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

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The H440 Razer edition comes with 4 fans included, so in terms of the number of fans there are, you're pretty set. There would only be one 120mm fan mount left unused after mounting the H100i in the top. I think the only reason you would need to buy additional fans is if you wanted to replace the stock fans with higher performing or quieter fans, I'm not really familiar with the fans that come included with the H440 Razer so I don't know of if you would find them inadequate or noisy.

I'm thinking for the H100i I think, they seem to be noisy from the reviews.
 
I'm thinking for the H100i I think, they seem to be noisy from the reviews.

You will be able to control fan speed with the Corsair Link program, so that will help. Noctua and Phanteks fans are usually recommended, although they're somewhat pricey.
 
Alright so I've got a really annoying problem that I've spent a ton of time and money on.

I recently built a computer for my friend. He's got a 750 ti and an i5-4430 and games run fine. Can play GTAV at high setting with high FPS, etc. No problem on that front.

For some reason, when playing game or watching youtube videos or listening to music, the sound will crackle and pop annoyingly. I tracked it down and determined it to be a DPC latency issue ( I think ). Then I determined it was the Nvidia graphics kernel process that was going overload. I assumed that meant the graphics card was bad and so we returned it and I gave him my old 760 I've had no problem with.

Today we start up GTAV and the same crackling/popping sound roblem occurred. Is this a motherboard issue? CPU? I'm pretty lost and could use some advice. Thanks.
 
Alright so I've got a really annoying problem that I've spent a ton of time and money on.

I recently built a computer for my friend. He's got a 750 ti and an i5-4430 and games run fine. Can play GTAV at high setting with high FPS, etc. No problem on that front.

For some reason, when playing game or watching youtube videos or listening to music, the sound will crackle and pop annoyingly. I tracked it down and determined it to be a DPC latency issue ( I think ). Then I determined it was the Nvidia graphics kernel process that was going overload. I assumed that meant the graphics card was bad and so we returned it and I gave him my old 760 I've had no problem with.

Today we start up GTAV and the same crackling/popping sound roblem occurred. Is this a motherboard issue? CPU? I'm pretty lost and could use some advice. Thanks.
What's the sound setup? What speakers? Does it happen if you use headphones? Mobo drivers up to date?
 
How good is that PSU? I already have a Silencer Mk.III 600W that i bought for like 80 bucks at Microcenter. However, a friend has a Coolermaster GX750 with a dead fan (lol) so I want to gift that EVGA as a replacement.

My friend has a i7-2600k at like 4.2Ghz with a 760 Ti i think and just 1 SSD and 2 HDDs. Regular fans.

It's decent, above average but nothing special according to these reviews by TechPowerUp and Technic3D.net.

Yeah, 600 watts sounds like it'll be more than enough for your friend. Your Silencer Mark III looks like a pretty good power supply, so that's worth keeping to use.

Alright so I've got a really annoying problem that I've spent a ton of time and money on.

I recently built a computer for my friend. He's got a 750 ti and an i5-4430 and games run fine. Can play GTAV at high setting with high FPS, etc. No problem on that front.

For some reason, when playing game or watching youtube videos or listening to music, the sound will crackle and pop annoyingly. I tracked it down and determined it to be a DPC latency issue ( I think ). Then I determined it was the Nvidia graphics kernel process that was going overload. I assumed that meant the graphics card was bad and so we returned it and I gave him my old 760 I've had no problem with.

Today we start up GTAV and the same crackling/popping sound roblem occurred. Is this a motherboard issue? CPU? I'm pretty lost and could use some advice. Thanks.

What are the specs? Could be motherboard audio chipset, or possibly the power supply.

Just wondering, what troubleshooting steps did you take that pointed to DPC latency issues?
 
I'm thinking for the H100i I think, they seem to be noisy from the reviews.
You could change the fans of the h100i so it makes less noise. The stock fans can get quite loud when spinning at max rpm. I suggest maybe buying some noctuas to replace the stock ones.
 
Is the GTX 960 really not recommended then? I've got a 560ti 2gb card now, with 8 gb ram and an i7... I was looking to upgrade to a 4gb card for under $250.

that sapphire radeon 290 looks like the answer, but like the other poster, I'm a little hesitant switching away from nvidia... is that really any reason to be concerned?
 
