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Hi so im looking to build a workstation PC and i saw that you can buy 2 E5 2670 Xeons for around $120 and for 16 cores 32 threads thats pretty good value for money but i was wondering how would these CPUs do in rendering video editing and gaming. would this make a good value for money PC? thanks guys

I am looking to upgrade my current rig to broadwell e, probably a 6900k what motherboard should I get? I currently have a 2600k with 8gb of ram, asus Maximus extreme motherboard, 4x256gb ssds in raid, a 1tb hard drive, a h110i cpu cooler, 2x gtx 980 in sli, a gtx 580sc that was supposed to be for physx but does nothing and a 1500watt bronze power supply. Which motherboard would be best to be able to just switch out the cpu and ram and do I need to change the cpu cooler? I am looking to upgrade my 980s some time soon but feel like my current cpu would bottleneck the system. I am currently playing at 1440p but would like to get an ultra wide and don't think I have enough to push that resolution. I am mostly going to be playing games but do some video from time to time. I don't want to get a 6700k as that doesn't seem like much of an overall upgrade. Thanks for your help

Hey, Five years ago I've bought i7 2600, Ripjaws 16 GB DDR3 RAM, Sapphire Radeon 6950 2GB and 750W PSU. Over time I've changed HDD to SSD, crappy 1080p display to Asus PB287Q 4k + LG 34UC97C dual display (which much more than my GPU can handle and causes lots of headaches) and I'm waiting for Pascal to upgrade. The thing is I don't want to upgrade the entire PC, only interested in buying a single GeForce 1080 (I'm mostly playing on that curved LG, 4k display is for programming only) The problem is with PCI Express 2.0. I know those cards aren't out yet but Linus' video on PCI-E didn't show much difference on Titans. On the other hand, those new GPUs have much faster memory. Do you think PCI Express 2.0 16x will bottleneck 1080? Will it be noticeable on 3440x1440?

I'm looking at buying a PC with one, and I want to know if it's still modern, especially with a water cooler.

Hey guys, A few weeks ago I started work on my first ever pc mod for a spring break project and it's finally done. This was done on a tight budget and old parts laying around so don't be to impressed with the specs okay. Let's start with the specs. LMAO as you can see these are just spare parts lying around because my smol little 15 year old self couldn't spend a lot. The project begins with mounting my lga1155 motherboard to the 1/8 in Baltic Birch plywood left over from making a few longboards (Seen in later pictures, bottom 2). I originally started by screwing motherboard standoffs into the wood but I decided to go with something more secure so later I used m3 screws with plastic 3d printed spacers in between. The bleed edge celeron in all of its glory lmao I began to plan everything out with pencil as well as start making holes for the cables. The holes were eventually cleaned up with a file. Test boot with my other computer because my power supply hadn't come in the mail yet. This was right after I had gotten my GTX 560 off of craigslist for $50. Bask in the 2011 era graphics card and all its glory. I eventually began mounting everything else to the piece of wood including the graphics card separated from the motherboard. Getting the nut screwed in was very difficult. I cut off the extra wood with a table saw and also cut the trim for the edges of the board. I took everything off and began my first coat of pure white paint. I later applied a second. I chose this paint to match the trim of my bedroom. I began painting the trim pieces orange. The 2 extra cheap $5 sketchy PCI-E riser cables came in the mail. I took off the tape and carefully inspected the sloppy solders. One of the risers was fine but I noticed a small imperfection on the other one while looking through a magnifier glass. The 2 solder points were barely connected and I proceeded to force them apart with a razor blade. After testing both the risers worked which was great because I didn't want to buy the $100 3M ones. I smothered the solders with hot glue for strength and then covered that in electrical tape. I began taping off the board for painting. It was very tedious work. The painting was ruff and took a long time but I finished the design and it made a very good "10 ft mod". Never the less I'm still very happy with the painting because I had little to no painting skills. I added the trim that keeps the board of the wall and hides the wires with glue and assembled the entire thing and it was done. I added picture frame wire hangers to the back and mounted it to my wall. The power button was added later to the top left. I'm veryyyyyy happy with how this build turned out. It was my first ever mod and I made on a very tight budget. I plan to upgrade the processor later but for now it sorta works okay. Thankfully this isn't my main rig. My main has a gtx 970 and an overclocked FX 8350 and a Samsung 850 EVO all in a NZXT S340. This was just a fun spring break project that I finished a few weeks after spring break. Spring break was gross and rainy. I don't have the cable management situated yet either for any of the i/o. I actually made this entire build log on this PC.

