The PC thread

[Prog Snob]

I think the main problem is just Microsoft's forced penetration to get you to switch. I haven't heard any big complaints post-upgrade, just the usual minor driver issues.

I'm still rockin' Windows 7, which I'll run into the ground first. I usually don't switch until the new versions of my software demand it.

I hear that. I ran Windows XP until it was a complete necessity to upgrade, tried Windows 7 for a bit, but now I bounce between different Linux distros. I still have a handful of different OSes running as VMs.

[cramx3]

I think the main problem is just Microsoft's forced penetration to get you to switch. I haven't heard any big complaints post-upgrade, just the usual minor driver issues.

I'm still rockin' Windows 7, which I'll run into the ground first. I usually don't switch until the new versions of my software demand it.

I didn't really like how Microsoft was handling this as well either, but after holding out for the longest amount of time for the free upgrade, I finally caved.  This also gave them time to fix OS bugs after release, but from most accounts it worked well for everyone which is actually pretty amazing for Microsoft.

[faizoff]

As much as a homer I am for Windows OS, the way MS handled their push for a free upgrade was downright piss poor and extremely shitty. I don't think I would've put up with that shit if I hadn't already upgraded.

[Cyclopssss]

Annndddd the keyboard problems are back. After working fine for almost a week. I can't get the pc to start up in Bios.

[cramx3]

Annndddd the keyboard problems are back. After working fine for almost a week. I can't get the pc to start up in Bios.

Both keyboards?

[Prog Snob]

Annndddd the keyboard problems are back. After working fine for almost a week. I can't get the pc to start up in Bios.

What kind of message do you get? Do you get any beep codes?

[Cyclopssss]

No codes. When I start the pc the light on the keyboard blinks on for a while, during which I dont' get any startup screen, just black. after a while the light on the keyboards goes out, and the log-in screen comes on. I' ll try to unplug everything and try to boot up again and hope it'll boot in Bios or something.

I'm writing this from work, btw.

[jasc15]

Err... it happened again.  I knew a few months ago I figured it out somehow, but I totally forgot.  Good thing this thread is still around.

Err... Same shit this time.  Totally forgot about this..

So after getting hung up in the same spot 3 times, I spent a few minutes browsing some forums and saw a recommendation to disconnect all SATA drives except the boot drive and to uninstall any anti-virus software.  That did the trick.

[cramx3]

So I got my GTX 1080 and new case for my PC yesterday and spent the evening moving out of my old case and into the new one with the new graphics card.  I got it operational last night but with poor cable management on the inside since I was getting tired and making mistakes that I didn't want to take the time to properly fix.  I called out of work today to continue work on it and fixed all my issues from last night.  I've got some good pictures and whatnot and when I am done I plan on releasing a youtube video on what I did (if it came out alright).  Either way, I'll share some pics when I get a chance, but I played Battlefield 1 on ultra and it was sooooo much better than my GTX 770 could do.  It was a real significant improvement on the graphics. 

[faizoff]

Awesome, can't wait to see pictures of the new build and congrats! I had a morning scare today when I booted up my desktop and got a dreaded error that no disk found, my BIOS wouldn't detect any of my hard drives! And I have a total of six (2 are SSDs!) I think my SATA ports are dying. I managed to boot up with just the OS Drive on by testing out each port, I have an 8 SATA port mobo. I managed to put all drives back but I believe 2 are faulty, any drive connected to it doesn't get detected. What a pain it was to reboot and test each port out but at least my drives are safe. Not counting the OS drive that would've meant 12 TB of data lost!!!

[Prog Snob]

Share those photos, dammit!   

[cramx3]

Check out my video on the installation
https://youtu.be/MLk5bKvmhY8

Noticed a HUGE difference in Battlefield 1 with smoothness and a ridiculous amount of more detail when running it in ulta 

[Prog Snob]

I'm facetiously angry that you didn't invite me over to help put that together. I would have came all over it a few times anyway. Good call on your part.

[cramx3]

I'm facetiously angry that you didn't invite me over to help put that together. I would have came all over it a few times anyway. Good call on your part.

And yes, that is more than enough reason to know it was a good call. 

[Jester]

I need to get a better GPU.  I don't really play PC games all that much, but I did just get a 55" 4K TV and made it my monitor.  Didn't think I'd ever do that, but then somebody in a review talked about being able to have 4+ windows open equivalent to 4 27" monitors.  And then when you want to watch some video on break, you push your office chair back a bit and enjoy.

Currently, it is running fine, but now with Black Friday coming up, the idea of actually playing some PC games on this thing is starting to sound tempting.  I doubt I will go GTX1080 however.  I just can't bring myself to spend that type of money for an area in the PC market that still drops in price so quickly.

[cramx3]

Want a GTX 770?  I'm considering selling mine.  The problem for you though, is that to truly utilize a 4k monitor you'll need a good GPU.  Better than my old 770.  Maybe something in the 900 series is good for you, but I'm not sure.

