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[LilJoka]

Crazy as this sounds I am thinking of getting a Haswell i3 with a 970. I figure the CPU is fast enough to keep up with the GPU and should be able to handle anything at 1080p coming out of this gen. I think.

I really wanna build a MicroATX rig but I'm concerned about GPU size in relation to the case/board layout. Wish there was an easier way to figure this out.

We can help, what is the budget? And do you already own some parts?
mATX builds are pretty straight forward like ATX, its only mITX where you need to put some extra research into things. In fact my last post shows a decent mATX build, although with a bit more budget you could get a smaller mATX build setup.

 

[kharma45]

Hi guys which Operating System would be best for me

Windows 7 or 8.1

I plan to do emulation and gaming

8.1

 

[Diablos]

We can help, what is the budget? And do you already own some parts?
mATX builds are pretty straight forward like ATX, its only mITX where you need to put some extra research into things. In fact my last post shows a decent mATX build, although with a bit more budget you could get a smaller mATX build setup.

I would be carrying over 8GB of DDR3, ssd, hdd, optical drive...

I want to replace the CPU, mobo, GPU, case, and power supply -- my 500W seasonic has served me well since 2006-2007 but it likely won't be enough power for a new GPU, and even then I'm a bit worried about how much longer it will really last.

Not sure if I want to build now or after the holidays; I am anticipating a lot of price drops in Q1 2015.

I really want to just get a new GPU at the moment since my 660 keeps getting worse and worse (overheating). I am afraid something else might have fried my GPU, however, such as my power supply or mobo, and don't want to risk ruining a new component.

 

[TheRealTalker]

8.1

got it thanks

I was leaning on that as well

 

[Diablos]

I am also thinking of getting a cheap MicroATX board for my 6300 and a 970 for now. Maybe in another year or so I'll get an Intel CPU and board.

I'm in a tough spot because as of last night my GPU has really been starting to overheat, more than it did before, even with a bell curve applied. Kind of pissed off.

How badly would a 6300 at stock bottleneck a 970 for 1080p gaming?

 

[SugarDave]

When getting BIOS updates from the manafacturer's site, do I need to download all of them or just the most recent? There are six available for the Gigabyte board I have.

 

[The Llama]

When getting BIOS updates from the manafacturer's site, do I need to download all of them or just the most recent? There are six available for the Gigabyte board I have.

Just the most recent.

 

[SugarDave]

Cheers. Gonna get this all sorted now and hopefully everything will be good from there.

 

[grkazan12]

Hey everyone, I just installed the Corsair AX 760 power supply in my PC and I have to say that I wish I had gone modular earlier. Choosing what cables you need and don't has been really handy.

I just had some questions about the the Normal and Hybrid switch on the PSU itself.

Do you guys recommend keeping it on normal or hybrid?
Will normal or hybrid generate more noise from my PC?
Does normal wast more energy than hybrid?

Tried both last night and I didn't really notice any difference, but I'm not sure about which option I should go with.

 

[Kamaji]

Is there any thread for purchasing advice regarding speakers/sound systems/whatever?

I have a desktop and I would like to be able to play music from it with decent audio quality. I've never used anything other than built in laptop speakers earlier so I don't even know where to start.

Do I just need a pair of computer speakers that I connect to the motherboard or would I need a separate sound card and subwoofers and a lot of other equipment?

My budget is slightly under 200€/200$ but i've basically hasn't got a clue how much I should spend. I'm no audiophile and would only use it for listening to music.

Edit: If it would make any different my motherboard is a MSI H97M-E35 so nothing really fancy.

 

[Addnan]

Hybrid turns the fan off at low load.

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Yeah ssd will hopefully help but to hear users running a game max at solid frame rate when my rig can't at lower settings is painful.

So I'm guessing a 780ti sli / gtx titan z / 980 sli wouldn't be worthy upgrades at this time?
Thinking about dragon age at the moment and all the lighting effects that goes on.

