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[mkenyon]

I guess I'd just make a note of that. The bubble could burst potentially at any moment and the prices would hopefully return to reality.

Of course we'll note that. But, prices wouldn't return to normal overnight. Would take a week or two, and an update that small would only take a few minutes.

For now, it makes zero sense to buy any AMD card, and that's from someone who generally prefers AMD cards.

 

[Sir Abacus]

Potential OP update. Let me know if you have any thoughts:

Not moving up to a G3220 or i3-4130 and some B85 boards?

 

[mkenyon]

Not moving up to a G3220 or i3-4130 and some B85 boards?

F me, when did that release?

Thanks.

 

[theSlacker]

Potential OP update. Let me know if you have any thoughts:

Evo and h60 still good enough all the way up though enthusiast and extreme builds? Not saying to add in my favorites, but there has got to be more obvious options for people who want more since they are basically the only heatsinks recommended though the entire guide.

 

[kennah]

F me, when did that release?

Thanks.

I was wondering the same thing. Haswell i3 has been out since Sept.

 

[Sir Abacus]

Also, I've been doing some budget builds with Enermax Ostrogs lately and they're a really nice case for the money. You get a few transverse drive bays which you don't get with the Asgard or Source 210 and you also get a window for $45. Especially since the Asgard Pros are out of stock at both Newegg and Amazon as far as I can see.

Also, Corsair has been putting refurb closed loop coolers through a few of their channels for half the regular price. Might be worth adding a $45 refurb H80 as a possibility.

 

[CRS]

Evo and h60 still good enough all the way up though enthusiast and extreme builds? Not saying to add in my favorites, but there has got to be more obvious options for people who want more since they are basically the only heatsinks recommended though the entire guide.

The next step would probably be a custom water loop but those are unique to every case.

 

[kharma45]

F me, when did that release?

Thanks.

That ban really took you out of the loop.

 

[fozzy]

Cancel asap.

For a single GPU ~550w is plenty, get a quality PSU rather than that like this

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/530w...e-87-eff-120mm-silentwings-fan-eps-12v-atx-v2

Thankyou! Cancelled. Got it for 55 on scan ebay.

 

[mkenyon]

Second try:

Evo and h60 still good enough all the way up though enthusiast and extreme builds? Not saying to add in my favorites, but there has got to be more obvious options for people who want more since they are basically the only heatsinks recommended though the entire guide.

Yes. The more expensive options don't really get you anything with Heatwell. Erm, Haswell. It's noted in the side column to go for other options if you want them.

I was wondering the same thing. Haswell i3 has been out since Sept.

That ban really took you out of the loop.

You have no idea.

Plus it's the busiest time of year at my business (mental healthcare administration), so I'm short on browsing time.

*edit*

On the SFF guide, I think I'm going to wait until Kaveri launches to update that, given that we are only a month away.

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

Question about PSUs.

I know a 80 gold plus is a better option obviously, but is it actually quieter and generate less heat as well compared to a bronze?

These are the two I'm looking at:

Corsair RM850 Gold 750-850w
Antec HCG Bronze 750-850w

I read somewhere that it won't make a difference unless I'm leaving a pc on for a long time without turning it off, but just wanted to ask here if paying a little more for the gold will help with noise level and heat reduction even for gaming at a few hours a day.

Thanks.

 

[mkenyon]

Since the regulars are here, everyone should note that the place to buy Windows is on r/softwareswap. You can get keys for like $20 there.

Question about PSUs.

I know a 80 gold plus is a better option obviously, but is it actually quieter and generate less heat as well compared to a bronze?

These are the two I'm looking at:

Corsair RM850 Gold 750-850w
Antec HCG Bronze 750-850w

I read somewhere that it won't make a difference, but just wanted to ask here if paying a little more for the gold will help with noise level and heat reduction.

Thanks.

It just means it's more efficient.

The Corsair RM series are supposed to be the absolute quietest PSUs out there sans the fanless Seasonic stuff. I'm a bit iffy on whether or not they're a better choice over the ones outlined in the OP.

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

It just means it's more efficient.

The Corsair RM series are supposed to be the absolute quietest PSUs out there sans the fanless Seasonic stuff. I'm a bit iffy on whether or not they're a better choice over the ones outlined in the OP.

Okay so if I can handle the noise, it shouldn't be much of a difference?

I'm more concerned about heat and temp. Does the gold actually help with that as well or does it all depend on the cooling instead?

 

[mkenyon]

Okay so if I can handle the noise, it shouldn't be much of a difference?

I'm more concerned about heat and temp. Does the gold actually help with that as well or does it all depend on the cooling instead?

It's all of the above. Are you looking for a PSU to support dual 780s/780Tis?