I'm going to build a new pc this summer, and I am planning somewhere in the $800 dollar range, not sure exactly what to get so i came here. One of my friends has a second hand 2600k he uses now and he offered me $150 usd for it. I was planning on something like this: PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/L9RzmG Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/L9RzmG/by_merchant/ CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($194.99 @ B&H) CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H5 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.99 @ Newegg) Motherboard: MSI Z170A PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($97.98 @ Newegg) Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($35.99 @ Newegg) Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($42.88 @ OutletPC) Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.98 @ OutletPC) Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card ($219.99 @ Micro Center) Case: NZXT S340 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg) Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($27.98 @ Newegg) Total: $794.77 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-06 17:22 EDT-0400 Before you say get the r9 380, im going green team since its what i know well. Is a 2600k a good replacement for a 6500k? Is it worth it? Please Help!

Digital Foundry did a pretty cool video testing the performance of a 2500k on modern games and how it compares to the Skylake series CPUs (and a few CPUs from generations in between) They measured performance at stock speeds with 1600mhz ram. Stock with 2133mhz ram. Overclocked to 4.6ghz and 1600mhz ram Overclocked to 4.6ghz with 2133mhz ram (UPDATE) They released another video seeing it it may be worth upgrading the 2500k to a 3770k as most boards should support both and it would be a cheaper upgrade than a whole new CPU, motherboard and RAM.

Why is it GPU clocks 0?

Hi there! I'm running a 4-year-old PC with an i7-2600 (non-K), on a Z68 chipset board, the graphics are provided by the MSI's gtx 780 Lightning. And lately I felt like my games are running a bunch slower then they should. I cleared up all the useless junk, so my casual CPU consumption (when not creating stuff) is about 7-10%, so that bg process shouldn't be an issue. UPD: To clarify, I'm running overclock, with average speed of 4231.1Mhz Core speed (41.0 x 103.2 MHz) (sometimes 4.35). But the fact is - I have a 1333mhz memory (16gb of that), and I've read that in the most recent games, memory, actually, makes a difference (which was barely noticable before), at least that what digital foundry found out lately. I've googled a bit and discovered, that my CPU can run memory up to 2000mhz+ pretty easily, even though the speeds in the spec. lists are set to 1600mhz max. So, after all that, I have two questions: will I benefit from semithing like this 32gb kit: 32Gb DDR-III 2133MHz Kingston HyperX Savage (HX321C11SRK4/32) (4x8Gb KIT), in games in particular? And will I be even able to run that thing on that old of a hardware? If you want to ask, why I need 32gigs of ram, the answer is simple, I work with video, like a lot, so I consume it pretty fast. Attached cpu-z and dxdiag reports for the full spec-lists Thanks a lot! cpu-z.txt DxDiag.txt

I bought the 2500k when It first came out and never oc'd it at all. I bought a 212 evo a year ago and just installed it yesterday. My mobo is the Gigabyte Z68-d2h, there's no auto overclocking utilities available for it to my knowledge. Here's some pictures of my bios sorry for the cancer quality: http://imgur.com/a/7fkjj. Currently, changing nothing but the cpu clock ratio the system appears to be stable at 4.4 ghz. Anything higher than that and the screen freezes and you have to restart. Being the idiot I am I cranked it up to 4.8 to see what would happen and upon immediately running intel burn test the screen froze and there was a faint smell of smoke. My Dad has the same cpu and was able to get it to 5 ghz just using his mobo's auto setup thing. What settings do I need to change to optimize this?

I'm trying to overclock a 2600K on the motherboard mentioned in the title. However i'm unable to raise the clock frequency. It seems as if a custom multiplier has no effect on the clock frequency. Here's what i tried: SpeedStep has been deactivated. I also disabled C1 States (aswell as C3/C6). Disabled/enabled Turbo Boost. Set manual VCore at 1.2 for testing(Changing these settings works as reported by CPU-Z). Load Line Calibration is enabled. Tried setting the RAM at stock aswell as XMP(I know it probably doesn't do much). CMOS has been Reset. Board is running the latest BIOS(F7). The clock frequency still jumps around, as if SpeedStep is still enabled. Usually jumps between 1600-3800 MhZ. As seen here, the frequency does not go above 3800 MhZ when stresstesting, even though the multiplier states is set at 45. Also, I have no clue why it reports it as 16-45: Does anyone have a solution, or atleast a similar problem? Could the board be outright defective (RMA not available)? Thank you in advance.

Decided to take on the project of Scrapyard Wars (eBay edition) where I try to get the best used parts possible for under $500 USD. I am only 14 so my budget is very limited. Here are the parts I'm looking at: i5 2500k: ~$120 Any Z68 Motherboard: ~$60 R9 290(possibly x): ~$220 NZXT S340 Case: $69 (buying new) EVGA 500W PSU: $40 (buying new) Total: $509 All the prices are only approximations, prices on eBay are always changing. Already Own: 8 GB Generic Samsung DDR3 Samsung 840 EVO 120 GB (boot drive) Intel 520 Series 120 GB SSD (frequently played steam games) 250 GB Generic WD Drive (mass storage/more games) Any opinions/suggestions?

