Crossfire like SLI is not widely supported and causes many instabilities, I would not recommend it.
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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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Crossfire like SLI is not widely supported and causes many instabilities, I would not recommend it.
Nostremitus
Member
In games that it works on you'll get a bump, but not really worth it. Too many games don't support it, and too many of the ones that do have issues. It would be better to spend a little more and buy a better single GPU.
How much are you willing to spend?
Sorry, I thought you were open to different motherboards, I didn't think you would be so set on the ASRock, since you said you were on a budget.
Likely very little. Motherboards barely contribute to framerate performance, they don't really represent that kind of a bottleneck. The Maximus VII would maybe allow for higher overclocking, but that's also dependant on other factors like how high of an overclock you want, how capable your CPU is, and what sort of CPU cooling you had.
It could be said that available PCI-E lanes and SLI may be a bottleneck.. but I doubt that will be much of an issue for your setup. Still, buying the Asus motherboard wouldn't change anything, you'd need to look for a motherboard with a PLX chip for more PCI-E lanes or move up to an X99 based computer if SLI becomes bottlenecked by the number of available PCI-E lanes (if you're not running anything else taking up PCI-E lanes like M.2 or some expansion cards.. which you probably won't be).
You would be far better off getting a single stronger graphics card rather than buying another midrange card that can only give you higher performance in only the games supporting crossfire. Plus, supporting a second graphics card is harder on a power supply. What power supply do you have, or can you tell us the wattage?
TomcatTheLion
Member
Been waiting on the Phanteks Evolv ATX for a while now but finding it in stock is nigh impossible.
Thinking of just going with the Define R5 or the H440 so I can finally start building.
Thinking of just going with the Define R5 or the H440 so I can finally start building.
ChackanKun
Member
Hummm, about 150? :\ Not much I know!
Nostremitus
Member
Nothing worth upgrading to at that price. Save your money and buy something better when you can. Or look for really good used deals.
Oh, I'm open and after seeing some reviews I'm thinking of going with your recommendation. I was just taken aback after opening the link and seeing a different mobo, thinking you had found the same setup for cheaper.
GalacticAE
Member
I just built my system and it seems stable so far with some regular use. No games yet. I installed CPU-Z and I noticed my i5 4690k clock speeds and core voltage fluctuate but usually rest when idle. Is this normal?
Perfectly. Your cpu will downclock when just doing anything 2d related and will boost above the regular clock speeds (known as turbo) when pushing it. All motherboards allow for voltage to fluctuate within a range so that is normal.
CadetMahoney
Member
does anyone else enjoy reading this thread even if they have no intention to upgrade yet? 
Wowfunhappy
Member
Is there a real-world difference between Windows's "Standard" and "High Performance" power settings? I live in a dorm so I don't pay for my electricity, but I don't want to be blatantly destroying the environment for no reason.
mugurumakensei
Member
does anyone else enjoy reading this thread even if they have no intention to upgrade yet?
I do. I dont intend to do any upgrades til 2017 when I plan to do everything new aside from the case. Waiting for HBM2, cheaper DDR4, and some advancements in CPUs.
GalacticAE
Member
oh ok thanks. I noticed that if i changed the power settings to high performance profile it remains at a constant voltage and clockspeed.
I never thought I would buy one, I went ahead and ordered a CaseLabs case today.
Mercury S8S
Case Color: Black
Form Factor: ATX,
Top Chassis Mount: Drop-in 120.3 x 2 mount
Top Cover: Ventilated
Left Door: Standard Window
Right Door : Standard Window
Flex-Bay Configuration: Ventilated
Power and Reset Switch: Standard Power/Reset Switches with Sleeved Cables
I/O Panel: USB 3.0/HD Audio
-----
Still have no idea what type of cooling system I want to go with.
Mercury S8S
Case Color: Black
Form Factor: ATX,
Top Chassis Mount: Drop-in 120.3 x 2 mount
Top Cover: Ventilated
Left Door: Standard Window
Right Door : Standard Window
Flex-Bay Configuration: Ventilated
Power and Reset Switch: Standard Power/Reset Switches with Sleeved Cables
I/O Panel: USB 3.0/HD Audio
-----
Still have no idea what type of cooling system I want to go with.
