**Official PC rig Pics/Specs/mods thread** What you packin brahs?

[vietcong666]

damn that's a pretty ghetto looking setup. What kind of hash rate are you getting with that?

yeah i had to cut down on expenses. bought open box motherboards and power supplies. total hash rate is about 4400-4500 Mhash/s.

[Boatski]

any brahs have i5 2500K? im worried my idle temps may be a bit high... right now 35C

When you go over 100C, then you can worry.

[metalhead420]

yeah i had to cut down on expenses. bought open box motherboards and power supplies. total hash rate is about 4400-4500 Mhash/s.

damn that's pretty solid. You out of the hole yet with your investment? I've been mining around 335 Mhash/s with my 6950 and it's depressing as hell seeing the returns...

[vietcong666]

damn that's pretty solid. You out of the hole yet with your investment? I've been mining around 335 Mhash/s with my 6950 and it's depressing as hell seeing the returns...

Ill be out in about 3 weeks i think. I was lucky I already had a 5970 back when the difficulty factor was pretty low so I got a bunch of coins in June. Electricity is free in my apartment so the landlord is currently getting raped.

[metalhead420]

Ill be out in about 3 weeks i think. I was lucky I already had a 5970 back when the difficulty factor was pretty low so I got a bunch of coins in June. Electricity is free in my apartment so the landlord is currently getting raped.

nice. I got in too late to really make a profit, but I'm hoping to at least cover the cost of the card. Only going to run for another few days though since I will have to start paying for electricity soon. I might throw in some money before the winter for some more mining stuff depending on the market and rely on my rigs for heat.

[James086]

When you go over 100C, then you can worry.

Not on a Sandy Bridge chip. I'd keep that below 80C when it's at 100% load. Idling at 35 is fine.

[vietcong666]

nice. I got in too late to really make a profit, but I'm hoping to at least cover the cost of the card. Only going to run for another few days though since I will have to start paying for electricity soon. I might throw in some money before the winter for some more mining stuff depending on the market and rely on my rigs for heat.

Covering the cost of the video card is still a win cause you can always resell it for a decent amount. Its probably gonna be a cat and mouse game a while for most miners. People will add more machines and by the time they begin to profit, the difficulty will get higher so they will want to keep adding more. We probably gonna get a 20% increase in difficulty next.

[E-PRO]

Hey guys I'm gonna pull the trigger on this budget setup this week and was wondering if any of you have some feedback to give: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/842/compwf.png/

And the PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371035 Antec Earthwatts EA-500D

Comes to a total of $710 with shipping. I only have $730 on me and plan on upgrading in like 6 months but for now I need to replace my dead Dell before the end of summer.

[vietcong666]

Hey guys I'm gonna pull the trigger on this budget setup this week and was wondering if any of you have some feedback to give: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/842/compwf.png/

And the PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371035 Antec Earthwatts EA-500D

Comes to a total of $710 with shipping. I only have $730 on me and plan on upgrading in like 6 months but for now I need to replace my dead Dell before the end of summer.

Thats a bit expensive for the 5770. I would cough up a little extra and go a step up.

[jamie93]

Not on a Sandy Bridge chip. I'd keep that below 80C when it's at 100% load. Idling at 35 is fine.

this

and load is much more important than idle anyway. i have a 2600k i get 29 on idle, which some may say is quite high but on prime it doesnt go above 67 which is decent for an air cooler, at 4.5ghz

[Solidz]

I added another fan on the radiator of my h50 and now can get around 63 C average running prime 95 at 4.6 ghz. also added an exhaust fan near the GPU, which is also overclocked, and that lowers it from 77 C at 99% load to around 72 C.

[James086]

You guys 'mirin my collection of 580s?
The cooler is off one of the EVGA ones as I will be installing waterblocks.

[Solidz]

You guys 'mirin my collection of 580s?
The cooler is off one of the EVGA ones as I will be installing waterblocks.

im mirin your disposable income

[Heracles26]

how is my pc brahs?

1090t
HD 6870
4 gigs RAM


i may x fire in the future, how do i know if my pc can accomodate a 2nd 6870? is it based on the case?

