Be Excellent To Each Other

And, you know, party on. Dude.

All times are UTC [ DST ]




Reply to topic  [ 5933 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57 ... 119  Next
Author Message
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 13:39 
Excellent Member

Joined: 5th Dec, 2010
Posts: 3353
I have an Alienware Aurora, around 3 years old now. Has a Quad core 2600K I7 and 16GB of Ram

GC is a GTX Titan and my screen is a 30 inch Dell

Never had any issues to date running games on the highest settings.

Like the build on the Alienware everything nice and easy to get at, only problem I have is there are not enough USB 3 ports, The latest model you can buy now still only has 2 USB3 which is pretty shit for a performance PC.

Will probably go elsewhere when its replacement time if this doesn't change


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 13:50 
User avatar

Joined: 30th Mar, 2008
Posts: 32618
asfish wrote:
GC is a GTX Titan and my screen is a 30 inch Dell

Never had any issues to date running games on the highest settings

You've never had any trouble running games on highest settings on a £700 GPU?

Image


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 13:53 
User avatar
Master of dodgy spelling....

Joined: 25th Sep, 2008
Posts: 22533
Location: shropshire, uk
I need to get a new screen for home, as my 17" seems too small. But my spare cash goes on house or cycling stuff.

_________________
MetalAngel wrote:
Kovacs: From 'unresponsive' to 'kebab' in 3.5 seconds


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 14:40 
Excellent Member

Joined: 5th Dec, 2010
Posts: 3353
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
asfish wrote:
GC is a GTX Titan and my screen is a 30 inch Dell

Never had any issues to date running games on the highest settings

You've never had any trouble running games on highest settings on a £700 GPU?

Image


Not really no :) I guess I meant I had no need to upgrade for a while!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 12:43 
User avatar
La Bamba

Joined: 27th May, 2012
Posts: 251
Just bought a few things.

Herman Miller Sayl in sage green, closed back. Got it locally, what a friggin chair.

Cherry G80 keyboard. Was going to go with reds or greens but in the end realised that blues were probably the best for typing code.

Got my MAC all sorted out. Just making the final few parts for it and have ordered myself a 3 port USB switch so I can operate both my MAC and PC with the same sets of peripherals.

Would post pics but this forum needs them to be small and I CBA resizing them all :D

_________________
Para bailar la bamba


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:34 
User avatar

Joined: 31st Mar, 2008
Posts: 1883
Another set of hardware requirements that seem a tad over the top have been revealed, this time for Assassin's Creed: Unity...

Eurogamer wrote:
Processor

Minimum:

Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.3 GHz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz or AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.0 GHz

Recommended:

Intel Core i7-3770 @ 3.4 GHz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz or better

RAM

Minimum: 6 GB

Recommended: 8GB

Video Card

Minimum:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or AMD Radeon HD 7970 (2 GB VRAM)

Recommended:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 or AMD Radeon R9 290X (3 GB VRAM)



Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 15:26 
SupaMod
User avatar
Est. 1978

Joined: 27th Mar, 2008
Posts: 69502
Location: Your Mum
Looks pretty achievable to me ;)

_________________
Grim... wrote:
I wish Craster had left some girls for the rest of us.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 15:49 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Grim... wrote:
Looks pretty achievable to me ;)


Yeah TBH they're distinctly mid-range PC specs these days, certainly as far as CPU and RAM are concerned, (and I bet an i5 will be just fine despite them recommending an i7).

The recommended GPU is fairly meaty but again, I'd bet that a more modest card such as a 660/670 (or equivalent) would be plenty for 1080p at generous fidelity settings. RAM is crazy cheap, 8GB is absolutely standard.

The recent launch of the GTX970/980 by Nvidia has properly shaken up the graphics card market, and prices further down the range of both Nvidia and AMD cards have tumbled.

My motherboard, CPU and RAM are now six (!) years old and they're still cheerfully munching up any games that I chuck at them, albeit with a more modern graphics card (GTX670), but even that's more than two years old now and it wasn't top-of-the-line even when it was new.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 16:03 

Joined: 23rd Sep, 2010
Posts: 729
Urgh, I wish I could save up the money to upgrade my PC, most recent games I've bought have had to be played at either Medium or Low. I'm thinking I'll upgrade it next summer. I might be able to get a job and save up a bit to buy a new PC before I (hopefully!) go to Uni. (And if I get into what I want, a new PC would probably help a bit.)

