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

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kharma45

Member
Is there a multiplier for the Memory Clock? My 7950 I have OC'd at Core 1125 and Memory 1450. That's nothing close to 5400.

5400 is the effective memory clock. With GDDR5 you multiply by four to get it, so your memory is effectively clocked at 5800 which is pretty much as high as 7000 series cards go. Anything beyond that makes little difference.

NoRéN;93772959 said:
Thanks. I'll try it out tonight.

No worries. It's a lot of trial and error.

I used the Heaven 4.0 benchmark to give me a rough indicator of stability. If it could run it I found the GPU had a good chance of holding a stable clock.
 

SmartBase

Member
Just how far away are Maxwell and 1440p GSync monitors? I'm pining for a new over-the-top build but don't see the point doing it now when those goodies are so tantalisingly close yet far away.
 

Restrain This

Neo Member
Just bit the bullet and ordered my parts. A couple last minute questions I'd like to get people's opinion about:

1) Windows 7 vs. Windows 8 vs. Windows 8.1. Any appreciable difference between these? If there aren't any major drawbacks for one over the others, I'll probably just go with the latest OS.

2) Forgot to purchase thermal paste. Are they all pretty much the same or is there a specific brand that people would recommend?
 

kharma45

Member
Just bit the bullet and ordered my parts. A couple last minute questions I'd like to get people's opinion about:

1) Windows 7 vs. Windows 8 vs. Windows 8.1. Any appreciable difference between these? If there aren't any major drawbacks for one over the others, I'll probably just go with the latest OS.

2) Forgot to purchase thermal paste. Are they all pretty much the same or is there a specific brand that people would recommend?

1. Go for 8/8.1, whichever is cheaper. Faster and more useful once you get used to it plus it'll continue to get new DirectX support unlike 7.

2. Whatever cooler you're using will come with paste.
 
i should have the package by now, but the FedEx guy decides to get lazy and fabricate an excuse for delaying the delivery -mobile service was out of service-
what a cheap excuse -__-
i've to wait for tomorrow :\
 

kharma45

Member
Any guides to building a htpc for around $300 or less, just for movies and music?

You'd be looking at something like this from Intel

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($65.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock B85M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($70.73 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($35.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $315.66
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-16 09:19 EST-0500)

AMD has new APUs on the way on January 14 if you wanted something with a bit more on the GPU side but less on the CPU. For what you're doing though a Pentium will be sufficient.

If you have a Microcenter nearby you can save $6 on the CPU.
 

HoosTrax

Member
Only $500 for a 1TB SSD (SAMSUNG 840 EVO)? Am I reading that right? Specs seem fine...any gotchas I should be aware of?

Seems like only yesterday that I was shelling out a couple hundred bucks for a tiny 128GB SSD.
 
Newegg has the 840 evo 120gb for $89...I feel like I should bite but I've already spent too much. I was going to wait a few months until I got an ssd...


I'm also starting to like 8.1. It's super fast on my older Macbook. Even if I don't get an ssd any time soon I am still considering going with it on my desktop now...

Worried about some of my older games not working at all, though I guess I could try a VM setup if need be.
 

SmartBase

Member
Former end of the year for the first ones, the latter i don't know.

Hmm well I was thinking of building in April so hopefully we get more info by then, can't hold off much longer than that.

Only $500 for a 1TB SSD (SAMSUNG 840 EVO)? Am I reading that right? Specs seem fine...any gotchas I should be aware of?

Seems like only yesterday that I was shelling out a couple hundred bucks for a tiny 128GB SSD.

They're meant to be pretty good from what I've heard, I thought bigger ones were meant to be more reliable as well. Definitely getting one of those, unless they come out with even larger ones.
 
hmmmm... amd question.

I have 3 monitor setup, and everytime i turn off the monitors at night and turn them on the next day, the layouts of windows all get rejumbled.

anyway to not have that happen?
 

GungHo

Single-handedly caused Exxon-Mobil to sue FOX, start World War 3
Only $500 for a 1TB SSD (SAMSUNG 840 EVO)? Am I reading that right? Specs seem fine...any gotchas I should be aware of?

Seems like only yesterday that I was shelling out a couple hundred bucks for a tiny 128GB SSD.

No gotchas. They're bad-ass if money's not tight. They give you plenty of room to run them like they're a normal drive rather than having to put Steam, etc, in the HDD ghetto.
 
Crossposting because Laptop-GAF seems to be dead, and I need this asap.

