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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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mkenyon

Banned
I've been thinking of building a new PC, but small form factor, and I glanced at the recommended builds in the OP and was shocked at the price ($900+) for builds labelled good to excellent. I want to stay away from the amd a10 builds since I already have a laptop with that. The higher prices builds look like their most expensive piece is the gfx card, so I was wondering how that new chibi r7 260 would work as an alternative since it's around $130 and has been getting good reviews. I play WoW regularly and have severe issues on my laptop in 25 man raids even on low settings/resolution. Thanks.
Yeah, in the SFF guide, feel free to swap in less expensive video cards. The only issues you would run into is if you go for something bigger, as some of the cases have fitting issues.

You could also go for a less expensive processor, but I highly recommend the 4670K, as WoW (and almost all MMOs) really benefits from an overclocked processor.
 

asdad123

Member
So I'm having a weird "bug" with windows 8 (if you can call it that. It might be a feature.)

I have a surface pro, and I just installed windows 8 pro on my desktop a couple days ago, and am signed into both computers with the same outlook account. I noticed something weird a Couple days ago, and thought it was just a coincidence, but whenever I log onto my surface, my desktop PC turns on at the same time. I shut the PC off and it still turns itself back on whenever I log into my account on my surface pro.

Any idea how to turn this off? Apart from signing out of the outlook account on my desktop.
 

Anoesis

Neo Member
Your Current Specs: Late 2011 i7 Macbook Pro 16g Ram, 256 Samsung 840 Pro SSD.
Budget: 1850 USA
Main Use:
Gaming: 4 , Video Editing 5, 3D/Model work TBD, General Usage (Word, Web, 1080p playback) 5.

Monitor Resolution: What resolution will you be playing your games at? current monitor is 1080p
Are you going to upgrade later? Yes

List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well: Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, After Effects CC, Premiere Pro CC, and Some 3d Modeling Software Maybe cinema 4d or Some other program in the future.

Looking to reuse any parts?: Maybe a Sound Card from my last build (which was 2008)

When will you build?: within 1-3 months

Will you be overclocking?: Maybe

Im thinking of building a new PC or buying a new iMac. I haven't used a PC/windows on a daily basis since getting my current MBP. My little experience with windows 8 hasn't been positive. As I said up top i'm using it for mostly work but also to get back into PC gaming. I know the whole deal with geforce and quadro but the latter are too much money, plus they are not meant for gaming use.

what do you guys think?
 

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
My friend is in the market for a $700-800 gaming PC, but this is his first build and he was looking for some advice.
I mocked up this build for him using recommendations from the OP.
The Z87 + SLI/Crossfire motherboard is essentially for if he ever decides to replace the CPU with an i5 in the future for overclocking.

What is your input as far as the quality of that build? Should anything be changed out or removed?
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Your Current Specs: Late 2011 i7 Macbook Pro 16g Ram, 256 Samsung 840 Pro SSD.
Budget: 1850 USA
Main Use:
Gaming: 4 , Video Editing 5, 3D/Model work TBD, General Usage (Word, Web, 1080p playback) 5.

Monitor Resolution: What resolution will you be playing your games at? current monitor is 1080p
Are you going to upgrade later? Yes

List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well: Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, After Effects CC, Premiere Pro CC, and Some 3d Modeling Software Maybe cinema 4d or Some other program in the future.

Looking to reuse any parts?: Maybe a Sound Card from my last build (which was 2008)

When will you build?: within 2-3 months

Will you be overclocking?: Maybe

Im thinking of building a new PC or buying a new iMac. I haven't used a PC/windows on a daily basis since getting my current MBP. My little experience with windows 8 hasn't been positive. As I said up top i'm using it for mostly work but also to get back into PC gaming. I know the whole deal with geforce and quadro but the latter are too much money, plus they are not meant for gaming use.

what do you guys think?
Go Enthusiast build, but with LGA2011 (Intel 6 core) i7-4930K and I can't remember what $300 mobo we had, some of them don't overclock friendly at all.
My friend is in the market for a $700-800 gaming PC, but this is his first build and he was looking for some advice.
I mocked up this build for him using recommendations from the OP.
The Z87 + SLI/Crossfire motherboard is essentially for if he ever decides to replace the CPU with an i5 in the future for overclocking.

