Support NeoGAF

[flipswitch]

Thanks for answering my question.

When is nvidia releasing their next cards, the successor to the 980? Would it be in September?

 

[Chairmanchuck]

Thanks for answering my question.

When is nvidia releasing their next cards, the successor to the 980? Would it be in September?

Rumors say it will be released after Computex at the beginning of June. At least the 980Ti.

 

[Dartastic]

Huh. I guess I have another question now. My BIOS can see both of my HD's, and I had the option to install the OS to both, but when I load up Windows 8.1 I can only see one of them. Hrm.

 

[finalflame]

Pretty close to pulling the trigger on the XB270HU (Acer 27" 1440p, 144hz IPS G-Sync).

However, there are some middling reviews on Amazon and other websites. Overall complaints about build quality, dead pixels, and backlight bleeding around the bezel.

I'd expect those things from a cheap $299 Korean monitor, but not from a $800 monitor from the likes of Acer.

Are any of you guys rocking this panel? What's been your experience? To make matters "worse", no large outlet that I can see is selling it, just a well-rated seller on Amazon. I don't wanna have to deal with a third-party seller's return process if the monitor shows up botched.

 

[rtcn63]

Huh. I guess I have another question now. My BIOS can see both of my HD's, and I had the option to install the OS to both, but when I load up Windows 8.1 I can only see one of them. Hrm.

Did you format the other drive yet?

 

[finalflame]

Huh. I guess I have another question now. My BIOS can see both of my HD's, and I had the option to install the OS to both, but when I load up Windows 8.1 I can only see one of them. Hrm.

1) Boot into Windows
2) Windows+R
3) Type "diskmgmt.msc", press enter

Look for your hard drive there. Chances are it's not partitioned/formatted yet. You can do that from this interface, it'll be pretty obvious which it is, and right clicking on it will give you the options to do what you need to do.

 

[Dartastic]

1) Boot into Windows
2) Windows+R
3) Type "diskmgmt.msc", press enter

Look for your hard drive there. Chances are it's not partitioned/formatted yet. You can do that from this interface, it'll be pretty obvious which it is, and right clicking on it will give you the options to do what you need to do.

Awesome. Thanks guys! I've been a Mac user since like, 2008 soooooooo coming back to PC's is kinda weird for me.

 

[finalflame]

Awesome. Thanks guys! I've been a Mac user since like, 2008 soooooooo coming back to PC's is kinda weird for me.

Welcome back I use both daily (personal and work laptops are Macbooks). Honestly, it's somewhat jarring going from the user-friendliness of Mac back to a Windows desktop, and there are small differences in how you interact here and there, but both are great for what they're made for

 

[RGM79]

Got a 760 2Gb card on my actual PC.

Thinking of getting another and put it to SLI but the 2Gb memory limit is kind of bad.

Would it be better to just get a similar card but with more memory? Something like a 960 with 4Gb? As far as I can see, performance between them seem to be similar but the increased memory will mean higher textures , but Im not sure that higher textures on similar specs will mean less performance (sounds logical but I dont know)

Any recommendations? I willing to part with around 300€

What country are you in? If you want to play at higher settings, I would most definitely recommend looking for a graphics card with 3GB of VRAM or more. I personally wouldn't recommend SLI, the VRAM limitation will still be an issue and you should make sure the games you want to play already support SLI well.

The time has finally come for me to upgrade my 5 year old htpc as its starting to get wheezy.

Currently using it for gaming and i would want a powerful beast to replace it. Got about $AUD 1000 to spend.

Big thing for me is the case, i currently have a Fractal Node 305 but it doesnt allow any cpu cooling and is very cramped so whats the current best mini atx/itx case out there...a side panel would add to the fun!

Thanks.

You mean the Node 304, right? It should have enough room for relatively large tower style CPU coolers which are good enough to overclock with.

What are your old PC's specs? Anything you plan to reuse such as hard drives?

Thanks for the replies all.

DD3 rated higher than 1600Mhz for the Z97 platform, requires overclocking, right?

Technically it's the RAM that needs to be overclocked to run at speeds higher than 1600MHz. It's easy, though. All you need to do is go into the BIOS and enable or select the "XMP" profile option.

I have currently have 2 7200RPM hard drives in my PC (WD Blue 500GB and Black 640GB). They are mainly used for storage and games installation. I want reduce them to one drive ( I can used my external ones for storage and media stuff). So I was wondering if you good folks here can provide some recommendations for 1 to 2TB hard drives.

Lastly, how would you guys go about destroying old hard drives? I was doing some spring cleaning I found I still have some old IDE and SATA 1 drives.

