The 'Build Me A PC' Thread

[apocrypha]

What are some thoughts on gaming mice

Stay away from Razer mice. I bought a DeathAdder after finding out they fit my hand very well, and it's fine as mice go but the software is a fucking nightmare. Some twat decided that storing your settings "in the cloud" was a good idea, which is just pure fucktardery for the sake of it. And the drivers update regularly and when they do there's a 50% chance that they'll fuck things up. The last update made my mouse start double-clicking instead of single-clicking all the time so I just ended up uninstalling the drivers entirely.

Razer are the AMD of mice.

[rattran]

I'm still using a Deathadder, works fine without the stupid and shitty Razer software.

[Nebu]

I'm still using a Deathadder, works fine without the stupid and shitty Razer software.

This.  I love my deathadder so long as I don't use their messy-ass software.

[MisterNoisy]

I picked up a Logitech G302 and quite like it.  If you're looking for a no-frills high-DPI gaming mouse, it isn't bad at all.

[justdave]

I'll second that, I picked up a Logitech G602 and have had literally zero issues or complaints. Had it about...Six months? Maybe a little more? Long enough to have put it through its paces.

I have to say, I've been putting off upgrading for far too fucking long, and going from a Core2duo 1.3GHz - $GB - GTS450 to an i7 quad 4GHz - 16GB - GTX960 is like being sent into the future. Why did I wait so goddamn long? WHY?!

[MahrinSkel]

So, I remember somebody being all in one of the tech threads (maybe Android?) about plans for "flat memory model" architectures, computers that were based on a non-volatile storage as fast as DDR, but as cheap and compact as flash, so there would no longer be any need for a distinction between storage and RAM. Is this maybe what he wasn't talking about?

http://hothardware.com/news/intel-and-micron-jointly-drop-disruptive-game-changing-3d-xpoint-cross-point-memory-1000x-faster-than-nand

tldr; That first paragraph. Cheap, fast, non-volatile storage that renders not only existing storage and RAM, but the system architectures (hardware and software) of all existing computers, obsolete.

--Dave

EDIT: Just as a quick example, the 64 bit memory address limit is 1 TB. This memory could blow past that right out of the gate, where we thought we had a decade or more of 64 bit computing.

[Chimpy]

It is still going to be more expensive than NAND for quite a while, and it is still enough slower than DRAM that it won't make DRAM obsolete.

[Jimbo]

Ended up getting a Logitech keyboard and mouse. G710 Blue Mechanical Gaming Keyboard with Cherry MX Blue Switches & G402 Hyperion Fury FPS Gaming Mouse. Both have been great! Thanks all!

[Yegolev]

So, I remember somebody being all in one of the tech threads (maybe Android?) about plans for "flat memory model" architectures, computers that were based on a non-volatile storage as fast as DDR, but as cheap and compact as flash, so there would no longer be any need for a distinction between storage and RAM. Is this maybe what he wasn't talking about?

It is what I was talking about, but I don't remember being about it.  Also I was working for HP at the time and wasn't specifically addressing Intel or Micron.  The main point from my view is how it will alter computing architectures, since the article is at least on-target about the fact that the bottleneck is in feeding data into processor cores.  It's actually a bottleneck from RAM, too, but maybe they can pack things closer and alleviate some of the issues with NUMA by reducing distance.

[Hoax]

Favorite SSD's right now? Bang for buck / midrange stuff doesn't need to be cutting edge best.

Also what coolers are people liking these days? I've done a couple of Corsair enclosed liquid cooling systems lately and lots of big honking air towers over the years. I need something that will just run forever since its a computer that will probably be untouched for 8+ yrs.

[Chimpy]

I am a fan of Crucial SSDs. Good price, good performance, good reliability.

[MahrinSkel]

I'll echo the Crucial, the 256gb in this laptop has been performing like a champ, with nearly no errors and completely transparent handling and correction of them when they have happened (if I didn't occasionally glance at those stats, I wouldn't even know).

Somebody did a destruction test of SSD's (rewriting on them non-stop for months), Crucial MX100 drives like mine outperformed all but the highest-end datacenter-oriented competitors (that cost 3-5 times as much). Nothing else aimed at the consumer market was even close.

--Dave

[MisterNoisy]

Favorite SSD's right now? Bang for buck / midrange stuff doesn't need to be cutting edge best.

Also what coolers are people liking these days? I've done a couple of Corsair enclosed liquid cooling systems lately and lots of big honking air towers over the years. I need something that will just run forever since its a computer that will probably be untouched for 8+ yrs.

Crucial BX100 or Samsung EVO 850 are the most popular right now for value.  As for coolers, the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO is still the one to beat for general purpose use and light overclocking on a budget.

[Chimpy]

Isn't the 850 the ones that have a controller issue that can lead to data loss?

[MisterNoisy]

Isn't the 850 the ones that have a controller issue that can lead to data loss?

No idea - I haven't heard/read anything to that effect, though.

[Hoax]

Ok looking like:

Fractal R5

Right now I'm leaning this way over the Antec P100 after looking over some reviews. The P100 just looks a bit too budget.

SeaSonic SS-660

Until hell freezes over I'll never buy anything but SeaSonics and I love their stuff so much I don't mind going with their high end line. Its mega overkill for now but gives room for upgrades 2-6 years down the road.

Asus Z97-A

The user demanded ASUS, needed to find something that didn't look like too much of a rip off. Reviews seem ok, usb 3.1 might be relevant considering this is probably a computer that will be used for 8 yrs.  

i7-4790K

This was where they got me. I meant for this to be a i5 Haswell build all along but it just didn't seem like I was saving THAT much money and the user didn't mind spending it sooooo? I'm going to price out a Haswell version when I get to the end and look again.

Cooled by this Noctua NH-U12S

I trust Noctua and think highly of their stuff. I have also considered one of those closed liquid cooling setups but I'm still just more comfortable with air cooled tower/pipe setups. I might be outdated in my thinking?

Crucial MX200

This was $10 more than the BX100 and online info suggested it was a bit faster. Why not then amirite?

WD 500gb HD

They don't need much space and more/better space can be thrown in later.

***

Where'd I fuck up?

I was given an under $1500 budget but the computer wont be used for any heavy lifting. Just basic workstuff (calendar, billing, etc), web stuff and a lot of email including mass emails. I was originally aiming for a sub $1k Haswell build (which would still probably be overkill) but prices kept nudging me and then I was given the good ASUS mobo requirement.

[Chimpy]

I think the MX line has the disk level encryption chip in it now so that is probably worth the 10 bucks right there.

I have been running on an MX100 for a little over 3 years now and have had zero problems.

[MisterNoisy]

Ok looking like:

Fractal R5

Right now I'm leaning this way over the Antec P100 after looking over some reviews. The P100 just looks a bit too budget.

SeaSonic SS-660

Until hell freezes over I'll never buy anything but SeaSonics and I love their stuff so much I don't mind going with their high end line. Its mega overkill for now but gives room for upgrades 2-6 years down the road.

Asus Z97-A

The user demanded ASUS, needed to find something that didn't look like too much of a rip off. Reviews seem ok, usb 3.1 might be relevant considering this is probably a computer that will be used for 8 yrs.  

i7-4790K

This was where they got me. I meant for this to be a i5 Haswell build all along but it just didn't seem like I was saving THAT much money and the user didn't mind spending it sooooo? I'm going to price out a Haswell version when I get to the end and look again.

Cooled by this Noctua NH-U12S

I trust Noctua and think highly of their stuff. I have also considered one of those closed liquid cooling setups but I'm still just more comfortable with air cooled tower/pipe setups. I might be outdated in my thinking?

Crucial MX200

This was $10 more than the BX100 and online info suggested it was a bit faster. Why not then amirite?

WD 500gb HD

They don't need much space and more/better space can be thrown in later.

***

Where'd I fuck up?

I was given an under $1500 budget but the computer wont be used for any heavy lifting. Just basic workstuff (calendar, billing, etc), web stuff and a lot of email including mass emails. I was originally aiming for a sub $1k Haswell build (which would still probably be overkill) but prices kept nudging me and then I was given the good ASUS mobo requirement.

Looks good.  I looked to see if you could shrink it down to mATX, but you wouldn't save much and you'd lose USB 3.1.  Cooler is super overkill, but nothing wrong with that.  I'm with you on air vs water - water is fine, but I like my bigass heatsinks more - my experience with water coolers (Corsair H60 in my mITX box) is that the noise is more 'hissy' than a traditional air cooler.

You could probably save a fair bit by swapping to a non-K processor and H97, since this doesn't seem like its going to be overclocked anyway, but Asus doesn't make any USB3.1 H97 boards.  If you don't need USB 3.1, here's a board for $100, and the 4790 is about $30 cheaper than the -K model.

[Trippy]

Ok looking like:

Fractal R5

Right now I'm leaning this way over the Antec P100 after looking over some reviews. The P100 just looks a bit too budget.

Fractal makes good stuff. I'm currently using an ARC in my gaming PC. I don't like front doors as much anymore which is why I went with that line.

SeaSonic SS-660

Until hell freezes over I'll never buy anything but SeaSonics and I love their stuff so much I don't mind going with their high end line. Its mega overkill for now but gives room for upgrades 2-6 years down the road.

Sure.

Asus Z97-A

The user demanded ASUS, needed to find something that didn't look like too much of a rip off. Reviews seem ok, usb 3.1 might be relevant considering this is probably a computer that will be used for 8 yrs.  

i7-4790K

This was where they got me. I meant for this to be a i5 Haswell build all along but it just didn't seem like I was saving THAT much money and the user didn't mind spending it sooooo? I'm going to price out a Haswell version when I get to the end and look again.

I'd still go with an i5. I doubt they would need HT and the extra features on the i7. Skylake is also out too though models are limited.

Cooled by this Noctua NH-U12S

I trust Noctua and think highly of their stuff. I have also considered one of those closed liquid cooling setups but I'm still just more comfortable with air cooled tower/pipe setups. I might be outdated in my thinking?

That's an old reliable model (I have multiples of that one) but there are better designs/models out now. E.g. if you want to stick with Noctua this one cools better: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA25V3252057

Crucial MX200

This was $10 more than the BX100 and online info suggested it was a bit faster. Why not then amirite?

MX200 has greater write endurance as well.

[Trippy]

Isn't the 850 the ones that have a controller issue that can lead to data loss?

No idea - I haven't heard/read anything to that effect, though.

Yes the Pros can trigger a Linux kernel bug which can cause data loss:

https://blog.algolia.com/when-solid-state-drives-are-not-that-solid/

The EVOs have had multiple slowdown issues:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9196/samsung-releases-second-840-evo-fix

[apocrypha]

What would people advise for a processor for a new PC atm? I almost exclusivly play Minecraft, which is heavily processor bound, but is also single-threaded. However I do also want much better performance when recording/streaming than my venerable i7-920 gives me. I also play on Linux a lot, if that makes any difference. The other main workout my system gets is Photoshop. Would I be right in thinking that a Skylake CPU would be a good choice for me?

Secondly, dust is a real problem in our house. It's an old house, we're often doing decorating, repair, etc work on it, plus we have a cat and we don't vacuum nearly often enough. Is it time for me to start looking at water cooling options?

[Trippy]

<Obligatory what's your budget question here>

Skylake is good -- e.g. the 4 GHz i7-6700K is faster (more efficient) than the 4 GHz Core i7-4790K -- but it's an entirely new platform with a new socket, new memory and new chipsets. Consequently component selection is limited and typically more expensive, though things like the new DDR4 memory has fallen in price so it's not so much more expensive now than the DDR3 equivalent.

My next gaming PC build planned for this Christmas will be a Skylake but I'm budgeting for a fairly high-end system (i.e. i7-6700K and will likely get a NVIDIA GTX 980 Ti).

Depending on your budget it may be better to stick with Haswell/LGA 1150 components stuff -- i.e. either the i5-4690K or the i7-4790K.

[apocrypha]

Budget is £1000 and I'm going to stick with my GTX970 for now. Might hold off for a month or so though and see what new 1151 motherboards appear and let the prices settle a bit.

Some rough addings up lead me to think I could look at the 6700K, not that I'm planning on overclocking, but my last processor has lasted me about 5 years so it'd be nice if this one did too

One thing I don't really understand about the Z170 motherboards I've looked at is this stuff about things sharing the M.2 slot or something? I'll probably have at least 4 drives in it, 2 existing SSDs, 1 new SSD and a couple of HDDs. Am I going to have problems trying to connect all of that?

[Trippy]

One thing I don't really understand about the Z170 motherboards I've looked at is this stuff about things sharing the M.2 slot or something? I'll probably have at least 4 drives in it, 2 existing SSDs, 1 new SSD and a couple of HDDs. Am I going to have problems trying to connect all of that?

If you aren't using the M.2 slot you'll have 6 SATA ports. If you use the M.2 slot it's not clear, even after taking a look through the manual, if you'll have 4 or 5 SATA ports available.

[Sky]

not that I'm planning on overclocking, but my last processor has lasted me about 5 years so it'd be nice if this one did too

When planning a new build is when I start playing around with oc on my old pc :) Let the mofo burn! (after backing up, of course)

[Trippy]

Secondly, dust is a real problem in our house. It's an old house, we're often doing decorating, repair, etc work on it, plus we have a cat and we don't vacuum nearly often enough. Is it time for me to start looking at water cooling options?

Water cooling isn't going to do much to help the dust issue if the radiator and fans are inside the case which is the trend these days. And setting up a water cooling solution for your GPU may be difficult if it deviates from the reference design. You are probably better off getting a case that has good dust filters on all the air intakes.

[apocrypha]

OK, awesome, so the M.2 thing won't be an issue for me and I can stick to ait cooling. Good to know!

And this PC will still have a purpose Sky, it's either going to my wife (if she can find space for it on/near her desk) or a friend

[Jimbo]

My house is full of dust for some reason, even with vacuum and swifter action. I got 2 box fans and 2 decent furnace filter and some bungee cords and made my own air filter machine for my rooms. I need to buy furnace filters in bulk (should change ever month).

[luckton]

Putting together a build for downsizing my current rig into a Mini-ITX case.

These are the new parts I'm looking to acquire:

Case: Cooler Master Elite 130
CPU: i5-6500
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-Z170N-Gaming 5
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR4-2133
Power: Cooler Master 550W
CPU Cooling: Cooler Master Seidon 120V

Parts that I'll be porting from the old rig:

Video: Radeon HD 6850
Boot drive: Samsung EVO 250GB SSD
Storage drive: Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB
DVD: HP DVD/CD burner

The hope is being able to reduce the amount of heat output so that the Mrs. can work in the office/den doing her crafts stuff without feeling like being in a sweatshop. I'm hoping to fulfill her desire while doing a generational upgrade at the same time. Thoughts?

[Engels]

Wait, you're building a computer around a mini case in order to lessen heat? I hope you don't mean -inside- the box, but cause mini computers are like mini ovens. They can be especially hard on conventional hard drives. Source: me.

[luckton]

Outside the box.Wife hates room heat generated by the computer I have now.

[Trippy]

Putting together a build for downsizing my current rig into a Mini-ITX case.

These are the new parts I'm looking to acquire:

Case: Cooler Master Elite 130
CPU: i5-6500
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-Z170N-Gaming 5
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR4-2133
Power: Cooler Master 550W
CPU Cooling: Cooler Master Seidon 120V

Parts that I'll be porting from the old rig:

Video: Radeon HD 6850
Boot drive: Samsung EVO 250GB SSD
Storage drive: Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB
DVD: HP DVD/CD burner

The hope is being able to reduce the amount of heat output so that the Mrs. can work in the office/den doing her crafts stuff without feeling like being in a sweatshop. I'm hoping to fulfill her desire while doing a generational upgrade at the same time. Thoughts?

What's the CPU in your current system?

You basically have 3 options for reducing the heat the computer outputs into the room:

* Move the computer outside of the room and access it either via very long cables or over the network.

* Vent the heat from the computer outside of the room

* Build a computer that consumes less power.

Assuming the first two options are not practical you'll need to build a computer with lower power consumption for the CPU, GPU and hard drive(s) (mainly). Intel makes a number of lower power consumption CPUs but they are hard to find and can be pricey and they obviously aren't as fast. For GPU you'll want something that's not only power efficient and doesn't put out much heat when in use but also draws minimal power when idle (assuming you leave your computer on most of the time).

[luckton]

Right now I'm running an i5 750 (Lynnfield).

[apocrypha]

Isn't that a high-end motherboard aimed at overclocking? Which would generate more heat? If you don't want to overclock you can save a chunk of money on that.

And to reduce heat there is no option other than consuming less power, other than piping the heat somewhere else. It's physics - better case cooling and CPU cooling just transfers the heat more effectively away from the case/processor and into the room. Is opening windows out of the question?

[luckton]

Is opening windows out of the question?

SW Florida. Maybe during the three days out of the year it gets cold, but yeah, that's it.

I don't plan at overclocking at all. The choice of mobo came down to filtering Mini-ITX boards on the market at the moment that support the new Skylake proc that also has built-in wifi. There's a couple other options available in that regard..will take another look.