A 550 watt power supply is recommended for the R9 280X, but it should still turn on properly. CPU power cables plugged in? CPU fan plugged into the motherboard's CPU fan header?
"I Need a New PC!" 2015 Part 1. Read the OP and RISE ABOVE FORGED PRECISION SCIENCE
- Thread starter Hazaro
- Start date
- Status
I'm sticking with the stock cooler for now as I'm not planning to overclock the CPU just yet. When I begin to look at overclocking though I will be going for a better cooler.
I've heard other people recommend the G1 for being better for overclocking as well as having a (very slightly) higher initial clock, but it's also a good bit longer than most of the other cards isn't it?
Huw_Dawson
Member
Specced up a £400 tower no-GPU build from the guides in the OP and it all got assembled by me yesterday. Quite tense when I turned it on. 
Job's a good one! It all works fine.
One thing - I'm using an MX100 as my system drive, but I've been installing important programs on it like Photoshop and Visual Studio. And Hearthstone... anyway, what should I be concerned about with having an SSD as my workhorse drive? Do they wear out or slow down when you fill them with data? What about failure rates?
Job's a good one! It all works fine.
One thing - I'm using an MX100 as my system drive, but I've been installing important programs on it like Photoshop and Visual Studio. And Hearthstone... anyway, what should I be concerned about with having an SSD as my workhorse drive? Do they wear out or slow down when you fill them with data? What about failure rates?
Never mind, I was just being an idiot and forgot to plugged in the 2x4 power connector.
The Gigabyte G1 model is 312mm long. The CM Storm Enforcer case can accommodate cards up to 270mm length normally, but you will be able to remove or rearrange the hard drive cages to make it fit, according to the official specs, up to 390mm length.
It will be many years before you wear out a solid state drive from writing data. It's pretty safe.Specced up a £400 tower no-GPU build from the guides in the OP and it all got assembled by me yesterday. Quite tense when I turned it on.
Job's a good one! It all works fine.
One thing - I'm using an MX100 as my system drive, but I've been installing important programs on it like Photoshop and Visual Studio. And Hearthstone... anyway, what should I be concerned about with having an SSD as my workhorse drive? Do they wear out or slow down when you fill them with data? What about failure rates?
appaws
Banned
You might as well just grab something like the CM 212 Evo now. It's cheap and will be much quieter than the stock CPU cooler. Then you won't have to tear everything up and add one if you get the urge to start doing some overclocking.
michaelius
Banned
It's worth it just to make pc more silent.
Huw_Dawson
Member
By the way, the rig I ended up buying was:
Intel i5 4460
8GB DDR3 1866MHz RAM (Kingston HyperX)
Gigabyte Z97P-D3
Crucial MX100
Antec One
EVGA 500W PSU
Super happy that my budget allowed for a decent motherboard and SSD.
The Antec One is a nice budget case but I am slightly concerned about the extension card slots. They're just cutouts that you remove, so if I was swapping cards around I'll end up with holes in my case. Still, it was only £40.
Intel i5 4460
8GB DDR3 1866MHz RAM (Kingston HyperX)
Gigabyte Z97P-D3
Crucial MX100
Antec One
EVGA 500W PSU
Super happy that my budget allowed for a decent motherboard and SSD.
The Antec One is a nice budget case but I am slightly concerned about the extension card slots. They're just cutouts that you remove, so if I was swapping cards around I'll end up with holes in my case. Still, it was only £40.
The holes will be at the back of your case. You won't notice them.
If you can tell us your budget and you're in one of the places that PCPartPicker has market prices for, I'm certain that a better build can be chosen for the price. Those parts lists are guidelines, and not strict prices.
Fuz
Banned
That would be pretty nice.
I'm in Italy, and seems that PCPartPicker is available in my country. My budget is more or less the same as the "enthusiast" build in the OP.
Edit: by the way, any good store that build it themselves and send to Italy?
So, when I boot my computer, once it gets to the desktop for about 5 seconds there's vertical green lines on my monitor. It will then switch to them looking clear and then they disappear. I've tried print screen to get a picture of it, but it just shows my desktop looking normal. I also tried using gifcam and it also shows the desktop looking normal. I tried different DVI cables, and using the different ports on my video card, but it's the same result. My card is an r9 290, only a month old, and my monitor is 120hz. I also have the latest drivers for my card and have my monitor drivers installed. I've tried finding anyone with the same problem through google, but to no avail. I tried a different monitor that is 60hz and everything seemed fine. I also tried setting my monitor to 60hz and the green lines didn't show up, but about 5 minutes later I got a black screen and had to power off my computer. I'm thinking my monitor is bad. It did the same thing when I used an old HD 4850 video card. Does anyone think it would be anything else besides the monitor?
edit: Tried the monitor on another computer and it didn't do it.
edit: Tried the monitor on another computer and it didn't do it.
