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"I Need a New PC!" 2016 Plus Ultra! HBM2, VR, 144Hz, and 4K for all!

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ekgrey

Member
Arma is a particularly CPU-bound game, right? Would faster RAM have a great effect in such circumstances than games that are more GPU-intensive?
 

Renekton

Member
Arma is a particularly CPU-bound game, right? Would faster RAM have a great effect in such circumstances than games that are more GPU-intensive?
It won't have much effect then. You can check out the Witcher 3 chart in the final page of the Techspot article for GPU-bound scenario.

But if you are upgrading the GPU to Pascal in future, improving the memory alone is worth a consideration. Also SSD if you haven't.
 

ekgrey

Member
Gotcha. I have a pitifully small SSD that was intended to be a boot drive and ended up being my only drive because fitting the HDD cage in my case is super fucking difficult. It's an old MX100 that I intend to upgrade to a 500GB 850 EVO in the very near future and may also migrate back to a full ATX case so I can more comfortably fit a large HDD.

But okay, so if I were to upgrade to Pascal, would jumping from 1600MHz DDR3 to 2400MHz DDR3 be sufficient? Obviously, if I can keep my mobo and proc, that's preferable because that's money I can put towards a fancy monitor so if just getting faster DDR3 is okay, that's what I'll do. I don't know how games are faring these days with DDR3 vs. DDR4. Most benchmarks seem to focus on different speeds of the latter without comparing the two.
 

JEKKI

Member
question... if I wanna play all the new games like Deus Ex and I Am Setsuna, how do I upgrade my computer??

more specific question... do ppl usually upgrade their processors? Or at that point, it is best to just go for a brand new computer?

I built my PC back to play Starcraft 2 when it came out and my setup is like this:

7DRrwqC.png


if I just get a new graphics card and RAM, will I be good to go?

or is my processor old now that it could no longer play any of the new games?

I think the last next-gen games I played were like Dishonored, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, and Sleeping Dogs, which all run fine,

but I recently bought Dark Souls coz it was $5, havent downloaded it yet but wonder if it plays well,

I really wanted to play Evil Within however, but that game requires an i7 processor...
 

Dmax3901

Member
Recently attached an Arctic Xtreme IV to my R9 290 GPU. Had to leave the black heatsink off the top as it would'n't fit otherwise.

Things have been going well temp and performance wise, but I've noticed some of the blue thermal pads have dropped down off the GPU onto the heatsink of the cooler itself.

How bad is this?

For the new page.
 
question... if I wanna play all the new games like Deus Ex and I Am Setsuna, how do I upgrade my computer??

more specific question... do ppl usually upgrade their processors? Or at that point, it is best to just go for a brand new computer?

I built my PC back to play Starcraft 2 when it came out and my setup is like this:

7DRrwqC.png


if I just get a new graphics card and RAM, will I be good to go?

or is my processor old now that it could no longer play any of the new games?

I think the last next-gen games I played were like Dishonored, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, and Sleeping Dogs, which all run fine,

but I recently bought Dark Souls coz it was $5, havent downloaded it yet but wonder if it plays well,

I really wanted to play Evil Within however, but that game requires an i7 processor...

Stock i5 750 might bottleneck plenty of higher end cards right now, and 4GB RAM doesn't cut it. I think you are better off holding on and gettin a new rig instead. The new Deus Ex will be a very, very demanding game.

Recently attached an Arctic Xtreme IV to my R9 290 GPU. Had to leave the black heatsink off the top as it would'n't fit otherwise.

Things have been going well temp and performance wise, but I've noticed some of the blue thermal pads have dropped down off the GPU onto the heatsink of the cooler itself.

How bad is this?

Yep sounds pretty bad, you want your cooler to completely fit your card and cover every hot spot, not the other way around.
 

