PC Build Advice/Review Thread

[Don Katsu]

I went from a 4850 to 7870XT I am fine with my gaming performance for now. My desktop runs a little slow here there in regular OS tasks and Firefox etc.... so SSD it is

[nomz]

Best monitor for ~200?
Should I bother getting something with a display port or just stick to dvi? Using a HD 7870 if that makes a difference.

[Don Katsu]

GTX 560ti for $90. Is it worth it at this price? I know its last generation. This is for a friends new build BTW.

[Dryr]

GTX 560ti for $90. Is it worth it at this price? I know its last generation. This is for a friends new build BTW.

I looked into this one too (slickdeals). I got a Dell 8500 tower with 16gb ram and an i7 3770 during the sale last week for $430. Unfortunately, it came with a gt 420 vid card. I decided against this and got the $200 7870 Tahiti LE instead. Plus, it comes with game codes to Tomb Raider and Bioshock Inf. that can be sold to make it even cheaper.

[Krandor]

Best monitor for ~200?
Should I bother getting something with a display port or just stick to dvi? Using a HD 7870 if that makes a difference.

Probably looking at the ASUS VH236H. It's normal retail price is around 220ish, but I'm sure you can find a deal if you're patient.

[Don Katsu]

Probably looking at the ASUS VH236H. It's normal retail price is around 220ish, but I'm sure you can find a deal if you're patient.

I got the ASUS VH238H for $167 tax included. I would recommend you get it from a place that is not newegg. Their dead pixel policy is stupid.

[Oreth]

What is the Dell monitor that I see people highly rate on here?

[Deadgye]

The U2410/U2412m are great IPS monitors if you're looking at 16:10 24". I don't know anything about 16:9 or 27"+ monitors though.

[Oreth]

The U2410/U2412m are great IPS monitors if you're looking at 16:10 24". I don't know anything about 16:9 or 27"+ monitors though.

Thanks

[Correction]

I have this motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131701

My graphics card might have been damaged by heat. What's the best thing I can upgrade to? Just another 580?

[Jojimbo]

PCI-E is backward/forwards compatible, 3.0 cards will work in 2.0 slots just at 2.0 speeds. GTX 580s are pretty expensive for the performance they offer now, HD 7950/660Ti for $<300, HD 7970/670 for $<400.

[Hyuudo]

I'd try to search the thread for this, but I have no idea what search terms would turn up a result. This is related to a post a few posts back I think, but...
Let's say there's an i5, ~3.5 GHz, 8GB RAM desktop for, I don't know, $500. How often is it a good idea to buy something (relatively) cheap like that, then just pop in a beefy GPU to save some money? This is assuming the rest of the PC can cope with a higher-end GPU (not talking a 690, probably a 660 or something), in terms of the PSU, etc? Or does this usually end up being a bad idea?

My contribution to the thread (assuming no one knows about this already): easy way to rate GPUs.
Google whatever it is (let's say Radeon HD 7950) and "futuremark." So, in this case "7950 futuremark."
Futuremark has a rating system that lets you easily index the strength of a GPU, and even has a page that assesses their cost/performance value.

I found out about this when my buddy got a laptop and it had an AMD Radeon HD 6620G. It got a 2050 on Futuremark, and it can play XIV 1.0 on Medium at about an 8/10 and Skyrim on high at about the same 8/10. I use that for a reference.

Hope it helps.

[Jojimbo]

I'd try to search the thread for this, but I have no idea what search terms would turn up a result. This is related to a post a few posts back I think, but...
Let's say there's an i5, ~3.5 GHz, 8GB RAM desktop for, I don't know, $500. How often is it a good idea to buy something (relatively) cheap like that, then just pop in a beefy GPU to save some money? This is assuming the rest of the PC can cope with a higher-end GPU (not talking a 690, probably a 660 or something), in terms of the PSU, etc? Or does this usually end up being a bad idea?

My contribution to the thread (assuming no one knows about this already): easy way to rate GPUs.
Google whatever it is (let's say Radeon HD 7950) and "futuremark." So, in this case "7950 futuremark."
Futuremark has a rating system that lets you easily index the strength of a GPU, and even has a page that assesses their cost/performance value.

I found out about this when my buddy got a laptop and it had an AMD Radeon HD 6620G. It got a 2050 on Futuremark, and it can play XIV 1.0 on Medium at about an 8/10 and Skyrim on high at about the same 8/10. I use that for a reference.

Hope it helps.

Pre-builts will be using the cheapest possible parts and often in a stupid combination (like 3rd gen iCore -K CPU with H61 MB so you can't OC it anyway) and will only be cheaper than building yourself during major sales (assuming components aren't on sale as well).

