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

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Dawg

Member
So, I'm noticing my pc is bottlenecked by my hdd, its http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5328187

I've had it for about 4 years, is there any decent upgrades that aren't an ssd? I have a nice 18 gig ddr3 ram and just bought a 770 gtx and I don't want this shit hdd to slow me down.

Any help would be appreciated.

SSD or bust. I'm serious.

If anything, get a cheap 64GB SSD just for Windows. The expensive HDD's aren't worth it.

Personally, I'dd add a 128GB SSD so you can put Windows on it and a few games or programs you use a lot. The speed increase from the SSD will benefit you a lot more than a new HDD. You already have a 7200rpm HDD so - unless it's dying/going super duper slow or you feel like you need another TB of space - it's not worth getting a new HDD. SSD's are the true gamechanger here.
 

Positional4

Neo Member
I havent upgraded my pc for about 7 years,so I'm basically just going to take it to the tip and throw it away .

Anyway I want a nice spanky new Pc that can run most games at 1080/60,would the gforce gtx680 4gb be fine for this,thanks.
 

kennah

Member
I havent upgraded my pc for about 7 years,so I'm basically just going to take it to the tip and throw it away .

Anyway I want a nice spanky new Pc that can run most games at 1080/60,would the gforce gtx680 4gb be fine for this,thanks.

Yep, if you get a good deal on it. Don't pay more than $350.


Hey everyone, I’m currently planning on building another rig due to space constraints.

ASUS Sabertooth Z77 - $150 (Comes with box) Also willing to trade for a GIGABYTE M3 Sniper or a ASUS MAXIMUS VI GENE

HIS Radeon HD 7950 with an already installed Waterblock. (Stock heatsink also included and comes w/ the box.) - $250

EK-Bay Spin - Black Acetal Dual 5.25" (CD) Drive Bay Reservoir - $50

Message me if you're interested in any of the items above, I'm open to shipping but the costs have to come from your end. We can discuss shipping prices, etc. through PM's. Local pick up in NYC/Westchester County area as well is an option.


More deals. Looks like everyone is selling their computers today. They're asking too much for the video card, but nice deal if you really really want a Sabertooth board.
 

Dawg

Member
I havent upgraded my pc for about 7 years,so I'm basically just going to take it to the tip and throw it away .

Anyway I want a nice spanky new Pc that can run most games at 1080/60,would the gforce gtx680 4gb be fine for this,thanks.

AFAIK, 4GB is not really worth it if you go 1080/60. Higher resolutions or multiple screens benefit from it (a lot) but a single screen @ 1080p doesn't really need it.

That new R9 280X will probably run everything you want at 60fps at that resolution. You can probably buy a nice OC edition with the budget you would use for a 4GB gtx 680.

And if you're a real Nvidia fanatic, get a GTX770 or GTX 780 (although that one is even more than you would spend at a 4gb gtx 680)

Hell yeah they are. Some games like Planetside 2 almost need an SSD and the price difference between 60 and 120GB here is like 20%.

Well, I have Windows 8, Planetside 2, World of Warcraft and a few other steam games on my SSD. It's 128gb though. Still, the most important upgrade is putting your Windows on it. That's the one thing that will benefit the most from it. He should just keep the HDD for games that don't fit on thr SSD anymore. Buying a brand new HDD and putting everything on it (windows, games and programs) won't fix his bottleneck at all. Sure, it'll be a bit faster than his "old" hdd but nowhere near SSD levels.
 

Sullichin

Member
I have a question re: my Rosewill Cherry Red mechanical keyboard.

I fucking love it, except for one thing...I can't hold the backspace key down and continually delete characters. That key seems pretty unresponsive depending on where I hit it. It's really annoying. It doesn't seem to have anything stuck under it. Anything in particular I should try to fix this problem?
 

Willectro

Banned
I have a question re: my Rosewill Cherry Red mechanical keyboard.

I fucking love it, except for one thing...I can't hold the backspace key down and continually delete characters. That key seems pretty unresponsive depending on where I hit it. It's really annoying. It doesn't seem to have anything stuck under it. Anything in particular I should try to fix this problem?

