Desktop Computers

kidRiot_sl said:

Evening ladies and gents...

It has been years since I had a gaming PC, and really starting to feel the itch (been stuck playing old games on my laptop).

My budget is roughly 1000$ (perhaps more if really worth it...plan to upgrade parts later). I'm going to need an OS and monitor (probably nothing larger than 24in). I'd also love my rig being able to upgrade later for Star Citizen and such. My apologizes as I am not savvy regarding hardware, so any advice will be greatly appreciated. I'd love to be able to play current gen at max/damn near max, probably a lot of Planetside 2.

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Wanting to play Planetside 2 at Ultra settings is a tall order to fill. That game is a hog. Doing it on a system that will cost you $1000 when you need an OS & Monitor is pretty near impossible.

That being said, I came damn close:Intel Core i5-4430, MSI Radeon R9 280, Corsair 200R - System Build - PCPartPicker

The value out there is insane right now. That video card for $200 is an absolute steal. I got the vibe you aren't the overclocking type, so I included a locked CPU. It's the CPU in the build I linked that will keep you from running PS2 at ultra I think. If anyone knows, please chime in. You'll be able to play most current gen games at Ultra on this rig though, excluding a couple titles (Metro, Crysis 3 etc).

Now, I could link another build with a stronger CPU, but you would have to sacrifice a couple things to keep it under your budget. Probably no room for an SSD or optical drive, as that $90 would have to go to the processor.

Google is coming back with limited results because the spread in time, but how would Crossfire Radeon 6950 2gb cards match up against single GTX 770? or R 280x? Trying to find those FPS charts, but none that include cards that go that far back.

Anyone elses Google-Fu any better?

Quaid_sl said:

Wanting to play Planetside 2 at Ultra settings is a tall order to fill. That game is a hog. Doing it on a system that will cost you $1000 when you need an OS & Monitor is pretty near impossible.

That being said, I came damn close:Intel Core i5-4430, MSI Radeon R9 280, Corsair 200R - System Build - PCPartPicker

The value out there is insane right now. That video card for $200 is an absolute steal. I got the vibe you aren't the overclocking type, so I included a locked CPU. It's the CPU in the build I linked that will keep you from running PS2 at ultra I think. If anyone knows, please chime in. You'll be able to play most current gen games at Ultra on this rig though, excluding a couple titles (Metro, Crysis 3 etc).

Now, I could link another build with a stronger CPU, but you would have to sacrifice a couple things to keep it under your budget. Probably no room for an SSD or optical drive, as that $90 would have to go to the processor.

Click to expand...

Wow!!! Thanks a ton!

I figured it would be a tall order, especially for Planetside 2 at Ultra. In terms of upgrading in the future, would it be worth going over budget some for a stronger CPU? I don't mind going around 1200$ since I'm going to religiously upgrade parts every few years as the tech advances. I'm punching myself in the nuts because I was about to pull the trigger on that monitor last night, as they had a 20$ off promo code for the weekend. But i'll be pulling the trigger today.

First gaming rig in over 12 years!!

Now to google-fu some articles on understanding computer hardware...

Looking up similar threads on google, most people seem to advocate going with the single stronger card.

Quaid_sl said:

Wanting to play Planetside 2 at Ultra settings is a tall order to fill. That game is a hog. Doing it on a system that will cost you $1000 when you need an OS & Monitor is pretty near impossible.

That being said, I came damn close:Intel Core i5-4430, MSI Radeon R9 280, Corsair 200R - System Build - PCPartPicker

The value out there is insane right now. That video card for $200 is an absolute steal. I got the vibe you aren't the overclocking type, so I included a locked CPU. It's the CPU in the build I linked that will keep you from running PS2 at ultra I think. If anyone knows, please chime in. You'll be able to play most current gen games at Ultra on this rig though, excluding a couple titles (Metro, Crysis 3 etc).

Now, I could link another build with a stronger CPU, but you would have to sacrifice a couple things to keep it under your budget. Probably no room for an SSD or optical drive, as that $90 would have to go to the processor.

Click to expand...

