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Computer Build Resource Thread - Page 1403

Forum Index > Tech Support
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When using this resource, please read FragKrag's opening post. The Tech Support forum regulars have helped create countless of desktop systems without any compensation. The least you can do is provide all of the information required for them to help you properly.
Myrmidon
Profile Blog Joined December 2004
United States9452 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-03-05 19:48:33
March 05 2013 19:45 GMT
#28041
Many power MOSFETs across the world are operating 80C+, some over 100C. That's not better, but these things aren't necessarily intended and expected to stay cool.

I wouldn't freak out because of temperature, anyhow, at least for most electronics ("wet" electrolytic caps aside). It really depends on the design. If heatsinks aren't too hot to touch, what are they there for?
Ropid
Profile Joined March 2009
Germany3557 Posts
March 05 2013 20:03 GMT
#28042
It actually started throttling. I'm not joking. I mean, the CPU ratcheted down to 1600 mhz or something every few seconds. And this was with all temperature protection options in the BIOS off. It was the actual protection for the VRM. From searching around, apparently ASRock used shittier mosfets compared to other manufacturers. About that throttling phenomenon, I could even find people who didn't overclock or anything like that, but for example had an ITX board and case, and had problems there with ASRock. That's why I think it'll be a bad mainboard in the summer, at least for me. My PC case has no openings for ventilation at the top or the side, only rear and front bottom.
"My goal is to replace my soul with coffee and become immortal."
Cattlecruiser
Profile Blog Joined December 2011
United States340 Posts
March 05 2013 20:59 GMT
#28043
On February 06 2013 22:47 Cattlecruiser wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 06 2013 21:33 Cyro wrote:
Are those Acer able to upgraded to the point of playing Rome 2?


There's no point when you can build a system that is equivelant in every way but better by many orders of magnitude in many ways for less money. Gtx680 outperforms the 630 by a factor of like 6-10 and is probably within budget even. i7 adds nothing over i5 for gaming while costing a chunk of money and the PSU+Motherboard are pretty much guaranteed to be low tier (because nobody buying prebuilts has any idea what is good or bad in those regards, most will only google a couple of components (cpu/gpu) if anything) etcetc.

By upgrading you are talking about adding the cost of a strong GPU and also replacing the PSU to the 1.1k the system costs - you can make a system with a good motherboard, solid PSU, best gaming CPU, however much RAM you want, a HDD, low-mid capacity good SSD etc for like half of that 1.1k


O.O I didn't know the huge price difference.
Is $1200 a reasonable budget for a i5 processor, 2+ GB GPU(Not sure what is appropriate for Rome 2), and similar tiered motherboard+PSU+rest of the necessary parts starting from scratch?
I am praying that I can start on this project within the next month when my spring break beings.
I am just trying to see how much ramen, plasma donations, and extra hours I need to fit in before that time.

Budget: ~$750-1200
Resolution: I do not have a monitor that would be appropriate for a new rig monitor budget ~100-200
Usage: Starcraft 2, upcoming Rome 2 Total War, maybe start up MOBA like Dota 2, Shogun 2, and Fifa 13.
Upgrade Cycle: 2-3 years, hopefully 5 years?
Build time: 1 month later
Overclocking: No
OS: Yes, Windows preferred.
Extra parts: only if necessary for Rome 2 (huge army size:low-med graphics)
Buying Parts: American websites like Amazon, newegg, and near by computer parts stores like Best buy and local one.

EDIT: If there is room in my budget to make room for the possibility of overclocking and extra parts like second graphics card I would like to


Hello, I have finally got the money in the bank :D!!!!
Budget: 1200 US Dollars
Resolution: No monitor, not included in budget
Usage: Sc2, Rome 2 Total, Dota 2, some console
Upgrade Cycle: 2+ years, 2-3 years
Build time: this week/weekend
Overclocking: No
OS: No, Windows already available
Extra parts: none
Buying Parts: Micro Center, American websites newegg, ect
Myrmidon
Profile Blog Joined December 2004
United States9452 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-03-05 21:05:27
March 05 2013 21:04 GMT
#28044
On March 06 2013 05:03 Ropid wrote:
It actually started throttling. I'm not joking. I mean, the CPU ratcheted down to 1600 mhz or something every few seconds. And this was with all temperature protection options in the BIOS off. It was the actual protection for the VRM. From searching around, apparently ASRock used shittier mosfets compared to other manufacturers. About that throttling phenomenon, I could even find people who didn't overclock or anything like that, but for example had an ITX board and case, and had problems there with ASRock. That's why I think it'll be a bad mainboard in the summer, at least for me. My PC case has no openings for ventilation at the top or the side, only rear and front bottom.

