Yeah GTA5 is going to be CPU bound.

http://www.techspot.com/review/991-gta-5-pc-benchmarks/page6.html

You can make up a big chunk of that gap by over clocking it if you can.

Otherwise yeah I'd think about maybe upgrading when Skylake comes out?

6/29/2015 4:12:53 PM

Yeah, I've got a dated processor.

nVidia was making claims that pascal was 10x better than what's out right now, that was a leap compared to some of the more incremental steps so that made me consider pushing out the time table.

It looks like skylake comes out soon? I may wait for that, take the upgrade I'd get moving up to a gtx 960 (the sky isn't the limit) and have that be the system for the next 5-6 years.

6/29/2015 4:49:49 PM

I'd almost invest in a better video card. The 2gb of VRAM on the 960 is pretty small for games these days. You'd get a lot more performance if you upgrade to like a 980 TI and kept your current processor then upgrading the processor and getting a 960.

6/29/2015 4:53:31 PM

Thanks, I'll mull my options over some more. I see that there are 4GB gtx960 models.

I've heard about some nVidia 4GB models really being 3.5GB with 0.5GB reserved and operating at lower speeds. I believe that was the 970 though. Still 3.5 > 2.

6/29/2015 6:08:53 PM

^^^ pascal being 10x better would be for gpgpu and deep learning applications only. it's not going to get light years better on the same old directx operations that are all still simd based.

[Edited on June 29, 2015 at 10:13 PM. Reason : .]

6/29/2015 10:12:38 PM

Just ordered a Ergotron LX Desk mount for my 27" based upon rave reviews from a co-worker as my Acer 27" gaming LCD stand has zero adjustments and the TN viewing angles aren't great on it. Anyone have one? My only fear is I'll be tempted to pick up two more for my 2 Dell 24" Ultrasharps on each side of the 27"

9/13/2015 10:17:35 PM

just got my replacement water cooler (cooler master nepton 240m) from cooler master after the old pump died. mother of god, it's SO nice to have a silent machine again. I highly recommend investing some money in making your current or next builds silent, especially if you're in front of them multiple hours a day like I am. I'm running 8 cores at 4ghz and the machine makes less noise than my proliant NL40 storage server

9/18/2015 11:01:48 PM

My i7-950 (Nehalem) is still running strong at 4.0ghz. I want to upgrade it but I just haven't made the jump yet. Seems like most games are GPU bound these days and with the 980 playing at only 1080p everything runs smoothly. Biggest upgrade I'd do is probably get a second 980. Upgrading to a Skylake i7 I doubt would get me too much at least in terms of gaming power.

9/19/2015 1:26:50 PM

Oh shit someone just bought my EVGA 980 SC on Amazon. Picking up a EVGA 980 TI Classified. It's going for $899 on Amazon right now but found it a Micro Center near me for $699.

9/19/2015 3:23:14 PM

Question for you EE majors. My desktop appears to be tripping the bedroom circuit breaker on occasion like if I'm gaming and then turn on a second monitor or other things that initiate a burst of power. I can't imagine my computer is pulling that many amps.

Would this be a bad circuit breaker? I've been considering a UPS as we get some random power flickers and I imagine a UPS would help with the power surge going to the breaker.

Any thoughts?

--The breaker is a 10kA circuit... ? But I'm seeing breakers online that say 10kA AIR rating but that are 15 AMP breakers. From what I'm reading an AFCI breaker should prevent trips from demand spiking.

[Edited on September 20, 2015 at 3:03 PM. Reason : s]

9/20/2015 2:40:23 PM

10ka has nothing to do with the amperage of the circuit. there's a 99% it's 15A and 1% it's a 20A. 15A is only 1650W. throw some shitty incandescents on the loop with a 700+W PSU and you probably are tripping it.

9/20/2015 6:33:28 PM

^Thanks. Yeah I figured that one out. It's a 15A breaker.

9/20/2015 6:47:24 PM

Anyone have the pulse on what's solid now? Building first computer since. 2009. I've got prob 1500-2000 budget. Any ideas??

