Hello!
It's time for an upgrade of my PC I have about $2750 that I'm willing to spend on a computer.
Here's what I'll need:
- Gaming monitor
- Mobo
- CPU - Already have a cooler, which I hope will fit.
- GPU
- Memory
- Harddrive
- SSD is likely.
- OS (Windows 8)
I'm in denmark, so prices will be a on the steep side, I'm not asking you to look up the prices, just tell me if these components are good for gaming or not:
- BenQ 27" 3D LED XL2720T
[URL]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824014344[/URL]
[B]$558[/B]
- Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H, Socket-1150
[URL]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128592[/URL]
[B]$219[/B]
- Intel Core i7-4770K + Some cooling paste
[URL]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116901[/URL]
[B]$416[/B]
- MSI GeForce GTX 780Ti (Twin Frozr)
[URL]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127770[/URL]
[B]$928[/B]
- Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 8GB
[URL]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233298[/URL]
[B]$127[/B]
- Seagate Barracuda 3TB
[URL]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148844[/URL]
[B]$155[/B]
- Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GB BK OEM
[URL]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147248[/URL]
[B]$218[/B]
- Windows 8.1
[B]$165
[/B]Total:[B]
$2786
[/B]These prices are all from the same Danish shop, they seem no more expensive that any other side. I'd like to keep my order within the same shop and within Denmark. As you've probably noticed, the prices are a bit steep in Denmark.
Is my current selection any good?
I'm willing to shell out some more if it's not just for some small gain.
Thank you for your time :smile:
Come with your suggestions, and I'll attempt to find the items at the shop.
The Green drive is for archival stuff, it's not a very good performer. You should try and get either a WD Blue/Black or a Seagate Barracuda instead.
As for the SSD, Samsung 840 Pro/Evo or the Crucial M500 are good choices.
If you can, get a 120hz monitor. It's absolutely amazing for games, and really worth it when you have a beefy PC, since it will have enough power to push all those frames
I added a seagate barracuda 3TB instead of the green.
Max, I'm having a lot of trouble finding a 120hz monitor in 4k, without it costing the same as a private jet, any recommendations?
Any specific brand?
I will update the OP with the new HDD. I will also find an SSD!
[editline]2nd January 2014[/editline]
OP updated with the new Specs.
I'll be looking out for a 120Hz monitor ;)
[editline]2nd January 2014[/editline]
Is it unwise to get a 144hz monitor? I can find those..
If I have a 144hz monitor, but run a game in 120hz, will the image flicker?
[editline]2nd January 2014[/editline]
Also, is it a waste to have a 4K monitor for gaming? I have found a couple of monitors that are 120hz, but are not in 4K resolution.
[editline]2nd January 2014[/editline]
BenQ 24" 3D LED XL2420T
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1G514M2468[/url]
I don't care about the 3D, and I'm sure I wouldn't even be able to use it, seeing as I'll have an AMD card.
But is this screen any good? I've been looking at screens all day and I have lost focus.
Recommendations would be nice, I'm flailing around in the darkness when it comes to monitors..
[editline]2nd January 2014[/editline]
I found the monitor in 27" instead, so I'll add that to the OP as an option now.
[QUOTE=mu ha ha;43389201]I'll be looking out for a 120Hz monitor ;)
[editline]2nd January 2014[/editline]
Is it unwise to get a 144hz monitor? I can find those..
If I have a 144hz monitor, but run a game in 120hz, will the image flicker?[/QUOTE]
A 144hz monitor would most certainly support outputting in 120hz and lower refresh rates
[QUOTE=MaxOfS2D;43389539]A 144hz monitor would most certainly support outputting in 120hz and lower refresh rates[/QUOTE]
This isn't 144hz, but it's 120hz, it seems pretty nice for gaming.
BenQ 27" 3D LED XL2720T
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824014344[/url]
BenQ also has a 144hz monitor, but I can't find in in 27"
With the current specs of my future computer, would I even be able to run the top demanding games in 144hz with a good FPS?
I'm guessing BenQ makes the best monitors for gaming, are there any other good brands that make something good for this purpose?
As a bonus, the monitor linked in this post is also pretty nice looking, and it has the ability to quickly switch between different modes optimised for gaming or watching movies for example, that's pretty nice.
The processors in the ivy-bridge E series have worse single-core performance than haswell, and are ridiculously expensive. You'd be better off with an i5 4670k, or an i7 4770k(with hyperthreading disabled for most games) if you want to be ready for something like Watch_Dogs. Don't bother with the six-cores for gaming as it won't help you. Believe me.
