Usually it's just the SSD and nothing else. Your motherboard should have come with SATA cables, and your power supply should have SATA power connectors.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
"I Need a New PC!" 2015 Part 1. Read the OP and RISE ABOVE FORGED PRECISION SCIENCE
- Thread starter Hazaro
- Start date
- Status
Usually it's just the SSD and nothing else. Your motherboard should have come with SATA cables, and your power supply should have SATA power connectors.
Yeah, duh, I completely forgot the PSU comes with all the cables ahah.
I just need a SATA one then, cause I already used the one that came with my mobo for the HDD.
Edit: Nope, I still have two SATA cables from my old mobo, still wrapped. Now, just to be sure, the cable doesn't matter rigth? Can I use the same with SATA2 and SATA3?
Nah, the cables don't matter, at least as far as I'm aware.
Edit: Yeah, the cables are the same, SATA2 cables are capable of SATA3 speeds.
last time i checked, the cables are physically the same.
Thank you! Now I know what I'm going to gift to myself for my birthday. ahah
Crucial MX100 256GB for the curious.
Auto-Reply
Member
I may be in need of a new graphics card sooner than I thought but first I want to ask you people something:
My 780 started acting up today, all of a sudden the screen froze, couldn't even move the cursor around and I had to shut the pc down by holding the powerbutton.
After a restart the screen froze again after 30 seconds to a minute in. This time the screen went black but came back up and in the system tray there was a message saying "Nvidia kernel driver stopped working, driver was restored/repaired".
But it froze again, I deinstalled the driver and reinstalled from the disc that came with the gpu. I don't have to shut the pc down now anymore but the diver keeps crashing and getting restore periodically every 30 seconds or so.
Does that sound familiar to anyone? When I start the pc in safe mode nothing happens, so I suspect it's the hardware but I don't know how to be sure?
Is it possible I didn't fully deinstalled the suposedly buggy driver and it is now affecting the driver I have installed?
How to make sure it's not the software?
BTW the pc worked for nearly 2 years without problems, this happened without having changed anything hardware or software wise!
My 780 started acting up today, all of a sudden the screen froze, couldn't even move the cursor around and I had to shut the pc down by holding the powerbutton.
After a restart the screen froze again after 30 seconds to a minute in. This time the screen went black but came back up and in the system tray there was a message saying "Nvidia kernel driver stopped working, driver was restored/repaired".
But it froze again, I deinstalled the driver and reinstalled from the disc that came with the gpu. I don't have to shut the pc down now anymore but the diver keeps crashing and getting restore periodically every 30 seconds or so.
Does that sound familiar to anyone? When I start the pc in safe mode nothing happens, so I suspect it's the hardware but I don't know how to be sure?
Is it possible I didn't fully deinstalled the suposedly buggy driver and it is now affecting the driver I have installed?
How to make sure it's not the software?
BTW the pc worked for nearly 2 years without problems, this happened without having changed anything hardware or software wise!
freshVeggie
Member
Hey good people. I have a few questions which may be a bit noobish but this is my first desktop PC, so please bare with me.
I am not doing any professional work only gaming and browsing with the occasional game/family video editing. I am opting for an i5 + MSI 970 Gaming + 8GB RAM.
This is the build I have in mind. Nothing it set in stone. Feel free to suggest. Budget is about 1100€ but I'm trying to shave off stuff which is not needed or is overkill. Prices are Germany.
I am doing a customizable pre-built PC and gonna buy GPU, HDD, SSD separate.
CPU: i5 4690 3,5GHZ or i5 4460 3,2GHz
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Rev. 2 Super Silent CPU cooler (INTEL CPU Cooler)
Motherboard: ASUS H97M-E
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport DIMM Kit 8GB, DDR3-1600, CL9-9-9-24 (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00)
Drive: Panasonic Bluray-DVD-RW SW-4583 (free, yay)
Storage: 1000GB WD Blue WD10EZEX 64MB 3.5" (8.9cm) SATA 6Gb/s (53,05€
Video Card: 4096MB MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G Aktiv PCIe 3.0 x16 (368,40€
Storage: 256GB Crucial MX100 2.5" (6.4cm) SATA 6Gb/s MLC (CT256MX100SSD1) (92,76€
Case: Sharkoon MA-A1000
Power : Cooler Master GX-Lite Series 600W ATX 2.3 <-- No clue if this is good, bad or has enough connectors
Total: 1091,21€ for i5 4690 or 1026,21€ for i5 4460
CPU: I don't know if a i5 4690 (3,5 GHz) is worth the extra 65€ over the i5 4460 (3,2 GHz) ? Do the extra 300 MHz give performance worth the 65€?