For a decent PC that would last quite a while, any idea what kind of price bracket I'd looking at? (If I was to buy the bits and build it myself, that is)


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 16:27 
User avatar
Excellent Member

Joined: 25th Jul, 2010
Posts: 11128
My machine is knocking on for seven years old now and is nowhere near those specs. My PS4 is going to be my main gaming machine when I buy it but I suspect I'm going to need to upgrade to a new PC sooner rather than later just so I can carry on taking advantage of cheap Steam deals and the like. Usually I'd be happy to do this but it's been a hilariously fucking expensive few months and I don't relish the idea.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 17:33 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Cookie197 wrote:
For a decent PC that would last quite a while, any idea what kind of price bracket I'd looking at? (If I was to buy the bits and build it myself, that is)


Off the top of my head I'd say under £500 for a gaming PC capable of serving up 1080p@60FPS in nearly all games at generous visual settings (the usual suspects like Crysis 3 excepted).

Haven't priced one up for a while TBH, and it's entirely possible there's an off-the-shelf one that might fit the bill too.

I'll have a little poke around.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:40 
User avatar

Joined: 30th Mar, 2008
Posts: 16552
I'm definitely interested in seeing what you turn up. I just don't have the time to get up to speed on them but I really need a new PC and looking at similar money.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:42 
User avatar

Joined: 30th Mar, 2008
Posts: 32618
This RLLMUK thread is a good place to start: http://www.rllmukforum.com/index.php?/t ... ggestions/


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:54 
User avatar
Unpossible!

Joined: 27th Jun, 2008
Posts: 38439
I do not have permission to view that forum


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 10:16 
User avatar

Joined: 30th Mar, 2008
Posts: 32618
Oh, guess you'll have to register then.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 10:51 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Under £600, no OS, but no cheapy shit in there either. (Lots of us work in IT so we legitimately get OS via that route innit.)

Latest i5 processor (I consider Haswell and Devil's Canyon to be the same thing), powerful graphics card, 8GB of fast RAM, 128GB SSD and 1TB hard drive.

For god's sake don't anyone order this as I've not sanity checked it (for example that's a big Windforce graphics card that may not fit in the case....), but this would be a genuinely powerful gaming PC for under £600.

Obviously there are lots of areas where the cost could be trimmed (lose the SSD, lob a cheapy power supply in there, drop the graphics card down a notch or two, even downgrade the CPU), but to give you an idea this is actually pretty damn similar in performance to my own PC, which can happily chuck Battlefield 3 around at top detail settings at 2560x1440 and hold around 60FPS.

If you need an optical drive that'd be an extra tenner or so, although I can't remember the last time I used the one in my PC, and you can install an OS from USB.

I'll have a go at putting together a proper cheapy one from eBuyer.

Attachment:
under600.JPG


You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 11:14 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Off-the-shelf for £599.99 and of course this does come with an OS (8.1 or Win 7 64-bit).

http://www.chillblast.com/Chillblast-Fu ... ng-PC.html

The graphics card is perhaps a touch on the weak side but should still do you for 1080p, and they've not skimped on anything else. (The 1TB hybrid drive is a nice touch, and apparently they work pretty well for giving SSD-like performance for a lot of tasks.)

Personally I'd be inclined to bump up the graphics card a notch to a 270X which will add about £40 to the cost, although you could always see how the 260X performs with the option of upgrading it in the future.

Quote:
Zalman Z3 Case in Black or White
Intel Core i5 4690K Processor overclocked to up to 4.3GHz
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler
Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Motherboard
AMD Radeon R7 260X 2GB Graphics Card
8GB PC3-12800 DDR3 Memory
1000GB SATA SSHD 7200rpm Hybrid Drive
600watt FSP PSU
Onboard High Definition Audio
Windows 8.1 64bit or Windows 7 64 bit at no extra cost

Please note there is no CD/DVD drive included in this specification as standard - one can be added on the first page of options for this PC

Ports on rear of system: *

4 x USB 3.0 ports
2 x USB 2.0 ports
Audio outputs
1 x 10/100/1000Mbps
Ethernet for network
2 x DVI outputs
1 x HDMI

* May vary if configuration is altered!

