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The PSU is really bad for such a system. I would go with one of these, first is a better option overall, second is cheap but still OK; I couldn't find super flower units to my liking in terms of price, same with enermax and fractal design:
The heatsink is a tad weak, I'd get something a bit more like a Thermalright True Spirit 120 (BW), I think that's the cooler that's new from Thermalright and is very well priced compared to the performance it gets you. Only con is that it's 170mm high so you need a somewhat larger case. Not sure what your case is, read reviews to make sure.
Your GPU is pretty good as well, GTX 760 doesn't generate that much heat so as long as you're getting a heatsink from EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI or ASUS you should be OK. I'm not 100% how good EVGA's ACX cooler is compared to the other three brands, it should be relatively similar though. Get the GPU with the best price is what I might say.
As for the case be careful for things like clearance for heatsink height (120 BW is 170mm tall which is too tall for something like a Core 1000) and graphics card clearance (should be OK for most cases but just google specs to make sure).
Otherwise things look OK.
E: ohyeah @ cyro vid. saw that this mornin was half asleep wasn't sure what to make of it. I understand the gist of it now though. the latency does seem low, though i think it would be easier to understand things if compared with other systems. I don't have the equipment to even take a picture of my computer atm though :x
I found a supplier actually in denmark who have stock for the following build, for around the same price as the previous one, (with the same monitor, bought from another site.) Which would save awkward shipping.
Better psu ( Unless all corsair psu's just suck or something.) The 450 and 550w models cost basically the same too~, gold certified and fully modular (as far as i can tell.) And what looks like a good case, (apparently lots of room + good cooling.)
Also swaps the gpu out for an asus 760, the ram out for some kingston 1600, and the motherboard for a level up (a vs k version) if that makes a difference.
Should all be ok, except I have no idea about the cpu fan (again tt). The other options they have (it would be convenient to get it through them, as they do free shipping etc) are below if the current one happens to suck + Show Spoiler +
from cheapest to most expensive Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 - Støjsvag - KUN til Ivy Bridge & Haswell Arctic Cooling Freezer i30 - Støjsvag - Universal Cooler Master Hyper 412S - Støjsvag (16-22 dBa) - Universal Corsair Hydro H55 Quiet Performance - Vandkøling - Universal Noctua NH-U12P SE2 - Støjsvag (20 dBa) - KUN til Ivy Bridge & Haswell Noctua NH-D14 - Støjsvag (20 dBa) - KUN til Ivy Bridge & Haswell Corsair Hydro H80i High Performance - Vandkøling - Universal Støjsvag = quiet vandkøling = water cooling
What is your monitor's native resolution? 5760x1080, 3x Dell u2311H
What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings? Starcraft 2, Ultra Trackmania 2, Max Farcry 3, As high as I can get
What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming? Web development, programming, running virtual machine webservers via vagrant, photoshop, media server.
Do you intend to overclock? Potentially in the future.
Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire? Yes, I would like to keep that as an option to upgrade later.
Do you need an operating system? No, no software is needed.
Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget? Nope, all peripherals have been bought already.
If you have any requirements or brand preferences, please specify. Intel 4770k for the processor. Samsung EVO ssd or Intel. Bitfenix Shinobi case.
What country will you be buying your parts in? United Kingdom.
If you have any retailer preferences, please specify. No, No retailer preferences.
I have tried putting a built together already but want to see if it can be improved. I will expand to 32gb in the future and want to get another R9 290x in the future.
What is your monitor's native resolution? 5760x1080, 3x Dell u2311H
What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings? Starcraft 2, Ultra Trackmania 2, Max Farcry 3, As high as I can get
What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming? Web development, programming, running virtual machine webservers via vagrant, photoshop, media server.
Do you intend to overclock? Potentially in the future.
Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire? Yes, I would like to keep that as an option to upgrade later.
Do you need an operating system? No, no software is needed.
Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget? Nope, all peripherals have been bought already.
If you have any requirements or brand preferences, please specify. Intel 4770k for the processor. Samsung EVO ssd or Intel. Bitfenix Shinobi case.
What country will you be buying your parts in? United Kingdom.
If you have any retailer preferences, please specify. No, No retailer preferences.
I have tried putting a built together already but want to see if it can be improved. I will expand to 32gb in the future and want to get another R9 290x in the future.
