over, physically -> boot the PC up -> install the AMD drivers you downloaded earlier -> reboot -> game on!

I would get this one instead.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-293-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

Cheaper, and one of the most highly regarded 7970s on the market - plus, free shipping, and free game codes, I know the cards on Amazon come with free shipping but not sure about the codes.

Sure, depends what exactly you like in a case in terms of looks, but have a look at the Bitfenix Ronin or Shinobi, Coolermaster CM 690, possibly the HAF 912...if none of those catch your fancy, let me know what you like aesthetically and I'll recommend some others

Ah, we have entirely opposite taste in cases then the Ronin is my go-to recommendation for a budget/midrange case at the minute as it's built well, looks good (to me anyway) and has the features that most people want.
You'll struggle to find a case with built in LEDs on the side panel other than very cheap tat covered in LEDs like a Christmas tree and made from recycled tin cans.  I can't think of any decent cases with that feature, anyway.
If you want the side panel lit up, you can buy LED strips which are usually powered off Molex, if those would be of use?  Then you can position it however you like to light up the case interior and your components.  Alternatively, consider some LED fans, which will help light the case up.

I want to move 2 drives (SATA) from a dead comp. that had XP Pro as O.S. to a Win. 7 computer that has 2 SATA drives in it now and 2 more bays ready to take the SATA drives from the broken unit.. The computer that the drives are coming from had its' MB fried and it was a 32 bit sys. The new computer is a 64 bit sys..  I need to access the data on the two drives and access some files. I don't mind leaving them in the newer (Velocity) computer for TV recording storage after I get files transferered and organized.  The drives in the Velocity are both SATA. All drives in both computers were added my me. They are not "stock". The broken computer is custom job. So we can't say it is DELL's fault.

I have 2 questions:
1) Can I do this with drives that come from different O.S.?
2.) Is this a "plug and play deal or do I have to access the BIOS to set the DRIVE boot sequence when I boot after installation?
Thanks for shedding any light on this. (no need for two broken computers with perfectly fine Hard Drives!)
 Thom Bailey1. All material on the old XP hard drive will be visible to the WINDOWS 7 SYSTEM. With the exception of a few system files that you are not needing.
2. No need to make BIOS changes.

Of course, you should  not TRY to boot from the old XP system. Windows 7 can read all the user date of the old rive. Even use a few programs.
This MAY help answer some questions.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/windows-easy-transferAs long as they are SATA HDD's and you connect them to SATA 3 or higher on the MBoard they will show up as slave drives and all the data will be accessible.Geek, patio, thanks so much! I'm on it.
Thom Bailey

Hello all,

I am back. Okay so I got my PC going. For those of you familiar and assisted me on my previous post, it turns out my MOBO didn't have a speaker, so I managed to borrow one and it turned it it wasn't agreeing with the RAM I had installed. Anyway, purchased some other stuff and all it boots now. I am however getting a fair few BSOD's but thats a different matter.

Anywho, why I am actually here is to ask for advice on a GPU. I cant seem to find a definitive answer myself, so thought Id ask what you chaps think. Im torn between and EVGA 760 for £200 (HTTP://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-228-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914) or a R9 280X for £230 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-225-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1842).

Does anyone have any views on which of these I should purchase?

Thanks

ChrisI havent had good luck with MSI products, so I would avoid MSI. Although the MSI card looks to be the better card SPEC wise.I have to agree with Dave, and I would by the EVGA personally, as NVidia are just more reliable.The 280X is faster, but the 7970 is the same card and can SOMETIMES be found cheaper.  I too would avoid MSI as a brand though.Owwww, this advice about staying away from MSI isn't exactly what I wanted to hear I shall, however, follow your advice and look elsewhere. I did some more research and it turns out the R9 280X is actually comparable to the 770 but for a fraction of the price.
Ill look for other venders of this card.

Meanwhile, if anyone has a solution to magically eradicate BSOD's I would be very grateful if you could let me know

ChrisThe 7970/R9 280 is faster than the 770, yes.  There have been offers on the 7970 for as low as £210 recently, keep looking and something will pop up.What do you make of Sapphire?They've been perfectly fine in my experience, their cards are generally average to good, ditto service and support.Fantastic! Ill get it purchased then! Thanks CalumNo problem shame you weren't in the market a week or so ago, OcUK had the Asus Matrix Platinum 7970 for around £220, bargain of the year IMO!Just missed it! Calum, I'm looking at this card Sapphire card and it appears that it needs an 8 PIN + a 6 PIN power connection, which is fine as I have these, but looking at the images theres no 6 PIN connecter, its just two 8 PINS (http://www.eteknix.com/sapphire-amd-radeon-r9-280x-vapor-x-oc-3gb-graphics-card-review/2/). Third image down.

What do you make of it? IVE read a couple of places that it is two 8 PIN connectors. This would be a problem as I only have one 8 PIN connecter

Chris Quote from: chriscool9 on October 20, 2013, 11:08:54 AM

What do you make of Sapphire?

