Muel Posted July 14, 2012 Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 Howdo There's already a tech support thread, but there isn't a thread for the geeks. Post pics, talk about games/overclocking/mods etc. What are you lot up to? I just rebuilt my server, and I'm installing ESXi as a hypervisor test thingy. Not sure what it all means apart from I'll have multiple virtual servers running on one physical box, which will be nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TROYston Posted July 14, 2012 Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 Need to update mine really but i just cant afford it really specs top from 2009 lmao! Will put some pics up in the light tomorrow. Badly needs updating though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted July 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 Gaming desktop I presume? Yeh me too lol, it's all pretty old/slow/power-hungry now. What kinda spec is it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forteh Posted July 14, 2012 Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 Im still using my i3 clocked to 4.01ghz (ocuk overclocked bundle) with a gtx260 216 and to be honest its absolutely awesome, because of the stonkingly fast core clock and the fact that most games dont use more than 2 cores at the moment (its a hyperthreading dual core so effectively a quad core for non optimised programs) it flies along just nicely. A bigger gfx card would up fps a bit but 50fps at 1080p on bf3 on high settings is more than enough Made a huge difference to performance by enabling AHCI sata control, was getting about 20Mb/s transfer rate across my hard disks, enabled AHCI and its shot up to 65-70. I dont know why but w7 natively installs on the slower IDE setting, fortunately you can retroactively activate the AHCI without having to rebuild windows - you couldnt do this on xp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted July 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 65-70? Pffftt, 525mbps and above at all times here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TROYston Posted July 14, 2012 Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 (edited) Yer pretty much the spec out of memory issss: NZXT case WD terrabyte hd 2 BFG SLI 8800 GT's Striker Extream mobo Intel Q6600 quad core OCed 3.9 8 gb of cosair ram cannot remember the rest ahaa Excuse the anus quality of my phone. The case isnt too bad though, it has straps so you can carry it like a backpack! though i need to invest in a new set-up which im thinking i might go for watercooled. I've found that Metro 2033 max setting eats it alive but that is a very graphically demanding game! try it out. But other than that it runs 80% of games fine, just need a fresh XP install back on it. I hate vista and 7. Edited July 14, 2012 by TROYston Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted July 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 Noice noice, just bought myself a new case and stuck my old hardware inside it. More pics here including my old build, if you're interested: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18418452 Spec is: Bitfenix Shinobi XL AMD 965BE at 3.8ghz 8GB DDR3 ATI 5830 Crossfire 2x Samsung F3 1tb Crucial M4 128gb SSD Not gamed in a while properly, I only really play minecraft now! (Well not now, my server is currently being rebuilt). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dann2707 Posted July 14, 2012 Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 My computer is great at running counter strike source and that's all that matters to me haha 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forteh Posted July 14, 2012 Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 65-70? Pffftt, 525mbps and above at all times here. Aye but my hard disks are about as old as you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted July 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 Niceeee, IDE? I'm running a 40gb IDE boot drive in the server at the moment with a 120gb backup drive. I refuse to buy a load of 2-3tb drives whilst the prices are still so high. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TROYston Posted July 14, 2012 Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 I'm really liking the cases with cable management! mine just looks like it being wiref**ked. I might actually give it a full clean tomorrow its looking so dusty and running at 24 degrees . Back when it was new it used (When Command & Conquer 3 started to pick up massively) it used to run at 12 not too happy with the jump lmao! Just took a butchers at new things and i cannot find a case i like any-more, what's happened to them all ?! Anyone had experience with a full watercooling set-up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted July 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 12 degrees or 24 degrees sounds like a dodgy reading to me. It can never have run at 12 degrees, as room