Gaming Rig specs

[nexor]

So am I mandru, the next card up would have beeen an extra ZAR2000  ???

[Binnatics]

Graphics cards seem to be faulty more than I first thought. I bought a HD4890 back in 2009 and after a year it went belly up with the weirdest artifacts showing all over the screen when playing GTA IV. They gave me a newer replacement, the HD5870. One of the fastest single GPU cards than available from AMD. It worked fine initially, but after almost two years the same thing happened. Both cards were made by Sapphire. This time the shop only returned me the amount of money the card was worth at that moment, which was almost enough to buy my current; the Asus GTX570. This last card works fine now for almost 2 years already.

I have a feeling that Sapphire and I aren't a good match

[Art Blade]

The "funky" errors I had ... all's well, machine working fine

Alright, thanks for replying. I hope your new new card lasts this time :)

[fragger]

Yeah, good luck nex :)

[nexor]

Thanks guys, I need it, thunder and lightning's not over yet  :-(

[Stiku]

Graphics cards seem to be faulty more than I first thought. I bought a HD4890 back in 2009 and after a year it went belly up with the weirdest artifacts showing all over the screen when playing GTA IV. They gave me a newer replacement, the HD5870. One of the fastest single GPU cards than available from AMD. It worked fine initially, but after almost two years the same thing happened. Both cards were made by Sapphire. This time the shop only returned me the amount of money the card was worth at that moment, which was almost enough to buy my current; the Asus GTX570. This last card works fine now for almost 2 years already.

I have a feeling that Sapphire and I aren't a good match

I have had 3 sapphire cards, all three of them have gone to RMA, always seem to happen, when I am starting up the computer, I get an electrical buzzing sound and then blue smoke.
Atleast we have good warranties that cover problems like that.

[mandru]

I've had one computer that had both a AMD CPU and graphics card and it probably would have worked better as a toaster oven.  :D

In the last 13 years since that system I've switched three times to progressively better Intel CPUs and Nvidia graphics cards all of which have been EVGA branded.  Since selecting that pairing of components (housed in an over sized case with plenty of good fans) my biggest concern about maintaining a gaming system has been reduced to remembering to crack it open occasionally to blow the dust out of it.

[Binnatics]

Good to know I'm not the only one having problems with Sapphire. I am very pleased with both MSI and Asus now. I use my second MSI mobo now, and it never failed me. It's totally matching my desires. Same for my last graphix purchase, the Asus GTX570. It has an outstanding cooler, the direct CUII. Compared to all other coolers on a variety of GPU's it always scores the coolest, one of the most silent and the best in both overclocking potential and performance-boost. My next purchase will be the GTX780 with that same cooler, even perfected to a higher level with a new type of fan. It's just a matter of time until I have the bucks to spend on it :-D 8)

[mandru]

So you're doing a fan dance now Binn?  :-D   ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MichelleLAmourFanDance2533.jpg  )

Wait a minute I think I saw a fan that you had posted somewhere that was in your system and as I remember it was huge.

What?  Are you going to hook a 30 gallon wet/shop vac to the exhaust pot and drag a tornado through your computer?  ;)

[Art Blade]

 :-D

I've never had any graphic card problems - maybe because I've never used any sapphire products.  :-()

[Binnatics]

With that lady I could do a fan dance to the moon, and I don't need a wt vac for that

Btw, I just ordered my replacement and will pick it up tomorrow!!!! ??? :o :-X :-X :-X :) :) :) :) (What I need here is a smiley with tornadoes in his eyes and sweat poring off his cheeks, smiling of course :-D)

[Art Blade]

you're getting a GTX780?  ???

[Stiku]

GTX 780 is good card, but I cant say that I would take DirectCU coolers, they score good thermal points in open cases/benches, but in closed cases they seem to have problems.
Also there have been so many posts in GFX forums, about those coolers not being installed properly and causing overheating. And to top that with the Asus Warranty "malfunction"

[Binnatics]

Got the monster laying on my desk ^-^

Will start with the installation tonight I guess, no time now. I don't worry about the cooler, the card won impressive rewards and I have experience with the cooler on my last card. My case has good airflow so as long as the cooler's properly installed, I foresee a lot of joy :) :)

[mandru]

780 Binn?  My 680 has done a bang up job so it's hard to get my head around the performance jump that GPU will provide.  Good luck on the install.  :-X

GTX 780 is good card...they score good thermal points in open cases/benches, but in closed cases they seem to have problems...

This precisely reflects my theory on system builds of an over sized case with plenty of good fans.  :-X

[Art Blade]

wow, nice! have fun, Binnatics  :) :-X

[Binnatics]

Well, so far no fun with the new card. When I plug it in, my system doesn't even perform the POST. It hangs immediately. I do get to see a prompt and that's where it freezes.
Updated mobo BIOS and Drivers, tried to use the extra VGA 6-pin power connector on the mobo, uninstalled graph. driver, nothing seems to w@&k so far. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. All BIOS settings seem right, the card gets proper energy, enables the display, but lets my system hang in less than a second

I'll sleep over it and maybe tomorrow I get a bright idea. If not, I'll bring my system over to the shop, hoping that they will fix the problem.  :-\\

[Art Blade]

That's sad :( Do you have a power supply unit big enough to deliver the wattage needed?

