17 replies to this topic

[Guitar]

So I ditched my Sapphire 4890 2GB to go to a new AMD 6870, the first series to carry the AMD name rather than ATi, it arrives tomorrow, benchmarks and usual computer stuff to follow.

[cainer]

nice, i sold 1 of my 5870's ready for the 6970, il sell the other once ive taken delivery or the 6970 was menna be launched on the 22nd of november but heard today its been delayed till the 13th december :/

Edited by cainer, 16 November 2010 - 09:31 PM.

[Guitar]

Oh come on its one thread, its not like every other thread is pc related, and maybe if people took more of an interest in hardware, we'd have more coders by now.

[cainer]

At least it didn't mention Alienware.

bj

ive a nice alienware 120hz screen id like to talk to you about

Edited by cainer, 16 November 2010 - 09:39 PM.

[Guitar]

At least it didn't mention Alienware.

bj

I dont do Dell.

[nails]

ok my 2p's worth....

im running off a 120 ocz vertex 2, it runs between 200-230mb/sec which is fantastic (ive no idea with the latest firmware how the hell they can say upto 285mb/sec). then ive got a 160gig for my media drive (music/video) and finally a fine samsung f3 500gig for my backup stuff (even this runs as a simgle drive at some 120mb/sec which is awesome for a single non-raid drive).

i plan to get a decet gfx card to replace my ati 4870, and have no doubt i`ll get a revodrive x2 in the future. there is alot of talk about the lack of TRIM, but for me i cannot stand windows 7. (as an operating system i give it 10/10, however the feel and navigation i couldnt bere any longer. i tried the XP thmem patch but it only patched the start menu's but not the icons).

for those of you who have not made the jump to SSD for money reasons, get yourself a 60gig or so boot drive (ocz 60gig for about £100) and then use your other drive for programs, music etc etc. once you feel windows loading in 13 seconds, and apps like office load pretty much the second you have double clicked the icon - you will NEVER turn back.

[Bandits]

ok my 2p's worth....

im running off a 120 ocz vertex 2, it runs between 200-230mb/sec which is fantastic (ive no idea with the latest firmware how the hell they can say upto 285mb/sec). then ive got a 160gig for my media drive (music/video) and finally a fine samsung f3 500gig for my backup stuff (even this runs as a simgle drive at some 120mb/sec which is awesome for a single non-raid drive).

i plan to get a decet gfx card to replace my ati 4870, and have no doubt i`ll get a revodrive x2 in the future. there is alot of talk about the lack of TRIM, but for me i cannot stand windows 7. (as an operating system i give it 10/10, however the feel and navigation i couldnt bere any longer. i tried the XP thmem patch but it only patched the start menu's but not the icons).

for those of you who have not made the jump to SSD for money reasons, get yourself a 60gig or so boot drive (ocz 60gig for about £100) and then use your other drive for programs, music etc etc. once you feel windows loading in 13 seconds, and apps like office load pretty much the second you have double clicked the icon - you will NEVER turn back.

Yeah i second that i installed a samsung 256gb ssd in my laptop and the same ssd in my desktop runs and loads soo fast.

[cainer]

nails.. what test are you running to find your SSD's read/write speeds? most tests dont work the sandforce controller properly, the ATTO disc benchmark will give true results, i get 286 read/272 write with my vertex LE. if your only getting 200-230 read speed theres smth not right with it imo (although mines the LE version theres not difference in performance to the vertex 2, their both rated ~the same read/write)


dang, didnt break 285 this time lol

Edited by cainer, 16 November 2010 - 10:53 PM.

[nails]

i used hdtune pro and then atto, it was atto that peaked at 23100. i installed windows 7 in achi mode and updated the bios to 2.31, but the transfer rates were still the same. its a sata2 connection on a asus pro motherboard (model escapes me but its a beast of a board with an extra pci-x slot built it!).

i`ll look into it.

[todd1970]

I dont do Dell.

IMO Dells are great PC's..workhorse's built to last,hence probably 95% of workplaces use them..my lad has had his Dell for what must be coming up for 6 years now..ok its fairly outdated now..but never ever had a problem with it..hardware wise.

My self build that i had for just over 3 years before i got this new one was a good machine however...changed the PSU 3 times..GFX twice...HD twice..and gave it to my lad when i got my new one..a week later the motherboard died.

So now its sitting in his room deed..and hes back on his Dell.

Spose ye have to really really know your stuff about these things i do to a certain extent..but components that you 'think' are the best your buying at the time turn out not to be the case.

[Guitar]

IMO Dells are great PC's..workhorse's built to last,hence probably 95% of workplaces use them..my lad has had his Dell for what must be coming up for 6 years now..ok its fairly outdated now..but never ever had a problem with it..hardware wise.

My self build that i had for just over 3 years before i got this new one was a good machine however...changed the PSU 3 times..GFX twice...HD twice..and gave it to my lad when i got my new one..a week later the motherboard died.

So now its sitting in his room deed..and hes back on his Dell.

Spose ye have to really really know your stuff about these things i do to a certain extent..but components that you 'think' are the best your buying at the time turn out not to be the case.

Dell take every short cut they can. They know that most people dont know what they are looking for, for ages everyone just knew that the speed of the processor was important. Basically if they dont list a spec then you can assume its shite, such as fsb speed, L2/L3 cache size, RAM speed, and Dell motherboards are so cheaply made its hideous. Dell are one of the only companies I have seen using PC4200 speed DDRII, because most of their customers just know that DDRII is (was at the time) the best type of RAM, most people however wouldn't know to ask what speed it was.

I can see how they do well in the business sector, cheap business machines for sure, but if you are after a fast gaming machine then forget it.

As for your self build, what PSU were you using? One thing to remember with PSU's is the manufacturers lie about the specs, especially cheap chinese made psu's. If you have to use a cheap PSU get one thats at least double the spec you need, so if you need a 350W PSU, use a 700W one. Its the only way with cheap ones, also the ripple current is hideous on cheap ones.

I recommend ColorsIT gold series PSU's for cheap builds if you really must use a cheap one.

If you are overclocking then a decent PSU is a must have accessory. I use the corsair HX850W Professional series, Toms Hardware Guide review, when it came to ripple current simply said "what ripple". Its unbelievably stable, but then again it was ~£130.

But like a fruity with a dodgy PSU, you get all sorts of weirdness happening, drop in a new one and all is well. PC's are just the same.

[Guitar]

ok my 2p's worth....

im running off a 120 ocz vertex 2, it runs between 200-230mb/sec which is fantastic (ive no idea with the latest firmware how the hell they can say upto 285mb/sec). then ive got a 160gig for my media drive (music/video) and finally a fine samsung f3 500gig for my backup stuff (even this runs as a simgle drive at some 120mb/sec which is awesome for a single non-raid drive).

i plan to get a decet gfx card to replace my ati 4870, and have no doubt i`ll get a revodrive x2 in the future. there is alot of talk about the lack of TRIM, but for me i cannot stand windows 7. (as an operating system i give it 10/10, however the feel and navigation i couldnt bere any longer. i tried the XP thmem patch but it only patched the start menu's but not the icons).

for those of you who have not made the jump to SSD for money reasons, get yourself a 60gig or so boot drive (ocz 60gig for about £100) and then use your other drive for programs, music etc etc. once you feel windows loading in 13 seconds, and apps like office load pretty much the second you have double clicked the icon - you will NEVER turn back.

I tried SSD's and while they worked it was ok, I ended up with 2 patriot PS-100 32GB drives and even after the firmware fix they didnt perform to the spec on the box. 1 of which was faulty too, so it went back and now the other has gone bad. Total cost was £110. So now I'm running 5 standard seagate barracuda 250GB in Raid 0, with a 1TB backup drive, and its much more stable and windows 7 still loads fast and I'm not half as worried about my data.

Maybe once I can afford decent drives such as the OCZ vertex series then it will be worth it, but price per GB at the moment is way too high personally. And a 5 disk raid array is plenty fast enough.

If anyone wants a 32GB SSD or even a pair, let me know, they still have a decent chunk of a 3 year warranty left on them.

[todd1970]

Aye...i spose its the old cliche..you get what you pay for when i had my self build i cant remember the make of the PSU's i had in it..but they were probably cheap crap.

When i went to replace it i did see PSU's from £120+ but didnt really have that kind of cash at the time..so the most i went for was a PSU that cost no more than £50.

[todd1970]

Dell take every short cut they can. They know that most people dont know what they are looking for, for ages everyone just knew that the speed of the processor was important. Basically if they dont list a spec then you can assume its shite, such as fsb speed, L2/L3 cache size, RAM speed, and Dell motherboards are so cheaply made its hideous. Dell are one of the only companies I have seen using PC4200 speed DDRII, because most of their customers just know that DDRII is (was at the time) the best type of RAM, most people however wouldn't know to ask what speed it was.

I can see how they do well in the business sector, cheap business machines for sure, but if you are after a fast gaming machine then forget it.

I just got a Dell Studio XPS 8100 and i hope this isnt the case lol..looked into reviews etc before i commited to it and it seems like a good machine.

Intel i7 860 2.8ghz quad core 8 thread cpu..6gb of 1333mhz ddr3 dual channel ram...1TB sata...1GB Nvidia GTS 240..etc cant remember the exact spec of it..but i did get it on the understanding that it would do me a good while and i wouldnt need to replace any hardware etc for years to come hopefully.

I could have done a self build for about £150 odd cheaper..but at the end of the day i was like...ye know what..fk it i cant be arsed with all the hassle of it.

It does seem like a good gaming machine as i was playing Black Ops on it the other day and it ran like a dream..the last PC it woulda melted the CPU

[Johnnyafc]

Wrong forum this all should go to Fruit Forums home of PC Willy Waving

[goodstone]

dont like Dell.

I had an xps m1710. great laptop witch unlocked 7600g processor. great when it worked. I had 6 call outs on this laptop to replace everything apart from the chassis. In the end refused to get it repaired so they upgraded my to Alienware m17x. i7820qm,at4870 xfire,samsung ssd 128gb, rgb led screen. Fantastic looking laptop, but only having it 6 months the dam thing is going wrong. you only have to tap palm rest to reset computer.

Got to agree dell using cheap parts...