My hardware woes: So you don't feel so bad about yours

[Jofaba]

I'm putting myself on the sacrificial alter for you, my fellow aggrivated and helpless comrads of the uncompromising computer. The computer I speak of is in my signature. I average 25-40fps in BF2, COD2, GTA SA, NFS Most Wanted... basically all the games that all the cool kids play. I really can't max out every game, and absolutely every game falls below the 30fps mark regarldess of settings and resolution. I've used nHancer, coolbits 2.0, and every combination of settings. Here's a quick list of hardware upgrades I've done over the past 6 months or so:

1) Videocard: AGP) X800XT AIW--> X850XT PE --> PCI-e) 7800GT --> 2X 7800GT in SLi --> 2X 7900GT CO Superclocks in SLi

2) Motherboard: AGP)ASUS A8V--> PCI-E) eVGA NF41--> DFI Lanparty UT SLi-D

3) Ram: 512mb PNY --> 2X512mb PNY--> 2x 1GB OCZ Platinum

4) Hard drives: Maxtor 300gb--> added 75gb Raptor--> Raptor died--> New Raptor--> Maxtor died--> New Seagate 300gb --> Second Raptor broke (drive works, but plastic grip for SATA interface snapped off)

5) CPU: Same actually. Possibly the source of some, if not all, of my peformance issues. However, started at 2.0. Went to 2.4. Then 2.5. Finally reached 2.65 with new heatsink. Currently stable at 2.8 with watercooling. However, 3dMark05 gives low cpu scores according to people who seem to know what they're talking about. Next step is an Opteron 165 which costs $320usd.

6) PSU: Unknown stat psu that seemed to work pretty well. --> Got Hiper Type-R 580w Modular psu. Very pretty, good reviews, recommended for SLi by nVidia, but still the second possible source of peformance problems, again, according to people who seem to know what they're talking about.

7) Cooling. Here's the only part of my adventure that I've actually seen a noted peformance boost in. I went from the stock heatsink and fan combo to the Scythe Ninja and a 120mm fan. With two 120mm fans on it, I reached the 2.65 overclock. Not bad for air. Watercooling cut my temps in half (removing the cpu's IHS helped as well).

And now

Here are the rules of this thread:

1) You are encouraged to laugh at me and my computer. This will start you on a healing path of forgiving your hardware and maybe even open the lines of communication that was once thought forever lost.

2) You are encouraged to share stories about the good old days when you had the best computer on the block. You know, back when the neighbors would climb the tree outside your bedroom window just to stare at the side of it's case as you totally 0wn3d Tetris and Lemmings. And the wierd part was that there was a perfectly accessible window to your sisters room just further down the branch that they completely ignored.

3) You are encouraged to berate me and post annoing animations that show how much cooler you are than me. But please, keep it clean and in good fun. This isn't permission to break TOS.

4) And finally, You are entitled to weep for me. Even pray for me, if that's your thing. Shake your head in disgust or pity. Or just fume and billow smoke because you know with 100% certinty that if you got your hands on my computer, it'd run like a finely tuned Hemi.

[SFR-MAINE]

Re: My hardware woes: So you don't feel so bad about yours

well i can remeber when I had 2 gigs of working ram a few hours ago....

In a pickle as you are, either new mobo (80$) or another 1 GB stick (80$) or both (160$) there goes my 7600GT

[Sir. bzb]

Re: My hardware woes: So you don't feel so bad about yours

I feel your pain, i remember before i got my current machine, dents in walls, carpets soaked from crying, bleeding hands, the foaming at the mouth......
In theory it wasnt a bad set up at the time, xp3000, gig o ram, 9800XT 256mb, a few 60gig drives and raid..... yet it would never quite work as expected. Must have cost a fortune at the time since it started off a lot lower spec and everything got upgraded during the elimination process, still that did mean i had a spare athlon to take it out on- they smoke when overclocked and running without a heatsink they also break quite quickly and given the price its not a great hobby to take up.
My final solution was to buy a pre-built (gaming) machine for the first time ever and its great, the money i could have saved on the DIY route is meaningless compared to the cost of the hassle when it doesnt work. I take the side off my machine now just to smile at it and enjoy the relief of not having to go poking around pulling ram out or swapping componants or having to make that 'GAH!' noise when you realise after youve put it back together and press the power button that you inavetantly pulled the ide cable out of the boot drive.

