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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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Ocho

Member
Is a Titan Black worth it right now? Or should I wait for next gen nvidia (8XX)? Guide me, Sco. 780 ti better for games?
 

Dongs Macabre

aka Daedalos42
Does anyone know when an AMD Never Settle Forever Silver code will expire? The website says December 31st 2013, but that can't be right. Also, will new games be added to the promotion?
 

Stubo

Member
Is a Titan Black worth it right now? Or should I wait for next gen nvidia (8XX)? Guide me, Sco. 780 ti better for games?
This depends what resolution you're going to be playing at, if you're going to SLI and how worried you are about 3Gb VRAM.

Personally I'd wait for the 880(Ti) assuming you have a reasonable card to game on until then.
 

Smokey

Member
Here's what I'm looking at right now for my build. Have not decided on a case or a water-cooling solution yet. It was going to be 4x SLI but you guys convinced me to just do 3 cards instead. Let me know if there is anyway I can improve this set up or you have any other suggestions. Probably going to start buying parts soon.

CPU: Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 4960X 3.6GHz (Six-Core)

Mother Board: ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition X79 (Intel X79 Chipset)

RAM: 32GB DDR3 2400MHz Corsair Dominator Platinum DHX

GPU: 3x SLI Titan Blacks

PSU: 1500W Corsair AX1500i

Storage: 4x SSD (480GB Intel 730 Series) (+ RAID 5?)

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster ZxR


<3

Do you have a 4k monitor yet? Because there's really no difference between the 4960x and 4930k outside of benching. And there's a $400 difference. Similar to 4x TB vs 3x TB. The difference could go towards a 4k monitor.


Is a Titan Black worth it right now? Or should I wait for next gen nvidia (8XX)? Guide me, Sco. 780 ti better for games?

Not unless you're playing at 4k. Even then 780 6GB if you can find it is the better buy.
 

riflen

Member
No point in waiting 4-5 months based on a rumour. It's clearly an overkill build anyway with a $1000 CPU. Value for money is not a concern. I say go for it, love seeing these builds.
 

mkenyon

Banned
Here's what I'm looking at right now for my build. Have not decided on a case or a water-cooling solution yet. It was going to be 4x SLI but you guys convinced me to just do 3 cards instead. Let me know if there is anyway I can improve this set up or you have any other suggestions. Probably going to start buying parts soon.

CPU: Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 4960X 3.6GHz (Six-Core)

Mother Board: ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition X79 (Intel X79 Chipset)

RAM: 32GB DDR3 2400MHz Corsair Dominator Platinum DHX

GPU: 3x SLI Titan Blacks

PSU: 1500W Corsair AX1500i

Storage: 4x SSD (480GB Intel 730 Series) (+ RAID 5?)

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster ZxR
Super solid. If you don't need the daughter card from the ZxR, then I'd suggest looking at the Zx. I went with the ZxR, but it happened to be on sale for $125 when I bought it.

You would definitely be fine with 16GB of RAM, as 32GB would be more for content creation/multimedia.

Don't worry about a RAID array on the SSDs, IMO. Just get a nice big single one. If you're experienced in dealing with RAID, and it's no big deal, then you know what you're going for. The reliability compared to HDDs is just so staggeringly good, they're better than enterprise-level platter drives in that department.

As Smokey notes above, definitely go with the 4930K. The 4960X is the king of all that is overkill. You're paying a $400 premium for a gain that is theoretical, and most likely not even there. If it is there, maybe a 100-200MHz max OC over the 4930K.

*edit*

And with that savings, I'd look at getting set up properly on the peripherals front. Get an amazing mouse, KB, mousepad, cans, and a mod mic.
What kind and how many rads are we looking at for my setup? 540 won't be big enough huh
Depends how fast you want to be spinning your fans. I'd opt for something like two 480s (120x4) at least. You're looking at dissipating something like 1000W+.
Does anyone know when an AMD Never Settle Forever Silver code will expire? The website says December 31st 2013, but that can't be right. Also, will new games be added to the promotion?
You just add the code to your Raptr account and the money is good forever. Use it when you want to use it. They'll be constantly adding new games.

Think of the Silver as a Steam wallet.
Is a Titan Black worth it right now? Or should I wait for next gen nvidia (8XX)? Guide me, Sco. 780 ti better for games?
There's a very solid argument to be made for it at 4K, but the 290X is king of $:performance in that arena right now.

