PC Build Advice/Review Thread

[Krandor]

Nvidia rules the high end position at this point, but in most other price points AMD offers more bang for your buck.

Gameworks bullshit notwithstanding anyways

[Moridam]

i pieced together a mid-level build back in june ($1300 budget and building from scratch, so that included monitor/case/PSU/KBM/desk etc.) with an Asus GTX970 strix, if you're aiming for 1080P it can handle pretty much anything currently on the market without issue. i paid $320 so it's not super cheap, but it's a highly capable card and pumps out drastically less noise than even my old laptop's CPU fan. pretty sure it comes in way under anything comparable from AMD as far as power consumption is concerned as well.

[Corrderio]

970s look to be around in my price range, but before I start on this. ANyone have a good article on building a machine. Been 5+ years since I've last done this and I forgot a good chunk of it.

[DrClout]

The project I'm working on now is coming together nicely but it's come to a screeching halt when it came time to decide cases and cooling needs. Coming from a Dell XPS chassis I know first hand the importance of choosing a functional case over cool looking. I actually started building the project around the GTX950 FTW edition as it fit my price point for a GPU with 1080p gaming.

[DrClout]

970s look to be around in my price range, but before I start on this. ANyone have a good article on building a machine. Been 5+ years since I've last done this and I forgot a good chunk of it.

I'd say look around YouTube for an easier and definitely more up-to-date look on building. I'd recommend looking through Awesomesauce Network and Paul's Hardware as they build all range of things, review all peripherals and genuine and knowledgeable.

[Mojo]

FFXIV requires the most by far. So if you have/want to budget; need to pick resolution, if you want max graphics, or beyond for other games.

Up to four instances of FFXI running at 1280x1080. Other games at 2560 x 1440

[Greatguardian]

I swear there used to be a random tech question tread somewhere around here, but I don't see it in the stickies and I'd rather not raise it from the dead if it's not on the front page. Since this is tangentially related to PC building, I guess I'll ask it here.

So, I'm looking to replace my old 60GB OS SSD with a new 250GB SSD (also for the OS, and maybe 1-2 games where I want the read speed). I have heard that it should be possible to just clone the old SSD onto the new one to get the extra space and skip having to reinstall everything, but most of the tutorials I've seen online for doing this manually/free are a bit more technical than I feel comfortable doing on my main PC with my current skill set.

Some forums have recommended this for cloning with just a couple clicks. Does anyone have any experience with this program? Are there any others you might recommend in a similar/cheaper price range or anything I should generally be watching out for in this process?

Thanks

[Niya]

Corr, the 970 might look promising, but thanks to the memory disaster (of the 4GB RAM only 3.5 are directly attached to the GPU, if any game wants to use the full 4GB you get horrid frame drops because the last .5GB are attached way slower) many avoid it.
That sadly creates quite the gap between the 960 and 980 (in performance and price).

guardian, have you looked into Clonezilla? Completely free, and while it might not be as fancy as Acronis or Paragon it still gets the job done. The menus are text based but should be easy enough to understand, and even if not there are more than enough how-to videos on YT (like this one). And since your SSDs are so different in size you can easily keep them apart even if you don't understand the sda/sdb etc system of linux.

[Greatguardian]

guardian, have you looked into Clonezilla? Completely free, and while it might not be as fancy as Acronis or Paragon it still gets the job done. The menus are text based but should be easy enough to understand, and even if not there are more than enough how-to videos on YT (like this one). And since your SSDs are so different in size you can easily keep them apart even if you don't understand the sda/sdb etc system of linux.

This looks right up my alley. Thanks!

[Mojo]

Looking for some feedback. Looking to run up to to four instances of FFXI at 1280x1080 and other games at 2560x1440. This is the build I came up with, seems like it costs too much >_>

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/pXVWHx

[Kalmado]

Looking for some feedback. Looking to run up to to four instances of FFXI at 1280x1080 and other games at 2560x1440. This is the build I came up with, seems like it costs too much >_>

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/pXVWHx

Small tweaks to save money. I7 isn't needed and this will be plenty for 1440p. The change of the ssd and ram will probably have zero real world consequence. Only question is, is that little of storage enough? Or are you using externals?

Spoiler: show

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($279.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H55 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($134.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($84.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($87.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 390 8GB Nitro Video Card ($325.98 @ Newegg)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (White) Mini ITX Tower Case ($78.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1152.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-27 08:09 EST-0500

You can save more money by shopping some parts at jet.com and using multiple accounts/cards and using their 20% promo code for new customers. I'd actually consider this R9 390x hybrid since you're looking at an ITX build. Here is the Newegg page. With the promo code and turning down returns it would be $376.90. Take another 1.5% off when using a debit card.

[Mojo]

Alright. The reason I went with i7 is for FFXI. I've heard it's very CPU bound although I don't known if this is true or not and I plan on running up to 4 instances of it, possibly even more. I've never actually been able to get the game to run well on any platform.

[Krandor]

Even if it's cpu dependent it's also 50 million years old and talks zero advantage of the differences an i7 would offer over an i5

[Adajer]

hey kalmado. do you know anything about the failure rate/life span of those AIO cpu liquid coolers? I have been kinda skeptic to get one out of fear of the pump dying on me or something.

[Krandor]

As long as it's from a trusted brand I wouldn't worry about it at all. They should last longer then whatever life cycle you're expecting from your CPU.

[Kalmado]

About running XI, I used to run three instances on a HP Pavilion quad core from 2009 with an AMD 4830 with 512mb vram. While not good by any stretch, if that turd could do it an Intel I5 will be just fine. Also, I chose an AIO cooler for your build to save room and have it be a little neater. I agree with Krandor that as long as it's trusted and you keep an eye on it, it will be fine. I've had to RMA two Corsair H60s due to pump failure. Common problem with that one (I should've researched more before buying). I've read that the Cooler Master Nepton series is actually quite good, but the plus to buying a Corsair H55 is if you want to use it to cool a gpu using a NZXT Kraken G10 or Corsair's bracket you can do that too. I'll be doing that once I get back my Asus R9 290x from RMA most likely.

[Krandor]

Nepton is quite nice. Before I sold the computer to a coworker I was using it in my most recent desktop build. The fans aren't quite as amazing as the advertisements would have you believe, but it's all around an amazing cooler.

[Mojo]

Even if it's cpu dependent it's also 50 million years old and talks zero advantage of the differences an i7 would offer over an i5

For running a single instance I would certainly agree. For multiboxing, why do you think this is the case?

[Adajer]

no games utilize hyperthreading iirc

[Krandor]

XI would have absolutely zero idea what do to with hyperthreading. Considering alot of modern games don't make use of it, a game as old as XI damn sure wouldn't benefit from it.