[Blak_Phoenix]

Re: My hardware woes: So you don't feel so bad about yours

I WANT YOUR COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!!

well actually just the 2 7900's, the ram, your mobo and when you get your opty, that too!

Man, that sucks... i remember when my dad brought home his 1st laptop. P1 90Mhz, 32MB of RAm, i still have it! runs ok, sometimes doesnt like to boot, has big problems with 98, likes 95 though! :)

I used to play Lemmings and Vikings 24/7 on it, great times. :laugh:

[Eden]

Re: My hardware woes: So you don't feel so bad about yours

How on earth did you go though so many hard drives? I hope you got the replacememnt ones for free.

Ive only had one hard drive fail in 10 years :)

I have the Hiper Type-R PSU and its working great ive had it running for about 4 months with no problems, gives me plenty of power.

[Verzili]

Re: My hardware woes: So you don't feel so bad about yours

maybe youre cpu has had its day,it been overclocked for a long time,

since you had the av8 (with standard cooling) you were runing the 3200 venice at 2.4 or higher.

in my book that not a good thing to do.

i see you have a good choice of cooling now,which should be keeping the temps down.

but i really would like to no what a new cpu in youre rig gives performance wise,compared to the 3200 venice.

now i have heard storys of why is a 3500 better than a 3200 when you only get 200mhz extra on the 3500,

aparently there a bit more stable when overclocked to 2.6 or higer.
but both chips reach 2.7

have you tried running youre cpu at deafult speeds,and run 3dmark and check fps in bf2.i doubt it any lower than youe current score.

not trying to be sarcastic or anything,just giving my point as how i feel to the matter.

i see you must have worked hard to get all youre bits and bobs(fairplay)
but i dont think you will do the rig justice until a new cpu is put in,(opteron sounds nice)

any ways good luck m8 i hope you get to play the game and other games the way you want.

[redearedslider]

Re: My hardware woes: So you don't feel so bad about yours

I'm putting myself on the sacrificial alter for you, my fellow aggrivated and helpless comrads of the uncompromising computer. The computer I speak of is in my signature. I average 25-40fps in BF2, COD2, GTA SA, NFS Most Wanted... basically all the games that all the cool kids play. I really can't max out every game, and absolutely every game falls below the 30fps mark regarldess of settings and resolution. I've used nHancer, coolbits 2.0, and every combination of settings. Here's a quick list of hardware upgrades I've done over the past 6 months or so:

1) Videocard: AGP) X800XT AIW--> X850XT PE --> PCI-e) 7800GT --> 2X 7800GT in SLi --> 2X 7900GT CO Superclocks in SLi

2) Motherboard: AGP)ASUS A8V--> PCI-E) eVGA NF41--> DFI Lanparty UT SLi-D

3) Ram: 512mb PNY --> 2X512mb PNY--> 2x 1GB OCZ Platinum

4) Hard drives: Maxtor 300gb--> added 75gb Raptor--> Raptor died--> New Raptor--> Maxtor died--> New Seagate 300gb --> Second Raptor broke (drive works, but plastic grip for SATA interface snapped off)

5) CPU: Same actually. Possibly the source of some, if not all, of my peformance issues. However, started at 2.0. Went to 2.4. Then 2.5. Finally reached 2.65 with new heatsink. Currently stable at 2.8 with watercooling. However, 3dMark05 gives low cpu scores according to people who seem to know what they're talking about. Next step is an Opteron 165 which costs $320usd.