[Jester]

I'm looking at the Radeon RX470 or RX480 or something like the GTX1060.  Basically around the $180 to $240 mark.  I chose that because I have $200 in gift cards so WTF.  The big limiting factor is I'd like to have a few HDMi outputs instead of the almost all DisplayPort options simply because that allows me to keep my other monitors without adapters.

I'm really out of it when it comes to what makes a good GPU these days.  From what I've heard, 4k gaming with any significant settings is actually pretty demanding even for your GTX1080.  I honestly don't even know much about the GTX770.  It would be nice if big model number equals more powah!!!

Which reminds me.  I have to break out a tape measure and check the clearance in my case.  I have a full tower, but like yours, it means it has drive bays from top to bottom.  I'm not sure what dimensions are given in GPU specs.  From the edge of the display connectors to the end? I've heard some of these cards require the drive bays to come out.

I haven't played serious PC games in, well, since the Xbox360 came out.  So the GPU options are pretty overwhelming to me right now.

[cramx3]

If you have a full sized tower, then I'd imagine you have the room for a large GPU.

I don't know enough about the Radeon brand to offer any tips.  I'm kind of an nvidia (intel) guy.

[Jester]

I've heard points for AMD and Intel on the GPU front.  My CPU is Intel and quite frankly, after starting with a Cyrix and then moving to AMD and now Intel on the CPU front, I definitely love my Intel CPU.  I'd also always wondered if matching CPU to GPU, while not necessary, has some benefits.  I've been very lucky with my current build that everything played well together.  So that is another reason I worry about screwing up the GPU choice.

What is it about Intel/Nvidia that has you going that route.  I think I read that Nvidia's are more energy efficient than AMD's.

[cramx3]

For me, it was initially based on reviews when I built my first PC years ago.  The intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs were more highly rated so I went that route.  The AMD was a better price for specs, but were just not as well reviewed by the tech community.  Not shooting down AMD, I believe the same reviews alls aid AMD processors were very good, just not as good.  Then overtime through upgrades I just kept with Intel because I never had issues and had positive experiences. 

[Jester]

What places online do you frequent for some GPU reviews and recommendations?  I've always had good luck with Maximum PC (now PC Gamer).  I've stumbled across others but haven't formed a lasting opinion on them:

GPU Boss (I like the layout and A/B'ing, but the comments seem to suggest they are biased)

Videocardbenchmark.net also seems like a good place to get bearings on where the current hierarchy stands.

I've known about PCpartpicker for years now.  Supposedly it is more about getting parts that work together.

What do you use?

[cramx3]

I used to be a subscriber to Maximum PC and used their reviews to build what is my current PC (the mobo/cpu is about 6 years old now).  But I hardly follow anything specific anymore for comparisons and just stick with what I like/know.  For example, the gtx 1080 I read a few reviews (which were all extremely positive) but not from a specific source and I didn't do a comparison, I had my mind set actually before they even released the GPU that I would get the next model for my upgrade.

[faizoff]

I have an old AMD Radeon 6870 XFX GPU. It's not bad now, I can play most of the PC games on ultra resolution. When I bought it at the time in 2011 it was in the top 3 cards AMD had to offer, I will at some point have to go for a better card if I'm to switch over to 4K monitors. I don't have a preference for one over the other and might just do nVidia next go. I bought the AMD card purely for price, it came with 3 games that I sold off and had a deep discount so I think I ended up spending just around $100 for it.

@cramx3, that setup looks sweet! Much better cable management than mine. I was initially very hesitant to get a full ATX case as it's much bigger than I imagined it to be. Your layout looks exactly like mine internally as well. Have fun gaming!

[cramx3]

I have an old AMD Radeon 6870 XFX GPU. It's not bad now, I can play most of the PC games on ultra resolution. When I bought it at the time in 2011 it was in the top 3 cards AMD had to offer, I will at some point have to go for a better card if I'm to switch over to 4K monitors. I don't have a preference for one over the other and might just do nVidia next go. I bought the AMD card purely for price, it came with 3 games that I sold off and had a deep discount so I think I ended up spending just around $100 for it.

@cramx3, that setup looks sweet! Much better cable management than mine. I was initially very hesitant to get a full ATX case as it's much bigger than I imagined it to be. Your layout looks exactly like mine internally as well. Have fun gaming!

Yea the new case was great for cable management, something that my old case (as you can see) was not as good with.  I'm really satisfied with my rig atm.  Not just from performance but visually as well.  The EVGA GTX 1080 I got has LEDs that you can customize so everything is all flashly looking as well.  I can't wait to get laid due to this. 

[Jester]

Sale time.  Ended up buying the RX480.  I know it isn't as good as the Titan or GTX1080, but that's ok.  Maybe I will buy more games when Steam sales roll around now.

I've only played strategy games on my computer like Civ5 for the most part these past few years, so now I have to figure out what type of game controllers to consider.

