Topic: The PC-building/hardware knowledge thread (Read 358407 times)

LTK · « **Reply #450 on:** 31 Jul 2011, 02:36 »

I've recently gotten an OCZ Onyx SSD to run Windows off of, which is working pretty well, only I'm still a bit bothered by the activity of the other hard disks. I know they automatically stop spinning when going too long without activity, which makes a small but noticable difference for the noise. Only I don't seem to have any control over it at all; I've got all my programs installed on the SSD, so there should be no reason for the disks to be spinning, but they won't shut off no matter what I close.

I'm looking for a program that monitors hard disk activity, or another solution you guys might have. Any ideas?

pwhodges · « **Reply #451 on:** 31 Jul 2011, 04:48 »

First, turn off indexing on those disks.

LTK · « **Reply #452 on:** 31 Jul 2011, 05:19 »

First thing I did. SSD's don't benefit of indexing anyway.

Edit; On a hunch I tried to change the power saving options for hard drive shutdown. It's now supposed to stop after five minutes of non-activity rather than twenty, but it's still not quiet. To be sure I've got no peripheral processes running I stopped as many programs as possible from running at startup. If I only knew what it is that's being written or read from the drive...

LTK · « **Reply #453 on:** 02 Aug 2011, 07:59 »

I have the annoying ability to solve problems immediately after asking for help solving them. Power management options worked.

In other news, I just installed a new soundcard, and it sounds excellent. With headphones on, games suddenly sound as if you weren't wearing any. If even a €40 soundcard can make such a big difference, it's not a bad investment at all.

Dimmukane · « **Reply #454 on:** 22 Aug 2011, 19:15 »

I've been out of the loop for awhile...I'm thinking of building a new rig sometime in the next year and I'm not sure what's evolved in the CPU battleground. I've gathered from a cursory glance at some benchmarks that Intel CPUs are generally faster, but I also know that the AMD equivalent tends to be at most half the price. Is the difference really enough to warrant spending an extra 150$ or so? I'm OK with slightly slower CPU performance if it shaves a couple hundo off the total. Most of that savings is likely going to go into a GPU, anyhow.

bicostp · « **Reply #455 on:** 27 Aug 2011, 11:57 »

Quite frankly, Sandy Bridge is handing AMD its butt on performance per clock and power efficiency. Even the lowly 65w i3 2100 is competitive with the 125w Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition [link]. It can also hold its own with the quad-core Fusion A8-3850 on CPU-based tasks, but the Fusion's integrated graphics core is much better than Intel's. On the really low end of the spectrum, the Pentium G620 benches better than the Phenom II X2 565 and it's actually $30 cheaper. Go with an AMD Fusion if you care about gaming but don't want to buy a video card, otherwise go with Intel.

Right now the most popular Intel chips seem to be the i3 2100, i5 2500k, and i7 2600k. (Based on my completely un-scientific "sort all LGA1155 CPUs by number of reviews on NewEgg" research.) The K series allow for overclocking on motherboards with that functionality, and can top 4ghz easily. The i5 and i7 CPUs also have turbo boost, which basically overclocks individual cores on an as-needed basis to maximize performance for single-threaded applications.

As for the motherboards, you want to go wtih H67, P67, or Z68. To the best of my knowledge:

H67 cannot overclock but it can use onboard graphics.
P67 can overclock but not use onboard graphics.
Z68 can both overclock and use onboard graphics.

e: Here's a diagram (shamelessly stolen from SH/SC on Something Awful) that explains it better:

*Z68 supports IG but some board models do not include it.

If you read anything about SATA problems on the Intel 6 series chipsets, don't worry about it. That was a design flaw which was caught fairly early in the retail cycle, and it has long since been taken care of.