Hi GAF I know you guys recommend a Lenovo IdeaPad Y410p Laptop Computer - 59369925

I will need a computer that supports all these requirements:

MINIMUM RECOMMENDED HARDWARE

"Intel I7 processor with chipset that must support Intel Virtualization Technology
8 GB of ram (16 GB preferred)
Bios must support Virtualization
500 GB hard drive
CDRW/DVDRW combo drive
10/100 Auto Sensing Network Card
10/100 A/G/N Standard card (one of these standards will suffice)
Discrete Video Chipset 256 MB or Shared 512 MB
One USB 3.0 port (two preferred)"

Do you think this laptop will suffice?

I don't think I really need the cd drive however.

also, please answer asap.. I need this thing shipped out quickly as possible.

thanks PC-GAF.
 

Azzurri

Member
GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II from Asus should be releasing soon (mid december) once it does I think I'm gonna go ahead a start a new build.

ASUS_GTX_780_Ti_DirectCU_II_02-684x620.jpg
 

BiggNife

Member
Just bit the bullet and ordered my parts. A couple last minute questions I'd like to get people's opinion about:

1) Windows 7 vs. Windows 8 vs. Windows 8.1. Any appreciable difference between these? If there aren't any major drawbacks for one over the others, I'll probably just go with the latest OS.

2) Forgot to purchase thermal paste. Are they all pretty much the same or is there a specific brand that people would recommend?

Get 8/8.1 and then download one of the many Start menu replacements you can find online, like Start8. You can set it so it boots to desktop so you'll never ever have to see the Metro interface. From what I've seen, Windows 7 is more expensive and harder to come by now that it's out of production, and outside of the completely optional Metro/Modern UI junk, Win 8 is just as good if not better than 7.

8.1 is a free update to 8 so it doesn't really matter which one you get.
 

kharma45

Member
Get 8/8.1 and then download one of the many Start menu replacements you can find online, like Start8. You can set it so it boots to desktop so you'll never ever have to see the Metro interface. From what I've seen, Windows 7 is more expensive and harder to come by now that it's out of production, and outside of the completely optional Metro/Modern UI junk, Win 8 is just as good if not better than 7.

8.1 is a free update to 8 so it doesn't really matter which one you get.

8.1 can do that natively.
 

AJLma

Member
Finally finished my build! Replaced the stock AMD cooler with a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus, now it runs reasonably quiet.

Passing my expectations so far. 40FPS in Unigine Heaven 1080P, and even beating some press benchmarks with comparable specs by a few FPS.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6350 3.9GHz 6-Core Processor (Purchased For $112.58)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (Purchased For $29.99)
Motherboard: ASRock 990FX Extreme3 ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard (Purchased For $99.99)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $49.99)
Storage: Seagate 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $109.99)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card (Purchased For $219.99)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN722N 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter (Purchased For $9.99)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $25.99)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 650W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $50.00)
Monitor: Asus VS248H-P 24.0" Monitor (Purchased For $105.00)
Total: $813.51
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-16 14:17 EST-0500)

Starting to think about overclocking. What do you all think about the potential for overclocking on this build?

Right now my CPU gets up to 52C under a heavy gaming load, and I've seen the GPU get as high as 67C. Are these temps acceptable, and do they leave much room for OC'ing?
 

ScOULaris

Member
Man. I've gotta say that one thing I can't stand about Windows 8.1 is how DirectX 11 has taken a shit all over legacy DirectDraw support. If you try to play fullscreen older games or emulators that use DirectDraw in Windows 8.1, you'll get terrible performance and graphical glitches.

I was so fed up with the graphical glitches in Brood War on Windows 8.1 that I decided to just make an XP virtual machine for playing older games that have this problem.

This is a real shame that not enough people are talking about. Tons of old games are probably affected by this.
 

kennah

Member
One small question : Is there any reason to pick the superclocked version of the 780 TI over the regular ACX version ?

It has the word super in the name?

Depends on how much you care about winning the chip lottery. Basically the Super clocked ones have been preselected for being decent over clockers and come to out of the factory that way.

Or you could take your chances with a regular one and try to over clock it to the SC levels.

Up to you if the extra money is worth the guarantee or not.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Starting to think about overclocking. What do you all think about the potential for overclocking on this build?

Right now my CPU gets up to 52C under a heavy gaming load, and I've seen the GPU get as high as 67C. Are these temps acceptable, and do they leave much room for OC'ing?

4+1 VRM doesn't sound like a lot of OC potential to me, but you can probably squeeze a little out of it. That CPU is rated at 125W but that's probably a pretty heavy overestimation since the 6300 is rated at 95W.

Sounds a little warm for stock too, but I'm also not sure what those normally run. You could probably get better temps with an intake fan.
 
Well I just went with a Asus m51 because I got a good deal on it and installed the gtx 780 with a Antec 80plus bronze. I'm feeling the psu fan pretty loud on load and it's getting pretty hot as well. Just playing Skyrim on 1080p for less than an hour and it felt kind of hot.

