PC gaming - thoughts?

[SnakeCharmer]

I think I'm one of the few people that has zero regrets going Vista.  It's worked nearly flawlessly since install, not a single driver issue.  After doing some recommended Vista tweaks that I found on web searches, I've been extremely happy. 

[Engels]

After doing some recommended Vista tweaks that I found on web searches, I've been extremely happy. 

care to share?

[fuser]

What's the usual op temp for a GPU?  SysFan is telling me that SOMETHING is running at over 100C at idle, which I find hard to believe.  No problems with the system, but it's always bugging me that it actually IS running that hot.  FWIW, Q6600 and 8800GTS

I would say that would have to be a malfunctioning/disconnected sensor.  If anything was actually running that hot, you'd be smelling it.

Funny you mention that. Had a friend who was complaining his video card was slower then a few months ago. Got the PC from him and watched the GPU temp with ATITool, and the CPU with CoreTemp.

Playing WoW(even without its taxing graphics etc) the temps reached 103c and the card started to throttle back core/memory Mhz. We let it cool down for 30mins picked it apart

 

The whole heatsink fins under the silver was completely caked and blocked with dust. The dust was a blackish ting so it was heating up and burning. After cleaning the fins out and putting the cover back on it was back into 50-60c under load.

You couldn't smell the burning dust, only some slowdown and loud fan was noticeable.

[Engels]

I have a 8800 GT and even under load it doesn't go above 65~ish. So ya, I'd venture a guess that either your temp sensor is being read incorrectly or you need to vaccum that puppy asap.

[SnakeCharmer]

After doing some recommended Vista tweaks that I found on web searches, I've been extremely happy. 

care to share?

I ran a google search for vista tweaks, and basically just followed them.  I'd suggest reading through them before you do it.  Vista (apparently) has TONS of ancillary services running in the background that 98 percent of us probably don't need.  www.vistatweaks.com was an easy one to read and use. 

[Engels]

Don't think you mean www.vistatweaks.com. That site, el no existe.

[SnakeCharmer]

Oops.  www.tweakvista.com

[Dash]

I took a very easy and cheap path to Core 2 Duo and 8800, running stuff like Crysis and COD4 on a Dell 24" monitor (flawlessly at 1920x1200).

I started with a P4 2.4GHz system with 1Gb of DDR333 RAM and a 6800GS AGP.

Almost exactly what I'm planning to do.  I have a P4 3.0GHz and 2GB with the same 6800GS AGP.  I'm waiting on availability of the E8400 Wolfdale Core 2 Duo and will probably pull the trigger, add a 8800GT and go from there. 

Which Dell 24" monitor do you have, the 2407?

[Velorath]

I took a very easy and cheap path to Core 2 Duo and 8800, running stuff like Crysis and COD4 on a Dell 24" monitor (flawlessly at 1920x1200).

I started with a P4 2.4GHz system with 1Gb of DDR333 RAM and a 6800GS AGP.

Almost exactly what I'm planning to do.  I have a P4 3.0GHz and 2GB with the same 6800GS AGP.  I'm waiting on availability of the E8400 Wolfdale Core 2 Duo and will probably pull the trigger, add a 8800GT and go from there. 

Which Dell 24" monitor do you have, the 2407?

If you can't find the e8400 anywhere, the Xeon e3110 is supposed to be the exactly the same, just repackaged as a server processor.

[Tale]

Which Dell 24" monitor do you have, the 2407?

2407WFP rev A02

[fuser]

If you can't find the e8400 anywhere, the Xeon e3110 is supposed to be the exactly the same, just repackaged as a server processor.

Indeed demand on them are crazy, 31st is supposedly the next shipment :(

[Velorath]

If you can't find the e8400 anywhere, the Xeon e3110 is supposed to be the exactly the same, just repackaged as a server processor.

Indeed demand on them are crazy, 31st is supposedly the next shipment :(

The e3110's seem to be selling well at a lot of places too, since it people found out it was the same thing.  ExcaliburPC still has some in stock though for $229.

[Engels]

Almost exactly what I'm planning to do.  I have a P4 3.0GHz and 2GB with the same 6800GS AGP.  I'm waiting on availability of the E8400 Wolfdale Core 2 Duo and will probably pull the trigger, add a 8800GT and go from there. 

