Hardware Revolution - Latest Comments

Re: FAQ: How to Build Your Own Computer

Lingerie — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:18:31 -0000

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Re: Warning: 6 Surefire Ways of Blowing Up Your Computer Due to an Inadequate Power Supply

Lingerie — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 05:34:18 -0000

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Re: Mainstream Gaming PCs v3.2: Price Cuts and Performance Boost!

Garion — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:33:17 -0000

I'm building a T4 tomorrow, and I have to say that I'm looking forward to it very much! Thanks for maintaining this list and helping those of us who aren't able to do every last bit of research to put together a great computer build!

Re: Mainstream Gaming PCs v3.2: Price Cuts and Performance Boost!

MathieuB — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:55:27 -0000

Sure, but I'd add a 120mm or 200mm fan at the top of the case, to ensure proper cooling.

Re: Mainstream Gaming PCs v3.2: Price Cuts and Performance Boost!

Tovud — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:23:15 -0000

could i use a cooler master haf 912 for the tier 5?

Re: Mainstream Gaming PCs v3.2: Price Cuts and Performance Boost!

MathieuB — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:50:08 -0000

No, you need a fan to keep temperatures in check. An option would be to order another 120mm fan instead. Avoid "sleeve" type of fans, for they die early.

Re: Budget Gaming PCs v3.2: New Tier and Price Cuts!

MathieuB — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:48:49 -0000

@bc5e040a482e84cdae41b5d08b76d950

I'd recommend the Radeon HD 6850 1GB as an alternative that offers similar performance: http://www.amazon.com/HIS-Rade...

Take care,
Mathieu

Re: Budget Gaming PCs v3.2: New Tier and Price Cuts!

Tovud — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:42:51 -0000

is there an alternative to a pny gtx 460?

Re: Mainstream Gaming PCs v3.2: Price Cuts and Performance Boost!

Noob_Q — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:55:05 -0000

Hey I got the 212 CPU cooler in my tier 5 build. It is clicky and was approved for RMA but not worth my time. I don't overclock and CPU seems to stay at 30 C when I'm playing SC2 so its working fine but a bit noisy. Can I remove the fan and just have the heatsink without detriment?

Re: The Best SSDs and HDDs For Your Money: January 2012

Requiemshark — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:17:12 -0000

Mathieu,

I'm trying to find the perfect HDD or SSD for my audio production workstation, and I just can't seem to find the right combination. I just installed an internal Barracuda Green 2TB w/64MB cache, 5900 rpm, and 3GB/s (ST320005N4A1AS--RK), but it seems to make my computer run much slower than my old Barracuda, which had 7200 rpm, 750GB, and 3GB/s (ST3750630AS). Only reason I replaced it was because it died. But I noticed the difference in speed the second I booted up with the new Barracuda.

I depend on my desktop for audio production, so, of course, I need a system that is performance intensive. My CPU is an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz w/ 8GB of ram, so I'm pretty sure it's not my processor setup. I run Windows 7 Ultimate as well, and have tweaked it for high performance. Should I keep the 2TB Seagate for storage and buy a new drive? Or do you think the problem lies elsewhere?

BTW, your guide is very informative. I'm relatively new to the inner workings of computers, but it's people like you who give me hope that I can figure out what all this stuff means one day.

Re: The Best SSDs and HDDs For Your Money: January 2012

Jacob Ross — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:38:25 -0000

For what it's worth, the company is called "Mushkin Enhanced" and the product called just "Chronos", "Chronos Deluxe", etc

Re: Mainstream Gaming PCs v3.2: Price Cuts and Performance Boost!

Rdreine — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:45:43 -0000

A suggestion, you list that case and motherboard for Tier 5 system. You should place some note on this to let people know that the header isn’t on the board. I wasted over an hour looking for that damn thing. Also, if the firewire was really important to me, I would have to order another part and wait for that to come in before I could use the port. This would waste days before my rig was finished. (The fact that the motherboard company falsely advertises is another subject but not related to you or this site.)