Now I don't need an Xbox One or PS4.

I had some gift cards, Black Friday sales, needed to take advantage of this 4k monitor so I figured WTF.

TBH, I was looking to upgrade my Quickbooks software, but that really isn't coming off as a Black Friday deal.  It was the more prudent choice, so I guess this forced me to spend money on the fun side of my computer for once.

[cramx3]

I think my brother saw my new case and GPU and decided he was going to do upgrades.  I don't know the models off my head, but he dropped like 2k on computer parts.  His initial 800 build of new motherboard/CPU/RAM/NVMe SSD but then he spent a ton on a 32 inch 4k monitor.  He hasn't done the new build yet, but the monitor is beautiful and making me drool a bit.

[faizoff]

Yeah I was looking at some 4K monitors and said to myself how awesome would it be get two of these 43" monitors side by side....    https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0JC-0004-004D2

 maybe one day hopefully.

[ReaperKK]

Goddamn that is a big monitor. I'm still happy with 23" monitor

[BlobVanDam]

My 24" monitor is as big as I'd want for normal sitting distance. I'd only want bigger if you're gaming or viewing things from more like couch distance with other people.
Plus my current graphics card can't even game at 1920x1200 let alone 4K.

[cramx3]

Yeah I was looking at some 4K monitors and said to myself how awesome would it be get two of these 43" monitors side by side....    https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0JC-0004-004D2

 maybe one day hopefully.

yea I dont know, I think that's too big.

For my brother's 32 inch.  Im very borderline on "is it too big?".  It seems that way because his desk is small, but I think a 32 inch would be the max I can do for a monitor, but my desk is big enough for me to place it further back.  I was thinking dual 28 inch might be the sweet spot, but the reality is if I keep dual, then only one monitor is 4k and the other is probably one of my current monitors.

[faizoff]

With the 43" monitors it will definitely require a change in how close you sit, I measured it out and I'd be fine with the width but the height would be a pain. I currently have two 28" monitors and they are great. They span about 50" wide so I could instead do two of these 34" curved monitors. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260239


They would span a combined width of 65" which is kinda crazy but I think I could do it. The height of the monitors would be the same so it should be ok.   

[Jester]

Yeah I was looking at some 4K monitors and said to myself how awesome would it be get two of these 43" monitors side by side....    https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0JC-0004-004D2

 maybe one day hopefully.

I'm going to go against the "too big" grain.  And it is very simple and demonstrated in the very pic of that monitor. It put four windows open on one monitor.  Not four compromised windows, but four windows that are the equivalent to a full window on a single monitor each.  But no bezel interruptions.  And if I want one "virtual" monitor bigger than the other three, no problem.   Movie/TV/Game time - one big screen.  Actually, I play Civ on 2/3 of the screen and have the other 1/6 and 1/6 with something like a browser, email or other open on the side now.  And you don't have four power plugs and four DP/HDMI plugs coming out the back. 

I went big and I don't know what I'm going to do with my previous 3 monitor setup.  I feel like you right now.  If I want a 2nd monitor now (or go to a 4+4 virtual monitor), I'd probably get a second large 4k monitor of the same size.  This feels like when I first went multi-monitor.  Every time I went back to a small monitor computer, it felt so limiting.

Another thing I did was make the Windows 10 start pin menu like a big iphone tablet screen.  Any time I push the start menu button, my entire screen has every single program or link in an organized icon view.  Kind of like a desktop filled with shortcuts, but I can bring it up and down (and out of the way) with the push of a single button.

[Jester]

One thing to consider with 4k is your default text size will be 1/4th the size (or 1/2 the height) as your 1080p monitor settings.  Yes, you can change the default text size, but sometimes that doesn't play nice with other programs.  For example, drop down menus might stay the same width, but the increasing of the text size will mean less characters fitting in the same pixel width.

Although, your second monitor choice is more like a 1440p extended width monitor as opposed to a 4k 2160p monitor.  So 1080 to 1440 is not as big of a jump.  I'd keep the ratios the same no matter which route you take so the pixels per distance align with what you have now.  This would mean it is like literally just adding extra pixels to the side and top of your monitor for more viewing but essentially the same resolution to your eye.

[faizoff]

Yeah I would like to actually see in person a 4K resolution for that size a monitor. The DPI scaling will definitely be wonky throughout if coding is not done to accommodate scale. And I didn't realize the 32" screens were 1440p.
Anyways I'm probably not going to get a new set of monitors for a few years now but thought I'd take a look and see what all models were out there.

[cramx3]

Yea I haven't looked into it much myself to know enough about the details of 4k monitors since I haven't considered buying one yet.  Now that my brother bought his, and I can see with my own eyes how nice it looks, I will probably start looking into it for next year, but I'm not even sure I know what a good size is yet.  That 32 inch is still debateable for me.  Sure it means more space on screen and I can eliminate a second physical monitor, but I kind of like having the second physical one.