Building a gaming system

[DJR210]

Really? In benchmarks I have seen 4GB usually seems fine for 4k ultra except in Shadow of Mordor. Unless you're talking about running with heavy MSAA.

With MSAA off on current games yeah, but even GTA V has me at 3 GB VRAM w/o MSAA.. I can imagine at 4K

[baseline bum]

With MSAA off on current games yeah, but even GTA V has me at 3 GB VRAM w/o MSAA.. I can imagine at 4K

3GB on a 680? No way man, you'd be a stuttering motherfucker there. Maybe it's caching textures from areas you aren't in, but if it really needed 3GB no way the game would be playable on a 2GB card with ultra textures and mostly high settings like you said you're running and other benchmarks have put the 680/770. It would be like Shadow of Mordor that tanks on a 960 with high textures.

Or do you have a 4GB 680?

[TDMVPDPOY]

do u even pay attention to the minor details at high resolutions?

too busy gaming away anyway to notice it

[DJR210]

3GB on a 680? No way man, you'd be a stuttering motherfucker there. Maybe it's caching textures from areas you aren't in, but if it really needed 3GB no way the game would be playable on a 2GB card with ultra textures and mostly high settings like you said you're running and other benchmarks have put the 680/770. It would be like Shadow of Mordor that tanks on a 960 with high textures.

Or do you have a 4GB 680?

Nah, it's a 2GB..GTA V estimates your VRAM usage in the settings like Max Payne 3 did.. my settings has me at 2700 MB roughly, but the performance is good. I can't get Precision X to work in DX11 games, so I don't know exactly how much is being used at different times in game

[DJR210]

do u even pay attention to the minor details at high resolutions?

too busy gaming away anyway to notice it

I do.. I spend so fucking long admiring a games details and the enviroment, that I get enjoyment from getting stupid high and just exploring shit. Hell, I haven't even beat Skyrim yet cause of that shit..

And 4K is so fucking clear, it can't go unnoticed. You'll notice when you have to go back to 1080p for whatever reason.

[baseline bum]

Damn this is a great time to buy a GTX 970 with this bundle:

http://cdn.videocardz.com/1/2015/05/Witcher3-and-Batman-AK-promotion-videocardz_com.png

Not so much a 980 though with the 980 Ti dropping next month probably.

[TDMVPDPOY]

no point buyin a high end card, when ur still using a TN 1080 panel...

[baseline bum]

no point buyin a high end card, when ur still using a TN 1080 panel...

That's console peasant talk. Enjoy your 30 FPS son. :cry

[baseline bum]

Shit, wrong fucking thread

[DJR210]

no point buyin a high end card, when ur still using a TN 1080 panel...

What about a 144hz 1080p TN panel? That many frames is hard to push..

[ElNono]

No hacks for the PS4 or XBO, I gotta start looking into putting together a PC, might as well replace both the 360 and the MacMini I have...

Unlike a console, I need to future proof the PC at least a bit, I've been thinking i5 + GTX 970, but we're talking 600+ with mobo and RAM...

Any suggestions?

[baseline bum]

No hacks for the PS4 or XBO, I gotta start looking into putting together a PC, might as well replace both the 360 and the MacMini I have...

Unlike a console, I need to future proof the PC at least a bit, I've been thinking i5 + GTX 970, but we're talking 600+ with mobo and RAM...

Any suggestions?

I suggest waiting a month to see what AMD launches and whether Nvidia puts out anything good between the GTX 960 and GTX 970 to counter if you need to save a few bucks. There is such a gulf in performance between the GTX 960 and GTX 970 and it blows me away there is nothing in between. Hate to sound like an Nvidia fanboy because I think they're a fucking shady company, but I don't think I'd touch an AMD card right now. Nvidia is getting their GameWorks crap into every good new release now and even behemoths like the R9 290 are getting stuck with shitty GTX 960 level performance in new games. Dying Light was an example where the GTX 960 and R9 290x were neck and neck. Witcher 3 is supposed to be like this too. AMD hasn't lined up any Gaming Evolved titles for 2015 while Nvidia Gameworks has Dying Light, GTA V, Witcher 3, Batman Arkham Asylum, not sure what else. AMD's R9 300 series being announced in a couple of weeks at Computex better fucking be amazing or their GPU division is going to be in as much trouble as their CPU division is.

[ElNono]

Yeah, I kinda gave AMD cards a thought for about 20 secs, then basically realized that 960 has the same performance for about the same price and uses about 1/3 the power. And yet, the 970 just blows the 960 out of the water, so right now I think it's 970 or bust for video. The 970 isn't priced badly, it's just that it's 300 right there off the bat.

I also thought about cutting corners with an H97 mobo and a i3 CPU, but two core, no turbo boost... it's just ridiculous that a i5 or i7 sandy bridge still costs as much as a Haswell.

With the console, you know you buy it and devs will code to maximize those specs until basically that console gen is dead, but with the PC, if you cheap out too much, in a year or two you gotta fork off more money, and I really don't wanna do that.
The "computer" part I'm gonna use is booting into OSX for Web browsing and some XCode, or Windows for Visual Studio... nothing major.

I have a 26" 1920x1200 monitor, a spare SSD and a MicroATX case, so it's really cpu, video, mobo, ram and a PSU... the last three can be had for ~$150...

[baseline bum]

Yeah, I kinda gave AMD cards a thought for about 20 secs, then basically realized that 960 has the same performance for about the same price and uses about 1/3 the power. And yet, the 970 just blows the 960 out of the water, so right now I think it's 970 or bust for video. The 970 isn't priced badly, it's just that it's 300 right there off the bat.

I also thought about cutting corners with an H97 mobo and a i3 CPU, but two core, no turbo boost... it's just ridiculous that a i5 or i7 sandy bridge still costs as much as a Haswell.

With the console, you know you buy it and devs will code to maximize those specs until basically that console gen is dead, but with the PC, if you cheap out too much, in a year or two you gotta fork off more money, and I really don't wanna do that.
The "computer" part I'm gonna use is booting into OSX for Web browsing and some XCode, or Windows for Visual Studio... nothing major.

I have a 26" 1920x1200 monitor, a spare SSD and a MicroATX case, so it's really cpu, video, mobo, ram and a PSU... the last three can be had for ~$150...

For power supplies check out XFX. They're rebranded Seasonic units and sell for great prices. DDR3 RAM is getting dirt cheap again with Skylake and its DDR3L/DDR4 standard coming; it's easy to find 8GB DDR3 1600 for $50 now. If I wasn't using an H81 board with only two DIMMS I'd buy another 8GB now. But right now 8GB is way more than enough for gaming and I don't do anything that needs much RAM other than the occasional video encode here and there. No surprise that Sandy and Ivy are hard to find now new, Intel just takes shit off the market and never drops prices much.

It's funny AMD releasing Mantle seems to have benefited Nvidia most, since it forced them to get their shit together on their DirectX 11 driver. Now their DX11 driver is so good most games run as well on i3s as they do i5/i7 with Nvidia cards, while AMD cards tank with anything less than an i5 due to DirectX 11 overhead. This blew me away the first time I saw this video:
lQzLU4HWw2U

Just a horrible year all around for AMD.

[baseline bum]

If you're looking at a GTX 970, it's the Gigabyte G1 Gaming and then everything else. Those are cherry picked to often run at 1500+ MHz, giving them better than stock GTX 980 performance most of the time, though the 970's memory subsystem is very much inferior to the 980's. They're huge though, something like 12 inches. I wouldn't touch the ITX 970s, as I have heard they're really loud.

Overall though I have to say I'm pretty happy with my 970. GTA V, Dragon Age Inquisition, Dying Light all look and run incredible on it. Not bad to get better than GTX 780 level performance for $300-$350.

[ElNono]

I'm a fan of Corsair 80+ for PSU, tbh... plus with these CPUs/vid cards/SSDs being finally power efficient, you can get away with a 450W-500W PSU easily, and Corsair has some modular ones for as cheap as $50, including 3 year warranty.

I was thinking 8GB too, even considered just 4GB, but again, don't wanna cheap out too much. You don't want to spend $300 on a video cards then be swapping out. However, I would rather buy a 32GB capable mobo. H81 are the cheapest, but they have 2 cons, IMO: only 2 USB3 ports and 16GB max... B85 or H97 are probably the way to go, I don't really care for overclocking, so a Z97 or a K proc doesn't make sense for me. Which is good, I can cut some corners there.

I'm putting together a backup box monday with a Haswell i3. I'll play with it a bit and see how it performs. I already have a couple i5s at the office and they're such kickass processors. Super silent and power efficient at idle, and the 4 cores really give you a bang for the buck when you gotta crunch numbers. Ideally, I would love to get an i7, but they all start at $300, sandy, ivy, haswell... just more than I'm willing to spend right now.

Thanks for the heads up about the upcoming cards. Had no idea. I'll probably wait a couple more months.

[baseline bum]

I'm a fan of Corsair 80+ for PSU, tbh... plus with these CPUs/vid cards/SSDs being finally power efficient, you can get away with a 450W-500W PSU easily, and Corsair has some modular ones for as cheap as $50, including 3 year warranty.

I was thinking 8GB too, even considered just 4GB, but again, don't wanna cheap out too much. You don't want to spend $300 on a video cards then be swapping out. However, I would rather buy a 32GB capable mobo. H81 are the cheapest, but they have 2 cons, IMO: only 2 USB3 ports and 16GB max... B85 or H97 are probably the way to go, I don't really care for overclocking, so a Z97 or a K proc doesn't make sense for me. Which is good, I can cut some corners there.

I'm putting together a backup box monday with a Haswell i3. I'll play with it a bit and see how it performs. I already have a couple i5s at the office and they're such kickass processors. Super silent and power efficient at idle, and the 4 cores really give you a bang for the buck when you gotta crunch numbers. Ideally, I would love to get an i7, but they all start at $300, sandy, ivy, haswell... just more than I'm willing to spend right now.

Thanks for the heads up about the upcoming cards. Had no idea. I'll probably wait a couple more months.

I don't like Corsair PSUs at all, except for the really high budget ones. Lots of them are made by shit companies like CWT. Here is a much better modular PSU for $66

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151093

If you want an i7 to use with a discrete GPU without paying i7 prices you can get a Xeon E3-1231v3. It's a Haswell Refresh i7 without the integrated graphics for $250.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KB4A2XA/?tag=pcpapi-20

Here is what Tom's Hardware has to say about the 1231v3
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-4.html

Ever since Sandy Bridge, Xeon E3 CPUs have just been better binned consumer i7s. The highest binned Xeon E3s are more expensive than the best consumer i7s (e.g., not counting the enthusiast X79, X99 i7s), but the lower binned ones like the 1231v3 still run cooler and at lower voltages than i7s, at the cost of integrated graphics. Actually, I take that back: the E3 1220v3 doesn't have hyperthreading, so it's more like an i5 with 2MB extra cache, but everything 1230v3 and above does have HT.

Never would have guessed Xeon E3 would be so affordable. It's the best binned E3 and then the entire E5 and E7 series where the Xeon prices start getting ridiculous.

[ElNono]

I don't like Corsair PSUs at all, except for the really high budget ones. Lots of them are made by shit companies like CWT. Here is a much better modular PSU for $66

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151093

Looks nice. Like the 5 year warranty. PSUs just go with time. We had to replace 3 on servers recently. I think the 80+ stuff is great, saves power and grind. But I still will take some warranty.


If you want an i7 to use with a discrete GPU without paying i7 prices you can get a Xeon E3-1231v3. It's a Haswell Refresh i7 without the integrated graphics for $250.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KB4A2XA/?tag=pcpapi-20

Here is what Tom's Hardware has to say about the 1231v3
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-4.html

Ever since Sandy Bridge, Xeon E3 CPUs have just been better binned consumer i7s. The highest binned Xeon E3s are more expensive than the best consumer i7s (e.g., not counting the enthusiast X79, X99 i7s), but the lower binned ones like the 1231v3 still run cooler and at lower voltages than i7s, at the cost of integrated graphics. Actually, I take that back: the E3 1220v3 doesn't have hyperthreading, so it's more like an i5 with 2MB extra cache, but everything 1230v3 and above does have HT.

Never would have guessed Xeon E3 would be so affordable. It's the best binned E3 and then the entire E5 and E7 series where the Xeon prices start getting ridiculous.

Good looking on this, thanks. I didn't even know Intel made Haswell without GPUs. It's more than an i5, but it might be worth it. OSX uses multi-cores like a champ, and I think DX12 is going to have a lot of improvement on that. For an extra $50, this is the kind of future-proofing I like.

[baseline bum]

oops, read your post wrong El

[313]

For power supplies check out XFX. They're rebranded Seasonic units and sell for great prices. DDR3 RAM is getting dirt cheap again with Skylake and its DDR3L/DDR4 standard coming; it's easy to find 8GB DDR3 1600 for $50 now. If I wasn't using an H81 board with only two DIMMS I'd buy another 8GB now. But right now 8GB is way more than enough for gaming and I don't do anything that needs much RAM other than the occasional video encode here and there. No surprise that Sandy and Ivy are hard to find now new, Intel just takes shit off the market and never drops prices much.

It's funny AMD releasing Mantle seems to have benefited Nvidia most, since it forced them to get their shit together on their DirectX 11 driver. Now their DX11 driver is so good most games run as well on i3s as they do i5/i7 with Nvidia cards, while AMD cards tank with anything less than an i5 due to DirectX 11 overhead. This blew me away the first time I saw this video:
lQzLU4HWw2U

Just a horrible year all around for AMD.
My 760 still holding its own two years later :hat

[baseline bum]

My 760 still holding its own two years later :hat

Yeah, the GTX 760 is awesome, especially for a 60 series release, since it's a barely cut down GTX 670. Whereas this year's GTX 960 is a gimped from the beginning GM 206 chip.

[313]

Yeah, the GTX 760 is awesome, especially for a 60 series release, since it's a barely cut down GTX 670. Whereas this year's GTX 960 is a gimped from the beginning GM 206 chip.
I considered upgrading to the 970 when it came out, but it's not really worth it seeing as I can still run most games on high (only game I've struggled with being crysis 3) with good fps. I read that you said Nvidia is probably going to just release remastered 970s and 980s next year, disappointing if true.

[baseline bum]

I considered upgrading to the 970 when it came out, but it's not really worth it seeing as I can still run most games on high (only game I've struggled with being crysis 3) with good fps. I read that you said Nvidia is probably going to just release remastered 970s and 980s next year, disappointing if true.

Why? That's what they did with the 670 and 680, rebranding them as the 760 and 770 with slight changes. I'd be shocked if next year's 70 series model isn't a rebranded 980 for about $400. I figure Nvidia will release a 960 Ti sometime this summer that will be a farther cut down GM 204 from chips that failed to make the cut for GTX 970s. It's not a bad time to buy a 970 right now for $300 with Witcher 3 and Arkham Knight thrown in for free. Well, unless you think AMD is going to hit it out of the park with their R9 380/380x cards. But I bet those will just be rebranded R9 290/290x just like the R9 280x was a rebranded HD 7970GHz, the R9 280 was a rebranded HD 7950, the R9 270 a rebranded HD 7870, and so on. I'm betting AMD's only interesting cards are going to be R9 390/390x.

