Gaming PCs Thread...time for a sticky / running thread?
Discussion
This made me chuckle this morning:
I've been thinking about upgrading my machine at some stage so this thread has made for interesting reading.
Currently got an old i7 860, 12Gb RAM, SSD and MSI Twin Frozr GTX760. Any upgrade will mean a wholesale change including mobo etc so I'm weighing up whether it's worth doing just yet.
I've been thinking about upgrading my machine at some stage so this thread has made for interesting reading.
Currently got an old i7 860, 12Gb RAM, SSD and MSI Twin Frozr GTX760. Any upgrade will mean a wholesale change including mobo etc so I'm weighing up whether it's worth doing just yet.
At least you're back up and running. It does sound like the gpu is fubared tbh. I assume you've tried cleaning the contacts and blowing some air at it? How long is the warranty with EVGA, do you think they'll replace it?
On another note my Logitech G700s mouse and gaming mousepad arrived today and I have to say it's a f*ckin ace. The mouse just feels so smooth and responsive now and it has lots of buttons so I can map a lot of keyboard functions to it. Like a previous poster, I mostly used cheapo mice before but now I can see what all the fuss is about. I don't know why I haven't done this sooner, it's a revelation. Money well spent.
On another note my Logitech G700s mouse and gaming mousepad arrived today and I have to say it's a f*ckin ace. The mouse just feels so smooth and responsive now and it has lots of buttons so I can map a lot of keyboard functions to it. Like a previous poster, I mostly used cheapo mice before but now I can see what all the fuss is about. I don't know why I haven't done this sooner, it's a revelation. Money well spent.
Just thought I'd add that whilst a separate sound card is not essential (some of the more expensive motherboards do have fairly capable on board sound chips) I've recently added a Soundblaster Z to my XPS8500 (onboard is the Realtek High-Definition ALC887) and the difference is pretty amazing (I really only wanted the extra connections). The sound definition during games and even on music playback is like the difference between having your hands clamped to your ears (ALC887) and listening in a dedicated sound booth (no I have not been employed by Creative) .
So I would recommend getting a separate sound card (Asus, Creative or Powercooler) if you are not on a tight budget.
So I would recommend getting a separate sound card (Asus, Creative or Powercooler) if you are not on a tight budget.
krunchkin said:
I'm keen to try building a PC as a new hobby. Any advice for total noobs appreciated
Lots of guides on the internet to get you started so do some reading. Tom's hardware website is a good start. Just get the bits you need together, most stuff nowadays doesn't need tools so you just literally slot stuff in and plug in a few connectors. You will need to make sure bits are compatible but ask away on here and we should be able to advise. Most online PC part retailers should also be quite good at letting you know of compatibility and whether a part will even fit in the space you have which can be the bigger issue these days.What do you want to do with it? Decide that then set a budget, you WILL go over it in all likely-hood but it's a good starting point.
Main bits you'll need are
Case (various sizes from smallest mini ATX to full size towers)
Motherboard (Intel, AMD, various chipsets)
CPU - Again Inter or AMD
CPU cooler (may not be needed depending on what you want to do with the PC and the spec)
GPU - Most important bit if you want to play games, the more you can spend on this bit the better
Memory
Hard drives - To install OS and Applications\Games, SSD's are quickest but expensive, HDD's give you bigger storage. Most people opt for a smaller SSD for the OS and applications and a larger one for storage
Power Supply - Important to spec this right as it will be powering all the other bits so it needs to be quality and have enough juice
OS - You'll need a copy of Windows, contrary to popular belief, this costs money but you usually get it for "free" with pre-built machines hence many people forget to factor this in to costs.
Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse - If you haven't already got these.
As above - if you have some old machines you can poke around in will give you confidence (especially how much force you need to seat RAM properly). I'd suggest start with a full size case project (so a gaming machine or server project) as small form factors can be fiddly and trying to re-root cabling is a pain.
Firstly ,decide which room its going to live in. If you decide in the living like me , you dont want a big ass tower with a shiz ton of flashy neons. You will want a mini itx which is the smallest form factor of motherboards .This means that cases are usually quite small to match , except bitfenix .
