The PC Building Thread

I have a rule that I only upgrade PC parts when I'm doubling performance, as I'm below the recommended spec for Watch Dogs I figured I'd have a look what CPU my current motherboard (Asus M5A97) can take, currently have an AMD FX-4170 Quad Core and seems it can take an 8 core so ordered an AMD FX-8350 which should exactly double performance, with the tax deducted it's pretty much £100 so that'll do me :) Also ordered the PS4 media remote but that's something for another thread ;)
 
Thanks bsmaff, much appreciated. I'll have a nosy around. May end up buying everything and building a new in the end but thought I'd start by trying to patch the weaker aspects up first. Though in tru it's probably,y all weak... I bet my specs would be a laughing stock lol. Though it wasn't bought for gaming which is why it was so average.
 
Radiation said:
Thanks bsmaff, much appreciated. I'll have a nosy around. May end up buying everything and building a new in the end but thought I'd start by trying to patch the weaker aspects up first. Though in tru it's probably,y all weak... I bet my specs would be a laughing stock lol. Though it wasn't bought for gaming which is why it was so average.
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What is your current Spec?
 
I'll post it later so I get it all correct but off the top of my head it's poor.

Something like a 2.4ghz processor and the graphics card is a GeForce 8400. Erm.. 2gig ram and erm... Yeah... Poor.


It was bought years ago mainly for non gaming stuff. So I'm going to have to price up the parts and then think.. Is it worth buying separate or just going for a new system and starting from scratch

-

yeah i pretty much got it spot on

intel core 2 duo cpu
2.40 ghz
ram 2 gig
vista 32 bit
gforce 8400

prob need a total restart
 
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Yeah I think you need a rebuild. You could get a 680 but I'm not sure if that CPU would bottleneck it. Plus you ideally need at least 4gb RAM, preferably 8gb.
 
Quite tempted to rebuild my PC in a small form factor case, possibly mATX. I think if my PC is to stay in the living room it needs to be able to fit inside a TV cabinet where it will be out of the way and reasonably child proof.

The Bitfenix Phenom is catching my eye at the moment.
 
Jamezinho said:
Quite tempted to rebuild my PC in a small form factor case, possibly mATX. I think if my PC is to stay in the living room it needs to be able to fit inside a TV cabinet where it will be out of the way and reasonably child proof.

The Bitfenix Phenom is catching my eye at the moment.
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I can't recommend the Fractual Design Node 304 enough, I think it is an amazing little case, brilliant cooling small and fits under my tv nicely.
Also is big enough in depth to fit in any graphics card on the market today, and personally looks very nice.
 
An online friend of mine has that case and is very pleased with it. It's on the list.

Also need to pick up a Z77 mATX board and try and sell my one.
 
One thing to consider is I have a very tall CPU cooler - the Gelid Tranquillo - so I'm not sure if it would fit in the smaller SFF cases. I could always change the cooler but ideally I'd like to keep the cost down and not have to buy more components to do the switch.
 
Here you go James just thought I would show a picture of my Steam machine project, when I get round to doing it properly.

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Thinking of upgrading my graphics card going from a 2gb ATI 6970 and making the switch to *spit* Nvidia, thinking a 4gb 760/770 or something along those lines to get support of various Nvidia specific features and of course onboard Physx, thinking Watch Dogs but also further down the line.

Anyone much experience with Palit cards? Saw this "ex display" http://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/datorkomponenter/191297-palit_geforce_gtx_760_jetstream_4gb&atcl Palit GeForce GTX 760 Jetstream 4GB for £200/245EUR

Or should I pay the extra and get a 770?
 
But a 770 is much cheaper than a 680? Weird!

