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[mblitek]

Sound cards.

Right now I'm just outputting by Optical from my motherboard to my receiver. My motherboard is a Gigabyte X58A UD7 Is it worth it to buy a soundcard?

If so, which one? Is Creative still good?

 

[chaosblade]

Another Raidmax PSU. You could definitely get something from a better manufacturer for the price. 700W is overkill and 46A on two rails isn't all that great.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013

Single rail at 44A, which will actually provide more power than the other one. And 550W is fine for that system. And it's less likely to catch on fire It's not modular though.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

Sound cards.

Right now I'm just outputting by Optical from my motherboard to my receiver. My motherboard is a Gigabyte X58A UD7 Is it worth it to buy a soundcard?

If so, which one? Is Creative still good?

Soundcards are not worth buying for unless you have a music studio. Your motherboard has all the slots it need.

 

[Marco1]

Sound cards.

Right now I'm just outputting by Optical from my motherboard to my receiver. My motherboard is a Gigabyte X58A UD7 Is it worth it to buy a soundcard?

If so, which one? Is Creative still good?

I have not had any problems with my creative but alot of people seem to if you go on to their forums.
ASUS would be the next if I was to pick one though.
Also ask yourself if you really need one though.

 

[Sethos]

Soundcards are not worth buying for unless you have a music studio.

... or if you have some quality equipment that benefits from amping and you don't want to spend an arm and a leg on external amps.

Onboard sound has been nothing but problems for me with static, awful drivers and so-so quality.

Can definitely recommend the new ASUS cards, they are fantastic. Have the Essence STX myself. A High-Gain amp on the Sennheiser 650 and it's like a slice of heaven.

 

[Smokey]

You remove any previous sound card drivers and disable on board sound? Asus drivers are generally very good.

Yep.

 

[vertopci]

Must've brought a Creative card.

This joke worked like...3 years ago. Nowadays, it just shows you have no idea what you're talking about.

Soundcards are not worth buying for unless you have a music studio. Your motherboard has all the slots it need.

Hell no. The onboard soundcards are complete and utter complete shit.

Sound cards.

Right now I'm just outputting by Optical from my motherboard to my receiver. My motherboard is a Gigabyte X58A UD7 Is it worth it to buy a soundcard?

If so, which one? Is Creative still good?

Auzentech X-Fi Forte! Best soundcard ever!

 

[darkblade77]

Another Raidmax PSU. You could definitely get something from a better manufacturer for the price. 700W is overkill and 46A on two rails isn't all that great.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013

Single rail at 44A, which will actually provide more power than the other one. And 550W is fine for that system. And it's less likely to catch on fire It's not modular though.

Great. The specs on the GTX 470 stated that it needed 550W at minimum and I wasn't sure how the rest of the system factored into that, so I guess I went too high there.

Will make a point of avoiding Raidmax in the future then.

EDIT: Would this one be OK for my system then?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016

 

[n0n44m]

This joke worked like...3 years ago. Nowadays, it just shows you have no idea what you're talking about.

Hell no. The onboard soundcards are complete and utter complete shit.

Auzentech X-Fi Forte! Best soundcard ever!

I'm not exactly an audiophile, but if he says he's using the optical output then what difference does a soundcard make over an integegrated chip? (excluding extra features like DDLive)

digital = digital right? quality determined by the DAC on your receiver and all

 

[chaosblade]

Great. The specs on the GTX 470 stated that it needed 550W at minimum and I wasn't sure how the rest of the system factored into that, so I guess I went too high there.

Will make a point of avoiding Raidmax in the future then.

The specs for GPUs generally take into account the fact most people aren't going to have quality PSUs. A good 550W PSU should run any single GPU setup.

I'm not exactly an audiophile, but if he says he's using the optical output then what difference does a soundcard make over an integegrated chip? (excluding extra features like DDLive)

digital = digital right? quality determined by the DAC on your receiver and all

Based on my setup, I'm inclined to say you're right. I get questionable sound quality coming straight from my 3.5mm jacks, but sending the digital signal to my receiver and listening through that sounds great. (Senn 555)

 

[vertopci]

I'm not exactly an audiophile, but if he says he's using the optical output then what difference does a soundcard make over an integegrated chip? (excluding extra features like DDLive)

digital = digital right? quality determined by the DAC on your receiver and all

Dunno. I don't use optical, just the headphone amp on the Forte. But I assume the sound would still get all the benefits from the soundcard like the DDLive/CMSS3D and therefore sound would be a bit better for most things and much better for gaming. But for the other stuff soundcard > onboard for sure.

