Desktop Computers

gogusrl

gogusrl

Molten Core Raider
1,359
102
We're kinda getting offtopic here but here's anotherchartwith a 10C difference between 2 compounds. The internet is full of charts with any result you might want. You made me curious enough to read about the paste that comes with the evo 212 and indeed it's pretty great and doesn't warrant buying something else.

Regarding your idle temps, 4 12cm fans @ 1600 rpm explain a lot. How can you stand them ?!


edit : I notice now my praised monitoring software is fucking up my fan speed readings in Windows 8. They should hang around 600-800 rpm, none of them are even rated for 2k.
 
mkopec

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
25,448
37,590
gogusrl_sl said:
We're kinda getting offtopic here but here's anotherchartwith a 10C difference between 2 compounds. The internet is full of charts with any result you might want. You made me curious enough to read about the paste that comes with the evo 212 and indeed it's pretty great and doesn't warrant buying something else.

Regarding your idle temps, 4 12cm fans @ 1600 rpm explain a lot. How can you stand them ?!


edit : I notice now my praised monitoring software is fucking up my fan speed readings in Windows 8. They should hang around 600-800 rpm, none of them are even rated for 2k.
Click to expand...
I was wrong on the case fan speeds, they are rated at 940 RPM not 1600 RPM. But they are directly plugged to the PS so they are running on full I would assume. But the computer is pretty dang quiet though. I will post some picts later.
 
Pasteton

Pasteton

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,618
1,729
Ok so what's the cheapest build that can handle and reasonably balance with a 660ti or better? I am not averse to radeon as long as it is 660ti or better. Also I have a small space about 15 x 15inch, wife doesnt want pc visible, so needs to be sff.
Budget of 600$ can make this happen?
 
mkopec

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
25,448
37,590
That 15x15 is gonna be tough. also the 660ti or equivalent is about $250+ so there goes almost 1/2 your budget.
 
gogusrl

gogusrl

Molten Core Raider
1,359
102
So those 600$ should be cpu+mb+ram+hdd+psu+case (no vga) ?

Here's a quick build from newegg
3q9zG5t.png



edit : rereading your post, if those 600$ should include a 660 ti or equivalent, then drop the SSD, grab an i3-3220 and increase your budget another 50-75$.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

Molten Core Raider
8,157
140
I run a watercooled Corsair H100i, and I used their stock thermal paste.

Here's my computer basically idling(just web browsing, downloading torrents, skype running, steam running, etc. No games) Averages about 25 degrees C
rrr_img_16385.jpg


Heres my PC while running Prime 95 for about 20 minutes. It actually fluctuates from like 80-85ish degrees pretty much constantly once it's completely warmed up with all cores stressed to 100%. That being said, nothing in practical use pushed the CPU that hard, while I'm gaming it's usually in the high 60s or low 70s. My 3570K is running at 4600mhz, and I've probably clocked the voltage up more than I really needed to, but I didnt want to take the time to find the absolute minimum stable voltage since the 1.544v was plenty cool still. 4800mhz was *pretty* stable at this voltage as well, it never crashed while gaming or doing anything *but* prime95, but I decided to clock it back down a bit anyways. I ran it for about a week at 4800mhz with no issues other than prime95, probably could have left it and been fine, but didn't want to risk it.
rrr_img_16386.jpg


The temps actually did spike up into the 90s until I remembered that I had all my radiator fans hard-set to low/quiet, turned them up to high and got it back down into the low 80s
 
Eomer

Eomer

Trakanon Raider
5,472
272
heh, I've got one that's about 3-4 years old (not the exact same model obviously), and I'm almost tempted to buy another at that price.
 
D

Diamyr_sl

shitlord
124
1
Just ordered one of the ultrasharps even though I live in the US, they charged my CC and I got a confirmation email as well. We'll see if it ships or if they cancel it..
 
mkopec

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
25,448
37,590
So here are my temps... I guess I made a mistake before saying that my proc was @4.4, its @4.2 which probably makes a big difference.

Idle and 100% load

rrr_img_16406.jpg
rrr_img_16407.jpg
 
Hateyou

Hateyou

Not Great, Not Terrible
<Bronze Donator>
16,393
42,589
Hey guys. This post may be asking a lot, as I haven't kept up with PCs at all since I bought a house 5 years ago. I'm looking to build a new PC as mine is 5 years old now and showing it's age/getting on my nerves. I don't play top of the line games so don't need to build a latest and greatest. Mostly I play old stuff like Titan Quest, Dragon Age, DOS emulated stuff like MoM and roguelikes and various Steam games I pick up once in a while. Lately I've been hooked on Path of Exile.

Anyways, I'm looking to build something decent for around $1k, and don't feel like using any old parts from my current rig (Probably not worth trying). I have keyboard, mouse, speakers, headset, and monitor I am happy with so just need the tower. I don't want to go larger than a midsize case. I'd like to stick with Nvidia also.

Couple of questions...

Is getting a Solid State worth it? What do people do, get a 250gig solid, and a 2tb-ish normal drive and just keep the solid state clear of garbage/use the normal for storage? What do I need to do that, just set up a RAID? I've never done that...is it a pain in the ass to set up that way/use?

Is upgrading to Windows 7 worth it? I've never gone past XP since I didn't like Vista and I have an XP disc I can reuse if I don't upgrade. I'm also so familiar with it, and we use it at work...maybe I just don't know what I'm missing. I'm willing to give it a shot though if it performs a lot better or something/shrug...am I going to have problems getting older games to run on 7?

