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[Leeroy605]

Hey guys,

Can anyone help me with purchasing a new headset? Currently using the PlayStation Gold headset on my PC and need an upgrade!

Need help with suggestions and whether to go USB or 3.5mm for connections.

I have this motherboard (Gigabyte Z97n-Gaming 5):

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4999#ov

Which has some added features for audio however I am wary as to how good these actually are. Also due to it being an M-ATX motherboard an internal sound card is not an option (no additional PCI slots!).

I game with a Roccat Sova Lapboard from my couch so was leaning towards a USB headset to just plug into the additional USB port that it has and save me running wires across the room (this is assuming wireless headphones are a big no no?). But if the sound quality was miles better from the motherboard then I think I would make a sacrifice in this regard.

Got around £100 to spend, willing to go slightly over for good ones. The Sennheiser models with the USB sound card any good? Can get a PC 363D for just over my budget and seems to be the best of both worlds for me.

Thank you for your help!

 

[7roject28]

Just did a new build recently. Haven't bought the graphics card yet but I went ahead and started her up anyways just to get things started. At first it wouldn't boot up. The power would come on for half a second then immediately shut off. Well I found out the problem. It was because I didn't have Hobbit size hands to fit inside to push the 24pin in all the way to the PSU. So I fixed that but the computer still randomly turns on and shuts off once in a while. I turned off my computer so I can install the wifi card. After it's turned off I went and grabbed the wifi card. As I started to insert it, the pins touched the pci-express port and it turned on the computer. I was like, uuuuuhhhhhhhh ok. I'm wondering if it's like shorting somewhere.

Also the computer never went to sleep before. Then all the sudden it went into sleep mode. This was after it updated itself. So I was like ok, maybe the update change the settings somewhere. So I had it sleeping for a day with no mouse or keyboard attached to it because I have it connected to my previous computer and was playing League. All the sudden it started up by itself and stayed on for like 5 minutes and went back to sleep. I think my computer is possessed.

 

[Plum]

It's really about how much value you place on portability. Do you absolutely want to be able to play your games anywhere? Then the laptop is probably the choice for you. Note that laptop hardware always comes at a premium compared to desktop hardware - which obviously you're aware of.

Personally I fall into the gaming PC/cheaper laptop for web browsing/word processing category, I've been burned by laptops meant for gaming.

i think laptop hardware like that would hold up fine, but i'd be more worried about your spine after carrying a gaming laptop around for three years. those things are meant to stay on desks and public transport.

maybe get a new desktop along with a cheap chromebook or something for lectures?

Again reposting from the 2016 laptop thread:

Thanks for the advice; I've decided on what to do. I just ordered a £110 Lenovo Ideapad from the Cyber Monday sales and I'll be using that as literally just a "note-taking, essay-writing" machine, one that I'll take to university each day and then either put on charge or keep in my bag when I get back to wherever I live. Alongside that I'll get the MSI laptop as overall the portability is so much better for me. Having no car and living over an hour and a half away means that I would need my family to pick me up if I wanted to go home with the desktop and monitor, and during holidays that aren't Summer and weekends that just isn't something I want to do.

So yeah, a £1,900 gaming laptop aimed at being a desktop replacement and a £110 basic laptop aimed at being a disposable word/powerpoint machine. It's about £400 more than it would be if I bought the desktop, but considering that this is a long-term investment I'm fine paying the premium. On top of that I don't have much other than the Switch (which I've already budgeted for) I want to buy in the recent future.

 

[ParityBit]

So I picked up a 1TB SSD from Newegg today. What is the best way to handle the install? I have a 7200RPM which has random stuff on it (should be unaffected) and my current 250 SSD with my OS and games.

I am not too concerned with the games since I can not hold many, and the saves are in the cloud I think.

I was thinking just doing a clean install (especially with the assumption that my non-OS drive would not be affected)

Edit: oh yeah, Windows 10

 

[Goroh]

What's the cheapest way to get a windows 10 pro key?

