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[knitoe]

It's 250GB.

Ok I'll run the other programs and let you know the temps.

Benchmark it. Crystal Disk Mark in the OP. Any other drive(s)?

 

[SRG01]

It's 250GB.

Ok I'll run the other programs and let you know the temps.

Yes, your temps are much better. You'd probably get slightly better temps with a few case fans, but they seem okay.

Also, XTU is a terrible program to report physical stats of a system. Then again, sometimes other programs aren't as great either. HWMonitor kept saying I was running a IA Offset of +1.9xx volts when I undervolted it

edit: Oh right. Try undervolting and see what kind of temperatures you get. I've read that some 4970k users needed to undervolt to get their temps under control too.

 

[SLX]

Benchmark it. Crystal Disk Mark in the OP. Any other drive(s)?

A WD Blue 1TB 7200RPM, I can give you the exact model number if you need it. And then the ever popular ASUS DVD drive that was like 24 bucks.

 

[RGM79]

It's 250GB.

Ok I'll run the other programs and let you know the temps.

Yes, your temps are much better. You'd probably get slightly better temps with a few case fans, but they seem okay.

Also, XTU is a terrible program to report physical stats of a system. Then again, sometimes other programs aren't as great either. HWMonitor kept saying I was running a IA Offset of +1.9xx volts when I undervolted it

edit: Oh right. Try undervolting and see what kind of temperatures you get. I've read that some 4970k users needed to undervolt to get their temps under control too.

Oh yeah, that reminds me - several months back, someone reported having high temperatures with their 4790K, turns out they had a Gigabyte motherboard and for some reason it was applying a much higher voltage than needed. Similar issues were reported by others and this thread is kind of long, but long story sort a BIOS update solved that problem for them, it might also work for you. See if there are any BIOS updates for your motherboard and apply them.

 

[ElTopo]

Unfortunately, your PC is kinda dated and well.. anemic. You could do with a whole new PC, honestly. Because that's not an option, can you tell us how much you're willing to spend on upgrades? I'd look at getting a new graphics card and an aftermarket CPU cooler so you can overclock your processor and get a little more performance out of it.



Where are you buying the parts? What are you paying for them?
.

About $200-300 for a new card. Which I think is reasonable. Main reason is that I just got laid off and do not have the money right now for a new rig BUT I want to be able to play SF5 when the beta happens (which I know happens in the Fall). When I get the money, I will re-use a lot of pieces from the same rig; the case, PSU (it's 500 watts), RAM sticks, and hard drive.

If you have suggestions for motherboard, Processor, and graphics card that could run current games on high quality (not necessarily on Ultra) but at 60FPS then I'm open to it. Most I'd be willing to spend is $450 in that case and I could probably get another 4 gigs of RAM to bring it up to 12.

 

[SLX]

Yeah I applied the latest BIOS update. I have heard that the 4790K does run hotter than normal under these stress tests? I dunno.

Here is my Crystal Disk test results, Samsung 850 EVO SSD M.2 plugged into the Super M.2 slot on the MSI Z97A Gaming 7 Mobo:

Idle temp on CPU in HWMonitor:

Under Intel XTU test:

 

[SRG01]

Yeah I applied the latest BIOS update. I have heard that the 4790K does run hotter than normal under these stress tests? I dunno.

Here is my Crystal Disk test results, Samsung 850 EVO SSD M.2 plugged into the Super M.2 slot on the MSI Z97A Gaming 7 Mobo:

Just a couple of things: Your voltage isn't dropping on idle (still at 1.27V), so that explains your warm-ish idle temps. Now that I see you're running two fans, the temps are a little on the warm side at full load...

fake edit: wait hold on a second. 1.27V? That doesn't seem right...

 

[knitoe]

Yeah I applied the latest BIOS update. I have heard that the 4790K does run hotter than normal under these stress tests? I dunno.

Here is my Crystal Disk test results, Samsung 850 EVO SSD M.2 plugged into the Super M.2 slot on the MSI Z97A Gaming 7 Mobo:

Your SSD seems fine so their must be some process that is causing your icons startup slow. Maybe, look and see if there is anything weird in the your startup.

As for your high temps, can your scroll up and show use the CPU core voltages under idle and stress testing load? And, what is your ambient temps?