What is your input as far as the quality of that build? Should anything be changed out or removed?
Just swap the PSU for a BP550 imo, I've built using the CX430M and BP550.
 

mkenyon

Banned
Go Enthusiast build, but with LGA2011 (Intel 6 core) i7-4930K and I can't remember what $300 mobo we had, some of them don't overclock friendly at all.
That was only with the 3820. The 4820K and both hex cores are fine.

P8X79-LE I think?

Rampage IV Gene is good too, and not stupid expensive.
 
Hey guys. I don't know if this is the right thread to ask this, I searched and looked for a specs/gaming thread, but, I was trying to detect my computer specs. I found this through computer (right click) properties. But I am feeling like I am missing something here. I am just trying to see if I can run Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (medium settings is fine).
AMD A8-6500 APU with Radeon HD Graphics, 3.50 GHz.
8 GBs of DDR3 ram.
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit.
edit: I also have a ps3, but ps3 version isn't so hot with it's frame rate dropping. I just wanted to see if my computer can do it any better. And I am downloading the program Hazaro, I will post about it soon.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Hey guys. I don't know if this is the right thread to ask this, I searched and looked for a specs/gaming thread, but, I was trying to detect my computer specs. I found this through computer (right click) properties. But I am feeling like I am missing something here. I am just trying to see if I can run Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (medium settings is fine).
AMD A8-6500 APU with Radeon HD Graphics, 3.50 GHz.
8 GBs of ram.
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit.

http://www.hwinfo.com/

See if you have a graphics card, if not you can try running it at 720p or 900p medium settings? You have anything else to test?
 

Sajjaja

Member
Hey guys. I don't know if this is the right thread to ask this, I searched and looked for a specs/gaming thread, but, I was trying to detect my computer specs. I found this through computer (right click) properties. But I am feeling like I am missing something here. I am just trying to see if I can run Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (medium settings is fine).
AMD A8-6500 APU with Radeon HD Graphics, 3.50 GHz.
8 GBs of ram.
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit.

Yes you can. Maybe even on high.
 

thespot84

Member
Public service announcement regarding Samsung EVO SSD's:

If you have recently installed an EVO SSD and set it up through the samsung magic software and noticed that your ram usage went up but there's nothing to account for it in the task manager, it's probably RAPID mode.

I have 8GB of ram and BF4/battlelog alone would sometimes use it all up, but there wasn't enough in the processes to add up to it (other stuff, like steam, origin, skype, etc were running). Some digging showed that RAPID mode was using a little more than a GB by itself in non-pooled kernel memory, meaning it doesn't show up under a process. After reading more about RAPID mode, I decided to axe it, and save myself $50 I would have spent on another 8GB.

*MESSAGE OVER*
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Public service announcement regarding Samsung EVO SSD's:

If you have recently installed an EVO SSD and set it up through the samsung magic software and noticed that your ram usage went up but there's nothing to account for it in the task manager, it's probably RAPID mode.

I have 8GB of ram and BF4/battlelog alone would sometimes use it all up, but there wasn't enough in the processes to add up to it (other stuff, like steam, origin, skype, etc were running). Some digging showed that RAPID mode was using a little more than a GB by itself in non-pooled kernel memory, meaning it doesn't show up under a process. After reading more about RAPID mode, I decided to axe it, and save myself $50 I would have spent on another 8GB.

*MESSAGE OVER*
but dat 700MB/s tho

My EVO 840 wasn't setup on RAPID by default, and yes it can reserve up to 1GB to cache of your RAM.
 

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
Public service announcement regarding Samsung EVO SSD's:

If you have recently installed an EVO SSD and set it up through the samsung magic software and noticed that your ram usage went up but there's nothing to account for it in the task manager, it's probably RAPID mode.

I have 8GB of ram and BF4/battlelog alone would sometimes use it all up, but there wasn't enough in the processes to add up to it (other stuff, like steam, origin, skype, etc were running). Some digging showed that RAPID mode was using a little more than a GB by itself in non-pooled kernel memory, meaning it doesn't show up under a process. After reading more about RAPID mode, I decided to axe it, and save myself $50 I would have spent on another 8GB.

