The Official PC/Computer Thread

So I decided to cancel my order of the 560 and go with the GTI 660, which just came out today. What exactly is the difference between the 660s? For example the ones listed on these pages.

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Category/VideoCards?FilterID=ab7d0334-5e02-1e75-f7af-ec01e7a04ec6
http://source.ncix.com/nvidia-gtx-660ti/

If they’re all the same, I’m just going to go ahead and order the evga one from memoryexpress, since I’ve already ordered all the other parts from them.

edit: After doing some research I decided to go with Evga 2gb, apparently they have good customer service and are fairly reliable.

Looks like both Tom’s Hardware and MaximumPC have reviews up on the 3 660Ti boards that were released. Here’s one:

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/nvidias_new_sweet_spot_gpu_three_gtx_660_ti_cards_reviewed

Well, my parts came early, so I’ll give you some initial impressions on the board.

It’s nice. The graphical bios will take some getting used to, but I’m impressed with it. The board has a lot of extra features I will probably never use, but it’s nice to know that I have the options. Still setting up everything exactly how I’d like it to be, but so far everything is looking great. Board was easy enough to setup. Detected all the default settings for my hardware as well.

I took a gamble buying a Gigabyte motherboard, and I’m glad I had. I’m impressed. Haven’t tried overclocking on it yet as I’m on the stock cooler, but it runs excellent as is.

So I was thinking of getting a second HDD for my PC, I already have a 128 gig SSD for the OS (Windows 7) and a 1.5TB WD Caviar black HDD. All of the captured HD video is catching up with me, not to mention in order to record from my PC properly I need a second HDD (one runs the game, one gets the footage) so before I just go ahead and get another caviar black drive is there any suggestions for a top-notch HDD at a good price?

I went with the 2tb green caviar, personally I don’t believe I think it’s enough as long as it doesn’t crap on you.

What kind of footage are you recording? 1080P?

720p.

Get one of the new Seagate Barracuda drives with 1TB platters. They have fast read/writes. They have more than enough speed to record uncompressed 720p.

Better than Caviar Black? Got a link? Do they only come in 1TB?

Hmm It seems most websites out there are doing comparisons for the OC/SC editions of the GTX 660 ti. MSI has some pretty impressive numbers and temperature but the loud fans are a deal breaker.

At this point I’m considering swapping the EVGA for another card before my case arrives.

There’s a $15 MIR as well for MSI 660 ti… very tempted.

They come in 1, 2, and 3tb models.

Here is a link to the 3tb: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148844

Change the 3000 in the model number to a 2000 or a 1000 and you will find the other sizes.

I would link them all, but I figured you can find them easily enough.

But why is it better than a caviar black? I’m actually trying to make an informed decision here. 1TB platters? So this is the best I can get right now?

I’ve got a horrible case of “WHY” with a side of “I got something else before and therefore it must be the shit”.

I’ve had a ton of Western Digital HDDs show up DOA. More often than I’d like. Seagate I haven’t had a problem with, but I haven’t ordered nearly as many. Anything with multiple platters is going to be more prone to failure so it really doesn’t matter what brand you get unless its some weird brand that nobody has ever heard of.

Hard drives overall are always hit or miss. I think the Seagate 7200.10s were notorious for failing left and right (until a firmware update fixed it).

I’m a fan of WD but I have both brands chilling in my NAS and there have been no problems.

I got the Seagate 3TB one! I’m excited to say the least. Thanks for the advice.

edit: nvm fixed

Fractal Design has come out with a new Define R4.

I have to say it looks pretty good, but it’s not a full tower so it isn’t my cup of tea.

However, I bet it would make a decent case for a NAS considering the amount of 3.5" bays it has. Does a regular desktop user ever actually use that much? I know of none who have.

So I just recently installed a new CPU cooler on my computer but forgot to check the temperatures I was getting on the stock cooler before installing the new one and so I have no idea if the new cooler has made a difference other than a reduction in noise. With the new cooler I am getting idle temperatures of around 35 Celsius and load temperatures of around 60 Celsius. Does anybody know what kind of temperatures the i5 2500k gets on the stock cooler and/or if my temperatures are likely to be an improvement or not?

Could anybody tell me why and how to fix font that looks like this?

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Want some advice on a gaming mouse. I’m looking for something that would make playing a game like Torchlight 2 easier on me. Something like this caught my interest
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826153064

Is that a good start or are their other mouses that fit better?