//ARCANUM

Member
Hey all! I'm new to the PC game (or at least since I was 18, I'm 31 now lol). I just installed a wifi card and it's pretty damn close to my GTX 680 and I want to make sure I'm not risking damaging either card. I put it there because it looked like that was the only slot it could fit in (there are slots beneath the graphics card but they all have much longer female sections, so i'm not sure if I can put the wifi card in there with the excess space being unnecessary or not), and also because I felt like putting it beneath the 680 would block it from the big fan beneath the 680....

so is it good where it is? or should i try and move it beneath? thanks!


edit - also, is there a good temp monitor I should be using for my GPU/CPU? And a reference point for what's an okay temp for both?
 

e90Mark

Member
Hey all! I'm new to the PC game (or at least since I was 18, I'm 31 now lol). I just installed a wifi card and it's pretty damn close to my GTX 680 and I want to make sure I'm not risking damaging either card. I put it there because it looked like that was the only slot it could fit in (there are slots beneath the graphics card but they all have much longer female sections, so i'm not sure if I can put the wifi card in there with the excess space being unnecessary or not), and also because I felt like putting it beneath the 680 would block it from the big fan beneath the 680....

so is it good where it is? or should i try and move it beneath? thanks!



edit - also, is there a good temp monitor I should be using for my GPU/CPU? And a reference point for what's an okay temp for both?

You can put it in the longer female sections. That slot just happens to be a dedicated 1x.

Should be fine where it's at though.

Use HWInfo to monitor temps. Reference points? I guess you could say around 80C for both.
 

AztecSoul

Member
So guys, I already have an Alienware X51 R2, with a GTX 645 and the 240 Watts PSU, I want to move my motherboard to a new case, and looking for a nice GPU that doesn't surpass 7,500 pesos mexicanos.
On my first look I found some stuff that maybe it could be useful for what I am looking:
EVGA 500B 500W 80PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V/EPS12V 500W Power Supply
https://www.amazon.com.mx/EVGA-80PL...B1-0500-KR+-+500W+80+Plus+Bronze+Power+Supply
EVGA GeForce GTX 970, Super Clocked ACX 2.0, 4GB, GDDR5
https://www.amazon.com.mx/EVGA-GeFo...4G-P4-2978-KR+GTX+970+FTW+ACX+4GB+GDDR5+PCIe3
Eagle Warrior Gaming red case:
http://www.dimercom.mx/index.php?route=product/product&path=101&product_id=6261
I don't know if with setting I'll be able to make renders, create stuff without any problem with UE4, play some heavy stuff (Like Doom) on High, or it's going to be a waste of time and money.
Current specs of my PC:
Intel Core i5 - 4440 @ 3.1 GHz
8 GB DDR3 SDRAM
1 TB Hard Drive
GTX 645 1 GB GDDR5
Dell PSU 240 Watts (I know, sucks)
Mini-ITX Motherboard (The one that the X51 R2 uses)
 
Are we expecting to see some new Gaming Monitors late this week/next week with Computex. A lot of these monitors only came out 6 months ago. I have heard people say there will be, but with no sources.
 

//ARCANUM

Member
You can put it in the longer female sections. That slot just happens to be a dedicated 1x.

Should be fine where it's at though.

Use HWInfo to monitor temps. Reference points? I guess you could say around 80C for both.

cool thank you! HWInfo is pretty thorough, having trouble locating where it shows GPU temp tho... is there another application that just focuses on temps? Or is overheating not something I need to worry about these days?
 
So guys, I already have an Alienware X51 R2, with a GTX 645 and the 240 Watts PSU, I want to move my motherboard to a new case, and looking for a nice GPU that doesn't surpass 7,500 pesos mexicanos.
On my first look I found some stuff that maybe it could be useful for what I am looking:
EVGA 500B 500W 80PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V/EPS12V 500W Power Supply
https://www.amazon.com.mx/EVGA-80PL...B1-0500-KR+-+500W+80+Plus+Bronze+Power+Supply
EVGA GeForce GTX 970, Super Clocked ACX 2.0, 4GB, GDDR5
https://www.amazon.com.mx/EVGA-GeFo...4G-P4-2978-KR+GTX+970+FTW+ACX+4GB+GDDR5+PCIe3
Eagle Warrior Gaming red case:
http://www.dimercom.mx/index.php?route=product/product&path=101&product_id=6261
I don't know if with setting I'll be able to make renders, create stuff without any problem with UE4, play some heavy stuff (Like Doom) on High, or it's going to be a waste of time and money.
Current specs of my PC:
Intel Core i5 - 4440 @ 3.1 GHz
8 GB DDR3 SDRAM
1 TB Hard Drive
GTX 645 1 GB GDDR5
Dell PSU 240 Watts (I know, sucks)
Mini-ITX Motherboard (The one that the X51 R2 uses)

