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

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Faith said:
Guys, I'm having problems finding the right mainboard for my new SLI setup. The problem is that I have a PCI-soundcard. I wanted to buy the Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 5 but:

Gigabyte-Z97X-Gaming-5,S-F-435183-22.jpg


The only PCI slot would be covered with the fans of the 2nd GPU.

Is there any alternative that would work for me for a similar price?
Click to expand...

Ditch your PCI Sound card and use onboard until you get something better. What card is it specifically?
 
iavi said:
Ah I'm getting you now.

Still, I think it IS better to plan for SLI in terms of choosing the PSU, if the itch to ever do it is there at all. The extra couple dollars and headroom'll save money in the long-run.
Click to expand...

Agreed on that part. It's like OC'ing your CPU. If you think you might OC, get a K processor/Z mobo. If you think you might wanna SLI, get a larger PSU.

It's also kind of a curse. I bought a PSU with headroom for SLI and holy shit this itch is strong.
 
My current machine:

i7 930 @ 3.9Ghz
Thermalright Ultra120 Extreme
ASUS P6X58D-E
8 GB DDR3 1600
Radeon HD 7970
Corsair TX650
256 SDD
128 SSD
1 TB HDD
CM 690 II

The final new build:

i7 5820K
Swiftech H220X
MSI X99S SLI PLUS
G.SKILL Value 16GB DDR4 2133
2x Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming
EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G2
1TB Samsung 840 EVO
Phanteks Enthoo Pro Series

This is far and away the most I've ever spent on a PC. I really hope it turns out well. I'm most nervous about the water cooling but I want to get the most out of my CPU.
 
I decided to post here a warning about PC Specialist UK. I hope that mods won't be upset about it and ban me for doing this. I just want to let the other GAFers know about quality of their support. I heard and read terrible stories about PC Specialist UK customer support and unfortunatelly they are true. This year I experienced that personally. From May 2014 I am struggling with them to have my gaming laptop fixed. First time they didn't find any issues despite my messages that my laptop is crashing after 2-3 hours of playing video games. They sent my laptop back, so I checked how they fix it. Of course laptop was crashing like before. So I sent it back to them, asking check it more carefully. They managed to identify the issue with my graphic card Nvidia 580M and they asked me to pay for the faulty component. I didn't want to do, but in the end I had no choice and I paid 300 GBP for replacement card. Today I received my laptop and guess what? It doesn't work at all. Before I sent it back to them for the second time at least I could browse internet... No I don't have 300 GBP, my laptop is still broken and I honestly speaking I don't have any hope for sorting out this situation. I asked them to provide any kind of solution to this whole mess or I will go to court. But it is more a threat than actual possibility. I am working in Poland and I don't have time and money to sue them.

Here are some examples of their service:

- They don't provide any updates regarding your stuff. Last time I waited 3 weeks without any reply from their support. I had to asked them about everything. I asked them to send me a weekly update and they agreed to do it. In the end I had to send them a message and ask what is going on with my machine.

- Situation from this week - I asked them where is my laptop and about Tracking NO. Their reply was "It appears part of the address was not working correctly on the label, I have updated them, with the correct address (it had missed off the house number, this is being changed today for you)."

- In June 2014 they claimed that they sent my laptop back to me. I waited 2 weeks for the parcel and nothing came. After week I messaged them about the parcel, but nobody replied. So I had to call their office to clarify whole situation. I was shocked to hear that my laptop wasn't dispatched at all and the suppervisor appologised for the whole situation. My laptop was send back only after my 2 messages and phone call.

So long story short - better avoid PC Specialist UK or be prepared to face their customer support.
 
Quick question guys and I hope it's ok asking in here, apologies if not.

My motherboard is a ASUS® P8Z77-V. Am I going to be ok upgrading from a GTX 680 to a GTX 980?

Many thanks.
 
Guys, you seem to be very capable of helping me out.

I am looking at this monitor: Samsung S24D590PL.

In the specs, it says it has a headphone plug. It has no speakers, ofc.
Now, if I were to attach a Wii U over HDMi to it, and plug my headphones in, will I hear Wii U's sound output that was transferred over HDMI? Or will I still need HDMI audio splitter/whatever tricks to hear anything?

mkenyon said:
Yeah, it'll work that way. Probably sound pretty bad, but it'll work.
Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks! : )
 
iavi said:
Ah I'm getting you now.