Please and thanks,

You're in Canada, it seems? Toshiba offers good reliability and pricing on their drives. Their 1TB model is $55 and the 2TB model is $83

Depending on where you live exactly, there may be electronics recycling organizations you can go to. I'm in Vancouver and there's a place called Free Geek Vancouver that I trust, there may be a branch near you as they have a couple of branches in various North American cities.

If you really value privacy, then there's no substitute for taking apart the drives yourself. It'll vary by the manufacturer, but I've been able to use torx screwdriver bits to open up hard drives and remove the platters inside. I've taken apart drives for their particularly strong magnets and the platters which are highly polished. You might need a good set of pliers and some elbow grease to remove certain parts, though.

 

[Cheeseman Battitude]

Is getting 60fps in GTA 4 (not 5) nearly impossible or something?
GTX 970 and an i7 2600k and I still can't get a steady 60? What the hell?

I think this is a particularly badly optimised game on PC.

 

[Mystic654]

I need to add some storage Harddrives that will be able to playback 1080P content. It's needs to be quiet(ish) and 4tb or Bigger. What drive would everyone suggest?

 

[RGM79]

I think this is a particularly badly optimised game on PC.

It's actually quite well optimized and runs well even on ancient hardware. They are not joking when the minimum requirements were set at the Q6600 and GTX 9800GT, although of course that means playing at the lowest settings.

That doesn't mean the game can't be graphically demanding, though. The GTX 970 will not be able to run the game at 60FPS on extremely high graphical quality settings.

I need to add some storage Harddrives that will be able to playback 1080P content. It's needs to be quiet(ish) and 4tb or Bigger. What drive would everyone suggest?

Any hard drive will be able to handle 1080p decently, I don't think even a 5400RPM hard drive will bottleneck that. Hard drive silence is not something that most people consider, though. Not even all hard drive reviews test for noise levels. I have heard that WD Black models can be loud, I would suggest looking at Hitachi/HGST or Toshiba?

 

[vanty]

If I'm not in any sort of rush is there any reason to wait on buying a GTX 960? Nothing releasing in the next 2-3 months that would either drop the price down or replace it for a similar price? I have a 1920x1200 60hz monitor that I doubt will be getting replaced for a couple years at least so I don't really have a need for anything more powerful than a 960 but if I can save a few bucks with a little patience that'd be alright.

 

[RGM79]

If I'm not in any sort of rush is there any reason to wait on buying a GTX 960? Nothing releasing in the next 2-3 months that would either drop the price down or replace it for a similar price? I have a 1920x1200 60hz monitor that I doubt will be getting replaced for a couple years at least so I don't really have a need for anything more powerful than a 960 but if I can save a few bucks with a little patience that'd be alright.

AMD's R9 3XX line is coming within a month, going by the latest rumors. Might be worth waiting for to see if there will be worthy competition for the GTX 960.

 

[Jimrpg]

Pretty close to pulling the trigger on the XB270HU (Acer 27" 1440p, 144hz IPS G-Sync).

However, there are some middling reviews on Amazon and other websites. Overall complaints about build quality, dead pixels, and backlight bleeding around the bezel.

I'd expect those things from a cheap $299 Korean monitor, but not from a $800 monitor from the likes of Acer.

Are any of you guys rocking this panel? What's been your experience? To make matters "worse", no large outlet that I can see is selling it, just a well-rated seller on Amazon. I don't wanna have to deal with a third-party seller's return process if the monitor shows up botched.

Yes I have it.

Don't get it from sellers from Amazon. If you can wait the 2-4 weeks, buy it from Amazon itself (you should be able to find it under - see other sellers). Plus it was $739 a few days ago which is the cheapest going around.

The monitor itself is pretty nice. I can't fault the monitor in any way, really nice colors, G-sync, 1440p, 144hz, Witcher 3 looks amazing. The quality control however is something else. Having read through pretty much all the pages at Overclock.net, there's a lot of people with dead pixels, dirt smudges behind the screen and backlight bleed. My panel was pretty much fine, hardly any bleed and I think just the one dead/stuck panel in the bottom left which I need to spend time looking to find.

One poster attributed the backlight bleed to the monitors getting thrown around a lot during shipment and that the panels are a little bit out of alignment. He said after using the monitor for a week, backlight bleed was significantly less.

The monitor also takes quite a hefty graphics card to run the latest games at 1440p, with a GTX 970 I can get 60fps in the Witcher 3, but only on high settings not ultra. So there's a little bit of compromise there.

If you can deal with all that - its a great monitor to get.

 

[finalflame]

Yes I have it.

Don't get it from sellers from Amazon. If you can wait the 2-4 weeks, buy it from Amazon itself (you should be able to find it under - see other sellers). Plus it was $739 a few days ago which is the cheapest going around.

The monitor itself is pretty nice. I can't fault the monitor in any way, really nice colors, G-sync, 1440p, 144hz, Witcher 3 looks amazing. The quality control however is something else. Having read through pretty much all the pages at Overclock.net, there's a lot of people with dead pixels, dirt smudges behind the screen and backlight bleed. My panel was pretty much fine, hardly any bleed and I think just the one dead/stuck panel in the bottom left which I need to spend time looking to find.

One poster attributed the backlight bleed to the monitors getting thrown around a lot during shipment and that the panels are a little bit out of alignment. He said after using the monitor for a week, backlight bleed was significantly less.

The monitor also takes quite a hefty graphics card to run the latest games at 1440p, with a GTX 970 I can get 60fps in the Witcher 3, but only on high settings not ultra. So there's a little bit of compromise there.

If you can deal with all that - its a great monitor to get.

Thanks! I'm running SLi 980s and currently using a 1440p/120hz korean IPS panel, so not too worried about being able to drive it. My biggest concerns are really the dead pixel issue. If I had even a single dead pixel it would bother me to the point that I'd no longer want to use the monitor, so I wonder if Acer warranties it's product down to the last pixel, or if there's a range of "acceptable" dead pixels :/

Either way, thanks for the input, it seems you're happy with it. I guess I'll head over to OC.net and read through some of the owner thread to see what people are experiencing now (figure as more production runs happen, quality will improve).

Definitely will follow your advice waiting for a big retailer, just sucks that all the big ones tax me here in the great 'ol state of California, so $739 ends up being close to $800. Oh well.

 

[Jimrpg]

Thanks! I'm running SLi 980s and currently using a 1440p/120hz korean IPS panel, so not too worried about being able to drive it. My biggest concerns are really the dead pixel issue. If I had even a single dead pixel it would bother me to the point that I'd no longer want to use the monitor, so I wonder if Acer warranties it's product down to the last pixel, or if there's a range of "acceptable" dead pixels :/

Either way, thanks for the input, it seems you're happy with it. I guess I'll head over to OC.net and read through some of the owner thread to see what people are experiencing now (figure as more production runs happen, quality will improve).

Definitely will follow your advice waiting for a big retailer, just sucks that all the big ones tax me here in the great 'ol state of California, so $739 ends up being close to $800. Oh well.

For me at 27" 1440p one dead pixel is just so small, its not noticeable, so much so that I 'think' it might be one, but I can't be 100% sure. I don't want to run the dead pixel test to find out either, in case it turns out there's way more. I was way more concerned about the backlight bleed, which going by the overclock forums many people had problems with. FWIW, mine had very little.

Seeing as you have SLI 980s that would work pretty well already with the monitor you have and I don't know how much of an upgrade the XB270HU would be for you, it would just be the G-Sync that would be the difference, and theoretically speaking anything 100+ fps would make G-Sync redundant.

 

[Kayant]

Okay I decided to upgrade my case budget a bit, what is the verdict on the Cooler Master N600 vs the Fractal Design Define R4? I know on paper the R4 should win this one but atleast as far as the front IO goes I prefer the N600 with its meshed design yet the R4 has this sound-damper system.

Also wouldn't the sound dampening foam actually make the PC harder to cool?

I don't think it will be much of an issue with good airflow. I think it's more due to the closed off nature of the case and panels that make it harder to cool although you can always remove things like the top mounts covers in R4 for passive cooling vs a quieter system.

The Cooler Master N600 is definitely a big improvement from the earlier cases we saw one thing that could be annoying is accessing the front fan mounts because you have to unscrew the drive cage and the connection module at the front to access it.

In case you haven't seen any videos of the two - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki58wTHvO9E&ab_channel=HardwareCanucks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FdpIrr3JNc&ab_channel=HardwareCanucks

 

[Cheeseman Battitude]

i7 Alienware Alpha is £748.99 so I decided to see if building an equivalent myself would be any cheaper. Turns out it's hardly any different. The only real spec-difference is the built in wifi on the mobo probably isn't dual band and I chose a half decent power supply rather than something totally cheap. End result is £748.44. Add to that a 360 controller and if the CPU doesn't come with a fan it will end up more expensive to self-build.

 

[RGM79]

i7 Alienware Alpha is £748.99 so I decided to see if building an equivalent myself would be any cheaper. Turns out it's hardly any different. The only real spec-difference is the built in wifi on the mobo probably isn't dual band and I chose a half decent power supply rather than something totally cheap. End result is £748.44. Add to that a 360 controller and if the CPU doesn't come with a fan it will end up more expensive to self-build.

