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[Computer Build Thread] If you build it... we will awesome

cardboard delusionscardboard delusions USAgentPSN: USAgent31Registered User regular
edited January 2016 in Moe's Stupid Technology Tavern
Welcome to Part Shoppers Anonymous the Penny Arcade Computer Build Thread!
(this OP is shamelessly stolen/modified from our missing overlord alecthar (via Jebus314), who may or may not be suffering heat stroke from quadfired R9 290X's)

This is your one stop source of all things regarding the purchasing and assembling of computer hardware. We do our best to provide advice about component choice, shopping for components, assembling the PC itself, and even a little bit of troubleshooting for new builds (if you're having issues). To my knowledge no forumer has ever left with a non functioning build. We'll get you there! All at a measly 250% of your original budget!

You're looking at me funny, so I can tell you have some questions. I invite you to stay a while, and listen.

"Why should I build my own computer when I could just have a bunch of underpaid assembly line workers do it for me?"
  • Knowledge: Building your own computer is a learning experience. To start with, you'll probably end up doing a lot of research on the current state of consumer computing hardware, along with learning a bit about how various computer components work within a complete system. You'll also gain valuable knowledge about the actual assembly of a PC, something that definitely comes in handy if you find yourself doing family tech support.
  • Quality: PCs from companies like Dell and HP are built cheaply. Sometimes this isn't a huge issue. Intel, for example, doesn't sell a separate "from the junk pile" line of CPUs. Hard drives are generally of fairly consistent quality among manufacturers. However, depending on the PC, you may end up with a fairly anemic, or even cruddy, generic PSU, along with motherboards that are generally pretty limited in their flexibility and feature-set, and don't even get me started on the cases they use. Building your own PC gives you complete control over the quality of the components you use.
  • Flexibility: A prebuilt PC sometimes comes with proprietary components, or in a case with a proprietary form factor with a weird sized PSU. When you build your own PC, you can select the components with an eye towards whatever degree of flexibility or upgrade-ability you deem appropriate. Because retail component design adheres to certain standards, you end up with a more modular system that can be changed more easily.
  • Value: When it comes to a PC with real horsepower, manufacturers believe we're willing to pay a serious premium. Building your own Gaming (or Workstation) PC almost always saves you significant amounts of money.

With all that said, I want to highlight a very important point. If all you need to do with a computer is browse the internet, consume media, and use productivity software like MS Office, there's admittedly little reason not to buy a pre-built machine. Because of the economy of scale, you will almost always get a higher specced computer for cheaper if your budget is less than $400 or so. Quality can still sometimes be an issue, and you won't gain any knowledge, but cheap computers are probably a better deal pre-built.

"You've convinced me to build my own, what's inside the box again?"
In general there are 7 main components to a PC. I will briefly explain what each one is, and give you a little bit of info about the important details to look out for. Don't worry if this seems complicated, or seems to be lacking information, as this is just an overview. Once you post in the thread your fellow forumers will be there to make sure you have everything sorted out before you buy! If you want to know more there are many great resources online, but a great place to start is our very own Alecthar's blog.
  • CPU: This is the central processing unit. It is the heart of your PC build and is what controls how quickly your computer can perform various tasks. There are only 2 manufacturers (AMD and Intel), and these days Intel is dominating. Pro-tip, over the years CPUs are generally tracked by their architecture (which alludes to how they are designed) and each unique architecture is given a name (Newest are haswell for intel, and Jaguar for amd). There are a multitude of different specs for CPUs, but it's nigh impossible to use them for comparison across manufactures and often times even across different architectures. Generally you will want to go to a place like Tom's Hardware and look actual measured comparisons between the chips to decide.
    . . . . If you're looking for high end performance, and the best bang for your buck, you will also want to look out for unlocked CPUs that allow for overclocking. These days it is a very painless process, and can easily give you a 10-30% performance boost for the cost of a bigger heatsink. For intel CPUs, model numbers that end in a K allow overclocking.
  • GPU: This is the graphical processing unit. As the name implies it controls how pretty things will look, and what games you can play. The first important decision for your GPU is onboard versus discrete. These days Intel and AMD are offering combined CPU/GPU chips that are really pretty good. For everything besides gaming and graphic intensive work, these combined chips offer the best performance at the cheapest price. If you're building a HTPC for example this is definitely the way to go. AMD may lead on the higher end, as their APU line (their terminology for the combined CPU/GPU) can have better GPU performance with similar CPU performance than the corresponding Intel products. A top of the line AMD APU will be good enough to stream any video content, watch blurays, and even play some older games at moderate settings.

