GoldenEye: Source Forums
Debriefing => Off-Topic Lounge => Topic started by: Rodney 1.666 on July 17, 2010, 05:33:08 am
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Mkay, so I've been asking people for their thoughts on my issue and the consensus is "Make a thread on the forum", so here we are.
The problem is that my frames in GE:S are far less than optimal given my hardware specs. Now then:
Specs:
Motherboard: M2N68-LA, Narra 3 (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01357135&cc=ca&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3648237)
Processor: AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core 2.20 GHz
Graphics: Asus NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
Asus NVIDIA GeForce 460 Top
700 MHz, "Overclocked", 768 MB GDDR5, DirectX 11 support, NVIDIA SLI
RAM: 4.00 GB
System type: Windows 7 Home 64-bit
Native monitor resolution: 1920 x 1200, 16:10
GE:S BETA 4 video settings:
Resolution: 1280x800
Models: Medium High
Textures: Medium Very high
Shader detail: Low High
Water detail: Simple reflections Reflect all
Shadow detail: Low High
Colour Correction: Disabled Enabled
Anti-aliasing: None
Filtering mode: Trilinear
Wait for vertical sync: Disabled
Motion Blur: Disabled
High Dynamic Range: Full (if available)
Frames: ...
Lucky to have 50 in a map like Control, when I'm by myself.
So yeah... I'm open to suggestions. I do maintenance like registry cleanups and whatnot on a regular basis. (TuneUp is badass.)
I just want a boost is all...
~Edit September 22, 2010, 08:36:57 AM for new GFX specs.
~Edit for copied motherboard spec from last page for quick access.
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Well, something obviously is wrong my specs are:
- Intel Celeron D 2.66GHz
- 512MB DDR Ram 800MHz
- ATI Radeon 9250 128MB
I play using all of your settings except I use high textures and I get around 55fps on Control.
make sure you're getting adequate airflow and check to see if your fans have dust caked on them and your heatsink dosent look like http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p101/uzumaki_arashi_album/DSC01720.jpg (http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p101/uzumaki_arashi_album/DSC01720.jpg)
Also post what your temperatures are under load, I use a program called SpeedFan that you can get Here (http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php/)
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FYI
Q6700
8GB RAM
Win 7 Pro x64
XFX ATI 5970
1920x1200 with every setting on max and vsync disabled I get 115fps idle in control standing on the top floor looking towards the screen.
Do note I am actually playing at fullscreen but in a window (because I use multimonitors it saves alt-tabbing out)
Here are my game launch options:
-novid -noborder -console -sw -w 1920 -h 1200
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This isn't very helpful, but my laptop gets better performance.
Core2duo 1.7Ghz
4GB Ram
Geforce 210M
About all High settings, some medium.
As Proxie said, check your temperatures, and computer for dust.
Make sure you have the latest Drivers.
How is your performance in other games?
Try GE:S with the explosion particals off (Multiplayer > Advanced I believe).
Also think about dumping your Graphics card soon, its going to keep you down.
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Specs:
Processor: AMD 64 X2 5200+
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
RAM: 3.00 GB
System type: Windows XP Pro Service Pack 3
GE:S BETA 4 video settings:
Resolution: 1024x768
Models: High
Textures: Very High
Shader detail: High
Water detail: Full Reflections
Shadow detail: High
Colour Correction: Enabled
Anti-aliasing: 4x MSAA
Filtering mode: 4x Anisotropic
Wait for vertical sync: Disabled
Motion Blur: Enabled
High Dynamic Range: Full (if available)
I get an average of around 90 fps on control.
I wish I could be more helpful, with the settings you use I think you should be fine with your graphics card.. I believe the 8500 GT is more of a mid-range card of the GeForce 8 series.. the high end ones are 8600 and 8800 and the pissweak ones are 8300 and 8400.
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I suggest a quick and dirty upgrade of the graphics card. I have a Geforce 8800 GTX 640MB and it runs everything like a dream (especially GE:S). Obviously, make sure your graphics drivers are up to date and i would also investigate your motherboard northbridge drivers if you are running nForce.
So yah: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134082
Geforce 9800 GT w/ 1GB RAM for $90 (after mail-in rebate)
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Thanks for the response so far.
As Proxie said, check your temperatures, and computer for dust.
Make sure you have the latest Drivers.
How is your performance in other games?
I find myself cleaning out the tower every month, it seems, so that's taken care of. Temperature is something I've thought about and will look into when I get back from work today.
The last time I updated my graphics drivers the contrast went emo, so I'm still weary about that because I couldn't do a rollback. (This was during the end-phases of my Vista use (and was completely sick of it)).
Though this is a new OS so I'll do it.
Other games are also sub-par from what I recall (Half-Life ², DOOM³, even fucking DooM with the "bdoom" effect-enhancing WAD when things get stupid-busy (exclusive to TNT/Plutonia :P), though GE:S stands out as being worse.
As for upgrading the card, I've been looking around for a few months now, but as I currently stand I'm moving to my neighboring city for schooling in the middle of August, and I of course need as many monies as possibly possible, so that unfortunately won't be an option for a while.
Try GE:S with the explosion particals off (Multiplayer > Advanced I believe).
Do note I am actually playing at fullscreen but in a window (because I use multimonitors it saves alt-tabbing out)
Here are my game launch options:
-novid -noborder -console -sw -w 1920 -h 1200
I'll give those a shot along with a look at the temperature.
Updated OP with native monitor resolution, 1920 x 1200, 16:10. (if it's relevant)
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ya, update your Nvidia drivers. If you could, replace your video card with a faster one. I am very pleased with my 9800gt 1gb.
Also check your temp readings. Stop any processes which you dont need.
i keep textures and details to very low or low. Runs faster and its summer here and I dont want to build more heat in my pc.
Pretty much just update your pc, and do some maintence (defrag, malware scan etc) after that check out the performance.
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I almost got a 9800 for $128 a few months ago but decided I was more interested in the GTS 250. Then it just didn't happen.
As for maintenance, registry scans are done almost daily, defrags once a month, AVG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVG_(software)) does its thing every Sunday at 3AM, no unnecessary programs are run during startup (and thus ever), and I've been closing everything excluding Messenger and AVG before running GE:S.
So that's not a variable in this equation.
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Sometime a fresh format and an install of the best running drivers is all you need. Newest driver isn't always the best driver.
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Go to the Nvidia website.
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^Note that I'd asked how one should find the best drivers besides Google-ing it and deleted it due to being a n00b query before noticing the response.
Anyways, I should also mention that formatting is the last resort as M$ doesn't want me installing Win7 more than three times. Shouldn't come to that though.
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Report
Try GE:S with the explosion particals off (Multiplayer > Advanced I believe).
-Couldn't find that option anywhere.
-Went into the BIOS and changed the Primary Video Adapter from PCI to PCI-Ex16, as I'm pretty sure that's what it is.
-Used the -novid -noborder launch options.
Now I'm lucky to get 60 instead of 50 it seems, so that's a slight improvement. (What did it I'm not sure.)
Of course I'm still in the 30s on maps like Runway and Cradle...
-Tried out SpeedFan, which is giving the same cracked out readings it was giving me when I was using Vista.
Game: What's wrong with this picture?
