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"I Need a New PC!" 2014 Part 2. Read OP, your 2500K will run Witcher 3. MX100s! 970!

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Hey everyone, I have a little problem.

My last post was about getting a new router and switch. The router and switch work amazingly, I'm able to get great Wi-Fi signal from one side of the house to the other. I recently decided to run a 100 ft CAT 5e ethernet cable from the basement (where the modem and router are located) to an upstairs closet where the switch is now. If I plug an ethernet cord in from the router in the basement to my roommate A's computer, he is getting 89 mb/s down (which is great as I'm paying for 105 mb/s down).

When I plug my ethernet cord from my switch to my other roommate B's computer next to my room he is getting 89 mb/s down as well (which means the cord isn't pierced and the switch is working fine). When I take that same ethernet cord plugged into the same slot in the switch into my computer, I'm getting 20 mb/s down. What?! All my drivers are updated and I even tried re-installing my LAN drivers, no luck.

GAF, please help me experience super fast speeds. I'll post my computer specs if anyone needs it to help.
Try a different cable. I'd wager that it's a crossover cable that your pc doesn't like.
Why can't you buy Windows on software swap? What happen?
MS finally cracked down on it.
 

P3P5I

Member
Are you the only computer with issues? Has anyone set up bandwidth limits?
No bandwidth limits. Roommate C's laptop only gets 40mb/s down with the same cable and switch port. So far I only have speeds below 30 mb/s on LAN.

Try a different cable. I'd wager that it's a crossover cable that your pc doesn't like.
damn, that means I'd have to spend more money and take the cable clips off the walls. I probably should have checked the connection first. Lessons for the future. Should I get a CAT6 instead of the CAT5e I currently have?

Thanks, though.
 
Does everyone run a custom CPU fan speed ramp? I havent played with it yet in the BIOS but do folks set a higher stock speed or just leave it at default?
 

N-Forced

Neo Member
Now that /r/software no longer sells cheap windows keys, where should I buy the keys from?
If you know someone thst is enrolled in college usually they can get it cheap at the student union. I managed to get my copy of windows 8 pro for $20 by having my sister buy it for me from school. Also they might be able to get it for free from the dream spark site.
 

billsmugs

Member
Whats a good program to monitor temperatures and stuff?

I like Open Hardware Monitor. The interface is pretty much the same as HWMonitor, but it displays more information and has optional graphs, as well as a desktop gadget that can be configured to show whatever information you want. If you get the alpha version linked near the bottom of this thread then it can log the sensors to a text file as well. The only downside appears to be that development on it seems to have stopped last year.
 
No bandwidth limits. Roommate C's laptop only gets 40mb/s down with the same cable and switch port. So far I only have speeds below 30 mb/s on LAN.

damn, that means I'd have to spend more money and take the cable clips off the walls. I probably should have checked the connection first. Lessons for the future. Should I get a CAT6 instead of the CAT5e I currently have?

Thanks, though.

You know what, I take it back. I think I misread your post.

It's extremely unlikely that the long cable you just ran is crossover. I missed the part where you're connecting through a switch. The only place you'd likely get a crossover cable packaged with hardware is with your modem. Besides, most modern equipment should auto detect crossover cables.

In any case, try a different cable from your switch to your PC. Barring that, make sure you don't have some shitty software installed on your PC. My mobo had a "Killer ethernet" or some BS software that basically ruined my connection.
 

Bollocks

Member
Can I buy existing coolers and use them with the new Intel 5xxx generation or are they incompatible? (Looking at the Corsair Hydro series)
 

yatesl

Member
Re: GPU overclocking. I have a Gigabyte 770 2GB. In EVGA I've set it to 107% power/90c temp, +30Mhz clock. Running Furmark, it starts at 1254, then drops to 1241, then 1228 as the temps increase.

Is this just a case of temps - nothing I can do? I'm tempted to just reset back to stock
 

LilJoka

Member
Re: GPU overclocking. I have a Gigabyte 770 2GB. In EVGA I've set it to 107% power/90c temp, +30Mhz clock. Running Furmark, it starts at 1254, then drops to 1241, then 1228 as the temps increase.

