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[NEO0MJ]

OK, so here's what I plan on buying next month. What do you guys think? Should I change anything?

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-L9i 33.8 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus - STRIX Z270G Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Kingston - Predator 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Storage: Kingston - HyperX Fury 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card
Case: Corsair - Carbide Series 88R MicroATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair - Builder 750W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply

I''m not sure if I got the CPU cooler right but I'm confidant about the rest. Is there any real benefit for going Windows Pro instead of 10 if I don't think I'll be using remote access much?

 

[Sad Affleck]

Nah, regular W10 is fine.

 

[LegitMcfalls]

Personally I would suggest upgrading the GPU and riding out the rest of the generation with that setup.



As long as you're happy with 30 fps you should be good to go. The a10 will bottleneck the card though.

Thanks man! Im starting to realise that i may have a full rebuild ahead of me rather than single gpu upgrade. The gf is going to kill me if i tell her i need ANOTHER computer lol

 

[Sad Affleck]

Thanks man! Im starting to realise that i may have a full rebuild ahead of me rather than single gpu upgrade. The gf is going to kill me if i tell her i need ANOTHER computer lol

Yeah you will definitely need to build a new system sooner or later. Still, the gtx 650 should still be able to provide acceptable performance in modern games though not at 1080p.

 

[bananafactory]

Hey guys, building a low-mid PC for my GFs little brother, he just wants to play Garys Mod and some random Steam games, plays most AAA stuff on his X1.

Limit is $1000 and I still have to buy a W10 key so here's what I got specd out

Is this decent? How's the 1050ti? Benchmarks for it seem decent for that price.

Before you balk at the prices please keep in mind this is Canadian $

 

[Sofa King]

http://www.microcenter.com/product/475437/G314_Desktop_Computer

Pre built at micro center. Seems like it would be hard to build this for less. Thoughts?

 

[Burgess_101]

I have problems with using my PS4 controllers over bluetooth, there is way too much lag. This has happened to me twice even after a complete fresh Windows. It starts off working fine and then it will just start being laggy for no reason after a couple of days usage.

I had played two player Rocket League just fine the day before. Earlier I was playing Dirt Rally and it was fine, I went to add another controller to play Rocket League and there was a driver error. Not a problem, happens occasionally, usually just remove and repair fixes it.

It doesn't and now any controller I add has lag. I have tried so many things to fix it but the fact this issue has followed me onto a fresh Windows 10 build makes me think its just Windows problem.

I have an ASUS BT400 Bluetooth adaptor. I have tried reinstalling drivers, restart PC, turn off DS4 Windows, turn off all wifi and bluetooth stuff in the house. Nothing works.

Does anyone have any idea at all?

 

[KurtFehl]

I have problems with using my PS4 controllers over bluetooth, there is way too much lag. This has happened to me twice even after a complete fresh Windows. It starts off working fine and then it will just start being laggy for no reason after a couple of days usage.

I had played two player Rocket League just fine the day before. Earlier I was playing Dirt Rally and it was fine, I went to add another controller to play Rocket League and there was a driver error. Not a problem, happens occasionally, usually just remove and repair fixes it.

It doesn't and now any controller I add has lag. I have tried so many things to fix it but the fact this issue has followed me onto a fresh Windows 10 build makes me think its just Windows problem.

I have an ASUS BT400 Bluetooth adaptor. I have tried reinstalling drivers, restart PC, turn off DS4 Windows, turn off all wifi and bluetooth stuff in the house. Nothing works.

Does anyone have any idea at all?

Happens to me too using XBO controllers via Bluetooth. It's just laggy. I usually have to end up connecting my controller.

 

[Sad Affleck]

Hey guys, building a low-mid PC for my GFs little brother, he just wants to play Garys Mod and some random Steam games, plays most AAA stuff on his X1.

Limit is $1000 and I still have to buy a W10 key so here's what I got specd out

Is this decent? How's the 1050ti? Benchmarks for it seem decent for that price.

Before you balk at the prices please keep in mind this is Canadian $

The 1050Ti is much better than the XB1 GPU. This PC can do a lot more than play Garry's Mod, I'd say 1080p/60fps at medium-lowish settings is within reach for most AAA games out there.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/475437/G314_Desktop_Computer

Pre built at micro center. Seems like it would be hard to build this for less. Thoughts?

It seems like a good system at a good price. Is the power supply decent?

