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"I need a New PC!" 2013 Part 1. Haswell, Crysis 3, and secret fairy sauce. Read da OP

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T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
knitoe said:
If you were 4.5GHz @ 1.35V. Start by using settings + offset number that gives 1.35V under Prime95. Next, lower be 0.10V each time starting at 1.35V until the computer crash testing with Prime95. Then, increase the offset by 0.10 and retest. If it's stable, try lowering by 0.05V. If still crash, increase by 0.05V.
Click to expand...

Do you guys really shrug off crashes like this?

My ritual involves ghosting a backup before overclocking and restoring if after I've reached a stable point but crashed in between. I don't know what Windows and other apps are doing when the crash happens, like caching something to disk.

Also, when you get close to the limit of the CPU messing with LLC can improve stability at lower VCore. I've seen several PCs BSOD during stress testing with max LLC at a lower VCore, but get stable at the same turbo ratio with 75% LLC and a higher VCore (but effectively the same load voltage). Transient stuff exists, I just can only see the effects of it. Also depends on the motherboard. I have my ASUS Sabertooth Z77 pretty much set to 1.22 V, turbo 46, disabled C states and it just works.
 
S

scogoth

Member
teh_pwn said:
Do you guys really shrug off crashes like this?
Click to expand...

Yes. Windows has come a long way in cleaning up unused caches, leftover logs and generally remaining stable despite crashes. Plus I close everything not essential to the OS running when I overclock. Windows 8 has been a god send with the convience of blocking apps from starting up.
 
C

CaptainZombie

Member
I have never owned an AMD card ever and have always been an NVIDIA owner for GPU's. I have been looking for a new card the last 2 weeks to replace my EVGA 560 2GB which is starting to slowly show its limitations with some of the newer games. I am going to game at 1080p with a single monitor (on a 50 inch plasma). I was looking at the 660 TI and 670 2GB, but considering the 660 TI is not that great of a card with the 192 bit interface and the 670 is $100 more I have started looking at the 7950 since you can OC it to meet the 670 performance.

I have been looking at the MSI R7950 TF 3GD5/OC AMD Radeon HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Overclocked, is this a pretty good card? I wasn't going to OC the card initially, but now I am thinking that I probably will OC.

One of my concerns was the drivers from AMD, but I hear they are getting much better. Overall, how is this card?

With the 560 I stream audio through my receiver to get my surround via HDMI, will the 7950 allow for the same?
 
K

kennah

Member
CaptainZombie said:
I have never owned an AMD card ever and have always been an NVIDIA owner for GPU's. I have been looking for a new card the last 2 weeks to replace my EVGA 560 2GB which is starting to slowly show its limitations with some of the newer games. I am going to game at 1080p with a single monitor (on a 50 inch plasma). I was looking at the 660 TI and 670 2GB, but considering the 660 TI is not that great of a card with the 192 bit interface and the 670 is $100 more I have started looking at the 7950 since you can OC it to meet the 670 performance.

I have been looking at the MSI R7950 TF 3GD5/OC AMD Radeon HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Overclocked, is this a pretty good card? I wasn't going to OC the card initially, but now I am thinking that I probably will OC.

One of my concerns was the drivers from AMD, but I hear they are getting much better. Overall, how is this card?

With the 560 I stream audio through my receiver to get my surround via HDMI, will the 7950 allow for the same?
Click to expand...

Drivers are fine. And getting better. The main thing you lose out on is PhysX. Other than that nothing wrong with the AMD cards. And yes you can send the sound through hdmi.
 
T

Thorgal

Member
i asked this question alread once in this thread but now that we know the 700 series is rumored to come out soon i want to reafirm this

my current build:


i7 3770k
Coolermaster case
power supply 550w
16 GB ram
HD 2tb
motherboard Asus P8Z77-V
GTX 660 2GB
Windows 7

i might be interested in buying a 780 once it is out .

should i bite or tough it out until the 800 series release ?
 
K

kharma45

Member
Only you can decide that, all comes down to what you deem as acceptable for gaming and whether you'd be happy with the 660 for another year.
 
H

hockeypuck

Member
CaptainZombie said:
I have been looking at the MSI R7950 TF 3GD5/OC AMD Radeon HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Overclocked, is this a pretty good card? I wasn't going to OC the card initially, but now I am thinking that I probably will OC.

One of my concerns was the drivers from AMD, but I hear they are getting much better. Overall, how is this card?
Click to expand...
I've had this exact card since August (may be the pre-boost version) and I love it. After downloading MSI Afterburner I overclocked mine to a modest 1100MHz clock (up from 850MHz base) and 1350MHz memory (up from 1250MHz base). Did not change stock voltage. I think 1300MHz overclock is the maximum available on Afterburner. AMD has been pretty good with regular driver updates on popular games.
 
C

CaptainZombie

Member
kennah said:
Drivers are fine. And getting better. The main thing you lose out on is PhysX. Other than that nothing wrong with the AMD cards. And yes you can send the sound through hdmi.
Click to expand...

Will I be missing much without PhysX? Doesn't AMD have their own version of PhysX for the same games that support it for NVIDIA cards?

hockeypuck said:
I've had this exact card since August (may be the pre-boost version) and I love it. After downloading MSI Afterburner I overclocked mine to a modest 1100MHz clock (up from 850MHz base) and 1350MHz memory (up from 1250MHz base). Did not change stock voltage. I think 1300MHz overclock is the maximum available on Afterburner. AMD has been pretty good with regular driver updates on popular games.
Click to expand...

The 7950 seems to be an overclocking dream for those that love to OC. Does the card get very hot, at the settings you have it at? How is it on idle and load? Do the fans get very loud on it when the card is OC?

The reason I ask is that this would be going in a HTPC, which has some decent room in it.
 
N

NarcissisticJay

Member
recently got some sennheiser pc360s. I have the MSI big bang 1366 mobo. It came with a discrete sound card.. But I just don't feel like I have enough juice. Can someone recommend me a amp for the phones? Or should I just get a new soundcard?

thanks
 
T

Thorgal

Member
kharma45 said:
Only you can decide that, all comes down to what you deem as acceptable for gaming and whether you'd be happy with the 660 for another year.
Click to expand...

i guess ill see how long my 660 can keep playing games atleast on high settings and then decide if it will be 780 or 800 series .
 
K

kennah

Member
CaptainZombie said:
Will I be missing much without PhysX? Doesn't AMD have their own version of PhysX for the same games that support it for NVIDIA cards?



The 7950 seems to be an overclocking dream for those that love to OC. Does the card get very hot, at the settings you have it at? How is it on idle and load? Do the fans get very loud on it when the card is OC?

The reason I ask is that this would be going in a HTPC, which has some decent room in it.
Click to expand...
What amd has isn't exactly the same. And really the only game that I noticed a difference was Borderlands 2. Everything else is basically the same but you might want to look up some comparisoons for your favourite games
 
M

MedIC86

Member
When june comes around i will be upgrading to haswell. Recently the MSI Z77A-GD65 caught my eye. It looks like a pretty nice mobo and gets good reviews. Now i read somewhere last week that a z87 version will be launched around the launch of haswell. Can i presume this version will be similar good? or is there a chance it will perform worse (the feature set seem to be almost identical).
 
H

hockeypuck

Member
CaptainZombie said:
The 7950 seems to be an overclocking dream for those that love to OC. Does the card get very hot, at the settings you have it at? How is it on idle and load? Do the fans get very loud on it when the card is OC?
Click to expand...
At idle, GPU-Z is measuring 32C; ambient is 21C. The only "load" temperatures I can recall were while momentarily looking at GPU-Z while playing Guild Wars 2, a game that's more CPU-limited and not as graphically intensive. Highest I've seen was 52-55C, but of course not reflective of true load.

I haven't noticed any increase in fan noise with overclock but I'm using an old HAF case where quietness isn't a feature. Right now at idle I'm noticing that the single 120mm stock fan on the 212 Evo CPU heatsink is louder than the GPU twin fans.
 
H

HammerOfThor

Member
So guys, I was digging around and found an old ASUS P5GDC Deluxe from my very first build. I'm not 100% what processor I have in it, but if I remember correctly it was up their for the 775 socket size.

Anywho, I was going to sell it, but is there any value in throwing it into a box, getting a cheap GPU, and using it? Is there anything useful I would do with a box like that? I know no high end gaming, but yeah, is there anything cool something like that could be used for?
 
N

Noisy Ninj4

Member
Since it has a PCI-e slot, you could make a cheap HTPC out of it. Slap in a low-end (but recent) graphics card and you're good to go.

You could also make a file server, since those don't really require any great amount of processing power for home use.
 
C

CaptainZombie

Member
hockeypuck said:
At idle, GPU-Z is measuring 32C; ambient is 21C. The only "load" temperatures I can recall were while momentarily looking at GPU-Z while playing Guild Wars 2, a game that's more CPU-limited and not as graphically intensive. Highest I've seen was 52-55C, but of course not reflective of true load.

I haven't noticed any increase in fan noise with overclock but I'm using an old HAF case where quietness isn't a feature. Right now at idle I'm noticing that the single 120mm stock fan on the 212 Evo CPU heatsink is louder than the GPU twin fans.
Click to expand...

Excellent, thanks for reporting back.
 
H

HammerOfThor

Member
Noisy Ninj4 said:
Since it has a PCI-e slot, you could make a cheap HTPC out of it. Slap in a low-end (but recent) graphics card and you're good to go.

You could also make a file server, since those don't really require any great amount of processing power for home use.
Click to expand...

Both of these are amazing ideas! I could really use something to start offloading a bunch of my data to, but an HTPC would also be pretty awesome.

Do you by chance have any recommendations for some articles around HTPCs?
 
S

Skel1ingt0n

I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
Okay, I know I'm thinking crazy. There's really almost zero chance I actually go for it; but I'm curious if anyone has any idea what kind of taxes I'm looking at having something shipped from Little Devil in Slovenia?

Cause, they have this beauty on sale - one left:

empty-ld-pc-v10-red.jpg
Click to expand...

And with their slowest shipping method, the Euro -> Dollars conversion comes out to $507. While a shit-ton of money, I have been considering the PC-V7 from Frozen CPU, which comes out to $470.

For the $40 difference, I'd gladly go with the beast above. But I imagine the taxes KILL. Am I right? And furthermore, I can't help but think the thing would be beat to hell and back by the time it arrived here in lowly Missouri.
 
T

TheD

The Detective
Anyone else have a problem with chrome scrolling, chrome and firefox video playback, scrolling in paint and VLC playback (edit: looks like about any program) with retarded tearing.
But not the normal type of tearing, it tears in odd patterns like vertical lines, two vertical lines ect.

Only turning of Aero seems to fix it!
 
S

sazabirules

Unconfirmed Member
How is this for an enhanced build from the OP? This will be my first time building a PC. I'm trying to keep it under $1000. I'm not sure if I want to overclock it. I also don't know whether I should get Win 8 instead.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WEhM
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WEhM/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WEhM/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($109.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.98 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($125.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($174.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX12V Power Supply ($37.60 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.94 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $930.44
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-05-12 20:53 EDT-0400)
 
C

Chance Hale

Member
Friend is building a new PC and is spending around 1500 NZ for it, or around 1250 USD I suppose. He has the general parts and such but I didn't really know what to recommend in regards to the Motherboard. He plans on upgrading later, so it needs to be future proof to some degree, but I really don't keep track of the newest and greatest. Any recommendations?
 
C

chuckddd

Fear of a GAF Planet
sazabirules said:
How is this for an enhanced build from the OP? This will be my first time building a PC. I'm trying to keep it under $1000. I'm not sure if I want to overclock it. I also don't know whether I should get Win 8 instead.

/snipped
Click to expand...
I'd get a bigger ps, win8 and this video card. Shouldn't add more than $100 or so.

If you aren't going to overclock, then you can get a motherboard with less features and cheaper ram, and save some money there.

I'm about to build and looking at a similar setup.
ricochetguro said:
Friend is building a new PC and is spending around 1500 NZ for it, or around 1250 USD I suppose. He has the general parts and such but I didn't really know what to recommend in regards to the Motherboard. He plans on upgrading later, so it needs to be future proof to some degree, but I really don't keep track of the newest and greatest. Any recommendations?
Click to expand...
If you get a top end mobo, like the ASRock extreme, it'll have better overclocking options and thusly get you more life out of your cpu when it gets long in the tooth. Usually new cpu architecture requires a new chipset/mobo, so it's really best to o/c to the bitter end and then get a new cpu and motherboard at the same time.

*all advice is jmo

Now for a dumb question:

How do you know if an old power supply is going to be compatible with a newer mobo/system? Is there some sort of designation? I have a 750W ps in an Alienware case that I'd love to reuse.
 
M

mkenyon

Banned
Skel1ingt0n said:
Okay, I know I'm thinking crazy. There's really almost zero chance I actually go for it; but I'm curious if anyone has any idea what kind of taxes I'm looking at having something shipped from Little Devil in Slovenia?

Cause, they have this beauty on sale - one left:



And with their slowest shipping method, the Euro -> Dollars conversion comes out to $507. While a shit-ton of money, I have been considering the PC-V7 from Frozen CPU, which comes out to $470.

For the $40 difference, I'd gladly go with the beast above. But I imagine the taxes KILL. Am I right? And furthermore, I can't help but think the thing would be beat to hell and back by the time it arrived here in lowly Missouri.
Click to expand...
PM sent.

tl;dr, you want the PC-V7. Shipping is $100 alone from Slovenia for the V8, and it is way too huge, and it isn't as well designed as the V7.
 
X

xJavonta

Banned
mkenyon said:
The lack of the RV04/FT04 is weird as well.

They've been showing those cases for what seems like forever without any solid release dates. SG10 would be a killer mATX case. I love the SG09 design but am rather dissatisfied with the almost HAF aesthetic.
Click to expand...
Yeah, a while ago I almost pulled the trigger on the SG09 but I saw a post with a picture of the SG10 and I've been holding off ever since lol. It's much better looking than the SG09 simply because of that front grille. The layout is just awesome too, I love it.

longdi said:
lian li v354 is also a looker imo.
Click to expand...
Yeah I saw that but I feel like the SG10 will be slightly cheaper (and lighter since I'll be lugging it around occasionally)

Ty4on said:
Forum post. RV04 also has a product page, but FT04 hasn't :/
Click to expand...
Thanks!

Fatal Futanari said:
So has everyone migrated to Windows 8 or is everyone dual booting?
Click to expand...
Yeah I switched over a loonnnggg time ago. Like when I first came out. I love it, have had no problems with it and the dual monitor stuff is vastly improved in Windows 8.
 
L

LCGeek

formerly sane
chuckddd said:
I'd get a bigger ps, win8 and this video card. Shouldn't add more than $100 or so.

If you aren't going to overclock, then you can get a motherboard with less features and cheaper ram, and save some money there.

I'm about to build and looking at a similar setup.

If you get a top end mobo, like the ASRock extreme, it'll have better overclocking options and thusly get you more life out of your cpu when it gets long in the tooth. Usually new cpu architecture requires a new chipset/mobo, so it's really best to o/c to the bitter end and then get a new cpu and motherboard at the same time.

*all advice is jmo

Now for a dumb question:

How do you know if an old power supply is going to be compatible with a newer mobo/system? Is there some sort of designation? I have a 750W ps in an Alienware case that I'd love to reuse.
Click to expand...

Really it comes down to the plugs otherwise everything should be good to go. PSU do loser efficiency over time so don't stress something for too long.
 
S

Skel1ingt0n

I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
mkenyon said:
PM sent.

tl;dr, you want the PC-V7. Shipping is $100 alone from Slovenia for the V8, and it is way too huge, and it isn't as well designed as the V7.
Click to expand...

I don't have any PMs.

That said - I think I get your gist. Thanks for talking some sense into me. That candy apple red is just so damn sexy; but in the end, I don't need that much space - probably never will. I think the PC-V7 is sexy as hell; especially with the red interior. I gotta count my pennies; but with your endorsements and the impressions I've read online, it sounds like a damn fine piece of kit.
 
W

Whooter

Member
I have a Define R4 that I love to death, however it's too big to fit under my desk, and I've had to resort to putting it out in sort of a foot traffic lane in my home office. It gets bumped into a lot. :-/

Is there something comparable to the R4 that's smaller (maybe by 2-3" all the way around) that can take a full ATX motherboard?
 
K

kharma45

Member
Someone in the football thread has been offered this for £1k, bit of a steal imo

GLGoxXA.png


Demon Ice said:
Wait, powerline adapters plug into electrical outlets and somehow get internet through that?


....how?
Click to expand...

Magic.

Powerline networking makes use of cabling that is already present in every house – the mains electrical circuit. Electrical power is supplied and distributed around your house at 50Hz. However, it’s possible to superimpose higher frequencies that can carry data, similar to the way that our humble phone wiring can be made to carry broadband ADSL signals. Powerline technology takes advantage of this unused bandwidth of the electrical wiring in the home to create a network. The powerline device plugs into the power socket and draws electricity for the device. At the same time, it sends data signals down the power circuit. A second powerline device can then be plugged into any other socket on the same electrical circuit to receive the signal.
 
W

woo and indeed hoo

Banned
I am going to buy myself a new pc. I have been rocking a low spec, cheap budget desktop for a decade so I think it's time!

However, building a pc from scratch is not something I wish to tackle just yet. I intend to buy the best spec pc [for my needs] I can afford right now and upgrade various elements as I go. Perhaps after that I will confident enough to build my own pc :).

My understanding of what parts I should go for is slight however so I would be very grateful for some guidance on this. I realise this is not exactly the purpose of this thread though so thought it was only polite to ask first rather than just post a request as per the OP.

I have my eyes firmly on a pc bundle on Dino PC but would be most grateful for advice on whether this best fits my needs and whether any upgrades to this build would be appropriate for me.
 
M

MedIC86

Member
woo and indeed hoo said:
However, building a pc from scratch is not something I wish to tackle just yet. I intend to buy the best spec pc [for my needs] I can afford right now and upgrade various elements as I go. Perhaps after that I will confident enough to build my own pc :)..
Click to expand...

Some shops (at least in europe) have the option to assemble the components you choose into a build. So that way you can enjoy the cheaper components but dont have the hassle of building it yourself.
 
K

kharma45

Member
woo and indeed hoo said:
I am going to buy myself a new pc. I have been rocking a low spec, cheap budget desktop for a decade so I think it's time!

However, building a pc from scratch is not something I wish to tackle just yet. I intend to buy the best spec pc [for my needs] I can afford right now and upgrade various elements as I go. Perhaps after that I will confident enough to build my own pc :).

My understanding of what parts I should go for is slight however so I would be very grateful for some guidance on this. I realise this is not exactly the purpose of this thread though so thought it was only polite to ask first rather than just post a request as per the OP.

I have my eyes firmly on a pc bundle on Dino PC but would be most grateful for advice on whether this best fits my needs and whether any upgrades to this build would be appropriate for me.
Click to expand...

UK based then, Where abouts are you? Which Dino PC one have you looked at?
 
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