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[letsbereasonable]

Can somebody post the quick and dirty checklist of settings and things to check when using an SSD as a system drive?

I'm going to be putting together my new rig tonight and was wondering the do's and don'ts for a new SSD owner.

 

[Roarer]

Did any of you guys catch the "Build your own PC" 'guide' over at Eurogamer today? http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-20-how-to-build-your-own-gaming-pc-article

It's pretty tongue-in cheek and quite funny too. While it is obviously not meant as a hardcore and in-depth buying/tech guide, it still brings up some very valid points about being sensible and not shooting for the moon when buying your components.

 

[scy]

Did any of you guys catch the "Build your own PC" 'guide' over at Eurogamer today? http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-20-how-to-build-your-own-gaming-pc-article

Select the homeliest, pixilated spreadsheety-est, jargony-est message-board guide you can find. I highly recommend the annual NeoGAF PC-building thread as a model of the form. It presents a surfeit of solid information in the most unattractive manner possible.

I lol'd.

 

[Resolution]

my pc wont turn on welp. i think i have everything plugged in but no dice. im new to this sort of thing.

ps. new to gaf hello lol

 

[Instro]

my pc wont turn on welp. i think i have everything plugged in but no dice. im new to this sort of thing.

ps. new to gaf hello lol

Pretty quality junior member to be spending your first post in the PC master race thread. Good man. Anyway, are you saying the computer is not powering up at all? Assuming the socket in the wall isn't broken, and you have the switch on the back of the power supply flipped to the correct position then Id imagine either that you didn't connect one of the wires right, or your power supply is bust.

 

[Resolution]

Pretty quality junior member to be spending your first post in the PC master race thread. Good man. Anyway, are you saying the computer is not powering up at all? Assuming the socket in the wall isn't broken, and you have the switch on the back of the power supply flipped to the correct position then Id imagine either that you didn't connect one of the wires right, or your power supply is bust.

haha thanks. well yeah it wont power on at all. well are there specific wires that might cause the issue or can it be multiple wires? Right now i'm a bit exhausted from put everything up and i will be going out later so i will check again later on today. well i'll give an update when i get back to work on it.

 

[Instro]

haha thanks. well yeah it wont power on at all. well are there specific wires that might cause the issue or can it be multiple wires? Right now i'm a bit exhausted from put everything up and i will be going out later so i will check again later on today. well i'll give an update when i get back to work on it.

It could be something simple like the wire from the power button on the case is plugged into the wrong slot on the motherboard or something, those ones are really tiny and can be a bit confusing when plugging in.

Other possibility would be one of the wires from the power supply is plugged in wrong, but those are usually pretty hard to mess up in terms of placement.

If its not wires though then I would guess your power supply is dead. Someone else might have some ideas though.

 

[black_vegeta]

haha thanks. well yeah it wont power on at all. well are there specific wires that might cause the issue or can it be multiple wires? Right now i'm a bit exhausted from put everything up and i will be going out later so i will check again later on today. well i'll give an update when i get back to work on it.

Also, does your motherboard sit on the standoffs or does it sit on the case?

 

[MedIC86]

haha thanks. well yeah it wont power on at all. well are there specific wires that might cause the issue or can it be multiple wires? Right now i'm a bit exhausted from put everything up and i will be going out later so i will check again later on today. well i'll give an update when i get back to work on it.

you connected the 4 or 8 pin on mobo topside?

 

[Izayoi]

Hey guys. Currently building a new computer, and I'm stuck on the case.

I'm getting a lot of recommendations for both the Graphite 600T and the P183. They're about the same price and I was wondering which one had the best cooling. Noise isn't so much an issue because my current rig sounds like someone running a lawn mower in my room so pretty much anything would be a step up.

