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[WEGGLES]

Looking to upgrade my PC between now and Fallout4 (I imagine it won't be EPIC CRYSIS NO ONE CAN RUN IT graphics, but Oct is a 3 paycheck month, and I also am pumped for Fallout 4).


I currently have a really old system (i5 750, ATI 5850, 4GB RAM) so I'll need to be replacing the mobo, cpu, gpu, ram. I have a decent case and my PSU is 600W so those should be fine. Will be re-using my SSD.

I was thinking of putting my budget at $1000-$1500 CAD.

My questions are.
a) Is there any real reason to wait until October to build? From what I can tell there isn't much planned for the rest of this year.

b) If I'm gaming on a 1080p monitor, is a budget that high even necessary? I'm willing to spend it if it makes sense, but I don't want to spend $1500 vs $1000 if it'll give me like.... 3 more frames per second or something.

c) Even with the USD -> CAD conversion would it be worth ordering from USA sites? My dad travels a ton for work, so he'll easily be able to bring back parts duty free. I just will have to wait quite a while for me to get them (which I am willing to do if it'll save me a bunch).

I've been out of the "game" for a while, and am not sure where to start.

 

[Thorgal]

So i learned something new today : a card Manufacturer by the Name of PNY .

Does anyone know if they are good or bad reputation wise ?

 

[RGM79]

Looking to upgrade my PC between now and Fallout4 (I imagine it won't be EPIC CRYSIS NO ONE CAN RUN IT graphics, but Oct is a 3 paycheck month, and I also am pumped for Fallout 4).


I currently have a really old system (i5 750, ATI 5850, 4GB RAM) so I'll need to be replacing the mobo, cpu, gpu, ram. I have a decent case and my PSU is 600W so those should be fine. Will be re-using my SSD.

I was thinking of putting my budget at $1000-$1500 CAD.

My questions are.
a) Is there any real reason to wait until October to build? From what I can tell there isn't much planned for the rest of this year.

b) If I'm gaming on a 1080p monitor, is a budget that high even necessary? I'm willing to spend it if it makes sense, but I don't want to spend $1500 vs $1000 if it'll give me like.... 3 more frames per second or something.

c) Even with the USD -> CAD conversion would it be worth ordering from USA sites? My dad travels a ton for work, so he'll easily be able to bring back parts duty free. I just will have to wait quite a while for me to get them (which I am willing to do if it'll save me a bunch).

I've been out of the "game" for a while, and am not sure where to start.

1. Intel's new Skylake processors and Z170 motherboards are expected to have been released by October, so you may want to wait. They will not be compatible with existing processors and motherboards. Performance-wise you won't be missing out on much if you buy sooner, but newer motherboards will be supporting DDR4 and more of USB type C, USB 3.1, etc (ASRock and Gigabyte for example). I haven't heard anything about new graphics cards slated for launch in the next few months, though.

Buying parts early (more than a couple of weeks) before you put them together isn't something we recommend. You're just running down the clock on warranty coverage and the return period of the retailer you buy the parts from. Unless you see a particularly good deal, you won't be saving a lot of money by buying early anyway. Certain things like cases are safe to buy, though.

2. That depends on how you spend your budget and what parts you get. Personally, I'm looking to spend around that much on a new Skylake-based PC myself in a couple of months, maybe not reusing as many parts as you are, though. There are sweet spots for performance-to-price (e.g., GTX 970 and GTX 980 Ti are good, and it's hard to recommend anything more expensive than a i7 5820K, etc) and you probably don't want to spend too much on certain parts, but it'll depend on what you're buying exactly.

3. I've always felt that Canadian prices kinda suck for parts like the power supply and sometimes RAM and motherboard. Again, it'll depend on what parts you are looking to buy, price differentials aren't always static and sometimes CAD prices are quite close to USD prices after the exchange rate on some things like processors. Maybe keep an eye on websites like slickdeals for computer parts when your dad is traveling in the US.

So i learned something new today : a card Manufacturer by the Name of PNY .

Does anyone know if they are good or bad reputation wise ?