Is the GTX 960 really not recommended then? I've got a 560ti 2gb card now, with 8 gb ram and an i7... I was looking to upgrade to a 4gb card for under $250.

that sapphire radeon 290 looks like the answer, but like the other poster, I'm a little hesitant switching away from nvidia... is that really any reason to be concerned?

You should be fine with a single AMD gpu and if you don't care about G-Sync. On that budget, I would go with a 290 too.
 
What's the sound setup? What speakers? Does it happen if you use headphones? Mobo drivers up to date?

What are the specs? Could be motherboard audio chipset, or possibly the power supply.

Just wondering, what troubleshooting steps did you take that pointed to DPC latency issues?

The sound is jarbled. Mobo drivers are up to date. I think. If by drivers you mean the bios and the drivers for the soundcards and wireless cards and stuff. Whether its HDMI or head set or speakers doesn't seem to matter. I'll check out the exact specs later when I get to his house. I've a theory that maybe their isn't enough power, but the wattage on the PS is more than enough. The motherboard is a Gigabyte Z97N, and the only thing I've done in terms of updating is make sure the bios is up to date, which it is.

The steps I took for troubleshooting was to download latencymon, and see that it was the Nvidia driver kernel that seemed to be taking way more DPC than it should be. Like way higher. Everytime the sound jarbled, that spiked.
 
Thanks for the advice. I just opened my case to check my power supply... is 460W enough you think?

Is it bronze? If it is, then you are out of luck. If not, there's a chance it may power it up, but it's a really close call. AMD cards are a lot more power hungry than Nvidia's, right now.
 
Thanks for the advice. I just opened my case to check my power supply... is 460W enough you think?

Not for an R9 290. I'd even be wary about trying to run the more efficient GTX 970 on a 460 watt PSU.

But yeah, for your $250 budget, the strongest graphics card you can get is an R9 290. It'll be faster than the GTX 960 by quite a bit. Your power supply will really only power the GTX 960 at best, though.
 
I'd like more space on my SSD (where Windows 8.1 and games are) and want to know whether I can have Google Drive and OneDrive use files on my hard drive. I know that OD is built into Windows and I haven't found an option to move the folders. Why would they assume you want to keep files on an SSD?
 
I'd like more space on my SSD (where Windows 8.1 and games are) and want to know whether I can have Google Drive and OneDrive use files on my hard drive. I know that OD is built into Windows and I haven't found an option to move the folders. Why would they assume you want to keep files on an SSD?
You'll have to create symbolic links.
 
So, I want The Witcher III to fly at Ultra at 1440p with the best framerate I can get. I'm currently rocking GeForce 970s x 2 in SLI. Do I have a good shot at my goal or am I looking to upgrade further?

(Throw in some GTAV and Elite Dangerous in there too)
 
So, I want The Witcher III to fly at Ultra at 1440p with the best framerate I can get. I'm currently rocking GeForce 970s x 2 in SLI. Do I have a good shot at my goal or am I looking to upgrade further?

(Throw in some GTAV and Elite Dangerous in there too)

Should be fine.
 
Need 4k GSYNC panels. GTA V looks amazing in 4k, but I can't take the inconsistent picture on the screen even at 55-60fps. Hooked my ROG Swift back up and it like a an immediate breath of fresh air. Averaging 96fps with every setting maxed along with 2x MSAA + TXAA so I'll probably stay here for my time with the game.

The 4k GSYNC panel to watch for appears to the ROG Swift PG27AQ. IPS and GSYNC but no release date :l
 
what about this Acer 4k G-sync monitor smokey?

I heard response times aren't very good though and I believe its a TN panel.

I think you should just get the Acer XB270hu 1440p/144hz/G-sync/IPS panel.
 
what about this Acer 4k G-sync monitor smokey?

I heard response times aren't very good though and I believe its a TN panel.

I think you should just get the Acer XB270hu 1440p/144hz/G-sync/IPS panel.

Bolded is why and reading some owner impressions it can be hit or miss. Any future monitor purchases for me will probably be IPS panels now that GSYNC is starting to come included. The PG27AQ looks to be one of the only announced 4k IPS GSYNC panels. No firm date but I'd guess 3Q is when it hits.

To your second point I already have the Swift and while it's not IPS, I'm good with it in the 1440p segment.
 
