Sherdog PC Build/Buy Thread, v6: My Power Supply Burned Down My House

Yo, has anyone ever had this problem? any advice? Windows Restart has become broken on my pc recently, I can boot up from my pc being off. but when I try to do a restart such as resetting pc or installing software, the monitor turns off and I get a no signal message, i've left it a while and the monitor does not come back on, I have to hold power down and then power it back on.

I've tried reinstalled graphics drivers and using another monitor. the only other thing i've done recently is add a games ssd, i've checked the bios and the correct ssd is in the boot order.

EDIT: one other thing I noticed that has never happened before is Display Driver Uninstaller freezes at the rebooting screen

I am finding that Windows 10 takes forever to restart. It stays in the black screen with only mouse cursor showing, and you have to leave it alone for several minutes for it to feel like getting into Windows for you to do stuff. There's isn't really much flashing lights or harddrive sounds to give the impression it's doing stuff. Even after in Windows, it takes longer to launch stuff. You're tempted to power down via power button, but probably safer to give it as much time it needs so you don't risk corrupting anything.
 
@Madmick If you haven't seen this, you should check it out. i5-4460 vs G5400 with a GT1030
 
Hey guys, a buddy of mine is looking to put a build together so that he can play Fortnite, Rocket League and LoL. Here's what he has so far: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Ghv2xG

CPU: Intel - Core i3-8100 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($118.69 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B360M DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($66.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($95.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.90 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB SC GAMING Video Card ($229.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair - Carbide Series 88R MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($35.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $640.54


To me, the CPU seems like it's the best bang for his buck but the 1060 might be overkill for those games. Also, we have a Micro Center not too far away so he can save some money that way.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.
 
Hey guys, a buddy of mine is looking to put a build together so that he can play Fortnite, Rocket League and LoL. Here's what he has so far: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Ghv2xG

CPU: Intel - Core i3-8100 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($118.69 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B360M DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($66.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($95.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.90 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB SC GAMING Video Card ($229.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair - Carbide Series 88R MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($35.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $640.54


To me, the CPU seems like it's the best bang for his buck but the 1060 might be overkill for those games. Also, we have a Micro Center not too far away so he can save some money that way.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Microcenter has a Ryzen R5 1600 & MSI B350M Gaming Pro for $195 or $180 after rebate. The i3-8100 is 4 cores 4 threads at 3.6ghz, the R5 1600 is 6 cores 12 threads at 3.6ghz stock. The R5-1600 also includes the Wraith Spire cooler, which is far superior to the stock cooler that comes with the i3-8100.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/...,_MSI_B350M_Gaming_PRO_CPU-Motherboard_Bundle

Friends don't let friends boot off of HDD drives. Even a cheap sub $40 120gb SSD will make a big difference.
 
I've had my i7 2600k for 7 years now and decided it's time for a new gaming PC. I'm going with an i7 8700k, and z370 chipset.

So my question is, as far as ram goes, what should i get? I want 16gb but the confusing part for me as I've been out of the loop with PC parts in the last few years is the speed. I was going to go with PC4000 but I notice basically all z370 MBs only support upto PC3200 without overclocking. Should i go with 3200mhz or 4000mhz for futureproof reasons? Would I have to raise the voltage a lot to OC to 4000mhz?
 
I've had my i7 2600k for 7 years now and decided it's time for a new gaming PC. I'm going with an i7 8700k, and z370 chipset.

So my question is, as far as ram goes, what should i get? I want 16gb but the confusing part for me as I've been out of the loop with PC parts in the last few years is the speed. I was going to go with PC4000 but I notice basically all z370 MBs only support upto PC3200 without overclocking. Should i go with 3200mhz or 4000mhz for futureproof reasons? Would I have to raise the voltage a lot to OC to 4000mhz?

Here's some benchmarks for different RAM speeds for the 8700k.
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews..._Memory_Performance_Benchmark_Analysis/9.html
Personally, I wouldn't buy 4000mhz ram for an Intel system. The extra price you pay for a couple of frames isn't worth it. DDR4 3000 and DDR4 3200 are the sweet spot for price/performance.
DDR5 is slated to be released next year, so there's no really no point in future proofing.
If you decide to change your mind and go AMD, then the faster ram speeds make a bigger performance difference.
 