The motherboard is ridiculously expensive. You aren't going to need it's features unless you're going to do extreme overclocking, in which case you'd be more picky about your fan and ASUS' ROG series would be better anyway. If you're following my processor advice, the recommended motherboards around here are the MSI G45 Gaming and Gigabyte Z87X-D3H. The former has better sound, and the latter has more USB's at the back and a better BIOS. You won't notice the better sound unless you're a complete audiophile, so i wouldn't take that into consideration. If anything, another gigabyte model called UD3H is better than both of these and has good sound as well.
If you're spending this much money, i'd put more of it towards a 780Ti. It'll perform better than a 290X, and it won't have insane throttling and noise and heat like the stock radial fan 290X has. If anything, you should get a 290X that has a different fan attached to it, as the stock one is abysmal and leads to throttling.
The RAM is hilariously expensive for 16GB. First off, you're most likely not going to need more than 8GB of RAM for any game currently out there. By the time you'll need more for a game, you're going to have to upgrade to another processor anyway, which will use DDR4 or another standard which your RAM won't be compatible with. It's therefore completely redundant to get 16GB for gaming reasons. Even if you're hell-bent on getting 16GB, buying two 8GB packs seems to be a lot cheaper.
I would recommend putting more money into getting a 250GB 840 EVO SSD. Low-storage SSD's have significantly worse performance than their larger brethren because they have less flash memory chips to write and read to at the same time, meaning larger capacities work faster. With your budget, it should work fine.
I really doubt you're going to need a soundcard. The motherboards shouldn't generate noticable noise unless you've got an expensive and audiophile speaker setup, in which case recommending a soundcard is way out of my depth.
Since i see you're considering if you should go with a high refresh rate monitor or a high resolution monitor, i'd recommend you get a korean 2560x1440 IPS that's modified to overclock to 120hz. They're available on places like ebay. It might sound a bit shady at first, but the only thing you'd be missing is the warranty - the chance of getting broken pixels is actually [I]less[/I] if you buy a pixel perfect monitor from a trusted ebay source, as most big-name monitors follow a standard that allow a small amount of pixels to be stuck or broken. Ironically enough, the only monitor i've had with a broken pixel is that 120hz BenQ that you were considering.
Personally, i've had a Yamakasi Catleap 2B overclocked to 120hz, and it's been working fine since i got it. You're going to need the 780Ti to run games reliably on 2560x1440 on higher refresh rates, but it's well worth the fluidity. I can't recommend a specific seller as i can't find the one i bought from, but a little bit of research should be able to find you a decent "Pixel-Perfect" Catleap or alternative that works on 120hz from a trusted seller.
I'll put together a parts list on komplett.dk with the cheapest/best parts i can find in a moment. If you're considering buying from another site, feel free to post it and i'll put together something in there instead.
[editline]2nd January 2014[/editline]
[QUOTE=mu ha ha;43389586]This isn't 144hz, but it's 120hz, it seems pretty nice for gaming.
BenQ 27" 3D LED XL2720T
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824014344[/url]
BenQ also has a 144hz monitor, but I can't find in in 27"
With the current specs of my future computer, would I even be able to run the top demanding games in 144hz with a good FPS?
I'm guessing BenQ makes the best monitors for gaming, are there any other good brands that make something good for this purpose?
As a bonus, the monitor linked in this post is also pretty nice looking, and it has the ability to quickly switch between different modes optimised for gaming or watching movies for example, that's pretty nice.[/QUOTE]
You should be able to run any game on 144hz at 1920x1080, and without noticable slowdowns on 2550x1440 120hz with my suggestions. That depends on the game being properly optimised, though - certain games are made in such a way that they'll run like shit regardless of your hardware(for example Minecraft or Battlefield 4)
Indeed, gaming benchmarks show on average the 4670k will give you the absolute best performance. Get the 4770k if you have other performance requirements besides gaming that demand hyper-threading. The GD65 Gaming is a bit of a compromise between high end ridiculously overpriced motherboards and good gaming reasonably priced motherboards like the G45-Gaming. It also comes as a highly recommended gaming motherboard by critics. I recommend the Twin Frozr 780 Ti which should cost around the same as the R9 290X, but it's faster, runs cooler, and is far, far, far less noisy.
Also what cooler do you have? You're buying parts that are clearly meant for some pretty extreme overclocking, so you really ought to either have a high end air/liquid cooler, or you should just downgrade to the G45-Gaming/Z87X-D3H as has already been mentioned.
