PC Build Advice/Review Thread

[Kalmado]

After much (read: 5 minutes) discussion in chat. I went with a 750Ti for now. I'll pick up a 980 or something over Christmas to compliment my new build.

Just to throw it out there, I really can't see buying a 980 over a 290x if at 1080p (both are overkill) or 1440p due to at this moment I'm typing this pcpartpicker.com lists the cheapest 290x being $260 and the cheapest 980 being $481. And earlier today, while it was probably a price mistake and/or orders may get cancelled, the 390 was for sale for $248.

I personally think the 960 is trash unless it's sub $160. Otherwise, the R9 280 is a clear winner as it's constantly on sale for $150 after rebate. I'm not for team red or team green. I'm for team wallet so wherever the best price for performance is where my money is going.

[Zetanio]

Just to throw it out there, I really can't see buying a 980 over a 290x if at 1080p (both are overkill) or 1440p due to at this moment I'm typing this pcpartpicker.com lists the cheapest 290x being $260 and the cheapest 980 being $481. And earlier today, while it was probably a price mistake and/or orders may get cancelled, the 390 was for sale for $248.

I personally think the 960 is trash unless it's sub $160. Otherwise, the R9 280 is a clear winner as it's constantly on sale for $150 after rebate. I'm not for team red or team green. I'm for team wallet so wherever the best price for performance is where my money is going.

I'm expecting a pretty big nVidia price drop soonish but if they don't drop it I'll end up jumping to the dark side for my next upgrade. I'll probably need to swap cases next. Need better cooling that this thing offers.

[Zetanio]

This card is tiny and ice cold. I like it.

[Gredival]

So I'm looking into a new laptop, and I'm not at all up to date with hardware. Got my last laptop 5 years ago, and while my desktop is even older. I have two questions:

1. What's the general consensus on the value of Skylake over Broadwell/Haswell? With the new chips shipping soon, I'm expecting older models to hit bargain prices as they try clear the shelves. How much off should I be look for between comparable systems where the only difference is Skylake vs. Broadwell/Haswell? In other words, how would you pay to have Skylake architecture?

2. What advantages are offered by laptops with PCI-e SSDs vs. regular SATA? I know that PCI-e is faster, but does the difference actually mean a noticeable quality of life improvement? I have a spare Samsung EVO set aside for this so that I don't have to order an SSD with the machine, but I'm not opposed to flipping it and ordering a PCI-e SSD in the machine if there's real value to be had.

[Tymon]

I typically keep myself abreast of stuff like this, but I recently fell behind on my hardware news.

I'm doing my 5-year upgrade and I really don't need to get a new machine until Dark Souls 3 in April.

So my question is whether there is any new stuff coming out between now and April that would make it advantageous for me to wait until then?

I have absolutely no qualms with waiting but if there isn't anything special between now and then I will take advantage of whatever winter deals there are and get it now.

[Adajer]

Pascal nvidia gpus and maybe 7th gen intel

[Zetanio]

Pascal nvidia gpus and maybe 7th gen intel

Pascal is worth waiting for if you're 5 years behind the curve. I'm waiting for that. Gonna do the whole DDR4 and mobo/cpu shebang after everything comes out.

[Ragnus]

With Microsoft heading into forcing Windows 10 onto everyone, I'm looking to dual boot my PC to run Linux when I'm not gaming on Windows 7. My SSD is kinda small, and I have a capacity drive. The only thing I was wondering was how a dual boot would affect the capacity drive? Do I have to partition that off also?

[Bardicrune]

With Microsoft heading into forcing Windows 10 onto everyone, I'm looking to dual boot my PC to run Linux when I'm not gaming on Windows 7. My SSD is kinda small, and I have a capacity drive. The only thing I was wondering was how a dual boot would affect the capacity drive? Do I have to partition that off also?

Yes, in a dual-boot scenario, there must be a new partition created for the linux OS.

[Ragnus]

Sorry, poor phrasing.

I'm placing the partition on my C Drive was was wondering if Linux would be able to read the capacity drive like windows can now

[notorious bum]

I run a program/batch command called "Block Windows" (I think I ran across it in an anonymous tweet), after updating Windows, which deletes and disables updates that violate privacy and force the W10 DL.

[Siatdiat]

Has anyone had trouble with using standard cpu heatsinks/coolers with mini-ITX boards? I have been having trouble getting the mobo I want in ATX, but a multitude of choices in mini-ITX. I have planned out everything for the most part, but if the cpu fan blocks anything on mini-ITX I will be screwed.

[Kalmado]

Has anyone had trouble with using standard cpu heatsinks/coolers with mini-ITX boards? I have been having trouble getting the mobo I want in ATX, but a multitude of choices in mini-ITX. I have planned out everything for the most part, but if the cpu fan blocks anything on mini-ITX I will be screwed.

I would suggest going to pcpartpicker.com and browse the motherboards you have looked at. When clicking on the product page you should see a "completed builds" list on the bottom left. From there browse the list and check out what cpu coolers people have used. I hope this helps.

[Adajer]

noctua has compatibility charts for all its products for mobo pci clearance and ram clearance. I can't speak for other manufacturers.

[Krandor]

For those caring about these kind of things, recent driver updates have brought the Fury X up to the same level of performance as the 980ti.

The 980ti offers higher max performance via overclocking (which is almost impossible on the Fury X), but AMDs comes cheaper and with the smaller form factor.

[Purrrfect]

I'd be happy if the amd drivers would just stop losing the displayport connection and fucking my resolution up when it puts my monitor to sleep.

[notorious bum]

I've never had a game crash on this new R9 380 card, after probably 70+ hours, so far, but I've had it crash and recover nearly a dozen times on Firefox. It seems like flash hams it up, then I gotta restart the browser because none of the interface buttons work. The fatal errors I was having during my first week must have something to do with going into a low-power mode, although I already had those deep sleep states disabled in the bios. Overall, I feel lucky to have such minor issues as my game performance has met my expectations and then some.

[Zetanio]

I've never had a game crash on this new R9 380 card, after probably 70+ hours, so far, but I've had it crash and recover nearly a dozen times on Firefox. It seems like flash hams it up, then I gotta restart the browser because none of the interface buttons work. The fatal errors I was having during my first week must have something to do with going into a low-power mode, although I already had those deep sleep states disabled in the bios. Overall, I feel lucky to have such minor issues as my game performance has met my expectations and then some.

Firefox has been destroying my Explorer on a fairly regular basis because of Flash. Causes me to have to hard reset.

[Zetanio]

Is this a good gaming monitor?

We have one of these sitting around the office.

[Krandor]

Maybe? Most LG 27 inches displays are very good. That specific model isn't up on Displaylag though

http://www.displaylag.com/display-database/