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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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Got damn that is toasty. Still below TJMax, and you're not going to have those kinds of temps in games.

No, but I can give you a good idea of what should run it at 120fps.

It being source, and multiplayer, it's going to love some speedy cores. Intel 2500K/3570k/4670k will do the trick there. The GPU portion is a bit of a question mark, though I'd imagine the 760 will be able to do it.

I don't have an Intel processor, I have AMD. Thanks for the response anyways! : D
 

Big Chungus

Member
So I checked out Kingston site on the memory and it says this:

Kingston's KHX1600C9D3B1K2/8GX is a kit of two 512M x 64-
bit (4GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM), 2Rx8
memory modules, based on sixteen 256M x 8-bit FBGA
components per module. Each module kit supports Intel® XMP
(Extreme Memory Profiles). Total kit capacity is 8GB. Each
module kit has been tested to run at DDR3-1600 at a low
latency timing of 9-9-9 at 1.65V. The SPDs are programmed to
JEDEC standard latency DDR3-1333 timing of 9-9-9 at 1.5V
.
Each 240-pin DIMM uses gold contact fingers and requires
+1.5V

It says 1.65 on the memory modules but on the site it says that it runs at 1.5v.

Not sure which one it is...
 
It means by default the modules are set to run at 1333MHz at 1.5V by default but the manufacturer warrants them at 1600MHz so long as you run them at 1.65V.
 

mkenyon

Banned
PCgaf, lend me your godly expertise.

So I just got accepted to receive a Best Buy credit card with a limit of $1300.

I plan on purchasing a good gaming PC. I'm probably one of the clumsiest people in the world, so i have always been terrified to build my own.

What I would like to know is, has anyone bought a gaming pc from a retailer such as Best Buy? Any good builds you may recommend? If so, are they difficult to upgrade?
Use the OP, buy as many parts as you can from them. Fill in what you can't get elsewhere.
Don't do it. Best Buy stuff is overpriced and you'll be paying a ridiculous interest rate. Cancel the card. Save up money. Build later.
Best Buy price matches Newegg and Amazon.
 

bro1

Banned
My new corsair ax860i is making a slight clicking noise every 15 seconds or about. Should I retun it or will it go away as it heats up?
 
My co-worker wants me to build him a computer on which to edit his documentaries (stuff that would air on PBS or local channels et al). He would carry over Windows 7 Ultimate from his previous tower, his optical drives and 4x 500GB HDDs. He edits on Sony Vegas Pro 12, and will make graphics in Adobe After Effects and Photoshop (probably nothing super fancy or intensive, just 2D name supers lit in 3D). He doesn't have a budget but I talked him through some parts and this is the general idea he gave me.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2Jv3Z

-Case: Quiet as possible. It's going to need to house around 7 mechanical HDDs as well. I was thinking the Fractal Define R4. Another idea I recently had is using an external RAID with Thunderbolt 2.0 connections. Thoughts on that?
-CPU: i7-4930k 6-core, with a CM Hyper EVO 212 on it.
-MoBo: ASUS X79 Deluxe maybe? Needs enough SATA ports to bring over his current 4 HDD RAID and accommodate an additional 3x HDD RAID.
-Gonna need a hardware RAID controller card I assume? Any caveats about those?
-PSU: Seasonic X Series 750 watts
-RAM: Not sure what to do here. Any decent RAM will probably be fine. 1.5v or under, 1333MHz+. He only wanted 16GB to start with, with the option to go to 32GB in future.
-GPU: Wants a card to support GPU-acceleration in Vegas and Adobe stuff. So it's got to be CUDA, because I've read that Adobe's support of OpenGL in Creative Cloud is there now, but not very good. CUDA has had a lot more time to mature on Adobe software and Vegas will support it too. He selected a GTX 780. What do you think about getting him something cheaper? Like a 760 do well enough. Only benchmarks for Vegas I've found, besides Sony's own kinda old ones, are on Andantech's benches. I'll show him those, I think. Maybe I should just grab him a cheap 580 from Ebay?
-Storage: In addition to what he's bringing over: 3x 2TB Western Digital Reds in RAID 0.
-SSD: Samsung EVO 256GB
-MoBo will also need space for a Black Magic capture card.

Or should I just tell him to have a professional build him something? I can put it together, but I'm not super confident about whether he needs a RAID controller, and selecting an appropriate motherboard. I think I'm up to the task, but maybe I'm not, haha. I've built my own computer, so I can do it. Just really uncertain on the Motherboard front and how to deal with that many Hard Drives.