It is in a very awkward situation right now. Want an upgrade? New graphics card are on the horizon, but your CPU might bottleneck the powerful ones coming out soon. If you decide to do it, wait for Polaris and GTX1060.
 
yeah i need some help, i have never built a PC before so i was looking for some help

i'm looking to spend about $2k (inducing new monitors, mouse and keyboard) and i need some help.

i'm guessing going off the PC build sheet a good start but i have never really done this before
 

Lucario

Member
... It's a bad thing if my closed-loop water cooler is making sputtering noises, right? It's a corsair H60, attached to a 6700k @ 4.7ghz, 1.4V.

My idle temps range from 19C to 30C, and it stays in the 40-65 range while gaming, but once I start stress testing everything goes to 100C and stays there.

If my idle/gaming temps were higher I'd assume I just seated it incorrectly, or the thermal paste was applied wrong, but this is confusing. What could be wrong with the cooler?
 
A local seller has a MSI 970 Armor card for $200. I think that's the lowest end 970 they make, so is it better to find a higher quality version? Is it just the cooler and branding that costs more?
 

JEKKI

Member
Stock i5 750 might bottleneck plenty of higher end cards right now, and 4GB RAM doesn't cut it. I think you are better off holding on and gettin a new rig instead. The new Deus Ex will be a very, very demanding game.
aww man...

those newer processors are hella expensive tho... like $350 for an i7??? on top of the price of everything else...

at that point, I may as well buy a PS4 instead :(

despite my heart deep down inside actually wanting a PC lol.
 

Vuze

Member
... It's a bad thing if my closed-loop water cooler is making sputtering noises, right? It's a corsair H60, attached to a 6700k @ 4.7ghz, 1.4V.

My idle temps range from 19C to 30C, and it stays in the 40-65 range while gaming, but once I start stress testing everything goes to 100C and stays there.

If my idle/gaming temps were higher I'd assume I just seated it incorrectly, or the thermal paste was applied wrong, but this is confusing. What could be wrong with the cooler?
Regardless of the noise, is 1.4v even considered safe for the chip? Last thing I heard 1.3v was the absolute recommended max for multi-hour daily usage.
 
aww man...

those newer processors are hella expensive tho... like $350 for an i7??? on top of the price of everything else...

at that point, I may as well buy a PS4 instead :(

despite my heart deep down inside actually wanting a PC lol.

You don't need an i7, get the i5 6600k for $240 and overclock it.

Hell I'd go as far as to say get the i5 6500 for $200. I used to game on an i5 4440 which wasn't overclockable and never had any problems.
 

xHiryu

Member
With all this new talk of the new Nvidia cards, the newest processors and even the availability of DDR4 and etc., it has me questioning my PC. I even had to replace my HDD and RAM since they crapped out on me awhile ago and started causing BSODs. While solid I made it in 2013 and 3 years is quite some time when it comes to technology. I was looking at getting this SSD and the 1080ti to upgrade my GPU since the 680 has served me well but sadly run it course.

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K (stock settings)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
GPU: MSI GTX680 Twin Frozr 4GB
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3
RAM: 16 DDR3 (no clue what brand)
PSU: XFX P1-750B-BEFX 750W

Do the tech experts on GAF think I should upgrade anything else, the last thing I'd want is a bottleneck holding back the new GPU. Also are the upcoming CPUs and even DDR4 worth it? Also is overclocking as hard as it initially seems for someone who never fucks with the BIOS?
 

derFeef

Member
Hey, I wonder if a CPU upgrade would be worth it for me, or if I should look into a more substantial update?

Current setup.

CPU: 2500k@4,1Ghz,
RAM: 16GB DDR3 2100
GPU: R9 390.

This is my board with the potential CPU upgardes: ASRock P67 Extreme6
 

Erekiddo

Member
Ugh. Does anyone have experience with the Noctua NH D-15 or just fans in general?

Installed it onto my computer this afternoon, and was getting CPU Fan cooling error messages from Bios. Lowered my warning threshold from 600 to 200 and noticed the Noctua fan is only spinning between 400-500 which seems absurdly low. Currently have each plugged directly into my Asus Z87-C in both CPU fan slots. I'm using the low noise adapter cords, but I've tried it without and got the same speeds.

