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"I Need a New PC!" 2015 Part 1. Read the OP and RISE ABOVE FORGED PRECISION SCIENCE
- Thread starter Hazaro
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Thanks, I see that the rads you choose are thinner than the one in the kit. Will that make much of a difference in the cooling/quietness? Also, what fans and fan orientation should I use? It's all about trying to keep the system as quiet as possible at the overclocks it is currently at. I have a 5820k at 4.5Ghz at 1.249v and it's pushing the limits of my current cooler. I'll probably buy these in a couple of months, when I have everything together could you help me with the set up?
Hey guys, I really need some advice. I would like to build a new rig that will last a 2-3 years and be able to game 1440p at a decent frame rate. Based on everything else I found, it seems like getting SLI 970s would be the best bet. This seems to be the best bang for your buck and 2x980s is out of my price range right now. But maybe I should get one 980 now and another later down the line. Also, I need to go Nvidia for CUDA for work. I know there is some concern over games not properly utilizing SLI, but I am not sure how prevalent this problem is. I will mainly be playing RTS, racing, and FPS.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_970_SLI/9.html
Any thoughts?
Could you point me in the right direction if this has been answered elsewhere?
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_970_SLI/9.html
Any thoughts?
Could you point me in the right direction if this has been answered elsewhere?
I somehow missed this:
*Exact measured spacing ? Not sure. I am using a Tri Sli bridge on my Titan Xs with the second card being used by the 3rd connector on the bridge. If that helps.
*keeping the Black Edition. No to full MB block that's doing too much at this stage for me lol
*I want matching and the most compatible stuff
Absolutely. Also, we can go cheaper on certain stuff if you wanted to save a bit of cash.
The rads are really great, and for 600mm of rad space, you don't really need anything that thick. They also have a built in shroud-like function, as the fans are slightly offset from the radiator. I really like that feature as it has a pretty dramatic impact on performance, more than the radiator being a few mm thicker.
With fans, you just want something with decent static pressure. Most fans when running at 1000-14000 RPM are going to perform within spitting distance of each other. Cougar Vortex, Arctic Cooling F12s, Corsair SP Quiets, Yate Loons, whatever you want. It's mostly a choice of aesthetics, longevity, and sound profile. While they will all be very quiet at that speed, they all sound slightly different.
I like the Noiseblocker eLoops at the high end, Cougar Vortex in the middle, and Arctic Cooling F12s on a budget.
For fan setup, it depends on how much HDD trays and 5.25" expansion bays you need.
It's cheaper material than it looks, the steel is pretty damn thin. Starts to get a bit wobbly when you load it up with heavy shit like watercooling gear. Other than that, which is not really a big deal at all, it's great. Perfect layout, IMO.
Well, full board block is just as easy as a CPU block. It just means removing the motherboard heatsinks, which is a fkn piece of cake.
Otherwise, pick matching CPU and Video Card blocks.
You'll want one of these for the terminal:
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...C_Terminal_TRIPLE_Serial.html?tl=g57c645s2060
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/2..._TRIPLE_Parallel_-_Plexi.html?tl=g57c645s2060
Again, pick it based on your theme to match the blocks.
Then just get a blank for deleting the middle port: http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1..._Terminal_BLANK_Parallel.html?tl=g57c645s2060
Hmm... it's just not that great a price point per performance (and you are only getting 3.5GB vs 4GB). I'd grab a used Titan Black now and drop another one in later perhaps.
However if you want nVidia there's not much else you can go for right now and nothing seems close on the horizon. Maybe someone else can chime in.
xBladeM6x
Member
Thanks. I don't plan to water cool for now, so I suppose I should be fine. I think I was scarred by my current case's horrid cable management ability, that I went full tilt and just got the case with the most room to work in. Lol
If you're thinking of buying a GTX 980, I'd wait to see if prices will drop or not. If you're not spending as much on a graphics card, then you could buy now.
How much later until you'll actually have all the parts to put together? Skylake processors are slated for later this year (around September or so?) and won't be compatible with existing motherboards.
And if you do buy both that Z87 motherboard and a current generation Devil's Canyon (i5 4690K, i7 4790K) or future Broadwell (i5-5675C, i7-5775C?) socket 1150 processor, odds are that the motherboard will need a BIOS update before it'll work at all with those processors. And no, there is no way to update the BIOS on those motherboards unless you have a working CPU in the first place.
So I don't recommend you buy that motherboard unless you're getting the rest of the parts in soon AND you can update the BIOS with an older Haswell processor you already own or borrowed from someone.
