These cards usually come with 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, and 2-3x Displayport
You can grab a cheap passive HDMI to DVI or Displayport to DVI adapter since both HDMI and Displayport carry the DVI signal anyway.
Like this one.
Or just get those adapters that plug directly into the DVI port on the back of the monitor, then you can just use a standard Displayport or HDMI cable.
Christian Mendoza60 said:I'll probably just grab the Noctua NH-D15 since the price actually makes sense. Even my current GTX 660 with that Tahiti chip isn't exactly running ice cold. I'm going to slap those Noctua NH-D15 fans on there; I've already got them sitting in a drawer. I tried stripping off the shroud earlier, but this card uses an aluminum casing instead of plastic, so those Noctua NH-D15 fans wouldn't have been able to cool the stock heatsink anyway.
I used an S1 cooler on a GTX 285 that pulled about 200W, and adding two 120mm fans made a massive difference. Later, I moved it to a GTX 260, which has power draw similar to your GTX 660, and it ran practically passively—no throttling in most games.
The GTX 260 pulls 110W, while the GTX 285 is around 200 (likely more if you overclock it slightly). Yours falls somewhere in the middle.
If that GTX 660 has a Tahiti chip, is it actually a GTX 770? That's a solid card.
Christian Mendoza60 said:Can a Noctua NH-D15 actually handle the heat on my GPU? It doesn't seem too pricey, and I've got some spare fans lying around the house that I could mount onto the cooler for extra cooling.
Sure it can. Those Noctua NH-D15 coolers (I used an older version once, the Noctua NH-D15 is a bit better) are basically built for quasi-passive cooling. Your best bet is to just zip-tie two 120mm fans directly to it. Back when I was running a GTX 285, I rigged up one 140mm and two 120mm fans, and it performed way better than the stock cooler—and that card runs much hotter than yours ever will.
With the Noctua NH-D15 on a GTX 660, you might get away with almost no fans if your Corsair Airflow case is decent, or maybe just one 120mm fan spinning at minimum speed.
Otherwise, the alternative is to just rip the plastic shroud and the current fan off your existing setup and slap one or two fans directly onto the radiator. Honestly, that'd probably work better than what you have now with that plastic shroud choking your airflow.
if we're talking about tiny amounts of data, Dropbox or Google Drive will do fine. But look, with Dropbox, you run into a mess when multiple users are messing around in the same folder and deleting stuff. You end up with these "orphaned files" that just sit there eating up storage space until everyone's quota is maxed out.
If you're dealing with massive datasets, it's much easier to just set up a shared folder via macOS. You can host it from one machine and give everyone else on the network access through a Workgroup if that's how you want to play it.
1) Look, it's Amazon. Generally, their prices are low. 2) Not everything is cheaper, and half the time graphics cards aren't even in stock. 3) Sales tax is around 10%, and when you opt for shipping to the US, they calculate the local tax, so expect the price to jump up by a bit.
Some stuff is definitely worth it, and it's not just Amazon.com—prices on other sites can be solid too. No customs duties, just the standard US sales tax instead of whatever foreign rate they had. Warranty isn't an issue within that two-year window. You can just ship it back to Amazon, though the manufacturer's warranty depends on the brand. Some things carry a standard North American warranty, so you just send it to the nearest service center.
Timothy Kim60 said:If you're just looking for the best bang for your buck, there's some guy on eBay selling an AMD Radeon R9 290 for $400. Honestly, that's probably the strongest deal out there right now. From what I can see, they've got plenty of them sitting around for $467.
It's just crypto miners dumping their old hardware. Not long ago, those 290s and 390s were going for at least $667.
Picked up an RX580 8GB for about $800 and I've already broken even 🙂 Google, those people who dropped $500 on these things are totally underwater right now, though I guess they'll see their money back in a year or so 😉
As far as I know, there’s an X370 Micro ATX out there, and there was even talk about a Mini-ITX version. Once the X470 hits the market, you can bet your life we'll see some Micro ATX options too.
Justin Phillips15 said:So when I'm buying, I just need to make sure it's an LGA 1155 socket, right?
Everyone comes with integrated graphics except the 3350p. The 3000 series is a step up from the 2000s, but honestly, who cares? You won't get any real use out of those onboard chips if you're actually using a GPU. Just aim for at least an i5 on the 1155 socket. Post here once you find something specific. What the guy above posted is solid advice.
I wouldn't sweat the price tag too much if you're aiming for 1440p gaming.
The GTX1060 handles 1440p well enough in most scenarios. Just leave the rig mining while you aren't playing; in a few months, you'll have made back whatever extra you paid for that inflated markup.
The GTX 1650 is roughly around $467 at current market prices, making it a solid value for about $333. Just make sure you're actually getting a GTX 1650 and that it’s brand new.
By the way, the Core i3-10100 isn't some weak link for gaming; it's perfectly fine, basically performing on par with an i5 from the previous generation. You might get a bit more bang for your buck with a Ryzen 3 3200G at that price point, but it's pretty much a wash compared to the Core i3-10100—the motherboard just tends to run a little pricier for AMD builds.
Yeah, a new series is dropping soon on a refreshed manufacturing process, which should bump performance up by about 5-15%. The rest of your build looks fine. We'll know more once the new lineup hits the shelves. Current motherboards will support them anyway, so grabbing a CPU and board—whether it's current gen or the new stuff—won't be an issue.
With overclocking, a Ryzen won't pull more than 100W, so you don't strictly need liquid cooling. A decent air cooler in the 20-$100 range can pretty much handle whatever a Ryzen throws at it.
The new Ryzen 5 2600 (6 cores) will likely be the go-to budget king again at around $150-$533 or something along those lines, paired with a B350/B450 board for maybe $60-$267.
Honestly, you'll get more bang for your buck if you hoard as much as possible for the new build and just sell off the rest piece by piece.
You've got the RAM, the drives, the case. If that GTX1050 still does the job for you, hang onto it. Right now, anything better than that is priced way above what they're actually worth. The PSU isn't top-tier, but it's usable if you want to keep it.
You aren't going to make much flipping the motherboard and CPU—maybe $200—but you'll save a ton on everything else. I'm guessing the cooler won't work with a Ryzen, but double-check that first.
P.S. Whatever you do, wait for the 2000 series Ryzen to drop in a month or two. See what the new tech looks like before deciding whether to grab the latest thing or pick up the current gen while it's cheap.
Nicole James said:Hmm, is your GPU venting heat out of the case or just circulating it inside? In my experience, three fans are plenty to run silently while still dropping temperatures by maybe a degree or so even at their maximum speed.
It’s not a reference model; it has dual fans and dumps heat straight into the case. The issue is the card is pinned at 100% because I'm mining, so I need decent airflow just to keep those fans from ramping up. The rig is ancient—running an i7 920—so if I kill two fans, the whole thing heats up, forcing the GPU to spin harder, which is exactly when it starts getting loud.