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"I Need a New PC!" 2017 The Ryzing of Kaby Lake and NVMwhee!

ISee

Member
got a question from my nephew :

he is looking for a new GPU and he asks :
How much GB should his GPU have at least for most recent games to run decent ?

4GB are still enough for most games at 1080p, but going for a 480/8gb or 1060/6gb variant is the better choice.

is Steam/Origin/Uplay like playstation, where you have to deactivate your account before moving on to new hardware? last thing I want is a limitation on how many PCs I can downloand my games on because i forgot to deactivate my account or something. I'm getting rid of my hardware this week so any other tips would be appreciated if anyone has any good advice. Thanks.

You can install them on as many systems as you like to, no deactivations needed.
 

b0bbyJ03

Member
For my 7700k I went with 3200mhz ram with the tightest timings I could find (G.Skill ripjawsV). You can also go with 3600mhz but the kits that I was looking at had taller heatspreaders which would have interfered with my cpu heatsink (I needed low profile). I'd go with either a 3200mhz or 3600mhz kit though.

thanks for the advice. I'll probably go with the same.

You can install them on as many systems as you like to, no deactivations needed.

Awesome thanks.
 

spootime

Member
Went ahead and sold a lot of my steam inventory for a new CPU. Should I be buying right now? Waiting? Whats the common consensus here? I'm buying purely for gaming BTW
 

SourBear

Banned
I'm currently rocking the following:

Intel i7-4790
16 GB DDR3
970 GTX 4GB
1TB SSD
250GB SSD

Debating with myself if it is worth upgrading. About the only thing I could keep would be the computer case, and drives.
I'm a software engineer by trade and by hobby, and lots of computer games obviously.
 
I'm currently rocking the following:

Intel i7-4790
16 GB DDR3
970 GTX 4GB
1TB SSD
250GB SSD

Debating with myself if it is worth upgrading. About the only thing I could keep would be the computer case, and drives.
I'm a software engineer by trade and by hobby, and lots of computer games obviously.

970s value going down is not stopping. So if you usually sell your old parts, then it is a good time before used 970s go for $100. If you are not worried about selling, I think you cam wait a bit longer.
 
got a question from my nephew :

he is looking for a new GPU and he asks :
How much GB should his GPU have at least for most recent games to run decent ?

4gb for 1080p although some games might need more with AA. Safe bet is to get the 6GB-8GB cards even for 1080p.
 
got an order in for a 1080ti, got the gigabyte aorus

looking at the TDP of a 1080ti vs a 980ti, the power usage does not appear to be much higher

i'm currently on the following:
i5 4690k @ 4 ghz (stock voltage)
16 gb g skill ram
980 ti
600w power supply

I'm assuming I should be fine to replace the 980ti with the 1080ti without needing to upgrade the PSU? but wanted to double check to be on the safe side
 
got a question from my nephew :

he is looking for a new GPU and he asks :
How much GB should his GPU have at least for most recent games to run decent ?

4gb for 1080p although some games might need more with AA. Safe bet is to get the 6GB-8GB cards even for 1080p.

Well I mean, what's the nephew's expectation? Ultra settings at 60 FPS? If not, the 1050 Ti or RX 470 can make good Medium-High cards.
 
Alright, some to the conclusion that it's just Battlefield 4 that was broken. I 'fixed' the game in Origin and the client downloaded some additional bits and bobs (this comes after updating graphics drivers and flashing the BIOS). Played for an hour and a half solid today and no issues. Will keep going with playthroughs and tests to be absolutely sure, but from all the positive stress tests the other day and zero issues other than in BF4, I think it's safe to say my PC is fine.

The coil whine in the PSU is still irritating, however, so I'm inclined to send it back and grab another from Corsair. I'll reach out to them and see what they say.
 
This is bad advice. There's more than enough data showing frametime and minimum framerate improvements from faster RAM. Pairing the highest tier cpu with bottom tier RAM is a dumb way to save money.

Fair enough when you start comparing it to some of the fastest RAM available but even that is not a constant and I always assume people aren't going to want to dish out for 3600+ for a few fps. Anyway he can just OC.
 

MEATER

Member
Trying to find good reasons to justify spending 830-880 EUR on a 1080 ti rather than 500 EUR on a 1080.

If Nvidia keeps this up I should be able to get an 1280 in two to three years for 500 that beats the 1080 ti even with an 7700k, right?

Looking for 100+ fps on 1440p though, I guess in most games the ti will make close to 20 fps difference at that resolution...
 