I turned it off, waited an hour, and tried again. Felt better this time.

But I'm afraid it may happen again.

Thinking about changing my psu to the Corsair AX860 or 750 with the Platinum plus rating. Will that really be quieter and generate less heat? I think most of my heat is coming from that Antec. The Corsair costs more but do you think it'll be a good investment?

Thanks.
 

Exuro

Member
So I just got all my parts in and started putting the machine together. I'm not a getting a signal from system. All of the fans are up and running so I assume the psu is working and since the cpu fan is running I'd assume the motherboard is as well(itx board with no lights). I'm running hdmi from a video card. Should I try a different cable/use the motherboard video?

Also when I start and shut off the machine the psu makes a strange metal spring sound. Hard to describe.

And to add I'm not getting any beeping from the motherboard but I'm not sure if it makes sounds
 
So I just got all my parts in and started putting the machine together. I'm not a getting a signal from system. All of the fans are up and running so I assume the psu is working and since the cpu fan is running I'd assume the motherboard is as well(itx board with no lights). I'm running hdmi from a video card. Should I try a different cable/use the motherboard video?

Also when I start and shut off the machine the psu makes a strange metal spring sound. Hard to describe.

And to add I'm not getting any beeping from the motherboard but I'm not sure if it makes sounds

Try DVI. If you have a video card installed you will want to use the cards outputs but if you want to remove it from the equation, disconnect it and use the onboard video output.
 

AJLma

Member
4+1 VRM doesn't sound like a lot of OC potential to me, but you can probably squeeze a little out of it. That CPU is rated at 125W but that's probably a pretty heavy overestimation since the 6300 is rated at 95W.

Sounds a little warm for stock too, but I'm also not sure what those normally run. You could probably get better temps with an intake fan.

I've got 3 fans on the system right now. 1x120mm exhaust in the back, 1x140mm intake in the side and 1x 120mm intake in the front.

Those temps are also under load from games like Metro:LL & Far Cry 3. Right now my temps are: CPU - 19C, GPU - 46C

What is 4+1 VRM?
 
What's the best way to get a "silent" PC build? I've been a fan of fanless graphics cards, couples with quiet case and zalaman quiet fans on the cpu and in the case. Obviously you take a pretty big perf hit on the graphics card compared to state of the art - my current one can just about cope with Witcher 2 with fancy settings turned off, at 1680x1050.

Wondering if a long hdmi cable / usb cable and putting the pc in another room is the truly best option for a good quiet gaming pc!
 

Thorgal

Member
It has the word super in the name?

Depends on how much you care about winning the chip lottery. Basically the Super clocked ones have been preselected for being decent over clockers and come to out of the factory that way.

Or you could take your chances with a regular one and try to over clock it to the SC levels.

Up to you if the extra money is worth the guarantee or not.


Ill think ill take the SC version . then

thanks!
 
Is there any chance the Haswell-E 8 core chips are going to hit the market under $1000?

And if not, will any of the LGA 1150 chipsets support DDR4?

Trying to get a feeling if I'm willing to wait a year for a new build or not.
 

fozzy

Member
Well the case and PSU come tomorrow and it'll be time to build. Watched loads of random Youtube videos on building but I just know it's all gonna go wrong :lol
 

scogoth

Member
Is there any chance the Haswell-E 8 core chips are going to hit the market under $1000?

And if not, will any of the LGA 1150 chipsets support DDR4?

Trying to get a feeling if I'm willing to wait a year for a new build or not.

Haswell-E will probably start around $400 and go up to $1000

LGA 1150 will never support DDR4. Doubt broadwell will support it either so it will be awhile before DDR4 is on mainstream boards.
 
Haswell-E will probably start around $400 and go up to $1000

LGA 1150 will never support DDR4. Doubt broadwell will support it either so it will be awhile before DDR4 is on mainstream boards.

Thanks man.

All signs point to waiting, more so looking at next years gpu's and 4k monitors.

Still.. getting that itch ;)
 

Exuro

Member
Try DVI. If you have a video card installed you will want to use the cards outputs but if you want to remove it from the equation, disconnect it and use the onboard video output.
Thanks for the advice. I managed to figure it out. I haden't set the ram in properly. Went another millimeter deeper. Now it posts!
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I've got 3 fans on the system right now. 1x120mm exhaust in the back, 1x140mm intake in the side and 1x 120mm intake in the front.

Those temps are also under load from games like Metro:LL & Far Cry 3. Right now my temps are: CPU - 19C, GPU - 46C

What is 4+1 VRM?

4+1 (most importantly the 4) refers to the power phases on the motherboard, it's basically the place where power is converted from what the PSU outputs to what the CPU needs.