[TDMVPDPOY]

so what do you clowns do with ur old gear?

hand them over

[baseline bum]

so what do you clowns do with ur old gear?

hand them over

You want my old Athlon 64x2? :lol

[ElNono]

The Mini will likely get demoted to a small server box. It's actually still pretty darned fast with an SSD, even if it's SATA II. There's always a Asterisk/Hylafax/Contact/Calendar server to run in the office.

[TDMVPDPOY]

You want my old Athlon 64x2? :lol

no

gave most of my old gear to friends who needed a computer...

[jeebus]

http://www.flappyplane.net/

lefty ElNono

[ElNono]

http://www.flappyplane.net/

lefty ElNono

crofl...

[baseline bum]

http://www.flappyplane.net/

lefty (http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/member.php?u=6896) ElNono (http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/member.php?u=8054)

What are they singing? It's catchy.

[jeebus]

What are they singing? It's catchy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t-Nrek3VUE

one of the most popular nasheeds imo. lefty's ringtone tbh

[313]

Why? That's what they did with the 670 and 680, rebranding them as the 760 and 770 with slight changes. I'd be shocked if next year's 70 series model isn't a rebranded 980 for about $400. I figure Nvidia will release a 960 Ti sometime this summer that will be a farther cut down GM 204 from chips that failed to make the cut for GTX 970s. It's not a bad time to buy a 970 right now for $300 with Witcher 3 and Arkham Knight thrown in for free. Well, unless you think AMD is going to hit it out of the park with their R9 380/380x cards. But I bet those will just be rebranded R9 290/290x just like the R9 280x was a rebranded HD 7970GHz, the R9 280 was a rebranded HD 7950, the R9 270 a rebranded HD 7870, and so on. I'm betting AMD's only interesting cards are going to be R9 390/390x.
I'm just always looking forward to new tech is all. I'll happily buy a rebranded 970 next fall, though. Or whenever they release new cards.

[baseline bum]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t-Nrek3VUE

one of the most popular nasheeds imo. lefty's ringtone tbh

I'd get it, but you know it's going to be the only good song on the album.

[Cry Havoc]

My 760 still holding its own two years later :hat

My dual 6950s are chugging along pretty well after over 4 years. :tu

[Darius McCrary]

Cry havoc builds new computers every month then Jacks off to them

[Cry Havoc]

Cry havoc builds new computers every month then Jacks off to them

Only when the new GPUs come out. :ihit

[baseline bum]

Only when the new GPUs come out. :ihit

What do you think of the R9 390x costing $850 and only having 4GB VRAM?

[DJR210]

What do you think of the R9 390x costing $850 and only having 4GB VRAM?

Wow, what a piece of shit. I was unaware of that.

:lol Cry Havoc

[Cry Havoc]

What do you think of the R9 390x costing $850 and only having 4GB VRAM?

Disappointing, but a bit early to say how it's going to stack up. If it stomps the Titan X and is cheaper, that's a pretty huge feather in the cap for AMD. I'm not sure this sudden race to X amount of RAM is the best way to squeeze out high performance in games right now.

I'll be interested in the 380x to see if it's performance is better than the 980. It's very likely that one or two of them will be going in the next computer I build, either the 980 or the 380x.

[ElNono]

That HBM design is pretty cool, tbh... in theory anyways. They really need to work on getting rid of the 4GB limit.

[baseline bum]

That HBM design is pretty cool, tbh... in theory anyways. They really need to work on getting rid of the 4GB limit.

Is VRAM bandwidth much of a bottleneck right now? Is HBM going to actually make a difference in GPUs this year?

[ElNono]

Is VRAM bandwidth much of a bottleneck right now? Is HBM going to actually make a difference in GPUs this year?

It generally always is, because when you look at the GPU frame processing, it's always reading and writing to frame/depth buffers. The more parallel cores you have, the more passes for extra quality, the more bandwidth you're gonna be eating. And even more so heading into 4k, with huge framebuffers. While modern GPUs have caches, they're really small (< 4MB), and mostly used for instructions, registers, constants and textures, or to pre-fetch certain memory area. Plus you can have caches with HBM too.

The theory behind HBM is cool also not just for bandwidth, but also for power efficiency and size. A much, much wider bus means you can clock it less often and still have the same or more bandwidth, reducing power usage and heat. The stacked memory also allows for more compact cards, less metal piping for heat dissipation, and should be cheaper too.

I'm saying in theory, because in practice a bunch of things could go wrong. The much bigger bus width means the interconnect has to be very close. There's a lot of precision electronic in that interposer layer. Would be interesting to see the yields they get on that.

AMD is only going to produce one high end card with it, so they're going to start slow on what's likely a low-demand product. But if it works, it should be pretty good. Although I'm sure NVidia is working on something similar.

[baseline bum]

It generally always is, because when you look at the GPU frame processing, it's always reading and writing to frame/depth buffers. The more parallel cores you have, the more passes for extra quality, the more bandwidth you're gonna be eating. And even more so heading into 4k, with huge framebuffers. While modern GPUs have caches, they're really small (< 4MB), and mostly used for instructions, registers, constants and textures, or to pre-fetch certain memory area. Plus you can have caches with HBM too.

The theory behind HBM is cool also not just for bandwidth, but also for power efficiency and size. A much, much wider bus means you can clock it less often and still have the same or more bandwidth, reducing power usage and heat. The stacked memory also allows for more compact cards, less metal piping for heat dissipation, and should be cheaper too.

I'm saying in theory, because in practice a bunch of things could go wrong. The much bigger bus width means the interconnect has to be very close. There's a lot of precision electronic in that interposer layer. Would be interesting to see the yields they get on that.

AMD is only going to produce one high end card with it, so they're going to start slow on what's likely a low-demand product. But if it works, it should be pretty good. Although I'm sure NVidia is working on something similar.

Nvidia is supposed to have HBM in their next generation, but not in Maxwell. So are you expecting big things from the AMD flagship then? Would you anticipate it demolishing what's out there right now? Not that I'd pay $850 for it, no way I want to pay early adopter prices for HBM.

[ElNono]

Nvidia is supposed to have HBM in their next generation, but not in Maxwell. So are you expecting big things from the AMD flagship then? Would you anticipate it demolishing what's out there right now? Not that I'd pay $850 for it, no way I want to pay early adopter prices for HBM.

I'm in wait and see mode. Intel is also moving to eDRAM as we discussed. It's obviously what everybody is moving towards to try to improve the equation of performance, power and thermal.

Until we get some benchmarks, it's all up in the air. It's clear though that adding more and more compute cores isn't going to scale if your memory access remains the same.

I don't think it's worth paying the premium right now, but it's interesting to see how everybody is tackling this.

[DJR210]

Damn, Razer is getting fucking carried away now..

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153908090402576.1073741996.13848807575&type=1

https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/v/t1.0-9/11037880_10153908090747576_611579621730946378_n.pn g?oh=991075cacdd73548871021ec0d92be43&oe=55FE1C40

[baseline bum]

Damn, Razer is getting fucking carried away now..

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153908090402576.1073741996.13848807575&type=1

https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/v/t1.0-9/11037880_10153908090747576_611579621730946378_n.pn g?oh=991075cacdd73548871021ec0d92be43&oe=55FE1C40

Razer is for gays and twelve year olds

[DJR210]

Razer is for gays and twelve year olds

:lol The Razer Nostromo is the shit, but other than that it's Logitech for me

[Cry Havoc]

I never thought I'd EVER be typing these words, but a friend of mine just picked this up:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834259370

Obviously not for what newegg has it for.

But HP legitimately made an AWESOME looking laptop. I couldn't believe it. It's under 5 pounds and has a very good processor with a solid GPU. It looks great and the build quality seems to be very good. With the lights on it looks pretty flashy and with the lights off it looks like a very clean computer. :tu all the way, HP should have advertised it more, because it's among the better laptop designs I've ever seen. Now, go ahead and laugh at me, but that's pretty fucking impressive from a company that hasn't made anything of quality since their printers circa 2003.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/digitaltrends-uploads-prod/2014/11/HP-omen.png

[illusioNtEk]

Wow thanks for sharing this.. Looks like HP is back in the game.

I wonder if Best Buy will have a displayed model.

[Cry Havoc]

Wow thanks for sharing this.. Looks like HP is back in the game.

I wonder if Best Buy will have a displayed model.

It's fucking awesome. Seriously. The keyboard is great, the laptop is insanely lightweight, and the screen is an IPS, which is BEAUTIFUL in person.

[TDMVPDPOY]

Wow thanks for sharing this.. Looks like HP is back in the game.

I wonder if Best Buy will have a displayed model.

lol just bought 2 HP tablets 10inch model for 150each..1022 model or whatever it is...

[baseline bum]

601739457960763392

Damn, a flagship that looks like it might fit in an ITX case. Where is the radiator though?

Get in here Cry Havoc (http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/member.php?u=7256)

[redzero]

I'm thinking about getting a gaming pc and this what I have come up with so far. Any suggestions?

http://i59.tinypic.com/34y2zxl.png

[DJR210]

I'm thinking about getting a gaming pc and this what I have come up with so far. Any suggestions?

http://i59.tinypic.com/34y2zxl.png

:worthy::worthy:that build

Wouldn't change anything component wise, I may just go with a different case. I prefer full for the air flow. Is the 980 Ti actually in stock??

[DJR210]

Damn, I want to upgrade to a 980 Ti pretty bad.. may list my laptop and 680 and see what kind of offers I get.. I'm tired of turning down settings, even it's it's usually just shadows and AA..

[ElNono]

Looks like a great build, tbh... can't believe SSDs have come down in price so much...

[baseline bum]

I'm thinking about getting a gaming pc and this what I have come up with so far. Any suggestions?

http://i59.tinypic.com/34y2zxl.png

I'd spend the $20 extra on a Phanteks Entoo Pro. It's gotta be one of the best cases I have ever seen and is insane for $100, and if I was running an unlocked processor it's what I would get.

cBhmn21ylkc

A 980 Ti on 1080p just seems all kinds of wrong though. That card is really made for 1440p ultra or 4k high. My $330 970 pretty much plays pretty much everything at 60 fps locked with MSAA turned off and vsync on (since I use a 60 Hz panel). I would bite the bullet on a nice 1440p IPS panel like this if you're ok with 60 fps.

http://www.amazon.com/PB278Q-27-Inch-LED-lit-Professional-Graphics/dp/B009C3M7H0

Also, do some research about the RAM and cooler compatibility. The Ripjaws X RAM is always on sale cheap because those huge heatsinks on top can sometimes interfere with big coolers. No clue if it's a problem with the Hyper 212 EVO though. That system is fucking insane though. Great choice on the power supply, not all Antec units are good, but that one is outstanding since it's made by Seasonic.

[baseline bum]

But if you'd rather have the higher framerate than higher resolution, you should consider a GSync monitor. DJR210 raves about his.

Also, if you live near a Microcenter the 4790k sells for $280 there, and you can get $40 off in combo with some motherboards there too. Fuck San Antonio not having a Microcenter. :pctoss

[baseline bum]

Are you looking at a reference 980 Ti (blower design) or aftermarket card? The reference cooler couldn't really handle the Titan X very well without being hot and loud from reviews I have seen, and the 980 Ti is basically a Titan X with half the vram. If you think you'll eventually go with a second 980 Ti in SLI then the reference cooler is what you want, but in single card you'll probably do better with an axial cooler card like an EVGA ACX, MSI Gaming, Gigabyte Gaming, etc. A decent case can handle the heat of a 250W card like the 980 Ti, but two in SLI would be a pain in the ass to cool without using blower cards.

This Windforce cooler looks like it'll be a monster, and should be a lot quieter than reference. The Gigabyte Gaming cards are usually binned to support pretty aggressive out the box overclocks too, though nowhere near as crazy as EVGA's top cards (the Classified and K|NGP|N, which are insanely expensive and not worth the money unless you're some faggot who cares about benchmarks).

bgCLmr1wemI

[redzero]

4chins told me not to use a Seagate External HD, so I'll probably go with something else. I'll also take your recommendation of monitor into consideration, baseline bum. Thanks.

[DJR210]

But if you'd rather have the higher framerate than higher resolution, you should consider a GSync monitor. DJR210 raves about his.

Also, if you live near a Microcenter the 4790k sells for $280 there, and you can get $40 off in combo with some motherboards there too. Fuck San Antonio not having a Microcenter. :pctoss
The VG24 has a G-Sync variant for only a little more too.. might as well if you're already spending 2 g's..

Tbh, I would probably get a QNIX 1440p monitor for like 350-400 since you're getting a card that should have no problem running at 60 FPS at that res.

[DJR210]

But if you'd rather have the higher framerate than higher resolution, you should consider a GSync monitor. DJR210 raves about his.

Also, if you live near a Microcenter the 4790k sells for $280 there, and you can get $40 off in combo with some motherboards there too. Fuck San Antonio not having a Microcenter. :pctoss

I think the 980 Ti is on sale in store only for like 450 at Microcenter.. fucking bastards

[baseline bum]

I think the 980 Ti is on sale in store only for like 450 at Microcenter.. fucking bastards

No fucking way. Stores can't keep that bitch in stock at $650.

[DJR210]

No fucking way. Stores can't keep that bitch in stock at $650.

Read it on Gamefaqs, gotta be true

[baseline bum]

Read it on Gamefaqs, gotta be true

Someone was trolling your ass bro. If I could find 980 Ti for $450 I'd buy every fucking one and sell them on craigslist for $700.

[baseline bum]

Damn, I want to upgrade to a 980 Ti pretty bad.. may list my laptop and 680 and see what kind of offers I get.. I'm tired of turning down settings, even it's it's usually just shadows and AA..

You could have two 980 Ti and you'd still be turning settings down.

http://media.gamersnexus.net/images/media/2015/nvidia/980-ti-sli-bench-gta-1080.png

[TDMVPDPOY]

why u gettin a seagate hdd? get a better brand or bigger hdd...

[redzero]

Okay, this is what I have settled on:

http://i62.tinypic.com/pr9e8.png

If this doesn't work out, I'll drink bleach. I paid for everything already.

[TDMVPDPOY]

since u bought the external 4tb, then whats the point of the internal 1tb wd u getting? couldv save money there

[baseline bum]

Okay, this is what I have settled on:

http://i62.tinypic.com/pr9e8.png

If this doesn't work out, I'll drink bleach. I paid for everything already.

It should be good. The Ripjaws X memory is compatible with the NH-D14 according to this link:

http://noctua.at/main.php?show=compatibility_ram_gen&products_id=34&lng=en#DDR3_G.SKILL

Since you went with a Z87 board and a Devil's Canyon processor, there is a chance you'll need to update the BIOS before it will POST. Most likely you won't because the BIOS version needed is from September 28 last year and anything shipped with that BIOS or newer will run the 4790k. Here is the BIOS version recommended:

https://www.asus.com/us/support/CPU/1/45/2/11/Ojh2oYkBPWOsgT1v/C20140529173757/

And a list of the BIOS versions needed for each CPU:

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z87PRO/HelpDesk_CPU/

With a lot of boards this would be a huge pain in the ass to do, since you'd have to buy a cheap original Haswell (e.g., not Haswell Refresh) Celeron to boot into Windows and flash the BIOS, but since you got an Asus board they provide a utility to flash the BIOS via a USB stick even when you don't have a working CPU.

http://www.asus.com/microsite/2014/MB/New_4th_gen_Intel_processor_compatibility/

Your motherboard is on the supported list for this tool, so you're good to go. Like I said though, odds are you won't need to do anything and your board will likely come with a new enough BIOS to run the 4790k. You definitely got a great price on that board.

