PC Tech/Gaming Info Thread

[HCCA]

HCCA, thank a lot man. some really good advice there.

considering the Corsair all in one unit now as the machine will not be in AC all the time. i'm seeing XSPC has some great components for liquid cooling.....u guys have any experience with XSPC components?

i'm sure i'll have more questions soon. lol

Yeh let iM@st@1 advise u on a custom liquid setup, i fed up liquid cool (years of use) so i eh wah talk abt that much again . However i do have an xspc dual rad kit, used it for only 6 mths doh, was cooling a video card and cpu, would recommend putting a lil extra and getting something so instead of an all in one unit (should have pics of it when i installed it)

I actually have a dual socket server board right now, upgraded the dual cores it came with to a pair of 2.3ghz quad cores. Building it weekend so i can test it against my i7-3770 gaming system and give u a base idea of the performance comparison using some of the apps you mentioned.

[kamakazi]

I'm going to try to keep to budget stev
and i'm going to use US prices

Motherboard Asus Z87-A $105
Processor Core I5 4690K $240
Memory 8gb (2 x 4 gb) $80
Graphics Nvidia gtx 750 $150 (some models have dual HDMI)
Storage SSD MX100 256GB $105
Storage 1TB HDD $55
PSU EVGA 500W 80Plus $40
Case $100
Burner $20
Heatsink ID-COOLING SE-213 $23
Keyboard+Mouse $60
Extra case fans $30

Which gives a total of $948US dollars
Now from this base point the skies the limit (well that and your budget). You mentioned that you have a NAS but video editing and rendering requires some hard disk space (also you will require space for a "scratch disk"). Transferring data over the network is still kinda slow...not sure how it is bridged though...but having at least some decent space plugged into the system is a necessity. Air cooling works fine and there are numerous efficient air coolers around.
If your budget allows I would upgrade in this order
1. 16Gb....or even 32GB of Memory
2. Second SSD for scratch disk or larger SSD (could probably use the extra memory and create a RAMdisk for use as a scratch disk
3. Core I7 4790K processor

The above system should handle your tasks easily...no need for a dual CPU setup with 6core processors with Hyper threading available.
BTW I am leaning heavily on Tomshardware guides as they are decent (I just shifted some of the money they put in graphics into a scratch disk and other accessories)

[Arcmanov]

I wouldn't have even known that there was a 970 issue if it wasn't for the web articles.
Mine runs everything i throw at it...and i run at 2560x1080 usually.


Arcmanov...have you run into any sli issues? I've been thinking of going that route myself

No issues that I can think of (other than forgetting to turn SLI on after a driver upgrade )





SM-N910H | Dr Ketan's ROM(N910C) v1.0 | SwiftKey | Tapatalk v4.10.1

[kamakazi]

After reading my response you might be better off with a non k series processor as it doesn't have all the available virtualization instruction set and I'm unsure as to how that will affect your virtual machine

[stev]

thanks very much guys...some really good information.

thinking about getting these?

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance ... B00D6E5KMA

board will have 4 slots but i'll install 2 X 8GB for now.


also, the Asus Z87-A looks excellent for the price though.

[HCCA]

thanks very much guys...some really good information.

thinking about getting these?

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance ... B00D6E5KMA

board will have 4 slots but i'll install 2 X 8GB for now.


also, the Asus Z87-A looks excellent for the price though.

Yeah the ram decent, good speed and thing. Can actually a overclock a 2-300mhz higher than rated.

You can consider these boards as well, Z97 chipset based:

Gigabyte
http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Black-In ... otherboard

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=4979#ov

Gigabyte Gaming series
http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GA-Z97X- ... otherboard

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=4953#ov

Asus
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-DDR3-3000-Mo ... otherboard

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z97E/specifications/

[pioneer]

Looking for a z97 myself

[Cross Blood]

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Dual ... merReviews

Nvidia GTX 960

Just saw this on Amazon and decided to share.

This card could possibly run any game out for just $210US. It also performs better than a lot of higher priced cards. Well done Nvidia.

[fouljuice]

Many people were disappointed by the price and the 128-bit bus.

