Posts by Michelle Gonzalez11

Larry Ortiz5 said:Actually, that processor doesn't have integrated graphics at all 😉

EDIT: Did you happen to catch what Michael Jackson10 wrote in his post?

So, I spent all day yesterday testing everything—live and otherwise—and here’s where things stand.
The PC won't boot if anything is plugged into any of the SATA ports on the motherboard. Fine—faulty motherboard, easy enough to swap out for a new one. But here’s the real headache: I have two brand-new Seagate BarraCuda drives (one is ten months old, the other was unboxed three days ago), both 1TB, and they’re showing a total capacity of only 32 MB! I don't think the drives are actually dead—they sound perfectly fine, nothing like that dreaded "click of death." Apparently, Disk Partition Recovery requires a 32-bit system, and I'm stuck with a 64-bit laptop... If anyone knows a fix, I'll buy you a drink!

electricharbor30 said:I'm guessing you're running on integrated graphics that just pull memory straight from the system... maybe you could try going into the UEFI and capping it at something like 512 MB...

That motherboard doesn't even have integrated graphics!

But why would a PC suddenly start acting this erratic during boot? I mean—all the fans spin up to full blast, everything freezes for five seconds, and then the machine actually kicks on.
A quick update: after scouring some foreign forums where people suggested flashing the UEFI, I went ahead and did it—updated from version F3 to F9. It worked fine for about an hour and a few restarts, but then the computer just started cycling on and off by itself... I don't even want to touch it anymore; I'm terrified the constant power cycling will fry whatever components are still working. Is there anything else left to try, or is it obvious that certain parts are ready for the scrap heap?

Hey there. Finally got my rig back up and running after sitting idle for six months—bought a new drive since the old one finally kicked the bucket—installed Windows 11 Pro 64-bit, and then this happened:

http://s8.postimg.org/pvduix6f9/Untitled.jpg

I tried to Reset BIOS, but then things went sideways. Now, every time I boot, all the fans spin up at full blast, the system stalls for a few seconds, and then just restarts itself... I'm starting to worry the hardware is actually dying on me. To give you the timeline: first boot showed 4GB installed (only 2GB usable); second boot was 4GB installed (3.5GB usable); third boot (after flashing the UEFI) dropped to 4GB installed (1.99GB usable); fourth boot gave me a "disk boot failure" despite the brand-new drive; fifth boot finally stabilized. Everything was working perfectly before this mess started.

The motherboard is an ASUS P55 UD3.

analogtiger19 said:Are you running Windows 7? "Windows" has this power-saving setting—it puts your drives into sleep mode when they aren't being used—so just set them to sleep during idle periods, then wait for them to spin back up whenever you click something or start a search. I know that drove me absolutely insane, so I just disabled that option entirely 😬

Well, I just turned that off—fingers crossed that's the fix! 🙂
thanks! 🙂

Just got my new 1TB WD Caviar Blue in the mail, but I’m starting to think I scored a dud.
The thing keeps making this distinct spin-up noise—you know, that sound when you're skipping tracks in Winamp or shutting down the PC, kind of like an old CD drive ramping up—followed by a sharp click. Is it possible I actually bought a faulty drive? What's the move here—can I even file a warranty claim for this?

At Archer Daniels Midland, the Seagate BarraCuda 1TB actually costs a few bucks more than the blue version—even though if you read any of the forums, people swear by the blue as being the superior drive. I'll probably just grab the blue; I've got my doubts about the green, even if there isn't much actual reason to be skeptical.

Roger Gray8 said:Best Buy has those Toshiba 1TB drives... $142 shipped right to your door... can't beat that price...
The Green series runs a bit pricier—same shipping cost—and honestly, it just spins slower and stays a little quieter...

I’ve read claims that the Green drives are prone to failure—is there any truth to that?
Is it actually worth shelling out more for a Seagate BarraCuda?

Hey there.
I’m looking for some advice on a new 1TB internal hard drive—strictly for storage purposes. My main priority is reliability; I need something that won't just quit on me overnight. Looking at the reviews online, the Seagate BarraCuda caught my eye—it isn't nearly as pricey as a BlackRock drive, even if it is a tiny bit slower.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

None of that helps me—this router I'm stuck with is clearly such absolute garbage that it only accepts sites starting with www., while everything else just triggers an "invalid URL" error in the URL filter! 🙂

We’re talking about the Linksys WRT54G here—and I've included a few more specifics below:

What can I even say—the person I'm trying to reason with is about as bright as a broken lightbulb. Besides, I don't have access to that computer, and frankly, it worries me; even here in the States, things aren't as loosely regulated as they used to be, and privacy laws can shift overnight. Is there any way to block the ports used by those BitTorrent programs directly through the Linksys WRT54G?