That will be a fucking monster of a system at 1440p.

[baseline bum]

Fucking Ubisoft. So Far Cry 4 has microstutter no matter what GPU you throw at it, Watch Dogs is a stuttering bitch regardless of GPU, AC Unity is in epic fail territory... but I fired up Far Cry 3 a little earlier and it has the same fucking microstutter Far Cry 4 does, but without the great lighting. How does this happen with a 2012 game on a 2014 GPU that's pulling 60 fps at like 30% usage (and 900MB vram) when I have vsync on? I play COD Advanced Warfare which looks great and my 970 is massive overkill for and it's super smooth with vsync to 60 fps. On the other hand I play GTA V where I have the settings so that my 970 can just skate by at 60 fps in the worst part (namely, driving fast through the forest near Mt Chiliad) and that's smoother than shaved stripper pussy too. But it's always a different story when I play a Ubisoft game. Has Ubisoft just always been the official sponsor of microstutter? I swear I don't see this shit in any other games, but anything Ubisoft has it. So is this microstutter in AC Black Flag and AC Rogue too?

[DJR210]

I have Far Cry 3, and don't recall a micro stutter problem. It's one of my pet peeves so I would notice it for sure..

[baseline bum]

I have Far Cry 3, and don't recall a micro stutter problem. It's one of my pet peeves so I would notice it for sure..

Turns out it was only at the very beginning.

[baseline bum]

I have Far Cry 3, and don't recall a micro stutter problem. It's one of my pet peeves so I would notice it for sure..

Pretty awesome game so far, though I think the setting is cooler in Far Cry 4. If you liked 3, FC4 is pretty similar but with better graphics. But even 980 owners bitched about the microstutter. But liberating towers, hunting animals, stealth kills with the knife and bow, very similar.

[DJR210]

Pretty awesome game so far, though I think the setting is cooler in Far Cry 4. If you liked 3, FC4 is pretty similar but with better graphics. But even 980 owners bitched about the microstutter.

When I first played FC3, I thought I stumbled upon one of the better games of recent memory.. then the second half of the game started.

[baseline bum]

When I first played FC3, I thought I stumbled upon one of the better games of recent memory.. then the second half of the game started.

Damn it's that bad? I liked the entire storyline in FC4, though some of the reviews said they thought it sucked. But then lots of review shit all over the storyline in Dying Light too.

[DJR210]

Damn it's that bad? I liked the entire storyline in FC4, though some of the reviews said they thought it sucked. But then lots of review shit all over the storyline in Dying Light too.

It just gets fucking cheesy and stupid. The gunplay and everything is fun which is why I beat the game, but you'll see. Wait til' you unlock the top half of the island and meet that jungle skank.

Have you done the weed field mission? That's about the games peak IMO.

[DJR210]

Wow thanks for sharing this.. Looks like HP is back in the game.

I wonder if Best Buy will have a displayed model.

What do you think about your painting tbh? Silver&Black (http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/member.php?u=20666) was kind enough to paint it for you.

http://i.imgur.com/7mZo5cZ.png

[illusioNtEk]

What do you think about your painting tbh? Silver&Black (http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/member.php?u=20666) was kind enough to paint it for you.

http://i.imgur.com/7mZo5cZ.png


LOL! still the best looking! however I wont be showing any more updated pictures now :lol

[DJR210]

LOL! still the best looking! however I wont be showing any more updated pictures now :lol

If you're really bout that life you should print that shit and put it in your cubicle at TWC TBH

[illusioNtEk]

If you're really bout that life you should print that shit and put it in your cubicle at TWC TBH

Nahhh man i'm all grown up now... not into that gay shit anymore lol

[Silver&Black]

LOL! still the best looking! however I wont be showing any more updated pictures now :lol

I'm just a big fan of your work tbh....

No harm intended.

[Silver&Black]

:lol I don't think I've ever been this far downstairs

[ElNono]

Looks like I might be getting a GTX 970 for a new super-secret project I'm gonna be working on... :D

[DJR210]

:lol I don't think I've ever been this far downstairs

This is ST's hidden gem tbh, only the most elite of the Master Race dwell these parts. baseline bum can tell you the type of plastic and how much mercury is in the new 980 Ti.. we don't fuck around down here.

[DJR210]

Nahhh man i'm all grown up now... not into that gay shit anymore lol

:lol

[DJR210]

Looks like I might be getting a GTX 970 for a new super-secret project I'm gonna be working on... :D

I'm thinking bout making a YT channel and asking Nvidia to send me a Titan X and a 980 Ti for review purposes.

[ElNono]

I'm thinking bout making a YT channel and asking Nvidia to send me a Titan X and a 980 Ti for review purposes.

Don't forget the faggy haircut and a bottle of beer to look hip, tbh...

[DJR210]

Don't forget the faggy haircut and a bottle of beer to look hip, tbh...

Faggot hair, ultra edgy groomed beard, and the most underground of the underground craft beers for that professional look.

[baseline bum]

Faggot hair, ultra edgy groomed beard, and the most underground of the underground craft beers for that professional look.

You also shouldn't weigh less than about 260.

[baseline bum]

I'm thinking bout making a YT channel and asking Nvidia to send me a Titan X and a 980 Ti for review purposes.

I think they have to send those back though. Plus you gotta hype up worthless shit like the 960 or 750 Ti to get them to send you cards.

[baseline bum]

Looks like I might be getting a GTX 970 for a new super-secret project I'm gonna be working on... :D

I thought your ass was waiting for the end of the year to move past XPoor360.

[baseline bum]

Gotta say FC3 is a bit harder than FC4, but at least you don't get raped by eagles constantly in FC3. The radio towers are more fun in FC4 though since they all blast Pagan Min's propaganda so you get to hear that shit while climbing them. :lol

[DJR210]

I think they have to send those back though. Plus you gotta hype up worthless shit like the 960 or 750 Ti to get them to send you cards.

So what are they gonna do? Send an Nvidia hit squad if I choose not to send em back?

[DJR210]

XPoor360.

:lol

[baseline bum]

The Witcher III also has some reasonable requirements, I expect that to run real nice.

Oops

That shit is the new Crysis 3 :lol

[baseline bum]

You're nuts if you buy a 980 before the R9 380x comes out. As soon as AMD takes the performance crown Nvidia will be forced to respond with GM200 (e.g. Titan 2) and then maybe a $700 cut down version of GM200 for people who can't drop $1400 on a fucking video card. I mean your 680 is still a pretty nice card, so it would make sense to wait for Big Maxwell instead of dropping $600 for what will be upper midrange Maxwell.

Damn, so barely cut down GM200 actually came in at $650. :lol

[ElNono]

I thought your ass was waiting for the end of the year to move past XPoor360.

Still am, tbh... this is for work. But it will be nice to do some "testing"...

[DJR210]

Gotta say FC3 is a bit harder than FC4, but at least you don't get raped by eagles constantly in FC3. The radio towers are more fun in FC4 though since they all blast Pagan Min's propaganda so you get to hear that shit while climbing them. :lol

How are the animal trap kills in FC4 tbh? I used to love baiting dudes to run near the riverbank and get merked by a gator, etc.

[baseline bum]

How are the animal trap kills in FC4 tbh? I used to love baiting dudes to run near the riverbank and get merked by a gator, etc.

Shit's funny as hell letting an elephant loose in an enemy camp.

[baseline bum]

How are the animal trap kills in FC4 tbh? I used to love baiting dudes to run near the riverbank and get merked by a gator, etc.

I was wrong, Far Cry 3 is a lot easier than Far Cry 4. In Far Cry 4 when you take over an outpost you're constantly fighting to keep it when the other army invades. Far Cry 3 seems like you knock out a base and it's your territory forever. Both games get pretty easy if you just focus on hunting at the beginning though. I'm interested to see Blood Dragon after I finish FC 3, that shit looks hilarious.

[ElNono]

I was wrong, Far Cry 3 is a lot easier than Far Cry 4. In Far Cry 4 when you take over an outpost you're constantly fighting to keep it when the other army invades. Far Cry 3 seems like you knock out a base and it's your territory forever. Both games get pretty easy if you just focus on hunting at the beginning though. I'm interested to see Blood Dragon after I finish FC 3, that shit looks hilarious.

Do you really have to defend the outposts? I don't recall having to. I remember getting the messages about my outposts being under attack, but I didn't pay any attention to them and went somewhere else, and didn't lose the territory...

[ElNono]

tbh, I had a lot of fun doing the camps as stealth as possible. Might just start it off with a sniper rifle opening the animal cage, then killing any survivors with the knife...

[baseline bum]

Do you really have to defend the outposts? I don't recall having to. I remember getting the messages about my outposts being under attack, but I didn't pay any attention to them and went somewhere else, and didn't lose the territory...

Hmmm, I defended them all, but by that time my character was so strong I don't think I ever failed in doing it.

[baseline bum]

tbh, I had a lot of fun doing the camps as stealth as possible. Might just start it off with a sniper rifle opening the animal cage, then killing any survivors with the knife...

I love chaining the knife kills, but my favorite is pulling the pin on the nigga's grenade and then kicking him out of the way. Shit's fun throwing a rock, stabbing the guy from behind, and then dragging his body behind some buses before anyone gets back.

[ElNono]

Good read, tbh

Comparing Today's Modern CPUs To Intel's Socket 478 Celeron & Pentium 4
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel-478-retro&num=1

[baseline bum]

How are the animal trap kills in FC4 tbh? I used to love baiting dudes to run near the riverbank and get merked by a gator, etc.

You should get it just for the Kanye diss tbh

OhIe_rLfgJk

[baseline bum]

It just gets fucking cheesy and stupid. The gunplay and everything is fun which is why I beat the game, but you'll see. Wait til' you unlock the top half of the island and meet that jungle skank.

Have you done the weed field mission? That's about the games peak IMO.

LOL boning the Christy Mack lookalike while fighting the ink monster. I thought the ink monster fight was pretty cool. Far Cry 4 has the same kind of stuff where you take hallucinogens and go to crazy ass places like that, but it's much better executed in FC4. It's a land called Shangri-La, and the graphics are really impressive there. I like the storyline in FC3 so far though. Much better leading the Rakyat than going back to Santa Monica with the nagging GF.

[DarrinS]

Good read, tbh

Comparing Today's Modern CPUs To Intel's Socket 478 Celeron & Pentium 4
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel-478-retro&num=1


Interesting.

I just built one of those RetroPie systems for around $40. There are a few flavors of Mame emulators installed. The version of roms I'm using are 0.375b and there are some audio issues. Since you worked on the Mame project, I was wondering if sound issues would be with the version of the roms? Or, would the issue be with the emulator? Just trying to troubleshoot.

Thanks.

[ElNono]

Interesting.

I just built one of those RetroPie systems for around $40. There are a few flavors of Mame emulators installed. The version of roms I'm using are 0.375b and there are some audio issues. Since you worked on the Mame project, I was wondering if sound issues would be with the version of the roms? Or, would the issue be with the emulator? Just trying to troubleshoot.

Thanks.

Never heard of RetroPie, but if you're having audio trouble with all the games, then it's probably a hardware issue. The best to find out is just load up Mame on a more powerful PC with the same game and see if it's ok.

Mame checksums the ROMs, so I doubt that's the problem, and while some sound chips might not be emulated 100%, they're really the minority. Is there any specific game you're having trouble with?

[DarrinS]

Never heard of RetroPie, but if you're having audio trouble with all the games, then it's probably a hardware issue. The best to find out is just load up Mame on a more powerful PC with the same game and see if it's ok.

Mame checksums the ROMs, so I doubt that's the problem, and while some sound chips might not be emulated 100%, they're really the minority. Is there any specific game you're having trouble with?


I don't have an issue with all the roms -- some are perfect. I was using Donkey Kong to test. All the sounds are there, except for running, climbing ladder, and jumping. I'm starting to wonder if there are other files that are missing.

[DarrinS]

After some Googling, apparently there are some audio sample files required for some versions of Mame. I'll give that a shot.

[ElNono]

After some Googling, apparently there are some audio sample files required for some versions of Mame. I'll give that a shot.

Yeah, some games, especially very old, need samples. Should go in the samples directory in Mame (zipped).

You should find what you need here:
http://www.arcadeathome.com/mamewav.phtml

[baseline bum]

After some Googling, apparently there are some audio sample files required for some versions of Mame. I'll give that a shot.

Arrggh, that's frustrating. For the longest time MAME wasn't good for playing Shinobi (my favorite arcade game) because it was impossible to find the sound samples for it. But at least it played great on System16. Now it seems to work great on MAME though years later.

[DarrinS]

Yeah, some games, especially very old, need samples. Should go in the samples directory in Mame (zipped).

You should find what you need here:
http://www.arcadeathome.com/mamewav.phtml

Thanks. Works perfectly now. :tu

[DarrinS]

Arrggh, that's frustrating. For the longest time MAME wasn't good for playing Shinobi (my favorite arcade game) because it was impossible to find the sound samples for it. But at least it played great on System16. Now it seems to work great on MAME though years later.


I'll have to give that one a try. It may not be one of the roms that works on my Rasberry Pi, but I can try it on my pc version of Mame. :tu

[baseline bum]

I'll have to give that one a try. It may not be one of the roms that works on my Rasberry Pi, but I can try it on my pc version of Mame. :tu

Nah man, it hasn't been maintained in years. System 16 was what I used to play Shinobi and only Shinobi around the year 2000 or so. Even then in its prime it was a pretty limited emulator, but it played Shinobi perfectly. Thankfully MAME does it just as well now though.

Or if you mean you'll have to try the game, definitely. It's right up there with the NES version of Ninja Gaiden 1 for my favorite ninja game. I wasn't that big a fan of the arcade Ninja Gaiden though, it was a Double Dragon clone but not nearly as well executed. I love Shinobi's music and the graphics were pretty impressive for a game released in 1987 or so.

[ElNono]

System 16 emulation has been complete on Mame for a while now, IIRC... The biggest bitch was to crack the Hitachi FD1094 chips that held the encryption key, so originally Mame only supported the bootlegs, which sometimes were modified.

But a long time ago a way was found to derive the keys. There's a big ass comment from Nicola on how the whole encryption system works at the top of the driver code:
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/machine/fd1094.c

[DJR210]

You faggots are having a lengthy discussion about the requirements to play 1987's Shinobi? :lol

[baseline bum]

You faggots are having a lengthy discussion about the requirements to play 1987's Shinobi? :lol

It has better graphics than Hatred.

[ElNono]

You faggots are having a lengthy discussion about the requirements to play 1987's Shinobi? :lol

why don't you go watch another AMD video from goth faggot?

