General computer talk/advice

the cx series is fine, i don't know who the hell started this whole "Corsair CX psu will kill your pc" garbage, but it's just not true

all you do is get 100W over what you actually need, and you'll never have a problem

 

My Windows 7 install went from zero to FUBAR in about a day.

Downloading Windows 10 now, I'm a defeated man but it's my only choice to not lose all the data I should have backed up.

For some reason windows update would just hang, and after two and a half days of trying to fix the bastard, Windows Update won't even start and now CPU usage hovers at fifty percent and forty percent ram usage. Various tools and methods to fix it just ended up messing it up more. Even good friend SFC replaces the same "corrupted files" over and over again, but nothing changes.

One the flip side of things, I now completely understand Windows 7's update module system and service system. Oh well. I guess I'd have to get into Windows 10 modding, there's a lot I don't care for in it.

 

It's not that they'll kill your PC, but you can't push the CX series. They're budget PSUs for a reason. They really don't have the best internals, they don't have all that great power management, they're just cheap. You can't push them. Corsair CX PSUs are perfect for budget systems, but that's it. If you have an ultra-high performance application (like what I now have), a CX is a ticking time bomb.

Think of it like this, if you buy a CX430M, your application better be 400W or below, or you may end up having a bad time.

 

Can't be worse than LC-Power.

 

Oh, no. Almost nothing's worse than an LC-Power PSU. I trust Hillary Clinton more than one of those. Well, maybe those $20 Diablotek PSUs may be worse.

 

Had a little scare when this screen popped up.

Turns out all you had to do was re-download Chrome via another browser (i.e. Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.)

 

Does anyone know what could be causing this? It does it for a few minutes after startup, then goes away. As you can see, my Wacom tablet, which acts as a second monitor, is fine.

 

It could be something as simple as the cable your using to something as catastrophic as a video hardware failure. Start at the basic stuff then move forward. i.e. A different video cable, different monitor, secondary monitor inputs, different GPUs.

 

so basically what i just said, except with the addition of don't use high end pc's on a corsair CX (which should be a given, get a high end pc you want a high end PSU)

but i see people saying to never got a corsair CX for anything but office PC's, which is bullshit, for something like say my pc, or really anything with up to a 960 or 1060 once that comes out and a non-overclocking I5 a corsair CX psu will be perfectly fine unless you get too close to the limit (i'd personally recommend getting a CX with 100W more then your computer will actually use at load, at which point you'll be fine)

if you really want to hear dangerous, i'm running my entire setup on a 280W huntkey psu (shouldn't i know, but for now it's all i've got)

 

In that case then go for the MSI Gaming Pro Carbon, I guess the pricing where I live is different for where I live.

 

Yay or nay?

First time putting one of these together from scratch.

 

Short answer, nay.

It's not a bad build by any means, the big issue is that all the major components are at least a generation old. Though it's pretty difficult to tell, the cpu you have is roughly 2 generations older than current generations, and your graphics card is about to be thoroughly outclassed by new graphics cards launching very soon. The fact that all these components aren't noticeably cheaper than the new versions is the big kicker, though.

If you just want to revise your current build, I would say to firstly- Get a 'Skylake' CPU, something like an intel core i5 6400 or 6500 (any intel cpu with a 6xxx number is Skylake, the newest generation of cpus). To go with that you'll need a new motherboard which supports the cpu, something with an LGA 1151 socket (get a B150 chipset, saves you money and you don't need a Z170 chipset board because your CPU is not an overclockable kind- Z series chipsets primarily give free control over overclocking settings) Then there is your graphics card. You might have to wait, as the new generation of graphics cards are still being released, but if you wait, the money saved in that time will be able to be used for buying one of the new GPUs (Nvidia 1000 series or AMD 400 series)

Here's a config which you can use as a template, from pcpartpicker:

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/wLvMpb

- the Video card is still a custom part for now, as the AMD RX 480 nor the GTX 1060 are officially retailing yet, but they are coming soon. (if you need your computer now you could just not buy the Video card and use integrated graphics which come on the CPU until the Video Cards come out.
Just plug these components in (or equivalent) into your favourite pc components website (I prefer NCIX US) and see what prices you get.

Hope that helps.

 

Nonono, Skylake is on average only a 10% improvement over Haswell. Moore's law has been dead for a while now. The motherboards are still slightly more expensive, DDR4 is still slightly more expensive. I know that the price differences are only $10-20, but those savings add up. If your Haswell CPU is $20 cheaper and your H97 motherboard is $20 cheaper, you just saved an extra $40 that can go towards an even better GPU or more hard disk storage or a faster SSD to name a few.

The only benchmark that Slylake excels in is Bitcoin mining. Other than that, %10-15. That's not as fast as you think.
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It looks fine, you'll be very happy with the performance. I would wait on purchasing a GPU, though, the RX480 is around the corner and it'll only cost $200. I'd also recommend an H97 motherboard unless you plan on later upgrading to an over clocking capable i5-4690k or i7-4790k. If you upgrade to a "K" CPU later, you'll want that Z97 board. If not, H97 is perfect for you.

 

It's good, but wait on the GPU. RX480 has 980 performance for $200. Also get an H97 board, Z97 is pointless without a K CPU.

 

Ok, thanks.

Out of curiosity, how would a pc with an intel i5 6500 w/ 8 gb of ram and no gpu do running BeamNG?
I am building this computer for other uses, but thought it might be interesting to give BeamNG a shot on it.

 

Not very well, BeamNG can gpu bottleneck on any graphics card so integrated won't do very well.

 

What do you mean by not very well? I'm used to running Beam with an AMD Phenom 2 x4 with only 4 gb ram. (however, I do have a dedicated gpu, a Radeon 6800 on that machine, which, while it may be old, is still better than intel integrated graphics)
Also, the monitor I will be using is one of these...will the low resolution (and 4:3 aspect ratio) make it any easier to run?

 

Skylake's iGPUs are fairly good, around what a GT 730 is IIRC, and plenty of prebuilt manufacturers call those gaming rigs. I'd guess at a low resolution like that, you could get 60 at low settings at gridmap, maybe nearly 30 at low settings on a more vegetated map.

 

Well it will run on low with a couple of cars and while not unplayable it probably won't be ideal, especially on the more detailed maps.

 

Wow. That looks pretty damn good. Actually a bit cheaper than my set up. I'll save this one. The 4460 is rated slightly higher than the 6500 however.

I noticed that. It won't be for another month or two anyways. I need to rebuilt my bank account after rebuilding the electrical system in the Merc.

I have to wait a month or so anyways to save up my cash for this build. Hopefully I can find a RX480 or GTX1060 when the time comes.

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My budget this summer is probably about $850. I have a monitor, keyboard and mouse already. More of a preliminarily build than anything, to see what my budget will buy me. Have to decide whether to stick with the older, cheaper stuff or move up to the new generation stuff at the loss of SOME performance.