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[Noirulus]

What are some neat things I should get once all the parts arrive and I've built my awesome new PC, GAF? It's my first time having a high-spec machine. I'm going to get Witcher 3 for sure, so if there's some other awesome looking games I should definitely get, please do suggest! and maybe even some outside-the-box non-gaming software stuff?

edit: As you may be able to tell, I'm pretty damn excited haha.

 

[Angel Abaddon]

Not sure if this fits in with the topic as its not technically hardware, but does anyone have any experience with USB over IP? I currently run a HDMI cable from my PC upstairs to my living room TV, but this stops me from being able to used wired controllers such as my Fightpad for platformers and Xbox One controller (until the dongle comes out).

Rather than running more cables down the stairs (I basically have to run the cable each time I use it, laying it permanently is fairly tricky as it would have to run diagonally across the house), I've looked around for solutions using IP after realising how well it works with Steam IHS, but only needing the input transfer rather than AV and found that you can turn a Raspberry Pi into a USB over IP adapter box fairly easily and cheaply. Just wondering if anyone has done this or similar and has any advice or if the input lag is overwhelming.

 

[Rolfgang]

27" monitor - 1080p gsync, or 1440p standard? Cant stretch to 1440p gsync, plus I could do with a HDMI/DVI input for PS3/PSTV.

Will be driven by an overclocked GTX970.

That's a really tough choice, but personally I would go for G-sync.

 

[mhayze]

Reposting my question for new page since we have TV coming in Monday. Any thoughts or experiences appreciated.

On modern PCs what is the best way to connect to 4kTV for comfy-couch gaming? Getting both a new TV and PC (PC tbd) and I'm actually thrilled by this prospect but have not done it before and don't know the right connections (DVI>VGA, HDMI, other?) or applications (Steam has a TV thing right?).

Thanks getting a Sony x940c... It says it has HDMI pc input but not sure what that means.

You will need a full speed (usually called high speed) HDMI cable. There is no specific HDMI 2.0 cable spec, just full utilization of the high speed (~18gbps) HDMI cable. If you have your PC inside a media cabinet, then running a discreet cable should be no issue and any modern high speed HDMI cable (for example from monoprice) should work fine. If you need a long cable (especially > 10ft), you need to do your research to make sure it is capable of running full speed without issues.

Controllers are a different story altogether. I keep a logitech compact wireless KB + touchpad handy for when I'm just using the PC casually, along with a gamepad. I do have a wired gaming mouse and normal keyboard with USB extension cables tucked away for the rare living room FPS sessions. I'm hoping the steam controller will reduce/negate the need for that.

The PC input will probably do full color sampling (i.e. either 8-bits per component RGB or 4:4:4 YUV) but not the latest HDCP copy protection. There is this strange issue with 4K HDMI where the latest copy protection prevents full color resolution due to bandwidth restrictions (on the other inputs not labelled PC).

 

[AstroLad]

Super helpful thank you!

That copy protection point is really interesting--would have never known at. If you run it through the PC input does it work OK or is that just an unresolved problem at this point? If so, how bad of an issue is it?

 

[btkadams]

any recommendations on 24" g-sync 1080p monitors?

also, this may be a dumb question.. is it worth having both monitors be g-sync enabled or should i just have the main one be g-sync? my only concern is i want to have a 2 monitor setup but have the monitors look identical. i don't see the need to buy 2 g-sync monitors though if g-sync costs way more.

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

I have a question about SSDs. I reinstall Windows (or do a factory reset on an Android tablet) and I install everything that I need to install. A few days later, the PC (or Android tablet) is left idle for several hours and when I check the disk space, I notice that I have gained around 10 GB of free space. Is this normal? Is it TRIM or garbage collection at work?

I don't think TRIM should affect the displayed filesystem usage at all. That's weird. Might be Windows cleaning up after itself (deleting downloaded update installers would be my best guess).

Thanks for the quick answer.

 

[Lexxism]

1440p 144hz IPS or standard 4K monitor? The 1440p I guess?

 

[Felix Lighter]

I have never sold anything online before, but the amount of very high quality PC parts I have now sitting around unused is getting a little ridiculous. I really need to do something with it all.

I have a full build:

i7 930 @ 3.9 Ghz
Radeon 7970
8 GB 1600 DDR 3 Ram
256 GB SSD, 128 GB SSD and 1TB HDD

An ASUS 1920x1200 IPS monitor

and, now 2 GTX 970s

I feel guilty having it sit a round, losing value every day.

 

[opticalmace]

I have never sold anything online before, but the amount of very high quality PC parts I have now sitting around unused is getting a little ridiculous. I really need to do something with it all.

I have a full build:

i7 930 @ 3.9 Ghz
Radeon 7970
8 GB 1600 DDR 3 Ram
256 GB SSD, 128 GB SSD and 1TB HDD

An ASUS 1920x1200 IPS monitor

and, now 2 GTX 970s

I feel guilty having it sit a round, losing value every day.

Post them in the GAF buy and sell thread.

 

[RedFalco]

Hello, so I'm looking into buying a new desktop preferably pre-built or maybe I'd consider building one but I've never done it so it makes me kinda nervous.
[Basic Desktop Questions]

Your Current Specs: none

Budget: $800(but would be willing to bump it higher if there's a big performance jump for a bit more money) and I'm in the US.

Main Use: Rate 1-5. 5 being Highest:Light Gaming(5), Gaming(3) , Emulation (PS2/Wii)(3), Video Editing(2), Streaming games in HD(4), 3D/Model work (and what program)(1), General Usage (Word, Web, 1080p playback)(5).

Monitor Resolution: well I'd probably just connect it to my tv, 1080p 39" if that matters.(games don't HAVE to play in 1080p, they can play in 720p or something if needed.)

List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well:League of Legends, Hearthstone, Rocket League, Microsoft Word

Is 30FPS acceptable? 60? 120? I don't mind 30 but if 60 is possible at my budget then I'd love that.

How important is PhysX / SuperSampling / CUDA to you?Don't know what any of these are but I would love to learn.

Looking to reuse any parts?:No

When will you build?: Do you have a deadline?No deadline, but I would like to do it as soon as possible.

Will you be overclocking?: Yes, No, Maybe (This means yes!)Idk. Should I? What are the benefits?

Thank you for your help!

 

[Felix Lighter]

Post them in the GAF buy and sell thread.

Yeah I was considering that. Like I said, I never sold anything online before so the thought makes me a little nervous, especially when it comes to dealing with the hard drives and shipping costs.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

After installing my 980ti it's mostly been smooth sailing, but I've had several crashes when playing Grey Goo for extended periods. Today I had my first crash while playing Galactic Civ 3. I haven't played Witcher 3 for huge periods yet, just 30-40 minute bursts usually. No crashes during Crusader Kings 2.

I thought it was caused by my modest OC, so I reset to default clocks. I thought that got rid of it, until it crashed 10 minutes ago. It was a very long play session, over 90 minutes, but I don't really know the root cause.

What are likely candidates for this situation? I thought maybe not enough power, but the 780 I used to run is allegedly also a 250w tdp. Does the actual power draw differ in practice despite the paper specs being identical? I'm running a 4670 (stock), 16gb ram, SSD, HDD, and 980ti on my 650w PSU. I doubt it's heat related, I'm in the middle of winter, just cleaned the dust out of my case when I installed this card, and those games are not graphical lookers.

 

[knitoe]

After installing my 980ti it's mostly been smooth sailing, but I've had several crashes when playing Grey Goo for extended periods. Today I had my first crash while playing Galactic Civ 3. I haven't played Witcher 3 for huge periods yet, just 30-40 minute bursts usually. No crashes during Crusader Kings 2.

I thought it was caused by my modest OC, so I reset to default clocks. I thought that got rid of it, until it crashed 10 minutes ago. It was a very long play session, over 90 minutes, but I don't really know the root cause.

What are likely candidates for this situation? I thought maybe not enough power, but the 780 I used to run is allegedly also a 250w tdp. Does the actual power draw differ in practice despite the paper specs being identical? I'm running a 4670 (stock), 16gb ram, SSD, HDD, and 980ti on my 650w PSU. I doubt it's heat related, I'm in the middle of winter, just cleaned the dust out of my case when I installed this card, and those games are not graphical lookers.

Is it a factory OC card? If yes, try downclocking even more to the stock core / memory speeds. If no and/or you already tried running at stock speeds, do a driver reinstall using the Custom > clean option. Still experiencing issues, try a older driver.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Is it a factory OC card? If yes, try downclocking even more to the stock core / memory speeds. If no and/or you already tried running at stock speeds, do a driver reinstall using the Custom > clean option. Still experiencing issues, try a older driver.

Nope, stock, with a blower.

I'll look into doing fresh driver install.

 

[kennah]

Fuck it. Installing windows 10

 

[Deleted member 22576]

My PC is gonna be 3 this year and I'm planning an upgrade.
Part of me is semi-open to the idea of a ram disk.

I've got a reference GTX680 paired with a 3770k and 16gigs of ram in a FT03 Mini.. so not a lot of room to play with.

I don't think I want to touch my SSDs (twin samsung 830s in RAID0) because its so expensive.

Can you even install the OS to ramdisk, I'm generally ignorant about it past the conceptual level. I understand the limitations of volatile memory and that it will be wiped each time you shut down but I'm assuming there is a way to make an image back up or something that can be loaded into ram each time you boot up?

IDK. I don't have an extra PCI slot for a PCI SSD.

I also am toying with the idea of 21:9 for the display but I think that will be a passing fancy since its a bit less elegant to support.

 

[GHG]

I got my EVGA SC 980ti yesterday and its performing as expected in games/benchmarks so happy with it. Not OC'd it yet but not really feeling the need as I'm getting 60fps in the games I wanted it to (witcher 3 and PCars).

However, I'm having a strange issue... Since installed this card my computer takes ages to get past the initial bios splash screen when I turn it on. By ages I mean 2-3 minutes. Once its past that my computer behaves as normal but does anyone know what could be causing this as its quite annoying?

 

[Why would you do that?]

My current PC:
- AMD Athlon 5200 @ 2.7 GHz
- 9800 GTX+
- 4 GB DDR2 RAM, 1 TB HDD

It serviced me well since I built it in 2008. However, I knew it was time to upgrade when my laptop (with its 1.8 GHz i5-3337) could run Dolphin and BSNES much better than my desktop ever could. Plus, it isn't that much worse at running games compared to my desktop.


For my next PC, I have the following goals:
- Run Dolphin emulator at best speeds (needs a very powerful CPU)
- Run current and future games with high to highest settings at at least 1080p 30 FPS
- Use less power (or at worst, equal power to my current PC)
- Portable / small form factor (can take to a friend's place somewhat easily)
- Needs SSD
- $1,000 budget, though that's flexible


Other notes:
- I'm in the U.S.
- Monitor resolution: Currently 1280x1024 but will be 1080p when I hook it up to a TV or my Playstation 3D Display
- Some specific games I want to run well: GTA V, Doom 4, Shadow Warrior 1 & 2, XCOM 1 & 2, Rise of the Triad, Sims 4 (which can run on a potato), Cities: Skylines
- I want to buy the parts within the week unless there's any compelling reason to wait a month or two.
- I might overclock, but there probably won't be a need for me to do so, especially if I get full speeds with Dolphin.
- I can reuse my 9800 GTX+ for a while if there's a reason for me to wait to buy a GPU. The games I currently play are likely limited by CPU, anyway (i.e. Cities: Skylines, Sims 3, and Dolphin Emulator), so that part is really no rush.


I did some research and came up with the following questions:

- Would the i7-4790k really be the best option for me, or should I consider an i7-5xxxy processor? I know there's a rather large increase in cost with the new components (a mini-ITX motherboard supporting DDR4 can run $250 alone), but is it worth it? Note that Dolphin's best benchmarks are on the 4790k due to the higher single core speeds.

- Just how much better is the GTX 970 compared to the GTX 960? The latter uses quite a bit less power, it seems, but it also seems to be quite a bit less powerful... Plus, only 2 GB RAM...

- The OP suggests the ASUS MAXIMUS VII IMPACT motherboard for "enthusiast" PCs and the GIGABYTE GA-Z97N-WIFI for "excellent" PCs. What's so great about those compared to, say, the ASUS Z97I-PLUS motherboard? (Or any cheaper motherboard listed here...)

- What are some things I might use a PCI slot for? If there's something compelling, I might end up getting a Micro ATX setup instead of a Mini ITX.

- How is this setup?

Case: Silverstone RVZ01 (from the OP, $90)
CPU: Intel i7-4790k ($300)
GPU: GTX 960 or 970 (undecided, $200-$300)
Motherboard: ASUS Z97I-PLUS ($150)
Cooler: Stock for now
RAM: Undecided between 4x2 and 8x2, will probably go with 4x2 ($60-110)
PSU: SILVERSTONE ST45SF-G ($90)
SSD: Likely an M.2 drive, ~240 GB ($100)
HDD: Undecided. The case supports 1x 3.5 (which sits on the power supply) and 2x 2.5 drives (which sit on the GPU). ($100 max)

Total: About $1100 - $1300. A little more than I want to spend...
PC Part Picker link

 

[btkadams]

ok, another stupid question... does the motherboard need to have a display port on it for g-sync to work with a display port monitor, or would an hdmi port suffice with an hdmi->display port adapter?

edit: nvm i'm a tool. it appears that the video card i am looking at getting has a display port, so i could use that to connect to the monitor.

 

[Calibrated Chaos]

so I bought two 34" ultra wides. Can anyone recommend a monitor mount/stand?

 

[RGM79]

My current PC:
- AMD Athlon 5200 @ 2.7 GHz
- 9800 GTX+
- 4 GB DDR2 RAM, 1 TB HDD

It serviced me well since I built it in 2008. However, I knew it was time to upgrade when my laptop (with its 1.8 GHz i5-3337) could run Dolphin and BSNES much better than my desktop ever could. Plus, it isn't that much worse at running games compared to my desktop.


For my next PC, I have the following goals:
- Run Dolphin emulator at best speeds (needs a very powerful CPU)
- Run current and future games with high to highest settings at at least 1080p 30 FPS
- Use less power (or at worst, equal power to my current PC)
- Portable / small form factor (can take to a friend's place somewhat easily)
- Needs SSD
- $1,000 budget, though that's flexible


Other notes:
- I'm in the U.S.
- Monitor resolution: Currently 1280x1024 but will be 1080p when I hook it up to a TV or my Playstation 3D Display
- Some specific games I want to run well: GTA V, Doom 4, Shadow Warrior 1 & 2, XCOM 1 & 2, Rise of the Triad, Sims 4 (which can run on a potato), Cities: Skylines
- I want to buy the parts within the week unless there's any compelling reason to wait a month or two.
- I might overclock, but there probably won't be a need for me to do so, especially if I get full speeds with Dolphin.
- I can reuse my 9800 GTX+ for a while if there's a reason for me to wait to buy a GPU. The games I currently play are likely limited by CPU, anyway (i.e. Cities: Skylines, Sims 3, and Dolphin Emulator), so that part is really no rush.


