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[cHinzo]

There's more than that. Are you looking at the Crucial BX100, BX200, MX100

Between the BX100 and Samsung 850 EVO.

 

[Novum_Veritas]

Between the BX100 and Samsung 850 EVO.

Go for the Samsung 850 EVO.

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

Dumb question time: do I have to reformat my HD when swapping mobo/cpu combos like the olden days? Running win 10. Used to be that this was an expected practice due to potential driver/hd formatting issues. I want to upgrade my 2600K to a 6700K.

 

[Novum_Veritas]

Dumb question time: do I have to reformat my HD when swapping mobo/cpu combos like the olden days? Running win 10. Used to be that this was an expected practice due to potential driver/hd formatting issues. I want to upgrade my 2600K to a 6700K.

Well for incompatibility issues I would recommend reinstalling Windows 10, because you also change the Mainboard.
Yes, drivers which are not suited for the new CPU or MoBo can lead to BSOD's.

 

[knitoe]

Dumb question time: do I have to reformat my HD when swapping mobo/cpu combos like the olden days? Running win 10. Used to be that this was an expected practice due to potential driver/hd formatting issues. I want to upgrade my 2600K to a 6700K.

Since Windows 7, they have been pretty good at letting you swap out cpu / mb and just needing to install new drivers. At worst, you run into weird problems and need to format / install.

 

[cHinzo]

Go for the Samsung 850 EVO.

That was what I was thinking, since they're similar priced here, but why do people keep recommending the BX100 then?

 

[Novum_Veritas]

That was what I was thinking, since they're similar priced here, but why do people keep recommending the BX100 then?

To be honest I've no clue, the 850 is better in every regard, even in the write and read speed.
And as you already said, the EVO is even cheaper than the 100BX.
I'm using a 840 EVO and never had problems with Samsung SSD's in overall.

 

[DieH@rd]

Dumb question time: do I have to reformat my HD when swapping mobo/cpu combos like the olden days? Running win 10. Used to be that this was an expected practice due to potential driver/hd formatting issues. I want to upgrade my 2600K to a 6700K.

I did that twice with Win7, and both times it went fine. Some drivers were not detected, those for which I needed anyway to install manually.

 

[jotun?]

Dumb question time: do I have to reformat my HD when swapping mobo/cpu combos like the olden days? Running win 10. Used to be that this was an expected practice due to potential driver/hd formatting issues. I want to upgrade my 2600K to a 6700K.

Run sysprep first - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn938334(v=vs.85).aspx

You may also have license issues if you're using an OEM version and/or the free windows 10 upgrade, since those are meant to be tied to a single PC, and a new MB will probably identify it as a new PC. If the activation gives you problems, I guess call them and say the old mb got fried, you were replacing it, and it's the same PC.

 

[Ecto311]

If you are willing to overclock, the Pentium G3258 will far outperform the G3260 but you will need a decent CPU cooler. It sounds like you already have the G3260? It might just be better to save up and buy an i3 or i5 processor instead. What are your PC's specs?

I have the MSI h81m e33 motherboard with 4gb of 1333 ram and the g3260 right now. I didn't think that an overclock was a big deal when I got it and went with this for simplicity but seeing that sims 4 a (as far as I can tell) basic game is pegging that processor at 100% I am wondering if an overclock would be worth the time. Last time I overclocked it was a pain in the ass and did nothing but add issues to my computer.

I don't think the case has room for a 212 or any similar coolers but maybe some more fans for cooling. It might just be a waste of time to go higher on that and the GTX460 could offload a lot of the game or at least let it run better on higher settings not sure.

 

[Terbinator]

Anyone with an Asus Z170 board: What the best way to control the CPU's voltage for maximum energy savings (unstil stability is affected)?

Manual voltage appears to force a 100% voltage at all times even with vDroop set to level 1 (max VDroop)

Offset +/- : Obviously offsets it by the amount you put in but is somewhat cumbersome and doesn't offer the control I want.

Auto: Seems intent on having max voltage as 1.3v causing unnecessary heat. From what I've read SKL CPUs shouldn't really need more than 1.25v at stock?

