The 'Build Me A PC' Thread

[Sky]

I still enjoy putting together a computer and wish I could do it as much as I used to years back. Most of my frustration comes from my own anticipation, I want to play shiny new games on a fast machine NAOW!

And I've only built one full new computer in the last, I don't even know. 8 years? The last significant upgrade I did was a partial guts replacement (mobo/cpu/ram/hd), and that was several years ago.

Still runs Mordor maxed without sweating, though. Some cpu bound behavior, but that was expected.

[Chimpy]

If the parts are powder coated the threads are likely full of powder coat and need to be cleaned out (usually with a tap of the correct size) before a screw will go in.

Had to deal with that many times when we were assembling things that we had sent out to powder coat, the easiest fix was to thread in a short boot of the same threading before sending it off and then removing it after powdercoating. The key there was to make sure you scored around the edge of the bolt hole with a razor blade before removing the bolt or you risked ruining the powder coat on the whole piece.

[Cyrrex]

If you apply enough force, you can screw any hole.

I am going to leave that there just like it is.

[Teleku]

If the parts are powder coated the threads are likely full of powder coat and need to be cleaned out (usually with a tap of the correct size) before a screw will go in.

Had to deal with that many times when we were assembling things that we had sent out to powder coat, the easiest fix was to thread in a short boot of the same threading before sending it off and then removing it after powdercoating. The key there was to make sure you scored around the edge of the bolt hole with a razor blade before removing the bolt or you risked ruining the powder coat on the whole piece.

Not sure that was the issue, as 1.)  The holes looked really smooth, as if nothing had been done to them.  2.)  Other holes on the motherboard back plate of the case where threaded.  It was only specifically the holes where you screw in the motherboard standoffs that were fucked up.  *Shrug* Who knows, just my luck.

In other news:



ITS ALIIIIVEEE!!!!!!

[Teleku]

So, I've been using AVG free as my anti-virus.  Is that ok, or are there much better options out there these days?  Or is it worth upgrading AVG to its full version?  I'm way out of date on whats a decent home anti-virus (use huge bloated enterprise stuff at work).

[apocrypha]

Every 6 months or so it's worth googling for AV reviews to see which of the free ones actually catches fuck all. I'm currently using Ad-Aware, which is relatively unobtrusive. AVG got really annoying with it's popups and shit. And no, for a home user, it's never worth paying for AV IMO, it's snake oil.

Your best bet, always, is to use script-blocking in a secure browser (by which I mean up to date) and to exercise good security habits, the usual drill, i.e. don't be your Uncle Gilbert who opens every .xls and .scr file sent to him in emails promising hilarity or boobs.

[Engels]

But hilarity -and- boobs are ok attachments.

[schild]

Has this been linked yet?

http://www.choosemypc.net

[Venkman]

Wow, that's interesting. Kinda wish I could go a bit deeper, but it's a great start.

Assuming people here much smarter than I think it is a great start that is 

[Teleku]

I put in the price range I used for my new build into that site.  It downgraded almost every single part (some significantly) so that it could include duel crossfire GTX 970's.   

[Cyrrex]

Yeah, even in the middle of the price scale it includes dual 970s, and then if you drop it down it says "well fine, I guess you only want a single 980 card you noob".  Both of those things are monster overkill, and although I would love to have either in my system, only people with money to blow are going to actually do these things.  Seriously, having SLI 970s or a single 980 puts your PC in the top .001% (made up number ftw).  And then proceeds to tell me that I really should overclock anyway, to make up for the slower CPU.

The rest of it seems to make sense.

[Sky]

Should be able to lock in some parts, like a single 970.

[Engels]

And remove parts. Like, I don't need a new case, or PSU, not even a new hdd.

[Reg]

Hah yeah it tried to push me into dual 980's. Man I don't even run multiple monitors yet.

[Strazos]

Is a single 980 that big a deal?

Says the guy with a new 980 system.

[Teleku]

Even though I could afford a 980, on principle I just built a system with a 970.  I always purchased the next tier down from the very top end of what ever Nvidia or ATI is offering.  The cost to performance ratio just doesn't justify it for me, and I can't make myself spend over half a grand on any one part of a PC.  Also, the second tier video card I purchased over 6 years ago was still able to run all current games, most of them at good graphical settings, making the price of the top end seem even more overkill.

So the fact that site prioritizes a duel crossfire setup over everything (an even bigger money sink to performance ratio), was a bit amusing to me.

[Cyrrex]

Yeah, that's it exactly.  Buy the 980 card if you have more disposible income than you know what to do with, but nobody should be laboring under the belief that it is an essential must-have in a mid or high priced system.  And dual 970s is clownshoes.  Both of these are the top of the top of the top.

I just switched out my son's GTX285...a card that is now almost a dinosaur.  It still ran everything at basically high or max settings at (paired with a Q6600), but FIFA 15 (of all fucking things) required a DX11 card to run, so I swapped.  Graphical boundaries have not been pushed a whole lot over the last few years.

[Hoax]

Its almost always silly to buy a GPU that costs $400 or more. That rule has held for years and years now.

I usually go with the $200-260 tier because I'm cheap but it can be reasonable to go for something around $280-340 which is about as high as I've ever used in any build for anybody.

They are just too easy to swap out and the prices drop so quickly over time.

[Jimbo]

Damn it! I have all my parts but the graphic cards! I came home from work last night late (had to stay for training...I look like Papa Smurf in my protective suit), and the Gigabyte 970 gtx was in by Newegg, but I freaking crashed, and when I woke up they had sold it out in less than 6.5 hours....grrr!

[Jimbo]

Well went ahead and pre-ordered the MSI gaming GTX 970 from Amazon, they think they will have it in next week. So eventually upgraded machine soon!

[Teleku]

I bought that as well, and works like a charm.  Running every game I can on the highest settings without breaking a sweat.  Got an MSI Gaming motherboard as well, so the whole inside looks cool as well!

[Sky]

I do wish I had held out for the MSI card (the gaming version). I think it's the overall best from this release, nice headroom and cooler design.

The gigabyte is nice, though. Utterly crushes my old 460 SLI setup, half the power and almost silent. Those last two are really huge factors!

I'd say unless you have a 7xx card or a high end AMD card, it's time to get a 970. They're magical.

[Strazos]

So my system is slowing making its way south to me. Unfortunately, it looks like it will barely miss this week's mail truck.

[Azazel]

Sadly my big build got waylaid by life + bills, and the PS4 has had to sub in for the time being, since it was affordable. So I'll be looking at that again hopefully in the next month.

In the meantime, I need to fix an older machine (my wife's) that had it's GPU die on it.

I need something compatible to replace this thing:
http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3130#ov

I'd like to have the same "oomph" at least, and if it's cheap enough, a bit of a performance bump wouldn't hurt either. Also, this thing is the size of a foot, so something smaller would be great, same size would be the max I can fit in the existing case.

My options come from this page: (remember, Aussie prices suck balls - but I can pick it up after work and have the machine resurrected by tomorrow night, so that's a plus!)
http://www.centrecom.com.au/nvidia-amd-graphics-cards?specs=200&orderby=10

or does it need to be one of these?:
http://www.centrecom.com.au/nvidia-amd-graphics-cards?orderby=10&specs=200,210

Thank you!

[Cyrrex]

Avoid everything on link number 2 like the plague.  All of those cards are likely slower than the card you are replacing.

Your minimum pain threshold here is at least a 640 or 740 card.  Those will be in the ballpark of that 275 card you are replacing.  But to be honest, if you are paying that much for a video card, pay just a bit more and get a 750 (any version, but Ti is probably best).  Slightly more expensive than those other two cards, but miles faster.  Like, way faster. 

It is actually shameful that they charge so much for those x40 cards.  I would never buy one for any reason.

[Azazel]

So the PCIe 3 cards will work on an older motherboard alright? (dating from the same time as the dead card)

and.. one of these, then?

http://www.centrecom.com.au/gigabyte-gv-n75toc-2gi-geforce-gtx-750-ti-2gb-128-bit-interface-pci-express-30-dvi-i-dvi-d-hdmi

http://www.centrecom.com.au/asus-engtx750ti-oc-2gd5-gtx-750-ti-oc-2gb-gddr5-128-bit-memory-interface-dvi-d-vga-hdmi-hdcp-ready

[Cyrrex]

Pretty sure there is no compatibility issue there, but that is why people like Trippy exist.

But yeah, either of those cards would be just fine.  You'd probably be happy even with the cheapest versions of the 750, it all depends on how much you actually want to spend.  Any 750 you get will be more than double as fast as the old 275...getting OC or Ti versions is incremental improvements. (there may be other advantages to those cards besides speed, of course).

[Trippy]

The 750 Ti may in fact be slightly slower than the GTX 275 -- it has a slightly lower fill rate and slightly less memory bandwidth. The good news is that it draws a lot less power. If you want a bump in performance you'll want a 760 or better.

And yes PCI-e 3.0 cards will work in PCI-e 2.0 slots.

[Cyrrex]

The 750 Ti may in fact be slightly slower than the GTX 275 -- it has a slightly lower fill rate and slightly less memory bandwidth. The good news is that it draws a lot less power. If you want a bump in performance you'll want a 760 or better.

There is no way that it isn't faster than a 275.  Much faster.  Of course a 760 would be better, but it is also way more expensive.

[Trippy]

The 750 Ti has 40.8 Gigatexel’s of fillrate and 86.4 GB/s of peak memory bandwidth. The GTX 275 has 50.6 Gigatexel’s of fillrate and 127.0 GB/s of peak memory bandwidth.

[Cyrrex]

...and yet it benchmarks easily double as fast as a 275.  Even the shitty Tom's hiearchy puts it THREE LEVELs higher, which is significant.  I am a little shocked you are quoting fillrates and peak bandwidth.  

Edit to add...I have the first card on the below list, and the last one as well.  These are bandwidth numbers. I can tell you that the 570 is so much faster that it isn't even funny.  These numbers are always hugely misleading, as are fillrates.  One is also a DX11 card, and the other isn't.

GeForce GTX 285 1GB   158976 MB/sec
Radeon HD 7870   153600 MB/sec
Radeon HD 5870   153600 MB/sec
Radeon HD 7850   153600 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 570   152000 MB/sec

[Trippy]

That's why I said may. *shrug* It's hard to find comparable benchmarks to compare since the GTX 275 is so old but for, say, Crysis Warhead the GTX 275 gets 32 fps at 1920 x 1200 (yes that's how old it is, they are still benchmarking 16:10 monitors back then) and the 750 Ti gets 32 fps at 1920 x 1080 though the 750 Ti test is at 4x MSAA while the GTX 275 is at 2x MSAA cause it doesn't have enough memory for 4x >_>

[Cyrrex]

See edit.

Oh well, at any rate...I think the point was more about how to get a decent replacement for the 275 in a decent price range, and the 750 is the only one on his list that qualifies.  The 740s and below are absolute worthless shit.  I expect we can agree on that much!

[Trippy]

Yes, the 740 is a special low power model meant for things like HTPCs. It's not a good gaming GPU.

[Azazel]

Pretty sure there is no compatibility issue there, but that is why people like Trippy exist.

But yeah, either of those cards would be just fine.  You'd probably be happy even with the cheapest versions of the 750, it all depends on how much you actually want to spend.  Any 750 you get will be more than double as fast as the old 275...getting OC or Ti versions is incremental improvements. (there may be other advantages to those cards besides speed, of course).

Hm, so what about this one?
http://www.centrecom.com.au/msi-gtx750oc-1gb-ddr5-1059mhz-128bit-pci-e-vgadvihdmi

For context - I'm basically never going to game on it myself, and my wife will use it until I upgrade my current rig (soon, as noted) and then it'll be for friends to use and LAN play, so BF3/WoW/Torchlight II/L4D2/etc as opposed to more/the most recent stuff. The 20% of that thirty bucks (on a machine I'll rarely use for anything gaming-related) is worth considering for me atm.