Support NeoGAF

[NoRéN]

Your Current Specs: none, it's a completely new PC in addition to my main PC
Budget: 500-600$
Main Use: strictly co-op and multiplayer gaming
Monitor Resolution: 1920*1080. Will upgrade in 2-3 years. I'll have to buy another monitor.
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: drops to 30 fps are acceptable, people will play multiplayer shooters and action games. High settings, but not ultra or maxed out.
Looking to reuse any parts?: I have a tower case from one of my old PCs, keyboard and mouse.
When will you build?: next weekend
Will you be overclocking?: No

With that budget, go for the Standard build. I can vouch for it as that's what I built and so far it has been rock solid.

 

[mkenyon]

In this picture it looked like you do:


Nevermind, then.

Those two big black metal objects are radiators

 

[Addnan]

That power supply :O what is it. The individual wiring is beautiful.

 

[mkenyon]

Corsair AX850 with individually sleeved cables. You can get them from Corsair, FrozenCPU, Performance PCs, etc.

 

[Hawk269]

Going to open this question up to others here on the forum...

Windows 8 or Windows 7 for purely a gaming rig?

I been running Win 7, never had an issue. Upgraded to Win8 and have not had issues other than some random stuff with some of my overclocking software. Have not tried a lot games as of yet earthier under Win 8.

One of the things I do like about Win8 is how it intergrates with my Xbox 360 and knowing that they will use some form of Win8 Kernel in the next Xbox, would be wise just to stick with Win 8?

I also did some research and found some comparisons in FPS between Win7 and Win8 and there was no clear winner as they both performed almost equally. It is just a pain in the ass to re-install and have to go through all the process to change to Win8 if I go with Win7 now.

So what say you PC Gaf?

 

[Koroviev]

Going to open this question up to others here on the forum...

Windows 8 or Windows 7 for purely a gaming rig?

I been running Win 7, never had an issue. Upgraded to Win8 and have not had issues other than some random stuff with some of my overclocking software. Have not tried a lot games as of yet earthier under Win 8.

One of the things I do like about Win8 is how it intergrates with my Xbox 360 and knowing that they will use some form of Win8 Kernel in the next Xbox, would be wise just to stick with Win 8?

I also did some research and found some comparisons in FPS between Win7 and Win8 and there was no clear winner as they both performed almost equally. It is just a pain in the ass to re-install and have to go through all the process to change to Win8 if I go with Win7 now.

So what say you PC Gaf?

I don't know if you saw my other reply, but I'm not sure that you can revert to your old copy of Windows 7 since you upgraded to 8...you did use the promotion, yes? If I'm wrong, please correct me.

 

[kharma45]

Wanted to take the time to thank kharma45 for the video card recommendation.

Finally got my HD7850. Installed and running!

Quick question: after uninstalling the nvidia drivers and deleting everything in the nvidia folder, the HDaudio driver remained. Should I have left that or was it correct to uninstall it as well?

No problem at all, as Haz said delete it.

Make sure to grab the new 13.1 drivers for the 7850, they bring a nice performance boost to it

 

[Hawk269]

I don't know if you saw my other reply, but I'm not sure that you can revert to your old copy of Windows 7 since you upgraded to 8...you did use the promotion, yes? If I'm wrong, please correct me.

Yes, I did see that reply. I have another Win7 64bit Pro key that I could use if I decide to go back to Win7, so I am good there. I just don't know what to do and don't want to waste a ton of time installing another version. Part of me thinks I should just stick with Win8 since it will continue to get better and any issues will be resolved...but Win7 is solid as a rock too. Damn decisions! argh!

 

[Mordeccai]

Hey computer GAF, I'm trying to OC my gpu today and I feel like an idiot because I can't get 3D Mark 11 or Vantage to work. When I try to launch a test on 11, it immediately crashes. When I click on any test in Vantage, it says none of them are unlocked. I'm just using the free version of each.

Do I have to pay to check the stability of my gpu clock or are there any other options? Or am I simply misusing the programs.

 

[Azzurri]

Why isn't there a 2013 thread yet?

 

[kharma45]

Why isn't there a 2013 thread yet?

Haz hasn't had time, and there is going to be little change from the OP in this one so it's no massive rush.

Hey computer GAF, I'm trying to OC my gpu today and I feel like an idiot because I can't get 3D Mark 11 or Vantage to work. When I try to launch a test on 11, it immediately crashes. When I click on any test in Vantage, it says none of them are unlocked. I'm just using the free version of each.