Overclock your GPU and CPU a bit further. A SLI setup of course will be good for games that support it, which I think DAI will given it's built on FB3 engine. However not all games will support SLI and the smaller amount of RAM in the 780ti and 980 compared to the Titan will suffer a bit in the long run.

Also that whoever says that his rig can run Unity maxed out with a solid 60 on a single 780ti is full of shit.

 

[Guy LeDouche]

Checking here:

I'm upgrading from a EVGA 560ti to a ASUS Strix 970. I went to nvidia's site to get the latest drivers for the 970 and then checked my current drivers in Geforce Experience and they are the same. With GE, do I need to still uninstall and reinstall when I get to the process of actually swapping the cards or can I just power down, swap the cards, and reboot?

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Checking here:

I'm upgrading from a EVGA 560ti to a ASUS Strix 970. I went to nvidia's site to get the latest drivers for the 970 and then checked my current drivers in Geforce Experience and they are the same. With GE, do I need to still uninstall and reinstall when I get to the process of actually swapping the cards or can I just power down, swap the cards, and reboot?

Just wipe everything and reinstall, best practice

 

[Kezen]

Hey everyone, I just installed the Corsair AX 760 power supply in my PC and I have to say that I wish I had gone modular earlier. Choosing what cables you need and don't has been really handy.

I just had some questions about the the Normal and Hybrid switch on the PSU itself.

Do you guys recommend keeping it on normal or hybrid?
Will normal or hybrid generate more noise from my PC?
Does normal wast more energy than hybrid?

Tried both last night and I didn't really notice any difference, but I'm not sure about which option I should go with.

I have the same PSU, great stuff. I use the normal mode, hybrid only turns on the fan when the PSU is under load, I have to say I don't notice the fans spinning much as they're dead silent.
You should not be worried about energy consumption, the impact is negligible in that case.

 

[SniperHunter]

So there is no advantage of buying an i7 over the i5 4690k right? For +$100 you get a few more frames?

 

[Kezen]

So there is no advantage of buying an i7 over the i5 4690k right? For +$100 you get a few more frames?

More than a few depending on the game. Look up some benchmarks comparing I5 to I7 in newest games.
I5 are still sufficient but I7 make a difference more and more.

 

[SniperHunter]

More than a few depending on the game. Look up some benchmarks comparing I5 to I7 in newest games.
I5 are still sufficient but I7 make a difference more and more.

Ok i will get the i7 4690k

Btw i have this old computer from 2008 i am just planning to swap out the mobo and cpu. It already has a 750 watt psu and i have a 7970. Trying to save $$$ . I hope the psu is still good

 

[M.D]

Anyone knows the difference between Gigabyte Z97M-D3H and Z97-HD3? Are these considered good? I seriously don't know what motherboard to pick

 

[yatesl]

What does "Refresh PC" in Windows 8.1 actually do? A while back I messed about with WindowsApps to put it on the D: drive, but that cocked up and I can't install or run Windows apps. Not normally a big deal, but I hate knowing that I can't do something.

I could reinstall Windows, but that's a pain as I'd have to get everything set up again (including all my symbolic links).

What does Refresh PC touch? Will it wipe %appdata%? Documents? Installed programs?

 

[Votron]

Doors anyone think my below specifications will be able to run the witcher 3 maxed out?
- i5-3570k (over-clocked to 4.4ghz)
- 24gb ripjaw 1866Mhz ram
- Asus r9 290x directcuII OC edition (4gb)
- Corsair GS700 PSU
- 128GB Samsung240 SSD (OS and editing softwares only)
- 4tb WD black (Game install location)
- Samsung sycmaster 32" led 1080p

 

[The Llama]

Doors anyone think my below specifications will be able to run the witcher 3 maxed out?
- i5-3570k (over-clocked to 4.4ghz)
- 24gb ripjaw 1866Mhz ram
- Asus r9 290x directcuII OC edition (4gb)
- Corsair GS700 PSU
- 128GB Samsung240 SSD (OS and editing softwares only)
- 4tb WD black (Game install location)
- Samsung sycmaster 32" led 1080p

It's impossible for anyone to say right now.