Using a 6700K/Z170I FWIW.

 

[Osiris]

So, had a play with my build list, to see what changes managing without the 25" monitor for a few months would do.

Changed to an EVGA G2 PSU, due to overwhelming advice to do so (much better review than the Corsair, plus it's EVGA and their awesome support).

Changed to DDR4-3000, CAS 15 rather than the CAS 16 of the DDR4-2666 and higher clocks for the sake of £10, worth it IMO.

Changed to a Samsumg 950 Pro 512GB from the 256GB SM951, due to the warranty on the 950's compared to the OEM nature of the SM951's, upped to 512GB because it perfoms better, has double the write endurance (400TB vs 200TB) and future-proofing my system / main apps drive.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£155.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i GT 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£78.89 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£117.11 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£87.56 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£254.99 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£69.98 @ Novatech)
Case: Fractal Design Define S ATX Mid Tower Case (£58.96 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£66.96 @ Aria PC)
Total: £889.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-10 13:38 GMT+0000

This thing should fly, and adding a decent GPU when Pascal arrives, plus a 2560x1440 monitor when I've got the grunt to really make use of it should be possible later in the year.

Looking at the build, and thinking back to my temptation to get an SP4 I'm really glad I got cold feet, this thing will smoke an SP4, even without a GPU in it, and I'll still have my non-Pro Surface 3 for mobile use.

Thoughts?

 

[Ceadeus]

Hi, I'm currently waiting for Window10 USB version to arrive by mail.

My PC is essembled, displaying nothing on the screen but th bios.

So my question is, will I be able to clean install Window 10 from a USB port?

In the past, I used a disc based window, for a PC that already had Window installed( used it to format).

This time the whole package is brand new, will the USB port recognise the Key? I'm not sure if my question is clear :S Thanks

 

[Terbinator]

Hi, I'm currently waiting for Window10 USB version to arrive by mail.

My PC is essembled, displaying nothing on the screen but th bios.

So my question is, will I be able to clean install Window 10 from a USB port?

Absolutely.

Just ensure you have your BIOS set to boot form USB or to show the boot menu and select it yourself.

This time the whole package is brand new, will the USB port recognise the Key? I'm not sure if my question is clear :S Thanks

I'm not entirely sure what's in the USB package (didn't even know you could order a W10 USB stick) but I'm sure it will activate automatically or have a key in the box.

 

[Ceadeus]

Absolutely.

Just ensure you have your BIOS set to boot form USB or to show the boot menu and select it yourself.

I'm not entirely sure what's in the USB package (didn't even know you could order a W10 USB stick) but I'm sure it will activate automatically or have a key in the box.

I meant the PC is brand new and never had Window installed.

 

[Kayant]

So, had a play with my build list, to see what changes managing without the 25" monitor for a few months would do.

Changed to an EVGA G2 PSU, due to overwhelming advice to do so (much better review than the Corsair, plus it's EVGA and their awesome support).

Changed to DDR4-3000, CAS 15 rather than the CAS 16 of the DDR4-2666 and higher clocks for the sake of £10, worth it IMO.

Changed to a Samsumg 950 Pro 512GB from the 256GB SM951, due to the warranty on the 950's compared to the OEM nature of the SM951's, upped to 512GB because it perfoms better, has double the write endurance (400TB vs 200TB) and future-proofing my system / main apps drive.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£155.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i GT 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£78.89 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£117.11 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£87.56 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£254.99 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£69.98 @ Novatech)
Case: Fractal Design Define S ATX Mid Tower Case (£58.96 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£66.96 @ Aria PC)
Total: £889.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-10 13:38 GMT+0000

This thing should fly, and adding a decent GPU when Pascal arrives, plus a 2560x1440 monitor when I've got the grunt to really make use of it should be possible later in the year.

Looking at the build, and thinking back to my temptation to get an SP4 I'm really glad I got cold feet, this thing will smoke an SP4, even without a GPU in it, and I'll still have my non-Pro Surface 3 for mobile use.

Thoughts?

