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Mutar posted:From what I've seen I should be in good shape with a Kaby Lake with decent onboard video, but where to fall on the i3/i5/i7 side I'm just a bit lost. What do I need, and what is overkill? What does the OP say about HTPC boxes? The thread was refreshed fairly recently.
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Feb 10, 2017 15:52
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Grundulum posted:What does the OP say about HTPC boxes? The thread was refreshed fairly recently. When I checked there I didn't see much in there other than the reference to the IYG thread on HTPCs which appears to be pretty useless from a quick glance. I'm just looking to be sure I can have an HD movie playing without a bunch of hiccups while usenet is unpacking anything or if anything else is going on with the machine. In an ideal world I'd like to not have to do a bunch of upgrades for a while, so I'm open to getting a higher end cpu but I don't want to throw money away if it isn't going to make any difference in day to day use or longevity.
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Feb 10, 2017 16:04
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Mutar posted:When I checked there I didn't see much in there other than the reference to the IYG thread on HTPCs which appears to be pretty useless from a quick glance. I'm just looking to be sure I can have an HD movie playing without a bunch of hiccups while usenet is unpacking anything or if anything else is going on with the machine. In an ideal world I'd like to not have to do a bunch of upgrades for a while, so I'm open to getting a higher end cpu but I don't want to throw money away if it isn't going to make any difference in day to day use or longevity. These days video decoding is mostly handled in hardware unless an odd codec is being used, so it sounds like an i3 or even Pentium would be fine.
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Feb 10, 2017 16:14
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Mutar posted:So I'm looking to build a PC that'll be used for HTPC purposes, usenet, and media sharing on occasion, and having not bothered to build a pc from scratch since about '03 I'm out of the loop on the whole processor/video needs. Ideally I'd like to futureproof enough to be able to push 4k content via HDMI but at the moment I only would be doing 1080p. I've been using an old HP N40L microserver in this role for a while and I'd likely rebuild it into a NAS/storage device for the new machine to dump stuff it downloads. From what I've seen I should be in good shape with a Kaby Lake with decent onboard video, but where to fall on the i3/i5/i7 side I'm just a bit lost. What do I need, and what is overkill? The short version: If your player software supports hardware decoding, a Kaby Lake (any model) will do 4K. If it tries to do the decoding in software, it's hopeless with any model. The OP doesn't say a lot about HTPCs, it's more the business of this thread: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2386006
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Feb 10, 2017 16:15
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PerrineClostermann posted:I think Steamlink is CPU streaming, right? If so, it wouldn't matter which card you use. I honestly don't really know anything about the tech. I know that there are "hardware acceleration- AMD" and "hardware acceleration - nVidia" options to tick though... I think there are.
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Feb 10, 2017 16:27
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It looks like my old Radeon 7770 GHZ isn't cutting it anymore. I'm looking to run some more modern games (particularly Rainbow Six: Siege) in 1080p at a good frame rate. It looks like either a RX480 8GB or a 1060 6GB is the way to go? I can get an ASUS ROG STRIX RX480 8GB for $215, or a MSI GTX 1060 6GB for $230, but I'm not sure which way I should go. Research seems to indicate the RX480 is better sometimes, and the 1060 is better sometimes, but I have no idea if it really makes a difference. For reference, my current PC is: CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz LGA 1150 84W Motherboard: MSI B85M-G43 LGA 1150 Intel B85 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s Memory: Corsair Vengeance Blue 8 GB (2X4 GB) PC3-12800 1600mHz DDR3 240-Pin SDRAM Dual Channel Power Supply: XFX Core Edition PRO550W some SSD, some 1TB hard drive, wi-fi card, dvd burner, etc. etc.
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Feb 10, 2017 17:06
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alakath posted:It looks like my old Radeon 7770 GHZ isn't cutting it anymore. I'm looking to run some more modern games (particularly Rainbow Six: Siege) in 1080p at a good frame rate. As far as I am aware, the performance of the two cards is close enough that you're free to consider other factors like brand loyalty and power draw. Both ASUS and MSI make quality graphics cards, and AMD's driver updates have pulled the 480 pretty much even with the 1060 in performance. You'll save a bit on power/heat going with the 1060, but I think efficiency should be basically the final tiebreaker, after you've exhausted every other option (it's not like we're talking a 350W card vs a 75W card).
