The Power PC Thread [f*ck off consoles]

[Lal B3N]

It's on my list of "wants".
950 Pro from Samsung, not that expensive as you say and 3-4x faster than the 850 Evo. Wonder whether/where I'd notice the speed difference though.

Yeah just been looking at the 950 Pro for £144 in 256gb then ditching one of my SSDs and only having one for my Steam games.

 

[Darren S]

Anyone rocking M.2 SSD? My new board supports it so quite fancy it for the OS. 2100MB read and 1250MB write speeds sound great. Not very expensive now either.

Got our first works laptop last week featuring an M.2 drive. Only 128GB in size, but more than ample for what it will be used for.

I have to say that it's pretty quick. And having the traditional SATA bay totally empty allows for easy storage upgrades in the future.

 

[Andy.]

Build time!

 

[James28]

Nothing more exciting than when you have all the bits in their sexy packaging ready to build lol

 

[Andy.]

Agree! It's even nicer when it all starts up first time too! Just doing the Win8 - Win10 install/ upgrade.

 

[Andy.]

Finished.... Finally tidied up the cables to close the case up and it wouldn't boot anymore. It turned out to be a broken SATA cable. All up and running now and currently redoing some old COD titles. It's so much nicer to play FPS with a mouse and keyboard instead of on the Xbox.

 

[The Boosh!]

Would love to get in to this, but would have no idea where to start with it all.

 

[Amos91]

You got enough hard drives there?

 

[GiT]

Would love to get in to this, but would have no idea where to start with it all.

Really? It's actually in all honesty pretty simple. Build yourself a PC for £1000 and it'll not need any work for years

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Really? It's actually in all honesty pretty simple. Build yourself a PC for £1000 and it'll not need any work for years :smile:

Whilst I agree it's simple to put together, it's just like cars. If you have no idea then it can be quite intimidating.

Don't agree with your quote. £1000 buys a pretty mediocre setup if you're starting from nothing. It would still be better than nothing I suppose.

 

[GiT]

Whilst I agree it's simple to put together, it's just like cars. If you have no idea then it can be quite intimidating.

Don't agree with your quote. £1000 buys a pretty mediocre setup if you're starting from nothing. It would still be better than nothing I suppose.

Power PC, yes, £1000 is very low... but a really sound PC for Gaming with SSDs and lots of Ram+Memory... £1k is perfectly fine.

 

[Andy.]

Would love to get in to this, but would have no idea where to start with it all.

It's just grown ups lego. You can't really go wrong, and you get so much more value for money than buying something off the shelf, especially if you have some components already, it also makes subsequent upgrades a lot cheaper too.

You got enough hard drives there?

All are either 1 or 2GB too... I have over 3TB of photos and video from over the years, plus various backups etc.

(It's really just p**n)

Everything in this build was new except the HDD and PSU and it only cost around £700, for another hundred I could have had a much better graphics card, but I play on the XBONE more these days and didn't really want to invest much more in the PC that was mainly going to be editing photos and videos.

Spec:
Intel Core i5-6600K
MSI Z170A GAMING PRO - Motherboard
Scythe Mugen 4 PCGH cooler
MSI GTX 960 Graphics card .4GB
16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666MHz DDR4 RAM
Fractal Design R5 case.

 

[McGherkin]

Would love to get in to this, but would have no idea where to start with it all.

I did it. Nuff said.
These days it's really all plug and play. So long as you keep yourself earthed, you're cushty.

 

[Gareth]

Its all relative tbh, i want to upgrade my main desktop and all it needs is motherboard / cpu / ram / m.2 ssd and thats roughly a £1000. Whereas a little while back i built a mini-ATX machine from nothing for the same money which whilst not graphically, is easily the most powerful machine i currently have and will easily out-pace any current gen console.

 

[Darren S]

Would love to get in to this, but would have no idea where to start with it all.

It's really more straight-forward these days. Any self-respecting PC specialist would be able to advice on parts face-to-face as well. Get a budget and a quote together and we can give it a once over. The build part is great to get stuck in with - strangely relaxing and therapeutic!

Just be clear on what you want the PC to do. Is it mainly for games? Or general web browsing and a bit of work chucked in? Which way you head will vastly dictate the price.

 

[Darren S]

You got enough hard drives there?

Looking at it, he's done RAID-0 (or 1?) for the top pair for speed or redundancy. And the bottom three are in RAID-5?

Pure guess-work though! :tongueout:

 

[GiT]

Looking at it, he's done RAID-0 (or 1?) for the top pair for speed or redundancy. And the bottom three are in RAID-5?

Pure guess-work though! :tongueout:

A PC like that, I doubt the HDDs are in Raid - O/S SSDs though would ideally be (Mine are). But who knows (Except him lol)

 

[Silent_Scone]

Little point running RAID0 these days.

 

[GiT]

Little point running RAID0 these days.

No? How so?

 

[Wilkeh]

No? How so?

'Cause SSD's are just so good there's no real need.

 

[GiT]

'Cause SSD's are just so good there's no real need.

But you can double your speed or more with Raid0...

 

[Archtronics]

We have our work pc's setup with ssd's in Raid 0. Much faster when your dealing with 14 gig files.

 

[Silent_Scone]

Real world performance gains are minimal day to day. A decent M.2 PCIE SSD is all you need. Most end users won't benefit from anything better.

