PC Build Advice/Review Thread

[Jojimbo]

What is the general recommendation for thermal compounds these days? Is this fine? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100007 It appears to be highly rated on Newegg.

Additionally, I could use some suggestions with cases. I plan on running a Noctua NH-D14 cooler ontop of an i7-2600k and I want to make sure I won't have any clearance issues with a side mount fan. I glanced over some options last night and picked the Coolermaster HAF X but I'm not married to it. Definitely open to suggestions here.

And since I haven't said it yet, I appreciate all the help Arkanna! No bjs though, sorry. Also, is this flood shortage affecting SSD's as well? I haven't looked into the pricing yet, but I was afraid to...

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/artic...er-2011/1430/5 has done some reviews on different thermal pastes, however another source I was reading put AS5 a bit futher behind new ones (it is a few years old now) so I dunno, trying to find the other review.

Here's another set done by Tom's Hardware that includes liquid metal thermal compounds, seems similar to the other one I saw.

[Ace-o-fire]

Alright, its time for me to improve my computer, so here's what i got

Spoiler: show

CPU: Intel Core i5 CPU 760 @ 2.80GHz

Motherboard: EVGA P55 SLIE657

RAM: DDR3 4.0 GB

Video Card: GeForce GTX 460 768Mb

I'll dig up any other info for ya guys as you need it. This computer is about a year and a half old or so, but i'm looking to speed it up, and improve my graphics, (maybe SLI or a whole new card). I'm just trying to improve this for games that are out (Battlefield 3) and upcoming games for the next year or two. Any recommendations?

[Ramor]

toss another 460 in there, and it probably wouldn't hurt to grab maybe another stick of ram but other than that i'd just recommend learning how to OC and pumping your 760 up to about 3.0~3.5Ghz depending on how comfortable you are with it and with changing voltages. you should be able to get 3.0 real easy, above that you'd probably want an aftermarket cooler but you wouldn't need anything extravagant or expensive to make 3.5 happen, if you're not comfortable with OCing though 2.8 isn't real bad but it may bottleneck a little bit on some games.

[Olo401]

Ace, The CPU on that one is fine but down the road upgrading to an i7-870 would be the way to go.

-=-=-

On the thermal paste question, I've been using Innovative Cooling's Diamond 7 compound and it works fantastic. AC Silver 5 is also good stuff.

AC's MX compounds, like other ceramic-based pastes, are designed for graphics cards (they have a higher heat breakdown point) but can be used on the CPU.

[Arkanna]

Alright, its time for me to improve my computer, so here's what i got

Spoiler: show

CPU: Intel Core i5 CPU 760 @ 2.80GHz

Motherboard: EVGA P55 SLIE657

RAM: DDR3 4.0 GB

Video Card: GeForce GTX 460 768Mb

I'll dig up any other info for ya guys as you need it. This computer is about a year and a half old or so, but i'm looking to speed it up, and improve my graphics, (maybe SLI or a whole new card). I'm just trying to improve this for games that are out (Battlefield 3) and upcoming games for the next year or two. Any recommendations?

Your computer is still pretty competent. The CPU will be fine for quite a while yet, but overclocking it might give it some teeth. As Ramor said, my first recommendation would be getting more RAM, with two considerations: first, your CPU has a dual-channel memory controller, so no matter what memory you add, make sure it stays in pairs of modules. You can continue using your current memory just fine if you have more available slots to fill. Second, if you do not have a 64-bit version of Windows, adding more RAM is pointless unless you format and install a 64-bit version (32-bit OS's are limited to 4GB of total system memory, anything beyond that is unaddressable and therefore wasted).

For video, I'd recommend waiting for the next-gen parts to arrive from nVidia and AMD/ATi, early in 2012. Your 460 can still handle most things just fine, as long as you're willing to run BF3 at reduced resolution and/or quality until you upgrade. If you positively must upgrade now, you could pick up a second GTX 460 for just under $200, or go with something new altogether like a pair of 6950's (modded to 6970's), a pair of 570's, or maybe a single 580. I wouldn't upgrade at all right now unless it's a significant upgrade like the setups I mentioned.

[Crizto]

Quick question about Crossfire/SLI. Right now I'll be getting a PCIe x16 card and probably in the future I'll buy a 2nd one when it gets cheaper. Will I need a motherboard with two x16 slots? Just from the pictures I can't tell the difference between a x8 and a x16 in terms of looks.

[Arkanna]

You do not need a motherboard with two x16 slots. Generally, except for the absolute newest motherboards, PCI-e x16 slots will drop down to x8 when you're running in Crossfire/SLI. It doesn't really affect performance (not today, anyway), so don't let that put you off from going with two cards.

Clarification: you physically need to have two x16 slots on the motherboard, yes. But you do NOT need one of the newest boards that can allow multiple graphics cards to run in x16 mode.

Oh, and here:

http://www.mushahed.net/vb/storeimg/...524707_725.gif

[avelle]

I went ahead and grabbed 2x 580s and a 256gb Crucial M4 drive to round out my new build. I'm not sure if I should be super excited or utterly ashamed at the money I ended up spending on this system. In before losing my job. Thanks for all the help yesterday!

The build ended up looking like this:
i7-2600k w/ Noctua NH-D14
16gb Gskill Sniper (low profile memory to fit under the Noctua, total overkill but really reasonably priced)
2x MSI 580GTX
256gb Crucial M4 SSD
Asus P8Z68-V Pro/Gen3
Coolermaster Haf X
Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 1000W

Let me know if there is any glaring problems here guys. (other than probably spending too much money on a system at the end of a hardware cycle. )

[Arkanna]

Looks good Enjoy it.

