Gaming PCs Thread...time for a sticky / running thread?

[FUBAR]

would it be crazy to stick a 2gb R9 380 in to get me up and running again and then buy an all singing ad dancing gaming rig in 6 months time? Or even getting a 4/6gb card now and just live with current spec (2.5ghz processor, 8gb RAM)

I can have a card by Monday and job's a goodun?

[FUBAR]

Sorry, I thought I was indecisive but now I'm not so sure.

[Mattygooner]

In 6 months time the Broadwell E chips will be out and the new Nvidia architecture will be out, if not desperate, I would wait for that.

But who wants to wait

[Zod]

Be patient and get the right bits. Impatience in building PCs leads to frustration in the longer term. I spent two weeks recently rebuilding my gaming PC, getting the right bits, sending back faulty RAM and an M2 SSD that wasn't recognised, then running the watercooling loop for a weekend without power connection to the motherboard to ensure it didn't leak. The result was a stable, leak-free, fast PC.

[Guvernator]

FUBAR said:

would it be crazy to stick a 2gb R9 380 in to get me up and running again and then buy an all singing ad dancing gaming rig in 6 months time? Or even getting a 4/6gb card now and just live with current spec (2.5ghz processor, 8gb RAM)

I can have a card by Monday and job's a goodun?

An R9 380 should comfortably be able to run 1080p at decent frame rates so that would be the cheapest option at around £150. Alternatively if you spent about £250 on something like a GTX970 or R9 390 you could re-use it in your future gaming rig so it's not money lost.

[FUBAR]

Cheers chaps, I'll order in a temp card then break open the piggy bank next year

[FUBAR]

Already done. Amazon Prime...bosh!

[Mattygooner]

Indeed, I tried to wait but failed miserably as the 980ti's just arrived.

[pimpchez]

FUBAR said:

Already done. Amazon Prime...bosh!

Which r380 ?

[pimpchez]

Jinx said:

We feel your pain.......

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.

All reviews indicate the £80 jump to the X isn't worth the extra 2-4fps you will get. Stick to an MSI R390.

[pimpchez]

FUBAR said:

This one http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ZCBDU04?psc=...

Please don't tell me I've cocked up lol. Me/internet/little knowledge/credit card are a dangerous mix

No not at all , its a decent brand and will do you max @1080p/50fps + on all games apart from GTA 5 and modded skyrim which are ram wes.

[FUBAR]

Actually I've just cancelled that one and ordered this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ZCBDVW6?psc=...

Didn't realise the first one wasn't in stock for a week, 2nd one arrives Monday

You beat me to the thread delete

[pimpchez]

Please put up some benchmarks once you have it running. It will be good to see the difference between a r380 and my r390.

[FUBAR]

When you buy the Black Edition (which I did) it then shows up as "back in stock on the 17th December". A little naughty!

Cancelled and bought the other one easy enough.

[Mattygooner]

Time for the money shot, surprisingly easy to install everything, just dreading the new hard drives setting up and cloning the current SSD. Haven't built a system for years and it all seems a lot more straight forward now.



And yes, cable management is on the todo list

[pimpchez]

Finally running correctly now. Will do a proper write up this evening.

[pimpchez]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

[Mattygooner]

The steam Demo version lets you run all 4 of the tests and gives you a combined overall score.

It was 1.3 gig to download though.

Anybody recommend a good SSD hard drive cloning software?

[pimpchez]

Right , what a weekend !

My friend and his 5 yr old turned up at 1 yesterday to help me build it. The build itself minus gpu didnt take long at all. The issue we had was windows 7 ,trying to get it onto a skylake build was unreal.The bios wouldnt see the drivers on the usb stick no matter what my mate did (IT GURU ,BUILT 800 PCs) . Time went on and by the end of the first boxing match at 6 he went home. Within the next 2 hours and a few beers i had windows 7 installed and on , although i had windows 10 downloading on the laptop . I was buzzing but then i found out no driver worked,so no internet or usb .
This morning i got my ass to pcworld at 10 to pick up the worlds most overpriced dvd drive . Hooked it up but the pc would not boot into windows at all, disconnected and plugged it in when windows was up but the dvd just crashed explorer so.... I gave up.

Then the door knocked and the gpu turned up ,so i decided to get windows 10 on and boom .Within 10mins i had a virus ,so it was time to install the gpu and do a clean install again.

I let my mate take control via teamviewer to make sure it was all running sweet.Steam was installed and dirt downloaded .

Then the problem arised , 94"c temps for the gpu running dirt at 3100x1800 @ ultra . The stupid software doesn't let you save a custom fan profile so the temps rocket if you dont lock the fans at 75% .Anyway next weekend there will be a teardown to insert my 230mm intake fan .

[wst]

MSI Afterburner is allegedly the best thing for custom fan profiles since sliced toast, regardless of the brand of GPU.