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Hey man, this thread has been in the back of my head for a long time. I could really use some help and advice right now.
I have a build that was custom made for me by a friend. It has served me very well but it's from spring 2010 and it's a bit dated now. I also get BSOD daily and I can't confirm the source of it all though I have indications it's memory issues.
Not sure if I want upgrade or something new because I don't know if anything is worth keeping...
What is your current build?
INTEL CORE I7 860 2.80GHZ 8MB S-1156
INTEL X25-M 80GB 2.5# SSD SATA/300 MLC 34NM
SAMSUNG SPINPOINT F3 1TB SATA/300 7200RPM 32MB
FRACTAL DESIGN MIDITOWER DEFINE R2 BLACK PEARL
COOLER MASTER HYPER 212 PLUS S-775/1156/1366/AM2+/AM3
FRACTAL DESIGN SILENT SERIES 120MM 15DB RETAIL
FRACTAL DESIGN SILENT SERIES 140MM 9DB RETAIL
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB GDDR5
Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3R, P55, Socket-1156
Corsair TX 750W PSU
Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz 4GB CL9
Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz 4GB CL9
What is your monitor's native resolution?
I have two monitors with 1920x1080
Why do you want to upgrade? What do you want to achieve with the upgrade?
A stable system and faster system. More space on c: (a larger SSD). Playing the latest games would not hurt. I do 95% work to 5% gaming. Work is programming and the full development suit needs some snuff but my current rig is okay (expect for BSOD). Sometimes a new title like Hitman, Total War, Diablo, Starcraft comes out and I play it for a good while. I never do multiplayer if that matters.
What is your budget?
It's pretty deep. I don't want to waste money but if I still get good value I don't mind the cost. I don't want fancy just great bang for buck. But hey let's just work with 15000 SEK or 2300 USD.
What country will you be buying your parts in?
Sweden.
If you have any brand or retailer preferences, please specify.
Swedish retailers don't really provide english sites. I usually buy from komplett.se or dustinhome.se
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BSOD? Isn't BSOD hard countered by a reformat and reinstalling of windows?
hmm
Either way if you're looking to upgrade I think you can keep most of your stuff and just upgrade CPU/Motherboard/GPU. I guess? $2300 is like a brand new system.
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On December 29 2013 09:40 Incognoto wrote:
BSOD? Isn't BSOD hard countered by a reformat and reinstalling of windows?
hmm
Either way if you're looking to upgrade I think you can keep most of your stuff and just upgrade CPU/Motherboard/GPU. I guess? $2300 is like a brand new system.
BSOD's can be caused by faulty hardware like a dying CPU.
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hmm, or even, come to think of it, an unstable overclock, no? Yeah I take it all back.
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Yep unstable overclocks, dying hard drive/ssd, etc.
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Hello. I managed to get some money from the holidays. I intend on building a computer. From what I've read I think I should use some i5 processor.
I believe I am going to be getting some ASUS Xonar sound card, or something from Creative Labs. They have good reviews. It'll be a card from this list:
http://www.head-fi.org/products/category/sound-cards
With that in mind I'm requesting a build. Thanks so much for your help!
What is your budget?
$1300
What is your monitor's native resolution?
I don't have a monitor
What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings?
Dota 2 - max would be nice
BW - lol
BF4 - mid/high
Civ V - high
What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming?
Ableton Live.
I intend to buy a sound card.
It would be useful to have a lot of RAM.
It would be useful to have multiple hard drives at least one of which was 1TB+
Do you intend to overclock?
I don't intend on it.
Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire?
Nope.
Do you need an operating system?
No, school gives me one.
Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget?
Yes, I need a monitor. It is part of the budget. I think 27" would be nice.
If you have any requirements or brand preferences, please specify.
I think Intel i5 would be good.
What country will you be buying your parts in?
USA
If you have any retailer preferences, please specify.
I do not.
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United Kingdom20345 Posts
On December 28 2013 20:12 skyR wrote:
A10 7700k and A10 7850k are both $160-$200.
That was rumor from a site that listed a bunch of prices too high before, 7850k will most likely by ~160 not 200, or there will be an at least almost-flagship offering at ~$150 IMO
On December 29 2013 07:44 iTzSnypah wrote:
DDR4 isn't going to do shit for anybody with a dedicated graphics card. The difference between DDR3-1067 and DDR3-2666+ is like a few % in a few situations. The only memory tech I'm interested in is Maxwell (or is it the one after that) with it's stacked RAM...It's going to be batshit crazy if they pull it off because it's going to be 300x Memory Throughput on Graphics Cards (I believe 1TB/s).