CASE: No clue what to look for? Don't like "gamer"-looking things. Simple with no/few LEDs is enough.
PSU: I have zero clue what to look for honestly. How much Watt is needed for this setup for example, how much overkill, which vendor good, which to avoid, will I have enough power connectors for all my hardware? I need a lot of help here.
I am not doing any professional work only gaming and browsing with the occasional game/family video editing. I am opting for an i5 + MSI 970 Gaming + 8GB RAM.
This is the build I have in mind. Nothing it set in stone. Feel free to suggest. Budget is about 1100€ but I'm trying to shave off stuff which is not needed or is overkill. Prices are Germany.
I am doing a customizable pre-built PC and gonna buy GPU, HDD, SSD separate.
CPU: i5 4690 3,5GHZ or i5 4460 3,2GHz
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Rev. 2 Super Silent CPU cooler (INTEL CPU Cooler)
Motherboard: ASUS H97M-E
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport DIMM Kit 8GB, DDR3-1600, CL9-9-9-24 (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00)
Drive: Panasonic Bluray-DVD-RW SW-4583 (free, yay)
Storage: 1000GB WD Blue WD10EZEX 64MB 3.5" (8.9cm) SATA 6Gb/s (53,05€
Video Card: 4096MB MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G Aktiv PCIe 3.0 x16 (368,40€
Storage: 256GB Crucial MX100 2.5" (6.4cm) SATA 6Gb/s MLC (CT256MX100SSD1) (92,76€
Case: Sharkoon MA-A1000
Power : Cooler Master GX-Lite Series 600W ATX 2.3 <-- No clue if this is good, bad or has enough connectors
Total: 1091,21€ for i5 4690 or 1026,21€ for i5 4460
CPU: I don't know if a i5 4690 (3,5 GHz) is worth the extra 65€ over the i5 4460 (3,2 GHz) ? Do the extra 300 MHz give performance worth the 65€?
CASE: No clue what to look for? Don't like "gamer"-looking things. Simple with no/few LEDs is enough.
PSU: I have zero clue what to look for honestly. How much Watt is needed for this setup for example, how much overkill, which vendor good, which to avoid, will I have enough power connectors for all my hardware? I need a lot of help here.
I would try using this to remove the drivers in Safe Mode, reboot, and try installing the drivers again.
The 4690K is pretty much the best you can get for gaming for the price, and it's still very good at stock clock (ie, the locked 4690). So yes, I think it's worth the extra money.
As for the case, whatever fits all of your components is fine, as long as you're happy with how it looks is really all that matters in the end.
I can't really comment on power supplies, sorry.
lordfuzzybutt
Member
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (254.19 @ Amazon Deutschland)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (33.20 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (87.02 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Kingston Fury Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (71.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (96.74 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (58.48 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card (366.74 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (41.94 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (66.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: 1077.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-19 23:37 CEST+0200
- I picked the 4690K so that you can overclock it, which is easy and really worth it. The 212 cooler will do a decent job and get you to 4.5 Ghz no problem.
- The mobo had to be changed so that it can accommodate overlocking. This is the cheapest one I can see but it is good enough.
- The rams are faster, and 2 sticks will allow dual channel.
- This build is not SLI possible, as such the PSU I picked is more than sufficient to run this rig, even with OC.
- Case I just picked something that I think looks ok with cheap price.
- This should serve you well with 1080 gaming and pretty much anything else.
freshVeggie
Member
Is overclocking the CPU really worth all the extra cost (CPU, MOBO, Fan)?
I mean I looked at many benchmarks and there seem to be almost no difference and even underclocked CPUs still perform nearly identical.
It's not that it's too complicated for me, I just want to shave money where there are no gains.
