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"I Need a New PC!" 2014 Part 1. 1080p and 60FPS is so last-gen and your 2500K is fine

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D

delirium

Member
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($295.00)
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Hero ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($180.00)
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($170.00)
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($107.00)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card ($490.00)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($80.00)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 660W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($80.00)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($20.00)
Total: $1422.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-20 02:30 EDT-0400)

Typing this from the new computer. The only thing missed is I'm forced to use my old Nvidia 460 instead of the 780 because stupid Fedex took the worst possible route delivering my graphics card.

It feels nice. I just need to get a 1-3 TB hard drive and I should be good.
 
F

FlynnCL

Unconfirmed Member
Hey, I'm not sure if this is still okay considering I'm not looking to build a gaming PC, but I'd rather not make a topic for reassurance of some concerns.

UK person here. I recently (and stupidly) broke my laptop along with all my work, so I've been on this ancient Athlon for about a month. I'm low on money and I need an extreme budget, relatively low power PC as soon as. Anyway...

I'm interested in the Intel Core i3 4130, and I'm thinking of buying one with a Mini ITX motherboard (most likely the Asus H81I-PLUS), 4GB's of RAM, a 500GB HDD and a DVD RW drive. I won't be including a dedicated graphics card or... anything else, really.

My main issue is the case and the PSU. For a relatively low power PC (the CPU uses 54 watts for example) I'm having trouble finding a PSU that's below 300 watts and also has good word-of-mouth. I don't want to extreme overkill the PSU on my PC, haha.

l'm also looking for a small, Mini ITX case so the PC would be out of the way. I don't want a tower. There exist combinations of cases+PSU's but I feel like I'd be making a huge mistake buying them.

I guess I just need advice on which PSU + case to pick (while keeping in mind I literally have about ~£55 to spend on both of them), and I'd also like some reassurance about any heat or power issues.

Thanks!
 
K

kharma45

Member
FlynnCL said:
Hey, I'm not sure if this is still okay considering I'm not looking to build a gaming PC, but I'd rather not make a topic for reassurance of some concerns.

UK person here. I recently (and stupidly) broke my laptop along with all my work, so I've been on this ancient Athlon for about a month. I'm low on money and I need an extreme budget, relatively low power PC as soon as. Anyway...

I'm interested in the Intel Core i3 4130, and I'm thinking of buying one with a Mini ITX motherboard (most likely the Asus H81I-PLUS), 4GB's of RAM, a 500GB HDD and a DVD RW drive. I won't be including a dedicated graphics card or... anything else, really.

My main issue is the case and the PSU. For a relatively low power PC (the CPU uses 54 watts for example) I'm having trouble finding a PSU that's below 300 watts and also has good word-of-mouth. I don't want to extreme overkill the PSU on my PC, haha.

l'm also looking for a small, Mini ITX case so the PC would be out of the way. I don't want a tower. There exist combinations of cases+PSU's but I feel like I'd be making a huge mistake buying them.

I guess I just need advice on which PSU + case to pick (while keeping in mind I literally have about ~£55 to spend on both of them), and I'd also like some reassurance about any heat or power issues.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Don't skimp. Save more if you have to for something like this

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Case: Cooler Master N300 ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.00 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£34.14 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £66.14
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-20 09:06 GMT+0000)
 
C

CyanideFuse

Member
Well nuts...

The shine and achievement has been somewhat taken away from my first build. I knew I was taking a gamble but I reused a HDD that had some sector issues.

All was okay until Tuesday when Windows Update would not work and games were also stuttering a lot; the disk also began making a ticking sound which is obviously a bad sign.

I have bought a new HDD so will have to go through the Windows installation etc again.

Never mind, I knew it was a risk but I wanted to shave off as many £'s as I could. I am just glad everything else went very well.
 
R

riflen

Member
Aucool said:
I'm buying a new PC and I don't know if I should choose a gtx770 (2gb) or a r9 280x. What's your opinion gaf?
Click to expand...

Is your favourite colour green or red?
Seriously, you give zero information about what you want from this PC. No-one can advise you sensibly. Please, at least read the OP and look at the basic desktop questions.
 
A

Aucool

Member
riflen said:
Is your favourite colour green or red?
Seriously, you give zero information about what you want from this PC. No-one can advise you sensibly. Please, at least read the OP and look at the basic desktop questions.
Click to expand...

It will be a gaming rig used to play with a 1080P monitor, I think that's all. I know that the 770 has more raw power but the 3gb of VRAM of the 280x probably will be a good thing with the next gen games so I'm really hesitant.
 
