There isn't any way to improve it, beyond having headphones whose characteristics, namely soundstage, bring it out better, and setting it up correctly. I used CMSS-3D on a Titanium card for some time before switching to an external Amp/DAC setup.
I'm a real beginner when it comes to overclocking, so how exactly do you do it? I heard it's easier to do nowadays than in the past so why not.
I have a stock i7 6800K and GTX 1080. I'm looking to get the 6800K to 4.5GHz which I hear is not hard to do and for the 1080 essentially the same sort of overclock where it's "safe" where I don't have to play with voltages and worry about temps for hours.
Is overclocking RAM even a thing? If so, is it worth it?
So my motherboard has 3 system fan headers and I have 4 case fans. The two pre-installed case fans on my s340 are connected via a molex cable, but as far as I understand this will cause the fans to run at 100%, right? is there some sort of cable I can get to make these two fans run at variable rates? Unsure how loud the s340 case fans are at default like this. I still have 1 free system fan header, but I need two.
So my motherboard has 3 system fan headers and I have 4 case fans. The two pre-installed case fans on my s340 are connected via a molex cable, but as far as I understand this will cause the fans to run at 100%, right? is there some sort of cable I can get to make these two fans run at variable rates? Unsure how loud the s340 case fans are at default like this. I still have 1 free system fan header, but I need two.
I've got all my parts and monitor now, with the exception of my 1070. Would it be dumb to start the build and then plug in the 1070 tomorrow when it comes in?
I've got all my parts and monitor now, with the exception of my 1070. Would it be dumb to start the build and then plug in the 1070 tomorrow when it comes in?
I've got all my parts and monitor now, with the exception of my 1070. Would it be dumb to start the build and then plug in the 1070 tomorrow when it comes in?
Your Current Specs: i5 2500K 3,3GHz / 8GB RAM / MSI P67A Mobo / Nvidia 560Ti / Corsair PSU HX 750W / Cooler Master CM 690 / WD Caviar 500GB HDD / Garbage
Budget: 10000-12000 SEK, Sweden
Main Use: 3-4, light gaming, game development
Monitor Resolution: 1080p (two monitors)
List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well: FireFox
jk it won't
Unity, UE4
Looking to reuse any parts?: Nope. Putting Linux on the old guy for funsies.
When will you build?: This month is a good window for me to do this.
Will you be overclocking?: No.
Last time I was in one of these threads was five years ago and the PC I got back then is getting SLIGHTLY outdated. 560ti represent and all that
being from sweden and a disaster with anything that requires any amount of mechanical proficiency I've been looking at Komplett.se as usual since they have prebuilt PCs that you can configure yourself online (I'm still leaning towards building it myself, but the config tools are very convenient so I'm basing the build around them for now).
the config I started with is:
PREBUILT (probably garbage)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5
Power: Corsair VS550 550W
Mobo: ASUS B150M-A
CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2,7GHz
RAM: Crucial DDR4 2133MHz 16GB
GPU: XFX Radeon RX 480 8GB
Primary SSD: Kingston SSDNow UV400 240GB
Cost: just above 11000 SEK
REAL LIST
Basically the same (tried to match some recommendations from the OP), but build by my self (probably OK)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (1048 SEK) or Fractal Design Define S (790 SEK, fewer HDD trays)
Power: EVGA GQ 650W (849 SEK)
Mobo: MSI Z170A PC MATE (1149 SEK)
CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2,7GHz (1880 SEK)
RAM: Crucial DDR4 Ballistix Sport 16GB 2400MHz(749 SEK) or [Same] 3000MHz(799 SEK) RAM is a bit whatever as long as it's 16GB
GPU: Sapphire Radeon RX 480 8GB (2790 SEK)
Primary SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB (899 SEK)
Cost: 9364 (+ OS ~1500) SEK (not including freight)
I like the case since it's soundproofed (I like quiet) with generally good reviews. And I like the look of it.
I'm also looking to up my backup game and putting a couple of 3TB drives in RAID in there (what should I avoid/prefer?).
How do I successfully set up HDDs in RAID formation? Which RAID should I use?
Thought about getting a NAS, seems a bit expensive if I'm just going to RAID anyway.
The main usage will be game development, NeoGAF, and some light gaming thrown in. Should last without major upgrades for a couple of years? I got by on my current machine for five years (again, 560ti represent) so that's my tolerance level.
Dare I go 32GB?
biggest question is about additional cooling - do I want it, the CM 212 Evo looks really good, will it fit my purposes/physically inside the case? Installation is also a bit intimidating (I'm not good with stuff like that), I'd prioritize ease of installation if possible.
