Help me build my PC 2017 Catch All

Thank god this bitcoin bubble is bursting. I am in the market for a new GPU.

The 27" Acer IPS 1440p G-Sync can be had for $550 today with a coupon code at NewEgg.

Just got Keaton's monitor (Asus 21.5" - he wanted smaller) and the case in. This Corsair 240 wasn't available when I bought my Bitfenix Prodigy. Though I love the Prodigy, the cable management features and flexibility of this Corsair are amazing. Had to let the kid know I'm a bit jealous of his case. Dimensionally it's smaller than mine yet it can accommodate mATX if he ever wants to go with that.

*Legion* wrote:

The 27" Acer IPS 1440p G-Sync can be had for $550 today with a coupon code at NewEgg.

Thanks! That is a great deal! Its MSRP is $799. I will have to grab it.

Yeah, I think Amazon is selling it for $620 right now, but even still, that's another $70 off, nothing to sneeze at.

*Legion* wrote:

It begins.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/lpEmoWl.jpg)

Yikes!

I can't help but wonder how wrung out those cards are.

Certis wrote:

I can't help but wonder how wrung out those cards are.

I would be very wary of buying a used mining card. Especially since flashing GPUs with modded BIOSes for mining was a thing.

I think the real win for gamers won't be the sell-off, but simply the sharp decline in demand for new GPUs.

That said, the big sell-off could flood the market so much that prices drop to the point where it's worth taking a gamble.

I wouldnt touch a used mining GPU unless it was like 80% off retail.

TheGameguru wrote:

I wouldnt touch a used mining GPU unless it was like 80% off retail.

Yeah, the asking price on that picture was the funniest part.

TheGameguru wrote:

I wouldnt touch a used mining GPU unless it was like 80% off retail.

That's what I was thinking. I mean not specifically the 80% off, but if they were massively discounted I might take a gamble on one.

Don't they run these cards at a lower voltage to save on power costs? That might preserve the internals somewhat, right? I would be concerned about the fans on them, for sure, but those are easily replaced.

EriktheRed wrote:

Don't they run these cards at a lower voltage to save on power costs? That might preserve the internals somewhat, right?

Some undervolt and try to optimize performance/watt. Others go the opposite way and crank the living sh*t out of them. What's optimal, and what any given miner actually did, can be two very different things. The mining boom means a lot of people who had no clue were rushing to join in, and were not necessarily setting up the most ideal, sustainable rigs. I shudder to think what some of these knuckleheads trying to muck around with BIOS editing and flashing managed to do to some of these GPUs.

I'm totally with TheGameGuru and Legion there. A lot of miners and others are saying that undervolting schpiel right now in places like /r/buildapc. I'm also hearing about constant use which wears the cards out less than the off and on nature of gaming. While that can be true, a more certain truth is you usually don't know what was done with a given card. Unless you know the person selling the card and how they used it, you're betting on getting lucky.

If they were 80% off, you could just buy several and replace them if/when they died! Disposable GPU pile!

bighoppa wrote:

If they were 80% off, you could just buy several and replace them if/when they died! Disposable GPU pile!

Sounds reasonable for the risk of throwing that money away on something which won't last long and doesn't have a warranty.

I have ordered the case for my file server build. Went with the Case-Labs Mercury S8 since nobody at ThermalTake bothered to answer the question I emailed them about purchasing additional HD mounting rails.

It is a pretty nice looking case:

IMAGE(http://cdn1.bigcommerce.com/server4100/df4bb/products/379/images/2171/S8_main__09396.1418675825.1280.1280.jpg?c=2)

I went with the no windows options so the sides and the top are just solid pieces and the window on the front is vent grill instead of plexi and I did the ventilated flex bay covers.

I picked this case because it can hold a ton of hard drives (26 3.5 inch ones), but was ultimately cheaper and should be quieter and better looking sitting in the corner than a rackmounted solution would have been.

My current parts list is here, but it is all subject to change until I start ordering parts (case is supposed to ship in 6 weeks). Depending on how the new AMD stuff with integrated graphics looks when it actually goes on sale I may switch to them.

So does anyone have any tips on determining whether or not a GPU is dead? So I got this beautiful new monitor and I was playing Overwatch with some GWJers and mid-game my screen just goes black. At first I thought the power had gone out, but the computer was still on and the fan on the GPU was being really loud. I'm able to use my onboard graphics, but my GTX 770 no longer appears in my UEFI or when I use CPU-Z. Is there anything else I should try before I call it dead?

Funny, I just recently had a GTX 770 die in a system that I was preparing to sell off.

*Legion* wrote:

It begins.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/lpEmoWl.jpg)

I'm trying, and failing, to be a better person and not bathe in the mean spirited joy at what is probably significant financial loss for this person.

EriktheRed wrote:

So does anyone have any tips on determining whether or not a GPU is dead? So I got this beautiful new monitor and I was playing Overwatch with some GWJers and mid-game my screen just goes black. At first I thought the power had gone out, but the computer was still on and the fan on the GPU was being really loud. I'm able to use my onboard graphics, but my GTX 770 no longer appears in my UEFI or when I use CPU-Z. Is there anything else I should try before I call it dead?

It's likely the card, but I like to test if possible to eliminate any other potential causes.

If you can try something else in the slot OR try the card in another system, that can help isolate the source of the problem.

In order of likelihood: Card, slot, PSU (a 12v rail, cap, connector).

As far as what to do, if its the card and it's out of warranty you may be able to clean the heat sink and bake it back to life (not likely but hey... dead card). I don't know a reliable guide for that, but have always wanted to try it.

Regardless of the offending component, I'd prepare to replace it via warranty or otherwise.

LouZiffer wrote:
EriktheRed wrote:

So does anyone have any tips on determining whether or not a GPU is dead? So I got this beautiful new monitor and I was playing Overwatch with some GWJers and mid-game my screen just goes black. At first I thought the power had gone out, but the computer was still on and the fan on the GPU was being really loud. I'm able to use my onboard graphics, but my GTX 770 no longer appears in my UEFI or when I use CPU-Z. Is there anything else I should try before I call it dead?

It's likely the card, but I like to test if possible to eliminate any other potential causes.

If you can try something else in the slot OR try the card in another system, that can help isolate the source of the problem.

In order of likelihood: Card, slot, PSU (a 12v rail, cap, connector).

As far as what to do, if its the card and it's out of warranty you may be able to clean the heat sink and bake it back to life (not likely but hey... dead card). I don't know a reliable guide for that, but have always wanted to try it.

Regardless of the offending component, I'd prepare to replace it via warranty or otherwise.

I popped a super old GPU in the slot and it seems to be working fine (except for the fact that I can't run at 1440p with it). Unfortunately this means I need to replace the card, and it is still pretty hard to find decently priced GPUs that can push my new monitor. I'm looking at 1080s and 1070Tis right now, and all the ones I can find are still hundreds of dollars above MSRP.

Here's a 1080 for $649, which is only $50 over MSRP, and it's in stock.

*Legion* wrote:

Here's a 1080 for $649, which is only $50 over MSRP, and it's in stock.

Damn I was too freaking slow!

EriktheRed wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Here's a 1080 for $649, which is only $50 over MSRP, and it's in stock.

Damn I was too freaking slow!

It's back in stock as of 2:26p central Monday.

MrDeVil909 wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

It begins.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/lpEmoWl.jpg)

I'm trying, and failing, to be a better person and not bathe in the mean spirited joy at what is probably significant financial loss for this person.

You go ahead and bathe in that joy. Just acknowledge it for what it is, don’t let those emotions come to consume you, and don’t make the other person miserable.

Build complete! Yesterday the CPU came in, and Keaton couldn't wait any longer. We started building around 5pm after I finished work, and ended with machine complete and loaded with Win10, drivers, and basic software at around 9:30pm.

Here are the parts (except for a 1 to 3 fan splitter).

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For $107.00)

Our first Ryzen! My Intel 4690 is looking over in disgust.

Motherboard: Asus - ROG STRIX B350-I GAMING Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard (Purchased For $130.00)

This was a big decision. We waffled between mATX and ITX a lot until ASUS released this guy. Two m.2 sockets, dedicated sound daughterboard, great wifi reception (needed), bluetooth (needed), hella VRM cooling, good fan control built in, and reinforced memory/card slots give us everything we need in one package. We will only ever go single video card. That fact made B350 a definite. This thing saved us money over buying a motherboard plus separate components.

Memory: GeIL - SUPER LUCE RGB SYNC 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (Purchased For $99.00)

Went with 8GB, and Keaton wanted shiny RGB. Memory prices suck right now.

Storage: Silicon Power - Slim S55 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $62.00)

It's a 'meh' SSD. We're not looking for amazing performance, as these give comparatively amazing performance when compared with spinning metal.

Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($0.00)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($0.00)

Had these around waiting for the day Keaton would get a PC.

Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 750 1GB Video Card ($0.00)

Temporary.

Case: Corsair - Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $83.00)

Great case for clean mATX/ITX installs. Have to be careful of your cooler and video card height (<120mm).

Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $23.00)

Over-engineered. The 12v rail in this can reliably supply a single video card if you're not overclocking anything. 5 year warranty plus a Newegg special, plus manufacturer's money back? Yes please.

Monitor: Asus - VP228H 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor (Purchased For $100.00)

Cheap. Fits the space we have perfectly (about 5mm on either side).

Total: $604.00

Some pictures of the build process and results.

Lessons learned (there always are - and the middle two are why we don't have many pictures of the process):

  • Yes, the Corsair fans can get loud. Hooked up to the motherboard with proper tuning though, they're silent. I don't mind the sound of air moving when there's a good reason. The choice to split the motherboard chassis header instead of go off of a molex was a good one.
  • This was our first Ryzen build. The included HSF is a bastard to get started. Keaton tried for a bit. Then I had to take over to finesse it with a bit more strength. The pressure plus the angle you need to come in at had me sweating a bit as I didn't want the screwdriver to slip. I read about it beforehand, but didn't really appreciate what I was reading until we attempted it. You really do need to get each screw juust started and then go around tightening them bit by bit. NOT EASY.
  • I love the Corsair case. However, Corsair duplicated two packs of screws and didn't include the ones which properly fit the mobo standoffs. It took time and frustration to figure this out, find out we hadn't misplaced or missed anything, and find correct screws in my box of misc parts.
  • Cable management and making things perfect can go too far, especially in a case this conducive to it. Eventually we had to declare, "We're done... for now."
LouZiffer wrote:

Eventually we had to declare, "We're done... for now."[/list]

Every build I ever do

Grats on getting it all up and running!

Gah! I am not sure if I want this to be true or not. I mean, on the one hand, I don't want to buy at the very tail end of a generation, and on the other hand I need a new GPU.

Wccftech is to me at this point almost akin to a tabloid. They run *anything*.

That's not to say they won't be right here but it's 50/50 whether it's worthless non-story or actual information.

If it does turn out to be true I have to wonder if it's a response to mining? If they're getting relatively close enough to a new release it makes sense to start trickling out info about it and getting people interested in a new lineup of cards to try and offset the already starting dump of used current generation cards onto the used market by miners.