 

[Kezen]

Doors anyone think my below specifications will be able to run the witcher 3 maxed out?
- i5-3570k (over-clocked to 4.4ghz)
- 24gb ripjaw 1866Mhz ram
- Asus r9 290x directcuII OC edition (4gb)
- Corsair GS700 PSU
- 128GB Samsung240 SSD (OS and editing softwares only)
- 4tb WD black (Game install location)
- Samsung sycmaster 32" led 1080p

How are we supposed to know ?

 

[LilJoka]

Doors anyone think my below specifications will be able to run the witcher 3 maxed out?
- i5-3570k (over-clocked to 4.4ghz)
- 24gb ripjaw 1866Mhz ram
- Asus r9 290x directcuII OC edition (4gb)
- Corsair GS700 PSU
- 128GB Samsung240 SSD (OS and editing softwares only)
- 4tb WD black (Game install location)
- Samsung sycmaster 32" led 1080p

No, your monitor doesnt support 4K.

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

I think I may have asked this before but how big of a benefit am I going to get overclocking my 4690k? I would only want to go to something like 4.2ghz to keep temperatures similar to what they already are.

Am I really going to see a drastic difference over keeping the processor at stock values?

 

[LilJoka]

I think I may have asked this before but how big of a benefit am I going to get overclocking my 4690k? I would only want to go to something like 4.2ghz to keep temperatures similar to what they already are.

Am I really going to see a drastic difference over keeping the processor at stock values?

Advantage can be more consistent frame times due to lower minimum fps giving a smoother experience. Unless the CPU is actually a bottleneck, you aren't going to see higher fps overall.

4.2ghz should be easy, all you need to do is set the multiplier to 42, and set the Vcore to the minimum offset that maintains stability.

 

[PFD]

I want to upgrade my Hackintosh (Core2Quad). I'm getting a 4790K, but I'm not sure which motherboard to get. The recommended hackintosh mobo list is huge, and I'm completely lost. What should I get from that list? (I wanna pay $150-200)

I want something that would last me a long, long time (5+ years). I currently have a single GTX 770, and I don't plan to go SLI

 

[taoofjord]

Okay so here's my build. Does everything makes sense or is anything on here overkill (perhaps the motherboard)? Am I missing anything? This will be the first PC I build myself.

TO BUY:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H105 73.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

ALREADY OWNED:
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
SSD: Samsung 830 Series 2.5-Inch 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7PC256B/WW
HDD: A 1TB HD
Monitor, KB & Mouse

PC Parts Picker Link:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3YmmQ7

ORIGINAL POST:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=137561545&postcount=17110

 

[Iacobellis]

Yeah, so I've setup two SSD's into a RAID 0 configuration and it works great, but Windows is seeing it as an HDD when I go to Defrag. How can I fix this? And even if TRIM is enabled, is it doing anything to this drive?

 

[KissVibes]

Looking to hopefully build a new PC in the next three months, maybe sooner. Gaming and live streaming is obviously a big part of me building a new PC but also with me going into college within the next year, it's important to be able to do video and photo editing as well.

Here is my current PC:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 840
GPU: XFX HD-687A-ZHFC Radeon HD 6870
MOBO: ASRock 880GM-LE
RAM: G.SKILL NS 4GB (F3-10666CL9D-4GBNS)
PSU: XFX TS Series (P1550SXXB9) 550W

My monitor resolution is 1600x900

Here is the PC I'm looking to build: http://amzn.com/w/1W70D6PJJOOMU

(Not listed is a Nvidia GTX 670 that I'm going to be getting from a good friend of mine)

Does this sound like an okay upgrade from what I have now? I want something that'll last me for a bit; allow me to keep current with the multiplatform games for a few years and let me play ArmA III and Counter-Strike GO without issue.

