Posts by Jack Alvarez

So, I'm looking at an RX 580 and wondering what kind of power supply I should be aiming for—how many Watts do you think is the sweet spot? Thanks!

edit: Also, would you say this XFX RX 580 8 GB RS XXX card is a solid pick?

Hey there, fellow tech enthusiasts! I’m looking to help someone out with a PC build for school. He’ll mainly be running CREO 3, but he also wants to squeeze in some gaming sessions of CS:GO, League of Legends, and maybe even a bit of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 every now and then. He’s already put together this list:
an Intel Core i5-7500 (Tray version)
a Gigabyte card with 4GB GDDR5 and an RX 580
8 GB of DDR4 RAM
a 1TB Hard Drive
plus a Sharkoon VG-4 Red ATX case for about $595. He still needs to pick up a motherboard and an SSD, which should run him another $110 or so. So, thinking we're at a total of roughly $705—is this setup pretty solid, or could we actually grab something significantly better if we bumped the budget up to $700? Thanks!

PS: Just as a heads-up, I'm using Amazon.com for price comparisons here.

Personally, I’ve been relying on 4K Downloader lately, and honestly, it’s been such a smooth experience for me... it handles everything from the video itself to the subtitles perfectly, especially when you need those specific .srt files just handed to you on a silver platter.

Most brands here usually stick to a standard two-year warranty, though Zotac is actually pretty cool about offering up to five years if you take the time to register the card. But honestly, since Call of Duty is basically the only game I’m playing on my PC right now—everything else stays on my PlayStation 4—I think you're right that there isn't much point in upgrading just yet. It feels like a better move to save that cash and put it toward a PlayStation VR instead.
Thanks so much for the advice.

I’m not really looking to swap out my monitor just yet since I picked it up only a few months ago, and honestly, 1080p still feels like the sweet spot for me. Right now, running Call of Duty on max settings with this HD 7970, I’m seeing somewhere between 70 and 90 FPS—usually hovering right around that 90-91 mark—but like you guys mentioned, since my monitor supports 144Hz, I’d love to push those frame rates even higher. For instance, the Gainward Phoenix is sitting at about $480, while the Palit GameRock is around $475, and then there's the ASUS ROG priced at about $515.

Edit: To be clear, money isn't exactly a huge hurdle for me; it's more about finding the right balance, especially since a GTX 1060 would save me a good $150 to $200. However, I’d much rather invest a bit more upfront right now so I can just relax and not have to worry about upgrades for a long time, if that makes sense. I’m definitely no expert in this field, but I've always heard the common wisdom that the 1070 is a fantastic choice for gaming enthusiasts.

Hey everyone, hope you're all having a productive day! I wanted to pick your brains on something. Right now, my current setup is sitting there with an i7 4770k, 16GB of RAM, an ASUS Z87 Pro, a 700W power supply, a BenQ XL2430T monitor, and a Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 Dual-X OC Edition. To give you an idea of how I use it, about 90% of my time is spent diving into Call of Duty. I’m planning to pull the trigger on a ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 AMP Extreme Edition in about a month, but I’ve been wondering—is this actually a smart, worthwhile move to make right now? If you think it is, should I go with the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 AMP Extreme Edition, maybe grab the ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 instead, or perhaps something else entirely? Thanks for the help!

And honestly, you just have to get used to such a cramped layout; I actually ended up remapping my WASD keys to the arrow keys, and it works like a charm!

It seems like everything is working fine online. I gave Call of Duty: Black Ops III a shot and didn't run into any of those issues at all, and even in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, when I use the standard WASD setup for movement, the whole thing feels smooth and responsive without any lag. However, since I’m left-handed, I prefer using the arrow keys to move around, and that’s exactly where this annoying lag kicks in. I'm really hoping this is just some weird software bug that they'll patch out soon; until then, I guess I'll have to find a way to remap my WASD controls over to the arrow keys so I can actually play.

Hey everyone, I’m running into a bit of a headache here. I’ve been playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and I’m getting this weird input lag on my keyboard, specifically when I try to use the arrow keys to move around. You can see exactly what I mean in this clip where I’m trying to strafe left and right while spamming keys constantly...YouTube...
Here is the breakdown of my setup, which might be relevant to the issue...

Motherboard - Intel Core i7
CPU - Intel Core i7
Graphics Card - Radeon HD7970 OC
RAM - 16 GB Crucial Ballistix Sport (2x8GB)
128 GB SSD, 2.5 TB HDD (the game is installed on the HDD),
Monitor - BenQ XL24030T ASUS Z87Pro Roccat ISKU FX
Keyboard/Mouse combo (using the included software, though there isn't any way to adjust the delay settings)

I play at 1080p resolution, and here are the hardware performance metrics...



