[Henry Jones Jr]

All the stuffs packaging inside seems undamaged, but I would not be shocked if something has to be RMA's now.

When I got my 670GTX in yesterday, it looked like someone had given the box a swift kick. I always seem to have that gripe with UPS. FedEx seems to always get me my packages in much better condition, but they are expensive.

Speaking of my 670GTX, I seem to be having problems outputting DTS to my receiver. All I get is static. Anyone know of any solutions? I know my receiver can decode DTS, but I wouldn’t be opposed to just having the computer decode it and output PCM if that is possible.

[ochobit]

Any decent recommended Blu Ray drives in the $50-60 dollar mark?

[kharma45]

I think I fixed it, now only braid is running with those black borders, Amnesia is fullscreen now, not that I have many games to test, right now I only have the last Humble Bundle, I'm downloading Trine 2 Demo and see where i goes.

Braid I think has borders as part of its design from my memory of playing it on my laptop.

Let me know what Trine turns out like, hopefully it's sorted now for you.

Looked into OCing the card yet?

[diamount]

Just some more general bitching about shipping. This is what my box from Newegg showed up looking like:

Looks to me the courier had some fun with it.

[Slayer-33]

that's how my 670 box looked when I received it, the card was fine, but... wtf

I wonder wtf they were doing with that box lol

[Eiolon]

Just some more general bitching about shipping. This is what my box from Newegg showed up looking like:

That sucks. My brother used to work for DHL at the airport. He said their internal motto was "If it's not broken by the time it gets to us, it's broken by the time it leaves us." Highly doubt it was NewEgg that did it.

[Henry Jones Jr]

Any decent recommended Blu Ray drives in the $50-60 dollar mark?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106374

This is what I just got the other day so I haven't had a chance to really test it out yet, but LITE-ON has never done me wrong in the past.

[Ceebs]

Any decent recommended Blu Ray drives in the $50-60 dollar mark?

I just installed this one and watched a bit of Speed Racer. (mainly to check out the colors on this new monitor)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827135247

Be warned, buying the OEM ones means no Blu-Ray software, and I am not sure how legit the method I used to get VLC to play it was. (But honestly, I don't give a shit. I own the movie so I am going to watch it however I can)

[Previous]

Whoa did bluray drive prices drop, I swear they were around $100 in January last I checked

[diamount]

Whoa did bluray drive prices drop, I swear they were around $100 in January last I checked

I'm trying to find a point in 'em. My internet speed is fast enough to download movies (ahem legally ofc) but I kinda want one just for the sake of it.

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

I'm trying to find a point in 'em. My internet speed is fast enough to download movies (ahem legally ofc) but I kinda want one just for the sake of it.

I've bought enough that I want to start ripping stuff for convenience. I hope they've started to drop finally.

[Big Papa Husker]

Well my G11 keyboard died tonight after I accidentally knocked a quarter can of coke zero onto it. I popped off all the keys and cleaned it up, but when I plugged it back in I am getting gibberish on some of the keys. The up key, for instance, cycles through Num Lock and Scroll Lock.

Anyway, are there any comparable keyboards to the G11 that you guys recommend?

[mkenyon]

Well my G11 keyboard died tonight after I accidentally knocked a quarter can of coke zero onto it. I popped off all the keys and cleaned it up, but when I plugged it back in I am getting gibberish on some of the keys. The up key, for instance, cycles through Num Lock and Scroll Lock. Anyway, are there any comparable keyboards to the G11 that you guys recommend?

Corsair K90 has a full set of macro keys, but is a bit pricey at $130.



CM Storm Trigger comes with delicious MX Browns and has a single row of macro keys



CM Storm Quickfire is a tenkeyless keyboard, and very high quality. Can order it with a range of MX keys including blues, blacks, and browns.



Personal choice would be the last one as I like my arms closer together when gaming. Not much MMO stuff going on so those macro keys are pretty much useless to me.

[Big Papa Husker]

I didn't use the macro keys at all after I stopped playing MMOs a few years ago. I'd like one where the media keys and volume are separate and don't require a function key.

