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[BossDarkseid]

New PC up and running. PG279Q is kinda dreamy.

TW3 on Ultra w/Hairworks etc maxed etc gets about 50fps most of the time, in what little I've played so far.

For a 5820k OCd + 980Ti does that sound about right for TW3?

 

[LilJoka]

New PC up and running. PG279Q is kinda dreamy.

TW3 on Ultra w/Hairworks etc maxed etc gets about 50fps most of the time, in what little I've played so far.

For a 5820k OCd + 980Ti does that sound about right for TW3?

Probably, some of wither 3 settings really hog the gpu with minor improvements only. You can probably put a few settings on High and not even notice the difference. Shadows on high or medium will probably get you to 60fps. Also tone down the hairworks AA.
Also check out the witcher 3 thread on their forums about tweaking the game to make it look super awesome.

 

[RGM79]

Is EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply a good power supply? The XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply is out of stock at SuperBiiz.

Edit: SuperBiiz isn't letting me checkout

Do I need to have an account with them if I'm using PayPal?

Edit 2: Yes I had to have an account with them. Also they charge you shipping per item, not per "box". I'm looking at $34.xx

Yeah, the EVGA 500B is an alright model. PSU prices have changed though, did you already order that PSU? There are other choices at around the price of the XFX model. The EVGA 600B is $24 after $30 rebate at Newegg.

Best cooling. The rad will be placed at the front of the case so the fan(s) there will be my intake too.

I'm not sure if a double thick rad would be possible (or even worth it over single) but I'll likely go for push/pull fan combination.

I recall the Corsair H80i GT ($80 after $10 rebate) being one of the better 120mm water coolers. Apparently it does fit, but is somewhat troublesome because the water tubing is thick and not too flexible. If you want to run push/pull and don't need the absolute best performance, then the Corsair H60 ($60) will probably meet your needs just fine. Are you going to be overclocking or something?

Okay, I've got pretty much everything taken care of now; the only part I have left to figure out is that power supply. Here's what it will be going with.

CPU: i5 6600k
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Video: GTX 970 4GB
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory

The last time I got a power supply it came included in my case. I was lucky because it turned out to be the right one, despite apparently providing less power than its label indicated, but it means I'm not really sure what to look for, especially in light of the aforementioned deceptive label. Any recommendations?

Sorry, but what case is this all going in? Do you want modular cables? Something in the 500~650 watt range will be more than adequate for your needs.

The TX3 EVO in my computer seems to help the CPU temps a bit, but not well enough in my tastes.

I'm thinking of getting something nicer that I can obtain, and unfortunately my choices are rather limited here.

What would you get out of Corsair H55, H60, H75, and H80i GT? Or should I just accept that the CPU's going to be a bit hotter than ideal? The CPU can hit really high temperatures about 75C during combined CPU + GPU usage, where the case becomes quite warm, compounded with a 30C room temp. (All case exhausts are working fine, and the hot air does get out effectively when the load's gone, but... yeah, the CPU heat isn't too good to think about.

What are your computer's specs, what country are you in, what's your budget for a new CPU cooler, and how much do those models you mentioned cost? Or does cost not matter? The H80i GT is the best performer out of all of them, but something simple like a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo should be fine and relatively cheap.

Quick question: I picked up a 500 GB SSD and a new case. I want to reinstall everything fresh when I move everything to the new case. Now, I have a Win7 key but upgraded to Win 10. Do I need to reinstall Win7 and upgrade to Win10 again? Or can I install Win10 via USB and use my Win7 key?

Nope, you can do a clean installation of Windows 10. You can choose to skip entering a product key and Windows 10 should be able to reactivate itself using the records stored on Microsoft's servers, but you can now also enter you old Windows 7 key to activate Windows 10 now.

I'd try the first method, then if it doesn't work you should enter your Windows 7 key.

 

[BossDarkseid]

Probably, some of wither 3 settings really hog the gpu with minor improvements only. You can probably put a few settings on High and not even notice the difference. Shadows on high or medium will probably get you to 60fps. Also tone down the hairworks AA.
Also check out the witcher 3 thread on their forums about tweaking the game to make it look super awesome.

Cheers, I'll look that up. It's so good to have something like this run and look good on PC If the difference is minimal then I'd turn things off. I turned off normal AA but it was very noticeable on trees, and only seemed to save like 3-4fps.

