You don't need liquid cooling for a near silent pc. I'm running a normal air Noctua cpu cooler, Seasonic psu, Define R4 case, ssd main drive, Noctua case fans, and the loudest part of my rig is when my raid data drives spin up, or when my gpu fans spin up due to high end game play. Aka, my spinning hard drives are louder than all my other non-gpu fans combined.
Here's how my cpu fan sits in the pc. Ignore the wire situation that has been mostly fixed. You can see the psu at the top.and.where the graphics goes at the bottom. Would it be better for the fan to point up or down? Should it be running at 2200rpm all the time (box says it runs at 2200rpm +10%). Everything points down as you can see. There is a grated area on this side of the case to give it some air freedom. Is this all ok? Or do I need a new fan/to reapply thermal paste? Cpu was running idle at between 25 and 35 degrees yesterday without any heating on and it was a cold evening.
Sorry for the questions. It was all running well but anxiety gets the better of me sometimes.
You can't remount your CPU cooler rotated 90 degrees so it points towards the back? If not, then up (the way you have the airflow going now) is better.
I don't BELIEVE so.
The graphics card is in there now but not when i took the picture. It fits just under the gigabyte logo, above the battery and its fans ALSO point down(Nothing i can do about that one).
So the way the airflow is going now is better than fan facing up? I don't think it can be turned to face the back, not with the way the motherboard is set up - It's this one (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009FC3YJ8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01) so I don't THINK there's a way to turn it 90 degrees.
Should it always be running at 2200 rpm if it says that on the box? Or does that mean that 2200 is the max and it CAN run under?
Questions. I really appreciate it.
Quical on
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Another drive-by question about the build I'm considering: how well do modern games run at 1440p on a 4690k/980 combo? I have to admit that my usually robust Google-fu failed me with respect to finding useful benchmarks, and I'm trying to figure out whether I should use my new PC as an opportunity to upgrade from 1080p to 1440p.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Hey guys, a question. We recently moved, and suddenly the PSU from my parents' computer is doing a very annoying "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" sound constantly, which it didn't before we packed it. What could this be? And is there any hope of actually fixing it?
Another drive-by question about the build I'm considering: how well do modern games run at 1440p on a 4690k/980 combo? I have to admit that my usually robust Google-fu failed me with respect to finding useful benchmarks, and I'm trying to figure out whether I should use my new PC as an opportunity to upgrade from 1080p to 1440p.
Any game that isn't optimised like a bag of shit (I'm looking at you, original release of Metro 2033) should run pretty sweet on a setup like that at 1440p.
What are things that use a Sata 6GB/s connection? Is there any reason for me to want more than 4 if I want to have an SSD for programs, big main drive for files, a smaller drive for backing up files and 1 optical drive? Is there something I might want to add in the future that would make me wish I had another connection?
@chrishallett83 : Thanks, good to know! I briefly checked out Metro 2033, but it brought my i7-950/680 close to melting, so I decided to postpone that one until my next PC.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
I don't BELIEVE so.
The graphics card is in there now but not when i took the picture. It fits just under the gigabyte logo, above the battery and its fans ALSO point down(Nothing i can do about that one).
So the way the airflow is going now is better than fan facing up? I don't think it can be turned to face the back, not with the way the motherboard is set up - It's this one (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009FC3YJ8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01) so I don't THINK there's a way to turn it 90 degrees.
Should it always be running at 2200 rpm if it says that on the box? Or does that mean that 2200 is the max and it CAN run under?
Questions. I really appreciate it.
What's the model of your CPU cooler?
Also, just so you know, the sticker on the fan hub faces the opposite direction of the airflow, so really all of your fans are pushing their airflow up, not down. Which is better - heat rises.
If your CPU fan is plugged into the CPU fan header on the motherboard, then the motherboard should automatically control its speed based on processor use.
What are things that use a Sata 6GB/s connection? Is there any reason for me to want more than 4 if I want to have an SSD for programs, big main drive for files, a smaller drive for backing up files and 1 optical drive? Is there something I might want to add in the future that would make me wish I had another connection?
No, unless you want to to have some crazy RAID setup in the future. You may want more than 4 SATA ports period if you want to add more hard drives, but an optical drive or a platter hard drive can't saturate the slower SATA connections. 6GB/s is really only necessary for SSDs.