 

[Gareth]

So I finally decided to upgrade my base build, I've decided to go with the ASUS Maximus VIII Formula board this time around rather than the Extreme version mainly due to it having the EK waterblock. I'm going with the staple 6700k, 32GB G.Skill memory and a Samsung 512GB M.2. I've ordered a new CPU block also and spent all day yesterday draining my two water loops and stripping the PC right down cleaning all the components ready for the kit arriving on Tuesday, I've also got to remove the waterblocks from the current motherboard and hopefully re-fit the original blocks for use in another machine (if I've got all the required screws etc!)

 

[Silent_Scone]

So I finally decided to upgrade my base build, I've decided to go with the ASUS Maximus VIII Formula board this time around rather than the Extreme version mainly due to it having the EK waterblock. I'm going with the staple 6700k, 32GB G.Skill memory and a Samsung 512GB M.2. I've ordered a new CPU block also and spent all day yesterday draining my two water loops and stripping the PC right down cleaning all the components ready for the kit arriving on Tuesday, I've also got to remove the waterblocks from the current motherboard and hopefully re-fit the original blocks for use in another machine (if I've got all the required screws etc!)

Formula is a great board. I've dropped X99 for my gaming system and gone ITX with the Impact. Impact is a beast, especially with memory. 8 layer PCB (most high end boards are 6, lower tier 4). 4200Mhz on DRAM no issue assuming the IMC is capable. In short, it's actually the most capable ASUS board available and also the smallest. Assuming you do not require the extra PCIE slots for additional devices.

Just waiting on pump, not sure what GPU yet.

 

[Gareth]

Ha, I've got the impact as well, its actually the reason I decided my main PC is long overdue a board / CPU upgrade.

 

[Silent_Scone]

It's an epic board

 

[Gareth]

It's an epic board

Yeah it really is, mine is installed in a Corsair 250D and its an awesome powerhouse. I've had a quiet day today so managed to get mine built with the formula board, its lightyears ahead of the Extreme III its replaced. I'm doing an overnight leak test just to be safe, but i'll try and get some pics up soon.

 

[Silent_Scone]

My Phanteks build was leaking all over the shop but managed to sort it fairly quickly lol. So little room to work with.

I've just smacked a 680 GTX 4GB Classified in there as an interim card, doesn't do too badly in truth.

 

[Gareth]

Some pics of the main rig going back together:

And some of the little beast:

 

[Darren S]

Yeah it really is, mine is installed in a Corsair 250D and its an awesome powerhouse. I've had a quiet day today so managed to get mine built with the formula board, its lightyears ahead of the Extreme III its replaced. I'm doing an overnight leak test just to be safe, but i'll try and get some pics up soon.

Still unsure what to swap my Extreme III out for at the minute. Falling into that trap of waiting for the next gen. Then the next gen - and so on!

 

[Wilkeh]

@Gareth that looks absolutely immense mate. I really want to do a full custom loop this year but I honestly don't know where to begin. Any sites you would recommend?

 

[Gareth]

I know what you mean mate, I've decided to just go for it. The Extreme III has gone back to air cooled in the Wife's machine although I did have to bend some of the internal framework to get it to fit even though the case was meant to be fine for ATX!

 

[Gareth]

@Gareth that looks absolutely immense mate. I really want to do a full custom loop this year but I honestly don't know where to begin. Any sites you would recommend?

I haven't been on there for a while, but the best I came across was: http://family.million-dollar-pc.com/ last time I was on it was invite only I believe, if you need any help getting on let me know and I'll see if I can get you added if required.

 

[Darren S]

I know what you mean mate, I've decided to just go for it. The Extreme III has gone back to air cooled in the Wife's machine although I did have to bend some of the internal framework to get it to fit even though the case was meant to be fine for ATX!

But you haven't helped in going for an ITX beastie as well! Those thoughts of downsizing have crossed my mind too. I'm not exactly short of space - but I don't really need a case resembling the black obelisk from Stanley Kubrick's 2001, either.

I guess having two graphics cards and the upcoming potential of DX12 makes me favour the usual full size setup. But I'm getting married in August, so any thoughts of spending have to be postponed anyway!

 

[Gareth]

I've had the little build about a year and a half I think (time goes by so fast!) And its amazing for its size, really packs a punch even with the 760 I think it is that's in there. If I wasn't watercooling still I'd definitely downsize. I basically have to partially build my main rig downstairs, then take it upstairs to fill it with fluid as once filled and altogether I'd never get it up or down the staircase (good for anti-theft I suppose, lol), not sure how much it weighs, but its certainly in excess of 35kg+, the iTX build I can obviously carry with one hand.

 

[SharkyUK]

But I'm getting married in August, so any thoughts of spending have to be postponed anyway! :smile:

If she really loves you, she'd understand... :tonguewink:

 

[Wilkeh]

I haven't been on there for a while, but the best I came across was: http://family.million-dollar-pc.com/ last time I was on it was invite only I believe, if you need any help getting on let me know and I'll see if I can get you added if required.

Cheers mate I'll check it out

Yours is exactly what I'm after. What's the block? (Honestly I'm completely new to WC)

 

[Silent_Scone]

ITX is the way forward.

Garath, good choice in RAM.


P.S

http://www.overclock.net/t/1569364/official-skylake-haswell-e-24-7-ddr4-memory-stability-thread/0_40

 

[Gareth]

Cheers mate I'll check it out :smile:

Yours is exactly what I'm after. What's the block? (Honestly I'm completely new to WC) :smile:

The CPU block? https://www.scan.co.uk/products/ek-supremacy-evo-red-edition

The motherboard block comes with the board and is by EK also (the best in the business so its no surprise they are on motherboards and GPUs these days)