Blog entries

Update on the memory upgrade lessons

help@homepcbuilder.com — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 19:27:14 +0100

Lesson 1 is pretty much done. I don't want to put it online yet because I'm sure I'll need to go back and make a few changes/additions after Lesson 2 and 3 are finished.

Lesson 1 covers:

the difference between memory and hardriveswhat memory swapping ishow much memory your computer needs (dependent on how you use your PC and the operating systemthe types of memory used in new computers since 2000differences between desktop and laptop RAMusing the Crucial.com systemRead More...

All of the Computer Parts Lists are up to date

help@homepcbuilder.com — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:17:14 +0100

There were a few changes. On the $1800 and up computers the Intel CPU recommendation changed from the Core i7 920 to the 930 and the modular power supply recommendation from a Thermal Take to a Corsair power supply. On the $1200 computer we upgraded the AMD CPU from the 955 3.2GHz to the 965 3.4GHz CPU. On the $1800 and $2300 computers we upgraded the video card recommendations. On the $800 computers both the Intel and AMD motherboards had been discontinued so we did some reRead More...

Wow! Was that a vacation?

help@homepcbuilder.com — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 04:53:38 +0100

You might have noticed I haven't been posting here for awhile. The day after my last post we left for a two week vacation in Tennessee. My wife is from there and we haven't been there in a few years so it was about time. It was a good trip, but with a 17 girl, 7 and 6 year old boys and 3 month little girl I wouldn't categories as restful. At least not for me and my wife. Both boys contracted a rash that comes from going into an unclean hot tub. The hotel was nice Read More...

The Intel and AMD CPU overclocking videos are available on DVD!!!

help@homepcbuilder.com — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 05:47:01 +0100

The videos on two separate DVDs. They wouldn't fit on one with good quality and I figured most people would want either the AMD or Intel videos.

The price for either DVD is $14.95. If you're an existing customer you can log into the site and use the Your Subscriptions tab on the left side of the page to order your copy. New customers please use the Buy Now link.

Nvidia Geforce GTX 460 launch

help@homepcbuilder.com — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:20:02 +0100

The GTX 460 is based on Nvidia Fermi chip. Where the high end GTX 480 has 480 Stream Processors the GTX 460 has 336 Stream Processors. The other specs are downgraded as well from the GTX 480.

The high end GTX 480 is around $500. These cards will cost around $200 for the 768MB version and $230 for the 1GB version. For the money these cards are well performing quiet and cool in comparison.

These GTX 460 cards are faster than the ATI cards at the same price point. Read More...

The Last AMD Phenom II based CPU Overclocking Lesson is Online (Lesson 8)

help@homepcbuilder.com — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:03:34 +0100

In this last lesson we show how to combine the overclocks of the CPU, CPU Northbridge, HT Link and memory into a complete system overclock. We show how to do this with a Black Edition CPU and with a non Black Edition CPU.

Lesson 08 - Combining the Overclocks of the CPU, CPU NB, HT Link and RAM into a Complete System Overclock

This is the last AMD Phenom II based CPU Overclocking video. Please let me know if you have any questions about overclocking, or the videos. Read More...

AMD Phenom II based CPU Overclocking Lesson 7 is Online!

help@homepcbuilder.com — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 01:53:06 +0100

This video shows how to overclock the RAM and or lower the CAS timing settings to improve performance.

Lesson 07 - Overclocking the RAM and lowering the RAM's timings

We recommend overclock the the RAM is you have 1333MHz memory and lowering the times if you have 1600MHz memory.

Up Next: Lesson 8 - Putting all of the overclocks we've done of the CPU, CPU Northbridge, HT Link and Memory together in one configuration.

AMD Phenom II based CPU Overclocking Lesson 6 is Online!

help@homepcbuilder.com — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:54:06 +0100

In this lesson we show how to overclock the CPU Northbridge and HT Link.

Lesson 06 - CPU Northbridge and HT Link Overclocking

The CPU NB controls the on-board memory controller and is very important to overclock if you have 1600MHz memory. Overclocking the HT Link frequency can give you better performance in memory intensive programs.

Up Next: Lesson 7 - Memory Overclocking

We've updated all of the Suggested Parts Lists

help@homepcbuilder.com — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:32:16 +0100

You can find the main page of the parts lists here

It was mostly price changes with a few parts that needed to be replaced, either because a new better part had come out, or the model was discontinued.

AMD Phenom II based CPU Overclocking Lesson 5 is Online!

help@homepcbuilder.com — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:42:27 +0100

This is the video lesson where the big performance improvement comes into play. This lesson shows how to overclock both Black Edition and Non-Black Edition AMD CPUs.

AMD Phenom II Based CPU Overclocking Video Lesson 5

We got our AMD Phenon II 955 Black Edition CPU to 3.855GHz. Can your AMD CPU go faster?

