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

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bigace33

Member
What's a good upgrade from the current i5 4460 cpu I'm using? I'm not interested in all the new super cpu's coming out, just something that will give me a good performance boost on games that are out right now. I've heard my current cpu is a bit lower than the 2600k . specs:

i5 4460
gtx 770 4gb
z97 motherboard
3tb HDD
16 gb memory
 

RGM79

Member
What's a good upgrade from the current i5 4460 cpu I'm using? I'm not interested in all the new super cpu's coming out, just something that will give me a good performance boost on games that are out right now. I've heard my current cpu is a bit lower than the 2600k . specs:

i5 4460
gtx 770 4gb
z97 motherboard
3tb HDD
16 gb memory

A new graphics card would do you a lot better than a new CPU. The i5 4460 isn't slow at all, and the 2600K is only better because it can be overclocked and has hyperthreading. The 2600K is also a quad core processor like the i5 4460, it is not -that- much better especially at stock speed.

Spending $250~300 on a new CPU would maybe get you around a 10~20% increase in performance and not in all games. For example, look at the following benchmark between the i5 4570S (roughly similar to your i5 4460 (just has a lower stock clock and higher boost clock)) and the i7 4790K. In game performance, they are nearly identical. On the other hand, spending $250~300 on an R9 290 would give you a 30~50% improvement for just about any game, depending on the game.

In short, I can't really recommend upgrading your processor, there's not much point unless you wanted the ability to overclock and could resell your i5 4460 for a good price to offset how much you'd be paying for the new processor. Games today still run fine on 4 cores and don't require hyperthreading at all. There are games that can scale well to 8 processing threads, but still run absolutely great or at the very least acceptable on "lesser" processors. For example, see these results for GTAV (can utilize up to 8 threads but best cost-to-performance is on quad core processors) and Witcher 3 (even dual core processors can run it well).
 

LilJoka

Member
These are three quick pictures I took before leaving for work, if I need to take more I can do so after work. I quickly tried just booting off the motherboard without the GPU in and that didn't look like it was doing the trick. I did have the RAM in the wrong slots (they were not in the color coordinated slots), and that makes the fan on the CPU now constantly work.

I'm considering just taking it in to a nearby Best Buy to see if they can figure it out if I don't get it working tonight.

RAM is not pushed in all the way, when it its installed correctly the clips will be fully closed all the way, or very close, push the clips towards the ram first to see if they fully close, if not, push the Ram in with a bit more pressure. The clips should finish in a position just like your empty slots.
 
Your Current Specs: nothing
Budget: 1500 max( less always better)-- Italy
Main Use: Rate 1-5. 5 being Highest: 5Light Gaming,5 Gaming,3 Emulation (PS2/Wii),4 General Usage (Word, Web, 1080p playback).
Monitor Resolution: i'll buy a new monitor probably AOC U3477PQU extra budget
List SPECIFIC games: new games at least high setting and since i've always played on console 30 fps are ok. How important is PhysX / SuperSampling / CUDA to you? i'm totally new to these terms.
When will you build?: Do you have a deadline? the sooner the better, i'll wait for skylake.
Will you be overclocking?: Yes.


PICKING YOUR PARTS

CPU: i5-4690k -- 233,81€ amazon.it
MOBO: AsRock Z97 Ex3 -- 121,52€ amazon.it
GPU: GtX970 -- 360€
RAM: HyperX Fury Blu 1.5v 1600Mhz -- 52,79€ amazon.it
CASE: Phanteks Pro -- 121,99€ eprice.it
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9B SE2 -- 46,90€ amazon.it
SSD: Crucial BX100 250GB -- 94,28€ eprice.it
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G1 80+Gold -- 103,49€ eprice

= 1150€ +-
http://www.eprice.it/
https://www.amazon.it/?tag=
http://www.e-key.it/
http://www.drako.it/drako_catalog/index.php

Wich 970 is the best? i'll wait for skylake but in case this is ok? Somethig improvable?
Will the psu be ok if i go for a 980ti?
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
Anyone know how steam streaming works? I need a monitor for my bedroom PC, my gaming PC is out in living room. I was going to get a cheap one, but thought maybe if I got a 120fps monitor I could use a steambox and play some games at 120fps (albeit with a little bit of input lag). Can streaming do those extreme framerates?

If your internet connection is powerful enough. You're probably better off aiming for 60hz.
 

