Hardware Discussion Thread

[Ares]

EVGA selling 980ti for $199. Damn sweet deal.

https://twitter.com/TEAMEVGA/status/872153559042711552

I bought 4... ima double SLI them assuming that's a thing and then complain it doesn't play everything perfectly at 60fps on max graphics on yuge monitors.

Sorry that was the first thought I had... dudes who like OMG IMA DOUBLE UP ON MY VIDEO CARDS and then do nothing but ***** about how hard it is to setup and that it won't play max super elite graphics at 50000000 hz refresh rate on their 2880p 15 foot monitor....

Idk I like having a fast gaming machine but I've never understood that desire to force everything possible to super max maximum settings or playing games isn't worthwhile.

 

[xer0h0ur]

Ima be that crazy sumbish that builds a 16 core Threadripper PC. GIMME DAT SHIT NAO!~ All I know is that it better support bootable NVMe SSDs.

 

[Ares]

Ima be that crazy sumbish that builds a 16 core Threadripper PC. GIMME DAT SHIT NAO!~ All I know is that it better support bootable NVMe SSDs.

I wanna play Deus Ex: Mankind Divided at 63290482309 fps on the highest settings.... 8x anti-aliasing .... idk what that even does but I want it at 16x and I wanna play it on an Imax theater screen at 8k with like a 40,000hz refresh rate... then ill get bored and play Minecraft instead.

 

[Ares]

So I was playing around putting a wishlist together on Newegg for a desktop/workstation build.

I was looking at CPU options and I wanted to try to get a fair number of cores, I want the box to be able to multi-task.

Skylake has 6, 8, and 10 core... Kaby Lake I can only find dual or quad core versions.

Any opinions on Skylake vs Kaby Lake? I will be waiting on doing this build anyways, should I just wait 3-6 months and expect they will release 6, 8, and 10 core Kaby Lake CPUs as well?

I'm also trying to decide how much to sink into a GPU... I want it to have one, but I don't intend to use it for any real intense gaming if any... however I do intend to use it for video editing/processing.... streaming video to my Chromecast... video conversion tasks....

 

[Crystallas]

Skylake i9s just came out. Intel wont release Kaby Lake i9s for another year, if ever. They may skip it.

They're not far apart, architecturally. Skylake bugs are still being ironed out, some were fixed in Kaby Lake, but it's mostly been software fixes/chipset fixes. So if that's the route you want to go, IMO you wont miss much of anything unless you're buying it for a laptop(which you aren't).

 

[Ares]

Skylake i9s just came out. Intel wont release Kaby Lake i9s for another year, if ever. They may skip it.

They're not far apart, architecturally. Skylake bugs are still being ironed out, some were fixed in Kaby Lake, but it's mostly been software fixes/chipset fixes. So if that's the route you want to go, IMO you wont miss much of anything unless you're buying it for a laptop(which you aren't).

I shouldn't wait for Coffeelake? I do love coffee

 

[Crystallas]

I shouldn't wait for Coffeelake? I do love coffee

:shrug:

Coffee lake will be better for the 4(8) and lower segments. Perhaps diminishing returns on 14nm though.

 

[Ares]

I can always get my Skylake and if down the road Kabylake comes out with i9s and they are worth the upgrade I may be able to drop one in the same socket.

 

[Crystallas]

Yes, I would hope so. The Skylake i9s were rushed, so I don't want to suggest that you can rely on a Kaby Lake i9 to come along the line that will be a drop in replacement. In theory, yes, but 25% chance we might see new sockets once again in 2018 for enthusiast workstations.

 

[Ares]

Yes, I would hope so. The Skylake i9s were rushed, so I don't want to suggest that you can rely on a Kaby Lake i9 to come along the line that will be a drop in replacement. In theory, yes, but 25% chance we might see new sockets once again in 2018 for enthusiast workstations.

Any opinion on GPU for such a build?

I've never really built for purposes other than gaming, so im not sure what in a GPU can really help here.

 

[Crystallas]

GPUs help.

1080 is the best for video editing without going full pro or niche, 1070s and 580s are good for encoding as well(relative performancerice). 1060s also are okay.

BTW, everything is jacked up because of hashing power for non-gaming right now. Hashing cryptocurrencies, hashing general encryption, and scientific hashing.


Threadripper is almost out, which is a nice CPU as well for the same usecase you're looking at. But who knows if those will be in stock or hard to come by. The moment people say PC hardware is dying, it just makes a massive resurgence. So the whole market is a bit out of whack.

 

[AussieBear]

I can always get my Skylake and if down the road Kabylake comes out with i9s and they are worth the upgrade I may be able to drop one in the same socket.

or you could always come to the garbage side of the force..

get you a garbage 2.6 8 core/16 thread junky hp z420 to use as a secondary workstation... be no bids on it.. starts at 299 usa money.. dem z420s be gets sum win 10 support... if you wanna spend mo.. some sweet hp z620s and z820s out dur.. and many other dual xeon hp zs..

dis one has no hdd.. dunno if mem ecc or not.. but many deals out there for the same model in da 3-400s i thinks.. dis juss an example of da garbage..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-z420-Wor...259172?hash=item3ae98a50e4:g:z0sAAOSwjKFZWpzN

 

[AussieBear]

dis one be mo gamable and sum workstaionzable used stock....imo.. juss add yo fancy gpu.. thank it be 600w bronze psu.. maybe better gold??? idk... aint research em..

