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[kuYuri]

Yeah I find it so interesting that a lot of recommendations are 1080p. I mean for a PC monitor that just seems so low these days. Especially using it for work as well.

1080p is good for the budget conscious or for people who don't care about graphics as much anymore and want good frames or for competitive players, so I can see the appeal.

I was ready to move on from 1080p after 6+ years though once I saw how much of a jump 1440p was.

 

[Heaven Shard]

What games are you playing/want to play? A 1070 will be a MASSIVE upgrade over your 5750, regardless of how old your CPU is. The CPU is still fine for the vast majority of games.

Anno, Civ and some of those pretty looking RTSs like Singularity, the new Warhammer.
I could play all the Anno games fine except for the latest one. It shuggs. And I worry the new Civ will too (even though it looks simple).

I also do video edited from time to time, maybe the new GPU can help with that too, but I don't know how much of a bottleneck my current CPU will be for games and some video editing on the side.

 

[Magnus]

Alright friends, I've decided to finally get a custom rig built. A local computer store charges a super nominal fee for the labour involved, so it's the way to go for me. Thank you to all who've pointed out issues with pre-builts and convinced me away from them. I'd love to run the parts list by you all for opinions, recommendations, etc.

My goal is to absolutely crush max/ultra settings on Overwatch and Legion/WoW (maintaining 60fps) and games of a similarly demanding nature, and future-proof myself to be able to keep using the same rig for at least a few more years at great settings on most games.

Prices are listed in Canadian (The exchange rate is $1 USD to $1.32 CDN - I'll list the US total at the end). Here's what they specced out for me:

1. Intel Core i5-6500 Quad-Core Processor
• Socket LGA1151, 3.2Ghz, 6MB L3 Cache, 14nm
• (Retail Boxed) Gen6 (BX80662I56500) 265.00

2. Deepcool Tesseract BF Black Mid Tower (TESSERACT BF) 44.99 - I might go with a fancier tower or something...undecided. Right now I'd rather put my dough towards the guts rather than the shell on the outside.

3. Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO Direct Heat Pipe CPU Cooler R2, Intel 2011/1366/1156/1155/1150/775/1151* and AMD FM1/FM2/FM2+/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2 (RR-212E-20PK-R2) 44.99

4. Fractal Design Dynamic GP-12 Black 120MM Cooling Fan (FD-FAN-DYN-GP12-BK) 19.99 - dude recommended two cooling solutions for this rig - overkill?

5. ASUS B150M-A/M.2 Socket1151 Intel B150 Chipset (B150M-A/M.2)
• DDR4 SATA 6Gb/s, M.2, 1x USB 5Gb/s Type-C, 4x USB 3.0
• HDMI, D-Sub, DVI-D, mATX Motherboard 94.99

6. GIGABYTE GC-WB867D-I Exclusive Bluetooth Rev 4.2/WiFi Expansion Card 44.99

7. EVGA SuperNOVA 550 GS 550W 80Plus Gold Certified Fully Modular Power Supply Intel 4th Gen CPU Ready 5 Year Warranty (220-GS-0550-V1) 109.99

8. G.SKILL Aegis 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz C15 Memory Kit (F4-2400C15D-16GIS) 91.99

9. ASUS Dual GeForce GTX 1060 3GB GDDR5 OC (DUAL-GTX1060-O3G)
• 1569Mhz Core Clock, 8Gbps Memory Clock
• PCI Express 3.0, DVI-D, 2x HDMI 2.0, 2x Display Port 309.00 (I could do an 8gb 1070 for $250 more, but dude helping me out said that'd be overkill for the games I want to play - thoughts?)

Subtotal: 1,025.93 (plus taxes/recycling fees, etc.) - in USD: $777

And yeah, I'll need to add on a DVD/CD optical drive and an SSD, or salvage them from an old rig. How does the rest look though? Some other questions in italics above too.

Thanks guys!

 

[demosthenes]

1080p is good for the budget conscious or for people who don't care about graphics as much anymore and want good frames or for competitive players, so I can see the appeal.

I was ready to move on from 1080p after 6+ years though once I saw how much of a jump 1440p was.

I've held off for so long because frankily, I don't know what to buy and can't get in a store and see the differences.

I have a 1070, I think I want 1440, 144hz, ips, gsync. But if I want all that then it's 800+ and panel lottery. Do I drop gsync to get it to a reasonable price? Do I drop ips to get it to a reasonable price? I've never had ips, so I don't know what to do. 😭😭

I didn't start this post as a plea for help, but help!

 

[Mareg]

No matter your configuration, you cannot maintain 60fps in legion on max settings.