I HAVE A VERIZON WIRELESS MODEM & AN OLD HP DESKTOP PC & AN OLD HP PRINTER. I WANT TO UPGRADE TO A NEW DESKTOP PC,  GET A NEW 4-in-1 PRINTER,  & GET A LAPTOP ALSO. MY QUESTION IS WHEN I GET THE NEW PRINTER DOES IT HAVE TO BE JUST WIRELESS OR DOES IT NEED TO BE EPRIN T ALSO IN ORDER TO WORK WITH A LAPTOP? ALSO WOULD I NEED TO HOOK THE NEW DESKTOP PC INTO THE PRINTER WITH AN ETHERNET OR SHOULD I GET A WIRELESS DESKTOP PC ALSO - IF THERE IS SUCH A THING AS A WIRELESS DESKTOP PC? HOPE SOMEONE CAN HELP ME FIGURE ALL THIS OUT. THERE ARE SO MANY NEW TERMS OUT THERE NOW THAT IT TENDS TO CONFUSE ME! THX FOR ANY HELP ANYONE CAN GIVE ME IN UNDERSTANDING ALL THE NEW TERMS LIKE WIRELESS, EPRINT, & TOUCH SCREEN, DESKTOP PC's WITHOUT A TOWER, ETC. I'd make sure the capslock button works on the new PC... Quote from: patio on October 21, 2013, 05:55:18 AM

I'd make sure the capslock button works on the new PC...

I'd make sure the capslock button works on the new PC...

1.  I HAVE A VERIZON WIRELESS MODEM & AN OLD HP DESKTOP PC & AN OLD HP PRINTER.
2.  I WANT TO UPGRADE TO A NEW DESKTOP PC,  GET A NEW 4-in-1 PRINTER,  & GET A LAPTOP ALSO.
3.  MY QUESTION IS WHEN I GET THE NEW PRINTER DOES IT HAVE TO BE JUST WIRELESS OR DOES IT NEED TO BE EPRIN T ALSO IN ORDER TO WORK WITH A LAPTOP?
4.  ALSO WOULD I NEED TO HOOK THE NEW DESKTOP PC INTO THE PRINTER WITH AN ETHERNET OR SHOULD I GET A WIRELESS DESKTOP PC
5.  ALSO - IF THERE IS SUCH A THING AS A WIRELESS DESKTOP PC?
6.  HOPE SOMEONE CAN HELP ME FIGURE ALL THIS OUT. THERE ARE SO MANY NEW TERMS OUT THERE NOW THAT IT TENDS TO CONFUSE ME!
7.  THX FOR ANY HELP ANYONE CAN GIVE ME IN UNDERSTANDING ALL THE NEW TERMS LIKE WIRELESS, EPRINT, & TOUCH SCREEN, DESKTOP PC's WITHOUT A TOWER, ETC.

I ve had this before,I would open the computer and clean the supply fan and the problem was fixed,now I ve tried to open it and clean it but it does not STOP making noise the next day I open my computer,I did this 3 times and it was still doing the same thing

I now just put some slim brush from the outside of the box,to just stop it for 1 second and realease it ,afterwars it does not make noise but could this lead to a problem?Should I try something else to fix thew noise?

Lubricate the fan.

If you are able to, then

1) Take the power supply out of the computer casing by unscrewing it.
2) Remove the cover of the power supply.
3) Carefully Unscrew the fan.
4) At the center of the fan will be a sticker. Remove that sticker.
5) After removing the sticker, there will be a small rubber cap fitted inside the center of the fan, take some sharp object or tweezers to remove that rubber cap. See this IMAGE: http://www.dansdata.com/images/fanmaint/peel500.jpg
6) BUY a small bottle of one of these: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21PYLXjAzRL._SL500_AA300_.jpg Its very handy. Called WD-40.
7) After removing the cap, in the cavity, spray 1-2 small drops of this spray. ROTATE the fan with your finger a few times. Hold the fan and move it up and down a few times slowly without breaking anything, so that the lubricant reaches inside properly.
8 ) Re-fit everything. Be careful with the wires, they should not get stuck in the fan while re-fitting back.Oiling it can fix it, however if it is groaning it is worn and I'd replace it with a new fan.

You can with power disconnected and being safe not to touch any capacitors etc that can store power and shock you,  cut the 2 wires to the fan, unscrew the fan from the power supply and add a same size and voltage fan in its place. Then match up the red and black wires and I suggest using shrink tubing to insulate the wires that can be twisted together or soldered to make electrical connection and make it safe to operate when you seal it back up. * Just want to make sure you tie wrap any EXTRA slack in the wire so that the fan doesnt eat it.

I have done this before and its like a 10 minute process if you have a like size and voltage fan to install. ** Be sure you install it the correct way for airflow direction. Make note as to the airflow direction the original fan was set up as. There are usually arrows on the outter plastic that show the direction of blade rotation as well as airflow direction.

Hi everybody, I have this problem: the computer only TURNS on and BOOTS with a 1 GB Apacer 800 MHz RAM.
Adding more RAM results in pc suddenly turning off while booting  (which sometimes happens also with that single RAM only) or even not turning on at all.
I have another RAM which is exactly the same as the one I'm using and adding it I encounter this problem.
I also tried with another two RAMs (2 GB VDATA) and the computer doesn't turn on, the  power button intermittently flashes. Switching between every slot didn't change anything.
My OS is Windows 7 with American Megatrends BIOS. I don't know what to do, changing motherboard? Changing power SUPPLY?
In my opinion the problem isn't the RAM.Was this system originally running ok with all of these RAM sticks installed or did this just happen after a memory upgrade?

The computer ran ok with the two Apacer sticks and another one but a day the computer started to suddenly shut down during the use.
I put off a stick and everything was working normally again until 2 or 3 weeks later, when the problem appeared again and became every day worse than before.
I put off another stick (I had the two Apacer ones on) and the problem SEEMED to be solved but after some days here it was again, even with only one stick.
Now I'm using only that stick and have to try to turn on the computer over 10 times to get it booted and working. It doesn't turn on at all if I add another stick.What MBoard is this ? ?The motherboard model is MCP78PVM-PM.A Chinese made MBoard that was used in some Packard Bell and other desktop PC's...almost impossible to find any specs on it.
What type and speed is this RAM ? ?1 GB Apacer 800 MHz is the one I'm using right now.I somehow doubt a board that old would accomodate any 1G RAM sticks. Quote from: patio on October 19, 2013, 09:36:24 AM

I somehow doubt a board that old would accomodate any 1G RAM sticks.