[baseline bum]

why don't you go watch another AMD video from goth faggot?

eu8Sekdb-IE

:lmao

[DJR210]

eu8Sekdb-IE

:lmao

He got death threats over that video I'm sure

[baseline bum]

It just gets fucking cheesy and stupid. The gunplay and everything is fun which is why I beat the game, but you'll see. Wait til' you unlock the top half of the island and meet that jungle skank.

Have you done the weed field mission? That's about the games peak IMO.

What a fucking load of crap. I take out Hoyt, cut Lisa's throat, and that cunt Citra stabs me to death after I came inside her. :pctoss

[illusioNtEk]

What a fucking load of crap. I take out Hoyt, cut Lisa's throat, and that cunt Citra stabs me to death after I came inside her. :pctoss


HEY BUM! you where right about broadwell cpus..... fucking lame with just an upgraded built in graphics which is useless because everybody gets a graphics card... good call

[baseline bum]

The Witcher III also has some reasonable requirements, I expect that to run real nice.

:lol That game turned out to be about the biggest GPU killer out there

[DJR210]

:lol That game turned out to be about the biggest GPU killer out there

Yeah I think I posted that before they revealed the scaled down engine too

[RandomGuy]

Nah man, it hasn't been maintained in years. System 16 was what I used to play Shinobi and only Shinobi around the year 2000 or so. Even then in its prime it was a pretty limited emulator, but it played Shinobi perfectly. Thankfully MAME does it just as well now though.

Or if you mean you'll have to try the game, definitely. It's right up there with the NES version of Ninja Gaiden 1 for my favorite ninja game. I wasn't that big a fan of the arcade Ninja Gaiden though, it was a Double Dragon clone but not nearly as well executed. I love Shinobi's music and the graphics were pretty impressive for a game released in 1987 or so.

Who didn't love Shinobi for that?

Going to take the plunge and replace my old game computer. I would really like to get a solid state one, any recommendations anyone?

[baseline bum]

Going to take the plunge and replace my old game computer. I would really like to get a solid state one, any recommendations anyone?

It's impossible to give any recommendations until you answer the following questions:

1. How much is your budget?
2. What games are you trying to play? Recommendations would be far different if you tell me League of Legends, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, World of Warcraft, Minecraft (e.g., very easy to run games) versus say Witcher 3, Grand Theft Auto V, Far Cry 4, Assassins Creed Unity, etc. (very hard to run games)
3. What resolution are you trying to play them at?
4. Do you want to play them at 60 frames per second? 120 fps? 30 fps?
5. Do you like a big case? A small case?
6. Does energy consumption matter to you at the cost of performance? What about at the cost of higher price? Or do you want balls to the wall performance?

I can only help you if you want to build your own system, which is comically easy for anyone with a room temperature IQ.

[baseline bum]

Also RandomGuy, what kind of gaming computer are you replacing? Maybe you can recycle the RAM, the hard drives, the case, shit like that.


SSDs are nice, they make your computer feel fast as fuck for general usage, but for gaming they do jack shit other than cause you to load in 15 seconds instead of 25 seconds. If you're on a somewhat tight budget I personally think they're worth doing without, for best performance you want to put most of your money into the GPU and CPU. Still, you can get good quality 256 GB SSDs for less than $100 and good 500 GB ones for around $180. I'd personally recommend 500 GB in the days of lots of games being 60 GB.

[RandomGuy]

Also RandomGuy, what kind of gaming computer are you replacing? Maybe you can recycle the RAM, the hard drives, the case, shit like that.


SSDs are nice, they make your computer feel fast as fuck for general usage, but for gaming they do jack shit other than cause you to load in 15 seconds instead of 25 seconds. If you're on a somewhat tight budget I personally think they're worth doing without, for best performance you want to put most of your money into the GPU and CPU. Still, you can get good quality 256 GB SSDs for less than $100 and good 500 GB ones for around $180. I'd personally recommend 500 GB in the days of lots of games being 60 GB.

I am replacing a creaky 6 year old desktop that had a couple of video upgrades.

I have mostly been playing older games, but now even the older games are starting to make the thing creak. New games are out of the question. Been saving for a house and working wife through college. Budget isn't much of a consideration, although I would like to keep it less than $1400.

[RandomGuy]

It's impossible to give any recommendations until you answer the following questions:

1. How much is your budget?
2. What games are you trying to play? Recommendations would be far different if you tell me League of Legends, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, World of Warcraft, Minecraft (e.g., very easy to run games) versus say Witcher 3, Grand Theft Auto V, Far Cry 4, Assassins Creed Unity, etc. (very hard to run games)
3. What resolution are you trying to play them at?
4. Do you want to play them at 60 frames per second? 120 fps? 30 fps?
5. Do you like a big case? A small case?
6. Does energy consumption matter to you at the cost of performance? What about at the cost of higher price? Or do you want balls to the wall performance?

I can only help you if you want to build your own system, which is comically easy for anyone with a room temperature IQ.

I used to build computers for a living in the mid-nineties, so I am somewhat more literate than the average joe when it comes to such things, but most of my technical knowledge is obviously out of date.

Going through, in order:
About $1400. I would go higher, but would have to do some tap-dancing with my wife of 20 years.

Probably going to run a few easy games, like minecraft, and may use it as the house server, so I can play with the kids, but I am itching to get into the harder newer games.

I have a fairly large HD monitor now, so I am going to run them at a pretty high resolution, with as high of a fps as I can manage.

Don't really care about the case. I have a buddy who can probably get me one for free, any size i want.

Energy consumption is not an issue. I am a grown-ass man with a grown-ass job, and a new house built to be efficient.

I figure I am going to need a bitchin' graphics card that will consume most of the budget. Most of the pre-packaged jobbies tend to run about 4GB of memory, so I am going to hold that as a minimum.

[baseline bum]

I have a fairly large HD monitor now, so I am going to run them at a pretty high resolution, with as high of a fps as I can manage.

The monitor is HD as in Full HD, e.g., 1080p? Does your monitor support 120 Hz or 144 Hz refresh rate, or is it 60 Hz? Because for a 1080p 60 Hz system, $1400 is an extremely high budget. Here is what I would consider a monstrously strong 1080p 60 Hz system for that kind of money: I think it would be a waste of money, though the CPU is really strong. It's a hexacore with hyperthreading that you'll probably be able to overclock to at least 4.2 GHz on the cooler I recommend.

PCPartPicker part list (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WhhjrH) / Price breakdown by merchant (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WhhjrH/by_merchant/)

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80648i75820k) ($378.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X61 106.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-cpu-cooler-rlkrx6101) ($114.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Asus X99-A ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-x99a) ($239.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-bls4k4g4d240fsa) ($104.95 @ Adorama)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e500bam) ($159.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-r9390gaming8g) ($329.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-220g20750xr) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1428.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-17 16:52 EDT-0400

Assuming you have some old hard drives to use for data storage and that you can get a free case that can support a 360mm radiator in top for the CPU. You get an extremely strong CPU out of this as well as a really high end cooler. This is the best watercooler on the market unless you want to spend $200-$300 on the new ekwb all-in-one coolers coming out this month.

If you have a 120 Hz 1080p or a 60 Hz 1440p monitor, then definitely go higher end on the GPU, lower end on the CPU. Something like this would be much better for that use case, as it has much more graphical horsepower. I went a little over budget to fit in the cooler, which you'll want with a 4790k since it runs 4.2 GHz on all cores under load at stock speed. You can probably get it up to 4.4 GHz on all cores using a Hyper 212 EVO, but any higher and you're looking at liquid coolers most likely, and even the best coolers (like the one in the first build) probably won't get you any higher than 4.7 GHz.

PCPartPicker part list (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3JjWQ7) / Price breakdown by merchant (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3JjWQ7/by_merchant/)

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i74790k) ($327.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-rr212e20pkr2) ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-E ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-z97e) ($92.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-bls2kit8g3d1609ds1s00) ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e500bam) ($159.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-06gp44995kr) ($669.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/antec-power-supply-hcg620m) ($78.50 @ Amazon)
Total: $1429.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-17 17:31 EDT-0400

Still, I'd feel bad not suggesting a strong bang for your buck 1080p 60 Hz system: this would be a really strong 1080p 60fps system for way under budget. The CPU is a quadcore (no hyperthreading) that runs 3.5 GHz on all cores when under load. This is a really incredible CPU for $184. No overclocking though.

PCPartPicker part list (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nHkw4D) / Price breakdown by merchant (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nHkw4D/by_merchant/)

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54590) ($183.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gah97d3h) ($91.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-bls2k4g3d169ds1j) ($37.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e500bam) ($159.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC ACX 2.0 Video Card (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-04gp43975kr) ($319.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/antec-power-supply-hcg520m) ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $848.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-17 17:36 EDT-0400

For 1080p 60 Hz gaming I think the MSI R9 390 is the best GPU out there, though the GTX 970 trades blows with it and uses 100W less power. For 1440p 60 Hz or 1080p 120 Hz gaming there is nothing that touches the GTX 980 Ti. For 4k 60 Hz gaming you'd need two GTX 980 Ti, which is impossible on a $1400 budget.

I'm always leery to buy the really high end GPUs though. For instance, in November 2013 Nvidia released the GTX 780Ti at $700. In September 2014 Nvidia released the GTX 970 at $330 that trades blows with the 780 Ti when they moved to from the Kepler architecture (GTX 6xx/7xx series) to the Maxwell architecture (GTX 9xx series), which are both 28nm. In mid-to-late 2016 Nvidia should be releasing cards based on the Pascal architecture at 16nm, and such a large process shrink often means a lot more performance. Plus they're likely to be using HBM2 memory that they're likely to run at much lower clockspeeds while still having larger bandwidth, leaving more room for upping the core clock while staying within their power usage targets. So seeing what they were able to do with Maxwell without a process shrink and using the same GDDR5 video ram, you can imagine what Pascal could end up looking like next year. And you may feel like a real sucker spending out the ass on the highest end card right now.

I wouldn't even look at the 12GB Titan X. For $1000 it's a retarded card now that the GTX 980 Ti came out and is barely cut down from it with 6 GB of vram instead. Even 6GB is overkill for 4k, much less 1440p or 1080p. The Titan X makes absolutely no sense. With 12GB of vram you'd think you might run three or four of them in SLI to game on three 4k panels at once, but even 4 Titan X's wouldn't run that well. So the 12GB is pretty much useless, especially when Maxwell sucks for double precision computing and thus you wouldn't want it for scientific applications.

[baseline bum]

Though getting a cheap case might not be the best idea, since you'll want something with good airflow to keep from cooking your GPU. This is what I use in my system and it's a fucking joy to build in and keeps things pretty cool:

cBhmn21ylkc

It's a pretty large case but awesome if you want to run a full ATX board, and I think it's way underpriced at $100. There isn't a case less than $200 I'd personally choose over the Enthoo Pro for a gaming build. The build quality is great, this is a solid motherfucker. It looks awesome. It's really easy to build in thanks to all the cable routing options, the velcro straps, and the inch and a half of room behind the motherboard tray for cable management. I can't imagine replacing this case in the next ten years unless I badly want a really small micro-ITX system or the motherboard standard changes so that I can't use it anymore.

[baseline bum]

RG, here is how the GPUs out there stack up right now, where percentages are given based on average framerate in techpowerup's test suite of games, normalized so the R9 Fury Strix is at 100%. I chose the Fury Strix since it's the most recent card they have reviewed.


1080p
https://tpucdn.com/reviews/ASUS/R9_Fury_Strix/images/perfrel_1920.gif

1440p
https://tpucdn.com/reviews/ASUS/R9_Fury_Strix/images/perfrel_2560.gif

Surprisingly they have the GTX 970 over the R9 390 at 1080p, which doesn't agree with some of the other benchmarks I have seen though. In most benchmarks I have seen the R9 390 and GTX 970 trade blows in games (e.g., 970 wins in GTA V and Witcher 3, R9 390 wins in Far Cry 4, Shadow of Mordor), but it seems like when the R9 390 wins it wins by a significant margin whereas when the 970 does it's still pretty close.

If you follow this link (https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/R9_Fury_Strix/31.html) you can see how they stack up in individual games.

[RandomGuy]

Ok, wow. :reading


That is a lot of good, exactly on point information. Looks like I owe you a beer for the time. :toast

[baseline bum]

Ok, wow. :reading


That is a lot of good, exactly on point information. Looks like I owe you a beer for the time. :toast

It's kind of a weird time to buy right now though. All the CPUs I recommended are 4th generation Intel Core series processors (Haswell, which launched in 2Q 2013), and right now Intel is on its sixth generation. But the 5th generation Core series (Broadwell) was horribly delayed and has gotten an extremely limited launch on the desktop. It officially launched a few months ago but I have still never seen a Broadwell CPU for sale at newegg, Fry's, Microcenter, etc, though you can overpay on amazon to get ones imported from Europe where apparently Broadwell got a larger desktop release. You can get laptops with Broadwell though, and they're pretty awesome because of the low power consumption and much stronger integrated graphics than Haswell, Ivy Bridge (3rd gen, 2012), and Sandy Bridge (2nd gen, 2011). Intel just launched the unlocked Skylake chips (6th generation Core series) within the last couple of months and they have somewhat stronger IPC (instructions per clock cycle) than Haswell chips, but they're really only slightly superior to Haswell for gaming and they're more expensive, their boards are more expensive, and the DDR4 RAM they use is more expensive than the DDR3 used by Haswell/Broadwell/Ivy/Sandy. The Core series has really stagnated since the incredible Sandy Bridge release in January 2011, to the point if you have a Sandy Bridge or newer i5 or i7 and it works, it's a complete waste of money to buy any newer processor for gaming unless you're running a 120/144 Hz panel or perhaps trying to push 90fps in the Occulus Rift. For 60 fps gaming Sandy Bridge CPUs are still incredible. It's the complete opposite of the late 90s - early 2000s when I bought a 200 MHz CPU that was so fast, 2.5 years later they were at 1GHz, I bought a 1.5 GHz CPU that was so fast, and then 2-3 years later they were at 3 GHz. :lol

Steer completely clear of AMD for CPUs. They have absolutely nothing that makes any sense except at the very low end. 15 years ago they were amazing when Intel was just chasing clockspeed at all costs because buyers thought more MHz means faster CPU. Now AMD is the one doing that, to the point they have a CPU out now (FX-9590) that does 5.0 GHz at stock, and which performs slightly worse than a 3.2 GHz Core i5-4460 for gaming. That AMD CPU also consumes 225W vs the i5-4460 that is an 84W CPU, so the FX chip requires a really high end motherboard and liquid cooling.