Guys I'll spare you the wall of text, but I want to join Gsync craze. Thing is I think I'll stay on 1080 monitor. I would have gone for 1440 but from now on (2 kids) I wont have so much money to put for hardware so my gaming PC will be pretty old and it is easier to push nice FPS on 1080 than on 1440, right, right (sobbing)

Anyway anyone can recommend me good 1080 Gsync monitor?
 
Your budget should work for 1080p60. New graphics cards are due around June, can't say whether they'll be cost effective, though. As far as I know, VR doesn't require anything out of the ordinary other than just higher end specifications for smooth framerate display.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£185.94 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£25.31 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-Gaming 3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£79.20 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£51.54 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£71.94 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.99 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 4GB WINDFORCE 3X Video Card (£419.99 @ Novatech)
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Mid Tower Case (£57.42 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: XFX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£63.61 @ More Computers)
Total: £992.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-13 12:15 BST+0100

That should handily meet your 1080p60 requirements. The power supply is good enough to support a second GTX 980 if needed in the future. I was going to ask if you cared about the size of the case or operating noise, but given that you could keep it in another room, I guess it's not really a factor.

Just revisiting this build you very kindly put together for me, RGM79, and (in my utter ignorance, so please factor that in) I was wondering why you didn't spec an R 290x GPU. Doesn't it have similar grunt to the GTX 980 for around £100 less? I'm sure there are valid reasons for the selection but was curious what the advantages are.

Also, does the current spec allow SLI in the future if desired at a later date?

One last question, PC Partpicker are currently featuring this i5-4690k/R9 290x build at around £750, and I'd love some opinions on it with pCARS performance in mind.

click

Cheers.
 
The rig RGM put together is overall better than your linked one. Including PSU, SSD, HDD, RAM and case choices.

Also the link misses the price for the SSD since its not available in the UK.
 
Just revisiting this build you very kindly put together for me, RGM79, and (in my utter ignorance, so please factor that in) I was wondering why you didn't spec an R 290x GPU. Doesn't it have similar grunt to the GTX 980 for around £100 less? I'm sure there are valid reasons for the selection but was curious what the advantages are.

Also, does the current spec allow SLI in the future if desired at a later date?

One last question, PC Partpicker are currently featuring this i5-4690k/R9 290x build at around £750, and I'd love some opinions on it with pCARS performance in mind.

click

Cheers.

I am gonna alleviate some of the stress upon RGM's shoulder here and answer some of this for you:

The advantage of 980 over 290x:
- Consume less power, thus generate less heat. In Metro Last Light, the 290x consume about 375W, while the 980 about 275W at 91 degree Celsius and 81 degree Celsius respectively.
- More often than not faster performance, especially at 1080, which is your choice.
- Generally faster software support for games and stuff.
- And to answer your SLI question, the current PSU will allow SLI 980, but not CF 290x.

So that is about it.

Regarding that spec list, RGM's list is better due to some of these reasons:
- 2 sticks of ram will allow dual channel mode, generally better performance.
- Bigger SSD, 120 GB is too small, you can probably fit the OS and maybe one big game and that's it.
- Lower quality and more expensive PSU.
- The ram doesn't have price so that price should be higher.
- All in all, RGM's part list is better in every front.
 
I don't think you'll ever need to have an i5 for a home server, although it would mean the home server would still be useful in the future if you ever wanted to do anything more intensive on it or repurpose it for some other use. Looking at things like Plex, the requirements for transcoding are quite low, they recommend old Core 2 Duo processors as a minimum.

Yeah, you could definitely use Windows 8.1 as a server OS. Windows Home Server has actually been discontinued, but a lot its features are now built into Windows 8.1. See these two links for details:

Maximu




Thanks for your help!
 
Bolded is why and reading some owner impressions it can be hit or miss. Any future monitor purchases for me will probably be IPS panels now that GSYNC is starting to come included. The PG27AQ looks to be one of the only announced 4k IPS GSYNC panels. No firm date but I'd guess 3Q is when it hits.

To your second point I already have the Swift and while it's not IPS, I'm good with it in the 1440p segment.
I had a dream the other night where I purchased your rog Swift monitor.
 
Just revisiting this build you very kindly put together for me, RGM79, and (in my utter ignorance, so please factor that in) I was wondering why you didn't spec an R 290x GPU. Doesn't it have similar grunt to the GTX 980 for around £100 less? I'm sure there are valid reasons for the selection but was curious what the advantages are.

