Help me build my PC 2017 Catch All

Robear wrote:
Middcore wrote:

Robear wrote:

Jonnypolite, I'm pretty sure G-Sync uses a proprietary scaler in the monitor, so... I don't think it would work at all.

You're a little behind the times. Nvidia all but admitted defeat early this year and allowed G-sync to function on Freesync monitors. There's a (short) list of monitors they've officially certified as "G-sync compatible" but a lot of others also work pretty well.

Huh. My understanding is that both G-Sync and FreeSync use special shader components, meaning that without that hardware, you aren't going to get anywhere. Is that incorrect? Can I buy a random DisplayPort monitor and run Freesync or G-Sync on it?

If the monitor supports Freesync, it's likely you can run G-Sync on it as well. I'd check the GeForce compatibility list and user reports to see if it works. (The compatibility list is only what Nvidia has tested. Many more actually work.)

Shadout wrote:

Speaking of which, is there any good reason freesync wont work on gsync monitors then? Would be really great.

This is my not 100% certain understanding:

G-Sync uses a proprietary hardware module. FreeSync is an open standard. NVIDIA was able to update their driver to add FreeSync support, because there was never any barrier to doing so. But AMD would not be able to write G-Sync support into their driver because of the proprietary nature of the G-Sync module without NVIDIA opening it up or otherwise sharing information (and, probably, waiving some legal restrictions).

*Legion* wrote:
Shadout wrote:

Speaking of which, is there any good reason freesync wont work on gsync monitors then? Would be really great.

This is my not 100% certain understanding:

G-Sync uses a proprietary hardware module. FreeSync is an open standard. NVIDIA was able to update their driver to add FreeSync support, because there was never any barrier to doing so. But AMD would not be able to write G-Sync support into their driver because of the proprietary nature of the G-Sync module without NVIDIA opening it up or otherwise sharing information (and, probably, waiving some legal restrictions).

I think this is correct.

Nvidia COULD have supported FreeSync at any time but chose not to up until now because they'd rather sell a proprietary implementation of the same concept (which, in total fairness, does have some advantages). Because G-sync is a proprietary standard, it's impossible for AMD to support it.

I bought one of those Data Vacs a while back and used it for the first time today. Damn that thing is great! It did a fantastic job of cleaning out my computer! Totally worth the purchase! Looking forward to using those compressed cans of air far less often, if ever again!

PC building!

Got some new parts from work.

My usage is mostly gaming, a bit of video ripping and recoding from DVD and BD discs when the need arises, and some light home office usage. I’m a heavy user of streaming to Steam Link or my laptop so it needs to be able to handle that. I’ve long suspected that certain games that don’t stream nicely are just working the CPU too hard and not leaving any room for the encoding. And when I’m converting videos with Handbrake it can be fairly slow.

Old parts on their way out:
i5 3450
16GB DDR3 1600
Cheap motherboard
Assortment of HDDs and SSDs of various ages.

New:
i7 8700
16GB DDR4 2666
B360 board
Intel 1TB NVMe
Samsung 1TB Evo 850 (not quite new, recycled from another PC).

Retaining: Case, PSU, GTX 1070, Cooler Master Hyper 212, BD Drive.

It’s been a while since I worked on a PC like this but I didn’t have any serious problems. I’ve managed to break the SATA connector on the Blu Ray drive but it still works - I might be able to fix it up with a part I used on one of the old HDDs when something similar happened.

I was going to be lazy and clone Windows to the new SSD but the Intel cloning software didn’t recognise the Intel NVMe drive. So it’s a fresh install and everything’s running nicely. Testing it out by finally playing AC: Black Flag. You might say that would have run fine with the old hardware, and it did - but I couldn’t stream it over the Steam Link. Now that’s working really nicely.

And .. I know the general recommendation around these parts is for AMD CPUs but they weren’t on offer so that was not an option for me.