I might advocate for getting a Crucial MX100 256GB over the Samsung EVO 120 GB. You can find it for around $95-100 so for an extra $5-10 you get double the space and a little bit better performance (the MX100 256GB is just a tad faster than the EVO 250GB so it should be even a little faster than the EVO 120GB). I just put the MX100 256GB in my brother's build and was really happy I switched to it over the EVO. It won't help in game FPS much but when he will likely have PlanetSide 2 and Star Citizen on the computer at the same time the extra 120+GB of space will be needed.

kidRiot_sl said:

Wow!!! Thanks a ton!

I figured it would be a tall order, especially for Planetside 2 at Ultra. In terms of upgrading in the future, would it be worth going over budget some for a stronger CPU? I don't mind going around 1200$ since I'm going to religiously upgrade parts every few years as the tech advances. I'm punching myself in the nuts because I was about to pull the trigger on that monitor last night, as they had a 20$ off promo code for the weekend. But i'll be pulling the trigger today.

First gaming rig in over 12 years!!

Now to google-fu some articles on understanding computer hardware...

Click to expand...

No problem man. I made the SSD change jeydax suggested, and upgraded the CPU Selection. You still come in under $1100. In 2 years the GPU I selected for you will start to show its age, but you can just upgrade that part alone at that point.

Cheers!

Intel Core i5-4690, MSI Radeon R9 280, Corsair 200R - System Build - PCPartPicker

Crone_sl said:

Google is coming back with limited results because the spread in time, but how would Crossfire Radeon 6950 2gb cards match up against single GTX 770? or R 280x? Trying to find those FPS charts, but none that include cards that go that far back.

Anyone elses Google-Fu any better?

Click to expand...

For newer comparisons, a 6950 is pretty equivalent to an R9 280 (non X)

Heres a Battlefield 4 benchmark at 1080p, Ultra settings:
Charts, benchmarks 2014 VGA Charts, 16 Battlefield 4 1080p

Nvidia 770 = 66FPS
Amd 280x = 64 FPS
AMD 280 = 50FPS
Nvidia 760 = 48 FPS


So basically, the Nvidia 760 and the AMD 280 are roughly equivalent and the Nvidia 280x and Nvidia 770 are equivalent. An AMD 6950 is going to be slightly on par, if not just a little behind those 280/760 marks. I'd wager that it would come in around ~45 FPS.

With your question about crossfire, I would expect dual 6950s to come in around 80-85 FPS. So while they will definitely outperform a lone 770 or 280x in games that support crossfire, those lone cards will offer about 50% better performance in games that don't support crossfire(and some still don't, most notably stuff from ID like the new Wolfenstein), and a lot of games don't support Crossfire/SLI correctly out of the box, you may be waiting a week or two for patches to get it working correctly.

I currently have SLI'd 660TIs, and I had Crossfired AMD 4870s previous to that, and I'm probably done with dual-cards. The hassle outweighs the benefits to me. Just recently, Wolfenstein only runs on 1 card, with no plans to fix that, and Watch Dogs released in a state where SLI actually hurt performance, it took a week or two for them to patch the fix. I'd rather have the solid performance of 1 good card from now on, I'm tired of hassling with the bugs and lack of support of dual cards.

I might be replacing my Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H board. I'm having some boot issues with it that apparently have plagued some Gigabyte boards for a few generations now. I'll power on my computer and it will seemingly post, but then shut down immediately and fire it self back up, then not display anything for a few seconds and shut down/restart itself again. It'll some times repeat this over and over or boot itself finally through to Windows. It is a royal pain in the ass.

Couple things:
1) BIOS is up to date. I've had the issue prior to the latest BIOS (which just came out a couple days ago even though their website says it came out on 6/19).
2) Problem happens at Optimized Default BIOS settings or overclocked. Settings don't matter.
3) I had the issue with two difference PSU's so I believe it isn't the powersupply.
4) RAM is fine. Load tested and Memtested for 16+ hours each.
5) CPU seems ok. I've had it OC'd up to 4.8 Ghz and it ran stability tests for 18 hours without freezing.
6) GPU is from a previously build. Tested in my brother's computer and it ran fine on stress tests for hours.
7) Doesn't seem like an SSD or HDD problem. I had both SSD and HDD in my previously build with no issues.

