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[TekGryphon]

Congrats on the successful build.

Thanks, you guys were instrumental in correcting a few misconceptions I picked up here and there on the net, especially that high RAM speed (over 1600) isn't worth spending money for on an Intel building with a dedicated GPU.

 

[riflen]

And we don't know how often people keep their rigs on. Many times, they leave it on during the day. I do not know many people that use a desktop rig solely for PC gaming. Normally it's at an idle state, consuming power (especially if overclocked) most of the time. Depends on use case scenario.

Should go with an offset over-clock if that's your usage profile. Additional voltage is then only applied under load.

 

[Granadier]

That's the plan yes.

Your boot order should have an option to load from flash drive then instead of SSD/HDD.

Spoiler

unless i'm sorely mistaken then ignore me

Thanks, you guys were instrumental in correcting a few misconceptions I picked up here and there on the net, especially that high RAM speed (over 1600) isn't worth spending money for on an Intel building with a dedicated GPU.

Do you have any pics of the finished build?

 

[Ashhong]

.

Don't think you need the adapter...take the 6+2 and plug it into the 8 pin in the gpu and the 6 pin also.

Like bii said, your adapter needs 2 plugs to power it, but you currently only have 1.

Edit: I should have refreshed my page lol

 

[mkenyon]

Never did I say that Bronze PSU is not the way to go.

Never did I say that Xeon is the way to go only. (whereas most everyone here is K SERIES CPU ONLY OR DIE)

A lot of people jumping to conclusions on where I stand because I gave an alternative CPU to use instead of a K series CPU and all of a sudden it's a huge deal.

And we don't know how often people keep their rigs on. Many times, they leave it on during the day. I do not know many people that use a desktop rig solely for PC gaming. Normally it's at an idle state, consuming power (especially if overclocked) most of the time. Depends on use case scenario.

It's not your suggestion of the Xeon, as I agreed with you before you got mad. It's your inaccurate discounting of the additional performance you get.

Remember, you get to eke out marginal performance, sacrificing money on power cost over time, more heat dissipation, extra cost in rig, buying a z87 mobo, K CPU, custom cooler with additional heat/noise, for the very small gains you get. For the Europeans out there, it's a pricey build to want to go full K.

I wouldn't even spend the extra on K series CPU since you get what, like an extra 10% in terms of performance, which could/could not translate to increase in most GPU-dependent games.

Plus, not to mention the extra wattage required when overclocked, thereby consuming more power, thereby paying more in energy costs. Most overclockers disable EIST as well..

Why are people spending so much money on parts?
- I picked the E3 1230 V3 because it's essentially the same as the i7. Just not overclockable. For gaming, overclocking doesn't give much of a performance boost as most games are GPU-dependent. This E3 1230 V3 is great for enterprise level applications like Photoshop, etc.

Marginal performance difference between an i5-4670k vs xeon e3 processors. images shown are last gen, but the difference will be similar for haswell as well.

Those are the points I was refuting, not the use of a Xeon in general.

As to your power usage stuff, idle differences in power consumption is nil with Haswell, whether it is overclocked or not. They're insanely power efficient at idle. We're talking maybe 10W at idle.

That's about $7 a year. Assuming it's on for every single second. Now we're up to about $15 a year in power savings (accounting for load times), and that's with me being very generous with stats leaning your way.

I'm just trying to provide stats for your anecdotes so we can genuinely examine this together. And again, I do want to state that I think you have a good point. The Xeon should absolutely be included in the OP build sheets. I'll add it next update.

Thanks, you guys were instrumental in correcting a few misconceptions I picked up here and there on the net, especially that high RAM speed (over 1600) isn't worth spending money for on an Intel building with a dedicated GPU.

\m/ Glad it's working out!

Should go with an offset over-clock if that's your usage profile. Additional voltage is then only applied under load.

Yep. Then idle usage is literally no different

 

[kharma45]

Should go with an offset over-clock if that's your usage profile. Additional voltage is then only applied under load.

Crazy talk.

 

[Infinite Justice]

I get this screen:



It works perfectly then?

And would my next step be to install Windows on it?