Spoiler

I missed the part where he said optical in his post D:

 

[Smokey]

My machine has given me nothing but trouble the past few weeks. Now it won't even load. I reset my machine and now it will not get based the initial screen with the ASUS logo where you can press DEL to get into the BIOS. It freezes. No lights come on on my keyboard or anything, it just sits there.

I've powered down over and over and it will not get passed this screen. I feel like throwing something, any help here?

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

My machine has given me nothing but trouble the past few weeks. Now it won't even load. I reset my machine and now it will not get based the initial screen with the ASUS logo where you can press DEL to get into the BIOS. It freezes. No lights come on on my keyboard or anything, it just sits there.

I've powered down over and over and it will not get passed this screen. I feel like throwing something, any help here?

1. Calm down.
2. Diagnose the problem one by one.

Here's what I mean by diagnosing the problem one by one.

1. Remove one of your RAM. Run it.
2. Remove the other RAM and connect the first one back. Run it.
3. Listen to your hard drive and see if it makes any clicking sound when you run it.
4. Plug in your hard drive into another PC and see if it runs it.
5. Go to BIOS and make sure everything is readable.
6. It could be that your install files are corrupted (happened to me. I couldn't get pass the BIOS and it would hit me with BSOD every time) and you might need to reinstall windows. This can also be your hard drive acting up and you might need to replace it or defragment it so that it avoids the bad sectors, if any.

If all else fails, it's your motherboard.

 

[The_Inquisitor]

What Asus soundcard would you recommend. I currently switch back and forth between my ATH-M50's and my logitech. x-240's. Obviously the soundcard won't help my logitechs much, but I imagine it would help my headphones significantly.

Edit: I may go 5.1 down the road. I don't think I would ever go 7.1 though. (Save that for my home theatre system)

Would the difference be enough versus my onboard P8P67 Asus Mobo?

 

[n0n44m]

Dunno. I don't use optical, just the headphone amp on the Forte. But I assume the sound would still get all the benefits from the soundcard like the DDLive/CMSS3D and therefore sound would be a bit better for most things and much better for gaming. But for the other stuff soundcard > onboard for sure.

true but when I used optical I just bought some cheap ass Theatron card with some CMedia chip on it (that was also used in much more expensive Auzentech cards). My card was only €30 because all analog parts were total crap, but the optical DDLive part was exactly the same as on the €120 Auzentech cards ... hell I even installed the Auzentech drivers+control suite for it lol ... now I'm on HDMI and won't ever look back I guess

so I'd say in general: optical 2.0 from the motherboard is OK, with 5.1 you'll want something that supports DDlive or it's DTS equivalent. Just don't buy an expensive card because you'll won't use the *expensive* analogue part of the card. HDMI is on every new Nvidia/AMD card and does 5.1/7.1 uncompressed so is always preferred when possible.

 

[Smokey]

1. Calm down.
2. Diagnose the problem one by one.

Here's what I mean by diagnosing the problem one by one.

1. Remove one of your RAM. Run it.
2. Remove the other RAM and connect the first one back. Run it.
3. Listen to your hard drive and see if it makes any clicking sound when you run it.
4. Plug in your hard drive into another PC and see if it runs it.
5. Go to BIOS and make sure everything is readable.
6. It could be that your install files are corrupted (happened to me. I couldn't get pass the BIOS and it would hit me with BSOD every time) and you might need to reinstall windows. This can also be your hard drive acting up and you might need to replace it or defragment it so that it avoids the bad sectors, if any.

If all else fails, it's your motherboard.

Opening the case and turning it on the red LED is on next to "Boot Device LED"....which could be a number of things I guess. This is bullshit and came out of no where.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Opening the case and turning it on the red LED is on next to "Boot Device LED"....which could be a number of things I guess. This is bullshit and came out of no where.

That sounds like a hard drive issue.

 

[Draft]

What Asus soundcard would you recommend. I currently switch back and forth between my ATH-M50's and my logitech. x-240's. Obviously the soundcard won't help my logitechs much, but I imagine it would help my headphones significantly.

Edit: I may go 5.1 down the road. I don't think I would ever go 7.1 though. (Save that for my home theatre system)

Would the difference be enough versus my onboard P8P67 Asus Mobo?

Get the Xonar DG. It is $20 and will make a significant impact on how headphones sound.

 

[The_Inquisitor]

Get the Xonar DG. It is $20 and will make a significant impact on how headphones sound.