(http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/9190/speedfancrackedreadings.png)
Also enclosed are a couple shots of my BIOS, if it helps any.
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Only real thing can tell from that BIOS shot is that 2GB of your ram isn't in Dual-Channel which will hurt some performance.
Take a screenshot of your temps when under load. For this i'd suggest a program called HWMonitor (http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html). As it will log the highest temperature so you can see your peak. So just go play GE:S for a hour or so, then check the program and post that.
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Only real thing can tell from that BIOS shot is that 2GB of your ram isn't in Dual-Channel which will hurt some performance.
How would I go about solving that?
About two hours of play:
(http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8546/cpuidhardwaremonitor.png)
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Can't fix your Ram. Since you have a 2gb stick, it has nothing to run with. See the the two 1gb sticks can share a memory task(dual channel).
hmmm since you have the 2gb stick in Bank1. I believe the two 1gb stick should be in Banks 2 and 4. Dual channel is supposed to be every other bank. (usually color coated. red with red, blue with blue). So maybe take a picture of your memory in your case, then should be able to tell you if you need to move a stick.
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2GB in Bank1, 1GBs in Banks 3 and 4. (As per the colour-coding.)
Case shot added to give an idea of air flow as well, and graphics card... just 'cause; I'll take anything.
Images taken before moving the RAM.
(Left to right in picture: Empty, 1GB, 1GB, 2GB.)
(Left to right now: 1GB, 1GB, empty, 2GB.)
~Edit:
[...]
About two hours of play:
(http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8546/cpuidhardwaremonitor.png)
Update to say that that I got the same figures within a couple degrees from a little less than an hour of play, if that helps any.
Edit for typo on "couple" saying "coupe". I'm anal like that.
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I suggest a quick and dirty upgrade of the graphics card. I have a Geforce 8800 GTX 640MB and it runs everything like a dream (especially GE:S). Obviously, make sure your graphics drivers are up to date and i would also investigate your motherboard northbridge drivers if you are running nForce.
So yah: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134082
Geforce 9800 GT w/ 1GB RAM for $90 (after mail-in rebate)
Well I went with KM's (and most other's in-game) advice, excluding the 9800 GT part.
I went batshit-overkill and went to our local hardware abode of awesomeness and bought meself a GeForce 460 GTX, 700MB, "Overclocked", for $210.00.
I also needed a new power supply to power the beast...
And guess what. Seriously, take a wild guess.
Well, I can run everything at almost max, and get the same performance as the 8500: average 50 frames.
It's conclusive that something is seriously fucked somewhere.
So, my current to-do list is:
- Run a diagnostics tool of some kind.
- <Forum advice here>
Sometime a fresh format and an install of the best running drivers is all you need.
So yeah... any and all help is still greatly appreciated...
Good news is, if I have to resort to a new setup altogether (which I really don't want to do), I'll certainly have a card for it.
I'll update the post with full GFX specs when I get back.
Updated.
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Hey Rodney -
First off, the GTX 460 is a nasty card - awesome pic! Even at that resolution, the 460 should be eating all of those games for breakfast at max settings - GE:S shouldn't even be a blip on the radar.
After reading this thread to catch up, I have a couple questions and a statement for you:
Q.)
What do you have for a motherboard?
Do you have more than 1 PCI-E x16 slot on your board?
What is your PSU?
What do you have for a case?
S.)
When looking at your system specs, this caught my eye:
"AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core 2.20 GHz"
I bring this up because it's about 6 sub-families of processor behind where the current AM3 sockets are (behind Athlon II's & Phenom II's,) so it could be bottle-necking your sweet GPU.
Unless GE:S is somehow causing you to hit your RAM ceiling, I seriously doubt your RAM as anything to do with anything. Even if it's still DDR2-800Mhz - which I kind of suspect, because you have an AM2+ socket.
All of your temps (from your old setup) look fine, so none of your components seem to be over-heating. How are the temps with your 460?
Chances are, if temps really were the issue, you wouldn't get poor FPS while gaming, your drivers / card would just crashes with either artifacts, grey-screen, blue-screen, or black-screen. If they were really bad your card might not even function all together.
The reason why I asked about the 2nd PCI-E x16 slot on your board is that on most mid-range boards with more than 1 PCI-E x16 slot, you'll typically see the primary slot at x16 and the secondary slot running at x8. If you have your GPU in the x8 slot, that could also be a reason for the poor FPS.
Even though I ask about your PSU, I seriously doubt it - chances are if you were over-drawing your PSU while your GPU was under load during games, you would've fried your rig by now - not had poor FPS. Just curious though.
To be honest, out of all of the components, I suspect your CPU the most unfortunately. Especially considering how new the 460 is. If it is your CPU that is the culprit, your mobo should support an AM3 socket (since it's AM2+.) That being said, you would more than likely have to do a BIOS flash, and even then you might encounter a greater likelihood of having BSOD's since there are known compatibility issues with AM2+ sockets and AM3 chips.
That being said, I couldn't find a release date on your CPU, so I'm a little unsure of when it came out. Depending on the release date, we could have either found the cause of your issues, or that I'm a big fat liar.
One or the other. :P
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damn you guys have slow pcs ;) ;D ;D
I got a laptop with a Intel Pentium 3 running at 1.2GHZ single core
ATI Radeon 16MB Sdr ram 100MHZ core clock
256MB SDram memory
4200rpm 40GB HD
Running Arch Linux with LXDE i just setup yesterday and runs great on this laptop
I prob get .5 fps in goldeneye source with those specs I have lol.
Seriously, i would check your hard drive with HDD Sentinel, to make sure its functioning right.
Also, run ccleaner with custom settings and defrag the pc using Mydefrag.
Do some optimization and see if that helps.
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To answer your queries one by one, jj:
Q.)
To be honest I don't know how to go about figuring out what my motherboard is, or what exactly you're asking about it. (Model number or just what it can do, etc?)
I have 1 PCI-E x16 slot.
My PSU is a GX 650W Cooler Master (http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=2973).
My case is just the original, also pictured above. (HP Pavilion a6352f (http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/ho/WF10a/12454-12454-3329740-64546-64546-3644673.html?lang=en&jumpid=oc_R1002_CAENC-001_HP%20Pavilion%20a6352f%20Desktop%20PC&cc=ca))
S.)
My RAM is indeed DDR2.
Whenever I try to monitor hardware temps, I get cracked out results, so that's out. (And I'm sure they're find anyway, for the same reasons you gave.)
As for CPU release date, I bought this computer in March of 2007. It had all of the specs I listed in my original-original post, minus one gig of RAM.
It doesn't surprise me that the CPU is the most likely, because off age, and also because it's me and the most difficult, fragile, tedious, irreplaceable piece is what's going to not work...
Also, run ccleaner with custom settings and defrag the pc using Mydefrag.
Do some optimization and see if that helps.
I optimize the living hell out of my system on a frequent basis, so that's not it. It's also been brought up twice already...