I have 6 other Corsair fans in my case that all spin 1,200+ RPM. I've tried disconnecting these to see if the CPU fan speeds increase, and it doesn't.

600W power supply, which seems like more than enough.

Currently getting good temperatures on my i7 4790k, so I'm tempted to ignore this overall. 24 degrees idle and 50 using Prime 95 to max out CPU utilization, during which the CPU fans sped up, but didn't hit more than 800RPM.

All in all, 400-500 RPM seems low for a brand new Noctua fan. Am I overlooking something here?
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Gotcha. I have a pitifully small SSD that was intended to be a boot drive and ended up being my only drive because fitting the HDD cage in my case is super fucking difficult. It's an old MX100 that I intend to upgrade to a 500GB 850 EVO in the very near future and may also migrate back to a full ATX case so I can more comfortably fit a large HDD.

But okay, so if I were to upgrade to Pascal, would jumping from 1600MHz DDR3 to 2400MHz DDR3 be sufficient? Obviously, if I can keep my mobo and proc, that's preferable because that's money I can put towards a fancy monitor so if just getting faster DDR3 is okay, that's what I'll do. I don't know how games are faring these days with DDR3 vs. DDR4. Most benchmarks seem to focus on different speeds of the latter without comparing the two.

Why not just keep your current SSD as an OS drive and add another SSD for storage? Saves you reinstalling Windows or imaging/restoring your drive. You can just tape it to the inside of your case somewhere, don't need a bay,
 

//ARCANUM

Member
You can put it in the longer female sections. That slot just happens to be a dedicated 1x.

Should be fine where it's at though.

Use HWInfo to monitor temps. Reference points? I guess you could say around 80C for both.

just played overwatch, highest my 680 got was 83c. Do you think that's safe?
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
With all this new talk of the new Nvidia cards, the newest processors and even the availability of DDR4 and etc., it has me questioning my PC. I even had to replace my HDD and RAM since they crapped out on me awhile ago and started causing BSODs. While solid I made it in 2013 and 3 years is quite some time when it comes to technology. I was looking at getting this SSD and the 1080ti to upgrade my GPU since the 680 has served me well but sadly run it course.

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K (stock settings)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
GPU: MSI GTX680 Twin Frozr 4GB
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3
RAM: 16 DDR3 (no clue what brand)
PSU: XFX P1-750B-BEFX 750W

Do the tech experts on GAF think I should upgrade anything else, the last thing I'd want is a bottleneck holding back the new GPU. Also are the upcoming CPUs and even DDR4 worth it? Also is overclocking as hard as it initially seems for someone who never fucks with the BIOS?

What do you want to achieve? This thread makes everyone question their build but sometimes upgrades aren't necessary or aren't good value for your use case. Eg if you're gaming at 60fps then a 3570k should be still fine, and you can just upgrade the GPU for now. Consider overclocking though - you have a great cooler and should be able to easily get decent improvements. It isn't hard these days - I don't have a handy link but I'm sure someone will have a link to a good guide.
 

LilJoka

Member
Hey PCGaf. I could use some advice. I recently moved my PC to a new case (from a CM HAF X to a Fractal Refine R5) and I'm afraid I did a bad job and that now I'm melting my video card.

I had my PC built in the shop I bought it from & haven't build anything in nearly a decade, so it probably wasn't a good idea to do it myself. I did it anyway. I thought I did an okay job, but I had trouble with the modular power cables coming out of the PSU - they were thick and the other side of the case didn't leave much room left for bundling them up in the middle.

A few days ago, my GTX 970 just died - it got power and the fans were spinning when on, but no video signal was coming through. I tried different PCIe slots, CMOS reset, using different ports on the GPU, different HDMI/DVI cables, different monitors - nothing. I'm now using my old GTX 580. I booted up Overwatch and noticed my PC was unusually loud - the GPU fan was on full blast. Checked the temps - the GPU was running at 91C. -_-.

So now I'm afraid I may have killed my other card via heat death, and my current card might be next.