 

[LilJoka]

Cheers, I'll look that up. It's so good to have something like this run and look good on PC If the difference is minimal then I'd turn things off. I turned off normal AA but it was very noticeable on trees, and only seemed to save like 3-4fps.

You should definitely overclock the 980Ti too, easy 5-10fps boost.

 

[killertofu]

Yeah I had an extremely hard time getting old ITX boards for my friends who I wanted to get into PC gaming with small builds, nothing's changed in the last 3 years. I'm still looking for a bargain 3770k to upgrade my 3770 but it's not happening.

Assume your looking to just migrate your parts to ITX too?

Yeah, basically.

I bought a Fractal Node 304 Mini ITX case. I honestly just need a motherboard and I should be set. When I took apart my R4 a couple days ago I realized just how crammed it would have to be and that my PCI Wifi adapter doesn't even have space in the new case...

Sigh

 

[LilJoka]

Yeah, basically.

I bought a Fractal Node 304 Mini ITX case. I honestly just need a motherboard and I should be set. When I took apart my R4 a couple days ago I realized just how crammed it would have to be and that my PCI Wifi adapter doesn't even have space in the new case...

Sigh

Most ITX boards have onboard wifi for that reason so thats not to worry, just getting an older board is difficult, moreso with ITX as it wasnt much of a thing a couple years back - I think GTX 970 was a big game changer here. Im running in a Node 304 too =)

 

[Syril]

Sorry, but what case is this all going in? Do you want modular cables? Something in the 500~650 watt range will be more than adequate for your needs.

I don't have the packaging for it anymore, but looking online I'm relatively certain it's Antec Sonata III. The image gallery at the top of that page looks like a more recent version, but the gallery in the "overview" tab if you scroll down looks like mine exactly, down to the power supply label I had posted earlier.

What are modular cables?

 

[Wag]

So now, every so often on my 3x 980Ti SLI setup (after installing my EVGA 1300 PSU) my screen blanks out, and then comes back. Even happens on the desktop. Was working fine for a while now it's no go. I wonder if I have a bad card or I really do need that 1600w PSU after all? Tech from EVGA said 1300w should be more than enough. I'd be pissed after all that. I ordered a new HDMI cable just in case to see what happens.

 

[bomblord1]

So now, every so often on my 3x 980Ti SLI setup (after installing my EVGA 1300 PSU) my screen blanks out, and then comes back. Even happens on the desktop. Was working fine for a while now it's no go. I wonder if I have a bad card or I really do need that 1600w PSU after all? Tech from EVGA said 1300w should be more than enough. I'd be pissed after all that. I ordered a new HDMI cable just in case to see what happens.

Sounds like a display driver crash.

 

[Vardhan]

I am looking to buy my first gaming monitor for my computer that has a base GTX 980, i7-5820K, and 16 GB DDR4 RAM.

With such a configuration:
1. Should I be sticking to 1080p or 1440p if I want to play current gen games like Witcher 3?
2. Should I be looking into a G-Sync monitor? Would such games like The Witcher 3 or Team Fortress 2 benefit from it?
3. Are there any recommendations of 1080p / 1440p G-Sync monitors?

On that same note, does anyone have any thoughts on the Dell S2716DG 27" gaming monitor? Right now, the price is at $550 due to Black Friday.

 

[BeekleMatter]

What would it take for me to take this build and make it a mini build? How small could I go?

Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
ASRock Z77 Pro4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
PNY CS2111 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
PNY GeForce GTX 770 4GB Video Card
NZXT Source 210 Elite (White) ATX Mid Tower Case
Antec Basiq Plus 550W 80+ Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer

 

[StarlordDial]

I only have one question


I have a gsync monitor and have built my pc for almost 6 months now... I didn't know how it works but

I have been playing a ton of games with both in-game vsync with every game on and gsync on global settings


Do i always have to turn off vsync in every game ?


0_o

 

[TUSR]

I only have one question


I have a gsync monitor and have built my pc for almost 6 months now... I didn't know how it works but

I have been playing a ton of games with both in-game vsync with every game on and gsync on global settings


Do i always have to turn off vsync in every game ?


0_o

yes

you also need to turn it off in the nvidia control panel

 

[Terbinator]

Are you going to be overclocking or something?

Probably not, maybe a slight upping of the Turbo bin to 5GHz (6700K at stock atm). I just want it cool because at the minute the current cooler can't keep it under 75c under load and it's loud as hell.

