True that could be a good way to go as well. I would just use the old case and set it all up in there, but I will probably pass that system down to my kid and just pull all the media drives out. Perhaps I just get another cheaper case and throw that stuff in there for him as he doesnt need a full tower or anything haha.

11/11/2015 10:40:19 AM

anyone have any strong opinions on a 1151 z170 motherboard?

11/17/2015 1:36:44 PM

Don't the WD Red 6 TB drives have a lower reliability rating than the 4 TB? I thought there were some failure issues

11/17/2015 1:55:15 PM

I'm still gaming on an over clocked i7-2600k with a gtx 690 and Samsung SSD, 1440p monitor at 96hz . I really want to build another rig since mine is pushing 5 years old but just can't justify it. Skylake is just barely an improvement over the 2600k and my 690 is on par with a 980. Once the next gen Nvidia cards come out I may but not now... Wish I could

11/18/2015 9:20:32 PM

Could always pick up a second 690 used online for cheap. Give you a few more years.

11/18/2015 9:25:30 PM

the usable 2gb of vram of the 690 is the only thing that holds it back really. I can't really turn the detail up on most games. Other than that limitation is works great. Plus, the 690 scales horribly. I'll just wait for next gen. But damn, I would have though the CPU's would be leaps and bounds better than a five year old dinosaur.

11/18/2015 9:52:09 PM

Ooooh I saw 4GB and forgot it was more or less two cards. Yeah I bet you're struggling at 2GB especially at 1440p. I only game at 1080p albeit 144hz and I easily hit close to and over 3GB in many newer games. Over 4 in some.

Quote :

"But damn, I would have though the CPU's would be leaps and bounds better than a five year old dinosaur."

Yeah my i7-950 is still running strong at 4ghz. Bottlenecks these days are more around the GPU. Haven't felt the need to upgrade.

[Edited on November 18, 2015 at 10:04 PM. Reason : s]

11/18/2015 10:03:25 PM

Supposedly, DX12 will involve more cores so the i7's should do really well. I'm assuming we will then see an improvement on performance with the newer generation CPU's. Also, they are saying that the VRAM will be stacked which basically means that on an SLI configuration each GPU will only be responsible for half the rendering, therefore using its full VRAM for half the screen. If that holds up, I may never need to upgrade in the near future. I can't see how this would be profitable to the hardware manufacturers.

11/19/2015 6:49:00 AM

That would be awesome. Whenever I considered or did SLI vram was always the limitation.

11/19/2015 9:37:12 AM

What really makes DX12 standout is the fact you can run NVIDIA and AMD GPUs together:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9740/directx-12-geforce-plus-radeon-mgpu-preview

I do agree there is VERY little need for anyone who bought an i7 in the last 5-10 years to upgrade if you are just gaming. I am running a 3770K @ 4.2 with a custom BIOS GTX 970 @ 1.5/8 GHz and have had zero problems running any of the latest and greatest titles @ 1080+

Biggest reason to upgrade your CPU is for the new bells and whistles on the newest motherboards like more USB 3.0 and M.2 slot/s

11/22/2015 11:20:14 PM

Yup. I've already set aside my money for Pascall. Unless DX12 and a new Pascall card can bottleneck the ole i7-2600k overclocked to 4.8, I'll be holding on for another few years or so. I really don't see how Intel is making money. Back in the day you had to upgrade every friggin year it seemed. But I'm old.

11/23/2015 1:27:21 AM

I win for oldest i7! Nehalem 950. Unless someone is still running an old 920 which technically came out earlier.

Quote :

"Biggest reason to upgrade your CPU is for the new bells and whistles on the newest motherboards like more USB 3.0 and M.2 slot/s"

My motherboard from 2009 has USB 3.0 and for SSDs you can always get a PCI-E model like the Samsung Pro 950 which will destroy a SATA 3 drive.

But yeah really waiting for a reason to upgrade my cpu/mobo/ram. The 980 ti is pulling most of the weight now in games.

[Edited on November 23, 2015 at 10:52 AM. Reason : s]

11/23/2015 10:49:38 AM

You have how many USB 3.0 ports? 2? 4? Compare that with the new mobos where the standard now is 6-8. I was just giving a few examples of the only reason I could think of for someone to upgrade.

11/23/2015 4:23:39 PM

I'm still running an i5 750 with a gtx 460. I'm waiting to see what pascal offers. In the meantime I get to see all the new games on the lowest settings, sometimes with the resolution down to 720p.

