General PC Help Thread 2

[The Watching Artist]

Hi tech nerds,

Been getting this on start up the last few days-

About to back up precious files. Is the harddrive doomed? Device manager says its working properly.

[That's not a growth]

[Winckle]

Yeah if SMART says it's going bad, it's probably going to fail soon. Easiest thing to do would be to get a new hard drive that's the same or larger, and a USB to SATA adapter. Then use something like EASEUS backup to clone the drive to the new one using USB. Then switch out the old drive for the new clone.

[The Watching Artist]

Ok. Cheers. Been thinking about getting a new PC for a while so will consider my options.

[Dowbocop]

I must've been really lucky because I got a SMART failure notice on my first laptop after a reformat. I just kept ignoring it until the laptop got replaced and suffered no ill effects!

[Dowbocop]

Considering upgrading from a 1050Ti to a 1660 Super, as from reviews the 1660S appears to have a smidgen less power than the Ti variant for a smidgen more money than the vanilla 1660, thereby making both those cards obsolete.

Not expecting 120fps at 4k or anything like that, my monitor is 1080p widescreen. My main goals are to have a card that will do a decent job at medium(ish) settings when I pick up Cyberpunk 2077 and that will allow me to get a VR headset at some point in the future, my main target games for that being Squadrons and Alyx.

Will the 1660S do that? Is there any likelihood of the price dropping through the floor any time soon? If not I'll get it now but I can wait if there's a successor about to come out. It took me ages to get my 1050 because the market was all over the shop due to bitcoin.

[Errkal]

[Dowbocop]

Have I said something controversial?

[OldSoulCyborg]

The CPU in my new PC is getting a "little" too hot when gaming (cores between 85-94 degrees, 93 for the package; idles at around ~40 degrees).

CPU: Intel i7-9700K
Case: Roomy ITX case (this one, specifically)
Case fans: Two 120mm Noctua fans, one for intake in the front, one for exhaust in the back
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-D14, or something similar to it (single fan in the middle)

Nothing else in the case seems to be getting too hot (GTX 1080Ti: 80 degrees, RAM: ~60 degrees) so I'm guessing the fault lies (mostly) with the CPU cooler (or my thermal paste application skills).
Any suggestions for a course of action (assuming I find no issue with the thermal paste, or that I didn't accidentally install the CPU fan backwards so it's fighting the airflow direction inside the case)?

[andretmzt]

Perhaps you could reapply the thermal paste, check all the fans are going in the same direction. Could even add another fan onto the D14. Ultimately though, the case looks terrible for airflow so you aren't going to get decent thermals without getting a different one. It's trying to suck all the air through the front panel which is mostly blocked off.

Cooler Master NR200P is new, looks great and has great thermal performance. Was even thinking of picking one up myself instead of using my NCase M1 V5.

[That]

Considering upgrading from a 1050Ti to a 1660 Super [...] My main goals are to have a card that will do a decent job at medium(ish) settings when I pick up Cyberpunk 2077 and that will allow me to get a VR headset at some point in the future, my main target games for that being Squadrons and Alyx.

Will the 1660S do that?

I don't actually have any personal experience, but the 1660 Super has been benchmarked in Half-Life Alyx and is apparently capable of playing the game acceptably on low settings.

[Dowbocop]

Considering upgrading from a 1050Ti to a 1660 Super [...] My main goals are to have a card that will do a decent job at medium(ish) settings when I pick up Cyberpunk 2077 and that will allow me to get a VR headset at some point in the future, my main target games for that being Squadrons and Alyx.

Will the 1660S do that?

I don't actually have any personal experience, but the 1660 Super has been benchmarked in Half-Life Alyx and is apparently capable of playing the game acceptably on low settings.

Thanks for that. I read the Babeltech reviews of the 1660S being just about capable but wanted to see if anyone on here had any personal experience or red flags on the issue. I have a friend that works in a VR bar so I should pick his brains too.

