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Hazaro · Dec 4, 2014

2015 PC Thread - Part 2
2015 PC Thread - Part 2
2015 PC Thread - Part 2

Use Ctrl+F or your search function to help find what you are looking for

Laptop-GAF and TechSupportGAF - Visit our friends here
120/144Hz LightBoost thread - For all your low frametime (High FPS) needs
2014 High-res PC screenshot thread + PC Down / Super Sampling Thread + PC Bullshot Thread (Amazing) - Beautiful candy for your pupils
Race (and Overclock) your PC Thread - Benchmark and Overclock (With Guides) your new or old PC here
Mechanical Keyboard Talk - Talk about buying expensive and loud clacky things here

This OP is a constant work in progress. If you have something to correct, add, or critique please PM me or msg @HazardVG on Twitter.

07/15/2015: Picking a WD Green or RED HDD
07/01/2015: Builds updated Link: http://bit.ly/NEWPC2015
10/15/2014: [PSA] Samsung 840 EVO SSD FW update and fix is out. Only affects 840 EVO. GAF Thread.
09/18/2014: GTX970 ($330) and GTX980 ($550) launched.
08/04/2012: Two useful cooling articles: Case Fan Temps and Positioning - (Bit-Tech), 60 Fans Tested (Vortez)

If you want help with a build fill this out AND try making one of your own from the resources in the OP
Use PCPartPickerhttp://pcpartpicker.com/ to find the best prices and have a nice list of parts (Check if items are in stock!). I highly recommend Amazon, Newegg, and NCIXUS in North America.

[Basic Desktop Questions]

Your Current Specs: CPU / RAM / Motherboard / GPU (Graphics) / PSU (Power Supply) / Case / HDD (Hard Drive)
Budget: Price Range + Country
Main Use: Rate 1-5. 5 being Highest: Light Gaming, Gaming, Emulation (PS2/Wii), Video Editing, Streaming games in HD, 3D/Model work (and what program), General Usage (Word, Web, 1080p playback).
Monitor Resolution: What resolution will you be playing your games at? Are you going to upgrade later? Are you buying a new monitor?
List SPECIFIC games or applications that you MUST be able to run well: Is 30FPS acceptable? 60? 120? How important is PhysX / SuperSampling / CUDA to you?
Looking to reuse any parts?: List make and model (e.g. Corsair 520HX, 640GB SATA HDD, Antec 900)
When will you build?: Do you have a deadline?
Will you be overclocking?: Yes, No, Maybe (This means yes!)

PICKING YOUR PARTS

Anandtech's 'Bench' CPU and GPU Benchmarks - A great resource. Helpful for getting a general idea of performance or comparing hardware.

NeoGAF PC Builds

Mkenyon's Small Form Factor Build Sheet - http://bit.ly/GAFBox2014

Haz's PC Build Sheet - http://bit.ly/NEWPC2015

[QUIET OPTIONS]

$50 - BitFenix Comrade

$70 - NZXT H230 . . . . .

$100 - Define R4 . . . . . . . .

$130 - Fractal Define XL R2

[BUDGET]

$45 - SilverStone PS10B

$45 - Enermax Ostrog

$50 - CM N400 . . . . . . . . . .

$60 - Corsair 200R

[ENHANCED]

$70 - NZXT S340 . . . . . .

$90 - Phanteks Pro . .

$100 - Phanteks Pro Adv .

$110 - Fractal Arc Midi R2

[ENTHUSIAST]

$150 Corsair Air 540 . . .

$150 - NZXT H630 . . . .

$240 - Phanteks Primo . . . .

$400 - CaseLabs SM8

[Micro ATX]

$40 - Silverstone PS08

$100 - Corsair Air 240 .

$100 - Define Mini . . . . . . .

$110 - Node 804

For audio equipment, also check out Headphone GAF
Mad Lust Envy's Gaming Headphone Guide

These headphones are mainly chosen for positional quality. No budget headsets since most are poor. I suggest going with a 3.5mm mic and Xonar DGX if needed instead.

[HEADSETS]

$80 - Func HS-260

$250/300 - Sennheiser 350 SE / 363D - 363D are open ear, include virtual 7.1 DAC, and are USB.

[HEADPHONES]

$45 - Superlux HD668B

$75 - Creative Aurvana Live!

$150 - BD DT990 250 Ohm Pro

$250 - AKG Q701

[MICS]

$50 - Antlion ModMic 4.0 (Detachable magnetic clip on your headphones, great quality)

$3 - DX Clip-on mic (2-6 Week shipping)

[KEYBOARDS]

Mechanical switches are referred to Cherry MX switches. MX Brown = Quiet tactile, MX Blue = loud tactile, MX Black = stiff linear, MX Red = soft linear. Cooler Master University.

$15 - Rosewill RIKB . . . . . .

$15 - MS Keyboard 200

$50 - Corsair K30

$90 - CM Quickfire Stealth

$90 - CM Quickfire XT . .

$180 - CM Novatouch TKL

[PERFORMANCE MICE]

Speed, accuracy, and sensor customization are valued here.