*MESSAGE OVER*

Where are you finding this magical cheap RAM?
 

thespot84

Member
but dat 700MB/s tho

This review shows that while some write processes are improved (greatly) it actually can have detrimental effects on performance elsewhere. I'm all about load times, so it didn't help me all that much, but if you have the RAM and want the write speed then go for it.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
This review shows that while some write processes are improved (greatly) it actually can have detrimental effects on performance elsewhere. I'm all about load times, so it didn't help me all that much, but if you have the RAM and want the write speed then go for it.
Yeah it was more of a joke, and the 1GB/s is higher than I remember.

I have RAPID disabled myself because it looked like from another review it has no perceptible benefit and if something crashed it'd be worse than normal (if something was in RAM, not SSD cache).
 

NoRéN

Member
Public service announcement regarding Samsung EVO SSD's:

If you have recently installed an EVO SSD and set it up through the samsung magic software and noticed that your ram usage went up but there's nothing to account for it in the task manager, it's probably RAPID mode.

I have 8GB of ram and BF4/battlelog alone would sometimes use it all up, but there wasn't enough in the processes to add up to it (other stuff, like steam, origin, skype, etc were running). Some digging showed that RAPID mode was using a little more than a GB by itself in non-pooled kernel memory, meaning it doesn't show up under a process. After reading more about RAPID mode, I decided to axe it, and save myself $50 I would have spent on another 8GB.

*MESSAGE OVER*

Was rapid mode enabled on default for you?
 
Guys I have a problem with my new system's GPU, it won't get recognized by the system, even though I think I plugged it correctly. What steps should I take?
 
Hey guys, I have recently return to the PC gaming world. In the past I have never Overclocked my CPU and over the last few days, I have attempted to OC my i5-3570k. I read over some of the sites listed and still feel so so on it. Anyways I first OC my CPU to 4.0 Ghz using the stock CPU cooler and the only thing I notice was an increase in temperature. Am I doing something wrong? Or do I need to get an aftermarket CPU cooler, mess around with the voltage and what would be max X Ghz I should aim for along with the ideal temperature I should be getting?
 
Hey guys, I have recently return to the PC gaming world. In the past I have never Overclocked my CPU and over the last few days, I have attempted to OC my i5-3570k. I read over some of the sites listed and still feel so so on it. Anyways I first OC my CPU to 4.0 Ghz using the stock CPU cooler and the only thing I notice was an increase in temperature. Am I doing something wrong? Or do I need to get an aftermarket CPU cooler, mess around with the voltage and what would be max X Ghz I should aim for along with the ideal temperature I should be getting?

I think your voltage is still on auto or something. What happens is that the higher you clock your CPU, the more voltage it needs the hotter it gets.

So what you do normally is that you start at a clock speed and voltage. And higher your clock speed until it gets unstable, then you up the voltage a bit, after which you get high temperatures. After a while you cannot really increase your voltage anymore.

Most people aim for a clock speed instead of an ideal temperature, and a aftermarket cooler means lower temperatures, means more leeway for voltage, means higher possible clock speeds.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Guys I have a problem with my new system's GPU, it won't get recognized by the system, even though I think I plugged it correctly. What steps should I take?
Reseat, make sure power is plugged in snuggly (reconnect PCI-E, mobo 24, mobo 4/8)
Try a different slot
check PEG is default
check video cable is snug/secure/monitor is on correct channel
reboot a lot
 

Abdozer

Member
Hey guys, a friend wants to build the best gaming PC for his budget. He just purchased a GTX Titan off eBay for 600$ and is putting the rest of the build in place. Any of you folks think this is a good build? Feel free to swap out parts. No HDD or SSD chosen yet.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($324.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VI GENE Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($192.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($162.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 350D MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($168.91 @ Amazon)
Total: $919.85
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-21 07:10 EST-0500)

He'll also be getting the CPU and RAM off eBay so those will be a little cheaper, his max budget is 1600$ give or take.
 

kiyomi

Member
Hope it's okay to repost - I didn't get any feedback, so;

Hey guys, first time poster here. For about the past week or two I've started to get serious about buying a new PC, since it's been about 5 years since we had a new computer and the Mac I'm using for everything is really showing its' age. Barely able to run the OS we upgraded to.

