PC Building Guide and Discussion #12

SeidoN

#OGOC #2018 HFW Predictions Champ
Aug 8, 2012
30,796
6,445
AEF


im intrigued by these services. theyve never really been good enough to warrant consideration, but this looks like the first one that actually seems decent
 

Commander Clueless

Hiya, hiya. Pleased to meetcha.
Sep 10, 2008
15,237
2,922


im intrigued by these services. theyve never really been good enough to warrant consideration, but this looks like the first one that actually seems decent


Seems like the most interesting implementation of cloud gaming I've seen yet.
 

flyingkiwi

Registered User
Oct 28, 2014
4,315
3,452
France


im intrigued by these services. theyve never really been good enough to warrant consideration, but this looks like the first one that actually seems decent


Looks cool indeed, though we're lightyears off anything like that down under. :laugh:

Also, I'm gonna go with this motherbaord.
ASRock J3455-ITX Intel Quad-Core Processor J3455 (up to 2.3GHz) Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo - Newegg.com
Would have liked the Pentium but after tax (thanks NZ govt) and shipping this is $50 cheaper. Gonna put that money on a soldering iron and a little case fan. I wish Noctuas weren't so damn ugly.
 

Osprey

Registered User
Feb 18, 2005
27,090
9,352


im intrigued by these services. theyve never really been good enough to warrant consideration, but this looks like the first one that actually seems decent


I originally wasn't going to watch that because the title seemed click-baity, but I just did and was impressed. I can see PC gaming getting to that point eventually, where, instead of paying $1000-3000 for gaming desktops and laptops, most gamers pay under $500 (even as little as $200 for a Chromebook) and then subscribe to a service like that for their games. That'll allow more people to buy the thinnest, lightest and/or cheapest "non-gaming" laptops, since they won't have to worry about built-in GPUs and cooling. It'll also allow replacing the big, bulky desktop PCs with something the size of a router (ex. instead of a Raspberry Pi being a secondary system, it could become your main PC). In fact, there's no reason why it wouldn't just be built into monitors, since that's what smart TVs are, and he showed in the video that it already runs on the hardware in smart TVs. Buying a desktop PC might eventually consist of buying only a monitor and peripherals.

Who knows if this Shadow service will succeed, but a similar vision of virtual computing is probably inevitable. In 25 years, the idea of a "personal computer" could seem antiquated, since all of our devices might be thin clients that do little actual computing, themselves.
 
Last edited:

flyingkiwi

Registered User
Oct 28, 2014
4,315
3,452
France
Really enjoying this new series by Linus.




Looks like almost all of the parts from the old HTPC are gonna sell too, and I'm getting at least $60 on the free ram, so that gives me breathing room with the PS2 project. Hoping Newegg shipping gets the mobo here before I finish work on the 21st.
 

Commander Clueless

Hiya, hiya. Pleased to meetcha.
Sep 10, 2008
15,237
2,922
Linus' channel has changed a lot from when I used to watch it religiously, but he still comes up with some really interesting stuff.

I tune in for the WAN Show (when Linus and Luke are on), and I enjoy Scrapyard Wars far more than I probably should. :laugh:
 

flyingkiwi

Registered User
Oct 28, 2014
4,315
3,452
France
Linus' channel has changed a lot from when I used to watch it religiously, but he still comes up with some really interesting stuff.

I tune in for the WAN Show (when Linus and Luke are on), and I enjoy Scrapyard Wars far more than I probably should. :laugh:

Yeah I don’t watch it like I used to, but there’s definitely some good stuff still on there. Scrapyard wats was awesome but I’m glad they’re taking a bit of a break from it.

I had my heart set on parting out my cpu/mobo/ram in July but now I’m no so sure. Either way I turned that free ram into $65 yesterday so I’m gonna finally pull the trigger on a better cooler and OC my cpu and enjoy my last 7 months with it.
 

flyingkiwi

Registered User
Oct 28, 2014
4,315
3,452
France
So of course I go for the Hyper 212 cause it's on deep discount at the PC store my old mate works at. I was determined not to take out my motherboard so I installed it in the case as it is. I haven't really had anything good and stable yet so I'm wondering if that's the price I'm paying for not being as careful as I could have been with the install. Next time I'll take out the motherboard and do it properly but for now I can't face reinstalling the darn thing. So for now I'm enjoying cut down temps back at stock. Might wait now until after the PS2 pc parts arrive.
 