Uzzy

Member
Looking to get a new CPU fan, as my stock one is a bit too noisy for my tastes. I'm thinking of getting a Noctua NH-U14s. I think that's amongst the best I can get for £50, but is there anything better out there?
 

bigace33

Member
A new graphics card would do you a lot better than a new CPU. The i5 4460 isn't slow at all, and the 2600K is only better because it can be overclocked and has hyperthreading. The 2600K is also a quad core processor like the i5 4460, it is not -that- much better especially at stock speed.

Spending $250~300 on a new CPU would maybe get you around a 10~20% increase in performance and not in all games. For example, look at the following benchmark between the i5 4570S (roughly similar to your i5 4460 (just has a lower stock clock and higher boost clock)) and the i7 4790K. In game performance, they are nearly identical. On the other hand, spending $250~300 on an R9 290 would give you a 30~50% improvement for just about any game, depending on the game.

In short, I can't really recommend upgrading your processor, there's not much point unless you wanted the ability to overclock and could resell your i5 4460 for a good price to offset how much you'd be paying for the new processor. Games today still run fine on 4 cores and don't require hyperthreading at all. There are games that can scale well to 8 processing threads, but still run absolutely great or at the very least acceptable on "lesser" processors. For example, see these results for GTAV (can utilize up to 8 threads but best cost-to-performance is on quad core processors) and Witcher 3 (even dual core processors can run it well).

Awesome info. I'm a Nvidia guy but I amj really watching the amd cards. Seen a r9 390x for under $400. You said a r9 290 would be a nice upgrade for my current 770? This might be my tipping point.
 

RGM79

Member
There's a nice article here from Techreport comparing the various different GTX 980 Ti models. If nothing else, it also talks about the differences in performance, noise, power consumption, etc between the various different high end GPU coolers that EVGA, MSI, Asus, Gigabyte employ and how they compare to the reference Nvidia cooler.

Quite handy for figuring out exactly what quirks and advantages each cooler has in case one can't choose which model to buy (well, whichever models are in stock). They're all pretty excellent though, no reason to avoid any of them for flaws.
 

Aprico

Neo Member
I've been recently looking for a new GPU between $100 and $150 and the GTX 750Ti 2GB seems pretty good. But I was wondering if there was anything better in that price range. Any one have any suggestions? Thanks.
 

Pachimari

Member
If I want to add space to my desktop with an internal hard drive, is the WD Green the one to go with? Or is it too noisy?
I want a hard drive that is not creating a lot of sounds while spinning. Right now I have 1 SSD and 3 HDD connected inside my PC, and none of them are noisy. I wonder if a WD Green will be?
 
Maybe someone can help me pick a new gpu.



I no longer want amd (had my fill of driver issues with them on my 6870 and 4870 to want to try nvidia for a change) so I've been looking at nvidia gpus.

The gtx960 seems really poor value (220+ euros and poor performance compared to the 970 , slower than the by now ancient gtx 680 and only 2GB vram and really low memory bandwidth), as a 150 euro card it might have been fine but at 220 it makes me cringe.
The 2GB vram (4GB models cost a lot more here) makes it a dealbreaker even if everything else was good.

That leaves only the 970 I guess. (so lame that nvidia doesn't have a bang for buck card at 200-250 euros anymore:( )
I have no idea which one to get

Requirements:

-a vendor with solid warranty/after sale support, don't want to have to deal with issues + crappy RMA

-silent at idle (I don't use headphones when on my PC)

-as quiet as possible under load (no headphones)

-build quality (don't want a fan that is quiet when I buy it then turns into a screeching gargoyle within a year)
My old hd4870 sapphire gpu stayed quiet for years, my msi iceQ turned into a noisy little pos within a year. More of the former, none of the latter plz:p

-no coil whine (I could reluctantly deal with that coil whine during menus when you got 1000 fps thing that I heard of, but if it happens while I'm playing or on my desktop it's the biggest dealbreaker of all dealbreakers ever)
I've never had coil whine on any gpu I've owned and I'm not going to support that shit now.

-Must fit in an antec sonata III case
http://www.antec.com/product.php?id=704966&fid=5022021&lan=nz
Which means those triple fan windforce cooler cards are out.

My current iceq x cooler hd6870 is 26 cm long and there's maaaaybe 3 cm at very most of room behind it before I hit the drive bays (which I can't remove without cutting them out)
So anything 26 cm and less would make me feel safe.