Could this be a result of shitty cabling? I took some pictures of it: http://imgur.com/a/t7Xhk

Here are my questions:

1) Did I most likely kill my GTX 970? I have an RMA ticket open to send it in for repair as it's still under warranty
2) 90C is way too high for Overwatch, right? What am I doing wrong? Is it my cabling? How do I properly manage those power cables?
3) I'm only making use of the two stock fans that came with the case. They are plugging into the case's fan controller (it has a switch on the front), not the motherboard. Is this bad?
4) Would buying more fans help?

I'm pretty much a newb when it comes to cooling and fans (and keeping GPUs alive), so any advice would be appreciated.

580 running hot due to age, it's thermal paste has probably dried up.

That cable mess isn't going to cause any significant case temp increase.

No point in more fans.

The 970 didn't die from over heating for sure.

Ugh. Does anyone have experience with the Noctua NH D-15 or just fans in general?

Installed it onto my computer this afternoon, and was getting CPU Fan cooling error messages from Bios. Lowered my warning threshold from 600 to 200 and noticed the Noctua fan is only spinning between 400-500 which seems absurdly low. Currently have each plugged directly into my Asus Z87-C in both CPU fan slots. I'm using the low noise adapter cords, but I've tried it without and got the same speeds.

I have 6 other Corsair fans in my case that all spin 1,200+ RPM. I've tried disconnecting these to see if the CPU fan speeds increase, and it doesn't.

600W power supply, which seems like more than enough.

Currently getting good temperatures on my i7 4790k, so I'm tempted to ignore this overall. 24 degrees idle and 50 using Prime 95 to max out CPU utilization, during which the CPU fans sped up, but didn't hit more than 800RPM.

All in all, 400-500 RPM seems low for a brand new Noctua fan. Am I overlooking something here?

1200rpm is absurdly high.
5-600 rpm is perfect, especially with high quality fans for silence whilst still creating decent airflow.

Why would you want fans at 1200 rpm at idle when everything is already cold?
 

Joco

Member
I need help guys. I had posted this in the last thread, thought the problem had gone away for a couple weeks, but now it's back again. I keep getting multiple blue screen of death errors, usually while trying to play a game, but occasionally even just browsing the web. I found a program that some people recommended called WhoCrashed that is supposed to analyze the crashes, but I'm not a PC expert so I was hoping someone could give me advice on this report. From the program:

On Wed 5/25/2016 7:11:58 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\052516-3484-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x0)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x41792, 0xFFFFF680206A78C8, 0x20000000000000, 0x0)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
Bug check description: This indicates that a severe memory management error occurred.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.



On Wed 5/25/2016 7:11:58 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\WINDOWS\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x0)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x41792, 0xFFFFF680206A78C8, 0x20000000000000, 0x0)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
Bug check description: This indicates that a severe memory management error occurred.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.



On Wed 5/25/2016 7:02:11 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\052516-3234-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x0)
Bugcheck code: 0xA (0xFFFFF68008274D30, 0x2, 0x0, 0xFFFFF80287A5BB72)
Error: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug check description: This indicates that Microsoft Windows or a kernel-mode driver accessed paged memory at DISPATCH_LEVEL or above.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.
 

LilJoka

Member
I need help guys. I had posted this in the last thread, thought the problem had gone away for a couple weeks, but now it's back again. I keep getting multiple blue screen of death errors, usually while trying to play a game, but occasionally even just browsing the web. I found a program that some people recommended called WhoCrashed that is supposed to analyze the crashes, but I'm not a PC expert so I was hoping someone could give me advice on this report. From the program:

On Wed 5/25/2016 7:11:58 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:WINDOWSMinidump�52516-3484-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x0)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x41792, 0xFFFFF680206A78C8, 0x20000000000000, 0x0)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
Bug check description: This indicates that a severe memory management error occurred.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.



On Wed 5/25/2016 7:11:58 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:WINDOWSmemory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x0)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x41792, 0xFFFFF680206A78C8, 0x20000000000000, 0x0)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
Bug check description: This indicates that a severe memory management error occurred.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.



On Wed 5/25/2016 7:02:11 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:WINDOWSMinidump�52516-3234-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x0)
Bugcheck code: 0xA (0xFFFFF68008274D30, 0x2, 0x0, 0xFFFFF80287A5BB72)
Error: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug check description: This indicates that Microsoft Windows or a kernel-mode driver accessed paged memory at DISPATCH_LEVEL or above.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.

