PC Building Guide and Discussion #12

[Dick Sledge]

Yeah that usually is video. It's probably not actually a freeze/crash.
Driver rollback should work, you can find it in device manager.

Or just manually download the older driver and install it clean.

Sometimes if your 3d driver you can cntl alt delete and get back to the desktop.

Is there a way to determine the last driver I had installed?

Also, video freezes yet I can also still move the mouse around too. It seems like a crash or it's about to crash because all visuals freeze up. Including app or trying to minimize the browser etc.

 

[SniperHF]

Is there a way to determine the last driver I had installed?

Nvidia and AMD have driver archive pages:
Beta and Archive Drivers | NVIDIA is Nvidias

Find whatever version you have, download one older than that.

Driver rollback might tell you exactly what you had before, but it was most likely the version just before the current one.

 

[John Price]

Yeah that usually is video. It's probably not actually a freeze/crash.
Driver rollback should work, you can find it in device manager.

Or just manually download the older driver and install it clean.

Sometimes if your 3d driver you can cntl alt delete and get back to the desktop.

So speaking of downloads one option I am considering is gettin a Ryzen 2nd gen, then when the 3rd gen drops in mid 2019 I will just remove that chip and throw in the new chip. So how do you update your BIOS afterwards?

 

[SniperHF]

So speaking of downloads one option I am considering is gettin a Ryzen 2nd gen, then when the 3rd gen drops in mid 2019 I will just remove that chip and throw in the new chip. So how do you update your BIOS afterwards?

You do it while the old CPU is still in the board, not afterward.

It's also never a guarantee the next CPUs will be supported on your board. Though if you get the newer chipset (x470) it's more likely.

 

[SwissGuy]

One thing that's probably important to consider is that basically anything within reason can run 1080p at ultra settings. It's just a matter of how well it does it
This mostly depends on how much money you throw at your video card. In Canada that's somewhere between a $250 RX 570 or a $470 RTX 2060.

You can see benches of how each game you listed will run with each video card:
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Pro OC 6 GB Review
Palit GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Pro OC 6 GB Review

R6 and Civ VI will run on a toaster at 1080p. I'd stick to the cheaper card like a GTX 1060 6GB (do not get a 3GB) and then upgrade later if needed.

The Division seems to be the toughest one but it still manages 59 FPS average with a 1060 which is very playable:
Results: Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands and Tom Clancy’s The Division - Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Review: Is Mainstream Ray Tracing For Real?

So if you felt a burning desire to spend more money a little more video card wouldn't hurt for future proofing and better performance in The Division but it's not strictly necessary either.



The one mouser linked will certainly do the job (RX 580 video card, basically on par with a 1060), though I get kinda nervous at putting new money toward quad core only i3 CPUs.




For a slightly higher end take, I did this based on the Ryzen 5 2600.
CPU AMD RYZEN 5 2600 6-Core 3.4 GHz (3.9 GHz Max Boost) Socket AM4 65W YD2600BBAFBOX Desktop Processor - Newegg.ca
Board ASRock Fatal1ty B450 GAMING K4 AM4 AMD B450 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Newegg.ca
RAM CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory for AMD Ryzen Model CMK16GX4M2Z3200C16 - Newegg.ca
Case Rosewill ATX Mid Tower Gaming Computer Case, Latching Tool-less Design of Drive Bays, Support up to 5 Fans - CHALLENGER S - Newegg.ca
Video Card ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 DirectX 12 ZT-P10620A-10M Video Card - Newegg.ca
Storage Crucial MX500 M.2 2280 500GB SATA III 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CT500MX500SSD4 - Newegg.ca
PSU EVGA 500 BR 100-BR-0500-K1 500W Power Supply - Newegg.ca

Toss in a copy of windows and it's $1,139.92 Canada bucks.
Maybe add a traditional HDD for storage.

For this I paid basically no consideration to aesthetics or noise btw, so if that's important you'll need to reconsider a few parts like the case and maybe the motherboard size.

Thanks for the help! I appreciate it.