Spawn is an amazing value designed for claw and hybrid grips as it centers weight right under claw grip. If you absolutely love the MX518 shape, then the G400S is a good choice at $45, but is outperformed by the Rival and M45. The Corsair is a better fit for strict palm grip with large hands, and for those who prefer a heavier mouse. The Rival is lighter and is good with palm and hybrid grips and has great software. G502 is apparently the second coming of Gaben or something like that.

$35 - CM Storm Spawn

$45 - Logitech G400S .

$60 - Corsair M45 . .

$60 - SteelSeries Rival . .

$80 - Logitech G502

[AMBIDEXTROUS AND MMO MICE]

For those extra buttons over a very precise sensor.

The Recon has a great sensor and firmware for the price, as well as an ambi grip. The Sensei does as well, and has the best sensor here. The M95's side button layout is the best of the MMO oriented mice. G700s is the only wireless mouse listed here.

$35 - CM Storm Recon . .

$60 - SS Sensei Raw

$80 - Corsair M95 . .

$90 - Logitech G700s

[PADS]

For most people, any cheap cloth pad will be fine. These are some other options.

The Ripper XXL is massive, allowing a seamless mousing surface.The CM Storm Control RX is a thicker hybrid design with a lycra surface allowing for easier gliding movements, and is best suited for low CPI/DPI. The CM Storm Power RX is a large textured surface allowing for good control without destroying mouse feet. The Artisan Shiden is a glass coated cloth pad that defies the typical trade-off between textured and smooth surfaces, as it has great control and allows for smooth whips.

$20 - XTrac Ripper XXL

$30 - CM Control-RX . . . .

$35 - CM Power-RX . .

$40-50 - Artisan Shiden L or XL

[BUDGET]

$140 - ASUS VS229H-P
And any $100-$140 monitor that has decent reviews and is not an lesser brand. Many of the higher monitors also go on steep discounts.

[STANDARD]

$170 - ASUS VS238H-P . .

$170 - ASUS VS239H-P

The 238H is a TN panel with better motion resolution and less input lag. The 239H is an IPS panel with better colors.

[120Hz+ @ 1080p]

$280 - BenQ XL2411Z . . . .

$280 - ASUS VG248QE

$600 - Eizo Foris FG2421

The BenQ XL2411Z is currently the best TN high refresh rate monitor to buy, with a firmware based strobing effect that works with BlurBuster's Strobing Utility. Get the ASUS VG248QE for G-Sync compatibility, module not included. The Eizo is a VA panel with native strobing which allows for very impressive colors with near zero blur.

[1440/4K]

$450 - Nixeus Vue 27 . . . .

$800 - RoG Swift . . . . .

$700 - ASUS PB287Q

The Nixeus Vue is a great H-IPS panel for the money if you're looking for a 1440p panel that has great colors. The panel used is rated A/A+, compared to the typical A- panel used in most of the "Korean IPS" monitors. It also includes a warranty, which is fairly important for a monitor this size. The RoG Swift is a TN panel with a built in G-Sync module, and is capable of 144Hz. Compared to IPS panels, the color consistency won't be as accurate, but motion resolution is near perfect with ULMB, and variable refresh rate with G-Sync will give you a smoother gaming experience on titles you can't run with 8.3ms frame times (120 FPS). The ASUS is the best large 4K monitor you can buy under $1000.

Amazon (Parts)

Newegg (Parts)

NCIX.US (Parts)

Performance-PCs (Cases, Fans Acessories)

Micro Center (Parts and great IN STORE deals)

NCIX (Parts, Assembly, Price Match)

Amazon.CA (Parts)

Canada Computers (Parts) - Eastern Regional

Memory Express (Parts, Assembly, Price Match) - Western Regional

Newegg.CA (Parts, Ships from US)

Novatech (Parts)

Overclockers UK (Parts)

Amazon UK (Parts)

Aria PC (Parts)

Ebuyer (Parts, Custom Built)

Microdirect (Parts)

HardwareVersand (Parts)

Misco (Parts)

Scan (Parts)

Dino PC (Custom Built)

YoYoTech (Custom Built)

PC Case Gear (Parts, Best Online Retailer)

PCDIY (Parts)

CPL (Parts)

Umart (Parts, Cheaper Shipping Outside Victoria)

Scorpion Technology (Parts)

MSY (Parts)

staticICE (Product Finder)

The Tech Report

PC Perspective

AnandTech

TechPowerUp

X-bit labs

HardOCP

Hardware Canucks

Jonnyguru +

HardwareSecrets = Legit PSU reviews

Silent PC Review = The quiet side of computing

Ninite A batch downloader and installer for popular programs. A fantastic time saver for any new PC build.

Steam Mover tool for moving Steam games to a different HDD/SSD

Steam Tool Another tool for moving steam games.

MSI Afterburner (aka RivaTuner) allows you to manage GPU overclocking, fan speed/profiles and chart many aspects of your GPU.