I did some research and came up with the following questions:

- Would the i7-4790k really be the best option for me, or should I consider an i7-5xxxy processor? I know there's a rather large increase in cost with the new components (a mini-ITX motherboard supporting DDR4 can run $250 alone), but is it worth it? Note that Dolphin's best benchmarks are on the 4790k due to the higher single core speeds.

- Just how much better is the GTX 970 compared to the GTX 960? The latter uses quite a bit less power, it seems, but it also seems to be quite a bit less powerful... Plus, only 2 GB RAM...

- The OP suggests the ASUS MAXIMUS VII IMPACT motherboard for "enthusiast" PCs and the GIGABYTE GA-Z97N-WIFI for "excellent" PCs. What's so great about those compared to, say, the ASUS Z97I-PLUS motherboard? (Or any cheaper motherboard listed here...)

- What are some things I might use a PCI slot for? If there's something compelling, I might end up getting a Micro ATX setup instead of a Mini ITX.

- How is this setup?

Case: Silverstone RVZ01 (from the OP, $90)
CPU: Intel i7-4790k ($300)
GPU: GTX 960 or 970 (undecided, $200-$300)
Motherboard: ASUS Z97I-PLUS ($150)
Cooler: Stock for now
RAM: Undecided between 4x2 and 8x2, will probably go with 4x2 ($60-110)
PSU: SILVERSTONE ST45SF-G ($90)
SSD: Likely an M.2 drive, ~240 GB ($100)
HDD: Undecided. The case supports 1x 3.5 (which sits on the power supply) and 2x 2.5 drives (which sit on the GPU). ($100 max)

Total: About $1100 - $1300. A little more than I want to spend...

How about this for an mATX option?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($26.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97N-Gaming 5 Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($128.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($177.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC ACX 2.0 Video Card ($324.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Node 304 (White) Mini ITX Tower Case ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Cooler Master 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($70.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1066.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-21 02:29 EDT-0400

As for your questions:

1. You've figured out that high single core speed benefits most games well, but you should also know that the i7 4790K is a quad core processor with hyperthreading, so it effectively works as if it had 8 cores. The i5 4690K might be the better choice for you, it is also an overclockable quad core processor but without the hyperthreading ability that splits each of the four cores into two virtual cores. The only other real difference is the clock speed which both being overclockable, means you can save some money by getting the comparable i5 4690K and overclock it for better performance. The hyperthreading does not really improve game performance, it's more effective for programs that can take advantage of more than 4 cores like video encoders or computational programs. At stock and overclocked speeds for gaming performance, the i5 4690K and i7 4790K are nearly identical.

The Broadwell (5xxx series) processors are not really recommended at this point, they don't seem to offer much of anything that would be an appreciable improvement over the current 4xxx series processors besides somewhat lower power draw and stronger integrated graphics. Unless energy efficiency and power draw is extremely important to you, it's probably not worth looking at seriously.

Skylake (6xxx series) are not out yet and are rumored for launch in 2~3 months. These models will be the ones that require a new motherboard platform and DDR4, so they will come with higher initial costs.

2. From what I've heard, the GTX 970 is equal to twin GTX 960s in SLI, except without the potential headaches and pitfalls of running multiple GPUs. The GTX 960's GPU chip design is more or less half that of the GTX 970/980, so that makes sense.

The GTX 970 is very much recommended over the GTX 960 if your budget allows for it. A cheaper option in between would be the AMD R9 290, it costs not much more than the GTX 960 yet can offer good performance levels just below that of the GTX 970. The R9 290 does have increased power draw and heat while not being as quiet, compared to both the GTX 960 and 970, though.

3. More expensive motherboards come with more features, gimmicks, and better circuitry allowing for greater overclocking , etc. It's a lot to explain if I were to go into detail, but that's the gist of it. For Z97 and socket 1150 builds, I've never really had a need to recommend a motherboard that cost more than $130 or so. To me, beyond that price point motherboards become somewhat unnecessary. For Z97 motherboards that have decent features and even good overclocking ability, I've never gone wrong looking at the $90~130 price range. Even cheaper motherboards will do for those who have zero need for overclocking.

4. Sound card (for audiophiles, etc), second graphics card (crossfire or SLI for improved performance), add-in USB/firewire/SATA/etc controllers to add more ports, etc.

5. It's not a bad build at all. It's not the best if you're looking for best performance for the cost, but the performance would be very solid.

The RVZ01 is a very nice case, but somewhat hard to build in due to the lack of space. It's not awful, but you'll have to be careful about choosing your parts to go into the PC, so you may want to consider some alternatives.

I already voiced my concern about the processor, so I'll leave that alone. As for the cooler, the stock Intel heatsink will work but it is inadequate for overclocking. Some people have had success using the Corsair H55 cooler with that case, while Silverstone also makes a cooler called the NT06 Pro which is more or less intended for the RVZ01 and should also allow for some slight to moderate overclocking.

The 450 watt PSU is a bit low on wattage, if you were to go with that model and a GTX 970, it will run just fine but I would not recommend any overclocking at all. Silverstone does make a more expensive 600 watt version of that power supply that you may want to consider, though.

M.2 SSDs have potential for very high performance, but are also extremely pricey. I'd consider a cheaper but still excellent cost-efficient 2.5" SSD like the Crucial BX100/MX100/MX200 or the Samsung 850 Evo.

 

[Darkone]

After installing my 980ti it's mostly been smooth sailing, but I've had several crashes when playing Grey Goo for extended periods. Today I had my first crash while playing Galactic Civ 3. I haven't played Witcher 3 for huge periods yet, just 30-40 minute bursts usually. No crashes during Crusader Kings 2.

I thought it was caused by my modest OC, so I reset to default clocks. I thought that got rid of it, until it crashed 10 minutes ago. It was a very long play session, over 90 minutes, but I don't really know the root cause.

What are likely candidates for this situation? I thought maybe not enough power, but the 780 I used to run is allegedly also a 250w tdp. Does the actual power draw differ in practice despite the paper specs being identical? I'm running a 4670 (stock), 16gb ram, SSD, HDD, and 980ti on my 650w PSU. I doubt it's heat related, I'm in the middle of winter, just cleaned the dust out of my case when I installed this card, and those games are not graphical lookers.

I had a similar problem like yours of constant crashes in games, Reinstalled driver did not help, turned out that my P.Supply was old and after replacing it no more crashes.

 

[Lilalaunebaer]

So, i need a new GPU. Budget is about 300€. +- maybe 30 bucks.

Found a refurbed Gigabyte r9 290 for 260€. Right now this would be my buy.

I don´t think the extra money for the 300 series is worth it, since they´re just rebadges.

970s are ~ 350€ around here and the 290 and 970 are about the same from a performance level. At least i think so

Good buy?

Edit: Austria.

 

[btkadams]

Here's what I'm thinking for my first PC build. I am basing it off of one of the builds in the OP. I figured i'd go a little larger with power supply and case for when i eventually upgrade the system further when VR hits in full force, but please feel free to tell me it's dumb and that I should get something smaller. I know fuck all about this stuff!

I have my heart set on G-Sync, so I was looking at a 970 with display port and g-sync ready in the features. They all seemed within 40 bucks of each other, so I wasn't sure which one to choose. Also, I had no idea what I should do for brand of RAM. I kind of just went with the kingston because i've had good experience with their products in the past.... any recommendations there?