I don't BELIEVE so.
The graphics card is in there now but not when i took the picture. It fits just under the gigabyte logo, above the battery and its fans ALSO point down(Nothing i can do about that one).
So the way the airflow is going now is better than fan facing up? I don't think it can be turned to face the back, not with the way the motherboard is set up - It's this one (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009FC3YJ8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01) so I don't THINK there's a way to turn it 90 degrees.
Should it always be running at 2200 rpm if it says that on the box? Or does that mean that 2200 is the max and it CAN run under?
Questions. I really appreciate it.
What's the model of your CPU cooler?
Also, just so you know, the sticker on the fan hub faces the opposite direction of the airflow, so really all of your fans are pushing their airflow up, not down. Which is better - heat rises.
If your CPU fan is plugged into the CPU fan header on the motherboard, then the motherboard should automatically control its speed based on processor use.
It's the coolermaster blizzard t2. It is plugged in to the cpu bit, but it's a 3-pin whereas my motherboard is 4 pin. Could I have put it on the wrong three pins?
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Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
@chrishallett83 : Thanks, good to know! I briefly checked out Metro 2033, but it brought my i7-950/680 close to melting, so I decided to postpone that one until my next PC.
To be perfectly honest, it's not going to run a great deal better on a newer system. It's coded terribly. There is a re-release that sees Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light remastered and ported to the latest and much more stable and efficient version of the 4A game engine, you should probably see if you can find that somewhere cheaply.
I don't BELIEVE so.
The graphics card is in there now but not when i took the picture. It fits just under the gigabyte logo, above the battery and its fans ALSO point down(Nothing i can do about that one).
So the way the airflow is going now is better than fan facing up? I don't think it can be turned to face the back, not with the way the motherboard is set up - It's this one (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009FC3YJ8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01) so I don't THINK there's a way to turn it 90 degrees.
Should it always be running at 2200 rpm if it says that on the box? Or does that mean that 2200 is the max and it CAN run under?
Questions. I really appreciate it.
What's the model of your CPU cooler?
Also, just so you know, the sticker on the fan hub faces the opposite direction of the airflow, so really all of your fans are pushing their airflow up, not down. Which is better - heat rises.
If your CPU fan is plugged into the CPU fan header on the motherboard, then the motherboard should automatically control its speed based on processor use.
It's the coolermaster blizzard t2. It is plugged in to the cpu bit, but it's a 3-pin whereas my motherboard is 4 pin. Could I have put it on the wrong three pins?
OK, looks like it only goes the one way. So the way you have it is the best you can do.
There should only be one way to put the fan plug on the header, since the header has a little plastic piece that fits into a slot on the plug. Maybe this motherboard can't control the fan speed if it's only a 3-pin fan.
Is there any reason to want more than 2 PCI-E x16 slots? I'm only planning on 1 videocard but would like the option of possible SLI in the future. If I ever did x2 SLI, is there anything I would wish I had a 3rd slot for?
I'm looking at this motherboard because it looks like it might get a decent Black Friday discount. Is there anything else I should consider?
Is there any reason to want more than 2 PCI-E x16 slots? I'm only planning on 1 videocard but would like the option of possible SLI in the future. If I ever did x2 SLI, is there anything I would wish I had a 3rd slot for?
I can't imagine one.
You don't even NEED need 2 x16 slots for SLI. The performance hit from 1 at x16 and 1 at x8 is extremely negligible. You don't want 1 at x16 and 1 at x4, though.
I don't BELIEVE so.
The graphics card is in there now but not when i took the picture. It fits just under the gigabyte logo, above the battery and its fans ALSO point down(Nothing i can do about that one).
So the way the airflow is going now is better than fan facing up? I don't think it can be turned to face the back, not with the way the motherboard is set up - It's this one (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009FC3YJ8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01) so I don't THINK there's a way to turn it 90 degrees.
Should it always be running at 2200 rpm if it says that on the box? Or does that mean that 2200 is the max and it CAN run under?
Questions. I really appreciate it.
What's the model of your CPU cooler?
Also, just so you know, the sticker on the fan hub faces the opposite direction of the airflow, so really all of your fans are pushing their airflow up, not down. Which is better - heat rises.
If your CPU fan is plugged into the CPU fan header on the motherboard, then the motherboard should automatically control its speed based on processor use.