This one?

Jesus christ it's 16 dollars after rebate. That's almost nothing.


If I were to get some nice (ie not logitech, maybe polk) speakers down the road, would this thing be good enough to drive a 5.1 system?

Also, it will accept connections for my front headphone panel connection right?

 

[Sethos]

Don't skimp out

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132010

 

[AtomHeart]

My friend just had a terrible experience with Dino PC (uk), he ordered a £1500 computer from them over two weeks ago and heard absolutely nothing about the computer until today in which they said a lot of parts are in short supply and he should change his parts.

Of course they want him to upgrade to more expensive parts so it would end up costing £50 more. Not that this is a terribly bad thing, but making him wait over 2 weeks and then suddenly springing it on him that the parts are in short supply and he needs to change them? Poor show.

 

[Sethos]

My friend just had a terrible experience with Dino PC (uk), he ordered a £1500 computer from them over two weeks ago and heard absolutely nothing about the computer until today in which they said a lot of parts are in short supply and he should change his parts.

Of course they want him to upgrade to more expensive parts so it would end up costing £50 more. Not that this is a terribly bad thing, but making him wait over 2 weeks and then suddenly springing it on him that the parts are in short supply and he needs to change them? Poor show.

He obviously cancelled his order and went somewhere else, right? .... right?

 

[The_Inquisitor]

Don't skimp out

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132010

My GPU cost just a little more than that. No way in hell it sounds THAT much better.

The biggest gain is probably better caps and maybe a better DAC w/out looking at description. For 1/10th of the price, I will stick w/ that 5.1 card. I doubt there's a dramatic difference in the two cards.

 

[Sethos]

My GPU cost just a little more than that. No way in hell it sounds THAT much better.

The biggest gain is probably better caps and maybe a better DAC w/out looking at description. For 1/10th of the price, I will stick w/ that 5.1 card. I doubt there's a dramatic difference in the two cards.

Depends on the use, not many cards have built-in AMP with those kind of specs and features. This obviously isn't for the average Joe. I have it myself and I'm really impressed, the quality from amped HD650s is stunning. Surpasses some of the external amps I've used and it walks all over every PC soundcard I have ever used, separate and onboard. Think I might move up to HD800s soon unless Sennheiser announces something new.

 

[Darkatomz]

This joke worked like...3 years ago. Nowadays, it just shows you have no idea what you're talking about.

I beg to differ dude.

 

[AtomHeart]

He obviously cancelled his order and went somewhere else, right? .... right?

Yeah, he's definitely going to cancel.

 

[black_vegeta]

My machine has given me nothing but trouble the past few weeks. Now it won't even load. I reset my machine and now it will not get based the initial screen with the ASUS logo where you can press DEL to get into the BIOS. It freezes. No lights come on on my keyboard or anything, it just sits there.

I've powered down over and over and it will not get passed this screen. I feel like throwing something, any help here?

O_O

 

[Laurentius]

Here it is, GAF. Just finished this morning. Everything went well, besides a derp moment yesterday with me and the CPU plug.

SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB
G.SKILL Sniper 8GB
COUGAR CMX 700 COUGAR-700CMX 700W ATX12V PSU
Recertified: PNY RVCGGTX4601XXB GeForce GTX 460
Intel Core i5-2500K
MSI P67A-G43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cooler Master 690 ii Advanced

Haven't had a chance to do a ton of benching on it, yet, but it's running great. Ran Prime 95 for about an hour to check temps and stability, and no problems there. The video card gets fairly hot with FurMark, but I knew this one didn't have the greatest cooling. Played Just Cause 2 for about two hours this afternoon. It looks fantastic. Turned everything up, and getting about 50 FPS on 1680x1050. (Very fun game, btw.) Installing Crysis, so we'll see how it handles that.

I'm not too fond of the HDD (I've had it for awhile actually). Fairly slow. Will probably upgrade that sometime in the future. The graphics card will probably see an update in a year or so as well. Everything else is fantastic.

Haven't done any overclocking yet, but will most definitely do so in the next week or so.

Sorry for the picture quality. I broke my camera ages ago, so I'm using my iPod Touch camera (which is terrible quality, natch).

The one problem with this case: the opening in the case for the CPU cooler backplate is useless, as you can see in this picture:

My cable management skills leave a bit to be desired. Much better than my previous build though, I must say.

 

[Big Chungus]

Hows the Radeon 6850?

I'm looking for an upgrade form my 9800 gt.

The 6850 costs $169cdn and comes with a free copy of Dues Ex: Human Revolution.

