Ahh I think windows has a memtest? I'll figure it out tonight

It's a program. memtest86 http://www.memtest.org/

Yeah, those would be the main 2.

SSD is fine for OS install but @120gb you will only be able to keep 2 or 3 games on the SSD at a time. It can work (I am making it work right now) but it can be a pain in the ass if you have a few games on the go. ~256gb SSD gives you a lot more room for that kind of thing.

You may want to consider just adding a 2nd SSD for games and keep a clean OS drive.

750ti will be a big bottleneck. Adding a 970gtx here would be a massive improvement and get you to Crysis 3 / Far Cry 4 type system levels.

thanks for the input guys, I will probably be going with the mentioned system + 970 gtx and upgrading the ssd

Anyone got any specific 970's they like, or know of any to avoid?

"The best versions should be :

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4GB - Fastest, coolest GTX970, great reviews. Even tho it has 3 fans it has less noise than EVGA. Good overclocking potential.

EVGA EVGA GTX 970 4gb - Should be in the middle, however people have been complaining that it is a bit noisy. Have in mind a case with good airflow should fix this.

MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4GB - Best overall, this is what i would take personally. Faster if you overclock it , you get MSI Gaming App with it, just put it on your desktop and overclock the card before getting in a game with like 1 click.

Hope this helped."

I'm a huge fan of MSI after getting a GTX 670, they're super quiet which really is about the largest differentiating factor between the various brands nowadays.

Last card was MSI and can vouch for their quality. I usually just get whatever brand is on sale at the time though. At least within the major brands of ASUS, Gigabyte, EVGA, MSI, etc.

Any of you have experience returning a graphics card purchased online? And getting the same one in return?

Think my GPU may be defective.

...did you run memtest. Returning it is just doing an RMA, look up hoe to do it on the site you bought it from.

Yeah you either do an RMA with the store or with the actual manufacturer. I've done them with PSU, Motherboard x2, and CPU x2. I went through the manufacturer each time though, not the online store I bought them from.

Yeah. Depends on the store but usually it's pretty painless. The good ones will even pre-pay your return shipping. Just call the store and see what they say.

Now-a-days I have a local store that is willing to price match to online sales and I rarely have to worry about shipping stuff about.

Yes I did last night and there were no issues.

I have found multiple references on tomshardware and other forums with my exact same GPU having this issue and RMA being the way to go.

Seems like you're on the right track then

Certainly sounds like a VRAM or GPU overheat issue to me, prob more likely the former.

Ideally you'd have a cheap PCIe video card laying about, so you could swap that in and see if the problem disappears. Then swap back in and see it come back. Something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150655

Tho saying that, I think your CPU has integrated GPU anyway so just removing the video card for a few days should be sufficient. (obv then need to conenct the monitor to on-board output)

Ideally you could find some way to trigger the problem. In the olden days I used to run 3dmark2001 (and later 2003?) on endless loop for a few hours on any build - that would almost certainly crash if there were problems with the GPU. I expect there is something similar these days, others ITT probably know better. Furmark perhaps? http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/ Of course we'd also run memtest86 for a few hours first thing, before even putting the board in the case

Newegg should have easy RMA process, being such a popular retailer. Places with an awful returns process don't end up popular, I'd imagine!

Thanks dave. I'm still looking into it but haven't had much time lately.

Will report back shortly!

Anyone notice any changes I could make to this build I quickly threw together:

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/VxFFMp

Work computer crashed so may need a new one.

Budget is $1k CDN. I basically just threw the parts together in 5 mins so I didn't really research motherboards. Only requirements are that it needs a SSD and I strongly prefer an i5 system rather then going to i3.

The current parts are powerful enough to do everything I need it to just wondering if there are any upgrades for basically the same price.

Need that much graphics card?

Also, third party cpu cooler?

Probably not on the graphics card considering my old work computer just has 6+ year old integrated graphics and has been chugging along basically fine but I'm putting the excess budget into a graphics card since I need one to make work easier, plus it'd be nice to play something besides crappy browser games in my downtime

3rd party cooler I'm kind of meh on, the programs I'll be using aren't really cpu intensive. If I did get one I'd just get a cheap $15-20 one.

My current work comp was a piece of **** that was obsolete when I got it in 2009 (when I upgraded my win98 computer for winxp) so this one is a huge upgrade. Was just basically wondering if anyone had any opinions about motherboard or maybe a different brand/model of SSD.

Thermal paste is unnecessary unless you have a 3rd party cooler.

i5-4460 is what you're looking for. It's the updated model. You don't need a Z board since you're not overclocking, get a cheaper H board and use the savings on your GPU. Everything else looks great

MX100s go on sale a lot. You may be able to save ~$20 there.

Canadian dollars were really throwing me off. Also, look for a CPU/motherboard combo. That motherboard is expensive.

There are 4460/4440/4590 combos a lot that are cheaper. I got my motherboard and 4590 for $220USD from newegg.

Think that build is missing a hard drive.

Even then it's unnecessary. You can use the one coming with the processor and some 3rd party coolers come with their own. +1 on every suggestion.

You can get a bit cheaper SSD from Crucial (MX-100) but it has a slightly shorter warranty (3 vs 5 but it might be a local difference but check it out).

Samsung Evo, yo

My gtx 750 ti has stability issues. Mostly when gaming but sometimes just doing light work. Something to bear in mind.

Just happened to come across you guys talking about memtest. For the last couple years I have been having problems with my computer where I take it out of sleep mode and after awhile my computer will crash to a blue screen and give me some error about a nonpaged area or something else. My computer automatically reboots and then I usually don't have any problems as long as I don't put my computer back into sleep mode.

I've also had some problems where if I, say, go home for a weekend, come back and try to turn my computer back on, it won't turn on anything. The tower fans will be running, but it's like it's not finding anything to turn on. My monitor doesn't turn on, my keyboard doesn't turn on its backlight, etc. I have to manually turn it off and do that about 10 times before it finally catches and starts up.

Anyway, I don't know if anyone can diagnose the second problem, but is the first problem most likely a memory problem? If I was to just replace my RAM would it probably fix that problem, without running the memtest? I don't have any blank CDs or USBs (yeah I know I can go buy one), so just curious if maybe replacing the RAM would most likely be the solution.

I built my computer in 2009 and have only since replaced the graphics card (which didn't need replaced to begin with and I've been having some driver problems), and replaced the monitor (the original monitor was the problem, not the graphics card).

I don't think you want to use your SSD for general use. Just as a boot drive and maybe for some games or other applications.

Performance suffers as the drive fills.