Overall, quite pleased with the result.

stupidhaiku wrote:

I'm actually considering a 5700XT as a replacement for my GTX970 to power a CV1 Rift and so I can crank the detail in 1080p gaming. Considering I'm comfortable enough around thermal paste and taking computer things apart, is the general consensus that that would be a good use of a $400ish budget? The only ray-traced product I'm currently interested in is Quake 2 and figure the tech will have matured (or flopped) enough in the 2-4 years I'm hoping to keep this card to keep raytracing out of the must-have territory for at least that long.

I would suggest waiting another month until the 3rd parties release their custom cards.

If for no other reason than that they'll probably do the cooling properly.

Congrats Redherring, that seems like a nice upgrade. What kind of laptop are you streaming it to? I tried Steam streaming again recently but it was too janky for me, not sure if it was CPU limited or Wifi that caused it.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Congrats Redherring, that seems like a nice upgrade. What kind of laptop are you streaming it to? I tried Steam streaming again recently but it was too janky for me, not sure if it was CPU limited or Wifi that caused it.

Thanks. I should clarify that the problem I solved was with streaming to the Steam Link with everything wired. The laptop is an HP Elitebook, and even with wireless AC the experience can vary between OK and unusable. I’ve mainly used it for slower paced or turn based games because of that. It filled a gap for games that were too demanding for the onboard Intel graphics to cope with.

So I would try wiring the laptop to the network, that should tell you if it’s a wifi issue or not. There’s also some client settings to show statistics as you stream, that is supposed to show you any bottlenecks, but I haven’t had much success with interpreting it.

Just need to check something with you all, if I may?

I'm pretty much ready to jump on my GPU, having found an RX 580 mid size card that will fit in my available space.

The trouble is, I found a video asking if the 570 and 580 are still viable in todays market, and $/performance, the answer is yes, BUT the 570 performed better from a budget perspective.

So, given Australian pricing, I thought I'd double check here, to dissolve any buyers' remorse, before I buy..

Here's the video that sparked my interest.

That video had me contemplating a 570 instead of the 580, just based on price to performance, BUT the GWJ hive mind pointed out that if I'm looking to push the emulation on my system, then an 8GB card would match emulated systems more readily than 4GB would.

Comparing these two, there's not much in it (even though they have the RAM wrongly quoted on the HIS card).
https://versus.com/en/his-radeon-rx-...

And pricing locally on the two has the 570 at AU$199, and the 580 at AU$299. I don't have an issue spending the extra AU$100, if you feel it's a good investment, and a way of possibly extending the life of the card past my current (Optiplex 990 i7 7500) setup. Still only planning on hitting 1080P for my display, if that makes a difference, it's a 24" ACER V6 (V246HL).

ETA
Apparently the HIS card is currently qualifying for 3 months of XBox Game Pass for free...

Purchase qualifying AMD Radeon™ graphics or Ryzen™ processors and get 3 months of Xbox Game Pass for PC free!* Redeem today or wait until Spring 2019 and play Gears 5 plus a horde of high-quality PC games*.

Sorry it took so long to post an update!

You know how when you try to find a recipe online, and there's a novella of a preamble before you get the ingredients you wish you could skip? I won't do that to you, the preamble is under the spoiler below!
Pics here! I don't want to chonk up the thread with huge images, so an imgur link should suffice!

THE DEETS:
Since I'm new an I don't know what computer really is yet, some of what I've written here is from the packaging or what I gleaned from the PM exchanges between Apaksl and generous folks, so pardon if my labeling here is a little odd!

CPU: i7-4790k intelcore 4ghz
Motherboard: Z97S SLI Krait Edition
GPU: GTX 970
Ram:32GB
Storage: SU 655 480GB 2.5 Sata
Power Supply: Corsair 4x750
Case: Thermalcore CoreG21
Fans: three fans, one that lights up and two that don’t. I need to learn a bit more about these tbh
Monitor: LG 23” HD 1080p LED
Keyboard: some dusty IT department closet find
Mouse: Corsair Vengeance M60

I love you, thank you all so much.