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Feb 10, 2017 17:13
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I just wanted to throw this out there to see if anyone had any suggestions. Last week, I managed to back up all my stuff and reformat my hard drive with a fresh copy of Window 7. Before that, my computer was so slow I could hardly surf the web. Now I'm back to playing Half Life 2 Death Match. It's like a brand new computer again. So I was wondering, with my current specs, what would make sense to upgrade? I legitimately have no idea about the current hardware game, so I was wondering if one of you nice folks could point me in some sort of direction. Mobo: Gigabyte EP45-UD3R CPU: Core2duo e8400 @ 3GHz GPU: Radeon HD 4850 2 gigs of ram
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Feb 10, 2017 17:17
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alakath posted:It looks like either a RX480 8GB or a 1060 6GB is the way to go? I can get an ASUS ROG STRIX RX480 8GB for $215, or a MSI GTX 1060 6GB for $230, but I'm not sure which way I should go. Research seems to indicate the RX480 is better sometimes, and the 1060 is better sometimes, but I have no idea if it really makes a difference. Pros: Some better driver optimizations in some titles; DX11 performance is around 10% better. G-Sync Cons: Cost No freesync Often slightly slower in DX12 480 8Gb Pros: Better performance in some titles, especially in DX12 2Gb more RAM might be relevent once in a while; particularly when games get more and more designed around an assumption of 8Gb VRAM Cost Freesync Cons: No G-sync Performance in some titles; 1060 has a slightly lead in more benchmarks than the 480 does Khablam fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Feb 10, 2017 |
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Feb 10, 2017 17:32
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illestG posted:I just wanted to throw this out there to see if anyone had any suggestions. Last week, I managed to back up all my stuff and reformat my hard drive with a fresh copy of Window 7. Before that, my computer was so slow I could hardly surf the web. Now I'm back to playing Half Life 2 Death Match. It's like a brand new computer again. So I was wondering, with my current specs, what would make sense to upgrade? I legitimately have no idea about the current hardware game, so I was wondering if one of you nice folks could point me in some sort of direction. 4GB (or 8GB) of memory, a newer GPU and a quad-core would go a long way. You can get a used Q9400 on eBay for ~$20 and something like a used Radeon 7850 or GF560Ti for ~$50, if you're trying to keep it cheap. A bit of searching indicates that even faster Xeons are an option too although presumably you could overclock a C2Q as long as your cooler is adequate. vvv New machines are much faster but I assumed by the framing of the question that you're not intending to spend several hundred dollars. Eletriarnation fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Feb 10, 2017 |
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Feb 10, 2017 17:34
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illestG posted:I just wanted to throw this out there to see if anyone had any suggestions. Last week, I managed to back up all my stuff and reformat my hard drive with a fresh copy of Window 7. Before that, my computer was so slow I could hardly surf the web. Now I'm back to playing Half Life 2 Death Match. It's like a brand new computer again. So I was wondering, with my current specs, what would make sense to upgrade? I legitimately have no idea about the current hardware game, so I was wondering if one of you nice folks could point me in some sort of direction. To be frank, everything you have is super ancient and, budget permitting, should opt for a totally new build.
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Feb 10, 2017 17:35
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Khablam posted:1060 6Gb
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Feb 10, 2017 17:38
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Khablam posted:1060 6Gb This is actually super helpful. I just checked and my monitors support Freesync, so I guess I'm going with the RX480! Thanks! Just to confirm before I pull the trigger, a RX480 isn't overkill/dumb given the rest of my current setup, right? I did some googling and it seems like my CPU (i5-4570) still compares fairly favorably with more modern CPUs.
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Feb 10, 2017 17:40
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illestG posted:I just wanted to throw this out there to see if anyone had any suggestions. Last week, I managed to back up all my stuff and reformat my hard drive with a fresh copy of Window 7. Before that, my computer was so slow I could hardly surf the web. Now I'm back to playing Half Life 2 Death Match. It's like a brand new computer again. So I was wondering, with my current specs, what would make sense to upgrade? I legitimately have no idea about the current hardware game, so I was wondering if one of you nice folks could point me in some sort of direction. If you want to surf the web and play old games of that era, then grab 4Gb of RAM (or another 2 ... or however you're setup) and call it a day. If you want to get up-to-date games working you'll really want to look at a new machine; you're less than 1/3 the power of a entry level machine so any money you'd want to spend is best saved and invested in modern parts.