Traditional power MOSFETs in DPAK (TO-252) package, high R_DS(on) that only gets higher at higher temperatures, outdated PWM controller. That's not exactly ideal for any serious overclocking, could be bad depending on spec and implementation. Thin boards, low amounts of copper, cheap parts is how you get lower prices.

What temps do the VRMs reach? You sure it's really the motherboard cutting back on their expense? 4.5 GHz 1.25V i5-3570k CPU load (though IBT) might well be less power draw than stock i7-2700k CPU+GPU load, and less demand from the VRMs, which you'd hope even the low-end boards can handle. Then again, that could be assuming some airflow from the stock downblowing cooler.
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20323 Posts
March 05 2013 21:12 GMT
#28045
I have heard nothing but bad things about trying to overclock on low end (especially really low end) z77 boards, maybe its being overly cautious but for overclocking (even to 4.5ghz) and especially for a new user overclocking i would reccomend spending however much more it is for a decent board.. If nothing else, you have manual voltage and llc so the overclocking process is much, much simpler and easier instead of playing whack-a-mole with reasons for instability
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
Gumbi
Profile Joined June 2012
Ireland463 Posts
March 05 2013 21:31 GMT
#28046
I have my Asrock Pro3 Z77, used it to overclock my 3570k to 4.6ghz. Stable after 20 runs of Intel Burn Test (maximum preset) and 12 hours of Prime @ 1.25 volts (offset of something I forget :D). It seems to be doing OK for me anyway. Temps in Prime max out at 75 degrees, IBT at 80.

So I have no complaints with my Z77 board.
Myrmidon
Profile Blog Joined December 2004
United States9452 Posts
March 05 2013 21:40 GMT
#28047
Hard to say without actually using the things. As I mentioned earlier, I would suspect bad CPUs over the motherboard, aside from obvious things like missing features or unless the thing clearly has no VRM heatsinks and clearly has components for stock only (but then again, as also mentioned before, stock SB i7 CPU+GPU can draw more than OC IVB i5 CPU load, easily). A relatively poor motherboard isn't going to help, but system costs start to add up if you want to up $60 extra on a mobo + $20 for K CPU SKU + $30 for a cooler. OC is starting to become not worth it for a lot of builds.

Most reviewers probably don't stability test long enough, but any lazy inefficiency like using too much VCore would be an indication that the mobo can handle an excessive load, right? Though that's probably going to be with pretty good cooling. Also could be tested outside a case, which could help many mobos. Anyway, MSI Z77A-G43, AsRock Z77 Pro3 are near the bottom of the list in terms of price and "maybe OC is possible on this thing" (some options like G41 or an ITX with no heatsinks are probably worse):
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2012/06/11/msi-z77a-g43-review/7 (no 4.8 GHz possible, no surprise)
http://www.madshrimps.be/articles/article/1000344/MSI-Z77A-G43-Socket-1155-Motherboard-Review/4#axzz2MhevZW80
http://wccftech.com/review/msi-z77ag43-budget/
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1998/12/
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4852/asrock_z77_pro3_intel_z77_motherboard_review/index4.html
Jibblet
Profile Joined November 2011
United States4 Posts
March 05 2013 21:44 GMT
#28048
Hello,

I want to build a MicroATX rig with no plans for SLI, overclocking or streaming

Budget: 1k Max
Resolution: 1920X1080
Usage: Total War series, Dota 2, HOTS, ArmA 3
Upgrade Cycle: 3 years
Build time: ASAP
Overclocking: No
OS: Need to purchase

For CPU I am not sure if 3470, 3570 or even 3350p would be good enough for my application.

For the case, I want one with decent build in cooling.

Here is my tentative build http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HFY2

I thank you in advance for your help.





Myrmidon
Profile Blog Joined December 2004
United States9452 Posts
March 05 2013 21:53 GMT
#28049
On March 06 2013 06:44 Jibblet wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +
Hello,

I want to build a MicroATX rig with no plans for SLI, overclocking or streaming

Budget: 1k Max
Resolution: 1920X1080
Usage: Total War series, Dota 2, HOTS, ArmA 3
Upgrade Cycle: 3 years
Build time: ASAP
Overclocking: No
OS: Need to purchase

For CPU I am not sure if 3470, 3570 or even 3350p would be good enough for my application.

For the case, I want one with decent build in cooling.