 

[Mozendo]

Okay so here's my build. Does everything makes sense or is anything on here overkill (perhaps the motherboard)? Am I missing anything? This will be the first PC I build myself.

If it was me I'd change to a cheaper PSU, but aside from that it's fine.

 

[h#shdem0n]

Is a 980 worth the extra money (vs a 970) if I'm much more likely to buy a new GPU before a >1080p display?

 

[ricki42]

Looking to hopefully build a new PC in the next three months, maybe sooner. Gaming and live streaming is obviously a big part of me building a new PC but also with me going into college within the next year, it's important to be able to do video and photo editing as well.

Here is my current PC:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 840
GPU: XFX HD-687A-ZHFC Radeon HD 6870
MOBO: ASRock 880GM-LE
RAM: G.SKILL NS 4GB (F3-10666CL9D-4GBNS)
PSU: XFX TS Series (P1550SXXB9) 550W

My monitor resolution is 1600x900

Here is the PC I'm looking to build: http://amzn.com/w/1W70D6PJJOOMU

(Not listed is a Nvidia GTX 670 that I'm going to be getting from a good friend of mine)

Does this sound like an okay upgrade from what I have now? I want something that'll last me for a bit; allow me to keep current with the multiplatform games for a few years and let me play ArmA III and Counter-Strike GO without issue.

People here have advised against the Corsair CX PSUs. You could probably continue using your current PSU if it's still working and you don't mind that it's not modular. You could put the difference towards an 4690k and Z97 motherboard so you can overclock. What's your budget with this?

 

[kek_lel]

Im currently looking into upgrading my Ram

I have: 2x2GB 1066 DDR3 Ram (took it from an older build)
(4690k, gtx970, z97 board)

I need: 8 GB !? (not too sure about what I need to be able to play all these upcoming games on my PC looking at AC Unity and COD AW...)

the thing is that I only have two ram slots on my mitx board which gives me limited options:

- 2x4 GB
- 1x8 GB (gives me the option to upgrade to 16 GB in the future if so needed)
- 2x8 GB (of course best, but also expensive)


Any advice ? thanks in advance

 

[Robert7lee]

Overclock your GPU and CPU a bit further. A SLI setup of course will be good for games that support it, which I think DAI will given it's built on FB3 engine. However not all games will support SLI and the smaller amount of RAM in the 780ti and 980 compared to the Titan will suffer a bit in the long run.

Also that whoever says that his rig can run Unity maxed out with a solid 60 on a single 780ti is full of shit.

Regarding the cpu, I've reached the max oc at 4.2ghz, anymore and it's really unstable. Regarding The gpu overclocking I might need a better cooling solution 1st, it already runs really hot.

Regarding the gpu, I don't want to lose the vram, although I want a faster card, isn't the titan black / titan z a 780ti with the memory of a titan?

 

[LilJoka]

Im currently looking into upgrading my Ram

I have: 2x2GB 1066 DDR3 Ram (took it from an older build)
(4690k, gtx970, z97 board)

I need: 8 GB !? (not too sure about what I need to be able to play all these upcoming games on my PC looking at AC Unity and COD AW...)

the thing is that I only have two ram slots on my mitx board which gives me limited options:

- 2x4 GB 1600
- 1x8 GB 1600 (gives me the option to upgrade to 16 GB in the future if so needed)
- 8GB + 2GB (though this limits the memory speed to 1066 I think)


Any advice ? thanks in advance

Tough choice, but i think i would still get 2x4GB 1600/1866. 2x8Gb costs a lot now and since DDR3 will soon be phased out, its possible that the price may actually go up in the future.

 

[opticalmace]

Is a 980 worth the extra money (vs a 970) if I'm much more likely to buy a new GPU before a >1080p display?

No.