[Costcosaurus]

I can't decide which PC case to buy. I want something in the $150 range, with USB 3.0 ports on the front panel preferred.

[Kalnos]

I can't decide which PC case to buy. I want something in the $150 range, with USB 3.0 ports on the front panel preferred.

Lian Li PC-9F

Corsair Obsidian 550

Fractal Design R3

Tried to link some variety. :p

[MrBig]

I didn't use the macro keys at all after I stopped playing MMOs a few years ago. I'd like one where the media keys and volume are separate and don't require a function key.

K60 would be great for you then. It's a K90 without the useless backlighting and macro keys.

[specialguy]

I've bought enough that I want to start ripping stuff for convenience. I hope they've started to drop finally.

Yeah they are pointless. Hell DVD drives almost are, but for 20 bucks for drivers discs might as well keep one of those.

I remember when I built PC's with floppy disc drives...or the hard disks, whatever they were called, 3.5" or something.

[Ceebs]

I've bought enough that I want to start ripping stuff for convenience. I hope they've started to drop finally.

That is my plan. I also like watching movies at my desk from time to time. Waiting until HDD prices come back down a bit more though before I start ripping. I want to store the full 20 gig uncompressed video files.

[Themacabre]

I can't decide which PC case to buy. I want something in the $150 range, with USB 3.0 ports on the front panel preferred.

Take a look at the fractal design Arc Midi.

[Jtwo]

So you know, Lian Li makes most of the Apple Cases :P

Wait, Lian Li manufactures the MacPro cases? Interesting, but they still don't design them.

Idk, those fin/handles just aren't doing it for me. I've been researching around to water cooling for the CPU onthe ft03 mini, and it's a little restrictive because there's only room or a 1inch thick radiator at the bottom of the case. Supposedly you could make more room by trimming off this mounting bracket for the optical bay, but I don't want to do that. The ft03 is about as close to a featureless inoffensive monolith ad you can get.

Your point about the i5/i7 is interesting. I'm pretty sure the ones I looking at the i7 had a bigger cache. Getting to 4ghz does have a certain appeal though, I had not really considered that. I got your pm, I appreciate the help. Ill check out the links when I get home from work.

[ochobit]

Thanks for the recommendation, gents.

[mkenyon]

I can't decide which PC case to buy. I want something in the $150 range, with USB 3.0 ports on the front panel preferred.

BitFenix Shinobi XL, Lian Li PC 90 (on sale at the egg right now), NZXT Switch 810, Fractal Arc Midi, Coolermaster Storm Trooper, Silverstone TJ-04, Coolermaster 690II Advanced are all of the best choices in that range.

[Hazaro]

Newegg has a Tribes Ascend promo running right now on some Intel stuff and Sandy Bridge CPUs.

[kharma45]

Anyone with an AMD card, if you don't know already the new 12.6 drivers are out.

[dark10x]

So I'm now running an i5-3570k instead of an i7-930 and the improvements are interesting.

In the past upgrades typically resulted in pretty obvious improvements, but this time, what I'm seeing is actually just as compelling but much more subtle. Basically, most of the rough spots encountered in games are smoothed out.

Take Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. On the older i7 + GTX580 I was seeing 60 fps a good 95% of the time but there were still plenty of courses and turns in which you would briefly see the framerate dip. It was nothing too severe and most people wouldn't complain but it always bothered me. Using the same video card with the 3570k, however, completely eliminates these hitches that I previous experienced. I also find that I can use 4x SGSSAA + FXAA for no penalty. It's very impressive.

Sonic Generations was another interesting one. It ran at a near flawless 60 fps previously, but I always had issues with the Chemical Plant Zone (particularly around water) where you'd see serious drops for a short period of time. Those issues are now eliminated on the new CPU.

I'm finding this to be the case across pretty much all games. Spots that used to hitch up or drop frames previously no longer do so resulting in a more consistent experience.