 

[The Demon Headmaster]

Quick question on monitors. I'm aiming for above 1080p but not 4k. However If I saw a good deal on a 4k one I might buy it to future proof myself. If I'm using a 4k monitor but running at a lower resolution would the image look worse than if I got a 2560x1440 screen?

 

[lostsupper]

What's the cheapest way to get a windows 10 pro key?

Kinguin

 

[ISee]

Quick question on monitors. I'm aiming for above 1080p but not 4k. However If I saw a good deal on a 4k one I might but it. If I'm using a 4k monitor but running at a lower resolution would the image look worse than if I got a 2560x1440 screen?

Had the same idea a couple of days ago. Even made a thread asking the same question.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1320023

I even ordered two monitors to find out myself. One 1440p (27", arrived today) and one 2160p (28", should arrive tomorrow). All I can say: Going from 1080p to 1440p is already a huge step up. Will test 1440p to 4k upscaling tomorrow and then decide which display I'm going to keep.

 

[The Demon Headmaster]

Had the same idea a couple of days ago. Even made a thread asking the same question.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1320023

I even ordered two monitors to find out myself. One 1440p (27", arrived today) and one 2160p (28", should arrive tomorrow). All I can say: Going from 1080p to 1440p is already a huge step up. Will test 1440p to 4k upscaling tomorrow and then decide which display I'm going to keep.

Excellent id be very keen on your findings. I'm currently trying to decide between a 1440p or 4k monitor

 

[MikeDip]

Can anyone please tell me if any of these fanless mini pcs can play the following games?

Azulle Quantum Byte

Minix Neo 83-4

Games needed:

Spelunky

Mushihimesama

I linked to the pcs and the games, can someone please check for me? I don't understand this mini pc stuff.

If there is no chance in hell these will work can someone suggest alternatives? Thank you

 

[DataGhost]

Well.... fuck...

Today, best Buy had a sale on Asus ROG SWIFT monitors for $300 and I thought it was a great buy.

First one ended up with two dead pixels.

My brother got jealous and I decided to buy him one too.

Second one ended up with a line (of dead pixels)

Third had a few dead pixels.

I'm just going to return it.

Can someone recommend a 144hz monitor? My friend is recommending ASUS VG248QE and is saying ASUS is not the problem, most likely the model.

 

[-Deimos]

I've searched for the cause of a small problem I'm having with my PC but I've come up with nothing, so maybe someone here can help.

Ever since I upgraded my GPU to a GTX 1060, my Windows 10 fast startup sometimes stops during the loading screen, hangs on a black screen for a couple of seconds and drops the video connection to my monitor. Then, the HDD light on my case stops flickering for a couple of seconds and my pc does a full restart (which takes forever on my HDD). I've tested it and it only happens during fast startups, manual restarts are fine. Since this only started happening after I upgraded my GPU, I tried re-seating it and doing a clean driver update with DDU from the earliest 10 series driver, which didn't work.

I upgraded my pc with an SSD a few days ago along with a fresh install of Windows and the latest Nvidia drivers. I also re-seated the GPU again, just to be safe. I still have my old HDD connected to store data, though, and didn't format it, but I made sure to disconnect it during the new windows install. For the first couple days I didn't notice any problems, but this morning it happened again. It's obviously not really a problem anymore since the SSD boot time is so fast, but I'd like to know what's causing this for sure.

At this point, I'm pretty sure it's the nvidia drivers especially since they've been garbage lately, but I can't be too sure and don't have my old GPU to rollback to. Has anyone encountered something like this before?

Does it go away when you turn off fast boot?

Tested my pc several times with fast boot off over the past few hours and didn't encounter the issue once. It definitely has something to do with fast startup. In the meantime, I'm just going to keep it off since I didn't even notice any slowdown in boot time, but if anyone knows what the problem is, let me know.

