General computer talk/advice

Should I ask about my PC build here or do a thread for it? I just don't know cos I'm new.

 

I'll quote Shea LaBeouf here: DO IT!

 

Ok, here is what my upgraded PC will be:
MoBo: no idea. The one in my current PC.
RAM: 16GB, don't know the brand or speed.
CPU: My current one (Intel Quad CPU Q9650@3.0GHz) not overclocked.
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 7750 (1GB GDDR5)
Case: Dell Optiplex 780 (it's an old PC that was upgraded)
Storage: 2x OCZ AGILITY 3 60GB + 1x WD Black 2TB

 

Uhm... If you open the case and take the graphics card out, you should see what kind of Mainboard it is.
How well did it run the game until now?

 

First of all: If you cry in the corner, I'll come to your house and kick you in the back.
Second thing: Someone had that dead-slots-problem some time ago, he cleaned them with a bit of alcohol (available in the pharmacy) and it worked. If it doesn't, you need a new Mainboard.

 

Yea it's a dead mobo, it's refusing to post. Cleaned the ram slots with contact cleaner and isopropyl alcohol, and I'll have you know I only cried for thirteen minutes... I also went on ebay and bought these.



Considerably faster than my old board and it even has a front USB 3.0 header.

 

Nice. Now I'd recommend firdt trying out your old RAM sticks, and if they are damaged (which is quite likely, I presume), get an upgrade to replace those, for example 2x8 GB DDR3 @2133Mhz, for example Corsair Vengeance Pro.

 

Ram checks out fine in memtest, tested them two at a time in the old I5 board.

 

Alright, good. I was just concerned if they could have taken a beating from the loose connection. Someone I know had that happen with his CPU, as far as I remember.
That wasn't good at all...

 

Oh, btw, I'm too dumb to attach photos as you can see here: http://www.beamng.com/threads/vehicle-suggestions.79/page-110#post-285545
How does one do that?

 

Bottom right, "Upload a File"

 

A 7750 is hardly good enough for gaming... You'll get low-mid settings in 1080p at best for most games. 1GB of memory will also cause problems with texture size.
16GB of RAM is overkill for gaming - you won't really need more than 8.

Get 8GB RAM instead, and save up some more, get a GTX 950 or R7 370 instead. SSDs aren't necessary either, you're better off getting a proper GPU.

 

Always invest as much as you can into the GPU, you can always buy the cheaper things like SSD's and such further down the line.

 

This. Often when building a PC people just choose every part then buy a GPU with their remaining budget. Often ending up with really good CPUs and SSDs bottlenecked by a bad graphics card. Then have to upgrade the card next year.

I usually choose a graphics card first, allocating as much as half of my budget to it. Gaming on a budget CPU is entirely possible, you'll often get better performance with an i3 and R9 380 than you would with an i5, a GTX 950 and an SSD. SSDs in budget builds are a terrible idea IMO. You either have nearly no storage, or spend a lot of money on it (HDD + SSD, or even worse, large SSDs), which could be better spent on a better GPU or CPU.

Anyway, rant over. TL;DR spend money on the GPU, bad GPU = bad PC.

 

I am such an idiot. DUMB!

@Blue Screen You know, I've used 8GB for a while now, and if you have several programs open along with your games, you can sometimes get a bit tight with it. Also, I play a game called Kerbal Space Program, which eats a crapload of RAM when modded, they will give it full 64-bit-support around new years eve, and that means I'll install a crapload of mods which will then need as much RAM as I can get, so that's a point just for me to buy more.
What I can recommend is a GTX960 Gaming 4G, which has 4GB of RAM and is more than enough for this game to run on medium settings, and if you dare a more or less medium framerate, even pretty high settings. It also barely cossts mre than a standard GTX960 (a bit over $200). As for CPUs, get a good i5, if you are using a mainboard with LGA1150-socket, something between a 4570 and a 4690 or 4690K, and if you are even using one with LGA1151-socket, I'd recommend a 6600K.

Disclaimer: The recommended specs shown up there are pretty expensive, a GTX950 does the job really nice too, and if you want, you can also run BeamNG on something less powerful (and expensive!) than the procesors I talked about. Ask for something like that in your local store and you will get very professional and competent help.

 

Ksp is already full 64 bit...

Stores rarely give professional advice, rather the advice that contributes to their income the most

 

What I do is, I check out CPUs, then GPUs, then Mainboards. I open the things I think are most suitable in different browser tabs, then I get a calculator and bring it all together. The price I end up with has to be very well under budget so I can collect the other things without bottlenecking myself financally.

@SixSixSevenSeven Nope, only on Linux. Full 64-bit suport for Windows and OS-X comes with v. 1.1, check out their Google+- and Facebook-page as well as their blog on forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com.
Oh, I think I should create a discussion thread about it in "Other games", just to see how many people here know it..

 

And also: I think I have a good store then. Lucky.
Or it's because my father knows them really well.

Hm. :-/

 

Nope, windows too, I've had separate 32 and 64 bit builds in my install directory for many many updates. Unless they removed it, it was buggy as puck

Just checked. I was right. 64 bit is still present on windows

 

BTW, you mentioned the wrong person, I'm BlueScreen not Blue Screen.

Anyway. GTX 960 is way out of budget. For that price, you should get an R9 380 anyway, about the same price, better all around performance.

CPU, an i5-4460 (Haswell) or i5-6400 (Skylake) is fine. TBH there isn't much point in getting anything in between, the only reason to get a 4690K/6600K is overclocking (the higher end non-K models all just have slightly higher clocks, not worth the price). Also, he already said he has a Q9650 and isn't planning to upgrade. It's an old CPU but still does the job just fine if you have a good graphics card.

RAM, 8GB is fine for gaming - not for massive multitasking. If you're the kind of person who never reboots their PC and leaves everything running because they might use it next week, sure you'll need more RAM - but it would be better and cheaper to learn how to properly use a computer. Only time I ran out of RAM was with a Minecraft server taking up 4GB.