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

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I am by no means an expert on electrical or battery systems, but it seems that unless a person would have to be exerting a lot of effort or movement specifically just to recharge the battery, more than needed from just simple movement. Anything that requires more energy/movement like say a handheld crank-operated flashlight or cellphone charger would require the user to be preoccupied with operating it and it'd get in the way of daily life if you had to be constantly turning the crank. Laptop chargers are rated for relatively high requirements (~20 volts, at least 65 watts, etc) for a reasonably short charging time (a few hours depending on the battery and whether the laptop is operating or not, of course), I don't know if the dynamo you're designing will have a strong enough output to charge the laptop battery.
I see, I'll go on having a look at what power/voltage one user can generate and precisely what power bank could be charged so. Maybe aiming at laptops is too ambitious. Power banks for smartphones could be my market. Thanks.
 
So I got a corsair K65

Amazing keyboard love it

The software for it is the most confusing interface known to man. I want to shoot in the face. With bullets.
 
Has anything else in your PC changed since then? Does it only shoot up to 80 degrees when web browsing, or will it also do that when completely idle?

Check your GPU clock settings, it should be clocking down to a low speed to cut heat and power, unless you accidentally set it to always be at high clock speed.

This started today. I was going to increase the fan speed to 45% because I was about to play a game until I noticed the temperature of the card was at 80c at 0%, and it can't be heat from an earlier gaming session because I haven't played anything before I noticed the temp.

Since I built this PC a month ago the only thing I did to it was OC my 4690k. Everything in the GPU Tweak is set to default. Right now it's idling at 37c with 40% fan speed.

Edit: Never mind, it seems to be fine now. I don't know what the problem was but it's gone now so whatever.
 
So I got a corsair K65

Amazing keyboard love it

The software for it is the most confusing interface known to man. I want to shoot in the face. With bullets.

Wish the K65 was available with Browns in the UK. CM Storm and the lower end Duckys are really the only options in the lower price range for mech kbs.
 
last question before I buy the ASUS strix 970

it says it requires a single 8pin connector but im not sure if my PSU has one?

its the XFX PRO 550W
 
Hey guys,

Does any of you have any experience in completely uninstalling Bluetooth drivers from Win7? (Broadcom chip).

I could never get the drivers off Device Manager, no matter what I do. This is preventing my DS4 to be properly detected, even though connecting via USB was working fine.

I assume you will need to run regedit32 and/or deleting a series of .inf file from %WINDIR%\SysWoW64?
 
Hey guys,

Does any of you have any experience in completely uninstalling Bluetooth drivers from Win7? (Broadcom chip).

I could never get the drivers off Device Manager, no matter what I do. This is preventing my DS4 to be properly detected, even though connecting via USB was working fine.

I assume you will need to run regedit32 and/or deleting a series of .inf file from %WINDIR%\SysWoW64?

In Device Manager, don't you get a prompt to delete drivers if you right click on hardware and select uninstall? It isn't always there, but it usually is.

 
Can anyone recommend a good fan for my Hyper 212+ Evo? The stock fan on it just died on me after installing a new PSU. I'm sure it's not the PSU causing it because everything else in the case is working fine. When I turn the PC on I can see it struggling to make a turn every couple of seconds. I made sure to plug it into another CPU Fan plug on the motherboard but the same thing is happening, so here I am.

There are several answers to this but I recommend getting a Phanteks PH-F140HP fan. It's one of the few, if not the only, fan that matches or beats the Noctua NF-A15 in performance and noise ratings, which are the only two things that are really important.

I did a lot of research and settled on the PH-F140HPs to replace the top quality pair of NF-A15s that come with the Noctua NH-D15 CPU cooler as I didn't like the colour scheme of the Noctuas. Apparently the Phanteks fans are even quieter and have more static pressure.
 
There are several answers to this but I recommend getting a Phanteks PH-F140HP fan. It's one of the few, if not the only, fan that matches or beats the Noctua NF-A15 in performance and noise ratings, which are the only two things that are really important.