Have you popped the key off yet? Maybe something is wrong with the stabilizer?
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Those 280x reviews are tempting... Just need to keep telling myself that my 670 is good enough and that it will last me
I've got one and see zero reason to upgrade.
but I would want a new mobo to do that?
Need a new mobo for multiplier CPU overclocking. GPU you can overclock to a nice 15-25% and you'll get a lot of extra performance.
Is Haswell that much faster at emulation compared to Ivy? It is brought up very often in this thread, so I'm curious.
It seems a bit yes. 10-15%?
Pretty pissed off. I had the Artic cooler freezer 7 rev 2 on my previous build, it was a beast and went right over my ram. I came here to look for a decent cooler which wouldn't do that so got the CM 212 Evo, and for fuck sake, the entire first ram slot is covered, there's no way I'm getting my vengence ram in there.
Usually boards have you slot in DIMMs 2 and 4, plus heatsinks do nothing but look pretty. If it's a big concern you can slide the fan up.
I would like to see an updated version of these slides. At this point, these graphs might not hold true anymore (and also, how much do we trust slides from GPU manufacturers?).
If nVidia or AMD could get their new architecture on 22nm or 20nm before the other I'd think they would go for it if it made sense.
Overclock the crap out of it.
DL the BF4 beta and find out.

As a Hexacore you could ballpark a 3570K/4670K.
 
Pretty pissed off. I had the Artic cooler freezer 7 rev 2 on my previous build, it was a beast and went right over my ram. I came here to look for a decent cooler which wouldn't do that so got the CM 212 Evo, and for fuck sake, the entire first ram slot is covered, there's no way I'm getting my vengence ram in there.

In addition to what Haz said, you can also remove the purely cosmetic heatsinks from your RAM sticks. The heatsinks on the Corsair Vengeance are crimped at both edges and adhered with weak glue/tape squares. If you take them off carefully, they'll be the same height as the Samsung RAM pictured a few posts back.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
In addition to what Haz said, you can also remove the purely cosmetic heatsinks from your RAM sticks. The heatsinks on the Corsair Vengeance are crimped at both edges and adhered with weak glue/tape squares. If you take them off carefully, they'll be the same height as the Samsung RAM pictured a few posts back.
Be careful on removal though, I dunno how exactly strong the adhesive is, but some people have taken off their RAM chips.
 
Be careful on removal though, I dunno how exactly strong the adhesive is, but some people have taken off their RAM chips.

I did not know about it being purely cosmetic and used a Scythe Mugen 2 as my CPU cooler so things did not fit. Thing was very skewed but everything worked so why not. It is only two years later that I saw I could just slide the thing off.

I do need to reattach my CPU cooler though, not sure if it had to do with the RAM, think not, but it is really underperforming.
 
Can I get away with Ultra settings on Arma 3 and Battlefield 4 with an i7 2600k and a modern high-end GPU? I'm on 8GB of RAM, but I'll upgrade to 16 if it'll help. I just don't want to fork more money over for a new processor right now when the PS4 is right around the corner (though, I'm confident my i7/6870 will still curbstomp next-gen console launch games which are multiplatform.)
 

Zomba13

Member
Ok. I've been thinking about upgrading for a while now as my computers getting quite old.
Got it 4 years ago with this stuff:
Asus GeForce GTX 285 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping 2.66Ghz
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R Intel X58 PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
OCZ Gold 6GB <3x2GB> DDR3 PC3-10666C9 Low-Voltage Triple Channel
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Ready Modular Power Supply

All in a big ass Antec 902 case so has plenty of room and lots of fans. Also got a Corsair clossed loop water cooling thing which I can't find the name of and I used that when I had my CPU OCed to 3.5GHz (FFXIV made me revert it to stock and then I somehow messed up trying to put it back with the exact same settings and computer wouldn't start so I've left it at stock now)

Looking to upgrade processor and GPU mainly but that means new motherboard and might as well get more RAM and an SSD. A;ready have a case, monitor, HDDs etc. I'd probably need to use the stock cooler of a new processor right? My watercooling thing probably won't work right?

I want something that will last hopefully the same amount of time as this one has. Would be nice to run games on high/ultra in 3D too (I have a 1680x1050 120Hz monitor, no plans to upgrade. Right next to 1080p 3D TV for big picture mode stuff).

I've been looking at high end Nvidia cards as I use 3D vision on the PC and I've always used them with no issues. Was looking at getting a Titan due to it being the 'best' at the moment but now also looking at getting 2 770s in SLI. Would that be smart? And should I get two 4GB ones or 2GB? Planning on waiting a bit I think to see what Nvidia do next and it that leads to price drops.

