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[komplanen]

No not yet. Really? The Gigabyte Z97 HD3 isn't adapted to the Intel i5?

You chose the 6600K which is a Skylake CPU that uses the 1151 socket . Your chosen motherboard is one generation older and has a 1150 socket.

Either pick a Skylake motherboard (Z170 in this case) or swap the CPU for the i5 4690K. I didn't see what RAM you had chosen but DDR4 for Skylake, DDR3 for the motherboard you chose.

 

[Volotaire]

HGST > WD

Thanks! I'm going to take a serious look at these drives.

 

[Moz La Punk]

So I have ordered a new gaming rig yesterday. Mainly a console gamer but every 6 or so years I buy a new game pc and spend a few years on there. Very hyped!

As Im mainly a console gamer, i don't know much about specs (or building one myself for that matter, but I have that covered). Together with a shop I gathered some 'ingredients' to make a mighty fine game pc. I even showed it to some pc-minded friends of mine and they assure me this is a great gaming rig.

Still, being insecure about this subject, I would love for you folks to tell me if this is good enough. I can't really change it anymore so its not like I can use your tips, but still, some information about if I made the right (or wrong) choices would be appreciated.

The important stuff:

MSI Z170A Tomahawk, S1151, Z170, 4xDDR4, ATX
Intel Core i7-6700K, 4Ghz, 8MB, S1151
Be Quiet! Shadow Rock 2
Crucial SSD BX100, 250GB, SATA3
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 6GB
2xCrucial 8GB(2x4GB) DDR4 2133MHz CL15
WD Black 3TB 7200rpm 64MB SATA3
Windows 10

Thanks in advance people! And I hope to join you all soon in pc-gaming!


Edit: Although I'm pretty in the loop on games (even on pc), if there is a good thread about (Steam)games, both big budget and indie, people can direct me to, that would be much appreciated!

 

[Volotaire]

Sorry, I have another quick question that I can't seem to get a certain answer on with Google.

Are the HGST NAS drives ok to use in normal desktop use? i.e. as the boot and storage drive? Will it cause any performance differences?

 

[RGM79]

So I have ordered a new gaming rig yesterday. Mainly a console gamer but every 6 or so years I buy a new game pc and spend a few years on there. Very hyped!

As Im mainly a console gamer, i don't know much about specs (or building one myself for that matter, but I have that covered). Together with a shop I gathered some 'ingredients' to make a mighty fine game pc. I even showed it to some pc-minded friends of mine and they assure me this is a great gaming rig.

Still, being insecure about this subject, I would love for you folks to tell me if this is good enough. I can't really change it anymore so its not like I can use your tips, but still, some information about if I made the right (or wrong) choices would be appreciated.

The important stuff:

MSI Z170A Tomahawk, S1151, Z170, 4xDDR4, ATX
Intel Core i7-6700K, 4Ghz, 8MB, S1151
Be Quiet! Shadow Rock 2
Crucial SSD BX100, 250GB, SATA3
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 6GB
2xCrucial 8GB(2x4GB) DDR4 2133MHz CL15
2 WD Black 3TB 7200rpm 64MB SATA3
Windows 10

Thanks in advance people! And I hope to join you all soon in pc-gaming!

The only issues I have to nitpick would be the two 3TB WD Black drives and the 2133MHz RAM. The hard drives must have been expensive and the 2133MHz RAM might hold back your PC a bit in a few specific scenarios, but as long as you didn't mind the cost and are willing to look into RAM overclocking, they're minor issues.

 

[Volotaire]

Edit: Although I'm pretty in the loop on games (even on pc), if there is a good thread about (Steam)games, both big budget and indie, people can direct me to, that would be much appreciated!

MRORANGE has a great, up to date and centralised PC gaming thread list thread. There's definitely stuff in here that will help you.

 

[Moz La Punk]

The only issues I have to nitpick would be the two 3TB WD Black drives and the 2133MHz RAM. The hard drives must have been expensive and the 2133MHz RAM might hold back your PC a bit in a few specific scenarios, but as long as you didn't mind the cost and are willing to look into RAM overclocking, they're minor issues.