CPU-Z - gathers information on your Motherboard, BIOS, CPU, FSB, VCORE voltage and memory timings.

GPU-Z gathers information (Speed, architecture, temps) on your video card and GPU.

Real Temp allows you to monitor the temperature of your CPU core(s).

HWInfo allows you to monitor fan speed, temperature, voltage, etc.

CrystalDiskMark Tests read and write speed of your hard drives.

nVidia Inspector allows you to optimize the display, improve the performance and fully utilize your NVIDIA graphics card.

Radeon Pro allows you to optimize the display, improve the performance and fully utilize your AMD graphics card.

Dxtory / nVidia driver options allows you to limit the frame rate on most games. Excellent for older games or just getting a locked framerate.

Fraps allows you to record real time video, take screen captures and display your FPS.

Open Broadcast Software a streaming and recording program for things like Twitch.TV A free and better competitor to XSplit.

OCCT allows you to stress test your CPU and GPU, along with GPU memory.

Prime95 allows you to stress test your CPU and RAM for stability.

FURMark allows you to stress test your video card.

Memtest86+ allows you to run a full memory scan to deal with the blue screen of death and system errors.

Hazaro · Dec 4, 2014

[Video Build Guides]

The Tech Report - A nicely laid out and compact build guide

TTL OC3D - A more enthusiast build guide that covers some extra things you can do along with cable management

Thermal Paste: Apply as a ~4mm ball to the CPU. Press the heatsink down and tighten. Line method is ok. Application matters way less than you think. If you take the heatsink off, clean it with alcohol and reapply or you will trap air.
That darn CoolerMaster 212: Why won't you install I swear I was good with computers. A handy picture guide.

[Overclocking Guides]

Socket 1155 Overclocking Guide (Sandy, Ivy, 2500K, 3570K, 3770K, all motherboards)
Socket 1150 (Haswell) OC Guide (4670K, 4770K)
3 step guide to overclocking Haswell (Socket 1150, Z87, 4670K, 4770K)
SSD Setup and Tweaking
Video Card Cooler Guide by mkenyon(ZFZ)

[Help! My PC won't turn on/POST/Boot]

Check your manual for beep codes or debug LED display codes
Shutoff your PC, switch off the PSU, and unplug the power cable. Wait 10s and hold the power button to drain the remaining power out of the system
Check your power is on I and the correct Voltage (120V/240V)
Check that you plugged in the extra motherboard power (4 or 8 pin)
Reconnect all your cables (Data and Power)
Try a single stick of memory in the first RAM slot (read your manual), then try the other
Check for any loose screws or bits in the case and behind the motherboard
Check that you installed the motherboard standoff screws (Some cases have these pre-installed)
Remount the GPU on another PCI-E slot, or try no GPU
As a last step assemble the bare minimum outside the case (PSU, CPU, Heatsink, 1 stick of RAM, nothing else)

[mkenyon's Guide to Efficient Formatting/Windows Installation]

Get an ISO of either Windows 7 or Windows 8.
While the ISO is downloading, go to your motherboard manufacturer's website to the support section. Locate your motherboard and download the newest Chipset, Audio, USB 3.0, and LAN drivers. If your motherboard has unique features such as the ASUS RoG line, it's a good idea to get the drivers for those as well. Put those on a separate flash drive.
Go to NVIDIA or AMD's website and download the latest videocard drivers. Put those on the same flash drive as the motherboard drivers.
Next, download the Microsoft USB Installation utility. Use this to put Windows on a Flash Drive.
If you are installing Windows 7, you'll need to take an extra step of allowing you to choose the proper SKU for installation, as the ISO is Ultimate by default. Once the utility is finished writing the ISO to your Flash Drive, open the drive in Windows Explorer, and locate the 'Sources' folder. In this folder is a file called 'ei.cfg'. Delete that.
Next, start the PC with the Flash Drive plugged directly into your rear I/O. Upon boot, go into UEFI/BIOS, as you will need to set the Flash Drive to be the primary boot disk. Once this is completed, restart your system and begin installing Windows.
Once you are in, go ahead an put the flash drive in with the drivers. Install those, and reboot.
After you reboot, you should be able to run Windows Update, which will most likely install all of the remaining drivers as well as update Windows.
When Windows Update finishes, you can go into Device Manager to check if there are any unrecognized devices. If there are, get the drivers for those from your motherboard manufacturer's website.

If you used your USB as a boot device for something else and Windows won't install check this post using diskpart.