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 3.5GHz
RAM: Kingston HyperX FURY White 16GB DDR3-1600MHz CL10 Dual Channel Kit (2x 8GB)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H w/ DDR3 1600, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, CrossFireX / SLI
GPU: MSI GTX 970 GAMING GeForce GTX 970 4GB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
Power Supply: Cooler Master GM Series G750M 750W Power Supply
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
Case: Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case, Black
DVD: Asus 24x DVD-RW Drive, SATA, OEM, Black
HDD: SAMSUNG 850 EVO 500GB
Sound card: Asus Xonar DGX PCI-E 5.1 Gaming Audio Card w/ Headphone Amp

Do I have any options that allow firewire with this build? Could I just buy something like this and hook it into this setup? I have a firepod (audio interface) that I currently have wired up to studio monitors for music production. It'd be nice to continue using that. Also, if I use that, do I even need a sound card?

 

[RGM79]

So, i need a new GPU. Budget is about 300€. +- maybe 30 bucks.

Found a refurbed Gigabyte r9 290 for 260€. Right now this would be my buy.

I don´t think the extra money for the 300 series is worth it, since they´re just rebadges.

970s are ~ 350€ around here and the 290 and 970 are about the same from a performance level. At least i think so

Good buy?

Edit: Austria.

How long is the warranty on the refurbished Gigabyte R9 290? A brand new R9 290 at the cheapest starts at about 280€.

Here's what I'm thinking for my first PC build. I am basing it off of one of the builds in the OP. I figured i'd go a little larger with power supply and case for when i eventually upgrade the system further when VR hits in full force, but please feel free to tell me it's dumb and that I should get something smaller. I know fuck all about this stuff!

I have my heart set on G-Sync, so I was looking at a 970 with display port and g-sync ready in the features. They all seemed within 40 bucks of each other, so I wasn't sure which one to choose. Also, I had no idea what I should do for brand of RAM. I kind of just went with the kingston because i've had good experience with their products in the past.... any recommendations there?

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 3.5GHz
RAM: Kingston HyperX FURY White 16GB DDR3-1600MHz CL10 Dual Channel Kit (2x 8GB)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H w/ DDR3 1600, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, CrossFireX / SLI
GPU: MSI GTX 970 GAMING GeForce GTX 970 4GB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
Power Supply: Cooler Master GM Series G750M 750W Power Supply
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
Case: Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case, Black
DVD: Asus 24x DVD-RW Drive, SATA, OEM, Black
HDD: SAMSUNG 850 EVO 500GB
Sound card: Asus Xonar DGX PCI-E 5.1 Gaming Audio Card w/ Headphone Amp

Do I have any options that allow firewire with this build? I have a firepod (audio interface) that I currently have wired up to studio monitors for music production. It'd be nice to continue using that. Also, if I use that, do I even need a sound card?

Where are you buying the parts and how much do they cost? I think it might be possible for me to adjust your build for best cost, even more if you don't mind ordering from different retailers for some of them.

 

[btkadams]

Here's what I'm thinking for my first PC build. I am basing it off of one of the builds in the OP. I figured i'd go a little larger with power supply and case for when i eventually upgrade the system further when VR hits in full force, but please feel free to tell me it's dumb and that I should get something smaller. I know fuck all about this stuff!

I have my heart set on G-Sync, so I was looking at a 970 with display port and g-sync ready in the features. They all seemed within 40 bucks of each other, so I wasn't sure which one to choose. Also, I had no idea what I should do for brand of RAM. I kind of just went with the kingston because i've had good experience with their products in the past.... any recommendations there?

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 3.5GHz
RAM: Kingston HyperX FURY White 16GB DDR3-1600MHz CL10 Dual Channel Kit (2x 8GB)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H w/ DDR3 1600, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, CrossFireX / SLI
GPU: MSI GTX 970 GAMING GeForce GTX 970 4GB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort
Power Supply: Cooler Master GM Series G750M 750W Power Supply
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
Case: Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case, Black
DVD: Asus 24x DVD-RW Drive, SATA, OEM, Black
HDD: SAMSUNG 850 EVO 500GB
Sound card: Asus Xonar DGX PCI-E 5.1 Gaming Audio Card w/ Headphone Amp

Do I have any options that allow firewire with this build? Could I just buy something like this and hook it into this setup? I have a firepod (audio interface) that I currently have wired up to studio monitors for music production. It'd be nice to continue using that. Also, if I use that, do I even need a sound card?

Where are you buying the parts and how much do they cost? I think it might be possible for me to adjust your build for best cost, even more if you don't mind ordering from different retailers for some of them.

I definitely don't mind ordering from different places if it will cost much less. I was basically just looking at Memoryexpress.com and Newegg.ca.
[prices are in CAD, if anyone sees this post and their head spins]

oh and the motherboard is clearance at memory express [link]. $129.99

Memory Express:

Newegg.ca:

 

[comrade]

Post them in the GAF buy and sell thread.

What models are the 970s? I might be interested in one.

 

[Lilalaunebaer]

How long is the warranty on the refurbished Gigabyte R9 290? A brand new R9 290 at the cheapest starts at about 280€.

Warranty would be 24 months.

Is VTX3D a good manufacturer? If so i might go out tomorrow and get that one or an ASUS r9 290 for 285€. At least i wouldn´t have to wait for shipping for those and they would be new.

 

[The Red Wizard]

I'm putting a build together for about £800 (UK based), but it also needs a monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse. I was wondering if anyone would be able to offer some opinions on what I've picked for computer parts.

[Basic Desktop Questions]

• Your Current Specs: None
• Budget: £800 for PC, monitor and accessories (UK)
• Main Use: Light Gaming (5), Gaming (5), Emulation (PS2/Wii) (1), Video Editing (1), Streaming games in HD (2), 3D/Model work (and what program) (1), General Usage (Word, Web, 1080p playback) (4).
• Monitor Resolution: 1920 x 1080, no future upgrades, new monitor neede
• List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well: No specific games that must run
• Looking to reuse any parts?: No reusable parts
• When will you build?: ASAP
• Will you be overclocking?: No

So far, I've got the following:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£154.98 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-P ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£62.70 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£46.22 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£61.36 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (£148.00 @ Aria PC)
Case: Antec GX500 ATX Mid Tower Case (£36.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£40.60 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (£67.95 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: LG 22MP55HQ-P 60Hz 22.0" Monitor (£105.84 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 - UK Layout Wired Standard Keyboard (£10.49 @ Ebuyer)
Mouse: Logitech G402 Wired Optical Mouse (£34.99 @ Amazon UK)
Speakers: Creative Labs Inspire T10 10W 2ch Speakers (£29.98 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £800.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-21 11:25 BST+0100

 

[Mozendo]

I'd change the motherboard. The cheaper MSI MoBos have some bad to mixed reception, and from what I've used the build quality for the price compared to other brands is just bad.
I'd never used the Asus Z97-P and Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3, but wouldn't be surprised if they were better.

 

[RGM79]

Warranty would be 24 months.

Is VTX3D a good manufacturer? If so i might go out tomorrow and get that one or an ASUS r9 290 for 285€. At least i wouldn´t have to wait for shipping for those and they would be new.

VTX3D's not very well known, I only found this one short review. It might be a better idea to go with Asus for the better known brand. Then again, 24 months warranty for Gigabyte doesn't sound bad. It's up to you.

