"I Need a New PC!" 2014 Part 2. Read OP, your 2500K will run Witcher 3. MX100s! 970!

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I was thinking that maybe I should wait on Haswell-E at the very least to build a rig but my other concern is that the 800 series GPUs do not look like they will drop this year. That's not as big of a concern because I usually go with EVGA. They offer a step-up program in case they do drop a few months after a purchase. That being said, do you guys think it will be worth it to wait on the enthusiast Haswell-E CPUs? I'm asking because they're more cores and at some point games are going to be heavily optimized on them soon. I see that BF4/Crysis 3 like a lot of cores and games are obviously headed in this direction. I haven't seen many rigs on Sandy/Ivy CPUs for gaming because I know that's not the primary purpose a lot of people spend money on in this range of CPUs. It just seems logical with the landscape of console gaming sitting on 8 cores now and already a few big games on PC using more cores that going in this direction would be smart.

I know that they're probably going to be expensive and you won't get as much price+performance for your money but it's safe to say they'll likely be much more future proof? My other concern with Haswell-E is they'll be moving to DDR4 which is likely going to be a bitch premium to pay for when it first comes out. I wouldn't be shocked if it's more expensive than the motherboard.

I want to build something I don't have to worry about updating for at least 2-3 years. Advice?
 
mkenyon said:
You can custom order a case from CaseLabs or Little Devil to be powdercoated in your specific color.

Otherwise, you could get a case of your choice, and you'd want to probably get something all aluminum like Lian Li, and have that powdercoated at either a local shop or through an online service like FrozenCPU.

I went through this process with a friend of mine. He ordered the Caselabs SM8 in primer gray. His specific color combo required that the base coat be stripped entirely first. But, the primer gray can have another layer put over it if you don't want a fancy two-tone case.

Before:



After:



We just worked with a local powdercoating service. Check out possible colors at: http://www.prismaticpowders.com/

Abee cases does have a mATX case that is available in Purple, but that's not a full tower.



Also some inspiration for you, Snef's Purple Chimera:



Keep in mind, you're looking at $600ish for everything said and done :P

The cheapest way (outside of plastidip or spray paint) would be to get a full tower Lian Li and have that done locally. Would probably set you back $400 altogether.

Not really. I mean, the space is tighter, and cable management will definitely be more difficult. You will also need to be careful on ordering specific parts to make sure everything fits. If you follow the guide in the third post, the stuff for the Prodigy should carry over pretty well.
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Dang that was a great response. Thanks.
 
mkenyon said:
.

Not really. I mean, the space is tighter, and cable management will definitely be more difficult. You will also need to be careful on ordering specific parts to make sure everything fits. If you follow the guide in the third post, the stuff for the Prodigy should carry over pretty well.
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Great! Thanks. I've been looking around at some of the mITX builds and they look great. This will be a fun project.
 
@Above two posts: No problem.

Nipo, if you do have questions or need help during the build, there's always people in this thread to help with any questions.
eyekantspele said:
you wound me... =/
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I hope your mental well being isn't dependent upon the quality or perceived quality of a company's products :P
 
CPU: FX-8150
GPU: GTX 660ti
Ram: 8gb
PSU: 850w
I am looking in playing games on high setting for the upcoming year.
Do I upgrade anything or wait?
 
I hope these rumors of the Nvidia 800 series being delayed to 2015 aren't true.

I want to upgrade in the near future.

Anyone hear any new information on that matter?
 
Wounded said:
Is there any generally recommended cases?

Gonna be getting a new one next week and so far this:

H440_White_Main.png.pagespeed.ce.ciqlu6cqKM.png


is the top of my list. Doesn't come with a slot for a disc drive, but, I almost never use mine.
Click to expand...

I would love a smaller windowless version of that case.
 
