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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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N

Nostremitus

Member
AkumaNiko said:
I just sold my MSI gaming laptop and build this:

Intel i5-6500 3.2ghz
Gigabyte H110M Mobo
Ballistix Sport 2x4gb ddr4
MSI R9 390 8gb
Sandisk 120gb SSD
500gb HDD
Corsair GS700 - 700W PSU
NZXT S340 Case


$690 After Tax
Click to expand...

Great build for the price. There are people who've spent much more on less performance.
 
C

catabarez

Member
Looks like I got my Riing fans today. The RGB is pretty cool and it pushes a decent amount of air. I may get a few more of these when I get some RGB LED strips for my case.
 
D

DjRalford

Member
Well my Nano turned up today, 10 minute before i had to leave for work.

CZcxDcs.jpg
 
ISee

ISee

Member
AkumaNiko said:
how can i improve it? is it the video card or the cpu?
Click to expand...

You can always improve a build by going for a 'better' GPU or CPU. But in your case it's not really necessary. It's a good build.

-A z170 mainboard and the 6600k aren't going to do you any favor if you aren't going to overclock anyway. Of course going for a mobo+cpu combo that allows for overclocking will most probably improve the longevity of your build if you want to upgrade the 390 in one or two years from now.

-Going for a better GPU would allow for higher settings or resolutions above 1080p. Still the 390 is capable of delivering 1080p/60 in games if you're willing to turn down some settings (not by much, currently), like 95% of people who aren't on a 980Ti, A Fury X or on a SLI/Crossfire systems.

-8 gb of ram are still sort of okay, but more and more games seem to perform better or need 16gb of ram. Upgrading here would make sense and is the only thing I'd recommend doing.

-Also faster ram (above the 'standart' 2133mhz ddr4 clockspeed) seems to scale pretty good with current skylake CPUs and to improve performance in cpu heavy gaming situations so that's something you might want to consider IF you go for a different mainboard as your Gigabyte mainboard only supports 2133mhz clock speeds (according to the specifications on gigabytes website).
 
A

AkumaNiko

Member
ISee said:
You can always improve a build by going for a 'better' GPU or CPU. But in your case it's not really necessary. It's a good build.

-A z170 mainboard and the 6600k aren't going to do you any favor if you aren't going to overclock anyway. Of course going for a mobo+cpu combo that allows for overclocking will most probably improve the longevity of your build if you want to upgrade the 390 in one or two years from now.

-Going for a better GPU would allow for higher settings or resolutions above 1080p. Still the 390 is capable of delivering 1080p/60 in games if you're willing to turn down some settings (not by much, currently), like 95% of people who aren't on a 980Ti, A Fury X or on a SLI/Crossfire systems.

-8 gb of ram are still sort of okay, but more and more games seem to perform better or need 16gb of ram. Upgrading here would make sense and is the only thing I'd recommend doing.

-Also faster ram (above the 'standart' 2133mhz ddr4 clockspeed) seems to scale pretty good with current skylake CPUs and to improve performance in cpu heavy gaming situations so that's something you might want to consider IF you go for a different mainboard as your Gigabyte mainboard only supports 2133mhz clock speeds (according to the specifications on gigabytes website).
Click to expand...

thanks for the tips! The 8gb is 2400mhz, but i was thinking about going to 16gb. I probably should have since its only really 20 bucks more
 
ethomaz

ethomaz

Banned
Update...

All parts delivered to my home with exception of CPU... dammit things I don't need to make the build works are here while the CPU will deliver tomorrow.

With nothing to do and opening all boxes lol I mounted all the parts... case, PMU, mobo, mem, SSD, etc are all installed and ready to work.

Please CPU come to me... I need you to test my build.

PS. GA-Z170x-Gaming 5 mobo is so beautiful and G.Skill red mem fits perfectly.
 
Celcius

Celcius

°Temp. member
FINALLY ordered a 4k monitor after using my current 1080p 60 hz monitor for the past 7 years. Made a new friend at work today and when I walked to their cubicle they had the exact 4k monitor that I'd been wanting. After seeing it in person I go home, hop online, and see it on sale again. Bought!
 