It's also been about 10 years since I regularly used a desktop PC running Windows, so it's going to be a new experience for me in a way.. and to top it off, I want to build the thing myself. I'm really throwing myself in the deep end as I know next to nothing.

Anyway, some basic conclusions have arrived and here's a very early list of what I might be aiming at using PC Part Picker;

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£167.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£58.62 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£43.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card (£151.97 @ Dabs)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (White) ATX Mid Tower Case (£38.64 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£53.54 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£72.59 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: Hannspree HE225DPB 21.5" Monitor (£89.98 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £737.30

We would be using it for daily HD streaming and daily gaming mostly, as well as some work in GIMP/Photoshop. I'd like to be able to have a good gaming experience, capable of running PS360-gen games comfortably, as well as be able to play some next-gen games at a reasonable level. Will this be enough? I don't really want to be spending a whole lot more unless necessary. And yeah, I picked the cheapest 1080 monitor I could find. :p

I have some other questions too, but I didn't want to make the post too long. Thanks!

I guess my biggest concern is how long into new-gen games the GPU would last me.
 
Reseat, make sure power is plugged in snuggly (reconnect PCI-E, mobo 24, mobo 4/8)
Try a different slot
check PEG is default
check video cable is snug/secure/monitor is on correct channel
reboot a lot

it turns out one of the 6 pin cables was not completely plugged in. Weirdly enough, with my hdmi cable the desktop only covers part of the screen, it's fine with the DVI cable though.
 
Another question, windows is recognizing my old bootcamp partition on my HDD, but not the mac OS one. Is there a tool with which I can see and format that partition?
 

DSix

Banned
I just ordered that on Amazon:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (EUR 164,97)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A C2 (EUR 109,58)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (EUR 75,95)
Storage: Samsung MZ-7TE120BW SSD 840 EVO BASIC 2,5" 120 Go SATA (EUR 84,52)
Video Card: Sapphire 11217-01-20G AMD R9 270X 1020 MHz 2048 PCI Express (EUR 164,44)
Case: Reusing old case (If cooling becomes a problem I could opt for a corsair 300r or 500r)
Power Supply: Reusing old power supply (a Corsair 550HX)
Total: 600€

So, is it good? Especially on the motherboard, I don't see it recommended on the OP and I hope it's a good one. I'm used to getting the "main" asus board, but I could've gone for the Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H for the same price.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Putting in my front IO on the 500r reminded me of the fun and slight annoyance of putting my rig together again. Dealing with cables and doing some jostling on all the connectors (USB2/3, 1394, front audio, LED, and 3 chassis fan connectors) is a pain because once you put a rig together cords tend to get intertwined a little. If you have many devices and you settle the cable management, it can create some challenges in pulling those cords out. Luckily the transplant went well and I now have 2 working front USB ports.

Already have a home for the 670?
Yes. A kind Gaffer even payed me ahead of time even though I won't be able to ship until early Feb. I probably low balled it but I sold it for 150. I also agreed to buy his 3DS and a 2TB HDD.

Shopping this card around makes me get nervous for next year since I will be selling my 3930k rig with case, MB, memory, PSU, CPU, case filters, and CPU cooling (H100i). I definitely don't want to get too low on that as the components are pretty good.

I had 2 titans in a past life. Now I'm stuck with only one

And I said I wouldn't buy any new parts this year

I remember you saying that. Not like 1 Titan is anything to balk at. Some would kill to have that.
 
I just ordered that on Amazon:


So, is it good? Especially on the motherboard, I don't see it recommended on the OP and I hope it's a good one. I'm used to getting the "main" asus board, but I could've gone for the Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H for the same price.

a z87 motherboard is a bit overkill for that processor, you can save 20-30€ ona cheaper one
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
I just ordered that on Amazon:


So, is it good? Especially on the motherboard, I don't see it recommended on the OP and I hope it's a good one. I'm used to getting the "main" asus board, but I could've gone for the Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H for the same price.

A little lower on the MB and probably a little tiny bit more on the memory.

