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[Computer Build Thread] - Bitcoiners can't keep us down! 1440p or bust!

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Posts

  • toloveistorebel toloveistorebel Impressive. Most impressive. Central FLRegistered User regular
    Langly wrote: »
    Ok, so I would like to start looking around for a new processor and motherboard. I kind of have an idea of where to look, but I'm actually more curious about where I should be reading up on this stuff? How can I get current on the market? I'd like to not make a purchase and then regret that I did it right before the paradigm shifted and now if I ever wanted to upgrade anything else, the new components wouldn't be able to be used on the mobo or whatever.

    I've always found that the best place to learn about current motherboards and CPUs is to read reviews and comparisons. Tom's Hardware and AnandTech are my go to sources.

    i7 4770K review from Tom's: linky
    Z87 sub $220 motherboard mashup from Tom's that will probably give some more insite into Haswell and the current Intel chipset and mobo features: linky
    AnandTech Haswell review: linky
    AnandTech Z87 review: linky

    And for an idea of what to actually buy just ask here I suppose. Basically you have two options: overclocking potential, or not. If you want to overclock then you want the i5 4670K unlocked CPU and a decent Z87 chipset motherboard. For no overclocking you want the cheapest non-K i5-4xxx series CPU you can find and B or H series motherboard, usually whatever is cheapest, well rated, and has the features that you want. Strictly for gaming there's not too much reason to step up to a i7. If you're not on a tight budget though, then why not? I started out my Ivy-Bridge build with a Celeron and then later stepped up to an i7. Its way overkill for me but I had the money at the time for the upgrade.

    Donovan PuppyfuckerIoloLangly
  • SoggybiscuitSoggybiscuit Tandem Electrostatic Accelerator Registered User regular
    Ok... 4k monitors are getting pretty affordable now: Samsung UD590. Newegg is a bit over (MSRP is $699) but still, this may replace my 30" Dell in the future.

    Steam - Synthetic Violence | XBOX Live - Cannonfuse | PSN - CastleBravo | Twitch - SoggybiscuitPA
  • HamurabiHamurabi MiamiRegistered User regular
    Langly wrote: »
    It is also whisper quiet and it runs titanfall at full ultra everything and stays at 32-40 degrees c. Which is madness.

    ???

  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    Hamurabi wrote: »
    Langly wrote: »
    It is also whisper quiet and it runs titanfall at full ultra everything and stays at 32-40 degrees c. Which is madness.

    ???

    ?

  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    The gpu stays at around thirty two to forty degrees Celsius while running a graphics intensive game.

  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    Titanfall being a game that people have complained kept them at over ninety.

  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    (I knew what you meant, Langles)

    Langly
  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    That Windforce3 cooler is pretty fucking great though, right? I'm so happy with my card.

    Langly
  • CampyCampy Registered User regular
    Well I'm working away from home until Wednesday evening, at which point hopefully all my new toys will be waiting for me!

    I am however not looking forward to moving all my hardware and cleaning up my processor for my new heatsink. Ugh, I always get so nervous about this stuff.

    Langly
  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    Campy wrote: »
    Well I'm working away from home until Wednesday evening, at which point hopefully all my new toys will be waiting for me!

    I am however not looking forward to moving all my hardware and cleaning up my processor for my new heatsink. Ugh, I always get so nervous about this stuff.

    When I put new paste on my processor and reset the cleaned fan, I basically felt like I was performing brain surgery as well as disarming a nuclear bomb. I was pretty anxious.

  • CampyCampy Registered User regular
    It'll be the first time I'm cleaning up a processor, which is definitely going to be the most nerve wrecking part! I've had a little read about on the interwebs and it seems that high purity isopropyl alcohol with lint free cotton buds/tissue should tackle the task handily? Is there anything subtle/not obvious I should definitely avoid doing?

  • IoloIolo iolo Registered User regular
    Langly wrote: »
    Campy wrote: »
    Well I'm working away from home until Wednesday evening, at which point hopefully all my new toys will be waiting for me!

    I am however not looking forward to moving all my hardware and cleaning up my processor for my new heatsink. Ugh, I always get so nervous about this stuff.

    When I put new paste on my processor and reset the cleaned fan, I basically felt like I was performing brain surgery as well as disarming a nuclear bomb. I was pretty anxious.