I definitely don't mind ordering from different places if it will cost much less. I was basically just looking at Memoryexpress.com and Newegg.ca.
[prices are in CAD, if anyone sees this post and their head spins]

oh and the motherboard is clearance at memory express [link]. $129.99

Memory Express:

Newegg.ca:

OK, Canadian prices are fine. Memory Express and NCIX have a pricematching policy which more or less allows you to refer to competitors' prices, that can let you save a ton of money and get all your parts from just one or two places, although sometimes they might refuse to match certain retailers. I've had better luck with pricematching with Memory Express than NCIX in my experience.

Anyway, here's my version of your build.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($284.98 @ DirectCanada)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($34.05 @ Vuugo)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-E ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($124.99 @ NCIX)
Memory: Kingston Fury White Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($109.88 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Crucial BX100 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($169.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC ACX 2.0 Video Card ($399.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Corsair Air 540 ATX Mid Tower Case ($144.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: Cooler Master 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ NCIX)
Total: $1338.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-21 04:35 EDT-0400

Your original parts list seems to total to $1634.90 before any kind of shipping and taxes. My parts list is $300 cheaper before shipping and taxes and also keeps equivalent performance, although I'll admit it's heavy on mail-in rebates. If you go to this link you can see that the parts list is all available through NCIX and Memory Express. You can try pricematching by giving ME and NCIX the lower prices and links and see if they will accept them.

Here's why I made some of the parts changes:

1. Although that price isn't bad for the motherboard.. it's a refurbished model. A warranty period of just 60 days isn't a good idea. The Asus model I substituted in is brand new and should be more reliable than a refurbished model.
2. I dropped the sound card and the DVD drive from the list, neither are really needed.
3. The Kingston RAM is cheaper and faster, although it's available in low quantities and may run out soon. Try pricematching with ME or NCIX if possible.
4. The Samsung 850 Evo is a good SSD, but it's somewhat expensive. The Crucial BX100 is at a great price for the high performance and space it offers, and is a much better deal.
5. Paying $465 for a GTX 970 is overpriced. The EVGA GTX 970 SSC is slightly faster than the MSI model and costs much less, especially after rebate. It does have several displayport connectors, so you're covered there.

Some items stayed the same but were cheaper elsewhere, like the power supply. If I understand correctly what the FirePod does, it completely bypasses any sound card and the motherboard's integrated sound chipset, so neither will be doing anything and you won't actually be using the sound card for anything. Yes, you'll need a Firewire card for the FirePod, and the card you linked to should do just fine.

DVD drives are not really required anymore unless you have a specific need for them. Feel free to add one back to the list if you need it for your music production. Samsung is a good brand and this model is cheap at just $15.

Do you also need a copy of Windows?

 

[Lilalaunebaer]

VTX3D's not very well known, I only found this one short review. It might be a better idea to go with Asus for the better known brand. Then again, 24 months warranty for Gigabyte doesn't sound bad. It's up to you.

Will probably go with the Asus, had Asus before and had a good experience, it´s new and i can get it tomorrow. Need it for arkham knight.

Thanks.

 

[Why would you do that?]

How about this for an mATX option?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($26.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97N-Gaming 5 Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($128.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($177.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC ACX 2.0 Video Card ($324.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Node 304 (White) Mini ITX Tower Case ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Cooler Master 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($70.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1066.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-21 02:29 EDT-0400

As for your questions:

1. You've figured out that high single core speed benefits most games well, but you should also know that the i7 4790K is a quad core processor with hyperthreading, so it effectively works as if it had 8 cores. The i5 4690K might be the better choice for you, it is also an overclockable quad core processor but without the hyperthreading ability that splits each of the four cores into two virtual cores. The only other real difference is the clock speed which both being overclockable, means you can save some money by getting the comparable i5 4690K and overclock it for better performance. The hyperthreading does not really improve game performance, it's more effective for programs that can take advantage of more than 4 cores like video encoders or computational programs. At stock and overclocked speeds for gaming performance, the i5 4690K and i7 4790K are nearly identical.

The Broadwell (5xxx series) processors are not really recommended at this point, they don't seem to offer much of anything that would be an appreciable improvement over the current 4xxx series processors besides somewhat lower power draw and stronger integrated graphics. Unless energy efficiency and power draw is extremely important to you, it's probably not worth looking at seriously.

Skylake (6xxx series) are not out yet and are rumored for launch in 2~3 months. These models will be the ones that require a new motherboard platform and DDR4, so they will come with higher initial costs.

2. From what I've heard, the GTX 970 is equal to twin GTX 960s in SLI, except without the potential headaches and pitfalls of running multiple GPUs. The GTX 960's GPU chip design is more or less half that of the GTX 970/980, so that makes sense.

The GTX 970 is very much recommended over the GTX 960 if your budget allows for it. A cheaper option in between would be the AMD R9 290, it costs not much more than the GTX 960 yet can offer good performance levels just below that of the GTX 970. The R9 290 does have increased power draw and heat while not being as quiet, compared to both the GTX 960 and 970, though.

3. More expensive motherboards come with more features, gimmicks, and better circuitry allowing for greater overclocking , etc. It's a lot to explain if I were to go into detail, but that's the gist of it. For Z97 and socket 1150 builds, I've never really had a need to recommend a motherboard that cost more than $130 or so. To me, beyond that price point motherboards become somewhat unnecessary. For Z97 motherboards that have decent features and even good overclocking ability, I've never gone wrong looking at the $90~130 price range. Even cheaper motherboards will do for those who have zero need for overclocking.

4. Sound card (for audiophiles, etc), second graphics card (crossfire or SLI for improved performance), add-in USB/firewire/SATA/etc controllers to add more ports, etc.

5. It's not a bad build at all. It's not the best if you're looking for best performance for the cost, but the performance would be very solid.

The RVZ01 is a very nice case, but somewhat hard to build in due to the lack of space. It's not awful, but you'll have to be careful about choosing your parts to go into the PC, so you may want to consider some alternatives.

I already voiced my concern about the processor, so I'll leave that alone. As for the cooler, the stock Intel heatsink will work but it is inadequate for overclocking. Some people have had success using the Corsair H55 cooler with that case, while Silverstone also makes a cooler called the NT06 Pro which is more or less intended for the RVZ01 and should also allow for some slight to moderate overclocking.

The 450 watt PSU is a bit low on wattage, if you were to go with that model and a GTX 970, it will run just fine but I would not recommend any overclocking at all. Silverstone does make a more expensive 600 watt version of that power supply that you may want to consider, though.

M.2 SSDs have potential for very high performance, but are also extremely pricey. I'd consider a cheaper but still excellent cost-efficient 2.5" SSD like the Crucial BX100/MX100/MX200 or the Samsung 850 Evo.

Wow, thanks for the very long post! Some follow-up questions and remarks:

- Your suggested build is nice. It doesn't look like the case supports any external drive bays, though, i.e. no Blu-Ray drive. I know I could buy a USB one, but I would prefer a more permanent solution. Besides that detail, I might end up basing my actual build off yours.

- The i5 4690K seems to be a great CPU, and it's something I am strongly considering buying. Its performance with the Dolphin emulator is not that much less than the i7 4790K's performance. However, my biggest concern with the i5 is with compatibility with future games. I remember hearing that, with the Xbox One and PS4 both being octacore systems, PC games will start to require more than four cores. Will it be much of a loss if I only have the i5 with four cores and no hyperthreading?