I'm helping a friend put a rig together and did go down from a 4GB 760 (230USD) to a 270x. That is a very able GPU for the price.
 

riflen

Member
Hey guys, I have recently return to the PC gaming world. In the past I have never Overclocked my CPU and over the last few days, I have attempted to OC my i5-3570k. I read over some of the sites listed and still feel so so on it. Anyways I first OC my CPU to 4.0 Ghz using the stock CPU cooler and the only thing I notice was an increase in temperature. Am I doing something wrong? Or do I need to get an aftermarket CPU cooler, mess around with the voltage and what would be max X Ghz I should aim for along with the ideal temperature I should be getting?

There's not enough info here, as you don't tell us how you achieved the over-clock.
If you just turned up the multiplier, and left everything else alone, then the system will probably just have increased the voltage as it saw fit. While this might work, the motherboard will err on the side of caution and probably apply more voltage than you strictly require. More voltage means more heat.

I would not recommend over-clocking using the stock cooler, as it's not designed to deal with the temperatures you might be hitting.

I have my 3570K at 4.5Ghz using an offset over-clock of about +0.125v. It can go higher, but I prefer to stay under 50 degrees (I'm using water). You will have to go through some trial and error before you find what values work for you. Get a decent cooler, start with 4.4Ghz and see how you go.

For what it's worth, Asus have some good articles for over-clocking with their hardware. Even if you don't have a RoG board, the concepts may still be useful:

http://rog.asus.com/184142012/maximus-motherboards/guide-overclocking-the-core-i5-3570k-to-4-5ghz-on-the-maximus-v-gene/

http://rog.asus.com/51092012/overclocking/overclocking-using-offset-mode-for-cpu-core-voltage/
 

GHG

Gold Member
Thanks.. Could you offer any advice about why that would be a good choice? Really new to this stuff. :)

This is also in consideration ;

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-...4800mhz-gddr5-gpu-1000mhz-1280-cores-2x-dvi-h

Performance summary from TechPowerUp (1080p):

perfrel_1920.gif


Its a better card than the 7870 and the Nvidia 660. It should give you more longivity than the 660 in particular because it has a much larger bit-bus. Also, although the 660 advertises that it has 2GB ram, only 1.5GB of that is actually useable.

Get the 270x at that price range. If you would prefer to have Nvidia over AMD then get a 760 but that will cost you a bit more.
 

kiyomi

Member
Performance summary from TechPowerUp (1080p):

Its a better card than the 7870 and the Nvidia 660. It should give you more longivity than the 660 in particular because it has a much larger bit-bus. Also, although the 660 advertises that it has 2GB ram, only 1.5GB of that is actually useable.

Get the 270x at that price range. If you would prefer to have Nvidia over AMD then get a 760 but that will cost you a bit more.

Thanks. I also used Anandtech's bench tool to compare the two and that lines up with better performance.

The only small issue I can see is that under load, the 270x runs 6-8 deg. Celsius hotter than the 7870. Would that be a significant enough increase to negatively affect the longevity? And what's the best affordable cooling solution for it?

Sorry for the questions - I appreciate the help. Thanks again.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Thanks. I also used Anandtech's bench tool to compare the two and that lines up with better performance.

The only small issue I can see is that under load, the 270x runs 6-8 deg. Celsius hotter than the 7870. Would that be a significant enough increase to negatively affect the longevity? And what's the best affordable cooling solution for it?

Sorry for the questions - I appreciate the help. Thanks again.

That's not really an issue, especially at the temps cards at that size run. It's also going to vary depending on which cooler you end up with (each manufacturer has their own custom one), but any of them will be better than the reference blower (which is what I assume you're comparing right now).
 
Alright, but I want a good enough sound chip. A Gigabyte G1.Sniper B5 would be good?
For my build I used a msi b85m p33, the only downside being that it only has a single pcie slot. Any b85 board that fits your case should do. Most boards have good enough sound these days, get asoundcard if it's really important for you
 

teiresias

Member
Would I see a notable improvement in performance on emulators, specifically PCSX2 and Dolphin moving from an i7-870 Lynnfield to a Haswell - probably a 4770k?

I've been needing to change motherboards anyway and have been putting it off, but I'm wondering the IPC improvements are enough to be a noticeable difference in those applications now?
 
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