Is this just a case of temps - nothing I can do? I'm tempted to just reset back to stock

Nothing you can do but furmark is excessive. Try Unigene Valley Bench.

Not sure with 770 actually, but with my 780, i flashed the custom bios that gets rid of the power limit. Your likely to hit power limit in other games/benches before temp limit of 95c in my case. For benching i just have the fan at 80% so i never hit the temp limit.
 

Water

Member
So that would give me a slightly higher clock speed without overclocking for a similar price range?

If you are thinking about paying as much as ~$230 for a CPU like the 4690, I'd consider looking for an extra $100 from somewhere and going straight to 4790K. It's not just an overclocking processor (though that capability is there if you end up wanting to use it later). You get 14% more sheer clockspeed out of the box, 33% larger cache, plus hyperthreading. Especially in productivity stuff like modeling/rendering/etc. you can see very large improvements in perf. Most games will just care about the clockspeed increase, but even for that it's not bad value considering $100 is just 10% of the total system cost.

The reason the 4690K is generally recommended here is that it'll run games pretty much identically to the 4790K after overclocking.
 

LilJoka

Member
If you are thinking about paying as much as ~$230 for a CPU like the 4690, I'd consider looking for an extra $100 from somewhere and going straight to 4790K. It's not just an overclocking processor (though that capability is there if you end up wanting to use it later). You get 14% more sheer clockspeed out of the box, 33% larger cache, plus hyperthreading. Especially in productivity stuff like modeling/rendering/etc. you can see very large improvements in perf. Most games will just care about the clockspeed increase, but even for that it's not bad value considering $100 is just 10% of the total system cost.

The reason the 4690K is generally recommended here is that it'll run games pretty much identically to the 4790K after overclocking.

Hardly the case. There are some CPU heavy games that may get a boost due to HT, but the majority that is not the case, you are almost always GPU limited:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7963/the-intel-haswell-refresh-review-core-i7-4790-i5-4690-and-i3-4360-tested/9
 

yatesl

Member
Nothing you can do but furmark is excessive. Try Unigene Valley Bench.

Not sure with 770 actually, but with my 780, i flashed the custom bios that gets rid of the power limit. Your likely to hit power limit in other games/benches before temp limit of 95c in my case. For benching i just have the fan at 80% so i never hit the temp limit.

Hmm, I guess I'll try with games. Worst case scenario, it just auto drops back to stock.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Well, upgraded to a 780 3GB from a 770 4GB. Incremental, relatively useless upgrade, but I nabbed the 780 off a guy I know new for far less than it retails. I'll be able to make almost all I spent on it back from selling my 770 used. I'll be upgrading to a 800 in time, so my logic is that I should be able to get a decent amount for a used 780 over a 770, which will go towards the 800. Dumb logic maybe, but whatever.

Performance boost is small but noticable. Only worried about the VRAM. I might only play at 1080p, but I've noticed a lot of modern, cross/next generation games maxed out don't shy away from VRAM. Wolfenstein: New Order, Watch Dogs, and Dead Rising 3 all eat up as much VRAM they can and on my 770 I did notice it tip over 3GB usage on a few occasions. I'm pretty sure Dead Rising reserves as much as possible. Wolf's megatextures take what they can get. And Watch Dogs is Watch Dogs.

Hopefully I didn't make a mistake losing a quarter of my VRAM.
 

garath

Member
Hey everyone, I have a little problem.

My last post was about getting a new router and switch. The router and switch work amazingly, I'm able to get great Wi-Fi signal from one side of the house to the other. I recently decided to run a 100 ft CAT 5e ethernet cable from the basement (where the modem and router are located) to an upstairs closet where the switch is now. If I plug an ethernet cord in from the router in the basement to my roommate A's computer, he is getting 89 mb/s down (which is great as I'm paying for 105 mb/s down).

