Help me build my PC 2016 Edition Catch All

Archangel wrote:

Holy moley, I just found out about this whole 750Ti nonsense. 60W draw for a pretty darned good card? That's unreal. I have a 550W TX power supply and I should feed it something substantial (I game at 1920x1200 if I can), but the power/heat efficiency nerd in me is very curious about this Maxwell business. Then again, I need something now. Rats.

I have one in my little mini-ITX HTPC/Steam Box, and it's great. Tunning the Linux port of Metro: Last Light only seems to push it up to about 50 degrees C, and even though I got a short, single-fan, overclocked card, the cooler barely makes a peep. I know there are cards with better price/performance (though I'd still go NVIDIA because of the better Linux drivers), but it's just neat!

Citizen86 wrote:

So a little troubleshooting:

We went on a roadtrip to visit family. We were gone about 3 weeks. Apparently there was a lightning storm while we were gone (not sure if it's related, but probably). I left my desktop plugged in. It is connected to a decent power surge / battery backup.

When we got back, desktop wouldn't turn on. Eventually I unplugged the power cord for 10+ seconds, plugged it back in, and then it turned on. However, it seems to be doing a "hard" shut-off at random times, about 2-3 times a day. It seems pretty random, it can be turned on through the night encoding video, but while encoding video and internet surfing, it can shut off. Seems like it could be a heat issue, so I turned down my overclock, which wasn't extreme in the first place, AMD FX-8350 with an extra 500Mhz on it. Bumped it down to 4.2 Ghz, but it just shut off again.

Strange thing is, when it shuts off, I can't turn it on again, unless I do the same unplug for at least 10 seconds.

I should probably check for overheating, but unfortunately Linux doesn't have any tools really to check this. I may need to boot into Windows to make sure.

So, yeah.... any ideas? I'm not sure if it would be a power supply, motherboard, or simply an overheating issue.

PSUs are designed to respond to a fault or outside tolerance condition in exactly this sort of way. Like others have said, I'd look at it first.

JC wrote:

Haven't tried disabling sli. I shouldn't have to!

No you shouldn't. But if it's a bad port, that's the first kind of thing I'd check. Whether Watch_Dogs is worth playing when you have other games on the pile though...

LouZiffer wrote:

PSUs are designed to respond to a fault or outside tolerance condition in exactly this sort of way. Like others have said, I'd look at it first.

Thanks, my first thought was that it was the PSU. Do PSU warranty's generally cover this type of damage?

McFinn wrote:

Anyone have any experience with ZOTAC? Newegg has a couple of their 760s on sale.

My impression is that they're not the best when it comes to reliability, which is shown by their 2 yr warranty on video cards, as opposed to the 3 yr on most other manufacturers (at that price level).

Laptop question - this was about the cheapest laptop I could find at a price just at the upper end of my budget for a system that could do 8/16 bit emulation AND play Fallout 3/NV at high (not necessarily ultra) settings at 30 FPS or better. The resolution is pretty poor for that screen size, but I'd mainly be using it to output to an external screen via HDMI, so that doesn't concern me. I would also use it primarily with a wireless keyboard/mouse, so crappy keyboard/touchpad doesn't affect me much either. That seems like a video card card with plenty of beef in its britches for the price. Anyone have experience with this model/comments?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...

Puce Moose wrote:

Laptop question - this was about the cheapest laptop I could find at a price just at the upper end of my budget for a system that could do 8/16 bit emulation AND play Fallout 3/NV at high (not necessarily ultra) settings at 30 FPS or better. The resolution is pretty poor for that screen size, but I'd mainly be using it to output to an external screen via HDMI, so that doesn't concern me. I would also use it primarily with a wireless keyboard/mouse, so crappy keyboard/touchpad doesn't affect me much either. That seems like a video card card with plenty of beef in its britches for the price. Anyone have experience with this model/comments?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...

*cough* shameless self promotion *cough*
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-...
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/9...

As to your actual question, no I don't have experience with that exact model. Generally, Acer are decent for the money though.

AMD announced a new mid range card to "replace" the 280. Because well why not.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/25980...

I wonder if that is a typo in the article. It says that AMD expects it to be faster than the 760 when its predecessor, the 280, is currently faster than the GTX 770?

Anyways reducing the power draw from 250w to 190w is a big boon.