Sometimes, the thing about custom PCs is that you shouldn't look for "how much would it cost with equivalent parts", but rather "what can I get for the equivalent budget". I was able to come up with a better build for £50 less and better parts overall. The Xeon is equivalent to a consumer i7 model with some slight differences. In this specific case, the E3-1231v3 is superior to the i7 4765T in overall performance due to being the same architecture and cache but at a higher clock frequency, but it does generate more heat and lacks integrated graphics.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£197.41 @ More Computers)
Motherboard: MSI H97I AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (£79.16 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£43.92 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£56.34 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB Superclocked Video Card (£159.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 110 Mini ITX Tower Case (£39.77 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£46.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£75.34 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £698.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-24 10:41 BST+0100

As long as the CPU you're looking at doesn't mention the word "tray" in the product title or description, it will come with a basic cooler.

If you don't mind going with a larger form factor, it's possible to fit even better parts in for the same budget. This build includes an overclockable i5 processor, a tower heatsink, and a GTX 970 so it should perform much better than the locked i7 processor with a GTX 750 Ti. It's also somewhat more upgrade-friendly because the case can accommodate larger parts and the PSU has higher wattage. It however does not come with built in wifi capability, I'm not sure if you meant you needed wifi or you were just trying to price a custom PC with hardware specs as close to the i7 Alienware Alpha as possible.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£179.99 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.97 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£66.83 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£49.62 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£56.34 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC ACX 2.0 Video Card (£268.31 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£33.54 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£46.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £726.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-24 10:46 BST+0100

I'd pair that build with a £15 Windows license from reddit. Windows 7/8.1 licenses can be bought from reddit's microsoftsoftwareswap for $20 or less. These are most likely legitimate keys that are resold from educational programs like Technet or Dreamspark. However, you are dealing with a person instead of a retailer, and informal Windows keys sales are not approved by Microsoft and probably breaking some licensing agreement to be clear, but it's not illegal. The risks involved are that the person could be selling you a fake or used key, or that Microsoft may deactivate your license and refuse to reactivate it, although it's somewhat unlikely, usually only if the seller and their list of sold keys was caught. We've had people here using those keys without issues for a long time and others who say Microsoft deactivated their key after several months.

 

[Snakethesniper]

Maybe in the future if I have enough money I'll upgrade my pc (in particular I want to play the Witcher 3 and the new batman), I have a question though.
My motherboard is the asus P8Z68-V/GEN3, and from their website you can see which CPUs are supported http://support.asus.com/Cpusupport/List.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=P8Z68-V/GEN3&p=1&s=39.
From what I see everything beyond the 3xxx series (for intel) isn't supported.
Now the question: Is an i5/i7 3xxx still sufficient? Because I see everybody with the i5-4690K

 

[Engell]

Okay I decided to upgrade my case budget a bit, what is the verdict on the Cooler Master N600 vs the Fractal Design Define R4? I know on paper the R4 should win this one but atleast as far as the front IO goes I prefer the N600 with its meshed design yet the R4 has this sound-damper system.

Also wouldn't the sound dampening foam actually make the PC harder to cool?

Why are you even looking at the R4 when the R5 exists?

In my personal opinion the R5 is superior to the N600

 

[RGM79]

Maybe in the future if I have enough money I'll upgrade my pc (in particular I want to play the Witcher 3 and the new batman), I have a question though.
My motherboard is the asus P8Z68-V/GEN3, and from their website you can see which CPUs are supported http://support.asus.com/Cpusupport/List.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=P8Z68-V/GEN3&p=1&s=39.
From what I see everything beyond the 3xxx series (for intel) isn't supported.
Now the question: Is an i5/i7 3xxx still sufficient? Because I see everybody with the i5-4690K

There's only a tiny performance difference between Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, and Haswell. If you have an overclockable Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge processor, it's not worth replacing yet.

Why are you even looking at the R4 when the R5 exists

The R4 can often be found for a lower price than the R5. It offers the same noise-dampening features for those who aren't interested in or have no use for the modular interior.

 

[TronLight]

Maybe in the future if I have enough money I'll upgrade my pc (in particular I want to play the Witcher 3 and the new batman), I have a question though.
My motherboard is the asus P8Z68-V/GEN3, and from their website you can see which CPUs are supported http://support.asus.com/Cpusupport/List.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=P8Z68-V/GEN3&p=1&s=39.
From what I see everything beyond the 3xxx series (for intel) isn't supported.
Now the question: Is an i5/i7 3xxx still sufficient? Because I see everybody with the i5-4690K

More than sufficient.

 

[Snakethesniper]

There's only a tiny performance difference between Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, and Haswell. If you have an overclockable Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge processor, it's not worth replacing yet.

