Desktop Computers

Might be fake:

And probably just a rename.

Specs look pretty awesome on paper, im eager to see how the HBM performs versus current GPUs.

I'd take one of these

I'll sell you one for 49.999$.

These drives are interesting. Surprisingly fast external SSDs via USB port from Samsung

Samsung T1 Portable SSD review - PC Gamer

I'm looking for some opinions on my video card situation. Currently I'm using a GTX760 I bought when I built my current computer ~2 years ago, but I'm now running two 1920x1080 LCD's and while it's fine if I'm only using one of them I'd like to be able to game on one while playing videos or whatever on the second without a huge slowdown. Now obviously I'm not expecting to get 60fps in modern games while running the second monitor but games like Diablo3 + second monitor at 30+ fps would be nice.

So on to my question; currently the two frontrunners for me are the 290/290x and the GTX970. I hear frequently that the 970 is better for single screen and the 290's are better multi-screen/higher resolution at the tradeoff of higher temps and power draw and the 290's also tend to be $30-50 cheaper than the 970's. Factoring in that the 300 series AMD is releasing soonish does anyone have a strong opinion on the 290 vs 970 in my case and further whether this would even be a good time to buy or wait until the summer for more options to become available?

you don't need to upgrade if all you want to do is play a video game on one monitor and play a movie on another monitor. Movie files are CPU bound, not GPU bound. GPU is used for textures, floating point operations, ray tracing, etc. CPU is used for decompressing video content. I have a 680 and run games at 60 fps while running a movie fullscreen and having another monitor for web browsing. Especially for stuff like Diablo 3, Battlefield, etc. Yeah, GTA5/Witcher 3/Battlefront 3/Star Citizen/etc will require better GPUs to get max visual quality at 1080p 60 fps (or higher) but you will run them all at 30 fps and still be able to play a 1080p movie on another screen, no problem.

What you really want to upgrade for is when you want to do 4k gaming, or dual(+) screen gaming - ie mash two monitors together and play on both of them simultaneously like something out of the matrix or extreme flight simming.

i'd really, really just wait to upgrade unless your GPU dies and you need to replace asap. Reasons are (1) windows 10, (2) directX 12, (3) Valve/Oculus virtual reality. All 3 will drive changes to GPUs in the next few months, realistically we will see shitty v1.0 iterations of their tech this fall and better v2.0 iterations early next year. That'll be the sweet spot to buy. Yes, cards you buy now may have DX12 drivers but you bet your ass they won't be optimized as well as stuff that comes out later.

Agree with Spronk. Gaming on one screen + video on the other would benefit more from a processor upgrade, if your processor is old & outdated. This is an area where an i7 shines compared to an i5 (or an i5 is better than an i3/dual-core, etc)

Finally getting around to rebuilding my machine tonight. One of my favorite things to do It's been a couple of years since I've had the pleasure. Kind of a sucker for Lian Li, found a quirky mATX cube on sale and grabbed it for this refresh.

A little nerd porn of the new stuff going in (that psu isn't new, I know it's overkill, but it's here, was for a different project once upon a time been sitting on shelf) -

What state are you in that they add tax? That blows.

North Carolina 'Bama fan, eh?

I actually have two good friends in Mobile, Alabama. One attended Alabama undergrad and North Carolina graduate school(Bama football & Carolina Bball fan), the other attended Auburn undergrad and Duke medical school(Auburn football and Duke Bball fan). I have no idea how they are friends with each other.

Dammit I have tax from both amazon and newegg. thanks jerry brown