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"I Need a New PC!" 2015 Part 2. Read the OP. Rocking 2500K's until HBM2 and beyond.

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I have the SC+ from EVGA - 06G-P4-4995-KR. Comparing the cards, I thought the classified was overpriced for marginal gains. You would be better off buying a FTW or even an SC and just overclocking, IMO.

Microcenter has an openbox classified for $638. Was going to grab that.
 

Vitacat

Member
My wife and I have decided to hold off on building a gaming PC for a while.

Wanted to do a build with a 6700k but prices went sky high, and I understand Pascal will be pretty special when it comes. So yeah, probably won't join PC master race for a year or so.
 
My wife and I have decided to hold off on building a gaming PC for a while.

Wanted to do a build with a 6700k but prices went sky high, and I understand Pascal will be pretty special when it comes. So yeah, probably won't join PC master race for a year or so.
I just went ahead and built around the 4790k and have no regrets.
 

Vitacat

Member
I just went ahead and built around the 4790k and have no regrets.

Oh, I have no doubt your build is great. We just have reassessed and not feeling it right now. Inflated Skylake prices just kinda helped reach that decision. Plus we own every console and already have more games than we arguably need. :) But a proper gaming PC will happen for us, just not yet.
 
Quick question about case fans:

My build is in a NZXT S340 and I'm using the case fans that came with it (2x120mm FN V2's) but I would love to make it run quieter. Would I see any improvement in that department by changing them for a more premium fan and can anyone recommend any that would be very quiet?
 

ISee

Member
What do you guys think about Zotac? I picked up the Zotac GTX 980 Ti a week ago and while there's no issues with it currently, I'm looking at the long haul. I typically only buy EVGA cards, as their customer service is spot on, I actually had two RMA's last year and they were quick and painless. With Zotac, well I don't know what to expect and looking at their website... yeah.

Really thinking about getting a EVGA GTZX 980 Ti classified. Anyone have any experience with that card? Like it? Hate it?

Let me know!



http://powersupplycalculator.net/

Well, after my MSI 460 died I had a Zotac 660 Ti for 1,5 years. Had no problems with the card, but it was running a bit hot with 78°C under steady, heavy load. Some 700 zotac models had the very same 'issue', not quite sure about the 900 zotac series, at least the amp! editions seem to be doing better. That said 78°C is still not troublesome and it won't damage the card but there isn't much room left for very hot 40+°C summer days (a problem in my region).

The EVGA 980 Ti classified is definitely a good choice. It's very fast, it has decent OC capabilities and the cooling is ok. It's not a bad pick. If you like it, go for it.
Still normally I recommend the Gigabyte g1 gaming series. The cards are usually very cool under heavy load (~60°C), the factory oc is good and they have good oc capabilities. The downfall is, they're huge and power hungry but so is the classified edition (when it comes to power consumption) . I bought a gigabyte 980 g1 recently and I love the card.
 

LilJoka

Member
Quick question about case fans:

My build is in a NZXT S340 and I'm using the case fans that came with it (2x120mm FN V2's) but I would love to make it run quieter. Would I see any improvement in that department by changing them for a more premium fan and can anyone recommend any that would be very quiet?

Have you turned the fan speeds down? Are these 3 or 4 pin fans, or molex? If they are connected to the motherboard, use the motherboard software to reduce fan speeds to bare minimum.
 
My wife and I have decided to hold off on building a gaming PC for a while.

Wanted to do a build with a 6700k but prices went sky high, and I understand Pascal will be pretty special when it comes. So yeah, probably won't join PC master race for a year or so.
I second the Gaffer a few posts above me. I built a gaming rig for myself by putting a low profile 750 Ti and an SSD inside a refurbished HP Compaq;8200 Elite which sports an i5-2500. No regrets whatsoever.
I am not saying you should buy an underpowered or old fashioned machine, I just imply that a CPU alone isn't a reason to postpone a purchase. Many deliver similar performance and use the 1150 socket.
 

fred

Member
I built the first part of my VR machine in November last year:

Intel i7 6700K
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler
Asus Maximus Ranger VIII Motherboard
16 GB Hyper X Fury Black DDR4 RAM (2 x 8GB)
Lite-On iHas124-14 Optical Drive
In Win GR One Gray Full Tower Gaming Case
EVGA G2 850W Power Supply

Am using a 120GB SSD and 4GB, 2Gb and 1GB hard drives from my old machine.

