Your Rig

[Mr. GOH!]

I really want an SSD. the loading times in the latest crop of games is just ridiculous. But I'd want a big SSD, and they are way outta what I want to spend right now. 

 

 

Nice 'puter, there, Baconrath. When did you build it?

[Baconrath]

I've had it since sometime in September 2013.

 

Honorable mention to the $40 Apevia power suppy (lol budget) that sacrificed itself while playing Blood Dragon ;_;)7

[Mal]

I really want an SSD. the loading times in the latest crop of games is just ridiculous. But I'd want a big SSD, and they are way outta what I want to spend right now. 

 

 

Nice 'puter, there, Baconrath. When did you build it?

There is a good chance that we'll start seeing 1 TB SSDs starting to be in reach for us regular Joes. In two years it might be feasible to have a PC running just SSDs...

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

I really want an SSD. the loading times in the latest crop of games is just ridiculous. But I'd want a big SSD, and they are way outta what I want to spend right now. 

 

 

Nice 'puter, there, Baconrath. When did you build it?

 

You can get a solid performing 256 GB one for $200 now. Can't imagine you'd need more unless you put every single game possible on it. Though not every game benefits all that much from it.

[staySICK]

I finally did my case transfer a while back and got myself a new desk today.  So, pictures!

 

 

Also: ewww. White case.

 

Quick Dean don't look!

 

 

That DVD drive didn't make it in, just my ASUS bluray drive.

 

 

LED lights along the I/O panel I can turn on or off with a button beside the reset switch. (I don't know why the picture is sideways, when I view it in dropbox its correct)

 

cable management still needs a little bit of work, plan on doing more with it when/if I get a CLC and/or a fully modular PSU.

 

 

 

yup, riced out.

 

 

Just threw it together, still need to get my printer set up on it and finalise how I want everything.

 

This is my case

Edited January 17, 2015 by staySICK

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

That case is gigantic. Planning on adding another monitor?

[staySICK]

I went from a Cosmos 1000 to this Switch. I kinda have a thing for larger full tower cases.

 

I'm thinking of going for a second monitor at some point, really it depends on how much room I have. Unfortunately our printer has a pretty large footprint. Still haven't moved it over yet.  

[Vecha]

Very nice! Recently got the same cooler...keeps things sooo damn cool.

[madbassman39]

Guh I so badly want a surface pro, but in no way need it what so ever!

 

Wonderful desk set up, looks clean!

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, I'm thinking I'll go Surface Pro when it's time to replace my tablet.  I love my Nexus 10, but it would be nice to have something that can be more laptopy when I want it.

[staySICK]

I'm in love with my surface. Using it for class has been amazing. I haven't really stressed it to have any complaints about it yet.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Surface Pro master race _{one day}

[OzuJL]

Here's the list of parts for my current machine that I built just before last Christmas. I already regret paying so much for the PSU that didn't even turn out to be a top-of-the-line model and I could have picked a better SSD, too. I'm already planning to build a second PC because I can't stop coming up with all sorts of systems that I want to build.

Edited January 30, 2015 by OzuJL

[TheFlyingGerbil]

sounds like you really got the bug.

[OzuJL]

Nowadays I keep reading PC hardware news from several sites like a raving madman so yeah, you could say that.

[danielpholt]

I'm looking into upgrading my rig, but to be honest with you the entire process scares the crap out of me. It's been an awful long time since I undertook something like this. Any advice? I know what I'm like, if I get flustered, I'll end up buying a new machine for the ease of it and then regretting my decision.

[deanb]

Well what parts do you currently have?

 

If not sure can use something like Speccy (from the CCleaner guys)

[OzuJL]

It's easier to give advice when we know what parts you already have and which parts you want to upgrade. What will the computer be used for? If you are going to use it for gaming (since we are on a gaming forum), what sort of games do you want it to run and how well? How much money are you willing to spend for the upgrade?

I'm eager to offer advice, but remember to take my advice with a grain of salt since I have been researching PC hardware only for a couple of months. You can always check the compatibility of the parts with PCPartPicker and, in case you need to change the PSU, calculate the power consumption of your machine with this calculator (although its result is not completely reliable so it's reasonable to add some wattage to the result just to be sure).

[danielpholt]

PC is a gaming machine, although I also use it for a little word processing if the situation calls for it. I think I should be able to find £600 if I really needed to, although I'm obviously looking to give a decent boost to performance at as lower cost as possible. 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rvcYqs
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rvcYqs/by_merchant/

CPU: *AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($87.99 @ NCIX US) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard 
Memory: Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($130.74 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.D 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($150.00 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card 
Case: *Antec Three Hundred Two ATX Mid Tower Case  ($52.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: *OCZ ZS 750W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($124.99 @ Amazon) 
Operating System: *Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Full (32/64-bit)  ($399.99 @ Amazon) 

That's more or less what I'm running now. Few items wouldn't be found on the site, so i substituted them to the best of my knowledge (Case, CPU - Just wouldn't bring up my CPU).

 

Looking at upgrading to an SSD, maybe throwing some more ram into the mix (Believe my current Mobo can support 16gb, but thinking it might be worth upgrading to a new Mobo too), and maybe a new Graphics card? 

[OzuJL]

What is the CPU you have? Knowing it could possibly change my suggestions. I recommend upgrading to an SSD because the difference in load times is astonishing. I would never go back to having my OS on an HDD. The bigger SSDs are still quite expensive so I recommend getting a smaller driver (120 or 250 GB) for your OS and programs, and perhaps a game or two that you want to process load times faster. I have Skyrim and a bunch of online multiplayer games on my SSD and all of my photos, music, films and other games on a huge HDD.