 

[LilJoka]

Hey guys, building a low-mid PC for my GFs little brother, he just wants to play Garys Mod and some random Steam games, plays most AAA stuff on his X1.

Limit is $1000 and I still have to buy a W10 key so here's what I got specd out

Is this decent? How's the 1050ti? Benchmarks for it seem decent for that price.

Before you balk at the prices please keep in mind this is Canadian $

The board needs ddr4, not ddr3.

 

[Bloodember]

Hey guys, building a low-mid PC for my GFs little brother, he just wants to play Garys Mod and some random Steam games, plays most AAA stuff on his X1.

Limit is $1000 and I still have to buy a W10 key so here's what I got specd out

Is this decent? How's the 1050ti? Benchmarks for it seem decent for that price.

Before you balk at the prices please keep in mind this is Canadian $

Switch the board out to a 200 series chipset, the 100 series was designed for Skylake. Also the Ram needs to be DDR4.

 

[ISee]

Hello GAF! So I've been buying parts for PC I'm trying to build this summer. I'm deciding to go with a Ryzen 5 1600 instead of a i5 6500. This will be my first time building this thing, so I wanted to know your opinions.. Is it looking good?

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3zG7BP

Not much to add. Looks fine to me so far, specs wise. You could of course get faster ddr4 ram. RAM speed is a bit more important this generation because it seems to boost CPU performance. But you should first look up what ram is certified for your mb. XMP profiles seem to be a bit more tricky on AM4 board in comparison to LGA 1151.

 

[bananafactory]

The 1050Ti is much better than the XB1 GPU. This PC can do a lot more than play Garry's Mod, I'd say 1080p/60fps at medium-lowish settings is within reach for most AAA games out there.



It seems like a good system at a good price. Is the power supply decent?

The board needs ddr4, not ddr3.

Switch the board out to a 200 series chipset, the 100 series was designed for Skylake. Also the Ram needs to be DDR4.

Thanks for the advice guys. I stupidly assumed DDR4 boards would support DDR3 as well. I also found one of these kicking around

So I scrapped the SSD and decided to just go with a standard HDD. The person I'm building it for won't notice the difference, and I used that money to bump the card up to a 1060. Anyways, swapped out the mobo, fixed the RAM type.

 

[Mozendo]

I'm confused as to why people are recommending Ryzen for gaming.
I've seen a few benchmarks and it still seems the i5 is better for gaming, unless they're outdated?

 

[Sectorseven]

What's the difference between Ryzen and a 7600k/7700k for gaming purposes?

Depends on your resolution, graphics card and how well the game is optimized.

Generally speaking, on games that are predominately optimized for 1-4 cores, an overclocked i7 is going to be anywhere from about even to 20 fps faster than an equivalent R7. Bear in mind we're already talking about games running well north of 60fps so the difference may not even be noticeable to you, unless your focus is VR or high framerate G-sync gaming.

 

[Giolon]

Any advice on a Strix Z270E vs Maximus IX Hero? I don't particularly need integrated WiFi or Bluetooth, but I'd like the USB 3.1 front panel header that the Z270F doesn't offer.

 

[kuYuri]

http://www.microcenter.com/product/475437/G314_Desktop_Computer

Pre built at micro center. Seems like it would be hard to build this for less. Thoughts?

It's a good system. Throw in another 1 or 2TB hard drive and you can store all your media or games there.

It seems like a good system at a good price. Is the power supply decent?

EVGA 500W Bronze rated according to the picture, which is just enough.

 

[ISee]

What's the difference between Ryzen and a 7600k/7700k for gaming purposes?

I'm confused as to why people are recommending Ryzen for gaming.
I've seen a few benchmarks and it still seems the i5 is better for gaming, unless they're outdated?

The r5 1600 could become the better CPU for the future because it brings a lot more cores/threads to the equation. Still, kabylake CPUs overclocked to 4.8 GHz seem to have a per core advantage of about 30% over ryzen CPUs overclocked to 4 GHz (reachable overclocks for both cpu series). That's not nothing and even well multithreaded games still seem to run into situations where they offload into one thread. Take Prey as an example. It is an amd-ryzen sponsored and optimized game. It is also one of the few games where a r7 is performing just as well as a modern i7.

Prey CPU benchmark

But if you look at the load per thread, things look a bit different and single thread performance still seems to be very relevant.

prey cpu load per thread

Even DX12 games sometimes offload into one thread when there is a lot of work to be done. Like in this example in FH3 (with the new patch that drastically improved multithreading). 70% load on one 7700k thread, running at 4.8GHz, was surprising to me. With less cars on screen CPU load is much more even here.