I skip the 970 to wait on the 960 but after seeing the reviews and reading about the 3.5GB 970 'feature', I might just continue to wait for a 960 Ti, or hope they drop 970/980 prices after the 380X/980Ti/Titan II come out.

[SnipeR]

Anyone tried the hardline beta yet?

[Cross Blood]

Many people were disappointed by the price and the 128-bit bus.

I skip the 970 to wait on the 960 but after seeing the reviews and reading about the 3.5GB 970 'feature', I might just continue to wait for a 960 Ti, or hope they drop 970/980 prices after the 380X/980Ti/Titan II come out.

Oh ... wasn't aware of that.

[DTAC]

Anyone tried the hardline beta yet?

Um, yeah. Back in June 2014.

[fouljuice]

Oh ... wasn't aware of that.

I didn't say it is a bad card though.
It would run most of everything at 1080p but some settings might still have to be turned down for newer games.
(eg. Witcher 3/ DA:Inquisition /AC:Unity/ Mordor, etc)
If it running the games you would be playing at the quality you want, then go ahead.

Running 2 in SLi would even give near-980 performance in some games for much cheaper than a single 980.
Only problems would be using more current and running out of Vram.

[Cross Blood]

Yea I know what you are saying. I guess they might fix that with the Ti version of it. Its only after you said it was 128bit I realised. I thought it was the usual 192bit. Thanks for the heads up though.

[SnipeR]

Anyone tried the hardline beta yet?

Um, yeah. Back in June 2014.

Saw the open beta on origin and was wondering if its worth the time of day.

[NR8]

So guys, I recently rebuilt my PC. Specs are as follows, tell me what you think;

Rosewill FBM-02 case with 120mm intake and 80mm exhaust fans
Antec VP-450 450 Watt Energy Star Certified Power Supply
MSI A78M-E35 FM2+ / FM2 AMD A78 motherboard
AMD Quad-Core A8-Series APU A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D
HyperX Fury Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3
reused my old HDD and ODD
This new system is unbelievably faster than the Sempron 2.7Ghz with 2GB DDR2 I had before.

However the CPU temperature has me concerned. With my old pc Speccy used to show the CPU, motherboard and storage temps all at around 38 degrees. Now it shows APU around 50 deg at idle and it goes up to as much as 80 in use, while motherboard and hdd is still around 38 like before.
Both the BIOS and the MSI Command Centre software show the new APU at about 38 deg C though just like the old one, so could it be that Speccy is reading wrong?
The new tower is in the same location as the old one and subject to same room temperature conditions.

[skylinechild]

So guys, I recently rebuilt my PC. Specs are as follows, tell me what you think;

Rosewill FBM-02 case with 120mm intake and 80mm exhaust fans
Antec VP-450 450 Watt Energy Star Certified Power Supply
MSI A78M-E35 FM2+ / FM2 AMD A78 motherboard
AMD Quad-Core A8-Series APU A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D
HyperX Fury Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3
reused my old HDD and ODD
This new system is unbelievably faster than the Sempron 2.7Ghz with 2GB DDR2 I had before.

However the CPU temperature has me concerned. With my old pc Speccy used to show the CPU, motherboard and storage temps all at around 38 degrees. Now it shows APU around 50 deg at idle and it goes up to as much as 80 in use, while motherboard and hdd is still around 38 like before.
Both the BIOS and the MSI Command Centre software show the new APU at about 38 deg C though just like the old one, so could it be that Speccy is reading wrong?
The new tower is in the same location as the old one and subject to same room temperature conditions.

Ive never used that pc software before - a quick google says its just an analysis tool.

it could be the software is not detecting the new hardware properly and needs to update - or it could be the BIOS and MSI software is not reporting correct info and needs an update.

easy solution - update all necessary software BIOS / MSI command centre / speccy and recheck temps

tech solution- pull out your IR thermometer and check temps yourself to be sure.

[NR8]

MSI Command Center and Speccy already updated. Updated BIOS from v30.5 to 30.6 but no change.
Pics below show Command Center temp as 40 degrees while Speccy says 76.

[DTAC]

Anyone tried the hardline beta yet?

Um, yeah. Back in June 2014.

Saw the open beta on origin and was wondering if its worth the time of day.

I played it a lot and has promise. Looks like the beta opening again tomorrow so yeah, worth a look at for sure.

