[SOLVED] New gaming build, budget flexible, use €2000 as orientation

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horstp

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I've just moved into a second home and because there is 1,000km between my two homes now, I feel I need a whole new build, as hauling my rig around seems unreasonable. Also, my other PC is 10 years old at this point and even though it has been updated to cope with what I use it for, a 10-year-old main board poses certain limitations.

My budget is flexible, I think staying below €2,000 would be reasonable, but if I could get a significant boost in performance for a couple hundred more, I'd probably do that.

My primary uses for the PC will be gaming and internet surfing. I have a bad habit of opening thousands (literally!) of tabs when surfing and the game that I will probably be playing for the foreseeable future (and certainly the most demanding in terms of gaming performance) is Total War: Warhammer 2. So ideally my new build could run that game on maximum settings (ultra unit scale, first and foremost) and handle an unreasonable amount of open tabs.

Approximate Purchase Date: soon, i.e. I will buy parts as soon as I have all the info I need

Budget Range: flexible, ideally below €2,000

System Usage from Most to Least Important: surfing, watching movies, gaming (Total War: Warhammer 2)

Are you buying a monitor: Yes


Parts to Upgrade:Completely new build

Do you need to buy OS: Yes (and I despise Windows 10 so either Win7 compatibility or help in tweaking Win10 to effective become Win7 would be greatly appreciated)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Don't care. Last time I built a PC, I bought parts from various websites

Location: EU, Germany / Croatia

Parts Preferences: I don't care.

Overclocking: Probably not. I'd rather just buy better parts than reduce life expectancy of my build. If it can be done without harming parts, sure, but you'd have to tell me how.

SLI or Crossfire: I don't know what that is.

Your Monitor Resolution: I don't know what's common here. My current PC has 1920x1080, I think that's enough?

Additional Comments: A quiet PC would be much preferred.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Not really upgrading, but my current PC slows down significantly during large battles in TW: Warhammer 2.


Please let me know if you need any more info from me!
 
Solution
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/Mrshp8

I have added the 280mm version on the Arctic CPU cooler. Looks like PCpartspicker doesn't include all possible merchants, so I have, for example, just found the monitor for €439 elsewhere. Looks like it might be a little cheaper in the end!

I'm just a bit insecure about the more expensive bits, at the moment. Maybe you could give me a little more guidance there, if I'm not being too demanding of your time!

So basically, I'm wondering regarding CPU, Motherboard, GPU (and maybe the monitor), how much difference in price and performance the next cheaper and the next dearer options would make respectively.

Also, a much more general question: With which of these parts does the brand...

horstp

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When the fan stops and screen goes blank do you see spike on temperature graph of GPU in Afterburner. Please do check. If yes then GPU is the source of problem.
No, there is actually a dip in temperature of about 12°C when that happens. I think the GPU just stops working for a bit, hence not producing any heat.
I have noticed, too, that when I quit the game, the GPU temp drops from 93°C to about 66°C in less than a minute, more like 30 seconds or so.
 

horstp

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So, looks like I solved my problem. I've set the Power Limit in MSI Afterburner to -50% (maximum). Now the GPU doesn't exceed 73°C and I cannot notice any performance issues when playing WH2. Seems to work.
 

horstp

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I don't have other games installed, but I will check. The thing is, though, that it only occurs after alt-tabbing out of the game. When I start up the game and play, everything is normal.

I'm not sure if I own other games that I can run in windowed mode.
 
I don't have other games installed, but I will check. The thing is, though, that it only occurs after alt-tabbing out of the game. When I start up the game and play, everything is normal.

I'm not sure if I own other games that I can run in windowed mode.
So is the game causing trouble in Windowed mode only or is it even causing flickering in Full-Screen Mode after Alt+Tab. If it is only causing trouble in Windowed Mode then I think it is some glitch in the game which will be eventually fixed. If it also occurs in Full-Screen mode then test other games in Full-Screen Mode and let me know.
 

horstp

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Jul 17, 2018
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So, coming back to this once more after I haven't played TWW2 for a while and thus had no heavy lifting for my GPU to do, but once I started again, I again had to deal with pretty high temperatures (80°C while running the GPU at 50% power).

Now... the solution I found is pretty sobering. I removed the fron cover from the PC casing and temperature even during large battles and with hours of running the game has dropped a whopping 20°C to 60. Thus my conclusion being, that the Fractal Design Define S is just really terribly designed...
 
So, coming back to this once more after I haven't played TWW2 for a while and thus had no heavy lifting for my GPU to do, but once I started again, I again had to deal with pretty high temperatures (80°C while running the GPU at 50% power).

Now... the solution I found is pretty sobering. I removed the fron cover from the PC casing and temperature even during large battles and with hours of running the game has dropped a whopping 20°C to 60. Thus my conclusion being, that the Fractal Design Define S is just really terribly designed...
I have a Fractal Design case and they take a little work to get good temperatures as they are designed for silence.
What I did was remove all the drive bays to promote airflow. I also replaced all the stock fans. I have 5 Noctua 140mm fans installed, 2 front intake, one side intake, 1 rear exhaust and 1 top rear exhaust.
 

horstp

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Jul 17, 2018
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My options are limited because of the severely limited space I have for the PC (look over the previous pages of this thread), but I am thinking about taking out some shelves and add a side exhaust to the case.
 
My options are limited because of the severely limited space I have for the PC (look over the previous pages of this thread), but I am thinking about taking out some shelves and add a side exhaust to the case.
Yes just saw the pic of your desk. The case doesn't fit in your desk cubbyhole. Not much you can do about that. Best solution I think is to put the case underneath the desk. Maybe it will fit with one side against the wall (the side without the fan)
 

horstp

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b35GEo9.jpg

Well, one thing I could do is just remove some parts of the desk. See that vertical wall just left of the case and the two small shelves attached to it? That could all be removed quite easily.

Yes just saw the pic of your desk. The case doesn't fit in your desk cubbyhole. Not much you can do about that. Best solution I think is to put the case underneath the desk. Maybe it will fit with one side against the wall (the side without the fan)
 
Are we all in agreement then, intakes back and side, exhaust front and top?
After Removing Side and Top shelves and the Vertical Bracket try the Front Intake and Top+Back Exhaust. With Side Panel closed and side fan as Exhaust. If that works great(that should practically work as there will be enough space for exhaust with top shelf off). If not then yeah you can do other-way round.
 
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