I feel that PNY has a more budget-oriented reputation and doesn't quite measure up to the performance of the heavyweights like EVGA and Gigabyte, but PNY doesn't seem to be totally awful. I would feel just fine recommending PNY RAM and graphics card if available at a good performance and price level. For other products I might stick to proven manufacturers and brands, though.

There was a bit of bait-and-switch shadiness from PNY a while ago, but not nearly as well known or quite a big a deal as Kingston's SSD bait-and-switch. However, it's not like larger companies like Gigabyte don't do things that way either.

Concerns like customer service are hard to say, every company has good and bad experiences.

 

[Xplatformer]

Looking to upgrade my PC between now and Fallout4 (I imagine it won't be EPIC CRYSIS NO ONE CAN RUN IT graphics, but Oct is a 3 paycheck month, and I also am pumped for Fallout 4).


I currently have a really old system (i5 750, ATI 5850, 4GB RAM) so I'll need to be replacing the mobo, cpu, gpu, ram. I have a decent case and my PSU is 600W so those should be fine. Will be re-using my SSD.

I was thinking of putting my budget at $1000-$1500 CAD.

My questions are.
a) Is there any real reason to wait until October to build? From what I can tell there isn't much planned for the rest of this year.

b) If I'm gaming on a 1080p monitor, is a budget that high even necessary? I'm willing to spend it if it makes sense, but I don't want to spend $1500 vs $1000 if it'll give me like.... 3 more frames per second or something.

c) Even with the USD -> CAD conversion would it be worth ordering from USA sites? My dad travels a ton for work, so he'll easily be able to bring back parts duty free. I just will have to wait quite a while for me to get them (which I am willing to do if it'll save me a bunch).

I've been out of the "game" for a while, and am not sure where to start.

Gaming at 1080p....and no plans to overclock...you get either a Gtx 970 or an R9 390 (not the X model)

You should get a gpu for no more than $300-$400. I'd recommend getting a 970...or wait until AMD fixes their damn 390 driver issues.

That leaves u with $600-$700 for the rest of your system. It can be done.

 

[zeroeffect]

Got an RMA GTX 980 in from EVGA yesterday. Wondering what's the best benchmark besides OCCT/Furmark suggested in OP to expose any instabilities? I ran UEngine Valley maxed out for about 4 hours last night with no problems. I know about Furmark but I read that could actually damage your card due to unrealistic stress on it. Is 3DMark 11 any good?

 

[Thorgal]

1.

I feel that PNY has a more budget-oriented reputation and doesn't quite measure up to the performance of the heavyweights like EVGA and Gigabyte, but PNY doesn't seem to be totally awful. I would feel just fine recommending PNY RAM and graphics card if available at a good performance and price level. For other products I might stick to proven manufacturers and brands, though.

There was a bit of bait-and-switch shadiness from PNY a while ago, but not nearly as well known or quite a big a deal as Kingston's SSD bait-and-switch. However, it's not like larger companies like Gigabyte don't do things that way either.

Concerns like customer service are hard to say, every company has good and bad experiences.

Huh thanks , i was not planning to buy anything from them but while browsing the store i came across their 980 ti and i never heard of them so thought id ask .

this will be my new card and with a little luck ( and without me melting in this scorching hot weather ) i will have it by this weekend .

 

[demented]

Not sure if the right place to ask but I need some help quickly.

I've been getting random PC freezes for a while, first it was common then it stopped for months and now it started again. I thought it was one of my HDD dying so today I disconnected all but main one with windows (SSD), where as soon as I run chrome PC just locks up, can't move mouse or anything, gotta do a hard restart. When running in safe mode and I try chrome there, without internet if it matters, it doesn't happen so I assume it's a driver issue?

I've been meaning to upgrade to windows 10 when it comes out but that's not gonna be for a bit more so I'd rather just fix this now then go through the pain of formatting, reinstalling etc.

I'm running Win7 and SSD in question is samsung 840 pro. As I assume it's driver issue I'm gonna start uninstalling random ones and hoping it fixes it but doubt it's gonna be that easy, anyone knows a better way to go about this?

