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Nov 25, 2013 3:49 PM
#1

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Aug 2013
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Probably done before, but whatever.

Anyone ever built a computer before? I've decided to embark on that, so.

Share your stories, tips, opinions, etc.


Also, suggested places to buy parts from? And a way to make sure it's all compatible before buying would be neat. (I don't want to misread something)
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Nov 25, 2013 3:54 PM
#2
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It's like playing with very expensive lego pieces.
Nov 25, 2013 3:55 PM
#3
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I just built my PC about a month back. Not as hard as you think however this site is absolutely essential for building just the right type of PC you want.

http://pcpartpicker.com/
Nov 25, 2013 4:30 PM
#4

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It's pretty easy. Everything is pretty standardized, so it's hard to screw up unless you have almost no clue how computer hardware works at all. Most my parts are shopped from NewEgg, Amazon, or TigerDirect (locally).

Your primary compatibility concerns pretty much come down to making sure the motherboard socket matches up with the CPU.
Nov 25, 2013 4:46 PM
#5

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Jan 2013
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1. Make sure your CPU is compatible with your motherboard.
2. Make sure your power supply can supply power to your components and your graphics card. An 80+ certified power supply is ideal.
3. make sure your RAM speed is compatible with your motherboard.
4. Make sure your case can fit your preffered motherboard size.
5. Make sure you properly ground yourself so that you don't short out any components
6. Have a few cable ties ready, messy wiring = less air flow.

Newegg would be my first choice for purchasing the parts.

When choosing a CPU and a Motherboard, the socket types will be written out for you, just double check to make sure.

The first time I built my computer it wouldn't start, turned out it was just that the RAM wasn't seated properly. Moral of the story, pay attention to all the little details, and don't be afraid to go back and retrace your steps.
Nov 25, 2013 4:53 PM
#6

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Any plans on what your build is going to be for? Also always remember to get a roomy case with lots of fans so the heat doesn't stay in one place. I've learned that the hard way when I added a graphics card to a computer that was built by HP. The case that they provide is so tiny and everything is cramped into one place. Adding the graphics card further increased the heat of the whole case and then the graphics card blew up on New Years Day 2009. That was a XFX GeForce 8600 GT.

I just finally finished my first full new build 2 weeks ago by adding a EVGA GTX 770 to my computer to replace my really crappy placeholder GPU GALAXY GT 630.

My Specs:
Monitor: Acer 24" S240HL
Mobo: ASUS Z87-A
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5 GHz Quad-Core (Stock clock)
RAM: Kingston HyperX 16GB 1333MHz
Boot Drive: Sandisk 240GB SSD
GPU: EVGA GTX 770 2GB
Case: Thermaltake Commander Snow Edition
Nov 25, 2013 5:25 PM
#7

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Buy things here:
http://www.newegg.com/
Or if you suck at navigating, here:
http://www.newegg.com/Computer-Hardware/Store

Annoy the shit out of me on Skype if you need anything.

Make sure you buy a power supply that'll handle your expectedly large needs.

Don't forget case fans; and other random doohickies that people forget about. Thermal grease to connect your cpu to the heatsink, a case that isn't the wrong form factor (ATX), a motherboard that has integrated graphics in the event your graphics card explodes and you can't see anything on the screen, and a CD/DVD drive. Oh, and an SD card reader + usb port bay.

And have a benchmark, because picking graphics cards is an unnecessary pain in the ass:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2013-vga-gpgpu/13-Battlefield-3-DirectX-11-C-Extreme,2969.html
Nov 25, 2013 5:27 PM
#8
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Nov 2013
14
Honestly, YouTube is your friend. I just built my first one for Eve Online a few months ago and it was extremely easy. I see someone recommended pcparts, that's your go to. It'll help to keep you from buying things that don't work with each other. Also. I bought most of my stuff from Amazon or Newegg, but pcparts can also tell you the place to buy it the cheapest if I remember correctly.

Also if you're on a budget there are YouTube videos of people with decent budget builds depending on what you're planning on using it for.

Don't be scared, ask questions when you need to, and you should be perfectly fine.
I am Patient. Patience is a Virtue. Virtue is a Grace. Grace is a Gift from God. Therefore, I am a Gift from God.
Nov 25, 2013 9:26 PM
#9

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Nov 2013
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(1) What are you going to be doing with the build? That will largely dictate what you should get.