Stealth_Cobra
Member
You might want to grab EaseUS Partition Master, it's free and it's a pretty nice tool to manage hard drive partitions, formatting and switch from MBR to GPT and the like. The default windows program is okay and can usually do a job with a few dos commands, but It's a little primitive when it comes to features and it usually doesn't allow to resize partitions and such wihout wiping first. It was pretty handy to have at hand to partition my SSD and 3 TB HD exactly as I wanted.
Stealth_Cobra
Member
Whoa, is it an older case, cause it's a really bad design flaw ?
I suppose if you have metal cutters you could probably Make the hole bigger to accomodate after market heatsinks. Would not be pretty but then again, it's not like anyone opens the case from that side anyway.
BurningNad
Member
I definitely will, but knowing that it isn't at the forefront of my upgrade priority just saved me some cash. I've wanted one for a long time now but I couldn't justify the cost. Maybe by the time I decide to get one they'll have dropped a bit.
Garou
Member
They have already dropped quite a bit in the last 6 months.
Not using an SSD is one of biggest mistakes, you will extremely bottleneck your PC during every single input/output data-operation.
I went to Microcenter yesterday and unexpectedly ended up buying parts to rebuild my ancient pc. I think I did pretty good:
$179.99 Core i5 4690k
$69.99 Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX
$72.99 2x4gb Crucial ddr3 RAM
$49.99 WD 1TB HD
$84.99 EVGA 750w semimodular PSU ($20 MIR so comes out to 64.99)
$288.96 MSI GTX970 OC 4GB (open box return)
Total after tax: 808.53
Reused my case and dvd drive.
I like how I have the option to add another 970 down the line!
Definitely a big upgrade from the athlon 64 x2 4400+ and ATI x1800 GTO!
$179.99 Core i5 4690k
$69.99 Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX
$72.99 2x4gb Crucial ddr3 RAM
$49.99 WD 1TB HD
$84.99 EVGA 750w semimodular PSU ($20 MIR so comes out to 64.99)
$288.96 MSI GTX970 OC 4GB (open box return)
Total after tax: 808.53
Reused my case and dvd drive.
I like how I have the option to add another 970 down the line!
Definitely a big upgrade from the athlon 64 x2 4400+ and ATI x1800 GTO!
Good haul.
Looking for a no-frills wired keyboard for under $30. Just something that won't feel cheap. Not ergonomic, no trackpad necessary (at least I don't see why). I'll be using it for standard desktop use and some gaming.
Any recommendations?
Sounds like the MS Keyboard 200 should be fine?
Any recommendations?
Sounds like the MS Keyboard 200 should be fine?
Hey, I'm all for SSDs. I just bought one for myself and I love it but ease up on the rhetoric here. A computer functions just fine with a mechanical hard drive. When it comes to gaming the only help a SSD provides is load time and that's not always true either. Navigating and booting windows is definitely snappier with a SSD but you're being a little silly with the sky is falling statements.
Azzurri
Member
The Ram, PSU,SSD.
Will order all next week. Waiting to see if Microcenter will get the motherboard, so I can do the mb/cpu combo deal.
Get Ram that is 1.50v or lower ideally. If you already bought 1.65v RAM, you shouldnt have any issue running it.
opticalmace
Member
I got a $119 23.6" Samsung PLS monitor for my gf's build... tested it today, holy crap it looks really damn good. Way better than my old Samsung T240HD.
Really want to get myself an IPS-type panel now... but I also want 144Hz... and G-sync/Freesync.. FML.
Really want to get myself an IPS-type panel now... but I also want 144Hz... and G-sync/Freesync.. FML.
I need urgent help before I go insane. I bought a new graphics card (MSI 970), and while removing my old one (evga 580), i completely ripped out the PCI slot. Can I put my new card in the other slot and will everything work fine, or should I not boot at all because some of the pins are fucked?
I have a MSI Z87-G45 Gaming motherboard.
Going insane over here. This computer costs so much money.
I have a MSI Z87-G45 Gaming motherboard.
Going insane over here. This computer costs so much money.
Haven't bought it yet, was just recommended by someone in the last thread.
I have noticed that all of the DDR3-2400 RAM runs higher than 1.5v though. The fastest running at/under that seems to be DDR3-2133.
If that's the case how are people running the 2400 at full speed?
And will the RAM speed have much of an impact gaming wise going from 2400 to 2133?
