Computer for my bro

I don't think the P45 is compatible with the i5-750:
Compatible Chipsets said:
Intel® H55 Express Chipset
1 Configuration

Intel® H57 Express Chipset
1 Configuration

Intel® P55 Express Chipset
1 Configuration

Intel® Q57 Express Chipset
1 Configuration
Click to expand...
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42915

Actually, I was under the impression that the P55 was the only option, but I guess I was quite wrong. I've never even heard of those other ones.
 
Asus said:
Yeah most of those boards are going to be great, especially from the main brands. And if they use the same chipset then performance is going to be similar.
Click to expand...
Yeah, because the i5-750 has so much on the chip itself: the RAM and PCIe controller; so the performance in these areas shouldn't be much of a difference at all between boards, in this case. Maybe a very slight difference, unless one of the boards has an issue. This is why benchmarks are still good to check out, because a board can have a flaw in the design which can hurt performance. EDIT: have to say this would probably be due to a BIOS problem, that may be already (or eventually get) fixed in a BIOS update. (In some cases updated after the benchmark results are put out there, so may already be fixed by the time you buy the board)

The main differences in the P55 express motherboards will be things like power consumption and HDD performance. Obviously, overclocking performance will depend on the quality of components and [if it has] over-volt protection as well. If not over-clocking, then this shouldn't be an issue.

Asus said:
Looking over ratings on newegg I would value a board that is 4 star and has 50+ reviews more than a board with 5 stars and...6 reviews. If it looks like the board with few reviews is just a newer version of the same thing then maybe check out hardware site reviews or forums (google search) to make sure the current version of that board is mostly bug free.
Click to expand...
Completely agree.
 
Alright guys. My brother is really wanting to make this purchase now.

We've finalized the list down to this.

x6cupt.jpg


We didn't end up going with the Sapphire Toxic edition... it's 60 bucks more expensive, and the anandtech review said it's already a cool card and the vapor-x cooler cooled it, but not hugely so. Just better than the stock cooling, which was already cool apparently.

And we're doing Bing Cashback.



If anybody has any last objections to the list... please let us know now!
 
What an awesome build, and it even has major room for upgrades with that strong power supply, USB 3.0, and that case, with the huge space for a video card.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-5000/Pages/ati-radeon-hd-5000.aspx
AMD recommends for the 5970 said:
# 650 Watt or greater power supply one 75W 6-pin and one 150W 8-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (850 Watt with two 75W 6-pin and two 150W 8-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)
Click to expand...
AMD recommends for the 5850 said:
# 500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)
Click to expand...

So it seems a 750w would be great if you plan to upgrade the video card. As long as it has the proper power supply connectors.
 
I think a 500-600 would be perfect. Of course 700 works as well just a bit extra power (and $$). I have heard a few people prefer the TX650 over the 750. I'm not sure if that is because the fan spins louder or what on the 750. Both are good though.
edit:I think the TX650 is based on Seasonic while the 750 is CWT. Both good but seasonic might have a little higher quality. Probably why the price isn't that much difference for the higher watt unit.
I have the VX550 and a HX620, both are still going.

I know with my Q9300 (2.5Ghz intel quad) and a 4850 (a bit lower power than the 4870 and 5800 cards) I use 270-300 watts while gaming. If I was doing something a bit more intense on both CPU and GPU it would probably go to 350 or so (guessing). I have the VX550 in there atm which is more than I need.
I was thinking, when I upgrade my LCD I would also go with a 5800 card to power the resolution increase but I would probably keep my PSU.

Even corsair's 400 watts have 30 amps on the +12v rail which is good for a single card and a mid-range dual core.
 
I edited my last post and I think it's imortant enough to point this out, in case it was overlooked.

Instead of assumptions and rumors, I replaced the information I had with hard data from AMD.


750 watts is more than enough for one 5970, according to AMD. So it will be a good choice if you plan to upgrade to a 5970 in the future. As Asus and I agree on, 750w is much more than you need for a 5850, so keep that in mind.


