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

[QUOTE=GamerKiwi;46998751]If I have 2 1080p monitors, but I'm running a game on one, and I have other windows (usually a web browser, Steam, and sometimes Skype) open on the other, will I notice a hit to my performance? This is assuming that I would have these on in the background anyways. I wanna know for a PC I'm buildiung, which will have a Geforce 970 GTX 4GB and 8GB RAM.[/QUOTE] You'll be fine. I can play with one 1440p monitor for games and a 2560x1080 monitor for web browsers and steam and such on a lowly 680 just fine.

[QUOTE=Adamnetwork;46996580]Are your monitors properly ordered in Display>Screen Resolution? (3-2-1 should be the order for your wallpapers to work). [/QUOTE] Yes, my monitors are ordered like that. I figured out that it works correctly if i check the 'Spread screens with Sorround' in the Nvidia control panel but if i have that enabled, i can no longer snap windows to the edge of the individual screens, which i find annoying.

[QUOTE=Lizart;46999872]Yes, my monitors are ordered like that. I figured out that it works correctly if i check the 'Spread screens with Sorround' in the Nvidia control panel but if i have that enabled, i can no longer snap windows to the edge of the individual screens, which i find annoying.[/QUOTE] If hotkeys are your thing, Windows+Arrow keys will snap to edge.

[QUOTE=Levelog;46999884]If hotkeys are your thing, Windows+Arrow keys will snap to edge.[/QUOTE] That wont work when my monitors are 'merged' together because if i press window+ arrow key left, the program will fill one and a half screen. And when the nvidia sorround is enabled, windows have a wierd left, right and bottom border which also annoys me. That might just be firefox tho.

Hi. I'm currently looking to upgrade my XFX HD 7850 to a R9 290 of any brand. I'm seeing VTX3D brand pop up now and again for a cheaper price, are they any good?

How often should I clean my graphics card regularly? Clean as in completely disassemble, lay flat on the table and get the complete in's and out's of it. Also, what other pieces of my computer should I clean more often? Thanks.

[QUOTE=SirDavid255;47001908]How often should I clean my graphics card regularly? Clean as in completely disassemble, lay flat on the table and get the complete in's and out's of it. Also, what other pieces of my computer should I clean more often? Thanks.[/QUOTE] @graphics card never just dust the inside of the case

after a fresh OS install can I just copy all my steam games over or do I have to install them through steam?

[QUOTE=highvoltage;47002201]after a fresh OS install can I just copy all my steam games over or do I have to install them through steam?[/QUOTE] afaik you use the backup/restore options in steam rather than just copying them over

Neat, never noticed that before, I'll give it a try

[QUOTE=SirDavid255;47001908]How often should I clean my graphics card regularly? Clean as in completely disassemble, lay flat on the table and get the complete in's and out's of it. Also, what other pieces of my computer should I clean more often? Thanks.[/QUOTE] Every once in a while it's good to give it a Nice clean under the shroud and replace the thermal paste.

I have a 650 Ti 2GB and I'm looking to upgrade in March with a budget of ~$150-$200. I have been thinking about the 960, but what do you guys think will be the best for that price range?

[QUOTE=PonceDeLeon;47004123]I have a 650 Ti 2GB and I'm looking to upgrade in March with a budget of ~$150-$200. I have been thinking about the 960, but what do you guys think will be the best for that price range?[/QUOTE] The 960 unless AMD gets some shit out by then in that price range.

Every goddamn website that uses Cloudflare is checking my browser. Every single visit. Every time. This one, Puush, everything. I've cleared my cookies and such; am I missing something?

This file in my boot drive has been there since 11/24/14, should I be worried? [img]http://i.imgur.com/GDL3C3B.png[/img]

[QUOTE=Levelog;47004167]The 960 unless AMD gets some shit out by then in that price range.[/QUOTE] Is the 960 decent despite the 128 bit bus?

[QUOTE=Original User;47011361]Is the 960 decent despite the 128 bit bus?[/QUOTE] Yeah, Nvidia's in-memory texture compression and high-clock memory seems to make up for the narrow buses, at least for gaming. Might be better off with AMD if you're doing compute though.

[QUOTE=Original User;47011361]Is the 960 decent despite the 128 bit bus?[/QUOTE] Bus width isn't everything, it also has to do with memory implementation. If you had say a 770 and a 970 (down/overclocked to the same performance level) both with 4gb VRAM and 256bit bus widths, you'd still be better off at higher resoutions with the 970. [editline]26th January 2015[/editline] Nvidia is on their game with high resolution performance this time, unlike with the 700 series.