- I kind of do care about power consumption. It might sound silly, but the PC will probably be on 24/7 mostly because my family's kind of lazy, haha. It's also where I currently store files I access over the network. Plus, I would like for it to run cooler, especially considering it'll be a portable / SFF system. The R9 290 you suggested probably wouldn't be the best fit for me for those reasons.

- I was actually hoping to not overclock, but I would totally try it at times. One of the things I really liked about the i7 was the high base clock speed. If I ended up with the i5 I would probably want to overclock when using Dolphin, which means no stock cooler and more powerful power supply. It's something I'll have to consider...

Thanks for the very long and detailed post, though! Among other things, I will likely decide to not go for the M.2 SSD and I might go with a different case that can fit a normal (and cheaper) power supply, even if it isn't quite as portable...

 

[The Red Wizard]

I'd change the motherboard. The cheaper MSI MoBos have some bad to mixed reception, and from what I've used the build quality for the price compared to other brands is just bad.
I'd never used the Asus Z97-P and Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3, but wouldn't be surprised if they were better.

Thank you. I've updated it with the Asus.

 

[Cheeseman Battitude]

Which would be better? 27 inch 1080p (probably that nice Asus 279H everyone likes,) or 29 inch 21:9, 2560x1080 monitor? Huge screen or wider screen? I have an R9 290.

 

[RGM79]

Wow, thanks for the very long post! Some follow-up questions and remarks:

- Your suggested build is nice. It doesn't look like the case supports any external drive bays, though, i.e. no Blu-Ray drive. I know I could buy a USB one, but I would prefer a more permanent solution. Besides that detail, I might end up basing my actual build off yours.

- The i5 4690K seems to be a great CPU, and it's something I am strongly considering buying. Its performance with the Dolphin emulator is not that much less than the i7 4790K's performance. However, my biggest concern with the i5 is with compatibility with future games. I remember hearing that, with the Xbox One and PS4 both being octacore systems, PC games will start to require more than four cores. Will it be much of a loss if I only have the i5 with four cores and no hyperthreading?

- I kind of do care about power consumption. It might sound silly, but the PC will probably be on 24/7 mostly because my family's kind of lazy, haha. It's also where I currently store files I access over the network. Plus, I would like for it to run cooler, especially considering it'll be a portable / SFF system. The R9 290 you suggested probably wouldn't be the best fit for me for those reasons.

- I was actually hoping to not overclock, but I would totally try it at times. One of the things I really liked about the i7 was the high base clock speed. If I ended up with the i5 I would probably want to overclock when using Dolphin, which means no stock cooler and more powerful power supply. It's something I'll have to consider...

Thanks for the very long and detailed post, though! Among other things, I will likely decide to not go for the M.2 SSD and I might go with a different case that can fit a normal (and cheaper) power supply, even if it isn't quite as portable...

1. There are other cases you could look at. I don't know how often you need to carry around the computer, but there are cases with carrying handles like the Bitfenix Prodigy (comes in mITX and mATX versions that have identical exterior). Other cube-style cases without the admittedly large protruding handles would be the Silverstone SG09 and SG10, Rosewill Legacy W1, etc. All of those support standard power supplies and don't require overpriced small form factor PSUs.

2. The future is hard to predict. It's only been 18 months since the PS4/XB1 launched, but there doesn't seem to be any concrete evidence that future games will require more cores, just a lot of hope and "we should do that". Developers for the PS4 and XB1 are/were both limited to accessing only 6 CPU cores (source: [PS4][XB1]) and even then, it's not a given that developers will make use of all the cores available to them, not all games need it either. If you also look at Steam's hardware survey numbers, the vast majority of PCs out there used for gaming would apparently have dual or quad core processors. Most PC developers have to make the best use of their time, and deliver a game that works on as many PCs as possible. I think that's why the current trend has been to build games optimized for 2~4 cores. There are a few game engines out there that can scale up to 8 or more processing threads fairly well, but still run well on quad core systems. Also, core count isn't everything either, architecture and performance per core still counts for a lot..

There's a lot of talk about what DirectX 12 will bring to the table in terms of improved support and handling of multiple CPU cores, but so far there's nothing that has come of it.. yet.

In any case, it seems unlikely that buying a i5 4690K will bite you in the ass a few years later, games that can make use of more cores won't run poorly just because you "only" have four cores. In general, games benefit more easily from higher clock speed than extra cores because the former directly affects processing speed whereas the latter is something that the developers and programmers have to properly build into the game engine to make use of extra cores.

3. No problem, the GTX 960 and 970 are right up your alley then.

4. Broadwell might be an option for you if you really want the lower power consumption, but considering how there's not a lot of useful difference between the current 4xxx and new 5xxx models, it's definitely cheaper to just get the 4690K or 4790K and just underclock and undervolt it to get similar lower power consumption. With the right BIOS settings, you can keep the CPU in a low power state that will clock up to a higher speed when work needs to be done, similar to the stock turbo boost feature. That can also apply to overclocking.

Looking at the benchmarking results chart, it seems that all of the i7 4xxx models are overclocked, whereas the 4690K result is at stock speed. It seems that the i5 when overclocked should closely match the overclocked i7 results (the i5 4670K definitely does well). I just wanted to say that if you were to buy the i7 processor, you would still have to overclock it to achieve "A level" performance according to the chart.

Anyway, thanks for the consideration, repost your updated build here later on and some of the other thread regulars can take a look at it. I know the others definitely know more about SFF case suggestions than I do.

 

[Kayant]

Wow, thanks for the very long post! Some follow-up questions and remarks:

- Your suggested build is nice. It doesn't look like the case supports any external drive bays, though, i.e. no Blu-Ray drive. I know I could buy a USB one, but I would prefer a more permanent solution. Besides that detail, I might end up basing my actual build off yours.

- The i5 4690K seems to be a great CPU, and it's something I am strongly considering buying. Its performance with the Dolphin emulator is not that much less than the i7 4790K's performance. However, my biggest concern with the i5 is with compatibility with future games. I remember hearing that, with the Xbox One and PS4 both being octacore systems, PC games will start to require more than four cores. Will it be much of a loss if I only have the i5 with four cores and no hyperthreading?

- I kind of do care about power consumption. It might sound silly, but the PC will probably be on 24/7 mostly because my family's kind of lazy, haha. It's also where I currently store files I access over the network. Plus, I would like for it to run cooler, especially considering it'll be a portable / SFF system. The R9 290 you suggested probably wouldn't be the best fit for me for those reasons.

- I was actually hoping to not overclock, but I would totally try it at times. One of the things I really liked about the i7 was the high base clock speed. If I ended up with the i5 I would probably want to overclock when using Dolphin, which means no stock cooler and more powerful power supply. It's something I'll have to consider...

Thanks for the very long and detailed post, though! Among other things, I will likely decide to not go for the M.2 SSD and I might go with a different case that can fit a normal (and cheaper) power supply, even if it isn't quite as portable...

1. Mini-itx cases with 5.25 bays are not common due to the case and form factor if you really do want a blu-ray drive. You have two options either bump the case form factor to micro-atx or you can get an external disc reader

2. I wouldn't worry to much about scaling if these early synthetic benchmarks are to go by -

The DirectX 12 path on the other hand scales up moderately well from 2 to 4 cores, but doesn’t scale up beyond that. This is due to the fact that at these settings, even pushing over 100K draw calls, both GPUs are solidly GPU limited. Anything more than 4 cores goes to waste as we’re no longer CPU-bound. Which means that we don’t even need a highly threaded processor to take advantage of DirectX 12’s strengths in this scenario, as even a 4 core processor provides plenty of kick.

http://www.legitreviews.com/looking...mance-3dmark-api-overhead-feature-test_160936

Even AMD's benchmark shows no scaling outside 6 cores. The PS4 and XB1 don't use all 8 cores for gaming atm. PS4 has 6, whilst XB1 has 6 + iirc up to 80% or the seventh core.