I would still go for an air cooler as I said previously because you don't have a overclockable processor or motherboard that allows for overclocking on non-k processors and iirc you don't have much of a desire to do so. Additionally it will be cheaper, have similar performance and possibly quieter because of the lack of a pump. Otherwise should be a great build👍

 

[potatohead]

I would still go for an air cooler as I said previously because you don't have a overclockable processor or motherboard that allows for overclocking on non-k processors and iirc you don't have much of a desire to do so. Additionally it will be cheaper, have similar performance and possibly quieter because of the lack of a pump. Otherwise should be a great build��

Don't listen to this man!

Keep that water cooler. I don't overclock either, don't give a crap about it.

But the water cooler is so worth, I have that same model (I think it's the regular H80i, not the GT version) and I would never go back to air cooling. And it's like 20 degrees cooler on the CPU, I've never had to even think of changing my thermal paste since I installed it over a year ago now.

It's sooooooooooooo much quieter that even in load it is quieter than a typical air cooling fan on idle. I can barely hear it when I game or use video editing software.

Go for water cooling and don't turn back! Don't even look back!

 

[Osiris]

I would still go for an air cooler as I said previously because you don't have a overclockable processor or motherboard that allows for overclocking on non-k processors and iirc you don't have much of a desire to do so. Additionally it will be cheaper, have similar performance and possibly quieter because of the lack of a pump. Otherwise should be a great build��

I respect your opinion, but having had a H80 with Noctua fans on it before, it's a known quantity to me, pump noise was a non-issue in a sound-padded case and that was with the original H80 with open ModuVents.
Replacing the stock corsair shitty fans with the NF-12s make it a pretty much totally silent set-up and I like taking the weight off the Mobo / CPU Socket and improved airflow a CLC set-up provides..

This should be a quieter build too because I had to "top case exhaust" my last H80 which meant opening up the ModuVents on top, with the Define S's lack of optical cage I can front mount as intake instead (With Push/Pull provided by the Noctuas) and leave all the ModuVents sealed & closed.

Going "front intake" this time should improve performance and allow me to use less case fans, Although I think I'll still need one at the lower front of the Define S to cool the 950 Pro (Don't want to hit thermal throttle, ever).

It was quiet enough before to be probably the quietest PC I've owned since we were still passively cooling 386's, I'm expecting to beat that with this, and hoping sillent is just that, silent.

 

[Kenzodielocke]

I meant the PC is brand new and never had Window installed.

Like he said, just go into your BIOS and set the USB as first priority and then you can install W10. Just make sure after the installation you change it back to the HDD you have Windows installed on.

 

[Kayant]

Don't listen to this man!

Keep that water cooler. I don't overclock either, don't give a crap about it.

But the water cooler is so worth, I have that same model (I think it's the regular H80i, not the GT version) and I would never go back to air cooling. And it's like 20 degrees cooler on the CPU, I've never had to even think of changing my thermal paste since I installed it over a year ago now.

It's sooooooooooooo much quieter that even in load it is quieter than a typical air cooling fan on idle. I can barely hear it when I game or use video editing software.

Go for water cooling and don't turn back! Don't even look back!

Notuca Dh15 one of the best cpu coolers -

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/noctua_nh_d15_review,11.html
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Noctua/NH-D15/6.html
http://www.legitreviews.com/noctua-nh-d15-air-cpu-cooler-review_169205/6
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/7501/swiftech-h320-x2-prestige-liquid-cpu-cooler-review/index6.html
As you see you don't need a super higher part like the dh15 to get similar performance to a AIO.

I respect your opinion, but having had a H80 with Noctua fans on it before, it's a known quantity to me, pump noise was a non-issue in a sound-padded case and that was with the original H80 with open ModuVents.
Replacing the stock corsair shitty fans with the NF-12s make it a pretty much totally silent set-up and I like taking the weight off the Mobo / CPU Socket and improved airflow a CLC set-up provides..

This should be a quieter build too because I had to "top case exhaust" my last H80 which meant opening up the ModuVents on top, with the Define S's lack of optical cage I can front mount as intake instead (With Push/Pull provided by the Noctuas) and leave all the ModuVents sealed & closed.