If your CPU is similar to FX-4300 in terms of performance, I recommend getting a better CPU before you upgrade your graphics card because otherwise the CPU could be the bottleneck. It is also worth noting that your motherboard doesn't seem to be that good and could possibly have problems with a better processor so if you upgrade your CPU your mobo could be in trouble. At least Tom's Hardware's good motherboard guide lists your unit under the following description (I bolded the note about better CPUs):
 

 

Poor quality. Bad power phases and no heatsinks on VRM make this tier more like ‘lowest’ tier for AM3+ boards, not advisable for FX 6 or 8. No Crossfire/ SLI capability. In all probability, you’d not want to have them unless you must get one of them.

 

But then again, upgrading all three will end up costing quite a lot so if you don't upgrade your CPU, you can stick with the mobo because it should be OK if you don't intend to overclock.

Your current graphics card is still pretty good and probably the best part of your build in terms of performance. To get a notable difference in performance you should probably look into upgrading the CPU first - and upgrading to an SSD is also a cheap but significant update. But if you want a better graphics card for a reasonable price, you should check out how much Radeon R9 and GTX 780 cards cost in the shops you will be using. I recommend checking out PassMark's and Tom's Hardware's benchmarks if you want to dig deeper into the performance differences of graphics cards.

 

It's a good thing you have a 750W power supply since it should be able to handle anything you put into the machine - unless you are going for SLI or Crossfire, which is not feasible for your budget. For RAM, 8 GB is more than enough for current games (I ended up buying 8 GB instead of 16 GB and it works fine), but buying 16 GB of RAM could be a good idea for the future. You don't need to buy anything fancier than DDR3-1333 RAM if you are not going to overclock RAM. That seems to be the consensus on many PC builder forums because the "better" RAM modules only unleash their potential when overclocked.

For the CPU, I don't know much about AMD processors at the moment so I'm not sure if I can help with them, but if you change your motherboard to a one with an Intel socket then I can recommend a few models.

[danielpholt]

The main thing that worries me about the motherboard is it's viability going forward. I've had that concern from the moment I got it 3 years ago. I think I'll probably look for a new board, CPU and SSD then, based on you're above post. 

 

Any preference for Intel or AMD? 

As for the SSD, I don't really store files that aren't game installs on my machine, so i think 250gb should be fine, especially as I tend to delete games once I'm done with them. Although, if we're talking an extra £40-50 I might make the jump up for a 500gb one. 

[Saturnine Tenshi]

Intel processors are better than AMD. And more expensive.

[OzuJL]

^ Pretty much. Intel has dominated the market in recent years and have had the freedom to set ridiculous prices for their CPUs while AMD has focused more on mid-range products that are a tad cheaper than the Intel products in the same performance range. However, you don't need to spend *that* much if you aren't going to overclock the CPU since the more expensive models are worth getting only for overclocking. If you want a CPU socket that is a safe choice for the future, go with LGA 1150 (AMD should be changing its socket sooner or later so everything they have out right now may not be supported for long). I bought an i5-4460 which seems to be considered the best Intel CPU for gaming when used with factory settings and it has performed very well for me at least. If it costs too much, I can look around for a cheaper model that performs well for its cost.

For the SSD, there are a couple of models that  are considered the cream of the crop when it comes to quality and they are not even that expensive: Crucial's MX100 and Samsung's 840 EVO, 850 EVO and 850 PRO. MX100 is the budget choice, but Samsung's models only cost a little more. I would personally pick MX100 just because it has the cheaper price and only a marginal difference in performance. It's the one I will buy for my secondary PC that I will be building during the summer. For SSDs the price gap between 250 GB and 500 GB is still quite huge - at worst it can even be £100. So if you think you can go with a 250 GB, you should get one now and you could upgrade to a 500 GB drive later on when the prices have gone down. Or just use that 1 TB HDD you already own as a secondary drive.

Edited February 5, 2015 by OzuJL

[Thursday Next]

Anyone looking to upgrade? http://www.wyleshardy.com/details_single.asp?pge=2&auctionid=31218

[SomTervo]

So, yeah, I just jumped in on this age-old bandwagon.

 

A few of my suspicions and past experiences confirmed:

 

1. PC gaming is in no way comparable to console gaming in terms of ease of use. Like, it's actually laughable saying that. I would never recommend it to someone who is in any way worried about handling tech or setting things up. Even if they're a tiny bit worried, I wouldn't recommend it.

2. PC gaming still gets stupid errors and things are just generally more complicated all the fucking time

 

That said, it's great having a machine that can do everything, and do it really well. My rig:

• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 GPU (4GB)
• 16GB DDR3 RAM
• MSI Z97-GAMING motherboard
• i5 4690k processor (quad, 3.5GHz)
• 250GB SSD
• 1TB HDD
• a wee wireless adapter

All-in like £800 or so. The only weak link, as far as I can tell, is the processor. Running some things at very high res causes issues for me – like the Talos Principle, everything maxed and at highest res, or Crysis with everything maxed and at highest res. Should my machine be running these without issue? They occasionally drop to ~30FPS.

 

Not sure if I should be worried or not. It was quite hard putting the thing together and I'm worried a couple of things might not be well fitted.

 

Also, Windows 7 update is totally fucked. 100+ updates to do, and every time like 60 of them fail to update and the machine has to revert the changes. The only way to fix this, far as I can tell, is to do a fucking system restore, which I don't want to do. Dafuq man.

 

On the one hand, fuck PC gaming. Everything is an unknown quantity. And this is exactly why I've avoided it for so long.

 

On the other, the breadth, choice, quality and price/availability of games is staggering.

 

I'm using it a lot for work though - helping a team develop a game so I need something that can breeze through high-end Unreal 4 stuff.

Edited August 25, 2015 by kenshi_ryden