• The "Quick Questions that does not Deserve a Thread"...Thread. V4
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My PC is very loud. I want it to be less loud. How do I see what makes my PC so loud?
[QUOTE=Killuah;40780078]My PC is very loud. I want it to be less loud. How do I see what makes my PC so loud?[/QUOTE] First, listen to it. It's almost definitely a fan, but the question is, which one? Listen to where the sound is coming from - open your case, if it will help. Most computers have cooling fans on the case (intake or exhaust fans), on the CPU heatsink, and on the video card. Usually the loudest ones are the video card and CPU fans. It's also possible that the noise is your hard drive, but that's a pretty distinctive sound. Once you've determined which one is being loud, try to figure out why. Dust is a common one - if whatever the fan is trying to push air through is clogged with dust, it will have to push harder to get air through, which makes it louder. Cleaning the dust out will almost always help. It might also have been mounted improperly, particularly with case fans. If it wasn't screwed in tightly, it can vibrate, making a lot more noise than normal. Also, pay attention to when it's loud. Is it only during games or other intense use? Or is it something that's always that way? When parts are under heavier use, they generate more heat, requiring the fans work harder to cool it off. Case fans often run at a constant speed while the CPU/GPU fans vary depending on how hot the thing they're cooling gets. If it's something more complex to diagnose than that, you may want to look at your fan speeds and temperatures. Fans can't cool a chip directly - they need a "heatsink" to spread the heat out and provide enough surface area to do their job. If there's a problem with the connection between the heatsink and the chip, the fan can't do anything but it will try as hard as it can to cool it anyways, running at its highest (and loudest) speed.
I think it's either my GFX card or the heatsink, I am not really sure. It's a very audible noise but I feel like there is some almost not hearable noise behind it because when I turn off my PC it feels REALLLY good to have that noise gone. Gonna open the PC tomorrow.
I currently have a laptop with some pretty low spec (2007 office laptop) and I would like to know what Windows version would be the most optimized? I'm thinking between XP, W7, and W8.
I'd say Windows 8 would be the fastest on that laptop
XP is nearing it's end of support. 7 is terrible on low end hardware. 8 would most likely be your best bet. I ran 8 on my ~2005 Pentium 4 desktop, and it really wasn't bad. Compared to XP MCE 2005, it was amazing.
How vital is PhysX for a nice gaming experience? Does it warrant paying more for an Nvidia card over an AMD card?
[QUOTE=cardfan212;40784632]How vital is PhysX for a nice gaming experience? Does it warrant paying more for an Nvidia card over an AMD card?[/QUOTE] If you like extra particle/cloth/fluid effects it's nice, but I wouldn't buy an nVidia card purely for that reason. Plus PhysX only matters if the game was designed with it in mind: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_hardware-accelerated_PhysX_support[/url] [video=youtube;2rokcD0nh4I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rokcD0nh4I[/video]
[QUOTE=cardfan212;40784632]How vital is PhysX for a nice gaming experience? Does it warrant paying more for an Nvidia card over an AMD card?[/QUOTE] Unless the game flat-out requires PhysX (and I don't know of any that do), all it really does is improve particle effects and add more flying bits to destruction physics. I'd say it's worth maybe $10 more. Not much, really. Especially since there are hints that they're going to be making it compatible with AMD cards - it's known they'll be porting it to the PS4/Xb1, which use AMD chips, so it's no longer completely out of the question. I still find it unlikely, but hardly impossible. Maybe 15:1 odds.
Alright, then how about these? [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202011[/url] [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121686[/url] There's only a $25 difference between the 2, which would be a better performer? I don't really have the budget to go any more expensive.
[QUOTE=cardfan212;40784798]Alright, then how about these? [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202011[/url] [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121686[/url] There's only a $25 difference between the 2, which would be a better performer? I don't really have the budget to go any more expensive.[/QUOTE] Depends - do you have Far Cry 3 or Blood Dragon (the two games the 7770 comes with) already, and would you want them? If you really want those games, go with he 7770. The 650 Ti is slightly more powerful, but not by much. And that also means it's probably a bit louder, although the dual fans probably help. I'd get that one if you either don't care about the AMD games, or already have them.
