Tech advice requested

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=8989532&sku=ULR-102408484

I'm not sure how that power supply rates compared to the ones in Seclorum's builds, but it's a 1000W power supply, with nice modular cable-management features, for $60 (after a $40 rebate).

Energy Efficiency is: 80 PLUS Bronze... but I honestly don't know much about the different power supply ratings, been a while since I needed to buy one.

Also, TigerDirect is having an inventory reduction sale atm, so you might be able to find some of the parts you need on sale if you check in the next day or so.

 

To start with why I would not suggest that PSU,

The Name Brand it's sold under is rather... unknown.

It's got a history of not honoring Warranty,

Because it has a history of putting out rebadged mainland Chinese made units... with poor quality control record,

The supplies I suggested were 80+Gold or above. Really this just means they are more "Efficient" at drawing power and supplying your system.

And as was discussed earlier, you dont really want to run that strong a PSU with the components in the build given the build will be using almost 400 watts at full max load. Your over provisioning your power needs by over 500 Watts... which shortens the lifetime of the PSU anyway...

 

Eh, well I did say I don't know much about power supply ratings... though I've never had a problem with returns/exchanges through TigerDirect... And there's the free google protection for purchases on TigerDirect (always pops up for me using FireFox at least...), though I've never heard of someone actually having to rely on that.

 

Yeah there are a couple general rules of thumb to picking a PSU.

1. Brand. Look for a big name or a company you know. Or at least a company that others know and trust.

2. Features. Does it have features you might want/need? Like Modular cables, which are REALLY REALLY nice to have. Or Eco modes? Or Zero Fan speed depending on load?

3. Wattage. Dont go overboard. Overprovisioning is a good thing but you really dont want to go too far based on your expected max load.

4. Weight. Weight of the unit can tell you a lot about the quality of the materials in the unit. GOOD quality Capacitors and voltage regulation circuitry will weigh more than bad ones.

5. Check the rated Efficiency. 80+ Bronze is the very least you can go for. Gold used to be the highest, but now they have Platinum level units which are better than gold. This means your unit is more efficient, and thus doesn't generate as much waste heat pet unit of input and output as lesser rated units.

In many ways, your PSU is one of the most important components, because if something goes wrong with it, EVERYTHING fries.

AS the joker once said, "Everything burns."

 

This has happened to me... more than once... back in the Win 95/98 days though.

 

Yeah. I had a critical PSU failure kill my machine, Once.

Had another PSU die after that with a capacitor breach, It Exploded, and thankfully the better construction of the corsair unit saved everything else in my system.

 

Once it was a faulty power supply, computer was only 2 weeks old...

Once it was 758W draw on a 750W power supply, took 5 months to fry the system, surprisingly.

And the last time was simply a 6 year old power supply finally failing.


Every single time it also fried the CPU and MB (which REALLY sucked for the 2 week old computer). I've learned quite a lot since those days...

 

Ok, due to various delays, some with little to no viable reason, I am now within range of taking advantage of the Cyber Monday sales.

My question is should I simply use this opportunity to upgrade the base number(more RAM, larger SSD's) and be happy with the performance I can get with the current builds and the saved money, or would the sales be enough to snag a more potent $3-4k system for the $2k I plan to use?

I ask because It has been just as long as I looked at computer parts as that I even browsed sites for Cyber Monday and I have no idea how good that sales typically are.

 

The original plan we hashed out had more than enough ram, and plenty of SSD for you. So the sales might be able to net you savings in parts.

Really I would look for any savings to be invested in peripherals you would be using. Monitor, Keyboards, Mice, A good chair...

Althought I doubt you will save enough to make a signifigant jump in monitor.

 

This.

 

Yeah, for about a year I had this shitty little task chair that had no back support at all. It was pure torture any time I tried to sit there longer than half an hour.

But then last Christmas I got a good durable chair with arms and a sturdy back! It's frigging sweet!

 

Given that monitors are one of the components that will likely get the best sales...

 

Which I might need.