Here's a starting build for you. It is roughly equivalent in price (1450 USD = 1180 EUR). Sorry, I'm not aware of any Italian retailers that will assemble a PC for you. All of the items in the parts list are from Amazon Italy, I think it's a limitation of PCPartPicker right now that they don't have any other Italian retailers. You may need to do some comparison shopping - Amazon isn't the cheapest retailer. Here's a list of Italian retailers I found, it was written up two years ago.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (218.49 @ Amazon Italia)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (47.08 @ Amazon Italia)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (101.87 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (142.09 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (54.50 @ Amazon Italia)
Video Card: GALAX GeForce GTX 970 4GB EX OC Black Edition Video Card (396.71 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case (101.63 @ Amazon Italia)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (94.28 @ Amazon Italia)
Total: 1156.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-06 23:28 CET+0100
Yeah, running at higher speeds and/or lower timings requires higher voltages. Basically, you can run at higher voltages, you just run a slight risk of damaging your CPU/mobo/RAM/etc. Unless you run it really high, I wouldn't worry. But at the same time, you gain basically nothing (except in limited applications) by running faster RAM.
You mean like this? As long as it's just damage to the slot and not to the motherboard's PCB, I don't think it will affect the other slots. Still, be more careful next time. There was probably a retention hook or something still pinning down the graphics card.
RAM is run at higher speeds by enabling XMP and possibly overclocking. Game performance will depend on the game you play and other factors like CL rating.
Yea it was like that, though my pins weren't THAT fucked.
I know I need to push the retention hook, but it wouldn't budge. I've replaced tons of cards in my life and never had this before. But now I know they can fuck up I suppose. I put my old card in an out a few times in the other slot, and it opened instantly without problems or any pressure, dunno what was wrong with the original one :/
I have my new 970 installed now and everything seems to be fine. Thanks for the reply!
You can install the RAM and it should automatically default to lower speeds. Check and configure in BIOS, yes.
Ram speed has literally no effect on anything except benches and some kinds of video editing. 1600 CL9 or 1866 CL10 is more than enough. Most the CPUs require overclocking and fiddling with since the intel memory controller doesn't support such high speeds officially anyways. Some CPUs won't even run those speeds either.
By default it'll run at 1333mhz speed. Even if you enable XMP for 2400mhz it likely won't work, and if it does I bet it'll be sending silly volts into the IMC. You need to set this up manually if you want to do this properly. Waste of time and money imo.
exmachina64
Banned
So I've been stuck on a laptop for a while now. My wife's about to let me pull the trigger on a new build. Budget's roughly $1400.
Planning on purchasing Kingston HyperX Fury, it's about $145 on Amazon currently, but the exact SKU doesn't appear on PCPartPicker. I know overclocking RAM doesn't have any performance benefits for games, but let's do it.
I know the case sticks out like a sore thumb, but the cousin I mentioned recently in the last thread can't build his rig in the near future. In the mean time, I might as well use the case that's collecting dust. I can either comp him with another case or purchase a better case for myself later.
When I first make the build, I'll be right next to my router, but I'll end up having to purchase something like this sooner or later.
Current Specs: None
Budget: Roughly $1400
Main Use: Gaming
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
Specific Games: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Project CARS (1080p 60fps high settings)
When: In the next two or three weeks.
Reusing: Cheap case on hand.
Overclocking: Hell yeah.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.29 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper D92 54.8 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($39.98 @ Directron)
Motherboard: *Asus MAXIMUS VII GENE Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($209.79 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($144.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($209.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($74.45 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($356.13 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($0)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1333.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-06 18:50 EST-0500
Not listed: a trio of PWM case fans.
Planning on purchasing Kingston HyperX Fury, it's about $145 on Amazon currently, but the exact SKU doesn't appear on PCPartPicker. I know overclocking RAM doesn't have any performance benefits for games, but let's do it.
I know the case sticks out like a sore thumb, but the cousin I mentioned recently in the last thread can't build his rig in the near future. In the mean time, I might as well use the case that's collecting dust. I can either comp him with another case or purchase a better case for myself later.
When I first make the build, I'll be right next to my router, but I'll end up having to purchase something like this sooner or later.
Current Specs: None
Budget: Roughly $1400
Main Use: Gaming
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
Specific Games: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Project CARS (1080p 60fps high settings)
When: In the next two or three weeks.
Reusing: Cheap case on hand.
Overclocking: Hell yeah.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.29 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper D92 54.8 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($39.98 @ Directron)
Motherboard: *Asus MAXIMUS VII GENE Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($209.79 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($144.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($209.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($74.45 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($356.13 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($0)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1333.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-06 18:50 EST-0500
Not listed: a trio of PWM case fans.
