Need A New Computer? Check Here First!

[Aurora The Explorer]

I guess this would be a good place to ask whether it's worth picking up a new graphics card.

Current build:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 V2 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card
Case: Cooler Master K280 ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM 64-bit
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N10 PCI-Express x1 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter
Monitor: Asus VE247H 23.6" Monitor
Speakers: Creative Labs GigaWorks T20 Series II 28W 2ch Speakers

I got a good deal on the R380 (£155) and I'm not unhappy with it, but I have some spare cash and the next gen architecture is looking like pretty insane value for money. I'm not new to building PCs but I can't work out will get me the most bang for my buck.
So if you were me and had £300-£500 burning a hole in your pocket, what would you address here? My budget isn't really limited, I could spend a hell of a lot more but it wouldn't be sensible and I feel like I ought to put a limit somewhere. I just want to be able to run SC on relatively high settings.

Also I've never done watercooling but I'm tempted to try it next PC I build, is it worth it?

Additional Info:
I live in the UK. Star Citizen is the most visually demanding thing I run but I also do a little bit of digital composing for a hobby and that can get CPU intensive. No problems so far but future upgrades put an i7 on the table. I don't really own any gaming peripherals, if you'd recommend any that you personally use I would love to hear it.

 

[DansAFK]

I think your bios should look like this, Internal Graphics option halfway down, change from Auto to Disabled or to PCI Express if there is a option.

Some other things you could try if there's a option > disable UEFI PCIE boot. Use Legacy PCI mode.

Ton of threads mentioning updating to the latest BIOS fixed the issue for them. So worth a shot if your not running the latest bios. http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4140#bios

 

[DansAFK]

I guess this would be a good place to ask whether it's worth picking up a new graphics card.

Current build:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 V2 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card
Case: Cooler Master K280 ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM 64-bit
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N10 PCI-Express x1 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter
Monitor: Asus VE247H 23.6" Monitor
Speakers: Creative Labs GigaWorks T20 Series II 28W 2ch Speakers

I got a good deal on the R380 (£155) and I'm not unhappy with it, but I have some spare cash and the next gen architecture is looking like pretty insane value for money. I'm not new to building PCs but I can't work out will get me the most bang for my buck.
So if you were me and had £300-£500 burning a hole in your pocket, what would you address here? My budget isn't really limited, I could spend a hell of a lot more but it wouldn't be sensible and I feel like I ought to put a limit somewhere. I just want to be able to run SC on relatively high settings.

Also I've never done watercooling but I'm tempted to try it next PC I build, is it worth it?

Additional Info:
I live in the UK. Star Citizen is the most visually demanding thing I run but I also do a little bit of digital composing for a hobby and that can get CPU intensive. No problems so far but future upgrades put an i7 on the table. I don't really own any gaming peripherals, if you'd recommend any that you personally use I would love to hear it.

I would grab myself a GTX 1070 (sweet spot for price vs performance) , but a gtx 1080 would be good too if you wanted to splurge.
the EVGA cards get a lot of praise but all the variants will perform very similar with various noise / heat differences.

But yeh a GTX 1070 will pretty much double your FPS on most games, a 1080 even more so.

I would then pop your r9 380 on ebay, they are going for about £160 winning bid or £150 buy it now at the moment. After fees you would come out roughly £130 profit, maybe a little more.

 

[Aurora The Explorer]

I would grab myself a GTX 1070 (sweet spot for price vs performance) , but a gtx 1080 would be good too if you wanted to splurge.
the EVGA cards get a lot of praise but all the variants will perform very similar with various noise / heat differences.

But yeh a GTX 1070 will pretty much double your FPS on most games, a 1080 even more so.

I would then pop your r9 380 on ebay, they are going for about £160 winning bid or £150 buy it now at the moment. After fees you would come out roughly £130 profit, maybe a little more.

Thanks, can graphics cards really resell for so much? I got it new at £155, so I never expected to be able to sell it for the same price.

With regards to the 1070/1080, at what point would my cpu be dragging my performance down? Playing Witcher 3 tends to put all 4 cores at 100% load and into upper 70c for reference.