CPU wise I've been told the i5 3570k would be best for me. Is there worth going with anything better?

RAM wise I've been thinking going 16GB as from what I've seen on overclockers (I'm in the UK) 8GB of RAM is about £50 while 16GB is about £100 and from the looks of things that'll be good for games for a while (I have Win 7 Professional 64bit).

No idea on motherboards only that it'll need to be a Z77 one for the processor and will need enough slots for things.

No clue if my current PSU will be ok with newer stuff.

I'm willing to spend a bit for a high end computer that'll last me a while, hopefully being able to play most next gen ports at high/ultra for a good long while (My current PC has been fine this gen only struggling on the higher end PC stuff like Metro Last Light (which looked better and ran better than on the consoles even at the settings I used).

Just those parts listed cost around £630 when I got them (excluding all the other stuff I got at the time and postage). I can spend around £1000, give or take a couple hundred. If there is a cheaper alternative with a slightly lower performance I'd rather that. Anyone able to help me with a build? I'm in the UK so can look around on the web for the cheapest price for each part. I just need help working out what I can salvage from this machine (though I guess not much).
 

Addnan

Member
Can I get away with Ultra settings on Arma 3 and Battlefield 4 with an i7 2600k and a modern high-end GPU? I'm on 8GB of RAM, but I'll upgrade to 16 if it'll help. I just don't want to fork more money over for a new processor right now when the PS4 is right around the corner (though, I'm confident my i7/6870 will still curbstomp next-gen console launch games which are multiplatform.)
2600K is still one of your better CPUs. If you haven't overclock it and get it above 4ghz.it has quite a performance boost. Especially ARMA likes a fast CPUS. Possibly BF too. You won't be getting 60fps ultra on BF4 with a 6870 though. Unless they do some serious magic from beta to release.
 

JimPanzer

Member
I completely uninstalled the nvidia driver and reinstalled them. still every time I try to overclock the driver crashes (even with low settings like 40/100). anything else I could try?
 

excowboy

Member
Currently collecting parts for my first build and another question on graphics cards - with the recent announcements of Mantle for AMD and Steam OS built with Nvidia in mind, should this be something that factors into a purchasing decision now? What's your expert opinion?!
 

Chris_C

Member
Ahoy PC GAF! I haven't been a PC gamer for... over a decade, but the time felt right, and I felt the itch a couple of months ago and I just put together a new PC, primarily for gaming, Photoshop and 3D work, with the following specs:

Asus Gryphon Z87
i5 4570 (couldn't get a K)
Powercolor 7950 Boost Ed.
16GB Kingston Hyper X Blu 1600Mhz
1TB HDD
Windows 8

I just downloaded a copy of the Witcher 3 that I purchased during a sale a while back that looked and laughed at my old Athlon X2 + 440GT, however, I'm running into a couple of issues I'd really appreciate some feedback on:

1 - I have my system connected to the monitor via HDMI, and I'm using my monitor's default res (1080p), but the image isn't as sharp as you'd expect from a 1080p image. It also doesn't take up the entire screen. I've gone into my monitor's menu to fool around with overscan, but there are only 3 presets, 4:3, 16;9 and "fit to screen". Going into the catalyst control center lets me adjust the overscan slider, and I can now fill the screen, but the image quality is affected. This is particularly apparent when I open the system tray, as icons that small appear pixelated. This isn't the case on the same monitor when I switch back to my old system.

2 - I've got 2 sticks of 8GBDDR3 ram (1600Mhz), but CPU-Z reports each stick is running at 800Mhz, even after I've set them to 1600Mhz in the UEFI bios.

Any thoughts?
 
Is it worth upgrading from an Athlon II x4 640 to a FX-8300 CPU in November, or should I wait a year and then upgrade my motherboard and CPU so as to have a beast of a machine?

Currently I have 8 gig RAM and an NVidia GTX 670.
 

Sora2k7

Member
2 - I've got 2 sticks of 8GBDDR3 ram (1600Mhz), but CPU-Z reports each stick is running at 800Mhz, even after I've set them to 1600Mhz in the UEFI bios.

Any thoughts?