[QUOTE=RandomGamer342;43389719]The processors in the ivy-bridge E series have worse single-core performance than haswell, and are ridiculously expensive. You'd be better off with an i5 4670k, or an i7 4770k(with hyperthreading disabled for most games) if you want to be ready for something like Watch_Dogs. Don't bother with the six-cores for gaming as it won't help you. Believe me.
The motherboard is ridiculously expensive. You aren't going to need it's features unless you're going to do extreme overclocking, in which case you'd be more picky about your fan and ASUS' ROG series would be better anyway. If you're following my processor advice, the recommended motherboards around here are the MSI G45 Gaming and Gigabyte Z87X-D3H. The former has better sound, and the latter has more USB's at the back and a better BIOS. You won't notice the better sound unless you're a complete audiophile, so i wouldn't take that into consideration. If anything, another gigabyte model called UD3H is better than both of these and has good sound as well.
If you're spending this much money, i'd put more of it towards a 780Ti. It'll perform better than a 290X, and it won't have insane throttling and noise and heat like the stock radial fan 290X has. If anything, you should get a 290X that has a different fan attached to it, as the stock one is abysmal and leads to throttling.
The RAM is hilariously expensive for 16GB. First off, you're most likely not going to need more than 8GB of RAM for any game currently out there. By the time you'll need more for a game, you're going to have to upgrade to another processor anyway, which will use DDR4 or another standard which your RAM won't be compatible with. It's therefore completely redundant to get 16GB for gaming reasons. Even if you're hell-bent on getting 16GB, buying two 8GB packs seems to be a lot cheaper.
I would recommend putting more money into getting a 250GB 840 EVO SSD. Low-storage SSD's have significantly worse performance than their larger brethren because they have less flash memory chips to write and read to at the same time, meaning larger capacities work faster. With your budget, it should work fine.
I really doubt you're going to need a soundcard. The motherboards shouldn't generate noticable noise unless you've got an expensive and audiophile speaker setup, in which case recommending a soundcard is way out of my depth.
Since i see you're considering if you should go with a high refresh rate monitor or a high resolution monitor, i'd recommend you get a korean 2560x1440 IPS that's modified to overclock to 120hz. They're available on places like ebay. It might sound a bit shady at first, but the only thing you'd be missing is the warranty - the chance of getting broken pixels is actually [I]less[/I] if you buy a pixel perfect monitor from a trusted ebay source, as most big-name monitors follow a standard that allow a small amount of pixels to be stuck or broken. Ironically enough, the only monitor i've had with a broken pixel is that 120hz BenQ that you were considering.
Personally, i've had a Yamakasi Catleap 2B overclocked to 120hz, and it's been working fine since i got it. You're going to need the 780Ti to run games reliably on 2560x1440 on higher refresh rates, but it's well worth the fluidity. I can't recommend a specific seller as i can't find the one i bought from, but a little bit of research should be able to find you a decent "Pixel-Perfect" Catleap or alternative that works on 120hz from a trusted seller.
I'll put together a parts list on komplett.dk with the cheapest/best parts i can find in a moment. If you're considering buying from another site, feel free to post it and i'll put together something in there instead.
[editline]2nd January 2014[/editline]
You should be able to run any game on 144hz at 1920x1080, and without noticable slowdowns on 2550x1440 120hz with my suggestions. That depends on the game being properly optimised, though - certain games are made in such a way that they'll run like shit regardless of your hardware(for example Minecraft or Battlefield 4)[/QUOTE]
Sorry I haven't replied earlier, I have been busy all day yesterday.
I'll look at the kind of screens you're talking about, if it's too much of a hassle, I'll just stick with an ordinary monitor.
With everything else, I followed your advice right away!
I'll make the changes to the OP, update the prices.
[editline]4th January 2014[/editline]
[QUOTE=flayne;43390712]Indeed, gaming benchmarks show on average the 4670k will give you the absolute best performance. Get the 4770k if you have other performance requirements besides gaming that demand hyper-threading. The GD65 Gaming is a bit of a compromise between high end ridiculously overpriced motherboards and good gaming reasonably priced motherboards like the G45-Gaming. It also comes as a highly recommended gaming motherboard by critics. I recommend the Twin Frozr 780 Ti which should cost around the same as the R9 290X, but it's faster, runs cooler, and is far, far, far less noisy.
