Posts by Scott Howard13

kk...

Heh, it’s not actually about that. I’m done with Asrock; MSI is a solid company, so I went that route instead. I finally pulled the trigger on an MSI B85-G43 GAMING paired with an MSI GeForce GTX 770 OC, an Intel Core i5-4670K, some Corsair Vengeance Kingston DDR3 RAM, and a Samsung 840 EVO SSD. Everything is already paid for, though I’m stuck waiting until Monday for the CPU and GPU to arrive. I'm hoping this build turns out great—this is my fifth PC, and I want this one to last so I don't have to touch hardware again for at least five years. I wanted to step up to a decent configuration, even if I know deep down that buying high-end cards isn't always the best value. Anyway, I'm sending this Asrock Z87 Extreme3 in for an RMA because the audio is acting up, but everything else works fine. If they just swap it for the same board and extend the warranty for another 24 months, cool. But what do you guys think is a realistic price for the old setup: the Asrock motherboard, an AMD Athlon II X3 445, an Nvidia GTX 550, and 4GB (2x2) of RAM $433?

Grace Peterson17 said:Honestly, just go with whatever feels right to you—but if you want my two cents, I’d steer clear of places like Instar or Newegg and their ilk since they tend to be a bit pricier. You're much better off checking out Future, Best Buy, or Micro Center instead...

P.S. Kimberly Gomez34 gave you some solid advice there; it really isn't worth blowing more than $333 on those motherboards.

Alright, I'll take another look at Future and Best Buy. Thanks.

I get it, but honestly, most of the stuff I'm looking for isn't even in stock at Instar unless it's the overpriced version, and HG-Spot is way too expensive here in the States. Micro Center won't take American credit cards except for a one-time thing, and Newegg doesn't even have any MSI boards in their current lineup, which is a bummer because I really wanted an MSI board... I think I'll just keep browsing for a bit longer.

Hey, so... I was checking out prices at Instar, and basically, I just need a GPU (Credit Cards🙂 2,$205, a processor 1,$280, a motherboard 1,$137, and some memory $205). All together, it’ll run me about $2160, plus interest from $333 if I decide to spread it over 36 monthly payments or whatever... My case is actually doing fine; it's three years old and honestly isn't bad at all, so I could just hang a few more fans on it or something. The power supply is also decent enough for this specific combo—at least in my book. The only thing missing is an SSD... I have this one friend who is so obsessed with them that he's going to act all high and mighty if I don't pick one up 😁, so I was thinking of grabbing it later. Same goes for a better cooler for overclocking and a beefier PSU down the road... But then again, I'm also looking at this cheaper MSI B85-G43 GAMING board and the processor that Grace Peterson17 recommended 😁. My original plan was to build a solid overclocking rig now so I can upgrade to higher-end graphics cards later on or something. I don't know...

Yeah, I get what you mean. Thanks for the link.

Nah, a buddy of mine is running a Zotac GTX 580. I'm actually hunting for a newer GTX 680 right now, specifically looking for a comparison between a Zotac 680 and a standard GTX 770... my gut tells me that Zotac 680 probably comes with a better factory overclock.

I think I'm going to settle on a build intended to last me about five years. I'll be financing it over 36 months—the interest rates are pretty steep, but I don't really have any other choice... aiming for a setup that hits a max of $2167. My plan is to grab an Intel Core i5-4670K paired with an MSI Z87 GD65 motherboard. For the GPU, I’d ideally love an Nvidia GTX 770, though the Nvidia GTX 760 is an option if I have to, but hm. Since I'm buying this on credit, the whole point is to crank everything up to Ultra settings, specifically titles from 2013, 2014, and whatever is coming down the pipeline for 2014/2015. I'm open to some AMD recommendations too, even though I'm not a huge fan because of their drivers... I had a nightmare with an AMD Radeon HD 5770 where the screen would just black out whenever I opened a web browser or anything similar, so I swapped it for the Nvidia GTX 550 I'm using now. A friend of mine also bought a laptop with an AMD card and it took him three hours just to "tweak" the drivers lol... but anyway, it doesn't matter. If there's an AMD card that might actually be a better bet than the Nvidia GTX 770, let me know 😁. For memory, I'm looking at Kingston DDR3 RAM 2x4 1600 HyperX Beast, or whatever else fits that board. I already have most of the other parts except for an SSD; I've got a Cooler Master case, an LC Power 650 Silent Giant Green Power PSU, a 500GB Caviar Black hard drive, and a CD-ROM.