Do I have to pay to check the stability of my gpu clock or are there any other options? Or am I simply misusing the programs.

Try Heaven 3.0, if that doesn't work either your OC just isn't stable.

What card is it?

 

[Mordeccai]

Its the 7870, even when reverted to stock mark 11 crashes before the test even comes up. Get a spinning circle and it dies. Will go test out Heaven and report back thanks for the rec

 

[mkenyon]

Why isn't there a 2013 thread yet?

We are working on it literally right now.

Also, if anyone has a really good rec on a sub $50 headset (not headphones), please do advise. I'm leaning towards the Steelseries 4H.

 

[Azzurri]

We are working on it literally right now.

Also, if anyone has a really good rec on a sub $50 headset (not headphones), please do advise. I'm leaning towards the Steelseries 4H.

Cool, I was just wondering.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Quick tips here. This Thermaltake Toughpower Grand TPG-850M 850W is on sale right now for 140. The Seasonic X-Series X850 is 180 right now. I want to save money but want to know if that Thermaltake is fine by anyone else standards.

SCREW THAT, the Seasonic is 40 dollars off for 48 hours and I can get an addition 20 off via rebate. I have to buy that now. Cheapest I've ever seen it.

Pulled the trigger. Wow, and to think I was ready to pay 160 the other day and saved an addition 20 plus 20 more with the rebate.

I now have my case and PSU. I wasn't ready to pull the trigger on the PSU yet but for that price. I have to. I need to shave every little cent off this build and would love to be able to get a 680 and just saved myself around 80 between the PSU and case (accounting rebates).

 

[mkenyon]

That's the best way to buy a PC if you can. Just wait and snipe the $20-30 off promotions when you can.

 

[Mordeccai]

What temps should you keep your gpu under? Running 1200 MHz clock on my 7870 and hitting a max of 57 C while running Heaven 3.0. Don't know if I want to mess with the voltage to eke out a few more MHz or just leave it stock at 1.218 V.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

What temps should you keep your gpu under? Running 1200 MHz clock on my 7870 and hitting a max of 57 C while running Heaven 3.0. Don't know if I want to mess with the voltage to eke out a few more MHz or just leave it stock at 1.218 V.

That is actually a good temp. You should try playing BF3 or Crysis 2 for an hour to compare.

Which 7870 do you have? How many fans?

 

[kharma45]

What temps should you keep your gpu under? Running 1200 MHz clock on my 7870 and hitting a max of 57 C while running Heaven 3.0. Don't know if I want to mess with the voltage to eke out a few more MHz or just leave it stock at 1.218 V.

That's running really cool for that voltage! I think they max out at 1.25v iirc, and 1200 is pretty much as good as you're going to get.

By all means eek out some more if you wish but I'd be more than happy with what you've got, although I keep my 7850 below 1.2v.

 

[Hazaro]

Why isn't there a 2013 thread yet?

I'm working on it right nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

 

[LiquidMetal14]

I'm working on it right nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Time is money!

 

[NoRéN]

No problem at all, as Haz said delete it.

Make sure to grab the new 13.1 drivers for the 7850, they bring a nice performance boost to it

Will the card prompt me for updates or will I have to that in the future? I'm guessing AMD site?

 

[clav]

Time is money!

No one's paying Hazaro to do this, so there is no time.

 

[Mordeccai]

I've got the Sapphire OC 7870. Four case fans, two on the GPU and a fan for the cpu heatsink.

I played a bit of Witcher 2 at decent settings for half an hour and my temp spiked to 61. Earlier I messed with the memory speeds and got it up to 1400 MHz and got a plaid screen of death, so I'm going to back that down to 1350.

 

[Napophis]

i want to connect my pc to my TV but would need to use something like a 20ft HDMI cable, anyone know if that would cause input lag cause of the length? and umm how big of a cable could i use before seeing a noticeable difference in input lag?

 

[Hazaro]

Time is money!

Yeah which is why I haven't updated it yet

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Yeah which is why I haven't updated it yet

We're patient here but need that post count for the 2013 thread to start. We must hit OT2 this year!

 

[NoRéN]

No problem at all, as Haz said delete it.

Make sure to grab the new 13.1 drivers for the 7850, they bring a nice performance boost to it

Any good way to see what drivers I have installed?

edit: through the "Catalyst Control Center"?