1600MHz is just 800MHz measured on both edges of the clock since DDR memory work on both edges of the clock

your memory is working fine
 

Chris_C

Member
1600MHz is just 800MHz measured on both edges of the clock since DDR memory work on both edges of the clock

your memory is working fine

That makes sense! Thanks for the feedback. Also, HOLY HELL! The Witcher 2 atuo-detected my settings to the Ultra preset. I think think that's the first time any PC game has EVER done that! I'm a happy camper.
 

Kenka

Member
Ok. I've been thinking about upgrading for a while now as my computers getting quite old.
Got it 4 years ago with this stuff:
Asus GeForce GTX 285 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping 2.66Ghz
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R Intel X58 PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
OCZ Gold 6GB <3x2GB> DDR3 PC3-10666C9 Low-Voltage Triple Channel
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Ready Modular Power Supply

All in a big ass Antec 902 case so has plenty of room and lots of fans. Also got a Corsair clossed loop water cooling thing which I can't find the name of and I used that when I had my CPU OCed to 3.5GHz (FFXIV made me revert it to stock and then I somehow messed up trying to put it back with the exact same settings and computer wouldn't start so I've left it at stock now)

Looking to upgrade processor and GPU mainly but that means new motherboard and might as well get more RAM and an SSD. A;ready have a case, monitor, HDDs etc. I'd probably need to use the stock cooler of a new processor right? My watercooling thing probably won't work right?

I want something that will last hopefully the same amount of time as this one has. Would be nice to run games on high/ultra in 3D too (I have a 1680x1050 120Hz monitor, no plans to upgrade. Right next to 1080p 3D TV for big picture mode stuff).

I've been looking at high end Nvidia cards as I use 3D vision on the PC and I've always used them with no issues. Was looking at getting a Titan due to it being the 'best' at the moment but now also looking at getting 2 770s in SLI. Would that be smart? And should I get two 4GB ones or 2GB? Planning on waiting a bit I think to see what Nvidia do next and it that leads to price drops.

CPU wise I've been told the i5 3570k would be best for me. Is there worth going with anything better?

RAM wise I've been thinking going 16GB as from what I've seen on overclockers (I'm in the UK) 8GB of RAM is about £50 while 16GB is about £100 and from the looks of things that'll be good for games for a while (I have Win 7 Professional 64bit).

No idea on motherboards only that it'll need to be a Z77 one for the processor and will need enough slots for things.

No clue if my current PSU will be ok with newer stuff.

I'm willing to spend a bit for a high end computer that'll last me a while, hopefully being able to play most next gen ports at high/ultra for a good long while (My current PC has been fine this gen only struggling on the higher end PC stuff like Metro Last Light (which looked better and ran better than on the consoles even at the settings I used).

Just those parts listed cost around £630 when I got them (excluding all the other stuff I got at the time and postage). I can spend around £1000, give or take a couple hundred. If there is a cheaper alternative with a slightly lower performance I'd rather that. Anyone able to help me with a build? I'm in the UK so can look around on the web for the cheapest price for each part. I just need help working out what I can salvage from this machine (though I guess not much).

OK man, here are my advices although I have never had a marked interest in 3D gaming:
  1. For the resolution you are playing at, 2GB per card is sufficient unless you decide to get a multi-screen setup down the road. Titan is overkill for its price tag.
  2. If you upgrade MoBo and CPU, I'd suggest you go for a ASUS Z87-Pro model with a i5-4670K combo. CPU price is same as the one you mentioned and performance is slightly above. Also, the Z87 is quite unexpensive and comes with a Wi-Fi module. It supports also energy reduction features and CPU overclocking. Also, it has all the bells and whistles (SATA-3, plenty of USB 3.0, two slots for graphic cards, etc.)

Upgrade your RAM to 8GB for now and you're done. Hope I could help.
 
So uhhh... The computer I put together last year won't power on.
I was watching netflix when I got a parity error( a problem I still haven't been able to solve). So I turn the PC off, but now I can't turn it back on.

No idea what to do. I opened the PC up and noticed a funky burnt smell.
 

Kenka

Member
So uhhh... The computer I put together last year won't power on.
I was watching netflix when I got a parity error( a problem I still haven't been able to solve). So I turn the PC off, but now I can't turn it back on.

No idea what to do. I opened the PC up and noticed a funky burnt smell.
That doesn't sound good. Do you have pics ?
 
The smell is coming from the video card.

