The PC Building/Post Your Specs Here Thread

[OmarBradley]

I know a few things from what you guys have posted, but I thought it'd be cool to have a comprehensive gaming PC specs thread/discussion on upgrades and new builds.

My rig since late 2012:

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Asus Rampage IV Gene

i7-3820 (not overclocked!)

XFX Radeon HD 7970 Black Edition

Kingston 8GB XMP HyperX Genesis 2133MHz

Seagate 1TB Barracuda, 7200 RPM

Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio

Thermaltake TR2 RX 650W

Intel RTS2011LC CPU Liquid Cooling System

Dell U2312HM

My case sucks, it's one size smaller than a mid-tower, I thought I could get away with cutting costs by getting a small case.... but I think it's part of what's been behind the PC's chronic cooling problems, even with two added case fans.

I'd like to outright buy a new PC in a few months, or at least build one myself, but I think I'll probably just spend $500 or so on upgrades rather than $1500-$2000 on a new PC.

Definitely going to leave XFX in the GFX department; MSI or Sapphire 290X is what I'm mainly thinking, but I'm not ignoring the 970's either.

I'll need to upgrade the PSU too, which ironically I am considering XFX for as they get great reviews.

Now here are the areas I need advice/to think about:

CPU cooling: My liquid coolers keep failing (after about a year), even with cleaning the dust out of the PC every month and replacing thermal paste. So I was told the CM 212 Evo is a great, cheap cooler that should be fine. Any cooling experts here? Do I stay liquid and try to get a different model, or go air?

Hard drive: Thinking of getting a SSD to hold the OS and a few other key programs/games, and keep the rest (music/movies/etc.) on an external HD (probably the Seagate that's in the PC now).

[PITBOSS]

stop dinking around and get a ssd- you will never go back to spinning drives after that such a huge boost in speed.

if you aren't overclocking why the need for liquid cooling? just get a killer heat sink with a quiet fan.

my 2 cents for what it's worth.

Edited March 19, 2015 by PITBOSS

[bran]

amd fx 6300 6 core processor 3.5 ghz (overclocked to 4.0)

xfx r9 290x graphics card(fried out getting it replaced might get a sapphire instead going to check into it tomorrow)

seasonic m211 850w

cooler master seidon 120m liquid cooling system

1 tb harddrive

8 gigs ram

Edited March 20, 2015 by bran

[downzy]

I have a 27" iMac with a 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB of DDR3 Ram, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2GB.

Does that count?

[OmarBradley]

I have a 27" iMac with a 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB of DDR3 Ram, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2GB.

Does that count?

Nope, .

Sort of, do you game on it?

Edited March 26, 2015 by OmarBradley

[downzy]

No. My post was an attempt to troll you PC guys.

I would if I didn't have a forum to look after

Plus I'm not sure there are any good games for OS X. Plus, I'm lazy and prefer sitting on my couch playing my xbox 360 if and whenever i have any free time.

[bran]

No. My post was an attempt to cupcake you PC guys.

I would if I didn't have a forum to look after

Plus I'm not sure there are any good games for OS X. Plus, I'm lazy and prefer sitting on my couch playing my xbox 360 if and whenever i have any free time.

peasant

[OmarBradley]

New cooler, CM 212 Evo should be arriving today. Plan on installing it later. Currently idling at ~55 degrees C.... you don't even want to know what temps it hits while gaming.

[ZoSoRose]

I have an Asus G46vw gaming laptop

Its a bit outdated as its almost 2 years old, but it still works well. I'm going to restore it to factory settings in the next few months and it'll run even better

I could run Battlefield 4, Planetside 2, Skyrim, Far Cry 3, and more all at ultra settings

[Amir]

I got the Dolphin emulator running on my MacBook Pro yesterday. Unbelievably easy to set up, unbelievably smooth (Smash Bros at 720p and FXAA), and on OS X, too! Was looking at building a PC but I'm just gonna install Windows on it tonight (ordered a copy of Windows 7 Pro). Then I'll be able to play Dreamcast games! Xbox 360 controller should be arriving soon

Quad-core 2.3GHz i7

8GB RAM

GeForce 650M 1GB

[OmarBradley]

I have an Asus G46vw gaming laptop

Its a bit outdated as its almost 2 years old, but it still works well. I'm going to restore it to factory settings in the next few months and it'll run even better

I could run Battlefield 4, Planetside 2, Skyrim, Far Cry 3, and more all at ultra settings

I'm a bit skeptical about that PC being able to do BF4 on ultra, can it really do that? Impressive if so given the hardware I'm seeing in it.

[Amir]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/544088930/bliss-box-4-play-one-adapter-for-many-controllers-0

[ZoSoRose]

I have an Asus G46vw gaming laptop

Its a bit outdated as its almost 2 years old, but it still works well. I'm going to restore it to factory settings in the next few months and it'll run even better

I could run Battlefield 4, Planetside 2, Skyrim, Far Cry 3, and more all at ultra settings

I'm a bit skeptical about that PC being able to do BF4 on ultra, can it really do that? Impressive if so given the hardware I'm seeing in it.

