"I need a New PC!" 2011 Thread of reading the OP. Seriously. [Part 2]

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hi GAF,

I'm building a new PC system. What do you think? (Prices in €, sorry :()

Asrock Z68 (90€)
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=46922&agid=1601

i52500k (planning OC it to 4GHZ) (180€)
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/artic...1224&agid=1617

Cooler:
be quiet! Shadow Rock PRO SR1
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=50932&agid=669

Gigabyte Geforce OC GTX 560 (155€)
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=46936&agid=707

8GB generic RAM

Revoltec 51(35€)
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=24812&agid=631

be quiet! STRAIGHT POWER BQT E8-500W (75€)
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=40340&agid=1627




Now I know that the ATI 6870 is faster than a GTX 560. I hope I can OC my GTX to 900 or 950, that should be fine. The reason I don't want to buy a 6870 is in these threads:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=450082
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=437030


So guys, what do you think!?
 
Be Quiet is a very decent brand and 500W should be plenty unless he plans on going SLI in the future (although for only a few euros more that shop has an updated E9 which is modular) :)

---

the case you selected is Micro-ATX though, so you'll need a Micro-ATX motherboard for it! Why don't you just grab one of the €35~€60 Coolermaster cases? I'm always using those for cheap builds, they look good and have decent build quality.
 
Woah, Be quiet is not no name and 500w is a lot of stuff! The system doesn't use more than 300 under pressure I guess. Which one is the E9?

I chose a different casing now, please check if that's ok. though the z68 exists as m-atx too (http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=50899&agid=1603) and it's even cheaper. What would be the benefit of going ATX instead of MATX?

The main thing that bugs me is that I'm chosing a 560 over a 6870. Is the 560 really so much slower? I'm doing this because of the threads I linked and I don't want to pay 4߀ more for a 560 TI. I'm currently using a OC 6850.
 
n0n44m said:
Be Quiet is a very decent brand and 500W should be plenty unless he plans on going SLI in the future (although for only a few euros more that shop has an updated E9 which is modular) :)

Thrakier said:
Woah, Be quiet is not no name and 500w is a lot of stuff! The system doesn't use more than 300 under pressure I guess. Which one is the E9?

Sorry guys but it's a completely unknown brand in my country AFAIK. I suppose it is popular in others?

In any case I wouldn't buy a 500W PSU in 2011, because it could potentially stop me from upgrading in the next x years..
 
Be Quiet! is only available in Europe AFAIK :)

micro ATX is just smaller, which means less space for components = less PCI(-e) slots and stuff. Also the boards are often aimed at the budget segment, and for these two reasons often lack the more "hardcore" features such as better VRM components for heavy overclocking. This is not always the case ofcourse, Asus for example has the Gene-Z which is a m-ATX enthusiast board. For the Asrock ones I'd guess any of their Pro/Extreme series boards should do a 4.6ghz overclock without issues, ATX or m-ATX.

Still I would always choose regular ATX unless you want a smaller case or have other size-specific reasons. No harm in having a slightly larger PCB with more features right? :)

regarding the 560, I have no experience with anything lower than a 480 so I'm not sure I can help you there ;)

but I always thought the 560 non-TI was "just" a updated 460, which doesn't sound ideal to me for 1080p gaming. Personally I'd always try to get a 560ti as that is a very decent standalone card for the price, especially when overclocked. You could already save a few € by taking the Coolermaster 212+ instead of the BeQuiet! cooler :p the latter one is probably slightly better and has a better fan, but the 212+ will run at low speeds on idle anyway (PWM fan) and on load the GPU is going to be louder for sure ;)
 
Overclocked to 4.5GHz. Stable and everything seems great. Temps would be amazing if not for the warm core, hitting 64C at that speed while the second highest is just touching 60, other two don't go over 58.

