Probably, a bad cable? Maybe, bad sata port.
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"I Need a New PC!" 2015 Part 2. Read the OP. Rocking 2500K's until HBM2 and beyond.
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Probably, a bad cable? Maybe, bad sata port.
Hands of Stone
Member
That's annoying then. When I went back to using the old sata 2 cable it worked.
everything else seems fine, just wanted to check before I keep going.
also, after I install Windows, should I update the BIOS to the latest beta version or F5? http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5496&dl=1&RWD=0#bios
and install everything here? or would Windows update do that automatically? http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5496&dl=1&RWD=0#driver
So, at Christmas I did my first PC build and with the goal of converting an old office PC (Dell Optiplex 390 tower from 2013) into a decent living room gaming PC (so running @ 1920 x 1080) for cheap. Current specs/parts:
- Intel i5-2400 3.1GHz Quad-Core processor
- Micro ATX motherboard with weird Dell proprietary connections (don't know enough to describe it any further)
- 8GB DDR3-1600 memory
- 500GB hard drive
- 120GB SSD
- XFX Radeon R9 380X 4 GB video card
- Thermaltake Smart 650W Bronze ATX power supply
The computer is up and running and playing games pretty well at this resolution. However, I was thinking about what my next upgrade to it would be, and I've been told that the next thing I'd need would be a new motherboard/CPU. Any suggestions? I'm still pretty clueless about building PCs, so I'm kind of flying blind here. Thanks!
- Intel i5-2400 3.1GHz Quad-Core processor
- Micro ATX motherboard with weird Dell proprietary connections (don't know enough to describe it any further)
- 8GB DDR3-1600 memory
- 500GB hard drive
- 120GB SSD
- XFX Radeon R9 380X 4 GB video card
- Thermaltake Smart 650W Bronze ATX power supply
The computer is up and running and playing games pretty well at this resolution. However, I was thinking about what my next upgrade to it would be, and I've been told that the next thing I'd need would be a new motherboard/CPU. Any suggestions? I'm still pretty clueless about building PCs, so I'm kind of flying blind here. Thanks!
FLUXCapacitor
Member
Are there any $200 or under cards that would be a worthwhile upgrade from a GTX 760 Superclock that anyone would recommend?
7DollarHagane
Banned
Ive always bought nvidia but I'm really interested in the 390 over the 970..
I'm worried the 970 will be short on vram sooner but also worried that nvidia exclusivity deals will cause performance issues with the amd in the future.
My main reason for upgrading is to be able to play fallout 4, rottr, and battlefield 4/5 at 1080/60 so I think the 970 is the better choice.
I'm worried the 970 will be short on vram sooner but also worried that nvidia exclusivity deals will cause performance issues with the amd in the future.
My main reason for upgrading is to be able to play fallout 4, rottr, and battlefield 4/5 at 1080/60 so I think the 970 is the better choice.
Moving up to some of the newest Mobo's will also likely mean new RAM(DDR4 standard). DDR3 is not backwards compatible on the newer boards, so it is something to keep in mind.
Your processor very likely WILL still work just fine(it looks like your current i5 is an LG 1155 socket) , so you just have to make certain that whatever new mobo you go with has THAT socket support for the chip to fit. Amazon, Newegg, etc... will always display on their product pages which socket sizes the motherboards will fit, if you want to transfer it over when deciding on updated mobo options. But again, keep in mind whether that new board also supports DDR3 or if you need the new DDR4 standard.
Windows updates do not install bios updates however they are pretty painless you typically just load the file onto a flashdrive and run it from the bios menu. I typically don't recommend bios updates unless you need it. If you are on a skylake processor you probably need it to fix the prime number bug though.
Right, I know it wouldnt update the bios but I thought it would find hardware drivers like LAN and audio. I guess I can always do the windows updates and then check if it got the latest version or not
Skyfireblaze
Member
I read your post before your edit and I'm sorry, it somehow slipped my mind that the OP already had a lot of info covered (I read it before I posted here, I promise!).
