|
When using this resource, please read the 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. |
United Kingdom20343 Posts
Build:
Intel Core i5 4670K 4x 3.40GHz So.1150 BOX
Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 So.1150 Dual Channel DDR3 ATX Retail
2048MB Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X Windforce 3x OC Aktiv PCIe 3.0 x16 (Retail)
2x 8GB Kingston HyperX Black DDR3-1600 DIMM CL10 Single
530 Watt be quiet! Pure Power L8 CM Modular 80+ Bronze
250GB Samsung 840 Evo Series 2.5" (6.4cm) SATA 6Gb/s TLC Toggle (MZ-7TE250BW)
Corsair Carbide 200R
Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD-RW SATA 1.5Gb/s intern black Bulk
Pretty close to 800 €
List price per-component. Without that info i can't add nearly as much, but for now:
z87x-d3h preferred over that board
Nvidia preferred for sc2, ~650ti, only stronger if you want it for other games, really. You could probably still run AMD card though
8gb of RAM is already somewhat overkill, you want 2x4, maybe 2x8 if you insist on 16
lga1150 socket has only 16 pci-e 3.0 lanes - many boards run x16 in first slot, split to x8/x8 with two cards. 3.0x4 is not a significant performance loss, x8 is beyond fine. z87x-d3h works fine like this AFAIK - no board or CPU supports better natively on this socket and it's not really a concern unless you want more than two GPU's in sli/crossfire
You need an aftermarket CPU cooler, thermalright's hr-02 macho or silver arrow are my go-to's in EU if the price is right
|
Hey guys!
Looking into a new notebook as my old samsung R60plus laptop runs pretty hot despite cleaning, battery life is down to 15mins at max and being 7 years old (having problems with normal flash videos etc).
I looked into some Lenovo notebooks and some ASUS laptops. But the amount of models and versions with different specs is just overwhelming. Does anyone have a tipp on a model which fits my needs?
What is your budget?
up top 700 Euro, I may have access to student rebate stuff.
What is your monitor's native resolution?
I'd like to have FullHD (antiglare would be cool)
15" display
What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings?
I dont intend to play games on that laptop yet. I probably wouldnt mind being able to play SC2 on any setting though.
What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming?
mainly for university stuff like writing papers, multimedia, maybe minor picture editing with Lightroom
Do you intend to overclock?
no
Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire?
no
Do you need an operating system?
No, I got free access to Windows in any version
Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget?
Dont need any peripherals
If you have any requirements or brand preferences, please specify.
Notebook should be quality built. If possible not a plastic bomber wobbling around, as I will carry ma laptop around in my backpack.
I would like to have a 4th gen CPU.
SSD is not a must.
Long battery life (around 5hours or more)
What country will you be buying your parts in?
Mainly Germany if possible.
If you have any retailer preferences, please specify.
None
|
@MisterFred:
You can disable that invisible top-left corner button that switches between apps (also the top-right corner) if you upgrade to 8.1. It's hidden in the properties window for the task-bar. The setting looks like this: http://imgur.com/93crToV
|
@Cyro Thanks for your quick help.
My build would look like this after your comments:
Intel Core i5 4670K 4x 3.40GHz So.1150 BOX 199 €
Thermalright HR-02 Macho 35 €
Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 So.1150 Dual 92 €
2048MB Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti 126 €
2x 4 GB Kingston HyperX BeastDDR3-1600 81 €
530 Watt be quiet! Pure Power L8 CM Modular 65 €
250GB Samsung 840 Evo 137 €
Cheap Case 30 €
DVD-RW 15 €
780 € Total
That would allow me to play SC2 on high settings and simultaneously doing simple tasks on my second monitor without stressing the pc too much?
And just for my understanding: Can someone explain what difference the RAM distribution makes, i.e. 4x4GB, 2x8GB or 1x16GB? Are there huge differences in performance and what does it depend on?
|
On February 04 2014 22:27 Sophus wrote:
@Cyro Thanks for your quick help.
