Never considered that, do you know how I would test it? I'll do the obvious and make sure everything is plugged in properly at least.
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The PC Builders Thread ("I Need a New PC") v2
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Never considered that, do you know how I would test it? I'll do the obvious and make sure everything is plugged in properly at least.
"The announcement of the new sTRX4 HEDT platform was initially planned for November 5th, however, this has changed. AMD is now planning to unveil its new series on November 7th, our source claims. " -- https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-to-announce-3rd-gen-ryzen-threadripper-on-november-7th
That's a very good question ^^ I'm certainly no expert, so maybe one of the brilliant PC-ERA people here can help :)
Check CPU and GPU usage with something like MSI Afterburner. Make sure you have the latest drivers for chipset, power plan set to Ryzen Balanced and latest Nvidia drivers. Update BIOS to the latest version.
For gaming only buy a 3600
For gaming, streaming and productivity buy a 3700x
So far it's been good! I had to tune the colors and contrast somewhat out of the box, and am happy. My preference would have been for an IPS but this has been totally sufficient.
I have a fairly old system now, but given my recent graphics card upgrade has given it a boost gaming-wise, I think it's time to add another SSD (it shipped with a 256GB SATA one). Here are my specs:
Gigabyte Z97-HD3
Intel i7 4790k
16GB DDR3
Nvidia RTX 2060
256GB Samsung SATA SSD (boot drive)
3TB mechanical HDD
My motherboard doesn't have support for NVMe built in, so I'm assuming I'm better off buying a PCIE -> M.2 adapter like this one rather than going for another SATA SSD which will likely be slower?
I'm also a bit confused in terms of what to look for with SSDs these days, as from what I've read there are different variants (NAND related I think?) and some of these are cheaper - not by much, mind - but not as good quality or as fast.
What would be a good 1TB SSD that isn't massively expensive but would offer good performance?
The Crucial CT1000P is less than £100 and I remember some of their older SSDs being well reviewed, but it seems to be QLC and getting poor reviews speed wise, especially over time. Would the WD Blue, which appears to be TLC and not much more expensive, be a good choice? Or should I up the budget to a Samsung 970 Evo or even 970 Plus?
There's also the Sabrent Rocket 2280; I've never heard of Sabrent, but the drive seems to review well, and it appears to use TLC like the WD Blue.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Gigabyte Z97-HD3
Intel i7 4790k
16GB DDR3
Nvidia RTX 2060
256GB Samsung SATA SSD (boot drive)
3TB mechanical HDD
My motherboard doesn't have support for NVMe built in, so I'm assuming I'm better off buying a PCIE -> M.2 adapter like this one rather than going for another SATA SSD which will likely be slower?
I'm also a bit confused in terms of what to look for with SSDs these days, as from what I've read there are different variants (NAND related I think?) and some of these are cheaper - not by much, mind - but not as good quality or as fast.
What would be a good 1TB SSD that isn't massively expensive but would offer good performance?
The Crucial CT1000P is less than £100 and I remember some of their older SSDs being well reviewed, but it seems to be QLC and getting poor reviews speed wise, especially over time. Would the WD Blue, which appears to be TLC and not much more expensive, be a good choice? Or should I up the budget to a Samsung 970 Evo or even 970 Plus?
There's also the Sabrent Rocket 2280; I've never heard of Sabrent, but the drive seems to review well, and it appears to use TLC like the WD Blue.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
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You're not going to notice any day-to-day difference between the PCI-E and SATA SSDs, so unless the two fewer cables is a huge plus for you just get another SATA. The Samsung EVO is tried-and-true.
I thought WD's Blue NVMe drives only went up to 500GB (the SN500). If you're looking at their M.2 SATA drives, they'll be the same speeds as 2.5" SATA drives.
Looking on UK PCPP, for faster budget NVMe drives, the Rocket you mentioned and the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro are decent options, quite a bit cheaper than the WD Black/970 EVO. For a secondary games drives, I wouldn't worry all that much about speed differences between different SSDs. But since these NVMe drives are getting cheaper, it doesn't seem like a bad way to go. (And you'd already have an NVMe drive when time comes to migrate to a new build.)
Note that running that PCIE adapter card will most likely limit your GPU's x16 slot to x8 (assuming your board only has x16 and x1 slots, you'd need to use a secondary x16 slot for the card). But it shouldn't make an actual difference for the 2060. Much faster cards would lose a little performance.