This is the build I have come up with if it is any good. I appreciate any help and critique
I prefer z87x-d3h, but aside from that:
£102 for 2x8GB of 1600mhz memory is kinda expensive, you might also want to grab a decent 2133 kit (around ~c9) or 2400 (around ~c10-11) for a similar price if you can, or a little more. Try to get 2x8gb together, as opposed to individual modules, even if they have the same name on them - quite often, weird stuff happens with them selling multiple different types of RAM IC's which clock and perform differently at given settings, just branded the same. You're unlikely to have a problem but it's better practice to buy them in the same "kit"
You need a CPU cooler, like a Thermalright hr-02 macho or silver arrow
It's worth spending for a better PSU, instead of just one that works for such a build.
You absolutely want non-reference cooled 290's like the sapphire tri-x ones for example, and don't get 290x unless you want to pay about 1.3x more - for what amounts to about 3-4% more performance at the same clock speed. It's the worst cost efficiency "upgrade" on the GPU market today by a mile, only there because of marketing hype and AMD underclocking the reference 290's by about 5% on top of that compared to 290x's to artificially make them look weaker than both being basically the same
I would not recommend a bitphoenix shinobi for running multiple flagship graphics cards and an overclocked Haswell CPU. Your power load would be 625w at best, >800w at worst, with all loaded - and that's a LOT of heat to remove from a case very quickly. This is the type of setup that requires good airflow to function properly. It seems like a great budget case, but it's a pretty sealed off box in the end and i could see that going very very badly with a pair of 290's or 780's in it.
What is your monitor's native resolution? 5760x1080, 3x Dell u2311H
What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings? Starcraft 2, Ultra Trackmania 2, Max Farcry 3, As high as I can get
What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming? Web development, programming, running virtual machine webservers via vagrant, photoshop, media server.
Do you intend to overclock? Potentially in the future.
Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire? Yes, I would like to keep that as an option to upgrade later.
Do you need an operating system? No, no software is needed.
Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget? Nope, all peripherals have been bought already.
If you have any requirements or brand preferences, please specify. Intel 4770k for the processor. Samsung EVO ssd or Intel. Bitfenix Shinobi case.
What country will you be buying your parts in? United Kingdom.
If you have any retailer preferences, please specify. No, No retailer preferences.
I have tried putting a built together already but want to see if it can be improved. I will expand to 32gb in the future and want to get another R9 290x in the future.
This is the build I have come up with if it is any good. I appreciate any help and critique
I'd go for a non-reference R9 290x, eg. Sapphire Tri-X, ASUS DirectCu II, MSI Twin Frozr IV, Gigabyte Windforce.
Bitfenix Shinobi is a bit low-end for overclocked 4770k + Crossfire R9 290x. You're going to be restricting yourself to basically two HDDs and going to need to purchase additional fans a long with an aftermarket heatsink which is going to end up being more expensive than just getting a more expensive modern case that comes with three fans.
I'd get better memory as well, 2x8GB 1866MHz or 2133MHz should not be that much more.
Those are exactly the things about Windows that are annoying to me. There's sometimes cute ideas here and there, like this mouse pointer speed idea, but it would be really nice if you could configure the details.
On April 30 2014 23:22 skyR wrote: Corsair RM is okay but typically a bit expensive compared to other offerings.
Kingston memory typically isn't good as they run at 1.65v for 1600MHz. Lots of other kits that run at 1.5v should be similarly priced
Arctic Cooling Freezer i30 is similar to the Hyper 212. If you want something high-end than get the NH-U12P or NH-D14 depending on price.
The Corsair PSU isn't that expensive, so I'll probably just go with that.
About the ram, is there any downside other then a slightly higher energy usage? (Does it cause any issues/need special bios configuration?) Also saw some threads on other forums about it defaulting to 1333 @1.5V unless you specifically set it to 1.65V, any idea if that's accurate?
They have a bunch of different kingston sticks all within 8-10 euroes of the 1600 sticks. Would it be worth upgrading to a higher frequency/is any specific frequency/series better? Or is it enough of an issue to warrant just avoiding kingston if at all possible. (Would be a little inconvenient, but not the end of the world.) + Show Spoiler +
I'm not familiar with ASUS motherboards but I imagine it might have something to do with number of SATA or USB ports? That or power phases. Probably something of the sort.