    Oh man, but when you put it all back together and it actually fires up...?

    I don't know about you, but I ran around the house for an appropriate/embarrassingly long amount of time with my arms upraised belting out the Rocky theme at the top of my lungs.

    Lt. Iolo's First Day
    Steam profile.
    Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
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  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    Langly wrote: »
    Campy wrote: »
    Well I'm working away from home until Wednesday evening, at which point hopefully all my new toys will be waiting for me!

    I am however not looking forward to moving all my hardware and cleaning up my processor for my new heatsink. Ugh, I always get so nervous about this stuff.

    When I put new paste on my processor and reset the cleaned fan, I basically felt like I was performing brain surgery as well as disarming a nuclear bomb. I was pretty anxious.

    It's easy as poo, though. You get yourself a spray bottle of isopropyl alcohol, a bag of cotton wool balls, and clean that shit up. (spray the isopropyl alcohol on the cotton wool ball, then gently rub the old thermal paste off)

    toloveistorebel
  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    Langly wrote: »
    Ok, so I would like to start looking around for a new processor and motherboard. I kind of have an idea of where to look, but I'm actually more curious about where I should be reading up on this stuff? How can I get current on the market? I'd like to not make a purchase and then regret that I did it right before the paradigm shifted and now if I ever wanted to upgrade anything else, the new components wouldn't be able to be used on the mobo or whatever.

    I've always found that the best place to learn about current motherboards and CPUs is to read reviews and comparisons. Tom's Hardware and AnandTech are my go to sources.

    i7 4770K review from Tom's: linky
    Z87 sub $220 motherboard mashup from Tom's that will probably give some more insite into Haswell and the current Intel chipset and mobo features: linky
    AnandTech Haswell review: linky
    AnandTech Z87 review: linky

    And for an idea of what to actually buy just ask here I suppose. Basically you have two options: overclocking potential, or not. If you want to overclock then you want the i5 4670K unlocked CPU and a decent Z87 chipset motherboard. For no overclocking you want the cheapest non-K i5-4xxx series CPU you can find and B or H series motherboard, usually whatever is cheapest, well rated, and has the features that you want. Strictly for gaming there's not too much reason to step up to a i7. If you're not on a tight budget though, then why not? I started out my Ivy-Bridge build with a Celeron and then later stepped up to an i7. Its way overkill for me but I had the money at the time for the upgrade.

    Thanks! I have never done OC before, but I would like to be able to mess around with it.

    toloveistorebel
  • toloveistorebel toloveistorebel Impressive. Most impressive. Central FLRegistered User regular
    Langly wrote: »
    Langly wrote: »
    Ok, so I would like to start looking around for a new processor and motherboard. I kind of have an idea of where to look, but I'm actually more curious about where I should be reading up on this stuff? How can I get current on the market? I'd like to not make a purchase and then regret that I did it right before the paradigm shifted and now if I ever wanted to upgrade anything else, the new components wouldn't be able to be used on the mobo or whatever.

    I've always found that the best place to learn about current motherboards and CPUs is to read reviews and comparisons. Tom's Hardware and AnandTech are my go to sources.

    i7 4770K review from Tom's: linky
    Z87 sub $220 motherboard mashup from Tom's that will probably give some more insite into Haswell and the current Intel chipset and mobo features: linky
    AnandTech Haswell review: linky
    AnandTech Z87 review: linky

    And for an idea of what to actually buy just ask here I suppose. Basically you have two options: overclocking potential, or not. If you want to overclock then you want the i5 4670K unlocked CPU and a decent Z87 chipset motherboard. For no overclocking you want the cheapest non-K i5-4xxx series CPU you can find and B or H series motherboard, usually whatever is cheapest, well rated, and has the features that you want. Strictly for gaming there's not too much reason to step up to a i7. If you're not on a tight budget though, then why not? I started out my Ivy-Bridge build with a Celeron and then later stepped up to an i7. Its way overkill for me but I had the money at the time for the upgrade.

    Thanks! I have never done OC before, but I would like to be able to mess around with it.

    Yeah I kinda started to mess with it the other night then decided there's no point yet. I certainly don't do anything that would require extra juice from my 3770K. It may help with some games but probably not enough for me to notice. I honestly probably wouldn't have gone Z77 and a K series CPU had I not gotten an awesome deal. When I bought my initial components Newegg was running a special on the ASRock Z77 Extreme3 with a free kit of 8GB 1600 G.Skill RAM for $99. Which was the exact RAM I was looking at, and I like ASRock, so that was perfect. You can't hardly even find the same RAM under $70 now.

