"I Need a New PC!" 2015 Part 1. Read the OP and RISE ABOVE FORGED PRECISION SCIENCE

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Poetic said:
Has anyone received a Witcher 3 code for buying a 900 series card? I'm wondering if the code can be used on Steam?
Click to expand...

I didn't get a code via email and I had to chat with Amazon but the chat rep gave me a code and it worked. You have to redeem it from the nvidia website and it's for GOG account.
 
Can anyone recommend a monitor mainly for graphic design and sometimes a bit for games (PC/console)? Currently have a Benq xl2420tx and while its cool to have 120Hz, the colors are pretty shitty and plus its a TN.

Budget is $400-$700 and I have a 970. No 30"+ since it won't fit my desk.
 
Anyone mind putting a ~$450 hardware only build for me please? Not worried about Win8/Kb+M/Monitor.

I just wanna be able to leave a PC at work so I can play GTAV on PC while I wait after work for the wifey. Feel so blessed that I even have the option. Either way, thats my budget. What do you guys think?
 
So someone wants to buy my old Pc which puts me in the position to build a new one - I want to land somewhere in the 700 Euro ballpark and I'm eying this so far:

CPU: Haswell i5-4460
Case: SilverStone Sugo SG08 LITE
PSU: be quiet! Straight Power 10 400w atx
Board: ASROCK z97m-itx
RAM: g.skill ripjawsx blue 8GB ddr3 2400
HDD/SSD: Samsung Evo 850 evo 500
Video Card: either the ASUS STRIX-GTX970-DC20C-4GD5 or the MSI GTX 970 4G Gaming

Anything you'd change or can't recommend? Any components where I can safe a little money?

Maybe I won't bite on a new SSD and keep my old one for another while - I just added the costs and am 'a little' above my limit :P
 
Just filled up all my extra fans mounts in my case and installed a 3.5" fan controller.

<30c idle temps when running SLI & OC 2500k, just like new.
 
So i have changed my mind about the EVGA 970's and gone with two reference design 970's. Slower but more aesthetically pleasing.

Can't wait.
 
xyla said:
So someone wants to buy my old Pc which puts me in the position to build a new one - I want to land somewhere in the 700 Euro ballpark and I'm eying this so far:

CPU: Haswell i5-4460
Case: SilverStone Sugo SG08 LITE
PSU: be quiet! Straight Power 10 400w atx
Board: ASROCK z97m-itx
RAM: g.skill ripjawsx blue 8GB ddr3 2400
HDD/SSD: Samsung Evo 850 evo 500
Video Card: either the ASUS STRIX-GTX970-DC20C-4GD5 or the MSI GTX 970 4G Gaming

Anything you'd change or can't recommend? Any components where I can safe a little money?

Maybe I won't bite on a new SSD and keep my old one for another while - I just added the costs and am 'a little' above my limit :P
Click to expand...

It looks like you put a solid build together and you already know where you could cut to save a bit if you want to. Good job! That'll be a great PC.

My only thing is I'm hesitant to say about the GPU. Nvidia next line which should be a complete new refresh as opposed to their architecture recycling of their 7/9xx line is with less than a year out and I know I'd be kicking myself for not waiting. That said, that is an amazing card and you can't really get a better one for the price and unless you mind waiting till Dec. or so at least there isn't a better choice. Great build!
 
Hello PC Master Race.

I've got a PC with a GTX 660 and an Antec VP­450 450 Watt PSU. If I I wanted to go SLI with another GTX660, would I need to upgrade my PSU? Is it even worth it to SLI? I can get a used GTX660 for about $90 USD. I will only be doing 1080P but I want to bbe able to play 2015 games at near 60fps.

Thanks so much
 
Krappadizzle said:
Anyone mind putting a ~$450 hardware only build for me please? Not worried about Win8/Kb+M/Monitor.

I just wanna be able to leave a PC at work so I can play GTAV on PC while I wait after work for the wifey. Feel so blessed that I even have the option. Either way, thats my budget. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Maybe something like this?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($103.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($40.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Elite Plus 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280 3GB DUAL-X Video Card ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($21.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $474.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-21 06:30 EDT-0400
 
xyla said:
So someone wants to buy my old Pc which puts me in the position to build a new one - I want to land somewhere in the 700 Euro ballpark and I'm eying this so far:

CPU: Haswell i5-4460
Case: SilverStone Sugo SG08 LITE
PSU: be quiet! Straight Power 10 400w atx
Board: ASROCK z97m-itx
RAM: g.skill ripjawsx blue 8GB ddr3 2400
HDD/SSD: Samsung Evo 850 evo 500
Video Card: either the ASUS STRIX-GTX970-DC20C-4GD5 or the MSI GTX 970 4G Gaming

Anything you'd change or can't recommend? Any components where I can safe a little money?