 

[opticalmace]

ASRock P67 EXTREME6 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $204.99

CORSAIR Professional Series AX850 850W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply $182.99

Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600K $314.99

Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW120G3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $219.99

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive 2x@$64.99 = $129.98

Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $179.99

MSI N580GTX Lightning GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $525.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL $94.99

Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler $89.99

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM $11.98

Total: $1942.88

Ok, made some revisions. Took out 6970, put in GTX 580, thought maybe I'd try Nvidia for a change. Removed H70, put in air cooling supreme along with some Arctic Silver. Changed to 8GB due to pitchfork mob advice. Swapped in snazzy white case.

Thoughts? Once again, want to be able to game on it for a few years at least. Will be running it at 1920x1080. Will be overclocking to within an inch of its life. Prices are all newegg, will of course shop around, and not listing a bunch of quiet case fans that I'll be chunking in.

I'm personally not a fan of MSI but I think this sounds pretty good. I guess you want P67 instead of Z68? Also a bump for you because you didn't really get any input with the new page.

 

[RoboShmup]

Hey GAF, here's the build I've put together so far. I'm pretty new at this.

Current Specs: MacBook Pro lol
Budget: Around $800 not including monitor
Main Use: Maya (Animating, Modeling, Rendering), Gaming, Emulation (PS2/Wii), Photoshop, Video Editing
Monitor Resolution: Depends what kind of monitor I can get for ~$200 :/
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Starcraft 2 max settings would be nice. Mostly interested in PS2/Wii emulation though.
Are reusing any parts?: I have Intuos 4 tablet with a mouse. Other than that no, except maybe an ancient keyboard or something.
When will you build?: The first few weeks of June hopefully.
Will you be overclocking?: Yes

I went with a single card of 4GB RAM so I can later upgrade to 2 4GB RAM cards. I'll probably need that extra RAM for Maya and rendering, correct me if I'm wrong.

And I wanted to make the jump to the Radeon 6950, but it's $50 more and I lose out on a free game (though I dunno if I'll ever actually play that game). Is it worth it? The 6870 seems pretty powerful still and I don't care too much about running games at super ridiculous resolutions. As long as I can play most current games with high/max settings. I don't want my rig to get outdated right away though.

Also I don't know much about monitors, but I'll need one. Recommendations for a ~$200 one?

 

[RumblingRosco]

Any good sales on 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) 1600 Mhz 1.5 V RAM? Best I can find on Newegg is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220569 for $85

 

[Leucrota]

Monitor Questions:

Are there good monitors in the $200 price range that are 1080p that are 20 inches and up?

What contrast ratio should I look for? Is this important?

What about latency? What should I look for?

Monitor will mainly be used for gaming.

 

[mxgt]

I RMA'd my PSU last week (Antec Truepower 750w modular) because of a buzzing noise it would make during games and a whining noise when my PC was off.

Got a replacement sent out, arrived yesterday and it has the exact same buzzing and whining during games. What the fuck?

I don't know if I'm either super unlucky that I got 2 straight PSU's with the same problem or it's something to do with my system or setup. I moved the plug from a power strip to the mains and there was no change. I disabled intel power saving and C1E and there's no change.

What else can I try? maybe I should just RMA this thing again and get a different brand. Pretty frustrating.

Edit: It's not the fan either, stopped it on both models and the buzzing stays.

 

[Smokey]

Hey GAF, here's the build I've put together so far. I'm pretty new at this.

Current Specs: MacBook Pro lol
Budget: Around $800 not including monitor
Main Use: Maya (Animating, Modeling, Rendering), Gaming, Emulation (PS2/Wii), Photoshop, Video Editing
Monitor Resolution: Depends what kind of monitor I can get for ~$200 :/
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Starcraft 2 max settings would be nice. Mostly interested in PS2/Wii emulation though.
Are reusing any parts?: I have Intuos 4 tablet with a mouse. Other than that no, except maybe an ancient keyboard or something.
When will you build?: The first few weeks of June hopefully.
Will you be overclocking?: Yes

I went with a single card of 4GB RAM so I can later upgrade to 2 4GB RAM cards. I'll probably need that extra RAM for Maya and rendering, correct me if I'm wrong.