W

Wowfunhappy

Member
Posted this in B/S/T a while ago, but if anyone in the US is interested in trading an R9 390 for a GTX 970, shoot me a PM. A lot of the games I want to play in the near future (particularly Mirror's Edge) are heavily AMD optimized.
 
appaws

appaws

Banned
I know the guy above was not asking for a cloth mousepad, so I am not responding to that...

I got my Corsair long mouse pad MM300 a few days ago. Super nice. I never thought I could be this impressed with a mouse pad.
 
S

scogoth

Member
Guys, I got lazy. I was going to take some pics and make a mini build log. Instead I took one at the beginning and that was it. I'll take one of it finished tomorrow.

Specs:
Mobo - ASUS P6X58D Premium
CPU - Core i7 930 - back to stock after years of 4.0Ghz =(
RAM - 2x8GB - 2 sticks in a triple channel motherboard cause I'm a rebel
PSU - EVGA SuperNova 650P2 PSU
HDD - 5x WD Red 3TB + 4x WD Re4 1TB
SSD - 1x OCZ Vertex 3
Case - Norco 4U Short Depth Rack Mount
No GPU

Going to grab an Intel X540-T2 and load up a bunch of VMs starting with pfsense and a ZFS NAS. Best part about this build is I didn't have to spend a month sleeving cables.
 
A

Armadilo

Banned
Does anybody know about streaming videogames ? how much would a "good enough" setup cost and be ? console streaming, I have a console capture card. nothing fancy but works. can anybody help me plz?
 
N

Niks

Member
Hopefully someone can shed some light on this..

Long story short, bought a faulty PSU from corsair, they gave me a gift card to use on their web store.
Im looking on buying 16GB RAM from them, and to my surprise I find the 2400MHz memory is cheaper than the 1866MHz version.

Anyone knows why is this?
Also the corsair web store is a rip off
 
A

AmyS

Member
Intel Broadwell-E Core i7-6950X vs Core i7-5960X Benchmark Results Leaked – Overclocked Performance at 4.5 GHz Detailed

The first benchmarks results of Intel’s flagship Core i7-6950X Broadwell-E processor have been unveiled. The performance results of Intel’s top, high-end desktop chip provide us a detailed look at how the chip performs with stock and overclocked configurations.
Click to expand...

The Intel Core i7-6950X is the top gun of the Broadwell-E family which is launching at Computex 2016. Intel is going one step ahead with this SKU, offering consumers 10 cores and 20 threads. The chip was tested against the last flagship offering from Intel, the Core i7-5960X (Haswell-E) which is a 8 core, 16 thread chip. The CPUs based on Broadwell utilize the modern 14nm process node while the Haswell CPUs utilize the 22nm process node.
Click to expand...

Intel Core i7-6950X and Core i7-5960X Processor Specifications Comparison:
While the Core i7-6850K and Core i7-5820K comparison was technically justified, the Core i7-6950X to Core i7-5960X comparison is kind of not the same as both processors feature different specs and different price range. The Core i7-6950X is Intel’s latest processor with 10 cores and 20 threads. The processor will run at a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a 3.50 GHz boost clock. The processor will come in an unlocked package to allow overclocking support to enthusiasts. The processor rocks 25 MB of L3 cache (2.5 MB per core) and will be compatible with current generation X99 motherboards that feature the LGA 2011-v3 socket.


The Intel Core i7-5960X is based on the older Haswell architecture and features 8 cores with 16 threads. The chip is clocked at 3.00 GHz base and 3.50 GHz boost clocks which are identical to the Core i7-6950X but the difference is within the core count with Broadwell-E featuring an extra two cores. The Core i7-5960X also has total of 20 MB L3 cache but does feature the same 140W package as the Core i7-5960X. Since there isn’t any deca core processor available on the market, Intel is rumored to bump the price of their Broadwell chip up to 1500 USD which is 500 bucks more compared to the Haswell-E chip.
Click to expand...