Guess I hit my limit with 1.34v though, black screen with a flashing keyboard cursor after POST on 4.6.
 
n0n44m said:
Be Quiet! is only available in Europe AFAIK :)

micro ATX is just smaller, which means less space for components = less PCI(-e) slots and stuff. Also the boards are often aimed at the budget segment, and for these two reasons often lack the more "hardcore" features such as better VRM components for heavy overclocking. This is not always the case ofcourse, Asus for example has the Gene-Z which is a m-ATX enthusiast board. For the Asrock ones I'd guess any of their Pro/Extreme series boards should do a 4.6ghz overclock without issues, ATX or m-ATX.

Still I would always choose regular ATX unless you want a smaller case or have other size-specific reasons. No harm in having a slightly larger PCB with more features right? :)

regarding the 560, I have no experience with anything lower than a 480 so I'm not sure I can help you there ;)

but I always thought the 560 non-TI was "just" a updated 460, which doesn't sound ideal to me for 1080p gaming. Personally I'd always try to get a 560ti as that is a very decent standalone card for the price, especially when overclocked. You could already save a few € by taking the Coolermaster 212+ instead of the BeQuiet! cooler :p the latter one is probably slightly better and has a better fan, but the 212+ will run at low speeds on idle anyway (PWM fan) and on load the GPU is going to be louder for sure ;)

Here's another review:

http://www.funkykit.com/component/c...yte-geforce-gtx-560-oc-1gb-gddr5.html?start=7

I thought it was set to go against the 6870?

The TI doesn't seem to be much faster than a OC non-TI...ARGH. Why is this shit so hard? I don't want to save money on the cooler, silent is important to me. The 560 is supposed to be very silent, don't know about the TI.
 
560 does compete with the 6870. 560Ti competes with the 6950/470. The cards aren't the same thing at all, the Ti version has more cores. 560 is literally an overclocked 460.

And yes, an overclocked card can come close to the next card up a lot of the time, but then you have to factor in what the better card will do when overclocked. And the 560Ti does OC well from what I've seen.
 
Ah damn, I don't know what to do now. :( I feel like buying a 560 over the 6870 is a dumb decision. But after all those issues I had with testing my 6850 I don#t feel like staying with AMD. Obviously I have no idea if switching to 560 would change ANYTHING.
 
I am having issues with AMD i updated Friday night and since then my Catalyst control center has been crashing, I followed a few steps online and didn't work, it F N annoying...
 
Thrakier said:
Ah damn, I don't know what to do now. :( I feel like buying a 560 over the 6870 is a dumb decision. But after all those issues I had with testing my 6850 I don#t feel like staying with AMD. Obviously I have no idea if switching to 560 would change ANYTHING.

So a silent TI card is abot 50€ more...
 
any one know where to start in finding what's causing a slow windows boot? My comp usually boots very fast, from power button to web browser used to be 15-20 secs. Now i get a black screen for about 30 secs after post until I hear the windows chime to log in. I haven't made any major changes since I've noticed it. Installed a new Nvidia driver, installed BF3, and defragged my storage HD. I reverted my driver but the problem still happens. I'm not sure what else to do.
 
elrechazao said:
Not really. If you've ever played with legos, you can build a pc.
Pretty much. Just don't touch any connectors and grab something metal before you handle parts (to discharge any static electricity). Also, RTFM.
 
I think I solved my CCC crashing.....but something is wrong with AMD site i can't click view results...

16c9aig.jpg
 
celcius said:
^^750W is more than needed/necessary for that setup. That motherboard doesn't support sli (only has one pci-e slot) so I assume you don't plan on adding a second videocard in the future. How much are you paying for the be quiet psu? (If you don't mind me asking)

About 70-75€. A bit much, But I had a lot of problems with loud parts before so i think it's worth that.
 
Nemesis121 said:
I think I solved my CCC crashing.....but something is wrong with AMD site i can't click view results...

16c9aig.jpg
You should be able to update the driver through Steam. Or use this page instead, you could just use the link on the right instead of using the menus.