LTK · « **Reply #456 on:** 01 Sep 2011, 04:37 »

Man, that's the last time I return an item before doing a proper google search on the problem I'm having. My new RAM was giving me blue screens so I returned it to the webshop, which ran a few tests (ones I could have run myself) and they found no errors. Because of that I'm being charged a research fee. The cost is not extravagant, but it still sucks that I didn't avoid this by investigating it myself more thoroughly.

jwhouk · « **Reply #457 on:** 01 Sep 2011, 21:51 »

I'm actually proud of myself of doing something relatively simple: a brand new wireless router that will allow my wife to use her laptop outside of the office.

Thrudd · « **Reply #458 on:** 15 Sep 2011, 11:53 »

My old reliable workhorse PC that I put together almost 5 years ago, if not more, is no more thanks to a catastrophic fail of the Video card that took out the Main board and who knows what else.
It was a dual core with an 8500GTS overclock and a raid controller.

I went with the AMD Phenom II x6 just because I was able to get it at a much better price that any comparable intel chip. Add a higher midline Video card [ 460 ] and 8gb ram and latter, when I had more cash a 60GB SSD for my new C drive. Win 7 64 says 7.4 before tweaking so I'm reasonably happy.

Unfortunately I have had some shutdown/bluescreen/startup issues with the SSD running the show when the weather and the room the comp is in got a bit warm. I am thinking that I will have to knuckle down and clean up the rats nest of cables and power cords and wires enough to close the back of the case. Then I will have to start adding some fans and work on the airflow through the system for decent cooling.
I am so-so-so tempted to put in a liquid cooling system but what I have seen on the market as yet has left me feeling "MEH" ....

bicostp · « **Reply #459 on:** 15 Sep 2011, 17:47 »

Does your SSD use a Sandforce controller? From what I've read they tend to go haywire more easily than others, but have much better transfer rates.

Is your RAID card okay?

Caleb · « **Reply #460 on:** 20 Oct 2011, 18:51 »

I don't know how the hell I missed this thread.

(Discussion about RAID 1 setup from the other thread that I created because apparently I am blind.)

OK well if I understand the RAID thing correctly I could spring for 2 1 TB hard drives and attempt to set them up like that.

But it seems like the way you describe it's only about making sure you don't lose your data and not improving performance at all.

Since I already use a portable 1 TB harddrive to backup my stuff I don't see why I would bother.

I mean Hard Drive failure isn't something I would really worry about and if it did happen it would just destroy the drive and my data. I would be able to get a new harddrive and reinstall My OEM copy of windows.

If there is any kind of performance increase then I would definitely try this out. But if it's just going to protect my data I really don't care since I am not going to be dealing with anything of any importance on my home computer. Just entertainment stuff.

OK so it looks like the next step is going to be choosing a well ventilated case for all this stuff.

Caleb · « **Reply #461 on:** 21 Oct 2011, 06:26 »

OK here is the case I am looking at.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042

And my Hard Drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136786

And here is my processor and the rest of the parts.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138320

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171037

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150521

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345

As far as I can see all those parts will work together. But I dunno maybe someone could verify that I got the correct kind of case?

All I gotta do is get a static wristband and not screw up putting the cooler on the CPU.

Caleb · « **Reply #462 on:** 21 Oct 2011, 12:45 »

Ugh. I wish I didn't just read that AMD screwed up the Bulldozer launch.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.757231&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL102111&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL102111-_-EMC-102111-T-_-Combo-_-Combo757231-L0H

I will wait for a bit and maybe see what people have to say about my setup.

It looks like if I order before Oct. 27th I will get $15 off Windows 7 OEM so that is good news.

Caleb · « **Reply #463 on:** 22 Oct 2011, 20:12 »

So I ran into another thing.

This motherboard has a promo code until the 27th as well-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131773&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL102111&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL102111-_-EMC-102111-Latest-_-IntelMotherboards-_-13131773-L08A

This is the one I originally picked out

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138320

I am leaning towards the Asus? Any thoughts.

