re: PC Discussion - Gaming, Performance and Enthusiasts

Ok, do you think I should just run the 2 fans with the H100i or could I add 2 more for a push/pull kind of setup? I was just wondering after I saw this pic on the Corsair site for the case:




There's a pic of the case. Do you have any thoughts on lighting? I'll just use blue rings for the cooler fans, but I'm debating using another blue-ringed fan for the exhaust or whether an LED fan would look good?

or


Also, do you like the two white front led fans or do you think blue leds would look good? And on top of that, any thoughts on a blue or white led strip?

I'm using this for my cables:


So a blue led could be too much, while a white led might show off the cabling better? I know it's a lot of options, I'm just trying to figure out what would look best in my head and keep bouncing around to different configs.

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swapping the white AF140 led fans in the front of the case for blue ones.

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I'm also going to add an led strip, either blue or white.

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swapping the front fans for blue led fans

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RAM LED lights

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clean, classy look

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One of these things

Is not like the other.
It's cool, though. I used to do LEDs too.

Now that that's out of the way, I might as well try one more time to help you make some better decisions. I know you don't care about overspending. But perhaps your e-peen will perk up a little to know that I've built computers over a year ago, for less money, that still outperform this one.

I won't even talk about the video card. That's actually not as big of an issue now. Let's start with the $300 Z87 motherboard. Go ahead and explain to me everything you're going to gain from that motherboard. Explain to me what makes it the best and how you'll use it. Go ahead. I'll wait.

32GB RAM... right. I'm sure you will make super-excellent use of that with your huge CAD files on ramdisk, right? Or you work for Pixar from your home office and will be using Maya to create Cars 3, but Pixar doesn't allow its employees to use more than quad-core CPUs?

Just pirate 7 ultimate. Otherwise, yes you can remove metro with some third-party program.

I assume that you have no plans to SLI at all at this point, given the PSU choice.

Explain to me the quantifiable benefits of 80+ Platinum vs. Gold vs. Silver vs. Bronze.

I won't waste my time overhauling the build, but here are just a few obvious corrections.

LINK

I think that qualifies as a PC discussion boom

$3000 for that?

Whatever floats your boat

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there was a user running SLI 780tis with a 3960x and he was only pulling 583w

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Coyote has three 780tis and a 4930k. His 1200w gets pushed by that setup when it's OC'd

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Coyote has three 780tis and a 4930k. His 1200w gets pushed by that setup when it's OC'd

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Well it's not like the thing is already built, if you think it's really worth having more power then I can order the AX1200i and send the 860 back.

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Well it's not like the thing is already built, if you think it's really worth having more power then I can order the AX1200i and send the 860 back.

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You only have one

I was comparing to that forum post

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LikeLSUToo was saying an AX860i wouldn't be good enough to run two 780ti's in the future and I thought you were agreeing?

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Fckk no, my 1200i is almost maxed out w/ a 4930k/2x780Tis. Per Corsair link it is pulling around 1250.

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Coyote has three 780tis and a 4930k. His 1200w gets pushed by that setup when it's OC'd

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Yeah I can't run 3xTi with the 1200i. I need to hook up another PSU, which is annoying. It is a god damn disaster.

Let me restate the above, "I can't OC with a heavy load" with the 1200i". Really besides benches, the only games to put a true load @ 1440 on the system is Last Light and Crysis 3. Everything, including Far Cry 3, runs smooth and maxed out.

I plan on purchasing a 4K monitor any day now, so will really test what those GK110-425s can do. Really wish I had a 290X instead of 290, then I would purchase a second and make that my "4K rig" since Hawaii has a bigger arse(bus) and more VRAM.

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I still want to add an LED strip, what's the point of the window if you can't see your components?

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Fair enough. There is no right or wrong answer to aesthetics. I've done a wide variety of custom jobs, and it's clear that there is no one look that pleases everyone. Even my own tastes have changed over the years.

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My e-peen doesn't really care about your e-peen's past builds, to be honest.