And reviews are much better at comparing GPUs, instead of a meaningless number (wtf is "8/10") you get actual FPS results from multiple games for given resolutions, however it's typically well know how current gen GPUs compare and what's the best at any given price range, passmark type sites are only good as a last resort for comparing much older or lower power GPUs that don't have benchmarks.

[Krandor]

For notebooks I always used - http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-...ist.844.0.html

Desktops a usually alot easier to gauge, since the numbering scheme makes more sense. But http://gpuboss.com/ started up recently and is a good resource for figuring out price/performance.

[Hyuudo]

Pre-built advice + GPU rating advice

I should've mentioned that I'm by no means a PC building wiz (thought that would've been assumed by my coming to the thread, lol). No idea what -K or H61 MB mean, for example. And I doubt I'd ever OC as I'm far too paranoid that I'd mess something up.

As for GPU ratings, I didn't mean to pass off the Futuremark thing as an end-all be-all, only as a quick, use-it-if-you-really-need-to guide. (And the "8/10" thing was just a judgment as to how well the two named games looked/played as a subjective judgment, sorry. lol)

Long story short, don't bother with a pre-built, devil's in the details?

Edit: Thanks Jojimbo (and Krandor for the reference site).

[Krandor]

It's not hard to build a PC, the most involved part is choosing the the parts and getting your build plan in order. The only technically involved process for most builds (i.e. more then just plugging things in and screwing stuff down) is applying thermal paste, and that's only if you don't want to use the stuff that's always gonna be pre-applied.

[Gulkeeva]

GPU rankings, i tend to look for benchmarks of FPS in games because for me FPS means more to me then some random number off a program I will never probably use. Knowing I get a score of 10,000 on futuremark won't make me decide to buy a video card as much as knowing it can do a steady 82FPS at 2560x1440 on ultra settings in battlefield 3 for instance.

anyway, looking to upgrade my PC myself, considering haswell is an overall boost to graphics end and not really a CPU performance boost, so goin for a 3770K. Also, considering the stalemate of AMD vs Nvidia and many talks of neither really coming out with anything in 2013, I'm on the edge of getting a 680 or a titan with tax returns. I rather not go dual video card for several reasons.

1. A lot of games do not support dual video card (I play mainly MMO's so)
2. You need to play fullscreen usually to take advantage of dual video card (I am almsot always in window mode)
3. Its pretty much future proof till like 2016ish looking at nvidia's roadmap.

I was going to wait for the 700 series but apparently, thats been pushed back because ati pushed back its 8000 series, no need for nvidia to put anything out as they dominate... and I want to get something that can eat up ffxiv at 2560x1440 res max settings when it is released O_o

[Adajer]

I am an Nvidia fanboy, but I am fearful that AMD gpus are going to be dominant soon. With all these AMD Gaming Evolved games coming out and all consoles running purely on AMD processing, it seems like AMD is going to be taking a serious attempt at the crown of best manufacturer. I hope Nvidia puts some serious funds into their R&D and especially driver developement. They need to team up with more devs as well, not enough Nvidia branded games as of late. BL2 is the most recent that comes to mind and it is only a DX9 game. Tomb Raider is one of the best looking games I have ever seen.

I ordered my 2560x1440 monitor today. I was going to get another 670 to SLI, but I think I will wait for next gen.

[Gulkeeva]

I am an Nvidia fanboy, but I am fearful that AMD gpus are going to be dominant soon. With all these AMD Gaming Evolved games coming out and all consoles running purely on AMD processing, it seems like AMD is going to be taking a serious attempt at the crown of best manufacturer. I hope Nvidia puts some serious funds into their R&D and especially driver developement. They need to team up with more devs as well, not enough Nvidia branded games as of late. BL2 is the most recent that comes to mind and it is only a DX9 game. Tomb Raider is one of the best looking games I have ever seen.

I ordered my 2560x1440 monitor today. I was going to get another 670 to SLI, but I think I will wait for next gen.

I was planning to wait but...!
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news...ons-shown.aspx

The way its looking is the next thing out will be the slightly weaker titan (this or next month?), and probably nearly at the end of this year the 700 series as they really have no reason to rush considering AMD is already holding back the 8000 series till Q4. So expect the 700 series to compete with the 8000's in Q4. We won't be seeing the "real" next gen stuff till mid/late 2014. Only refresh of 600 nvidia's (the 700's) and whatever amd is tossing out to match.

That being said, the 700 series is expected to be 10-15% better then the 600 series, but it most definitely won't be beating the titan , but its possible it could be near the gimp titan speeds (depends on how fast it will be).
Maxwell in 2014 will be the "next big thing" to be released. I'm thinking I will just get a 680 for now, then jump on maxwell when it comes out since its not too far away, maxwell will probably be called something like Titan II or something haha

[Takiwaki]

Is there a reason you will get a 680 over 7970?