KSP1 Computer Building/Buying Megathread

[Galacticruler]

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Galacticruler/saved/

I made the last list for the lolz.

[Duke23]

I just wanted to say my graphics card is... Um... How do I keep it PG? Nevermind. I was having system freezes before for "apparently" no reason. Now I'm not. Why? I underclocked my graphics card (-105 in Afterburner) and now everything has been running perfectly fine for weeks. I could probably bump it up to almost where it was before and get away with it, but I just don't feel like it at least until I start playing a game it won't run smoothly at 1080p Ultra settings. Guess that's what I get for buying a card with a factory overclock, go figure. I kind of suspected it was the graphics card but I didn't expect it to be a problem with the core clock at stock settings.

[Camacha]

Is your cooler seated properly and are your temperatures okay? It is not unheard that those are knocked loose sometimes or even that someone left a sticker between the chip and cooler in the factory.

[Duke23]

Is your cooler seated properly and are your temperatures okay? It is not unheard that those are knocked loose sometimes or even that someone left a sticker between the chip and cooler in the factory.

Didn't see this... Yes, temperatures are fine. I've got the fans tweaked so that it never goes above ~60-65C and everything physical seems solid.

[briansun1]

I say the right one is rendered.

[Camacha]

http://still-stream-2288.herokuapp.com/study/https://i.imgur.com/RiKuTMF.jpg

I say the right one is rendered.

I would say the one on the left, since people who makes these kinds of comparisons generally pick photographs that have a weird look to them to prove a point.

Fun fact: a lot of the Ikea catalogue nowadays is full-on CGI. They trained their photographers to become 3D artists and vice versa. They have been experimenting with it for years, but the tipping point came when the pictures department got a lot of heat for those bad CGI renders - all the bad ones turned out to be pictures and the good ones CGI. I have known about this for a while now, but turned up an interesting article not too long ago: read all about it.

[cantab]

I reckon the left too. The shadow of the lamp doesn't look right. Also both have grubby mirrors, but dirtying up and then cleaning after the larger mirror would be more work.

[impwarhamer]

Hey guys, I bought a desktop pc about a year ago for gaming via one of those PC-builder companies. I managed to find all the important parts here: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/CcgHpg (btw the graphics card is a different brand, but it's still a GTX650 1gb)

Anyway, I've been thinking of upgrading the graphics card something a bit more powerful since I have the money, and I think I understand now how I would check for compatibility and install it.

My only problem is I don't know how to choose between the 30 billion graphics cards out there. Has anyone got any suggestions, weather it be graphics card or something else. I can probably afford anywhere up to around £600.

(my PSU is 550 watts if that needs upgrading to)

[Camacha]

Looking at your budget the big question is what you want to do. The only way to answer such a question is to look at what you want to do to see what is possible. To help, you need to answer a couple of things. The more specific you are, the better it is.

- Are there any specific games you want to play? If so, at what settings, resolution and what framerates? This will be the main deciding factor in what card to get, along with the budget.

- Are there any other things that are relevant like the ports it has? Do you need other specific technologies?

- Is power consumption important? And related, what brand and model PSU have you got? Brand and model is more important than wattage!

- Do you want to get busy with other applications like mining, rendering or video editing?

- Is noise a factor?

- What size is your case i.e. how much room is there for the card?

[impwarhamer]

Thanks, for replying!

ok, i'l try answer these questions.

1- I wouldn't say there where any specific games, but I'm currently running on mid settings for most things at around 30fps, so it would be nice to increase that. That said, star citizen is on the horizon, and I would also like to be running elite:dangerous on max considering how beautiful it is. Also, there is the prospect of either a second monitor or an oculus which I will definitely buy on release.

2-(ok bear with me hear, i'm fairly new to this) So I think I have a PCIexpress port (if that's what you want). Here's a better source for my exact motherboard if it helps: http://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/P8H61MX_R20/

3- power isn't an issue if you mean I don't mind buying a new PSU. I don't know the current power consumption, I guess I better go find that out. The brand is win power, but I can't find the model. It's rather peculiar since it doesn't actually seem to have a fan inbuilt.

4- currently I do use my computer for rendering and video editing, but I don't class that as an issue as I can leave renders overnight if need be, or do it whilst playing less intensive games.

5- I wouldn't care if you put a jet turbine in there if it meant more power

6- My case is fairly spacious but I am a little worried about longer cards. I've done some exterior rough measurements though (see-though plastic on side of case) and i think i could fit even some of the bigger 10.5 inch nvidia cards. Obviously before buying one I'd open up the thing and double check though.

[R0cketC0der]

With that budget I'd go with a gtx 980. It costs about 450£ and is the strongest single-GPU gaming card currently available. It can run pretty much any game currently available at max settings in 1080p. It will be fine with the 550w psu as long as it has 2 6-pin connectors. I'm not sure whether 10.5 inches are enough though.

[impwarhamer]

I thought about getting something like that, but would it be to overkill considering my cpu?

Also, i finally found my PSU online (turns out fan was on the bottom): https://digitalpromo.co.uk/winpower-plus-550w-20-4pin-120mm-fan-psu-in-black-boxed.html#product_tabs_description_tabbed

how can I find out how many connectors it has?

[R0cketC0der]

The CPU will be fine with a gtx 980. However the psu doesn't seem to have any 6-pin power connectors, so you should buy a new one. You could also use MOLEX to 6-pin adapters, but that isn't advisable as most PSUs aren't build to deliver a lot of power over MOLEX.