I mean I looked at many benchmarks and there seem to be almost no difference and even underclocked CPUs still perform nearly identical.
It's not that it's too complicated for me, I just want to shave money where there are no gains.
Maybe.
Notes...
Stock Intel fans are pretty terrible so I always get a better cooler, even if its cheap.
You might still need the motherboard for other features(Z vs H series chipsets)
How effective overclocking is depends on the application.
hey guys, looking for a video card recommendation
i recently upgraded from a phenom ii + 6850 to a i5-4680k and it feels wrong keeping the same GPU.
here are my thoughts
-$200 idea budget.. 220 i can let it slide i suppose (i used to buy $400 GPUs but imo tech moves to fast to justify it for me)
-driving a 1440p monitor (dont think this matters /w my budget)
-i prefer ASUS but am willing to switch to nvidia if its justified
-quiet on idle, my 6850 is the loudest part of my current setup. noise during load is ok.
-low priority but 6pin connector is best, for i dont have redo my cables lol.
thanks so much for the suggestions.
prepare for my overclocking questions later this week after i get my cooler, heh. never overclocked before.
i recently upgraded from a phenom ii + 6850 to a i5-4680k and it feels wrong keeping the same GPU.
here are my thoughts
-$200 idea budget.. 220 i can let it slide i suppose (i used to buy $400 GPUs but imo tech moves to fast to justify it for me)
-driving a 1440p monitor (dont think this matters /w my budget)
-i prefer ASUS but am willing to switch to nvidia if its justified
-quiet on idle, my 6850 is the loudest part of my current setup. noise during load is ok.
-low priority but 6pin connector is best, for i dont have redo my cables lol.
thanks so much for the suggestions.
prepare for my overclocking questions later this week after i get my cooler, heh. never overclocked before.
my PC just shut off during MKX, and now it won't turn on again.
I'm thinking mobo or PSU? I've been monitoring the CPU temp and it hasn't passed 50C since I got my new heatsink.
lights on the GPU are on when it's plugged in. does this indicate that the problem is not the PSU? what should I do first?
I'm thinking mobo or PSU? I've been monitoring the CPU temp and it hasn't passed 50C since I got my new heatsink.
lights on the GPU are on when it's plugged in. does this indicate that the problem is not the PSU? what should I do first?
For $220 or less, the R9 280X is your best bet. It will be a good upgrade from your 6850. How quiet the card will be will depend on the GPU cooler design. The cheapest R9 280X is the XFX model for $190 after $20 rebate. As for noise levels, HardOCP's review doesn't mention any specific noise levels but they were pleased with the twin fan cooler not being very loud, while Tweaktown's review of the overclocked black edition's noise levels (it has an identical cooler) was fairly good.
If you're willing to wait, you have some other options. The Sapphire R9 280X Vapor-X (currently $215 after $30 of discounts) is a somewhat better card, the price tracker info says it's recently dropped to $190 every 1~2 weeks and I'm willing to bet it'll go on sale sometime soon again. Sapphire is generally regarded as one of the better AMD partners for graphics cards, the Vapor-X triple fan cooler is large but very effective at keeping temperatures down. The Tweaktown review's noise testing does say it's slightly louder than the XFX model, though.
Current rumors say AMD will release their R9 3XX line in June. Might be worth waiting for.
If you could stretch your budget again, you have the option of picking up an R9 290 (as low as $243) which is another step up in performance compared to the R9 280X.
As for the power cables.. I don't think any R9 280X runs on a single 6 pin power cable. You'll have to pull around another 8 pin power cable to accommodate a better graphics card unless you go for Nvidia's more efficient GTX 960 which is roughly on par with and sometimes better than the R9 280. Some models of the GTX 960 do offer a silent fan mode when idle and at low temperatures, that may interest you.
post some specs.
Were you monitoring the temps while playing?
Trying unplugging the psu for a few minutes.
PCGaffers,
I need some airflow advice to help me with my fan configuration to help keep my rig as cool as possible. I have a Zalman Z9 U3 case with a corsair H60 installed. I have two fans on push sandwiching the radiator. I have two fans pulled from the top and one pulling from the front. Is this ideal or should I set up my airflow a different way. My fans are these for reference http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00F6S0XJO/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1429486042&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX200_QL40&keywords=case+fans+120mm&dpPl=1&dpID=51VHmYAnSkL&ref=plSrch and here is my build https://pcpartpicker.com/user/WarpathDC/saved/TLZv6h
Thank you!
