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

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SHarris78

Member
Swapped my cable to a hdmi lead and used a hdmi - dvi adapter and the flickering problem is gone. Thank God I didn't need a more expensive solution - my GTX780 only arrived today and i'm broke!

Thanks to those who offered advice, much appreciated.
 

mkenyon

Banned
Haz and I will be at PDXLAN this weekend. If you guys have any questions you want us to run by various reps (AMD/Sapphire, NVIDIA, CoolerMaster, etc), let one of us know.

Will take lots of pics.
 

Diomedes

Member
In the process of upgrading; the first build I chose some parts I would like to replace/upgrade now that I know more. Changing the motherboard and SSD (OS drive), I presume this will make at least something, if not several things, difficult.
Thinking of doing both at once, then doing a clean install on the new drive.
Should I just clone the drive to the new one? Using what program? Clean install instead?
In what order should I proceed? Install new MB first, or SSD first, or both at same time? Steps to follow?
Using OEM Win, phone reactivation should still work? Should I format the drive I'm replacing at some point before I start, or just disconnect it and deal with it after?

Sorry to self-quote,

What prep do I need to do to upgrade MB and OS drive at the same time?
 

emag

Member
How do they perform below 60fps? Is there much more noticeable stuttering, frame drops etc than a regular monitor?

A 120/144Hz monitor at least as good at lower framerates as an equivalent "regular" monitor would be. There's no direct downside to the 120/144Hz refresh rate of the monitor.
 

RSTEIN

Comics, serious business!
Quick question. By BIOS says my target memory frequency is 1333 mhz but CPUZ says 800 mhz (as it should). Do I care that my BIOS says 1333 mhz?
 

bro1

Banned
You need some seriously powerful (read: expensive) hardware to use it. You'll need to run everything at a solid 120 fps to make full use of the monitor.

not even close to the truth. 120hz monitor benefits everything. You can run most games without vsynhc and have 0 tearing. Everything is crystal glass smooth. I have my monitor OC'd to 75hz and it's a world of difference.
 

bro1

Banned
I do have a question about 120hz monitors though that I am not sure of the answer to. Why could I run my old CRT monitor at high htz with a VGA cable but need dualdvi on flat panels?
 

Karmum

Banned
Finally took the plunge and picked up the case I should have bought instead of my Antec Three Hundred nearly two years ago - a Fractal R4 (R3 back then). It was $80 at Amazon. Can't wait for it to arrive on Tuesday, but also a bit nervous to move all the stuff from my Antec to the R4. The Three Hundred is not an awful case by any means, but I'm pretty sure I paid like $60 on it and adding another $40 onto a like $700+ purchase...ah well.

But oh my god it's going to be organized, quieter and the front USB ports will work.
 

Foxyone

Member
Question: I'm upgrading from a laptop with a Radeon 6570 to a desktop with a med-high end GPU. I'm wondering about the choice between Nvidia and AMD; the GTX 660 is $190 and the Radeon 7870 is $200. Given the choice between them, which might be the better choice? And is Physx really worth it? The particle effects in Planetside and Warframe are pretty sweet, but AMD doesn't have that stuff.
 
Sorry if this is the wrong thread to ask this question, as I couldn't find a relevant one.

What I wanted to know is if anyone knows if the mobile intel 4 series express chipset allows for digital output over vga. I would like to hook up a laptop that only has vga to a TV to watch Netflix.

The laptop in question is an Acer Extensa 4630z.

Thanks.
 
So just a PSA about cheap Antec cases. I had to do a build on an Antec 100 today. World's shittiest cable routing system, no transverse drive bays, maybe three quarters of an inch of clearance for the backplane and the world's shittiest cable placement and routing on the stock fans.

I tried to make it as neat as I could:

C92mE1i.jpg

You can see how there's no hole above the 8 pin connector so I had to route it from the top right. There was also no hole anywhere on the stock fan to tie down the cord to so I couldn't route it along the top. Instead I had to route it along the 8 pin connector and use that to hold down the stock cooler cable.