Going "front intake" this time should improve performance and allow me to use less case fans, Although I think I'll still need one at the lower front of the Define S to cool the 950 Pro (Don't want to hit thermal throttle, ever).

It was quiet enough before to be probably the quietest PC I've owned since we were still passively cooling 386's, I'm expecting to beat that with this, and hoping sillent is just that, silent.

Fair enough that sounds great too.I think you will like the evga G2 a lot it is really great(I have one myself) and in eco mode my fan rarely spins. The 950 should be fine I think iirc from the pcper review it just need some kind of airflow for it to work well.

 

[RGM79]

I have the MSI h81m e33 motherboard with 4gb of 1333 ram and the g3260 right now. I didn't think that an overclock was a big deal when I got it and went with this for simplicity but seeing that sims 4 a (as far as I can tell) basic game is pegging that processor at 100% I am wondering if an overclock would be worth the time. Last time I overclocked it was a pain in the ass and did nothing but add issues to my computer.

I don't think the case has room for a 212 or any similar coolers but maybe some more fans for cooling. It might just be a waste of time to go higher on that and the GTX460 could offload a lot of the game or at least let it run better on higher settings not sure.

The G3258 when overclocked can offer quite a lot of performance for not a lot of cost. In some games it'll rival i3 processors.

But in your case, don't go for a G3258. Not having the room for a good enough CPU cooler would not make it easy for you to overclock in the first place, so I cannot recommend it. Extra fans won't be able to make up for a small CPU heatsink.

That was what I was thinking, since they're similar priced here, but why do people keep recommending the BX100 then?

Depends on the cost and capacity. Sometimes (more frequently in the past) they weren't that close in price, I would recommend whichever was at a lower price.

Don't listen to this man!

Keep that water cooler. I don't overclock either, don't give a crap about it.

But the water cooler is so worth, I have that same model (I think it's the regular H80i, not the GT version) and I would never go back to air cooling. And it's like 20 degrees cooler on the CPU, I've never had to even think of changing my thermal paste since I installed it over a year ago now.

It's sooooooooooooo much quieter that even in load it is quieter than a typical air cooling fan on idle. I can barely hear it when I game or use video editing software.

Go for water cooling and don't turn back! Don't even look back!

I respect your opinion, but having had a H80 with Noctua fans on it before, it's a known quantity to me, pump noise was a non-issue in a sound-padded case and that was with the original H80 with open ModuVents.
Replacing the stock corsair shitty fans with the NF-12s make it a pretty much totally silent set-up and I like taking the weight off the Mobo / CPU Socket and improved airflow a CLC set-up provides..

This should be a quieter build too because I had to "top case exhaust" my last H80 which meant opening up the ModuVents on top, with the Define S's lack of optical cage I can front mount as intake instead (With Push/Pull provided by the Noctuas) and leave all the ModuVents sealed & closed.

Going "front intake" this time should improve performance and allow me to use less case fans, Although I think I'll still need one at the lower front of the Define S to cool the 950 Pro (Don't want to hit thermal throttle, ever).

It was quiet enough before to be probably the quietest PC I've owned since we were still passively cooling 386's, I'm expecting to beat that with this, and hoping sillent is just that, silent.

The Noctua NH-D15 is cheaper (~£68 according to PCPartPicker and Skinflint) and even quieter than the H80i GT according to Tweaktown, Guru3D, and TechPowerUp. You guys do have your points, but there's no beating the noise levels of the Noctua air cooler, and performance is either the same or on par. Replacing the H80i GT's stock fans with Noctua fans would cost even more.

 

[Osiris]

Replacing the H80i GT's stock fans with Noctua fans would cost even more.

I already have 3 of them, the first thing I did before I sold my last build was strip them out and put the stock corsairs back in (two from cooler, one as case fan), buyer wasn't bothered by noise and no way I was leaving them in unappreciated.

 

[Jedi2016]

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.

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.

Thanks, guys. I'll just leave it as-is for now unless I see the need to fiddle with it some more down the road.

