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[LordAlu]

What's wrong with Scan/others? I'll be buying parts soon, don't scare me.

There's nothing particularly wrong with other places, it's just Amazon have a ridicufuckton of money and power, so if you have any problems even years down the line they can sort you out almost instantly and write it off their end, but other places will have to do the proper procedure and RMA etc etc.

Which HDD should I go for? Both are exactly the same price with 7200RPM etc. but which is the most reliable? I did have the 1TB WD Blue in my basket but game file sizes are huge nowadays.

3TB Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001
3TB Toshiba DT01ACA300

Also, what's with UK prices on pretty much all components steadily increasing over the last few days/weeks? We already get shafted on prices here without my CPU, PSU and RAM jumping up £10 each.

Either or. Personally I'd probably buy the Toshiba simply because Seagate tend to have a higher failure rate... then again a lot more Seagate drives get sold!

I've not noticed any price increases in the last few weeks? Then again I've not really been paying attention

 

[Prez]

Nothing particularly wrong, I usually buy from Scan. Amazon just have CS above and beyond what any of them can offer. Just such hassle free returns any time within 12 months should anything go wrong.

Do Amazon France and Germany have the same good customer service? How do returns work? I assume you pay for shipping?

 

[kharma45]

Do Amazon France and Germany have the same good customer service? How do returns work? I assume you pay for shipping?

With Amazon UK they've always covered the return cost for me.

 

[Prez]

With Amazon UK they've always covered the return cost for me.

Do they also cover the return cost if you're from another country? I'm in Belgium, we don't have Amazon and international shipping costs are expensive.

 

[kharma45]

Do they also cover the return cost if you're from another country? I'm in Belgium, we don't have Amazon and international shipping costs are expensive.

I'd doubt it.

 

[SugarDave]

Either or. Personally I'd probably buy the Toshiba simply because Seagate tend to have a higher failure rate... then again a lot more Seagate drives get sold!

I've not noticed any price increases in the last few weeks? Then again I've not really been paying attention

Okay, thanks. I may end up with the WD Blue anyway and expand as needed.

They're not huge spikes or anything but I've noticed the i5 4690K going up £1-2 or so everyday for the past week. It's £171 now when it was about £163 a week ago. The Dell U2414h monitor went from £179 to £191 and the EVGA G2 750w went up to £87 from £79.99.

 

[Prez]

I'd doubt it.

That sucks, so they all ship to Belgium for free yet you don't get the same customer service :/

 

[kharma45]

Okay, thanks. I may end up with the WD Blue anyway and expand as needed.

They're not huge spikes or anything but I've noticed the i5 4690K going up £1-2 or so everyday for the past week. It's £171 now when it was about £163 a week ago. The Dell U2414h monitor went from £179 to £191 and the EVGA G2 750w went up to £87 from £79.99.

That tends to happen. Prices fluctuate a lot.

That sucks, so they all ship to Belgium for free yet you don't get the same customer service :/

Ask them and find out, I'm just guessing on this one.

 

[Addnan]

That sucks, so they all ship to Belgium for free yet you don't get the same customer service :/

Well you can try to contact them see what they say. We have local Amazons and so have never had to check whether they will cover part of return or what.

 

[Chance Hale]

Is it possible to run the Acer XB280HK at say, 2880x1620 in something like Crysis 3?

 

[fluffydelusions]

For undervolting do you basically set vcore from auto to normal and use a negative offset in bios? I put in a -0.05 offset and intel extreme tuning stress went fine but in -0.06 and windows crashed during the test.

bump

 

[SUPARSTARX]

I'm looking for a nice 30" gaming monitor. So far I'm looking at the Yamakasi Sparta/Leonidas.

I was wondering if there was anything else worthy on the market that's at 30" between 2560x1440 and 2560x1600 resolutions.

I'm mostly using it to play MMO, DoTA2, PC Ultra Street Fighter 4, CS:GO and Battlefield.

 

[yatesl]

I want to throw in my bit for Amazon, too. I bought a PSU thinking mine was faulty, fitted it, and turns out it wasn't the issue. Full refund despite it being fine.

Installed a wireless card for 3 weeks, wasn't getting the speeds I wanted. Fully working. Full refund.

Both times they've sent DPD to come and collect it for free. I almost exclusively do any online shopping from Amazon now. Absolutely unparalleled.

 

[xBladeM6x]

Apparently the 900 series GPUs suffer from Frame Hitching. (Essentially "feeling" like you're dropping frames when you're not. Almost feels like a sort of mini-juddering / stuttering when attempting to look around in games, which happens to not show up in recordings.) Seems like it's not that the card isn't pushing the amount of FPS it should, but rather that it's not pushing the individual frames to the monitor / display correctly. I've noticed this as well, and really hope Nvidia fixes this in a driver update or something.