Sigh, hard to say. I'm wary about recommending SLI right off the bat, 1440p doesn't exactly need it unless you're aiming for highest possible framerate at highest settings. If not for the 3.5GB VRAM issue, I'd have no problems recommending GTX 970 SLI over a single GTX 980, yet I don't really want to recommend the GTX 980 because it isn't that great for price to performance, and there's AMD's R9 3XX line looming just over the horizon, rumored to launch in June. Even if you don't plan to go with AMD, Nvidia may counter the R9 390/390X with a price drop on the GTX 980.
Can you wait a few months?
Thanks for all of this. I can't spend money this month because I have a trip coming up in early May, but mid-May I should be ready to buy. I don't mind spending to get good stuff that will last a while since I will be using most of these parts for future upgrades.
As far as space inside the case, I took out the hard drive cages already since I only use the computer for gaming, the one SSD I have on it is enough for me and there's space in the back for another if I want to add one in the future. Also, I could just duck tape a bunch of SSDs to the back anyway.
So your best airflow setup would be a 360mm rad in the front as intake, the rear "exhaust" as intake, and then the 240mm rad up top as exhaust.
That'll give you great positive pressure, put some cool air on your chipset with the rear fan, and exhaust everything out of the top.
That'll give you great positive pressure, put some cool air on your chipset with the rear fan, and exhaust everything out of the top.
I am starting to entertain the idea of returning to PC gaming (right now the majority of my multiplatform gaming is done on consoles). I prefer gaming with a control pad on my coach in front of my big screen and 5.1 system. Do most graphics card pass through audio as well as the video through their HDMI port? I'd like to plug the HDMI from the PC into my AV receiver and have the it split the audio and video signal.
Oh yeah, HDMI --> A/V receiver is all you need for audio and video. It's super convenient.
Oh yeah, HDMI --> A/V receiver is all you need for audio and video. It's super convenient.
Awesome.
I am starting to look into various components and prices for a dedicated gaming PC and having DTS/DD audio and video from the same HDMI would simplify cabling for my entertainment stand.
catapult37
Member
Have: 2x2GB sticks of DDR3.
Bought: 1x8G stick of DDR3.
My motherboard
8GB stick works fine by itself, but no configuration with the other sticks will boot. Is there anything I can do, or should I just write off the old RAM?
Bought: 1x8G stick of DDR3.
My motherboard
8GB stick works fine by itself, but no configuration with the other sticks will boot. Is there anything I can do, or should I just write off the old RAM?
They are very much the same, AC5 may be 1-2c better after a hundred hours cure time. AC5 is also thick and harder to apply properly. MX4 doesnt have cure time, its a more modern paste.
Do not touch FrozenCPU, assume its dead for the long haul, even of it says in stock.
1.5v vs 1.65v is your problem.
It will run 1.5v to protect the new ram from damage, and therefore the old ram that requires 1.65v wont work. Likely you could get it to work at 1333Mhz 1.5v.
You said you need a NV GPU for CUDA work. Do specifics of the GPU matter for the work, or is any decent NV GPU good enough and the final choice comes down to gaming performance only?
Yep, after reading, I'll agree to that.
Makes me sad, as they had always been one of my go to places.
Have you tried running the 8 GB with one 2 GB stick, just the two of em?
in slot 3 and 4 , alternatively 1 and 2 counted from the cpu?
Since the timings are similar, i'm guessing the motherboard might not like running 3 sticks, 4 might work better.
The 2 GB stick actually have a SPD voltage of 1.5, they only need 1.65 to run the 1600 MHz XMP profile.
As i said, the BIOS maybe incorrectly setting the speed to 1600Mhz at 1.5v due to the new RAM.
So force 1333Mhz and set the voltage to 1.55v or around there. Get it to boot atleast then you can play with the settings.
The CUDA work should be fine on any of these gpus, so the gaming performance will be what will be the deciding factor between them.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Is there an issue with mixing and matching RAM sticks that may not have identical timings?
A buddy wants to upgrade his 2x4 setup to a 4x4, but I've never had to think about this before.
A buddy wants to upgrade his 2x4 setup to a 4x4, but I've never had to think about this before.
Not really, you just need to make sure you set the BIOS settings to match the lowest common denominator. If they're close in "stock" timings you can also probably overclock the slower RAM to match.
There can be. Just set them to the lowest common denominator, and he'll probably be okay.
*edit
Beat!
