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[RGM79]

I might be one of the last people building gaming PCs like this which still use pure aircooling. The cable management gets pretty messy when you've got fans everywhere too, I'm just going to pretend that this completed machine doesn't have a rat's nest hiding behind the motherboard tray out of sight. You can see a few cables at the bottom of the case peeking out from the rat's nest. :3

Nah, I recommend air cooling whenever possible, and my latest build has a Noctua NH-D15.

This is the best i can do....The 390 is a strong card that can play anything.Since you dont overclock i used the non overclockable cpu and also we cant afford to put Skylake i think....If u dont like the 390 we can go to nvidia GTX 970.
Wait for a second opinion just to be sure

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.89 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI H97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($88.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($274.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair SPEC-03 White ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($84.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($17.78 @ OutletPC)
Total: $826.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-09 18:38 EST-0500

If u want with Skylake

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.98 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus H170-PLUS D3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($82.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($274.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair SPEC-03 White ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($84.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($17.78 @ OutletPC)
Total: $830.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-09 18:42 EST-0500

I would suggest buying a new one...I am pretty sure it cant be more than 550w plus if u have it at least 3 years it lost part of its Wattage.Can you tell me what is your case?


What FX cpu does she have?Does she have a cpu cooler?Is she willing to overclock?What is her PSU?

There's nothing wrong with a 3 year old power supply as long it's good. Seasonic makes some of the best power supplies there are. I have a 7 year old 650 watt Seasonic PSU and for a time last year it was running a heavily overclocked i7 875K and twin R9 270X in crossfire with no issues at all.

I highly don't recommend that H170 motherboard. It has poor reviews on Newegg about the stability and build quality. That and DDR3 RAM is not recommended for use with Skylake due to the higher voltage. For a $800 budget with no need for a new case, power supply, or optical drive:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170-D3HP ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($103.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($69.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($159.75 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($274.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $808.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-09 19:12 EST-0500

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Nah some parts are outdated. If you're buying all new stuff you should go Skylake. If you want a build if you fill out the survey in the OP we could help you.

Thanks optical. Here's the survey:

• Your Current Specs: a fresh build, I can probably get away without having a monitor for the time being as it will primarily be a TV gaming rig
• Budget: Price Range + Country: Australia. I'd like to keep it sub $1200USD, but if there's a super compelling reason I can be convinced to push that to $1400USD at the absolute maximum. (In AUD, $1750AUD is the comfort zone, $2000 is the 'you are pushing it, man' zone).
• Main Use:
  • Gaming on a 1080p TV will be its most common use by far (5-star)
  • VR is the other big one (5-star), I'd be willing to press against my budget for it. As we don't have many real examples yet, I'm happy to settle for "VR-ready", meaning a VR-specific upgrade is feasible down the track if it just means upgrading a video card or something (I really don't want to be in the position I was a few years ago where my CPU and motherboard became the bottleneck really quickly, that was dumb).
  • I'm a programmer by trade and will probably end up using it for some game engine work in the future (4-star, let's say happy to play nice with UE4 as a baseline)
  • emulation is a nice "2-star" priority, but not essential
  • support for super-high resolutions not a priority, I figure I can upgrade for that as necessary later (1-star)
  • word processing and day-to-day stuff is low priority, I already have a Macbook I do most of that on nowadays
• Monitor Resolution: As above, I plan on using a 1080p TV, but if there are any obvious great monitor deals going at the moment, point me at them as I could be persuaded / I'll end up buying one of these in the future
• List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well:
  • Witcher 3 - I'd like a no questions asked 30FPS on its max equivalent, but 60FPS is obviously the ideal if my budget permits it (if it has some sort of crazy unoptimised max, then let's just say high). This game will where my heart is at re: "what can this thing do?"
  • XCOM 2 - it would be nice to max this out at a high res and get smooth 60
  • SOMA - maxed, 60FPS
  • Rise of the Tomb Raider - maxed, 60 (this isn't out yet, so might not be easy to judge)
  • I don't plan on playing it any time soon, but I'd expect an Ubisoft style open-world like AC: Syndicate or Far Cry 4 would run on console or higher settings at 1080p/60FPS
  • This is not specific and might not be a helpful point, but it would be nice to get console ports at high settings running at a nice 60FPS at 1080p for a couple of years, if that's realistic (I haven't had a decent gaming PC in over 5 years, I'm not sure where we're at with all of this)
  • How important is PhysX / SuperSampling / CUDA to you? They're niceties, but if my budget is blown out, these would be the first thing I'd sacrifice toward
• Looking to reuse any parts?: No
• When will you build?: Do you have a deadline? I'm looking to buy in the next week, but I can be convinced to hold off if there's a good reason to (ie price performance ratio is about to drop significantly, and it will directly affect the performance of the games listed above as a result).
• Will you be overclocking?: I'd rather not have to (because I've never done it before and I'm afraid of things I barely understand), but if there are tangible performance bene -- you know what, let's just say yes