 

[Evo X]

So I've got a bit of dilemma.

I have a Seasonic X-760W fully modular PSU. When I went from SLI 570s to single 780Ti, I removed all unnecessary cables to clean up the case. Now I'm thinking of going SLI 980s and can't find the damn PCIE cable I would need for the second card. Do they sell these separately? Need a 6+8 pin.

 

[eek5]

So I've got a bit of dilemma.

I have a Seasonic X-760W fully modular PSU. When I went from SLI 570s to single 780Ti, I removed all unnecessary cables to clean up the case. Now I'm thinking of going SLI 980s and can't find the damn PCIE cable I would need for the second card. Do they sell these separately? Need a 6+8 pin.

I would contact Seasonic directly and see if you can purchase it from them. Best case scenario they send you free cables.

 

[RaoulDuke]

I finally bit on a 4690k and z97 board and now need ram. I keep seeing deals on single 8GB chips, but I'm conditioned to think 2x4gb chips are better for dual channel mode... Is this actually the case these days?

Thanks

 

[Kezen]

I finally bit on a 4690k and z97 board and now need ram. I keep seeing deals on single 8GB chips, but I'm conditioned to think 2x4gb chips are better for dual channel mode... Is this actually the case these days?

Thanks

Yes. 2x4 is much better than one stick of 8.

 

[Smokey]

Apparently the 900 series GPUs suffer from Frame Hitching. (Essentially "feeling" like you're dropping frames when you're not. Almost feels like a sort of mini-juddering / stuttering when attempting to look around in games, which happens to not show up in recordings.) Seems like it's not that the card isn't pushing the amount of FPS it should, but rather that it's not pushing the individual frames to the monitor / display correctly. I've noticed this as well, and really hope Nvidia fixes this in a driver update or something.

They probably will. Jumping to a GPU on release date is like anything else. You're an early adopter and as such, drivers probably aren't as optimized as something like the 700 series. It'll round in to shape eventually. Even more impressive that the 900 series are providing this type of performance on a first run driver.

So I've got a bit of dilemma.

I have a Seasonic X-760W fully modular PSU. When I went from SLI 570s to single 780Ti, I removed all unnecessary cables to clean up the case. Now I'm thinking of going SLI 980s and can't find the damn PCIE cable I would need for the second card. Do they sell these separately? Need a 6+8 pin.

I would contact Seasonic directly and see if you can purchase it from them. Best case scenario they send you free cables.

This. You don't want to buy off the wall PSU cables or use some that are not made for your specific model.


----

Brought my 4K monitor back and unhooked the Swift. After some scaling adjustments in Windows and Chrome...feels good. But that 144hz -> 60hz is no joke. Need 4k 120hz monitors but that shit ain't happening anytime soon. I am forced to hold onto 2+ monitors

 

[Kamakazie!]

So reading up around Broadwell and Skylake it doesn't look like holding off is much of an option for me.

What's the current suggested best CPU option for light work in lightroom and the odd gaming session?
I'm gonna hold off on the gpu until next year but will want a CPU capable of getting the best out of next year's 970 equivalent, with the intention of getting an Oculus Rift.

Thinking 4790k but wondering if I could get away with a 4690k for now and bag a Broadwell replacement in a couple of years on the same motherboard?

 

[xBladeM6x]

They probably will. Jumping to a GPU on release date is like anything else. You're an early adopter and as such, drivers probably aren't as optimized as something like the 700 series. It'll round in to shape eventually. Even more impressive that the 900 series are providing this type of performance on a first run driver.





This. You don't want to buy off the wall PSU cables or use some that are not made for your specific model.


----

Brought my 4K monitor back and unhooked the Swift. After some scaling adjustments in Windows and Chrome...feels good. But that 144hz -> 60hz is no joke. Need 4k 120hz monitors but that shit ain't happening anytime soon. I am forced to hold onto 2+ monitors

Hopefully you're right. I've never been the type to early adopt, so yeah it's "new" for me when it comes to GPUs.

 

[UnObtainium17]

Which of these OS is the best for my rig? Or go Win 7?

 

[zeroeffect]

Which of these OS is the best for my rig? Or go Win 7?

I use to recommend OEMs for Windows since they're cheaper but my recent experience tells me they no longer give you a new key if you ever replace a lot of hardware in your PC. You use to be able to call Microsoft and they'd hand you keys out if say something died in your PC and you replaced it. Last time this happened to me they wouldn't give me a new licensed key. I talked to at least 15 different CS reps and called at different times each time...not one would budge. I'm guessing they no longer do that policy anymore and OEMs are basically use once and you can never use it again.