Also, does the current spec allow SLI in the future if desired at a later date?

One last question, PC Partpicker are currently featuring this i5-4690k/R9 290x build at around £750, and I'd love some opinions on it with pCARS performance in mind.

click

Cheers.

Yes, the parts list I put together includes both a case, motherboard, and power supply capable of supporting two GTX 980 cards in SLI. I did not suggest an R9 290X at the time because it seemed that you wanted high framerate at high graphics settings, a PC built around potential twin GTX 980 cards would seem to be better capable of doing that than a system built around potential crossfired R9 290X cards would.

Comparing my build to the one you linked, they have the same processor, but the motherboard, RAM, storage drives and graphics card are somewhat cheaper or inferior. If you were interested in saving some money, you could go with twin R9 290X graphics cards which would cost much less than twin GTX 980 cards yet not be that far behind in performance for some games, although not all. However, you mentioned Project Cars and Assetto Corsa to be very important to you.

This benchmark from May 2014 seems to say that Project Cars does not work very well with crossfire (AMD multi-GPU), it ran faster with SLI (Nvidia multi-GPU). German website pcgameshardware.de released the results of their testing from January of this year and the R9 290X appears to perform worse than the GTX 970, while the R9 295X2 (two R9 290X cards in one) does not perform any better than the single R9 290X. Fairly disappointing, looks like crossfire isn't worth it. Looking toward Assetto Corsa, pcgameshardware.de also made available their benchmarking results and the R9 290X does take the top crown, with the GTX 980 being left in second place.

In short, if you were planning to build a PC for those two games in mind and had a choice between a GTX 980 or an R9 290X with the possibility of picking up a second identical card in the future, I'd recommend the GTX 980. If you were to run twin GTX 980 in the future, at least that works for both games. If you went with the R9 290X, it'd be pointless to pick up another one in the future for crossfire because it wouldn't work very well for Project Cars.

Edit: Thanks Liljoka and lordfuzzybutt, we've covered all sides of the comparison. I was hoping someone would do the hardware comparison while I dredged up graphics card comparison articles for racing sims.
 
How important is cooling/case/fans for contemporary GPUs? I'm thinking of upgrading my GPU in the next few months but I still have my CM 690 from like 2009 with stock fans except the CPU fan.

Should I get a new case?

Quoting my question and asking another: What are the best 24" 16:9 budget monitors? I'm in Australia but any advice is welcome.
 
Need 4k GSYNC panels. GTA V looks amazing in 4k, but I can't take the inconsistent picture on the screen even at 55-60fps. Hooked my ROG Swift back up and it like a an immediate breath of fresh air. Averaging 96fps with every setting maxed along with 2x MSAA + TXAA so I'll probably stay here for my time with the game.

The 4k GSYNC panel to watch for appears to the ROG Swift PG27AQ. IPS and GSYNC but no release date :l

You might be waiting some considerable time for an experience that beats the PG278Q, Smokey. We don't have an interface fast enough to deliver 3840x2160 at > 60Hz at the moment. For me, most of the impact this display provides comes from the higher than 60Hz refresh rates and the fact that image stability is consistent, regardless of frame rate.

I don't even think DisplayPort 1.3 has enough bandwidth for 4K @ 144Hz. Accounting for overhead, it should manage ~26 Gbit/s and 3840 x 2160 x 3 (bytes per pixel) x 144 (Hz) x 8 (bits per byte) = 28,665,446,400 Gbit/s. DP 1.3 should be enough for 3840x2160 at 120Hz though.

I suppose it's pretty much moot, considering even $3000 PCs can't push average frame times below 16ms at that resolution in new games. As you say, G-Sync up to 60Hz would be a considerable improvement. Fixed-refresh must die!
 
Quoting my question and asking another: What are the best 24" 16:9 budget monitors? I'm in Australia but any advice is welcome.

Hard to say, depends on a bunch of factors. What graphics card do you have now and what are temperatures like? What graphics card are you planning on buying? If you think your case is already getting a bit too warm or the graphics card you're planning to upgrade to may run hotter than the one you have, then it's not a bad idea to get some fans for some more airflow.

I'm not too knowledgeable about monitors, but at the lower end, LG and Asus seem to be solid brands.

