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"I need a New PC!" 2013 Part 2. Haswell = #IntelnoTIM, but free online. READ THE OP.

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M.D

Member
So, I'm looking to upgrade my PC this year (or early next year)

I don't need to buy everything new, just the CPU / RAM / Motherboard / GPU

I'm mostly holding off since I understand some newer and better GPU's are supposed to come out very soon? Is that true?
 

Groof

Junior Member
Are those idle temps? That's pretty damn high considering your CPU fan is running at 1200rpm. Reinstall the 212.
Will do asap.

Pretty good, if a little expensive, suggestions. The NH-D14 is baller and all, but the EVO holds up well paired with a nice PWM fan. Noctua's NF-F12 PWM would be good choice for high end.

Similarly, Noiseblocker make awesome fans, but the Nexus D12SL-12 Real Silent (my recommendation) is also really good and lot cheaper. Turned down a notch it's super quiet.

Can't disagree with the SSD/WD Green-combo. Best of both worlds etc.

With a good fan profile, there's not much difference between the Asus DCII, EVGA ACX, Gigabyte Windforce and MSI Twin Frozr coolers. Take whatever is cheapest at the moment.

Fanless PSU is also a good idea.
Thanks for all the suggestions guys, I'll check them all out!
 
feeling like theres something really fucked going on with my overclocking

My core voltage on CPU-Z isn't matching the voltage I set in the bios. I've got a 3570k. I set my v.core to 1.35 and the core voltage never comes close to that high on CPU z.

What am I doing wrong?
 

wonkyaddict

Neo Member
So Gaf, the time has finally come. My HDD is dying in this POS Dell, so I figured I would go ahead and build myself some thing decent. I haven't built my own PC since the turn of the century, so comments are welcome and encouraged.

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-D3H
Case: Fractal Design Define R4
HDD: Seagate NAS HDD ST2000VN000 2TB
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 128GB
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB
PSU: Corsair HX750 750W
RAM: G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)

Am I forgetting anything? Any incompatibilities I should be worried about? Airflow in the case OK?

Thanks in advance. :)
 

kharma45

Member
What's the best GPU for ~£250? I'm hoping to play games pretty decently. Just bought most of the other parts I need for my build, got an i7 3770k.

I read that the new AMD GPU's are pretty much just rebrands so should I stick with the 7xxx series? Thanks!

Sapphire Toxic 280X is a beast of a card at £260 from Scan, clocked at 1100 stock and 1150 boost.

You can get the 7970 for around £230 too with the free games too. Link for it should be on the previous page for one of the builds I did for someone else.
 

Ieu

Member
A small tip for Windows users: if you're taking screenshots holding down ALT while pressing Print Screen will capture just the active window rather than the entire desktop.

That's a fine build there Wonkyaddict but don't forget a copy of Windows. You'll want it on USB if you're not going to have a DVD drive.
 

Dawg

Member
Get a Noctua NH-D14 for your CPU, replace all case fans with Noiseblocker NB-Multiframe (the lowest speed available), replace your HDD with a combination of an SSD and a large WD Green (or similar low-RPM drive), and get a new ASUS DirectCU II GPU (preferably NV for noise). Oh, and you could also get a Seasonic Platinum series fanless PSU.

I've got the Noctua nh-u12s, one single samsung evo 840 ssd 250gb (no hdd at all), the asus DirectCU II GPU and a PC&Power Cooling Silencer mk iii 600W (very silent model)

Is this OK for anti-noise? I suffer from OCD and noise (especially fans and stuff) is a nasty trigger.

May sound strange, but I'm happy to be partially deaf on my right ear. I place my pc on my right side so I hear less.
 
I've got the Noctua nh-u12s, one single samsung evo 840 ssd 250gb (no hdd at all), the asus DirectCU II GPU and a PC&Power Cooling Silencer mk iii 600W (very silent model)

Is this OK for anti-noise? I suffer from OCD and noise (especially fans and stuff) is a nasty trigger.