Up Next

Lesson 6 - Finding your CPU's maximum CPU Northbridge and HT Link Frequency

AMD Phenom II based CPU Overclocking Lesson 4 is Online!

help@homepcbuilder.com — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 03:06:46 +0100

In lesson 4 we show how to find your motherboard maximum stable reference clock speed. The reference clock in a key tool we will use later in the series to overclock the other components.

AMD Phenom II Based CPU Overclocking Video Lesson 4

The video also shows how to remove a stock AMD CPU cooler and replace it with a 3rd party cooler. Specifically the video shows installing an Arctic Cooler Freezer 64 Pro.

Coming Up Next

Lesson 5 - Overclocking the CPU toRead More...

AMD Phenom II based CPU Overclocking Lesson 3 is Online!

help@homepcbuilder.com — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:33:50 +0100

Lesson 3 gets into the meat of overclocking, the BIOS settings. We cover every overclocking related setting, what they do and how they relate to each other.

AMD Phenom II Based CPU Overclocking Video Lesson 3

This will be the last free video in the series. The rest of the videos will be available to members of the site only.

As always, let me know if you have any questions by ,emailing us, or calling 866-508-1113.

AMD Phenom II based CPU Overclocking Lesson 2 is Online!

help@homepcbuilder.com — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:57:11 +0100

We've locked down our tool set for AMD overclocking video lessons. Lesson 2 is mostly about the tools and how to use them. It's not exciting stuff, that comes later, but it is necessary to cover.

AMD Phenom II Based CPU Overclocking Video Lesson 2

Coming Soon:
Lesson 3, Overclocking related settings in the BIOS.
Lesson 4, Finding your system maximum Reference Clock
Lesson 5, Overclocking the CPU to 3.8GHz and beyond
Much more...&nbsRead More...

AMD Phenom II based CPU Overclocking Lesson 1 is Online!

help@homepcbuilder.com — Fri, 14 May 2010 21:59:45 +0100

We've been hard at work learning all we can about AMD Phenom II based CPU overclocking. I've spent weeks getting to know all the ins and outs, writing and re-writing the script for the lessons and we're now ready to put it all on videos. The process works for all Phenom II and Athlon II CPUs.

AMD Phenom II Based CPU Overclocking Video Lesson 1

This is an introduction lessons very similar to the one from the Intel Core i5 and i7 lessons. InRead More...

Nvidia Geforce GTX 480 and 470 Reviews

help@homepcbuilder.com — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:44:01 +0100

Nvidia's latest GPU came on the market in the last few weeks. The GTX 480 is currently the fastest and most expensive single GPU card available. The GTX 470 is comparable to ATI's top performance single GPU card the Radeon 5870 in both price and performance.

Anandtech.com has a extensive review of both the GTX 480 and 470

Guru3d.com has lots of pictures, DX 11 info and some solid benchmark results

Hothardware.com has a less extensive rRead More...

AMD Phenom II X6, 6 core CPU Review

help@homepcbuilder.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 07:00:00 +0100

AMD has released two, 6 core CPUs. The 1090T runs at 3.2GHz and the 1055T runs at 2.8GHz. They are selling for $310 and $210 respectively.

LegitReviews.com has a good review of the 1090T

The 3.2GHz model has about the same performance as Intel's 4 core 930 CPU running at 2.8GHz for the same price.

The 3.2GHz 1090T is also a good overclocker. LegitReviews was able to get it to 4.2GHz on air cooling. Of course if you overclock thRead More...

The 2010 DVDs arrived late last night and will ship today.

help@homepcbuilder.com — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:06:20 +0100

I watched the DVD late last night and made sure the menus all work as expected. The DVDs are ready and will go out today.

Update 5PM

All of the DVDs that were pre-order are in the mail and on their way.

The Home PC Builder 2010 DVD have been made and will be here Thursday!

help@homepcbuilder.com — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 04:33:17 +0100

First let me say that I am sorry this has taken so long. We wanted to have the DVDs ready to ship two months ago. The good news is that the extra time taken has resulted in the best DVD we have made so far. The information on the DVD is up to date, complete and will make building a computer very easy.

RE: 2 questions when I read the Motherboard manual

help@homepcbuilder.com — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 04:31:50 +0100

I'm not sure what the manual is talking about there. You can have 6, 1600MHz running in the system. As far as cooling goes the heat sinks on the RAM sticks will be good enough. The manual is talking about general case cooling.

2 questions when I read the Motherboard manual

g_lovett2000@yahoo.com — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 13:05:11 +0100

I'm just getting ready to start my build on new PC. I started with on of the pre-made lists from this site and made minor modifications.

In readying the motherboard manual, I noticed mention of a couple of things that concerned me - not sure about the implication:

1) Due to intel spec definition, X.M.P DIMMS and DDR3-1600 are supported for one DIMM per channel only.

(I purchased 2 sets of 3xDDR1600 DIM to install - does the above mean I can't do this? I cheRead More...