Off Topic

[Master]

Whoa, an ROG laptop? I'm definitely jealous. As I am at that GTX 980, how much did that set you back, Ad?

[Adsolution]

Whoa, an ROG laptop? I'm definitely jealous. As I am at that GTX 980, how much did that set you back, Ad?

It's $680 for the one I got (the same one I recommended to Dandy in the first build), but since I only paid for half, about $340.

$2500 USD but I can go over depending if its worth doing so.

Gosh, well you can go nearly top-of-the-line for most things then. I'd recommend, for $2600:

CPU - Core i7 4770K - $420
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 16 GB DDR3 - $170
Case - Fractal Design Define R5 - $145
Motherboard - Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H - $150
Power Supply - Corsair Professional HX850W - $185
Cooling - Water cooling (I don't know much about this) - est. $200
Graphics - EVGA GTX 980 ACX2 - $680
Drives - Samsung 850 pro 256GB SSD; Seagate 3.5in 7200 RPM 3TB HDD - $200; $140
(Optional) Monitor(s) - Asus VG248QE 144hz - $300


Alternatively, here's a virtually 100% top-of-the-line build which would cost you about $3600:

CPU - Intel Core i7 4930K - $630
RAM - 32 GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance Black - $380
Case - Fractal Design Define R5 - $145
Motherboard - Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H - $150
Power Supply - Corsair Professional HX850W - $185
Cooling - Water cooling (I don't know much about this) - est. $200
Graphics - nVidia GTX Titan Black - $1200
Drives - Samsung 850 pro 256GB SSD; Seagate 3.5in 7200 RPM 3TB HDD - $200; $140
(Optional) Monitor(s) - Asus VG248QE 144hz - $300

[Master]

I've not been monitoring tech as obsessively as I did in my younger years, but I've heard of DDR4 becoming a thing of recent times.

[DandyGuy]

Whoa, an ROG laptop? I'm definitely jealous. As I am at that GTX 980, how much did that set you back, Ad?

It's $680 for the one I got (the same one I recommended to Dandy in the first build), but since I only paid for half, about $340.

$2500 USD but I can go over depending if its worth doing so.

Gosh, well you can go nearly top-of-the-line for most things then. I'd recommend, for $2600:

CPU - Core i7 4770K - $420
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 16 GB DDR3 - $170
Case - Fractal Design Define R5 - $145
Motherboard - Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H - $150
Power Supply - Corsair Professional HX850W - $185
Cooling - Water cooling (I don't know much about this) - est. $200
Graphics - EVGA GTX 980 ACX2 - $680
Drives - Samsung 850 pro 256GB SSD; Seagate 3.5in 7200 RPM 3TB HDD - $200; $140
(Optional) Monitor(s) - Asus VG248QE 144hz - $300


Alternatively, here's a virtually 100% top-of-the-line build which would cost you about $3600:

CPU - Intel Core i7 4930K - $630
RAM - 32 GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance Black - $380
Case - Fractal Design Define R5 - $145
Motherboard - Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H - $150
Power Supply - Corsair Professional HX850W - $185
Cooling - Water cooling (I don't know much about this) - est. $200
Graphics - nVidia GTX Titan Black - $1200
Drives - Samsung 850 pro 256GB SSD; Seagate 3.5in 7200 RPM 3TB HDD - $200; $140
(Optional) Monitor(s) - Asus VG248QE 144hz - $300

I thought it was going to be a lot more expensive then that. Actually that was one of the reason I never upgraded anything (that and procrastination and feeling god like for owning a Apple product thinking it will do the work itsself .) Anyways thanks for the information, im going to guess you have a similar build based on experience. Also I have a musical question for you and anybody with experience. I need to get a new piano the current one im using is a out dated Cisco. Im need something a bit more "advance" than my beginner days with velocity keys and possibly usb and logic pro compatibility.

[MrBadGuy]

I'm so glad I stopped caring about graphics and stuff, console gaming is the best, there's rarely any hassle

As long as I have a computer capable of word processing, editing video, producing music and accessing the internet I'm a happy boy

[Haruka]

@Brad Jesus Christ, did you steal an electronics shop?

That ROG laptop.

To be honest if I was upgrading my laptop, I would go for a high-powered ultrabook. My back would thank me!

[technology4617]

Graphics - nVidia GTX Titan Black - $1200

Graphics - EVGA GTX 980 ACX2 - $680

What about SLI builds?

[Adsolution]

SLI is garbage from my experience. It only has very specific uses (fullscreen applications that support it) and it rarely ever works flawlessly (in many games there will be some graphical artifact as a side-effect; it's not a matter of having no frame offset, it's a matter of reducing it as much as possible; depending on your setup and the application, you can get anywhere from a 0 to a 70 percent performance increase, but rarely ever more than that; it creates twice as much heat, takes twice as much power and is twice as noisy. Having two GPUs that, not theoretically, but actually do perform better than a single GPU that's twice as expensive is rather unlikely. Even if they do, you're dealing with a mess of incredibly inconsistent performance and bad application support.