Late to the party but yes.

Time to install windows

Congrats dude

 

[Pachimari]

Late to the party but yes.

Time to install windows

Try this:

Alright, I'm trying the guide LordAlu suggested.

USB Tool - Bootsect

If you bought Windows 7 from the MS Store:

Q: When creating a bootable USB device, I am getting an error about bootsect

A: To make the USB device bootable, you need to run a tool named bootsect.exe. In some cases, this tool needs to be downloaded from your Microsoft Store account. This may happen if you're trying to create a 64-bit bootable USB device from a 32-bit version of Windows. To download bootsect:
Login to your Microsoft Store account to view your purchase history:
http://www.microsoftstore.com
Look for your Windows 7 purchase.
Next to Windows 7, there is an "Additional download options" drop-down menu.
In the drop-down menu, select "32-bit ISO."
Right-click the link, and then save the bootsect.exe file to the location where you installed the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (e.g. C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Apps\Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool).
Once the file has been saved, go back to the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool to create your bootable USB device.

If you didn't buy Windows 7 from the MS Store:

Follow these instructions for getting around the bootsect error:
Download and install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool program as indicated on the Microsoft Store web site.
Download a working 32-bit version of bootsect.exe . Below is a link to 32 bit bootsect.exe:
http://www.sevenforums.com/attachmen...ect7600x86.zip
From: http://www.sevenforums.com/installat...-bootsect.html
Once downloaded, copy the BootSect.exe file to the same folder that includes the installed Windows7-USB-DVD-Download-Tool.exe file. The default install directory of that file in Windows Vista is C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Apps\Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool\ (you'll need to look for it in XP)
Run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool application as indicated on the Microsoft Store web site. The end result will give you a bootable USB flash drive that contains everything you need to install the 64-bit version of Windows 7.

 

[DarkFlow]

I'm updating the new Nvidia driver here at the moment 335.23 and the green bar (Geforce Experience Express installation) stopped at about 33%. It did not crash or is waiting for any input, it's like that for 15 Minutes now, i don't have the feeling it will strat moving again.

If i restart the computer now... will i be looking at a black screen afterwards? Kind of scary, the last 2 updates didn't make any problems?

EDIT: I just restarted the computer, now it says driver is up to date.... everything seems to be fine. That was rather strange!

Same thing happened to me. Must be a bug.

 

[tehbible]

It's not your suggestion of the Xeon, as I agreed with you before you got mad. It's your inaccurate discounting of the additional performance you get.



Those are the points I was refuting, not the use of a Xeon in general.

As to your power usage stuff, idle differences in power consumption is nil with Haswell, whether it is overclocked or not. They're insanely power efficient at idle. We're talking maybe 10W at idle.

That's about $7 a year. Assuming it's on for every single second. Now we're up to about $15 a year in power savings (accounting for load times), and that's with me being very generous with stats leaning your way.

I'm just trying to provide stats for your anecdotes so we can genuinely examine this together. And again, I do want to state that I think you have a good point. The Xeon should absolutely be included in the OP build sheets. I'll add it next update.

I did not get upset, emotional, or 'mad' like you claim. Just trying to have discussion showing the benefits of Xeon CPU's, and that gaming on a Xeon CPU is fine for gaming, and you won't lose much out on performance. I was just showcasing the benefits of a quieter rig, less up front cost for buying K series related parts, less heat dissipation, as well as lower power consumption over time (in years).

Why not sacrifice marginal difference in gaming for hyperthreading support so other tasks not related to gaming is increased? Just showing alternatives out there aside from the usual K series + z87 + custom cooler combo.

 

[Caladrius]

Howdy there!

I'm currently shopping for gaming mice and... I am stuck.

I know there's a couple of things I want (wired mouse, 5+ buttons, less than $50 US) but I'm at a loss on one major detail.

I've been curious about trackball mice for some time (which I know are expensive, but I'm willing to look past that). Do they perform drastically differently from regular mice or is it mostly just the difference between using your thumb and your wrist? I'm antsy to put in that much extra cash and effort if there isn't much of a difference.

That aside, do you guys have any general recommendations?