The motherboard model is MCP78PVM-PM.

mcp78pvm-pm specs

4 * 240-pin DDR2 DIMM slots – Dual Channel DDR2 800/677 MHz non-ECC, un-buffered memory (Max 8GB)

So I am planning on upgrading my HTPC to no longer be an old Pentium 4 with VGA cable from GeForce 6200 video card to the flat screen TV, and instead of having a HTPC with its own sound system required for audio, I want to place a more modern minitower under the entertainment center and have audio and video connected to the TV over a single HDMI cable so that the volume for whatever we are watching can be adjusted through the TV remote.

Does anyone know if all video cards with HDMI ports will pass audio/video over the HDMI port or is it just specific cards? I am looking at this card here as a cheap HDMI connection and and OK performance for playing movies and streaming content etc.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150655

I am going to do away with the Pentium 4 in full tower and place a minitower with a Athlon x2 4850e 2.5Ghz in place of it, so just to clarify, I am not trying to place a PCIe video card into an AGP slot of the old HTPC system. The newer HTPC also has a 400watt PSU so its not a wimpy 250watt etc.

* I was also looking at this deal as a HTPC replacement, but I am not sure if the GPU will cut it or not for video play and streaming without lag. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856119092. I would need to buy RAM to boot this, and have OS and a 2.5" SATA HDD available, but for $90 I have doubts as to if it will WORK flawlessly. I have a Netbook with Atom 1.66Ghz processor and it plays local movie files ok, but youtube, and other streaming video content lags badly to where even at 360p sometimes the audio and video is out of sync when full screen, and it improves in performance in a window mode which points to weak GPU. I already have the AMD Radeon 5450HD video cards in other systems and it can game and play video content well, and since I already have a spare system on hand, I think it makes more sense to use the older AMD x2 4850e 2.5Ghz with a real video card than integrated processing on an Intel Atom CPU even though this barebone seems like a great deal at 35% off.

But also I have heard mixed reviews on Foxconn quality, many claiming they are great and many claiming that they are junk. My daughters, use to be my wifes, Pentium 4 system has a Foxconn socket 775 motherboard ( which sadly only supports up to Pentium D 3.2Ghz processors but not CORE 2 Duo's ) and while the system has been reliable for the last 6 years since built as a cheap system with a spare socket 775 P4 CPU on hand and other spare pieces and parts, the integrated Realtek audio crapped out on it and I had to install a 10 year old Creative Labs PCI sound card from my box of spare parts to get sound back. So I feel that Foxconn quality is hit and miss, some good and some bad which is why there are some that say its reliable and no problems and others that state poor quality unstable or dead within a year of ownership.I wouldn't go with onboard Intel graphics, excepting the new iGPUs on Haswell, for HD video playback - definitely don't go with an Atom and its onboard video for that.  The 5450 should probably cut it, but consider trying to pick up a 5570 or similar if possible as they are a cut above.
I believe most modern cards with HDMI do audio pass through, the 5450 should do it.I wouldn't use a fanless graphics card in a mini tower.  They tend to run hot with no fan in any case, especially with no air blowing across the heatsink.
Your problem is the Atom processor, it's not the right choice for your application.

Integrated graphics works very well on my laptop, 2nd gen core I3 (Sandy Bridge).  I was ABLE to watch streaming HDTV over a WiFi connection, better than my cable box with non-HDTV.  I missed a network show & watched it a couple days later with no ads (around 45 minutes).  Who needs a DVR?  Didn't try moving the laptop to connect to the HDTV, HDMI to HDMI.

Can you use the daughter's Pentium D with a new PCI-e graphics card & get her something else? Quote

Can you use the daughter's Pentium D with a new PCI-e graphics card & get her something else?

The 5450 should probably cut it, but consider trying to pick up a 5570 or similar if possible as they are a cut above

I wouldn't use a fanless graphics card in a mini tower.  They tend to run hot with no fan in any case, especially with no air blowing across the heatsink.

Hi people, I'd like to ask you about this because I don't get that much about hardware. First, some specifications:

M5a97 r2.0 motherboard
Amd fx 6300 processor
4gb DDR kingston memory
Hd radeon 4670 video card
1 western digital 200gb+ SATA hard disk
Cooler master 460w extreme power plus

I changed mother, micro and ram a few days ago and I want to know if I need to change the power source too, because right now mine doesn't have an 8pin connector, only 4pin and 6pin, so I can't really connect it, but I've heard of adapters for atx 4pin and molex to 8pin. Would something like that work? Otherwise could you recommend me a PSU for this hardware, I don't think I'll update it soon so I don't need too much, only enough for the current hardware and well DVD and that normal stuff, maybe another hdisk.I would get a new one. Im not big on a particular brand but I would get at least a 750w.Your PSU should in theory power your system as the 8 pin connector is not required, the 4 pin connector will fit in one side and work fine.  There's little point buying an adapter.
However, I would recommend changing it, as the Coolermaster Extreme Power line isn't particularly good quality.

Quote from: Chrisxs5 on October 24, 2013, 01:37:34 PM

I would get a new one. Im not big on a particular brand but I would get at least a 750w.

Hey guys.

About 2 weeks AGO my friend gave me his Radeon 5770 CARD that was working great but he had UPGRADED, and I swapped it out for my old Geforce 9600gt. I installed all the drivers for the Radeon 5770 and for the first while it worked fine. But now, it's giving me significant graphics lag(like 5fps on Tera) and even CoD 4 is even lagging.