 

[SLX]

As for your high temps, can your scroll up and show use the CPU core voltages under idle and stress testing load? And, what is your ambient temps?

What's the most accurate way to measure ambient temps?

Ok not sure if this is what you want-

Idle:

Under stress test XTU:

Just a couple of things: Your voltage isn't dropping on idle (still at 1.27V), so that explains your warm-ish idle temps. Now that I see you're running two fans, the temps are a little on the warm side at full load...

fake edit: wait hold on a second. 1.27V? That doesn't seem right...

Only have the two Noctua fans on the CPU heatsink. And the rest of the two fans are what came in the Phanteks Enthoo Pro, the exhuast and the HDD one.

Yeah I've been thinking about adding two more fans at the top.

 

[SRG01]

Okay, I'm going to post my own HWMonitor results. Look at the max for my stress test results. The reason why I'm posting this is because I'm noticing something really odd -- and something RGM alluded to in his post.

My system is undervolted -0.080V. Look at my power dissipations. Now look at yours and your voltages.

To follow up on RGM's hunch, and if your motherboard is set on adaptive/auto, your motherboard may be using more voltage than necessary -- and that seems to be somewhat common from other threads including the one he linked.

To put it simply, your 4790k "should" be able to run on 1.22V core voltage. Try using a negative offset and see what happens.

edit: Oh, before you do this: if the undervolt crashes your system, your computer may go into a boot loop. Just unplug and clear the CMOS battery to clear the undervolt setting. That's what happened to my system for like two months when I was experimenting and undervolted it too much.

 

[demosthenes]

Let a friend use my computer and now when I use Chrome it locks up and says call an 866 number for help in fixing. I assume this is some adware/malware. Nothing has been installed. Running Microsoft security essentials. Anyone have this? Anything I should get to delete?

 

[SRG01]

Let a friend use my computer and now when I use Chrome it locks up and says call an 866 number for help in fixing. I assume this is some adware/malware. Nothing has been installed. Running Microsoft security essentials. Anyone have this? Anything I should get to delete?

Malwarebytes. Also download a trial of NOD32.

 

[knitoe]

What's the most accurate way to measure ambient temps?

Ok not sure if this is what you .

Only have the two Noctua fans on the CPU heatsink. And the rest of the two fans are what came in the Phanteks Enthoo Pro, the exhuast and the HDD one.

Yeah I've been thinking about adding two more fans at the top.

Instead of using HWmonitor, please use HWinfo (sensor only) in the OP. Show use the Core# VID and Core temp numbers. Also, it seems like your CPU is not downclocking while idling. Thus, will I've higher idle temps. Check Power Options > change plan settings > change advanced power settings > expand Processor power Management > Minimum processor state is set to 5%.

 

[RGM79]

About $200-300 for a new card. Which I think is reasonable. Main reason is that I just got laid off and do not have the money right now for a new rig BUT I want to be able to play SF5 when the beta happens (which I know happens in the Fall). When I get the money, I will re-use a lot of pieces from the same rig; the case, PSU (it's 500 watts), RAM sticks, and hard drive.

If you have suggestions for motherboard, Processor, and graphics card that could run current games on high quality (not necessarily on Ultra) but at 60FPS then I'm open to it. Most I'd be willing to spend is $450 in that case and I could probably get another 4 gigs of RAM to bring it up to 12.

There's still quite a bit of time until SF5 comes out, you may want to wait closer until then unless you really want to upgrade now. A good Intel i5 processor and motherboard will cost you about $300+ already, so that doesn't leave a lot for a graphics card. For a graphics card alone in the $200~300 range, I'd recommend an R9 290 for best performance, It's better than both a GTX 960 or R9 380 and costs around the same, the lowest priced models are a little over $240 after rebates.

Wait, do you currently have 4GB or 8GB of RAM? You said 2x2GB in the first post.

 

[ElTopo]

There's still quite a bit of time until SF5 comes out, you may want to wait closer until then unless you really want to upgrade now. A good Intel i5 processor and motherboard will cost you about $300+ already, so that doesn't leave a lot for a graphics card. For a graphics card alone in the $200~300 range, I'd recommend an R9 290 for best performance, It's better than both a GTX 960 or R9 380 and costs around the same, the lowest priced models are a little over $240 after rebates.

