Some AMD 970 chipset motherboards may need a BIOS update prior to using Vishera CPUs

[TheSolidMoose]

I was building my first PC but then this incompatibility note comes up, I have searched a little bit and my question is what if they don't have an update? This is my build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FD9LnQ

 

[TheSolidMoose]

Lol thats bit too expensive for my taste, I just hear a lot of people say that I need 4 cores for the GTX 960. I'll stick with the old build you gave me.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/252104-32-seagate
Most people chose the Seagate for some reason, I think I'll stick with the barracuda unless there is some really big pros of having Western Digital

 

[TheSolidMoose]

And what about the i5 2500k? Is that any good?

 

[damric]

Amount of cores has nothing to do with the GTX 960, lol. (I'd like to slap whomever said that).

Amount of cores does help in certain game engines, and also when encoding (recording video of gameplay). The Haswell i3 has 4 extremely fast logical cores. When all 4 are at 100% full load, the hyperthreading only causes about a 10-15% performance hit compared to an equivalent i5. That's why I recommdend either the i3, or skip the i5 and go straight to the Xeon since its so close in price.

 

[damric]

And what about the i5 2500k? Is that any good?

The i5-2500K is still better than the FX-6300, but it's about 20-30% slower than the Haswell i3. It's 2 generations behind Haswell. Haswell is 10-15% faster than Ivy which is 10-15% faster than Sandy. Even if all 4 logical cores are max'd, the i3 will still be about 10-15% faster than the old i5-2500K. The one good thing about the i5-2500K was that they were good overclockers though.

 

[TheSolidMoose]

Oh that clears up a lot. Thanks! I'm still leaning on getting the Seagate though

 

[damric]

Oh that clears up a lot. Thanks! I'm still leaning on getting the Seagate though

Instead of SSD or in addition to?

 

[TheSolidMoose]

Instead

 

[TheSolidMoose]

Like I said, I don't mind the loading times, as long as it doesn't effect the gameplay

 

[TheSolidMoose]

And is this better than the 400 watt PSU you used?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438015

 

[TheSolidMoose]

Amount of cores has nothing to do with the GTX 960, lol. (I'd like to slap whomever said that).

Amount of cores does help in certain game engines, and also when encoding (recording video of gameplay). The Haswell i3 has 4 extremely fast logical cores. When all 4 are at 100% full load, the hyperthreading only causes about a 10-15% performance hit compared to an equivalent i5. That's why I recommdend either the i3, or skip the i5 and go straight to the Xeon since its so close in price.

 

[damric]

And is this better than the 400 watt PSU you used?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438015

That particular EVGA PSU is made by Compucase and is a very poor quality PSU. Do not get that.

Get a Solid State Drive. You will thank me later.

 

[TheSolidMoose]

Ok, but can you reccomend me a better SSD? CUZ yours does not seem to have enough space, and I really don't understand the pros of having SSD other than being fast, lol. I just sound like an idiot but I'm confused!

 

[damric]

Ok, but can you reccomend me a better SSD? CUZ yours does not seem to have enough space, and I really don't understand the pros of having SSD other than being fast, lol. I just sound like an idiot but I'm confused!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Storage: Crucial MX200 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($110.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $110.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-08 04:57 EDT-0400

 

[damric]

SSD makes a fast PC feel fast. HDD makes a fast PC feel slow.

 

[TheSolidMoose]

SSD makes a fast PC feel fast. HDD makes a fast PC feel slow.

Like when you are browsing or something?

 

[damric]

SSD makes a fast PC feel fast. HDD makes a fast PC feel slow.

Like when you are browsing or something?

That's one way, but there is actually a workaround for that. You can use RAM Disk to keep browser cache in RAM and is actually 10x faster than SSD. There's a couple other ways to use RAM Disk to work around having a slow HDD, but it does cut in to the amount of available RAM. So it's still better to just have an SSD for main disk. Lot's of builds use only SSD, and just send bulk files to the cloud or a NAS.

SSD is one of those things that once you own a good one, you can't live without it.

 

[TheSolidMoose]

Ok, but if I want to add an HDD with the SSD, how would that work? Do I get more space with a bit more speed?

 

[TheSolidMoose]

SSD makes a fast PC feel fast. HDD makes a fast PC feel slow.

Like when you are browsing or something?

That's one way, but there is actually a workaround for that. You can use RAM Disk to keep browser cache in RAM and is actually 10x faster than SSD. There's a couple other ways to use RAM Disk to work around having a slow HDD, but it does cut in to the amount of available RAM. So it's still better to just have an SSD for main disk. Lot's of builds use only SSD, and just send bulk files to the cloud or a NAS.

SSD is one of those things that once you own a good one, you can't live without it.

 

[damric]

Ok, but if I want to add an HDD with the SSD, how would that work? Do I get more space with a bit more speed?

What happens is you get your SSD now. You install your OS, drivers, basic utilites, and your favorite games on the SSD.

Later you just connect a HDD to another SATA port and move your bulk files like pictures, videos, and music to the HDD. You can also put games on there but you will probably want another SSD for those. Regardless, game services like Origin and Steam allow multiple drive loacations for game folders.

Windows 8 will also use a small portion of the SSD as cache. This is really handy especially if you add a HDD later.

I can help you get all of that set-up when the time comes. It's pretty easy.

In my house, we have 4 gaming/media computers, each with an SSD, and one that also holds HDDs. The other PCs can access the media files on the HDDs through out wireless network. We also store quite a bit of stuff on the free cloudware like Microsoft Onedrive, and Google Dive. I've found that the cloud is much more reliable than HDDs which eventually break down.

 

[TheSolidMoose]

Thanks!

 

[MeteorsRaining]

I haven't left this thread, incase you thought! I'm just stalking as damric has got you covered pretty much. As said, too many cooks can spoil the meal

 

[TheSolidMoose]

I haven't left this thread, incase you thought! I'm just stalking as damric has got you covered pretty much. As said, too many cooks can spoil the meal

Lol, that's fine. But would you agree with damric about having an 128 GB SSD over an 7200rpm 1TB HDD?

 

[madmatt30]

A single 128gb ssd will be way too restrictive size wise IMO.
Honestly most (& by most I mean literally all) people will also have a traditional platter drive of 1tb or more aswell for game installs etc.

If you can't afford both in budget then stick to a traditional larger drive is my advice.
An ssd is not a necessity ,but I do agree with damric that once you have used an ssd for os install etc it would be incredibly hard to go back to a system that doesn't have one.

If you haven't used one before you won't really miss it.

 

[damric]

I haven't left this thread, incase you thought! I'm just stalking as damric has got you covered pretty much. As said, too many cooks can spoil the meal

But you and madmatt are both good chefs, so feel free to input on this so that the OP doesn't feel that he's getting too much of my personal bias. I am very corrupt 😛

When SSDs first came out I was buying the 60GB ones, then the 120GB ones. I haven't bought anything less than 240GB in about 2 years though since prices are so low.

 

[TheSolidMoose]

A single 128gb ssd will be way too restrictive size wise IMO.
Honestly most (& by most I mean literally all) people will also have a traditional platter drive of 1tb or more aswell for game installs etc.

If you can't afford both in budget then stick to a traditional larger drive is my advice.
An ssd is not a necessity ,but I do agree with damric that once you have used an ssd for os install etc it would be incredibly hard to go back to a system that doesn't have one.

If you haven't used one before you won't really miss it.

I'm just gonna be getting BF4 and a few other games, I could send the files to a cloud according to Damric. But should I start of with SSD? Or I buy an HDD and maybe add an SSD later?