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[Computer Build Thread] - Haswell? More like Has...damnit, I had something for this...
I'm about to buy the memory. I'm going with the corsair vengeance pro like @chrishallett83 recommended but I'm not sure if I should go with the 8 gig Red series or the 16 gig? I feel like the 16 gig is the better investment?
Am I hilariously off the mark?
This is the exact RAM I currently have in my system. It's great! I really don't actually need 16 gigs, but hey, I went a little overboard when I built this thing.
Yeah, I'm using up 9 gigs just with Chrome and Spotify and whatnot.
If you're using windows 7 or 8 though, the RAM usage is a little misleading. Basically windows will put as much shit as it can think of into your RAM until it's decently full or it runs out of things to put in there. So it can take up a lot of space without really needing it. It will of course scale back as soon as other programs start requesting more RAM, but it tends to make it look like you're constantly using more RAM then you actually need.
This is only somewhat correct. Windows will fill ALL of your ram with stuff it thinks it might need in the future, but that stuff isn't reported as used in the psychical memory usage percentage in task manager. (It is reported in the 'cached' stat in the more detailed breakdown.) If your physical usage says 9 gigs, it's actually using 9 gigs. If you have lots of excess ram, you will see slightly inflated usage values though, as windows won't reclaim unused-but-allocated memory held by processes that are still running until you start running low on ram.
My little old 80GB SSD that could from my 2010 build is requiring routine deletions/uninstalling to keep from overflowing. So I decided to be a good consumer and upgrade to something bigger that maybe could even hold (a well-pruned) Steam.
Box arrives, it's shiny and happy, and I carve out some time to focus on this. But getting ready I can't find my copy of Windows 7!
Now some of you might say, well, download it or put a soft copy onto a DVD or flash drive or, you know, hack the mainframes and hoist the gigahertz and do other techno-wizardry to solve this 'problem.' But you would be wrong. This (first world) crisis has only one resolution:
Order a copy of Windows 8.1, an i5-4440 and Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3 motherboard.
The CPU is backordered from Amazon, so I won't actually take the plunge until February but I'm equal parts excited and terrified. My AMD Phenom II 955 Black has been a champ these past 3.5 years. With occasional video card upgrades, it's handled everything I've thrown at it like a boss. Maybe I'll set it afloat on a burning rowboat and send it to CPU Valhalla...
It lives! Parts arrived early. I spent yesterday with my head in the computer (I knew there would be dust but hoooo - I really let things go.) After a moment of panic with initial beeping/not starting/oh god what have I done, resetting all power connections got me moving forward and on to my glorious new CPU/mobo/SSD existence. Productivity software installed! Steam moved successfully* to the new hard drive! Account created for wife! Windows 8 is a horrifying mess to navigate for a change-averse person such as myself! Woo-hoo!
What is Windows Smartscreen and do I want it on? It keeps telling me the world will end if I don't enable it, but it doesn't sound like something I need on top of Windows Defender and Malwarebytes?
* Steam actually kept throwing an error saying it didn't want to start in compatibility mode. Except it wasn't in compatibility mode. I double triple checked. Seems like other folks have gotten this error and the established fix is a handful of registry edits. All of those were for XP or Windows 7 and I had zero desire to fuck around with my fresh install's registry. So I just turned Windows 7 compatibility on and clicked through the errors. So far so good.
Have any of you guys had luck with mini-itx cases? I'm specifically looking for a good review of a slim PSU. I'd like to build a mid-level media pc that can sub in as a light gaming rig. I'm thinking the Node 304 Mini-ITX case with a Sapphire Radeon 7870 and normal clock i5 (whatever the 3.4ghz model is).
All the reviews I've seen state that the case can handle the card length + a full sized/atx psu, but iirc, the last EVGA PSU I bought felt really bulky, and it had a ton of extra cabling bound in that heavy plastic mesh sheathing that really bloated the cable bundle. I'm a little worried that between that, the size of the psu itself, and the giant plastic fan/heatsink jumble you get stock with the i series chips, it might be a little tight in there.
Anyone have any PSU recs that you've slotted in smaller builds? I only need 500W max.
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toloveistorebel Impressive. Most impressive. Central FLRegistered Userregular
Have any of you guys had luck with mini-itx cases? I'm specifically looking for a good review of a slim PSU. I'd like to build a mid-level media pc that can sub in as a light gaming rig. I'm thinking the Node 304 Mini-ITX case with a Sapphire Radeon 7870 and normal clock i5 (whatever the 3.4ghz model is).
All the reviews I've seen state that the case can handle the card length + a full sized/atx psu, but iirc, the last EVGA PSU I bought felt really bulky, and it had a ton of extra cabling bound in that heavy plastic mesh sheathing that really bloated the cable bundle. I'm a little worried that between that, the size of the psu itself, and the giant plastic fan/heatsink jumble you get stock with the i series chips, it might be a little tight in there.
