Bodo

Think it stands for Eagle Dynamics Graphics Engine. But I think it stands for Endlessly Delayed Graphics Engine. Only kidding.

I also noticed performance seemed a little slower with the EVGA drivers version 306 so I'm gonna go back to 304 tomorrow and I'll maybe do a test before doing so to see what diff I get. MIght experiment with nvidia versus EVGA versions, too if I can be arsed

Oh dear. Wonder if this really will put a delay on ARMA3. Remove the island or cancel the game altogether? They wouldn't have to go that far, though. Would they?

"David Van Day!"... Good show on C4. On 4OD if you wanna see the episodes. I lol'd when Van Day meets his clone.. Comments like 'it ain't no Brass Eye'...well that's kinda obvious... Enjoy.

I agree with what AnKH_82 said. Such an unfortunate element of the simulation. It would make a huge difference.

Yeh, like I and cichlidfan said. A greatd card, though so you're starting to build up the bits and pieces for a news system. Now it's either read my post and over clock or save up and buy CPU/RAM and MOBO. OCing your PC is worth it. If you do, make sure you set your PCI-E to 100 MHz and not auto.

It's a shame that it still doesn't utilise modern CPUs very efficiently.

Yeh seems like you've been doing some good research, reviews seem fine, it's efficient and modular so looks good. They do an 850W version that's more efficient, don't know how much it is, though. Either way I think that looks like a decent choice, 5 year warranty which is good.

Yeh, are the modules all matching make and speeds? Some guy in another thread had matched pairs but he stuck the pairs in the A slots and B slots respectively. Try making sure that the pairs are in alternating slots. So likely that one matched pair should be in the slots of matching colour and so on. Slots A-1 and B-3 or A-1 and B-2...you get the idea, however your motherboard labels the slots..

Well, Out of those I'd probably get the Corsair. I'd have to look for some info about them. I can imagine the Nexus being quite quiet out of all of em. I'm a bit non plussed with XFX after a graphics card, the 7900GT, seemed to have a tonne of problems and I think I remember correctly that XFX overclocked their card and it just couldn't handle it. Saying that, though, the PSU you've looked at gets some great reviews. It isn't modular, though, if that matters. It really does end up being that you spend more for better quality components, longer warranty, modular cables...even dare I say it, looks... Efficiency wise, well it is a good thing to consider where you may cut down your bills but really it ends up being more of a factor for places that use a lot of PCs running constantly. For me, where I use the PC constantly it was wiser to invest in an efficient PSU. Also, well it helps save the world dunnit! :helpsmilie: For example the Corsair HX850W I have has a silver rating but just achieves Gold standard efficiency. However, they couldn't give it gold because at high/er loads it's efficiency drops to just under the Gold standard. It's also very quiet, has modular cables, a 5 year warranty etc. Here is a nice link about efficiency. I pleased to have a modular PSU as it keeps cables to a minimum and therefore your case won't be packed with lots of unnecessary clutter which could mean that components get that little bit hotter due to air not circulating as well as it could. If that isn't really an issue, you have enough fans, you don't want to overclock and or just don't mind a messy computer, then non-modular cables can most of the time be tucked out of sight. On that note, I want to replace my ageing Antec P180 for a Fractal Design R4 or a Corsair Obsidian 650D. Just not sure one deserves the money and the other is well built enough for the price..Both cases offer nice cable management and a good set of features..Anyway, I digress It (the PSU) also has to support your other bits and pieces. For me the upgrade was due after getting to the peak end of my Silverstone ST56Fs power output but also because it just couldn't power my GTX560ti/GTX670, with Wattage or the correct cables, and the adapters ..well I didn't want to try that. Do you need a load of molex cables hanging around doing nothing, do you need an 8pin EPS connector to allow for more stable overclocks (I don't know about this at all really but from what I understand it's for die hard overclockers, 8 pin EPS connectors are there so that as the wattage consumption of the CPU goes up the stability of power down the cable is greater at higher currents) I have no idea about this, really. 4 pin ATX or 8 pin EPS, probably not a huge difference if doing a moderate overclock or just runing at stock speeds....what else, hmm...do you need more than a couple of PCI Express connectors etc etc... Anyway, out of the three you mentioned and after briefly googleing them, they all seem good. The Nexus might be getting on a bit, I think the Corsair or XFX are more recent products.

Personally, I would like a Y580.

