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[Water]

The new announcement made my decision easy. No point in going Haswell-E anymore.
Now it's just a matter of waiting for the parts to come out. I sure hope "mid-year" isn't late July or something. Ideally I'd like to build as soon as the semester ends in late May.

So.. I'm still drooling over the Silverstone FT05. Assuming I stick with it, thoughts on CPU cooling? Is some kind of closed loop setup worth considering over a Noctua in this case? The exhaust fan on the top next to the CPU is just 120mm.

I want silent at idle, not screaming under load, and good overclocks. I'm not on a tight budget, but do not want to mess with custom water.

 

[NoRéN]

Couple of questions.

Getting the itch to get a second SSD. Want it to be strictly game storage(steam, origin, etc). Is it as easy as changing the library folder location?

What if I want to get a bigger SSD instead? How would that work as far as windows install is concerned?

Of these two options, which one is the least of a hassle? I'm guessing the first one.

 

[RumblingRosco]

This is a long shot, but does anyone here use the Cisco AE1000 WiFi adapter with Windows 8? Got my new SSD and Windows 8 set up (thanks to those that helped a few pages back) but found that my WiFi adapter isn't detected. Well, it is detected, but doesn't have any drivers it seems. I see some people had success using Windows 7 or even Windows XP drivers from Cisco's website, but I seemingly cannot put them to use once I download them. When I try to search for drivers, Windows 8 only does some sort of automatic search but doesn't allow me to select the downloaded drivers. I'm at work now and will fiddle more when I get home, but just wondering if anyone here has a quick tip. I remember when I first got this adapter I had issues installing it on Windows 7 as well so at this point I've sworn off ever buying another Cisco adapter, but yeah, it is what it is.

Ironically, my fiancee's $6 TRENDnet TEW-424UB adapter, which isn't supposed to support anything officially beyond Windows Vista, worked perfectly as soon as I plugged it in... what the fuck Cisco, what the fuck.

 

[Smokey]

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.

Nope. I am waiting for more information as well. Think I'm going to go with either this Asus or Dell 4k vs. the ROG Swift monitor.

 

[OldAsUrSock]

Is Evil solrac v3.0 correct?

I am fine with upgrading my GPU to run a new Direct X. What I do not like is having to change operation systems. Changing a part is just opening the computer, taking one out and plugging the new GPU in. Changing the operating system is wiping your drives, installing the new OS, installing drivers and then getting games back on the machine.

you don't have to do that anymore with win8.

 

[LilJoka]

This is a long shot, but does anyone here use the Cisco AE1000 WiFi adapter with Windows 8? Got my new SSD and Windows 8 set up (thanks to those that helped a few pages back) but found that my WiFi adapter isn't detected. Well, it is detected, but doesn't have any drivers it seems. I see some people had success using Windows 7 or even Windows XP drivers from Cisco's website, but I seemingly cannot put them to use once I download them. When I try to search for drivers, Windows 8 only does some sort of automatic search but doesn't allow me to select the downloaded drivers. I'm at work now and will fiddle more when I get home, but just wondering if anyone here has a quick tip. I remember when I first got this adapter I had issues installing it on Windows 7 as well so at this point I've sworn off ever buying another Cisco adapter, but yeah, it is what it is.

Ironically, my fiancee's $6 TRENDnet TEW-424UB adapter, which isn't supposed to support anything officially beyond Windows Vista, worked perfectly as soon as I plugged it in... what the fuck Cisco, what the fuck.

Go to device manager, right click the device, update driver.
Choose "Browse my computer for driver", select the driver folder you downloaded. make sure search subfolders is ticked. Hopefully if the driver matches itll install it.

 

[b0bbyJ03]

im trying to learn about anti-aliasing since i just built my first PC. from what i can gather MSAA seems to be the popular choice because it doesn't blur the screen as much as FXAA but FXAA provides better performance (which is more important to me). do all games offer FXAA from the menu or would i set that from the NVidea control panel (reason i ask is cause i noticed that i could turn off v-sync in titanfall but add it in the control panel, does the same apply to AA and is there any reason i wouldnt want to do it)?

 

[Kintaro]

Drop the hard drive and get a 1tb SSD.

And never look back.

I wish I could do this.

Fuck it. Time to rob a bank.