If so, get a CoolerMaster V700, XFX Pro 750, Seasonic X750/760, or Corsair AX760. They're all the same PSU, which is the Seasonic 750/760. Get the Corsair one if you want to get single braided cables.

 

[kennah]

It's all of the above. Are you looking for a PSU to support dual 780s/780Tis?

If so, get a CoolerMaster V700, XFX Pro 750, Seasonic X750/760, or Corsair AX760. They're all the same PSU, which is the Seasonic 750/760. Get the Corsair one if you want to get single braided cables.

He wants something that will fit in his Dell.

 

[mkenyon]

BP550 or EVGA 500W Bronze won't fit? They're both the smaller 140mm size.

 

[Sir Abacus]

Also, I've been doing some budget builds with Enermax Ostrogs lately and they're a really nice case for the money. You get a few transverse drive bays which you don't get with the Asgard or Source 210 and you also get a window for $45. Especially since the Asgard Pros are out of stock at both Newegg and Amazon as far as I can see.

mkenyon, any thoughts?

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

It's all of the above. Are you looking for a PSU to support dual 780s/780Tis?

If so, get a CoolerMaster V700, XFX Pro 750, Seasonic X750/760, or Corsair AX760. They're all the same PSU, which is the Seasonic 750/760. Get the Corsair one if you want to get single braided cables.

Thanks.

Probably not dual at this time but something that's Haswell ready.

 

[mkenyon]

mkenyon, any thoughts?

Holy shit, it comes in pink!

Koroviev was raving about hers awhile ago, and I did look closely at them, but they were in the $60-70 range back then. I see they're in the $45-50 range now.

I'm actually going to be subbing in a lot of stuff in the case section. Define/Arc Mini R2, Phenom M, Air 540, some other stuff.

Thanks.

Probably not dual at this time but something that's Haswell ready.

Everything is Haswell ready. It's a marketing gimmick for the most part. The only PSUs that aren't would be ones that would have been long dismissed from this thread, even prior to Haswell's release.

 

[Azzurri]

Its not worth worrying about. End of 2014 for enthusiast socket and 2015 for the mainstream.

Yea, can't wait a year. Thanks

 

[jfoul]

Since the regulars are here, everyone should note that the place to buy Windows is on r/softwareswap. You can get keys for like $20 there.

I recently got Windows 8.1 Pro for $15 from swap, easy and fast.

 

[Exile550]

http://m.ncix.com/products/sku/88986

What about this one. Will I get a huge bottleneck with a Q9550 @ stock speed?

 

[mkenyon]

http://m.ncix.com/products/sku/88986

What about this one. Will I get a huge bottleneck with a Q9550 @ stock speed?

Depends on the game in question. You'll still get stutters in MP games. Source engine, some Blizzard titles, and UE3 stuff will have much reduced performance compared to a modern CPU in the 4.0-4.5 range.

 

[indigo-cyclops]

I recently got Windows 8.1 Pro for $15 from swap, easy and fast.

Got my keys there too. No problem at all.

 

[CreepingFear]

The slow HDD population in explorer might be because WIndows is putting the drives to sleep, so until the drive spins up it wont load the contents. You can adjust that setting in power saving settings.

Rest of it might be WIn8.1 issues.

Some pics of my Node 304 build

I'm jealous. If I ever made a mini iTX build, I would consider something like a node 304 over the bitfenix prodigy, which I consider to be cheap feeling and too big.

 

[mkenyon]

I'm jealous. If I ever made a mini iTX build, I would consider something like a node 304 over the bitfenix prodigy, which I consider to be cheap feeling and too big.

What. You take that back!

I have my main system in a $500 aluminum case and I wouldn't call the Prodigy cheap. I love that little bugger. The Phenom is the same thing but with a different exterior as well. Removing the handles makes the case seem a lot smaller.

 

[infinityBCRT]

So I recently ran into the same problem Vinny from Giant Bomb ran into where my PC was throttling itself because it was getting too hot. I could barely watch an HD youtube video without my PC slowing down to a crawl.

It's a 5 year old core i5-750 in an Antec P180 case. I got a GTX 470 in 2010 and added more RAM and an SSD last year. But never really cleaned out the dust.

Last night I cleaned out the dust using compressed air and turned both fans in the case to full power, but one of the fans was barely working (had to manually push it to make it go) and both were noisy. And the stock intel CPU fan had dust caked into the coils so I figured it needed to be replaced. That being said I was able to play games at full speed (MK9 was running in slow motion, now runs at full speed).