(2) Don't buy an i7 regardless, as it stands a very high chance of being a complete waste of money for whatever use cases you throw at it -- including gaming. If you need more detail on this, I can throw you benchmarks and explain this point in detail. This is a bit nuanced and always seems to confuse people as many people don't understand that specs don't necessarily translate into better performance or what exactly the specs translate to in terms of performance.

(3) An SSD will give you the largest 'subjective' performance increase out of any upgrade you could possibly do. That is to say this is quite literally the most important upgrade you can do in many cases. I can explain this also, but the non-detailed version is that most wait times are on the hard drive.

(4) Run your build by someone who actually knows something about computers just to make sure you didn't screw up somewhere. It can happen easily to first timers.

(5) You'll be fine with a stock fan despite the dribble you'll hear otherwise. They've been fine for the last decade (read as: post pentium 4).
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Nov 25, 2013 9:31 PM

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Hero_ said:


<snip>

The first time I built my computer it wouldn't start, turned out it was just that the RAM wasn't seated properly. Moral of the story, pay attention to all the little details, and don't be afraid to go back and retrace your steps.


I have a degree in computer engineering AND YET I STILL DO THIS. It is pretty embarrassing to be honest. One important thing is that lighting is key here and most homes aren't exactly equipt with a good light source for working with PCs. Head lamps can go far.
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Nov 25, 2013 9:37 PM

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Unless you're a complete masochist, don't ever build your own water cooling system. For one, it's not really worth it. Other than that, you'll more than likely end up spilling coolant on a bunch of stuff. I actually didn't think anything about it was that bad until I went to upgrade to a new CPU and Mobo. Clamped my waterblock down, hit the power and witnessed my waterblock crack and turn into a fountain spewing blue liquid in every direction.

I've switched to enclosed kits, which are great and don't cost nearly as much as a custom setup.
Nov 25, 2013 10:40 PM

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I used this site to choose the parts for my first computer:
http://www.hardware-revolution.com/best-gaming-pc-radeon-r9-geforce-gtx-780-ti-november-2013/

Worked out pretty well.
Nov 25, 2013 10:56 PM

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MellowJello said:
Or if you suck at navigating, here:
http://www.newegg.com/Computer-Hardware/Store

Also watch the youtube videos on this link.

Seriously.
Nov 25, 2013 11:16 PM

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Nov 2012
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I've built several PCs for friends and myself. If you need some help shoot me a message and I'll give you my Skype/Steam to chat.

I generally recommend buying stuff from Newegg. The feedback can be pretty helpful on picking out parts and the prices are usually reasonable.
kingcity20 said:
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Nov 26, 2013 4:19 AM
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ah yes, been an enthusiast for years, though not for gaming.
Nov 26, 2013 5:52 AM

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So, any notes about having a case that would probably end up with a fair bit of room inside it?

This is for gaming and everything else, gaming would be the most intensive.

Poking about on Newegg for an hour or so gave me some of this

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160
Power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182073
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131975
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116901
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231572
Videocard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125462

Not a complete list or a final decision. Thoughts?

Heaven forgive me if I've made some terrible noobish mistake
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Nov 26, 2013 8:58 AM

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Slayermaster said:
So, any notes about having a case that would probably end up with a fair bit of room inside it?

This is for gaming and everything else, gaming would be the most intensive.

Poking about on Newegg for an hour or so gave me some of this

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160
Power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182073
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131975
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116901
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231572
Videocard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125462

Not a complete list or a final decision. Thoughts?

Heaven forgive me if I've made some terrible noobish mistake


Buy the i4670k instead. Or rather, don't get a K-series unlocked multiplier chip at all. There are a few processor features you lose if you buy K-series processors (TSX extensions come to mind).

This will save you $80 to $100 dollars.

I'll mentioned this before in my other post but I will explain it now. An i7 isn't going to get you any boosts in performance (in general)l. Gaming and 99% of consumer workloads are not processor intensive (read as: CPU bound workloads). That is to say, you are essentially wasting money and you will never see a performance gain from it.