Also what cooler do you have? You're buying parts that are clearly meant for some pretty extreme overclocking, so you really ought to either have a high end air/liquid cooler, or you should just downgrade to the G45-Gaming/Z87X-D3H as has already been mentioned.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I hadn't even noticed that the CPU was that bad, I just assumed that the larger number would be better, I had looked at the 4770K and chosen it, but then I stumbled upon the other one, and thought 'why not?'
I don't remember the exact name of my cooler,
it's that yellow one with brown fans, Noctua something something.
It was a fan that I was recommended right here on facepunch when I bought it.
[editline]4th January 2014[/editline]
How would this monitor be then? [URL]http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-YAMAKASI-Catleap-Q270-2B-Extreme-OC-120Hz-IPS-1440p-Monitor-Perfect-Pixel-/140922305094[/URL]
The seller seems reliable if you're to trust the feedback :smile:
If this that monitor is fine, I'll get it instead of the BenQ!
[editline]4th January 2014[/editline]
I found the cooler box, it's an Noctua NH-D14
I can't seem to find a better one, so I'm guessing it's going to be fine.
Green-sum is one of the most known sellers, so it shouldn't be an issue. I'm pretty sure mine went in proxy through him.
There's a couple of driver hacks you've got to do to make it work in all games flawlessly, but they're pretty much just running an installer. I'll get the links up when i'm not on a phone.
I'd also advice you to buy a dual-link DVI cable, as the one the monitor includes isn't always reliable
[editline]4th January 2014[/editline]
The noctua NH-D14 is a very good cooler, so you won't have an issue getting good overclocks
Is the monitor height adjustable? I can't seem to find that information, is it just a given?
I'm kinda iffy about this monitor, I want 4K, but I'm afraid it'll break in shipping and I'd have wasted a lot of money :/
Everyone that I know would laugh at me for trusting an ebay user with this..
Fuck
I'm going to delete the BenQ monitor from my cart, add a dual link DVI cable and then I'm just going to order the screen from Green-sum.
Please do post the links when you have time, I'm not sure if I'd be able to find the right ones ;)
I'm sending the order right away. Wish me luck :D
2560x1440 isn't 4K fyi, it's just a higher resolution called WQHD(iirc). 4K is significantly larger, but also overkill, overpriced and not really supported by windows
The stand is frankly shit, it's somewhat wobbly if your table is, and the height isn't adjustable. You can tilt it, but that's pretty much it
You CAN buy a VESA compatible stand for it, but you've got to remove [URL="http://puu.sh/695DQ.jpg"]the dumb grey backplate[/URL] to get access to the VESA screws. There's guides out there, but they involve unscrewing the monitor. Most people buying the monitor do it, so it's not that risky, however i haven't done it myself yet so i can't help much about that.
[editline]4th January 2014[/editline]
I also thought "Jesus i'm spending this much money on EBay", but it worked :v:
Looks like I will have to hold off on buying anything, my I'm having some trouble transferring money to my primary account :/
I have to call my bank in order to transfer money it seems, but the bank is closed.
How tall is the monitor? If it's just pretty tall it'll be fine :)
Thank you for your information by the way ;)
[QUOTE=mu ha ha;43412671]Looks like I will have to hold off on buying anything, my I'm having some trouble transferring money to my primary account :/
I have to call my bank in order to transfer money it seems, but the bank is closed.
How tall is the monitor? If it's just pretty tall it'll be fine :)
Thank you for your information by the way ;)[/QUOTE]
It's a shitty picture i took a while ago(since my phone is broken), but it's pretty tall. [URL="http://puu.sh/697Gq.jpg"]The Catleap compared to the 24" BenQ.[/URL]
At the tallest i can adjust the BenQ, it's 5cm-ish higher than the catleap. The height shouldn't be a problem.
Wow! Thank you!
I can't wait ;)
I forgot to post the links before you sent me a PM, so i'll just post it here for future reference if anyone will need it
To overclock it to 120hz on max resolution, you'll need to patch the driver. The maximum pixel clock is limited with both AMD and nvidia, so you'll need [URL="www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-NVIDIA-Pixel-Clock-Patcher"]the nvidia pixel clock patcher[/URL]. There's an equivalent for AMD cards if you'll ever end up needing that. You'll have to re-run this patcher every time you install new driver updates.
Once you've patched it, you can go into the nvidia control panel and make a custom resolution for 2560x1440 with 120 refresh. I recommend also making one on 90. If letting the nvidia driver select the values for you doesn't work, use manual values and insert tight timings.