Hey guys, a buddy of mine is looking to put a build together so that he can play Fortnite, Rocket League and LoL. Here's what he has so far: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Ghv2xG

CPU: Intel - Core i3-8100 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($118.69 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B360M DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($66.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($95.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.90 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB SC GAMING Video Card ($229.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair - Carbide Series 88R MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($35.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $640.54


To me, the CPU seems like it's the best bang for his buck but the 1060 might be overkill for those games. Also, we have a Micro Center not too far away so he can save some money that way.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.
I'm going to assume he hasn't bought it yet.

First, I agree with @jefferz . Microcenter's CPU/MB bundles are great, and Ryzen is really nice at that pricerange. And you're better off with an SSD than an HD. A 120 gb SSD at microcenter is $25. You could conceivably have all three games and an OS on there. I'd get something bigger, though. The 240 is 45, and the 480 is $80.

That said, if all he's playing are those games, there's even more room to save, depending on his target fps and settings. Even the lowest-end ryzen CPUs are capable of hitting 60+ fps on all of those games with an ok gpu, and they start at $70, so ~ $120 for cpu+Mobo. That said, the bundle he pointed out is a great bargain and definitely worthwhile if your friend might decide to pick up a more demanding game in the future. If you do go Ryzen, get a higher RAM speed, though. His fps will benefit.

Your question about the 1060 being overkill is reasonable. None of those games are graphically demanding enough to need it for 60fps, so something lighter and cheaper will work instead. (It might necessary to play Fortnite on Ultra 1080p at 60+fps).

You can also cut costs on the case and psu by waiting for periodic sales and expanding to alternatives. Possibly half that cost. Use the parametric filter on pcpartpicker to help.

Depending on how funky he wants to get, there is a very different approach. The igpus on the Ryzen 3 2200g and Ryzen 5 2400g are really solid. They're more than capable of handling lol at good settings without a dedicated video card. The 2200g igpu might struggle with fortnite and Rocket league at 1080p, but the benchmarking I've seen says that the 2400g, at least, can handle 60+ fps at 1080p, though you may need to drop to a mix of low and medium settings. If you go this route, you may want to get 2x8gb RAM, because the igpu will be relying on your system RAM, so may struggle if it has to share 8gb with the OS, fortnite, and whatever is in the background.

That would look something like this:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vQXKq4
 
I've had my i7 2600k for 7 years now and decided it's time for a new gaming PC. I'm going with an i7 8700k, and z370 chipset.

So my question is, as far as ram goes, what should i get? I want 16gb but the confusing part for me as I've been out of the loop with PC parts in the last few years is the speed. I was going to go with PC4000 but I notice basically all z370 MBs only support upto PC3200 without overclocking. Should i go with 3200mhz or 4000mhz for futureproof reasons? Would I have to raise the voltage a lot to OC to 4000mhz?
  • DDR4-2666 is the highest frequency the Z370 chipset natively handles. Everything above that is a technical overclock and won't deliver linearly on overall system memory performance improvement.
  • Right now the best valued sticks have settled in at the new class of about DDR4-3000. They're running about $150-$160 for 16GB at the entry level. These are typically CAS16 sticks (latency).
  • Lower latency = better
  • Don't buy single-channel RAM. You want dual-channel.
  • Divide latency (CAS) by bandwidth (MHZ) in order to yield a cycle time. The lower the cycle time = the better the RAM.
    • CAS16/2133MHz = .00750
    • CAS17/2400MHz = .00708
    • CAS15/2133MHz = .00703
    • CAS16/2400MHz = .00667
    • CAS14/2133MHz = .00656
    • CAS15/2400MHz = .00625
    • CAS13/2133MHz = .00609
    • CAS16/2666MHz = .00600
    • CAS14/2400MHz = .00583
    • CAS15/2666MHz = .00562
    • CAS15/2800MHz = .00536
    • CAS16/3000MHz = .00533
    • CAS18/3600MHz = .00500
    • CAS16/3200MHz = .00500
    • CAS15/3000MHz = .00500
    • CAS14/2800MHz = .00500
    • CAS12/2400MHz = .00500
    • CAS16/3400MHz = .00490
    • CAS13/2666MHz = .00488
    • CAS16/3333MHz = .00480
    • CAS17/3600MHz = .00472
    • CAS15/3200MHz = .00469
    • CAS14/3000MHz = .00467
    • CAS16/3466MHz = .00461
    • CAS17/3733MHz = .00455
    • CAS18/4000MHz = .00450
    • CAS16/3600MHz = .00444
    • CAS14/3200MHz = .00438
    • CAS16/3666MHz = .00436
    • CAS17/4000MHz = .00425
    • CAS15/3600MHz = .00417
    • CAS19/4600MHz = .00413
  • Generally speaking, if you had an equal cycle time, conventional wisdom is that a higher MHz is preferable to a lower CAS. That's a fine rule of thumb to follow. Just understand it's a generalization. It's more complicated than that.
  • You don't need heatsinks for overclocking
Shoot for DDR4-3000 or DDR4-3200 sticks with a CAS of 15. You should be able to get them for no more than a $10-$25 premium over DDR4-2133 sticks, lately: cheapest of the cheap.