 

[DansAFK]

Thanks, can graphics cards really resell for so much? I got it new at £155, so I never expected to be able to sell it for the same price.

With regards to the 1070/1080, at what point would my cpu be dragging my performance down? Playing Witcher 3 tends to put all 4 cores at 100% load and into upper 70c for reference.

Like you said certain games, witcher 3, GTA V do tend to be CPU bound to a certain extend and you would see slighly better performance from a i7 chip. Some people quote differences of 10 fps or so which could mean not getting a solid 60 fps all the time.

If your gonna upgrade in increments, id grab a graphics card now as you will see some improvement over what you had previously and then upgrade the motherboard/cpu/ram the next time you have spare cash. Putting down £450 + for those 3 items can be considerably more expensive xD

Theres plenty of threads of people with a i5-4590 paired with a gtx 1070 where they say cpu usage is 100% and they aren't getting full potential fps. So deffo worth a upgrade at some point I think. Some people though can make a mountain out of a molehill and real world fps differences can be like 10 fps xD

 

[Lienna]

Update: tried unplugging all non-essential parts and it was still rebooting.

Then tried clearing cmos. Now it boots, but I get no output to my monitor regardless of if I'm using my 660 or on board. Tried swapping out ram etc. Any last thoughts before I declare the motherboard dead?

Think my windows is linked to my motherboard so that would be expensive!

 

[AstroSam]

Motherboard = not good.
Tried another GPU instead of onboard?

And before loosing all hope: I've had the strange happening of building in a new (used) mobo, for some reason it won't work. Frustrated me re-installed the old mobo - and it worked again! Don't know why, but these are the miracles of PCs ;)

 

[mromutt]

Motherboard = not good.
Tried another GPU instead of onboard?

And before loosing all hope: I've had the strange happening of building in a new (used) mobo, for some reason it won't work. Frustrated me re-installed the old mobo - and it worked again! Don't know why, but these are the miracles of PCs ;)

I have had it where i had to set seat the cpu and it fixed it lol should have but it did. but sounds like possible psu even :P

 

[AstroSam]

I thought about PSU. But then you have to buy a new PSU - probably to find out that it wasn't the PSU, because the problem remains...?

That said, having defects in the hardware, in the end I always bought more stuff than I've needed because of "misunderstandings" like that with the PSU or the mobo..

 

[Lienna]

Yeah I bought a new PSU. Not fixed, but good news is I now have a better PSU.

99% sure the motherboard got fried, very frustrating, leaving the battery out while I go out for an hour and will give it one last try before giving in and ordering a new one...

Edit: on that note can anyone suggest a new motherboard? Would be useful if I can convince Microsoft to let me keep my windows oem...

 

[DansAFK]

Yeah I bought a new PSU. Not fixed, but good news is I now have a better PSU.

99% sure the motherboard got fried, very frustrating, leaving the battery out while I go out for an hour and will give it one last try before giving in and ordering a new one...

Edit: on that note can anyone suggest a new motherboard? Would be useful if I can convince Microsoft to let me keep my windows oem...

awww that really sucks :(

Do you get output to your monitor if you plug it into the on board graphics port? Could be that after resetting the cmos that it has PCI-E disabled or something.

For a replacement motherboard to match your Socket which is 1150 I would go with a Z97 chipset as it is designed for the performance overclocking demographic and will be a hardier motherboard for you.

ASRock Z97 EXTREME6 Motherboard (extremely cheap for the features you get)

1. 12 phase power
2. dual full length M.2 slots
3. Sata express
4. ALC 1150 codec with headphone amp, L/R channels on seperate PCB layers, seperated PCB section (anti "noise" feature) for audio, quality electrolytic audio caps.
5. Better Warranty support than ASUS (except for maybe ROG series)

Asus Z97 Pro gamer (8 phase power, reliable name and decent board)
MSI Gaming 5 (8 phase power)


#######

£150+
Gigabyte GA-G1.SNIPER Z97 [£150 eBay.co.uk]