Some games don't really work with custom resolutions, so you'll have to install a display driver after you've made all the refresh rates. It causes windows to believe the monitor natively supports all the resolutions you've custom made. It can be downloaded [URL="http://120hz.net/showthread.php?683-Overclocking-Quick-Start-Guide"]somewhere in the OP here[/URL] as catleap.zip. The instructions are just next to the link. You'll have to [URL="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-can-i-install-hardware-with-unsigned-drivers-in-windows-8/"]allow unsigned drivers [/URL]before installing it on windows 8 - just allow unsigned drivers, install it, then reboot and everything will be back to normal.
The monitor sometimes fails to properly refresh on 120hz after a cold boot, since some internal part needs to heat up to run 120hz. This means that the image freezes or doesn't render anything but greyish lines until it's warm. This isn't dangerous and doesn't mean it's broken! This doesn't happen if you've running at lower refresh rates, so i made a batch file that sets it to 90 on boot, then 120 after some minutes. I wrote a usage guide [URL="http://120hz.net/showthread.php?1320-120hz-leads-to-broken-image-unless-catleap-has-been-on-for-a-while&p=20621&viewfull=1#post20621"]here[/URL]. I'm probably going to make it less horrible soon, but it works for now.
I think that's everything you'll need for 120hz 2560x1440!
[editline]7th January 2014[/editline]
sigh, that forum has turned on required sign-ins for attachments. I'll reupload them here alongside the SetDisplayRefresh.exe once i'm on my desktop
[URL="https://mega.co.nz/#!gRk3jbaQ!0nkVEHHNeEQFSg71p5WvubC1NDxunlyTRumJY118iK0"]Catleap.zip[/URL]
[URL="http://puu.sh/6db8V.jpg"]Tight timing values[/URL]
[URL="https://mega.co.nz/#!QNAHALzS!O91e4SpqeLxDNaDFu0NOGtdjNJLKI0Jx-tRkFJSkTGg"]The batch file[/URL]
I'd upload to dropbox or some other file sharer if it didn't break when new year hit. You'll have to make do with mega
[editline]i[/editline]
It's okay, i didn't want it to automerge[I]!
damn automerge timelimit
[/I]
I just got a parcel with all of my new hardware except for the monitor, fuck yeah!
Thank you all for your help! Next time I'm online, it'll be on my new computer!
The computer is now up and fully running, everything that I need should be installed!
I'm about to fire up Star Citizen to see how it will perform.
I just received my new monitor and instanlty plugged it in. Goddamn, it's nice, except for the slight wobble when I type.
Now I'm going to set it up for 120hz.
The colours look fine though, the white is very white, no colour tint at all it seems.
Although, now that I look closer, the screen seems to be darker in the bottom 1/3.
Might just be the viewing angle, I haven't set that yet.
[editline]10th January 2014[/editline]
The screen is up and running on 120Hz!
My computer should automatically load your bat file when it boots.
Now I'll reboot so that I won't allow any other unsigned drivers.
A small update on the monitor, I have made some modifications to the .bat files and made an entirely new one to go with them.
The batch file RandomGamer342 made works just fine, I just made some improvements (I think)
Instead of automatically changing refresh rate to 90hz, it will ask you what to do, choice options are as follows:
1. Enter H to stay on 120hz
A small batch file will be loaded, changing the monitor to 120hz, just in case. (You should already be on 120hz when your computer boots, but just in case.)
2. Enter A to load the Auto-resolution .bat file
RandomGamer342's auto-resolution .bat file will be loaded, switching you to 90hz, then waiting 15 minutes, then changing to 120hz.
Basically if your monitor looks fine when you boot, you enter H.
If your monitor needs to heat up, enter A.
I've only made small changes to RandomGamer342's original .bat files.
Feel free to look through them if you don't trust me, or if you want to make further improvements.
You have my permission to upload them elsewhere if my link dies. You can always PM if you can't find a copy anywhere.
I have no idea how to load the location of the launcher in the .bat file, that would be nice..
To install, you have to install in a specific location (or you can change the locations in each .bat file.)
It's easiest to put all files in the same location.
The default location is E:/Auto-Resolution/*files go here*
Make a shortcut for ResolutionLauncher.bat and put it in the start-up folder.
Can be found under start>All Programs>Start-up>*shortcut goes here*
This is for windows 8, with start8 installed. If you don't have that, you're going to have to navigate to
C:\Users\*username*\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
and put the shortcut there instead.
Download: [url]http://www.mediafire.com/download/lw6ta51z8shiju8/Auto-Resolution.zip[/url]
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.