So far I've looked into
MSI one: overclocking a no go due to crappy power features on pcb

EVGA ACX 2.0 superclocked: awesome evga warranty but reviews suggest the cooler is loud (ugh), and the whole heatpipes not actually touching the gpu surface on the cooler makes it a bit of a joke regardless.


I know a lot of gaffers have 970s and I'm sure a lot of you have done the same research on them that I just started (and may have bought one and regretted it (noise or coil whine) or have been pleasantly surprised)

edit:
https://azerty.nl/8-6150-732664/asus-strix-gtx970-dc2oc-4gd5.html
This is what I'm looking at right now (ugh 380 euros for a midrange gpu, it stings)

It seems to be dead quiet according to reviews.

Does anyone have this gpu? Any coil whine?
How are asus with their warranty and RMA?


It has an 8 pin connector though, I'll have to look if my power supply even has one of those<.<
edit 2 : aand it doesn't:(
I don't even have one of those 2x 6 pin into 8 pin connectors either
 

Dmax3901

Member
Picked up some goodies today.

1ukudc.jpg


Very, very happy. Decided to go with a smaller end monitor, 24" @ 1440p, due to my preference for pixel density over size. Looks really fantastic. Monitor itself could be better (can only run HDMI), but overall I'm pleased with the colours and more importantly the dense 1440p pixel IQ and how wonderful it looks in game. It was instantly obvious in Wild Hunt, being able to make out textures clearer over distance (like brick walls).

Really didn't need to get a 980 Ti, but whatever. This is definitely my last card upgrade for a long while...unless Pascal really blows me away. Still, the 1440p needed the grunt. Even Wild Hunt drops below 60fps often enough with a 980 Ti @ 1440p with everything maxed out.

How much in the dreaded AUD?
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
How much in the dreaded AUD?

MSI 980 Ti: $1,089
VX24AH: $429 (+postage)

Stupppppiiiddly expensive purchase. But a combination of part of my tax return, and profit from selling off a bunch of games I no longer play, along with (now) selling my GTX 970. Still got a few games to sell off, and if those are successful I basically will have paid half the total price for two with my tax return.
 

VanWinkle

Member
I'm playing Dishonored with my new A10 desktop, and the frame rate fluctuates constantly between 30 and 60fps. It's very immersion-breaking. Is there a way to lock it to 30fps or something? I could probably lower the resolution to 720p and get 60fps but I'd rather not do that if I can lock it at 30 and keep it 1080p.
 

Red

Member
Got a GTX660 as a gift. Worth replacing a 5870 Vapor-X? I'm having trouble finding comparisons of the two cards.
 
Just built my PC! And the freakin acer monitor has no problems!!!!


WTF


Also help ASAP!
I currently have an MSI X99s gaming 7 mobo

What stuff do I need to update from them ? Drivers and utilities and etc !


Edit: fuck ! As soon as i say that i see bleeding on corners when it has black background ;_;
 

Two Words

Member
I'm thinking of upgrading to a mechanical keyboard. Anybody have any recommendations? I don't know a lot between the different MX colors. I guess I 'd like to feel the key press, but I don't know if there is much middle ground.

The Logitech 710+ seems to have good reviews and a decent price. The Logitech 910+ has full RGB and a unique key cap design. Anybody have it? How does it feel?
 

Pachimari

Member
I have a question that I hope somebody can help me with.

I have a Logitech C920 webcam and I want it to be placed on my HDTV for family chatting. Though I have bought a USB extension cable to that it can reach my desktop computer, yet it is not working. Only when it is connected directly go my computer without an extension.

I need it to be 10 meter long, but what can I do if my extension cable doesn't seem to work with my webcam and desktop? :(
 
Soooo I'm gonna build my own PC and have a budget of $1200 not including Monitor. I plan on buying parts over the next two months. The only problem is, I'm worried if new graphics cards will be announced soon. Anyone got suggestions as I don't really no the pattern of release and how that affects price?
 

LilJoka

Member
Soooo I'm gonna build my own PC and have a budget of $1200 not including Monitor. I plan on buying parts over the next two months. The only problem is, I'm worried if new graphics cards will be announced soon. Anyone got suggestions as I don't really no the pattern of release and how that affects price?

There's won't be new graphics cards this year. Skylake CPUs should arrive soon.
 
Any chance the GTX 950 will be a PCI-E only powered card ? I would like to keep my low profile desktop guts (power supply is 320 W) for at least a couple of years since I don't think the i5-2500 will be a bottleneck @1080p until at least 2018.
I want to replace my 750 Ti though.

