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"I Need a New PC!" 2016 Plus Ultra! HBM2, VR, 144Hz, and 4K for all!

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Weevilone

Member
I'm looking to purchase Windows 10 pro, where is the cheapest place to do so?

It's not the cheapest way, but I prefer to buy the full retail version (like $158 on Amazon). I have 4 or 5 licenses. One is OEM and the others were the free upgrades from Win 8 keys I had. I use them with various virtual machines, a HTPC, my gaming box, etc.

The OEM license is on my game box. I recently replaced the CPU and motherboard due to a failed MB. I was easily able to re-activate the key after the replacement, but the new MB would up being defective. I swapped it to a very similar board and now MS doesn't want to let me re-activate the key. I need to call back and hassle with another rep to see what can be done, but they are considering it a "new" PC so they want me to buy Win10 again. The virtual machine copies are always a hassle b/c they go inactive when any of the VM parameters change (CPU cores, etc).

I'd just prefer to have the retail key where this isn't an issue, but a lot of folks just want a cheap disposable key. I've had a lot more issues with Win10 in this regard than previous OS.
 

Jezbollah

Member
What's a good small/low power GPU that is gonna be used strictly for web browsing and movie watching (no gaming) ?

If you have no option to use the integrated graphics in your CPU then something like a GTX1050 would be sufficient for anything up to and including 4k.
 

Branson

Member
Is it ok to move an older power supply and ram over to a new computer Im building to save money? They are working 100% so I guess it would be ok just getting another opinion.
 
Is it ok to move an older power supply and ram over to a new computer Im building to save money? They are working 100% so I guess it would be ok just getting another opinion.

If the power supply is reliable that should be fine, but the RAM raises the question of model. DDR3 isn't compatible with motherboards that use DDR4. If you're just going from one DDR4 motherboard to another, or even a DDR3 motherboard to another, then yes you can still use your existing RAM.
 

Jeff6851

Member
I've seen a few reports than RAM prices are expected to drop Q3 this year. Does anyone here who knows the industry expect this as well?

I saw that prices went up because of smartphones using DDR4 RAM so does production on phones slow in Q3? I know that launch is then so it would make sense that it slows a bit but there should be holiday production still I would guess.
 

Vipu

Banned
I'm looking to purchase Windows 10 pro, where is the cheapest place to do so?

I dont know but some forums maybe?

In my country we have some forums where people sell OEM win10 pro keys for 5-10€
Its pretty damn cheap, even if you upgrade something its not bad to pay again that 8€ for new key instead 100€+ for "endless" use.
 
If you have no option to use the integrated graphics in your CPU then something like a GTX1050 would be sufficient for anything up to and including 4k.

That was the exact card I was looking at when I was searching, probably gonna go with either the MSI or EVGA.

Thanks for the help.
 
Is new thread coming? Way past 20k posts.

Haz was waiting on Ryzen to drop I believe so as to know how to slot it into suggested builds; since the R7's turned out not quite be phenomenal as dedicated gaming hardware though (versus streaming and workbenching) they've been left pondering where to recommend them if at all.
 
D

Deleted member 22576

Unconfirmed Member
My front panel headphone port has buzzing noise when I play games, is there a way to eliminate that?
Is the cable that connects it the motherboard touching or rubbing against any other cable like a fan power cable maybe?
 
In a update to my first post, I'll go to my local pc shop (in the morning after work) and see if I can get a custom pc built that's decent for under $850. The PC I posted has an iffy power supply and no SSD drive.
 
Is the cable that connects it the motherboard touching or rubbing against any other cable like a fan power cable maybe?
It's touching SATA cables. Kind of hard for it to not touch anything since the HD Audio port is very near the back I/O. I suspect it's EMI when PC is under load, but it's an ITX build, I don't have another PCI-E slot for a sound card.
 

0racle

Member
Anyone familiar witht he Gigabyte GA 170x Gaming GT mother board?

I am doing an reliable soft overclock via bios settings. The thing is there is no way to manually change the core frequency, or voltage settings. I have a 6700K and for some reason everything seems locked. There was a CPU Upgrade option, so I selected I7 6700K 4.5 Ghz. I rather have more customization rather than a drop down option.

