Lotus

I'm looking for a replacement for my Cooler Master Storm Quickfire TK keyboard. Yes, I accidentally spilled liquid on it one time after years of use, and so I need a replacement. The problem is I got used to it's both tenkeyless length as well as it's full-size keyboard functionality with the toggle switch between arrow keys and number pad. It's awesome and let me have the best of both worlds. It doesn't look like Cooler Master still makes this keyboard, and I can't find anywhere else that does this. Is there a modern mechanical keyboard equivalent to this?

This is the keyboard in question:

I do want it as part of the cable that attaches to the headphones. I travel a bit and need this for work in addition to play, so I don't want to carry around a desk mic or other standalone mic.

I've gone through 3 BoomPros (https://www.v-moda.com/us/en/products/boompro-microphone) in the course of about 5 years. This most recent one didn't even last six months before I could hear distortion in my headphones depending on cable position. I'm mainly looking for something that's a bit more durable. I love the audio quality of the microphone, and this style of mic works with my headphones, but I just can't constantly keep replacing it.

I don't let the cord go on the ground or get tangled either. This is normal, light usage. I just want something I don't have to worry about or baby, and I'm ok with a more expensive product so long as it's basically the same in function. I don't want to get something like a modmic where I now have 2 cables and have to attach something to my headphones other than the cable.

Currently looking at https://global.beyerdynamic.com/custom-headset-gear-2-generation.html, but I don't see any reviews.

You can pick up a Xeon X5670 for $30.

Also, if you're going to upgrade the CPU, get a Westmere Xeon like the X5660 instead of the i7-990x. You can still hit high clock speeds with BCLK Overclocks and they've got the same architecture and core count as the 990x without costing ridiculous amounts.

That being said, the single-threaded performance, even when overclocked over 4 GHz, is not going to be as good as a modern CPU. It'll do fine in gaming, but I'd really only bother if you need the extra 2 cores.

Are you currently overclocking your i7-930?

I'm not much of a laptop person and don't keep up with what's out there, but here are my requirements:

IPS screen (1080p is fine)

4 core CPU (i5-8250u is fine)

5 hours youtube streaming over wifi battery life

16GB memory (or 8GB with expandable SODIMM)

thin and light with metal frame

Reliability, with no overheating or high percentage of failure issues. Build quality in terms of rigidity/feel is not important. Build quality in terms of hinge failure is important.

No GPU requirements at all, and the lower the price the better.

Basically, I'm looking for the cheapest laptop that meets these specs. My immediate thought was to get a Dell XPS 13, but they only offer the 16GB of memory with the 4k screen, which I don't need and doubles the price. Then I found the Acer Swift 3 SF314-52G-55WQ, but that only has 8GB of non-expandable soldered memory. I would get that in a heartbeat if it were upgradeable. I guess my problem is every laptop I find that meets my specs has either a dedicated GPU or a 4k display making for a very expensive machine with specs and hardware that I don't need and don't want to spend money on. Any suggestions?

I'm hoping for something akin to the 3.9 Ghz i7-4770k to 4.4 GHz 4790k. A 500mhz increase in boost clock would be great. That was a refresh too, and Ryzen was probably released a bit on the edge of premature too.

My current chair is comfortable, but no longer can be locked in an upright position. You can still lock it, but the flex between the seat mounting and the seat lets you still recline a bit even when locked. I'm looking for a quality, comfortable desk chair in black that is sturdy (I weight 200 pounds), will last, and can be locked completely upright in a fashion that will NOT break over time. this was my previous chair. I'm willing to spend up to $150.

If your friends play on a console, get that. Otherwise, get the GPU. There's more potential, and not just in graphics quality but in games too.

Pretty much any case that has at least 1 intake and 1 exhaust would be fine. More than that doesn't really matter even with very hot components.

Source:

If it were me, I'd go for a Fractal Designs Define S or Define Mini C, but that's because I like the simple aesthetics, not because it has great cooling.