£125+
ASRock Z97 EXTREME6 [£133.98 eBuyer.com]
Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 8 phase vs 6 phase of MSI Krait [£126 kustompcs.co.uk]
MSI Z97-GAMING 5 [£129.53 aria.co.uk]

£120
Asus Z97 PRO GAMER [£120 ebuyer.com]

£110
MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition [£117.60 amazon.co.uk]

£100
Asus Z97M-PLUS Micro ATX - [£107.00 ebuyer.com]
Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 [£103.64 ebuyer.com]
MSI Z97-Gaming 3 [£107.92 amazon.co.uk]


For me the choice would be between a Asus Z97 Pro Gamer , ASRock Extreme6 , MSI Z97 Gaming 5 and Gigabyte Gaming 5

 

[mjrcooke]

Hi guys! I was wondering if you could give me a hand. I'd like to sell my old desktop pc, but i have no idea how to set the price.
Components:
PSU: Corsair CX750
Processor: Core i7-920
MB: ASUS P6TD Deluxe
GPU: Radeon HD6970
RAMM: Corsair VENGENCE 2x 8GB DDR3
HDD: Some old 300gb HDD

Sooner or later im going to get a new star citizen ready rig(not sure if desktop or laptop), is anything worth keeping?

 

[CrudeSasquatch]

Hey guys. I'm almost done at school and is new computer time. Sooooooo i can get one from work at
http://www.canex.ca/electronics/computers.html
Are any of those any good?

 

[marcsand2]

Hey guys. I'm almost done at school and is new computer time. Sooooooo i can get one from work at
http://www.canex.ca/electronics/computers.html
Are any of those any good?

Hmmmm, I would go for the HP Envy, but upgrade the SSD and RAM right away. The GPU would be a not too long term upgrade. Stock it isn't super, but it also isn't as expensive as the ASUS. The MSI gaming laptops also don't look too bad, but I'm not a laptop fan for gaming. However, in the army laptops could be more practical, depends on where you stay most of the time.

 

[I_MIKE_I]

Hey guys. I'm almost done at school and is new computer time. Sooooooo i can get one from work at
http://www.canex.ca/electronics/computers.html
Are any of those any good?

I'm from Germany, so I dunno what prices are common in Canada... but those Prices seem insane to me and the HW looks way outdated.

Are they giving you one for free from work or at a insane discount? If not you can (if you dont mind) write your budget and I'll try to check out something later, but I gotta go shopping now.

 

[I_MIKE_I]

Okay... having a little time now, I'll use http://www.canex.ca/electronics/computers/hp-envy-750-109-personal-computer-desktop-core-i7-6700-3-4-ghz-ram-8-g.html as a reference and try to build you something better for <1000$ on this site: https://www.newegg.ca

I'm not a expert and slightly biased I think, so take what I build mostly as a reference rather than a "build it like this".

Case (49$, optional): https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133249CVF&ignorebbr=1
Processor: FX-8350 (190$) : https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113284&ignorebbr=1
Mainboard: Asus M5A99FX Pro (173$): https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131851&ignorebbr=1
32GB Corsair Venegance Pro DDR 3 1600 Memory (260$): https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233559&ignorebbr=1
RX 480 8GB (300$): https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202275&ignorebbr=1 (note: there are some on sale with better coolers for the same price, notably the powercolor one...).

Without Drives, shipping, building and so on, this amounts to: 879 (830 without case) $.

The downsides would be a "weak" CPU in comparsion to the top-tier ones like the Intel ones or the Ryzen 7, but it's still a 4.0 ghz 8 core CPU and I just don't see a CPU bottleneck with that in the near future.

I went for "only" 1600 DDR3 despire 1866 being available for little additional cost but it's Corsair RAM and from own expirience I can tell that RAM speeds just don't matter. iirc the differences between DDR2 and DDR4 are usually in the single-digit frames. 32GB is overkill, hands down... but I from own expirience I know that "I will upgrade ram later" will usually be delayed forever because you just dont find the correct one... so I maxed out on that.

The Mainboard supports 2x 16x SLI/Crossfire, so I went for that and a RX480, so you could upgrade with a 2nd RX480 should the need ever arise.