Yeh echoing what cichlidfan says, I'll recommend the Corsair HX series and I have an 850W version of that range for my setup. Just trying out that Thermaltake PSU calc my system could reach 410W so as far as I'm aware, when running my system fully then I'll be using just under 50% of my PSU. This seems to be where PSUs offer the most effiency. It also leaves me maybe a bit of room to add another GPU, more hard drives, more RAM, overclock if necessary etc etc and not worry about the PSU being a limiter. What did you eventually push your Q9550 to and on what VCore and cooler?

Ojk, so I had GigaByte-Z77-D3H and didn't like the VIA audio chip so I've sent it back and got a AsusP8Z77 V-Pro. Running all this now with an i5 3570K and a 670 is sweet. Think I blew the Sys_Fan1 header on the UD3. Anyway, sold my CPU and Memory to make some cash back so all good. Thanks to the few who tried to help.

JOrdan, what's your exact set up? If I were you then I'd maybe overclock the Q9400, maybe you'd need a good heat sink and fan to do this. I could recommend a Megahelems but anything around £20+ should be good. The arctic freezer pro seems to do well but it may be quite noisy, dunno.: I have a Megahalems with a couple of v quiet Nexus 120mm fans and a Scythe S-flex case fan. All quieter than my GTX670, which is fairly quiet... and all doing a good job at cooling my CPU. On my Q9550 I used this set up with a decent/adequate enough overclock and only ever got temps in the late 50s. On this Ivy-bridge set up I get temps around 30 idle to early 40s in DCS. I haven't OC'd my 3570K yet as I've no need at this point. Once you get as much as you can out of your CPU, you'll be pushing your FSB (Front Side Bus) speed up a bit. For your CPU its bus speed is 333MHz, like my old processor. Now if you push that up to 400MHz, which shouldn't be toooo hard. you'll then be getting a speed of 3.2GHz out of your processor instead of 2.4GHz and also a FSB total of 1600MHz. This would be quite a decent gain in performance for your system. (4x400MHz=1600MHz) Multiply by 4 because the FSB is bus speed 'quad pumped'. So work out the Bus speed of a CPU and then times by 4 to find Front Side Bus speed. Now this is a risk you could take but it's really up to whether you want to squeeze a bit more juice out of what you have. It can weaken the lifespan (although really it's not enough to worry) but if you over volt things you could do damage to the motherboard/CPU (however it's difficult to do that if you take things slowly and check temperatures...) It is difficult to get right, though and I'm no expert! I didn't push my CPU as much as I could, it was a moderate over-clock from 2.8 to 3.4GHz but it allowed me to get the FSB to 1600 and working nicely with my RAM which was running 800MHz in Dual Channel mode (which I'll mention in a moment).. You do need to keep testing the CPU with utilities like Intel Burn Test/Prime 95 etc but once you get there you'll notice an increase in performance/responsiveness of your PC. It's always a good idea to make sure you are running your memory, as long as you have matched pairs, in Dual Channel mode, 800MHz speed if applicable. This in theory gets you a memory bandwidth of around 1600MHz, matching your CPU's bandwidth, although it doesn't quite work out like that but we'll overlook that. You could also benefit from getting the higher speed DDR2 memory of 1066MHz/8500, leaving room to push your CPU's Bus and therefore Front Side Bus speed even further, or it would allow you to under-clock your RAM (lowering it to 800MHz) and tighten the latency timings that you may have heard of. (CAS latency) You could also get an upgrade for your CPU by selling yours for say 50-60 GBP and upgrade to a Q9550 like I had or maybe a Q9650 depending on whether your motherboard supports them and you can grab one at a good price. Check your motheboard's CPU support list on the website. Importantly, it may be that 667MHz is set as the default speed in your BIOS, even with higher spec RAM that you might have, so that's worth checking first and foremost. Maybe you should find out exactly what RAM you have and then you could check how to set it in your BIOS to run at its correct specification, if it isn't already. Memory modules have what's called SPD or Serial Presence Detect and this negotiates a specification to your BIOS for how to run the RAM and is often lower than the ability the RAM modules can achieve. Again, it depends on what you have inside your computer but it could be that you could squeeze a bit more out of the performance of your memory. Now once you push as much out of your CPU/RAM you could be able to splash a bit on a GPU and get the benefits. Question being, what do you currently run? I'm pleased I got the 670 over the 660Ti because of the memory bandwidth advantage but a 660Ti will give you more than enough performance and it's a great card and would probably suit me fine as well for what I need/ed. I couldn't get one as it hadn't been released by the time my EVGA step up program would have run out...Not complaining, though..... It depends on what you want to achieve and how much you want to spend, you could always go back a generation to the 500 series, which is a different generation of GPU compared to the 600 series, at least the higher end 600 series, and find something that doesn't cost a huge amount now that the latest GPUs are out. The 500 series GPUs still perform really nicely, Especially the 560Ti 448 and 570 etc. I used the 560Ti 448 with the slightly higher bandwidth than the 560Ti. If you could find either of those within your budget, second hand, you'd be set up quite nicely. Even a GTX 460 and upwards could be found for a small amount. I remember I sold my 460 for about 70 pounds only 7-8 months ago it I'm sure it would still be an adequate upgrade for someone.. It certainly might give you enough power for what you want, as a step up from what you have at this point in time, anyway. I'm not sure about AMD but maybe others could recommend a GPU of a gen or so ago at a reasonable price... I can't really think of anything else to suggest. Just update the thread with your current set up: Memory/Motherboard/Power Supply... and that should give people here an idea as to what is possible. There is always time, if you have $150 now then work hard or be good etc and see if you can maybe double that before too long. Making the most of what you have and finding the best possible upgrade for a current set up is the best advice. I think there is also a bit of a knack to knowing when to sell a CPU/GPU and put money towards a newer generation. I sold my Q9550 recently after originally buying it for 10 pounds less a year and a half ago. It was a great CPU, but like yours, it'll slowly start falling in price now that sandy bridge i7s are competing with Ivy bridge. So, something to worth thinking about. Hope that helps. Sorry if I rambled.