FH3- cpu load

The consensus is, there is none. I'm not sure that kabylakes advantage (better performance per thread) is going to diminish over time and that ryzen will become the clearly better cpu in the future. But I it could happen and the chance isn't even small. Still, it is very hard to recommend one over the other, imo. But it’s also not a huge deal. Both kabylake and ryzen can push games to 60fps with enough headroom left for at least 2 years, probably even more. That’s enough, because at one point people will have to get a new CPU anyway, no matter what they buy today.

 

[rand0mZer0]

Hmm the x99 platform you are on uses quad-channel memory, so try something like 4x4GB.

Okay. Thank you for the suggestion!

Yes. 4 sticks of DDR4 ram for quad channel. I would suggest a better CPU cooler. The x99 CPUs uses more watts, and thus, needs a bigger cooler, especially if you plan on overclocking which you should since it's a free speed boost.

Also, do you already own the 840 Pro? If not, there are way better option for that price.

Do you have any suggestions for the CPU cooler? I really don't know what I should be looking for haha.

I do not own an 840 Pro, I just liked the way it looked and put it into my build. Sorry to bug, but any suggestions?

 

[Mineshaft_Gap]

Left a bad review for my broken ass Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080 Ti and got a response right away to help me. I've long since ditched the card and gone with one from a different mfg that has NONE of the problems of the Aorus.

Gigabyte can get fucked. When calling their customer service I got nothing but bewildered apathy from someone who could barely speak English. It takes leaving a bad review to get a response from them.

Not to mention needing to wait on hold for HOURS.

 

[Vic_Viper]

Looking to get a better Wireless Network card for my PC. Was looking at the Asus AC3100 but it looks like it's about to be out of stock on Amazon with no more coming in. Is it about to be replaced with something else? I can get them on Newegg but I'd rather buy from Amazon, and I can wait if there's something new replacing it.

Are there any other Wifi A/C PCI-E cards I should look at also that are comparable? I'd like something that can connect to 5Ghz and has the wired antenna.

https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/PCE-AC88/

 

[OriginofHysteria]

Looking to maybe switch my case from a Define r5 to an S340 elite. Anyone have any ideas on how good/bad the airflow is? My concern are the lack of openings for the intake.

 

[Drakhoran]

Okay. Thank you for the suggestion!


I do not own an 840 Pro, I just liked the way it looked and put it into my build. Sorry to bug, but any suggestions?

How about a Samsung 850 Pro? It's a newer faster drive that gives you twice the cpacity at the same price. Honestly, I'm surprised anyone is still selling the 840.

 

[Akim]

PC is now 100% finished!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For $299.99)
CPU Cooler: NZXT - Kraken X52 Liquid CPU Cooler (Purchased For $149.99)
Motherboard: Asus - STRIX Z270-E GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (Purchased For $189.99)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (Purchased For $159.99)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $134.00)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 1.1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (Purchased For $289.99)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB FTW3 GAMING iCX Video Card (Purchased For $750.00)
Case: Corsair - Crystal 570X RGB ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $167.99)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $102.31)
Case Fan: Corsair - SP120 RGB 3-Pack w/Controller 52.0 CFM 120mm Fans (Purchased For $62.99)
Monitor: Acer - XB271HU bmiprz 27.0" 2560x1440 165Hz Monitor (Purchased For $473.39)
Other:
Other: AOC e1659Fwu 15.6" USB 3.0 Powered Portable monitor (Purchased For $100.00)
Total: $2880.63
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-14 21:46 EDT-0400

Bonus keyboard shot

 

[Hopfrog]

Thinking about an upgrade, just looking for some advice.

Current Build:

CPU: i5-3570K with Hyper Evo cooler
GPU: MSI GTX 770 2GB
MB: ASUS P8Z77-V LK 1155 ATX
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
SSD: Samsung 840 256GB
HDD: Two WD HDDs
PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 650W ATX12V/EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC
Case: Fractal Design R4

Budget: $1000-1200 in USA, near a Microcenter also

Main Use: Mainly gaming and light office work such as Word, Excel, also media streaming (Netflix, etc.)