Greetings, Skylake has been lighting up like crazy, even I'm excited on the brand new microarchitecture Intel has to offer. But should you upgrade? Many have asked this question to others and themselves numerous times and the Internet as we know it, has answered those questions for all of you folks looking to move to a new platform. The statements above are related to those who are on previous microarchitectures (Devil's Canyon, Haswell, Ivy Bridge, and Sandy Bridge) and the comparisons herein. Benchmarks has already been performed and there's a plethora of information, both valid and fabricated. But I will provide only valid ones to comply with the guidelines stated. PC Perspective's test with discrete GPUs: http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Skylake-vs-Sandy-Bridge-Discrete-GPU-Showdown Their testing methodology is different, but confusing for an average reader at best. So I would advise to read how they did the tests to see how they stack up with Sandy Bridge before you make your decision. I didn't read the whole article, but what I could say is for single GPU performance at 1920x1080, Sandy Bridge held up surprisingly well for a four-year old microarchitecture. But when you add another GPU and run the cards in SLI/CrossFire, Skylake is clearly the winner the tests. But for most tests with a single GPU, it produced a 7-8% performance increase, which to me makes no difference at all in gaming performance. So to summarize this from PC Perspective, for those of you who are on their Sandy Bridge systems, be it mainstream or top-of-the-line at the time, just hold on to it for another year or so. But if you plan on or are currently running a multi-GPU setup, then Skylake looks like a compelling upgrade. But if you're building your first Intel system, then definitely go for Skylake. Now to Tom's Hardware's review of the Skylake SKUs: http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2752766/skylake-upgrade.html They list and describe all the new bells and whistles for the Skylake SKUs, such as DDR4 nad DDR3L support, Z170 motherboards to go with it, and the CPUs themselves. But what I'm more interested in is should you upgrade? That's what I'm getting at here with this article, or so to say. But what they say for Haswell/Devil's Canyon users is to wait another year or so, while on the other hand for Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge users is to go and upgrade as it offers a 30-45% increase in performance, but where exactly will users see an increase in performance? Gaming? Productivity? IPCs? So here are the quotes below here from Tom's Hardware: To summarize what Tom's Hardware has to say about it, to me it's a little polarizing when you look at both PC Perspective's article and Tom's Hardware's article side-by-side. But my stance will remain is to just stick it out for another year if you only do single GPU, but upgrade if you do Multi-GPU setups and/or you want to get the latest features that fits you well. From my point of view, if you were me, if you can wait, wait for AMD's Zen microarchitecture because they may bring much needed competition. If AMD just rips, then I would be floored because it has been both Intel as the go-to for performance and it has been that incremental 6-8% performance increase for four freaking years now, which, as a PC enthusiast, makes me want to hold on to my system for longer, even the top-of-the-line one for longer until something with a large performance increase like what happened with Nehalem when it was replaced by Sandy Bridge. Now to conclude this. Is it worth it to upgrade from your previous system to Skylake? I guess it's up to you to decide. Should you go to Skylake for your first system? Definitely go for it. But I would take my recommendation for you folks who are on their previous generation systems right now to wait another year or so. But ultimately you decide what's right for you. Also if you're interested, please read my blog entry below. The subject I have documented can really bring much-needed discussion to the table.. My blog entry: The PC Hardware Debate (From My Point of View)

This experiment started two days ago when I got curious as to what the new Win10 BSOD screen looks like. After putting in an OC that I knew was unstable, I got the BSOD and was in the OC mindset at this point. As a background/history of my system specs/issues, I'm running a Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P (rev. 1.3; UEFI U1G), 2600K, NH-D14, with 8GB G.Skill Sniper (1600MHz, XMP), and Win7-SP1-X64; Gigabyte boards have had a really bad boot loop issue in Z68 platform, and it was present throughout the legacy BIOS & UEFI beta releases as well. My previous max OC with this setup was 4.5 GHz because I couldn't enable Internal CPU PLL Overvoltage. Enabling this option resulted in cold boot loops where the PC would seem to fail POST 3-4 times before booting into Windows. I even tried my luck to get 4.6 GHz without it enabled but was faced with BSODs at idle and light loads yet stable under 100% load (another infamous, well-documented issue). Discussions of idle BSOD pinpointed the culprit to be C-states settings. I'm not sure if it's because of how the BIOS/motherboard handles it or the OS (or the combo of the two). Now back to OCing with Win10. I got curious to see if the OS somehow made any difference with boot issues that I've had in the past. I went ahead and input my previously tested 4.6 GHz but with Internal CPU PLL OV enabled this time around. Surely enough, I passed 10 rounds of IBT on Max; to my surprise, I even passed Prime Blend (90% RAM) for 12 hours. I even shut down the system multiple times and manually powered it on to see if it would loop. No cold boot loops yet. The final test was to shut down the system, wait overnight, and see if it'll gimme a cold boot loop in the morning. Well, good morning! NO COLD BOOT LOOPS. After a full day of various load scenarios (light web browsing, video streaming, gaming, and benchmarks), I've had no BSODs at idle or load—and no cold boot loops at all. Today I got brave, so I started squeezing out a 4.7 GHz OC and after a few rounds of crashes/adjustments it miraculously passed 10 rounds of IBT Max and Prime under high RAM usage as well! This is after being able to undervolt my CPU PLL voltage lower than I ever could. I used to crash one minute after booting into the OS on 4.7 GHz, so today I was literally asking myself, "How the hell is this happening right now?!" I know that this system has ancient hardware, but all of this is incredibly surprising to me, since the boot loop issue for high OCs was never fully resolved. Win10 may be handling C-states and/or CPU PLL voltages a lot better than Win7, but I'm just taking a wild guess. I'm hoping that anyone with a Sandy Bridge Z68 Gigabyte system will find this a bit helpful and possibly try out Win10 for OC purposes.