It's the coolermaster blizzard t2. It is plugged in to the cpu bit, but it's a 3-pin whereas my motherboard is 4 pin. Could I have put it on the wrong three pins?
OK, looks like it only goes the one way. So the way you have it is the best you can do.
There should only be one way to put the fan plug on the header, since the header has a little plastic piece that fits into a slot on the plug. Maybe this motherboard can't control the fan speed if it's only a 3-pin fan.
OK cool thanks so much for your help. Ive ordered more thermal paste as I think I made a hash job of applying it the first time. Is it easy to remove?
Are there any other smaller fans you'd recommend that would do the job better than this one? I have a 450w power supply.
I suppose I'll keep an eye on it for now!
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Bottom line is they were a little concerned that it wasn't strong enough (it flexed some) but the cooling results were amazing.
Anyone have one? If so, what're you doing for fan/pump control? That article makes it seem like just trying to run it off the GPU's own fan controller is nigh impossible.
Thermal paste is easy to remove - wipe off what you can with a paper towel, and then hit the surfaces with a cotton ball or cotton swab and some rubbing alcohol to get them completely clean. Let them dry off and then do new thermal paste - I usually just put a small rice grain-sized blob on the middle of the CPU and let the pressure do the rest.
The fan is going to be fine unless you are unhappy with the noise level. I don't know much about 92mm fans but you could find something from Noctua if you don't like the noise. You might be better off with a bigger CPU cooler in that case though.
Thermal paste is easy to remove - wipe off what you can with a paper towel, and then hit the surfaces with a cotton ball or cotton swab and some rubbing alcohol to get them completely clean. Let them dry off and then do new thermal paste - I usually just put a small rice grain-sized blob on the middle of the CPU and let the pressure do the rest.
The fan is going to be fine unless you are unhappy with the noise level. I don't know much about 92mm fans but you could find something from Noctua if you don't like the noise. You might be better off with a bigger CPU cooler in that case though.
I'm not sure a bigger one will fit? Maybe it will without the silly heat pipes. Any recommendations? Thanks so much.
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Is there any reason to want more than 2 PCI-E x16 slots? I'm only planning on 1 videocard but would like the option of possible SLI in the future. If I ever did x2 SLI, is there anything I would wish I had a 3rd slot for?
I can't imagine one.
You don't even NEED need 2 x16 slots for SLI. The performance hit from 1 at x16 and 1 at x8 is extremely negligible. You don't want 1 at x16 and 1 at x4, though.
It's even worse than that: the only way 2 x16 slots is even going to operate at 2 x16 is if you have one of them higher end i7 Extreme processors (the 5930K and 5960X) since none of the Haswell processors has more than 16 PCI express lanes.
All that being said, the only benefit to having 3 full-sized PCI express slots on a motherboard is going to be using it for a PCI-E 1x add-in card (something that I was doing with my ASUS Xonar Essence STX for troubleshooting purposes).
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BouwsTWanna come to a super soft birthday party?Registered Userregular
I don't BELIEVE so.
The graphics card is in there now but not when i took the picture. It fits just under the gigabyte logo, above the battery and its fans ALSO point down(Nothing i can do about that one).
So the way the airflow is going now is better than fan facing up? I don't think it can be turned to face the back, not with the way the motherboard is set up - It's this one (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009FC3YJ8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01) so I don't THINK there's a way to turn it 90 degrees.
Should it always be running at 2200 rpm if it says that on the box? Or does that mean that 2200 is the max and it CAN run under?
Questions. I really appreciate it.
What's the model of your CPU cooler?
Also, just so you know, the sticker on the fan hub faces the opposite direction of the airflow, so really all of your fans are pushing their airflow up, not down. Which is better - heat rises.
If your CPU fan is plugged into the CPU fan header on the motherboard, then the motherboard should automatically control its speed based on processor use.
It's the coolermaster blizzard t2. It is plugged in to the cpu bit, but it's a 3-pin whereas my motherboard is 4 pin. Could I have put it on the wrong three pins?
OK, looks like it only goes the one way. So the way you have it is the best you can do.
There should only be one way to put the fan plug on the header, since the header has a little plastic piece that fits into a slot on the plug. Maybe this motherboard can't control the fan speed if it's only a 3-pin fan.