[QUOTE=Wint3r;47009659]This file in my boot drive has been there since 11/24/14, should I be worried? [img]http://i.imgur.com/GDL3C3B.png[/img][/QUOTE] You should always be worried about the END. (Delete it and see if anything breaks)

Okay guys, I have a long question for a quick answer. I just want to know if you guys have experienced this before, and what you would do to try to fix this. So, yesterday I turn on my computer and it attempts to load operating system and spits back, "Missing Operating System". My computer was working the day before with no issues. So naturally, I open up the PC and I check things out, and unplug my HDD and leave my SSD (With the windows partition) plugged in. Still the same error. I unplug my SSD and replug it in into a different SATA port with a different SATA cable. Same issue. I open up my BIOS and it reads my SSD drive correctly, I check the boot order, and it is all still correct. Nothing has changed. Now, previously I had my computer under my window which was poorly insulated and it was usually blowing cold air in. Being a Michigan winter, it's usually like single digit Fahrenheit. I sometimes had a windows boot issue with windows telling me that it was missing boot files. I restarted the PC and it would usually then boot normally. Never had any issues once it was booted. My initial thoughts are that the drive is dead or dying and that there isn't much I can do. I run a windows installation disk to attempt to repair the partition. Can't repair. I attempt to run command prompt and throw some windows lingo at it according to what other people have tried. I used DISKPART to make sure the partition was active. I tried to rebuild the boot and it was having issues rebuilding. I did CHKDSK and the first time it read everything properly but with errors and it fixed the errors. It now read a windows partition in the windows repair section of the installation disk but still couldn't repair or boot. Still read missing operating system. I tried a few other things and tried to run CHKDSK again, and this time it read incorrectly only reading about 5MB on the drive with many errors. It says it can't fix the errors. Running out of ideas, I created a system restore drive on my flash drive to see if that will function differently from my disk. I boot the drive and I get a different repair boot menu for choosing the language, but everything after that was still the same. Still won't repair. Pretty much out of ideas at this point, I went back into my BIOS and toyed around with the boot order again. Instead of 1. CD 2. USB-HDD 3. SSD, I ran it as 1. CD 2. USB-FDD 3. SSD just to fuck around. This time it actually boots. Wonderful. Seems to be doing alright. I make it into my login screen. System didn't load slowly. I throw in my pin number to log in. Loads into a black screen. Nothing there, just black. I move the cursor and the cursor appears. I can move the cursor between my two monitors so I know it's made it to the desktop. But theres no sound and it's just black. I hit my power button to shut it down and it moves into it's normal shut down screen. So just no desktop. Anyway, so for this long story, I just want to know if you guys have ran into this before. I've only had one issue before with this SSD and I had to rebuild my boot through the command prompt to get it to work. The only thing I've changed recently, other than moving my computer away from the window 4 days ago, is that I put in a new CPU and wireless adapter card, and updated the BIOS. But that was two weeks ago with no issues at all in the meantime. I honestly think the drive is dying and it's just hobbling to its end. But I want to see if I can try to get this to work if maybe in some slim possibility the drive is still alive. I gotta head out to school, but when I get back I'm planning to throw it into another computer and see if I can boot it on someone else's PC. Depending on that, if it doesn't work. I'm going to try to run a different operating system (likely from someone else's PC) and just try to pull files off if I can. What do you guys think. Is there something else you would try? [editline]26th January 2015[/editline] It's a Samsung EVO 840 250GB

So I need to run a 70gb Windows 7 in a VM on OS X what would perform better a 2.0 Flash Stick or a 2.0 External HDD? I currently can run it on the same disk as OS X as they both crawl because of the disk IO

I found a computer shop in Dublin (Ireland) today that sells parts for PC (which is rare here) Was browsing their website, and came across this: [url]http://www.maxburns.ie/components/barebones/asrock-m8-z87-d45-bmw-designed-mini-itx-gaming-barebones.html[/url] What the fuck is that? A case + motherboard + 450W PSU for 492 Euro? Wtf, can someone explain to me why is that so expensive? or is there something of value in it? I don't get it.