Zoon said:
CPU: FX-8150
GPU: GTX 660ti
Ram: 8gb
PSU: 850w
I am looking in playing games on high setting for the upcoming year.
Do I upgrade anything or wait?
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You'll see an increase in overall performance and fewer dips with a change to a 4690K or 4790K. The 660Ti is honestly still pretty great.

If you can hold out for the new video card releases, do that. If there ends up being games that are must plays that just don't perform as well as you want, then that's that.
 
mkenyon said:
You'll see an increase in overall performance and fewer dips with a change to a 4690K or 4790K. The 660Ti is honestly still pretty great.

If you can hold out for the new video card releases, do that. If there ends up being games that are must plays that just don't perform as well as you want, then that's that.
Click to expand...

Hmm, guess I'll grab the 4790K.Thanks for the reply.
 
zeroeffect said:
I was thinking that maybe I should wait on Haswell-E at the very least to build a rig but my other concern is that the 800 series GPUs do not look like they will drop this year. That's not as big of a concern because I usually go with EVGA. They offer a step-up program in case they do drop a few months after a purchase. That being said, do you guys think it will be worth it to wait on the enthusiast Haswell-E CPUs? I'm asking because they're more cores and at some point games are going to be heavily optimized on them soon. I see that BF4/Crysis 3 like a lot of cores and games are obviously headed in this direction. I haven't seen many rigs on Sandy/Ivy CPUs for gaming because I know that's not the primary purpose a lot of people spend money on in this range of CPUs. It just seems logical with the landscape of console gaming sitting on 8 cores now and already a few big games on PC using more cores that going in this direction would be smart.

I know that they're probably going to be expensive and you won't get as much price+performance for your money but it's safe to say they'll likely be much more future proof? My other concern with Haswell-E is they'll be moving to DDR4 which is likely going to be a bitch premium to pay for when it first comes out. I wouldn't be shocked if it's more expensive than the motherboard.

I want to build something I don't have to worry about updating for at least 2-3 years. Advice?
Click to expand...

The CPUs in those consoles are weak when you compare the number of instructions per clock that they are capable of. PC games developers are becoming more accomplished at parallelisation in their code, and APIs are offering more in this area, however, whether we'll be requiring more than 4 high-clocked (4Ghz+) cores that have strong IPC anytime soon is still up for debate. CPU parallelization is very hard to achieve in games. The more threads you try to occupy, the harder it becomes.

Wolfenstein apparently needed an i7 to be experienced "as the developer intended". I played through it on an Ivy i5 at 4.6Ghz with visuals at max (and then some) and could barely notice a drop from 60fps.
Also, no such thing as future proof. If I had to guess I'd say 8 core Haswell-E will be almost pointless when you consider, cost, the thread utilisation of the majority of games available, and the low clock (3Ghz is rumoured). The 6 core @ 3.5Ghz would make more sense for games.
 
zeroeffect said:
I was thinking that maybe I should wait on Haswell-E at the very least to build a rig but my other concern is that the 800 series GPUs do not look like they will drop this year. That's not as big of a concern because I usually go with EVGA. They offer a step-up program in case they do drop a few months after a purchase. That being said, do you guys think it will be worth it to wait on the enthusiast Haswell-E CPUs? I'm asking because they're more cores and at some point games are going to be heavily optimized on them soon. I see that BF4/Crysis 3 like a lot of cores and games are obviously headed in this direction. I haven't seen many rigs on Sandy/Ivy CPUs for gaming because I know that's not the primary purpose a lot of people spend money on in this range of CPUs. It just seems logical with the landscape of console gaming sitting on 8 cores now and already a few big games on PC using more cores that going in this direction would be smart.

I know that they're probably going to be expensive and you won't get as much price+performance for your money but it's safe to say they'll likely be much more future proof? My other concern with Haswell-E is they'll be moving to DDR4 which is likely going to be a bitch premium to pay for when it first comes out. I wouldn't be shocked if it's more expensive than the motherboard.

I want to build something I don't have to worry about updating for at least 2-3 years. Advice?
Click to expand...