Some boards may default to 1333MHz @ 1.5v as JEDEC specs are 1600MHz @ 1.65v and Intel recommends 1.5v +/- 5%. You can easily change it to 1600MHz @ 1.65v in the BIOS and running memory at 1.65v isn't the end of the world. 1.65v is just going to net you a lower resale value in the future and may be worse for overclocking.
More expensive boards comes with better power phases, more features, more connections, better chipsets, etc. Not worth it unless you know what you want. A board around $130 (so Gigabyte Z87X-D3H and ASUS Z87-A) are already overkill for your average consumers.
I'd try to find something 1.5V for RAM if possible. You should only accept 1.65V if you get great speed at good price out of that, speeds like 2133 or 2400 MHz for example.
When looking around for RAM, you should today be able to find something like 2133 speed for the same price as 1600 or at least very close. If you didn't yet take a good look in the sections listing the faster speeds on the website of the shop you want to buy from, please do that. You might be surprised to find a deal that's not expensive.
I my experience, RAM (and the part of CPU that talks to it) can support a pretty crazy amount of voltage without issue, something that seems crazy like 1.8V for example might be realistic to use. When touching the memory sticks in my experiments, they didn't seem that hot. The board's sensor for the voltage regulation also didn't report anything too hot. I was still scared and don't use that kind of voltage 24/7.
A more expensive motherboard is typically not worth it at all for this current Haswell generation. The Haswell CPU takes over a good amount of the work that the board originally did so there's no worries about the board getting too hot like for AMD.
On a more expensive board, the CPU won't overclock any better. You will always be limited by the CPU itself. And what your particular CPU will be able to do, that's pure luck and totally random. If you are lucky it needs little voltage and run cool for something like 4.6 GHz, and if you are unlucky, it will struggle and need higher voltage and get very hot at 4.4 GHz. The board can't change anything about that.
You should check the features of the board to decide. There might be something you want on the more expensive boards that's useful to you. Things like (supposedly) better audio or wireless networking or more SATA ports for a lot of drives.
I'm looking to build something to replace my old college laptop.
What is your budget? $1000 - $1200
What is your monitor's native resolution? 1920x1080
What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings? Dota 2 max, blizzard games at high/max settings.
What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming? Casual browsing and stream watching.
Do you intend to overclock? No
Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire? No
Do you need an operating system? No
Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget? I'd like a suggestion for a 24 or 27 inch monitor, will need a new one to go along with the second I already have. I'm not including it in the budget.
If you have any requirements or brand preferences, please specify. Nope.
What country will you be buying your parts in? USA
If you have any retailer preferences, please specify. I don't believe there are any local hardware vendors, so everything would have to be online.
Oh also, how much noise should I expect? I haven't had a desktop in years, and if there is noticeable noise could you suggest something to lower it? (alternative cooling methods,etc) Thank you in advance!
Well, at least for idle, you can get it so quiet that you will have to stop and listen before noticing if the PC is on or not after coming into the room. While gaming, there will be some "woosh" from the air moving, but you will be able to build it in a way that there's no annoying nature to that noise, no ticking or whining or anything.
This increases the price somewhat because you might not be able to buy the cheapest stuff for graphics card and case mainly.
I'd recommend to stay with air cooling because you'll still have fans with water cooling and an added pump noise. Water helps keeping the noise while gaming in check, but air would actually do the same if you'd invest similar amounts of money. Additionally, I bet you won't notice much because the game's audio will be there while gaming.
I don't know how to best do it without yourself replacing fans on the case and whatnot. I bet there's great choices for a case that already comes with good enough fans and a great choice for graphics card with already very quiet cooling, but I don't know what those are exactly.
There's two Fractal Design cases that might be exactly what you want. The Define R4 has dampening material installed and will be great to reduce idle noise, dampen things that can be annoying in a quiet room like HDD noise. The Arc Midi R2 will be better for the noise while gaming because it has no door and air can flow easier, will be able to beat the Define R4 because slower running fans can do the same amount of work. I bet the fans you get with those two cases are good enough, but you might have to buy one extra on the Define R4.