Thrakier said:
Is this performance rating true? So the 6870 is even stronger than a 560TI for 50€ less?
http://images.idgentertainment.de/im...23799/600x.jpg
Maybe in a few rare cases, but no, in general the 560Ti will beat it by a decent margin.

Try this, it should help.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/330?vs=290
 
Cptkrush said:
Probably only in a few cases, but I would have to say in my opinion, bang for your buck goes to the 6870, especially when you can sometimes Cfx two of them for less than 250 bucks.

Yeah, but please read my threads which problems I encountered with ATI and why I want to go with NVIDIA.

Please check those benches:
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2011/test-19-grafikkarten/16/

6870 is almost always in front of the 560TI and much better than a 560. What the hell? I don't know what to believe anymore.
 
Thrakier said:
Yeah, but please read my threads which problems I encountered with ATI and why I want to go with NVIDIA.

Please check those benches:
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2011/test-19-grafikkarten/16/

6870 is almost always in front of the 560TI and much better than a 560. What the hell? I don't know what to believe anymore.
About 50/50, but that looks extremely suspect to me because that's the only review I've ever seen where the 6870 was on par with a 560Ti.
 
chaosblade said:
About 50/50, but that looks extremely suspect to me because that's the only review I've ever seen where the 6870 was on par with a 560Ti.

So...you think buying a 560, do some oc (around 900 to 950) and I will be fine if it costs about the same as the 6870 (maybe 10€ more...). Or is it a dumb thing to do? OC 560 seems to be faster than a 6870. OC potential for the 6870 isn't as high.
 
So if I buy Hazaro's $519 build, what else will I need to buy? I have nothing. Monitor, keyboard, speakers, what else? Buying a house and this will be my first desktop of my own, so I don't have anything to carry over. Let me know. Thanks guys!
 
ToyMachine228 said:
So if I buy Hazaro's $519 build, what else will I need to buy? I have nothing. Monitor, keyboard, speakers, what else? Buying a house and this will be my first desktop of my own, so I don't have anything to carry over. Let me know. Thanks guys!
Those builds are just for the tower itself, so anything else you'll have to buy as well. It'll depend on what exactly you want but the basics would be OS, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers.
 
Thrakier said:
So...you think buying a 560, do some oc (around 900 to 950) and I will be fine if it costs about the same as the 6870 (maybe 10€ more...). Or is it a dumb thing to do? OC 560 seems to be faster than a 6870. OC potential for the 6870 isn't as high.
That would probably be the best bet for the price. 560Ti isn't worth the premium where you live.

CAW said:
I just upgraded my PC and I also picked up a pair of Sennheiser 558 HD's. Is there a decent AMP I could get? Is that recommended with the 558's or will the MB have enough to get the full sound quality these headphones can achieve? This is the board I have: http://www.directcanada.com/products...cture=GIGABYTE
You'll definitely want to use something, but I don't have any recommendations unfortunately. Using 555s and running digital from the PC to my receiver. Sounds great, infinitely better than the fuzzy onboard sound.
 
PGamer said:
Those builds are just for the tower itself, so anything else you'll have to buy as well. It'll depend on what exactly you want but the basics would be OS, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers.

Can anyone recommend an all-in-one PC for me then? All I need is to play Blizzard and Valve games, use photoshop, and the internet basically. I really don't like all this "create and assemble your own" business. I'm just not good at it. Help would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
chaosblade said:
560 does compete with the 6870. 560Ti competes with the 6950/470. The cards aren't the same thing at all, the Ti version has more cores. 560 is literally an overclocked 460.

And yes, an overclocked card can come close to the next card up a lot of the time, but then you have to factor in what the better card will do when overclocked. And the 560Ti does OC well from what I've seen.

Good to know.
 