 

[mkenyon]

I did not get upset, emotional, or 'mad' like you claim. Just trying to have discussion showing the benefits of Xeon CPU's, and that gaming on a Xeon CPU is fine for gaming, and you won't lose much out on performance. I was just showcasing the benefits of a quieter rig, less up front cost for buying K series related parts, less heat dissipation, as well as lower power consumption over time (in years).

Why not sacrifice marginal difference in gaming for hyperthreading support so other tasks not related to gaming is increased? Just showing alternatives out there aside from the usual K series + z87 + custom cooler combo.

15-25% difference isn't marginal.

It's not quieter either. A fan running at 1200-1300 RPM is barely above ambient dB.

$20-45 isn't very much over three years.

But if one isn't interested at all in overclocking, and have a use for the hyperthreading, then f yeah, that Xeon does look quite nice. Still not nearly on the same level in terms of performance though.

Howdy there!

I'm currently shopping for gaming mice and... I am stuck.

I know there's a couple of things I want (wired mouse, 5+ buttons, less than $50 US) but I'm at a loss on one major detail.

I've been curious about trackball mice for some time (which I know are expensive, but I'm willing to look past that). Do they perform drastically differently from regular mice or is it mostly just the difference between using your thumb and your wrist? I'm antsy to put in that much extra cash and effort if there isn't much of a difference.

That aside, do you guys have any general recommendations?

Steelseries Rival. It's one of the very few mice that have zero interpolation due to it's optical sensor. That's something that a lot of trackball mice folks still herald over most of the laser mice available today, and is probably why you are seeing them recommended.

 

[DarkFlow]

Well this thread has taken a turn to crazy town. Just a FYI, no one around here is biased to just K chips. I was even recommend a Xeon at one point to save on money. I ended up get the 4670k because I link to tinker, but the Xeon was my next choice.

 

[Pachimari]

Hmm, I'm still getting this error message when I try to create a bootable Windows 7 USB:

Even after placing the bootsect.exe file in the software's folder.

I think I did it wrong. It says the original file is placed here:

""C:\Users\007\AppData\Local\Apps\Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool\Windows7-USB-DVD-Download-Tool.exe""

But I can't find that AppData folder in Users>007. =/

I have tried to right click and replaced ownership but that didn't seem to work.

Is there a software thread on GAF?

 

[Tablo]

At one point me and a few guys from Anandtech were discussing if TSX on the non K skus would come into play as games were better at multithreading, but turns out that currently TSX is mostly useful for potentially massive speedups in professional applications, though in the long term it would be cool if it increased performance on say a 4770 if games made full use of the 8 threads and TSX was more prevalent. Intel in their stupidity doesn't have it enabled on most chips, which would have helped adoption...
Might have to do with that bit of the chip not working at non standard clock speeds?
Idk, #rambling
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6290/...ll-transactional-synchronization-extensions/4

All in all for gamers K series skus make the most sense by far, many games will always be CPU bound, and applications like emulation. Unless you do a healthy mix of professional content creation and stuff or need the Xeon/non K extensions/certifications, then the K series advantage can be offset.

 

[bro1]

i have a question about power supplies.

i'm going to be running an i5 4670k, GTX 770 on an Asus Z87-A.

what's the perfect amount of power for that combo?

600watts. If you want to go Sli in the future 760watts

 

[tehbible]

15-25% difference isn't marginal.

Depending on what you're using it for. It's not flat out 15-25% difference. It varies depending on application, game, so many variables...

It's not quieter either. A fan running at 1200-1300 RPM is barely above ambient dB.

Well, more fans would probably be required to keep the interior of the case cool. More fans = more noise. Some care about noise, some don't. Again, it depends on the use case.

$20-45 isn't very much over three years.

Again, depends on use-case scenario. Some like to leave their rigs on, some turn it off frequently. Someone running an SLI rigged out machine on idle still consumes 100W+ of power. Over the years, power consumption can add up. Again, like I said, it depends on use case scenario. If it's a dedicated gaming machine only, and just for that, K series is a fine choice. Many I know use gaming rigs for other purposes as well though. Again, it all depends on use case. In Europe energy prices are higher so it's undoubtedly higher in Europe. Maybe that's why I see so many Europeans picking up GOLD PSUs.

