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My Radeon 6950 is getting a bit long in the tooth, and I'm considering picking up another one, since used 6950s are dirt cheap nowadays, and my motherboard supports it. My question is, do I need an identical 6950 from the same manufacturer, or will any old 6950 do? Also, is it actually worth the hassle? Will I see significant performance gains? Spiritus Nox posted:That's what I was thinking. Watching the Newegg tutorial, the only part that intimidates me at all is installing the heatsink on the CPU. Everything else looks tedious at worst. Oh yeah, that's terrible, especially the first time you do it. Some mounts even require you to use a surprising amount of force to secure the CPU to the motherboard, so the entire time you're freaking out that you're pushing too hard, that you have to be doing it wrong, it can't possibly need this much force, etc.
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May 29, 2014 15:33
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Spiritus Nox posted:That's what I was thinking. Watching the Newegg tutorial, the only part that intimidates me at all is installing the heatsink on the CPU. Everything else looks tedious at worst. Installing the CPU itself is nervewracking. It always crunches and sounds like you're breaking it even when you're not.
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May 29, 2014 15:36
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MondayHotDog posted:Installing the CPU itself is nervewracking. It always crunches and sounds like you're breaking it even when you're not. And you always have to push way harder than you think you do.
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May 29, 2014 15:37
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The part that always annoyed me about a lot of heatsinks is hard how you have to push to get one screw to start threading into the bracket. Maybe I've been unlucky, but some of them are just ridiculous. But the factory cooler is just like a lever right? I don't remember it being weird or hard at all. 2 hours is like absolute maximum dude, I wouldn't stress. Honestly it'll probably be an hour tops unless you run into an issue. You could legitimately build the computer faster than it takes to take all the parts out of the packaging.
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May 29, 2014 15:41
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Don't forget the bit where you get so nervous about the first power up that you just leave it for a day.. ........ that was just me then was it? 
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May 29, 2014 15:51
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Spiritus Nox posted:Parts are ordered and on their way. One last question: How long would the goon hivemind expect me and my dad to spend on our first build? I've heard anything from 30 minutes, which I doubt I'll manage from what I've seen, to 4 hours, which seems like a worst case "I got halfway through and had to start over from the beginning twice" scenario. Take your time and take care of cable management (after you successfully post) so everything is set up and you don't have to open it up later. Be careful of the front USB 3 connector, the plug is big and the pins on the motherboard side can be bent I really want to take my motherboard out and fix those pins but gently caress effort.
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May 29, 2014 15:54
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AllTerrineVehicle posted:I checked and it does indeed seem like I bought the non-R2. Is it going to be awful? It's a good case regardless, R2 adds a fan, makes all the drive trays removable (non-R2 optical trays are non-removable, except via drill-to-the-rivets), the SSD mounts behind the motherboard are the biggest thing IMHO, non-R2 has you mount the SSD before the motherboard which is just retardo. There was also some USB 2/3 tomfoolery going on with the front connectors, but that tends to not be a huge deal (at least for me).
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May 29, 2014 15:55
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Alright! My X58 -> Haswell swap is complete. But now I'd like to do a total clean install of Windows and then selectively restore some applications (Firefox/Steam/games/etc). Is there a backup program that easily does that?
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May 29, 2014 16:26
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Spiritus Nox posted:Parts are ordered and on their way. One last question: How long would the goon hivemind expect me and my dad to spend on our first build? I've heard anything from 30 minutes, which I doubt I'll manage from what I've seen, to 4 hours, which seems like a worst case "I got halfway through and had to start over from the beginning twice" scenario. Like everyone has said mounting the heatsink is the worst part. Most aggravating for me has always been the motherboard connectors for the case (power/reset/etc) so be sure to take your time on that. Main thing is don't get too wound up. I don't think I've had a build yet where the thing wouldn't power on the first time and I had to dive back in. Usually it was just a missed power connection somewhere.