As suggested, the problem is likely the RAM.
Run HCI memtest to test RAM. You need 1 instance per 2gb of ram. Test around 80% of your total ram.

Regardless of the noise, is 1.4v even considered safe for the chip? Last thing I heard 1.3v was the absolute recommended max for multi-hour daily usage.

1.45v is the max rated by Intel, if temps are good then degredation should be prolonged but nobody knows by how long.
 
Regardless of the noise, is 1.4v even considered safe for the chip? Last thing I heard 1.3v was the absolute recommended max for multi-hour daily usage.

No he's fine. 1.4v is normal to run through a 6700k OC. Rather curious but these volts would kill a Haswell though. Skylake requires and can take a lot more juice.
 

Joco

Member
As suggested, the problem is likely the RAM.
Run HCI memtest to test RAM. You need 1 instance per 2gb of ram. Test around 80% of your total ram.

I did run memtest once before but no errors came up. I will run it again some more though per your suggestion. Stupid question, so if I have 16 gbs of ram and it asks me how much to test (in megabytes), do I put 16000? Or less?
 

LilJoka

Member
I did run memtest once before but no errors came up. I will run it again some more though per your suggestion. Stupid question, so if I have 16 gbs of ram and it asks me how much to test (in megabytes), do I put 16000? Or less?

2000mb per instance and run 6 instances for a total of 12gb.
 
Thanks for the fantastic breakdown OP, I tried building a PC with most of the same parts as the "Excellent" build on a PC parts retailer's website, just for reference/as a quick 10-minute exercise, since I'm looking into building a new PC next year.

Couple questions for all you experts: how's the Fractal Define R4 vs the Define S? The store I looked at seems to only stock the latter.

Also, would it make sense with this kind of build to swap the CM Hyper 212 EVO for a Corsair H55 Hydro, just for the sake of OC performance vs noise?

E: I'm also looking into changing monitors, and would love to experience >1080p resolution, >24-inch screen AND >60Hz refresh rate, but don't have the cash for a screen that does both well. I've been looking into the AOC Q3277PQU (32-inch WQHD, 60Hz) and it seems like a really good monitor with excellent value that would at least give me two out of the three things I want. Since I'm planning on a GTX 1070 in my next build I figure it would be good for 2K60fps for a while. Anyone have experience with that monitor? What would your suggestions be?

Also I live in continental Europe, which means I don't necessarily have access to some of the brands you US/UK/Oz GAFers do.

It's been two pages, figure I can bump this.
 

KingBroly

Banned
I went with the CPU Heatsink/Fan people told me about in the last thread. Should be here tomorrow. Should install it on Saturday.

My GPU was getting up to 71 celsius during Overwatch, so I think that's a tiny bit high, but I could be wrong. Any suggestions?
 
I went with the CPU Heatsink/Fan people told me about in the last thread. Should be here tomorrow. Should install it on Saturday.

My GPU was getting up to 71 celsius during Overwatch, so I think that's a tiny bit high, but I could be wrong. Any suggestions?

My 980 regularly runs at 75°C, that's well within the safe operating limits (it's got a reference cooler though). Most cards can run a little above 80°C without too much trouble, and they'll shut themselves off around 90.
 

scoobs

Member
I went with the CPU Heatsink/Fan people told me about in the last thread. Should be here tomorrow. Should install it on Saturday.

My GPU was getting up to 71 celsius during Overwatch, so I think that's a tiny bit high, but I could be wrong. Any suggestions?

My 980ti runs at 71 celsius in Overwatch too, its fine.
 

Vuze

Member
1.45v is the max rated by Intel, if temps are good then degredation should be prolonged but nobody knows by how long.

No he's fine. 1.4v is normal to run through a 6700k OC. Rather curious but these volts would kill a Haswell though. Skylake requires and can take a lot more juice.
Oh I see, nice to know.

---

Finally got around to sleeve the stuff I wanted. Was a pretty straightforward process and I didn't burn my fingers lol.

Unfortunately I didn't remember that I had to bend the SATA data cables on the back like a madman to properly reach the connectors in the case SSD sled and be able to close the back somewhat comfortably. As such, one of the sleeves kinda broke :(

I hate this case, either Midi is not enough for my needs or the whole setup of this thing is just borked. It's sorta handy to carry around but blergh. Will probably just go Full tower again for my next one.