Basically more power phases = less ripple = more OC potential. I'm not terribly clear on the details, but 4 phases is not a lot for a 125W CPU. Higher end motherboards have 6, 8, IIRC some even had 12 not long ago.
 

HoosTrax

Member
Around six months late, but I finally got around to ordering the parts for an upgrade of sorts:


  • 4770K - I do software development, and some media encoding, otherwise I don't think this would be a worthwhile upgrade over a 2500k.
  • ASUS Maximus Impact ITX - Going to be interesting to see how well the audio daughterboard on this stacks up to the Xonar Essence. I find normal onboard audio solutions to be too noisy.
  • Bitfenix Prodigy Black - The general consensus on this case is that it's large for an ITX - I'm willing to make that tradeoff in exchange for its versatility / flexibility / ability to accept any length video card and ample cooling. I hate small & whiny fans on a machine that I'll be using as a workstation next to my desk, and this case will let me load up on big & slow fans. There are obviously mATX cases that are the same size, but any that offer equivalent flexibility (basically the Xigmatek Aquila and Aerocool DS-Cube) are as large as ATX cases themselves, or cost $200.
  • Bitfenix Prodigy Side Window - The black version of the Prodigy is unique in that it has a mesh front panel instead of a solid one. Case has good cooling options anyways, so swapping out the mesh side panel for this probably won't affect it too badly in the cooling department.
  • Corsair H80i - I've not used a premade closed-loop before, but I don't have any air coolers that can fit this case and board combo due to the daughterboards on the Impact, and I don't have a lot of the parts I would need to make a custom loop for this system.
  • Bitfenix Spectre Pro Black - I guess this is the only 230mm fan made specifically for the Prodigy's front fan mount...
  • Corsair cases fans - The "quiet" / "airflow" type, for the two top exhaust ports

Re-used parts:
  • Corsair AX860
  • 7970 GE
  • G.Skill DDR3
  • Crucial SSD

Hopefully this stuff arrives this week :)

Undecided:
OS - I have MSDN, so cost doesn't factor in, but haven't really decided yet whether to stick with Windows 7 or give 8.1 a chance.
 

kharma45

Member
Around six months late, but I finally got around to ordering the parts for an upgrade of sorts:


  • 4770K - I do software development, and some media encoding, otherwise I don't think this would be a worthwhile upgrade over a 2500k.
  • ASUS Maximus Impact ITX - Going to be interesting to see how well the audio daughterboard on this stacks up to the Xonar Essence. I find normal onboard audio solutions to be too noisy.
  • Bitfenix Prodigy Black - The general consensus on this case is that it's large for an ITX - I'm willing to make that tradeoff in exchange for its versatility / flexibility / ability to accept any length video card and ample cooling. I hate small & whiny fans on a machine that I'll be using as a workstation next to my desk, and this case will let me load up on big & slow fans. There are obviously mATX cases that are the same size, but any that offer equivalent flexibility (basically the Xigmatek Aquila and Aerocool DS-Cube) are as large as ATX cases themselves, or cost $200.
  • Bitfenix Prodigy Side Window - The black version of the Prodigy is unique in that it has a mesh front panel instead of a solid one. Case has good cooling options anyways, so swapping out the mesh side panel for this probably won't affect it too badly in the cooling department.
  • Corsair H80i - I've not used a premade closed-loop before, but I don't have any air coolers that can fit this case and board combo due to the daughterboards on the Impact, and I don't have a lot of the parts I would need to make a custom loop for this system.
  • Bitfenix Spectre Pro Black - I guess this is the only 230mm fan made specifically for the Prodigy's front fan mount...
  • Corsair cases fans - The "quiet" / "airflow" type, for the two top exhaust ports

Re-used parts:
  • Corsair AX860
  • 7970 GE
  • G.Skill DDR3
  • Crucial SSD

Hopefully this stuff arrives this week :)

Undecided:
OS - I have MSDN, so cost doesn't factor in, but haven't really decided yet whether to stick with Windows 7 or give 8.1 a chance.

Go for 8.1.
 
MSI announced the price for their after market 290/ 290x.

http://www.overclockers.ru/hardnews...R9_290_serii_Gaming_dostupny_dlya_zakaza.html

If this is true, then the 290 is gonna cost $500+ ?

That a load of bull!

I found one on NCIX.com

http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=92891&vpn=R9 290 GAMING 4G&manufacture=MSI


$529? I was looking to spending $450 max on these. I hope this is just some pricing error.


Crap, the 290x is $700?!?!?!

http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=92892&vpn=R9 290X GAMING 4G&manufacture=MSI

So much for price/ performance.
 
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