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[Sensei]

You can use GPU Boss for quick comparisons. It's useful if you're considering a few cards in a price range.

[Sinistar]

Well, did clean drivers install and everything seems to be working normally... played DoW2 and Salem for a while with no problems. We shall see what time brings.

Thanks both for answers. I've checked suggested GPUs, HD7770 seem to be out of stock around here, but R7 250X seems quite interesting. Even more so, give nVidia's 750 costs +20€ more. It might not seem that much, but I'm a bit on a short budget.

[gimlet]

I find the chart on tomshardware is kind of handy too: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html  The rest of the article is also a decent start to comparing cards at different price levels, but definitely do more research.  And always look at least one price tier higher than your target, and watch for a while to see if you can catch a great sale.

[Sensei]

Well, did clean drivers install and everything seems to be working normally... played DoW2 and Salem for a while with no problems. We shall see what time brings.

Thanks both for answers. I've checked suggested GPUs, HD7770 seem to be out of stock around here, but R7 250X seems quite interesting. Even more so, give nVidia's 750 costs +20€ more. It might not seem that much, but I'm a bit on a short budget.

IIRC those are literally the same card, the R7 250X is just a rebranded HD7770 (or 7750 or something).

[Thief^]

IIRC those are literally the same card, the R7 250X is just a rebranded HD7770 (or 7750 or something).

I've checked the specs, this seems to be true! Same architecture, same core count, same clock speed.

It actually happens a fair amount, especially with lower-end cards (below ?50 or ?500 by name) e.g.:
The GeForce GT 730 (128-bit DDR3 version, there are multiple cards with the same name that are actually totally different cards because stupid) is a rebranded GeForce GT 630, which is itself a rebranded GeForce GT 430. The 720 (which doesn't appear to be a rebrand) is actually more powerful than this variant of the 730.
Just to confuse matters the 64-bit DDR3 version of the GeForce GT 730 is actually twice as powerful as the 128-bit version - It's a rebranded Geforce GT 630 rev 2, which is actually a 600-series GPU and not a rebrand of an older one.

*sigh*

[Sensei]

Oh yeah! Another handy tool for finding GPUs you may want is the Tom's Hardware GPU Hierarchy Chart which roughly compares cards to other cards, so you can get an idea of what you're looking at. It doesn't sort by price at all, just performance. They're also very thorough in their nomenclature, to help you easily recognize that there might be a version of a card with the same name which has GDDR5 RAM instead of DDR3 or something.

[flabort]

So I mentioned wanting a new computer for Christmas to my parents. To help them, I put the contents of the spoiler together and am going to give it to them; it may be too late now, but if I don't get this for Christmas I can make it later.

But I just want someone to check it over to see if it fits my needs, or if I'm unbalancing it too much.

My current computer is kind of roasted, at least the GPU is fried from overheating from overstressing. It wasn't built to handle most games. Of course DF runs fine, but I kind of wanted to play some other games too. And my cooling fan runs CONSTANTLY, and LOUDLY. And it's also a laptop, so not designed for anything intense in the first place.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

This website lists good computer parts and designs, as well as the bad, and tells you why; I would like something in the Outstanding range, although it's getting up there in price. Of course, in a sky's the limit price-range I would go for the overkill Monstrous range, but that include TWO of the single best graphics card, as a START. Still, it's only triple the price of my desired range.

Motherboard: Asus Z97-PRO $158
RAM: 8 GB $65 ("quite cheap" acording to the guide)
HDD: 1 TB $54 (Cheaper then SSD, holds more data; less reliable; Keep in mind I currently have a 680 GB drive and have used almost half of it)
GPU: R9 290 x2 $540 (Not the best option, but this card is 'high' tier, and two of them costs less than ONE of the top tier cards, while getting better or equal performance. Also, one will continue to work if the other breaks)
or GPU: GTX 970 $340 (More reasonable price, not much loss in performance)
Cooling: 212 Evo $35 (Popular, cheap, quite, and effective; despite the stock cooler being OK, I would rather be safe than sorry)
CPU: i5 4590 $199 (I don't plan on overclocking so I don't need the K version)
Power Supply: Antec HCG-620M $80 (Probably more than I need, would be best to check, but I don't want a bad PSU damaging my other components)
Case: Corsair 400R $90 (Good cooling, recomended as one of the best for the price)

Predicted price: $1021 to $1221, depending on GPU picked
I have not checked this list for compatibility yet. Check if the GPU fits the Motherboard, and the CPU fits too.
This does not include a discrete sound card (for my audio enjoyment, getting one would be excelent)
This does not include a monitor, keyboard, mouse, or speakers. These are listed below:

Monitor: ASUS VS239H-P $170 (23", 16:9, 1080p 60Hz)
Mouse: Steelseries Kinzu V2 $20 (Basic but high quality mouse)
Keyboard: Logitech G105 $40 (I don't think we're ready for the price leap into Mechanical Keyboards, but this is a decently good Rubber Dome keyboard)
Speakers: Whatever sounds good at the time

Also not included is the price of the OS. Windows 7 is of course prefered over Win8. Do not get OSX, it's illegal to put onto a computer that is not Mac Standard. Not linux or GNU either, I don't like using a command prompt.
And finally the network card isn't included, and the website I used doesn't list any.