I was actually thinking of going up to the 2060 because it's not that much more. Not sure whether the ray tracing is actually worth it at this point because of the lack of games and the fact that for the lower cards it seems to really hit performance.

Upon further reading of the thread I now see Errkal was alluding to the half a page of "wait for the 30xx series" chat on the previous page, so that's probably a good idea as well!

[Victor Mildew]

Considering upgrading from a 1050Ti to a 1660 Super [...] My main goals are to have a card that will do a decent job at medium(ish) settings when I pick up Cyberpunk 2077 and that will allow me to get a VR headset at some point in the future, my main target games for that being Squadrons and Alyx.

Will the 1660S do that?

I don't actually have any personal experience, but the 1660 Super has been benchmarked in Half-Life Alyx and is apparently capable of playing the game acceptably on low settings.

In case anyone is wondering, Alyx on low still looks fantastic and is not a sub par experience. I played on ultra, and every now and then moves to the other settings to see what difference it made and there wasn't really that much change.

[SandyCoin]

My external HDD has had some issues lately, but I've still been able to use it. I've been watching shows etc just fine, but last week it kept doing the thing where it freezers explorer when it's plugged in. It's recognised, and when I first plug it in I can see the folders but if I try and click on it that's when it all freezes. Everything goes back to normal when I unplug it.

So I don't think it's completely dead, but obviously something is wrong. Is there any software that is good to repair or...recover anything? Probably the wrong word as the data is there...

[That's not a growth]

Considering upgrading from a 1050Ti to a 1660 Super [...] My main goals are to have a card that will do a decent job at medium(ish) settings when I pick up Cyberpunk 2077 and that will allow me to get a VR headset at some point in the future, my main target games for that being Squadrons and Alyx.

Will the 1660S do that?

I don't actually have any personal experience, but the 1660 Super has been benchmarked in Half-Life Alyx and is apparently capable of playing the game acceptably on low settings.

Thanks for that. I read the Babeltech reviews of the 1660S being just about capable but wanted to see if anyone on here had any personal experience or red flags on the issue. I have a friend that works in a VR bar so I should pick his brains too.

I was actually thinking of going up to the 2060 because it's not that much more. Not sure whether the ray tracing is actually worth it at this point because of the lack of games and the fact that for the lower cards it seems to really hit performance.

Upon further reading of the thread I now see Errkal was alluding to the half a page of "wait for the 30xx series" chat on the previous page, so that's probably a good idea as well!

There's meant to be an Nvidia announcement next week, so at least wait for that.

[OldSoulCyborg]

Ultimately though, the case looks terrible for airflow so you aren't going to get decent thermals without getting a different one. It's trying to suck all the air through the front panel which is mostly blocked off.

I see what you mean, but my previous PC was much the same in that regard and I had no issues with thermals back then. Granted, that was with an i5-6600K... is that perhaps where the difference lies? I guess it makes sense that going from an i5 to an i7 would lead to increased temperatures, but I just hadn't expected such a big jump.

Edit: I would really rather not get a new case if I can avoid it.

Another thing and I'm not sure how much this matters, but the thermal paste I used had been sitting around for the past 4 years since I last used it. Googling tells me thermal paste has a shelf life of 3-5 years, but I don't know exactly what that means or if it's even true.

[Ironhide]

Can anyone recommend a 27" 144Hz Gsync compatible monitor?

I currently have an AOC one (link on previous page) on order from Amazon for £205 but it doesn't seem to be likely to come back in stock any time soon so I'm looking for an alternative.

[Victor Mildew]

Can anyone recommend a 27" 144Hz Gsync compatible monitor?

I currently have an AOC one (link on previous page) on order from Amazon for £205 but it doesn't seem to be likely to come back in stock any time soon so I'm looking for an alternative.

I've got the Dell S2716DG. Expensive but a really nice monitor, plus it looks smart and isn't all gamer edgy.

[Ironhide]

Looking at the ASUS VG278QF, seems to fit my requirements.

[Kezzer]

Hi tech nerds,

Actually, its 'hi-tech' nerds.