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May 29, 2014 16:28
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deimos posted:It's a good case regardless, R2 adds a fan, makes all the drive trays removable (non-R2 optical trays are non-removable, except via drill-to-the-rivets), the SSD mounts behind the motherboard are the biggest thing IMHO, non-R2 has you mount the SSD before the motherboard which is just retardo. There was also some USB 2/3 tomfoolery going on with the front connectors, but that tends to not be a huge deal (at least for me). I'll probably stick with it then because I've had all my parts sitting on a desk for 3 days waiting to have something to put them in. CFox posted:Usually it was just a missed power connection somewhere. Forgetting to plug in a tiny fan power connection is the bane of my existence.
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May 29, 2014 16:34
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I'm looking to build a PC for the first time as my current one is getting very long in the tooth (everything but the video card is 2009 vintage) and I'm assured that it's pretty easy to do these days. Budget will be in the region of £700 as I want a good gaming PC. Thinking of getting both an SSD for high-use stuff and a larger-capacity hard drive for general storage and things that don't need the speed of access so desperately, and I've heard that it's possible to get motherboards with the CPUs pre-installed since that's apparently the most difficult step in building your own PC, but aside from that I don't have any idea of what I'm doing really. I stopped keeping track of components and what's good around 2005 and my current PC was pre-built. I'll keep my current monitor, which runs at 1920x1080. But I've no idea what's fit for purpose here and I expect I need to be walked through recommendations for components (even more so than the OP guides). For that budget, I'm told I could get a really good setup going; how good are we talking here?
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May 29, 2014 19:07
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Lian Li are now in the desk business.
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May 29, 2014 20:11
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Does anyone know if the evo212 cooler will fit in a fractal design microatx case? The evo seems like a pretty big cooler; if it wont fit, can anyone suggest one that will? I don't really want to use the stock intel cooler. Here is the case I want to fit it in. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352032&cm_re=fractal_case-_-11-352-032-_-Product edit: nevermind, it wont fit what cooler should I get? playground tough fucked around with this message at 20:17 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 20:12
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Is pc part picker down for anyone else or is is my poo poo freaking out?
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May 29, 2014 20:13
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Herr Tog posted:Is pc part picker down for anyone else or is is my poo poo freaking out? Down for me http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/pcpartpicker.com
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May 29, 2014 20:16
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Works fine for me.
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May 29, 2014 20:17
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JamesieAB posted:Lian Li are now in the desk business. What in the hell?? I really like my lian-li but from what I've heard they are no longer the go-to for high quality aluminium cases. What other companies should I be looking at instead?
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May 29, 2014 20:19
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Whoa. That desk. Haha
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May 29, 2014 20:20
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John Charity Spring posted:I'm looking to build a PC for the first time as my current one is getting very long in the tooth (everything but the video card is 2009 vintage) and I'm assured that it's pretty easy to do these days. Yup you can get a great gaming machine for that budget. Check out this build as a good starting point and go from there, switching things out depending on availability/price in your area as necessary. Then post your pcpartpicker list here for some feedback. I've never heard of pre-installed CPUs before, not to say that's not a thing. It's easy to do it yourself though, the CPUs these days don't even have pins on them anymore for you to bend!
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May 29, 2014 20:25
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Spiritus Nox posted:Edit2: ...One last thing that occurred to me. If I route my video into my TV via an HDMI cable, my sound will come out of my TV too, right? Just to make sure I don't need any speakers. Just saw this question but yes this should work fine, both audio & video will go through the HDMI cable and come out your TV
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May 29, 2014 20:26
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ah man I actually need it too. Oh well.
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May 29, 2014 20:30
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Can I throw in that the XFX Pro series 550W PSU that is in the OP came to me DOA So I'd like to throw that out there.