3. With power consumption you can do two things I think. Go with a less power hungry parts i.e going with a 960 instead of the 970 or improve efficiency with a better rated power supply with 80+ gold or above efficiency.

4. That's not a bad idea if you really don't feel like overclocking or have no plans to in the future although the potential of going with an Z97 motherboard and K processor is wasted a bit because they are meant for overclocking

 

[RGM79]

I'm putting a build together for about £800 (UK based), but it also needs a monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse. I was wondering if anyone would be able to offer some opinions on what I've picked for computer parts.

[Basic Desktop Questions]

• Your Current Specs: None
• Budget: £800 for PC, monitor and accessories (UK)
• Main Use: Light Gaming (5), Gaming (5), Emulation (PS2/Wii) (1), Video Editing (1), Streaming games in HD (2), 3D/Model work (and what program) (1), General Usage (Word, Web, 1080p playback) (4).
• Monitor Resolution: 1920 x 1080, no future upgrades, new monitor neede
• List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well: No specific games that must run
• Looking to reuse any parts?: No reusable parts
• When will you build?: ASAP
• Will you be overclocking?: No

So far, I've got the following:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£154.98 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-P ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£62.70 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£46.22 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£61.36 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (£148.00 @ Aria PC)
Case: Antec GX500 ATX Mid Tower Case (£36.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£40.60 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (£67.95 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: LG 22MP55HQ-P 60Hz 22.0" Monitor (£105.84 @ Amazon UK)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 - UK Layout Wired Standard Keyboard (£10.49 @ Ebuyer)
Mouse: Logitech G402 Wired Optical Mouse (£34.99 @ Amazon UK)
Speakers: Creative Labs Inspire T10 10W 2ch Speakers (£29.98 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £800.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-21 11:25 BST+0100

I think this build would be better, you would be able to overclock it in the future if needed for a longer useful life before the CPU is obsolete. It includes a better processor, an aftermarket heatsink, slightly faster RAM, a better 7200RPM hard drive, a slightly faster GTX 960, a stronger power supply, and somewhat better speakers. The monitor is cheaper but still decent, the keyboard is better, but the mouse is somewhat cheaper than the Logitech G402 in terms of feature/quality.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£177.95 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.97 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-P ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£62.70 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£39.78 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£56.34 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (£158.91 @ Ebuyer)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.65 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£33.78 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (£67.95 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: BenQ GL2250HM 60Hz 21.5" Monitor (£91.48 @ Scan.co.uk)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse (£26.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Speakers: Creative Labs Inspire T3300 27W 2.1ch Speakers (£29.95 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £802.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-21 12:45 BST+0100

If you're adamant about not overclocking, then you can go with a cheaper motherboard and processor as well as leave out the 212 Evo heatsink, that leaves more money for the rest of the PC for a better graphics card and other stuff.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£141.26 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£35.99 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£35.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£56.34 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£211.19 @ Aria PC)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£28.71 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£47.99 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (£67.95 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: BenQ GL2250HM 60Hz 21.5" Monitor (£91.48 @ Scan.co.uk)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 - UK Layout Wired Standard Keyboard (£10.49 @ Ebuyer)
Mouse: Logitech G402 Wired Optical Mouse (£34.99 @ Amazon UK)
Speakers: Creative Labs Inspire T3300 27W 2.1ch Speakers (£29.95 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £791.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-21 12:55 BST+0100

I put the cheaper non-overclocking i5 processor with a cheaper non-overclocking H81 motherboard with the proper lower speed RAM and a small but excellent budget case on this version of the parts list. I also put a stronger power supply on the list to better support the R9 290 (500 watts is a bit low). I added back your choice of mouse and keyboard because it fits in the budget. Despite not being overclockable, the R9 290 makes this build even more capable for gaming than the first build with the overclockable i5 4690K processor and the GTX 960.

One last thing to mention, if you want to save even more money and don't mind taking a slight risk:

Windows 7/8.1 licenses can be bought from reddit's microsoftsoftwareswap for £15 or less. These are most likely legitimate keys that are resold from educational programs like Technet or Dreamspark. However, you are dealing with a person instead of a retailer, and informal Windows keys sales are not approved by Microsoft and probably breaking some licensing agreement, but it's not illegal. The risks involved are that the person could be selling you a fake or used key, or that Microsoft may refuse to give you support and/or deactivate your license and refuse to reactivate it. That's not very likely, usually it only happens if the seller and their list of sold keys was caught. We've had people here using those keys without issues for a long time and others who say Microsoft deactivated their key after several months.

 

[Sorral]

Planning on upgrading the GPU to the Fury X although after benchmarks and reviews. Any reasons I should not go for it or still too early to tell?

I'm not going to use gsync, HDMI 1.4 isn't an issue, and I would go for the 980ti had Nvidia handled Kepler better as I don't want to drop that much money when they might start doing the same to Maxwell around Pascal's release.

Which would be better? 27 inch 1080p (probably that nice Asus 279H everyone likes,) or 29 inch 21:9, 2560x1080 monitor? Huge screen or wider screen? I have an R9 290.

Honestly, I feel that if you're going 27"+, you might as well go for the bigger FOV/Resolution especially if your GPU allows it, which I believe yours does on 2560x1080.

I would have gone for a quality 1440p, but that one was over 100% hiked up in the price where I am, so I settled on this LG for now. I am really glad I got it because I notice the increased resolution in everything I do and it is not as cumbersome as multi-monitors. You will run into a game every now and then that doesn't support 2560x1080, but I can only really recall two and one of them (Loadout) was just locked at 1080p.

 

[Rebel Leader]

Got the computer back but the problem occured agian..


what happen if I replace my MB with the excat same one?

WouldI have to get another copy of windows?

 

[BIGWORM]

Anyone in here have an older low mid-range nVidia GPU they're selling? Something like a 750 or equivalent? I'd like to start getting my son's computer built in the near future.

 

[btkadams]

VTX3D's not very well known, I only found this one short review. It might be a better idea to go with Asus for the better known brand. Then again, 24 months warranty for Gigabyte doesn't sound bad. It's up to you.



OK, Canadian prices are fine. Memory Express and NCIX have a pricematching policy which more or less allows you to refer to competitors' prices, that can let you save a ton of money and get all your parts from just one or two places, although sometimes they might refuse to match certain retailers. I've had better luck with pricematching with Memory Express than NCIX in my experience.

Anyway, here's my version of your build.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($284.98 @ DirectCanada)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($34.05 @ Vuugo)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-E ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($124.99 @ NCIX)
Memory: Kingston Fury White Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($109.88 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Crucial BX100 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($169.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC ACX 2.0 Video Card ($399.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Corsair Air 540 ATX Mid Tower Case ($144.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: Cooler Master 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ NCIX)
Total: $1338.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-21 04:35 EDT-0400

Your original parts list seems to total to $1634.90 before any kind of shipping and taxes. My parts list is $300 cheaper before shipping and taxes and also keeps equivalent performance, although I'll admit it's heavy on mail-in rebates. If you go to this link you can see that the parts list is all available through NCIX and Memory Express. You can try pricematching by giving ME and NCIX the lower prices and links and see if they will accept them.

