Building a gaming PC

[BlackWolf500.298]

The PSU is the first guess in a case like that. Especially if bangs, sparks, or smoke are involved.

Although it's possible for a PC to go completely comatose, to the extent of not even spinning the fans, the PSU is more likely.

(Explanation: There's a "power good" signal from the PSU to the motherboard. It's on a green wire (the only green wire in the 20+4-pin power cable). When you power on, the CPU grounds that signal, to tell the PSU "go ahead and start". So if the CPU or motherboard is so hosed it can't signal the PSU, nothing at all starts.)

You can do a quick test of a PSU: unplug and remove it entirely from the PC, and find the green wire on the 20+4 connector. Also find a nearby black wire (all black wires are ground). Connect the PSU to mains, turn its power switch to on, and short green to black with a paperclip or anything close enough. If the PSU is not dead, it will turn its fan on.

http://www.wikihow.com/Check-a-Power-Supply

Yeah the paperclip test. Thanks for the info. Doing that as soon as I have more time.
I assume it's the PSU though.

Ordered another one right away (can still send it back).

Nothing indictes it is the fault of the MB, especially since in the case I did describe you all I did was switch on the power strip. You know, power strips sometimes have that switch so the power is on/off. I did switch that one on and suddenly that spark happened. Didn't think much about it, thought I probably have imagined it (after all I didn't directly look at the PC when it happened, only saw it out of the corner of my eyes) until of course I tried to boot my PC and nothing happened.

So I did not even boot the PC when it happened, I only activated the Power to the PSU. Not sure if that could be a MB problem, especially considering my MB ran perfectly fine with 30°C idle for 2 weeks every day before that happened. So I am really hoping the problem is the PSU and not the MB. Not that I couldn't have the MB replaced, but it would mean dismantling my whole PC AGAIN and sending the MB back, getting a replacement, etc.

 

[SouthJew]

MId range comp for Witcher 3 Questions

Ive been a Witcher fan since a couple months after The Wither 2 came out. Ive played that game over too many times to count. I don't have an amazing computer at all at the moment and know there is no possible way my little i3 Inspiron laptop will touch sides with Witcher 3.

Im looking at buying or building (never build a PC in my life but i heard its cheaper) to run the Witcher 3. I know this game is supper hyped about the graphics and everything ULTRA UBER OMG. I don't care too much about graphics, just the amazing game play that i know comes with the title.

I'd be happy with medium graphics and running the game at 30fps.

Any guidance on where i can get parts or PC would be amazing!

SouthJew

 

[volsung]

Ive been a Witcher fan since a couple months after The Wither 2 came out. Ive played that game over too many times to count. I don't have an amazing computer at all at the moment and know there is no possible way my little i3 Inspiron laptop will touch sides with Witcher 3.

Im looking at buying or building (never build a PC in my life but i heard its cheaper) to run the Witcher 3. I know this game is supper hyped about the graphics and everything ULTRA UBER OMG. I don't care too much about graphics, just the amazing game play that i know comes with the title.

I'd be happy with medium graphics and running the game at 30fps.

Any guidance on where i can get parts or PC would be amazing!

SouthJew

Where to buy computer parts? That depends on where you live, of course.

In the US: Newegg, Amazon, Frys, TigerDirect are reputable.

In Europe I've heard good things about Alternate, which has storefronts for several countries.

As far as a PC setup goes, a mid range system would look something like: Intel i5 4690, 8 GB RAM, 1-2 TB Hdd, GTX 960. It should last for some time.

 

[M4xw0lf]

Yay, my new (second hand, really) PC has arrived - Witchering commences! :victory:

 

[GuyNwah]

Ive been a Witcher fan since a couple months after The Wither 2 came out. Ive played that game over too many times to count. I don't have an amazing computer at all at the moment and know there is no possible way my little i3 Inspiron laptop will touch sides with Witcher 3.

Im looking at buying or building (never build a PC in my life but i heard its cheaper) to run the Witcher 3. I know this game is supper hyped about the graphics and everything ULTRA UBER OMG. I don't care too much about graphics, just the amazing game play that i know comes with the title.

I'd be happy with medium graphics and running the game at 30fps.

Any guidance on where i can get parts or PC would be amazing!

SouthJew

It depends on your budget, but if your needs are not in the Ultra category, you can meet them with something rather less costly than the Core i7/970/980 rigs that members are using.