[SSD Tip and Tools]

SSD Setup and tweak guide [SSDReview]

Disable defragmentation
Description: Defragmenting a hard disk's used space is only useful on mechanical disks with multi-millisecond latencies. Free-space defragmentation may be useful to SSDs, but this feature is not available in the default Windows Defragmenter.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Manage -> Services and Applications -> Services - > Right-Click Disk Defragmenter -> Startup type: Disabled -> OK

Disable Hibernate
Description: You may free up 1GB of space on the SSD if you have 1GB of memory, 2GB of space if you have 2GB memory. You will lose the hibernation feature which allows the equivalent of quick boots and shutdowns.
Instructions: Start Menu -> Type cmd -> Right-Click the cmd Icon -> Run as Administrator -> Type powercfg -h off -> Type exit

Links to useful SSD tools:
Crystal Mark Bench + NFO Tool
AS-SSD TOOL
Steam Mover Tool

2015 Thread Part 1 + Part 2
2014 Thread Part 1 + Part 2 + Part 3
2013 Thread Part 1 + Part 2
2012 Thread Part 1 + Part 2
2011 Thread Part 1 + Part 2
2010 Thread / 2009 Thread / 2008 Thread

Hazaro · Dec 4, 2014

mkenyon said:
SFF

Small Form Factor Build Guide
Or, how to build the GAF Box One

Quick note, these builds will be updated in a few weeks with AMD's Kaveri APUs releasing soon. They might shake up a bit more than budget HTPCs.

One of the main factors that one faces when dealing with SFF builds is ensuring that heatsinks and parts fit in the tiny spaces provided. The parts in these build sheets are far less loose in terms of picking out something slightly different. I can only ensure proper clearances on the items that are in the build sheet.

In terms of being able to hold the most powerful hardware, only the CM 120 Elite is limited. So if you want to pack a 280x, 780, or Titan in an ITX enclosure, then you'll want to skip that. From there it's mostly a choice of aesthetics, though the Prodigy/Phenom is the most capable in terms of moving heat.

The AMD APU builds are perfectly good gaming machines if you aren't planning on running anything graphically intensive. Indie games, Source, older titles, and even some newer ones like Dirt will run wonderfully on these systems. You do get what you pay for in terms of performance when you upgrade to the A8 or A10, though the A6 will certainly be able to handle HTPC tasks and light gaming. If you are just looking for an inexpensive computer that will handle browsing, 1080p video, and light gaming, then it's definitely the way to go. The HTPC builds will fit in all of the cases, but I only included them in the two cases that would look acceptable in a media center. That's a subjective call on my part, so if you are smitten with another case design, feel free to apply the HTPC column to any of the other cases.

Also, none of these cases will fit GPUs that are larger than two slots. This means stuff like the Tri-Frozr, Gainward Phantom, ASUS DCuII, and the like. If you have questions about a card in specific, please ask.

Hazaro · Dec 4, 2014

Gaming accessories marketing is dumb, all I got. Post title suggestions until the second coming of Christ (GTX 960) is out and synced displays and lightboost/120/144 get cheaper.

mocolostrocolos · Dec 4, 2014

Yesterday I recieved the MX100 256g.

Copied 25 gigs from one SSD (M4) to another (MX100) in 60 seconds.

I think I will buy another with Xmas gratification.

OrlanisWorks · Dec 4, 2014

Got a crucial ssd coming in soon and will probably install near christmas with other stuff. It sucks not being able to securely ship things to my own residence.

I'm gonna start planning out a wooden pc case. Gotta be fresh for all this new hardware and sadly my r9 280x would be a squeeze into my current case. Anyone have advice or possibly links to custom case building resources/blueprints?

Avallon · Dec 4, 2014

Thinking of upgrading my GTX 680 to a GTX 970 -- is it worth the $400? Should I upgrade my Core i5 to a Core i7 instead? Which upgrade would give me a bigger boost in gaming performance?

Durante · Dec 4, 2014

Is it me or are the SFF builds outdated? I guess particularly in SFF there's no reason to get a 780 over a 970.

Avallon said:
Thinking of upgrading my GTX 680 to a GTX 970 -- is it worth the $400? Should I upgrade my Core i5 to a Core i7 instead? Which upgrade would give me a bigger boost in gaming performance?

The GPU. Is your i5 overclocked?

Vulcano's assistant · Dec 4, 2014

Rock on, mofos. New thread, same gods.

Avallon · Dec 4, 2014

Durante said:
The GPU. Is your i5 overclocked?

It's not. It's just a stock i5-3570K CPU @ 3.4 GHz.

Durante · Dec 4, 2014

Avallon said:
It's not. It's just a stock i5-3570K CPU @ 3.4 GHz.

Well, then get the GPU and OC your CPU

Hazaro · Dec 4, 2014

Durante said:
Is it me or are the SFF builds outdated? I guess particularly in SFF there's no reason to get a 780 over a 970.

If one clicks the spreadsheet link it takes you to the whole doc:

So slightllllllllllllllllly. I'm not in charge of those! I mean you could just not be nice and say 'wow those SFF builds are ancient'

GHG · Dec 4, 2014

Durante said:
Is it me or are the SFF builds outdated? I guess particularly in SFF there's no reason to get a 780 over a 970.

The GPU. Is your i5 overclocked?

Was going to say exactly the same thing. Especially on the GPU side.

The Gigabyte SFF 970 needs to be added to the list as an option since its now available.