May sound strange, but I'm happy to be partially deaf on my right ear. I place my pc on my right side so I hear less.
It's fine, but it also depends on your case. A shoddily-built case will amplify vibrations. Try playing with fan speed settings, check temps with Prime/Furmark and find a noise/cooling compromise.
 

adg1034

Member
Download HWMonitor and look at CPU temps and CPU fan speed. Take a screenshot and post it here. Maybe you've set the fan speed too high or something went wrong with the installation. In a well-setup single GPU PC, a mechanical HDD usually is the noisiest component.

Figured I might as well upload my temps for a thumbs-up/down, too, since I've got roughly the same setup (2500k, but clocked to 4.7GHz, Hyper 212 EVO):

guGfCAn.png

Left is idle, right is under heavy Prime95 load. I've been running it at these settings and with this hardware for a good year or so with zero problems of any sort, but how fine a line am I walking with the load temps?
 

kittoo

Cretinously credulous
Finally ordered i7 4770k, 16GB RAM and Samsung 840 250GB SSD. There was a nice 20% discount here in India for Diwali. Good deals. Will wait for GPU as lot of churning going on right now, what with R280x, R290x and 780 Ti. Hopefully prices will come down.

About 4770k, I am hoping that this processor will be fine for next-gen. Its the best quad core and with 4 cores and 8 threads, with each core being more than twice powerful as each one in the consoles, I really hopeful that it will be more than enough for any game coming out in next 2-3 years. :)
 

Dawg

Member
Lol, I finally open up my package and there's a voucher code inside for buying an i5-4670K. Free GRID 2 (Steam).

Now if only Nvidia started their campaign earlier ;-;
 
Anyone staying with a GTX 570 for the foreseeable future? I put up my GTX 780 for sale on eBay. My friend just gave me his GTX 570. How do you see Arkham Origins running on a stock 570?
 
Change the mobo to the Gigabyte UD3H over the G45. Newegg do a combo deal on it too.

I notice the onboard audio goes up to 7.1 as opposed to the G45's 5.1, but is there any other reason? The combo deal on the CPU is also $5 less with your mobo. I went with MSI mostly because I figured a matching MOBO and GPU manufacturer made sense.

If you're not tied in to NVIDIA then at $190 the 7950 is a better buy.

Not a fan of Catalyst (LOTS of issues with drivers on the current setup), nVidia's got the more attractive featureset in this case IMO, and even if I did switch to AMD I'd probably go for the more comparable 7970 (but the modest spec bump wouldn't really justify the price increase).

I doubt you'll need so many fans. I added 3 to my 200R and has made zero difference for temperatures. You already get a front intake and read exhaust with the case anyway.

The CFM is decent because those fuckers are running at 2000rpm. How many fans does the case come with? I see conflicting information, it's either one or two.
Either way, the fan setup is pretty good, but switching the roof exhaust to front intake would give you HDD/SDD-cooling and positive pressure. A rear exhaust is more important than a roof exhaust because it will suck out hot air from the 212.

I've been trying to figure this exact thing out for forever :p not that it matters that much though. Official site says it comes with 2 (front and rear 120mm), but I'm a bit wary of reliability, especially when I'm going for a case as cheap as this one (and especially when I can get these at a measly $3 each). Was going for that more because of the cooling investigation article in the op. While their setups didn't account for HDD/SSD temps, side panel fans seemed to perform the best almost everywhere else universally at <4 fans.

With those specs and modest overclocks you don't have to look at high airflow fans at all. Go for silence instead. I have an Antec TrueQuiet 140 in my Arc Mini (side intake, switches from 800 to 500rpm). It's a great compromise between noise and airflow and not too expensive. Get one of those and see if you like the fans that come with your case.

Pages claimed the thing has a quiet mode at only 19dBA, but upon reading more reviews it's looking more and more like that's not the case. You get what you pay for I guess. I'll look at yours and a few other fan models and compare prices. I'll also look a bit more at the 140mm's, kind of ignored those before but they seem quieter.
 

