The "Quick Questions That Don't Deserve A Thread"...Thread. v5 - Hardware & Software

We were just looking for intel CPUs, and that one was good enough performance for a low enough price. Should we not consider that one? Also what's wrong with Passmark?

[QUOTE=laharlsblade;48117178]My friend's building a new desktop, and we've run into a bit of confusion with CPUs. According to [url=http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-2600K+%40+3.40GHz&id=868]this[/url], the AMD FX-8350 performs better than the i7-2600k. However, on Newegg the i7 is $240, and the AMD FX is only $175. The intel processors that are only slightly better than the AMD are also more than $300 on newegg. He wanted to get an intel processor, but after comparing prices the AMD seems too good to pass up. Is there a valid reason for this drastic difference in price, or should he just get the AMD CPU?[/QUOTE] Passmark, like all artificial benchmarks, isn't a very good benchmark. The only benchmarks that matter are the actual applications you're going to run, or failing that, something that specifically simulates such a load. Current AMD processors are really fast at multithreaded, linear integer code. Current Intel processors are much faster at single-threaded, switch-heavy code. Also, the 2600K is a pretty old CPU. If you want something current that's competitive with the 8350, you're better off looking at the [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116989&cm_re=4690-_-19-116-989-_-Product]Core i5 4690[/url], or the 4690K if you want overclocking. [url=http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/697?vs=1198]Anandtech is basically the last word in benchmarking[/url]. As you can see there, the 8350 is at best tied with the 4690 on video encoding, ray-tracing, and image scanning, while it's beaten on Javascript benchmarks (ie. web browsing), gaming, and server software. If it's a pure gaming rig, you probably don't even need an i5. [url=http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/697?vs=1197]The i3-4360 would work just fine,[/url] if you're doing only a single GPU, and that's only [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116993&cm_re=4360-_-19-116-993-_-Product]$150[/url]. AMD's FX platform also has an ecosystem disadvantage. They use some relatively ancient chipsets, so you generally don't get motherboard support for USB3 or other recent stuff, and you only get PCIe 2.0 not PCIe 3.0. AMD's other platforms are usually better than this, they just haven't updated FX in forever. And of course there's the power issue. AMD stuff uses a lot more power (125W versus 84W, in this case). Honestly, the power bill isn't going to matter, but every watt of electric power ends up converted to one watt of heat, and that heat has to be removed. So an Intel build will be cooler and quieter, which is always a good thing.

[QUOTE=gman003-main;48117579]advice[/QUOTE] Thanks for the help, he's probably gonna go with that CPU you recommended. I'm gonna take this into the PC Building though, because he's got questions about nearly every part.

Is there any decent, free and ad-less webhostings out there?

Hardware accelerated video (eg, flash and VLC) is causing my displays to completely freeze after about 60 seconds requiring a reboot. Everything else is still working because i can still change the volume etc using keyboard shortcuts - but the display never comes back. If i turn off hardware acceleration everything's fine. I figure my GPU is on deaths door, but i can still play video games for hours on end with no issue. Any ideas?

[QUOTE=HJ23;48120023]Is there any decent, free and ad-less webhostings out there?[/QUOTE] Choose two of those that you'd like in a host.

[QUOTE=Kenneth;48120395]Hardware accelerated video (eg, flash and VLC) is causing my displays to completely freeze after about 60 seconds requiring a reboot. Everything else is still working because i can still change the volume etc using keyboard shortcuts - but the display never comes back. If i turn off hardware acceleration everything's fine. I figure my GPU is on deaths door, but i can still play video games for hours on end with no issue. Any ideas?[/QUOTE] Have you done a clean reinstall of drivers?

[QUOTE=Demache;48120511]Have you done a clean reinstall of drivers?[/QUOTE] Its a problem that's persisted across several re installs and upgrades of windows. Its been happening for about a year. It's just annoying when i forget and click a youtube video in a thread or something and have to reboot.

[QUOTE=Kenneth;48120581]Its a problem that's persisted across several re installs and upgrades of windows. Its been happening for about a year. It's just annoying when i forget and click a youtube video in a thread or something and have to reboot.[/QUOTE] If it persists across reinstalls your probably right in thinking the GPU is dying. It working fine in games is odd, but I could see the H/W video decoder being one of the parts that are dying, and everything else being mostly okay. Either way, its time to start saving for a replacement.

My laptop's HDD was dying so I had to get it replaced. But now I have to setup my whole laptop again and update it to 8.1, but it isnt downloading/installing the updates. What to do?

Something went bad while I was formatting my flash drive and now it doesn't show up in windows explorer. In disk management it shows up, but with no size and no partitions at all (No unallocated, no nothing). I believe that the MBR went corrupt, so anyone has any idea how to fix this? Thanks in advance (I don't care about the content, just need it working again). EDIT: Nvm, looks like the first sector itself is fucked, rip my favourite flash drive, heh.