ThoseDeafMutes · Dec 4, 2014

So to recap my recent woes:

- PC was being a bit more unreliable than usual. I formatted it
- The format process ran into wierd issues, kept saying it couldn't use the partition to install windows. Eventually it worked, but I'm not sure why.
- Ever since windows install its been slow as fuck - slower than mech HDD boot times.
- I noticed one or two files that shouldn't be there, files from before the format located on drive C (the SSD)
- Everything crashes all the time now, freezes etc.

Some folks said that it sounded like SSD failure of some kind. I'm using the samsung 840, non-Evo, so there's no tool to "restore" that if that's what this sounds like. Today I bought a 512GB MX100, hopefully it will arrive by express post tomorrow. I'm going to start backing shit up like crazy now, and wipe both my SSD and my storage drive this time around.

Just wanted to get some opinions (the PC issues thread is way slower etc), does this sound like SSD dying? Or is it possibly something else, like bum RAM or something? I'm assuming it is the SSD but we'll soon find out.

Durante · Dec 4, 2014

Did you check your windows event log? It could have some relevant information.

Anyway, you should probably do a clean install on a new SSD (as you are going to).

theSlacker · Dec 4, 2014

ThoseDeafMutes said:
So to recap my recent woes:

- PC was being a bit more unreliable than usual. I formatted it
- The format process ran into wierd issues, kept saying it couldn't use the partition to install windows. Eventually it worked, but I'm not sure why.
- Ever since windows install its been slow as fuck - slower than mech HDD boot times.
- I noticed one or two files that shouldn't be there, files from before the format located on drive C (the SSD)
- Everything crashes all the time now, freezes etc.

Some folks said that it sounded like SSD failure of some kind. I'm using the samsung 840, non-Evo, so there's no tool to "restore" that if that's what this sounds like. Today I bought a 512GB MX100, hopefully it will arrive by express post tomorrow. I'm going to start backing shit up like crazy now, and wipe both my SSD and my storage drive this time around.

Just wanted to get some opinions (the PC issues thread is way slower etc), does this sound like SSD dying? Or is it possibly something else, like bum RAM or something? I'm assuming it is the SSD but we'll soon find out.

Did you make sure you deleted the old partitions when you were formatting and let the OS install make it's own new one? I mean unless you were trying to keep some data or have partitions that you like separate. Don't even know if people still do that anymore.

ThoseDeafMutes · Dec 4, 2014

Durante said:
Did you check your windows event log? It could have some relevant information.

Anyway, you should probably do a clean install on a new SSD (as you are going to).

Idk what event log is. I just opened it and it lists 2 critical errors in 24 hours and like 50something warnings in the same period. That's probably not good. I was going to take a screemshot but then windows UI / explorer froze entirely and I had to power off.

That's also probably not good.

theSlacker said:
Did you make sure you deleted the old partitions when you were formatting and let the OS install make it's own new one? I mean unless you were trying to keep some data or have partitions that you like separate. Don't even know if people still do that anymore.

It had 2-3 partitionslisted, a main one and two tiny like 100mb ones or something. I never added those to begin with so Windows must have done them automatically last time I installed?

Anyway yes I abolished those after it had trouble, and even used Shift+F10 to go into disk check or wahtever it's called and manually do some commands. Eventually it just started working even though I wasn't doing anything differently and the rest is history.

It was giving an error to the effect of "cannot use partition to install windows". No other details. People mentioned in the other thread and online something about two kinds of windows or partitions or something but I never got asked to decide between those. I'm not sure of the exact details.

NoRéN · Dec 4, 2014

What could I expect to get for my Asus GTX 680 4GB?

stef t97 · Dec 4, 2014

So I have a few questions for when I'm rebuilding my PC later as I got a new Mobo + CPU and a new case. I'm going perform a fresh install of windows on my SSD which is fairly straight forward but I've also decided to do some tidying up while I'm at it.

My setup currently is a 100gb SSD as a boot drive and a 2tb HDD for storage. However my HDD was my boot drive before I purchased my SSD. Because of that I have an old installation of windows on there that I've not booted into for almost a year now but I'm not sure how to go about getting rid of the windows related stuff.

I can't just backup my stuff and format it because I have more stuff on that HDD than I can backup as I do a fair bit of video editing on this PC. Any suggestions?

RGM79 · Dec 4, 2014

NoRéN;141575992 said:
What could I expect to get for my Asus GTX 680 4GB?

Your GTX 680 seems to be on par with the GTX 770 and R9 280 and 280X. Look up used prices on ebay and craigslist for those cards and price it accordingly with the condition of your card.

Durante · Dec 4, 2014

ThoseDeafMutes said:
Idk what event log is. I just opened it and it lists 2 critical errors in 24 hours and like 50something warnings in the same period. That's probably not good. I was going to take a screemshot but then windows UI / explorer froze entirely and I had to power off.

That's also probably not good.

There are a lot of relatively benign possible reasons for warnings, but yeah, critical errors (as the name might indicate

) aren't good.

RGM79 · Dec 4, 2014

stef t97 said:
So I have a few questions for when I'm rebuilding my PC later as I got a new Mobo + CPU and a new case. I'm going perform a fresh install of windows on my SSD which is fairly straight forward but I've also decided to do some tidying up while I'm at it.

