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"I Need a New PC!" 2015 Part 1. Read the OP and RISE ABOVE FORGED PRECISION SCIENCE

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RGM79

Member
Are there any more CPU's coming to the X99 platform?

Broadwell-E is slated for Q1 2016. It's a pretty safe bet that X99 will see more CPUs. X99 was released almost just 6 months ago, no reason for it to be abandoned.

Intel-Skylake-S-Broadwell-K-Broadwell-E-2015-2016-Roadmap.jpg
 

NoRéN

Member
Same.

If it is, $10 says it's ASRock
who pays?
Man, I regret not opting for a larger SSD. I went with a 240gb. Love this thing, wish I could use an SSD for main storage.

Luckily, SSDs aren't that expensive any more and there are deals to be had all the time. I ended up adding a second exclusively for game installs but wished I had just opted for a larger capacity SSD to begin with.
 
I currently have an i5 2500k OC'd to 4.5

Is a base i5 4690k @3.5 that much better than what I have?

I also have a 980 GTX. All games run butter smooth, so any real reason to upgrade my processor now?
 

RGM79

Member
any recommendations for a prebuilt PC for my daughter who mainly just plays minecraft? I already have a 7950 card I can give her too

We don't really talk about prebuilt computers here, but we do need more information to go off of. What's your budget and are you located near any retailers like Microcenter, or were you going to order a prebuilt online?

Word of warning, the HD7950 needs a 500-550 watt watt power supply, I wouldn't go much lower than that unless the rest of the PC was very low power. Few cheap prebuilt computers come with anything stronger than a 300 watt power supply because that's really all they need. Most of them don't even have 6/8 pin graphics card power cables to power your HD7950. That said.. Minecraft won't really need a 7950, you could probably get away with a buying a PC with a i3 or AMD APU.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Mostly done. Final specs

Corsair 760t
EVGA Supernova G2 1300W
ASUS X99 Pro
5930k
16GB HyperX 3000 DDR4
256GB M.2 SSD
250GB 850 EVO
1TB Caviar blue
4TB WD HDD
SLI G1 970's
H110i GT with push/pull SP140's
Case Filters
Sleeved Cables

Cost around 3k.

Close to finished build pics.


Thank you to knitoe for cable tip on the GPU and mkenyon for general advice.
 

Ally1987

Member
Guys, a question: I have oc my cpu to 4.5ghz, but the clockspeed is on 4.5ghz 24/7, even load on under 1%. how do I make the clockspeed go low under idle and low load? if it's even possible?
 

nelchaar

Member
Hi all,

I'm trying to build a good desktop PC for primarily graphics design tasks. I'm looking at the "Haz's Good PC" build and wondering if that's enough for what I'm looking to do. Do I need an i7? or will an i5 do?

Thanks, I don't know much about building a PC.
 

mkenyon

Banned
Guys, a question: I have oc my cpu to 4.5ghz, but the clockspeed is on 4.5ghz 24/7, even load on under 1%. how do I make the clockspeed go low under idle and low load? if it's even possible?
Enable Intel Speed Stepping in BIOS/UEFI.
Hi all,

I'm trying to build a good desktop PC for primarily graphics design tasks. I'm looking at the "Haz's Good PC" build and wondering if that's enough for what I'm looking to do. Do I need an i7? or will an i5 do?

Thanks, I don't know much about building a PC.
By chance, do you know which programs in specific?

Likely the i5 will be just fine, but there's some good Xeon Processors in that same price range that may be better. TBH, I'm a bit out of date on the Haswell Xeon stuff, so I'll let someone else go over that.

But, generally there's a locked speed Xeon with hyperthreading, that ends up performing really similar to the i7 for basically the same price as the i5 (K variant).
 

nelchaar

Member
Enable Intel Speed Stepping in BIOS/UEFI.

By chance, do you know which programs in specific?

Likely the i5 will be just fine, but there's some good Xeon Processors in that same price range that may be better. TBH, I'm a bit out of date on the Haswell Xeon stuff, so I'll let someone else go over that.

But, generally there's a locked speed Xeon with hyperthreading, that ends up performing really similar to the i7 for basically the same price as the i5 (K variant).