I'd go with EVGA. After having used ASUS and MSI (albeit MSI was a good while ago) I can't fault EVGA's service. Especially with their Step Up incentive. Not that there is anything particuarly wrong with any of the famous brands. I've used ASUS and Gigabyte mostly for Motherboards, I'm currently running an ASUS. Have done for many years. Now n then I build a Gigabyte PC and their boards are fine, too. I'm gonna try ASROCK next I think after hearing good things. If it's gonna come down to buying a GPU again in the future, after so long hearing good things about them, I'd get EVGA again. Really, or more importantly I think what it comes down to is make sure you look at reviews and see what gives you the performance you require or price performance rather If I find a product that I like the look of, I keep checking for any issues that may have been talked about for a short while and compare benchmarks. With the brands and what they offer it's often more abouot the different types of clock speeds given to certain cards or differing cooling solutions so you can over-clock more or run them more quietly. I run an i5 3570K (ex Core 2 Quad Q9550) ASUS P8Z77 V-Pro (Ex Gigabyte EP45 UD3) EVGA GTX 670 (Ex EVGA 560Ti Classified - Ex Asus GTX460 DirectCU TOP) 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz RAM (Ex 4GB Corsair XMS2 800MHZ 6400) 128GB Samsung 830 SSD with Windows 7, ARMA and DCS W and the difference is huge when it comes to the graphics performance. I also noticed when using the 560Ti/670 with my Quad Core that the performance was still limited. After getting the i5 3570K the feel of the sim is a lot smoother with more eye candy turned on. Running A10 in World though I think there are times when I go down to about 35-40 fps. With everything set to high, TSAA, HDR, mirrors, heat blur, high civ traffic etc etc all on. This is with 1650 x1080 and cockpit res at 512 every frame. If I turn off TSSAA/MSAA civ traffic to low, heat blur off water to medium, then I still get same lowest FPS so even the i5 3570K can't seem to cope with DCS or it's lack of fine tuning ( I suppose it's a bit of both??) So what this tells me is that your CPU will be a limiting factor, but even a full on upgrade isn't gonna do wonders. A Nice GPU, like a 560Ti or 670 like mine will give you great graphics but the main thing about this sim is the CPU. Maybe it's not optimized enough? My i5 is running one core near flat out and another about 30%. Two cores just sitting there doing nowt. It's a shame coz I think it could probably work/perform nicely on Quad cores from about 2.5 GHz upwards if it wasn't for the fact it can't use more than two cores.?? What you may really need, though, is a CPU that's capable of high GHz speeds, anything from 3.4GHz upwards. I OC'd my Q9550 from 2.8 to 3.4, a simple OC that worked wonders and really could still hold its own when it comes to DCS. I wonder if ED are going to improve the way the code runs on 3rd gen i5s etc or is it just that i5/i7s aren't the upgrade we had expected? Sorry that's probably best left for another thread. EDIT: sorry if I repeated what the guy who posted before me said...Took me ages to type this between phone calls and a very late dinner...