Any advice would be great, thanks. Think I'll also put him together a more budget friendly build (4770k, Nvidia 760 etc), as he probably doesn't need a ton of power. He's probably doing videos with 4-5 layers with one graphic at a time max, I'd guess. And nothing super intensive in AE I'd guess either. This is probably the last computer he'll ever buy, and he will only do video editing and minor to moderate graphics on it.

If you're curious, he's upgrading from a Core 2 Duo E83xx something.
 

-Deimos

Member
I'm in the market for a new monitor. Going to start researching tomorrow, but I'm open to any recommendations for something in the $200, 24" range. What should I look for in terms of response times and contrast ratios?
 

redlegs87

Member
Well I bit the bullet and ordered the i5 4670k from microcenter for $180 instore pick up for friday! Feels so good to get such a steal.
 
r9 270 installed - tested very briefly with The Witcher 2 ... much prettier looking, and seemingly 60fps unless I turn on UberSampling... will check it out properly later but thanks for the suggestion :)
 

kharma45

Member
Well I bit the bullet and ordered the i5 4670k from microcenter for $180 instore pick up for friday! Feels so good to get such a steal.

Sweet.

r9 270 installed - tested very briefly with The Witcher 2 ... much prettier looking, and seemingly 60fps unless I turn on UberSampling... will check it out properly later but thanks for the suggestion :)

Make sure to overclock the 270 a bit too, some nice gains to be had.
 

coughlanio

Member
My parts have finally started arriving :D

D9CtjYj.jpg
 

redlegs87

Member
Ok so now that I am saving like 50 bucks getting the cpu for a good deal what can I upgrade? I was thinking of a better psu so I could SLI in the future. Suggest away though with whatever you think I could change while keeping it at 900 or just slightly above it.

EDIT: OPPs forgot about tax since it is instore pick up revised the list.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($192.14)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (Purchased For $29.99)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($159.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($76.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cougar Solution (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $49.99)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq Plus 550W 80+ Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $884.06
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-29 07:09 EST-0500)
 

kharma45

Member
Ok so now that I am saving like 50 bucks getting the cpu for a good deal what can I upgrade? I was thinking of a better psu so I could SLI in the future. Suggest away though with whatever you think I could change while keeping it at 900 or just slightly above it.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (Purchased For $29.99)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($159.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($76.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cougar Solution (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $49.99)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq Plus 550W 80+ Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $871.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-29 07:01 EST-0500)

You can save a tad more by swapping your RAM to some Gskill stuff

If you're getting your CPU from Microcenter they have the UD3H for $140, you can get it online too though

If it were my build I'd want an SSD, $75 for this http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=120GM5SSD1&c=CJ using discount code TIFA33210

Doing that would take you to $917 sans tax roughly if you change the PSU to the Rosewill Hive 650w which I'd also do

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (Purchased For $29.99)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.25 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($74.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cougar Solution (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $49.99)
Power Supply: Rosewill Hive 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $917.17
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-29 07:11 EST-0500)
 

coughlanio

Member
Ok so now that I am saving like 50 bucks getting the cpu for a good deal what can I upgrade? I was thinking of a better psu so I could SLI in the future. Suggest away though with whatever you think I could change while keeping it at 900 or just slightly above it.

EDIT: OPPs forgot about tax since it is instore pick up revised the list.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($192.14)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (Purchased For $29.99)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($159.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($76.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cougar Solution (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $49.99)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq Plus 550W 80+ Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $884.06
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-29 07:09 EST-0500)

There's a Zotac GTX 770 on Newegg for $320 right now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500301
 

plainr_

Member
Thinking of getting a new case for one of my rigs.

Corsair 250D or Bitfenix Phenom? Can't decide. I'm leaning towards the Phenom but I do already have a Prodigy.
 

Azzurri

Member
Thinking of getting a new case for one of my rigs.

Corsair 250D or Bitfenix Phenom? Can't decide. I'm leaning towards the Phenom but I do already have a Prodigy.

The 250D can fit basically non mITX parts like video cards, PSU, H100i cooler, ect.
 

jonno394

Member
Scan are dicking me around now. Phoned this morning because i went on the site and saw the CPU I ordered was now listed as "pre-order-awaiting stock" and enquired and they said "oh your order has been completed and will be out for delivery tonight, you should receievie confirmation emails shortly"

4 hours and zero emails later I phone to double check and some new guy tells me it still hasn't been picked and the now OOS item might be holding it up even though it was in stock when I ordered.... Why did I go with scan :facepalm:
 

SleazyC

Member
Thinking of getting a new case for one of my rigs.

Corsair 250D or Bitfenix Phenom? Can't decide. I'm leaning towards the Phenom but I do already have a Prodigy.
I have a 900D and really like how the same styling was kept for the 250D. Plus the fact that it has so much room. I'm definitely going to be buying one and making a mini-ITX build very soon.
 