I have an i5-2500, not K unfortunately, because I was a noob 3 years ago and thought that I would never overclock anything.
Also, I know it's difficult to know right now, but how much "life" will have the new i5/i7 3xxx components?
My current config:

Case Midi Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus ATX
RAM DDR3 Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 1600MHz 8GB
CPU Intel Core i5-2500 3.30GHz Socket 1155 95W with GPU Sandy Bridge Boxed
GPU MSI Radeon HD 6950 Core 850MHz Memory GDDR5 5200MHz 2GB DVI HDMI DisplayPort
Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 Socket 1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 SATA3 USB3 ATX
PSU OCZ ZT Series 650W ATX 80Plus Bronze

And that's a little bit than 3 years old atm.
I think I can only upgrade the CPU and GPU for a performance boost right? And from what I've seen my PSU should be able to power a GTX970 and a newer processor

 

[TronLight]

And, done! So you can indeed remove the shroud and get to the heatsink without having to remove the whole cooler. Have to undo the tiny Torx screws along the sides and top, then pry the shroud off and unscrew the big 4 philips head screws on the bottom to release the heatsink. NewerTech's kit didn't have a small enough Torx but I had a multitool that had the correct size.

I'd give the factory guys a C- on their thermal compound application. Not good, but not as horrible as some I've seen before (look for Macbook Pro thermal compound pictures if you want to see a real abomination). Cleaned off that stuff and replaced with Arctic MX-4.

No difference in full load temps, still tops out around 82-85˚C but I think that's GPU Boost doing its thing. No shut off issues even after putting it through the Furmark gauntlet (was kind of worried the lower temps would make it get more ambitious on the TDP, but it wasn't so).

HUGE difference in idle-midrange temps... Idle got as low as 33˚C (was idling around 45˚C previously). So yeah, big success here.

BEFORE:
http://i.imgur.com/iO87c8z.jpg[img]

[B]AFTER:[/B]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/dukP8SN.jpg[img][/QUOTE]

I really don't understand why manufacturers never use other coolers designs on the Titans and instead just use that blower thing.

 

[TronLight]

I have an i5-2500, not K unfortunately, because I was a noob 3 years old and though that I would never overclock anything

The difference between a stock 2500 and a 4.5Ghz 4670 it's about 5%, don't worry too much.

 

[RGM79]

I have an i5-2500, not K unfortunately, because I was a noob 3 years old and though that I would never overclock anything

It's still somewhat alright. If you're in the US and interested in getting an overclockable processor, Microcenter is still selling the overclockable i5 3570K for $170. Somewhat pricey and you'll also need to factor in the cost of a decent CPU cooler if you don't already have one, but still better than having to buy a new motherboard as well.

Otherwise games shouldn't be running too badly on your i5 2500, and if you can live at playing on lower settings, you may want to wait for Intel's Skylake processors (due out in Q3 2015) before upgrading as they come with the new Z170 motherboard platform. Socket 1155 is already out of date, and the current socket 1150 is going to be supplanted by Z170's socket 1151 platform.

Also, I know it's difficult to know right now, but how much "life" will have the new i5/i7 3xxx components?

My current config:
Case Midi Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus ATX
RAM DDR3 Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 1600MHz 8GB
CPU Intel Core i5-2500 3.30GHz Socket 1155 95W with GPU Sandy Bridge Boxed
GPU MSI Radeon HD 6950 Core 850MHz Memory GDDR5 5200MHz 2GB DVI HDMI DisplayPort
Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 Socket 1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 SATA3 USB3 ATX
PSU OCZ ZT Series 650W ATX 80Plus Bronze

And that's a little bit than 3 years old atm. I think I can only upgrade the CPU and GPU for a performance boost right? And from what I've seen my PSU should be able to power a GTX970 and a newer processor

I'd expect Ivy Bridge processors to still be useful for the next few years. Some recent triple-A games have already listed the i5 2500 as minimal CPU requirement though, but I wonder if they are basing that simply on how old it is rather than actual performance, because the 2500 is about 4 years old and they will also list AMD processors from the same time period that would be considered outdated already and not actually equal to the i5 2500 in performance.

I agree that a new CPU and GPU will help you. Specifically, you'll see a greater improvement going with a new graphics card than a new processor at this point. Depending on how much you want to spend, I think I would recommend getting a new graphics card first.

 

[Snakethesniper]

The difference between a stock 2500 and a 4.5Ghz 4670 it's about 5%, don't worry too much.

So I can get a major perfomance boost only upgrading the GPU at the moment?

It's still somewhat alright. If you're in the US and interested in getting an overclockable processor, Microcenter is still selling the overclockable i5 3570K for $170. Somewhat pricey and you'll also need to factor in the cost of a decent CPU cooler if you don't already have one, but still better than having to buy a new motherboard as well.

