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[fresquito]

I have a 2500K and a HD6850 and am thinking about upgrading my GPU. I've been looking into the GTX770 4GB, but I'm not sure about it. I hope you can help me here.

- Is there any plan for it to go cheaper by summer?
- Is it really worth it going 4GB? I want it to last for some time, even if I need to lower some things here and there three years from now, just as I do with my HD6850 now.
- Is there a better option? I know AMD is doing Mantle and maybe a wait and see is in order, but I've had quite a nasty experience with AMD this round and I think I better go green next.

Thanks.

BTW: I play 1080p/60Hz.

 

[OldAsUrSock]

I have a 2500K and a HD6850 and am thinking about upgrading my GPU. I've been looking into the GTX770 4GB, but I'm not sure about it. I hope you can help me here.

- Is there any plan for it to go cheaper by summer?
- Is it really worth it going 4GB? I want it to last for some time, even if I need to lower some things here and there three years from now, just as I do with my HD6850 now.
- Is there a better option? I know AMD is doing Mantle and maybe a wait and see is in order, but I've had quite a nasty experience with AMD this round and I think I better go green next.

Thanks.

BTW: I play 1080p/60Hz.

-We cannot confirm if it will go cheaper in the summer, but I think it will go down near the end of this year.
-Textures sizes are going to increase because if the jump in memory on consoles, so imo I would go 4GB even at 1080p because then I can sell it and 4GB will stand out over 2GB ver. or downsample.
-The only issue I have with AMD is that they are harder to downsample on.

 

[Bboy AJ]

After like two weeks, my PSU crapped out. WTF?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ TigerDirect)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($131.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($155.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 4GB Video Card ($394.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider 600W 80+ Silver Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($100.98 @ Newegg)
Other: Short Cable Kit PP05 ($25.00)
Total: $1213.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-28 14:43 EST-0500)

Any idea why? I'm using it in Europe so it's 240v but it's rated for 240v, too. No switches to flick or anything. I just RMA'd it on Amazon.

 

[mkenyon]

I'm starting to get frustrated with my PC right now. If it's not one problem, it's another. My computer likes to turn on and off, freeze after bios with black screen and a blinking cursor, freeze on bios, freeze after a save and reset after a bios change - is it my motherboard? I'm really regretting this Biostar Z87w I bought. Mostly because I don't like ordering from newegg and their return policies such as their return policy for the Z87w, which I can only exchange for a replacement.

Edit: PC works fine once I reach Windows startup.

Have you updated BIOS?

I have a 2500K and a HD6850 and am thinking about upgrading my GPU. I've been looking into the GTX770 4GB, but I'm not sure about it. I hope you can help me here.

- Is there any plan for it to go cheaper by summer?
- Is it really worth it going 4GB? I want it to last for some time, even if I need to lower some things here and there three years from now, just as I do with my HD6850 now.
- Is there a better option? I know AMD is doing Mantle and maybe a wait and see is in order, but I've had quite a nasty experience with AMD this round and I think I better go green next.

Thanks.

BTW: I play 1080p/60Hz.

I'll echo the answers above, though I'd suggest the 760 over the 770. Keep the rest of the money in your pocket and upgrade later on.

After like two weeks, my PSU crapped out. WTF?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ TigerDirect)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($131.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($155.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 4GB Video Card ($394.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider 600W 80+ Silver Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($100.98 @ Newegg)
Other: Short Cable Kit PP05 ($25.00)
Total: $1213.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-28 14:43 EST-0500)

Any idea why? I'm using it in Europe so it's 240v but it's rated for 240v, too. No switches to flick or anything. I just RMA'd it on Amazon.

Such things happen from time to time. I've even had the much loved Seasonic X series randomly die on me. Bad roll of the dice.

 

[threetri333]

I'm having trouble installing Windows 8.1 Pro on my new machine.

I get the message "We couldn't verify the product key. Please check your installation media."