temperature is higher than that. Mine idles about 35 and under heavy load goes to around 55. Cases stopped looking vile and started looking sleek and minimalist. Not watercooled yet but my new case has plenty of room for it. I can fit a 360mm rad, a 240mm thick rad and a 140mm thick rad at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TROYston Posted July 15, 2012 Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 Nah theres quite a few of us that have had low readings, the chap who got me into it all, his old Akasa case with silent fans used to manage sub 10 idle, and around 12-13 under load i might have the old pics we took from a LAN night showing all our temps via HWmoniter, bios and the case readings, this PC's is pretty accurate. though the processor sensor is now dead or loose. Nvidia used to make these little exhaust fans that fit under your GPU that were amazing they knocked so much of the GPU temps it was crazy! I do like the sleek look but, i quite like lights, but watercooling should get it glowing anyway! I am quite liking youre case, does it come in black? And the options sound rather good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted July 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 The readings might have been 10C, but they can't have been accurate readings, because air cooling means that the is always hotter than the air that cools it. (Otherwise the air from the room would be heating the CPU, which makes no sense. ) PCI fan to feed the cards more air? Yeh seen them but they're a bit loud for my liking I just have a couple of 230mm fans in this that shift a lot of air through the case. Got a new CPU cooler on the way though, my current one isn't really good enough. Ordered a Phanteks PH-TC14PE the other day, should handle things OK... Yeh there is a black version, I was going to buy it, but then saw the white version so I waited for it to come out. Love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomturd Posted July 15, 2012 Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 I upgraded my laptop ram from 1gb to 2gb recently Its flying along now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezgonzo Posted July 15, 2012 Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 @ TROYston, if your using air cooling then your cpu temp will always be a few degrees above the ambient temp of the air around it, obviously the temperature differential will increase as more load is put on the cpu, even with watercooling you will never get below ambient temps, you will get slightly closer to the ambient temps when idling but wc'in is more about the load temps, also on a side note some programmes will only read and display the CPU / socket temp as opposed to the actual CPU core temps, programs like Aida64 will read and display both the CPU temp as well as the core temps. i only go by the core temps as the CPU temp is always around 10c lower because it's not actually the CPU temp it's the socket temp. I've some what drifted away from oc'in and building rig's over the last year or two, mainly due to the stupid amounts of money it was costing in order too bench the latest and greatest hardware as well as benching the older platforms, here's a pic of my desk @ the time i decided to give up benching, i've still got the silver v2000 rig on THE right, however it has now been somewhat downgraded, it was originally running the following: HARDWARE I7 980X X58X-UD7 6GB G-SKILL PII 1600MHZ CL7 AMD 6990 CORSAIR HX 1000W WD VELOCIRAPTOR 150GB / SAMSUNG F1 1TB COOLING EK HF NICKEL CPU BLOCK EK NICKEL 6990 FULL COVER BLOCK EK DUAL DDC BAY RES LAING DDC ULTRA PUMP X2 TFC 320 RAD TFC 240 RAD 7X ENERMAX CLUSTER 120MM FANS 2X ENERMAX CLUSTER 80MM FANS Now it's running the following: HARDWARE I7 2600K P67A-UD7 4GB G-SKILL RIPJAW-X 2100MHZ CL7 AMD 6970 SUPER CLOCKED CORSAIR HX 850W PNY 120GB SSD / SAMSUNG F1 1TB COOLING NOCTUA NH-D14 CPU COOLER STOCK CPU COOLER 7X ENERMAX CLUSTER 120MM FANS 2X ENERMAX CLUSTER 80MM FANS If i'm honest even though it has had a downgrade there's no real difference in performance, even in games it still does me proud compared to the old rig that was in it, 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted July 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 (edited) Is that a phase-change cooler thingy I spot there? I've never been into benching really, only dabbled with overclocking. Servers are my new play thing. First person I've heard say they "downgraded" to a 2600k with a 6970 and 2100mhz RAM..... Edited July 15, 2012 by Muel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezgonzo Posted July 15, 2012 Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 (edited) yeah it's just a little ss phase unit that i built from scratch a couple of years or more ago now, -35c is the best temp she'll hit with the current refrigerant that's in it, it's currently just sat in the corner gathering dust unfortunately, i do fire her up every now and again just to move