 

[StarlordDial]

yes

you also need to turn it off in the nvidia control panel

Pretty sure i have my nvidia vsync off and controlled by applications

But yeah thanks


WTF

 

[Guy LeDouche]

Hi,

I got a 850 evo ssd to upgrade over my old spinning drive. I cloned it successfully last night with the Samsung migration software, swapped the drives inside my case, and it booted up fine. I can definitely tell it is faster but the Samsung magician software tells me it's plugged into a sata-II port and not sata-III.

I have a P8P67 pro asus board. Can I just move the cable from one of the II ports to one of the III ports, reboot and be fine? Do I need to do any bios fuckery? Do I need to find a "sata-III" cable or are they the same? I'm reading mixed things online.

Thanks to anyone who can offer any insight.

Specs:
P8P67 pro board
I5-2500
Ssd is the only drive connected (besides an optical drive)
I might reformat the old drive at some point but for now it's unplugged.

 

[scottzorus]

Just about every recent generation Intel processor and motherboard will handle dual monitors. What monitors and cables do you have? You'll want a motherboard with the appropriate output connectors so you can hook up everything with the right cables. You don't mean you'll be doing any kind of gaming though, will you?

No gaming, the asrock h97 pro 4 has hdmi and dvi (and VGA but I don't think I can use the onboard dvi and VGA at the same time). I haven't bought the monitors yet but I'm going to have to find one that has both those inputs.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Wag]

Sounds like a display driver crash.

Cleaned out drivers multiple times and reinstalled. Rolled back to earlier drivers, same problem. Tempted to do a clean Win10 install next.

 

[kuYuri]

New PC up and running. PG279Q is kinda dreamy.

TW3 on Ultra w/Hairworks etc maxed etc gets about 50fps most of the time, in what little I've played so far.

For a 5820k OCd + 980Ti does that sound about right for TW3?

Nice, congrats on the purchase!

 

[BossDarkseid]

Ok ignoring TW3 performance for a sec...I left the PC alone for a while downloading stuff on Steam. When I came back Steam had closed. Odd. Double clicked the icon and got a BSOD (long time, no see) with System Service Exception, or something like that...which is apparently memory related? Anyway no crash this time and checked and the right amount of ram is available etc (16gb), gpu drivers are up to date...

Odd problem

Edit:

Nice, congrats on the purchase!

Thanks!

 

[StarlordDial]

Nice, congrats on the purchase!

Niceeee we have the same setup barring the overcloking part and have be acer one instead

Yep 48-52fps is the average with 980ti setups

 

[BossDarkseid]

Niceeee we have the same setup barring the overcloking part and have be acer one instead

Yep 48-52fps is the average with 980ti setups

Yay! I'm pretty happy with that considering I'm having a bump in resolution etc, and it obviously looks miles beyond the PS4 version that I played for about...40 hours or so. I am having a few niggling problems with it, but it sort of feels like new pc blues, even though having a fast new system is always nice. It's really quiet too!

 

[StarlordDial]

Yay! I'm pretty happy with that considering I'm having a bump in resolution etc, and it obviously looks miles beyond the PS4 version that I played for about...40 hours or so. I am having a few niggling problems with it, but it sort of feels like new pc blues, even though having a fast new system is always nice. It's really quiet too!

Wish i could say the quite part on my end too lol

I bought noctua pwm fans (4x) fans for my kraken x60 radiator with 3000pwm lmaooo

and also you're at the right time ! With tons of sales on steam, you can try out some demanding games on sale currently

 

[TheOnlyMook]

Finally jumping on a new GPU this weekend, going to get myself a 970 to replace my extremely aged out 560ti.

Advice: purchase now, or wait until Monday? I'm specifically looking to get the MSI or Asus models, and the prices on both of them at the moment are already really awesome.

 

[BossDarkseid]

Wish i could say the quite part on my end too lol

I bought noctua pwm fans (4x) fans for my kraken x60 radiator with 3000pwm lmaooo

and also you're at the right time ! With tons of sales on steam, you can try out some demanding games on sale currently

Hah, I have an Asetek for the CPU and...mind's gone blank on fan brands but its not Noctua. It's an Phanteks Enthoo Pro M case. Feels space-agey

Edit: For TW3 I turned down Hairworks and turned up Hairwork's AA. Can't tell a difference on the general quality front, monsters fur still looks voluminous (sp?) but it runs a bit better, but not tried it with an fps counter.