Do I need a proper ISO? The machine isn't connected to Internet.

 

[Bboy AJ]

It worked for 2 weeks, no issues. Now it smells bad. I'm not positive it's the PSU but nothing turns on so I'm pretty sure it's the PSU.

I'm just disappointed. I spent a lot of time doing proper cable management. Now I had to take it apart to pull out the dead PSU. More work. I thought parts would DOA or in a few years. Not two weeks.

 

[bro1]

I'm having trouble installing Windows 8.1 Pro on my new machine.

I get the message "We couldn't verify the product key. Please check your installation media."

Do I need a proper ISO? The machine isn't connected to Internet.

you may need to be online.

Helping a friend install a new Z87 system with an Asus mobo. The product support page mentions an important bios update

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z87A/#support

Should I install that prior to installing windows? his CPU is an 13 4140

 

[LordAlu]

I'm having trouble installing Windows 8.1 Pro on my new machine.

I get the message "We couldn't verify the product key. Please check your installation media."

Do I need a proper ISO? The machine isn't connected to Internet.

Try this?

 

[Geneijin]

Have you updated BIOS?

Yes. I managed to fix one issue I think... (black screen, blinking cursor) by editing the registry for cdrom (set to 3 instead of 1). But still, some issues still remain like whenever I shutdown to test the bootup, my PC will turn on and off until I power it down and hope it starts up fine when I reboot it after waiting 10, 15 seconds.

 

[michaelius]

How important is a motherboard for overall performance? I bought some pretty good parts overall, ended up getting a Samsung SSD, an i3570k and a gtx 780 but i purchased a fairly cheap mobo at $79 (ASRock H77M) cause i had a budget i had already blown past so it was a corner i had to cut.

Near zero - cpu at same clock speed will run with same performance in cheapest ASrock as it does in Asus Turbo Hiper Mega Expensive Uber OC edition Rampage LXX

 

[bro1]

It worked for 2 weeks, no issues. Now it smells bad. I'm not positive it's the PSU but nothing turns on so I'm pretty sure it's the PSU.

I'm just disappointed. I spent a lot of time doing proper cable management. Now I had to take it apart to pull out the dead PSU. More work. I thought parts would DOA or in a few years. Not two weeks.

is it a modular PSU? Shouldn't be too bad to replace. What type of PSU is it?

 

[Bboy AJ]

is it a modular PSU? Shouldn't be too bad to replace. What type of PSU is it?

Power Supply: Silverstone Strider 600W 80+ Silver Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($100.98 @ Newegg)

PITA to replace and wait for replacement to ship. That's about two weeks of down time since I won't have time to do a proper install again.

 

[SneakyStephan]

This is my line of thinking as well. What would you recommend?

Sorry was playing vidyagames didn't see your post

what do you mean what would I recommend?
Either you get that i3 or non k i5 (neither can be overclocked) with a h81 mobo (cheap but doesn't support overclocking) or you get the i5 4670k with a z87 mobo (which is almost twice as expensive as a h81 mobo but is required to be able to overclock because intel says fuck you give me money.

 

[Bii]

Since I have enough of my components to actually build it, I started last night and took me nearly three hours to finish what you see below. haha. Took my time and only had two issues (I accidentally reinstalled Windows not knowing that it had installed it already, and I had to watch a video to properly install the Hyper 212 EVO). Besides that, everything works so far. I'm just waiting for my video card and additional HDD to come in within the next week, and also salving another HDD from my old PC.

Thanks goes out to everyone in here taking their time to give others advice. I'll post more pics of the completed build once I get the rest of my parts. I'm not looking forward to managing all the cables once everything's settled. XD

 

[kharma45]

Since I have enough of my components to actually build it, I started last night and took me nearly three hours to finish what you see below. haha. Took my time and only had two issues (I accidentally reinstalled Windows not knowing that it had installed it already, and I had to watch a video to properly install the Hyper 212 EVO). Besides that, everything works so far. I'm just waiting for my video card and additional HDD to come in within the next week, and also salving another HDD from my old PC.