I did a lot of research and settled on the PH-F140HPs to replace the top quality pair of NF-A15s that come with the Noctua NH-D15 CPU cooler as I didn't like the colour scheme of the Noctuas. Apparently the Phanteks fans are even quieter and have more static pressure.

Those fans are the ones that come with the Phanteks PH-TC14PE air cooler, aren't they? They have the same model number except for two letters on the end.

In Xbit Labs' testing, they came up with very good results, on par with the Noctua NF-A15 fans.
 

Are you planning to only order from Newegg, or are other retailers ok? Parts look alright, but there are always ways to cut costs without sacrificing performance or quality. If you can tell us some details like your overall budget and what the PC is to be used for and what level of performance is wanted, we could spec you a more appropriate build.

Does he need the Sound Blaster Z card? Onboard sound is well-featured enough for most people nowadays, unless he has a set of really nice headphones or something.

We don't recommend WD Green drives because of their head parking issues. If you want a really high capacity single hard drive, there are better choices like this Toshiba 5TB model which is currently $150 at Amazon and is faster and has more cache (7200RPM and 128MB cache).

Also, you didn't list a case, is that still under consideration?
 
Those fans are the ones that come with the Phanteks PH-TC14PE air cooler, aren't they? They have the same model number except for two letters on the end.

In Xbit Labs' testing, they came up with very good results, on par with the Noctua NF-A15 fans.

Yeah they are more or less the same I believe. There are a few of this Phanteks range with different letters on the end, like the PH-F140XP and SP.

Here's a pair I mounted on my NH-D15. Phanteks actually kindly sent out a set of fan clips and rubber grommets for free after I asked them how I could mount the PH-F140HPs on the Noctua cooler.

11077781_678981358897098_8310562400341463632_o.jpg


If anyone is wondering, I haven't got rid of the Noctua NF-A15s as they are quality. So I am using them as an exhaust at the back of the case where they are less visible :)
 
Are you planning to only order from Newegg, or are other retailers ok? Parts look alright, but there are always ways to cut costs without sacrificing performance or quality. If you can tell us some details like your overall budget and what the PC is to be used for and what level of performance is wanted, we could spec you a more appropriate build.

Does he need the Sound Blaster Z card? Onboard sound is well-featured enough for most people nowadays, unless he has a set of really nice headphones or something.

We don't recommend WD Green drives because of their head parking issues. If you want a really high capacity single hard drive, there are better choices like this Toshiba 5TB model which is currently $150 at Amazon and is faster and has more cache (7200RPM and 128MB cache).

Also, you didn't list a case, is that still under consideration?

Thanks for the harddrive tip. Anyway his budget has a hard cap of 2300 US. I told him that the onboard sound should be good enough, but he wants a sound card and yeah the case is still up in the air. Right now he is leaning towards the Corsair Carbide Series 300R. Newegg is just my default PC parts website I will have to look at Amazon(and others) before I buy.
 
Thanks for the harddrive tip. Anyway his budget has a hard cap of 2300 US. I told him that the onboard sound should be good enough, but he wants a sound card and yeah the case is still up in the air. Right now he is leaning towards the Corsair Carbide Series 300R. Newegg is just my default PC parts website I will have to look at Amazon(and others) before I buy.

I hope I'm not jumping the gun a bit, but here's this build I pieced together based on your parts list. PCPartPicker is handy for this kind of thing.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($372.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC14PE_BK 78.1 CFM CPU Cooler ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Plus ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($179.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($189.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial BX100 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($372.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Toshiba 5TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 4GB WINDFORCE 3X Video Card ($517.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 500R Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Z 70SB150200000 24-bit 192 KHz Sound Card ($77.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $2096.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-09 19:23 EDT-0400

Something I forgot to mention is that 850 watts is overkill for the hardware. Is he planning to run SLI in the future? Even twin GTX 980s only need 750 watts or so.

And about the graphics card, he may want to hold off depending on when the PC is going to be put together. Rumors say AMD will be releasing their R9 3XX line in June, about two months from now. Even if you guys don't plan to go with AMD, Nvidia may counter AMD with price drops on their GTX 980 or even introduce a GTX "980 Ti".
 