Still, I think it IS better to plan for SLI in terms of choosing the PSU, if the itch to ever do it is there at all. The extra couple dollars and headroom'll save money in the long-run.
Click to expand...
I'm saying do one of the two following things:

1) Ignore the itch because once you scratch it, it'll be annoying.

2) Scratch the fuck out of it immediately until you're bleeding.
 
V_Arnold said:
Guys, you seem to be very capable of helping me out.

I am looking at this monitor: Samsung S24D590PL.

In the specs, it says it has a headphone plug. It has no speakers, ofc.
Now, if I were to attach a Wii U over HDMi to it,
Click to expand...

Not related to the sound, but I just wanted to point out that as far as I know the Wii U only outputs limited RGB, so your colours might end up looking washed out on a monitor.
 
phxxBullet said:
Should return the i7 and go with an i5, but bump the graphics card to something better.
Click to expand...

I need the i7 for the processor intensive programs I run. (Autodesk Maya and CAD, Photoshop, etc...) But I have noticed since Nvidia has announced their new cards, would it be better to pick up a reduced price GTX 760/780.
 
Is there any particular guide online that one would recommend for dusting out the inside of a PC?

I know that I'm supposed to use a can of compressed air to clean it, but I don't want to make some silly mistake and use the air can somewhere that I shouldn't have. There just seem to be some conflicting ideas online about this (like using a vacuum! that can't be a good idea, can it?), so that's why I'm asking.
 
Is there a gaming monitor thread? Looking for possible budget options to go larger than 23". Doesn't need speakers but needs HDMI for PS4 and two other inputs for my gaming pc and work laptop. 28" monitor or 32" TV?
 
Lost Cloud said:
Is there any particular guide online that one would recommend for dusting out the inside of a PC?

I know that I'm supposed to use a can of compressed air to clean it, but I don't want to make some silly mistake and use the air can somewhere that I shouldn't have. There just seem to be some conflicting ideas online about this (like using a vacuum! that can't be a good idea, can it?), so that's why I'm asking.
Click to expand...
Secure the fan blades from moving due to air.

That's pretty much the only thing you need to keep in mind.
 
How is this PC, gaf? It'd be my first build:


Fractal Design Define R4 ATX Mid Tower Window Case

Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H ATX LGA1150 Z97 DDR3 PCI-E16 PCI-E8 XFIRE/SLI SATA3 USB3 HDMI Motherboard

Processor: Intel Core i7-4790k

RAM: 16 GB of G.SKILL RipjawsX F3-1866 DDR3

Storage: MX100 256 gb + Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM

ASUS DRW-24F1ST 24X SATA DVD Writer Black

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink

Corsair RM850 Silence ATX 12V V2.31 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply Active PFC 135mm Fan

Zotac GeForce GTX 980 1217MHZ 4GB DDR5 256BIT DVI/HDMI/ x3 DisplayPort DX12 PCI-E 3.0 Video Card

ASUS VS238H-P 23in Widescreen LED LCD Monitor 1920x1080 2ms 50M:1 250CD/M2 HDMI VGA
Click to expand...

Anything I should cut out / replace for better value or performance?
 
iavi said:
The 270x is the ol 7870 with a few modifications. Running at $200, it's not a particularly good deal right now considering the 970 is $329 and is a SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful card.

AMD's just not a good buy right now. They're rumored to have some price shake-ups coming down the line soon, though.
Click to expand...

There is no use comparing things in wildly differing price ranges. You are talking about cards $130+ apart in price. Nvidia now has the edge at the mid-high through high end after yesterday's announcements. For people at the lower-end looking at a card below $250, I would still recommend something like the new R9 285, which solidly outperforms the 760.

We will see if that changes when a GTX 960 is unveiled...!
 
Vinc said:
How is this PC, gaf? It'd be my first build:




Anything I should cut out / replace for better value or performance?
Click to expand...

Mostly really good.

I would replace that RAM with something low-profile, just to make sure you don't have clearance problems with your heatsink. All the major brands make LP options around the same price, and those heat spreaders do nothing anyway. G. Skill Ares maybe...?

Also, I can't back this up with any statistics or anything....but I would consider Zotac a second tier brand of GPU makers. Considering how much you are spending....well I am saying just be careful. Asus, MSI, EVGA, Gigabyte (and Sapphire, though they won't make any 980s).....these are the first tier in my opinion. YMMV of course.