If I wasn't so busy, or had a link, I'd make sure your power supply has the proper connectors.


I'm assuming you found a way to bundle some of the things you bought and that's what the instant rebates are all about. Great.
 
Downgrading is only going to save us 10-20 bucks it seems. My bro wants to keep the option open for upgrading in the future. So we'll probably go with the 750. I just realized it's not modular though, so I'm going to try and find one like it that is modular.

With that said, I think we'll be making the purchase tonight.

I want to thank everybody so much for all the help, you guys are always awesome when it comes to these PC build threads. Love you guys!

EDIT: I'll check it out virus, thanks.


EDIT: dammit I keep calling you viper, even though I know i'm dealing with Virus. Sorry man. lol. That and the avatar mistakes calling you ZT, I haven't been nice to you!



I've actually been trying to find some bundles with some of these things, but haven't had much success.


$36 saved from cashback.
 
Np.

It's tricky to get the bundle with the stuff you want.

I think what I did was try finding a bundle for the mobo, then if I didn't find the RAM I want, I tried searching with just the RAM, and find the Mobo through there. Had to flip through quite a few pages.

I remember now. I reselected "add to cart" for the RAM I wanted (putting more than I actually wanted in my cart), then searched through the pre-selected bundles, instead of searching for it after the fact. I used notepad to make sure I don't lose track of the stuff I want, in case I didn't find a bundle. After I got the bundle I wanted, I took the extra set of RAM out of my cart.

The things you selected are very specific now after being very choice about it, so its hard to get that exact bundle but it might be there.

I was lucky enough to get the mobo and Ram as a combo to save $20 or so. Didn't find the ram and mobo in a combo with the CPU.


I guess the deal is done now, congratulations.
 
VirusType2 said:
Np.

It's tricky to get the bundle with the stuff you want.

I think what I did was try finding a bundle for the mobo, then if I didn't find the RAM I want, I tried searching with just the RAM, and find the Mobo through there. Had to flip through quite a few pages.

I remember now. I reselected "add to cart" for the RAM I wanted (putting more than I actually wanted in my cart), then searched through the pre-selected bundles, instead of searching for it after the fact. I used notepad to make sure I don't lose track of the stuff I want, in case I didn't find a bundle. After I got the bundle I wanted, I took the extra set of RAM out of my cart.

The things you selected are very specific now after being very choice about it, so its hard to get that exact bundle but it might be there.

I was lucky enough to get the mobo and Ram as a combo to save $20 or so. Didn't find the ram and mobo in a combo with the CPU.


I guess the deal is done now, congratulations.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I spent quite a bit of time looking for the specific items bundled together, but they were all bundled with different brands like OCZ and stuff.

Yeah, the deal is done. My brother wanted to get it, particularly because of the tip you gave regarding the case, but also due to him wanting to get it all finalized.

You all were an awesome help and I can't thank you guys enough. I said it before, but I love you guys! You always come through.
 
Yeah, I guess I like to help. I feel like they are my own.

All said and done, I feel without purpose now. I feel like my daughter is getting married and leaving home for the first time.

Tell your brother to be gentle and wear a rubber glove.
 
VirusType2 said:
Yeah, I guess I like to help. I feel like they are my own.

All said and done, I feel without purpose now. I feel like my daughter is getting married and leaving home for the first time.

Tell your brother to be gentle and wear a rubber glove.
Click to expand...

Only after I get through with her first.
 
Just take turns, or play at the same time. Two player.

You both got your own joysticks, right? So what's the problem? As long as your don't get them tangled up.

This bitch's got USB 3, with plenty of ports for everybody. They are hot plug too, so you can plug in your joysticks while it's turned on.
 
loooooool. I hope my brother doesn't read the thread anymore since the purchase is made... but I bet he will. hahaha.

But seriously though, I hope the computer setup goes smoothly. Very stressful time for me always, since I put together all of our computers and we've had "issues" in the past.
 