Wait, do you currently have 4GB or 8GB of RAM? You said 2x2GB in the first post.

I meant to say that I have currently 8GB of RAM.

 

[Celcius]

I plan on upgrading to Windows 10 next month and just wondering if the windows 8 drivers are typically compatible. I just looked up drivers for my mobo and they currently only go up to 8.1 (IDK if they plan to release Windows 10 drivers).

I'm in the same boat. I'm hoping that on launch day, mobo vendors will update their websites with Windows 10 drivers

 

[Mineshaft_Gap]

Have this at work. Seems to work fine, just need to configure it to your liking really.

No need.I'm getting rid of it.

 

[Kelsdesu]

Well, it might be easier if you installed the CPU and heatsink onto the motherboard before putting the motherboard into the case, but it's not impossible to do so afterward.

Overclocking usually isn't recommended with stock heatsinks, they're really not that capable of handling extra heat, but it'll depend on how high you overclock, of course. Yes, you can definitely buy an aftermarket cooler in the future and install it later. Whether or not you can install an aftermarket cooler without taking the motherboard out of the case will depend on whether your case has enough openings and access panels. Some cases have a cut out section under the motherboard that will allow you to access the underside so you can install a backplate, which is something that any decent cooler requires. How accessible it will be depends on your case and motherboard, it's not guaranteed that it will line up perfectly as there are hundreds of slightly different cases and dozens upon dozens of slightly different motherboards.



And if you wake the PC again, it happens again? Try clearing out your graphics drivers with Display Driver Uninstaller, and then install whatever the latest drivers are available for your GTX 780. Maybe check your video cable and connections, reseat your graphics card? Hard to say what could be causing it.



Unfortunately, your PC is kinda dated and well.. anemic. You could do with a whole new PC, honestly. Because that's not an option, can you tell us how much you're willing to spend on upgrades? I'd look at getting a new graphics card and an aftermarket CPU cooler so you can overclock your processor and get a little more performance out of it.



Where are you buying the parts? What are you paying for them?

For example, (not to talk down to you) but I don't know what motherboard you're talking about, MSI has around a dozen different models all named "Z97 Gaming". I don't know what speed or model of RAM you're referring to. Corsair has a bunch of different 750 watt power supplies. Western Digital offers at least 3~4 different 1TB hard drives in different categories for different purposes. Also, Phantek offers more than one full tower case, but I think you must mean the Enthoo Pro because it's the one we recommend in the OP.

It's easier if you could use PCPartPicker or something similar to show us exactly what you're looking at, then I could go over your list and er, minmax the build for best cost and performance.

My bad. I did use pc partpicker. I was on my cell phone and just being lazy.

Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor $259.97

Corsair H55 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler $53.99

MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard $135.99

G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory $95.99

Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $52.49

EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card $334.99

Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case $99.99

Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply $73.98

TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter $37.24

Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 37.9 CFM 120mm Fans $27.89

 

[RGM79]

My bad. I did use pc partpicker. I was on my cell phone and just being lazy.

Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor $259.97

Corsair H55 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler $53.99

MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard $135.99

G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory $95.99

Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $52.49

EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card $334.99

Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case $99.99

Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply $73.98

TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter $37.24

Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 37.9 CFM 120mm Fans $27.89

What country are you in, and what's your budget? Some of these seem like US prices, yet some don't? The processor is really expensive if that's USD.

 

[Kelsdesu]

What country are you in, and what's your budget? Some of these seem like US prices, yet some don't?

U.S.Sir. $1400 tops. Im already at $1100.

 

[RGM79]

U.S.Sir. $1400 tops. Im already at $1100.

Would you prefer to spend more or less? Do you have anything else you need to buy like speakers or monitor? Is this just for games or will you be doing things like video editing or other work?

Hmm, would you be willing to wait? Next month there's new Intel processors and motherboards coming out that will be incompatible with some of the existing parts on sale right now. Performance wise it might not be that big of a difference, but it does come with support for newer tech like DDR4 RAM, USB type C, USB 3.1, Thunderbolt, etc.

In the meantime, here's an example of what I was going to do. This build costs about $1200, but it offers more for the money than your old build did.

