Gaming pc

[Mr.Alaska]

For $35 less and only a 1.2 difference looks like Noctua NH-D14 would be the best if I go that way.

user25 I like that board and its quite a bit less then the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z I was looking at yesterday. For some reason I seam hell-bent on getting the highest end Motherboard I can find even though I know I don't need it.

 

[Irony]

NH-D14 is generally considered the best air cooler.

 

[Mr.Alaska]

Is there a problem with it covering all the memory slots? Clearance or heat issues? And whats with the color of the fans? It looks pretty bad.


Little change in subject. Here are the cases I am looking at. Obviously my color preference is black.

The HAF X is a nice case but its too pricy and I am not a big fan of the big plastic side panel.
Corsair Carbide 400R - $99.99
Corsair Carbide 500R - $139.99 -Only difference from 400R is side panel?
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 - $159.99
Corsair Graphite - $159.99

I am kinda leaning towards the HAF 932 but it doesn't have dust filters. What do you all think?

A new challenger has appeared!
COOLER MASTER CM Storm Series Trooper - $189.99 Its a little pricy but I like it.

 

[Irony]

932 or 500R.

If the storm trooper is in your budget, It pretty cool.

The cooler. I have mine installed, and there is plenty of room for the likes of Ripjaws X. I have some cheapy ram with no heatspreaders, and there's a full 3/4 of an inch between them and the bottom of the cooler. And thats with it installed backwards. (I accidentally installed my heatsink on backwards, and instead of taking it off and flipping it around I just put my fans on the other sides. You'd be surprised the difference in cooling when you've got all your fans blowing the same way. )

This shows it quite nicely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkA6rf_6CE8


I installed my ram last, (stupid) I would most definitely install it first. You can still sqeeze it in under the heatsink if it doesn't have any heatspreaders.

Edit: try not to comment on my installation fails.

 

[Mr.Alaska]

try not to comment on my installation fails.

I kinda want to just because you said that. Thanks for the video. After seeing it I just might get it. I think if I can settle on a Motherboard I might have everything picked out. If I go with the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z suggested on the first page I'm right at $1733.92 witch is at the high end of my original budget or $1563.92 with the ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z.

With a quick price check I got the total down to $1694.78 ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z and some random sites and $1524.78 with the ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z. Still unsure about the board though. Might not get either one.

 

[entropy13]

Go with the Corsair cases since I have a couple. lol

 

[JrRacinFan]

What's the irony of installing my ram wrong?

Another case you may like, Xigmatek Midgard II. I absolutely love that case.

 

[mediasorcerer]

Hi mate, theres a lot of folks on tpu that know a lot more than me and im the first to admit it, but, i will say this if i may be so bold, i have a asus z68 mobo and i5k and my machine absolutely ripps it for me, i got a vertex 3/60gb ssd for os and really i can do just about anything including gaming and video/photo rendering with ease, i can overclock my rigg up to 5ghz if needed and it sits stable at oc-4.7ghz= 24/7.

I would recommend a closed loop radiator combo for cpu cooler over air, but thats just me, they can be had for nearly the same price as hi end air now anyway and do a bit better job, with room for your ram too, just something to consider.hope it works out for you ,regs ms.

ps, theres a lot of very bright minds here to learn from and good natured folks too which is very refreshing. i find.!!!

 

[Mr.Alaska]

Thanks for the help everyone. I think I am going with the NH D-14, Storm Trooper case and because I can squeeze it in under $1650 with free shipping on everything the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z. Maybe I have room for a 500GB Hard Drive till prices come down on the 1TB+ ones.

 

[johnnyd]

I like the full reviews I found on the PowerBird 900 but it looks like I get to learn about single and multi rails tomorrow.

Hey, I can't login to my account (idiotically changed my mail and pass at the same time - now can't remember), but thought I'd help ya out on this one.

The "rails" don't actually exist. They're just over circuit protection points to shutdown the unit when it's extremely overloaded, or when a short circuit occurs. There's a lot of misinfo out there on this subject. Anyway, take the PowerBird for example. It has six 20A rails, with each of them triggering OCP at at least 300W. So there you have six 300W rails. Two rails for your CPU, three for GPU's and the last one for Molex.