Droool. That's exactly the one I wanted. (except in tuxedo colour)
Same for me.
When I do upgradse from my 3770K and GTX 780, it will be a nice jump.
I will likely go for an 8 Core chip, and a GPU with 12GB and up HBM.
Trying to get my son a gaming pc for his birthday. Honestly at first he will mostly play minecraft. We have 1680x1050 monitor it will be on.
Found this and finding it tough to beat on newegg. They have an open box for 599. Anything I should worry about with that? Most negative review mention heat issues and loud fans. Seems I could easily spend 50 and improve all that?
http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16883102057
ABS Stalker ALA011 Desktop PC AMD FX-8350 (4.0GHz) 8GB DDR3 1TB HDD GTX 960 2GB Win 8.1 64-Bit
Any advice? Thanks
Found this and finding it tough to beat on newegg. They have an open box for 599. Anything I should worry about with that? Most negative review mention heat issues and loud fans. Seems I could easily spend 50 and improve all that?
http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16883102057
ABS Stalker ALA011 Desktop PC AMD FX-8350 (4.0GHz) 8GB DDR3 1TB HDD GTX 960 2GB Win 8.1 64-Bit
Any advice? Thanks
With High performance, Windows will run the cpu at max speed speeds 24/7 which would unnecessarily use more wattage and produce more heat. Standard is optimal. This allows Windows to adjust cpu speeds base on power demands.
Whats the skinny on gaming headset? I'm really loving getting back into PC Gaming with my rig currently being used for:
MGS5
Witcher 3
Arkham Knight
Valkyrie Chronicles (to compensate the horror of Bloodborne)
Havent touched my PS4 or XBoxOne in 2 weeks!
So on the hunt for a good headset - preferablly wireless so I can sit on my couch and plug into my htpc which has a lovely 970GTX Mini being well used.
I've narrowed it down to the Astros A50 or the Steelseries H Headsets but honestly arent sure of the difference at this point as both do the job really well...
Reckon this will make it all complete (till the Xbox Elite Controller is released then I use that for all the PC Gaming I can handle).
Any suggestion? I've read reviews of both headsets obviously and I really need the wireless functionality but both seem to be the best you can buy at this point.
MGS5
Witcher 3
Arkham Knight
Valkyrie Chronicles (to compensate the horror of Bloodborne)
Havent touched my PS4 or XBoxOne in 2 weeks!
So on the hunt for a good headset - preferablly wireless so I can sit on my couch and plug into my htpc which has a lovely 970GTX Mini being well used.
I've narrowed it down to the Astros A50 or the Steelseries H Headsets but honestly arent sure of the difference at this point as both do the job really well...
Reckon this will make it all complete (till the Xbox Elite Controller is released then I use that for all the PC Gaming I can handle).
Any suggestion? I've read reviews of both headsets obviously and I really need the wireless functionality but both seem to be the best you can buy at this point.
Celcius
°Temp. member
Wag
Member
http://www.amazon.com/Thermalright-True-Spirit-140-Rev/dp/B00O6AEQNW/
I ordered a True Spirit 140 BW Rev A (directly from Nan's gaming) for my 5820k and I'm perfectly happy with it. I even added a 2nd fan and it's still cheaper than the Noctua D15. Got it stable @ 4.3GHz, can probably go higher, haven't tried. D15 seems like overkill.
I have a cooler Master comsos 1000 case but it's beginning to be a nuisance, it's too big. Didn't matter before but now when I had to take it with me several times it's gotten annoying. I need my pc with me if I'm spending months at a place and since I study at neighbouring country I take it with me for duration of that and take it back during summer. But then I also go for few months to my summer home so I gotta take it there too. So yeah long story short I need a recommendation for a good case that has nice airflow and is bit lighter and smaller. I have 2 hdds and ssd so need space for those, 7970 graphics card which is big and was planning on getting another one for crossfire but yeah, unlikely, maybe some day with new pc and new cards.
You want to stick with the atx form factor?
Doesn't that depend on motherboard? If so yeah, I need everything I have to fit haha, and good airflow because I'm always paranoid about it, last card I had was overheating, this one goes to 80-85c in games, got temperature too high hdd notice once or twice oO but been ok, probably gonna die eventually and looking to buy a big hdd to backup everything when I have money to spare.