So this is a downscaled 290? Or some other thing? I can't seem to get to the article.
If it's better than the 280X for that price with that power draw (and in theory corresponding drop in heat output) it should be by far the best value on the market.

Confusingly it looks like it will actually perform between the 280 and 280x

They're saying it's Tonga Pro, which is the new architecture. So presumably that would come with the audio stuff, etc.

fangblackbone wrote:

I wonder if that is a typo in the article. It says that AMD expects it to be faster than the 760 when its predecessor, the 280, is currently faster than the GTX 770?

Anyways reducing the power draw from 250w to 190w is a big boon.

Thin_J wrote:

So this is a downscaled 290? Or some other thing? I can't seem to get to the article.
If it's better than the 280X for that price with that power draw (and in theory corresponding drop in heat output) it should be by far the best value on the market.

Replaces the 280.. not the 280x. 280 isnt faster than the 770

Looking at the budget build for a new machine.

Newegg has the i5-4440 in a combo with the MSI Z87-G41 mobo and 4Gb of GSkill 1600 DDR3 for $270. Plus $43 for another 4GB of RAM, $310ish. Motherboard has mediocre reviews though.

Budget build components total $370.

Any thoughts on that motherboard?

FlamingPeasant wrote:

Looking at the budget build for a new machine.

Newegg has the i5-4440 in a combo with the MSI Z87-G41 mobo and 4Gb of GSkill 1600 DDR3 for $270. Plus $43 for another 4GB of RAM, $310ish. Motherboard has mediocre reviews though.

Budget build components total $370.

Any thoughts on that motherboard?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8hJrGX

$344.22 with a better motherboard.

Gumbie wrote:
FlamingPeasant wrote:

Looking at the budget build for a new machine.

Newegg has the i5-4440 in a combo with the MSI Z87-G41 mobo and 4Gb of GSkill 1600 DDR3 for $270. Plus $43 for another 4GB of RAM, $310ish. Motherboard has mediocre reviews though.

Budget build components total $370.

Any thoughts on that motherboard?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8hJrGX

$344.22 with a better motherboard.

I swear I am not trolling, but what makes a motherboard 'better'? Is it power drawn, expansion slots, does the motherboard have an impact on the speed or effectiveness of the parts stuck on it, does one 'brand' of MOBO work better with a specific subset of other components?

I apologise for my stupid questions, but I am a life long Mac User, so all of this is a pretty steep learning curve. I'm picking it up slowly, but right now, I could be offered the holy grail of components, and pass them all up without even knowing my crime(s)

Motherboards are a bit tricksy. At a base level different chipsets have different feature sets, (basic guide here) then the manufacturers can do different things from there.

Looking at the reviews on Newegg for that particular board it seems to have all of the features you can want, it's the top end chipset, but the build quality looks suspect. But the board from the same manufacturer (MSI) that Gumbie linked doesn't have the bad reviews of the build quality, but the chipset and board is business focussed so basic feature wise. It should be solid though. Looks like MSI may have cut corners getting a Z87 based board to that price.

I didnt even know there was such a thing as a non-x 280. Entirely less interesting an announcement with that knowledge. Meh.

Should be a good card for them for the more budget minded market though.

Gumbie wrote:
FlamingPeasant wrote:

Looking at the budget build for a new machine.

Newegg has the i5-4440 in a combo with the MSI Z87-G41 mobo and 4Gb of GSkill 1600 DDR3 for $270. Plus $43 for another 4GB of RAM, $310ish. Motherboard has mediocre reviews though.

Budget build components total $370.

Any thoughts on that motherboard?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8hJrGX

$344.22 with a better motherboard.

Insert comment about overclocking and K chips. Would need a Z board for that.

That's not a K chip though.

Yes, but is should be.

I tend to agree, but for a budget build getting a non-k chip and cheaper motherboard is a major saving.

FlamingPeasant wrote:

Looking at the budget build for a new machine.

Surprised nobody has asked this yet.... what's the goal for the machine?

Gaming is the goal. Been squeaking by on hand me downs for awhile. A month or so ago my framerate went kaput, even in TF2 where it was usually very good. BF4 became unplayable. I suspect the PSU is the issue. Looking to build a solid new machine on a budget rather than nursing this one along.

What am I missing on the K chips and Z boards? Why do I feel like an old man talking about skate boarding tricks?

FlamingPeasant wrote:

Gaming is the goal. Been squeaking by on hand me downs for awhile. A month or so ago my framerate went kaput, even in TF2 where it was usually very good. BF4 became unplayable. I suspect the PSU is the issue. Looking to build a solid new machine on a budget rather than nursing this one along.

What am I missing on the K chips and Z boards? Why do I feel like an old man talking about skate boarding tricks?

If it's not shutting off, I don't think it would be PSU. That sounds more like a heat throttling issue. Fan, dust, etc. Clean it out, make sure everything is running that should be, and check temps.

A month or so ago my framerate went kaput, even in TF2 where it was usually very good.

As Mannish says, that sounds more like a heat problem than a PSU issue. You might have a bum or clogged fan; worth checking. It could also be a failing video card, though at that point switching up to something new might make sense.

What am I missing on the K chips and Z boards? Why do I feel like an old man talking about skate boarding tricks?

Overclocking. This isn't as important as it was, as current chips don't OC as much as they used to. In the Sandy Bridge era, ~3.5 years ago, you were outright dumb not to buy one: my 2600K, for instance, has a stock turbo mode of 3.8 GHz, runs at 4.4GHz flawlessly, and probably would go to 4.8 if I ever pushed it. (I don't even overvolt it to get 4.4.) My system is still almost as fast as one I'd buy new today. It was an extremely good purchase.

But current chips don't OC that far anymore, and even the new 4690K, which is supposedly 'designed for overclocking', barely goes faster than its official turbo speed, 4.4GHz. The initial OC results I was seeing were maybe 4.8GHz, which is only a 10% boost from stock clocks. The stock speed is really attractive; the 4690K is one of the fastest chips Intel makes, but the OC results aren't great. (Unfortunately, the non-K 4690 is clocked much slower, so you wouldn't want it: this is one of the few cases where K means more than 'overclockable'.)

Our most common recommendation here is the 4670K; it's got a good default clock rate, some overclockability, and doesn't cost a mint.

If you're not going to OC, then you don't need a K chip, and you probably don't need the higher-end chipsets. The H series is probably fine. Just verify that the board you want has at least a couple of PCIe slots (each at least x8 or higher), four RAM slots, and enough SATA and USB3 ports to keep you happy. I also like to make sure it has Intel networking and a reasonable Realtek sound chip. The premium sound chips sound fairly amazing, these days, but even the basic ones are acceptable, and the drivers are almost always extremely solid.

My favored motherboard brand is typically ASUS. I just like their designs. This one looks fine, for instance:

ASUS H97M-PLUS LGA 1150 Intel H97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard, at $105.

This one is Micro ATX, but the normal ATX board (H97-PLUS, instead of M Plus) has Realtek networking, which I've never liked much. (Maybe they're better these days, however, as I haven't bought one in a long time. I can say that they were pretty much sh*t up through five years ago, and haven't heard anything different since.) It also has a secondary PCIe slot of only x4, instead of x8, but honestly, it's not likely to be a big deal, and the price is quite attractive.

Been using realtek networking for awhile with no issues.

Also the only reason I linked those particular parts is because I thought your budget was $350.

What kind of video card do you currently have?

I agree with Mannish on the temps, if you run a temp montior and see your temps are high to might need to take the cpu out and reapply your paste if it's gotten crusty and dried up.

might need to take the cpu out and reapply your paste if it's gotten crusty and dried up.

Note that if this did happen, use Arctic Silver 5 as the replacement. AFAIK, it never dries out.

I'll start monitoring the temps and check out the fans and thermal paste. It doesn't seem to be tied to load on either the cpu or gpu. I can start it up, hop into a game and it's chunky from the get go. Doesn't start smooth and degrade.

Suggestions for a temp monitor? Using RealTemp 3.7GT.

Off the bat I'm seeing 65, 65, 61, 73. Less than 5% load. Varies but that last core is consistently hotter.

If that's what you're seeing at idle, that's real high. Try CoreTemp (make sure to get the alternate installer without crapware) and the Intel Burn Test. IBT puts a hell of a load on a microprocessor.

I think what you'll see is all four cores cranking up to 90 and staying there, meaning that your CPU is self-throttling from load. That means your CPU cooling is busted.