So I've done some research and compiled a build (System Builder - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core, Radeon RX 580 8 GB NITRO+, Meshify C Dark TG ATX Mid Tower - PCPartPicker Canada), how does this compare to what you provided? . Any feedback or suggestions regarding what I've picked out would be awesome . I'm thinking I will probably upgrade to a 500 gb SSD just to be safe.

 

[SniperHF]

Thanks for the help! I appreciate it.

So I've done some research and compiled a build (System Builder - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core, Radeon RX 580 8 GB NITRO+, Meshify C Dark TG ATX Mid Tower - PCPartPicker Canada), how does this compare to what you provided? . Any feedback or suggestions regarding what I've picked out would be awesome . I'm thinking I will probably upgrade to a 500 gb SSD just to be safe.

Hmm.

The PC Partpicker build in comparison has:
A smaller and cheaper motherboard - Performance wise this should have no impact. I'm usually biased toward at least middle end motherboards myself but not everyone shares this philosophy

Slightly slower RAM. Emphasis on slightly.

Higher quality (as in build quality) video card, not necessarily faster though. Does have 2GB more VRAM though which tbh probably doesn't matter much. The RX 580 and GTX 1060 are very close competitors. I'm a huge fan of Sapphire cards.

Slightly overkill power supply - this isn't really a bad thing. You pay slightly more but you gain a little security if you ever decided to upgrade to a higher power consumption video card.

Higher quality case - though it has fewer included fans. But it should be fine as is.

I wouldn't really say it's better or worse just different, performs about the same. If you like the case and such then it's good to go.

For 240gb vs 500gb, it really depends on what you do if you need it. I get by on a 240GB just fine. Adding a second one isn't too hard if you ever needed it. The drive you picked is a lower end model than the one I did. It's also a traditional SATA SSD and not a m.2 card type SSD so you'll have to run a couple cables for power and SATA. The Crucial SSD I picked out is also faster. Even lower end SSDs like the Kingston are still pretty quick though.

 

[Dick Sledge]

So after going back to an older nvidia driver everything seemed fine. Then loading up Witcher 3 it would keep freezing up almost immediately.

I believe it's the ram. Corsair vengeance 3200 rgb pro. After searching my mobo's compatibility it's not listed on there. My old ram is though that's why I never had any issues.

Loading up the dohc in the bios up to 3200 it would almost crash as soon as it booted up.

Luckily I bought from Amazon and got credited back immediately. Now I have $150 to work with from Amazon.

Maybe upgrade to a 144hz monitor?

 

[SniperHF]

I believe it's the ram. Corsair vengeance 3200 rgb pro. After searching my mobo's compatibility it's not listed on there. My old ram is though that's why I never had any issues.

What's your old RAM?

 

[Dick Sledge]

What's your old RAM?

Gskill ripjaws 4 3000

 

[SniperHF]

Gskill ripjaws 4 3000

It could simply be the extra 200mhz and not the RAM itself.
Stock speed for Ryzen is 2933mhz so anything over that is technically an overclock. It usually works fine, but not always.

 

[Dick Sledge]

It could simply be the extra 200mhz and not the RAM itself.
Stock speed for Ryzen is 2933mhz so anything over that is technically an overclock. It usually works fine, but not always.

It's the only thing left that could cause the freezing. I think at least?

When I get home from work tonight I'll be swapping back to the old ram.

 

[flyingkiwi]

Cut my foot at the beach so I’m off my feet a few days, so I’m finally going back to work on the PS2 build. Windows is installed and all the hw works so I’m gonna work on the fit and figure out how I’m gonna mount the mobo and other parts. Also will test two USB ports I prematurely glued into the case a few years back.

 

[SeidoN]

yeha my brother has 3200mhz ram and it wont boot if he sets it to 3200. only at 2933mhz

 

[SniperHF]

yeha my brother has 3200mhz ram and it wont boot if he sets it to 3200. only at 2933mhz

Sometimes you can also loosen the timings or up the voltage just a tick or two and keep it going at full speed.
It's usually the fault of the memory controller built into the CPU.