Ports on case:

2 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x USB 3.0 port
FP audio


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 11:53 
User avatar
Unpossible!

Joined: 27th Jun, 2008
Posts: 38439
That cpu, ram and mobo combo looks about right for my next upgrade


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 8:57 
User avatar

Joined: 30th Mar, 2008
Posts: 16552
I should probably just upgrade mine. Right now it has this:

2.80 gigahertz AMD Athlon 7850 Dual-Core
Gigabyte M61PME-S2P
ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
4GB RAM
500 GB HDD that's almost full.

If I was to chuck, say, £250 at it what would be the best things to buy? Is it even worth upgrading something of this age? Don't want to spend money just to stave off the inevitable for another year.

That said it's not especially for gaming I just need a bit more power for video stuff really and I'm pretty sure the CPU is the bottleneck there. Trying to play 1080p raw video files it just stutters and the task manager shows both CPU cores thrashing away at 100%.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 9:04 
User avatar
ugvm'er at heart...

Joined: 4th Mar, 2010
Posts: 22256
To be honest, it's probably not worth trying to upgrade, it's all a bit old hat and you won't get much for your money.
Better bet would be to start again and spend around £400 on the bits. AE will be along in a sec to tell you exactly what to buy :D


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 9:05 
Excellent Member

Joined: 5th Dec, 2010
Posts: 3353
markg wrote:
I should probably just upgrade mine. Right now it has this:

2.80 gigahertz AMD Athlon 7850 Dual-Core
Gigabyte M61PME-S2P
ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
4GB RAM
500 GB HDD that's almost full.

If I was to chuck, say, £250 at it what would be the best things to buy? Is it even worth upgrading something of this age? Don't want to spend money just to stave off the inevitable for another year.

That said it's not especially for gaming I just need a bit more power for video stuff really and I'm pretty sure the CPU is the bottleneck there. Trying to play 1080p raw video files it just stutters and the task manager shows both CPU cores thrashing away at 100%.



You are stuck with AMD CPU's with the MB so maybe get a new CPU and MB from the list Hearthly posted? Or maybe you can get a better AMD CPU and put that in the current MB?

Might be some change left for some more RAM as well.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 9:10 
User avatar

Joined: 30th Mar, 2008
Posts: 16552
Trooper wrote:
To be honest, it's probably not worth trying to upgrade, it's all a bit old hat and you won't get much for your money.
Better bet would be to start again and spend around £400 on the bits. AE will be along in a sec to tell you exactly what to buy :D

Yeah, I was kind of thinking that when I started looking around just now. It would also mean I could have this PC for the workshop which would be handy.

Although I think if I was going to spend more I'd be tempted to spend quite a bit more and go for something off the shelf. I found this roundup:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/ ... s-2014-uk/

Anyone got any views on any of those? Getting a new monitor etc, would be worthwhile so that I still had a complete set of stuff for the workshop.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 9:17 
Excellent Member

Joined: 5th Dec, 2010
Posts: 3353
The PC they rate at number 1 is pretty good, they say the overclock isn't that good @4.3GHZ but I can't see that being a huge issue really!

Its also got 2 games bundled with it as well as the OS (8.1)

Number 5 is also worth a look, cost a little over the £600 budget but has a better MB for expanding in the future

You can't really go wrong with any of them, just need to look at the ones with bundled games vs the ones without as I guess these aren't really free and you might get better hardware on the systems them don't come with these.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 10:16 
User avatar

Joined: 30th Mar, 2008
Posts: 16552
Might just get this:

http://www.palicomp.co.uk/Cheap-PCs/AMD ... ution.html

That should be way, way quicker than what I've got right?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 10:33 
User avatar
Unpossible!