The performance results show us a good increase in performance. A clock-to-clock comparison of 4.00 GHz on both chips yields scores of 1904 (Multi-Threading) and 151 (Single Threaded) on the Core i7-6950X while the Core i7-5960X should score 1592 (Multi-Threading) and 160 (Single Threaded) points. In XTU Benchmark, the 6950X scores 2354 marks against the 2001 marks of the 5960X. The Aida64 numbers show an across the board leverage in memory transfer rates. The tester used 16 GB of DDR4 memory clocked at 3.2 GHz.
Click to expand...

We also have overclocked numbers for the chip where the 6950X score 2299 points in Cinebench R15 multi-threading test at 4.37 GHz and 2327 points at 4.5 GHz. The tester reports that he managed to get a stable OC around 4.3-4.4 GHz which is pretty impressive given that this is still an engineering sample.
Click to expand...

Full article and all the slides, here:
http://wccftech.com/intel-core-i7-6950x-vs-core-i7-5960x-benchmark-results/
 
D

dude

dude
So, random question - How often should I clean my PC? I bought mine pretty recently but I want to take good care of it.
 
M

Maddox

Member
Okay so i am about to order this? I haven't put together a PC in a fair while so i am a bit out of the loop.


CPU: Intel Core Skylake Processor i5-6500/3.2 GHz
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI Intel Skylake ATX Motherboard
Memory: HyperX FURY Black Series 8 GB 2133 MHz DDR4
Storage: Crucial BX100 120GB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive
Storage: Seagate ST1000DM003 3.5 inch 1TB Barracuda Hard Drive
Video Card: MSI NVIDIA GTX 970 Gaming Twin Frozr
Case: NZXT CA-S340W-B1 Source 340 Midi-Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA 600 W 80+ PC Power Supply Unit

Total: £750

Can anyone see any glaring faults that i have made?
 
L

LordAlu

Member
Maddox said:
Okay so i am about to order this? I haven't put together a PC in a fair while so i am a bit out of the loop.


CPU: Intel Core Skylake Processor i5-6500/3.2 GHz
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI Intel Skylake ATX Motherboard
Memory: HyperX FURY Black Series 8 GB 2133 MHz DDR4
Storage: Crucial BX100 120GB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive
Storage: Seagate ST1000DM003 3.5 inch 1TB Barracuda Hard Drive
Video Card: MSI NVIDIA GTX 970 Gaming Twin Frozr
Case: NZXT CA-S340W-B1 Source 340 Midi-Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA 600 W 80+ PC Power Supply Unit

Total: £750

Can anyone see any glaring faults that i have made?
Click to expand...
It's not bad, but there are areas you could change. For example, you don't need a Z170 motherboard with a non-K processor (nor do you need the cooler, which actually barely fits in that case). With the saving on the board cooler, you could then get more RAM, a better SSD and improved PSU.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£168.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£59.99 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£49.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Samsung 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£44.62 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.95 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC ACX 2.0 Video Card (£268.31 @ Ebuyer)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£54.52 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£66.98 @ Novatech)
Total: £753.35
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-05 14:24 BST+0100

I would also recommend NOT buying a graphics card right now - there's a NVIDIA event tomorrow evening where it's widely expected they'll announce their new cards.
 
OkayRene

OkayRene

Member
If I hypothetically had a 970 GTX card would a WQHD (1440p) monitor push it outside it's comfort zone for gaming? Or should I stick to a 1080p monitor for that class of GPU?
 
S

Slathe

Member
I picked up this computer about four years ago:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0084C368O/?tag=neogaf0e-20

It's got the following specs:

3.4 GHz Core i7-3770
8 gigs DDR3 sdram
1024 GB SATA 3 7200 rpm
RADEON HD6850

I mostly use it for gaming, though a lot of that isn't graphically intense (mobas, hearthstone). I feel like I'm starting to feel the strain on newer games. Overwatch runs fine, Battleborn stutters on some maps, and single player games have been a mixed bag. I suspect I'd have trouble with Dark Souls 3, for example.