 

[LAA]

I would recommend staying with the 212 Evo heatsink, it is much better than the compact heatsink in terms of noise, cooling ability, as well as as being able to handle overclocking. The Aerocool X3 case you chose is wider and will accommodate heatsinks up to 186mm height, so you should definitely go with the larger cooler.

Awesome, thanks for the help everyone, everything's been ordered. Hopefully I should have everything by saturday, if not will probably be early next week.

Looking forward to building my first PC! Will share how it goes!

 

[zeroeffect]

Not sure if the right place to ask but I need some help quickly.

I've been getting random PC freezes for a while, first it was common then it stopped for months and now it started again. I thought it was one of my HDD dying so today I disconnected all but main one with windows (SSD), where as soon as I run chrome PC just locks up, can't move mouse or anything, gotta do a hard restart. When running in safe mode and I try chrome there, without internet if it matters, it doesn't happen so I assume it's a driver issue?

I've been meaning to upgrade to windows 10 when it comes out but that's not gonna be for a bit more so I'd rather just fix this now then go through the pain of formatting, reinstalling etc.

I'm running Win7 and SSD in question is samsung 840 pro. As I assume it's driver issue I'm gonna start uninstalling random ones and hoping it fixes it but doubt it's gonna be that easy, anyone knows a better way to go about this?

If you have a 900 series GPU from Nvidia their past 3 drivers cause driver crashes in Windows using Chrome. They have a hot fix for it now but no official Windows Certified release yet. Doesn't sound like that's what's happening to you though.

 

[demented]

AMD 7970 here, I'll try new driver. Running verifier.exe now and gonna see the log hopefully

Edit: running verifier.exe in hopes it detects something, but no chrome won't cause the crash lol

 

[WEGGLES]

1. Intel's new Skylake processors and Z170 motherboards are expected to have been released by October, so you may want to wait.

Buying parts early (more than a couple of weeks) before you put them together isn't something we recommend. You're just running down the clock on warranty coverage and the return period of the retailer you buy the parts from. Unless you see a particularly good deal, you won't be saving a lot of money by buying early anyway. Certain things like cases are safe to buy, though.

2. That depends on how you spend your budget and what parts you get. Personally, I'm looking to spend around that much on a new Skylake-based PC myself in a couple of months, maybe not reusing as many parts as you are, though. There are sweet spots for performance-to-price (e.g., GTX 970 and GTX 980 Ti are good, and it's hard to recommend anything more expensive than a i7 5820K, etc) and you probably don't want to spend too much on certain parts, but it'll depend on what you're buying exactly.

3. I've always felt that Canadian prices kinda suck for parts like the power supply and sometimes RAM and motherboard. Again, it'll depend on what parts you are looking to buy, price differentials aren't always static and sometimes CAD prices are quite close to USD prices after the exchange rate on some things like processors. Maybe keep an eye on websites like slickdeals for computer parts when your dad is traveling in the US

I'll look into Skylake. If it has enough to make it worth waiting, I will.

And the bit about running out the warranty is something I hadn't considered! Thanks for pointing that out.

And the Canadian dollar has been pretty bad lately. I did a quick comparison on USA/CAD prices for video cards and it seems I'll save ~$50 or so on a 980Ti, and that's not factoring in higher sales tax in Canada. But then is $50 REALLY worth having potential headaches with warranties? I live 2 hours or so from my parents, so I don't see them often. If there's something wrong with my card and the warranty only applies in the USA etc. That'll be a headache.

Gaming at 1080p....and no plans to overclock...you get either a Gtx 970 or an R9 390 (not the X model)

You should get a gpu for no more than $300-$400. I'd recommend getting a 970...or wait until AMD fixes their damn 390 driver issues.

That leaves u with $600-$700 for the rest of your system. It can be done.

The 970 seems to make sense. I was looking at the 980Ti but all the benchmarks were for like 4k/1440p etc. Probably means it's more muscle than I need. No use "future proofing" or anything like that, better off buying for now. I'll likely keep my budget closer to 1k and just keep the extra for games. Maybe a second monitor.

