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[Elven_Star]

Guys, I've got a couple of newbie questions:
1. Do I need an expensive motherboard if I'm not into overclocking, SLI, Crossfire, etc? What models do you recommend? (LGA1151)
2. What are those chipset things in motherboards? Do they affect performance in any way?
3. Do I really need an i7 if I'm going for 1080p60?
4. What's the difference between 6600/6700 and 6600k/6700k? (again, I don't overclock stuff)

 

[big fake]

Hey guys so what would be a decent 1080p ultra setting PC build for about $700-800 Canadian including tax (13%).


Thanks in advance!

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Hey guys so what would be a decent 1080p ultra setting PC build for about $700-800 Canadian including tax (13%).


Thanks in advance!

Read the OP

 

[barkers crest]

Opinions on the Alienware Aurora?

I just ordered one with a 1070 have a similar delivery date as Jaleel. If you participate in the free 'rewards' program you get a coupon code for 10% off and get 5% back in rewards, 10% if you finance (but make sure and pay off right away).

After it is all said and done with the discounts above (and another small one I have through work) the price is very comparable to building your own.

 

[Yopis]

Who makes the best case fans?

 

[laserlaser]

Is shutting down many times a day dangerous for my pc? Stand by doesnt work properly, i have to reboot it twice after stand by.

 

[opticalmace]

Hey guys so what would be a decent 1080p ultra setting PC build for about $700-800 Canadian including tax (13%).

Thanks in advance!

That's gonna be hard if not impossible, depending on how many parts you need/are reusing. Check the OP and fill out the survey there (give us a pre-tax budget(s) for simplicity).

Is shutting down many times a day dangerous for my pc? Stand by doesnt work properly, i have to reboot it twice after stand by.

No problem at all.

 

[Aztechnology]

So guys I'm having a little trouble. I was messing around trying to get my RAM speeds on my DDR4 ram up on my 5820k. My Motherboard is a MX99A SLI Plus. I was running a 4.4ghz OC on my 5820k with ram at 2400mhz. I didn't even think about the changes in strap and I think it caused my OC to change. Now when I try to boot the computer seems to start up fine but there's no bios post. The screens are not getting anything from my GPU. Anyway I was going to jump the CMOS. However I'm not exactly sure what to do on this board. I know I have to power down and unplug the power, didn't seem to come with a jumper so I'll have to use a screw driver. But the manual doesn't say anything about removing the CMOS battery like I've had to do in the past with other boards. Its really barren and just says to power down and jump the CMOS by covering the pins. Is that right? Shouldnt I remove the CMOS battery first?

Here's what it says in the manual. Is the only thing I have to do is just touch the pins?

I'm at my wits end, I have tried everything short of actually testing the DIMM slots and capacitors with voltage monitors as I don't have the tools nor the know how for those things. There's an inordinate amount of threads about X99 boards having this problem. I'm worried it's just something that I'm going to have to live with eventually even if my board is replaced. It could be a BIOS issue, but I've tried to clear CMOS, and flash back (Or two the newest) BIOS a few times with no changes.

The MSI admin says

While everyone is entitled to their own opinion....

Personally, and I realize that this is me expressing my opinion, I think it's nothing but a BIOS problem. I cannot prove this simply because I don't have a motherboard and such from this series, but generally speaking, it just seems to be a complete issue with the motherboards BIOS. I've seen many users who have similar problems. System is working fine, sometimes for months or year, and then suddenly stops working like this. That kind of stuff doesn't just happen, especially at the BIOS. I've always believed the X99 bios's had issues, and that can somewhat be apparent when looking at all the threads that pop up regularly from user with those boards.
Again, please don't take this as meaning it's from MSI (cause it's not), it's merely me expressing my opinion on the situation.

The best thing I can really suggest to do is to contact MSI directly about the problem. >>How to contact MSI.<<

I guess I'm RMA'ing the board even though I can't be sure it's the issue. The only other option I have is bringing it into a local computer repair shop that has the tools I don't. I've never not been able to fix or at least Diagnose a problem on my own before. It's really frustrating.

