My GPU and CPU issues

[DakAttack]

Re: My GPU and CPU issues

I ran BF3 on the lowest settings on a GTS 450, lag free. It didn't even look terrible, which Arma 2 does on their lowest settings.

My GTX 570, which must be on its last leg, can't run BF3 on its lowest settings. I think that's a pretty nice way to benchmark a failing GPU.

[Malacite]

Re: My GPU and CPU issues

>_>p

[DakAttack]

Re: My GPU and CPU issues

It's good to have all my graphics settings maxed out again. I also took the opportunity to clean all the dust from my PC. I used ionized canned air, I think? It was listed as such on Newegg, but not on the can itself. It seemed to do the job really well, though, so no hard feelings either way. Does ionized air have any effect on dust? I know there's this, which seem really useful:

The Filterless 540' sq. Air Purifier. - Hammacher Schlemmer

Putting it next to the PC might help with keeping dust away from it. I'm seriously considering purchasing a SSD, what with all the sales going on recently. Dell is selling an OCZ Agility 4 256GB SSD for $160, which is pretty nice since Newegg sells them for $220. It would require I purchase an entirely new OS, and I'm not sure I'm down for the total cost, $260.

[Armando]

Re: My GPU and CPU issues

It would require I purchase an entirely new OS

Why is that? It's a bit of a time sink but you can:
1) Move stuff off your current HDD to some other external storage
2) Shrink the HDD's partition(s) to below the size of the SSD
3) Clone the partition(s) to the SSD and reformat your old HDD

[DakAttack]

Re: My GPU and CPU issues

From what I've read, Windows 7 has a lot of settings that are particular to SSDs, so migrating the entire OS wouldn't be a good idea. Since it's an OEM OS from years ago, iBuyPower wont send me another disc. Even if they did, it's be filled with bloatware.

[Armando]

Re: My GPU and CPU issues

From what I've read, Windows 7 has a lot of settings that are particular to SSDs, so migrating the entire OS wouldn't be a good idea.

I'm not really an expert but the only thing that comes to mind is TRIM, lets Windows tell the SSD which blocks are no longer in use so the SSD can reclaim space much faster. Not sure if Windows auto-detects that, but even if you never enable TRIM, you shouldn't run into any weird or problematic behavior and it'd still be orders of magnitude faster than your old drive.

At the very least, I did what I described and Windows booted just fine. There's no way in hell I'm going back to a mechanical drive now.

[Malacite]

Re: My GPU and CPU issues

What kind of SSD do you run though?

I wasn't aware until recently that there so many different kinds, and even hybrid SSD/HDD drives that are really great - store critical stuff like the OS & other programs on the SSD and keep your media files that don't need to be accessed as quickly or often on the HDD.

Like there's 1 kind of internal SSD, forget exactly who makes it, but it's ridiculously fast as it's a PCI-E variant. The problem with this particular model however is because it's not hooked up to the SATA, you can not boot from it.

[Armando]

Re: My GPU and CPU issues

It's a run-of-the-mill pure SSD, a 256 GB Crucial M4.

[Aeni]

Re: My GPU and CPU issues

Motherboards now come with on-board SSD (40gb) and it doesn't use up any of the available SATA ports and are a lot quicker because of this. If you think about it logically, this would make a very good option for laptops and netbooks and even desktops if the user is saavy enough to understand how to work around the space limitation.

[Malacite]

Re: My GPU and CPU issues

Can you get X79's with those? Because that's pretty boss (also gotta be damned expensive wow...)

My local store FINALLY got a single 680 and a few 670's in lol. $500 but damn tempting to get a 4 GB EVGA 670. I'll wait until I'm ready to build my next rig though. Thanks for telling me about that motherboard feature, I'll see if I can get a good 1 like that for my OS and then a main SDD for my games with a backup HDD for all my pictures and movies etc since those really don't need to be on an SSD. The new topline PCI-E models are insanely fast and even more expensive...

I shit you not, I saw one in an article that was priced at over $8000. I don't know how the fuck that's possible, or who'd even need/pay for that, but it's real.

[DakAttack]

Re: My GPU and CPU issues

I never understood boot drives. You'd have to forego using any of your user folders, such as My Documents, My Downloads, etc. And who cares if your OS boots fast? I boot it once a month, on average.

[Armando]

Re: My GPU and CPU issues

I never understood boot drives. You'd have to forego using any of your user folders, such as My Documents, My Downloads, etc. And who cares if your OS boots fast? I boot it once a month, on average.

All of Windows' user-specific special folders can be moved. If your boot drive is C, and your bigger hard drive is D, you can tell Windows that My Documents is in D:\Documents, etc.

40 GB isn't a whole lot but with the way prices are now you could buy 128 GB for around the same amount of dollars, which is more than enough for the OS, you're slowest apps and a handful of big games. Alternatively, some motherboards can use an SSD as a cache and spare you the trouble of managing that yourself. Those 40 GB would be inaccessible, and the mobo would automatically cache 40 GBs worth of your most frequently used files there. It's the same principle behind the hybrid hard drives that are coming out.

[Malacite]

Re: My GPU and CPU issues

Some of those hybrid drives are really nice too.

Pricey though.

[Aeni]

Re: My GPU and CPU issues

All of Windows' user-specific special folders can be moved. If your boot drive is C, and your bigger hard drive is D, you can tell Windows that My Documents is in D:\Documents, etc.

40 GB isn't a whole lot but with the way prices are now you could buy 128 GB for around the same amount of dollars, which is more than enough for the OS, you're slowest apps and a handful of big games. Alternatively, some motherboards can use an SSD as a cache and spare you the trouble of managing that yourself. Those 40 GB would be inaccessible, and the mobo would automatically cache 40 GBs worth of your most frequently used files there. It's the same principle behind the hybrid hard drives that are coming out.

Yeah, that's also an option, but if there is someone really tight on their budget (i.e., college kids) then they could do what you said, which is to move off their "working folders" on to the slower SATA drives and putting only the OS (and maybe things like Photoshop) on the on-board SSD. 40GB is a lot, trust me, but if you're the type that constantly builds a library of flacs, mvks and MMO games, then yes, I agree, it's a gimmick at best.

And don't forget, not everyone uses Windows as an OS ... the motherboard with the built-in SSD would totally blaze on a Linux/BSD system, especially for 3D rendering if you setup the cache properly.

[DakAttack]

Re: My GPU and CPU issues

I bought an OCZ Agility 4 256GB SSD for $180. It also comes with a $15 mail-in rebate, but my follow-through is doubtful. I also had to purchase a mounting bracket for it, for about $10. I'm not quite certain it was the best purchase, because I could have gotten a Samsung 830 256GB SSD for $230, which comes with a mounting bracket. The extra $40 would ensure quality, but will I even notice the difference?