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So just downloaded Avast 5. I'm not sure if MSE is compatible with pirated Windows 7, although I do suspect there are workarounds, I haven't read anything saying one is particularly better than the other by anyone who's used both (everything I read says either "MSE is the best, I used to use kapersky or AVG" or "Avast is the best, I used to use kapersky or AVG" along with various comments saying other systems are good or bad. But I haven't read a single thing about anyone who's used both, and my main priority is having one, but having one that doesn't interfere or slow down my computer. Now maybe MSE is better, but Avast seems good and I don't really care that much to figure out how to put it on a pirated windows 7 (im sure its very easy though). If someone tells me otherwise, or I read a single article saying otherwise, I'll look into it and probably switch. Otherwise, Avast seems fine and I'm not too concerned about it.
But do I need anything else? Firewalls, malware protection, anything like that? I'm not dumb to download stupid things (i read on what I download, and despite downloading pirated things every so often I actually usually prefer to stream pirated content vs download, simply because I'm too lazy and I like how quick streaming can be, despite quality loss) so I've never really had an issue with viruses or malware (that or my laptops and old computers are loaded with viruses and still run fine and I didnt noitce, ha). Anyways, I am concerned now because I want to keep this computer CLEAN.
There's still that stutter issue, but I'll probably post a thread after I get that extra 2gb RAM and address it then.
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Isn't spybot supposed to be really good for removing malware/adware?
Also, maybe you should 'acquire' diskeeper... It auto defrags your computer whenever the CPU is idle so you'll never have to worry about fragmentation
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^ Windows has something where you can schedule when to defrag.
And I just went ahead and got MalwareBytes. It seems between Windows firewall, avast5 free, and malwarebytes thats more than enough.
ill get to benchmarking once that 4gb ram comes in and I fix that stutter issue, at the moment looking at between 62+fps on ultra, but stuttering issues irregardless of setting (even low) that occurs inconsistently but minorly prevent me from being thorough at the moment, and I believe the RAM is the issue.
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The stutter went away! I'm not sure why I didn't put in any drivers or install anything (except maybe rainmeter which I don't use, seems too complicated atm, and security suites like malwarebyte and peerblock). I do still get that flash, but it literally happens once every 30 minutes or something, its hard to notice its so quick. Maybe it happens every 5 minutes, i don't know. I haven't thoroughly tested out SC2 yet.
I put everything on Extreme, with Lighting/Shaders/Textures/2D portrait on Ultra since I heard they are big fps drains, and constant 65+ fps with minor dips to 45 rarely that aren't noticeably except by me having the fps displayed. it runs smoother than my roommates Dell Studio 540 2.33 ghz core 2 quad w/dedicated GPU at low! It's awesome. I think the stutter may have been an internet issue. i thought it could be a RAM issue because it was horrible in vs AI, but today it wasn't there vs AI or online or anywhere, right when I was trying to test for it (ugh, hate single player mode!).
I'm going to try Extreme highest on everything and see how my FPS does, I have no reason to think it wouldn't be able to.
Also to note, i was able to unlock my 4th core and get my CPU from an Athlon II X3 450 3.2ghz 'Rana' to a Phenom X4 B50 3.2ghz. I was never able to boot when I used Advanced Clock Calibration or the bioS-unLocking tool that came with my mobo, but I read a more thorough guide on rebelshaven that said you must lower your HT Link Speed to 1.6ghz from the 2ghz I had preset, and it worked immediately!
Going to run Prime95 while I sleep to see if it's stable. Torture test right? Anyways, hope I don't have a fried CPU in 8 hours! (coretemp has auto shutdown, but I dont think itll be an issue im not oc'ing here).
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Woot, prime95 showed no errors with me running a 4th core! I don't want to run it if it causes undue stress, but I'll make a thread about that in another forum (like overclock) in regards to if it causes more stress or shortens the CPU life, and maybe interest in overclocking.
