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On August 01 2014 18:56 skyR wrote:
Front and bottom fans are always intake. Back and top fans are always exhaust. Hot air rises so there's no reason why you would mount intakes on the top.
look at this here: + Show Spoiler + 
I think important about that one is that the 5.25" drive bay area is completely closed, so can't really be translated to a typical case, but still interesting to think about what's going on in that particular case.
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Hey, I need some help since i'm retarded about this stuff. I'm looking to get a SSD because loading into games takes forever (mostly on Battlefield 4) and I hate joining games late where people are already playing. Anyway, is it still worth it to get a SSD with SATA 3 capability if the only SATA connections I have available are SATA 2's? And how exactly do I copy my stuff over? I just want the SSD to play games, can I just transfer my game files over to the SSD and it'll run faster? Or do I have to reinstall the whole OS or something?
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On August 01 2014 20:08 IMoperator wrote:
Hey, I need some help since i'm retarded about this stuff. I'm looking to get a SSD because loading into games takes forever (mostly on Battlefield 4) and I hate joining games late where people are already playing. Anyway, is it still worth it to get a SSD with SATA 3 capability if the only SATA connections I have available are SATA 2's? And how exactly do I copy my stuff over? I just want the SSD to play games, can I just transfer my game files over to the SSD and it'll run faster? Or do I have to reinstall the whole OS or something?
Running a SATA 3 drive over SATA 2 is fine, it's just max transfer speeds will be capped at ~250MB/s instead of 500MB/s but that is still over triple HDD speeds. Your going to have to uninstall/reinstall the games, and I would install your OS in it too.
E: One of the main benefits of a SSD is file access time. A HDD typically has a file access time of ~10-15ms while a SSD is under 1ms. So when accessing a lot of small files (aka loading a level) a SSD will be much quicker.
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You can have both the SSD and the HDD hooked up to the computer at the same time though correct? Like sorry if im being stupid, I dont know much about this stuff, but if I just bought a SSD, plugged it into my computer, and then installed Battlefield 4 onto the SSD, would I be able to play it with the faster load speeds? And then everything else would be on the HDD?
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United Kingdom20322 Posts
Yup
SSD's can be more awkward to set up on older systems, you need to benchmark and make sure they're running properly. It took me like 6 hours to make my SSD run properly on my x58 system (though i was extremely inexperienced at the time) but when i switched to z87 it ran faster than i could ever make it run on the previous system (by like +10% on benchmarks), with no messing around at all
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I have a b75 do you think that it'll be ok?
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United Kingdom20322 Posts
b75 is both far newer and using sata 3.0 (6gbit/s)
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The effect from convection is tiny compared to all the forced airflow from case fans, so intake on top or anything else breaking the "rules" may make sense for some setups and particularly some more unusual layouts.
That said, just because there are fans slots doesn't mean you need to or should use them. If you have a tower sideblower CPU cooler, an exhaust at the top close by pulling air away from its intake might not be a great idea, for example. More fans means more points of failure and more noise and dust, potentially, unless you're controlling the speeds to compensate.
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The fan at the back of your case (above all the expansion slots) should be exhaust. The fans at the top should also be exhaust, though this can be debatable in some cases (pun here, heh), where they can sometimes bring in cool air to the intake of the CPU cooler.
The most important thing is to get airflow in your case really. The air should flow from front to back, the more air changes your case gets, the better. Wide cases are nice since they allow for big, quiet 120mm or 140mm case fans as well as tall CPU coolers (CPU coolers using 140mm fans are the best in terms of noise / performance, generally speaking).
Generally speaking, bringing in cool air from the outside to the intake of your CPU cooler and your GPU cooler is a good thing. The "problem" with GPUs is the good coolers are open-air, which means they exhaust heat kind of everywhere. So the best thing to do for the GPU is to have good case airflow (lots of air changes). Another good thing to have is a single case fan directly under the GPU, to at least bring it lots of cool air from outside of the case. This fan should be placed in front of the PSU. It's also good to remove the expansion slot covers, this improves airflow.