I've combed through every single setting on my Linksys WRT54G, and honestly—nothing I found even remotely resembles what you guys suggested I look for or disable.

Do you think turning off UPnP might actually do something?

Hi there.
I'm looking for a way to block all BitTorrent traffic from any client via my router settings—if that's even possible. Or, if there's a better workaround entirely. I'm using a Linksys WRT54G.

Timothy Kim60 said:There isn't much of a meaningful difference in overclocking potential between a "bad" and a "good" sample of the same card—not really. What exactly did this Bug do to kill the other one? It’s likely just a negligible margin that wouldn't even be felt during actual gameplay, something only a hyper-precise benchmark would catch.

If there truly is a significant gap—it could easily be down to poor testing protocols or some system anomaly—like an FPS drop that skewed the data. Everything is relative.

From those tests I've seen, the gap between the GTX 750 Ti and the GTX 750 Ti x is exactly as you described—minimal. Personally, I don't think a 3 FPS difference is worth$33 more; besides, the 750 Ti pulls less power. If you're willing to pay extra, you might as well step up to the 280!

Then again, it all comes down to personal preference...

Timothy Kim60 said:So I buy an EVGA card, and you buy the exact same EVGA model—that doesn't mean we're both going to deal with the same level of sag.

Man, this whole thing is just maddening—truly awful. It's like buying a Kinder Egg; the packaging looks identical, the chocolate is the same, but every single toy inside is different...
I'm looking through all these models, where a single GPU type (like a GTX 750 Ti) can have ten different versions, and you're supposed to be "smart" enough to pick the right one... 🙂 🙂

Timothy Kim60 said:Like I mentioned, they're essentially the same cards—though how much overclocking you get really depends on the individual silicon lottery.
That link you shared—Linus Sebastian used a table there comparing an overclocked GTX 750 Ti gaming model against a stock GTX 750 Ti click

Fair enough, but what about those results from the Bug? Both were EVGA models there—and both were stock!

crimsonstag84 said:Unlikely... they use the same silicon, so their overclocking ceiling should be roughly identical—where exactly did you see that?

Check out this monthly Bug if you can! Even the GPU and memory clocks on the GTX 750 Ti (the reference model, mind you) were pushed higher than what was possible on the GTX 750 Ti

EDIT: Let me correct myself
According to the Bug, the EVGA GTX 750 Ti hit 1150MHz on the CPU and 6000MHz on the memory, whereas the EVGA GTX 750 Ti sits at 1200MHz CPU and 5800MHz memory!

And looking at the chart comparing all the overclocked cards—the GTX 750 Ti actually pulls better results than the 750 Ti, plus it ran cooler. Of course, at stock settings, the GTX 750 Ti wins, but only by a hair—just a few FPS.


Here’s the video as proof. 🙂

I've been reading in PCMag and scanning various global forums—apparently, the OCana R9 270 actually outperforms the OC-ane R9 270 x.

Hey everyone—I've decided to pull the trigger on a small PC upgrade, so I'm curious to hear your thoughts or any advice you might have. I'm planning to swap out my old graphics card (Radeon hd 5850 Black edition). Based on the reviews and benchmarks I've been digging through for this budget...$500~+/-$33 I was actually thinking about picking that up myself. This is it.

And now—I’m all ears for your "valued" opinions.
Here is the rest of the specs—for those keeping track.

Processor:
Intel i5-750 @ 2.66
Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3—an old classic, I suppose.
Power supply:
XFX Core edition Pro 550 w RAM—just another component in the machine.
RAM: — just another variable in an endless equation.
4GB—hardly enough for anything these days.

EDIT: I'm wondering—does Nvidia actually offer anything better in that same price bracket?

crimsonstag84 said:I was actually just looking into this—you could definitely pull together a build for $1833:

An Intel Core i5-4440 (Haswell) paired with an MSI GTX 770 TF, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB HDD—assuming you don't skimp too much on the rest of the parts.

Come on, give me the full breakdown of what you're thinking! You've piqued my interest—let's aim for a price point around $1833 😁
Is there a decent combo using an AMD card, or am I better off sticking with NVIDIA?