Also everything else I am pretty much sold on with the exception of wanting to get a 500 GB Caviar black HD if they get them back in stock because they are on sale too.

bicostp · « **Reply #464 on:** 23 Oct 2011, 11:11 »

They're both pretty reliable brands and are built around the same chipset, so go for the cheaper one.

Caleb · « **Reply #465 on:** 24 Oct 2011, 06:19 »

Excellent.

So basically everything is set. I am getting two promotional code discounts that I will have to remember to use.

All I am going to do now is wait a bit until the 27th and see if they get the WD Caviar Black 500 GB hard drives back in stock because they are on sale.

Also I noticed that the Hard Drive I picked out was 3 Gb/s per second and a bare drive for the same price was 6 GB/s

Also the cache on this one was 64 instead of 32. Should any of that make any difference? Again bear in mind this computer is mostly going to be used for gaming and some video editing.

Drive I picked out
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136786

Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

Caleb · « **Reply #466 on:** 25 Oct 2011, 07:08 »

Ugh. Newegg is the best AND the worst.

There seems to be a period of three days here where the new set of promo codes and the old set are both active.

This means I gotta make some MORE quick choices about what I want to do!

Video Card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150521

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130610&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL102511&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL102511-_-EMC-102511-Index-_-DesktopGraphicsVideoCards-_-14130610-L0B

Power supply seems to be a no brainer.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171037

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139025&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL102511&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL102511-_-EMC-102511-Index-_-PowerSupplies-_-17139025-L05C

Multiple promo codes on the Corsair model making it much cheaper. But people were complaining about the cables being non-modular. Which might be a concern since I am getting a mid sized case.

Also there is a better Case on sale.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066

It has a cable management system so that might help with the non modular power supply cables?

Complete list of my Stuff

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=13803534

bicostp · « **Reply #467 on:** 26 Oct 2011, 19:40 »

Quote from: Caleb on 25 Oct 2011, 07:08

Also there is a better Case on sale.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066

It has a cable management system so that might help with the non modular power supply cables?

I just stuffed all of my extra power supply cables in the space between the motherboard-side wall and the 3.5" drive cages. You can also hide some of the cables between the motherboard tray and the side cover.

Caleb · « **Reply #468 on:** 03 Nov 2011, 14:33 »

OK I got all my parts.

So far I have knocked out the OI faceplate that came with the case and put in the one that comes with the motherboard.

The Hard Drive and the DVD player that I got are both SATA OEM so I dunno if the motherboard will come with enough SATA cables.

In fact I don't really know what the cables that came with the motherboard are actually. I know I got at least one SATA cable.

This weekend I am going to get everything opened and then start putting stuff together.

I am going to touch the heater before I work and use the wrist strap thing connected to the bare metal of the computer case. To avoid Static shock. I am also going to wear 100% cotton and not wear any socks when I am working on it.

Wish me luck.

pwhodges · « **Reply #469 on:** 03 Nov 2011, 14:41 »

Anti static precautions are prudent and good; but I will admit to never having used an earthing lead in forty years of doing work from time to time on computer hardware, and never having had a problem that could be traced to that. Good luck, and don't worry - it's really not hard.

bicostp · « **Reply #470 on:** 03 Nov 2011, 22:14 »

Quote from: Caleb on 03 Nov 2011, 14:33

In fact I don't really know what the cables that came with the motherboard are actually. I know I got at least one SATA cable.

NewEgg usually puts a picture of the motherboard and all its accessories in with the product images. You bought a decent motherboard, so it should come with three or four. Even the cheap boards come with one or two.

Quote

I am going to touch the heater before I work and use the wrist strap thing connected to the bare metal of the computer case. To avoid Static shock. I am also going to wear 100% cotton and not wear any socks when I am working on it.

The only time I ever used a grounding strap was for a hardware maintenance course. Periodically touching the case or the power supply body is more than enough to be safe unless you're intentionally creating static. Just don't touch the edge connector on your RAM or the bottom of your processor and you'll be fine. (Those parts are especially sensitive to static, and it's probably not good in the long run to get skin oils on those contacts.)