 

[RGM79]

Thanks optical. Here's the survey:

• Your Current Specs: a fresh build, I can probably get away without having a monitor for the time being as it will primarily be a TV gaming rig
• Budget: Price Range + Country: Australia. I'd like to keep it sub $1200USD, but if there's a super compelling reason I can be convinced to push that to $1500USD at the absolute maximum.
• Main Use:
  • Gaming on a 1080p TV will be its most common use by far (5-star)
  • VR is the other big one (5-star), I'd be willing to press against my budget for it. As we don't have many real examples yet, I'm happy to settle for "VR-ready", meaning a VR-specific upgrade is feasible down the track if it just means upgrading a video card or something (I really don't want to be in the position I was a few years ago where my CPU and motherboard became the bottleneck really quickly, that was dumb).
  • I'm a programmer by trade and will probably end up using it for some game engine work in the future (4-star, let's say happy to play nice with UE4 as a baseline)
  • emulation is a nice "2-star" priority, but not essential
  • support for super-high resolutions not a priority, I figure I can upgrade for that as necessary later (1-star)
  • word processing and day-to-day stuff is low priority, I already have a Macbook I do most of that on nowadays
• Monitor Resolution: As above, I plan on using a 1080p TV, but if there are any obvious great monitor deals going at the moment, point me at them as I could be persuaded / I'll end up buying one of these in the future
• List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well:
  • Witcher 3 - I'd like a no questions asked 30FPS on its max equivalent, but 60FPS is obviously the ideal if my budget permits it (if it has some sort of crazy unoptimised max, then let's just say high). This game will where my heart is at re: "what can this thing do?"
  • XCOM 2 - it would be nice to max this out at a high res and get smooth 60
  • SOMA - maxed, 60FPS
  • Rise of the Tomb Raider - maxed, 60 (this isn't out yet, so might not be easy to judge)
  • I don't plan on playing it any time soon, but I'd expect an Ubisoft style open-world like AC: Syndicate or Far Cry 4 would run on console or higher settings at 1080p/60FPS
  • This is not specific and might not be a helpful point, but it would be nice to get console ports at high settings running at a nice 60FPS at 1080p for a couple of years, if that's realistic (I haven't had a decent gaming PC in over 5 years, I'm not sure where we're at with all of this)
  • How important is PhysX / SuperSampling / CUDA to you? They're niceties, but if my budget is blown out, these would be the first thing I'd sacrifice toward
• Looking to reuse any parts?: No
• When will you build?: Do you have a deadline? I'm looking to buy in the next week, but I can be convinced to hold off if there's a good reason to (ie price performance ratio is about to drop significantly, and it will directly affect the performance of the games listed above as a result).
• Will you be overclocking?: I'd rather not have to (because I've never done it before and I'm afraid of things I barely understand), but if there are tangible performance bene -- you know what, let's just say yes

You say your budget is $1200~1500 USD, but you're in Australia? So does that mean $1700~2150 AUD and the parts will be bought from Australian retailers?

You also said this is meant to be connected to a large TV, do you care how the computer looks? Some people want HTPC style looks or a more compact case instead of a normal computer tower so it won't stand out in a living room.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

You say your budget is $1200~1500 USD, but you're in Australia? So does that mean $1700~2150 AUD and the parts will be bought from Australian retailers?

<$1750AUD as the comfort-zone, with $2000AUD as the "I'll have to do some mental gymnastics to justify"-zone. I'll update that post to be more specific. I was keeping it in soft-USD to make it easier to give estimates, but I'll update that post with specifics.

 

[Raxanas]

Nah, I recommend air cooling whenever possible, and my latest build has a Noctua NH-D15.





There's nothing wrong with a 3 year old power supply as long it's good. Seasonic makes some of the best power supplies there are. I have a 7 year old 650 watt Seasonic PSU and for a time last year it was running a heavily overclocked i7 875K and twin R9 270X in crossfire with no issues at all.

I highly don't recommend that H170 motherboard. It has poor reviews on Newegg about the stability and build quality. That and DDR3 RAM is not recommended for use with Skylake due to the higher voltage. For a $800 budget with no need for a new case, power supply, or optical drive:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170-D3HP ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($103.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($69.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($159.75 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($274.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $808.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-09 19:12 EST-0500

Yea i just saw it too,my bad.Maybe he can get a z170 then and be able to overclock the cpu with a hyper 212 evo just in case ? http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-locked-intel-cpus-can-now-be-overclocked
http://hwbot.org/newsflash/3289_gig..._k_skylake_overclockable_on_z170_motherboards





PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.98 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($69.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($60.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($274.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $809.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-09 19:33 EST-0500

 

[Unknown Soldier]

So I have a friend who wants to get ready for Rift. She doesn't want to spend a lot of money on a card and has AMD FX CPU. Is their an AMD CPU she can use that is powerful enough to run it?

