Begun the building of the gaming PC has.

mromutt

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mromutt
My current case has the PSU fan on the bottom, which is bad because I have the case on the carpet, so I need to place shit under it to lift it up.
Oh ok, this one lets the PSU suck air in from the side of the case. Even better its has two 3.5" HHD sleds (can also hold 2.5") in the bottom instead of fans there and for your SSDs it has a cage thats easy to use over the PSU area that hold I think like 5 2.5"
 

lex

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Jan 3, 2015
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rlex
Ive never overclocked anything before, never had the need.

Should I be overclocking if I want to be cool?
Overclocking today is easy unless you're targeting 5+ ghz on water cooling.
Most mobos have overclocking profiles built-in, they're mostly shit, but they can give you idea about voltages and multiplier stuff.
You just load overclocking profile you want (max OC in easy mode depends on your CPU. Some i5-3570k can push additional 0.5 ghz, some 0.8, etc, depends on batch. Usually learned by BSODs), then tune voltage (it's safe unless you unlock additional OC which is pretty useless unless you have huge water cooling setup) to fit your needs. Took me a day or so to get additional 1.2 ghz on every core.

And if you want to stream with x264 (cpu-based encoder) you will need those extra mhz.
On the other side, you can offload your stream encoding to intel quicksync (part of intel HD GPU) or NVENC (nvidia-based encoder). Hardware-encoded stream can look a bit JPEGy, but will not affect your gaming performance at all.

But if you don't plan any overclocking, getting Z chipset and K cpu is just waste of money.
 

Shutter

Grand Admiral
Mar 12, 2015
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I think its about time to get this shit done.

My current PC can't really stream and run the games Im trying to play at the same time. I was getting terrible frame rates on GTAV and Star Citizen, and I want to start streaming regularly, so its time to get this PC built.

RussianJ just got his hands on a GTX 970 which he is selling me at a good price, so I am starting off with that.

I got a AX860i PSU from another member, thank you very much!

Now I just need everything else!

Im eyeing out the following:

CPU - i5-4690K
Motherboard - MSI Z97-G45
Memory - 16GB of something
Storage - SSD 500GB of something
Video Card - GTX 970
Case - I have no idea, gimme your suggestions! (chairmanmeow suggests this)

Microcenter has bundle sales every so often, if you see a i5 and mobo bundle, let me know! They are usually in-store only and I have no store within 1000miles.

Am concerned. Yes the i5-4690K is good, but you deserve better. Please! If your gonna upgrade, "UPGRADE". Please take a look at the i7-4790K. 1 c-note more. Can base clock it to 4.9 GHz, the multi-core speed is faster,and 4 more threads, and better heat dissipation, and, and, and, other stuff. Your nipples will be happier for it.


Note: Am 8 beers in, this may appear to be nothing but babbling beer talk in the morning.
 

Montoya

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Oct 31, 2013
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Am concerned. Yes the i5-4690K is good, but you deserve better. Please! If your gonna upgrade, "UPGRADE". Please take a look at the i7-4790K. 1 c-note more. Can base clock it to 4.9 GHz, the multi-core speed is faster,and 4 more threads, and better heat dissipation, and, and, and, other stuff. Your nipples will be happier for it.


Note: Am 8 beers in, this may appear to be nothing but babbling beer talk in the morning.
Absolutely, the i7 is nicer, but this the thing about upgrading, there is always a better part.

If my budget was $5000, then I would be rocking the most mind blowing over-clocked machine you have ever seen.

I will get there, but Im not there yet.

At the moment Im on a tight budget and the i5 will be enough to carry me to the PU which should be 2yrs ;)
 

WarrenPeace

Space Marshal
Jul 17, 2014
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Montoya

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Montoya
agreed. that's a great 'right now' build. will last you for a good while.
A second 970 SLI will give this build plenty of breathing room.

What I want to end up doing when the time comes is give away this PC to a TEST member when I upgrade next.

We can do some sort of raffle or contest.
 

CaptainRichard

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Montoya, you must get an i7 if you are going to be monobox gaming + streaming. i7 chips were specifically designed for superior multi-tasking and multi-threading over the i5, which is important when processing both game play and encoding audio/video at the same time.