 

[LordAlu]

Guys, I've got a couple of newbie questions:
1. Do I need an expensive motherboard if I'm not into overclocking, SLI, Crossfire, etc? What models do you recommend? (LGA1151)
2. What are those chipset things in motherboards? Do they affect performance in any way?
3. Do I really need an i7 if I'm going for 1080p60?
4. What's the difference between 6600/6700 and 6600k/6700k? (again, I don't overclock stuff)

1. If you're not overclocking, no you don't. Even an ASUS B150M-A would be fine.
2. The different chipsets define different features, including number of RAM or expansion slots, RAM speed support, SATA & USB ports and so on. H110 is the cheapest and has the least features, and Z170 is the most expensive with the most features.
3. Not particularly, no. A Core i5-6500 would do and you could always upgrade to a Core i7-6700 later if you really wanted to.
4. The K versions will usually have a higher base clock (and thus a higher turbo speed) and are overclockable. They also don't come with a stock cooler, so you'd need to buy your own. That's about it.

 

[cormack12]

Guys, I've got a couple of newbie questions:
1. Do I need an expensive motherboard if I'm not into overclocking, SLI, Crossfire, etc? What models do you recommend? (LGA1151)
2. What are those chipset things in motherboards? Do they affect performance in any way?
3. Do I really need an i7 if I'm going for 1080p60?
4. What's the difference between 6600/6700 and 6600k/6700k? (again, I don't overclock stuff)

1. I guess not, I stretched a little further for the Gigabyte Z170 for the DDR4 memory but I don't really use a massive feature set from the motherboard. Everyone pretty much recommended the i5/6600 which is LGA1151.
2. Not sure what you mean - like Haswell, Skylake etc.?
3. Again, most people seem to stick to the i5 range if just gaming. i7 would be complement if you were doing some serious video editing and running multi core apps (typically, as I understand it, most games are not). i5/6600 seems to be a balance in peformance and a bit of leeway for the future.
4. The 'k' is meant to be overclocked as I understand it, so it doesn't come with a cooler. You'd be expected to get your own where as the standard range come with a stock cooler.


That about right Gaf?

 

[LilJoka]

Anyone ever plugged up their PC's to a kill-a-watt? I've used it on other devices and thought it was accurate. TV's pulling 40-50 watts, electric fans pulling 80-110 watts, everything seemed pretty legit.

But today I plugged my PC's surge protector into it (maybe inaccurate readings when plugged up this way?) and fired up The Witcher 3.

180 watts? That's with a monitor, 4 hdds, gtx 1080, 6700k etc.

That can't be accurate. It should have been pulling what, around 400 or more especially with a monitor likely pulling 30-40 watts.

Did I do something wrong?

The HDDs are negligible, they use the most power to spin up.

The 6700k would hardly be loaded, maybe 30% of utilisation, maybe 60W.

Was vsync enabled? If so the 1080 won't be 100% loaded, and would probably not hit 200W, maybe only 150W. Otherwise would be 200W.

Taking that into account, and the PSU efficiency, a reading of 180W would mean around 170W of power being output by the PSU.

So probably a bit lower than expected, I would expect 300W.

 

[ecosse_011172]

Shipped my MSI Gaming X 1080 to a friend and my STRIX is about to be shipped from amazon but I did get my Green/Black cables from Shakmods in the UK.

Why did you switch from Asus to MSI?

 

[big fake]

That's gonna be hard if not impossible, depending on how many parts you need/are reusing. Check the OP and fill out the survey there (give us a pre-tax budget(s) for simplicity).


No problem at all.

Oh shoot. My bad, should have read that. My apologies.

Current Specs
CPU: AMD FX-6300
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1333Mhz
Motherboard: Gigabyte-78LMT-USB3
GPU (Graphics):
Sapphire Radeon 7750 1GB GDDR5 PSU (Power Supply): 400W Antec Power supply
Case: Antec 302
HDD (Hard Drive): 1TB Seagate
Budget: 710 (before tax) + Canada
Main Use: 3-4
Gaming, Emulation (PS2/Wii/Wii U), Video Editing (very mild editing, mostly Vegas and one AAE), Streaming games in HD (occasionally, not a priority), General Usage (Word, Web, 1080p playback).
Monitor Resolution: 1080p. In the future going to upgrade my parts more and more to allow for 1440p and possibly 4k.

I need to be able to play DOOM(60fps), MGSV(60fps), The Witcher 3(~30fps), Rise The Raider (~30 fps or higher). Dark Souls 3 (>30fps) These are just a few though. Steady 30fps is good but 60fps is the goal if possible for budget.

Looking to reuse any parts?: I am looking to maybe reuse my HDD as boot drive but I want to hear your experienced opinions first. Also reusing my WiFi card and DVD reader.

When will you build?: No deadline. Just shooting for something for near future.

Will you be overclocking?: Purpose of build is to be able to upgrade down the line, so then I can add a cpu that if the one chosen isn't overclockable, to then overclock the newer one.