I looked at 'professional' screen protectors and holy fuck are they expensive, we're talking $200-300, so instead I did some research on how to correctly cut plexiglass and carefully clean my monitor beforehand so as to not waste my money.

I went out and bought a small sheet of plexiglass, some 2-sided tape, and the microfiber towels to clean the screen. Carefully measured and cut the plexiglass, got the screen all clean, then put the tape on and got it all in place. Turned the monitor on and it's all good, except there must have beena bit of grit on my cutting surface because there is a small scratch right through the center of the sheet of plexiglass. Not enough to obscure anything, but it catches the light all the time and is moderately distracting.

So I thought 'Hey, the plexiglass was only $15. Not extremely cheap, but not going to break the bank either. I'll just go get a new one!' So I try to peel it off like I expected to be able to if something got in between it and the screen....no go. I take a closer look at the tape box and it turns out it isn't just 2-sided tape, it is 2-sided mounting tape for permanent applications. Removing it would likely involve tearing the top few layers off my screen. >_<

It's not too bad, I've dealt with worse things than the small scratch, but after all that effort and only spending $30 total on the kit, only half of which was used and the rest can be re-used for other stuff, it's kinda annoying that I got tripped up by such a small detail I didn't even think of.

 

Yeah, I dont really recommend screen protectors anymore. Especially for a desktop application.

You "Might" be able to get the tape to loosen up if you had a heat gun, but then you are also likely to just melt the plexi with it too. I've seen guys de-glass monitors by running a heat gun around the edges of the panel, which makes the glue/tack, maleable and then they just stick a spudger (Long thin metal implement, like a dull knife) into the gap and work it around the edge lifting as you go to separate the layers.

But I would not do this if it's your only monitor right now. Never do crazy shit like modifications if you cant afford to replace everything your working with.

Screens are easy enough to clean with a bit of Alcohol, compressed air, and some microfiber cloth.

 

If I had paid more attention to the tape itself and got what I thought I was getting, effectively double sided scotch tape but slightly stronger, it would have worked perfectly for easy removal. I think I just got too focused on the more complex aspect, something all too common with me unfortunately.

I'm just going to leave it. I've dealt with worse and it's working just fine for protecting the screen from me, who has only had a CRT for easily 15 years and is completely used to poking the screen to point something out and cleaning it involved a quick spray of window cleaner and whatever cloth I could find nearby.

 

Ok, so I'm finally going to order it....what? Don't look at me like that, I'm serious this time!

Anyway, really am going to. The one with the 4790k i7 Processor(HERE) doesn't have the MB in stock while the 6700k i7 is complete(HERE) save for the video card which will be in stock on Dec 3rd.

That's actually what I want to ask about, is there another video card a tier or so up that you can see in stock and on sale for near or just a little over the price of the one on those lists? My guess offhand is no, but I would rather ask and have the answer be no than not ask and have the answer be yes and miss having a noticeably better video card for only a little bit extra.

Also, the PSU. There is an 80+ platnium for $150 while the 80+ Gold is $92 on sale. Would it be worth getting the platnium over the gold since my comp will very rarely be turned off at all?

This is what I current have in line to buy, anything you can see that should be changed? Gonna need the reply in the next couple hours before I head to bed though Seclorum.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($498.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($4.65 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI Z170A GAMING M3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($96.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($77.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($347.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 7K3000 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.95 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card ($329.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA P2 750W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: LG WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($48.42 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home Full - USB (32/64-bit) ($119.00 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Corsair K70 RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Mouse: Mionix NAOS 7000 Wired Optical Mouse ($49.49 @ Amazon)
Speakers: Logitech S120 2.3W 2ch Speakers ($14.35 @ Amazon)
Total: $2286.77
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-30 12:13 EST-0500

 

Build looks just fine to me.

 

Any suggestions on the video card dilemma? A replacement a smidgen up or just suck it up and wait a few days to order it?

Without changing vendors I mean, or does that even really matter? It's been a damn long time, is ncix-us a reputable vendor?

