The doctor answers your questions about bloated systems, transferring SSDs, water cooling, maximizing performance, and fixing graphics cards
Feeling Bloated
Doc, I’m looking to upgrade my rig. Currently, the hardware is liquid-cooled. I’m running an Asus P9X79 motherboard, an Intel 256GB SSD, three WD My Book External hard drives and one 250GB WD hard drive, a Core i7-3930K at 3.2GHz, 32GB of RAM, an EVGA GTX 750 Ti Superclocked graphics card, and a Sound Blaster X-Fi. Also, I’m using Norton Internet Security and Malwarebytes. I keep my signatures and scans up to date, but my system hesitates. I don’t know what’s causing this. I’ve Reimage Plus and WinZip Driver Updater installed. I keep getting errors from Reimage that the wzdu25.exe files are threats. Neither company is able to help. The scan on Reimage won’t complete. Is there anything you’d suggest? –Marty Anisko
The Doctor Responds: That’s a lot of capable hardware, Marty. There’s no reason its performance should be suffering. As far as upgrades go, the Doc sees two subsystems you could balance out a bit. If you’re into gaming, that GeForce GTX 750 Ti is limiting your maximum resolution and detail settings. A GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon R9 290 are better matches to Intel’s Core i7-3930K. Both are capable of pushing smooth frame rates at 2560x1440, even in the most demanding games. And on the subject of your Sandy Bridge-E-based host processor, it’d probably run well at 4GHz or higher if you wanted to try overclocking. Although additional storage won’t improve responsiveness, I can’t help but notice the 256GB SSD and 250GB hard drive. Big disks are cheap; adding 3TB for $100 would help clean up the external enclosures.
Onto the software. The Doc is a staunch minimalist. You don’t need all those apps. WinZip Driver Updater should be first to go. Nvidia’s GeForce Experience utility already tells you when new drivers are available. Chipset drivers are far less common, and the X-Fi won’t be receiving any development attention from Creative. Even if this resolves the conflict with Reimage, consider uninstalling that utility as well. Norton Internet Security can be downright intrusive, though the Doc understands antivirus software is mandatory nowadays. If you don’t trust your PC to Microsoft Security Essentials, leaving Malwarebytes might be necessary. Meanwhile, the Doc keeps it simple with Windows Defender and cautious habits.
SSD Migration
Hi Doc. I’ve been a reader for a long time, and am writing about an upgrade for my laptop. I own an HP Pavilion DV7-3024ca, which served me well for years but is sadly not running as briskly as it used to. My first upgrade was 4GB of RAM. I keep my antivirus software up to date, and I use CCleaner regularly. I’ve the original Win7 64-bit install on a 5,400rpm hard drive, but the disk has seen better days and I’d like to replace it with a 240 to 480GB SSD. Is there a way to clone the hard drive with its restore partition intact? I watched a few videos, but most suggest using a fresh copy of Windows. I don’t have installation media though, just the restore partition and key. Can everything, including those restore files, be cloned onto a new drive? Thanks Doc! –Christopher Leach
The Doctor Responds: Yes, it’s possible to take a mechanical disk and migrate it, sector by sector, to an SSD. Some SSDs even include the necessary hardware/software. If you’d rather not tie yourself to specific bundles, check out Apricorn’s SATA Wire 3.0. It’s a USB 3.0-to-SATA interface packaged with the company’s EZ Gig IV software for $29.
The way it works is simple. Connect your SSD to the SATA side, plug in to the laptop’s USB port, run the software to clone all of the information from one repository to the other, and then swap the drives. That’s all good if your mechanical disk is the same size. But what if it’s larger? EZ Gig, along with other data migration utilities, includes a provision for picking the files and folders to exclude.
Using a simple USB-to-SATA adapter and some software, you can painlessly transition from hard drive to SSD.
To Water Cool Or Not
I recently finished a build I’m fairly pleased with. It includes a Core i5-4670K, Asus Z87-PRO motherboard, 16GB of RAM, a Samsung 840 Pro 512GB, two 2x PNY GeForce GTX 780 cards, an Asus Blu-ray reader, SeaSonic’s 850W PSU, an NZXT Phantom 410 case, and Cooler Master’s Hyper 212 EVO cooler. After modest overclocking, the rig is stable and quiet. However, I want to try water cooling to see how much further I can push it.
Here’s what’s holding me back. I work for the US Department of State, and I live overseas. I can expect to move every two or three years. A colleague of mine advised against water cooling because he thought it’d be a pain to disassemble when I get relocated. Do you agree? I will tell you that I’m a gamer. Currently playing The Witcher 2 at 1440p. As I said, I’m pretty happy with my rig. –Alain DeWitt
The Doctor Responds: The Doc is a gamer as well, Alain. But he’s also very busy. That means big air coolers get preferential treatment in his ATX cases, while closed-loop liquid coolers like Corsair’s Hydro H60 are easier to fit into the compact machines he builds. Spending extra on a water cooling kit in the hopes of coaxing another 100 or 200MHz from a CPU just doesn’t seem practical. In fact, it counters one fundamental goal of overclocking: improve value by boosting the performance of more affordable components.