SniperHF

Rejecting Reports
Mar 9, 2007
42,631
21,042
Phoenix
So of course I go for the Hyper 212 cause it's on deep discount at the PC store my old mate works at. I was determined not to take out my motherboard so I installed it in the case as it is. I haven't really had anything good and stable yet so I'm wondering if that's the price I'm paying for not being as careful as I could have been with the install. Next time I'll take out the motherboard and do it properly but for now I can't face reinstalling the darn thing. So for now I'm enjoying cut down temps back at stock. Might wait now until after the PS2 pc parts arrive.

The 212 is an older design at this point, still effective, but kind of a PITA to install.
I've installed a buttload of them over the years. If you can get the base on without taking the MoBo out you generally don't need to take it out for any other reason.

General tips for that cooler
1. Use a X pattern for the thermal compound (Pea size dot works okay too, but I think X works slightly better)
2. Tighten the first base screw about 3-5 turns, with your hand holding the down the top of the HSF, it will move around. Do the same for the screw diagonal from it. Then the other diagonal pair.
3. Then finally ighten the 4 base screws completely, but do it sequentially 1-2 turns at a time. Top left, bottom right, bottom left, top right. Until they stop turning. Usually you have to keep your hand on top
 

flyingkiwi

Registered User
Oct 28, 2014
4,315
3,452
France
The 212 is an older design at this point, still effective, but kind of a PITA to install.
I've installed a buttload of them over the years. If you can get the base on without taking the MoBo out you generally don't need to take it out for any other reason.

General tips for that cooler
1. Use a X pattern for the thermal compound (Pea size dot works okay too, but I think X works slightly better)
2. Tighten the first base screw about 3-5 turns, with your hand holding the down the top of the HSF, it will move around. Do the same for the screw diagonal from it. Then the other diagonal pair.
3. Then finally ighten the 4 base screws completely, but do it sequentially 1-2 turns at a time. Top left, bottom right, bottom left, top right. Until they stop turning. Usually you have to keep your hand on top
I found the wiggly x-bracket the worst part. Even tho I had the screws set in the right place it just took a while to line everything up correctly so I could even start screwing it down. It definitely moved a bit.

I think I’ll take the motherboard out next time so it feels like less of a wrestle.
 

RandV

It's a wolf v2.0
Jul 29, 2003
26,831
4,924
Vancouver
Visit site
How advisable is it or has anyone ever build a machine by looking for the best deals maybe over a couple of months?

My PC is really getting long in the tooth - my initial CPU-MOBO-RAM is from 2009 and was quality stuff at the time but it limits me to 4GB ram. If/when I can land a new better paying job that would be the first thing I'd buy and do it normally, but in the meantime I still have to skimp on things. I haven't looked for a while but I'm looking at a 47% off deal right now for an AMD Ryzen 7 at $300 Cdn from newegg which would be a great starting point and wondering if that's too good to pass up one.

My plan of action would be new tower+psu+mobo+cpu+cooling+ram+sd hd, and since GPU prices still seem to be crazy just plug in my current GTX 750 Ti for now and hope it's good enough to get caught up on games like The Witcher 3 and Dragon Quest 11. I don't need to go max details on bleeding edge graphics but ideally the base components I put together now, with room for a ram upgrade, after getting a proper graphics will be able to smoothly play a heavily modded TESVI when it comes out.

I'm assuming a Ryzen 7 will be good for that? I also want to take in power consumption and heat output as a factor, but I know there's only so much you can do there.
 

RandV

It's a wolf v2.0
Jul 29, 2003
26,831
4,924
Vancouver
Visit site
I was on my way out so didn't get to finish, but to be a bit more specific what I'm wondering is if a Ryzen 7 1700X CPU at $300 cdn is a good enough product & deal that I should purchase it now even if I may not finish buying all the components for another 1-3 months. Also I zeroed in on the Ryzen 7 but as I look some more wondering if that would be overkill and if I could go down to a 5.
 
Last edited:

SniperHF

Rejecting Reports
Mar 9, 2007
42,631
21,042
Phoenix
I was on my way out so didn't get to finish, but to be a bit more specific what I'm wondering is if a Ryzen 7 1700X CPU at $300 cdn is a good enough product & deal that I should purchase it now even if I may not finish buying all the components for another 1-3 months. Also I zeroed in on the Ryzen 7 but as I look some more wondering if that would be overkill and if I could go down to a 5.

If you can jump to a Ryzen 2xxx CPU I would do so. I'm not terribly familiar with Canadian prices these days so I can't say what's a great deal or not.
If you bought something now it probably wouldn't hurt you down the line, but I'd be surprised if it helped all that much either. Though maybe the holiday sales change that.