Haven't got a GPU yet, am using the Intel 530 HD iGPU in the Skylake CPU which has REALLY surprised me! Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim work on Ultra and it runs Elite Dangerous Horizons in 720p with High quality textures and shadows at 30fps.

Am going to wait until May or June this year and will get a Pascal or Arctic Islands GPU when they release. And then in November this year I'm going to be getting either Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, depending on whether HTC's 'game changer' decreases the retail price, increases the resolution or increases the FOV and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I'm leaning towards getting an Oculus Rift over a HTC Vive because it's likely to be cheaper, will have considerably more software available for it, has packed in software and I much prefer the look of the Touch controllers.
 
Have you turned the fan speeds down? Are these 3 or 4 pin fans, or molex? If they are connected to the motherboard, use the motherboard software to reduce fan speeds to bare minimum.

Suddenly feeling very dumb! Thanks will try it right now. ;)

What would you consider "bare minimum"?
 
Suddenly feeling very dumb! Thanks will try it right now. ;)

What would you consider "bare minimum"?

Use a monitor software to watch temps, and then lower it as far as it can go and slowly ramp up the speeds to get the temps vs noise just right. Just be careful not to touch the CPU fan!
 

fred

Member
Oops! Was wrong about that software and settings apart from Elite Dangerous Horizons. Must have been thinking about my rig when I had my old 2GB 4870 in there. Weird how it runs Elite Dangerous Horizons so well. Have just tried them again and had to reduce them to Medium settings.

Stopped using my 4870 because Horizons wouldn't work, being DX11 and all.
 
Use a monitor software to watch temps, and then lower it as far as it can go and slowly ramp up the speeds to get the temps vs noise just right. Just be careful not to touch the CPU fan!

Just digging around, the case fans are 3 pin. Are they still controllable via the motherboard? I have two spare ports labelled sys fan 1 + 2.
 
I built the first part of my VR machine in November last year:

Intel i7 6700K
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler
Asus Maximus Ranger VIII Motherboard
16 GB Hyper X Fury Black DDR4 RAM (2 x 8GB)
Lite-On iHas124-14 Optical Drive
In Win GR One Gray Full Tower Gaming Case
EVGA G2 850W Power Supply

Am using a 120GB SSD and 4GB, 2Gb and 1GB hard drives from my old machine.

Haven't got a GPU yet, am using the Intel 530 HD iGPU in the Skylake CPU which has REALLY surprised me! Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim work on Ultra and it runs Elite Dangerous Horizons in 720p with High quality textures and shadows at 30fps.

Am going to wait until May or June this year and will get a Pascal or Arctic Islands GPU when they release. And then in November this year I'm going to be getting either Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, depending on whether HTC's 'game changer' decreases the retail price, increases the resolution or increases the FOV and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I'm leaning towards getting an Oculus Rift over a HTC Vive because it's likely to be cheaper, will have considerably more software available for it, has packed in software and I much prefer the look of the Touch controllers.
Ah, sentences like these throw me way back. We had a thread about the Alienware x11 in 2011 in which users marvelled at Mass Effect running flawlessly on it @720p. And since we're talking about iGPUs, there is more to come with Intel maybe unveilling its Skull Canyon NUC in January :

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/48947/intel-teases-skull-canyon-most-powerful-nuc-yet/index.html
Intel's Iris Pro 580 graphics features 128MB of eDRAM (which acts as super-quick L4 cache) and houses the 72 Execution Units (EUs) on the die itself.

We're expecting the core clock on the chip to hit 1GHz, but it could change closer to release. If we put this into perspective, we're looking at similar graphics performance to NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 750.
An iGPU that would allow me to high profile games released as late as 2014 fluently @1080p ? Yes please.
 
Just digging around, the case fans are 3 pin. Are they still controllable via the motherboard? I have two spare ports labelled sys fan 1 + 2.

There should be a groove on the case fan connector, for 3 pins. Most mobos have ports for 3 and 4 pin fans.

fan-connectors-100360901-orig.jpg


See the one on the left and middle? If yours looks like that, you should be good to go.
 
How are the temps on skylake while overclocking without delidding and replacing the TIM with CLU? Is it still needed to get ~4.5Ghz?

I'm doing 4.6 on air. So far in stuff like prime I'm getting like 80C but in games I'm getting like 65c. I have one core that is 10c hotter than the other ones too. I'm just using the Hyper evo 212 heatsink which isn't anything special.

I heard delidding gets you about 10c cooler though.