Don't worry about mixing your connectors up; everything is keyed or designed so you can't plug something in backwards where it doesn't belong unless you try really hard.

Caleb · « **Reply #471 on:** 04 Nov 2011, 12:20 »

The motherboard did come with 4 cables but I am not sure what sort of cables they are. From the newegg webpage only one of them was labeled as a SATA cable.

It's better to put the CPU and the CPU fan into the motherboard before I install the motherboard right?

I am just assuming that it would be easier

pwhodges you have to understand that if static damage only happens to like 1 out 1000 people who work on their computers than I am that guy.

This is just how my life is and I have learned to expect it. Thus I am going to be wearing nothing but cotton boxers and undershirt when I work on this thing and use a static strap thing.

pwhodges · « **Reply #472 on:** 04 Nov 2011, 13:14 »

Quote from: Caleb on 04 Nov 2011, 12:20

It's better to put the CPU and the CPU fan into the motherboard before I install the motherboard right?

Certainly. The cpu fits in snugly with no effort, but the heatsink fixings may require some careful force.

Quote

pwhodges you have to understand that if static damage only happens to like 1 out 1000 people who work on their computers than I am that guy. ...I am going to be wearing nothing but cotton boxers and undershirt...

Your solution would not, however, have been acceptable for me, working in an office...

Caleb · « **Reply #473 on:** 06 Nov 2011, 08:23 »

Dammit.
Everything was put together correctly and everything worked.

But now I am getting what seems to be coil whine whenever the video card kicks in when I tried to play Starcraft. Like REALLY loud electronic buzzing that changes pitch as the stuff on the screen changes. It's incredibly annoying and there is no way I can deal with it.

It's not the fan noise since I tested the fans up to 100% and they were quiet compared to this buzzing.

That means the PSU is not working with the video card I guess? So that means I can try replacing either or both.

Or it might even be the CPU when it's working hard. I have no clue.

I might put my old video card in the new computer and see if I get the same noise.

I am going to contact the costumer support of the video card tomorrow and see if they have anything to say.

Caleb · « **Reply #474 on:** 06 Nov 2011, 08:53 »

I took the video card out and there is a quiet little whine now.

So is there anyway I can test my motherboard to see if it's the part that is whining and not the graphics card?

I tried to pinpoint the noise and I am pretty sure it's the graphics card. So hopefully I can just replace that.

I mean coil whine means loose coils so if I get another graphics card than it will probably be OK?

I dunno. Now I am thinking about replacing the PSU.

LTK · « **Reply #475 on:** 06 Nov 2011, 09:04 »

Ouch, that sucks. I had to deal with the same problem; in my case it was the bottom-of-the-line PSU that was making the noise. I looked into it a bit, and no one seems to agree on the cause. It may be shoddy components, or a bad manufacturing batch. Whatever the cause, buying a higher quality PSU (same wattage) got rid of the problem for me. Good thing you still have your old graphics card, that gives you opportunity for elimination. I can tell you it's probably not the CPU; it doesn't have coils that can whine.

If it's indeed the graphics card, and you're feeling creative, I heard it helps to coat the capacitors in a layer of nail polish. But you might not want to do that if you're planning on returning it.

Hey, the good news is, you can put together a computer without totally screwing something up. Hardware faults > human faults.

As for myself, I just moved out of the house, into an apartment which has internet and cable tv included in the rent price. Now I'm not about to buy a tv when I just moved my computer and 24" monitor in there, that would be silly. But it's a shame to let it go to waste, so I'm thinking of just buying a tv tuner card such as this one. It's going for €55 and comes with a remote and recording software; that beats any piece of crap tv you can buy for that price.

Caleb · « **Reply #476 on:** 06 Nov 2011, 09:17 »

Well the old video card just didn't work. So it's completely dead and I can't use it to test the computer.