So question:
What's usually the "best" or most reliable brand maker for these non reference video cards (Nvidia specifically since i remember some are exclusive to one of the 2 GPU makers)
Or is it completely subjective?
What's usually the "best" or most reliable brand maker for these non reference video cards (Nvidia specifically since i remember some are exclusive to one of the 2 GPU makers)
Or is it completely subjective?
It's going to be mostly subjective, and each brand has their own tiers of cards for a given GPU. Read "pro" reviews, if they're out there. And user reviews (with a grain of salt). And in general, very compact 1-to-2 fan cards will usually run a little hotter and/or louder than cards with larger heatsinks and 2-3 fans; I'd usually opt for a larger card with a backplate, if possible.
In my (subjective) experience, I usually assume MSI's Gaming X/Z and ASUS's STRIX to be the best options, though they carry a premium. I almost always see user reviews mention issues with Zotac's cards, and Gigabyte's low-end cards.
EVGA are solid too, especially when it comes to warranty and service.
Yeah, I usually assume EVGA's going to be an OK choice. (A few of their 2-fan cards don't have a backplate; depends on what GPU you're looking at. Just something to check before buying.)
Thanks, I didn't realise that - I thought NVMe would be faster, but good to know I have more choice if sticking with SATA is an option.
Thank you. Seems yes I was mistaken, the WD drive is SATA. I also didn't realise that about the PCIE slots. I may be okay there though, as this is what Gigabyte's specs say about my motherboard:
It seems from this I may be okay using the adapter in the X4 slot and the GPU in the X16, provided I don't have any X1 cards (which I don't think I do but will check)?
Yep, should be good. Your board handles PCIe differently than my old Gigabyte Z97 board.
Thanks for the responses.
I'll check them out.
Ok think I need some help here. I was posting earlier about thinking my PC was underperforming and about benchmarks... I just ran PCMark and got this. It's telling my my roughly €1500 PC is a piece of trash. Anyone suggest what I can try do? I am on the latest NVidia driver, I updated the chipset driver straight away when I got the PC.
Looked at your earlier comment for specs (new build, 3700x, 2070 Super). What's your RAM situation? Especially what speed it's currently running. Also make sure they're in the right slots to support dual-channel. How about storage?Ok think I need some help here. I was posting earlier about thinking my PC was underperforming and about benchmarks... I just ran PCMark and got this. It's telling my my roughly €1500 PC is a piece of trash. Anyone suggest what I can try do? I am on the latest NVidia driver, I updated the chipset driver straight away when I got the PC.
Also if this is a very new build, make sure all Windows updates are done before trying to game/run benchmarks.
System monitoring with HWInfo64 or similar would also be helpful to determine that clocks are where they should be.
The RAM was recommended to me in this very thread, it's this. They're in the right slots, I was careful of that.
Ran Windows update last night so that's done.
HWInfo64 is saying the base frequency is 800MHz and the boost max is 4400MHz. Is that correct?
You want to see what the senors say while the PC is doing a benchmark or something.
Ok think I need some help here. I was posting earlier about thinking my PC was underperforming and about benchmarks... I just ran PCMark and got this. It's telling my my roughly €1500 PC is a piece of trash. Anyone suggest what I can try do? I am on the latest NVidia driver, I updated the chipset driver straight away when I got the PC.
Run Cinebench 20 for CPU.
Run something like Unigine Superposition for GPU.
Think my BIOS is a very old version actually. I'm going to attempt to update it to see if it makes any difference.
You enabled XMP (or whatever they call it on the AMD side) so it's running at 3200 (instead of the default 2133)?
It was the BIOS. Whatever version the mobo came (F3) with seemed to put a huge cap on the CPU. I updated to F4 and it's like I have a new PC, albeit the CPU fan has started blowing which is making a bit of noise but that's ok.
In the same benchmark as the screenshot I posted earlier I've gone from being ahead of 4% of computers to being ahead of 96% of computers. I was getting really worried, so phew!
In the same benchmark as the screenshot I posted earlier I've gone from being ahead of 4% of computers to being ahead of 96% of computers. I was getting really worried, so phew!
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Possible? Absolutely. Your SSD and HDD are SATA. New boards work with SATA just fine.
Whether it's advisable to do so depends on what size/speed those drives are, and what kind of budget you're working with.