I already suggested a new MB for a intel processor and a 970 at least, but she's an AMD girl, so any suggestions? Her GPU is a 280, so i already told her she needs a 380 at least.

At this point purposely choosing an AMD CPU is choosing to play games with one hand tied behind your back in terms of your frametimes and that is going to be crazy important for VR and the minimum 90hz refresh it demands. She needs to let AMD go and move to Intel on CPU. Even the absurd 220W FX 9590 gets its head blown off by a decent i5 on frametimes, not even speaking of the top-shelf i7's. There's a reason that no AMD CPU is recommended by Oculus for the Rift.

For GPU, a 390 or a GTX 970 is fine for VR if Oculus's recommendations are anything to go by. I still suggest going Nvidia for driver support, especially if you're trying to push into a new technology like VR. You want a 3DMark score with power level over 9000 to have a good VR experience.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

You also said this is meant to be connected to a large TV, do you care how the computer looks? Some people want HTPC style looks or a more compact case instead of a normal computer tower so it won't stand out in a living room.

If the prices are comparable (I doubt it?), then sure, but not an issue at all.

 

[Kimawolf]

At this point purposely choosing an AMD CPU is choosing to play games with one hand tied behind your back in terms of your frametimes and that is going to be crazy important for VR and the minimum 90hz refresh it demands. She needs to let AMD go and move to Intel on CPU. Even the absurd 220W FX 9590 gets its head blown off by a decent i5 on frametimes, not even speaking of the top-shelf i7's. There's a reason that no AMD CPU is recommended by Oculus for the Rift.

For GPU, a 390 or a GTX 970 is fine for VR if Oculus's recommendations are anything to go by. I still suggest going Nvidia for driver support, especially if you're trying to push into a new technology like VR. You want a 3DMark score with power level over 9000 to have a good VR experience.

Thanks. I'll let her know its time to let team red go.

 

[BorntoPlay]

GAF, I need help!

I put all my stuff together, and it powers on for like 10 seconds before shutting off. Never shows BIOS or anything that I can see.

Here is a clip: https://youtu.be/SHCKt2Z7Zns

that's weird, i have the same motherboard and cooler and is working fine for me,,

 

[bkw]

All my parts are now in and I'm ready to build. It's been a while since I put together a system so some things are new to me. The 12V cpu power and the power cable to the video card are things I've never seen before. Are the PSU cables (it's modular) all uniquely keyed? I physically can't plug things in wrong, right?

Also, what utility should I use to load the CPU/GPU to check for temps? It's going to be my first ITX build, so I'm a little worried that cooling isn't going to be sufficient. Going to also Memtest for sure.

 

[ZQQLANDER]

Kind of ashamed to ask this, but I've scoured Google and haven't come up with anything.

For some reason I'm not able to establish a connection. I have an Ethernet cable connected to my cable modem (green light) and my desktop. The lights near the LAN port are Orange (solid) and Yellow (blinking). According to the motherboard manual I'm getting 1Gps data rate. So there is data transmission. I go to connect to the internet though and Windows isn't detecting any hardware.

Any advice??

 

[opticalmace]

Kind of ashamed to ask this, but I've scoured Google and haven't come up with anything.

For some reason I'm not able to establish a connection. I have an Ethernet cable connected to my cable modem (green light) and my desktop. The lights near the LAN port are Orange (solid) and Yellow (blinking). According to the motherboard manual I'm getting 1Gps data rate. So there is data transmission. I go to connect to the internet though and Windows isn't detecting any hardware.

Any advice??

- try power cycling the modem
- go into device manager in control panel --> system. see if there are any entries with a yellow exclamation mark icon (meaning you may need some drivers).

actually, what drivers have you installed? have you installed the chipset ones/motherboard drivers (that probably came on a cd)? if not do that for sure.

 

[inner-G]

that's weird, i have the same motherboard and cooler and is working fine for me,,

It was a bad board, switched it out and it fired up

GG I would say, good man I bought the same Corsair 200R
You got a ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming?
I recommend to update the BIOS, board can a little bit flunky without those.

The case is actually the 100r silent - really similar though! Love the quality for the price

Thanks for the heads up about the BIOS I'll do that first thing

 

[komplanen]

All my parts are now in and I'm ready to build. It's been a while since I put together a system so some things are new to me. The 12V cpu power and the power cable to the video card are things I've never seen before. Are the PSU cables (it's modular) all uniquely keyed? I physically can't plug things in wrong, right?