Take a look at at the following benchmark: http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1061

You'll notice is a few things. In the cases with high settings and low FPS, there is virtually no performance difference between the i5 and i7. This is because at high settings, the bottleneck becomes the GPU. The second thing you'll notice is that in cases where the settings are cranked down there is a variation in FPS between the i5 and i7. It is because at that point, the GPU is NOT bottleneck anymore and the CPU or memory systems become the bottleneck for performance.

What to take away from this is the following:
(1) Once you have a sufficiently decent CPU/memory bandwidth/etc -- those things do not matter for FPS.

(2) The only thing you should care about is the bottleneck. That is your performance limiter and improving other things will NOT gain you any performance as long as that exists.

(3) The CPU matters the LEAST when you care the MOST -- at low FPS. Low FPS occurs almost always when you are pegging the video card. This is when you will see the bottlenecks of the video card and not the CPU or system memory bandwidth.

(4) The CPU matters the MOST when you care the LEAST -- at high FPS. When you aren't pegging the GPU, other system bottlenecks come into play. That means either the CPU or system memory. At that point, those become your performance limiters. Fortunately, this occurs only well above 60 FPS in most scenarios.

** To be fair, I do have to mention that there are a handful of games that CAN become bottlenecked by the CPU. This is a very rare thing and typically consists of games where you can throw tens of thousands of units on a battle field of some sort. It is not something you are going to come across in any modern AAA game and it isn't even guaranteed that you'll see good performance regardless of the CPU in such cases.

EDIT: I just read the conclusion in the article I linked and they say what I just said about bottlenecks; so there is that also...
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Nov 26, 2013 9:13 AM

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Do you plan on OCing your ram since pulled out OC'd ram that doesn't match the default timing ranges of the board? Again, much as a mentioned before you aren't going to see any FPS or performance increases by doing the higher clock rates on the ram.

Also, you are buying an incredibly large amount of ram for just gaming. For example, Skyrim was locked at 4GB max and you have 8x that amount. I run both Windows 8.1 with a Linux in hyper-v constantly and I don't even peg 16GB myself... Shit, and the only reason I got that much in the first place was to run memory intensive benchmarks for work...

You are over-budgeting the wrongs things here. You should just pay more for the GPU if you are going to overbudget, anything else is just a waste of your money.
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Nov 26, 2013 9:30 AM

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@Snap
Alright. Thanks for the note about i7 and i5.

There wasn't any particularly logical process for going for that much ram other than just wanting to hit the max. I'll cut down when I have more free time for review.

Edit: Thoughts on running two video cards? I recall reading an article awhile ago that said that two lower grade cards would outperform a single high end card. I'd have to check the prices on that, but I imagine it might be cheaper.

Are these issues with running two cards?
Mogu-samaNov 26, 2013 9:51 AM
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Nov 26, 2013 10:04 AM

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Slayermaster said:
@Snap
Alright. Thanks for the note about i7 and i5.

There wasn't any particularly logical process for going for that much ram other than just wanting to hit the max. I'll cut down when I have more free time for review.

Edit: Thoughts on running two video cards? I recall reading an article awhile ago that said that two lower grade cards would outperform a single high end card. I'd have to check the prices on that, but I imagine it might be cheaper.

Are these issues with running two cards?


You to have to worry about micro-stuttering in such cases. ATI has been the worst offender. I haven't looked at it recently though -- so perhaps it is solved. Your best bet is to find benchmarks with frame variation for whatever cards you plan to SLI/CrossFire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_stuttering

EDIT: Also some top-tier GPUS are 2-die on 1 board so you are essentially getting 2 GPUs without 2 cards in such cases.

EDIT2: It could be either 2-GPU per die or 2-die per GPU. Important difference there. I haven't looked up exactly how they do it.
snaphatNov 26, 2013 10:22 AM
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Nov 26, 2013 7:19 PM

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Could you explain what you mean by 2-die? Assume I am very ignorant here (I had to google GPU to make sure it meant videocard)

Also, set down a budget of 1,500 right now. I can wiggle very slightly within that, and might be able to salvage some stuff.

It does seem like two cards would cause issues, I see that sometimes if I'm googling issues for games.