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/9320/intel-broadwell-review-i7-5775c-i5-5675c/7

    If you choose Intel, Broadwell is currently king for integrated graphics performance for APUs, and it consumes less power! :hydra:

    . . . . If, however, you are looking to game or do a lot of video editing/other graphics intensive work, then a discrete graphics card is the way to go. For the purposes of gaming, the rest of your system is mainly an effort to get out of your video card's way. The price of a solid video card reflects that; for gaming PCs the video card will be the most expensive single component you purchase. For discrete GPUs there are again 2 manufacturers, AMD (formally ATI) and Nvidia. Unlike CPUs the GPU race remains relatively tight, and there's really good deals to be had with either brand. To make things more confusing AMD and Nvidia don't actually sell graphics cards themselves, instead the sell the designs (or base hardware) to other companies who build them and sell them to consumers. This means that for any given GPU model (say the Nvidia GTX 760), there will be several different vendors selling that exact model (like this GTX 760 sold by EVGA). Different vendors can have different coolers, different amounts of overclocking, and different build quality, so be careful with who the exact card is coming from.
  • Motherboard: The motherboard is the complex circuitry that connects all of your fancy parts together. Buying a motherboard is all about quality, compatibility, and options. The two most important compatibility issues are getting the right socket for your CPU, and getting the right size for your case. Whatever CPU you are interested in getting should have a corresponding socket number (like LGA 1150 for Haswell based CPUs), and you absolutely must get a motherboard with that socket. Motherboards also generally come in a few different sizes (or form factors), with the most common being: ATX, micro-ATX, mini-ATX, and mini-ITX. The key here is to make sure that you Case specifically says it is compatible with the form factor you choose. For quality purposes you generally want to stick to the 4 main manufacturers: MSI, ASUS, ASRock, and Gigabyte. Finally, it's all about the options. Make a list of everything that you want to hook up to your pc and what type of connection it needs (USB 3.0 vs 2.0, HDMI vs DVI vs Display Port, esata, ect...) and find yourself a motherboard that has all the necessary connections. Other things to consider are SLI/crossfire compatibility (which allows you to run 2 GPUs simultaneously for Nvidia or AMD cards respectively), PCI-E 3.0 vs 2.0 (and x16 or x8), CPU overclocking compatible, onboard GPU compatible, soundcard capabilities, and Ethernet capabilities.
  • Memory: This is often referred to as the RAM or Random Access Memory, and it controls how many things you can do at once. These days there are basically 3 rules to follow when buying RAM. (1) Buy DDR3: Only legacy sockets from AMD and Intel support DDR2. This is a compatibility check with the motherboard so always look at the motherboard specs to verify, but almost everything these days uses DDR3. (2) Only 1 RAM specification is worth worrying about: 1600Mhz. Slower and you may seem some changes in performance for a cheaper price, and faster is mostly just a waste of money. Timings largely mean nothing. (3) Buy 4-8 GB and as many DIMMS (or sticks) as channels on your motherboard. So if your motherboard supports 2 channel memory, get 2 sticks of 4GB Ram (for 8GB total). RAM is cheap so lean towards more rather than less, but for most people anything more than 8 GB will be wasted.
  • Hard Disk Drive/Solid State Drive: This is where all of your software and data is stored. If you're budget can swing it the most effective setup is to use a smaller SSD (60-120 GB) for your programs and OS, and a larger HDD (500 GB - 4 TB) for media storage. Not all SSDs and not all HDDs are created equal. For HDDs the spindle speed (typically 5400, 7200, and 10000 RPMs) dictates how quickly you will be able to access your data, with higher RPMs giving faster access. For purely data storage the speed tends not to matter that much, but for programs/games loading will be much faster. Any SSD will be far quicker than even the best HDDs. Most importantly for both you want something that is reliable, so check the comments/reviews for any particular model. Just keep in mind that every single model ever created will have some small number of drives that fail and those will be the bulk of the people leaving comments.
  • PSU: This is the power supply unit, and as the name implies it powers your PC. There are 3 basic factors to consider for a PSU: modular/non-modular, wattage, and quality. A non-modular PSU will have all of the cables permanently attached and can be a pain to keep organized compared to being able to remove unnecessary cables. Wattage is the amount of power your PSU can supply and you generally want your computer to run close to but not at the maximum rating for your PSU. To see what that would be before you buy your PSU, just find any online wattage calculator, put in the parts you want to use, and viola. Finally there is the quality, which is sadly hard to determine and doesn't respond well to the kind of "pop it in our test rig and benchmark it" style of reviewing that most PC component review sites tend to favor. Alecthar's blog has a nice rundown on good review sites and a good vs bad listing of manufacturers.
  • Case: This is where you put all those things above. Don't underestimate the importance of a good case. A Good cable management system and layout can make building a PC a vastly superior experience, as well as giving longevity to your build through superior heat management. Also that shit should look badass. The only requirement though is that you find a case that is large enough to house all of your components (this is not a trick, often times GPUs, PSUs, certain types of memory, and some optical drives will not fit in a particular case), and can accept the form factor for the motherboard used.
  • Other: This is just a list of other parts to keep in mind, that you may or may not need. Additional fans, optical drive, soundcard, wifi card (or usb dongle), monitor, keyboard, mouse, cables (fan cables, sata cables, ect...), aftermarket CPU heatsink (necessary for overclocking), and zipties (or other cable management device).

"Ok I know what a PC is now, but where do I start?"
Here are a few questions you should ask yourself when you're ready to start researching parts for your new PC. Once you have some answers to these questions, post them in this thread and others will jump in to fill in the gaps and get you well on your way to completing your order! Don't be intimidated if you don't know any of the answers though, as any questions (no matter how basic) are always welcome. In general though, the more information we have about what you want and how much you're willing to pay to get it, the better the advice you'll get.
  • What kind of computer do you need? The 4 basic categories are: standard gaming PC, HTPC, server, and a serious Workstation.
  • What's your budget for this project?ebuyer.com/
  • What needs to be included in that budget? Do you need a monitor, keyboard and mouse to go with it? Are there components from a previous PC that you are carrying over to the new build? What about an operating system (like Windows 8.1)?
  • What are your performance needs? For games, what resolution do you game at, and what kind of performance do you want to see there? For professional tasks, what are you doing and what kind of numbers would you like to see?
  • Do you have any partiality towards specific manufacturers, like Intel/AMD, AMD/NVIDIA, or perhaps specific vendors?
  • Do you have any specific needs? That is, are you looking for quiet operation, small form factor, significant upgrade-ability, or other specific features?
"I'm totes ready to buy, but everyone keeps posting this PC partpicker thing. Where do I actually get my stuff?"