Nostremitus
Member
Thanks, yeah I saw that. It will be primarily used as a Linux HTPC for streaming and light gaming. This case will let me add a dGPU if Valve convinces more devs/pubs to support the platform, so that's a plus.
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
Whats the best small form factor graphics card you can get currently?
Edit: Using this case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154091
Edit: Using this case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154091
TC McQueen
Member
Are you using the stock power supply? Because 250 watts is too low to run anything beyond maybe a GTX 750 Ti at most.
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
I'd be willing to get a new case or power supply. I just want to know what the best small form factor card I can get is.
TC McQueen
Member
This would be great for a small form factor case: http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-Cards/ASUS-Announces-GeForce-GTX-970-DirectCU-Mini-More-Mini-ITX-Gaming-Goodness
Unknown Soldier
Member
I just installed my new GTX 970 and moved the old SSD from my laptop to my gaming PC. Finally I'll actually have space to install more than like 2 games!
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
What kind of power supply would I need?
Under $200 the best you can do is a 1080p display, and the most significant thing to pay attention to is that you get one with an IPS panel, not TN panel. There are tons of models to choose from, but the performance differences between them shouldn't be huge. If you can, you want to get one with a low input lag. Unfortunately that's a stat which is never advertised by the manufacturer, is tested only by the best display review sites, and the good review sites don't test a whole lot of displays in this low price class.
Chance Hale
Member
What's the best price one can hope to find for a 780ti? Need another one to push more recent games to 60 at 1440P and I don't want to wait until the next line. Are there any rumblings of a 980Ti or anything of that nature?
TC McQueen
Member
IIRC, you'd need like a 500w PSU or something. I don't remember the exact recommendation.
mylasthope
Neo Member
Just noticed that Windows keys are no longer sold on r/softwareswap. Any other places to get a good deal on keys? 
threetri333
Banned
Should I wait for Broadwell or Skylake?
Broadwell has been delayed so many times, and Skylake is within months of the release of Broadwell.
I sold my laptop, so I'm saving up for a new PC. I'm doing pretty well with just my phone.
16GB Ram or 8GB Ram? I leave a lot of tabs open on my internet browser.
Broadwell has been delayed so many times, and Skylake is within months of the release of Broadwell.
I sold my laptop, so I'm saving up for a new PC. I'm doing pretty well with just my phone.
16GB Ram or 8GB Ram? I leave a lot of tabs open on my internet browser.
Going to build a new PC. Currently don't have a working one, but have some usable parts.
Budget: ~$600 United States region (but can spend more)
Main Use: Gaming, media player sometimes
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 (active 3d available)
Specific Games: Skyrim, Deus Ex, Galactic Civilizations 3
Reuse Parts: i5-3570K 3.4 GHz 4 core, Samsung 64 GB SSD 830 series SATA 6Gb/s, Acer HN274H 1920x1080 with Nvidia 3D vision, CM Storm Xornet mouse
Build Time: Any time right away
Overclocking: No
Will be running Win7 64. Looking for a video card that will work well with current monitor for 3D. Would like to avoid a hot noisy machine. Need an optical drive for blu-ray read and dvd write. Want to get a good power supply and case. Must have bluetooth for headset/keyboard/mouse. (Like to use the wireless inputs when using as media player) Also looking for a tower SD/micro SD card reader, have had bad luck with USB ones.
This will be the first PC I'm building, so want to avoid scary things like thermal paste.
Budget: ~$600 United States region (but can spend more)
Main Use: Gaming, media player sometimes
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 (active 3d available)
Specific Games: Skyrim, Deus Ex, Galactic Civilizations 3
Reuse Parts: i5-3570K 3.4 GHz 4 core, Samsung 64 GB SSD 830 series SATA 6Gb/s, Acer HN274H 1920x1080 with Nvidia 3D vision, CM Storm Xornet mouse
Build Time: Any time right away
Overclocking: No
Will be running Win7 64. Looking for a video card that will work well with current monitor for 3D. Would like to avoid a hot noisy machine. Need an optical drive for blu-ray read and dvd write. Want to get a good power supply and case. Must have bluetooth for headset/keyboard/mouse. (Like to use the wireless inputs when using as media player) Also looking for a tower SD/micro SD card reader, have had bad luck with USB ones.
This will be the first PC I'm building, so want to avoid scary things like thermal paste.
Just noticed that Windows keys are no longer sold on r/softwareswap. Any other places to get a good deal on keys?
r/microsoftsoftwareswap
TC McQueen
Member
Broadwell if you want to build an overclockable PC ASAP, Skylake if you don't care/are willing to wait until 2016 for an overclockable Skylake CPU.
8GB, since RAM prices are insanely retarded.
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