My build would look like this after your comments:
[...]
Cheap Case 30 €
[...]
780 € Total
That would allow me to play SC2 on high settings and simultaneously doing simple tasks on my second monitor without stressing the pc too much?
And just for my understanding: Can someone explain what difference the RAM distribution makes, i.e. 4x4GB, 2x8GB or 1x16GB? Are there huge differences in performance and what does it depend on?
You have to be careful about the cheap case and what CPU cooler it can fit. The Thermalright page says the HR-02 Macho's height is 162mm. On the case brand's website, the webpage of the case you want to buy usually mentions the max. CPU cooler height somewhere. If you can't find it, you often will find web search results about your case and the HR-02 Macho, as the HR-02 is very popular. Check out Google Image Search for pictures of the HR-02 installed inside exactly the case you want to buy to be 100% safe.
Additionally, take a good look about the amount of fans and the way they are set up in the case you want to buy. The fans all cost money, and a more expensive case could end up being cheaper overall.
You will not need many fans. Two should be enough. The CPU actually does not put out much heat overall even if the cooler it requires looks so massive. The graphics card you chose is also nothing that will output a lot of heat.
Regarding your SC2-at-high-settings question, there's nothing you can improve about this PC for SC2, I think. It's the best possible you can buy.
Regarding your RAM question, the memory slots on the board are wired directly to the CPU. The CPU has enough pins to access two memory sticks at the same time. That's called "dual channel". This means you lose half of the memory bandwidth if you use 1x8GB instead of 2x4GB or 4x2GB. That's the reason to avoid a single memory stick.
The reasons to avoid four memory sticks are that you won't have free slots for the future, and, if you overclock memory, you increase the chance to get a slow stick that won't overclock well or at all. It's also slightly more stressful for the CPU's memory controller (I'm not sure about this argument).
|
I've used Win8 since moving to Haswell in July - I honestly think the criticisms are way overblown. How many criticizing actually use it for 8-10 hrs a day? If it was as bad as the critics/pundits have suggested, I would have switched back to 7 long, long ago.
Fact is I haven't.
You guys wanna talk about a bad OS, let's talk Win ME.
|
On February 04 2014 23:55 mav451 wrote:
I've used Win8 since moving to Haswell in July - I honestly think the criticisms are way overblown. How many criticizing actually use it for 8-10 hrs a day? If it was as bad as the critics/pundits have suggested, I would have switched back to 7 long, long ago.
Fact is I haven't.
You guys wanna talk about a bad OS, let's talk Win ME.
Or every Ubuntu ever released since 06
|
How and where do you get 20% discounts on Gigabyte??? :o
RUCKY
Yeah, 16 Gb of RAM is overkill, go 2x4 Gb.
Not sure what the difference between D3H and D3HP is. Someone more knowledgeable will comment on that/fill me in, hopefully. :p
To overclock, you'll need an aftermarket heatsink.
You should include the prices of each part so that people here can offer better advice.
Edit: Oops, was a page late.
Anyway, everything looks fine to me, the PSU is also good (I felt like I had to check, but it's on the recommended PSU list on oc.net, so it's all good).
If you need a cheap case, Bitfenix are leaders in the budget case sector. They make some pretty good cases at a very low cost.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4913/bitfenix-merc-alpha-how-much-can-39-can/7
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5224/bitfenix-outlaw-when-inexpensive-doesnt-mean-cheap/7
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4460/bitfenix-shinobi-the-budget-ninja/7
I might recommend one of those cases, they should fit an ATX motherboard and get the job of being a cheap €30 case done. The Merc Alpha looks all right. I might also recommend a Core 3000 but not sure if it's priced well. It's the same family as the Core 1000 which is my go-to budget case (except here it doesn't fit a Z87X).
|
On February 05 2014 01:20 Incognoto wrote:
How and where do you get 20% discounts on Gigabyte??? :o
RUCKY
Yeah, 16 Gb of RAM is overkill, go 2x4 Gb.