 

[Draft]

This one?

Jesus christ it's 16 dollars after rebate. That's almost nothing.


If I were to get some nice (ie not logitech, maybe polk) speakers down the road, would this thing be good enough to drive a 5.1 system?

Also, it will accept connections for my front headphone panel connection right?

It will certainly do a much better job driving speakers than anything built into even the nicest motherboard.

It has the connector for front panel audio inputs. Mine is hooked into the front panel headphone/mic connector and it works perfectly.

 

[TurbulentTurtle]

Spend a bit more and get a 560 TI, I have one myself in my new rig, and I think it generally gets better reviews than the 560 in the bang-for-buck catagory.

People always told me to either go with a 460 and overclock it to 560 levels, or to get a 560 ti. The 560 apparently isn't a great deal.

I've heard sketchy things about Biostar. I'd go with an MSI or ASRock, or Gigabyte or something like that instead.

I just got the 690 ii advanced, and I love it. Very well desined case. Has a great feel to it, excellent cable management, awesome tool free installs, tons of neat little features, and good stock cooling. There's also a ton of room in it. Highly recommend it.

Thanks for the tips guys, I decided to spring for the 560 Ti, and get a different motherboard. And then I tried to cut the price down in other areas, so hopefully the case I chose is good enough for what I want to do?
Here's how my parts list looks now, if it's all good I think I'm going to start buying stuff this week:

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($164.99 @ Canada Computers)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($57.49 @ Newegg Canada)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Case: Cooler Master CM690 II Basic ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Power Supply: Silverstone 700W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($80.14 @ NCIX)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($20.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $913.57

I checked the prices at my local place and some of the components are a little cheaper there, so I'm pretty much going to be buying everything in-store. I guess that means I save on shipping. And the pre-tax price that I calculated should be ~$889.
Is 700W on the PSU enough for the i5 2500K with the 560 Ti? Should I maybe try to shop for something along the 750W+ lines?
If all looks good then let me know and I can join master race soon enough.

 

[MisterNoisy]

Heya, PC-GAF. Just following up on this post.

So my big dilemma is "what SFF case to choose?" How portable is it, and how sturdy will it be when I'm dragging it back and forth from work?

I think I've pared my options down to four cases:

Thermaltake Armor A30 - Has the most room for future expansion. Appears made for carrying about, as it's billed as a LAN case. Looks really flashy but I don't want a case that sticks out too much(I ruled out the NZXT Vulcan for this reason). I thought it had a handle, but I can't seem to find any indication that it does...

Silverstone TJ08B-E - Simple, unassuming in appearance, and appears to be well-built.

Silverstone GD05B - Outside of the lack of USB 3.0, I'm still leaning towards this one for the price and overall size. I think if I got an oversized laptop carrying bag I could possibly put this in it...

Silverstone SG04B-FH - The carrying handle really pulled me towards this one, but the price is somewhat prohibitive and it doesn't have USB 3.0 face ports. I also understand that some of the base joints are made of plastic, which doesn't sound good for continuous hauling about.


Any advice regarding the above- cases, graphics card and CPU cooling, power supply, case size&airflow, etc... would be welcome.

I've done a couple of builds in the Silverstone Sugo SG-02. Outstanding little box, with room for big video cards and a beefy PSU to power it. It's roughly the size of a shoebox and built very well. That said, I really like the NZXT Vulcan for portable gaming, but it's a good bit bigger than typical SFF cases.

My machine has given me nothing but trouble the past few weeks. Now it won't even load. I reset my machine and now it will not get based the initial screen with the ASUS logo where you can press DEL to get into the BIOS. It freezes. No lights come on on my keyboard or anything, it just sits there.

I've powered down over and over and it will not get passed this screen. I feel like throwing something, any help here?

I have a similar issue (hanging at UEFI splash) with my most recent build on the ASRock Z68 Extreme4, and it's caused by my keyboard, of all things. For whatever reason, it just won't boot with my gaming keyboard attached. Unplug any USB devices you have attached and see if that fixes it. I have a feeling I'll either need to boot with the kb detached, switch keyboards, or wait until they fix the issue with a BIOS revision - I've tried every variation on the USB options in the BIOS itself.

 

[Izayoi]

Not seeing too many builds with a GTX590, but rather most with a GTX580. What are the reasons for this?

Not only the price, but it's sold out in most places. Newegg is completely out of stock for the foreseeable future and Amazon won't have more in for one or two months.