US
There are a number of solid online purchasing options available to US consumers. My personal favorite is Newegg, though there are other options like Tiger Direct, and (of course) Amazon. Brick and mortar buyers can find some components at big box retailers like Best Buy and Fry's, though I've found that prices from online retailers are significantly better than these stores. The exception to that seems to be Microcenter, which often has great deals on processors and motherboards in particular.

Canada
when it comes to Canadian supplies, NCIX.ca used to be the undisputed champion. So far as I know, they're still a good company, but they didn't have the best price for any part I saw. Newegg.ca usually had the best prices including shipping on my current build, vuugo.com often had good prices though their website seems a bit sketchy, and directcanada.com has some good prices and worked fine for me in the past.

Some more recent opinions:
Re: first post -- for the 'Canadian shops' bit, you should add memoryexpress.com to that list (not sure how they are for mail order, but as an in-the-flesh shop, at least, they're great).
BouwsT wrote:
I used Memory Express for my last build, they are actually really great so far for their mail orders. Also, their price beat is stronger than newegg.ca (10% of difference, rather than just a straight match). I would definitely recommend them for Canadian buyers, at least to check out.

UK
Online retailers in the UK include Ebuyer, which apparently has a wide selection of components, Novatech, which also does custom systems and apparently has some fans in UK PC forums, and dabs.com, a site recommend by our very own Big Isy, who cited their frequent free shipping/free game deals.

Australia
Our very own Tef put together a very thorough buying guide for Australians:
Tef wrote:
Online retailers (Australia-wide)
www.pccasegear.com - Based in Melbourne, these guys are as close to an Australian Newegg as you will find. PCcasegear are known for their reliable service and good RMA (returning faulty equipment) policies. They have a somewhat decent range of equipment, for Australia and while generally pretty cheap, there certainly are cheaper options out there. For people in Melbourne, you can also visit their store front and pick up the parts personally.

www.msy.com.au - A cheaper alternative to PCcasegear that is still reasonably reliable. MSY does suffer from a limited range and volume of stock on occasion. As of October 2011, they do not have a delivery system in place (in progress, according to MSY) so you will have to pick up the parts from their brick and mortar shops. Fortunately, they have numerous store fronts around the country, so finding one nearby shouldn't be too hard to do. Be aware that when you're shopping online make sure you set your store location to the store that you'll be picking the parts up from. MSY filter their displayed products based on what shop you've selected and it's very annoying to get to the checkout and realise all your parts are only available in far north Queensland.

Other Australia-based Online Retailers
www.mwave.com.au www.megabuy.com.au www.umart.com.au - These are some other notable budget PC shops. They'll ship anywhere domestically and are usually competitively priced. Do note that they're budget resellers (particularly in the case of megabuy) and their customer support and shipping status/timeframes may not always be as great as what you'll find from MSY/PCcasegear.

International Purchasing
An option exists to purchase parts overseas and ship them in yourself, thus avoiding the mark-up from Aussie vendors. www.priceusa.com.au is the only vendor the writer has experience with and therefore is the only one this writer is prepared to recommend with confidence. There are several caveats associated with international orders, namely that support/returns will be more difficult due to distances and there is a potential for longer lead-times on orders (though this is not always the case). Recommendations for overseas shipping would be that you don't order cases and possibly PSUs from overseas, as the associated hikes in shipping costs make this expensive (it should go without saying that you should do your own research on this point though, as it may be more cost effective depending on where you can buy domestically).

There also exists the option of organising a deal through the PA forums. This will be more difficult as it will require the forumer to takes reception of your goods and then ship them to you themselves. You will need to organise such a deal between yourselves and please be aware that this is an imposition on people and you certainly shouldn't expect people to firstly jump at the chance to help you out and secondly do this for you without some kind of repayment (*cough*steam wish lists*cough*). Moral of the story is that it may be an option for you, but don't count on it. It maybe be worth your while sending an extremely polite and well-written PM to the lovely JWashke (his PA forum handle) as he has mentioned that he MAY be available to help out his poor Australian brethren.

Purchase Support and Services
www.staticice.com.au and www.ausprices.com are two good price comparison sites that you can use to find who's selling what and for how much. The former is probably the highest quality of the two; just make sure you're looking at the Australian version (i.e. .au at the end)

While ostensibly a forum for PC overlockers, forums.overclockers.com.au has a surprisingly good quality sub forum relating to the state of PC part purchasing in Australia. They are a good location for solid advice on retailers (after PA, of course!). The author recommends against the Whirlpool forums, as their wiki isn't really up to date and the quality of posts is, shall we way, subpar. Their wikis and forums sections on networking and all things internet are fantastic, however, and are highly recommended for questions pertaining these matters.