ToyMachine228 said:
Can anyone recommend an all-in-one PC for me then? All I need is to play Blizzard and Valve games, use photoshop, and the internet basically. I really don't like all this "create and assemble your own" business. I'm just not good at it. Help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Buy an iMac in that case.
 
so my samsung f4 sounds like a fucking jet engine. Guess its failing like most people said it would. sucks I bought it off recommendation from here. Can't blame mah boys though. I would like to order something else to replace it and possibly go to a 7200 rpm secondary before it completely dies on me so I can transfer. Gonna have to redownload 100 steam games :(
 
Broadbandito said:
so my samsung f4 sounds like a fucking jet engine. Guess its failing like most people said it would. sucks I bought it off recommendation from here. Can't blame mah boys though. I would like to order something else to replace it and possibly go to a 7200 rpm secondary before it completely dies on me so I can transfer. Gonna have to redownload 100 steam games :(
How old is it? They needed a firmware update if you got one of the early ones. Probably too late now though.

My first F4 failed on me too, but I think that was because of the crappy enclosure I had it in that kept randomly disconnecting it. Samsung replaced it pretty quickly though.
 
I hope this is not a stupid question, but I have no experience with HD. I have a GPU that I know is able to output HD, but my monitor does not have an HDMI input anywhere on it. Does an HDMI to VGA adapter make the picture HD or is HDMI to HDMI required?
 
Piercedveil said:
I hope this is not a stupid question, but I have no experience with HD. I have a GPU that I know is able to output HD, but my monitor does not have an HDMI input anywhere on it. Does an HDMI to VGA adapter make the picture HD or is HDMI to HDMI required?
HD = resolution, could be HDMI, VGA or DVI. The GPU doesn't have VGA output?
 
Piercedveil said:
I hope this is not a stupid question, but I have no experience with HD. I have a GPU that I know is able to output HD, but my monitor does not have an HDMI input anywhere on it. Does an HDMI to VGA adapter make the picture HD or is HDMI to HDMI required?
HD just refers to resolutions greater than or equal to 1280 × 720. Pretty much any modern PC is going to be able to do that and I'm going to guess your monitor already is HD. You don't need HDMI for HD resolutions (I believe DVI is essentially the same connection but without audio) and I don't think you want a HDMI to VGA converter as that would be going digital to analogue.
 
Quick question guys, how good is the 560ti? It is pretty cheap and would like to be able to play Skyrim / Battlefield 3 on high settings without dropping a lot of cash >.>
 
knitoe said:
HD = resolution, could be HDMI, VGA or DVI. The GPU doesn't have VGA output?

PGamer said:
HD just refers to resolutions greater than or equal to 1280 × 720. Pretty much any modern PC is going to be able to do that and I'm going to guess your monitor already is HD. You don't need HDMI for HD resolutions (I believe DVI is essentially the same connection but without audio) and I don't think you want a HDMI to VGA converter as that would be going analogue to digital.

Thank you. It does have VGA output, which is what I am currently using. I was under the assumption that HDMI was required for HD picture for some reason. But that basically answers all of my questions, since my monitor is 1600 x 900.
 
Now with this secondary drive about to fail I think Im gonna spoil myself.

This is my build now.

GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 Yorkfield 2.66GHz 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor BX80580Q8400
MASSCOOL 8WA741 92mm Ball CPU Cooler
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
HIS IceQ X Turbo H695QNT2G2M Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

This is what I have in my newegg cart at the moment.

NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Steel / Plastic Enthusiast ATX Full Tower Computer Case
ASRock P67 EXTREME4 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7
Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9Q-16GBRL
HIS IceQ X Turbo H695QNT2G2M Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Questions I have.

What is a good secondary drive to get at the moment? I don't want to buy another F4 for $160 (damn price hike)

Is my power supply going to be able to hand the crossfire and everything?

The case should be large enough for a crossfire setup?

Is it worth going to a 128GB ssd and using my 7200 as a back up?

edit: also thinking of waiting on the crossfire set up and going to 8 gb. then buy the 2nd card next year when cheaper.

edit2: I realized that the power supply would not be sufficient for the crossfire set up.