In Device Manager, don't you get a prompt to delete drivers if you right click on hardware and select uninstall? It isn't always there, but it usually is.

Yep, I already went through all that, but when I try to reinstall the driver again, the installation program only gives me two options: A) Repair and B) Remove. So something tells me that even though its been removed from the Device Manager, there are some .inf still floating around somewhere (or some Keys in the Registry which didn't get removed)

Any other ideas?
 
Yep, I already went through all that, but when I try to reinstall the driver again, the installation program only gives me two options: A) Repair and B) Remove. So something tells me that even though its been removed from the Device Manager, there are some .inf still floating around somewhere (or some Keys in the Registry which didn't get removed)

Any other ideas?
Oh, that sounds like the driver package was installed as if it were software. Go into Add/Remove Programs dialogue, look for Bluetooth or Broadcom, and uninstall them from there.
 
Something I forgot to mention is that 850 watts is overkill for the hardware. Is he planning to run SLI in the future? Even twin GTX 980s only need 750 watts or so.

And about the graphics card, he may want to hold off depending on when the PC is going to be put together. Rumors say AMD will be releasing their R9 3XX line in June, about two months from now. Even if you guys don't plan to go with AMD, Nvidia may counter AMD with price drops on their GTX 980 or even introduce a GTX "980 Ti".

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it. Your build looks nice I will have to run it by him. I will also try to talk him out of the sound card. Sadly he really wants this build ready in time for the Witcher 3 so he probably won't want to wait that long.
 
I'd like to get a new GPU. My 9800 GT has served me well, but at nearly 8 years old it's time to move on. I'd like to be able to run Star Citizen well. I have an i5-4570 (3.2 GHz quad) and 8gb of RAM. I currently run a 1080p monitor and a 1280x1024 monitor, though I might upgrade one of those to a 1440p Korean 27". I have a budget of around $250, though most of that is in Amazon credit so it pretty much has to be from there.

Is this a good choice/price?
 
Oh, that sounds like the driver package was installed as if it were software. Go into Add/Remove Programs dialogue, look for Bluetooth or Broadcom, and uninstall them from there.

Hmmm, I can't remember if there is one in the Add/Remove Programs. I assume when it's completely removed, it will show up with a yellow warning triangle in the Device Manager, right? I'll check when I get home later. Thanks.


That looks.. good, actually.

Although I still prefer the ROG one:

 
$260 is pretty common for an entry level R9 290, but it's hard to beat the performance for the price, it'll be strong enough for 1080p gaming for a couple of years to come.

Just to be sure, what power supply do you have? It's recommended to have a ~550 watt PSU for an R9 290.

I've got a Corsair TX650M, so I should be fine on that front.
 
So creating and backing up from a system image will essentially clone my new pc into my old one, right?

No. There's a bit of complexity if you're swapping a mobo for example, since the differences in the chipsets. Though if you do a sysprep first and then clone it, then yes that will clone and get it ready for the new PC parts / new PC.

What OS are you running?
 
No. There's a bit of complexity if you're swapping a mobo for example, since the differences in the chipsets. Though if you do a sysprep first and then clone it, then yes that will clone and get it ready for the new PC parts / new PC.

What OS are you running?

Windows 8 on both computers. Sorry, but what's a system prep and how do I do that?

Edit: Actually, I'm just gonna redownload everything because there's a lot of shit I don't want on this PC. Disregard these questions.
 
I OC'd my i5 2500k to 4.5ghz and I get temps to ~74C when running OCCT. That's ok, right?

My brother is giving me his old 128gb SSD. It's not Samsung/Crucial so I'm not expecting top tier speeds, but it should be good enough as a boot drive and a definite upgrade to my HDD. All that's left to my upgrade is a new GPU. Saving money for a GTX 970 to buy within the next few months, but after some research, another problem came up-- a new card might not fit (wouldn't know for sure until I buy it). >=/ Looks like I may need to save up for a new case as well. =P What are some possible options? Right now I have a Lancool K58.
 
