Do we still build, is this the right place?

[The Duke]

it will fit the mobo, bit they are quite big cards, so you need to make sure it will fit in your case. As your friend for the length of it, and double check you have aleniugjt room.

Iirc my 970 is about 12″ long. But they are all different.

 

 

[rockonbazza]

yeh, just checking that now ..says it is 303.04mm long and 111.15 wide..(wish they would use inches!)

 

 

[rockonbazza]

It will fit. Luckily there are no hard drives/dvd drives etc at the end area of where the card will go – they are all above that area, so it should fit ok. If the hard drivs/dvd etc were bit lower, I would have been stuck.

[The Duke]

Lol 12″ was a good guess. My case is small so I attached it with a dremel to remove the lover bank of HDD cradles. Doesn’t matter as I have HDDs and I simply not glued them to the floor of the case. And have my HDD on the second from top and I keep my top one empty to shove all the wires. I don’t had DVD drives . Well I have some in the shed. But I use a small USB DVD that live in my PC repair kit. I don’t even think that got used in 2016. Physical media is dead in my house it seems.

[rockonbazza]

So, the GTX 970 should fit, and be ok with my motherboard. However, I have an AMD FX 6300 cpu (running at stock speed). Would I get much of a bottleneck with GPU/CPU match?

Some sites say you might get bottleneck on some games where it holds the GTX 970 back, others say it isnt too bad, and other say overclock the FX 6300 to reduce any bottleneck.

I was thinking I might have to end up overclocking the CPU. I have 4 fans on the tower, one at front, 2 on the top, and rear exhaust fan. The CPU Cooler is Zalman CNPS5X PERFORMA – which I thought was a reasonable cooler and better than stock when I bought it, but I have read that it is not much better than the stock cooler.

So, will I get bottleneck, and if so does anyone know how bad? And is the Zalman good enough for overlocking if I do need to overclock the FX 6300.?

Thanks.

Quick edit. I have seen youtube clips of stock speed fx6300 and gtx970 running latest games (BF1, Witcher 3) etc and they seem to run fine, with no mention of bottlenecking.

[Dave Rice]

I have to say (as an owner) that the FX6300 is a complete pile of poo compared to anything Intel, so you’ll probably get a bottleneck.

What motherboard and ram have you got?

[rockonbazza]

Corsair Vengeance 2 x 4gb 1600Mhz

[rockonbazza]

Should read – DDR3 Corsair Vengeance 2 x 4gb 1600Mhz

[Dave Rice]

Motherboard?

[rockonbazza]

Sorry Dave – been busy last few days, and havent replied. No need to worry, card is installed and running.

[rockonbazza]

PSU Advice ?

I have a Corsair VS 550 PSU. Couple of years old now and thinking of upgrading it.

I was looking at either Corsair CX600 Builder or EVGA 500 – (both 80+ Bronze). Any comments on those, or any other PSU’s within that price range?

Thanks

[Dave Rice]

I’ve used Corsair Builders many times.

Is there anything wrong with the VS?

[rockonbazza]

I have had it for 3 years now, with no problem. I just upgraded from r9 270 to a ZOTAC GTX 970 AMP Extreme, and prior to that was checking I had enough power in PSU etc to run the card. Think my rig runs total of about 310w? FX6300, 8GB RAM, 1 DVD READ/WRITE, 8GB 1600MHZ Ram. It did say in a lot of places I checked that the VS550 was not a very good PSU, but it would/should run the card ok, but all reviews I read on the subject said to upgrade the PSU.

Tonight I was playing Witcher 3. I died in game, so whilst it was loading again I nipped out to make a cuppa, and then got delayed elsewhere. On return to the PC the base unit was switched off with no power (however the keyboard, headset and mouse still had power via usb, but base unit didnt). Unplugged it, left it 5 mins, then plugged it in again, and it powered up. Only issue was no mouse arrow and mouse didnt work (no led lights on the mouse). Plugged another mouse in and it worked. Plugged my original mouse back in again, and it worked. The PC has been running 7 or 8 hours a day now, for about 3 days with the new card – and no issues apart from tonight.

I wondered if it was the PSU that had caused the tower to turn off – I assume so? Hence I am thinking of getting a more modern, better quality PSU, and the 2 I mentioned in earlier post get good reviews.

[rockonbazza]

Ref my 2 earlier posts re PSU – I have checked various reviews etc – this one seems to get good reports – EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold so I might  get that one.

[Bartinili]

Ok so I’m having a bit of a flap over which chipset would support both a pci e graphics card, an m.2 ssd and USB 3s

 

the plan is current

Is either the pentium or entry i3 8gb ram and run it with the 750 ti I have but perhaps step up to a 1060

oh with the m.2 Sid to boot from and the old Sata spin drives as storage

The old and wretched E4500 2.2 with a GTX750Ti
Macbook Pro 2015 (i am a grown up now -.- ), Travelmate 8371G
IPad Mini 2, Asus Nexus 2012

[Dave Rice]

Z170 or Z270 I beleive.

But my i3 boots in ~15 seconds and it’s nothing expensive.

[Bartinili]

Ok USB 3 question, can I connect two USB ports at the front of my existing case to the USB 3 headers on a new mobo?

 

am I correct in thinking that the ports are the same?

The old and wretched E4500 2.2 with a GTX750Ti
Macbook Pro 2015 (i am a grown up now -.- ), Travelmate 8371G
IPad Mini 2, Asus Nexus 2012

[Dave Rice]

The ports have a totally different header so the existing cable won’t do it.

You can get a cable for USB3 header to USB 2 ports quite easily, or just get a USB 3 front panel to fit in a drive bay.

[Bartinili]

Cheers,

I’d guess most boards still have USB 2 headers, MUST resist urge to buy new case

The old and wretched E4500 2.2 with a GTX750Ti
Macbook Pro 2015 (i am a grown up now -.- ), Travelmate 8371G
IPad Mini 2, Asus Nexus 2012

[Dave Rice]

Yes, typically 2 x USB2 (so 4 ports) and 1 x USB 3 (so 2 ports).

[Author]

Posts