I feel like professional sports are losing their spark because everyone is so afraid of offending the powers that be. We need more athletes who actually speak their minds, even if it causes a stir with the suits. Do you prefer the "rebel" players or the ones who just play by the book?
So, the graphics card on this rig you helped me put together about five years ago finally kicked the bucket. Since then, I've tossed in an SSD and another 4GB of RAM to keep things moving.
1 x Zalman Z1, USB3.0 black, 2x120mm 1 x XFX R9 270A 2GB DDR5 1 x AMD FX X6 6300 3.5Ghz (4.1GHz) box 1 x GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P, AM3+ 1 x LC POWER LC-CC-95, socket 775/1155/1156/AMD 1 x Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600 Mhz (PC3-12800) CL11 1 x XFX TS 450W, 80+ Bronze 1 x HDD SEAGATE Barracuda (3.5",1TB,64MB,SATA III)
Any suggestions for a new GPU? Just looking for something that's at least as decent as the one that died on me.
Timothy Kim60 said:They look solid! Honestly, they’d definitely beat out those cheap Sharkoon headsets I used to use. Plus, I noticed some have that padded "skin" around the ear—that looks pretty sweet.
coastaltiger2 said:My kid wants some new headphones for his birthday. Over ear with a mic wireless
I stumbled upon these Alienware m16 wireless
While I was looking around, man, I was SHOCKED at how crazy expensive these things are... There's no way you can get them for cheap...$167 Seriously, don't even bother... Anyone got any good recs?
Then I saw these ones... Suspiciously cheap... But my kid is still little... He's definitely gonna drop 'em eventually... feels like a waste to drop too much cash... Man
Kid wants some new headphones for his birthday. Over ear with a mic wireless
Found this pair online Alienware m16 wireless
Man, while I was looking around, I was totally shocked by how crazy expensive these things are... I can't even afford them on a budget...$167 It's insane... Anyone got any good recommendations?
Sean Garcia3 said:Have you actually tried any games yet? Let us know how they run and what settings you used!
Yo, please check out this thread and my Post.
I know, I know—it probably sounds hilarious that I’m trying to game with a wireless mouse, but hey... it is what it is... and I really need some help here...
I'm just gonna roll with it... honestly, why overthink things? This PC is absolute perfection... huge thanks to everyone! One more thing though—I'm totally blown away... I swear the audio coming out of these same speakers sounds three times better than before. Is that even possible, or am I just tripping?
fadedorca66 said:If you're looking at that last bit, you're talking about the data transfer rate. It’s slow because, well, Hard Drives are just slow. Swap in an SSD and you'll see that number jump up to like 7 or something.
So we're talking about... the data transfer rate... that one is barely over 5 while everything else is sitting above 8... and Max told me this Hard Drive was supposed to be faster/better... wait, so that's the absolute limit for a Hard Drive? That's wild... I'm guessing there's no way to "speed it up" with drivers, right?
Finally had some downtime last night to get everything set up. I am STOKED 🙂 about this rig. It took me maybe three hours to get Windows 7 fully installed (sp1) from the base image... just for context, doing that same thing on my old clunker used to take two whole days... The speed is absolutely INSANE... seriously mind-blowing... At the end, the system ran its own little "assessment," and the last item—data transfer—hit a measly 5.7. That makes me think one of the drivers Windows automatically pulled in is outdated, especially since this Hard Drive is supposed to be way faster than the old one... I'm guessing it's a motherboard issue (I noticed a "PCI something" driver dated back to 2006)... what do you guys think? I'm at work right now so I can't dig in and see exactly which driver it is...
Timothy Kim60 said:So how much did he charge you? You could've just grabbed one for about $40 on Amazon and popped it in yourself—super easy.
I didn't want to DIY it since I've never actually done any work for you... he charged me $47... didn't charge extra for the labor though... unlike that other repair guy over on Main Street back in the day... he wanted $13 just to install it...
fadedorca66 said:Who even uses DVDs anymore? Seriously! You just grab a thumb drive, use Rufus to burn the ISO onto it, and you're good to go. It's way faster and smoother. Honestly, I haven't touched a DVD for installing Windows in years—unless we're talking about some ancient piece of junk hardware.