 

[iSurvivedTheOutage]

Yep.

I had Asus drivers that wouldnt even work for the Card I bought.

 

[n0n44m]

590 is just a terrible product anyway compared to the 6990 and the GTX580 it's based on ... yes I understand it's hard to put two 580 chips on one pcb with all the heat and stuff, but now it can't even overclock due to the crappy VRM components whereas your average GTX580 overclocks very nicely

at that price level, lots of the potential users love to tweak their rigs and they'll either go 6990 or SLI 570 , or put some extra cash for SLI 580. It's a premium card without the premium build quality really...

Spoiler

guess Alienware has bought up all available stock

 

[Shin Johnpv]

Anyone have a recommendation for a lightscribe supporting dvd burner. I've been through 3 in the last month and a half that have all lasted only 1 - 3 weeks. They all either stop opening, or stop reading discs. Getting really frustrated and annoyed with this.

 

[TommyT]

So I got my Hyper212+ in today, installed and am attempting an OC at the moment.

i5 2500k
ASRock P67 Extreme B4

I tried to set it in the bios to manual at 4.5 at 1.24v and got BSOD. Restarted and did the auto OC to 4.4ghz. I'm running Prime95 now with Core Temp running to check to temps. Core Temp is saying my frequency is 99.78 x 33.0. My temps are up (from the baseline I ran earlier) to a max of 65C on cores 1 and 2. My ASRock utility says my CPU ratio is set to 44x.

Is Core Temp not picking up the OC normal?

edit: Downloaded CPU-Z and it seems to be picking up the new speed.

 

[LordCanti]

I've got to leave the house, but I'll say this quickly:

If you need 5.1 digitally out of a sound card, you've got two choices: One, is HDMI out to a receiver, through a video card. The other is a soundcard or mobo that supports Dolby Digital Live, or DTS Connect.

If it doesn't support these, you'll get great 5.1 in movies...then switch to games and find out that you're only getting 2.1.

If you don't want to buy a separate sound card, buy a motherboard that supports Dolby Digital Live out of the box. It's a digital connection to the receiver, and there should be absolutely no difference in quality between your mobo's digital connection, and a soundcards, as long as they both support Dolby Digital Live (or DTS connect) for games.

 

[pedr0theli0n]

not sure where else to post this... and I can't make threads, but its kinda on topic.
What do you guys think as far as wired vs. wireless mice (mouses?) for gaming? I've noticed that the wire on mine can sometimes be a bit annoying when playing games (mostly Starcraft II) yet I see that most "gaming" mice are wired, and pro gamers using wired mice. Is there some disadvantage to wireless mice that makes them worse for gaming? Because I would think the advantage of not dealing with a wire would be pretty huge... Thoughts?

 

[Shai-Tan]

not sure where else to post this... and I can't make threads, but its kinda on topic.
What do you guys think as far as wired vs. wireless mice (mouses?) for gaming? I've noticed that the wire on mine can sometimes be a bit annoying when playing games (mostly Starcraft II) yet I see that most "gaming" mice are wired, and pro gamers using wired mice. Is there some disadvantage to wireless mice that makes them worse for gaming? Because I would think the advantage of not dealing with a wire would be pretty huge... Thoughts?

an actually good wireless mouse is ok. wired is better and I would personally use wired on any fps I would play unless im just being medic in tf2 but I have played wireless sometimes in front of my tv. if the cable is annoying then you should make sure it has some slack and isn't pulling or snagging the mouse. its true though it feels like a little bit less freedom at first coming from wireless even if you get the slack on it just right but its better than getting frustrated that tracking doesn't feel right

 

[vertopci]

I beg to differ dude.

As a wise man once said: You can have your opinions, but it doesn't change the fact that it's wrong

 

[knitoe]

So I got my Hyper212+ in today, installed and am attempting an OC at the moment.

i5 2500k
ASRock P67 Extreme B4

I tried to set it in the bios to manual at 4.5 at 1.24v and got BSOD. Restarted and did the auto OC to 4.4ghz. I'm running Prime95 now with Core Temp running to check to temps. Core Temp is saying my frequency is 99.78 x 33.0. My temps are up (from the baseline I ran earlier) to a max of 65C on cores 1 and 2. My ASRock utility says my CPU ratio is set to 44x.

Is Core Temp not picking up the OC normal?

edit: Downloaded CPU-Z and it seems to be picking up the new speed.

Load up HWmonitor and see what you max CPU voltage is. Auto OC usually uses more voltage than manually. Try going lower voltage for 4.4GHz or use same for 4.5GHz.