LG 24MP55HQ-P ($189) - affordable 23.8" IPS, not a lot of reviews but what few there exist are all happy.
Asus VE248H ($194) - 24.0" TN panel, hundreds of positive reviews, with a very small percentage of negative reviews. Has a good rating at the displaylag.com database.
 
Hard to say, depends on a bunch of factors. What graphics card do you have now and what are temperatures like? What graphics card are you planning on buying? If you think your case is already getting a bit too warm or the graphics card you're planning to upgrade to may run hotter than the one you have, then it's not a bad idea to get some fans for some more airflow.

I'm not too knowledgeable about monitors, but at the lower end, LG and Asus seem to be solid brands.

LG 24MP55HQ-P ($189) - affordable 23.8" IPS, not a lot of reviews but what few there exist are all happy.
Asus VE248H ($194) - 24.0" TN panel, hundreds of positive reviews, with a very small percentage of negative reviews. Has a good rating at the displaylag.com database.

Wow that website alone seems to be a great help thanks! Dunno how I haven't heard of it before.

My current GPU is a 3gb 7970 with a mild OC. Playing Arkham City right now it's sitting at 75 celsius, with GTA V however it's been getting closer to 90 degrees.

I'm thinking of holding out till the 300 series before upgrading, but it's definitely on the cards. I'm just wondering if I should get a new case/cooling system while I'm at it.
 
The MX200 is a good drive, but for slightly better cost per GB there's the Crucial BX100 250GB model for £73.

The Samsung 840 Evo model had performance issues that weren't totally gotten rid of. Some users still report having issues whereas others don't. The newer 850 Evo is the replacement for the discontinued 840 Evo, and while I'm optimistic that Samsung has fixed the issue, it remains to be seen if there will be any similar issues with the 850 Evo as it takes time for the problem to show up.

Thanks for the response, I'll definately consider the Crucial BX but looks like I'll buy the MX200 if my budget can stretch enough.
 
Hey GAF, do the USB ports on ASUS motherboards go bonkers a lot? The flash back port on my M5A97 R2.0 has shorted I think. Which is funny cause I never used it because I thought it was too important for wear and tear. Try to start my computer I am greeted with an Over Current warning. I'm in the process of getting it replaced but if it's a common problem I might as well get another brand.
 
Hey GAF, do the USB ports on ASUS motherboards go bonkers a lot? The flash back port on my M5A97 R2.0 has shorted I think. Which is funny cause I never used it because I thought it was too important for wear and tear. Try to start my computer I am greeted with an Over Current warning. I'm in the process of getting it replaced but if it's a common problem I might as well get another brand.

I'd troubleshoot by disconnecting all USB devices and seeing if you still get the error. If you've already sent away the motherboard and are looking for a replacement then there's no reason not to try a different brand I suppose, although failing USB ports aren't really a problem specific to any brand.

I know Gigabyte's Intel chipset motherboards feature a gimmick that they call enhanced ESD protection on USB ports, I don't believe they offer that on any of their AMD motherboards though.
 
I'd troubleshoot by disconnecting all USB devices and seeing if you still get the error. If you've already sent away the motherboard and are looking for a replacement then there's no reason not to try a different brand I suppose, although failing USB ports aren't really a problem specific to any brand.

I know Gigabyte's Intel chipset motherboards feature a gimmick that they call enhanced ESD protection on USB ports, I don't believe they offer that on any of their AMD motherboards though.

I disconnected everything except GPU CPU and RAM, tried with another PSU. The only jumper switch on the mobo is for clearing CMOS (which I also did)

I localized the faulty port by plugging in my mouse in all of them during boot, it lights up in all but one, where it briefly flashes then dies. I'm just a tad worried that they'll say I caused the problem myself because on the edge near the old PS/2 ports there was a tiny metal thingamabob that got bent out of shape when I installed the motherboard. It got in the way of the I/O shield so I had to take it off, but the PC ran just fine for months despite that.

If that is somehow the cause of the problem (And even if it isn't, lord knows they'll say it is) ASUS will charge 150 euros for the repair plus shipping fees, which is ludicrous considering the motherboard isn't even worth that much. The LE version of the same board is 70 euros which is less than half of that potential fee :lol. So I'm thinking it'd be a safer (and faster) option to just get a new motherboard instead, which is why I asked if fried USB ports are common at all.
 
Broke down an bought a semi pre-built PC. My current gaming rig is from 2009, although with a 580 in it.