Anyone else got any ideas? I might just RMA this board and sell it. I'm tempted to give ASRock (Extreme6) a shot in my main build if not that then the ASUS Z97-Pro Wifi Edition which was the exact board I had in my Z87 build and it worked fine.

Blah.

joeboo_sl said:

I currently have SLI'd 660TIs, and I had Crossfired AMD 4870s previous to that, and I'm probably done with dual-cards. The hassle outweighs the benefits to me. Just recently, Wolfenstein only runs on 1 card, with no plans to fix that, and Watch Dogs released in a state where SLI actually hurt performance, it took a week or two for them to patch the fix. I'd rather have the solid performance of 1 good card from now on, I'm tired of hassling with the bugs and lack of support of dual cards.

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I'll second this, having done both SLI and single (high end) card, I'd say SLI is more trouble than it's worth. Get one high end card when it's new and you are set for years. Still using my GTX480 I got in early 2010 and I have not run in to any performance issues yet, used an 8800GTX for 4 years before that. Initial cash outlay is a bit higher but you get more years out of it.

a_skeleton_03_sl said:

RMA the board and sell it I agree with. I hear good things abbout the ASRock's but haven't touched them at all yet even for friends builds.

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I am going to go over some things tonight I found in a thread over at Overclock.net and see if those work. I'll update if it works for future peeps.

jeydax_sl said:

I am going to go over some things tonight I found in a thread over at Overclock.net and see if those work. I'll update if it works for future peeps.

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I had a problem similar to yours. Turned out to be a damaged USB port that was shorting the system.

Which one exactly?

My first thought after more or less narrowing it down to the MOBO was possibly the USB front panel motherboard connector plug-ins, power/hdd/reset switch connectors, or something like that. Or was yours in the back? I do have like 5-6 USB things plugged in right now (Mouse, Keyboard, USB Hub, single USB hub, Headset, something else). I'll try removing all but mouse/keyboard and seeing if that is it.

I watched for the POST codes today but when it does this, sometimes it doesn't even get to the post codes. Just on, off, on, off, etc before codes appear. I haven't been able to replicate the issue of going past the bios select/boot select screen before it shuts down yet tonight. So it is extremely aggravating not knowing what is causing the issue.

The Overclock.net forums had some guys suggesting leaving the CMOS battery out of the computer for an entire day to help resolve the issues. I just tried for 20 minutes and it didn't fully resolve the issue. I will try overnight again but I'd like to have a solution before then.

Edit: Double post, sorry.

jeydax_sl said:

Which one exactly?

My first thought after more or less narrowing it down to the MOBO was possibly the USB front panel motherboard connector plug-ins, power/hdd/reset switch connectors, or something like that. Or was yours in the back? I do have like 5-6 USB things plugged in right now (Mouse, Keyboard, USB Hub, single USB hub, Headset, something else). I'll try removing all but mouse/keyboard and seeing if that is it.

I watched for the POST codes today but when it does this, sometimes it doesn't even get to the post codes. Just on, off, on, off, etc before codes appear. I haven't been able to replicate the issue of going past the bios select/boot select screen before it shuts down yet tonight. So it is extremely aggravating not knowing what is causing the issue.

The Overclock.net forums had some guys suggesting leaving the CMOS battery out of the computer for an entire day to help resolve the issues. I just tried for 20 minutes and it didn't fully resolve the issue. I will try overnight again but I'd like to have a solution before then.

Click to expand...

Was my front panel USB. I smacked it with my knee one day (I buy cases with the USB ports on top, now), thought nothing of it and went to work, came home and had the problem you describe. Extremely frustrating. Some google-fu led me to checking my USB ports for damage, and there it was... The connector inside was bent. Straightened it out with a toothpick and it fixed the problem.

Mist_sl said:

Did you turn off any fast boot options in BIOS?

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Yes, all off. I've tried with on as well. Nothin'.

Got my new box up and running last night, OSX worked okay out of the box, couple of things I need to figure out though. HDMI audio isn't working and also my onboard wifi which I'll probably have to get a USB adapter for. Installing Windows tonight to test out its gaming ability at 1080p. Final parts were i5-4670K, GTX 660, 8GB corsair vengeance, Gigabyte h87n-wifi.