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Question for the savvy people that ensured I got good parts -
I just received my i5 from NCIX. An email sent from them tells me they shipped everything together (i5 and Z87-D3h) yet it was only the retail processor in a box that would only hold the processor. Said email doesn't include barcode / S/N information on the mobo, either. Should I be concerned?
+ Show Spoiler +Really frustrating - I got all of the parts in, except the motherboard. I can probably start looking to see how everything will fit in the case, and prepare for the build - but without that mobo I'm kindof stuck.
Add-on - I looked at the Noctua instructions for how to thermal paste their heatsink, along with checking the two big thermal paste articles on Tom's Hardware. According to Noctua, I should use the "pea" method (although, y'know, a smaller volume of paste). Should I go with that, or try for the "grain of rice"/"line" method to focus on the hot spot? (And how can you tell where that is on an i5?)
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Call them than.
Isn't pea and grain of rice sort of like the same thing?
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United Kingdom20345 Posts
Pea is pretty much circle; grain of rice type applying is an oval that stretches up/down and not so much outwards to the sides. Quite similar, oval is better.
Considering the hotspot looks like this:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/1dUFyETl.jpg)
It's pretty obvious why. All of the heat is coming from the die, which is rectangular shaped, top to bottom in the socket
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I thought people like to say "a grain of rice" because saying "pea sized" might make people use a blob of paste that's too large.
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Depends on the pea and the type of rice.
But yeah, probably more like rice unless you're working with some very uneven HDT base, in which case the cooler sucks.
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United Kingdom20345 Posts
Rice is shaped like "0", pea is shaped like "O"
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It's a Noctua U14S, the base looks to be reasonably flat.
+ Show Spoiler + Also, mother of god is it big. I'm not sure which way to point the fan, either - out the top of the case or in line with the front or rear fan. Also, jesus it's big. Thankfully it's got a nice back plate assembly. Heat sinks have grown a bit since the last time I built a computer.
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I think the major distinction people are making is the volume used, not really the shape, though that can make some difference as well. But a grain of rice isn't exactly elongated enough to make a real impact there. Also, just wait till people do the line in the wrong direction.
edit: U14S is a (relatively) slim model, hence the S I think. Just take a look at the double tower coolers.
With Noctua's base and mounting mechanism, you won't need much thermal interface material.
Fan points blowing into the heatsink and towards the back of the case unless you have an unusual airflow arrangement.
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I've got a fan at the back of the case at the top, a fan at the front of the case, and a fan at the top of the case - default arrangement that came with the Fractal Arc Midi R2 case. The fans can be moved, but I think the default layout should work.
I feel like I could kill someone with heat sink - it's got some heft. The last non-stock heatsink I used IIRC was a Zalman that looked a lot like this
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Yeah, you want to point out the back then.
The small down-blowers aren't really suitable for overclocking. Personally I don't really see the need for spending up to the U14S's price point unless you're more of an enthusiast overclocker, but it's an investment that can last many PC builds as Noctua gives out free mounting hardware for new sockets to its customers. Just be glad you don't have an NH-D14 I guess. Or maybe its yet-unreleased successor that'll probably be larger.
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United Kingdom20345 Posts
I've got one of those stupid little zalman coolers, can't even run 1.15v on it on 3770k, so the chip is stuck @4.2ghz @1.08v to stay cool even though it could do ~4.9 pretty cleanly with something like a u14s, like no argument losing 500mhz there
Also, that thing's louder than my silver arrow.
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Well, I'm glad that skyR steered me to a beautiful piece of hardware, then. Also, the words "6 year warranty" make me feel like I could get good mileage out of it.
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About the case fan arrangement, I'd try to see what happens with the fan at the top moved to the front as another intake fan. This might work out better than the default setup because it should mean that there's "positive pressure" inside the case, meaning you can be sure no air gets sucked into the case in areas where you don't have a dust filter. Downside might be weird noises because of vibrations from the two fans touching each other in that fan mount thingy at the front of the Arc Midi R2 case.
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Is there a reason why people like 2x 4gb memory instead of 1x 8GB
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On December 03 2013 01:32 Incognoto wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2013 01:23 XenOmega wrote:
What would be the best GPU I can get in the 200-250 range (maybe 300 max)
Is the R270 the best? Have a look: http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#sort=a7HD 7950 and GTX 760 are roughly equivalent at the $250 price range and they're both good cards. They would be the best at $250. At $300 you start getting 280X cards which are better than either of those. Edit: oh ok Cyro, so yeah it would be a good idea to recommend an i3-4xxx for that guys build. It fits that price point rather nicely.
Oh, those prices are for US only I believe,
For Canada, I think it is slightly more expensive
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On December 03 2013 07:52 nosliw wrote:
Is there a reason why people like 2x 4gb memory instead of 1x 8GB
Dual channel.
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R9 270 for $250 is way overpriced.
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On December 03 2013 09:07 skyR wrote:
R9 270 for $250 is way overpriced.
Sorry, I didn't express myself properly. Was asking if i should go with the 660 at 169 -20$ rebate
Or should my friend pay more for a superior card (200+$, like r270 or something else)
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R9 270 shouldn't be $200+. R9 270X shouldn't even be much more than $200. (most base models are $200 in the States at least, and if you look around you should find almost the same in Canada)
And it depends on the game, but an R9 270 isn't even better than that GTX 660.
That price for a GTX 660 is fine, so you can just get that.
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EPT
