Dom1912

I'm looking to invest in a decent SSD 'boot' drive that will last me a good few rig iterations (5+ years), I'd like a boot drive that allows me some breathing room for games too, I was thinking in the 500GB region. http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz7pd512bw I had the above in mind given its universally good reviews and current price. What would you recommend I consider/purchase? Thanks.

I've already re-installed sound drivers, that was my first port of call. Would sound drivers have any effect on youtube videos playing or windows media player not working? I'm not talking 'no sound', they freeze and cease to work. My thinking was that a sound driver wouldn't freeze a video, the video would continue to play but without sound.

For the past week, coming up two, I've been experiencing weird 'sound failures' with my rig. The problem manifests itself in two main ways: After 'x' amount of time spent gaming or browsing my computer will suddenly lose all sound. ('x' is variable, from 5 minutes to hours) At the same time any youtube video will freeze, and any windows media player song will stop playing. Attempting to play either will result in nothing happening, though videos still buffer. Sound and multimedia functionality will only return after a reset (a reset always fixes the problem). The problem seems to occur more quickly when playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, or Insurgency. I am able to play Guild Wars 2 with limited success, it tends to happen after longer play sessions or sometimes not at all. Today I played Bastion for 3 hours without the sound issue arising, proceeded to open and play a brief amount of Modern Warfare and the malfunction occurred.] It happens without failure when playing modern warfare 2, though the time it takes to happen varies. This glitch is driving me nuts, there is no consistency to its occurrence and I have zero idea how to solve the problem. Please help!

I'm a UK student living in a flat with 6 others. When it came to deciding which internet package we would get I pushed and urged my peers to go for the more pricey 38Mbps option. My hope was that I would be able to indulge in my internet gaming while everyone else could stream what they felt like and do other menial internet tasks. My flat's in somewhat of a dead-spot for internet providers and I was stuck with choosing BT. BT has thus far been the largest let down imaginable. The flat is large but all interior walls are plaster-board, the only phone-line jack my flat has is located in the bedroom of a flat member. In said flat members room both 2.4 and 5 Ghz frequencies manage to average at between 35 - 38, which is wonderful for him.. However, a mere 5 metres outside his room the transfer rate drops to ~12Mbps if you're lucky, and that's with no one else using the internet. The flat invested in a BT wireless booster and while it did improve the 2.4Ghz range and quality it completely murdered the 5Ghz which was previously usable at distances of 5 metres. I'm convinced to this day that the wireless booster is a pile of shite.. but I'm in the minority in my flat. I've wired an ethernet cable between the wifi-booster and my desktop to for-go the murky and over-used 2.4Ghz frequency that my wireless dongle picks up, though this is massively unpopular as my flat believe I am 'stealing all the wireless'. My plan is to buy 50 metres of ethernet cable and painstakingly route an ethernet cable to my side of the house where I'll install a second router that I'll hardwire into. This is a more popular idea as it's generally perceived to be of benefit ot everyone. My questions are thus: Does hard-wiring myself to the wireless booster deprive others of internet speed? (Assuming my usage remains the same, i.e. Online gaming) Is connecting a second router as simple a task as wiring an ethernet cable through the house and plugging it in to a second router? Will this router act in a similar fashion to the first i.e. allow me to connect via ethernet to the back of it? And, finally, will connecting my PC in this fashion: Infinity hub --> Ethernet cable --> Second router --> Ethernet Cable --> Desktop, result in much if any speed loss of the initial 38Mbps? Thanks in advance and sorry about the wall of text!

I rebuilt my PC at christmas and until now everything has been going swimmingly, however I recently began to 'randomly' lose audio. The scenario (90% of the time): - I'll be watching a youtube video and it will abruptly freeze; I'm usually playing a game with the video as background audio and I'll notice a sudden lack of sound. - My PC will now no longer produce any sound, no matter the application. Things to note: - Not only does my PC not produce sound, it does not register any sound at all. By this I mean - in the sound control panel the levels of the relevant audio device are still, when they would normally be fluctuating up and down with the volume. - Media no longer plays properly on my computer: Anything browser based doesn't work at all (vimeo, youtube, etc.), though it does buffer fully, and windows media player has the most horrendous lag dropping frame rates down to 1, maybe 0.5 per second. - When a diagnostic is run Windows finds no issues with the audio playback. This will only go away if I reset my PC, and this is only a temporary fix, as the issue will come back after an uncertain period of time. This issue has recently been joined by the appearance of 2 bluescreens in the past week, both occurring while I was gaming. I've been attempting to access the .dmp files that were archived when my PC crashed, but I can't seem to find windows debug (despite downloading it multiple times to many locations). My Rig: CPU: i5 4670k GPU: gtx 780 Mobo: Asus Maximus VI Gene HDD: WD 1tb (unknown model) SSD: OCZ Agility 3 Thanks in advance!

