General computer talk/advice

For reasons I don't feel like getting into, I'm stuck on Ubuntu for a while. However, I can not live without this game. Is there any way I can go about installing it? I'm fine with a complicated process, I need this game in my life.

 

That's interesting, i'm on debian at the moment and would also like to know. Trying to use wine but it's difficult

 

Here is something I thought was worth looking at. A m-atx/itx case that can fit dual-GPU (and has them suck air directly from the outside) and fit either a 80mm air cooler or 120mm water cooler.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/defcon-one-prototype-by-hydra-a-m-atx-case#/story

 

Hmm, never experienced those things.
And yes, now I see

 

My old dell tower was really rattly, overheated and used a non standard motherboard. Junk.

Dell in general is junk. CHrist, my dell laptop had the windows update server address changed to a dell one instead, all the drivers on there were outdated and I got main windows updates weeks behind. As soon as I installed my own copy of windows, fixed. That laptop had abysmal build quality too.

 

The Dell in our office was fine. It had a plastic case with a little bit of metal inside. Had lots of air ducts etc. My current case is Enermax so everything is rolled. I have never cut myself on a computer. I guess im just lucky. Never had any issues with molex connectors but i do find that the floppy disk power connector is pretty horrible to use since you have to bend it into place etc.

 

Well, 2 Dell stories here.
Old Dell, quite a good bit of kit. It's old, but the most reliable computer I have ever used, even being in the Capacitor Plague, no dead caps in there. I was replacing the thermal paste, and the heatsink was held on by 2 plastic pieces, and after 12+ years, still felt like new. It can play some older games, Driver 1 played on it at 90+ FPS, and that was with the last mission, traffic and cops everywhere, I still respect the machine to this day, never letting go of it.

Laptop now, not such a good story. Got it, good on, but it has a screw missing from the factory, the shiny keyboard syndrome has spread to most of the plastic of the interior, and it feels kind of cheap. But, overlooking that, for $350ish after a 12.5% discount, it's quite powerful for what I got it for, and that is the same price as the Asus brick, and they don't sell it in a Core i3 flavor anymore, and that's kinda cool. I want 8GB RAM and an SSD in it, but money.

 

Would this run beamngdrive good?

15.6" Full HD 1920x1080 Widescreen LED TFT
Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz (Quad Core)
32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M 8GB GDDR5
2TB 5400RPM
Samsung 850 EVO 120GB SSD
Built-in 9-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer
Windows 8.1 64 Bit

 

Yes, but build a desktop with the same specs, so much cheaper.

 

Looks good, yet I think trouble with component overheating will be a problem. The air flow will be capped and exhaust is such a tight fit.

 

It shouldn't be. The GPUs suck air through the side panel, and the AIO cooler you should use dumps heat outside the case. That results in only the mobo and other random components dumping heat into the case. I'd guess about 50-70w.

 

I personally feel it is under cooled. GPU is fine. CPU is fine. Vrms, north bridges etc get damn warm though, even hard drives produce a little heat (not huge amounts) and dislike high temperatures. There does need to be at least a little airflow in there. A few 80 or 90mm intakes should do.

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Just had a look, appears there is a rear 120mm slot and another near the front edge of the top of the case. There is also a vent above the PSU (which bizarrely looks like it's marked up as another 120mm fan mount, even though you couldn't fit one).
I can see a few cooling options with that at least. Although I still don't like them.

 

Is that the Clevo/BTO laptop?
If you really want to spend that money, just take a desktop with that CPU in it. In a laptop it will drain the battery in no time as it is a desktop class CPU.

Still want a laptop? Take one with 4702 HQ/MQ (Mobile Quad Core) or higher, paired to a GTX 9XX M.
Also, 12 Gb of RAM will satisfy if your primary use will be gaming.

 

One big reason why I bought my specific case was fan filtering. With GPUs exposed they will receive every particle of foreign inhibitor directly. The GPU fitting holes also seem cut specific thus zero option of card swapping, GTX only as if there was any other card on earth. Components also rely on passive cooling as well.

While they come equipped with fans, my untested example would be two cards in SLI/CROSSFIRE run hotter than a single card not only because of power use, but also because they are stacked on top of each other. These cards do rely on case airflow as well. VRMs, Northbridge, PSU, and motherboard need plenty of case flow the more heat raises, and with the case marketed as good for liquid cooling, once radiators are installed my mind sees more components crammed even closer together with even smaller air flow. I imagine there being air for cooling, just never enough of it.

 

The SLI issue you mention is irrelevant. Just look at how they mounted the second card, it has its own airflow.

But yeah it will be a dust nightmare. I dont rate this case. I would not buy it.

 

Still want a laptop? Geez look at these http://www.sagernotebook.com/Gaming-Notebooks/

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Not irrelevant, right, the cards are stacked horizontal right up on within centimeters of the motherboard. Thus increased cpu socket temperature, vrm, nb, everything you said. The one thing I cannot do is tell you specific numbers because this case has not seen production or real world testing from what I gather.

Unless you mean irrelevant because they cannot be run SLI due to mounting restrictions, I don't know.

 

It looks fine in terms of cooling. The GPU's have their own input and will blow out of the rear with reference nvidia cards. There is a rear fan on the case which should be enough to keep things moving inside in combination with whatever cpu cooler you use. I expect most people uaing this case will be using ssd's anyway and most hardrives will quite easilly stay under 60c providing you dont pack them together where airflow would be needed.

I also assume they have tested things like airflow.

 

You dont know how a GPU cooler works do you? Air does not pass through the GPU. GPUs draw air from what is actually the bottom of the card and vent it out of the I/O shield on the rear.
The GPU airflow does not interact with the motherboard in this case. To top off the circuitboard of the GPU blocking the airflow towards motherboard, there is a metal panel in the way.

The case allows for upto an 8cm tall CPU cooler so much have *at least* that amount of clearance between back of GPU mount and the motherboard which is enough. Bigger issue is lack of actual intake and exhaust to get the airflow it ideally needs.

Best bet would be to use a watercooler with the radiator in the back 120mm slot running as exhaust and a 120mm fan in the top slot I think. PSU you may have to experiment with orientation to work out whether its better to intake from inside the case or via the top vent.

 

This is a terrible idea noting it will overload the radiator creating a heat wall.

 

No it wont. Air flows through a radiator, its forced through by a fan. Or you can run the radiator as intake if you wish.
Although this just highlights the problems with no case. You will either lack dedicated intake or dedicated exhaust. Or if you ran an intake and an exhaust fan and switched to air cooling, you can only mount an 80mm tall cooler, yet those low profile coolers that would actually fit the gap draw air from above not from the front and would therefore be trying to intake from against a panel they cant intake through.
Crap case design is crap and it should feel crap. I'll stick to my Prodigy M.