And I wanted to make the jump to the Radeon 6950, but it's $50 more and I lose out on a free game (though I dunno if I'll ever actually play that game). Is it worth it? The 6870 seems pretty powerful still and I don't care too much about running games at super ridiculous resolutions. As long as I can play most current games with high/max settings. I don't want my rig to get outdated right away though.

Also I don't know much about monitors, but I'll need one. Recommendations for a ~$200 one?

If you want to keep your rig a little more up to date longer then go with the 6950. You used to be able to flash a 6950 to a 6970 but AMD may have fixed that with some of these newer chips. The 6870 will get the job done as well. PCs are so far ahead of consoles that you will be able to run just about every game at 1080p. So either will work, but if you want to upgrade later rather than sooner then I would go with the 6950.

More RAM always helps with rendering so you are right on with that, however for gaming 4GB will still get you by.

If you're interested in emulation you're probably going to want to overclock that 2500k. You can get the Hyper 212+ CPU cooler for around $25. With that you'll be able to reach 4.4ghz - 4.6hz on that 2500k easily which will help alot for Dolphin and emulation in general.

Never heard of that power supply either, so you might want to look into a different one. I'll let others speak on that since I'm not too familiar with PSU's. Through my research I came away with the impression of Corsair PSU or bust. They cost a little more though, but one thing I learned is to not skimp on the PSU.

Monitor Questions:

Are there good monitors in the $200 price range that are 1080p that are 20 inches and up?

What contrast ratio should I look for? Is this important?

What about latency? What should I look for?

Monitor will mainly be used for gaming.

ASUS' monitors are pretty good

 

[Nafai1123]

Hey RoboShmup, no point in getting the 2500k if you get that mobo, you can't change the processor ratio with that board. Either go for the 2500 or get the p8p67 pro.

 

[PolishQ]

Hey RoboShmup, no point in getting the 2500k if you get that mobo, you can't change the processor ratio with that board. Either go for the 2500 or get the p8p67 pro.

P8P67 standard allows changing the processor ratio, does it not?

 

[Resolution]

Also, does your motherboard sit on the standoffs or does it sit on the case?

if you mean those gold screw looking things than yes on top of that

 

[Resolution]

you connected the 4 or 8 pin on mobo topside?

i connected both the 4 and 8 pin power connectors.

 

[Smokey]

i connected both the 4 and 8 pin power connectors.

Check plugs in the PSU. Make sure you're not leaving one out that should be connected.

This happened to me.

 

[Nafai1123]

P8P67 standard allows changing the processor ratio, does it not?

AFAIK the LE doesn't.

 

[Diseased Yak]

I'm personally not a fan of MSI but I think this sounds pretty good. I guess you want P67 instead of Z68? Also a bump for you because you didn't really get any input with the new page.

Well, after looking at the stuff you gain from Z68, I just didn't see a bonus I'd really use. I guess it might actually be best to get one, though, cause maybe I'd at least snag a small SSD for that quick start jazz.

The MSI card seems to get good reviews based on Twin Frozer crap. I've always been an EVGA guy myself, but I'm trying to branch out after getting 3 generations of those in a row, minus my current card which is XFX. When I actually buy something it'll probably change anyway, due to pricing fluctuations.

 

[Izayoi]

Okay, so here we go.

Any glaring errors that I need to fix? I already have a keyboard, mouse, DVD-RW, monitor, speakers, headphones, and storage drives. I might add another 3TB storage drive and I'm considering trying one of those keyboard replacement gamepads, but other than that I can't see myself making any huge changes.

Is the 580 really worth it over the 570? If it's not, I might just go with the 6970, which seems to outperform the 570 for about the same price. The case isn't as sexy as I might like, but apparently it cools very well which matters more than looks to me.

 

[Resolution]

ok so i put the cpu fan to where its supposed to be connected. the standby power led went on turned green. still nothing else seems to function though.