When I ran CPU Z stress test my cores stayed around 60c in temperature, and voltage around 1.272 to 1.284
 
Anyone familiar witht he Gigabyte GA 170x Gaming GT mother board?

I am doing an reliable soft overclock via bios settings. The thing is there is no way to manually change the core frequency, or voltage settings. I have a 6700K and for some reason everything seems locked. There was a CPU Upgrade option, so I selected I7 6700K 4.5 Ghz. I rather have more customization rather than a drop down option.

When I ran CPU Z stress test my cores stayed around 60c in temperature, and voltage around 1.272 to 1.284
Turn off the cpu upgrade thing and do it manually. I'm guessing your vcore is on auto in the bios? I have a gigabyte z170x-ud3, not sure how similar it is to your bios.
 

Branson

Member
If the power supply is reliable that should be fine, but the RAM raises the question of model. DDR3 isn't compatible with motherboards that use DDR4. If you're just going from one DDR4 motherboard to another, or even a DDR3 motherboard to another, then yes you can still use your existing RAM.
Ah shit yeah I forgot about the DDR number. Right. Ok so scratch the ram idea. I'm on a sandy bridge. So a 2011 build with a 980.
 
guys, I'm about to buy a GTX 1080, I'm torn between these models:

MSI X Gaming
ASUS STRIX
EVGA FTW
EVGA Superclocked
Gigabyte G1

Which one is the most recommended?
 

sono

Gold Member
guys, I'm about to buy a GTX 1080, I'm torn between these models:

MSI X Gaming
ASUS STRIX
EVGA FTW
EVGA Superclocked
Gigabyte G1

Which one is the most recommended?

For close to the price of the EVGA Superclocked you should consider the Gigabyte extreme gaming 1080 premium pack, which includes VR link.

The review mentions it is also very cool (temperature wise)
 

luffeN

Member
4K movies are encoded in HEVC 10-bit. Decoding it with software methods is VERY slow, you need something with a hardware decoder and hdmi 2.0. Intel kabylake and Pascal GPUs can do it very easily. Anything older has limited support for hevc at best and have to do it through software and it's not usable with high quality videos at 60fps and/or with HDR. Lesser clips will work.

You can buy a gtx 1050 and be fully covered. I don't follow what AMD does.

edit: if you want to use netflix 4k, only kabylake CPUs work as of now.

Thanks! Do I need the GPU or would the CPU be enough for the task with an HDMI out on the motherboard? I once ran into a problem that the CPU was strong enough for 1080 @ 120 hz but the output from the motherboard was not. So ... a motherboard with HDMI 2.0?
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Monitors. At home I have an ultrawide 3440x1440, but at work I'm stuck with a 24" 1080p monitor. I need a decently sized browser window open for JIRA, and then other windows for Slack, Skype and email.

I have a macbook air so I think I may be limited to a single external monitor unless I fiddle about with USB adapters etc (and USB ports are scarce on this thing too).

Anyway, was wondering about resolution. As most/all of my stuff is mostly text based, I don't think I'll particularly benefit from a 3440x1440 screen? Would 2560x1080 give me enough resolution? And hopefully just enough extra width so my browser doesn't feel so cramped next to my chat windows. (I have email on my laptop screen down below which is ok.

thoughts? And for a similar size to a 24" 1080p monitor, would a 29" UW be the right size?
 

paskowitz

Member
I just ordered 2 Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti from Nvidia. While I am planning on flipping them on eBay (sorry I am that guy right now)... if I can't get enough (~$100 net) for them I will sell them at cost here. PM if you are interested.
 

Melubas

Member
Gaf, can you help me out. I currently have a 390x with a 4770k (not overclocked) and 16gb 1600 mhz DDR3-RAM. I'm going to get AMD:s new high end card if it can match the 1080ti, otherwise I will get that one since I'm going to be gaming in 4k mostly.. Is my processor or RAM outdated for 4k gaming? Will the processor be a bottleneck for the new graphics card? Don't really feel like forking out money for a motherboard, cpu and new memory at the same time as the new graphics card.
 
