Recent content by PS-Matt

The only new major feature in Z97 is native support for M.2 drives. Same CPU support, so your 4770K will work just fine in a Z97 motherboard. Check out What is new in Z97 and H97 for a more in-depth comparison.

Using the second PCIe x16 slot will knock down the primary slot to x8 even if you are only using it at x1 or x4 speeds, but it won't cause anything like ESATA or USB to stop working. In fact, with your video card, you likely won't see any performance decrease even with the primary slot running...

Just using faster RAM won't void any warranties, but it is generally a good idea to use RAM that is natively supported by the CPU (in your case 1600MHz). As you get higher in frequency, you start running a higher risk of the RAM failing at some point. Generally the only reason to get higher...

70C in Prime95 is just fine since anything below 80C on a CPU can be considered safe. You could upgrade the CPU cooling if you want to go lower, but there really is no reason to since you won't run into any stability issues at that temperature.

The cable won't make much of a speed difference. A bad quality cable generally shows up more as causing errors or even causing the drive to intermittently disappear rather than any sort of performance difference. Here is an article we wrote a while back that you might be interest in looking at...

The battery is really a minor issue in all this by the sounds of it. A flashing screen usually means a problem with the video card (or the onboard video). This is likely not a super easy fix, so if you are not comfortable digging around in computers you might want to take it to a local shop. If...

You should see POST information at the beginning of the POST process, but it probably is just POSTing too fast for your monitor to come on. The Boot Logo adds a second or two to the POST process, so you are basically just slowing down the process to the point where the monitor (or possibly video...

Most motherboards will default RAM to DDR3-1333 unless the settings are manually configured or the XMP profile is loaded. Are you sure that the RAM settings are right in the BIOS? CPUz sometimes mis-reports, but usually it is pretty accurate. It could be that you forgot to configure the BIOS...

1 - Yes, you can just add another two sticks and it will work just fine since they are the same brand, timing, frequency and voltage. 2 - It is usually accepted as better to run fewer larger sticks rather than more smaller sticks. This is mostly just so that it is easier to upgrade in the future...

No, it won't get you much of a performance boost for gaming since you are using a discrete video card. Here is an article we wrote about exactly this question if you want to give it a read: http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Breaking-the-Hype-of-High-Frequency-RAM-142

If this is only happening in the BIOS and not in Windows, then its likely a BIOS issue rather than a hardware issue. Try updating the BIOS and see if that fixes it. If it doesn't then I would start thinking of replacing the motherboard. If they work fine in Windows then it isn't an urgent need...

4-pin fans can plug into 3-pin headers without any problem. They will even ramp if the header supports it, it will just be voltage ramping rather than PWM. In the end, the fan might be slightly less efficient and louder, but not by a noticeable amount. So, you will be just fine using that fan...

There are a couple things that might be causing a lower score than you expected. First, it looks like you ran the 32-bit version of Geekbench which will give you a bit lower of a score than the 64-bit version since it can't take advantage of all the RAM. Second, make sure you have all the...

Asus ExpressGate is something that unless you know you want, is not at all important. So don't worry too much about it not working. What it is is a small OS that is intended to allow you to quickly boot your system to do things like check your email without waiting for the main OS to boot...