Simple Questions Simple Answers - Page 291

Mysticesper

United States1183 Posts

March 19 2013 03:58 GMT

#5801

I'm looking at building a new machine, and I suppose the largest question I have is regarding how large of a PSU I need // the recommended ones. In the past I'm sure I've largely overestimated what I needed (thus wasting money unnecessarily). Currently looking at the Corsar CX600 modular. Modular is nice, but I suppose it's not too necessary. As far as I know, the only main requirements are having the necessary PCI-E plugs for the gpu, which could vary a bit due to 8-pin and 6-pin on the different models.

Main specs:
Currently looking at i7-3770k, overclocked (school / work -- rendering, etc)
Radeon 7870 or 7950 (primarily because I want to use my 2560x1600 monitor to it's native resolution) + overclocking
16gb ram (school / work - adobe, autodesk, rhino 5)
SSD + 1 HDD

Myrmidon

United States9452 Posts

March 19 2013 04:22 GMT

#5802

400W would be plenty for the 7870, 450W plenty for the 7950. This is assuming pretty hardcore overclocking, somehow you need to add a lot more drives, and for whatever reason you're trying to burn your computer down with simultaneous stress tests.

CX600 is in my opinion the most useless power supply in Corsair's lineup, from the perspective of user needs. If you have some beast computer that can actually get anywhere close to needing more than the CX500, you probably want something better than CX's mediocre quality anyway. It doesn't have power connectors for multiple GPUs, which would be the reason to need that much.

I haven't really seen great deals recently.

Try Rosewill Capstone 450:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182066

Or if you're willing to pay $15-20 more to remove the one or two cable strands you're not using, Capstone 450-M or Seasonic G 450.

Belial88

United States5217 Posts

March 20 2013 22:32 GMT

#5803

I have 2 itunes gift cards that are scratched off. I think what happened was a few years ago, I tried to buy a movie on my girlfriend's account, it was a huge pain in the ass so I tried the other card, the download failed and i couldnt return it because it was electronic media....

I just want to see the balance on the cards so I can sell them off. I don't want to download anything if i can avoid it (i hate itunes), and I don't want anything to happen where like if I try to check the balance via itunes, the card's get locked to an account and I can't sell them.

Thanks.

Blitzkrieg0

United States13132 Posts

March 20 2013 22:34 GMT

#5804

On March 21 2013 07:32 Belial88 wrote:
I have 2 itunes gift cards that are scratched off. I think what happened was a few years ago, I tried to buy a movie on my girlfriend's account, it was a huge pain in the ass so I tried the other card, the download failed and i couldnt return it because it was electronic media....

I just want to see the balance on the cards so I can sell them off. I don't want to download anything if i can avoid it (i hate itunes), and I don't want anything to happen where like if I try to check the balance via itunes, the card's get locked to an account and I can't sell them.

Thanks.

If they're from a few years ago they're almost certainly empty. Typically gift cards start losing money after a year or two of non-use.

Craton

United States17305 Posts

March 20 2013 22:54 GMT

#5805

Old cards probably, but there was legislation against that not so long ago.

Belial88

United States5217 Posts

March 21 2013 00:30 GMT

#5806

okay well i just want to find a way to check the value without the cards being non-transferrable. they had a lot on them so they should have something even if they lost value.

Cornstyle

United States147 Posts

March 21 2013 04:30 GMT

#5807

Hi guys, I've had 4 BSODs in the past couple days, each time it happened while closing programs/ preparing for shut down. After the BSOD and I shut the computer down, Windows freezes on the Windows loading screen. It then runs setup repair, does a system restore, blah blah and things work fine for a day or so. Here's the log that I get after Windows loads after the startup repair: + Show Spoiler +

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 3b
BCP1: 00000000C0000005
BCP2: FFFFF96000136373
BCP3: FFFFF88008B08030
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\031213-8845-01.dmp
C:\Windows\Temp\WER-10873-0.sysdata.xml

I haven't found much on google about those error codes other than they may suggest a hardware issue. I just ran Memtest, it appeared to fail on the 3rd test, here's a picture of the screen during memtest.+ Show Spoiler +

http://imgur.com/F0RRSm8

So what do I do now? Do I assume my RAM is bad or do I need to start playing around with sticks and seeing if the DIMM slots are bad? This is my first time using Memtest but that seems like a hell of a lot of errors... Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Ropid

Germany3557 Posts

March 21 2013 06:33 GMT

#5808

I'd first remove the sticks, rub the contacts gently (not with fingers (at least not greasy fingers)) while being a bit sad and worried. Try putting the two sticks in the other two slots, not where they were until now. Then run memtest86 again. Make sure to use the off switch on the power supply or pull the power cable. Before you grab into the case and pull the memory sticks, touch the radiator in the room you are in to make sure static charge on your body is removed (you are probably discharged anyways as you touched the PC case, which is metal and grounded through the power cable until the moment you pull it).

Just to be clear, the motherboard memory slots probably look like this at the moment:

slot 0: [            ]
slot 1: [xxxxxxxxxxxx]
slot 2: [            ]
slot 3: [xxxxxxxxxxxx]

and you'd put it back in slot 0 and 2 instead of 1 and 3 or vice versa.