My setup currently is a 100gb SSD as a boot drive and a 2tb HDD for storage. However my HDD was my boot drive before I purchased my SSD. Because of that I have an old installation of windows on there that I've not booted into for almost a year now but I'm not sure how to go about getting rid of the windows related stuff.

I can't just backup my stuff and format it because I have more stuff on that HDD than I can backup as I do a fair bit of video editing on this PC. Any suggestions?

How much free space is there on the 2TB hard drive?

stef t97 · Dec 4, 2014

RGM79 said:
How much free space is there on the 2TB hard drive?

About 300GB

RGM79 · Dec 4, 2014

stef t97 said:
About 300GB

And how much space do all the files that you want to save take up?

exmachina64 · Dec 4, 2014

Mmmm, I love that new thread smell.

stef t97 · Dec 4, 2014

RGM79 said:
And how much space do all the files that you want to save take up?

About 450GB, I've just thought about doing it in two goes to my 500GB external HDD. Damn I'm slow. I'll just backup my SSD and format that first, then once my pc's booting I'll go in and sort my HDD.

Pachimari · Dec 4, 2014

Is there anything here you people think I should upgrade by next year? I only just build my rig last April:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H
GPU: Evga GeForce GTX 780
CPU: Intel i5 4670K 4C/4T
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tactical (16GB)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G Series 550

lordfuzzybutt · Dec 4, 2014

Madridista said:
Is there anything here you people think I should upgrade by next year? I only just build my rig last April:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H
GPU: Evga GeForce GTX 780
CPU: Intel i5 4670K 4C/4T
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tactical (16GB)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G Series 550

You are fine. Maybe pop in a SSD if you haven't had one yet.

RGM79 · Dec 4, 2014

stef t97 said:
About 450GB, I've just thought about doing it in two goes to my 500GB external HDD. Damn I'm slow. I'll just backup my SSD and format that first, then once my pc's booting I'll go in and sort my HDD.

Well, I guess you have less free space on your external than 450GB, otherwise you would have already done it.

I was going to suggest creating a temporary partition from the 300GB of free space on your 2TB drive, moving the stuff you want to save onto that new partition and the rest to your external drive and SSD. You could shuffle the files you want to save around and create and remove partitions as needed. Format or just delete the old Windows partitions, and create a new one in its place, move all your saved data there, and then get rid of the temporary 300GB partition and expand the main partition to use up the rest of the hard drive.

If you have just one or two hard drives, you could keep them partitioned so you could keep data separate and easy to manage in case you need to format partitions.

http://www.howtogeek.com/172580/how-to-create-a-separate-data-partition-for-windows/
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/resize-a-partition-for-free-in-windows-vista/

Madridista said:
Is there anything here you people think I should upgrade by next year? I only just build my rig last April:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H
GPU: Evga GeForce GTX 780
CPU: Intel i5 4670K 4C/4T
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tactical (16GB)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G Series 550

Your parts look fine. As lordfuzzybutt said, adding an SSD is a good idea. You could easily overclock your CPU if you have a decent CPU cooler, for added performance. Graphics card overclocking is also possible.

Cesky · Dec 4, 2014

Madridista said:
Is there anything here you people think I should upgrade by next year? I only just build my rig last April:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H
GPU: Evga GeForce GTX 780
CPU: Intel i5 4670K 4C/4T
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tactical (16GB)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G Series 550

I agree, go with an SSD and live happier.

stef t97 · Dec 4, 2014

RGM79 said:
I was going to suggest creating a temporary partition from the 300GB of free space on your 2TB drive, moving the stuff you want to save onto that new partition and the rest to your external drive and SSD.

Ah yeah, that would also work. Probably faster as well, thanks for the ideas man.

Now to wait for my i5, I think my Phenom has done it's time.

UncleO · Dec 4, 2014

Dat New Thread smell!

garath · Dec 4, 2014

My SSD is coming today. Going to be a treat. Not so fun will be getting everything moved around and installed. I have everything backed up to my external drive just in case but will likely just pop in the SSD, install windows, pop in the HD and copy over what needs to be copied then wipe the HD.

Steam looks fairly simply to manage. Install steam, copy the games from steamapps to my new steamapps dir and then have steam verify the files.

Origin work the same way? Only have dragon age on there but would greatly prefer not re-downloading any of this. Definitely want dragon age on the SSD. Those load times are atrocious.

Probably going to download game save manager to handle game saves.

Acrylic7 · Dec 4, 2014

Shit this seems expensive :/

Ok so I came up with this build for Gaming, Video & Image editing, 3D model work such as Maya, UDK work.