Joined: 27th Jun, 2008
Posts: 38439
Yep.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 12:29 
User avatar

Joined: 30th Mar, 2008
Posts: 16552
Ordered. So if someone knows of some reason why it's going to be a bit shit just keep it to yourselves.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 12:39 
User avatar
Paws for thought

Joined: 27th Mar, 2008
Posts: 17154
Location: Just Outside That London, England, Europe
markg wrote:
Ordered. So if someone knows of some reason why it's going to be a bit shit just keep it to yourselves.

Not enough LEDs


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 12:43 
User avatar
Unpossible!

Joined: 27th Jun, 2008
Posts: 38439
A quick googling says it's a-ok at 1080p and you can live without AF and FSAA


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 12:59 
User avatar

Joined: 30th Mar, 2008
Posts: 16552
Yeah, it's really not for games anyway and apparently I can add in an "R7 250" which will work with the integrated graphics in the main chip for some extra pixels.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 13:07 
User avatar

Joined: 30th Mar, 2008
Posts: 16552
It's coming on Thursday. Quite excited. Looking forward to the new monitor as much as anything. This one's some ancient piece of shit.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 13:14 
User avatar
Unpossible!

Joined: 27th Jun, 2008
Posts: 38439
Image

edit: New page!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 13:50 
User avatar
Excellent Member

Joined: 25th Jul, 2010
Posts: 11128
What's that? Looks Fallout related.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 14:13 
User avatar
Unpossible!

Joined: 27th Jun, 2008
Posts: 38439
No idea, I searched for Green Screen Game


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 16:26 
User avatar
Level 6 Laser Lotus

Joined: 26th Aug, 2010
Posts: 2069
Bamba wrote:
What's that? Looks Fallout related.



Game for iOS called The Hacker

_________________
Shin: a device for finding furniture in the dark

If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 19:22 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
markg wrote:
Yeah, it's really not for games anyway and apparently I can add in an "R7 250" which will work with the integrated graphics in the main chip for some extra pixels.


Oops sorry wasn't around today to post!

Anyway, that should be absolutely fine for everything you'll want to do, even gaming at 1080p with modest detail settings and no AA or suchlike.

As noted you'll have the option of adding in a discrete graphics card in the future, which can either be AMD to work with the APU's integrated graphics, or you could just disable them completely and lob something like an Nvidia 750Ti in there.

Considering there's a 24 inch screen and an OS included in the price, that's not bad going at all.

As a final note it isn't a particularly powerful CPU in that the architecture is pretty much an evolution of the old Athlons (clock cycle for clock cycle they're much weaker than Intel chips), but it is a quad-core part with a high clock speed, so I would imagine it'll be alright with properly multi-threaded video editing software. Plus of course you'll be running with faster RAM, more of it, improved motherboard chipsets, and so on.

Overall I'd say you'll be fine with it.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 21:21 
User avatar

Joined: 31st Mar, 2008
Posts: 1883
Hearthly wrote:
... which can either be AMD to work with the APU's integrated graphics ...

What is this all about?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 21:58 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
lasermink wrote:
Hearthly wrote:
... which can either be AMD to work with the APU's integrated graphics ...

What is this all about?


As I understand it you can do a sort of 'low-rent Crossfire/SLI' arrangement by pairing a discrete AMD GPU with the integrated GPU in the APU (AMD call their CPUs with integrated graphics APUs), and sort of combine their power to create a fully operational Death Star.

For obvious reasons only AMD graphics cards work in this configuration.

It's not something I've ever really looked into so even that may be total nonsense, but that's my recollection of it.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 11:55 
User avatar
Level 6 Laser Lotus

Joined: 26th Aug, 2010
Posts: 2069
Hearthly wrote:
fully operational Death Star.



If you do this please be aware that you need to be really careful where you place the Thermal exhaust port, as this can lead to catastrophic failure.

_________________
Shin: a device for finding furniture in the dark

If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 11:57 
User avatar

Joined: 30th Mar, 2008
Posts: 32618
My understanding is that it's less about combining grunt and more about using the power-efficient (and quiet) integrated GPU for the desktop and switching to the beefy GPU for games. This is an idea I first saw in Apple's laptops, which shipped with dual GPUs for a while around 2009-2013 or so. In a laptop it's handy for battery life. Less important in a desktop but can help reduce fan noise.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 16:14 
User avatar

Joined: 30th Mar, 2008
Posts: 16552
New PC arrived earlier and it's all set up now. It's very nice. Should be more than fine for everything I need I think. Windows 8 is fucking weird, though.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 16:15 
User avatar

Joined: 30th Mar, 2008
Posts: 16552
I mean I think I sort of get what they were trying to do but the frequency with which it dumps you back to the more traditional layout just makes it all feel disjointed and odd. :S


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 12:21 
User avatar
La Bamba

Joined: 27th May, 2012
Posts: 251
markg wrote:
I mean I think I sort of get what they were trying to do but the frequency with which it dumps you back to the more traditional layout just makes it all feel disjointed and odd. :S


Stick at it for a week and if it still bothers you then...

http://www.iobit.com/iobitstartmenu8.php

Note though it's rather resource heavy so can cause a bit of lag on pressing it to it actually opening up. It's a great free solution though.

X8 was finished..

Image

But I could not get the R9 290 to play ball in there. So, I bought one of these.

Image

Image

Ideal for workstation duties. In other news I've had one of these sitting in the box in my hallway for about two months now.

Image

Hisense 65" 4k 120hz 3dtv. My uncle was supposed to help me fit it to the wall but needed an operation on his hand so my brother is coming up from London next week. That should really give the Titans something to work on...

_________________
Para bailar la bamba


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 20:06 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Decided to get a couple of little treats for myself, a new keyboard and mouse.

Keyboard because my trusty old Saitek Cyborg is starting to get a bit tired after nearly six years of heavy use, couple of the keys are losing their fluidity of motion, surface is wearing away on some of the keys etc. Plus I want a bank of extra programmable/macro keys for WoW, as such I have ordered myself this.

http://www.ebuyer.com/503883-corsair-ve ... 9000020-uk

Rather extravagant perhaps but I'd expect five years minimum out of it, Cherry MX Red switches for every single key, and a couple of friends have moved to mechanical keyboards and absolutely swear by them.

The 18 keys off to the left are all fully programmable, which of course is perfect for an MMO (it's marketed as an MMO keyboard).

Attachment:
k95.JPG


Mouse simply because I need more buttons available to me, as there's a limit to how many keybinds you can do, even with CTRL/SHIFT/ALT modifiers (or rather, fucking remembering them all). I find mouse buttons far more conducive to muscle memory, and just easier to get exactly the right one at the right time, although 12 buttons along the side may be a step too far....

It does mean with some regret that I'm replacing my legendary Logitech MX510, which is hands-down the best mouse I've ever owned, but I'll probably retire it out to the bedroom laptop where it can live out its senior years in a low-stress environment. (And I'm replacing it with another Logitech, as the MX510 has been so fucking good, it still works perfectly and it's years old and it's seen an awful lot of action.)

Yes it's a lot of money for a keyboard and mouse, but since I basically live on my PC (not just for leisure but for when I'm working from home too), and all my interaction with it is done through those two peripherals, it makes sense to have nice ones IMO. (See also, screen and speakers, worth stretching the budget for.)

On top of all that, my current PC just continues to deliver the goods in terms of games and overall performance, despite the CPU/mobo/RAM being over six years old and me having bought them second hand off a mate at work, and the GTX670 still delivers the goods graphics wise, and the 128GB SSD whilst small, is big enough if I limit it just to the games that benefit from it (WoW does). It helps that I'm back into WoW of course which is fairly undemanding, but it was kicking BF4 around at 2560x1440 with really nice graphics options, so why spunk a load of cash on upgrades or a whole new PC?

With the XBox One and PS4 being seriously underwhelming in raw horsepower terms, I can honestly envisage it lasting for this entire console generation when it comes to cross-platform titles, which is good for my pocket!

http://www.ebuyer.com/579402-logitech-g ... 910-003624

Attachment:
g600.JPG


You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 10:23 
User avatar
Unpossible!

Joined: 27th Jun, 2008
Posts: 38439
Look at this, sofa warriors!

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-control ... zer-turret


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 10:29 
User avatar
Bad Girl

Joined: 20th Apr, 2008
Posts: 14353
HOW MUCH IS IT I MUST NO?