 

[Corky]

Okay, so here we go.

http://i.imgur.com/NLe6b.png[/IMG

Any glaring errors that I need to fix?.[/QUOTE]

Keep in mind that the 600T is like a semiopen case, there's tons of grids/holes here and there where you can see / [B]HEAR[/B] the insides of the pc. If I got the option again I would definitely go for a more quite case.

my 2 cents

 

[RoboShmup]

Hey RoboShmup, no point in getting the 2500k if you get that mobo, you can't change the processor ratio with that board. Either go for the 2500 or get the p8p67 pro.

Alright so p8p67 pro is a good solid choice? A lot of newegg reviewers don't seem too happy about it.

I'll probably make the jump from radeon 6870 to 6950. I'm going outside of my budget a little bit, but hey. And that PSU was in a combo Hazaro posted a while back I believe. I'll do a search for Corsair PSUs anyway.

 

[Izayoi]

Keep in mind that the 600T is like a semiopen case, there's tons of grids/holes here and there where you can see / HEAR the insides of the pc. If I got the option again I would definitely go for a more quite case.

Hm... So would you recommend the P183 over it? It's definitely sexier.

 

[Hazaro]

Did any of you guys catch the "Build your own PC" 'guide' over at Eurogamer today? http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-20-how-to-build-your-own-gaming-pc-article

It's pretty tongue-in cheek and quite funny too. While it is obviously not meant as a hardcore and in-depth buying/tech guide, it still brings up some very valid points about being sensible and not shooting for the moon when buying your components.

Aww, they linked here. How nice of them.

Hey GAF, here's the build I've put together so far. I'm pretty new at this.

Current Specs: MacBook Pro lol
Budget: Around $800 not including monitor
Main Use: Maya (Animating, Modeling, Rendering), Gaming, Emulation (PS2/Wii), Photoshop, Video Editing
Monitor Resolution: Depends what kind of monitor I can get for ~$200 :/
List SPECIFIC games that you MUST be able to play: Starcraft 2 max settings would be nice. Mostly interested in PS2/Wii emulation though.
Are reusing any parts?: I have Intuos 4 tablet with a mouse. Other than that no, except maybe an ancient keyboard or something.
When will you build?: The first few weeks of June hopefully.
Will you be overclocking?: Yes

I went with a single card of 4GB RAM so I can later upgrade to 2 4GB RAM cards. I'll probably need that extra RAM for Maya and rendering, correct me if I'm wrong.

And I wanted to make the jump to the Radeon 6950, but it's $50 more and I lose out on a free game (though I dunno if I'll ever actually play that game). Is it worth it? The 6870 seems pretty powerful still and I don't care too much about running games at super ridiculous resolutions. As long as I can play most current games with high/max settings. I don't want my rig to get outdated right away though.

Also I don't know much about monitors, but I'll need one. Recommendations for a ~$200 one?

LE can't do BIOS overclocking. Stupid I know.
Get the MSI boards (43/45/55) in the same price range.

Alright so p8p67 pro is a good solid choice? A lot of newegg reviewers don't seem too happy about it.

I'll probably make the jump from radeon 6870 to 6950. I'm going outside of my budget a little bit, but hey. And that PSU was in a combo Hazaro posted a while back I believe. I'll do a search for Corsair PSUs anyway.

Well that PSU is ok, bronze, and has -$10 combo, -15% off, and a rebate.
Some people not happy about the sleep issue and early BIOS stuff. The MSI boards are fantastic too, as are the ASRock.

Hm... So would you recommend the P183 over it? It's definitely sexier.

That's because you picked the black 600T instead of the white one.
Did none of the cases in the OP appeal?

No aftermarket cooler?

 

[squicken]

I've had some pretty bad instability. A couple of BSODs and really long startup times. I ran the Event Viewer and it said the error was vaguely PCIIDE Channel. I ran memtest and had all sorts of errors.

Are errors in memtest a case of definitely faulty memory, or could it also be another component? Maybe the motherboard?

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Hey guys. Currently building a new computer, and I'm stuck on the case.

I'm getting a lot of recommendations for both the Graphite 600T and the P183. They're about the same price and I was wondering which one had the best cooling. Noise isn't so much an issue because my current rig sounds like someone running a lawn mower in my room so pretty much anything would be a step up.