Mostly Adobe programs (Indesign, Photoshop, etc), and some tablet drawing. I'm not sure if I should build a gaming PC for such purposes (i.e, a powerful computer). As of now, my plan entails sticking an i7 (probably the 4790K) with a GTX 750ti 2GB, but the 4790K is pricey. My budget is $900 max (after taxes and shipping), and I will have to purchase a monitor as well.
 

RGM79

Member
Mostly Adobe programs (Indesign, Photoshop, etc), and some tablet drawing. I'm not sure if I should build a gaming PC for such purposes (i.e, a powerful computer). As of now, my plan entails sticking an i7 (probably the 4790K) with a GTX 750ti 2GB, but the 4790K is pricey. My budget is $900 max (after taxes and shipping), and I will have to purchase a monitor as well.

Do you have a monitor in mind? Trying to figure out how much you will be spending on the tower, and then we can spec out a parts list for you based on that.
 

nelchaar

Member
Do you have a monitor in mind? Trying to figure out how much you will be spending on the tower, and then we can spec out a parts list for you based on that.

Yep, the Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor. I've actually made a preliminary build if you want to check it out and give me some feedback. I want this PC to also be upgradeable for the future, perhaps with a more powerful CPU (i7?) and VGA (Future Nvidia cards), but I understand I'm limiting myself with the PSU.

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/nelchaar/saved/TRWj4D
 

RGM79

Member
Yep, the Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor. I've actually made a preliminary build if you want to check it out and give me some feedback. I want this PC to also be upgradeable for the future, perhaps with a more powerful CPU (i7?) and VGA (Future Nvidia cards), but I understand I'm limiting myself with the PSU.

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/nelchaar/saved/TRWj4D

There's a bit that can be done to optimize the build. There's this cheaper 8GB G.Skill 1866MHz RAM for $65, and for the same price as the power supply you have in the list you can get this EVGA 600B 600 watt power supply for $35 after rebate instead, which will better handle future upgrades. Also, the EVGA GTX 750 Ti Superclocked ($125 after $20 rebate) is slightly faster than the Asus graphics card (1.18GHz vs 1.07GHz) for the same price.

You chose a compact mATX motherboard and a larger ATX case, you can either change your current motherboard to a larger one to make better use of the bigger case's expansion slots, or go with a more compact case. Even if you plan to add more and expand the PC in the future, mATX is usually enough for most people (supports more than enough hard drives and twin graphics cards already) so I recommend a decent mATX case like the Silverstone PS08B for $31 after rebate.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.47 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($74.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card ($124.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Silverstone PS08B (Black) MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($30.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($56.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.75 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor ($138.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $846.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-17 19:16 EST-0500

With my recommended changes it comes out only $20 cheaper after rebates. Not a lot that can be done given the budget constraints, both your and my parts lists are already $30 over the $900 limit before counting rebates.

Hmm, looking around, there are two other similar Asus monitors that are slightly larger for the same price. The VS247H-P ($139) and VE247H ($138) are slightly larger, almost 24 inches, and I think they have the same feature set.
 
Update on my new pc

It came destroyed :( Brought it to a friend of mine for a quick check and that's what we saw inside (already contacted the Store and they were pretty much more pissed than me) i'm waiting for instruction on what to do tomorrow, sucksss



Can you even believe what drop could've done that? jesus christ

I've got the same cooler and you'd be surprised how easily it bends.

When I put a little force on top of the heatsink grill it twisted slightly out of shape so I had to bend it back carefully.
 

LilJoka

Member
The reads and writes are off the charts though. The thing flies. Windows starts in about 4 seconds.

Guess so, but usually windows files scatter through the drive as it becomes fragmented, meaning 4K randoms are usually the performance indicator in the long term. Obviously will be blisteringly fast either way though. Cant disagree though considering that boot time haha.
 
really basic, probably dumb question here.

A hard drive died in one of my computers, it wouldnt load windows at all. I have the replacement drive right now, but have not had time to put it all back together. I do not have any of the windows installation discs that came with this computer, and the only other one I have is a windows xp disc from Dell from several years ago that came with a different computer. The computer originally had windows Vista...do I need to go buy another windows disc again to get it back on there? Could I use the xp disc for now just to have it working again?
 

LilJoka

Member
really basic, probably dumb question here.

