Sherdog PC Build/Buy Thread, v5: Stop Thinking of Your Router as a Peripheral

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Mick, I need your wireless networking expertise.

Home size: 2000sqft with a steady 10 devices connected
Modem: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=07JTPC3FABSW7HH554EJ
Current Router(don't laugh): http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WR...qid=1420059612&sr=1-2&keywords=tp+link+router
Internet: Comcast 100Mb
Problems: Slow, inconsistent coverage, weak signal that drops in and out. I'm downloading at 15Mb/s at the far end of the house, 30Mb/s halfway, 90Mb/s next to the router.

What would you suggest?
 
http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8268s-clevo-p150sma-p-6987.html

Hey guys, I've had my hands on my new Sager for about a week and a half but I haven't had much time to dedicate to it due to holidays and family events. But after tweaking everything, benchmarking, and testing games, I can say I'm very very satisfied with my investment.

I picked it up with an total of 16GB of Ram, Windows 8, a CPU&GPU overclocking package, and I installed a 1TB SSD. It has ran everything I've thrown at it at max settings and resolution (1940x1080), which includes Crysis1, Skyrim, CoD MW2, and even Starcraft 2 as long as there isn't two HUGE armies going at it (in which case, some slowdown is excusable with hundreds of moving objects on screen).

My only real complaint is, actually somewhat my miscommunication with XoticPC, but mostly their fault. The laptop is advertised in the link above to house three hard drives, and they're all pictured to be the exact same size. Upon attempting to install my SSD into the vacant HD slot, I saw it was for a piece that was much smaller than my SSD could slide in. Upon a call to customer service I was told that slot for for a MSATA SSD, which was the same size as the 125GB boot drive, and my SSD was the same size as the HDD that was included, and I'd have to remove the HDD to install the SSD. So instead of having a boot drive with a 1TB SSD for games and a 1TB HDD for video and everything else, I'm just going to have to be satisfied with the boot drive and 1TB SSD for everything else.... at least large sized MSATA drives become more affordable in the future.... they mentioned that a 1TB MSATA is around $550 currently. Wow.

Otherwise, I'm very satisfied with my purchase and am looking forward to years of gaming on this laptop. Thank you guys for your advice and reccomendations.
 
Just got my order processed on my new PC build. Cannot....friggin....wait. It's been a long time since I got a new build, and I tend to be the kind of gamer that uses any excuse to upgrade. "Lower shadow detail to medium? FUCK IT! NEW PC!"

Witcher 3 will be run on maxumumly maximum settings of maximum shadow details of ubersampling*

















*Assuming the combat doesn't suck like the other games. Goddamn, you, CDPR.
 
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Madmick, why did you unsticky the thread?

He made sort of a "table of contents" sticky that includes a link to this thread in order to unclutter the sticky area.

What kind of temps are you getting on that laptop? That's frustrating about the hard drives.
 
Maybe they could sticky the general discussion threads (pc build/buy, rpg thread, general gaming thread, stuff like that) and have one "table of contents" sticky for popular individual game threads
 
Ordered a new PC


Intel Core i7 5820K
Gigabyte X99-UD3 Intel X99 Motherboard
16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 2133MHz
Nvidia Geforce GTX 970 4GB
1TB HDD
Samsung 840 256 GB SSD
1000W Corsair HX1000i

Should arrive in a few days.
 
exactly, you can triple sli a 970 potentially or get a gtx titan ii later on.
 
I tend to think saying your PSU is overkill is like saying 8GB of RAM is sufficient, but even more short-sighted since PSUs better transfer to new builds than basically any other part. Stick with the 1000W PSU.
 
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I agree. There's no drawback to getting an amazing PSU (except price of course) because you'll always be able to use it in later builds and upgrade your components to more powerful ones. It's not like the PSU will use more electricity, in fact a better one might save you money.

I would've gotten the EVGA though. Corsair PSUs have never seemed solid to me. I got an EVGA 850 g2 and cheap Antec 450, two brands I trust more.
 
I tend to think saying your PSU is overkill is like saying 8GB of RAM is sufficient, but even more short-sighted since PSUs better transfer to new builds than basically any other part. Stick with the 1000W PSU.
I definitely agree that PSU's are the most "future-proof" of all components. The reasons are two: first, because they're on the ATX standard, which isn't going anywhere, and most ATX PSU's will fit in just about any eATX, ATX, and MicroATX cases, and even some MiniITX cases! Second, because they aren't tied to the aspects of circuitry which have a higher turnover of relevance like CPU socket, DDR slot, PCI standards, SATA, etc. The same major power inputs have been steadfast for over a decade (with minor expansion that could be achieved with the previous setups if adapted), and aren't changing anytime soon that I can see.

Having said that...if you know that you're never going to be one of those guys that runs a triple-GPU configuration, or a heavy overclock with dual-GPU, then why would you waste money on a 1000w PSU? You're never going to use it. If you ever decide that you will, then the $200-$250 or so for that kind of PSU is really something of a trivial cost in an upgrade of that ambition where you'll likely be spending ~$1000 on GPUs alone. In that situation, you could either sell your old PSU, or more likely I bet you'd find yourself using it to power the PC you're replacing that you'll move elsewhere in the house (or to sell), or perhaps to save cost on an HTPC you'd slap together as part of your major overhaul.