The difference in cost is only around $80. The Intel i7 4790K is $280 from Microcenter right now, much cheaper than Newegg or Tigerdirect. If RJ is already going to pick you up a graphics card from Microcenter for you, might as well nab an i7 bundle while there as well.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/434176/Core_i7-4790K_40GHz_LGA_1150_Boxed_Processor
 
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Willem Default

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Apr 2, 2015
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WillemDefault
A second 970 SLI will give this build plenty of breathing room.

What I want to end up doing when the time comes is give away this PC to a TEST member when I upgrade next.

We can do some sort of raffle or contest.
Plenty of time to upgrade before the PU, I recently got a new GTX 970 and really like it. It hasn't come without some issues, but I'm not sure they're GPU related and they're minor anyway.

My current setup:

Processor: FX8350 (CPU fan: be quiet! Shadow Rock 2)
Mobo: 990FXA-GD65
GPU: MSI GTX 970
PSU: CX600M
RAM: 8gb (2 x 4gb) Kingston Beast
Storage: 1 x 128gb Kingston SSD + 1TB Western Digital Caviar Blue HDD + 3TB Toshiba HDD
Case: Corsair 200R (Big black brick, I call 'er Bertha. Good cheapish case, decent airflow)
 

Montoya

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Montoya
Montoya, you must get an i7 if you are going to be monobox gaming + streaming. i7 chips were specifically designed for superior multi-tasking and multi-threading over the i5, which is important when processing both game play and encoding audio/video at the same time.

The difference in cost is only around $80. The Intel i7 4790K is $280 from Microcenter right now, much cheaper than Newegg or Tigerdirect. If RJ is already going to pick you up a graphics card from Microcenter for you, might as well nab an i7 bundle while there as well.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/434176/Core_i7-4790K_40GHz_LGA_1150_Boxed_Processor
Do you run a single PC?

See, this is what I hate about upgrading, everything is only $50-$80 away from the next tier up!

The plan is for my current PC to be the dedicated streaming rig, its an AMD FX-8320, so I dont think the i7 can fit into this motherboard unless I really squeeze it in hard!
 
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Montoya

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Plenty of time to upgrade before the PU, I recently got a new GTX 970 and really like it. It hasn't come without some issues, but I'm not sure they're GPU related and they're minor anyway.

My current setup:

Processor: FX8350 (CPU fan: be quiet! Shadow Rock 2)
Mobo: 990FXA-GD65
GPU: MSI GTX 970
PSU: CX600M
RAM: 8gb (2 x 4gb) Kingston Beast
Storage: 1 x 128gb Kingston SSD + 1TB Western Digital Caviar Blue HDD + 3TB Toshiba HDD
Case: Corsair 200R (Big black brick, I call 'er Bertha. Good cheapish case, decent airflow)
Ive got the FX8320, that thing runs hot!

I managed to squeeze a cooling fan into it though, but the PSU sounds like a vacuum cleaner, its that loud.
 

UbEcLoWn

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Jun 13, 2014
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UbEcLoWn
A second 970 SLI will give this build plenty of breathing room.

What I want to end up doing when the time comes is give away this PC to a TEST member when I upgrade next.

We can do some sort of raffle or contest.
Definitely! I've got 970's in SLI and nothing can touch my rig. Everything maxed out in every game. No Problem. It'll be like that for some time.
 

Willem Default

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Apr 2, 2015
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Ive got the FX8320, that thing runs hot!

I managed to squeeze a cooling fan into it though, but the PSU sounds like a vacuum cleaner, its that loud.
My rig is silent until I play anything, then I can hear it but it's not that loud at all. In fact, the CPU is often the coolest temp under load, it's usually my mobo and the 970 that are the hottest, but they don't usually go above 60C.
 

UbEcLoWn

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Jun 13, 2014
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UbEcLoWn
I know everybody is throwing in recommedations but this is an amazing 500gb ssd at a great price, it's on sale for a little longer on amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E500B-AM/dp/B00OBRE5UE/ref=sr_1_2/189-3470703-8799022?ie=UTF8&qid=1437750430&sr=8-2&keywords=evo+850+ssd
That's a good price. But it's only gonna get cheaper over time. I'd say Montoya should keep cost down and just go with the 250GB for the moment. It's under $100 right now.
 
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