CPU Intel i7 4790K- $300
Motherboard- ASUS Z97-Pro $190
RAM 2 x8GB (16GB) $125
Graphics Card GTX 760 $200
SSD 240GB $130
HDD 1TB $60
Power Supply SeaSonic M12II 620 $90
Case Corsair 400R $90
Optical Drive LG Bly-Ray $60
Heatsink NH-U12 $60
OS Windows 7 $130

Total- $1435 (ノಠ益&#3232

ノ彡┻━┻

So can someone help me trim some fat? I'm not super tech savvy and I dont know for sure what I need. I dont have the cash at the moment so I will be saving up for this build and will purchase a few things every paycheck from now on. But first I need to know what I do and dont need.

lordfuzzybutt · Dec 4, 2014

garath said:
My SSD is coming today. Going to be a treat. Not so fun will be getting everything moved around and installed. I have everything backed up to my external drive just in case but will likely just pop in the SSD, install windows, pop in the HD and copy over what needs to be copied then wipe the HD.

Steam looks fairly simply to manage. Install steam, copy the games from steamapps to my new steamapps dir and then have steam verify the files.

Origin work the same way? Only have dragon age on there but would greatly prefer not re-downloading any of this. Definitely want dragon age on the SSD. Those load times are atrocious.

Probably going to download game save manager to handle game saves.

Regarding steam, you can delete everything in your current steam directory except the steam.exe file and the steamapps folder. Copy them over to the new SSD, run the exe file. You don't even need to manually verify the games again as it will scan those for you that way.

lordfuzzybutt · Dec 4, 2014

Acrylic7 said:
Shit this seems expensive :/

Ok so I came up with this build for Gaming, Video & Image editing, 3D model work such as Maya, UDK work.

CPU Intel i7 4790K- $300
Motherboard- ASUS Z97-Pro $190
RAM 2 x8GB (16GB) $125
Graphics Card GTX 760 $200
SSD 240GB $130
HDD 1TB $60
Power Supply SeaSonic M12II 620 $90
Case Corsair 400R $90
Optical Drive LG Bly-Ray $60
Heatsink NH-U12 $60
OS Windows 7 $130

Total- $1435 (ノಠ益&#3232ノ彡┻━┻

So can someone help me trim some fat? I'm not super tech savvy and I dont know for sure what I need. I dont have the cash at the moment so I will be saving up for this build and will purchase a few things every paycheck from now on. But first I need to know what I do and dont need.

Top off my head, you can find a cheaper mobo, any cheaper z97 version will do.
Buy the OS from reddit.
Lose the optical drive.

Edit: shit, double post.

riflen · Dec 4, 2014

garath said:
My SSD is coming today. Going to be a treat. Not so fun will be getting everything moved around and installed. I have everything backed up to my external drive just in case but will likely just pop in the SSD, install windows, pop in the HD and copy over what needs to be copied then wipe the HD.

Steam looks fairly simply to manage. Install steam, copy the games from steamapps to my new steamapps dir and then have steam verify the files.

Origin work the same way? Only have dragon age on there but would greatly prefer not re-downloading any of this. Definitely want dragon age on the SSD. Those load times are atrocious.

Probably going to download game save manager to handle game saves.

Last time I had to do this with Origin, it was almost as you described. Only, you must begin downloading the game before you copy the backed up games into their new location.

1. Set up Origin.
2. Begin downloading game. Allow 1% or so to complete.
3. Pause the download. Exit Origin.
4. Copy backed up games into place, overwriting anything Origin has downloaded.
5. Start up Origin. Resume download. It should swiftly complete the download/install of the game.

This was over 1 year ago, so things may have changed.

The Omega Man · Dec 4, 2014

Where can I get a 970 either evga or msi in Canada? Only entry model zoltac is available us that hood enough? I game at 1680

appaws · Dec 4, 2014

Acrylic7 said:
Shit this seems expensive :/

Ok so I came up with this build for Gaming, Video & Image editing, 3D model work such as Maya, UDK work.

CPU Intel i7 4790K- $300
Motherboard- ASUS Z97-Pro $190
RAM 2 x8GB (16GB) $125
Graphics Card GTX 760 $200
SSD 240GB $130
HDD 1TB $60
Power Supply SeaSonic M12II 620 $90
Case Corsair 400R $90
Optical Drive LG Bly-Ray $60
Heatsink NH-U12 $60
OS Windows 7 $130

Total- $1435 (ノಠ益&#3232ノ彡┻━┻

So can someone help me trim some fat? I'm not super tech savvy and I dont know for sure what I need. I dont have the cash at the moment so I will be saving up for this build and will purchase a few things every paycheck from now on. But first I need to know what I do and dont need.

I can tell you from personal experience that I hate the 400R. I would look for a better case. The looks are a matter of personal taste, but some do provide better features and a better building experience than others.

I also recommend that you don't buy the parts willy-nilly over time....instead save the money and buy them when you are ready to build. Things change fast in the world of PC hardware.

garath · Dec 4, 2014

lordfuzzybutt said:
Regarding steam, you can delete everything in your current steam directory except the steam.exe file and the steamapps folder. Copy them over to the new SSD, run the exe file. You don't even need to manually verify the games again as it will scan those for you that way.

No re-installing steam? Works for me if that's the case.

riflen said:
Last time I had to do this with Origin, it was almost as you described. Only, you must begin downloading the game before you copy the backed up games into their new location.