Here is my tentative build http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HFY2

I thank you in advance for your help.


Looks fine overall, though I'd rather cut a few places and spend closer to $1000 and include an SSD. i5-3470 and all the other i5 are very similar, just different in clock speeds (with no other difference for your purposes), so some are just slightly faster or slower. i5-3470 is okay.

Rosewill Capstone 450W is a lot better than Seasonic S12II 430W, roughly same price:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182066

Or get the Seasonic SSR-360GP and use a molex adapter for the graphics card, if you really want a Seasonic.

I don't know why that RAM is so expensive. Get this instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104387

Video card out of stock, this is newer and faster version for pretty much same cost:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202025
Scorevath
Profile Joined May 2011
United States43 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-03-05 22:16:52
March 05 2013 22:01 GMT
#28050
Hello TL I've posted here before and had great success.

I'm building a server for a campus group I'm involved in. This server will host our website and will hold a large amount of files (500+GB) that can be accessed via and FTP client.

We have an existing computer but its getting old and is in need of an upgrade. The PSU and Case still work fine and the 2x 1TB harddrives that we have seem to still function properly. Our budget is fairly small (~$300) so we are looking at only changing out the Motherboard, CPU and adding some RAM so we can install Win 8 on the computer. Here is what we are considering.

CPU: i3 3220 ($100)
MOBO: P8H61-M LE ($73)
RAM: HyperX blu 4GB DDR3-1333 ($33)

This was proposed to me by our IT chair but I don't think this is optimal. What suggestions could you make? Just an FYI we are trying to dodge a GPU so we want integrated graphics in the MOBO+CPU.

Just to clarify, I think it would be wise to double up on the RAM for $11 extra dollars. Would the extra RAM help us at all?
Myrmidon
Profile Blog Joined December 2004
United States9452 Posts
March 05 2013 22:09 GMT
#28051
I'd dodge a GPU too.

Any H61 motherboard being sold probably has a newer BIOS version that supports Ivy Bridge out of the box, but you never know.

Hard drives are SATA, right?

What can't the current computer do, that would suggest the need of an upgrade? Run Win8 comfortably? Why?
Gumbi
Profile Joined June 2012
Ireland463 Posts
March 05 2013 22:10 GMT
#28052
On March 06 2013 06:40 Myrmidon wrote:
Hard to say without actually using the things. As I mentioned earlier, I would suspect bad CPUs over the motherboard, aside from obvious things like missing features or unless the thing clearly has no VRM heatsinks and clearly has components for stock only (but then again, as also mentioned before, stock SB i7 CPU+GPU can draw more than OC IVB i5 CPU load, easily). A relatively poor motherboard isn't going to help, but system costs start to add up if you want to up $60 extra on a mobo + $20 for K CPU SKU + $30 for a cooler. OC is starting to become not worth it for a lot of builds.

Most reviewers probably don't stability test long enough, but any lazy inefficiency like using too much VCore would be an indication that the mobo can handle an excessive load, right? Though that's probably going to be with pretty good cooling. Also could be tested outside a case, which could help many mobos. Anyway, MSI Z77A-G43, AsRock Z77 Pro3 are near the bottom of the list in terms of price and "maybe OC is possible on this thing" (some options like G41 or an ITX with no heatsinks are probably worse):
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2012/06/11/msi-z77a-g43-review/7 (no 4.8 GHz possible, no surprise)
http://www.madshrimps.be/articles/article/1000344/MSI-Z77A-G43-Socket-1155-Motherboard-Review/4#axzz2MhevZW80
http://wccftech.com/review/msi-z77ag43-budget/
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1998/12/
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4852/asrock_z77_pro3_intel_z77_motherboard_review/index4.html

The Pro3 came out on top in the reviews in which it was featured (for the tests done, at least). That puts my mind at ease, anyways. I'm super happy with my overclock right now, I've been using it the past few days without a hitch.
upperbound
Profile Joined September 2011
United States2300 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-03-05 22:34:43
March 05 2013 22:19 GMT
#28053
On March 06 2013 05:59 Cattlecruiser wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 06 2013 22:47 Cattlecruiser wrote:
On February 06 2013 21:33 Cyro wrote:
Are those Acer able to upgraded to the point of playing Rome 2?


There's no point when you can build a system that is equivelant in every way but better by many orders of magnitude in many ways for less money. Gtx680 outperforms the 630 by a factor of like 6-10 and is probably within budget even. i7 adds nothing over i5 for gaming while costing a chunk of money and the PSU+Motherboard are pretty much guaranteed to be low tier (because nobody buying prebuilts has any idea what is good or bad in those regards, most will only google a couple of components (cpu/gpu) if anything) etcetc.