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Does your hl2 process crash often for you when you play games that have the hl2 engine? if so i have the same problem with different spec.
when in sinc my fps will start @ 75 and drop really slow until ges has a crash or when i exit ges hl2 crashes and i use task manager process tab to end it
out of sinc it wull run almost max and stay stable frame rate varries all the time anywhere from 50\ 40 in runway up to 300 and some times it reads a little over
heat is not a problem here
core 2 quad @2.33 ghz (Q8200)
4 gigs. ram @1066 mhz (in 1 gig sticks)
nvidia gtx 260 max core 55 (its over clock out of the box) v-ram is 896 mb GDDR3
mobo is an Asus P5Q pro turbo
650wat PSU
im runing windows 7 64 bit but set with dual boot win xp 32 bit
just built this 1 anout months ago
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Does your hl2 process crash often for you when you play games that have the hl2 engine?
Negative.
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To answer your queries one by one, jj:
Q.)
To be honest I don't know how to go about figuring out what my motherboard is, or what exactly you're asking about it. (Model number or just what it can do, etc?)
The model number is fine (if you have it handy,) I wanted to look at a full list of your mobo's specs.
S.)
Whenever I try to monitor hardware temps, I get cracked out results, so that's out. (And I'm sure they're find anyway, for the same reasons you gave.)
As for CPU release date, I bought this computer in March of 2007. It had all of the specs I listed in my original-original post, minus one gig of RAM.
It doesn't surprise me that the CPU is the most likely, because off age, and also because it's me and the most difficult, fragile, tedious, irreplaceable piece is what's going to not work...
It makes me a little uncomfortable that you have wonky temp readings - but considering the age of your computer, and the fact that it was from large company - they probably didn't put temp sensors on the mobo, which would explain why you can't really get any readings.
I have HWMonitor in my rigs and on my 5yr old dell, the only temp that comes up is the hard drive. :P
Just to rule out the graphics card itself as a source of the problem, you could let your friend borrow the card and see if he has same / better results with it.
If they have a more recent setup and get higher FPS, then you'll have a much clearer answer. What would also be excellent is putting it in another comp that's approximately the same age as yours, and see if the results are the same / similar. I'm not really sure how feasible that is for you, but it's a possible trouble-shooting step that doesn't involve spending any $$, which is a good thing.
If it's not feasible, and you don't want to pony-up the dough for a newer CPU (it could even just be a better AM2+ socket,) then you could return your 460 and opt for something a little less recent, like a 260, or even a higher-end ATI HD 47XX or 5XXX series card.
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The model number is fine (if you have it handy,) I wanted to look at a full list of your mobo's specs.
That'll take some digging, 'specially since I don't know where to look.
It makes me a little uncomfortable that you have wonky temp readings - but considering the age of your computer, and the fact that it was from large company - they probably didn't put temp sensors on the mobo, which would explain why you can't really get any readings.
Now that I think about it, the BIOS doesn't even display temperatures either.
Just to rule out the graphics card itself as a source of the problem, you could let your friend borrow the card and see if he has same / better results with it.
The only computer I have access to that's near the same age might be my bro's. (His has a dual CPU; no idea what it is yet.)
If it's not feasible, and you don't want to pony-up the dough for a newer CPU (it could even just be a better AM2+ socket,) then you could return your 460 and opt for something a little less recent, like a 260, or even a higher-end ATI HD 47XX or 5XXX series card.
If it's the CPU (or anything that isn't the card, for that matter), then won't I still have the same problem but even worse?
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Don't worry about the mobo man, to get the model number you'd have to take it out of the case and look on the reverse side.
If your bro's comp has a PCI-E x16 slot, then you're welcome to try it. If you get ~50fps or less in his rig, then that can be proof-positive of a CPU bottleneck.
If it's the CPU (or anything that isn't the card, for that matter), then won't I still have the same problem but even worse?
Not necessarily. If you went with an older card like the ones mentioned above, (maybe even a 250 or ATI HD 3XXX series,) then the graphics technology will be closer to something that the CPU would adequately support, and may in fact give you better FPS than your current 460.
KM suggested a card that would be great for your rig - I believe it was a GTX 9800. That would offer you more performance than you current card, it would be more compatible with your system, and you wouldn't have to do any major / costly over-hauling.
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I believe it was a GTX 9800. That would offer you more performance than you current card, it would be more compatible with your system, and you wouldn't have to do any major / costly over-hauling.
What kind of frames do you predict with the 9800 or 250?
For the to-do list:
I've been Googling diagnostics tools, but I don't even know where to begin... any thoughts?
When all options excluding hardware changes have been exhausted, I've been thinking of formatting. (Win7 takes like 10 minutes anyway.) I'm sure it won't help, but it couldn't hurt.
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I have a 9800GTX+ superclock (old new but top of the line about 3 years ago). I get 300FPS looking at a wall and 100FPS average on TF2.
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I use to have a 2.8GHZ AMD Dual core with a 8800gt and I got max settings.. of course this was the days of beta1...but still.
My 3.2GHZ Q6600 (one of the first Quad cores) with my old ATI 4870 was maxed out @1920x1080...
So you should be getting top end performance. I didnt remember if you said(and to lazy to read again). But I'd wipe windows and start from scratch. then you can have clean drivers and be a nice clean slate to test with.
I still have that Dual Core and old 4870.. maybe if I get the time ill boot it up and load GE:S on it and see how bad the bottleneck is.
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So you should be getting top end performance. I didnt remember if you said(and to lazy to read again). But I'd wipe windows and start from scratch. then you can have clean drivers and be a nice clean slate to test with.
I'm going to next week. (next week being decided just now)
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Don't worry about the mobo man, to get the model number you'd have to take it out of the case and look on the reverse side.
Found it. (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01357135&lc=en&cc=ca&dlc=en&product=3648237&lang=en#N1229)
Googled my case model. (HP Pavilion a6352f)
Actually hold the phone; Almost found the mobo. Mine has four PCI slots on it. (And the fact that that one uses a Micro-ATX form factor makes me wonder too...)
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Nice ninja post, was about to post this:
http://davelm.com/images/index.jpg
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You know, I was wondering about that...
Assumed written specs were required.
Ninja post? It's a 17-minute gap.
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Doesn't warn when someone edits while you type.
But yeah. Reformat. All new drivers. Then move from there.
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But yeah. Reformat. All new drivers. Then move from there.
Since it seems that we've exhausted any present causes, clean-slate is the way to go.
You can go here to download any updated drivers for your motherboard:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=ca&lang=en&docname=c01357135&product=3648237&
You could also try going here:
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
In the "General Download" area and select a variant of your board to see if those might work as well.
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Formatted, clean slate, pressing on...
So I was talking with CCsaint and it turns out the mobo info is right on top after he suggested just opening the case up and looking... >.>
Here it is: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00906129&lc=en&cc=de&dlc=&product=3397528#N961
(I don't know about the "Narra" part, and mine isn't blue, but the rest is definitely a match.)
HERE it is: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01357135&cc=ca&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3648237
I've searched around the Nvidia site, Asus, HP, and Google, and I can't for the life of me find a driver for the chipset... it's 1:30 so I'm going to try again tomorrow, unless someone possesses the Google-fu to locate it before I do.
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I don't think you need drivers for the chipset, you do for the graphics card.
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You need your chipset drivers proxie. It is important to have them. Windows apparently "provides" them for you sometimes...but it is always best to go to the manufacturers website and get them off there as they are usually more up to date and more complete. They give you up to date drivers for your pci express port, processor, hard drive, blah blah blah.
