PC Specialist probably my 2nd choice for nowMargin__Walker wrote: ↑Tue Sep 28, 2021 2:06 pm I used PC Specialist for my last laptop and was happy with them. Responsive post order, calling and suggesting a change in spec that was beneficial etc.
My current one I bought off the shelf though and just added additional storage and RAM myself as I needed it quickly
Gaming thread
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tabascoboy
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Globus is a big fan of theirs (not a joke).tabascoboy wrote: ↑Tue Sep 28, 2021 1:35 pm Have always stuck with a big name brand for home office desktop /games laptop needs to date, but the off-the-shelf builds on offer at the moment just don't seem to fulfil my needs. Now I'm looking to combine the two in one unit - which is a desktop capable of running games but don't need the balls-to-the-wall spec for the really demanding titles like CoD or Fortnite etc.
Most of the UK companies offering customisation seem to be good when it all goes right but have poor customer service ratings. Finally it looks like Chillblast might be the place I need even if the machines are a bit OTT for my needs. Anyone have experience with them at all?
Before anyone suggests it, not interested in doing a DIY build myself from scratch!
I used GladiatorPC for my recent build, and couldn't have been happier with them.
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tabascoboy
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ScarfaceClaw
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I had to replace a dead old laptop and went with dell because I got a big work discount. Wankers to a man woman and child. Screwed the order, lost in shipping twice and then said they didn’t have that model anymore. Gave me a slightly smaller spec and some money back. Nearly three months of arsing about with them.
I wouldn’t send Dell a box of my shite if they paid me.
I wouldn’t send Dell a box of my shite if they paid me.
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tabascoboy
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Had 4 Dell Optiplex "outlet" boxes as home office PCs and the first three were good work-horse desktops that lasted several years each. The latest one - which was new - is a bit of a clunker though with a few issues over 3 years. Upgraded from 8 to 16Gb which helped but still get niggles with it. I think the QC and customer service at Dell has really dropped, going by recent online user reviews and they really don't want returns and refunds.
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tabascoboy
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- Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2020 8:22 am
- Location: 曇りの街
Got my custom built desktop from Chillblast on Saturday, I didn't want "disco lighting" on my rig so the case is a boring black box! Many cases don't have an internal drive bay these days but I needed one for DVD rather than external drive so choice was more limited. Had some extra fans put in as the case is primarily for quiet running but is known to be a bit on the hot side. Spent a few days installing programs, games and data and early impressions are very favourable.
Had regular emails about how the order was progressing and as I didn't order any of the currently scarce components it was 10 days from the order through building/testing to delivery. Certainly more pricey than a DIY but didn't want hassle with any problems during obtaining components and putting it all together myself.
I don't play very demanding games so the spec isn't anywhere near top of the range future proofing but should be more than powerful enough for what I need, which is casual gameplaying, home office + some photoshopping etc. i5-11600K CPU with GTX 1660 Super. Twin SSDs rather than opting for 1 SSD and 1 HD, PC boots up and is ready to go in less than half a minute unlike my HD only home office PC which is more like about 20 mins by the time all the first thing in the morning updates have chugged through. A couple more resource demanding games in my library push the GPU up to 65C with the fan going like the clappers but as much as I have stressed it so far it's very quiet.
Definitely going to avoid upgrade to W11for the foreseeable unless some of the issues with performance get fixed.
Had regular emails about how the order was progressing and as I didn't order any of the currently scarce components it was 10 days from the order through building/testing to delivery. Certainly more pricey than a DIY but didn't want hassle with any problems during obtaining components and putting it all together myself.
I don't play very demanding games so the spec isn't anywhere near top of the range future proofing but should be more than powerful enough for what I need, which is casual gameplaying, home office + some photoshopping etc. i5-11600K CPU with GTX 1660 Super. Twin SSDs rather than opting for 1 SSD and 1 HD, PC boots up and is ready to go in less than half a minute unlike my HD only home office PC which is more like about 20 mins by the time all the first thing in the morning updates have chugged through. A couple more resource demanding games in my library push the GPU up to 65C with the fan going like the clappers but as much as I have stressed it so far it's very quiet.
Definitely going to avoid upgrade to W11for the foreseeable unless some of the issues with performance get fixed.
Anyone have any experience with laptop graphics cards constantly crashing the computer? I've done a little digging and it doesn't seem to be temperature related, although the card does get very hot if it stays stable long enough. Using Gpu-z shows the voltage drop to zero just before crashing.
I'm concerned it's just a card on its way out but hoping there's a software solution.