 

[kennah]

I wish I could too.

Rocking two 10k Raptors in my machine right now. Loudest thing in there.

 

[mkenyon]

The new announcement made my decision easy. No point in going Haswell-E anymore.
Now it's just a matter of waiting for the parts to come out. I sure hope "mid-year" isn't late July or something. Ideally I'd like to build as soon as the semester ends in late May.

So.. I'm still drooling over the Silverstone FT05. Assuming I stick with it, thoughts on CPU cooling? Is some kind of closed loop setup worth considering over a Noctua in this case? The exhaust fan on the top next to the CPU is just 120mm.

I want silent at idle, not screaming under load, and good overclocks. I'm not on a tight budget, but do not want to mess with custom water.

That FT05 is fucking incredible. I'll probably dump one of my CaseLabs for it. I will say though, Silverstone is infamous for showing early versions of their cases that might take years to release. I'm hoping it's a bit sooner with the FT05, but we'll see.

The thing to keep in mind about tower coolers, is that the only reason the Noctuas are as good as they are is because of the fans. You can get something like a Hyper 212, upgrade the fans on it, and get much improved performance.

I see the largest benefit to a closed loop cooler as being able to easily work inside your case. If you're having issues, and need to reseat RAM, make sure that your CPU 8 pin is plugged all the way in, or even your motherboard 24 pin, would you rather do it in this:

or this:

For that reason, the H60 and Seidon 120 are my CLC of choice. Unless you're trying to push insane volts, they're going to give adequate performance too. H100i has very much become an epeen thing that has very little benefit to 90% of the people that use them. Want Noctua silence with ease of use? Get a 120mm CLC and slap a Noiseblocker eLoop on there. The 1300rpm versions are basically silent.

And Water, your username requires that you eventually put your cards and CPU under Water blocks. As long as you have the right parts, it's easy as pie these days. I can understand avoiding it, but if you ever do decide to go that route, I can walk you through a zero maintenance loop that's easy to setup.

Is Evil solrac v3.0 correct?

Is the person suggesting that you need to reformat your system when you install a new video card? I'm not sure what's being discussed. But that guy definitely cuts corners in a lot of his arguments, so I'm immediately skeptical of his posts.

Couple of questions.

Getting the itch to get a second SSD. Want it to be strictly game storage(steam, origin, etc). Is it as easy as changing the library folder location?

What if I want to get a bigger SSD instead? How would that work as far as windows install is concerned?

Of these two options, which one is the least of a hassle? I'm guessing the first one.

Yes, it is that easy. You can just drag and drop Steam, and it will reintegrate itself to wherever you put it after running the exe. It'll even do that after a reformat. It's fucking magical.

For a new primary SSD, you'd either reformat or use something like Acronis to clone the drive. Reformating is so good though. Feels so fresh.

 

[Parsnip]

My new cpu, mobo and psu arrived today, woot.
But it's a bit too late to start switching hardware today.
First thing tomorrow, wee woo!

 

[LilJoka]

Yes, it is that easy. You can just drag and drop Steam, and it will reintegrate itself to wherever you put it after running the exe. It'll even do that after a reformat. It's fucking magical.

Actually you can leave steam on the SSD, and give it the location to your original Steam library folder. Itll recognize all the games right away as installed.

 

[Ciastek3214]

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.

Is it good in a purely practical sense? Does it carry out the heat well? Will it be a real pain in the ass to implement my rig?

I could never give two shits about how any of my PC cases looked, also can't the LEDs be easily disabled? The budget for this one is just right for me considering I can get it for a slightly lower price from my friend who owns a PC store because some guy who bought it decided to return it and change for a new one because he saw a few scratches on the side glass.

 

[Billy Zero]

Well, I've finally decided to build my own PC. I've already started and things are going good so far. I have one question about connecting the GPU (EVGA Geforce GTX 770) to my PSU. The GPU requires one 8-pin and one 6-pin connector. My PSU came with 2 PCI-E cables. Each cable has two 6-pin+2 connectors on them. Do I use just one PCI-E cable, or do I use two separate cables? Or maybe it doesn't matter...? I'm not entirely sure. The instructions with my GPU are kinda unclear.