Wow is old and the engine is weird. You'll get some furious fps drops in some zones or when there are many special effects on screen. It is just the nature of the game.

With that config on max settings, you'll see anything from 30fps to like 200+ fps if you unlock the max fps setting.

 

[Magnus]

No matter your configuration, you cannot maintain 60fps in legion on max settings.

Wow is old and the engine is weird. You'll get some furious fps drops in some zones or when there are many special effects on screen. It is just the nature of the game.

With that config on max settings, you'll see anything from 30fps to like 200+ fps if you unlock the max fps setting.

I see. I have a lot of friends who tell me they "never dip below 60" because of their rigs. I imagine they're just waving e-peens and are full of shit, if what you're saying is true. =/

 

[J_Viper]

Hello PC Master Race. It may be time for me to join you all in the sun.

So my budget now is around $600-700.

With that in mind, is it possible to build a rig that can run, say, Gears 4 and Forza on High at 1080/60?

If not, what's the least amount I'm looking at?

 

[Exile20]

Hello PC Master Race. It may be time for me to join you all in the sun.

So my budget now is around $600-700.

With that in mind, is it possible to build a rig that can run, say, Gears 4 and Forza on High at 1080/60?

If not, what's the least amount I'm looking at?

Do you have anything to salvage?

PSU, Monitor, case?

 

[J_Viper]

Do you have anything to salvage?

PSU, Monitor, case?

Most likely not, my current setup is a toaster, and my monitor is a stock Dell, my phone is sharper.

 

[Bloodember]

Most likely not, my current setup is a toaster, and my monitor is a stock Dell, my phone is sharper.

Dell makes some great monitors, believe it or not. What is the model number?

 

[J_Viper]

Dell makes some great monitors, believe it or not. What is the model number?

I'm away from it and can't recall, but I can safely say that it's booty. I got ripped off hard when I bought my desktop (at BrandsMart, of all places) because I didn't know any better.

No way will I make that same mistake.

 

[Hands of Stone]

Dell makes some great monitors, believe it or not. What is the model number?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-27...=5293502&productCategoryId=pcmcat200900050015

Just ordered mine!

 

[kakashi08]

will the gtx780 be good for battlefield one on "high settings"? If not ultra.

 

[Hands of Stone]

So should I also order a Display Port cable? Or is my HDMI still enough?

 

[Sniffynose]

Thoughts on this bad boy? Works out to about $1200 US:

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=7_1203_1446_1448&item_id=093774

Form Factor Micro-ATX Mini-Tower
Processor Model Intel Core i5-6600
Processor Speed 3.30 GHz, up to 3.90 GHz
Number of Cores 4
Chipset Intel B150
Graphics NVIDIA GTX 1070 8GB
Standard Memory 8 GB
Memory Type DDR4
SSD 240GB SSD
Optical Drive No ODD
Ethernet Gigabit LAN
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 64-Bit

This is a well-known computer store chain in Toronto that builds their own rigs like this one. I recognize I'd probably paying a small premium to have them build it for me (probably somewhere between $100 and 200), but otherwise, I believe it should have all the positive hallmarks of a custom rig, rather than a pre-built one from Dell, Asus, etc.

Just don't order online from those idiots, they sat on my order for almost 3 weeks before I got visa involved and then after another week they finally decided to answer one of my many emails and support tickets, needless to say I got a refund and went with newegg.ca instead.

I thought I'd give a Canadian company the business but I guess their online guys can't be bothered to read or do any work period.

Another plus for Newegg was the insanely easy returns, which I had to use since I got a bad set of ram initially.

 

[Xclash]

So should I also order a Display Port cable? Or is my HDMI still enough?

I have the same monitor. It comes with a DisplayPort cable. You need to use that cable for Gsync and 144hz

 

[Magnus]

Just don't order online from those idiots, they sat on my order for almost 3 weeks before I got visa involved and then after another week they finally decided to answer one of my many emails and support tickets, needless to say I got a refund and went with newegg.ca instead.

I thought I'd give a Canadian company the business but I guess their online guys can't be bothered to read or do any work period.

Another plus for Newegg was the insanely easy returns, which I had to use since I got a bad set of ram initially.

Noted. I was in the store and got great service today, but yeah, who knows once the order is actually put in...lol.

Newegg builds custom rigs too?

 

[Hands of Stone]

I have the same monitor. It comes with a DisplayPort cable. You need to use that cable for Gsync and 144hz

Oh that's legit!

For reference, this is the monitor I'm upgrading from:
ASUS VH242H

Just need some speakers now..