I'm concerned it's just a card on its way out but hoping there's a software solution.
I've ruled out overheating.
It can be random but fairly frequent these days. And the render stress test in gpu-z can make it happen almost instantly so it seems to be an overload of something but temps are low when it happens. Last play session I've underclocked both clock settings by 200mhz and I got no crash but then I'd already stress tested at - 150, which initially worked but then didn't so I've no idea if this will work and it's not an ideal solution anyway, although better than nothing.
Voltage spikes to max voltage straight away in the stress test, no idea if that's normal.
Gpu-z has a hot spot reading and it reached 97 with no crash in the last play session. I know that's not healthy either but it's unlikely that a stress test could instantly create a hot spot so high to crash it from a cold boot. Certainly not without there being something fundamentally wrong with the card.
I had to fiddle with config files in afterburner to even see a voltage reading and the slider seems to only allow more voltage, not less.
Yep. Installed a couple of different ones going back to Feb when there certainly wasn't any problems.
Computer has gotten some intense use from one of my boys over the last few months, I'm thinking it's probably hardware failure, sadly. I opened it up yesterday to look at repasting but couldn't figure out getting heat sink off safely so need to research my model more. Quite nervous about messing with the innards of a laptop too!
Cheers. I'll get on to that later. Occt looks good for pinpointing any problems.
OK, couldn't replicate problem in occt and couldn't generate crash as before with gpu-z render test. Spent a while at it. Let son at it, crashed a couple of times, although stable for ages with underclocking. It feels like every time I mess with it, it makes it more stable, although not forever. I got on this evening and a completely non graphic intense scene crashed it straight away (Xcom chimera, headquarters, not mission). Reboot and got an hour, no crashes.
Think I need to let occt at it for longer but frustrating that the crashes seem random when subjected to the same stress.
Think I need to let occt at it for longer but frustrating that the crashes seem random when subjected to the same stress.
One other question that's confusing me. My base max clock speed is meant to be 1506mhz but all the monitoring software is showing higher when stressed on default. I've never overclocked and only installed afterburner to see if underclocking helped. Has some setting somewhere got corrupted and the card continously tries to max out the clock speed?
Just checked, my boost speed is meant to be 1670 but stress testing had it up at 1860 with default settings.
It sounds counter intuitive I know, but if there's no framerate limit on those scenes then the fact that it's "easier" means the gfx card is actually doing more work. It's why some cards die when game menus are essentially running with uncapped FPS, because it puts them at full load.CM11 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 02, 2021 11:01 pm OK, couldn't replicate problem in occt and couldn't generate crash as before with gpu-z render test. Spent a while at it. Let son at it, crashed a couple of times, although stable for ages with underclocking. It feels like every time I mess with it, it makes it more stable, although not forever. I got on this evening and a completely non graphic intense scene crashed it straight away (Xcom chimera, headquarters, not mission). Reboot and got an hour, no crashes.
Think I need to let occt at it for longer but frustrating that the crashes seem random when subjected to the same stress.
Interesting, cheers. Any solution?JM2K6 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 5:57 pmIt sounds counter intuitive I know, but if there's no framerate limit on those scenes then the fact that it's "easier" means the gfx card is actually doing more work. It's why some cards die when game menus are essentially running with uncapped FPS, because it puts them at full load.CM11 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 02, 2021 11:01 pm OK, couldn't replicate problem in occt and couldn't generate crash as before with gpu-z render test. Spent a while at it. Let son at it, crashed a couple of times, although stable for ages with underclocking. It feels like every time I mess with it, it makes it more stable, although not forever. I got on this evening and a completely non graphic intense scene crashed it straight away (Xcom chimera, headquarters, not mission). Reboot and got an hour, no crashes.
Think I need to let occt at it for longer but frustrating that the crashes seem random when subjected to the same stress.
BTW, how long should I let OCCT run for on any test? Also, I presume if I get it to stop when it hits a certain temp, it won't restart?
Also, it seems that if I fiddle with the card/test it, disable/re-enable or whatever, it's stable for longer but I could be making it up.
Final point, I'm seeing system interrupts in my cpu usage that I never remember seeing before and again, the card seems more stable when the interrupts drop to negligible.