There's won't be new graphics cards this year. Skylake CPUs should arrive soon.
I won't be so sure.
 
Does it really matter what timings RAM has? My current one is 9-9-9-24. I want to upgrade to 16GB RAM. 9-9-9-24 is more expensive than 10-10-10-27. Not loads more money. Hardly £10 more but I'm just interested what the difference is.

Could I get away with getting the 10-10-10-27 sticks? Just doing gaming on my PC.
 
I36Qiz0l.jpg


VOluu1cl.jpg


pjvo96jl.jpg


^_^

very happy with what i got!

built it the best as I could as it was my first time building

I was so happy when it booted up and all was goo

i thought the monitor in particular would be faulty but no dead pixels at all , still does have the backlight bleeding issues sadly but i'm fine with it

sooooo how do I benchmark this thing?
 

LilJoka

Member
^_^

very happy with what i got!

built it the best as I could as it was my first time building

I was so happy when it booted up and all was goo

i thought the monitor in particular would be faulty but no dead pixels at all , still does have the backlight bleeding issues sadly but i'm fine with it

sooooo how do I benchmark this things?

Nice, try 3Dmark Firestrike.
 

Rolfgang

Member
I36Qiz0l.jpg


VOluu1cl.jpg


pjvo96jl.jpg


^_^

very happy with what i got!

built it the best as I could as it was my first time building

I was so happy when it booted up and all was goo

i thought the monitor in particular would be faulty but no dead pixels at all , still does have the backlight bleeding issues sadly but i'm fine with it

sooooo how do I benchmark this thing?

Nice setup! Also, because I have the exact same monitor, keyboard and mouse (and GPU from another mother, brother).

You can benchmark it with 3DMark and Heaven and then play heavy games, such as GTA V and TW3. If you want to overclock, those last two games are especially good to test if you got a stable overclock.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
just firestrike and not the extreme ones right? ;_; i don't wanna fry my system this early lol

Ja, just Firestrike (though I don't think you will harm your system if you run the utlra versions). I have the same GPU as you by the looks of things and this is what I got:

1uqjdl.png


Did a tiny bit of OCing and am able to run stable with a score of 14102 (Graphics: 19903)
 

jwhit28

Member
What are the best benchmarks to use if I don't want to turn off adaptive voltage? I read synthetics are bad so I've just been running game benchmarks. So far I haven't cracked 60C with my 4690k at 4.4Ghz and 1.2V with a Hyper 212+ sitting on it which seems like a nice stopping point. Should I just leave it at that and not worry about it again unless a BSOD happens?

EDIT: Rolfgang's post above sort of answered my question. Witcher 3, Battlefield 3, GTA V, and Civ Beyond Earth didn't crack 60c or give me any crashes.
 
Ja, just Firestrike (though I don't think you will harm your system if you run the utlra versions). I have the same GPU as you by the looks of things and this is what I got:

1uqjdl.png


Did a tiny bit of OCing and am able to run stable with a score of 14102 (Graphics: 19903)

wanted to try firestrike but there's no dl button? says i need to purchase it?
 

SleazyC

Member
Looking to get a new CPU fan, as my stock one is a bit too noisy for my tastes. I'm thinking of getting a Noctua NH-U14s. I think that's amongst the best I can get for £50, but is there anything better out there?

Check out the SIlver Argon AR06, HardOCP just did a good review:


Slightly better performance per dollar than the Noctua.

what's a good 3-4 TB hard rive for gaming? I currently have an SSD and a 1TB WD Blue
I wouldn't really classify a 3TB-4TB hard drive good for gaming. Are you hoping to store games on the hard drive? I think you might be better off buying a reliable but cheap mass storage drive and shuttling games you are playing back and forth between the SSD and the HDD.

As for reliable manufacturers, Hitachi and Western Digital are pretty solid.

What are the best benchmarks to use if I don't want to turn off adaptive voltage? I read synthetics are bad so I've just been running game benchmarks. So far I haven't cracked 60C with my 4690k at 4.4Ghz and 1.2V with a Hyper 212+ sitting on it which seems like a nice stopping point. Should I just leave it at that and not worry about it again unless a BSOD happens?

EDIT: Rolfgang's post above sort of answered my question. Witcher 3, Battlefield 3, GTA V, and Civ Beyond Earth didn't crack 60c or give me any crashes.
Synthetics are great for testing your system stability at extreme and identifying edge cases. I use them because if my system can withstand days of some of the harsh synthetic benchmarks I feel pretty comfortable that it will handle day to day use for however long I plan to use the components before starting another upgrade cycle. I find that ignoring synthetics means that months down the road I might start seeing BSODs or in some unique situations hardware errors can crop up.