Otherwise games shouldn't be running too badly on your i5 2500, and if you can live at playing on lower settings, you may want to wait for Intel's Skylake processors (due out in Q3 2015) before upgrading as they come with the new Z170 motherboard platform. Socket 1155 is already out of date, and the current socket 1150 is going to be supplanted by Z170's socket 1151 platform.

unfortunately I'm not in the US.
If I wait for the new Skylake processors I think I'll have to upgrade the Mobo too, I don't know if I want to do that at the moment.
I just want to play the next games (like witcher 3 as I said) at 60 fps and that's it.
I feel that my config is now old, but maybe it's only the gpu that's a hd6950 and that's really outdated

I'm looking at the GTX 970 because it seems really good, but I'm worried that the i5-2500 will create a bottleneck in the performance. But maybe it's not the case if I'm understanding what you guys are saying

 

[RGM79]

So I can get a major perfomance boost only upgrading the GPU at the moment?

unfortunately I'm not in the US.
If I wait for the new Skylake processors I think I'll have to upgrade the Mobo too, I don't know if I want to do that at the moment.
I just want to play the next games (like witcher 3 as I said) at 60 fps and that's it.
I feel that my config is now old, but maybe it's only the gpu that's a hd6950 and that's really outdated

I'm looking at the GTX 970 because it seems really good, but I'm worried that the i5-2500 will create a bottleneck in the performance. But maybe it's not the case if I'm understanding what you guys are saying

We made edits to our posts and replied too quickly to see the edits in time, so I'm just going to repeat what I said above and say that it's perfectly fine to hold off on upgrading the CPU for now. A new GPU will make more of a difference than a new CPU. I wouldn't consider the i5 2500 a bottleneck quite yet.

Waiting for Skylake is just a suggestion because Skylake's still several months from release. At this point, I think if you ever wanted to upgrade the CPU, you would most likely be forced to replace the motherboard as well, so that's just something to keep in mind, you should wait for the next generation of motherboards instead of getting a soon-to-be-outdated motherboard to replace your already-out-of-date motherboard. I don't think any other retailers sell Ivy Bridge processors anymore, so you will be limited to buying a used socket 1155 CPU if you do decide you want a new processor soon, without replacing the motherboard.

 

[Snakethesniper]

We made edits to our posts and replied too quickly to see the edits in time, so I'm just going to repeat what I said above and say that it's perfectly fine to hold off on upgrading the CPU for now. A new GPU will make more of a difference than a new CPU. I wouldn't consider the i5 2500 a bottleneck quite yet.

Waiting for Skylake is just a suggestion because Skylake's still several months from release. At this point, I think if you ever wanted to upgrade the CPU, you would most likely be forced to replace the motherboard as well, so that's just something to keep in mind, you should wait for the next generation of motherboards instead of getting a soon-to-be-outdated motherboard to replace your already-out-of-date motherboard. I don't think any other retailers sell Ivy Bridge processors anymore, so you will be limited to buying a used socket 1155 CPU if you do decide you want a new processor soon, without replacing the motherboard.

The idea of upgrading both CPU and GPU was because I thought that the i5-2500 wasn't enough at the moment. I might try upgrading only the GPU.
From what I've seen amazon should sell the 1155 socket CPUs

 

[TronLight]

The idea of upgrading both CPU and GPU was because I thought that the i5-2500 wasn't enough at the moment. I might try upgrading only the GPU.
From what I've seen amazon should sell the 1155 socket CPUs

I wanted to upgrade my CPU too, but I decided to hold off for a little longer. Unless Skylake brings a massive performance jump, not that 5% year over year that you can't really appreciate in gaming, that is. I'm on a 2500k at stock too.

 

[Dead_Pixel]

I'm having trouble getting my just-built PC to work: all wires are connected and when I hit the power everything turns on for about three seconds before cutting out and starting-up again. I can't get to the BIOS screen. You can see a video I made of this here: https://youtu.be/llhZ6m-CBio

I've checked that my front panel power plugs, motherboard power and CPU power plugs are all connected, reset the CMOS and unplugged the RAM, GPU and hard disk but the problem persists. All components are brand new and I have no idea how to proceed. I'd be really grateful if anyone knows what might be wrong?

 

[Snakethesniper]

I wanted to upgrade my CPU too, but I decided to hold off for a little longer. Unless Skylake brings a massive performance jump, not that 5% year over year that you can't really appreciate in gaming, that is. I'm on a 2500k at stock too.

and what GPU are you using at the moment?

 

[Labombadog]

I need help with a new machine I just built yesterday.

I am getting random blue screens while playing games. I was able to use it yesterday without any issues, and it happens randomly. Here are my specs:

Intel Core i5 4690k @ 3.50GHz
8 GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 800MHz
MSI H97 Gaming 3 (MS-7918)
4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (EVGA)
119GB SAMSUNG SSD PM830 2.5" 7mm 128GB ATA Device (SSD)
1863GB Western Digital WDC WD20EZRX-00D8PB0 ATA Device (SATA)

I'm not sure what to do, pretty sure I installed everything right since the machine is working aside from the blue screens. I appreciate your time and help guys.