Anyways, I would like to ask 1 more question so I can give back to the TL community! What programs and tests do I need to do so i can show you how my computer is working? What would you like to see me do? At the moment I'm just running ctrl+alt+f to display my FPS, and haven't run through every setting yet, but it seems when I do the default extreme with 2d portraits I run over 65 FPS. I wouldn't even mind putting up a youtube video or whatever to show off my system.
hopefully what I have done here may be a great resource to the TL community. I greatly appreciate what everyone here has done, such as skyR, myrmidon, AkariSC... thanks so much!
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My setup works amazingly, i can run Ultra/Extreme on 1280x768 wi...
on 1280x768 wi...
What did you expect? people still play at these resolutions? crt monitor?
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I expected to play on High settings, and set out to just get a system to play on medium.
I have a Sanyo DP 19640 monitor that is 19 inches wide, and is widescreen. While I could set it to 1900 something resolution, my native resolution is 1280 and I've heard that you should use your native resolution :>
That said, I don't play on a gigantic movie screen. why would anyone play at higher resolutions? you charging people to watch you play at the drive-in?
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This is a good thread.
I'm planning on building a $400 (possibly cheaper :D) computer as well and i've managed to glean some useful information from these 10 pages.
some notes :
it's incredibly easy to throw a little bit more money to get a bit more power. i've never settled for a computer and have always lacked the discipline to stay within a strict budget. which is why i'm 400lbs.
i'm extremely curious to see what i can do for a lot less money. i feel like games are limited more by developer budgets than anything else these days and PCs just give more headroom. I've always built cutting edge tech builds but times are tough and scaling back my tastes can really only benefit me. if my eco build fails for any reason it can always be delegated the task of being the media computer.
at any rate, thanks for the detailed updates Belial88.
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some notes :
it's incredibly easy to throw a little bit more money to get a bit more power. i've never settled for a computer and have always lacked the discipline to stay within a strict budget. which is why i'm 400lbs.
Yea, it can drive you crazy. Spending that extra $20 will always get you a better value and better performance up until about $700. You just have to realize what do you actually need.
heres a build I made in this thread for $239, that's actually a lot cheaper than the build I made but will be the same performance wise, save for a weaker GPU - in which you can simply swap out the GPU for whatever you want, either 4830 for budget to play High to gtx 460 for extreme at high resolutions, or the 4850 for in between. The reasoning for it all is in the thread:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=192181
+ Show Spoiler +PSU + GPU Combo COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS-500-PCAR-A3-US 500W ATX12V v2.3 Power Supply SAPPHIRE 100296HDMI Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.592913$64 CPU + Mobo Combo AMD Athlon II X2 260 Regor 3.2GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX260OCGMBOX BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.592416$98 2nd CPU + Mobo combo, if you want to spend an extra $5 this is the best place to sink it:
AMD Athlon II X3 450 Rana 3.2GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor
BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.592419
$104HDD Same (Caviar Blue 7200 RPM 8mb cache recertified) $19 RAM Same (Kingston HyperX) $19 Case NZXT Gamma (Buy it from wal-mart.com as shipping is cheaper there, so total price is $5 cheaper than newegg) http://www.walmart.com/ip/NZXT-Gamma-Classic-Series-ATX-Mid-Tower-Steel-Chassis-Black/15140332$39 (shipping will be extra $4 from walmart whereas its $9 from newegg) Total: $239 System will run W7 64bit, and play SC2 at your resolution at High Settings. You can add another 2gb HyperX RAM to be able to run Win64-bit and SC2 while having background applications, as 64bit W7 + SC2 is just enough to play perfectly smoothly, but you will have to close everything. You could also stick with the 2GB and simply just close your programs and suffer no performance loss, or use 32bit W7 instead.
