Hardware Thinking of Building A Gaming PC

[trumpet-205]

Might I suggest a drive cloning operation? It's miles faster than copying within an OS environment, if the new drive is bigger than the old drive it will resize automatically, and I'm sorry I don't know of any other program that can do this besides Acronis Disc Director, but if someone else out there knows other (free) software, shoot

I'd only recommend drive cloning if both drive are exactly the same one. Otherwise you will most likely end up with offset alignment being off; inferior drive performance.

It is always the best to create a new partition and copy the file manually and/or fresh install OS.

 

[jagerstaffel]

I'd only recommend drive cloning if both drive is exactly the same one. Otherwise you will most likely end up with offset being off; inferior drive performance.

It is always the best to create a new partition and copy the file manually and/or fresh install OS.

I've done drive cloning operations small -> big, even SSD -> MicroSD and vice versa, and I've not seen any adverse effects. Acronis specifically clones on an identical level, from MBR to partition sizes. As long as the hard disk drive is defragmented before being cloned, the operation is fast, and as I mentioned earlier if the target drive is larger partitions will resize accordingly.

There is another method I do when I test OS's, and that is separate smaller partition for the OS/games, and the larger partition for files, and that's primarily so that when I ruin the OS, or if the OS is corrupted, I am able to clone the drive and on the new drive clear only the OS partition.

Just thought I'd add a link here:
http://tech2.in.com/how-to/windows/how-to-upgrade-your-hard-drive-by-simply-cloning-it/872668

http://download.cnet.com/AOMEI-Backupper/3000-2242_4-75833997.html

 

[I am r4ymond]

Might I suggest a drive cloning operation? It's miles faster than copying within an OS environment, if the new drive is bigger than the old drive it will resize automatically, and I'm sorry I don't know of any other program that can do this besides Acronis Disc Director, but if someone else out there knows other (free) software, shoot


Right-click My Computer icon -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Advanced tab -> Startup and recovery Settings -> Uncheck "time to display list of operating systems", if that doesn't work change time to display operating systems to 1 second

Thanks, that did the trick. I'll give drive cloning a try as soon as my new HDD arrives tomorrow, seems a bit straightforward.

Originality Nothing shows up on the screen; it's as if the monitor never received the connection in the first place.

Another problem is that the CPU has an insanely high and unreasonable temperature even when my computer is doing simple, non-intensive tasks like using Google Chrome. Right now, my CPU is at an average of 85 degrees Celsius. Are there any simple ways I can lower the temperature or would I have to purchase a CPU cooler? I'm on an i5-4570 btw. CPU temperature based on CoreTemp readings, but I think CoreTemp is inaccurate, can't be that high can it?

 

[trumpet-205]

I've done drive cloning operations small -> big, even SSD -> MicroSD and vice versa, and I've not seen any adverse effects. Acronis specifically clones on an identical level, from MBR to partition sizes. As long as the hard disk drive is defragmented before being cloned, the operation is fast, and as I mentioned earlier if the target drive is larger partitions will resize accordingly.

Drive cloning is never done correctly on "identical" level. If you must drive clone, you must realign the entire partition.

Another problem is that the CPU has an insanely high and unreasonable temperature even when my computer is doing simple, non-intensive tasks like using Google Chrome. Right now, my CPU is at an average of 85 degrees Celsius. Are there any simple ways I can lower the temperature or would I have to purchase a CPU cooler? I'm on an i5-4570 btw.

85C is way too high, even for stock cooler. Did you install the cooler properly? Either way man up and spend some money on aftermarket cooler. It is a shame to see i5 being used with stock cooler.

 

[I am r4ymond]

Drive cloning is never done correctly on "identical" level. If you must drive clone, you must realign the entire partition.


85C is way too high, even for stock cooler. Did you install the cooler properly? Either way man up and spend some money on aftermarket cooler. It is a shame to see i5 being used with stock cooler.

It may have been a misreading. CoreTemp states it's 85 degrees Celsius while the ASUS Performance and Power Savings Utilities states it's at 64 degrees Celsius right now.

 

[trumpet-205]

It may have been a misreading. CoreTemp states it's 85 degrees Celsius while the ASUS Performance and Power Savings Utilities states it's at 64 degrees Celsius right now.

64 is more believable for stock cooler.

 

[jagerstaffel]

Drive cloning is never done correctly on "identical" level. If you must drive clone, you must realign the entire partition.

I meant near identical, I'm sure you get the idea

The fact is, it works, I've done it from small drive -> big drive, big drive -> small drive, if you are still skeptical you're free to try Virtual box for some sandboxed hard drive fun.

 

[Duo8]

It may have been a misreading. CoreTemp states it's 85 degrees Celsius while the ASUS Performance and Power Savings Utilities states it's at 64 degrees Celsius right now.

Mine is mostly at 51C. Even when doing heavy tasks it's always under 70C.