This one in particular looks amazing to me. Nice factory overclock, and is designed to run in a passive (silent) cooling mode when running a lower demand app. Read the article:
http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-Cards/ASUS-Announces-STRIX-GTX-980-and-STRIX-GTX-970
 
Vinc said:
How is this PC, gaf? It'd be my first build:




Anything I should cut out / replace for better value or performance?
Click to expand...

If you can spare spending an extra $70 or so, I'd cut back to the RM650 or RM750 (great power supplies btw, I use one myself), cut the DVD drive (unless you know you really need it, which you almost certainly won't) and use the savings (plus a little extra $$$) to get a 144Hz monitor like the BenQ XL2411Z.
 
tycoonheart said:
Anyone with Sandy (2500k/2600k) moving to the new Haswell-E chips? The 5820k is super tempting right now. And my 2600k is acting up, won't keep overclock at 4.5. Getting random lockups.
Click to expand...

Ha, funny you bring this up... I JUST put together my new PC yesterday. I was coming from a 2500k, upgraded to a 5820k.

The 2500k will still give you good performance in games, no doubt. The reason I upgraded was that my CPU, like yours, was being a bit flaky at times. I also wanted a more modern feature set on my motherboard, and I wanted to create a silent PC which required replacing the case and fans anyway.

Overall so far, I LOVE my 5820k. It's overclocked to 4.2GHz, and with my H110 cooler it stays below 70 degrees Celcius even running Prime95. And that's in a silent case! You put these parts in a HAF X, it'd be around 60C. (I know this because when I took off the panels hiding the fans, it dropped down to 60.

I game on my PC, but I also encode videos every now and then, and I'm using it for school which has me running a lot of VM's for class work. This processor handles them so much better, I couldn't be happier with my purchase.
 
Just about to fill system/leak test. Any non obvious tips? Only powering on the pump (once the res is full), paper towels around electric components, etc.
 
mkenyon said:
Secure the fan blades from moving due to air.

That's pretty much the only thing you need to keep in mind.
Click to expand...
Oh, that's all? Cool! Guess I was over-thinking it. Thanks for the help.
mrklaw said:
And then remember to unsecure them from moving once you're done.. :)
Click to expand...
So I don't just hold the fans in place with my hand when I use the air, I instead secure them with an actual part of the fan? Hmm, guess I'll have to look up what part of the fan I have to use or adjust to secure them. Thanks!
 
Faith said:
Guys, I'm having problems finding the right mainboard for my new SLI setup. The problem is that I have a PCI-soundcard. I wanted to buy the Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 5 but:



The only PCI slot would be covered with the fans of the 2nd GPU.

Is there any alternative that would work for me for a similar price?
Click to expand...
I will have the same problem, except I'm not going SLI for a while still.

Just not using a sound card isn't an option for me at all. Onboard is not good enough, particularly in the level of volume it can put out.

My plan is to probably just buy an external sound card at some point. I know buying more things(I've gotta get a new PSU as well) hurts the 'value' factor here, but I could use a good external sound card anyways. That would solve your problem as well, but I don't know how much you want to spend more on one.
 
So I currently have a 1300 watt PSU. If I upgrade to a Gigabyte Windforce 970 it would obviously be able to handle it, however lets say I want to SLI it down the road... will the 1300 watts be enough? Gigabytes website says 550 watts for just one of these cards, so does having two SLI'd along with all the other components sound like its pushing it?

I'm not really sure which brand offers the better cooler on the card. I hear the Windforce is the best, but it eats power like crazy... I'm pretty ignorant of the best warranties and such.

What do people recommend; any particular brand, configuration, warranty deal or anything else?

At this point I know I want a 970 and realistically just as long as its in that $3-400 price range I'm alright with paying a little more if its going to equate to a better cooler or warranty that could come in handy down the road.
 
NJDEN said:
So I currently have a 1300 watt PSU. If I upgrade to a Gigabyte Windforce 970 it would obviously be able to handle it, however lets say I want to SLI it down the road... will the 1300 watts be enough? Gigabytes website says 550 watts for just one of these cards, so does having two SLI'd along with all the other components sound like its pushing it?

I'm not really sure which brand offers the better cooler on the card. I hear the Windforce is the best, but it eats power like crazy... I'm pretty ignorant of the best warranties and such.

What do people recommend; any particular brand, configuration, warranty deal or anything else?

At this point I know I want a 970 and realistically just as long as its in that $3-400 price range I'm alright with paying a little more if its going to equate to a better cooler or warranty that could come in handy down the road.
Click to expand...