[6Pax]

Just received a box containing the Corsair SP2500's from Newegg, pretty f'in pleased so far.



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They sound pretty awesome, I'm no audiophile, but they're crystal clear even at 100% volume, no distortion at all. And 100% volume is what I would consider obnoxiously loud for anything this side of a frat party. Sub's huge as well, and hits really hard. Extremely pleased thus far, no complaints.

On a sidenote, anyone want to reccomend me a good soundcard to pair with them? I'm not really looking to spend $200 on some Asus Xonar or anything, anywhere from maybe $80-$140 is doable though. I know very little about audio tech, just that these speakers are pretty high quality and NEED to be combined with a decent sound card for the best performance.

[6Pax]

how is my pc brahs?

1090t
HD 6870
4 gigs RAM


i may x fire in the future, how do i know if my pc can accomodate a 2nd 6870? is it based on the case?

Its based on your mobo, power supply, and case really. If your motherboard supports crossfire (Google the product name and look for some crossfire certified ad), then you need to check and see if your power supply is up to snuff. For dual 6870's, your gonna need at least 4x 6pin connectors, and a quality PSU somewhere in the 600+ watt range (650 to be safe). If both of those requirements are met, make sure you have a roomy case with good airflow to handle the addition of a second 180w card that needs to be cooled.

[jamie93]

Its based on your mobo, power supply, and case really. If your motherboard supports crossfire (Google the product name and look for some crossfire certified ad), then you need to check and see if your power supply is up to snuff. For dual 6870's, your gonna need at least 4x 6pin connectors, and a quality PSU somewhere in the 600+ watt range (650 to be safe). If both of those requirements are met, make sure you have a roomy case with good airflow to handle the addition of a second 180w card that needs to be cooled.

for 6870s you will need at least 850w actually. amd state a minimum requirement of 500w for a single card so even 850 is not really good enough

[6Pax]

for 6870s you will need at least 850w actually. amd state a minimum requirement of 500w for a single card so even 850 is not really good enough

Your miles off, look here

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1445/17/

Two of them didn't even hit 500w under load, 850w is complete overkill.

[TB23]

Does anyone know if the Gigabyte P35C-DS3R motherboard will be able to support the GTX 550 Ti? I could have sworn when I bought it in 2007 one of the reasons was because it supported PCIe 2.0 and the 45nm Core 2 Quad CPUs, but I can't remember for the life of me and the manual and google have been no help

[SirStealth]

Here is my gaming setup:

Case: CoolerMaster HAF-932
CPU: Intel Core i7 950
Ram: 6GB A-Data Xtreme DDR3-2000X
Graphics Card: EVGA GTX 580
PS: Thermaltake TRX-1200M
Monitor: 30" HP ZR30w 2560x1600
Speakers/Sub: Corsair SP 2500's

[6Pax]

Here is my gaming setup:

Case: CoolerMaster HAF-932
CPU: Intel Core i7 950
Ram: 6GB A-Data Xtreme DDR3-2000X
Graphics Card: EVGA GTX 580
PS: Thermaltake TRX-1200M
Monitor: 30" HP ZR30w 2560x1600
Speakers/Sub: Corsair SP 2500's

Sick Setup, are you using onboard audio or do you have a dedicated sound card?

[jamie93]

Your miles off, look here

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1445/17/

Two of them didn't even hit 500w under load, 850w is complete overkill.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/deskt...verview.aspx#3

going by what amd state is required. dealwithit.jpg

getting a low wattage psu like that is false economy anyway. you leave yourself no rom for upgrades. get a good one to start with

oh and that guys setup ^^ dont see you commenting on his 1200w psu. that is mega overkill according to your logic

[Spaminator92]

I'm looking around on some PC-assembling sites from my neighbourhood, and now I have a few questions.

One site gives me the following choices: (http://www.power4pc.be/pc_configurat..._aanbieding=15)

Motherboard:
Asrock P67 Pro3 SE 84,00 €
Asrock P67 Extreme4 v3 139,90 €

Would be combined with an 2500K, but which one should I take? I'm trying to stay on a budget, so I'm not really tempted to spend a lot more money for a marginal performance boost..