Sweet.



Make sure to overclock the 270 a bit too, some nice gains to be had.

For sure. It's the MSI OC edition you linked so already a bit OC'd but I will push it further. I'm assuming the OC guide is in the OP and I'll look later (actually I seem to recall that the catalyst drivers have a 'find me an overclock' tool?)

Couple of slightly OT questions:

1) Is there a definitive guide on what all of the Witcher 2 gfx config options mean? I've managed to put t much higher than the suggested settings and still keep around 60fps, and

2) What's the best driver set to use? I've gone for the bog standard ATI Catalyst ones - should I be getting MSI's own? I assume the windows update ones are just pointless and lag behind the ones I get with CCC?

Oh - and even with the settings dialled up, my old i7 920 was still eating the game up with ease at stock speed... lovely
 

Smurf Yetti

Neo Member
Does OLED have a future in the PC monitor space, or do the engineering difficulties with its lifespan/burn-in make it unrealistic?

I'm dreaming of a 21:9, super high resolution curved OLED monitor...
 

MisterM

Member
2) What's the best driver set to use? I've gone for the bog standard ATI Catalyst ones - should I be getting MSI's own? I assume the windows update ones are just pointless and lag behind the ones I get with CCC?

The drivers from the AMD website. I'd probably go with the latest beta release of the Catalyst drivers.

Never MSI's own and *NEVER* Windows Update ones.
 

Servbot24

Banned
My friend is wanting to buy a PC, mainly to play Sims 3 on. She'll probably play the occasional FPS as well. Her max budget is $800. She is looking at the low end configuration here: http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-x51-r2/pd.aspx

I really don't know much about PCs since I usually use Mac, but I may recommend her this one instead: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/CyberPower_Z87_i5_Configurator Changing the graphics card to AMD Radeon R9 270x.

Is that a good choice? Is there somewhere else I should try shopping instead?
 

Pachimari

Member
CPU
i5 4670K 4C/4T (1.622 DKK = $297)

Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD3H (1.398 DKK = $256)

RAM
(8GB) (637 DKK = $117)

Graphics
GTX 770 4GB (2.940 DKK = $538)

SSD
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB (1.184 DKK = $217)

Storage
WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB (403 DKK = $74)

Power Supply
CoolerMaster V700 (1.273 DKK = $233)

Case
Fractal R4 (763 DKK = $140)

Optical Drive
SATA DVD Burner (150 DKK = $28)

Heatsink
Corsair H60 (488 DKK = $90)

Overall Price (so far)
$1452

My Budget
$1500

I removed the sound card as advised and added the beginner friendly case.
I haven't found the graphics card, ram, HDD or DVD burner yet, and I'm already above my budget.

Can someone tell me if I found the right things in my links?

- What kind of RAM should I look for more specifically?
- And any preferred brand as for the DVD burner and HDD?
- Also, which brand should I be looking at for the GTX 770 4GB?
 

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
My friend is wanting to buy a PC, mainly to play Sims 3 on. She'll probably play the occasional FPS as well. Her max budget is $800. She is looking at the low end configuration here: http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-x51-r2/pd.aspx

I really don't know much about PCs since I usually use Mac, but I may recommend her this one instead: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/CyberPower_Z87_i5_Configurator Changing the graphics card to AMD Radeon R9 270x.

Is that a good choice? Is there somewhere else I should try shopping instead?

Just get the lowest budget build from the OP.
She doesn't need an $800 PC to play Sims 3.
 

Pollux

Member
Budget: $600-$750

Ok, before I really dive into seriously thinking about building a PC I have a couple questions.

First, I currently have an Xbox One and I have around 600-750. I have little to no exposure to PC gaming, since all I have right now is a Macbook Air from 2011.

I don't need a PC that can run everything at 1080p 60fps right now. But what I'm looking for, if possible is a rig that can competently run things like Rome Total War 2, Rust, DayZ, WoW (on higher settings), Starcraft 2 (on higher settings), all the other indie games that come up on steam sales, etc.

Here's the other issue, I don't have a keyboard, mouse, or monitor. I might be able to get all three of those relatively cheap from friends/family.

So my question is, with the budget I have, is it worth building a PC, or should I just get a PS4?
 

kennah

Member
Budget: $600-$750

Ok, before I really dive into seriously thinking about building a PC I have a couple questions.

First, I currently have an Xbox One and I have around 600-750. I have little to no exposure to PC gaming, since all I have right now is a Macbook Air from 2011.