 

[LilJoka]

Oh shoot. My bad, should have read that. My apologies.

Current Specs
CPU: AMD FX-6300
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1333Mhz
Motherboard: Gigabyte-78LMT-USB3
GPU (Graphics):
Sapphire Radeon 7750 1GB GDDR5 PSU (Power Supply): 400W Antec Power supply
Case: Antec 302
HDD (Hard Drive): 1TB Seagate
Budget: 710 (before tax) + Canada
Main Use: 3-4
Gaming, Emulation (PS2/Wii/Wii U), Video Editing (very mild editing, mostly Vegas and one AAE), Streaming games in HD (occasionally, not a priority), General Usage (Word, Web, 1080p playback).
Monitor Resolution: 1080p. In the future going to upgrade my parts more and more to allow for 1440p and possibly 4k.

I need to be able to play DOOM(60fps), MGSV(60fps), The Witcher 3(~30fps), Rise The Raider (~30 fps or higher). Dark Souls 3 (>30fps) These are just a few though. Steady 30fps is good but 60fps is the goal if possible for budget.

Looking to reuse any parts?: I am looking to maybe reuse my HDD as boot drive but I want to hear your experienced opinions first. Also reusing my WiFi card and DVD reader.

When will you build?: No deadline. Just shooting for something for near future.

Will you be overclocking?: Purpose of build is to be able to upgrade down the line, so then I can add a cpu that if the one chosen isn't overclockable, to then overclock the newer one.

Here is a start point

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($251.55 @ Vuugo)
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Frio Silent 12 55.9 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.99 @ Memory Express)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170-GAMING 3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($136.59 @ DirectCanada)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($43.99 @ DirectCanada)
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($82.98 @ DirectCanada)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($379.99 @ NCIX)
Case: BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.90 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($58.72 @ DirectCanada)
Total: $1018.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-03 04:56 EDT-0400

 

[Elven_Star]

1. If you're not overclocking, no you don't. Even an ASUS B150M-A would be fine.
2. The different chipsets define different features, including number of RAM or expansion slots, RAM speed support, SATA & USB ports and so on. H110 is the cheapest and has the least features, and Z170 is the most expensive with the most features.
3. Not particularly, no. A Core i5-6500 would do and you could always upgrade to a Core i7-6700 later if you really wanted to.
4. The K versions will usually have a higher base clock (and thus a higher turbo speed) and are overclockable. They also don't come with a stock cooler, so you'd need to buy your own. That's about it.

1. I guess not, I stretched a little further for the Gigabyte Z170 for the DDR4 memory but I don't really use a massive feature set from the motherboard. Everyone pretty much recommended the i5/6600 which is LGA1151.
2. Not sure what you mean - like Haswell, Skylake etc.?
3. Again, most people seem to stick to the i5 range if just gaming. i7 would be complement if you were doing some serious video editing and running multi core apps (typically, as I understand it, most games are not). i5/6600 seems to be a balance in peformance and a bit of leeway for the future.
4. The 'k' is meant to be overclocked as I understand it, so it doesn't come with a cooler. You'd be expected to get your own where as the standard range come with a stock cooler.


That about right Gaf?

Thanks guys.

 

[The Hamburglar]

I was wondering will direct x12 make SLI and crossfire finally viable?

 

[nubbe]

I was wondering will direct x12 make SLI and crossfire finally viable?

No
But both Nvidia and AMD wants it to be a part of the future with Vulkan, DX12 and VR
So they will continue to create tools and give support for it

 

[Ollie Pooch]

Hey everyone, a few newb questions for a build I'm planning to do. I'm wanting this to replace a pretty crappy Mac Mini (2015, integrated graphics, 5400RPM drive etc) that we currently use for HTPC/streaming stuff. I want a machine I can do some couch gaming on, as I want to move my digital purchasing to a more open platform like Steam than using XBL/PSN.

Budget: I'm happy to spend about A$800. (AU prices tend to be higher but that's about $600 USD)

Main Use: Aside from the super basic Netflix/local streaming stuff I'd like to do some couch gaming. That includes simple up to some more demanding Steam games and emulation. Some I'm interested in are Fallout 4 or Skyrim with mods, Subnautica, Ori, Borderlands Pre Sequel, Path of Exile, Torchlight 2. (I'd love to run these quite smoothly) as well as lighter indie stuff. I'm open to newer, more demanding games, though. Wifi onboard isn't required, I will be using Ethernet. I want a smallish case as it'll be in or next to my tv cabinet.

