Jafo Jafo

Jafo's OK PC Build of 2015

Jafo's OK PC Build of 2015

Following on with ID's thread re new PC build.... and I'd only hijacked Starkers' one to describe what I'd been doing to date...so here's my own thread with the ins and outs of what's what.

My old machine [also home-grown] was a [then] reasonably OK machine....

Lian Li PC-A6010 case [black]

Antec TruePower Quattro 1000w PSU

ASUS P6T-se  X58 i7 MoBo

Intel i7 920 2.66Ghz LGA1366 CPU

12G OCZ Triple [6x2G] PC12800 DDR3 Gold Ram

CoolerMaster V8 CPU Cooler

Vantec EZ2 Sata hot-swap racks [x2][black]

1TB Seagate Sata2 7200 HD [x2] [redundancy backup/data]

2TB Western Digital Caviar Green Sata2 HD [x2]

500G WD Sata2 7200 HD [game backups]

250G Seagate Sata2 7200 HD [x2] [secondary/alternate OS installs in racks]

240G SanDisk SDSSDX240GG25 [for OS]

ACR-105 Multi card reader

LG Sata DVD-RW [x2][black]

ASUS GTX590 3GB GPU

Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit RTM.

 

That was its final specs...having doubled the ram from 6 and adding a 'faster' GPU.

The stumbling block was really 'just' the CPU.  For FSX  it's a case of 'the faster the better' - so just before Xmas I started researching....

 

More to come...;)

 

998,034 views 239 replies
Reply #151 Top

MagistarNL ....the specs in the OP are the old computer that dates back 6 or 7 years.

The current one has the OS [and main games] on a M.2x4 drive.... considerably faster than any 7200rpm platter...or almost all SSDs currently...;)

 

See comment #4 ...;)

Reply #152 Top

I have run into problems of a similar nature with almost every card reader I have ever used, both internal and external.  I went through three internal units in one year once, all on the same rig. Now I just leave the card in the device using it and connect/access it via  a usb cable and keep my fingers crossed.

Reply #153 Top

Quoting MagistarNL, reply 150

edit: Can't reply anymore so I will do an edit.
The M2 SSD is awesome. But the PC still has these drives right?
3TB Western Digital Caviar Green Sata2 HD [G + D] [hotswap] $ 128
2TB Western Digital Caviar Green Sata2 HD [I] [hotswap] $ 99
2TB Western Digital Caviar Green Sata2 HD [J] [hotswap] $ 99
I recommended moving those to a separate NAS . I hated it when I went to "computer" and they all started spinning up. I went from 6 disks to 3. The Raid 0 I use to fit my 980 GB of installed games. Let's hope 1 TB NVME SSD's become affordable soon

True re the platters spinning up.... but they're mostly backup drives without frequent accessing.  Between the 3 SSDs there's no need to be diving into the platters  in the midst of 'doing stuff'...;)

Reply #154 Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 148

On a different note...Terry's machine was getting annoying [slow] - [it's the machine listed in the OP]...so is now running Win10.
That's the 4th machine here.
IE likes to crash ...and the logon screen doesn't draw correctly, and a lot of system images are not showing as they should.
Only proggy I needed to pull off was Deskscapes.
I'll need a few more days tinkering before I call it a 'success' ...

Day 2 of configuring 10 to behave.

IE still crashes ....Edge doesn't show imported favourites.

Chrome is fine [typical].

Added OD manager and Start10....uninstalled the rest of SD's stuff ie. WB7 [even that original SDC] except fences and Object Dock.

There's an update that supposedly fixes the IE crash ....am checking if it helps.

Definitely graphic anomalies with the login...click on a user and you get squirly text [place holding]...so arguably the GUI is TRUE SHIT.

The password input is still rubbish and does not draw.

 

It's very much NOT a 'clean install' so some crap is expected.

I wasn't disappointed...;p

Reply #155 Top

And its last full-boot time was 53 seconds.

Reply #156 Top

Looks like much of it is down to the NVidia drivers....and getting one to install is the fun part.

Even when it claims to have 'failed' things improve...but reboot and it's still NQR.

So far, various 'fixes' on the net haven't.

Reply #157 Top

See!  I told you Win 10 is a problematic pig. :grin:

And still you went ahead and installed it on Terry's machine... not to mention a couple of your own.  :O

Shame on you... giving your poor wife a broken OS like that.   In this day and age that's grounds for sleeping on the couch... and only then because the kennel is full.