[Cross Blood]

So guys, I recently rebuilt my PC. Specs are as follows, tell me what you think;

Rosewill FBM-02 case with 120mm intake and 80mm exhaust fans
Antec VP-450 450 Watt Energy Star Certified Power Supply
MSI A78M-E35 FM2+ / FM2 AMD A78 motherboard
AMD Quad-Core A8-Series APU A8-6600K with Radeon HD 8570D
HyperX Fury Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3
reused my old HDD and ODD
This new system is unbelievably faster than the Sempron 2.7Ghz with 2GB DDR2 I had before.

However the CPU temperature has me concerned. With my old pc Speccy used to show the CPU, motherboard and storage temps all at around 38 degrees. Now it shows APU around 50 deg at idle and it goes up to as much as 80 in use, while motherboard and hdd is still around 38 like before.
Both the BIOS and the MSI Command Centre software show the new APU at about 38 deg C though just like the old one, so could it be that Speccy is reading wrong?
The new tower is in the same location as the old one and subject to same room temperature conditions.

I'm doing a similar build currently with these specs.

AMD A8 7600
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB Kit (4GBx2)
Gigabyte GA-F2A78M-D3H Motherboard
Regular HDD

I read that the APUs are worth the money. So I decided to try it.

[HCCA]

@ NR8

Good choice on that ram, the built in gpu benefits from higher clocked memory.

Since the GPU is built into the the cpu you WILL get higher temps.

I've had three APU systems and i noticed the need for better cooling.

I'd suggest an all in one cpu cooler or a tower style 120mm heatsink/fan.

MSI command centre and even their BIOS temperature readouts extremely off, no BIOS updtaes could fix that.

Noticed the msi issue with a 990fxa-gd65/80 and other board higher up the scale with the graphical BIOS interfaces.

Coretemp and GPU meter coupled with PC meter running in the background will give you a more accurate reading. Speccy decent too but i only use that to find out component specs and features.

HWMonitor is also a bess piece of monitoring software for showing the minimum, maximum and current temperature readings of every component in the system that has a built in sensor.

[ruffneck_12]

MSI Command Center and Speccy already updated. Updated BIOS from v30.5 to 30.6 but no change.
Pics below show Command Center temp as 40 degrees while Speccy says 76.

msi cc.jpg

speccy.jpg

This is idle temps?

check the temps inside the bios as well

[NR8]

@ HCCA, Thanks for the feedback man. Really appreciate it.

I installed all the software you suggested. Coretemp is not reading correctly though, it says all the cores are at 0 degrees. GPU Meter and HWMonitor are displaying the same temps as Speccy so I'm using those.

I'd suggest an all in one cpu cooler or a tower style 120mm heatsink/fan.

Could you recommend or help me find one of each that would fit in my Rosewill FBM-02 case? I've always used the stock heatsink and fan so I'm new to these types of cooling.
On a related note, could the preapplied thermal paste on the heatsink be adding to the temperature? I saw people in reviews of the APU say that it might not be sufficient and to replace it with Arctic Silver.

[HCCA]

@ HCCA, Thanks for the feedback man. Really appreciate it.

I installed all the software you suggested. Coretemp is not reading correctly though, it says all the cores are at 0 degrees. GPU Meter and HWMonitor are displaying the same temps as Speccy so I'm using those.

I'd suggest an all in one cpu cooler or a tower style 120mm heatsink/fan.

Could you recommend or help me find one of each that would fit in my Rosewill FBM-02 case? I've always used the stock heatsink and fan so I'm new to these types of cooling.
On a related note, could the preapplied thermal paste on the heatsink be adding to the temperature? I saw people in reviews of the APU say that it might not be sufficient and to replace it with Arctic Silver.

Oh yea i forgot coretemp doesn't read certain amd cpus. PCMeter then should do the trick alongside the cpu meter gadget on your sidebar.

Checked your case out and a 120mm tower hsf wouldn't fit well in there. You may have to go with a 90-92mm type heatsink like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835103064

The depth of the case is 6.89 inches so it should fit nicely. Just get a ruler and measure from the inside edge of the case to the surface of the cpu to make sure, may be half an inch less with the board installed. Most AIO coolers have a 120mm fan standard so forget that for now. There should be 80mm fan sized heatsinks but i never used one so i can't recommend anything for that.