Since there was no cable routing slot in the middle and no transverse bays I had to route the SATA cables out, down and in. Fun work there. The HD AUDIO cable was far too short as always so I had to put the DVD drive in the second 5.25" bay. There was no reset switch. Like it's the middle ages or something. Almost cable routing down the bottom courtesy of the hole being so far off to the left it was half obscured by a medium sized PSU. God help me if I actually had a long PSU.

So this is what it looks like from the back:


The power supply had an orgy of cables that I just bundled up and stuck in the gaping chasm left by the longitudinally mounted 3.5" drive bays. It was about the only redeeming feature. Thank fuck I had no PCI-E power to run otherwise I would have struggled to get the side closed.

tl;dr: Friends shouldn't let friends buy cheap, shitty Antec cases. There are far better options at this price point like the 200R.
 

kharma45

Member
So just a PSA about cheap Antec cases. I had to do a build on an Antec 100 today. World's shittiest cable routing system, no transverse drive bays, maybe three quarters of an inch of clearance for the backplane and the world's shittiest cable placement and routing on the stock fans.

I tried to make it as neat as I could:



You can see how there's no hole above the 8 pin connector so I had to route it from the top right. There was also no hole anywhere on the stock fan to tie down the cord to so I couldn't route it along the top. Instead I had to route it along the 8 pin connector and use that to hold down the stock cooler cable.

Since there was no cable routing slot in the middle and no transverse bays I had to route the SATA cables out, down and in. Fun work there. The HD AUDIO cable was far too short as always so I had to put the DVD drive in the second 5.25" bay. There was no reset switch. Like it's the middle ages or something. Almost cable routing down the bottom courtesy of the hole being so far off to the left it was half obscured by a medium sized PSU. God help me if I actually had a long PSU.

So this is what it looks like from the back:



The power supply had an orgy of cables that I just bundled up and stuck in the gaping chasm left by the longitudinally mounted 3.5" drive bays. It was about the only redeeming feature. Thank fuck I had no PCI-E power to run otherwise I would have struggled to get the side closed.

tl;dr: Friends shouldn't let friends buy cheap, shitty Antec cases. There are far better options at this price point like the 200R.

To be fair my 200R doesn't look much better than that, but that could've just been me doing a poor job of it.
 

Roland1979

Junior Member

With a good case like the Fractal Design Define R4 you won't need that, because it's included with the case (and probably pre-applied already). A few Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1.450rpm 120mm fans maybe?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg4_3vJ1PZw
 
I posted this in the tech support thread but I might as well fwd it here:

So I'm building a PC (well, my friend is doing most of the work) and we got stuck on installing Windows 7. We had the ISO on a flash drive, plugged it in and Windows began its setup, but it couldn't find my HDD. We made sure it was plugged in and it was warm to the touch so it was clearly receiving power, but it could not be detected. We opened BIOS and it was not detecting my hard drive.

At this point, can I safely assume that it's defective? My friend believes it is. The reason this is important is because my optical drive is also defective — wouldn't power on at all, tested in 2 computers — and my PC case arrived missing its frontal intake fan. I bought all these parts from TigerDirect.com and unless I'm mistaken it seems they shipped me 3 faulty items. This is absolutely unacceptable, but I wanted to make sure that my HDD is defective before I send them a nasty email.

Sucks to hear. What model PSU is it?
Sounds like it could be a power issue. Have you tried another SATA port? Assembled the bare minimum outside the case to check for shorts?
Something like not using standoffs, a loose screw, or no IO shield can cause these things.

We tested another optical drive tonight and it worked perfectly. This is a huge relief because a faulty power supply thay fries computer parts is a horrifying idea to me, seeing as I just spent $1000 on this thing.
 
Hi, I am building a PC for a friend of mine. I am trying to find out what is best between the builds in the OP and a different build from a website, but I'll take any feedback I can get. He is also not very tech-savvy in this regard, so on many things he will just take my word.

Your Current Specs: Dunno what his current specs are, but it will be a complete replacement. Some retail thing that still runs Vista.
Budget: €750 in The Netherlands, there is a lot of leeway though, but this is the target point.
Main Use: New games and basic work
Monitor Resolution: He'll upgrade his monitor and I assume it will be 1080P.
List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well: Probably Battlefield 4, The Witcher 3. He does not mind playing games in 30 FPS. He does not have a specific interest in PhysX or supersampling or anything, but I was eyeing a Nvidia card anyway,
Looking to reuse any parts?: Nope
When will you build?: ASAP, matter of days.
Will you be overclocking?: I am thinking no, since I know for sure he will not do it and I only have overclocking experience on my own CPU. But I guess it will depend on how much difference it will make to decide if I want to shell out the time and effort. I can see me doing it if the CPU is becoming a bottleneck later on, but of course it depends on the CPU and motherboard choice. He is also willing to buy an extra heatsink if necessary. If overclocking, I don't need to absolutely squeeze every single bit out of the components if possible, it is not my hobby when it is the PC of somebody else.

So, I mostly want advice on what CPU and motherboard to take. As I am also doubting between Haswell and Ivy Bridge. I am not any good in comparing motherboards, so I dunno how much I will notice with different feature sets.

The biggest thing for me is the upgradable socket part of Haswell. But on the side I doubt by the time the CPU needs upgrading the socket will still be relevant, and a good Ivy Bridge processor should probably keep up for a long time with this slow progress of CPUs.

Also, I do not have a lot of experience assembling PCs and have only done mine with the help of a friend. It is not too daunting, but if some cases make it a lot harder or something, please warn me.

Depending on price of final build and whether my friend wants it to be overclocked:
CPU: 3350P/3570K or 4430.
Motherboard: ASRock B75 Pro3-M/MSI Z77A-G45
RAM: Crucial Ballistix BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU (4GB x 2, DDR3-1600,1.5V)
GPU: GTX 760 2GB
Storage: Seagate Barricuda 7200rpm ST2000 (2TB)
Power Supply: XFX Pro 550W (I cannot really compare power supplies, do I want something modular as that is easier?)
Case: Fractal Design R4/Corsair 200R/ Cooler Master CM 690 II Advanced

I need to offer a few options which he would find nice. I don't think he is too big of a fan of the Corsair 200R and 300R. He liked the Fractal R4, and he saw it in person since I have the R3, but it is a lot higher price point. Also still need to look into the BitFenix stuff, they seem less popular in The Netherlands? Shinobi does look nice though.

Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B5ST Can't find 1ST in Europe, but I doubt it matters.
Heatsink: Gelid Solutions Tranquillo Rev.2, but that is if I want anything. Heatsinks are a step harder to assemble with cooling paste and such right? It depends on whether I want to overclock of course.
SSD: Samsung 840 120GB.

EDIT: The total of the most expensive parts here would already be around €830, maybe even higher with weird shipping costs and such.
 

knitoe

Member
I posted this in the tech support thread but I might as well fwd it here:

So I'm building a PC (well, my friend is doing most of the work) and we got stuck on installing Windows 7. We had the ISO on a flash drive, plugged it in and Windows began its setup, but it couldn't find my HDD. We made sure it was plugged in and it was warm to the touch so it was clearly receiving power, but it could not be detected. We opened BIOS and it was not detecting my hard drive.

At this point, can I safely assume that it's defective? My friend believes it is. The reason this is important is because my optical drive is also defective — wouldn't power on at all, tested in 2 computers — and my PC case arrived missing its frontal intake fan. I bought all these parts from TigerDirect.com and unless I'm mistaken it seems they shipped me 3 faulty items. This is absolutely unacceptable, but I wanted to make sure that my HDD is defective before I send them a nasty email.



We tested another optical drive tonight and it worked perfectly. This is a huge relief because a faulty power supply thay fries computer parts is a horrifying idea to me, seeing as I just spent $1000 on this thing.

Yes. If you don't see the device in the bios, the device (most likely) and/or the MB are defective.
 

Roland1979

Junior Member
Hi, I am building a PC for a friend of mine. I am trying to find out what is best between the builds in the OP and a different build from a website, but I'll take any feedback I can get. He is also not very tech-savvy in this regard, so on many things he will just take my word.
Budget: €750 in The Netherlands, there is a lot of leeway though, but this is the target point.

If you buy online consider Azerty.nl, I have bought a lot of my parts there, and a BenQ XL2411T from Azerty should be here any minute now (yay). 1080P, 144Hz, almost zero input lag and response time. not great colors but very good performance for gaming supposedly. I do plan to overclock and not knowledgeable enough to advice on the hardware though.
Azerty is loading very slow at the moment but that's probably some temporary thing.
 
If you buy online consider Azerty.nl, I have bought a lot of my parts there, and a BenQ XL2411T from Azerty should be here any minute now (yay). 1080P, 144Hz, almost zero input lag and response time. not great colors but very good performance for gaming supposedly. I do plan to overclock and not knowledgeable enough to advice on the hardware though.
Azerty is loading very slow at the moment but that's probably some temporary thing.

Yeah, Azerty is good, but I will just order the parts in what is best with shipping costs, prices and availability. I doubt that if I order everything at Azerty I will come out cheapest and fastest. Of course I will look at if the stores are reliable.
 

-MD-

Member
Just want to say, I built my first computer back in October and this thread helped me quite a bit. I didn't have an account back then to post but now that I do I just wanted to say thanks to the OP and anyone else that I gathered advice/information from at the time.
 
Yes. If you don't see the device in the bios, the device (most likely) and/or the MB are defective.

I think we can rule out bad motherboard because we connected a spare HDD from an old PC, using the same SATA cables, and it was detected and Windows installed just fine.
 

tauke

Member
I think we can rule out bad motherboard because we connected a spare HDD from an old PC, using the same SATA cables, and it was detected and Windows installed just fine.

From my experience, if you try the undetected HDD on another system and it still fail to be detected, high chances of it already defective.

If it still under warranty, you can RMA it.
 

Mr. Hyde

Member
Does anyone know a cure for computers which like to wake up from sleep mode after around one minute? Is it because computers with SSD drives aren't supposed to be in sleep mode? I have my Samsung 840 pro SSD running in performance mode. I assume it's a setting in it, but I can't figure it out.
 

StarkFist

Member
Hello PC-GAF, hopeful console convert here. So if I were to use the Standard build from Hazaro's sheet, what could I reasonably expect in terms of performance? I don't really have any concept of PC gaming power so the specs on paper are mostly meaningless to me. I'm located in the U.S. and I'd like to have it assembled by the retailer or manufacturer. Here's my questionnaire for context:

Your Current Specs: Bullshit laptop, runs way too hot and can barely run games that were new in 2009
Budget: $500-$800
Main Use: General usage (Word, web etc.), light audio editing and recording, gaming
Monitor Resolution: Buying a new monitor, any standard resolution would be fine, preferably widescreen
List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well: Would like to run current gen games (Dark Souls, ARMA II, Civ V, Total War series, Starcraft II, LoL, TF2, Skyrim, STALKER) with consistent FPS on Medium-High graphics settings. No need for heavy duty bells and whistles, I just want something that will let me play modern games and render them at least as well as a PS3 could, and that will last me a bit going into the next gen.
Looking to reuse any parts?: No
When will you build?: Late fall 2013
Will you be overclocking?: No
 
Your Current Specs: Mac mini 2010
Budget: $500-$800
Main Use: General usage (Word, web etc.), Steam Indie Gaming
Monitor Resolution: don't need
List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well: Indie Games mostly, i need something with windows, and Future Proof indie machine hahha, i don`t how powerful it should be, play rogue legacy, hot line miami Ys etc
Looking to reuse any parts?: No
When will you build?: now
Will you be overclocking?: No

PS1 - I will use on big picture mode mostly 1080p tv
Playstation 2 - Only gamepad (360?)
 

biocat

Member
Here's what I'm putting together. It's my first build from scratch and I'm kind of unsure about the psu. It seems like I could get by with a lot less power. What do you guys recommend? Also, before anyone gripes about the gpu, it's temporary until I can find a good 760 deal.



PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard ($163.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($82.37 @ TigerDirect)
Storage: Intel 520 Series Cherryville 180GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($179.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card ($99.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Platinum 550W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($79.78 @ Newegg)
Total: $993.07
 

mkenyon

Banned
Your Current Specs: Mac mini 2010
Budget: $500-$800
Main Use: General usage (Word, web etc.), Steam Indie Gaming
Monitor Resolution: don't need
List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well: Indie Games mostly, i need something with windows, and Future Proof indie machine hahha, i don`t how powerful it should be, play rogue legacy, hot line miami Ys etc
Looking to reuse any parts?: No
When will you build?: now
Will you be overclocking?: No

PS1 - I will use on big picture mode mostly 1080p tv
Playstation 2 - Only gamepad (360?)
Use the HTPC from the SFF build guide. Bit.ly/GAFBoxOne
 
Here's what I'm putting together. It's my first build from scratch and I'm kind of unsure about the psu. It seems like I could get by with a lot less power. What do you guys recommend? Also, before anyone gripes about the gpu, it's temporary until I can find a good 760 deal.



PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard ($163.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($82.37 @ TigerDirect)
Storage: Intel 520 Series Cherryville 180GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($179.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card ($99.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Platinum 550W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($79.78 @ Newegg)
Total: $993.07


If the GPU is meant to be temporary anyway, you'd be better off buying used and reselling the card when you buy a 760 down the line.
Something like a 6950 should fit your budget nicely, give you better performance than a 7770 and is easily sold off for minimal loss a few months later.
 

CountertopTable

Neo Member
How do they perform below 60fps? Is there much more noticeable stuttering, frame drops etc than a regular monitor?

Only downside to 120/144 hz monitors is image quality and viewing angles since they are TN panels. I am not a twitch shooter gamer so I prefer an IPS to a TN any day.
 
So I just shipped my 7950 out to Sapphire. I figured with Haswell I would at least be able to play FTL without a GPU, how wrong I am. Its gonna be a long two/three weeks.
 

Addnan

Member
So I just shipped my 7950 out to Sapphire. I figured with Haswell I would at least be able to play FTL without a GPU, how wrong I am. Its gonna be a long two/three weeks.

Did you install the intel video drivers? Surely haswell integrated should be able to run FTL.
 

Skel1ingt0n

I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
AWWWWWWWWW YISSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Guys - I gotta run - meeting my buddy in an hour to catch Pacific Rim. But I've been up all day cussing, screaming, hurting my fingers, cussing some more, and getting frustrated. I don't wanna say we're in the clear yet - still have a large handful of worries and whatnot. I'm afraid it's just gonna stop working any second for some reason - I'll explain more tonight.

BUT(!) - quick update. I've been running my water cooled GTX Titan against Furmark for 15 minutes now. At 98% GPU utilization for that amount of time - I've gone from an ambient temp of 25c to a current GPU temp, under load, of 32-33c.

Hellz yes. It feels good to be a gangster. Full honesty, though - I'm not saying I won't change my tune when something goes wrong in the next few days. ;p

9279717956_cb384b09e2_c.jpg


9279715196_7405e801db_c.jpg


9276933369_e962155b6f_c.jpg


Still have some wire clean up to do, and some things are giving me issue - loose SATA cables, too thick of wire in a certain spot, etc. But for today, I'm a happy camper!
 

Smokey

Member
AWWWWWWWWW YISSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Guys - I gotta run - meeting my buddy in an hour to catch Pacific Rim. But I've been up all day cussing, screaming, hurting my fingers, cussing some more, and getting frustrated. I don't wanna say we're in the clear yet - still have a large handful of worries and whatnot. I'm afraid it's just gonna stop working any second for some reason - I'll explain more tonight.

BUT(!) - quick update. I've been running my water cooled GTX Titan against Furmark for 15 minutes now. At 98% GPU utilization for that amount of time - I've gone from an ambient temp of 25c to a current GPU temp, under load, of 32-33c.

Hellz yes. It feels good to be a gangster. Full honesty, though - I'm not saying I won't change my tune when something goes wrong in the next few days. ;p

9279717956_cb384b09e2_c.jpg


9279715196_7405e801db_c.jpg


9276933369_e962155b6f_c.jpg


Still have some wire clean up to do, and some things are giving me issue - loose SATA cables, too thick of wire in a certain spot, etc. But for today, I'm a happy camper!

looks like trash, get a better case next time bruh
 

deuce985

Banned
Is it possible Nvidia will drop the price on their 700 series later this year? I'd like to hope so because I want a 770 or 780.
 

Danj

Member
OK, so I read the Maximus VI Impact will not be available until the 31st, anyone have any other info about this?
 
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