I like the Ryzen 5 2600x. The Regular 2600 non X version might be a slightly better bang for the buck though in CAD. It has fewer threads than the R7 1700X but it's one generation newer so it has substantially better single threaded performance, which is still important in many cases. And it still has plenty of threads with 6 cores + 6 virtual. The R7 1700x is 8+8, but the usefulness of that is highly questionable anyway if it's purely a gaming system.

I'd also guess that the 1700x doesn't ever actually retail for $514.

Benchmarks for comparison:
R7 1700x scores 14681 passmarks.
R5 2600x scores 14380 passmarks (This is a VERY small difference)

R5 2600 scores 13534 passmarks

The reason they are so close despite the R5 2600 being $70 cheaper is the individual cores are much faster on the 2xxx cpus (12% faster thereabouts).


I'd go with an R5 2600 and put the leftover money toward a video card. Also the included Wraith coolers with AMD CPUs are actually quite effective so you probably won't need to buy an aftermarket one unless you wanted to OC later.


A gtx 750 ti is not a very good card. It's actually below the minimum on Witcher 3 for example. I would upgrade the GPU if you can. Even a 1050 ti is a substantial upgrade on the 750 ti. If you can snag an RX 570 for $200 that's probably a good price/performance card in CAD:
Sapphire Video Card 11266-14-20G NITRO+ RX 570 4GB GDDR5 PCI Express - Newegg.ca

Even better an 8GB version for a few bucks more:
MSI Radeon RX 570 DirectX 12 RX 570 ARMOR 8G OC Video Card - Newegg.ca

Unless you were looking to go higher end than that and would rather save towards it. But even still You'd enjoy your build a lot more with even a middle-low card upgrade like the 1050 ti/570 over your 750 ti.

Do not get a video card with less than 4GB VRAM.
 

RandV

It's a wolf v2.0
Jul 29, 2003
26,831
4,924
Vancouver
Visit site
If you can jump to a Ryzen 2xxx CPU I would do so. I'm not terribly familiar with Canadian prices these days so I can't say what's a great deal or not.
If you bought something now it probably wouldn't hurt you down the line, but I'd be surprised if it helped all that much either. Though maybe the holiday sales change that.

I like the Ryzen 5 2600x. The Regular 2600 non X version might be a slightly better bang for the buck though in CAD. It has fewer threads than the R7 1700X but it's one generation newer so it has substantially better single threaded performance, which is still important in many cases. And it still has plenty of threads with 6 cores + 6 virtual. The R7 1700x is 8+8, but the usefulness of that is highly questionable anyway if it's purely a gaming system.

...

Yeah as I look at it more I see reviews saying people got it for $150 on boxing day. Thanks tough, I'll look into the Ryzen 5 along with the other suggestions you gave, like it's sold out now but newegg had a daily deal on a $150 tower that was 40% off plus came with a $70 rebate, for a $20 final price tag. Not sure if it's good but that's the type of deal I want to hold out for to jump on.
 

RandV

It's a wolf v2.0
Jul 29, 2003
26,831
4,924
Vancouver
Visit site


im intrigued by these services. theyve never really been good enough to warrant consideration, but this looks like the first one that actually seems decent


That looks interesting. Having a low end PC yet being a fan of strategy games for the past few years I've always wished a service like that was available. There probably isn't enough of a market for what I'm looking at but for series like Civilization, Total War, any of the Paradox games, etc etc, latency isn't at all an issue you just need a beefy CPU and RAM to process all that data. Especially with a game like Civ where the graphics don't change but the size of the map and how many AI's you can have in a game and how long you wait between turns are entirely dependant on that.
 

flyingkiwi

Registered User
Oct 28, 2014
4,315
3,452
France
My PS2 PC motherboard still hasn't arrived. If it doesn't come today that's the last business day until the 27th, and I'll soon be running out of days off to work on it.

I've also been lazy with working on the OC with my main rig so I'm tempted to just take the cooler out and put everything back to stock and get back to gaming on my days off, and go back into battle with the 212 later.
 

God King Fudge

Championship Swag
Oct 13, 2017
6,308
6,793
Ok. Can someone explain refresh rate to me?

I have a 60hz monitor that I've been using for my main monitor. I bought a 75hz monitor this morning and got it set up. I started up Shadow of War and I noticed fraps showed me the same FPS on both monitors, usually about 120-130

I was of the understanding that the fps was limited to what your refresh rate is. Is fraps just showing me what's being put out but my monitor will only process 60 or 75 for?
 