Also, what utility should I use to load the CPU/GPU to check for temps? It's going to be my first ITX build, so I'm a little worried that cooling isn't going to be sufficient. Going to also Memtest for sure.

You can't plug anything wrong so don't worry about it. Also in many cases there are labels on the PSU cords that say things like (CPU, VGA) etc

Any advice??

Have you installed the drivers for your motherboard's network card? In most cases that is a step that has to be completed.

 

[inner-G]

It was the board, GAF! Got an ASUS and it booted right up

Ok, well now that I have it in the case, it's booting up and powering on but I'm not getting video.

I tried taking the card out and putting the HDMI back in the onboard graphics (it worked like that outside the case) but now I'm not getting any output.

Any ideas on where I could have gone wrong? It's not resetting, the system seems to be running normally.

Edit: reset the CMOS and it booted!

Edit 2: it gets to the BIOS every time I reset the CMOS, but once I go in and try to save and exit, it doesn't post again.

1. I clear CMOS

2. Push power, CPU and DRAM LEDs come on then it resets

3. All LEDs come on in order. And BIOS recovery comes up

4. I try to change boot order and save, but after that it stops after the CPU and DRAM LEDs and just kind of hangs there

I'm just trying to use the onboard graphics right now.

 

[RGM79]

<$1750AUD as the comfort-zone, with $2000AUD as the "I'll have to spend a few extra weeks setting aside some money for it"-zone. I'll update that post to be more specific. I was keeping it in soft-USD to make it easier to give estimates, but I'll update that post with specifics.

If the prices are comparable (I doubt it?), then sure, but not an issue at all.

Unfortunately with the AUD pricing of computer parts as they are, it's not too helpful to look for parts with prices converted from USD to AUD. How does these parts lists look? Both should meet all of your needs handily, but all in all I'd recommend the first build over the second.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($355.00 @ Centre Com)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H5 Universal 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($238.00 @ CPL Online)
Memory: Kingston FURY 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($85.00 @ CPL Online)
Storage: Crucial BX100 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($225.00 @ Umart)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($72.00 @ IJK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE 3X Video Card ($479.00 @ Umart)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($108.50 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($129.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $1760.50
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-10 13:52 AEDT+1100

Alternatively here's what a higher end build with a hexa core processor looks like.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($569.00 @ Storm Computers)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H5 Universal 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: ASRock X99 Extreme4/3.1 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($359.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2800 Memory ($179.00 @ IJK)
Storage: Crucial BX100 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($225.00 @ Umart)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($72.00 @ IJK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE 3X Video Card ($479.00 @ Umart)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($108.50 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($129.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $2189.50
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-10 13:56 AEDT+1100

Yea i just saw it too,my bad.Maybe he can get a z170 then and be able to overclock the cpu with a hyper 212 evo just in case ? http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-locked-intel-cpus-can-now-be-overclocked
http://hwbot.org/newsflash/3289_gig..._k_skylake_overclockable_on_z170_motherboards

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.98 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($69.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($60.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($274.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $809.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-09 19:33 EST-0500

Yeah, that looks reasonable as well.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Unfortunately with the AUD pricing of computer parts as they are, it's not too helpful to look for parts with prices converted from USD to AUD. How does these parts lists look? Both should meet all of your needs handily, but all in all I'd recommend the first build over the second.

Thanks for taking the time to put that together, it's immensely useful. I forgot to mention this in the original post, but this thing will be connected via wifi. I have an old usb dongle that works okay, but integrated would be nice. Any recommendations re that?

That first build looks fantastic. Thanks again.

 

[komplanen]

Ok, well now that I have it in the case, it's booting up and powering on but I'm not getting video.

I tried taking the card out and putting the HDMI back in the onboard graphics (it worked like that outside the case) but now I'm not getting any output.

Any ideas on where I could have gone wrong? It's not resetting, the system seems to be running normally.

Edit: reset the CMOS and it booted!

Edit 2: it gets to the BIOS every time I reset the CMOS, but once I go in and try to save and exit, it doesn't post again.

1. I clear CMOS

2. Push power, CPU and DRAM LEDs come on then it resets

3. All LEDs come on in order. And BIOS recovery comes up

4. I try to change boot order and save, but after that it stops after the CPU and DRAM LEDs and just kind of hangs there

I'm just trying to use the onboard graphics right now.

When removing the the motherboard, take a look if you have any extra MB stands for screws that aren't being used and don't ine up with the screw holes.

 

[cHinzo]

Any reason to go with the Crucial SSDs over the Samsung SSDs? They're the same price in my country. Arent the Samsung ones faster?

