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Dumb/Quick/Simple Questions:
+ Show Spoiler +Do I have to have an intel motherboard to have a motherboard compatible with an intel processor? In particular, I'm looking for a motherboard compatible with the i5 2500k. I also need it to be compatible with the GTX570 (is that good/anything better for lower price?) and I don't really need another card slot. EDIT: I just read that the GTX570 is Dual-Slot. What does that mean? Does it mean I will need a Motherboard with two PCI slots?
What do the "x8/x8 x16 x8" stuff mean? I understand they are categories of motherboards but what do they mean and how do they seperate the actual motherboards?
Do Nvidia graphics cards ALWAYS come without drivers? I can just download the drivers online, right?
If I want to do a lot of recording, gaming, uploading and other programs simultaneously, then should I get the i5 2500k or the i7 2600k?
I understand that SSDs are iffy, and require trim and secure erases to keep them from degrading. My goal is to have 1 very large HDD for storage (it doesn't have to be super-fast) and one moderately large and very fast SSD for main stuff like FRAPS and SC2. If someone could give me a link to a reliable SSD for decent price with 90+ GB that would be great.
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Do I have to have an intel motherboard to have a motherboard compatible with an intel processor? In particular, I'm looking for a motherboard compatible with the i5 2500k. I also need it to be compatible with the GTX570 (is that good/anything better for lower price?) and I don't really need another card slot. EDIT: I just read that the GTX570 is Dual-Slot. What does that mean? Does it mean I will need a Motherboard with two PCI slots?
What do the "x8/x8 x16 x8" stuff mean? I understand they are categories of motherboards but what do they mean and how do they seperate the actual motherboards?
Do Nvidia graphics cards ALWAYS come without drivers? I can just download the drivers online, right?
If I want to do a lot of recording, gaming, uploading and other programs simultaneously, then should I get the i5 2500k or the i7 2600k?
No, you do not need a motherboard made by intel. Other manufacturers are fine. You'll want a "socket 1155" motherboard if you're buying a 2500k, however. Among the 1155 socket motherboards are four subtypes - H61/H67 (varying levels of connectivity, for non-overclocked intel chips), P67 (for overclocking, you'll want one of these if you're getting a 2500K for overclocking and not a regular i5-2400 or i5-2500 for non over-clocking. P67 does not utilize on-board graphics, so you will need a discrete graphics card), and Z68 (also for overclocking, utilizes on-board graphics which could be handy if your video card blows up). There are other minor differences, but that's the basics. All of these boards will be compatible with a GTX570 or other single graphics card.
As far as graphics card goes, a GTX 560Ti or AMD 6950 or AMD 6870 will be cheaper than a 570 and still run almost all games on maxed settings for a single monitor. (Nothing else you're doing will stress the graphics card.) I think all of these cards a dual-slot. Which means they're really big, and will block off one of the other expansion slots on your motherboard. Which is pretty much not important at all, since few people have expansion cards other than graphics cards or the occasional sound card.
x16/x8 refers to the type of PCI-E slot configuration the board has suitable for graphics cards. This is unimportant unless you plan on running multiple graphics cards, where it becomes more important. Since most people only need one graphics card, you can just get the cheapest board as I think all 1155 motherboards have at least one PCI-E 16 slot.
Dunno on graphics card drivers. Doesn't matter much, since all graphics cards have a simple mode that allows you to boot, and you should always download the most up-to-date drivers when setting up the computer anyway.
the i5 and i7 series of cards are very, very similar. Essentially, the i7s have hyper-threading while the i5-s do not. I'm not an expert, but from reading this forum you'll see some performance benefits when video encoding with the i7 but in virtually nothing else, so it's usually recommended not to waste money on the i7. Someone else might be a better guide there.
Perhaps more important is if you really want a "K" version or not. If you're comfortable with learning to over-clock, you need that. If you don't plan to over-clock get a non-K version and a H61 or H67 motherboard to save a fair amount of monies.
Edit: for more advanced help than mine, fill out the form in the OP.
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I would make a new thread, but since I cant I'll post it here.
I'm looking for a new PSU and I can decide. I've narrowed it down to:
1. FSP Auram Gold 600W 78 + 5 for shippinh 83 euro
2. OCZ Z Series 550W 78 + 6 for shipping 84 euro
3. Be quiet Straight power E8 550w 78 + 5 is 83 euro
4. Super Flower Golden Green PRO 550W 71 + 17.50 for shipping. 88,50. I can probably knock the shipping down to 5 euro. (not sure)
5. Other suggestions are welcome
Which one should I get, I'm at a total loss.
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The Super Flower Golden Green Pro should be quite a bit better than the others.
OCZ Z Series is okay but not very good, Straight Power E8 has questionable voltage regulation (but very low acoustic noise) if it's anything like the 400W model which has been reviewed, and the FSP Aurum is decent but nothing notable aside from 80 plus gold efficiency and a fan control that runs the fan much faster and louder than it needs to be.
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Thx.
Think I'll go for the Super flower unless any has a better suggestion.
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any word on when the Ivy Bridge will be released?