 

[zeroeffect]

AMD 7970 here, I'll try new driver. Running verifier.exe now and gonna see the log hopefully

Edit: running verifier.exe in hopes it detects something, but no chrome won't cause the crash lol

I'd recommend using DDU to wipe out GPU drivers completely on your computer especially AMD drivers. It cleans the registries out too so it can prevent any conflict with a new driver install.

 

[RukusProvider]

So I currently have a Dell 3008wfp which I really like due to the size and resolution (1600p).

However, it'd seem the G-Sync monitors are the ones to get. Is the upcoming Asus the one to wait for?

I don't want 4k as I don't want to go SLI. I rather play at 1440p/1600p with everything maxed out or use DSR if the game is older.

 

[Nostremitus]

Gaming at 1080p....and no plans to overclock...you get either a Gtx 970 or an R9 390 (not the X model)

You should get a gpu for no more than $300-$400. I'd recommend getting a 970...or wait until AMD fixes their damn 390 driver issues.

That leaves u with $600-$700 for the rest of your system. It can be done.

What 390 driver issue? I have a 290X but installed the 390's 15.20 drivers and haven't had any issues.

 

[Arkanius]

Oh god Fury X was just put on sale here

700€ for the Sapphire version

I feel so tempted, but the pump noise hardware problems are making me anxious

I really believe the drivers will improve the performance greatly on the card, and Watercooling is a huge plus for me.

 

[GatticusFinch]

Gigabyte 980 Ti G1 is in stock at Newegg. I just grabbed one. Go go go!

 

[BolognaOni]

I don't think there is any such thing as "overkill" in a GPU. The industry moves fast, games demand more and more and more. So go for the best GPU you can afford at all times. It will also make it easier for you to go for a higher res display if you choose to down the road.

I know nothing about the Node 304 though, so I can't comment on the build in general as far as getting things in there!

Usually I'd agree, but I really feel like things are sort of stuck resolution wise right now with the whole 1080p thing. A 980 at 1080p is a pretty poor value, at least with current games. You're dropping an extra $200 (about a 60% increase in price) on your video card, and getting very little for it at 1080p. Now, granted, that may change with newer games, but I sort of doubt it. For the most part everything graphic intensive is also going to be on consoles as well as PC, so for the next couple years I'd wager the 970 will run everything well at 1080p.

If you think you're going to bump it up in the near future, go 980, but if not, there's really not a lot of reason to. You'd be better off saving for a new monitor, because damn those things are expensive if you want a few features and >1080p.

 

[anchorman128]

Forgot to post pics, made my first mini itx build. Everything was super hard to configure perfectly, within the confined space.

Cable management is as good as I can get it, as I have 3 SSDs, and I wanted all my front panel connected.

All things considered I think it looks pretty good.

MSI 6g 980ti overclocked, core i7 4790k, 16gb ram, 750watt corsair psu, gigabyte g1 gaming mini itx mobo, phanteks enthoo evolv itx case.

 

[suffah]

Thanks all for the advice on the last page.

Ordered the evga superclocked 980 TI today and feel good!

 

[Xplatformer]

What 390 driver issue? I have a 290X but installed the 390's 15.20 drivers and haven't had any issues.

Go to youtube and search for R9 390 reviews. Can't use the 290 drivers...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOOhFR_vAvQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_1MOiafL_4

 

[Rex Colt]

Posting from my first ever PC build.

Asus GTX 970 Turbo
i5 4690
MSI Z97 SLI Krait edition
16 gb of Kingston HyperX Beast Ram
256 gb Crucial MX100 SSD
1 TB WD hard drive
Corsair Air 540 case

I'm super happy with how it turned out. I was extremely nervous turning it on for the first time.

 

[Nostremitus]

Go to youtube and search for R9 390 reviews. Can't use the 290 drivers...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOOhFR_vAvQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_1MOiafL_4

Windows is automatically installing the wrong driver. It's installing the 290 drivers and causing the issues from what i can tell based on what the people with the issue are saying. It looks like their PCs boot fine but then the Windows update tool is pulling the wrong driver for the automatic update.

I own a 290X and have installed the 390 drivers. There's nothing wrong with them as far as I can tell. They increased my performance.

