Sherdog PC Build/Buy Thread, v4: #GG Go AMD This Holiday Season

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Madmick

Madmick

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Continued from here:
Sherdog PC Build/Buy Thread, v3
Earlier Versions Here:
Another PC Build/Buy Thread, v2
Another PC Build/Buy Thread

The idea is simple. Tell us two things: (1) what your build is for, and (2) your build, and we'll tell you what we think of it. An extremely useful tool for doing this is PC Part Picker:
http://pcpartpicker.com/
There's also a Canadian, UK, and Australian version of this site.

sverre054 just started a thread watching cheap prices and sales. It looks like the thread's main target audience are those who wish to buy their PC as an AIO (all-in-one) unit, but generally, it looks like this is a place to post and track screaming deals on anything related to PCs, so it's probably worth a look if you're in this thread:
PC Sales and Cheap Prices: Post Here

We also have an HTPC thread maintained by edco76 where we discuss media server software that many in here use these builds to set up:
HTPC/Living Room Gaming PC Thread
 
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[YT]Vd19SboRhVY[/YT]
 
Ok, this is continued from the HTPC thread as it was advised to ask here instead of that thread. I want to replace my Boxee with something that can stream from my Synology DS413j, play some Blu Rays, and some retro emulators (NES,SNES,Genesis, etc).

Here's what I started, do you think it can get the job done?

Apex MI-008 case with 250w power supply
ASRock Mini ITX AMD Motherboard
AMD A4-5300 Trinity 3.4ghz with Radeon HD 7480D
4gb Corsair XMS3
LG Blu Ray drive
256gb Samsung 840 pro
 
So I got a couple things cookin here and figure I bounce it off you fellars.

1) Was thinking about upgrading from my windows 7 to windows 8 on my home PC. Really for no good reason as I love W7 and havent heard anything good about 8. Though it gets me to thinking maybe security is better on 8 or devices and shit will start to work better on 8. OR just generally I need to get with the program and advance with the new tech. Any thoughts?

2) I need to pickup a laptop. It will never see a video game. It will be used for taking to and from my house in south america and using the HDMI out to my reciever/TV for BD/websurfing/movies/music. It will also need a decent enough BD decoder to be able to use those hacked out of NA region disks they sell in flee markets down there. No rush and was thinking about just getting the next best deal I see on slickdeals. Has to be less than 500$, preferably ~400$ as it will be my wives and she prolly wont know the difference. It will just need to have HDMI out and SSD. My main question is about the CPU. Should I hold firm on a I5 or will a I3 suffice? Do any AMD chips give the intel ones a run for their money in the laptop department? Thanx
 
jerrylundergard said:
So I got a couple things cookin here and figure I bounce it off you fellars.

1) Was thinking about upgrading from my windows 7 to windows 8 on my home PC. Really for no good reason as I love W7 and havent heard anything good about 8. Though it gets me to thinking maybe security is better on 8 or devices and shit will start to work better on 8. OR just generally I need to get with the program and advance with the new tech. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

There are a lot of strong rumors that Windows 9 will be released within a year from now. If you just want to catch up, then I probably wouldn't worry about it now.
 
Spent weeks trying to fix my computer that I rebuilt multiple times, due to a capacitor blowing up in my psu and after that everything was wonky. Got the new psu put it all back together, the machine powers on, all the fans go off and everything looks like it's workin. It goes through BIOS, almost gets to Windows then blue screens. So I figure okay I have to reformat anyways I'll try adjust my boot order to my Windows dvd so I can reinstall. I hit restart, I hear the fans and everything go on except the display won't come on. I reset the CMOS settings, unplug it, try to power it up again same thing. I check online and someone suggests that I turn it off, unplug the system and then hold the power button for 30 seconds while it's turned off, after wards try starting it up again. I did that and it worked. Apparently it removes static from all devices.

In the process of buying another GTX 670 FTW for $200 so I can go SLI.
 
