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[RGM79]

Thanks a lot dude. That actually seems like a reasonable price point for some powerful parts, but yeah I'll definitely wait a bit.

Wait, I just realized that you'll be paying taxes in Canada, so that parts list will need to be pared back down to about $900 if it has to be within $1000 after taxes. I'm in Canada as well, but the majority of the builds that I recommend are for the US so I keep forgetting about that.

Still, I think waiting is your best bet for now, so we can see what the upcoming generation of graphics card and processors will be like.

 

[skyz23]

Wait, I just realized that you'll be paying taxes in Canada, so that parts list will need to be pared back down to about $900 if it has to be within $1000 after taxes. I'm in Canada as well, but the majority of the builds that I recommend are for the US so I keep forgetting about that.

Still, I think waiting is your best bet for now, so we can see what the upcoming generation of graphics card and processors will be like.

i just bought all my parts, now i feel stupid, if new graphics card comes out, and the older cards drop in price.

 

[RGM79]

i just bought all my parts, now i feel stupid, if new graphics card comes out, and the older cards drop in price.

Don't worry about it, performance-wise your parts are not obsolete and will be strong for a couple of years, especially with overclocking. If the rumors are true, Broadwell is looking like a slight update that will be more about lower heat and power consumption than a strong increase in performance, and the AMD R9 3XX line will consist mostly of rebadged and slightly updated current generation graphics cards but with a brand new R9 390/390X flagship design. They're still just rumors, though.

The more interesting thing is to see how things may potentially turn out. Perhaps Broadwell may overclock well, or Nvidia may issue a price cut on their competing graphics cards (or maybe just bundle more games with them). Those are just hopes though, nothing concrete.

As for price cuts, it's hard to say. Price cuts are usually immediately effective in the United States.. but not so much elsewhere, it could take a long time for prices to come down.

 

[yami4ct]

i just bought all my parts, now i feel stupid, if new graphics card comes out, and the older cards drop in price.

This is always a thing with PC gaming, at least for me. There's always something around the corner. Every time I've built a PC I've been left feeling "if only if I'd waited X months for Y new part or Z sale". You really just got to pick a time and build what's best right then. If you don't, you'll drive yourself crazy waiting for new stuff and sales and never actually buy.

Newegg Sale convinced me to finally buy my parts. All of them except some replacement fans (got some orange LED fans to go with my case) will be here Tuesday. Fans got sent FedEx smartpost, so they sadly won't be here until Friday. Hoping I can make a trip to Microcenter for my processor and motherboard by Tuesday so I can build it as soon as my big box of parts arrive.

 

[citroen-e402]

128GB is on the low side, particularly if you do AAA gaming. I'd shoot for ~256GB at least, for the sake of longevity. And yeah, I second Crucial, mine's still working after two years. And they get discounted pretty regularly.

EDIT: The 1555 looks to be real old, I'm guessing it's not meant for gaming. My bad.

Yeah, the Dell Studio 1555 is from 2009, before I went to university. I would like to see if I can squeeze a few more years (months?) out of this machine before upgrading.

I'm looking at the Crucial SSDs, thinking between the 120 GB BX100 or 256GB of MX200.

 

[SpyGuy239]

I have a ROG Swift and an IPS monitor (60hz), and it works fine, as you'd expect. When the game is playing I see the game with G-sync enabled on my primary (The LED on the SWIFT confirms it), and depending on the game, either my desktop or a blank screen on the second. If you're asking about playing with surround enabled, I don't know the answer, since it doesn't make sense with 2 monitors. My understanding is that surround is rendered as a single frame and then split across three monitors, so although the G-sync could be running, you'd be frame rate locked on all 3 to the same game setting/output. I don't like bezels, so my next upgrade will probably be a 40" 4K screen, which is like 4 x 1080p screens. Only thing stopping me now is lack of high frame rate (i.e. 120hz) support.

Even within windows, the 120hz on the primary and 60hz on the secondary works fine and is easy to notice/test. Hope that helps.

Thanks dude, exactly the answer I was looking for. Only planning to run games on one screen for Gaming. The other screens are for work.

Another question for GAF is nvidia 3D still worth investing in? I'm finally starting to earn some money and thought of investing one with a G-Sync Monitor.

Also how weird is it to run on main 4K screen and have 2 1080p screens flanking it? Probably will be right? with the different resolutions and all. I want to get a lager than 23" screen, the problem is both my other screens are 23" and 1080p.

 

[mrklaw]

Is there a good, cheap 1TB SSD? I have a 250GB SSD for windows and have a few games installed, but most games are now on my 1TB HDD. I'd like to move more of them to an SSD. As it won't have critical data on it I think it'd be ok to use a cheaper brand if they aren't too unreliable

Can steam support multiple install locations btw? I know it can do two, but never tried with three.




Oh, and what is the most affordable way to switch from a bitfenix prodigy non-SLI motherboard to an SLI capable setup? I have an i5-3470k, 8GB ram and a GTX970 which I assume I can migrate across, along with my SSD&HDD. So would it just be a motherboard and case replacement (and maybe PSU)

 

[Jimrpg]

i just bought all my parts, now i feel stupid, if new graphics card comes out, and the older cards drop in price.

Not really no. There's always something new. My most important part of the PC was the monitor so I waited for that to come out, but that meant that I waited about six months on the CPU and GPU. But if I bought the CPU and GPU earlier I wouldn't have had a monitor to play it on.

 

[Coulomb_Barrier]

Guys, need some help with overclocking (god this is fun).

Seems I got a decent chip (famous last words) with my 5820K as I've currently got it at: 4.5Ghz with a CPU core voltage of 1.250V and it's passed an hour of stress testing on both AIDA64 and Intel XTU.

With my Noctua NH-D15 running with Phanteks fans, temps are good as well as I'm getting a max temp on the CPU of around 60 degrees C with little noise to boot as I'm using a fan controller to run them at 1100RPM.

Anyway, my question is this: what other tests should I do to see if my comp is stable, bearing in mind I am not going to touch Prime95 knowing how brutal that is on Haswell-E chips? So far I have only been stress testing for an hour on both utilities at each voltage but I wonder if I am jumping the gun a bit.

EDIT: I'm about to play an hour or so on BF4, this will be a good test itself, which is handy

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Guys, need some help with overclocking (god this is fun).

Seems I got a decent chip (famous last words) with my 5820K as I've currently got it at: 4.5Ghz with a CPU core voltage of 1.250V and it's passed an hour of stress testing on both AIDA64 and Intel XTU.

With my Noctua NH-D15 running with Phanteks fans, temps are good as well as I'm getting a max temp on the CPU of around 60 degrees C with little noise to boot as I'm using a fan controller to run them at 1100RPM.

Anyway, my question is this: what other tests should I do to see if my comp is stable, bearing in mind I am not going to touch Prime95 knowing how brutal that is on Haswell-E chips? So far I have only been stress testing for an hour on both utilities at each voltage but I wonder if I am jumping the gun a bit.

You can try OCCT.

But to be honest, I think that's stable enough. After all what you will be doing with it is to play games. What I recommend right now is to start playing games, and if it crashes in game then it needs tweaking. Otherwise, do not waste too much of your time stress-testing synthetic tests.

 

[Coulomb_Barrier]

You can try OCCT.

But to be honest, I think that's stable enough. After all what you will be doing with it is to play games. What I recommend right now is to start playing games, and if it crashes in game then it needs tweaking. Otherwise, do not waste too much of your time stress-testing synthetic tests.

Cool, thanks. What about CPU Ratio Mode (it's called different things in other BIOS), I read this is better set at fixed whilst testing your overclock. Should I set this back to 'dynamic' so my CPU only draws max power when it needs it?

 

[Dick Justice]

Considering upgrading from my Zotac GTX 770 2GB to a Gigabyte GTX 980 G1 at some point in the near future. What are the chances that the 980 goes down in price when the next card comes along? And is there some kind of GPU trade in program I could use to mitigate the price a bit, or would I have to just use Ebay or something?

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Thanks for the recommendations! I still use a DVD drive frequently, so having one in the the new build is important.

How do you buy an OS off Reddit?

Here you go.

But beware that some people have reported to have their license revoked, most likely because these keys are from student discount or whatever, but many others do not have any problems.

Cool, thanks. What about CPU Ratio Mode (it's called different things in other BIOS), I read this is better set at fixed whilst testing your overclock. Should I set this back to 'dynamic' so my CPU only draws max power when it needs it?

Well, yeah, it can help prolong the CPU life as well as save you some electricity money. Be sure to set the voltage mode to adaptive as well if you want the voltage to scale back together with the core clock.

 

[T.O.P]

Guys i need some help here

So lately i saw my R290X getting Red even under low load (FFXIV ARR example) something that didn't happen a couple of weeks ago

i opened the case and i saw that 2 of the three fans weren't running properly, i tried to give it a spin and one started moving (still at a slower pace than the mid one) and the other one still stopped after a few seconds

What can i do? Any tips? my knowledge is barebone on the subject

 

[Rufus]

If it's under warranty still then I would send it in. It's difficult/impossible to find replacement fans for GPUs.

Another option would be to get a whole new heatsink+fan(s) from someone like Artic Cooling, which will likely run cooler and quiter. They tend to be bigger than whatever the GPU shipped with.

You can also look around on Ebay for the old cooler from people who've done the above, or for broken GPU's that are identical to your and cannibalize them for parts.

 

[T.O.P]

If it's under warranty still then I would send it in. It's difficult/impossible to find replacement fans for GPUs.

Another option would be to get a whole new heatsink+fan(s) from someone like Artic Cooling, which will likely run cooler and quiter. They tend to be bigger than whatever the GPU shipped with.

You can also look around on Ebay for the old cooler from people who've done the above, or for broken GPU's that are identical to your and cannibalize them for parts.

So it's actually possible than from one day to another two fans just die like that? wow

Card is not even 2 months old

 

[Rufus]

Nothing is impossible. If it's that young though it probably had manufacturing flaws. What brand is it?

 

[T.O.P]

Nothing is impossible. If it's that young though it probably had manufacturing flaws. What brand is it?

 

[harz-marz]

Hi.... can anyone recommend a good gaming mouse that is under £50? Mostly for FPS and action games. Thanks!!

 

[Rufus]

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1227&pid=2283&lid=1

Ctrl+F "Intelligent Fan Control"

Take a look at that, might be worth investigating, though I would expect intelligent fan control to behave differently from what you're describing. I found at least one customer review on Amazon.com who had the same issue as you though, so you're not alone.

 

[T.O.P]

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1227&pid=2283&lid=1

Ctrl+F "Intelligent Fan Control"

Take a look at that, might be worth investigating, though I would expect intelligent fan control to behave differently from what you're describing. I found at least one customer review on Amazon.com who had the same issue as you though, so you're not alone.

tried the off/on itc thingy but nothing changed, 1 fan is dead and another runs extremely slow

gonna contact the rma tomorrow, thanks for the help

I'm also getting really pissed at with AMD products, i feel like buying a 970 and then sell the r290 once it's back from the rma (if accepted)

 

[Dries]

At what temperatures should you be worrying if your CPU is getting too hot? My OC'ed 2500K @ 4.4Ghz gets up to 65 degrees while gaming (GTA V).

 

[kennah]

At what temperatures should you be worrying if your CPU is getting too hot? My OC'ed 2500K @ 4.4Ghz gets up to 65 degrees while gaming (GTA V).

That's great. Id worry at 90

 

[Dick Justice]

At what temperatures should you be worrying if your CPU is getting too hot? My OC'ed 2500K @ 4.4Ghz gets up to 65 degrees while gaming (GTA V).

My OC'd 4770K (4.2GHz) tends to go up to around 70-75 at most when playing it. 65 is fine.

 

[Chinbo37]

This is always a thing with PC gaming, at least for me. There's always something around the corner. Every time I've built a PC I've been left feeling "if only if I'd waited X months for Y new part or Z sale". You really just got to pick a time and build what's best right then. If you don't, you'll drive yourself crazy waiting for new stuff and sales and never actually buy..

Yup, the thirst for upgrades is real.

Best to enjoy what you have and make the best of it, upgrade when you have to or when you have good deals, not just because something new is out.