I'm using a P183 v3 as my media center PC's case, and it's very quiet. If it's maximum cooling you're after, you'd want something more open though. My gaming PC, the one I run Tera on, is using a Cooler Master HAF 932, which accomodates 2x GTX 470 SLI comfortably, one of the cards is an MSI Twin Frozr II and the other card was an eVGA with the stock heatsink which I pulled off and replaced with a Thermalright Shaman.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Searching for my old posts in this thread is a nightmare. The Google Custom Search field in the upper right corner has the delightful complete epic fail of not showing any contents of found posts, making it a guessing game to pick the right result.

Anyways, the post I was looking for is here:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=26037390&postcount=6729

That's what my machine looks like on the inside of a HAF 932. If you want a picture of the inside of my P183 v3 just let me know, suffice it to say that there's no way in hell the stuff in my HAF 932 would fit in my P183 v3.

fake edit: That image is a bit outdated. The Raptors are gone now, they were replaced by an SSD.

 

[RoboShmup]

Well that PSU is ok, bronze, and has -$10 combo, -15% off, and a rebate.
Some people not happy about the sleep issue and early BIOS stuff. The MSI boards are fantastic too, as are the ASRock.

I'll go with the CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W PSU instead. I fit it into a combo with a Radeon 6870 and got -$20 combo and another -$35 off with rebates. That said I'm not gonna get the 6950 as it ends up being an extra $70. I'm still tempted... but I don't think it's worth it for me.

And I upgraded to the P8P67 PRO. Fit it in a combo

 

[wandering goat]

Hm... So would you recommend the P183 over it? It's definitely sexier.

Although I never tried it, as a P183 owner, I'd recommend going for a Fractal R3 instead. I have heard that the P183 is a tad bit quieter (it's pretty solidly built), but it doesn't provide all that great cooling for a high-end system, particularly in the graphics card area as the bottom area is separated from the top, meaning less airflow. The R3 I think would provide a better mixture of quietness versus cooling. I like how it's pretty customizable, so you could stick a few fans on the top, side, or bottom as needed.

Particularly as you're looking a getting a GTX580, I actually tried out the 3-slot Asus GPU in my P183, and it wasn't well cooled. Unless I set my front fan and back fan to basically full RPM (1200 or so), it would get just ridiculously high temps, going to the high 90s at load. Even with case fans going quickly, it got to 83C or so on Crysis, stock speeds, which is higher than what most reviews say the card reaches.

As a side-note, I found the Direct CU II GTX580 still pretty loud for a quiet build. At its minimum speed (10%, ~1100rpm), significantly louder than after-market solutions, and when gaming at around 40-50%, it's pretty noticeable over games with headphones on.

 

[Smokey]

Although I never tried it, as a P183 owner, I'd recommend going for a Fractal R3 instead. I have heard that the P183 is a tad bit quieter (it's pretty solidly built), but it doesn't provide all that great cooling for a high-end system, particularly in the graphics card area as the bottom area is separated from the top, meaning less airflow. The R3 I think would provide a better mixture of quietness versus cooling. I like how it's pretty customizable, so you could stick a few fans on the top, side, or bottom as needed.

Particularly as you're looking a getting a GTX580, I actually tried out the 3-slot Asus GPU in my P183, and it wasn't well cooled. Unless I set my front fan and back fan to basically full RPM (1200 or so), it would get just ridiculously high temps, going to the high 90s at load. Even with case fans going quickly, it got to 83C or so on Crysis, stock speeds, which is higher than what most reviews say the card reaches.

As a side-note, I found the Direct CU II GTX580 still pretty loud for a quiet build. At its minimum speed (10%, ~1100rpm), significantly louder than after-market solutions, and when gaming at around 40-50%, it's pretty noticeable over games with headphones on.

You sure you just didn't have a faulty DCUII 580?

 

[wandering goat]

You sure you just didn't have a faulty DCUII 580?