AzureSkies
Member
So, GAF. I had no idea where to post this, so I might as well post it here for advice:
I received a new 7870 from ASUS today after sending it off for repair, and it won't respond to normal AMD drivers, so I had to install my drivers using Windows Update. I then found out that it's an Engineering Sample 7870, a matter that AMD takes pretty seriously. Should I directly contact AMD about this?
Device Manager/dxdiag screenshot
I received a new 7870 from ASUS today after sending it off for repair, and it won't respond to normal AMD drivers, so I had to install my drivers using Windows Update. I then found out that it's an Engineering Sample 7870, a matter that AMD takes pretty seriously. Should I directly contact AMD about this?
Device Manager/dxdiag screenshot
Exactly what I needed to know, thanks a bunch!
Just from my own searches, it seems like they don't care and its not illegal for you to have it (not sure that would be legal anyway... if that makes sense). Up to you to decide what to do.
You'll get the short end of the stick if you try to return it, but also harder to resell if you even plan to later on. Usually ES perform worse as well (but not that much), up to you how much hassle you want to go through. If it works and you don't plan on selling the card later I'd just keep it.
AzureSkies
Member
Depends on performance, really. I might return it if I have issues, but I haven't tried it out yet in any games.
Changing H80i Fans
Got them today and installed.
These fan are super quiet and still outperform the H80i fans. . at full load my max temps with the H80i fans were 62c. The Cougars are 58c. Idle temps drop from 31c to 24c!! This tells me the fans are blowing more air than the H80i fans at lower speeds.
These fans are so quiet I had to check if they were working during the 3dmark bench test lol
Got them today and installed.
These fan are super quiet and still outperform the H80i fans. . at full load my max temps with the H80i fans were 62c. The Cougars are 58c. Idle temps drop from 31c to 24c!! This tells me the fans are blowing more air than the H80i fans at lower speeds.
These fans are so quiet I had to check if they were working during the 3dmark bench test lol
Planning to put together my first PC, and really my first gaming PC ever (after 2+ decades of gaming exclusively on consoles). Does this build seem sufficient, especially the motherboard/cooler, where I went a little cheaper than the template I was working off of?
Trying to keep the price under $1000, but would love to knock another $100ish off if possible.
http://pcpartpicker.com
Appreciate any feedback. Thanks.
Trying to keep the price under $1000, but would love to knock another $100ish off if possible.
http://pcpartpicker.com
Appreciate any feedback. Thanks.
Do you already have keyboard and mouse?
No, I need to get those too. I was just planning on seeing what popped up on sale over the next two weeks. I can't go too over-the-top gamer on those, since my wife will be using the PC for work fairly regularly and would just be annoyed with me if everything is glowing or whatnot.
Enosh
Member
so bought a fan to see if some more airflow fixes my CPU fan making crazy noises, if not will have to buy a new CPU fan -.-
couple of questions:
-mounted it on the side atm, would have done on the back but that one is like 10cm in front of my desk panel so I just assumed mounting it on the side means better air flow (it's a bit anoying as far as removing the side panel goes but whatever, have it set up as exhaust atm okay that way? front fan intake and side for exhaust?
-stupid thing came with 1 3 pin that I connected to my MB and a I think it's called a molex connector, the fuck am i supposed to do with that one? it kinda awkwardly hangs around atm, tried to kinda tuck it away so it's not touching the GPU pcb but it might bend down again or something, can it do any damage if it's touching the graphics card? doesn't have a back plate sadly
couple of questions:
-mounted it on the side atm, would have done on the back but that one is like 10cm in front of my desk panel so I just assumed mounting it on the side means better air flow (it's a bit anoying as far as removing the side panel goes but whatever, have it set up as exhaust atm okay that way? front fan intake and side for exhaust?
-stupid thing came with 1 3 pin that I connected to my MB and a I think it's called a molex connector, the fuck am i supposed to do with that one? it kinda awkwardly hangs around atm, tried to kinda tuck it away so it's not touching the GPU pcb but it might bend down again or something, can it do any damage if it's touching the graphics card? doesn't have a back plate sadly
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($224.29 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($78.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($54.00 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($89.89 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.49 @ Directron)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 290 4GB PCS+ Video Card ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $930.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-27 11:24 EDT-0400
1. Slightly cheaper MSI motherboard. If you prefer Gigabyte, you can add it back, it's only a difference of a few dollars.
2. I found you faster RAM for 2 cents more. Also, 2x4GB dual channel is recommended over 1x8GB single channel for slightly better performance (up to ~10%). You shouldn't really need to worry about running out of RAM slots.