Speaking of AMD, damn they have been in some huge turmoil. 2014 was such a disaster for them. In late 2013 they released their high-end GPUs, the R9 290 and R9 290x, with unbelievably bad stock coolers.
http://images.anandtech.com/doci/7481/290Car_678x452.jpg
These coolers made the fans run really high speeds and the core was still at 95C, causing the thing to throttle while also sounding like a jet engine. This got AMD the reputation of having really hot running cards that consumed a ton of power even though Nvidia's current line of GPUs did too. AMD really fucked up cheaping out on the cooler for this card, though their OEM partners released much better cooled versions that performed awesome.
http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image//skymtl/GPU/R9-290-SAPPHIRE/R9-290-SAPPHIRE-1.jpg

And they were great values, the 290x was $500, the 290 $400, and they weren't too far behind Nvidia's $700 GTX 980 Ti. But they didn't get into gamers' hands, because cryptocurrency miners found out AMD's GPUs were outstanding for computing hashes (and thus generating bitcoin, litecoin, etc) while Nvidia's sucked dick at it. So the miners bought these like crazy and the prices shot up to $700+ for these cards. At those prices you'd be nuts to not get a GTX 780 Ti instead. So you had a bunch of people buying their cards to run 24/7 at 100% load generating cryptocurrency, and naturally failure rates shot through the roof (though a lot of that can also be attributed to the terrible cooler AMD designed as well as the pretty lousy ones designed by Asus and Gigabyte). Then around mid 2014 it became unprofitable to try to generate litecoins and such with GPUs (now you have to buy dedicated ASICs) since these currencies are designed so that every new coin takes more computational power to mine than the previous one. So eBay became flooded with cheap used R9 280x, R9 290, and R9 290x, so AMD wasn't selling as many new ones now that the street price had finally fallen to the MSRP.

And then September last year just as AMD cards were starting to drop to the suggested MSRP, Nvidia did something really cutthroat: they released the GTX 970, which slightly outperforms the R9 290x at 1080p and slightly loses to it at 1440p, for $330, while also consuming significantly less power. It was a much stronger card relative to its competition than the GTX 770 they released in the previous generation for $400. So now AMD has this reputation as the Mount Vesuvius of heat, their cards are more expensive than Nvidia's game-changing 970, and they don't perform quite as well. They had to drop the R9 290 from $400 to about $250 within a couple of weeks of the 970's release, and the 290x dropped from $500 to $340 or so. By November last year it was common to see R9 290s selling for $220, and even some of the best ones were going for $200 at Thanksgiving (don't expect anything like that this Black Friday since 2015 has seen nothing game-changing like the GTX 970). So AMD is getting mid-tier GPU prices for their high-end shit, which is damn near as good as the $330 GTX 970. Their upper mid tier GPUs like the R9 280 started selling for $160, I mean that was the price of the low end Nvidia shit like the GTX 750 Ti that the R9 280 completely destroyed. They (allegedly) had to cancel the release of their R9 285x because there was no way they could sell it at $275 when they had to sell the better R9 290s at $240. They also ended up firing their CEO.

This really bad string continued into 2015, and they lost enormous market share to Nvidia on the desktop GPU front, and it was even worse in mobile since Nvidia's new architecture was much more power efficient. In February Nvidia came out with their Titan X at $1000, but AMD has a monster GPU of its own in development that they were going to position as the halo product to kill the Titan revive their brand name. So this June, maybe 3-4 days before AMD is about to launch their Fury X at $850, Nvidia went for the jugular again and released the GTX 980 Ti for $650 that was almost indistinguishable from the $1000 Titan X for gaming performance. AMD had to put off the launch like 2-3 weeks, up the clockspeeds on their Fury X, and sell it at $650 instead of the $850 they had planned on that would have made it such a bargain in comparison to the Titan X.

You just gotta admire Nvidia, they have played their hand beautifully. But it ain't over yet, as DirectX12 is here and AMD GPUs are murdering Nvidia's on asynchronous computing in the first DirectX12 game released (Cry Havoc has a thread about it here in the tech forum). This could end up being a big deal. But it might not, since as Nvidia gained market share they also gained hugely in getting PC games optimized for Nvidia cards. It used to be 50/50 whether big new releases would be optimized more for Nvidia or more for AMD, but right now it's almost all Nvidia. Anyways, lots to think about when it comes to buying a system right now. It might make more sense to wait a couple of months to see how DirectX12 shakes out in more games.

[Cry Havoc]

Given how much of an impact asynch could make, I would highly recommend AMD GPUs at the moment. The 290x, 390, 390x, and Fury are all incredibly good values.

[baseline bum]

Given how much of an impact asynch could make, I would highly recommend AMD GPUs at the moment. The 290x, 390, 390x, and Fury are all incredibly good values.

It sucks that there are so few DirectX12 games coming soon. I originally recommended RG wait until November to see what DX12 games look like and whether they're able to usefully employ async compute, but there is nothing releasing then other than possibly Ashes of Singularity. ARK Survival Evolved is getting a DX12 patch this month I think, but that game is such a fucking mess right now I don't think you could draw useful conclusions from it.

Async compute could indeed be a big thing, but I have been burned buying Team Red based on hardware capabilities; ever since the ATi days they seem to have mostly been significantly more powerful than similarly priced Nvidia GPUs on a hardware level, but it didn't always translate to gaming. I still remember how pissed I was I bought a Radeon 8500 over a GeForce 3 Ti 500 based on strength of hardware when the Ti 500's drivers made it perform better in games, it actually pushed me back to consoles. So now I refuse to buy a GPU based on potential, it's gotta be based on performance I can get right now. Especially when GPUs have such short lives at a given performance level when compared to CPUs.

[baseline bum]

RandomGuy, I forgot one other way Nvidia really shit on AMD in 2014. AMD released a lower overhead API called Mantle because their DX11 drivers have a lot of overhead and AMD CPUs are dogshit for highend gaming, so Mantle would relieve CPU bottlenecks. I guess Nvidia took this threat seriously, and drastically reduced CPU overhead in their own DX11 implementation. But Mantle did push Microsoft to build DX12, which is a good thing. Still, Nvidia's response to Mantle made them far better for using with lower end CPUs. Even low end Nvidia cards will outperform upper midrange AMD cards when using a weaker CPU like an i3 thanks to Nvidia fixing their DirectX11 driver overhead in response to Mantle. Thankfully this isn't a problem if you go with an i5 or better for your CPU; an i5 is more than powerful enough for the AMD DX11 driver overhead to not matter.

[baseline bum]

Here is a great comparison of the GPUs you should be looking at for highend 1080p 60 Hz gaming. The left number is current framerate, the right number is average framerate over the entire test run so far for that one game.

vSDQzlKDYq4

lYQT8udtuWM

A big thing to look for is spikes in the frame time graph at the bottom right: those correspond to stutters, or momentary losses of framerate, and can be pretty jarring.

[baseline bum]

Here are similar videos for 1440p

39PHDS-KYf0

HBp4ANrX8rk

[baseline bum]

And here is a pretty clear illustration of why you can't cheap out on the CPU:

zRosY16FSnc

Notice the constant repeated oscillations in the frame time graph with the Pentium G3258 even though it's at 4.5 GHz. I'm not saying you have to go buy an i7-4790k, i7-6700k, or i7-5820k by any means. Core i5 does just as well in the vast majority of games (though this game, Crysis 3, runs better with an i7 in the stage shown; but it's still the hardest game to run even though it's 3-4 years old now).

[baseline bum]

so whats the verdict on the fury cards vs 980gtx

I don't think either makes sense. For 1080p those cards are both enormous overkill and the 970 or 390 are much better buys at $200 less. At 1440p better to spend the extra $100-$150 on a 980 Ti that crushes both.

[Cry Havoc]

so whats the verdict on the fury cards vs 980gtx

Depends on what res you want to play at. Right now you need to spend an insane amount of money to make 4k gaming viable. 1440p you have several cards that are options. 970, 290x, 390, 390x, 980, and fury are all good cards for that.

[TDMVPDPOY]

Depends on what res you want to play at. Right now you need to spend an insane amount of money to make 4k gaming viable. 1440p you have several cards that are options. 970, 290x, 390, 390x, 980, and fury are all good cards for that.

1440 or 4k is my next upgrade screen, what video card should i invest in? i dont need the expensive card, just one thats cheap and can play at those resolutions...

[baseline bum]

1440 or 4k is my next upgrade screen, what video card should i invest in? i dont need the expensive card, just one thats cheap and can play at those resolutions...

You do need an expensive card at those resolutions. :lol

[DJR210]

:lol tard

Razor sharp 4K displayed at a buttery smooth 18 FPS

[baseline bum]

Here is an insanely good deal on an R9 390 right now:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125805

[ElNono]

So I finally put this build together... just ordered everything from Amazon with Prime. It'll be here Thursday/Friday...

PCPartPicker part list (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LCC9D3) / Price breakdown by merchant (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LCC9D3/by_merchant/)

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Amazon) (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54590)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85N PHOENIX-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gab85nphoenixwifi) ($84.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-bls2k4g3d169ds1j) ($37.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-internal-hard-drive-ct250bx100ssd1) ($84.94 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.95 @ Amazon) (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvn960oc4gd) ($219.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 250D Mini ITX Tower Case (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-case-cc9011047ww) ($84.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx430m) ($48.77 @ Amazon)
Total: $867.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-22 01:46 EDT-0400

$57 of that was taxes...

I might swap the GTX 960 with the GTX 970 I have at work. We'll see. I'm only going to be doing 1920x1200 gaming, so the 960 might just work fine. I'm also not sure the G1 Gaming will fit this mini ITX enclosure, that's why I've got the shorter 960. I thought for a while if I wanted to cheap out a bit more and go for micro atx, but the difference is negligible, tbh, and I rather have a smaller box.

I got the wifi-bluetooth mobo since I'm thinking of maybe using a Dual-Shock 4 with this, but I also have a wired xbox 360 controller lying around. What do you guys use for gamepad?

[baseline bum]

So I finally put this build together... just ordered everything from Amazon with Prime. It'll be here Thursday/Friday...

PCPartPicker part list (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LCC9D3) / Price breakdown by merchant (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LCC9D3/by_merchant/)

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Amazon) (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54590)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85N PHOENIX-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gab85nphoenixwifi) ($84.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-bls2k4g3d169ds1j) ($37.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-internal-hard-drive-ct250bx100ssd1) ($84.94 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.95 @ Amazon) (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvn960oc4gd) ($219.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 250D Mini ITX Tower Case (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-case-cc9011047ww) ($84.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx430m) ($48.77 @ Amazon)
Total: $867.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-22 01:46 EDT-0400

$57 of that was taxes...

I might swap the GTX 960 with the GTX 970 I have at work. We'll see. I'm only going to be doing 1920x1200 gaming, so the 960 might just work fine. I'm also not sure the G1 Gaming will fit this mini ITX enclosure, that's why I've got the shorter 960. I thought for a while if I wanted to cheap out a bit more and go for micro atx, but the difference is negligible, tbh, and I rather have a smaller box.

I got the wifi-bluetooth mobo since I'm thinking of maybe using a Dual-Shock 4 with this, but I also have a wired xbox 360 controller lying around. What do you guys use for gamepad?

It looks like the maximum GPU clearance is about 11.4 inches on the 250D while the G1 Gaming 970 is 12.2 inches, so yeah, the G1 Gaming won't fit. I love the 250D, I think it's the best mini ITX case out there. I know you're not an overclocker, but for those who do you can mount a 240mm radiator on the side opposite the GPU for your CPU and if you pick a blower style GPU the 250D offers the best GPU cooling of any mini ITX case I know of. Of course that's not going to really matter with a GTX 960 run at stock since that's like a 120W card, but you could actually throw a blower style 250W reference GTX 980 Ti in there and have it run reasonably cool.

And damn I can't believe how cheap RAM has gotten. I think I paid about $100 for worse quality DDR3 than that when I built my system last year. :pctoss

[DJR210]

$57 of that was taxes...

Does Newegg charge tax in your area? I almost always go Newegg when I can because of no tax here

For controllers.. I prefer the Xbox controllers because of joystick placement.. That new elite Xbox controllers looks pretty sick tbh

[baseline bum]

Does Newegg charge tax in your area? I almost always go Newegg when I can because of no tax here

Yeah, they have a warehouse in New Jersey.

Speaking of newegg, I don't get their shipping at all. If I choose free shipping on something small like a CPU, case fan, mouse, RAM it takes about 7-10 days. If I choose free shipping on a 30 lb case it's there in three.

[DJR210]

Yeah, they have a warehouse in New Jersey.

Speaking of newegg, I don't get their shipping at all. If I choose free shipping on something small like a CPU, case fan, mouse, RAM it takes about 7-10 days. If I choose free shipping on a 30 lb case it's there in three.

That's strange.. they're shipping from the same place?

[baseline bum]

That's strange.. they're shipping from the same place?

My case got sent from Memphis, Tennessee. But still, my 970 came in three days from California. Anything in a bigger box takes three days. Anything small they send UPS SurePost or FedEx SmartPost and it takes 7-10. I don't get why they cheap out on the shipping for small things that won't cost them much to ship but big boxes come fast with what you would think would be much more expensive shipping. And it's not about the dollar value, I got a $250 processor from them and it took 10 days.

[baseline bum]

So I guess moral of the story is don't order things that can fit into a small box from newegg. E.g., case fans, CPU, RAM sticks, mouse, etc, unless you order them with a larger item to get bundled with like a motherboard or GPU. I would have gladly paid tax from amazon to get my CPU in 3 days instead of 10. :lol

[ElNono]

It looks like the maximum GPU clearance is about 11.4 inches on the 250D while the G1 Gaming 970 is 12.2 inches, so yeah, the G1 Gaming won't fit. I love the 250D, I think it's the best mini ITX case out there. I know you're not an overclocker, but for those who do you can mount a 240mm radiator on the side opposite the GPU for your CPU and if you pick a blower style GPU the 250D offers the best GPU cooling of any mini ITX case I know of. Of course that's not going to really matter with a GTX 960 run at stock since that's like a 120W card, but you could actually throw a blower style 250W reference GTX 980 Ti in there and have it run reasonably cool.

And damn I can't believe how cheap RAM has gotten. I think I paid about $100 for worse quality DDR3 than that when I built my system last year. :pctoss

I've seen the radiator setups with the 250D, pretty nifty. I think this is a good, balanced build around the stuff I prefer (small-ish box, low power, SSD). This is basically going to replace my Xbox 360 and eventually the MacMini I have at home.

What gamepad do you use with your PC? I've done some research and apparently the Xbox 360 gamepad is the go to gamepad on Windows. I know you can use the DS4 with some hacks.

[ElNono]

Does Newegg charge tax in your area? I almost always go Newegg when I can because of no tax here

For controllers.. I prefer the Xbox controllers because of joystick placement.. That new elite Xbox controllers looks pretty sick tbh

Yeah, NewEgg has a local warehouse so they charge me.

Are you talking about Xbox One or 360 controllers?

[ElNono]

So I guess moral of the story is don't order things that can fit into a small box from newegg. E.g., case fans, CPU, RAM sticks, mouse, etc, unless you order them with a larger item to get bundled with like a motherboard or GPU. I would have gladly paid tax from amazon to get my CPU in 3 days instead of 10. :lol

Yeah, I love Prime. I could've probably saved $50 on that build by buying parts somewhere else, but 2 day shipping is great, tbh...

[baseline bum]

I've seen the radiator setups with the 250D, pretty nifty. I think this is a good, balanced build around the stuff I prefer (small-ish box, low power, SSD). This is basically going to replace my Xbox 360 and eventually the MacMini I have at home.