 

[Onimusha78]

Okay so I'm about to order another 8GB of memory, it would be perfectly okay to just order the exact same sticks I've got now right? Was also wondering what I should upgrade next and whether I'd need to add more power. And lastly thanks to everyone that helped me build my rig a month or so ago


i5 4690K 3.5GHz
R9 290
8GB RAM (16 soon)
XFX 650W

 

[The Llama]

Okay so I'm about to order another 8GB of memory, it would be perfectly okay to just order the exact same sticks I've got now right? Was also wondering what I should upgrade next and whether I'd need to add more power. And lastly thanks to everyone that helped me build my rig a month or so ago


i5 4690K 3.5GHz
R9 290
8GB RAM (16 soon)
XFX 650W

Yeah you'll be fine with the same RAM. If you don't have your CPU overclocked, I'd do that soon. After that, just get a new GPU whenever you're not happy with your performance!

 

[Onimusha78]

Yeah you'll be fine with the same RAM. If you don't have your CPU overclocked, I'd do that soon. After that, just get a new GPU whenever you're not happy with your performance!

Alright, thanks!

 

[Xeroblade]

Hey pc gaf, which gtx 970 is worth upgrading to? I was reading the the 970s are not really 4gb, Should I just wait or upgrade now to play Witcher 3 and arkham? Thanks.

 

[Horsemama1956]

Two years from now when directx 12 games start to be released will be the time to answer that question.

Buy for NOW. Not for "what if"

A 5 year old Core 2 Quad is not better than a current Dual Core.

Number of cores don't matter.

Sigh

Same thing every year.

I would bet a bunch of newer games will get DX12 patches. AMD DX12 driver is also significantly improved. We'll probably start seeing benefits this year.

 

[kennah]

I would bet a bunch of newer games will get DX12 patches. AMD DX12 driver is also significantly improved. We'll probably start seeing benefits this year.

Does that invalidate the existing performance advantage on literally everything else?

Directx 12 isn't going to magically make slow processors fast.

Edit: I would love to be wrong on this, but expectations should be managed

 

[protomouse]

Hey pc gaf, which gtx 970 is worth upgrading to? I was reading the the 970s are not really 4gb, Should I just wait or upgrade now to play Witcher 3 and arkham? Thanks.

What card do you currently have? AMD recently announced they will have new HBM cards due out sometime this quarter. This should provide a good leap in terms of performance. I'd wait.

 

[Horsemama1956]

Does that invalidate the existing performance advantage on literally everything else?

Directx 12 isn't going to magically make slow processors fast.

Edit: I would love to be wrong on this, but expectations should be managed

It will help, unless every article on the subject is wrong. No one is saying it's magic, but if you actually read up on it, it's pretty obvious it will help immensely.

Will AMD take the crown from Intel? No, but no one is suggesting that either. AMD are moving on to a new arch for a reason.

 

[Xeroblade]

What card do you currently have? AMD recently announced they will have new HBM cards due out sometime this quarter. This should provide a good leap in terms of performance. I'd wait.

I am currently running a 670, I was trying to sell it now to get some money knocked off the price of a current card. I figured a 970 would last me another few years.

 

[Engell]

I am currently running a 670, I was trying to sell it now to get some money knocked off the price of a current card. I figured a 970 would last me another few years.

I wouldn't buy a graphics card right now if you have the opportunity to wait 3-6 weeks. New cards from both Nvidia and AMD are just around the corner. Maybe you will not buy one of the new cards but it will surely have an effect on the pricing of older cards.

I would only buy now if my current gfx was defective

 

[nobodyshero]

I wouldn't buy a graphics card right now if you have the opportunity to wait 3-6 weeks. New cards from both Nvidia and AMD are just around the corner. Maybe you will not buy one of the new cards but it will surely have an effect on the pricing of older cards.

I would only buy now if my current gfx was defective

New Nvidia cards are right around the corner? Which ones?


Also, I have a quick question. I recently ordered another 8 gig RAM for my rig (total 16), and I thought I ordered the exact same ones, but they're actually slightly different. This is what I had prior, and this is what I just ordered.

Is it a big problem to have both of these installed?

 

[TronLight]

New Nvidia cards are right around the corner? Which ones?

980ti is expected to drop in a few weeks right?
And the new AMD cards should lower the price of the 980/970/960, so I would wait in any case.

 

[Xeroblade]

I wouldn't buy a graphics card right now if you have the opportunity to wait 3-6 weeks. New cards from both Nvidia and AMD are just around the corner. Maybe you will not buy one of the new cards but it will surely have an effect on the pricing of older cards.