Yeah... true... I actually have Windows on a USB ready to go... but still... I really need a DVD drive. What's even a PC without a DVD drive??? How did I miss that... Man, I spent all day yesterday trying to download Windows... finally grabbed the SP1 from Maherz... but I couldn't get it onto my USB to save my life. Tried Rufus, tried Wintoflash, even tried that CMD method... nothing worked. Total nightmare. Those two programs kept throwing errors, and CMD just kept saying "access denied"... so frustrating. Finally, I took some advice from a guy on a random forum and just copied the ISO contents directly onto the USB (after making sure the drive was set to primary), but I haven't tested if it actually works yet. Might just have to install the base version and upgrade later... I'll check tomorrow once I get the DVD drive installed... just don't have the time right now. I'm mostly just mad at myself... more for being so scatterbrained than anything else... 🙂🙂
Sean Garcia3 said:Anyway, let me know what you think once the PC arrives!
Alright, first impressions incoming!!!
THERE'S NO DVD DRIVE 😠😠😠
Seriously, what were they thinking? And yeah, I'm totally on their side here! Man, what a headache. Gotta fix this tomorrow... but since I have zero clue how to install one myself... I'll just lug this rig over to Indianapolis... maybe hit up Best Buy or even a General Mills service center... whoever's free to plug it in for me... 😠😠
Robert Rodriguez2 said:Look, just go ahead and install Windows 7 if that's what you want! Honestly, I only messed around with Windows 8.1 for less than two weeks before I jumped right back to 7. It just wasn't my vibe.
Man, I’ve been dealing with this headache for two years now. My rig was running Windows 7 perfectly fine, but then I decided to upgrade to Windows 8. Suddenly, I'm getting hit with three or four blue screens every single day. It was driving me insane! So, I just wiped it and went back to Windows 7. Been running it like this for three months straight now and haven't seen a single blue screen. Problem solved!
It’s not even about whether it fits my setup or whatever... I haven't even met Larry Ortiz5 in person yet, but I've already started picking up some of his stuff. Still, I'm feeling pretty skeptical. Honestly, maybe I was just the last person on Earth to jump from Windows XP to Windows 7, so maybe history is repeating itself with Windows 7 and Windows 8. Until then, I'll just wait for Windows 10 to actually stabilize. Might give it a shot eventually, but probably not right now! 😁
Sean Garcia3 said:Bottom line: once that rig shows up, let me know what you think! Definitely grab Windows 8.1 Pro 64 first, then get Malwarebytes and CCleaner on there. For an antivirus, just stick with Windows Defender—that’s exactly what I run on my setup and it works like a charm. Everything stays smooth.
Wait, why Windows 8??? I haven't even seen what that looks like... My wife is gonna lose it if she has to learn a whole new interface. What's wrong with Windows 7?
Sean Garcia3 said:Man, listen, for that kind of cash, you're getting way more than what's strictly necessary out of a case. You can't expect miracles! Honestly, for $8.25, you could probably grab a Zalman Z3 later on at Amazon and be set.
But hey, it's already too late now... whatever, no biggie. If the fan noise starts driving me crazy, I'll just swap it out later.
I don't know if we're planning on writing full-on reviews ourselves, but here’s a quick rundown on the Zalman Z1
PROS:
- You get a ton of value for roughly $73 - 3 front-facing USB ports (including one USB3) - Looks pretty solid - Toolless HDD mounting... fits four 3.5-inch drives and one 2.5-inch drive above them - Comes with 2 fans included - Dust filters in all the right spots (even if the quality isn't top-tier) - Cable management space (not amazing, but hey, at least there's some) - A handy little spot on top for your phone or an external hard drive
CONS:
- The metal is super thin... I actually dented one side trying to close it up, but luckily I could bend it back without too much drama - One of the two fans uses a Molex connector (-.-) so it's insanely loud... I swapped it out for a "normal" Arctic fan almost immediately after buying it - The feet don't have rubber on the bottom, so I had to DIY something to stop the vibrations - Not much room for cable management in the back... if you've got thick cables or just a lot of them, you might run into trouble - The power button is finicky... you have to hit it just right for it to register. Wondering if I should return it or just deal with it
Overall, I'm happy with it, though I kind of wish I'd dropped a few more bucks to grab the Z3 / Z3 hedgehog is offline Reply with Quote
Sean Garcia3 said:So, did you end up grabbing that USB internet adapter?
Nah, didn't grab it... I've already got one like that. I was thinking about getting an internal card... but honestly, I don't really need it. If things get hairy, I'll just plug in the USB one...