How much for the girlfriend?

sorry sobek,did try ad change thread as soon as i'd posted..was in a bit of a mood!

What about audio processing, complicated reverbs and delays etc? I've loved with a Q9550 fairly well for audio s I doubt I'll require much more. Hey cichlidfan, thanks for your responses, tis appreciated! EDIT, I haven't 'loved' with a Q9550...Just lived with it...

If I were in your shoes I wouldn't mind if all the BS1/BS2 upgrade owners had their lives made easier. It was also your choice to do that, maybe somewhat wisely envisioning the issues one may have with the install process but I just think it could all be rolled into one serial, one BS install. Done. Can't see the reason why this wouldn't be fair. Who cares if you bought the upgrade, who cares if you bought two separate products amounting differing amounts money irrelevant of what path you chose. It's just unnecessary to have this obsolete software on the system to activate a whole new product. I can't help but think it could just be a simpler process. It's the same situation with Lock On because of Ubisoft, yet ED have done it to themselves this time. Just seems counter productive and unnecessary. Make it register with the activation system based on the fact that that serial for an upgrade version is tied to an original BS1 purchase and therefore allowable to be activated. Wouldn't that work. Anyway, I won't voice any more on the matter. It's fairly insignificant but when I hear how people paid full price for BS2 I find it rather belittling to those that bought BS1 and BS2 upgrade. It's a natural solution to anyone who wants to UPGRADE an original purchase, that was what's on offer, why do something different. In hindsight yes, it would have been best to just purchase BS2 full. But that wasn't a logical thing to do.

Yeh just edited post to say so after missing you'd mentioned that. I'll have to invest in one. Look v handy. I'm building an USB XP now so I'll see what the crack is. I've got the HDD recovery directory which totals about 3 or so gig so I'm wondering what i might find there in the way of images to burn or tools of some sort. God knows what will work. I'll try XP standalone first, see if I can maybe do a repair install. If not, try a normal install. If not...Throw it out the window.

Ah...sorry, dunno what planet I'm on. Spent all night now...Jeez. Yeh, I tried but that's where I start just looking blank at stuff. I'm currently converting an XP to a USB stick to get XP back on as 1 scenario but am also backing up the HDD recovery section of the DATA partition to an exteral drive I have. I tried the AVG utility (which has been useful for copying files) that I'd read someone had used and fixed the bootmgr thing, I didn't seem to get the same success. It had an element of fix MBR and other such stuff but I really am not clued up on this. I'm about to reboot and leave the stick out and boot from the HDD again and see if I've managed to get somewhere but I've just wanted to get the data I semi backed up, onto an external drive. It's an NB200 10Z, Toshiba sell recovery discs for 29 quid...yeh right! WOuld it just be a case of getting hirens boot cd then? WHat would be the steps you'd take. I'm guessing the recovery I cancelled erased some data but mostly/only the boot.ini/MBR information of partition C: ? What would you suggest? Thanks, by the way! EDIT: Yeh they do strange things when they go. I'll test that first then. My old Dad would be great for testing the PSU with his knowledge but I wouldn't have a clue how. I'm still somewhat doubtful it's the power supply, though. I've probably had 2 or 3 mobos go on me in the last 15 years or so, maybe 1 or 2 PSUs. Gut feeling makes me think this is mobo. I dunno.. Ah, ATX PSU tester does seem handy! I'll try purchase that soon for future use. Thanks!