Try http://siliconlottery.com/
 

Tobe

Member
thanks gaf for the tips :) ive got my new system up and running. still need an ssd and new video card but ill wait for pascal, my 670 still hold ups. have to admit i thought it would be harder to build but only hard part was mounting the radiator.


 
thanks gaf for the tips :) ive got my new system up and running. still need an ssd and new video card but ill wait for pascal, my 670 still hold ups. have to admit i thought it would be harder to build but only hard part was mounting the radiator.
congrats-have same cpu and cooler they work wonderfully together
 

Blitzhex

Member
thanks gaf for the tips :) ive got my new system up and running. still need an ssd and new video card but ill wait for pascal, my 670 still hold ups. have to admit i thought it would be harder to build but only hard part was mounting the radiator.

Air 240, nice. Love that case. So much space in the back for junk.
 

DieH@rd

Banned
I'm thinking about making my PC VR-ready [I am happy so far with FX8350, but my mobo has started acting up and causing glitches in gaming [all is fine in desktop]].

I think that ASRock Z97 Extreme3 + i7 4890K will serve me well. Very close with performance to Skylake, while being cheaper and still using DDR3 that I can re-purpose from my current PC.

What does GAF say?
Is there any reason for switching to any other mobo+cpu combo? Perhaps i5 6xxx?
What's the current ETA of Zen?
What cheap but good cooler is recommended for i7 4890K?
I plan to stick with single GPU, can I get a smaller/cheaper mobo? Mobo durability is a must, I don't plan upgrading it for many years!
 

Dahaka

Member
hey guys,

brother got an i7-860 which runs with meager 2,8Ghz. I can give him 16GB of Ram. Is it worth it to get something like a 970 for this one if we attempt to overclock or should he upgrade in total?
 

Ecto311

Member
Is the I3 in the build document worth double the cost of the pentium? Looking to build a computer for my daughter mainly for sims, warcraft, starcraft type games. Microcenter has the pentium for $50 and the i3 4170 (not the 4160 in the doc) for $100 I do see that the i3 does hyper threading but not sure if that actually helps those kind of games.
 

galv

Unconfirmed Member
Is the I3 in the build document worth double the cost of the pentium? Looking to build a computer for my daughter mainly for sims, warcraft, starcraft type games. Microcenter has the pentium for $50 and the i3 4170 (not the 4160 in the doc) for $100 I do see that the i3 does hyper threading but not sure if that actually helps those kind of games.

i3 for AAA gaming which sometimes runs like ass on 2 cores or straight up prohibits games to run on 2 cores. Mostly fixable. Single-threaded performance on an i3 is still really really good and wouldn't really bottleneck anything but the best GPUs.

The Pentium is also good, and also future-proof as you can easily upgrade to a Haswell i5/i7 or similar. On stock cooling, it OCs like a god, and you can easily reach 4.5-4.7GHz on cheap cooling, if not stock cooling. If you buy this, YOU MUST DO THIS, or it's not worth it. And the boards that OC are Z87/Z97 boards which can be more expensive by around 30-50$.

At this point, this means it matches the single-threaded performance most games use with the i3.

The downside is the lack of hyperthreading - like I stated earlier, some games straight up reject dual-core systems or run really badly, but for Sims, Warcraft, Starcraft and other less intensive games, you should be fine.

It all depends on if you plan on playing the latest games - those are less and less likely to run on the Pentium as time goes on, but neither is there a guarantee they'd run on an i3. So, from what I can gather, I'd suggest a Pentium with possibility to upgrade to an i5/i7 if you really want to later on (even better than upgrading from i3 since you'd have a better mobo). The i3 isn't really worth the double unless you need a budget console build and don't plan to upgrade any time soon.
 

M.D

Member
I don't know if I'm crazy but I think I can hear coil whine when I connect my headphones to through a 3.5mm jack and play something like Dota 2 which I play at 120 FPS

Is there any way to solve this?
 

Ecto311

Member
i3 for AAA gaming which sometimes runs like ass on 2 cores or straight up prohibits games to run on 2 cores. Mostly fixable. Single-threaded performance on an i3 is still really really good and wouldn't really bottleneck anything but the best GPUs.

The Pentium is also good, and also future-proof as you can easily upgrade to a Haswell i5/i7 or similar. On stock cooling, it OCs like a god, and you can easily reach 4.5-4.7GHz on cheap cooling, if not stock cooling. If you buy this, YOU MUST DO THIS, or it's not worth it. And the boards that OC are Z87/Z97 boards which can be more expensive by around 30-50$.