If you aren't sure of where plugs go, look it up or ask us.

Everything should come with instructions, but here's some stuff they don't tell you:

*unwrap the cord from the CPU fan and you can use cable ties (sometimes called zip-ties) to secure the loose wires. I figured I could leave the excess wrapped around how it came, like on every CPU fan I've ever seen. BUT NO, YOU CAN'T. You might not notice that the fan wire is just slightly in the path of the fan blades.

*There is already thermal paste on the heatsink, so you just set it on top squarely and lock it down.
 
VirusType2 said:
If you aren't sure of where plugs go, look it up or ask us.

Everything should come with instructions, but here's some stuff they don't tell you:

*unwrap the cord from the CPU fan and you can use cable ties (sometimes called zip-ties) to secure the loose wires. I figured I could leave the excess wrapped around how it came, like on every CPU fan I've ever seen. BUT NO, YOU CAN'T. You might not notice that the fan wire is just slightly in the path of the fan blades.

*There is already thermal paste on the heatsink, so you just set it on top squarely and lock it down.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't I peel that crappy thermal paste off and use arctic silver 5 instead?
 
Raziaar said:
Shouldn't I peel that crappy thermal paste off and use arctic silver 5 instead?
Click to expand...

Stock coolers may not be recommended for overclocking but they're not as horrible as they are made out be. Although, i have seen people overclock their CPU's by 30% without any increase in temperature. Just turn 'Smartfan' off in your bios. Why are you even worried about things such as thermal paste etc. if you are not overclocking? I wouldn't waste my money on things such as that, let alone consider purchasing a water cooling kit.

By the way. AS5 is overrated. It's electrically conductive and needs a shit load of time to burn in. TIM's such as MX-2 and Shin-Etsu have been proven to be far superior. They work straight ahead and are non electrically conductive.
 
TwwIX said:
Stock coolers may not be recommended for overclocking but they're not as horrible as they are made out be. Although, i have seen people overclock their CPU's by 30% without any increase in temperature. Just turn 'Smartfan' off in your bios. Why are you even worried about things such as thermal paste etc. if you are not overclocking? I wouldn't waste my money on things such as that, let alone consider purchasing a water cooling kit.

By the way. AS5 is overrated. It's electrically conductive and needs a shit load of time to burn in. TIM's such as MX-2 and Shin-Etsu have been proven to be far superior. They work straight ahead and are non electrically conductive.
Click to expand...

I'm worried about it because we've had issues with overheating CPU's in the past. Temperatures skyrocketing and computer shutting down. I haven't had as many of those issues since using arctic silver and others non pad types.

I was always told good thermal paste is something you want on your CPU no matter what. It doesn't matter to me if I'm overclocking or not, that thermal paste has seemed to help keep the CPU cooler by more efficiently transferring the heat it to the heatsink.

Always on this forum I've heard... arctic silver, arctic silver, arctic silver. Even on newegg it's the same. So when I got my computer last year, I got myself some for 7 bucks.

So is that the recommendation from you then, just use the pad it comes with?
 
The default fan is probably fine. The thermal pad is probably fine (cringe). Some environments it might be good to at least swap out the pad for paste. But dust is a bigger worry for temps than these.

I do the compound and better cooler usually for noise rather than heat.
MX-2 is very nice. I have that on my cooler...well mine came with it.
I think I have this one or a similar version. Although I'm pretty sure I paid $25-30.
 
Pad, why do you guys call it a pad? Wouldn't a pad be something that does not stick? See, I don't know if I did it right. Now you confuse me.

Heatsink looked like it had paste on it already. Couldn't have been more evenly or perfectly applied. I looked at my SPECIAL ceramic thermal paste that I paid a premium for, looked at the laser precision job done by Intel, and thought, "any advantage this SPECIAL paste has, will be totally ****ing lost in the globby unevenness of my trying to apply it for the first time."

Does the Intel Core i5-750 retail need thermal paste?
Click to expand...
No, the stock cooler comes with putty applied. Not paste, putty. As in, something that resembles paste, but with less liquid.
Click to expand...
Actually, according to Intel, it's "thermal interface material ." Got that?