 

[Zombegoast]

I got my Z170-A MOBO, installed everything and put my 8GB DDR4 into DIMM_A2 and B2. Pressed the power button and like before my PC won't start. The GPU and CPU both turn on for less than a second and the light on the case for the power button turn on and fade quickly. before it would stay on with the old MOBO. The only thing that stays on is the MOBO with a solid green light and the Ethernet Cable Port.

The back case fans might be causing the issue. The LED light on the front goes bright red before shutting off while the one in the back is dim with the fan not spinning at all. This was happening with the old MOBO as well.

 

[Reckoner]

Well.... fuck...

Today, best Buy had a sale on Asus ROG SWIFT monitors for $300 and I thought it was a great buy.

First one ended up with two dead pixels.

My brother got jealous and I decided to buy him one too.

Second one ended up with a line (of dead pixels)

Third had a few dead pixels.

I'm just going to return it.

Can someone recommend a 144hz monitor? My friend is recommending ASUS VG248QE and is saying ASUS is not the problem, most likely the model.

Asus is solid, but their first G-Sync TN panel had quality issues. Probably that was the one you got. It's the PG278Q IIRC.

I have a 1080p BenQ XL2420G that I really like. It was one of the cheapest when I got it with G-Sync. The only downside is the build quality and its cheap chassis plastic that scratches easily. The panel is fine. It's not that bad, but for the price I expected something better on that front. Still, a great product.

 

[opticalmace]

Tested my pc several times with fast boot off over the past few hours and didn't encounter the issue once. It definitely has something to do with fast startup. In the meantime, I'm just going to keep it off since I didn't even notice any slowdown in boot time, but if anyone knows what the problem is, let me know.

Do you overclock your cpu or gpu? Fast boot can introduce instabilities.

 

[microdot]

If you have 16GB of RAM installed on your pc and was given another 16GB of RAM for free would you install it or sell it?


Not sure what to do....

 

[opticalmace]

If you have 16GB of RAM installed on your pc and was given another 16GB of RAM for free would you install it or sell it?


Not sure what to do....

If it was a gift I would install it. Not that you probably need it, but you know.

What is the old kit/new kit?

 

[DataGhost]

Asus is solid, but their first G-Sync TN panel had quality issues. Probably that was the one you got. It's the PG278Q IIRC.

I have a 1080p BenQ XL2420G that I really like. It was one of the cheapest when I got it with G-Sync. The only downside is the build quality and its cheap chassis plastic that scratches easily. The panel is fine. It's not that bad, but for the price I expected something better on that front. Still, a great product.

Yeah unfortunately, it was the PG248Q actually. I ended up with three of them. I bought three of them (+ one exchanged) and it seems like I got bad luck cause my friend has no problems with their monitor (no dead pixels, lines) (the second one I bought that he's paying me back for). I'm wondering if I should try again but that might come with more problems. Might just try to switch Best Buys.

 

[microdot]

If it was a gift I would install it. Not that you probably need it, but you know.

What is the old kit/new kit?

Both are Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200mhz. I bought one and my friend bought one for me from my wishlist.

 

[opticalmace]

Both are Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200mhz. I bought one and my friend bought one for me from my wishlist.

I would pop it in personally.

 

[-Deimos]

Do you overclock your cpu or gpu? Fast boot can introduce instabilities.

Nope, didn't do anything other than install the 1060 and the only available driver at the time. I have a workaround for the problem now I guess, I just hope it doesn't come back to bite me in the ass.

 

[Husker86]

Been running for a couple weeks now, thought I'd post a picture.

6800K @ 4.2GHz (4.2 favorite core, 4.1 others -- I haven't really messed much with this as I'm just happy I got above 4.0GHz easily. I could probably have all cores at 4.2, I just didn't even try.)
Asus X99-A II
Corsair H115i
Corsair Carbide 400C
MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G
32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000
Windows / Linux on their own Samsung EVO 850 SSD (thinking about NVMe for the future, held off because of 960 release dates)
EVGA 650w G2

Trying to get into gaming more (I tend to use all my time on software development related things). Was able to push the computer with Witcher 3 which looks and runs amazing at 1080p, but haven't tried much beyond that as far as games go.

