VMaxMuffin

... and if you want my recommendation go with Gigabyte's H97 or Z97 Gaming 3, 5 or 7 boards (depending on how much you want to spend). I've got a Gigabyte H97M Gaming 3 in my brother's gaming rig and I haven't had any issues with it.

(read my above post) Also I'll just add that if you go for a Z87 (or any 8-generation, e.g. H87) board but a new Haswell refresh CPU then you may need to do a BIOS update on the board, which relies on you having access to an existing pre-refresh Haswell CPU. To be on the safe side I'd just go with Z97 (or H97 for non-overclocking). Also Linus has a motherboard round-up video in the works so keep your eyes peeled for that, it will probably have some useful information for you.

Actually paying more than $100 for a motherboard is certainly not out of the norm, especially if you're going for a Z-chipset Intel board. Basically what you're paying for is: - Brand (this is more important than it sounds - customer support and QC. For Intel, the best seem to be Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, EVGA) - Quality + durability (I don't know how to look for this one, but if you go by the best brands then you'll generally get this) - Chipset - for Intel, the chipsets in order of least to most expensive are H#1, B#5, H#7, Z#7, X#9 (# is the current series, currently there is H81, B85, H97, Z97 and X99 because there's no H91 or B91. There are other chipsets but these are the main ones you'll encounter). Basically the more you pay the more features you get, I don't know all the limitations but you can look them up. AFAIK H81 and B85 are heavily limited on USB ports and other expansion stuff, and H97 and Z97 are pretty much the same except Z97 allows for overclocking and SLI is only on Z97 (or X99) boards (not all Z97 boards support it though, just Z97 is a prerequisite). I recommend H97 if you aren't overclocking, Z97 if you are. Then there's X99, which is the top of the line enthusiast platform which isn't really necessary unless you want 4-way SLI (not recommended) or you're doing very intensive workstation work - Expansion slots (PCI-E is generally more useful nowadays but PCI is cheaper for manufacturers to put in) - Other expansion ports, e.g. USB, SATA etc. all costs money - Quality of onboard hardware, e.g. audio and networking This is by no means an exhaustive list but it's enough to show what you're paying for. Basically if you're going for any sort of (Intel-based) gaming rig though I always start at H97 as a base, unless you're talking really, really budget build.

The Audio Technica ATH-AG1 has great quality sound and mic, although the ergonomics I'm not so sure about because they've got an unconventional headband (or rather lack thereof). Saw these pop up the other day on PCCaseGear - Audio-Technica ATH-PG1 - don't know anything about them but they seem to be a slightly less expensive 'gaming' headset but with a few improvements over the ATH-AG1- namely a detachable microphone and a more conventional headband.

So much wrong I hope that wasn't a physics teacher.

Razer's switches are pretty good from what I've seen. I have an old Blackwidow with Cherry Blues and my Brother has the Blackwidow 2014 Ultimate Stealth. I really like his keyboard, I've used it and have no complaints. Sure the switches are chinese made but to be honest they seem fine. They've stood up to his bashing so far too

When you say there are no moving parts that will be angled at 45°, the fans on your GPU are moving parts. I don't know how well they respond to being on an angle. Derp I'm retarded. Your GPU is watercooled. I don't know of any technical reasons to mount it one way or another when there are no moving parts so I'd just say whatever you want .

Yes it will probably be more powerful than an R9 280 because Maxwell is turning out to be great on the 970/980 for price-to-performance. However we can't be sure until we actually see it and see benchmarks of it. Also it remains to be seen whether nvidia will stick to 2GB VRAM for the X60 cards or if they'll bump it up to 3GB or 4GB, as they did for the 970. Of course the R9 280 has 3GB so that's an important consideration if you plan on moving up to 1440p.

... or don't prevent them in the first place by not installing things they shouldn't, not clicking on things they shouldn't, not having a proper anti-virus ("I don't want to have to pay for it, all free anti-viruses are viruses") and so on...

Please just make your own thread about it. And i'd go i5/980.