Now when I look inside my pc I wonder how it would fit in smaller one, heatsink almost goes to the side panel, a lot going inside lol
Now when I look inside my pc I wonder how it would fit in smaller one, heatsink almost goes to the side panel, a lot going inside lol
Guys I really need some help, I just had a power outage and my computer shut down, after the power came back I turned it on and now it takes a really long time to get started and even when I'm in Windows it still doesn't load everything properly and is slow.
Upon troubleshooting it seems like one the partitions is corrupt, I have an SSD with two partitions one for Windows and one for games, then I have a 1TB drive with three partitions, from this drive it's partition E: (biggest one for games) that is corrupt and causing my whole system to hang.
On Disk Management this is what it looks like:
I've tried changing the partition's letter/path but no matter what I do it always shows as RAW and the computer is unable to read the data.
Is there anything I can do to fix the partition and change it back to NTFS without losing the data? I know the data is there, I saw it with testdisk and it seems you can use that program to fix this but it's really confusing and I'm afraid of losing everything.
Upon troubleshooting it seems like one the partitions is corrupt, I have an SSD with two partitions one for Windows and one for games, then I have a 1TB drive with three partitions, from this drive it's partition E: (biggest one for games) that is corrupt and causing my whole system to hang.
On Disk Management this is what it looks like:
I've tried changing the partition's letter/path but no matter what I do it always shows as RAW and the computer is unable to read the data.
Is there anything I can do to fix the partition and change it back to NTFS without losing the data? I know the data is there, I saw it with testdisk and it seems you can use that program to fix this but it's really confusing and I'm afraid of losing everything.
No. It means you have to buy another license when you change too much hard ware.
Like a motherboard. Graphics card shouldn't set it off.
I thought this only applied to OEM licences ?
I'm hoping that you can still call in and get it reactivated. But the pessimist in me says that they have finally thrown down the gauntlet of 'lots of changes make it a new computer. Give us money'
I'd say of the manufacturer put them there, they're pretty important...
My GTX 460 had no pads at all, same manufacturer (ECS). But they aren't in contact with the heatsink anyway.
Just to explain why I'm asking this, I have these 2 cards:
GTX 460
GTX 560
I wasn't using the 460, so I decided to move the cooler to the 560. Everything went well, except that the cooler on the 560 doesn't fit the 460. So now I want to move it back but some pads were torn when I removed the original cooler from the 560.
I do. I'm having to do System Integration stuff at work now, and whilst I can't do anything I want (cost, stock, ease of build etc, even brand all come into play) it does give me a lot of ideas. It's pretty annoying not being able to do anything i7 Skylake related yet though :/
I just want to know how flexible that setup if I'm upgrading the card later.
Change my mobo and i was pleasantly surprised that i didnt need to reinstall / repurchase.Win7 -> Win 8 (15$ dollar upgrade promo by MS in 2012) -> win 10.
Windows 7 professional originally.
It will work with whatever card you put into it. Bottlenecks aren't a hard science. Things will continue to see improvements with new gpus, it won't hit a point where it will stop improving. The 'bottleneck' comes when you would see the most improvement with doing both.
I went from a 6850 to a 570 to a 670 on a core 2 Quad. Saw an improvement with every upgrade, and saw further improvement when I put that 670 onto an i5.
I'm certain a 970 would work better on the core 2 Quad than the 670.
Welcome to the club, I think you'll be more than happy with your new case
Thanks, Looking forward to it. Now the waiting game begins.
Currently CaseLabs is only doing Black. They tend to bring it back at some point.
Yeah, I saw when they did that. Wish I'd had the funds to order what I wanted when it happened, but already sitting on an empty $300 case as it is lol
Doesn't work like that. It's on their EULA. If you have a retail license, it works just as it did before. Meaning that you can change your hardware as much as you want and it will work, as long as you don't use in more than one PC simultaneously.
It just won't work if you have an OEM license.
Do not remove them! Just put it back together whatever their condition.
Hello, I'm planning on building my first pc and wanted to have an opinion on the parts choices, mainly I want to know if there are any issues between the different components.