I only understood about 30% of your post so I'm gonna read up a lot more on OCing before I'm even going to attempt doing this. Thanks though. Anyway my CPU temps are already at about 55C while idle so I think OCing isn't a very good idea before getting better cooling anyway
As someone who just overclocked his CPU for the first time it can be very intimidating but, assuming your Sandy Bridge CPU works the same as my Ivy Bridge CPU it's actually very easy, I'll break it down in steps.
1: Download and install both CPU-Z and Prime95
2: Start both programs and let Prime95 do a Blend Torture Test
3: CPU-Z will show the voltage usage of your CPU, let it do the test for 5 minutes and write the highest voltage value down
4: Now go into your BIOS/EFI and find a option called CPU Multiplier or similar which will likely be set to AUTO. Set this to Manual and it should show x34 since your CPU runs at 3.4ghz by default.
5: To overclock your CPU to 3.8ghz for example set it to x38.
6: Now go back into Windows and do the first three steps again, this time the voltage value should cap out higher than before, calculate the difference, e.g. 0.050 V
7: Go back into your BIOS/EFI and find a option called CPU Voltage/Vcore or similar and set it from AUTO to Offset.
8: Now you can change the offset in + and - x.xxx V steps. If the voltage difference was 0.050 V like in my example set the offset to -0.050 V, make sure you actually set it to a negative value not positive!
9: Now repeat the Prime95 test and let it run for 10 minutes. If it doesn't freeze you're good, if you PC does freeze, reboot and get into the BIOS/EFI again.
10: Shave 0.005 off of the Offset, so following my example again if -0.050 V crash, try -0.045 V now and repeat the test, if that also crashes try -0.040 V and so on. Do this till your PC doesn't crash and everything is fine
Someone correct me if it doesn't work like this for Sandy Bridge!
GamerKingFaiz
Member
I am going to be transferring my torrent server and mumble server off of my Raspberry Pi onto an Intel NUC that will be coming in today. I was wondering what operating system you guys would suggest for this type of machine. I was running Raspbian (a Debian variant) on the Raspberry Pi.
I'm leaning towards Windows 10 at the moment, as I feel proficient in Windows, whereas I feel just comfortable with Linux.
What do you guys suggest? Should I also potentially look into a specific server OS?
EDIT: I also plan on installing a Plex Media Server on the NUC (main reason for the upgrade!)
I'm leaning towards Windows 10 at the moment, as I feel proficient in Windows, whereas I feel just comfortable with Linux.
What do you guys suggest? Should I also potentially look into a specific server OS?
EDIT: I also plan on installing a Plex Media Server on the NUC (main reason for the upgrade!)
iamsirjoshua
Member
Hey guys/gals. Very much a computer newbie (I have seen the inside of my old PC a few times and helped a friend install a video card, but that's it) but I need a new PC for some school stuff and figured "why not make it a decent gaming PC while I'm at it"? So I did a quick Google Search and found this article regarding "best gaming desktop under $1000". Around $1000 is my budget, give or take a few hundred bucks.
The full article is at the end of the post, but here's the components.
Case – Corsair Carbide Series Black 300R Mid-Tower
Processor – Intel Core i7-4790K Quad-Core
Motherboard – MSI ATX Z97 DDR3 2400 LGA 1150
Video Card – Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 4GB
RAM – Crucial 8GB Single
Power Supply – EVGA SuperNOVA 750W B1 80+ BRONZE
Hard Drive – Seagate 1TB Desktop HDD SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache
CD Drive – Asus 24x DVD-RW
Total Cost: $1030.70
Now, this would require self-assembly, but it sounds like I'd be saving myself about $300-$500 from something pre-assembled. I'm a reasonably intelligent person who can follow instructions -- could I probably do this myself with some YouTube help?
And yeah, I know I'd still need a keyboard/mouse, and an operating system (I have a monitor), and that's fine, I could dish out the extra dough for that.
My basic question is -- Is this a good setup and price? And how likely is it that I could do this myself with no experience?