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On August 22 2011 11:23 skip89w6 wrote:
any word on when the Ivy Bridge will be released?
Should be Q2 2012 unless I missed an update to that.
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On August 22 2011 07:57 MisterFred wrote:Show nested quote +Do I have to have an intel motherboard to have a motherboard compatible with an intel processor? In particular, I'm looking for a motherboard compatible with the i5 2500k. I also need it to be compatible with the GTX570 (is that good/anything better for lower price?) and I don't really need another card slot. EDIT: I just read that the GTX570 is Dual-Slot. What does that mean? Does it mean I will need a Motherboard with two PCI slots?
What do the "x8/x8 x16 x8" stuff mean? I understand they are categories of motherboards but what do they mean and how do they seperate the actual motherboards?
Do Nvidia graphics cards ALWAYS come without drivers? I can just download the drivers online, right?
If I want to do a lot of recording, gaming, uploading and other programs simultaneously, then should I get the i5 2500k or the i7 2600k? No, you do not need a motherboard made by intel. Other manufacturers are fine. You'll want a "socket 1155" motherboard if you're buying a 2500k, however. Among the 1155 socket motherboards are four subtypes - H61/H67 (varying levels of connectivity, for non-overclocked intel chips), P67 (for overclocking, you'll want one of these if you're getting a 2500K for overclocking and not a regular i5-2400 or i5-2500 for non over-clocking. P67 does not utilize on-board graphics, so you will need a discrete graphics card), and Z68 (also for overclocking, utilizes on-board graphics which could be handy if your video card blows up). There are other minor differences, but that's the basics. All of these boards will be compatible with a GTX570 or other single graphics card. As far as graphics card goes, a GTX 560Ti or AMD 6950 or AMD 6870 will be cheaper than a 570 and still run almost all games on maxed settings for a single monitor. (Nothing else you're doing will stress the graphics card.) I think all of these cards a dual-slot. Which means they're really big, and will block off one of the other expansion slots on your motherboard. Which is pretty much not important at all, since few people have expansion cards other than graphics cards or the occasional sound card. x16/x8 refers to the type of PCI-E slot configuration the board has suitable for graphics cards. This is unimportant unless you plan on running multiple graphics cards, where it becomes more important. Since most people only need one graphics card, you can just get the cheapest board as I think all 1155 motherboards have at least one PCI-E 16 slot. Dunno on graphics card drivers. Doesn't matter much, since all graphics cards have a simple mode that allows you to boot, and you should always download the most up-to-date drivers when setting up the computer anyway. the i5 and i7 series of cards are very, very similar. Essentially, the i7s have hyper-threading while the i5-s do not. I'm not an expert, but from reading this forum you'll see some performance benefits when video encoding with the i7 but in virtually nothing else, so it's usually recommended not to waste money on the i7. Someone else might be a better guide there. Perhaps more important is if you really want a "K" version or not. If you're comfortable with learning to over-clock, you need that. If you don't plan to over-clock get a non-K version and a H61 or H67 motherboard to save a fair amount of monies. Edit: for more advanced help than mine, fill out the form in the OP.
Ok, a few more things come to mind in the way of motherboards (EVEN MORE QUESTIONS).
+ Show Spoiler +PCI Express 2.0 x16: 1 means that there is one PCI-E x16 card slot, right? That will work fine for the GTX570, right?
I know you said that the GTX 560ti is better, but I'd rather run comfortably, and unless the GTX 570 is not significantly better than the former, then I'd rather go with the 570.
And, for memory standard, that means what the RAM slot is, right? So DDR3 1333/1066 means it can physically fit DDR3 RAM sticks clocked at both 1333 and 1600 MHz?
Onboard video chipset: None, means that it doesn't have onboard graphics like you talked about, right?
What does 4x240 pin mean? Is that related to how many RAM sticks you can have plugged in?
What is B3 ready?
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Yes, that means there's one PCI-E x16 slot and it will work with any modern graphics card.
The GTX 570 is not significantly better than the GTX 560 Ti.
DDR3 is DDR3. Memory standard (speed) means what it is rated to run at. You can insert 2000MHz memory into a motherboard rated for 1333MHz but the memory will downclock to 1333MHz automatically. The difference in speed and latency is negligible and you should not be paying a premium for it when you can spend that money on other components.
All LGA1155 processors come with integrated graphics. P67 motherboards do not have the capability to use the integrated graphics on the processor as it does not have video outputs. H61, H67, and Z68 all provide video output so you can utilize it, keep in mind some Z68 boards do not have video output (primarily Gigabyte boards).
4x240 means that there will be 4 DIMM slots of 240 pins. Yes, it means that it has slots for four memory modules.
Initial LGA1155 boards were of B2 revision. Intel discovered a bug with the SATA 3Gbps ports so it issued a recall and provided a fixed B3 revision. All motherboards in the retail channel are of B3 revision so this isn't really relevant.
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what does it mean to have no video output? I though tthat no video out meant that you cannot put your video onto something like a TV so does that mean you'd be limited to one screen?