With the new mobo/ssd/cpu/ will my current psu be ok with this stuff with the one 6950?
 
lsslave said:
Quick question guys, how good is the 560ti? It is pretty cheap and would like to be able to play Skyrim / Battlefield 3 on high settings without dropping a lot of cash >.>
The 560 Ti is a good card for the price and I believe one of the better price/performance buys at the moment. Here are some BF3 benchmarks with the 560 Ti:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-3.html

It looks like it gets about 54 FPS at 1080p on high settings. I'm sure there are numerous people here who are playing the game with that card so I'm sure they could give you some more detailed results.

ToyMachine228 said:
I don't buy Apple products. Need other recommendations.
Well now could be your time to change! In all seriousness the iMac is the best all-in-one on the market and apparently suits all your needs. If you are definitely going Windows then buy a tower. Windows all-in-ones are going to have the flaws of an iMac (lower performance, very limited upgradability, hard to repair) without many of the benefits (sleek design, very high end screen, better product support if/when something breaks). Buying a tower isn't really that hard and there are sites such as NCIX that can handle the assembly if you don't want to do it yourself. Picking parts can take some work but that's why we have this thread. All you really have to do is press order when you've figured out which build you want.
 
Ugh, the Cooler Master Three Hundred has no case speaker attached to it, and the P8Z68-V has no beeper attached to either.

I switched out the motherboard with a new one, but it's very frustrating not knowing if there is something wrong with my monitor or my hardware because I can't hear any beep codes. Who's smart idea was to remove the case speaker? Grr.

Any way I can rig up one of my own?

EDIT: Holy balls, talk about lucky. I found a beeper attachment from an old computer.

EDIT 2: Omfg is this real life? It didn't boot because it was missing the beeper.

To everyone: Do not buy a Antec Three Hundred without a beeper attachment.
 
ToyMachine228 said:
I don't buy Apple products. Need other recommendations.
No machine will come close to the quality, value, and power of the $500 build.

All in one PC's that don't suck start at $1,000 minimum and will be the same speed as a $600 PC with worse graphics.

It is very simple to build your own and I suggest you take the time to do so as it is very rewarding.
lsslave said:
Quick question guys, how good is the 560ti? It is pretty cheap and would like to be able to play Skyrim / Battlefield 3 on high settings without dropping a lot of cash >.>
Fine for that.
Broadbandito said:
Now with this secondary drive about to fail I think Im gonna spoil myself.

This is my build now.

GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 Yorkfield 2.66GHz 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor BX80580Q8400
MASSCOOL 8WA741 92mm Ball CPU Cooler
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
HIS IceQ X Turbo H695QNT2G2M Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

This is what I have in my newegg cart at the moment.

NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Steel / Plastic Enthusiast ATX Full Tower Computer Case
ASRock P67 EXTREME4 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel Core i5 & Intel Core i7
Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9Q-16GBRL
HIS IceQ X Turbo H695QNT2G2M Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Questions I have.

What is a good secondary drive to get at the moment? I don't want to buy another F4 for $160 (damn price hike)

Is my power supply going to be able to hand the crossfire and everything?

The case should be large enough for a crossfire setup?

Is it worth going to a 128GB ssd and using my 7200 as a back up?

edit: also thinking of waiting on the crossfire set up and going to 8 gb. then buy the 2nd card next year when cheaper.

edit2: I realized that the power supply would not be sufficient for the crossfire set up.

With the new mobo/ssd/cpu/ will my current psu be ok with this stuff with the one 6950?
F4 still recommended. All HDD's should be up in price because of the floods.
64GB SSD = as OS and programs. 128GB = More programs (Mainly a game or two). Up to you.
PSU is fine for 1 6950
RAM isn't going to get cheaper so 16GB is fine. 8GB is already overkill for normal desktop usage.
 
Bah, I'd love if somebody would buy my GTX 460 or I could get a refund on it, a bit too late on the latter though. I want a GTX 560 (or higher) so bad now.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom