What Have You Done Today - (Computer Version)
- Thread starter tlowr4
- 4,210 comments
- 288,687 views
- 399
- Melbourne, Straya
- M_Hocking
- Sp3edst3r
I uhh.. Basically rebuilt my PC
I hadn't changed a thing since I got it back in Jan 2011, with a
- GTX 660Ti
- 1920x1200 display
- Intel i7 (forgot the type)
- Gigabyte Z77X-D3H motherboard
- 8gb Memory
- 2TB HDD (in total)
It was a budget gaming pc for ~$1300AUD which was running BF4 and CoD Black Ops III at max graphics with no problem! It was a beast pc and i loved it to bits.
But alas, the time came for an upgrade, as i knew one day in the future my dear PC will become redundant as it struggles to play the next gen games...
Luckily, my fathers brother-in-law works at foxtel and they were getting rid of their Mac Pro's, and he offered one to me and my dad (1 each!) And we couldnt let that offer go!
They look like this:
So to give you a basic overview of this monster:
- 128gb memory
- i7 Dual Xeons
- 2560x1440 display
- I dunno the motherboard ^^"
- Still me old GTX 660Ti
- 3TB HDD (added old ones too)
It was a massive upgrade, for free! So I bootcamped the mac to windows 10 but we ran into a few problems As i was in the need of converters so my pc parts could plug into the mac, which meant a couple weeks to say goodbye to my old pc.. But now we got the parts and i can use it freely, and my god playing games with that monitor is absolutely beautiful.
As an added bonus with these screens i get speakers and a camera included so that saved me a bit of $$$ to use on upgrading my Graphics card! xD
TL;DR
I got a PC upgrade where the screen is worth more than my entire previous gaming rig.
I'll post specs tomorrow when I download 3DMark
I hadn't changed a thing since I got it back in Jan 2011, with a
- GTX 660Ti
- 1920x1200 display
- Intel i7 (forgot the type)
- Gigabyte Z77X-D3H motherboard
- 8gb Memory
- 2TB HDD (in total)
It was a budget gaming pc for ~$1300AUD which was running BF4 and CoD Black Ops III at max graphics with no problem! It was a beast pc and i loved it to bits.
But alas, the time came for an upgrade, as i knew one day in the future my dear PC will become redundant as it struggles to play the next gen games...
Luckily, my fathers brother-in-law works at foxtel and they were getting rid of their Mac Pro's, and he offered one to me and my dad (1 each!) And we couldnt let that offer go!
They look like this:
So to give you a basic overview of this monster:
- 128gb memory
- i7 Dual Xeons
- 2560x1440 display
- I dunno the motherboard ^^"
- Still me old GTX 660Ti
- 3TB HDD (added old ones too)
It was a massive upgrade, for free! So I bootcamped the mac to windows 10 but we ran into a few problems As i was in the need of converters so my pc parts could plug into the mac, which meant a couple weeks to say goodbye to my old pc.. But now we got the parts and i can use it freely, and my god playing games with that monitor is absolutely beautiful.
As an added bonus with these screens i get speakers and a camera included so that saved me a bit of $$$ to use on upgrading my Graphics card! xD
TL;DR
I got a PC upgrade where the screen is worth more than my entire previous gaming rig.
I'll post specs tomorrow when I download 3DMark
Last edited:
- 9,168
- United Kingdom
- neema_t
@Sp3edst3r wow, that's pretty much a dream rig for a lot of people, two Xeons! Shame there's very few games that'll take advantage of that many cores, but still! I myself used to have a Mac Pro but it was the lowest spec, 'only' a quad core 2.66GHz Xeon - that was still a pretty big deal in 2009. I switched to PC when I saw what Apple wanted for an AMD 5970, it was somehow the same price as a GTX 590...
Anyway, apart from dealing with all sorts of computers and their problems at work, today I daydreamed about building another PC. My current one (i5 4690k/GTX 960/8GB) is only a year old but now that I have a job and Pascal is around the corner, I kind of want to go i7 6700k/GTX 1070/16GB or something. I'd then probably downgrade my current one so it'd fit in a HTPC case (I don't even know if that's necessary) and use it as a lightweight console and streaming box.
Talk me down! I was even looking at 6-core Haswell-E i7s yesterday!
Anyway, apart from dealing with all sorts of computers and their problems at work, today I daydreamed about building another PC. My current one (i5 4690k/GTX 960/8GB) is only a year old but now that I have a job and Pascal is around the corner, I kind of want to go i7 6700k/GTX 1070/16GB or something. I'd then probably downgrade my current one so it'd fit in a HTPC case (I don't even know if that's necessary) and use it as a lightweight console and streaming box.