If that doesn't help, you could try fiddling with your BIOS. You could update your BIOS, though that would be a bit scary with memory that makes mistakes. Instead you could try to get it to work stable by tuning various settings. You can try changing these settings:

* for the one setting that can automatically change the rest of the memory settings, set it to "default" or "auto" instead of the "XMP profile" setting
* raise "DRAM voltage" slightly, for example from 1.5 V to 1.55 V
* add one or two to all timings, for example turn 9-9-9-24-1T into 11-11-11-28-2T
* decrease the speed the memory runs at, for example make 1600 MHz memory run at 1333 MHz

If that does not help, you can try to find out if your PC works correctly with one of the sticks, and produces error with the second one. If that's the case, one of your sticks is broken. Some manufacturers have years of warranty or lifetime warranty, so look into that before you buy new memory. If it seems that both sticks are broken, it could really be your motherboard that's broken. I'd try to update the BIOS as a last resort.

Belial88

United States5217 Posts

March 21 2013 08:38 GMT

#5809

Your ram is most likely the culprit, so you know where to look. Try underclocking the ram/raising voltage, see if that eliminates the issue. If not, then try moving the rams around, see if the mobo slots are the issue.

Are you running any overclocks? You shouldn't really look too deep into what an error code means or what kind of crash is caused by what. It's more important that you did crash, than what code it is (ie ive had ram cause x124's, ive had drivers cause c5s, etc really errors codes are pretty meaningless).

You need to troubleshoot exactly the problem but it looks like your on the way to making sure the RAM is the problem. You RMA faulty components if there's an issue, which is fine, happens all the time. About 2/8 parts I get are faulty in some way.

You should really list your full hardware specs though, that'd help a lot. If you have a certain mobo it may be a bios issue, if it was a certain ssd maybe an auto updated driver is the issue, etc...

Kaitokid

Germany1327 Posts

March 21 2013 10:31 GMT

#5810

recently when I play starcraft I have a lag spike everytime I build a cybercore, build a unit or something like that. it seems very random and doesn't occur every game but often enough to annoy me. is this a known problem or does anyone know a solution?

Ropid

Germany3557 Posts

March 21 2013 10:50 GMT

#5811

Do you use the Unit Preloader map? It makes sure to draw all buildings, units and effects so everything is loaded from disk. You'll find it in the arcade section and should run it once before laddering.

If that's not it, you should try hard to remember what "recently" means and what you changed about your Windows installation at that point. If you didn't touch anything, go Control Panel and search for Windows Update and click on "View update history". Try looking for some new NVidia driver recently getting installed or something like that, then go install an older driver for whatever changed.

Kaitokid

Germany1327 Posts

March 21 2013 17:34 GMT

#5812

On March 21 2013 19:50 Ropid wrote:
Do you use the Unit Preloader map? It makes sure to draw all buildings, units and effects so everything is loaded from disk. You'll find it in the arcade section and should run it once before laddering.

If that's not it, you should try hard to remember what "recently" means and what you changed about your Windows installation at that point. If you didn't touch anything, go Control Panel and search for Windows Update and click on "View update history". Try looking for some new NVidia driver recently getting installed or something like that, then go install an older driver for whatever changed.

thanks. I used the unit preloaded for a while in WoL but didnt know it existed in hots aswell, will try it out. well recently means around the time HotS came out I think.

Belial88

United States5217 Posts

March 21 2013 20:39 GMT

#5813

So I have an i7-3770K at 5ghz and 2400mhz RAM, and even though I have 4.3mb/s up, I can only stream at vbv max/buffer 2000/2000 without having dropped frames. I don't know why it does that, ive tried different servers.... anyways...

so could I try using one of the other presets? Like Fast or something, given how powerful my system is?

Craton

United States17305 Posts

March 21 2013 22:35 GMT

#5814

If you only have 4.3mb download, your upload is probably much worse given how American ISPs are. You could try setting up QoS on your router.

Cyro

United Kingdom20345 Posts

March 21 2013 22:55 GMT

#5815

I think he meant up

Belial88

United States5217 Posts

March 22 2013 03:41 GMT

#5816

yea i meant up. I've been playing with medium preset and everything seems fine. 1360x768, streaming 1360x768, OBS. 60+ fps at all times, just singleplayer for nwo though.

for some reason even though i consistently get 4.3mbs+ up on basically all servers, no matter what server im on, i can't do more than 2000/2000 bitrates.

edit: i think i can do slow preset?

Craton

United States17305 Posts

March 23 2013 00:43 GMT

#5817

+ Show Spoiler +

I'm repairing a PC by proxy right now (my brother is on location).

The symptoms were the PC would power off randomly at random intervals, eventually (after I think weeks) wouldn't turn on again. Brother tested the PSU with a tester and it passed, so we replaced the mobo. He went through everything he had plugged in on the motherboard and it all seemed to be correct. Even if something were seated awkwardly it would still at least power on, but it doesn't (both mobo power connectors are in and the PSU is flipped to on).

My best guess right now is some weirdness with the front panel pins or the power cable itself being faulty, but those both seem to be a stretch. Any ideas?

Apparently it turned itself off because he plugged the PSU connector (4 pin for fans) into a fan header on the motherboard.......

Belial88

United States5217 Posts

March 23 2013 04:40 GMT

#5818

thats a surefire way to make it blow up. the pins on the board use very very tinys volts, like microvolts. putting 12v through that will fry things instantly, i surprised there was no smoke.