R

riflen

Member
Aucool said:
It will be a gaming rig used to play with a 1080P monitor, I think that's all. I know that the 770 has more raw power but the 3gb of VRAM of the 280x probably will be a good thing with the next gen games so I'm really hesitant.
Click to expand...

The GTX 770 will provide you with Shadowplay right away and G-Sync in the near future. These are considerations for some. If these features are not interesting to you, then the 280x is probably the better choice, if you can find it for sensible money.

Frankly though, the 3GB framebuffer wont help you that much going forwards, because VRAM doesn't really affect performance in the way people tend to think. It'll allow you to set higher settings for things like Anti-Aliasing or give you more headroom to downsample, but the GPU wont necessarily be able to deliver particularly high frame-rates using these settings.

The VRAM amount is related to the width of the card's memory bus. So the choices for AMD when designing the 280x (384-bit) would have been 1.5 GB, 3GB or 6GB. 6GB would be a waste and 1.5GB not enough, hence 3GB.

The 770 has a 256-bit bus, so the choices for nvidia would be 1GB, 2GB, 4GB etc. Memory clocks are also different with the 770 using 7Ghz GDDR5 vs the 280x's 6Ghz.

Basically, if your enjoyment is reliant on raw frames-per-second, take the 770, if not so much, and you like to be able to turn on higher settings, or if you will be playing something like modded Skyrim, then more VRAM is better and the 280x is a better fit. Also look at game bundles to help you choose. (perhaps someone else can help you here). Lots of text, sorry.
 
B

Big Takeover

Member
So Devil’s Canyon won't be compatible with Z87, is that (assumed) correct? Will Haswell be forward compatible with Z97? So waiting a couple of months would get me the Devil’s Canyon benefits, as well as Broadwell compatibility?
 
A

Aucool

Member
riflen said:
The GTX 770 will provide you with Shadowplay right away and G-Sync in the near future. These are considerations for some. If these features are not interesting to you, then the 280x is probably the better choice, if you can find it for sensible money.

Frankly though, the 3GB framebuffer wont help you that much going forwards, because VRAM doesn't really affect performance in the way people tend to think. It'll allow you to set higher settings for things like Anti-Aliasing or give you more headroom to downsample, but the GPU wont necessarily be able to deliver particularly high frame-rates using these settings.

The VRAM amount is related to the width of the card's memory bus. So the choices for AMD when designing the 280x (384-bit) would have been 1.5 GB, 3GB or 6GB. 6GB would be a waste and 1.5GB not enough, hence 3GB.

The 770 has a 256-bit bus, so the choices for nvidia would be 1GB, 2GB, 4GB etc. Memory clocks are also different with the 770 using 7Ghz GDDR5 vs the 280x's 6Ghz.

Basically, if your enjoyment is reliant on raw frames-per-second, take the 770, if not so much, and you like to be able to turn on higher settings, or if you will be playing something like modded Skyrim, then more VRAM is better and the 280x is a better fit. Also look at game bundles to help you choose. (perhaps someone else can help you here). Lots of text, sorry.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your post, it is really helpful :). Probably looking for some good bundles could be a good idea, thanks for the hint .
 
H

HardRojo

Member
I got a new boss at work, he recently moved from Argentina to Peru with his son, it was sudden for the kid and they are still getting settled here, his son is really bored because he had to leave his friends back in Argentina and doesn't know anyone here (he just started school) so my boss asked me to find a good PC/laptop for his kid to play games on (he already has a PS4 btw), the kid is 14 so it's not like he'll notice minimal framedrops or tears, he mainly plays League of Legends, Minecraft and FPSs like CoD and Battlefield.
If possible I'd rather go for a laptop so it's a plug and play thing, I don't want my boss to keep calling me saying the PC doesn't work or having to tinker with it too much.

Would this ASUS do for the stuff the kid wants to play?
http://www.yamoshi.com.pe/index.php?id_product=328&controller=product
The price is for Peru so don't compare it to what you'd get in the US please.
Thanks for the replies, I hope if's enough so I can go buy it today and forget about it already, my boss has been nagging me about it for the whole week :p
 
S

Smokey

Member
Since Intel's next Haswell chips are aimed squarely at enthusiasts, what better place to unveil them than at the Game Developer's Conference? The 4th-gen Core-i7 Extreme Edition CPU, codenamed "Devil's Canyon," will feature eight unlocked cores and 16 threads, trumping the last model's six cores. It'll also support the latest DDR4 memory standard, which brings much higher transfer speeds and lower power drain than DDR3. Along with a better thermal interface, all that will enable "significant" overclocking and performance enhancements, according to Intel. It also announced a Pentium Anniversary Edition with unlockable cores and revealed the "Black Brook" reference all-in-one -- designed to show off tech like its RealSense 3-D camera (see the video after the break). Finally, Intel revealed that its 5th-gen Broadwell 14-nanometer processors will be available unlocked and with IRIS graphics. Given that those chips are expected soon and the Extreme Edition Core CPU will arrive in mid-2014, it might be prudent to put off that upgrade.
Click to expand...