Spoiler:

My dad is an engineer. Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, we had a home network server running throughout my childhood, over which he was the executor and network administrator. I don’t think I really appreciated the novelty of this in my youth. I barely appreciated it for what it was until a few years ago.

He built every computer in that home. This was his domain; it was his particular brand of alchemy and power that we weren’t privy to. He’d magic those hardware and software upgrades into existence, pop the case back on, and present to us whole. Though I always found it interesting, it was also so easy to just accept a thing that works and not really look under the hood or appreciate what was done. Teenage ingratitude at play.

When I married and moved out, my spouse took on that role. They were machines originally built for his preferences and needs, handed down or cobbled together and gratefully accepted. When something failed in my desktop machine, I sent it off to Apaksl to salvage it for a desktop pc for one of my nieces, and my husband gave me the same gaming laptop that has gotten me through 2+ years of gaming and podcasts until recent manufacturer issue caused it to overheat and render it unstable a little over a month ago.

The timing is...not great. Just to name a few details, on a waitlist for (non-life-threatening, don’t worry) surgery, pending a divorce, and just left an abusive, toxic work environment where I took a $5/hour paycut and am now working two part-time poorly-paying jobs to scrape by in the most expensive city in Canada. The landlord is forever raising the rent as much as the law will allow. I feel like there’s more going on, but if it’s not slapping me in the face at the moment, it’s a non-issue while I try to just juggle the more pressing ones. I’m forgetting other f*cked up things because they’re just not pinging the radar anymore, to be honest!

The laptop dying was a real kick in the pants. By the way, it’s totally normal and okay for people at this point to just lay down on the floor and cry for a day or two.

On the urging of my D&D group, which I was attempting to attend via dischord on my phone, I realized a few things. Firstly, trying to D&D long-term on a phone sucks.

Secondly, there are times when it’s okay to ask for help and support. It is okay and not an admission of failure as a person to accept it.

Thirdly, (conversely) I’m getting divorced and also nearly forty? I could spend the rest of my existence old and alone forever, and I won’t know how to upgrade hardware in my primary source of interaction and engagement because someone else was always around to take care of that stuff for me before? That’s weird and sad. I need (want) to be more independent about this kind of thing. I want the pride and independence that knowledge would entail.

So about that second point. Some suggestions were to pool funds to buy a new laptop or computer, but that felt bad and wrong to me. Might just be the poor people bad habits coming out about accepting funds. I asked people for stuff they had laying around, just whatever was collecting dust. In my head, I was thinking parts that maybe didn’t hold as much value, things that were castoffs, things I would feel less guilty for accepting than money. Something that could get me online and maybe, just maybe, play some games. If spread out among many people, it seemed like the impact of my request would be less of a burden for all involved. I hate being a burden. I try to avoid situations where I might be a burden by asking anyone for help. I’m aware that’s not very healthy.

There were offers that were much nicer than I was ever hoping for. Entire rigs nearly built and ready beyond my expectations that I turned down for reasons, and I feel bad for making that awkward for everyone involved. I am still learning how to be gracious with my gratitude, and I sincerely hope you all understand that is 100% me being a dumbass about accepting generosity freely given.

After learning from that awkward experience, I tried to proceed with accepting your incredible kindness. I’ll continue trying to be better about that in the future.

Thank you to Chairman Mao for the beautiful monitor! It’s gorgeous and probably the nicest monitor I’ve ever had.

Thank you to middcore for the power supply and supporting cables, a very satisfying part of the installment. Something about finally putting the last bit where you put the plug in kind of settled home how real this whole process was.

Thank you to benign1 for the ram, cpu/gpu and motherboard that is, dare I say, sexy as hell. Dude! These elements were extremely appreciated, and I cannot express enough how helpful this all was. Clean as a whistle and gently packaged and cared for, too! Both Apak and I have worked in shipping and receiving and appreciated the good packing job you did on this.

Thank you, again, to Apaksl for the storage, case, keyboard, fans, and walking me through the basics of putting it all together. It’s an incredibly important beginning, and I appreciate your careful process in making sure this was all arranged as best as possible.