 

[inner-G]

When removing the the motherboard, take a look if you have any extra MB stands for screws that aren't being used and don't ine up with the screw holes.

There's no extras, there actually weren't enough for all the holes in the board.


Well, I clicked on the Blu-Ray drive in the boot menu and it went to Windows Setup.

Would installing Windows help at this point or should I narrow down the mobo problems first?

 

[RGM79]

Any reason to go with the Crucial SSDs over the Samsung SSDs? They're the same price in my country. Arent the Samsung ones faster?

Depends which models you're looking at exactly.

 

[qa_engineer]

At this point purposely choosing an AMD CPU is choosing to play games with one hand tied behind your back in terms of your frametimes and that is going to be crazy important for VR and the minimum 90hz refresh it demands. She needs to let AMD go and move to Intel on CPU. Even the absurd 220W FX 9590 gets its head blown off by a decent i5 on frametimes, not even speaking of the top-shelf i7's. There's a reason that no AMD CPU is recommended by Oculus for the Rift.

For GPU, a 390 or a GTX 970 is fine for VR if Oculus's recommendations are anything to go by. I still suggest going Nvidia for driver support, especially if you're trying to push into a new technology like VR. You want a 3DMark score with power level over 9000 to have a good VR experience.

Do you have any benchmarks that demonstrate i5s besting 9590s? I'm on an Intel platform but find it hard to believe that a 9590 is having "its head blown off" by an i5.if not benchmarks something that proves the frametimes are an issue.

 

[Collete]

All right I'm back and I got no choice now but to build a PC.
My current rig keeps on crashing and I don't think I have much choice now...

I'm reposting my old template from last year but this time I actually want to build a PC. I never done this before so...please help me out!

Your Current Specs: 3rd Generation Intel® Core&#8482; i7-3630QM (2.40GHz 6MB Cache) / Unknown / Motherboard / NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX660M 2GB with DirectX® 11 / Unknown
Basically...it's a Lenovo Y580 Laptop and it kept crashing on high end gaming like Borderlands and TF2.
Budget: $1000-$1200 + USA
Main Use: Rate 1-5. 5 being Highest: 4-5? Streaming games in HD on Twitch. Gaming to Emulation? General Usage.
Monitor Resolution: I'm not entirely sure on resolution, I just want to be able to play fullscreen. So I guess I'm flexible?
List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well: Dark Souls III, Skyrim, Borderlands the Prequel. 30 FPS is acceptable. How important is PhysX / SuperSampling / CUDA to you? Kind of important.
Looking to reuse any parts?: No.
When will you build?: As soon as I can.
Will you be overclocking?: Maybe?

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Do you have any benchmarks that demonstrate i5s besting 9590s? I'm on an Intel platform but find it hard to believe that a 9590 is having "its head blown off" by an i5.if not benchmarks something that proves the frametimes are an issue.

This is a review of Skylake but you can see where AMD sits compared to multiple generations of Intel processors. Also remember that an i5 is an i7 without Hyperthreading and most games do not benefit from 2 threads per core.

For people targeting 90fps or higher because they are planning to run VR, you can see where AMD is woefully inadequate. 60fps isn't super hard even for AMD, who haven't updated their line of desktop processors since 2012. But if you are gunning for 90fps or even 120fps like those Lightboost monitor gamers, you pretty much can only choose Intel.

 

[cHinzo]

Depends which models you're looking at exactly.

250 GB versions.

 

[Jedi2016]

Overclocking question:

I twiddled around in the BIOS a little bit ago, and my mobo has an auto-OC feature built into it (I know, it's not ideal). It seems to only kick in the OC when the CPU is under load, though, like the Turbo feature. In the monitoring program and in Windows, the CPU is still reporting itself as running at 3.4GHz (stock 2600K).

Now, I can tell it's doing something.. it's Turbo-ing up to 4.6GHz, which is what I set it to, I can see the CPU get a lot hotter a lot faster (still within spec, it's got a big-ass heatsink on it) and I'm seeing about a 30% increase in raw power in those apps that use it. In this case, I was running benchmarks using a CG rendering program on a 10-minute single frame render. It uses nothing but CPU (it's not a GPU renderer), and my render time went from 11m17s down to 8m27s for the identical image, which seems about on par with what it should be if my math is correct.

Now, I'm thinking that rather than using the "Turbo" OC, it would be better to have the thing running at OC speeds at all times, would that be correct? That way, everything could take advantage of the extra power, even if it was only a small little blip of program. I may need to update my BIOS to enable that, assuming this motherboard even supports it.. the stuff I was looking at online looked a lot newer than what I'm running now.

So my question is, do I leave it as-is (OC only when "needed"), or do I keep fiddling with it to get a constant OC?