Devil's Canyon huh
 
O

OldAsUrSock

Banned
HardRojo said:
I got a new boss at work, he recently moved from Argentina to Peru with his son, it was sudden for the kid and they are still getting settled here, his son is really bored because he had to leave his friends back in Argentina and doesn't know anyone here (he just started school) so my boss asked me to find a good PC/laptop for his kid to play games on (he already has a PS4 btw), the kid is 14 so it's not like he'll notice minimal framedrops or tears, he mainly plays League of Legends, Minecraft and FPSs like CoD and Battlefield.
If possible I'd rather go for a laptop so it's a plug and play thing, I don't want my boss to keep calling me saying the PC doesn't work or having to tinker with it too much.

Would this ASUS do for the stuff the kid wants to play?
http://www.yamoshi.com.pe/index.php?id_product=328&controller=product
The price is for Peru so don't compare it to what you'd get in the US please.
Thanks for the replies, I hope if's enough so I can go buy it today and forget about it already, my boss has been nagging me about it for the whole week :p
Click to expand...
14 year olds notice.

As for the laptop, that is a bit expensive for what you get.
 
Dave_6

Dave_6

Member
OldAsUrSock said:
Like a new generation feeling.
Click to expand...

Yeah it really is (and I own a PS4). The brightness was WAY too high at default but once I downloaded an ICC profile it is so much better. Black levels could be better but it isn't a deal breaker. It is so awesome to turn v-sync off and have zero tearing!
 
B

Big Takeover

Member
Smokey said:
Devil's Canyon huh
Click to expand...

Not sure if you're just having a laugh at the description, but it's completely incorrect. That's combining both Haswell-E and Devil's Canyon!

Devil's Canyon is just a Haswell refresh:
intel-haswell-devils-canyon.png
 
M

mkenyon

Banned
HardRojo said:
I got a new boss at work, he recently moved from Argentina to Peru with his son, it was sudden for the kid and they are still getting settled here, his son is really bored because he had to leave his friends back in Argentina and doesn't know anyone here (he just started school) so my boss asked me to find a good PC/laptop for his kid to play games on (he already has a PS4 btw), the kid is 14 so it's not like he'll notice minimal framedrops or tears, he mainly plays League of Legends, Minecraft and FPSs like CoD and Battlefield.
If possible I'd rather go for a laptop so it's a plug and play thing, I don't want my boss to keep calling me saying the PC doesn't work or having to tinker with it too much.

Would this ASUS do for the stuff the kid wants to play?
http://www.yamoshi.com.pe/index.php?id_product=328&controller=product
The price is for Peru so don't compare it to what you'd get in the US please.
Thanks for the replies, I hope if's enough so I can go buy it today and forget about it already, my boss has been nagging me about it for the whole week :p
Click to expand...
When I was 14, if I had a drop in framerate below 60 in Team Fortress (for Quake), I'd be pissed. It's likely that you would have fewer issues with a custom built machine than a laptop as well, but I definitely understand offloading the "tech support" role to the company that makes it.
 
I

industrian

will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
HardRojo said:
I got a new boss at work, he recently moved from Argentina to Peru with his son, it was sudden for the kid and they are still getting settled here, his son is really bored because he had to leave his friends back in Argentina and doesn't know anyone here (he just started school) so my boss asked me to find a good PC/laptop for his kid to play games on (he already has a PS4 btw), the kid is 14 so it's not like he'll notice minimal framedrops or tears, he mainly plays League of Legends, Minecraft and FPSs like CoD and Battlefield.
If possible I'd rather go for a laptop so it's a plug and play thing, I don't want my boss to keep calling me saying the PC doesn't work or having to tinker with it too much.

Would this ASUS do for the stuff the kid wants to play?
http://www.yamoshi.com.pe/index.php?id_product=328&controller=product
The price is for Peru so don't compare it to what you'd get in the US please.
Thanks for the replies, I hope if's enough so I can go buy it today and forget about it already, my boss has been nagging me about it for the whole week :p
Click to expand...

I'll double check tomorrow, but this looks identical to the laptop I use at work. And whilst I've not played any games with it, the four months I've spent using it constantly remind me that it's a fragile piece of crap.
 
