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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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mkenyon

Banned
I'm going to delid my 3570K and buy a new board/cooler.

Considering the Corsair H80i and the MSI MPower. Suggestions?
Good choices. If you like to OC with offset rather than a static volt setting, you'll need to go about it in a different way, which is OC'ing via 'vdroop offset'. Kind of weird, but the analog control on the MPower prevents standard offset.

If you really want to push your processor hard, which the delidding seems to indicate, have you considered a proper watercooling setup?
Wow that looks amazing! Can't wait to see the finished build!

Simple question; is there anyway to mount an HD in one of the optical bays in my R4? I am thinking about removing the bottom HD cage to clean up this case even more since I can mount the SSD on the back of the mobo tray.
Yeah, just google '5.25 to 3.5 converter hdd'
I can't choose from all these z87's :/
I'm hoping we'll have this sorted and get the OP updated today. Just wait a bit if you can, because there are already a number of mines out there.
 

kennah

Member
So with Haswell out, what would be the best processor for gaming and HD video recording/editing/encoding? Looking like either 3770K or 4770K depending on if Haswell would offer any noticeable increase on these.

Right now I'm still on a Q6600, which is bottlenecking my AMD 7970.
If you live near a microcenter then get a 4770k.

That said, Unless you are doing the encoding stuff for work there probably isn't much point in the extra expense.

Get Haswell because the socket will last longer. Though if Sandy/Ivy are any indication then maybe the better socket doesn't matter anyway
 
Scan.co.uk have dropped their i5 4670K price by £9 since the morning, that combined with few motherboards being available and only a few having pictures makes me think that there will be a lot of movement over the next week between retailers in terms of price, availability and special deals/bundles and even eBuyer have very few motherboards available and Haswell stuff is not even showing up on the site unless you click the tiny link on the front page.

This is why you don't launch on a Sunday.
 

Metalmarc

Member
I have some very silly questions incoming, i will probably be getting a ps4 for main Gaming, but will wait until xmas 2014/spring 2015 unless i can afford it before then.

In the meantime i want a new desktop , Ok i've been out of touch with desktop pc's for a while focusing all my attention on consoles and just owning any old laptop for browsing.

then steam came along into my life with the sales, and id buy games on the cheap even though they may not work, although portal 2 does work on my laptop with the inbuilt intel HD graphics chip. My girlfriend tends to use the laptop a lot


So I want to get a new desktop pc primarily for gaming, web browsing, ripping my cds to ipod, spotify etc, until i eventually go for the ps4, but then my pc will still be used for gaming as well as ps4

I'm not interested in everything on full ultra settings or whatever, just good performance that looks alright, i don't mind if the graphics suffer a little so long as the speed of the games are sufficient

Heres the silly questions which i don't even know if i understand the specs right anymore
But here goes


1) If i can afford it should i go i7 3770 3.4ghz and will it last me at least 3-5 years? I've seen it offered in a barebones system with 16gb of DDR3 ram which i was considering purchasing and upgrading the graphics card and psu first, or will DDR3 be inefficient in 3-5 years because of DDR5? And i was thinking whatever GPU i buy now in 2-3 years when i get more money i can buy maybe a better graphics card again

i'll say for occasional gaming, ie i will load it up with the cheaper steam sale games, some which will probably be over a year old at this point, at the moment. I Have Witcher 2 , Darksiders 2 and older games like star wars battlefront 2, knights of the old republic waiting to be played and if max payne 3 goes on sale again for like £8 i'll buy that.

2) What would be a decent budget graphics card for these games that may last into next xmas
Would a budget of say £150 be ok for a GPU until say i want to upgrade again in 2 years, my last desktop was a AGP graphics card, where are we now PCI express?

3) Whats thex difference between these two? As advertised on the barebones system

1 x PCI-e x 16 Slot
2 x PCI-e x 1 Slots

Which one takes the graphics card? Is the other for audio

Thanks for your patience
 
What is the best case fan on the market right now?