By upgrading you are talking about adding the cost of a strong GPU and also replacing the PSU to the 1.1k the system costs - you can make a system with a good motherboard, solid PSU, best gaming CPU, however much RAM you want, a HDD, low-mid capacity good SSD etc for like half of that 1.1k


O.O I didn't know the huge price difference.
Is $1200 a reasonable budget for a i5 processor, 2+ GB GPU(Not sure what is appropriate for Rome 2), and similar tiered motherboard+PSU+rest of the necessary parts starting from scratch?
I am praying that I can start on this project within the next month when my spring break beings.
I am just trying to see how much ramen, plasma donations, and extra hours I need to fit in before that time.

Budget: ~$750-1200
Resolution: I do not have a monitor that would be appropriate for a new rig monitor budget ~100-200
Usage: Starcraft 2, upcoming Rome 2 Total War, maybe start up MOBA like Dota 2, Shogun 2, and Fifa 13.
Upgrade Cycle: 2-3 years, hopefully 5 years?
Build time: 1 month later
Overclocking: No
OS: Yes, Windows preferred.
Extra parts: only if necessary for Rome 2 (huge army size:low-med graphics)
Buying Parts: American websites like Amazon, newegg, and near by computer parts stores like Best buy and local one.

EDIT: If there is room in my budget to make room for the possibility of overclocking and extra parts like second graphics card I would like to


Hello, I have finally got the money in the bank :D!!!!
Budget: 1200 US Dollars
Resolution: No monitor, not included in budget
Usage: Sc2, Rome 2 Total, Dota 2, some console
Upgrade Cycle: 2+ years, 2-3 years
Build time: this week/weekend
Overclocking: No
OS: No, Windows already available
Extra parts: none
Buying Parts: Micro Center, American websites newegg, ect

I'm not sure what you're saying about the monitor, but I'm assuming that you mean that it's separate than the $1200 budget, which is just for the computer.

Intel Core i5-3570k (MC) $190
ASRock Extreme4 (MC) $85 bundled
Crucial Ballistix Sport 1600 MHz (MC) $47 bundled
MSI GTX 670 (Newegg) $340 AR w/ $150 game coupon http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127675
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (MC) $30
Samsung 840 250GB (Newegg) $150 AP: EMCXTXR23 -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147189&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL030513&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL030513-_-EMC-030513-Index-_-SSD-_-20147189-L0C
Toshiba 7200 RPM 1TB (MC) $60
Zalman Z11 (MC) $40 AR
Rosewill Capstone 450W Continuous (Newegg) $65 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168171820662

TOTAL: $1157

I abused your budget a little bit with a few luxury items: the 250GB SSD and 1TB HDD are not totally necessary; you can save $50 by switching to a 120GB SSD or $60 if ~200GB of storage space is enough for you.

The GTX 670 also ran Shogun 2 demonstrably better than the HD 7950; but with the graphics engine overhaul who knows if that will still be the case. You can save $70 on this Sapphire HD 7950 if you want to save, get better performance/$, but chance that Rome 2 will also be much better optimized for nVidia hardware.

Also, I now see that you only want to run low-medium settings on Rome with huge army size. A 7850 should be more than enough for that, too, and will cost about half of the 670 -- SC2 and Dota2 both require basically no GPU processing capacity.

EDIT: Also, I don't know if the promo for the 840 is email-specific; if it is, then you should downsize to the 120GB version for $100 at MC.

ALSO: Oh crap, you don't want to overclock now, even though you said you wanted the option in the last post. If you really don't want to OC at a $1200 budget , scratch the Hyper 212 Evo and switch out the ASRock Extreme4 for an MSI Z77A-G41 and save $80.
Scorevath
Profile Joined May 2011
United States43 Posts
March 05 2013 22:21 GMT
#28054
On March 06 2013 07:09 Myrmidon wrote:
I'd dodge a GPU too.

Any H61 motherboard being sold probably has a newer BIOS version that supports Ivy Bridge out of the box, but you never know.

Hard drives are SATA, right?

What can't the current computer do, that would suggest the need of an upgrade? Run Win8 comfortably? Why?


Yes the Hard drives are SATA. To be honest I think the reason we are upgrading is because the IT guy was given a budget and he decided that since the computer was 8 years old this was a decent way to spend it. There is talk about using the computer as a printing station as well which means it would have to be able to go online, log into email and print etc and I think this was a big concern with the old computer.