[avelle]

Last question and then I should probably start asking in the other tech thread. After putting the new system together with the Noctua cooler and thermal paste, should I wait a set amount of time to let things burn in before I attempt an overclock? Is it ok to start stress testing it with prime95 and 3dmark to check for stability issues immediately?

[Ace-o-fire]

toss another 460 in there, and it probably wouldn't hurt to grab maybe another stick of ram but other than that i'd just recommend learning how to OC and pumping your 760 up to about 3.0~3.5Ghz depending on how comfortable you are with it and with changing voltages. you should be able to get 3.0 real easy, above that you'd probably want an aftermarket cooler but you wouldn't need anything extravagant or expensive to make 3.5 happen, if you're not comfortable with OCing though 2.8 isn't real bad but it may bottleneck a little bit on some games.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835181015

That's what I'm using for cooling right now.

And in terms of ram, should upgrade to 8 gigs, or jump up to 16?

And SLIing, been poking around a couple of sites, and i cant find my model of the 460 (768 Mb), would it work with other versions?

If not, between These two cards what one would you recommend, i would pick up 2 for SLIing

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130604

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130661.

And on more question (sorry guys) I want to swap out my current hard drive (500 gigs) for another one (1TB). What would the best way to go about this. Would moving my data on to my external, while I swap in the 1 TB hard drive the move everything back work?

[Arkanna]

Last question and then I should probably start asking in the other tech thread. After putting the new system together with the Noctua cooler and thermal paste, should I wait a set amount of time to let things burn in before I attempt an overclock? Is it ok to start stress testing it with prime95 and 3dmark to check for stability issues immediately?

Thermal paste does require a brief window of time to set properly, so I'd give it maybe a day or two. That also gives your new machine a chance to show you any instability before overclocking becomes a possible factor. For example: when I built my new machine, it had bluescreening issues from day 1. Had I overclocked on day 1, I would have perceived that as a likely cause of the bluescreens, when in reality, my stability issues had nothing to do with that.

(The actual problem ended up being twofold: I had to flash my SSD's to the most recent firmware to eliminate the bluescreens, then later, I completely uninstalled all the ASUS utilities that shipped with my motherboard and BAM, all traces of bluescreen issues were GONE)

[Arkanna]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835181015

That's what I'm using for cooling right now.

And in terms of ram, should upgrade to 8 gigs, or jump up to 16?

And SLIing, been poking around a couple of sites, and i cant find my model of the 460 (768 Mb), would it work with other versions?

If not, between These two cards what one would you recommend, i would pick up 2 for SLIing

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130604

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130661.

And on more question (sorry guys) I want to swap out my current hard drive (500 gigs) for another one (1TB). What would the best way to go about this. Would moving my data on to my external, while I swap in the 1 TB hard drive the move everything back work?

16GB of system memory is total overkill, but RAM is so cheap now, it doesn't much matter. I put 16GB in my box. For example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145347

Just keep in mind, it's very likely if you jump to 16GB, you're going to use all the DIMM slots on your motherboard, making it impossible to re-use your existing memory. Unknown if that's a problem for you or not, just putting it out there. (RAM in sizes greater than 4GB/module are still very, very expensive. There's a 32GB kit from Corsair on Newegg, 4 x 8GB modules, but it's a whopping $600)

As far as I know, mismatching cards in Crossfire/SLI is fine as long as both cards use the same GPU. I'd try to match the specs as closely as possible; some manufacturers set their cards for faster frequencies, etc. The cards should default to the lowest speeds between the two, ie. if one GPU runs at 750mhz and one runs at 800mhz, both will default to 750mhz. Hypothetical numbers but you get my point.

*edit*

Oh sorry, I missed the drive question. If your 500GB drive is NOT a boot drive, you can do it the way you described. If it IS a boot drive, then you'll need some sort of drive cloning software. Clonezilla comes to mind.

[jinkazama]

.

[avelle]

Thermal paste does require a brief window of time to set properly, so I'd give it maybe a day or two. That also gives your new machine a chance to show you any instability before overclocking becomes a possible factor. For example: when I built my new machine, it had bluescreening issues from day 1. Had I overclocked on day 1, I would have perceived that as a likely cause of the bluescreens, when in reality, my stability issues had nothing to do with that.

(The actual problem ended up being twofold: I had to flash my SSD's to the most recent firmware to eliminate the bluescreens, then later, I completely uninstalled all the ASUS utilities that shipped with my motherboard and BAM, all traces of bluescreen issues were GONE)

So running prime95 on the first day to check temperatures with the Noctua on a stock clock is out of the question as well then?

[Arkanna]

So running prime95 on the first day to check temperatures with the Noctua on a stock clock is out of the question as well then?

Not out of the question at all ... but you'll probably get slightly better temps if you allow the thermal paste to set first.

[avelle]

Not out of the question at all ... but you'll probably get slightly better temps if you allow the thermal paste to set first.

Sounds good, thanks again. I'll see if I can pay Tyven to send you extra bjs for all the help.

[Arkanna]

Sounds good, thanks again. I'll see if I can pay Tyven to send you extra bjs for all the help.

lol, np. I'm hoping Tyven noticed the follow-up post I made about his build (accidentally picked a MicroATX board and corrected it). I don't mind helping out at all when I'm able.

[tyven]

I saw it!

[Ramor]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835181015

That's what I'm using for cooling right now.

lol, if you have that I'm surprised you haven't OCed to like 4.8, that thing should be able to get your CPU to 4.0 stable very easily I'd imagine, of course it'll take a bit of learning first. check out overclock.net to get started, and just googling in general will help.