Maybe I won't bite on a new SSD and keep my old one for another while - I just added the costs and am 'a little' above my limit :P
Click to expand...

That's a very handy website. We occasionally get German people who want parts recommendations and PCPartPicker does not have a very expansive price database for German retailers, so I'll be bookmarking that site. Now for your parts build..

The non-overclocking i5 4460 processor is compatible, but is not the best fit for a Z97 overclockable motherboard. Ideally you'll want to get a K model overclockable processor to match the Z97 motherboard, like the I5 4690K. Otherwise if you have no plans to overclock, you should be able to find a cheaper H97 motherboard. If you are interested in high speed RAM, then you should opt for an overclocking motherboard and processor as non-Z87/Z97 motherboards will not run RAM at speeds above 1333/1600MHz. If your current parts list is already above your budget, you should cut back and look for a cheaper motherboard. Depending on certain factors, you could look at B85 or H81 motherboards - they are often available for cheaper and are technically compatible with the i5 4460, as long as they have the proper BIOS revision. You may need to check with the retailer before purchasing, but generally speaking unless it's very old stock, B85 motherboards are sold with new enough BIOS revisions to support processors like the i5 4460, otherwise you could go with the older i5 4430 which is slightly cheaper and compatible with H81/B85 motherboards out of the box, no BIOS version checking required.

Just 400 watts would be cutting it very close to the limits of the power supply. With the GTX 970, 500 watts for the entire system is recommended at the very least. If you are not overclocking, it may be possible to go under that recommendation, but the more wattage you have to work with, the better. According to tests by Guru3D, the GTX 970 will draw a bit less than 200 watts, and they do recommend a 500 watt power supply.

Give me a couple of minutes, I'm exploring geizhals.de, it seems to be very comprehensive. I'll have a cheaper non-overclocking PC parts list for you soon. I like geizhals.de, they have better filtering options than PCPartPicker does.

CPU: Intel i5-4460
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81N-D2H
RAM: Team Group 1x8GB DDR3-1600 CL9 RAM
SSD: Crucial BX100 500GB
GPU: EVGA GTX 970 SuperSuperClocked
Case: Silverston&#8203;e SG08B-LI&#8203;TE Mini IT&#8203;X Desktop &#8203;Case
PSU: EVGA 600B 600 watt bronze power supply

Here's the list in PCPartpicker. Each item links to the specific retailer's webpage. I don't know about shipping costs or taxes, as I can't actually read German.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Other: Silverstone SG08B-LITE Mini ITX Desktop Case (€61.69)
Other: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (€171.21)
Other: Gigabyte GA-H81N-D2H (€53.53)
Other: 8GB PC 1600 CL9 TEAM Memory (2x4GB) retail DDR3 (€55.51)
Other: Crucial BX100 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (CT500BX100SSD1) (€175.39)
Other: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC ACX 2.0 Video Card (€349.00)
Other: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€57.32)
Total: €923.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-21 13:07 CEST+0200

BronzeWolf said:
Hello PC Master Race.

I've got a PC with a GTX 660 and an Antec VP­450 450 Watt PSU. If I I wanted to go SLI with another GTX660, would I need to upgrade my PSU? Is it even worth it to SLI? I can get a used GTX660 for about $90 USD. I will only be doing 1080P but I want to bbe able to play 2015 games at near 60fps.

Thanks so much
Click to expand...

According to Guru3D, a single GTX 660 will consume a bit over 100 watts, so two should consume somewhere just over 200 watts by themselves. Oddly enough they recommend a 700 watt power supply for twin GTX 660 cards which seems to be overkill. Depending on the rest of your PC's specs or whether you are overclocking the CPU and/or GPU, you may or may not be able to run it with your current 450 watt power supply. It'd be safer to go with a new higher wattage power supply in the 500+ watt range or even higher.

That said.. I'm not sure two GTX 660s would be very effective, although if you know the games you play scale very well with SLI, then it would be reasonable. You would still be limited to 2GB VRAM with twin GTX 660s which might be a bottleneck.
 
Krappadizzle said:
It looks like you put a solid build together and you already know where you could cut to save a bit if you want to. Good job! That'll be a great PC.

My only thing is I'm hesitant to say about the GPU. Nvidia next line which should be a complete new refresh as opposed to their architecture recycling of their 7/9xx line is with less than a year out and I know I'd be kicking myself for not waiting. That said, that is an amazing card and you can't really get a better one for the price and unless you mind waiting till Dec. or so at least there isn't a better choice. Great build!
Click to expand...

Thanks :) Sadly I have to sell my PC now, if I want to make use of my collegues offer, so I don't have the time to wait for the next GPU generation. My plan was to see how this one would be holding up and build a new one again, once the DDR4/next Intel CPU will become affordable - say 1,5 years?

RGM79 said:
That's a very handy website. We occasionally get German people who want parts recommendations and PCPartPicker does not have a very expansive price database for German retailers, so I'll be bookmarking that site. Now for your parts build..