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Feb 10, 2017 17:41
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alakath posted:This is actually super helpful. I just checked and my monitors support Freesync, so I guess I'm going with the RX480! Thanks! There are certainly games out there where you could bottleneck on CPU (hi civ games), but no for the majority of cases you'll get close to where you're meant to be. With freesync a few slight dips below 60fps will be really hard to notice anyway, adaptive sync is sexy. Sashimi posted:It's worth adding that G-sync monitors cost at least $150 more than equivalent Freesync monitors. Khablam fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Feb 10, 2017 |
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Feb 10, 2017 17:43
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alakath posted:This is actually super helpful. I just checked and my monitors support Freesync, so I guess I'm going with the RX480! Thanks! Your CPU is fine. Having Freesync on your monitors make this choice very easy, definitely take the 480.
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Feb 10, 2017 18:07
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Khablam posted:1060 6Gb  http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/73945-gtx-1060-vs-rx-480-updated-review-23.html
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Feb 10, 2017 18:38
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Khablam posted:so any money you'd want to spend is best saved and invested in modern parts. Thanks for the responses, everyone. I guess my question is, are there any parts I could upgrade on my current build, that could be used on a future rebuild? Or I pretty much need to start over with a new motherboard for any of the newer hardware to be compatible? Is there at least good RAM that I could use on my current mobo and a future one?
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Feb 10, 2017 20:32
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SSD and video card is about it. RAM definitely no as it will be a different DDR type.
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Feb 10, 2017 20:51
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Thanks to the guidance from a couple of fine gents in this thread, I am now the proud owner and operator of a gtx 1060 6gb and 16 gb of corsair 1866mhz ram. Thanks guys!
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Feb 10, 2017 21:29
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I've been burned by AMDs non existent drivers so many times I'm staying the gently caress away. They're perpetually playing catch up.
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Feb 10, 2017 21:32
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Here we go. I am about to build 3 new machines. One for my parents, one to be for the wife/family machine, one for myself. As these are all old and I haven't built in awhile boy do I have some dumb questions let me tell you. Obligatory OP demands: What country are you in? - Merica What are you using the system for? Web and Office? Gaming? Video or photo editing? Professional creative or scientific computing? - Web/office What's your budget? We usually specify for just the computer itself (plus Windows), but if you also need monitor/mouse/whatever, just say so. - Trying to keep under $550 but around there If you’re doing professional work, what software do you need to use? What’s your typical project size and complexity? If you use multiple pieces of software, what’s your workflow? - NO high demands. Turbotax, youtube. Probably some solitaire. If you're gaming, what is your monitor resolution? How fancy do you want your graphics, from “it runs” to “Ultra preset as fast as possible”? - Maybe some mahjongg. Or skifree who knows, might get wild. Parents machine - IE dummy office box https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/xgNnTW/budget-homeoffice-build Wondering if doing the i5 thing is a waste, although if I dumb it down to an i3 the savings isn't much. 2 questions with this system though - do I have some sort of ability to add a cheap graphics card to it, as I would do this for the wifes machine - and do I have to run windows 10 on this thing. I see win7 is still on sale at newegg and man I would prefer that. But it's really old. I told you I had dumb questions. So for the wife/family box I would build the exact same thing but add some sort of budget video card. My son plays minecraft, so I wouldn't exactly call it a gaming box by any means. Is there anything in that build that would keep that from happening. Power supply seems decent. But I have no idea hence the questions. --- Gaming rig (kinda) My current machine is an athlon 6 core 2.8ghz with eight, count em eight gigs of ram. Jealous yet? Oh yeah. Its only redeeming factor is I upgraded the HD to a nice ssd years back. It runs okay. Actually runs the new Doom but at like... 1fps. Maybe. Might be less. It cries a little when I do this to it. Required nonsense: What country are you in? - Still Merica What are you using the system for? Web and Office? Gaming? Video or photo editing? Professional creative or scientific computing? - Some photo editing, simple video editing, some gaming would be nice. What's your budget? We usually specify for just the computer itself (plus Windows), but if you also need monitor/mouse/whatever, just say so. - Trying to keep under $800 but around there If you’re doing professional work, what software do you need to use? What’s your typical project size and complexity? If you use multiple pieces of software, what’s your workflow? - I'm a woodworker by profession so I hope to not put this thing through the table saw by accident. Well I hope not to. Things happen. If you're gaming, what is your monitor resolution? How fancy do you want your graphics, from “it runs” to “Ultra preset as fast as possible”? - I got a pair of 1920x1080 monitors. I would love to be able to play stuff like Doom, Just cause 3 without issue. I don't need ultra3dhd4dadd whatever. Just would like it to not be melting down. I'm fine with an aftermarket cpu fan but I would prefer not going full reta- I mean water cooler. Should I be looking at a high end i5 or a lower end i7? Or something else. Don't have a pcpartspicker thing just yet as I'm not sure about the i5 or i7 yet. My apologies for the vagueness there. I'll probably go 16g ram here vs the 8 on the cheaper build above. Hope that wasn't too painful. Thank you for any advice, definitely trying to keep from shooting myself in the foot with a bad choice on something. Also not legal to do that in the city limits here.