*Edit*: allow me to demonstrate my logic
Otherwise, in the meantime, the Corsair CX600 is just $70, and is more than enough to power any single-GPU setup in existence (even with an overclock of the CPU). That H1000 is $220. This $150 difference in his current setup could upgrade him from a GTX 970 to a GTX 980, or even buy him a second SSD (perhaps even a PCIe SSD, the fastest in existence, to host the OS so that his Samsung could be dedicated solely to applications and games).

*Edit #2*
And now, paying attention, herpaderpmick, I see that he already ordered the PSU. LOL, I'm such a tard. Well, you're set for any upgrade you could conceive, Krauser, and your energy efficiency will be off the charts.
 
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Maybe they could sticky the general discussion threads (pc build/buy, rpg thread, general gaming thread, stuff like that) and have one "table of contents" sticky for popular individual game threads
I did it the other way because-- with only this thread and perhaps General Gaming Discussion as exceptions-- these are the threads that always fall off the front page because they aren't as popular. The specific gaming stickies tend to get a dozen posts a day or so. So there's an argument to be made either way.
  1. The argument I would make for Count Zero's suggestion is that the specific gaming stickies are so trafficked that they would almost never fall off the front page, anyway. Guys could scan it and find them.
  2. However, the reason I opted for the latter is that I figure stickies are stickies first and foremost because they negate the need for a "hunt" of any measure. They are the threads most constantly in which people are posting and viewing, and guys just want to forum jump, then click the sticky of their choice; they're trafficking this route with the greatest volume. I'm trying to reduce overall "clicks" (i.e. loads), and doing #1 would add that one extra layer of clicking for this busiest freeway which would be repeated over and over and over by poster after poster. The sum of added clicks with #1 would be far greater.
So that's why I elected to catalog the less trafficked threads in the General sticky. This is probably the most trafficked in the bunch, but for that reason the logic of #1 applies to it, and removing its discrete sticky gave me enough room that I was able to add the Dragon Age: Inquisition thread to the sticky section.

So there's my logic.
 
I did it the other way because-- with only this thread and perhaps General Gaming Discussion as exceptions-- these are the threads that always fall off the front page because they aren't as popular. The specific gaming stickies tend to get a dozen posts a day or so. So there's an argument to be made either way.
  1. The argument I would make for Count Zero's suggestion is that the specific gaming stickies are so trafficked that they would almost never fall off the front page, anyway. Guys could scan it and find them.
  2. However, the reason I opted for the latter is that I figure stickies are stickies first and foremost because they negate the need for a "hunt" of any measure. They are the threads most constantly in which people are posting and viewing, and guys just want to forum jump, then click the sticky of their choice; they're trafficking this route with the greatest volume. I'm trying to reduce overall "clicks" (i.e. loads), and doing #1 would add that one extra layer of clicking for this busiest freeway which would be repeated over and over and over by poster after poster. The sum of added clicks with #1 would be far greater.
So that's why I elected to catalog the less trafficked threads in the General sticky. This is probably the most trafficked in the bunch, but for that reason the logic of #1 applies to it, and removing its discrete sticky gave me enough room that I was able to add the Dragon Age: Inquisition thread to the sticky section.

So there's my logic.

Makes sense.

Also, on topic: anyone got the word on any good post-holiday deals ? On anything, really. Monitors, gpus, whatever. I'm not specifically looking to upgrade anything rn but if I catch a hot deal ...
 
Been looking to pick up a Chromebook to have something to carry around with a good battery. A little bored with my Nexus 7 and carrying around a keyboard with it is annoying. However, the only chromebooks in stock anywhere are all terrible. The Dell Chromebook 11 and the HD Toshiba Chromebook2 are all out of stock in stores. Even online you can only find them backordered and with high prices. It's shocking how little stock there are of these things.
 
@Madmick: I see your point re: PSUs and you had some good IRL examples. Just my personal preference to lay down a strong foundation I suppose.

After reinstalling Win7 and setting up my RAID0 and RAID10, my PC has literally been working perfectly, even down to small nagging problems suddenly being resolved (e.g. my mouse not always properly powering on at boot). It honestly makes me a bit nervous lol.
 
Ended up with a Dell Chromebook 11. Should be here Wednesday. Anyone have experience with Chromebooks before?
 
I agree. There's no drawback to getting an amazing PSU (except price of course) because you'll always be able to use it in later builds and upgrade your components to more powerful ones. It's not like the PSU will use more electricity, in fact a better one might save you money.

I would've gotten the EVGA though. Corsair PSUs have never seemed solid to me. I got an EVGA 850 g2 and cheap Antec 450, two brands I trust more.
Corsair makes some of the best built PSU's on the market and especially their HX line. Not to mention a good deal of their parts are actually produced by Seasonic who are well known for producing top notch PSU's. Never had a single problem with any of my Corsair PSU's I've owned and I have had had a 500w CM, 650w Enthusiast and my current 850w HX.
 
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