The PC Building Thread

I've been running one as a boot drive for well over two years and there has been no performance degradation. Still as quick as the day I first installed it. Speed advantage over HDD is considerable. No need to defrag. Prices are coming down fast. What's not to like?

I added a second SSD recently for my most played games.
 
ZeroTheHero said:
An SSD disc is only faster than a regular HDD for a little while, then it slows down for some reason. Waste of money.
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You can't be serious, I've been on the same SSD in my workstation since 2010 and its eons faster/snappier than my 2011 Macbook Pro (running Bootcamp) with a recently replaced 1TB WD HDD.

Probably didn't configure it properly. SSD's work best from fresh OS installs and you still need to do some tweaking to make sure it's running optimally in the long run.
 
Can only be talking about HD, as they have huge performance decrease after a month or two, if running the OS and all programs.

I couldn't recommend an SSD enough, superior performance to the stage I actually have a 256GB boot drive with Windows and Apps and a 500GB SSD just for games.
 
Looking to built an APU / Kaveri-powered PC and paired it with the upcoming R9 285x as I am under modest budget. Hopefully the overall performance won't be far off from current gen consoles.
 
losslesscompression said:
Looking to built an APU / Kaveri-powered PC and paired it with the upcoming R9 285x as I am under modest budget. Hopefully the overall performance won't be far off from current gen consoles.
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What is your budget, that is probably the best thing..

+ The performance of it wont be anywhere near current consoles.. It will be well above and beyond what they are capable off.
 
Any recommendations on a small, box type HTPC case??

Thinking of doing a moderate build for the living room area and want a small case that I can tuck away. Would like it to have good cooling options, DVD drive bay USB 3 ports.

Cheers
 
bsmaff said:
What is your budget, that is probably the best thing..

+ The performance of it wont be anywhere near current consoles.. It will be well above and beyond what they are capable off.
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Since I already spent some on GTX 750 Ti and FM2+ motherboard; MSi A88X - G45 Gaming (bit pricey but I like the features), I have a roughly $300 left for CPU / APU, RAM and PSU (optional). Maybe I can top-up another $50 if necessary.
 
Nvidia are too announce the 900 series GPU's on 9th September with the cards to be released on the 19th September.

No specs or anything have been given yet except they will 4GB VRAM minimum..

I would just expect to see a 10-25% increase in performance over the current models
 
Jamezinho said:
I built mine in a Silverstone Grandia GD05. It's roughly the same size as an AV receiver.
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Thanks I'm looking at the new Corsair 240 Carbide Air. So small and compact and yet it still fits standard sized graphics cards I.e. 780, titan etc and you can get a dual 120 radiator in there like a h100i
 
The PC micro systems are really starting to take off now, the look of them is getting better all the time.. I must say I love the look of the new Corsair Air cases, mine looks really nice from the front but when I built mine I was restricted with choice due to hardly any cases on the market accepting full length cards, but most being released now are starting too.
 
For reference it's this one. Agreed bsmaff, looking forward to seeing more of the steam machines too given that they are also going for small form factor custom cases.

CA-179-CS_93890_350.jpg
 
Agree regarding windowed case. Mine would just be a window into cable management hell.
bsmaff said:
Nvidia are too announce the 900 series GPU's on 9th September with the cards to be released on the 19th September.

No specs or anything have been given yet except they will 4GB VRAM minimum..

I would just expect to see a 10-25% increase in performance over the current models
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So they skipped the 800s then.

The short space between announcement and release suggests there is nothing to shout about here. I'm expecting rebadges (970=780, 960=770) with the 980 providing a modest boost over the 780ti.

Mind you, with the woefully underpowered consoles not exactly pushing the envelope, there is little need to upgrade right now. Hopefully Rift and 4k are the catalysts for more substantial GPU performance increases in future.
 
They were tooting early benchmarks that the 980 would be around 35% faster than the 780ti.

But I doubt there will be that much of a performance upgrade..

The main GFX update for PC will be when Intel release 'SkyLake' and Nvidia release "Pascal".. Nvidia have stated that Pascal would be a significant jump up in gaming power, as it is a brand new architecture.
Also with 4K monitors becoming cheaper it seems Nvidia and ATI would have to do a massive push to get single cards able to produce 4K resolutions for the £500 mark as the consumer will be demanding 4K within the next 12 months.

I recently tried 4K gaming and there needs to be loads of advances for it to becoming a much better experience.. Windows 9 needs to sort out 4K resolution at desktop rather than things looking ok, but popups being really tiny, so software needs an upgrade. But games themselves don't have 4K textures, although Tomb Raider looked stunning in 4K it was just using HD textures so could of looked a lot better.
 
4k isn't that important to me right now and probably won't be until 4k TVs become more affordable (I'm a sofa-based living room PC gamer).

Rift on the other hand is much more interesting and that will need considerable grunt to run a decent resolution at anything other than low to medium settings. My main passion is racing simulations so Rift has really got my attention. I'll await the consumer version though.
 
Jamezinho said:
4k isn't that important to me right now and probably won't be until 4k TVs become more affordable (I'm a sofa-based living room PC gamer).