10/30/2015 9:55:36 PM

Processor Intel Core i7-6600K $370
Motherboard Asus Maximum VIII Hero $230
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws V Series DDR4 2666 (16GB) $104
Graphics card MSI GTX 980 Ti Gaming 6G $670
Power supply EVGA Supernova 850 watt G2 80 Plus Gold $145
Primary storage Samsung 950 Pro M.2 SSD (256 GB) $220
Secondary storage Samsung 850 EVO (500GB) $160
CPU cooler Corsair H90 $88
Disc drive LG Blu-ray reader $41
Case Fractal Design Define R5 $110


$2144

http://www.pcgamer.com/pc-build-guide-high-end-gaming-pc/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=pcgfb

10/31/2015 4:55:56 AM

that looks really solid. anywhere i can trim 200 without it being super detrimental??

i can prob deal with a normal sata drive np. thanks for the link tho!!

10/31/2015 1:59:05 PM

So there's no i7-6600k. There's an i7-6700k ($432 on Amazon right now) and an i5-6600k ($310 on Amazon right now). If you're mainly gaming then you'd probably be fine with the i5-6600k which would drop the price a little bit.

You could also completely ditch the disk drive if you want (install the OS from a flash drive). Unless you think you're really going to want to play blurays or dvds.

You could also ditch the Samsung 950 Pro m.2 SSD. They're fast and awesome but compared to the 850 EVO you're really not going to notice much of a difference in gaming. Just go with the $160 Samsung 840. 500GB should be plenty for games. You can always pick up a cheap 2TB HDD if you need additional storage.

You could also go cheaper on the mobo if you wanted espeically if you're only running 1-2 video cards and don't care too much about oc'ing.

10/31/2015 3:59:20 PM

^ exxxxxxcellant news


How much should I worry about an I-7 for future proofing

[Edited on October 31, 2015 at 4:52 PM. Reason : Z]

10/31/2015 4:51:14 PM

id get a 390 or 390x graphics card instead

10/31/2015 5:13:48 PM

is it possible to build a computer+monitor for < $1,000 that can play modern games at decent settings?

10/31/2015 5:14:38 PM

^^ why?

10/31/2015 5:51:56 PM

Quote :

" How much should I worry about an i7 for future proofing"

It may give you a little bit as new games are starting to leverage hyper threading which the i5 does not have plus the i7 has a slightly higher stock clock frequency. It just depends on the price difference. Skylake still has a little inflated prices right now (not msrp yet).

Quote :

"id get a 390 or 390x graphics card instead"

Why? If there's enough in his budget than a 980 ti is going to be faster and better for the money. Not to mention more future proof. It essentially has almost the same performance as a Titan for far cheaper.

The Fury X is what's competing with the TI but overall it still doesn't beat it and it has only 4GB of vram.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/06/amd-fury-x-reviews-show-strong-4k-performance-but-doesnt-beat-980-ti-overall/

Even most reviews recommend Nvidia over AMD right now:

Quote :

""If you dig deeper using our frame-time-focused performance metrics—or just flip over to the 99th-percentile scatter plot above—you'll find that the Fury X struggles to live up to its considerable potential. Unfortunate slowdowns in games like The Witcher 3 and Far Cry 4 drag the Fury X's overall score below that of the less expensive GeForce GTX 980. What's important to note in this context is that these scores aren't just numbers. They mean that you'll generally experience smoother gameplay in 4K with a $499 GeForce GTX 980 than with a $649 Fury X. Our seat-of-the-pants impressions while play-testing confirm it. The good news is that we've seen AMD fix problems like these in the past with driver updates, and I don't doubt that's a possibility in this case.""

Quote :

"is it possible to build a computer+monitor for < $1,000 that can play modern games at decent settings?"

Sure! This is a great place to start:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/newegg-system-builder-marathon-q3-2015-gaming-pc,4305.html

That's a $700 hardware build (extra $100 for the OS).