Anyone have any PSU recs that you've slotted in smaller builds? I only need 500W max.
Sliverstone makes a good little SFX 450W PSU. Its fully modular I believe. Over on overclock.net there is a thread for the "Compact Splash" case that some forum members built and manufactured. All of those guys use that PSU.
EDIT: But if you got a normal ATX PSU that is modular that would work fine in a Node 304 I would think.
Have any of you guys had luck with mini-itx cases? I'm specifically looking for a good review of a slim PSU. I'd like to build a mid-level media pc that can sub in as a light gaming rig. I'm thinking the Node 304 Mini-ITX case with a Sapphire Radeon 7870 and normal clock i5 (whatever the 3.4ghz model is).
All the reviews I've seen state that the case can handle the card length + a full sized/atx psu, but iirc, the last EVGA PSU I bought felt really bulky, and it had a ton of extra cabling bound in that heavy plastic mesh sheathing that really bloated the cable bundle. I'm a little worried that between that, the size of the psu itself, and the giant plastic fan/heatsink jumble you get stock with the i series chips, it might be a little tight in there.
Anyone have any PSU recs that you've slotted in smaller builds? I only need 500W max.
Sliverstone makes a good little SFX 450W PSU. Its fully modular I believe. Over on overclock.net there is a thread for the "Compact Splash" case that some forum members built and manufactured. All of those guys use that PSU.
EDIT: But if you got a normal ATX PSU that is modular that would work fine in a Node 304 I would think.
I'll check it out, thanks. If I recall, this chip + components + a 450 would actually be just fine powerwise, but I'll check out some modular PSUs as well!
I've sworn off Netgear. I've moved on to Asus, and I've been having better luck.
I've also been burned too many times by Netgear's hardware. I'm loving my Asus N56U. A friend sent me his N66U after he bought an AC66U to replace it. I just need the time to set the damn thing up.
Also, have you tried flashing on DD-WRT or Tomato firmware, to see if that fixes the issue?
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Just realized that my trial edition of 8.1 is about to expire in 4 days. Overnighting a real copy so I don't have any downtime at home.
Wouldn't it be cheaper/easier to just purchase it directly from Microsoft as a download/legitimate product key? My version of 8 sits on a thumb drive.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
edited January 2014
the trial is for enterprise edition, which I could only buy in volume licensing. For home products I do not believe you can just buy a key, but have to get the actual product.
Also, I'm on satellite so I'm capped at 10GB a month, and downloading an OS takes a decent chunk of that.
the trial is for enterprise edition, which I could only buy in volume licensing. For home products I do not believe you can just buy a key, but have to get the actual product.
Also, I'm on satellite so I'm capped at 10GB a month, and downloading an OS takes a decent chunk of that.
10GB a month? That's a crime. You do anything but read on the internet you'll blow through that.
So, lets assume I have a laptop with a 128 GB SSD. I desire to upgrade that. Would I be ok just cloning the drive onto a larger SSD with an external enclosure and expanding the partition? I know that's not recommended for HDD -> SSD but I've had a really hard time finding anyone talking about SSD -> SSD.
I suppose I could do a full reinstall, but if this would work it'd be much better.
So, lets assume I have a laptop with a 128 GB SSD. I desire to upgrade that. Would I be ok just cloning the drive onto a larger SSD with an external enclosure and expanding the partition? I know that's not recommended for HDD -> SSD but I've had a really hard time finding anyone talking about SSD -> SSD.
I suppose I could do a full reinstall, but if this would work it'd be much better.
that would work just fine, no problems if going from ssd->ssd.
the trial is for enterprise edition, which I could only buy in volume licensing. For home products I do not believe you can just buy a key, but have to get the actual product.
Also, I'm on satellite so I'm capped at 10GB a month, and downloading an OS takes a decent chunk of that.
10GB a month? That's a crime. You do anything but read on the internet you'll blow through that.
I do get unlimited data every night from midnight to 5am, its just staying up that damn late to download something. Sad thing is that its decently fast too, like 12-15mb/sec speeds.
Speaking of OS though, anybody recommend a good solid state drive for around $100-$120? I've used kingston before long ago and liked them, but I don't know whats good now. I'd prefer a 128GB drive.
Bah, never fails, rush ordered some components for a build I wanted to do over the weekend. Case came same day, but the parts, which were supposed to be shipped overnight (ordered at 10am the previous day) are still sitting at "initiating" on the fedex site. The estimate is for them to arrive in four hours even though the site still thinks they are on the other side of the country.