Ex. if you have an 80GB SSD and 1TB 5400 RPM HDD, it's so cheap to get better, faster components it doesn't make sense to re-use them. (Could toss in the HDD as a slow storage drive for media, but wouldn't use it for game installs.)
Oh wow that was spooky. You're right on the money about the drives. So my best bet would be to try and transfer the contents of the HDD to a faster SSD? My old SSD just held the contents of Windows 10 OS.
The easiest recommendation right now is get a 1TB budget NVMe drive, install Windows, then copy over any files and game installs you want to keep. If I were getting one today, I'd probably go with the HP EX950 at $130 (review) as a nice balance between price and performance. But you can spend less or more, depending on your needs and budget.
(I did a new build last year, with a 500GB NVMe + 500GB SATA SSD, but: prices were a lot higher at the time, I already had the SATA SSD on hand, and there weren't many budget NVMe options on the market yet.)
Hello everyone. I have a PC that I built in 2011 just for games. Processor is core-i7 2600k. Originally I had paired it with GTX 570s in SLI. I have since upgraded to two GTX 980s in SLI. The only other upgrade I made was a hard drive recently, SSD, the Evo 870. That's the only part I'm thinking of keeping for my new build. Does that seem ok? I think this drive is great.
So, the real question is, I'm planning on building a new gaming PC in March, after I've saved for a couple more months and hopefully will have a good tax return. I have a $3000 budget for it. Can y'all help me out with the best I can do at that price? I'm pretty nooby at this but I did build the PC in 2011 without much problem. Thanks!
edit: Also, I was wondering if in March or around then some new Nvidia cards would be coming out. Is it wise to get something then or wait until something else closer to summer or whenever they release new cards. Is the 2080Ti still their "best" in terms of consumer stuff?
So, the real question is, I'm planning on building a new gaming PC in March, after I've saved for a couple more months and hopefully will have a good tax return. I have a $3000 budget for it. Can y'all help me out with the best I can do at that price? I'm pretty nooby at this but I did build the PC in 2011 without much problem. Thanks!
edit: Also, I was wondering if in March or around then some new Nvidia cards would be coming out. Is it wise to get something then or wait until something else closer to summer or whenever they release new cards. Is the 2080Ti still their "best" in terms of consumer stuff?
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I prefer EVGA. ASUS are reputable too. Probably Sapphire Tech or Power Cooler for AMD.
I'd definitely stay away from Zotac, XFX, low-end Gigabyte cards, low end MSI cards, all blower style cards, and all smaller single-fan cards.
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Hey all, I'm at the end of my usual 3 year upgrade cycle and looking for a new GPU. My current CPU is still solid I think, so that can wait (it's an i7 7700k @ 4.9 GHz - I waited an extra year on this because my previous CPU was also still solid at the time and honestly I would've stayed with it even longer if I hadn't gotten a really good deal), but my GPU, an R9 Fury non-X, is aging. I play at 1440p and 60fps is essentially my bare minimum, though I'm not a fiend for maximum settings and Freesync helps as well.
I'd like to go as cheap as possible with this upgrade while still getting a good performance boost, so it seems like the clear choice is an RX 5700, but used GTX 1080's (and sometimes even Ti's) are in the same price range or lower than even used 5700's right now and the used 5700 market is dominated by reference models. For a lower price than a reference 5700 I can get an AIB 1080 that should outperform it when overclocked. I'm not at all opposed to buying used, 2 of the 3 cards I've bought since my first build were used, including the current, and I had good experiences with both of them. Now that Nvidia is supporting Freesync displays that's no longer an issue either (I wouldn't have considered buying an Nvidia card before this).
So, are there any dealbreaking downsides I should know about? I do know that the 5700's more modern architecture will likely scale better moving into the next generation of consoles, but I'd be fine with trading up from this next card sooner than usual to get better value out of it (I'd presumably be going for next year's high end AMD in 2021, which sounds good to me; my GPU mantra until now has been "buy last year's best," but Nvidia's prices are still ludicrous and that's not possible with AMD this year and going back further to Vega is just... no), and really the biggest reason I want to upgrade now is to try and get what value I can out of my current card which I really should've sold sooner if I wanted good value.
TL;DR I have an R9 Fury that I'm looking to sell ASAP and get a decent upgrade for as cheap as possible. Any glaring reason not to go for a used high end model GTX 1080 (or Ti if I'm really lucky) over an RX 5700?