Talk me down! I was even looking at 6-core Haswell-E i7s yesterday!
- 399
- Melbourne, Straya
- M_Hocking
- Sp3edst3r
Yeah I know xD my dad looked at the specs for it and was silent for a while before turning to me and saying that "we mightnt need to upgrade our pc's for quite a long time now"
I showed it to a couple of me mates who are pc gamers as well and they said almost the same thing as you when i mentioned the xeons and memory xD
My next goal is to put up a multi-display of 27" monitors to complete my rig, but that all starts with my graphics card which is my first step in my journey
- 399
- Melbourne, Straya
- M_Hocking
- Sp3edst3r
Yep me and me dad got one each, aparrently foxtel where my uncle works was throwing them all out as they were "out of date" so he just offered the ones he got a hold of to us ^^Wow, you got that for free? Dayum. When do I get mine?
Seriously though, that is insane... makes my 6-core i7 4930k and 64 GB of RAM seem console peasant-ish in comparison.
My dual 780 Ti's smack the crap out of your 660 Ti at least...
Yeah my 660Ti kinda brings down the epic-ness a bit
so i gotta upgrade that ASAP! My dads got a 970 so he's alright for now.. What would you recommend for cards?
- 399
- Melbourne, Straya
- M_Hocking
- Sp3edst3r
Aight so I ran a 3DMark and it really is my GPU slowing the PC down
Just some stuff I didn't add last night due to me not knowing:
GRAPHICS CARD
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti
Vendor: Giga-Byte Technology Co., Ltd.
# of cards: 1
SLI / CrossFire: Off
Memory: 3,072 MB
Core clock: 1,228 MHz
Memory bus clock: 1,502 MHz
Driver version: 10.18.13.6510
PROCESSOR
Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5650 @ 2.67GHz
Reported stock core clock: 2,793 MHz
Maximum turbo core clock: 2,925 MHz
Physical / logical processors: 2 / 24
# of cores: 6
PackageManufacturing process: 0 nm
TDP: 0 W
GENERAL
Motherboard: Apple Inc. Mac-F221BEC8
Monitor: Apple Thunderbolt Display (27-inch @ 2560x1440)
Rated 5277 on FireStrike and 1277 on FireStrike Ultra so not *quite* ready for 4k gaming Maybe when I get a better GPU and reach the FireStrike OVER 9000! Achievement 👍
Just some stuff I didn't add last night due to me not knowing:
GRAPHICS CARD
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti
Vendor: Giga-Byte Technology Co., Ltd.
# of cards: 1
SLI / CrossFire: Off
Memory: 3,072 MB
Core clock: 1,228 MHz
Memory bus clock: 1,502 MHz
Driver version: 10.18.13.6510
PROCESSOR
Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5650 @ 2.67GHz
Reported stock core clock: 2,793 MHz
Maximum turbo core clock: 2,925 MHz
Physical / logical processors: 2 / 24
# of cores: 6
PackageManufacturing process: 0 nm
TDP: 0 W
GENERAL
Motherboard: Apple Inc. Mac-F221BEC8
Monitor: Apple Thunderbolt Display (27-inch @ 2560x1440)
Rated 5277 on FireStrike and 1277 on FireStrike Ultra so not *quite* ready for 4k gaming
Maybe when I get a better GPU and reach the FireStrike OVER 9000! Achievement 👍
And you can get a 5 year old double Xeon CPU workstation for quite a bargain.
- 11,985
- Australia
- I_Grayson_Fox_I
Sent my mainboard off for warranty.
It keep detecting the 3.3v rail as 3.0v resulting in the system shutting down.
So I have my old assed mainboard with a 2.13Ghz E6420 CPU and 4GB of RAM and it is so slow, even with the CPU OC to 2.5Ghz.
And to top it off I cant find any replacement LGA1155 mainboards that suit my needs so I might have to do an entire upgrade which i do not have the money for.
It keep detecting the 3.3v rail as 3.0v resulting in the system shutting down.
So I have my old assed mainboard with a 2.13Ghz E6420 CPU and 4GB of RAM and it is so slow, even with the CPU OC to 2.5Ghz.
And to top it off I cant find any replacement LGA1155 mainboards that suit my needs so I might have to do an entire upgrade which i do not have the money for.