Also, would it be better to go with a larger mobo for future expansion later? I brought up this when considering something for SLI support
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131976

Edit: Also, when looking at a power supply, is there any up or downside to having watts above your requirements?
Mogu-samaNov 26, 2013 9:10 PM
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Nov 26, 2013 7:51 PM
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I love making PCs, BUT I REALLY HATE THOSE DAMN LEGO PIECES, they're all so small, fragile and when u stick ur hand in the case sometimes hard things poke you D: ( hate having really big hands) big hands seem problematic if you don't buy a big case
Nov 26, 2013 9:12 PM

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I've always recognized as buying two lower end video cards being either the same price or more expensive than buying a single high end card. And if you ever want to in the future, you can eventually upgrade by getting that same card again a couple years later when it's a lot cheaper.
Nov 26, 2013 9:24 PM

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Slayermaster said:
Could you explain what you mean by 2-die? Assume I am very ignorant here (I had to google GPU to make sure it meant videocard)

Also, set down a budget of 1,500 right now. I can wiggle very slightly within that, and might be able to salvage some stuff.

It does seem like two cards would cause issues, I see that sometimes if I'm googling issues for games.

Also, would it be better to go with a larger mobo for future expansion later? I brought up this when considering something for SLI support
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131976


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_(integrated_circuit)

I'm not sure what I was typing earlier considering what I meant by "GPU" there was really inconsistent. Anyway, let me be precise here: consider my usage of the term GPU to NOT refer to a card as a whole but only the integrated circuit package which can be found on the card. This is really akin to how you normally think of CPUs. You don't consider a CPU to be the processor + motherboard + RAM, so why does everyone consider a GPU to be the processor + PCI-E card + RAM (this is a rhetorical question)?

With that precise terminology in mind, there were really two possibilities for the dual GPUs: either you combine 2 processors into one circuit package or die. or you have 2 two integrated circuit packages or dies. After googling briefly and looking at pictures, I believe the latter is how it is actually done because I see two distinct packages on cards. So it is akin to having a dual socket motherboard with two CPUs plugged in.

And just to take this whole thing a bit further, if you remember Pentium 4s. Intel's first method of creating 2-core CPUs was essentially throwing two Pentium 4s on a single die - and that was where the Pentium D came from.

EDIT: link is broken, copy and paste...
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Nov 26, 2013 9:32 PM

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1) From my experience SLI/Crossfire seems rather pointless since it's a lot of extra power consumption and heat generation for not even double the performance, let alone 50% performance gain in many cases. It's also dependent on whether the game supports it or else it won't even recognize the other card. Considering that you can just buy one solid mid range card and run most games at max settings anyway, I just never understood the point.

2) Going slightly over recommended wattage isn't a bad thing. Actually, it's preferred to be on the safe side. The wattage listed on the power supply is only its max theoretical output, but it will only use as much as it needs for the hardware.

What exactly is your endgame you're going for here? Are you only concerned about maxing out gaming performance or do you just want to have the latest and greatest tech regardless of its practical benefit? Because looking at your current build it has a lot of unnecessary bloat that is driving up the cost for very little actual performance gain, the RAM being the biggest offender there. 32 GB is completely unnecessary for gaming; most games still don't even max out on 4 GB. I mean it would certainly be a great rig, but if money is a concern, you don't need to buy into the myth that PC gaming is like $2000+ to have any kind of decent gaming machine.

Also it's really worth it to invest in a solid 1080p monitor and 5.1 surround sound system IMO if you're going to be getting all these sexy specs, so don't forget to factor those into your budget. That's another reason why I would trim down on some of the specs so some of it could be put toward hardware outside of just the case.
OmegaSietsNov 26, 2013 9:52 PM
kingcity20 said:
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Nov 26, 2013 9:40 PM

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I typically get ATX boards simply because I've never really found any better alternative micro-ATX mobos when I'm looking. I'd probably just look at the feature sets of the boards and if I saw one that peaked my interest, I'd go with that.

At the end of the day, it isn't the size of the motherboard that matters but the number of ports it has*. If you really want to go for a SLI/Crossfire option then get one compatible with that (they exist even in micro-ATX form factors). Moreover, I seriously doubt you'll be throwing cards in the PCI/PCi-Xv1/PCi-Xv2 ports so you don't need 5 dozen of those. It is just standard practice to throw 5 dozen on for some reason.