When I plug my ethernet cord from my switch to my other roommate B's computer next to my room he is getting 89 mb/s down as well (which means the cord isn't pierced and the switch is working fine). When I take that same ethernet cord plugged into the same slot in the switch into my computer, I'm getting 20 mb/s down. What?! All my drivers are updated and I even tried re-installing my LAN drivers, no luck.

GAF, please help me experience super fast speeds. I'll post my computer specs if anyone needs it to help.

Check the properties of your network adapter. Experiment with the speed setting. It should be set to auto negotiation by default which means it will determine 10 vs 100 vs gigabit, half vs full duplex. It may be set to 10 or something.

You can also try setting it manually to 100 or gigabit (whichever your switch supports) full duplex.

You can find it under control panel, network settings, right click local area network->properties, then "configure" your card.
 

Water

Member
Hardly the case. There are some CPU heavy games that may get a boost due to HT, but the majority that is not the case,
That's pretty much what I said, or at least it can be directly inferred from what I did say. With overclocking, the 4690K and 4790K will have similar clockspeeds, after which they perform identically in most games. Thus, clearly 4790K's extra features do not help for most games. Without overclocking, the 4790K's higher base/turbo clocks do make it a slightly better CPU for games. The considerably higher perf potential in content creation plus the slight edge in games make it worth considering. I'm not sure what you are actually disagreeing with here.
Certainly in many scenarios extra CPU power matters little, but "almost always GPU limited" is too reductive. As you well know, the Anandtech tests are heavily weighted on the GPU side due to the types of games they test, the types of test scenarios they run, and also what they measure. They aren't looking at actual multiplayer scenarios in multiplayer games, looking at the bottom frame times relevant for smoothness, testing with more moderate graphic settings one would actually use in the real world to achieve a pleasing framerate instead of maxed IQ and 20-40FPS, etc. Then there's the fact bottlenecks are often not hard bottlenecks, and eg. having more CPU power can give the GPU more time to do its work.
 

tarheel91

Member
Well, upgraded to a 780 3GB from a 770 4GB. Incremental, relatively useless upgrade, but I nabbed the 780 off a guy I know new for far less than it retails. I'll be able to make almost all I spent on it back from selling my 770 used. I'll be upgrading to a 800 in time, so my logic is that I should be able to get a decent amount for a used 780 over a 770, which will go towards the 800. Dumb logic maybe, but whatever.

Performance boost is small but noticable. Only worried about the VRAM. I might only play at 1080p, but I've noticed a lot of modern, cross/next generation games maxed out don't shy away from VRAM. Wolfenstein: New Order, Watch Dogs, and Dead Rising 3 all eat up as much VRAM they can and on my 770 I did notice it tip over 3GB usage on a few occasions. I'm pretty sure Dead Rising reserves as much as possible. Wolf's megatextures take what they can get. And Watch Dogs is Watch Dogs.

Hopefully I didn't make a mistake losing a quarter of my VRAM.

You'll be fine. Most new games seem to use as much VRAM as they're allowed. It's not a situation where they NEED all of that RAM, but that they take advantage of it when it's there.
 
My 5 year old pc (i7 920 + ATi 5970) is having boot issues. I suspect it is the motherboard and because I don't really want to dump any more money into a 5 year old pc, I have just decided to ditch it and start anew .
I got all excited and spec'd out a 5820k with 16GB of DDR4 and a new 980 whenever that comes out. But through doing research, I think I have talked myself out of the x99 Haswell-E. I just don't think I can justify the price for both the cpu and the RAM over a 4790k. Especially since I am seeing some benchmarks with worse performance in the 5820k compared to the 4970k in games. I do some video editing, but I'm running an old version of Premiere CS5 so I don't even know if that would scale to 6 cores. Mostly this PC will use for gaming, though.

I am looking at about a $120 difference between a 5820k + 16GB 2400 DDR4 and a 4790k + 16GB 2400 DDR3 so I am leaning towards the latter.

Am I going down the right path here?
 

Woffls

Member
Ack. I'm really struggling to choose a case, but I know exactly what components I need to buy, and I'm getting annoyed by the lack of a proper PC.