The non-overclocking i5 4460 processor is compatible, but is not the best fit for a Z97 overclockable motherboard. Ideally you'll want to get a K model overclockable processor to match the Z97 motherboard, like the I5 4690K. Otherwise if you have no plans to overclock, you should be able to find a cheaper H97 motherboard. If you are interested in high speed RAM, then you should opt for an overclocking motherboard and processor as non-Z87/Z97 motherboards will not run RAM at speeds above 1333/1600MHz. If your current parts list is already above your budget, you should cut back and look for a cheaper motherboard. Depending on certain factors, you could look at B85 or H81 motherboards - they are often available for cheaper and are technically compatible with the i5 4460, as long as they have the proper BIOS revision. You may need to check with the retailer before purchasing, but generally speaking unless it's very old stock, B85 motherboards are sold with new enough BIOS revisions to support processors like the i5 4460, otherwise you could go with the older i5 4430 which is slightly cheaper and compatible with H81/B85 motherboards out of the box, no BIOS version checking required.

Just 400 watts would be cutting it very close to the limits of the power supply. With the GTX 970, 500 watts for the entire system is recommended at the very least. If you are not overclocking, it may be possible to go under that recommendation, but the more wattage you have to work with, the better. According to tests by Guru3D, the GTX 970 will draw a bit less than 200 watts, and they do recommend a 500 watt power supply.

Give me a couple of minutes, I'm exploring geizhals.de, it seems to be very comprehensive. I'll have a cheaper non-overclocking PC parts list for you soon. I like geizhals.de, they have better filtering options than PCPartPicker does.

CPU: Intel i5-4460
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81N-D2H
RAM: Team Group 1x8GB DDR3-1600 CL9 RAM
SSD: Crucial BX100 500GB
GPU: EVGA GTX 970 SuperSuperClocked
Case: Silverston&#8203;e SG08B-LI&#8203;TE Mini IT&#8203;X Desktop &#8203;Case
PSU: EVGA 600B 600 watt bronze power supply

Here's the list in PCPartpicker. Each item links to the specific retailer's webpage. I don't know about shipping costs or taxes, as I can't actually read German.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Other: Silverstone SG08B-LITE Mini ITX Desktop Case (&#8364;61.69)
Other: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (&#8364;171.21)
Other: Gigabyte GA-H81N-D2H (&#8364;53.53)
Other: 8GB PC 1600 CL9 TEAM Memory (2x4GB) retail DDR3 (&#8364;55.51)
Other: Crucial BX100 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (CT500BX100SSD1) (&#8364;175.39)
Other: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC ACX 2.0 Video Card (&#8364;349.00)
Other: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (&#8364;57.32)
Total: &#8364;923.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-21 13:07 CEST+0200
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! Yep, geizhals proofed to be very handy with my last build already.

I'll look into your recommended parts - they would probably safe me around 200 Euro, nice! I'm not too much into overclocking, so I don't think I'd do it, but I looked for very/rather silent components, since I hate my current PC in that regard... Do you know how the parts in your recommendation hold up in that regard?
Especially the PSU and the GPU?

I'll look into them after work either way, so don't make yourself any work if you'd have to research yourself..
 
ohyouagain said:
My Fire Strike score is 3876 with my 750 Ti and the i5-2500. Feels a bit beh.
Click to expand...
As it should with a 4 year old non overclock able cpu and a video card that is the equal to the 580.

Edit. Not that those things are bad. It's more than enough to run everything at an acceptable level. Just that you shouldn't be expecting top end.
 
xyla said:
Thanks :) Sadly I have to sell my PC now, if I want to make use of my collegues offer, so I don't have the time to wait for the next GPU generation. My plan was to see how this one would be holding up and build a new one again, once the DDR4/next Intel CPU will become affordable - say 1,5 years?



Thanks for the advice! Yep, geizhals proofed to be very handy with my last build already.

I'll look into your recommended parts - they would probably safe me around 200 Euro, nice! I'm not too much into overclocking, so I don't think I'd do it, but I looked for very/rather silent components, since I hate my current PC in that regard... Do you know how the parts in your recommendation hold up in that regard?
Especially the PSU and the GPU?

I'll look into them after work either way, so don't make yourself any work if you'd have to research yourself..
Click to expand...
The EVGA 600B is an okay power supply, nothing special. If you were looking for higher quality, I would suggest XFX, Seasonic, Super Flower, or the EVGA B2/G2/GS line, some of them have low speed fan modes for lower noise.

The EVGA GTX 970 SSC on the other hand should be very good. On paper it is faster than the MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G due to higher factory overclock and also similarly features a silent fan mode (EVGA calls their silent feature "db inverter") . There aren't a lot of reviews for it as it's just a slightly better version of the fairly well known EVGA SC (superclock) model and was released a few months ago, but there is this German review of the SSC model that is very favourable.