There are still some exceptions, though. I continue to be amazed at how poorly optimized Splinter Cell Conviction truly is. I have a fondness for the game for some reason but, man, does it run poorly. It's based on some permutation of Unreal Engine 2, I believe, and has a number of newer features implemented but it's limited to smaller levels and is only striking as a result of its art design. So, even on this setup, I STILL cannot hold 60 fps. It's close now, but there are plenty of instances where it drops well below 60. I simply cannot believe how poorly optimized the game is. Also, I cannot even use the 30 fps limit (1/2 v-sync) as that results in super lengthy loading times (which happens with a select few games including Skryim when this feature is enabled). Of course, the XBOX360 version is even more of a mess with constant slowdown, tearing, and a low resolution. The game was just very poorly coded. All of the features they bolted onto UE2 just don't operate smoothly.

Overall, though, I'm really enjoying the upgrade.

[BolognaSoup]

I wonder why that promotion is Sandy Bridge only.

My Crossover 27Q shipped last night. Accessorieswhole has been awesome so far. they even offered me a small discount

[Smokey]

I thought with sgssaa you had to pair it with msaa? 4x msaa + 4x sgssaa for example.

[dark10x]

I thought with sgssaa you had to pair it with msaa? 4x msaa + 4x sgssaa for example.

Correct. You used 4x MSAA + 4x SGSSAA + FXAA. When you combine all three the result is a perfectly smooth image. FXAA actually really DOES help here.

[Smokey]

Correct. You used 4x MSAA + 4x SGSSAA + FXAA. When you combine all three the result is a perfectly smooth image. FXAA actually really DOES help here.

I was playing hot pursuit past few days so ill have to try this and was messing with all kinds of AA in inspector. Since we are talking about that game is using msaa+ssaa redundant?

[Sethos]

Corsair K90 has a full set of macro keys, but is a bit pricey at $130.

Do NOT buy this shit, they have a massive issue with their firmware where keys get "stuck", especially the backspace key. So it'll just start erasing all the shit you just wrote, it'll hold down modifier keys ( Shift, Alt etc. ) out of the blue and it has made me rage so bad.

Still no ETA on the firmware fix.

[kharma45]

I wonder why that promotion is Sandy Bridge only.

I'd imagine to shift stock so they can focus on selling Ivy Bridge.

[Ceebs]

I wonder why that promotion is Sandy Bridge only. My Crossover 27Q shipped last night. Accessorieswhole has been awesome so far. they even offered me a small discount

I will go ahead and warn you...Drop the brightness way down when you first get it until you get used to the screen a bit. I dropped it 3 notches to match a calibrated color profile and even that ended up giving me a headache on the first day. Out of the box it's like staring at the sun.

[BolognaSoup]

I will go ahead and warn you...Drop the brightness way down when you first get it until you get used to the screen a bit. I dropped it 3 notches to match a calibrated color profile and even that ended up giving me a headache on the first day. Out of the box it's like staring at the sun.

Cool. It will probably be even more so for me because I'm coming from a 6 year old MacBook. I have to order all my other parts this weekend.

[Coldsnap]

I still havn't tried to set up 4:4:4 Chroma on my new LG display that's about 3 months old. It just seems like so much of a hassle and I cant understand 90% of the steps.

[Graafke]

I was planning to buy an ASUS GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 but it is out of stock everywhere in The Netherlands with no clear sign when they'll be available again. Are these cards that scarce?

Anyway, I'm contemplating if I should just wait for it to be in stock or should I go with the non-TOP version? Alternatively, I could also buy an EVGA Geforce GTX 670 FTW. Is the difference with these video cards in performance substantial in games? Or does anyone have a better suggestion?

[SiegfriedFM]

Some friends recommended a GeForce GTX 560, so I might go with that and a SSD of a suitable size. Now I just need to figure out how much I need to keep on C:.

[abunai]

I was planning to buy an ASUS GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 but it is out of stock everywhere in The Netherlands with no clear sign when they'll be available again. Are these cards that scarce? Anyway, I'm contemplating if I should just wait for it to be in stock or should I go with the non-TOP version? Alternatively, I could also buy an EVGA Geforce GTX 670 FTW. Is the difference with these video cards in performance substantial in games? Or does anyone have a better suggestion?