1. Set up Origin.
2. Begin downloading game. Allow 1% or so to complete.
3. Pause the download. Exit Origin.
4. Copy backed up games into place, overwriting anything Origin has downloaded.
5. Start up Origin. Resume download. It should swiftly complete the download/install of the game.

This was over 1 year ago, so things may have changed.

Awesome. I guess it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to re-download dragon age if nothing else but it'd be easier not to. This method sounds legit.

lordfuzzybutt · Dec 4, 2014

garath said:
No re-installing steam? Works for me if that's the case.

Awesome. I guess it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to re-download dragon age if nothing else but it'd be easier not to. This method sounds legit.

Actually yes, but it will do it automatically when you run the exe. Saves you the trouble of manually doing so.

Jibbajabbawockky · Dec 4, 2014

garath said:
Definitely want dragon age on the SSD. Those load times are atrocious.

Heh, yeah I had Dragon Age on my Caviar Black drive and even then the load times were not great. Have it on my 840 EVO now and its like night and day.

kennah · Dec 4, 2014

Will this be the year I finally finish my watercooling build? (probably not )

kamakazi5 · Dec 4, 2014

Couple of quick questions. So the build I'm using comes out to approximately 500 watts. If I have an I5 4690k and eventually will have a GTX 970, around how much extra power will I need to have for overclocking? Would a 750 watt PSU be fine?

Also, aside from extra slots or connections, what is going to be the biggest difference in say a lower end Z97 board and higher end? I'm looking specifically at the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H on the slightly higher end.

Aztechnology · Dec 4, 2014

kennah said:
Will this be the year I finally finish my watercooling build? (probably not )

Get a closed loop unless you plan to do a water block for your gpu?

Aztechnology · Dec 4, 2014

kamakazi5 said:
Couple of quick questions. So the build I'm using comes out to approximately 500 watts. If I have an I5 4690k and eventually will have a GTX 970, around how much extra power will I need to have for overclocking? Would a 750 watt PSU be fine?

Also, aside from extra slots or connections, what is going to be the biggest difference in say a lower end Z97 board and higher end? I'm looking specifically at the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H on the slightly higher end.

So I have a 4570k @4.6 ghz, water cooler, 970 @1.5ghz, 3 HDD's tons of USB devices etc all on a 750w PSU. I was actually running 2 770's in SLI on my 750w before this, so yes you've got all the power you'll need with plenty to spare. Also keep in mind The 970 uses way less power than previous gen cards as well.

As for your motherboard the biggest differences you'll see is build quality, PCI-EXpress slots both 3.0 and normal. Max ram support, number of sata ports (6gbs and 3gb) whether it has built in wifi or not. Thunderbolt support, on board audio, power management tools and advanced bios features. It also has an effect on your CPU/RAM overclocking potential. So what it really comes down to is features, power, and overclocking potential.

kennah · Dec 4, 2014

Aztechnology said:
Get a closed loop unless you plan to do a water block for your gpu?

Full custom. In a Compact Splash. Been working on it for two years

Skel1ingt0n · Dec 4, 2014

kennah said:
Full custom. In a Compact Splash. Been working on it for two years

The Compact Splash is such an awesome case.

Excited for a new thread. Woop Woop!

Thinking I'm going to wait on a GPU upgrade (have a Titan - for about 18 months - typically I would upgrade now but don't see a huge reason to, yet). Really want to splurge on a Herman Miller Embody Chair instead.... it's just real hard to justify ~$1,100 on a chair.

Vio-Lence · Dec 4, 2014

Skel1ingt0n said:
The Compact Splash is such an awesome case.

Excited for a new thread. Woop Woop!

Thinking I'm going to wait on a GPU upgrade (have a Titan - for about 18 months - typically I would upgrade now but don't see a huge reason to, yet). Really want to splurge on a Herman Miller Embody Chair instead.... it's just real hard to justify ~$1,100 on a chair.

Get the chair, its worth it. Take care of your body friend. Ten year investment.

Acrylic7 · Dec 4, 2014

lordfuzzybutt said:
Top off my head, you can find a cheaper mobo, any cheaper z97 version will do.
Buy the OS from reddit.
Lose the optical drive.

Edit: shit, double post.

Didn't know I could buy from reddit lol.
I think I want to keep the Optical drive to watch Blurays in my room.
And I'm assuming the motherboard is overkill? Could you explain why? I was checking Logical Increments and its the best one they matched up with my processor and its just $20 more than the other 2.

appaws said:
I can tell you from personal experience that I hate the 400R. I would look for a better case. The looks are a matter of personal taste, but some do provide better features and a better building experience than others.

I also recommend that you don't buy the parts willy-nilly over time....instead save the money and buy them when you are ready to build. Things change fast in the world of PC hardware.

Yeah I was just thinking about how the pricese are always changing with PC stuff. I guess I will save until I have the full sum.
And thanks for the Corsair 400r feedback. Any other recommendations for that price range? I dont like the flash stuff that's why I loves the simplistic look of the 400r.

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I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?

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