https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Thermal-Paste-Application-Techniques-170/
Personally, I've always used the smooth spread method. I put a dab of it on, and spread it out with a credit card or something similar.
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"I Need a New PC!" 2015 Part 2. Read the OP. Rocking 2500K's until HBM2 and beyond.
- Thread starter Hazaro
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https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Thermal-Paste-Application-Techniques-170/
Personally, I've always used the smooth spread method. I put a dab of it on, and spread it out with a credit card or something similar.
Jag
Member
So the X shape is the current recommendation? Thanks.
Getting close to pulling the trigger on this build. Am I overlooking anything (snatching an optical drive from my current PC but everything else will be fresh)?
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($359.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($149.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: *Sandisk X110 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($80.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: *Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($41.60 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card ($314.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($61.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM (64-bit) ($138.89 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1428.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-28 17:47 EDT-0400
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($359.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($149.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: *Sandisk X110 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($80.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: *Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($41.60 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card ($314.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($61.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM (64-bit) ($138.89 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1428.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-28 17:47 EDT-0400
Jzero
Member
Alright so I'm having a problem I've never seen before. I was using my computer and it shut down and wouldn't come back on. I tested the monitor and the GPU on another computer and they both work as expected. I reseated the ram, i checked the solid state caps and they all look fine. I tried using the integrated graphics but all I get is two vertical lines at the edge of the screen or perfect pink, yellow, and green lines. So it all goes down to my two year old motherboard and CPU. Which one do you guys think died on me? I'm leaning towards dead motherboard since it doesn't post or show any BIOS information.
There are some changes that I'd make:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($359.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Directron)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($83.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.56 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card ($314.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM (64-bit) ($138.89 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1410.26
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-28 18:17 EDT-0400
- The Gigabyte Gaming 3 motherboard has Killer gaming Ethernet. We recommend Intel ethernet instead for something more reliable.
- The Sandisk X110 isn't that great of an SSD. It's just the OEM version of the Sandisk Ultra Plus according to Hexus, and both Hexus and Anandtech don't look very favorably on the Sandisk. It was already a not-so-great performer when it came out. The Crucial BX100 comes recommended for just a few dollars more and has universally excellent reviews.
- I can't recommend that Hitachi drive. Yes, Hitachi is a good brand for hard drives but that specific model is about from 2009 or so, making it an older design with ~300GB platters. I substituted a newer Toshiba drive in its place.
- Corsair's CX line of power supplies are generally only average quality. I subsituted the EVGA Supernova B2 750 watt model. It's on sale for $45 which makes it a great bargain, considering that it has higher wattage and very high quality (rated as bronze but capable of silver level efficiency) and is manufactured by Super Flower, one of the best PSU makers there are.
Motherboard seems more likely. What are your system specs?
Awesome, thanks for the tips! I have no idea how that Sandisk got in my build in the first place, after seeing nearly everyone on here suggest the BX100!
I'm going to be using WiFi so Ethernet isn't much of an issue (don't online game much on PC anyways) but is there any other major difference between those two MBs?
Wag
Member
I honestly don't think it matters all that much. Just as long as you get it evenly spread across the surface. I also use a credit card. I'm going to try to use the X method tomorrow, although I think it will be difficult considering I'll be using the paste which comes with the fan (small tube which cuts open).
Great, thanks for that just what I wanted to hear!
I ordered the H5 cooler in the end, figured I may as well prep for an OC if I ever I want to scratch that itch and not have to pull it apart and redo the thermal paste.
H5 is a great cooler -http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/CRYORIG/H7_Universal/6.html
You should definitely OC in future
In that case the Ethernet chipset type is not that big a deal. The Gaming 3 is intended to be a bit higher end than the Z170XP-SLI model.
Jzero
Member
I just took everything apart and together again and it works again, wtf -_-
So, after 2 weeks of lovely usage, passed stress tests, great temps, my new PC has died.
Specifically I turned it on after it being off for 12 or greater hours and it didn't fully POST. Asus motherboard CPU light stays red. It's an Asus Z-170A and my CPU is the i5-6600k.
So, what do I do now? I tried shorting out the BIOS reset pins and I've uninstalled / reinstalled my HSF and reseated my CPU. I've unplugged & replugged my mobo power cords. No changes at all. Only thing that made a difference was when I unplugged the "extra" power pins (labed for overclocking) I didn't get the red CPU LED & instead nothing happens at all (no further POST lights).
Also it didn't look like any of the pins on my mobo are bent at all.
So I don't know if there's anything else I can do, nor do I know if the problem lies in my CPU or mobo. I have no idea what to do next GAF. Do I set up a RMA on my mobo? My CPU? Please help me!
Specifically I turned it on after it being off for 12 or greater hours and it didn't fully POST. Asus motherboard CPU light stays red. It's an Asus Z-170A and my CPU is the i5-6600k.