Seems like the difference is pretty minor.
EDIT:...smh, I'll try to rehost the images
EDIT2: Done

You'll be absolutely fine, PCI-E 2.0 is not a major bottleneck in any way for a single graphics card, not even for a GTX 980. Unless the slot is stuck in x4 mode or something.

Performance-wise, the GTX 960 would be a huge improvement over your GTX 560. I can't find exact comparisons though, the two models are quite far apart in age and it doesn't seem like anyone has bothered to make benchmarks. There is this "close enough" comparison of the GTX 560 Ti (stronger than yours) and the R9 285 (roughly equal to the GTX 960) to give you an idea of the difference in performance.

What are your system specs? For a little cheaper than the GTX 960, you could pick up this Sapphire R9 280X ($190 after $30 discount) instead. It's older and isn't as efficient as the GTX 960 but has the raw power to beat the GTX 960 in most benchmarks, although in certain games like BF4 the GTX 960 leads over the R9 280X slightly. It also has 3GB of VRAM which is somewhat better for the future than the GTX 960's 2GB VRAM.

Thanks!

I currently have the following in my system. Windows 7 Home Pre 64bit, AMD FX-8320 3.5GHZ, GTX 560 1GB, 8GB Ram. I think the PSU is around 700W but not sure.

I'll look into the Radeon as well.
 
I OC'd my i5 2500k to 4.5ghz and I get temps to ~74C when running OCCT. That's ok, right?

My brother is giving me his old 128gb SSD. It's not Samsung/Crucial so I'm not expecting top tier speeds, but it should be good enough as a boot drive and a definite upgrade to my HDD. All that's left to my upgrade is a new GPU. Saving money for a GTX 970 to buy within the next few months, but after some research, another problem came up-- a new card might not fit (wouldn't know for sure until I buy it). >=/ Looks like I may need to save up for a new case as well. =P What are some possible options? Right now I have a Lancool K58.

That temp is good.
That m-atx case is not small at all. What card are you having right now? And why would you think a 970 wont fit? I believe most should fit.
 
I OC'd my i5 2500k to 4.5ghz and I get temps to ~74C when running OCCT. That's ok, right?

My brother is giving me his old 128gb SSD. It's not Samsung/Crucial so I'm not expecting top tier speeds, but it should be good enough as a boot drive and a definite upgrade to my HDD. All that's left to my upgrade is a new GPU. Saving money for a GTX 970 to buy within the next few months, but after some research, another problem came up-- a new card might not fit (wouldn't know for sure until I buy it). >=/ Looks like I may need to save up for a new case as well. =P What are some possible options? Right now I have a Lancool K58.

Do you have any energy saviing options on in the bios?
I can recommend disabling them all so you can set your voltage way lower.
My 4,5ghz oc with 1,295 is staying stable under 65 C even on extrem high load.
I also use a 25€ air cooler with a single fan, nothing special.
 
I OC'd my i5 2500k to 4.5ghz and I get temps to ~74C when running OCCT. That's ok, right?

My brother is giving me his old 128gb SSD. It's not Samsung/Crucial so I'm not expecting top tier speeds, but it should be good enough as a boot drive and a definite upgrade to my HDD. All that's left to my upgrade is a new GPU. Saving money for a GTX 970 to buy within the next few months, but after some research, another problem came up-- a new card might not fit (wouldn't know for sure until I buy it). >=/ Looks like I may need to save up for a new case as well. =P What are some possible options? Right now I have a Lancool K58.

According to the LanCool website's product page, the K58 supports graphics cards up to 440mm in length in the upper slots and up to 290mm in the lower slots. The longest graphics cards with triple fan coolers are only around 320mm long or shorter, so there should be plenty of room.
 
Are there any programs that can let me monitor my pc power supply?

Basically I'm going to another country for 6 months, in an area that has suffered powercuts at random times. I've got a portable battery that should give me at least 30 mins on my pc before running out. What I want is some sort of way to monitor the exact amount of power left in it, before it runs out.
 