Can anyone tell me why this could be?Download and run HWMonitor to check your temperatures, it's possible your graphics card or another component is overheating.  Post a screenshot of HWMonitor after gaming for a little while and experiencing this issue so we cans ee what your temperatures are like.Here's it screenshot while I was running Tera. As you can see it hadn't overheated(only 63 C), but in the dungeon I ran I got from 2-8fps the whole TIME.

[recovering disk space, attachment deleted by admin]Your CPU is massively overheating.  I suspect you have POSSIBLY knocked the heatsink loose while installing the card.  Your system is throttling down to save the CPU from being damaged.
You'll need to check the heatsink and reinstall it.I reset the heatsink with new thermal compound and it is working much much better. Thanks!No problem, glad to hear you got it sorted

I have a 160 GB drive that was in my old Laptop. It had a virus on it.  (Wouldn't boot)
I have been able to REMOVE all my data from it.
Would like to use the drive as an external drive.
Microsoft essentials shows it has a virus in the boot file.
I have tried to reformat it, but it still has the boot error. I thought a format would remove everything from the drive.  How do I clean everything off the drive? Are their hidden files on a hard drive?
How did you reformat it (step by step)?Formatting a Hard Drive in Windows 7
1.   Open Disk Management
2.   Locate the Drive
3.   Choose to Format the Drive (‘F’ in my case)
a.   right-click on it and choose "Format"
4.   Give a Name to the Drive (“Storage” in my case)
5.   Choose NTFS for the File System
6.   Choose “Default” for the Allocation Unit
7.   Choose  “Perform a Standard Format”
8.   Choose  “Disable File and Folder Compression”
9.   Review Format Settings and Click OK
10.   Click OK to Loss of Data Warning
11.   Wait for the Format to Complete
12.   Confirm That the Format Completes Successfully
13.   Use Formatted Hard Drive
(I got this from http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows7/ss/format-hard-drive-windows-7-tutorial_13.htm
Okay, I'm confused. F: cannot by your system drive, and you can't format your system drive from within the OS anyway. So I really don't understand what you did.Hi

As the drive came from a laptop it is possible it has more than 1 partition. Mos likely it will have a 100mb boot partition ( where the virus is ) and a larger c drive and then a recovery partition. so 3 partitions in total.

You would need to erase these and then format the drive as a full 160gb.

There are plenty of windows disk wiping programs available for free like this one http://www.killdisk.com/?gclid=COSKjIroj7oCFYFepQodXyAAUA

For speed use the 1 pass all zeros

Then partition the drive and format it

Regards

Lisamaree

You're assuming the OP removed the hd from the laptop and is trying to format it on another system? Clearly that's possible, but I'd like to know for sure.Just for REFERENCE. A type of ROOT kit can hide in a hard drive.

Quote

Spyware, viruses, & security forum: Can any virus survive reformatting the hard drive?

I was warned by a local computer technician that even though the computer scans clean and is working WELL, that I shouldn't put it back on our local network because there is a small region on the hard drive that is not overwritten by normal formatting and some viruses are known to hide there. He suggested that it was still possible for this computer to infect other computers on our network.

That seems difficult for me to believe. All of our computers are running virus scanners. It would seem to me that, at least if it were a known virus, it would be recognized and stopped immediately if it reappeared and tried to spread to another computer.

when i start my PC,a message appears"press F1 to continue or press DEL to enter SETUP".When i press F1,the monitor turns into blank and the PC do not start.How to resolve the problem?I'd go into the BIOS with Delete ( DEL ) key and VERIFY that a Hard Drive is there. It sounds like the hard drive might be missing from boot.acess ur bios nd change ur booting device seqnce as first hdd try it... Quote

acess ur bios nd change ur booting device seqnce as first hdd try it...

Some of the folks on the board got upset with me because they felt that I wasn't taking their advice and troubleshooting the DIFFERENT parts of the pc as they advised.

Before putting out the money for another computer .. I felt it best to try everything.

I got a friend to help me .. which is where I have now made a bigger mess of things!

In trying to find a solution to all the other PROBLEMS .. I've added another! 8(

My friend, who is trying to help me with my pc (I have a vision problem), accidentally unplugged a cable from the motherboard that goes to the hard drive.

Neither one of us is very knowledgeable with pc innards.

(In the one picture, where that RED cable is plugged in .. that cable runs to the disk player.)

My question is .. does it matter which slot the hard-drive cable plugs into of the three (connection slots) that remain?

The slots are at the bottom right where one of them is colored blue.

The board is a foxxcon G33M05G1

(One of these 3 remainging slots is where I'm sure the hard-drive connects to?)






This picture is of a board similar to mine ...

Please forgive me if I can't respond right away.

I can't see the writing on my friends monitor and my friend isn't around to help all the time!

My monitor is a 60" and I can BARELY make out anything on it .. When my pc is working!No it does not matter which port you plug into. The blue colored port looks like a faster one than the black ones. You can plug the hard drive to that port. If you see carefully, the ports are marked with SATA 1, SATA 2, SATA 3, SATA 4. This can be seen some where around the ports. Best would be to plug the hard drive to SATA 1 and the DVD drive to SATA 2.
Quote from: mrclose on October 24, 2013, 08:05:56 PM

My monitor is a 60" and I can barely make out anything on it .. When my pc is working!

Btw, I can't make out if its the reflection of light, but the capacitor above the CMOS battery looks blown.

This picture is of a board similar to mine ...

My problem is that when I start my PC it hangs on first screen before booting and goes on boot screen after 5 to 10
minutes. And if I go to bios options it works very slow to move on bios options. Please help me to resolve this issue.Assuming the PC is a desktop, open the side panel of the case.