It could be the PSU but it's a Corsair 800 watt thing. So it's not like it's a cheap PSU.

I did a stress test using Prime95 without the video card in the computer and it's been as quiet as a mouse. But I have no clue if that means anything.

If running a game is what causes the noise and I *think* the noise the noise is coming from the video card than I have no clue how to test this situation.

I mean at this point I don't have any idea how to test the computer under the conditions it's in when it's running the game without the video card.

With the video card there is a loud noise but for the life of me I can't be sure where it's coming from.

I am thinking my only recourse is to return the video card for a new one and if that still makes the noise than return the PSU for a new one.

It's sloppy but I don't see any other way to handle this situation.

LTK · « **Reply #477 on:** 06 Nov 2011, 09:38 »

High frequency noise is a bitch to pinpoint. It doesn't look like you've got shoddy products at all, but you might just have something out of a bad batch. There's nothing sloppy about returning a faulty product; there's not much you can do about it, after all.

Are there any other applications besides graphics-heavy games that cause whine?

Caleb · « **Reply #478 on:** 06 Nov 2011, 12:22 »

Since my motherboard had 2 PCI Express slots I moved the card to the other slot and carefully listened from different sides of the computer.

I am 75% sure that the coil whine noise is coming from the PSU and not the video card. I mean the only thing on the freaking video card that could cause so much noise would have to be the fans and since I already tested them at 100% it's not them! There are no huge coils on the video card. There are on the PSU.

*edit*

Also I checked and the Corsair site already had a sticky in their forums about their PSUs creating a buzzing noise.

None of their suggestions helped except for the last one which was to return the product.

The best thing to me to do is return the PSU for a new one and hopefully that will solve my problems.

If worse comes to worse I can always return the card for a replacement as well. But honestly I think it's the PSU.

...my cable management was a work of art. It really broke my heart to have to take all those cables out.

Caleb · « **Reply #479 on:** 16 Nov 2011, 20:57 »

Yeah Honestly I am just going to say screw it.

The computer works once it's on. It just restarts the reboot process once while booting.

I have no idea. I reconnected everything. It didn't do this before with the old power supply. I might have a short from a bad connection but I reconnected everything basically. It can't be the wiring to the power switch because I checked it.

If it's an issue with the power supply then fuck it. I don't want to screw around with this shit anymore. I will get a new power supply down the road.

All I am going to do with this computer is play video games and maybe edit some video anyways.

I am going to leave Starcraft 2 on for awhile and see if the computer crashes or not.

If it can play games than fine. I don't see how the reboot during startup can be an issue that could hurt anything.

Caleb · « **Reply #480 on:** 18 Nov 2011, 06:15 »

Turned out it was a common issue with Asus boards and was fixed with a simple BIOS setting change.

Also changing the BIOS on Asus boards causes that exact same problem to happen once after you make the change.

So solving the issue causes that same issue to happen once after you fix it.

So the computer is working now.

What a long haul this has been.

LTK · « **Reply #481 on:** 22 Nov 2011, 06:01 »

There are two problems with getting support for Windows. One is getting help from someone who isn't completely ignorant. Two is convincing that person that I'm not completely ignorant. I post a question regarding a bug with associating Windows Explorer with the .jar file type, and then someone proceeds to explain to me what a .jar file is. Jeez, for all the times support cases could be solved by people reading what stuff says, you'd think the people giving the answers could at least learn to read the question properly.

pwhodges · « **Reply #482 on:** 22 Nov 2011, 07:06 »

If you'd worked in support, you'd also have words to say about people who think they know about things, and so report what they fancy is wrong instead of the actual symptoms...

LTK · « **Reply #483 on:** 22 Nov 2011, 08:59 »

I bet I would, as I'm totally not one of those people!

<_<

At least I hope.

