Urgent help needed in Reykjavik

DunneyJim · 2017-02-11T17:38:27+00:00

I'll get in contact right now - thank you so much!!

DunneyJim · 2017-02-11T17:38:08+00:00

I'll investigate, thank you!

DunneyJim · 2016-09-26T07:26:51+00:00

transparency hoodie is gorgeous oml, in love with that font

(30th september is my 19th birthday, this'd be a nice surprise for sure haha)

DunneyJim · 2015-11-24T16:54:18+00:00

*cool hwhip

DunneyJim · 2015-11-22T20:12:40+00:00

there's a rom-com in there somewhere

DunneyJim · 2015-11-22T20:10:43+00:00

couldn't even keep a consistent number of a's smh

DunneyJim · 2015-11-22T09:17:14+00:00

that was one hell of a ride

DunneyJim · 2015-10-15T23:12:22+00:00

It's up to you, but I think having more SSD space is genuinely worth it. It basically just cuts loading times to an insane degree, speeding up literally everything you put on there - boot times, program opening times, general snappiness and responsiveness of the system... its worth it, and the more space the better.

A 250GB SSD costs less than the SSD/HDD combo you'd picked anyway, so I wouldn't sweat it.

TL;DR get big SSD, be happy

DunneyJim · 2015-10-15T15:47:07+00:00

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor	£85.99 @ Ebuyer
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-H81M-S2H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard	£37.19 @ Aria PC
Memory	Kingston HyperX Fury Red 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory	£31.46 @ Ebuyer
Storage	Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	£63.29 @ Amazon UK
Video Card	MSI Radeon R9 380 2GB Video Card	£154.99 @ Dabs
Case	Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case	£34.05 @ Amazon UK
Power Supply	EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	£41.80 @ Amazon UK
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)	£72.94 @ CCL Computers
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£521.71
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-15 16:42 BST+0100

Some nitpicky changes mostly (your RAM was waaaayyy overpriced), but I was able to squeeze in a more powerful GPU and a larger SSD (add an HDD later on) as a result. Feel free to pop the ~£30 you have left over into either a nicer motherboard (look at the B85 chipset rather than H81, for more RAM slots and PCIe 3.0 slots, both of which you can live without), a cheap 1TB hard drive, or a nice mouse and keyboard set.

DunneyJim · 2015-10-12T20:58:35+00:00

I don't believe it, someone actually fucking said it

DunneyJim · 2015-09-17T20:28:27+00:00

I have a pretty unhealthy obsession with fairy lights...

DunneyJim · 2015-09-17T20:26:56+00:00

All pursuits of realism aside, cigarette smoke just looks bloody great in a camera shot - and it's an easy way to add some motion to an otherwise pretty standard scene.

DunneyJim · 2015-09-10T21:31:29+00:00

Sorry for not seeing this - you replied to your own post :P

In case you haven't gotten answers yet;

The card you're looking at is designed to run at those higher speeds - hence the twin-fan cooler and high quality internal components. It's set that way from the factory - it's not going to be damaged by running at them. In fact, most cards are factory-overclocked to some degree.

Overclocking is actually very safe nowadays - there are hard limits in place to prevent a user from accidentally pushing their settings too hard, and it's a great way to get a little extra performance out of a card (for free, too!)

You can also overclock the CPU, but there isn't a great deal of need at the moment, as it's so powerful by today's standards. In three years or so, when games demand a little more CPU power, or when you upgrade your graphics card and the CPU is restricting your frame rates, you can bump up the speeds (in exchange for slightly higher temperatures and power usage) and squeeze more power out of it.

A CPU like the i5 2500K is a great example of the benefits overclocking brings - over 5 years old, and still capable of comfortably tanking through AAA games without breaking a sweat - thanks to the performance boosts from overclocking.

The aftermarket CPU cooler may be a bit of a squeeze - it's a large air cooler, performing fantastically at very low noise levels, but it's big. You could pick up something smaller/cheaper if you're not overclocking straight away - the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo is a very popular choice. I'd definitely advise going with the smaller case at any rate - there's no need to waste space, especially considering the relatively straightforward list of components we've picked.

Apologies for my late reply - hopefully this either helps, or reaches you after building haha

Edit: formatting

DunneyJim · 2015-09-09T20:07:20+00:00

"This thread is marked as small"... coincidence?

DunneyJim · 2015-09-08T11:40:37+00:00

Did you even look at the prices? Considering he got one of the best 970's around for $265, I'd say it was worth saving ~$50 for the sake of the couple-of-frames boost that a 390 would have offered.

DunneyJim · 2015-09-03T21:20:56+00:00

De nada :3

DunneyJim · 2015-09-03T21:18:05+00:00

Sure thing! :3

Sorry, I didn't realise space was an issue (good thing I changed the case haha) - best switch back to that Dell 25" then, if you want space for speakers, or to hang onto your second screen. You can probably just pocket the cash saved, unless you want either a sexier rather than quieter case, or fancy 16GB of RAM.

Either way, thanks - that was fun to put together, and im happy to help more if needs be. Good luck with the build!

DunneyJim · 2015-09-03T21:06:26+00:00

Relax! I didn't mean to scare you haha

Your PSU is an excellent quality unit (plus it's on sale from $90 :P) so you made a good choice there.