 

[kek_lel]

Tough choice, but i think i would still get 2x4GB 1600/1866. 2x8Gb costs a lot now and since DDR3 will soon be phased out, its possible that the price may actually go up in the future.

yeah but if the price goes up it would be better to get 2x8 GB right now since Im not planning to upgrade to ddr4 for quite a while

Im not too sure about 8GB being enough in about two or 3 years

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Regarding the gpu, I don't want to lose the vram, although I want a faster card, isn't the titan black / titan z a 780ti with the memory of a titan?

Yes, but the price/perf ratio is really, really bad. I truly advise against it, but your money your call.

If you absolutely hate your current performance, the best bet is to sell your titan and buy 2 or 3 970s. Less VRAM but for 1080, it might hold up yet.

 

[LilJoka]

yeah but if the price goes up it would be better to get 2x8 GB right now since Im not planning to upgrade to ddr4 for quite a while

Im not too sure about 8GB being enough in about two or 3 years

Yepp thats the counter argument, at the end of the day it depends on budget. Buy whichever you can afford. Dont buy 1 module since you need 2 modules for dual channel to get the advertised bandwidth. And lastly nobody can really advise since we dont know whats going to happen in the future. Personally im running 2x4Gb 2133Mhz CAS 10, so im hoping i dont have to get rid of these any time soon on my ITX machine.

If you actually check the RAM usage of toadys games, they arent really that high, like 2-3Gb normally. Recently some companies have been putting RAM minimum limits in the EXE of their games, but even these games ran fine on systems with less ram. Its like they are anticipating that you have 99 programs running the background, more than the game actually needing that much ram.

 

[chunk3rvd]

might be very off from your original question but would you consider also getting a small box that would do something like in home streaming via Steam? Or consider when you do build a computer, keep that laptop because that is more than a viable in-home streaming laptop that you could stream from your PC to the living room and plug that in via the HDMI out to your bigger television in another room. Also I would consider investing in a router sometime if you're going to do this. I know this is something I'm going to be doing probably when I build my Haswell-E rig. I'm going to be getting probably one of those hundred dollar plus routers and have really good wireless throughput instead of compromising and just getting some of the cheaper ones that will do more than a good enough job but transmission signal in quality and speed are important for the future.

Yeah, I'd definitely consider that. I know that sometimes the GF will want the downstairs TV so if I could just plug my laptop in upstairs and stream games up to
it that would come in really handy

Silverstone RVZ01 mITX rig is probably something you'd want to do. Balance CPU & GPU depending on budget. What is your budget?

Onboard is enough for 1080p high bit rate video playback, indies probably too.

Case looks nice but what's the on board you refer to? I'd only prefer to spend £200-300 for now if I could help it then invest in a nice CPU/GPU down the line when I have a bit more money and price/performance gets even better

 

[KissVibes]

People here have advised against the Corsair CX PSUs. You could probably continue using your current PSU if it's still working and you don't mind that it's not modular. You could put the difference towards an 4690k and Z97 motherboard so you can overclock. What's your budget with this?

I'd really, really like to keep it under $700 but can go as high as $750.

As far as the PSU goes, I also have a Raidmax RX-530SS 530W available if that would be better, I don't know a ton about power supplies.

I've never done an intel build nor have I ever done any overclocking; always been to scared of breaking things. Would this be a suitable motherboard for the 4690k?

 

[SugarDave]

I've got the BIOS update and drivers all loaded onto my USB drive now. For the drivers, is it just a case of moving them over to my hard drive then running the setup? How about the BIOS, that's something I definitely don't want to cock up.

The barebones system is all up and running, but my HDD doesn't appear in 'My Computer'. The SSD is all set up and the HDD is listed in the BIOS and everything, so it's hooked up correctly, but how do I make it useable.

And one last thing, my 120Hz Eizo monitor is just listed as generic PnP monitor (or something similar) and I can't enable 120Hz. Will that correct itself once I've downloaded the GPU drivers and Windows updates?

