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"I Need a New PC!" 2014 Part 1. 1080p and 60FPS is so last-gen and your 2500K is fine

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SmokedMeat

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Wondering if anyone can help me out here?

I'm interested in testing the PC gaming waters again, but it's going to be awhile before I can get the scratch needed to put a desktop together. In the meantime I'm looking at the wife's laptop and thinking of upgrading it. Thing is I don't know jack shit about this stuff, and can't figure out which graphics cards are best.

Here's the specs on the laptop...
AMD Turion II X2 processor P540 2.5Ghz
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 1066MHz memory

Can I turn this into a pretty decent gaming machine without breaking the bank? Looks like it supports up to 8GB DDR3 ram so I'd like to max that out . Are graphics cards for laptops different than desktops? Any recommendations for under $150? Am I crazy to want to upgrade a laptop?

I need all the help I can get.
 
M

mkenyon

Banned
ShinUltramanJ said:
Wondering if anyone can help me out here?

I'm interested in testing the PC gaming waters again, but it's going to be awhile before I can get the scratch needed to put a desktop together. In the meantime I'm looking at the wife's laptop and thinking of upgrading it. Thing is I don't know jack shit about this stuff, and can't figure out which graphics cards are best.

Here's the specs on the laptop...
AMD Turion II X2 processor P540 2.5Ghz
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 1066MHz memory

Can I turn this into a pretty decent gaming machine without breaking the bank? Looks like it supports up to 8GB DDR3 ram so I'd like to max that out . Are graphics cards for laptops different than desktops? Any recommendations for under $150? Am I crazy to want to upgrade a laptop?

I need all the help I can get.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, the only stuff you can upgrade on a laptop is memory and storage. Not worth doing either.
 
A

Anustart

Member
Anustart said:
Cross posting again from buy sell thread. I'm broke and in a tight spot, letting my evga gtx 760 go for 160$ shipped to us48. Need this gone preferably tonight.
Click to expand...

Probably going to throw this up on ebay as a buy it now in a couple hours if no one here jumps on it!

Just wanted to offer a good deal to you guys first since I've scored equally good deals here before.
 
I

IceIpor

Member
maneil99 said:
Depends, AMD or Nvidia? They each have some cross over manufacturers and exclusive ones
Click to expand...

It's an either/or situation. Whatever I can find the best deal for.

mkenyon said:
It's really more about the coolers than the AIBs. I'd personally rank them like this:

1. EVGA ACX
1. ASUS DCII
1. Gigabyte Windforce
2. MSI Twin/Tri Frozr
2. Sapphire
3. PowerColor/Club 3D

Then avoid XFX. But, XFX's customer support is pretty good. So....
Click to expand...

Yeah, something like this is what I was looking for! Thanks!

I can attest to the XFX thing. Apparently they discontinued their lifetime warranty and they reset their customer database, so I need to reregister my old products again if I want any support.
Of course, I would be missing the receipt for the one that is having problems now...
 
Q

QP3

Member
On PC Part Picker I noticed that you can sort the video cards by "chipset" (GeForce, Radeon, etc.)

What exactly is a "chipset"? I used to think they were brands or models when I saw their names, but now realize it appears to be neither.
 
T

The Insane Dufresne

Member
mkenyon said:
It's really more about the coolers than the AIBs. I'd personally rank them like this:

1. EVGA ACX
1. ASUS DCII
1. Gigabyte Windforce
2. MSI Twin/Tri Frozr
2. Sapphire
3. PowerColor/Club 3D

Then avoid XFX. But, XFX's customer support is pretty good. So....
Click to expand...

There are coolers better than Twin Frozr ?

I'm very intrigued by this.
 
O

Oxn

Member
mkenyon said:
It's really more about the coolers than the AIBs. I'd personally rank them like this:

1. EVGA ACX
1. ASUS DCII
1. Gigabyte Windforce
2. MSI Twin/Tri Frozr
2. Sapphire
3. PowerColor/Club 3D

Then avoid XFX. But, XFX's customer support is pretty good. So....
Click to expand...

What makes these coolers better or worst? Sound? What is the quietest?
 
