Annro The Argonian

For an indie, I highly recommend Unity3D or Unreal Engine 4. If you don't want to pay for your engine, there's a free version of Unity3D and the Unreal Development Kit, both of which have TONS of tutorials and tips all over the internet. I started with Unity, then moved on to CryEngine. It's not as hard as you'd think to make a 3rd person game, all you have to do is change the way the camera is attached to the "Player" actor. After a while, I found CryEngine to be an optimized mess, so I tried UDK. It was pretty sweet, so I bought UE4. Haven't looked back since.

I recommend the Corsair M95. It's got more buttons than the M65, and it's my favorite mouse. The Razer Naga Hex is pretty sweet, too, I have the Molten Edition lying around somewhere... There's the Logitech G600, which is pretty much what a Naga is. I haven't used too many mice that I happened to like... I think the only other one that I got any joy out of would be the Thermaltake Level 10M, which looks pretty cool, but doesn't quite stack up to the other premium mice. I still recommend the M95 above all else, though.

There's the Cooler Master Storm Devastator, a decent mouse + keyboard bundle that only costs $30-40. Just don't expect any wicked premium features... this was my starting bundle, but I've since moved on to Corsair's better stuff. Anyways, you'd have a few extra bucks to spend on whatever afterwards, like a better mouse and keyboard or a headset.

Awesome, I sure hope so. I've got a Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H lying around (used it for my old CPUs, which I sold) and was just wondering if I'd have to sell it to get a new board.

Yeah... the title. So will I have to get a new Z or H97 motherboard if I want to get, say, an i7-4790? Thanks!

I'm not an expert in anything that has to do with computers, however I am an enthusiast. I've had multiple i5 and i7 builds; based on this experience, I can say that 3D modelling programs generally greatly benefit from hyperthreading when rendering. At least that's what I've noticed. The main 3D modelling/rendering program I use most of the time is Blender (it's free and very functional), and when I've finished modelling, I've noticed a dramatic reduction in rendering times when upgrading to an i7. Instead of rendering four blocks at a time, like with the i5 4670k (which has four threads), it would render eight with the i7 4770k. As you can see in my signature, I'm currently using the i7 4930k in my main build, which has twelve threads, and now rendering times are absolutely awesome. I like to render at high sample rates because it looks much better (5,000 for stills; 1-2,000 for animations), and the hyperthreading has really reduced my waiting times. I once rendered a cloth falling into a glass bowl to test the rendering times of the i5 4670k, i7 4770k, and the i7 4930k with 240 frames at 1,000 samples; a ten second animation. These were left at their stock clocks, mind you, and I used 16GBs of 2400MHz RAM (which might've caused some bottlenecking). The 4670k took almost two hours; the 4770k took about a little over fifty minutes; the 4930k took under half an hour... on average. Outside of rendering, I hardly noticed any difference ever. Chrome loaded just as fast, modelling didn't seem to achieve any higher speeds when switch from i5 to i7, and gaming only took a 0-4 higher fps difference. I would say that the i5 would definitely suffice, if your friend is willing to wait through the render times; if he's less patient or simply needs a faster computer, I highly recommend an i7. Based on my experience, the i7 truly helps a lot during rendering, but modelling seems to be more dependent on the GPU.

How about the LG IPS237L? The bezel isn't really 1.2mm, as is advertised, but the monitor still looks pretty sleek.

This one's a bit cheaper and it's still IPS (I'm an AOC fan): http://www.amazon.com/AOC-i2367Fh-23-Inch-Screen-Monitor/dp/B009V8F700/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1398512294&sr=1-1&keywords=aoc+i2353ph

I've had three AOC i2353PH monitors before. They're pretty inexpensive, look good, and they're IPS.

I was this close to getting a pumped up AMD build, but Intel's upcoming Haswell-E has convinced me to just wait it out. I have an ASUS Sabertooth X79 motherboard, which is LGA 2011... but the Haswell-E CPUs are a certain LGA 2011-3. Are there going to be dedicated LGA 2011-3 motherboards (X99?) or will Haswell-E CPUs work with LGA 2011 boards? According to this article, Haswell-E CPUs have the same amount of pins as Haswell CPUs, but the layout is different. As a heavy editor and enthusiast, the whole DDR4 and 16 threads thing is having me ready to wet myself. ANYWAYS. . . uh, that's all actually.