I would only buy now if my current gfx was defective

Sounds good man, I think the time for me to upgrade will be when Fallout 4 releases.

 

[TronLight]

Sounds good man, I think the time for me to upgrade will be when Fallout 4 releases.

Provided that Bethesda gets up to speed when it comes to tech. Oh yeah I said it.

 

[Zoink]

Hi.... can anyone recommend a good gaming mouse that is under £50? Mostly for FPS and action games. Thanks!!

G502 - it's awesome.

 

[Askia47]

Here you go.

But beware that some people have reported to have their license revoked, most likely because these keys are from student discount or whatever, but many others do not have any problems.



Well, yeah, it can help prolong the CPU life as well as save you some electricity money. Be sure to set the voltage mode to adaptive as well if you want the voltage to scale back together with the core clock.

Gotcha, looks like a good resource. Thanks!

 

[Engell]

New Nvidia cards are right around the corner? Which ones?
Also, I have a quick question. I recently ordered another 8 gig RAM for my rig (total 16), and I thought I ordered the exact same ones, but they're actually slightly different.

Is it a big problem to have both of these installed?

Mixing ram is not a problem, they will just run at the same speed as your current(Slowest) RAM module.

In regards to GPUs, Nvidia is making the 980ti ready to compete against AMDs new lineup.
http://www.vcpost.com/articles/65397/20150510/gtx-980-ti-latest-update-nvidia-ceo-jen-hsun-huang-new-flagship-specs-teases-release-date.htm

 

[Matty8787]

980ti is expected to drop in a few weeks right?
And the new AMD cards should lower the price of the 980/970/960, so I would wait in any case.

The lower price of the nvidia cards will likely not include two AAA games. So it is dependant on which you would rather have. I personally would upgrade now and take advantage of the games on offer.

 

[robb_w7]

i have a GTX 780 atm, i want to upgrade soon, just thinking if its worth going to 980 or wait for next wave of Nvidia cards?

 

[sackboy2197]

The lower price of the nvidia cards will likely not include two AAA games. So it is dependant on which you would rather have. I personally would upgrade now and take advantage of the games on offer.

On this topic, is there any way to take advantage of that outside the US? It seems like in Italy we have a deal for The Witcher 3 only, and only at a few selected retailers (Amazon excluded sadly).

 

[Matty8787]

On this topic, is there any way to take advantage of that outside the US? It seems like in Italy we have a deal for The Witcher 3 only, and only at a few selected retailers (Amazon excluded sadly).

I am in the UK bought my cards last month when only the witcher was on promotion and emailed about batman and got two codes sent.

 

[nobodyshero]

i have a GTX 780 atm, i want to upgrade soon, just thinking if its worth going to 980 or wait for next wave of Nvidia cards?

Evidently it looks like the next wave is so close that it would be silly not to wait. Even if you do end up going 980, the 980ti and 390 series should serve to drive prices of the 980 down a bit. Best to wait a month or two

 

[ChoklitReign]

I'm getting graphical artifacts in Firefox but not any other program - not Chrome and not certainly in any games. Green boxes everywhere, lavender bars on top, broken page formats, etc. Is my graphics card the culprit? It's a Sapphire 280X I bought in January. No problems since besides this. Not overclocked but I'm using 15.4 beta drivers, and while I can't remember if they started before or after I installed them they might be the cause. Amazing performance in GTA V though

 

[Guri]

Do we already know if GeForce's 1000 series will release in Q1, Q2, Q3 or Q4 of 2016?

 

[RGM79]

I'm getting graphical artifacts in Firefox but not any other program - not Chrome and not certainly in any games. Green boxes everywhere, lavender bars on top, broken page formats, etc. Is my graphics card the culprit? It's a Sapphire 280X I bought in January. No problems since besides this. Not overclocked but I'm using 15.4 beta drivers, and while I can't remember if they started before or after I installed them they might be the cause. Amazing performance in GTA V though

Sounds like the Firefox graphics acceleration is broken. Not sure why, maybe you need to reinstall it or something.

Do we already know if GeForce's 1000 series will release in Q1, Q2, Q3 or Q4 of 2016?

No idea. Pascal is just earmarked for a 2016 release. It's still in development so there are no promises of what quarter it will launch in.