Then there have been those wives who have invited the dog inside.... so the hubby can take his rightful place in the doghouse... and installing 'piggy' Win 10 on a wife's PC probably is a 'doghouse crime' in the eyes of many wives... given its shite UI and built in spy features which doom users to be presented with all that 'wonderful' advertising on the multi-coloured Start Menu that looks like a reject from a Fisher Price factory.

:grin:

Seriously, my sister has Win 10 on her laptop and she hasn't had any reacl technical issues with it thus far.  However, having said that, she just doesn't like it and wants to revert back to Win 8.1.  I told her that she should be able to do that via the 'recovery drive' that's still got 8.1 on it, but being scared to meddle with things she's waiting until we next meet so that I can do it.

One of her pet hates is the "coat of many colours" start menu... AND the placement of ads within.  I fully understand that!  I wouldn't tolerate them, either.  Yes, yes, Start10 gets rid of all that, but there is too much else wrong with Win 10 in its current form for me to install it on any of my rigs  MS would have to perform a major rewrite to completely remove those core components that send personal data back to Redmond.  Failing that, I'll stick with 8.1 until no longer viable, and/or move over to Ubuntu, Mint or Robolinux, which natively installs Windows based proggies, so I read somewhere.

Or..... I could wait for Win 12. :-"

 

Reply #158 Top

Quoting starkers, reply 157

Or..... I could wait for Win 12.

Sorry but I have to comment. 

 

Win 12.................. :rofl: :rofl:

Reply #159 Top

starkers...the 'one' issue is with the NVidia driver for 10.  It'll get fixed, and isn't a deal breaker.  Now, Vista's [for me] was also one driver...the dsl modem's ...and without that the OS couldn't get online to fix itself...so it was as useless as tits on a bull.

By 7 the lack of drivers was resolved.

ALL new OS's have issues, and 8 was a bigger dog than 10, but you won't agree...because you've never used 10 and are thus somewhere between gullible and biased.

Terry's machine now on 10 is THE guinea pig for mine...they are OS system/program-wise identical other than the new one having newer hardware.  Heck, even the OS keys are identical.

Far more than I imagined works just fine.... and it's very much NOT a virgin install.

The cause of the issue is the 'mandatory' Win updates that I'll set to defer so as to avoid repeats of the 'argument' as to who is updating the drivers... MS or ME.

Then I'll tweak the boot time and see how quick is actual and possible, but whatever it is is immaterial as my machine gets booted a handful of times in a year...whilst Terry's spends more time off than on.... maybe 1 day in a year.

 

Reply #160 Top

I also used my GF's pc (i5 4670K, so not as exotic as build I have seen here) as test machine for Windows 10. Zero problems so far. However I did do a clean install from a USB drive created by the official MS media tool (after I upgraded first to get it Activated). I would rather just avoid the X hours to solve bug Y because I did an upgrade :P.

 

edit: I did have to upgrade Acronis True Image to the 2015 version because the older version do not support Win10.

Reply #161 Top

Aside from the mandatory updating bullshit, my only problem with Win10 so far(aside from that ass browser it shipped with) is that I had to use third party software to unfuck it's start menu.

 

It's nice for SD that they get a guaranteed sale of Start10 any time someone marginally intelligent switches to 10, but it's not so nice for those of us having to use the OS...

 

The security nonsense, I configured on install because I bought a copy of the OS instead of upgrading or running a pre-installed OS filled with bloatware.  It's mostly nonsense though, I may not be remotely interested in anything it brings, but if you want cloud functions, you have to actually connect to a cloud, there's nothing particularly malevolent in having an OS do such things.  It may be pointless and retarded for anyone serious, but Microsoft isn't just spying on you and using Cortana as a pretense.  The advertisements, I would never have tolerated, but disabling them is really, really easy.

 

Edge is truly broken though, freezes and crashes galore in that POS browser, but the OS isn't nearly as bad as 8.  If they'd just shipped it with a working browser, it would be close to 7's release quality.  Of course, it also lacks any real reason to upgrade outside of DX12.  8 was actually significantly faster than 7, resulting in noticeable real world performance gains in application responsiveness, of course, you had to modify it to get rid of that stupid metro before you could enjoy them, but they were there.  10 is not.

Reply #162 Top

psychoak's pretty much on the button.

It seems movement's afoot re mandatory updates as there's already history of issues with it.

I've just downloaded the 'ideal' driver...and a specific KB to deal with the updating...and shall see how I go with those.