I wouldn't put too much store in how long it stays up before crashing, honestly. It's crashing a lot, so that's all you need to know. I don't know how long you should let it run but honestly at this stage I think it's an RMA job - you'll want a replacement.CM11 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 7:39 pmInteresting, cheers. Any solution?JM2K6 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 5:57 pmIt sounds counter intuitive I know, but if there's no framerate limit on those scenes then the fact that it's "easier" means the gfx card is actually doing more work. It's why some cards die when game menus are essentially running with uncapped FPS, because it puts them at full load.CM11 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 02, 2021 11:01 pm OK, couldn't replicate problem in occt and couldn't generate crash as before with gpu-z render test. Spent a while at it. Let son at it, crashed a couple of times, although stable for ages with underclocking. It feels like every time I mess with it, it makes it more stable, although not forever. I got on this evening and a completely non graphic intense scene crashed it straight away (Xcom chimera, headquarters, not mission). Reboot and got an hour, no crashes.
Think I need to let occt at it for longer but frustrating that the crashes seem random when subjected to the same stress.
BTW, how long should I let OCCT run for on any test? Also, I presume if I get it to stop when it hits a certain temp, it won't restart?
Also, it seems that if I fiddle with the card/test it, disable/re-enable or whatever, it's stable for longer but I could be making it up.
Final point, I'm seeing system interrupts in my cpu usage that I never remember seeing before and again, the card seems more stable when the interrupts drop to negligible.
Yep.JM2K6 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 7:50 pmI wouldn't put too much store in how long it stays up before crashing, honestly. It's crashing a lot, so that's all you need to know. I don't know how long you should let it run but honestly at this stage I think it's an RMA job - you'll want a replacement.CM11 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 7:39 pmInteresting, cheers. Any solution?JM2K6 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 5:57 pm
It sounds counter intuitive I know, but if there's no framerate limit on those scenes then the fact that it's "easier" means the gfx card is actually doing more work. It's why some cards die when game menus are essentially running with uncapped FPS, because it puts them at full load.
BTW, how long should I let OCCT run for on any test? Also, I presume if I get it to stop when it hits a certain temp, it won't restart?
Also, it seems that if I fiddle with the card/test it, disable/re-enable or whatever, it's stable for longer but I could be making it up.
Final point, I'm seeing system interrupts in my cpu usage that I never remember seeing before and again, the card seems more stable when the interrupts drop to negligible.
Thanks for all the advice.
OK, final question!
I went to test my RAM in OCCT and picked the max, 95%, it would allow me test which turned out to be 10484MB. Expect I have 16gb of RAM. I mention it because I noticed RAM creeping up to that figure right before crash in gpu-z. So could it be a RAM issue somehow? I know you mention VRAM originally, JMK.
I went to test my RAM in OCCT and picked the max, 95%, it would allow me test which turned out to be 10484MB. Expect I have 16gb of RAM. I mention it because I noticed RAM creeping up to that figure right before crash in gpu-z. So could it be a RAM issue somehow? I know you mention VRAM originally, JMK.
It could be! I don't know if these cards reserve a certain amount to begin with. But - totally spitballing here - if DIMMS have failed then maybe the test recognises that those aren't accessible but the card will try and access them with other apps and then crash? It's a long shot and I really know the details of how these cards use their memory.
Cheers!JM2K6 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 10:17 pm It could be! I don't know if these cards reserve a certain amount to begin with. But - totally spitballing here - if DIMMS have failed then maybe the test recognises that those aren't accessible but the card will try and access them with other apps and then crash? It's a long shot and I really know the details of how these cards use their memory.
I guess I'm still in the denial phase, my spec is still good enough to play what I want so wasn't ready to upgrade yet. Oh well.
Heard mostly good things but not bought myself. I'm not a fan of zombie/horror games but then I've really enjoyed other genres in vr that i don't in normal gaming.
Currently mostly playing walkabout mini golf and beat saber. Pretty good at beat saber.
Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/gaming/pc ... 5-pdt.html
Does this look like an excellent deal or not? Don't know anything about the manufacturer and the small hard disk is a bit annoying but otherwise good spec?
Does this look like an excellent deal or not? Don't know anything about the manufacturer and the small hard disk is a bit annoying but otherwise good spec?
I use an Nvidia shield with a controller. It works well and I can play AAA games at 1080p no bother. Played Witcher 3 and sable in my big screen protector without much lag
Help please, I can see VR headsets discussed a couple of years ago but was there ever a concensus of opinion?
Been asked to get something that works with Xbox.
Google tells me nothing is supported but looks like some Oculus ones could connect with an app on it?
Either a rift or quest 2, can these be used on their own or need a PC/ laptop too?
Been asked to get something that works with Xbox.
Google tells me nothing is supported but looks like some Oculus ones could connect with an app on it?
Either a rift or quest 2, can these be used on their own or need a PC/ laptop too?