 

[zeroeffect]

Thanks all for the advice on the last page.

Ordered the evga superclocked 980 TI today and feel good!

If they don't have an official windows certified release for the current hot fix drivers for nvidia 900 cards by the time you get it I'd highly recommend using the current hotfix available until they release a certified driver. If you do not you'll likely run into TDR crashes in Windows in both games and using Chrome possibly making you think you have an unstable GPU/OC.

That goes for anyone in here. If you use Google Chrome a lot you'll want to get these hotfix drivers because for some reason NVIDIA overlooked stability in their past 3 drivers ignoring the problem. They finally addressed the problem public and said it was hard to pin down is why they were silent about it. A TDR crash in windows is basically the driver not responding fast enough and you get the error "drivers stopped responding". It's extremely annoying.

 

[Odrion]

Need some sage advice on building a new PC. Below are the parts I have, and I'm considering a new case and a GTX 980. Any advice is very appreciated!

Your current specs:

CPU:
Intel Core i7-3770 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
RAM:
16GB
Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard
GPU:
GeForce GTX 650 Ti
PSU:
700 Watts
Case:
CoolerMaster Mini ITX
HDD:
2x2TB

I'm not sure what model exactly (company name/version) the RAM, PSU, or HDDs are.

Budget:
$400-700

Main Use:
4.5 (video games and 3D/model work

Monitor:
Asus VS247H-P 24-Inch
True Resolution: 1920 x 1080
I am going to purchase a second 144Hz monitor once I upgrade my pc (recommendations appreciated)

Games/Applications:
-GTA V
-Witcher 3
-Dragon Age: Inquisition
-Arkham Knight
-Fallout 4 (hopefully)
-WoW/League of Legends

-Google SketchUp (with large detailed files)

Looking to reuse:
Everything but the GPU and the case, I am considering replacing the processor and motherboard if mine are trash and won't hold up.

When will you build:
I would like to get all the pieces together and plug them in before mid-August

Will you be overclocking:
Yes

Thanks again!

If you're willing to spend $700, the 980ti is a phenomenal bang-for-buck high end gpu. If you're thinking of just the regular 980, it's actually a pretty bad value when compared to the 970 or 980ti.

edit: wait, what do you mean your case is overheating? Keplar and Ivybridge should be decently cool architectures, especially if they're not overclocked.

 

[Branson]

Do you guys unplug your PC from power if there is a thunderstorm getting ready to hit you? I've
Been doing that lately for some reason. These summer storms brah.

 

[finalflame]

Do you guys unplug your PC from power if there is a thunderstorm getting ready to hit you? I've
Been doing that lately for some reason. These summer storms brah.

I dunno, I always thought a surge protector was enough. Then some kind of freak power/storm-related event took out my router, DP and LAN ports on my laptop, PS3, and Motorola DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem, all of which were plugged into a pricey, highly rated Belkin surge protector.

I guess it's probably a good idea. If I loved anywhere that still had rain/storms (California, lol), I'd definitely take the precaution, just because of my personal experience.

 

[Nostremitus]

Do you guys unplug your PC from power if there is a thunderstorm getting ready to hit you? I've
Been doing that lately for some reason. These summer storms brah.

I do. I had too many things destroyed when I lived in North Alabama.

 

[Hazaro]

Okay that took longer than expected.
Now you can tell me what to change and why!

Still struggling to find a good 550/650W modular PSU at a reasonable price.
A ton of motherboards are super samey in the $120 price bracket still, but some costs have gone down $10-$20 across the board. USB 3.1 doesn't seem that big a deal to me.
I almost didn't include the GTX 960, they really need a 960Ti or something to fill it out I feel.
Still don't know whether to suggest a specific 2-3TB model or not.
Need to redo some of the case listing in the thread. Almost left out the new Corsair SPEC-01 since the front looks so horrible.

Thanks to RGM for letting me bounce some ideas off.

OLD
NEW

http://bit.ly/NEWPC2015

 

[C.Dark.DN]

Noice^

Do you guys unplug your PC from power if there is a thunderstorm getting ready to hit you? I've
Been doing that lately for some reason. These summer storms brah.