 

Frankly, unless you want to jump up to some really expensive things, the card there will do just fine.

Cards are in a bit of a holding pattern because next year there will be new gens with lots of improvements and upgrades... so i really dont recommend going for a balls out card unless you have like a grand to burn on the gfx alone.

 

Ok, so how does the out of stock thing work for amazon? I order it and it ships as soon as they have it or....?

Oh yeah, almost forgot about it. Is it a worthwhile upgrade from Gold to Platnium for my PSU when I rarely turn my comp off?

 

Yeah, when they get it in stock.

As for upgrading the psu... well not really.Your PSU will only pull a fraction until you load something intensive anyway.

 

K, that saves me a little bit.

And a new question. Mouse pads. I am currently just using a sheet of paper and replacing it whenever it gets torn up and since I'm getting all this stuff, might as well get an actual pad.

However every single one I see seems to have the same negative reviews, that being the glue holding the surface wears off after a few months of use. Considering the fact that if I am not asleep or at work, I am on my comp I will be giving my mouse pad more than the average amount of use.

Do you know of one that outright can't have this happen to, like having a metal surface with rubber backing or something? If you hadn't noticed I absolutely hate having to replace stuff, especially in a short time frame like a less than a year or two

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...vptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_2hdevqnl2r_e

metal pads are a thing...

 

That was exactly what I was looking for but somehow missed. Oh well, asking works fine too, it's not like you haven't more or less built this whole thing anyway.

 

So, I realized I forgot to snag a gamepad while ordering everything else and now there is a new one to throw into the mix. Any thoughts on a Steam Controller or should I just stick with a basic wireless Xbox controller?

 

There are mixed reports of just how good the steam controller is. I think its interesting, and it's not that expensive...

 

Well that's...interesting. When buying the processor I noticed that standard shipping said it would arrive Dec 21-Jan 1, which is a hell no when the rest would arrive by the 10th. Express shipping put the arrival at Dec 4-Dec 9 which was much more acceptable for the $30 extra.

Looked at the tracking status today since it said it has been shipped...Package has just left Osaka, Japan. I think I ordered it straight from the factory.

More on the controller though. Researching more, mostly through negative reviews which are usually more useful and insightful than most positive reviews, it looks like there are some pretty glaring issues, the main one being that it works for Steam games and ONLY Steam games. Any non-Steam game added to the library tends to be hit-and-miss as to weather it will activate at all, and if it has a launcher of any sort the answer is a flat no in the the controller might work for the launcher but then absolutely not for the game it launches. Granted the vast majority of my collection are Steam games, but not everything is.

Also it currently only works when using Big Picture mode, which is optimized for TV's and other very large screens, meaning that using it on the PC is pretty annoying in general.

Those are the only two real issues I read about, everything else was personal preference but those are functional issues.

Maybe if those two problems are sorted out I might go for it, but for now the standard xbox controller that works for anything with no real limitations will serve me well.

 

Ugh. Got everything except the video card, which is 2 days late for delivery and the package tracker has it leaving Delaware 3 days ago with no further updates.

Do you think I should I go with the replace option or give it one more day to show up? And if I do the replace option and it then shows up, what happens then?

 

Give it a few days.

 

ok, it arrived in Michigan 6 hours after posting that. Should be here today.

Before I even unbox anything, give me a walkthrough of how to check everything for being DoA. I know it sounds and seems simple but I would rather be told 9 things I have an idea of are right and the 1 thing that I would have missed rather than assume I can just figure it out on my own and whoops, I now have a very expensive paperweight.

I know to start with before anything else I screw in the power supply and plug it in without turning it on to give the anti-static band a ground to work with. It's the rest I have only vague ideas of how to go about it.

My main concern is the processor. Given that the Noctura is so damn big, how can I test the processor without attaching the heatsink or installing the MB into the case first, since once that thing is on I probably don't want to take it off and getting it into the case with that huge thing on there would to be a bitch and a half.