G

Garrus Vakarian

Member
Ok this one is for the keyboard experts out there. I am looking to get a mechanical keyboard for the first time, but I can't decide between Cherry MX Brown and Blue switches.

Specifically I am worried that the tactile response of the browns might be too light, and that the "clacky" sound of the Blues might be too obnoxious. I haven't been able to find either type in stores to try, and considering I am going to be paying quite a bit for the keyboard I am hoping for some real-world advice.

My typing is on the heavy side, so I may end up bottoming out the keys regardless of the actuation point. I also predominantly play FPS/action with a side of RTS from time to time, and I am wanting a good-enough tactile response for typing.

For context the board I am looking at is the Corsair K70 with either MX Browns or Blues.
 
A

AwakenedCloud

Member
After being laughed at for my previous GPU choice, I went back to the lab and revised my project. Hopefully, this build will get less GAF-flac than the previous one I posted.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For $209.00)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9500 AT Ball Bearing CPU Cooler (Purchased For $34.99)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A (NFC EXPRESS EDITION) ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (Purchased For $119.99)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (Purchased For $74.99)
Storage: Seagate 600 Series 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (Purchased For $129.99)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $59.99)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card (Purchased For $299.99)
Case: NZXT H230 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $75.00)
Power Supply: Cougar 760W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $64.99)
Wireless Network Adapter: D-Link DWA-140 802.11g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter (Purchased For $10.26)
Keyboard: Microsoft ANB-00001 Wired Slim Keyboard (Purchased For $14.99)
Mouse: Logitech M325 Wireless Optical Mouse (Purchased For $14.99)
Total: $1109.17
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-13 21:03 EDT-0400)
Click to expand...
 
O

Objectively Bad Opinion

Member
mkenyon said:
It's really more about the coolers than the AIBs. I'd personally rank them like this:

1. EVGA ACX
1. ASUS DCII
1. Gigabyte Windforce
2. MSI Twin/Tri Frozr
2. Sapphire
3. PowerColor/Club 3D

Then avoid XFX. But, XFX's customer support is pretty good. So....
Click to expand...

MSI claims TriFrozr can handle 500w, you've ranked it too low imo.

And there's more to the cooler than a simple rank like that. For example, Asus and Gigabyte use bare heat pipes which work pretty well on big dies like GK110. But they reused the same design on AMD's R9 290 and 290X, which have much smaller dies. As a consequence, some of the heat pipes don't make contact with the die and cooling performance is harmed as a result.

So if you're buying an AMD card, models with coolers that have a contact plate like MSI Gaming and Lightning, Sapphire's Tri-X, and XFX's DD are much better choices.
 
G

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
mkenyon said:
It's really more about the coolers than the AIBs. I'd personally rank them like this:

1. EVGA ACX
1. ASUS DCII
1. Gigabyte Windforce
2. MSI Twin/Tri Frozr
2. Sapphire
3. PowerColor/Club 3D

Then avoid XFX. But, XFX's customer support is pretty good. So....
Click to expand...

I am genuinely curious about your reasons for the list, from a knowledge standpoint. I'm guessing you have had vast personal experience with all of the coolers.

From what I've looked at the TF cools similar to the WF, but it's fans run ~half the speed with less noise. Then the ACX cools on par, but produces more noise.

What are the results in the real world though?

Drkirby said:
My SSD crapped out on me. Any good sales going on at the moment?
Click to expand...

Crucial M500 240GB $120
Crucial M500 480GB $250
 
H

HiResDes

Member
Okay I fixed the monitor issue, but now I'm getting this error message Please Power Down and Connect pCi power cable to graphics card

...But everything seems to be hooked up, could there be a problem with the graphics card?
 
G

gibbsy24

Member
HiResDes said:
Okay I fixed the monitor issue, but now I'm getting this error message Please Power Down and Connect pCi power cable to graphics card

...But everything seems to be hooked up, could there be a problem with the graphics card?
Click to expand...

Have you connected the power cables to your video card?
They're six or eight pins and connect directly from the psu.
 
H

HiResDes

Member
Yeah but do I need to hook up two if my graphics card has two PCI slots? Also is I don't know if I have it in the wrong slot in the motherboard.
 
G

gibbsy24

Member
HiResDes said:
Yeah but do I need to hook up two if my graphics card has two PCI slots? Also is I don't know if I have it in the wrong slot in the motherboard.
Click to expand...

Yes plug all of them in. Shouldn't matter which PCIe slot its plugged into as long as the video card can actually fit into it. If your board has multiple slots just put it in the top one.
 
F

Franco_hunter

Neo Member
Mates i need help, wich one of this 3 options should i get

1) i7 4770k / zotac 780 3gb AMP! - not upgrade in some time and hope it last
2) i7 4770k / evga 770 2gb - see how 800 series (maxwell) does, upgrading just vga
3) i5 4670k / evga 770 2gb - upgrade later

Thanks in advance!
Edit: i forgot to say, im gaming at 1080p
 
K

kiyomi

Member
Monosukoi said:
Kinda decided to make a change to my previous build and go with mATX, since I liked the look of the CM N200 case as it seems better value for the money over the 210 Elite, and I prefer the smaller, lighter form factor.

I'm gonna need an mATX board to go in it, and here are the options in my price range;

Asus Z87M-Plus (£93.98)
Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H (£102.07)
Asus GRYPHON Z87 (£110.96)

I could only find a solid review of the Gryphon, and I like the fact that it has a 5 year warranty. I'm not going to be going for super crazy overclocks so I'm just looking for a solid board that will suit my needs (single GPU and a wireless card).

I'm guessing that the M-Plus would totally suit my needs but that warranty on the Gryphon is something that means a lot to me.

Thoughts, GAF? For reference, I was looking at the Asus Z87-A board when I was considering full ATX.
Click to expand...

Repurposing my post.
 
K

KTT

Member
Franco_hunter said:
Mates i need help, wich one of this 3 options should i get

1) i7 4770k / zotac 780 3gb AMP! - not upgrade in some time and hope it last
2) i7 4770k / evga 770 2gb - see how 800 series (maxwell) does, upgrading just vga
3) i5 4670k / evga 770 2gb - upgrade later

Thanks in advance!
Edit: i forgot to say, im gaming at 1080p
Click to expand...

I think the general consensus is that the 4670k will last a good while for gaming. Where are you getting your 4670k from? If you're near a Microcenter, be sure to get it from there. If not, you can price match with Staples (for in-store pick-up or shipping anywhere). Don't pay more than you need to! Especially since it'll impact your GPU budget
 
F

Franco_hunter

Neo Member
KTT said:
I think the general consensus is that the 4670k will last a good while for gaming. Where are you getting your 4670k from? If you're near a Microcenter, be sure to get it from there. If not, you can price match with Staples (for in-store pick-up or shipping anywhere). Don't pay more than you need to! Especially since it'll impact your GPU budget
Click to expand...

Third world gentleman here, this will cost me a lot, you people dont know how lucky you are with the prices and discounts there
Great to hear that about the cpu
Sorry for the double post :[
 
RadioactiveLobster

RadioactiveLobster

Member
Quick question (doing some research for an upcoming build, hope to build in the summer/fall when Maxwell and Haswell-E is out. Not sure if I'll do a 4770k or whatever the refresh is. Will have to see what pricing on the CPU/Mobo's are. If I stick with a 4770k my planned mobo is a Asus MAXIMUS VI FORMULA).

I am thinking of doing a water cooled build and have been looking into the best way to go about that.

Is it better to by parts separately or get a kit? I don't really want to go AIO with it as I plan to add in a water cooled GPU at some point.

I've been eyeballing something like this XSPC Copper Raystorm AX360 Extreme Intel CPU Water Cooling Kit w/ Twin D5.

Is that a viable option for cooling CPU/Mobo and then expansion to GPU at a later date?

Would it be better to buy a radiator, pump, reservoir separately?

Is it better to have a reservior/pump combo or have them as separate units?
 
R

RoninChaos

Member
mkenyon said:
*edit* 290X prices starting to normalize. ASUS DCII 290X for $580 on Newegg! YAY!


The motherboard you're buying is expensive because of the inclusion of a PLX chip, which exists to multiply PCI-E lanes. This helps when running 3-4 way SLI and Crossfire. Outside of that, it's completely overkill.

Are you wanting to build an enthusiast machine with great aesthetics? If so, I can customize some part choices for you in order to achieve that. If not, then I'd highly advise sticking to the choices in the OP, as they're focused almost entirely on $:performance.

Yeah, it's a good one.

I use Furmark to get a quick idea of stability, and then test it with at least a few runs of 3DMark Firestrike, or 3DMark11.

I don't have much experience OC'ing Kepler cards outside of the 670 and 690, so I'm unsure as to the rest.
Click to expand...

Do you have a suggestion for a different board?

And yes, I want it to look good too. The case has red trim but I was going to do red fans as well. The board has red , ram is red etc.

Thanks for the reply :)
 
M

mkenyon

Banned
Granadier said:
I am genuinely curious about your reasons for the list, from a knowledge standpoint. I'm guessing you have had vast personal experience with all of the coolers.

From what I've looked at the TF cools similar to the WF, but it's fans run ~half the speed with less noise. Then the ACX cools on par, but produces more noise.

What are the results in the real world though?
Click to expand...
58500.png


58501.png


I generally find these results to exist elsewhere.

But, personally, the DCII cooler and the Windforce cooler are the only two that made me question why I put cards under water. I had the Matrix on air on my test bench while I was working on my big build project, and even OC'd at 1200MHz, the thing is inaudible with my open ear AKG's on.
The Insane Dufresne said:
There are coolers better than Twin Frozr ?

I'm very intrigued by this.
Click to expand...
Yeah. But, they all have their ups and downs. This post:
retard said:
MSI claims TriFrozr can handle 500w, you've ranked it too low imo.

And there's more to the cooler than a simple rank like that. For example, Asus and Gigabyte use bare heat pipes which work pretty well on big dies like GK110. But they reused the same design on AMD's R9 290 and 290X, which have much smaller dies. As a consequence, some of the heat pipes don't make contact with the die and cooling performance is harmed as a result.

So if you're buying an AMD card, models with coolers that have a contact plate like MSI Gaming and Lightning, Sapphire's Tri-X, and XFX's DD are much better choices.
Click to expand...
I ranked it #2, FWIW. But I've had three 'meh' experiences with their design. 560Ti's, 580 Lightning Extreme, and 7970 Lightning Extreme. One of the fans stopped working on a 560Ti and the 580, and the 7970 Lightning Extreme was way louder than my Matrix 7970.
Oxn said:
Also what about PNY
Click to expand...
Zero experience.
Oxn said:
What makes these coolers better or worst? Sound? What is the quietest?
Click to expand...
Sound, quality. In the case of EVGA's ACX cooler, they use the reference PCB design, which is really nice for a lot of reasons. Better cooler support should yours fail, and waterblocks work with it.
chickdigger802 said:
What about acx vs classified? The better parts worth $60 more?
Click to expand...
Classified uses the ACX cooler. The Classy, IMO, is for people who like to tweak. If you don't mind screwing around with overclocking, then it's generally the NVIDIA card of choice for me.
AwakenedCloud said:
After being laughed at for my previous GPU choice, I went back to the lab and revised my project. Hopefully, this build will get less GAF-flac than the previous one I posted.
Click to expand...
SHAME ON GAFERS THAT LAUGHED.

Nice card, I love my 7970 still.
RoninChaos said:
Do you have a suggestion for a different board?

And yes, I want it to look good too. The case has red trim but I was going to do red fans as well. The board has red , ram is red etc.

Thanks for the reply :)
Click to expand...
Queue just popped for CS:GO. I will get to it after the match or tomorrow, but I'll throw a couple options at ya.
 
H

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Franco_hunter said:
Mates i need help, wich one of this 3 options should i get

1) i7 4770k / zotac 780 3gb AMP! - not upgrade in some time and hope it last
2) i7 4770k / evga 770 2gb - see how 800 series (maxwell) does, upgrading just vga
3) i5 4670k / evga 770 2gb - upgrade later

Thanks in advance!
Edit: i forgot to say, im gaming at 1080p
Click to expand...
3 IMO. 770 more than enough for 1080 now and newer cards aren't TOO far away. 760 even.
Monosukoi said:
Repurposing my post.
Click to expand...
GRYPHON is nice
Old Gimlet Eyes said:
Hey all, been out of the pc build game for a while and my good buddy needs some advice on his potential build. He is only looking at these parts, already has os, hdd, etc.. Budget is around 1500. Please advise!