Even a 970 would have multiple outputs... got a picture of the rear of your PC?

wait what? You have a gtx 970 that only has one video output, and it's analog? VGA? Are you sure it isn't DVI?

Sorry for taking so long to get back to y'all--was on pain meds last week due to an injury.

Okay, nm, it's DVI and only one DVI, but has multiple HDMI outputs:

s1eenFH.jpg

I know this may sound stupid, but I've never done dual/multiple monitors via HDMI. Am I safe in assuming it's as simple as plugging in the second monitor (provided it has an HDMI input)?
 

kennah

Member
Sorry for taking so long to get back to y'all--was on pain meds last week due to an injury.

Okay, nm, it's DVI and only one DVI, but has multiple HDMI outputs:



I know this may sound stupid, but I've never done dual/multiple monitors via HDMI. Am I safe in assuming it's as simple as plugging in the second monitor (provided it has an HDMI input)?
It is that simple. There is only one HDMI. The rest are DisplayPort. The newer standard that is needed for higher resolutions or higher refresh rates.
 

Parsifal

Neo Member
I need of your wisdom!

I have just moved in a new apartment where I can finally connect via HDMI my PC to the home TV.

I'm currently using a 1070 G1, to which I have connected a 1080p 144hz main monitor, a 1080p 60hz second monitor, and a 4k Samsung KS65 TV.

My concerns are the following:

Since my GPU is not powerful enough to play at 4k for newer games,

1) should I configure my 4k TV at 1080p and play at that resolution?

2) or on the other hand, I should leave the TV at its native resolution and then change the in game resolution to 1080p? If so, should I let the GPU do the scaling, or the TV itself ?

3) since the TV and my main monitor have different refresh rates, I can't duplicate screens (shame) because otherwise my TV suffers from tearing. Is there any work around for this besides using extend screen ? I have tried with vsync, without, and with adaptive, with no luck.

Your advice on this will be greatly appreciated! I have no clue whatsoever about that's the best way to configure all this.
 

Ty4on

Member
I appreciate the help! I shall mess around with the RAM tomorrow. :)

Oh and, I did have Windows installed on the SSD initially when I first setup the system. When I was doing the reformats trying to get things back to normal, I flip flopped installs between the two hard drives several times. Same issues with both. So I'm assuming it's not a hard drive issue?
Yeah, sounds like RAM.

Try using the computer with only RAM stick 1 and if it still fails only RAM stick 2. RAM issues can be a mess so just replace both sticks with a fresh new kit if it fixes itself when you disconnect one stick.

I googled the first BSOD issue and it does indeed seem RAM related. Some software solutions, but considering you've reformatted I don't think they're going to help. If you're a heavy chrome user this could be an excuse to get 16 or 32GB :p
I really wanna upgrade my 8GB of RAM...
 

Jeff6851

Member
Gaf, can you help me out. I currently have a 390x with a 4770k (not overclocked) and 16gb 1600 mhz DDR3-RAM. I'm going to get AMD:s new high end card if it can match the 1080ti, otherwise I will get that one since I'm going to be gaming in 4k mostly.. Is my processor or RAM outdated for 4k gaming? Will the processor be a bottleneck for the new graphics card? Don't really feel like forking out money for a motherboard, cpu and new memory at the same time as the new graphics card.

You should definitely overclock if you're playing in 4K.

I'm not the best with RAM but I'd either get some that's faster or go to 32 GB (again, someone will definitely know better than me on this).
 

laxu

Member
I need of your wisdom!

I have just moved in a new apartment where I can finally connect via HDMI my PC to the home TV.

I'm currently using a 1070 G1, to which I have connected a 1080p 144hz main monitor, a 1080p 60hz second monitor, and a 4k Samsung KS65 TV.

My concerns are the following:

Since my GPU is not powerful enough to play at 4k for newer games,

1) should I configure my 4k TV at 1080p and play at that resolution?

2) or on the other hand, I should leave the TV at its native resolution and then change the in game resolution to 1080p? If so, should I let the GPU do the scaling, or the TV itself ?

