PC Building/Upgrading/Parts-picking Megathread Reloaded

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > PC Building/Upgrading/Parts-picking Megathread Reloaded

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LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Ceros_X posted:

Only thing I would mention was the Killer Ethernet thing. I questioned it last thread and was told it was fine as long as you don't install the 'special software' for it and just use the default drivers.

Huh. I actually had to install the software to get it to work.

# ¿ May 2, 2016 18:43

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# ¿ May 6, 2024 00:02

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Biggest things I feel are important with gaming mice are ergonomics and hotkeys. You want something you'll be comfortable holding onto for extended periods of time/extremely tense periods of action, and you want to choose based on how many shortcuts/hotkeys/macros you want available within easy reach. I specifically went with the G600, in part because it was on sale, but also because of the sheer quantity of keys available. (12 thumbkeys, left/right presses on middle button, 2 additional middle buttons, and an "G-switch" for effective doubling of available functions)

# ¿ May 2, 2016 20:20

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

crazyfish posted:

1) Is overclocking with a 'K' CPU really as simple as load EFI menu, uptick multiplier?

Sort of. It's also sort of even simpler. My i5 6600K overclocked to 3.9GHz without me even touching the BIOS. I had to go in and change things to get it up to where it is now, but as you said, it's literally just tweaking one setting (and the voltage if necessary).

# ¿ May 3, 2016 08:02

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

admiraldennis posted:

Hey thread!

So I was doing a build and I'm dumb and put the wrong screw in the motherboard and it got kinda stuck in there. I had to use some pilers to remove it.

I MAY have damaged this super super small component. It's so little I can't really tell. Sorry the picture sucks. I can barely even see it with my eyes.

I haven't had a chance to do a system install or anything, but the board POSTs fine and detects everything and everything seems OK so far.

If I could find a super high-res image of this mobo (GA-Z170-UD5) I could probably compare and maybe tell if I really did smash it or not. Google image isn't giving me much; I need much higher res than the stuff I'm finding.

What is this thing? A little diode? How worried should I be? Any way to find out what subsystem it may be part of? Sounds like a pain in the rear end to return the board, especially since I already did the build and the heatsink install and all that. And I'm not even sure if I broke it. But I don't want to be setting myself up for random problems down the road either.

Just based on the location and size, I'd guess that's your CLR_CMOS terminal, which is only important if you screw something up enough that you can't even get to your BIOS. Just make sure the prongs aren't touching and you'll be fine.
Unless you're pointing to something next to it, in which case it's still probably related to the same component and the chap above me has it right.

# ¿ May 11, 2016 06:39

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Gunder posted:

I'm not really comfortable doing any overclocking, which is why I picked the non-k version of the 6600.

Overclocking is actually pretty safe and easy nowadays. I've got my 6600K pushed up to 4.4GHz without overvolting, and could probably get stable at 4.7 if I did. My RAM, which is the same as what you're looking at, is overvolted so it'll actually run at full speed. And as Vulgarandstupid said, all it takes is changing a few numbers in the BIOS.

# ¿ May 13, 2016 22:05

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Yeah. Putting the waterblock on my CPU scared the poo poo out of me, despite alternating screws, simply on account of the highly unpleasant noises it made when I did it. Everything works fine though, so hooray for that.

# ¿ May 16, 2016 20:41

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

The Iron Rose posted:

Gunna disagree with Vulgar and stupid and say that a 1070 will comfortably max out 1080p on ultra at 60 fps. By contrast, the 970 actually struggles a fair bit in triple A games, generally hovering around 45-55 FPS on higher settings.

Huh. I must've lucked out with my card then. I ran Bioshock Infinite's benchmark with all settings maxed, and my average fps was around 100. The lowest I saw was 40, and for whatever reason that was while I still had a blank screen right at the start. I'm also pretty sure I peaked at 130. The only game I've played that I haven't maxed everything on is Shadow of Mordor, and that's simply because one setting specifically recommends at least 6GB of VRAM to be maxed.

Also for shits and giggles I tried Halo: Combat evolved without V-sync on. I giggled a little bit about getting 2500+ fps, though the coil whine was a bit excessive.

# ¿ May 17, 2016 08:18

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Your case might have an attachment point for an ssd behind the mobo, so check for that. Alternatively, my case came with an adapter for 2.5" drives, so you can check in case you have one with your case parts.

# ¿ May 21, 2016 18:40

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Josef bugman posted:

Okay, went to bed and got up this morning and the LED, RESET, POWER and HD LED cables are not sticking in to the mobo, they just keep falling out if I move anything around near them.

