So, you're running all your old drivers on a new MOBO with everything else new as well? Update all your drivers. It'll makea world of difference. Also, check BIOS to make sure the your boot order is correct. If your system is searching through DVD/BR drives before getting to your hard drive, it'll take quite a while. Alongside that, many MOBOs let you cut down the timing after POST to enter BIOS, and also enable fastboot.

 

Instead of making a new thread I'll tag onto this one, I like to play games like battlefield 4, skyrim etc and I've been playing on minimal spec for ages now. I have an older m17x r3 (I was working on a road crew, needed a laptop at the time, had the money. Don't hate me.) It's getting on in years and to update the gfx card on the laptop the best I can go to is 780m, cheapest I can get is around $650 AU. Expensive upgrade for an already outdated card. So I figured I should bite the bullet and just get a new system, desktop of course since I am no longer moving around for work.

So, I've got some money to blow and can't be bothered making my own desktop (at this stage, may change), there are two prebuilt systems I'm looking at atm both around $2200 AU, the biggest difference is one has a ATi R9-390 and the other Nividia GTX 980.

Here are the specs for each:

Nvidia GTX 980

ATi R9-390

Leaning slightly towards the ATi R9-390. Two main reasons, one the 32 gig ram, not required but nice to have, and two the 8gb vram on the ATi vs the 4gb on the 980. Both together seems like they might last longer, although for all accounts from what I've been reading the extra 4gb ram on the gfx doesn't seem to make that much of a difference in benchmarks. Add to the fact that system is $100 AU cheaper then it's getting more points as it goes on.

Also I've been convinced to get on the boat where there is no point going SLI / xfire straight up, get one good card and then you can get a second down the road when it's cheaper for another big performance boost.

So yeah, I know the basics of hardware but am no guru, is there something I am missing here? It seems like the cheaper system is quite better. What would you guys go?

 

I wouldn't go for the second system. The description is rather vague. Or totally vague since it doesn't list a single specific component besides the cpu.

Also that website looks dodgy as fuck, you sure you want to buy from them?

Probably get more bang for a your buck assembling yourself or just find a reputable vendor that will do the assembly for free.

 

I've used both websites before no worries, actually I've been using gamedude for well over a decade now. The layout and design isn't crash hot that is for sure, but it's repute isn't in for doubt for me. It's only 200km down the road to so that's a plus. I know it mainly operates out of its shopfront, might be why the website looks so shoddy.

As for building it myself I haven't sourced the individual parts yet, I might do that tonight. If it's that much of a difference I might just get off my ass and do it that way.

Never encountered a shop that builds it for free yet, not over this way anyway. I'm wondering now if I might even get it from overseas and just pay for international shipping, even with the difference it's bound to be cheaper then buying it here.

 

If you are living in Australia, I highly suggest you just build your own system using pccasegear.com.

Thats what I did a few years ago. It cost me around $1200aud, and I can play the games you list. I'm sure you could build a system that will do want you want without being overkill. It should save you around $1000 going by your current figures.

 

Yeah the first one with gtx is pccasegear, everyone is jizzing off over it atm and I can see why, prices are good.

Im happy spending more to get an overpowered pc, Ive already got one that can run those games on min specs.

Id rather spend the extra now so its top notch for a couple years then get one that passes by and will have to upgrade sooner then later. Its worked well for me in the past.

Will put the prices together when I get back tonight.

 

Put it off a couple days mainly because I didn't want to compulsive buy, decided to check ebay and I ended up grabbing a 780m for $200 bucks. Win. That will tide me over for now and save me a bit of money for me to blow later on another system. Now I can have mesh settings on BF4 higher then the lowest setting with consistent frame rates.

#noskilljetnoob/helinoob #IneedmeshonBF4

 

FYI the new Intel CPUs are out.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007671 600565702

 

[casts Necromancy-Lite on 3-months old thread]

Hey all. I’m planning on buying a new gaming PC and I ask you about your opinion about this particual set, that I found online in one of Polands better computer shops.

The total cost including DVD recoreder and assembly by the shop (I don't have knowledge and skills to do it myself) would clock around PLN 5035.00 (USD 1,281.68/EUR 1,193.78/GBP 843.59)

As I said previously this computer is for gaming. What would you cahnge in it?