I've built several systems just because it was a system I didn't have and wanted. Men like us take pride in our system, right? Anyways, here's one that's very similar to one of my builds. I know most people will recommend NVIDIA, but I've found AMD cards to be overall a tad faster when it comes to video editing. Yeah, the GTX 770 beats the R9 280x in a lot of games, but the 280x's extra memory and larger memory interface really do help when it comes to rendering (at least 3D rendering, the type of editing I do). I've also found higher speed memory more practical in editing rigs. I been able to time out tangible improvements when testing out 16GBs of 1600MHz memory against 16GBs of 1866MHz memory. Oh... and I'm a huge fan of Corsair and Gigabyte, so I'm always inclined to buy and recommend their products. Part List: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/oLuffy/saved/4tud Price breakdown/merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/oLuffy/saved/4tud/by_merchant/ CPU: Intel Core i7-4770k ($299.99 @ Amazon) CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($49.99 @ NCIX US) Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H ATX ($158.98 @ OutletPC) Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866MHz ($159.99 @ Amazon) SSD: A-Data XPG SX900 256GB ($139.14 @ NCIX US) HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200 RPM ($84.63 @ OutletPC) Video card: Sapphire R9 280X 3GB Dual-X ($299.99 @ Newegg) Case: Corsair SPEC-03 Red ATX Mid-Tower ($59.99 @ Newegg) PSU: Corsair RM750W 80+ Gold Fully-Modular ATX ($119.99 @ Amazon) Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST ($16.99 @ Newegg) OS: Windows 8.1 OEM 64 bit ($89.99 @ NCIX US) Total: $1,479.67 The only thing different in the build I have that's similar to this is the SSD. My SSD is the Corsair Neutron Series 128GB.

Do you think the Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 (rev 4.0, whatever that means) would be good for overclocking, then? The two main things about the Extreme9 that attract me are the price tag (compared to other high-end boards) and that it supports 64GBs of RAM. It's not a downgrade, I'm building another system... My current system, which I am very, very proud of I'll have you know, is my sweetheart and the system I use for all of my serious work. It's the heart of my office, the glory of my household, the reason I wake up every morning. But in all seriousness, this new AMD build is going to be put into an Antec Lanboy chassis and be moved around a lot (we're looking for a second house). And to those that recommend I just get an i7... I had thought about it, but I don't have an AMD build yet. Yeah... not the best excuse ever...

Hey guys, I dunno if this question has been asked before here (nothing showed up when I searched for it), so sorry if it has been. Anyways, the motherboard I'll be using will be the ASRock 990FX Extreme9 since it's the only high-end motherboard with a fair price where I'm from... about $230. "What the?" Yes, I know. But the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 and Crosshair V Formula Z motherboards both go for almost $300 a piece! Not fair... Back on track, would you guys suggest that I pay extra to get the FX 9590 (about $400) or should I just stick with the 8350 (about $250) and an H100i liquid cooler (about $110) and overclock it to be nearly equals with the 9590? Or is that even possible? I don't really have a budget (I work hard!), but I still don't want to throw money into something that isn't really worth the extra cost. Oh, and I should mention that this build will be paired up with a Sapphire R9 290X Tri-X 4GB and will be used for gaming, video/photo editing, and Blender. Thanks!

Sweet, thanks guys! Whenever I ask this same thing anywhere else people always recommend that I get an ASUS or Gigabyte board instead... but I can see it's a pretty sweet motherboard with a well-deserved price tag.

For an AMD gaming build I want to use an FX 8350 and overclock the crap out of it (obviously), but the really good ASUS boards are about double to triple the price here that they are in the States, so I have my eye on the ASRock 990FX Extreme9. For my LGA 1155 "daily" build that I keep in the living room, I'm using ASRock Z77 Extreme4 and it's quite decent. But I don't overclock that build because there's really no point. I haven't really found anything good online that gets into detail about the 990FX Extreme9, so I just wanted to ask you folks. Any other recommendations are welcome. Thanks!