So for the next 11 weeks, I'm going to be gaming at home on:
Pentium D 2.66
2GB DDR2-800
PowerColor HD6870

Here's why:
My bro in law is taking some courses required for him to get hired by the Police Department and he needed a computer, so I let him have my i5-2500k, 8GB, R9 270X because the above machine can't multi task with Windows 7 very well and he's going to have 10-12 tabs open on Chrome (Which takes 1.2-1.5 GB alone) and the above machine has a bad habit of blue screening if you use too large of a page file.

As both an engineer and a former IT Technician, I've been REALLY disappointed with the wave of PC enthusiasts that have hit from around 2010-Up.

To be blunt, they're a bunch of self entitled douche bag elitist pessimists that enforce this "Tell to upgrade first, don't bother checking specifications" attitude. Any thread about "Will my PC run X/Y/Z title" is ambushed with immediate negative feedback and "No, it's garbage, upgrade to a 290X Crossfire" posts.

The truth is, I'm an aged PC gamer. I might only be 27 years old but I've been gaming and building PC's since single core days. My first gaming PC was an HP desktop with a Pentium 3 that I managed to squeeze a Voodoo 2 inside of so I could play Quake 3 Arena with my friends.

And you know what? There was a time where "Could I run this?" was answered with real responses and real diagnosis. There was a time where people not only welcomed the idea of a 6 or 7 year old machine running current games, but even wrote patches and custom configuration files and mods for games to make it happen. Like Glide wrappers back in the N64 emulator days that allowed people with inferior graphics cards to run Nintendo 64's best emulator at the time, UltraHLE. Or Half Life 1's software rendering that allowed you to run the game at a lower resolution and image quality by sending the rendering instructions to the CPU.

So I'm throwing myself in the jungle. I found this machine at the recycling facility on campus and they let me have it for free. I had an HD6870 sitting in a box so I threw a molex-PCI-E adapter onto the power supply and fired it up. I installed Vista 32-bit because it's the latest operating system that allows the use of a "Lite Modifier" called VTLite that allows you to disable services, languages and packages to minimize the bloat size. And I'm going to see how the following titles run on this old guy:

Final Fantasy XIV ARR
League of Legends
Half Life 2/L4D2/TF2/Planetside2
Dota 2

the goal isn't to get really great settings, but rather a playable FPS (40-50) on low settings without any stuttering, when no other applications are loaded like browsers or Netflix or something. Back in the day, the whole point of PC gaming for a lot of people was being able to play games when your parents didn't have the money to buy you a console. Sacrifices had to be made, like tweaking your OS and running games at low settings. That's what I'm going to play like, to see just how gaming the old ways, works today.
 
Well, a lot of the specifications don't seem to be as accurate as they used to be back in the old days of PC gaming, which I was definitely part of. I see a looot of games now that say they suggest something crazy like a 6850 to run that don't even have especially impressive graphics, and I always think to myself that there is no way an older card couldn't handle it.

However, with your computer you posted I have to think that the CPU is going to seriously, seriously bottle neck you. I mean that chip is nearing a decade in age, beyond your 6/7 year example. It's old enough that I had to google it to remember what it was when I saw you post it. Some of those games you posted should work fine, especially considering the fact that they were written for a game engine as old as the CPU in your computer. I don't know about FF14 or DOTA2 though, but best of luck. And Vista I was never very familiar with, as the only PC I had it on was a crappy toshiba laptop I had in college with an integrated GPU. I have to imagine that Vista's gaming performance is pretty limiting in of itself today, since everyone pretty much abandoned it wholesale in favor of 7 when it came out.
 
HungLoh said:
Hi guys, I would like to build my first computer and I've a budget up to 1100. Any builds you guys recommend?

Someone just recommended me this build
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/SimonM/saved/45uv

or how about this one, I found this one online
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/SimonM/saved/45v9

Is this one fine? anything I should change up?
Click to expand...

Both builds are nice. The biggest problem I see is that you only have 240gb of space on the one with the SSD. You are going to want to find a regular HDD for harddrive space, otherwise you'll be doing a lot of uncomfortable juggling. I recommend finding a way to have an SSD for your OS in whichever build you go with, as they make daily use of your computer so much smoother and nicer.
 