I think I just figured it out.

 

[Mik2121]

That does seem a little over priced but I don't know if you can get it cheaper in Japan. For that kind of coin, I would think you could lower something in there and get a 3930k. For your purposes, that CPU is a monster. The nvidia quatro is very expensive as well. You could probably lower that or even get SLI for your video needs. There are ways to shave some costs so that is good news.

Thanks! I will do some more research. That's quite a bit of money indeed...

The company where I work apparently can also get me a PC for cheaper because they buy tons of PCs every couple years, but they all are DELLs and I don't know how much customization I can do. They are workstations though, so they should work perfectly for what I need... (I work at a game company so that's the kind of PCs they get).

 

[Whiteshirt]

Thanks for the responses guys, I was just coming back to ask about 3d Vision/Lightboost. I've been relegated to a 23"/24" screen by the missus so I was wondering if something like a BenQ XL2420T that has the 3DV2/lightboost stacks up against the VG23AH that is without, but gets pretty great reviews?

With that lightboost trick, the BenQ XL2420T will have better motion performance but other problems like desaturated colours, possible flickering if you're sensitive to that stuff, and a bunch of other problems.

It also has the problem where you pretty much have to maintain 120 FPS near constantly, which is a hard for just about everything but the most powerful desktop.

The Asus VG23AH is just great out of the box and making it run at 76hz has no visual negatives.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

My next PC purchase has been discovered. Nothing short of amazing, TJ11 has a challenger for best 'mainstream' water cooling case on earth, caselabs don't count IMO because they are too reliant on people knowing exactly what and are available only in the states.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/steggs69/321029_517270661646360_1435741622_n_zpse0b2c4cf.png

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/steggs69/408633_518626048177488_327704824_n_zps019952a5.png

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/steggs69/14820_518626088177484_800511986_n_zps23c3e5e6.png

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/steggs69/23407_518626148177478_1432275004_n_zps27414e4d.png

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/steggs69/738395_517270694979690_1720488171_o_zpsd4076de8.png

Shit.... Double shit. That case is awesome. First time seeing it - just did a little Googling and can't find a release date. But yeah, that'll be my go-to for my build this year.

 

[foladar]

I upgraded to an SSD in my built PC and thus, lost Fences (the free version). Is there a comparable program out there or should I pay out the $10 for Fences? It's basically a program that keeps your desktop organized, the freeware version was discontinued and I can't seem to locate it anywhere.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Thanks! I will do some more research. That's quite a bit of money indeed...

The company where I work apparently can also get me a PC for cheaper because they buy tons of PCs every couple years, but they all are DELLs and I don't know how much customization I can do. They are workstations though, so they should work perfectly for what I need... (I work at a game company so that's the kind of PCs they get).

What's your maximum budget? If you're just building the case then you could easily get a monster PC for around 1500-2000.

 

[Hoya Destroyer]

Can you guys please tell me how well you think my (average) PC will run Skyrim?
Its this HP computer FWIW...

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...1002_auen#N479

Intel i5-2310 CPU 2.9GHZ
4GB RAM DDR3 1333
Geforce GT 520


Ive heard the video card will run Oblivion well and Skyrim, not so well.
Im hoping for around 30fps on decent settings.


Cheers

 

[Koroviev]

Can you guys please tell me how well you think my (average) PC will run Skyrim?
Its this HP computer FWIW...

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...1002_auen#N479

Intel i5-2310 CPU 2.9GHZ
4GB RAM DDR3 1333
Geforce GT 520


Ive heard the video card will run Oblivion well and Skyrim, not so well.
Im hoping for around 30fps on decent settings.


Cheers

Not well. That card is not designed for gaming. If possible, I would upgrade the PSU and the GPU.

 

[Mik2121]

What's your maximum budget? If you're just building the case then you could easily get a monster PC for around 1500-2000.

Maximum budget is 230,000 Yen which is about $2550. Of course, the cheaper the better, but I wanna get a PC that can move UnrealEngine 4 whenever the free SDK (UDK) gets released, so I want something quite powerful. Also, the longer I can go with this PC the better.

I made my own PC some 4 years ago but I messed two main things, one was the heatsink, the other thing, which I didn't notice until quite a bit later, was the case itself. It would just keep a TON of dust inside in a matter of days, and in the end it messed up with a few of my components. So yeah, I don't care about building my own PC but the heatsink and the overall air flow of the case worries me a bit.