444.99 buy it now wiff 6 month insurance option for 15 dolla.. juss a 6c /12 thread.. 3.5 ghz (3.9 Turbo) Xeon E5-1650 V2.... 32 gb ram..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z420-Wor...642581?hash=item569cba4d15:g:EAAAAOSw44BYPQdM

 

[AussieBear]

dis one be mo gamable and sum workstaionzable used stock....imo.. juss add yo fancy gpu.. thank it be 600w bronze psu.. maybe better gold??? idk... aint research em..

444.99 buy it now wiff 6 month insurance option for 15 dolla.. juss a 6c /12 thread.. 3.5 ghz (3.9 Turbo) Xeon E5-1650 V2.... 32 gb ram..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z420-Wor...642581?hash=item569cba4d15:g:EAAAAOSw44BYPQdM

yeah id be buying one of these used 420s.. cheapest instock new intel 6 core on newegg be da i7 6800k for 517.. .. fer amd.. am3 6300s fo under 150 then 1600 and 1600x fer 284 and 317 juss by themselves.. all aud prices.. so sorry.. forgot to change to usd aint gonna go looks again..

hurr be a benchmark fer da 6 cores.... xeon e5-1650-v2 vs 6800k... 1650v2 be a 22nm ivy bridge btw...

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Xeon-E5-1650-v2-vs-Intel-Core-i7-6800K/m7574vs3607

fair buy.. if i be in murica i be buying it today. or if me 6 core was dead me would buy and ship hurr.. but will wait 2-4 years and probably get ryzen 1800x when dey be dirt cheap... or another cheap used hp z n xeon of the day

 

[Ares]

GPUs help.

1080 is the best for video editing without going full pro or niche, 1070s and 580s are good for encoding as well(relative performancerice). 1060s also are okay.

BTW, everything is jacked up because of hashing power for non-gaming right now. Hashing cryptocurrencies, hashing general encryption, and scientific hashing.


Threadripper is almost out, which is a nice CPU as well for the same usecase you're looking at. But who knows if those will be in stock or hard to come by. The moment people say PC hardware is dying, it just makes a massive resurgence. So the whole market is a bit out of whack.

Lol I was gonna try to cheap out on the GPU since it's not a gaming rig.... apparently not so much if im getting a 1080 lol

 

[Ares]

Sorry Aussie, this aint gonna be a cheap machine... I was only looking to skimp on the GPU if it made sense, but obviously it doesn't.

I may sink 3,000$ into this rig.

 

[AussieBear]

Sorry Aussie, this aint gonna be a cheap machine... I was only looking to skimp on the GPU if it made sense, but obviously it doesn't.

I may sink 3,000$ into this rig.

but but but dat 444.99 rig be like 3 grand in 2013... depreciation be a ***** yo...

dropping used car money on a pc... :fire:... gl mane...

 

[Wintermute]

Are sounds cards obsolete? Yay or nay?

 

[Crystallas]

Are sounds cards obsolete? Yay or nay?

Not obsolete. The basic facts are, sound cards simply have longer lifespans than nearly every component in a standard PC. Onboard AC97 codecs sound good and are super cheap. The bulk of the market was Creative for a while, and they made shit drivers and turned people off of soundcards. The alternatives didn't have EAX and xfi standard performance improvements, so people would compare something like an Asus card of the same price as the value SB cards and see no gaming performance improvements over onboard. Therefore gamers gave up. However, any serious multimedia PC, home theater build, audiophile system, or simply a musician(pro or hobbyist) still bought new sound cards or carried over old ones.

Creative tries to drum up support every so often, but the fact remains, they CLAIM to have commitment to great drivers, but wind up having serious stability issues.

I have a Xonar DX in my fun rig, and sound is better for sure. I have better cards, but those are more for niche purposes. For most people, I would say you're better off putting $50-150 towards a better GPU/CPU/Memory/SSD, or better headphones+amp. Why I like the Xonar 7.1, upgraded sound of course, but it's about 10 years old and STILL near the top of the line, so for someone that upgrades every 1-2 years, not bad. Probably going to upgrade or mod the card at some point.

 

[fatbeard]

Really awkward time to upgrade graphics cards/monitors right now. When I built my 7700K comp a few months ago, I was planning on moving from 1080p 60Hz up to 1440p 144Hz GSync/Freesync, targeting a GTX 1070/1080 or Vega. But with graphics card prices still sky-high, and having just bought a house + bathroom reno + asbestos abatement, I couldn't justify dropping another ~$1250 on a new monitor/graphics card combo. Plus, with the next round of monitor tech on the horizon, it didn't seem like a good time to upgrade the monitor anyway. Decided to stick with 1080p gaming for another two years until we have a second income, and I think I was fairly lucky to snag a GTX 1060 6GB for $228 at Micro Center yesterday (open box discount from $285). My GTX 770 was four years old and definitely showing its age. If i can move it for $100-$150 on craigslist, I think I'll have done pretty well.