Here's why I made some of the parts changes:

1. Although that price isn't bad for the motherboard.. it's a refurbished model. A warranty period of just 60 days isn't a good idea. The Asus model I substituted in is brand new and should be more reliable than a refurbished model.
2. I dropped the sound card and the DVD drive from the list, neither are really needed.
3. The Kingston RAM is cheaper and faster, although it's available in low quantities and may run out soon. Try pricematching with ME or NCIX if possible.
4. The Samsung 850 Evo is a good SSD, but it's somewhat expensive. The Crucial BX100 is at a great price for the high performance and space it offers, and is a much better deal.
5. Paying $465 for a GTX 970 is overpriced. The EVGA GTX 970 SSC is slightly faster than the MSI model and costs much less, especially after rebate. It does have several displayport connectors, so you're covered there.

Some items stayed the same but were cheaper elsewhere, like the power supply. If I understand correctly what the FirePod does, it completely bypasses any sound card and the motherboard's integrated sound chipset, so neither will be doing anything and you won't actually be using the sound card for anything. Yes, you'll need a Firewire card for the FirePod, and the card you linked to should do just fine.

DVD drives are not really required anymore unless you have a specific need for them. Feel free to add one back to the list if you need it for your music production. Samsung is a good brand and this model is cheap at just $15.

Do you also need a copy of Windows?

Wow. Thank you so much! The advice and recommendations are greatly appreciated. I'll use your list.

Also, I bought a license of Windows 8 for my MacBook Pro a couple years ago (bootcamp) so I will just be using that. I assume that will work fine?

 

[Cheeseman Battitude]

Honestly, I feel that if you're going 27"+, you might as well go for the bigger FOV/Resolution especially if your GPU allows it, which I believe yours does on 2560x1080.

I would have gone for a quality 1440p, but that one was over 100% hiked up in the price where I am, so I settled on this LG for now. I am really glad I got it because I notice the increased resolution in everything I do and it is not as cumbersome as multi-monitors. You will run into a game every now and then that doesn't support 2560x1080, but I can only really recall two and one of them (Loadout) was just locked at 1080p.

There's a 34 inch 21:9 LG that has Freesync but the operating window for it is really tiny, so it's quite disappointing. Especially as it's well over £100 more expensive than the 29 inch LG. May as well stick to non-Freesync and save some cash.

 

[Leonsito]

Just put together my new PC, but I have a problem with the RAM (I think), if I leave every settings in the Bios in auto, it is operating at 1600Mhz, when it is a 2133 RAM, if I try to activate the XMP profile and put the latencies manually I get a bluescreen in Windows after a while

Computer is:

i5 4690k
Gigabyte GA-Z97X Gaming 5
G-Skill areas 2x4GB 2133Mhz CL 9-11-10-28

Also, I noticed in CPU-Z that the Core Speed is 3700Mhz - 3900Mhz instead of the default 3,5Ghz, and I haven't touched anything OC related, what I see is the multiplier changes between 37x and 39x...

Any clues?

 

[The Red Wizard]

I think this build would be better, you would be able to overclock it in the future if needed for a longer useful life before the CPU is obsolete. It includes a better processor, an aftermarket heatsink, slightly faster RAM, a better 7200RPM hard drive, a slightly faster GTX 960, a stronger power supply, and somewhat better speakers. The monitor is cheaper but still decent, the keyboard is better, but the mouse is somewhat cheaper than the Logitech G402 in terms of feature/quality.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£177.95 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.97 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-P ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£62.70 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£39.78 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£56.34 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (£158.91 @ Ebuyer)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.65 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£33.78 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (£67.95 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: BenQ GL2250HM 60Hz 21.5" Monitor (£91.48 @ Scan.co.uk)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse (£26.38 @ Scan.co.uk)
Speakers: Creative Labs Inspire T3300 27W 2.1ch Speakers (£29.95 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £802.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-21 12:45 BST+0100

If you're adamant about not overclocking, then you can go with a cheaper motherboard and processor as well as leave out the 212 Evo heatsink, that leaves more money for the rest of the PC for a better graphics card and other stuff.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£141.26 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£35.99 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£35.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£56.34 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£211.19 @ Aria PC)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£28.71 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£47.99 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (£67.95 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: BenQ GL2250HM 60Hz 21.5" Monitor (£91.48 @ Scan.co.uk)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 - UK Layout Wired Standard Keyboard (£10.49 @ Ebuyer)
Mouse: Logitech G402 Wired Optical Mouse (£34.99 @ Amazon UK)
Speakers: Creative Labs Inspire T3300 27W 2.1ch Speakers (£29.95 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £791.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-21 12:55 BST+0100

I put the cheaper non-overclocking i5 processor with a cheaper non-overclocking H81 motherboard with the proper lower speed RAM and a small but excellent budget case on this version of the parts list. I also put a stronger power supply on the list to better support the R9 290 (500 watts is a bit low). I added back your choice of mouse and keyboard because it fits in the budget. Despite not being overclockable, the R9 290 makes this build even more capable for gaming than the first build with the overclockable i5 4690K processor and the GTX 960.

One last thing to mention, if you want to save even more money and don't mind taking a slight risk:

Windows 7/8.1 licenses can be bought from reddit's microsoftsoftwareswap for £15 or less. These are most likely legitimate keys that are resold from educational programs like Technet or Dreamspark. However, you are dealing with a person instead of a retailer, and informal Windows keys sales are not approved by Microsoft and probably breaking some licensing agreement, but it's not illegal. The risks involved are that the person could be selling you a fake or used key, or that Microsoft may refuse to give you support and/or deactivate your license and refuse to reactivate it. That's not very likely, usually it only happens if the seller and their list of sold keys was caught. We've had people here using those keys without issues for a long time and others who say Microsoft deactivated their key after several months.

Thank you for such an informative post! I really appreciate you taking the time to be so thorough!

 

[Nachtmaer]

Just put together my new PC, but I have a problem with the RAM (I think), if I leave every settings in the Bios in auto, it is operating at 1600Mhz, when it is a 2133 RAM, if I try to activate the XMP profile and put the latencies manually I get a bluescreen in Windows after a while

Computer is:

i5 4690k
Gigabyte GA-Z97X Gaming 5
G-Skill areas 2x4GB 2133Mhz CL 9-11-10-28

Also, I noticed in CPU-Z that the Core Speed is 3700Mhz - 3900Mhz instead of the default 3,5Ghz, and I haven't touched anything OC related, what I see is the multiplier changes between 37x and 39x...

Any clues?

Have you updated the BIOS? Sometimes motherboards don't support every type of RAM out of the box and later versions fix it. You can always check the support page to see if your memory is on the list.

The CPU thing is nothing to worry about. A 4690k has a standard frequency of 3.5GHz but can boost up to 3.9GHz depending on the load. Think of it as a built-in overclock.

 

[RGM79]

Wow. Thank you so much! The advice and recommendations are greatly appreciated. I'll use your list.

Also, I bought a license of Windows 8 for my MacBook Pro a couple years ago (bootcamp) so I will just be using that. I assume that will work fine?

Have you already activated the copy of Windows? You won't be able to activate two copies of Windows using the same license key.

 

[kennah]

Have you already activated the copy of Windows? You won't be able to activate two copies of Windows using the same license key.

He should be able to reactivate as long as it's not simultaneously installed on both.

 

[xkramz]

help help help.

i been decided on the gtx 970. but now that amd is out with some rebrands (at 8gb) idk what to get. i need the best preformance for the price of around 400-500 dollars.