[TheJesusGuy]

I'm making a custom budget gaming PC and here is my partlist:
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/DonutDefector/saved/3w6I

Not sure what I could swap out and give me more performance while staying on budget (challenging myself by staying as chose to $400 as possible.).

I'll also be doing some screen capturing with this.

EDIT: Partlist will be updated regularly.

You can cut half the price from the RAM and just get 8GBs. 16 isn't needed.

 

[Yazen]

Good choice under $400 IMO is a refurbished desktop from Lenovo.  Every few months they put up an i7-3770/8GB/1TB/HD6770 for $375-$400.
 
You also get a genuine copy of Windows 7/8 lol
 
For reference, I order one for a friend and everything looked new.  Internals were wiped clean, and no scratches on the case.  The HDD was new.  I paid about $450 for my i5-4670k/16GB/mITX/case alone.

Pretty good value to me honestly....  What does everyone else think? 

 

[Tangster]

  Good choice under $400 IMO is a refurbished desktop from Lenovo.  Every few months they put up an i7-3770/8GB/1TB/HD6770 for $375-$400.
 
You also get a genuine copy of Windows 7/8 lol
 
For reference, I order one for a friend and everything looked new.  Internals were wiped clean, and no scratches on the case.  The HDD was new.  I paid about $450 for my i5-4670k/16GB/mITX/case alone.

Pretty good value to me honestly....  What does everyone else think? 

Lenovo is always pretty good value. I'd avoid their mini case units though, no upgrade space at all, not even for another HDD or SSD. The fans are crazy loud on those too. More noise than is I turned all my radiator fans to max.

 

[deadlylover]

Msi afterburner says the core clock is at 1080 it says the memory is running at the correct frequency a well. Right now it's at 77c. I remember someone here saying they mine at 80c. I'd feel weird doing that but if it isn't damaging my card I shouldn't be do worried.

I'll try adjusting clocks when I get back.

EDIT: So at 900 and 1600 I'm now up to 616Kh/s average. Still not the "700+ people say they get with my original configuration, I'll keep playing around with it. Thanks for the help that made a big difference.

 
It's real hard to explain how it all works, but I'll try give some basic pointers.
 
You first need to find your maximum memory clock, so keep increasing it by 10mhz or so until it crashes or your hashrate drops.
 
Then, increase your core in 5mhz steps, you'll notice that there will be a plateau/roll off once you hit a certain speed, so keep at it, and pull back when you find that point. I usually leave cgminer open and adjust clocks in trixx/afterburner, it usually shows changes after 15ish seconds of the hashrate stabilising.
 
For general computer use, I'd leave it at that. However, if you want to push it to the limit, you'll have to start playing around with thread concurrency and intensity. If you increase your thread concurrency, you'll have to increase intensity along with it to be able to use it without crashing. Problem is, having high intensity reaaaaally slows your desktop to a crawl, so I don't recommend it. I just stick to 13 so I can still YouTube just fine.
 
Then, you can tweak other parameters like -g 2 and lookup gap, but I haven't found it to make that big a difference, but it might for you.
 
Finally, undervolt as much as you can. I prefer leaving the clocks in an efficient middle ground, rather than running them full tilt all the time for maximum hashes. An extra 50kh/s isn't worth it to me for an extra 5 degrees and a bunch of noise, keeping in mind the extra wear and tear of the card.
 
Good luck, I hope you make lots of money. 

 

[linglingjr]

Thank you very much.  I've already started to loosely dial in core clock/voltage.  Right now at 880mhz and 1010v im getting 614-641kh/s (but that's for WU which I'm told is supposed to be more accurate than your average)  
 
The temps are at a nice comfy (for me) at least 67 C and the fans sound like it's just idling.  I've been running around most the morning and have only had like 15 minutes to adjust everything though.  I'll look more into concurrency, gap and all those other parameters for sure.
 
I still think I should be getting over 700kh/s like everyone with a 7970 is getting.  As far as flashing the gpu bios goes, people say that Sapphire Dual X bios (which is the card I have hence the bios I should have as well) is the best for mining. People say they go from their GHz edition stock bios to dual x bios and get a 200+kh/s jump I might try flashing it, I assume that's what's holding me back atm.

 

[DonutDeflector]

  A8-7600 (run it in 65W mode; this thing will be released later Q1; $119?), some decent A78 or A88X motherboard (mATX or ATX; $50-70), 8GB RAM @ 1600MHz that has a reputation to be able to OC to 1866-2133 MHz ($50-70), Seagate/Hitachi/WD 500GB-1TB 3.5" HDD ($50-60), NZXT Source 220 ($30-50), SeaSonic S12II 430W or SeaSonic SSR-360GP 360W ($50-$54), some good inexpensive ODD.
 