*Disclaimer: if the mobo has bad design, you could have issues with two cards fitting. I don't think this tends to be an issue though.
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Nov 26, 2013 9:57 PM

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There isn't anything inherently wrong with buying PSUs that are high wattage. But, in general cheap brand PSUs can be inconsistent about what is really mean by the wattage. It can either be an actual sustainable continuous power than can be provided or it can just be a peak possible rating that the PSU can't actual deliver continuously.

You'll never need something above the 750W you linked. The GTX 770 uses ~245Watts on torture testing (this follows closely with its TDP). I've noticed that in benchmarks CPU power consumption under max load tends to be much larger than the TDP they are rated for. I believe this is because most benchmarks showing these tend to be full system power consumptions (including memory, including buses, ...). A good rule of thumb is probably to double the TDP of the processor and assume that is a max wattage (that is overkill, but whatever) and then add that to the TDP of your video card. That will give you some reasonable idea of how much you have to spare assuming you magically hit peak system load on everything-- something that will never actually occur.

See: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-770-gk104-review,3519-25.html
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Nov 27, 2013 2:51 AM

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This isn't the 90's it's basically plugging shit together unless you go for crazy cooling stuff.
Nov 27, 2013 5:13 AM

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Snap, you seen NewEgg's power supply calculator?
http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/tool/psucalc/index.html

Mini, I have a monitor and use a headset of good quality. External hardware like that is covered.

My endgame would be a computer I use for most everything, the highest strain being gaming. I cut the RAM down and got some good savings from that. It's unlikely a game would use 16gigs at all, but 8 feels. Too little.

Edit: New list
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231568 RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131976 Mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116899 CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139044 Power-supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125462 V-Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533 HD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160 Case
Thoughts or compatability issues?

Also wondering about compatability with
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018
Mogu-samaNov 27, 2013 9:53 AM
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Nov 27, 2013 9:58 AM

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Slayermaster said:
Snap, you seen NewEgg's power supply calculator?
http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/tool/psucalc/index.html

<snip>


At one point in my life I had seen that actually. I had completely forgotten newegg had it. It looks like a pretty good approximation to me. Notice how it doesn't say buy a 1000W power supply (people really do this, hehe)
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Nov 27, 2013 10:31 AM

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(1) RAM: You have the same model of RAM selected that I run in my PC. I bought on two separate occasions and have had no issues.

(2) Mobo: looks fine -- i take it you are making sure to keep with the possibility of upgrading to dual GPUs at some point.

(3)CPU: That's the model I think you should get.

(4) PSU: Assuming 850 for the possibility of SLI. I run an Antec Earthwatts 650 myself.

(5) GPU: Looks good, I probably wouldn't purchase it, but that is only because o the price.

(6) Storage: any reason you aren't going for an SSD, given your budget is pretty high to begin with?

(7) Case: I prefer, Antec as it is the only case brand I've EVER not cut my self on (yes, I've bled on many other steel cases). I owned a coolermaster previously and I was not a fan. It had weird random plastic mechanisms to mount drives and things instead of screws. There is a much better mechanism to do this: thumb screws (the antec came with these), no need to reinvent the wheel with cheapo plastic things. Also another point is that the Antec mounts the PSU on the bottom instead of top, somehow this is a less annoying position. My case is this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066

It looks like your case actually allows the PSU in both the top and bottom spots and has some sort of removable HDD racks. These may or may not work well, I can't tell from the picture, but it IS a pain to slide things in and out of drive bays in most circumstances so if it is a plus if it makes that less annoying.

(8) Compat: Website says it is compatible: http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=faqs&step=2&products_id=41&lng=en#13

But, you don't need a non-stock cooler if you aren't planning to overclock. They've been perfectly adequate for the last decade or so.
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Nov 27, 2013 11:40 AM

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With things as they are, this is right at my budget, a SDD would go too far for the space I want.

I'm not exactly planning to overlock, but this would be in a room without the best circulation or temperature control. How much of an effect does the surrounding temperature tend to have? New England summers can be really hot.
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Nov 27, 2013 12:24 PM

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Slayermaster said:
With things as they are, this is right at my budget, a SDD would go too far for the space I want.

I'm not exactly planning to overlock, but this would be in a room without the best circulation or temperature control. How much of an effect does the surrounding temperature tend to have? New England summers can be really hot.