I don't need a PC that can run everything at 1080p 60fps right now. But what I'm looking for, if possible is a rig that can competently run things like Rome Total War 2, Rust, DayZ, WoW (on higher settings), Starcraft 2 (on higher settings), all the other indie games that come up on steam sales, etc.

Here's the other issue, I don't have a keyboard, mouse, or monitor. I might be able to get all three of those relatively cheap from friends/family.

So my question is, with the budget I have, is it worth building a PC, or should I just get a PS4?

It's worth it. Follow the build in the OP. Everything we recommend is upgradeable if you decide later that you want something more powerful.
 

Pachimari

Member
I think I might cut down on the RAM from 16GB to 8GB. Will it have any major downsides to gaming?

I will probably still be able to multi-task with Dreamweaver, Photoshop and live tv (as my 2010 Mac Mini runs live tv with Eye TV with no problems, though HD channels lags, which this set-up will hopefully handle) and then play games only like: Rust, DayZ, Age of Empires 2 (on multiple monitors) and multi-platform games like Dark Souls, BioShock etc. and the indiegames.
 

kennah

Member
I think I might cut down on the RAM from 16GB to 8GB. Will it have any major downsides to gaming?

I will probably still be able to multi-task with Dreamweaver, Photoshop and live tv (as my 2010 Mac Mini runs live tv with Eye TV with no problems, though HD channels lags, which this set-up will hopefully handle) and then play games only like: Rust, DayZ, Age of Empires 2 (on multiple monitors) and multi-platform games like Dark Souls, BioShock etc. and the indiegames.

It would have no impact on gaming whatsoever.
 
My new corsair ax860i is making a slight clicking noise every 15 seconds or about. Should I retun it or will it go away as it heats up?

As Celsius said, return it.

Failing PSUs can often disguise themselves as other failures, like an overheating CPU. They can also be hard to reliably recreate. Save yourself a headache later.
 
Picked up a Gigabyte Windforce GTX 780 OC Rev 2.0 at Newegg for $460.

Going to run one for now and see how it does. (i5-3570k & 2560x1440 display).

If I do end up going SLI I'll monitor the temperatures and upgrade/add fans as needed.
 

-COOLIO-

The Everyman
So what's the best graphics card for a person who likes to just use just one? From both companies.

if you literally mean the best single card:

gtx 780ti

r9-290x

if you mean a single card with 2 cards inside of it:

gtx 790 should be coming out sometime soon

if you mean best for the money, and best bang for the buck:

gtx 760

amd cards are 100 over msrp.
 
My new corsair ax860i is making a slight clicking noise every 15 seconds or about. Should I retun it or will it go away as it heats up?

As Celsius said, return it.

Failing PSUs can often disguise themselves as other failures, like an overheating CPU. They can also be hard to reliably recreate. Save yourself a headache later.
 
I'm thinking about maybe upgrading my GTX 480 to a GTX 760, but I'm curious if I will see much improvement or have any kind of bottlenecking based on my other parts. It's an i5-2500k with 8 GB RAM, and I'm trying to avoid overclocking anything.

Do you guys who know better about these things think it'll be worth it?
 

Pachimari

Member
Current Specs
None.

Budget
$1500 / Denmark

Main use
01) Gaming on High/Ultra settings.
02) Website programming (Dreamweaver, Photoshop).
03) Live TV / Recording.
04) HD Movies playback to 1080p HDTV through Plex.
05) Internet
06) PS2/Wii Emulation.

Monitor Resolution
I'll use my current 24" monitor. But the plan is, to run a 3-monitor set-up at 1080p.

Specific games and apps I must run
- Dreamweaver CS6
- Photoshop CS6

- Minecraft
- Crysis
- The Witcher 3
- FF XIV: A Realm Reborn
- World of Warcraft
- Multi-platform games
- Indiegames

- 60fps
- I would like to run all the fancy technologies like PhysX and TressFX.

When will I build
Within the next 3 months.

Overclocking
Maybe. Dunno what it's for.

What I have come up with with the help of this thread's nice fellows:

CPU
i5 4670K 4C/4T (1.622 DKK = $297)

Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD3H (1.398 DKK = $256)

RAM
(8GB) (637 DKK = $117)

Graphics
GTX 770 4GB (2.940 DKK = $538)

SSD
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB (1.184 DKK = $217)

Storage - [BOUGHT]
WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB (403 DKK = $74)

Power Supply
Sea Sonic G Series 550 (711 DKK = $130)

Case - [BOUGHT]
Fractal R4 (763 DKK = $140)

Optical Drive
SATA DVD Burner (150 DKK = $28)

Heatsink
Corsair H60 (488 DKK = $90)

Overall Price
$1887

So I might trim down somewhere.
 
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