And that's a more secure way against failures than a huge single rail, because you'll only lose whatever part is on one rail that way. On the other hand, you'd lose more parts when a catastropic failure occurs on a single rail.

 

[Mr.Alaska]

Yeah it was interesting to read about all that and the myth of trapped power.


Its getting harder and harder not to click the checkout button.

 

[johnnyd]

Yep, single rail is no more than marketing for manufactorers to fool people into, which they've been shoving off in the past years. It's cheaper to not put in OCP shunt points. That's why they do it. Either way, you're better off with the PowerBird over the AX.

 

[Mr.Alaska]

I put no research in this one but whats the average life of a good PSU? Will I have to upgrade GPU's before the PSU dies?

 

[entropy13]

I put no research in this one but whats the average life of a good PSU? Will I have to upgrade GPU's before the PSU dies?

100,000 hours.

100,000/24= ~4166 days
4166/365= ~11 years

 

[johnnyd]

11 years is optimistic for any unit. The fan is the first thing to die, then comes capacitor failure or solder joints and such. A solid PSU (like PC P&C) would last 5 to 7 years, but beyond that would depend on your luck.

Now the PowerBird has a San Ace 120 fan, which is good one. It also has Japanese Toshin Kogyo caps, which are the highest quality second next to Hitachi's (also better than the Nippon's used in the AX).

Plus, it's based on the exact same design as the 1100W version. So you can overload it yet it'd keep in spec. Pretty much nothing can stop that unit; you can Tri-SLi 580's yet it'd keep going. Well unless you tried 480 Quad or something...

 

[Mr.Alaska]

So should I invest in slightly more powerful ones to allow future upgrades past the two 580's?

 

[entropy13]

So should I invest in slightly more powerful ones to allow future upgrades past the two 580's?

Not necessarily. For example, maybe a GTX 680 would already be 80% the performance of two 580's but with a much lower power consumption, maybe 30% lower, than two 580s. Purely hypothetical, but that is usually the case. Considering you might keep the two 580s for longer, maybe you'd reach the GTX 700 series before upgrading.

 

[Mr.Alaska]

Ok I was just curious because I just got done reading something about 590 SLI at guru3d and they recommend at least 1000w PSU.

 

[johnnyd]

There's no reason to look beyond 900W for a pair of 580's. It's sufficient and gives you room to spare. Also, like he said, new cards are going to pull significantly less power on 28nm. They're getting more efficient on smaller manufactoring processes, not less:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-HD-7900-XDR2-Rambus-Memory,13408.html

Have a look at the TDP ratings. As for 590 Quad, it can be ran on 1000W easily. And the unit in question is a very good one. It already provides performance way below ATX specs, so even IF you overloaded it, it still would provide clean power.

 

[Mr.Alaska]

Good read. I was just assuming more performance means more power. Thanks again for the help.

 

[johnnyd]

NP. By the time of that upgrade comes, your PSU would be aged, then you may want a new one again. Regardless of the size of your PSU. But if you still want more power (overkill ), you can get the 1100W version of PowerBird from here;

http://www.provantage.com/epower-technology-top-1100w~4EPOW01J.htm

It performs slightly worse per-watt though (than the TPPB900). Or I can look for something else.

 

[Mr.Alaska]

No you guys have me convinced on the 900w one now.

 

[johnnyd]

Yeah, the 900 watter is better. But I just found an amazing deal on this beast.

SILVERSTONE ST1200 1200W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready...

It's the same unit (both built by Enhance electronics) as this one.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=162

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story5&reid=162

 

[entropy13]

No you guys have me convinced on the 900w one now.

LOL

Why not go all out then?
Seasonic Platinum 1000 or XFX ProSeries 1000 (they're the same inside)
OCZ ZX 1000W
NZXT Hale90 1000 or Kingwin Lazer Gold 1000 or Rosewill LIGHTNING Series 1000 (they're the same inside)
Thortec Thunderbolt 1000W
Silverstone Strider Gold Evolution 1000W

 

[johnnyd]

Actually, the PowerBird 900 does better than all those you listed. In one way or another. It's about the performance/built anyway, not wattage or price.