Does it really matter what timings RAM has? My current one is 9-9-9-24. I want to upgrade to 16GB RAM. 9-9-9-24 is more expensive than 10-10-10-27. Not loads more money. Hardly £10 more but I'm just interested what the difference is.

Could I get away with getting the 10-10-10-27 sticks? Just doing gaming on my PC.
Unless you are benchmarking for record purposes timing on RAM is really going to have neglible impact on any day to day performance. I think I read an article somewhere that RAM timings might net you a 1% increase in performance. Usually not worth spending extra money on some fancy RAM sticks. Or spending time overclocking.
 
I was going to upgrade to a GTX 980Ti to celebrate a big new job I'm moving into and was wondering if:
1) Which brand was the best; I normally just went with what was cheapest last time so while I got an Asus GTX 660 a few years back, I'm not really sure if there's a better brand for this graphics card.
2) Where the cheapest prices would be in Australia due to the inflation probably putting it well over $1000.

I'm gonna rehaul the entire setup (besides maybe my harddrives since I have a Samsung 250gb SSD that still seems to be running well while I keep my games on a 500g HDD), but the graphics card is what I wanted to focus on first since that'll probably dictate what power supply and casing I need to buy.
 

SleazyC

Member
I was going to upgrade to a GTX 980Ti to celebrate a big new job I'm moving into and was wondering if:
1) Which brand was the best; I normally just went with what was cheapest last time so while I got an Asus GTX 660 a few years back, I'm not really sure if there's a better brand for this graphics card.
Generally MSI's cards have been the most sought after 980TI's, at least when it comes to factory overclocked cards. EVGA has also made some very good factory overclocked 980TI's.

Are you planning to overclock? Do you care about the card being factory overclocked? These things could influence what brand you may want to choose when buying a 980Ti.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
A request from a friend of mine

fCoSkOu.png


Ok yesterday I installed a CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO on my i5 4690k.
The initial idea was to install the fan on the right side of the radiator but it was to thick and it was touching the ram so i finished to install it on the left side.
I'am not quite happy with the result, at this time I have two fans fighting for air and that means a worse airflow for the CPU cooler.
I'm thinking of putting the fan on the CPU radiator on a PULL configuration and add a slimmer fan on the right side of the radiator for PUSH, but I don't really know if it's a good idea to have a weaker fan for the push part or if a good idea to have different fan for a PUSH PULL configuration.

TL;DR I need a tip on a good 12x12 fan for a CoolerMaster EVO 212 that is thick less than 2.0cm for configuring a PUSH PULL airflow.
 

ricki42

Member
A request from a friend of mine

They can probably put the fan on the RAM side by just mounting it a little higher on the heatsink to sit above the RAM. Also, if he has only 2 RAM sticks, depending on the motherboard he can put them in the outer pair of slots rather than the inner one. On my Asus Z97-A I could fit 2 RAM sticks next to the 212 Evo fan.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
They can probably put the fan on the RAM side by just mounting it a little higher on the heatsink to sit above the RAM. Also, if he has only 2 RAM sticks, depending on the motherboard he can put them in the outer pair of slots rather than the inner one. On my Asus Z97-A I could fit 2 RAM sticks next to the 212 Evo fan.

yeah just nudge it up a bit. It'll still be pushing plenty of air through the fins.
 
I36Qiz0l.jpg


VOluu1cl.jpg


pjvo96jl.jpg


^_^

very happy with what i got!

built it the best as I could as it was my first time building

I was so happy when it booted up and all was goo

i thought the monitor in particular would be faulty but no dead pixels at all , still does have the backlight bleeding issues sadly but i'm fine with it

sooooo how do I benchmark this thing?
Nice! How do you like the monitor? Do you recommend?
 
Really didn't need to get a 980 Ti, but whatever. This is definitely my last card upgrade for a long while...unless Pascal really blows me away.


Pascal is the reason I picked up the cheapest retail 970 I could find this morning. I'm thinking that within 18 months there is going to be something coming out that has the 980ti's power, yet cost less than $400.

Until then the 970 is good enough to run Star Citizen at 1080p on a 27" display...so I went less expensive now.

I'm posting pictures of my 970 in my case Monday night.

Love your setup btw.
 
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