What do you want to do with the machine?

Rumor is the only 8 core part of the Haswell-E family will be the 5960x. Intel's Extreme Edition Processor that runs $1,000. The rest of the lineup will be 6 core. CPU wise even the 2500k from years ago absolutely destroy what's in the PS4 and Xbox One. It's laughable how weak they are in the consoles. You will be ahead of the game for years with modern CPUs. DDR4 will also have to factor into the purchase price of Haswell-E and will have limited impact on gaming, but carry a premium price. I debated on Haswell-E or Ivy-E and I went with Ivy. There's just not going to be much that will dramatically help you with games if that is what you're after.

The only advantage to building later is you'll get some new motherboard features. In terms of gaming though not much will change.
 
Is it safe to order a GPU that's been used for mining for a few months? Crazy good prices for an r9 290x on eBay from good rep people
 
First off, as someone who has never built my own PC from scratch before, this thread is amazing and super helpful. However, after looking at Haz's builds, I had a few questions.

1. I'm looking for a WD Blue HDD but I need something bigger than 1TB. Do they make larger than 1TB? I couldn't find any. I'm looking to get a couple 2TB drives (or larger) if possible, so any recommendations?

2. I didn't see a lot of reviews online for this motherboard, but was wondering if anyone has experience with this one: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-GAMING 7 LGA 1150 Z97

Thanks in advance!
 
OK, want to get some feedback on my upcoming build. Nothing is finalized other than the processor. Previous build in first for comparison (will be a massive upgrade all around for me)

Current Machine:

CPU: AMD x3 720be
GPU: ATI 5770
Mobo: Gigabyte MA770-UD3 (AM2+)
RAM: 4GB DDR2
PSU: Antec earthwatts 650 (i think 650...)
Case: Antec p182
HDD: Samsung 1tb (main drive) and an ancient Maxtor 300gb
Monitor: Asus 1080p display (will keep this)
OS: Windows 7

Future Machine:

CPU: Intel 4790k
GPU: Undecided (probably 290 or 290x)
Motherboard: Asus Hero VII z97
RAM: 16gb ddr3 corsair vengeance
PSU: Corsair AX760
Case: Undecided possibly Corsair 750d Or something from Phanteks (pro? primo?)
HDD: Samsung 1tb (see above) and a crucial mx100 SSD 256gb (will be for OS/games)
CPU Heatsink: open to suggestions
Case Fans: depends on which case I will choose
OS: Windows 8
Monitor: Same as above. Asus 1080p.

Main use is for gaming. Company of heroes 2 is what I upgrading for (last machine was build for COH1 lol) internet browsing, and some streaming secondary to gaming. Budget doesn't matter too much, but I do want to get the best bang for my buck, I am in the USA. Would like the machine to be build by mid July. Definitely will be overclocking. Not necessarily looking to reuse any parts, unless you guys think I should, but I would rather start from scratch. Any feedback/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I know whatever I do end up getting, will be a massive step up from what I have now. Thanks!
 
Is it the huge power and heat that stops people going with 295X instead of 780TI/Titan's in SLI? While hunting around on this question earlier, I discovered that AUD$4000 780Titan's (12gb RAM!!) were things.

What a lark, phwoar.
 
Do experienced PC users predict this can run The Witcher 3 better than a PS4 ? I amnot knowledgeable so I appreciate the reply.How does this setup compare to PS4/XB1 when it comes to performance heavy games ? Is this good for the gen ?

Alienware X51 with the following specs
4th Generation Intel® Core™ i5 Processor
Windows 8.1
8GB Memory
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 745 with 4GB DDR3

I don't want to build my own PC and I am aware that this is probably pricey, But I like the form factor.
 
Giggzy said:
Is it safe to order a GPU that's been used for mining for a few months? Crazy good prices for an r9 290x on eBay from good rep people
Click to expand...

how good? because there's some gigabyte 290x on amazon for $330. Sold by amazon so returns are simple if needed.
 
