Recent content by MercJ

Not sure why this posted twice...anyway, nice to see this company churning out some good stuff.

I really like what this company is doing - their products are actually useful, and you can tell they spend a lot of time focusing on function instead of gimmicks. I've been using their MS-3 for the past 8+ months, and after owning almost every Razer mouse the MS-3 was a breath of fresh air - so...

What is the model of your power supply? Any chance you could provide either the model name/number or (more specifically) the number of amps available on the 12V rail(s)?

Do you intend to overclock? If no: No need for a "K" series CPU - or a CPU cooler, for that matter...but the Core i5 3570K is a good choice no matter what. If yes: You need a "Z77" series motherboard - for this, you'll be spending at least $100. Otherwise, there isn't much point to getting...

The AMD 970 Chipset does not use any onboard graphics - since you don't have a discrete graphics card listed, you'll need to add one to your list. I'd suggest anything around $150 on up to run BF3 on high - what display resolution do you intend to use? (1920x1080, etc.?)

Short answer: Yes. Caveat: Make sure your power supply is a known "good" brand - if you pay around the $60 or more mark for 600W that would probably get you a good enough unit. Not all 600W PSUs are created equal it would seem. For reference, my overclocked FX8320 @ 4.6GHz pulls around 290W...

I suppose it depends what the optimized defaults are for your motherboard - what frequency was the 4670K running at during the test? Can you confirm the voltage used during the test with CPUID or similar? EDIT: 06yfz450ridr is on to something, those stock Intel coolers with the push pins can...

I'm glad there's people that look for the truth, rather than settle for a couple scores here and there. There's always more to the story :) @IInuyasha74, I appreciate that you're willing to consider what others have said, it's much easier to learn if you keep an open mind :) I agree with you...

To be a little more fair, once you understand why AMD went heavy on the integer cores (and shared FPUs between two "cores" to make a module) it begins to make more sense. As I understand it, Phenom/Thuban cores had decent IPC because they subscribed to the "CPU calculates everything" idea. The...

Honestly, it may be tough to tell at this point - I would say either the heatsink is faulty (heatpipes crimped at all? bent anywhere? dents/etc.?) or the contact pressure isn't high enough (this is of course assuming everything else is good - installation/thermal paste/etc.). I would see if...

How is the temperature reported? Software? BIOS? (Are you confident the idle temperature is being accurately reported?)

Was the EVO brand new when you installed it (as in, is this the first application of the EVO)? Just making sure - did you remove the sticker that covers the heatpipe contact surface before installation?

Good revisions, looks like you've got a nice gaming rig going there. Nice to see you've stuck to your likes/dislikes while still taking (good) input from the community.

Agree on RAM - if you have the money, why not, but unless you have a specific use case for 16GB, just do 8GB. Or use 2 sticks only - room to expand when you actually need it, and possibly less stress on the integrated memory controller (allowing for higher/stable overclocks - again, possibly)...