 

[I am r4ymond]

I meant near identical, I'm sure you get the idea

The fact is, it works, I've done it from small drive -> big drive, big drive -> small drive, if you are still skeptical you're free to try Virtual box for some sandboxed hard drive fun.

My new HDD arrived today, and I finished installing it, but for some reason the new HDD isn't showing up when I go to START > Computer. On the other hand, when I go to the BIOS Settings and check for the HDDs, it displays that the new HDD is connected in Port 4. I don't understand what the problem is.

EDIT: Nvm, I figured out the problem.

 

[jagerstaffel]

My new HDD arrived today, and I finished installing it, but for some reason the new HDD isn't showing up when I go to START > Computer. On the other hand, when I go to the BIOS Settings and check for the HDDs, it displays that the new HDD is connected in Port 4. I don't understand what the problem is.

Might need to be initialized. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> on the left side tree chose "Disk Management", and you should see it, right click it and it should say, I forgot, but you'll know when you see it.

 

[I am r4ymond]

Might need to be initialized. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> on the left side tree chose "Disk Management", and you should see it, right click it and it should say, I forgot, but you'll know when you see it.

Thanks, I'm in the process of formatting it right now.

 

[I am r4ymond]

Sorry for double posting, but I want to address another issue, and I felt that it's best if I just keep it in this thread instead of posting my problems on another thread.

As for my newly built PC, I've successfully installed everything just fine, but one thing that's been bothering me for the past 2 days is my GTX 660 Superclocked 2 GB. The two games that I've played so far are League of Legends and TERA. For LoL, my FPS has been constantly fluctuating from 60 to 30s and sometimes even lower framerates when everything is set to High, shadows disabled. Even when I set Video Settings to Medium my FPS still constantly fluctuates and is never able to maintain a solid 60 FPS. My friend and his other friend both have the GTX 660 Superclocked 2 GB, and they are able to maintain a stable 60 FPS. The same somewhat goes for TERA; the video settings are on medium, but I also feel that there are occasional lag spikes on a 5 second interval. Can someone please help me identify any problems?

By the way, I've been scouting around Google for people who have a similar problem with LoL and the GTX 660, but I have not found any workable solution.

Also, I played LoL on the latest video/graphics drivers, and it was lagging. I downgraded the video/graphics drivers to an even previous version, but there continues to be lag.

 

[trumpet-205]

Well, make sure you try the latest stable driver first, then beta one. Make sure you download driver from Nvidia directly, not from EVGA.

Also, can you do a GPU stress test using MSI Kombustor and monitor the GPU temperature and fan speed?

 

[I am r4ymond]

Well, make sure you try the latest stable driver first, then beta one. Make sure you download driver from Nvidia directly, not from EVGA.

Also, can you do a GPU stress test using MSI Kombustor and monitor the GPU temperature and fan speed?

I already tried the latest stable graphics drivers (downloaded directly from the NVIDIA website) before I downgraded to a previous driver version; I still get the same results.

I ran MSI Kombustor, and here were the results: http://i.imgur.com/7pWu7M6.jpg

 

[Thanatos Telos]

I already tried the latest stable graphics drivers (downloaded directly from the NVIDIA website) before I downgraded to a previous driver version; I still get the same results.

I ran MSI Kombustor, and here were the results: http://i.imgur.com/7pWu7M6.jpg

Odd. Looks fine to me. First off reset the Bios. So many problems have been fixed by doing this.
Second, are you using Fraps for measuring the frames? If not, do so and come back.

 

[trumpet-205]

Take out the the card and reinstall it, that'll also solved a lot of inexplicable problem.

 

[I am r4ymond]

Take out the the card and reinstall it, that'll also solved a lot of inexplicable problem.

How do you want me to approach the reinstallation? Do you want me to uninstall all of the graphics drivers first and then take out the video card and put it back in right after?

Thanatos Telos I'll try resetting the BIOS. As for FRAPS, I just downloaded and measured the framerates on League. I still get the same results and notice that the FPS is still unstable (saw it drop to 30 FPS).

 

[trumpet-205]

Simply shut down the computer, take out the card, then put it back. Make sure the card is firmly sat on the PCIe slot.

If that doesn't work then uninstall the driver.

 

[I am r4ymond]

Simply shut down the computer, take out the card, then put it back. Make sure the card is firmly sat on the PCIe slot.

If that doesn't work then uninstall the driver.

I took out the card and put it back firmly intact, still the same results. However, I haven't tried the uninstall-drivers-first method yet and will try that tomorrow.

On the other hand, I've discovered a few things. The first one being that the VGA and HDMI ports from the motherboard are fully functional; the graphics detection settings (or something similar of the sort) was set to auto, so it automatically detected the installed video card and went with that and, as a result, only the VGA and HDMI ports from the graphics card were functional. The other being that I used the Intel iGPU to play LoL, and I found that the FPS was a stable 60. Also, I noticed that getting to the loading screen was A LOT faster than when I used the GTX 660 to play LoL instead.