Rocky

They want another £30 just to play the beta, but having seen some of the footage, I am sorely tempted!!!

Okay mate I'll try it out and write up a guide for all the folks that are left scratching their heads or even worse thinking the game is finished, still great mods for folks to play! Ubisoft should have done an announcement about this though...

You could maybe save me the hastle of installing GRAW retail on my other PC to check this out.... So, what happens after you do a clean install, and the first time you hit Multiplayer tab, when it asks you for a gamespy login....?

Nice screeny.

Gamespy shut down their servers, affecting many games, including GRAW. As above there are a few ways to successfully continue playing. A few folks are having issues so I am trying to get around to writing up a guide on how to play online and also solo, but it depends if you are on steam or retail I think.

Nice, activated, thanks.

Maybe just one more attempt at Eve...

So, couple of updates. I was getting sound interference, for example, move the mouse up and down on the desktop, or scroll a webpage up and down and I could hear buzzing through the speakers. I vaguely remembered having the same issue a lot of years ago, but not how I resolved it. Lot's of google chat and not much in the way of solid solutions, so ditched the onboard sound and bought a Asus Xonar 5.1 sound card, fitted it today, seems to have done the trick! Secondly, there's a genuine 50% bargain on a new computer mouse on Amazon.co.uk right now, Logitech G602 , so far I'm liking it!

Looks great!

Damn those freaking steam sales. Now I am starting Syberia for about the 5th time. Hope I get out of the station this time.

I might have to now you've pointed it out a couple of times, the next priority must surely be to get a higher resolution monitor. I'll look at air dusters, but my dyson cordless with a straw sellotaped to the nozzle usually does a good job ;p

So the purpose of this rig was to (1) decrease processing time for video production and (2) increase framerate by a factor of 2. Video processing tests using Handbrake because it uses all 8 cores, showed that processing time was effectively cut by 2/3rds, which is massive. For gaming, I originally I went for 2 x GTX 660's in SLi mode because I read enough reviews and benchmarks to see that this was achievable with these two cards in SLi. What I did not anticipate or read was that SLi profiles are not available for every game, so more than half my back catalogue would not benefit from SLi. For example, Grid Autosport had a profile in the making, but not ready yet. Watchdogs had a SLi profile, but COH2 does not. So, I sent the new GTX660 back (or rather I will tomorrow!) and got a GTX780 today. Using tomshardware I looked up my GTX660, doubled the frame rate it was getting in those tests, and looked to see which cards were giving that performance, and it was the GTX780. So, same as SLi performance but with one card instead of two. Gaming Benchmarks with Ultra settings, looking to achieve 2x FPS boost, worked out almost spot on in some tests COH2 GTX660 Av 20 Min 2 Max 34 GTX780 Av 41 Min 24 Max 60 GRFS GTX660 Av 26 Min 20 Max 36 GTX780 Av 51 Min 43 Max 61 Tomb Raider 2013 GTX660 Av 41 Min 23 Max 61 (frame rate capped?) GTX780 Av 59 Min 44 Max 62 Grid Autospot GTX660 Av 60 Min 46 Max 74 GTX780 Av 101 Min 74 Max 125 Hope that is of interest to someone, for me it's obviously the best PC I've built, I think this is my 3 or 4th and plan on it being my last, hence the spec.

Okay so the beat is complete, thanks for putting up with me, it's not half as much if if I can;t share it with my Sparta pals! Card in place, fills the full available width of the case, is actually sitting on some of the mobo componants. Needs 1x8 pin power and 1 x 6 pin. View looking up from under the card to the top of the case. Size comparison. Makes the 660 look like a baby, and it is a big card in it's own right. topside Underside, has a protective film to be peeled off before install. Comes in very impressive boxing. Trying to show the red LED tracking on the mobo here... I liked this, two green lights at the power connectors to give confidence that the card is receiving power. Final shot of internals before the cover goes back on. The red fans are a matter of taste obviously, I like them, I know some won't! Benchmarks in the next post...