- 110
- US, Kentucky
- suv139
I was a total dumb ass. I have a Notuca Industrial AF 14 3K RPM fan, in other words quite a loud fan at RPM the only nosier fans you are going to get are going to geared towards enterprise use. Anyways I kept plugging into what I thought was a 4 pin fan header and was at a total lost why I had no control over it. I came across a post on PCPP which made me think maybe its best to double check my motherboard manual. What do you know, I've been plugging into a 3 fan header the whole time for about 6 months. After that I went and plugged it into a actual 4 pin/PWM header.
- 26,911
- Houston, Texas, USA
- JMarine25
Using Blender, I have managed to gain a bit more confidence learning how to use the Cycles Renderer as well as set things up for it. You need a proper studio setup for your scene and great use of nodes for your work. You may also have to tweak certain models to better take advantage of the Cycles Render and to get better render results.
As an off-topic deal, when I looked at one website, someone mentioned using over 1,000 samples when using Blender Cycles Render. 1,000? I simply use 175 at most. But of course, I don't have hyper-realistic models or scenes in my creations.
As an off-topic deal, when I looked at one website, someone mentioned using over 1,000 samples when using Blender Cycles Render. 1,000? I simply use 175 at most. But of course, I don't have hyper-realistic models or scenes in my creations.
Mr Latte
Premium
- 5,049
- N Ireland
Guys has anyone purchased from SCDKEY for "Steam Titles"?
Currently see DIRT RALLY for under 18 quid.
Sorry just getting back into PC gaming and I never heard of this place but has some cracking deals.
(edit / never mind found KINGUIN and ordered)
Currently see DIRT RALLY for under 18 quid.
Sorry just getting back into PC gaming and I never heard of this place but has some cracking deals.
(edit / never mind found KINGUIN and ordered)
Last edited:
- 5,065
- Fort Worth
- That_sneaky_azN
Alright I guess.
- 9,168
- United Kingdom
- neema_t
It's not something I've done, but I had quite a fascinating chat with my dad yesterday.
As a kid we always had Apple computers and other gear around the house. I knew he ran a company that repaired them, but at the time I had no appreciation for the scale. I realised last week that although I knew he had places in Europe and one in East Asia, I still didn't really understand anything about his business - except that it went under in 2004.
It turns out his business, started in 1996, was huge. Like, far larger than I'd ever imagined. He ran Apple's only third party servicing company for the entire EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asia) region, while there were smaller shops too his company was the one Apple would send defective units to and most customers (which means normal people like us, shops with returned defective goods, businesses, everyone) would deal with him directly.
In the late '90s his company was doing a 3 day repair service. 3 days! I can't even imagine ordering a computer from Apple and having it arrive any sooner than that. His business was so effective that the managing director of Samsung's UK servicing centre phoned home and said "we should just contract our repairs to these people, we're just playing compared to what they can do", so that's what they did. He almost bought some Samsung repair centres in Singapore, too.
Then the first iBooks came out in the early '00s which was when things started to go wrong. There was a design flaw whereby the graphics chip was under the left hand side of the hand rest, the cooling was inadequate so the board would warp, the GPU would overheat and basically do the same as most early Xbox 360s died from. Failure rates were huge, his company struggled to turn them around fast enough and repeat failure rates were also extremely high because the repairs couldn't fix the flaw, if you've ever opened a Mac you'll probably understand why (they are extremely tightly-packaged, after all). Then with the Aluminium PowerBooks they had more issues; Apple decided to stop using A-grade LCD panels and a huge number - he said roughly 2,500 a week, while other models were half that - came back with clouding, dead pixels, backlight problems... And even with their complete Samsung panel repair facility next door they completely failed to keep up with the failures. Apple decided that was an appropriate time to cut their ties with his business, which died almost overnight, and moved on to copy his business model (which they and others are still using) and run their own centralised servicing instead of the distributed system they tried before.
In achieving their 3-day servicing programme they had a database that could be queried to show exactly where a given serial number was (down to the bench in the workshop), what the fault was, when it arrived, who was working on it and what work had been done already (and when, and including batch numbers of replacement components), but they couldn't tie it in with TNT's courier services because their database was completely closed off from the Internet. He negotiated with them to integrate the databases so that customers could log in to send a "help my computer is broken" report, TNT would then take an ADT (his company) box to the customer, pack their computer up, ship it directly to his company (as in, they'd fill 40' containers with computers destined for his company, put them on a lorry that would then drive straight to him), meanwhile the customer could see the exact process of their computer from end to end. This was in 1997! But TNT figured out how his database worked, stole it and offered the same service directly to Apple.
Oh and at one point, the Belgian government made him an offer (something like £5 million over 5 years) to build a facility actually inside Liege airport, next to all the freight companies, so computers could be offloaded from a plane straight into their factory line. That's some pretty high volume work!