I'd like to go as cheap as possible with this upgrade while still getting a good performance boost, so it seems like the clear choice is an RX 5700, but used GTX 1080's (and sometimes even Ti's) are in the same price range or lower than even used 5700's right now and the used 5700 market is dominated by reference models. For a lower price than a reference 5700 I can get an AIB 1080 that should outperform it when overclocked. I'm not at all opposed to buying used, 2 of the 3 cards I've bought since my first build were used, including the current, and I had good experiences with both of them. Now that Nvidia is supporting Freesync displays that's no longer an issue either (I wouldn't have considered buying an Nvidia card before this).
So, are there any dealbreaking downsides I should know about? I do know that the 5700's more modern architecture will likely scale better moving into the next generation of consoles, but I'd be fine with trading up from this next card sooner than usual to get better value out of it (I'd presumably be going for next year's high end AMD in 2021, which sounds good to me; my GPU mantra until now has been "buy last year's best," but Nvidia's prices are still ludicrous and that's not possible with AMD this year and going back further to Vega is just... no), and really the biggest reason I want to upgrade now is to try and get what value I can out of my current card which I really should've sold sooner if I wanted good value.
TL;DR I have an R9 Fury that I'm looking to sell ASAP and get a decent upgrade for as cheap as possible. Any glaring reason not to go for a used high end model GTX 1080 (or Ti if I'm really lucky) over an RX 5700?
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Anyone here have experience with reference cards(blowers)? I ordered a 5700 xt that is on sale for $369, but just cancelled it. Seems like reviews for blowers are typically lower. Whats the odds of a 5700 xt after market card hitting that price during Black Friday?
Updated to the latest Asus Prime x570-P BIOS and now a USB 2.0 port I was using doesn't work. Enabled it all (legacy, individual USB enabled) in the BIOS. 🙄
Notice it can power a USB device, but no data. Now, I have that with one of the two USB ports on the front of the case since I got it. One works as normal, one no data. What in the world is going on?
Notice it can power a USB device, but no data. Now, I have that with one of the two USB ports on the front of the case since I got it. One works as normal, one no data. What in the world is going on?
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Have you tried unplugging everything (incl. power cable)?
You need to leave it unplugged for a while to let it drain all the power in the circuits. It helps if you press the power button a few times while it's unplugged.
I'll try leaving it unplugged tonight. I did power it down earlier...had to reset CMOS after BIOS update. Saving my setting to a profile and then loading after the update did NOT work, heh.
Having a weird minor issue.
Every 2-3 seconds there's buzzing that winds up for a few seconds and then goes away, repeats. I thought it was because a loose wire was brushing the GPU fans slightly and I opened it up and fixed that and then I swear it was silent for like 2 days.
Now it's back. It's hard to tell where the sound is coming from, but I think it's the gpu fans? Looking on HWmonitor I don't see any fans ramping up and down back and forth so idk what would cause the sound to go up and go away.
Maybe it could be one of my older SATA HDDs I hooked up revving up but nothing is access them and they're blank now that I've moved everything off them. I guess I could test this by unplugging them. But I swear it's coming from the GPU.
Heat and everything looks fine, it's just the computer otherwise is totally silent so it's a little annoying to hear this vibrating light buzz every few seconds.
Every 2-3 seconds there's buzzing that winds up for a few seconds and then goes away, repeats. I thought it was because a loose wire was brushing the GPU fans slightly and I opened it up and fixed that and then I swear it was silent for like 2 days.
Now it's back. It's hard to tell where the sound is coming from, but I think it's the gpu fans? Looking on HWmonitor I don't see any fans ramping up and down back and forth so idk what would cause the sound to go up and go away.
Maybe it could be one of my older SATA HDDs I hooked up revving up but nothing is access them and they're blank now that I've moved everything off them. I guess I could test this by unplugging them. But I swear it's coming from the GPU.
Heat and everything looks fine, it's just the computer otherwise is totally silent so it's a little annoying to hear this vibrating light buzz every few seconds.
It could potentially be coil whine or your HDD (if you have one), but if you're certain it's your GPU it's either coil whine or a fan. Try having the side panel open while the PC is on and stopping the fan(s) manually, but only temporary so you can make out whether it's the fan or not.
If it's coil whine it's not much you can do about it unfortunately, other than buying new.
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I have similar coil whine in either my motherboard or an SSD. I haven't chased it further because I don't care, but I have verified that it happens with the GPU removed.