Welp, here's hoping the shipment status has just not been updated. It's shipping from TN, which isn't in Fedex's fuckup zone for the most recent winter storm, but I'm guessing it's going to fall victim to general bad luck. =P
Speaking of OS though, anybody recommend a good solid state drive for around $100-$120? I've used kingston before long ago and liked them, but I don't know whats good now. I'd prefer a 128GB drive.
Tom's Hardware likes the Samsung 840 Pro 128 GB. Samsung SSDs seem pretty well regarded here in the build thread.
the trial is for enterprise edition, which I could only buy in volume licensing. For home products I do not believe you can just buy a key, but have to get the actual product.
Also, I'm on satellite so I'm capped at 10GB a month, and downloading an OS takes a decent chunk of that.
10GB a month? That's a crime. You do anything but read on the internet you'll blow through that.
I do get unlimited data every night from midnight to 5am, its just staying up that damn late to download something. Sad thing is that its decently fast too, like 12-15mb/sec speeds.
Speaking of OS though, anybody recommend a good solid state drive for around $100-$120? I've used kingston before long ago and liked them, but I don't know whats good now. I'd prefer a 128GB drive.
I would either go down or up in price. The Crucial M500 240GB is $140 at Amazon, or the 120GB version is $77. Paying $100 for 128GB is too much, prices have come down a lot since then. 70 cents/GB or lower is where to go.
I'm picking up a new $1200ish CAD htpc/gaming machine in the next few months to replace my C2D that's bumping into minimum requirement issues. Picking out items from NCIXs top ten lists as a trial run led me to a few questions.
1. Is overclocking cost effective? The 4670K and 212 Evo is only $45 more than the stock version, but is it worth the $45?
2. For a single GPU box with a few drives, sound card, and bunch of USB accessories, is a motherboard with the Z78 chipset the appropriate one?
3. Is DDR3-1600 RAM picking just a matter of looking for any brand name and a sale or do the other numbers make some actual difference?
4. For SSDs, are there any controllers or brands to avoid at this point? I'm thinking of 500GB or so, depending on sale pricing.
I think that the internet has been for years on the path to creating what is essentially an electronic Necronomicon: A collection of blasphemous unrealities so perverse that to even glimpse at its contents, if but for a moment, is to irrevocably forfeit a portion of your sanity.
Xbox - PearlBlueS0ul, Steam
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
I would say that overclocking your cpu isn't worth it unless you enjoy fiddling with your system.
The Z series is only appropriate if you get the k series processor.
The other ram numbers do matter: for the latency, lower is better. Ram speeds aren't likely to be a bottleneck though, so you could go with something middle of the road. Getting a good brand is the most important part, because in my experience it's the most likely part to fail.
Everyone around here has been pushing the samsung SSDs I believe.
I would say that overclocking your cpu isn't worth it unless you enjoy fiddling with your system.
The Z series is only appropriate if you get the k series processor.
The other ram numbers do matter: for the latency, lower is better. Ram speeds aren't likely to be a bottleneck though, so you could go with something middle of the road. Getting a good brand is the most important part, because in my experience it's the most likely part to fail.
Everyone around here has been pushing the samsung SSDs I believe.
I generally agree with this, however it should be noted that if you do a ITX build, I believe the Z series is worth the extra cost. Largely because most of the Z87 boards seem to have a wifi module integrated with the board, that you don't have to buy separately.
Steam - Synthetic Violence | XBOX Live - Cannonfuse | PSN - CastleBravo | Twitch - SoggybiscuitPA
Posts
To me that sounds less like a regret, and more like a reason to get a bigger desk.
You're welcome everyone. I just ordered a 1TB 840 Evo yesterday, so this is clearly my doing.
That's true, I didn't mean to imply I'd stop using it. It was pretty nice having dual monitors in college...
I was just kind of shocked to realize how long it's lasted without any issues, and multiple opportunities where I could have upgraded
This is only somewhat correct. Windows will fill ALL of your ram with stuff it thinks it might need in the future, but that stuff isn't reported as used in the psychical memory usage percentage in task manager. (It is reported in the 'cached' stat in the more detailed breakdown.) If your physical usage says 9 gigs, it's actually using 9 gigs. If you have lots of excess ram, you will see slightly inflated usage values though, as windows won't reclaim unused-but-allocated memory held by processes that are still running until you start running low on ram.
Geforce Experience is pretty great. I haven't played with it a whole lot, but automatic driver upgrades was pretty swank.
It lives! Parts arrived early. I spent yesterday with my head in the computer (I knew there would be dust but hoooo - I really let things go.) After a moment of panic with initial beeping/not starting/oh god what have I done, resetting all power connections got me moving forward and on to my glorious new CPU/mobo/SSD existence. Productivity software installed! Steam moved successfully* to the new hard drive! Account created for wife! Windows 8 is a horrifying mess to navigate for a change-averse person such as myself! Woo-hoo!