Thanks goes out to everyone in here taking their time to give others advice. I'll post more pics of the completed build once I get the rest of my parts. I'm not looking forward to managing all the cables once everything's settled. XD

Class.

 

[kennah]

Textbook build. Looks great!

 

[kiyomi]

Something about that white/black/red look is fucking gorgeous, Bii. Very nice.

Spoiler

i want that r4

 

[SighFight]

-We cannot confirm if it will go cheaper in the summer, but I think it will go down near the end of this year.
-Textures sizes are going to increase because if the jump in memory on consoles, so imo I would go 4GB even at 1080p because then I can sell it and 4GB will stand out over 2GB ver. or downsample.
-The only issue I have with AMD is that they are harder to downsample on.

I would not go 4gb with the 770 the is NO performance gain unless you go sli.
The 770 is very similar to the 680 and even at high resolutions there is pretty much nothing to do with 4gb outside of eating money.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Video-Card-Performance-2GB-vs-4GB-Memory-154/

 

[mkenyon]

It worked for 2 weeks, no issues. Now it smells bad. I'm not positive it's the PSU but nothing turns on so I'm pretty sure it's the PSU.

I'm just disappointed. I spent a lot of time doing proper cable management. Now I had to take it apart to pull out the dead PSU. More work. I thought parts would DOA or in a few years. Not two weeks.

It happens, bad dice roll.

Only thing that I'm skeptical about is the short cable kit. Be sure to take a close look at all of your connectors. Inspect the motherboard for any blown caps.

Yes. I managed to fix one issue I think... (black screen, blinking cursor) by editing the registry for cdrom (set to 3 instead of 1). But still, some issues still remain like whenever I shutdown to test the bootup, my PC will turn on and off until I power it down and hope it starts up fine when I reboot it after waiting 10, 15 seconds.

I just did a bit of googling, and I can't seem to find anything about cold boot issues with that motherboard. I think you should run memtest to see if there are any errors there.

Only other thought is to contact Biostar to see if they have any quick solutions.

I would not go 4gb with the 770 the is NO performance gain unless you go sli.
The 770 is very similar to the 680 and even at high resolutions there is pretty much nothing to do with 4gb outside of eating money.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Video-Card-Performance-2GB-vs-4GB-Memory-154/

There's a number of games that will dynamically alter the textures based on available VRAM, Frostbyte being the notable one. Lots of games with mods also benefit greatly with more VRAM. I wouldn't get the 4GB 770 because at that price you might as well jump to the 780. I can see a case for the 4GB 760 though.

280x should be the go to card in this price range. Some day.

 

[Kintaro]

Newegg has the Fractal Node on sale for $74.99. I know I've seen lower though. Any clue if bigger sales occur during the summer?

 

[mkenyon]

Newegg has the Fractal Node on sale for $74.99. I know I've seen lower though. Any clue if bigger sales occur during the summer?

Lowest I've seen it was $65, and there's no way of knowing when or if that'll happen again. It's a good value at that price, so if you've been looking at it, I'd say go for it.

 

[Infinite Justice]

Since I have enough of my components to actually build it, I started last night and took me nearly three hours to finish what you see below. haha. Took my time and only had two issues (I accidentally reinstalled Windows not knowing that it had installed it already, and I had to watch a video to properly install the Hyper 212 EVO). Besides that, everything works so far. I'm just waiting for my video card and additional HDD to come in within the next week, and also salving another HDD from my old PC.

Thanks goes out to everyone in here taking their time to give others advice. I'll post more pics of the completed build once I get the rest of my parts. I'm not looking forward to managing all the cables once everything's settled. XD

dat cable management.

those colors

very nice

 

[redlegs87]

I just got a hell of a deal thanks to microcenter. Going to get the Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H tomorrow for $117.99! I called and made sure it was brand new and not a refurbished or open box deal and they said it was completely new sealed box.