I don't see anything aside from some dust. Also I had the computer put together so I'm too afraid to take it apart.

Tried reseating the ram. Nothing happened.
 

kharma45

Member
Currently collecting parts for my first build and another question on graphics cards - with the recent announcements of Mantle for AMD and Steam OS built with Nvidia in mind, should this be something that factors into a purchasing decision now? What's your expert opinion?!

Not really. Both are pretty limited in the grand scheme of things.

Ok. I've been thinking about upgrading for a while now as my computers getting quite old.
Got it 4 years ago with this stuff:
Asus GeForce GTX 285 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping 2.66Ghz
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R Intel X58 PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
OCZ Gold 6GB <3x2GB> DDR3 PC3-10666C9 Low-Voltage Triple Channel
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Ready Modular Power Supply

All in a big ass Antec 902 case so has plenty of room and lots of fans. Also got a Corsair clossed loop water cooling thing which I can't find the name of and I used that when I had my CPU OCed to 3.5GHz (FFXIV made me revert it to stock and then I somehow messed up trying to put it back with the exact same settings and computer wouldn't start so I've left it at stock now)

Looking to upgrade processor and GPU mainly but that means new motherboard and might as well get more RAM and an SSD. A;ready have a case, monitor, HDDs etc. I'd probably need to use the stock cooler of a new processor right? My watercooling thing probably won't work right?

I want something that will last hopefully the same amount of time as this one has. Would be nice to run games on high/ultra in 3D too (I have a 1680x1050 120Hz monitor, no plans to upgrade. Right next to 1080p 3D TV for big picture mode stuff).

I've been looking at high end Nvidia cards as I use 3D vision on the PC and I've always used them with no issues. Was looking at getting a Titan due to it being the 'best' at the moment but now also looking at getting 2 770s in SLI. Would that be smart? And should I get two 4GB ones or 2GB? Planning on waiting a bit I think to see what Nvidia do next and it that leads to price drops.

CPU wise I've been told the i5 3570k would be best for me. Is there worth going with anything better?

RAM wise I've been thinking going 16GB as from what I've seen on overclockers (I'm in the UK) 8GB of RAM is about £50 while 16GB is about £100 and from the looks of things that'll be good for games for a while (I have Win 7 Professional 64bit).

No idea on motherboards only that it'll need to be a Z77 one for the processor and will need enough slots for things.

No clue if my current PSU will be ok with newer stuff.

I'm willing to spend a bit for a high end computer that'll last me a while, hopefully being able to play most next gen ports at high/ultra for a good long while (My current PC has been fine this gen only struggling on the higher end PC stuff like Metro Last Light (which looked better and ran better than on the consoles even at the settings I used).

Just those parts listed cost around £630 when I got them (excluding all the other stuff I got at the time and postage). I can spend around £1000, give or take a couple hundred. If there is a cheaper alternative with a slightly lower performance I'd rather that. Anyone able to help me with a build? I'm in the UK so can look around on the web for the cheapest price for each part. I just need help working out what I can salvage from this machine (though I guess not much).

No chance of getting that overclock working again? If you could I'd stick with it and just upgrade your GPU. I'd avoid going multi-GPU too, wait and see how the AMD R9 290X performs if you're going high end before plunging in.
 

Durante

Member
The smell is coming from the video card.

I don't see anything aside from some dust. Also I had the computer put together so I'm too afraid to take it apart.

Tried reseating the ram. Nothing happened.
Do you have integrated graphics? If so, try removing the GPU and seeing if it boots.
 
Do you have integrated graphics? If so, try removing the GPU and seeing if it boots.
Like I said, too scared to touch the thing. I have no idea what goes where.

Somebody else mentioned that the power supply might be fried. It is possible since I had to use an adapter just to get my videocard to connect to the power supply.
 
Crucial M500 coming today, replacing my Intel G2 160GB drive in my Desktop, which was running out of space. This will be my fourth SSD? The old 160GB will be put into my friends' iMac, who does video production work.

Annoying that I have to wait another few weeks for Windows 8.1 to drop to use the drive though. Figure if I'm this close to an upgrade, I might as well do a clean install to 8.1 rather than 8.
 
Recommendations on a 800+ watt power supply? My current one is 450 but possibly dead. Tried disconnecting the video card and still no power.
Would moving to a higher wattage psu require a larger case?
 