[QUOTE=Killuah;40780732]I think it's either my GFX card or the heatsink, I am not really sure. It's a very audible noise but I feel like there is some almost not hearable noise behind it because when I turn off my PC it feels REALLLY good to have that noise gone. Gonna open the PC tomorrow.[/QUOTE] What were I writing, I meant power supply, not heatsink.
So before I order 2 of these "Asus 24" LED VN247H" monitors, will I need anything else to use them as dual monitor? The outputs are; 2 x HDMI VGA DVI-D & the monitors include ; 1 x VGA-cable 1 x soundcable 1 x HDMI-DVI-cable (2 of each since it's 2 monitors)
[QUOTE=gman003-main;40784792]Unless the game flat-out requires PhysX (and I don't know of any that do), all it really does is improve particle effects and add more flying bits to destruction physics. I'd say it's worth maybe $10 more. Not much, really. Especially since there are hints that they're going to be making it compatible with AMD cards - it's known they'll be porting it to the PS4/Xb1, which use AMD chips, so it's no longer completely out of the question. I still find it unlikely, but hardly impossible. Maybe 15:1 odds.[/QUOTE] Pretty sure they have to get physx working on consoles because unreal, plus they dont compete on hardware there. I seriouly doubt they will ever support amd gpu's on pc.
[QUOTE=gman003-main;40784840]Depends - do you have Far Cry 3 or Blood Dragon (the two games the 7770 comes with) already, and would you want them? If you really want those games, go with he 7770. The 650 Ti is slightly more powerful, but not by much. And that also means it's probably a bit louder, although the dual fans probably help. I'd get that one if you either don't care about the AMD games, or already have them.[/QUOTE] I don't have the games, but I think I'd rather go for the extra performance than some free extras. [editline]26th May 2013[/editline] Actually, might just go with a 7790. Best of both worlds.
[QUOTE=Starship;40787578]So before I order 2 of these "Asus 24" LED VN247H" monitors, will I need anything else to use them as dual monitor? The outputs are; 2 x HDMI VGA DVI-D & the monitors include ; 1 x VGA-cable 1 x soundcable 1 x HDMI-DVI-cable (2 of each since it's 2 monitors)[/QUOTE] You don't technically need anything. You'd be able to hook one up via the DVI-HDMI cable (DVI on video card to HDMI on monitor), and the other through VGA. But VGA doesn't provide the best quality, particularly for LCD monitors. VGA is an analog connection, designed back when 800x640 was a high resolution. You might not notice it normally, but it will be even easier to see when you have an identical monitor using a proper cable. I would suggest buying some regular HDMI cables (don't fall for the scams - the dirt-cheapest ones you can find will work perfectly for this) and using one or two of those. I actually recommend everyone buy a handful, since they can come in handy - I bought a pack of four for $12 when I only needed one, and have frequently used them for hooking up to TVs and such.
[QUOTE=gman003-main;40789286]You don't technically need anything. You'd be able to hook one up via the DVI-HDMI cable (DVI on video card to HDMI on monitor), and the other through VGA. But VGA doesn't provide the best quality, particularly for LCD monitors. VGA is an analog connection, designed back when 800x640 was a high resolution. You might not notice it normally, but it will be even easier to see when you have an identical monitor using a proper cable. I would suggest buying some regular HDMI cables (don't fall for the scams - the dirt-cheapest ones you can find will work perfectly for this) and using one or two of those. I actually recommend everyone buy a handful, since they can come in handy - I bought a pack of four for $12 when I only needed one, and have frequently used them for hooking up to TVs and such.[/QUOTE] I've got a HDMI cable already for my consoles and I'm going to move them to the PC when I get a new table. So two HDMI cables or one hdmi cable + DVI-hdmi cable would work?
[QUOTE=Starship;40789596]So two HDMI cables or one hdmi cable + DVI-hdmi cable would work?[/QUOTE] Yes.
If you've got a 650M GT and a penchant for pushing suboptimal thermal profiles past their limits - how far can the thing be overclocked on stock voltages? The 750M weighs heavily on my mind...