As for other parts, I'd think about getting a third party CPU cooler. The bundled Intel puck cooler is very small and while sufficient to prevent overheating when not overclocking, it may still run loud and hot at times. Larger after market coolers are not just for overclocking, a decent cooler will also keep temperatures and noise down. Unfortunately not a lot of cheaper air coolers will fit in the compact Silverstone case you were thinking about, your main choices would be a 120/140mm water cooler or maybe look for a different case to accommodate a more effective tower-style CPU cooler with a 120mm fan. For the SG08 case, Silverstone does recommend their own NT06 Pro low profile cooler, I am not sure how well it performs though, other than that it is likely better than the stock Intel cooler.
 
yaffi said:
Hey everyone,

I'm thinking of replacing my AMD Radeon HD6870. Technically it's still running well, but it's really starting to getting old.

I don't want to spend more than 200€ (I live in Germany).

In the OP two GPUs in that range a recommended: the GTX 760 and the Radeon R9 280. Is there any reason to choose one over the other (the GTX having more ram for example)?

Also is now a good time to make such a purchase?

Here's the rest of my PC:

i5 3470
ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP
8GB Ram
Be Quiet! E5 450W

Oh yeah, the maximal resolution I tend to play games in is 1080p.
Click to expand...

Quoting myself from a few months ago. In the end I didn't buy anything, so the question still stands. Back then people told me to get the 970 (too expensive), the 290 (also too expensive) or something around the 280 (too old imo).

So, now I can go up to 220-260€. I don't need everything to run at 60fps constantly. Games I want to play in the future are FFXIV Heavensward and the Witcher 3; nothing else I can think of right now.

Basically I need to decide between one of the 960 models out there (2 or 4GB) or maybe a 280x, right? Or is there anything else you could recommend beside waiting a bit longer of course.
 
RGM79 said:
According to Guru3D, a single GTX 660 will consume a bit over 100 watts, so two should consume somewhere just over 200 watts by themselves. Oddly enough they recommend a 700 watt power supply for twin GTX 660 cards which seems to be overkill. Depending on the rest of your PC's specs or whether you are overclocking the CPU and/or GPU, you may or may not be able to run it with your current 450 watt power supply. It'd be safer to go with a new higher wattage power supply in the 500+ watt range or even higher.

That said.. I'm not sure two GTX 660s would be very effective, although if you know the games you play scale very well with SLI, then it would be reasonable. You would still be limited to 2GB VRAM with twin GTX 660s which might be a bottleneck.
Click to expand...

Thanks! The rest of my setup is pretty standard: SSD+HD+3570K+1x8G Ram. Is the RAM Issue such a big problem? Because I am seeing that the GTX 960 still has 2GB of RAM and it's around $200 USD. So basically $100 either gets me 660 SLI or 1x 960. I do plan in OC'ing the CPU for my job, but I usually do this with no graphical applications, so I can turn off SLI for that, and I don't think there are many games now that really tax the CPU as much as the Graphics Card.

Doing the math I would have a Power consumption profile of:

1. +120 Watts for CPU i5 3570K under load no OC
2. +2x110 Watts for CPU GTX 660
3. +1 Watt for SSD under load (Games will load from SSD, not HD)
4. +10 Watts from 2x8GB RAM
5. +110 Watts from MOBO under load
Total = $461 Watts

So yes, it seems that a new PSU would also be in order
 
yaffi said:
Quoting myself from a few months ago. In the end I didn't buy anything, so the question still stands. Back then people told me to get the 970 (too expensive), the 290 (also too expensive) or something around the 280 (too old imo).

So, now I can go up to 220-260€. I don't need everything to run at 60fps constantly. Games I want to play in the future are FFXIV Heavensward and the Witcher 3; nothing else I can think of right now.

Basically I need to decide between one of the 960 models out there (2 or 4GB) or maybe a 280x, right? Or is there anything else you could recommend beside waiting a bit longer of course.
Click to expand...
It seems that the R9 280X starts at around 220€ while the newer 4GB models of the GTX 960 start at 245€.

Perhaps a used GTX 970 or R9 290 would be best, if you could find one? A fellow gaffer also in Germany called H4r4kiri posted here a couple weeks ago about finding used R9 290 cards for around 200€, he was asking us to check if the deals were any good and he ended up buying one of them for that much money.

Other than that, I'd wait.

BronzeWolf said:
Thanks! The rest of my setup is pretty standard: SSD+HD+3570K+1x8G Ram. Is the RAM Issue such a big problem? Because I am seeing that the GTX 960 still has 2GB of RAM and it's around $200 USD. So basically $100 either gets me 660 SLI or 1x 960.

I do plan in OC'ing the CPU for my job, but I usually do this with no graphical applications, so I can turn off SLI for that, and I don't think there are many games now that really tax the CPU as much as the Graphics Card.
Click to expand...
There are already games which exceed 2GB VRAM usage at 1080p, although as you said because you're willing to turn down game settings, it may not be as big a deal.

Framerate performance wise, depending on the game's SLI support, two GTX 660 cards can outperform a single GTX 960 but SLI can have its own issues like limited support, micro-stutter, etc. Not all games scale well either, so you're not always guaranteed performance higher than a GTX 960. Just be sure you know what you're getting into.

BronzeWolf said:
Doing the math I would have a Power consumption profile of:

1. +120 Watts for CPU i5 3570K under load no OC
2. +2x110 Watts for CPU GTX 660
3. +1 Watt for SSD under load (Games will load from SSD, not HD)
4. +10 Watts from 2x8GB RAM
5. +110 Watts from MOBO under load
Total = $461 Watts

So yes, it seems that a new PSU would also be in order
Click to expand...
I'm not quite sure the motherboard itself should draw 110 watts. Where did you get that figure from? Try this power supply calculator.

Would factoring in the cost of a power supply alter your plans for SLI or a new graphics card?
 
kennah said:
As it should with a 4 year old non overclock able cpu and a video card that is the equal to the 580.

Edit. Not that those things are bad. It's more than enough to run everything at an acceptable level. Just that you shouldn't be expecting top end.
Click to expand...

I would say more equal to the 560 Ti. Can't wait to play Castlevania on this rig, and hopefully the Witcher at moderate.
 
RGM79 said:
There are already games which exceed 2GB VRAM usage at 1080p, although as you said because you're willing to turn down game settings, it may not be as big a deal.

Framerate performance wise, depending on the game's SLI support, two GTX 660 cards can outperform a single GTX 960 but SLI can have its own issues like limited support, micro-stutter, etc. Not all games scale well either, so you're not always guaranteed performance higher than a GTX 960. Just be sure you know what you're getting into.
Click to expand...

So my options are:

A) 1x 620 PSU ($80) + 1x GTX 660 ($100) = $180
B) Sell GTX (-$90) + GTX 960 with 4GB RAM ($240) = $150

I would rather do option B) as that would increase both my GPU power AND VRAM AND 100Watts to OC my CPU for Job related stuff.

Thanks so much for the help
 
RGM79 said:
I'm not quite sure the motherboard itself should draw 110 watts. Where did you get that figure from? Try this power supply calculator.

Would factoring in the cost of a power supply alter your plans for SLI or a new graphics card?
Click to expand...

You are right! The reference that I found were taking into account the CPU. Now using your link, it still gives me a 400Watt figure under load, which is too close to my PSU maximum watt, and I don't want to risk my SSD failing due to power shortage.

Seems my best option is still option B
 
Holy shit, my new Asus GTX 970 Black seems to be a craaazy overclocker.
This one allows a powerlimit of +20%.

Without raising voltage I just ran Heaven benchmark with a 1508Mhz boost clock (reported by gpu-z), zero artifacts, temps at 60-64C. Running the fan in auto for the time being, so temps were 60-64C and RPM about 1000.

How far will this one go? :DD

Posting progress as I go:

Card settings:
Voltage: Stock
Memory: Stock
Powerlimit: +20%
GPU boost frequenzy: 1528 Mhz
Fan speed: Manual 100%
Temp: Hit max 52C

Heaven settings:
Resolution: 1920x1080 fullscreen
Quality: Ultra
Tesselation: Extreme
Antialising: 8x

Heaven score:
FPS: 60.2
Score: 1516
Min FPS: 27.2
Max FPS: 128.1

Update:

Boost clock @ 1548 Mhz showed a few minor artifacts. Just did a clean run @ 1537 Mhz. As high as it will go on stock voltage. 1600Mhz here I come!
 
I think I could use some help guys, I'm surely in over my head. So I plugged my PC to an A/V receiver in hdmi to simplify my audio setup. The thing is... if the PC is on at the same time as another hardware, when I change channel on the AV my desktop icons are moved (windows 8.1). Oh, and open windows are moved to.
I suppose there must be a period when changing channel where the signal is not 1080p, but that's as far as my guess goes (and why the fuck wouldn't the signal be 1080p...)

What are my options ? Growing tired of windows having a life of their own pretty quickly.
 
RGM79 said:
It seems that the R9 280X starts at around 220&#8364; while the newer 4GB models of the GTX 960 start at 245&#8364;.

Perhaps a used GTX 970 or R9 290 would be best, if you could find one? A fellow gaffer also in Germany called H4r4kiri posted here a couple weeks ago about finding used R9 290 cards for around 200&#8364;, he was asking us to check if the deals were any good and he ended up buying one of them for that much money.

Other than that, I'd wait.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

I'm quite warry about buying hardware used if I don't know the people I'm dealing with. Actually, back then I got my 6870 used, but I knew the person selling it.

But yeah, I think I'd opt for a 290 if I could get one for less than 250&#8364;.

And after reading up on the recent increase in needed vram, I guess the 2GB 960 isn't really an option at all.

So, it's either buying used, or getting a 280x, or wait. I guess I can wait until June at least.

Another question: is a 280x still viable at all?
 
I'd like to move my main PC (3570k+7950) to the living room as an HTPC rather than rely on Steam's imperfect in home streaming. But I do need to build a basic office PC in its place. I have a case and monitor and peripherals already.

Any suggestions on a decent mobo/chip/ram combo that won't break the bank and run office and youtube without problems? It needs to have audio, video, ethernet integrated and preferably multiple USB ports. I'm even entertaining the idea of someone's used parts.
 
Is there anyway of downsampling 2560x1440 at 120/144hz on a 1080p 144hz monitor?

Seems it problematic through NVIDIA Control Panel but is there a way around it?
 
We wanted to install Windows 8.1 on our media pc, but it doesn't have any optical drive so I made an .iso of the disc and used Rufus to put the .iso onto a 16GB usb drive. I installed Windows, everything seems fine... but when I unplug the usb key, it no longer boots. Despite choosing the correct hard drive and Windows actually installing there, the stupid bloody thing seems to have installed the Master Boot Record onto the usb key, and not the hard drive.

A) Why?
B) Can this be fixed?
C) How can I avoid this if I have to reinstall?
 
Just built this rig for Witcher 3, did I do good?

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/knsYzy

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: OCZ ARC 100 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card
Case: NZXT H440 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Keyboard: Logitech G910 Orion Spark Wired Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech G303 Daedalus Apex Wired Optical Mouse
 
Crazy thought of the evening: I have a gigabyte reference original Titan; is it a good idea buying a second one used provided I can find one for a good price?

Does it have to be the same brand or as long as it's the reference card I'm good? Am I crazy? xD
 
vicious696 said:
Just built this rig for Witcher 3, did I do good?

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/knsYzy

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: OCZ ARC 100 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card
Case: NZXT H440 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Keyboard: Logitech G910 Orion Spark Wired Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech G303 Daedalus Apex Wired Optical Mouse
Click to expand...

Yeah, s'fine.
 
HooYaH said:
Can anyone recommend a monitor mainly for graphic design and sometimes a bit for games (PC/console)? Currently have a Benq xl2420tx and while its cool to have 120Hz, the colors are pretty shitty and plus its a TN.

Budget is $400-$700 and I have a 970. No 30"+ since it won't fit my desk.
Click to expand...
I'd start looking into IPS panels. Even cheap ones are gonna give you far better colors than good TN panels.
AndyD said:
I'd like to move my main PC (3570k+7950) to the living room as an HTPC rather than rely on Steam's imperfect in home streaming. But I do need to build a basic office PC in its place. I have a case and monitor and peripherals already.

Any suggestions on a decent mobo/chip/ram combo that won't break the bank and run office and youtube without problems? It needs to have audio, video, ethernet integrated and preferably multiple USB ports. I'm even entertaining the idea of someone's used parts.
Click to expand...

If you're only running Office and Youtube, you should be able to build something for under $250. Find a B85 mobo that will overclock a Intel G3258 processor and get 8gb of ram. Most B85 mobos will overclock that processor with a bios update, and most mobos have those connections standard.
 
HooYaH said:
Can anyone recommend a monitor mainly for graphic design and sometimes a bit for games (PC/console)? Currently have a Benq xl2420tx and while its cool to have 120Hz, the colors are pretty shitty and plus its a TN.

Budget is $400-$700 and I have a 970. No 30"+ since it won't fit my desk.
Click to expand...

I pretty much always recommend DELL U2412M to new graphic designers, it's bound to be quite a big step up from whatever screen you're using and it's quite cheap. If you're feeling fancy I'd recommend the U2410M if you want a higher quality display with more ports.
 
Thinking about pulling trigger on this. What do you guys think?

- Intel i5 4440
- MSI ITX H81I mobo
- Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB Single DDR3 1600
- Kingston Digital 240GB SSDNow V300
- WD Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 7200rpm
- Corsair CX Series 600 Watt ATX/EPS Modular 80 PLUS Bronze
- EVGA GeForce GTX 970 Super Clocked ACX 2.0 4GB
- Corsair Carbide Series Air 240
 
Herne said:
We wanted to install Windows 8.1 on our media pc, but it doesn't have any optical drive so I made an .iso of the disc and used Rufus to put the .iso onto a 16GB usb drive. I installed Windows, everything seems fine... but when I unplug the usb key, it no longer boots. Despite choosing the correct hard drive and Windows actually installing there, the stupid bloody thing seems to have installed the Master Boot Record onto the usb key, and not the hard drive.

A) Why?
B) Can this be fixed?
C) How can I avoid this if I have to reinstall?
Click to expand...

Microsoft has released a USB tool for this task. Can't remember the name, but Google is your friend. I've used it several times with both Windows 7 and 8. No issues at all.
 
fumbles said:
Microsoft has released a USB tool for this task. Can't remember the name, but Google is your friend. I've used it several times with both Windows 7 and 8. No issues at all.
Click to expand...

Hmm. I went ahead and opened up the entire thing, connected a spare optical drive and just installed Windows 8 that way. I'll keep that in mind for the future if I have issues like this again, though, thanks.
 
Thoughts on this build PC-GAF: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/W4rhJx.

A buddy is able to get that for £500 and wants to know whether or not he should take the plunge into PC gaming. It seems a cracking deal, but I can't give him advice either way cos I relied on this thread to get my own PC sorted. Specs look decent to me, but can someone more knowledgeable help him out here. Cheers.
 
well, if he can get that for £500...

CPU/motherboard + storage + W7 instead of 8.1 or 10 + the PSU wouldn't be optimal at full price, but at half-price that's actually good

(would definitely look to upgrade that SSD to 250/256GB as soon as possible though, because 64's gonna run out damn near instantly)
 
adamantypants said:
If you're only running Office and Youtube, you should be able to build something for under $250. Find a B85 mobo that will overclock a Intel G3258 processor and get 8gb of ram. Most B85 mobos will overclock that processor with a bios update, and most mobos have those connections standard.
Click to expand...

Cool thanks. Is that processor the one right below the i3?
 
eBay Huckster said:
well, if he can get that for £500...

CPU/motherboard + storage + W7 instead of 8.1 or 10 + the PSU wouldn't be optimal at full price, but at half-price that's actually good

(would definitely look to upgrade that SSD to 250/256GB as soon as possible though, because 64's gonna run out damn near instantly)
Click to expand...
What would the performance be like for gaming?
 
yaffi said:
Thanks for the reply.

I'm quite warry about buying hardware used if I don't know the people I'm dealing with. Actually, back then I got my 6870 used, but I knew the person selling it.

But yeah, I think I'd opt for a 290 if I could get one for less than 250&#8364;.

And after reading up on the recent increase in needed vram, I guess the 2GB 960 isn't really an option at all.

So, it's either buying used, or getting a 280x, or wait. I guess I can wait until June at least.

Another question: is a 280x still viable at all?
Click to expand...

A 280X is still viable for 1080p. 3GB VRAM is still useful, and for that reason the R9 280 and 280X are sometimes preferable over the similarly priced GTX 960 2GB. However, brand new GTX 960 4GB models cost only slightly less than the R9 290 which has 4GB VRAM and is much faster. I forgot to mention that geizhals.de shows the R9 290 starting at 275&#8364;, although in the past cards like this Powercolor R9 290 PCS+ have been as cheap as 245&#8364;, occasionally dropping to ~250&#8364; according to the price tracker. If you're looking for the best possible performance for your money, it looks like you're going to have to wait for a R9 290 sale or look for used models.

As I mentioned before, H4r4kiri found used R9 290 cards, what I guess I didn't say clearly was that some of what he found were used cards from local computer parts stores, they were open box returns. Some even still had warranty coverage. I'll admit that doesn't apply to all used cards and I have no idea what your local situation is like (if you have many local computer stores in the first place) but it seems like an option worth looking at, especially when the stores will test the PC parts before reselling them as previously returned items.

T-Rex. said:
Thoughts on this build PC-GAF: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/W4rhJx.

A buddy is able to get that for £500 and wants to know whether or not he should take the plunge into PC gaming. It seems a cracking deal, but I can't give him advice either way cos I relied on this thread to get my own PC sorted. Specs look decent to me, but can someone more knowledgeable help him out here. Cheers.
Click to expand...

Used? Pretty good for a complete PC, especially with that R9 290. If the person is willing to sell the graphics card alone, I'd recommend buying just that and spending a little more building an Intel system instead, though. The FX-8350 and socket AM3+ motherboard platform is already abandoned and getting older and no better, and despite games starting to scale better to multiple cores, the AMD FX line is still matched by Intel's dual core i3 processors and beaten cleanly by quad core i5 models. For gaming on a budget, it's hard to beat the value of that used PC. I can't put together an Intel-based parts list cheap enough to compete, I just have concerns that it won't really be upgradeable and already represents older tech. Down the line in the future you'll need to replace both motherboard and processor.

http://www.techspot.com/review/943-best-value-desktop-cpu/page6.html
 
RGM79 said:
Used? Pretty good for a complete PC, especially with that R9 290. If the person is willing to sell the graphics card alone, I'd recommend buying that and building an Intel PC instead, though. The FX-8350 and socket AM3+ motherboard platform is already abandoned and getting older and no better, and despite games starting to scale better to multiple cores, the AMD FX line is still matched by dual core i3 processors and beaten cleanly by quad core i5 models.

http://www.techspot.com/review/943-best-value-desktop-cpu/page6.html
Click to expand...