CPU Coolers:
Will I be fine with the stock cooler? I'm not planning on OC'ing as of yet, only when some applications are becoming laggy, I'd consider it.

RAM:

Kingston ValueRam or HyperX. The second one is a bit more expensive (not that much), runs at 1.65V instead of 1.5V and 1600mhz instead of 1333.

GPU:

No idea what to chose here:

PowerColor RADEON HD6790 (840 mhz, 1024 mb, DDR5, 4200 mhz, 256 bit, 11, fan) 116,07 €
His RADEON HD6850 (775 mhz, 1024 mb, DDR5, 4000 mhz, 256 bit, 11, fan) 135,94 €
Asus RADEON HD6870 DC (915 mhz, 1024 mb, DDR5, 4200 mhz, 256 bit, 11, fan) 155,26 €
PowerColor RADEON HD6970 (880 mhz, 2048 mb, DDR5, 5500 mhz, 256 bit, 11, fan) 294,22 €

Last one is most likely too expensive for me.

HDD: Can't really go wrong here, I think?
Choice between Samsung and WD.. (went with WD cause of more space)

SSD:
Micron Crucial M4 (64gb, just for windows and some games)

[vtecaddict]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...a-pc,2969.html

what is everyone's opinion on the June $1000 rig ?

[James086]

The ASRock Pro 3 will not support 2 graphics cards, the Extreme 4 will. If you only want 1 graphics card get the cheaper motherboard.

Stock cooler is fine for stock speeds. It is most definitely not fine for overclocking, you can always get a better cooler later.

I would choose the HyperX RAM because it will have better quality RAM chips and is less likely to fail. It's also a bit faster although for your purposes RAM clocks and timings won't be noticeable.

Don't go for the 6790, it won't play games too well. The 6850 and 6870 are both good value but it depends how much you want to spend.

The Samsung Spinpoint F3 is probably the best value hard drive on the market, it's fast and cheap. The WD gives you more space but it's slower and the green drives take ages to spin up. This will be your storage drive however as the OS and programs will be on the SSD. You'll notice when you access files on the hard drive that it has to spin up. This won't affect gaming, it just might be annoying to click on a folder and have to wait. Once the drive is up to speed it will be pretty fast though. It takes 1-2 seconds to spin up and usually stops spinning after 15 minutes without any files being accessed.

I would always suggest buying components and building it yourself (it's super easy, just look on youtube for a guide).

[James086]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...a-pc,2969.html

what is everyone's opinion on the June $1000 rig ?

Not bad apart from the Caviar Black. I'd suggest a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3. Cheaper and only marginally slower.

[6Pax]

http://www.amd.com/us/products/deskt...verview.aspx#3

going by what amd state is required. dealwithit.jpg

getting a low wattage psu like that is false economy anyway. you leave yourself no rom for upgrades. get a good one to start with

oh and that guys setup ^^ dont see you commenting on his 1200w psu. that is mega overkill according to your logic

500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for AMD CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)

I believe I said a quality 600-650w power supply, which is what AMD recommends as well. And as I displayed earlier, a solid 650w will provide him with almost 200w of headroom, which is more than enough for several reasonable upgrades.

About your comment on the above guys system... I don't go around criticizing others rigs, especially when they're nicely built and spec'ed like that. The guy asked what he needed to do crossfire, I told him an adequate power supply (And we've both shown that my definition of adequate is the correct one), a capable motherboard and good case airflow. Your the one who criticizes and (incorrectly) tried to revise what I told him.

Of course, I'm not against overkill, but I'm not going to recommend it to someone who for all I know is on a budget. To the OP of the question, any PSU north of 600w will be more than adequate to power your rig, and of course within reason more is better. I run an 850w power supply on a system which probably doesn't peak over 500w draw myself, but thats because I got a good deal, not because I needed it. And I'm sure the "Mega Overkill" guy would agree that he doesn't need anywhere near that much wattage for his current system. His money, his choice, but nobody in their right mind recommends a hugely overpowered power supply from the get go.