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 ($25.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-E ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($91.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Toshiba Product SeriesT01ACA 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($46.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card ($324.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($37.24 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 37.9 CFM 120mm Fans ($27.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1190.03
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-23 01:34 EDT-0400

My changes mainly include:

• More effective CPU cooler that can handle overclocking
• Faster RAM
• 500GB SSD that your earlier build doesn't even have
• Slightly faster GTX 970
• Higher quality power supply

 

[Hazaro]

Let a friend use my computer and now when I use Chrome it locks up and says call an 866 number for help in fixing. I assume this is some adware/malware. Nothing has been installed. Running Microsoft security essentials. Anyone have this? Anything I should get to delete?

Safe Mode System Restore before that date + ADWCleaner

 

[BoosterDuck]

Is the ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2 a good cpu cooler for the i5-4690k?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134

or maybe the Cooler Master Hyper T2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103107

I don't plan on overclocking it, I just need a shorter cooler for my Bitfenix Phenom.

 

[Kelsdesu]

Would you prefer to spend more or less? Do you have anything else you need to buy like speakers or monitor? Is this just for games or will you be doing things like video editing or other work?

Hmm, would you be willing to wait? Next month there's new Intel processors and motherboards coming out that will be incompatible with some of the existing parts on sale right now. Performance wise it might not be that big of a difference, but it does come with support for newer tech like DDR4 RAM, USB type C, USB 3.1, Thunderbolt, etc.

In the meantime, here's an example of what I was going to do. This build costs about $1200, but it offers more for the money than your old build did.

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 ($25.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-E ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($91.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Toshiba Product SeriesT01ACA 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($46.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card ($324.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($37.24 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 37.9 CFM 120mm Fans ($27.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1190.03
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-23 01:34 EDT-0400

My changes mainly include:

• More effective CPU cooler that can handle overclocking
• Faster RAM
• 500GB SSD that your earlier build doesn't even have
• Slightly faster GTX 970
• Higher quality power supply

Thanks man. I made adjustments. I already have my monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers. I honestly need a PC for school, I have nothing right now. but being able to play most games at 1080p 60fps would be nice.
Again, really appreciate it.

 

[madmook]

Also why do my desktop icons take so long to load why? I have a Samsung Evo 850 M.2 plugged into the Super M.2 slot on the Z97A mobo.

Are you on Windows 8.1? Do you have Geforce Experience installed? If so, try disabling the nvidia shield streamer service.

I also had a weird long pause on bootup when I was installing a fresh Windows 8.1 on my new HP Envy Phoenix 850se. Stupid Geforce Experience.

 

[Vuze]

PC GAF, I hope for your assistance regarding cooling once more.
I've noticed some incredibly distracting fan noise coming from the case over the past few days that starts for apparently no reason after I boot up Windows and let it run for 10min or so. The temps are perfectly fine all around and there is no increment that should cause the fan in question to spin up.

I did some troubleshooting and I'm 100% positive it's not one of my CPU fans (they sit at a steady 1300RPM / 900RPM) and it definitely is not the GPU fan (zero fan activity until 60 degrees).

So it's either the stock case fan I use or the PSU fan. According to HWMonitor and Speedfan, the stock case fan (120mm, 3pin) is constantly fluctuating between 1000 and 2000 RPM for no obvious reason, so I hope this is the culprit.

I don't think there is any way to measure the fan speed of the PSU since it's 'stand-alone', right? Tried to determine what's causing the noise by listening to the components when running with an opened case, but I couldn't do it, dunno.

Any ideas what to do? Tried regulating the speed in the BIOS, but I guess it doesn't work since it's a 3pin fan. Personal recommendations for a silent 120mm fan?

Quoting myself since I found a solution (I hope?). I just used the spare 120mm ULN adapter of my Noctua heatsink on the case fan and it now sits at a cozy 800rpm, super silent. I'll have to see if the regulation has a major temperature impact when rendering or gaming but I don't think so.

 

[LilJoka]

What's the most accurate way to measure ambient temps?

Ok not sure if this is what you want-

Idle:
Under stress test XTU:

Only have the two Noctua fans on the CPU heatsink. And the rest of the two fans are what came in the Phanteks Enthoo Pro, the exhuast and the HDD one.

Yeah I've been thinking about adding two more fans at the top.