[technology4617]

Having two GPUs that, not theoretically, but actually do perform better than a single GPU that's twice as expensive is rather unlikely.

Ah, gotcha; I just assumed that two crappier GPUs would do better than a single more powerful one cuz the GTX 690.

[saerleiya]

According to Dandy's budget, Ad's specs are great (I haven't built my own desktop yet, but with a well-paid job starting in January, I should be able to build myself one *giggles*). I guess you don't want two monitors .

These specs tho':

CPU - Intel Core i7 4930K - $630
RAM - 32 GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance Black - $380
Case - Fractal Design Define R5 - $145
Motherboard - Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H - $150
Power Supply - Corsair Professional HX850W - $185
Cooling - Water cooling (I don't know much about this) - est. $200
Graphics - nVidia GTX Titan Black - $1200
Drives - Samsung 850 pro 256GB SSD; Seagate 3.5in 7200 RPM 3TB HDD - $200; $140
(Optional) Monitor(s) - Asus VG248QE 144hz - $300

A friend of mine would love you for having such a taste in hardware .

I just assumed that two crappier GPUs would do better than a single more powerful one cuz the GTX 690.

I'd say it depends the use you will make out of it.

Merry Happy Jesus' Birthday everyone! I hope y'all enjoy it!

Also, being the one to show off, here's my Xmas loot!

YOU LOOTED...AN EPIC! (My friends and I like to call this kind of laptop a "nuclear" laptop XD).

Sorry for not having be able to wish a merry christmas (ya know, girlfriends matter), so here it comes : Merry Xmas RPC!

As mentioned in the -/+ thread, I received several little presents:
- a very classy notebook (not the laptops ).
- chocolates (nomnomnom!)
- money.
- two ties and a light pink shirt (my girlfriend didn't like it that much)
- tons of champaign: my uncle brought five bottles with him for Christmas meal. Wat?
- a scarf. :3

Mine is, well, half of a graphics card (as in, I paid for the other half):

Dayum, is the GTX980 so big? You can put both hands around it! .
My laptop looks even smaller (and cheaper) now, and it's not that cheap.

[Adsolution]

A friend of mine would love you for having such a taste in hardware .

Oh? Is it the brand choice? The practicality?

Dayum, is the GTX980 so big? You can put both hands around it! .

All top-end-ish graphics cards are around that size. My GTX 580 (late 2010), GTX 295 (mid-2009) and 9800 GTX (early 2008) were all that size. As you can see, back then I used to upgrade my GPU every year and a half, now this is my first graphics upgrade in four years!

[Reese Riverson]

Gosh, well you can go nearly top-of-the-line for most things then. I'd recommend, for $2600:

CPU - Core i7 4770K - $420
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 16 GB DDR3 - $170
Case - Fractal Design Define R5 - $145
Motherboard - Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H - $150
Power Supply - Corsair Professional HX850W - $185
Cooling - Water cooling (I don't know much about this) - est. $200
Graphics - EVGA GTX 980 ACX2 - $680
Drives - Samsung 850 pro 256GB SSD; Seagate 3.5in 7200 RPM 3TB HDD - $200; $140
(Optional) Monitor(s) - Asus VG248QE 144hz - $300


Alternatively, here's a virtually 100% top-of-the-line build which would cost you about $3600:

CPU - Intel Core i7 4930K - $630
RAM - 32 GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance Black - $380
Case - Fractal Design Define R5 - $145
Motherboard - Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H - $150
Power Supply - Corsair Professional HX850W - $185
Cooling - Water cooling (I don't know much about this) - est. $200
Graphics - nVidia GTX Titan Black - $1200
Drives - Samsung 850 pro 256GB SSD; Seagate 3.5in 7200 RPM 3TB HDD - $200; $140
(Optional) Monitor(s) - Asus VG248QE 144hz - $300

Or rather than liquid cooling he could go with a nice high-end air cooling setup, which would work well for even decent overclocks, if he chooses to.

Noctua NH-D14 is an example of an excellent air cooler.

Though I personally would recommend a nice IPS monitor over those 144hz Asus models. Heck, you usually see some hardcore gamers opt for Koren IPS monitors since they can do overclocking.

Anyway, you could spend $600 on a Dell U2713HM IPS monitor and do 2560 x 1440 resolution. or even spend more money if you want to step into the 4k or 5k territory. (Latter can cost upward of $2,500 alone.) Not to mention the cost of a good GPU capable of pushing games at those resolutions. Though you can get a 1920 x 1200 IPS 24" from Dell for about the same price or little less than those Asus monitors.