Any advice guys?

Advice?
I apologize, it's 2:30 in the morning and I'm getting silly. Please don't even remotely take that seriously. My mobo came with a little piece to stick all those into before putting it in the slot, perhaps you've got the same thing? Or can find something similar. I'm sure others here have much better ideas.

# ¿ May 22, 2016 09:38

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Deviant posted:

The radiators are solid, yes? So I'm losing airflow via that fan slot? Cooler masters site for the n200 shows a 240mm radiator in front, occupying both fan slots, or a 120mm radiator in back.

The radiators are not solid. They're essentially a bunch of tiny pipes for The water. You attach fans to the radiator to ensure air flow across them, so that's not an issue. As for whether they're worth it, I have an H80i v2 which does a pretty good job. It's hooked up to an i5 6600K OC'ed to 4.4GHz, and I haven't seen it get anywhere above 60C. This is my first ever custom build though, so I have no idea exactly how that compares to air cooled.

# ¿ May 26, 2016 15:57

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

ColHannibal posted:

"Solid" = good

If you look at the post I quoted, he asked if they were literally solid, not idiomatically solid.

# ¿ May 26, 2016 16:33

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

I'm thinking about throwing a Linux distro (ubuntu studio specifically) on my machine, but really don't feel like reformatting and reinstalling Windows just to free up some partition space on my ssd. Would it be worth picking up another ssd or would an hdd still boot and run pretty quick?

# ¿ May 27, 2016 17:39

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Neo_Crimson posted:

Any reason you're not going for a VM?

~~I was unaware it was an option. Looking into it now.~~ Not an option.

linux.com posted:

Audio and video editing won�t work either, as you don�t want a virtual layer between the application and the hardware.

LogicalFallacy fucked around with this message at 19:11 on May 27, 2016

# ¿ May 27, 2016 19:07

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

PerrineClostermann posted:

I don't know how much RAM speed affects things, though. I remember hearing it's having much more of an effect these days than it used to.

You will need to OC your RAM, but that's a simple enough process, and you will definitely notice a difference once it's up to speed. I cut my POST time down considerably by setting my RAM (DDR4-3000) up to full speed.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2016 07:54

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

PerrineClostermann posted:

Why would I "need" to overclock my ram? Posting, in my experience, is also mostly affected by hdds spinning up...

I'm mostly talking about performance in video games.

The mobo automatically tunes the RAM down to 2133MHz, and it requires overclocking to actually run it at the rated speed. As for the posting, I was just giving that out as an example of the impact of RAM speed. And my OS is installed on an SSD, so hard drive spin-up is most definitely not affecting my POST.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2016 08:05

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

WHAT A GOOD DOG posted:

I decided to just rekit my entire computer with Noctua fans since they're apparently just the best.

I also realized that my motherboard doesn't let me actually run my DDR4 RAM at 3000MHz? What gives?

e: Oh apparently my motherboard only allows DDR4 2133 MHz. gently caress.

That's all motherboards. To run your RAM at full speed you need to overclock. It's a fairly easy thing to do. Simply go into your BIOS, change the RAM voltage to 1.36, and change its multiplier to 30. For better instructions, either look it up online or wait for someone better than me at giving directions to reply.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2016 16:56

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Lavender Philtrum posted:

I've heard an awful lot of bad stuff about Windows 10, even though it's cheap, and even though there's a pretty large amount of things about 7 that are kind of dated and lovely by now, what are the major downsides of 10? Is it finally time to just bite the bullet and upgrade?
I remember being kind of concerned about some of the stuff that they enable that's a bit anti-privacy.

All the anti-privacy stuff is simple to turn off in settings and/or is overblown. The start menu takes a bit of getting used to, and the first thing you should do once it's installed is hide Cortana and pretend it doesn't exist. Further information here.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2016 06:50

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Julie And Candy posted:

Wifi is a must because I can't locate the computer near the router thanks to my apartment's stunningly bad placement of its single cable tap.
-snip-
I originally chose a 950 card, but a friend of mine suggested that it would be a bad waste of money, and is pushing me to get at least a 960 and 4 GB over 2 GB. Is that going to be needed for my requirements? Thanks awesome goons for your help!

edit: Forgot to mention I already have an adequate power supply

Radish and other goons will probably suggest waiting and getting a RX480 or RX470 instead of the 960. Slightly higher or similar price-point for considerably better performance. As for badly placed cable taps, here's my personal solution.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2016 07:41

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

IndianaZoidberg posted:

Anyone have any ideas when 1070s and 1080s might be back in stock...anywhere? None are available anywhere!