What gamepad do you use with your PC? I've done some research and apparently the Xbox 360 gamepad is the go to gamepad on Windows. I know you can use the DS4 with some hacks.

Since I used an XBox 360 before building this system, I just recycled my 9 year old controller. Don't bother with the wireless dongle, it's fucking useless and I always play with the charge kit wire plugged into a USB-2.0 port. I should probably go buy another controller before these go off the market. :lol

[ElNono]

Since I used an XBox 360 before building this system, I just recycled my 9 year old controller. Don't bother with the wireless dongle, it's fucking useless and I always play with the charge kit wire plugged into a USB-2.0 port. I should probably go buy another controller before these go off the market. :lol

Yeah, I still have a wired xbox 360 controller lying around. I'm gonna give that one a try.

[baseline bum]

Man, when did buying a mouse become such a minefield? Back in 2008 I bought the cheapest Logitech wireless mouse + keyboard combo for like $30, and it worked great until a couple of months ago when the middle mouse button stopped working. Now when you go shopping it seems like 80% of mice are those annoying uncomfortable tiny laptop mice, but I found a bigger mouse that felt really good for $20, the Logitech M510. I got it home and fired up a game and every time I moved left or right it registered as diagonal. I picked the piece of shit up and the laser sensor was way on the left side of the mouse. Returned that bitch but still didn't want to spend a ton of money, so I tried the $30 Logitech M705. Same fucking shit, sensor is on the side of the mouse again and the bitch won't register left/right correctly. Returned that fucker too and had to buy the $55 Logitech G602 since it actually has the sensor in the center of the mouse. Damn that pisses me off that I can't game with a $20 mouse anymore. The G602 feels great, but it feels fucking retarded to spend $55 on a mouse. Microsoft does the same bullshit with the off center sensors in their mice too. And I'm not paying $100 for Razer or Sensei, fuck that shit.

[Cry Havoc]

It looks like the maximum GPU clearance is about 11.4 inches on the 250D while the G1 Gaming 970 is 12.2 inches, so yeah, the G1 Gaming won't fit. I love the 250D, I think it's the best mini ITX case out there. I know you're not an overclocker, but for those who do you can mount a 240mm radiator on the side opposite the GPU for your CPU and if you pick a blower style GPU the 250D offers the best GPU cooling of any mini ITX case I know of. Of course that's not going to really matter with a GTX 960 run at stock since that's like a 120W card, but you could actually throw a blower style 250W reference GTX 980 Ti in there and have it run reasonably cool.

And damn I can't believe how cheap RAM has gotten. I think I paid about $100 for worse quality DDR3 than that when I built my system last year. :pctoss

RAM used to be dirt cheap. When I built my system in 2011, I paid $30 for two 4 GB sticks. Then something (I think the Japan tsunami?) wiped out several of the factories and the prices quintupled for a while.

[Cry Havoc]

Man, when did buying a mouse become such a minefield? Back in 2008 I bought the cheapest Logitech wireless mouse + keyboard combo for like $30, and it worked great until a couple of months ago when the middle mouse button stopped working. Now when you go shopping it seems like 80% of mice are those annoying uncomfortable tiny laptop mice, but I found a bigger mouse that felt really good for $20, the Logitech M510. I got it home and fired up a game and every time I moved left or right it registered as diagonal. I picked the piece of shit up and the laser sensor was way on the left side of the mouse. Returned that bitch but still didn't want to spend a ton of money, so I tried the $30 Logitech M705. Same fucking shit, sensor is on the side of the mouse again and the bitch won't register left/right correctly. Returned that fucker too and had to buy the $55 Logitech G602 since it actually has the sensor in the center of the mouse. Damn that pisses me off that I can't game with a $20 mouse anymore. The G602 feels great, but it feels fucking retarded to spend $55 on a mouse. Microsoft does the same bullshit with the off center sensors in their mice too. And I'm not paying $100 for Razer or Sensei, fuck that shit.

I got a Corsair M65 Vengeance for $26 on slickdeals. Great claw grip mouse. I think I still prefer my deathadder, though. But yeah, reliability in mice seems to have completely tanked. Probably because they're putting a lot of features on them these days so build quality gets sacrificed.

[baseline bum]

I got a Corsair M65 Vengeance for $26 on slickdeals. Great claw grip mouse. I think I still prefer my deathadder, though. But yeah, reliability in mice seems to have completely tanked. Probably because they're putting a lot of features on them these days so build quality gets sacrificed.

Claw grip is too weird to me, I'm used to palm grip.

[ElNono]

Man, when did buying a mouse become such a minefield? Back in 2008 I bought the cheapest Logitech wireless mouse + keyboard combo for like $30, and it worked great until a couple of months ago when the middle mouse button stopped working. Now when you go shopping it seems like 80% of mice are those annoying uncomfortable tiny laptop mice, but I found a bigger mouse that felt really good for $20, the Logitech M510. I got it home and fired up a game and every time I moved left or right it registered as diagonal. I picked the piece of shit up and the laser sensor was way on the left side of the mouse. Returned that bitch but still didn't want to spend a ton of money, so I tried the $30 Logitech M705. Same fucking shit, sensor is on the side of the mouse again and the bitch won't register left/right correctly. Returned that fucker too and had to buy the $55 Logitech G602 since it actually has the sensor in the center of the mouse. Damn that pisses me off that I can't game with a $20 mouse anymore. The G602 feels great, but it feels fucking retarded to spend $55 on a mouse. Microsoft does the same bullshit with the off center sensors in their mice too. And I'm not paying $100 for Razer or Sensei, fuck that shit.

I'm still using the MS Intellimouse from a decade ago at work. I'm dreading it might die someday.

I got me a Logitech M315 for the Sammy tablet and while it's nice for a laptop mice, it has all the problems you describe.

For home, I ended up buying a wired GE Mouse from Target (like $8). It doesn't have the side back/forward buttons, but otherwise, it's not bad at all, and it has a center laser sensor.

[baseline bum]

I'm still using the MS Intellimouse from a decade ago at work. I'm dreading it might die someday.

I got me a Logitech M315 for the Sammy tablet and while it's nice for a laptop mice, it has all the problems you describe.

For home, I ended up buying a wired GE Mouse from Target (like $8). It doesn't have the side back/forward buttons, but otherwise, it's not bad at all, and it has a center laser sensor.

It seems like Logitech and Microsoft purposefully offset the sensor on their normal mice to make you buy their expensive gaming mice. Blows me away that a decent mouse needs to cost as much as a hard drive or a full set of RAM. I checked Target too, but I have to have wireless and all they had was Logitech and Microsoft.

[DJR210]

Yeah, NewEgg has a local warehouse so they charge me.

Are you talking about Xbox One or 360 controllers?

360, but interested in that new elite one. Looks like a sick controller.

Honestly, I think my favorite controller would have to be the Razer Onza, but that piece of shit won't last for more than a month. I had to take two of them back to the store for different issues, but the controller was great for the month it worked :lol

Maybe the Steam controller comes in and wins me over despite the fact it looks like a steaming piece of shit.

[ElNono]

It seems like Logitech and Microsoft purposefully offset the sensor on their normal mice to make you buy their expensive gaming mice. Blows me away that a decent mouse needs to cost as much as a hard drive or a full set of RAM. I checked Target too, but I have to have wireless and all they had was Logitech and Microsoft.

GE has a wireless mice there too, but it's for fucking midget hands... smh

[ElNono]

360, but interested in that new elite one. Looks like a sick controller.

Honestly, I think my favorite controller would have to be the Razer Onza, but that piece of shit won't last for more than a month. I had to take two of them back to the store for different issues, but the controller was great for the month it worked :lol

Maybe the Steam controller comes in and wins me over despite the fact it looks like a steaming piece of shit.

I really like the xbox 360 controller.... I played with the DS4, it's really slick too... the touchpad area is pretty dope, but I suspect it's not really supported under windows.

The stock Xbox One controller feels cheap as shit, tbh...

[DJR210]

I really like the xbox 360 controller.... I played with the DS4, it's really slick too... the touchpad area is pretty dope, but I suspect it's not really supported under windows.

The stock Xbox One controller feels cheap as shit, tbh...

Yeah, can't go wrong with a wireless Xbox controller for Windows. Its what I use. Plus, all those other Xbox controllers you have laying around will connect to the receiver also.

[ElNono]

Yeah, can't go wrong with a wireless Xbox controller for Windows. Its what I use. Plus, all those other Xbox controllers you have laying around will connect to the receiver also.

Do you have a legit MS receiver or one of those chinese knockoff?

[baseline bum]

Do you have a legit MS receiver or one of those chinese knockoff?

Can you get a Chinese knockoff that isn't a big fucking 2006-esque dongle?

http://i.imgur.com/JruoDr4.jpg

[ElNono]

Can you get a Chinese knockoff that isn't a big fucking 2006-esque dongle?

http://i.imgur.com/JruoDr4.jpg

Can't really tell from the pictures, tbh... they all seem the same.

[DJR210]

Do you have a legit MS receiver or one of those chinese knockoff?

Fuck that Chinese shit.. I got a real one (which is probably still Chinese shit)

Heard good and bad about the knock offs

[DJR210]

Can you get a Chinese knockoff that isn't a big fucking 2006-esque dongle?

http://i.imgur.com/JruoDr4.jpg

Nope. Those are the only ones out. MS doesn't offer one by itself so you already know if it's fake.

[ElNono]

You can snag the legit Microsoft one for $20, but I heard mixed stuff about Windows 10 support (can anyone confirm). I have a wired controller too, and I might just stick with that.

[diego]

Rarely come over here anymore, but read RG and bb go back and forth made me think of my aging 4 year old rig. I spent about 1400 at the time, put most of the money in the i7, it still runs well. some time soon ill pick up a proven mid range card for a couple hundred and squeeze out some more years. I think game graphics have come to a point where, at full hd resolution you dont need anything near the top 8gb+ cards, those are just for dick measuring contests and billionaires with 4kscreen(s) and basically 1-2 games per year that are made almost just for that purpose. Im only just beginning to really have to lower settings in AAA games, though Im accepting sub-60 fps some times, in most games its not an issue, unless the game is buggy to begin with. I think its just not as important as it was in the 90s to have a top flight rig for gaming, at full hd you can get a rig well over the rec specs of 95% of games coming out in the next 3-4 years without spending 500 dollars on a video card. though they are wonderful toys and its natural and necessary to push that edge...

[baseline bum]

Rarely come over here anymore, but read RG and bb go back and forth made me think of my aging 4 year old rig. I spent about 1400 at the time, put most of the money in the i7, it still runs well. some time soon ill pick up a proven mid range card for a couple hundred and squeeze out some more years. I think game graphics have come to a point where, at full hd resolution you dont need anything near the top 8gb+ cards, those are just for dick measuring contests and billionaires with 4kscreen(s) and basically 1-2 games per year that are made almost just for that purpose. Im only just beginning to really have to lower settings in AAA games, though Im accepting sub-60 fps some times, in most games its not an issue, unless the game is buggy to begin with. I think its just not as important as it was in the 90s to have a top flight rig for gaming, at full hd you can get a rig well over the rec specs of 95% of games coming out in the next 3-4 years without spending 500 dollars on a video card. though they are wonderful toys and its natural and necessary to push that edge...

I honestly wouldn't buy a $200 video card today. For $250 (or $230 after rebate) you can get an R9 290 that will completely destroy a $200 GTX 960 or R9 380.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131569

Or for $300 (or $280 after rebate) you can get pretty much the best reasonable 1080p card out there.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125805

If you have a Sandy Bridge i7 from 2011 then it's more than powerful enough to not bottleneck these cards. Or do you have one of those monster Sandy Bridge-E i7 like a 3930k or 3960x? Those are still really killer.

Though if you're running a high end older GPU like a 680, 670, 7970, or 7950 I wouldn't even bother with a GPU upgrade until Nvidia's Pascal and AMD's Artic Islands cards come out in late 2016, since they'll be moving to 16nm from the current 28nm that GPUs have been stuck on forever. Now if you're running something like a 580 or a 6970 then you'd get a huge performance bump from an R9 290.

[diego]

yeah thanks for the advice thats my plan, wait a bit longer for the next gen and get something current gen for cheap, I wont be winning any dick measuring contests but it will let me keep gaming a good 3-4 more years with good settings

[DJR210]

700.00+ GPU Club, fuck you broke ass peasants

[baseline bum]

700.00+ GPU Club, fuck you broke ass peasants

Buying a $700 GPU is stupid tbh when a $350 one is beating it a few months later.

[DJR210]

You can snag the legit Microsoft one for $20, but I heard mixed stuff about Windows 10 support (can anyone confirm). I have a wired controller too, and I might just stick with that.

Only way you're getting an official Microsoft receiver is by buying the Xbox controller for Windows, it comes bundled. Only way you're getting an official one by itself is used.

As for Windows 10 support, mine is working flawlessly with Windows 10. Plug and play.

[baseline bum]

Only way you're getting an official Microsoft receiver is by buying the Xbox controller for Windows, it comes bundled. Only way you're getting an official one by itself is used.

As for Windows 10 support, mine is working flawlessly with Windows 10. Plug and play.

I got my dongle by itself from Microsoft, but this was in like 2009.

[ElNono]

Only way you're getting an official Microsoft receiver is by buying the Xbox controller for Windows, it comes bundled. Only way you're getting an official one by itself is used.

As for Windows 10 support, mine is working flawlessly with Windows 10. Plug and play.

Thanks!

(this post from my new rig, while Win 8.1 is downloading :D)

[Wild Cobra]

So I finally put this build together... just ordered everything from Amazon with Prime. It'll be here Thursday/Friday...

PCPartPicker part list (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LCC9D3) / Price breakdown by merchant (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LCC9D3/by_merchant/)

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Amazon) (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54590)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85N PHOENIX-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gab85nphoenixwifi) ($84.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-bls2k4g3d169ds1j) ($37.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-internal-hard-drive-ct250bx100ssd1) ($84.94 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.95 @ Amazon) (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvn960oc4gd) ($219.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 250D Mini ITX Tower Case (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-case-cc9011047ww) ($84.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx430m) ($48.77 @ Amazon)
Total: $867.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-22 01:46 EDT-0400

$57 of that was taxes...

I might swap the GTX 960 with the GTX 970 I have at work. We'll see. I'm only going to be doing 1920x1200 gaming, so the 960 might just work fine. I'm also not sure the G1 Gaming will fit this mini ITX enclosure, that's why I've got the shorter 960. I thought for a while if I wanted to cheap out a bit more and go for micro atx, but the difference is negligible, tbh, and I rather have a smaller box.

I got the wifi-bluetooth mobo since I'm thinking of maybe using a Dual-Shock 4 with this, but I also have a wired xbox 360 controller lying around. What do you guys use for gamepad?

Well, your GTX 960 blows away my GTX 950m in my new laptop, but I like my i7-4720HQ over your i5. It's a littl;e over 10% faster.

Recently, I purchased a MSI GT70 2QF Leopard Pro. Cost me $1,050. No SSD, but 8 GB ram, 2 on the video, and a 1TB HD.

I'm making a trip to Fry's today. If they have the right memory, I'll go to 16 GB. maybe throw in a SSD as well.

[Wild Cobra]

http://us.msi.com/pdf/GP70%20Leopard%20Pro-486.pdf

[ElNono]

Well, your GTX 960 blows away my GTX 950m in my new laptop, but I like my i7-4720HQ over your i5. It's a little over 10% faster.

Recently, I purchased a MSI GT70 2QF Leopard Pro. Cost me $1,050. No SSD, but 8 GB ram, 2 on the video, and a 1TB HD.

I'm making a trip to Fry's today. If they have the right memory, I'll go to 16 GB. maybe throw in a SSD as well.

I love the i7, but it's another extra $100 on top for the desktop version (which does have more cache). Not so sure about the 4720HQ being that much better though. Same cache, does have HT, but it's 100Mhz slower per core.

I would suspect it's slightly faster on Multithreaded apps, but slightly slower in single core performance.

That said, all these intel CPUs are really great, tbh, and for games, which is primarily what I'm gonna use it for, it's plenty for now.

I probably could've gone with a 2GB 960, but the 4GB was like $30 more and it's a good way to future proof it a bit for a small fee.

All in all, I like the setup. What I need to get is a Y splitter for the fan connector. This mini-itx mobo only has one system fan plug, but the case has two fans, and while the temperatures are fine with just one fan and the stock cooler (CPU ~45º on idle), I wouldn't mind having both hooked up in case one fails.

BTW, the Corsair 250D case is bigger than I thought, but it's still highly recommended. Fairly spacious, and really well put together. Love the slide in drive bays (you get room for two HDDs and two SSDs), once installed, almost everything can be accessed without tools. It has one big, silent fan on the front, and another smaller on the side. All the fans exhausts (including GPU side) come with dust filters. Just a really nice case.

[ElNono]

http://us.msi.com/pdf/GP70%20Leopard%20Pro-486.pdf

It looks really nice. I do highly recommend an SSD these days, even if just for the system. Once you're used to SSD's speed, it's hard to go back to HDDs, tbh

[baseline bum]

Well, your GTX 960 blows away my GTX 950m in my new laptop, but I like my i7-4720HQ over your i5. It's a littl;e over 10% faster.

Recently, I purchased a MSI GT70 2QF Leopard Pro. Cost me $1,050. No SSD, but 8 GB ram, 2 on the video, and a 1TB HD.

I'm making a trip to Fry's today. If they have the right memory, I'll go to 16 GB. maybe throw in a SSD as well.

It's a good time to buy DDR3 RAM, it's cheap as hell right now and will probably do nothing but go up in price as DDR4 becomes the new standard and DDR3 becomes scarce. I'd definitely try to max my RAM out before the end of the year if using DDR3.

[baseline bum]

All in all, I like the setup. What I need to get is a Y splitter for the fan connector. This mini-itx mobo only has one system fan plug, but the case has two fans, and while the temperatures are fine with just one fan and the stock cooler (CPU ~45º on idle), I wouldn't mind having both hooked up in case one fails.


Damn, 45C idle? That seems really high, as my Xeon E3 runs about 30C idle on the same stock cooler. But I also have it in a pretty big case (Phanteks Enthoo Pro).

You definitely need that side exhaust hooked up. It should lower your GPU temps too, people with that case say their GPU temps improve a lot with the exhaust setup when they're using cards that exhaust the heat into the case.

[baseline bum]

I would suspect it's slightly faster on Multithreaded apps, but slightly slower in single core performance.


I'd imagine the 4720HQ is significantly faster in workstation use, as the Passmark score is about 1000 points higher. But yeah, for gaming the 4590 should be quite a bit better thanks to being able to run at 3.5 GHz on all cores at load without throttling while the 4720HQ's max is 3.6 GHz on single and dual core loads. I'd imagine the full quadcore load turbo clock is a lot closer to the 2.6 GHz base clock so it can hit that 47W power target.

[ElNono]

Damn, 45C idle? That seems really high, as my Xeon E3 runs about 30C idle on the same stock cooler. But I also have it in a pretty big case (Phanteks Enthoo Pro).

You definitely need that side exhaust hooked up. It should lower your GPU temps too, people with that case say their GPU temps improve a lot with the exhaust setup when they're using cards that exhaust the heat into the case.

Don't forget your Xeon doesn't have a GPU... but yeah, I want to hook up the other fan too...

[ElNono]

The 960, SSD and HDD, all report around 35C... that's why I'm not super worried...

[baseline bum]

Don't forget your Xeon doesn't have a GPU... but yeah, I want to hook up the other fan too...

Yeah, but didn't you disable your iGPU in the BIOS anyways?

[baseline bum]

The 960, SSD and HDD, all report around 35C... that's why I'm not super worried...

Damn the 960 is a cool running card. My 970 idles around 38C and that's with a 200mm intake fan blowing on it. :lol

[ElNono]

Yeah, but didn't you disable your iGPU in the BIOS anyways?

I do, but even if you turn it off, the jam packed transistors are still there, so it's bound to be hotter anyways. Your Xeon really is the best solution, tbh.

I don't think the temps are too out of range, and I'll make sure I don't go over 85C on load. Probably hooking up the splitter cable will do it.

[baseline bum]

I do, but even if you turn it off, the jam packed transistors are still there, so it's bound to be hotter anyways. Your Xeon really is the best solution, tbh.

I don't think the temps are too out of range, and I'll make sure I don't go over 85C on load. Probably hooking up the splitter cable will do it.

The iGPU is still there on my CPU too almost certainly, it just can't be enabled.

[ElNono]

Actually, I was wrong. The CPU does idle at 35C...


http://i59.tinypic.com/zxjm2o.png

[baseline bum]

Actually, I was wrong. The CPU does idle at 35C...


http://i59.tinypic.com/zxjm2o.png

Nice, I know the 250D does a great job cooling for a mini ITX case, but with only a single intake fan plugged in that's really impressive. I'm surprised your GPU fans are running at 1170 RPM at 28C though, I thought most Maxwell cards came standard with fans turned completely off below certain temperatures. Mine by default don't turn on until 60C, but I changed the fan profile to have them turn on at 45C and ramp up based on the temperature.

[ElNono]

Nice, I know the 250D does a great job cooling for a mini ITX case, but with only a single intake fan plugged in that's really impressive. I'm surprised your GPU fans are running at 1170 RPM at 28C though, I thought most Maxwell cards came standard with fans turned completely off below certain temperatures. Mine by default don't turn on until 60C, but I changed the fan profile to have them turn on at 45C and ramp up based on the temperature.

I haven't tweaked any settings on it, and only has two windforce fans. It's about 75F ambient temperature here, so that's about the right temp.

[Wild Cobra]

It looks really nice. I do highly recommend an SSD these days, even if just for the system. Once you're used to SSD's speed, it's hard to go back to HDDs, tbh

As you may remember, I work a job where I'm siting on my ass at work waiting for trouble calls to fix equipment. One of my coworkers has the dragon, with the SSD. I is so nice to see his boot.

Don't blink!

I didn't plan to buy this, initial. I bought a hotspot so could use my old laptop at work. The hotspot doesn't downgrade in security for it. I decided then, as the computer was becoming less useful in other ways t replace it. I didn't even plan, or need such a sweet computer when I bought it. My minimum standard was the full HD screen. I gravitated toward the higher end, because this older laptop I have is still mostly usable. It was $1,300 new, over a decade ago.

Since then, I found "Kerbal Space Program." The game becomes very CPU intensive if you build rockets, stations, etc with over 500 parts. Mine starts to get unmanageable at about 2,200 parts, and crashes sometimes. I think is the memory mostly... running out if it. I know I should check the resources, but I'm just using it as an excuse to put an 8 gig module in the empty memory slot. Anyway, if I knew I would buy and like this game as much as I do, I would have paid the nearly $2k for the MSI Dragon.

The CPU in my new tower is a little faster yet, but it only has the 720 Graphics card. I have contemplated buying a very fast GPU card and putting that 720 in my XP Lenovo computer. It will actually fit in the mini desktop case.

Most people's computer will not handle building and launching this:

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x262/Wild_Cobra/Kerbal/Station%20009%20T%20in%20Hanger_zpsju35mutl.png

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x262/Wild_Cobra/Kerbal/Station%20009%20on%20Runway_zpszav3dzhu.png

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x262/Wild_Cobra/Kerbal/Station%20009%20T%20plus%2010%20seconds_zpsojibhun l.png

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x262/Wild_Cobra/Kerbal/Station%20009%20T%20plus%2040%20seconds_zpsr76z7gr c.png

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x262/Wild_Cobra/Kerbal/Station%20009%20T%20plus%20105%20seconds_zpsadzeck 2n.png

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x262/Wild_Cobra/Kerbal/Station%20009%20T%20plus%20180%20seconds_zpsgo4wmt g8.png

In orbit, ready for refueling and off to another planet:

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x262/Wild_Cobra/Kerbal/Station%20009%20Orbitting%20rocket%20side%20in%20s un_zpsopeb2olh.png

I made a stable orbit with so little fuel remaining. I used the last of it to clean up the orbit a little.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x262/Wild_Cobra/Kerbal/Station%20009%20200k%20orbit%20periapsis_zpsbb6jnh xm.png

[ElNono]

:lol that's a lot of rockets...

I ended up installing Win 8 UEFI, and upgraded all the way to 10... UEFI seems to boot even faster, tbh

[Wild Cobra]

I'd imagine the 4720HQ is significantly faster in workstation use, as the Passmark score is about 1000 points higher. But yeah, for gaming the 4590 should be quite a bit better thanks to being able to run at 3.5 GHz on all cores at load without throttling while the 4720HQ's max is 3.6 GHz on single and dual core loads. I'd imagine the full quadcore load turbo clock is a lot closer to the 2.6 GHz base clock so it can hit that 47W power target.

How many applications use more than two cores?

[baseline bum]

How many applications use more than two cores?

If you're compressing video for instance, that should make great use of all 8 virtual cores of an i7. For gaming most stuff is optimized for 4 cores though. I'm not sure about Kerbal Space Program, that game looks amazing but I still haven't tried it yet (I'm going through the Fallout games before the new one releases in a couple of months).

[Wild Cobra]

:lol that's a lot of rockets...

I ended up installing Win 8 UEFI, and upgraded all the way to 10... UEFI seems to boot even faster, tbh

This came with 8.1. Knew I would hate it... Hated it... Installed 10 as soon as it came out.

Saw your hardware monitor.

When I load the game and launch my newest "monster," my memory usage jumps from under 2 GB to almost 6 GB. The hard drive is twice as busy, looks like it's doing a virtual memory of about 3 GB for the game. The CPU or GPU aren't even breaking a sweat. I think if I add memory, it will make a huge difference.

Well, off to Fry's in a half hour...

Bye for now.

[Wild Cobra]

If you're compressing video for instance, that should make great use of all 8 virtual cores of an i7. For gaming most stuff is optimized for 4 cores though. I'm not sure about Kerbal Space Program, that game looks amazing but I still haven't tried it yet (I'm going through the Fallout games before the new one releases in a couple of months).

Oh...

This laptop is absolutely sweet processing Netflix! No funky video articulations like my bluray players have.

[ElNono]

This came with 8.1. Knew I would hate it... Hated it... Installed 10 as soon as it came out.

Saw your hardware monitor.

When I load the game and launch my newest "monster," my memory usage jumps from under 2 GB to almost 6 GB. The hard drive is twice as busy, looks like it's doing a virtual memory of about 3 GB for the game. The CPU or GPU aren't even breaking a sweat. I think if I add memory, it will make a huge difference.

Well, off to Fry's in a half hour...

Bye for now.

If it's swapping out to disk, sure, 16GB will do it nicely

[ElNono]

Man, 2K16 looks AMAZING on this PC... I have the 360 version also that I've been playing, and it's missing a ton of shit...

Also the max temps after playing the game: CPU 61C, GPU 65C... that's not bad...

[baseline bum]

Man, 2K16 looks AMAZING on this PC... I have the 360 version also that I've been playing, and it's missing a ton of shit...

Also the max temps after playing the game: CPU 61C, GPU 65C... that's not bad...

Does 2k16 even stress a modern GPU? I know the recommended GPU is a 750 Ti and on 2k15 I had to put 8xMSAA and downsample from 1440p to get the GPU usage reasonably high on my 970 when running at 60 fps.

[baseline bum]

ElNono man, do you feel 2k16 is much of an upgrade over 2k15? I wasn't that impressed with 2k15 and how long it took to get into an offense. I couldn't execute The Beautiful Game on it, even after Parker got hurt. :cry

[ElNono]

I kinda like it, tbh... but I liked 2k15 in general... that said, I don't run plays as much...

Coming from the 360, game just looks amazing... love that broadcast camera...

Now, the 360 version does feel a lot more like 2k15 (you could do steals under Pro with your PG almost every other possession), but this one doesn't let you get away with that...

[ElNono]

Just found the video settings :lol

Turns out I'm playing in all High, except hair and 4xMSAA...

At one point the camera was shaking like crazy while shooting freebies, and I thought it might be stuttering, but no, it's an option in the game (which I promptly turned off)...

[Wild Cobra]

If it's swapping out to disk, sure, 16GB will do it nicely

Thanx.

I just got home from Fry's, well sort of.

I had a small indiscretionary adventure...

On my way back, I stopped at the Spearmint Rhino (http://spearmintrhino.com/). My plan was to have just one drink on my way home, but I met a girl that really caught my attention.

Anyway, I'm not going to put the memory in until after I sleep.

[Wild Cobra]

The extra 8GB is installed, only a slight increase in performance and I disabled the virtual memory too. Since these changes made no big difference, I set the graphics back to maximum quality. Still not decrease.

I wonder, could I be hitting a wall at the bridge between the CPU and memory?

Anyway, during launch in a 1600 x 900 window:

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x262/Wild_Cobra/Kerbal/Task%20Manage%20while%20KSP%20running_zpssrckiyzc. png

[ElNono]

you should get a gpu load monitor and see if it's the GPU bottlenecking... the rest looks like it's not that stressed, tbh

something like this:
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

[baseline bum]

I like MSI Afterburner myself for measuring stuff like GPU load. It comes with Riva Tuner Stats Server. From MSI Afterburner click the Settings button (it looks like a small gear in the bottom left), click the Monitoring tab, and then you can set all kind of stats from GPU usage, GPU temperature, CPU usage on each core, RAM used, video memory used, fan speeds, etc. Click onto the OnScreen Display tab to set what button you want to use to toggle the stats server display on/off. Here is what the OSD looks like:

http://i.imgur.com/lSu1AAJ.jpg

It's a great tool I always use when I first get a new game to decide what graphics and physics settings I want to run to get the best possible image quality while also getting a locked 60 frames per second. Also what overclock I want to put on my GPU.

[Wild Cobra]

you should get a gpu load monitor and see if it's the GPU bottlenecking... the rest looks like it's not that stressed, tbh

something like this:
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

When I load up the GPU monitor I have, it is normally between 20% to 50% with occasional spikes to the 99%.

[baseline bum]

When I load up the GPU monitor I have, it is normally between 20% to 50% with occasional spikes to the 99%.

I think that's to be expected in KSP. It doesn't look at all graphically demanding but looks to be incredibly CPU demanding. Too bad they don't use Nvidia PhysX to allow your graphics card to do the physics calculations and let the CPU just deal with game logic, but I guess that would be screwing over people who bought AMD cards. With a AAA game like Witcher 3 which is really intense graphically you'd have your GPU at 99% the whole time with a CPU as powerful as the one you have. Well, unless you bought a super powerful GPU like a GTX 980 Ti or something.

[Wild Cobra]

The 4600 is maintaining about 10%, the 950M around 72% CPU load, when in the hanger screen with no ship. Now I have Firefox and two instances of the monitor too, but I suspect these are insignificant. The memory controller load of the 950M is 54 to 55%, and 515 MB.

Funny, ship loaded in hanger, 950M now peaks at 58% lead, 30% memory controller load, 551 MB. 4600 down to 4% lead. I will assume it's because the animated background elements are no longer in play, and assume the 4600 isn't doing much, if anything.

Ship on runway, ready to launch, idle, GPU spiking between 2% and 40%, memory controller spiking up to 9%, 573 MB.

Launching...

GPU load all over the place, but the biggest spike I see is ... 99%. Seldom gets there. Mostly peaking under 80%. Memory usage went only to 595 MB, and the controller load peaking under 20%.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x262/Wild_Cobra/Kerbal/Monster%20launch%20GPU%20stats_zpsralpmvps.png

I don't think it's a GPU issue. Rendering setting and screen size made no difference in performance. I think I have a data bottleneck someplace.

[Wild Cobra]

I think that's to be expected in KSP. It doesn't look at all graphically demanding but looks to be incredibly CPU demanding. Too bad they don't use Nvidia PhysX to allow your graphics card to do the physics calculations and let the CPU just deal with game logic, but I guess that would be screwing over people who bought AMD cards. With a AAA game like Witcher 3 which is really intense graphically you'd have your GPU at 99% the whole time with a CPU as powerful as the one you have. Well, unless you bought a super powerful GPU like a GTX 980 Ti or something.

Yep, I think it's all in the game coding. It uses too many text files. I don't know if PhysX has anything to do with it or not. Never learned this stuff.

My tower only has the GT 720 in it, and doesn't seem to be any slower for the game. It has a slightly faster processor, the i7-4790 at 3.6 ghz. Only running 8 GB on it to. I think I'll put more ram in it, and disable virtual memory. See if it behaves any better.

I looked at it yesterday before going to Fry's and was going to upgrade it to 32GB since it has four slots. Well, the salesman told me it might only go 16 GB if it wasn't Win 7 professional. Forgot if I had home or profession it. Did a little research, and it will go 32 GB.

[ElNono]

Your CPU load on the other screens doesn't look that bad. Memory seems not to really go over 4GB, so adding more RAM isn't going to change that.

It's entirely possible that the game engine just isn't coded to push hardware to the limit. That's pretty common when you're not using a commercial engine like Unreal, etc.

You might just need to bug the devs to optimize their code.

[Wild Cobra]

Your CPU load on the other screens doesn't look that bad. Memory seems not to really go over 4GB, so adding more RAM isn't going to change that.

It's entirely possible that the game engine just isn't coded to push hardware to the limit. That's pretty common when you're not using a commercial engine like Unreal, etc.

You might just need to bug the devs to optimize their code.

LOL...

I want more ram anyway so I can disable the virtual memory, and still do several tasks.

Fry's has 32 GB of Viper 3 1600mhz for $224.99. I remember when it would have cost $795 to max out my Amiga with 16 MB.

[baseline bum]

LOL...

I want more ram anyway so I can disable the virtual memory, and still do several tasks.

Fry's has 32 GB of Viper 3 1600mhz for $224.99. I remember when it would have cost $795 to max out my Amiga with 16 MB.

$225 is actually a pretty terrible price for a 32GB DDR3-1600 kit. Here's a good one for $145. RAM prices have fallen a lot in the last 12 months.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231490

[ElNono]

Disabling VM is not a good idea on modern OS'es. If anything, you want to have a faster drive, let me explain why.

Modern OSes will use up all the RAM you put at their disposal. That's because they use any unused RAM as disk cache. But it will release it to apps as soon as is needed.

Furthermore, OSes in this day and age suspend and swap out processes that are hidden and are not doing compute or server tasks. This is a good thing. It gives active apps have more RAM and compute cycles. Once all active processes do eat up all RAM, then you'll inevitably hit paging, and things will slow down (including the fact there's not enough RAM for a disk cache, which really makes paging slow).

Now imagine if there's no VM available. Processes can be suspended, but they must remain in memory. That means more memory fragmentation and potentially less RAM available to all processes, including the front most process.

I say "imagine", because you really can't turn off Virtual Memory on Windows. What you're allowed to control (whether you have a pagefile or not, and what size is it) is only for "private commited" memory, one "kind" of memory, but will likely cause other type of memory (ie: mapped memory) to swap out more often. That's why, if you're really short on memory and you suspect you'll page out, a faster drive makes more sense.

Here's a good writeup about the misconceptions of Virtual Memory on Windows:
http://azius.com/blog/pagefile-yes1/

[Wild Cobra]

$225 is actually a pretty terrible price for a 32GB DDR3-1600 kit. Here's a good one for $145. RAM prices have fallen a lot in the last 12 months.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231490

Well, did you look a the timing and latency difference?

I like the Viper better. It's access is faster.

I took 2 x 4 GB out of the system with an 11 CAS timing. The Vipers have 9 and I put 4 x 8 GB in, and the ones in your link have 10.

[Wild Cobra]

Disabling VM is not a good idea on modern OS'es. If anything, you want to have a faster drive, let me explain why.

Modern OSes will use up all the RAM you put at their disposal. That's because they use any unused RAM as disk cache. But it will release it to apps as soon as is needed.

Furthermore, OSes in this day and age suspend and swap out processes that are hidden and are not doing compute or server tasks. This is a good thing. It gives active apps have more RAM and compute cycles. Once all active processes do eat up all RAM, then you'll inevitably hit paging, and things will slow down (including the fact there's not enough RAM for a disk cache, which really makes paging slow).

Now imagine if there's no VM available. Processes can be suspended, but they must remain in memory. That means more memory fragmentation and potentially less RAM available to all processes, including the front most process.

I say "imagine", because you really can't turn off Virtual Memory on Windows. What you're allowed to control (whether you have a pagefile or not, and what size is it) is only for "private commited" memory, one "kind" of memory, but will likely cause other type of memory (ie: mapped memory) to swap out more often. That's why, if you're really short on memory and you suspect you'll page out, a faster drive makes more sense.

Here's a good writeup about the misconceptions of Virtual Memory on Windows:
http://azius.com/blog/pagefile-yes1/

Well, if I have problems, I'll change back.

The Tower is nice now that it has 32GB in it. I haven't tried the game in it yet. I copied the ship file over to a USB stick, and will do so later. Once I installed the four Vipers, I made sure they worked, then powered down and transplanted my 500 GB Barracuda from my Lenovo XP computer so I have all those files on hand. This tower now has the original 1 TB and DVD writer, an added Bluray player, and the extra 500 GB Baracda. Took be a while to figure out the permissions, even in admin mode since I never did this before, it was tricky for me to see the locked drive and make it available to admin and my user profile.

Now I have a Lenovo desktop with no HD that I need to find a new home for. It has a win 7 license, but not installed. I bough it with XP. I don't need the extra 500 GB. I might just copy everything over I want to keep, and put the HD back in, format it, and install win 7. Who knows, maybe I'll just dedicate it as a backup drive?

I wonder if the 2.5 HD from my decade old laptop will plug~n~play with it?

[Cry Havoc]

Well, did you look a the timing and latency difference?

I like the Viper better. It's access is faster.

I took 2 x 4 GB out of the system with an 11 CAS timing. The Vipers have 9 and I put 4 x 8 GB in, and the ones in your link have 10.

Latency timings are probably the last bottleneck in the world you'll experience with RAM. You are talking about paying almost $100 more for *fractions* of a second. It's not worth it, you could easily pour that into say, a SSD, and have much better results.

[ElNono]

You definitely overpaid... here's a PNY 32GB DDR3-1600, Cas 9 kit for $139.99:

http://www.amazon.com/PNY-1600MHz-PC3-12800-Desktop-MD32768K4D3-1600-X9/dp/B00KMXUOOW

Here's the Crucial Ballistix, also Cas 9:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007HAXMGA

then again, it's your money, tbh...

[Wild Cobra]

Latency timings are probably the last bottleneck in the world you'll experience with RAM. You are talking about paying almost $100 more for *fractions* of a second. It's not worth it, you could easily pour that into say, a SSD, and have much better results.

Well I prefer for one, to support the local community than mail order anyway. We ave enough loss of jobs without mail order cheapskates making it worse.

I also didn't want to wait and I hate UPS.

[Wild Cobra]

You definitely overpaid... here's a PNY 32GB DDR3-1600, Cas 9 kit for $139.99:

http://www.amazon.com/PNY-1600MHz-PC3-12800-Desktop-MD32768K4D3-1600-X9/dp/B00KMXUOOW

Here's the Crucial Ballistix, also Cas 9:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007HAXMGA

then again, it's your money, tbh...

Yes, and Amazon has the same memory I bought for $175.

[Wild Cobra]

why do u need more then min 8gb-16gb ram wild cobra?

u running a server or someshit at home?

Because it can be done.

[Cry Havoc]

Well I prefer for one, to support the local community than mail order anyway. We ave enough loss of jobs without mail order cheapskates making it worse.

I also didn't want to wait and I hate UPS.

I wasn't taking issue with your place of purchase, I was commenting on how little of a performance difference you see with latency differentials. Which is to say, practically none.

[Wild Cobra]

I wasn't taking issue with your place of purchase, I was commenting on how little of a performance difference you see with latency differentials. Which is to say, practically none.

Sometimes, every little bit helps.

A system isn't any better than it's weakest link. I think for 32 Gigs, the price difference is acceptable.

[ElNono]

So I got me the Y cable for the fans, now the side fan is working too and CPU is idling at 35C...

Also snagged a cheap Chinese XBox wireless receiver, working like a champ on Win10 :tu

[DJR210]

Because it can be done.

Well then 4-way SLI 980Ti or your PC sucks

[Wild Cobra]

Well then 4-way SLI 980Ti or your PC sucks

LOL...

$640...

I don't need that type of graphics speed, but I sometimes have dozens of large applications open.

[baseline bum]

This Transformers game looks awesome.

wb2j-imD9PU

[baseline bum]

Well then 4-way SLI Titan X or your PC sucks

fify

[Wild Cobra]

Your CPU load on the other screens doesn't look that bad. Memory seems not to really go over 4GB, so adding more RAM isn't going to change that.

It's entirely possible that the game engine just isn't coded to push hardware to the limit. That's pretty common when you're not using a commercial engine like Unreal, etc.

You might just need to bug the devs to optimize their code.

The game uses Unity 4, only supporting a single thread. I doubled my game performance of my tower by disabling hyperthreading in the BIOS. I discovered the game was maxing out at 15.04% CPU usage. I assume unity was using 12.5%, fully utilizing one logical core, and other aspects of the game operating in other cores. After changing the computer from eight logical cores to four, matching the four physical cores, I now get double the framerate and the game is capable of utilizing more than 27% of the CPU.

I can't disable hypertrhreading in my laptop. It has the latest E175AIMS.10H Bios version, but no thread switch. In searching, I found claims of editing the NVRAM without the BIOS, but it required downloading executables I have a hard time trusting, and for a different MSI computer.

If anyone knows how to change my laptop from eight logical cores, to four logical cores, please do tell.

It's the MSI GP70 2QF. Also known as the Leopard Pro.

[Wild Cobra]

Too bad they don't use Nvidia PhysX to allow your graphics card to do the physics calculations and let the CPU just deal with game logic, but I guess that would be screwing over people who bought AMD cards.



Up until Unity 5.0 the engine was using a fairly outdated version of Nvidia's PhysX physics middleware. Unity 5.0 included version 3.3, which is standard among Triple-A games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_%28game_engine%29#Unity_4

There is a reported rumor in the KSP forum that an updated version of the game that will use unity 5. I read it allows actual multithreading and 64 bit instead of 32 bit in the game memory usage.

KSP isn't using the CPU for the graphics, but for the calculation of stress, heat, etc. of the individual parts. It doesn't start slowing down until the CPU has to do the calculations for several hundred parts.

My tower has a very fine processor, but an inferior graphics card compared to my laptop, and it doesn't even break a sweat for the game. It's the GeForce GT 720.

[baseline bum]

That's annoying when a game is parallelized so poorly turning off HT makes it run better. Far Cry 4 is like that too, your performance is dominated by one core. Thankfully most games run better with hyperthreading on.

[Wild Cobra]

At least the CPU in my computer is in 5th place for single thread benchmarks:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

[baseline bum]

Apparently all RAM isn't the same for gaming. It turns out when you're CPU bound the speed of your RAM can make a noticeable difference, or in the case of Ryse Son of Rome, a night and day 50 fps difference.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5ejBlynOV8

[Wild Cobra]

Apparently all RAM isn't the same for gaming. It turns out when you're CPU bound the speed of your RAM can make a noticeable difference, or in the case of Ryse Son of Rome, a night and day 50 fps difference.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5ejBlynOV8

Yep.

And here some joker thinks I had no reason to buy CAS 9 RAM.

When memory starts constraining you, every little bit helps.

[baseline bum]

Yep.

And here some joker thinks I had no reason to buy CAS 9 RAM.

When memory starts constraining you, every little bit helps.

Sucks you need a Z series or X series board to run above 1600 MHz though (or 2133 MHz on Skylake). To be fair for years gaming benchmarks have shown RAM speed doesn't matter at all, and it's true for the vast majority of games which are going to be GPU bound unless you're running an extremely high end GPU, e.g., at least a $650 one, or a low end CPU. But almost no one benchmarks things like memory with low end CPUs to force a CPU bottleneck, so this performance gain when CPU bound has slipped through the cracks in gaming hardware sites.

[ElNono]

I would argue there's zero reason for Ryse Son of Rome to show a 50 fps drop... I suppose it has to do with physics, which is largely CPU bound... but still, sounds like a lack of optimization...

[baseline bum]

I would argue there's zero reason for Ryse Son of Rome to show a 50 fps drop... I suppose it has to do with physics, which is largely CPU bound... but still, sounds like a lack of optimization...

Ryse shows all kinds of weird shit. It actually drops 10% in framerate on a 980 at 1080p ultra when run at PCIE-2.0x16 vs PCIE-3.0x16 when no other major game shows anything more than maybe a 0.5% difference. I wonder if Star Citizen will be like that too, being another unoptimized CryTEK game.

[Wild Cobra]

I sure hope when KSP v 1.05 is released, they fix the slowing down because of the single core usage.

[Wild Cobra]

Here are my CPU Passmark results with hyperthreading on and off:

http://i.imgur.com/XxMDmSK.png