Failing all that, send a mention or a PM towards Tef or chrishallett83, both Australian forumers, who are usually more than happy to offer advice.

Below are some additional resources to help you out. Welcome to PC building!

Quick Links to Alecthar's Component Guides:
Processors and Motherboards
Video Cards
Memory
HDDs and SSDs
PSUs and Cases

Alecthar's List of Good Online Resources:
Anandtech- A great site with in depth reviews on loads of tech.
Tom's Hardware - Not my favorite site in the world, but their monthly roundups of SSDs, CPUs, and GPUs are useful, and they have some good comparison tools.
[H]ardOCP - Solid PSU reviews, and also some solid motherboard and video card reviews.
jonnyguru- Basically some of the best PSU reviews out there.
Overclock.net- One of my favorite non-PA forums. There's loads and loads of good info here, from optimizing SSDs to overclocking to in-depth information on motherboard VRM setups.

And here is a handy flowchart!
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cardboard delusions on
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Posts

  • cardboard delusionscardboard delusions USAgent PSN: USAgent31Registered User regular
    edited July 2015
    I waited all day at work for someone else to create this thread but I caved since I guess we need somewhere to see how @Tube 's saga continues!

    cardboard delusions on
  • davidsdurionsdavidsdurions Your Trusty Meatshield Panhandle NebraskaRegistered User regular
    Geth agrees, we should continue building computers. Aye! Aye! Captain.

  • HamurabiHamurabi MiamiRegistered User regular
    So the Node 202 looks pretty compelling.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsDW0Q9Jeas

  • OlivawOlivaw good name, isn't it? the foot of mt fujiRegistered User regular
    Okay

    This seems like the thread for this

    So I just built my first computer (hooray!) and now the CPU usage is all over the place (oh no!) to the point where I feel like I must have done something wrong or should be worried somehow

    Like, my last computer was a Dell premade XPS from like five years ago, and the CPU usage was pretty stable--usually at zero or one percent, spiking a little bit whenever I did certain things or played games, yeah, but not jumping around at random

    My current CPU, however, is spiking to twelve or eighteen percent seemingly at random, and it started to cause some hitching playing Witcher 3 last night, and when I quit out of the game and checked, it was at like ninety nine percent. I was downloading something using Steam in the background, something I had previously been able to do on my last computer just fine, and I'm nigh-certain that was what eventually overloaded the CPU

    But that shouldn't happen, right? This processor is leagues ahead of my last one, which I think was an i3 at 2.97 ghz. It shouldn't be having trouble doing basically anything, should it? Am I going to have to reinstall fucking Windows or something? Because I'd really rather not download like a hundred and twenty gigs of Steam games on this rural-ass connection again

    I used these parts and assembled them using this guide: https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/Mh32FT/core-i5-4460-geforce-gtx-960-gaming-pc

    Literally any advice would be helpful!

    signature-deffo.jpg
    PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
  • davidsdurionsdavidsdurions Your Trusty Meatshield Panhandle NebraskaRegistered User regular
    I would start with opening the task manager to the full detail mode and see if you can see which process is driving the CPU usage.

  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    So I just got my new monitor (Asus MG279Q). And it is glorious. Going back to 27" from 24" is great by itself, but the 27" display I had before it died last fall was only 1080p. I love this thing so far, IMO unless you are fanatical about G-Sync it's a better value than the ROG Swift - you're getting an IPS panel instead of TN, hopefully avoiding all the build quality issues people have been reporting with the Swift, and depending on what retailers you compare you're going to pay at least $100 less.

    THAT SAID.

    I have one problem. And I am sure there is a simple solution but it is not coming to me.

    When the monitor goes to sleep, it's more like it goes into a coma. Like, turns off completely. When I press the Power button, it will say there's no input signal (from Mini DisplayPort). And since my mouse and keyboard are now plugged into the USB hub in the monitor, I can't make the computer wake by clicking or pressing keys. The only thing that wakes it up is disconnecting and then reconnecting the MDP cable.

    How do I make it stop doing this? In Windows Power Options, "Put the computer to sleep" is set to "Never." I can't find anything in the monitor's on-screen menus is something called "ECO Mode" (which sounds like maybe it would be some sort of aggressive power-saving, but this was already turned off.

  • OlivawOlivaw good name, isn't it? the foot of mt fujiRegistered User regular
    I would start with opening the task manager to the full detail mode and see if you can see which process is driving the CPU usage.

    It changes from moment to moment! Like straight up, one moment a process is taking one percent of the CPU, the next it is taking eight percent, and then back down to one again. It's not any one single process, just... whatever is the primary process (chrome, GTA, Steam, the resource monitor when everything else is closed) seems to spike randomly

    It happens so constantly and so consistently that I really do feel like there's something wrong, but... on the other hand it's not exactly keeping me from playing games or anything. Mostly just multitasking

    I'm just worried it's going to become a bigger problem further down the line, y'know?

    signature-deffo.jpg
    PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
  • HandgimpHandgimp R+L=J Family PhotoRegistered User regular
    Gaslight wrote: »
    So I just got my new monitor (Asus MG279Q). And it is glorious. Going back to 27" from 24" is great by itself, but the 27" display I had before it died last fall was only 1080p. I love this thing so far, IMO unless you are fanatical about G-Sync it's a better value than the ROG Swift - you're getting an IPS panel instead of TN, hopefully avoiding all the build quality issues people have been reporting with the Swift, and depending on what retailers you compare you're going to pay at least $100 less.