The issue is 99% the milling of the screw holes. It is however also odd that, with my mobo properly installed, my GPU doesn't sit fully in the PCIE slot.. (It does sit properly in my other case). It's as though they made slots through which my GPU outputs protrude too wide.. I'm tempted.. though it is being really anal, to try and RMA the case.

Thanks for showing interest, and apologies for not getting back to you all sooner. Pictures are proving a nightmare at the moment as I only have a camera phone and the lighting is shocking. After A LOT of gentle nerve-wracking coercing the card simply will not align with the screw holes, nor will it seat fully in the PCIE 16 (one side seats further down than the other, that is the side without screws). My old GPU fairs ever so slightly better, but I think it's just down to worse build quality. My mobo is installed perfectly flat, and in order to get the card to sit better it ends up flexing.. which I don't want. After motherboard flexing, card stretching, case bending and the like (all in moderation so as to avoid damage), I decided to try the card on my old mobo, in my old case. It aligned perfectly. Fractions of a millimetre perfect. The thing could not be a better fit. This leads me to the final conclusion that my 350D is the issue. The holes were just badly milled, and there's nothing bar some DIY that will fix the issue.

I'll do my best, bear with me.

Just tries fitting my old GPU and it's suffering from the same problems.. Perhaps it's my Maximus VI Gene that's dodgey?

I'm starting to worry a little.. I'm currently putting together my new build: Maximus VI Gene. Corsair 350D Gtx 780 Asus Direct CU II The card doesn't seat well at all, it only just sits in the PCIE slot and the plate which screws to the case doesn't line up at all. The plate that screws to the case is connected to the PCB and even with gentle stress the screw holes don't line up at all, I'm worried that serious damage would be caused to my GPU if I did manage to fix it to the case. It's as though the metal plate (that screws into the case, and has the outputs on) was made too short. Any idea what I should do?

I'm upgrading my computer in a substantial way, with the only parts I'm keeping being my PSU and SSD/HDD. My SSD currently has my OS on but, I've recently realised that, I can't just plug my SSD into a new mobo/CPU configuration and expect it to work without any issues. I've ghetto re-assembled my old PC to try and sort the hard drives out, my question is: How do I go about getting windows 7 on my new PC? Can I keep windows on my SSD and try resetting all drivers to their earliest version, then just patch it on my new PC? Will I have to get an installation copy of Windows on my external HDD, then plug that into my new PC when I boot it up? What do I do? Thanks in advance.

Once my last components arrive I'll begin my comprehensive PC upgrade, everything except HDDs and PSU are being replaced. Before disassembling my old PC I didn't take into consideration any conflicts my HDD's may have with a new Mobo. I'm changing from AM3 + ASUS Crosshair V Formula to socket 1150 ASUS Maximus Gene VI. My question, as above, will I (more than likely) need to re-install my OS? Will I simply be asked to re-activate windows, or will I need to fully re-install? Thanks in advance.

This may be the wrong section in which to post this, but I was just seeking some quick advice about the above topic. I recently bought some compressed air dusters for cleaning dust out of old components before I re-use them. I was cleaning my power supply and accidentally tilted the can a little too much, causing it to discharge cold moist aerosol (Or is compressed air just that.. 100% air?), I'm not planning on using it for a few days so it will have time to sit. My question is, do you think this discharge will cause any trouble? I'm kind of hoping it will just evaporate, I'm not even sure what compressed air cans would discharge, if anything other than water? Apologies if this is a dumb question. Thanks in advance.

I wouldn't be interesting in mining. My intentions are 100% gaming and nothing else.

Both these cards are ~£270 in the UK, the 770 isn't currently subject to crippling stock shortages while the r9 is.. My question is, assuming I can get hold of an r9, which card should I go for? My current feelings are an r9, the Direct DCU II model looks damned good and outperforms the 770 across the board. Thanks in advance.