Is there anything glaring here, like a part I should just replace outright, or am I good to go?
1. Whats currently the best 4k monitor on the market to buy? I was looking to buy Asus ROG monitor or Acer Predator 27".
2. What are some good external Blu-Ray drives that are quiet? Is the Pioneer BDR-XS06 Blu-Ray 6X/DVD/CD USB 3.0 Slim External Slot Burner any good, or is their better drives out on the market?
I am, I know. I just purchased a 1070 MSI Gaming card and I offered my card to a friend for really cheap first so he could have a nice upgrade from his 660ti. (I offered it to him for $100) which he surprisingly turned down, then my other buddy who's just getting into PC gaming said he refused to buy a used card ¯\_(ツ_/¯. So I went on Amazon where I usually sell (Less problems with buyers than ebay and they generally pay more.) Saw that everyone was putting it up for crazy amounts, $289.99 as the lowest price of the used card. So I said screw it, why not I'll put it up for a few days at $279.99... wake up in the morning, sold. I was honestly dumbfounded. I had thought for sure I'd end up selling to to a Gaffer for $150 or so in B/S/T because it's a reference and nobody wants the reference outside of specific small form factor builds.
Feeling pretty pathetic here as I'm having issues already and just with the I/O shield. I've got that in, but the metal tabs on it won't let me get the motherboard in.
So, I've finally completed my brand new build, here's a quick rundown of the components:
Gigabyte Gaming 7 motherboard
16 gigs DDR4 3000
Zotac Amp! GTX 1080
Intel i7 6700k
Samsung 950 pro M2 512Gb SSD
Some random semi-decent power supply from Corsair I believe, it's like 650 watts.
So, because this is the first big new PC build I've done in years (I've just been updating my old PC with new parts for like the last 4 years. The plus side of that is that I now have two fully working PCs, one top of the line and one pretty damn decent) I'm quite interested in overclocking it. I've been using MSI Afterburner to do so. The thing is, I put +50 mhz on the core clock pretty easily (from 1683 core clock to 1733), but anything over that causes the firestrike demo to crash. I'm thinking that's a little early for instability, but I'm also thinking that's probably because I have to raise the core voltage on the card...
Right?
Is it pretty normal to not be able to increase the core clock much before you have to bump the voltage a little? I've not yet raised the memory clock as well, but I obviously want and intend to do this. I'm very new to overclocking as I've never done it on any of my previous builds, so any help is appreciated.
That little annoying voice in the back of my head is worried that I got fucked in the silicon lottery, but I'm assuming that's just me being paranoid.
If you get a higher capacity PSU, does it necessarily use more electricity? Like, if you had 2 of the exact same build, but one had an 800W PSU and the other a 1000W, would you be using more power with the bigger PSU whenever the PC is on?
If you get a higher capacity PSU, does it necessarily use more electricity? Like, if you had 2 of the exact same build, but one had an 800W PSU and the other a 1000W, would you be using more power with the bigger PSU whenever the PC is on?
No. PCs will on use what's needed. So, if they have the same rating, like gold, they will use the same wattage. Also, PSU are most efficient at around 50% load. Having a larger one makes it more easy to reach that.
If you get a higher capacity PSU, does it necessarily use more electricity? Like, if you had 2 of the exact same build, but one had an 800W PSU and the other a 1000W, would you be using more power with the bigger PSU whenever the PC is on?
No. Your system will only draw what its sum total components draw. Now if the 1000W is Titanium rated for efficiency while the 800W is only Bronze, the 1000W will actually draw less power.
Hmm I have the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo. Haven't opened the box yet. Does it come with thermal paste, and if so it is good to use? I ordered Arctic MX-4 but it won't arrive until tomorrow or the day after.
Hmm I have the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo. Haven't opened the box yet. Does it come with thermal paste, and if so it is good to use? I ordered Arctic MX-4 but it won't arrive until tomorrow or the day after.
My ACER 27" 1440p monitor just arrived It's goddamn beautiful but it seems my computer isn't quite up to running games like Witcher and DOOM at 1440p smoothly just yet.
Any tips on how to make the most of this beautiful son of a bitch screen?
My ACER 27" 1440p monitor just arrived It's goddamn beautiful but it seems my computer isn't quite up to running games like Witcher and DOOM at 1440p smoothly just yet.
Any tips on how to make the most of this beautiful son of a bitch screen?