If it was a micro atx case like the Coolermaster N200 (i own a pair) then an AIO cooler would've fit nicely on top or to the rear of the case.

The stock thermal paste isn't all that unless you're not gonna be stressing the apu much and no it doesn't add to the overall temperature of the cpu/apu. If you wanna game then a change is in order. The paste i used over the past 5 years is this:

http://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Silver-Cer ... B0007Y836W

Sells for $65 for the larger 22g tube at RHD Technologies in Maraval so is better to get a tube and keep it around (one large tube will last thru many builds). Used it on cpus and video cards (air cooled and liquid cooled) and it made a very noticeable difference in average to load temps. The silver version popular too but is more expensive and conductive so i stopped using that a long time ago.

[NR8]

The specs for the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 doesn't say it fits FM2 processors, but some of the reviews says it does. Will it?

[HCCA]

The specs for the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 doesn't say it fits FM2 processors, but some of the reviews says it does. Will it?

http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/cpu ... hyper-tx3/

Click the specs tab and you will see it there. The amd clip will hook onto the mounting brackets on the board easily.

[skylinechild]

HCCA the thermal grease you recommended on amazon is discontinued by the manufacturer it was replaced by Céramique 2

>> http://www.arcticsilver.com/tc.htm

i'd personally recommend the artic silver 5. currently use it on many many builds - no issues
WRT to it being conductive -again- see the manufacturer description.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm

Not Electrically Conductive:
Arctic Silver 5 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity.
(While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 5 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.)

now i dont know how other ppl apply it or where they use it - but if used on the CPU - where theres just a metal cap- cause the cpu is already inserted into the socket - there are no close proximity electrical paths - therefore no danger

remember to read the application instructions very closely - its different for each CPU brand type and model
and before i forget theres also a cleaning solution and a purifying solution you need to use before u apply your new thermal grease

http://www.amazon.com/ArctiClean-60ml-K ... arcticlean

lastly the artic silver 5 is whats used to also fix the Xbox red rings of death issue - over heating.

[HCCA]

HCCA the thermal grease you recommended on amazon is discontinued by the manufacturer it was replaced by Céramique 2

>> http://www.arcticsilver.com/tc.htm

i'd personally recommend the artic silver 5. currently use it on many many builds - no issues
WRT to it being conductive -again- see the manufacturer description.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm

Not Electrically Conductive:
Arctic Silver 5 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity.
(While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 5 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.)

now i dont know how other ppl apply it or where they use it - but if used on the CPU - where theres just a metal cap- cause the cpu is already inserted into the socket - there are no close proximity electrical paths - therefore no danger

remember to read the application instructions very closely - its different for each CPU brand type and model
and before i forget theres also a cleaning solution and a purifying solution you need to use before u apply your new thermal grease

http://www.amazon.com/ArctiClean-60ml-K ... arcticlean

lastly the artic silver 5 is whats used to also fix the Xbox red rings of death issue - over heating.

This is actually what i had last few years and bought saturday again:

http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Ceramique- ... rmal+paste

It just works.

Arctic silver 5 has its merits, but i chose to use the ceramique on laptop cpus which have no heatspreader most of the times. Also some gpu processing units have diodes around them i prefer not to have paste contacting them. Any cpu/board combo or video card i sold i replaced the stock paste with the Ceramique.

Have the cleaning solutions as well but i only use those for video cards/laptop chips, normal methylated spirit works for desktop cpu cleaning.

Other brands that work well are noctua, IC Diamond, coolermaster ice fusion etc. Was just providing a reasonably priced local alternative.

[jm3]

If I remember properly as5 is better most of the time but ceramique is better for gpus and Ics as its non conductive
I found a little talk on the subject I myself always use as5

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/show ... ost3677469

[HCCA]

If I remember properly as5 is better most of the time but ceramique is better for gpus and Ics as its non conductive
I found a little talk on the subject I myself always use as5

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/show ... ost3677469

Yeah well i change out heatsinks/waterblocks more often than most users so the ceramique cheap and capable enuff to allow me to do so.

When i get bored enuff to actually have to not interfere with a system i may use the as5.