Check all the big retail sites periodically, and set up alerts. Stocks coming in about every day, it just never lasts long. GPU megathread estimates stable supply by August.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2016 00:00

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Weasling Weasel posted:

I can't see a CD rom/DVD rom on there, so not sure how I'm going to install Windows. I imagine I'll also have to get one as well and that's not on parts picker? Will wireless keyboard be okay for installation, I will need something wired?

I noticed Radish didn't mention this, but you can use the windows media creation tool to turn a thumb drive into a Windows 8 or Windows 10 boot drive, so if you don't want the disk drive, you can safely skip it.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2016 15:50

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Zero The Hero posted:

How important is RAM speed? Looking at these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232206

DDR4 3200, low timing, low latency, and quite a bit more expensive than RAM with slightly higher timings. It's not out of my price range, but I don't really know what benefit it gives me compared to other options.
P.S. I'm going 2x16gb because I want to upgrade to 64gb in the future when RAM is cheaper.

It makes quite a bit of difference, though with significant diminishing returns after 3200MHz. I'd personally get DDR4-3000, as that's where (IIRC) the plateauing starts. This is the 3000MHz of the same series, and saves you $20.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2016 03:31

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Zero The Hero posted:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1N83UF6163

What do you guys think about this motherboard? It's a bit over the top, but I like the physical power/reset buttons on the board, the shielding over the i/o ports, the USB 3.1/C ports, and the SATA Express ports. Only downsides I can see is no e-sata port (are those even used anymore?), and it looks like running two PCI-E x16 cards at once results in x8/x8... no idea if that's bad or not. I've never used SLI and don't have any plans to, though leaving the option open would be nice. I also just like the overall look of this board, I think it would look nice in an H440.

You will never use SATA Express, so effectively each of those is just two SATA ports. The PCIe thing is normal, that will be the case on any board you get. There's little to nothing that actually uses USB 3.1 right now. USB 3.0 is far more common and getting significantly cheaper.
I would personally recommend going with this. It's the mobo I'm using, and has most of the features the one you're looking at does, for quite a bit cheaper. It retains one USB3.1 and a Type-C, but most of the USB ports are USB 3.0 or 2.0.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2016 17:36

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

jaeger posted:

If there's a heat issue I can certainly be happy with a SATA M.2 850 Evo.

From what I understand, heat isn't really an issue with the M.2 SSD, it's more a matter of there not being much noticeable advantage to the PRO over the EVO. As for watercooling, if you're not married to the idea of doing a custom loop, the H100i V2 is great for your case. It's closed loop, so all you need to do is stick it in.

Alternatively, and since it's on sale right now, your case looks like it can fit this. Save some money and get a sweet 280mm.

LogicalFallacy fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Jun 27, 2016

# ¿ Jun 27, 2016 23:15

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

TorakFade posted:

Just checked out a benchmark and the RX 480 appears to be on par or slightly slower than a 970 OC (which is the bare minimum required for VR afaik).

For a suggested retail of 200$ (4GB) that's not bad since 970s currently cost 250-300$, but I'm guessing Nvidia will promptly drop the 970 price, so until we get custom versions of the rx480 it should be a wash... and not quite what I'm looking for honestly, for "normal" 1080p gaming my current card is just starting to show its age and it still runs almost everything on medium/high details, excluding maybe the latest cutting edge games - it was a good buy and I wish to get another card that'll last me 4 years.

I'm thinking the 1070 is what I should be getting but it costs 450$ and that's more than I'm comfortable spending on a brand new GPU, especially when the high end AMD cards still have to come out. Oh well I'll get VR headset + new GPU later on, waiting for price drops / competition to work its magic

I've been following the GPU megathread, and that 970 was a factory OC, so nowhere near as high as it can go, and the 480s are all OCed way past where they should be in order to make them seem more appealing. They've been measured pulling between 160 and 170W and running really hot. If you can be patient, it seems the 1060 might be better for you.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2016 19:18

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

MisterAlex posted:

Is he over-investing on any parts of this machine?
I can already tell you he's pretty eager and determined to get that ridiculously fast but very expensive U.2 drive, though I think he's also open to the slower (but way cheaper) M.2 from SanDisk.
The GPU of choice is obviously not available at the moment, so he's on notification lists for Newegg and B&H.
The PSU there is one that I've initially recommended to him based on my own positive experience with a similar Seasonic.