Myrmidon
Profile Blog Joined December 2004
United States9452 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-03-05 22:27:45
March 05 2013 22:23 GMT
#28055
re: Cattlecruiser's build by upperbound

The above also includes parts for overclocking the CPU.

Really, there is no way to spend close to $1200 without those luxury items, so to say.

If you're really not interested in these kinds of extras, you might as well pocket the extra money or up your (unlisted) monitor budget so you can splurge on something like an Eizo Foris FS2333 or something like that.


On March 06 2013 07:21 Scorevath wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 06 2013 07:09 Myrmidon wrote:
I'd dodge a GPU too.

Any H61 motherboard being sold probably has a newer BIOS version that supports Ivy Bridge out of the box, but you never know.

Hard drives are SATA, right?

What can't the current computer do, that would suggest the need of an upgrade? Run Win8 comfortably? Why?


Yes the Hard drives are SATA. To be honest I think the reason we are upgrading is because the IT guy was given a budget and he decided that since the computer was 8 years old this was a decent way to spend it. There is talk about using the computer as a printing station as well which means it would have to be able to go online, log into email and print etc and I think this was a big concern with the old computer.


Aren't these kinds of easy loads, serving files for a group, what people use Atom-based systems for? I get the feeling of massive overkill, but sure I guess.

But yeah, if also using as print station, don't want Atom for that, but old hardware would be mostly okay too...

I don't really see any performance goals that wouldn't be met by lesser hardware, but with $300 an i3, mobo, RAM like was listed, seems okay. It's probably not a big deal no matter what you get.
Craton
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
United States17275 Posts
March 05 2013 23:32 GMT
#28056
On March 06 2013 02:24 Elairec wrote:
On a scale of 1-10 how hard would you say OCing is?

They covered all the nuances already, but assuming you have a board with the right options and quality, the actual process of a basic OC is quite simple.
twitch.tv/cratonz
Pucca
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
Taiwan1280 Posts
March 05 2013 23:41 GMT
#28057
I need some help. My current rig is failing on my constantly, blue screen and what seems to be my graphics card just failing outright. I'm not here to fix my current rig as I need to invest my money into a laptop for college.

I'm trying to find a balance between school and my needs. This is quite difficult for me. I don't have a price range really set but if I could not go above or near 3,000$ that would be very nice.

Both my brothers who went to college got MacBook Pro's. Now they had mixed results but generally I feel macs are just "better" for school call my crazy. This was before Apple changed their pricing. They now removed the regular Macbook with the Macbook Air. Which does not suit my needs. So I would have to jump to the Macbook Pro area.

I found this model of the MacBook Pro: http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD103LL/A
When I finished specing to my needs : IE 8GB of Ram and 2.7GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB GDDR5 memory w/ Apple care it runs 2,698.00$!

While I can afford that, it seems awfully expensive for the specs it has.

I've been a brood war caster for about a year now and I'd like to keep doing that. Unfortunately the method and programs I use are only compatible with Windows. Furthermore, most recent Mac OSX version updates no longer PPC application which require brood war to run. Essentially this meaning I need to be able to stream games @720p if possible. If not than I'll have to face reality. I just don't know what kind of hardware that entails.

I don't know of any reasonable place to look at good performance PC laptops. Could someone put me in the right direction thanks!


Master Chief
Myrmidon
Profile Blog Joined December 2004
United States9452 Posts
March 05 2013 23:47 GMT
#28058
Are you looking for a portable brick with maximized performance or something that can better be carried to classes and other places?

Which games other than BW would you be streaming? For reference, what were the specs of the current system?
Pucca
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
Taiwan1280 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-03-05 23:59:22
March 05 2013 23:57 GMT
#28059
On March 06 2013 08:47 Myrmidon wrote:
Are you looking for a portable brick with maximized performance or something that can better be carried to classes and other places?

Which games other than BW would you be streaming? For reference, what were the specs of the current system?

I know there is a way to copy and paste the specs of my current rig correct? Could you tell me how to do so?

I'm look at a portable brick. Streaming SC2 would be fantastic as I might start casting that sooner or later.
Master Chief
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20323 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-03-06 00:00:39
March 05 2013 23:59 GMT
#28060
http://www.piriform.com/speccy

For the record, im pretty sure you can get a non-mac laptop with similar specs (ivy bridge QM (quad core), 650m, 8gb RAM) for like $1k or something.
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
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