If yours is an asus macc...you should have too many problems finding it on their website in support. I will look tomorrow if you can't find it, but it should be self explanatory. Then I would proceed by going back to Nvidia and finding your graphics, updating your sound driver (if possible), and making sure nothing else is found to be update-able in windows updates as it sometimes finds drivers that are more difficult to find online.
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So he needs both his chipset drivers for integrated graphics and his video card drivers??
i'm sure Windows provided the other chipsets.
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So he needs both his chipset drivers for integrated graphics and his video card drivers??
i'm sure Windows provided the other chipsets.
Not for integrated graphics, drivers for each of the parts of the motherboard. Essentially, the graphics driver powers the graphics card..but what powers the pci express port?...the pci express driver for the motherboard so that it knows how to perform its function. Chipset drivers has all the drivers for the motherboard (hence chipset) in it so that they can run with the latest fixes and directions. That way, devices can work to their full potential and then motherboard knows how to tell the drivers how they should work to provide best performance. Hence why you should install these BEFORE any other drivers (or at least they recommend so).
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I'm sure Windows provides all of those, or his PC came with them.
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If yours is an asus macc...you should have too many problems finding it on their website in support. I will look tomorrow if you can't find it, but it should be self explanatory. Then I would proceed by going back to Nvidia and finding your graphics, updating your sound driver (if possible), and making sure nothing else is found to be update-able in windows updates as it sometimes finds drivers that are more difficult to find online.
Editing my post; I scoured Asus last night as well.
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Any luck?
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I'm sure Windows provides all of those, or his PC came with them.
No, window's doesn't. It provides general drivers that "fill" in for the ones you are looking for. It is ALWAYS better to go with the original manufacturers drivers. Secondly, you NEVER use the drivers that come with your computers on discs and stuff, they are always outdated and shitty.
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Any luck?
Negative...
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has anyone considered new bios that can make a small difference?
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Edited post (http://forums.goldeneyesource.net/index.php/topic,5226.msg58294.html#msg58294).
THAT (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01357135&cc=ca&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3648237) is the motherboard; M2N68-LA, Narra 3.
Interesting that it just flat doesn't exist when searched for on the site, but Google hard enough and it'll be yours.
HP doesn't appear to offer a driver for it and Asus says it doesn't exist... Is it critical that I get the driver from the official source? (It's certainly important...)
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has anyone considered new bios that can make a small difference?
flashing a bios can be super risky
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Yes and no. Really depends on how it is packaged. If it a download in which you have to make a floppy disc out of, yes it can be risky. if its an executable, its not bad.
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Moar specs.
(CPU & motherboard)
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well... yeah. Not sure what to say. Think this computer has seen its days. But hey look on the bright side, you only need to spend like ~$450 to get a very nice computer :)
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Yeah, Saint and I pretty much gave up on ever finding the chipset driver, so I went ahead with the with the rest of them.
Same old shit, no improvement.
He tells me that Source is dependent entirely on clock speed, and that that is probably why I'm seeing shit frames, and I would likely see much better speeds in other games. That makes sense being that mine is a 2.2 GHz.
That being said, I guess I'll return this GFX card (keeping the PSU) and bide my time for a new setup, and get it right next time.
Thanks to all for trying, anyway.
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If original valve games such as TF2 are running faster on your PC, it might be because of the multicore support.
But even 2.2GHz should be enough to run Source on a half way decent framerate.
My CPU is a AMD Athlon X2 5200EE (2.6 GHz) and source is running smooth on it even on high settings.
While you cannot enable multicore for mods, you're still able to assign the HL2.exe to a certain core.
That way your main processor doesn't need to run the OS, FW, Anti-virus etc. and the game at the same time. Not sure if this will solve your problem but it's worth a try IMO.
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well... yeah. Not sure what to say. Think this computer has seen its days. But hey look on the bright side, you only need to spend like ~$450 to get a very nice computer :)
Agreed.
The mobo is old enough so that Asus dropped it from the product listing on their website - this also makes it hard for you to find drivers / support for your hardware; (their evil, capitalist way of telling you that you should just spend more money buying their stuff. :P)
Since you already have a great video card, you could just get a bare-bones kit from newegg, throw some RAM in and a hard drive and you've got yourself a pretty decent machine.
Hope you get everything figured out.
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flashing a bios can be super risky
QFT! bro
Never flash a bios, UNLESS its mandatory!! I flashed a printer nand and after it said Flashed completed, it fucked up. Just turns on and off (loops)
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While you cannot enable multicore for mods, you're still able to assign the HL2.exe to a certain core.
That way your main processor doesn't need to run the OS, FW, Anti-virus etc. and the game at the same time. Not sure if this will solve your problem but it's worth a try IMO.
Affiliating hl2.exe with cores 2 and 3 (0-4) gave me around a 10-15 frame boost, so that was handy.
I also found that Crysis run on medium everything rather well. If Source mods had multicore support I'd be golden...
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ROUND II
So I've made a decision, and decided "fuck this shit".
After browsing around (http://otvtech.com/) (because I love that store and it's within walking distance) I narrowed it down to three purchases. (Four if you count two for the RAM.)
I'm going to not have complete ignorance of what's smart and what's not walking in when I finally get there so I'm asking for advice on parts. (If you don't have anything better to do. ;) )
- Motherboard (http://otvtech.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=4616&category_id=349&vmcchk=1&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=240)
- Processor (http://otvtech.com/catalogue.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=8741&category_id=328)
- RAM (http://otvtech.com/catalogue.html?category_id=618&page=shop.browse&limitstart=0&limit=50)
I linked the RAM to the RAM page because I have little idea of what goes best with what, and I know it goes beyond just matching numbers up.
So, think of this post as just step 1 of narrowing down the options pool. Thanks for any input anyone can give. :)
As a general rule (and let me know if it's foolish), I'm hoping for <$500 and strong but not stupid-crazy-powerful. (And something that can make good use of my 460 GTX.)
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P7H55-M is a good choice, My friend has the same motherboard with the same I5 and trust me, He is not disappointed.
EDIT : Sorry, He has a I5 750, Not 760.
As for the RAM, 2x2GB of kingston should do the job. Don't overclock though, Reduces greatly the lifetime of your memory.
Personally, I never had any other RAM brands than Kingston (And I believe I had Samsung RAM once, But it was bull-.)
I didn't really follow up the whole conversation, But if you are building this computer for yourself, 4GB is the strict minimum for a great build. 6GB is even better, But I wouldn't go any higher than 6GB. Waste of money in my opinion, But some people find use for it.
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I would really suggest buying a new case. Its a extra like maybe $100. And will allow for any motherboard, and future upgrades.
Those components are pretty good. Only issue is since that motherboard is M-ATX it only has two PCI. So if you ever get a dual slot video card, you'll be down to one PCI.
As far as RAM, you really can't go wrong with any brand. I've used about them all, and have have no issue. My computer has Corsair. My old computer had Kingston, and Corsair. I've built computers with Gskill, and OCZ. I even have some old Rambus Samsung chips that still work.
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I would really suggest buying a new case. Its a extra like maybe $100. And will allow for any motherboard, and future upgrades.