I thought I'd share that very brief summary with you because I found it fascinating and thought someone else might too.
Also as a result of his business I was the first person in the UK to own an iPod, which I was unaware of until yesterday. Because, of course, he got some from Apple to test and develop repair routines for and when that was completed he didn't need it any more but he wasn't allowed to sell it, so he gave it to me. I had no idea what to do with it until one of his techs showed me the secret block breaker game. I doubt it myself, though, I'm sure there were some higher-ups in Apple's UK personnel who had them before me.
As a kid we always had Apple computers and other gear around the house. I knew he ran a company that repaired them, but at the time I had no appreciation for the scale. I realised last week that although I knew he had places in Europe and one in East Asia, I still didn't really understand anything about his business - except that it went under in 2004.
It turns out his business, started in 1996, was huge. Like, far larger than I'd ever imagined. He ran Apple's only third party servicing company for the entire EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asia) region, while there were smaller shops too his company was the one Apple would send defective units to and most customers (which means normal people like us, shops with returned defective goods, businesses, everyone) would deal with him directly.
In the late '90s his company was doing a 3 day repair service. 3 days! I can't even imagine ordering a computer from Apple and having it arrive any sooner than that. His business was so effective that the managing director of Samsung's UK servicing centre phoned home and said "we should just contract our repairs to these people, we're just playing compared to what they can do", so that's what they did. He almost bought some Samsung repair centres in Singapore, too.
Then the first iBooks came out in the early '00s which was when things started to go wrong. There was a design flaw whereby the graphics chip was under the left hand side of the hand rest, the cooling was inadequate so the board would warp, the GPU would overheat and basically do the same as most early Xbox 360s died from. Failure rates were huge, his company struggled to turn them around fast enough and repeat failure rates were also extremely high because the repairs couldn't fix the flaw, if you've ever opened a Mac you'll probably understand why (they are extremely tightly-packaged, after all). Then with the Aluminium PowerBooks they had more issues; Apple decided to stop using A-grade LCD panels and a huge number - he said roughly 2,500 a week, while other models were half that - came back with clouding, dead pixels, backlight problems... And even with their complete Samsung panel repair facility next door they completely failed to keep up with the failures. Apple decided that was an appropriate time to cut their ties with his business, which died almost overnight, and moved on to copy his business model (which they and others are still using) and run their own centralised servicing instead of the distributed system they tried before.
In achieving their 3-day servicing programme they had a database that could be queried to show exactly where a given serial number was (down to the bench in the workshop), what the fault was, when it arrived, who was working on it and what work had been done already (and when, and including batch numbers of replacement components), but they couldn't tie it in with TNT's courier services because their database was completely closed off from the Internet. He negotiated with them to integrate the databases so that customers could log in to send a "help my computer is broken" report, TNT would then take an ADT (his company) box to the customer, pack their computer up, ship it directly to his company (as in, they'd fill 40' containers with computers destined for his company, put them on a lorry that would then drive straight to him), meanwhile the customer could see the exact process of their computer from end to end. This was in 1997! But TNT figured out how his database worked, stole it and offered the same service directly to Apple.
Oh and at one point, the Belgian government made him an offer (something like £5 million over 5 years) to build a facility actually inside Liege airport, next to all the freight companies, so computers could be offloaded from a plane straight into their factory line. That's some pretty high volume work!
I thought I'd share that very brief summary with you because I found it fascinating and thought someone else might too.
Also as a result of his business I was the first person in the UK to own an iPod, which I was unaware of until yesterday. Because, of course, he got some from Apple to test and develop repair routines for and when that was completed he didn't need it any more but he wasn't allowed to sell it, so he gave it to me. I had no idea what to do with it until one of his techs showed me the secret block breaker game. I doubt it myself, though, I'm sure there were some higher-ups in Apple's UK personnel who had them before me.
- 7,689
- Michigan
- Rallywgn81
I cursed, swore and cried a bit at my PC... My c: failed. Good thing I only house the OS and few non-consequential apps onnthat drive, and time to properly back up the other two...
- 7,689
- Michigan
- Rallywgn81
A buddy of mine for some inexplicable reason bought a Rift before a good graphics card... Confusing, but works out for me as I get to borrow it until he gets 1080. Awesome, sort of... I have a measly 2 gig R9 380, so it's not exactly VR ready, but it is mildly capable.
First round of gaming was the game that comes with the headset, twist tail or something like that, a neat platformer that reminds me a lot of Crash Bandicoot. Played with no issues and looked great. Neat game to show off the unit. My daughter really loved it.