    I'll probably start looking into OC'ing here soon just for kicks. It'll be fun to see how far I can push it on my CM Hyper 212 Evo.

  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
  • IncindiumIncindium Registered User regular
    That Windforce3 cooler is pretty fucking great though, right? I'm so happy with my card.

    How does the Windforce3 cooler compare to ones on the latest EVGA cards? Anyone know or have any experience with both?

    steam_sig.png
    Nintendo ID: Incindium
    PSN: IncindiumX
  • darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    Quick question about case fans, because I don't think I've ever used any before: we're using a NZXT Source 210 which is littered in vents for case fans, and comes with two. At the moment they're just occupying two spaces in the top rear of the case, which seems kind of inefficient to me. What would be the best way to use these two fans to maximise airflow through the case? Nothing's overclocked, so the CPU's just got a stock heatsink and fan, but I positioned the PSU so it's venting down, out of the case, rather than up toward the graphics card.

    forumsig.png
  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    So I'm thinking of getting this pair for a new CPU and mobo whenever I can save up the money.

    gigabyte ga z87x ud5h

    and the i7-4770K

  • an_altan_alt Registered User regular
    I read about some tests done on a Fractal R3 case where they tried an increasing number of case fans in different positions. The main themes were that the most efficient cooling almost always involved the side vent and that the front intakes were the least helpful. I don't know if that holds up for every case, but it seems to make sense that getting the airflow as directly over the GPU and CPU as possible leads to the coolest temperatures. If you used two fans in your case, I'd guess that intake on the side and output on the top-back or back-top would work well. If I were to add an extra fan, I'd put an intake in the front for positive pressure and to move some air over the HDD.

    That being said, I'd guess that with one video card and a stock CPU, you could put the fans wherever and not have a problem.

    You did the right thing with the PSU.

    Pony wrote:
    I think that the internet has been for years on the path to creating what is essentially an electronic Necronomicon: A collection of blasphemous unrealities so perverse that to even glimpse at its contents, if but for a moment, is to irrevocably forfeit a portion of your sanity.
    Xbox - PearlBlueS0ul, Steam
    If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
    toloveistorebel
  • cardboard delusionscardboard delusions USAgent PSN: USAgent31Registered User regular
    Langly wrote: »
    Campy wrote: »
    Well I'm working away from home until Wednesday evening, at which point hopefully all my new toys will be waiting for me!

    I am however not looking forward to moving all my hardware and cleaning up my processor for my new heatsink. Ugh, I always get so nervous about this stuff.

    When I put new paste on my processor and reset the cleaned fan, I basically felt like I was performing brain surgery as well as disarming a nuclear bomb. I was pretty anxious.

    It's easy as poo, though. You get yourself a spray bottle of isopropyl alcohol, a bag of cotton wool balls, and clean that shit up. (spray the isopropyl alcohol on the cotton wool ball, then gently rub the old thermal paste off)

    Or just use the alcohol wipes from a first aid kit.

  • darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    an_alt wrote: »
    I read about some tests done on a Fractal R3 case where they tried an increasing number of case fans in different positions. The main themes were that the most efficient cooling almost always involved the side vent and that the front intakes were the least helpful. I don't know if that holds up for every case, but it seems to make sense that getting the airflow as directly over the GPU and CPU as possible leads to the coolest temperatures. If you used two fans in your case, I'd guess that intake on the side and output on the top-back or back-top would work well. If I were to add an extra fan, I'd put an intake in the front for positive pressure and to move some air over the HDD.

    That being said, I'd guess that with one video card and a stock CPU, you could put the fans wherever and not have a problem.

    You did the right thing with the PSU.

    So glad you said that, because I was genuinely worried my logic didn't stack up!
    Alright, I won't stress it too much in case they're a pain to move, but I'll see about putting one as an intake on the side panel, and keeping the other as rear/top exhaust.

    forumsig.png
  • an_altan_alt Registered User regular
    darleysam wrote: »
    an_alt wrote: »
    I read about some tests done on a Fractal R3 case where they tried an increasing number of case fans in different positions. The main themes were that the most efficient cooling almost always involved the side vent and that the front intakes were the least helpful. I don't know if that holds up for every case, but it seems to make sense that getting the airflow as directly over the GPU and CPU as possible leads to the coolest temperatures. If you used two fans in your case, I'd guess that intake on the side and output on the top-back or back-top would work well. If I were to add an extra fan, I'd put an intake in the front for positive pressure and to move some air over the HDD.