Anyway, the cables are still looking fine on the visible side, so whatever. Can't wait to get some Noctua PWM case fans (after the 1070/1080) to get rid of the 3pin fan controller I'm using right now and have a cleaner looking bottom again (fan extension cable on the left, can't route it any other way due to space constraints :v)

 

Ceebs

Member
Welp, seeing all the talk of the new GPUs gave me the upgrade bug, and since there is no 1080ti yet....

Just bought:

i7 6700k
ASUS Z170-Pro
4X8GB Corsair Vengance DDR4

Replacing my old 3570K build, re-purposing everything else for now.
 

Auctopus

Member
Hey guys, I'm going to be building my first Gaming PC this Summer and was planning to spend ~£900 as I wanted to run some quite high-end games.

HOWEVER

I work for a University in the Computer Science department and they will be replacing a 1/3 of their computers this Summer which means the old ones will apparently be "up for grabs" whether that means free or cheap, I don't know (most likely cheap).

The main stats are...

Intel Core i7-3770 @ 3.40Ghz
16gb RAM
GTX 650Ti

I'm well aware that the graphics card is mid-tier (its at least not at the top) so I will probably replace that myself. Additionally, apart from Witcher 3, the games I want to play are mainly for the sake of preservation. I.e. Ghost Recon games from last gen and less intensive strategy games. I'm rambling, what I'm saying is the only high-end game I'm interested in is Witcher 3 and I have it on PS4 so I can wait to upgrade for that.

I guess what I'm saying is, should I take advantage of picking up this build as a base to build from?
 

LordAlu

Member
Hey guys, I'm going to be building my first Gaming PC this Summer and was planning to spend ~£900 as I wanted to run some quite high-end games.

HOWEVER

I work for a University in the Computer Science department and they will be replacing a 1/3 of their computers this Summer which means the old ones will apparently be "up for grabs" whether that means free or cheap, I don't know (most likely cheap).

The main stats are...

Intel Core i7-3770 @ 3.40Ghz
16gb RAM
GTX 650Ti

I'm well aware that the graphics card is mid-tier (its at least not at the top) so I will probably replace that myself. Additionally, apart from Witcher 3, the games I want to play are mainly for the sake of preservation. I.e. Ghost Recon games from last gen and less intensive strategy games. I'm rambling, what I'm saying is the only high-end game I'm interested in is Witcher 3 and I have it on PS4 so I can wait to upgrade for that.

I guess what I'm saying is, should I take advantage of picking up this build as a base to build from?
Depends entirely on how much they want for it, and what the rest of the specs are. The i7-3770 is still a good chip and the RAM is fine, so if the cost is right then it would be a good pickup.
 

Auctopus

Member
Depends entirely on how much they want for it, and what the rest of the specs are. The i7-3770 is still a good chip and the RAM is fine, so if the cost is right then it would be a good pickup.

Ballpark figure for what I should pay for a build like that? Forgot to mention it has a 500gb SSD too. (Which is obviously not really enough for games).
 

Kito

Member
This is more of 'editing pc' related but anyway.

I've added a 4GB stick of RAM so that I am now currently at 2GB/2GB/4GB. Is the 4GB being useful at all? (Do I truly have 8GB RAM?) I don't understand dual channels and symmetries enough to know myself.
 

e90Mark

Member
cool thank you! HWInfo is pretty thorough, having trouble locating where it shows GPU temp tho... is there another application that just focuses on temps? Or is overheating not something I need to worry about these days?
You could use CPU-Z and GPU-Z, which would specifically just focus on your cpu/gpu.
just played overwatch, highest my 680 got was 83c. Do you think that's safe?
Is your 680 on a reference design cooler? It's hot, but not dangerously so.

... It's a bad thing if my closed-loop water cooler is making sputtering noises, right? It's a corsair H60, attached to a 6700k @ 4.7ghz, 1.4V.

My idle temps range from 19C to 30C, and it stays in the 40-65 range while gaming, but once I start stress testing everything goes to 100C and stays there.

If my idle/gaming temps were higher I'd assume I just seated it incorrectly, or the thermal paste was applied wrong, but this is confusing. What could be wrong with the cooler?

Are you able to change the speed on the pump? Might be some air bubbles trapped.

