Posts by Matthew Alvarez

When you’re already rocking such high-end components, nitpicking over $67 just to save a few bucks on a decent power supply is honestly ridiculous...

Robert Rodriguez2 said:So you don't need a mechanical drive?

What's he going to do about it—he's already sitting on five HDDs with 13TB of space. He bought one case for now, but he plans on stuffing the other four drives and an SSD right into the PC later... which is exactly why I picked this motherboard—so he can actually hook everything up.

👍
If you're based in Washington, D.C., you could probably have this rig at your place by tomorrow—though if you aren't local, I guess if you order it first thing tomorrow morning, it should land on your doorstep by Tuesday morning at the latest.

Anyway, let me know what you think once it actually arrives.

Bryan Grant29

I think crimsonstag84 already suggested a cooler to you—but honestly, that one isn't even built for overclocking. Since he picked out a motherboard that actually supports CPU overclocking, I’d suggest grabbing a much better cooler right away if you're going that route. I mean, it really depends on whether you even care about that stuff or if you're planning to mess with it at all... if not, I guess you could save some cash on the $100 board.

How many hard drives are you running exactly?

I’d honestly just go ahead and throw in the LC CC 120 right from the jump—the difference compared to the $27 versus the LC CC 95 is pretty noticeable, and it stays quiet immediately. I have my doubts if they'll even bother upgrading to a beefier cooler later on if they don't grab it now, so maybe just bump the PSU to 600W to account for overclocking? That way they aren't stuck being limited when picking out a GPU down the road.
It also wouldn't be a bad idea to look at a used card—you can usually find an AMD Radeon R9 290 or an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 floating around on eBay or Craigslist for about $600 with a warranty included...

Are you planning on buying all this stuff right now, or do you already have some of it?

If you're buying everything from scratch—honestly—just skip the Cooler Master Z11 Plus. Cheaper options like the BMW Z3, Z1 neo, or even the R1 are actually much better picks, I guess. You definitely don't need 16GB of RAM either. For an SSD, if you want to save some cash, look into the Patriot Ignite—it’s probably a bit better than that Blast thing, too.

It really all comes down to how much airflow you have in the case—but honestly, I wouldn't overthink it too much and just set the CPU to 4.0GHz. That’s pretty much standard for these processors anyway, and they even manage those speeds with stock coolers.

:clapping: Honestly, there’s just too much going on these days—and if you don't stand your ground or actually know what your rights are from the jump, people just assume they can walk all over you like some clueless kid

Well, it really comes down to whether that seller actually realizes you know your stuff—like, did they pick up on the fact that you're an expert, or do they just think you're some random customer who hasn't a clue? I guess that’s what determines if they try to scam you or actually give you a straight answer. In my experience—and this was my case—the guy I was talking to figured out right away that I knew exactly what I was looking for, so he didn't even attempt to sell me any useless junk.

In my experience, Uber is probably the most reliable shop out there—mostly because the crew there actually hangs out and talks on Reddit, some of them even moderate the boards. They even give a 3% discount to members, which I guess shows they actually care about their reputation and customers; they're super approachable too, always ready with solid advice and recommendations when you need them.
They aren't just an online store anymore, either—they finally opened a physical location in Washington, D.C.

Future is easily the most up-to-date shop around; their site is constantly updated so you actually know what’s in stock, and they are incredibly responsive and helpful.

IBM is where I've bought the most components and handled most of my returns—everything always went smoothly without a bunch of hassle and was resolved quickly. Plus, they reply to emails fast and suggest great alternatives if something is out of stock. Lately, though, I've been hearing that they haven't stayed as professional—there have been complaints about everything from how they handle returns to being pushy or trying to upsell low-quality parts.

The team at the warehouse is fantastic—you can pretty much work things out with them easily and even test stuff before buying. They're really accommodating, though I suppose the only real downside is that their prices are a bit higher compared to the others I mentioned.

Just go check out some reviews comparing the AMD Radeon R9 380 against the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960—honestly, just make up your own mind since YouTube is absolutely flooded with them—and obviously, the higher aggregate score for the AMD Radeon R9 380 will probably skew the results.

Honestly, you might want to just grab it while it's actually on sale—unless you enjoy watching prices skyrocket again later.
Some people claim you should avoid Micro Center because they supposedly had issues, but I don't know... does anyone actually have a perfect track record? It seems like everyone runs into hiccups eventually—some things go smoothly, some stuff gets stuck, and that's just how it goes—it’s not like there's some magically "perfect" store out there anymore.

crimsonstag84 said:http://www.microcenter.com/xfx-r9-380x-4gb...380x-4df5.aspx

http://www.microcenter.com/xfx-r9-390-8gb-...390p-8df6.aspx 😬

Which one did you end up getting?