At this point, this means it matches the single-threaded performance most games use with the i3.

The downside is the lack of hyperthreading - like I stated earlier, some games straight up reject dual-core systems or run really badly, but for Sims, Warcraft, Starcraft and other less intensive games, you should be fine.

It all depends on if you plan on playing the latest games - those are less and less likely to run on the Pentium as time goes on, but neither is there a guarantee they'd run on an i3. So, from what I can gather, I'd suggest a Pentium with possibility to upgrade to an i5/i7 if you really want to later on (even better than upgrading from i3 since you'd have a better mobo). The i3 isn't really worth the double unless you need a budget console build and don't plan to upgrade any time soon.

Well shit the bed an actual response that helps. Thanks a lot. I might opt for the pentium for now since the i3 is so close to the i5 and wait till taxes or some other date to move to the i5 like when she needs it. Basically she has a tower and some parts here already but is playing sims 4 on an HP stream 13 with a lame ass celeron 2gb ram and off of an sd card since the game won't fit on the built in drive.

I bet the pentium would kick that games ass enough since we are pairing it with a 460gtx from my wife's computer. I will probably go for the better motherboard so that is done now and we can just upgrade the processor in the future if needed. Thanks again for the help.
 

e90Mark

Member
thanks gaf for the tips :) ive got my new system up and running. still need an ssd and new video card but ill wait for pascal, my 670 still hold ups. have to admit i thought it would be harder to build but only hard part was mounting the radiator.

Great build! I also have an Air 240 and the H100i GTX. Honestly, the best case I've ever had.

How do you like the Gene mobo? I was deciding between that and the Gigabyte Gaming 5, and ended up with the latter.
 
hey guys,

brother got an i7-860 which runs with meager 2,8Ghz. I can give him 16GB of Ram. Is it worth it to get something like a 970 for this one if we attempt to overclock or should he upgrade in total?

Overclock it to 4 ghz, slap the 970 in there and he's good to go. I was on an i7-950 until like last month or so, that was and is a solid generation of Intel kit.
 

Tobe

Member
The software isn't perfect, but I have to ask if you have all the cables plugged in? Especially the Corsair Link cable into a USB header on your motherboard?

yup everything is plugged, im getting read on everything but that.
The software sucks. Mine says the same.
jeez. this sucks lol probably one of the most importants read and cant even do its job.
 
Just got all of my parts today and will be building my new PC this weekend. So excited!

I'll be using an i5 and a 960, hopefully that will last me the next 2 years well enough.
 

Blitzhex

Member
yup everything is plugged, im getting read on everything but that.

jeez. this sucks lol probably one of the most importants read and cant even do its job.

I don't bother with corsair link, it's really bad. I haven't even plugged in the usb cable on my h100i. You can setup fan profiles from asus bios if you've got your fans connected to headers, it works really well. I threw out my fan controller after getting a gene vii.
 
Hey Gaf, I've recently been playing a lot of sim games, chiefly Arma III and Star Citizen. I also stream and have simply come to realize my current CPU the I5 4670k just isn't cutting it for these games, much less both concurrently. I know Skylake-E isn't that far off, but I'm not sure I'll be able to afford that upgrade when it drops anyway. So in the meantime I'm currently looking at a newegg bundle for a Intel 5820k. I tried to have them price match the CPU to Micro Center ($319.99 currently), but they declined. They did however offer my a $25 gift certificate as a trade off. Is this a good deal for me? Is there a better alternative I'm missing, or should I grab it?

Important Notes

*GPU Isn't the issue, I have a 970 and the games get next to no performance increase when lowering graphics settings, even to very low.

*I've got a healthy overclock of 4.6 ghz running at sub 45c temps when under %100 usage (Which I hit frequently). So Overclocking won't get me any farther.

Going to bump this because I didn't get any feedback from GAF and I'm nervous I'm making a mistake.
 
*sigh* PC didn't power up today. When I moved the mouse I saw the light on it blink for a moment, then it went out completely. I've got the PSU turned off in the back for now, so I'll probably need to open it up in the next couple of days to see if something got loose or broken.
 

UnrealEck

Member
Corsair Vengance, Balistix Sport and Geil White/Black Dragon are the shortest modules I can think of. They're probably the shortest you'll get. I know the Geil is short because it doesn't have a heatspreader.
 
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