Yeah, mine did when the game first came out. Its been running like crap recently, though, Planetside isn't even playable its so glitchy.

I need to reset this thing since I've probably stuffed it with viruses

[OmarBradley]

Just finished the installation of the new cooler! Took a lot longer than I had hoped, mainly because the instructions Cooler Master sent were fucking unfathomable. Anyway, idling at a cool ~30 degrees C, about to load BF4 up to see how it really handles the heat.

EDIT: BF4 running at a steady 50 degrees C, awesome.

Edited April 2, 2015 by OmarBradley

[bran]

I have an Asus G46vw gaming laptop

Its a bit outdated as its almost 2 years old, but it still works well. I'm going to restore it to factory settings in the next few months and it'll run even better

I could run Battlefield 4, Planetside 2, Skyrim, Far Cry 3, and more all at ultra settings

I'm a bit skeptical about that PC being able to do BF4 on ultra, can it really do that? Impressive if so given the hardware I'm seeing in it.

im not sure what it has in it but if it has the gtx 660m i think it could do ultra but you would have to drop the resolution to probably 720p and you would probably get some decent fps. if you run it at 1080 i think it would get laggy and probably get some pretty harsh fps IMO. on battlefield 4 with my r9 270 i could do ultra and get around 50 fps.

[bran]

Always wanted to build my own gaming PC but i am too stupid for all that technological shit

its not as complicated as it seems to be honest. newegg has some extensive videos to show you step by step how to do things. you can then use http://pcpartpicker.com/ that will show you a bunch of outlets and their prices on everything your pc needs from the case to the graphics card.

Edited April 3, 2015 by bran

[gunsguy]

Building this with my boy:

CPU:

Intel Core i3 I3-4150 Haswell 3.5GHZ Processor LGA1150 3MB Cache Retail

PSU:

Corsair CX430M Modular CMPSU-430XM

MOBO:

MSI H81M-P33 Socket 1150 Intel H81 Chipset

RAM:

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Dual Channel Kit

Graphics:

Sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2GB GDDR5

monitor:

BenQ GL2460HM 24-Inch LED, 2ms

It will do the trick for his gaming, he is 13. Some thigns can be upgraded later on should the need arise.................

My current system in computer room NOT for gaming is:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Processor, 3214 MHz

PSU: Corsair HX650 modular

MOBO: Gigabyte 78LMT-USB3

Ram: Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3

Built this a few years ago, no video card as I myself dont game

Edited April 5, 2015 by gunsguy

[OmarBradley]

Building this with my boy:

CPU:

Intel Core i3 I3-4150 Haswell 3.5GHZ Processor LGA1150 3MB Cache Retail

PSU:

Corsair CX430M Modular CMPSU-430XM

MOBO:

MSI H81M-P33 Socket 1150 Intel H81 Chipset

RAM:

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Dual Channel Kit

Graphics:

Sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2GB GDDR5

monitor:

BenQ GL2460HM 24-Inch LED, 2ms

It will do the trick for his gaming, he is 13. Some thigns can be upgraded later on should the need arise.................

If you can spare ~$150 or more, I think it would be a good idea to get a newer chipset motherboard, it will make upgrading much easier when the time comes, Z87 would be a good place to go. And a higher rated power supply, for the same reason, ~800 watts usually being a safe rating for moderate to high end gaming, more sometimes recommended as the newer GPU's draw a lot of power.

[gunsguy]

Building this with my boy:

CPU:

Intel Core i3 I3-4150 Haswell 3.5GHZ Processor LGA1150 3MB Cache Retail

PSU:

Corsair CX430M Modular CMPSU-430XM

MOBO:

MSI H81M-P33 Socket 1150 Intel H81 Chipset

RAM:

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Dual Channel Kit

Graphics:

Sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2GB GDDR5

monitor:

BenQ GL2460HM 24-Inch LED, 2ms

It will do the trick for his gaming, he is 13. Some thigns can be upgraded later on should the need arise.................

If you can spare ~$150 or more, I think it would be a good idea to get a newer chipset motherboard, it will make upgrading much easier when the time comes, Z87 would be a good place to go. And a higher rated power supply, for the same reason, ~800 watts usually being a safe rating for moderate to high end gaming, more sometimes recommended as the newer GPU's draw a lot of power.

if the PSU is an issue I have another here we will put in. For this system 800 would be way overkill though. at the high end 430 may be low, maybe. nothing else will be running and the haswell uses low power I think we OK. The mobo is already bought, again though if need be we will change it later. I was trying to stay at about $500.00 Canadian which is really hard to do I found. When I first started it was nearly $700.00 so I had to keep looking around.