@Ady.533 This is what I'd get: [url href=http://www.pccasegear.com/sc/kgG]PC Case Gear - Shared Shopping Cart 1 x [url href=http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=27306]Corsair Carbide SPEC-01 Mid Tower Gaming Case - $69.00ea 1 x [url href=http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=28617]ASRock H97M Anniversary Motherboard - $99.00ea 1 x [url href=http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=28018]Intel Pentium Anniversary Edition G3258 - $79.00ea 1 x [url href=http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=27397]Kingston Hyper X Fury HX316C10FK2/8 8GB (2x4GB) Blue - $99.00ea 1 x [url href=http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=28907]XFX Radeon R9 285 Double Dissipation Edition 2GB - $279.00ea 1 x [url href=http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=21684]Corsair CX-430 V3 Power Supply - $65.00ea Total: $690.00 - @pccasegear.com 26/10/2014 I don't know a lot about AMD CPUs but this Intel one should be a good build. I'm 95% sure you can overclock that G3258 on this motherboard, and you can do it on the stock cooler too (although it will probably be noisy so I'd recommend getting a Hyper 212 or something). If you want nvidia for whatever reason you can swap that R9 285 for a GTX 760 at about the same price, the R9 285 is slightly better in games but if you want nvidia's features then the 760 is still a great card. I wouldn't recommend getting an SSD at this budget, get it later. You'd have to sacrifice too much gaming performance. Plus it's a lot easier to just add an SSD later than to get a cheap GPU or CPU now and upgrade it later.

If I were you I'd contact sony directly and explain the situation. Although if you lied about your age (sounds like it) that could present a problem.

It's cheaper for a reason. Overclockable? Well probably, you can overclock on the stock cooler for the 980 and the 970's stock cooler is based on similar/the same technology, just not completely made of metal. It just won't overclock very well compared to an aftermarket cooler or watercooling. What do I think of it? Well, it looks ugly. I guess if you planned to watercool it in the future then that would be a reason to get the reference version, but otherwise... ugh. It will probably be really loud too. But performance wise it should be fine, there's really only a few FPS in overclocking usually from what I've seen.

If you go for a 970 go for the Gigabyte unless there's a reason not to (e.g. if it doesn't fit in your case - it's a very long card). However I'd say unless the power consumption/heat output is a big deal to you or if you're planning to go to higher resolutions than 1080p then probably not worth it.

Get a 970 (or 980? Not sure about UK prices), spend the leftovers on however much space you can get in a decent brand and model of SSD.

Damn I need this video. Now. Plz. :lol:

Go for the ROG Swift because it has G-Sync. Although the PB278Q is IPS so if you really really care about wanting IPS then I'd get that. Normally I'd recommend going for the IPS panel over TN but seeing as G-Sync and IPS don't mix (for now at least) then a TN panel is the only option if you want G-sync. So yeah go for the ROG Swift. As far as TNs go it's supposed to be one of the better ones anyway.

*slow clap* Glad to hear the driver is alright though, that was nasty.

That looks good, nice job! Very clean (well, until you see behind the motherboard tray... )

@ 5930k if you want 4 way SLI, 5820k if you only want 3-way. But if this is just a straight up gaming build (i.e. not a workstation) then I'd say neither, go for an i7 4790k.

Man that's cool. I'd really like to see a mid-sized one though, like identical to the current wind force but with only 2 fans to make it shorter... unfortunately the 3-fan Windforce is a bit too long for the 250D. Pretty plz

It's going live at 4am PST, I don't think he wants to be up making the thread then...

It will be an embargo. Same with how all all of tech youtubers' 980 videos came out at about the same time.

That's fine, although unless they're both the reference version it will look a bit funny EDIT: Also they will both run at the lowest clock of the two cards. So if you aren't overclocking then that will be the lower stock speed of the two cards you have, or if you are then it will be at whatever overclock the weaker card can handle.

I have a previous generation set of A40s (pre-2013 edition I think). I've been happy with the sound and the mic is good enough, but the real let down for me is the quality of the head band. You need to be gentle with it because the plastic is fairly brittle and one of the two plastic bands has broken for me. So in future I'll be going for something that's either truly flexible or very sturdy.