re: PC Discussion - Gaming, Performance and Enthusiasts

I have a friend that wants to build a non gaming PC. Very simple needs. Doesn't need a monitor, keyboard, or mouse, just looking for plenty of storage for pictures and music and really only going to use it to browse the internet and check email sort of thing. Would want a legal version of windows 7 or 8. He has a $300 price point in mind. With such minimal needs, would a custom build be worth it for him, or should he just stick with an off-the-shelf PC? If we do custom, any input would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Thanks

Want to upgrade my gaming build over the Holidays. What would be the best thing to upgrade to get a boost.

Current Build:

i5 3570
gtx 760
z77 motherboard
ssd 120gb


Was thinking about getting the i5 4690k. Would this be a big upgrade compared to the 3570?

Does anyone have good suggestions for gaming mice? I have a friend who suggested the Logitech g500s but I wanted more opinions/suggestions before I decided on which one I would be getting.

I haven't found a better mouse than the g500. I love it

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What's your current power supply, and how much do you want to spend?

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I have a 500w power supply. I thought i had a pretty good build but games lately aren't running as good as some buddies who have just around the same build as i do. I have 8gb of ram...should i add a stick or two? A buddy said if i jumped to the i5 4690 that i may have to change motherboards...is that true? I mainly play MMOs and seem to bog down pretty bad in busy areas.

Corsair cx500 is the make and model of the power supply. As far as all the other stuff you lost me. I'm not a huge PC gamer but I did build this rig last year for me to use at home. Lately I have played DayZ and my average FPS is probably around 30. I have the nvidia experience program. Can't that program answer a lot of those questions?

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I have the nvidia experience program. Can't that program answer a lot of those questions?

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I don't know. I barely use that program. I don't think it has all the advanced OSD information you'd get from EVGA PrecisionX or Afterburner.

With afterburner, you can have an OSD showing:
GPU Temperature
GPU usage
GPU voltage
GPU fan speed
GPU core clock
GPU memory clock
GPU memory usage
Framerate
Frametime
CPU temperature on each core
CPU usage on each core
System memory usage
Pagefile usage
And more, especially if you have more than one GPU. The ones in bold are the ones to be concerned with first.

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Lately I have played DayZ and my average FPS is probably around 30

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Because DayZ is unoptimized and runs like shite on all PCs. Don't use that game as a gauge of performance.

CCC is fine only if you don't intend to overvolt. It's a decent enough cooler that you might want to consider using afterburner or Trixx to bump the voltage another 50mv. I had this exact model but I immediately put it under water so I can't tell you what it can handle on air.

It will likely have Hynix memory so you can overclock memory to somewhere between 1500 and 1600 pretty reliably. Voltage on the memory is locked regardless of OC program.

Boost clock is already at 1000. You will probably have less than 200 MHz leeway there before you're limited by voltage, heat, power, or some combination of the three. I had mine at 1200Mhz and it would occasionally find a game that didn't like it that high. I put as much voltage into it as Trixx would allow, so realistically you may only get another 100-150MHz on top of the factory OC. However, I was using crossfire, and overclocks have to be a tad milder in that configuration to balance power and bandwidth, and you also have to match your weakest card (the one that doesn't overclock quite as well).

Check your ASIC score with GPU-Z, and that will give you a rough (very rough) idea of how your card will perform. This card is based on the reference design, so ASIC quality can be all over the map. However, one thing I've noticed with the AIBs selling reference boards with non-reference coolers is that those all tend to have average to below average ASIC scores (roughly translating to requiring more voltage to sustain clocks and producing more heat). They'll slap a better cooler on them, apply a mild overclock that pretty much any GPU could handle, and sell it for more money (back when it was new, at least). Enough time has passed though that you're probably just as likely to get a high-ASIC card.

Also, unless you really like Afterburner's OSD features, I would just use Sapphire Trixx. As far as I know, afterburner still has not fixed a bug regarding the power slider in Hawaii chips that requires a small workaround.