Building a gaming PC

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So I read Skylake is scheduled to release in August. I will buy a new computer in mid September-early October.

Will it be a reasonable option, price/performance wise? Are the changes over Haswell/Broadwell worth it? Will the high end desktop CPU's become available right away? For instance something like a 5770K assuming the naming scheme continues.
 
Seeing as I've been waiting for Broadwell since sometime last year... I'd say no they don't become available right away but I haven't bought an Intel CPU for my desktop yet so I don't know that much about their release cycles per year.

---------- Updated at 09:05 PM ----------

And @sidspyker. Next to them I know nothing.
 
Just a note if building a new machine with GPU and GSync monitor... having carefully disassembled the PC and packed away all the old VGA cables, and the old monitor I hooked up the new kit... and got nothing.

Rapid unpacking of the old monitor, the VGA cable and the GPU's HDMI-VGA adaptor, and I had a basic display for setting up the modified boot order, and installing the new Nvidia drivers.

Straightforward after that, but I think I'll keep the old VGA panel sat about for troubleshooting purposes as the gaming panel is U/S outside of windows.
Very happy with the monitor quality though. I can barely see the display on the old panel when viewed next to this one it is so weak and prone to reflections.

(MSI 970 4G and AOC 2460PG, rescued by crappy old Emprex hand-me-down)
 
I had a similar issue, except it was because of having 2 monitors, seems if 1 is HDMI and the other is Analog then the Analog one gets preference. My boot never displayed on my primary, only on secondary, then switched to Primary after it had booted. Hammered my head trying to figure it out only to suddenly understand when I got my new 970 and still kept the 750Ti, plugged 2nd monitor into it and then MAGICALLY boot and everything else showed on the primary screen.

So kids, the lesson learnt is.... don't use analog or have 2 GPUs and plug them separetely :p
 
I had a 15% discount if I bought my PC today ( 15 years celebration of the retailer ) si I did it. Too bad @GuyNwah couldn't give me his opinion on the final product but Iam really happy and confident with it. Thanks to you all!

 
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Recommendation for new Graphic Card for W3

Hey Guys,

so i pre ordered Witcher 3 and now i want to buy a new Graphic Card. Im looking for some Recommendations. The Price shoud be around
300-400 Euro. Idk if you need to know my other PC Components but i can post those if needed.
Components:
Intel Core i7 2600k CPU @ 3,40 ghz (idk if it matters but if i go in hardwaremanager it says this line 7 times)
8 GB RAM
idk what else is important :p

Best regards,
Knieja :)
 
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GTX 970 or R9 290/X.

And yes, posting your other components would be a good idea. :)
 
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GTX 970 or R9 290/X.

And yes, posting your other components would be a good idea. :)
On all the sites it says that the recommended graph card is gtx 770, is the 970 overall better? Also what cards have better support and driver updates, amd or nvidia? PS: I updated tge components idk what comps else are needed pls tell me :)
 
I had a 15% discount if I bought my PC today ( 15 years celebration of the retailer ) si I did it. Too bad @GuyNwah couldn't give me his opinion on the final product but Iam really happy and confident with it. Thanks to you all!

Congratulations man ! now you're proud owner of a powerful gaming desktop, and glad you got a nice discount as well :)

So returned my drive (840 EVO) to the store and they gave me a full refund. Very pleased.

Now to look for a 1TB SSD to replace this. Any recommendations? Or should I just go with the 850 EVO?

http://www.hardwareversand.de/Solid-...8m9d6o0&ref=13

I say go with 850 EVO, not really updated on performance comparisons but as far as reliability goes there is no doubt about Samsung. I am using them from quiet some time.

EDIT: I mean I am using them in office from sometime not personally. For myself I went with the cheaper choice of Kingston.

On all the sites it says that the recommended graph card is gtx 770, is the 970 overall better? Also what cards have better support and driver updates, amd or nvidia? PS: I updated tge components idk what comps else are needed pls tell me

970 is much better than a 770 and it's based on the newer Maxwell architecture instead of 770's Kepler. Nvidia release more drivers with small incremental updates while AMD usually aim for bigger updates thus takes more time in releasing new drivers, overall both try to release new drivers near the release of big titles or sometime after the release.

Your CPU and ram is good.
 