On my system the RAM is specced at 1.25v (DDR3U) but it won't run there I have to up it to 1.35 (DDR3L standard). My old 2500k could run it at 1.25 but not my 3770k. Chip lottery.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

I feel like I'm on crazy pills because I'm looking at a 2080 Ti and even remotely considering it. The price does not justify the performance but f*** me is it by far away better than my 970.

 

[SniperHF]

I feel like I'm on crazy pills because I'm looking at a 2080 Ti and even remotely considering it. The price does not justify the performance but **** me is it by far away better than my 970.

I think the 2060 is a damn fine card myself. Good price, good performance. Wish it had a little more VRAM for future proofing but that's about it.

40% upgrade on a 970 for +/-$370 is pretty good.

If they ever do release the non ray tracing versions probably even better.

 

[SeidoN]

I kinda struggle to justify the 2060s existence. its the same price here as a 1070ti, has less VRAM, and cant actually run RTX games.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

I am really looking forward to the 1660 Ti and maybe, hopefully, it can come close to the 2070 in terms of pure performance, but I don't think that's happening.

I know, being imaginative here.

 

[SniperHF]

I kinda struggle to justify the 2060s existence. its the same price here as a 1070ti, has less VRAM, and cant actually run RTX games.

Here the 2060 is about $100 less.

 

[SeidoN]

Here the 2060 is about $100 less.

le sigh

 

[TJ21]

Hey guys. Does anybody have any suggestions on cheaper G Sync monitors? Unfortunately I dont really want to go over 350-400 bucks so I realize I'm kind of limited in that regard. I just recently decided to get another monitor for console gaming, but figured I may as well future proof it with my laptop as well because I do sometimes game on there occassionally. I'd normally just look for a 60hz monitor but if I can find a great deal and future proof it, I figure why not. Have the Dell XPS 15 with an Nvidia Geforce GTX. Is it better for me to just hold off and wait for a sale of some sort? Any suggestions would be awesome. Specs wise, 144hz, would be willing to go to 75 if needed, I just haven't really been able to find any online, with 1 or 2ms GTG response time would be great. Thanks in advance!

 

[Dick Sledge]

Ram has been switched. Had a quick hiccup as there was no signal display initially. Had to take out two sticks. Posted on 2, then put the other 2 in and posted fine. Back up and running hopefully for good with no more hiccups anywhere.

 

[SniperHF]

Unfortunately I dont really want to go over 350-400 bucks so I realize I'm kind of limited in that regard.

I don't know much about gsync fwiw.
This doesn't seem to be much a thing. The cheapest one in Canada bucks on Newegg is $449.
Acer XG270HU Red 27" 1ms 144HZ WQHD 2K 2560x1440, G-SYNC Compatible, Gaming LCD Monitor, Edge-to-Edge Frameless Design, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, Built-in Speakers - Newegg.ca

 

[Hammettf2b]

anybody up?
Edit: So I was going to ask for some help on why my new monitor wasn't testing in 144hz on testufo.com. The monitor manual said it needed to be in a different horizontal clock or whatever than what my monitor was showing. So, being the dumbass that I am, I downloaded a program that could mess with the different timings. after messing around with that for a while and not getting any results I decided to put everything back to default settings. 4 hours had gone by when I decide to try it on ie and I was getting a rating of 75hz on there. Then it clicked that it must be the browser. sure enough, I turn on "Use hardware acceleration when available" in Chrome and it freakin worked. I was testing at 144hz lmao.

 

[SniperHF]

anybody up?
Edit: So I was going to ask for some help on why my new monitor wasn't testing in 144hz on testufo.com. The monitor manual said it needed to be in a different horizontal clock or whatever than what my monitor was showing. So, being the dumbass that I am, I downloaded a program that could mess with the different timings. after messing around with that for a while and not getting any results I decided to put everything back to default settings. 4 hours had gone by when I decide to try it on ie and I was getting a rating of 75hz on there. Then it clicked that it must be the browser. sure enough, I turn on "Use hardware acceleration when available" in Chrome and it freakin worked. I was testing at 144hz lmao.

Interesting test site, it confirmed my monitor overclock was working