Hmm I have the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo. Haven't opened the box yet. Does it come with thermal paste, and if so it is good to use? I ordered Arctic MX-4 but it won't arrive until tomorrow or the day after.
My ACER 27" 1440p monitor just arrived It's goddamn beautiful but it seems my computer isn't quite up to running games like Witcher and DOOM at 1440p smoothly just yet.
Any tips on how to make the most of this beautiful son of a bitch screen?
Well, The Witcher 3 is tough, but DOOM should run pretty nicely if you step down from "ultra." The R9 290 is definitely a solid 1440p card, and an overclocked i5 isn't letting you down. you don't need as much anti-aliasing at 1440p, so if you've got MSAA at 4x or 8x in anything, turning down to 2x, SMAA, or FXAA will help.
Or, you could sell your GPU for $15-200 and put that toward a ~$400 1070 in a month or so.
Oh, also play some 2D games and streamlined indie stuff. If you haven't played The Witness yet, do it now, with high settings and 4xMSAA. I ran it at 1440p60 on my 960 with 2x. It's beautiful.
Well, The Witcher 3 is tough, but DOOM should run pretty nicely if you step down from "ultra." The R9 290 is definitely a solid 1440p card, and an overclocked i5 isn't letting you down. you don't need as much anti-aliasing at 1440p, so if you've got MSAA at 4x or 8x in anything, turning down to 2x, SMAA, or FXAA will help.
Or, you could sell your GPU for $15-200 and put that toward a ~$400 1070 in a month or so.
Oh, also play some 2D games and streamlined indie stuff. If you haven't played The Witness yet, do it now, with high settings and 4xMSAA. I ran it at 1440p60 on my 960 with 2x. It's beautiful.
Awesome thanks for getting back to me. I'm in Australia so the prices are a bit different. I do intend to buy a 1070 at some point but might have to wait a little due to splurging on the monitor. I got plenty of games to play in the meantime so I'm not too bothered.
I only got to play with it very briefly this morning before work so I didn't think to turn off AA, or turn down some settings, that might help.
Also looking forward to see how Stardew Valley looks
Ok, so my 6600K 4th core keeps immediately failing Prime95 after bumping up vcore incrementally. Currently at 1.31v and 4.5GHZ and still having the same problem, thoughts?
I was wondering if I could get some insight on this gaming build before I pull the trigger on it. A friend has the Hero Maximus VII mobo and an i5 4690k that he said he would sell for $275 total. Should I go with this build or should I just save up another $100 and build a i5 6600k rig for better future proofing?
Let me know what you would change in the build too! I'm willing to switch out any components that may not be the best quality for the money, but I am trying to stay around $800-$900.
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($71.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Case: Phanteks ECLIPSE P400S ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Other: Hero Maximus VII ($137.50)
Other: INTEL i5 4690K ($137.50)
Other: Rx480 ($250.00) Total: $814.34
Ok, so my 6600K 4th core keeps immediately failing Prime95 after bumping up vcore incrementally. Currently at 1.31v and 4.5GHZ and still having the same problem, thoughts?
it is all a lottery. 1.31 isn't even high though. 1.35 on air, 1.4+ on water cooling.
You obviously need to bump up the vcore if you want it prime95 rock solid. Try the x264 test, do a few loops. That is more what you will see in everyday use.
Ok, so my 6600K 4th core keeps immediately failing Prime95 after bumping up vcore incrementally. Currently at 1.31v and 4.5GHZ and still having the same problem, thoughts?
it is all a lottery. 1.31 isn't even high though. 1.35 on air, 1.4+ on water cooling.
You obviously need to bump up the vcore if you want it prime95 rock solid. Try the x264 test, do a few loops. That is more what you will see in everyday use.
Posted a question on Reddit about my issue and someone mentioned that there was a BIOS issue with skylake and he recommended updating it, is this a possibility?
I upped to 1.33 and don't havent had the 4th core fail, so it seems more likely that I simply didn't get a suoer great chip. No worries though, temps are great so far.
Edit: system froze completely at 1.33v with prime95, ugh. I wonder if there is some weird setting in my BIOS that is interfering with the voltage. Only settings I touched were cpu ratio and vcore.
I was wondering if I could get some insight on this gaming build before I pull the trigger on it. A friend has the Hero Maximus VII mobo and an i5 4690k that he said he would sell for $275 total. Should I go with this build or should I just save up another $100 and build a i5 6600k rig for better future proofing?
Let me know what you would change in the build too! I'm willing to switch out any components that may not be the best quality for the money, but I am trying to stay around $800-$900.