On May 01 2014 06:19 Ropid wrote: Well, at least for idle, you can get it so quiet that you will have to stop and listen before noticing if the PC is on or not after coming into the room. While gaming, there will be some "woosh" from the air moving, but you will be able to build it in a way that there's no annoying nature to that noise, no ticking or whining or anything.
This increases the price somewhat because you might not be able to buy the cheapest stuff for graphics card and case mainly.
I'd recommend to stay with air cooling because you'll still have fans with water cooling and an added pump noise. Water helps keeping the noise while gaming in check, but air would actually do the same if you'd invest similar amounts of money. Additionally, I bet you won't notice much because the game's audio will be there while gaming.
I don't know how to best do it without yourself replacing fans on the case and whatnot. I bet there's great choices for a case that already comes with good enough fans and a great choice for graphics card with already very quiet cooling, but I don't know what those are exactly.
There's two Fractal Design cases that might be exactly what you want. The Define R4 has dampening material installed and will be great to reduce idle noise, dampen things that can be annoying in a quiet room like HDD noise. The Arc Midi R2 will be better for the noise while gaming because it has no door and air can flow easier, will be able to beat the Define R4 because slower running fans can do the same amount of work. I bet the fans you get with those two cases are good enough, but you might have to buy one extra on the Define R4.
Thanks, my concern is probably all in my head anyway. I've been gaming on a laptop for over ten years now, so PCs have changed quite a bit in the meantime. I think my concern has come from sometimes hearing on skype someone's fan running.
On May 01 2014 06:19 Ropid wrote: Well, at least for idle, you can get it so quiet that you will have to stop and listen before noticing if the PC is on or not after coming into the room. While gaming, there will be some "woosh" from the air moving, but you will be able to build it in a way that there's no annoying nature to that noise, no ticking or whining or anything.
This increases the price somewhat because you might not be able to buy the cheapest stuff for graphics card and case mainly.
I'd recommend to stay with air cooling because you'll still have fans with water cooling and an added pump noise. Water helps keeping the noise while gaming in check, but air would actually do the same if you'd invest similar amounts of money. Additionally, I bet you won't notice much because the game's audio will be there while gaming.
I don't know how to best do it without yourself replacing fans on the case and whatnot. I bet there's great choices for a case that already comes with good enough fans and a great choice for graphics card with already very quiet cooling, but I don't know what those are exactly.
There's two Fractal Design cases that might be exactly what you want. The Define R4 has dampening material installed and will be great to reduce idle noise, dampen things that can be annoying in a quiet room like HDD noise. The Arc Midi R2 will be better for the noise while gaming because it has no door and air can flow easier, will be able to beat the Define R4 because slower running fans can do the same amount of work. I bet the fans you get with those two cases are good enough, but you might have to buy one extra on the Define R4.
Thanks, my concern is probably all in my head anyway. I've been gaming on a laptop for over ten years now, so PCs have changed quite a bit in the meantime. I think my concern has come from sometimes hearing on skype someone's fan running.
People often have bad case cooling or even reference cooled blower GPU's which can sound terrible
It might not just be in your head, but this isn't something that can really be guessed by someone else. You will have to experience and decide this for yourself. The reviews you read about PC parts very often don't help because everyone judges differently about what can be called "quiet".
My ideas how to approach this when building a new PC:
buy a case that will allow two 140mm fans in the front
the case needs to have some sort of system to decouple HDD vibrations
choose a PSU that is supposed to be quiet
buy an SSD
the HDD for things that need a lot of space, buy something running at slow 5400 RPM like the WD Red/Green
after deciding on a GPU (like NVIDIA GTX 760), search for which manufacturer's model is the most quiet model
You'll very likely end up with something that you like a lot. I bet the noise coming from large fans will be more comfortable than the sort of noise a laptop's fan makes.
If you find out you are a bit crazy about noise like I am, you can afterwards still do changes without really having wasted much money on those first parts you bought:
there's third party GPU air coolers to replace the original GPU cooler
you can experiment with different case fans until you find something you like
if the stock CPU cooler is annoying, you can replace it even if you don't overclock and you can lock the new cooler's fan to slowest speed
On May 01 2014 06:19 Ropid wrote: Well, at least for idle, you can get it so quiet that you will have to stop and listen before noticing if the PC is on or not after coming into the room. While gaming, there will be some "woosh" from the air moving, but you will be able to build it in a way that there's no annoying nature to that noise, no ticking or whining or anything.