How much do you think the PC I listed above would cost in the US? No exact cost, but just to get a general idea...


Edit: Comparing some prices between this one site in Japan and Newegg, it seems the Japanese one is only a few dollars more expensive. So I guess it might be the store's built PC that's just expensive?

 

[scogoth]

CASES

I'm going to go through and cut out the white for transparency if thats all right. I think it looks cleaner and I'll keep the same image dimensions. Gimme an hour or 2

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Maximum budget is 230,000 Yen which is about $2550. Of course, the cheaper the better, but I wanna get a PC that can move UnrealEngine 4 whenever the free SDK (UDK) gets released, so I want something quite powerful. Also, the longer I can go with this PC the better.

I made my own PC some 4 years ago but I messed two main things, one was the heatsink, the other thing, which I didn't notice until quite a bit later, was the case itself. It would just keep a TON of dust inside in a matter of days, and in the end it messed up with a few of my components. So yeah, I don't care about building my own PC but the heatsink and the overall air flow of the case worries me a bit.

How much do you think the PC I listed above would cost in the US? No exact cost, but just to get a general idea...


Edit: Comparing some prices between this one site in Japan and Newegg, it seems the Japanese one is only a few dollars more expensive. So I guess it might be the store's built PC that's just expensive?

I sent you a PM but that is good if prices are similar. If you want to talk, we could chat on Steam but that's up to you

 

[Emerson]

Your Current Specs: none, it's a completely new PC in addition to my main PC
Budget: 500-600$
Main Use: strictly co-op and multiplayer gaming
Monitor Resolution: 1920*1080. Will upgrade in 2-3 years. I'll have to buy another monitor.
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: drops to 30 fps are acceptable, people will play multiplayer shooters and action games. High settings, but not ultra or maxed out.
Looking to reuse any parts?: I have a tower case from one of my old PCs, keyboard and mouse.
When will you build?: next weekend
Will you be overclocking?: No

I just built my first PC a few weeks ago, with this build:

Case: Xigmatek Asgard Pro
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-B75M-D3V
PSU: Cooler Master Elite 460W ATX Power Supply RS460-PSARI3-US
CPU: Intel Pentium G860 Sandy Bridge 3.0GHz BX80623G860
GPU: GIGABYTE GV-R785OC-1GD Radeon HD 7850 1GB
RAM: Samsung 8GB DDR3 MV-3V4G3D/US
Wifi: ASUS (PCE-N10) Wireless-N Network Adapter
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB SATA III 7200 RPM WD5000AAKX
Keyboard: Logitech Keyboard K120
Disk: LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04

My price: $581.79

You could tweak this to fit your needs. The weakness would be the CPU, though it runs absolutely fine in my experience. I can play pretty much anything at 1080p on max or near max settings. It won't be very future-proof, but it'll keep me going for a while.

 

[Mik2121]

I sent you a PM but that is good if prices are similar. If you want to talk, we could chat on Steam but that's up to you

Hey thanks! I replied to your PM as well, haha

As for the Steam talk, sounds great. But I wanna do some more research before talking, just so I also get a better idea myself. Also, my current desktop is actually dead (which is what made me push my new PC purchase to just next month), so I will need to get it running on my laptop Otherwise I can also catch you around on my PC at work (got Steam running on it as well).

My ID is Mik2121 Thanks for the help!!

 

[LiquidMetal14]

I'm thinking out loud here but ordering components about 3-4 weeks in advance and it pushing my return policy dates.....If I somehow exceed that, I do have a manufacturer warranty but I'm curious if Newegg will honor it if it's close to the 30 days. For example, PSU invoice date is 1.19, I may have the PC build around the 15th or it will be cutting it close but I want to make sure I can get this RMA'd incase things were to go wrong. I'm crossing my fingers for everything I have to work like my first build that is still going strong to this day.

 

[timnich]

I've been having a bit of a problem with Catalyst 13.1. Ever since I updated, I've noticed that Sleeping Dogs has been running better FPS wise, at the expense of graphical glitches. Certain effects like wet surface flick on and off, textures sometimes appear super low res and the whole game just has a really weird look to it.

I am fairly new to PC gaming, what do I do when something like this happens? I'm hoping I don't have to reformat my PC again, I've done that enough times this past month alone.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

I've been having a bit of a problem with Catalyst 13.1. Ever since I updated, I've noticed that Sleeping Dogs has been running better FPS wise, at the expense of graphical glitches. Certain effects like wet surface flick on and off, textures sometimes appear super low res and the whole game just has a really weird look to it.