But many power users swear by water cooling. Some take that route for improved thermal performance. Beefy radiators and pumps aggressively dissipate heat from high-end host processors and graphics cards. Other enthusiasts like the aesthetic impact. It’s hard not to be impressed by neatly routed tubing filled with UV-reactive coolant behind a windowed side panel. And believe it or not, water-cooling kits can be easier to transport. Heavy heatsinks strapped to fragile sockets tug on motherboards, warp retention mechanisms, and even pull CPUs out of place.
You asked the Doc’s opinion though, so here it is. The Hyper 212 EVO already strapped to your Core i5 represents a great compromise between size and cooling, particularly at its price point. If you’re already nursing a reasonable overclock, sinking hundreds into water-cooling hardware will only serve to erode the value of that tuned chip. Why not treat yourself to a couple of extra games instead?
NVMe Disappointment
I recently purchased Samsung’s XP941 M.2 SSD during a moment of risky early adopter-ness. But I became suspicious of performance issues shortly after assembling my new Asus X99-Deluxe/Core i7-5930K rig. Far Cry 4 wasn’t loading any faster than it did on my Z97/Samsung 840 EVO-based system. Even Word didn’t act snappier. Now I read in your April issue that the NVMe party hasn’t started yet. Color me depressed. What can I do to maximize the XP941’s performance? Could a NVMe-capable firmware flash to either/both components address the problem? –Chris Ajemian
The Doctor Responds: Although the Doc has heard of issues with the XP941 performing erratically after waking up from a sleep state, he’s not aware of any responsiveness issues. A little expectation management may be in order, though. The 840 EVO is a quick SSD. The XP941 boasts incredible sequential throughput, but it won’t stand out as prominently from the SATA 6Gb/s crowd as synthetic storage benchmarks suggest.
Early in March, Asus did publish an NVMe-capable firmware for its X99-Deluxe. But the XP941 employs AHCI, as does Samsung’s SM951. Until desktop-oriented drives with NVMe support start showing up, enthusiasts are must gawk at the enterpriseclass SSDs and drool.
Busted Graphics Card
Thanks to some “help” from my children, my old Radeon HD 6950 graphics card is broken. I’m looking at upgrading to either a Radeon R9 285 or GeForce GTX 960. Since I don’t have my old card to boot from, which would allow me to uninstall the old drivers, should I stick with AMD to avoid a headache? I’m running an Asus Crosshair Formula V, with 16GB of RAM, an FX-8150 processor, and Windows 7 64-bit. School is starting soon, so any advice would be appreciated. –Jonathon Hardin
The Doctor Responds: Let’s get you past that driver issue first, Jonathon. Go grab Display Driver Uninstaller at http://ift.tt/1gD9SJ4. As long as you’re able to boot Windows to Safe Mode, the utility will find and eradicate Registry entries, folders, and files related to the existing Catalyst installation. From there, you shouldn’t have any problem getting back into Windows. Of course, that’s been the Doc’s experience. The tool’s author takes no responsibility for anything that goes wrong.
Assuming DDU does its job, you’re free to choose between the Maxwell-based GeForce or Radeon with AMD’s Tonga GPU. The Radeon is more expensive. However, it’s available with significant rebates. Both cards are similarly quick.
The Doc thinks Nvidia has the advantage in this battle, though. Its GM206 GPU comes equipped with 1,024 CUDA cores and is complemented by 2GB of GDDR5 memory, making it most suitable for gaming at 1920x1080. But the board is only rated for 120W, meaning it can get away with a single 6-pin power connector. You’re already used to the 200W Radeon HD 6950, so this card would kick out less heat (and run more quietly). If you plan to record your gaming sessions, ShadowPlay is proving to be a popular bit of software. And Nvidia’s Multi-Frame Anti-Aliasing technology reduces jaggies at a lower performance cost than other techniques.
In contrast, AMD specifies its Radeon R9 285 for 190W, necessitating two 6-pin connectors. Game recording is supported through a bundled third-party app called Raptr, and a recent beta driver gave us our first look at FreeSync, which synchronizes a compatible display’s refresh rate to the R9 285’s output, eliminating the compromises imposed by V-Sync. Nvidia matches that capability with its own proprietary G-Sync. But both companies’ implementations require you buy a compatible monitor.
Nvidia’s G-Sync technology is proprietary; AMD’s FreeSync isn’t. As a result, FreeSynccompatible panels should be less expensive.
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