Helps for some CPU bound stuff, rendering etc, i benched sc2 showing almost as much return from RAM (1600 9-9-9-24 to 2200 9-10-11-20) as from +300mhz on core and uncore, but it's hard to verify because you have to restart the system and sc2 game etc to bench any changes to RAM, at least on haswell system. It's a boost for sc2, bf4, arma 3 though at least from benches i have seen
The difference between DDR3-1067 and DDR3-2666+ is like a few % in a few situations.
The difference between ~1600c9 and a decent kit clocked at ~2133/2200c9 or ~2400/2666c10 was always big in some areas, and the memory enthusiasts hunting down specific IC's etc always had significantly better scores than even that, it was just a question of if massively increasing memory bandwidth and reducing latency helped in stuff like games, and in several CPU/platform bound ones, it does
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On December 29 2013 12:17 Cyro wrote:Show nested quote +On December 29 2013 07:44 iTzSnypah wrote:
DDR4 isn't going to do shit for anybody with a dedicated graphics card. The difference between DDR3-1067 and DDR3-2666+ is like a few % in a few situations. The only memory tech I'm interested in is Maxwell (or is it the one after that) with it's stacked RAM...It's going to be batshit crazy if they pull it off because it's going to be 300x Memory Throughput on Graphics Cards (I believe 1TB/s). Helps for some CPU bound stuff, rendering etc, i benched sc2 showing almost as much return from RAM (1600 9-9-9-24 to 2200 9-10-11-20) as from +300mhz on core and uncore, but it's hard to verify because you have to restart the system and sc2 game etc to bench any changes to RAM, at least on haswell system. It's a boost for sc2, bf4, arma 3 though at least from benches i have seen.
The difference between 300MHz when we're talking 3.5+GHz is only a few percent, so his statement still holds true. Even then, many games and recent cpu architectures are completely RAM agnostic, starcraft 2 and haswell together being one of the few exceptions where this small gain is present.
DDR4 is meaningless for the typical consumer.
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United Kingdom20345 Posts
On December 29 2013 13:29 Rollin wrote:Show nested quote +On December 29 2013 12:17 Cyro wrote:On December 29 2013 07:44 iTzSnypah wrote:
DDR4 isn't going to do shit for anybody with a dedicated graphics card. The difference between DDR3-1067 and DDR3-2666+ is like a few % in a few situations. The only memory tech I'm interested in is Maxwell (or is it the one after that) with it's stacked RAM...It's going to be batshit crazy if they pull it off because it's going to be 300x Memory Throughput on Graphics Cards (I believe 1TB/s). Helps for some CPU bound stuff, rendering etc, i benched sc2 showing almost as much return from RAM (1600 9-9-9-24 to 2200 9-10-11-20) as from +300mhz on core and uncore, but it's hard to verify because you have to restart the system and sc2 game etc to bench any changes to RAM, at least on haswell system. It's a boost for sc2, bf4, arma 3 though at least from benches i have seen. The difference between 300MHz when we're talking 3.5+GHz is only a few percent, so his statement still holds true. Even then, many games and recent cpu architectures are completely RAM agnostic, starcraft 2 and haswell together being one of the few exceptions where this small gain is present. DDR4 is meaningless for the typical consumer.
^That bench shows >5%, wouldn't surprise me if fast ddr4 contributed to a notable performance gain in quite a few cases (though it's probably not at all cost effective to buy, compared to current 2x4gb hynix kits for $63gb that'll do 2400c10/2800c12)
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On December 29 2013 11:11 LeperKahn wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Hello. I managed to get some money from the holidays. I intend on building a computer. From what I've read I think I should use some i5 processor. I believe I am going to be getting some ASUS Xonar sound card, or something from Creative Labs. They have good reviews. It'll be a card from this list: http://www.head-fi.org/products/category/sound-cardsWith that in mind I'm requesting a build. Thanks so much for your help! What is your budget?$1300 What is your monitor's native resolution?I don't have a monitor What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings?Dota 2 - max would be nice BW - lol BF4 - mid/high Civ V - high What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming?Ableton Live. I intend to buy a sound card. It would be useful to have a lot of RAM. It would be useful to have multiple hard drives at least one of which was 1TB+ Do you intend to overclock?I don't intend on it. Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire?Nope. Do you need an operating system?No, school gives me one. Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget?Yes, I need a monitor. It is part of the budget. I think 27" would be nice. If you have any requirements or brand preferences, please specify.I think Intel i5 would be good. What country will you be buying your parts in?USA If you have any retailer preferences, please specify.I do not.