This increases the price somewhat because you might not be able to buy the cheapest stuff for graphics card and case mainly.
I'd recommend to stay with air cooling because you'll still have fans with water cooling and an added pump noise. Water helps keeping the noise while gaming in check, but air would actually do the same if you'd invest similar amounts of money. Additionally, I bet you won't notice much because the game's audio will be there while gaming.
I don't know how to best do it without yourself replacing fans on the case and whatnot. I bet there's great choices for a case that already comes with good enough fans and a great choice for graphics card with already very quiet cooling, but I don't know what those are exactly.
There's two Fractal Design cases that might be exactly what you want. The Define R4 has dampening material installed and will be great to reduce idle noise, dampen things that can be annoying in a quiet room like HDD noise. The Arc Midi R2 will be better for the noise while gaming because it has no door and air can flow easier, will be able to beat the Define R4 because slower running fans can do the same amount of work. I bet the fans you get with those two cases are good enough, but you might have to buy one extra on the Define R4.
Thanks, my concern is probably all in my head anyway. I've been gaming on a laptop for over ten years now, so PCs have changed quite a bit in the meantime. I think my concern has come from sometimes hearing on skype someone's fan running.
People often have bad case cooling or even reference cooled blower GPU's which can sound terrible
Haha, ridiculous. Thanks though, that is reassuring.
On May 01 2014 06:57 Ropid wrote: It might not just be in your head, but this isn't something that can really be guessed by someone else. You will have to experience and decide this for yourself. The reviews you read about PC parts very often don't help because everyone judges differently about what can be called "quiet".
My ideas how to approach this when building a new PC:
buy a case that will allow two 140mm fans in the front
the case needs to have some sort of system to decouple HDD vibrations
choose a PSU that is supposed to be quiet
buy an SSD
the HDD for things that need a lot of space, buy something running at slow 5400 RPM like the WD Red/Green
after deciding on a GPU (like NVIDIA GTX 760), search for which manufacturer's model is the most quiet model
You'll very likely end up with something that you like a lot. I bet the noise coming from large fans will be more comfortable than the sort of noise a laptop's fan makes.
If you find out you are a bit crazy about noise like I am, you can afterwards still do changes without really having wasted much money on those first parts you bought:
there's third party GPU air coolers to replace the original GPU cooler
you can experiment with different case fans until you find something you like
if the stock CPU cooler is annoying, you can replace it even if you don't overclock and you can lock the new cooler's fan to slowest speed
Hmm, thanks, my current laptop is actually fairly quiet, but I don't think I really push it to its max that often either. But yeah, the first video in the post before yours is pretty nice. I definitely want to get an SSD for everyday things though. My laptop doesn't run slowly, but it is 4-5 years old though, so it only has a 1st gen i7 and a quite old gpu, with only 1 gig of memory for the card itself. (8gig on the machine though, did that upgrade a few years ago)
Keeping a system cool isn't too hard unless you go towards high powered parts - if i were to run 2-3 140mm fans on case locked at about 1000rpm, cpu fans both at 600rpm - i could run CPU about 8% below max OC and keep it cool (temps like in the 60's), meanwhile GPU (gtx770) with fans on the level i said on the first video would stay cool too (max ~65-70c i'd imagine)
The trouble is when you have bad parts, stuff like boxy cases with no airflow, especially paired with reference blower GPU's which don't mind spinning up to like 3-4k RPM. If you have a decent aftermarket cooled GPU and a decent CPU cooler, you don't need much noise at all, and you can choose parts for a good noise profile (light air whooshing sound is 1000x better than WRRRRRRRRR, paired with whining and clicking)
Edit:
That's what my stuff sounds like with all fans maxed (3x case af140, 2x CPU fans, so 5x 140mm @~1300rpm) and GPU @60% (windforce cooler, same as shown in previous vid) with pretty open mesh case, mouse click for volume reference but it's a bit hard to compare because it's a pretty open microphone. Ignore the random stuff in room, i'l prob take the vid down sometime soon too because i don't want too much private stuff on channel etc.
^You don't need nearly that much noise (i know more than a few people who would shoot me for this noise level as it's not really helping cooling at all), but even then, i don't think that's an annoying type of noise.
EPT