The Antec nine hundred is a good way to go if you need a new case around 100$.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129058&cm_re=antec_nine_hundred-_-11-129-058-_-Product
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Hey Rodney, glad to hear you're upgrading your rig!
Anyway, here's an idea for a case:
http://otvtech.com/catalogue.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=4917&category_id=757
It offers terrific cooling options at an affordable price point. It's also from a great company, so you know name-brands are good. ;)
Your CPU choice is great - I've heard / read a lot of good things about the i5-760.
For the RAM, I've heard good things about Patriot. High-performance brand RAM, like Corsair or OCZ Gold or whatever is real important if you plan to do any over clocking. If not, then it's merely a matter of seeing whether or not the RAM is compatible with the board. Generally, if the RAM you're looking at has a speed supported by the board, it'll work.
That being said, it's always a good idea to wander over to the board's website to see if you can find a RAM-compatibility list.
4GB of 1333Mhz speed DDR3 RAM should be fine for whatever you're planning to use your computer for (I'm guessing mostly play GE:S :P)
As namajnaG mentioned, you can always add more RAM later on if your needs change.
I definitely agree w/ Major on the board. Those slots are a bit close to comfort. You may want to think about doing a little bit more shopping around. As an example, here is a cheaper board with more breathing room:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157178
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Hey Rodney, glad to hear you're upgrading your rig!
Anyway, here's an idea for a case:
http://otvtech.com/catalogue.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=4917&category_id=757
It offers terrific cooling options at an affordable price point. It's also from a great company, so you know name-brands are good. ;)
I agree, Coolermaster is a great brand as well, Has a nice design too IMO.
Although I forgot to specify to think of adding a power supply in your computer if you take this case or the case I suggested before (Or any other cases that specify "NO PSU".) This one that JJ suggested is more affordable though and should do the same job.
A 430W should cost around 30$, And has a pretty limited life if you leave your PC open 24/7 like I do. Had to change it 2 months after the purchase.
Although, If you do not leave your PC opened 24/7 it should last long.
A 650W is around 90$, So its pretty expensive, But its tough.
I don't know about a 500W, Must be around 60-70$. Never used these though, So I don't know about its lifetime.
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I've recently decided to upgrade to a new computer myself (due to my graphics card dying ingame) and I'm going for the i5 760 myself.
As for the RAM I'm going with G-Skill (CL 9, but 1600 Mhz)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277&cm_re=gskill_ripjaw_1600-_-20-231-277-_-Product
and my case is a Xigmatek Midgard - it's huge, so it provides enough space for a GTX 470 (and the price should be around 70 $). The only downside is the power source is on the bottom.
A friend of mine told me yesterday, that I might need to flash my BIOS to a newer version with the P7P55D mainboard, and since yours is looking like its brother, you might also need to. (Because the P7P55D would recognise the intel i5 with 2,8 Ghz only at 2,6 Ghz otherwise)
Can't wait for saturday - because by then my computer will be ready. :-)
As for the power supply, it heavily depends on your graphics card, which one you'll need.
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I have to leave in 2 minutes but I'll say that I got a new PSU (600W) when I bought the GPU.
I'll follow-up on the input when I get back. :)
~Edit for 600W, not 650W.
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Hey Rodney, glad to hear you're upgrading your rig!
I'm replacing my rig. :P
Just a note, for those who said "good choice on 'x'", the motherboard and CPU weren't so much "choice" as "budget". ::)
Those components are pretty good. Only issue is since that motherboard is M-ATX it only has two PCI. So if you ever get a dual slot video card, you'll be down to one PCI.
That completely slipped my mind. Alright, so M-ATX factors are out.
I'll scan over possibilities for Batch 2 later. (Including the case; That looks like a gooder jj, but I'm not sure my desk will accommodate it...)
~Edit for 888th post.
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Rodney, have you ever thought about going the AMD route? It'll offer similar performance, more flexibility, and free up some more of your hard-earned $$. I mention this because of your strict budget.
Regarding the case, you can always have it on the floor next to your desk - provided you put down a book or a small board to keep the computer off the ground for ventilation. In my dorm room, I have my compy sitting on a chair next to my desk. :P
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I have an AMD now and I'm permanently paranoid because of how shitty my luck has been for three years.
Now I know lumping is an idiotic way of thinking but 1095 days of wasting my time, effort and money has taken its toll and I don't want to take any chances whatsoever. (Which was why I went way overkill with the 460 GTX...)
In the end that is the major difference: AMD is cheaper and more flexible but for a reason, and Intel is the powerhouse but requires $$$ and *KM apparently issues with them...
So I don't know. I know I could Google AMD and Intel but everyone says different things etc etc, so I may as well get advice from those I already trust and have personal experience. :)
[/rambling]
If I didn't make any sense let me know.
* That alone seems like a good reason...
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In the end that is the major difference: AMD is cheaper and more flexible but for a reason, and Intel is the powerhouse but requires $$$ and *KM apparently issues with them...
KM has issues with what? I haven't bought a processor in over two years, which was a Core 2 Duo. I must say its been the best processor I've ever had. I am totally out of touch with the current level of technology though, I have no need to upgrade my rig, it still runs all the programs and games I use. I guess that speaks to the power of the Intel line :-/
However, I do run an AMD in my HP Tablet, the Z-80 to be exact. It has the integrated HD 3200 video processor on it. I am also impressed with that, but it pales in comparison to the Core 2 Duo, not that I expect it to be equals.
For a real life comparison, it takes 5 min to do a complete rebuild of the GES mod on my desktop and over 25 minutes on my laptop. Both use two cores to do the building on VS2010. My linux box (backup, server, etc.) takes roughly 20 minutes to do complete build with G++ (notoriously SLOW) and is only single core Pentium 4.
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(notoriously SLOW) and is only single core Pentium 4.
Back then, Pentium 4 CPU's were fucking top of the line processors LOL! Now they are at the way bottom of the cpu shit list hahhaaa
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KM has issues with what? I haven't bought a processor in over two years, which was a Core 2 Duo.
Oh, I heard somewhere that you were big on AMDs and have a dislike for Intels due to limited upgrading options. (or something) *coughSaintsaidcough*
Which brings me to the next CPU query: Dual or quad? When I went into this thing in '07 my thought process was "Prepare for future use; sure, nothing uses it now but it'll come, and you'll be prepared."
At the moment, I can say that I don't really play anything new... That might be because of the performance I'm getting but also because not much holds my interest anymore. I imagine I would give newer stuff a try if I could handle it, so which would be the better way to go? (And by "handle it" I mean 60fps with the settings on high sans anti-aliasing. (but if I can get anything in AA I'm all for it.))
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Going dual would IMHO be stupid.
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Sure, Going dual is pretty bad.
I own a dual core myself. (Intel E7500 2.93GHz) I would had got a quad, But I was lacking funds.
Although, If you mean running GE:S at 60FPS you will have absolutely no problems at all, Even with anti-aliasing on with a dual. (Be sure to grab a good video card though. I know you will.)
Although I highly recommend going for a quad core.
If you play games such as BF Bad Company 2 with a dual, You will notice the game runs smooth, But takes a very long time to load.
Going quad is the way to go.