OK cool thanks so much for your help. Ive ordered more thermal paste as I think I made a hash job of applying it the first time. Is it easy to remove?
Are there any other smaller fans you'd recommend that would do the job better than this one? I have a 450w power supply.
I suppose I'll keep an eye on it for now!
Also, the recommendation for using cotton swabs is the fact that it will be lint free. A hint that has been featured on the forum before, but it always useful... Coffee filters work for a final, lint free thermal paste removal. And they're WAY cheaper than most other things / readily available around most homes.
Between you and me, Peggy, I smoked this Juul and it did UNTHINKABLE things to my mind and body...
Thanks for your help everyone!
I think I can fit a front fan in so i'm going to try that first, see what happens in terms of temp.
I've bought a new thing of thermal paste but i suppose there's no point in applying it if everything seems to be running fine (current temps of 25-35c when browsing the internet and playing hearthstone) right?
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I really like how the R4 looks, but the Core 2300 has an almost-as-minimalist appearance and costs $35 instead of $100, and it looks like the only major feature you really lose is the R4's sound dampening stuff. My last desktop sounded like a helicopter taking off, so a quieter machine definitely has some value to me but I'm not sure I'm prepared to pay an extra $65 for something just because it's marginally quieter.
How much of a difference does the sound absorption on the R4 really make? Is there some other feature difference I'm missing that helps justify the difference in price tag?
Edit: I guess I should probably use the word 'case' somewhere in this post so I don't sound like a babbling lunatic.
I was looking through NAS options and couldn't find anything that wasn't absurdly expensive and the entry level two bay options all look kinda underpowered and tbh, for the price of a low end two bay NAS and two hard drives I can just put better quality parts in my HTPC so I said fuck it and am going that route. Budget for the HTPC end was originally $500 US (and I even had hit my target budget!), but I rolled in another $400 accounting for the price of the NAS.
The RAM looks overkill, but RAM speed affects the performance of those APUs and from what I've read they really like dual channel memory. Also, I couldn't find a 2X2 on pcpartpicker which was what I originally wanted since 8 GB is super silly in this.
I am definitely not quite satisfied with the case yet so if someone has a better suggestion I'll definitely take one. I saw a couple other HTPC cases in this budget range that have more hard drive slots but they sounded like cheaply made shit (as in, the holes for the drive mounting screws aren't drilled right levels of ass) judging by the reviews.
So yeah, nitpick away! No part is sacred in this and I am open to suggestion!
@TOGSolid, this was a few days ago but what the heck. Any particular reason why you went with the a10-7850k? For a straight HTPC I don't think you need the top of the line, so I would bump that back to the a8-7600 and save yourself $50 or use that money elsewhere. Even if you want to do some light gaming, I'm not sure you'd see enough of a performance gain to warrant the high end APU.
I would stick with 8GB of ram. If you're high on automation, a HTPC can actually be one of the few situations where you want a lot of shit running simultaneously in the background or keeping things loaded in memory for quick refreshes.
Noticed that you have windows 8.1 on there, so it's worth pointing out that you have to order windows media center separately if you want to use it for playing dvd's or watching/recording live tv. Also, in my experience, WMC is still the best at watching/recording live tv. Although I haven't tested xbmc's (which is now called kodi I guess) latest version of live tv with nextpvr, so that might be a reasonable alternative.
"The world is a mess, and I just need to rule it" - Dr Horrible
So tempted. Looks like I can get the core i5 4690k for C$225 right now which is the cheapest it's ever been here. But I don't think I'm prepared to pull the trigger on the mobo or ram I would also need due to total cost. I may have to talk to the wife...
I was looking through NAS options and couldn't find anything that wasn't absurdly expensive and the entry level two bay options all look kinda underpowered and tbh, for the price of a low end two bay NAS and two hard drives I can just put better quality parts in my HTPC so I said fuck it and am going that route. Budget for the HTPC end was originally $500 US (and I even had hit my target budget!), but I rolled in another $400 accounting for the price of the NAS.
The RAM looks overkill, but RAM speed affects the performance of those APUs and from what I've read they really like dual channel memory. Also, I couldn't find a 2X2 on pcpartpicker which was what I originally wanted since 8 GB is super silly in this.