Probably a dumb question, but if you had a 720p monitor, would there be any noticeable difference in picture quality between a 720p video and a 1080p video?
might get the benefits of downsampling.
I'm more tickled by the fact that you're still able to find a screen in the area of 720p - unless you're talking about a laptop in accursed 1366x768?
[QUOTE=Sommoch;40789922]Probably a dumb question, but if you had a 720p monitor, would there be any noticeable difference in picture quality between a 720p video and a 1080p video?[/QUOTE] Technically, no, but in practice often yes. 720p videos, particularly when streaming, often have lower quality encoding and sound quality. You won't get the benefits of the higher resolution, but you will get the benefits of the extended bitrate that typically comes with 1080p.
Ok quick question: Is building a €1k+ pc into an old case (something like [url=http://img.tomshardware.com/us/2001/02/12/socket_5/pc.jpg]this[/url]) a really stupid idea?
[QUOTE=BRM;40792072]Ok quick question: Is building a €1k+ pc into an old case (something like [url=http://img.tomshardware.com/us/2001/02/12/socket_5/pc.jpg]this[/url]) a really stupid idea?[/QUOTE] Airflow would be a problem but hell, if it fits why not?
[QUOTE=BRM;40792072]Ok quick question: Is building a €1k+ pc into an old case (something like [url=http://img.tomshardware.com/us/2001/02/12/socket_5/pc.jpg]this[/url]) a really stupid idea?[/QUOTE] If you're spending that much on a PC, you're hopefully getting powerful enough parts that you'll want a case with good airflow. Unless you *want* the thing to sound like a jet engine and overheat constantly, I'd probably get a new case, one that's designed to manage something more powerful. I'll also say, from experience, old cases like that are *extremely* hard to work in. You may only build it once, but it's almost worth an extra hundred or so to get a case that you can work inside.
I really like the idea of a 'sleeper' pc so to speak, and I don't mind putting some effort in modding the case for better cooling if possible. Also i'm not planning on overclocking it, so with some good fans it shouldn't get too hot in there i think (?) figured it would be a good idea too get some opinions here first :p
Probably going to purchase this laptop: [url]http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/laptops/NP780Z5E-S01UB[/url] Could anyone give their educated input based on the specs if it's a good deal or not?
[QUOTE=redBadger;40794653]Probably going to purchase this laptop: [url]http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/laptops/NP780Z5E-S01UB[/url] Could anyone give their educated input based on the specs if it's a good deal or not?[/QUOTE] It looks good from what I know I would need to know thought how long the battery really last depending if your going mobile with it a lot or not. Like my Asus g74sx great lappy but the battery is shit im lucky if it lasts more than 2 hours.
Trying to figure out if my 6870 is acting up, or if it's just Civ5 glitching. I started seeing some weird graphical glitches - when moving a unit, the whole screen would start going nuts, like all the vertices were being jumbled around, or there would be flashes of weird colors like a texture was corrupted. But it was either a one-frame thing, or would end as soon as I stopped doing whatever I was doing (holding mouse button to move unit, for example). I haven't had issues with this game before, but I also haven't had issues with this card in other games. And I used to use it for Bitcoin mining (once it got hot enough outside for me to turn the AC on, the excess heat became a liability rather than an asset), where it never had issues. So I think it's just as likely to be a software glitch. Temperatures were the first thing I checked, since I made some tweaks to the fan speeds earlier today. My case has things positioned weirdly - the RAM (which gets stupid hot, 75C or higher) is positioned right under the video card, which means it idles at a very high temperature through no fault of its own. The AMD automatic fan controls want to keep the fans at 60% at idle (idles at 60C or so), very loud and pointless since running at 40% gives the exact same temperature (and 20% is still just 2C hotter, but I can't hear much of a difference between 20% and 40% so I sided on caution). I checked the SpeedFan logs after exiting the game, and it peaked at 76C. Back when I was mining Bitcoins, it ran hotter than that - 80C was the typical temperature, and the ambient air was a bit cooler then as well. I am running stock clocks, BTW. Couldn't find anywhere better to mention that. Does this sound like a hardware fault? Is there any log or something I can check to see if there were actual errors? Am I probably worrying about nothing?
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