 

[RGM79]

I already have 3 of them, the first thing I did before I sold my last build was strip them out and put the stock corsairs back in (two from cooler, one as case fan), buyer wasn't bothered by noise and no way I was leaving them in unappreciated.

Ah, that makes sense. Somehow I thought you were implying he should buy the H80i GT and then spend more to get Noctua fans.

 

[Gartooth]

Need help GAF. I got my new PC parts and put them together, but nothing came on the screen. Found out that the motherboard standoffs were never used, so had to take everything apart and put them in. However the 19 pin USB socket on the motherboard had a lot of bent pins between pulling out / pushing in, with one of them breaking off. I already made another USB connection on the motherboard, but Im wondering if Im completely fucked with bent/broken pins. Could this prevent booting up?

 

[Ceadeus]

Like he said, just go into your BIOS and set the USB as first priority and then you can install W10. Just make sure after the installation you change it back to the HDD you have Windows installed on.

Ok I see. I took a look at some tutorial and saw that priority thing. Thank you for the help.

 

[RGM79]

Need help GAF. I got my new PC parts and put them together, but nothing came on the screen. Found out that the motherboard standoffs were never used, so had to take everything apart and put them in. However the 19 pin USB socket on the motherboard had a lot of bent pins between pulling out / pushing in, with one of them breaking off. I already made another USB connection on the motherboard, but Im wondering if Im completely fucked with bent/broken pins. Could this prevent booting up?

It won't stop your computer from starting or running, but it probably means the USB 3.0 ports on the front of your case won't work properly or at all.

 

[grkazan12]

Don't know whether to go with a 1440p monitor or 1440p monitor with G-Sync/144Hz? I narrowed it down to the the Dell U2715H or the ROG Swift (1st or 2nd Gen)?

Any advice is totally welcome, thanks.

 

[RGM79]

Don't know whether to go with a 1440p monitor or 1440p monitor with G-Sync/144Hz? I narrowed it down to the the Dell U2715H or the ROG Swift (1st or 2nd Gen)?

Any advice is totally welcome, thanks.

The one with G-Sync should be much more expensive, shouldn't it? But G-Sync will offer a extremely smooth experience. It's up to you if you're comfortable spending more money. What are your PC's specs? Graphics card?

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.

This is.. interesting. I might have to start recommending Z170 motherboards for non-K processors. I think some of the Asus and Gigabyte mITX have been fairly dependable, but it's hard for me to look it up as I'm on my phone at the moment.

 

[grkazan12]

The one with G-Sync should be much more expensive, shouldn't it? But G-Sync will offer a extremely smooth experience. It's up to you if you're comfortable spending more money. What are your PC's specs? Graphics card?


This is.. interesting. I might have to start recommending Z170 motherboards for non-K processors. I think some of the Asus and Gigabyte mITX have been fairly dependable, but it's hard for me to look it up as I'm on my phone at the moment.

I tried it at a Microcenter and I thought G Sync felt pretty incredible. I just don't know if I should wait for the tech to mature more or till Asus solve the QC issues with this monitor. I currently have a i5 2500k and 980Ti with 8 gigs of RAM.

 

[Ecto311]

One more quick question swap power supply or get an adapter for 2 pcie plugs for gtx460? The power supply now is a evga 430 and the same price I could swap to an evga 500. PC is running pentium and 2 fans.

 

[Gartooth]

It won't stop your computer from starting or running, but it probably means the USB 3.0 ports on the front of your case won't work properly or at all.

Thanks! I was able to straighten the other pins and insert it, so it is just a question if one of the two will work. Anyways I successfully booted up my PC after using the standoffs now!

 

[ZQQLANDER]

So I booted up my PC this morning, the splash screen came up and then it froze on the message "booting verified image A." What the hell does this mean?

 

[Reverb Shock]

Is the jump from a i5 2500k (not overclocked) with 8GB of RAM to a i7 6700k with 32GB of RAM worth £500? I'm debating whether or not I should bother upgrading my PC. A lot of people online say the 2500k is still viable (including the name of this thread!) but I don't know if it's going to last another four or five years. If I upgrade to the 6700k I'd like to think I wouldn't have to upgrade for at least another five years.

