Posts by wiredotter14

Hey there!

I'm looking for some recommendations on an office PC that comes with genuine Windows 7 and Office, since that's what the company requires.
Usage: mostly Microsoft Office and light apps, but it needs to be reliable enough for multitasking (running several programs at once, nothing heavy though).
I was thinking something like a minimum i3 with 8GB RAM.

So, here's the breakdown:
PC
Windows 7
Office
Peripherals (mouse, keyboard, monitor)

Alternatively, I'm considering picking up a used HP workstation. Specifically, I've got a quote on an HP Elite 8200:
Intel Core i5-2400
4GB DDR3
250GB HDD
ODD
Comes with original Windows 7 Professional
12-month warranty
$647 including tax
I’d probably toss in another 4GB of RAM (keeping the HDD as is for now).

My dilemma is whether to build something new for about $1000 or just buy used, mainly because of the license included with the used machine.

I want to keep the total budget as low as possible while still getting something solid and dependable.

Looking for suggestions for a setup around $2500-$1000. Specifically need advice on peripherals and software, since I might mix and match.
I'm based in Washington, D.C., so everything should be easily available.

Also, what's the verdict on that HP workstation? Once I subtract what I'd normally pay for Windows (about $267), I'm basically getting that PC with an i5 for roughly $400. I've worked on similar HP machines (Sandy Bridge i5) before and had zero issues, but I'm wondering how easy it would be to upgrade this specific offer and if I should worry about its long-term lifespan.

Thanks a lot!

EDIT: I can pull parts from various US retailers; doesn't matter where they come from.

darkowl72 said:View on imgur

And his game—or simulation, whatever—demands higher clock speeds. Theoretically, that means the CPU spends a massive chunk of its time pinned at high load...

Isn't that the whole point of those multi-core chips? Letting the other cores just chill while one or two do all the heavy lifting?

Robert Rodriguez2 said:If it’s hooked up to a 4-pin header, that 4th pin handles speed control... you can tweak it right in the UEFI.

That fan "thing" usually comes included with Noctua fans, at least from what I've seen.

I'm pretty sure if you plug a 3-pin fan into a 3-pin header on the motherboard, you can still control the speed via voltage—depending on the board. No, I don't think it'll report the actual RPM, just the percentage.

Timothy Kim60 said:Yeah, depends entirely on the PSU you're running.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2624/8

Do you even have a motherboard that actually supports SLI properly? Usually requires a second x8 slot—those aren't your cheap budget boards.

Nope. I'm on a Z77 Motherboard, so the second slot is just PCI Express 2.0 x4.

Based on this, there shouldn't be a massive bottleneck for a GeForce GTX 660 since it's weaker than the cards in the test.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/I...caling/15.html

Another thing: I mainly picked up the second card for SETI@home (it was about $217 used).

Right now, I don't even have SLI enabled.

The games I play don't even support SLI anyway (World of Warships and Battlefield).

We'll see how Red Dead Redemption runs once I grab it.

crimsonstag84 said:Looking at reviews for similar Corsair models, one rail covers the PCI-e connectors and the 24-pin motherboard plug, while the other handles the CPU, SATA, and SATA cables.

12V1 rail (solid yellow wire): for the motherboard and GPU
12V2 rail (yellow with black stripe wire): EPS12V (CPU), SATA, and SATA/peripheral

thanks!

So it’s actually better to pair the second card with the CPU rather than running 2xPCI-E?
25A isn't enough for SLI.
I was honestly skeptical, thinking these weren't two actual independent rails.

Hey, just dropping this question here so I don't clutter things up with a new thread.

I've got this power supply from the photo
http://postimg.org/image/vvxeklcl3/
http://postimg.org/image/93r1l4x8f/

Running an i3 Sandy Bridge setup with two GeForce GTX 660s in SLI (overclocked to 900MHz).

Supposedly this PSU is dual rail, so I thought I'd be clever. Instead of pulling both PCI-E connectors from the same cable, I used a SATA adapter for the second card.

The thing is, all the PCI-E (6+6+2) leads are on one cable—not saying "rail" because I wouldn't bet money that this thing actually is dual rail.

All the SATA connectors are on one cable, so basically just two cables total.
Right now, one card is on the PCI-E lead and the other is running off the SATA adapter.

Looking at how the current is laid out in the picture above, did I screw this up?
Does anyone know which rail handles the motherboard + CPU?

12V(1) is 25A, 12V(2) is 20A... how does that split between the CPU and two GPUs?

BTW, everything seems fine for now. The cards have been hammering away at SETI@home at 100% for about 10 hours and nothing has blown up yet.

That’s exactly my point.

If you're looking at future upgrade paths, this is a total no-brainer.
A Core i7 or maybe even a Ryzen 5 later on.
The 1150 isn't really "old" if you can actually swap in something much better down the road. I'm using an 1155 right now and I don't feel stuck; I can still grab an i5 in a few years that won't feel significantly worse than a budget modern chip.

Obsessing over a Ryzen... 🥱

edit: I know there are other CPUs for Intel boards, but nothing worth bothering with for an upgrade.

crimsonstag84 said:The CPU and power supply aren't actually in stock, by the way.

Whatever, he already had it in my cart.
It’s listed at Micro Center, but if I try to order just that part separately, it'll end up being about $30 more once you factor in shipping.
Either way, I wouldn't recommend building anything on that old AMD platform right now.

I'd go with the EVGA 270 if it saves you a few bucks.

Regarding the CPU, I'd honestly pick the Intel Pentium G3258. You can easily overclock it even with a stock cooler. Plus, for the same price as that Athlon II, you're getting a much better upgrade path (Socket 1150 vs FM2+).