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($71.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Case: Phanteks ECLIPSE P400S ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Other: Hero Maximus VII ($137.50)
Other: INTEL i5 4690K ($137.50)
Other: Rx480 ($250.00) Total: $814.34
If you're considering the ~$250 6600k the 6700k can be had for between $280-300 fairly consistently if you find the right deals (According to slickdeals it goes on sale here fairly consistently at or around the $300 price point) or if you have a microcenter nearby. That's a much better processor to grab if you're serious about future proofing vs the 6600k. You might have to wait a few weeks for it to pop up, but I've seen them fairly consistently. Then just opt for something like this.
Awesome thanks for getting back to me. I'm in Australia so the prices are a bit different. I do intend to buy a 1070 at some point but might have to wait a little due to splurging on the monitor. I got plenty of games to play in the meantime so I'm not too bothered.
I only got to play with it very briefly this morning before work so I didn't think to turn off AA, or turn down some settings, that might help.
Also looking forward to see how Stardew Valley looks
Ran into an issue where Windows wouldn't show my second HDD. Saw it while installing Windows and could see it in device manager but it wouldn't show in Explorer. Turns out I had to name the damn drive before it was recognized. Don't remember having to do that before.
I am, I know. I just purchased a 1070 MSI Gaming card and I offered my card to a friend for really cheap first so he could have a nice upgrade from his 660ti. (I offered it to him for $100) which he surprisingly turned down, then my other buddy who's just getting into PC gaming said he refused to buy a used card ¯_(ツ_/¯. So I went on Amazon where I usually sell (Less problems with buyers than ebay and they generally pay more.) Saw that everyone was putting it up for crazy amounts, $289.99 as the lowest price of the used card. So I said screw it, why not I'll put it up for a few days at $279.99... wake up in the morning, sold. I was honestly dumbfounded. I had thought for sure I'd end up selling to to a Gaffer for $150 or so in B/S/T because it's a reference and nobody wants the reference outside of specific small form factor builds.
Hmm I have the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo. Haven't opened the box yet. Does it come with thermal paste, and if so it is good to use? I ordered Arctic MX-4 but it won't arrive until tomorrow or the day after.
Not sure of you've installed it yet but I'm curious on your experience. I didn't anticipate the x-clamp to be such a pain and ended up taking it off, cleaning the CPU/heat sink thoroughly and getting it working the second try. Thought I did everything right to make it easier, but still ran into issues.
Ok, so my 6600K 4th core keeps immediately failing Prime95 after bumping up vcore incrementally. Currently at 1.31v and 4.5GHZ and still having the same problem, thoughts?
1.31 in the bios or cpuz? Or both? What LLC are you running? What type of p95 test are you running and what error is it throwing? What's your ram set at?
I'd suggest try playing with freesyonc on and then freesync off to get an idea of the comparison. You could keep settings a bit low to keep framerates high as a sort of analogue for the 1070 if you'd like.
I'm a huge fan of variable refresh rate tech, so I'd probably lean towards sticking with freesync myself.
Not sure of you've installed it yet but I'm curious on your experience. I didn't anticipate the x-clamp to be such a pain and ended up taking it off, cleaning the CPU/heat sink thoroughly and getting it working the second try. Thought I did everything right to make it easier, but still ran into issues.
Haven't installed it yet, will probably start in another hour or so. My wife is out right now and had wanted to watch me build from the start. I'll post during the build process, if anyone would be interested in updates.
Honestly it's something you can't really miss until you've seen/used it. I have an MG279Q I can use with my 1070. Wanted to go AMD but they just aren't there for me yet. Maybe later with the 490, but until some point down the line I'm sure I'll still be very happy with what I know without G/Free-sync. I've used Free-sync and Gsync but never long enough to truly miss it.
I'd suggest try playing with freesyonc on and then freesync off to get an idea of the comparison. You could keep settings a bit low to keep framerates high as a sort of analogue for the 1070 if you'd like.
I'm a huge fan of variable refresh rate tech, so I'd probably lean towards sticking with freesync myself.
_/¯. So I went on Amazon where I usually sell (Less problems with buyers than ebay and they generally pay more.) Saw that everyone was putting it up for crazy amounts, $289.99 as the lowest price of the used card. So I said screw it, why not I'll put it up for a few days at $279.99... wake up in the morning, sold. I was honestly dumbfounded. I had thought for sure I'd end up selling to to a Gaffer for $150 or so in B/S/T because it's a reference and nobody wants the reference outside of specific small form factor builds.