The game is not CPU-bound, except on low-performance CPUs. Core i3 Sandy Bridge and up handles it well, as do AMD CPUs. The biggest stone-cold bargain in the CPU and motherboard market is still the Intel G3258 on a Z97 (preferably, because you can overclock that little guy to 4 GHz without even trying) or H97 motherboard. You can upgrade from this to higher performance Haswell or Broadwell CPUs without also replacing the motherboard.

What it needs is a substantial GPU. Not necessarily as substantial (and spendy) as the GTX 970 or 980. You want a modern GPU, and an nVidia GTX 960 or an AMD R9 280 is good enough. If cost is a big concern, you can go as low as a 750Ti or R9 270. I can't advise going below those.

You need a first or second class power supply, no need to go bigger than 550 watts, preferably a Seasonic-made (Seasonic, XFX, some Antecs, Corsairs, and CoolerMasters) or SuperFlower-made (EVGA, these are currently excellent bargains). The last four builds I made, I used 520 watt Seasonic M12II's and 430 watt EVGA SuperNovas.

Get 8GB of RAM, a first-class hard disk (WD Black or Red, or maybe HGST, damn shame Samsung left the HDD business), an SSD big enough to install the games you're currently playing, a DVD burner, a case to match your motherboard and keep the GPU from running into the hard disk cage, a Windows license, and you're good to go. You can assemble it all yourself if you're clever enough not to hurt yourself with a screwdriver.

 

[BlackWolf500.298]

@MyPcProblem => Done the test, PSU dead, not working. Ordered new one, build it in, everything seems to work fine. Plugging PC in the wall directly now, no power-strips anymore, hope to avoid future problems.

@SouthJew =>

I got:

Core i5 4690k 3,5 Ghz
MSI GTX970
2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
WD 1 TB Hard Drive
MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Mainboard
Thermaltake Chaser Mk-1 Case
Corsair CS850M PSU

I can run TW on a 1680x1050 monitor on (mostly) ultra settings with most post-processing on higher settings as well at 60FPS. TW3 is less demanding then I expected, which is a good thing I think. I take stable 60FPS over "better graphics" + 30 - 40 FPS any time.

Anyway,
if you have a budget I would recommend:

-> Intel Core i5 processor of the 4th or 3rd generation with 3,2Ghz or more
-> Nvidia Geforce GTX960 - if you want good cooling go with MSI, Gigabyte, Asus and the like, if those are too expensive go with other companies
-> Western Digital Hard Drive (Seriously, best HDDs I had so far) (Take the Blue or Black, not the Green (Green is more for office and similar applications, less for gaming and the like)
-> A standard Maiboard, don't need a "gaming" one. Just make sure it has the standards. 4xRAM slots for DDR3, Good audio, enough USB ports, enough Case fan connectors, maybe USB3.0, also look at the socket, current intel socket is 1150, look it has enough PCI-e slots for your onboard cards, and look it is ATX standard. Best companies are again MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, they got some budget boards as well so there should be enough choice
-> at least 6GB DDR3 RAM (take low level RAM if you want to save money, but look it's a good company, corsair, Kingston, Gskill) If you can, then take 8GB (best 2x4GB)
-> I'd also recommend a good CPU cooler, best company I know is BeQuiet, and they got some nice ones for a little price, Dark Rock series is nice
-> As for case, your choice, since the style is of course important, should though have enough space IMO, a backpannel for the cables if possible, and at least 2 fans, if not 3. If you want take a Big Tower, which is more expensive, if you need to budget go with a Midi-Tower but look for one which is described as "rather big" and "got enough room" in the reviews. Also dust filters never hurt.
-> As for the PSU, no idea man. I got recommended Enermax, but the one I bought was dead after 2 weeks, could be a coincidence though. Other companies I heard were good are Seasonic, Arctic Cooling and Corsair. Take one that has enough juice though. I took a 850W, but only because all 750W ones I liked were not available. So for you, if you have a budget PC, I'd say around 550 - 650W. Gives you some room to "extend" if you want to install and additional fan or HDD later on. But look that you get at least a Tier2 PSU, meaning it should have a 80+ Gold Efficiency seal or above (platinum or titanium), because that means more high quality components and a higher power output efficiency (bronze have 85% I think, gold have 92%, and so on). Means the more "efficient" your PSU is the less power it has to draw from the source to get the needed power into your PC. (at least that is how it has been explained to me).

Good luck.
Whatever you do though, don't over-save on the PSU (or any other part for that matter). It might seem like a good idea, but it came to bite me in the ass, even if all I had in the end was bad luck. Just don't over-save on one of the components only to compensate for the expensive other ones, is all I'm saying.