 

[Brandon F]

Kind of ashamed to ask this, but I've scoured Google and haven't come up with anything.

For some reason I'm not able to establish a connection. I have an Ethernet cable connected to my cable modem (green light) and my desktop. The lights near the LAN port are Orange (solid) and Yellow (blinking). According to the motherboard manual I'm getting 1Gps data rate. So there is data transmission. I go to connect to the internet though and Windows isn't detecting any hardware.

Any advice??

I installed an Asus board and had this same problem with the Ethernet not finding a connection and Windows shrugging.

Solution is to install the gigabyte LAN port drivers off the included CD or download them off ASUS website and install from a usb stick in windows(I grabbed them online with my laptop) As soon as installation completed, Windows automatically connected and I was up and running, strange the drivers weren't auto installed.

 

[ZQQLANDER]

- try power cycling the modem
- go into device manager in control panel --> system. see if there are any entries with a yellow exclamation mark icon (meaning you may need some drivers).

actually, what drivers have you installed? have you installed the chipset ones/motherboard drivers (that probably came on a cd)? if not do that for sure.

Thanks opticalmace and komplanen, worked like a charm.

Man I love Neogaf.

 

[komplanen]

There's no extras, there actually weren't enough for all the holes in the board.


Well, I clicked on the Blu-Ray drive in the boot menu and it went to Windows Setup.

Would installing Windows help at this point or should I narrow down the mobo problems first?

I saw you recorded some video earlier. Can you do the same with the new problem? Show what's on the screen.

Also, installing Windows isn't a bad idea to see where that'll take you.

For some reason I just think there's nothing wrong with your system but rather you think there is. Maybe your "it just hangs there" means it boots up perfectly but since nothing is installed it keeps waiting for something to boot from. I don't know, it's hard to tell what's going on

 

[inner-G]

I saw you recorded some video earlier. Can you do the same with the new problem? Show what's on the screen.

Also, installing Windows isn't a bad idea to see where that'll take you.

For some reason I just think there's nothing wrong with your system but rather you think there is. Maybe your "it just hangs there" means it boots up perfectly but since nothing is installed it keeps waiting for something to boot from. I don't know, it's hard to tell what's going on

I got W10 installed - super fast on a SSD!

Still does the same thing on resetting, I have to clear the CMOS to get the bios to show up on screen, but if I boot from within the bios the PC works fine. Will upload a video soon.

 

[komplanen]

I got W10 installed - super fast on a SSD!

Still does the same thing on resetting, I have to clear the CMOS to get the bios to show up on screen, but if I boot from within the bios the PC works fine. Will upload a video soon.

So when this fault happens, nothing shows up? It doesn't boot all the way to windows?

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

I want this Corsair Lapdog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcDNGsbyYnc


It looks excellent! I just hope they will make it so you can also fit a tablet for the spot where the mousepad is. would be great for productivity.

 

[RGM79]

250 GB versions.

There's more than that. Are you looking at the Crucial BX100, BX200, MX100, or MX200? The Samsung 850 Evo or Pro?

Do you have any benchmarks that demonstrate i5s besting 9590s? I'm on an Intel platform but find it hard to believe that a 9590 is having "its head blown off" by an i5.if not benchmarks something that proves the frametimes are an issue.

Gaming smoothness is kind of subjective, some people will notice it and be disturbed by it more than others. Microstutter would be an example of bad frametimes, I think. Durante talks about frametimes and game smoothness here in this article. As for the processors, this Digital Foundry video compares several generations of i5 processors with the FX-8350 and there's a frametime graph in the lower right. The FX-8350's frametimes are drawn in yellow and are in general the highest of them all, going as high as 40ms occasionally. There's also this Techreport review of the FX-8350 including frametime comparisons for games from back then.

All right I'm back and I got no choice now but to build a PC.
My current rig keeps on crashing and I don't think I have much choice now...

I'm reposting my old template from last year but this time I actually want to build a PC. I never done this before so...please help me out!

Your Current Specs: 3rd Generation Intel® Core&#8482; i7-3630QM (2.40GHz 6MB Cache) / Unknown / Motherboard / NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX660M 2GB with DirectX® 11 / Unknown
Basically...it's a Lenovo Y580 Laptop and it kept crashing on high end gaming like Borderlands and TF2.
Budget: $1000-$1200 + USA
Main Use: Rate 1-5. 5 being Highest: 4-5? Streaming games in HD on Twitch. Gaming to Emulation? General Usage.
Monitor Resolution: I'm not entirely sure on resolution, I just want to be able to play fullscreen. So I guess I'm flexible?
List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well: Dark Souls III, Skyrim, Borderlands the Prequel. 30 FPS is acceptable. How important is PhysX / SuperSampling / CUDA to you? Kind of important.
Looking to reuse any parts?: No.
When will you build?: As soon as I can.
Will you be overclocking?: Maybe?