You can use the extra $200-300 for a nice gaming monitor.

Looking at those benchmarks you'll get 80+ fps in Far Cry 3 at 1080p on High Quality which is great for the price. Battlefield 4 you're looking at 50-60 FPS on Ultra.

[Edited on October 31, 2015 at 6:02 PM. Reason : s]

10/31/2015 5:56:15 PM

if i also wanted to load up premiere and do some video editing, are there any changes you'd recommend to that build?

10/31/2015 6:01:33 PM

The i3 in that build isn't going to be the strongest but unless you're editing 4k video I don't think you'll see a huge impact on rendering time. You could spend an extra $100 on an i5-4690k (say you get Windows 10 for free) and overclock it and you'll get a decent increase in performance in something like Adobe Premiere. The 4690k is the recommended CPU for the $1600 gaming PC. I believe both motherboards are LGA 1150 so you wouldn't' need to swap those out.

10/31/2015 6:08:18 PM

for better directx12 performance

10/31/2015 8:33:05 PM

In one benchmark it matches the 980 ti in Direct X 12. There are no games out that prove it's worth getting a 390x over a 980 ti. It has less memory and performs much worse in all games that are out today.

-I'm confused what's the difference between the 390x and 290x?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-r9-390x-r9-380-r7-370,4178-6.html

Benchmarks from June have the AMD 390x not even matching an Nvidia 970 in some games.

[Edited on October 31, 2015 at 11:54 PM. Reason : s]

10/31/2015 11:42:20 PM

neodata686 so as discussions with the wife have continued ... I've learned my budget is more in the $1500-1700 range instead of $2k

HAHA so changing gears is there anything you'd tweak on the 1300 build ?

http://www.pcgamer.com/best-gaming-pc/

I'll prob upgrade the second HDD to 2tb and the CPU fan to water cooled (because I got a big kid job, and I wanna do it and she's just gonna have to deal with it !!)

so anything I could go up a bit on ? (assume the ^ changes don't cost any money.) More to the point is there anything another 200 bucks on something would really change or impact?

11/2/2015 7:17:36 PM

thoughts?

ps : that's 16gb of 2666 ram, overkill ?

11/2/2015 7:49:55 PM

this whole 30 min edit thing is killing me .... I ask because if I can wittle it down to 1100 or so I can prob talking wife into a 980 Ti or 2x R9 390's ....

any thoughts on those two options ?

I can prob cut money in the case and hd etc. I have a 3tb external so i can cut to a 1tb there and a cheaper case.

11/2/2015 8:37:55 PM

get a gtx970 for 280 and buy the equivalent pascal when it comes out for 300 instead of dropping 600 on a card that will be outclassed sooner than you think

11/2/2015 10:20:00 PM

what about TWO gtx 970's now???? waste?

11/3/2015 9:46:52 AM

A single 980 ti is still going out outperform 2 970's and you'd only be saving ~$100.

11/3/2015 12:24:59 PM

the Fractal Design Define R5 is on sale today at newegg

11/3/2015 12:35:01 PM

hrm logical increments said two R9 390's would be better than a single 980ti.


and i thought the 970 and 390 were in the same class.... i mean they're the same price so why would i go with a 970 over the 390?

11/3/2015 12:52:28 PM

Yeah get the 370 and yes 2 370's would be nice especially with the initial DX12 benchmarks. Then again an Nvidia update could drastically change performance.

11/3/2015 1:14:11 PM

lol you mean 390???

11/3/2015 1:21:37 PM

Yeah 390 sorry.

--So is it just a rebranded 290?

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/powercolor_radeon_r9_390_pcs_8gb_review,15.html

Looking there the 390/390x perform around the same as a 970.