3) since the TV and my main monitor have different refresh rates, I can't duplicate screens (shame) because otherwise my TV suffers from tearing. Is there any work around for this besides using extend screen ? I have tried with vsync, without, and with adaptive, with no luck.

Your advice on this will be greatly appreciated! I have no clue whatsoever about that's the best way to configure all this.

You could play at a variety of resolutions like 1440p and let the TV upscale that. Always set the resolution in the game, don't turn down the resolution of the TV. Try both scaling options, usually the GPU one is shit quality but the TV might introduce input lag.

But to be honest if you overclock the 1070 then you can easily play 4K @ 30+ fps if you are ok with that. Just turn antialiasing to FXAA/SMAA.
 

laxu

Member
You should definitely overclock if you're playing in 4K.

I'm not the best with RAM but I'd either get some that's faster or go to 32 GB (again, someone will definitely know better than me on this).

32 GB RAM would do absolutely nothing for your performance. Totally excessive for gaming. Faster RAM would do a little but overall not worth it to upgrade that. Overclocking the 4770K would be your best bet. You are unlikely to run into any real CPU bottleneck issues in most games at 4K. The GPU will be the main bottleneck. You might get better framerate in CPU bound games like GTA V with a newer processor.

Overclock the shit out of your CPU, see how it handles your new GPU.
 
Building a new PC and just found the HyperX Savage 240GB SATA 3 2.5" SSD on sale for £66.38. Any good?

I'll be using a B350 motherboard, any recommendations on a SATA cable? Do I need SATA III? How can I get the most out of this SSD?
 

kennah

Member
Übermatik;231972937 said:
Building a new PC and just found the HyperX Savage 240GB SATA 3 2.5" SSD on sale for £66.38. Any good?

I'll be using a B350 motherboard, any recommendations on a SATA cable? Do I need SATA III? How can I get the most out of this SSD?

Probably as good as any other. M2 is needed for the newer faster standard, but if you've never had an SSD that would be a huge improvement.

You want SATA3, your motherboard will come with cables.
 
Probably as good as any other. M2 is needed for the newer faster standard, but if you've never had an SSD that would be a huge improvement.

You want SATA3, your motherboard will come with cables.

Mobo includes SATA III, PSU includes power cable... so I can just buy a drive with no worries?

I've never had any SSD before - so do you mean I won't really notice the difference between M.2 and SATA III? M.2 plugs straight into the motherboard right, nothing additional needed?
 

Melubas

Member
You should definitely overclock if you're playing in 4K.

I'm not the best with RAM but I'd either get some that's faster or go to 32 GB (again, someone will definitely know better than me on this).

Yeah I've been slowly gathering the courage to attempt my first overclock. It seems like such a tedious and time-consuming process that I haven't had the energy for it yet. I ran the AIDA64 FTU-stress test and it went to 83 degrees celsius in like 10 minutes with a Noctua NH-U9B cooler, so if I have to reapply thermal paste I will have to gather even more courage.

32 GB RAM would do absolutely nothing for your performance. Totally excessive for gaming. Faster RAM would do a little but overall not worth it to upgrade that. Overclocking the 4770K would be your best bet. You are unlikely to run into any real CPU bottleneck issues in most games at 4K. The GPU will be the main bottleneck. You might get better framerate in CPU bound games like GTA V with a newer processor.

Overclock the shit out of your CPU, see how it handles your new GPU.

Yeah, I might have to try to overclock finally. It's scary for a beginner like me, haha. Thank you both for the answer.
 
Question, guys.

How much of upgrade would it be to jump from an i5 4690 (non k) to an i7 7700k or equivalent Ryzen CPU (1700 is the equivalent price here in Canada)?

This would mean me changing the motherboard and RAM as well.

I have a 980 ti/i5 4690 combo right now and game at 1440p on my monitor or 4k on my television when possible. I'm wondering how held back I am at 4k specifically, but also 1440p.
 

0racle

Member
Does anyone here play FPS with a controller? I know it's a sin but I'm curious. I'm rusty, played a FPS on Pc last night for the first time in years and it didn't jive. Will I be doing myself a big disservice using a controller?
 
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