The 780 is where $:performance still makes sense for NVIDIA. It's within spitting distance of the 780Ti, which is in spitting distance of the Titan. There's maybe a ~5% gain in performance at 1440p or lower between all of them.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
This thread is dangerous for me.

I barely even play PC games anymore, and I've already got a decent if aging rig (i5 2500k, 6950, fractal R3, 24" Dell IPS), yet I'm now considering selling the lot and doing a new build, for no other reason than I enjoy tinkering.

Anyone understand this? Or am I losing it?
There's nothing for me to really upgrade that makes sense so I tinkered with putting an AIO on a <$250 R9 290. I feel you.
Hi! Long time reader first time poster. I've been lurking these threads for months and by reading it I've finally convinced myself that I need to build a new PC, so thanks! I'm looking forward to all the gaming goodness I've missed out on with my current, modest PC.

I'm intending on building a new PC and I was hoping for some advice about the parts I'm planning on buying these next few days.

I've currently got the following parts that I snapped up cheap: 2x4gig DDR3 Kingston Hyper / AMD R290 GB Windforce / 512GB Crucial MX100SSD

Budget: Reasonably not a concern - Australia
Main Use: Gaming= 5 / General Usage = 5
Monitor Resolution: 1920 x 1080
List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well: Crysis 3, Metro, Battlefield, Football Manager
When will you build?: This weekend
Will you be overclocking?: Maybe...


I'm pretty set on the NZXT H230 (white) for my case as it looks awesome and should be fairly future proof in terms of fitting whatever I upgrade to in future. Also seems to be the only decent white case in this price range.

But I'm going back and forth about the CPU, Motherboard and PSU.

I'm wondering if I should go for the i5 4690 or the i7 4790. as they seem to perform fairly similarly on a lot of games at the moment but the 8 threads on the i7 seem like they could last me a bit longer between upgrades.

I don't think there's any difference between z97 or H97 motherboards unless I want to overclock (which I'm not sure I do) so I assume get the cheapest/one with the features I need?

And I think a 600watt PSU should suit this build now and in the future, I don't intend to go for Crossfire/SLI or go crazy with overclocks. Are there any brands I should avoid? I've been told Coolermaster PSU's suck in general but my current CM 650Watt PSU has lasted me 7 years so...

Any advice would be amazing and much appreciated. I'm really excited to be back into PC gaming so thanks for these threads!
'Reasonably not a concern' leaves a lot of room. You DID pick up a 290X already.
Prices and availability in AUS is different, IIRC the Seasonics and XFX are cheaper than other PSU brands there last I checked so just get a nice Seasonic 650W if you plan to run single card for the foreseeable future (750W isn't much more though).

I'd get the i7 and Z97 as CPU speed is going nowhere fast. Should last you way too long and you can OC whenever the times comes. As far as the rest of the parts go just look at the OP and if some parts are missing make substitutions and post the parts list.
 

SpyGuy239

Member
Simple question GAF: Does a Samsung EVO SSD need an enclosure to keep it safe?

Can I just run it as a portable drive + SATA to USB 3.0 cable without an enclosure?

Thanks!
 

mkenyon

Banned
Are all 8gb DDR3L sticks uniform?
If so, anyone know where I can get two cheaply?
Newegg/Amazon, but there's SO-DIMM (204 Pin) and standard 240 pin sicks. The former is for laptops, the latter is for desktops.

There's also different frequency/timings/latency that the sticks are capable of, so you generally want to avoid mix and matching two sticks.
 

Hollycat

Member
Newegg/Amazon, but there's SO-DIMM (204 Pin) and standard 240 pin sicks. The former is for laptops, the latter is for desktops.

There's also different frequency/timings/latency that the sticks are capable of, so you generally want to avoid mix and matching two sticks.

Thanks, I'l probably go with the kingston 204pin then.
 

Ocho

Member
I'll wait for next gen nvidia cards, then. My 670 still performs all right. I do want to go 1440 in the future, although right now I'm only at 1080 @ 144hz. The more games I can get to 144fps, the better, though.
 

mkenyon

Banned
I recently went from 7970->290, and it seems like that was just what the doctor ordered to get the few games I wasn't able to run at 120 FPS there, especially Dota 2.
 

Tablo

Member
Yeah, I can't recommend it enough.