A buddy of mine is raving about his Zotac GTX 580, claiming he doesn't drop below 35 FPS in Crysis 3. Meanwhile, when he tries running it on a GTX 770, it tanks down to at least 22 FPS. It makes zero sense. I actually went looking for a Zotac 680 to see if I could find one, but I couldn't track anything down here in the States. Even if I did find one tucked away somewhere, I have a feeling it would be way more expensive than a standard GTX 770 anyway, right?

Hey everyone, do you guys think there's any chance the Nvidia GTX 780 could drop down to the $833 range within the next year? Right now, I think the cheapest one I can find is sitting around $1233... if not that soon, when do you think that might actually happen? (Just looking at how the pricing trended for the cards released before the 780)... thanks

That’s exactly what I’m aiming for—maybe they’ll toss me a newer model as a replacement for this Extreme 3 board, something with a more recent chipset or whatever. When I first filed the warranty claim, I figured there was a chance they might just swap it out for a different, newer board, but obviously not. Now, a year and a half has passed, making it three years total since I bought the PC. It would be ideal if they could swap it for an Intel socket, but I highly doubt that's on the table... I'll probably head over to Best Buy on Monday to drop off the motherboard since I'll be in Chicago anyway, but man, being without a computer for another two weeks? That absolutely kills me. I’ve also been thinking about putting together some combinations where I buy a dedicated sound card; I actually really need one because I play drums and want to start recording, and having better audio quality would make everything feel much higher end—even with my current stock setup, it’s not exactly great. I don't necessarily need all these USB 3.0 ports, but I might as well use the warranty while I still have it. I'll let you know if they upgrade me to an Intel socket or at least a newer chipset.

Look, the motherboard is where the trouble starts... I wouldn't touch an ASRock board again if you paid me; I'd much rather grab a cheaper Asus or Gigabyte instead. I actually had to RMA this specific board once before because three or four of the USB ports just died on me. On top of that, there’s this incredibly weird, infuriating audio issue—this constant "popping" sound whenever someone talks on Skype or even just when I'm browsing the web. It’s like whenever there's a spike in signal, it pops, and the whole system would crash. After that mess, they swapped it for the exact same model and extended my warranty by another two years, but now, after eighteen months, the audio glitch is back. It’s not quite as intense as before, but it’s definitely audible. Plus, when I plugged my mouse into the back recently, one of the USB ports failed again... so now I'm looking at being without a PC for two weeks straight, which is total crap. If they fix or replace the board, I should get another warranty extension, but honestly, I'll probably just sell it immediately along with the processor. In the meantime, I might look for an $267 maybe a slightly lower-end Intel Core i5 760 with a budget Asus board from a local listing. I'd be lowballing the guy since the parts are two and a half years old, but it’ll serve me perfectly fine for the next two or three years until I potentially start working and can afford a full overhaul. My other option is to wait until my birthday in June and just go for an Intel Haswell i5 4440 with a decent motherboard for about $200. That would be great too, but it’ll cost more money, and that might tempt me into buying a new GPU with more VRAM, so the first option actually seems smarter if I just want something reliable to last me 2.5 years. A buddy of mine has an Intel Core i5 750, and once he picks up a new graphics card, I bet tanks will basically fly in games. He hasn't tried everything else yet, but I reckon it'll run solid on high-mid settings. I’ve always liked Intel's first generation because they made such a massive leap over AMD, and even over their own previous stuff. Sure, all the subsequent generations are better, obviously, but the jump from Gen 1 to Gen 4 isn't nearly as huge as that initial breakthrough. Those processors are still really capable; the only real headache is that finding an LGA 1156 motherboard nowadays is getting impossible, so if this thing dies, I'm stuck.

