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

[Matt4786]

Looking forward to installing my new 970 tomorrow. Felt like I wasn't getting the most out of my 120Hz refresh rate using my 760. Went with the Gigabyte G1 version, since it seems to have the best cooling and overclock capabilities. Also the largest, but my case is more than big enough.

Edit: lol I actually underestimated how long it is (15") and had to relocate my hard drives from near the DVD drive to down at the bottom. As big as my case is, it still would not have cleared lol. My current GPU is like 9.5" so I figured it would've been fine.

I guess at least it gave me the excuse I needed to clean all my case fan filters.

 

[Blayt7hh]

??? I looked up the G1 gigabyte because I was really surprised when you said it was 15'' long. I am reading that it's just over 12 inches long, which seems right from my experience.

 

[Matt4786]

I think I may have tarded out and taken box dimensions for card dimensions. unless the card is also 9 inches wide :icon_lol::redface:

Considering getting 2-3 of these 5.25" to 3.25" drive bay converters to save some space and actually put those bays to good use. Can't really think of any other good use except a fan controller.

 

[jerrylundergard]

Yo, im a pimp! Just ordered the samsung evo 840 500gb to be my storage drive. It came with FC4 for 189$. Gonna b looking to sell that FC4 ticket when I get it and put it towards a x1 game er something.

 

[Matt4786]

SSD prices really seem to have come down in the past year. Good stuff. My 250GB cost more than that a year ago.

I'm trying to figure out what to do with my 5.25" bays and I found this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817997016

anyone have any experience with hot swaps? I'm not sure if I should get two of these and a fan controller, or just get 3 of them. I currently have 3 free 5.25" bays, and 2 HDDs, but I'll definitely get more over time.

 

[Minnja]

The Black Friday deals were not as awesome as I was predicting. I think I'm gonna be saving about $100 if i pull the trigger now. Or should I wait for Cyber Monday?

 

[CPA]

Landed a new job on Friday that comes with a 20% increase in salary before bonuses, so I splurged on black Friday computer stuff.

I bought...

Another GTX 970
250GB SSD
i7 4790 4.0ghz 8mb
Asus Maximus VII Hero.

Should all be here in 3 days and then I'll rebuild my system. Totally not necessary, but sometime you just have to "yolo".

 

[Matt4786]

^^^^
Beast Mode

I think I'm gonna order 3 Sata I/II/III hot swaps tomorrow, to make use of my 5.25" bays and free up space for the eventual water cooling endeavor.

Re: water cooling, I'm considering getting serious business after X-Mas and doing a water cooling rig, but I have a lot of research that still needs to be done.

The Gigabyte G1 970GTX has been an overclocking beast so far and I'm very happy with it. Runs very cool. I plan to eventually SLI it, as I feel that would allow me to play at my desired settings of 120fps, Ultra 1080p for most games no problem. Only topping out at about 90 on Farcry 4 running everything at max.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

I'm hoping to find an awesome deal on a gaming mouse tomorrow, preferably blue illuminated to match my laptop keyboard and headset.

 

[Madmick]

Oh, never overlook Klipsch when it comes to 2.1 systems for computers. I don't think any company offers a better bang for your buck in desktop speakers than Klipsch. You can drop a paltry $150 for a 2.1 system that BUMPS. It's not crap distorted sheer volume, either. It's power with quality on a budget.

 

[GhostZ06]

gah!

XSPC water cooling kit wasnt on sale

 

[Matt4786]

Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree ITT, but I'm looking for a headset with a mic, but one that is geared more towards music than games. Any advice?

Those hotswaps were on a decent sale on newegg ($25--->$15) so I scooped up 3 of them. Considering getting another 3TB HDD just for backing up my music collection and other files where I would cry if they were lost.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

1 x Sager NP8268-S (Clevo P150SM-A) () = $1,713.01
- BLACK NOVEMBER Specials - #04 - Special Upgrade Package - "the Boost Package" = GPU Overclocking + Operating System Redline Boost ($130.00 Value!) (XPC Service) (Requires shipment to XOTIC PC) [Got it for $99 special]
- BLACK NOVEMBER Specials - #08 - FREE XOTIC PC Mousepad! - with the purchase of any mouse
- BLACK NOVEMBER Specials - #09 - FREE! – 32GB Pen Drive (With purchases of $1000.00 or More)
Free Shipping FREE!!! – U.S. UPS GROUND SHIPPING (Use Coupon Code "FREESHIP" in Checkout) [U.S. Lower 48 ONLY / Restrictions Apply]
Display 15.6” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) Super Clear Matte Type Sager Screen (SKU - SSC005)
Dead Pixel Warranty FREE! - 30 Day No Dead Pixel guarantee
Processor Sager - 4th Generation Intel

 

[Madmick]

Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree ITT, but I'm looking for a headset with a mic, but one that is geared more towards music than games. Any advice?