But if one isn't interested at all in overclocking, and have a use for the hyperthreading, then f yeah, that Xeon does look quite nice. Still not nearly on the same level in terms of performance though.

I don't think it really has to do with 'interest' in overclocking, but more of, 'is it worth the extra cost in buying a K series CPU + Z87 motherboard combo + custom cooler' for my needs. Performance will be a bit better on K series non-hyperthreaded CPU, but is it worth it for my needs, particularly the games that said person plays.'

 

[donwx]

I currently have a GTX 660 right now and I plan on upgrading later this month to either a 770 or a 780. I was wondering if the gtx 780 performance was worth spending extra money over the 770?

 

[riflen]

Hmm, I'm still getting this error message when I try to create a bootable Windows 7 USB:

Even after placing the bootsect.exe file in the software's folder.

I think I did it wrong. It says the original file is placed here:

""C:\Users\007\AppData\Local\Apps\Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool\Windows7-USB-DVD-Download-Tool.exe""

But I can't find that AppData folder in Users>007. =/

I have tried to right click and replaced ownership but that didn't seem to work.

Is there a software thread on GAF?

Have you tried other tools? The MS one is very basic. Give Rufus or UNetbootin a go.

 

[Brofist]

I know someone who wants to sell a very slightly used R9 290 for $350. Worth it? It's a reference card.

 

[kennah]

1. I'm really glad that I had a busy day at work and missed most of the excitement.

2. I get really amused when people use 'N-Threaded games might work faster in the future' as justification for literally everything running slower now.

3. The points being made are starting to get very hypothetical and reaching. Hilarious. "More heat might mean more case fans, thus being louder". That's not a good logical progression, especially if you were aware of how cases are designed now. Everything has been made with good airflow and good design and large fans that spin quieter. It's amazing the difference from just a few years ago. That combined with the current trend of all parts being made more power efficient, heat isn't the problem that it used to be.

4. It's ok to be objectively wrong. I too have been incorrect in this thread, and made incorrect arguments, but then I started doing my own research and seeing the data, and creating many different builds at many different price points, looking into all sorts of hardware and it is correct. If I may even get anecdotal - I notice no difference between my Hyperthreaded i7 and my non-Hyperthreaded i5 - Except in Adobe Premiere. I got about a 20% jump there. Know what made the bigger difference in everything else? An SSD.

5. I have been recommending the Xeon to anyone who isn't over clocking for a while. Hell of a CPU.

BOTTOM LINE - The OP of this thread is intended for one main purpose - GAMING computers that are BUILT NEW for the BEST PRICE to PERFORMANCE ratio.

People who are upgrading from something they already have very often get different recommendations from what is in the OP. If someone already has an i3 and a non over clocking board - you bet your ass they're going to be recommended a Xeon or a non-K i7 as a cheap upgrade that doesn't require a new motherboard. People get recommended the 760 over the 770 - because the 760 is cheaper and not that much slower. People get recommended 2 gig cards over 4 gig cards because by the time 4 gig is necessary those cards will be cheap and common. APUs get recommended to people who want something small and cheap and general purpose with the occasional game.

But yeah, it's ok to be wrong. It's ok to have different use scenarios. It's ok to have something different that works for you. Everyone will have different needs - but please don't assume that everyone else has the same needs as you do.

 

[Felix Lighter]

I get this screen:



It works perfectly then?

And would my next step be to install Windows on it?

Oh man, congratulations! I've been keeping my eye on this situation. What a relief.

 

[Foxeyes Only]

I am trying to build myself a decent computer that will last me for a couple years hopefully, It's going to be use for some gaming but also would be my coding computer. I checked your Threat and seeing I am outdated on hardware could take a look at the next built and give me your opinion and advices?.