Thanks for your feedback, guys.
PS-- Here's the full article
http://pcbuildsonabudget.com/best-gaming-pc-build-for-under-1000-dollars
I'm pretty new to this thread (just built my first PC), so definitely don't take anything I say as gospel, but I can also speak from the recent experience of being totally new to this as well.
I just put together a very similar build (see about 2 pages back), and it was very simple. I just watched a few tutorials online and checked out a few message boards, including this thread, and had no problems. The feeling when I first powered it on was incredible and made it totally worth it (not to mention the money saved over buying pre-built).
My recommendations based on what I've read is that you can save some money by going with an i5 over an i7. Since gaming is so GPU-dependent, the benefit of an i7 over an i5 is almost negligible, unless you're also planning on doing some CPU-intensive tasks such as video editing. Also, if you don't plan on overclocking, you may not need one of "k" models. If you do want to overclock, then you will want the "k".
You may also want to get a bigger heatsink/fan for the CPU, especially if you're going to overclock. The EVO 212 Hyper cooling fan is only $20-30 and works great. You can also go for liquid/water cooling, but that might be overkill. I went with the fan and it's working just fine. Just make sure the bigger heatsink will fit into your case. I got the Corsair Carbide Spec-02 case and a Gigabyte MoBo and had no problems, you just want to make sure it's not going to sit directly over the RAM slots or anything.
You might want to take the money saved by switching to an i5 and invest it in an SSD to complement the HDD. I decided to save some money on other parts to fit an SSD into my budget, which was around $1,000 like yours, and I am so glad I did. It's lightning fast and honestly you'll probably see much better returns from that than the i7 relative to an i5.
You may also not need the 750W power supply depending on which parts you go with. I went with an 550W after pcpartpicker.com calculated my wattage at about 350W. You might also be able to save a few bucks there. I'd also recommend at least a semi-modular one. I went with a non-modular PSU (not even knowing the difference at the time), and now wish I went with one where I could add one extra SATA power cable because the way that SSDs and HDDS fit into my case make the one cable I have available for that just slightly too short for the 1 SSD and 2 HDDs that I'm trying to fit. A 3.5" to 2.5" HDD bay adapter is going to solve that problem for me for about $6, but it is something I will keep in mind for next time.
Hope that's helpful! Good luck, and when you're finished building don't hesitate to show off the finished product.
Update: I also remembered one additional thing. I went with 2 4GB sticks of RAM after reading that it's more efficient to run them in a dual channel configuration, rather than a single 8GB stick. I'd have to do some more research to figure out the full reasoning behind that, and it may not really matter at all (someone else here likely knows far better than me), but that may be something else to take a look at.
I'm pretty new to this thread (just built my first PC), so definitely don't take anything I say as gospel, but I can also speak from the recent experience of being totally new to this as well.
I just put together a very similar build (see a few posts up), and it was very simple. I just watched a few tutorials online and checked out a few message boards, including this thread, and had no problems. The feeling when I first powered it on was incredible and made it totally worth it (not to mention the money saved over buying pre-built).
My recommendations based on what I've read is that you can save some money by going with an i5 over an i7. Since gaming is so GPU-dependent, the benefit of an i7 over an i5 is almost negligible, unless you're also planning on doing some CPU-intensive tasks such as video editing. Also, if you don't plan on overclocking, you may not need one of "k" models. If you do want to overclock, then you will want the "k".
You may also want to get a bigger heatsink/fan for the CPU, especially if you're going to overclock. The EVO 212 Hyper cooling fan is only $20-30 and works great. You can also go for liquid/water cooling, but that might be overkill. I went with the fan and it's working just fine. Just make sure the bigger heatsink will fit into your case. I got the Corsair Carbide Spec-02 case and a Gigabyte MoBo and had no problems, you just want to make sure it's not going to sit directly over the RAM slots or anything.