Your CPU is locked. You cannot increase the CPU multiplier.

HOWEVER there are no stupid bus speeds tied to the baseclock (BCLK) so you can raise the BCLK frequencies to effectively overclock your processor. As an upside, you can hit crazy speeds (4.0 GHz+) reliably and without too much heat. The downside? It overclocks almost everything (QPI and RAM as well) so you really have to know your shit to do it stably. Oftentimes people will think they've hit instability, but it's really just that they pushed their ram too fast without thinking and lowering their ram from x8 to x6 solves that issue and they can go even more.

TLDR: it's not a simple thing. If you are incapable of googling this topic, you are incapable of overclocking it because it's not a simple overclock.

Honestly, your specs are fine. Sure you might want to go for a 4790k if you want to hit higher framerates at 1080p, but unfortunately that non-Z mobo really holds you back. Basically, as it stands, I wouldn't bother changing a thing because you could spend $300 and get very little improvement.

I'd pay extra for an IPS screen. The three things in a laptop that are must haves for me:

1) Keyboard Backlight (I use mine in bed occasionally to watch movies while I drift to sleep)

2) IPS display (again, watching stuff)

3) 6+ hours streaming from wifi battery life

If this had an IPS display, it'd be perfect.

1 minute ago, Droidbot said:

btw 620W S12II is the same price as the 520W, more watts for like 89c less

Yeah, except the 520 is already overkill and more wattage isn't always a good thing. I've seen good reviews on the S12II 520w model, but not the 620W model.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($189.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($46.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Team Elite Plus 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($50.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($43.74 @ B&H)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon RX 480 8GB Red Devil Video Card  ($223.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($50.89 @ Newegg)
Total: $606.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-12 17:37 EST-0500

If you have a spare HDD to throw in, it'd be best. If you have a bit extra to spare, getting a 240GB SSD would also be good.

edit: nevermind, open back phones are out.

Rendering/Editing videos in proper GPU accelerated software has more to do with GPU than CPU these days.

However, if you really want that OC'able CPU and with a hard focus on CPU editing/rendering instead of GPU acceleration, you can get this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V5 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($251.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  ($34.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Motherboard: ASRock E3V5 Performance Gaming/OC ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($135.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($84.97 @ Jet)
Storage: ADATA Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($68.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 470 4GB ARMOR OC Video Card  ($178.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 2300 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($39.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($49.99 @ B&H)
Total: $845.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-11 20:18 EST-0500

Note: that motherboard supports BCLK overclocking of Xeons, and that Xeon is a 4 core Skylake chip with hyper threading. This is basically an i7-6700k with Z170 motherboard setup for much cheaper. However overclocking ONLY works with that motherboard, and that CPU CANNOT be used in regular consumer chipset motherboards (h110, h170, z170 boards will NOT work with it).

If it were me, and gaming is the primary focus with CPU tasks important but secondary, I'd go with the first one I suggested. Also, I had to cut the large storage HDD to be added in later to make the price fit everything in the Xeon build.

Here is what I'd do:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V5 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($251.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  ($34.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Motherboard: ASRock E3V5 Performance Gaming/OC ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($135.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($84.97 @ Jet)
Storage: ADATA Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon RX 480 8GB Red Devil Video Card  ($229.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define S w/Window ATX Mid Tower Case  ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($84.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1016.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-11 19:45 EST-0500

It does everything well. The CPU in that motherboard is what amounts to an i7-6700k that can be overclocked, and you've got plenty fast memory and a cooler to match. Sure you might have been able to fit in a GTX 1070, but that would be overkill for 1080p 60fps, whereas the Xeon (i7-6700k equivalent) may actually be useful to you for video editing and streaming to twitch.

...plus the build will look badass too.

