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Erkki

Damn it, but computers have become really complicated

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Yeah, definitely. I'm at work so I can't really browse a ton of videos, but a cursory look has turned up this which seems to still be relatively current and accurate (the pieces will be different, but the general ideas will be the same) -

 

 

The only thing I feel like I have to mention here is that every PC building experience is different. I went years and years not getting a single DOA component and everything worked from the get-go. A few years ago, I had a build where one of my two RAM sticks was DOA and the GPU died after a few minutes of operation. Diagnosing that stuff wasn't very fun, but it's just core to PC building and pretty unavoidable. That said, it's totally a roll of the dice and I still consider it pretty unlikely that you'll have any problems.

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These days things pretty much only fit in one place. The motherboard comes with a manual that has labels on all the ports. The only thing that can sometimes get a bit tricky are the small 4 and 6 pin power connectors that go to things like video cards.

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If you can put together Ikea furniture you can put together a computer.

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Or you could pay someone to put together your Ikea furnitre(?). God, i hope this exists! I love making flat pack!

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I won't go into all the pros and cons but the one big thing for me is that I've opened up other people's pre-built PC's and found that the parts weren't what they thought they'd be. This could just be that they were confused about what they thought they were getting or the companies pulling a fast one (it's certainly not enough instances to make a call). Either way with the less glamour components often being non-brand too I'd rather avoid it.

Also I already have a perfectly good case, power supply, etc, there's usually something that can be passed on to the next incarnation.

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Would anyone mind giving me some advice on upgrading my motherboard and CPU? I'm currently using an AMD FX-6300, which has been fine for most things, but a few recent games have made me realize that its days might be numbered. I know AMD's processors have generally been far behind Intel forever now, so I'm willing to make the switch, but everything I read about sockets and processor generations has me pretty confused. 


So, if I'm looking to get a motherboard and CPU that will last me a while for mid-to-high end gaming (and possible VR stuff if I feel like being truly irresponsible), what should I be looking at? I know z97 motherboards and Haswell processors seem to be the go-to thing at the moment, but it seems like they're about to be replaced. Will Skylake processors need a new kind of socket? Am I missing any other key details?

 

EDIT: Full system details below.

 

Processor - FX-6300 Black 3.5 Ghz Six Core AM3+

Motherboard - MSI M5A78L-M LX Plus

RAM - 8GB

Graphics Card - GTX 970 w/ 4GB

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If you can put together Ikea furniture you can put together a computer.

 

I usually let my girlfriend do that. Putting things together isn't my forte. 

 

Is there a beginner friendly website I could read up on this stuff? I'm normally in the "learn by doing" camp, but this is the kind of thing I'd rather have an idea for before I start.

 

Also, I have an alienware M14x laptop that is officially dead and will cost me £300 fix. I know the issues (motherboard something is wrong, but I'm not sure what, hard drive and keyboard connections are shot, also hard drive is completely corrupted) but I was wondering I could cannibalise parts from it. Is that feasible, or would it end up as some crazy Frankenstein shit? 

The video card in that isn't bad, but it's not top of the range either. 

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The only part you could probably ever move from a laptop to a desktop would be the HDD (and even that won't fit in the case without an extra bracket) and it sounds like that's shot anyway, so basically no. JonCole posted a youtube vid on building a pc, that should be enough. Every part literally only plugs into one spot and it's all keyed so you can't even put it in backwards. It's pretty hard to mess up.

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Would anyone mind giving me some advice on upgrading my motherboard and CPU? I'm currently using an AMD FX-6300, which has been fine for most things, but a few recent games have made me realize that its days might be numbered. I know AMD's processors have generally been far behind Intel forever now, so I'm willing to make the switch, but everything I read about sockets and processor generations has me pretty confused. 

So, if I'm looking to get a motherboard and CPU that will last me a while for mid-to-high end gaming (and possible VR stuff if I feel like being truly irresponsible), what should I be looking at? I know z97 motherboards and Haswell processors seem to be the go-to thing at the moment, but it seems like they're about to be replaced. Will Skylake processors need a new kind of socket? Am I missing any other key details?

 

I'm putting together a new build that has an i7 and a 970. Doing my research, the general consensus was that a current generation i5 is more than enough for most people, and definitely absolutely enough for current gen gaming. The skylake stuff isn't coming out for at least another 6 months iirc, so I figured I would prefer to not wait and just get a super beefy current gen CPU. I'm also hesitant to get the first generation of anything, so skylake wasn't worth the wait.

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I'm putting together a new build that has an i7 and a 970. Doing my research, the general consensus was that a current generation i5 is more than enough for most people, and definitely absolutely enough for current gen gaming. The skylake stuff isn't coming out for at least another 6 months iirc, so I figured I would prefer to not wait and just get a super beefy current gen CPU. I'm also hesitant to get the first generation of anything, so skylake wasn't worth the wait.

 

Yeah. I've gotten that sense too. The main thing that makes me consider holding out is the ability to upgrade by just swapping out a newer processor down the line and keeping my motherboard. I went cheap on my motherboard and processor the last time around, and now I have to basically rebuild my PC to upgrade them (and do a clean install along with it, I think). It would be kind of nice if the next time I upgrade, I could just swap out the CPU and leave the rest in place.