So after troubleshooting myself, I can't get these USB ports to work. I thought they were defective, but in Device Manager, it says that drivers were not installed. I re-installed Windows and the Drivers, and it still seems to not work. Specs: EVGA X79 SLI Core i7 3930K Adata SP600 SSD 128GB MSI TwinFrozr III 7950 EVGA Supernova 850G2 Here is a picture of Device Manager

Hi! As I've said before, and entered into my profile, I have a Sandy Bridge i5, an H67 motherboard and 8 gigs of ddr3. My i5 is an i5-2310, which is pretty decent, but it doesn't allow me to max out the particle settings in Minecraft. Minecraft is a really CPU-based game, though. Basically, the CPU is alright, but it feels like it doesn't live up to my 270x. I don't want to get a new build now, though. I just got my rig in May and I don't have that sort of money. I'm waiting until 2016 or 2017, when 4K is more of a standard. But I'm sick of this processor. I don't know what to do. In Sweden, there are very few Used Products' sites. I checked blocket and they had an i5-2500k for 700 SEK/$80. I don't really have that money, especially for such a temporary upgrade. There aren't any Sandy Bridge processors at retailers. There aren't any Ivy Bridge ones either. Soon, there will be no Haswell or Devil's Canyon. It's impossible to find a better lga 1155 motherboard as well.

Recently I got my hands on an Alienware x51. The case is junk to me, same with the motherboard. Not to bash on Dell but, those custom motherboards really suck. Anyways, I still have an i5 2500k 3.7 GHz turbo Sandy Bridge processor. My plan was to build a very nice mini gaming tower, using the Prodigy M case. After looking around, with the socket of the processor at 1155, this limits my options on good motherboards. I wanted the Asus Maximus V Gene (ROG) but they don't make them anymore, any ideas on good Motherboards in the price range of $100-230? Thanks

So I'm currently using a Z68 sys. with 2600K & 8GB of RAM. GPU setup is Crossfire XFX HD6870s. I can still run games on low to medium settings, but I plan on upgrading soon. Should I only get new GPUs or an entirely new system? PCI-e 2.0 x8x8 would be a problem? 2600K bottleneck?

I was just interested in knowing which performs better all-around. The i5, or the older i7?

This might be a silly question but I was wondering whether or not it would be possible to run a 2600K on a Z77 board. Apparently it will work, but will there be any stability issues? Will there be any extra features that I would gain by running a Sandy Bridge chip on a Z77 motherboard vs P67?

Like the title says, whats the difference between ivy bridge and sandy bridge on z77 motherboard (both socket 1155 of course)? and also is it worth upgrading from a 2700k to a 3770k?

Well... that sucks. What do you guys think? Did Intel do this intentionally for dat dere money or maybe something else?

So i'm having trouble deciding between the P9X79 WS or the LE. I don't do much workstation grade stuff but i eventually plan to and i also like the look of the WS board better. Also a i7-3930K and a i7-4820K are going to run me about the same, which one is more future proof and faster.

Hello guys, I am building my first gaming PC after school gets out, and I need help with the processor. My original plan was the Ivy Bridge i5 3570k, but now with haswell out I wonder if I should instead purchase the haswell i5 4670k. I will be running games like skyrim, civ 5, portal 2, and battlefield 4, with a radeon 7870 (xfx). Finally, I heard that AMD is so cheap because they are known to damage easily, is that true. Thanks. PS. This is off topic, but which brand of a radeon 7870 is best. Right now I am looking XFX.

I need to know if the Intel B75 chipset can support Intel Smart Response. I'm building a computer for the parents, and this would be a nice addition. Thanks. If it doesn't, please list chipsets that do! :)