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broooooooce

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    broooooooce
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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Little Rock, AR
  • Interests
    Computers, Writing, Photography, Music, Science

broooooooce's Achievements

  1. I was ** when I joined, ** now . . . been through quite a few builds here.
  2. I'd check the read/write speed on them. I dunno how things are lately, but back in December/January, there were drives ranging from under 100 MB/s up to 330 MB/s or so if I recall correctly. I'd look for something with at least 275 read AND write, but my advice may be a bit dated (someone please correct me if this is the case). Just watch out, you don't want to think "oh wow, what a great deal!" only to find out you have a new SSD that writes at 75 MB/s instead of 250+
  3. Found this in my email yesterday Responded (to everyone in the scholars program (which is my university's honors program))
  4. I think PSU wattage has become my pet-cause around here. It seems that most of my advice can be boiled down to "No, get an SSD, and you don't need a PSU that powerful." The PSU wattage issue has been exhaustively discussed here as well as here. To save you some time, it pretty much comes down to this: Most PSU calculators overestimate, no machine ever hits 100% load where everything is running at max at the same time, PSUs have different efficiencies at different loads and they tend to be the most efficient from 40-60% of their load (this varies, but near the middle), having a PSU that is far more powerful than what you need does ensure that you can upgrade or add a 2nd video card later, however, it also means running at a lower efficiency and wasting power on your electric bill (albeit not a terribly significant amount depending on how you feel about that sort of thing, personally I can't stand waste at all) not to mention that it costs more up front. Furthermore, energy that is wasted is dissipated as heat. They sell these things called kill-a-watts that can meassure wattage used from the wall socket. As stated, this is what I am using and even with a TON of other stuff plugged in (monitors, router, modem, sound, various chargers), my comparable system is pulling only about 275 watts. (I also think that the trend seems to be toward building "greener" components these days, so I don't entirely buy the future proofing arguement except where someone intends to have 2+ video cards). The choice is yours of course, but I think the motherboard and PSU are great places to save some money and hopefully you can find enough to buy an SSD for the OS drive because the difference is noticeable in the extreme. You can upgrade processors, memory, and never notice the magnificent boost in speed that an SSD provides. Bruce
  5. It was pretty expensive, Seasonic is very proud of their PSUs, but I needed something extremely quiet. There are comparable PSUs which cost less I'm sure (although they may not be as consistent in quality, still good though) Here is the first thing I found on newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016 It's butt ugly, but it's got 440 reviews, the vast majority of which are 5 stars and it's only 64 bucks--even better, it's an Antec, which is at least a name-brand unit and 80+ certified. My Seasonic 560 is 126.99, and if money isn't a problem I can't recommend it strongly enough. I don't think I've ever heard it running. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151098&Tpk=seasonic%20560 edit: as for a robust bios, shouldn't be a problem finding that on a more economical board Bruce
  6. The PSU is way overkill, my system (see my signature) runs fantastic on a 560 watt PSU-- much more efficient. In fact, I have a kill-a-watt hooked up to the wall socket right now and I am currently drawing only 275 watts of power (and my Logitech Z-5500 speakers, 2 25" monitors, cable modem, router, and cell phone charger are also hooked up so it's actually using less than that). Ideally, you want your idle PSU usage to be about 50% of the PSUs max for the best efficiency, altho any good power supply will have a fairly wide range where it runs efficiently--it's still a good rule of thumb I think. Also, I am not at all crazy about your HDD choice. If at ALL possible, drop an SSD on it--I know they are expensive, but the HDD is BY FAR the largest bottle neck in your system. My system (which uses the same vid card and processor) has a decent SSD from which to boot, but Windows Experience or whatever still shows my lowest score to be from the drive--a 6.9 if I recall correctly. Everything else is 7.6 - 7.8. Not that I'm advocating putting much faith in Windows Experience Index as a reliable and accurate benchmark, but it's still good for rough comparisons such as these I think. To shave some cash off the price, you might consider a different motherboard, altho I don't really have one to suggest off the top of my head, I may pop over to new egg and see what I can find, but unless you need a feature laden motherboard, there are decent offerings that are reliable and that overclock which are cheaper (probably). Also, scaling back on the unnecessary wattage from the PSU might save you a few dollars. You can get by with 1333 RAM since the 1090T is multiplier unlocked just fine, but I agree with the post above, get 4 or 8gb, not six. Can't offer much guidance on the cooler, I built my box mostly for silence and am running it at stock speeds for the moment, however--I had it at 3.9 stable and with some tweaking I'm positive it'd hit 4. There is a great thread on overclocking the 1090T around here somewhere. . . . Here: http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=183403 And also here is a link to some pics of my setup since our builds are similar http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=180802 Hope this helps! Bruce
  7. No, seems to work just fine, both fans turn and vary their speed and I reseated the heatsink twice and even polished up the originally rough surface they left. I read elsewhere of people with my same problem, I think it was just a substandard batch that got out. I would have RMA'd it but I'm missing the stupid sticker that they would want and it's worked for this long--but it definitely put me off MSI. Bruce
  8. What kinda idle temps do you guys with 6870s get? I got this MSI TwinFrozr 6870 and it idles in the 55-61*C range. They advertised it as being sooo much cooler, but it's not at all. It was going up to absurdly high temps before I redid the fan speed vs temp thing in afterburner.
  9. Seems a shame to drop that kind of cash and not run the OS from an SSD, also the PSU is a bit much, might be more efficient to drop down to a 750 (especially if you aren't going to SLI, you could go down even further then)
  10. I like to run trails and hike, probably not good for running on concrete or asphalt, but I'm on my 2nd set of Vasque Mindbenders--completely satisfied. Before that, I had some La Sportivas, but the different colored lug tips wore down and then peeled off before they should have--but I am extremely hard on trail shoes. When I DO run on concrete or asphalt, I have an old pair of New Balance 883s that suit my purpose just fine... but they are probably 3 years old (I ONLY wear them running so they still look new).
  11. Every show AMC has created has been fantastic. Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, The Killing. I watch them all, enjoyed all of them.
  12. Really, not a soul on here gets guitar strings online?
  13. Yes, me too and so glad. Cheers!
  14. TV: Torchwood Miracle Day - Really great, last episode not as strong as the rest Weeds - current season, it's okay. Curb Your Enthusiasm - Funny in a way that normally doesn't appeal to me, but it's been entertaining. Breaking Bad - enjoyable True Blood - Beyond ridiculous, hard to suspend disbelief now, complete garbage television, but I still find it fun somehow? Louie - Current Episodes - Great, but weird lately Lucky Louie (2006 HBO) - Season 1 - Great Movies: Pootie Tang - (serious Louis C.K. binge lately, who sort of wrote this before it got taken away from him?) - Awful beyond description, not even so awful that it was moderately entertaining, just bad. House of 1000 Corpses - Surprisingly Entertaining The Devil's Rejects - Watched right after House of 1000 Corpses and quite enjoyed it actually (soundtrack made me go find some Terry Reid albums) Point Break - Great Movie, altho it's hard for me to take Keanu Reeves seriously in anything.
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