Too much CPU voltage, make sure the BIOS has been updated first. Then use a negative offset, i recently clocked an average 4790k using the Arctic Freezer Pro 7 to 4.4Ghz at 1.15-1.18v.

 

[Song of the Turtle]

Hey guys, I'm building a new PC and the only thing I still need is an OS. So, whats the cheapest way to buy windows?
I know there are many sites that sell keys for 30€ but how do you then actually download windows?
Any advice?

 

[King Gilga]

Anyone (UK) know if morecomputers.com participated in the 970/980 batman promotion thing? Just wondering so I know if I'm going to order from them or not once the MGS5 promotion thing starts.

 

[SLX]

Are you on Windows 8.1? Do you have Geforce Experience installed? If so, try disabling the nvidia shield streamer service.

I also had a weird long pause on bootup when I was installing a fresh Windows 8.1 on my new HP Envy Phoenix 850se. Stupid Geforce Experience.

Thanks for bringing that up, is it worth installing that or should I just download the driver(s) only. I like it gives me notifications for updates but if Experience is bloatware I'll remove it once I migrate over to Windows 10.

 

[CyanideFuse]

How would this drive hold up for gaming purposes (Seagate 2TB SATA-6Gb 7200rpm 64MB)? https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-335-SE&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279

 

[ACE 1991]

Damn, a guy on Craigslist is selling a brand new, never opened EVGA 980... I have a 290 which I could flip for like $220 on Ebay, would you guys say this is worth it? If this sale is legit, of course.

 

[Widdla]

Is this the right place to post this? If there's anyone in New England here looking for a new gaming PC, I built a beast of a machine that I'm looking to sell-- GTX970, 16gb RAM, Intel i7 4770-k 3.5ghz, Flash SSD + 2tb hard drive for storage, etc. When I originally built it I had some issues with screen tearing, but that went away when I switched from Windows 7 to 8.1. It works perfectly now.

I also went all out with the sound card, for any audiophiles or music producers.It's a Creative Labs Sound Blaster ZxR PCIe Sound Card with headphone amp.

So anyone looking for a new PC on GAF who lives in driveable distance to MA, let me know. I paid over $2,000 for this build but will sell it for $1,200. I figure this is less shady than Craigslist.

Only reason I'm selling is because I need the $$ and I really don't use it as much as I thought I would. Full specs, and about what I paid for them:

Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce GTX970 GDDR5 ($387)
CPU Processor: Intel i7 4770-k 3.5ghz Quad Core ($334)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB DDR3-1600 RAM ($165)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster ZxR PCIe Sound Card with headphone amp ($250)
Motherboard: ASUS Z87-Pro -LGA1150 Intel Z87 ATX ($190)
Blu ray: WH16NS40 16x Internal Blu-ray Rewriter LG ($50)
Hard drive 1: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive ($79)
Hard drive 2: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7,200 RPM ($90)
PSU: Corsair Power Supply ($145)
Fans: Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition Twin Pack Fan and Cool Master Hyper T4 ($60)
Keyboard: Logitech G105 Gaming Keyboard with Backlighting ($50)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit English- OEM ($140)
Thermal Grease: Tuniq TX-4 High Performance Thermal Grease - 3.0g ($13)
Case: iBuy Power Source Black with Window ($50)

 

[Error1355]

MGS V bundle is live

http://www.geforce.com/games-applications/pc-games/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-pain/bundle

Also, which of these 970's would you guys recommend?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=12026881011

<_<

 

[RGM79]

Hey guys, I'm building a new PC and the only thing I still need is an OS. So, whats the cheapest way to buy windows?
I know there are many sites that sell keys for 30&#8364; but how do you then actually download windows?
Any advice?

Here's my usual disclaimer on reddit key sales:

Windows 7/8.1 licenses can be bought from reddit's microsoftsoftwareswap for $20 USD 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.

The sellers will usually link you to an ISO of Windows you can download. Depending on what version of Windows license key you buy, you can also get a official and direct download of Windows from Microsoft servers by entering the license key at one of these links or the program from the links:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/upgrade-product-key-only
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery (for Windows 7)

Also, here's an unofficial mirror to torrent links of official Windows 8.1 ISO files, complete with MD5 and SHA-1 hashes (google it) so you can double check that the file is valid.

http://mirror.corenoc.de/digitalrivercontent.net/

 

[SLX]

I won't be able to redo the tests until tonight but I wanted to ask a serious question.