What is Windows Smartscreen and do I want it on? It keeps telling me the world will end if I don't enable it, but it doesn't sound like something I need on top of Windows Defender and Malwarebytes?
* Steam actually kept throwing an error saying it didn't want to start in compatibility mode. Except it wasn't in compatibility mode. I double triple checked. Seems like other folks have gotten this error and the established fix is a handful of registry edits. All of those were for XP or Windows 7 and I had zero desire to fuck around with my fresh install's registry. So I just turned Windows 7 compatibility on and clicked through the errors. So far so good.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
All the reviews I've seen state that the case can handle the card length + a full sized/atx psu, but iirc, the last EVGA PSU I bought felt really bulky, and it had a ton of extra cabling bound in that heavy plastic mesh sheathing that really bloated the cable bundle. I'm a little worried that between that, the size of the psu itself, and the giant plastic fan/heatsink jumble you get stock with the i series chips, it might be a little tight in there.
Anyone have any PSU recs that you've slotted in smaller builds? I only need 500W max.
Sliverstone makes a good little SFX 450W PSU. Its fully modular I believe. Over on overclock.net there is a thread for the "Compact Splash" case that some forum members built and manufactured. All of those guys use that PSU.
EDIT: But if you got a normal ATX PSU that is modular that would work fine in a Node 304 I would think.
What's you guys's go-to home router? Does getting a dual-band one make a substantive difference?
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
I'll check it out, thanks. If I recall, this chip + components + a 450 would actually be just fine powerwise, but I'll check out some modular PSUs as well!
I like Netgear's equipment -- I'm on the (significantly) older model WNDR3700, but as much as I'm aware the new stuff is just as good and much faster.
I've also been burned too many times by Netgear's hardware. I'm loving my Asus N56U. A friend sent me his N66U after he bought an AC66U to replace it. I just need the time to set the damn thing up.
Also, have you tried flashing on DD-WRT or Tomato firmware, to see if that fixes the issue?
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Does that work in Windows 8? Not sure.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Also, I'm on satellite so I'm capped at 10GB a month, and downloading an OS takes a decent chunk of that.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
10GB a month? That's a crime. You do anything but read on the internet you'll blow through that.
I could upgrade my cell's cap to 3gb from 2gb if I was willing to pay $45 a month more
You must live in Australia!
Is AT&T that bad?
Note to self: Do not get rid of your grandfathered unlimited data.
I suppose I could do a full reinstall, but if this would work it'd be much better.
that would work just fine, no problems if going from ssd->ssd.
I do get unlimited data every night from midnight to 5am, its just staying up that damn late to download something. Sad thing is that its decently fast too, like 12-15mb/sec speeds.
Speaking of OS though, anybody recommend a good solid state drive for around $100-$120? I've used kingston before long ago and liked them, but I don't know whats good now. I'd prefer a 128GB drive.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Welp, here's hoping the shipment status has just not been updated. It's shipping from TN, which isn't in Fedex's fuckup zone for the most recent winter storm, but I'm guessing it's going to fall victim to general bad luck. =P
Tom's Hardware likes the Samsung 840 Pro 128 GB. Samsung SSDs seem pretty well regarded here in the build thread.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
I would either go down or up in price. The Crucial M500 240GB is $140 at Amazon, or the 120GB version is $77. Paying $100 for 128GB is too much, prices have come down a lot since then. 70 cents/GB or lower is where to go.
The 120GB evo is a lot slower than the other sizes, specially in write performance. Still a decent SSD for it's price, but worth knowing.
1. Is overclocking cost effective? The 4670K and 212 Evo is only $45 more than the stock version, but is it worth the $45?
2. For a single GPU box with a few drives, sound card, and bunch of USB accessories, is a motherboard with the Z78 chipset the appropriate one?
3. Is DDR3-1600 RAM picking just a matter of looking for any brand name and a sale or do the other numbers make some actual difference?
4. For SSDs, are there any controllers or brands to avoid at this point? I'm thinking of 500GB or so, depending on sale pricing.
Thanks in advance!
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
The Z series is only appropriate if you get the k series processor.
The other ram numbers do matter: for the latency, lower is better. Ram speeds aren't likely to be a bottleneck though, so you could go with something middle of the road. Getting a good brand is the most important part, because in my experience it's the most likely part to fail.
Everyone around here has been pushing the samsung SSDs I believe.
I generally agree with this, however it should be noted that if you do a ITX build, I believe the Z series is worth the extra cost. Largely because most of the Z87 boards seem to have a wifi module integrated with the board, that you don't have to buy separately.