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On June 23 2010 16:15 haduken wrote:![[image loading]](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_F52QCPAQ4mY/TCGz9vT-E5I/AAAAAAAAAWc/RG11mq-jnis/s288/2010-06-23%2017.08.17.jpg) Just picked up a G.Skill Falcon 2 64GB. Need to get an extra Cage though or can I just plug it in. SSD don't vibrate like hard drives so I should be fine right?
I used masking tape to strap my ssd down Some people use double sided tape
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On June 24 2010 11:28 Craton wrote: I have been having the damndest time figuring out what UPS to get. Right now I've got a average setup with an amd 6400+/ati 5850 and 600watt Antec, but I'll probably upgrade to a high i5 or low i7 setup (or something in that range) by the end of summer.
I've been reading various articles about UPSes, but nothing really helps me get my head around them. Tips?
APC CS series 750VA or 1000VA if you want longer up time after power is gone. You need to get cable adapters though for the outlets. ES series if you just want something to plug in like a power board.
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On June 24 2010 11:43 FragKrag wrote: do you mean PSU? No, Uninterruptable Power Supply
APC CS series 750VA or 1000VA if you want longer up time after power is gone. You need to get cable adapters though for the outlets. ES series if you just want something to plug in like a power board.
Don't even know what half of that means :|
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On June 27 2010 15:25 Craton wrote:No, Uninterruptable Power Supply Show nested quote +APC CS series 750VA or 1000VA if you want longer up time after power is gone. You need to get cable adapters though for the outlets. ES series if you just want something to plug in like a power board. Don't even know what half of that means :|
APC is a company that makes UPS devices. The CS series are business class models, while the ES series are home computer class models.
A VA is a volt-ampere (i.e. it's a volt multiplied by an ampere), which is a type of power measurement. In an AC power system, if the voltage and current are not in phase, then the product of the voltage amount and current amount will not equal the Watts drawn. The volt*current product multiplied by something called the power factor (something in the range of 0 to 1) is the Watts drawn. The power factor is just the cosine of the phase difference between the voltage and current.
UPS's are rated for a certain amount of Watts and also volt-amperes. It's not supposed to exceed either value. e.g. a unit might be rated for 450 Watts and 700 VA.
The power factor of a load depends on what type of device it is. In your case, your computer's power supply is drawing power from the APC. Most reasonably high-end power supplies do active power factor correction, meaning that they adjust themselves in an attempt to keep the voltage and current in phase, to get a power factor close to 1. I think 0.98-0.99 or so is typical? In this case, the Watts drawn is just about 1-2% less than the volt-amperes drawn.
Unless my thinking is wrong, you should be concerned more with the Watts rating rather than the VA rating because the max Watts spec rather than the VA spec will be the limiting factor. Find a UPS with a higher Watts spec than what your system PSU draws.* Keep in mind that your PSU is probably overkill, and a single processor+single GPU system like yours does not need close to 600W even while you're playing a game.
whoa important *edit2: and note that how much power your PSU draws is how much it delivers divided by the efficiency--about 0.80 and up for 80 plus PSUs ofc? So that's a somewhat higher figure than how much power your computer components use.
edit: how long the battery backup can power your stuff depends on how much power you're drawing of course. Figure out how long you need and at what power draw. Personally I can vouch for even the cheaper UPS models by APC, as I get power surges every couple months and occasional blackouts where I live.
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i dont really keep up with hardware news is sata 2 compatible with sata1 slots or is it a whole new slot type
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It's backward compatible but you are somewhat bottlenecked.
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Hey what's a good idle cpu temp? Mine's at around 38-45 ish C
dunno if that's good or not
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Should be absolutely fine for any CPU. Load temp is normally what matters anyways.
May be a bit high for the AMD CPUs though.
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depends on the cpu. 38-45 is nothing for an older cpu haha. i remember my old 6000+ used to idle at like 54c like my old pentium 4's lol idle at 50c load at 70c.