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May 29, 2014 23:40
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Herr Tog posted:ah man I actually need it too. Oh well. try to buy a used r7 mining card man before they dry up. If I remember your budget was $100 and you were already looking used
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May 29, 2014 23:48
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My goal is to reduce the size and noise of my tower, and get an OS better than XP. This machine has been a I currently have something like this: CPU: AMD phenom 9600 quad-core (pretty sure it's this one) Board: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.GA-MA78GM-US2H GPU: ATI Radeon HD 4800 series (pretty sure it's this one) Storage: Not SSD, but still running fine Monitor: No idea. It's not widescreen and requires a VGA to HDMI adapter that hangs off back of the tower and makes me nervous to move it. Case: No idea, complete poo poo. Came with a bunch of cheap noisy fans and gaudy lights. None of the ports on the front have worked since day 1. I bought it cheap and got less than my money's worth. I apologize for it not being as detailed as some of the other specs here, but my machine is cobbled together from a lot of second-hand stuff. What's there is what is listed in the device manager. I can try to get more detailed information if you need it. The case, GPU, and monitor are literally from thrift shops, and are the biggest concerns of mine. What I am looking at: GPU: Radeon R7 260X 2GB 128-Bit Case: Corsair 250D Any monitor will do as long as it's compatible with the above (still reading the other thread). My hard drives are doing fine, and I was hoping that my CPU is adequate. Is the smaller case worth the effort?
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May 29, 2014 23:53
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Unbelievably White posted:My goal is to reduce the size and noise of my tower, and get an OS better than XP. This machine has been a What's your budget? Your current CPU is from over 6 years old and an AMD to boot, need a hug? That's a nice case but going Mini-ITX might end up costing you more if it matters. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121801 (I have this, its great for my limited use) cheaper than what you chose. or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121868 if the performance difference is worth it for you. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1044?vs=1127 If you're gonna want to play modern games with high settings a better card will have to do, but fwiw, with the 260x I play BF3 on Ultra and Watchdogs on high with some settings turned down and its been great, but might fare so well with newer games. Cpu: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=19-116-991 Motherboar: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132123 Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148544 PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151124 How big of a monitor do you want? DAMN NIGGA fucked around with this message at 00:23 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 00:11
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JamesieAB posted:Lian Li are now in the desk business. Integrating a desktop into a desk is a rad as hell idea, but that desk is loving ugly.
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May 30, 2014 01:06
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fletcher posted:What in the hell??
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May 30, 2014 01:15
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Veskit posted:Can I throw in that the XFX Pro series 550W PSU that is in the OP came to me DOA So I'd like to throw that out there. poo poo happens, regardless of brand. Just RMA right away and you should get a swift response.
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May 30, 2014 01:22
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drat NIGGA posted:What's your budget? I was fantasizing about my tower taking up less space on my desk, but this may have been unrealistic. The dust filtration and noise reduction seem pretty attractive, though. drat NIGGA posted:How big of a monitor do you want? I found a $100 21" on newegg that might fit my needs. My current one maxes out at 1280x1024, which seemed more than enough for a long time. Recently, though, a lot of games (especially indie stuff) will boot up and go off the side of the screen since my monitor isn't widescreen, and I have to fiddle with it to make it fit. This one maxes out at 1980x1080, so it could be exactly what I need, depending on when games stop supporting that resolution. Part of me likes the idea of having two monitors at some point, but I can put that off for now. EDIT: Adjusting what I'm looking for Yak Shaves Dot Com fucked around with this message at 02:54 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 01:58
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Josh Lyman posted:It seems that aluminum cases are no longer a thing. Fractal Design has replaced Lian Li as the the case maker with the best designs. Nanoxia 
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May 30, 2014 02:04
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Hace posted:poo poo happens, regardless of brand. Just RMA right away and you should get a swift response. Yeah I know. I went through amazon, did the return and just used this as an excuse to get a better one that was modular. No problem all around.
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May 30, 2014 02:08
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Phone double posted. Ignore.
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May 30, 2014 02:11
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Does anybody have any recommendations for tiny vrm heatsinks for a 780ti? I'm thinking about going with an NZXT bracket and water cooler but read that the vrms could use little heatsinks. I found a huge list of them but are there any in particular that are considered better than others? I mean I understand they aren't exactly complicated things but I simply have no clue here
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May 30, 2014 02:52
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Unbelievably White posted:My goal is to reduce the size and noise of my tower, and get an OS better than XP. This machine has been a Your existing motherboard won't fit in that case.