You can assemble it all yourself if you're clever enough not to hurt yourself with a screwdriver.

Prepare for SOME trying around though, and for a faulty hardware part in your final build (just saying it CAN happen, doesn't have to). Help is usually found fast and the faulty part can be identified after some research and testing, so no problem there. Just saying don't expect it to be all done without a sweat. If you are lucky enough though, and you keep cool if not everything works perfectly fine at first, in the end you'll get a pretty solid build for less money than you would have to pay if you would have bought the PC anywhere as complete package (and probably also longer lasting in the end). Also, once you did it you got some expertise in the field. Will become easier each time from that moment on.

 

[GuyNwah]

In WD hard drives, the order of quality is Enterprise > Black > Red > Blue > Green (Purple is specialized for video recording). Get Black or Red if you can (the difference is in warranty, not mechanical), Blue if you are on a budget, avoid Green like the Catriona plague.

Power supplies, you simply do not need more than 550W unless you are running high-power hardware, which none of the above is even close to.

In motherboards, ASRock is a second label of ASUS, and sometimes ASRock boards will have more attractive features. Buy a motherboard according to whether it has features you need. Also, most ASUS and ASRock boards use Intel NICs (while MSI and Gigabyte don't), and if you are wired to your network (as opposed to wireless), these are much better than Realtek or Qualcomm/Atheros NICs. (A crummy NIC will burden your CPU more heavily when the network is in use.)

 

[M4xw0lf]

Great, just great - the crucial m4 SSD has disappeared from the BIOS. Sudden death.
Now I'm turning to necromancy....

 

[dixxn]

Okay, so here's a little bit more question, as I already mentioned in this thread before, I've recently built a rig. A i5 4690, MSI GTX 970 Armor, 8GB (2x4) ram. My current settings are Ultra without Chromatic Abbheration, Nvidia Hairworks, Motion Blur, and I forgot the last option on the "Graphic" setting. I'm playing at a 1600x900 resolution (my max monitor's resolution). Now the question is : I feel a little bit of lagging here and there, I could not tell too many differences between Nvidia Hairworks on or off, performance wise, but I prefer to have that options off. And that leads to me to consider adding 4GB ram (2x2). Is that going to help boost the performance? I've read from some other forums that it'll help, and then there're some others who said that it's not going to make any difference, and if it is, it's going to be unnoticeable. What do you guys think?

And while I'm at it, my gpu temp is about 78 degrees at full load when I play TW3, is it an okay temp for MSI GTX 970 Armor?

Thank you very much for your help

 

[Wolfsblvt]

Im am not the best one for hardware related questions, so maybe you wait for more detailed answers,
but I wanted to drop quickly what I know, so that you get the first answer.

8GB RAM is quite fine for The Witcher 3. Nothing more needed there, and I don't think it would make any noticable difference. Only situation where it could help would be when you are running many RAM-consuming tasks or programs in the background.
On a sitenote, it is not advisable to add different sizes of RAM in your PC. So in addition to your two 4GB RAM, you should add another 4GB one, if you really want to do that.

Temps with 78 degrees sounds okay for a graphics card, no problem there.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

78°C is fine: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-970/specifications

Thermal and Power Specs > Maximum GPU Tempurature: 98°C.

 

[dixxn]

Hey Wolfsblvt, thank you very much for your kind response, truly appreciate it. And just another short question, if I were to replace my OS and program drives to an SSD, is it going to make any difference in performance? I'm currently using a WD Caviar Blue, and just considering adding a 256GB SSD dedicated for programs in the future, if it is going to make a significant difference in performance, of course

And thank you very much Gilrond for the info, it seems that it's still quite far from the max, quite relieved

 

[M4xw0lf]

Hey Wolfsblvt, thank you very much for your kind response, truly appreciate it. And just another short question, if I were to replace my OS and program drives to an SSD, is it going to make any difference in performance? I'm currently using a WD Caviar Blue, and just considering adding a 256GB SSD dedicated for programs in the future, if it is going to make a significant difference in performance, of course

And thank you very much Gilrond for the info, it seems that it's still quite far from the max, quite relieved

Define performance. It will feel A LOT more responsive, since program starts, opening folders, searching files and the like are done almost instantly. The actual performance in a game for example is not affected, in most cases (except for starting the game and loading a save).
Everyone should have a SSD nowadays, it simply feels great in everyday use

 

[dixxn]

Hey M4xw0lf, thank you for replying. I was hoping for in game performance, but if loading and starting is going to be better with SSD, that's an enough reason to upgrade. If I were to dedicate my SSD for programs, games and OS, but my data files are in a separated drive, is it still going to load the files faster or it works only if the data files are in the SSD also? I'm sorry if this seems like an off topic, I just don't want to start a new thread just for it to be merged with this one...