Pretty close to just running it on top of a bunch of Edge mags until I make my mind up :p

Does the chassis material/sound dampening really make that much difference to temperatures relative to stuff like HDD bay placement, fan orientation and exhaust placement?

I want a quiet PC, with decent cooling, that doesn't look rubbish. I'll only be running a 750 Ti SC and 5820K at stock to start with, but that might go up to 4Ghz if I get a GTX 970 or something. Depends what the H60 will let me get away with, and if I feel like upgrading it.

FT05 is looking really good but I'd need to wait for noise tests. Other cases in the running: H440, R4, 750D, XL R2.

Any advice would be super appreciated, because this is literally keeping me up at night :\ There's so much to think about >_<
 
Is there a way to connect speakers and a headset at the same time and switch outputs through Windows? Right now if I want one or the other I have to get behind my computer and physically change them.
 
Ack. I'm really struggling to choose a case, but I know exactly what components I need to buy, and I'm getting annoyed by the lack of a proper PC.

Pretty close to just running it on top of a bunch of Edge mags until I make my mind up :p

Does the chassis material/sound dampening really make that much difference to temperatures relative to stuff like HDD bay placement, fan orientation and exhaust placement?

I want a quiet PC, with decent cooling, that doesn't look rubbish. I'll only be running a 750 Ti SC and 5820K at stock to start with, but that might go up to 4Ghz if I get a GTX 970 or something. Depends what the H60 will let me get away with, and if I feel like upgrading it.

FT05 is looking really good but I'd need to wait for noise tests. Other cases in the running: H440, R4, 750D, XL R2.

Any advice would be super appreciated, because this is literally keeping me up at night :\ There's so much to think about >_<

You can forget about quiet pc if you want to use H60 go for big air cooler like Noctua NH-15 or Phanteks that can be cooled by slow rpm 14 cm fans. Just make sure you don't have tall ram.
 
So that would give me a slightly higher clock speed without overclocking for a similar price range?

Higher clock, smaller node, marginal performance increases. In the end, though, if you're buying a new chip now, may as well buy the newer chip.

Could also save $60 by getting Windows off SoftwareSwap. Also, that Corsair PSU is really mediocre. Could spend $5-10 more and get a substantially better unit.

Yeah, I was trying to keep it as close to their original budget as I could while keeping the PSU modular. I figured that if they aren't overclocking that PSU would be ok.
 

knitoe

Member
Is there a way to connect speakers and a headset at the same time and switch outputs through Windows? Right now if I want one or the other I have to get behind my computer and physically change them.

Are you using analog cables? If yes, just get a Y split stereo cable, have them both plugin and sound will come out through both of them.
 

yatesl

Member
GAF, I'm on the cusp of Amazon Prime'ing an AIO water cooker for my 4670k. Should I get the H100i or H105? There's only a £5 or so difference between them.
 
And this is why we also recommend the Pentium G3258, its like an i3 but overclockable. Although the i3 has 2c4t.

I'm about to drive to my local fry's to buy G3258 for $50 including tax. Go balls out on a z97 mobo for OCing, buy a r9 280 at a discount then just upgrade the cpu later if it ever not to meet my expectations (i think it will though :).. dont mind it doing this way since G3258 is cheap as heck right now. will be my first build since 2004 lol.
 
I know we all love to build PCs around here, but who are some good pre-fab desktop PC manufacturers? My friend's dad has tasked me with getting him a decent desktop PC that he can also game on. The budget is $1000 and I'd like to get him a widescreen monitor to go alongside it (he currently has an old 4:3 one). Yes, I know I could build one for a lot cheaper, but he's using it for his business, as well, so it needs technical support. Any ideas?
 

kennah

Member
I know we all love to build PCs around here, but who are some good pre-fab desktop PC manufacturers? My friend's dad has tasked me with getting him a decent desktop PC that he can also game on. The budget is $1000 and I'd like to get him a widescreen monitor to go alongside it (he currently has an old 4:3 one). Yes, I know I could build one for a lot cheaper, but he's using it for his business, as well, so it needs technical support. Any ideas?