With this build at this price point, I don't think you need to worry about a Pentium bottlenecking you. It handles most games just fine, and you aren't stuck on the FM2+ platform.

If you want to spend more, that's a different conversation.

Here, look: http://postimg.org/image/fmu81wrwj/

$40Just start saving up for an extra 4GB of RAM.

edit: Get a beefier power supply if you're planning to upgrade later. For now, what's there should be plenty for a 2-core setup plus an R9 270.
edit2: Depends on what you're playing. You can get by with a 6670, but if you're planning on upgrading to something serious soon, you might as well sell it or pass it off to someone else now.

Have you messed around with the CPU fan curves yet?

On my i3 Haswell build, the fan settings were aggressive enough to kick the speed up to 100% the second the frequency spiked—even without a full load.
Now, even under load...

The stock Intel coolers aren't exactly top-tier, but an i5 isn't exactly a power hog either.
I’d suggest someone chime in with what they consider acceptable idle and load temps. Set the fan to target those numbers, and I bet you won't even hear it running.
Especially if you grab a liquid cooler; I reckon you could keep an i5 around 60°C under load without breaking a sweat.

An extra 120mm fan will be way quieter than the stock cooler anyway, and it'll rarely need to hit 100% if you dial in the settings right.

Austin Williams said:Hmm. And that other CPU? It’d be a bottleneck. Also, what GPU would you actually suggest? Up to $500

An R9 270 right now

then an R9 280
(not sure if Nvidia has anything even close at this price point)

$533
http://www.amazon.com/details/R9-280-graphics-card

Timothy Kim60 said:As for the upcoming models—who knows what’ll happen, and who knows where the exchange rate is headed

Yeah, true. The dollar jumped about 25%

Still, I feel like we used to see much faster performance jumps right in that specific price bracket (like the AMD Radeon HD 7850). I mean, newer cards in the same class used to offer way better gains. (Though maybe that's a bit messy since the 5850, 6850, and 7850 weren't exactly in the same tier.) Now I'm kicking myself for not grabbing the 7870; it would've been perfect for me

General question

Has the performance-to-price ratio hit a bit of a plateau over the last year?
Back at the start of 2013, I picked up an AMD Radeon HD 7850 for about $500 if my memory serves me right (I actually snagged a deal on mine)

Now, these AMD Radeon R9 270 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 cards—which are supposed to be in that sweet spot of being "best value"—are sitting around $400 or so.
And honestly, they aren't a massive leap over the AMD Radeon HD 7850

Is it just me misreading the market, or has this generation really stalled out? I remember the jump from 2012 to 2013 felt way more worth the cash.

Are we expecting a new generation to actually fix this?

edit: I get that newer CPU generations aren't seeing huge performance leaps either, but that isn't quite as critical.

Adam Moore3 said:Got it. Looks like a clean build. Prices are actually pretty decent compared to our local US shops.

😁

Prices are always dropping, especially on stuff that isn't even cutting edge anymore.

Adam Moore3 said:I hope you've got an extra HDD stashed away somewhere, because it’s nowhere to be found on this list. Honestly, 240 GB is a joke—it's nowhere near enough space for everything that's going on this machine. 🙂

External? Already got one. 😉

Most of that 240GB is just going to be occupied by standard software anyway. If you run out of breathing room, you can always ditch those massive Steam games you aren't even playing.

David Sanders4 said:I'm looking at the GTX 770 being in the same league as an R9 290... yeah, right. Maybe if Intel and NVIDIA gave them some kickback or a free CPU every year, they could actually afford to market the stuff properly.

It’s probably not them directly. More likely distributors are footing the bill for the site.

Whatever. We went with the Pentium because it's the sweet spot for an R7 260 x. If there's money later, he can always upgrade the CPU or the GPU.

Roughly $1100, and I threw in a massive SSD and 8GB of RAM.

http://postimg.org/image/4ekyidkoj/

edit:

Battlefield 3, FIFA 14, World of Tanks, and a few other shooters
plus AutoCAD.

Timothy Kim60 said:That Corsair SSD is cheaper and way better.👍

Regarding Pentium vs i3—it’s not that simple. It’s really about whether certain games will even launch or not. Take Far Cry 4 or DA: Inquisition, for example, plus probably a lot of newer titles since the i3 has those 4 threads. Plus, having Hyper-Threading gives the i3 a leg up in almost every modern game.

thanks for the advice

I'm running an i3 + 7850 and it works great.

We'll see what the budget looks like.

Timothy Kim60 said:Which store is that? They should check out an OCZ SSD ARC 100 240gb. Also, that's way too much love for an H81 motherboard.

thanks, found some OCZ, cheaper price
GTA V isn't even on my radar.
Went with the Pentium to save cash; maybe I'll upgrade to something better later.
Also, honestly, an i3 feels like total overkill compared to this OC Pentium when you're pairing it with an R7 260 x.

Most of the stuff is from Amazon.com
Is this alright?
http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GA-...81+motherboard
?

P.S.

Looked at some OC tests for that Pentium. In most cases, gaming performance sits right around i3 levels. Not bad.

Would this be alright if I just grab everything?

That brings the total to $1233

(Going with a bigger SSD and skipping the internal HDD since I'm using an external one)

fadedorca66 said:Take GTA 5, for example:
http://pclab.pl/zdjecia/artykuly/cha..._vhigh_cpu.png

Honestly, I'm kind of impressed. That oc-ani G3258 holds its own against:
FX 6350 (OC-an)
FX8350
and those i3 chips

which cost way more per unit

Plus, in this specific test, the best AMD Octacore OC-an at 5GHz is basically neck-and-neck with an i3.