[QUOTE=KinderBueno;47014801]I found a computer shop in Dublin (Ireland) today that sells parts for PC (which is rare here) Was browsing their website, and came across this: [url]http://www.maxburns.ie/components/barebones/asrock-m8-z87-d45-bmw-designed-mini-itx-gaming-barebones.html[/url] What the fuck is that? A case + motherboard + 450W PSU for 492 Euro? Wtf, can someone explain to me why is that so expensive? or is there something of value in it? I don't get it.[/QUOTE] Because it's a super slim "gaming" setup geared at the now popular minimal form factor crowd. That Asrock box is overpriced everywhere, not just that site. Also it says BMW, so that's $100 right there.

[QUOTE=Levelog;47015838]Because it's a super slim "gaming" setup geared at the now popular minimal form factor crowd. That Asrock box is overpriced everywhere, not just that site. Also it says BMW, so that's $100 right there.[/QUOTE] BMW? as in Automotive BMW? I don't see them anywhere close to PC's to be honest :v:

[QUOTE=KinderBueno;47016153]BMW? as in Automotive BMW? I don't see them anywhere close to PC's to be honest :v:[/QUOTE] Yeah the design was partially done by them. And by that I mean not at all, but marketing. Acer's got some Ferrari line products iirc.

Having an annoying issue. My delete key will not delete anything anymore. I can CTRL ALT DEL but I cannot delete files or use it in applications. Any idea what's up?

[QUOTE=Levelog;47016160]Yeah the design was partially done by them. And by that I mean not at all, but marketing. Acer's got some Ferrari line products iirc.[/QUOTE] oh, didn't know about such things before.

I'm thinking about building myself a fairly beast rig as a birthday present - my old Mac Pro is going to hit 8 years old, and even with upgrades, it's falling behind. Cases aren't really my forte, so I'll ask here: [b]What are the current go-to heavy-duty watercooling cases?[/b] I'm going to want at least 360mm of radiator total, maybe as much as 600mm. It's going to be running (probably) a 5930K and dual 980s, so it's going to run some heat. Did some looking on my own, found some interesting ones. I'm leaning toward the Obsidian 750D (the 900D is just too much even for this rig), but the Phantom 630 also looks good, and I'm sure there's plenty of cases I've not even heard of.

[QUOTE=gman003-main;47016730]I'm thinking about building myself a fairly beast rig as a birthday present - my old Mac Pro is going to hit 8 years old, and even with upgrades, it's falling behind. Cases aren't really my forte, so I'll ask here: [b]What are the current go-to heavy-duty watercooling cases?[/b] I'm going to want at least 360mm of radiator total, maybe as much as 600mm. It's going to be running (probably) a 5930K and dual 980s, so it's going to run some heat. Did some looking on my own, found some interesting ones. I'm leaning toward the Obsidian 750D (the 900D is just too much even for this rig), but the Phantom 630 also looks good, and I'm sure there's plenty of cases I've not even heard of.[/QUOTE] I love my 750D, but it's loud. Pretty much any sound leaks right out of it. I was also looking at the H440, but it just didn't quite have what I wanted. Now looking around at more cases, I wish I would have gone with the Phanteks Enthoo Primo. It's expensive, but it's got room for 2 480mm rads, one of which can be a monsta, and a 240mm. The Enthoo Pro and such are great cases too, just with some lesser building materials, as the Primo is fucking expensive. Personally I'm probably going with the mATX Enthoo Mini XL since I want a smaller case and don't plan on having more than 2 GPU's. It gives you room for an ultrathick 360mm and 280mm rad in the form factor of a more standard midtower. But of any of the cases I'd recommend the Enthoo Primo if you're not willing to go Caselabs and blow 600+ on a fucking case. (Which as great as they are, I am not willing to do) Also at least the Mini XL is fully screwed, not riveted, so you can completely disassemble it. I don't remember if the Primo is.

[QUOTE=gman003-main;47016730]I'm thinking about building myself a fairly beast rig as a birthday present - my old Mac Pro is going to hit 8 years old, and even with upgrades, it's falling behind. Cases aren't really my forte, so I'll ask here: [b]What are the current go-to heavy-duty watercooling cases?[/b] I'm going to want at least 360mm of radiator total, maybe as much as 600mm. It's going to be running (probably) a 5930K and dual 980s, so it's going to run some heat. Did some looking on my own, found some interesting ones. I'm leaning toward the Obsidian 750D (the 900D is just too much even for this rig), but the Phantom 630 also looks good, and I'm sure there's plenty of cases I've not even heard of.[/QUOTE] I love my Antec P280. It's very quiet and is very big. It looks like one of the Samsung fridges and it,s made of mostly Aluminum. The cable management is great too.