The 'Build Me A PC' Thread

[hal1]

Soo I'm currently running a Intel 3570k with a gforce 750ti and 16 gigs of ram. Its 3-4 years old and I'm a heavy smoker so I need to upgrade. So i bought a gforce gtx 980 and my power supply doesn't have the connectors for it and I need to up grade anyway.So do you guys have any suggestions? Anandteck my usual go to for advice is telling me to buy a 4 core nonhyperthreaded processor (which is what I have) although there recommend unit is a bit faster but not much. Well I'm thinking buy a ssd (which I don't have) and a power supply that will support my new vid card. Or buy a case motherboard etc and build a new sys. What would advice be?

[Trippy]

Your CPU is fine if you want to keep it and the motherboard. If you want to upgrade everything you can stick with another 4-core i5 K processor or switch to a non-K if you don't overclock like Anandtech is recommending. If I had that CPU (which I actually do), I would personally just go with the SSD and new power supply route.

Edit: with

[Venkman]

I got the 970, too, only it was the Asus not the Gigabyte.  I used to have the 760 but Black Desert blew it up.  The 970 is bausome.  Coupled with a new Corsair 750 watt power supply, I can run everything on super high mega supreme gfx and not a peep out of my computer. 

Yea two days into the 970 I'm very happy with. Finally getting around to migrating my HD to the SSD. What prompted that was while The Division went from great looking to absolutely stunning, it now takes like six times longer to load. At first I thought it was just because of some bleed over from the Tuesday maintenance. But then I got to wondering if now the game at max settings is loading the kind of texture files they keep hidden except for the special guests.

[schild]

Soo I'm currently running a Intel 3570k with a gforce 750ti and 16 gigs of ram. Its 3-4 years old and I'm a heavy smoker so I need to upgrade. So i bought a gforce gtx 980 and my power supply doesn't have the connectors for it and I need to up grade anyway.So do you guys have any suggestions? Anandteck my usual go to for advice is telling me to buy a 4 core nonhyperthreaded processor (which is what I have) although there recommend unit is a bit faster but not much. Well I'm thinking buy a ssd (which I don't have) and a power supply that will support my new vid card. Or buy a case motherboard etc and build a new sys. What would advice be?

Try ecigs.

[Rendakor]

Surprised that comment wasn't a link to either the thread here or your vaping website.

[Viin]

I decided to upgrade from a EVGA 960 SSC to an EVGA 970 FTW. I ran a free DirectX 11 GPU benchmark tool (Unigine Heaven) to quantify the difference a bit, mostly so I could (post-purchase) justify the additional cost.

EVGA 960 SSC
Avg FPS: 39.7
Min/Max FPS: 8-100
Temp: 68-70*C
Price: $189.99 (Newegg)

EVGA 970 FTW
Avg FPS: 63.8
Min/Max FPS: 15-126
Temp: 70-75*C
Price: $364.98 (Amazon)

Just in case anyone is struggling with which one to get. If anyone wants a slightly used 960, let me know!

[Flood]

As others have said - it's time. 

I'm upgrading from a Phenom II X4 960T (Zosma).  My budget allowance isn't that high - but I have a couple of components I don't think I need to swap out right now and it'll save me a little.  My goal is just to update my rig so I can play current gen games (The Division, Mad Max, Dying Light for example) @ 1920 x 1080.  I don't need ultra high / all eye candy turned on but I'd like to be able to run on "better than medium" settings in games with relatively demanding reqs, and not have to completely rebuild for another couple of years.  I'm not planning on doing any serious over-clocking.  Anything beyond the basic "click here and here" in the UEFI BIOS whatever and I start to get a bit lost.


Keeping

PSU: CORSAIR CX series CX600 600W
GPU: Sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2GB GDDR5 *see below


Tentative component list

CPU:         Intel I5-6500 (Skylake)
Cooling:    ?? (Silverstone Tek Low-Profile Heatsink CPU Cooler maybe?)
Mobo:       Gigabyte LGA1151 H110 Micro ATX DDR4 - GA-H110M-A
Memory:    Patriot Memory VIPER 4 Series 2400MHz (PC4 19200) 8GB
SSD:         Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
2nd drive:  Western Digital Blue 1TB Desktop HDD - WD10EZEX
Case:         Silverstone Tek Micro-ATX / Mini-ITX - PS08B
OS:           Windows 10 Pro


First - I know my video card needs to be updated, badly.  But, at least in the next 2-3 months, I don't plan on going out and buying a slew of new games.  For what I play the most right now (Warframe) it does alright, and my thought process is hold on a few more months and see what happens with GPU pricing / scene and then upgrade later into the year.  I could probably drop the 1TB HD too, as I have a WD 2TB external HD (USB 3.0) that I have pretty much everything backed up on now in preparation for the upgrade, but since I'm putting it all together anyway and it's only 45-ish bucks I thought I might as well include it.  I do need a new case as my existing one is pretty beat up and it's kinda cheap.  This is one choice I'm really debating on what to buy.  I just want a minimalist case with good cable management and ventilation; no LED lights, lit up fans or any of that crap that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.  And since I'm still running Windows 7 Pro I figure I better upgrade to Windows 10 while I have everything blow apart anyway.

Any input or advice welcomed.  The above setup comes to about $630.00 (well...pre-tax and shipping) and I'd like to try and stay in the 600-700 range.

 

[Venkman]

So I'm really not an expert. I'm sort of a info leach on this thread But I would say even for Warframe you'd do well to upgrade the video card first. Heh I know you said that wasn't your priority, but unless I missed something, nothing is coming down the pike so awesome that it's going to radically drop GPU prices enough to wait. Even just a GTX 960 at $180 would see you well for the next few years I'd bet.

But I do hear ya on everything being good enough except the case. I had the same thing a couple years back. Everything was great except airflow and noise. I'm not a quiet PC nut but damn it got real nice not having a jet engine at my feet.

Back then I bought an Antec Nine Hundred Two V3 Mid Tower. I didn't buy it for the lights. Couldn't care less either. I bought it for the big honkin' fans. Then I threw a water cooler in there for the CPU and tied the hell up out of the wires.

Probablly overkill but I spent a year prior practically my prior case open all the time and big floor fan pushing air through it. So I overcompensated . Also, I didn't pay anywhere close to $350 for it. Probably half that or something. I will say it is a bit tight now with the big ass GTX 970 I just installed. But I don't plan to ever run more than just one vidcard, so there's still plenty of airflow.

[apocrypha]

You'll absolutely get the most bang-for-your-buck upgrading the video card first. A GTX960 is 3 tiers above your R7 260X, and if you can stretch to a 970 then you'll be set.

[Sky]

The correct answer in this thread is pretty much always buy a 970.

For good reason.

[Cyrrex]

Unless you have a 980.  In which case you should sell it and buy TWO 970s.

[SurfD]

So is the general consensus then that ATI doesnt have a dog in the race?  Last I heard, their newer line of cards was benchmarking higher then NVIDIA, or is that only in the "Crazy high price range" versions?

[Cyrrex]

Trippy is probably more up to date on this stuff, but I think there are a handful of pretty decent ATI cards in this high end range, variations of the 290 or whatever it is...but the 970 is both faster and a bit cheaper, so it seems like a no brainer.  Every gen has the sweet spot card, and this gen it is more obvious than usual.

[apocrypha]

Also ATI's drivers have always sucked. Always. Every single person I know who's had an ATI card over the last 5 years has complained about some game or other not working at some point.

[Sky]

My last ATI card was teh amazing 9800pro (had double the memory bandwidth path of anything else for a couple generations!).

Now my method is just to get the highlights of nvidia releases, when they hit an engineering sweet spot. Happens just about every time I'm feeling the need to upgrade, which is nice (8800, 460 SLI, 970).

[Trippy]

So is the general consensus then that ATI doesnt have a dog in the race?  Last I heard, their newer line of cards was benchmarking higher then NVIDIA, or is that only in the "Crazy high price range" versions?

NVIDIA is still faster and draws less power than AMD in the current gen stuff at the top end (980 Ti vs Fury X).

[Trippy]

First - I know my video card needs to be updated, badly.  But, at least in the next 2-3 months, I don't plan on going out and buying a slew of new games.  For what I play the most right now (Warframe) it does alright, and my thought process is hold on a few more months and see what happens with GPU pricing / scene and then upgrade later into the year.

So there are new GPU architectures coming out this year, likely around June. However it's unknown when the mid to low end cards will be available. So you might be waiting till next year for a new GPU if you want to get the latest technology.

[Sky]

If the target is 1080p, does it matter?

[Trippy]

Maybe? If nothing else the price of the current-gen stuff should drop in price when their replacements are shipping. E.g. whatever NVIDIA Pascal-based GPU replaces the Maxwell-based 960 GTX will cause the 960 GTX to drop in price.

[KallDrexx]

Why does power draw matter anyway for a desktop?  Are people really concerned about the cost of running a desktop that much? 

I'm personally looking at upgrading to the ATI equivalent of the 970 (can't recall offhand which ones it is since it's been a month+ since I did research due to massive paycuts) since they seemed to match the 970 in performance and cost, but my monitor supports Freesync and GSync monitors are stupid expensive. 

[Trippy]

Why does power draw matter anyway for a desktop?  Are people really concerned about the cost of running a desktop that much? 

It's more about the heat.

I'm personally looking at upgrading to the ATI equivalent of the 970 (can't recall offhand which ones it is since it's been a month+ since I did research due to massive paycuts) since they seemed to match the 970 in performance and cost, but my monitor supports Freesync and GSync monitors are stupid expensive. 

AMD R9 390.

[Sky]

This is the quietest my computer has been in...since 3d cards became a thing? So yeah, I'm feeling the 970 is the best video card I've ever had.

[apocrypha]

Why does power draw matter anyway for a desktop?  Are people really concerned about the cost of running a desktop that much? 

As others have said it's primarily about heat and therefore noise. However a PC running constantly at say 400W will draw 9.6 kWh per day. UK electricity is about 20p/kWh which would be £700 per year. That's not insignificant.

Now obviously a gaming PC isn't going to be running 24/7, neither is it going to be drawing 400W constantly, but personally our energy bills are a huge part of our monthly outgoings. We pay more for gas & electricity than we do for our mortgage. Bringing those bills down is a major concern for us so yeah, power draw of the PCs in this house is something we take seriously.

[KallDrexx]

Why does power draw matter anyway for a desktop?  Are people really concerned about the cost of running a desktop that much? 

As others have said it's primarily about heat and therefore noise. However a PC running constantly at say 400W will draw 9.6 kWh per day. UK electricity is about 20p/kWh which would be £700 per year. That's not insignificant.

Now obviously a gaming PC isn't going to be running 24/7, neither is it going to be drawing 400W constantly, but personally our energy bills are a huge part of our monthly outgoings. We pay more for gas & electricity than we do for our mortgage. Bringing those bills down is a major concern for us so yeah, power draw of the PCs in this house is something we take seriously.

That's 700 Euros for the whole pc running though, not the graphics card alone.  So unless the R9 390 is double the power consumption (and even then) I would be surprised if the power savings is negligible and you will probably save more by putting your AC up one degree during the year.

[Chimpy]

A decent GPU will definitely pull the majority of your PCs power these days unless you use an AMD FX series processor.

[Sky]

Why does power draw matter anyway for a desktop?  Are people really concerned about the cost of running a desktop that much? 

As others have said it's primarily about heat and therefore noise. However a PC running constantly at say 400W will draw 9.6 kWh per day. UK electricity is about 20p/kWh which would be £700 per year. That's not insignificant.

Now obviously a gaming PC isn't going to be running 24/7, neither is it going to be drawing 400W constantly, but personally our energy bills are a huge part of our monthly outgoings. We pay more for gas & electricity than we do for our mortgage. Bringing those bills down is a major concern for us so yeah, power draw of the PCs in this house is something we take seriously.

That's 700 Euros for the whole pc running though, not the graphics card alone.  So unless the R9 390 is double the power consumption (and even then) I would be surprised if the power savings is negligible and you will probably save more by putting your AC up one degree during the year.

It's more about the heat.

[KallDrexx]

I understand that.  Apoc just tried to make a case for the monetary reasons, which doesn't make much sense in my mind.

[apocrypha]

As others have said it's primarily about heat and therefore noise.

Literally the first line of my post.

[Sky]

No need to get hot about it.

[apocrypha]

 

[Xanthippe]

I want to buy a new graphics card for my old system. It's a Dell XPS 8300 from 2011 (I think it's an 8300).

The cpu is a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz

Midtower case, 460 watt power supply.

Do you think I can put a NVidia GTX 970 4G in it? That's the upper limit on price that I'm considering.

Is there another card I ought to consider? (It currently has an AMD card in it, the first time I've used one, and I have always hated it - I like NVidia better).

Thanks.

[MahrinSkel]

The PSU recommendation for a 970 GTX is 500W, with twin 6-pin connectors. Without knowing exactly what your PSU is, I can't tell for sure, but if that Dell didn't ship with a dual 6 pin card, it probably doesn't have the connectors (a quick search for the XPS 8300 PSU turns up lots of people making that exact complaint, only one 6-pin connector).

--Dave

[Trippy]

I want to buy a new graphics card for my old system. It's a Dell XPS 8300 from 2011 (I think it's an 8300).

The cpu is a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz

Midtower case, 460 watt power supply.

Do you think I can put a NVidia GTX 970 4G in it? That's the upper limit on price that I'm considering.

Is there another card I ought to consider? (It currently has an AMD card in it, the first time I've used one, and I have always hated it - I like NVidia better).

Thanks.

It might work but it depends on the specs of your power supply. If you tell us your current card that might tell us more about what your power supply can do.

The reference (non-overclocked, stock speeds) GTX 970 requires 145W of power which translates into 12.08A on the/a 12V line.

If this is your power supply:

http://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Dell-Systems-Compatible-Numbers/dp/B009G28TOW

then it's likely it'll work. That one has three 12V lines:



and the two 6-pin connectors are likely on either the 18.0A or 16.0A line. If your power supply only has a single 6-pin connector that may still work with a splitter as long as it puts out enough amps.

[Xanthippe]

Thank you for the replies! I have been long frustrated with my current card (since purchase, I think). 

My budget has an absolute upper limit of $350 although I'd be happy hitting half that but if the card is twice as good, or lasts me twice as long, I'm fine spending the entire amount. If I'm looking at the wrong card, or there is a better one for me, I'm all ears.

My current card is AMD Radeon HD 6450

This is my power supply:

[MahrinSkel]

That should work. The only catch is that if it doesn't, your budget doesn't leave any room for replacing the PSU.

If it were me, I'd roll the dice, worst case I'd underclock the card until I could upgrade the PSU.

--Dave