I'm trying to decide if I can salvage a few more months or years with some cheaper upgrades, probably a better gpu primarily, or if I should just get a new rig entirely, but I've not looked at hardware in years. Any thoughts from the more well informed here would be appreciated.
 
L

LordAlu

Member
Slathe said:
I picked up this computer about four years ago:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0084C368O/?tag=neogaf0e-20

It's got the following specs:

3.4 GHz Core i7-3770
8 gigs DDR3 sdram
1024 GB SATA 3 7200 rpm
RADEON HD6850

I mostly use it for gaming, though a lot of that isn't graphically intense (mobas, hearthstone). I feel like I'm starting to feel the strain on newer games. Overwatch runs fine, Battleborn stutters on some maps, and single player games have been a mixed bag. I suspect I'd have trouble with Dark Souls 3, for example.

I'm trying to decide if I can salvage a few more months or years with some cheaper upgrades, probably a better gpu primarily, or if I should just get a new rig entirely, but I've not looked at hardware in years. Any thoughts from the more well informed here would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Your processor is perfectly fine, and 8GB RAM is decent enough too. I'd look at updating your graphics card - something around GTX 970 level would be a big jump - although I'd wait a little bit as NVIDIA are expected to announce new cards tomorrow and no doubt AMD won't be far behind.

I'd also look into an SSD if you don't have one - they make a world of difference to the overall performance of your system.
 
S

Slathe

Member
Great, thanks. That's kind of what I expected. I'll keep an eye out for new info on graphics cards then and see if there are some price drops.

Is it tough to transfer old data to an ssd? I'm not using one now and I've not done it before. Oh also I'm still on Windows 7, but the free update is available. Is it better to go to 10 at this point?
 
J

Jackpot

Banned
I have a question about monitor cables.

Both my PC and my console connect to my monitor via me manually pulling out and plugging in their respective VGA cables. I want to get a dual female VGA to single male VGA cable so I don't have to do it anymore. Used to be in the olden days you needed a cable with a selector switch on it to choose which input you wanted on the TV. However I can't find any VGA splitters that have a switch. I have a Flatron L1715S monitor. Can I choose which VGA input to display using its menu buttons or do I need a switch on the splitter?
 
S

scogoth

Member
Jackpot said:
I have a question about monitor cables.

Both my PC and my console connect to my monitor via me manually pulling out and plugging in their respective VGA cables. I want to get a dual female VGA to single male VGA cable so I don't have to do it anymore. Used to be in the olden days you needed a cable with a selector switch on it to choose which input you wanted on the TV. However I can't find any VGA splitters that have a switch. I have a Flatron L1715S monitor. Can I choose which VGA input to display using its menu buttons or do I need a switch on the splitter?
Click to expand...

Does your monitor have multiple inputs? If so then you can hook up your PC and console to different inputs and use the monitor to switch them.

Tried looking up your monitor and couldn't find too much information on it. It looked like one VGA input in which case you would need a VGA switch. It would be cheaper and better to just buy new monitor with multiple inputs. I have to ask what console you have hooked up with VGA? That's a rather odd setup for most people.
 
J

Jackpot

Banned
scogoth said:
Does your monitor have multiple inputs? If so then you can hook up your PC and console to different inputs and use the monitor to switch them.

Tried looking up your monitor and couldn't find too much information on it. It looked like one VGA input in which case you would need a VGA switch. It would be cheaper and better to just buy new monitor with multiple inputs. I have to ask what console you have hooked up with VGA? That's a rather odd setup for most people.
Click to expand...

X360. Have a RCA to VGA & headphone jack cable so I can play it in the same space as my PC instead of needing a TV.

Probably do need a new monitor.
 
L

LordAlu

Member
Slathe said:
Great, thanks. That's kind of what I expected. I'll keep an eye out for new info on graphics cards then and see if there are some price drops.

