Posts by Karen Reed21

I suppose I would hold onto it, though if you ask me, there is absolutely no way it's worth the investment.

darkowl72 said:Look, the Gainward version is EOL, getting replaced by the GS model, and it only comes with a 12-month warranty. Meanwhile, Sapphire Technology has actual heatpipes and a full 24-month warranty. The winner here is obvious.

I’m not entirely certain, but I don't believe that's the Sapphire model. I think it was actually from Gigabyte Technology. Regardless, the other one is clearly the superior choice.

@Gary Price7/">@@Gary Price7: Grab it and you won't regret it. At that price point, there simply isn't a better option on the market.

Brandon Morgan10 said:I went ahead and set it up, but now my temps are hitting 98 degrees while playing Grid at 1680x1050 resolution. When it's idling, it stays around 42-44 degrees... so is this actually normal? What kind of fan would you recommend to replace this crappy one?
just a heads up... the card is only two weeks old

Just download the latest drivers, enable ATI Overdrive, and crank the fan speed up to about 50%; there's absolutely no need to buy a new cooler.

Mark Sanchez3 said:How much could I push this CPU to 4 GHz using this cooler? Say it runs 24/7—which it won't, maybe just 4 hours a day at most.

You'll get at least five years out of it if you have a decent chip. Honestly, you have nothing to worry about, especially if you stick to stock voltage.

Emily Flores13 said:So you're telling me I can only bump up the Front Side Bus, but forget about touching the voltage?

Don't hold your breath; you'll be lucky if you even manage to nudge the Front Side Bus.

Frank Collins85 said:Thanks for the support, I always worry I might have messed something up somewhere...

The monitor is 22 inches 🙄

It’ll run fine; maybe not at max settings, but everything will work.

Frank Collins85 said:Picked up an MSI 3850 256 MB DDR3 OC yesterday for $167. It came bundled with Dirt Rally and a whole bunch of adapters. Is that a solid deal? I’m not exactly a hardcore gamer, just someone who likes to play something low-key every now and then—something like Tomb Raider. That last Underworld title was actually struggling quite a bit on my old NVIDIA 8500.
Does anyone have a decent review for the 3850?

It's an excellent card for that price point. You made the right call. As long as you aren't running a massive high-res monitor, everything should run smoothly.

Brian Grant47 said:what about this GF 8600?

Absolutely not. Don't even think about 🤣

Brian Grant47 said:Best regards,
-CPU: Athlon64 3000 1.8 MHz
-Motherboard: Gigabyte GA K8N SLi
-GPU: Nvidia GeForce 6600 PCI-E
-RAM: 1GB

If I pick up a new graphics card, will I be able to run Far Cry 2? Also, which one should I get?

Go with either the Radeon 4670 or the GeForce 9600 GSO. Anything higher than that is a complete waste of money for a rig like yours. You'll be able to play it, though don't expect top-tier performance—it'll just work.

P.S. That game is totally overrated.😉

lonehawk79 said:Should I bother swapping my Radeon 4670 512MB DDR3 for an 8800GTS or a 9800GTX? My setup is a Philips 22-inch monitor, an E5200 processor, 4GB of Kingmax 800MHz RAM, a P31 motherboard, and a 400W Chiftec power supply. Mostly, I just want to play at 1680x1050 resolution. Thanks.

Shorty and sweet—yes.

The 4850 is clearly the superior card.☕

ambereagle86 said:Just a quick question: what is the maximum voltage for an Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 for daily use? I'm using an Ultra 120 Extreme cooler without a fan, and the case has 120mm fans at the front and back.

In truth, it would be far more efficient if there were a dedicated resource where one could precisely calculate the dissipation for a specific frequency at a given voltage for this particular processor. My intention is to attach two high-power FETs to the heatsink, wired in parallel to dissipate heat identically to the processor, allowing me to observe how the heatsink maintains temperature under specific dissipation levels. Since exact data is currently unavailable, this seems much more logical than manually feeling the heatsink or relying on unreliable sensor readings.