The Chef

Member
Hey guys,
So I need help with wireless internet on my new rig.
My Apple Airport Extreme is in the living room. All I have is this crappy USB WIFI dongle connected to my PC so all I get are incredibly slow speeds ~1mb - 5mb.

Meanwhile my PS4 sitting on my desk next to my PC gets 15mb down wirelessly.

So what should I do for my PC? Should I get an internal wireless network card? Should I get a wifi booster for this room?
 
Follow up dumb question. Was contemplating buying a 1060. Are prices on those expected to drop anytime soon, or am I pretty safe getting one relatively soon-ish (month or two).
 

LilJoka

Member
What's the highest oc achievable on an i7700k with a noctua fan?

Give us the heatsink model at least.
Next, CPUs are unique, no sample overclocks the same.
The best heatsinks should get most 7700k's to 4.7Ghz at least. A good chip may get 4.8- 5Ghz.

Hey guys,
So I need help with wireless internet on my new rig.
My Apple Airport Extreme is in the living room. All I have is this crappy USB WIFI dongle connected to my PC so all I get are incredibly slow speeds ~1mb - 5mb.

Meanwhile my PS4 sitting on my desk next to my PC gets 15mb down wirelessly.

So what should I do for my PC? Should I get an internal wireless network card? Should I get a wifi booster for this room?

What is the model of this USB wifi dongle?
 

Diancecht

Member
Hey people, I've question. I am building a new PC for a friend with my and my other friends' old pc parts but I am kind of torn about the video card.

We have two choices: Either have one 780ti or sli two 2gb 770 windforce together. I made him sure that he won't be playing new games on ultra and he is ok with it. While I think sli is the better option, I am a bit worried about the 2gb vram. What should I do?
 

LilJoka

Member
Hey people, I've question. I am building a new PC for a friend with my and my other friends' old pc parts but I am kind of torn about the video card.

We have two choices: Either have one 780ti or sli two 2gb 770 windforce together. I made him sure that he won't be playing new games on ultra and he is ok with it. While I think sli is the better option, I am a bit worried about the 2gb vram. What should I do?

SLI support is going down hill, I would stick with a single card, and as you mention, 2GB VRAM is bare minimum these days.
Single card will be quieter too. SLI just brings a boat load of performance variance actosd games.
 
Follow up dumb question. Was contemplating buying a 1060. Are prices on those expected to drop anytime soon, or am I pretty safe getting one relatively soon-ish (month or two).

AMD's Vega cards will be out between now and the end of June, which might lead to a price drop, but we're not really sure.
 

V1LÆM

Gold Member
Went ahead and sold a lot of my steam inventory for a new CPU. Should I be buying right now? Waiting? Whats the common consensus here? I'm buying purely for gaming BTW

if it's purely for gaming then a 7700K is the best CPU for you right now. Coffee Lake I think is coming out the end of this year and will offer a 15% boost over Kaby Lake. It will also have more than 4 cores. The days of 4c/8t are over it seems. 7700K is still a good choice if you need something now but if you can wait then that's what I'd do.
 

loganclaws

Plane Escape Torment
Give us the heatsink model at least.
Next, CPUs are unique, no sample overclocks the same.
The best heatsinks should get most 7700k's to 4.7Ghz at least. A good chip may get 4.8- 5Ghz.

I got the noctua cpu cooler, one of the best rate coolers. Is it rare to hit 5ghz? Was hoping to achieve that as a minimum.
 

Vipu

Banned
Give us the heatsink model at least.
Next, CPUs are unique, no sample overclocks the same.
The best heatsinks should get most 7700k's to 4.7Ghz at least. A good chip may get 4.8- 5Ghz.



What is the model of this USB wifi dongle?

Add delidding to that and you can get it much easier and have lower temps with any decent cooler.
 

Kyne

Member
So I guess I'm going to start putting something together soon.

Here's a run at my first draft.
m8hVfSe.png


Anyone see any red flags or have any notable suggestions?

Much appreciated!
 

b0bbyJ03

Member
Need some help picking out a part. I'm between 2 Asus mobo's and I'm trying to figure out if it's worth spending the money for the higher end one. I'm between the Prime z270-AR and the ROG Strix z270 E gaming. what do you guys think?
 

The Chef

Member
What is the model of this USB wifi dongle?

Medialink?

So I guess I'm going to start putting something together soon.

Here's a run at my first draft.
m8hVfSe.png


Anyone see any red flags or have any notable suggestions?

Much appreciated!

Beastly setup. Curious about possibly upgrading the CPU to the i7 4.0Ghz for ~$100 more would be worthwhile investment.
I have that same case. Looks amazing.
 

laxu

Member
How important is RAM speeds these days? If I'm pairing it with a 7700k, what speed should I be shooting for?