the oil round and stop the compressor from ceasing though , i must agree that a 2600k is not what most would call a downgrade, before i gave the 980x rig to my bro and got the 2600k rig i was actually considering keeping one of my rampage extremes along with a q6600 and using that for my daily rig, but unfortunately i got an offer for the rampage extreme's that was too good not to take up. here's a couple of slightly better pic's of the ss phase unit : Frosty goodness . Edited July 15, 2012 by ezgonzo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dann2707 Posted July 15, 2012 Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 I think you've just won this thread, looks like you could grow people in that thing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weirdoku Posted July 15, 2012 Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 (edited) Built my gaming pc when I started uni in 2009. It still plays most games at decent framerates. Quick specs: Coolermaster CM690 nvidia edition case EVGA 780i sli *** mobo Corsair TX750 PSU Q6600 @ 3ghz OCZ 4GB DDR2 @ 1066mhz 2x GTX 260 in SLI 1TB Hitachi Deskstar hard drive It's fine for what I do, I don't game that much any more but it handles recent games okay. Most recent game I played was Max Payne 3 which ran at perfectly decent frame rates. Other times it's my media pc mostly, music and videos. I've ordered a Raspberry Pi if anyone knows what they are. I plan to use it as my main media thing (save a lot of electricity compared to my pc), I'll make a little enclosure for it and hook up my external hard drive for all the media. Hook it up with a wireless wifi dongle (for internet and downloads), wireless keyboard and mouse, then I just need some sort of switch box for my monitor to switch between my PC and the Pi. Should be fun! Edited July 15, 2012 by weirdoku Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isitafox Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 I'm considering picking one up myself for a play, can always blag help off my little bro as well as he's on a computer something or other geek course at Derby uni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamKidney Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 (edited) How would I go about uprating my PC to run my simulators smoother and with a higher graphics setting without affecting performance? My PC copes fine with the older sims I have (Combat Flight Simulator 2 + 3, Flight Simulator 2002, Microsoft Train Simulator + Addon's), but my newest, Flight Simulator X, dont run as smoothly, and I have to compromise image quality for smooth gameplay, which lowers its appeal. Im also looking to download Railworks 3 Train Simulator 2012, and judging by the amazing image quality and gameplay, it needs a high spec pc to run it at its maximum settings. Railworks 3 System Requirements OS: Windows XP / Vista/ Windows 7 Processor: 2.8 GHz or faster Memory: 2.0 GB RAM Graphics: Video 256 MB with Pixel Shader 3.0* DirectX®: Version 9.0c (Included) Hard Drive: 6 GB of free space + 3 GB for DLC Sound: Direct X 9.0c compatible Sorry, Im a bit of a noob at this shit. Edited July 16, 2012 by Echo Lite 09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted July 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 What is the spec of your current computer? It's often cheaper just to buy a complete new build if you just want something that works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forteh Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 (edited) Depends on your current machine spec really. I've found that simulators tend to run better with a faster cpu than a faster gfx card, you have to weigh up the pros and cons of where your system is goingto bottleneck next if you upgrade one component. For example I started playing arma2, struggled to get more than 15-20 fps, it was unplayable Upgraded to the fastest cpu I could, made a small difference, doubled the amount of ram which helped a tiny amount. Got a decent spec gfx card that was reported to run the game fine and that got me an average of 25 fps, still much lower that anticipated. In the end I bit the bullet and upgraded the cpu, motherboard and ram with an overclocked bundle from ocuk. Arma2 now runs 50 - 80 fps, I should have upgraded the whole lot initially because I would have saved myself over 200 quid! That was over 2 years ago now and the same setup still plays just about every gameI've thrown at it without any problems Edit: snaked by muel dammit! Edited July 16, 2012 by forteh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamKidney Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 I'll have to find out what spec mines currently running when I get home then. With those system requirements what would I be looking at? Would a powerful, non game specific pc do the job? Im not too sure what to look out for really, or how much Id be spending on a decent unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.