So, what do I do now? I tried shorting out the BIOS reset pins and I've uninstalled / reinstalled my HSF and reseated my CPU. I've unplugged & replugged my mobo power cords. No changes at all. Only thing that made a difference was when I unplugged the "extra" power pins (labed for overclocking) I didn't get the red CPU LED & instead nothing happens at all (no further POST lights).
Also it didn't look like any of the pins on my mobo are bent at all.
So I don't know if there's anything else I can do, nor do I know if the problem lies in my CPU or mobo. I have no idea what to do next GAF. Do I set up a RMA on my mobo? My CPU? Please help me!
Nostremitus
Member
Cyberlink PowerDVD
Does software like this really cost that much?
$80 discounted right now (reg $170)
It's most likely the MB. CPUs don't die unless you put way too much voltage while OC. Where you using manually or auto OC? What was the voltages you see during stress testing?
So: never changed the CPU over voltage jumper. Never manually altered any CPU voltage settings anywhere at all. Was doing very mild OC. Did do auto OC (mild settings) for a bit but they didn't post reliably so I turned it down. 99% of usage was with no voltage change so I didn't actually monitor voltage. (Should I have?)
Could you elaborate what you mean by 'didn't fully POST' in your previous post?
Fans turn on, power LED on mobo on green, CPU LED on solid red. Never changes, no screen output.
Jag
Member
Would you recommend that over the Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151?
The Z170-A already has an Intel ethernet chipset. If you meant you wanted to know which motherboard to get, I don't know. There's not a lot of reviews available for Z170 motherboards.
Edit: I mean it's somewhat hard to judge just how well a motherboard will work. It's possible to look up and compare specs, but I'd rather wait for reviews. For what it's worth, the Z170-A already does have a number of reviews which are all positive.
I'm trying to see whether or not that particular ASUS motherboard has the ability to boot without the CPU.
edit: This is going to sound like a really dumb question and I just have to make sure: your PSU was off and unplugged when you cleared the CMOS pins right?
The Ergotron LX might be for you (they also have a single mount with two fully adjustable arms). I have been using the wall mounted version (granted with 24" screens) as well as another product of theirs for my 46" TV and in the current iterations they work very well and smoothly.
The earlier iteration of the LX wall mount (which has been out of production for 5 years or so) still had some issues and lacked a bit of refinement, but again, those offered now are very well made and work about as well as you could imagine them to.
Yep, PSU was off & unplugged, since then I also used a jumper to do the full "short out" CMOS clear so it really should have happened. No changes.
I figure it really has to be the CPU or mobo. I'll contact newegg about the mobo ASAP...
Really disappointing, but at least I feel really confident installing the Cooler Master 212 Evo now...
Yeah, chances are that it's either one of those. The strange thing is that spontaneous failures are extremely rare -- hardware failures usually happen right away -- so chalk it up to back luck, I suppose?
Nostremitus
Member
There are some hit-or-miss workarounds to get Blu-ray discs to play on VLC, but they aren't that great. If you want to play them on your PC, you have to pay for it so that the Blu-ray creators can get a cut of the profits for the program that can read the proprietary format. Licensing fees.
I bought PowerDVD 14 last year for around $50 during a sale and it was definitely worth it, it just sucks that it costs so much. Too bad there's not much competition in this particular market.
They have a free trial you can try out to make sure you like it before spending anything.
Also, the essentials version is $59.95, Ultra is on sale for $79.95. If you're just wanting to watch Blu-ray discs, you don't need all of those features. I installed Ultra then when into start-up and deactivated everything except the player (which comes with the Essentials version) because I wasn't using anything else.
hockeypuck
Member
The Z170-A comes with extra power pins for overclocking? I'm getting this board and didn't come across that in the manual. Can you elaborate?
Not really. I buy them myself because I appreciate the effort Noctua puts into designing them and using high quality parts, but I know I'm not getting a great performance/price ratio compared to other fans. I also like throwing money at my PC. By the time those NZXT fans start failing you'll be well on your way to your next case, anyways.
Cute Dragon Here
Member
It appears that the benchmark/overclocking thread is dead, so pardon me for posting this here.
Been poking around with CPU stress testing tools and OCCT decided to give it a big fat fail simply because the CPU went too hot. Hmm...
Should I be concerned? It passed the XTU test for six hours with flying colours, and it's not overclocked outside of motherboard turbo hijinks that make it run at 3.7 GHz even if there's more than one core loaded up. If you count that.
(It's an i5-4590, so no unlocked multiplier. Just concerned about the heat. Stock cooler.)
Been poking around with CPU stress testing tools and OCCT decided to give it a big fat fail simply because the CPU went too hot. Hmm...
Should I be concerned? It passed the XTU test for six hours with flying colours, and it's not overclocked outside of motherboard turbo hijinks that make it run at 3.7 GHz even if there's more than one core loaded up. If you count that.
(It's an i5-4590, so no unlocked multiplier. Just concerned about the heat. Stock cooler.)