So this morning my graphics card has fallen over, and putting off a new PC is no longer an option. Help!
Needs to be used as a work PC too, so do I really 'need' a GTX980ti? Most off the shelf/upgradeable seem to come with GTX970 or the Rad R9 370 with 4gb, will this be enough? (never ran my old pc on Ultra resolution and happy with med/high) Do I need more than 8gb ram? i5 or i7 etc
Needs to be used as a work PC too, so do I really 'need' a GTX980ti? Most off the shelf/upgradeable seem to come with GTX970 or the Rad R9 370 with 4gb, will this be enough? (never ran my old pc on Ultra resolution and happy with med/high) Do I need more than 8gb ram? i5 or i7 etc
FUBAR said:
So this morning my graphics card has fallen over, and putting off a new PC is no longer an option. Help!
Needs to be used as a work PC too, so do I really 'need' a GTX980ti? Most off the shelf/upgradeable seem to come with GTX970 or the Rad R9 370 with 4gb, will this be enough? (never ran my old pc on Ultra resolution and happy with med/high) Do I need more than 8gb ram? i5 or i7 etc
What do you play and what is the resolution of your monitor?Needs to be used as a work PC too, so do I really 'need' a GTX980ti? Most off the shelf/upgradeable seem to come with GTX970 or the Rad R9 370 with 4gb, will this be enough? (never ran my old pc on Ultra resolution and happy with med/high) Do I need more than 8gb ram? i5 or i7 etc
FUBAR said:
So this morning my graphics card has fallen over, and putting off a new PC is no longer an option. Help!
Needs to be used as a work PC too, so do I really 'need' a GTX980ti? Most off the shelf/upgradeable seem to come with GTX970 or the Rad R9 370 with 4gb, will this be enough? (never ran my old pc on Ultra resolution and happy with med/high) Do I need more than 8gb ram? i5 or i7 etc
At 1080p you can make do with GTX970 or even R9 380 (I'm running a R9 270 slightly overclocked to R9 270X levels, thank you Sapphire) and can play everything at high and some things at Ultra (except Dying light for some reason - need to turn down some of the post processing stuff). An i5 is good enough as is 8 GB RAM but I would suggest 16 GB just in case games get memory hungry again.Needs to be used as a work PC too, so do I really 'need' a GTX980ti? Most off the shelf/upgradeable seem to come with GTX970 or the Rad R9 370 with 4gb, will this be enough? (never ran my old pc on Ultra resolution and happy with med/high) Do I need more than 8gb ram? i5 or i7 etc
SSD is a must really (and at £50 notes for 240GB no reason not getting one).
What started as a small upgrade to my ageing Sandy Bridge 2600k has now gone to the point of pretty much a whole new machine (which I should have just done rather than bugger around, but it is fun)
The mobo and CPU always felt like it was the bottleneck to the GTX Titan I bought 2 or 3 years ago, it ran most things on medium to high settings but I do mainly use it for resource hungry sims with large scale environments and it was beginning to struggle.
The 2600 was the best I could get on that motherboard so any upgrade was going to need a new set up.
I wanted to wait for the Broadwell E and X to come out but could see no confirmed dates for release so went in the end for a Haswell E I7 5930 paired with the ASUS Rampage V Extreme and 32gb of DDR4 ram at 3000mhz. Overkill I know, but future proofed. The mobo came with the corsair H100i GTX water cooler to keep the 4.4 clock nice and chilly.
Works a treat, when doing a benchmark from Asus, at max GPU, the temp didn't exceed 44degrees.
I had to buy a new case as the existing one had a poorly riveted plate which prevented the board from fitting, which was a pain but the cool master Cosmo 2 was so easy to use, all fans pre cabled and holes perfectly laid out for power cables to find all the right slots nice and neatly. The case is fudging huge and still the water cooler was trickier to fit (rad inside and fans outside) so do check if you ever plan on getting one.
I now have a new SSD and hard drive arriving today, the 480gb Scandisk extreme and a Seagate hybrid 4tb drive, the Scandisk is a year old but according to Toms Hardware(fabulous site) is still one of the best around.
It now feels like the old TiTan is the bottleneck
so am looking to get a 1000watt PSU and Sli 9800ti from EVGA to ensure future proofing and ultra settings on everything it encounters.
It has been surprisingly easy to install with the only real issue being an old sound driver bringing up an error.
What started out as a little refresh has turned in to a bloody project which could have been accomplished with just getting a new machine.
The mobo and CPU always felt like it was the bottleneck to the GTX Titan I bought 2 or 3 years ago, it ran most things on medium to high settings but I do mainly use it for resource hungry sims with large scale environments and it was beginning to struggle.
The 2600 was the best I could get on that motherboard so any upgrade was going to need a new set up.
I wanted to wait for the Broadwell E and X to come out but could see no confirmed dates for release so went in the end for a Haswell E I7 5930 paired with the ASUS Rampage V Extreme and 32gb of DDR4 ram at 3000mhz. Overkill I know, but future proofed. The mobo came with the corsair H100i GTX water cooler to keep the 4.4 clock nice and chilly.
Works a treat, when doing a benchmark from Asus, at max GPU, the temp didn't exceed 44degrees.
I had to buy a new case as the existing one had a poorly riveted plate which prevented the board from fitting, which was a pain but the cool master Cosmo 2 was so easy to use, all fans pre cabled and holes perfectly laid out for power cables to find all the right slots nice and neatly. The case is fudging huge and still the water cooler was trickier to fit (rad inside and fans outside) so do check if you ever plan on getting one.
I now have a new SSD and hard drive arriving today, the 480gb Scandisk extreme and a Seagate hybrid 4tb drive, the Scandisk is a year old but according to Toms Hardware(fabulous site) is still one of the best around.
It now feels like the old TiTan is the bottleneck
so am looking to get a 1000watt PSU and Sli 9800ti from EVGA to ensure future proofing and ultra settings on everything it encounters.It has been surprisingly easy to install with the only real issue being an old sound driver bringing up an error.
What started out as a little refresh has turned in to a bloody project which could have been accomplished with just getting a new machine.
Zod said:
What do you play and what is the resolution of your monitor?
This is the monitor http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/hp-x2301-led-monit...Mainly BF4, although I'm currently playing Star Wars BF, but can see me getting bored with it quickly and go back to BF. Would like to future proof BF5 or whatever.
Current machine is business oriented pentium, with 8gb ram and normal hard drive, but I stuck an R9 in 18 months ago (270 or 280...cant remember)
Including games loaded, Ive still only used about 250gb so storage isn't my problem
Circa £1000 would be brill, prepared to pay up to £1500, but have also been trying to justify £2000 (which is just daft for a pc....right??)
Edited by FUBAR on Thursday 10th December 12:24
FUBAR said:
Zod said:
What do you play and what is the resolution of your monitor?
This is the monitor http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/hp-x2301-led-monit...Mainly BF4, although I'm currently playing Star Wars BF, but can see me getting bored with it quickly and go back to BF. Would like to future proof BF5 or whatever.
Current machine is business oriented pentium, with 8gb ram and normal hard drive, but I stuck an R9 in 18 months ago (270 or 280...cant remember)
Including games loaded, Ive still only used about 250gb so storage isn't my problem
Circa £1000 would be brill, prepared to pay up to £1500, but have also been trying to justify £2000 (which is just daft for a pc....right??)
Edited by FUBAR on Thursday 10th December 12:24
GPU (R390 ASUS STRIX) wont be hear until Monday 7days later after paying amazon £9 for quick delivery. Just my luckk that the MSI (faster & cooler) model was out of stock when i ordered. Looking at the listing now i could have had it same day 
Anyway here is the build parts minus GPU.
Anyway here is the build parts minus GPU.
pimpchez said:
GPU (R390 ASUS STRIX) wont be hear until Monday 7days later after paying amazon £9 for quick delivery. Just my luckk that the MSI (faster & cooler) model was out of stock when i ordered. Looking at the listing now i could have had it same day
Anyway here is the build parts minus GPU.
We feel your pain.......Anyway here is the build parts minus GPU.
Must admit all this talking about gaming has made my upgrade fingers itch......
Holding off until there is a reason to upgrade my i7 3770 though the prices of the R9 390X are tempting.
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