 

[BosSin]

Ok, update: using this thread and some very helpful buying suggestions I successfully built my new pc from scratch. Now everything has been working except for one very annoying thing.

I have this exact case: http://www.phanteks.com/enthoo-evolv.html

and this motherboard: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B014SL2XKQ/

Now, at first I thought everything was ok. PC temperatures are all good, graphics card works like a charm, no big issues. However there was something I found odd, when I clicked on the speaker icon in windows it would flicker and for a brief moment I would see the audio outputs change. This didn't seem to be a big issue because I can generally hear stuff coming out of my speakers ok.

Fast forward to today: sometimes I notice audio stutter when watching videos, it's kinda hard to pick up on but definitely there. So I installed realtek audio drivers and found my issue. The realtek audio manager keeps showing the front headphone and microphone jack having connection plugged and unplugged.

Now we come to the part why I showed my mobo and case. The front jacks can only really be the audio connections on the case (and not the mobo connections). So I actually connected headphones to this jack, and it still seems to work. I even opened my PC back up and re-checked the connections to make sure it is secure.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, at this point I'm considering calling up the manufacturer of the case. But even then I have no idea whether it's the mobo or case I'm having a problem with.

Here is the cable for the case and the port on the mobo I'm placing it into:

 

[Professor Beef]

Hey there, I'm coming here because I'm beginning to save up for my first PC (I've only been using laptops the past few years). The problem is that I have no idea what I'm doing in terms of purchasing. I only know what I *want* to run, but basically know nothing about any parts. So I'm hoping someone can help point me in the right direction in terms of what to purchase. I want to apologize ahead of time if I'm doing this wrong, since...well, ihavenoidea.jpg

Main Use: Gaming, Emulation (PS2/Wii/Wii U), General Usage (Word, Web, 1080p playback).
- Gaming. Don't really care if it's in HD or not, just that it can be run in general.

Monitor Resolution: What resolution will you be playing your games at? Are you going to upgrade later? Are you buying a new monitor?
- ASUS VH236H. I have one already, and I plan on buying a second one.

List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well:
- Sonic Generations is the main goal, with PCSX2 a close second. Running them on the highest settings isn't the goal (since I'm trying to keep the overall cost down to match my budget), but having them run perfectly is.

When will you build?: Do you have a deadline?
- No deadline whatsoever, but sooner would be better than later. My current budget is between $400-600 (not including the monitor; I'll buy that separately since I have one already).

Will you be overclocking?: Yes, No, Maybe (This means yes!)
- No.

 

[chaosblade]

Noted. I was in the store and got great service today, but yeah, who knows once the order is actually put in...lol.

Newegg builds custom rigs too?

Newegg just sells parts. NCIX will build for $50.

Hey there, I'm coming here because I'm beginning to save up for my first PC (I've only been using laptops the past few years). The problem is that I have no idea what I'm doing in terms of purchasing. I only know what I *want* to run, but basically know nothing about any parts. So I'm hoping someone can help point me in the right direction in terms of what to purchase. I want to apologize ahead of time if I'm doing this wrong, since...well, ihavenoidea.jpg

Main Use: Gaming, Emulation (PS2/Wii/Wii U), General Usage (Word, Web, 1080p playback).
- Gaming. Don't really care if it's in HD or not, just that it can be run in general.

Monitor Resolution: What resolution will you be playing your games at? Are you going to upgrade later? Are you buying a new monitor?
- ASUS VH236H. I have one already, and I plan on buying a second one.

List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well:
- Sonic Generations is the main goal, with PCSX2 a close second. Running them on the highest settings isn't the goal (since I'm trying to keep the overall cost down to match my budget), but having them run perfectly is.

When will you build?: Do you have a deadline?
- No deadline whatsoever, but sooner would be better than later. My current budget is between $400-600 (not including the monitor; I'll buy that separately since I have one already).

Will you be overclocking?: Yes, No, Maybe (This means yes!)
- No.

"Good" build in the OP would be a good starting point. You may want/need more CPU power for emulation, not sure how demanding 6th gen emulation is on current CPU these days. I'd aim to get a 470 instead of the 460 too.

 

[Celcius]

will the gtx780 be good for battlefield one on "high settings"? If not ultra.

My GTX 780 Ti at stock ran the BF1 beta on Ultra @ 1080p just fine. I think you should be ok.

 

[joecanada]

Alright friends, I've decided to finally get a custom rig built. A local computer store charges a super nominal fee for the labour involved, so it's the way to go for me. Thank you to all who've pointed out issues with pre-builts and convinced me away from them. I'd love to run the parts list by you all for opinions, recommendations, etc.