[Stiku]

Well, so far no fun with the new card. When I plug it in, my system doesn't even perform the POST. It hangs immediately. I do get to see a prompt and that's where it freezes.
Updated mobo BIOS and Drivers, tried to use the extra VGA 6-pin power connector on the mobo, uninstalled graph. driver, nothing seems to w@&k so far. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. All BIOS settings seem right, the card gets proper energy, enables the display, but lets my system hang in less than a second

I'll sleep over it and maybe tomorrow I get a bright idea. If not, I'll bring my system over to the shop, hoping that they will fix the problem.  :-\\

Don't know your'e comps specs, so just throwing this "Windows Secure Boot", but that is a Windows 8 feature.  :o
But sounds like a power issue as Art already posted. :D

Im running a 3770K and a R9 290 with a Corsair TX-850

[Binnatics]

Recommended system requirements states a minimum of 600w power supply. That's what I have. Even adding extra power to the mobo's PCIe-connector doesn't make any difference.
That should not cause the problem. I think it still has to do with the BIOS, seems that the mobo doesn't recognize the new tech on board of the GPU. Will test it and see what it does ;)

[Stiku]

Recommended system requirements states a minimum of 600w power supply. That's what I have. Even adding extra power to the mobo's PCIe-connector doesn't make any difference.
That should not cause the problem. I think it still has to do with the BIOS, seems that the mobo doesn't recognize the new tech on board of the GPU. Will test it and see what it does ;)

That Extra PCI-E power is only 75W connector that gives the card more juice thru the PCIE connector, and that is usually for ppl who really push their hardware, or have a dual GFX system.
600W really doesnt tell anything, its actually more important to tell how much the +12V line has combined output, or just say the PSU make and model.
If the mainboard is fuzzied about the card it wouldnt either post at all, no image any time, or it would boot completly without the screen (IE windows boot sounds would play)

What im saying, give me youre comps specs so I can take a look 

[Binnatics]

Thank you for your offer Stiku! :-X
Below are my system specs, with the latest changes included. Meanwhile I've been poking around and I found out that the "Live Update 5" program that MSI provides for updating your system including mobo drivers and BIOS, did not do a good job on updating my system. It only updated minor changes, without updating the Intel ME (from 7 to 8 ) and more important stuff that is available in the latest BIOS versions.
What I did was a manual update of the BIOS to the newest version, and that solved the problem!!!

Now another problem has risen, because the BIOS is no longer detecting my RAID array, where my entire gaming environment is on. Steam and all the games that I play through steam. So system is up and running, but no games available to test it on :-\\

Time to dig into updating mobo drivers as well, and reconfigure the RAID settings. I hope I didn't loose the content, otherwise I'll have to download at least 200Gb of gaming data, lol

It's been a while since I updated my Rig info here, and I have dedicated an entire topic on the problems I had with my former (cursed) rig, so I thought it was about time to post my new rig now that it's installed and working!

Here we go Binnatics' New Rig:

Motherboard:        MSI Z68A-GD80 (Gen-3)
CPU:                     Intel i7 2600K @ 3.4 Ghz
Graphicscard:      ASUS GTX780 Direct-CU-II OC
Int. mem:             4X4Gb DDR3-RAM Corsair Vengeance (1600 mhz)
Powersuppl:         Be quiet! System Power 7 600W (80 plus silver rank)
Case:                   Cooler Master Centurion 590 Midi tower
Sound:                 Logitech S200 black, 2 speakers and subwoofer
Headseat:            Creative Soundblaster Arena Surround
Monitor:                Acer S243HL, 24" FullHD LED widescreen   
Hard disks:            2X SSD OCZ Agility 3 120Gb
                             2X Maxtor diamondmax 21 250 Gb in Raid 0 array
Optical drive:         Sony DVD-RW +/-
Keyboard:             Microsoft basic Keyboard 1.0A
Mouse:                 Revoltec Fighting mouse Pro. (laser tech, for ultimate precision)
Oper.system:        Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit
Paper-device:        HP Photosmart C5380 All-in-One

I waited with posting the stuff here until I was 100% sure everything works like supposed, and after some testing I'm sure now that the curse is gone :-X ^-^

[Binnatics]

Thank god, putting RAID settings back to normal in the BIOS solved the problem. RAID array was visible again and all that's on it as well. It made Windows think that Steam was a new program and had to be blocked, but besides that minor thing everything is working again ^-^

There's one tiny problem to be solved, my CPU fan is going crazy thinking my system is on load all the time. I try to put tit to act smart, but after every restart it begins again.

Edit: Problem solved. Another setting in the BIOS that had been set back to default. Now it's time to test my rig with some serious gaming :)

[Art Blade]

good to know that it's running now :)

[mandru]

 :-X