Surge protectors have protected our stuff my whole life.

 

[Odrion]

Okay that took longer than expected.
Now you can tell me what to change and why!

Still struggling to find a good 550/650W modular PSU at a reasonable price.
A ton of motherboards are super samey in the $120 price bracket still, but some costs have gone down $10-$20 across the board. USB 3.1 doesn't seem that big a deal to me.
I almost didn't include the GTX 960, they really need a 960Ti or something to fill it out I feel.
Still don't know whether to suggest a specific 2-3TB model or not.
Need to redo some of the case listing in the thread. Almost left out the new Corsair SPEC-01 since the front looks so horrible.

Thanks to RGM for letting me bounce some ideas off.

OLD
NEW

http://bit.ly/NEWPC2015

The 960 is such shit that maybe it should be left out. Here's hoping the 950 Ti fares better.

double edit: Should the Pentium G3258 still be considered without an asterisk or something? More and more current games are being coded to not run on two core/thread CPUs, and going by this video it has some bad stuttering issues with others. All I see a G3258 useful for these days is for gimmick builds, or a temporary cpu for an overclocking build.

 

[RGM79]

Okay that took longer than expected.
Now you can tell me what to change and why!

Still struggling to find a good 550/650W modular PSU at a reasonable price.
A ton of motherboards are super samey in the $120 price bracket still, but some costs have gone down $10-$20 across the board. USB 3.1 doesn't seem that big a deal to me.
I almost didn't include the GTX 960, they really need a 960Ti or something to fill it out I feel.
Still don't know whether to suggest a specific 2-3TB model or not.
Need to redo some of the case listing in the thread. Almost left out the new Corsair SPEC-01 since the front looks so horrible.

Thanks to RGM for letting me bounce some ideas off.

OLD
NEW

http://bit.ly/NEWPC2015

Sorry that I couldn't help as much as I would have liked to, but maybe we can make some changes or additions later on. Smokey tier isn't too useful honestly, but I feel a bit bad about not finishing it. It's not Smokey enough.

 

[Confrontation]

What's up guys. In about a month or 2, I'll finally be able to upgrade my almost 9 year old PC. Now, this also means that I have absolutely no idea about building a PC or choosing my parts wisely. So I'm hoping your expertise can help me get the best bang for my buck, cause I've waited a long time for this day

Spoiler

that still has to come

.

I'm looking at a budget of €750 or about $850 without OS/Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse. I'm willing to go over it a bit if there's something that can be considered a must have. I live in Belgium but can have my parts shipped to some friends in the Netherlands if that makes things easier (NewEgg?).

I'll be checking out quite a few new games since a whole library will open up for me, so I will spend quite a bit of time playing games on this build, but it will be used for general use a lot as well (I also see myself playing a 'Football Manager' game again in the future, which I guess needs a lot of processing power if I'd like to load a lot of leagues).

I'm not too obsessed with the 120 FPS/4K/ULTRA Settings for latest games, but I would like a rig which could show me what I've been missing in the graphical department all these years, if that's possible. So just the normal 30 to 60 FPS stuff is fine by me.

Also, the looks or colors of the parts/case aren't important to me at all. As long as they're effective and do their job, I'm fine with the aesthetics.

If I need to add any more info, I'll be happy to provide it!

Still hoping if I could get a quick expert opinion on this?

Anyway, during the time I was waiting, I tried to read up on this stuff and try to learn at least the absolute basics. Couple of parts I picked out to see if I'm at least on the right track:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3
HDD: Western Digital WD10EZEX 1TB (not really in need of a SSD, I think)
Graphics Card: GTX 960 (not sure if 2GB or 4GB, but apparently this card is shit, reading couple posts above, so I might need to change this?)

 

[LilJoka]

Im thinking about ebay'ing my 5870 and 4850 for about £70 combined, what GPU can i get that is around that money but matches a 5870? Is it possible? This PC is just a server mainly, web browsing and super light gaming, more likely steam streaming.

Still hoping if I could get a quick expert opinion on this?