1) Ensure the inside of the computer case is dust free including the power supply/PSU/SMPS. Use an air blower or air can to blow out the dust. NEVER use a vacuum cleaner.

2) On the motherboard LOOK for blown capacitors. Example: http://archive.siliconchip.com.au/static/images/articles/i303/30328_4lo.jpg

The red arrows shows blown/bad capacitors (caps). And first three from left (without red arrow) show normal/good capacitors.

Post back results.PC is dust free and all capacitors are in good condition.Did this just start or has it been going on for a while? And when you say it hangs on the first screen do you mean the P.O.S.T.? One possibility is that the battery on the MOBO needs to be replaced. It's easy enough to do so let's rule that out (or in) before we go further.Yes It hangs on POST. I have replaced the battery but still problem exists.Does this pc have a graphics card installed?? if yes, remove it. Infact, remove all addon cards installed(if any). Check only with ram and hdd. If problem still PERSISTS, unplug hdd from motherboard and check. Also check heatsink paste.Let's check the ram and the hd:

To check the ram, download memtest (http://memtest.org/). BURN it to a cd USING a dedicated .iso burning utility (http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm), make sure the cd drive is at the top of the boot order in bios, then boot to the newly created cd and run the utility.


Hard Drive Diagnostics:
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287 

Make sure you select the tool which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), to make the CD bootable.
For Toshiba drives, see here: http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=ServicesSupport/FujitsuDrivesUSandCanada/SoftwareUtilities#diagnostic
Done all described steps but no luck. I have replaced PSU and RAM of same model but still problem exists. Quote from: labist on October 22, 2013, 03:45:58 AM

Done all described steps but no luck. I have replaced PSU and RAM of same model but still problem exists.

so when i try to play minecraft i would get about 120 fps in singleplayer and when i try to go to multiplayer i get about 40 (low settings with normal renderdistans). in LoL i get about 55-60fps (highest settings) so im wondering is what is making me getting "low" fps?
i have the latest drivers for EVERYTHING.
windows 7 ultimate.
iv checked for viruses.

these are my specs.

GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2048MB TwinFrozr
CPU:AMD Athlon(tm) X4 750K quad core
4 gigs of ram.
600 gb harddrive
then i have a pretty *censored* motherboard:  F2 A55-M

if theres anything iv missed. just ask me

Has this always been an issue, or is it a recent problem?  If it's not always been this way, can you think of anything that has changed? Quote from: Calum on October 25, 2013, 02:01:44 PM

Has this always been an issue, or is it a recent problem?  If it's not always been this way, can you think of anything that has changed?

Have you monitored resources when gaming such as free memory, available cpu percentage or is it pegged at 100% for all cores etc. I'd be looking for a bottleneck in the setup.

You can monitor resources with task manager. If you set it to minitor and then go into application and then window back out of the application it will show the graph of the CPU usage and memory use for the system.

I would like to buy a graphics card, but not sure which one to buy.
I dont know which graphics card are supported to my computer.
Need your advice.
For more information see the attachments.

ADMIN-PC.txt : computer details

[recovering disk space, attachment deleted by admin]You'll need a PCI-E graphics card.
What power supply do you have?  (Make & model)
What's the intended purpose of the card, is it for gaming?
What's your BUDGET?I am INTERESTED in this xfx nvidia gt n 640 4gb ddr3 graphics card.

http://www.flipkart.com/xfx-nvidia-gt-n-640-4-gb-ddr3-graphics-card/p/itmdhkpzuznk23c7?pid=GRCDHKPNQAYMYZZC&cmpid=content_graphics-card_8965229628_gmc_dyn&tgi=sem,1,G,9226359,d,,content,19238968460,none,,,c,,,www.game-debate.com,boomuserlist%3A%3A2582420,,,&gclid=CNrlgJianboCFeYA4godRSMAUgThat's compatible, assuming you have a decent power supply.  It's not a particularly powerful card for gaming though if that's your aim.
Also, don't buy the 4GB version, it's more expensive than the 1GB or 2GB variants and it's no faster.  There are several different variants of the GT 640, the one with GDDR5 memory is faster than the models using GDDR3.  There's also a GT 640 v2 card which should be faster than the original variant due to higher clock speeds and a new core.

Edit: looking through what's AVAILABLE on your link, the GTX 650 and 7770 are available for a similar price and perform better, or there are standard GT 640s available a fair bit cheaper than the 4GB GT 640.Tell me any one of similar price and ram but of better performance?These ones would be much better (Better GPUs, Faster memory and cost less) - http://www.flipkart.com/zotac-nvidia-geforce-gtx650-1gb-1-gb-gddr5-graphics-card/p/itmddmmkaqx7gjhh?pid=GRCDDMMGUVQFVWMZ&ref=2158a5b3-5402-4ac0-aff5-af04ac98c253 and http://www.flipkart.com/gainward-nvidia-geforce-gtx-650-1-gb-gddr5-graphics-card/p/itmdgszzzq3c5gyg?pid=GRCDGSZADXKZ59WT&ref=e7f0cfc8-d438-483d-b1d9-5e84b9e74cd5

It has 1gb memory, however as Calum said, 4gb of video RAM gives no performance increase in almost all cases.  The only reason you GET mid-range cards with 4gb memory is because it makes the card look a lot better than it is so it can be sold for more where the actual cost to the manufacturer of adding the extra RAM is very low.The Zotac card is the one I had in mind, thanks for the link Cameron.
Bear in mind the GTX 650 does need a 6 pin PCI-E connector though, hence why I asked about your PSU in the first post.How to know the powersupply, I have checked the PSU no sticker found.
While i was searching my computer papers, i got this (see attachment), if this is PSU then, can 200 watts work??