You might want to take the money saved by switching to an i5 and invest it in an SSD to complement the HDD. I decided to save some money on other parts to fit an SSD into my budget, which was around $1,000 like yours, and I am so glad I did. It's lightning fast and honestly you'll probably see much better returns from that than the i7 relative to an i5.
You may also not need the 750W power supply depending on which parts you go with. I went with an 550W after pcpartpicker.com calculated my wattage at about 350W. You might also be able to save a few bucks there. I'd also recommend at least a semi-modular one. I went with a non-modular PSU (not even knowing the difference at the time), and now wish I went with one where I could add one extra SATA power cable because the way that SSDs and HDDS fit into my case make the one cable I have available for that just slightly too short for the 1 SSD and 2 HDDs that I'm trying to fit. A 3.5" to 2.5" HDD bay adapter is going to solve that problem for me for about $6, but it is something I will keep in mind for next time.
Hope that's helpful! Good luck, and when you're finished building don't hesitate to show off the finished product.
Update: I also remembered one additional thing. I went with 2 4GB sticks of RAM after reading that it's more efficient to run them in a dual channel configuration, rather than a single 8GB stick. I'd have to do some more research to figure out the full reasoning behind that, and it may not really matter at all (someone else here likely knows far better than me), but that may be something else to take a look at.
I've built my own PCs - 3 of them in the last 10 years. It really is about as simple as snapping LEGO's together and knowing how to use a screwdriver when it comes to the hardware. The only issues I've ever had..have come from the software end - drivers and getting things to play nice together and even then, it hasn't been too much of a headache.
Wrestlemania
Banned
I'm thinking of selling my Xbox One and putting into upgrading my PC to be a bit better specced for VR. I have a 970 and i7-3770. Questions:
If I'm upgrading my graphics card, should I be thinking of going for SLI at all or just looking at buying a new card?
Upgrading my processor is going to mean a new motherboard and maybe a new case. Is the i7-3770 enough of a bottleneck to make it worth changing?
If I'm upgrading my graphics card, should I be thinking of going for SLI at all or just looking at buying a new card?
Upgrading my processor is going to mean a new motherboard and maybe a new case. Is the i7-3770 enough of a bottleneck to make it worth changing?
I'm pretty new to this thread (just built my first PC), so definitely don't take anything I say as gospel, but I can also speak from the recent experience of being totally new to this as well.
I just put together a very similar build (see about 2 pages back), and it was very simple. I just watched a few tutorials online and checked out a few message boards, including this thread, and had no problems. The feeling when I first powered it on was incredible and made it totally worth it (not to mention the money saved over buying pre-built).
My recommendations based on what I've read is that you can save some money by going with an i5 over an i7. Since gaming is so GPU-dependent, the benefit of an i7 over an i5 is almost negligible, unless you're also planning on doing some CPU-intensive tasks such as video editing. Also, if you don't plan on overclocking, you may not need one of "k" models. If you do want to overclock, then you will want the "k".
You may also want to get a bigger heatsink/fan for the CPU, especially if you're going to overclock. The EVO 212 Hyper cooling fan is only $20-30 and works great. You can also go for liquid/water cooling, but that might be overkill. I went with the fan and it's working just fine. Just make sure the bigger heatsink will fit into your case. I got the Corsair Carbide Spec-02 case and a Gigabyte MoBo and had no problems, you just want to make sure it's not going to sit directly over the RAM slots or anything.
You might want to take the money saved by switching to an i5 and invest it in an SSD to complement the HDD. I decided to save some money on other parts to fit an SSD into my budget, which was around $1,000 like yours, and I am so glad I did. It's lightning fast and honestly you'll probably see much better returns from that than the i7 relative to an i5.
You may also not need the 750W power supply depending on which parts you go with. I went with an 550W after pcpartpicker.com calculated my wattage at about 350W. You might also be able to save a few bucks there. I'd also recommend at least a semi-modular one. I went with a non-modular PSU (not even knowing the difference at the time), and now wish I went with one where I could add one extra SATA power cable because the way that SSDs and HDDS fit into my case make the one cable I have available for that just slightly too short for the 1 SSD and 2 HDDs that I'm trying to fit. A 3.5" to 2.5" HDD bay adapter is going to solve that problem for me for about $6, but it is something I will keep in mind for next time.