Anyway, during the time I was waiting, I tried to read up on this stuff and try to learn at least the absolute basics. Couple of parts I picked out to see if I'm at least on the right track:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3
HDD: Western Digital WD10EZEX 1TB (not really in need of a SSD, I think)
Graphics Card: GTX 960 (not sure if 2GB or 4GB, but apparently this card is shit, reading couple posts above, so I might need to change this?)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (€239.51 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€84.49 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€53.56 @ Pixmania DE)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€54.61 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (€243.58 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (€40.07 @ Home of Hardware DE)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€65.20 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €781.02
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-02 13:18 CEST+0200

Heres a start point

 

[anchorman128]

Forgot to post pics, made my first mini itx build. Everything was super hard to configure perfectly, within the confined space.

Cable management is as good as I can get it, as I have 3 SSDs, and I wanted all my front panel connected.

All things considered I think it looks pretty good.

MSI 6g 980ti overclocked, core i7 4790k, 16gb ram, 750watt corsair psu, gigabyte g1 gaming mini itx mobo, phanteks enthoo evolv itx case.

Oops, didnt realize my pic was broken

 

[Rootbeer]

I'm casually mulling over my options leading up to Skylake. The build will be close to the "smokey" build from Hazaro (thanks for maintaining this, btw), only with a comparable Skylake CPU & mobo. Def going with a 980 Ti or very close equivalent, and 16GB-24GB DDR4 (32 is probably more than I need)

One thing I am still on the fence about is rather I should invest in a 4K monitor or stick to something like 1440p.

My main goals with this system is to have something powerful enough to do VR gaming for the first few years and be able to play all upcoming games at 60fps minimum and on max (or again, very nearly so) settings. I don't have a lot of experience with 4K to know if it's too early to consider 4K AAA gaming viable at decent framerates or if it's still too early to aim for that unless i'm willing to go to extremes such as buying TWO 980 Ti cards.

or let's say that I do buy a 4K monitor, mainly for photo editing/browsing/general computing and plan on running SOME games at 4K and play the others at lower resolutions, does anyone perceive any downsides to this approach?

Curious what other people who plan to build a Skylake system are aiming for?

 

[Kamakazie!]

What s/h cards should I be looking at based on the below:
1080p
4970k cpu
500w PSU
Likely upgrade mid next year for VR
CCurrently catching up on old games and playing CS:GO and Dirt Rally as probably most graphically intensive games.

Upgrading from an AMD 5770 which broke a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Kamakazie!]

I was thinking something like a 7950 would probably suit?
Seen one for £60 s/h of that's a fair deal?

 

[Nachtmaer]

What s/h cards should I be looking at based on the below:
1080p
4970k cpu
500w PSU
Likely upgrade mid next year for VR
CCurrently catching up on old games and playing CS:GO and Dirt Rally as probably most graphically intensive games.

Upgrading from an AMD 5770 which broke a couple of weeks ago.

You could probably pick up whetever suits your budget. PSU should be able to handle it as long as you don't go Crossfire or SLI or go crazy on overclocking. Your CPU won't be a bottleneck for quite some time either.

 

[Kamakazie!]

You could probably pick up whetever suits your budget. PSU should be able to handle it as long as you don't go Crossfire or SLI or go crazy on overclocking. Your CPU won't be a bottleneck for quite some time either.

Yeah thought as much but didn't know if there was any standout card from the last couple of generations.
Think I'm gonna pplump for the 7950 I mentioned above and just have it tide me over.

 

[Nachtmaer]

Yeah thought as much but didn't know if there was any standout card from the last couple of generations.
Think I'm gonna pplump for the 7950 I mentioned above and just have it tide me over.

Sounds fair to me if you're gonna use it more as a stopgap. £60 is a sweet deal for a card basically being equal to a 285 which costs about 100 more.

 

[demented]

I'd recommend using DDU to wipe out GPU drivers completely on your computer especially AMD drivers. It cleans the registries out too so it can prevent any conflict with a new driver install.