A hard drive died in one of my computers, it wouldnt load windows at all. I have the replacement drive right now, but have not had time to put it all back together. I do not have any of the windows installation discs that came with this computer, and the only other one I have is a windows xp disc from Dell from several years ago that came with a different computer. The computer originally had windows Vista...do I need to go buy another windows disc again to get it back on there? Could I use the xp disc for now just to have it working again?

Could use XP and then obtain the ISO for Windows 7/8 and make a bootable USB. Use the old serial key.
 
Could use XP and then obtain the ISO for Windows 7/8 and make a bootable USB. Use the old serial key.

alright...I read somewhere that with the installation discs from Dell, if you use one that is meant for a different computer then it wont work. Not sure if thats true though
 

RGM79

Member
really basic, probably dumb question here.

A hard drive died in one of my computers, it wouldnt load windows at all. I have the replacement drive right now, but have not had time to put it all back together. I do not have any of the windows installation discs that came with this computer, and the only other one I have is a windows xp disc from Dell from several years ago that came with a different computer. The computer originally had windows Vista...do I need to go buy another windows disc again to get it back on there? Could I use the xp disc for now just to have it working again?

The XP recovery disc probably won't work. If you just want a working PC for the time being, you could download a Ubuntu ISO and load it onto a USB drive or burn it to a disc. Booting that up and choosing the live CD option will let you run the OS off the disc so you can at least access hard drives and run applications like web browsers or anti-virus or office programs.
 

NoRéN

Member
Mostly done. Final specs

Corsair 760t
EVGA Supernova G2 1300W
ASUS X99 Pro
5930k
16GB HyperX 3000 DDR4
256GB M.2 SSD
250GB 850 EVO
1TB Caviar blue
4TB WD HDD
SLI G1 970's
H110i GT with push/pull SP140's
Case Filters
Sleeved Cables

Cost around 3k.

Close to finished build pics.



Thank you to knitoe for cable tip on the GPU and mkenyon for general advice.
If I am seeing correctly, you just wrapped one of the cables around the other then plugged them in(6 pin around 8 pin or vise versa)?
 

nelchaar

Member
There's a bit that can be done to optimize the build. There's this cheaper

Thanks for the excellent suggestions RGM, will definitely follow your advice. Do you think I could further reduce expenditure on the blu ray drive? And do you think the CPU I picked is good enough for graphics design tasks?
 

kris.

Banned
Just bought/installed my MSI GTX 970 and my gawd this thing runs like a dream. Idles a little high at ~50c but everything I've thrown at it so far has only gotten it up to 67c at the max whereas my 760 would have easily hit ~80. Can't even hear the fan kick on. Drooling.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
NoRéN;152525894 said:
If I am seeing correctly, you just wrapped one of the cables around the other then plugged them in 6 pin around 8 pin or vise versa)?
Yes. The left is the 6+2 pin and I looped it twice around the right 6 pin cable. For the 2 pin cable I basically pulled that back into the back of the chassis since it just blends in with all the other sleeved cables. As you can see from the pictures I still have just a bit of cosmetic tidying to do but I am super impressed on what the case has afforded me in terms of available pockets to tuck cable in and the generous amount of grommets as well as spaces to tuck cables under and route behind.


Just bought/installed my MSI GTX 970 and my gawd this thing runs like a dream. Idles a little high at ~50c but everything I've thrown at it so far has only gotten it up to 67c at the max whereas my 760 would have easily hit ~80. Can't even hear the fan kick on. Drooling.
I played Arma 3 and the hot GPU only hit 60 on my G1 970's. Bottom was 3C cooler. Needless to say this was quite impressive to me.
 
A friend of mine builds computers for a living so he suggested I buy parts and he would hook it up (for free) for me.

Now with that said , is this a decent rig?

Asus crossblade ranger FM2 amd a88x motherboard - 152.99
Amd FX-9370 Vishera 8 core 4.4ghz -219.99
Seagate 2tb 7200rpm (x2 for raid 0) - 179.98 (89.99 each)
Crucial ballistic 16gb ddr3 - 149.99
Evga gtx 970 - 349.99
Raidmax 1000W PSU - 119.99
APEVIA x dreamer atx mid tower case - 64.99

What do you guys think? Decent rig for games right now, I should be able to play them on high to ultra settings right?

What about price wise, think I got ripped off from newegg?