Dell.
 
For fuck sake, I ordered a XFX Pro Series 750W Black edition PSU over the weekend from Scan, just got home from work to see they've managed to somehow mess it up and send me a XFX XTR Series 750W instead. What. The. Fuck. Honestly, why is it so difficult to order stuff from the UK these days? I've had to return 2 monitors and a PSU over the past month.

So this is Novatech, Scan and CCL online who all seem to lack the basic skills required to simply ship items people order from them. Seriously, this is honestly putting me off of PC building. EVERY time I order something I dread opening the box incase they fuck it up.
 

herod

Member
Ack. I'm really struggling to choose a case, but I know exactly what components I need to buy, and I'm getting annoyed by the lack of a proper PC.

Pretty close to just running it on top of a bunch of Edge mags until I make my mind up :p

Does the chassis material/sound dampening really make that much difference to temperatures relative to stuff like HDD bay placement, fan orientation and exhaust placement?

I want a quiet PC, with decent cooling, that doesn't look rubbish. I'll only be running a 750 Ti SC and 5820K at stock to start with, but that might go up to 4Ghz if I get a GTX 970 or something. Depends what the H60 will let me get away with, and if I feel like upgrading it.

FT05 is looking really good but I'd need to wait for noise tests. Other cases in the running: H440, R4, 750D, XL R2.

Any advice would be super appreciated, because this is literally keeping me up at night :\ There's so much to think about >_<

R4. Best thing I ever bought. Will be with me until ATX dies.
 

mkenyon

Banned
Is there a way to connect speakers and a headset at the same time and switch outputs through Windows? Right now if I want one or the other I have to get behind my computer and physically change them.
Read your motherboard manual for your sound device. Probably not though.
Ack. I'm really struggling to choose a case, but I know exactly what components I need to buy, and I'm getting annoyed by the lack of a proper PC.

Pretty close to just running it on top of a bunch of Edge mags until I make my mind up :p

Does the chassis material/sound dampening really make that much difference to temperatures relative to stuff like HDD bay placement, fan orientation and exhaust placement?

I want a quiet PC, with decent cooling, that doesn't look rubbish. I'll only be running a 750 Ti SC and 5820K at stock to start with, but that might go up to 4Ghz if I get a GTX 970 or something. Depends what the H60 will let me get away with, and if I feel like upgrading it.

FT05 is looking really good but I'd need to wait for noise tests. Other cases in the running: H440, R4, 750D, XL R2.

Any advice would be super appreciated, because this is literally keeping me up at night :\ There's so much to think about >_<
FT05 is amazing, but it comes at the price of reduced GPU compatibility. You need to be careful on what kind of video cards you buy, as the 90 degree rotation prevents some coolers from operating properly. I think the EVGA ACX and MSI Twin Frozr both do not work properly. ASUS DCuII, I'm unsure about. Totally unsure about the rest. It works best with reference coolers, but those are typically also the loudest of coolers.

If that's not an issue for you, that is definitely the finest case. Noise won't be a concern as those AP181s are really quiet. My second choice out of those would be the R4, followed by the H440, XL R2, with the 750D in a distant distant 5th.
 

Woffls

Member
R4. Best thing I ever bought. Will be with me until ATX dies.

FT05 is amazing, but it comes at the price of reduced GPU compatibility. You need to be careful on what kind of video cards you buy, as the 90 degree rotation prevents some coolers from operating properly. I think the EVGA ACX and MSI Twin Frozr both do not work properly. ASUS DCuII, I'm unsure about. Totally unsure about the rest. It works best with reference coolers, but those are typically also the loudest of coolers.

If that's not an issue for you, that is definitely the finest case. Noise won't be a concern as those AP181s are really quiet. My second choice out of those would be the R4, followed by the H440, XL R2, with the 750D in a distant distant 5th.
Damn, guess the R4 really is that good then. I was hoping to avoid it because everyone has one and I wanted something a bit more exciting... but it will wear off pretty soon. Between the R4 and FT05, I think, and I don't feel like waiting.