I've got only one my rear exhaust fan left to replace, and I want the best one I can possibly get for airflow and quietness now that the dog-days of summer are coming.
 

mkenyon

Banned
1) Can't say for certain whether it'll end up having a longer life than the i5. GDDR =/= DDR. DDR3 has low latency, which is important for compute performance on CPUs. GDDR has higher bandwidth, which is why they are using that on the PS3.

DDR3 is going to be replaced with DDR4 when Skylake releases in ~2 years.

2) PCI-E 3.0, 150 is a tad low, and if you are budgeting that much, you'd be better off spending less on the CPU and more on the GPU.

3) The bandwidth. x16 has 16 times the bandwidth of x1. Videocards needs x16 slots. Raid cards, audio cards, wireless cards, and capture cards would be the typical stuff used in x1 slots.
What is the best case fan on the market right now?

I've got only one my rear exhaust fan left to replace, and I want the best one I can possibly get for airflow and quietness now that the dog-days of summer are coming.
Scythe Gentle Typhoon AP-15. If you want something really quiet, then the Corsair AF120 is a great fan for case airflow.
 

Mad Max

Member
Trying to, but they look to all be around the same price...

Also, the description of the Corsair H60 doesn't seem to say it is compatible with this socket...

If you want to get one of the higher end boards you can probably pick one which has the features you like and it'll be fine. For the lower end stuff I'd recommend waiting for more reviews/user impressions.

Every cpu cooler that fits s1155 will fit s1150 so that shouldn't be a problem.
 

Metalmarc

Member
1) Can't say for certain whether it'll end up having a longer life than the i5. GDDR =/= DDR. DDR3 has low latency, which is important for compute performance on CPUs. GDDR has higher bandwidth, which is why they are using that on the PS3.

DDR3 is going to be replaced with DDR4 when Skylake releases in ~2 years.

2) PCI-E 3.0, 150 is a tad low, and if you are budgeting that much, you'd be better off spending less on the CPU and more on the GPU.

3) The bandwidth. x16 has 16 times the bandwidth of x1. Videocards needs x16 slots. Raid cards, audio cards, wireless cards, and capture cards would be the typical stuff used in x1 slots.


Thank you :D makes sense
 

Addnan

Member

Horse Detective

Why the long case?
The GD65 looks cool.

I almost wish I would have went for an AMD GPU since they apparently have a better card for the $400. Oh well, will deff have fun with this.
 

x3sphere

Member
Hmm, Haswell has disappointed me and I'm thinking of going LGA 2011 now. Will there be new boards once IB-E arrives?

Thinking I could just build a 3830 setup right now (was looking at the Rampage IV Formula) then upgrade the CPU to a 6 core IB-E chip whenever that arrives.
 

Arcticfox

Member
I was waiting for Haswell but I am looking to make a high performance, quiet, ITX system. This looks like it will be difficult with the heat these chips put out. Unless I hear great results from delidding these chips, I am going to just get a 3770K.

Speaking of delidding, has anyone read any reports of an attempt on a 4770K yet?
 

kharma45

Member
I was waiting for Haswell but I am looking to make a high performance, quiet, ITX system. This looks like it will be difficult with the heat these chips put out. Unless I hear great results from delidding these chips, I am going to just get a 3770K.

Speaking of delidding, has anyone read any reports of an attempt on a 4770K yet?

The only thing I've came across thus far is from OC3D, they plan to do it very soon.
 

Sothpaw

Member
Alright so I have everything ordered. Final piece was the MSI 787 GD65 gaming. So basically, when I have everything installed do I just:

1. Boot up the system
2. Boot from cd
3. Install windows

Is it pretty much as simple as that? Anything special I should know about MSI boards and getting them to boot from cd?

Oh and I purchased windows 8 system builder, that's the right one correct?
 

mhayze

Member
i7 4770k for $279 or 3770k for $229? (Micro Center)

If you can spare the $50 - i.e. not coming out of your GPU budget or something, I would get the 4770k. It will have better resale value in the next year or two, it has a couple of new features, plus you know you got the latest and greatest :) It even has a GPU that you could live with for a little bit if for example you need to replace your GPU (assuming the board supports video out).
 

nbthedude

Member
I have some very silly questions incoming, i will probably be getting a ps4 for main Gaming, but will wait until xmas 2014/spring 2015 unless i can afford it before then.

In the meantime i want a new desktop , Ok i've been out of touch with desktop pc's for a while focusing all my attention on consoles and just owning any old laptop for browsing.

then steam came along into my life with the sales, and id buy games on the cheap even though they may not work, although portal 2 does work on my laptop with the inbuilt intel HD graphics chip. My girlfriend tends to use the laptop a lot


So I want to get a new desktop pc primarily for gaming, web browsing, ripping my cds to ipod, spotify etc, until i eventually go for the ps4, but then my pc will still be used for gaming as well as ps4

I'm not interested in everything on full ultra settings or whatever, just good performance that looks alright, i don't mind if the graphics suffer a little so long as the speed of the games are sufficient

Heres the silly questions which i don't even know if i understand the specs right anymore
But here goes


1) If i can afford it should i go i7 3770 3.4ghz and will it last me at least 3-5 years? I've seen it offered in a barebones system with 16gb of DDR3 ram which i was considering purchasing and upgrading the graphics card and psu first, or will DDR3 be inefficient in 3-5 years because of DDR5? And i was thinking whatever GPU i buy now in 2-3 years when i get more money i can buy maybe a better graphics card again

i'll say for occasional gaming, ie i will load it up with the cheaper steam sale games, some which will probably be over a year old at this point, at the moment. I Have Witcher 2 , Darksiders 2 and older games like star wars battlefront 2, knights of the old republic waiting to be played and if max payne 3 goes on sale again for like £8 i'll buy that.

2) What would be a decent budget graphics card for these games that may last into next xmas
Would a budget of say £150 be ok for a GPU until say i want to upgrade again in 2 years, my last desktop was a AGP graphics card, where are we now PCI express?

3) Whats thex difference between these two? As advertised on the barebones system

1 x PCI-e x 16 Slot
2 x PCI-e x 1 Slots

Which one takes the graphics card? Is the other for audio

Thanks for your patience



McKenyon covered most of this, but I'm going to try to be a bit more specific in recommendations going by what you just said, the games you listed, and your desired settings.

First, I don't think i7's are worth it for what you are looking for. They barely make any noticable difference in today's games and it's a costly gamble to assume they will in the next year. As mckenyon said, the better investment now is spending that money on a better videocard rather than an i7. If you are shopping smart on a budget, look for a discounted Ivy i5 w/ motherboard in the coming weeks. A i5 3570k would do you just fine and would give you headroom for overclocking.

As for videocards, The lowest one I would consider, personally, right now if you want it to run games on high to medium settings for the next few years is a 7870. You can find them for around $220, like this one from New Egg. You can also find the non-overclocked versions for $10-$15 cheaper if you are looking to shave off more money. The next step up from that would be a 7950, this Sapphire 7950 Boost 3GB for $269 after rebate is an awesome deal. There is also a non-boost version for $5 less, but hey, for $5, get the oveclocked one with a nicer cooler. Both of these cards also come with a killer bundle of games (Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Crysis 3, Far Cry Blood Dragon).

The reason I recommend these two cards is that the are kind of the "big brother" cards of the ones that will be in Xbox One and Playstation 4. So, I think they are likely going to be able to handle games at the settings you describe sans secret sauce and all.
 

nbthedude

Member
If you can spare the $50 - i.e. not coming out of your GPU budget or something, I would get the 4770k. It will have better resale value in the next year or two, it has a couple of new features, plus you know you got the latest and greatest :) It even has a GPU that you could live with for a little bit if for example you need to replace your GPU (assuming the board supports video out).

That seems a bit debatable. If he doesn't want to fool with overclocking, it is probably worth it to get the Haswell. If he does and wants to keep the processor for a longer haul, the Ivy is the better deal.
 

nbthedude

Member
Alright so I have everything ordered. Final piece was the MSI 787 GD65 gaming. So basically, when I have everything installed do I just:

1. Boot up the system
2. Boot from cd
3. Install windows

You got it. With a lot of modern motherboards, you won't even have to go into the motherboar options in the BIOS and select "boot from CD." It will just do it automatically. I was a bit envious and sentimental at the same time recently when helping building a PC with a friend and I told him to change the bios settings so that it would boot from CD when he put in the Windows disc. He didn't have to fool with anything. It did it all automatically.

Oh and I purchased windows 8 system builder, that's the right one correct?

You got it.
 

Horse Detective

Why the long case?
I'm so fucking over budget lol.

b6b0262e272648e2ae0c8af510aa4087.png
 

mkenyon

Banned
Before really really putting stock in any one board, I would like to hear some user reviews. It seems like the major issues don't pop up until a month or so after release, and you get some more negative anecdotes out there.

Also, anyone in this thread that has an opinion one way or another, I'd love to hear it. Best part about PC GAF is that the collective knowledge adds up to one really smart motherfucker.

But, just going purely on features and every bit of information I can scrape together from reviews, these are my current leanings. Bolded are my specific picks for each category.


Enhanced: Gigabyte Z87MX-D3H, Gigabyte Z87-D3HP
Excellent: MSI G45 Gaming, ASUS Z87 Plus, Gigabyte UD3H
Enthusiast: MSI GD65 Gaming, Gigabyte Sniper M5, MSI MPower​


The only thing I've came across thus far is from OC3D, they plan to do it very soon.
I love that Tom is leading the charge on this. His game performance tests are severely lacking, but he's still my go to guy for things like this as well as motherboard reviews.

+respect
 

scottzorus

Neo Member
I think I'm leaning toward the 3770k now. I'll mainly be gaming and live streaming to twitch (480p) with OBS. This cpu (with asrock extreme4, 16gb RAM, thinking about a gtx 7 series) should be good for that right?
 

RoKKeR

Member
Alright, noob question time: I'm looking to upgrade my 570 to a 770 but realized I have, not once since I've owned this PC (2011) have I upgraded my BiOS. [spioler]Oops![/spoiler] I have an ASUS P8P67-M and have found the support page, but what is it that I download? Under the BIOS section just the most recent update?

Thanks.
 

kharma45

Member
I think I'm leaning toward the 3770k now. I'll mainly be gaming and live streaming to twitch (480p) with OBS. This cpu (with asrock extreme4, 16gb RAM, thinking about a gtx 7 series) should be good for that right?

Don't get the Extreme4, the MSI GD55/65 or Biostar TZ77XE3/XE4 are better buys.
 

kennah

Member
Alright, noob question time: I'm looking to upgrade my 570 to a 770 but realized I have, not once since I've owned this PC (2011) have I upgraded my BiOS. [spioler]Oops![/spoiler] I have an ASUS P8P67-M and have found the support page, but what is it that I download? Under the BIOS section just the most recent update?

Thanks.
You should only update your bios if you are having issues. If things are working just leave it. You won't need a bios update to upgrade your video card
 

brentech

Member
I think I'm leaning toward the 3770k now. I'll mainly be gaming and live streaming to twitch (480p) with OBS. This cpu (with asrock extreme4, 16gb RAM, thinking about a gtx 7 series) should be good for that right?

While I have that MOBO, I don't think it's recommended anymore unless you're able to find it for $100 or less (I got mine @ 89 bucks due to combination deal with CPU at MC). I haven't had problems with it, but apparently it's not made up to spec of other similar priced boards for what people have been buying it at lately.

16GB is likely overkill for your needs. Unless you're getting a good deal on the RAM, I'm not sure the value is there. I have 8GB and have rarely gone over the usage of 4GB.
 

kennah

Member
Love this time of year. In my local classified there are currently 3 gtx 670s listed for $250 and 1 4gig 680 for $300. Wish I could jump on the 680 and then put my 670 into a hackintosh.
 

kharma45

Member
Any particular reason? Was looking at the Extreme4 myself due it being highly recommended, but I'm out of the loop with things now.

Low-quality D-PAK MOSFETs, which have a tendency to overheat and wear out with high overvolts
Claiming to have a digital VRM which is actually analogue
Under-reports voltage, which can be very dangerous for your CPU
Looks like an 8-phase VRM on top, but they actually parallel them in pairs so it's only 4-phase.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
I just wanted to come in and thank the OP and others throughout this thread.

I havent done any PC gaming for years, more than a decade really. I last built my own PC back in 1999 if I remember correctly. Since then I was mostly a console gamer. I decided I wanted to build a gaming/media PC and I somehow found NEOGAF and this thread. I read everything and ended up basing my build off of the 1300 model on the first page.

I have:

NZXT Switch 810 gunmetal case
MSI MPOWER Mobo
i7 3770k processor
GTX 680 EVGA
HX850 Corsair PSU
Samsung 840 SSD
WD 1TB Green HDD
Samsung RW DVD Drive
16 Gig DDR3 Ram
WIndows 7 professional 64 bit
Couple of extra 140 mm fans


I watched a couple of tutorials and put it together a couple of weeks ago. Took me about a day because I am slow and I thought about cable management a lot. But it was super easy. I also have a EVO 212 Heatsink which I have not installed. I am currently using the intel heatsink which is doing a fine job as I have not yet tried any overclocking which I will try soon.

Games look amazing and I am going to set up next XBMC as my media front end.

Thanks again to all the Gafers who helped out and I am glad I found this website, the best forum for console and PC gaming hands down.
That's fantastic. Make sure you watch a 212 installation video, it sucks to put on.

You found this probably because it's the #1 hit on Google for "I need a new PC" :p
Browsing forums, I came across some 3 year old info that suggests you have to install Intels AHCI drivers before you install Windows if you have an SSD. Is this necessary or is whatever Windows installs good enough?
That should be outdated. There is a setting that is extremely beneficial which is ACHI mode on the BIOS, but everything defaults to this if it was made in the past 2-3 years.
i7 4770k for $279 or 3770k for $229? (Micro Center)
Should get 4770K because of the platform, not the chip.
I'm going to delid my 3570K and buy a new board/cooler.

Considering the Corsair H80i and the MSI MPower. Suggestions?
Those are very solid choices. Do you really need a new board though?
I'm hoping we'll have this sorted and get the OP updated today. Just wait a bit if you can, because there are already a number of mines out there.
GzoNpn8.gif

Before really really putting stock in any one board, I would like to hear some user reviews. It seems like the major issues don't pop up until a month or so after release, and you get some more negative anecdotes out there.

Also, anyone in this thread that has an opinion one way or another, I'd love to hear it. Best part about PC GAF is that the collective knowledge adds up to one really smart motherfucker.

But, just going purely on features and every bit of information I can scrape together from reviews, these are my current leanings. Bolded are my specific picks for each category.


Enhanced: Gigabyte Z87MX-D3H, Gigabyte Z87-D3HP
Excellent: MSI G45 Gaming, ASUS Z87 Plus, Gigabyte UD3H
Enthusiast: MSI GD65 Gaming, Gigabyte Sniper M5, MSI MPower​

I love that Tom is leading the charge on this. His game performance tests are severely lacking, but he's still my go to guy for things like this as well as motherboard reviews.

+respect
...because of this. (Also I'm eSported out)
Granted there have to be some motherboards that are picked, and if you are jumping it, it might as well be an educated leap for your dollar.
Just want to be clear no one knows jack about these mobos yet. Would I buy a new mobo right now? Nope. I might if Haswell OC'd to 5.5Ghz on air, but it doesn't seem to.
Sometimes motherboards get in the world weeks before a CPU release and we have a few ides. This is not one of those times.
Low-quality D-PAK MOSFETs, which have a tendency to overheat and wear out with high overvolts
Claiming to have a digital VRM which is actually analogue
Under-reports voltage, which can be very dangerous for your CPU
Looks like an 8-phase VRM on top, but they actually parallel them in pairs so it's only 4-phase.
...and even if there are well reviewed motherboards, stuff like this can leak through and only come to light from a few people who know what they are doing and then delve into it.

A bit more information (I'd still buy something else):
  • I learned about DPAK Mosfets. Serviceable and cheap, not going to fault them here, yes they should have used something else, but remember these boards were 'better featured' for a long time at ~$105 and crept up to $130
  • Shady VRM
  • The under reporting CPU coltage is shady as hell, but only should become a hazardous factor above 1.30V
  • 8-phase VRM with (iirc) what is basically a 4-phase driver, so not truly 8-phase. Shady.
 

kharma45

Member
...and even if there are well reviewed motherboards, stuff like this can leak through and only come to light from a few people who know what they are doing and then delve into it.