SniperHF

Rejecting Reports
Mar 9, 2007
42,631
21,042
Phoenix
Ok. Can someone explain refresh rate to me?

I have a 60hz monitor that I've been using for my main monitor. I bought a 75hz monitor this morning and got it set up. I started up Shadow of War and I noticed fraps showed me the same FPS on both monitors, usually about 120-130

I was of the understanding that the fps was limited to what your refresh rate is. Is fraps just showing me what's being put out but my monitor will only process 60 or 75 for?

What you are talking about is how many frames you can see on your monitor, not how many frames your video card can put out. FPS usually refers to the latter.

FPS is independent of what the monitor is doing, by default anyway. You'd have a frame rate even if your monitor was unplugged.

What's limited by your monitor is your visible frame rate. So 75 hz monitor = you are seeing 75 frames per second (or lower). But your video card could easily be putting out more then that as it seems to be. So if your card is putting out more than your monitor can display, the extras will be discarded


To stop this, you can use VSYNC or a frame rate limiter. VSYNC will synchronize your video card's output to your displays refresh rate. So a 1:1 frame rate of 75 ideally. Or less if you hit a dip. But never over 75. This will also save a minor amount of electricity since your card won't be working overtime to delivery frames you cant see.



There are some reasons why you might not want to use vsync, but for most people they aren't an issue so it's not worth going into.
When it's working right, vsync can smooth out your gameplay and prevent screen tearing. In your situation, more frames than monitor HZ, VSYNC is probably a good idea.


If you want to get into more advanced territory, you can overclock your monitor to get more hz than 75, or use something like Enhanced Sync or Fast Sync.


My suggestion would be to just flip vsync on in the settings of your game and give it a try. If you don't notice any difference then just leave vsync on.
 
Last edited:

filip85

Registered User
Feb 7, 2017
1,589
779
I have AMD A8 9600 3.10 ghz (up to 3.4), 8 gb ram, Radeon R7. If I buy RX 560 4 GB can I play following games ; Sudden Strike 4, Civilization 6 and Cossacks 3 ? :)
 

SniperHF

Rejecting Reports
Mar 9, 2007
42,631
21,042
Phoenix
I have AMD A8 9600 3.10 ghz (up to 3.4), 8 gb ram, Radeon R7. If I buy RX 560 4 GB can I play following games ; Sudden Strike 4, Civilization 6 and Cossacks 3 ? :)

Civ 6 should run, it will be around (or slightly above) the minimum requirements on the CPU side.
That's the only game of the list I've played. It might actually run without the new RX 560, at very low quality.

Based on the specs, Sudden Strike 4 should run but how well is really not clear.

You could probably run Cossacks 3 without the RX 560. But it would be better with it like Civ.


Civ VI has a demo actually, if you go to the steam page look for "download PC Demo" on the right:
 
  • Like
Reactions: pukovnik

Gaylord Q Tinkledink

Registered User
Apr 29, 2018
28,471
29,668
Acer Aspire GX-785-EB13 Gaming Desktop Intel Core i7-7700, 2TB HDD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 2GB - DG.B83AA.017 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07HQTVYKL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_W0bjCb4Z5ZMJY

Hopefully this link works so people can see the specs.

Looking for a desktop that is similar to this but about 100 bucks cheaper. Can just be the tower.

Not sure if that's allowed ? I don't really know much about specs when it comes to this stuff. Doesnt have to play games at a high end rate, but decent enough ?

Thanks

Also doesnt have to be Amazon if you know of a good deal from best buy, etc.
 

SniperHF

Rejecting Reports
Mar 9, 2007
42,631
21,042
Phoenix
Acer Aspire GX-785-EB13 Gaming Desktop Intel Core i7-7700, 2TB HDD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 2GB - DG.B83AA.017 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07HQTVYKL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_W0bjCb4Z5ZMJY
Not sure if that's allowed ? I don't really know much about specs when it comes to this stuff. Doesnt have to play games at a high end rate, but decent enough ?
.

Seems decent for the money. CPU is way more powerful than you'd need but it's probably on clearance because it's last generation's model. Nothing wrong with this mind you.

Looking for a desktop that is similar to this but about 100 bucks cheaper. Can just be the tower.
At a quick search, I don't think this can be done.

The nearest system I found was actually $50 more elsewhere. Otherwise the specs/power of the system starts to drop fast if you go cheaper.

I'd bite the bullet and pay the extra $100 you don't want to and get the one you linked. But if the budget is the budget and you must get something I can find the best possible for $700. But it will likely be a lot worse performing.
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->