Infrequently, over the past six months, I've seen DDR4-3200 CAS14 sticks drop into the entry level price range. If you can catch a sale or temporary price drop like that, there's some real gravy. Otherwise, you end up paying a massive premium to hike the bandwidth north of this (into the 3600+ range). Not worth it at all.
 
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  • DDR4-2666 is the highest native frequency the Z370 chipset natively handles. Everything above that is a technical overclock and won't deliver linearly on overall system memory performance improvement.
  • Right now the best valued sticks have settled in at the new class of about DDR4-3000. They're running about $150-$160 for 16GB at the entry level. These are typically CAS16 sticks (latency).
  • Lower latency = better
  • Divide latency (CAS) by bandwidth (MHZ) in order to yield a cycle time. The lower the cycle time = the better the RAM.
  • Generally speaking, if you had an equal cycle time, conventional wisdom is that a higher MHz is preferable to a lower CAS. That's a fine rule of thumb to follow. Just understand it's a generalization. It's more complicated than that.
  • You don't need heatsinks for overclocking
Shoot for DDR4-3000 or DDR4-3200 sticks with a CAS of 15. You should be able to get them for no more than a $10-$25 premium over DDR4-2133 sticks, lately: cheapest of the cheap.

Infrequently, over the past six months, I've seen DDR4-3200 CAS14 sticks drop into the entry level price range. If you can catch a sale or temporary price drop like that, there's some real gravy. Otherwise, you end up paying a massive premium to hike the bandwidth north of this (into the 3600+ range). Not worth it at all.

Ok but when I goto Newegg to check out their RAM, all the 3200mhz only says z170 and none say z370.
 
Ok but when I goto Newegg to check out their RAM, all the 3200mhz only says z170 and none say z370.
Don't worry about that. It's all 288-pin DDR4 RAM.

This RAM is compatible with any Intel or AMD board that supports that standard. At worst, depending on your motherboard, the rated speed may not be supported out of the box, and default down to the native ceiling of your motherboard (DDR4-2666) or the baseline for the DDR4 standard itself (DDR4-2133).

But the Z370 motherboards have been out months, now, and almost all of them should have firmware updates available to run the RAM at its rated capability. If not now, they'll roll out in the future. If you are limited, it won't be because you are hardware-limited. For certainty you can always check your motherboard manufacturer's website for a list of all known supported RAM sticks, but this really isn't a concern as long as you stick to reputable brands tracked by PC Part Picker:
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/memory/#t=14
 
My old NAS died and I’m working on a new system. I had all the parts I needed except the cpu and hdd’s.
I ordered the cpu, celeron g3920 for $22, but I’m stuck on which HDD to order.
Anyone have experience with the WD red or Seagate IronWolf?
 
My old NAS died and I’m working on a new system. I had all the parts I needed except the cpu and hdd’s.
I ordered the cpu, celeron g3920 for $22, but I’m stuck on which HDD to order.
Anyone have experience with the WD red or Seagate IronWolf?

I would always go with WD, had some Seagates malfunction and did 12 plus years with my WD.
 
so i have decided to become one of you. i have done some prelim research on building and i certainly would love to go that route for a handful of reasons; the potential savings, the learning experience, the customization and to be able to say i did it. the problem is, i have never built a computer and i wonder if any potential savings would be offset by frustration and time. there is also the risk/reward aspect.

senior moderator dick looks to have picked a pc up at bestbuy. is that a legit option? would something like this be a better option than building for a noob like myself.

are there any other sites that sell respectable gaming pcs that i should be looking at?
The first step should be to figure out what kind of games you want to play and the settings you want to play them at. If you mostly want to play esports on a 60fps monitor, a pc can be much cheaper than if you want to mostly play AAA games at high settings and FPS.