No overclock and i5? You might as well grab a 4670, which is indeed a great CPU to be getting. With no overclock you can get a B85 or H81 motherboard, look around for one that isn't too expensive yet has all the features you need.
You're going to be doing some audio encoding, no? That's also why you want the extra RAM? 16 Gb of RAM should be enough for your work, I would think.
BF4 at medium to high settings warrants a beefy GPU and CPU. The more I think about it, the more I think an i7 4770k might be a possibility to look at for this build. It's basically an i5 (ie it's a quad core) which has slightly larger cache and hyperthreading. Read more about hyperthreading here. In short, hyperthreading allows a single core to act like 2 cores, which helps with things such as encoding (which you'll be doing, I assume). BF4 also takes advantage of hyperthreading I believe; it's a demanding game for CPUs.
Depending on your budget, it could be a very beneficial to invest into a overclocking set up (Z87 board and heatsink). Overclocking will help with the tasks you have set for yourself.
As for the HDDs, well, it's up to you to buy them and have them fit in your budget.
Lastly, the GPU.You would probably want to get at least a 760/7950; get a better card if your budget allows you to.
hope this helps, come up with something on your end and then have people here look it over
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On December 29 2013 09:40 Incognoto wrote:
BSOD? Isn't BSOD hard countered by a reformat and reinstalling of windows?
hmm
Either way if you're looking to upgrade I think you can keep most of your stuff and just upgrade CPU/Motherboard/GPU. I guess? $2300 is like a brand new system.
I want new memory sticks I think because one or both seems be causing my BSOD's. What CPU/Motherboard/GPU should I be looking at? If we figure a new system instead, what case do you recommend? I myself like discrete appearance and soundproof cases.
Also the power supply I have is driving me nuts when I'm thinking about it. Can you get modular power supplies for decent money these days?
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Those are high-end boards. If you need to ask this sort of question then should you really be buying these boards?
All those boards have 8 phases iirc. It's mostly just feature and chipset differences (eg. Gigabyte uses Marvel and Renesas whereas ASUS uses Asmedia).
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On December 29 2013 20:58 skyR wrote:Those are high-end boards. If you need to ask this sort of question then should you really be buying these boards? All those boards have 8 phases iirc. It's mostly just feature and chipset differences (eg. Gigabyte uses Marvel and Renesas whereas ASUS uses Asmedia).
I just wanted to double-check if i'm not missing anything in my observations. This means i'm not.
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On December 29 2013 20:12 Patriot.dlk wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On December 29 2013 09:40 Incognoto wrote:
BSOD? Isn't BSOD hard countered by a reformat and reinstalling of windows?
hmm
Either way if you're looking to upgrade I think you can keep most of your stuff and just upgrade CPU/Motherboard/GPU. I guess? $2300 is like a brand new system. I want new memory sticks I think because one or both seems be causing my BSOD's. What CPU/Motherboard/GPU should I be looking at? If we figure a new system instead, what case do you recommend? I myself like discrete appearance and soundproof cases. Also the power supply I have is driving me nuts when I'm thinking about it. Can you get modular power supplies for decent money these days?
You can just keep your Define R2. If you want to keep the system intact or w/e and want a new case for a new build then just get the newer Define R4.
If you want a semi-modular power supply then you can get a Rosewill Capstone-M for $70-$110 depending on wattage you are looking for. If you want a fully modular unit then there's the XFX XTR for around $100.
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On December 29 2013 21:09 skyR wrote:Show nested quote +On December 29 2013 20:12 Patriot.dlk wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On December 29 2013 09:40 Incognoto wrote:
BSOD? Isn't BSOD hard countered by a reformat and reinstalling of windows?
hmm
Either way if you're looking to upgrade I think you can keep most of your stuff and just upgrade CPU/Motherboard/GPU. I guess? $2300 is like a brand new system. I want new memory sticks I think because one or both seems be causing my BSOD's. What CPU/Motherboard/GPU should I be looking at? If we figure a new system instead, what case do you recommend? I myself like discrete appearance and soundproof cases. Also the power supply I have is driving me nuts when I'm thinking about it. Can you get modular power supplies for decent money these days? You can just keep your Define R2. If you want to keep the system intact or w/e and want a new case for a new build then just get the newer Define R4. If you want a semi-modular power supply then you can get a Rosewill Capstone-M for $70-$110 depending on wattage you are looking for. If you want a fully modular unit then there's the XFX XTR for around $100.