 

[RGM79]

I don't have the packaging for it anymore, but looking online I'm relatively certain it's Antec Sonata III. The image gallery at the top of that page looks like a more recent version, but the gallery in the "overview" tab if you scroll down looks like mine exactly, down to the power supply label I had posted earlier.

What are modular cables?

Modular power supplies have detachable cables. You only plug in the cables you need so you don't end up with a mess of unused cables that you have to tuck away somewhere, looking ugly, taking up space, and blocking airflow in your PC.

If you don't mind rebates, then the EVGA B2 750 watt ($40 after $35 rebate) is what I'd recommend. More than enough wattage to support your needs, modular cables to cut down on the clutter, and it's fairly high quality as well.

What would it take for me to take this build and make it a mini build? How small could I go?

You'll need a new motherboard at the very least, and possibly a new cooler depending on what case you get and whether you overclock your CPU or not.

Buying smaller mITX or mATX motherboards for a processor like yours is kind of iffy in that you're looking for discontinued parts that can be somewhat expensive. How small do you want to go? Do you have a compact case in mind?

Probably not, maybe a slight upping of the Turbo bin to 5GHz (6700K at stock atm). I just want it cool because at the minute the current cooler can't keep it under 75c under load and it's loud as hell.

I know 5GHz is a tall order for all cores to reach that speed (most overclocking experiences peg Skylake to generally reach 4.6~4.7GHz unless you have a lucky chip), not sure if 5GHz turbo on one or two cores might work. Are you running your i7 6700K at stock at the moment? The TX3 is a basic cooler, I wouldn't expect very much from it in terms of performance. In your case, you might want to opt for the H60 or H80i GT with twin fans, then, depending on how much you want to spend.

Hi,

I got a 850 evo ssd to upgrade over my old spinning drive. I cloned it successfully last night with the Samsung migration software, swapped the drives inside my case, and it booted up fine. I can definitely tell it is faster but the Samsung magician software tells me it's plugged into a sata-II port and not sata-III.

I have a P8P67 pro asus board. Can I just move the cable from one of the II ports to one of the III ports, reboot and be fine? Do I need to do any bios fuckery? Do I need to find a "sata-III" cable or are they the same? I'm reading mixed things online.

Thanks to anyone who can offer any insight.

Specs:
P8P67 pro board
I5-2500
Ssd is the only drive connected (besides an optical drive)
I might reformat the old drive at some point but for now it's unplugged.

All cables are the same, you can move the drive to the faster SATA port and all will be fine, no reinstall or anything else required.

No gaming, the asrock h97 pro 4 has hdmi and dvi (and VGA but I don't think I can use the onboard dvi and VGA at the same time). I haven't bought the monitors yet but I'm going to have to find one that has both those inputs.

Thanks for the reply!

The H97 Pro4 product specs page says it'll do triple monitor and I assume that means it'll output to HDMI, DVI, and VGA at the same time.

 

[VanWinkle]

Guys, I have a problem that is driving me crazy. I built my first PC, with Windows 10, a few months ago, and all the time (seems worse lately but I don't know if it actually is) I get a "waiting on cache" message on Chrome where everything freezes and I can't do anything. I thought it was just a Chrome issue, and I've tried clearing the cache, but I've tried clicking on something on the computer like the start menu or something while it's on this "waiting on cache", and it actually freezes the computer until a minute or so when it starts working again. So I'm led to believe it's a hardware issue. I don't know what it could be. I thought maybe my old secondary hard drive might have been messing with it, but I took that out and it still does it.

 

[Smokey]

So now, every so often on my 3x 980Ti SLI setup (after installing my EVGA 1300 PSU) my screen blanks out, and then comes back. Even happens on the desktop. Was working fine for a while now it's no go. I wonder if I have a bad card or I really do need that 1600w PSU after all? Tech from EVGA said 1300w should be more than enough. I'd be pissed after all that. I ordered a new HDMI cable just in case to see what happens.

Your PSU is enough. I ran Tri-SLI Titan Blacks on my EVGA G2 1300w PSU, which use more power than the 980Ti.

 

[Wag]

Your PSU is enough. I ran Tri-SLI Titan Blacks on my EVGA G2 1300w PSU, which use more power than the 980Ti.

So I wonder what the problem is? Motherboard? Drivers? Videocard? I'm getting tired of all the problems. It's almost impossible for me to diagnose. This has been going on for months now. I replaced the PSU, and I'm more stable, yet a new problem crops up.