Test each RAM stick by unplugging and see if you are still getting blue screens or run Memtest+ and see if you are getting any errors. If you get errors then replace the RAM.

 

[TronLight]

and what GPU are you using at the moment?

Don't make me think about it... ahah.
I had a GTX570 that died a couple of months ago, it was serving me great while it was alive. (Now I have a GT210, just to scrape by).

I'll bite on a 970 if they get a nice price drop after the new AMD cards arrive.

 

[Snakethesniper]

Don't make me think about it... ahah.
I had a GTX570 that died a couple of months ago, it was serving me great while it was alive. (Now I have a GT210, just to scrape by).

I'll bite on a 970 if they get a nice price drop after the new AMD cards arrive.

Well, it seems we are on the same boat then!

 

[Dead_Pixel]

I'm having trouble getting my just-built PC to work: all wires are connected and when I hit the power everything turns on for about three seconds before cutting out and starting-up again. I can't get to the BIOS screen. You can see a video I made of this here: https://youtu.be/llhZ6m-CBio

I've checked that my front panel power plugs, motherboard power and CPU power plugs are all connected, reset the CMOS and unplugged the RAM, GPU and hard disk but the problem persists. All components are brand new and I have no idea how to proceed. I'd be really grateful if anyone knows what might be wrong?

Quoting for new page.

 

[RGM79]

I'm having trouble getting my just-built PC to work: all wires are connected and when I hit the power everything turns on for about three seconds before cutting out and starting-up again. I can't get to the BIOS screen. You can see a video I made of this here: https://youtu.be/llhZ6m-CBio

I've checked that my front panel power plugs, motherboard power and CPU power plugs are all connected, reset the CMOS and unplugged the RAM, GPU and hard disk but the problem persists. All components are brand new and I have no idea how to proceed. I'd be really grateful if anyone knows what might be wrong?

Are there any status LEDs on the motherboard? What color are they, and are they flashing or solid? You should refer to your motherboard manual to see what they mean.

If you've already unseated and reseated all the cable connections as well as CPU and RAM, then it's time to check other components such as the power supply. Unplug the motherboard power cable and try the paperclip test to see if the power supply can remain turned on by itself. If it also restarts every three seconds, then your PSU is defective.

The other culprit could be the motherboard. Please ensure that there is no damage to the CPU socket pins, especially if some pins may have been pushed out of alignment. The motherboard may also be defective. Unfortunately, that will be hard to check, but it is one of the possibilities if all other parts check out just fine.

 

[Dead_Pixel]

Are there any status LEDs on the motherboard? What color are they, and are they flashing or solid? You should refer to your motherboard manual to see what they mean.

If you've already unseated and reseated all the cable connections as well as CPU and RAM, then it's time to check other components such as the power supply. Unplug the motherboard power cable and try the paperclip test to see if the power supply can remain turned on by itself. If it also restarts every three seconds, then your PSU is defective.

The other culprit could be the motherboard. Please ensure that there is no damage to the CPU socket pins, especially if some pins may have been pushed out of alignment. The motherboard may also be defective. Unfortunately, that will be hard to check, but it is one of the possibilities if all other parts check out just fine.

Thanks for your reply -- really helpful. After doing the paper clip test, it seems that the PSU is ok as the fans keep spinning at low speed. Moreover, I've discovered the PSU fans stay on whilst connected to the motherboard, but that the CPU cooler and case fan both start-up and then stop every few seconds. Perhaps this indicates a motherboard problem because both fans are drawing power from the motherboard? Is there anyway to check the motherboard without replacing it completely?

 

[Riposte]

Is posting a link to a pcpartpicker list for critique acceptable etiquette? I'll just assume so. Any comments, rebukes, etc. would be appreciated.

I'm not used to really picking out the details beyond the videocard and RAM, mainly for upgrades (which has almost half a decade at this point), so I'm not sure I've done everything correctly (or intelligently).

The goal I laid out was, more or less, to be able to make use of the monitor (Acer XB280HK) while leaving the possibility of SLI for VR in the future (although an upgrade to a stronger card at the time may be more reasonable). Speaking of the monitor, is there a meaningful difference between the "Acer XB280HK" and the "Acer XB280HK bprz", besides about a hundred dollars in price and different vendors?

Besides picking something that allowed everything to fit (and being very conservative at that), I had no idea what I was doing with the case. I would love a smaller one, assuming it doesn't come at the expense of noise and air flow.

The mouse, keyboard, and headphones are filler that I probably won't be picking up in the end, although I'm still interested in hearing opinions on the subject.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YzQZCJ

Hoping to use Memorial Day sales to save some cash (only reason I bothered to pick out the headphones, it's like 150 off).