This should work well for you.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($263.98 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($115.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory ($87.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($159.75 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($274.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define S ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1127.43
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-10 00:50 EST-0500

If you need Windows 10 then that'll cost about $90 or so, bringing the cost of the PC to just over $1200.

Overclocking question:

I twiddled around in the BIOS a little bit ago, and my mobo has an auto-OC feature built into it (I know, it's not ideal). It seems to only kick in the OC when the CPU is under load, though, like the Turbo feature. In the monitoring program and in Windows, the CPU is still reporting itself as running at 3.4GHz (stock 2600K).

Now, I can tell it's doing something.. it's Turbo-ing up to 4.6GHz, which is what I set it to, I can see the CPU get a lot hotter a lot faster (still within spec, it's got a big-ass heatsink on it) and I'm seeing about a 30% increase in raw power in those apps that use it. In this case, I was running benchmarks using a CG rendering program on a 10-minute single frame render. It uses nothing but CPU (it's not a GPU renderer), and my render time went from 11m17s down to 8m27s for the identical image, which seems about on par with what it should be if my math is correct.

Now, I'm thinking that rather than using the "Turbo" OC, it would be better to have the thing running at OC speeds at all times, would that be correct? That way, everything could take advantage of the extra power, even if it was only a small little blip of program. I may need to update my BIOS to enable that, assuming this motherboard even supports it.. the stuff I was looking at online looked a lot newer than what I'm running now.

So my question is, do I leave it as-is (OC only when "needed"), or do I keep fiddling with it to get a constant OC?

You can certainly have it running at higher clock speeds all of the time. It'll use more power than if it clocks down to save electricity, but the cost to run a PC doesn't run more than a couple of dollars a month at most, I think. Refer here for more information if you want to manually change your overclock settings, and here's an overclocking guide. There are more guides at the first link.

 

[inner-G]

So when this fault happens, nothing shows up? It doesn't boot all the way to windows?

Nope - (or if it does, nothing ever displays on the screen at the motherboard or OS level)

Here's a video: https://youtu.be/1rgvgAH1x8g

I appreciate your help - I've been working at this all weekend and I'm going nuts, lol

 

[Jin]

Nope - (or if it does, nothing ever displays on the screen at the motherboard or OS level)

Here's a video: https://youtu.be/1rgvgAH1x8g

I appreciate your help - I've been working at this all weekend and I'm going nuts, lol

Have you tried disabling Fast Boot in Bios? My PC had a weird issue that may or may not be related to yours. The display would show the BIOS screen then when it loads Win 10 my monitor would shut off but my PC will still be on as if it's not detecting the monitor. Disabling Fast Boot fixes it.

 

[inner-G]

Have you tried disabling Fast Boot in Bios? My PC had a weird issue that may or may not be related to yours. The display would show the BIOS screen then when it loads Win 10 my monitor would shut off but my PC will still be on as if it's not detecting the monitor. Disabling Fast Boot fixes it.

I did but I don't think I can effectively change BIOS settings - I have to clear the CMOS to get video output

 

[darkwing-buck]

Well guys it took me 4 hours (with the help of my cousin) to build my first PC. it came out quite well imo. Thank you guys for the tips!

 

[hateradio]

Well guys it took me 4 hours (with the help of my cousin) to build my first PC. it came out quite well imo. Thank you guys for the tips!

Your images don't work.

 

[darkwing-buck]

Your images don't work.

Fixed

 

[Novum_Veritas]

I did but I don't think I can effectively change BIOS settings - I have to clear the CMOS to get video output

I've watched your video, sucks you do not have any speakers at hand, it could be that one of the DDR modules are defect.
I know that especially some of the Z170 boards have problems with that or even booting up. Have you tried it with one RAM stick?
Some Z170 boards are a pain in the butt.
Oh and nice that is the 100R, I got the 200R for my new PC build, you updated the BIOS too?

 

[LilJoka]

Overclocking question:

I twiddled around in the BIOS a little bit ago, and my mobo has an auto-OC feature built into it (I know, it's not ideal). It seems to only kick in the OC when the CPU is under load, though, like the Turbo feature. In the monitoring program and in Windows, the CPU is still reporting itself as running at 3.4GHz (stock 2600K).

Now, I can tell it's doing something.. it's Turbo-ing up to 4.6GHz, which is what I set it to, I can see the CPU get a lot hotter a lot faster (still within spec, it's got a big-ass heatsink on it) and I'm seeing about a 30% increase in raw power in those apps that use it. In this case, I was running benchmarks using a CG rendering program on a 10-minute single frame render. It uses nothing but CPU (it's not a GPU renderer), and my render time went from 11m17s down to 8m27s for the identical image, which seems about on par with what it should be if my math is correct.