Since I switch between Windows and Linux a decent amount, I am somewhat annoyed by the long startup time of this motherboard; not sure what the deal is there. It takes several seconds before I get to the POST screen, and hitting F2/Delete to get to the BIOS doesn't even work every time...sometimes it just freezes. I've resorted to using the Grub bootloader option to reboot into the BIOS settings because it's more reliable.

Other than that, really happy with the build. It runs cool and is actually pretty quiet despite 4 fans. Thinking this should last me for quite some time.

 

[QuantumSquid]

Spent 4 hours helping my friend put his new PC together. Came out pretty well, I think!

i5-6600K, GTX 1070, 16GB DDR4-3000. And yes, the cables were tidied up after that picture was taken.

 

[lostsupper]

Spent 4 hours helping my friend put his new PC together. Came out pretty well, I think!



i5-6600K, GTX 1070, 16GB DDR4-3000. And yes, the cables were tidied up after that picture was taken.

Decent, except for that flea market cooler.

 

[zoozilla]

Switch out the 750 evo for the 850. 850 evo 500 GB is on sale for 129.99 basically everywhere(should be similarly priced in Japan), and it's a much faster drive.

I'd also switch out the case for an Nzxt s340, but that's personal preference.

Yeah the 850 evo seems like a fantastic deal, but unfortunately in Japan the price difference between it and the 750 is pretty big. 750 goes for 12,480 yen (~$111), 850 goes for 17,980 yen (~$160). It looks like Amazon US is selling the 850 for less than the 750, that's crazy. I could spend more on the 850, but I'll have to think about it. This'll be my first PC with an SSD - would I notice a difference between the 2 models?

As for the case, the S340 is ATX, right? I was really looking for something that was a little more compact that a full tower. Also, the NZXT case would basically cost twice as much.

Thanks for the advice, though, I appreciate the feedback.

 

[Joco]

Yeah unfortunately, it was the PG248Q actually. I ended up with three of them. I bought three of them (+ one exchanged) and it seems like I got bad luck cause my friend has no problems with their monitor (no dead pixels, lines) (the second one I bought that he's paying me back for). I'm wondering if I should try again but that might come with more problems. Might just try to switch Best Buys.

Yeesh, I jumped on this monitor earlier when Best Buy had it for $300. Hope I don't run into these problems.

 

[BlindJesus]

Excellent id be very keen on your findings. I'm currently trying to decide between a 1440p or 4k monitor

1440p monitor that runs at 144hz is the sweet spot imo. The jump from 1080p to 1440p is very noticeable, the jump from 60hz to 144hz is even greater. Putting those together is a huge step in visual quality

 

[flipswitch]

Going from 3770k/980ti/16GB ddr3 to 6770k/1080/16GB ddr4, is it worth it, will it be a big enough jump?

 

[Stumpokapow]

Going from 3770k/980ti/16GB ddr3 to 6770k/1080/16GB ddr4, is it worth it, will it be a big enough jump?

I find it hard to believe you're bottlenecked on anything except 4K gaming with your current setup.

 

[Finaika]

Going from 3770k/980ti/16GB ddr3 to 6770k/1080/16GB ddr4, is it worth it, will it be a big enough jump?

Its like going from a PS4 to the PS4 Pro.

 

[Mozendo]

Hey guys,

Can anyone help me with purchasing a new headset? Currently using the PlayStation Gold headset on my PC and need an upgrade!

Need help with suggestions and whether to go USB or 3.5mm for connections.

I have this motherboard (Gigabyte Z97n-Gaming 5):

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4999#ov

Which has some added features for audio however I am wary as to how good these actually are. Also due to it being an M-ATX motherboard an internal sound card is not an option (no additional PCI slots!).

I game with a Roccat Sova Lapboard from my couch so was leaning towards a USB headset to just plug into the additional USB port that it has and save me running wires across the room (this is assuming wireless headphones are a big no no?). But if the sound quality was miles better from the motherboard then I think I would make a sacrifice in this regard.