Very little. As there is not much price difference just get whatever you can find in the 3000+ MHz area with tightest timings you can find that also can be fitted with whatever CPU cooler you are using since memory manufacturers just love putting those unnecessarily tall heatspreaders on their RAM.
 

GodofWine

Member
I want to get my kids a new PC with 'some' gaming capability. I've tossed around the idea of a 'cheap' build, but spending 25% of the budget on an OS sucks. Now Im looking at aDell Optiplex 990 MT Desktop (refurb) (i7-2600 3.4GHz Quad-Core, 8GB DDR3), as a possible landing spot for a GPU (low power drawing, nothing 'new').

Im not totally crazy to think a slapping an R7 240 in it and calling it a nice minecraft / roblox machine. It HAS to do some minecraft mods OK though, thats the hurdle.

Its only a 30W card, so I think it would be OK on the stock PSU (edit - probably need more GPU than an r7 240 it seems, and edit 2 - that CPU sells for $450, the refurbed PC is $329)
 

Kyne

Member
Beastly setup. Curious about possibly upgrading the CPU to the i7 4.0Ghz for ~$100 more would be worthwhile investment.
I have that same case. Looks amazing.

I could be convinced.. initially I had 32GBs of RAM and lowered it to 16GB which saved me about $100... I suppose I could redirect those saved funds into a better CPU if you think the investment would be worth it. Is this the model your'e talking about?

Not bad. Are you purchasing everything from one place? I was able to make a similar build with an i7-7700k with some slight changes and buying from different places (plus it's white/blue colour matched :D).

I think your link is broken? :eek: I'm definitely going for a black/white vibe here (here's my current room setup). I'll be purchasing the parts from different places (Amazon/Frys/Newegg) to save pennies.
 

LordAlu

Member
I could be convinced.. initially I had 32GBs of RAM and lowered it to 16GB which saved me about $100... I suppose I could redirect those saved funds into a better CPU if you think the investment would be worth it. Is this the model your'e talking about?



I think your link is broken? :eek: I'm definitely going for a black/white vibe here (here's my current room setup). I'll be purchasing the parts from different places (Amazon/Frys/Newegg) to save pennies.
Sorry, I fixed it in the original post and reproduced it below:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($339.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 280 64.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI Z270 TOMAHAWK ARCTIC ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($144.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($114.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($166.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.38 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Video Card ($509.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT H440 (Glossy White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($88.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1738.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-05 11:30 EDT-0400
 
Sorry, I fixed it in the original post and reproduced it below:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($339.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 280 64.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI Z270 TOMAHAWK ARCTIC ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($144.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($114.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($166.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.38 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Video Card ($509.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT H440 (Glossy White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($88.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1738.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-05 11:30 EDT-0400

Two things:

7700k: I read on another forum that someone used Staples.com price match and 10% discount to get the 7700k for $292 bucks. The price match is for microcenter.com where the 7700k is $299. Might want to check it out if the effort is worth it to you to save ~$50.

SuperNOVA G2: was going to be my PSU before reading multiple reviews from Newegg, Amazon and owners of the units on EVGA Forums, saying these things can get loud. Like, significantly louder than comparable PSUs.

Made me switch to a Corsair RMi series.

Just something to look into. Anyway if you're set on the G2 I'd probably go with a G3. It's more compact and supposed to be a little more power efficient.
 
I am debating jumping into the AMD pool.

Budget of 250$ hard lined and I am trying to wait out to see if t will be worth it to go to 580 for the extra VRAM. Although I honestly don't play too much where it matters at this point and I am on 1080p as well.

Thoughts for a graphics normie like me?

Older i7 4770k and 16gb 2400 ram (I think)
 

Kanashimi

Member
So I haven't built a PC in like 7 years, so I'm rusty (my shock when I didn't need a sound card :p).

Long version is my harddrive went down in December, I was able to get a new one and a fresh copy of Windows 10. I started buying parts because it's solely time to upgrade. However, due to my inexperience with Windows 10 I'm unsure how to proceed. In a perfect world, I'd like to just use the harddrive I have (I dunno if I have to install anything extra or how finicky this would be) in the rig I'm building.

My friend however is a doll and offered me a 320 GB harddrive. While I know I can pop this in and install a fresh Windows 10, is this preferred? What's the best way to transfer all my software from the other?

tl;dr I have a newish harddrive with Windows 10, should I use that or a fresh one? If I use a fresh one, what's the best way to transfer what's on the other without breaking anything?
 

liezryou

Member
SuperNOVA G2: was going to be my PSU before reading multiple reviews from Newegg, Amazon and owners of the units on EVGA Forums, saying these things can get loud. Like, significantly louder than comparable PSUs.