Hope that's helpful! Good luck, and when you're finished building don't hesitate to show off the finished product.
Update: I also remembered one additional thing. I went with 2 4GB sticks of RAM after reading that it's more efficient to run them in a dual channel configuration, rather than a single 8GB stick. I'd have to do some more research to figure out the full reasoning behind that, and it may not really matter at all (someone else here likely knows far better than me), but that may be something else to take a look at.
You can take advantage of two channels full of data instead of just one - ie, better throughput.
purplesaurus
Neo Member
With VR coming up I will be needing a new graphics card. Currently I run a gtx 670, so it is time for a new one anyway. I have a Rift preordered that should be delivered in March. My hope had always been that AMD or nVidia would release their high end card this spring, and I would pony up for the top of the line card for once. Now it seems like it will probably be summer or fall before this happens, but who really knows. I am pretty sure it won't be March or we would have heard more.
To the point, I am thinking about just buying gtx 970 now, and then selling it to buy a new one in the next 6-9 months. I have never sold a graphics card, any idea what sort of price I could get back? What is the best way to sell a graphics card? Also any other suggestion. Would it be best just to wait it out and play some really low res VR for a few months, maybe turn the overclock on the 670 to 11?
To the point, I am thinking about just buying gtx 970 now, and then selling it to buy a new one in the next 6-9 months. I have never sold a graphics card, any idea what sort of price I could get back? What is the best way to sell a graphics card? Also any other suggestion. Would it be best just to wait it out and play some really low res VR for a few months, maybe turn the overclock on the 670 to 11?
Shadowhaxor
Member
Before you do any of that, have you ran the most recent 3dmark? It has the ability to tell you if your PC is VR ready and would recommend you try that.
For the price and the route of not worrying about the hassle of building your pc, the Alienware Alpha asm100-1580 is decent. You won't be able to upgrade your GPU and you'll have to lower most games to medium settings, but you're still getting a decent mid range PC
I would say if you can get the i5 version, then do it. The i3 version is a bit lacking but will get the job done if you just want to get your start with PC gaming.
If your mobo supports SLI it would be cheaper and have greater overall power from buying a second 970.
However a better single card is usually preferable when possible.
Sleeping Lesson
Member
You need to be more specific. Read the OP and post again.
Wrestlemania
Banned
Oh yeah, I'm fine on that front. Got about 9,800, so I'm pretty much ready. I just figured if I've got this money to spend, no harm in pushing it a bit further so I've got no issue with things like Elite Dangerous which might need a bit more grunt to run well.Before you do any of that, have you ran the most recent 3dmark? It has the ability to tell you if your PC is VR ready and would recommend you try that.
Can i get an opinion?
This board
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130880
Or this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128847
Either going to put a i5-6500K or an i7-6700 on it probably going to go with the K so I can bump up the clocks in the future.
This board
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130880
Z170I Mini-ITX Wifi and free 128GB SSD 189.99
Or this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128847
Z170N Mini-ITX Wifi 134.99
Either going to put a i5-6500K or an i7-6700 on it probably going to go with the K so I can bump up the clocks in the future.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128846
Fewer issues than the other Gigabyte, lower price than the MSI board.
And yeah, get the K processor, and overclocking it is something you should do pretty much right away. Interestingly enough, higher clock speeds will frequently benefit you more in *older* games than they do newer ones. Games that use 1-3 threads will generally have a CPU bottleneck in performance where you need high per-thread performance in order to achieve low and stable frame times.
Infinite Justice
Member
Ok haven't been here in sometime now
Thinking about getting a new PC and was wondering if i should go with Skylake or with Haswell.
Any card better than the 970 in regards to bang for buck or should i just say fuck it and get a 980? lol
Thinking about getting a new PC and was wondering if i should go with Skylake or with Haswell.