Shoot, I really don't know on this one. Data centers are pretty chilly.

In my laptops, i've noticed that it can mean the difference in the fan spinning up or not spinning up if it is something like 65 vs 75F. I've had a laptop that runs fairly cool in the winter get hot in the summer on my bed. The airflow was probably pretty bad because I tend to set them on a pillow in my lap or on my stomach...

I don't believe I have ever had my PC in a room that was much above 80, but it has been 80 at some points during the summer. I never really paid much attention to the cpu temperatures on it when at those temperatures though. I'd think they'd be fine if the the fans were working properly.
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Nov 27, 2013 3:06 PM

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Honestly I would still recommend a non-stock cooler even if you aren't overclocking. Intel's stock fans are horrible. Mine failed after only about 3 years of use and I replaced it with a cooler that's much sturdier and merely cost me an extra $15. Intel CPUs run uncomfortably hot IMO. Even on idle mine still sits at 40C while the rest of my hardware including my GPU is only outputting 28C, so it doesn't hurt to bring the temps down on the CPU even if you don't plan on overclocking.

Don't forget to throw in a DVD or Blu-ray drive by the way; cases don't usually include them.

Also the idea behind an SSD is not to use it as a primary storage drive; just for your OS and basic apps like your web browser and office suite. Your system will boot up and load stuff a lot faster overall while the rest of your larger data like games and videos can be dumped onto the 1 TB drive. It's pretty convenient for general computing speeds but I've been getting by on just a 7200 RPM drive too, so yeah, don't have to do it if you don't feel compelled to.

Compatibility looks good. Only three things you really need to be concerned about are making sure the mobo supports PCI-E interface for the video card, DDR3 slots for the RAM, and LGA 1150 socket for the processor, all of which your mobo checks out.
kingcity20 said:
Oh for the love of
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Nov 27, 2013 4:58 PM

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MiniSiets said:
Honestly I would still recommend a non-stock cooler even if you aren't overclocking. Intel's stock fans are horrible. Mine failed after only about 3 years of use and I replaced it with a cooler that's much sturdier and merely cost me an extra $15. Intel CPUs run uncomfortably hot IMO. Even on idle mine still sits at 40C while the rest of my hardware including my GPU is only outputting 28C, so it doesn't hurt to bring the temps down on the CPU even if you don't plan on overclocking.

<snip>


Your idea of 40C being hot is off base. Maximum operating temperatures of Intel processors typically varies from 85-105C ( TJunction Maximum). I.e. they can be operated safely below those temperatures.

Your example of GPU vs CPU idle temperatures is not a fair comparison. You are talking about a GPU which is doing almost nothing. At idle it is literally producing 8-15 watts of heat. Your Desktop CPU on the other hand is producing 30+watts of heat even at "idle" because it is running your operating system and core services which accounts for probably 20-30 processes on top of the kernel itself. It is never going to be "idle" in the same sense of the word your GPU. Throw DOS on there and run DOSidle and then come back and tell us results you get for CPU temperature at idle. They'll be much lower than you see in your modern OS when "idle" because then your processor will actually be entering a low processor state and really "idle" 99% of the time.

Finally, your point about intel stock fans being horrible is simply an availability heuristic, as such it is meaningless. If you are going to say stock fans are horrible and break, then you need to give some statistics on stock cooler failure rates. I've personally never been able to find any (probably because most do not fail within the lifetime of a system). In the Home PC market, everyone besides enthusiasts run stock coolers so you'd think that if it was prevalent problem someone would have released a study. In all honesty, stock fans aren't the most silent of things but they are perfectly adequate and reliable for stock clock rates. I can pull an availability heuristics in that regard myself (which shouldn't be used of decision making). I haven't had a stock fan fail or need replacement in any machine I've owned since a pentium 4 in the early 2000s...
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Nov 27, 2013 5:43 PM

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elevenletters said:


- PSU: I switched it because there have been people that have been complaining of "coil whine" of the PSU that you used. If you've changed your mind on the 2 video cards thing then you could save some money and go for a slightly smaller PSU.