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On all the sites it says that the recommended graph card is gtx 770, is the 970 overall better? Also what cards have better support and driver updates, amd or nvidia? PS: I updated tge components idk what comps else are needed pls tell me :)
GTX 970 is much better. It's more efficient and faster and has more VRAM. The only downside in the card is that the VRAM is partitioned:


AMD R9 290/290X is also an option. But they are a lot more power hungry compared to GTX 970 and thus the GPU runs hotter. Opting for a model with a proper cooler is necessary. Running Nvidia features like PhysX or Hairworks with an AMD card might result into bad performance which should also be taken into consideration.
 
970 is much better than a 770 and it's based on the newer Maxwell architecture instead of 770's Kepler. Nvidia release more drivers with small incremental updates while AMD usually aim for bigger updates thus takes more time in releasing new drivers, overall both try to release new drivers near the release of big titles or sometime after the release.

Your CPU and ram is good.
Alright thank you for the info :)

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GTX 970 is much better. It's more efficient and faster and has more VRAM. The only downside in the card is that the VRAM is partitioned:


AMD R9 290/290X is also an option. But they are a lot more power hungry compared to GTX 970 and thus the GPU runs hotter. Opting for a model with a proper cooler is necessary. Running Nvidia features like PhysX or Hairworks with an AMD card might result into bad performance which should also be taken into consideration.

thank you very much :)

---------- Updated at 05:47 PM ----------

GTX 970 is much better. It's more efficient and faster and has more VRAM. The only downside in the card is that the VRAM is partitioned:


AMD R9 290/290X is also an option. But they are a lot more power hungry compared to GTX 970 and thus the GPU runs hotter. Opting for a model with a proper cooler is necessary. Running Nvidia features like PhysX or Hairworks with an AMD card might result into bad performance which should also be taken into consideration.

Hey 1 more question, i see there are different variations of the 970. There is like Palit, MSI, Asus, etc... which 1 of these should i pick=?
 
Hey 1 more question, i see there are different variations of the 970. There is like Palit, MSI, Asus, etc... which 1 of these should i pick=?
Asus Strix, MSI Gaming 4G and Gigabyte Gaming G1 are all good choices.

MSI 4G:

+ Beefed up power delivery system -> overclocks like a beast
+ Quiet
+ Hybrid fan mode
- No backplate

Asus Strix:

+ Better power circuitry vs the reference card but not as good as the MSI model
+ Hybrid fan mode
+ Quiet
+ Backplate
- Not a huge overclocker vs MSI and Gigabyte

Gigabyte G1:

+ Has the beefiest cooler by far
+ Beefed up power delivery system
+ Backplate
- No hybrid fan mode
- Loud cooler

Also not exactly a con but the G1 is a long card so you have to make sure it fits your case.

My recommendation? Get the MSI if you want to overclock. If not, the Asus Strix.

Hope this helps.
 
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Asus Strix, MSI Gaming 4G and Gigabyte Gaming G1 are all good choices.

MSI 4G:

+ Beefed up power delivery system -> overclocks like a beast
+ Quiet
+ Hybrid fan mode
- No backplate

Asus Strix:

+ Better power circuitry vs the reference card but not as good as the MSI model
+ Hybrid fan mode
+ Quiet
+ Backplate
- Not a huge overclocker vs MSI and Gigabyte

Gigabyte G1:

+ Has the beefiest cooler by far
+ Beefed up power delivery system
+ Backplate
- No hybrid fan mode
- Loud cooler

Also not exactly a con but the G1 is a long card so you have to make sure it fits your case.

My recommendation? Get the MSI if you want to overclock. If not, the Asus Strix.

Hope this helps.
that def helps thank you dear sir :)
 
@eskiMoe

what's your experience using hardwareversand.de? For instance, in terms of RMA, delivery speed, support, and so on. I'm debating between that and alternate.de at the moment, and contemplating whatever local "brick and mortar" stores I can find.
 
@eskiMoe

what's your experience using hardwareversand.de? For instance, in terms of RMA, delivery speed, support, and so on. I'm debating between that and alternate.de at the moment, and contemplating whatever local "brick and mortar" stores I can find.
The pros:

They've proven to be reliable and fast in their deliveries. It only took like 2 weeks to get my faulty GTX 970 replaced and after the VRAM fiasco they even agreed to refund them if I had desired so.