My goal is to absolutely crush max/ultra settings on Overwatch and Legion/WoW (maintaining 60fps) and games of a similarly demanding nature, and future-proof myself to be able to keep using the same rig for at least a few more years at great settings on most games.

Prices are listed in Canadian (The exchange rate is $1 USD to $1.32 CDN - I'll list the US total at the end). Here's what they specced out for me:

1. Intel Core i5-6500 Quad-Core Processor
• Socket LGA1151, 3.2Ghz, 6MB L3 Cache, 14nm
• (Retail Boxed) Gen6 (BX80662I56500) 265.00

2. Deepcool Tesseract BF Black Mid Tower (TESSERACT BF) 44.99 - I might go with a fancier tower or something...undecided. Right now I'd rather put my dough towards the guts rather than the shell on the outside.

3. Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO Direct Heat Pipe CPU Cooler R2, Intel 2011/1366/1156/1155/1150/775/1151* and AMD FM1/FM2/FM2+/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2 (RR-212E-20PK-R2) 44.99

4. Fractal Design Dynamic GP-12 Black 120MM Cooling Fan (FD-FAN-DYN-GP12-BK) 19.99 - dude recommended two cooling solutions for this rig - overkill?

5. ASUS B150M-A/M.2 Socket1151 Intel B150 Chipset (B150M-A/M.2)
• DDR4 SATA 6Gb/s, M.2, 1x USB 5Gb/s Type-C, 4x USB 3.0
• HDMI, D-Sub, DVI-D, mATX Motherboard 94.99

6. GIGABYTE GC-WB867D-I Exclusive Bluetooth Rev 4.2/WiFi Expansion Card 44.99

7. EVGA SuperNOVA 550 GS 550W 80Plus Gold Certified Fully Modular Power Supply Intel 4th Gen CPU Ready 5 Year Warranty (220-GS-0550-V1) 109.99

8. G.SKILL Aegis 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz C15 Memory Kit (F4-2400C15D-16GIS) 91.99

9. ASUS Dual GeForce GTX 1060 3GB GDDR5 OC (DUAL-GTX1060-O3G)
• 1569Mhz Core Clock, 8Gbps Memory Clock
• PCI Express 3.0, DVI-D, 2x HDMI 2.0, 2x Display Port 309.00 (I could do an 8gb 1070 for $250 more, but dude helping me out said that'd be overkill for the games I want to play - thoughts?)

Subtotal: 1,025.93 (plus taxes/recycling fees, etc.) - in USD: $777

And yeah, I'll need to add on a DVD/CD optical drive and an SSD, or salvage them from an old rig. How does the rest look though? Some other questions in italics above too.

Thanks guys!

I'm no expert here but just from being in this thread and working on my own pc, are you sure you need any cooling for that rig cpu, let alone 2?! (oh ones a fan I guess)

I have i5 6500 + 500 w psu + evga 1060 sc and my cpu has never been above like 35 degrees C. my gpu got up to 75 degrees only because I was running heaven benchmark at ultra settings for 3 minutes straight one time. mine had 4 crappy stock fans till I replaced two.

save that money and get a 1060 6gb I say........ but again im not a pc engineer, just a thread lurker lol.

edit - also you may want to verify that that motherboard will run RAM higher than 2133, mine wouldn't so I just stuck to cheaper one, but that price isn't bad anyway.
I think this is the mobo you linked....
"4 x DIMM, Max. 64GB, DDR4 2133 MHz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory
Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
* Hyper DIMM support is subject to the physical characteristics of individual CPUs.
* Refer to www.asus.com for the Memory QVL (Qualified Vendors Lists).
* The maximum memory frequency supported varies by processor.
* Due to Intel® chipset limitation, DDR4 2133 MHz and higher memory modules on XMP mode will run at the maximum transfer rate of DDR4 2133 Mhz."

 

[kuYuri]

I've held off for so long because frankily, I don't know what to buy and can't get in a store and see the differences.

I have a 1070, I think I want 1440, 144hz, ips, gsync. But if I want all that then it's 800+ and panel lottery. Do I drop gsync to get it to a reasonable price? Do I drop ips to get it to a reasonable price? I've never had ips, so I don't know what to do. ����

I didn't start this post as a plea for help, but help!

I am very fortunate to have a Micro Center near me, where they have some of these monitors on displays, but I certainly know how you feel. :<

My advice is start out with 1440p and IPS, don't worry about 120+hz or G-Sync. Order a monitor that fits these descriptions from Amazon (Asus, Acer, Samsung, Dell, BenQ are all solid brands, plus read reviews). Amazon tends to have a great return policy of about 30 days, so try out the monitor as much as you can during that time then return it. If you like it, you can keep it of course, up to you. I feel like 120+hz and especially G-Sync is what adds the most to the cost of these high end monitors.

