• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

"I need a New PC!" 2013 Part 2. Haswell = #IntelnoTIM, but free online. READ THE OP.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Addnan

Member
Do you have a Micro Center near you? They usually have CPU and mobo for cheaper than normal retail price. Otherwise no point waiting, just buy!
 
Do you have a Micro Center near you? They usually have CPU and mobo for cheaper than normal retail price. Otherwise no point waiting, just buy!

You're bad for my wallet! Just checked and there's no way I'm driving to Orange County for a damn Micro Center :p
 

kharma45

Member
All right, my last upgrade went off well thanks to you guys so I'm back for more help :p

Here's what I'm at:
- AMD Phenom II X4 945 (running at 3300MHz)
- 12GB RAM
- MSI AMD 790GX-G65
- EVGA GeForce GTX 660Ti 3072MB GDDR5 (though CPU-Z says the graphics memory size is only 1023 MB... ???? is that accurate?)
- PC Power and Cooling S75QB Silencer 750W Quad Power Supply
- Coolermaster Centurion 590 Case
- 120GB SSD, 1TB HDD
- CM Hyper 212

So anyway, I decided to try out Skyrim again, and fuck if I can get a solid 30fps with my current setup, and that's without the fancy ENBs I want to run. Anyway, Skyrim's "detects" that I should be running at VeryHigh settings and Nvidia's thing says I should be running at Ultra or whatever with everything turned up, but that doesn't give me a playable framerate at all.

From my understanding Skyrim is more CPU bound than GPU bound and my CPU is getting long in the tooth, but of course if anything seems amiss about that let me know.

So I guess the question is, what CPU should I upgrade to if I've got a couple hundred to spill? Ideally it would be the only thing I need to replace... but will I need to replace the mobo or anything else? Will the case be big enough? It's pretty tight as it is.

Seeing as you have a Hyper 212 try overclocking before you buy anything. You'll be able to bump your Phenom to around 4GHz and it might well help alleviate the issues you're having. If it doesn't then upgrade, but just something to try before splurging some cash on new hardware.
 
Seeing as you have a Hyper 212 try overclocking before you buy anything. You'll be able to bump your Phenom to around 4GHz and it might well help alleviate the issues you're having. If it doesn't then upgrade, but just something to try before splurging some cash on new hardware.

I purchased already, but since it's not getting here til Tuesday I'll probably do exactly that and see how it goes. I've never overclocked anything so it'll be educational either way.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
@timetokill lmk if you want any help, I'm interested poking at Haswell if I happen to have any free time.
You are recommending Haswell!? Are you feeling okay :p?

@timetokill

Your parts will be compatible with any build you choose to go with.
For a $15 difference yeah. I'm a sellout and I've lost all integrity.
MSI Gaming has dragons as heatsinks!!!!
 

maneil99

Member
Welcome to #IntelnoTIM and the value of a very good air cooling unit!
Im pretty sure the backplate is lose and needs washers. Im getting worse temps by 7-8c then my 212 at a higher vcoreband ambients.. ncix better not charge me


Also im hitting 16c higher then most reviews say at stock. Im also hitting 86c in prime within 5 minutes at 4.5/1.25 vs 73c 4.5/1.288 with my 212+
 
I'm about to build my PC today and I was wondering if the MSI Z87-G45 Gaming plus i7-4770 (non-K) would be a good combo if I don't plan on overclocking. Those are the last two pieces I have to pick up. If I should get the K or S version even though I don't OC, let me know.

Also is turning on the turbo option in BIOS worth it?

Thanks for any thoughts.
 

solarus

Member
Mighty pc gaf. I need your help.
I have not built a system since 2009 and I want to build one for next gen gaming. I want a small factor mini itx pc, will be using the node 304 and i'm going for haswell. How does this potential build look to you guys?
Also what cooler should i use?
YBS8Hgj.png
I'm going to wait a bit on the gpu to see how amd's new cards are, I'll just use my old gpu until then.
 

Addnan

Member
Mighty pc gaf. I need your help.
I have not built a system since 2009 and I want to build one for next gen gaming. I want a small factor mini itx pc, will be using the node 304 and i'm going for haswell. How does this potential build look to you guys?
Also what cooler should i use?

I'm going to wait a bit on the gpu to see how amd's new cards are, I'll just use my old gpu until then.