 

[mkenyon]

Well, I've finally decided to build my own PC. I've already started and things are going good so far. I have one question about connecting the GPU (EVGA Geforce GTX 770) to my PSU. The GPU requires one 8-pin and one 6-pin connector. My PSU came with 2 PCI-E cables. Each cable has two 6-pin+2 connectors on them. Do I use just one PCI-E cable, or do I use two separate cables? Or maybe it doesn't matter...? I'm not entirely sure. The instructions with my GPU are kinda unclear.

Fill all of the slots. You'd use one 6+2, and one 6 with the 2 dangling off to the side. Use one of the cables, and both of the end pieces to that cable.

 

[Billy Zero]

Fill all of the slots. You'd use one 6+2, and one 6 with the 2 dangling off to the side. Use one of the cables, and both of the end pieces to that cable.

Thanks a lot for the quick reply!! Much appreciated!

 

[Objectively Bad Opinion]

To the guy who asked about the 280X vs 770. Take a look at the Sapphire 280X Toxic. It comes with a pretty wild overclock out of the box:

http://lanoc.org/review/video-cards/6770-sapphire-r9-280x-toxic?showall=&start=6

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7406/the-sapphire-r9-280x-toxic-review

 

[Durante]

The new announcement made my decision easy. No point in going Haswell-E anymore.

Which announcement? Because I'm still waiting for Haswell-E so maybe I missed something

im trying to learn about anti-aliasing since i just built my first PC.

You could do worse than reading this.

 

[Chindogg]

So what's the best temperature monitoring and fan control software now? I used to use Speedfan but it seems like no one's used it in forever.

 

[ShowDog]

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

It's a perfectly workable case. I got one for cheap at Microcenter and I have decent cable management, it fits everything easily, has several airflow options and semi tool-less drive installation etc. Not bad if price and function are your main concerns.

Is it good in a purely practical sense? Does it carry out the heat well? Will it be a real pain in the ass to implement my rig?

I could never give two shits about how any of my PC cases looked, also can't the LEDs be easily disabled? The budget for this one is just right for me considering I can get it for a slightly lower price from my friend who owns a PC store because some guy who bought it decided to return it and change for a new one because he saw a few scratches on the side glass.

Yes it will work just fine for you.

 

[TheD]

Which announcement? Because I'm still waiting for Haswell-E so maybe I missed something

You could do worse than reading this.

Haswell refresh with the heatspreader issue fixed.

 

[mkenyon]

Haswell refresh with the heatspreader issue fixed.

Improved, probably. Fixed? Need to wait to see.

 

[Ryan_]

Can anyone tell me what the best moment in the year is for a new pc?
So far I always bought one after the summer, in September, but I wonder if there is a better time to do it.

Also, is it better to wait until the new GPU's and CPU's come out and jump ship?

 

[TC McQueen]

Can anyone tell me what the best moment in the year is for a new pc?
So far I always bought one after the summer, in September, but I wonder if there is a better time to do it.

Also, is it better to wait until the new GPU's and CPU's come out and jump ship?

Yes, it's better to wait for the new GPUs (especially the high end stuff). I'm not too sure about CPUs, but getting the newest Haswell ones are probably a good idea if you plan to get DX12 on launch.

Dunno about specific best times for PC components, which is very dependent on what you're looking for and what you're willing to pay.

 

[mkenyon]

Can anyone tell me what the best moment in the year is for a new pc?
So far I always bought one after the summer, in September, but I wonder if there is a better time to do it.

Also, is it better to wait until the new GPU's and CPU's come out and jump ship?

Videocard gains should be fairly predictable at this point due to the major slowdown in process shrinking. Playing the waiting game means sitting out for a number of months, and the next thing is always being teased. Just need to get a budget together and go for it.

Maxwell videocards (NVIDIA's new thing) should be out sometime Q3 or Q4, so you might be waiting 6 months to get something, or you might be waiting 9 months.

The most efficient thing to do generally is to buy in, and don't overspend on getting the best possible thing you can with your money. Go for a mid range card, and when the next stuff comes out, sell it, and upgrade. You don't pay a ton of money out of pocket, and get to keep up with the tech.

In terms of CPUs, that's even more predictable than videocards these days. 6% performance bump. There's nothing significant that will be released with the new Broadwell processors either.