AMD FD8350FRHKBOX FX-8350 FX-Series 8-Core Black Edition

I want to build a system around this chip and I would like to stay somewhere close to 12.00 USD Got any suggestions boys?
 
Blayt7hh said:
Both builds are nice. The biggest problem I see is that you only have 240gb of space on the one with the SSD. You are going to want to find a regular HDD for harddrive space, otherwise you'll be doing a lot of uncomfortable juggling. I recommend finding a way to have an SSD for your OS in whichever build you go with, as they make daily use of your computer so much smoother and nicer.
Click to expand...

I think I can add the SSD for whichever one I pick. Would you rather have the first or second build, assuming that they both have the same SSD and HDD

Edit: NVM both video cards were sold out for both builds, so I'm going to get a different one.
 
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Abortedone said:
AMD FD8350FRHKBOX FX-8350 FX-Series 8-Core Black Edition

I want to build a system around this chip and I would like to stay somewhere close to 12.00 USD Got any suggestions boys?
Click to expand...
Something like this would be pretty badass. You didn't specify if you needed peripherals or disk drives, so I didn't include them. If you're strict on $1200, you can cut $50 by getting a 120GB SSD and another $25 by getting a non-modular PSU and bronze instead of gold. Also, if you need a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and disk drive(s) you'll have to drop SLI and get a cheaper mobo. I wouldn't normally recommend SLI initially, but at $470 you'll outperform a single GTX 780 by a decent margin and at $50+ less.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3bUrN


Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-fd8350frhkbox) | $189.99 @ Newegg
**CPU Cooler** | [Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-rr212e20pkr2) | $29.99 @ NCIX US
**Motherboard** | [Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-ga990fxaud3) | $114.99 @ Micro Center
**Memory** | [G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl9d8gbsr) | $85.99 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz7te250bw) | $139.99 @ Amazon
**Storage** | [Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex) | $59.99 @ Amazon
**Video Card** | [PNY GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/pny-video-card-vcggtx7602xpb) (2-Way SLI) | $236.99 @ Amazon
**Video Card** | [PNY GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/pny-video-card-vcggtx7602xpb) (2-Way SLI) | $236.99 @ Amazon
**Case** | [Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/fractal-design-case-fdcadefr4blw) | $89.99 @ Newegg
**Power Supply** | [XFX ProSeries 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1850bbefx) | $109.99 @ NCIX US
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available. | $1276.90
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-18 02:17 EDT-0400 |
 
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Abortedone said:
AMD FD8350FRHKBOX FX-8350 FX-Series 8-Core Black Edition

I want to build a system around this chip and I would like to stay somewhere close to 12.00 USD Got any suggestions boys?
Click to expand...
You mean $1200 US Dollars?
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Madmick/saved/45E7
- I'm assuming that you have to pay for the Windows OS. If not, then you have more headroom.
- The CPU Cooler is only necessary if you intend to overclock, but it's a great idea nonetheless for extending the life and performance of your CPU.
- I only included a DVD Writer. If you intend to get Blu-Ray and deal with the software hassle so that you can view them on your PC, buy a Blu-Ray reader.
- I went $78 over budget, but that's with both a 256GB SSD and 3TB HDD. Either costs $100+, so if you want to come under budget, then you can ditch the added storage from the HDD and load the OS to the SSD for when you start out while you save up more to add storage later; ditch the SSD and settle for HDD performance, but with far more storage to save media (not recommended); or you can shell out the extra cash and get both.
- In the context of the fact that you're shelling out $1200 or so, the one upgrade from this build I would urge you to recommend is a PSU upgrade. This is a 600W Semi-Modular Tier 3 PSU. It's probably worth it to snag a Tier 2 Fully Modular 750W+ PSU in case you wish to add a second video card in the future. The XFX Pro Series 850W for $125 is probably the best deal right now. You can OC and SLI/Crossfire on that baby no problem.