Looks good. Get the H60 for cooler.
 

solarus

Member
Looks good. Get the H60 for cooler.
I'm leaving for 3 weeks tomorrow and I'll be back on the 8th september. Are there any upcoming better components (mini itx mobos for example, however i will not buy anything more pricey)? I know the asus maximus vi impact is coming but £200 is beyond what I'm willing to pay. Or am I just good to purchase the build i listed in a few weeks with the h60 cooler you recommended.
 

Addnan

Member
I'm leaving for 3 weeks tomorrow and I'll be back on the 8th september. Are there any upcoming better components (mini itx mobos for example, however i will not buy anything more pricey)? I know the asus maximus vinis coming but £200 is beyond what I'm willing to pay. Or am I just good to purchase the build i listed in a few weeks with the h60 cooler you recommended.

Within that price no. The only really good one as you said is the Impact which is a little expensive, but it looks so good ;)

You are good to buy your build with the H60. Nothing new in the processor/mobo market for a while.
 
1. 600W is way too much. I'm always right, you should listen to me (I'm not always right). That particular 450W is good enough for everything except a Titan. It's running my 670 and OC2550K right now - both of which pull more power than what you're doing.

2. H60 will do you just fine I THINK - someone else might have a better idea for that particular case.

3. Yeah, the Asus is expensive. But it's a great overclocker. Go with the Gigabyte if you want something cheaper - but it doesn't deliver the power for max overclocks (which would also make the 450W psu a bit better too).

Alright, I've just realised HX isn't an actual brand name. I've looked at the coolers on Amazon and Corsair seems to be one of very few. Some of the customer reviews are making me a little wary, however(talk of leaky wires spilling corrosive liquid over components). Anyone recommend H40/H60 liquid cooler?

Edit:
When you say the Gigabyte, do you mean this one?
 

kennah

Member
Alright, I've just realised HX isn't an actual brand name. I've looked at the coolers on Amazon and Corsair seems to be one of very few. Some of the customer reviews are making me a little wary, however(talk of leaky wires spilling corrosive liquid over components). Anyone recommend H40/H60 liquid cooler?

Edit:
When you say the Gigabyte, do you mean this one?

H60 was recommneded for the Node immediately after your last post :p

And yes, that Gigabyte.
 

LordAlu

Member
So will we be able to find the regular 840s on the cheap? I would love to buy another 250giger and raid 0 it.
They won't be dropping the price of the regular 840 - my understanding is that they will allow stock to run dry as the EVO is a replacement.

Question. Right now I currently have an overclocked i5-3570k, 8GB RAM and a 560Ti, and I'm not quite getting the graphical oomph I want. As far as I can see it I have two options.
  1. I can get a second 560Ti for just £50 from a colleague and SLI them, although this may require an updated power supply as I believe mine is 500W (I'm at work so I can't check atm).
  2. Save up for a while and buy a 760 instead.
Whilst I'd have to wait for option 2, I could manage option 1 straight away (unless the PSU is a problem). Is £50 for another 560Ti (and a potential £60 for a new power supply) a good proposition, or should I wait it out and pick up a 760 in a few months time instead?
 

cyen

Member
They won't be dropping the price of the regular 840 - my understanding is that they will allow stock to run dry as the EVO is a replacement.

Question. Right now I currently have an overclocked i5-3570k, 8GB RAM and a 560Ti, and I'm not quite getting the graphical oomph I want. As far as I can see it I have two options.
  1. I can get a second 560Ti for just £50 from a colleague and SLI them, although this may require an updated power supply as I believe mine is 500W (I'm at work so I can't check atm).
  2. Save up for a while and buy a 760 instead.
Whilst I'd have to wait for option 2, I could manage option 1 straight away (unless the PSU is a problem). Is £50 for another 560Ti (and a potential £60 for a new power supply) a good proposition, or should I wait it out and pick up a 760 in a few months time instead?

Is the TI 1GB RAM? Because if it is you better wait for the 760.
 

Zaph

Member
Thermal paste usually comes with the heatsink. H60 has some pre-applied to the base.

edit:
Wait, some more confusion:
There's just 4£ difference between the Low Profile RAM and the regular RAM

Is it worth the £4 jump?
Low profile. The fins do practically nothing, and low profile can make the difference between a heatsink fitting or not.