Slow down there hos. Might wanna check to see what chipset you're running on your MoBo. Although both use the L775 socket, I believe P4s use 92x chipsets and below, whereas C2Ds are confined to 965 and above.

E8400:

G31 Express chipset,
G33 Express Chipset,
G35 Express chipset,
P35 Express chipset,
Q33 Express chipset,
Q35 Express chipset,
X38 Express chipset,
P31 Express chipset

Pentium 4:

Intel® 925X Chipset ,
Intel® 915P Express Chipset,
Intel® 915G Express Chipset 925X Express Chipset,
Intel® 925XE Express** Chipset,
915G Express Chipset,
915GV Express Chipset,
915GL Express Chipset,
915P Express Chipset,
915PL Express Chipset

From http://compare.intel.com/pcc/default.aspx?familyID=1
 

[Falwell]

If you can't find the e8400 anywhere, the Xeon e3110 is supposed to be the exactly the same, just repackaged as a server processor.

Indeed demand on them are crazy, 31st is supposedly the next shipment :(

The e3110's seem to be selling well at a lot of places too, since it people found out it was the same thing.  ExcaliburPC still has some in stock though for $229.

I got lucky and caught Mwave with E8400's in last week. Price gouged of course at 265 for OEM but meh, it's either that or wait till god knows when.

[Riggswolfe]

Alright, got my new computer in. It's sweet. It has a few corny "look at me!" bits like these glowing LEDs in the case that do nothing but look cool. Oooook.

The first thing I did was install the Witcher, max out all the settings and jack the resolution up to 1600X1200. On my old computer I ran it at 1024X768 on medium settings.

It's like a whole different game. It performs beautifully and looks amazing. So far I'm very happy with this new computer.

[Dash]

Almost exactly what I'm planning to do.  I have a P4 3.0GHz and 2GB with the same 6800GS AGP.  I'm waiting on availability of the E8400 Wolfdale Core 2 Duo and will probably pull the trigger, add a 8800GT and go from there. 

Slow down there hos. Might wanna check to see what chipset you're running on your MoBo. Although both use the L775 socket, I believe P4s use 92x chipsets and below, whereas C2Ds are confined to 965 and above.

Oh yah sorry, this will be a completely new build not an upgrade, I thought you did a new build as well.  I'm thinking Abit IP35-Pro motherboard although people are telling me I dont need all the bells and whistles so maybe a lower end board, we'll see.

If you can't find the e8400 anywhere, the Xeon e3110 is supposed to be the exactly the same, just repackaged as a server processor.

Indeed demand on them are crazy, 31st is supposedly the next shipment :(

The e3110's seem to be selling well at a lot of places too, since it people found out it was the same thing.  ExcaliburPC still has some in stock though for $229.

Yah I've been hearing about the e3110's too.  I'm not in a rush so maybe I'll wait til the 31st and see what happens.

[Dash]

Alright, got my new computer in. It's sweet. It has a few corny "look at me!" bits like these glowing LEDs in the case that do nothing but look cool. Oooook.

The first thing I did was install the Witcher, max out all the settings and jack the resolution up to 1600X1200. On my old computer I ran it at 1024X768 on medium settings.

It's like a whole different game. It performs beautifully and looks amazing. So far I'm very happy with this new computer.

Nice.  Everything go smooth with Dell?

[Engels]

Oh yah sorry, this will be a completely new build not an upgrade, I thought you did a new build as well.  I'm thinking Abit IP35-Pro motherboard although people are telling me I dont need all the bells and whistles so maybe a lower end board, we'll see.

If you're going all out and building a new rig, I'd consider a newer chipset. Nothing's wrong with the P35, got one myself, but now I'd probably go for the X38 or X48, probably from this selection

I've heard good things about the new-ish 780i boards, but to be honest, Nvidia chipsets have always scared me off.

[Riggswolfe]

Nice.  Everything go smooth with Dell?

Yes it did. I actually got the computer almost a week earlier than their estimate. I discovered my old soundcard doesn't work with Vista so I'm stuck with onboard sound but other than that things are fine. I'm considering buying Crysis to see if I can make this PC cry...