Thanks for your advice and I may need to do these things, until his birthday build I won't know

[OmarBradley]

Building this with my boy:

CPU:

Intel Core i3 I3-4150 Haswell 3.5GHZ Processor LGA1150 3MB Cache Retail

PSU:

Corsair CX430M Modular CMPSU-430XM

MOBO:

MSI H81M-P33 Socket 1150 Intel H81 Chipset

RAM:

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Dual Channel Kit

Graphics:

Sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2GB GDDR5

monitor:

BenQ GL2460HM 24-Inch LED, 2ms

It will do the trick for his gaming, he is 13. Some thigns can be upgraded later on should the need arise.................

If you can spare ~$150 or more, I think it would be a good idea to get a newer chipset motherboard, it will make upgrading much easier when the time comes, Z87 would be a good place to go. And a higher rated power supply, for the same reason, ~800 watts usually being a safe rating for moderate to high end gaming, more sometimes recommended as the newer GPU's draw a lot of power.

if the PSU is an issue I have another here we will put in. For this system 800 would be way overkill though. at the high end 430 may be low, maybe. nothing else will be running and the haswell uses low power I think we OK. The mobo is already bought, again though if need be we will change it later. I was trying to stay at about $500.00 Canadian which is really hard to do I found. When I first started it was nearly $700.00 so I had to keep looking around.

Thanks for your advice and I may need to do these things, until his birthday build I won't know

Yeah I was basing what I said off that fact that you may upgrade later, didn't mean to try to tell you how to do your build; I wasn't sober and I decided that I was a hardware expert (disclaimer: I'm not). Anyway, good luck with the build, if you get a chance, it would be cool to see some pictures of the process.

[gunsguy]

Building this with my boy:

CPU:

Intel Core i3 I3-4150 Haswell 3.5GHZ Processor LGA1150 3MB Cache Retail

PSU:

Corsair CX430M Modular CMPSU-430XM

MOBO:

MSI H81M-P33 Socket 1150 Intel H81 Chipset

RAM:

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Dual Channel Kit

Graphics:

Sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2GB GDDR5

monitor:

BenQ GL2460HM 24-Inch LED, 2ms

It will do the trick for his gaming, he is 13. Some thigns can be upgraded later on should the need arise.................

If you can spare ~$150 or more, I think it would be a good idea to get a newer chipset motherboard, it will make upgrading much easier when the time comes, Z87 would be a good place to go. And a higher rated power supply, for the same reason, ~800 watts usually being a safe rating for moderate to high end gaming, more sometimes recommended as the newer GPU's draw a lot of power.

if the PSU is an issue I have another here we will put in. For this system 800 would be way overkill though. at the high end 430 may be low, maybe. nothing else will be running and the haswell uses low power I think we OK. The mobo is already bought, again though if need be we will change it later. I was trying to stay at about $500.00 Canadian which is really hard to do I found. When I first started it was nearly $700.00 so I had to keep looking around.

Thanks for your advice and I may need to do these things, until his birthday build I won't know

Yeah I was basing what I said off that fact that you may upgrade later, didn't mean to try to tell you how to do your build; I wasn't sober and I decided that I was a hardware expert (disclaimer: I'm not). Anyway, good luck with the build, if you get a chance, it would be cool to see some pictures of the process.

ahaha no I appreciate the critique. This is a start, we will be looking at how thing progress. For now honestly he wants to play minecraft and games on that age level.

[OmarBradley]

The more I think about it, I think I'm going to go with a GTX 970 (MSI, or EVGA probably) instead of a 290X.... I've been with AMD for GFX for my last two computers, feeling a switch.

[OmarBradley]

Just ordered a Seasonic M12II power supply to replace my current unit. And.................. a Samsung EVO 850 120GB SSD! Once I get both of those installed and running, it's time for the final (and most expensive piece), the new GFX card.

Edited April 14, 2015 by OmarBradley

[Damn_Smooth]

The more I think about it, I think I'm going to go with a GTX 970 (MSI, or EVGA probably) instead of a 290X.... I've been with AMD for GFX for my last two computers, feeling a switch.

Not to sound like a fanboy (that I totally am) and not to judge you by your choices (which I totally will) but the 290x is simply a superior card between those two cards. It actually has the amount of vram it advertises to run better at higher resolution and it is fully compliant with DX12, which the 970 is not. Do what you wish though, I won't fault you (lies).

[OmarBradley]

The more I think about it, I think I'm going to go with a GTX 970 (MSI, or EVGA probably) instead of a 290X.... I've been with AMD for GFX for my last two computers, feeling a switch.

Not to sound like a fanboy (that I totally am) and not to judge you by your choices (which I totally will) but the 290x is simply a superior card between those two cards. It actually has the amount of vram it advertises to run better at higher resolution and it is fully compliant with DX12, which the 970 is not. Do what you wish though, I won't fault you (lies).

Hm, I was told that Nvidia's tech was a step ahead of AMD's - don't remember the person's argument, but they had a degree in Comp. Eng.. Regardless, I won't just purchase based on a feeling or whim, I will be doing [partially informed] research.