I've never built or ordered parts like this so hopefully it's ok. I literally just ordered everting 5 mins ago. So I'm feeling I should have posted first then ordered.

Oh well, such is life.
 

The Llama

Member
A friend of mine builds computers for a living so he suggested I buy parts and he would hook it up (for free) for me.

Now with that said , is this a decent rig?

Asus crossblade ranger FM2 amd a88x motherboard - 152.99
Amd FX-9370 Vishera 8 core 4.4ghz -219.99
Seagate 2tb 7200rpm (x2 for raid 0) - 179.98 (89.99 each)
Crucial ballistic 16gb ddr3 - 149.99
Evga gtx 970 - 349.99
Raidmax 1000W PSU - 119.99
APEVIA x dreamer atx mid tower case - 64.99

What do you guys think? Decent rig for games right now, I should be able to play them on high to ultra settings right?

What about price wise, think I got ripped off from newegg?

I've never built or ordered parts like this so hopefully it's ok. I literally just ordered everting 5 mins ago. So I'm feeling I should have posted first then ordered.

Oh well, such is life.

Cancel it ASAP. Seriously. I'll let someone else work out a better build for you, but cancel it before its too late.
 

RGM79

Member
Thanks for the excellent suggestions RGM, will definitely follow your advice. Do you think I could further reduce expenditure on the blu ray drive? And do you think the CPU I picked is good enough for graphics design tasks?

What is the blu ray drive for? If you won't be making blu ray discs of your own and you just need to read blu ray discs, then you could go with a blu ray reader instead of a blu ray writer, like this LG blu ray reader for $40 after $10 rebate that will knock off $17 off the total.

If you're intending to use it for blu ray movies, then I should warn you that the first BD drive you listed and the one I recommend both do not come with blu ray player software. Blu ray is a licensed technology so free players like Windows Media Player won't play them. You have three options when it comes to playing blu ray movies:

1. You buy blu ray player software separately
2. You buy a more expensive blu ray drive that is bundled with a software package that says it comes specifically with one of the players listed in the above link
3. You can try this which allows VLC to decrypt and play blu ray movie discs, but I personally don't know how well it works.

As for the CPU, Photoshop and Indesign have fairly broad requirements, they list the 14 year old Pentium 4 as a minimum requirement. It's just a matter of stronger processors doing a faster job, the end result is still the same. Quite a few websites have done benchmarks with i5 and i7 processors, and the i7 does come out faster most of the time in certain tasks.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i7-4790k-i5-4690k_6.html
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...ntel-haswell-i7-4770k-i5-4670k-review-13.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7003/the-haswell-review-intel-core-i74770k-i54560k-tested/7

That said, i5 processors aren't agonizingly slow for Photoshop, they're more like a few steps behind. All you're paying for would be faster Photoshop processing, so it's just a question of money versus convenience. I'd just keep the i5 if I were you. Xeon processors like mkenyon mentioned do offer i7 performance levels for a lower price but the cheapest hyperthreading model is the Xeon E3-1231 V3 for $243 which is still out of your price range.

The only way I could see you fitting the more expensive processor into the build would be to drop the retail copy of Windows 8.1 and buy a Windows 8.1 license key from reddit's microsoftsoftwareswap instead for about $20 USD. That comes with its own set of issues, though. These are 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 breaking some EULA, but it's not illegal. Once you have the key, you can get official Windows installers easily.

A person who posted just on the last page mentioned having issues with Windows activation half a year after they bought the license key off reddit, so that's something to beware.
 

RGM79

Member
A friend of mine builds computers for a living so he suggested I buy parts and he would hook it up (for free) for me.

Now with that said , is this a decent rig?

Asus crossblade ranger FM2 amd a88x motherboard - 152.99
Amd FX-9370 Vishera 8 core 4.4ghz -219.99
Seagate 2tb 7200rpm (x2 for raid 0) - 179.98 (89.99 each)
Crucial ballistic 16gb ddr3 - 149.99
Evga gtx 970 - 349.99
Raidmax 1000W PSU - 119.99
APEVIA x dreamer atx mid tower case - 64.99

What do you guys think? Decent rig for games right now, I should be able to play them on high to ultra settings right?

What about price wise, think I got ripped off from newegg?

I've never built or ordered parts like this so hopefully it's ok. I literally just ordered everting 5 mins ago. So I'm feeling I should have posted first then ordered.