 

[opticalmace]

Is the jump from a i5 2500k (not overclocked) with 8GB of RAM to a i7 6700k with 32GB of RAM worth £500? I'm debating whether or not I should bother upgrading my PC. A lot of people online say the 2500k is still viable (including the name of this thread!) but I don't know if it's going to last another four or five years. If I upgrade to the 6700k I'd like to think I wouldn't have to upgrade for at least another five years.

I don't know euro prices at all, but going from the 2500k to the 6700k I think could fairly easily be justified. The 2500k is starting to get long in the tooth and definitely isn't up the task of another 4-5 years of solid performance, maybe 1-2 years at most imho (depending on your standards). The 6700k will definitely give you 4-5 years.

What GPU do you have though? And do you use your system mainly for gaming? The other consideration is that if you have a really old GPU then upgrading your video card will give you a much bigger boost in performance.

edit: and unless you have a specific need for 32gb of ram just go for 16.

 

[Finaika]

Is the jump from a i5 2500k (not overclocked) with 8GB of RAM to a i7 6700k with 32GB of RAM worth £500? I'm debating whether or not I should bother upgrading my PC. A lot of people online say the 2500k is still viable (including the name of this thread!) but I don't know if it's going to last another four or five years. If I upgrade to the 6700k I'd like to think I wouldn't have to upgrade for at least another five years.

I say go for it.

Aside from performance increase you'll get:
- PCIe gen 3.0
- USB 3.1 Type C
- M.2 socket
- DDR4

 

[Profanity]

Is the jump from a i5 2500k (not overclocked) with 8GB of RAM to a i7 6700k with 32GB of RAM worth £500? I'm debating whether or not I should bother upgrading my PC. A lot of people online say the 2500k is still viable (including the name of this thread!) but I don't know if it's going to last another four or five years. If I upgrade to the 6700k I'd like to think I wouldn't have to upgrade for at least another five years.

You'd definitely see an improvement to frame pacing times and minimum framerate.

 

[ZQQLANDER]

So I booted up my PC this morning, the splash screen came up and then it froze on the message "booting verified image A." What the hell does this mean?

Ok so I removed all my peripherals and it started fine once I had unplugged an external hard drive I was using.

 

[Novum_Veritas]

Ok so I removed all my peripherals and it started fine once I had unplugged an external hard drive I was using.

Probably your mainboard taking the external hard drive as 1st boot device.

 

[Reverb Shock]

I don't know euro prices at all, but going from the 2500k to the 6700k I think could fairly easily be justified. The 2500k is starting to get long in the tooth and definitely isn't up the task of another 4-5 years of solid performance, maybe 1-2 years at most imho (depending on your standards). The 6700k will definitely give you 4-5 years.

Great, that's what I was hoping for.

What GPU do you have though? And do you use your system mainly for gaming? The other consideration is that if you have a really old GPU then upgrading your video card will give you a much bigger boost in performance.

edit: and unless you have a specific need for 32gb of ram just go for 16.

I've got a 980 that I'll probably upgrade to a 980Ti either later this year or next year (depending on what the new generation of graphics cards cards are like). I primarily use my PC for gaming but I also do video and image editing.

Yeah, I thought 32GB of RAM is overkill but I'm looking at buying used components. The guy selling some of these components is trying to get rid of his stuff as fast as possible. Not sure why he'd bother with 32GB but it's cheap so I might as well take it.

 

[ZQQLANDER]

Probably your mainboard taking the external hard drive as 1st boot device.

Hmmm, that makes sense I guess although I'm not sure how or why that is happening. I thought I designated my SSD as the primary boot device.

 

[Novum_Veritas]

Hmmm, that makes sense I guess although I'm not sure how or why that is happening. I thought I designated my SSD as the primary boot device.

Some mainboards override the boot priority when an external device is attached, he was searching for a bootable partition but was unsuccessful.