Reinstalling Win10 is a PITA because I have to install Win 8 first, then upgrade to 10. (shit, my screen just blanked out as I was typing this).

 

[Smokey]

So I wonder what the problem is? Motherboard? Drivers? Videocard? I'm getting tired of all the problems. It's almost impossible for me to diagnose. This has been going on for months now. I replaced the PSU, and I'm more stable, yet a new problem crops up.

Reinstalling Win10 is a PITA because I have to install Win 8 first, then upgrade to 10. (shit, my screen just blanked out as I was typing this).

Are you able to test each card individually? When I had my TriSLI setup, the PCIe lane switches on my motherboard were a literal life saver when troubleshooting issues. If you do have those switches try disabling two of the cards. Do this for each card. Then enable a second card for SLI etc.

This is really the only way to see if it's one of the GPUs that are causing a problem. You've said that you already tried different drivers. Is your motherboard BIOS up do date as well? With an exotic setup such as yours, it's probably not a bad idea to make sure things like that are running on the latest version. If everything is good then unfortunately it's a matter of troubleshooting. With 3 cards it can be a PITA.

 

[Wag]

Yes. I'm running latest version of everything. Although I'm frustrated to say the least now. I looked at the windows event log and couldn't see any record of the Nvidia drivers failing. I am currently running beta bios of Motherboard- a new stable BIOS was just posted- downgrade, but I will try. I don't think it will help but I'll give it a shot. Oh, and I just turned off SLI and I'm still blanking goddamnit.

 

[RandomExpletive]

I return, eager now with sales abound to upgrade from this blasted 560! And maybe my case.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Pro3 GEN3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($43.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 560 1GB Video Card
Case: NZXT Gamma Classic (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro M 700W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS90 DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $333.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-28 18:26 EST-0500

So mainly I'm looking to update my graphics card. Hitting high settings @ 1080/60 is the goal.

At the moment I'm playing some older titles, and stuff like MGSV, but as the year ends I'll probably grab some new stuff like Battlefront. Next year I'll definitely grab Overwatch, Mirrors Edge, Deus Ex, NMS.

I'm on the lookout for a sub $250 GTX 970, but I kinda doubt I'll get that lucky. So I guess my price range is $200-250, the 280x, 380, and 290 are all looking interesting

Was also wondering if anyone had any case recommendations, I've been looking at the Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-01 and Phanteks Enthoo Pro M (and yes I know my board doesn't have front panel USB 3 )
Both of these would make installing a larger card a little easier, since...

This post is plenty long, I'll save my silly mATX build question for later

 

[GnawtyDog]

I figure this is not a deals thread but this PSU right here is a beast and fits most builds barring CF or SLI.

Cheap right now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151118&cm_re=seasonic_ssr-650rm-_-17-151-118-_-Product

It's not going to last I wager.

SeaSonic SSR-650RM 650W. $70. $10 rebate =$60. If you order using the mobile app, there is an additional 5% off w/ coupon: MBLNOV2815.

 

[Grokbu]

This might be a dumb question, and I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask. But is it considered bannable to use Nvidia DSR in competitive multiplayer games, Star Wars Battlefront etc.?

 

[RedSonja]

This might be a dumb question, and I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask. But is it considered bannable to use Nvidia DSR in competitive multiplayer games, Star Wars Battlefront etc.?

No, don't worry, you'll be fine. Game on!

 

[Yudoken]

Gonna do some overclocking this weekend.

Anybody here have experience with SLI 970s (aftermarket cooler) and/or with an i7 4790k (maybe even with an Asus Extreme Gene VII mainboard or similar)?

Any advices or recommended sources for oc you've used for your overclock?

 

[ZombieLPK]

Reposting this from reddit since /r/pcgamingtechsupport seems to be dead for the most part.

https://imgur.com/a/6LdFa

For the past few months I've been getting random 3 second lock ups in games at random times, happening more frequently on average as time has gone on. I've monitored the usage and temps of the CPU and GPU, and the lock ups never coincided with a spike in usage or temp on either the CPU or the GPU. I also thought I saw green pixel artifacting for a split second once in Black Ops 3, but I haven't been able to reproduce that so I might have just been seeing things. I bought a new motherboard and power supply to make sure it wasn't either a bad PCI slot or the GPU not getting enough power and neither of those have seemed to fix it. I've also over the past few months while trying to figure out what the problem was changed operating system, the HDD I run games from and tested the RAM which threw back no errors. Restarting the computer seems to make it take longer for the lock ups to start up again, but after around 16 or so hours (most of them idle or web browsing) they return.