    That being said, I'd guess that with one video card and a stock CPU, you could put the fans wherever and not have a problem.

    You did the right thing with the PSU.

    So glad you said that, because I was genuinely worried my logic didn't stack up!
    Alright, I won't stress it too much in case they're a pain to move, but I'll see about putting one as an intake on the side panel, and keeping the other as rear/top exhaust.

    The PSU actually vents out the back, but you had the right idea. Its airflow should be separate from the rest of the case.

    Pony wrote:
    I think that the internet has been for years on the path to creating what is essentially an electronic Necronomicon: A collection of blasphemous unrealities so perverse that to even glimpse at its contents, if but for a moment, is to irrevocably forfeit a portion of your sanity.
    Xbox - PearlBlueS0ul, Steam
    If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
    Donovan Puppyfucker
  • darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    Hah, well, close enough.

    forumsig.png
  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
  • FoomyFoomy Registered User regular
    Langly wrote: »

    Going to be a long wait, new tech takes years to make it into actual products.

    Steam Profile: FoomyFooms
    toloveistorebel
  • tsmvengytsmvengy Registered User regular
    Langly wrote: »

    The spec was released in what, December?

    The USB 3.0 spec was released in 2008. 2008. When did we start seeing wide adoption of that? It takes forever for these things to be put into practice.

    By the time Type-C is in a motherboard and you actually have some other device with type c to connect it to, you'll be at the point where you'll be upgrading.

    steam_sig.png
    StiltsGaslighttoloveistorebel a5ehren
  • StiltsStilts Registered User regular
    Incindium wrote: »
    That Windforce3 cooler is pretty fucking great though, right? I'm so happy with my card.

    How does the Windforce3 cooler compare to ones on the latest EVGA cards? Anyone know or have any experience with both?

    The only professional comparison I can find is this one from AnandTech, where the Windforce is the clear winner.

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/7398/the-geforce-gtx-760-roundup-evga-and-gigabyte-compared

    It's from October of last year, though, so I'm not sure how much EVGA's design has changed.

    Speaking of which, I'm probably gonna spend some of my tax return on a GTX 760; my 560 is starting to show it's age.

    A 550-watt PSU should be fine, right?

    IKknkhU.gif
  • PirusuPirusu Pierce Registered User regular
    I'd say it depends on the PSU, but generally, yep.

  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    tsmvengy wrote: »
    Langly wrote: »

    The spec was released in what, December?

    The USB 3.0 spec was released in 2008. 2008. When did we start seeing wide adoption of that? It takes forever for these things to be put into practice.

    By the time Type-C is in a motherboard and you actually have some other device with type c to connect it to, you'll be at the point where you'll be upgrading.

    Maaaaaaan

  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    Plus, you can always plug in a riser card.

    tsmvengyan_altmcdermotta5ehren
  • SmokeStacksSmokeStacks Registered User regular
    Langly wrote: »
    Campy wrote: »
    Well I'm working away from home until Wednesday evening, at which point hopefully all my new toys will be waiting for me!

    I am however not looking forward to moving all my hardware and cleaning up my processor for my new heatsink. Ugh, I always get so nervous about this stuff.

    When I put new paste on my processor and reset the cleaned fan, I basically felt like I was performing brain surgery as well as disarming a nuclear bomb. I was pretty anxious.

    It's easy as poo, though. You get yourself a spray bottle of isopropyl alcohol, a bag of cotton wool balls, and clean that shit up. (spray the isopropyl alcohol on the cotton wool ball, then gently rub the old thermal paste off)

    Or just use the alcohol wipes from a first aid kit.

    I just use Q-tips and a small glass bowl with some alcohol poured in it.

    Because the smallest size box of q-tips you can buy is like 325 so when I snag a bunch from my roommate she doesn't notice. Also, while it's good to check afterward anyway, you don't really have to worry about leaving stray fibers if you're cleaning mostly flat surfaces and the q-tip is wet.
    Mugsley wrote: »
    Plus, you can always plug in a riser card.