Since you're using an H60 the low profile isn't as important. If you'd like the ram to have a bit longer legs/be compatible with a future air cooler, then sure, get it.
Might not be relevant here, but probably worth noting that with my ITX build, due to the rotation I had to install the H60 at, had I not used low profile, there wouldn't have been clearance for the pipes. Might be worth always recommending low profile with any ITX build, regardless of cooler used.
 

lethial

Reeeeeeee
Finally picked up a new pc yesterday and threw it together last night. i5 3570k or something, gtx660, ram, z77 mobo. Took awhile to set up and wow the pipes and heatsinks on the hardware is pretty wild. Didn't realize IDE is no longer supported so had to hook the new HD into my older pc to install Windows and download all the drivers, was a pain in the ass. Haven't built a gaming rig since I had a 9700pro.
 
Balls, this is just getting too expensive, especially when I consider a monitor, keyboard, etc.

I'm half-tempted to just start the whole bloody thing over again with a micro-ATX case. Fuck, I might even just go for a regular case, especially since I've realised I won't be moving around as much as I thought next year. Aaarrggh!

So if I do use a regular case, is a H60 since necessary if I want to overclock the i5?
 
Thinking about getting a Radeon HD 6670 1GB GDDR5 128-bit from Diamond for $60. I've read that the 6670 should work fine on a 300 watt system, even though the requirements I've seen all say 400 watts.


My computer is an HP Pavilion a15n, and here are its current specs:

-300 watt power supply
-Pentium D 820, 2.80 GHz
-2GB DDR2 RAM (2x 512MB, 1x 1GB), I might upgrade to 4GB RAM soon.
-XFX Radeon HD 4350 1GB DDR2, overclocked with MSI Afterburner
-2 Harddrives (250GB main, plus an 80GB one I took from my dad's old broken desktop)
-Windows XP and Windows 7 dual-boot
-1 PCI Express x16 slot
-19 inch monitor with a max resolution of 1440x900 (just recently got this for free)
-5.1 Logitech speakers (not really necessary to list, I know, but damn are they nice!)

I also have a USB wireless card and two USB controller adapters connected, and a small fan to cool my current card for overclocking, which I figured I'd mention just to give an idea of how much power is being used already.

Here's the power supply:



I can't afford a new computer, and I don't game on PC much, so I'm just looking to get a new graphics card that will work under a 300 watt PSU and give me better performance than the 4350 I have...which I'm sure wouldn't be hard to beat. Hah.

Not sure if Diamond would be a good pick, as I've seen some people call their stuff "shit," but I thought I'd ask around here to make sure. I was also looking into a few different GeForce GT 440s, which I think are officially listed as working with a 300 watt PSU, and are way more powerful than what I have right now. Thanks for any help.
 

Zaph

Member
Balls, this is just getting too expensive, especially when I consider a monitor, keyboard, etc.

I'm half-tempted to just start the whole bloody thing over again with a micro-ATX case. Fuck, I might even just go for a regular case, especially since I've realised I won't be moving around as much as I thought next year. Aaarrggh!

So if I do use a regular case, is a H60 since necessary if I want to overclock the i5?

If you're tightening your budget but still want to OC, just get a Hyper 212 cooler for like 20 quid.
 

kennah

Member
Balls, this is just getting too expensive, especially when I consider a monitor, keyboard, etc.

I'm half-tempted to just start the whole bloody thing over again with a micro-ATX case. Fuck, I might even just go for a regular case, especially since I've realised I won't be moving around as much as I thought next year. Aaarrggh!

So if I do use a regular case, is a H60 since necessary if I want to overclock the i5?

Yep. ITX is expensive. You don't NEEEED the H60. It's better. A Hyper 212 fits, but it is tricky. And you would definitely need the Low Profile Ram (and it might be a tricky fit on the Gigabyte board)
 
Yep. ITX is expensive. You don't NEEEED the H60. It's better. A Hyper 212 fits, but it is tricky. And you would definitely need the Low Profile Ram (and it might be a tricky fit on the Gigabyte board)
Alright, screw it. The ITX build shall have to wait till another day. I'll start from scratch, and will no doubt be back with plenty more questions. Thanks for the advice, folks.

Edit:
scan.co.uk has an overclocked, pre-assembled i5 bundle on this page(ctrl-f "3570") for £400, just £7 more than all the seperate pieces on amazon. It comes with a H70 and a Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H. Thoughts on the motherboard? Everything else looks good to me.
 