Here is what I would do if the prices translate and you can afford it:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($188.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI B150M PRO-VDH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($66.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($84.97 @ Jet)
Storage: ADATA Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon RX 480 8GB Red Devil Video Card  ($229.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1500 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($49.99 @ B&H)
Total: $789.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-11 19:39 EST-0500

Your original build spent way too much on CPU/motherboard/cooler and paired it with a sub-par (for the price range) GPU. You can actually get a much better build without skimping on anything if you go with a more balanced approach. An i5-6500 is still a great CPU, and you'll get better performance out of this combo than your original one.

Please don't do that APU setup. If you must, do an i3 + h110 motherboard combo.

Ideally, you'd do something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($188.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($46.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($41.99 @ Jet)
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 460 2GB Video Card  ($99.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($37.29 @ Jet)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($42.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Sceptre E225W-1920 22.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor  ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $538.13
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-11 19:30 EST-0500

and give him an old storage drive and keyboard/mouse, but if you are hard limited at $550 and must include all that, then this is what I'd do:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($46.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($41.99 @ Jet)
Storage: PNY CS1311 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($64.99 @ Jet)
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 460 2GB Video Card  ($99.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($37.29 @ Jet)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($42.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Sceptre E225W-1920 22.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor  ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard  ($9.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Mouse: Logitech G300 Wired Optical Mouse  ($17.98 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Total: $552.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-11 19:33 EST-0500

Not ideal by any means, but better than using an AMD APU.

My roomate is running my old rig (i7-920 @ 3.9 GHz, R9 270) and decided he wanted better performance. Without asking me, he just went and bought a GTX 1070, and it doesn't hit a bottleneck in most games. I probably wouldn't go for a 1080 because at that point you'd likely get a better experience spending the extra cash replacing the platform, but a 1070 doesn't appear that bad of a pairing, provided you've got a very high overclock. Nehalem on stock speeds would definitely be a no-go.

45 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

But sandy is much better than Nehalem IIRC

Sandy had much higher stock clocks and was also much easier to overclock because it was unlocked. Nehalem/Westmere were all locked (except the $1k+ i7-990x chips), but could be overclocked via BCLK. It's just most people didn't know how or couldn't be bothered to do it since it's not as straitforward and you have to change many different variables to actually hit the high overclocks. They're not that different in performance once they're both at their peak TBH. i7-920's stock frequency is 2.66 GHz, but I've got mine running at 3.9 GHz. That's a massive gain that most people didn't do, and most chips hit 4.0+ (mine can, but I only have a 212 Evo for the cooler so I'm stuck at 1.27v).

90°C is fine for Hawaii. It might be dying, or more likely you're running into a VRM overheating problem. You might consider running a custom fan curve profile using MSI Afterburner.

This makes zero sense. Temperatures are only relevant if they're too hot. For modern intel chips, anything sub 85°C is fine for medium periods of time (a few hours of gaming a day), and anything under 80°C is fine for 24/7 constant full load usage.

Basically, the i7-4790k is a consumer socket CPU that puts out at stock settings only 80W, and the 212 Evo is more than enough for it.

In the US, you can find a decent 8GB RX 480 with an aftermarket cooler for $230.

https://www.amazon.com/XFX-RX-480P836BM-Radeon-3Displayport-PCI-Express/dp/B01KCWZ0DM

I can't find a 6GB 1060 around that price, and the RX 480 does better in DX12 and has more VRAM, so it's better suited for longevity as well.

20 minutes ago, aquilaray said:

Is stable at 3506: http://prntscr.com/d5idyq

There's your problem. You're at max VRam usage. The last 0.5 GB of VRAM might as well not exist, and you're running into VRAM issues. Basically the GTX 970 has segmented VRAM. The first 3.5 GB is fine and normal, but the last 0.5 GB, due to disabled architecture to keep the price down, can only be accessed at about the same speed as regular system memory. This was a scandal with the card because you get stuttering and performance drops once you hit 3.5GB VRAM usage despite the box saying 4GB. Hell, NVidia didn't even disclose the disabled ROPs and Cache in the original release so no one knew until they ran into the issue you're having.