If you want to spend the cash, then go all in with something like the Asus PG279Q or Acer XB271HU which also add 144+hz and G-Sync. You can still try it out for 30 days before returning it to Amazon or if you spot defects like really bad backlight bleeding and all that.

I have the previous Acer model XB270HU which i got for $640 plus tax, it has a bit of backlight bleeding, but not noticeable unless I'm really looking on an all black background. No other defects that I can think of. I've been extremely happy with it

 

[Professor Beef]

"Good" build in the OP would be a good starting point. You may want/need more CPU power for emulation, not sure how demanding 6th gen emulation is on current CPU these days. I'd aim to get a 470 instead of the 460 too.

I'll take a look when I'm not swamped at work.

 

[Bloodember]

Ok, update: using this thread and some very helpful buying suggestions I successfully built my new pc from scratch. Now everything has been working except for one very annoying thing.

I have this exact case: http://www.phanteks.com/enthoo-evolv.html

and this motherboard: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B014SL2XKQ/

Now, at first I thought everything was ok. PC temperatures are all good, graphics card works like a charm, no big issues. However there was something I found odd, when I clicked on the speaker icon in windows it would flicker and for a brief moment I would see the audio outputs change. This didn't seem to be a big issue because I can generally hear stuff coming out of my speakers ok.

Fast forward to today: sometimes I notice audio stutter when watching videos, it's kinda hard to pick up on but definitely there. So I installed realtek audio drivers and found my issue. The realtek audio manager keeps showing the front headphone and microphone jack having connection plugged and unplugged.

Now we come to the part why I showed my mobo and case. The front jacks can only really be the audio connections on the case (and not the mobo connections). So I actually connected headphones to this jack, and it still seems to work. I even opened my PC back up and re-checked the connections to make sure it is secure.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, at this point I'm considering calling up the manufacturer of the case. But even then I have no idea whether it's the mobo or case I'm having a problem with.

Here is the cable for the case and the port on the mobo I'm placing it into:

Unplug the front connections and see if it still does it.

 

[BosSin]

Unplug the front connections and see if it still does it.

Yeah was thinking of doing this, will report back tomorrow. It's really late now

 

[vector824]

Hey there, I'm coming here because I'm beginning to save up for my first PC (I've only been using laptops the past few years). The problem is that I have no idea what I'm doing in terms of purchasing. I only know what I *want* to run, but basically know nothing about any parts. So I'm hoping someone can help point me in the right direction in terms of what to purchase. I want to apologize ahead of time if I'm doing this wrong, since...well, ihavenoidea.jpg

Main Use: Gaming, Emulation (PS2/Wii/Wii U), General Usage (Word, Web, 1080p playback).
- Gaming. Don't really care if it's in HD or not, just that it can be run in general.

Monitor Resolution: What resolution will you be playing your games at? Are you going to upgrade later? Are you buying a new monitor?
- ASUS VH236H. I have one already, and I plan on buying a second one.

List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well:
- Sonic Generations is the main goal, with PCSX2 a close second. Running them on the highest settings isn't the goal (since I'm trying to keep the overall cost down to match my budget), but having them run perfectly is.

When will you build?: Do you have a deadline?
- No deadline whatsoever, but sooner would be better than later. My current budget is between $400-600 (not including the monitor; I'll buy that separately since I have one already).

Will you be overclocking?: Yes, No, Maybe (This means yes!)
- No.

Drop the $30 wifi adapter if you don't need it and it'll put you in at $570 before rebates. This will definitely run Sonic fine.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($198.88 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper T2 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($14.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($53.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($39.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 460 4GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card ($127.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($43.33 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $584.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-19 19:50 EDT-0400

Here's a version with the rx470 but it puts you $30 over budget.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($198.88 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper T2 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($14.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($53.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($39.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 470 4GB Video Card ($199.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($43.33 @ OutletPC)
Total: $626.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-19 19:54 EDT-0400

 

[chaosblade]

Here's a version with the rx470 but it puts you $30 over budget.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($198.88 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper T2 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($14.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($53.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($39.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 470 4GB Video Card ($199.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($43.33 @ OutletPC)
Total: $626.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-19 19:54 EDT-0400

With a Microcenter bundle (if possible) and/or Jet triple15 code he could get this one below $600. Could knock almost $30 off the GPU alone.

Is a 6500 sufficient for 6th gen emulation?