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What I said was that P67 motherboards will not have video outputs meaning that you will not be able to connect your monitor to the motherboard as it has no DVI, VGA, HDMI, or Displayport so you will not be able to utilize the integrated graphics found on the processor.
I never mentioned video out or video in anywhere.
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ahhh okay  we can still use the gpu makes sense
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Why is it that the GTX 560 Ti has a higher core clock and shader clock than the GTX 570? It's my understanding that the GTX 570 is faster by about 12% on average. The GTX 570 has more Processing Cores, however, does that make a difference? What does that mean?
Also, I think I'm going to follow the advice given to me and go with the GTX 560 Ti. The GTX 570 costs about 50% more and only gives about 12% more processing power. If I really need to upgrade and the price drops or there is a big sale, perhaps I'll buy it then, but for now I'll go with the 560 Ti.
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I'm looking at the search results for "GTX 560 Ti." Why is it that I get a ton of results from many different manufacturers? The specifications look about the same but some are a tiny bit better, and the prices are not uniform. Why is this? I thought Nvidia was the only manufacturer that would show up. Why do all the cards look different in the pictures?
More importantly, is there any brand of the GTX 560Ti I should buy over the others? Or just the cheapest?
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On August 22 2011 14:14 Kinetik_Inferno wrote:I'm looking at the search results for " GTX 560 Ti." Why is it that I get a ton of results from many different manufacturers? The specifications look about the same but some are a tiny bit better, and the prices are not uniform. Why is this? I thought Nvidia was the only manufacturer that would show up. Why do all the cards look different in the pictures? More importantly, is there any brand of the GTX 560Ti I should buy over the others? Or just the cheapest?
nvidia manufactors the chip, the companies put the chip onto their boards and O.C and put different fans n whatnot for cooling etc.
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the base chipset for video cards are manufactured by nvidia and AMD. Other companies then rebrand and sell them. Kind of like a single french-fry factory will often supply many different fast-food companies (awarding self bonus points for esoteric but accurate analogy)...
This means that all the different versions of the 560Ti (or other video cards) are essentially the same. You may see more versions of the 560Ti than other cards because it's more popular (one of the best prices for a capable high-end card). You should pretty much just buy the cheapest. However, some have custom fans/cooling. Though as far as I know (others on the forum are more expert), the 560Ti does not tend to run hot - so you should probably just go with the cheapest.
Also, some brands factory-overclock their video cards. This isn't significant (they don't overclock by that much AFAIK), and you can do it yourself with a bit of research if you really wanted to.
The 570 has multiple vendors too.
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On August 22 2011 14:08 Kinetik_Inferno wrote:
Why is it that the GTX 560 Ti has a higher core clock and shader clock than the GTX 570? It's my understanding that the GTX 570 is faster by about 12% on average. The GTX 570 has more Processing Cores, however, does that make a difference? What does that mean?
Also, I think I'm going to follow the advice given to me and go with the GTX 560 Ti. The GTX 570 costs about 50% more and only gives about 12% more processing power. If I really need to upgrade and the price drops or there is a big sale, perhaps I'll buy it then, but for now I'll go with the 560 Ti.
I don't think it costs quite 50% more, but for most users it's still not worth the extra cost, power consumption, and noise.
You're right about the clock speeds and the additional processing cores on the GTX 570. However, the cores are grouped in a different way on the GTX 570 as compared to the GTX 560 Ti, and the latter has a few enhancements and overall more efficient design for gaming (as opposed to compute, like for supercomputing clusters), so it's not completely comparable like that.
"Hot" is kind of relative. Sure, the GTX 560 Ti uses less power than the GTX 570 by a good margin, but it still uses power well in excess of a heavily-overclocked modern quad core processor. It can make sense to get something with a quieter cooling solution or better design and components, especially if you plan to keep the card for more than a couple years.
edit: I mean, usually a decent non-reference graphics card design may be selling for $0-10 more than the cheapest model, so it's something to consider. The cheapest is often a reasonable option though, if it's not bad.
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It should also be mentioned that you're also paying for the warranty and support. EVGA offers various warranties on their cards, some with a lifetime warranty. Other vendors might only have a 1-5 year warranty. Different vendors may provide different levels of service too, I think Jinglehell has excellent things to say about EVGA's service.
The cooling solution is the other piece that differs, as was mentioned. Various designs change the costs and might really only be worth it if you want to OC your graphics card (very easy to do, so don't pay extra for factory OC)
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Everything else was covered so I'll just break down brands for you.
EVGA is well regarded for their excellent customer support, community, and services (Advanced RMA, StepUp, warranty, etc). Cards with model number ending in -AR will carry a lifetime warranty while cards with model number ending in -KR offer a three year warranty with the option of paying to extend it to ten years.
ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte on the other hand are well regarded for their heatsinks (Direct CU, Twin Frozr, Windforce in respective order) and custom boards that provide better thermals, acoustics, overclocking capabilities, etc. All provide a three year warranty and provide pretty amazing customer service as well (except maybe Gigabyte...).
Galaxy and Palit are sister companies, all popular in Asia and other parts of the world. Zotac is a sister company of Sapphire. Galaxy provides a three year warranty while the latter two provide two.
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EPT