Got around £100 to spend, willing to go slightly over for good ones. The Sennheiser models with the USB sound card any good? Can get a PC 363D for just over my budget and seems to be the best of both worlds for me.

Thank you for your help!

Get the Kingston HyperX Cloud 2s.

 

[nightmare-slain]

Going from 3770k/980ti/16GB ddr3 to 6770k/1080/16GB ddr4, is it worth it, will it be a big enough jump?

the cpu/ram isn't going to make a huge difference but the 1080 will be a nice upgrade. depending on the game and what resolution you could see anywhere between 10-30fps more than a 980 ti.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1714?vs=1715

 

[ParityBit]

Any advice for installing a new HDD?

Is it easy to reinstall Windows 10 (This machine was upgraded for free)

 

[killertofu]

Does anyone have a G600 or a mouse with G-Shift?

Can I unassign "Control" when holding it down or is that locked in? I use this in After Effects a lot. Nomally I have buttons assigned for going left and right a frame (page down). I want to be able to go ten frames left and ten frames right (Shift + Page up/down) but right now I can't get the G-Shift to remove the "Control" button before my macro...

 

[DataGhost]

Yeesh, I jumped on this monitor earlier when Best Buy had it for $300. Hope I don't run into these problems.

Good luck. Having a 75% dead pixels rate has soured me on trying to exchange it again.

If I paid through paypal with a credit card and refund it, the credit goes back to the credit card and not paypal right?

 

[nightmare-slain]

Any advice for installing a new HDD?

Is it easy to reinstall Windows 10 (This machine was upgraded for free)

it's really simple. just create your installation media by going to:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

Boot into that and it will set up the installation on the new drive. Your license will be stored in your microsoft account so just log into that and it will activate it.

 

[e90Mark]

Good luck. Having a 75% dead pixels rate has soured me on trying to exchange it again.

If I paid through paypal with a credit card and refund it, the credit goes back to the credit card and not paypal right?

Yes, goes back on to your card and not pp balance.

 

[Pharaoh 117]

Classic combo is an Asus Z170A with 16GB of high speed DDR4. Corsair LPX is a good brand.

Go with whatever you like. Honestly once you start going into the $120+ MoBos (not counting sales and MIR) they're pretty much the same from a general consumer standpoint.

I'm a fan of ASRock Motherboards, Gigabyte and Asus also make quality MoBos.
The Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Ultra Gaming and the ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Professional Gaming i7 which is ASRock's Z170 flagship are on pretty nice discounts and my friends have had no issue with them whatsoever.

I find that most RAM brands offer a lifetime warranty, at least the ones I've trust for example.Skill, Crucial, Avexir, Corsair all do. Honestly just get whatever you can with the highest speed at your budget that matches your computers color scheme if you care about that.

Thanks for the help. Just decided what parts to pick.

 

[DataGhost]

Yes, goes back on to your card and not pp balance.

I hope so.

Don't want to have to withdraw $500 a month.

Either way, anyone know of a good recommended monitor deal for 1080p 144hz or 120hz? Don't care for 4k or 1440p.

 

[e90Mark]

I hope so.

Don't want to have to withdraw $500 a month.

Either way, anyone know of a good recommended monitor deal for 1080p 144hz or 120hz? Don't care for 4k or 1440p.

I know you said you don't care for 1440p, but the 24" S2417DG was on sale at amazon for like $350. 165hz, 1440p, and g-sync.

It may still be? Not sure.

 

[DataGhost]

I know you said you don't care for 1440p, but the 24" S2417DG was on sale at amazon for like $350. 165hz, 1440p, and g-sync.

It may still be? Not sure.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be. Which Companies are well known for qualtiy monitors? Building my first rig so want my first monitor to start off with to be a recommended one but hopefully not too much as my rig already costed quite a bit.

 

[e90Mark]

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be. Which Companies are well known for qualtiy monitors? Building my first rig so want my first monitor to start off with to be a recommended one but hopefully not too much as my rig already costed quite a bit.