(GPU temp, usage, core clock, memory clock, memory usage, CPU temp and usage, RAM usage, pagefile usage)

I was reading online that this kind of thing happens if the PC is being pushed too hard, so I was wondering if these numbers look like they indicate an overload for a build like this?
If anyone has any theories on what might be causing this, I would truly appreciate the help.

PS: I haven't tested this on any other titles yet, but I'll give Call of Duty: Black Ops III a shot later on.

After doing some deep diving and weighing all my options, I’ve finally decided to pull the trigger on the ZOWIE XL2430T.

I'm currently weighing my options between the Dell Alienware AW2486 and the ASUS ROG Swift, and I've also been wondering if it’s actually worth dropping an extra $100 on the ZOWIE XL2430T. Does anyone know what specifically makes that ZOWIE model command such a premium price tag compared to the others?

I’m looking for some solid advice on picking up a 144Hz monitor, ideally keeping the budget right around $350. This is going to be strictly for gaming—mostly high-stakes FPS titles where every millisecond counts. I’m really torn on the size dilemma: would it be better to go with a 24-inch screen that hits all the right specs, or should I aim for a 27-inch model even if it means making some compromises on performance? To be honest, I’m a total novice when it comes to monitor specs, so I’d really appreciate any guidance you all can offer. You can check out what's available on Amazon to get an idea of the market, though I'm sure most of the models you suggest will be easy enough to find there. Thanks a ton!

I actually managed to sort out the whole headache by just switching my upstairs router over to AP mode, and honestly, everything is running perfectly now.

Hey everyone! So, ever since my PC finished updating to version 1607, I’ve run into a bit of a snag with File Explorer. It’s stopped showing all my networked devices under the Network tab entirely. Before this update, everything was working perfectly fine—I had my router downstairs with an external hard drive attached, my satellite receiver with its own hard drive, and even my media player with a hard drive, and they were all popping up without any drama. Now, it's just a blank slate. Does anyone have any clues as to what might be causing this little hiccup or how I can get them to show up again?

Yeah, I mean, how many we’ll actually end up using is really a whole different conversation, but I honestly think it’s an experiment worth running.

Hey everyone, I could really use a little bit of advice here... what do you all think would be the better way to handle the Wi-Fi situation on my upper floor? I'm trying to figure out if I should go with a simple wireless repeater or just set up a dedicated router to get the best possible strength and signal quality. Personally, I’m leaning toward grabbing a router—maybe something like a Linksys AC1900—and connecting it to the upstairs area via an Ethernet cable. That feels like it would provide more than enough coverage for the whole floor. My setup downstairs currently uses a Netgear Nighthawk X4, so I was wondering if there might be any issues with the two signals "clashing" or interfering with each other, or is that something you can easily tweak in the settings?

So, I think this should be more than enough to get things moving...



Plus, maybe throw in two extra HDDs... though I'm wondering if an SSD is actually necessary here?

Edit: Also, do I really need a motherboard equipped with HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort? Honestly, I don't see the point in ever hooking this rig up to a TV since everything is handled through streaming anyway—it just doesn't seem practical to me.

I have a feeling that the system can handle it quite easily, especially when you look at the specs for

Code:

there aren't any issues at all, though I'm honestly not sure how it manages to "process" it all so smoothly

To be perfectly honest, I'm a bit out of my element here and don't really know what to pick, which is why I'm reaching out for some advice. If someone could suggest a configuration where everything just works seamlessly, we can then dive into the actual costs and see if there's anything we might need to swap out or adjust.

Do I actually need to worry about HDCP 2.2 if I'm planning to use this PC strictly as a dedicated Plex server? Also, looking at the CPU side of things, would an Intel Core i5-6600K be enough to get the job done?
Since my current office setup is running an Intel Core i7-4770K, which performs pretty much right in the same ballpark as an Intel Core i5-6600, I'm wondering if it's worth dropping an extra $100 to go with an Intel Core i7-6700K and a brand-new motherboard. I could always repurpose the Intel Core i7-4770K by moving it over to my old ASUS Z87-Pro, or am I just throwing money away on something I don't really need?

If the GTX 950 actually handles HEVC, then it’s basically the most budget-friendly way to go, probably sitting around $160 or so, while a GTX 960 might run you closer to $190. It really makes you wonder, though—is it actually worth shelling out the extra cash for a dedicated graphics card, or would I be better off just investing that money into a beefier processor that can tackle all that heavy lifting through software instead?