 

[RGM79]

One more quick question swap power supply or get an adapter for 2 pcie plugs for gtx460? The power supply now is a evga 430 and the same price I could swap to an evga 500. PC is running pentium and 2 fans.

You probably don't need to, but it's up to you if you want the stronger power supply for the future. A Pentium will run around 50~75 watts and the GTX 460 will draw around 150 watts. Chalk up another 25~50 watts for the motherboard, up to 10 watts for each storage drive, and maybe up to 5 watts for each fan.

So I booted up my PC this morning, the splash screen came up and then it froze on the message "booting verified image A." What the hell does this mean?

PC specs? Is it a prebuilt computer?

Is the jump from a i5 2500k (not overclocked) with 8GB of RAM to a i7 6700k with 32GB of RAM worth £500? I'm debating whether or not I should bother upgrading my PC. A lot of people online say the 2500k is still viable (including the name of this thread!) but I don't know if it's going to last another four or five years. If I upgrade to the 6700k I'd like to think I wouldn't have to upgrade for at least another five years.

The way Intel processors have been steadily but slowly increasing in power each generation, the i5 2500K is maybe only 20~30% slower in certain tasks than a current generation i5 processor. The gap is even smaller when overclocked, and if you only care about gaming performance then the difference is actually fairly small for how much money you would end up paying. If you don't already have your processor overclocked then I highly recommend it. Otherwise if you have issues with your current parts or if you're looking to get the latest tech (M.2 slots, USB 3.1 and USB type C port, Thunderbolt 3, etc) then Skylake could be worth getting.

 

[LilJoka]

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.

Interesting, I just bought 2400mhz 14-16-16-31 RAM.
They don't show their timings, so that makes it useless

 

[Clunker]

Hey folks - I've spent the past week or so exploring my options as far as small form factor PCs (Mac Mini-sized), and I'm hoping I can get some advice on the Alienware Alpha vs. Mac Mini vs. any other suggestions you might have in that same space.

My wife and I are looking to replace a 5-year-old iMac that we use mostly as a media server (iTunes setup for movies and music to stream to 2nd gen Apple TV). We have our own separate laptops for work (she a Macbook Pro, I a Dell I have from work), and we're living in a small condo so we're looking to replace the iMac with an updated and small computer that we can tuck away in the entertainment center and forget about. We were considering a Mac Mini since we're generally an Apple family, but in my research, I started looking into the Alpha because it would be roughly the same price and I'd have a decent gaming PC to replace my aging laptop that chokes on mid-range games (it's an Acer Aspire with a GeForce 630M but it can only run things like Heroes of the Storm or WildStar on the absolute lowest settings, and even then it's chugging). In essence, if we're going to shell out the money I might want to sneak in some gaming to boot!

So my questions:

1) How is the Alpha itself as a non-gaming machine? Specifically, how well would it play with iTunes versus a Mac Mini? Would it be sufficient as a HTPC in terms of streaming music and movies through a 2nd gen Apple TV, the very occasional sync to an iPhone, etc.?

2) Would either the Mini or Alpha play well with an external hard drive? I have zero experience with micro PCs like these, but I assume they can use external USB drives like regular computers, correct?

3) We're looking to stay around the $500 range and keep the small Mac Mini-sized form factor (we don't want a tower next to our TV at all). Are there any other suggestions? I saw some reviews on those Intel NUC barebones systems but I don't have any Windows installs available and have zero interest in going Linux. I have somewhat of a tolerance for building my own rig but I honestly haven't cracked open a PC case since 2001 (the last graphics card I ever bought and installed was a Voodoo 3, if that's a good frame of reference).

 

[LilJoka]

Hey folks - I've spent the past week or so exploring my options as far as small form factor PCs (Mac Mini-sized), and I'm hoping I can get some advice on the Alienware Alpha vs. Mac Mini vs. any other suggestions you might have in that same space.