For Windows, don't exceed 1.35V for continuous operation. For benchmarks, I wouldn't go higher than 1.5V.

rapidcobra35 said:I am running an E4500 on a P35-DS3R motherboard.
The RAM is Kingmax 2GB @ 800MHz.
I managed to overclock the processor up to 2.9GHz using these settings:
FSB at 363 with an 8x multiplier.
The memory is running at 871MHz, and the multiplier is 2.40.
I set the latencies to 5-5-5-15... though I don't really understand latencies at all.
I want to push it to 3 or 3.2GHz, but I just can't make it happen. I have an Arctic Freezer 7 and I even polished the base, so heat shouldn't be an issue.
It’s also unclear to me why it crashes in Orthus when I try 264X11... with the memory at 845MHz.
I tried setting it to 333X9 for 3GHz using the same parameters, but Windows won't boot.
I also tried a lower multiplier at 375X8 for 3GHz... the memory hits 750MHz, and while Windows boots, it crashes during Orthus and MemTest.
Can anyone help me figure out how to tune this so I can squeeze more speed out of it? My goal is stable operation at 3.2GHz.

Have you tried increasing the voltages? If you haven't, then increase them.

velvetfalcon48 said:I'm not sure if swapping to a 12.5 multiplier is actually worth the hassle, since I'd have to crank the FSB way up... As for the dividers, I've messed around with 3.33 and 3.2, but nothing else seems to hit the sweet spot; they're either too high or too low (I don't want it running under 800 MHz, but I don't need more than 900)

The thing is, this OC issue only pops up after the PC has been off for a while—it's like once the system "cools down," it refuses to boot with these settings...
I tried bumping it up to 1.5V just to see if that would mess things up, but it was perfectly stable and booted without any issues every single time... though I'm terrified of leaving it at anything higher than 1.37V.

Look. Go ahead and drop the multiplier. This motherboard is a beast for overclocking and won't give you any trouble. Set the memory to 667 and then push it as far as it will go (by the way, Corsair is generally great for OC). My suggestion: set the CPU to 11, memory to 667, and start bumping the FSB while staying at default voltage. Once it starts acting up, increase the voltage. Personally, I wouldn't push past 1.4V.

rapidmoose74 said:Can anyone recommend an NVIDIA GTX 260? There are plenty available at Best Buy, but I'm not sure which one to pick.

I don't need a high-end flagship; I think this one from Gigabyte would do the job just fine.

By the way, I've already put together the PC build—take a look here: http://cure09.cu.funpic.de/uploaded/konfa55.jpg though naturally, I'll be swapping out the 4850 for a GTX 260.

I already own a monitor—a Samsung Galaxy Tab—so I want to know if it will work well with the GTX 260 and whether there are any issues regarding cooling or fan speed.

Also, will the GTX 260 be able to run Grand Theft Auto IV on max settings?

I have already given you my answer. Just get the Gigabyte card. It will be perfectly compatible with both the monitor and the build. It features a decent dual-slot cooler and isn't overly loud. As for Grand Theft Auto IV, nobody can give you a definitive answer until you actually test it yourself.

stormytiger19 said:Is this one any good?
http://www.xfxforce.com/en-gb/produc.../9500GT.aspx#2

We have already told you—go with the 4670 or the 4650.

stormytiger19 said:I'm looking to pick up a new graphics card so I can play the new Grand Theft Auto, but I'm still running $167, so is this actually doable? Any suggestions? I spotted this one over at Best Buy: link
but the price seems way too low to be legit... is it safe? Does anyone have a better recommendation?
I also found this one for slightly less money: link
Thanks a lot.

List the rest of your specs. By the way, that 9400GT is absolute garbage.

velvetfalcon48 said:The power supply is just some cheap Smartbox junk... absolute garbage. You really think that's where the issue lies?

What GPU are you running?

Gerald Rodriguez20 said:What's wrong with that power supply?

Do you think I should get an ATI AGP HD 3450 graphics card for my setup?

Since my processor is pretty weak, I probably wouldn't be able to get much out of an HD 3850 anyway.

Look, it’s clearly not built with high-end components in mind. If you pick up a Fortron 350W PNF (around $67), you can finally sleep easy at night. Besides, there is no reason for you to grab anything stronger than a 3650, even though that won't be fully utilized either.

Gerald Rodriguez20 said:I was just thinking about picking up a motherboard that would be compatible with all these old parts I have lying around.
I'm currently running a Codegen 400W power supply.
Do you think I should upgrade to a new power supply to go along with this new graphics card?

It's spelled Codegen. And yes, you'll likely need to swap it out.