E: I hate it when I'm a page late. That said, I think 2 fans at front for intake, 1 fan under GPU for its private intake and 1 fan in the back as exhaust should be a pretty nice set up for starters.
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Okay, thanks Myrmidon, Incognito. So right now I think I will go with the stock case cooler in the back and front (which would be intake at the front and exhaust at back) and then I add the extra cooler to the top and have it also exhaust I guess. And PSU flipped so it's fan points down at the bottom grid/holes in the case.
I can't do 2 fans at front I believe, it says it only has place for four fans, front, back, top, bottom. One each I believe?
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What case do you have?
If you bought the NZXT Phantom 240 you linked a page or two back, you can actually have 2 front 120mm fans.
Specs are as follows (from their website):
Front: 2x 120mm (one included)
Top: 2x 120mm or 2x 140mm
Rear: 1x 120mm (one included)
Bottom: 1x 120mm
I'd prefer something with a side intake though.
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On August 02 2014 18:09 mdamda wrote:
What case do you have?
If you bought the NZXT Phantom 240 you linked a page or two back, you can actually have 2 front 120mm fans.
Specs are as follows (from their website):
Front: 2x 120mm (one included)
Top: 2x 120mm or 2x 140mm
Rear: 1x 120mm (one included)
Bottom: 1x 120mm
I'd prefer something with a side intake though.
Thanks, I can't believe what an idiot I am, it clearly says 2x for front and top. I haven't bought any case yet but I'm liking the NZXT Phantom 240.
So it seems everybody suggest me to use four coolers instead of three? I guess I'll go with the two intake at front, one exhaust in the back as Incognoto suggested. Where would the forth one (intake) for the GPU be positioned (since that case has no side coolers)? Top or bottom? I assume bottom because people said it was standard for intakes to be bottom as opposed to top (which makes sense). Then there's still the PSU at bottom as well (should the PSU then take air in from under the case or from the inside with that case and setup?) and the CPU and GPU 'onboard' coolers of course.
Sorry that I have to ask so many questions and such, I just really want to get it right! Will be ordering parts monday!
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The fourth one would be put at the bottom.
![[image loading]](http://cdn.overclock.net/1/1a/900x900px-LL-1a6b6f35_sbirue.jpeg)
You see where the PSU is? There's a spot for a fan right in front of it. That's where you would put your intake fan for the GPU. This is optional though, just an afterthought on my part. It's not a necessity so if you want to skip this fourth fan, you can. You won't lose too much.
The fan configuration in that picture is pretty much the basic set up that you should be going for. Worth noting is that if you can remove the hard drive bays at the front and bottom of the case and place your SSDs/HDDs in the top bays; if you're not getting an optical drive that is.
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On August 03 2014 01:33 Incognoto wrote:The fourth one would be put at the bottom. You see where the PSU is? There's a spot for a fan right in front of it. That's where you would put your intake fan for the GPU. This is optional though, just an afterthought on my part. It's not a necessity so if you want to skip this fourth fan, you can. You won't lose too much. The fan configuration in that picture is pretty much the basic set up that you should be going for. Worth noting is that if you can remove the hard drive bays at the front and bottom of the case and place your SSDs/HDDs in the top bays; if you're not getting an optical drive that is.
Also, before putting the motherboard in take a look at the case - some (like the one Incognoto pictured, looks like a Fractal of some kind to me) have, on the motherboard mounting plate, locations to mount SSDs on the "thin" side opposite the motherboard. I didn't think about it until after I had the motherboard in place, which makes using them difficult as the mounting screw placement is under the motherboard. I don't think there are any similar things you can do with an HDD - it pretty much needs a bay.
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Awesome, thanks guys! So I'm going to go with three coolers after all then and not get the bottom fan, I don't want to spam fans if they're not really necessary. Two intake at the front, one exhaust in the back it is.