If you don't mind my asking, why link to a comparison using the underclocked E variants on the AMD CPUs. Seems a bit disingenuous. The proper AMD chips are power hungry and less powerful, but not as bad as the E series.
Granted, this is at 4K, but still.

http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedi...g-gtx-780-sli-vs-gtx-980-sli-at-4k/index.html

Edit: Didn't realize the E series was a good overclocker.
 
Nostremitus said:
If you don't mind my asking, why link to a comparison using the underclocked E variants on the AMD CPUs. Seems a bit disingenuous. The proper AMD chips are power hungry and less powerful, but not as bad as the E series.
Granted, this is at 4K, but still.

http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedi...g-gtx-780-sli-vs-gtx-980-sli-at-4k/index.html
Click to expand...

I'm doing some work right now and I didn't look any further for more relevant benchmarks. And as is my understanding, the lower power E models are still the same chip as the non-E models, just better binned and adjusted for lower base clocks and voltages to produce less heat, they still have the same turbo frequency as their non-E counterparts so they should have similar performance when the system automatically clocks them higher during gaming.

That and in the Techspot article I linked to, the E models are overclocked to 4.6GHz, which actually puts them above the stock performance of the non-E models.
 
RGM79 said:
A 280X is still viable for 1080p. 3GB VRAM is still useful, and for that reason the R9 280 and 280X are sometimes preferable over the similarly priced GTX 960 2GB. However, brand new GTX 960 4GB models cost only slightly less than the R9 290 which has 4GB VRAM and is much faster. I forgot to mention that geizhals.de shows the R9 290 starting at 275€, although in the past cards like this Powercolor R9 290 PCS+ have been as cheap as 245€, occasionally dropping to ~250€ according to the price tracker. If you're looking for the best possible performance for your money, it looks like you're going to have to wait for a R9 290 sale or look for used models.

As I mentioned before, H4r4kiri found used R9 290 cards, what I guess I didn't say clearly was that some of what he found were used cards from local computer parts stores, they were open box returns. Some even still had warranty coverage. I'll admit that doesn't apply to all used cards and I have no idea what your local situation is like (if you have many local computer stores in the first place) but it seems like an option worth looking at, especially when the stores will test the PC parts before reselling them as previously returned items.
Click to expand...

Alright, thanks again. Too bad the PCS+ is too big for my case.

I think I'll just wait.
 
RGM79 said:
I'm doing some work right now and I didn't look any further for more relevant benchmarks. And as is my understanding, the lower power E models are still the same chip as the non-E models, just better binned and adjusted for lower base clocks and voltages to produce less heat, they still have the same turbo frequency as their non-E counterparts so they should have similar performance when the system automatically clocks them higher during gaming.

That and in the Techspot article I linked to, the E models are overclocked to 4.6GHz, which actually puts them above the stock performance of the non-E models.
Click to expand...

Right, sorry, was in a hurry and didn't catch that or research properly. I thought the E series were locked below a TDP limit that caused aggressive throttling to keep them safe on the low wattage 78 series and 970 AMD boards. I was mistaken.
 
Well I put it all together today and have to say it wasn't as daunting as I thought it'd be. Actually loved every minute of building my PC so far! Big thanks to GAF for all the help along the way.

1 issue I'm noticing in testing is that the fans in my case all seem to be working full-on, all the time. I've tried tweaking hardware settings in the BIOS but they just ignore it and stay at 100%, not throttling at all. Everything is working fine, temps all seem perfect but I'd like to get the fans under control and the noise level down a bit.

Any suggestions or solutions would be appreciated.

Case: NZXT S340
Mobo: MSI Z97 PC mate
Fans: 2 stock case fans
2 noctua NFA 14 pwm
1 stock Intel cooler (until the evo 212 arrives)
 
RealityCheque said:
Well I put it all together today and have to say it wasn't as daunting as I thought it'd be. Actually loved every minute of building my PC so far! Big thanks to GAF for all the help along the way.

1 issue I'm noticing in testing is that the fans in my case all seem to be working full-on, all the time. I've tried tweaking hardware settings in the BIOS but they just ignore it and stay at 100%, not throttling at all. Everything is working fine, temps all seem perfect but I'd like to get the fans under control and the noise level down a bit.

Any suggestions or solutions would be appreciated.

Case: NZXT S340
Mobo: MSI Z97 PC mate
Fans: 2 stock case fans
2 noctua NFA 14 pwm
1 stock Intel cooler (until the evo 212 arrives)
Click to expand...

Just to make sure: are the fans plugged into the mobo or into the PSU via Molex? Are the stock fans also pwm?
 
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