I'll play in 720p at least until I can upgrade into a nice monitor, I'd be happy with getting 30 fps in demanding games, while of course trying to get the best performances I can.
Some games I'll be playing and I'm particurarly interested in running well are Final Fantasy XIV and modded Skyrim.
Also, am I missing some important component I might need?
I'll play in 720p at least until I can upgrade into a nice monitor, I'd be happy with getting 30 fps in demanding games, while of course trying to get the best performances I can.
Some games I'll be playing and I'm particurarly interested in running well are Final Fantasy XIV and modded Skyrim.
One specific doubt I have is if the power supply is fine, pcpartpicker says the build consumes 402W, would I need to get a more powerful one if I intend on upgrading in the future?
Also, am I missing some important component I might need?
Dont buy that SSD, get a crucial or samsung SSD.
You should get 60fps with that rig with a mix of medium/high settings at 1080p, and easily 720p60.
DiscoShark
Banned
I've gotten burned a little by not asking GAF before the fact on some major PC purchases so I figured I'd do my due diligence this time around ...
290X is on sale on newegg right now for $280
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10487648&PID=1800524&SID=
$100 off on top of an additional $30 rebate if I wanted to take advantage of it. On the surface at least, it seems like a steal. Reviews on the 290X line as a whole have me hesitant to jump in though, aside from the thing running a bit hotter/being significantly less power efficient and not having much headroom for overclocking as a result, there's some concern with respect to how well the thing does from a frametime perspective for me as well. They seem to be a bit jittier compared to competing Nvidia cards.
In comparison ...
EVGA has a GTX 970 for $290 on Newegg as well
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487136&cm_re=970-_-14-487-136-_-Product
This would be my first graphics card purchase if I decided to jump on any of these cards. I have my eyes set on jumping on an Oculus/Vive sometime next year so my concern would be whether or not these cards would be able to handle that task ... which is a hard question to answer given that we don't have the consumer hardware in our hands atm, I understand that. Currently running an i5 6600k with integrated graphics which is surprisingly capable at the moment for the number of indie games I tend to gravitate to. There's no rush for me, I have no problem waiting for next year's Pascal / Greenland releases if they're going to represent a significant step forward for GPU tech, though not knowing whether or not there'll be a real 970 or 390 successor (no refreshes) in that $300ish dollar price bracket is annoying to say the least.
-shrug-
Edit : So I guess the main question is, 290x, 970, or wait for Oculus/Vive to come out so we can get some real data on how well these cards perform in VR. By then we'd have more info on Pascal/Greenland anyway.
290X is on sale on newegg right now for $280
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10487648&PID=1800524&SID=
$100 off on top of an additional $30 rebate if I wanted to take advantage of it. On the surface at least, it seems like a steal. Reviews on the 290X line as a whole have me hesitant to jump in though, aside from the thing running a bit hotter/being significantly less power efficient and not having much headroom for overclocking as a result, there's some concern with respect to how well the thing does from a frametime perspective for me as well. They seem to be a bit jittier compared to competing Nvidia cards.
In comparison ...
EVGA has a GTX 970 for $290 on Newegg as well
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487136&cm_re=970-_-14-487-136-_-Product
This would be my first graphics card purchase if I decided to jump on any of these cards. I have my eyes set on jumping on an Oculus/Vive sometime next year so my concern would be whether or not these cards would be able to handle that task ... which is a hard question to answer given that we don't have the consumer hardware in our hands atm, I understand that. Currently running an i5 6600k with integrated graphics which is surprisingly capable at the moment for the number of indie games I tend to gravitate to. There's no rush for me, I have no problem waiting for next year's Pascal / Greenland releases if they're going to represent a significant step forward for GPU tech, though not knowing whether or not there'll be a real 970 or 390 successor (no refreshes) in that $300ish dollar price bracket is annoying to say the least.
-shrug-
Edit : So I guess the main question is, 290x, 970, or wait for Oculus/Vive to come out so we can get some real data on how well these cards perform in VR. By then we'd have more info on Pascal/Greenland anyway.
If you cant wait, for £60 you can get a Sapphire Radeon R7 250 1Gb GDDR5.
Watch out, do not get a GDDR3 card !
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