Not sure what the difference between D3H and D3HP is. Someone more knowledgeable will comment on that/fill me in, hopefully. :p
To overclock, you'll need an aftermarket heatsink.
You should include the prices of each part so that people here can offer better advice.
Edit: Oops, was a page late.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/comparison/list.aspx?ck=2&pids=4519,4481
Basically no DisplayPort, one x16 and one x4 pci-e slot instead of x16(x8) and x8 + x4, only AMD Crossfire, no Marvell SATA controller, no extra clear cmos-power-etc buttons.
|
On February 05 2014 01:36 Shinjikun wrote:Show nested quote +On February 05 2014 01:20 Incognoto wrote:
How and where do you get 20% discounts on Gigabyte??? :o
RUCKY
Yeah, 16 Gb of RAM is overkill, go 2x4 Gb.
Not sure what the difference between D3H and D3HP is. Someone more knowledgeable will comment on that/fill me in, hopefully. :p
To overclock, you'll need an aftermarket heatsink.
You should include the prices of each part so that people here can offer better advice.
Edit: Oops, was a page late. http://www.gigabyte.com/products/comparison/list.aspx?ck=2&pids=4519,4481Basically no DisplayPort, one x16 and one x4 pci-e slot instead of x16(x8) and x8 + x4, only AMD Crossfire, no Marvell SATA controller, no extra clear cmos-power-etc buttons.
Ah, so that's it! Thanks for the answer. <3
|
On February 05 2014 01:20 Incognoto wrote:
How and where do you get 20% discounts on Gigabyte??? :o
Thanks for your input, Incognoto.
My gigabyte source is limited and not official, sadly.
But atleast for Gigabyte mainboards it is an official cashback promotion until 7th February. For most Gigabyte mainboards you get back 20% of the price when you send in the receipt on their support website.
http://forum.gigabyte.de/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=8676
As far as I can see it works only for retailers in Germany and Austria. But maybe someone is interested.
|
|
|
On February 05 2014 03:41 Sophus wrote:Show nested quote +On February 05 2014 01:20 Incognoto wrote:
How and where do you get 20% discounts on Gigabyte??? :o
Thanks for your input, Incognoto. My gigabyte source is limited and not official, sadly. But atleast for Gigabyte mainboards it is an official cashback promotion until 7th February. For most Gigabyte mainboards you get back 20% of the price when you send in the receipt on their support website. http://forum.gigabyte.de/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=8676As far as I can see it works only for retailers in Germany and Austria. But maybe someone is interested.
Quite sexy, maybe I should start paying more attention to sales in France. Thanks for the head's up.
|
The -$108 discount basically covers the unnecessary motherboard, power supply, and harddrive (assuming this is for gaming or regular consumer stuff) so you don't get any actual savings from it unless you are actually going to use the high-end motherboard, want the high-end WD Black, and going to do SLI.
|
On February 05 2014 04:30 skyR wrote:The -$108 discount basically covers the unnecessary motherboard, power supply, and harddrive (assuming this is for gaming or regular consumer stuff) so you don't get any actual savings from it unless you are actually going to use the high-end motherboard, want the high-end WD Black, and going to do SLI.
Ok thank you very much for the response. As someone that is not tech savy, your explanation made perfect sense to me.
|
So, I have a quick question -
MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
This mother board has two PCIe slots, one is a x1 speed and the other a x16, am I right in assuming that this will give me space for this wireless adapter (in the PCIe x1) and a graphics card (in the PCIe x16)?
PCE-N15
I asked a friend and he advised I double check this, seems right to me.
|
|
|
On February 05 2014 05:16 skyR wrote:
Yes.
Thanks!
|
if you could get GTX 770 in SLI for the same price as one 780 or 780 Ti, which of the 3 would you choose? trying to figure if SLI is worth it and a big enough performance boost. Thanks!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