It's apparently not every GPU that has the issue...but the 590 sure does.

This machine won't be going anywhere near 10 until I KNOW that the 980 is totally OK ...;)

Reply #163 Top

The free Windows 10 complicates things. In the Windows XP/Vista x64 time I just ran a dualboot and only started Vista for a few DX10 titles (World in Conflict and Crysis). Now you need to upgrade first which basically means you need to create an image and restore it if you want a chance at a dual boot. Takes a lot of time... Even then I heard that upgrading to Win10 will consume your Windows 7 key.

Reply #164 Top

Nothing is free.  Win 10 comes with the hassle and bloat of upgrading an OS instead of a clean install, unless you buy it.

Reply #165 Top

Quoting psychoak, reply 164

Nothing is free.  Win 10 comes with the hassle and bloat of upgrading an OS instead of a clean install, unless you buy it.

Hmm no you can. First upgrade. Then your hardware GUID will be stored on the microsoft servers.  Then download the Windows Media Creation tool and create an USB installer (or DVD). https://www.microsoft.com/nl-nl/software-download/windows10 . Run that and skip the serial when asked. As soon as you go online your Windows 10 will be activated based on the hardware GUID.

Reply #166 Top

That's not a hassle?  Your GUID will change as soon as you switch out some hardware, making you repeat the process when you up reinstall most likely, hassling you again.

Reply #167 Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 159

Now, Vista's [for me] was also one driver...the dsl modem's ...and without that the OS couldn't get online to fix itself...so it was as useless as tits on a bull.

Vista worked for me right out of the box.  Most drivers were updated automatically, and those that weren't were easily done via the device websites.  I know that a lot of people hated Vista, but for me it was better than XP and so much more stable.  I had quite a few BSODs in XP, but rarely, if ever, in Vista.

Quoting Jafo, reply 159

ALL new OS's have issues, and 8 was a bigger dog than 10, but you won't agree...because you've never used 10 and are thus somewhere between gullible and biased.

Again, Win 8/8.1 has been trouble free for me from day one.  At first I did find the Metro start panel useful to access apps and other stuff on my PC, but I very rarely see it these days... meaning I use the OS exactly as I did Win 7.  In using it that way there is no "dog" about it, just fast and reliable usage that beats 7 for speed and stability, etc.

As for being "somewhere between gullible and biased" regarding Win 10, I'd say I'm exercising caution and using common sense in not trusting a 'free' OS that's essentially MS' version of a walled garden and comes with snooping abilities that send bucketloads of personal data and usage back to Redmond.  Nope, that is not for me.  My sister used the program I linked to in another thread and still she gets ads in the start menu.  Like WTF? 

With all those 'transparent' spy items disabled, ads are not supposed to appear, yet there they are.  Like I said, those things were intended to be 'transparent', but MS has not really transparent and hasn't given users real control because there are data mining elements within the OS core that cannot be turned off.... and that I can not, will not trust.  But if you like Win 10, go ahead and use it.

Quoting psychoak, reply 161

Microsoft isn't just spying on you and using Cortana as a pretense

Cortana is actually useful to those users who avail themselves of its services, so it isn't exactly 'spying', well not in the true sense.  Users input whatever queries and Cortana searches for relevant answers, meaning that Cortana is not data mining.... unlike the core elements that cannot be turned off.  Now those DO collect personal information and hone home.

Anyway, it's not a bother for me, and those 'telemetry' updates for Win 8.1, well they were uninstalled and hidden from future downloads... though I do expect MS to try push them through in other ways, like piggyback them with important patches, etc.

Reply #168 Top

Sorry, starkers...but yesterday I was in an SF 'costume' for Halloween  [don't ask] ...so I made a tinfoil hat....

Your comments regarding Win 10 [combined with apparent myopia re 8 / 8.1] ....you can have it.

One size fits all.

The Modern OS requires [by many users] cloud/data/convenience [targeting] more so than "the good old days" [blame idiot users of mobile phones/twitter/facebook et al] so the OS gets the functionality.

As with ALL OS's people find/release work-arounds for 'unwanted' features.  10 already has many. [probably more and better researched than those missed on 8].

You are a product of your own paranoia.

When I said [many times] that 8 was/is a dog it was because the GUI was TOO DIFFERENT for people to be comfortable with and made millions of dollars for Stardock when they FIXED IT.  And the bottom line is that the OS should NOT have been released whilst still requiring fixing.  That is why heads rolled.  That is why there is an 8.1.  That is why 10 is free.