    Seems like a lot of work to fix a problem that under the worst conditions you only have a 50/50 chance of running into and is solved in half a second.

    I'm all for standardization of USB since it's remarkable that a protocol that has "Universal" as the first word in its name has so many different physical variants, but it just seems like another company trying to live up to that xkcd comic about competing standards.

    hea7mcrkmvmx.jpg
    cardboard delusions
  • ZxerolZxerol for the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't do so i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered User regular
    Just fuck all that shit and bring back DE-9 for everything, yo.

  • CampyCampy Registered User regular
    Oh man what a palava! I must have fitted and refitted everything but the PSU at least twice due in equal parts to my own idiocy and design flaws in the case.

    At 2am I managed to get the thing to post to BIOS with the mobo, PSU, CPU, heatsink and RAM all in place. At which point I decided it was firmly time for bed. The rest of the stuff should go in easy, so really my only worry is that the heat sink has good contact with the CPU.

    Is prime95 still the CPU burn-in-er of choice? Along with CPU-z for the actual monitoring?

  • BarrakkethBarrakketh Registered User regular
    Foomy wrote: »
    Langly wrote: »
    Going to be a long wait, new tech takes years to make it into actual products.
    If you only need USB 2.0 you can already buy reversible cables (example). They use a thinner, more ridged connector with contacts on both sides.

    That does nothing to help with the smaller plugs used on devices, but it's an improvement when it comes to connecting shit to your PC (and likely most convenient for notebooks).

    Rollers are red, chargers are blue....omae wa mou shindeiru
  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    That's it ATI. You can go fuck yourselves. It's been nearly 15 years and you STILL can't do drivers right.

    Vidcard drivers were crit erroring on me all night, even after reinstalling the drivers. This was for both WoW and Titanfall.

    I'm putting this fucking thing on eBay and buying a 700 series nVidia.

    Donovan Puppyfucker
  • CampyCampy Registered User regular
    Mugsley wrote: »
    That's it ATI. You can go fuck yourselves. It's been nearly 15 years and you STILL can't do drivers right.

    Vidcard drivers were crit erroring on me all night, even after reinstalling the drivers. This was for both WoW and Titanfall.

    I'm putting this fucking thing on eBay and buying a 700 series nVidia.

    D:

  • toloveistorebel toloveistorebel Impressive. Most impressive. Central FLRegistered User regular
    Campy wrote: »
    Oh man what a palava! I must have fitted and refitted everything but the PSU at least twice due in equal parts to my own idiocy and design flaws in the case.

    At 2am I managed to get the thing to post to BIOS with the mobo, PSU, CPU, heatsink and RAM all in place. At which point I decided it was firmly time for bed. The rest of the stuff should go in easy, so really my only worry is that the heat sink has good contact with the CPU.

    Is prime95 still the CPU burn-in-er of choice? Along with CPU-z for the actual monitoring?

    Yeah Prime95 is still good. And CPUID's HWMonitor is great for monitoring temps, voltages, and fan speeds. CPU-Z is of course still great for general info and such.

  • DjeetDjeet Registered User regular
    edited April 2014
    I do 10 runs at very high stress of Intel Burn Test to determine the settings I want to run an overnight or day long Prime95 stability test.

    Djeet on
    initiatefailure
  • LD50LD50 Registered User regular
    Stilts wrote: »
    Incindium wrote: »
    That Windforce3 cooler is pretty fucking great though, right? I'm so happy with my card.

    How does the Windforce3 cooler compare to ones on the latest EVGA cards? Anyone know or have any experience with both?

    The only professional comparison I can find is this one from AnandTech, where the Windforce is the clear winner.

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/7398/the-geforce-gtx-760-roundup-evga-and-gigabyte-compared

    It's from October of last year, though, so I'm not sure how much EVGA's design has changed.

    Speaking of which, I'm probably gonna spend some of my tax return on a GTX 760; my 560 is starting to show it's age.

    A 550-watt PSU should be fine, right?

    If you want some anecdotal evidence, my EVGA 780 that's overclocked to 1200 mhz doesn't push over 60c on stress tests. The base clock is 800 mhz, so that's a 30% overclock. I can't up the voltage any higher, and 60c is pretty damn cool for a gpu.

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