This morning I went out and got 2 corsair AF120 case fans and a Arctic Cooling Apline 11 CPU fan (the cheap one that is just a traditional fan on top of the heatsink like the stock fan). I noticed the MX-2 paste on the bottom of the cpu fan looked kinda shitty (not completely even), and I forgot to buy some thermal paste so I just went with it. Also I couldn't orient the CPU fan the way they wanted me to do it because the RAM was getting in the way, so I had to turn it 90 degrees, but I figured it wouldn't be a big deal.

Again, PC seems to be running fantastic with the added benefit of being quiet again. That being said, seems like the CPU still throttles itself when it gets under heavy load. Not as much as it used to. But it goes from 2.67ghz down to about 2.4ghz when under heavy load as the temperatures hit the TJ Max.

I don't really mind it, but I am thinking that maybe the shitty thermal paste is whats causing the temps to go too high. I also have a GTX 470 in there which runs super hot and I imagine that doesn't help. I also do wonder if the i5 750 is just built in a way that its meant to get to TJ max and throttle itself when all cores are under load.

I'm guessing if I went with one of those big ass cpu fans they sell nowadays I probably wouldn't even be dealing with this issue in the first place.

Aside: It's been about 5 years since I looked at building a PC and holy shit have CPU fans changed in that time. Most used to be similar to what you get on the intel stock cooler, but now they are all these huge ass coolers that stick way out of your motherboard. There are really no in between cooling solutions anymore. Before you could get a lot of good intermediate cooling solutions which were slightly bigger than the stock cooler but not crazy.

 

[mkenyon]

You didn't install the CPU cooler properly. That can be the only explanation.

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

Holy shit, it comes in pink!

Koroviev was raving about hers awhile ago, and I did look closely at them, but they were in the $60-70 range back then. I see they're in the $45-50 range now.

I'm actually going to be subbing in a lot of stuff in the case section. Define/Arc Mini R2, Phenom M, Air 540, some other stuff.

Everything is Haswell ready. It's a marketing gimmick for the most part. The only PSUs that aren't would be ones that would have been long dismissed from this thread, even prior to Haswell's release.

Cool!

By the way is it easy to install a psu? What should I mainly look out for to make sure I do it correctly?

 

[mkenyon]

You can't really screw it up. Plugs only go in the right place, you can't confuse them. The worst thing that will happen is that you don't plug something in and it won't boot or work properly. It's easy as pie.

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

You can't really screw it up. Plugs only go in the right place, you can't confuse them. The worst thing that will happen is that you don't plug something in and it won't boot or work properly. It's easy as pie.

Alright. Sounds good!

 

[tarheel91]

Potential OP update. Let me know if you have any thoughts:

Don't you think some AMD options for video cards might be good? I think at certain price points they work really well (e.g. 280X at $300), and with the aftermarket cooling options coming out for the 290X and 290, it should be super competitive up top. Plus, if you want the card to also do compute stuff (e.g. OpenCL or something of that ilk) like I do, AMD blows away Nvidia.

 

[Addnan]

Don't you think some AMD options for video cards might be good? I think at certain price points they work really well (e.g. 280X at $300), and with the aftermarket cooling options coming out for the 290X and 290, it should be super competitive up top. Plus, if you want the card to also do compute stuff (e.g. OpenCL or something of that ilk) like I do, AMD blows away Nvidia.

AMD stuff is hard to find and higher priced right now because of weird coin farming people.

 

[chaosblade]

Don't you think some AMD options for video cards might be good? I think at certain price points they work really well (e.g. 280X at $300), and with the aftermarket cooling options coming out for the 290X and 290, it should be super competitive up top. Plus, if you want the card to also do compute stuff (e.g. OpenCL or something of that ilk) like I do, AMD blows away Nvidia.

Not until prices are reasonable again, there is literally no reason to buy an AMD card midrange or higher right now due to the Litecoin boom.

280X is closer to $400+ right now if you can find them in stock.

 

[mkenyon]

280X at $300? They're going for $400-450 if you can find them in stock.

Litecoin mining has totally fucked up the price points. I just sold a used Lightning R7970 for $450.

It'll be updated when prices come back down to normal.

 

[cuevas. PhD.]

@mkenyon

Prices for PC parts fluctuate so much why not make a price distribution guide? Like if you have between 800-900 spend 50 on ram, 150 on Cpu, etc. Most people I've seen posting builds deviate so much this might be more useful than one set build.

 

[mkenyon]

Because the parts we have listed are vetted. The prices can fluctuate, but the position that they are in shouldn't.

If there is something that is exceptionally good, like lets say some Seasonic rebrand PSU that is on sale for $80, then the people in this thread will notify them of this when they post their proposed build.

The members here help with that fluctuation. Taking it into account in an actual part guide would lead to confusion and possibly picking bad parts.