 

Was it your intention to build a small form factor PC? For a gaming PC I'd personally go with a normal ATX build, instead of mini-ITX.

Anyways, do you want to overclock? If not, you can change the mainboard and CPU. If this was an ATX build, I'd also recommend getting a R9 390 instead of the 970, but since you can't find a 390 that would be small enough that's not really an option. Apart from that the build looks fine.

 

No for the first question. I just took what was presented in this set. Having a normal ATX build isn't a problem for me.

As for the second question - I've never overcloaked and I will probably not do it out of fear of fucking something up.

As for the graphic card - I heard a lot of neggative information about Radeons, that they aren't as effective as GeForce in games. But most of those arguments boil down to something like PC vs Mac.

 

Heh you got that right, it's another one of those "fanboy wars". In the end it always depends on the game. In some Nvidia works better, in others AMD/Radeon. If you've got a list of games you'll be playing the most it would be helpful.

Now, since you're not planing on overclocking you can go with an i5-4460, and an H97 board like this Asus or MSI one. You can also go with a cheaper CPU cooler as well. Something like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo is already more than enough. For the PSU, you can go with the SeaSonic G-550.

The case is very personal preference, so just choose one that you like. All you have to keep in mind is that the CPU cooler and GPU fit. The rest you can keep as is.

 

Unfortunately for parity, Nvidia are really working hard to make sure all the major games are optimized for Nvidia and not AMD. I'm seeing a lot more games, at least for major releases, where AMD cards have a ton of issues. Hopefully that changes going forward.

 

Tbh, this so much. Recent big game examples would be Witcher 3 (lol hairworks) and Fallout 4 god rays. Nvidia cards see a lot of drivers for new games, while AMD gives you something generic maybe once in a few months.

I've had Nvidia and AMD cards, but judging by recent game releases, AMD cards have had a lot of problems. I wish I'd gotten an Nvidia card, and I'll get one the next time I build a pc unless something major changes.

AMD for budget, Nvidia if you're spending 1k >_>

 

That's only really true if you compare the Fury X with the 980Ti. In all benchmarks I've seen, the 390 handles godrays far better than the 970, going from about 70FPS with god rays on high to about 65 with god rays on extreme. In comparison, the 970 goes from about 77 to about 66.

What problems are you talking about? Nvidia being better in games that use gameworks by nvidia? Honestly, you're making it sound worse than it is.

 

Hah, these past few months Nvidia have been stumbling (driver updates only with an Nvidia account and outright unstable drivers) and AMD have been steadily improving their drivers so they are more competitive than ever. Nvidia GameWorks just means AMD users need to tinker a bit more or wait for a patch that allows you to tinker with the problem settings.

As for the build itself, there's nothing egregiously wrong with it. The mini-ITX form factor limits options but it also means it's pretty portable if you ever want to move around a lot (say, to LAN parties). Switching to something a little easier to modify would require changing the case (not too difficult, but case choice is more an aesthetics thing than functionality) and the motherboard. Since you're not going to overclock, you can choose something other than a Z series chipset, say H97 to save a bit of money. You can also save a bit more with a non-K CPU for the same reason.

Some case choices at around the same price as the Silverstone SG06 here, here and here

 

Unless he plans to do video editing or something similar as well, he doesn't need an i7, since Hyperthreading is useless for games and the i7 thus not worth the extra money.

 

Agreed - with so much of the workload going to graphics card, most of the i5 line (even from 2+ years ago) will be sufficient for even the newest games.

 

Thanks for all the answers. I'm planning to play mostly Witcher 3, the new Deus Ex, MGSV and other RPGs. And I don't plan on using it for work.

Combining all the answers I think this set would be allright. The only problem I had was the motherboard, beacuse except the names (and prices) I don't see much differences.

Also, disregard the color of the chasis - I just like orange

 

Looks good, except for the motherboard since it doesn't fit in the case (the case only supports mATX or ITX). Either change the case, or change the motherboard to this. Unfortunately that's the only real mATX board choice you've got in that store, since all the other ones don't have heatsinks for the VRMs, and I personally wouldn't buy one without, especially if a tower cooler is going to be used for the CPU.