The TOP version has been known to cause crashes/bsod when boost kicks in, but there's not a whole load of people saying it. Probably just an unlucky minority on the internet. You can always overclock the non-TOP version manually. The EVGA GTX 670 FTW has essentially the same performance as the Asus cards, give or take 1 or 2 fps in each direction. The fan on the FTW is louder though, noticeably so but not to a huge degree.

[Ceebs]

Cool. It will probably be even more so for me because I'm coming from a 6 year old MacBook. I have to order all my other parts this weekend.

Yeah like I said I went from an ancient (I bought it in like 2004) 19" LCD to this. It was jarring to say the least.

[TouchMyBox]

Newegg has a Tribes Ascend promo running right now on some Intel stuff and Sandy Bridge CPUs. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/VBHtX.jpg[IMG]

NCIX has the same promo for Canardiananas.

[mkenyon]

Do NOT buy this shit, they have a massive issue with their firmware where keys get "stuck", especially the backspace key. So it'll just start erasing all the shit you just wrote, it'll hold down modifier keys ( Shift, Alt etc. ) out of the blue and it has made me rage so bad. Still no ETA on the firmware fix.

Thanks for that! I was trying to think of a board that had macro keys, and that's the only one that I hadn't heard anything bad about. Will keep in mind for sure.

[kharma45]

Some friends recommended a GeForce GTX 560, so I might go with that and a SSD of a suitable size. Now I just need to figure out how much I need to keep on C:.

Just the regular 560? The 560Ti is a much better card if you're wanting to go nVidia.

[SiegfriedFM]

Maybe, but it's also 35% more expensive. I need to draw the line somewhere.

[mkenyon]

Maybe, but it's also 35% more expensive. I need to draw the line somewhere.

It's a huge difference in performance, and worth every penny. 560 will be one of those middling upgrades that will leave you wanting in a year.

[DrBaalzamon]

It's a huge difference in performance, and worth every penny. 560 will be one of those middling upgrades that will leave you wanting in a year.

I cannot agree more. If anything, just wait and save for the 560ti or higher. You will be glad you did in the long run.

[kharma45]

Maybe, but it's also 35% more expensive. I need to draw the line somewhere.

If you can't afford to spend more money then a 6870 should be available for the same price roughly and again is a better card than the regular 560.

[mkenyon]

If you can't afford to spend more money then a 6870 should be available for the same price roughly and again is a better card than the regular 560.

That too.

[SiegfriedFM]

The 6870 is about $15 cheaper, but someone said it needs a "molex -> pcie-adapter", whatever that is. My friends recommended the 560 but admittedly they prefer Nvidia. If you're saying the Radeon card is better at that price, I guess I'll go for that.

It has a speed of 900 MHz versus 830 MHz for the Nvidia, is that what makes it faster? I don't want to mess with overclocking, I want my stuff to be stable for years.

With that said, as for the drive I think I'm gonna go with an Intel 330 120GB drive, roughly $30 more expensive than a similar drive in another brand but that one had lots of complaints about BSODs. After replacing my motherboard (and CPU+RAM) last fall because of BSODs galore I don't ever want to see one again.

[claviertekky]

The 6870 is about $15 cheaper, but someone said it needs a "molex -> pcie-adapter", whatever that is. My friends recommended the 560 but admittedly they prefer Nvidia. If you're saying the Radeon card is better at that price, I guess I'll go for that. It has a speed of 900 MHz versus 830 MHz for the Nvidia, is that what makes it faster? I don't want to mess with overclocking, I want my stuff to be stable for years. With that said, as for the drive I think I'm gonna go with an Intel 330 120GB drive, roughly $30 more expensive than a similar drive in another brand but that one had lots of complaints about BSODs. After replacing my motherboard (and CPU+RAM) last fall because of BSODs galore I don't ever want to see one again.

If your friends recommended the Geforce 560, then they don't know what they're talking about. Geforce 560 Ti or better for Nvidia.

HD6870 is best for its money in its class.

As for the SSD, have you looked at the Crucial M4 or Samsung 830?

[SiegfriedFM]

Samsung is a bit more expensive. Cheapest M4 is about the same as the Intel, but has only 175 MB write speed. Seems a bit low compared to the others.