Yesterday after installing the new motherboard and PSU I thought I saw what looked like models bugging out in both Dota 2 and Black Ops 3, although it was over in less than a second like the (potential) artifacting was. Today I was in a match of Dota 2 and was greeted with what you see in the imgur album.

I'm pretty sure it's a graphics card problem, because I've replaced pretty much everything except the CPU, and there isn't really any reason the CPU should give me these sorts of problems, but before I commit to buying a new graphics card I want to get a few opinions just in case it could be something I've overlooked.

Cheers.

 

[Ivan Amiibo]

I'm a bit spooked right now after plugging my specs into Newegg's power supply calculator.

i've got:
--i5-2500k @ 4.12ghz
--EVGA 970 GTX SC
--8gb DDR3
--a SSD and 2 HDDs
--some fans

it says i should have an almost 700 watt PSU. I have a 550 watt PSU. I used to have a 570GTX that I just replaced, which my current psu was fine for.

is that calculator BS or have I been living on borrowed time? debating whether to order up a new PSU tonight.

 

[Grokbu]

No, don't worry, you'll be fine. Game on!

Alright, thanks!

 

[potatohead]

I'm a bit spooked right now after plugging my specs into Newegg's power supply calculator.

i've got:
--i5-2500k @ 4.12ghz
--EVGA 970 GTX SC
--8gb DDR3
--a SSD and 2 HDDs
--some fans

it says i should have an almost 700 watt PSU. I have a 550 watt PSU. I used to have a 570GTX that I just replaced, which my current psu was fine for.

is that calculator BS or have I been living on borrowed time? debating whether to order up a new PSU tonight.

Sounds weird yea, maybe it's calculating more power from the 2 HDDs and fans.

550 W seems like it should be enough but you could be nearing the limit of that.

 

[GnawtyDog]

I'm a bit spooked right now after plugging my specs into Newegg's power supply calculator.

i've got:
--i5-2500k @ 4.12ghz
--EVGA 970 GTX SC
--8gb DDR3
--a SSD and 2 HDDs
--some fans

it says i should have an almost 700 watt PSU. I have a 550 watt PSU. I used to have a 570GTX that I just replaced, which my current psu was fine for.

is that calculator BS or have I been living on borrowed time? debating whether to order up a new PSU tonight.

I am getting an R9 380 or GTX 970 (if I decide to burn some additional bucks). Both will claim 750w PSU's.

I personally know 620w will be fine. I was a bit scared of going 550w myself.

i5 4460 full load ~ 197w (going w/ 4590 myself - about the same I wager)
R9 380 full load ~ 370 w

Add-in some miscellaneous usage (SSD, fans etc...) and you're at 550 w. Now obviously you'll hardly run at those kinds of loads for extensive amounts of time but just in case if it were up to me 600w+ PSU - a good one. Emphasis on good.

Just youtube some reviews for your GPU and CPU under full load and work from there.

 

[CharpyImpact]

I am looking to upgrade to Windows 10 soon, but I have heard a clean install after upgrading is best. Does anyone know of any good flash drives that are actually bootable. I keep seeing that some Sandisk drives are seen as fixed drives and cannot be booted from. Very few websites are letting me know if something is seen as fixed or removable. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Wag]

Upgraded my BIOS and am getting screen blanking in my BIOS so something is going on.... Bad card? I am trying to narrow it down. Turned off SLI. Outputting from each HDMI port individually. Blanking is so random it's hard to tell.

 

[knitoe]

Pretty sure i have my nvidia vsync off and controlled by applications

But yeah thanks


WTF

Nvidia recently changed it through their drivers. It has always been Vsync OFF ingame, but now, you must Vsync ON in Nvidia panel. You can easily check if you are using MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision. With both OFF and games that don't push your video card, you can get higher fps than your monitor refresh rate, and thus, get screen tearing which gsync is suppose to get rid off.

 

[LQX]

I bought a Define R5 case....WOW. I'm believer, I fell in love immediately. So well built. I just could not get over how heavy those damn side panels were and the padding was such high quality. I have a Antec P100 which I thought was a good imitation but it pales in comparison to the real thing. Well worth the $90.