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080, 60 hz; not planning on upgrading anytime soon, but open to 1440 in the future

Must Run: Mostly FPS, RPG; games like Arkham Knight, Mass Effect: Andromeda, The Witcher 3; would like to do 60+ FPS

Re-using parts: would like to re-use Fractal Design R4 case, Corsair TX650 PSU, Samsung 840 and WD HDDs

When: No set deadline, wiling to wait, but would like to do it before the end of the year

Overclock: Would like to have the possibility

Here is a PCPartPicker that I threw together:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/kpD6VY

Thoughts? I realize the 1070 is a lot of card for 1080p but I would like it to last a while. I tend to stretch my builds out to 4-5 years. Is now a good time to upgrade or should I wait a bit?

 

[BolognaOni]

Do you have any suggestions for the CPU cooler? I really don't know what I should be looking for haha.

I do not own an 840 Pro, I just liked the way it looked and put it into my build. Sorry to bug, but any suggestions?

Not cheap, but I have a Noctua NH-D15 on that same CPU and was able to hit 4.5 GHz without too much noise.

That said, Scythe FUMA is probably what I'd buy today- similar performance at half the price. Check that one out.

Also on cooling, for the video card the extra $20-40 for a EVGA SC or MSI Gaming X is probably worth it. You can probably find a motherboard option for a bit less if you need to save a bit.

 

[Sir Abacus]

PC is now 100% finished!

Did you get a Lighting Node Pro to control the RGB through Corsair Link or are you just using the inbuilt controller?

 

[Akim]

Did you get a Lighting Node Pro to control the RGB through Corsair Link or are you just using the inbuilt controller?

Just using the default controller.

 

[PlayALLtheGames]

PC is now 100% finished!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For $299.99)
CPU Cooler: NZXT - Kraken X52 Liquid CPU Cooler (Purchased For $149.99)
Motherboard: Asus - STRIX Z270-E GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (Purchased For $189.99)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (Purchased For $159.99)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $134.00)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 1.1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (Purchased For $289.99)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB FTW3 GAMING iCX Video Card (Purchased For $750.00)
Case: Corsair - Crystal 570X RGB ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $167.99)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $102.31)
Case Fan: Corsair - SP120 RGB 3-Pack w/Controller 52.0 CFM 120mm Fans (Purchased For $62.99)
Monitor: Acer - XB271HU bmiprz 27.0" 2560x1440 165Hz Monitor (Purchased For $473.39)
Other:
Other: AOC e1659Fwu 15.6" USB 3.0 Powered Portable monitor (Purchased For $100.00)
Total: $2880.63
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-14 21:46 EDT-0400









Bonus keyboard shot

Sweet! That'll do some damage.

 

[Jimrpg]

Hey guys, building a low-mid PC for my GFs little brother, he just wants to play Garys Mod and some random Steam games, plays most AAA stuff on his X1.

Limit is $1000 and I still have to buy a W10 key so here's what I got specd out

Is this decent? How's the 1050ti? Benchmarks for it seem decent for that price.

Before you balk at the prices please keep in mind this is Canadian $

You can spend a lot less than $1000 I think and play Garry's Mod.

What about a Pentium Processor they are so cheap and can do most AAA games just fine at 1080/30 or 60 (it depends on the game)

You can save $150 right there.

 

[truestatic]

Hey there PC afficianados. I know this delightful thread is more of buyer's guide than hardware support, but maybe someone will indulge me. First, my PC

Corsair TX750
EVGA GEFORCE GTX 970
i5 4670k
MSI Z87 G45

Today my PC randomly shut down while playing Stardew Valley. It refused to turn back on. No LEDs lit, no fan turn, nothing. I unplugged it, swapped the power cable and outlet, tried turning the PSU off and on. Unplugged and reseated the PSU to mobo connection, plugged it back in. Next I turned it on, something popped and the smoke got out. Can't exactly figure out which part, but money's on the GPU. As of now, the situation is that the PC will turn on, and if the monitor is plugged into the onboard graphics, it'll work just fine. But the GPU is an interesting story. If the two PCI-E power connectors are plugged in one way, the computer will boot, but not display anything through the GPU. The fans will intermittently begin to weakly spin and then promptly stop again. HOWEVER, if the two PCIE power connectors are plugged in the opposite way... similar problem, except the GPU's fans spin full blast immediately and do not quit.

My theory is that my PSU's PCIe output is fucked (as evidenced by the fact that the two should-be identical outputs produce different behaviour when plugged into different ports on the GPU), and also that I may have fried my GPU post fact, when I let the smoke out. Am I barking up the right tree? I don't have any spare parts with which to work, so it's hard to diagnose with any certainty here, and the last thing I want to do is buy and fry a new part.