Probably go with the 770 then, will look for an EU store that accepts my VAT# then I can buy excluding VAT :)
 
I have an interesting (read annoying) issue right now, something is calling wavepad.exe and I can't figure out what the hell it is, this keeps popping up:

ygen1w9.jpg


When I go to task manager I see this:

3iLxXV3.jpg


I uninstalled Wavepad (it was in another folder), I removed every entry in the registry relating to wavepad.exe I checked event viewer and can't see anything throwing up wavepad.exe anyone any ideas?

I did first move wavepad.exe to that folder and sure enough instead of an error message something would simply launch wavepad, but I've no idea what it is!

I've even disabled Program Compatibility Assistant in the hope that stops it!
 
Think I've solved it, for some reason there was a task scheduled related to wavepad, found the specific task and deleted it so we'll see if it happens again! :)
 
From the WD thread but best to continue here:

Placebo said:
Note to self: When you replace a 4 core processor with an 8 core processor of much higher spec remember to check if the cooler you're using is still sufficient for the new CPU! Replaced my cooler master heatsink/fan with the stock one that came with my 8 core CPU and just played Watch Dogs on Ultra everything (that could be Ultra) and MSAA 4x and getting around 60fps with GPU/CPU averaging around 60c :)
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So I ordered a "Silverstone Argon CPU Cooler SST-AR03" as it got good reviews and I saw it for a decent price (£42 then I get 20% back in taxes next year), first impressions were it's massive! Second impressions were when did CPU coolers get so complicated and come with so many pieces? After watching a Youtube video which made a bit more sense than the instructions I got it installed and working, turned the PC on (side of the case is off), completely silent, wife didn't even notice the PC was on! Just played some Watch Dogs to test 1080p everything ultra etc and it didn't go above 50c and was still silent, in fact my Nvidia GTX 770 got a lot hotter (69c), extremely impressed with it! :)
 
Placebo said:
From the WD thread but best to continue here:



So I ordered a "Silverstone Argon CPU Cooler SST-AR03" as it got good reviews and I saw it for a decent price (£42 then I get 20% back in taxes next year), first impressions were it's massive! Second impressions were when did CPU coolers get so complicated and come with so many pieces? After watching a Youtube video which made a bit more sense than the instructions I got it installed and working, turned the PC on (side of the case is off), completely silent, wife didn't even notice the PC was on! Just played some Watch Dogs to test 1080p everything ultra etc and it didn't go above 50c and was still silent, in fact my Nvidia GTX 770 got a lot hotter (69c), extremely impressed with it! :)
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CPU coolers are easier now, most of them just have a backplate which goes underneath the motherboard and then you just screw the correct screws into place on the backplate.

They are only a pain if you need to remove the whole motherboard to fit correctly.
 
It didn't help I was trying to use my existing backplate and assumed the one that came with the cooler was just some part I didn't need, it didn't really look like a backplate at first to me ;)
 
I made a HTPC for just films and am thinking of upgrading to make it suitable to run games.

From what I've been reading in the forums a lot of the games on consoles are out on PC as well and have quite superior graphics so I'm aiming to play games at top quality.

This is my current build.

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220
Graphics Card: Radeon HD6570
Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4-M
Hard Drive: 1 TB Western Digital WD Green WD20EARX x2
SSD: Samsung 840 Series
Memory: 4GB Ram

Am i better off starting from scratch, or is there stuff i can keep and build on?

If its gonna cost a bit i might just update my graphics card as i think that's why XBMC and stuff are a little jittery atm and forget about upgrading to a gaming machine.
 
I recently rebuilt my gaming PC into a HTPC case and so glad I did. Much better as a living room pc under the TV and still housing a GTX 780 and i5 2500k so pretty powerful.
 
Coopz said:
I made a HTPC for just films and am thinking of upgrading to make it suitable to run games.

From what I've been reading in the forums a lot of the games on consoles are out on PC as well and have quite superior graphics so I'm aiming to play games at top quality.

This is my current build.

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220
Graphics Card: Radeon HD6570
Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4-M
Hard Drive: 1 TB Western Digital WD Green WD20EARX x2
SSD: Samsung 840 Series
Memory: 4GB Ram

Am i better off starting from scratch, or is there stuff i can keep and build on?