Made a mistake, it was 'hard drive 2: 3tb WD Black. So they aren't two 3GB drives, just one. I'll edit that.

As far as the RAM goes, I have to look into that because I don't know exactly what you are saying, but do you mean that if I might change parts later on or if I run very demanding games, my pc might get overheated or whatever? Sorry for being a total n00b.

The pc in itself is pretty expensive, yes, especially because I let a store order the parts and build it, but then again I skipped going on vacation last year and I wanted to treat myself, plus I can get back taxes by ordering through my fathers company, so meh, I can handle it. I realise I might get a few facepalms here for not taking the time of ordering and building my own pc. Maybe this set will make me interested in pc gaming in a way that I will start educate myself on the subject matter, who knows?

MRORANGE has a great, up to date and centralised PC gaming thread list thread. There's definitely stuff in here that will help you.

Thanks a lot!

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Made a mistake, it was 'hard drive 2: 3tb WD Black. So they aren't two 3GB drives, just one. I'll edit that.

As far as the RAM goes, I have to look into that because I don't know exactly what you are saying, but do you mean that if I might change parts later on or if I run very demanding games, my pc might get overheated or whatever? Sorry for being a total n00b.

The pc in itself is pretty expensive, yes, especially because I let a store order the parts and build it, but then again I skipped going on vacation last year and I wanted to treat myself, plus I can get back taxes by ordering through my fathers company, so meh, I can handle it. I realise I might get a few facepalms here for not taking the time of ordering and building my own pc. Maybe this set will make me interested in pc gaming in a way that I will start educate myself on the subject matter, who knows?


Thanks a lot!

What RGM means is that for Skylake CPUs like yours, it is highly advisable to go with higher RAM speed as they seem to benefit more from that. Meaning games will run better. Your ram has a speed of 2133, which is the slowest for DDR4.

But, as he said, if you look into overclocking your RAM, it should not be an issue.

Overall, I don't know how much they charged you for that whole package, but they are very solid parts and aside from what was already pointed out, there is nothing really wrong with it.

 

[Moz La Punk]

Thanks for the explanation. A bit baffled that they (as in, the shop) chose the lower end of the specrum, as I was clear in NOT wanting to be in the lower end. They could've made more money from me AND make me happier, but oh well.

 

[Finaika]

As far as the RAM goes, I have to look into that because I don't know exactly what you are saying, but do you mean that if I might change parts later on or if I run very demanding games, my pc might get overheated or whatever? Sorry for being a total n00b.

He says you should get faster RAM (2666Mhz or above).

 

[hooijdonk17]

I have a question about the Toshiba’s DT01ACA300 3TB Drive.

I'm quite tempted to purchase it because of its low price, but user reviews seem a bit over the place for its long run reliability and failure rate?

Should I look to WD instead or are the reports over exaggerated?

I have the exact HDD you are asking about, have been using it as a system + media store disk on my main machine and I can tell you that it is an excellent disk.

My anectodal experience is that my WD 1TB Blue HDD was slightly faster than this, but it's so much more silent and so much cooler (temperature-wise) that I don't mind the marginal difference at all.

It's a drive you can buy without a second thought.

 

[RGM79]

Made a mistake, it was 'hard drive 2: 3tb WD Black. So they aren't two 3GB drives, just one. I'll edit that.

As far as the RAM goes, I have to look into that because I don't know exactly what you are saying, but do you mean that if I might change parts later on or if I run very demanding games, my pc might get overheated or whatever? Sorry for being a total n00b.

The pc in itself is pretty expensive, yes, especially because I let a store order the parts and build it, but then again I skipped going on vacation last year and I wanted to treat myself, plus I can get back taxes by ordering through my fathers company, so meh, I can handle it. I realise I might get a few facepalms here for not taking the time of ordering and building my own pc. Maybe this set will make me interested in pc gaming in a way that I will start educate myself on the subject matter, who knows?

Thanks a lot!