[impwarhamer]

that's interesting, i thought my current gtx650 uses a 6 pin?

Also, if I need a new PSU, anyone know any good ones? I have literally no idea on how to judge them except on power output.

Edited September 20, 2014 by impwarhamer

[Red Iron Crown]

Seasonic and Corsair are generally well thought of among power supply manufacturers.

A specification you might not think to check is weight. Good quality power supplies are heavier than poor quality ones for a given power output.

[R0cketC0der]

That power supply certainly has no 6-pin connector. Most likely the gtx 650 is using an adapter.

Add to which power supply to choose, Techquickie has a nice video on what criteria to look at:

The corsair CX series CX500M, seems to be a good quality cheap 500 watt power supply, which should be enough.

[impwarhamer]

Ok, so at the moment I'm looking at that corsair power supply you linked (600 watt version though cus it's cheaper than the 500 watt for some reason), and I guess the new gtx 980?

My only real concern here is that I'l be wasting my money on an amazing graphics card when I'd be better off getting a less powerful cheaper one and a better cpu for the same price.

I apologise if I'm being pedantic, but it's a lot of money to just blow if I'm not sure.

[cantab]

For the majority of games the GPU upgrade will make a bigger impact. Here's a benchmark comparison of your CPU with a couple of others you might upgrade to (without needing to upgrade the motherboard):

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=822&cmp[]=828&cmp[]=2

Not much difference to the faster i5, and the i7 will only really shine in heavily multithreaded stuff, many games won't take full advantage. KSP is one of the few games that does hit the CPU much harder than the GPU, but for KSP you need to specifically look at the single-threaded performance, and your current processor's about as good as you'll get at stock speeds on that.

Now here's a comparison of the graphics cards:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2155&cmp[]=2953

The numbers speak for themselves.

[impwarhamer]

alight then, I guess I'l get the 980!

I'll probably get them at some point tomorrow, just gonna leave this here unless anyone has anything else to say.

[JackCY]

that's interesting, i thought my current gtx650 uses a 6 pin?

Also, if I need a new PSU, anyone know any good ones? I have literally no idea on how to judge them except on power output.

I would forward you here for info and advice on good power supplies.

And the forum in general for advice on building a PC.

What are you building and what is your budget?

[impwarhamer]

I'm upgrading my graphics card (and by extension my PSU), with a budget of around £600

currently I'm looking at the gtx 980, although currently I'm comparing it to the 780

[Camacha]

The GTX980 is powerful, but it is nice to actually use all that power. On what resolution do you play? And, also important, what kind of connectors does your monitor have?

[JackCY]

You have 780 and upgrading to 980? Pointless. Plus you wouldn't need new PSU.

If you're buying a new GPU, either get a 970 or 980 if you want to pay so much more for little more performance, they are the same card essentially unlike 770 and 780.

PSU a good 550-650W is enough for single GPU. I would buy either some 650W from the list linked above or get EVGA 750 G2.

Another option is to get second hand GPUs (280x, 290, 290x) which tend to outperform in price/performance almost anything even the newly released 970 which does offer a good ratio.

Although since 970 and 980 is new they don't cost as they should and most shops I have seen so far mark them up by $30-$200.

In Europe especially, I've seen 970 sold for $500 instead of lets say $375 that would be the level of 770.

Yeah lol, EVGA 970 for $550, screw 'em.

Wait for prices to settle down and shops have enough stock. If they can't stock the cards due to bad supply they will keep the prices up.

I have a second hand 280x, 3 months old when I got it for 60% of a price of new. Especially when mining people sell cards they tend to drop the second hand price a lot. I got mine from a gamer who didn't like CF or some such.

I imagine now people will be getting rid of older GPUs maybe some of the 770s and 780s will see second hand dirt cheap.

So if money is rare that is something to look for, for people who upgrade to Maxwell from the previous generation of top tier GPUs (770, 780, 280x, 290, 290x) and buy one cheap, or even two for the price of one 970 or 980.

Although it's pointless to upgrade to Maxwell if one has 290, 290x, 780, 780Ti, Titan, ... The performance gain compared to 980 is negligible. Mostly I think people who hold 2 or more generations old GPUs (early Kepler GK104 680 = 770 and older) will now upgrade with all the hype they made up around Maxwell so far, until AMD kicks in with their release.

Nvidia lacks free sync so far, which is a standard agreed upon, Nvidia gave into it and will support it, although it's a question when since even all features marketed with Maxwell are not yet available so they are kind of selling a rabbit in bag, you buy something but who knows what really. They are slow with updating drivers. Nvidia has Gsync but it's proprietary to Nvidia and not open to others I think and wasn't standardized.

Free sync is adaptive sync that is VESA and displayport standard now, which should make it much easier and worthwhile for monitor makers to adopt instead of proprietary Gsync which has so far been limited to a couple of monitors not even worth buying.

Edited September 22, 2014 by JackCY

[Red Iron Crown]

I don't think either nVidia or AMD support Adaptive Sync yet. It'll be good once the tech gets widely adopted but for now it shouldn't affect purchase decisions. AFAIK existing video cards could be made to support it via driver updates, it's the monitors that need different hardware.

[cantab]

You have 780 and upgrading to 980? Pointless. Plus you wouldn't need new PSU.

Warhammer has a GTX 650. I assumed the basic one, but even if it's the 650 Ti or TI Boost, an upgrade to a good new GPU will be a significant one.