I need some airflow advice to help me with my fan configuration to help keep my rig as cool as possible. I have a Zalman Z9 U3 case with a corsair H60 installed. I have two fans on push sandwiching the radiator. I have two fans pulled from the top and one pulling from the front. Is this ideal or should I set up my airflow a different way. My fans are these for reference http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00F6S0XJO/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1429486042&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX200_QL40&keywords=case+fans+120mm&dpPl=1&dpID=51VHmYAnSkL&ref=plSrch and here is my build https://pcpartpicker.com/user/WarpathDC/saved/TLZv6h
Thank you!
Bigger number = better performance. In games, though, it's not all that noticeable. So it's pretty much based on whatever you and your board can handle.
Intel - whatever is cheapest
Amd apu - whatever is fastest
CreepingFear
Member
With Skylake and the next generation Nvidia cards probably being months away, I'm thinking about possibly getting the Acer 144hz Gsync 1080p monitor. I'm still very fine with 1080p until 4k becomes doable on Ultra Settings/60fps+ on a single gpu card. Anyone in here have experience with the Acer XB270H?
How much do you have to spend? Are you in the US?
Generally speaking, fan mounts at the front and bottom of the case should be used for intake, while fan mounts are the rear and top should be for exhaust. Warm air rises, so don't fight against that, direct the airflow to assist it.
Looking at your case's specs, I'd mount the radiator at the rear, have a single fan exhausting air at the top, and have the last fan taking in air at the front.
Unplugging the power supply lets things settle and cool down. Hard to say without being able to troubleshoot it, but I'd guess it could be the power supply not being good enough. What model do you have exactly? Some Xtreme Gear model? I couldn't really find your power supply specs online.
It's not practical to not use thermal paste at all. Where are you reading that people are not using thermal paste? Are you sure that their coolers didn't already come with thermal paste pre-applied?
CreepingFear
Member
Oh god yes, unless you are using a stock heatsink that has thermal paste pre-applied. Even then, you want to buy some for when you clean or takeoff the heat sink.
Everyone uses it unless they want incredibly hot temperatures on their CPU. Most CPU heatsinks already come with thermal paste either pre-installed onto the heatsink or with a small tube so that you can do it yourself.
You may be seeing those comments about fancy after market thermal paste, though.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
Why does AMD need faster?
The design of the APU means it relies on higher speed memory for higher throughput and performance when it comes to running games with the APU's integrated graphics.
http://www.eteknix.com/memory-scaling-amd-kaveri-a10-7850k-apu/
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-bandwidth-scaling-trinity,3419-8.html
Acrylic7
Member
This is why I gaf.
Thanks guys, I think I have everything figured out now finally.
yeah something like that. some cheap bs. glad the mobo lives but suffice to say I'll be petrified of playing games for more than an hour now o__o
man thank you so much. MVP of this thread.
that 960 fanless mode is really attractive to me, i think i will be switching to nvidia. especially because i found a really good priced one. $190 + $30~ witcher 3.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127844
do all 960s have a fanless mode? i don't see it advertising the fanless mode anywhere. i know it 's 6pin from the Q&A on there. i want to make sure it has it because i would pay a bit more for it.
if it doesn't have fanless mode i'll prolly get the strix version instead.
edit: looks like the MSI one doesn't have it. oh well. thanks for all the help RGM79.
I'm looking at either a 970 or 290x or upgrading to i7 4690k with mobo. I game at 1080p. I don't know if my current setup will run witcher 3 at settings better than ps4. If it does I may hold off and wait for 390x. Right now I don't want to go over $400. I'm in the US.
Not all GTX 960s do. That black and white MSI Armor 2X model you listed doesn't. MSI's other model, the red and black Twin Frozr has a zero fan speed mode and it is currently $190 at Newegg, although it doesn't come with the Witcher 3 game code. Certain Gigabyte models, the Asus Strix, and some other lesser known brands have passive fan modes as listed here. I also believe certain EVGA models (the ones with the "db inverter" feature) also have silent modes.