Are there any programs that can let me monitor my pc power supply?

Basically I'm going to another country for 6 months, in an area that has suffered powercuts at random times. I've got a portable battery that should give me at least 30 mins on my pc before running out. What I want is some sort of way to monitor the exact amount of power left in it, before it runs out.

Sadly not expect if you have a digital one like the corsair axi series if am not mistaken.
 
Just picked up the Logitech Z623 stereo system since the VG248QE speakers are terrible.

Does anyone know what will offer the best quality when it comes to connection? Should I use the 3.5mm Green cable or the Red/White RCA cables?
 
Just picked up the Logitech Z623 stereo system since the VG248QE speakers are terrible.

Does anyone know what will offer the best quality when it comes to connection? Should I use the 3.5mm Green cable or the Red/White RCA cables?

Both will be the same, both are analogue.
 
I figured this was the best topic to post this question, in regards to Steam In-Home Streaming.

-When the monitor connected to the host PC is turned off or in power saving mode, there is no way to get the stream above 1024x768.
-Often I cannot set the resolution in game to my laptop's native (1440x900) meaning I have to select resolutions that are 'close' despite setting up a custom res in the nVidia control panel.

Anyone know of solutions to these issues?
 
I figured this was the best topic to post this question, in regards to Steam In-Home Streaming.

-When the monitor connected to the host PC is turned off or in power saving mode, there is no way to get the stream above 1024x768.
-Often I cannot set the resolution in game to my laptop's native (1440x900) meaning I have to select resolutions that are 'close' despite setting up a custom res in the nVidia control panel.

Anyone know of solutions to these issues?

Some workaround could be to never set the display off, just have a black screen saver.

You could test Limelight PC, although will need a somewhat decent PC in its current state as its software based decoding.
https://github.com/limelight-stream/limelight-pc/releases

Its normally more flexible than Steam Streaming from my experience with it on the Raspberry Pi.
 
http://abload.de/img/pcie-test-3dmark-11zuu7g.png[/IG]

[IMG]http://abload.de/img/pcie-test-crysis-2v4utp.png[/IG]

[IMG]http://abload.de/img/pcie-test-dirt-3uwucu.png[/IG]

[IMG]http://abload.de/img/pcie-test-modern-warfi1uew.png[/IG]
Seems like the difference is pretty minor.
EDIT:...smh, I'll try to rehost the images
EDIT2: Done[/QUOTE]

While I agree with your point, the GPU's and saturation of those cards hardly presses 3.0 to its limits. I think when 1 or 2 GPU's saturate the bandwidth is when you'd notice the advantages more pronounced than the tests provided
 
Some workaround could be to never set the display off, just have a black screen saver.

You could test Limelight PC, although will need a somewhat decent PC in its current state as its software based decoding.
https://github.com/limelight-stream/limelight-pc/releases

Its normally more flexible than Steam Streaming from my experience with it on the Raspberry Pi.

Not really a solution. It's the same as leaving the monitor on, which is a waste of power.

With the Steam box streaming thing around the corner I would have thought this an issue solved already.
 
Not really a solution. It's the same as leaving the monitor on, which is a waste of power.

With the Steam box streaming thing around the corner I would have thought this an issue solved already.

Ive just tried and it works on my end with my TV off, although the host is plugged into an AV Receiver, it was also off. But not sure if that effects it.
Seems like if the TV turns off midway, then the stream is broken though.

Im not fussed about power when im streaming from a 400W box, monitor isnt really going to make an impact lol.

As for the resolution mismatch, or aspect ratio, i dont think there is any official fix. I assume you created the custom resolution on the Host PC? On my Steam streaming options it only gives 1080/720/480p even though my TV supports many resolutions, including 1280x1024 which was the monitor i was streaming to.

I may setup the Raspberry Pi with Limelight Pi to see if it handles these issues better. When i last tried it was better than Steam Streaming, but Steam Streaming was even better in Beta, the restrictions have made it a pain in the ass.
 
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