H

HardRojo

Member
mkenyon said:
When I was 14, if I had a drop in framerate below 60 in Team Fortress (for Quake), I'd be pissed. It's likely that you would have fewer issues with a custom built machine than a laptop as well, but I definitely understand offloading the "tech support" role to the company that makes it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not trying to sound selfish or anything but it's not like I'll get paid for this so I just want to be done with it with the least amount of effort possible, it's just another toy for the kid and he already has his consoles.
industrian said:
I'll double check tomorrow, but this looks identical to the laptop I use at work. And whilst I've not played any games with it, the four months I've spent using it constantly remind me that it's a fragile piece of crap.
Click to expand...
Oh man that's not good news :/ Guess I'll have to go with a custom build PC then.

OldAsUrSock said:
Everything will have to be on low.
Click to expand...
That ain't good at all :/
 
R

Reckoner

Member
Do you guys know if there's a store with Microsoft Habu still in stock? They seem to be really rare these days, but I would love to have another one as I like it very much and mine broke some time ago.
 
O

OldAsUrSock

Banned
HardRojo said:
Yeah, I'm not trying to sound selfish or anything but it's not like I'll get paid for this so I just want to be done with it with the least amount of effort possible, it's just another toy for the kid and he already has his consoles.

Oh man that's not good news :/ Guess I'll have to go with a custom build PC then.


That ain't good at all :/
Click to expand...

Sager has pretty good laptops. Check and see if there are any available in the area.
 
T

teiresias

Member
Hmmm, so the debate is now not whether to wait, but to wait and jump on the Haswell refresh on a Z9x chipset mobo, or to jump on Haswell-E 6-core.
 
M

mkenyon

Banned
teiresias said:
Hmmm, so the debate is now not whether to wait, but to wait and jump on the Haswell refresh on a Z9x chipset mobo, or to jump on Haswell-E 6-core.
Click to expand...
Entirely depends on your budget. Keep in mind that X99 motherboards are going to be very pricey, especially if you like your board to have some significant features. Throw DDR4 on top of that, and I'd expect $800 for CPU/mobo/RAM to be about right.
 
T

turcy

Member
half of my new PC parts are stuck at the port of Vancouver [trucker's strike].

i've waited seven years for this beast [4770k, 780ti dual classified, etc.], and the extra wait is KILLING me...
 
L

LilJoka

Member
Ciastek3214 said:
Posting this for the next page.

Can someone tell me if Zalman Z9 U3 is a good case?

http://www.zalman.com/global/product/Product_Read.php?Idx=493
Click to expand...

It really depends on a lot of things
- Budget?
- You like plastic or metal?
- Tool less features?
- Cable management?
- Aesthetics
- LEDs?

IMO the case doesnt look so great, looks tacky, and a lot of plastic which makes it look cheap. And im not a fan of LEDs either.

So let us know your requirements and we may be able to give advice and alternatives. The PC case is quite a personal thing too, so aesthetics depend on the purchaser.
 
H

Hellish

Member
Is there any update / release date for the Asus PB287Q? I see Samsung is releasing their 28" 60hz 4k tn in april but this Asus one I am googling and seeing nothing, I need the mount on the back which the Samsung does not have.
 
K

king grimlock

Member
ok so as a graduation gift I will be getting a pc from my grandparents i'm getting aound $2500 so i have been researching and asking around other communities and i have come up(i actually didn't come up with it reddit did most of it) with the following:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($306.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($98.99 @ Best Buy)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($119.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.81 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($489.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($489.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($149.99 @ TigerDirect)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($264.99 @ B&H)
Total: $2410.71
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-20 14:29 EDT-0400)

don't hate me if this is the wrong format
 
M

mkenyon

Banned
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3dhK2

This makes room in the budget for a G-Sync module, the case is better suited to your video cards, and you get a MUCH better power supply.

The H100i isn't going to give you any additional overclocking headroom that an H60 would. Heat on Haswell is an issue with the internal TIM and heatspreader, and no amount of cooling really fixes it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($306.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($119.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.81 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($489.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($489.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair Air 540 ATX Mid Tower Case ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($264.99 @ B&H)
Total: $2326.71
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-20 14:49 EDT-0400)

If you wanted to make additional room in the budget, I'd drop the HDD altogether. Put that into a bigger SSD.

*edit*

Looking over this list again, outside of the motherboard, that's literally exactly what I would buy given the same budget. I'd add some custom single braided cables for the PSU, but that's because I play Barbie with my PCs.
 
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