I am definitely not quite satisfied with the case yet so if someone has a better suggestion I'll definitely take one. I saw a couple other HTPC cases in this budget range that have more hard drive slots but they sounded like cheaply made shit (as in, the holes for the drive mounting screws aren't drilled right levels of ass) judging by the reviews.
So yeah, nitpick away! No part is sacred in this and I am open to suggestion!
@TOGSolid, this was a few days ago but what the heck. Any particular reason why you went with the a10-7850k? For a straight HTPC I don't think you need the top of the line, so I would bump that back to the a8-7600 and save yourself $50 or use that money elsewhere. Even if you want to do some light gaming, I'm not sure you'd see enough of a performance gain to warrant the high end APU.
I would stick with 8GB of ram. If you're high on automation, a HTPC can actually be one of the few situations where you want a lot of shit running simultaneously in the background or keeping things loaded in memory for quick refreshes.
Noticed that you have windows 8.1 on there, so it's worth pointing out that you have to order windows media center separately if you want to use it for playing dvd's or watching/recording live tv. Also, in my experience, WMC is still the best at watching/recording live tv. Although I haven't tested xbmc's (which is now called kodi I guess) latest version of live tv with nextpvr, so that might be a reasonable alternative.
Yeah, true about the RAM. I originally had the A8 gpu in my build for the exact reasons you mentioned but after rolling in the cost of the NAS and putting in the other stuff I was still under budget so I kinda had a "fuck it, why not" moment.
I haven't pulled the plug just yet though. I didn't know about WMC being separate so I'll have to look into that. Thanks!
Whatever setup I order for Cyber Monday, I will have an optical drive--it's too convenient, I have too many games still stored on caveman-era discs, and too cheap. You can get a well-received bluray writer for just $70 after rebate.
But is there any point? I have a decent BR collection, and ultimately there is some use to storing things on discs I want to keep but don't need regular access. But aside from that, a cheap DVD writer seems like it'd be adequate, or just a somewhat cheaper BR drive.
Whatever setup I order for Cyber Monday, I will have an optical drive--it's too convenient, I have too many games still stored on caveman-era discs, and too cheap. You can get a well-received bluray writer for just $70 after rebate.
But is there any point? I have a decent BR collection, and ultimately there is some use to storing things on discs I want to keep but don't need regular access. But aside from that, a cheap DVD writer seems like it'd be adequate, or just a somewhat cheaper BR drive.
Is there any reason to want more than 2 PCI-E x16 slots? I'm only planning on 1 videocard but would like the option of possible SLI in the future. If I ever did x2 SLI, is there anything I would wish I had a 3rd slot for?
I can't imagine one.
You don't even NEED need 2 x16 slots for SLI. The performance hit from 1 at x16 and 1 at x8 is extremely negligible. You don't want 1 at x16 and 1 at x4, though.
It's even worse than that: the only way 2 x16 slots is even going to operate at 2 x16 is if you have one of them higher end i7 Extreme processors (the 5930K and 5960X) since none of the Haswell processors has more than 16 PCI express lanes.
All that being said, the only benefit to having 3 full-sized PCI express slots on a motherboard is going to be using it for a PCI-E 1x add-in card (something that I was doing with my ASUS Xonar Essence STX for troubleshooting purposes).
Trigger pulled! I swapped the RAM out for something similar just with no heat spreader in case I need the room inside the case. I also didn't go 100% with the recommended sellers because UPS and Fedex can suck my frosty Alaskan balls. I end up saving money by going with the USPS/Prime shipping options even if the parts themselves are a few bucks more. I also fucking hate FedEx/UPS customer service so I avoid doing business with them whenever possible.
Hey guys, a question. We recently moved, and suddenly the PSU from my parents' computer is doing a very annoying "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" sound constantly, which it didn't before we packed it. What could this be? And is there any hope of actually fixing it?
@Drascin If it IS the PSU, no you can't really fix it regardless what the problem is. Replacing it is the only option if whacking it doesn't make it stop.
Hey guys, a question. We recently moved, and suddenly the PSU from my parents' computer is doing a very annoying "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" sound constantly, which it didn't before we packed it. What could this be? And is there any hope of actually fixing it?
@Drascin If it IS the PSU, no you can't really fix it regardless what the problem is. Replacing it is the only option if whacking it doesn't make it stop.
Fuck. And it's practically new and still in warranty. But it's the work computer, we can't spend a month without it. Gah. I'll have to see if I can make absolutely sure it's the PSU and then I'll see what I do.