[jamie93]

I'm looking around on some PC-assembling sites from my neighbourhood, and now I have a few questions.

i wouldnt go with asrock. try asus or gigabyte, or even msi. i dont think asrocks are good at all. the p8p67 from asus is a budget board which actually outperforms expensive competitors.

trust me, you will want to oc when you find out how easy it is. especially with the asus bios. just a few clicks and your done. it will even overclock itself if you tell it to. even if not planning on ocing id still get an aftermarket cooler, lower temps = longer lifespan of cpu look into the thermaltake frio. thats cheap but performs well

1.65v is very high for 1600mhz ram, i guess thats because you are on a budget. 1.65v is really the uppermost limit, i think intel recommends the highest you go is like 1.58v or something to avoid damage to cpu but people haven't reported problems with 1.65 (i have ram running at that myself, but its at 2200mhz, and there is 16gb of it - so it needs it)

id pay a little bit more for 1600mhz ram at 1.5v, or higher speed ram like 1866 or 2133 at 1.65v

i wouldnt go below the 6800 series for gpu, or you will fall behind too fast. maybe the 6950 if you cant afford the 6970? otherwise the 6870 will be fine. Id go with the spinpoint f3 over the black.

i have the caviar black and i heard the spinpoint is faster

crucial m4 is solid

[jamie93]

500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for AMD CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)

I believe I said a quality 600-650w power supply, which is what AMD recommends as well. And as I displayed earlier, a solid 650w will provide him with almost 200w of headroom, which is more than enough for several reasonable upgrades.

About your comment on the above guys system... I don't go around criticizing others rigs, especially when they're nicely built and spec'ed like that. The guy asked what he needed to do crossfire, I told him an adequate power supply (And we've both shown that my definition of adequate is the correct one), a capable motherboard and good case airflow. Your the one who criticizes and (incorrectly) tried to revise what I told him.

Of course, I'm not against overkill, but I'm not going to recommend it to someone who for all I know is on a budget. To the OP of the question, any PSU north of 600w will be more than adequate to power your rig, and of course within reason more is better. I run an 850w power supply on a system which probably doesn't peak over 500w draw myself, but thats because I got a good deal, not because I needed it. And I'm sure the "Mega Overkill" guy would agree that he doesn't need anywhere near that much wattage for his current system. His money, his choice, but nobody in their right mind recommends a hugely overpowered power supply from the get go.

yup ok my bad didnt read it clearly enough. of course i will criticize, i am allowed to have my opinion and so are you. My point is, the difference between a 500w psu and an 850w is like £40. which really isnt that much considering what you can do with the extra power and what it will allow you to do in the future. thereagain quality is a major factor, a good brand 500w psu may actually be more stable than a bad quality 650w psu

graphics card technology is advancing fast. psu's, not really. before you know it, in a few years gfx cards will be at insane levels of performance, and will require even more power. im sure op will upgrade again at some point so why not get at higher wattage psu now then he wont have to buy one later on down the line

[6Pax]

yup ok my bad didnt read it clearly enough. of course i will criticize, i am allowed to have my opinion and so are you. My point is, the difference between a 500w psu and an 850w is like £40. which really isnt that much considering what you can do with the extra power and what it will allow you to do in the future. thereagain quality is a major factor, a good brand 500w psu may actually be more stable than a bad quality 650w psu

Of course you have a right to an opinion, but your opinions aren't immune to scrutiny and you might want to check your facts before you go throwing criticisms around next time. As far as the price argument, you can say that about anything and everything in a computer. 6950 is only X more than a 6870, another 4GB of ram is only X more, etc... With that mantra, you end up being $400 over budget and having to go back to the drawing board. As far as places to overspend on your first build, I would also be inclined to recommend opening your wallet for things like a PSU and quality case over easily replaceable components. So if 600w is the minimum, I wouldn't be against spending a bit more for a quality 750w power supply. But anymore than that REALLY isn't necessary, and for the build, its money that could be spend better elsewhere.

Again, he only asked what he NEEDED to crossfire, he wasn't asking for recommendations on a power supply.