Monitor Resolution: Just a regular HDTV. No plans to upgrade it any time soon.

List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well: My main thing is just to have proper surround to my amp over HDMI. I'm assuming this just happens by default given my Mac Mini does it, but thought i'd check.

When will you build?: No set deadline, I'm happy to pick up parts over the next month or so.

Will you be overclocking?: Not planning to.

So far I have (and I used PCPP for this, sorry if its way off) :

Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor
Asus H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
Primary: Samsung 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Secondary: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Thermaltake Core V21 MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Corsair CX500M PSU

Should I spring for an i5?

I'm just not sure what level to shoot for with the GPU. I'm a bit overwhelmed with all the options - I don't need something hugely beastly but I'd like to somewhat future proof it in case I start branching out more game-wise. I checked OP, should I just wait for an RX 470?

Many thanks!

 

[cyen]

Here is a start point

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($251.55 @ Vuugo)
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Frio Silent 12 55.9 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.99 @ Memory Express)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170-GAMING 3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($136.59 @ DirectCanada)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($43.99 @ DirectCanada)
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($82.98 @ DirectCanada)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($379.99 @ NCIX)
Case: BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.90 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($58.72 @ DirectCanada)
Total: $1018.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-03 04:56 EDT-0400

Recomending an 970 this time and age (specially for that price) is a no go. RX480 or a 1060 if he prefers cards from the green team and can afford to wait a few more weeks.

 

[drotahorror]

The HDDs are negligible, they use the most power to spin up.

The 6700k would hardly be loaded, maybe 30% of utilisation, maybe 60W.

Was vsync enabled? If so the 1080 won't be 100% loaded, and would probably not hit 200W, maybe only 150W. Otherwise would be 200W.

Taking that into account, and the PSU efficiency, a reading of 180W would mean around 170W of power being output by the PSU.

So probably a bit lower than expected, I would expect 300W.

I did have vsync on. It still blew my mind that a PC can be that efficient. Something still seems off though.

 

[LilJoka]

Recomending an 970 this time and age (specially for that price) is a no go. RX480 or a 1060 if he prefers cards from the green team and can afford to wait a few more weeks.

Sorry, i was on mobile, this is of course absolutely correct - as i said a start point.

The only thing to consider is that the reference 480 is loud, runs hot and power limited. There is no overclock headroom. Wait for the non ref design. 970 is faster too, and if overclocked, will match a 980, which is a lot faster than a 480. Not as good performance per dollar though.

I did have vsync on. It still blew my mind that a PC can be that efficient. Something still seems off though.

Its because you are taking the TDP into account, its rare to run any component at its TDP.

For example, the monitor is only going to be close to TDP at the highest brightness and running a white screen.

The CPU would hit TDP if you ran a CPU stress test like Prime95 small FFT.
The CPU is hard to reach TDP since it is made of multiple modules, and its hard to find workloads that stress all these modules.

The GPU can hit TDP fairly easily with the latest games and an uncapped frame rate. Or something like Furmark.

The rest of your PC consumes very little power.

When we consider PSU choices, we always take into account TDP, such that if all components ran at TDP, the PSU could cope. Thats rarely, if ever, the case.

It also shows that we can easily run these systems in smaller cases nowadays, the average workload being gaming, hardly gets close to the actual TDPs.

 

[cyen]

Sorry, i was on mobile, this is of course absolutely correct - as i said a start point.

The only thing to consider is that the reference 480 is loud, runs hot and power limited. There is no overclock headroom. Wait for the non ref design.



Its because you are taking the TDP into account, its rare to run any component at its TDP.

For example, the monitor is only going to be close to TDP at the highest brightness and running a white screen.

The CPU would hit TDP if you ran a CPU stress test like Prime95 small FFT.
The CPU is hard to reach TDP since it is made of multiple modules, and its hard to find workloads that stress all these modules.

The GPU can hit TDP fairly easily with the latest games and an uncapped frame rate.

The rest of your PC consumes very little power.

yea, avoid reference RX480 if possible.

 

[Aztechnology]

Sorry, i was on mobile, this is of course absolutely correct - as i said a start point.

The only thing to consider is that the reference 480 is loud, runs hot and power limited. There is no overclock headroom. Wait for the non ref design. 970 is faster too, and if overclocked, will match a 980, which is a lot faster than a 480. Not as good performance per dollar though.

Its because you are taking the TDP into account, its rare to run any component at its TDP.

For example, the monitor is only going to be close to TDP at the highest brightness and running a white screen.