I don't know if you need the mouse and keyboard. Don't get the stupid LED lighting from Xoxide. At the very least if you want lighting, go with NZXT or Bitfenix. Also, 16GB or RAM is pretty worthless in this situation.
 
Edit: Don't buy the Corsair CX power supplies. They changed their OEM from Seasonic to some garbage company so the quality has dropped like a rock. Refer to this list for good PSUs: http://www.overclock.net/t/183810/faq-recommended-power-supplies

I've edited the list to replace some of the parts.
I wanted 16GB because I'll also be doing some graphical stuff. (Animations, Photo editing, etc.)

 

[DonutDeflector]

Anyone have suggestions for a modular or semi modular power supply?

 

[ibob4tacoz]

Anyone have suggestions for a modular or semi modular power supply?

How much?

 

[linglingjr]

  Anyone have suggestions for a modular or semi modular power supply?

I recommend purchasing my no longer needed OCZ 550W lol I got a 750w corsair for free (trying to keep the dream alive for a second gpu) so I don't need it anymore.  Original box and everything but no AC cord 

 
But OC3D youtube channel uploaded a video on some Seasonic mini psu that came with a million different length cables and the option to buy even more super short ones, I think it was uploaded like a month ago if that's what you're looking for.

 

[ibob4tacoz]

  I recommend purchasing my no longer needed OCZ 550W lol I got a 750w corsair for free (trying to keep the dream alive for a second gpu) so I don't need it anymore.  Original box and everything but no AC cord 

 
But OC3D youtube channel uploaded a video on some Seasonic mini psu that came with a million different length cables and the option to buy even more super short ones, I think it was uploaded like a month ago if that's what you're looking for.

Still trying to unload that thing?

 

[DonutDeflector]

How about suggestions for LED bar lights to add some bells + whistles to my PC?
They will of course be on the inside of the case since there is a side window. 
At least 6" in length and have a nice blue color.
They have to be bright but too bright.
They can have variable brightness settings (which could help).

 

[linglingjr]

Still trying to unload that thing?

Lol yes, I'm just too lazy to post it up on Tom's hardware/eBay. Dane with my old case. Not looking forward to getting dust off of that for pictures.

 

[214324]

  I've edited the list to replace some of the parts.
I wanted 16GB because I'll also be doing some graphical stuff. (Animations, Photo editing, etc.)

8GB is plenty enough. I only recommend 16GB if you're running a few virtual machines (as in 2+, giving 4GB each).
 

  Anyone have suggestions for a modular or semi modular power supply?

Usually hard to get a good PSU that is modular with your budget.

 

[MemoryLeak]

  8GB is plenty enough. I only recommend 16GB if you're running a few virtual machines (as in 2+, giving 4GB each).
 
Usually hard to get a good PSU that is modular with your budget.

Depends... After Effects will quickly yoink 16 of my 32. Sometimes more when rendering. If you are using Adobe products I would drop the RAM and pick up an Nvidia card with as many cuda cores as you can, scrubbing real time makes a difference in productivity rather than doing RAM previews all the time, especially if you do not have the raw CPU power to crunch. If your software supports OpenCL, well then it doesnt matter.

 

[linglingjr]

DOGECOIN UPDATE!
 
So I played around with my clocks and voltage a whole lot. I tried increasing and decreasing it but no matter what I did it would always end up between 520-620kh/s on every configuration I tried.  
 
Then I thought about my software.....  I wasn't going to even bother trying different drivers and I knew that CGMiner 3.7.2 was good.  No one ever had any problems with that.  And then I remembered what SDK I was running.  I just downloaded the most recent SDK from amd's site (which happens to be 2.9)  In the hours of googling and testing I did I found one dude on a single random forum way back in 2012 who said that 2.8 sdk was not good for mining.  I also found that most the people having 500 ish hash rates with their 7970s (regardless of model or what bios they were running) had 2.8 listed as there sdk.  
 
So I did what one random dude 2 and a half years said and tried rolling back to a 2.7 sdk.  Turns out something that only ONE person on the internet recommended worked, and I found out that 2.9 sdk isn't any better than the 2.8 sdk.  
 
after installing I kept the 880core, 1600mem and 1050v that was working the best for me on the old sdk and now it was only like 5kh/s higher.  I raised core and mem a bit more -- a bit better hash rate.  Eventually I got to something like 900core, 1700mem and the same 1050v which raised me up to a steady 660kh/s.
 
I again referred to the HW comparison guide and lowered their suggested config which just crashed my card, and at 1100core and 1875mem (which they recommend) and 1110v I got 760kh/s for about 10 minutes and then I started getting screen artifacts as the temp rose to 80c.... so I'm guessing the mem can't handle that frequency.  Still very happy I figured it out.
 
TL;DR I figured out that 2.9 sdk is crap, went back to 2.7 and got my hash rate up to 760kh/s
 
EDIT: It'd be cool to see if you guys got any better rates on 2.4-2.7 sdks as well.