You're fine. I'm running an R9 295X2 and a 5820K on 1200W.
 
NJDEN said:
So I currently have a 1300 watt PSU. If I upgrade to a Gigabyte Windforce 970 it would obviously be able to handle it, however lets say I want to SLI it down the road... will the 1300 watts be enough? Gigabytes website says 550 watts for just one of these cards, so does having two SLI'd along with all the other components sound like its pushing it?

I'm not really sure which brand offers the better cooler on the card. I hear the Windforce is the best, but it eats power like crazy... I'm pretty ignorant of the best warranties and such.

What do people recommend; any particular brand, configuration, warranty deal or anything else?

At this point I know I want a 970 and realistically just as long as its in that $3-400 price range I'm alright with paying a little more if its going to equate to a better cooler or warranty that could come in handy down the road.
Click to expand...

I'll be running SLI 970's and a 5820k on a 750W PSU. I think you'll be fine.
 
Serious question: Is there an official GAF thread for item sale listings? Hype has gotten the better of me, I want to sell my 780 and wanted to assess my options other than ebay.
 
My HIS 7950 boost is, for want of a better term, loud as fuck. Like, uncomfortably loud. Is there anything I can do? The minute the fans over 30%, it's really noticeable and jarring.
 
Faith said:
It's an ASUS Xonar DG and I need it for my ModMic 4.0 :(

Found a solution! How about the cheaper Gigabyte Z97X-SLI?

Edit: Fuck, only 6 USB ports -.-
Click to expand...

Sell your Xonar DG card and buy the Xonar DGX - it's the exact same specifications but for PCIe slots.

Or you could always buy a USB PCI bracket to increase the number of USB ports at the back, like this one.
 
tarheel91 said:
No leaks! In the first 15 minutes at least!
Click to expand...
Nice.

I'm sure you did it while filling, but try turning it off and on a few times through the leak test. The backpressure can sometimes find those nooks and crannies.

But ZMT + Comp fittings, you're not likely to have any leaks.
 
mkenyon said:
Nice.

I'm sure you did it while filling, but try turning it off and on a few times through the leak test. The backpressure can sometimes find those nooks and crannies.

But ZMT + Comp fittings, you're not likely to have any leaks.
Click to expand...

Yep. I cycled a few times after I completed filling. I'ma leave it running for a couple hours and then finish up the build! All that's left is solid state and wiring.

Edit: What's the extra blue wire for (looks like it goes into a 3 pin like for a fan header, but it's only one wire)?
 
tarheel91 said:
No leaks! In the first 15 minutes at least!
Click to expand...

mkenyon said:
Nice.

I'm sure you did it while filling, but try turning it off and on a few times through the leak test. The backpressure can sometimes find those nooks and crannies.

But ZMT + Comp fittings, you're not likely to have any leaks.
Click to expand...

Congrats! Water cooling is the most fun.

Does add to the cost of things though....I was looking at 980s today....but then having to add the cost of an EK block and backplate in my head....

You will probably still see really little bubbles no matter what you do...but they will go away in a day or two on their own.
 
tarheel91 said:
Yep. I cycled a few times after I completed filling. I'ma leave it running for a couple hours and then finish up the build! All that's left is solid state and wiring.

Edit: What's the extra blue wire for (looks like it goes into a 3 pin like for a fan header, but it's only one wire)?
Click to expand...
RPM monitoring.
 
Question. So have this motherboard gigabyte z97x-ud3h. Just installed a 4790k + hyper evo 212 cooler but when I go into bios one time it said CPU temp was 47 and another time it said 56 but using the hwmonitor and gigabyte app shows the following:

E01aWzb.png

tBgKjLt.png


Anyone know what's up?
 
fluffydelusions said:
Question. So have this motherboard gigabyte z97x-ud3h. Just installed a 4790k + hyper evo 212 cooler but when I go into bios one time it said CPU temp was 47 and another time it said 56 but using the hwmonitor and gigabyte app shows the following:

E01aWzb.png

tBgKjLt.png


Anyone know what's up?
Click to expand...
It might not use speed stepping in BIOS, which greatly reduces power consumption, and by extension, heat.

Just don't worry about it.
 
Crossed my fingers and went with cheap newegg shipping, hoping everything would ship out of NJ. Everything but the case shipped out of California. Damn. Things shipped out of NJ typically get here next day. Things shipped out of California using cheap ground shipping? Who knows.
 
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