The CPU would hit TDP if you ran a CPU stress test like Prime95 small FFT.
The CPU is hard to reach TDP since it is made of multiple modules, and its hard to find workloads that stress all these modules.

The GPU can hit TDP fairly easily with the latest games and an uncapped frame rate. Or something like Furmark.

The rest of your PC consumes very little power.

When we consider PSU choices, we always take into account TDP, such that if all components ran at TDP, the PSU could cope. Thats rarely, if ever, the case.

It also shows that we can easily run these systems in smaller cases nowadays, the average workload being gaming, hardly gets close to the actual TDPs.

This isn't precisely true. The 480 is a significantly better buy and pretty much matches an OC 970 at reference speeds. The issue is the reference cooler just isn't very good and many people are reporting much better performance and more stable base clocks at lower voltages. So it seems like the reference model just has problems all around in cooling and voltage etc. Wait for custom AIB's some are already reporting 1425+ mhz OC. In addition you have to remember many AAA titles because of consoles are now being developer for GCN architectures. It will also get better long term support going forward because it's a new card and AMD tends to so better long term support. There's also DX 12 going forward. This is all coming from a 13 year Nvidia exclusive user and a 970 user. Either go up to the 1070 or go with the 480.

 

[LilJoka]

This isn't precisely true. The 480 is a significantly better buy and pretty much matches an OC 970 at reference speeds. The issue is the reference cooler just isn't very good and many people are reporting much better performance and more stable base clocks at lower voltages. So it seems like the reference model just has problems all around in cooling and voltage etc. Wait for custom AIB's some are already reporting 1425+ mhz OC. In addition you have to remember many AAA titles because of consoles are now being developer for GCN architectures. It will also get better long term support going forward because it's a new card and AMD tends to so better long term support. There's also DX 12 going forward. This is all coming from a 13 year Nvidia exclusive user and a 970 user. Either go up to the 1070 or go with the 480.

For sure, im not saying i would buy a 970 today, thats not recommended to do, i just wouldnt buy a ref 480. 480 non ref, now we are talking. Non ref 1070 and non ref 480 would be the cards to look at depending on your budget.

Dont know about GCN being advantageous, lets see what happens.

Ill be waiting for the next gen of cards and keep my 970 for now.

 

[Owlowiscious]

I'm buying a i7-6800 from someone (opened but brand new) for $340. Normally $455. Can I get some replies saying if that's a great deal? I was only planning on getting a 6600 for like $250 on Amazon but it seemed like too good an offer to pass up.

 

[vector824]

Oh shoot. My bad, should have read that. My apologies.

Current Specs
CPU: AMD FX-6300
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1333Mhz
Motherboard: Gigabyte-78LMT-USB3
GPU (Graphics):
Sapphire Radeon 7750 1GB GDDR5 PSU (Power Supply): 400W Antec Power supply
Case: Antec 302
HDD (Hard Drive): 1TB Seagate
Budget: 710 (before tax) + Canada
Main Use: 3-4
Gaming, Emulation (PS2/Wii/Wii U), Video Editing (very mild editing, mostly Vegas and one AAE), Streaming games in HD (occasionally, not a priority), General Usage (Word, Web, 1080p playback).
Monitor Resolution: 1080p. In the future going to upgrade my parts more and more to allow for 1440p and possibly 4k.

I need to be able to play DOOM(60fps), MGSV(60fps), The Witcher 3(~30fps), Rise The Raider (~30 fps or higher). Dark Souls 3 (>30fps) These are just a few though. Steady 30fps is good but 60fps is the goal if possible for budget.

Looking to reuse any parts?: I am looking to maybe reuse my HDD as boot drive but I want to hear your experienced opinions first. Also reusing my WiFi card and DVD reader.

When will you build?: No deadline. Just shooting for something for near future.

Will you be overclocking?: Purpose of build is to be able to upgrade down the line, so then I can add a cpu that if the one chosen isn't overclockable, to then overclock the newer one.