[Numtini]

For those who are on Vista successfully, are you on 32 or 64 bit? My XP installation is a year old and faltering, so I installed Vista 64 (Business with SP1 included on the install disk) yesterday and while LOTRO was pretty, I was getting a lot of crashes in games, plus none of the music services work with 64bit. I'm wondering if 32 might be more stable.

[Engels]

Hey Nums,

I run Vista 32 and so far so good. A few issues here and there. Planetside has to be run in Windows 95 compatibility mode, and a few of my games require that I run the executable as an administrator, but so far, I'm good.

[SnakeCharmer]

For those who are on Vista successfully, are you on 32 or 64 bit? My XP installation is a year old and faltering, so I installed Vista 64 (Business with SP1 included on the install disk) yesterday and while LOTRO was pretty, I was getting a lot of crashes in games, plus none of the music services work with 64bit. I'm wondering if 32 might be more stable.

I'm running the 64 bit, and so far havent had any problems.  I beginning to think I'm an exception to that rule, rather than the norm.  I have had problems with , but I kind of expected that.  I don't think that's a result of Vista; more likely due to the shit shitty client.

However, everything else runs fine.  I don't run any music services, though.

[fuser]

For those who are on Vista successfully, are you on 32 or 64 bit? My XP installation is a year old and faltering, so I installed Vista 64 (Business with SP1 included on the install disk) yesterday and while LOTRO was pretty, I was getting a lot of crashes in games, plus none of the music services work with 64bit. I'm wondering if 32 might be more stable.

I'm running the 64 bit, and so far havent had any problems.  I beginning to think I'm an exception to that rule, rather than the norm.  I have had problems with , but I kind of expected that.  I don't think that's a result of Vista; more likely due to the shit shitty client.

However, everything else runs fine.  I don't run any music services, though.

Reinstalled Vista yesterday (downloaded the MSDN x64 edition with SP1), ran it past Vlite to put in the latest Intel chipset(for AHCI) + audio + video + network card. Install went pretty much seamless (well the beta nvidia driver failed and went back to WHQL  )

Some issues are fixed (the large file copy, network file copy, seems to be thrashing less for superfetch). Turned off the anti spyware(vlite) and put KIS 7.0 on and the system is running really well. I had major issue with the system resume from a low power state which is now also resolved (BSOD on AHCI drivers).

I wonder if manhunt will now work ;)

[murdoc]

I had no issues with Vista until I dumped coffee into my laptop. Sent it in for repairs, they replaced the Motherboard, DVD drive, and Keyboard and sent it back. Ever since I've had nothing but problems, which suggests to me that they didn't replace all the parts they needed to. That might work to my advantage however since they sent it back, said it was fixed and my 12 months of warranty restarted. I'm currently waiting on a new 8700 GT that's replacing the coffee stained one under warranty.

Problems I have no are that it won't shutdown, just reboots every time and I am having a LOT of graphics errors where it says that the device driver has failed. I've tried a ton of different drivers and it hasn't fixed the issue, so their new plan is replace all the heatsinks and graphics card.

Before the coffee incident I was playing everything from Fallout 1 & 2 to Portal with no issues at all.

[rattran]

I've had no non-user-caused problems with vista x64, currently running a DFI LT X38. Nice board.

I was using an evga 780i. There's some stuff I hate about the layout of the board, and some bad design decisions. Big long heatsink to cover everything from mosfets to mcp. I had to remove it, lap and smooth, bend it in one place, just to get the mcp down to an unacceptable 70c under load.
And the fan on it blows across fins directly into the back side of the primary graphics card. Overheated and fried the fan on one of my 8800gt cards.  The xfx uses the same basic layout, dunno about any others.

[Tale]

I'm considering buying Crysis to see if I can make this PC cry...

You don't need to buy it, you can try melting your PC just the same with the demo: http://www.crysisdemo.com/download.htm

[Big Gulp]

I'm running the 64 bit, and so far havent had any problems.  I beginning to think I'm an exception to that rule, rather than the norm.  I have had problems with , but I kind of expected that.  I don't think that's a result of Vista; more likely due to the shit shitty client.

However, everything else runs fine.  I don't run any music services, though.

Same here, smooth sailing with x64.  Although, were it not for wanting all of my RAM supported I'd still be using x32.  Unless you've got at least 4 gigs of RAM there's really no reason to be using 64 bit Vista.