No, it is just that a few games seem to run well with faster clocked RAM while others see no benefit. I'll be frank, I cannot actually find any DDR4 benchmarks to prove such a thing. There are a few DDR3 benchmarks that do and anecdotal reports of higher RAM speed keeping minimum framerates higher in some CPU-bottlenecked games, so perhaps it cannot be ruled out. Around here we tend to recommend higher speed RAM only if it is not too much more expensive than 2133/2400MHz. It's just a minor nitpick.

 

[Impulsor]

So I have ordered a new gaming rig yesterday. Mainly a console gamer but every 6 or so years I buy a new game pc and spend a few years on there. Very hyped!

As Im mainly a console gamer, i don't know much about specs (or building one myself for that matter, but I have that covered). Together with a shop I gathered some 'ingredients' to make a mighty fine game pc. I even showed it to some pc-minded friends of mine and they assure me this is a great gaming rig.

Still, being insecure about this subject, I would love for you folks to tell me if this is good enough. I can't really change it anymore so its not like I can use your tips, but still, some information about if I made the right (or wrong) choices would be appreciated.

The important stuff:

MSI Z170A Tomahawk, S1151, Z170, 4xDDR4, ATX
Intel Core i7-6700K, 4Ghz, 8MB, S1151
Be Quiet! Shadow Rock 2
Crucial SSD BX100, 250GB, SATA3
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 6GB
2xCrucial 8GB(2x4GB) DDR4 2133MHz CL15
WD Black 3TB 7200rpm 64MB SATA3
Windows 10

Thanks in advance people! And I hope to join you all soon in pc-gaming!


Edit: Although I'm pretty in the loop on games (even on pc), if there is a good thread about (Steam)games, both big budget and indie, people can direct me to, that would be much appreciated!

It's an awesome build. It's not just Good enough, its top of the line for single GPU configurations. So yeah, have fun and enjoy.

 

[ViviOggi]

So I have ordered a new gaming rig yesterday. Mainly a console gamer but every 6 or so years I buy a new game pc and spend a few years on there. Very hyped!

As Im mainly a console gamer, i don't know much about specs (or building one myself for that matter, but I have that covered). Together with a shop I gathered some 'ingredients' to make a mighty fine game pc. I even showed it to some pc-minded friends of mine and they assure me this is a great gaming rig.

Still, being insecure about this subject, I would love for you folks to tell me if this is good enough. I can't really change it anymore so its not like I can use your tips, but still, some information about if I made the right (or wrong) choices would be appreciated.

The important stuff:

MSI Z170A Tomahawk, S1151, Z170, 4xDDR4, ATX
Intel Core i7-6700K, 4Ghz, 8MB, S1151
Be Quiet! Shadow Rock 2
Crucial SSD BX100, 250GB, SATA3
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 6GB
2xCrucial 8GB(2x4GB) DDR4 2133MHz CL15
WD Black 3TB 7200rpm 64MB SATA3
Windows 10

Thanks in advance people! And I hope to join you all soon in pc-gaming!


Edit: Although I'm pretty in the loop on games (even on pc), if there is a good thread about (Steam)games, both big budget and indie, people can direct me to, that would be much appreciated!

Jelly

 

[Moz La Punk]

Thanks for the explanation all!

Well I can't change it right now anymore, so what I am planning to do is test this out for a year or so, and if the RAM proves a bottleneck, I might replace it next year.

It's an awesome build. It's not just Good enough, its top of the line for single GPU configurations. So yeah, have fun and enjoy.

Jelly

And this is also nice to hear, of course. Now to choose what the first game is I will play on it. I will buy Cities Skyline and can't wait for the two coaster-games coming this year =)

 

[Finaika]

MSI Z170A Tomahawk, S1151, Z170, 4xDDR4, ATX
Intel Core i7-6700K, 4Ghz, 8MB, S1151
Be Quiet! Shadow Rock 2
Crucial SSD BX100, 250GB, SATA3
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti, 6GB
2xCrucial 8GB(2x4GB) DDR4 2133MHz CL15
WD Black 3TB 7200rpm 64MB SATA3
Windows 10

Are those RAM 4 sticks of 4GB for a total of 16GB?