 

[infinityBCRT]

You didn't install the CPU cooler properly. That can be the only explanation.

It's in pretty snug-- all 4 corners are snapped in. It's pretty hard to screw that part up. I'm guessing it's the thermal paste not being great + being next to a GTX 470 that's the issue.

Plus I'm sure the optimal configuration of the CPU cooler is the way they wanted me to put it in (metal bars parallel to gpu, perpendicular to ram), but the ram was getting in the way so I had to install it with the metal bars in the heat sink parallel to the memory, perpendicular to the gpu.

 

[Ultrabum]

280X at $300? They're going for $400-450 if you can find them in stock.

Litecoin mining has totally fucked up the price points. I just sold a used Lightning R7970 for $450.

It'll be updated when prices come back down to normal.

WTF is a litecoin, and I just...

Is there like a good overview of these things, I don't understand bit coins.

 

[mkenyon]

It's in pretty snug-- all 4 corners are snapped in. It's pretty hard to screw that part up. I'm guessing it's the thermal paste not being great + being next to a GTX 470 that's the issue.

There's no way that being close to a 470 would make the CPU hit TJ Max. The thermal paste TYPE is fine, but maybe not the application.

Remove the heatsink, clean off all the TIM with 95%+ isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol), reapply, and remount the heatsink.

This is the only possible thing that is going on with your CPU temps. It has to be the mount (TIM application is a part of this).

 

[Ultrabum]

It's in pretty snug-- all 4 corners are snapped in. It's pretty hard to screw that part up. I'm guessing it's the thermal paste not being great + being next to a GTX 470 that's the issue.

Plus I'm sure the optimal configuration of the CPU cooler is the way they wanted me to put it in (metal bars parallel to gpu, perpendicular to ram), but the ram was getting in the way so I had to install it with the metal bars in the heat sink parallel to the memory, perpendicular to the gpu.

Is the CPU fan on?

 

[tarheel91]

Not until prices are reasonable again, there is literally no reason to buy an AMD card midrange or higher right now due to the Litecoin boom.

280X is closer to $400+ right now if you can find them in stock.

Woah, hadn't heard about that. That makes more sense then.

 

[infinityBCRT]

Is the CPU fan on?

Yeah. I checked before I closed the case, and it's running at 2200 rpm according to the monitor in my bios.

 

[mkenyon]

Open your case and take a peek anyway

Did you install the replacement fans properly? Maybe just take a pic and post it for us.

 

[NoRéN]

Yeah. I checked before I closed the case, and it's running at 2200 rpm according to the monitor in my bios.

Isn't that kinda high?

Just to be clear, you did clean the cpu of the old thermal paste and reapply, right?

 

[infinityBCRT]

Isn't that kinda high?

Just to be clear, you did clean the cpu of the old thermal paste and reapply, right?

Yeah. I used isopropyl alcohol to clean off the CPU. I'm pretty sure the thermal paste that was preapplied was super shitty due to being uneven.

Not at home or I would've posted a pic of my setup.

Honestly I would've went back to the store and got the thermal paste right then but we're in the middle of a snowstorm in the GTA.

For now I'm not too bothered with it throttling to 2.4ghz, doesn't seem to negatively impact my gaming. But if I get a chance I'll go to the store and grab the paste in the next few days

 

[CreepingFear]

What. You take that back!

I have my main system in a $500 aluminum case and I wouldn't call the Prodigy cheap. I love that little bugger. The Phenom is the same thing but with a different exterior as well. Removing the handles makes the case seem a lot smaller.

Hey bro, as long as you like it, I didn't mean to offend. I just know how it felt to me in person when I checked it out at my nearest Micro Center.

 

[Erebus]

http://m.ncix.com/products/sku/88986

What about this one. Will I get a huge bottleneck with a Q9550 @ stock speed?

I had the same CPU but overclocked at 4GHz before I upgraded to Ivy Bridge. In most games, the performance was excellent.

 

[Piercedveil]

So looking at the OP, is the ASUS VS239H-P still the way to go for under $200? Looking to get something for Christmas so I can finally use my 1600 x 900 monitor as a secondary.

Just reposting as I'm getting ready to order soon and need some guidance. Also I'm assuming downsampling is not an issue on this monitor? My current one won't allow me to do so, and I'd like my new one to be able to handle it.

 

[Irobot82]

What are Litecoins and why is nVidia cards better at mining them (i guess you mine them like bitcoins)?

Edit: Oh AMD cards rock at mining so the prices are inflated because people think these currencies are real? Blah.

I'm ready for the stupid bubbles to burst. It isn't a currency at these fluctuations their speculations.