I pretty much gave up gaming in front of a monitor and stuck exclusively to my TV (which meant using a gamepad for everything) but I feel like it's finally possible to enjoy gaming from the desk again.

IPS and TN monitors really ruined my love of proper PC gaming and it's all due to the fact that they cannot handle darker content (which is used regularly in PC games).

It's still not perfect, of course, and refresh rate is more like IPS than a fast TN unfortunately but the overall image quality is just dramatically better.

If you're not too concerned with size you should check out the Eizo Foris FG2421. It's also VA based but actually supports faster refresh rates as well. Probably the best monitor for gaming out there. It didn't work for me simply because it's only 24" and limited to 1080p but if you don't mind those limitations it's pretty amazing in every other aspect.

The FG2421 is very tempting, but it's too expensive for me (upwards of 550$ iirc) and it seems a lot of people have flaws in their panels.
I'd love a 60HZ AMVA Gsync option, at 1080p even. But I doubt VA will get Gsync for a long while :( Kinda sad, I got all hyped on Gsync, but for now it's stuck on middling TN panels, and probably not great 4K IPS/TN panels.
I woulda thought some company would figure out how to market AMVA's insane contrast as a selling point and push that tech lol.
 

Hawk269

Member
What kind and how many rads are we looking at for my setup? 540 won't be big enough huh

I am using 3 360 Rads for my setup smokey. Max Temp on my GPU's are around 40c, but that is after an hour of benchmarking/testing. Under gaming etc. I think the highest I have seen is about 35c or so.

Oh and the Hydro Copper blocks work fine on the Titan Blacks. I am getting the same temp reads that I did when I had the EK blocks on my other Titans. So no issue with the Hydro's at all for me. One of my Blacks is a dud for overclocking though. I mean, they come pre-clocked from Evga at 1111 boost, mine go to 1163 boost, But when I apply any more voltage or increase the clocks, one of the cards is holding back the other. Also the dud one does not like to go as high with voltage as the other, luck of the draw at times.

It was the same with my regular titans, one would take a bit more juice out of the box than the other. Without applying anything, one card hits a high of 1.137v while my better card goes to 1.200v and this is without adding any more voltage, just flat out factory stocked.

With you having 3 cards, definitely put them on water. Do you plan on putting the CPU on water as well or are you just going with the GPU's?
 
Got my first 2 parts already here
10347247_10152528542961967_3233945991798460515_n.jpg
 

Dries

Member
My CPU (2500K) will be more than 4 years old when The Witcher 3 releases, so I think I'll be wanting to upgrade somewhere in the early summer/spring of 2015 anyway. It had a great four year run. On top of that The Witcher 3 is really a game to build a new rig for. New CPU and motherboard, new GPU, some DDR4 RAM, SSD. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to this. What I've got in mind now is

- a new shiny high end Broadwell CPU, here's hoping that 14nm will be delicious. (how will these be numbered actually, will they still be called something like i5/7 4970..?)
- probably a GTX 880 3 or 4 GB of VRAM (I'm assuming the 900 series won't be out in 2015 yet)
- 8 GB DDR4 RAM (althoug I don't even know how much this affect gaming.....)
- SSD (don't have one yet, so this will be fun)
- playing at 1920 x 1080 (maybe the setup seems overkill for only 1080, but at least it'll be future-proof for a while)

Guess I'll be fine right? Only downfall is that Broadwell will launch in Q2 2015 at earliest, so I won't be able to play The Witcher 3 at launch..
 

Tablo

Member
My CPU (2500K) will be more than 4 years old when The Witcher 3 releases, so I think I'll be wanting to upgrade somewhere in the early summer/spring of 2015 anyway. It had a great four year run. On top of that The Witcher 3 is really a game to build a new rig for. New CPU and motherboard, new GPU, some DDR4 RAM, SSD. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to this. What I've got in mind now is

- a new shiny high end Broadwell CPU, here's hoping that 14nm will be delicious. (how will these be numbered actually, will they still be called something like i5/7 4970..?)
- probably a GTX 880 3 or 4 GB of VRAM (I'm assuming the 900 series won't be out in 2015 yet)
- 8 GB DDR4 RAM (althoug I don't even know how much this affect gaming.....)
- SSD (don't have one yet, so this will be fun)
- playing at 1920 x 1080 (maybe the setup seems overkill for only 1080, but at least it'll be future-proof for a while)

Guess I'll be fine right? Only downfall is that Broadwell will launch in Q2 2015 at earliest, so I won't be able to play The Witcher 3 at launch..