Maybe other people in here have better experiences but that happened to me about a year ago. I think W8 is perfectly viable now. It use to be terrible but for the most part, it's just an improved W7 now. Certainly isn't that technical disaster Vista was.

 

[Ettie]

Have there been any credible leaks about the performance of broadwell/skylake relative to the existing haswell chips?

 

[kharma45]

Have there been any credible leaks about the performance of broadwell/skylake relative to the existing haswell chips?

No.

I'd expect Broadwell to be 5-10% better though going by Intel's recent performance bumps.

 

[zeroeffect]

Man it's so difficult trying to narrow down a motherboard I want. This is the worst part of the build for me because they have so many good options.

 

[Danlord]

Man it's so difficult trying to narrow down a motherboard I want. This is the worst part of the build for me because they have so many good options.

I have just got the ASUS Maximus VII Ranger, if that's a viable option I would recommend that very highly.

 

[Prophet Steve]

I use to recommend OEMs for Windows since they're cheaper but my recent experience tells me they no longer give you a new key if you ever replace a lot of hardware in your PC. You use to be able to call Microsoft and they'd hand you keys out if say something died in your PC and you replaced it. Last time this happened to me they wouldn't give me a new licensed key. I talked to at least 15 different CS reps and called at different times each time...not one would budge. I'm guessing they no longer do that policy anymore and OEMs are basically use once and you can never use it again.

Maybe other people in here have better experiences but that happened to me about a year ago. I think W8 is perfectly viable now. It use to be terrible but for the most part, it's just an improved W7 now. Certainly isn't that technical disaster Vista was.

Weird, I thought they got rid of the OEM version for Windows 8 and that you could always reinstall it, is that only for Europe or something?

 

[zeroeffect]

I have just got the ASUS Maximus VII Ranger, if that's a viable option I would recommend that very highly.

Yeah, it's not bad but a little too pricey for me. I probably don't want to spend over $200 on a mobo. Trying to find one that fits all my needs but doesn't have unnecessary features I'll never use and pay extra for.

 

[zeroeffect]

Weird, I thought they got rid of the OEM version for Windows 8 and that you could always reinstall it, is that only for Europe or something?

I have no clue. I wasn't even aware they sold OEMs either but it appears they do on that list. My experience was with W7.

 

[Prez]

Getting a new PC with AM1 motherboard soon. I seem to have a morbid curiosity to try out the AMD Sempron 3850 1.3Ghz quad core, just to see how well it performs on Windows 8 for basic tasks like browsing and music... Would it hurt? I know I'm upgrading to a Beema CPU once that hits, but the question is long until that's released.

I don't know, I'm kinda bored and I want to push the limits of low-end.

 

[Felix Lighter]

The last of my components are sitting in Harrisburg, so I'll should finally have everything I need on Monday. Crossing my fingers that I won't run in to any more hiccups now.

 

[thuway]

THANK YOU GAF! The new motherboard works perfectly. I had to live in a week of fear thinking everything had went down the tubes.



One last question.... Looking into purchasing an aftermarket cooling solution for my CPU. The stock cooler is absolutely ATROCIOUS.




Can anyone recommend the best aftermarket cooler that can fit into a Rosewill Challenger?

I wanted to get a Kraken, but that doesn't seem to fit.

 

[Sectorseven]

Can someone point me towards a mechanical keyboard that's tenkeyless and backlit? Coolermaster used to have some, but it seems they've been phased out for their new, crazy expensive model.

 

[The Llama]

Am I the only one who always thought PowerColor was actually PowerCooler? Like, PowerCooler would make sense. I don't even know what PowerColor is supposed to mean.

 

[FunkyMunkey]

Got my gigabyte 970 overclock (stable, first try via http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_970_g1_gaming_review,26.html) to:

1542 gpu
8001 memory
with max temp 63C
and fan speed never went higher than 64%

I'm going to try to get it higher, but I am very impressed so far.

 

[x3sphere]

Apparently the 900 series GPUs suffer from Frame Hitching. (Essentially "feeling" like you're dropping frames when you're not. Almost feels like a sort of mini-juddering / stuttering when attempting to look around in games, which happens to not show up in recordings.) Seems like it's not that the card isn't pushing the amount of FPS it should, but rather that it's not pushing the individual frames to the monitor / display correctly. I've noticed this as well, and really hope Nvidia fixes this in a driver update or something.

Hmm... I haven't noticed any hitching or stuttering with my SLI 980s. Gaming at 4K as well so they're under quite a bit of load.

 

[xBladeM6x]

Hmm... I haven't noticed any hitching or stuttering with my SLI 980s. Gaming at 4K as well so they're under quite a bit of load.