Here is a start point

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($251.55 @ Vuugo)
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Frio Silent 12 55.9 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.99 @ Memory Express)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170-GAMING 3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($136.59 @ DirectCanada)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($43.99 @ DirectCanada)
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($82.98 @ DirectCanada)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($379.99 @ NCIX)
Case: BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.90 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($58.72 @ DirectCanada)
Total: $1018.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-03 04:56 EDT-0400

Try this instead. Z170 chipset MOBO for the K processors down the road, 8gb of 3000mhz memory (you can always add more later), RX480 as a price placeholder until the non-reference cards come out. Only thing you might need to upgrade later is the PSU if you're going to get into a more powerful GPU and OCing.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($253.50 @ shopRBC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($32.00 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($143.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($66.99 @ PC Canada)
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($82.98 @ DirectCanada)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 480 8GB Video Card ($389.97 @ Amazon Canada)
Case: BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.90 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($58.72 @ DirectCanada)
Total: $1058.04
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-03 09:05 EDT-0400

 

[cormack12]

So back from yesterday, just want someone to look over the memory config. In BIOS reporting as 2133MHz. I tried setting up an XMP profile, but on bootup it failed. Set the BIOS back to optimised defaults. Here is a shot of CPU-Z - BIOS still reads 2133MHz, is this configured correctly despite that?

 

[amardilo]

After the MS PlayAnywhere announcement I'm looking at getting a PC. The games I'd like to play on PC are Forza Horizon 3, Gears of War 4, Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, Dawn of War 3 and Civ VI.

I don't own a PC so I'll need to build one, I do have an existing monitor I'd like to keep to help save money.

I have an Apple Thunderbolt monitor, it's a 1440p screen but instead of having a DisplayPort connection it has a Thunderbolt connection (the socket is the same but it doesn't work when plugged into a DisplayPort laptop it has never worked). Would getting an ASUS ThunderboltEX II/DUAL solve this issue? The motherboard I plan to get is an ASUS MAXIMUS VIII HERO (as it has a Thunderbolt header).

Also would a Intel Core i5-6600K, 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 8GB AMD RX 480 be enough to play the games I mentioned at 1440p at a solid 60 fps (on at least high settings)?

 

[Aztechnology]

After the MS PlayAnywhere announcement I'm looking at getting a PC. The games I'd like to play on PC are Forza Horizon 3, Gears of War 4, Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, Dawn of War 3 and Civ VI.

I don't own a PC so I'll need to build one, I do have an existing monitor I'd like to keep to help save money.

I have an Apple Thunderbolt monitor, it's a 1440p screen but instead of having a DisplayPort connection it has a Thunderbolt connection (the socket is the same but it doesn't work when plugged into a DisplayPort laptop it has never worked). Would getting an ASUS ThunderboltEX II/DUAL solve this issue? The motherboard I plan to get is an ASUS MAXIMUS VIII HERO (as it has a Thunderbolt header).

Also would a Intel Core i5-6600K, 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 8GB AMD RX 480 be enough to play the games I mentioned at 1440p at a solid 60 fps (on at least high settings)?

You're going to need to look into the 1070/1080 if you want 1440p at high settings and pretty much will get you 60+fps on current/future games reliably. The 480 is a 1080p at high, 1440p at medium card.

 

[kennah]

After the MS PlayAnywhere announcement I'm looking at getting a PC. The games I'd like to play on PC are Forza Horizon 3, Gears of War 4, Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, Dawn of War 3 and Civ VI.

I don't own a PC so I'll need to build one, I do have an existing monitor I'd like to keep to help save money.

I have an Apple Thunderbolt monitor, it's a 1440p screen but instead of having a DisplayPort connection it has a Thunderbolt connection (the socket is the same but it doesn't work when plugged into a DisplayPort laptop it has never worked). Would getting an ASUS ThunderboltEX II/DUAL solve this issue? The motherboard I plan to get is an ASUS MAXIMUS VIII HERO (as it has a Thunderbolt header).

Also would a Intel Core i5-6600K, 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 8GB AMD RX 480 be enough to play the games I mentioned at 1440p at a solid 60 fps (on at least high settings)?

That wouldn't help because only the onboard graphics would utilize the monitor.

You're honestly better off selling that monitor and getting a different one. You could sell it for enough to get a gsgnc monitor.

 

[nightmare-slain]

Shipped my MSI Gaming X 1080 to a friend and my STRIX is about to be shipped from amazon but I did get my Green/Black cables from Shakmods in the UK.

damn i like your case. i was looking at that one but didn't see it in green. only had red ones. i love green. also is your board the MSI Z170A-G43 Plus or something similar?? it looks like mine.

 

[Aztechnology]

That wouldn't help because only the onboard graphics would utilize the monitor.

You're honestly better off selling that monitor and getting a different one. You could sell it for enough to get a gsgnc monitor.

They can get an adapter. I can't believe that an apple monitor doesn't fraking have Display Port though. Does their proprietary bullshit know no boundaries?