To note though my i5-750 idles at +28c and my E8400 idles at +32c ofc i keep my room cold and use a big air cooler which helps.
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So I'm pretty computer-build illiterate... I currently have a Dell Dimension 5150 from 2006. It BARELY runs StarCraft II on the lowest of low settings, but it takes about 45 seconds to load a game, and I almost always have about 4-5 seconds at the very start of the game where my computer is completely unresponsive, so I get 4-5 seconds behind in the economy right off the bat.
I'm planning on building a desktop rather than buying a pre-assembled one, since I'm somewhat tight on money. My budget for this is probably between $650 and $750 (American). I already have a keyboard, mouse, speakers and a monitor. All of the parts from my Dimension are too crappy to re-use in a new build.
The things I want to be able to do:
-Play SC2 on high, smoothly... And also be able to run some more graphically intensive games on respectable (not super low) settings. I don't want/need a supercomputer, just something that will let me play a game like Modern Warfare 2 (just an example) without it looking or performing like crap. I don't need to play Crysis on maxed out settings. As I said, I'm build illiterate, so I really don't know what performance levels correspond with certain price ranges.
-Watch 720p videos. On my current computer, videos with 60 fps at 720p lag and skip like crazy. I'm an avid hockey fan as well as a boxing and MMA fan, and a lot of the games that are released on torrent sites are 720p with 60 fps, and I simply can't watch them.
-Avoid static noise when plugged into the headphone jack. My current computer has a headphone jack in the front, but apparently it is "unshielded" (no idea...) so there is a lot of static noise coming through the headphones.
-Have at least 640 GB.
Are my price range and performance expectation in line with one another?
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$810 ($1,070) Best Bang-For-Buck Gaming Config
CPU: AMD AM3 Phenom II X4 955BE $180 Mobo: Asus M4A87TD-USB3 $114 RAM: G.Skill-NT 4GB DDR3-1333 $129 HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB $59 GPU: 1GB ATI Radeon HD5770 $170 Case: Antec 300 $66 PSU: Antec Neo Eco 450C $64 (BYO power cord) ODD: DVD burner $26
^ This build is $810 Australian dollars which is like $750ish USD so that give you some room to move. Add another $40 for a 1TB Harddrive.
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The Hawk version is overclocked, with better cooling while the Sapphire version is closer to ATI's stock specifications. If the price isn't prohibitive to you, then the Hawk should provide you with (slightly to noticeably, depending on game) better performance, but if the price is prohibitive, you can rest easy with the Sapphire. The increase shouldn't be that big in most situations.
Make sure you have a power cord, as that PSU doesn't come with one.
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That sapphire card has a less potent cooler so it won't overclock as well. If you aren't planning to overclock your card, then you should go with that cheaper sapphire. Spending $20-30 extra on cooling you don't need is a bit of a waste that can go elsewhere.
The stock overclock will get you nothing really. 25MHz is normally unnoticeable (maybe 1 or 2 frames?)
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If he's gonna get a Caviar Black, and he plans to buy right away, he should go with the 1TB 3Gb/s model that was a shell shocker this morning. It's the same price as the Spinpoint F3 1TB right now. link
Seasonic 520W is a good model, too. I have the modular version and it's pretty awesome.
Edit at FragKrag, below: wow, yeah, definitely. Modular Seasonic for <$85 is easy to pull the trigger on. In contrast to the first review there (I think the problem is on his end, btw), that PSU is working well for me. Also, there's only one 12V rail, despite it listing two.
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On July 02 2010 09:47 maareek wrote:If he's gonna get a Caviar Black, and he plans to buy right away, he should go with the 1TB 3Gb/s model that was a shell shocker this morning. It's the same price as the Spinpoint F3 1TB right now. linkSeasonic 520W is a good model, too. I have the modular version and it's pretty awesome.
Err, didn't see the 1TB on New Egg. Yeah for that price I would go for the WD Black. Samsung F3 have better sequential speed but WD have better access speed.
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