If you need the Drives as well as the case, I guess you'd end up somewhere between 1000~1100 which would give you something vastly superior to the HP Envy.

 

[Blind Owl]

What is your location? Prices, websites, and deals vary based on country. This is very important.

Canada!

What is your budget is your currency?

I'll leave this one, as I'll explain later.

Are you looking to build your own computer or do you want a pre-assembled one? Keep in mind that building your own computer, especially at the “mid to high end” levels needed for Star Citizen, you will get a far better deal compared to buying pre-built. However if building your own is simply not an option, we understand. Don’t be scared though! If you’ve never built before, and have general computer hardware knowledge, it’s easy! We’ll help you out.

I would like to build, HOWEVER, I can purchase pre-built machines through the military store here in Canada, and finance them with no interest, so that's really appealing ($3000 over 3 years? Yes please)

What do you need besides the Desktop Tower? Monitor(s), keyboard, mouse, speakers, headphones, Operating System disc (lol), etc

I'll need a new monitor and probably a decent wireless gaming headset.

Any product, store, or manufacturer preferences?

Meh. Good is good. If pre-built, I need upgrade-ability.

What do you plan on using your computer for? Herp, derp, I know. Star Citizen. But certain uses may require tweaks in hardware to be fully efficient.

Gaming. Primarily gaming.

When are you looking to build? If this computer is strictly for Star Citizen, the longer you wait (generally speaking), the better. However if you need a computer at a specific time, we will cater to that. Generally, you don't need to look into building until a few weeks before you want it. Prices and hardware greatly change over the months.

No rush. The system I'm on now is great for a while yet. Yes, a laptop, but a decent one.

Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 17134) (17134.rs4_release.180410-1804)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
System Model: GT80 2QE
BIOS: E1812IMS.10A (type: UEFI)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4720HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory: 32768MB RAM

and 2 of these running in SLI
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 980M
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Type: Full Device (POST)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_11321462&REV_A1
Device Status: 0180200A [DN_DRIVER_LOADED|DN_STARTED|DN_DISABLEABLE|DN_NT_ENUMERATOR|DN_NT_DRIVER]
Device Problem Code: No Problem
Driver Problem Code: Unknown
Display Memory: 24395 MB
Dedicated Memory: 8033 MB
Shared Memory: 16362 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)

So my big question, if I grab, say,an MSI gaming desktop, am I able to upgrade it piecemeal? Like you can with a self-built maching?

 

[marcsand2]

So my big question, if I grab, say,an MSI gaming desktop, am I able to upgrade it piecemeal? Like you can with a self-built maching?

Off course, why not, you only risk losing warranty when replacing parts. I bought a HP gaming desktop (not the brightest choice) First thing I did was upgrading the RAM from 8GB to 32GB. That was no problem with warranty. A few months later I had to send it back, power switch was broken, no problem at all, they fixed it.

 

[Blind Owl]

Off course, why not, you only risk losing warranty when replacing parts. I bought a HP gaming desktop (not the brightest choice) First thing I did was upgrading the RAM from 8GB to 32GB. That was no problem with warranty. A few months later I had to send it back, power switch was broken, no problem at all, they fixed it.

Ok. Awesome. I was specifically wondering about graphics cards and stuff. I notice the MSI website lists the nvidia cards it uses as "MSI GTX 1080Ti Gaming 11GB GDDR5X SLI" etc. It's the MSI on the beginning of the graphics card name that concerns me. Does that mean they have to buy MSI specific graphics cards to upgrade in the future?

 

[marcsand2]

Does that mean they have to buy MSI specific graphics cards to upgrade in the future?

Naaaaaah, its just the name of the card they build in. In a MSI rig you can expect a MSI GPU

I for example have a HP Envy gaming rig. HP builds very solid cases. The case has a special bracket to fixate the GPU, a GTX970.

In order to use the bracket on the upgrade GPU, I had to select the GPU on build form. That is why I selected a MSI GTX 1080Ti Aero.

I also could have selected any of the other 1080ti cards, but a mechanically stable build got a higher priority then some higher clock speeds or better cooling.