Well Broadwell K will be out, won't see much gains compared to current parts, but you should go for it anyways. Still on DDR3, which is still fine. Hopefully Maxwell is out in force by then. Also go for 16 GB of RAM, DDR3 prices will only climb so you're going to want to set yourself up for the life of the build. Definitely get a large SSD, and yeah 1080 on a good panel is fine, and you get to crank more settings :D
 

kennah

Member
Yeah seems like a lot of money for minimal gain. Initial DDR4 isn't going to be any faster than 3. It isn't like the tech is really changing. I'm not sure what people are expecting to happen. 2500k'll be good for a long while yet with a good gpu and a decent overclock.

But hey. If you wanna, go for it.
 

Dries

Member
Glad I dropped this subject. It's just that DDR4 launching for Haswell-E was a thing, so.... I though it was a thing! But for gaming it won't be that interesting I see?
 

mkenyon

Banned
Had to part with it to build an additional rig for a LAN I hosted. :(
Glad I dropped this subject. It's just that DDR4 launching for Haswell-E was a thing, so.... I though it was a thing! But for gaming it won't be that interesting I see?
It might be, but the first launch of new memory tends to be underwhelming. The speeds reported for DDR4 are already very common and possible with DDR3, albeit with higher voltage.

It could be amazing, it might not be. I'm not sure.

But, Broadwell will not have DDR4 support. Skylake will be the first consumer socket with DDR4 support. If you want a $330 i7 though, you might be able to hop on the Haswell-E train with a 6C/12T part around the same price.
 

Dries

Member
you might be able to hop on the Haswell-E train with a 6C/12T part around the same price.

The die shrink of Broadwell isn't something to consider though? Obviously Haswell-E may also be an interesting option. I'm open to suggestions.
 

kennah

Member
It's just pointless to consider things more than a year in the future. Build whenever. Upgrade when it feels slow. Repeat.

There is ALWAYS something new on the horizon. Always.
 

mkenyon

Banned
The die shrink of Broadwell isn't something to consider though? Obviously Haswell-E may also be an interesting option. I'm open to suggestions.
Intel has laid a pretty clear foundation for future revisions, at least as far as gaming processors go. 5-10% IPC improvement per release, forever.

If they continue to stick to their rapid release schedule, I don't think we will ever see any huge jump again.
 

Smokey

Member
It's just pointless to consider things more than a year in the future. Build whenever. Upgrade when it feels slow. Repeat.

There is ALWAYS something new on the horizon. Always.

Preach

Unless we are a month or so out from a KNOWN product release date (such as Devils Canyon)...people get too caught up in the waiting game. IMO.
 

Dries

Member
Intel has laid a pretty clear foundation for future revisions, at least as far as gaming processors go. 5-10% IPC improvement per release, forever.

If they continue to stick to their rapid release schedule, I don't think we will ever see any huge jump again.

I enterpret this as: "Broadwell isn't THAT big of a leap, Haswell-E is a better choice". Am I understanding you correctly?
 

Azulsky

Member
Okay so I am in need of a good powerstrip. I had to give up a wall socket for one of those landline ethernet extenders and now im kinda sol.

Most of it is just the need for space because modems and routers and etc have the awkward size power adapters

Im guessing something like this but then I have no surge suppression

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00005115S/?tag=neogaf0e-20

So what do I do for surge suppression.
 

Hawk269

Member
Yea, newest version of WHQL Nvidia drivers messes with Unigine Valley

What is it doing? I am currently testing and been using it with current drivers and it seems like some glitching, not necessarily artificating. Running other programs such as Heaven, 3dmark I see none of this.
 

Giggzy

Member
Damn good deal. For someone that just doesn't want to be bothered with it, I understand for sure.

The 4590 is only $160 at microcenter by my house, and with the motherboard deal I can walk out of there with the cpu and mobo for $200. Used the savings to buy an r9 290x. And the person I'm building it for is scared of overclocking, even after explaining how safe it is and that I'd do it for him.