It's not some fascist evil plan by 'The Man' to fuck over its customers.

It's an admission of just how badly they lost the plot, whether you are the only person who likes 8 or whether you can find someone else to keep you company the reality is 8 was a mistake and MS knows it.

Too many people simply FORGET OS History and just how bad some of the changes [updates] really were, and what drove skinners/tweakers/coders to try to reinvent them.

I don't know how many systems you need to own/manage/make before your opinion is taken seriously, but every system here is home-built [excluding laptops] and currently, not counting the dozen or so VM's and VB's all but 2 are now on 10.

One had a minor glitch....took a few minutes to correct....2 were utterly painless and one...this last one has an NVidia issue.  In all, 4 different original OS vers done as upgrades complete with installed proggies, etc.

7 Pro, 7 Ult, 8.1 Pro, and 10 preview.

I'd like to think I'm getting experienced with 10, and given a few more years I might almost like it more than 7.

But no matter what, I'm glad to see the arse-end of 8....;)

 

And besides....when I end up agreeing with psychoak you KNOW we must be right...;)

Reply #169 Top

You should totally ban me again, having things so certain is disturbing, it takes all the mystery out of living!

 

I've been avoiding it like the plague because it's on a laptop(I'm going to have to travel shortly so I bit the bullet and bought one of the infernal things...) but it shouldn't take much more work for me to neuter their stupid security nonsense, and aside from Edge, that's the only thing giving me grief since I can get around those stupid mandatory updates now...

 

Edge is pretty hilariously bad, haven't had a browser that glitchy since an IE update bricked around 4 or 5.  Lockups that prevent you from interacting with it are downright frequent.

Reply #170 Top

Quoting psychoak, reply 169

You should totally ban me again, having things so certain is disturbing, it takes all the mystery out of living!

Fear not....we're bound to disagree on something again eventually...;)

Edge for me wasn't all that much of a drama...probably because I've concentrated on keeping IE instead.

'Bad' was when both IE10 and 11 crashed MS's own game/sim aka FSX.

But they worked it out eventually.

You never know....they might even work out Edge one day...;)

Reply #171 Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 170
You never know....they might even work out Edge one day...;)
and whales might fly, it is more likely the ms getting anything right within 6 major versions (at least in the last 20 years)

harpo, the ghost NON-subscriber

Reply #172 Top

I must admit that I never even considered Windows 8 for my gaming pc. However I needed a new laptop and I purchased a Microsoft Surface Pro 2. That machine is amazing! It has 6-8 hours battery (Can be extended by 40% with the power cover), i5, 8 gb ram, 512 GB ssd. But it came with Windows 8 (aargh!). But it is so flexible. I have been using it as a laptop, htpc (dock connected to TV) and tablet (continue watching in bed :P) for about 8 months now and I love it. You could even use it as a (non gaming) pc while docked. I honestly don't notice a difference in browsing/office compared to my gaming machine.

It did take a while to get used to Windows 8. But now I have realized that Windows 8 is perfect for that device. In fact I have not upgraded it to Windows 10 because Windows 10 lacks some essential functions such as gradual brightness control (Win8 has per 1%, Win10 per 25%) and a lot of the touch gestures that came with Windows 8.

Windows 8 itself came with some nice features such as reduced ram usage (Win7 always idles at 3 GB+ for me, Win8 at 1.9), they upgraded task manager with disk usage (including latencies!) and a neat network traffic monitor, and last but not least they added the ability to pause (network) transfers. Which was something I needed for over 10 years! Oh and for tablets the new sceen split functionality was awesome.

As far as I know the primary thing they added in Win10 is a new skin and a new WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model). So all other devices should work perfectly. This update is definitely not as big was Windows 3.x, Win95, Win XP and Windows Vista were. I also have a feeling MS was sort of ready for another "Vista". Pretty much all big OS changes have been met with distrust and anger (remember Windows XP missing divers and online activation? Remember Vista? Win7 was basically the same OS). With 2 years Win10 is here quite fast. Maybe because it is basically Windows 8 with a different skin and some minor changes. Win8 wasn't that bad jut like Vista wasn't. I am confident that if you install Vista today you will like it just as much as Win7. But yes the Windows8 tablet interface made no sense for regular pc's! Of course you could just use Stardock's Start 8 to get back the Win7 feeling :). In 20+ years have learned that you just need to work with the new OS releases in hindsight they are often not so bad ;).