Wounded said:
If it makes any difference, I had exactly your issue when deciding to upgrade, and honestly, I think the DC is the best choice.
Click to expand...

I just don't think it will be worth it. They pretty much confirmed my concerns with it. DDR4 will probably cost way too much anyway inflating the budget. I figure I can just use that money elsewhere on a better GPU or get a monitor with G-Sync or 1440p.
 
I'm having trouble finding comparison benchmarks for the Intel Iris Pro 5200 vs GT 750m. (those are the options for the current rMBP)

Anandtech only has a comparison with the 650m and gpuboss doesn't have the Iris.

videocardbenchmark.net has a passmark g3d score of ~1100 for the iris and ~1500 for the iris which represents a ~36% performance improvement. It seems kind of small, as far as differences go between a card with 128MB L4 + DDR3 and one with 2GB of GDDR5.

Is that all I can expect, or is the real-life difference more substantial?
 
Holy crap one day on the road and I miss two and a half pages?

In Minneapolis - too bad Mcrocenter doesn't have the new Pentium yet
 
jfoul said:
Today I received the Gigabyte R9 290X OC I bought from Amazon Warehouse Deals for $330. The retail box showed up in very good condition, almost like new.

So far, I've ran through about 20 games on my Steam Library ranging from small indie to demanding AAA. I ran into a small issue with Tomb Raider while switching graphic settings to Ultra. The game black screened and rebooted my desktop. I went back into the game afterwards and played for 10 minutes, and everything was fine.

A used non-ref R9 290X for $330 is an amazing price, even as used. With Amazon's awesome return policy I have one month to put this card through torture to make sure it's stable. I also think the Gigabyte 3 year warranty goes by serial/manufacture date, but I need to call them for confirmation.

Amazon still has these through Warehouse Deals for $$330.97 and I fully recommend it... for now.
Click to expand...

I just got mine today too. Mine had obvious signs of being opened before and was missing everything except the cables despite them saying it had all accessories. Card itself looked good though. Installing drivers now and crossing my fingers..

edit: 1 hr of bioshock and it didn't crash. so far so good..
 
Alright. So I'm looking at this guy : 770. I'm trying to keep it around $400. Is there a better options currently?

I'm coming from a 560ti, so I'm assuming this will be a considerable jump. The 770 is the same size and I'm using a 660W PSU anything else I should take into account?

Thanks!
 
On the PCPer livestream it was mentioned that PCPer will probably be receiving prototype A-Sync monitors around September or October, and they'd be on the market early next year January/February.

Also, it was confirmed that only 260/290-based GPUs will be supporting A-Sync since their display controllers are more complex than the 7k series.

Most importantly though, he confirmed that by the time A-Sync monitors are out new GPUs will already be on the market all supporting the feature.
 
Objectively Bad Opinion said:
On the PCPer livestream it was mentioned that PCPer will probably be receiving prototype A-Sync monitors around September or October, and they'd be on the market early next year January/February.

Also, it was confirmed that only 260/290-based GPUs will be supporting A-Sync since their display controllers are more complex than the 7k series.

Most importantly though, he confirmed that by the time A-Sync monitors are out new GPUs will already be on the market all supporting the feature.
Click to expand...

Anything on the CPU side?
 
NoRéN;117069905 said:
how good? because there's some gigabyte 290x on amazon for $330. Sold by amazon so returns are simple if needed.
Click to expand...

I went ahead and bought it off ebay from the reputable seller.

It was $280. Used for mining for 4 months, and has not been registered with the warranty yet + providing receipt. So I should be good :)

I hope.... :P
 
Hey all quick question, would post this in tech support gaf but it doesnt seem very active.

Anyway, whenever im downloading something, be it on steam, internet downloads, or even loading a large gif I cant load any other webpages, they simply just time out. Its happening on all my computers in the house wired/wireless. I have a good connection so i know its not just that.