 

[RukusProvider]

Come on Intel and AMD! I need SB-E and 7xxx series out NAO! I don't want to spend money on older stuff

 

[Caerith]

Main Use: Gaming and everyday usage (internet, watching movies)

My question is, do I need the Z68 board with the 2500k if I'm not planning to OC, or will it be nice to have down the road if I choose to do so? I was set on an msi p67 board before talking to someone who said that it would be better to go z68 for both the h67 and p67 functions.

Regarding the H67/P67/Z68, you really need to think about this one before pulling the trigger. If you're really "not planning to OC," it changes a few things about your build: you won't need P67 features, and there's definitely no reason to get the 2500K over a vanilla 2500 if you're not going to use its unlocked multipliers.

But, you did say you're building this for gaming. You should definitely plan to OC, even if just by a little, since that's what the 2500k is known for. Will you be using anything the Z68 offers over what the P67 does? You might find that you're paying for features you'll never use.

Save the money on the Z68 and stick with the P67 you were set on.

 

[n0n44m]

Come on Intel and AMD! I need SB-E and 7xxx series out NAO! I don't want to spend money on older stuff

AMD Bulldozer = Sandy Bridge opponent = priced below up to equal to Sandy Bridge
SB-E socket 2011 = Intel "premium" line = much more expensive (cpu AND board)+

I don't know how much you want to spend but a 2500K + Asrock board = hell of a deal, AMD is not looking like they're going to be faster in games (else they would've shown benches by now lol) and the SB-E is never going to be competitive cost-wise ...

 

[Smokey]

O_O

Seems like its ok now. Took everything out and reseated em.

The RAM may have been the issue.

 

[reptilescorpio]

My machine has given me nothing but trouble the past few weeks. Now it won't even load. I reset my machine and now it will not get based the initial screen with the ASUS logo where you can press DEL to get into the BIOS. It freezes. No lights come on on my keyboard or anything, it just sits there.

I've powered down over and over and it will not get passed this screen. I feel like throwing something, any help here?

I had a similar problem for months. Would have mostly when coming back from manual sleep. Would hit the bios screen and get no further. Had to use Windows Repair multiple times before it finally got into Windows. Seemed to be a problem with the Windows install on my hard drive. When I bought a new media driver I reinstalled Windows onto it and I haven't had the problem since. Maybe try buying a new HDD and try a fresh Windows install.

 

[iSurvivedTheOutage]

I wonder what maxwell cards will look like.

 

[reptilescorpio]

I've got to leave the house, but I'll say this quickly:

If you need 5.1 digitally out of a sound card, you've got two choices: One, is HDMI out to a receiver, through a video card. The other is a soundcard or mobo that supports Dolby Digital Live, or DTS Connect.

If it doesn't support these, you'll get great 5.1 in movies...then switch to games and find out that you're only getting 2.1.

If you don't want to buy a separate sound card, buy a motherboard that supports Dolby Digital Live out of the box. It's a digital connection to the receiver, and there should be absolutely no difference in quality between your mobo's digital connection, and a soundcards, as long as they both support Dolby Digital Live (or DTS connect) for games.

Would the Xonar DS qualify? Don't really want to spend $90 on a soundcard...

Also my MK700 keyboard is a bit loud on the key presses with the bedroom right next to the study, any ideas on affordable keyboards that are quieter with the key presses?

 

[tuxor]

Hey posted essentially the same build a couple pages back, but just want to clarify.

Your Current Specs: N/A
Budget: ~$1000-1250 US (including monitor + keyboard)
Main Use: Gaming, emulation, general use
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: BF3, D3, DOTA2, Skyrim, DXHR, SC2, basically be able to handle anything you can throw at it in the next year-ish (obv. not @ 60fps 4x AA etc, but good enough to play most games very well)
Are reusing any parts?: Nope.
When will you build?: As soon as I can, willing to wait until mid-late september
Will you be overclocking?: Yes.

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master RR-B10-212P-G1 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($26.98 @ Mwave)
Motherboard: MSI P67A-G45 (B3) ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($112.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 570 1.25GB Video Card ($322.86 @ Newegg)
Case: Lian-Li PC-K62 ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($21.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VH242H 23.6" Monitor ($158.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1208.57

Is there a huge difference between the 570 and the 560Ti?
Do I need a 750W PSU with the 570 assuming no SLI in the future?
Is there a better 1.5GB 570 for around the same price (TwinFrozr, different EVGA, etc.)?