Any card better than the 970 in regards to bang for buck or should i just say fuck it and get a 980? lol
Skylake. 970 is a better value.
So, I have a PC that my brother helped me build with these specs:
If I want to upgrade it for some light gaming but mostly for photoshop and those types of applications, what would you guys suggest? Would it be easier to just build a new computer?
- Biostar AMD Motherboard A880G+
- Antec EA500 ATX 12V 500W Power Supply
- AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2 GHz 4x512 KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
- MEM 4Gx2|G.SKILL F3-10666CL9D-8GBN
- VGA XFX| HD-485X-ZNFC 1G RT
If I want to upgrade it for some light gaming but mostly for photoshop and those types of applications, what would you guys suggest? Would it be easier to just build a new computer?
Hmm alright thanks doesn't come with a free SSD though lol.
Yeah, but 128GB is not much space anyway. Certainly not worth possible stability issues.
Yeah, to do any meaningful upgrade you're going to have to start from scratch.
That MSI has stability issues?
For $200 or less, you can pick up a GTX 960 4GB or R9 380 4GB which is a small bump up from your GTX 760. Small as in I don't expect it to be much more than.. 10~20% faster, depending on the game?
It has some issues with early BIOS revisions, but other than that, no.
Spending an additional $25 to get a $40 super teeny SSD doesn't seem worth it though.
Darn, thats what I was thinking but thought I'd run it by you guys first. Is any of that stuff worth anything? How much should I be looking to spend for a new computer that's good at running Adobe programs and the like? Thanks for the help!
There's no truly wrong choice depending on what you value and are interested in, but for simple gaming performance the 390 is a faster card on average.
Nvidia deals can mean AMD suffers (eg), but just as often there is parity or even AMD favour in Gameworks titles (ex 1 or ex 2). And then you have the neutral games that naturally swing either way. Looking at indexes of average performance, the 390 is usually faster though:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/R9_390_Nitro/23.html
http://www.sweclockers.com/test/21303-amd-radeon-r9-380x/16#content
Fallout 4 has vastly changed from launch to favour AMD. For benchmark purposes, a 390 will always be faster than a 290, btw:
http://gamegpu.ru/images/remote/htt...allout_4_Beta_Patch_1.3-test-fall4_1920_s.jpg
The two cards trade blows in Battlefield 4:
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Sapphire/R9_390_Nitro/images/bf4_1920_1080.png
And Battlefront favours AMD at that level:
http://gamegpu.ru/images/remote/htt...on-STAR_WARS_Battlefront-test-new-sw_1920.jpg
One can only guess that BF5 will follow these games as it uses the same engine.
The extra VRAM cannot hurt the 390, even if it doesn't always hurt the 970. It's a good sign for longevity. If your chief concern is performance it is unlikely that the 970 will reverse things moving forward (indeed, today's 1440 may be a step closer to tomorrows 1080 in terms of GPU load, and the 390's lead only grows there).
Hey guys quick upgrade questions.
currently i have a 2500k @ 4.5ghz, 8gb of ram and a GTX 570. My question is if I get a mid range pascal nvidia gpu (i know they arent benched/released yet) how much will my cpu bottleneck the card? I'd like to get by another 2-3 years by just throwing in a mid to upper pascal GPU in my system. Thoughts?
EDIT: FYI I game at 1920x1200 resolution 60hz.
currently i have a 2500k @ 4.5ghz, 8gb of ram and a GTX 570. My question is if I get a mid range pascal nvidia gpu (i know they arent benched/released yet) how much will my cpu bottleneck the card? I'd like to get by another 2-3 years by just throwing in a mid to upper pascal GPU in my system. Thoughts?
EDIT: FYI I game at 1920x1200 resolution 60hz.
Not really, to be honest. The 960 and 380 are just a step above. If you could find a 380X for $200 then maybe, but it's still a relatively small upgrade and I'd still suggest extending your budget to accommodate a 390 or 970. Or you may be able to find a used 290 for $200. Otherwise you may need to just wait.