 

[Thorgal]

so , not having really payed attention to most of the GPU talk :

Why should i be excited for the upcoming Pascal cards ?

Also as a 780 ti classified owner i skipped over the 900 series .

would i see a enormously improved performance with Pascal cards over this one ?

 

[harSon]

I have my computer up and running but I'm having a few issues. First of all, my GTX 970 is experiencing what I believe to be coil whine (high pitched whizzing noise coming from inside the case that only occurs when playing a game), which never occurred while using the same exact card within my Alienware X51.

Also - I'm getting tons of Blue Screens of Death when playing graphically intense games. I've gotten them within The Witcher 3, Project Cars and 3DMark. I'm running Windows 8.1

Any ideas?

 

[DPB]

so , not having really payed attention to most of the GPU talk :

Why should i be excited for the upcoming Pascal cards ?

Also as a 780 ti classified owner i skipped over the 900 series .

would i see a enormously improved performance with Pascal cards over this one ?

I don't think anyone knows yet, they're not supposed to be out until next year.

 

[Confusion Illusion]

You're in Canada, it seems? Toshiba offers good reliability and pricing on their drives. Their 1TB model is $55 and the 2TB model is $83

Depending on where you live exactly, there may be electronics recycling organizations you can go to. I'm in Vancouver and there's a place called Free Geek Vancouver that I trust, there may be a branch near you as they have a couple of branches in various North American cities.

If you really value privacy, then there's no substitute for taking apart the drives yourself. It'll vary by the manufacturer, but I've been able to use torx screwdriver bits to open up hard drives and remove the platters inside. I've taken apart drives for their particularly strong magnets and the platters which are highly polished. You might need a good set of pliers and some elbow grease to remove certain parts, though.

I'll just do both; taking it apart and bringing it to to the recycling place(there is one near me). Just need to get a torx first.

I'll also look into the Toshiba drives. Thanks for your help.

 

[Kayant]

I have my computer up and running but I'm having a few issues. First of all, my GTX 970 is experiencing what I believe to be coil whine (high pitched whizzing noise coming from inside the case that only occurs when playing a game), which never occurred while using the same exact card within my Alienware X51.

Also - I'm getting tons of Blue Screens of Death when playing graphically intense games. I've gotten them within The Witcher 3, Project Cars and 3DMark. I'm running Windows 8.1

Any ideas?

Are the blue screens giving the same error message?

What kind of temperatures are you getting up to while gaming? Did you over clock your GPU?

Is the power supply in system the same as the one in the X51?

 

[Pachimari]

Can a kind soul help me out finding out, why when I restart my computer, it gets stuck at the "Gigabyte - insist on ultra durable" screen, and I have to restart it again, before it boots up?

I made a clean install of Windows 7 a few days ago, and it does this again. Very frustrating.

 

[kennah]

Can a kind soul help me out finding out, why when I restart my computer, it gets stuck at the "Gigabyte - insist on ultra durable" screen, and I have to restart it again, before it boots up?

I made a clean install of Windows 7 a few days ago, and it does this again. Very frustrating.

Press tab, or turn off the full screen boot logo in the bios.

That should show you the error that it is hanging on.

 

[harSon]

Are the blue screens giving the same error message?

What kind of temperatures are you getting up to while gaming? Did you over clock your GPU?

Is the power supply in system the same as the one in the X51?

I'm not 100% sure, but I think they've been the same messages. I'm pretty sure it has to be GPU related, since it only occurs while something demanding of the GPU is occurting (games, 3DMark, etc). I'll document the next few times it happens. Maybe it's a Driver issue? I reinstalled the drivers for the GTX 970, but I reinstalled the same one.

My temperatures on my GPU are about 60-65 degrees while in a game, and that was while playing Project Cars with Dota 2 running in the background.

It's not the same PSU as my Alienware X51, I'm now using a Corsair CX600.

Edit: Downloaded BlueScreenView and I'm getting a BSOD 124 error, caused by driver hal.dll

Here's my temperature readings:

 

[xJavonta]

So I have this AMD R7 250X 2GB that started artifacting. Just got it for Christmas. It's been a pain in the ass, it's loud, and it underperforms in comparison to my old AMD Radeon HD 5670 1GB that it should theoretically be a bit faster than. I think it needs to be sent in, but the thing is there's no brand on it. It was purchased from Newegg, but Newegg doesn't list a brand and it's a reference design. I tried contacting AMD support a couple months ago and they were absolute shit in help and even marked the ticket as solved. I just wanna know who I should be trying to contact to get this fixed. I can't afford to buy anything new right now so I kinda need this card. any ideas? Thanks!