11/23/2015 4:41:04 PM

Quote :

"You have how many USB 3.0 ports? 2? 4?"

4 I think. I have another 6 or so USB 2.0 ports. Out of all the possible accessories I have plugged into my desktop the only one that is USB 3.0 is an external HDD. So I'm using 1/4 USB 3.0 ports right now. No other accessories really even need them.

11/23/2015 5:30:29 PM

FYI don't use an OEM Intel CPU cooler designed for a 65 watt i3 on a 77 watt i5-3470. My work had a huge give away of old desktops, laptops, and monitors and I snagged an i5-3470 out of one of the desktops and swapped the current i3-2120 I had in my HPTC for it. Quickly ordered a new Noctua cooler as the Dell coolers don't fit on standard LGA 1155 boards (they screw in instead of pop in).

12/9/2015 10:55:29 AM

anyone happen to have a 6700K they want to sell?

12/10/2015 1:36:03 PM

Man trying to just decide on a case for a new build is becoming stressful. I guess worst case I will just get a super tower or full tower with plenty of room for if I decide to go water cooling or massive storage in the future.

12/10/2015 3:15:46 PM

Picked up some components over the holiday for a budget rebuild for my desktop system and now I'm second-guessing myself if I should have waited and spent a little more $. Don't really game anymore, this would basically be a general-use desktop/file server. The most challenging task it would see is photo editing. Haven't started building yet so...opinions?

What I'm coming from: Core 2 Duo E6550, 4 GB RAM, old-ass nVidia mobo, Radeon X1900XT.

What I bought: i3-4170 (Haswell Dual Core 3.7 GHz, 3 MB cache), Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H board, 8 GB DDR3 1600 RAM, Crucial BX200 480 GB SSD, Rosewill Hive-750 PSU. That plus 3 case fans (reusing an old case) came to about $420.

What I might exchange for: i5-6500 (Skylake Quad Core 3.2 GHz, 6 MB cache), MSI Gaming B150 M3 board, 8 GB DDR4 2400 RAM. Same HDD and PSU.

It would end up costing me about $130 plus shipping to move to the new i5, board and DDR4 RAM. Worthwhile in a machine that will likely never see much high-demand use? Or is that over specified for what I'm doing? My goal is to spend enough that it's not going to be an intolerably slow, overmatched rig for daily use 3 years from now. I've gotten 5ish years out of this one, and while it's a dying mess right now, it was solid for quite a long time.

And yes, I should probably go for 16 GB RAM. But that's easy to add later so I'm going with 8 to start out.

[Edited on December 11, 2015 at 1:42 AM. Reason : oops]

12/11/2015 1:40:23 AM

No, you'd be wasting $130 bucks.

12/11/2015 7:35:54 AM

Just finished my new build last night

MSI Gaming Z170A GAMING PRO LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i5-6600 6M

2 X G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000) for 32 total.



[Edited on December 15, 2015 at 4:46 PM. Reason : sas]

12/15/2015 4:45:51 PM

Any reason you didn't get the i5-6600k? You're going to want the k version.

12/15/2015 4:47:06 PM

new egg was sold out. Plan on upgrading when they get in

12/15/2015 6:21:27 PM

Is it too much to ask for to get a ridiculous sale on an R9 390 GPU or even a GTX 970?

12/17/2015 7:03:35 PM

Can someone give me input

Goal is Adobe Premiere and gaming:

MSI Computer Graphics Card GTX 960 2GD5T OC

ASRock Micro ATX DDR3 1333 LGA 1150 Motherboards H97M PRO4

Intel Core i5-4590 BX80646I54590 Processor (6M Cache, 3.3 GHz)

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan (RR-212E-20PK-R2)

Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) UDIMM Memory BLS2KIT8G3D1609DS1S00/ BLS2CP8G3D1609DS1S00

HITACHI 0F12470 Ultrastar A7K3000 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" internal hard drive Bare Drive

SanDisk Ultra II 120GB SATA III 2.5-Inch 7mm Height Solid State Drive (SSD) With Read Up To 550MB/s- SDSSDHII-120G-G25

Seasonic M12II 620 BRONZE ; SS-620GM2 80Plus Power Supply



With a case its about $880 and my goal was $750, where should I save money?



[Edited on December 18, 2015 at 9:43 AM. Reason : .]

12/18/2015 9:41:12 AM

(just noticed i picked the wrong motherboard, I would do regular ATX)

12/18/2015 5:38:12 PM

Yeah don't buy a video card with only 2GB of vram. Looks like the 2GB version you have is $199 and for $20-30 more you can double the vram for 4GB.

[Edited on December 18, 2015 at 8:42 PM. Reason : s]

12/18/2015 8:42:45 PM

i'm trying to lower the cost, not raise it

12/18/2015 10:09:53 PM

You don't want to use the stock intel cooler? Is noise an issue?

12/19/2015 3:59:57 AM

I thought I needed one, is the factory one enough? This would save me about $30, I'd use that and just get the 4GB vram.

The case comes with 2 fans and looks like it has good cord management, so that should help with airflow

12/19/2015 10:37:57 AM

Yeah the stock Intel coolers are great. If you DO get the 'k' version and decide to overclock a bit in the future then you can pick up another cooler so drop the after market cooler and get the nicer video card. 2GB of vram these days isn't much even at 1080p. I'm easily blowing past 3-4GB of vram in newer games so you'll be severely limited by that card.

12/19/2015 1:31:55 PM

Does anyone know if any of the major sites(amazon, newegg, etc) do decent/substantial after christmas sales? Looking to pick up a few parts and trying to decide if I should wait or not.

12/23/2015 12:44:45 AM

assembling my first computer was much easier than i thought, although i did make 2 mistakes; i didn't by an extra sata cable for my optical drive, and i forgot the separate 12v motherboard power connection so i wasted 15 minutes troubleshooting the PSU when it wouldn't boot.

i don't know what the latest benchmarks tools are these days, but cities:skylines (the only game i have so far) runs like a dream.

Here are my 3DMark Skydrive results:
17,562
Graphics: 24,271; 113.97 FPS, 107.85 FPS
Physics: 7,412; 8,, 24, 48 threads - maxed, 96 threads 24.91
Combined Score 17,234; Combined test 70.92 FPS

No idea what any of this means but it seems like this should be good enough for what I need

12/24/2015 6:33:13 AM

What's a good cheap game to test out the graphics?

12/24/2015 8:05:13 PM

Just get a demo of something. The 960 will pretty much run any game at high settings a smooth 60fps @ 1080p

12/24/2015 10:09:40 PM

use this http://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.13849.0.html

12/25/2015 2:20:17 PM

Cool, so I should be good with high or ultra for pretty much anything

Fucking Steam Store has been down all day

12/25/2015 4:43:52 PM

Cinebench is my go-to for new computer speed testing. Fun to watch and shows you where you stand.

http://www.maxon.net/products/cinebench/overview.html

12/25/2015 9:25:50 PM

just bought a new comp

i7-6700
16gb ddr4
gtx 960
256gb ssd
+
22" IPS monitor

haven't had a desktop in about 7 years, this should be nice!

12/27/2015 7:35:57 PM

Does anyone have a spare case laying around. Just needs to fit a micro-atx motherboard. Thanks

2/9/2016 12:17:32 AM

Looking to put together a not-too-pricey gaming rig. First from-scratch build in over 10 years. Feeling confident.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DmDcWZ

2/11/2016 10:48:48 AM

Any reason you chose AMD?

2/11/2016 11:35:00 AM

So he could put the savings toward that video card?

2/11/2016 11:45:36 AM

^ Mostly

It'll serve its purpose well enough.

2/11/2016 12:24:40 PM

i'd get a 390 over a 970, but you might have to bump up the psu at that point too

2/11/2016 1:16:41 PM

I go back and forth about AMD Vs NVidia...heat and wattage came to be the big choice in this, but I haven't bought anything yet (waiting on that tax refund!) we'll see.

2/11/2016 1:34:29 PM

Here's a whole thread about it:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1565555/r9-390-vs-gtx-970-the-final-conclusion

Think I'd go with the AMD R9 390 at that price point.

2/12/2016 10:22:12 AM

im trying to find a cost efficient solution for 4k gaming. i'd prefer a single card, but i'm not sure that exists.

2/12/2016 11:29:20 AM

So i've been messing with Nvidia DSR at 4k (on my 1080p) monitor and games are playable with the 980ti (rendered at 4k). Right now I'd almost lean towards a 2560 by 1440 144hz Gsync monitor instead of 4k where you're limited to only 60hz. Or wait until 4k 120hz+ comes out with G Sync. Might be a while there.

2/12/2016 11:33:50 AM

I've got a 4k monitor and a 1440p already. I game on my 1440p now but instead of 3 monitors I'm thinking about a single 4k. from what i've seen the 980ti, 4k runs in the 25-45fps range on most current games.

2/12/2016 12:12:52 PM