Caleb · « **Reply #484 on:** 16 Dec 2011, 19:54 »

Ugh now I am getting the Blue Screen of Death every once in awhile.

F my life.

I don't have any clue what the hell could be causing this issue.

I might just send it in to a friend who works on computers he might be able to figure out if it's a software problem or hardware.

I was having funky problems with the update tool so maybe it's that?

I got no clue.

bicostp · « **Reply #485 on:** 16 Dec 2011, 19:59 »

Make sure your drivers are all up to date, especially the video card's.

Caleb · « **Reply #486 on:** 16 Dec 2011, 20:06 »

Well the reason I think it's software is because the windows update thing went crazy.

Plus there seems to be some sort of error where it says there is no driver for a universal serial Bus controller. I just dunno.

I will update my video driver though.

*edit*

OK I updated my video driver and a few other drivers and did a memory test to test for bad memory. No bad memory according to the test.

No blue screens yet. But I still have no idea what the hell these other devices are with no drivers.

it just says other device Universal Serial Bus Controller with the little no driver error exclamation point. I mean it seems like all my hardware is represented on that list. So I dunno.

*edit*

Left an AI battle with Starcraft 2 running. No Blue Screens yet.

So hopefully it was updating the video card driver that helped or some other update? I dunno. This whole mess is just pissing me off.

Caleb · « **Reply #487 on:** 17 Dec 2011, 17:09 »

God Dammit.

Now it's downloading the same update over and over!

I dunno there has got to be some corrupt files with the windows update thing. I just used the action center and it supposedly fixed some of these issues. I already tried doing a restore point from before all this crap started to happen.

If I get a blue screen again I am simply going to reinstall windows 7 and start over.

Caleb · « **Reply #488 on:** 17 Dec 2011, 21:58 »

Spend my night doing a complete reinstall of windows and EVERYTHING.

No more missing drivers.

No more wonky update stuff. It seems to have updated everything correctly.

I am pretty sure this whole mess was because of corrupted update files.

I think I am in the clear.

Caleb · « **Reply #489 on:** 17 Dec 2011, 22:05 »

No sooner did I type than then I Blue Screened AGAIN.

It must be some sort of hardware problem. This sucks.

Only other strange thing I noticed was the time on the clock keeps on coming up wrong. Which is odd because when I did my install of windows it had the correct time.

bicostp · « **Reply #490 on:** 18 Dec 2011, 10:33 »

Is the clock wrong only in Windows or is it wrong in SETUP too?

Try clearing the BIOS settings, either with the motherboard jumper or by pulling the button-cell battery.

Caleb · « **Reply #491 on:** 18 Dec 2011, 10:38 »

The clock is only wrong in windows. When I did the windows setup it had the correct time.

Whenever I run the Bios the clock time is correct in there.

And again I have gone all day today without any issues. So I just don't know.

Everything seems to be updating OK now. I had a net framework crash but besides that no issues.

I dunno man this whole situation is nothing but depressing and I don't want to put in any more time and effort into it.

If I keep my job then I will hire someone to professionally look at it if keeps on acting up.

Jimor · « **Reply #492 on:** 18 Jan 2012, 11:17 »

Opening a ticket for some upcoming questions and discussions on creating a Windows computer to fun the Adobe CS 5.5 Production Premium Suite that I won back in the fall. Because of budget considerations, I can't go for the full screaming on the bleeding edge system that would really make the software purr, so I'm ok with working around some limitations until I can either upgrade this system, or buy a new one.

2 major points that the Adobe rep made during the video professional meeting where I won the software was that it's important to have a 7200rpm HD, and that a compatible graphics card makes a HUGE difference in being able to playback and render high def and special FX in the programs.

Here are the tech specs.