 

[Volotaire]

I have the exact HDD you are asking about, have been using it as a system + media store disk on my main machine and I can tell you that it is an excellent disk.

My anectodal experience is that my WD 1TB Blue HDD was slightly faster than this, but it's so much more silent and so much cooler (temperature-wise) that I don't mind the marginal difference at all.

It's a drive you can buy without a second thought.

Great to hear. I had a further look at the drives and they seem to be rebadged HGST drives, which are great too.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Moz La Punk]

Are those RAM 4 sticks of 4GB for a total of 16GB?

Correct. Was it better to do 2 sticks of 8 GB? Cause this was adviced so I went in blind thinking it was okay like this.

 

[Finaika]

Correct. Was it better to do 2 sticks of 8 GB? Cause this was adviced so I went in blind thinking it was okay like this.

Yeah, because Skylake supports dual channel, so 2x8GB sticks is preferable and frees up 2 slots for future RAM upgrades.

 

[Moz La Punk]

Ahh.

Man, when i get a new new game pc ill be sure to check with you guys from now on -_-

They're relatively small nuances but still!

 

[KooopaKid]

You chose the 6600K which is a Skylake CPU that uses the 1151 socket . Your chosen motherboard is one generation older and has a 1150 socket.

Either pick a Skylake motherboard (Z170 in this case) or swap the CPU for the i5 4690K. I didn't see what RAM you had chosen but DDR4 for Skylake, DDR3 for the motherboard you chose.

Oh ok thanks! Skylake is better than the i5 4690K (which isn't Skylake?) I suppose?

 

[Finaika]

Ahh.

Man, when i get a new new game pc ill be sure to check with you guys from now on -_-

They're relatively small nuances but still!

Its not that big of a deal actually, you won't get any performance decreases.

 

[Moz La Punk]

Its not that big of a deal actually, you won't get any performance decreases.

I understand, but for upgrading later on its gonna cost me extra. Oh well, live and learn.

 

[Blitzhex]

I understand, but for upgrading later on its gonna cost me extra. Oh well, live and learn.

Your DDR4 will be outdated before you ever need close to 16 gb for general use/gaming. I have to try really hard and open 20 chrome tabs while gaming to use up 9gb even.

 

[Moz La Punk]

And watching porn on the oculus while streaming soothing music through spotify, downloading some new porn and autoplaying a clickgame? Eh? EH? (J/k)

 

[komplanen]

Oh ok thanks! Skylake is better than the i5 4690K (which isn't Skylake?) I suppose?

Yes and no. I mean yes, it is better, but also to be completely honest it's not that big of a deal. No Intel generation these days manages to really surpass the previous one by anything but a few percentages here and there.

A Z97 motherboard with an i7 4790K is better than Z170 motherboard and i5 6600K, though.

it can get a little complicated but in reality just work with your budget.

 

[KooopaKid]

Yes and no. I mean yes, it is better, but also to be completely honest it's not that big of a deal. No Intel generation these days manages to really surpass the previous one by anything but a few percentages here and there.

A Z97 motherboard with an i7 4790K is better than Z170 motherboard and i5 6600K, though.

it can get a little complicated but in reality just work with your budget.

Ok thanks. Yeah I don't need the latest. I mean Wii U graphics impresses me already ^ ^

 

[benedictm]

Hi - I have never built a PC before but thought I'd have a go

Your Current Specs: Have an old pc from 2010, nothing reusable really except PSU and maybe case
Budget: £1100 / UK
Main Use: 3D Model Work (Zbrush, some Maya. ZBrush uses ram and CPU mainly)
Monitor Resolution: I have a monitor but 1440 x 1080, having the option to 4K wouldn't be a bad thing...

I've been trying to get my head around how to build a PC - my old one was built for me but I haven't used it for awhile and it's very faulty. The main question I have is the benefits of a 2011-V3 socket chip as opposed to a 1150/1151. I get its about channels to the PCI but will it make that big of a difference? I should probably go for 32 of Ram as well, right? Also there's no cooling in here - I don't really understand cooling as in what is compatible with what. Is liquid cooling the way to go or is that too OTT? I already have Windows 10 and a couple of 2TB drives for more storage.

Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor £303.99
ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard £169.16
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory £88.33
Samsung XP941 Series 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive £199.99
Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card £249.98
BitFenix Comrade ATX Mid Tower Case £28.43

Total: £1039.88



Thank you!

 

[PolishQ]

Your DDR4 will be outdated before you ever need close to 16 gb for general use/gaming. I have to try really hard and open 20 chrome tabs while gaming to use up 9gb even.

So is 8GB plenty, even for VR?

 

[Finaika]

Hi - I have never built a PC before but thought I'd have a go

Your Current Specs: Have an old pc from 2010, nothing reusable really except PSU and maybe case
Budget: £1100 / UK
Main Use: 3D Model Work (Zbrush, some Maya. ZBrush uses ram and CPU mainly)
Monitor Resolution: I have a monitor but 1440 x 1080, having the option to 4K would;t be a bad thing...

I've been trying to get my head around how to build a PC - my old one was built for me but I haven't used it for awhile and it's very faulty. The main question I have is the benefits of a 2011-V3 socket chip as opposed to a 1150/1151. I get its about channels to the PCI but will it make that big of a difference? I should probably go for 32 of Ram as well, right? Also there's no cooling in here - I don't really understand cooling as in what is compatible with what. Is liquid cooling the way to go or is that too OTT? I already have Windows 10.

Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor £303.99
ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard £169.16
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory £88.33
Samsung XP941 Series 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive £199.99
Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card £249.98
BitFenix Comrade ATX Mid Tower Case £28.43

Total: £1039.88



Thank you!

You should get 4 x 4GB RAM (or 4 x 8GB if you want 32GB) as the X99 supports quad channel RAM.

 

[Blitzhex]

So is 8GB plenty, even for VR?

You shouldn't get 8 right now. 16 is cheap and future proof. Person I was quoting was talking about upgrades beyond 16gb.
Don't know if 8 will be enough though, haven't seen any vr benchmarks.

 

[benedictm]

You should get 4 x 4GB RAM (or 4 x 8GB if you want 32GB) as the X99 supports quad channel RAM.

Yup, I was thinking that myself. 4 x 8gb it is.

 

[PolishQ]

You shouldn't get 8 right now. 16 is cheap and future proof. Person I was quoting was talking about upgrades beyond 16gb.
Don't know if 8 will be enough though, haven't seen any vr benchmarks.

Gotcha.

 

[Velinos]

Cross-post from the 120/144Hz Monitor thread.

I am considering finally replacing my old NEC 20WMGX2 since it has started having issues with IR. What would be a good replacement in the $500-600 range?

I really liked the colors and picture quality on the glossy IPS panel of the NEC. I mostly play RPGs and indie games. Not looking to go much larger than the 1680x1050 resolution that I currently am using (I doubt my Nvidia 670 could handle 4K). Is the Eizo Foris FG2421 what I should be looking at?

 

[RGM79]

Hi - I have never built a PC before but thought I'd have a go

Your Current Specs: Have an old pc from 2010, nothing reusable really except PSU and maybe case
Budget: £1100 / UK
Main Use: 3D Model Work (Zbrush, some Maya. ZBrush uses ram and CPU mainly)
Monitor Resolution: I have a monitor but 1440 x 1080, having the option to 4K wouldn't be a bad thing...

I've been trying to get my head around how to build a PC - my old one was built for me but I haven't used it for awhile and it's very faulty. The main question I have is the benefits of a 2011-V3 socket chip as opposed to a 1150/1151. I get its about channels to the PCI but will it make that big of a difference? I should probably go for 32 of Ram as well, right? Also there's no cooling in here - I don't really understand cooling as in what is compatible with what. Is liquid cooling the way to go or is that too OTT? I already have Windows 10 and a couple of 2TB drives for more storage.

Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor £303.99
ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard £169.16
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory £88.33
Samsung XP941 Series 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive £199.99
Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card £249.98
BitFenix Comrade ATX Mid Tower Case £28.43
Total: £1039.88

Thank you!

Going with X99 does mean you get more PCI-E lanes for more effective support for things like crossfire and SLI, as well as M.2 drives. That said, as long as there are enough lanes, extra lanes will just go unused. More lanes don't necessarily mean more performance, just less bottlenecking and support for more devices at once. Other than PCI-E lanes, X99 means hexa and octo core processors, while the cheaper Z97 and Z170 platforms have quad cores at best. That said, Z97 and Z170 offer somewhat similar but lesser performance for a lower cost.

Liquid cooling isn't required, but it's nice to have if you want to overclock. That said, air cooling is cheaper and will be sufficient for moderate overclocking as well.

I don't know what kind of requirements your 3D modelling work needs, but X99 motherboards tend to have 8 RAM slots. Even with 4x4GB for 16GB, you still have another 4 free slots for another 16 or 32GB of RAM as a future upgrade. And yes, you want 4x4GB for the quad channel mode support. I'd feel comfortable recommending you 4x4GB for now. ZBrush says 8GB minimum and 16GB recommended, while Maya is half that at 4GB minimum and 8GB recommended.

I'll hammer out a parts list for you from skinflint.co.uk.

 

[Ermac]

Hello Gaf, I've been out of the PC building game for awhile, built my first one in 2010 and haven't made any upgrades since aside from RAM.

Mu current rig

i7 870 @ 2.93
GTX460
12 gigs of RAM

I want to be able to play The Witcher 3 and Deus Ex Mankind Divided at highish settings. Would my best bet be upgrading my graphics card? Someone suggested to me that the GTX 950 would be the best bang for the buck in terms of improving performance without spending too much money.

Thoughts?

 

[jotun?]

I just stumbled upon this 210 CFM 64dBA case fan, and the reviews are amazing
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835706022

It is confirmed that they can drowned out the yelling your lady is doing because you are making so much noise.

It is louder than two vacuum cleaners running. It is amazing. When I go to sleep at night, I do not hear my neighbors partying. I do not hear the random girls partying with my roommates, walking in and out of my room to use my restroom.

I'd imagine it could break a child's fingers rather easily.

This fan could suck a weasel through a hypodermic needle.

I have 4 of these strapped to a remote controlled car, and boy do they make it hover.

 

[bomblord1]

What would you guys recommend for a mini ITX case? I was reading how incredibly difficult a Mini ITX can be to build inside and how they can severely restrict airflow so I was wondering if you had any experience with some good ones.

Hello Gaf, I've been out of the PC building game for awhile, built my first one in 2010 and haven't made any upgrades since aside from RAM.

Mu current rig

i7 870 @ 2.93
GTX460
12 gigs of RAM

I want to be able to play The Witcher 3 and Deus Ex Mankind Divided at highish settings. Would my best bet be upgrading my graphics card? Someone suggested to me that the GTX 950 would be the best bang for the buck in terms of improving performance without spending too much money.

Thoughts?

The first question here is how much are you WILLING to spend. Also that i7 is getting pretty long in the tooth not that it's bad per say.

 

[opticalmace]

Hello Gaf, I've been out of the PC building game for awhile, built my first one in 2010 and haven't made any upgrades since aside from RAM.

Mu current rig

i7 870 @ 2.93
GTX460
12 gigs of RAM

I want to be able to play The Witcher 3 and Deus Ex Mankind Divided at highish settings. Would my best bet be upgrading my graphics card? Someone suggested to me that the GTX 950 would be the best bang for the buck in terms of improving performance without spending too much money.

Thoughts?

What's your budget?

 

[benedictm]

Going with X99 does mean you get more PCI-E lanes for more effective support for things like crossfire and SLI, as well as M.2 drives. That said, as long as there are enough lanes, extra lanes will just go unused. More lanes don't necessarily mean more performance, just less bottlenecking and support for more devices at once. Other than PCI-E lanes, X99 means hexa and octo core processors, while the cheaper Z97 and Z170 platforms have quad cores at best. That said, Z97 and Z170 offer somewhat similar but lesser performance for a lower cost.