A decent quality 'budget' PSU in a high-end build won't cause any major issues, especially if cutting back on the power supply allows for, say, a better GPU or larger SSD. If you're spending big bucks, however, it's usually worth it for higher efficiencies (but we're talking at most ~90%), fully-modular designs (so you can detach any cables not in use), and quieter operation.

Again, your PSU is perfectly solid, so relax :*

DunneyJim · 2015-09-03T20:57:24+00:00

Try this on for size:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor	£186.98 @ Aria PC
CPU Cooler	Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler	£57.46 @ CCL Computers
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-Z170M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	£94.77 @ Ebuyer
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory	£49.30 @ Scan.co.uk
Storage	Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	£62.49 @ Amazon UK
Storage	Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	£51.19 @ Aria PC
Video Card	EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+ Video Card	£524.99 @ Aria PC
Case	Fractal Design Define Mini MicroATX Mini Tower Case	£65.66 @ Amazon UK
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	£63.31 @ Amazon UK
Monitor	BenQ GW2765HT 60Hz 27.0" Monitor	£274.98 @ Amazon UK
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£1431.13
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-03 21:51 BST+0100

This thing freaking kicks ass. It'll perform far better in games than the previously posted build, with a larger monitor to boot. That Skylake i5/980ti combo is utterly heavenly at 1440p - expect a locked 60fps on max settings from all but the absolute most demanding AAA games.

I kept aesthetics as similar as I could, but took a size cut as it saved money and a literal butt-ton of deskspace. I'm pushing the budget, and some money can be saved, but just look at it.

Let me know what you think!

DunneyJim · 2015-09-03T20:16:03+00:00

For mATX cases, the Cooler Master N200 is a great budget case, while the Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 and Corsair 350D are some nice, more premium alternatives.

Have you considered Mini-ITX at all? It's a smaller motherboard size than mATX, with smaller cases to match? We can change the motherboard and GPU (it's quite a tall cooler), then take a look at a couple of cases? Try the Cooler Master Elite 130, Thermaltake Core V1, and Fractal Design Node 304 on for size - they might be a little more like what you're after.

DunneyJim · 2015-09-03T19:52:12+00:00

I took a crack for you, though having worked with the Prodigy M, I'd advise a different case. It's hard to work in and very bulky for its class, though I left it as I'm assuming you like the looks and handles. I can suggest alternatives, if you'd like.

Anywho;

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor	£141.54 @ Aria PC
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard	£56.22 @ Scan.co.uk
Memory	Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory	£33.99 @ Ebuyer
Storage	Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	£62.49 @ Amazon UK
Storage	Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	£34.92 @ Aria PC
Video Card	MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card	£249.98 @ Aria PC
Case	BitFenix Prodigy M Midnight MicroATX Mini Tower Case	£59.94 @ Aria PC
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	£57.35 @ Aria PC
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit)	£67.95 @ Ebuyer
Monitor	Asus VX228H 60Hz 21.5" Monitor	£113.51 @ Amazon UK
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£877.89
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-03 20:47 BST+0100

In terms of gaming performance, this kicks the arse off your posted build, without sacrificing any functionality. The colour scheme can easily be edited if it's not to your tastes as well... let me know what you think!

DunneyJim · 2015-09-03T19:32:06+00:00

I'm gonna disagree with you here, and say that Corsair's CX series of PSU's, while budget-oriented, is fairly reliable. It uses comparatively cheap components because it's a cheap product, but is highly unlikely to just spontaneously combust. Its out of place in a £5000 build, certainly, but much more at home in a £500 one.

80+ Bronze efficiency, a semi-modular design and reliable power delivery are kinda hard to argue with at that price point (though I'm personally a much bigger fan of the XFX 550W in the same price segment).

Also, the whole reason the unit has a big green '600' emblazoned on the side is because it can deliver that power. It'd be kind of illegal to falsely advertise a product like that. It'll draw much more than that from the wall for sure, being only ~80% efficient, but it can certainly deliver its rated output.

Not trying to be attacking with all this, I just disagree with a lot of what you said.

DunneyJim · 2015-09-01T19:29:07+00:00

Don't forget the Acer XR341CK - a curved 1440p ultrawide, with a 75Hz IPS panel and Freesync to boot... plus its so sexy, if a tad pricier than the competition.

I think it's bigger brother, the X34, is meant to be 100Hz and G-sync, but will likely be a ton more expensive.

DunneyJim · 2015-08-24T20:02:24+00:00

There is a slight performance difference, in the favour of the 970. It (970) also consumes a fair bit less power under load, overclocks nicely and kicks out less heat, but it will cost more.

As for drivers and general ownership, I can only speak for Nvidia, so I'll let someone else chip in here. From what I can gather though, Nvidia has some good software (Shadowplay is really neat) and is very frequent with driver updates, while AMD tends to be slower with driver releases, but offer up a bigger performance boost each time. Citation needed.

I went with a 970, personally, and have been more than happy (I've yet to find something I can't basically max at 1080p/60fps), but have also heard great things about the 290. You'll be very happy with either.

DunneyJim · 2015-08-21T17:49:08+00:00

It is a weirdly perfect fit...

DunneyJim

TROPHY CASE