 

[amardilo]

You're going to need to look into the 1070/1080 if you want 1440p at high settings and pretty much will get you 60+fps on current/future games reliably. The 480 is a 1080p at high, 1440p at medium card.

Thanks. A 1070 seems like it might be a bit high in cost for me at the moment. Might have to hold off for a bit.

Would the i5 and other stuff be OK to do what I want?

That wouldn't help because only the onboard graphics would utilize the monitor.

You're honestly better off selling that monitor and getting a different one. You could sell it for enough to get a gsgnc monitor.

He can get an adapter. I can't believe that an apple monitor doesn't fraking have Display Port though. Does their proprietary bullshit know no boundaries?

The device shows a 2 DisplayPort In sockets and 2 Thunderbolt 2 Out sockets. I thought I could go from the DisplayPort of the Graphics Card to the In on the card and then plug my monitor into the Out on the card (the ASUS site shows cables from the DisplayPort on the motherboard going to the card so thought it might do the same for the graphics card). Would that not work?

 

[kennah]

It just feels like throwing good money after bad to me.

 

[amardilo]

It just feels like throwing good money after bad to me.

Yeah, just I've never sold anything on places like eBay before (and here in the UK the only other big seller is somewhere like Gumtree and I've never used them either).

 

[Zojirushi]

So I received my used 980ti Xtreme and it's totally tearing through stuff at 1080p and 1440p although one weird thing happened:

I tried some stuff in 4K and whenever the GPU was at 100% usage it always took about a minute and then the game crashed. Same with Heaven benchmark with uncapped framerate.

I suspected my PSU (480W) and lowered power limit and clockspeed of the GPU as far as possible but nope, same thing.

I was starting to get a little pissed and thought I might have just bought a faulty GPU until I tried lowering the OC of my CPU a little, from 4,3 to 4,0 Ghz. That miraculously solved all the crashing.

I'm happy now but what is going on? I've had my CPU at that OC with my previous graphics card stable for years now.

 

[Aztechnology]

So I received my used 980ti Xtreme and it's totally tearing through stuff at 1080p and 1440p although one weird thing happened:

I tried some stuff in 4K and whenever the GPU was at 100% usage it always took about a minute and then the game crashed. Same with Heaven benchmark with uncapped framerate.

I suspected my PSU (480W) and lowered power limit and clockspeed of the GPU as far as possible but nope, same thing.

I was starting to get a little pissed and thought I might have just bought a faulty GPU until I tried lowering the OC of my CPU a little, from 4,3 to 4,0 Ghz. That miraculously solved all the crashing.

I'm happy now but what is going on? I've had my CPU at that OC with my previous graphics card stable for years now.

Well the GPU alone can draw up to 250w. Account for the CPU, Mobo, fans and anything running power from the USB's etc and that's a tight power budget. Your PSU at 480w unless it's a top end platinum rated PSU probably won't even be able to truly get near the limit. Basically when it comes to PSU's imagine 70-80% of the limit is for actual usage. 80PLUS

So imagine you're only really getting efficiently about 380 of those Watts from your PSU. Try to unplug any USB devices and set your CPU overclocks back to its stock settings. If that solves it you know you need to upgrade your PSU.

 

[Zojirushi]

Well the GPU alone can draw up to 250w. Account for the CPU, Mobo, fans and anything running power from the USB's etc and that's a tight power budget. Your PSU at 480w unless it's a top end platinum rated PSU probably won't even be able to truly get near the limit. Basically when it comes to PSU's imagine 70-80% of the limit is for actual usage. 80PLUS

So imagine you're only really getting efficiently about 380 of those Watts from your PSU. Try to unplug any USB devices and set your CPU overclocks back to its stock settings. If that solves it you know you need to upgrade your PSU.

As I wrote it's already solved. But I thought if the PSU was actually the issue, then why didn't lowering GPU power limit and clockspeed fix it? That should've accounted for a bigger power reduction than the difference from lowering CPU clockspeed from 4,3 to 4,0 right?

 

[thenexus6]

Edit: I am an idiot.

 

[nightmare-slain]

can someone help me with my ram? i just finished overclocking my CPU to 4.5Ghz and tried getting my ram to it's advertised speed of 3200. it's currently running at 2133. i was told to enable XMP in bios which I did and it says on the ram packaging that they use 1.35v. in bios with XMP they were set to use 1.37.

i tried doing a system memory stress test using aida64 but keep getting a BSOD after a second or two. i disabled XMP then tried again and it works fine. i don't want to increase the voltage anymore if the bios is using 1.37 instead of 1.35.