 

[lostsupper]

With a Microcenter bundle (if possible) and/or Jet triple15 code he could get this one below $600. Could knock almost $30 off the GPU alone.

Is a 6500 sufficient for 6th gen emulation?

Emulation is highly dependent on CPU clock speed. 6600k and a Z170 mobile would be a much better choice.

 

[Professor Beef]

If the emulation would drive up the price, then I have no problem getting different parts to drive down the price. Generations is the main thing I'm after anyways.

 

[chaosblade]

Emulation is highly dependent on CPU clock speed. 6600k and a Z170 mobile would be a much better choice.

That's what I was thinking. Unfortunately 6600k+Z170 would be over half his budget so I don't think that would work.

He also doesn't want to OC, so it's a waste anyway. Almost wonder if an i3 would be better in that situation for raw clock speed since emulators (AFAIK) don't use more than a couple cores anyway.

 

[Anustart]

Thought I'd post this here.

So I got my pc behind my TV in my living room, is there any solution to having a monitor by my couch as a second display that doesn't involve running a cable across the room?

 

[kuYuri]

With a Microcenter bundle (if possible) and/or Jet triple15 code he could get this one below $600. Could knock almost $30 off the GPU alone.

Is a 6500 sufficient for 6th gen emulation?

I think it's more than sufficient. I was using an old Core 2 Quad Q9505 to play emulators 2+ years ago and they ran fairly well, including Dolphin and PCSX2. i5 6500 is a gigantic step up from that processor that I had.

The emulators have only gotten better optimized since then too.

 

[sn00zer]

This a decent buy?
http://slickdeals.net/f/9114291-cyb...-1240-10-after-50-gift-card-f-s?src=catpagev2

 

[lostsupper]

That's what I was thinking. Unfortunately 6600k+Z170 would be over half his budget so I don't think that would work.

He also doesn't want to OC, so it's a waste anyway. Almost wonder if an i3 would be better in that situation for raw clock speed since emulators (AFAIK) don't use more than a couple cores anyway.

How about a G3258 and a Z97 board? The G3258 is a Haswell chip, so it benefits from increased avx instruction set efficiency in modern emulators. Plus it'll clock to 4.9 or 5.0 GHz on air.

 

[teiresias]

Not totally new PC related, but I'm going to be using my computer monitor as my primary display in a temporary living situation I have coming up. I was thinking of buying a PG348Q but was wondering if anyone that owns one knows how well it works with a console (PS4) hooked up to the HDMI input. Does it have a decent scaler for this application?

 

[MrOogieBoogie]

The little end of the plastic nub on the PCIe slot that sticks out so you can pull it back and remove the GPU either fell off or broke off or something, and now it's harder to remove the GPU because the fucking nub is directly beneath the card. Have no way of reaching it to dislodge the card safely. :/

 

[Sniffynose]

Noted. I was in the store and got great service today, but yeah, who knows once the order is actually put in...lol.

Newegg builds custom rigs too?

Newegg sells prepare pcs, but I don't think they themselves make custom builds, I built my rig with ordered parts =)

But ya definitely deal in store with Canada Computers if you choose to go with them at least then you have a way to get in touch etc, their online shop doesn't even have a support phone number which is insane even Visa was like wtf, so uh you have to put in a ticket online as the only form of communication?!

 

[demosthenes]

I am very fortunate to have a Micro Center near me, where they have some of these monitors on displays, but I certainly know how you feel. :<

My advice is start out with 1440p and IPS, don't worry about 120+hz or G-Sync. Order a monitor that fits these descriptions from Amazon (Asus, Acer, Samsung, Dell, BenQ are all solid brands, plus read reviews). Amazon tends to have a great return policy of about 30 days, so try out the monitor as much as you can during that time then return it. If you like it, you can keep it of course, up to you. I feel like 120+hz and especially G-Sync is what adds the most to the cost of these high end monitors.

If you want to spend the cash, then go all in with something like the Asus PG279Q or Acer XB271HU which also add 144+hz and G-Sync. You can still try it out for 30 days before returning it to Amazon or if you spot defects like really bad backlight bleeding and all that.

I have the previous Acer model XB270HU which i got for $640 plus tax, it has a bit of backlight bleeding, but not noticeable unless I'm really looking on an all black background. No other defects that I can think of. I've been extremely happy with it

I was looking for a while but it seems like a lot of monitors are running out of stock, so much that I'm wondering if we're set to see some new monitors soon.

 

[Sniffynose]

Ok, update: using this thread and some very helpful buying suggestions I successfully built my new pc from scratch. Now everything has been working except for one very annoying thing.