I'm just going to call it the gray stuff on the back of the fan. That was easy...
Click to expand...

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/269031-28-does-intel-core-retail-thermal-paste
 
How different pastes spread and different methods.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyXLu1Ms-q4&feature=related

Thermal interface material is a generic term. Both pad and compound (grease, paste) are thermal materials. :p

My heatsink had MX2 pre-applied to the bottom and it is a grease. But a heatsink from AMD or Intel will have a pad on the bottom. I guess it is called a pad because it come as a square rather than liquid (even when you buy it). It is wax based so it is more of a solid compared to the thermal compounds. Those have conductive elements or powder mixed in a liquid which helps to spread it around. If you tried to remove the thermal material from a heatsink you could tell what it was by how it came off. But even different thermal compounds look and feel different. Some are really thick and others pretty thin.
 
What the hell? People don't just put a dab on and spread it with their finger in a clean inverted plastic baggy to spread it all out evenly across the surface? That's what I've always done.

EDIT: Oh... the spread method.


My bro's computer got here today. Going to put it together tomorrow.
 
He's just showing what happens to the compound when you put the heatsink on and he used clear plastic so you can see. He is not planning on using clear plastic board to spread the compound and then put the heatsink on.

The spread method was the thing to so when you had a bare die since the whole chip is where the heat is coming from and all of it needs contact with the heatsink.
But with heat spreaders you don't want to do that. And that is where the pea method comes in. After the heatsink is on the compound forms a circle (above where the die would be). Anything else is too much w/ a heat spreader.
Top is a chip w/heat spreader and how the compound should be AFTER the heatsink was put on (not spread before installing, should be pea). Bottom left is the chip w/die exposed and bottom right is the heat spreader flipped upside down after it has been taken off the chip.
 
Well damn. I've been spreading it all across all the time. And yeah, I knew the plastic was just so we could see how the heatsink spread it.

Anyway... got my brothers computer set up... but it's not working. Everything seems to be running fine except the monitor isn't showing a display. The monitor sleeps. I need to figure that out.
 
Both power connectors to the video card? Video card latched and screwed in? Monitor cable OK?

Monitor works OK on other computer?

Try another monitor?

How many monitor outputs does the video card have? You could try the other one.

If all else fails, read the instructions :p
 
VirusType2 said:
Both power connectors to the video card? Video card latched and screwed in? Monitor cable OK?

Monitor works OK on other computer?

Try another monitor?

How many monitor outputs does the video card have? You could try the other one.

If all else fails, read the instructions :p
Click to expand...

Both power connectors to the video card. I tried the PCI-E connectors that came with the power supply, but I also tried the two molex to PCI-E connectors each on separate spans of cable. No go.

Monitor works OK on other computer.

We tried another monitor that is known to work.

The video card has two monitor outputs, we've tried both.



I'm going to try using my video card in the slot and see if that works. So... brb while I do that. heh.
 
That's a good idea, because obviously, if the other video card works, then something is wrong with the video.

If not, then it could be just about anything. No speaker, so beeps won't help either.

If you do get some video, first thing you want to do is go in the BIOS and see what's going on in there. Set your RAM timings, PCIe, etc.
 
VirusType2 said:
That's a good idea, because obviously, if the other video card works, then something is wrong with the video.

If not, then it could be just about anything. No speaker, so beeps won't help either.

If you do get some video, first thing you want to do is go in the BIOS and see what's going on in there. Set your RAM timings, PCIe, etc.
Click to expand...

Hey brosef. I got it working. Not sure exactly what it was. The motherboard manual says the memory had to be in the slots 1 and 3(2-1, 4-3), which I did before... and it didn't work. But I did it again now, as well as switching the Power LED thing to another slot... and it's working now.

We're installing Windows 7.

The product key is not working however, and I don't know why. Going to have to call them I guess.