Either way, me personally would never go back to a TN panel monitor.

[Adsolution]

Noctua NH-D14 is an example of an excellent air cooler.

I've tried this one, and from my experience iit was actually louder than my Hyper 212 (which isn't at all loud in the first place, but certainly not as quiet as water cooling), not to mention it's absolutely massive and barely even fits inside those wide fractal cases.

Though I personally would recommend a nice IPS monitor over those 144hz Asus models. Heck, you usually see some hardcore gamers opt for Koren IPS monitors since they can do overclocking.

Anyway, you could spend $600 on a Dell U2713HM IPS monitor and do 2560 x 1440 resolution. or even spend more money if you want to step into the 4k or 5k territory. (Latter can cost upward of $2,500 alone.) Not to mention the cost of a good GPU capable of pushing games at those resolutions. Though you can get a 1920 x 1200 IPS 24" from Dell for about the same price or little less than those Asus monitors.

Either way, me personally would never go back to a TN panel monitor.

I totally feel you - the reason I recommend those '144hz Asus models' though is because, for me at least, having a <1ms response time in addition to 144hz outdoes the advantages of an IPS monitor*, which you can rarely seem to find with a <5ms response time (and the Dell UltraSharp there has 8ms, yegh)! But it depends on what you're doing of course. 60hz feels a little laggy to me now, I can legitimately work quicker with 144hz.

*This is the case with better TN panels like this Asus one, which is one of the sharpest, brightest looking TN panels I've seen anywhere within three times its price range.

[technology4617]

Eh, my IPS monitors' 6ms response time has been completely unnoticeable so far in comparison to my old TN monitor (which had a 1ms response time), so I don't think that little lag is that much of an issue, and I'd definitely prioritize image quality given how small the difference actually is.

[Adsolution]

At 144hz you can definitely tell a difference, having compared mine to a 144hz IPS monitor.

[Reese Riverson]

Unless you take them both and compare them to a nice CRT, then they both lose in response time.

Noctua NH-D14 is an example of an excellent air cooler.

I've tried this one, and from my experience iit was actually louder than my Hyper 212 (which isn't at all loud in the first place, but certainly not as quiet as water cooling), not to mention it's absolutely massive and barely even fits inside those wide fractal cases.

Funny, my D14 always seemed fine to me. Though yes, it is a massive cooler, but it is a good option if one has the case for it. I mainly mention it because some people may not be comfortable with liquid cooling, costs, or don't want to bother with the maintenance. There are a lot of great air coolers.

There are simplified options, but still, all depend on what the person wants.

Though I personally would recommend a nice IPS monitor over those 144hz Asus models. Heck, you usually see some hardcore gamers opt for Koren IPS monitors since they can do overclocking.

Anyway, you could spend $600 on a Dell U2713HM IPS monitor and do 2560 x 1440 resolution. or even spend more money if you want to step into the 4k or 5k territory. (Latter can cost upward of $2,500 alone.) Not to mention the cost of a good GPU capable of pushing games at those resolutions. Though you can get a 1920 x 1200 IPS 24" from Dell for about the same price or little less than those Asus monitors.

Either way, me personally would never go back to a TN panel monitor.

I totally feel you - the reason I recommend those '144hz Asus models' though is because, for me at least, having a <1ms response time in addition to 144hz outdoes the advantages of an IPS monitor*, which you can rarely seem to find with a <5ms response time (and the Dell UltraSharp there has 8ms, yegh)! But it depends on what you're doing of course. 60hz feels a little laggy to me now, I can legitimately work quicker with 144hz.

*This is the case with better TN panels like this Asus one, which is one of the sharpest, brightest looking TN panels I've seen anywhere within three times its price range.

I honestly would love to see that monitor compared against an IPS monitor and a CRT. Just to see some facts of performances here. I'm not dismissing your claims, but I just am purely curious.

If we can have a test kinda like this:

[Adsolution]

I'd totally be up for doing said test if I had an IPS or even a CRT available, which I have neither of unfortunately.

[technology4617]

At 144hz you can definitely tell a difference, having compared mine to a 144hz IPS monitor.

Ah, well, I guess it comes down to what you find more important in the end, and personally, superior image quality wins over minor lag in this case.

[Reese Riverson]

And if your GPU can even do 144FPS plus in a game constantly... I suppose if you are heavily into FPS games, then a fast screen may do you well. Especially online. (Though a good CRT would be best in this situation.)

Everyone has a particular need. Ad's is his fast monitor, me it's my quality monitor. Everyone still wins in the end.

[rolesfamily]

Happy New Year everybody! - All the best for the new year, here's to a great 2015! Much love! xoxoxox