Second round was WarThunder. I was mousing since I was just giving it a test run, so the full experience wasn't there, but it was good! I am going to struggle not playing this way anymore. Even with the 380 it played just fine with only a very very rare jitter. Watching someone play this with the Rift DK1 a few years back is what sold me on VR, and it did not disappoint.
Finally I played, or rather, I tried playing PCars. Clearly my card is not up to that task, the tearing and jitters were bad enough that I had to stop before the end of my first race because I nearly blew chunks! That said, it was really cool while it lasted. Next up will be Subnatica.
As for the unit itself, it's got a plastic front, some sort of cloth surround and a plastic "headband." For the cost I would have expected something a little less chincy feeling, but it works well enough. Adjustments and set up were easy enough and the headphones on the unit aren't half bad. Out of it all, my biggest complaint, and sadly it's a bit if a deal breaker for me, the screen tech just isn't there yet. It was still a bit grainy and pixelated. Perhaps a better GPU will help, but I think only a little bit. There is also a fair bit of glare from the screen onto the lenses. I'm not sure if the Vive has better resolution, but the Rift certainly does suffer a bit due to its screen.
All this said, VR is amazing! I'm not sure if I will be able to race in such a fashion without motion, but I can see lots of potential in nearly every genre of gaming and other types of programs. Better resolution and perhaps some virtual hands that track yours and this will be absolutely amazing.
First round of gaming was the game that comes with the headset, twist tail or something like that, a neat platformer that reminds me a lot of Crash Bandicoot. Played with no issues and looked great. Neat game to show off the unit. My daughter really loved it.
Second round was WarThunder. I was mousing since I was just giving it a test run, so the full experience wasn't there, but it was good! I am going to struggle not playing this way anymore. Even with the 380 it played just fine with only a very very rare jitter. Watching someone play this with the Rift DK1 a few years back is what sold me on VR, and it did not disappoint.
Finally I played, or rather, I tried playing PCars. Clearly my card is not up to that task, the tearing and jitters were bad enough that I had to stop before the end of my first race because I nearly blew chunks! That said, it was really cool while it lasted. Next up will be Subnatica.
As for the unit itself, it's got a plastic front, some sort of cloth surround and a plastic "headband." For the cost I would have expected something a little less chincy feeling, but it works well enough. Adjustments and set up were easy enough and the headphones on the unit aren't half bad. Out of it all, my biggest complaint, and sadly it's a bit if a deal breaker for me, the screen tech just isn't there yet. It was still a bit grainy and pixelated. Perhaps a better GPU will help, but I think only a little bit. There is also a fair bit of glare from the screen onto the lenses. I'm not sure if the Vive has better resolution, but the Rift certainly does suffer a bit due to its screen.
All this said, VR is amazing! I'm not sure if I will be able to race in such a fashion without motion, but I can see lots of potential in nearly every genre of gaming and other types of programs. Better resolution and perhaps some virtual hands that track yours and this will be absolutely amazing.
- 4,089
- Utah
I am indecisive... I just built a gaming rig two months ago and I already want to upgrade the GPU. I am debating myself if I just go ahead and pick up a 1070 next pay check, or wait a couple of months and go for the 1080. I currently have a GTX 970.
I'm also getting a liquid cooler for my overclocked 6600k.
I'm also getting a liquid cooler for my overclocked 6600k.
- 7,689
- Michigan
- Rallywgn81
BobK
Premium
- 7,020
- Massachusetts, USA
I could do that. All I'd have to do is repeat the copy I did 6000 times.
A simple shell script could do that.
I didn't note the exact time but it was on the order of an hour. 123,968 files and 9170 directories.
- 9,168
- United Kingdom
- neema_t
I bought another SSD (my second 850 Evo 512GB), bringing my total up to four with 1.5TB storage. I don't need it - I've just been thinking I'd like to use Shadowplay again - but I'd like to get my OS onto a bigger SSD and eventually have four 512GB drives instead of two 256 and two 512. This is largely for OCD reasons. I might even RAID them or something, who knows. I don't, because I don't know anything about how to RAID things. I've heard you can get more speed that way...?
- 10,836
- Belgium
- bramturismo
bluemoon_19
Premium
- 1,177
- England, Yorkshire
- bluemoon_19
I cleaned all the dust out my system and re-applied thermal paste to CPU. I had to do it since my CPU was hitting 81 degrees and usually it tops out at about 70. I messed around a bit with fan control on bios since the fans were set to constant 60% now they can spin too 100% if needed. I play most games with a headset so I can't hear the fans anyway.