Rift on the other hand is much more interesting and that will need considerable grunt to run a decent resolution at anything other than low to medium settings. My main passion is racing simulations so Rift has really got my attention. I'll await the consumer version though.
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https://www.skroutz.gr/c/12/television/f/356338/Ultra-HD.html

4k tvs in greece cost ass little as 800 euros....not bad e?
 
PC guys

I fancy treating myself to a new PC upgrade. This will also allow me to use old PC for my sons first gaming machine


Current system.
i7-2600 quad core(3.4Ghz turbo to 3.8Ghz)
Cooler: Thermaltake Frio cooler
GPU : 2x 570 sli
32Gb ram - Kingston KVR16N11/8 1600MHz DDR3 8Gb sticks
256Gb Samsung 830 SSD
320Gb Western Digital C Black
Sata drives.
PSU: Seventeam 750w
Hiper Anubis Case
Windows 8 pro
Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro
1xDell SP2309W monitor
1xbenq XL2420TX used for gaming in 1080p

I want to build my new machine off the following
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-005-GI

What recommended ram or could I use 16gb of existing ram or would that become a bottle neck as I am considering a 780 sli or 780ti or the amd cards, undecided yet but waiting for the prices over the new few days with the new cards coming out.

I would need to also buy a case and that is probably something that would remain as part of my builds moving forward as I don't upgrade often maybe every couple of years.

Budget, don't know but maybe £1k

Must haves
Must be powerful enough to handle video streaming like xsplit etc.

Handle gaming and video rendering

Has digital audio output out of the box so is compatible with gaming headsets.

I have never got in to water cooling but like the "sound" of having a quiet machine.

Thanks for any help
 
Now is not a good time for building a new PC...

Wait 12 months for the new "Skylake" architecture and DDR 4, along with Nvidia claiming the new 1000 series cards being a massive upgrade - not your usual 10-30% increase like the usual model is..

With your current spec of your machine you would probably see a 30% increase in CPU performance over the old sandybridge - but with Skylake you would probably see an increase of 40-60%.

As with PC's now we are 12-18 months away from having proper 4K... And this is what should be the main reason to build a PC now.

Just wait one more year...
 
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I´ve upgraded my PC a few weeks ago.
Never really buy much for myself.
Mostly spending money for wife and kids so I saved up some bucks and was calculating around 900 - 900 € for an upgrade.

Bought those components:
Intel Core i7 4790 K 4,0 GhZ
Motherboard ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer
RAM G.Skill Trident X 8 GB
Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Topflow CPU Cooler
GPU PowerColor R9 290 4GB

Before, I had a Core 2 Duo 8400, some Gigabyte Motherboard and an ATI Radeon 6950 HD.

Thought everything was going well since I wanted to plug in the monitor (had an 21,5" VGA TFT at first from HKC, some chinese stuff) and realized that my GPU only gives out DVI-D.
I didn´t know that, googled around and found out that I need a new monitor as the GPU won´t give out analog signals.

Aight, next day again to the shop, bought a BenQ TFT 24" for 129 €.
More than I calculated.

Wanted to plug in my DVD drive, but it had IDE which my Motherboard didn´t have. Didn´t know that either.

Next day again to the same shop, bought a new DVD device (shopkeeper already looked strange at me...lol).

Again, more than I calculated.

Wanted to plug in the new SSD 256 GB I´ve bought and realized that there is no more vacant SATA power plug, only the ones with the 4 pins.

Next day again to the same shop, bought an adapter.

I used to run two OS´ before WIN 7 for games and other stuff and WIN XP for my music tools. Some tools and VST plugins are very old and don´t work on WIN 7.
Had to get rid off WIN XP as the drivers of my new Motherboard don´t support it.
I´ve spent many nights to get these old tools working on WIN 7 with updates and I dunno what.

Thx god everything is running smooth and it´s a miracle that I didn´t have to renew my power supply unit or my casing.

Not gonna do change anything for the next years...lol
 
Vindaloo said:
Bloody 'ell Bitter, can I be one of your sons? :)
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You are lad....;)

bsmaff said:
Now is not a good time for building a new PC...

Wait 12 months for the new "Skylake" architecture and DDR 4, along with Nvidia claiming the new 1000 series cards being a massive upgrade - not your usual 10-30% increase like the usual model is..

With your current spec of your machine you would probably see a 30% increase in CPU performance over the old sandybridge - but with Skylake you would probably see an increase of 40-60%.

As with PC's now we are 12-18 months away from having proper 4K... And this is what should be the main reason to build a PC now.

Just wait one more year...
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I read that, it's another year though.

Not sure I would want to buy new then though, prices would be ridiculous when new tech comes out?
 
Bitter Rivals said:
You are lad....;)



I read that, it's another year though.

Not sure I would want to buy new then though, prices would be ridiculous when new tech comes out?
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Since you already have Sandybridge I would leave the upgrade now..

The new tech won't be that much more expensive, you will only be paying a premium for the DDR4, but since that has just been released now the price should drop by the time Skylake is released.

You really won't see much of a performance difference if you upgrade now.
 
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