[QUOTE=Timezbrick;48120793]My laptop's HDD was dying so I had to get it replaced. But now I have to setup my whole laptop again and update it to 8.1, but it isnt downloading/installing the updates. What to do?[/QUOTE] My <s> favorite </s> Windows Update-ism is that if your downloading and installing over 100 updates, it often won't show it making progress. Lo-and-behold its working, but you won't know until its time to reboot. Check if the wuaclt and TrustedInstaller processes are running and using resources. If they are, its running. Just let it run for a few hours.

My girlfriend accidentally deleted all the pictures she had on her phone when sorting them last night and she had lots of pictures that are important to here on there. Is there any way to recover them at all? They were saved directly to her phone since she doesn't have a SD card if it matters

[QUOTE=highvoltage;48124213]My girlfriend accidentally deleted all the pictures she had on her phone when sorting them last night and she had lots of pictures that are important to here on there. Is there any way to recover them at all? They were saved directly to her phone since she doesn't have a SD card if it matters[/QUOTE] Diskdigger is a good app for that. Should get most of the lost pictures back.

[QUOTE=MrBacon;48126315]Diskdigger is a good app for that. Should get most of the lost pictures back.[/QUOTE] So that brings up another question, does rooting a phone change just give more features for apps to use or something completely different? I've never done it before

So this hdd sometimes get's really slow. Did some tests with HD tune but no idea what to make out of it. Easy, how fucked is it on a scale from 1-10? [t]http://i.imgur.com/OMf5sok.png[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/AlcRlj0.png[/t]

If your disk has issues, you should replace it ASAP, because those issues tend to increase in number and severity.

It's been like this on and off for maybe 1 year. The only time I might have swaped a sata cable is 2-3 years ago?

[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;48126786]Question is. Did you swap sata cables?[/QUOTE] Try this, bad sata cables are more common than you'd think

I know this has been asked many times before but I need some advice. Whats the best free anti virus out there that has a good detection rate and is not a performance hog? I had to reformat a friends laptop that had so many things wrong with it.

MSE(Included in Win8+) + Malwarebytes

Yeah, that is what I use on my computer. My friend had it but, apparently tons of shit still got through.

Minimal install of Avast then.

That being said, if he's just that awful, no antivirus is going to stop him, as long as he has admin on his local machine. Never under estimate end users.

What's the best program for making/editing .ani and .cur files?

I'm thinking of updating my GPU and was wondering that is the GTX 980 Ti worth it or should I just get a vanilla 980? I'm running a 1440p monitor if that makes the recommendation easier for you.

If you intend to run high resolutions then the 980 ti is definitely worth it if you want good frames at high settings.

What's a decent SSD for just windows and some apps like Firefox? Not really looking to spend a whole lot of money.

I'm in the middle of a dilemma right now. I've noticed that my 2GB GTX 680 simply isn't sufficient for my needs anymore. Games such as The Witcher 3 runs like garbage even on the lowest settings, GTA V makes it run out of VRAM on the higher settings, and I even have some framerate problems with The Elder Scrolls Online when everything's been maxed. So, last week I decided I wanted the card before this weekend, seeing as I've got nothing planned. I've been researching a bit earlier this week, and yesterday I bought a GTX 980, which'll get delivered tomorrow. The reason I went with the 980 is because I read a lot of posts from people on other forums who basically said that the performance difference between a 680 and a 970 isn't big enough to actually justify an upgrade, and that a 680 -> 980 or 980Ti upgrade is a much better choice. So I looked at some benchmarks, and from what I could tell, a 970 generally spits out ~20-30 FPS more than a 680, while a 980 generally manages around 40% more than that. That combined with the fact that the 980 will get me an additional (actually useable) 500 MB of VRAM made me go with it. Today I began doubting my choice though. I'm still not sure I think the extra 200 dollars for a 980 instead of a 970 is actually worth it (From a price/performance perspective, they really aren't). So I went and bought a GTX 970 as well. My goal is to be able to max (possibly apart from MSAA) The Witcher 3, FarCry 4, GTA V, and other demanding titles in 1920x1080 with at least 60 FPS. So now I turn to you. The question is, which card should I return, and which should I keep? I have this annoying feeling that I'll regret the choice no matter which one I choose #firstworldproblems EVGA GTX 980 SSC MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G Edit: I went with the 970

You can't return things you've already unpacked? Just try them out. We can give you the benchmarks you've already seen again, but we can't tell you what exact framerates you'll get with your exact settings and your exact other hardware that has an impact on performance, let alone whether it's worth it [I]for you[/I] as that's extremely subjective.