As far as frustration v. savings, that depends on your personality and patience. Between dealhunting, building, and tinkering, I put a lot of hours into my PC. Someone who disliked that sort of thing wouldn't have been happy, but I was.

Lots of sites sell PCs. Some have good deals.

That said, the PC that you've linked is not a good deal (price aside, if you're looking to avoid hassle, make sure it has an SSD). A PC with similar parts can be made for a few hundred dollars less at current prices (ie, no parts sales), including the cost of windows.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/K9WLyX

You can cut costs further by making smart choices - an i5-8400 or 8600k (or comparable Ryzen chip) won't be as powerful as the i7-8700, but they are close enough for most gaming purposes and way cheaper.
 
your link requires an account.
here's the NDA. Nowhere does it say they have to give positive reviews. AMD fanboyism strikes again.
Nvidia-NDA-Leaked.png

Nvidia-NDA-Leaked-2.png
 
The first step should be to figure out what kind of games you want to play and the settings you want to play them at. If you mostly want to play esports on a 60fps monitor, a pc can be much cheaper than if you want to mostly play AAA games at high settings and FPS.

As far as frustration v. savings, that depends on your personality and patience. Between dealhunting, building, and tinkering, I put a lot of hours into my PC. Someone who disliked that sort of thing wouldn't have been happy, but I was.

Lots of sites sell PCs. Some have good deals.

That said, the PC that you've linked is not a good deal (price aside, if you're looking to avoid hassle, make sure it has an SSD). A PC with similar parts can be made for a few hundred dollars less at current prices (ie, no parts sales), including the cost of windows.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/K9WLyX

You can cut costs further by making smart choices - an i5-8400 or 8600k (or comparable Ryzen chip) won't be as powerful as the i7-8700, but they are close enough for most gaming purposes and way cheaper.

i will have plenty of time for building and deal hunting, i was just hoping for an easy way out and i watched a video on the utubes that stated prices have made it more desirable than ever to go pre-built.

that said, as the greatest warrior in gaming looking to return to gaming, i could use your help. i would want to play the big name games along with the occasion minesweeper game at max settings. i don't need to have the maybach (or any other ridiculous car) of pcs to game on but i don't want the ford escort either. i can spend days on pc partpicker and make builds, but i am still clueless and just picking based off price and ratings and would likely end up with too much machine and a much lighter wallet.

i am definitely looking into vr (likely the htc vive), new rts (like age of empires), and the big games that come along like pubg.

help me.
 
i will have plenty of time for building and deal hunting, i was just hoping for an easy way out and i watched a video on the utubes that stated prices have made it more desirable than ever to go pre-built.

that said, as the greatest warrior in gaming looking to return to gaming, i could use your help. i would want to play the big name games along with the occasion minesweeper game at max settings. i don't need to have the maybach (or any other ridiculous car) of pcs to game on but i don't want the ford escort either. i can spend days on pc partpicker and make builds, but i am still clueless and just picking based off price and ratings and would likely end up with too much machine and a much lighter wallet.

i am definitely looking into vr (likely the htc vive), new rts (like age of empires), and the big games that come along like pubg.

help me.

Do you plan on streaming your game play?
 
Need some help from fellow sherdoggers. The Windows 7 OS in my current build just crashed and I am unable to recover it. One of my friends installed the OS for me and I do not have the disk or license number for recovery.

I have received a Windows 7 enterprise key from one of the corporate license programs and plan on doing a install and then upgrade to Windows 10. Since I have to do a new windows install, I plan on moving from a SATA drive to SSD for the boot drive and keep the SATA for data storage. This drive will be used for OS and high performance games.

1. Should I go for the 500GB or the 1TB SSD? I currently have a 1T and 500GB SATA 3 and just need some regular cleanup for space.

2. Thoughts on the windows install plan?

3. Should I go ahead and make this buy or are there usually great deals that come up?

Have to do a search on newegg and other sites, but picked a few options from Amazon in meanwhile:



 
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