    THAT SAID.

    I have one problem. And I am sure there is a simple solution but it is not coming to me.

    When the monitor goes to sleep, it's more like it goes into a coma. Like, turns off completely. When I press the Power button, it will say there's no input signal (from Mini DisplayPort). And since my mouse and keyboard are now plugged into the USB hub in the monitor, I can't make the computer wake by clicking or pressing keys. The only thing that wakes it up is disconnecting and then reconnecting the MDP cable.

    How do I make it stop doing this? In Windows Power Options, "Put the computer to sleep" is set to "Never." I can't find anything in the monitor's on-screen menus is something called "ECO Mode" (which sounds like maybe it would be some sort of aggressive power-saving, but this was already turned off.

    In Control Panel>All Control Panel Items>Power Options>Edit Plan Settings there should also be an option for "Turn off the display", as well as "Put the computer to sleep".

    Failing that, try opening the Advanced Settings and scrolling down to the Display option.

    PwH4Ipj.jpg
  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    Handgimp wrote: »
    Gaslight wrote: »
    So I just got my new monitor (Asus MG279Q). And it is glorious. Going back to 27" from 24" is great by itself, but the 27" display I had before it died last fall was only 1080p. I love this thing so far, IMO unless you are fanatical about G-Sync it's a better value than the ROG Swift - you're getting an IPS panel instead of TN, hopefully avoiding all the build quality issues people have been reporting with the Swift, and depending on what retailers you compare you're going to pay at least $100 less.

    THAT SAID.

    I have one problem. And I am sure there is a simple solution but it is not coming to me.

    When the monitor goes to sleep, it's more like it goes into a coma. Like, turns off completely. When I press the Power button, it will say there's no input signal (from Mini DisplayPort). And since my mouse and keyboard are now plugged into the USB hub in the monitor, I can't make the computer wake by clicking or pressing keys. The only thing that wakes it up is disconnecting and then reconnecting the MDP cable.

    How do I make it stop doing this? In Windows Power Options, "Put the computer to sleep" is set to "Never." I can't find anything in the monitor's on-screen menus is something called "ECO Mode" (which sounds like maybe it would be some sort of aggressive power-saving, but this was already turned off.

    In Control Panel>All Control Panel Items>Power Options>Edit Plan Settings there should also be an option for "Turn off the display", as well as "Put the computer to sleep".

    Failing that, try opening the Advanced Settings and scrolling down to the Display option.

    As I said, "Put computer to sleep" is on never.

    The display is set to turn off after 15 minutes, and I'd like to keep it that way as I don't want my nice new $650 monitor getting burn-in.

  • HandgimpHandgimp R+L=J Family PhotoRegistered User regular
    edited July 2015
    Gaslight wrote: »
    Handgimp wrote: »
    Gaslight wrote: »
    So I just got my new monitor (Asus MG279Q). And it is glorious. Going back to 27" from 24" is great by itself, but the 27" display I had before it died last fall was only 1080p. I love this thing so far, IMO unless you are fanatical about G-Sync it's a better value than the ROG Swift - you're getting an IPS panel instead of TN, hopefully avoiding all the build quality issues people have been reporting with the Swift, and depending on what retailers you compare you're going to pay at least $100 less.

    THAT SAID.

    I have one problem. And I am sure there is a simple solution but it is not coming to me.

    When the monitor goes to sleep, it's more like it goes into a coma. Like, turns off completely. When I press the Power button, it will say there's no input signal (from Mini DisplayPort). And since my mouse and keyboard are now plugged into the USB hub in the monitor, I can't make the computer wake by clicking or pressing keys. The only thing that wakes it up is disconnecting and then reconnecting the MDP cable.

    How do I make it stop doing this? In Windows Power Options, "Put the computer to sleep" is set to "Never." I can't find anything in the monitor's on-screen menus is something called "ECO Mode" (which sounds like maybe it would be some sort of aggressive power-saving, but this was already turned off.

    In Control Panel>All Control Panel Items>Power Options>Edit Plan Settings there should also be an option for "Turn off the display", as well as "Put the computer to sleep".

    Failing that, try opening the Advanced Settings and scrolling down to the Display option.

    As I said, "Put computer to sleep" is on never.

    The display is set to turn off after 15 minutes, and I'd like to keep it that way as I don't want my nice new $650 monitor getting burn-in.

    Don't connect your input devices to the monitor, then. Apparently the hub's power is getting killed by your power saving option, and I'm fairly certain there's no way to separate them.

    e: Maybe enable USB Charging, that might force power to persist through the standby state.

    Handgimp on
    PwH4Ipj.jpg
  • davidsdurionsdavidsdurions Your Trusty Meatshield Panhandle NebraskaRegistered User regular
    Olivaw wrote: »
    I would start with opening the task manager to the full detail mode and see if you can see which process is driving the CPU usage.

    It changes from moment to moment! Like straight up, one moment a process is taking one percent of the CPU, the next it is taking eight percent, and then back down to one again. It's not any one single process, just... whatever is the primary process (chrome, GTA, Steam, the resource monitor when everything else is closed) seems to spike randomly

    It happens so constantly and so consistently that I really do feel like there's something wrong, but... on the other hand it's not exactly keeping me from playing games or anything. Mostly just multitasking

    I'm just worried it's going to become a bigger problem further down the line, y'know?

    When you are playing games and notice the stuttering, is your antivirus or similar programs attempting disk or process scans at the same time?

  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    Side effect of changing motherboards: I'm going down from 12 to 8 gig of RAM. Is this likely to make a big difference? I could get two 8s and go up to 16 if it's really worthwhile.

  • DelmainDelmain Registered User regular
    Nah, you should be fine. Gaming doesn't really need more than 8, and you can upgrade to 16 at some point in the future if you find yourself wanting more.

  • tsmvengytsmvengy Registered User regular
    Olivaw wrote: »
    I would start with opening the task manager to the full detail mode and see if you can see which process is driving the CPU usage.

    It changes from moment to moment! Like straight up, one moment a process is taking one percent of the CPU, the next it is taking eight percent, and then back down to one again. It's not any one single process, just... whatever is the primary process (chrome, GTA, Steam, the resource monitor when everything else is closed) seems to spike randomly

    It happens so constantly and so consistently that I really do feel like there's something wrong, but... on the other hand it's not exactly keeping me from playing games or anything. Mostly just multitasking

    I'm just worried it's going to become a bigger problem further down the line, y'know?

    This is always fun to figure out. What's your usage behavior like? Do you have your machine powered off except when you are sitting at it using it? Or do you leave it on most of the time?

    I have had this problem in the past with search indexing, you could try turning that off. The problem I had was that with the computer off most of the time, it couldn't index things and eventually just forced it. You could also open Resource Manager, leave it open while you do stuff, and see if there is some process taking lots of average CPU time over time.

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  • DisruptedCapitalistDisruptedCapitalist I swear! Registered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    Side effect of changing motherboards: I'm going down from 12 to 8 gig of RAM. Is this likely to make a big difference? I could get two 8s and go up to 16 if it's really worthwhile.

    And then there's the issue of deciding whether to reinstall your operating system or try your luck with manually updating the drivers and reactivating Windows. Since I'm at this stage myself, I'm trying to remember if my second HD with all my Steam installs has anything really important on it like family photos. I suppose I'll just have to take it into work and ask IT if I can crack open one of the spare PCs to see what's on the drive.

    (Yes, I know if I format that drive I'll have to download all my Steam games again, but I really don't think I'll ever play games like Darksiders or The Witcher again; even though they were good games, my backlog is just too big to justify replaying them. )

    "Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
  • Zen VulgarityZen Vulgarity What a lovely day for tea Secret British ThreadRegistered User regular
    http://images.frys.com/art/email/070715_tue420tyo/box_11.jpg

    This is a good mechanical keyboard for $70

    http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=92941&vpn=AD785KXBJABOX

    This also seems good if you want to build a HTPC

  • BouwsTBouwsT Wanna come to a super soft birthday party? Registered User regular
    cardboard delusions, thanks for re-making the thread! I always feel homeless when the thread gets reset. =P

    Between you and me, Peggy, I smoked this Juul and it did UNTHINKABLE things to my mind and body...
  • HamurabiHamurabi MiamiRegistered User regular
    edited July 2015
    Speaking of keyboards...

    I've come pretty close to buying the most recent model of Logitech's old G10 gaming keyboard with the LED display. I literally only found the small LED screen useful for monitoring system temperatures and usage, and for like seeing who was talking in Ventrilo during raids, way back in the day. It was fully programmable, and people released all kinds of really useful utility apps for it.

    Would be so much nicer than the small CPU, GPU1, and GPU2 temp indicators I have sitting in my taskbar these days -- which I can't see in-game at all without a huge, intrusive OSD overlay.

    EDIT: The G510s seemed to be the last reasonably-priced edition of that keyboard. The only alternative is apparently the G19 for $120 new. :\

    Hamurabi on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    The repair guy told me that he thought my cooler was incorrectly mounted and said he'd fix it for $50. He just called to say that after trying to fit it how he wanted to, he discovered it was better how I had it and put it back. I explained that I did not feel like that was something he should charge me $50 for.

  • HamurabiHamurabi MiamiRegistered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    The repair guy told me that he thought my cooler was incorrectly mounted and said he'd fix it for $50. He just called to say that after trying to fit it how he wanted to, he discovered it was better how I had it and put it back. I explained that I did not feel like that was something he should charge me $50 for.

    Believe me, I understand the Just Make It Go Already frame of mind... but you might just wanna put your foot down a little with these guys, 'cause it sounds like they're profiteering from your fed-up-edness and are fleecing you.

    I still don't get how a PSU costs $175 unless it's some kind of 2000W monstrosity that you don't need.

  • cardboard delusionscardboard delusions USAgent PSN: USAgent31Registered User regular
    Yeah, ask them what the part is and show them the same part online for whatever the real cost is and ask them at least be reasonable, do you guys have a better business bureau?

  • DisruptedCapitalistDisruptedCapitalist I swear! Registered User regular
    Yeah. My mechanic did that with the starter in my car once. Luckily he proposed a $10 charge for finding out what the problem was instead of the $200 charge for replacing the starter.

    "Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    I'm probably wrong about the cost of the PSU. I think they're taking the piss a little bit with the cooler reseating, but they didn't try and upsell me a different motherboard and recommended the cheapest option. They also recommended that I leave the 8 gigs of RAM rather than upgrading. They've had a lot of opportunities to bilk me on the exhaustion tax more than they have.

    What I'm wondering is what the situation with my existing SSD and windows install is. Will it need to be reformatted because of the new motherboard? I've never replaced a motherboard without replacing the whole computer before. The SSD previously wasn't booting in the new case, but hopefully that was a dead motherboard and not a borked SSD. That would be one fuck of a bummer.

  • GnomeTankGnomeTank What the what? Portland, OregonRegistered User regular
    @Mugsley: Super late on this, but I bought my Sager from XoticPC. They're ordering system is a bit 20th century for my tastes, a lot of manual updates and such...but the PC got to me in perfect shape, as ordered.

    I'm unfortunately having to go through an RMA because the CPU fan seems to be stuck at 100%, but the rest of the system is top notch and as advertised. I have no doubt Sager/Clevo will get this CPU fan issue handled, and then it'll be smooth sailing. In the tests I did, the 970M makes a MASSIVE difference over the 960M. I'm able to actually play Witcher 3 at some level of detail at a decent frame rate. On the 960M I had to go full low settings and it still struggled.

    Sagroth wrote: »
    Oh c'mon FyreWulff, no one's gonna pay to visit Uranus.
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  • GnomeTankGnomeTank What the what? Portland, OregonRegistered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    I'm probably wrong about the cost of the PSU. I think they're taking the piss a little bit with the cooler reseating, but they didn't try and upsell me a different motherboard and recommended the cheapest option. They also recommended that I leave the 8 gigs of RAM rather than upgrading. They've had a lot of opportunities to bilk me on the exhaustion tax more than they have.

    What I'm wondering is what the situation with my existing SSD and windows install is. Will it need to be reformatted because of the new motherboard? I've never replaced a motherboard without replacing the whole computer before. The SSD previously wasn't booting in the new case, but hopefully that was a dead motherboard and not a borked SSD. That would be one fuck of a bummer.

    Theoretically, no, provided the chipsets are both Intel. I've done pretty large generational swaps (P67 -> Z97) and had the system still boot and run...but there were stability issues that a complete reformat stopped. So it's fine as a stop gap to get yourself ready to do a total reformat, but I would do that total reformat at some point and start completely fresh. Windows can sort of handle a motherboard switch, but it always leads to some level of finickiness.

    Sagroth wrote: »
    Oh c'mon FyreWulff, no one's gonna pay to visit Uranus.
    Steam: Brainling, XBL / PSN: GnomeTank, NintendoID: Brainling, FF14: Zillius Rosh SFV: Brainling
  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    Tube wrote: »
    I'm probably wrong about the cost of the PSU. I think they're taking the piss a little bit with the cooler reseating, but they didn't try and upsell me a different motherboard and recommended the cheapest option. They also recommended that I leave the 8 gigs of RAM rather than upgrading. They've had a lot of opportunities to bilk me on the exhaustion tax more than they have.

    What I'm wondering is what the situation with my existing SSD and windows install is. Will it need to be reformatted because of the new motherboard? I've never replaced a motherboard without replacing the whole computer before. The SSD previously wasn't booting in the new case, but hopefully that was a dead motherboard and not a borked SSD. That would be one fuck of a bummer.

    specifically regarding windows. Windows 7 and 8.x are actually really good about detecting new hardware and fixing themselves driverwise. I'd say that there's a greater than 50% chance that things will just work, and 70%+ that you may just need to install the new motherboard drivers and it *should* work without incident.

    That being said you could run into issues, so re-installing windows wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. I don't see much harm in trying it without re-installing and see if everything works fine.

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  • Ed GrubermanEd Gruberman Registered User regular
    Courtesy of @cardboard delusions I'm going to be installing a Corsair H80i this Thursday to replace the stock heatsink on my 4690k. I'm going to go out and get some thermal paste. I think I have some rubbing alcohol and coffee filters but is there anything else I'm going to need?

    Also, I have a Define R4 case with the stock fans in their default positions. I'm debating mouting the radiator to the top of the case in a push config but I will probably move the fan on the back to the front and put the radiator on the back.

    Does this sound about right?

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  • cardboard delusionscardboard delusions USAgent PSN: USAgent31Registered User regular
    Courtesy of @cardboard delusions I'm going to be installing a Corsair H80i this Thursday to replace the stock heatsink on my 4690k. I'm going to go out and get some thermal paste. I think I have some rubbing alcohol and coffee filters but is there anything else I'm going to need?

    Also, I have a Define R4 case with the stock fans in their default positions. I'm debating mouting the radiator to the top of the case in a push config but I will probably move the fan on the back to the front and put the radiator on the back.

    Does this sound about right?

    I used the radiator in the back because it has 120mm fans. If your top has the same size you should be good but if you have a clear path from front to back you could set it as an exhaust on the back.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6s8CF2A5-0

    This should help

  • an_altan_alt Registered User regular
    Depending on what was installed, $150 might not be that out of line for a decent PSU with Canadian prices. A local shop is going to charge more than an online store and when I checked the prices at one big online store, they can get pretty expensive. NCIX for example.

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  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    I figure that (assuming Windows 8 works fine for now) I'll be reinstalling soon for the Windows 10 update anyway. That should fix any lingering weirdness and add a ton of fun new ones.

  • GnomeTankGnomeTank What the what? Portland, OregonRegistered User regular
    I don't think the Windows 10 update is going to be a fresh install, pretty sure it's just going to upgrade your in-place system to Windows 10. There hasn't been a lot of word from Microsoft on how you're supposed to do a Windows 10 fresh install once you've upgraded, since you won't be getting a Windows 10 specific key (that I'm aware of).

    Sagroth wrote: »
    Oh c'mon FyreWulff, no one's gonna pay to visit Uranus.
    Steam: Brainling, XBL / PSN: GnomeTank, NintendoID: Brainling, FF14: Zillius Rosh SFV: Brainling
  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    GnomeTank wrote: »
    I don't think the Windows 10 update is going to be a fresh install, pretty sure it's just going to upgrade your in-place system to Windows 10. There hasn't been a lot of word from Microsoft on how you're supposed to do a Windows 10 fresh install once you've upgraded, since you won't be getting a Windows 10 specific key (that I'm aware of).

    Yes, microsoft has said that they will be providing a way for you to get installation media and do a clean install of Win10 after the upgrade. Though, doing the PC reset does 99.9% of the functionality of a clean install anyway, so unless you're replacing the boot drive you really shouldn't need to anymore.

    XBL: thewunderbar PSN: thewunderbar NNID: thewunderbar Steam: wunderbar87 Twitter: wunderbar
  • davidsdurionsdavidsdurions Your Trusty Meatshield Panhandle NebraskaRegistered User regular
    Your windows 7/8 key transforms into a 10 key. So you will just need to have windows 10 on a USB drive or DVD and your same old key and you should be good to go.

  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    Your windows 7/8 key transforms into a 10 key. So you will just need to have windows 10 on a USB drive or DVD and your same old key and you should be good to go.

    i...I don't think that's how it'll work. They've said the old key becomes "invalid" so you're probably issued a new key somewhere.

    Man, it would just really be nice if Microsoft would, you know, tell us how this stuff works....

    XBL: thewunderbar PSN: thewunderbar NNID: thewunderbar Steam: wunderbar87 Twitter: wunderbar
  • davidsdurionsdavidsdurions Your Trusty Meatshield Panhandle NebraskaRegistered User regular
    Oh, I thought it was that the key becomes invalid as a windows 7/8 installation key after being used as a 10 update.

    It really shouldn't be this confusing.

  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    Oh, I thought it was that the key becomes invalid as a windows 7/8 installation key after being used as a 10 update.

    It really shouldn't be this confusing.

    This is microsoft. And this is one of the reasons I have the job I do.

    XBL: thewunderbar PSN: thewunderbar NNID: thewunderbar Steam: wunderbar87 Twitter: wunderbar
  • BolthornBolthorn Registered User regular
    http://images.frys.com/art/email/070715_tue420tyo/box_11.jpg

    This is a good mechanical keyboard for $70

    http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=92941&vpn=AD785KXBJABOX

    This also seems good if you want to build a HTPC

    Bah, was going to jump on the keyboard deal but the site is saying in store pickup only. I am nowhere near a Fry's. Not even within 100 miles. Bummer.

  • mere_immortalmere_immortal So tasty!Registered User regular
    Not sure if this is the best place but what's the hot potato of mice these days? I've used a Logitech G400 and before that a MX518, loved the shape but my G400 is getting a bit old and they don't do em anymore.

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  • OlivawOlivaw good name, isn't it? the foot of mt fujiRegistered User regular
    Olivaw wrote: »
    I would start with opening the task manager to the full detail mode and see if you can see which process is driving the CPU usage.

    It changes from moment to moment! Like straight up, one moment a process is taking one percent of the CPU, the next it is taking eight percent, and then back down to one again. It's not any one single process, just... whatever is the primary process (chrome, GTA, Steam, the resource monitor when everything else is closed) seems to spike randomly

    It happens so constantly and so consistently that I really do feel like there's something wrong, but... on the other hand it's not exactly keeping me from playing games or anything. Mostly just multitasking

    I'm just worried it's going to become a bigger problem further down the line, y'know?

    When you are playing games and notice the stuttering, is your antivirus or similar programs attempting disk or process scans at the same time?

    At the time I got the stuttering? Steam was downloading and installing something in the background

    So... yeah, I guess!

    It's also an SSD, though, if that matters

    Side note: I just booted up my computer, and it boots up REAL fast, so I immediately booted up task manager/resource monitor to look and see how the CPU was doing, and at boot up it spiked to one hundred percent and then almost immediately went back down to the thirties and stuff until everything had finished booting up and then went back down to zero to three percent

    I don't think my last CPU did that? But it always booted much slower

    It's... still concerning to me? But I kept CoreTemp and Resource Monitor up while I was playing Witcher 3 a bunch last night, and according to what the internet says, it never went particularly high or dangerous! And the CPU never went higher than fifty percent or so, but did keep spiking around up and down between about twenty eight and thirty eight depending

    So... I don't know! I don't know what I did wrong! Or if anything is actually wrong!

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  • EupfhoriaEupfhoria Registered User regular
    oh man, my newegg order shipped and is looking to be here this weekend: 1st PC build anticipation is rising!

    does anyone have a link handy to one of the build guide videos from the last thread? The ones I came across in youtube were pretty crappy

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