My wife and I are looking to replace a 5-year-old iMac that we use mostly as a media server (iTunes setup for movies and music to stream to 2nd gen Apple TV). We have our own separate laptops for work (she a Macbook Pro, I a Dell I have from work), and we're living in a small condo so we're looking to replace the iMac with an updated and small computer that we can tuck away in the entertainment center and forget about. We were considering a Mac Mini since we're generally an Apple family, but in my research, I started looking into the Alpha because it would be roughly the same price and I'd have a decent gaming PC to replace my aging laptop that chokes on mid-range games (it's an Acer Aspire with a GeForce 630M but it can only run things like Heroes of the Storm or WildStar on the absolute lowest settings, and even then it's chugging). In essence, if we're going to shell out the money I might want to sneak in some gaming to boot!

So my questions:

1) How is the Alpha itself as a non-gaming machine? Specifically, how well would it play with iTunes versus a Mac Mini? Would it be sufficient as a HTPC in terms of streaming music and movies through a 2nd gen Apple TV, the very occasional sync to an iPhone, etc.?

2) Would either the Mini or Alpha play well with an external hard drive? I have zero experience with micro PCs like these, but I assume they can use external USB drives like regular computers, correct?

3) We're looking to stay around the $500 range and keep the small Mac Mini-sized form factor (we don't want a tower next to our TV at all). Are there any other suggestions? I saw some reviews on those Intel NUC barebones systems but I don't have any Windows installs available and have zero interest in going Linux. I have somewhat of a tolerance for building my own rig but I honestly haven't cracked open a PC case since 2001 (the last graphics card I ever bought and installed was a Voodoo 3, if that's a good frame of reference).

1) you don't need to have any concerns here

2) both will be fine, yes they are regular PCs

3) Intel nuc is excellent device, especially if you get one with built in IR, that is a perfect HTPC with either an external disk or network storage access. But Nuc is no good for gaming.

Alpha definitely is a good choice here.

Nothing has changed in terms of building PCs, you might want to look at Thin mini ITX builds.

 

[Qwyjibo]

Don't know whether to go with a 1440p monitor or 1440p monitor with G-Sync/144Hz? I narrowed it down to the the Dell U2715H or the ROG Swift (1st or 2nd Gen)?

Any advice is totally welcome, thanks.

It basically comes down to money and the type of games you'll be playing. I was looking at a similar choice this summer and went with the U2715H (and it looks fantastic). I'm in Canada so everything is expensive but the price difference between those here is around $300 since the U2715H goes on sale often from Dell directly. While I do play CSGO and could benefit from the better response times and refresh rates of a 144hz monitor, I went with the visual quality of the IPS panel at a much lower price instead.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2715h.htm

That's probably the most in-depth review you'll find of the Dell. It actually grades out well for input lag, especially for an IPS panel monitor.

 

[HundredEyeMonk]

So- I am selling my gaming laptop. Going to build a new desktop for gaming. The Warden, I mean wife, has green lit me so I am a go. I am trying to keep with one vendor and can't use Newegg because they have an office in Tennessee and I don't want to play sales tax. I am also okay with Amazon since I get free 2-day shipping with Prime.

Here is what I came up with using the spreadsheet in the OP. Using NCIX US as preferred vendor:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor $251.08

Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler $39.99

Motherboard:Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard $124.99

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory $74.99

Storage: A-Data Premier Pro SP900 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $57.98
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $59.88

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card $659.99

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case $40.99

Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply $89.99

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer $26.98

OS: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/microsoft-os-kw900140 Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) $89.99

$1516.85

Thoughts? I'd like to keep it around $1500.

And I want to not have to find a tweak guide for every game I play to get decent FPS. I play primarily flight simulators- DCS A10, ARMA 3, etc.

EDIT: Also, I'm not familiar with gsync? Do I need a specific monitor to have it enabled, does it provide value, etc?

EDIT EDIT: Is it worth the extra $50 to get the i5-6600 over the i5-4690k?

 

[kami_sama]

Anyone here knows how to clone a W10 installation in a hdd to a ssd?
Also, should I do it? Or should I clean install on the new drive? There seems to be some problems with cloning.

 

[Chris Remo]

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

Thanks a lot for the recs! Is there an Nvidia card that is comparable in price and performance?