I'll second what the chap above me says and state that he would be seriously overpaying for that SSD.
Trying my had at an adjusted build for you:
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($349.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus Z170I PRO GAMING Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($159.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($164.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($319.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($314.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1080 8GB STRIX Video Card ($719.99)
Case: Fractal Design Define Nano S Mini ITX Desktop Case ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $2213.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-29 15:32 EDT-0400

Changed the cooler to a nice, cheap one that this thread recommends a lot.
Changed the motherboard to mush cheaper one with an M.2 slot.
Changed the storage to a slightly less excessive M.2 for a boot drive (the 950 EVO is cheaper and would also be perfectly fine), and a 1T data drive that's also fairly excessive. Price comes out to only slightly more than the monster you were looking at.
Used the savings from the mobo to get faster RAM, which will be far more noticeable than a faster SSD.
The power supply is the one your link leads to.

edit: I'm sort of surprised at how few Z170 mITX mobos have M.2 slots.

LogicalFallacy fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Jun 29, 2016

# ¿ Jun 29, 2016 20:38

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

buffbus posted:

Be careful with that case and a recirculating graphics card. The power supply will be about a half inch away from the card for half its length. The nano s is very much designed for custom water cooling. The node 304 or better yet the core 500 are superior cases if you don't mind the shape.

Good to know. I know next to nothing about cases, so I just left the one he was looking at.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2016 21:27

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Tunklord Supreme posted:

What country are you in? USA
What are you using the system for? gaming, mainly.
What's your budget? $700
If you're gaming, what is your monitor resolution? 1080p; it's a television instead of a proper monitor, if that matters.

this is going to be my first time building a pc, and i'm terrified i'm going to screw up something obvious. i've read the OP a couple of times but it's all a little overwhelming and i worry i've overlooked something.
i started with this build and made some tweaks for cost/shipping/what have you. i'll be using my current hard drive as the secondary/storage hard drive and moving my current install of windows over to the SSD (presuming i can find my install disk & key).

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($204.98 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($55.38 @ Newegg)
Memory: PNY Anarchy 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($27.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: *Silicon Power Slim S55 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($53.61 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 380X 4GB Video Card ($198.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1500 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($74.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: *Cooler Master 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $665.91

do i need to buy a CPU cooler for this build? if not, is thermal paste a thing i need to worry about using? am i forgetting anything important? have i already screwed something up on this list to the extent that i should just shell out for a crappy prebuilt somewhere instead of trying to put this together my own dumbass self?

I'm sure someone else will be more helpful, but here's my bit of advice.
The i5-6500 comes with a cooler. You can pick up a better one for fairly cheap, but it's in no wise necessary. Thermal paste is generally pre-applied, so that's also a non-concern IIRC.
Don't get that SSD, get this one instead. I don't know the exact reasons, but the smart folks in this thread have been recommending it lately as the good budget SSD.
You might want to look at the RX480 for your graphics card. It just got released, and has some bugs to work out, but it'll be better than the 380X for not much more.

edit:I dun mistyped a bit. :downs:

LogicalFallacy fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Jun 30, 2016

# ¿ Jun 30, 2016 19:30

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Oops. I missed the 8, 380X was what I meant. Post is fixed now.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2016 20:26

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

punk rebel ecks posted:

For some really weird reason the speakers on my computer are reverse. The sounds that are suppose to come from the left speaker come from the right and vice versa. Is there a way to reverse them?

Switch the plugs? More seriously, you might be able to swap the channels by poking around in sound settings. I can't check if that's a thing right now, since I'm headed out the door for work, but that seems like it would be your best bet.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2016 20:58

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

punk rebel ecks posted:

I'm trying to find the option for this but can't. Where would it be located. I don't see it in sound under control panel.

I believe you should be checking the properties for your speakers under playback devices.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2016 21:23

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

WattsvilleBlues posted:

Anyone?

From what's been said earlier in the thread, I believe the aversion to Gigabyte mobos is mostly due to Killer Ethernet? Which is no longer a major issue. I'm using their Gaming 5 ATX model, and haven't had any issues with it.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2016 23:15

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

The Iron Rose posted:

Gigabyte has hosed with power delivery and changed out motherboards for shittier versions while selling them under the same label. It probably won't blow up in your face, but lovely power delivery can absolutely fry your parts/motherboard so you want to stick with another company if at all possible.

Fair enough. I'll definitely be looking at other companies when I (eventually) upgrade then.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2016 23:26

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

mikul posted:

I'm playing Doom 4 on a Radeon HD 7750 with i7 3770 3.4ghz and 32 GB of RAM. I have all the graphics settings at min and am playing at the lowest resolution. Is the graphics card holding me back, or is it the processor. What would get me the best bang for buck without getting a new system?