[recovering disk space, attachment deleted by admin]That's not going to work well with any additional graphics card, and almost certainly won't have the right connector for a midrange card like the GTX650, unfortunately.Then what about changing the PSU???
That would be advisable if you want to upgrade the graphics card, yes.I have a question if i replace that 200 watt PSU with a 400 watt PSU with no graphics card installed, just only replacing the PSU. Does that effect my computer?

secondly, what type of PSU should i take for that graphics card?It won't affect your PC, no.  A higher wattage power supply doesn't draw that wattage all the time - just the wattage your PC needs.  So, if your PC currently DRAWS, say, 150W, and you replaced your 200W PSU with a 1200W PSU, it would still only draw 150W (possibly slightly higher depending on efficiency).
I would get at least a quality 450W PSU.That helped me a lot to understand my electrical engineering.

So, I need 450W PSU + ZOTAC NVIDIA GeForce GTX650 1GB 1 GB GDDR5 Graphics Card .


1 more question, You can see my computer details from the text attachment, in that, you can see that i have a internal graphic memory of 1310MB. So, my question is after adding this graphics card how this card help me or improve my performance.

Ok that graphic memory is not there in the text, but i have a graphic memory of 1310MB.

Hey everyone,
I am selling my current desktop this weekend and was planning on building new setup.
Planning on getting a MicroAtx setup or something small.  As much as I love the Corsair 600t, it is just too big for my current living condition.

Aiming to play some casual games (ranging from League of LEGENDS to Bioshock Infinity) on 1080p resolution. 
Also have a 2nd monitor used for misc.
I have a few other titles such as Metro but, I won't be touching those for some time.

I will not need a PSU/SSD/ CD|DVD drive
Parts that I am considering reusing but not 100% sure.
    An old gtx 460 (missing an hdmi port so I am hoping on replacing)
    An old beat up NZXT case (most LIKELY going to go with a refurbish case from corsair outlet)
was hoping someone can give me some SUGGESTIONS on what parts I should get.

Need some help deciding on a video card
ranging from 650ti boost/7870 - gtx 770/R9 280X

Currently have this in mind
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1UcI5

CPU can be picked up at microcenter for $160~~~~~
I do not plan on overclocking.  hence the 4570 chip

What videocard and case should I get?
Would it be worth the extra money to overclock if I decide to pick up the 4670k + z87 board?  I only plan on clocking it to 4.0-4.2 at the best
Trying to keep it below 600USD

Thanks for the inputLooking this over you will need an OS too , so your looking at $100 +/- for an OS such as Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit linked here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

That then drops you to $500 in which a system could be built to play these games for $500.

Looking over your list of parts... $306.73 means your left with $193.27 for your video card. However Asrock motherboards have been hit and miss. Seen lots of people in newegg comments with AsRock having problems and so I have avoided them even when the boards are cheap like this one.

This motherboard linked here is rated 3 of 5 : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157450&Tpk=H81M-HDS

If I was building this system, I'd go with this ASUS board instead for $18.98 more: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132044

I have had good luck with Biostar, ASUS, and Gigabyte motherboards, but have had problems with Foxconn, ECS Elitegroup, and MSI due to hardware failures either right away or within a year of ownership. Foxconn board I had the integrated audio died on it and its not just the plug. As confirmed with oscilloscope its dead. So I had to add a PCI sound card to get sound back on that build. ECS Elitegroup the problems were that the system would freeze solid and after hours of troubleshooting it was something wrong with the motherboard and not RAM etc. So I removed all good parts from that + jumpers and tossed that $39.99 motherboard into the trash. MSI had an issue with the HDD CONTROLLER. So the system would boot and No HDD Detected. Swapped SATA cable to SATA Port 0 and problem remained. Tried SATA Port 1 and problem remained. Removed CMOS battery and reset bios and problem remained. Swapped Hard Drives and problem still remained. Swapped power supplies and problem still remained. Added PCI SATA controller card and got the system back up and running off of the band aid replacing the HDD controller with alt controller. Then 3 months later it wouldnt post, just black screen and thats when I yanked the memory, CPU, and cards out of it, and unscrewed it from the computer case and sent it like a frizbee into the dumpster at last workplace. Looking online this board was like 2 of 5 stars with many having issues with it.

Going with the better motherboard would leave you with $174.29 for a good video card. And this one here fits within the money left: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125447 , but the GTX 770 is way outside the remaining funds unless you want to go over $600.

Also assuming you will be using an SSD so you dont need a hard drive according to this:
Quote

I will not need a PSU/SSD/ CD|DVD drive

Greetings CH!

A little odd for me to ask where to find drivers however i ran into a little issue. I have an older SYSTEM which i have managed to get Windows 8 running on. Its not that bad actually. The only issue im having is trying to locate the ati driver off AMDs website. not sure if
www.official-drivers.com can be trusted. the driver im looking for is the ATI radeon Xpress 1100 for Xp and win 8. I cant find it on amds website, as if its too old. The machine im running is an 2005 acer laptop. Acer Aspire 5050-5951

specs
AMD turon Tl50 1.6ghz dual core
1gb ram
40gb hdd
ati radeon xpress 1100 256mb vram

thanks No Win 8 drivers for that Radeon...
I would give the Vista drivers a try...good luck...but's that an older system.ok but i cant even find the driver page for that card on atis website. as if it doesnt exist. i do the drop down menu and select notebook graphics> and then a radeon but none there for xpress..It's not a card...it's a chip.
Drivers should come from the laptop manuf. site only...not ATI.yes thats true. However its made by ATi. and each time i took the driver from the Acer cite or the computer cite it was old and buggy. unlike atis website its updated to the latest and best.
That's irrelevant...you are asking an older PC to do something it wasn't designed to do...
And although others here may differ with me the only place for drivers for any laptop /netbook etc should ONLY come from the laptop manuf. because they are customised for the PC...
Quote from: comda on October 29, 2013, 07:35:01 PM

ok but i cant even find the driver page for that card on atis website. as if it doesnt exist. i do the drop down menu and select notebook graphics> and then a radeon but none there for xpress..

