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United Kingdom20323 Posts
On July 03 2014 19:49 julius33 wrote:Show nested quote +On July 03 2014 19:36 Cyro wrote:On July 03 2014 19:29 julius33 wrote:On July 03 2014 19:16 Cyro wrote:On July 03 2014 18:41 julius33 wrote: Hello
Long story short: After 5 years my cheap-ass motherboard broke. And so, I am looking to replace the MoBo and the processor.
What I want: LGA1150 support, Single PCI-E 2.0 x16, 2x1600mhz RAM slots(preferably only 2, its ok if theres more) Mostly USB 2.0 sockets (i have no use for 3.0) An i3 processor to go along with it (most reliable?)
What I don't want: Overclocking capability Too many slots
Basically, I am looking for a cheap-ass components by todays standards I presume. Any help is much appreciated!
Pretty much any lga1150 board (or even all of them?) fits all of your requirements. PCI-E 3.0 x8 is faster than 2.0x16, but i think all of the boards have a single 3.0 x16. 3.0 is backwards compatible with 2.0 if there's not enough 2.0's. All of the boards have 2 or 4 RAM slots. You could go as low as h81 with a pentium g3220 - the pentium is dual core like i3, but lacking AVX instructions and hyperthreading, so it's slower in some loads, but it's still a dual core Haswell processor. The cheapest i3 costs twice as much as that here - but it's only up to ~30-40% faster in typical loads, really - in some CPU bound loads, as little as ~15%. If you just want something to run things and don't put particularly heavy demand on CPU, you might want to save money there Thank you for the response! As you said, after doing some research about the parts in my region, i came up with the same mobo, Gigabyte GA-H81-D3 to be precise. As for the processor, i have been running AMD Phenom II x2 550 (3.1 gHz), so basically I am looking to upgrade it to Intel without going over 100 euros too much. Bang for buck, is what I am looking for. Any suggestions? Pentium @3ghz would be a big upgrade, like 1.5x. It's still a dual core though - 3.4ghz i3 would perform better in loads that can utilize 4 cores well (it has hyperthreading, so 4 threads on 2 cores, as well as more cache, bit higher clock speeds) and i5 would be a way bigger upgrade because it's quad core, but obviously costs way more. h81 + pentium g3220 is maybe your thing if you want 100 euros for cpu + mobo. What do you want the CPU upgrade for, though? I am looking to upgrade the CPU, since it is a bottleneck in some games. I don't want to spend money on a quad-core, since i am only playing games. I have yet to see one that utilizes 4 cores efficiently to justify spending on it. Also, i am ok with spending ~100 euro for a CPU alone Also, i am thinking of replacing my PSU before it explodes. Considering that my GPU peaks at 110 Watts, in what power range should i be looking for one? (considering I am not overclocking and running dual core CPU with that)
Anything decent, it's usually hard to find good psu's below ~430-450w
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What is your budget?
No fixed budget, but dont want to spend too much on it. Just want to get the job done. 
What is your monitor's native resolution?
Want to have 2 monitors, but will buy them together with the pc.
What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings?
LOL, SC2 - at least on high. Considering they are older games, I'd think they dont need so much juice.
What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming? Working, but nothing too CPU/GPU intensive.
Do you intend to overclock?
Not sure
Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire?
Dont think its necessary.
Do you need an operating system?
No.
Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget?
Yes, 2 monitors. Nothing too fancy, your average monitor is good.
If you have any requirements or brand preferences, please specify.
No preferences.
What country will you be buying your parts in?
European Union
If you have any retailer preferences, please specify.
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I'm doing this for a friend. I suggested some stuff, but I think people with more experience should take a look at this before he buys anything =P
What is your budget? ~€800
What is your monitor's native resolution? 1920x1080
What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings? Anything, ranging from graphically intensive Crysis 3 to the easy to run Terraria.. No specific usage.
What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming? Some schoolwork, nothing intensive. He will want an SSD or SSHD (Aside from a normal HDD maybe?) to run Windows and some games on.
Do you intend to overclock? Yes
Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire? No
Do you need an operating system? No
Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget? He'll need a decent keyboard, I was thinking CMstorm Quickfire
If you have any requirements or brand preferences, please specify. Nvidia for graphics cards right now.
What country will you be buying your parts in? Netherlands, or just European Union if shipping isn't too expensive.
If you have any retailer preferences, please specify. None
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Is Skyrim a CPU dependant game btw? Tried to video capture it for kicks and I only get like 75% of frames when I look at the VOD. I feel like something's not quite right.
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Got all my hardware installed, when I hook it up to the monitor and turn it on the monitor says "D-Sub no signal". Everything in the computer seems to be running fine, all fans are running, lights on, etc.
edit: monitor and motherboard are connected by a DVI-D cable. The monitor didn't come with a cable that can connect straight to the video card. Video card is an XFX R9-270.
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United States7481 Posts
If you have a video card plugged in, you won't get a signal from the motherboard in most cases. You need to plug in the monitor to the video card. Did it come with any adapters?
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In the graphics card booklet it says I need a DVI to VGA adapter to plug into the graphics card, monitor didn't come with anything. Guess I'll be making a run to BestBuy :/
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Not sure how you're using a DVI-D cable if your monitor is D-Sub. You need a DVI-I cable.
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On July 04 2014 04:54 skyR wrote: Not sure how you're using a DVI-D cable if your monitor is D-Sub. You need a DVI-I cable. DVI-D is what shipped with the monitor
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United States7481 Posts
what monitor did you get?
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United States7481 Posts
looking at the product manual, it says it comes with a d-sub cable. This is recognizable by 3 lines of prongs in the plug, with the middle row offset from the other two. your graphics card has 2 DVI-D slots, which has 3 rows of square slots and 1 slot off to the side, and one each of hmdi and displayport, which look sorta like usb slots. so you'd need a vga to (one of the above) adapter, probably dvi.
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Your video card has two DVI ports, one of them being DVI-D which is digital only and DVI-I which is digital/analog. Your monitor will only work in the DVI-I port because D-Sub is analog. Have you tried both DVI ports?
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I've tried both yes. Gonna open up the case and make sure the card is in properly.
edit: Card confirmed properly attached to the motherboard and powered.
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Canada8159 Posts
Back again, looking to buy the parts on saturday
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
+ Show Spoiler +
i made some changes from my last build, namely:
- fractal design define R4 ---> corsair 300r; the fractal case went up to over 100$ and this one is much cheaper, does the case make a big difference?
- A-Data XPG V2.0 --> A-Data XPG V1.0; again the previous' price went up, so i changed it. What's the difference between V1.0 and V2.0?
- GTX 770 2GB superclocked --> GTX 770 2GB dual superclocked; what's the difference between superclocked and dual superclocked? just a little higher clock for the dual one? Also, the price went up from a couple of weeks ago for the superclocked, and right now the dual superclocked is only 5$ more than the superclocked so that's why i chose it. Worth the 5$ more?
Also the mother board went up from ~115$ to 141$. Is it worth it still? Can i change to a cheaper motherboard?
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Should I see if I can get my hands on an HDMI cord and see if that works?
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On July 04 2014 08:16 Hyren wrote: Should I see if I can get my hands on an HDMI cord and see if that works?
I would definitely try to use HDMI as the last time I've seen VGA the picture was a bit blurry. HDMI uses the same format for its data transmission as DVI-D, so there should be cheap cables with DVI-D on one side and HDMI connector on the other end (cheap = same price as a normal HDMI cable or normal DVI-D cable).
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United States7481 Posts
he needs vga into the monitor though, can't really be avoided
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I thought the monitor has both VGA and HDMI input.
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