Mind you, my mouse is quite good at just being rubbed along the sofa. This is not a euphemism.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2015 19:10 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
New PC incoming for Mrs Hearthly, she's now an official WoW-head and so is Hearhtly Jnr, so we're short of a machine that's capable of running the game. (Currently Mrs and Jnr share an account and take it in turns to play on the trusty old Sony Vaio laptop, but we'll have to span that out to three accounts now.....)

Mrs Hearthly has been on a laptop for so long (albeit with a screen planted on top of it and using a normal keyboard and mouse) that I didn't want to get a traditional ugly PC case arrangement for her, so I've gone for a case that's only about 3cm bigger than an XBox One in all directions (and doesn't need an external power brick as that's internal in the case).

Quad-core Intel Haswell i5 processor (3.5GHz boost to 3.9GHz), quality mini-ITX motherboard, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 2GB GTX960 graphics card (the perfect 1080p@60 max-it-out graphics card whilst remaining cool and quiet), and a slot-loading DVD-RW.

It should pretty much kick as hard as my PC, and that can run BF4 at 2560x1440 with HIGH settings overall and keep to around 60FPS, so it'll totally max out WoW on her 1080p screen and maintain a solid 60FPS.

The old Sony Vaio runs WoW OK-ish but with the resolution dropped to 1600x900 and loads of compromises on the detail settings, draw distance, shadows, lighting effects, and suchlike - and even then it regularly sees the wrong side of 30FPS. (Hearhtly Jnr will inherit the laptop for the current WoW account, Mrs Hearthly will get a new WoW account of her own to go with the new PC, since Hearthly Jnr has pretty much taken over the existing one anyway.)

Back in the day I'd have done the build myself but I can't be arsed with that shit anymore so I'll allow others to take the strain in that regard, plus this case is reckoned to be quite awkward to work with so I'll defer to their experience with it. The cool thing about it is the right-angled riser from the motherboard that allows a full-length dual-slot graphics card to sit inside such a small case.

By all accounts the noise and thermals are really good too due to positive air pressure and strategically placed fans.

Already en route according to the courier tracking, but it appears to have got stuck near Birmingham somewhere, don't know if there's a WEATHER BOMB in the area......

Attachment:
smallpc.JPG




You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sat Feb 07, 2015 14:01 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Mrs Hearthly's PC has had the best part of a week to bed in now (it turned up the day after my last post), and I'm seriously impressed with it.

If you think gaming PCs are big and noisy, with loads of wires going all over the place, and generally a bit of an intrusive pain then I'd really recommend giving this sort of form factor a go.

SIZE - It's a bit bigger than an XBox One (3cm in all directions, but the power supply is internal instead of external), but it can be orientated vertically or horizontally depending on preference. We've gone for vertical in the corner of the room (on top of my old 'donkey work' downloading and other menial tasks PC), and its footprint is very small like this.

NOISE - When idling it's effectively silent, there's a tiny bit of fan noise if you get your head right up close but scarcely audible. Under torture load (100% CPU and 100% GPU simultaneously (Prime95 and Furmark)), it builds up to a sort of gentle thrum, by far and away the quietest PC I've experienced. The whole thing is geared more towards restricting noise than keeping thermals right down, so it lets the GPU hit around 80C, and the CPU gets into the high 70s - both of which are well within thermal limits.

In a more normal gaming scenario (WoW totally ULTRA-ed out at 1920x1080) it's far more towards 'silent' than 'gentle thrum'.

PERFORMANCE - For my own curiosity I installed Steam and Origin, it manages the likes of BF4 and GRiD2 ULTRA-ed out at 1920x1080 and maintains a solid 60FPS with just the odd dip. By all accounts the GTX960 is damn near the perfect 1080p GPU but can start to struggle a bit at 2560x1440.

Needless to say it can handle WoW with aplomb (1920x1080, full ULTRA, solid 60FPS at all times), and general Windows/application performance is superb.

The SSD benchmarks are as you'd expect from a brand new SATA-3 device, just shy of 600MB/s (!) transfer rate in one of the tests. (It blows my Crucial M4 SSD right out of the water.)