Okay, so some of you may have seen my previous forum thread about a previous build, which got some people saying that it just wouldn't work. The advice that I took from that was spend more moneys, and switch to an Intel and NVidia system rather than AMD. So I managed to do some bargaining with Santa Claws, and here's my updated rig:

  Processor: Intel Core I5-3470 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-I5-3470-Processor-3-20GHZ-Socket/dp/B0083U94CO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382203469&sr=8-1&keywords=intel+i5+3470 £145

Graphics Card: NVidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Zotac 2gb edition http://www.kikatek.com/P280951/ZT-61102-10M-ZOTAC-GeForce-GTX-650-Ti-2GB-Graphic?source=froogle&gclid=CI_mrcW7o7oCFSLHtAodaR0AHw £114.74

Ram: Corsair Vengeance 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 http://www.extak.com/catalog/24142/Corsair-Vengeance-4GB-Memory-Module-PC3-#rgWIk8a7BQblJFpU.99 £35.79

Case: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aerocool-VS-3-Screwless-Gaming-Tower/dp/B00606NBJ0/ref=pd_sim_sbs_computers_5 £31.97

Motherboard: Asus P8H61-MX http://www.ebuyer.com/393399-asus-p8h61-mx-r2-0-intel-lga1155-h61-b3-90-mibjg0-g0eay0dz-p8h61-mx-r2-0?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products&gclid=CPz0-qW1o7oCFVHMtAodLhUA7Q £34.98

Hard drive: Seagate 1TB Barracuda 6GB/s 64mb 7200RPM http://www.dabs.com/products/seagate-1tb-barracuda-sata-6gb-s-64mb-7200rpm-hard-drive-7XD5.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc%20product%20search&utm_content=Q200&utm_campaign=Components%20and%20Storage%20-%20Hard%20Drives%20-%20Internal%20Hard%20Drives&origin=pla 46.99

PSU: G7 680W ATX http://www.maplin.co.uk/g7-680w-atx-pc-power-supply-345571 £39.99

OS: Windows 8 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Windows-Pro-Upgrade-Edition-Vista/dp/B008GRKGXK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382206282&sr=8-1&keywords=windows8 £56.79

Optical drive: http://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-GH24NS95-AUAA-SuperMulti-Internal-DVDRW/dp/B00A3SGB2K/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1378836812&sr=1-1 17.35

£523.60

Here is what I want from it:
Mainly: To be able to RECORD minecraft, maxed graphics, while being in a skype call with one or two people, at deacent FPS
Hopefully: Run some high end games, purely for my entertainment, without recording
Possibly: Record some high end games. I realize that asking for this when only spending 500 pound is kinda naive, and most likely won't happen.

I also understood, that I would need to upgrade the previous PC within two years. I would be willing to add another RAM stick (the same one as listed above) within two months, (once I'd saved up enough) and next Christmas, upgrade some bits and bobs of it.

So thanks for reading my thread, if you have any advice, please contribute.

Thanks - JAKE. Quote

I realize that asking for this when only spending 500..

If you find someone selling a used system with hardware of similar spec you might be able to fit it within the 500 pound budget you have. A friend got a great deal on a Core i7 gaming rig on ebay at 60% of the price new, and the seller had over 5000 positive feedback and looked to be a pawn shop that sold items on ebay, so someone hard up for cash pawned it off and hopefully it wasnt of stolen origin. But the system ran flawless although he had to delete the prior persons data on the Windows 7 64 bit install. Shipping was pricey though at $75 american, but still he got the system at 60% of the cost if buying new and the seller guaranteed it to have no problems as it was tested thoroughly before selling it.

If attemtping to buy all the guts brand new and not second hand you will likely need to expand the budget some.

As far as recording gameplay on the fly, I use FRAPS which I purchased a licensed copy of and use Virtual Dub to compress the raw digital recording. I would suggest 2 hard drives when gaming and doing other stuff plus recording the gameplay with fraps as for the hard drive that fraps is writing to is going to be flooded with writing of data, so in my situation I have my games on my SSD and have fraps writing to my 500GB SATA HDD, games that require reading/writing to the hard drive have quick direct access to the data without having to compete with the large amount of write traffic that fraps will create. When done with the recording I use virtual dub to make a 20GB recording sized down to around 700MB AVI.

First off, do NOT buy that power supply, it's not a good unit and is not a good idea at any price.
I'm really struggling to put together even a basic gaming build for £500, especially one with any degree of expandability for a graphics card upgrade later on to make it more capable.  You'll need a case with decent airflow, a PSU that can handle it, and a decent board for starters, and that already blows a good chunk of your budget.  Particularly, IMO, it's pointless buying a system these days without an SSD, because it just won't feel quick day-to-day even if it does perform well in games.  A budget of £600 starts to put you into the realms of possibility.
I would agree that perhaps going used is the way to go, because for example it's possible to pick up a bundle of CPU (roughly on par with the CPU you have in your list), RAM & motherboard for £130 with ease.  I'm somewhat skewed as I tend to buy very few components brand new due to the good deals possible when going for used parts, but equally I understand it's not a route everyone wants to go down.