See the thread title. Next gen Polaris and Pascal will be fine on your CPU. Probably a quarter of the people here still have a 2500K.
Hands of Stone
Member
What's the best program to recover a Windows key?
The i5 2500K isn't too far behind the latest generation of Intel i5 processors, namely the Skylake i5 6600K. Scroll down to the game benchmarks at this link and you'll see the 2500K still puts up a strong showing. When overclocked, that only closes the gap between them. While recent triple-A games have started listing the i5 2500K as a "minimum" requirement, it's still quite capable of delivering 60FPS in most titles.
I use Produkey.
Sweet, thanks,
brandonh83
Banned
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YvBcWZ
Trying to get the price down a bit. I'm hoping to spend right at a thousand or less. I don't know a whole lot about this stuff, just the typical buzzwords and such lol. I would at least like to be able to run stuff like Witcher 3 and Rise of the Tomb Raider at 1080p/60 but I'm not sure if this would qualify. I know absolutely nothing about motherboards, coolers, etc. so I'm sure my choices can be much better. I was initially wanting to go for home theater form factor so if I can do a similar build with a smaller case I'm also open to suggestions on that.
Thanks for any and all help
Trying to get the price down a bit. I'm hoping to spend right at a thousand or less. I don't know a whole lot about this stuff, just the typical buzzwords and such lol. I would at least like to be able to run stuff like Witcher 3 and Rise of the Tomb Raider at 1080p/60 but I'm not sure if this would qualify. I know absolutely nothing about motherboards, coolers, etc. so I'm sure my choices can be much better. I was initially wanting to go for home theater form factor so if I can do a similar build with a smaller case I'm also open to suggestions on that.
Thanks for any and all help
TheDangerMan
Member
Hey guys, looking for some upgrade advice - current rig:
i5 4670k
MSI Z97 Gaming Motherboard
16gig RAM
GTX 770 4GB
BitFenix Shinobi Window Case
I think 750W PS but am on the road for business atm browsing computer upgrades to kill time and can't remember for certain or check
It's been a couple years since I built it now and I'm starting to look at upgrading. The GPU is the first thing apparent to me but if there's anything else you think is worth the upgrade at this point let me know
I'm not in a huge rush, but it's starting to show its age, and I've been considering either grabbing another 770 to SLI with (4gb models are a bit hard to come by, seems like I'll be out around $350-400 CAD for a used card to pair it with) or wondering if I'd be better off selling the card and upgrading to something new.
Should I go the SLI route? Am I better off grabbing something along the lines of a 970, maybe even a 980? Or is there a new generation of cards on the imminent horizon that's worth holding on for?
Budget isn't a huge object other than the fact I am cheap by nature and hate spending, so really it's just about what the best bang for the buck is. I'm not looking to go super high end. Half the time I'm outputting to an Asus VG248QE, other half my TV.
Thanks for any advice
i5 4670k
MSI Z97 Gaming Motherboard
16gig RAM
GTX 770 4GB
BitFenix Shinobi Window Case
I think 750W PS but am on the road for business atm browsing computer upgrades to kill time and can't remember for certain or check
It's been a couple years since I built it now and I'm starting to look at upgrading. The GPU is the first thing apparent to me but if there's anything else you think is worth the upgrade at this point let me know
I'm not in a huge rush, but it's starting to show its age, and I've been considering either grabbing another 770 to SLI with (4gb models are a bit hard to come by, seems like I'll be out around $350-400 CAD for a used card to pair it with) or wondering if I'd be better off selling the card and upgrading to something new.
Should I go the SLI route? Am I better off grabbing something along the lines of a 970, maybe even a 980? Or is there a new generation of cards on the imminent horizon that's worth holding on for?
Budget isn't a huge object other than the fact I am cheap by nature and hate spending, so really it's just about what the best bang for the buck is. I'm not looking to go super high end. Half the time I'm outputting to an Asus VG248QE, other half my TV.