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($30.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.02 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ Dell Small Business)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card ($405.91 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB/RSBS DVD/CD Writer ($25.00 @ Amazon)


I already adquired the processor price matching microcenter at Best Buy, about the graphics card thats the card I Would like to get but I might wait for a better price. In regards of the power supply do you think 650Watts is too little, too much or about fine?. Also from all the cases I have look they seem to have a height of 6" 1 ' for the cpu cooler and the cpu cooler is 6" 3' whats your experience with that?

Thanks in advance for taking your time with this help request, any comment is appreciated.

 

[QP3]

So I hve fallen in love with the Cooler Master Storm trooper (white). Is this compatible with most builds, or would I have limitations in terms of the parts?

 

[kennah]

I am trying to build myself a decent computer that will last me for a couple years hopefully, It's going to be use for some gaming but also would be my coding computer. I checked your Threat and seeing I am outdated on hardware could take a look at the next built and give me your opinion and advices?.

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($30.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.02 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ Dell Small Business)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card ($405.91 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB/RSBS DVD/CD Writer ($25.00 @ Amazon)


I already adquired the processor price matching microcenter at Best Buy, about the graphics card thats the card I Would like to get but I might wait for a better price. In regards of the power supply do you think 650Watts is too little, too much or about fine?. Also from all the cases I have look they seem to have a height of 6" 1 ' for the cpu cooler and the cpu cooler is 6" 3' whats your experience with that?

Thanks in advance for taking your time with this help request, any comment is appreciated.

There's no point in getting a B85 board if you already have the K series processor. You need a Z87 to be able to over clock it.
AMD cards are really really really overpriced right now. Get a 760 for $250 and use the savings to get a Z87 board, a 120gig SSD and upgrade in 2 years when it feels slow.
650 is more than enough for any single GPU setup. If you intend to crossfire or SLI in the future you would need a bigger supply.

Which specific cases are you looking at?

 

[NoRéN]

certain posts in this thread recently reminded me of this great post.

I sorta wish PC enthusiasts would just shut up when they don't know what their talking about. The good people are all here in the thread, but it's the damn people who built a computer 4 years ago and still thinks their knowledge is up to date. Or had their mom buy them a Titan so they think it's the best card ever.

Sort of hard to build a computer for someone now adays because everyone is a self proclaimed expert. I keep on hearing well my friend said this and my friend said that. Now the person I tried to build a computer for is getting a K processor that we can't even overclock and upgraded some needless parts thus for-going a SSD.

That's one reason why I don't like shooting the shit about PCs in real life. This thread has taught me when building a PC you should take a complete scientific approach and have no pre conceived notions and only stick to the empirical scientific evidence of which part is better and which isn't.

 

[tehbible]

I know someone who wants to sell a very slightly used R9 290 for $350. Worth it? It's a reference card.

I will buy it forsure. PM me. If you're interested you best pick it from him for yourself lol

 

[TekGryphon]

Do you have any pics of the finished build?

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Hero ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card
Case: Corsair Air 540 ATX Desktop Case
Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

 

[kennah]

SO PRETTY

 

[MooMoo]

What's up PC-gaf! Have some extra cash lying around and was wondering what the next logical upgrade for me would be. Currently have a i5-2500k (still need to get around to overclocking it) and a 560ti 448 core. I take it by the thread title that my CPU is fine, so what would be a worthwhile upgrade GPU wise if I'm looking to balance price and performance?

 

[kennah]

What's up PC-gaf! Have some extra cash lying around and was wondering what the next logical upgrade for me would be. Currently have a i5-2500k (still need to get around to overclocking it) and a 560ti 448 core. I take it by the thread title that my CPU is fine, so what would be a worthwhile upgrade GPU wise if I'm looking to balance price and performance?

How much extra cash? If it's less than $200, don't bother. If it's $250 get a 760, if it's $500 get a 780.

(Or buy one of the 770s for $280 in the BST thread)

 

[Foxeyes Only]

There's no point in getting a B85 board if you already have the K series processor. You need a Z87 to be able to over clock it.
AMD cards are really really really overpriced right now. Get a 760 for $250 and use the savings to get a Z87 board, a 120gig SSD and upgrade in 2 years when it feels slow.
650 is more than enough for any single GPU setup. If you intend to crossfire or SLI in the future you would need a bigger supply.