Oh well, such is life.

Uhm... I wouldn't have ordered that, for various reasons.

The processor and motherboard are physically incompatible. They simply do not fit or work together. Seagate hard drives are not very reliable, I feel, they tend to have higher failure rates than other brands like Western Digital or Hitachi. 16GB of RAM should only cost around $120. Raidmax is not a very reliable brand for power supplies.

I strongly suggest you cancel the order so you can at least get a CPU and motherboard that work together.
 
Uhm... I wouldn't have ordered that, for various reasons.

The processor and motherboard are physically incompatible. They simply do not fit or work together. Seagate hard drives are not very reliable, I feel, they tend to have higher failure rates than other brands like Western Digital or Hitachi. 16GB of RAM should only cost around $120. Raidmax is not a very reliable brand for power supplies.

I strongly suggest you cancel the order so you can at least get a CPU and motherboard that work together.


Thanks for the info. I just contacted my friend. Socket type is no bueno he said.
 

NoRéN

Member
Yes. The left is the 6+2 pin and I looped it twice around the right 6 pin cable. For the 2 pin cable I basically pulled that back into the back of the chassis since it just blends in with all the other sleeved cables. As you can see from the pictures I still have just a bit of cosmetic tidying to do but I am super impressed on what the case has afforded me in terms of available pockets to tuck cable in and the generous amount of grommets as well as spaces to tuck cables under and route behind.
8 pin around 6 pin. Got it.
Thank you for that info. I'm going to try that myself as it looks rather nice.
 
  • Budget is 1200 . USA
  • Main use : Gaming 5 General usage 5
  • 1080 p monitor gaming
  • I want high to ultra settings
  • Not reusing any parts
  • building now
  • no overclocking
 

RGM79

Member
  • Budget is 1200 . USA
  • Main use : Gaming 5 General usage 5
  • 1080 p monitor gaming
  • I want high to ultra settings
  • Not reusing any parts
  • building now
  • no overclocking

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($100.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Toshiba Product Series:DT01ACA 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($70.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Toshiba Product Series:DT01ACA 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($70.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290X 4GB Tri-X Video Card ($303.98 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($73.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Antec HCG M 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1192.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-17 22:49 EST-0500

I'd usually recommend a K model processor like the 4690K even if you weren't planning to overclock. It's easy enough to follow a guide to do it. If you insist on never overclocking, then the Xeon model processor will be better bang for the buck, it's essentially an i5 processor with hyperthreading from the i7 processors. The hyperthreading won't really make up for not being able to overclock, though. It'll help in some areas, but not really that much for games.

Anyway, that build is sort of based off what you seemed you wanted in your first order. Two 2TB drives for good storage space (not sure if 4TB drives are reliable enough now), very high wattage power supply that can handle a second graphics card, etc. If you like, you can substitute the GTX 970 and the APEVIA case into there, I just think the R9 290X is slightly better value but the GTX 970 is more efficient. I don't really know APEVIA so I chose a NZXT case.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
NoRéN;152535995 said:
8 pin around 6 pin. Got it.
Thank you for that info. I'm going to try that myself as it looks rather nice.
The one thing that bugs me right now is looking at that SATA cable going into the DVD Drive there on top. I could easily take that white sleeve cable and loop in to an area that you would not even see it so as I said in the original post with the pictures, I just have some tidying up to do but it looks pretty much 100 percent right now and I haven't even remove the protective film that comes on the side panel so that's why you can't see into the case with full clarity.

Huge recommendations on the 760t as well. It does push/pull with room to spare and the H110i GT does an amazing job cooling the CPU.
 

NoRéN

Member
The one thing that bugs me right now is looking at that SATA cable going into the DVD Drive there on top. I could easily take that white sleeve cable and loop in to an area that you would not even see it so as I said in the original post with the pictures, I just have some tidying up to do but it looks pretty much 100 percent right now and I haven't even remove the protective film that comes on the side panel so that's why you can't see into the case with full clarity.

Huge recommendations on the 760t as well. It does push/pull with room to spare and the H110i GT does an amazing job cooling the CPU.

You're insane. That looks great. Now, a picture of my "cable management" would make you crazy.

Then again, it's the price I paid for going with a 200r.
 
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