Hey guys, a question. We recently moved, and suddenly the PSU from my parents' computer is doing a very annoying "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" sound constantly, which it didn't before we packed it. What could this be? And is there any hope of actually fixing it?
1. Make sure it's the PSU and not something else (another fan in the case?)
2. If it is the PSU, try and figure out what is making the noise - you may be able to stop the PSU fan by putting an eraser against the fan hub, or putting a pencil through the blades before you start up the PC (don't stick it in there while the fan is moving!)
If it's the fan, and it's a semi-expensive PSU, you could do a fan swap. If the PSU is cheap, get a new one.
Fractal R5 came out. R4 looks cooler IMO but any differences are barely noticeable.
So from what I can tell the "significant" changes are the slide out filter tray in the bottom, and the quick-release side panel?
Man, for the price of the case I just love that modular 3.5" / 5.25" drive cage array set-up, and the sound dampening. If I were in the market, I'd be looking very carefully at those beasts.
Between you and me, Peggy, I smoked this Juul and it did UNTHINKABLE things to my mind and body...
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Sorry for the questions. It was all running well but anxiety gets the better of me sometimes.
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Edit: Do you have a graphics card in there?
The graphics card is in there now but not when i took the picture. It fits just under the gigabyte logo, above the battery and its fans ALSO point down(Nothing i can do about that one).
So the way the airflow is going now is better than fan facing up? I don't think it can be turned to face the back, not with the way the motherboard is set up - It's this one (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009FC3YJ8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01) so I don't THINK there's a way to turn it 90 degrees.
Should it always be running at 2200 rpm if it says that on the box? Or does that mean that 2200 is the max and it CAN run under?
Questions. I really appreciate it.
STEAM: Quical
Check out my youtube channel, maybe subscribe?: NerdAndOrGeek
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Any game that isn't optimised like a bag of shit (I'm looking at you, original release of Metro 2033) should run pretty sweet on a setup like that at 1440p.
SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
What's the model of your CPU cooler?
Also, just so you know, the sticker on the fan hub faces the opposite direction of the airflow, so really all of your fans are pushing their airflow up, not down. Which is better - heat rises.
If your CPU fan is plugged into the CPU fan header on the motherboard, then the motherboard should automatically control its speed based on processor use.
No, unless you want to to have some crazy RAID setup in the future. You may want more than 4 SATA ports period if you want to add more hard drives, but an optical drive or a platter hard drive can't saturate the slower SATA connections. 6GB/s is really only necessary for SSDs.
It's the coolermaster blizzard t2. It is plugged in to the cpu bit, but it's a 3-pin whereas my motherboard is 4 pin. Could I have put it on the wrong three pins?
STEAM: Quical
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To be perfectly honest, it's not going to run a great deal better on a newer system. It's coded terribly. There is a re-release that sees Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light remastered and ported to the latest and much more stable and efficient version of the 4A game engine, you should probably see if you can find that somewhere cheaply.
OK, looks like it only goes the one way. So the way you have it is the best you can do.
There should only be one way to put the fan plug on the header, since the header has a little plastic piece that fits into a slot on the plug. Maybe this motherboard can't control the fan speed if it's only a 3-pin fan.
I'm looking at this motherboard because it looks like it might get a decent Black Friday discount. Is there anything else I should consider?
SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
I can't imagine one.
You don't even NEED need 2 x16 slots for SLI. The performance hit from 1 at x16 and 1 at x8 is extremely negligible. You don't want 1 at x16 and 1 at x4, though.
Apparently I don't go over 400W at the wall even with Prime95 + Furmark running on my 4670K (@ 4.1ghz)/GTX 770 build. I'm idling at ~60W.
Silent PC Review did a review of it recently:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/NZXT_Kraken_G10_Graphics_Adapter
Bottom line is they were a little concerned that it wasn't strong enough (it flexed some) but the cooling results were amazing.
OK cool thanks so much for your help. Ive ordered more thermal paste as I think I made a hash job of applying it the first time. Is it easy to remove?
Are there any other smaller fans you'd recommend that would do the job better than this one? I have a 450w power supply.
I suppose I'll keep an eye on it for now!
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Anyone have one? If so, what're you doing for fan/pump control? That article makes it seem like just trying to run it off the GPU's own fan controller is nigh impossible.