You're definitely barking up the wrong tree, but that Kingston HyperX Cloud Gaming Headset ($80) that I mentioned in the headset thread is renowned for its versatility; specifically performance for music and home theater audio in addition to gaming, and it's $20 off the normal price: just $60. I would jump on this before it goes back up. This is easily the gaming headset you're after:

Black
http://www.amazon.com/HyperX-Cloud-...7462683&sr=1-2&keywords=kingston+hyperx+cloud

White
http://www.amazon.com/HyperX-Cloud-...7462741&sr=1-1&keywords=kingston+hyperx+cloud


Otherwise, I'd look at the Sennheiser PC line (starting with the PC-310 at ~$43). Anything Sennheiser makes will perform well, musically.

 

[Matt4786]

You're definitely barking up the wrong tree, but that Kingston HyperX Cloud Gaming Headset ($80) that I mentioned in the headset thread is renowned for its versatility; specifically performance for music and home theater audio in addition to gaming, and it's $20 off the normal price: just $60. I would jump on this before it goes back up. This is easily the gaming headset you're after:

Black
http://www.amazon.com/HyperX-Cloud-...7462683&sr=1-2&keywords=kingston+hyperx+cloud

White
http://www.amazon.com/HyperX-Cloud-...7462741&sr=1-1&keywords=kingston+hyperx+cloud


Otherwise, I'd look at the Sennheiser PC line (starting with the PC-310 at ~$43). Anything Sennheiser makes will perform well, musically.

good shit. the deal for those HyperX is crazy. Thanks Mick

Ended up splurging a bit on these http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008O510Y8...TF8&colid=2580V9ZWKFION&coliid=I280OOYMYN4APY

I used to have Sennheisers and they were great for music and this deal seemed pretty sick.

 

[Blayt7hh]

When I was checkinh out what my total would be last week, they said a upgraded 2.8-3.8 processor would be an additional $40 but when I checked today, now it's an extra $140. I called and asked about that and apparently that special price had expried. Pretty dissapointing. Oh well, it's still going to be a powerhouse laptop anyway.

That's a really sweet laptop, basically like mine but I bought it back in April right after the 800m series came out. A little miffed that 6 months later the 900's came out and are much better... but anyways they're great systems. You might want to look into getting a little cheap usb soundbar or pair of headphones though, as the speakers are kind of on the weak side.

Also, if the processor they were offering for a $40 upgrade was the 4810q, then don't sweat it. There is like virtually no difference between them in practice. I have that upgrade because it was free when I bought mine though

 

[GhostZ06]

1 x Sager NP8268-S (Clevo P150SM-A) () = $1,713.01
- BLACK NOVEMBER Specials - #04 - Special Upgrade Package - "the Boost Package" = GPU Overclocking + Operating System Redline Boost ($130.00 Value!) (XPC Service) (Requires shipment to XOTIC PC) [Got it for $99 special]
- BLACK NOVEMBER Specials - #08 - FREE XOTIC PC Mousepad! - with the purchase of any mouse
- BLACK NOVEMBER Specials - #09 - FREE!

 

[GearSolidMetal]

That's a really sweet laptop, basically like mine but I bought it back in April right after the 800m series came out. A little miffed that 6 months later the 900's came out and are much better... but anyways they're great systems. You might want to look into getting a little cheap usb soundbar or pair of headphones though, as the speakers are kind of on the weak side.

Also, if the processor they were offering for a $40 upgrade was the 4810q, then don't sweat it. There is like virtually no difference between them in practice. I have that upgrade because it was free when I bought mine though

Thanks for the suggestion of the model at XoticPC, you really pointed me in the right direction.

Yeah, I was wondering if the extra .3 gigahertz would matter, but with a 6GB GPU, I figured might as well put every bit of power I could into it for a reasonable price.

Did you get the CPU and GPU overclocking package?

Yeah, I have a pair of Afterglow universal wireless headset heading to me right now, got them used on Ebay for $40. Figured that was a reasonable price.

good shit man. Welcome to the winning team

Thanks man. Now if I could only get my Steam account unlocked, I could take advantage of the daily deals.

 

[Blayt7hh]

Thanks for the suggestion of the model at XoticPC, you really pointed me in the right direction.

Yeah, I was wondering if the extra .3 gigahertz would matter, but with a 6GB GPU, I figured might as well put every bit of power I could into it for a reasonable price.

Did you get the CPU and GPU overclocking package?

Yeah, I have a pair of Afterglow universal wireless headset heading to me right now, got them used on Ebay for $40. Figured that was a reasonable price.

You made the right call on the CPU, you would be wasting $140 if you had gone with the upgrade. I didn't get the overclocking packages since I didn't get an OS with it (another thing I love about xotic pc). I know MSI laptops come with an OC program, but I haven't checked if Sager does.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

You made the right call on the CPU, you would be wasting $140 if you had gone with the upgrade. I didn't get the overclocking packages since I didn't get an OS with it (another thing I love about xotic pc). I know MSI laptops come with an OC program, but I haven't checked if Sager does.

I initially decided to go with Linux or Steam OS. But based upon the research I did, some games (not all) don't run very well on those OS, so I relunctantly added Windows 8.1 to the order.