Dell, BenQ/Zowie, Asus, Acer.

 

[Mupod]

only having half your parts is the worst torture. I remember this pain. Gotta wait for my case and PSU to show up.

Roommate is letting me borrow an SSD for my OS drive until the samsung 960 materializes so I'm good there. His RAID 0 failed a while back and he still had one of the drives, because he's the kind of person who immediately just went out and bought two bigger SSDs and did RAID 0 again.

Have a pretty solid motherboard/cooler combo (asus maximus viii hero and corsair h115i) so it's all down to luck if I can get the 6700k to 5ghz. I'll have fun doing it at least. My current motherboard is a gigabyte z68 with an oldschool as fuck BIOS that had some...quirks when it came to overclocking. LLC worked differently than it should have for example. My roommate had the previous version of the Hero and its UEFI amazed me so much I had to have my own.

 

[lostsupper]

only having half your parts is the worst torture. I remember this pain. Gotta wait for my case and PSU to show up.

Roommate is letting me borrow an SSD for my OS drive until the samsung 960 materializes so I'm good there. His RAID 0 failed a while back and he still had one of the drives, because he's the kind of person who immediately just went out and bought two bigger SSDs and did RAID 0 again.

Have a pretty solid motherboard/cooler combo (asus maximus viii hero and corsair h115i) so it's all down to luck if I can get the 6700k to 5ghz. I'll have fun doing it at least. My current motherboard is a gigabyte z68 with an oldschool as fuck BIOS that had some...quirks when it came to overclocking. LLC worked differently than it should have for example. My roommate had the previous version of the Hero and its UEFI amazed me so much I had to have my own.

Delid that 6700k if you're serious about overclocking it. 5GHz will only be attainable by a small percentage of chips. 4.8GHz seems to be the mean limit.

 

[Mupod]

Delid that 6700k if you're serious about overclocking it. 5GHz will only be attainable by a small percentage of chips. 4.8GHz seems to be the mean limit.

does that really have a major benefit on skylake? My roommate delidded his 4790k recently and was pretty happy with the results, so at least one of us has experience doing it.

I doubt I'll go for it myself, at least not right away.

 

[WhiteWolf]

Hey guys, I recently put together my new PC, but I can't figure out what is the best way to face my Cryorig H7 heat sink. Does the fan go up or down or front or back? Does it matter?

Right now I have the fan facing the top of the case which I think might be wrong. Would that mean it's blowing air on my GPU? My case is a Fractal Design Define S by the way.

 

[th3dude]

I know you said you don't care for 1440p, but the 24" S2417DG was on sale at amazon for like $350. 165hz, 1440p, and g-sync.

It may still be? Not sure.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be. Which Companies are well known for qualtiy monitors? Building my first rig so want my first monitor to start off with to be a recommended one but hopefully not too much as my rig already costed quite a bit.

$341 @ Dell.com

http://www.dell.com/en-us/member/shop/accessories/apd/210-aizs?c=us&l=en&s=eep&cs=2236&sku=210-AIZS

 

[OraleeWey]

Any deals out there on some good SSD's?

 

[shanafan]

Researching monitors with 144 hz refresh rate, and I saw this in a product description page on Amazon.

144hz possible with DVI (Dual Link) or Display Port cable

144 hz isn't possible with HDMI? Just curious.

 

[opticalmace]

Hey guys, I recently put together my new PC, but I can't figure out what is the best way to face my Cryorig H7 heat sink. Does the fan go up or down or front or back? Does it matter?

Right now I have the fan facing the top of the case which I think might be wrong. Would that mean it's blowing air on my GPU? My case is a Fractal Design Define S by the way.

You want it to take air from the front of the case and shoot it rearward. There should be a fan at the back of the case taking interior air (behind the CPU cooler) and spitting it out the back.

There are different configs but I think this is a pretty standard one. You don't want the CPU cooler's airflow to be hitting the GPU (or drawing from there).