 

[ISee]

Hey there PC afficianados. I know this delightful thread is more of buyer's guide than hardware support, but maybe someone will indulge me. First, my PC

Corsair TX750
EVGA GEFORCE GTX 970
i5 4670k
MSI Z87 G45

Today my PC randomly shut down while playing Stardew Valley. It refused to turn back on. No LEDs lit, no fan turn, nothing. I unplugged it, swapped the power cable and outlet, tried turning the PSU off and on. Unplugged and reseated the PSU to mobo connection, plugged it back in. Next I turned it on, something popped and the smoke got out. Can't exactly figure out which part, but money's on the GPU. As of now, the situation is that the PC will turn on, and if the monitor is plugged into the onboard graphics, it'll work just fine. But the GPU is an interesting story. If the two PCI-E power connectors are plugged in one way, the computer will boot, but not display anything through the GPU. The fans will intermittently begin to weakly spin and then promptly stop again. HOWEVER, if the two PCIE power connectors are plugged in the opposite way... similar problem, except the GPU's fans spin full blast immediately and do not quit.

My theory is that my PSU's PCIe output is fucked (as evidenced by the fact that the two should-be identical outputs produce different behaviour when plugged into different ports on the GPU), and also that I may have fried my GPU post fact, when I let the smoke out. Am I barking up the right tree? I don't have any spare parts with which to work, so it's hard to diagnose with any certainty here, and the last thing I want to do is buy and fry a new part.

Sounds conclusive.

Thinking about an upgrade, just looking for some advice.

Current Build:

CPU: i5-3570K with Hyper Evo cooler
GPU: MSI GTX 770 2GB
MB: ASUS P8Z77-V LK 1155 ATX
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
SSD: Samsung 840 256GB
HDD: Two WD HDDs
PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 650W ATX12V/EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC
Case: Fractal Design R4

Budget: $1000-1200 in USA, near a Microcenter also

Main Use: Mainly gaming and light office work such as Word, Excel, also media streaming (Netflix, etc.)

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080, 60 hz; not planning on upgrading anytime soon, but open to 1440 in the future

Must Run: Mostly FPS, RPG; games like Arkham Knight, Mass Effect: Andromeda, The Witcher 3; would like to do 60+ FPS

Re-using parts: would like to re-use Fractal Design R4 case, Corsair TX650 PSU, Samsung 840 and WD HDDs

When: No set deadline, wiling to wait, but would like to do it before the end of the year

Overclock: Would like to have the possibility

Here is a PCPartPicker that I threw together:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/kpD6VY

Thoughts? I realize the 1070 is a lot of card for 1080p but I would like it to last a while. I tend to stretch my builds out to 4-5 years. Is now a good time to upgrade or should I wait a bit?

It's never a good time to upgrade, because there is always something new on the horizon. This time it is AMDs new RX Vega that has the potential to finally offer high end performance for consumers, but we don't know much about it...
The 1070 is reasonable for 1080p if you want to play at 'reasonable' ultra setting and want some more headroom in the future. 1070s are also getting cheaper and becoming a more attractive product for 1080p.
You build looks fine to me, I just have some smaller additions to make.

Download windows 10 from Microsoft and get the key cheaper somewhere else. You can also upgrade your current windows 7 or 8 to windows 10. Once upgraded windows 10 is yours and isn't locked to your current build at all. Instead it is locked to your Microsoft account. This way you can install it as often as you want, even on new PCs. As long as you use your old windows 7/8 key and your Microsoft account to activate it.

DDR4 2133 will work fine, but as you are getting a z270 board anyway it wouldn't be unwise to invest some money into a bit faster ram. Faster RAM further boosts CPU performance for kabylake and ryzen.

At least consider getting a R5 1600. Performance wise both the i5 and r5 are similar today, but the r5 1600 has the core/thread advantage and could become the better CPU in the future. That said the i5 7600k is also a good pick and gives you the better per core performance.
Both CPUs willbe able to give you the 1080p/60 experience you're looking for.

 

[MWS Natural]

Best Heavy Editing light gaming laptop under $2000 out right now?

I love the Dell XPS 15 but I wish it had a 1060...any chance of those getting a refresh soon?