Addnan

Member
Recommendations on a 800+ watt power supply? My current one is 450 but possibly dead. Tried disconnecting the video card and still no power.
Would moving to a higher wattage psu require a larger case?

No, but what are you trying to run? 800+ is way too much unless you are going multi card with enthusiast CPU and then there's still wiggle room.

If you want high end PSU the Seasonic X, Corsair AX, XFX Pro, the high end Cooler Master V series or the BeQuiet dark power (Costs a fair bit more). They are all Seasonic units.
 
So it's just gaming then for you? If so I'd look along the lines of

Trying my best to stick to Newegg

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Biostar Hi-Fi Z87X 3D ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($72.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill Hive 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $922.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-07 18:35 EDT-0400)

If you're near a Microcenter better deals to be had

What if I'm an nvidia fan and want an nvidia card instead :) some of the prices are off. The radeon is 274 and case is 90. I chose a different case that was cheaper. But what about a card?
 
No, but what are you trying to run? 800+ is way too much unless you are going multi card with enthusiast CPU and then there's still wiggle room.

If you want high end PSU the Seasonic X, Corsair AX, XFX Pro, the high end Cooler Master V series or the BeQuiet dark power (Costs a fair bit more). They are all Seasonic units.
Honestly I would be happy with a PSU that doesn't burn out in less than a year.

Only reason I brought up 800w is because my 450 required an adapter to connect to the videocard. Maybe that's unrelated and I just got a bad unit.
 

kharma45

Member
What if I'm an nvidia fan and want an nvidia card instead :) some of the prices are off. The radeon is 274 and case is 90. I chose a different case that was cheaper. But what about a card?

If you want an Nvidia card instead go ahead, they're just generally poorer value at most price point versus what you get with AMD. Unfortunately prices change, the 7950 was $200 when I posted it and the case was on offer too.

I'd not get that case unless it was on offer. If I was redoing it now, I'll do it with an Nvidia card but a 7950 can be had for $210 http://us.ncix.com/products/?usaffi...950-DC2-3GD5-V2&manufacture=ASUS&promoid=1317

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Biostar Hi-Fi Z87X 3D ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($76.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 330R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill Hive 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $966.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-09 09:37 EDT-0400)
 

kennah

Member
Currently collecting parts for my first build and another question on graphics cards - with the recent announcements of Mantle for AMD and Steam OS built with Nvidia in mind, should this be something that factors into a purchasing decision now? What's your expert opinion?!
My expert opinion is we won't know the future until it happens.

Stuff will work. Some stuff will go slightly faster on other stuff. That's computing. Just get something well rounded that is easily upgradeable. Don't expect shit to last for five years (gpus). Be grateful when they do last for 5 years (Q6600, early i7s)
 

CSampson

Member
Can someone give me some ideas of what to check to diagnose hard locks I've been experiencing for awhile? These aren't even BSOD or anything...just a hard lock with no information on why it happened. Some points:
- I've run memtest+ for almost a full day and have passed every time, zero errors.
- I've switched video cards and the exact same thing has happened.
- I keep my Windows 7 installed on a SSD and media on a separate 1TB HDD. The SSD (I think it's a 64 GB Crucial) has been reformatted fresh with Windows 7 (legit copy) but this did not solve the lock.
- I've run error checking on both hard drives, but issues persists.
- There doesn't appear to be a noticeable pattern...I leave my computer on for the most part and sometimes it will last a few days before locking up.
- It never happens when I'm using my PC...always when idled, at least as far as I can remember.
- All drivers are installed and are the latest ones.

Specs (at work so this is off the top of my head):
I5 ivy bridge 3.4 ghz quad core
GTX 760 4GB
Crucial M4 64 GB SSD
WD 1TB HDD
12 gb Kingston memory (3x4gb sticks)
Windows 7

Honestly, I think it has to do with HDMI output going to my onkyo receiver. I don't have a problem extending the picture or using just the projector output, but I feel like when I close my receiver/TV, it somehow fucks with the drivers or something and causes a hard lock. I can't prove this though, nor re-create it at will. I was thinking maybe a loss of information may have a negative impact.

The only other issue I regularly seem to encounter is transferring large files across my network to other computers...it usually hard locks my comp during the xFer process with around 2 minutes left. I dunno if this is OS related or not though.

Anyways, thanks in advance for any insight.
 
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