re: PC Discussion - Gaming, Performance and Enthusiasts

So what is the best/easiest cloning software? Finally gonna get around to installing my 850 Evo.

May just torrent Paragon...

Are you stable? Temp isn't everything. Scale it back a bit and see what happens.

Artifacting without driver crash = mem clock too high. If you bump the memory clock even higher, you'll eventually just see the benchmark freeze, and a reboot would be the only way to recover.

Memory overclocks need to be taken slow just like GPU. Sometimes slower, because even slightly unstable memory doesn't necessarily present itself so obviously.

Can someone critique my two potential builds?

I am hoping to use it for some gaming, video streaming, music playback and potentially some recording, AutoCad, and 3D modeling.

LINK
LINK

Bonus AMD build

I'm assuming your budget is up to $800-ish?

The first build with the 4690S would be the best all-around for your purposes, assuming that the things you listed (gaming, streaming, recording, Cad, modeling) are not going to be done at a hardcore professional level.

However, I have some issues with that build. It can be refined in several ways. I'll get to that at the end of this post. It would be helpful if you give me more details about your main use priorities. Is it primarily gaming? How much streaming? Streaming can be approached in a couple of ways: CPU-based encoding would give you a little higher fidelity for the chosen bitrate, but CPU-intensive games would suffer greatly because of the heavy strain it puts on the CPU. The second approach is using ShadowPlay, which puts the load on your GPU, but it's not nearly as heavy of a hit to overall performance as CPU-based. The fidelity is lower, though. It can be more cost-effective to go this route if streaming is not your main use (i.e., you aren't a regular Twitch streamer with actual income from it). And now that I've typed that out, I realize that I'm probably totally misinterpreting "video streaming" to mean streaming gameplay on Twitch, and you're likely just talking about netflix and whatnot. In which case, it's not a factor at all.

Secondly, the 16GB of RAM can be useful for CAD/modeling and perhaps video editing, but only if you actually need it. If you're just putting together some clips you took on your phone/gopro/drone/handheld and adding some transitions and music, you probably won't use that RAM. You certainly won't use it for gaming. I have 16GB of RAM personally, and I find its only use for me is managing the sheer volume of shite I keep open all the time, particularly Chrome windows and tabs. I do some video/photo editing and have dabbled with music recording/editing and 3d modeling via some lynda.com tutorials, and none of those activities alone has ever put me over the 8GB threshold.

The second build, with the i7, is a useful CAD/3d modeling machine. The GPU is dog shite for gaming.

The bonus AMD build would be better for CPU-intensive twitch streaming. I'm kind of puzzled on the RAM selection here, and that would need to change for sure. However, I'm mostly inclined to focus on your first configuration and tweak that.

Also, I noticed that across all three builds, you seem to favor 4GB vram. It's unnecessary to spend extra on 4GB versions of weak to mid-range cards, because their GPUs are not powerful enough to process and store that much data. It's a waste. You'd be better off getting a more powerful GPU with less vram.

So, with some assumptions in mind about your use (assuming a gaming build that will be more than competent enough for individual/hobbyist music/video editing and Cad/modeling), here's a revised build:

PCPartPicker part list: LINK
Price breakdown by merchant: LINK /

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($166.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Plus Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($9.00 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($63.00 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($96.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($46.76 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB Tri-X OC Video Card ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($22.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Speakers: Cyber Acoustics CA3001WB 14W 2.1ch Speakers ($18.99 @ Directron)
Total: $767.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-20 13:34 EDT-0400


First, I nixed the 4690S in favor of a 4460, because the main advantage of the 4690S is that it runs at a lower TDP. It's ideal for low-power builds and less heat, maybe for a small form factor build or server. For your purposes, there's no point. The 4460's single-threaded performance will be about the same for less money, and single-threaded performance will be most important in pretty much everything you do outside of video encoding and 3d model rendering time.

I know nothing about the cooler you chose, but looking at the reviews, it appears to be a slight step up from the stock non-copper intel coolers, but perhaps not better than the copper-contact coolers that ship with the i5 and i7 haswells. It's cheap, so I'll leave it alone for now. Might be worth doing a comparison of it with the stock cooler yourself.

I had no problem with the motherboard. It's a cheap H97 board, and this PC won't be overclocked.

Replaced your RAM with identically spec'd Ripjaws for $3 less. Might as well.

No issues with the storage choices at this budget.

The GPU --- that was the biggest issue if gaming is going to be a large part of your use for this PC. The 960 just isn't up to par with the price/performance ratio of AMD's current cards (they've seen some big price drops recently). And the 4GB of vram in the 960 is pointless. The 280x would still outperform it. Luckily, there's room in your budget for a 290, which still has 4GB of vram, but actually has the GPU power to justify it. If you want to be extra thrifty, search ebay for an HD 7970, R9-280x, or 290.

The case is a matter of a opinion, so I won't touch that. It's a no-frills budget case. The fans might be noisier than some more premium options, and the construction will be basic with little or no cable management room, but it'll do.

With the substantial video card upgrade, you needed a power supply upgrade. Luckily, it was easy to find a good quality PSU with more than enough power within the budget.

I'm not qualified to give speaker advice, but I imagine $20 speakers aren't going to be anything special.

Yeah, any mid-tier 250GB SSD under $100 is a good deal.

A few on ebay:

LINK

LINK

LINK

They all seem to be clean with original box, and since the card has only been out since October, they'll have plenty of warranty left.

Though buying one new gets you two $60 AAA games with it.

Why? Literally can't be more protected than what eBay/Paypal offer. I bought my GPU off eBay.

I honestly don't like buying stuff from new egg either. I had to return the last amd GPU from them 3 times because it was DOA every single time.

If I get something off eBay I kind of expect it to be from someone that tried to over clock it and fricked it up. It would be a hassle to deal with even with me getting the money back out of it.