Which specific cases are you looking at?

Already got the the processor for that price, thanks for the tip about the motherboard. About the SSD it's one of the things for short term upgrade just like the graphics card, for now I dont need it to be Game ready, that can wait. No intention for crossfire or SLI, single gpu setup.

About the case nothing fancy really just an ATX Mid Tower like this one:
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch.asp?px=CJ&scriteria=AA79870#.Ux5haYXUvwc

Thank you

 

[Unknown One]

ive read that 4.2 is the on air average for haswell so that doesnt sound all that bad to me.

I went 4.6 on air, but I toned it down to 4.5 to give my 4670k a bit more a breathing room. At 4.6 it passed the CPU stress tests at 80 degrees Celsius, but I don't like going 1.325 volts for stability.

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Hero ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card
Case: Corsair Air 540 ATX Desktop Case
Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

Sweet, another 540 user.

 

[kennah]

Already got the the processor for that price, thanks for the tip about the motherboard. About the SSD it's one of the things for short term upgrade just like the graphics card, for now I dont need it to be Game ready, that can wait. No intention for crossfire or SLI, single gpu setup.

About the case nothing fancy really just an ATX Mid Tower like this one:
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch.asp?px=CJ&scriteria=AA79870#.Ux5haYXUvwc

Thank you

Hyper 212 fits fine from what I can find on the Googles (Protip: search "hyper 212 in <case name>" to find if a cooler with fit in a case)

Personally I'd argue that you're better getting an SSD instead of a Hard Drive and adding the hard drive later. But that's just me. It makes the operating system and everything so snappy and instant. You're better off just installing a couple games at a time and saving up to get a hard drive to add in later - it's also easier to add a hard drive than it is to add as SSD, you don't need to reinstall if you add the hard drive.

 

[appaws]

I am very much in favor of recommending the "k" series parts and the Z87 boards in this thread, particularly for people new to PC gaming or at least to building their own system.

The reason why is that everybody says "no, I will never overclock" when they are new to the PC gaming scene. They remember hearing stories about voided warranties and jumpers and soldering irons. They remember hearing about the life of parts being reduced. They have a picture of smelly bearded geeks with canisters of liquid nitrogen. They have no idea how easy it is these days to do. Anyone who can install steam and load a game can OC.

But I think we should encourage them to at least leave the OC option open for themselves...even if it is just for down the road. Look how many people here are still using Nahalem processors. Overclocking is super valuable for them as a value proposition because advancements are coming pretty slowly on the CPU side. Your 2500k is still fine, and your 3570k and 4670k will probably still be fine in a couple of years, especially with a decent OC.

 

[Foxeyes Only]

Hyper 212 fits fine from what I can find on the Googles (Protip: search "hyper 212 in <case name>" to find if a cooler with fit in a case)

Personally I'd argue that you're better getting an SSD instead of a Hard Drive and adding the hard drive later. But that's just me. It makes the operating system and everything so snappy and instant. You're better off just installing a couple games at a time and saving up to get a hard drive to add in later - it's also easier to add a hard drive than it is to add as SSD, you don't need to reinstall if you add the hard drive.

I would agree whole heartly about the SSD, but in this case I need the extra space for now, about the case I checked the dimensions for the case being (Maximum CPU cooler height) 6.1" ;155 mm and for the cooler (Dimension hxwxd) 4.7 x 3.1 x 6.3 in;120 x 80 x 159 mm.

Thank you

 

[mkenyon]

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Hero ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card
Case: Corsair Air 540 ATX Desktop Case
Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

Oh man, that looks fantastic. Urge to 540 rising.

 

[kennah]

I would agree whole heartly about the SSD, but in this case I need the extra space for now, about the case I checked the dimensions for the case being (Maximum CPU cooler height) 6.1" ;155 mm and for the cooler (Dimension hxwxd) 4.7 x 3.1 x 6.3 in;120 x 80 x 159 mm.

Thank you

Specs on the site are wrong. Check the manufacturer. It'll fit.

 

[Miguel81]

Why is there a lack of proper bluetooth keyboard/mice? Most wireless sets use proprietary RF.