When I removed the heatsink to redo the thermal paste, holy shit there was thermal paste all around the CPU chip, in the crevices of the metal latch that holds the chip in place.

I couldn't clean that part up with my coffee filter and 91% Isopropyl Alcohol. I was able to get all the thermal paste off at the top of the CPU chip itself and under the heatsink.

Is all that left over thermal paste around the CPU chip bad? I mean good heavens I must have used way too much the first time, its seriously everywhere around that chip and in that chip holder (nowhere else though?.

 

[King Gilga]

I'm going with this build:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/JkjNVn

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£177.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£83.60)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII GENE Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£142.50)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Red 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£64.38)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£73.55 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card (£575.48 @ More Computers)
Case: Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£64.08)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£90.04)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-R8 redux-1800 31.4 CFM 80mm Fan (£8.24 @ Ebuyer)
Headphones: Kingston HyperX Cloud II 7.1 Channel Headset (£69.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1348.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-23 15:36 BST+0100


Anything wrong or any changes recommended? Thanks.

Please Ignore the warning about the g1 980 ti being too long, it's not I double checked, could even do a push/pull rad if I wanted too.

Should be a decent upgrade from the computer I have now.

 

[Hasney]

So I know that the 2500k is still perfectly fine as a CPU for gaming, but I have a question.

Basically, I'm getting dual 980tis at some point to run in SLI. Looking at my motherboard, it will run them in dual 8x mode, which is perfectly fine and more than enough bandwidth. However, with my 2500k, it only supports PCI Express 2.0.

Will there be anything noticeable if I upgrade to an Ivy Bridge i7 for 3.0 PCI-E? I know the motherboard supports it.

 

[Iorv3th]

Hi guys

Wanting to buy a 970. Looking at MSI offering as they got good reviews, quiet, etc.

But there are like 6 different versions. Is there really any difference between them other than color and LEDs?

4G, 4GLE, Gaming 100ME, 4GD5 OC, etc.

 

[LilJoka]

I'm going with this build:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/JkjNVn

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£177.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£83.60)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII GENE Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£142.50)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Red 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£64.38)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£73.55 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card (£575.48 @ More Computers)
Case: Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£64.08)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£90.04)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-R8 redux-1800 31.4 CFM 80mm Fan (£8.24 @ Ebuyer)
Headphones: Kingston HyperX Cloud II 7.1 Channel Headset (£69.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1348.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-23 15:36 BST+0100


Anything wrong or any changes recommended? Thanks.

Please Ignore the warning about the g1 980 ti being too long, it's not I double checked, could even do a push/pull rad if I wanted too.

Should be a decent upgrade from the computer I have now.

Unless you are certian you want to SLI, i would get a smaller case like a TJ08E and 650-700W PSU. Could also drop a cheaper board in, unless that one has something particular you need, around the £100 mark. Dont recommend SLI'ing, just look at what Smokey has done Better selling the 980Ti in a year and buying a 1080Ti. Will only cost a little more than a used 980Ti by then, but saves the hassle of SLI profiles etc.

 

[King Gilga]

Unless you are certian you want to SLI, i would get a smaller case like a TJ08E and 650-700W PSU. Could also drop a cheaper board in, unless that one has something particular you need, around the £100 mark. Dont recommend SLI'ing, just look at what Smokey has done Better selling the 980Ti in a year and buying a 1080Ti. Will only cost a little more than a used 980Ti by then, but saves the hassle of SLI profiles etc.

I hear you, but the Evga G2 750 is only £2 cheaper, the 650 is like £15 cheaper but not in stock until next week.

I'm honestly not sure about the SLI future, DX12 promised to make it better but I don't really take promised at anything more than face value. If they don't come true I will probably as you say just get another top single card and either sell this or hand it down to relatives. So I'm honestly not sure, but at that small price difference in psus better safe than sorry?

As for the motherboard, for looks reasons I just wanted that or the MSI z97m (£20 cheaper) and I heard lots of bad stuff about the MSI's killer ethernet thing and I plan on using Ethernet so that's my reasoning for that.

Thanks for the input.