You can forget about quiet pc if you want to use H60 go for big air cooler like Noctua NH-15 or Phanteks that can be cooled by slow rpm 14 cm fans. Just make sure you don't have tall ram.
Oh. Shit :\ I'll worry about that later if I find that it's too loud... at which point I'll flog it to a friend who I know is running a stock cooler.

Thanks for the advice all. Looking forward to building a new machine. Not built one for myself in about 7 years :\
 

kennah

Member
Oh. Shit :\ I'll worry about that later if I find that it's too loud... at which point I'll flog it to a friend who I know is running a stock cooler.

Thanks for the advice all. Looking forward to building a new machine. Not built one for myself in about 7 years :\

The H60 is fine for noise, your PSU and GPU will almost certainly be louder.
 

Durante

Member
I just figured out that I'll probably get an ASRock MB again for my X99 build, since it seems like literally everyone else thinks it's a good idea to place one PCIe 2.0 slot so that it's certainly blocked by the GPU. :/
(At least on <€300 boards)

I need those PCIe 2.0 lanes!
 

Crisium

Member
If you aren't overclocking, how about something like this?



You could go ahead and build without the GPU, then see what Nvidia does with the 900 series in a month or so.

Your suggestion has the GTX 760, which I have to always advise against. It is a poor value. Radeon 270X drivers have seen it improve, and shockingly, it has reached 760 performance. And it's substantially cheaper. Then you have good deals for Radeon 280s around the same price as a 760, and they have always been faster.

This review is new:

Avg-Performance.png


http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-r9-285-tonga,3925-14.html

We'd also like to address the GeForce GTX 760's position on our average performance chart. Seeing the 760 sit just below the Radeon R9 270X wasn't something we expected, and this situation caused us to re-run the majority of benchmarks and cross-reference them with other tests we've taken. The results were consistent, though, and we believe this situation is the result of a combination of factors including some newer game titles such as Thief (that favor the GCN architecture), mixed with some high-detail settings that don't sit well with the GeForce GTX 760's 192 GB/s of memory bandwidth (bandwidth that doesn't benefit from lossless color compression). We wouldn't count out the GeForce GTX 760, a card that uses even less power than the Radeon R9 285, but we're beginning to wonder if it's time to re-assess its position over a wider range of benchmarks.

I'm not an AMD fanboy, and I understand that some people prefer Nvidia for their own personal reasons, but the 760 has no meaning at its current price point unless you have a G-Sync monitor (which the poster doesn't).
 

Fauv

Member
Higher clock, smaller node, marginal performance increases. In the end, though, if you're buying a new chip now, may as well buy the newer chip.



Yeah, I was trying to keep it as close to their original budget as I could while keeping the PSU modular. I figured that if they aren't overclocking that PSU would be ok.


Okay, that makes sense, I'll think about it.

And as for getting Windows, I know you can get a student discount for an upgrade, but that won't work for building a new PC right?

Thanks for the help!
 

mkenyon

Banned
I just figured out that I'll probably get an ASRock MB again for my X99 build, since it seems like literally everyone else thinks it's a good idea to place one PCIe 2.0 slot so that it's certainly blocked by the GPU. :/
(At least on <€300 boards)

I need those PCIe 2.0 lanes!
You can put any card into any PCI-E slot. :p
 

Durante

Member
You can put any card into any PCI-E slot. :p
I know that, but PCIe3 slots only get PCIe3 lanes in specific configurations, particularly with a 28 lane chip. As such, I need access to 2 PCIe2 slots to make everything work in terms of available lanes/slots/M.2 on a 28 lane chip.
 

mkenyon

Banned
There's always this one.

Don't fight it Durante! Let the GB love flow through you.

*edit*

Also just got a neat email back from CaseLabs. I've been throwing around ideas on how to get a gaming/video editing machine in the same box as a streaming machine for a pal.

Turns out, with the correct chassis top, you can mount two Mercury S5s to each other.

 
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