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May 30, 2014 03:25
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MondayHotDog posted:Your existing motherboard won't fit in that case. Yeah, I'll have to either settle on a different case or get a new board/CPU. Is my old CPU really that bad? Would there be compatibility issues if I installed a new GPU on that board? Or would the GPU just be a waste?
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May 30, 2014 03:55
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Unbelievably White posted:Yeah, I'll have to either settle on a different case or get a new board/CPU. Is my old CPU really that bad? Would there be compatibility issues if I installed a new GPU on that board? Or would the GPU just be a waste? I don't think it would be a waste coming from what you have, however, every single major component is going to be a bottleneck until it's all replaced. Is that a long term plan here?
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May 30, 2014 03:56
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Unbelievably White posted:Yeah, I'll have to either settle on a different case or get a new board/CPU. Is my old CPU really that bad? Would there be compatibility issues if I installed a new GPU on that board? Or would the GPU just be a waste? It is pretty bad. Tom's Hardware just posted a build article today where an Athlon X4 750 hamstrung anything stronger than that 260X, and that X4 750 is roughly twice as powerful as your 9600. Edit for link to said Tom's article: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-your-own-budget-amd-pc,3807-2.html E2 for links to support cpu statement: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/23?vs=188 (no 750 to compare against in that list, but the 645 already beats it handily. Peanut3141 fucked around with this message at 04:10 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 04:01
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Ignoarints posted:I don't think it would be a waste coming from what you have, however, every single major component is going to be a bottleneck until it's all replaced. Is that a long term plan here? Peanut3141 posted:It is pretty bad. Tom's Hardware just posted a build article today where an Athlon X4 750 hamstrung anything stronger than that 260X, and that X4 750 is roughly twice as powerful as your 9600. So the takeaway here is that my CPU and GPU should be about equal in quality? The money for this is coming from a recent windfall, so I might as well go all the way. I was just hoping to reuse more stuff from my current tower. However, if most of it has been running for 2-3 years, then that doesn't make any sense. I can only use, like, one hard drive and that's it. With the hard drive,the monitor I listed earlier, and the student edition of Windows 8, I might be able to skate in at just under $1000 with drat NIGGA's list? Which leaves the case. I guess I'm trying to find a balance between size and noise. Then again, the reason I was looking for a smaller case was because my current one required me to access the back all the time to play with cables, and the noise issue is probably being caused by a lovely case and old components. How much is the difference in quality between the budget cases and the $80-100 ones?
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May 30, 2014 04:35
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JamesieAB posted:Lian Li are now in the desk business. 
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May 30, 2014 04:51
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Unbelievably White posted:So the takeaway here is that my CPU and GPU should be about equal in quality? The money for this is coming from a recent windfall, so I might as well go all the way. I was just hoping to reuse more stuff from my current tower. However, if most of it has been running for 2-3 years, then that doesn't make any sense. I can only use, like, one hard drive and that's it. I have a Corsair 200R ($50 case) and I love it. Only thing I miss is that I can't fit a 240mm radiator easily, but that's probably keeping me from doing something stupid. Ease of use is outstanding. If you don't want to pay the ITX premium, here's a MicroATX build to consider. It comes in under $1000 and that's with a more expensive version of Windows and a slightly more expensive monitor as pcpartpicker didn't have the one you linked listed. PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Newegg) Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($87.98 @ SuperBiiz) Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Amazon) Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($79.99 @ Micro Center) Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.24 @ Amazon) Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 270X 2GB DirectCU II Video Card ($209.99 @ Amazon) Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Mwave) Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg) Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg) Monitor: Dell S2240M 60Hz 21.5" Monitor ($119.99 @ Micro Center) Total: $984.14 (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.) (Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-30 00:01 EDT-0400) FYI: That power supply is a goddamned steal.
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May 30, 2014 05:02
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