Cons:

They need to improve their customer service though. I mean when it comes to replying e-mails or informing how your order is progressing. That kind of stuff. Also, they use UPS instead of DHL. I prefer the latter to be honest.
 
My last rebuild was in 2012. It's thankfully still going strong - but I've gotten around to upgrading the GPU(680). After much deliberation, I went with a GTX 970.

I couldn't justify the price of the 980 (especially in eu) considering it's another mid-range masquerading as a high-end card. But, with a month until the games' release, and unfortuately there was no AMD release, nor anything to force NV's hand with releases, so I was stuck with choosing either the 980, or 970.

I was very wary with my decision. But so far, I'm very pleased with it. I went with the ASUS 970 Strix, and overclocked it to 1510/2000 and it's basically got 980+ performance with that OC, and excellent temps that stay under 60c with low fanspeeds. I am still a bit worried about the memory segmentation issue, but hopefully should be fine at 1440p until I go with pascal, or such.

My system is;
i7 3770k @ 4.4 GHz HT on
ASUS Maximus V gene
8GB DDR3 2133 CL9 1T
GTX 970 @ 1510/2003

OS running on a Crucial M4 128GB SSD atm, along with whatever game I'm currently playing, but I was thinking of getting a better/bigger one, maybe an 850 evo, or such. Not sure, yet.

Asus Strix, MSI Gaming 4G and Gigabyte Gaming G1 are all good choices.
snip

Asus Strix:

+ Better power circuitry vs the reference card but not as good as the MSI model
+ Hybrid fan mode
+ Quiet
+ Backplate
- Not a huge overclocker vs MSI and Gigabyte

snip
Hope this helps.

Everyone keeps saying this lol. Just putting my own experience here;

People keep saying the Asus 970 won't overclock well, because it has a lower TDP, and a single 8-pin connector. This is typically only true for hardcore overclocking with LN2, etc. Efficiency, cooling, and build quality are just as/if not more important when it comes to air overclocking potential. but ofc, it's more luck, than anything else tbh ; p

So far, I'm super impressed with my own GTX 970 Strix, tbh. Like I mentioned above, It's currently overclocked at 1510 core, and 2003 memory, with cool temps. Which according to my tests surpasses the performance of the 980 stock.

Obviously milage will vary, but I thought I'd chime into this misconception going around, is all ^-^
 
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Everyone keeps saying this lol. Just putting my own experience here;

People keep saying the Asus 970 won't overclock well, because it has a lower TDP, and a single 8-pin connector. This is typically only true for hardcore overclocking with LN2, etc. Efficiency, cooling, and build quality are just as/if not more important when it comes to air overclocking potential. but ofc, it's more luck, than anything else tbh ; p

So far, I'm super impressed with my own GTX 970 Strix, tbh. Like I mentioned above, It's currently overclocked at 1510 core, and 2003 memory, with cool temps. Which according to my tests surpasses the performance of the 980 stock.

Obviously milage will vary, but I thought I'd chime into this misconception going around, is all ^-^
Yup. I don't have personal experience with the card. I'm basing my information on benchmarks, and generally the Asus Strix seems to fall short against MSI and Gigabyte when it comes to overclocking:

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_970_gaming_review,26.html

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_970_g1_gaming_review,26.html

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/asus_geforce_gtx_970_strix_review,26.html

..which makes sense since both the MSi and Gigabyte have beefier power delivery systems. I'd still recommend either one of those to people who like to overclock and get the best results possible. If not, the Asus is imo the best card.

Btw, did you need to raise voltages to achieve those clocks?
 
After declaring a year wait before playing TW3...my desktop fried itself. Synchronicity at work.

Goals: Non-manually overclocking, reliable (quality components), SLI possible if TW3 is too much for one GPU. Preferably Ultra @ 2560x1080.

Asus Z97 Maximus VII
Intel i7-4790 (stock air-cooled)
MSI GTX 970 4G (stock cooling)
SeaSonic X-1050 1,050W (newest version)
G.Skill Sniper 2x4gb 1866
Appropriate Case

Is there anything I can save money on? Place I should spend more on? Better alternatives? Case recommendation? Thank You!
 
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