 

[Bananajama]

After my GPU busted last week I said I'll get my new PC next year. You know what though - the CPU is still good for another few years. So why not stretch it out and see what changes in the PC world before upgrading.

So I'm buying a cheap 970 GPU

But now I'm stuck - because I'm switching to a traditional PC Desk set up....

24" 1080p monitor
or
27" 1440p monitor

While the 1440p will serve me well when I buy a new PC in a few years
I'll have to turn down settings on some games to run smoothly and nicely on the 1440p.

Where as if I buy the 1080p
It'll look great now - but I'll need a new monitor when I do upgrade in a few years time.
(Though I could always use it as a second screen...)

Anyone wanna make the decision for me

I've been back an forth on this all weekend!

 

[JonnyDBrit]

After my GPU busted last week I said I'll get my new PC next year. You know what though - the CPU is still good for another few years. So why not stretch it out and see what changes in the PC world before upgrading.

So I'm buying a cheap 970 GPU

But now I'm stuck - because I'm switching to a traditional PC Desk set up....

24" 1080p monitor
or
27" 1440p monitor

While the 1440p will serve me well when I buy a new PC in a few years
I'll have to turn down settings on some games to run smoothly and nicely on the 1440p.

Where as if I buy the 1080p
It'll look great now - but I'll need a new monitor when I do upgrade in a few years time.
(Though I could always use it as a second screen...)

Anyone wanna make the decision for me

I've been back an forth on this all weekend!

Get the 1080p monitor. 1080p still looks great, and you can still reap the benefits of an upgrade later down the line through downsampling. Plus the 970 still generally handles most higher settings in games when paired with a good CPU, so you'll be set at that resolution.

 

[Bananajama]

Get the 1080p monitor. 1080p still looks great, and you can still reap the benefits of an upgrade later down the line through downsampling. Plus the 970 still generally handles most higher settings in games when paired with a good CPU, so you'll be set at that resolution.

Decision made !

Ta

 

[JonnyDBrit]

Decision made !

Ta

I admit, may be biased by the fact I'm still using a 970 - not even an especially good one - and getting by mostly fine.

 

[MimiMe]

My Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X OC is annoyingly loud and I could use some advice on quite and good aftermarket cooling solutions available in europe.

Don't want to change the gpu as it is my development PC.

 

[Windam]

Are Firecuda drives worth the $$? My current storage drive (a Samsung 1TB HDD) makes a single clicking noise every so often when it's being read. I'd rather not risk having it die on me, so I was thinking of replacing it with one of those hybrid drives (a 1TB SSD is out of the budget).

 

[Felix Lighter]

I have a strong urge to build a PC but I have absolutely no need for one at the moment.

 

[kennah]

I have a strong urge to build a PC but I have absolutely no need for one at the moment.

Do it

 

[Felix Lighter]

Do it

Maybe. I'm thinking about a few things. Currently, I have my PC in my computer room connected to a 1440p 165 hz monitor but also to an HDMI wallplate that sends HDMI over cat 6 to my living room PC. I'm considering upgrading that setup to HDMI 2.0 and getting a 4K TV. My Computer room is line of sight to my living room so it works great for games I want to play with a controller on the TV. It would be nice to actually leverage the power of my GPU instead of playing those games at 1080p60 though. If I do replace the current wall plates, I'll just drop the HDMI plate for a simple brush plate so I can send whatever through it.

 

[PlayALLtheGames]

So I scrapped the SSD and decided to just go with a standard HDD. The person I'm building it for won't notice the difference

Are you telling me this person has NEVER used a computer with a SSD? Because everyone notices the difference.

 

[rtcn63]

Are you telling me this person has NEVER used a computer with a SSD? Because everyone notices the difference.

I'd take a guess that for the non-PC literate (including gamers), an SSD is just that really expensive option that comes with modern laptops.

And if you don't have a point of reference, fast is fast.

 

[kennah]

My grandma complained that the ssd in her computer made it too fast. So I put her back on the mechanical she was used to.

 

[Stubo]

"Too fast"

Oh you!

 

[rtcn63]

 

[kennah]

"Too fast"

Oh you!

I'm being 100% serious, lol. She actually complained to me.

 

[BolognaOni]

Yeah, it makes little difference for gaming, but for general computing, the SSD is the biggest upgrade I've made in over a decade.

 

[Megasoum]

What would be considered the best quality/value G-Sync monitor these days?

I'm due for changing one of my monitor and I'd love to jump on the G-Sync train but those things are so fucking expensive!