Could you make me a rig with a £600 budget then please?

And I've been told about SSDs, and to be honest I'm not to bothered about how fast it runs, just as long as is performs well with games. I can easily upgrade to an SSD and HDD hybrid type thing later.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail  £139.99
1 x VTX3D HD 7850 X-Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card  £119.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614)  £71.99
1 x Asus B85-PLUS Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard  £71.99
1 x Antec Neo Eco C 520w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply  £61.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX)  £56.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD  £39.95
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black  £32.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM  £13.99
Total : £623.96 (includes shipping : £11.75).

• change out the board to this to save £27 or this to save £12 - the latter would be better.
• downgrade your graphics card to this to save £20, although the extra £20 gives you a much better bang for buck card so I really wouldn't recommend it.
  you could CONSIDER downgrading your CPU to a dual core for now with the idea being to upgrade to a quad core later, this can save you up to £90 or so but it'll be quite a difference.
• consider dropping your PSU down to this - OcUK don't seem to carry the XFX 450 and 550 and have shrunk their XFX range massively in fact, this is a better value unit than the Antec I linked above and will save you just over £25 so I would recommend doing this regardless as your budget doesn't really allow a PSU with room for upgrades so you'll likely need to change this if you go for a power hungry graphics card or Crossfire/SLI later on.

First of all, I just want to thank you for fixing those links, that's super helpful and great to know a trusted good computer website.

Second of all, I just want to ask that you are sure that that system will run with a 450w? Cause if you're from the UK, you've probably heard of Maplin, and when I was in there talking to them about one of there motherboard, ram and CPU packages, they recommended this 680w, and even with that it would struggle to run. The motherboard and processor was the one of my other thread, and the ram I chose to upgrade a bit. Now I'm not sure if this is just him trying to sell me stuff, or if it was just that that was a bad PSU, and it was sort of like those 4gb graphics cards that you see, but they're actually not that good, just got a lot of RAM.

• consider dropping your PSU down to this - OcUK don't seem to carry the XFX 450 and 550 and have shrunk their XFX range massively in fact, this is a better value unit than the Antec I linked above and will save you just over £25

First of all, I just want to thank you for fixing those links, that's super helpful and great to know a trusted good computer website.

Second of all, I just want to ask that you are sure that that system will run with a 450w? Cause if you're from the UK, you've probably heard of Maplin, and when I was in there talking to them about one of there motherboard, ram and CPU packages, they recommended this 680w, and even with that it would struggle to run. The motherboard and processor was the one of my other thread, and the ram I chose to upgrade a bit. Now I'm not sure if this is just him trying to sell me stuff, or if it was just that that was a bad PSU, and it was sort of like those 4gb graphics cards that you see, but they're actually not that good, just got a lot of RAM.

And lastly, are you then recommending that I replace this power supply: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-206-AN
With this one?: http://www.dabs.com/products/xfx-450w-proseries--80plus-bronze-core-edition-full-wired-psu-8DK2.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc%20product%20search&utm_content=Q200&utm_campaign=Components%20and%20Storage%20-%20Cases,%20Cooling%20and%20Power%20-%20Power%20Supply%20Units&origin=pla

Hi,
Could you help me verifying WiFi/BLUETOOTH cards' compatibility criterion please?
To be more specific, I'm wondering if the MOTHERBOARD chipset is the only component that limits the use of WiFI/Bluetooth cards on a laptop.
Even more specific.
I obtained a Samsung R580 laptop(MoBO: BA92-06128B; Chipset: HM55; Original Wi-FI card(that has no Bluetooth): BA59-02572A(to the best of knowledge)) came without a Wi-FI card in it. My Internet research showed that the original WiFi is BA59-02572A. I got one and installed. Later on I found that it has no Bluetooth either. Again I found in Inet that those of R580 with originally installed Bluetooth cards are coming with a separate BTU1040-D99 card, which TURNED out to be hard to get and yet expensive.
Again in Inet I learnt that there are a LOT of COMBO (WiFI/Bluetooth) cards available. So now I'm wondering which one to buy. For instance there is Broadcom BCM94313HMGB ones, that at least according to http://www.laptopking.com/searhbrandresults.asp?brand=samsung, are installed in Samsung R780 RF510. Those Samsung R780 RF510 have the same chipset as mine has HM55. Can I surely get that card?

Many thanks in advance.
Kind regards

I have been having alot of problems with this PC for along time such as RAM slot fails sometimes and causes Hang to the system, on-board LAN slot hangs and causes system to hang & always hanging for no reason but lately the on-board sound started having this weird noise like VER LOUD high pitch static sounds non stop like a bomb is going to explode and then now I can't get the pc to run windows more than 5mins because it will just hang.. I have tried removing every single thing CONNECTED to the mobo and put them back 1 by 1 it all work fine for the first few mins but after that it just hangs then i decide to check the ATX12/24 connector and found out 2 pins was burned.
My question is what is the cause of that 2 pins to burn?

Sorry for my bad English.









Hi

Thanks for the clear picture 

there is 3 failed capacitors on the power supply closet to the 3.3v connector. which could be the cause of the memory problem.

When a connection BURNS like that it is normally because of something like cleaner or dirt on the power supply plug if it was making a good connection there should be no heat so no burning.

Have a happy day

Lisamaree   OK so i will get a new PSU and test it againHi


You missed that the capacitors are faulty on the power supply and that WOULD be causing the memory errors.

A new power supply isn't going to fix that.

Either replace the capacitors or the motherboard.
  Also

It seems strange that an IBM computer would have those capacitors fail. Unless you can replace the capacitors it could be quite difficult to locate a replacement board.