I'm probably gonna get shit on for these specs, but whatever. I don't really have the time or energy to do tons of research.

I've heard some complaints about the motherboard, but are they really that important?

Cooler Master B500 VER.2, 500W PSU
CPU: Intel Core i5-4460
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB
MB: ASUS B85M-G, Socket-1150
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 1600MHz 16GB
HDD: Kingston SSDNow V300 240GB 2.5" OEM
 
Broke down an bought a semi pre-built PC. My current gaming rig is from 2009, although with a 580 in it.

I'm probably gonna get shit on for these specs, but whatever. I don't really have the time or energy to do tons of research.

I've heard some complaints about the motherboard, but are they really that important?

Cooler Master B500 VER.2, 500W PSU
CPU: Intel Core i5-4460
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB
MB: ASUS B85M-G, Socket-1150
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 1600MHz 16GB
HDD: Kingston SSDNow V300 240GB 2.5" OEM
I have that very same motherboard running a G3258 overclocked to 4.7GHz. Can't really complain about it. The SSD is kinda awful though.

The rest is kinda OK, I just hope you didn't overpay for it.
 
Yes, the parts list I put together includes both a case, motherboard, and power supply capable of supporting two GTX 980 cards in SLI. I did not suggest an R9 290X at the time because it seemed that you wanted high framerate at high graphics settings, a PC built around potential twin GTX 980 cards would seem to be better capable of doing that than a system built around potential crossfired R9 290X cards would.

Comparing my build to the one you linked, they have the same processor, but the motherboard, RAM, storage drives and graphics card are somewhat cheaper or inferior. If you were interested in saving some money, you could go with twin R9 290X graphics cards which would cost much less than twin GTX 980 cards yet not be that far behind in performance for some games, although not all. However, you mentioned Project Cars and Assetto Corsa to be very important to you.

This benchmark from May 2014 seems to say that Project Cars does not work very well with crossfire (AMD multi-GPU), it ran faster with SLI (Nvidia multi-GPU). German website pcgameshardware.de released the results of their testing from January of this year and the R9 290X appears to perform worse than the GTX 970, while the R9 295X2 (two R9 290X cards in one) does not perform any better than the single R9 290X. Fairly disappointing, looks like crossfire isn't worth it. Looking toward Assetto Corsa, pcgameshardware.de also made available their benchmarking results and the R9 290X does take the top crown, with the GTX 980 being left in second place.

In short, if you were planning to build a PC for those two games in mind and had a choice between a GTX 980 or an R9 290X with the possibility of picking up a second identical card in the future, I'd recommend the GTX 980. If you were to run twin GTX 980 in the future, at least that works for both games. If you went with the R9 290X, it'd be pointless to pick up another one in the future for crossfire because it wouldn't work very well for Project Cars.

Edit: Thanks Liljoka and lordfuzzybutt, we've covered all sides of the comparison. I was hoping someone would do the hardware comparison while I dredged up graphics card comparison articles for racing sims.

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar, and much thanks to LilJoka and lordfuzzybutt as well. Hope you don't mind the forensic analysis - this would be my first build and would represent a sizeable investment, so I want to make doubly sure I get it right first time. Knowing GAF's got my back keeps the stress levels manageable.

One last thing - another GAFer mentioned that motherboard won't support SLI, but the "Gaming 5" model does. Is this indeed the case?

Thanks once again.
 
I had a dream the other night where I purchased your rog Swift monitor.

lol. can make that a reality depending on the timing :p

You might be waiting some considerable time for an experience that beats the PG278Q, Smokey. We don't have an interface fast enough to deliver 3840x2160 at > 60Hz at the moment. For me, most of the impact this display provides comes from the higher than 60Hz refresh rates and the fact that image stability is consistent, regardless of frame rate.

I don't even think DisplayPort 1.3 has enough bandwidth for 4K @ 144Hz. Accounting for overhead, it should manage ~26 Gbit/s and 3840 x 2160 x 3 (bytes per pixel) x 144 (Hz) x 8 (bits per byte) = 28,665,446,400 Gbit/s. DP 1.3 should be enough for 3840x2160 at 120Hz though.

I suppose it's pretty much moot, considering even $3000 PCs can't push average frame times below 16ms at that resolution in new games. As you say, G-Sync up to 60Hz would be a considerable improvement. Fixed-refresh must die!