I'd suggest buying my i7 2600K and P8P67 Pro! Available for the low low price of $260! WOW what a deal. I also have an ugly heatsink (TRUE120)I can toss in for 20 bux, or a nice one for $35 (TPC 812)! I will also guarantee 4.4Ghz OC (Runs hot though, did up to 4.6Ghz).

I'm running the 2600k and P8P67 Pro as well @ 4.4ghz. I did get it up to 4.5, but I found the temps a little too high for my taste on my air cooler.
 
Thinking about getting a Radeon HD 6670 1GB GDDR5 128-bit from Diamond for $60. I've read that the 6670 should work fine on a 300 watt system, even though the requirements I've seen all say 400 watts.


My computer is an HP Pavilion a15n, and here are its current specs:

-300 watt power supply
-Pentium D 820, 2.80 GHz
-2GB DDR2 RAM (2x 512MB, 1x 1GB), I might upgrade to 4GB RAM soon.
-XFX Radeon HD 4350 1GB DDR2, overclocked with MSI Afterburner
-2 Harddrives (250GB main, plus an 80GB one I took from my dad's old broken desktop)
-Windows XP and Windows 7 dual-boot
-1 PCI Express x16 slot
-19 inch monitor with a max resolution of 1440x900 (just recently got this for free)
-5.1 Logitech speakers (not really necessary to list, I know, but damn are they nice!)

I also have a USB wireless card and two USB controller adapters connected, and a small fan to cool my current card for overclocking, which I figured I'd mention just to give an idea of how much power is being used already.

Here's the power supply:




I can't afford a new computer, and I don't game on PC much, so I'm just looking to get a new graphics card that will work under a 300 watt PSU and give me better performance than the 4350 I have...which I'm sure wouldn't be hard to beat. Hah.

Not sure if Diamond would be a good pick, as I've seen some people call their stuff "shit," but I thought I'd ask around here to make sure. I was also looking into a few different GeForce GT 440s, which I think are officially listed as working with a 300 watt PSU, and are way more powerful than what I have right now. Thanks for any help.

Good god man that's an old computer! I'm surprised it's pci express and not agp. Still running ide drives? I know you said that you didn't have the money for a new computer, but an apu combo with motherboard,memory, and cpu would probably crush what you are doing now. Something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1243065
If your HP can accept a standard matx mobo and doesn't use proprietary connectors that is. I just can't recommend putting money into that old computer for that $60 card you listed. That card is probably worth as much as your whole computer or even more at this point. The combo I listed is a better solution assuming your psu and case are in top order and don't use proprietary connectors.
 

mkenyon

Banned
Im pretty sure the backplate is lose and needs washers. Im getting worse temps by 7-8c then my 212 at a higher vcoreband ambients.. ncix better not charge me


Also im hitting 16c higher then most reviews say at stock. Im also hitting 86c in prime within 5 minutes at 4.5/1.25 vs 73c 4.5/1.288 with my 212+
You can't compare your system to review systems. That's the issue with Haswell, the gap between the proc and the heatspreader causes wildly different temperature results with every processor. Your results actually sound really in line with what is commonly out there.
 
Good god man that's an old computer! I'm surprised it's pci express and not agp. Still running ide drives? I know you said that you didn't have the money for a new computer, but an apu combo with motherboard,memory, and cpu would probably crush what you are doing now. Something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1243065
If your HP can accept a standard matx mobo and doesn't use proprietary connectors that is. I just can't recommend putting money into that old computer for that $60 card you listed. That card is probably worth as much as your whole computer or even more at this point. The combo I listed is a better solution assuming your psu and case are in top order and don't use proprietary connectors.

I wish I could afford that, but I got my computer for free not all that long ago (my previous desktop was a 633Mhz Celeron with a GeForce MX4000, which I still have, and also got for free), and I really don't have that much extra money to spend right now. I'm only going to play a few games, so a graphics card alone should do what I need...I think. At least that's what videos on YouTube of other people using similar hardware to mine with the cards I mentioned has lead me to believe.