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or even triple core if you want: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103872
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or even triple core if you want: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103872
That depends if he is going for Intel or AMD.
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I think the CPU you first picked is best bet. Once you decide if your gonna get a larger mobo(then needs a new case) you should be all good to go.
My Q6600 has been pretty great. Holding strong for a couple years (even with a 800MHZ OC). I hold Intel CPU's high. I frankly think of AMD as a great choice if your on a budget. If you need a really cheap quadcore that your gonna use as a media center or just for video rendering its a great choice. While even thought Intel is higher priced, its more of a all around work horse. And Intel CPU's seem to stay relevant longer.
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I own an AMD 1055T myself. I had it OC'd to 4.09Ghz stable but turned it down because that amount of stress is unnecessary for what I use my compy for.
I mention that because I've always been an Intel guy, but recently went AMD for purely budget reasons, and I must say, I've been very happy with my CPU.
Also, one of the selling points for me was that the 1055T score about 600 points higher than the other cpu I was looking at, the i5-760, on this chart:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
The six-cores work great for me because I do a bit of multi-threaded applications (and also wanted to futurize my rig,) and I was absolutely floored when I saw how much faster it did things than my old 3Ghz Pentium 4 w/HT (which scored about 1/6th the score of the 1055 on that chart.)
If you decided to go AMD, you could get the Phenom II Advanced 945. The 955 and 965 are black editions, so you'd pay more $$ for an unlocked multiplier, and then you have the 1035, 1055, and 1090, which are all hex-cores.
That being said, I highly doubt you'd be disappointed with the i5-760, as I tend to agree with people that they seem to be more... resilient?
That being said, it's much more important to have a sweet graphics card than a sweet CPU when talking about gaming.
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I am running a Athlon X4 AMD Phenom 9600 Agena 2.3GHz Quad Core. Its ok, but i want a i5.
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Processor: AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core 2.20 GHz
Graphics: Asus NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
Asus NVIDIA GeForce 460 Top
700 MHz, "Overclocked", 768 MB GDDR5, DirectX 11 support, NVIDIA SLI
I'm safe in the GFX department.
Alright, well I'll see what my running total is and decide on the CPU then.
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I'm safe in the GFX department.
Alright, well I'll see what my running total is and decide on the CPU then.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215
its only $200 ;D lol
can easily overclock it to a i7
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Gfx is important in many exceptions aside from source. From what I have been told and researched, it is much better performance to have a monster CPU and a medium Gfx than a medium CPU and monster Gfx. Bashe and Macc can tell you that from experience with their own rigs. Heck, even km says source is very processor intensive and only so much graphics intensive. Get a great CPU Macc as it will pay off in the long run as the system ages, but don't go to extreme since price obviously gets super crazy near the top with little to no performance gain ;) good luck
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Gfx is important in many exceptions aside from source. From what I have been told and researched, it is much better performance to have a monster CPU and a medium Gfx than a medium CPU and monster Gfx. Bashe and Macc can tell you that from experience with their own rigs. Heck, even km says source is very processor intensive and only so much graphics intensive. Get a great CPU Macc as it will pay off in the long run as the system ages, but don't go to extreme since price obviously gets super crazy near the top with little to no performance gain ;) good luck
That's a little weird :P could it just be a source-specific thing? I can definitely see loading levels and stuff, and maybe in an RTS style game when you have hundreds of little units flying everywhere, but GFX seem to do most of the heavy lifting. Programs like Tmonitor are great for showing you exactly how your CPU is being used.
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I agree with you man, except for the fact that macc and I pretty much had the same performance. He has a 2.2 quad core, and I have a 2.0 core 2 duo and we were getting the same frames since the clock speeds were almost similar. AND, he had his gtx 460 or whatever running on the same res and me (1280x800) and we were getting the same frame rates...and my computer has a Radeon hd 3650 256mb card (not that great). If it was GFX highly dependent, I would think you could see a substantial increase with his card. Especially since he reformatted and everything was fresh with the latest drivers and such. He said he also received much better performance in games other than source, which kind of goes to show that source is a processor hog on clock speeds. It must just be source specific. :)
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No kidding, huh, well I guess you learn something new every day! :)
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BONUS ROUND
While I'm browsing/procrastinating, I'd really like to quickly switch gears temporarily to another issue.
I de-virus'd my friend's laptop via format and upgrade from Vista to Win7. All went off without a hitch (the second time; can't format from the CD in Windows, derp), but now there's a problem with the sound.
All sound in general, be it Windows or MP3s or games, what-have-you, occasionally cracks. That is, there's a quick staticy noise every random-or-so (usually seconds). This only occurs when there's actually sound to be heard; it doesn't happen when the comp is just sitting there.
Saint and I went to town on this and just could not find a solution. We found the only audio driver on the Google that matches the laptop and that just made the sound even worse. (Has since been rolled back.)
I was thinking that Windows updated something without us knowing but even a complete system restore didn't help.
It of course should be noted that the laptop was not doing this before the upgrade.
I don't want to just abandon this problem (obviously) so any advice is still appreciated. (And not just by me. ::))
~I'll include the model of the laptop when I can get it. (today)
The laptop in question (http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=WK24gxZ93gWWDyXY).
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I would imagine this to be a hardware error (burnt capacitor or something like that). Although coincidently right when you upgrade to Win 7? Try listening on headphones to see if it's an interface problem. There is no difference between Win 7 and Vista in terms of the Audio driver support. They both use the new abstract implementation method.
Try going into the speaker properties (Control Panel -> Sound -> Properties) then the Advanced tab, and make sure the default format is not 192000 Hz, I know that causes static sometimes on speakers.
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I would imagine this to be a hardware error (burnt capacitor or something like that). Although coincidently right when you upgrade to Win 7? Try listening on headphones to see if it's an interface problem. There is no difference between Win 7 and Vista in terms of the Audio driver support. They both use the new abstract implementation method.
Try going into the speaker properties (Control Panel -> Sound -> Properties) then the Advanced tab, and make sure the default format is not 192000 Hz, I know that causes static sometimes on speakers.
If the above resolutions doesnt work for you... I recommend shooting the speakers with a Glock!
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Try listening on headphones to see if it's an interface problem.
On the first install of Win7 (when the drives weren't formatted properly and I used 32-bit...*), when headphones were plugged in the sound would play out of both the speakers and the headphones. (wtf, mang)
This time around, sound just continues to go through the speakers and nothing goes through the headphones.
*Must have been sleep-deprived or something 'cause I wasn't sure if the 2.4 GHz CPU could handle 64-bit, and also because the laptop was originally fitted with 32-bit Vista. *shakes head*
Try going into the speaker properties (Control Panel -> Sound -> Properties) then the Advanced tab, and make sure the default format is not 192000 Hz, I know that causes static sometimes on speakers.
Next on the to-do list. Thanks.
~2nd edit: Negative, it's at 16-bit, 44100 Hz (CD Quality).
~Edit: Updated previous post with the lap's model #.
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Interesting: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7hardware/thread/95611990-c2bf-4040-ba41-c29ab1e18457
Suggest these drivers: http://www.realtek.com/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=24&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false
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"cause I wasn't sure if the 2.9 GHz CPU could handle 64-bit"
I lol'd.
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[/memory fail]
2.4. 2.4!
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Interesting: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7hardware/thread/95611990-c2bf-4040-ba41-c29ab1e18457
Suggest these drivers: http://www.realtek.com/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=24&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false
Suggested and implemented, yielded horrid results. Driver rolled back...
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Spoke to my IT prof Thursday and he suggested running ubuntu off a disk. If the sound it still broken it's hardware, if it's fine then it's Windows. (Now why didn't I think of that...)
Gonna give that a try hopefully tomorrow. If there are any additional suggestions in regards to that plan lemme know.
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agree on the "why didn't I think of that" sentiment... be careful though, if the broken hardware is in a certain spot that isn't activated by the linux driver then you'll get a false result. I still stand by my initial eval of broken hardware :-)
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Although coincidently right when you upgrade to Win 7?
Still stand by that too? ::)
I gave your initial hardware hunch the highest probability right from the get-go (and still do); I just like to take every precaution, because this universe is arranged such that the one thing I don't do out of x things is the one that bites me in the ass...
~Edit for parenthesis fact.
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REWIND
Well the laptop thing is going to have to take place some time next week so I'm back to my own endeavors.
I've narrowed it down to four motherboards and have no idea which is best bang for buck (or even which has the most bang).
What confuses me is when a number of them say they have one PCIe and one PCI-Express... I know they're the same thing so that must mean something else.
The mo-bos in question are here (http://otvtech.com/catalogue.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=4625&category_id=349), here (http://otvtech.com/catalogue.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=4623&category_id=349), here (http://otvtech.com/catalogue.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=4622&category_id=349) and here (http://otvtech.com/catalogue.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=4619&category_id=349). (List here (http://otvtech.com/catalogue.html?page=shop.browse&category_id=349))
CPU as far as I know remains the same as does the RAM, and went with jj's case suggestion (but one above ;)) which ties in with Major's suggestion of ATX for moar slots. (Figured out where I'm going to put a 20" case as well.)
Your thoughts on the motherboards? That's really the only obstacle left.
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It's the most, but the P7P55D-E PRO offers the most features and future-proof-ness. SATA6, USB3...
Do you have any cards in your computer that are PCI? PCI is a out going technology(I don't eve have any PCI cards in my pc, all PCIe X1). Cause if for some reason you had more than 2 pci cards you would have to pick one with more PCI slots. If not, I'd suggest the P7P55D-E PRO.
The ASUS P7P55D-E seems similar to the PRO, just only has one PCIe X16. So you wouldn't be able to run two GFX cards, but that really isn't a problem since odds are you would never.
And the others are similar to these, just lack USB 3, and such things.
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Negative on the PCI usage; I have some sort of modem card one of them right now but it's never been used.
Well I seriously doubt I will ever need two GPUs, so I guess the P7P55D-E is the way to go.
Also broke it all down (or rather added it all up) and that option will give a total of $724, whereas the PRO brings it to $770. ($46 gap)
I compared the two as well and don't see any majorly-important differences, other than like you said the two PCI-E slots.
Would leaving the other one empty have any impact whatsoever on the system?
Are there any other differences between the two boards of any importance that I might have missed?
~Edit for recap:
- Case (http://otvtech.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=4918&category_id=757&vmcchk=1&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=240)
- Motherboard (http://otvtech.com/catalogue.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=4623&category_id=349) or Motherboard (http://otvtech.com/catalogue.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=4625&category_id=349)
- CPU (http://otvtech.com/catalogue.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=8741&category_id=328)
- RAM (x4) (http://otvtech.com/catalogue.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=7557&category_id=618)
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Looks like a nice build.
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It sure does.
Just need a decent Graphics card and you're good to go.
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So a month (two months?) ago I finally got around to assembling the rig, and I couldn't happier.
Everything in the graphics department is cranked to max and it doesn't even blink unless I'm running Crysis or something.
About that laptop earlier, everything is peachy now, except for the microphone. Apparently she has to yell into the thing for anyone to hear her. Microphone boost is maxed out in Windows and output on all applications that use the mic are maxed out as well.
Any microphone plugged in to the jack works fine so it's the internal mic. Drivers are updated.
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Care to elaborate and explain how you fixed the sound issue?
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She sent it to Asus because I failed to ask Question #1: "Is it still under warranty?", which I'm still kicking myself in the ass for because that was such a hurp durp thing, especially after working in electronics and dealing with that sort of thing on a regular basis...
In my defense I would assume that if I'm being asked to format it among other things that it's not...
Anyway, got the laptop back with Vista on it again, she formatted and installed Win7 on it and it went off without a hitch, sans sucky sound... wtf. (Those who forget, that's exactly what I did, twice.)
So yeah, that's all good but the internal microphone is still busted, and Google just gives me a bunch of people with the same problem.
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so maybe km was right about it just being dead (the actual hardware). Oh well, glad you got it fixed.
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Figured this is as good a place as any to ask without starting a new thread.
My new 1.5TB hard drive came in and I want to clone my old 363GB drive to it. Does anyone know of a good, free hard drive cloner out there? I'm Googling but thought I'd check if anyone has had a good experience with anything in particular. Being that this is a sensitive operation I'd like the goods and don't want to play with something shady.
I would just make an disk image and copy it to the new drive but... that requires 400GB+, which I don't have, which is why I need the upgrade in the first place. (<9GB remaining)
I would use my external but it's also full.
So yeah. Any software suggestions?
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Figured this is as good a place as any to ask without starting a new thread.
My new 1.5TB hard drive came in and I want to clone my old 363GB drive to it. Does anyone know of a good, free hard drive cloner out there? I'm Googling but thought I'd check if anyone has had a good experience with anything in particular. Being that this is a sensitive operation I'd like the goods and don't want to play with something shady.
I would just make an disk image and copy it to the new drive but... that requires 400GB+, which I don't have, which is why I need the upgrade in the first place. (<9GB remaining)
I would use my external but it's also full.
So yeah. Any software suggestions?
I use Acronis, but the problem is its not free. It does a excellent job cloning my partition, so that i cna move it over to the new drive. It also clones the MBR too.
Here we go
http://lifehacker.com/5839753/the-best-disk-cloning-app-for-windows
gl
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I use Acronis, but the problem is its not free.
I was looking at that one last night and gave the trial a shot, but cloning is not available in the trial. >_>
Still on the table, though.
~Edit: Readied a Clonezilla (http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live.php) USB stick as suggested by my IT prof and will clone tomorrow, for science.
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Again it's just easier to post here rather than create an entire thread for it.
I have a festering troll of a problem that just refuses to leave me alone, and it's blasted bloody speaker noise. I used to have just bare-bones stereo speakers. I then upgraded to 2.1 near the beginning of the year, and for whatever reason that escapes me, the speakers emit a constant fuzzing sound. After trying different cables and different devices and finally just plugging everything into the wall sans inputs I concluded that as long as the speakers have power, they emit that fuzzing noise; and it's not like a quiet subtle sound either; if you stop and listen you can hear it across the room.
So being fed up with those I upgraded again to 5.1 today with these guys (http://otvtech.com/catalogue?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=11309&category_id=428) (Logitech Z506).