Ok, Thanks! Those power supplies seems hard to find in Sweden though. A popular one seems to be Corsair RM1000?
I started looking for a new setup and I liked:
Intel Core i7 4770K but I think I'm just crazy for "i7" since I've picked up it's the premier CPU.
Motherboards and graphic cards are beyond me.
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On December 29 2013 20:12 Patriot.dlk wrote:Show nested quote +On December 29 2013 09:40 Incognoto wrote:
BSOD? Isn't BSOD hard countered by a reformat and reinstalling of windows?
hmm
Either way if you're looking to upgrade I think you can keep most of your stuff and just upgrade CPU/Motherboard/GPU. I guess? $2300 is like a brand new system. I want new memory sticks I think because one or both seems be causing my BSOD's. What CPU/Motherboard/GPU should I be looking at? If we figure a new system instead, what case do you recommend? I myself like discrete appearance and soundproof cases. Also the power supply I have is driving me nuts when I'm thinking about it. Can you get modular power supplies for decent money these days?
Who me? Your honor me, asking such questions. My knowledge in such things is somewhat limited.
Nonetheless, I would recommend without hesitation an i5 4670k or an i7 4770k (depending on whether or not you need hyperthreading), you can refer to another post I made in this thread (probably on this page or the previous one) about what hyperthreading is. With that, Gigabyte's GA-Z87X-D3H. It's one of the best bang for buck Z87s out there. On top of that, either a 760 or higher GPU from Nvidia, or a 7950 or higher from AMD. Both are good.
For the aftermarket cooler (since I recommend overclocking with such a budget, even if I didn't say so), I would recommend reading these two web pages:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1386288/guide-budget-mid-range-and-high-end-heatsink-choice-price-performance
http://www.overclock.net/t/1096408/new-high-end-cpu-vga-coolers
Edit: It really depends on your budget however here are some rough tiers:
Ultra settings at 1080p: GTX 770 or R9 280X / HD 7970
One notch under that: GTX 760 or HD 7950
Absolute max settings at 1080p: R9 290 or GTX 780
One notch above that: GTX 780 Ti or R9 290X*
*Prices will tell the tale, but the R9 290X is, as far as I know, a bit weaker than the 780 Ti. One of the best bang for buck cards you can get at the moment are aftermarket R9 290s. However crypto currencies have inflated prices of AMD cards recently.
Please take everything I said with a grain of salt and don't hesitate to do your own research to find what suits your needs, particularly for the GPU.
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You don't really need the geforce gt 630, the integrated graphics of the i3 ought to do. Even then, an i3 is pretty expensive if she's just going to use Office programs and web-browsers. A ~$50 processor, such as a Pentium or even an AMD APU would probably be better here. So scrap the GPU and get a cheaper processor, that's what I would do.
Otherwise, looks all right to me.
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Alright I'm looking for a bit more guidance.
Here is the skeleton of my build:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2sf89
I'll go through part by part with comments:
Intel Core i5-4670
This one seemed more affordable to me. The i7 are sexy, but I cannot afford them. I would be willing to look into over clocking, but it seems like it will jack up the price a lot. (Since the motherboard will cost more.)
Motherboard
I am having a lot of trouble deciding on a motherboard I want. It seems like once I have all of the other parts picked out I should select a motherboard that will accommodate all of them.
Crucial Ballistix Sport
From what I've read this memory will be enough. (Is it too slow?)
Storage
This seems like a no brainer. These fit what I need perfectly.
Asus GeForce GTX 760
I went back and forth between the 770 and the 760. I decided that the 760 would better suit my needs. It's okay if future games don't look as pretty.
I still need a case, power supply, and motherboard. (And monitor.)
I will likely be needing wifi connectivity on this computer.
I've kept my eyes peeled for a combo, but there are SO many. Is there a way to filter down combos based on what you've already selected, or products like the one you've selected?
How do any of these combos look?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductCombos.aspx?Item=N82E16819116898&SubCategory=343&fromcs=0&bcmTag=0&SortField=0&PageSize=100&Page=1
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EPT