I am fairly new to PC gaming, what do I do when something like this happens? I'm hoping I don't have to reformat my PC again, I've done that enough times this past month alone.

I suggest either trying the 13.2 beta driver that some are using or wait for the hotfix to be released. Some are reporting issues (depending on GPU) with 13.1.

 

[Evolution_1ne]

ok so I'm building a new mid range PC and here are the specs

Case: NZXT Phantom 410 Mid Tower (black and white trim)

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 AM3 3.4Ghz 512KB 45NM 125W 4000MHZ

GPU: Dual EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti SSC 1024MB GDDR5 128bit

Motherboard: ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ Motherboard

RAM: Mushkin 997007 DDR3 UDIMM (2x4GB) 8GB

Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 750 Watt ATX/EPS Modular 80 PLUS Bronze

Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB/RSBS Internal 24X DVD Burner

OS: Windows 7 64 bit

now I'm having trouble coming up with a good storage solution SSD vs HDD or both? and what do you think about the specs, open to any input

 

[mkenyon]

Have you ordered that yet?

 

[zRebellion]

I've been trying to build a new PC. This is what it looks like so far.

http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/ywzq

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Memory: Kingston 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($31.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($149.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Zalman Z9 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX12V Power Supply ($44.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Other: i7 860 & Asus P7P55D Pro ($200.00)
Other: TP-Link TL-WN721N Wireless LITE-N USB Adapter IEEE 802.11N/G/B 150Mbps ($9.99)
Total: $476.95
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-20 00:37 EST-0500)

Getting the i7 860 & Asus P7P55D Pro from a friend of mine. How do the specs look, and will the 450W PSU be sufficient?

 

[Koroviev]

I've been trying to build a new PC. This is what it looks like so far.

http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/ywzq

Getting the i7 860 & Asus P7P55D Pro from a friend of mine. How do the specs look, and will the 450W PSU be sufficient?

Should be enough power, but you also need to verify that the PSU has the necessary connectors for the GPU.

Have you ordered that yet?

Trying to save the day again, haha.

 

[electricpirate]

Hey all, So it looks like I"m getting an end of the year bonus (woo!) and it should get me in a good place to build a PC.

so here's my current thinking,
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD55 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($128.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($103.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Corsair Force Series GT 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($119.98 @ Amazon)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($209.99 @ Newegg)
Case: BitFenix Shinobi ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.98 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower New 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.65 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VG23AH 23.0" Monitor ($217.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1260.51
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-20 00:43 EST-0500)

That holds the primary parts around $1000, which is my budget (OS/software I'll be grabbing through my work MSDS subscription).

A couple of questions,

1) Is that SSD any good? Reliability is important here, as I'll be using this PC for programming.

2) With the resolution I"m targeting, and the games I'm looking to play (Bio shock Infinite, Indies, Civ V, Xcom, Skyrim) and at the resolution of that moniter, would a 660 GTX ti be a better choice? Will the keplar streaming features matter in the future for streaming to the TV/ Possibly getting a shield, or should I just stick to the 7870 which seems to be a slightly better performer at higher resolutions?

3) Would this build need a seperate CPU cooler or sound card? For sound I'd probably be mostly using headphones, or possibly running an HDMI cable out to my TV/Home theater system.

Thanks, I'd appreciate any feedback, especially any places where I have overkill, and could save a few bucks .

Last time I built a PC was 10 years ago... wow things seem way different.

 

[kennah]

SPEND THE $10 more to get a 3570K and overclock it for 800mhz-1ghz of free speed. Seriously.

Otherwise, pretty solid. The same regular recommendations of the Samsung RAM, Crucial or Samsung SSD. But the rest of it looks good.

 

[Whooter]

SPEND THE $10 more to get a 3570K and overclock it for 800mhz-1ghz of free speed. Seriously.

Otherwise, pretty solid. The same regular recommendations of the Samsung RAM, Crucial or Samsung SSD. But the rest of it looks good.

Echo these suggestions.

Definitely get the Samsung 830 or Crucial M4 SSD for the same price (or less) than the Corsair.

If you follow the CPU advice, you'll want to get an aftermarket cooler. (Hyper 212 EVO) Unless you're a super audiophile, onboard sound is usually sufficient.