A bit more information (I'd still buy something else):
  • I learned about DPAK Mosfets. Serviceable and cheap, not going to fault them here, yes they should have used something else, but remember these boards were 'better featured' for a long time at ~$105 and crept up to $130
  • Shady VRM
  • The under reporting CPU coltage is shady as hell, but only should become a hazardous factor above 1.30V
  • 8-phase VRM with (iirc) what is basically a 4-phase driver, so not truly 8-phase. Shady.

It has sort of soured my view of ASRock slightly. Whilst the CPU voltage is only hazardous as you say at that level, no board should be reporting false levels, it's pretty inexcusable imo.

I don't know how this idea might fly but we could leave the OP as it is but do a separate table for Haswell based on educated guesstimates of what should be good, and in say a months time then fully replace the OP with Haswell kit once we know a bit more.
 

brentech

Member
Yeah. That type of stuff is no good. It's run fine for me, and no problems to report over the few months I've had it now....but I might upgrade to an MSI board when Broadwell comes around, as that was always my brand of choice before.

I'm overclocked to 4.4Ghz, so I'm not pushing to hard anyways, but still.
 

RoKKeR

Member
So, I have no clue how to update my bios. I've downloaded the latest version from ASUS for my motherboard and opened the zip in Winrar. So far so good, but when I click on the .ROM file, I get this:


Halp. I've never done this before.
 

mkenyon

Banned
I don't know how this idea might fly but we could leave the OP as it is but do a separate table for Haswell based on educated guesstimates of what should be good, and in say a months time then fully replace the OP with Haswell kit once we know a bit more.
I think this is the best idea.

Regarding ASRock, this is from Sin, the most knowledgeable person in enthusiast communities when it comes to motherboards, on the Z87 Extreme4:

The board looks good they made a few needed upgrades (upgraded NIC, MOSFETs are from D-PAK to LF-PAK), but with all this stuff i wonder how much it will cost compared to the original E4? Also i think PWM is the same ISL6367, but perhaps they fixed up the voltage thing as its just a BIOS issue I would think. These heatsinks look decent.




So, I have no clue how to update my bios. I've downloaded the latest version from ASUS for my motherboard and opened the zip in Winrar. So far so good, but when I click on the .ROM file, I get this:



Halp. I've never done this before.
Format a USB flash drive to FAT 32. Put the file in the root directory. Load up BIOS, and go through the updating process. If this is an RoG ASUS motherboard, you can do it without booting up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI-zGV8SLho
 

kharma45

Member
So, I have no clue how to update my bios. I've downloaded the latest version from ASUS for my motherboard and opened the zip in Winrar. So far so good, but when I click on the .ROM file, I get this:



Halp. I've never done this before.

You flash it through the BIOS, there should be instructions on the ASUS website.
 

MedIC86

Member
So, I have no clue how to update my bios. I've downloaded the latest version from ASUS for my motherboard and opened the zip in Winrar. So far so good, but when I click on the .ROM file, I get this:



Halp. I've never done this before.

Usually you need to put the .rom file on a usb stick, put it in. reboot enter bios, and then find easy flash or q flash whatever its called on your mobo, point file to usb stick and install.

Also question for kharma and mkenyon, im about to buy the msi z87 G45 (dont really need the features of the GD65) that is a decent mobo right? (at least spec wise, not much reviews yet) dont feel like spending an awful lot of money, but i like the features.
 

knitoe

Member
So, I have no clue how to update my bios. I've downloaded the latest version from ASUS for my motherboard and opened the zip in Winrar. So far so good, but when I click on the .ROM file, I get this:



Halp. I've never done this before.

You need to download the bios update program, run it and select the bios file to upgrade. The program can be found on the MB manufacturer website.
 

RoKKeR

Member
You need to download the bios update program, run it and select the bios file to upgrade. The program can be found on the MB manufacturer website.
EDIT: Found something called the BUPDATER on ASUS's website, but whenever I try to run the .exe file in WinRar I get a "cannot execute".
 
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