The fan is going to be fine unless you are unhappy with the noise level. I don't know much about 92mm fans but you could find something from Noctua if you don't like the noise. You might be better off with a bigger CPU cooler in that case though.
I'm not sure a bigger one will fit? Maybe it will without the silly heat pipes. Any recommendations? Thanks so much.
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It's even worse than that: the only way 2 x16 slots is even going to operate at 2 x16 is if you have one of them higher end i7 Extreme processors (the 5930K and 5960X) since none of the Haswell processors has more than 16 PCI express lanes.
All that being said, the only benefit to having 3 full-sized PCI express slots on a motherboard is going to be using it for a PCI-E 1x add-in card (something that I was doing with my ASUS Xonar Essence STX for troubleshooting purposes).
Also, the recommendation for using cotton swabs is the fact that it will be lint free. A hint that has been featured on the forum before, but it always useful... Coffee filters work for a final, lint free thermal paste removal. And they're WAY cheaper than most other things / readily available around most homes.
I think I can fit a front fan in so i'm going to try that first, see what happens in terms of temp.
I've bought a new thing of thermal paste but i suppose there's no point in applying it if everything seems to be running fine (current temps of 25-35c when browsing the internet and playing hearthstone) right?
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How much of a difference does the sound absorption on the R4 really make? Is there some other feature difference I'm missing that helps justify the difference in price tag?
Edit: I guess I should probably use the word 'case' somewhere in this post so I don't sound like a babbling lunatic.
@TOGSolid, this was a few days ago but what the heck. Any particular reason why you went with the a10-7850k? For a straight HTPC I don't think you need the top of the line, so I would bump that back to the a8-7600 and save yourself $50 or use that money elsewhere. Even if you want to do some light gaming, I'm not sure you'd see enough of a performance gain to warrant the high end APU.
I would stick with 8GB of ram. If you're high on automation, a HTPC can actually be one of the few situations where you want a lot of shit running simultaneously in the background or keeping things loaded in memory for quick refreshes.
Noticed that you have windows 8.1 on there, so it's worth pointing out that you have to order windows media center separately if you want to use it for playing dvd's or watching/recording live tv. Also, in my experience, WMC is still the best at watching/recording live tv. Although I haven't tested xbmc's (which is now called kodi I guess) latest version of live tv with nextpvr, so that might be a reasonable alternative.
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Yeah, true about the RAM. I originally had the A8 gpu in my build for the exact reasons you mentioned but after rolling in the cost of the NAS and putting in the other stuff I was still under budget so I kinda had a "fuck it, why not" moment.
I haven't pulled the plug just yet though. I didn't know about WMC being separate so I'll have to look into that. Thanks!
Whatever setup I order for Cyber Monday, I will have an optical drive--it's too convenient, I have too many games still stored on caveman-era discs, and too cheap. You can get a well-received bluray writer for just $70 after rebate.
But is there any point? I have a decent BR collection, and ultimately there is some use to storing things on discs I want to keep but don't need regular access. But aside from that, a cheap DVD writer seems like it'd be adequate, or just a somewhat cheaper BR drive.
@Synthesis, apparently one of NewEgg's pre-Black Friday sales is a $35 LG BD-R
Mostly correct, but: https://communities.intel.com/thread/44938
@Drascin If it IS the PSU, no you can't really fix it regardless what the problem is. Replacing it is the only option if whacking it doesn't make it stop.
Fuck. And it's practically new and still in warranty. But it's the work computer, we can't spend a month without it. Gah. I'll have to see if I can make absolutely sure it's the PSU and then I'll see what I do.
1. Make sure it's the PSU and not something else (another fan in the case?)
2. If it is the PSU, try and figure out what is making the noise - you may be able to stop the PSU fan by putting an eraser against the fan hub, or putting a pencil through the blades before you start up the PC (don't stick it in there while the fan is moving!)
If it's the fan, and it's a semi-expensive PSU, you could do a fan swap. If the PSU is cheap, get a new one.
So from what I can tell the "significant" changes are the slide out filter tray in the bottom, and the quick-release side panel?
Man, for the price of the case I just love that modular 3.5" / 5.25" drive cage array set-up, and the sound dampening. If I were in the market, I'd be looking very carefully at those beasts.