If you like to play in the high end of things, Haswell-E will be launching sometime early Q2. Entry level processor for that should be a $330 6-core CPU. Motherboards will be $230 at the low end. It will be the first platform with DDR4 though. As gaming processors, it won't be an upgrade at all over what's currently available.

So, to sum up, there's never really a best time. It depends year to year.

 

[Azulsky]

Can anyone tell me what the best moment in the year is for a new pc?
So far I always bought one after the summer, in September, but I wonder if there is a better time to do it.

Also, is it better to wait until the new GPU's and CPU's come out and jump ship?

If you are gaming you need to know

What resolution you are playing at
What framerate you are aiming for
What fidelity you are aiming for
What generation of games are you trying to do the above with(past, current, near future)

Figure out how much that generally costs(the price tiers for performance dont actually shift that much year to year, $1500 has been a high end PC for a long time, for example)

When you have financing straight, unless something is coming out in the next month(30 days) then just buy the system.

The waiting game will eat away your soul

 

[mkenyon]

Very succinctly put. 100% right on there.

 

[gilljoy]

So my steelseries 4h just broke

Going to need to get a new set of headphones / headset.

I've got a £50 budget, don't particularly care about a mic as I can always buy a clip on one etc so what's the best set for gaming / watching movies within my budget?

Edit I should probably mention I have quite a large head, Christmas cracker crowns rip when I try to put them on large so that's a factor

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

How long will it be before 8 core Intel processors exist on normal sockets? A few years back I would have said "oh any day now" when we were starting to see 8 core AMD stuff but it really doesn't seem like they're ever going to arrive at the current pace. I mean my Haswell i5 isn't slowing me down or anything, but the thirst for more cores is real.

 

[Infinite Justice]

If you are gaming you need to know

What resolution you are playing at
What framerate you are aiming for
What fidelity you are aiming for
What generation of games are you trying to do the above with(past, current, near future)

Figure out how much that generally costs(the price tiers for performance dont actually shift that much year to year, $1500 has been a high end PC for a long time, for example)

When you have financing straight, unless something is coming out in the next month(30 days) then just buy the system.

The waiting game will eat away your soul

Indeed.

 

[Objectively Bad Opinion]

Yes, it's better to wait for the new GPUs (especially the high end stuff). I'm not too sure about CPUs, but getting the newest Haswell ones are probably a good idea if you plan to get DX12 on launch.

Dunno about specific best times for PC components, which is very dependent on what you're looking for and what you're willing to pay.

new GPUs are 6-months away minimum-- you get a pretty good idea when they're being released as leaks start to happen when chips start coming out of the foundry and get shipped to Foxconn and places like that. At this point it's still 6 months or so until they get put up for sale. basically no leaks = long time waiting

waiting at this point in the game seems inadvisable

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

new GPUs are 6-months away minimum--

If I don't have a new range GPU in my PC by the time Arkham Knight comes out I may actually die.

 

[Bleepey]

Is it's correct in thinking that a relatively weak CPU and kickass GPU can run damn near anything.

 

[Gaz_RB]

Is it's correct in thinking that a relatively weak CPU and kickass GPU can run damn near anything.

You are incorrect in your thinking.

 

[scogoth]

Is it's correct in thinking that a relatively weak CPU and kickass GPU can run damn near anything.

No a mid range (top end consumer or low end enthusiast) CPU and a kickass GPU can run anything.

 

[HiResDes]

Can't wait for new cards to come out so I can pick up another GtX680 for cheap.

 

[mkenyon]

How long will it be before 8 core Intel processors exist on normal sockets? A few years back I would have said "oh any day now" when we were starting to see 8 core AMD stuff but it really doesn't seem like they're ever going to arrive at the current pace. I mean my Haswell i5 isn't slowing me down or anything, but the thirst for more cores is real.

If you count 2011 as a normal socket, then in about 3 months.

But also, AMD's "8 core" Bulldozer/Piledriver CPUs aren't 8 cores in the normal sense. Realistically, it performs and behaves much more similar to a 4 core proc with hyperthreading.

The Jaguar ones are though.

 

[CrAzY FiNgErS]

Improved, probably. Fixed? Need to wait to see.

Will these new K CPUs be compatible with current Z87 boards?