Reply #173 Top

Quoting MagistarNL, reply 172

In 20+ years have learned that you just need to work with the new OS releases in hindsight they are often not so bad .

Yes, except for Win ME.

That should have been drowned at birth...;)

Reply #174 Top

Working with an OS to get used to it isn't the problem with Microsoft's recent releases...

 

I was copying winamp playlist files over to duplicate my music environment on the laptop yesterday.  A simple thing, yes?

 

First I had to unhide the folders so I could actually move things into them, which is yet again, located in a different menu than previously.  Microsoft has gotten progressively more paranoid about attempting to keep users from actually using their computers, in a misguided effort to make things safe for people who are really just too stupid to own one.  Many settings files for programs are going to be inside folders hidden by default, obscured behind menu layers that seemingly change without cause in each new iteration.  In this case, frankly, it's superior in 10, having them all beneath File instead of under the superfluous Organize, but half the folders on the computer are hidden by default now.

 

Then I do the copy action, and I'm informed that I can't.  It doesn't even throw an authorization popup, because apparently they forgot to do it for cut/past maneuvers.  If you drag the files into the folder, you get the UAC prompt, but cut and paste is a no go.  This same security measure breaks many older programs that weren't designed with it's anal behavior in mind, and it does nothing to prevent the primary method people get their computers infected, by willingly installing the malware themselves.

 

In the case of Windows 7, disabling UAC was a minor detail, in the case of Vista, disabling UAC simply left you locked out of things, and needed a third party workaround to fix.  Hopefully, when I disable UAC on 10, I wont need to expend any more effort than I did to unhide all system files and folders, show known extensions, etc.

 

Half of Microsoft's releases in the last decade have required third party help to make them equally functional in comparison to their predecessor.  ME was simply broken and inferior to it's predecessor in every way, Vista had crippling security issues, along with performance problems in Aero, and 8 had a GUI designed for ease with touch pads, and useless for the precision interfaces nearly everyone was attempting to use it for.  The only real difference between them was that other people couldn't really fix Windows ME with something you could download and install inside an hour.

Reply #175 Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 168

Your comments regarding Win 10 [combined with apparent myopia re 8 / 8.1] ....you can have it.

And I'll keep it, too!   As I said, Win 8.1 works exactly like Win 7 with Start8 installed... no Metro, no glitches, no pain.  It just works... faster and better than 7 ever did.  Oh, and I'm not the only one who like Win 8.1. RND is one who comes to mind, but I recall Phoon and the-Monk as being others.

As for Win 10, it wouldn't exist without Win 8 being created first.... 10 is just a 'dressed up' version of 8.1, but with a fugly UI and nasty looking icons, that are nauseating at best.  Given than my other issues with 10 were fixed, which is most unlikely,  Stardock would have to remedy both the UI and icon replacement issue before I'd consider installing it on any machine of mine.

As for MS "Not" mining personal usage and data?????  Can you categorically 100% say that its not?   Put it this way, I wouldn't be betting my 'lefty' on it. 

When several tech writers/experts say they've discovered data mining elements deep within the core, and that they're not able to be turned off without rendering the whole OS useless, I tend to 'prick my ears up'... and without a denial from Microsoft, I tend to believe it to be so.  What does MS do with all that data [same question could be asked about Google], feched if I know, but it is being gathered and I'm not comfortable with that. 

Then there's the 'walled garden' aspect of Win 10.  Apple has been making bucket loads from that very concept, and with MS constantly losing market share to Apple, a similar business model was enabled to compete in today's market.  The Win 10 'service' is MS' answer to the 'walled garden, and while it may not be so obvious yet, eventually it will become more and more a closed system... where some of our favourite software titles could disappear because certain developers lost favour with MS and other 'more pleasing' ones who 'toed the MS line' were found.

Sorry, no offense is intended here, but this is purely business for Microsoft, and anyone who thinks Win 10 is customer/user driven is either naive or deluded.  Given it is a 'free' OS, MS has to recoup the capital invested in 10's development, so it built in features beneficial to itself.... ie, data mining; OS based advertising; core components that cannot be deactivated.

And the 'Cloud' [storage and etc], they can shove it!  I don't care who or what created the concept, I neither want or need it, so why would I want an OS [I neither like or trust] that'll largely depend on it as time goes on.... after all, it has become a 'service', right?

There, I've said all I'm going to about 'piggy' Win 10 here.  It started off as a hardware based thread and I hope to see it continue more along those lines.

:)