re: PC Discussion - Gaming, Performance and Enthusiasts

broke down and tried installing origin on the os drive....NOTHING

DAMMIT EA

I hate having to deal with tech support but it looks like that's the route I'm going. None of the fixes supplied from the googles have worked for me

I like it. It will match everything really well.

Wasn't sure if this is the best place for this question:

Looking for a 4TB external.
Either 4tb Western Digial My Book or HGST Touro Pro

Will keep all my photos (lots of Raw image editing) plus my movies and tv shows on it. Currently running two USB2 2TB WD externals (one for backup). Will be filling up soon so I'm looking for larger capacity and USB 3. The HGST shows a 7200 RPM drive, but does not seem to have great reviews.

Good choice. Or bad choice, depending on how soon that particular unit fails

I hate hard drives. But their low cost makes them a necessary evil for backup storage. Anything I'm not ok with losing, I always make sure there is at least 3 copies on varying forms of media.

Anybody have any good sites, vids, or tutorials explaining the mechanics of a water-cooled system, how to set one up, etc.? My current rig is an HAF-X case and relies on air cooling. But with games like Watch Dogs coming out soon I'm thinking of doing a new build. I've considered just upgrading the GPU and adding an SSD, but I tend to prefer running a system as long as I can and then setting up a whole new build rather than upgrade here and there.

My current rig is about 3+ years old, running a 2500k, 8gb RAM, GTX 570 SC, ASRock Z68 Extreme4 and no SSDs. I'm thinking it's time to update not only for soon to be released games but also to future proof my system for another few years.

Any recommendations on good cases for water-cooling? I'm interested in the Phanteks Primo, Corsair 750D and 900D, and a few others. Obviously the few I mentioned carry a pretty hefty price tag.

One more thing regarding GPUs. I'm considering a GTX 770, 780, and the 780ti. I've just always been a Nvidia guy. My question is this, is the jump in performance between each card worth the jump in price? So, is the 780 really worth spending the extra money over the 770 and, likewise, is the 780ti worth the extra money over the 780?

And while I could SLI in the future, I typically like running a single GPU.

I admit the newly released AMD Radeon R9 295X2 8 GB is one hell of a card, but at $1500 bucks it's way out of the price range and, I think, probably overkill at this point.

Thanks for any advice.

Oh, and is everyone pretty much running Windows 8 by now or are gamers still sticking with Windows 7?

Like Blue said, go with highest end cards. 290/290x is a no-brainer for bang for buck, especially if water cooling, since the shitty coolers/heat issues are completely removed from the equation. The 295 is not worth the price, whether you need the performance or not.

As a barebones starting point, I like this beginner guide: LINK
It summarizes the principles of water cooling, parts needed, tools, places to go for testing/reviews, ordering parts, cleaning parts, leak testing, setting up the loop, maintenance, etc. etc. It's not even that long of a guide, but I've been a member of that forum for 10 years, and that guy knows his stuff.

Next thing to read is his guide to performance of specific radiators, blocks, pumps, etc. LINK It's not super-comprehensive, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend it as a definitive guide for all of your part selections.

If you haven't been completely scared off by the idea of custom water-cooling after reading the above guides, Blue's links to Linus videos and the like should cover the rest. We can answer any questions you might have. I've been doing custom water cooling since the days of true "custom" components like chevelle heater cores and commercial aquarium pumps, so I'm a walking encyclopedia on the subject, even if I don't keep up with the latest and greatest new components.

If you do a custom loop, water-cool the GPU. If you don't, you're wasting your money. You can have a respectable loop to cool both a CPU and GPU with just a single 360mm rad setup and a decent/standard pump like a D5. Some of the popular watercooling companies sell kits to get your started, if you're interested in those. They only include CPU blocks, so you'd have to buy extra fittings, tubing, and a GPU block. The kits are usually a great value, but one can easily spend $800-1000 on a custom loop if using full-cover blocks and backplates on multiple GPUs, premium fans, compression fittings, etc. My loop (shown in the pic below) is probably about $850 worth of parts.

I have the Corsair 900D. It's awesome and huge, and way overkill unless you are running at least two video cards and at least 2 360mm rads. It's really a case meant for dual loop systems with 3+ GPUs, so even my setup is what I'd consider to be the bare minimum for this case:



I could still fit 2 more radiators, not to mention extra pumps and blocks for the VRMs and additional GPUs. I actually added that big reservoir to "fill out" the case a bit more. Otherwise, there'd be a huge void between the motherboard and the bays.

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Oh, and is everyone pretty much running Windows 8 by now or are gamers still sticking with Windows 7?

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There are some games where Windows 8 provides slightly better performance, according to tests/reviews. Personally, I'm sticking with Windows 7. I'm stubborn with operating systems, so I probably won't change my OS until the next iteration of Windows, and only if it's good, and not until every last driver and program I use is 100% compatible with it.

What specifically makes it better than 7? I'm not one to rebuild/reinstall repeatedly throughout the year, so it takes something really compelling to justify it.

Also, is there an activator that doesn't require re-activation every 6 months?

10 minutes after I posted this my computer crashed and I haven't even been able to get power to it yet, I shite you not. I'm just going to take it as a sign that it's time for a new build.

From what little experience I have with Windows 8, I just can't seem to get into it. I'm currently using a friend's laptop with 8.1 on it and I'm missing 7. So, I'm going to be spending the next few hours on PCpartpicker, and review sites (I am subscribed to Linus and love his videos so I'll be checking him out as well as a few other channels too) deciding on a new build.

I'm probably having a friend do the build so I think it's probably wise to hold off on the whole full water-cooling system.

I'm going to come up with a build and see what you guys think of it. Do you think the 780ti is worth the price difference vs. the regular 780? Also, I could use some recommendations on the following: fastest/best SSD, RAM (Vengeance, G.Skills, Kingston...?), and air cooling a system (what case might work best for that, good case fans, etc.). Even if I'm going to air cool I want to do everything I can to keep the noise down. Also, is something like the Corsair H100 CPU cooler a self-contained unit and does it require any maintenance? Are there better alternatives? Also what brand of PSU do you guys run? My first PSU was a Corsair and my second was a Thermaltake and they both failed. I think Corsair has a pretty good reputation so I may go back to them, but Seasonic is supposed to be pretty good too, right?

And say I run a GTX 780/780ti and may add another card for SLI in the future, what's a good power range for the PSU to aim for? Could I get by with ~850w or should I try to go for ~1000-1200?

One more question, with games like Watch Dogs already coming out recommending 6, if not 8gb of RAM, are there any other performance pros to running say 16 or even 32gb of RAM? And is 1600MHz good enough, or should I go for a for something higher? Any benefit to doing so?

I realize I just unloaded a ton of questions but I really appreciate the help. And I'm pretty pissed off still from my computer dying out of nowhere so while I obviously don't want to go crazy budget-wise, I'm definitely willing to spend to get the best PC I can right now.



Oh, and ILikeLSUToo, how much maintenance is involved in running a water-cooled setup? I have the links and will go over them, just thought I'd ask. Also, you don't happen to do installs for people do you, say if I did ultimately decide it was worth it to go for water-cooling I don't really know anyone around here to set one up and I'm not taking it to Tigerdirect or Best Buy to do something like that.