Very much the graphics card. An RX480 would be a massive improvement for under $250. I haven't really been keeping up with the GPU megathread, so that's about as much as I can tell you, but I'm sure others her know more.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2016 19:40

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Enigma posted:

I considered that, but everything I can find online suggests that the performance different is negligible and only really shows up in benchmarks. Balanced against the ease of upgrading Dead Goon mentioned, it seems like 1x8 is the way to go for now.

Huh, looks like it is currently impossible to find an rx 480 in stock anywhere. I thought it was released already?

It's released, but supplies aren't quite keeping up with demand. You also want to wait for the custom models come out anyways.

edit: On a quick Google search, it looks like mid-August is when you should expect custom boards to be available. Also, the ASUS model should be pretty sweet, but might require 2 PCI slots?

LogicalFallacy fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Jul 16, 2016

# ¿ Jul 16, 2016 01:17

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Overminty posted:

Recently got a new work laptop with an m.2 ssd. Can't say I can notice much difference between this and my sata connected one at home.

Well, there's ones that are proper M.2 and ones that are actually SATA, but simply use an M.2 form factor and connection. Even so, with those second ones, such as the 850 Evo M.2, it might be worth it for the space savings and not having to run as many cables.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2016 16:23

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

DrNutt posted:

Thanks for the info. If I decide to go with a K chip so I have the option to oc later, can I just go with stock cooling until I decide to do so?

K chips don't come with stock coolers, so you'd need to pick one up.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2016 18:29

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Virtue posted:

Goons please vet this build for a first time builder who is uncomfortable with the idea of building a pc but is willing to give it a shot. This build is pushing the upper limits of the budget and ideally it would drop by $200-300 but it's not necessary if we reach a nice price/performance ratio. No windows or peripherals necessary.

Usage cases are light gaming (1080p 30-60 fps on low settings for modern games) and general productivity.

Concerns:

1) Cooling. This will be used in a location with an ambient temperature north of 80F so I think a solid cooling setup is important?
2) Wifi required. I selected a motherboard that has onboard wifi but I don't know what I'm doing.
3) Ease of installation. Since this is for a first time builder a case that's easy to work with is very important. Should I go larger?

Thanks!

Don't get a new 970. Pick one up used for considerably cheaper, or get a RX480 for slightly cheaper and get much better performance. Alternatively, the GTX1060 releases tomorrow, and you can try to get that instead. You can also save a little bit by dropping to the i5-6500. You won't really notice the performance hit, and that'll shave ~$20 off your price as well. That's about all I can see, but I'm a fairly inexperienced builder myself.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2016 07:13

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

ddogflex posted:

Looking at people's builds on here I see most everyone is going with 2.5" SSDs instead of m.2, even though most of the mobos support m.2. Any reason for that that I'm ignorant to? I haven't built a PC since m.2 was a thing and was going to use it as my boot drive because it seems faster. Is the higher bandwidth bus just a waste?

The higher bandwidth is nice, but a lot of motherboards will disable/bottleneck PCI slots if you're using m.2, and you also have to decide if it's worth an extra hundred dollars for the same storage space to get that extra speed.

edit: ^ Also what that guy said.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2016 20:01

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Posted this in the monitor thread last night, and haven't gotten any response yet, so I figured I post it here as well.

This Moron posted:

I'm looking at the LG 34UM67 and the Acer KN242HYL on Newegg right now. I'm thinking of getting them both and trying to find a dual monitor stand that will let me put the Acer above the LG. Any thoughts on this? I'd be sort of okay with sticking with my current monitor (Samsung S22E310) as a secondary instead of getting the Acer, but I don't think I could stand having a TN right next to an IPS, and with the sale right now, both monitors would total a mere $500.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2016 22:10

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# ¿ May 6, 2024 00:02

LogicalFallacy: Nov 16, 2015; Wrecking hell's shit since 1993

Pooperscooper posted:

Can anyone help me shave the cost? I'm looking for light gaming, maybe some overwatch and xcom 2 but other than that mostly internet browsing. I would like to ideally get the cost down to $800-$900 excluding the cost of Windows.

DDR4-3000 is only useful if you're overclocking, get 2133 instead. Get this for your SSD instead of the Crucial. It's highly recommended in this thread and will still give you plenty of space. Don't get the 970, get an RX480 instead. It's a bit cheaper/comparable in price, and will give you slightly better performance. I don't know enough to tell about any of your other components.

# ¿ Jul 24, 2016 21:27

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > PC Building/Upgrading/Parts-picking Megathread Reloaded

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