CPU fan won't even start turning, well it struggles to start and subsequently moves v slowly. All LEDs light up but I have no damn PC speaker to hear the beeps, the SYS fan port had a weird burnt bit of copper I'd never noticed before and seems to have singed an area right next to a PCIX slot..but it's tiny. Erm, swapped RAM sticks about. The CD drive kept doing a strange seek and then stop sound. Like it didn't know what the hell to do, no CD/DVD in there. Disconnected all peripherals. PSU, RAM, CPU and GPU alone. Nothing. No signal to monitor, no shut down if CPU was getting hot. V strange. I hope it's not the CPU but really doubt it is. Seems like an aspect of the mobo's functionality has gone but still it powers up. IS that feasible? I'll be testing most stuff on another PC today/tomorrow so I'll find out then I'm sure but, any thoughts/questions??:huh:

I broke my computer... Long story short, think I blew the mobo. Anyway, I've been wanting a moderate upgrade since getting my 670 so I'm about to buy: i5 3570K Gigabyte Z77 D3H And some Corsair Vengeance 8GB. I'll make do with 8GB as I do make music now n then and that will help I suppose, don't need more than that I don't think but also 4GB seems rather limited. CPU should handle games as well as most other i7 chips do you agree? Well, without spending another 100 on top...and should keep me going for a while. Didn't think HT was worth the extra money or the slightly larger cache but let me know if you think I'm wrong. RAM, seems 1600 does the job at a good price point and so I found the lower CAS8 Corsair RAM for around 35 quid. Mobo, well it has what I need, don't really need SLI, don't have a huge gaming monitor but might up from 22nch to 24inch soon but I doubt that'll push my GPU too much. Has a couple of 6Gb Sata 3 slots and 4 Sata 2s so I think that's adequate for me. 4 USB3/USB2 ports on the panel IIRC which should be fine and it seems to compete nicely with higher end boards for a lot less cost. One thing that I read was that OCing RAM didn't seem possible. Maybe there is a BIOS update or the functions are hidden, bit like the CTRL F1 hidden options in the board I blew. Do you think that'll matter? I'd like to OC the i5 when I'm in the mood so let me know what you think I might struggle with if using this board. It'll be used for gaming, general PC stuff and audio work running on an HX850 with a few WD TB drives and a Samsung 830 for OS/ARMA/DCS. I blew a gigabyte EP45 UD3 and possibly a Q9550 so I'll be testing and will hopefully be able to make some money back on the Q9550, I'll try and sell my old DDR2 800MHz Ram, too. I just hope I haven't blown my GPU and RME HDSPe card. WIll test on a mates today. I could have bought a socket 775 mobo for 30 quid and left it at that but while my brain was obviously not working when taking my PC apart to adjust the fans (don't ask) then I thought why inhibit an opportunity to really be stupid and spend money I don't have on newer components I really actually don't need... :) Oh, after that I tried to fix my girlfriend's notebook as it had become very slow and so decided I'd try a recovery. I backed up her stuff to the D: data partition and started the ball rolling. Just as I got the recovery in action, I panicked and cancelled...(very clever) and obviously ruined the MBR or BOOTMGR as it kept saying after a reboot. I gambled on it just overwriting the C: drive. I'm still unclear as to whether it would have happened like that. Ah, what do you care, I'm rambling...Been up most of the night using a recovery tool to back up what I can salvage off the relatively untouched partition. 40GBs of music, photos and recent work she's done. No sex for me for a week.:joystick: (but then that's nothing new...)

It is rather annoying to have to do this. Especially considering that paying $40 for BS2 is all some will have done to get this headache removed compared to others who spent $40 on BS1 and then another $20 on the upgrade, and we're the ones who suffer. I know it's a minor issue and I guess it's something that shouldn't matter too much but it just seems like a messy step to have to take, especially considering the amount of installing/clean installs/upgrading that may have to be done as and when each new patch/module comes out. I paid more for both products and I'm the one who has to be penalised. Doesn't seem fair to me. IF I go to uninstall BS1 by simply deleting the installation folder, do I have the required registry keys for the upgrade to think BS1 is installed? Of is there a specific folder, group of files that the upgrade also scans for? I can't be arsed to try this for myself as it'll be the 3rd time reinstalling today..so does anyone have an idea?

Built a rig for a friend with that ASUS mobo. Nice board, no problems, nice BIOS GUI. Seemed a good sturdy build. Having been a long time Gigabyte user after a spell with ASUS up to the 965 chipset boards I might well go back when building a rig soon. Anyway, other than the advice mentioned about consulting your memory QVL in the motherboard's manual, don't skimp on PSU. You will be thankful in the long run if you get something with enough juice, froma respected maker, it will also allow more efficency and subsequently cut some electricity bills down! I got a Corsair HX850 and it's a great PSU and should easily see me into the next build and possibly another at a later date. If I had to make a choice between Corsair and OCZ, it'd be Corsair every time.