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I also pulled the trigger early opting for the current gen i7-4970 than waiting for Skylake.  Also we're due for a child end of this year and i'm sure a new computer expense would get immediately veto'd from the budget.

 

 

 

I went cheap on my motherboard and processor the last time around, and now I have to basically rebuild my PC to upgrade them (and do a clean install along with it, I think). It would be kind of nice if the next time I upgrade, I could just swap out the CPU and leave the rest in place.

 

this is the problem i was having, i went in with a low-end mobo and a decent processor and was hamstrung to upgrading & maximizing my video cards as well.  And make sure you have your OS disks handy, it certainly does not like trying to boot without a fresh install.

 

 

back on my build from a few pages ago - everything is working great and will be tuning up my RAM speed soon.  Cooling is a problem in the summer, so will be doing it slowly.  I was also hoping to use Batman as a metric for my video cards...but ya know - see in a month!

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In order to reach the recommended specs for Oculus, I have to update my gpu, cpu, and motherboard.
I am considering just upgrading to a GTX970 (why are there so many types?), plugging it into my current setup and seeing how far that gets me before committing to a new motherboard and cpu. Is there any fundamental mistake I may be making by doing that? I imagine that when it doesn't work, I can just get the new motherboard, cpu and plug the new card into that instead.

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In order to reach the recommended specs for Oculus, I have to update my gpu, cpu, and motherboard.

I am considering just upgrading to a GTX970 (why are there so many types?), plugging it into my current setup and seeing how far that gets me before committing to a new motherboard and cpu. Is there any fundamental mistake I may be making by doing that? I imagine that when it doesn't work, I can just get the new motherboard, cpu and plug the new card into that instead.

 

Nope. Video cards are backwards compatible with all PCI Express-equipped motherboards, granted your OS has drivers.

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GPUs are one of the easiest swapped parts in my experience. The connection PCIe x16 3.0 or whatever it is, hasn't changed in years and isn't supposed to anytime soon. Just make sure your PSU has adequate wattage for the new card.

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I'm reading stuff about videocards and it looks like the AMD 390 is both more performative and less expensive than the GTX970. Am I missing some information? Again remember, I'm doing this for VR.

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You're missing that AMD cards have terrible drivers and are terrible.

 

i'm not biased i just have a history

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As far as I know, power consumption and thermals are an issue with the technology behind the 390(X) as compared to Nvidia. I haven't seen any benchmarks on the 390, in the past AMD has held back the lower-tier GPUs in favor of having all the press review the top tier unit (the 390X) which competes directly with the GTX 980. In what I've seen between those two, the 980 and 390X are more or less equivalent with the 980 performing better at 1080p and the 390X performing better at high pixel counts like 4K. It's hard to say how this would affect VR performance, not to mention it's hard to know if VR will optimize for non-Nvidia cards since at least Oculus seems to have specifically mentioned Nvidia rather than AMD in what they recommend.

 

There's also the classic issue of drivers, where Nvidia just seems to pull away from AMD in almost all situations.

 

If you have anything more recent that I could read, I'd be happy to try and parse it.

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This is a site that I've been trying to find again for a long time (it was mentioned on the forums, but it's hard to browse through so many pages for a specific thing like this). Various PC builds at different price points, lets you assess what is a step up or down on any particular part - http://www.logicalincrements.com/

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So I ended up being gifted an old Dell Optiplex 780 from work. It was going to be recycled, but I figured I could get some use out of it.

 

Would it be possible to upgrade such a computer slowly, or is that wayyy more hassle than it's worth?

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It's time for an upgrade and I was hoping to get your input. I haven't kept up with hardware in years and I have a couple of basic requirements. 

 

1. I want to play Dota 2 at 60fps with max settings at 1920x1080

2. I want to play Metal Gear V at an acceptable framerate with whatever settings 

3. I want to spend <$500 CAD (much less if possible) 

 

At present I've got: 

 

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.40 GHz

GeForce GTX 560

Some banger mobo that gets the job done

8GB of RAM

128GB SSD and a 1TB spinny drive

 

(This runs Dota 2 at ~25fps on low everything and MGV: Ground Zeroes at ~30fps at low settings most of the time)

 

I've got my eye on the following upgrade

 

GeForce GTX 750 TI 

i3-4170 Haswell

MSI Z97 PC Mate Mobo

 

This'll come to about $500 after tax at NCIX (Canada)

 

I'll carry over the HDDs and the RAM

 

Does this look reasonable? Are there any obvious cheap upgrades / cost saving downgrades that you fine folk can spot? Thanks!

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I'm not too up to date on PC hardware either but for games I thought you really wanted an i5 and that the rule of thumb is that if you're limited on cash then you spend it on the CPU and make do with whatever card until you can afford to upgrade because it's a lot easier to replace the card.

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I don't know how big an upgrade the GTX 560 -> 750 Ti will be. Sure, you're making a multi-generational jump but you're kinda staying in the same exact tier of performance. If I was in your position, I would either hold out on the CPU and get a 960 or better or hold out on the GPU and get an i5 or better. Also, make sure your RAM is compatible.

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