Sure, but if you're looking at the long game, I honestly think an Intel Core i5 4440 or a 4670 is a way better move overall...

i, by the way. Since I already brought up this Intel Core i5 4440, I was reading through some threads on here where people were saying there isn't much of a massive difference between the 4440 and the 4670. That said, if you go for the 4670K version to overclock, you're going to need a much higher-end motherboard, which naturally bumps up the price. So, I wanted to get your take: is it better to just grab something new, like the Intel Core i5 4440 paired with a board up to $200, or should I be hunting through Craigslist for an older Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge setup with an overclockable board? I just want to make sure that once I pick up a GPU on the used market for around $500 and add some extra RAM, I'll actually be able to run World of Tanks on max settings at 60fps for the next 2 or 3 years. Ever since patch 9.0 dropped, the graphics have changed significantly, and I heard they’re planning even more graphical and physics overhauls through the end of 2014. I'm wondering if that Intel Core i5 4440 will still hold its own when it comes to newer titles dropping over the next couple of years.

So, we did a swap for about an hour and, honestly... yeah, no. 😁 His monitor is actually 23", even though he was convinced it was 24"—but whatever. If I had agreed to the deal, he would've thrown in a 2GB DDR3 stick, and I would have just handed over my $67 in exchange for everything (motherboard, CPU, the 23" monitor, and the 2GB stick). In my book, that would have been a fair trade, but still, I passed. 😁 Because once I got home and hooked it all up, I was almost in tears. 😁 Even the picture looks sharper on my own monitor, and I really thought it would be the same level of quality... plus, it’s just way too small. I might get used to it, but trying to watch a movie from my bed? Forget it. So, I've decided I'm just going to sell my current board and processor and pick up an Intel Core i5 760 with a decent motherboard from a listing if the price is right. Or, I could just wait another two months until I've saved up close to $667 and then grab an Intel Core i5 4440 along with a board for around 500-$200, which would make a future GPU or RAM upgrade pretty easy. Regarding those Phenom 2 X4 or X6 chips, I gave them some thought, but I'm done with AMD. In my opinion, Intel is just better across the board... but hey, to each their own.

Hey everyone, a buddy of mine is offering me a trade, but I’m having a hard time deciding if it's actually worth it, so I wanted to get some input from you guys 😁 ... He's offering an LG flatron 24" monitor (not sure of the exact model) but basically just an older Full HD LCD, paired with an Intel Core i5 750 processor on a Gigabyte 55-ud3 motherboard. I don't know the specific board name, but it seems decent—it doesn't support SLI, only Crossfire, though I wouldn't be using SLI anyway, just thought I'd mention it for context. It has plenty of expansion options, but lacks USB 3.0. He wants to swap this for my Samsung 27" SyncMaster P2770HD (Full HD) and maybe somewhere around $167... though he might take less. If we did the swap, I'd be running his motherboard and CPU alongside an Nvidia GTX 550ti and 4GB of DDR3 RAM until I can save up enough for a new GPU and 2x4GB of memory by Christmas... The reason I'm leaning toward this swap is because my current setup is a nightmare. I'm running an AMD Athlon II X3 445 on an ASRock 770 Extreme 3 motherboard, which is so bad I wouldn't buy it again in a million years. I can't even play World of Tanks smoothly without dropping to low-to-mid settings!! Honestly, props to Intel for those first-gen processors like the 750 and 760; they really haven't aged a day. That's why this combo looks tempting. Any advice? Thanks 🙂