[Edited on November 3, 2015 at 1:39 PM. Reason : s]

11/3/2015 1:36:23 PM

^ apparentally.... not sure what to make of that

11/3/2015 2:03:18 PM

Yeah it just depends how much you want to spend and how frequently. I'm still running an old i7-950 Bloomfield at 4.0ghz that came out in 2009 and I doubt I would get any significant gains upgrading my CPU as games are GPU bottlenecked these days. My Nvidia 580 lasted almost 5 years (I got it in 2010). I upgraded to the 980 ti from the 580 (I did have a regular 980 for a more months in-between). I've found that buying premium is great because you can always buy a second one when they get cheap in a couple years and run SLI plus they last years. When I sold the 580 I was still able to run most games at high with only the newest most graphically intense games requiring me to crank it down to medium. Again though it's hard to judge performance gains in games though from new technology so it's often a gamble.

11/3/2015 2:43:23 PM

what kinda psu would i need to run two? 850? 1k?

11/3/2015 2:58:08 PM

Something like this will give you a rough estimate:

http://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator

With the newer power efficient processors power requirements are really only going down.

11/3/2015 3:00:04 PM

hahaha glorious the one i chose earlier was the one they recommended

11/3/2015 3:27:41 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9cKZiJw6Pk

11/3/2015 6:21:53 PM

My PSU finally died earlier this year, after ~9 years of hard use--the fan had been making more and more noise and finally it stopped.

In the effort of quieting my life, I picked up the Rosewill Silent Night 500W Fanless PSU (94% efficiency!): http://www.silentpcreview.com/Rosewill_Silent_Night_500_Platinum_PSU

I have 4 120mm in my P180B case that spin slowly until a noisy game makes them spin up, so only a whisper there, and very quiet even when fast.

The CPU fan is variable, but super quiet, thanks Zalman!

And earlier this year I got the MSI GTX970 Gaming, worth every penny, and the fans are as quiet as my CPU. Whoa.

So, it is glorious to no longer hear the PSU fan spinning wildly of its own accord. So quiet. If you can swing the Wattage and price of a Fanless PSU, I highly recommend it.

11/5/2015 1:46:34 PM

I like the idea of a fanless PSU but my video card is by far the loudest thing in my case. I'd have to go water cooled on the GPU to notice a noise decrease from any of the other components. Usually when I'm gaming I have headphones on or the speakers cranked up so it doesn't really matter.

11/10/2015 3:07:40 PM

I will probably start on a new system soon once I get some of my wedding debt paid off. Been using the same case for at least 15 years so going to get myself a new case this time as well. I need a larger case as I normally use every single drive slot my mobo will support that I can fit in the case. Any good suggestions? Are there any external non expensive alternatives through like eSATA or something for having a large number of storage drives? I currently run 5 HDD and a bluray burner.

Will be my first one built around a SSD debating on what size I should get to support the OS and have plenty of room for programs and games etc?

11/10/2015 3:42:06 PM

You could get a Samsung 950 Pro pci-e SSD. The 512GB version is like $345 I think. Then it won't even take up a drive bay or sata slot just a pci-e slot.

Why do you need so many drive slots? Western Digital Reds go up to 6GB now. I assume 4-5 of those would be plenty. Or are you talking about re-purposing older smaller drives.

11/10/2015 3:44:45 PM

I think my current drives are 1.5, 2, 2, 2, 3 although I need to start rotating some of those out of service before they crash as some are fairly old. Also most of them are nearly full. I could obviously start adding bigger drives but would be nice to not worry about expansion should I need more. Also spreading stuff out across several drives helps minimize crying if one crashes as trying to back that much up is a real pain haha

11/10/2015 3:51:49 PM

You could get 4 6TB Western Digital Reds and run a RAID 10 (1+0) for ~12TBs of storage.

11/10/2015 4:13:05 PM

rather than filling your system with a bunch of drives, i'd build a second system and run freeNAS on it. i use an hp proliant nl40 for this and it works really well

11/11/2015 12:58:22 AM

^Yeah that's always the best. I only have a single 500GB SSD in my desktop then all my storage drivers in a separate server. That way you can build a low powered storage server that runs 24/7 and not have to have your desktop running when you want access to your media.

11/11/2015 10:10:32 AM