Thank you all so, so much. It’s a start. An AMAZING start, well beyond my expectations. Because Apaksl made sure to get a pretty, glass-sided case, I’ve climbed under the desk a few times already just to go look in it. I find the sound of the fans calming, and I love them, but the podcasting mic definitely picks it up if it’s sitting on the desk.

I’m not in a place where I could have bought this stuff myself right now. There’s just...too much going on. With your generosity and support, I’m able to podcast again. Play games with my friends and my twin, again. Engage with this fine community, again.

Thank you so, so much.

I read the preamble... awesome stuff. What an amazing community... world should probably read the stories here more often... it would be a better place. I'm proud to have been introduced to GWJ and all the amazing cyber people I've met. Jebus... it gets dusty a lot when I'm reading the forums.

m0nk3yboy wrote:

And pricing locally on the two has the 570 at AU$199, and the 580 at AU$299.

That's about a 15% or so performance difference for a 50% increase in price.

If it were me, I'd probably grab the 570 and save that $100 towards a future upgrade.

Congratz on getting the PC built Amoebic!!!

And what is the deal with dads not passing on their knowledge to our generation? I have no idea how much time I spent holding lights or boards or passing tools or bricks to my dad and yet he explained nothing of what he was doing to me.

For what it's worth, Rykin, my experience is that my grandfather and my father would "show me" things by putting me in the middle of them, telling me how it should look at the end, and then waiting expectantly. They'd help out some, and give me hints, but learn by doing is the farmer's creed, in our family.

Rykin wrote:

Congratz on getting the PC built Amoebic!!!

And what is the deal with dads not passing on their knowledge to our generation? I have no idea how much time I spent holding lights or boards or passing tools or bricks to my dad and yet he explained nothing of what he was doing to me.

We keep thinking there is always time and we will do the teaching later because right now we need to just finish this one thing real quick.

My dad taught me a ton about how to think, how to learn, how to approach problems, how to get back up when I get knocked down, and how to be tolerant and conscientious.

The "how" I've had to learn on my own.

I don't think that's a bad approach, but there is no single right way to raise children, and the jury is still out on whether this worked or not in my case

*Legion* wrote:
m0nk3yboy wrote:

And pricing locally on the two has the 570 at AU$199, and the 580 at AU$299.

That's about a 15% or so performance difference for a 50% increase in price.

If it were me, I'd probably grab the 570 and save that $100 towards a future upgrade.

So don't be too concerned about the 570 being 4GB, and the 580 being 8GB?

m0nk3yboy wrote:
*Legion* wrote:
m0nk3yboy wrote:

And pricing locally on the two has the 570 at AU$199, and the 580 at AU$299.

That's about a 15% or so performance difference for a 50% increase in price.

If it were me, I'd probably grab the 570 and save that $100 towards a future upgrade.

So don't be too concerned about the 570 being 4GB, and the 580 being 8GB?

For that price difference, no. If the price difference was narrower, then it might be different.

*Legion* wrote:
m0nk3yboy wrote:

So don't be too concerned about the 570 being 4GB, and the 580 being 8GB?

For that price difference, no. If the price difference was narrower, then it might be different.

Thank you! Appreciate the advice.

Limbo is free on Epic right now!

I got in all my parts for the build.
MSI B450 Gaming Plus
Ryzen 3600
EVGA 1060
T-Force 2666mhz ram 2-8gb
Intel M.2 512 GB drive, 512 gb SSD from old pc (still in that pc), various mechanical drives from old pc (still in old pc)
Thermaltake Core V21 Case
Corsair 650 watt PSU

Successfully flashed my motherboard to the latest bios. Installed everything and it won't boot consistently. Removed everything but ram and 1060 and it won't boot consistently. When it does boot the fan on the 1060 doesn't completely spin up and stops after a short time. Tried it with an older card (5850) and it seems to boot more consistently but still not consistent. If I plug a fan into the motherboard's system fan headers it will not boot. Ever. When plugged in the CPU led lights up (indicating a bad cpu theoretically). Sometimes the VGA led lights up (indicating a video card issue).