When I logged on to youtube last night the recommended video was for the very cooler you linked to above, think it is the same anyway. I have not watched it all because its an hour long lol, but that is some piece of kit!

Thanks guys, I read up on this processor before buying and it turns out they have addressed the thermal paste issue that was causing earlier i7's to overheat, so that sounds re-assuring. I wont be overlocking either.

Stock CPU cooling fan that came with the processor I meant those new fans to sook hot air out but I've put them on upside down for that and they are blowing air into the case . I guess that'll be ok though, they'll blow directly onto the back of the graphics card, and as there's nothing in the way, no cables or anything, that'll work out pretty good.

So the Sli thing is not working out, not impressed at all, so the GTX660 is winging its way back to ebuyer. To cheer me up I put in two 120mm corsair fans.

Red or Dead. Nice stuff, Digital codes at bottom edge middle, plenty of sata express, loads of USB3 and USB 2 on the rear, 2 USB3.0 on front panel. Looks very cool lit up. Also has a switchable LED at the IO ports so you can see whats what round the back without pissing around with your phones flash just t plug a USB in. SLI ready, but I am not at that stage yet. Mobo and PSU in, case cables still in the bag there. You can just about make out the drive cages on the right. The trays are great - they are all the same but designed to take a full HDD or a SDD. The SDDs get screwed into place from below, the HDD installs are tool-less as the trays have small pins that pop into the HDD screw holes on the side. There are 3 cages of different sizes and they all come out. So I have one SSD and 2 HDDs in one case, removed the other two so now the large front fan blows right into the case with nothing in the way at all. The case is virtually silent on the slowest fan setting, the PSU fan switches off unless the PC is under load. More photo's tomorrow and some CPU benchmarks.

All photos can be clicked for a 1200px size. The Phantom case can have both sides, the top, and the front removed, which is how I went about the build, everything off, incase you wondered what was going on in the build photos. All the gear, from Overclockers and Ebuyer, all ordered at 8pm one evening. Ebuyer was free delivery and arrived next day, Overclockers came the next day. The IO shield was cool, that's a sponge pad with a metallic back, so offering up the mobo to it was reather easy compared to the usual metal tabs around the edges. Normal size, I was expecting it to be bigger. Modular 100 watt - LOADS of cables. This is what you get with a more high end case, the manual is actually good - in this one the contents page not only lists all the different screws, as you can see it tells you what they are for and lists a reference number so you can find the screws easily as its printed on the plastic bag. Nice touch. Still not idiot proof though, this sense of security it gives you means I still managed to use the wrong mobo screws for the risers LOL. Its only because I was 2 short that I checked lol. Some close ups of the mobo now.

Hehe, of course, loads of photos. I was going to do a video build for youtube but feck it, it took me all morning just building it never mind playing at director. Just moving the last of the files off an old HD over to the new one then I can put my old PC to rest, pull out the GTX660 and put it into its new home and try out SLi. The extra RAM and i7 processor has already given some games a 10FPS boost, fingers crossed the 2 x 660's will give them another 30FPS at least. Ive got benchmarks to share too once I'm finished.

PC built! Went smooth apart from an issue with the sound driver that meant no sound for an hour of head scratching until I found someone on the gigbyte forums with exactly the same issue on the same day with the same spec, and an easy solution. Amazing case, loving the cable management and the fancy lighting on the board. Moving my steam library over now, hopefully it will be recognised....

Minecraft? I have to fight my 11 year old off my PC every evening cause she is hooked on it. Would you believe the pass-down PC she has in her room won't even run minecraft because the GPU is so old it doesn't support open GL? LOL,.

Ordered, next day delivery from the most awesome delivery guys DXT. Most of it coming from Overclockers, some from ebuyer. Took Friday off work to build it, got the weekend to myself to play it And it's now Germany 2 3 4-0, OMG BRAZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL