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On August 06 2012 16:11 Bleak wrote:
What not too priced, but good performing intel quad-core cpu I can get with a:
1) H61M-P21 Motherboard
2) And a budget of at most 200-230$ ?
I saw i5-3500 up there. Is it any good?
And will I have to reinstall windows just because I changed my CPU? The last time I changed many stuff and it asked me but this time it's only gonna be CPU.
i5 2300, i5 2400 or i5 2500/2500k. Choose your poison, the difference is just the nominal clock speeds, but I'd avoid a bios flash (assuming you can get one) to support ivy bridge, considering the marginal improvements.
On August 06 2012 16:14 Vic.nQQ wrote:
Ok guys, 1 final question from me before getting my rig: i7 3770 (no K) with box cooling vs. i5 3570k with CM 212 Evo. The difference is about 40$ (the i7 being more expensive obv); the goal is streaming LoL / SC2 at 720p/1080p with Xsplit or FFsplit (1680x1050 resolution)
If I was to overclock the i5, I assume I would be going for 4.4 - 4.5 Ghz as I am not very experienced at it;
If I was to have the i7, I would get an Asrock MB (z77 pro-4 M) that allows for non-K Overclock and run the i7 at 3.7 to 3.9 Ghz with the box cooling.
Which one will be better for my streaming needs? I obv prefer the cheaper i5, but I'd like to know what the difference would be (if any) for my goals?
Edit: Forgot to mention - I will be gaming on the same PC, it is not going to be a dedicated streaming computer if anyone got confused.
3570k will give better sc2 ingame performance (slightly), the 3770k MIGHT give a marginally better stream quality, but I'd find it unlikely. To be honest, either one of them will give a nice stream, but getting nice framerates is the hardest part of streaming starcraft.
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Hi guys. I'm going to build myself a new PC, specifically to play GW2 in eye-popping beauty. The machine will be used for general gaming @ 1440x900 (but hoping to up my resolution with new monitor purchases later, need a GPU that can touch 1920x1080).
I will be using an Intel chipset unless someone gives me a compelling reason to do otherwise. ;D
Budget: About $1200, can probably go as high as $1400. Upgrade cycle can be as short as six months if there's a major release coming.
Resolution: Currently at 1440x900, will probably buy a monitor -> 1280x1024, but would like support for 1920x1080 (maybe in the form of a GPU upgrade down the road?)
Use: Gaming (SC2, assorted mobas, Witcher 2, Guild Wars 2, pretty-pretty RPGs like Darksiders II), streaming said games, light video editing, experimenting with virtual environments (currently in desktop support, looking to be a sysadmin in a year or two). Xsplit Streaming/gaming ideally at 1280x1024 minimum.
Upgrade cycle: can be as short as three-six months. I can start with a simple build and grandfather parts to my boyfriend's to-be-built machine as I upgrade.
When: I get paid on the 15th and would like to have my OS installed and updated before the 25th. Buying via Newegg, unless someone has a better suggestion. I don't need an OS license.
SLI: I would LOVE to build an SLI setup. I've never worked on one before and would like to experiment and tweak around. Should I spring for 2x16 lane PCI channels on my mobo (and does this mean I'm limited to 2011 socket CPUs? I don't know a lot about hardware architecture, but it seems like 1055 CPUs only have 1x16 lane or 2x8 lanes slots).
If I build on 1055, would this seriously limit my future upgrade potential (e.g. would I have to replace -both- CPU and mobo because this socket type is becoming outdated?). If I build on 2011, is the front-end cost worth the future compatibility?
I DO know how to overclock a machine, but I'm not necessarily looking to push past most factory clocks unless I can squeeze a performance tier out of a piece of budget hardware. I'm not a clock junkie and don't plan on buying excess cooling systems/sinks.
Basically, I know a little about hardware and building a PC but have no idea about current specs::$$ or how to get the best value and performance out of my machine.
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^If you're aiming for the best value to performance then look at other previous tight builds here and just tune it down as you want.
Judging by your resolution you'd probably want to let your boyfriend choose your GPU for now and get a gtx650ti/7850 later.
And if you want to stream on 1920 x 1080 at the same time, make sure you have at least an i5 3550/3470. Doing SLI is solid if you don't care about money.
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My boyfriend has never seen the inside of a computer case. :p
I'm going to help him build his first machine from the parts I replace in the next ~6 months. If I go 1155 NOW, I'll probably Christmas present a 2011 socket cpu/mobo to myself and set aside the 1055 for his future build (<_<). He primarily plays mobas right now (LoL / Dota2) and doesn't stream.
My real question is mostly this: I want to game/stream at 1280x1024 immediately, and be able to easily upgrade the setup to stream 1920x1080 within the next 6 months. Should I build on LGA 2011? The x79 board looks the MOST futureproof because I want to work with x16/x16 SLI and plan on building a bunch of virtual environments (Cisco, Solaris and other assorted *nix) to teach myself shit.
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The problem with LGA 2011 is that PCI-e 3.0 does not officially work (edit: with Nvidia cards) so you have to use the "hack/registry fix" thing. Even if that does work, what do you really need 2 PCI-e 3.0 x16 bandwidth for? Are you going to do quad-sli 690's? Because if not, 3.0 x8 is plenty for SLI 680's (which is what LGA 1155 can do). Really, unless you plan on getting an i7 3930K, really need quad-chanel RAM and/or more than 32GB (do you really?), or doing more than 2-way SLI, LGA 2011 is not worth it nor is it more "future-proof".
EDIT: And from your description, it doesn't really sound like you do need 2011. An i7 3770K with 16GB of RAM should be easily capable of handling your needs. If you want to spend more on 2011 and a 3930K that's fine but you might get buyer's remorse from the insane overkill which will most likely be useless. Is 32GB really not enough?
EDIT #2: If the RAM is that big of a concern doing 2011 wouldn't be bad. I know some people frown at using a "cheap" 2011 board with the "cheap/bad" CPU in that family (i7 3820) but I don't really see it as a problem. Still good performance CPU, still can be overclocked on a decent ~$250 board, and you get the extram RAM option. This is assuming you have a limited budget, which seems to be the case. Otherwise you wouldn't even be asking questions and would just go all out with the socket and hex-core cpu and all that jazz.
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(Big virtual environments eat a shitton of unpaged RAM, by the way - so let's say I want to monitor uptime of my staging environment over the course of a week, but don't want to interrupt my gaming. I would need enough RAM to support a couple dozen VMs while still fragging... hence why I'm leaning towards 2011 socket)
Edit: Thanks so much, Wabbit! I'll post a real build in a couple hours and let you guys giggle when I don't get a PSU with enough juice to power my setup past faclock. Hopefully someone can catch any glaring problems.
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I strongly suggest that if you actually need 2011, you just say you have a use for it for X and Y, and ask specific questions.
It's not really more future proof, but it's good for the things it's good for. If you plan to do those to the point it's worth laying out the cash, then just do it.
Much as I'm all about matching the right parts to the needs, a lot of people here do forget to shift out of maximum price/performance thinking occasionally. If you need help with specific stuff on the platform after you've done your research, just ask the relevant questions.
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I'm definitely guilty of wanting to over-spend on hardware with my new paycheck, but I also have big dreams about finishing assorted certs and moving out of user support -> sysadmin, NOC. No time or money for college so the plan is to virtualize a business environment, break it beyond all reason, fix it, make it redundant, back it up, automate it, [verbs in that Daft Punk song] etc.
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For the record, the k-edition socket 1155 processors don't support vt-d, while non-k do (but can't overclock), and i7-3820 does. There always seems to be confusion on which chipsets and motherboards (outside of server ones) that actually support it though.
For streaming 1920x1080, you probably want to seriously consider overclocking an i7. It'll work on less, but unless you're going for top video quality, there's not really much point in 1080p in my opinion.
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I'd only stream 1080p if I had a dedicated machine for encoding or a 3930k. If you're both gaming and encoding on a 4 core CPU I'd stick to 720p, it'll look better.
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On August 07 2012 02:20 Myrmidon wrote:
For the record, the k-edition socket 1155 processors don't support vt-d, while non-k do (but can't overclock), and i7-3820 does. There always seems to be confusion on which chipsets and motherboards (outside of server ones) that actually support it though.
This actually breaks my heart, but makes my decision really easy I guess. I obviously need a LOT more research and cash to back up my 2011 purchase. Thanks for the head's up, Myrmidon. I just kinda assumed current Intel nbridges would ALL support VT-D... I first experimented with DMA mapping in like 2008 (seaburg?), and thought four years of market time would make VT-D standard. I guess Intel is keeping costs down on gamerconsumer parts? Why would factory clock be necessary for PCI passthrough?
Going to build on 1155 with my current budget. I'll use the experience to teach boyfriend the basics about desktop architecture, explain overclocking and jazz. Resolution isn't going to be as high as I want, but that's livable.
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Your budget is actually pretty big. Plenty for a (single) good gaming computer on either the 2011 or the 1155 socket, even enough for a moderately powerful gaming setup & a weak gaming setup (mobas take virtually zero resources to run). Depending on what your computer is right now, you might be able to just build one new computer and let the boyfriend use what you have now.
So I don't think you're in as bad a spot as you think. The real question (that I don't know the answer to) is what system resources are needed for the virtual environments. If you just need a ton of RAM, the 2011 socket is pretty easy to build on right off with the i7-3820. If you think you'll need the 6 cores/12 threads of the i7-3930k, it's still doable in your budget.
P.S. For SLI, 2x8 lane setups are perfectly fine, even PCI-E 2.0 2x8 lane setups.
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two 1 gb 560 gtx evga superclocked sli
or
one 2 gb 670 gtx evga ftw
similar prices
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i7 sandy bridge 3820 3.6 ghz 10 l3 cache
or
i7 ivy bridge 3770k 3.5ghz, 8 l3 cache
similar prices
thanks
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For the purpose of what exactly?
A single high-end card is always better than two mid-range last-gen cards.
Also, those two i7's don't have similar prices because LGA 1155 and LGA 2011 motherboards differ greatly in pricing.
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Ok guys, I have a very very very very simple question: What video card can max out Starcraft II in Combination with 8 Gigs of PC-2133 RAM and an i7 3770K processor, this is, of course, without streaming taken in to account, and of course accounting for 200/200 maxed out armies on typical ladder maps or GSL / TESL / MLG maps at Ultra settings and roughly 1600x900 Resolution settings?
Please PM me the answer as I may neglect to check this thread in the future. I need to know what video card is the best option to go with.
EDIT: I may just have a case of the derpies or just a case of "Build anxiety" as I have been playing starcraft 2 on an Alienware laptop now for over a year with the following specs:
Intel i7 at about 1.9GHz clock frequency.
6GB of Ram at about 1333MHz
and an ATi Radeon mobility 5730.
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Like not even a 5770.
But considering the amount of money you pumped into RAM. Just get whatever you want. 7970 GE's are available now.
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So, I fucked up.
I got an AMD mobo that only supports up to 95w TDP, and a Phenom II X4 965 (125w TDP). This was for a friend's extremely low budget streaming rig, I'm not an AMD fan.
When I try to boot it says "The max power of CPU is over 95W. Preparing to shut down..."
I was wondering if maybe there was a way to trick the mobo into thinking it has a 95W TDP, or maybe underclock or undervolt the CPU to get it to work with the mobo.
Should I just return the mobo and get one that's compatable? Or return the CPU and get a weaker one?
Or should I just go on craigslist and trade my CPU for someone else's 95w? :p
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I would return the motherboard, eat the restocking fee, and get a new compatible one. I dont really like AMD for streaming even on a budget but I hear what you are saying. I tend to think that while it streams well it doesnt run SC2 well so the stream doesnt look right anyway.
What i would not do is drop down to a lower CPU. Your already kind of dropping down on it.
I wouldnt do anything on craigslist without half expecting surprise butt sex.
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If i can get a core i5 sandy bridge 2500k for 200 flat, or a core i5 ivy bridge 3570k for 220 flat, which is the better decision? I mainly use my pc for games, and i do intend to overclock. Is a highly Oc'd 2500k sandy better than a slightly oc'd 3570k ivy bridge? This bottles* my mind, because i would assumethe ivy bridge is superior but after reading some things im not quite sure.
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EPT