Now, I'm thinking that rather than using the "Turbo" OC, it would be better to have the thing running at OC speeds at all times, would that be correct? That way, everything could take advantage of the extra power, even if it was only a small little blip of program. I may need to update my BIOS to enable that, assuming this motherboard even supports it.. the stuff I was looking at online looked a lot newer than what I'm running now.

So my question is, do I leave it as-is (OC only when "needed"), or do I keep fiddling with it to get a constant OC?

Nobody does this anymore. The CPU is changing speed much faster than software can report.

But you can achieve this by disabling power saving features in BIOS: Speedstep, C States (C1E, C3, C6, C7.

Windows won't report the speed correctly in Computer Properties, that's normal. Trust CPUz.

 

[DieH@rd]

Anyone has impressions of Cooler Master Silencio 352 case?

I want to get cheap mATX case that is available in my market, and this one [and N200] looks great, but I hear that there is less space on the back on the mobo for cables on S352? Is there really impossible to put cables there or is it just little difficult to manage?

 

[Novum_Veritas]

Anyone has impressions of Cooler Master Silencio 352 case?

I want to get cheap mITX case that is available in my market, and this one [and N200] look great, but I hear that there is less space on the back on the mobo for cables on S352? Is there really impossible to put cables there or is it just little difficult to manage?

It is possible to put cables behind the S352, but it is harder to close the back case, because it is equipped with foam for silencing.
I would recommend a full modular PSU for these kinds of chassis.

 

[LilJoka]

Anyone has impressions of Cooler Master Silencio 352 case?

I want to get cheap mITX case that is available in my market, and this one [and N200] look great, but I hear that there is less space on the back on the mobo for cables on S352? Is there really impossible to put cables there or is it just little difficult to manage?

Built a very cheap rig in the silencio case. Used cheap PSU not modular or anything, just zip ties spare cables in a bunch near the psu.

Hard to route cables down the back but the cable management was far from messy.

Also these cases are mATX, not mITX.

 

[Nachtmaer]

It was the board, GAF! Got an ASUS and it booted right up

Glad everything turned out well. Edit: welp, guess I was too soon.

Having to clear the CMOS to get video output sounds really strange to me. I wonder if it has anything to do with the graphics card and UEFI. My mobo boots up on legacy mode and when I first put in my current card, I didn't get any output either. Turned out my graphics card could switch between a regular BIOS and UEFI. Everything worked fine after flipping that switch. I'm not sure if that's the case here.

There's a Fast Boot option in Windows too that might cause issues with certain SSDs.

 

[DieH@rd]

.

Also these cases are mATX, not mITX.

I actually wanted to type mATX but I misspelled it. Thanks for the case info.

I'm planing on building my next PC around one of those two cases [S352 will probably win because of better dust covers] and i7 4790K. Will I have any issues with slight overclocking of that CPU and durability on Asrock Z97M Anniversary or Asus Z97M-PLUS? I also got suggestions for Maximus VII Impact also, but that one is a bit too small [just 2 DIMM slots, but I guess I could manage].


There is a very slight chance of moving to 1151 and overclockable non-K skylake i7. What affordable mATX board do you recommend for that combo?

 

[DieH@rd]

Digital Foundry has today released article about overclocking non-K skylake i5 processors and impact of RAM speeds at min FPS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUTPgWYTqyk
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-intel-skylake-core-i5-6500-review

My need to go with skylake intensifies... but nonK i7 prices are so damn high... and I don't know what mITX board would be good for this kind of overclocked use.

 

[Deleted member 98878]

Well guys it took me 4 hours (with the help of my cousin) to build my first PC. it came out quite well imo. Thank you guys for the tips!

The S340 is such a lovely case

 

[jotun?]

but the cost to run a PC doesn't run more than a couple of dollars a month at most, I think.

It depends a lot on where you live and the time of year, since almost all the power that goes into the PC ends up in your house as heat.

It's cheap to run a PC if it's cold, because it will actually save some work for your heater. But if it's hot and your A/C is already running, it'll cost a lot more. For every 1 watt that goes into the PC, it take around 4 or 5 watts to the A/C to deal with the extra heat, due to the inefficiency of the A/C.

 

[knitoe]

Well guys it took me 4 hours (with the help of my cousin) to build my first PC. it came out quite well imo. Thank you guys for the tips!

Ideally, you want the cpu cooler facing front to back. Right now, it's sucking hot air from your video card. If the ram height is in the way, you can raise the cpu fan so it sits above them.