 

[knitoe]

I am looking to upgrade to Windows 10 soon, but I have heard a clean install after upgrading is best. Does anyone know of any good flash drives that are actually bootable. I keep seeing that some Sandisk drives are seen as fixed drives and cannot be booted from. Very few websites are letting me know if something is seen as fixed or removable. Any help would be appreciated.

I have a bunch of Sandisk flash drives that work fine. You just need to make it bootable. Rufus is an easy program to do it.

 

[RGM79]

So I wonder what the problem is? Motherboard? Drivers? Videocard? I'm getting tired of all the problems. It's almost impossible for me to diagnose. This has been going on for months now. I replaced the PSU, and I'm more stable, yet a new problem crops up.

Reinstalling Win10 is a PITA because I have to install Win 8 first, then upgrade to 10. (shit, my screen just blanked out as I was typing this).

You shouldn't need to reinstall Windows 8 and redo the upgrade just to reinstall Windows 10. Once Windows 10 is activated, Microsoft will keep a record on their server for you to reactivate all future installs of Windows 10 automatically on the same hardware.

I return, eager now with sales abound to upgrade from this blasted 560! And maybe my case.

So mainly I'm looking to update my graphics card. Hitting high settings @ 1080/60 is the goal.

At the moment I'm playing some older titles, and stuff like MGSV, but as the year ends I'll probably grab some new stuff like Battlefront. Next year I'll definitely grab Overwatch, Mirrors Edge, Deus Ex, NMS.

I'm on the lookout for a sub $250 GTX 970, but I kinda doubt I'll get that lucky. So I guess my price range is $200-250, the 280x, 380, and 290 are all looking interesting

Was also wondering if anyone had any case recommendations, I've been looking at the Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-01 and Phanteks Enthoo Pro M (and yes I know my board doesn't have front panel USB 3 )
Both of these would make installing a larger card a little easier, since...

This post is plenty long, I'll save my silly mATX build question for later

The Corsair Spec-01 probably won't fit your 160mm tall CPU cooler, it's too close to say so I'd probably discount it. The Phanteks case is very nice, and of course I have to mention my go-to case: the Fractal Define S.

Look out for the R9 390 as well, the cheapest ones are current $275. The R9 290 is an option, but because it's already discontinued, most R9 290 cards seem to be less widely available and at a higher price than the R9 390.

I am looking to upgrade to Windows 10 soon, but I have heard a clean install after upgrading is best. Does anyone know of any good flash drives that are actually bootable. I keep seeing that some Sandisk drives are seen as fixed drives and cannot be booted from. Very few websites are letting me know if something is seen as fixed or removable. Any help would be appreciated.

Only certain Sandisk drives have that issue as far as I know. Any run of the mill USB drive will work so long as they don't have some weird special setup like some Sandisk drives do. I've used USB drives from Corsair, Patriot, A-Data, PNY, and several cheap/noname models successfully to boot Windows and other ISOs with.

I bought a Define R5 case....WOW. I'm believer, I fell in love immediately. So well built. I just could not get over how heavy those damn side panels were and the padding was such high quality. I have a Antec P100 which I thought was a good imitation but it pales in comparison to the real thing. Well worth the $90.

Welcome to the club. I bought a Define R3 many years ago and upgraded to a Define S a few months ago.

 

[GnawtyDog]

I bought a Define R5 case....WOW. I'm believer, I fell in love immediately. So well built. I just could not get over how heavy those damn side panels were and the padding was such high quality. I have a Antec P100 which I thought was a good imitation but it pales in comparison to the real thing. Well worth the $90.

It's a beauty. I am sucker for white and it sadly doesn't look as hot in white but in black -- soogood.gif

 

[ampere]

Welcome to the club. I bought a Define R3 many years ago and upgraded to a Define S a few months ago.

Only thing I am wondering about the Fractal cases is, is there a slot for a disc drive? Not that disc drives are super essential anymore, but I feel like it'd be nice to still have one.


Got a video card question. RGM's part recommendation for me last month was good, but I'd been trying to learn about components a bit more and wait for deals. Ironically the $315 deal on this card (GTX 970) from Amazon that they've had since last month was by far the best deal I've seen and now it's sold out. So I'm wondering, does the manufacter make much of a difference in video cards? While I am on the lookout for a good price, does it matter if I go with this Asus one vs the EVGA one linked above? One is Super Super Clocked, one is Overclocked... lol