Upgrade of PC to run CoD Properly

[Bikerjack]

Thanks Warhound.

Yeah, I do feel kinda committed as they have got the board and processor in for me. However, I am prepared to negotiate given the wealth of input you have given me.

I think the SSD is a good idea and I will enquire about a more robust PSU.

Question - I wanted to avoid reinstalling everything - I have Win 7 on one drive and XP on the other running 1946 very well. Can they simply copy all the data from the HDD onto the new SSD and can I get away with just one SSD and be able to switch from a Win 7 partition to an XP partition? In which case I would need a higher capacity?

[TonyD]

Originally Posted by Bikerjack

...
Question - I wanted to avoid reinstalling everything - I have Win 7 on one drive and XP on the other running 1946 very well. Can they simply copy all the data from the HDD onto the new SSD and can I get away with just one SSD and be able to switch from a Win 7 partition to an XP partition? In which case I would need a higher capacity?

I wouldn’t recommend this – the new board and cpu will require different drivers to your current installation, and Windows will ask for re-activation because of this. It can be done (I have done something similar with Win7 before), but a fresh install will be a great deal better.

XP will most likely only work if you go through the installation repair routine, which entails starting the repair install on the old system, switching it off when it re-boots and change to the new machine with the same HDD, start it up again and let it continue. You would then need to use a disk cloning utility to copy the XP partition onto the new drive, preferably into the first partition of the drive. Win7 can be cloned onto the second partition, but you may need to edit the boot image if it isn’t currently on the same partition on the old drive.

The above should work, but you’ll only know on completion. In the end, there are no shortcuts to a good installation.

And I agree with Warhound about the power supply - depending how much you overclock, BD can be very power hungry, and a 750W will be insufficient (are you sure that you really want a second HD6970?)

[Bikerjack]

No, at this moment in time I am not sure about the Crossfire with two cards. I may see what I get from just the one card first?

Bloody 'ell, I didn't realise it would be so complicated to sort all of this out. Perhaps I will hold off the upgrade to an SSD until later. One step at a time eh!

Will keep you posted.

[Bikerjack]

As anticipated I am morally obliged to stay with the Gigabyte board and AMD 8150 processor - rightly or wrongly, for better, for worse etc.

Also, I have taken your advice and moved to a 1050w Power supply (very necessary if Crossfire is to be utilised with both cards) and I have gone for a SSD 240Gb drive. Since I am effectively buying a new rig, it basically means I will get my old PC back as a usable/saleable bit of kit which will help offset the additional cost of the upgrade. I also have an ASUS HD 6770 Radeon card that I can sell.

We had issues finding a suitable case that would take the two cards and an additional fan for cooling with the power supply sitauated at the top. I am reliably informed that the power supply can interfere with the card cooling if too close at the base of the case? That's a new one on me! I am limited to the amount of space the case can take up due to a custom built computer station so a case over 500mm tall was out of the question.

I am confident that the "shop" will adequately stress test the rig before handing it over. Interestingly, they hadn't come across CLOD before so, perhaps it will help them to experience the difficulties we are all having. If they come up with radical and successful solutions (using Crossfire for example) you will be the first to know.

It will be a few days before I get it back so watch this space.

[TonyD]

I bought a Corsair Carbide 500R case and H100 cooler when I built my new system because I wanted to avoid cooling issues altogether, and the case has a pre-designed mounting for the radiator in the top (bottom mounted psu). This case has plenty of room for multiple graphics cards, both width and length, and is almost exactly 500mm tall. I too have a customised stand and am limited for space – my case has 20mm clearance at the top, and my monitor about 6mm each side, so everything just fits.

A bottom mounted psu shouldn’t interfere with gfx card cooling as the inlet would be at the base of the case with the exhaust out of the rear, so I’m not sure what they are referring to. Most modern gaming cases have the psu situated this way as this permits large exhaust fans/radiator mounting at the top.

You’ll find a number of reviews on the ’net ( http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/C...de_500R/1.html , http://www.guru3d.com/article/corsai...e-500r-review/ ), but they seem to favour the white model for pictures (mine’s the black one). I have built a number of custom machines in the past, and my opinion of this one is that it compares favourably with some costing twice as much (CoolerMaster HAF-X for eg.), both in terms of quality of construction and function.

[Bikerjack]

Settled on the Enermax Staray Midi=ATX Tower. Right overall size and plenty of room inside. Price was not the main issue and this was very reasonable. I nearly went for a much larger case and more expensive, but had visions of major carpentry required on my desk and consequently a horrific vision of extra work put me off.

I am not sure about the PWS position issue either. As I think I understand it, the PWS fan is reasonably powerful compared to the GPU fans and MAY win the battle in terms of available airflow if too close. In some cases we looked at the VTX card I have would have been very adjacent. Obviously this applies more when having two cards in place - no point having a case that can't accommodate both GPUs if eventually fitted.

I suppose, since I have the two cards I can at least test on a single card basis and on the Crossfire set-up. That may prove interesting and will illustrate/confirm some of your concerns. If little or no improvement or disruption with "stuttering" occurs with both cards installed, then I can always leave one out and either keep it on the backburner or sell it.

[Bikerjack]

I now have the new PC and have tentatively run some programs including 1946 and COD. There is a definite improvement across the board. 1946 in XP really "flies" (excuse the pun!) on max settings without a glitch, stutter or flashing with Crossfire enabled but I am not sure if the program is pushing the GPUs to high performance at all.

COD (win 7 64) runs much better than before (obviously with the capability of the new rig). But, I am experiencing the same old familiar problems that many posters have remarked upon in the past. COD runs well enough on one card (Crossfire disabled) at 35 to 70 fps on higher settings than before. I have only tried a couple of Mission Builder scenarios that I set up and have played regularly in the past so that gives me a direct comparison. There are not many AI planes or ground items in these missions and I have used one of the "island" maps which is also much "smaller" in data terms than the full southern England map.

With Crossfire enabled I am getting some stuttering and the rivers, in particular, are flashing quite badly. As discussed here I have renamed the Ubisoft logo file and have set up Crossfire to run with the Lost Planet settings. I will continue to experiment to get the best out of it.

Some forum members are helpful in terms of BIOS set up etc. I believe the Beta patch(es) for COD can improve performance but, thus far, I have not tried to download anything because I am not sure which is best and where exactly to obtain them from.

I will hopefully get used to the system over the next few days and any input would be helpful.

Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7 - AMD FX-8150 - VTX Radeon HD 6970 (2gb) x2 - 16Gb DDR3 RAM - Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit - Track IR5 - Logitech joystick

[Bikerjack]

Attached are pics of the new rig.

It has already been pointed out to me that the RAM should be installed in slots 2 and 4 (as seen to the right of the processor) and this has been changed.

Also, as suggested, I should add an additional fan at the rear of the case to extract warm air.

[TonyD]

Looking good! Those two cards look awesome together

[Flanker35M]

S!

Looks great For the CrossFire try out the Lost Planet 2 profile with IL-2 Cliffs Of Dover. Some have said it helps a bit. Also remember to disable or remove the UBI Soft logo. It causes AMD GPU clocks not to kick in properly when entering 3D. Look under X:\..\steam\steamapps\common\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\parts\core\GUI\