 

[kharma45]

That's a hell of a deal.

 

[Kintaro]

My god. It's...beautiful. I can never get my cables that nice. T-T

 

[bro1]

Power Supply: Silverstone Strider 600W 80+ Silver Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($100.98 @ Newegg)

PITA to replace and wait for replacement to ship. That's about two weeks of down time since I won't have time to do a proper install again.

That's the one I had so it's fully modular. Just unplug the cords from the PSU. Also make sure the mobo doesn't have any scorch markes.

Have them do a cross ship. And next time use amazon as their return policy rocks.

 

[mkenyon]

As a heads up, there's a number of Lian Li cases on sale at Newegg right now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...TMATCH&Description=PPSSNCHUMLNIFJ&icid=237296

The PC-7HWX @ $90 is a good deal, and there's some neat ITX cases if you're looking for an HTPC or SFF gaming rig.

 

[bro1]

Since I have enough of my components to actually build it, I started last night and took me nearly three hours to finish what you see below. haha. Took my time and only had two issues (I accidentally reinstalled Windows not knowing that it had installed it already, and I had to watch a video to properly install the Hyper 212 EVO). Besides that, everything works so far. I'm just waiting for my video card and additional HDD to come in within the next week, and also salving another HDD from my old PC.

Thanks goes out to everyone in here taking their time to give others advice. I'll post more pics of the completed build once I get the rest of my parts. I'm not looking forward to managing all the cables once everything's settled. XD

AMAZING wiring job. I wish my wiring looked half as good. Have to buy a bigger case next time.

 

[Meier]

Assuming I stick with my same case for my next build, I'll probably replace my two fans (2 COOLER MASTER R4-L2S-122B-GP 120mm 4 BLUE LED LED Case Fan - Retail) that I have at the front of the unit.

Anyone have any experience with these? COUGAR CF-V12H Vortex Hydro-Dynamic-Bearing (Fluid) 300,000 Hours 12CM Silent Cooling Fan. Nice reviews -- could get 2 for $24 right now and I doubt it'll ever get significantly cheaper even if I wait to buy them with the other components.

 

[Blak_Status]

Newegg has the Fractal Node on sale for $74.99. I know I've seen lower though. Any clue if bigger sales occur during the summer?

I grabbed one soon as it went on sale for $75 (been price watching for a few weeks) and it just got delivered.


I have a question about SSD's. Is there really a difference in the quality/performance of SSD's or is it mainly brand loyalty?

 

[Kintaro]

Went ahead and orders the Node. My new rig is now officially in progress. =)

 

[appaws]

I grabbed one soon as it went on sale for $75 (been price watching for a few weeks) and it just got delivered.


I have a question about SSD's. Is there really a difference in the quality/performance of SSD's or is it mainly brand loyalty?

I think if you get any of the normally recommended brands* they are all good. I mean, people benchmark them and do all kinds of stuff....but to the average mortal or gamer, I think you will never detect whatever milliseconds of difference there is.

Now if you have never had one before, the difference between that and your old slow ass HDD will be HUGE! You will notice that, and love it.

*(Samsung, Crucial, OCZ, Intel, etc.)

 

[kennah]

I think if you get any of the normally recommended brands* they are all good. I mean, people benchmark them and do all kinds of stuff....but to the average mortal or gamer, I think you will never detect whatever milliseconds of difference there is.

Now if you have never had one before, the difference between that and your old slow ass HDD will be HUGE! You will notice that, and love it.

*(Samsung, Crucial, OCZ, Intel, etc.)

DO NOT BUY OCZ

Highest failure rate of all of them, and the company just went bankrupt - so can't count on any warranty.

 

[Bii]

Thanks for the comments everyone. It helps that the PSU is modular and the case has a lot of space/holes to route cables through. I should probably take a picture of my old Dell just for comparison's sake. That Dell has a non-modular PSU and all the wires are nestled in there like a ball.