Sorry about the really basic questions I'm always asking, I'm terrified I'm going to brick something.

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

I've got the BIOS update and drivers all loaded onto my USB drive now. For the drivers, is it just a case of moving them over to my hard drive then running the setup? How about the BIOS, that's something I definitely don't want to cock up.

The barebones system is all up and running, but my HDD doesn't appear in 'My Computer'. The SSD is all set up and the HDD is listed in the BIOS and everything, so it's hooked up correctly, but how do I make it useable.

And one last thing, my 120Hz Eizo monitor is just listed as generic PnP monitor (or something similar) and I can't enable 120Hz. Will that correct itself once I've downloaded the GPU drivers and Windows updates?

Sorry about the really basic questions I'm always asking, I'm terrified I'm going to brick something.

Launch Disk Management, you should see your HDD there but it will not be usable yet. Right click on it and you will have options to make it a partition.

 

[ricki42]

I've got the BIOS update and drivers all loaded onto my USB drive now. For the drivers, is it just a case of moving them over to my hard drive then running the setup? How about the BIOS, that's something I definitely don't want to cock up.

The barebones system is all up and running, but my HDD doesn't appear in 'My Computer'. The SSD is all set up and the HDD is listed in the BIOS and everything, so it's hooked up correctly, but how do I make it useable.

And one last thing, my 120Hz Eizo monitor is just listed as generic PnP monitor (or something similar) and I can't enable 120Hz. Will that correct itself once I've downloaded the GPU drivers and Windows updates?

Sorry about the really basic questions I'm always asking, I'm terrified I'm going to brick something.

Use the Q-flash utility to update the BIOS, page 79 in the manual. Should (hopefully) be as easy as selecting the update file and selecting yes.

 

[ricki42]

I'd really, really like to keep it under $700 but can go as high as $750.

As far as the PSU goes, I also have a Raidmax RX-530SS 530W available if that would be better, I don't know a ton about power supplies.

I've never done an intel build nor have I ever done any overclocking; always been to scared of breaking things. Would this be a suitable motherboard for the 4690k?

That board will work with the CPU.
I don't know about that PSU, sorry. Does the one in your current build not work? You can also reuse the RAM from the current PC, though you'll probably want to add more for video editing.

 

[pdog128]

Sorry if this is a hijack, but I'm a junior and can't create new topics

I'm looking to get into PC gaming. It's been a long time (like Starcraft) since ive gamed on PC and am completely out of the loop.

I've got a budget of around $600 and absolutely no desire to build my own PC. any suggestions?

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Sorry if this is a hijack, but I'm a junior and can't create new topics

I'm looking to get into PC gaming. It's been a long time (like Starcraft) since ive gamed on PC and am completely out of the loop.

I've got a budget of around $600 and absolutely no desire to build my own PC. any suggestions?

Your country of purchase would be useful. Assuming you are in the US, look at the budget build in the OP, find a store, buy the parts then get them build it for you for an extra $50.

 

[LilJoka]

Yeah, I'd definitely consider that. I know that sometimes the GF will want the downstairs TV so if I could just plug my laptop in upstairs and stream games up to
it that would come in really handy



Case looks nice but what's the on board you refer to? I'd only prefer to spend £200-300 for now if I could help it then invest in a nice CPU/GPU down the line when I have a bit more money and price/performance gets even better

Onboard GPU. All Intel CPUs have onboard GPUs, and the motherboards all support output via your normal video connections like DVI/HDMI/VGA/DisplayPort.

What does 2-300£ include?

 

[adamantypants]

yeah but if the price goes up it would be better to get 2x8 GB right now since Im not planning to upgrade to ddr4 for quite a while

Im not too sure about 8GB being enough in about two or 3 years

You have a super solid build. I'd probably recommend just doing 2x8 now so you won't have to worry about it later if it ever becomes an issue.