Quote

Windows

64-bit support required: Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor (Intel Core™ i3, i5, or i7 or AMD Phenom® II recommended); Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Phenom II required for Adobe® Premiere® Pro
64-bit operating system required: Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (Service Pack 2 recommended) or Windows® 7
2GB of RAM (4GB or more recommended)
16.3GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on removable flash storage devices)
1280x900 display (1280x1024 recommended) with qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics card, 16-bit color, and 256MB of VRAM
Adobe-certified GPU card for GPU-accelerated performance in Adobe Premiere Pro
Some GPU-accelerated features in Adobe Photoshop® Extended require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0
Some features in Adobe Bridge rely on a DirectX 9–capable graphics card with at least 64MB of VRAM
7200 RPM hard drive for editing compressed video formats; RAID 0 for uncompressed
Adobe-certified card for capture and export to tape for SD/HD workflows
OHCI-compatible IEEE 1394 port for DV and HDV capture, export to tape, and transmit to DV device
Sound card compatible with ASIO protocol or Microsoft Windows Driver Model
DVD-ROM drive compatible with dual-layer DVDs (DVD+-R burner for burning DVDs; Blu-ray burner for creating Blu-ray Disc media)
Java™ Runtime Environment 1.5 (32 bit) or 1.6
QuickTime 7.6.2 software required for QuickTime features
Adobe Flash® Player 10 software required to play back DVD projects exported as SWF files
Broadband Internet connection required for online services and to validate Subscription Edition (if applicable) on an ongoing basis*

I don't need the RAID, and I don't need a monitor. I can get by without Firewire and export to tape functions for now, but a Blu-ray burner would be nice. 1T internal is fine because I plan on backing up old projects to multiple external harddrives and Blu-ray media to keep the main HD clear. One possible later upgrade would be to put media on a 2nd internal and let the OS/program run off the C: drive.

Probably the biggest decision is the CPU, and I'm fine with 2nd tier here if that's what it takes to get this done. The Adobe rep said that it's the GPU that makes the biggest difference rather than raw processor power. 8G RAM is probably what I'll shoot for initially, but I want to be able to expand this by a lot if I get the resources. This is where my knowledge is weak, but I'm guessing that getting a motherboard where I can upgrade CPU and RAM etc, is something that can pay off here?

I'm trying to keep this under $1000, and I'm willing for the main tradeoff to be CPU in exchange for upgradeability later, and if push comes to shove, I could sacrifice the GPU and/or Blu-ray burner for a little while and add that later.

Anyway, that the preliminary post. I'll be researching this on my own, but feel free to do my homework for me.

Based in the U.S. in case you didn't know and have web sites for me to look at.

Thanks!

Jimor · « **Reply #493 on:** 11 Feb 2012, 16:24 »

I guess I should update, since I've just put what I ordered all together, and it works! Just went to NewEgg, browsed around, read the reviews, and that seemed to work. Got a motherboard, case, and power supply that can handle a few upgrades, a CPU that's moderately high end, then added a 1T HD and DVD burner to round out the main components.

ASUS motherboard with just built in ATI graphics at the moment, I'll get a dedicated GPU when I have more money. AMD Phenom II quad core at 3.7 GHz. 8G of RAM, and can add 2 more sticks to get it to 16 if I want. Altogether, came to $750 including Windows, so I'm happy.

Downloading and installing all the standard software needed, then I need to transfer a bunch of stuff from the old computer and then I can finally install my Adobe Suite!

bicostp · « **Reply #494 on:** 12 Feb 2012, 10:21 »

Sounds like that should last you a few years!

Once you have the money (and prices on hard drives aren't through the roof anymore), get a couple 500 gig 7200 RPM desktop drives (Caviar Black, Momentus 7200, etc), put them in a RAID 0, and dedicate it to scratch disk duty. Adobe's high-end software does best when it's not sharing a physical hard drive with your Windows pagefile. (Just remember RAID 0 offers no redundancy, and doubles the chances of drive failure due to data loss, so only use it for temporary stuff.)

kajiura fan · « **Reply #495 on:** 13 Feb 2012, 19:50 »

I'm wondering if anyone here has experienced problems with the ASUS motherboards, specifically the m5a97.