 

[Aaden]

Files that are stored on a regular HDD will not be loaded any faster, but program startup and responsiveness will be better, anyways, if the program that loads the files is installed on the SSD. Basically, Everything that is stored on the SSD can be loaded faster, anything that is not, cannot.
About game performance: Especially games that use some kind of streaming technology (loading game files in the background, instead of a loading screen - usually open world games, but others too) will profit from a SSD. Depending on the whole setup and the specific game in question, short loading breaks or stutter due to loading new files might be reduced - that's during area transitions or world traversal, especially. So in some ways, you will probably gain some performance. But not in a common 10% more FPS sense, but rather in a smoother experience with less FPS drops in certain cases. But, imo, the reduced loading times alone are absolutely worth it - depending on the game it will sometimes save you a lot of idle loading times and frustration.

 

[dixxn]

Aaden, thank you very much for clearing that up, I'm positive to get myself a SSD later, my wallet still hurt pretty bad from upgrading. Thank you for your explanation, truly appreciate it

 

[volsung]

So it just makes sense to have a decently sized SSD as a general program drive? I will need an OS drive in a few months when I buy a new computer and was going for a simple 1 TB WD Black (to pair with a 3 TB WD Black). Should I look for a 256 GB SSD instead?

 

[Aaden]

So it just makes sense to have a decently sized SSD as a general program drive? I will need an OS drive in a few months when I buy a new computer and was going for a simple 1 TB WD Black (to pair with a 3 TB WD Black). Should I look for a 256 GB SSD instead?

As a OS drive? Yes. 100%. Experience the super short boot times and general snappiness. Be prepared to curse profanely whenever you have to work with a PC without SSD, henceforth.
Depending on the amount of software you use, 256GB sounds about right - for a single OS system anyway. Allows you to install all frequently used programs plus a bunch of games you're currently playing.

 

[volsung]

As a OS drive? Yes. 100%. Experience the super short boot times and general snappiness. Be prepared to curse profanely whenever you have to work with a PC without SSD, henceforth.
Depending on the amount of software you use, 256GB sounds about right - for a single OS system anyway. Allows you to install all frequently used programs plus a bunch of games you're currently playing.

I would need a drive for dual booting and general applications. Is it a waste to have two OS's on an SSD? Sounds like a waste of expensive storage. I suppose I could always buy a smaller, regular HDD in the future.

Is a 500 GB SSD worth it cost/benefit wise?

 

[Aaden]

I would need a drive for dual booting and general applications. Is it a waste to have two OS's on an SSD? Sounds like a waste of expensive storage. I suppose I could always buy a smaller, regular HDD in the future.

Is a 500 GB SSD worth it cost/benefit wise?

Well, there's nothing inherently wrong with dual booting from a SSD. You'll just have to make some approximations beforehand whether the available space suits your needs and put some thought into partitioning. My first SSD was 120 GB for Win, applications and two or three currently played games and it felt very constrained, very quickly - and that was years ago, when games of 20+ GB were an exception, not a common sight. So a 120 : 120 split won't work well, in my opinion.

Depending on the amount of general applications you use, some other partinioning might work - 200 for your gaming OS and 50 for a Linux to do your work with or something like that. It MIGHT work, but definitely do some approximations of your needs first - if you have a lot of applications or like to play a whole bunch of games at once, or have some games you regularly play over a long time, like online games, that need to be installed besides your current games or tend to often play large games of 20+ GB, it probably won't suffice or will feel a chore to keep tidy.
Be pessimistic with your approximations. You don't want to spend more time maintaining your disk and looking for bits to free up than you save by using a SSD in the first place.

If your approximations suggest that you'd do better with a 500 GB SSD and your budget allows it: Get it. Erase the thought that it's just a bit faster storage that is vastly more expensive. It's not, imo. SSD and HDD are too very different entities, as I see it, each serving their own purpose in the memory hierarchy of a modern PC.

What I strongly advice against is putting one OS on a regular HDD. I did that when I got my first SSD: Windows on the SSD and Ubuntu for university stuff and to work with on the HDD because it's quite fast to begin with and how bad can loading some general application be anyways, right? Nope. It was slow and unresponsive enough that I soon after stopped using it altogether and looked for alternatives for Windows of the tools I needed.