Liquid cooling isn't required, but it's nice to have if you want to overclock. That said, air cooling is cheaper and will be sufficient for moderate overclocking as well.

I don't know what kind of requirements your 3D modelling work needs, but X99 motherboards tend to have 8 RAM slots. Even with 4x4GB for 16GB, you still have another 4 free slots for another 16 or 32GB of RAM as a future upgrade. And yes, you want 4x4GB for the quad channel mode support. I'd feel comfortable recommending you 4x4GB for now. ZBrush says 8GB minimum and 16GB recommended, while Maya is half that at 4GB minimum and 8GB recommended.

I'll hammer out a parts list for you from skinflint.co.uk.

Thanks for explaining the lanes thing to me - as I say I am not going to be creating a rendering powerhouse but its always nice if its quick. My plan is to use one graphics card for now then see what comes out in Nvidia's next round of updates and gat another one then and SLI it. I'm right in saying you can SLI different models of graphics cards if they are SLI compatible, right?

With the cooling, noise is an issue for me. Is air cooling always noisy or can it be acceptable?

looking forward to see arts list and thanks again.

 

[Ermac]

What's your budget?

I'd say 200ish.

I was originally planning on building a brand new PC, but if I can get a solid upgrade in performance for that price, I can hold off on building a new right for a year or so.

 

[Osiris]

Hello Gaf, I've been out of the PC building game for awhile, built my first one in 2010 and haven't made any upgrades since aside from RAM.

Mu current rig

i7 870 @ 2.93
GTX460
12 gigs of RAM

I want to be able to play The Witcher 3 and Deus Ex Mankind Divided at highish settings. Would my best bet be upgrading my graphics card? Someone suggested to me that the GTX 950 would be the best bang for the buck in terms of improving performance without spending too much money.

Thoughts?

I think the 960 beats out the 950 for the "bang per buck" title.

 

[e90Mark]

What would you guys recommend for a mini ITX case? I was reading how incredibly difficult a Mini ITX can be to build inside and how they can severely restrict airflow so I was wondering if you had any experience with some good ones.

Probably something from BitFenix or Corsair would be your best bet.

 

[opticalmace]

I'd say 200ish.

I was originally planning on building a brand new PC, but if I can get a solid upgrade in performance for that price, I can hold off on building a new right for a year or so.

You're due for a new system, but if you want to hold off for now you would definitely see a good boost in performance with a 200$ upgrade. Someone can probably chime in with some suggestions.

 

[RGM79]

Hello Gaf, I've been out of the PC building game for awhile, built my first one in 2010 and haven't made any upgrades since aside from RAM.

Mu current rig

i7 870 @ 2.93
GTX460
12 gigs of RAM

I want to be able to play The Witcher 3 and Deus Ex Mankind Divided at highish settings. Would my best bet be upgrading my graphics card? Someone suggested to me that the GTX 950 would be the best bang for the buck in terms of improving performance without spending too much money.

Thoughts?

I'd say 200ish.

I was originally planning on building a brand new PC, but if I can get a solid upgrade in performance for that price, I can hold off on building a new right for a year or so.

Mankind Divided won't be out for at least half a year and we don't know what the recommended requirements for it will be. However, you can play TW3 on a GTX 950 and achieve console level quality and 30FPS. This Digital Foundry article says a GTX 750 Ti or R7 260X is sufficient to reach that level of performance and quality, and the GTX 950 is somewhat stronger than the GTX 750 Ti.

Anyway, for $200 USD you can get a 4GB variant of the GTX 960 or R9 380. What power supply do you have? The GTX 960 is more power efficient and won't consume that much wattage, but the R9 380 is slightly faster in general, I hear. This Powercolor R9 380 PCS+ model is a good deal at $165 after $20 rebate, and has good professional reviews and user ratings as far as I can find.