I just got a hell of a deal thanks to microcenter. Going to get the Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H tomorrow for $117.99! I called and made sure it was brand new and not a refurbished or open box deal and they said it was completely new sealed box.

That's a damn good deal. And here I thought getting my UD4H for $115 from a fellow GAFer was a bargain (it still is, just not as much as a UD5H at $118).

 

[mkenyon]

I grabbed one soon as it went on sale for $75 (been price watching for a few weeks) and it just got delivered.


I have a question about SSD's. Is there really a difference in the quality/performance of SSD's or is it mainly brand loyalty?

Reliability is all that matters. There's no appreciable difference in speed if you don't have a specific task for it that would really use it, like some database work.

As noted, Crucial, Samsung, Kingston, and Plextor are the only four I'd personally buy as they have really solid reputations in terms of reliability. However, almost everything out there is great these days.

Just watch Amazon/Newegg for whatever goes on sale. The Crucial M500s were super cheap the past few days on Newegg, might still be.

 

[appaws]

DO NOT BUY OCZ

Highest failure rate of all of them, and the company just went bankrupt - so can't count on any warranty.

But the division that produces SSDs were bought by Toshiba. Toshiba is honoring those warranties, and in fact the OCZ brand will continue to exist as a Toshiba subsidiary. All of the Vector and Vertex drives will have their full original warranty, and the older Agility drives that were sold with 3-year warranties to begin with will be covered until the end of January, 2015.

The reviews of the latest products from them were generally good as well. They are using Toshiba nand and the Barefoot 3 controller is considered to be good as well.

I think it makes sense to be a little hesitant maybe, but "DO NOT BUY" seems to be a bit too far.

 

[redlegs87]

That's a damn good deal. And here I thought getting my UD4H for $115 from a fellow GAFer was a bargain (it still is, just not as much as a UD5H at $118).

I am starting to think based off of reviews I have read and other threads they might be selling off the rev 1.0 models to make room for the rev 1.1 models.

 

[kennah]

But the division that produces SSDs were bought by Toshiba. Toshiba is honoring those warranties, and in fact the OCZ brand will continue to exist as a Toshiba subsidiary. All of the Vector and Vertex drives will have their full original warranty, and the older Agility drives that were sold with 3-year warranties to begin with will be covered until the end of January, 2015.

The reviews of the latest products from them were generally good as well. They are using Toshiba nand and the Barefoot 3 controller is considered to be good as well.

I think it makes sense to be a little hesitant maybe, but "DO NOT BUY" seems to be a bit too far.

Hey thanks for the info! I haven't been able to trust them since losing three drives.

 

[Nakazato]

Would an i3 2100 and 4 gigs of ram bottleneck a 760. Thinking bout getting one or a 750ti (and wait for the 800 cards)

 

[kharma45]

Bottlenecks vary from game to game. In some your CPU will hold you back, in others it won't matter at all.

 

[Mineshaft_Gap]

What fans should I add to my Corsair 200R? Does it make a difference what type of bearing the fans use? My impression is to get ballbearing fans for those mounted horizontally and it doesn't matter as much for those mounted vertically. Is this true? I have two intake slots on the side panel, two exhaust on the top, and an intake on the bottom. I know to get filters for the intakes. If there are two slots for fans though is it going to be harmful/pointless to fill one slot and not the other? Say if I mount one on the top exhaust and leave the other space empty?

 

[fresquito]

-We cannot confirm if it will go cheaper in the summer, but I think it will go down near the end of this year.
-Textures sizes are going to increase because if the jump in memory on consoles, so imo I would go 4GB even at 1080p because then I can sell it and 4GB will stand out over 2GB ver. or downsample.
-The only issue I have with AMD is that they are harder to downsample on.

Thanks. This is very helpful.

I'll echo the answers above, though I'd suggest the 760 over the 770. Keep the rest of the money in your pocket and upgrade later on.

I don't plan on upgrading in the next threee-four years, even if I need to set things to mid (like I'm doing now). Do you think the 760 will last this long?