I keep getting this advice whereever I go, and I'll quote it directly off of this website since it's the essence of what everyone always says:
"Never buy a prebuilt. If the PSU and motherboard do not fry themselves, then you will have an unbalanced PC than can barely play games, and you will have paid way too much for it. Always insist on choosing quality components."

I'm actually willing to chip in most or all of the price to make this happen. This was also a mostly lazy browse through just the one website. And finally if this doesn't happen for christmas it can happen later.

[Aklyon]

I would mention something about how rarely I've used the terminal in linux mint (also you spelled quite, not quiet in the cooling section ), but otherwise it sounds pretty good. (I haven't checked for compatibility, though)

[caleb]

So I initially couldn’t get video from my card (MSI R9 290x) only onboard, got that squared away with a bios setting(Legacy something or other). Moved computer to different area then card is recognized but shows an error in windows (Code 52 shows on onboard also). Apparently I have too many gpu cores(8 on processor and whatever many on card) for windows to manage effectively but there is a fix that is supposed to override it(6xgpu), that has borked my shit to where even the onboard video is jacked up. Can’t display 3d shit or anything complex. Any suggestions?

[Thief^]

So I initially couldn’t get video from my card (MSI R9 290x) only onboard, got that squared away with a bios setting(Legacy something or other). Moved computer to different area then card is recognized but shows an error in windows (Code 52 shows on onboard also). Apparently I have too many gpu cores(8 on processor and whatever many on card) for windows to manage effectively but there is a fix that is supposed to override it(6xgpu), that has borked my shit to where even the onboard video is jacked up. Can’t display 3d shit or anything complex. Any suggestions?

Well that's not quite accurate, you have far more GPU cores than that. Not sure what this "fix" is. My recommendation would be to disable the onboard graphics altogether, and/or disable hybrid crossfire/dual graphics if your onboard is AMD (same idea).

Edit: the internet seems to think reinstalling your graphics driver will help.

[MagmaMcFry]

So I initially couldn’t get video from my card (MSI R9 290x) only onboard, got that squared away with a bios setting(Legacy something or other). Moved computer to different area then card is recognized but shows an error in windows (Code 52 shows on onboard also). Apparently I have too many gpu cores(8 on processor and whatever many on card) for windows to manage effectively but there is a fix that is supposed to override it(6xgpu), that has borked my shit to where even the onboard video is jacked up. Can’t display 3d shit or anything complex. Any suggestions?

Did you plug your monitor into your graphics card? Because if you plugged it into the motherboard it'll only use the onboard graphics.

[ancistrus]

I have received an email that goes like:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
METHOD:REQUEST
PRODID:Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
yadda yadda lots of stuff

I determined that this is some stupid outlook thing, but I am stuck now, googling this issue is difficult.
Tried moving the thing into a text file, saving it as ics, but then it says that outlook cannot import file.
Is there an easy way to display it? Id rather not download some obscure programs that are not guaranteed to work anyway.

[Rose]

Best guess is that it's an outlook calandar event, which outlook will recognize in the email

[Sappho]

I finally got my new computer! Now I'm faced with the nightmare of making it work properly.

First off, the display looks hideous. I assume this is because, for the moment, I'm having to run the VGA through an HDMI converter, because this computer doesn't come with a VGA port. Well, that's not technically true. There's a VGA port, but it's disabled. I apparently need DVI to use this computer, which is something that was not advertised when I got the machine (it explicitly said that it has a VGA video port). I think the HDMI-VGA adapter reduces the quality of the video output, and I'm stuck with it until I get an adapter for DVI (really would prefer to wait until after Xmas before going back to the electronics store).

Then there's the problem of Windows 8. It is just so hideous. I've already downloaded a 3rd party program to make me a start menu, and am in the process of installing another program that will enable custom themes and make the computer look like Windows 7. Any other tips here are welcome.

The biggest problem, now, is the flashing. Every time the window pops up asking for admin permission to change something on the computer (happening often, of course, since I'm trying to set this thing up), the monitor flashes on and off a few times. No idea what's causing that, but it's really irritating.

Finally, Acer keeps putting icons on my desktop. I keep deleting them, and it just puts them back a few minutes later, even though I'm not touching the programs they lead to. Is it safe to just uninstall all the Acer crap and be done with it? I'm a little nervous, because this machine didn't come with a recovery disc. Or any discs. Nothing. It came with nothing. Just a tower, a single slip of paper that said "plug in the mouse and keyboard, then the power cord, then the monitor, then turn it on," and some styrofoam. Not even a disc with drivers on it. Makes me very nervous. I had this problem with Dell, but I expected better from Acer, especially considering how insanely expensive this machine was.

I didn't realize Windows 8 was so incredibly hideous, not to mention completely different from every other version of Windows ever made. I had heard that it was better, but so far, I'm extremely put off. I don't see any improvements, just a lot of changes for change's sake. I wanted new hardware, but I most certainly did not want my entire system to feel different. I actually liked Windows 7. Vista may have been terrible, but 7 was fine. What on earth is all this crap. Please help.

[Thief^]

Regarding the flashing, check the uac options, you can set it to not darken the screen which is considered slightly less secure but exists for exactly this kind of reason!

Windows 8 does have a lot of improvements, the new task manager is great. But people cannot get past the stupid start screen and metro apps (great for a 10" touch screen, crap for a >20" non-touch desktop). All of which is fixed in Windows 10

Windows 8 should have the ability to make a restore disk if you want one. Drivers should all be available online, so you should be fine to uninstall any Acer software.