 

[riflen]

How long will it be before 8 core Intel processors exist on normal sockets? A few years back I would have said "oh any day now" when we were starting to see 8 core AMD stuff but it really doesn't seem like they're ever going to arrive at the current pace. I mean my Haswell i5 isn't slowing me down or anything, but the thirst for more cores is real.

Normal sockets? Probably not for a very long time. We have the first consumer 8-core Intel CPU arriving in Q2, but that's an enthusiast socket and will be priced accordingly. There is just no demand.
What games are you playing that are thirsting for more cores? I'm genuinely interested, because the huge majority don't care if you have more than 4 cores. They are still very single-threaded.

It looks like DirectX 12 will up the game as far as game code parallelism is concerned, but I still think 4 Intel cores are going to do just fine for some considerable time yet because the IPC is strong and you can overclock them handsomely.

4 core i7, 6 core i7, 8 and 12 core Xeons. Performance still follows frequency for the large part.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7852/intel-xeon-e52697-v2-and-xeon-e52687w-v2-review-12-and-8-cores

 

[Delt31]

I just want to say I LOVE this thread. So many helpful people. thanks again guys.

 

[mkenyon]

Let me preface with: I totally agree. However, Bioshock Infinite is UE3 based, which is one of the most CPU demanding engines. It's dual threaded, and all it wants is high IPC/frequency.

*really important edit*

Though Avg FPS does give a relatively good idea of performance, it does gloss over chugs and hiccups. Frame time analysis actually helps drive your point home even more. When you look at things like 99th percentile frame time, or even how many frames were delivered at more than 16.7ms, it becomes really apparent that everything which is CPU bound just wants faster cores.

I just want to say I LOVE this thread. So many helpful people. thanks again guys.

This thread loves you too.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

What games are you playing that are thirsting for more cores? I'm genuinely interested, because the huge majority don't care if you have more than 4 cores. They are still very single-threaded.

You misunderstand. It's not lack of perf that has me wanting more. It's simply the desire for bigger numbers and more power.

 

[mkenyon]

You misunderstand. It's not lack of perf that has me wanting more. It's simply the desire for bigger numbers and more power.

5.0GHz is certainly a bigger number than 3.4! Time to pour some volts into your proc. Think about how smooth late-game EUIV would be playing in the HRE.

True story, when I built my first Intel 2500K machine (predominantly AMD before then), the first thing I did after overclocking to 5.0 GHz was load up a turn 400 Civ V save. So nice.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

It's not like I get problems on my 4670 as is, lol.

 

[Jeff Stephen]

Curious to know if anyone has had an issue where the PSU would automatically turn on once connected? I've double checked the front panel pins and even removed them just to be sure it wasn't a failing power switch. Any way to figure if it's the PSU or MB?

 

[RumblingRosco]

Go to device manager, right click the device, update driver.
Choose "Browse my computer for driver", select the driver folder you downloaded. make sure search subfolders is ticked. Hopefully if the driver matches itll install it.

Thanks, that worked well. The "Update driver" button had been greyed out before and I just now saw there was a separate button I had to click to un-grey it. Anyway, again, thank you.

 

[LilJoka]

Curious to know if anyone has had an issue where the PSU would automatically turn on once connected? I've double checked the front panel pins and even removed them just to be sure it wasn't a failing power switch. Any way to figure if it's the PSU or MB?

Power on as in lights on the motherboard, or power on as in all fans spinning and motherboard tries to POST?

 

[Objectively Bad Opinion]

gains from CPU upgrades are mostly academic unless you have a 120Hz monitor or play primarily RTS or BF4... or Planetside or Arma

other than a few outliers 60fps has a pretty low barrier of entry is what I'm trying to say

Though better is better, academic or not.

 

[HiResDes]

I just overclocked my 4770K to 4.2GHZ and it's so fast that I don't see the need to invest in liquid coolers and whatnot to go higher. I mean this thing is fast.

 

[NoRéN]

Yes, it is that easy. You can just drag and drop Steam, and it will reintegrate itself to wherever you put it after running the exe. It'll even do that after a reformat. It's fucking magical.

For a new primary SSD, you'd either reformat or use something like Acronis to clone the drive. Reformating is so good though. Feels so fresh.

Go, steam! Awesome! thank you for the info. Time to hunt down a deal.