I would not go 4gb with the 770 the is NO performance gain unless you go sli.
The 770 is very similar to the 680 and even at high resolutions there is pretty much nothing to do with 4gb outside of eating money.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Video-Card-Performance-2GB-vs-4GB-Memory-154/

I may be wrong, but my gut feeling is that by mid 2015 4GB will be needed.

280x should be the go to card in this price range. Some day.

Care to elaborate? I'm used to see benchmark where AMD cards shine, followed by myriads of troubles. Is this any different now?

 

[Geneijin]

I just did a bit of googling, and I can't seem to find anything about cold boot issues with that motherboard. I think you should run memtest to see if there are any errors there.

I actually ran MemTest86 a few days ago overnight, and it passed 6-7 iterations of the test. Today, I swapped the PSU with my old Corsair CX500 to isolate the problem, and I still encountered the same problem. But here's the funny thing. My motherboard doesn't like quick reboots or repeated restarts without freezing apparently. I have 2 x 4 GB G.Skill Sniper 1866, so I tried testing each ram individually. They both worked when single channel (is that the word for it). Tried to dual channel them again on either slot (whether it was on A1-B1 or A2-B2) and they refused to work (turns on and off, freezes at bios, etc). I used my old 2 x 2 GB Corsair XMS 1600, and they worked on dual channel and survived my tests. Do you think my ram could be the culprit?

Edit: My mistake. Seems my old ram was 1600. Should I be worried that they're 1.65V?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260

 

[Hazaro]

TR moves into a closer format to this one with their new Feb. build guide:
http://techreport.com/review/26082/tr-february-2014-system-guide

Also no AMD to be found there either.

 

[appaws]

Thanks. This is very helpful.

I don't plan on upgrading in the next threee-four years, even if I need to set things to mid (like I'm doing now). Do you think the 760 will last this long?

I may be wrong, but my gut feeling is that by mid 2015 4GB will be needed.

Care to elaborate? I'm used to see benchmark where AMD cards shine, followed by myriads of troubles. Is this any different now?

There are no troubles with the AMD cards themselves. They would be the clear price/performance favorites currently if not for the crazy market inflation going on. But what can you do...? I guess it would be great for gamers if they could take an axe and hack off whatever part does the busywork math without changing anything else. I'm a lawyer, not an engineer, but I am guessing that is not really possible.

TR moves into a closer format to this one with their new Feb. build guide:
http://techreport.com/review/26082/t...4-system-guide

Also no AMD to be found there either.

I really like the new format they have this laid out in.

Hey...need a recommendation. Speakers, preferably less than $100 US. I'm not an audiophile at all, just want something I can plug into the motherboard that is better than the crappy sound coming out of the speakers on the monitor.

 

[Gaz_RB]

just built mine tonight, running great. thanks for the help guys.

 

[soultron]

Running a ASUS DCUII GTX 660 right now, could grab a DCUII GTX 760 tomorrow for $250 CAD. Worth the money? I'll probably sell the 660 for $180 to a coworker.

Could get: ASUS GeForce GTX 760 DirectCU II OC 1075MHZ 2GB 6.0GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Video Card

Have: ASUS GeForce GTX 660 OC DirectCU II 1020MHZ 2GB 6.0GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Video Card

 

[killertofu]

I have an R4 and bought a blu ray drive.... How can I secure it in? I feel dumb

 

[soultron]

I have an R4 and bought a blu ray drive.... How can I secure it in? I feel dumb

Look at the cardboard case with the R4 hardware. There are large thumb screws (I think 8x?) that have a diagram on them labelled ODD. Those are the screws you want.

Look at the top right where the optical disk drive is secured in this screen:

Notice the 2x bulky thumb screws (2x on each side of the case to secure the ODD in; 4x total per ODD.).

 

[delirium]

Does anyone know if reverse airflow cases are a problem? I'm looking at this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112416