I've been considering a system upgrade (well, an entirely new purchase, more specifically) for a while and now I'm getting to the point where the money is starting to burn a hole in my pocket for how strong is the hitch to buy.
Still, I'm here wondering if there's any major hardware release I should wait for, both on GPU and CPU side.
Last thing I'd want is to go for something that will be "the past thing" weeks after the purchase.
Still, I'm here wondering if there's any major hardware release I should wait for, both on GPU and CPU side.
Last thing I'd want is to go for something that will be "the past thing" weeks after the purchase.
There's always something new on the horizon. The accepted wisdom is to buy when you've got the money. There shouldn't be any new CPU or GPU generations until at least midway through next year (barring any major surprises at CES in January).
I have a Powercolor Rx 5700 xt with the blower and I am very happy with my purchase. In my experience, a lot of what was said and reported about these blower cards was "blown" out of proportion. I suppose reviewers could only review these at stock - out of the box they do run a bit hot and loud but simple adjustment eliminates most of the problems. An hour spent undervolting the card and dialling in the settings (my standard settings) puts my card at about 74c (88c junction) when gaming with clocks above the stated game clock. Even with +50% power limit, 2100mhz overclock and an undervolt (my extreme settings) I cant hit the temps the reviewers were getting. All this is without doing any custom fan curves too. Granted, there are some things that might be working in my favour like living in the UK where the ambient room temps are lower and I'm not gaming above 60fps but I was very surprised by just how good this card is and that temps and noise can easily be brought under control with a slight bit of tinkering.
Of course, spending a bit more on an AIB model eliminates most of these concerns but if you like tweaking and tinkering around with your card, a 5700xt blower is still a great buy.
Is there normally any good deals on the latest and greatest GPU's on Black Friday, or do they just offer lower cost card deals? I'm looking to get a 2080ti as an early Christmas present to myself, but wondering if I should wait for a possible Black Friday deal.
I mean, there's an aftermarket 5700 XT at $379.99 (after rebate) today.
Though user reviews mention crashes/driver problems, even if it's still averaging 4 out of 5.
So I'm gearing up to start replacing my desktop this month. This is the first of a 2-stage build ultimately aiming to get to 4K/60FPS on high in most games, but I'm waiting until Nvidia's Ampere GPUs come out in 2020 to upgrade my GPU, so this will stay a 1080/60 build for now. (I would've waited to do the whole thing but my 8-year old 2500K build is starting to fail so my hand's been forced.)
Purposes for this build aside from PC gaming are PS3 emulation and ripping personal Blurays for a Plex server, so an optical drive is a must and is included.
This is the current loadout I'm looking at (with GPU and PSU coming from the old build)
Partpicker list
Since my last build went for 8 years I'm hoping for similar longevity from this one, so I've been focused on forward-looking parts (like X570 with PCIE 4.0) as well as aiming for long-term warranties and customer service reputation rather than just hitting my price point of around $1000.
The questions I have:
This is my first AMD build. Are there any motherboard manufacturers I should be aiming for or staying away from? I don't know who makes quality stuff and who doesn't, and who's likely to help me out if I have issues with it.
Is there anything else I'm missing?
Purposes for this build aside from PC gaming are PS3 emulation and ripping personal Blurays for a Plex server, so an optical drive is a must and is included.
This is the current loadout I'm looking at (with GPU and PSU coming from the old build)
Partpicker list
Rich (BB code):
PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($347.66 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: *Gigabyte X570 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard ($210.94 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory (Purchased For $81.61)
Storage: *Sabrent Rocket 4.0 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($211.97 @ Amazon)
Storage: *Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($119.76 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4 GB SSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card (Purchased For $0.00)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $0.00)
Optical Drive: LG WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($70.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1042.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-06 11:45 EST-0500Since my last build went for 8 years I'm hoping for similar longevity from this one, so I've been focused on forward-looking parts (like X570 with PCIE 4.0) as well as aiming for long-term warranties and customer service reputation rather than just hitting my price point of around $1000.
The questions I have:
This is my first AMD build. Are there any motherboard manufacturers I should be aiming for or staying away from? I don't know who makes quality stuff and who doesn't, and who's likely to help me out if I have issues with it.
Is there anything else I'm missing?
Unless on a really strict budget or need terabytes and terabytes of storage, I don't know why y'all are still buying mechanical drives. You can get the MicroCenter in-house brand 1TB SSDs for like $80.
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