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Feb 10, 2017 22:35
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RBX posted:I've been burned by AMDs non existent drivers so many times I'm staying the gently caress away. They're perpetually playing catch up. Funnily enough in the last year it's been nVidia who's been having driver trouble. AMD's put out a better suite of software and drivers recently.
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Feb 10, 2017 22:54
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PerrineClostermann posted:Funnily enough in the last year it's been nVidia who's been having driver trouble. AMD's put out a better suite of software and drivers recently. To echo this: I got an RX480 back in August of last year (my monitor is Freesync, so it's a perfect fit), and AMD's drivers are actually shockingly solid. I swapped from two GTX 760s, and the Nvidia drivers last year were giving me huge loving stability issues. Since switching to the RX480 I have only had one minor driver issues (mouse cursor corruption in windows, which was fixed a few weeks later), and have actually found the AMD drivers to be more stable and less annoying to deal with than the last few Nvidia drivers I used, and that was BEFORE they changed GFE to what it is now. The whole "AMD's drivers are poo poo" thing certainly applied several years ago, but lately I can't complain at all.
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Feb 10, 2017 23:40
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RBX posted:I've been burned by AMDs non existent drivers so many times I'm staying the gently caress away. They're perpetually playing catch up. Funny because nvidia drivers have been burning me recently on my 1070. I have to restart my computer plenty of times because my 1070 won't wake up on sleep mode. Nvidia drivers have been terrible lately My old r9 290 never gave me this problems. A quick google shows how lovely nvidia drivers have been Edit: I'll still get the 1080 Ti for my ultrawide X34 but drat would I would rather get AMD Rabid Snake fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Feb 10, 2017 |
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Feb 10, 2017 23:45
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Rabid Snake posted:Edit: I'll still get the 1080 Ti for my ultrawide X34 but drat would I would rather get AMD
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Feb 11, 2017 00:25
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Sashimi posted:Might want to wait for AMD's Vega to come out mid-year then, current rumours have its top level offering slotting somewhere between the plain 1080 and the Titan in performance. By that time nVidia will be close to refreshing the 1000 series though, keep it in mind.
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Feb 11, 2017 00:35
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It wasn't too long ago that Nvidia had a driver update that broke a lot of stuff. Can't remember the specifics, but at worst, they're probably both bad at drivers. AMD's software interface is still a bit of a mess, though, but the update process is snazzier than ever. GPU video encoding with AMF also works flawlessly.