I have this exact case: http://www.phanteks.com/enthoo-evolv.html

and this motherboard: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B014SL2XKQ/

Now, at first I thought everything was ok. PC temperatures are all good, graphics card works like a charm, no big issues. However there was something I found odd, when I clicked on the speaker icon in windows it would flicker and for a brief moment I would see the audio outputs change. This didn't seem to be a big issue because I can generally hear stuff coming out of my speakers ok.

Fast forward to today: sometimes I notice audio stutter when watching videos, it's kinda hard to pick up on but definitely there. So I installed realtek audio drivers and found my issue. The realtek audio manager keeps showing the front headphone and microphone jack having connection plugged and unplugged.

Now we come to the part why I showed my mobo and case. The front jacks can only really be the audio connections on the case (and not the mobo connections). So I actually connected headphones to this jack, and it still seems to work. I even opened my PC back up and re-checked the connections to make sure it is secure.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, at this point I'm considering calling up the manufacturer of the case. But even then I have no idea whether it's the mobo or case I'm having a problem with.

Here is the cable for the case and the port on the mobo I'm placing it into:

Give a good look through the bios settings, some of them give an ac97 vs hd front panel audio option, if it's just a mic/headphone jack on the front panel maybe the option would need to be changed, since hd might be passing multichannel audio instead through the cable/port.

Edit: checked the manual and seems there's no option, maybe the jack for the case is wonky? Sorry =/

It's likely either a driver problem or something physical like the jack or wire harness to the front connectors.

 

[Professor Beef]

BTW thanks for the assistance. I'll bookmark those posts when I get home and keep them in mind while I save up the rest of the money needed.

 

[Heaven Shard]

Alright, after searching and learning, here's what I got. This is an international shipping purchase so refunds and return policies aren't encouraging (if existent at all), so please advise. If this doesn't work, I'm screwed out of at least half a grand in US dollars:

I want to buy a 1070 (upgrading from my ATI 5750. Whaaat?!)
My mobo has a PCI Express 2.0 x16
CPU: i7 870 @ 2.93GHz (4 cores. Lynnfield still bringing it).
RAM: 10 gigs of DDR3
I'm good in power supply (I think) since I have an 850w PSU.


Now, I've been reading a lot online and I am told the throttling of the PCI e from 3.0 to 2.0 wouldn't be noticeable. But will my CPU croak? I am told for non-CPU intensive games, I am good. But I can still play those CPU heavy games to some extend since the 1070 will do most of the heavy lifting. (Damn you Ashes of the Singularity!).


Additional stuff:
Games I play;
Almost exclusively Anno and Civ, but I love those graphic showcases like those RTSs and exclusive PC games (Warhammer, Total War, etc.).

Am I crazy? Will I regret this? I haven't upgraded in 7 years. I can't afford a full upgrade.

 

[Vipu]

Alright, after searching and learning, here's what I got. This is an international shipping purchase so refunds and return policies aren't encouraging (if existent at all), so please advise. If this doesn't work, I'm screwed out of at least half a grand in US dollars:

I want to buy a 1070 (upgrading from my ATI 5750. Whaaat?!)
My mobo has a PCI Express 2.0 x16
CPU: i7 870 @ 2.93GHz (4 cores. Lynnfield still bringing it).
RAM: 10 gigs of DDR3
I'm good in power supply (I think) since I have an 850w PSU.


Now, I've been reading a lot online and I am told the throttling of the PCI e from 3.0 to 2.0 wouldn't be noticeable. But will my CPU croak? I am told for non-CPU intensive games, I am good. But I can still play those CPU heavy games to some extend since the 1070 will do most of the heavy lifting. (Damn you Ashes of the Singularity!).


Additional stuff:
Games I play;
Almost exclusively Anno and Civ, but I love those graphic showcases like those RTSs and exclusive PC games (Warhammer, Total War, etc.).

Am I crazy? Will I regret this? I haven't upgraded in 7 years. I can't afford a full upgrade.

I think someone else can tell more but I think those games you listed are CPU intensive so it might bottleneck a lot that gpu.
Specially if you have not OCd it to around 4ghz+

 

[Heaven Shard]

Specially if you have not OCd [the CPU] to around 4ghz+

It's stock. I worried that I'd fry it and the gains aren't that much. But if it is advisable to OC the CPU and nowadays there are simple ways of doing them without the need for liquid cooling, I'd do it.

All of this started when Anno 2205 started chugging. It hurts playing such a pretty game on 'peasant mode'.