 

[LilJoka]

I hear you, but the Evga G2 750 is only £2 cheaper, the 650 is like £15 cheaper but not in stock until next week.

I'm honestly not sure about the SLI future, DX12 promised to make it better but I don't really take promised at anything more than face value. If they don't come true I will probably as you say just get another top single card and either sell this or hand it down to relatives. So I'm honestly not sure, but at that small price difference in psus better safe than sorry?

As for the motherboard, for looks reasons I just wanted that or the MSI z97m (£20 cheaper) and I heard lots of bad stuff about the MSI's killer ethernet thing and I plan on using Ethernet so that's my reasoning for that.

Thanks for the input.

Thats fair on the PSU, no harm in going bigger if its such a tiny cost.

On the Motherboard, my opinion is stay away from Killer NIC. Unfortunately the better value boards do have the Killer NIC, and it can be troublesome. At the end of the day the Intel NIC is the same one they use on Servers for the best reliability. That means more to me than a few ms ping or a MB of throughout or any driver shenanigans. The Killer software all looks like bloatware to me too, just like SSD Software (Samsung Magician etc).

Also why rule out ITX?

 

[RGM79]

So I know that the 2500k is still perfectly fine as a CPU for gaming, but I have a question.

Basically, I'm getting dual 980tis at some point to run in SLI. Looking at my motherboard, it will run them in dual 8x mode, which is perfectly fine and more than enough bandwidth. However, with my 2500k, it only supports PCI Express 2.0.

Will there be anything noticeable if I upgrade to an Ivy Bridge i7 for 3.0 PCI-E? I know the motherboard supports it.

I don't think it'd make a huge difference. Guru3D did some testing and they concluded that even for SLI GTX 980s, the jump from PCI-E 2.0 to 3.0 results in marginal gains in the range of 3~5%. it wouldn't be worth the money unless you could upgrade to Ivy Bridge for really cheap.

I won't be able to redo the tests until tonight but I wanted to ask a serious question.

When I removed the heatsink to redo the thermal paste, holy shit there was thermal paste all around the CPU chip, in the crevices of the metal latch that holds the chip in place.

I couldn't clean that part up with my coffee filter and 91% Isopropyl Alcohol. I was able to get all the thermal paste off at the top of the CPU chip itself and under the heatsink.

Is all that left over thermal paste around the CPU chip bad? I mean good heavens I must have used way too much the first time, its seriously everywhere around that chip and in that chip holder (nowhere else though?.

Too much thermal paste can actually negatively impact temperatures and insulate the processor and its heat. The less thermal paste there is the better, as thermal paste isn't there because it does a better job of conducting heat away, but because metal-on-metal contact is kind of poor for heat transfer even if both surfaces seem to be smooth. There are microscopically small pits and imperfections that you can't really see, thermal paste is there to fill in those gaps between the two metal surfaces so heat conducts more easily.

Hi guys

Wanting to buy a 970. Looking at MSI offering as they got good reviews, quiet, etc.

But there are like 6 different versions. Is there really any difference between them other than color and LEDs?

4G, 4GLE, Gaming 100ME, 4GD5 OC, etc.

They have different coolers and different default clock speed settings. The MSI Gaming 4G is their top end model with their best cooler (Twin Frozr). In theory you can overclock slower models to match the faster models, but it's not always a given (silicon lottery: not all examples of GPUs will overclock to the same speeds) and they have different coolers so the models with smaller or worse coolers will end up running warmer.

Also, the top end Gaming 4G model's Twin Frozr cooler has a silent fan mode where it will shut off the fans at low temperature for silence, their other models don't have that.

I hear you, but the Evga G2 750 is only £2 cheaper, the 650 is like £15 cheaper but not in stock until next week.

I'm honestly not sure about the SLI future, DX12 promised to make it better but I don't really take promised at anything more than face value. If they don't come true I will probably as you say just get another top single card and either sell this or hand it down to relatives. So I'm honestly not sure, but at that small price difference in psus better safe than sorry?

As for the motherboard, for looks reasons I just wanted that or the MSI z97m (£20 cheaper) and I heard lots of bad stuff about the MSI's killer ethernet thing and I plan on using Ethernet so that's my reasoning for that.

Thanks for the input.