Very nice catch. I very much agree with this. Whining power rails are the most annoying thing in the world.
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Nov 27, 2013 8:48 PM

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snaphat said:
Your idea of 40C being hot is off base. Maximum operating temperatures of Intel processors typically varies from 85-105C ( TJunction Maximum). I.e. they can be operated safely below those temperatures.

Since when was it fair to compare idle temperatures to maximum temps which we would only expect to approach while the system is under stress? Obviously if my processor ran at 40C all day even while under load, that wouldn't be an issue. However, I do see that as running fairly hot when Windows is reporting that CPU usage is only hovering between 0-2%. I also ran a stress test at only 50% on my old heatsink back before it failed and I recall it quickly reaching 90C as well. Hence like I said, it doesn't hurt to put in a better cooler so as to not tread so closely to the maximum output while under load.
kingcity20 said:
Oh for the love of
-_- nvm gotta love MAL
Nov 27, 2013 10:10 PM

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MiniSiets said:

Since when was it fair to compare idle temperatures to maximum temps which we would only expect to approach while the system is under stress? Obviously if my processor ran at 40C all day even while under load, that wouldn't be an issue. However, I do see that as running fairly hot when Windows is reporting that CPU usage is only hovering between 0-2%. I also ran a stress test at only 50% on my old heatsink back before it failed and I recall it quickly reaching 90C as well. Hence like I said, it doesn't hurt to put in a better cooler so as to not tread so closely to the maximum output while under load.


It is completely fair given the context in which I presented it, as a comparison point to provide a reference for what 'hot' actually is in the transistor world. The idea was for you to realize that your idle temperatures were far from hot and that the idle temperatures you stated are in completely normal ranges for idle temperatures (e.g. even low power laptops operate in such ranges when idle).

CPU utilization ranges are relative and meaningless without proper context. Let's define utilization. Utilization is the percentage of resources you are using on the machine (in this case CPU usage). What happens when you double, triple, or quadruple your resources? Your utilization computation cuts the percentage by a factor of those amounts. Let us consider for instance a quad core machine versus a single core machine (with the assumption that you have equal clocks, equal memory, equal caches, equal features). In the case of your %2 utilization figure on the quad machine, it would be 8% utilization on the single core machine. The point here is very simple -- utilization by no means corresponds to actual work load. There is also a finer pointer to make here, a 30 watt workload on a single core machine marked as a utilization of 8% is a 30 watt workload on a quad core machine marked as a utilization of %2.

I'm not even going to get into what you mean by stress testing at 50% given the point I just made above. You need to clarify exactly what you mean/what benchmark/etc.

In general, you already called into question the validity of your own testing methodology by admitting to having a failing CPU cooler and now you are attempting to use that same known faulty CPU cooler to prove that CPU temperatures under load typically hit ranges in the 90C range. I really don't think you should be using a known faulty CPU cooler to try to prove this - it is very unscientific and brings up a lot of questions about whether it was ever working adequately in the first place.

It may or may not be worth mentioning that I've done a bit of stress testing myself in my day and I hit mid ~70C on known working machines at stock clocks with stock coolers (and nothing else). If you are at 90C something is wrong and you are certainly not being impartial or fair by acting as if all stock coolers operate in such a manner based on the ONE bad apple cooler you had at one point in time. On the fair face of it, it certainly isn't statistically significant (which was an important point I brought up in my first post).
snaphatNov 27, 2013 10:17 PM
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Nov 28, 2013 11:22 AM

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elevenletters said:
I improved the build I posted earlier by quite a bit. I "downgraded" the motherboard, changed the RAM (price is a bit lower now) and changed the power supply from an 850W to a 750W (which is pretty much all you need). The savings went to a graphics card upgrade. These changes were made in case you didn't want to go the SLI route anymore.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2ac2O


I agree with your changes here -- they are definitely more inline with what the what the OP is looking for in terms of performance.
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Dec 25, 2013 6:19 PM

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Slayermaster said:
So, any notes about having a case that would probably end up with a fair bit of room inside it?

This is for gaming and everything else, gaming would be the most intensive.

Poking about on Newegg for an hour or so gave me some of this

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160
Power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182073
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131975
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116901
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231572
Videocard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125462

Not a complete list or a final decision. Thoughts?

Heaven forgive me if I've made some terrible noobish mistake
Instead of a Hafx you should get a rosewill thorV2.

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