The Asus Strix model is pretty decent, it has a very high factory overclock (up to ~1.31GHz). If you want a slightly cheaper alternative, there's the EVGA ACX2.0+ model for $195 after $10 rebate which isn't clocked as high (just 1.12~1.17GHz) but it does come with the Witcher 3 as well. You could overclock the graphics card yourself if you like, although manual overclocking results can vary.
Do you live near a Microcenter? They offer the 4690K and a motherboard for just $250, the catch is that it's only available in-store.
The best answer to your situation might be to wait it out. It's hard to recommend either upgrade without knowing how well the Witcher 3 runs. Something to consider in the meantime would be overclocking your processor if you haven't already done that. The cost of a decent CPU cooler isn't too much and could help alleviate potential CPU bottlenecking, depending on the games you play. If you ever decide to upgrade to a better processor, you can always carry over the new heatsink as most kits come with mounting parts for both AMD and Intel systems.
turns out the rebate, 5% off promo code, and witcher 3 (you can see it on newegg's product page) all stack. i lucked out, same price as the older white one \o/
EmptySpace
Banned
i haven\t built my first pc, waiting for amd's new gpu.
question though, what should i do should i choose to upgrade a gpu, cpu, etc.?
do i just sell it online? are there any retail places which you can sell it to and get credits to go towards a new purchase? what about trading it through the aftermarket gpu producers like msi, evga, etc.?
question though, what should i do should i choose to upgrade a gpu, cpu, etc.?
do i just sell it online? are there any retail places which you can sell it to and get credits to go towards a new purchase? what about trading it through the aftermarket gpu producers like msi, evga, etc.?
I think only EVGA offers a trade-in program where you can upgrade to a better graphics card, but only within 90 days of initial purchase. I don't think any company takes trade-in offers of used goods for credit.
EmptySpace
Banned
really? wow, that sucks.
i thought they'd have recycling centres where they can just unscrew the parts and melt it so they can use them again. i dunno...
ahhhh...basically if i wanna invest in a pc and want to be on top of everything and still do it responsibly money-wise, i'd be spending ~$500 bucks on a gpu or other components every 4 years or so? ehhhh...i mean yes, sure. i don't have to. but it doesn't feel good spending that much money only to be playing on medium settings after 4-5 years just to keep stable fps.
There are tech recycling depots but they don't pay you for resell/scrap value. Otherwise, you're just going to have to find friends or strangers to sell parts to, through social circles, craiglist, and ebay.
It's the cost of progress, I suppose. If you have a long upgrade cycle and are comfortable financially, spending $500 for 5 years can be considered a good investment.
mercenar1e
Member
how can you hide/protect the serial key for Windows?
Who are you trying to protect it from? It's extremely easy to run programs that can display the product key.
Not like it really matters - most consumer keys can only be used and activated once. They cannot be used to activate any other copies of Windows on other PCs.
mercenar1e
Member
Broadbandito
Member
edit: nvm
I have manually called Windows CD key support to reactivate a copies of windows 8.1 with a new hard drive, pretty painless process except for taking down 50 characters. In fact, I think I did this a couple of times with Windows 7 too.
Unless there is something that detects two copies of windows with the same key on the net at the same time and does something which would protect you in your case.. as I said I always had a new hard drive so never had keys concurrently running.
kraspkibble
Permabanned.
so i built my pc a couple months ago but recently completely removed my GPU as i was having troubles with drivers. i booted up and had my monitor connected to the motherboard HDMI to use integrated graphics.
my screen is covered with bright green flickering pixels. i updated the intel drivers but nothing changed. i'm guessing it's more likely a faulty motherboard than CPU? the only other issue i've had with my pc is distorted sound (only happened twice so far).
i just want to get some thoughts before i decide what to do next. there is no way for me to test the CPU in another system. probably will try get a replacement motherboard.
my screen is covered with bright green flickering pixels. i updated the intel drivers but nothing changed. i'm guessing it's more likely a faulty motherboard than CPU? the only other issue i've had with my pc is distorted sound (only happened twice so far).
i just want to get some thoughts before i decide what to do next. there is no way for me to test the CPU in another system. probably will try get a replacement motherboard.
- Status