PC Build Advice/Review Thread

[Jojimbo]

How hot? EVO 212 should be enough for 4.4GHz provided it isn't 30+c in your house or something. For it's price I doubt you'll get better than a 200R as well, there are better cases yes but they'll cost more.

[GoggleHead]

This is what I've kind of thrown together. Will the noctua fit in a challenger and clear the ram and shit?

I'd say grab more RAM. It's dirt cheap right now so you could go up to 16GB easy and not have to worry for years.

I'm not sure how large that CPU cooler fits, but the one I got when building for that mobo blocked two of the RAM slots. Just a thing to be aware of if you plan to upgrade RAM later.

I wouldn't recommend Rosewill products as a general rule of thumb. I've gotten burned by them more than once. If you're worried about space just go for a full tower. They have plenty of room for when you're building and tend to use larger fans, which means less noise coming from your case.

[Tyche]

I think I'm going to go for the antec nine hundred unless you guys have a better option.

[Nitsuki]

tbh, look for some bigger cases, i have an antec 900, and while it's an old case at this point, it's sadly very small for me. I may end up purchasing a bigger case myself for the sake of bigger space and better airflow.

[Jojimbo]

Which version? Antec 900 is an old design, it's pretty damn expensive for what it offers and sucks to work with (built my first PC in it). V3 is a bit better, MB cutout and USB 3.0 but it still has awful HDD mounts that seemed to amplify the noise my HDDs made and annoying to remove fan filters. Plus it's pretty small, hell even the 200R has larger MB tray area.

For the price of a 900 V3 you could get a Corsair C70/500R or even 600T which is significantly better, NZXT Phantom is pretty good is like that kind of design or there's the Fractal Design Define R4 if you want something focused on quietness

[Tyche]

I looked at the phantom. I'd love to give shit an R2D2 paint scheme. What about the haf 932?

I'll look into the others. Any other hardware changes you'd suggest other than the case? You mentioned the mobo. I want something that's going to facilitate over locking, but I understand with that i5, it's a bit of luck required to see which chip you get.

[Caiyuo]

I don't remember where but there's a nice in-depth peek at the Define R4 on youtube and it looks fucking niiiiice.

[Tyche]

Just spent the past few minutes looking at that. It's gorgeous. I love the clean look. I'd leave it as is and not bastardize it with stickers or badges. How in the hell do the front fans work effectively with the thick foam in the front door?

[Jojimbo]

There are holes on the side, and they don't work as well. R4 and such cases sacrifice some of their cooling ability for quietness, not that they don't work well enough just that they'll run a bit hotter than airflow optimised cases. I posted two builds on the previous page, one similar but a bit cheaper and one better but still within budget)

And there is always a bit of luck involved with OCing no matter what setup. I've seen 4.4GHz take anywhere from 1.16v to 1.28v, and then there are people with 4.8/5.0GHz OCs that are stable at under 1.3v

[Tyche]

I'll spend the next couple of weeks and see if I can find any deals on parts. Managed to nab the 660 ti for $240. I hope you guys are here when I assemble this damn thing. Last computer I built was an AMD thunderbird build about 12 years ago.

[Jojimbo]

/r/buildapcsales is a good place to check every so often then, and /r/buildapc has a bunch of links in the sidebar in case you need to brush up

[Nitsuki]

Thanks for the advice on cases, i'm looking to upgrade from my old antec 900 as well. I'll take a look at those cases on display at tiger to see which i like in person. I've always sorta been a fan of the HAF cases, the phantom seems really nice too. I'm more into airflow over quietness in a case. Yet something attractive.

[Jojimbo]

HAF cases are good as well, I tend to stick to more plain cases when recommending stuff and I'm not a fan of HAF/Phantom type things either.

[izembo]

What's a good motherboard option that'll support an i7 and full speeds on 2x 660TI's?

[Jojimbo]

By full speeds you mean x16/x16? i7 8320/X79 is the cheapest way to get PCI-E 3.0 x16/x16 and something like Asus X79 Sabertooth (there are cheaper X79 MBs like Gigabyte X79 UD3), although if for gaming then an x8/x8 i5 3570k/Z77 will perform the same depending on monitor setup (I've only tested 7950s myself, actually have no idea if same issue happens with X79 but scaling can kinda suck in some games at 1080p, but is perfectly fine at eyefinity res)

[izembo]

i7 3770k, was trying to make sure i'd get the most out of the cards, figuring i'd need x16 x16

[Jojimbo]

There are "x16/x16" Z77 MBs that use PLX chips to do some magic and turn 16 lanes in "32" but they are really expensive, more so than X79 MBs, and not worth buying. Just stick with x8/x8.

[Tyche]

I think this is the route I'm going to go. Swapped out the SSD for. Samsung 840 pro 256gb. On sale for $200. The mobo you recommended seems to be popular with the overclocking crew. Still deciding on a case.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($80.76 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($187.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Samsung 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($219.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB Video Card ($309.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic M12II 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($115.17 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1258.85
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-25 21:21 EST-0500)

[Caiyuo]

I think this is the route I'm going to go. Swapped out the SSD for. Samsung 840 pro 256gb. On sale for $200. The mobo you recommended seems to be popular with the overclocking crew. Still deciding on a case.

I probably took literally a month to decide on my case. The NZXT Phantom does really well in comparisons for performance and price, but I think it just looks awful. I ended up picking the Xigmatek Midgard II, but were I to do it again I honestly think I'd have gone with the Fractal R4. With that said, my budget was a lot smaller.

[Tyche]

I love the fractal. It's the way I'm leaning. I just need to make sure it's going to cycle air just fine if I'm going to air cool that processor at a 4.3-4.5 overclock.