Yup, returned it and tried another, same thing.

 

[ZZMitch]

Does anybody here bring their gaming PCs with them to college? I want to do it, but I am scared of taking it on a plane and fear that something may brake while traveling. I am considering getting a laptop of some kind that lets me live on source games and other games that are not as graphically intense while at school (I will be at the University of Toronto). I know I will miss the power of my rig though!

Any other gaffers in a similar setting? What do you do?

 

[Izayoi]

That's because you picked the black 600T instead of the white one.
Did none of the cases in the OP appeal?

No aftermarket cooler?

Honestly everything looks pretty tacky to me except for the expensive Lian Li's. In general, the less LEDs and dumb shit that looks stupid the better. I want something sleek and functional. The 600T isn't terribly offensive (actually, the white one looks pretty nice), but if it's really that loud I don't want to deal with it if I don't have to. I will say that my current case is open and I'm running a stock-cooler 4890, which is quite possibly the loudest video card on the face of the earth.

I'm using a P183 v3 as my media center PC's case, and it's very quiet. If it's maximum cooling you're after, you'd want something more open though. My gaming PC, the one I run Tera on, is using a Cooler Master HAF 932, which accomodates 2x GTX 470 SLI comfortably, one of the cards is an MSI Twin Frozr II and the other card was an eVGA with the stock heatsink which I pulled off and replaced with a Thermalright Shaman.

All of the Cooler Master stuff looks gaudy, in my opinion. I would like to avoid it if at all possible.

Although I never tried it, as a P183 owner, I'd recommend going for a Fractal R3 instead. I have heard that the P183 is a tad bit quieter (it's pretty solidly built), but it doesn't provide all that great cooling for a high-end system, particularly in the graphics card area as the bottom area is separated from the top, meaning less airflow. The R3 I think would provide a better mixture of quietness versus cooling. I like how it's pretty customizable, so you could stick a few fans on the top, side, or bottom as needed.

Particularly as you're looking a getting a GTX580, I actually tried out the 3-slot Asus GPU in my P183, and it wasn't well cooled. Unless I set my front fan and back fan to basically full RPM (1200 or so), it would get just ridiculously high temps, going to the high 90s at load. Even with case fans going quickly, it got to 83C or so on Crysis, stock speeds, which is higher than what most reviews say the card reaches.

As a side-note, I found the Direct CU II GTX580 still pretty loud for a quiet build. At its minimum speed (10%, ~1100rpm), significantly louder than after-market solutions, and when gaming at around 40-50%, it's pretty noticeable over games with headphones on.

I'm no shooting for a "quiet build", per se, I would just like something that isn't going to detract from my experience (which is what my current build does). The Fractal looks really good. I'm surprised that it cools better than the Antec.

 

[Hawk269]

There is no point. I'm fine with my machine as it is.

I just *feel* like SLI is the only thing I'm missing.

Well Smokey, not to push you into it or anything, I can tell you that when I went SLI with my 580's I saw a significant improvement in everything man. If I have a game that dislikes SLI, the 580 is powerfull enough to run it on it's own...but mroe and more games are taking SLI into consideration and it works really well.

There will always be some issues regardless, new games such as Witcher 2 does use SLI, but not efficiently, this will improve as Nvidia works on teh drivers, SLI profiles and any peformance tweaks the devs make on their end.

In the end though, I do not regret for a minute going SLI. It is has already proven itself to me and the investment was worth it.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Izayoi:

The Fractal Design R3 has a lot of recommendations in this thread, but again, you're going to be stuffing an Asus GTX 580 DirectCU II into your case. Size Does Matter. For a big video card, you need to consider a large full-tower case, especially if you think you might stuff another card in there down the road for SLI. Furthermore you need to weigh the tradeoffs of a quiet-focused case like the R3 or P183 versus a more open, airflow-focused case: sure the case may be quieter, but if the fan on the video card needs to ramp up to jet engine velocity to forcefully push enough air to keep it cool, you've just utterly demolished your best laid plans of mice and men.