Durante

Member
I've got the Noctua nh-u12s, one single samsung evo 840 ssd 250gb (no hdd at all), the asus DirectCU II GPU and a PC&Power Cooling Silencer mk iii 600W (very silent model)

Is this OK for anti-noise? I suffer from OCD and noise (especially fans and stuff) is a nasty trigger.

May sound strange, but I'm happy to be partially deaf on my right ear. I place my pc on my right side so I hear less.
Sounds good to me. I'm not familiar with the PSU though.
 

Tablo

Member
Well I'm going to build a new gaming PC soon, so I wanna know if this is good for the price. It's going to be my first hand built PC.

CPU & Motherboard: Intel Core i5 4670k 3.4Ghz & GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD3H $366.98 Combo

GPU: Sapphire Radeon R9-280X 3GB Crossfire $639.98

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600Mhz $84.99

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i $109.99

HDD: Western Digital WD Black 750GB 7200RPM $99.99

Case & Power Supply Corsair Vengeance C70 Gunmetal Black Case & Corsair HX750 $234.98 Combo

Total: $1536.91

Will the HX750 be able to handle the Radeon 280Xs? I think it will but I wanna make sure.

As for other case fans I have some laying around that I can use and I'll upgrade to an SSD later on.

Don't crossfire out the gate, buy a single 290(X) instead.
 
I've been trying to figure this exact thing out for forever :p not that it matters that much though. Official site says it comes with 2 (front and rear 120mm), but I'm a bit wary of reliability, especially when I'm going for a case as cheap as this one (and especially when I can get these at a measly $3 each). Was going for that more because of the cooling investigation article in the op. While their setups didn't account for HDD/SSD temps, side panel fans seemed to perform the best almost everywhere else universally at <4 fans.



Pages claimed the thing has a quiet mode at only 19dBA, but upon reading more reviews it's looking more and more like that's not the case. You get what you pay for I guess. I'll look at yours and a few other fan models and compare prices. I'll also look a bit more at the 140mm's, kind of ignored those before but they seem quieter.
A $3 fan is probably not going to be very reliable either. The cheapest 120mm fan I'd recommend would be the Arctic F12 for $8,99. Reasonably quiet, easy to tame, looks good.
For just a little more you can get the Enermax TB.Silence UCTB12 ($9,99) and the Nexus D12SL-12 Real Silent ($11,99). Both are really good bang-for-the-buck fans.

My fan setup (Arc Mini) is a D12SL-12 as front intake, a D12SL-12 as rear exhaust and an Antec TrueQuiet 140 as side panel intake. Connected to the case's fan controller, they work really well together. I use them at the controller's minimum setting and have no problems whatsoever under load (i5 2400, Asus HD7870) , so a more power-hungry system will be fine.

Edit: But by all means try the stock fans first! They should be just fine.
 

trh

Nifty AND saffron-colored!
What are the chances of Nvidia dropping the prices of the 700-range cards anytime soon? I'm looking to buy a card in a week or two, and as it stands (where I live) 770 is $100 bucks more than the r9 280x ($500 vs $400). As much as I enjoy the thought of potentially upgrading to a G-SYNC monitor next year it's a bit hard to swallow that price difference.
 

Sanctuary

Member
It's a tick, so even less than Haswell over Ivy if it is business as usual.

Even if that's the case, if they go back to solder instead of TIM it will possibly be a bigger boost for overclockers due to the heat issues Haswell has. Who knows though, they probably won't go back if the cheaper to manufacture CPUs sold well enough.

Wow, I didn't know mITX was this small. That motherboard is tiny :D

Yeah, but you could tell it was pretty small compared to a 780 or Titan if you've seen any mITX builds with it.
PS: Your place is a mess, there are boxes everywhere.
 

Dave_6

Member
I have been thinking that my CPU fan (Corsair H60) sounds like it's running too high/loud. I just checked HWMonitor and it is running at 100% at all times, even at idle (approx 4600 rpms). Well no wonder it's so loud. What do I need to do to fix this?
 