Http://pcpartpicker.com/p/39rND
Click to expand...
I'd get low profile RAM and a 240GB SSD
 
E

ElectricKaibutsu

Member
QP3 said:
On PC Part Picker I noticed that you can sort the video cards by "chipset" (GeForce, Radeon, etc.)

What exactly is a "chipset"? I used to think they were brands or models when I saw their names, but now realize it appears to be neither.
Click to expand...
Well, they are brands and models. But you can't buy a GeForce card straight from Nvidia, you buy one from MSI or Asus or whoever. They're the ones that put on all the extras (cooling, different ports, over clocking, etc).

Honestly I never thought about it before, why don't we buy cards straight from Nvidia and AMD?
 
G

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
mkenyon said:
I generally find these results to exist elsewhere.

But, personally, the DCII cooler and the Windforce cooler are the only two that made me question why I put cards under water. I had the Matrix on air on my test bench while I was working on my big build project, and even OC'd at 1200MHz, the thing is inaudible with my open ear AKG's on.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. That was exactly what I was looking for.
 
Soodanim

Soodanim

Gold Member
Crucial M500 240GB for £84. Worth it? I haven't read reviews, so I don't know if it is one of those SSDs with inferior parts that will give up in a year or two.

A friend told me about PCSpecialist.co.uk yesterday. Has anyone heard of them? Apparently they have an advert on TV. I did a quick build on there and part for part, for a desktop (no software, no m/kb, no monitor) it comes up as not much more than on PCPP. The parts list to choose from is much smaller, but it seems like a legit source.
 
P

Prophet Steve

Member
SixFourMike said:
Crucial M500 240GB for £84. Worth it? I haven't read reviews, so I don't know if it is one of those SSDs with inferior parts that will give up in a year or two.

A friend told me about PCSpecialist.co.uk yesterday. Has anyone heard of them? Apparently they have an advert on TV. I did a quick build on there and part for part, for a desktop (no software, no m/kb, no monitor) it comes up as not much more than on PCPP. The parts list to choose from is much smaller, but it seems like a legit source.
Click to expand...

The Crucial M500 is great. It is not as fast as the EVO, but you probably will not notice the difference. In terms of reliability and security it is better. There are plenty of reviews out of there if you want.
 
T

The_Hitcher89

Member
Really weird kink I just discovered

If I configure my connection's Wireless Mode to IEEE802.11/b/g instead of /b/g/n, the supposed speed goes down from 65 to 54, but the actual speed increases exponentially, from 0.09Mbp/s download speed to 4.50, just enough to watch videos on High settings. The change is clear even when simply browsing, pages open faster, images load faster etc

Weird.
 
R

RoninChaos

Member
KTT said:
I think the general consensus is that the 4670k will last a good while for gaming. Where are you getting your 4670k from? If you're near a Microcenter, be sure to get it from there. If not, you can price match with Staples (for in-store pick-up or shipping anywhere). Don't pay more than you need to! Especially since it'll impact your GPU budget
Click to expand...


Where is it cheapest right now?
 
Soodanim

Soodanim

Gold Member
Prophet Steve said:
The Crucial M500 is great. It is not as fast as the EVO, but you probably will not notice the difference. In terms of reliability and security it is better. There are plenty of reviews out of there if you want.
Click to expand...
Thanks, that's good to hear. I found a comparison with the 840 EVO that showed a 200mbs difference when the read queue was 1, but it catches up to the EVO when it's about 3 or 4. If it's not noticeable, then cool. I'm coming from an old 5400rpm drive anyway, so I think I'll be happy.

What about the Sandisk Ultra? It got a mention here so I thought I'd see if anyone has experience with it.

I really tempted to start buying parts, perhaps it will encourage me to finish it. (It's a shame I didnt do that with £35 Samsung Green RAM.)
 
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