6) PSU: Unknown stat psu that seemed to work pretty well. --> Got Hiper Type-R 580w Modular psu. Very pretty, good reviews, recommended for SLi by nVidia, but still the second possible source of peformance problems, again, according to people who seem to know what they're talking about.

7) Cooling. Here's the only part of my adventure that I've actually seen a noted peformance boost in. I went from the stock heatsink and fan combo to the Scythe Ninja and a 120mm fan. With two 120mm fans on it, I reached the 2.65 overclock. Not bad for air. Watercooling cut my temps in half (removing the cpu's IHS helped as well).

And now

Here are the rules of this thread:

1) You are encouraged to laugh at me and my computer. This will start you on a healing path of forgiving your hardware and maybe even open the lines of communication that was once thought forever lost.

2) You are encouraged to share stories about the good old days when you had the best computer on the block. You know, back when the neighbors would climb the tree outside your bedroom window just to stare at the side of it's case as you totally 0wn3d Tetris and Lemmings. And the wierd part was that there was a perfectly accessible window to your sisters room just further down the branch that they completely ignored.

3) You are encouraged to berate me and post annoing animations that show how much cooler you are than me. But please, keep it clean and in good fun. This isn't permission to break TOS.

4) And finally, You are entitled to weep for me. Even pray for me, if that's your thing. Shake your head in disgust or pity. Or just fume and billow smoke because you know with 100% certinty that if you got your hands on my computer, it'd run like a finely tuned Hemi.

you could've just sticked to the x850 xt pe :P

[LoD]

Re: My hardware woes: So you don't feel so bad about yours

I dont want to be a party pooper, but judging from all the changes you have made are you sure you know how to put a computer together properly? Sorry but this is borderline hilarious if it wasnt so sad and depressing.

[Jofaba]

Re: My hardware woes: So you don't feel so bad about yours

Sorry but this is borderline hilarious if it wasnt so sad and depressing.

Don't appologize, that's why I created this thread =P

No. I don't. I mean, this is my first self-built computer and I've been learning as I go along. I frustrate many a person as they tell me over and over again what to do and then only to find out that I ended up doing something else anyway. I'm pretty sure that I'm doing things about 85% correct now, but there's still things that totally surprise me. Like yesterday I tried to run some of my hardware on a second psu to see if my Hiper is having problems. As far as I know, you need to plug a psu into a motherboard, or hardwire it with some trickery that I wasn't willing to do, and so I wired up both dvd drives and both hard drives, as well as my water pump, and couldn't get into windows. It wanted at least one ide since the ide was plugged into the main mobo. So I let the hiper have one dvd and then it wouldn't boot into the main hard drive. So I let it have the hard drive and still wouldn't boot into windows. Put it all back together and now it seems like one of my dvd drives no longer works. I also accidently shorted out the second mobo&psu as I plugged one of it's molex's into the main mobo. That mobo wasn't powered, but I forgot that the second psu was still on. Saw a spark as I plugged into my brand new DFI and it turned off (the second psu).

I try hard and try to make sure everything's done right, but so far I haven't had much luck.

I just got paid today, although unfortunately it's less than I thought I was making at my new job. But I'm still going to order the Opteron tonight. The problem is that it's going to be a whole week's worth of pay, maybe a few bucks more. I shouldn't buy it, but I can't stand the idea of this computer sitting here with so much potential being hindered by anything. But on the other hand, I'm very worried that I'll buy the new cpu and still get bad peformance. I'm nearing the point where I'll be trading food money for computer money...

[imported_Wreck]

Re: My hardware woes: So you don't feel so bad about yours

Almost all my hardware failures have been my fault. In my five years of building PC's I have never had problems like you describe. In fact that PC I just built for my friend thats pretty much a carbon copy of mine went off without a hitch. Overclocked his dual opty right to 2.7Ghz and off to playing BF2 with 70-100+ FPS. Everyhting worked first try and no dead pixels. I've lately been blessed with great overclocking hardware, and no DOA parts. I suggest you send all your failed computer builds to me to fix.