 

[Dubz]

I am trying to upgrade my PC. My monitor is 1080P, so all I really want is 60fps 1080P gaming on higher settings. I currently have:

i4770K @ 4.0GHZ
660TI
8GB RAM

Should I get a 480 and some more RAM, or a 980 and some more RAM?

 

[nightmare-slain]

I am trying to upgrade my PC. My monitor is 1080P, so all I really want is 60fps 1080P gaming on higher settings. I currently have:

i4770K @ 4.0GHZ
660TI
8GB RAM

Should I get a 480 and some more RAM, or a 980 and some more RAM?

8GB is OK still but RAM is quite cheap so go for 16GB if you want. at 1080p 60fps i know GTA V can easily use 8GB but it ran just fine for me when i only had 8GB in my system.

i'd get a 480 unless you can get a good deal on a 980.

 

[Iorv3th]

I am trying to upgrade my PC. My monitor is 1080P, so all I really want is 60fps 1080P gaming on higher settings. I currently have:

i4770K @ 4.0GHZ
660TI
8GB RAM

Should I get a 480 and some more RAM, or a 980 and some more RAM?

You may not even need more RAM but wouldn't hurt. Look for a used 970/980

 

[The Hamburglar]

Do I need to upgrade my cpu? I have a i7 930 overclocked to 3.8ghz it's 6 years old... Is it worth it going to a i5 6600k? Looking at building a new pic from scratch soon.

 

[LilJoka]

can someone help me with my ram? i just finished overclocking my CPU to 4.5Ghz and tried getting my ram to it's advertised speed of 3200. it's currently running at 2133. i was told to enable XMP in bios which I did and it says on the ram packaging that they use 1.35v. in bios with XMP they were set to use 1.37.

i tried doing a system memory stress test using aida64 but keep getting a BSOD after a second or two. i disabled XMP then tried again and it works fine. i don't want to increase the voltage anymore if the bios is using 1.37 instead of 1.35.

Wont be as simple as that since the CPU is already OCd.

Heres what i would do:
Enable XMP 3200Mhz.
Drop the speed back to 3000Mhz
See if it boots, if not try 2666Mhz.

Then youll want to play with the VCCIO and VCCSA voltages, 1.1v on both is a good start point for 2666Mhz.
Keep the VDIMM at ~1.35v.

You might want to try doing this with the CPU at stock as a sanity check to make sure the CPU can even run these ram speeds at all, without the CPU OC having an impact.

Do I need to upgrade my cpu? I have a i7 930 overclocked to 3.8ghz it's 6 years old... Is it worth it going to a i5 6600k? Looking at building a new pic from scratch soon.

Depends on what GPU you have or want to get.

 

[WadeitOut]

damn i like your case. i was looking at that one but didn't see it in green. only had red ones. i love green. also is your board the MSI Z170A-G43 Plus or something similar?? it looks like mine.

The green and black was a limited edition exclusive to some online retailer. NCIXUS.com had like 12 in stock for whatever reason (I think they have like one left).

And close its the MSI Gaming Pro Carbon.

 

[WadeitOut]

I'm buying a i7-6800 from someone (opened but brand new) for $340. Normally $455. Can I get some replies saying if that's a great deal? I was only planning on getting a 6600 for like $250 on Amazon but it seemed like too good an offer to pass up.

I'd buy the 6600k on NewEgg for like 219 if it's still at that price like it was a week ago. Because unless you are doing some wicked 3D modeling or really intense video encoding you will likely never bottleneck on it anytime in the near future.

We are just now seeing some bottlenecks on sandy bridge i5s but you can overclock to negate most of it. And these Slylake chips OC to 4.5-4.7 without breaking a sweat. We still hardly see games utilizing four cores let alone the additional ones in an i7.

 

[Filth]

Hey guys I just got my 1080 strix and I'm looking for a massive monitor upgrade. I really want a 21:9 monitor 1440p but also 144hz. If I'm looking for both I have no options currently correct ?

 

[Ulysses 31]

Hey guys I just got my 1080 strix and I'm looking for a massive monitor upgrade. I really want a 21:9 monitor 1440p but also 144hz. If I'm looking for both I have no options currently correct ?

You could settle for 100 Hz and get the 21:9 and 1440p and G-Sync with the ASUS or Acer models.

 

[The Hamburglar]

Depends on what GPU you have or want to get.

I have no idea on the gpu I will buy, but I currently own a 7870 msi slightly overclocked. would the 930 bottleneck anything?