3. The newer Crucial BX100 is $20 cheaper than the MX100 for nearly the same amount of storage. You won't be able to tell the difference in SSD performance when it's measured in seconds.
4. The biggest change - if you're on a tight budget, I recommend the R9 290. Costs a lot less, but it's in the same neighborhood when it comes to performance. Should handle 1080p gaming on high settings for the next few years.
5. Cannot really recommend Corsair CX power supplies, they're the "budget" line made with cheaper components. For $8 more, you can get a much higher quality EVGA Supernova B2 750 watt model which has more capacity, semi-modular cabling, and is made by Super Flower, one of the respected power supply manufacturers. It got a great review by Jonny Guru.
6. Dropped the DVD drive as it's not really needed nowadays. USB drives and digital distribution have removed all need for it, and Windows can be officially installed via USB drive (it's actually faster) with the help of a Microsoft tool.
7. The $30 Gigabyte wifi adaptor is better. It has more features and support like bluetooth and Wireless AC, as well as the fact that the antenna is on a wire you can place yourself for better reception, instead of having short antennas sticking out of the back of the case.
What sort of keyboard and mouse do you want to get? The cheap option would be a set like this Logitech MK120 ($15), although you could spend more..
Acer H236HLbid ($130) - IPS panel, 23.0"
Asus VS247H-P ($139) - TN panel, 23.6"
If you don't mind spending slightly more, Best Buy has a pretty good deal on a LG 25" 2560x1080p super wide monitor for $160, but I'm not sure what availability is like.
Avoid ASRock Z77 models if you can, they have issues correctly reading motherboard voltages. I don't know what the pricing is like over there, but I wouldn't want to spend too much on a motherboard platform that is already outdated (but not obsolete) unless you're going to be keeping the system for a long time.
What fan did you get and what case and CPU cooler do you have? Actually, just list your system specs, it'll give us a better idea of what you're working with. The CPU fan is making crazy noises? As in it's working loudly on overtime trying to cool down the CPU, or is there actually something wrong with the CPU fan (doesn't spin properly?)
Is the molex adaptor a separate cable or built into the fan wire? It shouldn't cause any damage by touching the graphics card.
MR ARCADE FOREVER
Member
Hey guys do you recommend this monitor for 1080p gaming and possibily 4k in medium settings? It is a refurbished unit on sale for $499..
http://www.dealzon.com/deals/acer-xb280hk-28-inch-ultra-hd-led-monitor
http://www.dealzon.com/deals/acer-xb280hk-28-inch-ultra-hd-led-monitor
Enosh
Member
fan is some 6€ made in china thing, xilence case fan 120mm black, both cables seem to originate from one source and then split off
it's a i5 4460 with stock cooler, gtx 960, GA H81MHD3, 8GB ram, coolermaster G450M (450W), case is a LC power pro 923b, it only came with a front intake fan
was posting about this before, was getting some whining noises when I was playing some graphic intensive games (BF4 with stuff on ultra, WoW with everything maxed, DA:I on ultra etc) and thought it's my PSU making coil whine at first but then I removed the side panel of my case one day to try and listen closer and noticed that the noise was going down considerably in tune with the sound of a fan spinning down, which lead me to believe it's probably the CPU fan making that noise, especially since I could kinda hear some very faint noise when idle (but not always) and with my GPU fans not spinning, the cpu fan seems to be spinning fine, but I'm no expert on that, it's just making a horrible whining noise on load and the air coming out of the case seemed quite hot, so my idea being that if the air inside is less hot the fan might not have to work as hard, since it seemed to work with the side panel being open
Have you tested to see if it was actually the CPU fan? stick a pen into the fan to stop it for a second, if the whining noise changes with the fan, then you've found the source.
If it is the CPU fan, I'd also consider getting a replacement CPU cooler. It doesn't have to cost a lot, but just so you know, your case will fit a heatsink like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo (159mm height, 120mm fans), although the cheaper and smaller Cooler Master TX3 (92mm fans) or something else similar will also do the job.
Enosh
Member
oh wow I could actually do that? I was thinking about it but chickened out because I thought it will kill the fan, so I had no real way of confirming it was the cpu fan
meh even if it isn't I guess some better airflow won't hurt anyway, will probably try and get that cooler if it turns out my idea didn't help shit and it is the cpu fan fault, just need to wait like a month to scrap some money together ^^
From Anandtech, which is my opinion as well:
1440p monitors at 120/144Hz are where it's at right now.
MR ARCADE FOREVER
Member
Thanks I am afraid I won't be purchasing this monitor!
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