If its gonna cost a bit i might just update my graphics card as i think that's why XBMC and stuff are a little jittery atm and forget about upgrading to a gaming machine.
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From a gaming perspective I would recommend a new processor, your motherboard would be able to run any Ivybridge or Sandybridge. I would also change the GFX card and upgrade to 8GB RAM. AMD cards are currently offering the best bang per buck, but I much prefer Nvidia cards as they have much better software.
I also don't know the size of your case but my Fractal Design R4's length is very long and allows you to fit any GFX card in there without any issues.
 
bsmaff said:
From a gaming perspective I would recommend a new processor, your motherboard would be able to run any Ivybridge or Sandybridge. I would also change the GFX card and upgrade to 8GB RAM. AMD cards are currently offering the best bang per buck, but I much prefer Nvidia cards as they have much better software.
I also don't know the size of your case but my Fractal Design R4's length is very long and allows you to fit any GFX card in there without any issues.
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OK thanks

I've had a quick read in here and checked these sites

http://graphics-cards-review.toptenreviews.com/
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

and these are what I've come up with for a reasonable price from them. I'd rather pay the lowest price so is there a lot of difference in these 3 and are they a good choice at all?

AMD Radeon R9 280X £150-160
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 £110-130
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 £130-150

For a processor are the £120-140 i5's enough or should i be aiming higher?

Ive got a Fractal case as well, its a CORE 1000 USB 3.0 and says

"Supports graphic card up to 350mm in length with one HDD mounted
Supports graphic card up to 210mm in length with two/three HDD mounted"

I have 2 HDDs but i cant see how that limit the length of the card because it runs under them but worst comes to worst if it doesnt fit ill buy a new case

http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/core-series/core-1000-usb-30
 
Coopz said:
found a good sites for comparisons

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-660-Ti-vs-GeForce-GTX-580

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-660-Ti-vs-AMD-Radeon-R9-280X

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Nvidia-GeForce-GTX-580-vs-AMD-Radeon-R9-280X

Think im gonna go with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 the 660 isn't much better by the looks of it and could probably save £50 by not getting the 280x.
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The 660 and 580 are very similar in benchmarks nothing to choose between them at all.

The 280x however is a much superior card to both of them, around 20-90% depending on game, on benchmarks it wipes the floor to both the 660 and 580.
 
The R9 280X is definitely the winner out of those as bsmaff says. Have a look at the comparisons with the 770gtx, a card that can max most games at the moment. The only thing I would say against the R9 280x is that it tends to run a little hot, so hopefully you've ensured your system has proper cooling.
 
bsmaff said:
The 660 and 580 are very similar in benchmarks nothing to choose between them at all.

The 280x however is a much superior card to both of them, around 20-90% depending on game, on benchmarks it wipes the floor to both the 660 and 580.
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Would i need the R9 280x or better to play Fifa 15 and GTA 5 when they come out at max do you think?

mjsmith2k said:
The R9 280X is definitely the winner out of those as bsmaff says. Have a look at the comparisons with the 770gtx, a card that can max most games at the moment. The only thing I would say against the R9 280x is that it tends to run a little hot, so hopefully you've ensured your system has proper cooling.
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I've had a look and its going at around £200-215, i need to have a good look at what's coming out on the PC before i decide what to get i think. What PC gaming sites do you lot go on?

Heat might be an issue as well, this idea could cost me a fortune :LOL:

Placebo said:
AMD is fine if you have no plans to buy any Ubisoft games in the future and are happy to get buggy drivers with infrequent updates.
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Never even thought of that glad you bought it up, i've got one and i have to run a 2 year old Catalyst package because the all updates after mess up XBMC.
 
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how much could i fetch for my 560TI and what would be a reasonable upgrade on that? (think GTA 5, Arkham 3 etc)
 
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