What "stress testing" are you doing? P95 pretty much cooks everything, so I'm not exactly surprised you'd be seeing something like 100c at 1.4.
 

Bydobob

Member
Welp, seeing all the talk of the new GPUs gave me the upgrade bug, and since there is no 1080ti yet....

Just bought:

i7 6700k
ASUS Z170-Pro
4X8GB Corsair Vengance DDR4

Replacing my old 3570K build, re-purposing everything else for now.

Ain't that amusing, I literally just did the same, except for the RAM with 2x8Gb (3000/CL15). Moving from a 4670k.

Skylake seems a tangible upgrade from past Intel chips, and if you're gaming at 1080p and favour high FPS (or looking at VR) it's money well spent to upgrade your CPU prior to Pascal. The clincher was DF's analysis of the 6700k comparing minimum framerates compared with past generations.
 

boneso

Member
With all this new talk of the new Nvidia cards, the newest processors and even the availability of DDR4 and etc., it has me questioning my PC. I even had to replace my HDD and RAM since they crapped out on me awhile ago and started causing BSODs. While solid I made it in 2013 and 3 years is quite some time when it comes to technology. I was looking at getting this SSD and the 1080ti to upgrade my GPU since the 680 has served me well but sadly run it course.

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K (stock settings)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
GPU: MSI GTX680 Twin Frozr 4GB
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3
RAM: 16 DDR3 (no clue what brand)
PSU: XFX P1-750B-BEFX 750W

Do the tech experts on GAF think I should upgrade anything else, the last thing I'd want is a bottleneck holding back the new GPU. Also are the upcoming CPUs and even DDR4 worth it? Also is overclocking as hard as it initially seems for someone who never fucks with the BIOS?

It's a pretty solid rig. Unless it's not doing something you want it to do then don't change a thing. If you do upgrade then maybe just go for an i7 3770k and a 1080. Everything else is worth holding on to for a while yet.

Of course if you have the cash I would always say go for the newest and best parts. For you it would mean new MOBO, CPU, GPU, + RAM. Could get very pricey very quickly. If you go for 6700k, decent z170 mobo, 16gb ddr4 and a 1080 you are knocking on $1000.
 

taoofjord

Member
So will I be fine with my i5-4690K for another couple years? I'll be buying a GTX 1080 ASAP as I play a lot of VR games and that should give me a nice performance boost. So far I can typically max things out and hit 30-45 fps @ 1080p in the most graphic intensive games. Won't be making the jump to 4K for at least another year or two.

Specs:
Gigabyte Z97X-SLI
i5-4690K
GTX 970
16 GB RAM
Windows 10
 

boneso

Member
Here is my current rig, recently upgraded from 4670k on z87 and 8gb ddr3.

CPU: i7 6700k
CPU Cooler: Corsair h110i
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VIII Hero
RAM: 16gb HyperX Fury DDR4 2400
GPU: Msi GTX 980 Twin Frozr
Storage: Crucial MX200 250GB SSD
Storage: Toshiba 1TB HDD
PSU: EVGA Supernova 850G2
Case: Corsair Air 540
Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2014 Stealth
Mouse: Razer Deathadder Chroma
Monitor: Acer Predator XB271hu

I am properly excited about pascal. I am finding it very hard not to jump in on a 1080 like I did 2 years ago for my 980. I can't think if a reason not to right now apart from the lingering thought of the Ti being released a few months later.

Should I dive in on a 1080, wait for the Ti, or possibly just get another 980?
 

Erekiddo

Member
1200rpm is absurdly high.
5-600 rpm is perfect, especially with high quality fans for silence whilst still creating decent airflow.

Why would you want fans at 1200 rpm at idle when everything is already cold?

Thanks! This is my first time dabbling in CPU upgrades and with fans that weren't stock. Didn't know what normal RPM was for cooling. Seeing it in red in my bios is what alerted my most, but I get that was due to my low RPM warning settings.

Pleasantly surprised with the temperatures so far. i7 was running pretty warm before.
 

Majine

Banned
I'm replacing the motherboard in my PC. Is there anything I need to do with Windows before I start tearing things out? I heard the Windows 10 license is tied to the hardware, but I should be able to transfer the license to the "new computer". Am I wrong?
 
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