The motherboard is a decent ASUS mini-ITX board, so the onboard sound is excellent, plenty of USB ports including USB3, decent UEFI BIOS with a great low noise preset for all the fans, and so on. The CPU is using the stock Intel HSF which is fine as the Haswell architecture runs nice and cool.

Windows boots in seconds, goes to sleep in seconds, wakes up in seconds, everything loads damn near instantaneously, it's one of the snappiest PCs I've ever used.

AESTHETICS - It's a pretty understated and austere case, couple of LEDs for power and drive activity and that's it. Would look very tidy under a telly. Using a wireless keyboard and mouse (as Mrs Hearthly is) there's a USB dongle in the back, so the only cables are power, HDMI, sound and network, which I've neatly tucked away.

OVERCLOCKING - Not even going to try, as my main goal is low noise. Mrs Hearthly's used a laptop for years so she's used to low noise. By all accounts the GPU should have an extra 250-350MHz in it as a given, but of course that'll mean heat, and heat = noise.

OVERALL - Highly recommended, I'd honestly have one myself, just replace the GTX960 with a GTX970 for 2560x1440 gaming.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sun Feb 08, 2015 11:40 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Fuck me, first proper Battlefield session with the new Logitech G600 MMO mouse last night and it wasn't pretty. It's a fantastic mouse for playing MMOs with, and it's great for general Windows/application/Hearthstone etc use - but for a fast FPS shooter? Not a bit of it.

Too big, too heavy, the buttons down the left hand side are a total distraction, and my muscle memory with the incredible old Logitech MX510 is just too deeply ingrained. Time and time again my muscle memory was putting the right amount of 'effort' into moving the mouse to get over my target (I've played so much Battlefield over the years I'm practically Zen with it), and I was coming up short (literally coming up short, I hadn't moved my crosshair enough).

It won't do, so now I need to track down a Logitech MX518, which is basically the MX510, but rebranded. I suspect this will mean the end of active service for the G600, as since I bought it I've really tidied up all my WoW keybinds and could well do without all those buttons after all..... Oh well, at least it didn't cost seventy fucking quid.....

Only problem is it looks like they stopped making the MX518 a while ago, so tracking down a new one at a reasonable price might not be easy. Hang, it's now known as the G400, so I need to track down one of those instead.....

Hmmm, even the G400 isn't exactly mainstream anymore, seems like the G402 is the latest iteration of it, although that looks a bit fancy. Sunday online shopping, I can live with that.

Anyone want a cheap G600 lolz? :D They're acebest, honest.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sat Feb 14, 2015 16:13 
User avatar
Hello Hello Hello

Joined: 11th May, 2008
Posts: 13381
Pfft! Decided to do a bit of Saturday afternoon benchmarking because that's how I roll, and Mrs Hearthly's new PC is actually faster than mine!

Doesn't matter what the benchmark is, it consistently punches about 10-15% harder than my PC, even during mega-extreme graphics benchmarking where you might expect the supposedly constricted 128-bit memory bus of the graphics card to hurt her scores a bit.

So that's

Modern i5 > Older i7

GTX960 > GTX670 (so new midrange faster than older high end)

New mini-ITX mobo > Older full fat high end gamer's mobo

Basic 1600MHz DDR3 RAM > Older and slightly slower but super-fancy DDR3 RAM

And so on.

Plus on top of that, her PC is a hell of a lot smaller and quieter than mine whilst it goes about it all. Oh yes and her SSD is a fuck lot faster too.

This is the first time ever that Mrs Hearthly has had a better PC than me, there is now a rift in the space time continuum.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: PC gaming hardware thread.
PostPosted: Sat Feb 14, 2015 18:22 
User avatar
Unpossible!

Joined: 27th Jun, 2008
Posts: 38439
The green LEDs of jealousy


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Reply to topic  [ 5933 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57 ... 119  Next

All times are UTC [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Columbo, Vogons and 0 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search within this thread:
You are using the 'Ted' forum. Bill doesn't really exist any more. Bogus!
Want to help out with the hosting / advertising costs? That's very nice of you.
Are you on a mobile phone? Try http://beex.co.uk/m/
RIP, Owen. RIP, MrC.

Powered by a very Grim... version of phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.