I can't afford $100+ stuff right now. Maybe sometime down the line when I have a regular job, but right now I just make some money here and there doing small things, so I can't afford anything too expensive, hence the $60 card. My current set up gets me around 20~30-ish frames per second on most games at low to medium settings (with a really crap card), but it's inconsistent. I'm not looking to play at max settings or even with anti-aliasing, I just want smoother, more consistent framerates. I do most of my gaming on consoles, but I got some stuff for cheap and some stuff free from Steam Gifts and from people here on GAF, so yeah. I'm not really a PC gamer kind of guy, so I'm not looking to spend much just to play a few games...especially since my computer runs just fine for everything else I need.
 
I wish I could afford that, but I got my computer for free not all that long ago (my previous desktop was a 633Mhz Celeron with a GeForce MX4000, which I still have, and also got for free), and I really don't have that much extra money to spend right now. I'm only going to play a few games, so a graphics card alone should do what I need...I think. At least that's what videos on YouTube of other people using similar hardware to mine with the cards I mentioned has lead me to believe.

I can't afford $100+ stuff right now. Maybe sometime down the line when I have a regular job, but right now I just make some money here and there doing small things, so I can't afford anything too expensive, hence the $60 card. My current set up gets me around 20~30-ish frames per second on most games at low to medium settings (with a really crap card), but it's inconsistent. I'm not looking to play at max settings or even with anti-aliasing, I just want smoother, more consistent framerates. I do most of my gaming on consoles, but I got some stuff for cheap and some stuff free from Steam Gifts and from people here on GAF, so yeah.

I understand. Just understand that sub $100 cards in a lot of cases are just very crappy and I haven't even mentioned your 7 year old cpu, which is a huge bottle neck. I hope that $60 card does what you want it to do, but I think it's $60 thrown away that could be saved towards something much better.
 
I understand. Just understand that sub $100 cards in a lot of cases are just very crappy and I haven't even mentioned your 7 year old cpu that is a huge bottle neck. I hope that $60 card does what you want it to do, but I think it's $60 thrown away that could be saved towards something much better.

Well, that card is normally $120+, and I've read that 6670's are good budget cards, and I found it cheaper than usual (the price actually just went down a few days ago)...but I'm not sure if a 300 watt power supply will successfully run it, which is why I thought I'd ask for help here.
 
Well, that card is normally $120+, but I found it cheaper...but I'm not sure if a 300 watt power supply will successfully run it, which is why I thought I'd ask for help here.

OEM PSU's can be hit or miss when it comes to doing what you'll be doing. They put the bare minimum PSU to run the components in the computer when it was first assembled. If it were a Seasonic or reputable PSU maker, I wouldn't hesitate.
 

Azulsky

Member
What's the deal with these SSDs? I've just noticed the "Evo" showing up recently and with promo code today this is $165 on newegg.

SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE250BW 2.5" 250GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Is there something wrong with them compared to the 840 Pro?

The important thing about newer generations of SSD's is that the controllers getting smarter with making the drive last longer through wear leveling algorithms. They are also getting better at handling features of the SATA bus that were designed when only HDD's existed. This is stuff like TRIM.

They really wont be able to get any major speed improvements with the SATA bus. The only place that SSDs are choking (compared to saturating the bus in other transfers) is when the queue depth gets very large(many small files).


Thats pretty much the only impetus for getting the latest and greatest. I have a first gen OCZ SSD on my laptop and its lightning compared to an HDD.


You also have a 5 year warranty on the Pro vs 3 on the rest of the 840 series(EVO included). Thats due to a different type of NAND being used.
 
OEM PSU's can be hit or miss when it comes to doing what you'll be doing. They put the bare minimum PSU to run the components in the computer when it was first assembled. If it were a Seasonic or reputable PSU maker, I wouldn't hesitate.

Well, that's why I included all of the components and a picture of the power supply's power input/output info there. I was hoping that would help give a better idea of whether or not it would run. I think the 6670's max TDP is 66 watts, and it idles at 12 watts. I think the GeForce GT 440 is 56 watts. The Radeon HD 4350 I currently have is around 22, I think? Not sure.

Edit: Went ahead and ordered the card. Hope it works. If not, I'll see if I can get another power supply...but I'm really hoping that I don't have to.
 
Could a NZXT Source 210 fit a H60 cooler? I'm not going to run into space/heat issues when using an overclocked i5 in it, am I?

Edit: The Bitfenix Outlaw is actually a little cheaper, should I go for that instead?

Edit: Or the Xigmatek Asgard Pro? They're all around the same price on Amazon. Do they all have USB 3.0?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom