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[Croyles]

The 8350 is a bad processor for gaming. Great for video editing and multimedia, bad for gaming. If you want to know specifics, here you go: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=70859256&postcount=3000

Go with the stuff in the OP.

*edit*

Also, if you will be using Premiere, get an NVIDIA card. If you use Vegas, get an AMD card.

Thanks mkenyon.

I understand the importance of Nvidia for Premiere and AMD for Vegas.
I imagine you to have pretty high pc gaming standards. Would you really say the 8350 is bad for gaming? Or just mediocre for your standards? I'm the type of person who isn't even bothered if a game runs at 30fps or 60fps, so take from that what you will. As I said, I am quite clueless when it comes to technical details.

I currently have a PC with a Core 2 Quad Q8400 and do some gaming on Steam so you can imagine the level I am at here.
I'm not exactly looking to run Crysis 3 on good settings or anything. I guess I mostly play indie games on PC, with the rest of my gaming being on consoles.

Would you recommend the Intel Core i5-3570K instead for both editing and gaming? Or maybe even the i7?

Anyway. If I decide to go with an Nvidia card to use Premiere, which card is comparable in price/performance for editing/gaming to the Radeon HD 7870?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[mkenyon]

Thanks mkenyon.

I understand the importance of Nvidia for Premiere and AMD for Vegas.
I imagine you to have pretty high pc gaming standards. Would you really say the 8350 is bad for gaming? Or just mediocre for your standards? I'm the type of person who isn't even bothered if a game runs at 30fps or 60fps, so take from that what you will. As I said, I am quite clueless when it comes to technical details.

I currently have a PC with a Core 2 Quad Q8400 and do some gaming on Steam so you can imagine the level I am at here.
I'm not exactly looking to run Crysis 3 on good settings or anything. I guess I mostly play indie games on PC, with the rest of my gaming being on consoles.

Would you recommend the Intel Core i5-3570K instead for both editing and gaming? Or maybe even the i7?

Anyway. If I decide to go with an Nvidia card to use Premiere, which card is comparable in price/performance for editing/gaming to the Radeon HD 7870?

Thanks so much for your help!

NP!

The 8350 would probably be passable. It offers performance similar to the i7 in terms of multimedia creation, albeit at a much higher power draw. The only niggle in this is that if you get a 3570k or 3770K, you could overclock them quite a bit with changing just a few values. Overclocking the 8350 is a lot more complicated, and increases the power draw to insane levels.

If you aren't familiar with overclocking, or have been shy of it in the past, it is not the dirty word it once was. The 'K' processors are intended for this very thing, and with an evening of more or less messing with two values in BIOS and then checking for stability (rinse, repeat), you could see linear gains in rendering power of 20-30%.

The other benefit, is that because this is the kind of go-to system on GAF, there's a lot of people who are extremely familiar with it and can help you with anything if you were to run into issues.

So, what I'd suggest is to take the 'Great' build in the OP, swap in a 3770K and a GTX760 (for premiere work - a bit more powerful than the 7870 for not much more). You should be just shy of $1000 with that.

 

[XeonQ8]

i have i5 3570k with gtx680 4gb

is there any difference "for games" by overclocking the CPU ?

 

[mkenyon]

i have i5 3570k with gtx680 4gb

is there any difference "for games" by overclocking the CPU ?

Yep.

Here's a gallery with a few games that I ran benches on.

You'll want to look at the 99th Percentile times as well as Number of Frames Over X, to get the best idea. Raw FPS data is obsolete.

 

[Croyles]

NP!

The 8350 would probably be passable. It offers performance similar to the i7 in terms of multimedia creation, albeit at a much higher power draw. The only niggle in this is that if you get a 3570k or 3770K, you could overclock them quite a bit with changing just a few values. Overclocking the 8350 is a lot more complicated, and increases the power draw to insane levels.

If you aren't familiar with overclocking, or have been shy of it in the past, it is not the dirty word it once was. The 'K' processors are intended for this very thing, and with an evening of more or less messing with two values in BIOS and then checking for stability (rinse, repeat), you could see linear gains in rendering power of 20-30%.

The other benefit, is that because this is the kind of go-to system on GAF, there's a lot of people who are extremely familiar with it and can help you with anything if you were to run into issues.

So, what I'd suggest is to take the 'Great' build in the OP, swap in a 3770K and a GTX760 (for premiere work - a bit more powerful than the 7870 for not much more). You should be just shy of $1000 with that.

Excellent post. To the point and easy to understand.

10/10

Thanks so much for your help. I think I'll dish out a little more then and go with the 3770k and maybe the GTX760.

I have another different question about hard drives. Should I install the OS to my solid state (if i get one) and nothing else? What I mean is, will it be good to also keep my hd DSLR videos on my SSD or should I not bother and keep them on the HDD?

I've heard stuff about RAID 0 but to be honest it sounds like a lot of hassle and hard to get my head around it.

 

[mkenyon]

Those are probably some pretty huge files, yes? You'll almost definitely want platter drives, from a price standpoint.

RAID0 can be quite easy. If you have two HDDs as secondary drives, you can just go into Disk Manager in Windows, select both, and then create a new Striped Partition. Done.

The downside to this, is that if you have one of the drives fail, then you lose everything on both. This is true for all RAID0 setups.

 

[Croyles]

Those are probably some pretty huge files, yes? You'll almost definitely want platter drives, from a price standpoint.

RAID0 can be quite easy. If you have two HDDs as secondary drives, you can just go into Disk Manager in Windows, select both, and then create a new Striped Partition. Done.

The downside to this, is that if you have one of the drives fail, then you lose everything on both. This is true for all RAID0 setups.

Thanks. Yeah I've heard about the reliability issue, but didn't know it was so easy to set up. Might just stick with the normal format. Raid 10, as I just checked up, seems to be great but it's kind of ridiculous for me to get 4 seperate HDD's.

Is it worth purchasing an SSD just for installing the OS on then? Or should I just skip that entirely?

 

[mkenyon]

Thanks. Yeah I've heard about the reliability issue, but didn't know it was so easy to set up. Might just stick with the normal format. Raid 10, as I just checked up, seems to be great but it's kind of ridiculous for me to get 4 seperate HDD's.

Is it worth purchasing an SSD just for installing the OS on then? Or should I just skip that entirely?

It's a matter of preference. Basically, it will make your boot times and OS usage incredibly snappy. Click on the chrome shortcut, and it's up. No wait time.

 

[Croyles]

It's a matter of preference. Basically, it will make your boot times and OS usage incredibly snappy. Click on the chrome shortcut, and it's up. No wait time.

Thanks. Seems like an excessive luxury for my situation, so you've cleared that up!

 

[XeonQ8]

Yep.

Here's a gallery with a few games that I ran benches on.

You'll want to look at the 99th Percentile times as well as Number of Frames Over X, to get the best idea. Raw FPS data is obsolete.

mmm that looks insignificant change .. there is a difference but not THAT big
im not an expert, but that what does it look like :/

anyway, thanks

 

[RurouniZel]

So, I'm still toying with the idea of replacing my AMD Phenom II with a Intel Haswell 4670 or 4770, and I have another question.

I bought this heat sink for the AMD Phenom. Would this work on a Haswell board, or would I need to get a new one of those too?

 

[Mad Max]

So, I'm still toying with the idea of replacing my AMD Phenom II with a Intel Haswell 4670 or 4770, and I have another question.

I bought this heat sink for the AMD Phenom. Would this work on a Haswell board, or would I need to get a new one of those too?

Yeah it should fit, since socket 1150 has the same cooler mounting points as s1155, which is listed as compatible.

 

[RurouniZel]

Yeah it should fit, since socket 1150 has the same cooler mounting points as s1155, which is listed as compatible.

Awesome! One less thing for me to worry about.

If I'm mainly upgrading for emulation purposes, do I need to worry about overclocking RAM? I have 12 GB DDR3 (PC 10666) installed ATM.

 

[Mad Max]

Awesome! One less thing for me to worry about.

If I'm mainly upgrading for emulation purposes, do I need to worry about overclocking RAM? I have 12 GB DDR3 (PC 10666) installed ATM.

You can carry over the ram, since the speed doesn't matter much with the recent intel chips.

I was in the exact same boat a while ago too: I also had a phenom II with 12GB of PC 10666 and a hyper 212+ and switched to a 4670k while keeping the RAM. (I never put the 212 on the 4670k though since I switched over to a WC loop before that)

 

[Croyles]

So ummm, which brand is the best for the GTX 760?

Gainward? MSI? Gigabyte? Asus? EVGA?

 

[Addnan]

So ummm, which brand is the best for the GTX 760?

Gainward? MSI? Gigabyte? Asus? EVGA?

MSI, GIgabyte, Asus and EVGA are all great. Just don't get the reference design.

 

[Croyles]

MSI, GIgabyte, Asus and EVGA are all great. Just don't get the reference design.

Does reference design mean the original set from nvidia?

 

[mkenyon]

mmm that looks insignificant change .. there is a difference but not THAT big
im not an expert, but that what does it look like :/

anyway, thanks

In Tibes: Ascend, the 12 to 9ms difference in frame times is nearly 30FPS.

Divide 1000 by the frame time in milliseconds to derive a familiar FPS number.

Does reference design mean the original set from nvidia?

I'll make this easy for you. Buy this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130933

 

[RoKKeR]

Alright, so after buying a wireless receiver for my 360 controller, I'm thinking about moving my PC up to where my consoles are on my TV and taking advantage of Steam Big Picture. My biggest question is the following:

Is there a way to boot up my PC, and make my way into Steam Big Picture mode only using a 360 controller? It isn't a big deal but it'd be nice to only have to use the controller when turning on my PC.

 

[Croyles]

In Tibes: Ascend, the 12 to 9ms difference in frame times is nearly 30FPS.

Divide 1000 by the frame time in milliseconds to derive a familiar FPS number.

I'll make this easy for you. Buy this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130933

Thanks. I can stop asking annoying questions now (for a while ).

 

[Coldsnap]

My i5 3750k seems to like a lot of voltage but temperatures are decent. I'm at 4.7ghz with 1.4v at 30*C idle and 73-79 *C load. My radiator fans are running at 1,200rpm right now and I can bump them up to 1,700rmp to 2,000rpm (then they stop being silent) so I can get some better cooling, but I'm cautious about going over 1.4v. Is this okay as long as I stay under 85*c?

 

[kharma45]

I guess I should check with Newegg then.

Mighty nice of them, but I hate how support does "one time exception." I ordered the item with that promo and didn't get it. If you were going to cancel that promo item because you ran out of stock, at least let me know before shipping or processing my order you know? :/ I kinda expected it to be included and if it isn't you should give a heads up about it, ya know?

Still, they've been the best to work with compared to like NCIX and Microcenter so I can't hate too much. And they're comping the stick for me so I don't have to pay for the shipping or the stick so hoorah. Should be able to build next week after Amazon and Newegg give me the stuff I need due to order screwups.

At least you got it sorted in the end.

PC parts turned up bang on time via DPD today, now just waiting on the CPU and SSD. USPS's tracking site was offline this morning, it came back on later but still doesn't have any new details.

DPD are the best.

Excellent post. To the point and easy to understand.

10/10

Thanks so much for your help. I think I'll dish out a little more then and go with the 3770k and maybe the GTX760.

I have another different question about hard drives. Should I install the OS to my solid state (if i get one) and nothing else? What I mean is, will it be good to also keep my hd DSLR videos on my SSD or should I not bother and keep them on the HDD?

I've heard stuff about RAID 0 but to be honest it sounds like a lot of hassle and hard to get my head around it.

3770K will give you the best of both worlds if you can afford it giving you brilliant gaming performance which the 8350 can't match but also giving great multithreaded support.

 

[dmag1223]

Hey guys, building my first pc here, so sorry if this is a stupid question, but I just have a question about the sata cables that come with my motherboard. My build is basically modeled after the $1000 one outlined in the OP, so I am using the Asus motherboard suggested in that build. Since I'm including an SSD, HDD, and optical drive, I'm going to need 3 sata cables right? My motherboard only seems to come with two.

 

[kharma45]

Hey guys, building my first pc here, so sorry if this is a stupid question, but I just have a question about the sata cables that come with my motherboard. My build is basically modeled after the $1000 one outlined in the OP, so I am using the Asus motherboard suggested in that build. Since I'm including an SSD, HDD, and optical drive, I'm going to need 3 sata cables right? My motherboard only seems to come with two.

One of those three items you ordered might come with one, and if not SATA cables are dirt cheap.

 

[truestatic]

CanadaGAF here, looking at doing a massive overhaul on my PC. My video card's a 570 GTX which I'm happy with for the time being, but my CPU is a positively ancient Core 2 Quad Q6600. I'm wondering if I'm wasting a bunch of money buying and building this time of the year, rather than waiting for Black Friday deals. For what it's worth, this is what I'm looking at.

Motherboard: MSI Z87 G45 for $160
CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K for $240
Memory: S.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1600 2x4GB for $69

As well as an SSD and 2TB HDD.
Samsung 840 250GB for $160
Seagate Barracuda 2TB for $87

I'm also looking at cases, my Sonata III is getting a little dated with its complete lack of cable management, but that feels less urgent.

 

[kennah]

CanadaGAF here, looking at doing a massive overhaul on my PC. My video card's a 570 GTX which I'm happy with for the time being, but my CPU is a positively ancient Core 2 Quad Q6600. I'm wondering if I'm wasting a bunch of money buying and building this time of the year, rather than waiting for Black Friday deals. For what it's worth, this is what I'm looking at.

Motherboard: MSI Z87 G45 for $160
CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K for $240
Memory: S.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1600 2x4GB for $69

As well as an SSD and 2TB HDD.
Samsung 840 250GB for $160
Seagate Barracuda 2TB for $87

I'm also looking at cases, my Sonata III is getting a little dated with its complete lack of cable management, but that feels less urgent.

Eh black friday deals on core components are very minor. Do cpu mobo ssd and ram and then get a black friday video card and hard drive

 

[dgenx]

Is it a good idea to buy an i5 at this point ? Of should I go for the i7 anyway ? I'm just trying yo save some bucks , also I just want to play with no problems and do some 3d and illsutrator

 

[VisceralBowl]

Hello GAF. I am looking to spend less than $200 for a 2TB (or 3TB) external drive to backup Windows on and also store a couple hundred GB of home video and digital movies from over the years.

EDIT: Also FRAPS recordings and Sony Vegas Projects. USB 3 if possible.

 

[kennah]

Hello GAF. I am looking to spend less than $200 for a 2TB (or 3TB) external drive to backup Windows on and also store a couple hundred GB of home video and digital movies from over the years.

EDIT: Also FRAPS recordings and Sony Vegas Projects. USB 3 if possible.

Ok. Get whatever you want. Treat your data as already dead.

 

[VisceralBowl]

Ok. Get whatever you want. Treat your data as already dead.

Let me rephrase that. I am willing to spend more, but is that amount of reliable storage truly impossible at that price? (Not an HDD guy)

 

[Hazaro]

Hello GAF. I am looking to spend less than $200 for a 2TB (or 3TB) external drive to backup Windows on and also store a couple hundred GB of home video and digital movies from over the years.

EDIT: Also FRAPS recordings and Sony Vegas Projects. USB 3 if possible.

Get two external 2/3TB backups for $100 each.

*All HDD's are shit now.

 

[VisceralBowl]

*All HDD's are shit now.

Any specific reasoning? I had old IDE drives that lasted for 10+ years.

 

[RoKKeR]

What is everybody's experience with Steam Big Picture mode? I'm thinking of moving my PC to the console TV.

 

[WAR recon zero]

GAF how would my i5 2500k and GTX 470 Rank? Mid Range PC?

 

[kennah]

Any specific reasoning? I had old IDE drives that lasted for 10+ years.

No competition means shitty product. Basically they haven't recovered from the floods years ago.

What is everybody's experience with Steam Big Picture mode? I'm thinking of moving my PC to the console TV.

Love it.

GAF how would my i5 2500k and GTX 470 Rank? Mid Range PC?

With a new video card and overclocked. top of the line

 

[truestatic]

Eh black friday deals on core components are very minor. Do cpu mobo ssd and ram and then get a black friday video card and hard drive

Thanks, will do.

 

[Hazaro]

Any specific reasoning? I had old IDE drives that lasted for 10+ years.

It's basically only Seagate and WD now. Hitachi is some weird thing under WD (iirc) and Toshiba makes like 2 desktop drives.

Everyone got out because the margins sucked and the flood last year was the last straw for many. Too much cost to get some production back up I'm guessing.

 

[kennah]

Thanks, will do.

P. s. you can still get $40 for your cpu easily. Put it up on kijiji for $150 mobo cpu and ram.

 

[VisceralBowl]

Do you guys think the market will recover within a reasonable amount of time (if ever)? I don't know if its worth blowing the money now if that the case, as I can keep my stuff put away for now.

 

[Celdiruen]

Speaking of Black Friday, are there actually noticeable discounts on GPUs and such, specifically in Canada? I know it's typically in the US but the last few years some Canadian stores have started having Black Friday sales as well, I think.

 

[GK86]

Is there a case that helps out with the dust? In terms of helping to keep it out or making it easier to clean?

 

[kennah]

Speaking of Black Friday, are there actually noticeable discounts on GPUs and such, specifically in Canada? I know it's typically in the US but the last few years some Canadian stores have started having Black Friday sales as well, I think.

You can find a good deal on some stuff but usually not worth waiting for. Expect 30-50 off a not top end gpu kinda deal. i

 

[Hazaro]

Do you guys think the market will recover within a reasonable amount of time (if ever)? I don't know if its worth blowing the money now if that the case, as I can keep my stuff put away for now.

Nope. Just nab two 2 or 3TB externals on sale for $99.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

So, I seem to have a pretty stable 4.6Ghz going on my 3820. A couple hours of Prime95 seems to run fine. General tasks are fine. Even played a few hours of Planetside 2 with a nice bump in framerates and no issues. Idles around 35c, and hits about 45-50c when gaming, and tops out at 70c after Prime95 with my fans around 1200RPM.

But for some reason... it just won't go to sleep correctly. Sometimes when putting it to sleep, sometimes when waking it... but sleep just doesn't seem to work right, and my BIOS detects an error and I have to "re-do" my settings. What's the issue? What should I be looking at? Cause it's fine 99% of the time - even turning it off and back on. But putting it to sleep makes it unstable. Ideas? Thanks!

Also... Planetside 2 is gorgeous! Even at 4.6 and on a Titan, it struggles to stay above 60fps. But I'm okay; I know I'm running it as best as any decently-specced rig can.

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

I asked about an upgrade from a gtx 750 1.25GB a couple pages back. Decided against the 770 and went with this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DIH8OW8/?tag=neogaf0e-20

GTX 760 2GB from MSI. Pretty stoked. Not as pricey as some of the other options but still a decent upgrade from the 570. Can't wait!

 

[Coldsnap]

Skel1ingt0n, I think Internal PLL Overvoltage interferes with sleep. Do you have it enabled? Try disabling it and putting your PC to sleep.

 

[Piercedveil]

Hey guys. I just built my new desktop today and all of a sudden I'm having issues with Windows 8 freezing on me. Just happened twice within a few minutes. I don't believe it's a hardware issue as I've had no problems all day. I'm pretty sure it's Windows because the screen locks up, but sometimes when I try to click on something it makes a "ding" noise. Any ideas?

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

Hey guys. I just built my new desktop today and all of a sudden I'm having issues with Windows 8 freezing on me. Just happened twice within a few minutes. I don't believe it's a hardware issue as I've had no problems all day. I'm pretty sure it's Windows because the screen locks up, but sometimes when I try to click on something it makes a "ding" noise. Any ideas?

Do you have a SSD? I had the same thing with a Crucial 128GB drive - performed flawlessly in Windows 7 but would freeze in Windows 8. Turns out I needed to upgrade the firmware on the SSD.

Just my 2c given my experience.

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

Skel1ingt0n, I think Internal PLL Overvoltage interferes with sleep. Do you have it enabled? Try disabling it and putting your PC to sleep.

Thank you very much for the quick reply, Coldsnap! I couldn't find a specific "disable" but I found a thread that said this:

"If you are like me, who'd wish to use the SLEEP and RESUME features you must enable CPU C1E, otherwise your processor will remain in a "HLT" state upon waking up - leading to a remature crash & "Overclocking Failure!!""

Just tried it once - and seems to go to sleep faster and I didn't have an issue. The symptoms - to be honest - have been kind of random. But at least your advice gets me going in some direction rather than just thumping my head. *Crossing my fingers* that works!

If it doesn't, I'll keep digging.

 

[truestatic]

P. s. you can still get $40 for your cpu easily. Put it up on kijiji for $150 mobo cpu and ram.

I've seen my P5Q Pro is actually going for ~$130 on ebay? Sounds like worth selling separately to me. Plus my Corsair XMS3 2x2GB looks like it'll go for around $40 a pair, so... all told I'll get a nice chunk of my purchase price back.