Just let him deal with the fallout—personally, I know a guy who ran an R9 290 on a 500W OCZ power supply, so you can see what SmartThings is trying to pull with that pathetic 360W unit of theirs

Regarding the R9 390 versus the EVGA GTX 970 in The Witcher—if you turn off Hairworks, both cards hover around 50fps. There are moments where the R9 390 pulls ahead, then moments where the GTX 970 takes the lead, and so on. Honestly, I think it's just silly to pick a GPU based on one or two specific games.

In most titles I've played at 1080p, the R9 390 leads by maybe 5 or 6 fps. The real edge for the 970 is that it runs cooler and quieter—though I wouldn't say the R9 390 is bad in that regard, since it stays under 75-76 degrees and the fan noise is actually tolerable. For 1080p, both cards absolutely crush it; if you don't have a high refresh rate monitor, you can easily cap the FPS via drivers to stay under 60, which helps keep temperatures down on both.

The true gap between the 390 and the 970 shows up at 1440p—it's obvious. Those 8GB of VRAM, regardless of what people claim about them being "unnecessary," actually do their job at higher resolutions in VRAM-hungry games. As for frame rates, I played about 4 or 5 AAA titles at that resolution on max settings (though I disable MSAA because it does nothing for visuals while devouring 15 fps like crazy), and the FPS didn't dip below 40—it usually sat around 48-50. In less demanding scenes, it easily clears 60. This card is a genuine surprise for budget 1440p gaming, and the GTX 970 is noticeably weaker there.

All in all, the biggest hurdles for the R9 390 are the outdated drivers and less game support, but this card really performs wonders. Compared to Maxwell and the GTX 970, which is already hitting its limit, I’m convinced the R9 390 will only get stronger over time—especially with DirectX 12 right around the corner, where Intel dominates.

As for the GTX 960 and the R9 380, the R9 380 is more powerful; you can tell that superior memory bandwidth makes a difference against the GTX 960. Both are fine for casual gaming, but a huge plus for the GTX 960 is how incredibly cool and quiet it is—it doesn't even cross 56-57 degrees. That said, if you care about raw performance, the R9 380 gives you those extra 4-5 fps overall, though the GTX 960 might edge it out in certain specific titles.

Anyway, hope that helps. If you need anything else, just ask.👍

Since that little Zalman isn't exactly a huge step up from the LC CC 120—I guess—I wouldn't bother with a new cooler right now. Instead, I'd just use it to push that i5 to 4GHz—which should be totally doable, I think—and call it a day.

Regarding the PSU, you've got enough connectors for pretty much any card out there. As for space inside the case—if you have more than about 12 inches of clearance, you can slide basically any model in there. If you're tight on space, then stick to the safe bets like MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte (the dual-fan versions), or EVGA for Nvidia stuff. For AMD, you might want to look at MSI, Sapphire (dual-fan again), or XFX if you're trying to save some cash.

What specifically are you looking for regarding GPUs? Which exact models are you eyeing? Let me know and I'll give you my take—I've tested most of these newer cards at both 1080p and 1440p.

Go ahead and push that R9 390—it’ll handle it fine—but honestly, since you're sticking with 1080p, maybe just grab a GTX 970 instead? That way you'll actually have some breathing room left over to pick up a decent CPU cooler and overclock that little devil.

Anyway, the R9 390 is actually a pretty solid card if you're looking to save some cash while playing at 1440p—assuming you're planning on upgrading to a higher-res monitor or a beefier GPU soon—but for 1080p, it absolutely shreds.

A Zalman Z3+ would probably fit in here like a total idiot—not that I’m saying it definitely would, but honestly, it’s just a bad idea.

Those extra few watts aren't going to save anyone—honestly—and having an extra two years of warranty might actually matter if you try to resell the unit later, or if things start breaking down, which, let's face it, happens all the time after three years of use.

I haven't heard about many actual product issues—honestly, my biggest gripe is just how pricey the assembly and shipping are compared to other top-tier retailers. From what I can tell, even the shops Downtown have these SSDs listed at basically the same prices. The only real headache is that they constantly list stuff as "in stock" when it isn't—and if you actually try calling them to verify, they might miss three calls in a row, or it takes them three whole days to even bother replying to an email.