EDIT: We skipped into Windows... and it says it cannot be used for Clean Installs...

WHY THE **** DOES THE ****ING PACKAGING SAY YOU CAN UPGRADE FROM WINDOWS XP THEN? How do I enter a Windows XP key so it knows it's a ****ing upgrade?
 
I know nothing about this, so keep that in mind; but from what you've said, it sounds like you need XP installed first. Yeap, it's stupid, but I guess that's why it's cheaper.
 
VirusType2 said:
I know nothing about this, so keep that in mind; but from what you've said, it sounds like you need XP installed first. Yeap, it's stupid, but I guess that's why it's cheaper.
Click to expand...

My old XP upgrades didn't need Windows 98 installed. It just needed the key from Windows 98.

Lame how they do that.

We're doing it that way now, I'll keep the thread updated.
 
Raziaar said:
My old XP upgrades didn't need Windows 98 installed. It just needed the key from Windows 98.

Lame how they do that.

We're doing it that way now, I'll keep the thread updated.
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm wrong. You could call them, search around, and/or re-read the item description where you bought it from. Worth a shot, but sounds like you are beyond this stage now.
 
This slipped my mind earlier. Windows 7 upgrade is a pain like that. I haven't heard of any way around it.
 
Why do the ****ing computer gods hate me and my brother?

We can't even install Windows XP on his computer.

It installs part of it... reboots... then comes back and says, "There was a boot error" or something like that.

****ing GREAT. GOD DAMMIT.

Piracy would be easier than this shit... but we're not going to do that. **** you Microsoft, making your unfriendly engineered upgrade version. We'll figure it out, but after much pain.
 
I have Win7 upgrade. I just installed Win7 w/out entering the key. Before doing anything else I put the disc back in and did an upgrade and it thought the non-activated Win7 on there was a previous acceptable OS..

I know there was a post on these forums before about doing a registry edit instead of the double install. Don't remember what it was.
 
Read up on the motherboard. Some of the new ones have a problem installing legacy OS's like XP for some reason I can't remember. Could be the prepackaged drivers that come with XP or something.

Sorry you're not having any luck, but I believe there should be a way to install it.

Maybe you could help your bro out by hooking up his new drive to your computer and installing XP there, then upgrading it to 7. But don't activate it (in other words, make sure it's not connected to the internet when you have 7 installed), because I think that will tie it to your computer. I think it will be alright, you'll be able to reactivate it when it goes in the new computer, but I think it would be best to avoid that.

EDIT: or what Asus said. Install 7 twice. Sounds pretty simple.
 
Yeah Virus, I think I'm going to try what Asus said.

Hey Asus, thanks for the tip dude, I'm going to try that!

And if that doesn't work, I can do what you said Virus.

Right now we have to wait for a ****ing huge format to occur... I accidentally did a full format on windows XP installation, and there's no way to cancel it, and from what I read rebooting during a format is bad, with some people having their bios unable to detect the disk after that.
 
Yeah, sometimes I elect to do the full format, and then I totally ****ing regret it. I'm not sure if there's any benefit to be honest. Perhaps if you had a Mac OS installed or someshit. I don't know, but I question why they would give you the option if it wasn't better in some cases to fully format it.

Maybe Asus or someone can shed some light on this subject. I do know that the old data is still there, it's just that the drive doesn't have it listed in its contents any more; so perhaps it could cause a problem in certain situations.
 
VirusType2 said:
Yeah, sometimes I elect to do the full format, and then I totally ****ing regret it. I'm not sure if there's any benefit to be honest. Perhaps if you had a Mac OS installed or someshit. I don't know, but I question why they would give you the option if it wasn't better in some cases to fully format it.

Maybe Asus or someone can shed some light on this subject.
Click to expand...

Yeah man, I was kicking myself when I realized I couldn't cancel it.

"WHY!? WHY DIDN'T I JUST MAKE A 50 GIG PARTITION TO DO IT!?"

So now i'm stuck formatting 950 or so gigs.
 
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