Your welcome Girl, i appreciate the gratitude! TL has really helped me on this so I'd like to give back now:
here's my question and what the thread is about now so you don't have to scroll around and play catch up on 10 pages:
Anyways, I would like to ask 1 more question so I can give back to the TL community! What programs and tests do I need to do so i can show you how my computer is working? What would you like to see me do? At the moment I'm just running ctrl+alt+f to display my FPS, and haven't run through every setting yet, but it seems when I do the default extreme with 2d portraits I run over 65 FPS. I wouldn't even mind putting up a youtube video or whatever to show off my system.
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Hey so I have a question. I've been looking into doing a simple auto-overclock on my GPU since it seems pretty optimized for doing so (MSI afterburner has a clean GUI that just consists of sliding core/shader clocks and memory clock, as well as voltage and fan).
I think with one of the drivers I downloaded I got the ATI Catalyst thing, control center or something. Now obviously, I have the nVidia Geforce GTX 460. Do I need this catalyst? I've heard mentions of using both, like the catalyst necessary for volting or something.
It's just a bit confusing, there's so much information out there and no guide really makes it clear ;/
Thanks. I am interested in Coolbits but everything about it is at least 3 years old, to 10, and when I went to look at editing a file it said draw 32 or qraw 64, so... whatever. anyways that's not my queston. I think I'll probably go with auto-overclock utilities for my CPU and GPU, not out of laziness, but just to set things at a safe place, and a place to begin to learn about oc'ing on a PC. there's soo much info on the subject, its clearly pretty complicated I dont think most oc'ers even understand fully what they are doing, which is not what i want to be doing.
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I know there's lots of babbling so let me quote above question here:
I think with one of the drivers I downloaded I got the ATI Catalyst thing, control center or something. Now obviously, I have the nVidia Geforce GTX 460. Do I need this catalyst? I've heard mentions of using both, like the catalyst necessary for volting or something.
Anyways 2ndly, what are some nice widget-things I can get to monitor my GPU, CPU, and HDD temperatures, and maybe even performance of CPU and GPU? I am using some windows 7 widget that is like a car tachometer showing % core and % RAM, but I am also interested in temps for my GPU, CPU, and HDD. I have coretemp which is nice, when minimized it shows my CPU temp. And Speedfan, while being too complicatd for me, shows GPU temperature while minimized. Neither Speedfan nor Everest can display my HDD temp, but HDD Tune Pro, which does show me my temp, doesn't have a minimized or accessible display, and apparently will run out in 15 days (not free). I basically just want someone to display CPU/HDD/GPU temps clearly and easily, like on my status notification bar on the bottom right, but any widget would work to. CPU usage and Ram usage is nice too.
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The ATI Catalyst Control Center (CCC) is for AMD cards. If you are using a Nvidia card, you should uninstall it immediately and download the latest Nvidia drivers from their website (wwww.nvidia.com).
MSI Afterburner lets you increase the voltages. You just have to enable it in the options.
If you want to use rainmeter, the system temperature monitor widget would do what you are asking for (http://dirtdawg90.deviantart.com/art/System-Temperature-Monitor-109150203). I'd suggest lurking in the Desktop Threads in the General forums if you want to get some cool stuff for your rainmeter.
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^ yea I noticed the MSI afterburner had volting so i wasn't sure (you have to enable tinkering ability in options, which I couldnt see for some reason the top where the tabs are are too high for me to see so I had to ctrl-alt-tab it). I didn't install it, I just remembered it downloading the setup file, i haven't set it up yet. I'll delete it off though.
rainmeter seems like a big pain in the ass - clearly there are gains, but it's a lot to learn. Currently I'm focusing on learning about oc'ing as it seems like you can do a lot without having to overvolt, and that CPU's are much hardier on computers than phones. then there's the one or two games a day I get to play after all this research, oh woe is me!
thanks for the tips though, i found a way for msi afterburner to display a lot of the information and I just wanted to see my hdd temp real quick, at 38*, just to make sure the cables i have routed next to it in the case aren't causing issues . They are just squeezed to the side of it, by the side panel. Kinda touching it :X
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