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
The RRP of PowerDVD Ultra is $99.95. This "$170" is the total price of bundled software. Basically if you add up everything in the bundle it comes to $170 - so this allows them to say "50% OFF!" instead of "20% OFF!" and make it look like a far better offer than what it actually is.
The base price of PowerDVD is high because of royalties to Dolby, DTS, the Blu-ray Disc Association, and other codec/IP owners. As these royalties come to about $20-30 in total, this is the reason why official Blu-ray playback software is never cheap.
If you're wanting to buy PowerDVD then wait for about 9 months after its release date and they'll have an end-of-life sale before the new version comes out.
I worked for CyberLink a few years ago. Their software is good, but their CEO and work environment are not.
Personally I use MakeMKV for backing up my Blu-ray movies. It's free and storage is generally cheap nowadays. After that I watch them through my NAS and keep my discs for a collection.
Going to try my luck here. I would like to buy one of those monitor stands you can clip on your table, actually two. I have a 24 inch gaming monitor and a 29 inch 21:9 monitor. What I want to do is mount the 21:9 on top of the other. Does anyone of you know good online stores in Europe to buy such stands?
Tarin02543
Member
I've just upgraded from a 23 inch 1680x1050 to a 25 inch 2556x1440 display.
This is truly amazing, best money I've spent this year.
This is truly amazing, best money I've spent this year.
Well, there's the 24 pin mobo power connector, then the 8(?) pin CPU (?) power connector. I'm just unfamiliar with this architecture. The mobo manual says those 8 pins are optional, but they didn't seem optional to me...
Ok, cool thanks for the info. I will have to get it at some point. I'm going to wait for a little while and see if I can grab it for $50. It's a good thing that The Walking Dead is also on Ultra Violet. Anyway, just one question about the software. Is it a one time use only? What if my PC (hypothetical) breaks or something? And how many PC's can I install it to? I hope that the key can be used more than enough times to last you a lifetime.
Yeah, chances are that it's either one of those. The strange thing is that spontaneous failures are extremely rare -- hardware failures usually happen right away -- so chalk it up to back luck, I suppose?
I know, this is exactly what struck me.
I am the type of person to randomly run into every hardware failure, no matter what sort of device it is. I'm cursed. It's why I actually held off building a new PC & considered having it built for me despite my experience / skill.
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
The cheapest price you'll probably see PowerDVD Ultra at is $59.95-69.95. And this will be the tell-tale sign that a new version is about to launch.
I've no idea about installation policies or anything, but I'm sure you'll find a FAQ on the website about that.
This is true,but is there any reason not to go with the R9 390 other than being 50$ more expensive?I heard the Asus R9 390 has the DirectCU II which is an awful cooler.
Nostremitus
Member
I've reformatted a few times and my software activation key has worked every time.
so today i finally set up my new pc, but now i'm having some trouble with it ; ;
i tried running ffxiv with it, but for some reason the game only sees my video card as the integrated intel card instead of my gtx 970
under device manager i can actually see the gtx 970 though
if i try to enter nvidia control panel from my desktop i get an error saying i'm not currently using display attached to an nvidia gpu
but i right clicked > properties the 970 from device manager and it says it's working properly
my friends told me to go to bios and change some settings but i can't seem to enter that, i'm on windows 10
i tried running ffxiv with it, but for some reason the game only sees my video card as the integrated intel card instead of my gtx 970
under device manager i can actually see the gtx 970 though
if i try to enter nvidia control panel from my desktop i get an error saying i'm not currently using display attached to an nvidia gpu
but i right clicked > properties the 970 from device manager and it says it's working properly
my friends told me to go to bios and change some settings but i can't seem to enter that, i'm on windows 10
Jag
Member
Dumb question but is the cable connected to the card and not the onboard video?
opticalmace
Member
If you show us a picture of the back we can tell you.
Thanks guys. I tried looking in their FAQ's but couldn't find anything. I sent them an email and I'm just waiting for a response. Good to hear it works more than once as it should!
opticalmace
Member
okay
Tangoownage
Member
Recently made a new rig, 5820, 970, corsair 540, etc however the cpu cooler is a bit too noisy for me when it's set to low rpm. It's a corsair gt 100, read that the fans could be swapped out in the radiator bit not a sure what to buy?
dmix90
Member
Guys be aware of what looks like Z170 chipset issues with SLI. Just jumped in this mess with my upgrade
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=401782
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=402032
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=259785.0
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/3i3skv/discussion_sli_seems_to_be_broken_on_z170/
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2765306/sli-performing-bad-brand-system.html#16527260
https://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20150816075401746&SLanguage=en-us&board_id=1&model=Z170-DELUXE&page=1
Hopefully will be fixed soon.
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=401782
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=402032
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=259785.0
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/3i3skv/discussion_sli_seems_to_be_broken_on_z170/
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2765306/sli-performing-bad-brand-system.html#16527260
https://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20150816075401746&SLanguage=en-us&board_id=1&model=Z170-DELUXE&page=1
Hopefully will be fixed soon.
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