And guess what. Same shit just not as bad, and sounds like a hard drive that's working in the background. I went through the same diagnostics as last time and conclude that as long as they're receiving power, they do this, and all five of them do it (center channel is the worst, followed by the FL & FR, then the RL & RR). Actually if the center is connected its noise is even worse than the last set.
If it means anything I'll also point out that with the previous 2.1 set, the higher the volume on the physical dial the louder the noise. With this 5.1 set it's constant regardless of volume.
I suspected that it may be line noise as I just have the sub plugged into a 6-tap with four other things plugged into it (if that's at all how that works), so I relocated to a power bar and then an extension cord and... same thing.
Important note, for whatever reason, one particular time I reseated the VGA-esc cable that connects the main (has the vol-knob) front-right to the sub, the hard-disk-noise just quit. All was well for a few hours and now it's doing it again. >< Thus I don't have a stance on connection integrity.
So do I just have horribly shit luck with audio or is there anything at all I can do?
tl;dr version:
Two sets of speakers that emit fuzzing noises as long as power is applied. Really, really shitty coincidence or something I'm missing?
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I have the same speakers and mine do the same.
I even have a good Asus Soundcard. Computer can be off, and still will get static. I really think its the quality of the wire they use, but who knows.
I use to get bad interference with my PS3 plugged in, then upgraded the cable and no more static via PS3.
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I have z506's as well. It's just what you get for paying $100 for 5 speakers and a subwoofer; the quality is crap. If it really bothers you, call Logitech support and ask them if they can send you new ones. My first set conked out after 2 months (center speaker died), and they set me a new set at no charge.
I don't really rely on my z506's for accurate playback due to the difficulty in getting the audio to balance correctly, I mostly only use them for gaming, watching movies, and listening to music. Whenever I do audio/music production or video editing, I switch to my 10-year old 2.1 Altec speakers which have fantastic quality but are missing that awesome immersive feel you get from surround sound.
Unless you pay like $500 a speaker you're always going to have that hissing sound.
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Well, not necessarily. There are a number of factors that can influence speaker sound. Wiring can be an issue, but different problems cause different sounds. For example, if your jack isn't making a proper connection with the input, then you're going to have a different sound than if you had a tear in the diaphragm of your speaker cone.
I would recommend taking your exact speaker configuration and then trying them hooked up into someone else' system. If you have the same problem, then you know it is inherent in the speakers. If not or you get a different problem, then it either points to your computer or a problem with the speakers.
Since you have the same problem with two different sets of speakers, I am wondering if it is something specific to your computer / tech setup.
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Well at least it's good to know that it's not a freak coincidence case.
I switch to my 10-year old 2.1 Altec speakers
My previous set was in fact the Altec Lansing VS4121 (http://www.alteclansing.com/ae/us/computer-speakers/vs4121blk/invt/vs4121blk/).
So you're saying there's no point in exchanging these for another of the same set?
If it was just the center I'd feel better about calling Logitech but the fronts are just as unbearable. I have to shut the speakers off if I'm not playing anything; it really does sound like a gadamn hard drive that's working away.
I would recommend taking your exact speaker configuration and then trying them hooked up into someone else' system.
Wouldn't plugging the sub into different outlets in the room and always excluding the inputs (connection to the computer) result in the same thing?
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Wouldn't plugging the sub into different outlets in the room and always excluding the inputs (connection to the computer) result in the same thing?
Sort of, but what would you be plugging them into to create sound coming out of them if you are excluding all of the inputs?
If they are making noise without any input signal, then I would say there is something bum with the speakers.
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as long as they're receiving power, they do this, and all five of them do it (center channel is the worst, followed by the FL & FR, then the RL & RR). Actually if the center is connected its noise is even worse than the last set.
I'd say so too.
Conflicting info. I mean, I trust Major and SSL saying that theirs do the same thing which doesn't bode well for exchanging these for another of the same set, but I find it bizarre that the reviews I've read on the Z506's completely fail to even mention noise.
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If it sounds as loud as a hard drive they're most likely broken and you should look into getting them replaced. The only hissing I can hear from mine can only be heard when you put your ear right next to them while they're on.
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Not as loud as a hard drive but has the sound of one. I can hear it two meters away though and that's what matters.
To guarantee success I might just swap 'em out with these (http://otvtech.com/catalogue?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=11547&category_id=428) or even these (http://otvtech.com/catalogue?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=12357&category_id=428), or just get the same set; not sure yet (but I'll need to figure it out tomorrow as I'm leaving for a week on Friday).
~Edit: Actually I think I'm just going to return these and hold off, not necessarily because of the impending Xmas (because things that have personal preferences attached to them like speakers make terrible gifts) but because I don't feel like throwing buckets of money around just yet. An opportunity might be coming up in the near future.
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So I'm still in the market for speakers and I've been looking at these (http://otvtech.com/catalogue?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=12357&category_id=428).
Any thoughts? Too excessive for non-aduiophiles? Pricey just because they have the Logitech logo on them?
Sale on those ends after tomorrow.
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Well you have many great options for 2.0 setups but I'm currently unaware of any out of the box 5.1 systems that will give better performance for less than or equal to $379. You would get awesome sound quality if you put that money into headphones and maybe a nice sound card.
(http://images.memegenerator.net/instances/500x/14054846.jpg)
(I know we went over this)
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To be honest, either route is good. If you want to go for the sound card and headphones, you have lots of good options. If you want to go towards the 5.1, it will be nice as well. It truly is up to the person in what they like. Personally, I like both and don't really have a preference. Completely up to you macc.
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So I'm still in the market for speakers and I've been looking at these (http://otvtech.com/catalogue?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_stock.tpl&product_id=12357&category_id=428).
Any thoughts? Too excessive for non-aduiophiles? Pricey just because they have the Logitech logo on them?
Sale on those ends after tomorrow.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121050
cheaper
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If you want to go towards the 5.1, it will be nice as well. It truly is up to the person in what they like. Personally, I like both and don't really have a preference.
"Headphones to speakers" wasn't the question, and I have no interest in headphones whatsoever.
Very well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121050 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121050)
cheaper
Because I will inevitably have to return them after I plug them in and discover a horrible screeching sound, it has to be a place that I can walk in and out of.
The more I think about it, the less I see a need for 5.1 in the first place, but I figure that if I'm going to upgrade I may as well upgrade and go surround, but apparently the market has shifted toward premo-2.1 and cheapass-5.1... >_>
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Because I will inevitably have to return them after I plug them in and discover a horrible screeching sound, it has to be a place that I can walk in and out of.
The more I think about it, the less I see a need for 5.1 in the first place, but I figure that if I'm going to upgrade I may as well upgrade and go surround, but apparently the market has shifted toward premo-2.1 and cheapass-5.1... >_>
oh, my bad.
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Meh, holding off on it for a while longer. Not a priority at the moment; time constraint yielded the question more than anything.
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My headphones/speakers comment was more oriented towards proxies statement. Just in case you were considering the idea....
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So this is completely off topic, but it doesn't warrant its own thread, and this is my thread damn it. :P
I have a job interview tomorrow morning at 10:00 for a Networking Specialist position. Anyone have a good do/don't or two?
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I hope you have the CCNA or at minimum CompTIA's Network+. I'm working towards my CCNA to do something in that field.