I know I could Google for a while and find all this shit, but I trust you guys more than random Google searches, and would love to have a single reference point.
 
mkopec

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
25,448
37,590
Here is a good start...
PCPartPicker part list/Price breakdown by merchant/Benchmarks

CPU:Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler:Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler($29.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard:ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard($134.99 @ Amazon)
Memory:G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory($58.99 @ Newegg)
Storage:Samsung 830 Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk($219.99 @ Newegg)
Storage:Seagate SV35.5 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive($81.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card:EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Video Card($295.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case:Antec Three Hundred Two ATX Mid Tower Case($54.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply:SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply($89.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive:Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer($17.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System:Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total:$1264.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-06 21:18 EST-0500)

You can scrmp on some shit above like the video card, but all in all its a good price vs performance gaming system.

SSD is definitely worth it. Pound for pound it will give your new rig the most noticeable performance boost. Definitely upgrade to Win 7 since it is made to work with SSDs and will proably be faster than XP.

You dont need raid or any of that crap. Just plug your drives in and install OS on the SSD (there will be 3gb/s sata ports and 6gb/s sata ports on the mo-bo, plug in the SSD to 6gb/s port and set the mo-bo to run in AHCI mode in bios) thats about the only setup you need. Then there are some tweaks to make in windows to set up your shit... See below for web page.. also you will want to install all your games on the storage drive unless you play the shit out of one game or something, then you could install it on the SSD for better loading times, etc.

If games will play on XP they will usually play on 7. It has an XP compatibility mode. Time to get rid of XP, man, that shit is like circa 2000.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/windo...n-to-size/2941
 
Hateyou

Hateyou

Not Great, Not Terrible
<Bronze Donator>
16,393
42,589
Fuckin awesome man thanks.

Any of that stuff likely to drop in the next couple of months? I'm in no real rush (of course I want it asap, but I can be patient:p) and I know how that shit used to be when a new release would hit and the last gen would tank in price.

I've never had to buy an extra CPU cooler (I don't mind, just curious) do I really need that? If it improves performance or the life time of shit I'm all for it, $30 is cheap...like I said, just curious.
 
mkopec

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
25,448
37,590
The stuff probably wont drop in price much anytime soon. Maybe the video card when the next gen hits, but that wont be for a while. The CPU will definitely not drop in price, Intell leaves prices as is even when a new gen hits. You can probably scrimp on the video card and get the last gen 570 or 580. The cooler is up to you. Your system will run much cooler and quiet and will give you some room to OC if you want to in the future. OC is like changing one number in the Bios. If you dont want to OC and never will do it, get the non K proc and a H77 board. That might save you some dollars but not much.
 
Hateyou

Hateyou

Not Great, Not Terrible
<Bronze Donator>
16,393
42,589
I don't mind spending a couple hundred extra to get quality/what I need, $1k was just a baseline. I got an extra couple grand bonus at work I wasn't really expecting, and have been kicking around the idea of new PC for a while. I'll go through the list later and see what my best options are. Closest MicroCenter is a 2 hour drive for me and most of their shit is pick up only
frown.png


Thanks again.
 
mkopec

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
25,448
37,590
It might be worth a drive on a saturday or something, at least for the proc and motherboard. They have a special running right now if you buy a current gen Intell proc, you get $50 off the motherboard. And the $190 price for the i5 3570 is the best price you will find. If thats worth it for you.

They usually have shit there for cheap that they dont even advertise on their web site. For instance, when I went there to pick up my shit, they had that mo-bo I listed for $100. So in total I spent $240 for botht the proc and mo-bo. That proc alone usually goes for $230. Also when I was there I picked up a nice case for $50 and a sweet 23" Dell 1080p LED display for $130. they also have good deals on SSD's.
 
Falstaff

Falstaff

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
8,313
3,169
Wondering what the opinions of my situation are here...

I've got a desktop that I built about 4 years ago now and have hardly used for the past 2 and a half due to living in an apartment without enough room for a desk... here are the specs (hopefully the picture is good)

WJQ7gXo.png


It's also got a 700W power supply.

My mobo can't handle DDR3 RAM but I can get 4GB of DDR2 RAM for about 70 bucks. The biggest thing I need to upgrade is the video card. I want to spend under $200 for it and was looking at this one:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...k106,3318.html

I've always been loyal to Nvidia but should I be looking at Radeon? Also, is my processor going to hinder any video card upgrades?

I'm trying to avoid doing an all out upgrade but if I have to do it, I will.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

Molten Core Raider
8,157
140
Wel, you kind of have a decision to make. Do you want to spend $200 on a new video card that might get that PC to be serviceable for another year, maybe year and a half while you game with most settings on low to medium, or would you rather spend $700-$800 for an all new system that would be solid for another 3-4 years? A new $200 video card will help, but that machine is at the end of its life, it's only going to delay the inevitable upgrade that'll almost have to take place by probably sometime next year.

If I had to guess, by the first of next year, we should see PC game system requirements start to take pretty decent steps forward for PC ports of PS4 and XBOX 720 games. The only reason current PC hardware has been viable as long as it currently has the last 4-5 years is because the current consoles are WAY past their prime, yet game companies keep developing for them, and thus, requirements stay fairly low on ports and PC versions

A 750W power supply is still great, you could probably carry over your PSU, case, any drives(CD/DVD/Blu-Ray + hard drives) so you're really only looking at having to purchase CPU + mobo + ram + video card. You're already purchasing a video card regardless, so shelling out another $400ish for a good CPU, mobo, and ram isn't a massive expendature really.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.