My boyfriend built his own desktop last week and it's been giving him problems. The computer is mainly for playing games which seems to work fine at the moment however when he tries to watch videos on youtube, the computer freezes and crashes but only after he opens another tab to look at forums or news sites.

The audio becomes distorted and one time it began repeating in the same spot. This only happens when he uses Firefox or Google Chrome.

Another problem came up today where the computer would crash when he tried to play music or video files. He's reached his limit, I think, and plans on replacing the motherboard AND the processor (not sure of make or model at the moment).

I just want to know if anyone else has been having similar issues and might have some suggestions or solutions.

Eternal_Newbie · « **Reply #496 on:** 29 Feb 2012, 11:17 »

Hi, finally made my descision bought my parts, and they won't boot.

Core i5 2400
8 Gb Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3 RAM
GigabyteGA-Z68X-UD3-B3 (was on sale and only slightly more expensive than the Asus P8Z68-V LX and has lots more connectors)

Being used with a 1Tb Samsung HDD, Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 and OCZ Stealth XStream 600W PSU from my existing machine .

What happens is that I press power, it starts, thate fans on the the CPU, Graphics card and case spin. But there is no signal to the Display and no power to the keyboard or mouse (both USB). The fans will happily continue spinning, they don't just start spinning and immediately then shut down. My case doesn't have a speaker so I can't hear the beeps.

I've reseated the motherboard, unplugged and pugged back all cables and unplugged everything except the Graphics card (no onboard graphics with this Motherboard) 1 stick ram and keyboard. The same happens, fans spin, no signal to the monitor, no power to keyboard.

I think it could be one of 3 things
1) Motherboard doesn't like the ram, although everything I've read says it should work with tthis motherboard. Don't have any other DDR3 ram to test in it.
2) PSU, even though it's a decent 600w isn't supplying enough power to the motherboard (although it powers my old Core 2 Duo fine) It is a couple of years old. I've got an old dodgy 400w PSU lying about I could try, but i don't think it has all the right connectors.
3) the motherboard or CPU are fried. (I don't _think_ I did it, I took extreme care)

BTW, I put my old motherboard back in and it runs fine so I didn't fry the graphics card or PSU when putting the new stuff in , at least

Thoughts, anyone?

EDIT: Crucial not Corsair

IrrationalPie · « **Reply #497 on:** 01 Mar 2012, 14:56 »

It's one of the following :
a) RAM
Try putting one stick of RAM in one slot. If it doesn't work, put it one of the other sticks. Unless you're unlucky, if both don't work, the problem most likely isn't your RAM.
If you have another computer you can burn an ubuntu disc, pop the RAM sticks in that computer, and do a memory test after booting off the CD.

b) Power Supply
You might be missing some connections from your power supply to your CPU or motherboard; just because the fans are spinning, doesn't necessarily mean your CPU has power.
Your 600W PSU should be more than enough power for a 5770 and your i5. I'm running a similar setup with an old i7.

c) CPU
This could may be fried or defective.

d) Motherboard
This might be defective.

LTK · « **Reply #498 on:** 01 Mar 2012, 15:05 »

Try the other slot for a single stick of RAM as well, there might be a broken connector. Also - even though you've probably already checked this - make sure that the fastening brackets on the RAM and other slots are in the correct position; they have to be in the same spot as closed brackets in empty slots.

The motherboard is powered with a 2x12-pin slot, but the PSU might only have a 2x10 pin connector with an extra 2x2 pins on the side, you can check for that as well.

pwhodges · « **Reply #499 on:** 01 Mar 2012, 15:07 »

I have experienced problems with RAM, motherboard and PS, but never (in my case) the cpu. I've also had OK motherboards which were prevented from booting by the presence of a faulty disk or a faulty graphics card. You just have to go through removing things, and swapping what you can with known good until you get to it.

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