Is it tough to transfer old data to an ssd? I'm not using one now and I've not done it before. Oh also I'm still on Windows 7, but the free update is available. Is it better to go to 10 at this point?
Click to expand...
Cloning an SSD isn't too bad nowadays, for example Samsung EVO SSDs come with cloning software. However i'd usually recommend backing up your stuff and doing a clean install.

With Windows 10 it's entirely up to you. I personally have had no problems with it, and would recommend people go with it when they buy a new OS. There are also those who swear never to go near it. It does however have the latest in updates and driver support, as well as being the only version of Windows that supports DirectX 12.

You can still upgrade for free until July I think, and you can rollback to Windows 7 within the first month if you don't like it.

Onemic said:
This will probably cost like $1500
Click to expand...
Higher methinks.
 
S

scogoth

Member
Jackpot said:
X360. Have a RCA to VGA & headphone jack cable so I can play it in the same space as my PC instead of needing a TV.

Probably do need a new monitor.
Click to expand...

Yeah a VGA switch will set you back $40-60. Better just to put that towards a new monitor. Even if it's something on the cheaper end ~$100-140 will be worlds better than the one you have.
 
Q

Quonny

Member
Just bought a 1440p monitor in preparation for Pascal. Probably gonna be doing a pretty big upgrade soon.

My 2500k probably needs to be upgraded, and I only have 8GB RAM. I'm probably going to wait a bit on the CPU (I'm trying to buy one major upgrade a month), is there anything I need to know? Like any new technology to look out for? Or deals at a certain time of year?
 
W

wowzors

Member
Currently have a decent pc 2500k @ 4.5, 970, 8gb ram and some ssd's. I want to upgrade to a socket 1151 6700k or something but I was wondering if I would need a new copy of windows 10 to go with everything? I really hate buying windows over and over again when I already have it.
 
O

opticalmace

Member
wowzors said:
Currently have a decent pc 2500k @ 4.5, 970, 8gb ram and some ssd's. I want to upgrade to a socket 1151 6700k or something but I was wondering if I would need a new copy of windows 10 to go with everything? I really hate buying windows over and over again when I already have it.
Click to expand...
I did the same upgrade (2500k to 6700k) and my Windows 10 activated fine with the old Win8 key.
 
D

DjRalford

Member
Gaf, I'm an idiot

I have had, a not so good 24hrs, it took me 4 hours this morning of clearing and installing the display driver to get my nano fully installed, every time I went to additional settings I was getting an error.

All sorted now, however


I ordered myself a DisplayPort to hdmi 2.0 cable for my new 4K tv so I can run my PC at 4K 60hz, but when I unpacked the adaptor I've bought a DisplayPort mini to hdmi, see I said I was an idiot, totally my fault and I've taken it out the packet so returning is not an option.

Am I able to use a 4K capable DisplayPort mini to DisplayPort adaptor and go, DisplayPort, to Mini DisplayPort, to hdmi 2.0?

Will running through adaptor - adaptor - hdmi be likely to cause any image clarity loss?
 
Elitist1945

Elitist1945

Member
So theres a faint noise coming from my GPU every so often and I'm not sure whats causing it and if its bad. The card is level, and I didn't notice any problems with the fan plastic (i.e., possibilities of it hitting stuff) so I'm not sure whats goin' wrong here.
 
T

TheExodu5

Banned
Anyone else have a recent Asus board? Can you set fans to a fixed RPM? I'm seeing profiles but I want to start overclocking and I'd rather not have to deal with aggressive fan curves. I'll find the best clock settings I can with my fans running as quiet as possible.
 
N

NOKYARD

Member
DjRalford said:
Am I able to use a 4K capable DisplayPort mini to DisplayPort adaptor and go, DisplayPort, to Mini DisplayPort, to hdmi 2.0?

Will running through adaptor - adaptor - hdmi be likely to cause any image clarity loss?
Click to expand...

We went through this a few weeks ago. You can use an active adapter but there is a bit of lag with those devices so it's no good for gaming.

[edit] Be careful when purchasing an adapter, many claim HDMI 2.0 but only support HDMI 1.4 bandwidth.
 
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