I'm not expecting 4k @ 144hz for a long time due to the reasons you mentioned. I'd take a 60hz, GSYNC panel in the short term. The PG27AQ seems to be my best option, but there have not been any details since its CES 2015 showing. The inconsistent picture on my Samsung 4k monitor was driving me crazy. By all accounts the Swift PG27AQ should be a much better panel than that.
 
Is the GTX 960 really not recommended then? I've got a 560ti 2gb card now, with 8 gb ram and an i7... I was looking to upgrade to a 4gb card for under $250.

that sapphire radeon 290 looks like the answer, but like the other poster, I'm a little hesitant switching away from nvidia... is that really any reason to be concerned?

Last Friday I moved from a GTX 660 to the R9 290 (in my case it's this one): http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/R9290DC2OC4GD5/

There's no reason to be concerned. The drivers are good, and the ecosystem is reasonably similar to that of Nvidia.

There's no Geforce Experience for AMD, but AMD Gaming Evolved does the job pretty decently. And instead of Shadowplay, you can use either AMD Gaming Evolved's GVR (which is the exact same solution but for AMD) in the games that supports it, or OBS with the AMD VCE support (AMD VCE is the name of the techonology for AMD, and the 290 supports it).
 
so I'm trying to tell a friend which upgrades he should make to his pc, and I'm no expert. But he's only got 4gb of ram, so I told him his cheapest upgrade for the most performance boost would be to upgrade that to 8gb at least. Is there a concern over the new 4gb matching his old 4gb? or can he just plug in any ddr3 ram and be ok?
 
guys, the CPU fan in my oldish (2009) desktop keeps reving. But it only started after moving it from one location to another. Do I need to reapply the thermal paste? Should I try a can of compressed air first?
 
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (€252.44 @ Amazon Italia)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€101.25 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (€71.64 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Crucial BX100 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€68.05 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€52.40 @ Amazon Italia)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 290 4GB DirectCU II Video Card (€285.16 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Corsair 350D MicroATX Mid Tower Case (€102.27 @ Amazon Italia)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (€98.76 @ Amazon Italia)
Monitor: BenQ GW2265HM 60Hz 21.5" Monitor (€108.41 @ Amazon Italia)
Other: HDMI Cable (€8.00)
Other: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (€103.23)
Total: €1251.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-15 23:07 CEST+0200

Windows 8.1 is on Amazon.it for 103,23€, and to further save money I chose the Asus R9 290 instead of the GTX 970. It offers similar performance for nearly 90€ less.
The Windows 8.1 you linked is the DVD, which I can't use due to not having an optical drive (I could rip the iso I guess, but it comes at pretty much the same price of the download if you count shipping).
I have read that the R9 290 is louder and consumes more power-wise, and I kind of prefer nvidia card overall, so I'm still not sure on that (the link to the comparison doesn't work, but Google was helpful enough)
Just out of curiosity, was the build I originally posted any good? The changes you made were for saving money, right? It's my first time building so I'd like to know if I was on a good track at least :D
Thanks again for all your help, I'll stop bothering you after this, I promise!
 
so I'm trying to tell a friend which upgrades he should make to his pc, and I'm no expert. But he's only got 4gb of ram, so I told him his cheapest upgrade for the most performance boost would be to upgrade that to 8gb at least. Is there a concern over the new 4gb matching his old 4gb? or can he just plug in any ddr3 ram and be ok?
Depends on the rest of his specs. What else does he have?
 
Depends on the rest of his specs. What else does he have?

He has a slightly worse computer then I do. intel i5, and a nvidia 500 series gpu i think. I don't know what brand of ram he's got, just that it's ddr3. I told him, ram would be the best first thing to do, then look at upgrading to a 4gb card (which might need a new power supply too)... and then if he's still not getting the performance he wants look at upgrading cpu.
 
He has a slightly worse computer then I do. intel i5, and a nvidia 500 series gpu i think. I don't know what brand of ram he's got, just that it's ddr3. I told him, ram would be the best first thing to do, then look at upgrading to a 4gb card (which might need a new power supply too)... and then if he's still not getting the performance he wants look at upgrading cpu.
4 gig to 8 gig isn't going to make that big a difference.
 
Ketch, your suggestions sounds reasonable to me. 4GB isn't going to be enough to meet some minimum requirements going forward. It won't impact performance as such, bit it will allow him to at least run all games for the foreseeable future.
 
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