This is the final build:
CPU (overclocked to ~4.5ghz): Intel Core i5-4690K 3,5 GHz (Devils Canyon) Socket 1150 - boxed (€191,90 @ Caseking)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright HR-02 Macho Rev.A (BW) Tower Cooler (€36.01 special offer! @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H Intel Z97 So.1150 Dual Channel DDR3 ATX Retail (€97.51 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Kingston Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€70.78 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Crucial MX100 2,5 Zoll SSD, SATA 6G - 128 GB (€69.90 @ Caseking)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card (€217.93 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€47.90 @ Caseking)
Case: NZXT Phantom 240 Midi-Tower - white (€79.90 @ Caseking)
Third Case Cooler: NZXT FZ-120 Airflow Cooler 120mm (€12.90 @ Caseking)
Total: €824.73
I'm not getting an optical drive so I will try and mount my HDD(s) and SSD into the top compartement and then take the other two 'cages' out underneath. If that's not possible, I'll mount the HDD(s) and SSD into the lower compartement and take the middle one out at least.
If you could double-check my build one last time and confirm to me that it's decent please? As I said, I'll order the parts this monday. Getting excited! 
Two more, hopefully last, questions:
1.) Which way do I position the PSU? Fan up or fan down? Intake air from underneath the case or take it from the inside of the case?
2.) From the way my case looks it appears like (although it can have two fans at front) that there isn't really any 'opening' (ie. holes in the shell of the case) for more than one low fan there. Not sure if that's... important? If it doesn't look right, could I potentially move one of the forward intake fans to the bottom where there are holes in the case for sure? Am I overthinking it?
EDIT: @felisconcolori: Thanks for the heads up, I'm planning on mounting the HDD(s) and SSD first (without cables obviously) and then mount the motherboard next. That should prevent any issues of the sort.
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You position power supply with fan facing down, unless you are placing the computer on a carpet then you would position it with fan facing up.
Not sure what you mean by second question. If you're saying how the front is lacking mesh for air to move through. That's just how some cases are designed to reduce noise.
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So if you now definitely decided on the overclocking, this board and CPU can also access RAM at faster than 1600 MHz if you want. This means you can now check out the sections with the faster RAM speeds in the shop's website where you want to buy from. You will find deals for 2133 MHz RAM or other speeds that are very close to the price of that 1600 MHz kit you currently have on your list.
Something like 2133 MHz RAM is technically overclocking, so doesn't work on the locked CPUs and needs the 4690K. You will still not have to do anything manually. If you buy something sold as 2133MHz for example, there will be an "XMP profile" on the memory stick. The only thing you have to do is go and enable the use of that XMP profile in the BIOS and it will OC the RAM automatically.
1) You position the PSU with its fan towards the bottom. The metal of the case will have an opening for air over there. This way, the PSU will get fresh air from the outside and not get any of the hot air from the GPU. The case probably also has a filter for the PSU, so no need to worry about dust.
2) You are probably overthinking. The only thing you will want to do is remove one of the 3.5" drive cages (or both if you want to put the HDD in the 5.25" drive cage by using a bracket).
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Awesome, thank you so much!!
Ropid, I will take a look at faster RAM then and get it instead if it's not too expensive. Cheers, you people here rock. You've helped me out a TON everybody!
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As far as I know, faster RAM is only marginally more expensive than 1600 RAM. 1, maybe 2 €. :B
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@NihiLStarcraft
I checked out caseking. You may want to consider a semi modular power supply to hide all the cables you don't use (helps in airflow and looks).
The M12II Evo is superior to the XFX you picked out (uses a lower model Seasonic base platform anyway) has better power regulation across the board for an additional <15 eur.
That said, the XFX 450 is not a bad unit in itself.
You also probably won't be able to mount the HDD in the 5.25" bays securely. I'd keep them in the proper cages where they belong. The SSD on the other hand, could probably be hidden anywhere (even at the back of the case) without issues.
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EPT