Sanctuary

Member
I have been thinking that my CPU fan (Corsair H60) sounds like it's running too high/loud. I just checked HWMonitor and it is running at 100% at all times, even at idle (approx 4600 rpms). Well no wonder it's so loud. What do I need to do to fix this?

Silly question, but do you have the tubes from the radiator oriented at the top, or the bottom?
 
A $3 fan is probably not going to be very reliable either. The cheapest 120mm fan I'd recommend would be the Arctic F12 for $8,99. Reasonably quiet, easy to tame, looks good.
For just a little more you can get the Enermax TB.Silence UCTB12 ($9,99) and the Nexus D12SL-12 Real Silent ($11,99). Both are really good bang-for-the-buck fans.

My fan setup (Arc Mini) is a D12SL-12 as front intake, a D12SL-12 as rear exhaust and an Antec TrueQuiet 140 as side panel intake. Connected to the case's fan controller, they work really well together. I use them at the controller's minimum setting and have no problems whatsoever under load (i5 2400, Asus HD7870) , so a more power-hungry system will be fine.

Edit: But by all means try the stock fans first! They should be just fine.

Fans are easy enough to replace right? i.e., I don't need to take the whole mobo out just to replace a few? If that's the case yeah I may just see how things go with the 2 stock fans initially, order maybe a nicer 140mm down the road.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Just bought this.

I really should not be allowed to handle money.
 
Fans are easy enough to replace right? i.e., I don't need to take the whole mobo out just to replace a few? If that's the case yeah I may just see how things go with the 2 stock fans initially, order maybe a nicer 140mm down the road.
Super easy. Disconnect old ones from mobo fan header, take them out, put new ones in (ideally using rubber pins), connect to mobo fan header and you're done.
I'd get the 140mm fan for the side panel ASAP. You only know how the stock fans perform if you've tested them in the setup you're aiming for.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I probably should have waited for the promo, but eh. Comes with Blacklist, and I've already paid cash money for Bats. That leaves Creed and I'm not fussed about getting that any time soon. Could have hocked off the codes, I suppose.

I guess my biggest fumbles are that I'm still running a 650W PSU and i5 2500K @ 4.3GHz. Hopefully the bottleneck isn't too big, and the PSU keeps up. This really was a pretty stupid impulse purchase and if it comes back to bite me, I deserve it.

On the other hand, I'll be able to sell off my GTX 670 for ~AU$300+ which will cover a good chunk of the investment. Huzzah.
 

Sanctuary

Member
Just bought this.

I really should not be allowed to handle money.

Probably a better value than what I'll be spending my money on in the next couple of weeks. How much more was that though compared to a similarly open cooler card? Cards that come overclocked almost always come with a slightly higher cost, even though in most cases you can't overclock it higher than those that don't.

I guess my biggest fumbles are that I'm still running a 650W PSU and i5 2500K @ 4.3GHz. Hopefully the bottleneck isn't too big, and the PSU keeps up. This really was a pretty stupid impulse purchase and if it comes back to bite me, I deserve it.

Unless you have a horribly inefficient PSU, that should be overkill for a single card really. You should be more than fine.
 

Dawg

Member
I probably should have waited for the promo, but eh. Comes with Blacklist, and I've already paid cash money for Bats. That leaves Creed and I'm not fussed about getting that any time soon. Could have hocked off the codes, I suppose.

I guess my biggest fumbles are that I'm still running a 650W PSU and i5 2500K @ 4.3GHz. Hopefully the bottleneck isn't too big, and the PSU keeps up. This really was a pretty stupid impulse purchase and if it comes back to bite me, I deserve it.

On the other hand, I'll be able to sell off my GTX 670 for ~AU$300+ which will cover a good chunk of the investment. Huzzah.

650W isn't even close to a bottleneck if you have one single GTX 770. Same for the CPU.
 