Welp... They were out of stock with the 4590 and weren't sure when the next shipment would be. So, naturally, I said fuck it and got the 4670k with the AsROCK z97 pro mobo and a hyper 212 evo cooler. This bitch is getting overclocked now!
 

mkenyon

Banned
I enterpret this as: "Broadwell isn't THAT big of a leap, Haswell-E is a better choice". Am I understanding you correctly?
That means that if you make the "worse" choice, you're not missing out on much, and shouldn't fret it whatsoever.

I would generally subscribe to this set of critera though:

If for ~$330, you have the choice between a 6C/12T proc and a 4C/8T proc, and the highest generally attainable clockspeed for both is within 15% of each other, I would almost definitely prefer the 6C/12T part.

Even then though, you can't really make a BAD choice.
 

Hawk269

Member
If anyone is interested, I have 2 Original Titans up for sale. Each card has a EK Waterblock and Backplate installed. I also have the original box, original paperwork, original air cooler for them as well if anyone is interested send me a PM.

Smokey, let me know if you need help with your water cooling. I know Mkenyon is around too to help.
 

mkenyon

Banned
If anyone is interested, I have 2 Original Titans up for sale. Each card has a EK Waterblock and Backplate installed. I also have the original box, original paperwork, original air cooler for them as well if anyone is interested send me a PM.

Smokey, let me know if you need help with your water cooling. I know Mkenyon is around too to help.
How much?

I am probably not interested, but I have friends who might be.
Welp... They were out of stock with the 4590 and weren't sure when the next shipment would be. So, naturally, I said fuck it and got the 4670k with the AsROCK z97 pro mobo and a hyper 212 evo cooler. This bitch is getting overclocked now!
\m/

Best choice.

What I do for people who don't want to "mess" with things, is just give it a static voltage at a fairly conservative clock speed, like 4.2ish.
 
Hey guys, sorry, I've been as Mac user for a very long time and a console gamer for my entire gaming life. This week, however, I got my first gaming PC. The transition has been rough, to say the least.

My first--of what I assume will be many--question is how do I actually get my Xbox One controller for games. I've downloaded the new drivers, plugged in the micro USB cord, turned on the controller and selected the controller option in Far Cry 3. Nothing happens. It doesn't respond to any inputs I make.

Any suggestions? Thanks!
 

kennah

Member
Must. Not. Buy. Titan.


Random long shot - I'm looking for a dead/not working well Asus K42F laptop so I can replace the cracked case on my wife's computer.
 
Hey guys, sorry, I've been as Mac user for a very long time and a console gamer for my entire gaming life. This week, however, I got my first gaming PC. The transition has been rough, to say the least.

My first--of what I assume will be many--question is how do I actually get my Xbox One controller for games. I've downloaded the new drivers, plugged in the micro USB cord, turned on the controller and selected the controller option in Far Cry 3. Nothing happens. It doesn't respond to any inputs I make.

Any suggestions? Thanks!
Does it work only with 360 controllers?
 
My Amazon warehouse gigabyte 290x should arrive tomorrow, thanks again to whoever posted that earlier in the thread. I think I am also sold on getting the Corsair 540 air for my next case, mainly due to it being good enough for Smokey, it should be more than good enough for me. I also like the unique shape, it really stands out compared to other cases I was interested in (corsaior 750d and Phanteks Pro). By the end of July my new machine should be up and running, love upgrading my PC. It has been so long, I can't wait to see the performance difference in the new rig.
 

Calibus

Member
I am currently debating between the two recommended enthusiast build chips -- the i7 4970k & the i5 4690k. Have two questions:

1.) Is there functionally a noticeable performance improvement that the i7 has over the i5 or are they close enough to where I could not really see a negative impact if I went with the i5?

2.) Are either chips more "future proof" than the other or do they both offer similar technology?
 

Smokey

Member
If anyone is interested, I have 2 Original Titans up for sale. Each card has a EK Waterblock and Backplate installed. I also have the original box, original paperwork, original air cooler for them as well if anyone is interested send me a PM.

Smokey, let me know if you need help with your water cooling. I know Mkenyon is around too to help.


I will need help. No shame here. To answer your previous post, I will probably do a full loop for the GPUs and the CPU.
 

jett

D-Member
So I'm getting stuttering (framerate drops from 60 to 57, 58) all the time on frigging Rayman Origins on a 4670k+280X. It ran perfect on my old C2D with a ATI 4670. Why the shit could this be happening? :/
 
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