 

[ColdDeckEd]

How about a G3258 and a Z97 board? The G3258 is a Haswell chip, so it benefits from increased avx instruction set efficiency in modern emulators. Plus it'll clock to 4.9 or 5.0 GHz on air.

If he doesn't want to overclock, i3 6100 might be a better choice. It runs the Dolphin benchmark about the same as a g3258 at 4.5 ghz. Plus the 2 extra threads will help in modern games.

 

[Barrow Roll]

i need some advice about upgrading my RAM. Since a lot of newer games are recommending 16GB I figure it's time to upgrade from 8GB.

This is my current mobo:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3815&dl=#ov

and this is my curent RAM:
http://www.ncix.com/detail/kingston-hyperx-khx1600c9d3k2-8gx-8gb-2x4gb-73-57869.htm

And if it's pertinent, I'm using an i5 2550k OC @ 4.5Ghz.

The RAM I'm using is no longer in production so I'd either have to buy a different pair to get to 16GB, or buy them used off of eBay.

Would these ones work fine?
http://www.ncix.com/detail/kingston-hyperx-fury-memory-black-5e-95956.htm

DDR4 isn't an option right now, I don't plan to do a new mobo/CPU build just yet.

So what should I do? Should I bother upgrading to 16GB? Should I buy a used set of matching RAM sticks online or the new non-matching ones?

 

[wihio]

It's stock. I worried that I'd fry it and the gains aren't that much. But if it is advisable to OC the CPU and nowadays there are simple ways of doing them without the need for liquid cooling, I'd do it.

All of this started when Anno 2205 started chugging. It hurts playing such a pretty game on 'peasant mode'.

I had an i7 930 that I overclocked to 4ghz with an inexpensive air cooler. You don't have to worry about "frying" your cpu as long as you follow some guidelines. Just figure out what stock and max voltages are for the chip and keep the temps below 80 (70ish if you really want to be careful). I am sure you can find guides online for your exact cpu.

The gains were well worth it!

 

[chaosblade]

It's stock. I worried that I'd fry it and the gains aren't that much. But if it is advisable to OC the CPU and nowadays there are simple ways of doing them without the need for liquid cooling, I'd do it.

All of this started when Anno 2205 started chugging. It hurts playing such a pretty game on 'peasant mode'.

There's almost no way to "fry" a CPU unintentionally. Modern hardware has multiple levels of safeguards in place - your PC will crash from instability or shut down due to heat, but those will happen before the hardware is physically damaged.

You also don't need a custom loop liquid cooler. Air coolers are still the most popular, and simple, maintenance-free closed loop liquid coolers are relatively popular too.

"Casual overclocking" is extremely easy these days, but unfortunately your 870 doesn't have an unlocked multiplier which makes things more difficult. I don't remember if that CPU came from before Intel basically locked down OCing for non-K CPUs, but if it did you could still overclock with the base clock (bclk). It's a much more complicated process though.

i need some advice about upgrading my RAM. Since a lot of newer games are recommending 16GB I figure it's time to upgrade from 8GB.

This is my current mobo:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3815&dl=#ov

and this is my curent RAM:
http://www.ncix.com/detail/kingston-hyperx-khx1600c9d3k2-8gx-8gb-2x4gb-73-57869.htm

And if it's pertinent, I'm using an i5 2550k OC @ 4.5Ghz.

The RAM I'm using is no longer in production so I'd either have to buy a different pair to get to 16GB, or buy them used off of eBay.

Would these ones work fine?
http://www.ncix.com/detail/kingston-hyperx-fury-memory-black-5e-95956.htm

DDR4 isn't an option right now, I don't plan to do a new mobo/CPU build just yet.

So what should I do? Should I bother upgrading to 16GB? Should I buy a used set of matching RAM sticks online or the new non-matching ones?

I wouldn't bother investing in more RAM for Sandy Bridge. It's still holding out for now, but it doesn't have the years left in it that it used to. If you do get more RAM, don't spend much. Getting a cheap used set to compliment your current RAM wouldn't be a terrible idea, but keep in mind that could impact your OC. More sticks or higher RAM speed is more intensive on the memory controller.

 

[gkeller16]

I have a question on upgrading my current build and need help from those far smarter than me. I have a i5 3570k on a ASRock Z77 Extreme4 board w/8gb ram. My graphics card is crap by todays standards and want to know can I get away with just upgrading the card or will I be bottlenecked by the processor? I am wanting to run games on high/ultra settings without it being a slideshow.

I am looking at maybe a XFX Radeon RX 480 8GB GDDR5 Video Card ,Microcenter has it for $259 but any suggestion is welcome since I have been out of the PC world for a while.