The motherboard didn't come with a screw for the m.2 connection. It came with a riser but not a screw for the riser. At first I connected the m.2 with the riser which meant it touched the motherboard.

Here is what I've done.
Removed the motherboard from the case and set it on a wooden desk.
Removed one stick of ram (swapping sticks and slots occasionally)
Swapped video cards
Unplugged everything else
I don't have any DDR4 ram to test with but I could probably find a stick at work.

I have gotten into the bios and according to the bios the 12v rail is at 12.05 and the 5.03. CPU temps are normal (36). It does register some parts of the motherboard at 85C (I assume C as there are some parts at 20).

It is still in the return window. I have put in a ticket with MSI (more of a pain in the ass than filing taxes). Any other suggestions?

After posting this I had my first successful boot. It was after getting into the bios and saving, having it not start, and then posting this. The video card fan also spun up as normal. I saw the MSI logo for the first time since I got the system put together. Rebooted and now 3 times in a row it won't boot.

EvilHomer3k wrote:

After posting this I had my first successful boot. It was after getting into the bios and saving, having it not start, and then posting this. The video card fan also spun up as normal. I saw the MSI logo for the first time since I got the system put together. Rebooted and now 3 times in a row it won't boot.

This is a weird thing but... try disconnecting the reset switch on the case from the motherboard pins and see what happens.

Reddit is loaded with people that this fixes inconsistent boot problems for.

I haven't seen an explanation yet, as it seems to be a thing across multiple motherboard models and brands.

If that doesn’t work just return the motherboard and buy a different one. Why tear your hair out and get frustrated while spending hours on it?

LeapingGnome wrote:

If that doesn’t work just return the motherboard and buy a different one. Why tear your hair out and get frustrated while spending hours on it?

I agree. I would go straight to returning the MSI board and pick up something else (I'd go with an ASUS myself).

*Legion* wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

If that doesn’t work just return the motherboard and buy a different one. Why tear your hair out and get frustrated while spending hours on it?

I agree. I would go straight to returning the MSI board and pick up something else (I'd go with an ASUS myself).

I wouldnt in this case, because it's been reported on boards across three different chipsets and all brands and does not appear to be an actual motherboard issue.

In at least two cases... boards that worked fine with Ryzen 2000 series chips pre-bios update and Ryzen 3000 install.

Also MSI is widely recognized as having made hands down the best B450 motherboards. They just did it better than every single other manufacturer for that one set of boards.

Thin_J wrote:
EvilHomer3k wrote:

After posting this I had my first successful boot. It was after getting into the bios and saving, having it not start, and then posting this. The video card fan also spun up as normal. I saw the MSI logo for the first time since I got the system put together. Rebooted and now 3 times in a row it won't boot.

This is a weird thing but... try disconnecting the reset switch on the case from the motherboard pins and see what happens.

Reddit is loaded with people that this fixes inconsistent boot problems for.

I haven't seen an explanation yet, as it seems to be a thing across multiple motherboard models and brands.

Nothing is connected to the board from the case. I'm using a screwdriver to start it. Thanks for suggesting Reddit. There are lots of threads there. One has a list of half a dozen fixes but the guy still doesn't have his system stable.

I have until August 4th to send the board back. I'm going to work with this and see but after looking at the posts on Reddit, specifically this one, I'm not far from sending the board and cpu back and getting a 9600K.

Reddit may often be a cesspool but hardware focused subreddit a can be a great source of information from folks with the same gear.

I'm going to return the board. An MSI rep posted on reddit that he thinks it will be the end of the month before they get a stable bios out for the Tomahawk (the board they are concentrating on). My board is 3rd or 4th in pupularity so it will likely be a week or two after that for my board. So I won't have any idea if the board will ever be stable. I'm returning the cpu, motherboard, and case. Not sure yet if I'm going to wait and get a 3000/x570 or just get an 8600K.