*Edit* Jesus, I didn't see the post above this one. That's a rock-solid build. I think the Adata offers a better performance per dollar than the Samsung in the SSD, and I'd recommend going with a single GTX 770 (and upgrade that later) rather than 2x760 right now. I don't like the Raidmax case. Otherwise, spot fucking on.
 
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That Fractal case is nice, stealing that for my proposed build
 
Madmick said:
You mean $1200 US Dollars?
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Madmick/saved/45E7
- I'm assuming that you have to pay for the Windows OS. If not, then you have more headroom.
- The CPU Cooler is only necessary if you intend to overclock, but it's a great idea nonetheless for extending the life and performance of your CPU.
- I only included a DVD Writer. If you intend to get Blu-Ray and deal with the software hassle so that you can view them on your PC, buy a Blu-Ray reader.
- I went $78 over budget, but that's with both a 256GB SSD and 3TB HDD. Either costs $100+, so if you want to come under budget, then you can ditch the added storage for when you start out while you save up more to add it; ditch the SSD and settle for HDD performance, but with far more storage to save media (not recommended); or you can shell out the extra cash and get both.
- In the context of the fact that you're shelling out $1200 or so, the one upgrade from this build I would urge you to recommend is a PSU upgrade. This is a 600W Semi-Modular Tier 3 PSU. It's probably worth it to snag a Tier 2 Fully Modular 750W+ PSU in case you wish to add a second video card in the future. The XFX Pro Series 850W for $125 is probably the best deal right now. You can OC and SLI/Crossfire on that baby no problem.

*Edit* Jesus, I didn't see the post above this one. That's a rock-solid build. I think the Adata offers a better performance per dollar than the Samsung in the SSD, and I'd recommend going with a single GTX 770 (and upgrade that later) rather than 2x760 right now. I don't like the Raidmax case. Otherwise, spot fucking on.
Click to expand...

Like I said, I usually don't like SLI right off the bat, but I'd make an exception here. If he's got to buy Windows or anything else he'll have to drop the SLI and go with a GTX 770, but Amazon's deal on the GTX 760 is too good to pass up for SLI that will surpass what is close to the best single GPU on the market(GTX 780).

Also, if I'm spending $1200+ on a PC I'd gonna be loose on the budget by a couple hundred in order to completely remove any need for upgrades for at least 3 years if not 5.
 
mr.bigglesworth said:
That Fractal case is nice, stealing that for my proposed build
Click to expand...
It's the longtime king of the ~$100 class. Spacious, #1 best sound dampening in this class as rated by Silent PC, well-organized, customizable, grommeted, windowed (optional), classic minimalist black design, USB3 front ports, tons of bays that can be either 3.5"/2.5", steel make, plenty of fan mounts and exceptional ventilation...it's just a hall of fame case.

fractal_design_define_r4_black_pearl.jpg

mr.bigglesworth said:
Like I said, I usually don't like SLI right off the bat, but I'd make an exception here. If he's got to buy Windows or anything else he'll have to drop the SLI and go with a GTX 770, but Amazon's deal on the GTX 760 is too good to pass up for SLI that will surpass what is close to the best single GPU on the market(GTX 780).

Also, if I'm spending $1200+ on a PC I'd gonna be loose on the budget by a couple hundred in order to completely remove any need for upgrades for at least 3 years if not 5.
Click to expand...
I'm a bit befuddled. $237 for a GTX 760 was normal a few months ago. It's not any great steal:

13236881265_f46c8eb796_o.png


Also, I think it's better to go for a bit more quality: superior overclocking potential, superior cooling/lifespan and less heat-stress on the rest of your system, lower noise levels, greater reliability. Also, manufacturers like Asus and MSI have the most appealing software for interfacing with their card's settings. For NVIDIA, manufacturers EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte, and Asus are a head above the others.
 
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That R4 looks amazing, but too big for my liking. If I build another mini-itx(using Sugo5, just built the same for a friend today) I'm getting a Lian Li or a Fractal Design- their cases are just gorgeous from the outside.
 
Indeed, Mini-ITX is the cat's pajamas. I think they're so sleek looking. You gotta get low-profile RAM, CPU Coolers, and GPUs, though.
 
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