 

[Josh378]

I have a question:

-I have a 780 GTX, and I have 2x QX2710 LED monitors connected to my video card. I have a 22' IPS monitor that has a DVI connector on it. HDMI doesn't work on it (well the quality was bad), so I was wondering what adapter do I need to get? Active DisplayPort to DVI-D Adapter or a passive DisplayPort to DVI-D Adapter?

 

[Speevy]

There were people who gave up on fitting my cooler in this case. Thanks to Liquidmetal14's persistence, my CPU runs quite cool. What are they to say now?

 

[ZoddGutts]

Should I risk buying an i5-4670K on ebay that's 15 bucks or go safe with Tigerdirect?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-...70K-/281283367206?pt=CPUs&hash=item417dcb9126

 

[Wolf Akela]

Is there any performance benefit when I create symlinks from HDD to SSD? I can't symlink from SSD->HDD, nor can I clone/reinstall a fresh copy of Windows (tl;dr). I was planning to create symlinks for at least the folders for user and program files.

 

[Loto]

Hello,

I am ordering a second SSD for my desk top pc. I'm on windows 7, is there anything I need to do after I install and connect the drive to the motherboard? I am asking because I see a lot of stuff on partitioning. Windows is going to stay on my current drive and I just want more room for games.

Thanks for the help~

 

[OFFIS]

Hello,

I am ordering a second SSD for my desk top pc. I'm on windows 7, is there anything I need to do after I install and connect the drive to the motherboard? I am asking because I see a lot of stuff on partitioning. Windows is going to stay on my current drive and I just want more room for games.

Thanks for the help~

You need to format it, it's easy: right click my computer and select manage, on the left under storage is disc management, open that and you will see the new empty drive there -> right click it and format it.

 

[Ashhong]

So I just jumped on the SSD train and am planning on using it mainly just for the OS to preserve space as well as prolong it's life. Do I need to set my user folder to my second internal? Is that even possible? I guess I can just manually set my downloads and such to a folder in my regular HDD.

Do people put games on SSD? That won't cause a lot of data to be written on it daily or something right?

Also anybody have a recommendation for a good monitor to look out for? Preferably 23-24" and under 140 ish. Either on sale now or was previously

 

[The Elite]

I'm trying to figure out where is the best place to talk about the heat issue in my PC.

i5-2500k and when I run Titanfall I'm getting a temperature average of 83c. I am not over-clocking and I'm running the game with very high textures. I'm using the stocking cooling system (looks like just a fan with a heat sink over the CPU). System idles at around 50c.

I'm wondering if it's due to have the FOV set to the widest possible option. It ran well like that though. The game performed very well save for a few frame rate drops.

Not sure what to do about the heating though. Tried a bios update and that went fubar.

Should I look into more advanced cooling with the cpu?

 

[Dave_6]

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Hero ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card
Case: Corsair Air 540 ATX Desktop Case
Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

That case is so sexy! Nice build!

FWIW I finally ordered a new monitor tonight, the Asus VQ248QE! Let the waiting commence...

 

[Ghizz]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($124.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($66.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($294.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($45.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Acer G246HLAbd 60Hz 24.0" Monitor ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($18.83 @ Mwave)
Keyboard: Microsoft SIDEWINDER X4 Wired Gaming Keyboard ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $926.70
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-10 22:58 EDT-0400)


Can someone critique this for me? about to order tonight! One thing I'm not sure about is that the motherboard listed does not have an hdmi port...first time builder so no clue, does the GPU have a hdmi slot with it?

 

[Speevy]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($124.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($66.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($294.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($45.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Acer G246HLAbd 60Hz 24.0" Monitor ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($18.83 @ Mwave)
Keyboard: Microsoft SIDEWINDER X4 Wired Gaming Keyboard ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $926.70
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-10 22:58 EDT-0400)


Can someone critique this for me? about to order tonight! One thing I'm not sure about is that the motherboard listed does not have an hdmi port...first time builder so no clue, does the GPU have a hdmi slot with it?

Is it possible for you to spare the keyboard for now so you can save a little cash?

Yes, the video card will have an HDMI port.