Normally I'd recommend the ASRock Z97M OC Formula (£107) or the Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 (£109), but both of them also have Killer networking. It's up to you if you don't want to deal with it.

Personally I also think they went wrong with the bloated Killer NIC software, but at least it's possible to install just the driver and it should work well after that. Still, I recognize that not all are savvy enough to find and/or install drivers manually, or just want a good working product out of the box with no need to mess around to make it work the way it was supposed to work.

 

[longdi]

Okay, I'm going to post my own HWMonitor results. Look at the max for my stress test results. The reason why I'm posting this is because I'm noticing something really odd -- and something RGM alluded to in his post.



My system is undervolted -0.080V. Look at my power dissipations. Now look at yours and your voltages.

To follow up on RGM's hunch, and if your motherboard is set on adaptive/auto, your motherboard may be using more voltage than necessary -- and that seems to be somewhat common from other threads including the one he linked.

To put it simply, your 4790k "should" be able to run on 1.22V core voltage. Try using a negative offset and see what happens.

edit: Oh, before you do this: if the undervolt crashes your system, your computer may go into a boot loop. Just unplug and clear the CMOS battery to clear the undervolt setting. That's what happened to my system for like two months when I was experimenting and undervolted it too much.

In Haswell bios, there is a part called C6/C7 power states in CPU Configuration. Enable that and watch your idle voltages drop to 0v!

 

[LilJoka]

Asus Z97M-PLUS has Intel NIC ~£110, but only Xfire =/

 

[SLX]

RGM79 you have a PayPal account I could donate some money to? You've been a tremendous help to myself and others, I really appreciate the time you have taken to address my concerns and needs.

And everybody else that has helped thank you very much. It amazes me how helpful people are without being renumerated.

 

[Song of the Turtle]

Here's my usual disclaimer on reddit key sales:

Windows 7/8.1 licenses can be bought from reddit's microsoftsoftwareswap for $20 USD 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.

The sellers will usually link you to an ISO of Windows you can download. Depending on what version of Windows license key you buy, you can also get a official and direct download of Windows from Microsoft servers by entering the license key at one of these links or the program from the links:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/upgrade-product-key-only
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery (for Windows 7)

Also, here's an unofficial mirror to torrent links of official Windows 8.1 ISO files, complete with MD5 and SHA-1 hashes (google it) so you can double check that the file is valid.

http://mirror.corenoc.de/digitalrivercontent.net/

Thanks a lot, thats everything I wanted to know!

 

[GRaider81]

RGM79 you have a PayPal account I could donate some money to? You've been a tremendous help to myself and others, I really appreciate the time you have taken to address my concerns and needs.

And everybody else that has helped thank you very much. It amazes me how helpful people are without being renumerated.

Absolutely agree.

Genuinely think this is the best thread on GaF.
Had countless questions answered and lots of extra advice. Even got a few cheap keys!

Im now on day 3 with my 970 build and I absolutely love it. Have a 4690k OC to 4400hz and working perfectly.
All of this was completely alien to me just a few weeks ago!

Bad side is ive already built up a backlog!

 

[RGM79]

RGM79 you have a PayPal account I could donate some money to? You've been a tremendous help to myself and others, I really appreciate the time you have taken to address my concerns and needs.

And everybody else that has helped thank you very much. It amazes me how helpful people are without being renumerated.

Hah, don't worry about it. I started doing this when I was in between jobs to keep busy, but I started a new job a bit over a month ago so I'm getting paid this very moment.

I sometimes have nothing to do while fixing up PCs and printers at my job and I'm in a pretty relaxed work environment, so I get to keep stalking this thread while waiting for stuff to finish installing/downloading/uploading/loading/printing/etc.

 

[madmook]

Thanks for bringing that up, is it worth installing that or should I just download the driver(s) only. I like it gives me notifications for updates but if Experience is bloatware I'll remove it once I migrate over to Windows 10.

Wouldn't really call it bloatware, imo. Though I haven't really delved into its functions. That streaming service was simply causing Windows startup issues, so disabling its automatic startup was my fix. Getting that weird delay on bootup where Windows was unresponsive for like a minute was giving me headaches for a few days (I was fresh installing Windows on a friggin' SSD, for crying out loud). I'm only getting back into having a good desktop PC, I have been out of the loop for years.