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Feb 11, 2017 01:35
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What country are you in? US What are you using the system for? Gaming, work with 70% basic excel/powerpoint, 30% computationally intense statistical programming/simulation What's your budget? ~$1500 USD What software do you need to use? Excel (VBA), PowerPoint, pycharm, Steam, ...about it. What is your monitor resolution? Two screens currently - 1920x1200, 1920x1200 My power went out last night. I turned on my computer this morning. There was a lot of smoke and a burning smell and it is dead. No issues since Oct'11 ain't bad. I have an ASUS Xonar DX. It's been fine so far, so not eager to upgrade unless there has been significant progress in 5 years. Already have Windows 7/10 and optical drive. I've got this as a rough list so far: PCPartPicker part list CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($343.33 @ OutletPC) CPU Cooler: Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT 73.6 CFM CPU Cooler ($90.58 @ Amazon) Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z270X-Ultra Gaming ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($164.99 @ Jet) Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($124.88 @ OutletPC) Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($159.99 @ B&H) Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB SC GAMING ACX 3.0 Black Edition Video Card ($379.99 @ Jet) Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.88 @ OutletPC) Total: $1363.64 Last outstanding piece is the case. There are too many sperg opinions to come to a consensus decision. I just want something that has good cooling and doesn't look absurd in the living room of someone approaching 30. I don't need windows or absolute silence. Amy other recommendations or changes? Anything else I forgot (e.g., thermal goo?). The final price doesn't matter that much, but hoping for $1500 +/- $200. KingNastidon fucked around with this message at 06:02 on Feb 11, 2017 |
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Feb 11, 2017 02:07
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Fractal design refine R5 atx mid
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Feb 11, 2017 03:33
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I'll be 30 in September and this case is acceptable to me: https://m.newegg.com/product/index?itemNumber=N82E16811352011 It has good ventilation and a nice area to organize cables. One classy blue power light and lots of room for various drives. Has some removable filters and a nice built in fan, too. I love it. It's MATX though so I guess get the above one. vandalism fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Feb 11, 2017 |
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Feb 11, 2017 03:35
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This is minor enough so that I don't want to bother HoTS with it, but is anyone else familiar with a constant, quiet "chirping" sound coming from the general vicinity of their power supply? It's a very rapid pulse, almost "liquid" if that makes any sense. I just picked up on it now but I've had a stressful week so I dunno if it's always been there and I'm just especially annoyed by it tonight or if it's something to keep an eye on. The PSU is a Corsair AX Series, AX760, 760 Watt, and less than a year old. Already popped the computer open and didn't see much in the way of dust or loose wires.
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Feb 11, 2017 04:06
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RBX posted:Fractal design refine R5 atx mid Yes, yes. This doesn't look ridiculous. Thanks! Any other changes? What are the good fans to put in this monolith? KingNastidon fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Feb 11, 2017 |
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Feb 11, 2017 04:44
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KingNastidon posted:Yes, yes. This doesn't look ridiculous. Thanks! Any other changes? What are the good fans to put in this monolith? The included pair should be fine unless you have special considerations.
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Feb 11, 2017 05:33
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I'm 38 and this is my computer. Age shouldn't come in to it. Have fun if you want.
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Feb 11, 2017 05:37
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ufarn posted:It wasn't too long ago that Nvidia had a driver update that broke a lot of stuff. Can't remember the specifics, but at worst, they're probably both bad at drivers. Yeah, the takeaway from all of this is that unless you've got something system-breaking that's fixed by a driver, never be a zero-day adopter. Even drivers that aren't day-one optimized for games *work* with them, just not optimally. Hell, I ran 352.xx iCafes until they put out 376s.
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Feb 11, 2017 05:43
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GutBomb posted:I'm 38 and this is my computer. Age shouldn't come in to it. Have fun if you want. I'm not saying age requires modest or discrete cases. I think windows and LEDs out the rear end are cool, myself. My point was I really don't care about aesthetics and just want an objectively good performance case given the rest of the build. I'd personally rather spend extra money on some dope RAM timings or a nitrogen ice block that sits atop my RAM or whatever. Thanks everyone for the help!
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Feb 11, 2017 06:00
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It all depends on what you value, really. If you like flashy looks, then get something that looks flashy. If you like it modest, then go modest. Personally I am on the fractal design train myself, mostly because I am big into silence. You get noise dampening and solid features for a reasonable cost. I would rather have a sound-dampened panel than a window. I am also one of the crazies that will buy all the noctua stuff. Actually looking to put together a new nano-s setup right now. I know it is a huge ITX case, but I like the sound dampening and serious cooling options. Will post it once I've got it done.
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Feb 11, 2017 06:47
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I just noticed that the OP recommends the EVGA SuperNOVA GS as a quick-pick PSU. Aren't those inferior to the G2? Also, the Intel thread had a discussion a few months ago that budget computers were better off using the Pentium chips at $60 than the i3s at $170 -- if you're spending that much on your CPU you might as well spend the extra $50 and get an i5 with four physical cores for $220. Sounded reasonable at the time, but what do the people here think?
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Feb 11, 2017 08:30
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Grundulum posted:I just noticed that the OP recommends the EVGA SuperNOVA GS as a quick-pick PSU. Aren't those inferior to the G2? Yes. The OP hasn't been updated in a while. The EVGA G2, G3, and Corsair RMx series are the new thread favorites, with Seasonic also getting honorable mention.
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Feb 11, 2017 08:42
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