Belaud helped me with the missing screws from the Kuhler 620 I bought at the warehouse sale today :fullofwin: just finished installing it and temps are actually no different from my Hyper 212+ the only difference being I can only use one GT AP-15 on pull and achieve the same temps I did with a push/pull GT AP-15 setup on the Hyper 212+, so slightly quieter.

I bought a Asus RT-56U back in '11 and its been great ive had to reset it a few times (literally a few) over the the last couple years nowhere near the amount i've had to with any other router
signal strength is great throughout the house and i dont even have the router placed in the middle its placed in a far corner
the 5g connection i found is weak at least i thought it was weak when using an ipad or my older laptop
but my new vaio duo 11 is able to get a good 5G connection even in the opposite corner of the house (not max bars but 3-4/5) with my laptop & an ipad i cant even get 1 bar
I would recommend Asus routers now

The Cisco refurb stuff is fine. I've bought quite a few and they work great. Currently running the Cisco Linksys E4200v2 and using the RT-N53 to provide wireless to a corner of the house that has bad signal (so as a signal booster).

Both routers have 4 ports, so that's fine. I have a switch hooked to mine to add more ports because I got a lot of stuff hooked in. I also download a lot, both routers can handle it okay but the Cisco one is a better unit if you have a lot of traffic going on your network. Right now I have 6 laptops hooked up at various times, 2 desktops, 4 smartphones, PS3, a NAS acting as a media server/backup/storage and 2 tablets.

Gigabit Ethernet is the transfer speed of your internal network. Gigabit = 1000Mbps. Regular = 100Mbps. I have a mini server running, which means that I can transfer stuff to and from it faster using Gigabit ethernet. It is better to have Gigabit when streaming 1080p HD videos from a computer to other computers or PS3 etc.

The refurb stuff can be a hit and miss. I went through 2 at ncix before I got a working one. If you get a good one it should be okay.

Does anyone know why DDR3 ram prices went up? (almost double)

Because china

seriously, most of the supply is being bought up by cheap tablet manufacturers in china

I've been reading up something about DD-WRT. Is that a firmware?

RT-56U seems like overkill for me.
Maybe the E4200 V2 is ok.

I'm still leaning toward the RT-N53 only cause I can pricematch it for $38.
Unless it's complete crap...


This is basically what I do:
My general internet traffic is 1 PC downloading a few GB of stuff every now and then.
I have another 2 PC's that need the router, but they're usually not on (or used often).
I have 1 laptop that my bro uses (for youtube and email).
Things I stream online are pretty much YouTube on a 20" monitor fullscreen (is that even 1080p??).

Will I take advantage of a Gigabit router (or 5G)?
My mobo's a ASUS P8Z77 V-LK. (not sure if my motherboard has anything to do with it)

I'm not sure what NAS, QOS (or any of the other terminology that I've been reading) is,
and probably won't be doing anything with that... lol

If that's all that you do, RT-N53 is fine. DD-WRT is custom firmware for messing around with settings, not needed unless you want to get into that. QOS = Quality of Service, basically prioritizing Internet bandwith.

You will not take advantage of Gigabit or 5Ghz, so no need for a super advanced router. Get the N53 and be happy.

I ended up going with the TP-Link N600.

I realized for the RT-N53, I was actually looking at the post rebate prices.

Turns out the N600 is only $5 more, and I think it's a gigabit router.
There's way more coverage in terms of reviews, and they were a lot better than the N53.

Thanks for the wire loom Cman333! Works like a charm. Will get pics up when I'm not feeling lazy lol.

I need a decent video card.. I currently have the RadeonHD5770... have to set it on the lowest settings with everything turned off to only get 50-60FPS..
Whats funny is, when Im flying in the attack heli and my pilot tells me to shoot at the guy, Im like.. WHAT GUY!! :badpokerface:


so maybe under $200... around $150 is best.. not sure what upgrade this would be.. I was looking at the GTX 660.. but at $220+ not so sure...

HD 7850 is your best bet right now, hands down, in the price range given. For a bit more, you could get a 7870 Tahiti LE, which is seriously the best bang for your buck. ATI is budget king, especially when their current offerings match or even exceed (with minor OC'ing) Nvidia's costlier cards.

Why do you guys recommend for LED lighting strips?

I'm using this: NZXT Sleeved LED Kit 2m, White at Memory Express

I got an ASUS GTX560Ti for sale for $100... interested?

Using the exact same thing, though I should've gone with the 1m as the 2m is more meant for full towers. I'm using a mid tower and 1m would be enough, I had to route the remainder onto the side panel lol.

Thx :) possibly scoop one tmr.

I haven't been into GPU lately.

I need to build a tower for my lil cousin, who is into Skyrim and its mods...

Anyone can suggest the best bang for the buck GPU setup to handle those crazy textures?!?

His Skyrim's texture folder alone is like 17GB... and it only occurred to him to upgrade because he said it's getting really slow. :fuckthatshit:

He didn't specify a budget, but his parents (who's paying the bill) wants the best C/P ratio setup on the market.

Any comments? Ideally I think he needs a card (or maybe dual) that has a lot of ram... but I can't seem to find any card with a lot of ram that's not top-of-line (hence $$$)

Radeon 7870, around $200-$250 comes with two free games also.

7850 and OC, will get nearly the same performance as a 7870 for around $50 less. 7870 is no longer worth is considering 7950s have come down so much in price, can pick one up for under $300 now.

I found 7850 with 4GB mem.
Newegg.com - HIS IceQ H785QT4G2M Radeon HD 7850 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Is it worth money to go crossfire on these?

No, IMO... it is better for you to get the 7870 Tahiti LE edition rather than a 7850 for best bang for buck. $220, performs close to a 7950 which is closer to $300.

The 7850 has a smaller memory bus which means that the memory performance is not the best. Unless he is gaming at a size larger than 1920x1080 which will use up more memory. The textures load dynamically per area, I think. It's not like he's loading 17GB all at once.

NCIX - Buy Computers, Computer Parts, Laptops, World's Leading Discount Computer Store

Regular 7870 @ ~$200 is better than 7870 Tahiti LE @ ~$240-250 IMO.

The Tahiti version isn't that much faster, but uses a LOT more power and gets a lot hotter. Plus if you ever do want to consider Crossfire down the road, you might not be able to get it anymore.

2GB is fine for Skyrim + mods at 1080p
but if he plays at higher res or likes to play more intensive game with mods then 2GB actually will run out.

That said a 7850 will be maxed out/bounded before you can even use up 4GB
so if he falls into case #2 i'd suggest 7950 but it's going to be $275-300

If anyone needs a graphics card, I'd be willing to help some peeps get some at the next NCIX warehouse sale, as I'm seriously planning to camp out way ahead the rest of the campers just for the lulz. I'm I'm lining up, might as well be the first one :troll: