The 'Build Me A PC' Thread

[Ironwood]

The thought was much appreciated, however.

[Bungee]

So, I'm thinking about getting a new PC after I threw my old one out for a laptop 5 years ago. However, gaming...

Totally out of the loop- is it just charity work building a PC based on AMD hardware these days or does it actually make sense? Futureproof? Bang for buck? For both C- and GPUs? I'm really into energy awareness/efficiency as the machine would run 24/7.

[Goreschach]

Depends on what gaming means to you, and how much you're going to spend for it. High end AMD CPUs are power hogs with low instructions per clock. They are pretty much a write off, Intel is beating them so badly. Their lower tier processors fare better, especially if cost is a concern. AMD's just released APU's, Richland, would be a great choice for something like an htpc/casual gaming rig where efficiency and cost were less important than performance. The new Haswell mobile chips, also just released, would offer better performance, but at a hefty price premium.

If you're looking for mainstream or better gaming performance, however, you'll almost certainly want to go Intel + discreet gpu. Also, you should probably specify what you mean by running 24/7, since modern sleep states pretty much negate power draw when the computer is not in use, and there isn't as much difference in idle state power draw between high end and low end desktops as you might think.

[Trippy]

So, I'm thinking about getting a new PC after I threw my old one out for a laptop 5 years ago. However, gaming...

Totally out of the loop- is it just charity work building a PC based on AMD hardware these days or does it actually make sense? Futureproof? Bang for buck? For both C- and GPUs? I'm really into energy awareness/efficiency as the machine would run 24/7.

AMD CPUs continue to suck compared to Intels. However for gaming AMD is fortunate in that most graphics intensive games are GPU-bound at the resolutions most people play at these days (1080p is the the largest block in the Valve hardware survey now). So unless you are running a 2 or 3 GPU setup an AMD CPU may work just as well for games compared to Intel. AMD CPUs are also not as power efficient for a given amount of CPU performance and that's going to get worse as Intel rolls out its Haswell desktop chips.

[Bungee]

If you're looking for mainstream or better gaming performance, however, you'll almost certainly want to go Intel + discreet gpu. Also, you should probably specify what you mean by running 24/7, since modern sleep states pretty much negate power draw when the computer is not in use, and there isn't as much difference in idle state power draw between high end and low end desktops as you might think.

24/7 as it'll be the center of my media landscape at home, streaming films/music. Also some work/hobby related calculations that are time and resources consuming. But ineed, I guess Windows today is smart enough to toggle power to what's actually needed.
Read up a little on this Haswell stuff. I'd think this may the way I'll be leaning then.
Graphics/gaming wise... I'm certainly not a high-end gamer. I'm just casually playing stuff like WoT, Warthunder, HoN/DotA,... But also, most the stuff I don't play is because I can't even consider that option due to laptop restrictions. So Graphics wise it won't be anything expensive at all.

[Bungee]

So, I'm leaning toward the Haswell i5 4670. I just don't see the justification to shell out another 100 Euros for Multithreading and 2MB Cache more in the i7. I may also be mistaken with that opinion.
As for graphics, I'm completely lost. I don't want to more than ~200 Euros and that segment is just stacked with numbers and suffixes. So basically- AMD or nvidia?

[Lantyssa]

I'm getting the need to upgrade my system.  What's the order of Intel chips these days?  i3 < i5 < i7?

Are the jumps between models worth it?

[Trippy]

i5 is usually the way to go.

[Quinton]

The confusing thing is that Intel now reuses i3/i5/i7 across generations, so whether it's the current or previous generation i3 or i5 has impact.

As Trippy suggests, the middle of the performance band offers the best price/performance tradeoff.  You pay significant premiums for incremental improvements on the high end chips.

I tend to aim for the fastest memory interface and most cache available for the mid-tier parts, as modern CPUs remain massively faster than main RAM and improving cache and overall memory throughput tends to pay off.

[Phred]

The confusing thing is that Intel now reuses i3/i5/i7 across generations, so whether it's the current or previous generation i3 or i5 has impact.

Isn't that because there's no socket changes? Making older motherboards usable with a bios upgrade.

[Trippy]

The confusing thing is that Intel now reuses i3/i5/i7 across generations, so whether it's the current or previous generation i3 or i5 has impact.

Isn't that because there's no socket changes? Making older motherboards usable with a bios upgrade.

Haswell has new sockets.

[Quinton]

You can search Intel's site for information on their processors (full model number is often best) and get pages like this: ark.intel.com/products/75044/

I generally end up comparing processor options there to figure out what's actually different, which socket they require (to check against what the mainboard has), etc.

They also have these family summary pages:
3rd Gen Core i5: http://ark.intel.com/products/family/65504
4th Gen Core i5: http://ark.intel.com/products/family/75024

Of course performance between different generations is hard to compare -- within the same generation and family, a 3GHz processor is going to be faster than a 2.7GHz processor, but across generations and families it often gets more complicated.

[Trippy]

Intel also follows a "Tick-Tock" schedule where they alternate between new microarchitectures and new fabrication processess. Haswell is a "Tock" so it's a new microarchitecture, though this time around a lot of the changes are related to the integrated graphics.

[Salamok]

I am wondering if this monoprice 27" wqhd monitor is non crap

[Ironwood]

This 660 is stuttering like fuck and it's really, really getting on my tits.

[Trippy]

What game is it? And it may not be the video card but the stuff around it that's causing the problem.

I have this problem on my "main" computer where texture loading and other stuff causes stuttering/freezing in games. Once the textures are loaded it'll run okay until it needs to load another blob of whatever into the card and then stutters/freezes. I tried upgrading my video card. Didn't help. Tried cleaning out the video drivers and reinstalling them. Didn't help. Tried switching to running the games off an SSD. Didn't help. Built myself a brand new computer for playing games on. Helped

Still don't know what the problem is. Could be some sort of "system rot" like in the good old days of Windows.

[Ironwood]

Formatted the whole fucking thing and started again.  Still there.

Tried almost every one of the driver versions, clean every time, still there.

I fucking hate this shit.

[Trippy]

Wow that sucks. Is it only some graphics-intensive games, or all them?

[Goreschach]

You're not giving us much to go on. We'll need a full system spec, what drivers you're using, what games it occurs in, and an exact description of what happens.

I believe you asked earlier about using pcie 3.0 cards in a 2.0 slot? If that's the case, could be a timeout issue or maybe a problem with old motherboard drivers.

[Trippy]

I am wondering if this monoprice 27" wqhd monitor is non crap

Don't know about that particular model but in general people like the cheap LG 1440p panels.

[Ironwood]

Wow that sucks. Is it only some graphics-intensive games, or all them?

Well, it's Mechwarrior, Diablo III and a couple of others, but there's no real pattern to it.

I'm not giving you much to go on because I should probably fix this myself, given my experience.  I'm just venting in general at the moment and the GeForce boards are literally chock full of people with the same problem, so I guess no-one here's going to magically fix me without a Credit Card Number.  lol.

But, yeah, it sucks.  I'm starting to wonder if the MB fried the old card and now I'm just repeating the same mistakes...


Edit :  Hang on a Second, I may be a tit.

[schild]

Friend needs laptop for school. Someone show me Dell coupons. Om nom nom. Or Alienware. or both.

[Salamok]

I had a 30% off one for Dell outlet expired on the 11th though, I'm sure something else will be coming in the next 2 weeks.

[Salamok]

Latest Dell Outlet coupon codes are out, not very good compared to the ones from a few weeks ago:
20% off Inspiron Laptops: 5SZTQTPZS$J7M1
20% off XPS 10 tablet or XPS 12 convertable ultrabook: GBP6HC7RGJKCS?

[Jimbo]

Friend needs laptop for school. Someone show me Dell coupons. Om nom nom. Or Alienware. or both.

Sager has some stuff on sale. http://www.sagernotebook.com/

[Signe]

Latest Dell Outlet coupon codes are out, not very good compared to the ones from a few weeks ago:
20% off Inspiron Laptops: 5SZTQTPZS$J7M1
20% off XPS 10 tablet or XPS 12 convertable ultrabook: GBP6HC7RGJKCS?

Here's some for Alienware:  KD8T76PX1RR$T1 - $100 off, BHW1L0MX0D?MCX - $50 off $1499. 

I need a new computer, too, but no more laptops for me!

[Trippy]

I need a new computer, too, but no more laptops for me!

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade

You know you want it

[Signe]

But it's only 14 inches!  I'd like the insanely powerful but I need more than 14 inches.

[Pennilenko]

But it's only 14 inches!  I'd like the insanely powerful but I need more than 14 inches.

That's what she...wait what?

[Trippy]

But it's only 14 inches!  I'd like the insanely powerful but I need more than 14 inches.

There's a 17" model too.

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-pro/

[Signe]

Well, that's a little better.  I do like the green stuff exploding out of it, but you probably have to pay more.  I'd like a nice big screen and wireless stuff because I don't like sitting too close when I play games.  I wouldn't mind another Alienware if the desk tops don't heat up like the laptops.  I have this one sitting on a fan with another fan next to it and it still gets too hot and the fan blows on me too which I hate hate hate. 

[schild]

I should mention his computer isn't REALLY for gaming, he might just happen to play some games on it. Portability matters, but ultraportability is not necessary.

[schild]

Ugh. Computer has decided hard crashes are the way it wants to deal with more than an hour of gaming in nearly anything. It's a Q9450, so it's a little old. Radeon 48XX graphics card. Looks like I might actually have to build a new machine when I move in October. Unf Unf Unf. Moore's law is dead for Desktop Computers right? According to the internet, my processor is still pretty good. Should I just upgrade my graphics card and hope for the best? Pretty sure I have a beast for a power supply.

[Goreschach]

Have you checked temps on it? If it's that old, it might just be overheating due to dust clogging.

[schild]

I had not even thought to watch a temperature monitor. Case hasn't been opened in 6 years. Haha. Seriously. Also used to smoke around it. Should probably vacuum/blow air in it.