[LoD]

Re: My hardware woes: So you don't feel so bad about yours

Almost all my hardware failures have been my fault. In my five years of building PC's I have never had problems like you describe. In fact that PC I just built for my friend thats pretty much a carbon copy of mine went off without a hitch. Overclocked his dual opty right to 2.7Ghz and off to playing BF2 with 70-100+ FPS. Everyhting worked first try and no dead pixels. I've lately been blessed with great overclocking hardware, and no DOA parts. I suggest you send all your failed computer builds to me to fix.

I'm in the same boat, more than likely problems are user error is my experience. The only parts I have ever had fail on me have been fans over long periods of time, and 1 hard drive that slowly died over the course of 2 years. (came with a dell, and was past its warranty so I gave it to my younger siblings since none of their data mattered.... )


Anyways @ the OP. I'v already posted in your threads with advice etc... lol but I think it might be good to try the following. Run everything at stock speed, no SLI, no fancy cooling, run minimal parts, only what is essential to run windows. Run benchmarks and see where you are at compared to other computers like yours.


OR

Bring it to a tech store and have them fix it, or get a techy friend or something. Man i feel so bad after reading about your struggles, its truely depressing to see you go through this.:cry:

[Jofaba]

Re: My hardware woes: So you don't feel so bad about yours

None of that is really an option. I'm not looking for an easy out. This isn't just a set of problems that I want to overcome and forget about. As soon as I can afford it, I want to start taking computer classes and learn how to do this stuff properly. All of this is a learning experience, but yeah, it's been a pretty sucky one so far.

In all honesty, while I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, I can't for the life of me figure out how I could screw up so badly, y'know? I mean... if it's not hardware, then what? I plug the sata into the sata, I plug the ide into the ide, I put the processor into it's place, and plug everything up to power. I install latest drivers on clean windows install, scan for viruses and spyware often, defrag regularly, close down windows properly except when I hang or crash during OC trials, etc. While not exactly the easiest thing in the world, building a computer is pretty self explainatory. It's just so aggrivating! heh.

Well, I haven't given up yet. I'll order the Opteron as soon as my work checks clear. I've got less faith in this upgrade than I had with the mobo upgrade, but since I haven't seen any symptom of my psu being overworked, and statistically it rates above what's being suggested for my rig, the cpu is all that's left. Well that and the ram. But my ram passes memtest (one run, it took forever! and I 'm new to that program).

Thanks for the suggestions and pity guys. Keep it coming. And the jokes at my expense. They make me smile =) (I'm being honest!)

[Eden]

Re: My hardware woes: So you don't feel so bad about yours

I can safly say that its not a PSU issue, (as ive mentioned) ive had not problems with the Type-R its a great PSU.

Im running with the following:
ASUS A8N-E
7800GT
Hiper Type-R
160GB SATA-II (i forget the make, samsun i think)
AMD 4400+ X2

It all runs perfectly together, I pluged everything in and turned it one and as soon as i heard that POST beeb I knew I had set it up perfectly first time.

[Painl3ss.NL]

Re: My hardware woes: So you don't feel so bad about yours

I agree with twsmit, keep the setup simple and run benchmarks, memtest and burn tests like prime95 after each change of driver, timing, etc.

Build it up slowly so when things go wrong you can relate it to a recent change.

Props for starting the thread, but it better has a happy end because it is bloody annoying that such a setup is not working (if it's annoying to me I hate to immagine what it does to you).

On a related side note, my girlfriend just SMSed me that her laptop displays the following message at startup: "disk read error" CRTL-ALT-DELETE to restart ...
So I got my work cut out for the weekend.

[imported_Wreck]

Re: My hardware woes: So you don't feel so bad about yours

If it does end up being the PSU, I just put one of these in a PC I just built:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817256006

Best PSU I've personally used so far.