Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

[DakAttack]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

I believe the UD3H is Gigabyte's entry-level motherboard, which is what I own as well. The two PCI-E 1x slots are great for a sound and capture card, but with a GPU in the top x16 lane the first x1 lane is blocked. The bottom x16 lane only runs in x4 mode, which is a bummer.

[Aeni]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

I believe the UD3H is Gigabyte's entry-level motherboard, which is what I own as well. The two PCI-E 1x slots are great for a sound and capture card, but with a GPU in the top x16 lane the first x1 lane is blocked. The bottom x16 lane only runs in x4 mode, which is a bummer.

You got a very good video card which ended up being a bit more bulkier due to the cooling system on it, right? How wide is the card? I know when I looked at the 660 TI + 3GB, the chief complaint was that the heat sink and 3 fans apparatus ate up a lot of slots on the motherboard despite the claim that it only took up the space for 2 (not the main reason why I ended up with an "el cheapo" mid range video) I'm actually still having an internal debate on going with a GTX 760, but I was thinking of upgrading the graphics in about 18 mos anyway, so ... ugh! just wait, just wait ... lol.

[DakAttack]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

My Gigabyte GTX 770 4GB only take ups two slots, but the two 1x lanes are crammed under the only 16x lane.

[Aeni]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

Yikes ... that sucks. How's the stress on the PCB? I know some Titan cards were having issues (micro-fractures from weight causing major issues with performance)

[DakAttack]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

It appears to be holding up very well. One of Gigabyte's selling points is how tough their products are.

[Aeni]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

It appears to be holding up very well. One of Gigabyte's selling points is how tough their products are.

I don't doubt that, but the GTX660 TI cards were being accused for having manufacturing defects stemming from the weight of the heat sink/triple-fan cooling setup. Although that blame can mostly be assigned to the end user for not handling the card a bit more carefully, it's still somewhat Gig's fault for not realizing that adding a bulkier cooling system can unintentionally cause other issues (or their suppliers fault for using less-than-optimal materials) and, as you've attested to, if end user is expecting "quality" and "toughness", then if they're handling those cards the same way as any other Gig products, then it's no wonder those micro-fractures are starting to become an issue.

Edit: FYI Gig just recently released BIOS revision 7 for the Z87-UD3H boards, so you may want to check it out. So far it's dealing with my mysterious Windows boot-up lock (random, no real pattern there), but it's only been a few boot-ups so I'm still holding my breath. If I don't have any additional boot-up issues for the next week or so, then I'm going to just chalk it up to a buggy BIOS revision 6 and probably won't bother revising up past 7 unless I have any other hardware issue.

[Firewind]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

In the middle of planning out a new PC build. This is what I have so far but I'm a bit torn on the GPU:

i5 3570k (I honestly don't see the point in getting anymore more powerful right now for gaming purely due to the diminishing returns that an i7)
8GB RAM (Not that much more is needed for gaming and RAM is cheap anyway)
250G SSD (For Windows and main games)
1TB HDD (Mostly for Steam Games and Media)
GTX 760 (Maybe)

Now the GPU is what I'm torn on. The GTX 760 is really nice for the price but I am tempted to go for a HD 7970 or GTX 770. The 770 will put me over budget but only by £17.

Opinions?

[DakAttack]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

nVidia plans to release the 780 Ti in mid-November, and may lower the prices of the 770 and 760 to more competitive levels. You may want to wait until then, if you can.

nVidia is also offering a holiday bundle: Announcing The GeForce GTX Holiday Bundle, Featuring Assassin's Creed IV, Batman: Arkham Origins and Splinter Cell Blacklist | GeForce

[Firewind]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

Yeah, I was looking at going all out on a 780 but the price is out of the budget I'm willing to spend on. Still being roughly 30 US dollars over budget isn't horrible so I think it is down to 7970 vs 770.

- - - Updated - - -

EDIT: I can get both cards at roughly the same price. Should have mentioned that sooner.

[Malacite]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

So... any news on AMD's Steamroller? Was supposed to be out this month.

[Firewind]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

"Vortex i5" Intel Core i5 3470 3.20GHz DDR3 Quad Core Ivybridge Gaming PC [FS-308-OE]

Actually looks pretty nice

Intel Core i5 3470 3.20GHz
Intel H61 Chipset
8GB DDR3 1600MHz
500GB HDD
Corsair GS 600w PSU
HD 7950 3GB

No SSD and it has a stock cooler but it wouldn't be hard to negotiate getting a better cooler and bigger HDD on it. TBH, no SSD doesn't bother me a whole lot. My only real concern is that it's using Ivybridge chips so the Mobo probably won't be futureproof.

[Firewind]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

New PC Ordered:

- Case: NZXT Phantom 410 Enthusiast - Black
- Power Supply: Corsair Gaming Series 600w PSU
- CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K 3.50GHz @ 4.2GHz Quad Core Haswell CPU
- Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87-HD3 (Socket 1150) ATX Motherboard
- Cooler: Akasa Nero 3 V2 CPU Cooler
- RAM: 8GB Kingston Genesis DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
- Primary Hard Drive: Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s
- Secondary Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD
- Graphics Card: KFA2 GeForce GTX 760 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Total cost is £1029 ($1668) including VAT (at 20%) and copy of Windows 7

Yeah we get gouged on prices compared to the US.

[Aeni]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

Nice Firewind ... and yes, you got gouged on prices. Not sure how much your secondary HDD cost, but you can get the new WD Red 3GB for $135 at Amazon.com (US)

[Firewind]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

It didn't cost that much. It's mostly going to be used for storage and as a backup drive for Steam games that I'm not currently playing but would be too much of a pain to download again due to sheer amount of patches (like the Total War games or Team Fortress 2). If I need more storage I can just throw in another HDD and use it as a RAID.

And if you take away VAT I still think Americans would still pay $100 less minimum for that build XD

[Aeni]

Re: Yyg, Cid and Mal's Gaming PC Construction Thread (open discussion)

It didn't cost that much. It's mostly going to be used for storage and as a backup drive for Steam games that I'm not currently playing but would be too much of a pain to download again due to sheer amount of patches (like the Total War games or Team Fortress 2). If I need more storage I can just throw in another HDD and use it as a RAID.

And if you take away VAT I still think Americans would still pay $100 less minimum for that build XD

Sometimes Newegg has wonderful bundles, but their shipping policies to states like AK and HI are atrocious. They once quoted $50 shipping for a $15.99 order. I was like ... WTF? <cancel order>