Is there some setting in my router that could possibly be causing this?
 
Hey guys, for some reason there was this thing I didn't notice while ordering my parts on Newegg.com. Basically there was this 3 games gold free thing that got onto my cart without my permission.

I didn't realize that until after I purchased my items and thought cool, 3 free games. LAter, I realized that it charged me an extra 150 bucks for that even though I didn't ask for it and it said it was free. I got the game codes and activated them on Steam so I think it is too late to ask for my money back. Have any of you guys experienced this?
 
Anyone have an personal experience with the Fractal Design R4. That is what I am currently liking for my build. Looks nice and classy, plus its supposed quietness is very appealing to me.
 
Reven said:
Anyone have an personal experience with the Fractal Design R4. That is what I am currently liking for my build. Looks nice and classy, plus its supposed quietness is very appealing to me.
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I have it and I like it a lot. I have the non windowed one and it is indeed pretty quiet. Did you have any specific questions? It is a pretty popular case and well liked AFAIK.
 
Demon Lizardman said:
Hey guys, for some reason there was this thing I didn't notice while ordering my parts on Newegg.com. Basically there was this 3 games gold free thing that got onto my cart without my permission.

I didn't realize that until after I purchased my items and thought cool, 3 free games. LAter, I realized that it charged me an extra 150 bucks for that even though I didn't ask for it and it said it was free. I got the game codes and activated them on Steam so I think it is too late to ask for my money back. Have any of you guys experienced this?
Click to expand...

Not at all. I've never had items that cost money simply appear in my cart. What were the games?
 
riflen said:
More detail needed. What are you streaming in this scenario? If it's just audio/video files, then yes it's possible and pretty simple.

You wouldn't use wake-on-lan to shutdown the PC, you'd configure the Windows power profile to set the PC to sleep after x minutes/hours of inactivity. Wake-on-lan could be used to turn it on when needed. Wake-on-lan will need to be supported by your PC's network adapter in order to use this method.
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Okkkkkk, so I think I finally understood exactly what you are suggesting, it wasn't my doing and it was awesome. But first things first, while I have not a bad internet speed by any means, I tried an ipad app to stream movies from the pc and it was, let's not say shit, underwhelming. One meter from the modem and upon each fast forward I could enjoy the delicious taste of 'wait for 5 seconds sucker'. I'm not convinced :-/
So yeah, when I decided to give up for the day I shut down the pc and when I reopened the ipad app by mistake... Good golly ! That will sound naive, but I was a little stunned to hear the PC turn on by itself. I mean it's one thing to imagine the thing, but hearing the bios booting in the other room was something.

So if I understand correctly, I can turn on the PC at night from my bed and make it shut down after a set period of inactivity in the power settings. Any advised length ?
So sad that the end result is a mixed bag while in use.
 
Just wondering here. I have currently my i7 2600k @ stock speeds with an h100 cooler (ex gave it to me when I was building this computer two years ago). Haven't bothered to overclock it really since I used it mostly for rendering and such for school.

I'm planning on getting a 780 Ti soon. Just wondering if my i7 would bottleneck the videocard once I install it in?
 
Soi-Fong said:
Just wondering here. I have currently my i7 2600k @ stock speeds with an h100 cooler (ex gave it to me when I was building this computer two years ago). Haven't bothered to overclock it really since I used it mostly for rendering and such for school.

I'm planning on getting a 780 Ti soon. Just wondering if my i7 would bottleneck the videocard once I install it in?
Click to expand...

It won't necessarily bottleneck it, but it would sure love that extra easy and free 4.3ghz performance from the 2600k.

Dusktildawn48 said:
Can anyone guess how much the upcoming intel 8 core cpus are gonna be?
Click to expand...

Rumor has it that it will be the 5960x. Intel's Extreme Edition chip so $1,000. And clocked at 3.0ghz :l
 
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