I just stumbled upon this 210 CFM 64dBA case fan, and the reviews are amazing
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835706022

Yeah, Delta fans sure are something else. There's a bit of a running joke (perhaps not) that if you touch a running Delta fan's blade with your finger, you're gonna have a bad time. I think in the past if you google image searched for "delta fan", bloody fingers would appear.

Thanks for explaining the lanes thing to me - as I say I am not going to be creating a rendering powerhouse but its always nice if its quick. My plan is to use one graphics card for now then see what comes out in Nvidia's next round of updates and gat another one then and SLI it. I'm right in saying you can SLI different models of graphics cards if they are SLI compatible, right?

With the cooling, noise is an issue for me. Is air cooling always noisy or can it be acceptable?

looking forward to see arts list and thanks again.

I see. For best SLI compatibility, you will want a second graphics card that is identical to the first one in brand and model, as current SLI and crossfire tech means both need to work together and be very well synchronized so it won't run into issues with stuttering. At the very least, both cards need to be the same class - e.g., pair a GTX 970 with another GTX 970. You could get different models from different manufacturers, but because they'll likely be running at slightly different speeds, that could lead to some issues if they're not set to the same speeds.

Air cooling is not always noisy. Noctua fans and CPU coolers come well recommended for low noise and silent PC builds.

 

[benedictm]

I see. For best SLI compatibility, you will want a second graphics card that is identical to the first one in brand and model, as current SLI and crossfire tech means both need to work together and be very well synchronized so it won't run into issues with stuttering. At the very least, both cards need to be the same class - e.g., pair a GTX 970 with another GTX 970. You could get different models from different manufacturers, but because they'll likely be running at slightly different speeds, that could lead to some issues if they're not set to the same speeds.

Air cooling is not always noisy. Noctua fans and CPU coolers come well recommended for low noise and silent PC builds.

Ah ok. I wonder if it's worth sticking with the 970 and then completely replacing whne we see what comes next or bumping it to a 980 and getting a second one of those down the line. No way of knowing which route would be best really!

 

[RGM79]

Ah ok. I wonder if it's worth sticking with the 970 and then completely replacing whne we see what comes next or bumping it to a 980 and getting a second one of those down the line. No way of knowing which route would be best really!

Can you tell me what case and power supply you already have and plan on reusing?

 

[ISee]

I'd say 200ish.

I was originally planning on building a brand new PC, but if I can get a solid upgrade in performance for that price, I can hold off on building a new right for a year or so.

XFX Radeon R9 380X for $220

The 380X is around 15-20% faster than a GTX 960 and it's hard to recommend something else in this price segment. But you will still run into CPU bottleneck situations in games like Witcher 3 (city areas), Just Cause 3 or GTA V though, so 60fps won't be doable in many situations.
But if ~200 is your current limit then go for the 380x as you'll definitely get more out of it then staying on your 460 and investing money into a new mobo and cpu.
That said, you should consider to upgrade your mobo and CPU too.

 

[openrob]

Hi guys I am attempting to do something kinda interesting and building a PC inside an OG Xbox! I have the console stripped already and am toying with parts that I need. A Mini ITX board and a dedicated GPU are what I would like. However fitting them in is the obvious problem. I have built PCs before, but something along these lines is new to me.

I have about 8cm X 22cm x 29cm to play with in the case

An m-ITX board is about 17cm2.
The GPU I would use is something like the 750Ti Mini. Which is also about 17cm long. It is too tall to fit vertically, so will need to be placed horizontally.

For the PSU space is obviously an issue. Therefore either an SFX PSU or a slim one like these

The problem as I have said, is space. Using the SFX Power Supply, the GPU would sit on top of the MoBo, but the problem then would be that there would be little, if any space for the heatsink/cooler. (GPU is 4cm thick).

Cooling is obviously an issue, but I would cross that bridge after I figure out how to get all these parts in the thing to start with. Any advice apprecciated

 

[benedictm]

Can you tell me what case and power supply you already have and plan on reusing?

I can't get at them right now - i know it's a Cooler Master but that doesn't help. If you want to either leave them out or to suggest a case and PSU if you're doing it now. i'll be able to tell you tomorrow.

On my way to see Hateful Eight