Thanks for any advice
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YvBcWZ
Trying to get the price down a bit. I'm hoping to spend right at a thousand or less. I don't know a whole lot about this stuff, just the typical buzzwords and such lol. I would at least like to be able to run stuff like Witcher 3 and Rise of the Tomb Raider at 1080p/60 but I'm not sure if this would qualify. I know absolutely nothing about motherboards, coolers, etc. so I'm sure my choices can be much better. I was initially wanting to go for home theater form factor so if I can do a similar build with a smaller case I'm also open to suggestions on that.
Thanks for any and all help
How does this look?
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($249.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2800 Memory ($46.97 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card ($309.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Cooler Master 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($55.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($87.95 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1035.63
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-11 15:15 EST-0500
What graphics card are you looking at?
I wouldn't advise getting a second GTX 770. If you can sell your current GTX 770, that would help soften the blow and you could upgrade to a new GTX 970 or wait for the Pascal equivalent which are apparently launching sometime this year. Going from your GTX 770 to a GTX 970 would yield a fairly strong boost in gaming performance.
brandonh83
Banned
First off, thank you. Yeah, price is definitely a bit closer to preference. I'll keep this one but see if anyone else chimes in before pulling any triggers. I do like the case. Just want something very minimalist on the outside when it comes to cases and that looks like it could be nice.
RGM is pretty much the build master here, lol. You'll most likely end up buying what he puts together.
Fractal is pretty much the de facto for minimalist designs.
brandonh83
Banned
Yep, already have most of that stuff in several website carts. Just fine combing the pricing and other details. Should be a pretty good build. Trying to lasso everything from Amazon, aside from the case which they don't seem to have.
edit: just to be sure, since I'm not ordering a disc drive, I'd need to order Windows 10 on a USB?
Hands of Stone
Member
Thanks. Guess I gotta reinstall windows.
If you can't set up a USB install of W10 anywhere else, then yeah. Or maybe get an external disc drive?
brandonh83
Banned
Gotcha. Probably just do USB, but then again drives aren't that expensive.
Holy crap, I could actually understand all of this. Thank you so much!As someone who just overclocked his CPU for the first time it can be very intimidating but, assuming your Sandy Bridge CPU works the same as my Ivy Bridge CPU it's actually very easy, I'll break it down in steps.
1: Download and install both CPU-Z and Prime95
2: Start both programs and let Prime95 do a Blend Torture Test
3: CPU-Z will show the voltage usage of your CPU, let it do the test for 5 minutes and write the highest voltage value down
4: Now go into your BIOS/EFI and find a option called CPU Multiplier or similar which will likely be set to AUTO. Set this to Manual and it should show x34 since your CPU runs at 3.4ghz by default.
5: To overclock your CPU to 3.8ghz for example set it to x38.
6: Now go back into Windows and do the first three steps again, this time the voltage value should cap out higher than before, calculate the difference, e.g. 0.050 V
7: Go back into your BIOS/EFI and find a option called CPU Voltage/Vcore or similar and set it from AUTO to Offset.
8: Now you can change the offset in + and - x.xxx V steps. If the voltage difference was 0.050 V like in my example set the offset to -0.050 V, make sure you actually set it to a negative value not positive!
9: Now repeat the Prime95 test and let it run for 10 minutes. If it doesn't freeze you're good, if you PC does freeze, reboot and get into the BIOS/EFI again.
10: Shave 0.005 off of the Offset, so following my example again if -0.050 V crash, try -0.045 V now and repeat the test, if that also crashes try -0.040 V and so on. Do this till your PC doesn't crash and everything is fine
Someone correct me if it doesn't work like this for Sandy Bridge!
If anyone could chime in and confirm that this would work with my CPU, that would be great.
I just loaded up Dragon's Dogma to check my CPU temps and Core Temp says the max temp was 85C o_o. That's... not really good. I'm guessing I'll have to do something about that before I even think about overclocking my CPU :/.
- Status