Zaph

Member
Wow, I didn't know mITX was this small. That motherboard is tiny :D

[IMG ]http://abload.de/img/20131019_183201elb21.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG ]http://abload.de/img/20131019_183419p8yf9.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG ]http://abload.de/img/20131019_183454aoavq.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG ]http://abload.de/img/20131019_183639pnb48.jpg[/IMG]
Wow, you have almost the exact same build as me.

Not sure if you've already built it yet, but if the U12S has similar heatpipes to the U14S, you need to be careful installing it. The heatpipes come out at an angle that rubs up against the power daughter-card on the Impact. As you tighten the two screws on the Noctua, you'll see it applying pressure to the card. Just do the bare minimum for a secure mount and carefully check to make sure it's not buckling.
 

Dawg

Member
Wow, you have almost the exact same build as me.

Not sure if you've already built it yet, but if the U12S has similar heatpipes to the U14S, you need to be careful installing it. The heatpipes come out at an angle that rubs up against the power daughter-card on the Impact. As you tighten the two screws on the Noctua, you'll see it applying pressure to the card. Just do the bare minimum for a secure mount and carefully check to make sure it's not buckling.

Thanks for the advice, I still have to build it. And hehe, very similar indeed! :) Looks like a nice build.
 

cyen

Member
New (i think, sorry if it was already posted) 290x benchs, single and crossfire.

It seems that the new crossfire mode without the bridge allows for almost perfect scaling

a1ada14b_cfx.jpeg


621b12ba_AMD-Radeon-R9-290X-CrossFireX-850x442.jpeg


here´s with a 780:

ntBroOw.png
 
Alright, so we put all of this together today and it wont start. I plug in the cord that goes to the wall and all the LEDs/Fans start for half a second and then it shuts off. The motherboard's green light stays on though. Nothing has worked so far.
 

kharma45

Member
I probably should have waited for the promo, but eh. Comes with Blacklist, and I've already paid cash money for Bats. That leaves Creed and I'm not fussed about getting that any time soon. Could have hocked off the codes, I suppose.

I guess my biggest fumbles are that I'm still running a 650W PSU and i5 2500K @ 4.3GHz. Hopefully the bottleneck isn't too big, and the PSU keeps up. This really was a pretty stupid impulse purchase and if it comes back to bite me, I deserve it.

On the other hand, I'll be able to sell off my GTX 670 for ~AU$300+ which will cover a good chunk of the investment. Huzzah.

Easily enough power for that system.

I notice the onboard audio goes up to 7.1 as opposed to the G45's 5.1, but is there any other reason? The combo deal on the CPU is also $5 less with your mobo. I went with MSI mostly because I figured a matching MOBO and GPU manufacturer made sense.

Not a fan of Catalyst (LOTS of issues with drivers on the current setup), nVidia's got the more attractive featureset in this case IMO, and even if I did switch to AMD I'd probably go for the more comparable 7970 (but the modest spec bump wouldn't really justify the price increase).

I've been trying to figure this exact thing out for forever :p not that it matters that much though. Official site says it comes with 2 (front and rear 120mm), but I'm a bit wary of reliability, especially when I'm going for a case as cheap as this one (and especially when I can get these at a measly $3 each). Was going for that more because of the cooling investigation article in the op. While their setups didn't account for HDD/SSD temps, side panel fans seemed to perform the best almost everywhere else universally at <4 fans.

Pages claimed the thing has a quiet mode at only 19dBA, but upon reading more reviews it's looking more and more like that's not the case. You get what you pay for I guess. I'll look at yours and a few other fan models and compare prices. I'll also look a bit more at the 140mm's, kind of ignored those before but they seem quieter.

Much better VRMs too, it's just a generally better all round board. Matching GPU and mobo OEM makes no sense as it makes no difference :p

What is your current set up? AMDs drivers have been pretty rock solid for a year now, less stability issues than Nvidia of late. The difference between a 7950 and a 7970 clock for clock isn't that much, you're underestimating the 7950 http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/34761-amd-hd-7950-vs-hd-7970-clocks/?page=10 especially when it's only $190 too

Fan wise the 200R comes with a front fan and an exhaust fan. Source: I own one ;)
 
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