I always do this when uninstalling amd drivers: http://www.overclock.net/t/988215/how-to-remove-your-amd-ati-gpu-drivers.

verifier doesn't find anything since it's I'm not getting BSOD just complete lockups. I'm trying to figure out when this started happening and what could be causing it but can't be sure, it's not HDDs that much I figured out. It's annoying that it's so random, yesterday it would crash on chrome everytime but then it stopped and works fine now... until it doesn't like few minutes ago when besides lockup I got mess on my screen, like if monitor was broken and all sort of colors and stuff.

Using ddu now to uninstall and install new beta drivers since old ones are same as ones I have so let's see if anything changes.

 

[Butt_Sanchez]

Hey folks I have a question I hope can be answered. My current house has issues with rain and lightning completely killing the power in the house for like 1 minute.

So I was looking to buy a UPS because these violent shutdowns aren't good for any PC. I have a 850W PSU/GTX980ti/i7 2600k, what should I look for in a UPS to power this kind of hardware for an extra 20 minutes minimum?

 

[longdi]

Skylake platform is coming early next month! Time to wait it out guys.

Intel's first Skylake chips coming in first week of August. The first Skylake chips will be the high-end gaming chips, according to a source.

 

[Kamakazie!]

Sounds fair to me if you're gonna use it more as a stopgap. £60 is a sweet deal for a card basically being equal to a 285 which costs about 100 more.

Awesome, didn't realise they were that fast.
Definitely happy with the deal though. 6 months warranty left and similar cards are going for £25 or so more on eBay atm.

Can't wait to get back into Dirt.

 

[Kamakazie!]

Skylake platform is coming early next month! Time to wait it out guys.

Intel's first Skylake chips coming in first week of August. The first Skylake chips will be the high-end gaming chips, according to a source.

They just skipping Broadwell completely then for high end desktop use?

 

[Sectorseven]

So evidently Skylake "high end gaming" processors will launch in the first week of August, around Gamescom.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2943...ake-chips-coming-in-first-week-of-august.html

edit: see I was beaten.

 

[pj]

Finished my build and have been playing with it for a couple days. Pretty pleased so far.

Parts: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XdQqMp
Pics: http://imgur.com/gallery/Je7yg/

Still deciding what to get as a primary monitor to augment my crappy Dell. I was originally planning to get a fury x + free sync monitor, but that fell through for obvious reasons. Gsync is so expensive

 

[Confrontation]

Im thinking about ebay'ing my 5870 and 4850 for about £70 combined, what GPU can i get that is around that money but matches a 5870? Is it possible? This PC is just a server mainly, web browsing and super light gaming, more likely steam streaming.



PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (€239.51 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€84.49 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€53.56 @ Pixmania DE)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€54.61 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (€243.58 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (€40.07 @ Home of Hardware DE)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€65.20 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €781.02
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-02 13:18 CEST+0200

Heres a start point

Thank you for your time and input!

 

[GatticusFinch]

Now that I am getting rid of my 7970 space heater for a 980 Ti G1, I need some fan advice.

I have a Corsair 600T SE case. Inside looks like this:

I removed both those cages in the front, took one out for good, and moved the other down in front of the PSU (there's a little track for it to sit there) so that the intake was unobstructed. I have a Evo 212+ with push/pull and a rear exhaust fan as well. I also replaced the side window with the mesh and have 2x120mm blowing down in front of the GPU. Here's my issue.

Those two 200mm Corsair fans are hot garbage. The top one broke a long time ago and the front one just died on me as well. Corsair sent me a replacement for the top one, so I have that available, but the fans are awful. Since I removed the cages, the front fan has no fan width restriction, but the top fan is a 200 x 20 mm fan and space is pretty tight with the Evo on there.

Can anyone recommend me some good 200mm case fans? Also, the top of the case has space to put fans on the outside of a cut out area, so I could take out that 200x20mm and put in 2x120mm. Are the Corsair 120AF silents any good?

I've also go those two side intakes because the 7970 was hot as hell. Should I keep those intakes when I put the G1 in or go back to the window? I don't know that I want the front 200mm to be my sole intake though.

 

[wowzors]

Been waiting for skylake, I'm pumped. Finally gonna Upgrade my 2500k

Is windows 8.1 smart enough to know that my computer is the same even if I replace mobo/cpu and ram?