It's possible it might be motherboard BIOS incompatibility for older ones like mine. (Asrock Pro3 Gen 3 Z68, which was the one part I didn't choose but someone else did for me back when I didn't know much about computer building.) >->

 

[kharma45]

It's possible it might be motherboard BIOS incompatibility for older ones like mine. (Asrock Pro3 Gen 3 Z68, which was the one part I didn't choose but someone else did for me back when I didn't know much about computer building.) >->

I doubt it's that.

 

[ricki42]

Can someone point me towards a mechanical keyboard that's tenkeyless and backlit? Coolermaster used to have some, but it seems they've been phased out for their new, crazy expensive model.

I just got the Vortex Pure Pro Blue LED Backlit Keyboard with Red switches. I really like it. The right shift key is going to take some getting used to, but I suddenly have so much space on my desk. You can get them with different switches and different LED colours. mechanicalkeyboards.com also has the backlit Vortex Poker II with brown and blue switches on their incoming list.

 

[Thoraxes]

yes

Thank btw!

Got everything hooked up and running on my new build.

Going from a PhenomII X4 to a 5820k and DDR2 RAM to DDR4 RAM is like a miracle come true lol.

Now if the damn 970's would get more in-stock!

 

[Smokey]

Think I have a messed up Rampage IV Black Edition. I didn't have any issues with my Titan SLI setup while the 3rd card was away. I get it back and plug it in and my games are back to freezing. The chances of getting two different Titans that cause the same issue is slim. Done fresh driver installs, W8 reformats, Mem tests. I did get the 2 year coverage from Microcenter so I'm going to head up there and see what can be done.

 

[N-Forced]

My biggest gripe with Amazon is that they never take part in GPU promotions either like the free game offers. They're the only one I trust for sending stuff back. Novatech have been fine the two times I've had to but I was only able to get them to pay postage the first time.

Usually if you contact their customer support you can get them to honor the free game promotion. I never got my Watchdogs promo code when I ordered my 780, I just contacted their customer service and they gave me $60 credit to use to just buy the game.

 

[TheMadMan007]

Just got my new motherboard to get SLI working with my 970s. I started playing a few games, like Bioshock Infinite, Skyrim, Tomb Raider. I'm not getting what can only be described as a bunch of diagonal pixelated rows going through my screen. I've never seen something like this before. It almost looks like a glitch or artifacting. Anyone have any clues about it?

 

[knitoe]

Just got my new motherboard to get SLI working with my 970s. I started playing a few games, like Bioshock Infinite, Skyrim, Tomb Raider. I'm not getting what can only be described as a bunch of diagonal pixelated rows going through my screen. I've never seen something like this before. It almost looks like a glitch or artifacting. Anyone have any clues about it?

Have you tried reinstalling video drivers? Are the cards factory and/or user OC? If yes, try running them at normal default speeds.

 

[Prez]

What's the best SSD: Sandisk 128GB Sandforce (previous generation?) or 64GB Ultra Plus?

 

[TheMadMan007]

Have you tried reinstalling video drivers? Are the cards factory and/or user OC? If yes, try running them at normal default speeds.

No OC. It's super weird, it only happens during actual gameplay. Not during splash screen, or even in pause menus (or at least the overlay of the menu doesn't show it, but behind it, where the game is it does.) I have deleted the drivers completely and reinstalled them and it's still happening.

 

[TheMadMan007]

Well, nevermind. I just restarted for the third time without doing anything, and it's working fine. Another question though. How many frames on average should I be getting with my SLI 970s? I noticed I was getting around 300 in Bioshock Infinite with 1080p and around 80 with the Dynamic Super Sampling whatever at the 3840 x 2160

 

[MattyG]

I'm going to shamelessly cross post this from the Steam thread, because I need input;
Well that was weird and terrifying. I was idling some games all day today when, just before I'm about to go to bed, Windows changes the theme to the plain one it does when it says it wants to improve performance. Then I hear this quiet, high pitched squeal from my case, almost like when you slowly let the air out of a balloon with the ends pulled. After a minute it stops and the theme goes back to normal. I couldn't identify what component it was coming from, although it was definitely the GPU/CPU area. What the hell??

Edit: just found this. Not too encouraging. http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/...-happened.html

And now that I think of it, the sound was kind of like coil whine. Only thing is, no games were running. The only things open were steam and Idlemaster.

 

[kharma45]

Usually if you contact their customer support you can get them to honor the free game promotion. I never got my Watchdogs promo code when I ordered my 780, I just contacted their customer service and they gave me $60 credit to use to just buy the game.

The thing is with Amazon here is they don't do any promotions like that at all.