Made me switch to a Corsair RMi series.

Just something to look into. Anyway if you're set on the G2 I'd probably go with a G3. It's more compact and supposed to be a little more power efficient.

What? SuperNOVA G2 is one of the most efficient and quiet power supplies out there. I don't know where you are reading these multiple reviews about it being bad.
 
What? SuperNOVA G2 is one of the most efficient and quiet power supplies out there. I don't know where you are reading these multiple reviews about it being bad.

I never said anything about reviews saying it was bad; just that it can be noisy. And you do know where I'm reading those reviews because I listed them.
 

Inbachi

Neo Member
I built my PC back at the beginning of 2009 and it's showing its age. I really need (want) to do a full upgrade but, unfortunately, I have other financial priorities right now.

I'm trying to see if it's worthwhile to make some small, minor upgrades to hold me over for a year or so until I can do a proper, full replacement.

Here's most of my current build: I'm not sure of the exact model of video card I have but it's an EVGA GTX 760 4GB of some type. I also have just a regular P6T Deluxe; I don't know what the difference is with the P6TD model but PCParts didn't list the non D version.

CPU: Intel Core i7-920 2.66GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: Asus P6TD Deluxe ATX LGA1366 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory
Memory: G.Skill 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Case: Antec Nine Hundred ATX Mid Tower Case

I use my computer *mostly* for gaming (1080p/60Hz) and play nearly everything, from the Battlefield games to Starcraft II to old games via emulation. I also do lite Photoshop/Lightroom work and have started messing around with VM's.

Battlefield 1 seems to stress my system the most so I'll use that as my basis for comparison. I currently play with all low settings; not sure how many FPS I'm getting as I've never looked but it feels fine most of the time. It will sometimes drop sharply though when the action is intense.

I'm wanting to know a few things: would something like a 1060/480 help me out much? I'd like to run high+ settings at 1080p/60 but I'm not sure if that's possible without upgrading more parts. I've been more of a Nvidia user but the 480 has caught my attention.

I've also read about picking up old Xeon 56xx CPU's and using them to replace 920's. I see some 5650's new for about $110 or so and used ones for around $50. Would that be much of an improvement and would it be better just to buy a new one? It seems kind of sketchy to me to buy a used CPU since I have no idea how it was used but maybe it's not a big deal. I've never OC'd before but I've read those Xeon CPU's are easy to do so I'd probably dabble with that if I pick one up.

I'd like to get a SSD; I'm thinking an older Samsung Evo model or the Crucial MX300. Any better choices? Would I even get the most out of these SSD's with my current mobo? I won't be able to attain the full speed, correct?

Those three parts (CPU, video card, SSD) are what I'm considering right now but I'm clearly open for suggestions. I'd like to stay around $400 or so but I'm not sure that's feasible. Maybe I should just use what I have for now and keep saving for the full upgrade?

Anyway, I apologize for the long post and thank you in advance for any suggestions.
 

GodofWine

Member
Hey guys so I bought a pre built pc recently and it just came in the mail.

The problem is they sent me a bunch of plastic rod looking things with the pc. I've been looking at the countless manuals they sent me and still can't find the item.

Can one of you guys tell what it is? Here is a link to a couple pictures.

http://imgur.com/a/9AS62

EDIT: NVM I've figured it out. So those are called drive mounting brackets and I guess they gave me extra.
 

goober

Member
Oh no, that looks like a gpu overheating problem. I had those geometric lines when one of my cards died a long time ago. Every time I used it after I'd get those lines all over the screen. So if you only got them one time, or every time you play Titan Fall 2 for too long it may just bee the card is getting too hot and crashes, could be a bad card if it won't try to downclock and cool itself off. Is the fan working?

How can I check if the fan is working? It's the first time it's ever happened and I think the first time I've ever pushed the rig to its limits. I can play LoL, CSGO fine no problems. I had been playing Titanfall 2 for maybe 2-4 hours. I can hear stuff whirring, but I'm not sure its the fan or not.

Can I buy an aftermarket fan? Would that solve the problem?
 
Just wanted to give a heads up that anyone still rocking a 2500k and needs and upgrade, but isn't ready to commit to new platform + ddr4, the 3770k is a very viable option.

Just swapped out my 2500k @ 4.6 to a 3770k @ 4.5 and the difference in BF1 and GTAV is very noticable. Frame times and minimum frames have greatly improved.
 
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