Re: Mainstream Gaming PCs v3.2: Price Cuts and Performance Boost!

MathieuB — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:12:53 -0000

@d82a3f1337f39efbd428ba130b493750

Unfortunately, the ASRock Extreme 3 Z68 motherboard does not come with any FireWire header, as described in the "Ports, expansion slots, features, what’s included in the box, etc." section of the motherboard.

If you want a FireWire header, you'll need an add-on card, such as this one: http://www.amazon.com/PCI-Expr...

Take care,
Mathieu

Re: Budget Gaming PCs v3.2: New Tier and Price Cuts!

Tovud — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:46:10 -0000

Thank You

Re: Mainstream Gaming PCs v3.2: Price Cuts and Performance Boost!

Rdreine — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:36:07 -0000

Made my first build ever yesterday using your guide. It runs great a no real problems. Basically, I used your tier 5 i5 2500 system. Thanks. One question, I can't find the IEEE header on the asrocks z68 motherboard. There are some USB headers on bottom of board but I dont see the FireWire header.

Re: The Best SSDs and HDDs For Your Money: January 2012

MathieuB — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:44:28 -0000

@1ede2b390fa4e6f06284f00d87420e2f

Simply because the 320 series has been launched a long time ago and is no longer competitive versus more modern designs. Intel should launching the 320 series replacement pretty soon.

Re: Budget Gaming PCs v3.2: New Tier and Price Cuts!

MathieuB — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:42:57 -0000

Nope, even overclocked, the Core i3-2120 remains faster when it comes to gaming. The Intel architectures are just that much better for gaming.

Re: Budget Gaming PCs v3.2: New Tier and Price Cuts!

Noahmosios — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:37:35 -0000

Or maybe I just buy an AMD 955 OC to outmatch the 2120. but I do not know what it takes to overclocked the 955 to outmatch the 2120

Re: Budget Gaming PCs v3.2: New Tier and Price Cuts!

Noah — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:28:39 -0000

Is the AMD 965 OC better than the Intel i3 2120? I use my rig mostly for gaming

Re: The Best Mainstream Laptops For Your Money

Zepfan_75 — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:49:20 -0000

>.< nvm, I think I might have just answered my question...

Re: The Best Mainstream Laptops For Your Money

Zepfan_75 — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:46:44 -0000

Hey Mathieu,
I am going to college this year and I am considering a laptop so that I can work on school work while away from my desktop. My desktop is plenty powerful, an I5 2400 @3.951 Ghz/GTX560ti, but there might come a time where I might need to run more demanding software like Autocad and photoshop for projects. I feel if I ever have to leave my desktop then It would set back my work, so do you have any laptops that would be able to fulfill these requirements: portability of a laptop, the performance I need(software mentioned), and costing in the range of 500-800?

Re: The Best SSDs and HDDs For Your Money: January 2012

Alex — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:22:57 -0000

Why so low on the Intel performance ratings?

Re: The Best SSDs and HDDs For Your Money: January 2012

MathieuB — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:18:26 -0000

@73343409bb7b4448da7364a33f8f6250

Performance and reliability scores are not related. You can have a SSD with excellent performance, but poor reliability or the very opposite.

The Sandisk Ultra received a 5 for performance because it's based on a older controller, a first generation SandForce controller, which offers much lower performance than more modern controllers.

Hope this clears it up.

Cheers,
Mathieu

Re: Budget Gaming PCs v3.2: New Tier and Price Cuts!

Axemen77 — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:41:45 -0000

So can any one tell me which MB and case are the easiest to pair up,?
i got one where all the case wires were separate. a little hard for my first build

Re: The Best SSDs and HDDs For Your Money: January 2012

Dave — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:37:02 -0000

Why does the SanDisk Ultra receive a 5 for its performance? It's reliability is so high and yet you list its performance at half that and don't really say why. I was just curious why.