And to get the best cooling, you will need to anticipate that you will be sacrificing some noise suppression for a more open design that allows for free airflow. The Cooler Master HAF cases have all kinds of plastic flanges on them, and the front fan is LED-lit, but there's nothing else out there with higher airflow. That's what HAF stands for: High Air-Flow.

There are other cases as well which are huge and open, but I only have experience with my HAF 932 and it has been an entirely positive one in every way, sure it looks like the Hummer H2 of computer cases on the outside, but inside it's huge, roomy, with every edge rounded off so you don't cut your hands to ribbons working in it, and it's laid out beautifully and has been a dream to work in. Comparing my HAF 932 to my P183 v3 isn't even a contest, the Antec is much more annoying to work in and I HATE, I HATE THE GODDAMN DRIVE RAILS IN ANTEC CASES! H8 H8 H8!! >:|

 

[TheExodu5]

Although I never tried it, as a P183 owner, I'd recommend going for a Fractal R3 instead. I have heard that the P183 is a tad bit quieter (it's pretty solidly built), but it doesn't provide all that great cooling for a high-end system, particularly in the graphics card area as the bottom area is separated from the top, meaning less airflow. The R3 I think would provide a better mixture of quietness versus cooling. I like how it's pretty customizable, so you could stick a few fans on the top, side, or bottom as needed.

Particularly as you're looking a getting a GTX580, I actually tried out the 3-slot Asus GPU in my P183, and it wasn't well cooled. Unless I set my front fan and back fan to basically full RPM (1200 or so), it would get just ridiculously high temps, going to the high 90s at load. Even with case fans going quickly, it got to 83C or so on Crysis, stock speeds, which is higher than what most reviews say the card reaches.

As a side-note, I found the Direct CU II GTX580 still pretty loud for a quiet build. At its minimum speed (10%, ~1100rpm), significantly louder than after-market solutions, and when gaming at around 40-50%, it's pretty noticeable over games with headphones on.

Yeah that card should be running at like 60C at <40% fan speed.

Also, 10% and 1100RPM doesn't sound right...those fans probably can't spin faster than ~3000RPM at 100%, since they're 100mm fans.

 

[Izayoi]

Hm, watching the Newegg video of the HAF X. I like what I'm seeing. Shame about the LEDs but I might just have to deal with it.

 

[TheExodu5]

Hm, watching the Newegg video of the HAF X. I like what I'm seeing. Shame about the LEDs but I might just have to deal with it.

There's a button to turn them on and off.

 

[Izayoi]

There's a button to turn them on and off.

Sold. Thanks for the information.

Also, I got a 850 watt PSU, but if I, say, wanted to drop another 580 in at some point down the road, should I go 950 watt instead?

 

[kevm3]

ok so i put the cpu fan to where its supposed to be connected. the standby power led went on turned green. still nothing else seems to function though.

The motherboard has 2 p sockets for power connections. Did you connect both? There should be two connections from the power supply to the motherboard.

Does your graphics card power on at all?

 

[Grinchy]

I have put off upgrading my motherboard bios for a long time because I thought I could only burn the iso to a cd and not to a dvd.

A noob is me. Bios updated. I hope my next OC attempt goes smoother now.

 

[Izayoi]

Here's another question, if I'm going to get a 7200rpm 3TB drive, do I go with Hitachi, WD, or Seagate? I've had bad experiences with WD in the past, never had an issue with a Seagate drive, and I've never used a Hitachi before (at these speeds). Seagate is the most expensive by a fair margin so that's why I'm curious. Does anyone have any experience with the 7200rpm 3TB drives? I've got a couple 5400rpm Hitachi's, but those hardly count.

 

[Resolution]

my pc went on randomly after one last try lol

 

[Zeona]

Here's another question, if I'm going to get a 7200rpm 3TB drive, do I go with Hitachi, WD, or Seagate?

According to this article Hitachi produces the most reliable drives.

 

[Izayoi]

According to this article Hitachi produces the most reliable drives.

Well, that answers that. Thanks for the link.