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Listen, I don't do this shite to troll. I'm not being a dick for the sake of being a dick. The guide linked in my sig below? I spent weeks on that, and the only intended audience has been this board. I have helped quite a few people here with builds, from long drawn-out posts like these, to walking people through an entire build via Skype until the middle of the night, to actually driving to someone's house and assembling the thing myself. I've never charged anyone for it, I've never asked anyone to tell their friends, I've never belittled anyone for their lack of knowledge, as long as they actually acknowledge their own ignorance. I do all this shite because it's my #1 hobby, I'm extremely passionate about it, and I have been doing it for over a decade. I have a lot of knowledge and experience to share.

You came here for advice, and so far have rejected much of it from people with significantly more knowledge than you, and with each post you've made attempting to justify your reasons, you've further proved your ignorance. That's fine. Not knowing something is fine. But trying to pretend you know something, to someone who actually does know something, is foolish. But I understand the stubbornness. I'm stubborn, too. That's why I'm still replying to you even though you've likely written me off because you feel as though I attacked your ego.

I'll try to explain once more:

I don't have any problem with how much you put into this build. Hell, if it weren't for the fact that I'm so passionate about the subject, I wouldn't even care what you were spending the money on. But when you first asked for help, this statement stood out to me:

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I'm definitely willing to spend to get the best PC I can right now.

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There is nothing else I'm trying to do other than help you accomplish that. It would certainly be easier if you said "I have $3,000 [or $4k or $5k] to spend on a tower and peripherals. Give me the best performance for that budget," but without that, I can only simply help you prioritize. You presented a $3,000 part list that does not accomplish the goal stated in the above quote. Yes, some choices are matter of preference (brand of video card, case, LEDs, blu-ray burner, etc. etc.). While those choices can get in the way of optimizing a budget ceiling, they are not clear-cut right and wrong. But other choices are just pure ignorance.

There's also nothing wrong with going all-premium, IF your budget is unlimited. $3,000 is not unlimited. It's a lot, but it can still be spent poorly. Do you have a budget ceiling in mind at all? When you post a part list, we can only operate under the assumption that the total price in that part list coincides with what you can spend, and then we can allocate and prioritize accordingly so that your actual gaming performance is the absolute best you can get for that amount of money.

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What's the problem with a 780ti? You won't even talk about it? What's the issue? Even if I stay at 1080p having that card will future proof my system for quite a while, especially if I add a second down the road.

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We already talked about it. It's the best gaming video card out there, but again, ASSUMING you have a spending limit, it's not the best bang for buck. The performance does not scale appropriate with its price -- whether we're comparing it to the GTX 780 or the R9-290 or 290x. But you want the best, so that's fine, as long as nothing else suffers. But it's not a huge concern to me, because GPU performance is the number one priority for any gaming PC build. If it weren't for the fact that you're only running at 1080p, I'd be pressing you harder to go with high-end SLI or crossfire with a budget like this, but the GK110 and Hawaii chips are actually meant to shine at higher resolutions. But since you're going with a 144Hz monitor, you will still see beneficial performance (extra FPS) from any high-end GPU, regardless of memory capacity or bandwidth.

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You say I don't need a $300 MOBO, fine. You're right, I don't need it. But I like that it has on-board Wi-Fi including ac, 8 ch. HD audio, great BIOS, RAMdisk if I want it, CPU and GPU OC support, and it's extremely well-reviewed by pretty much everyone.

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Pardon my bluntness, but everything in the above statement is precisely what I expected you to say about that motherboard, which is why I asked. Other than the onboard AC wireless (which is always at a premium), you named nothing unique. RAMdisks can be done "easily" with any software. It's software-based. 8 ch HD audio is standard. CPU OC support is on all Z87 boards, and the extra power phases will do nothing to increase the overclock potential of the haswell chips unless using extremely high-end watercooling and delidding, or using LN2. Haswells run hot, and even with delidding you would reach its thermal limits long before you exhausted even a $150 motherboard's power control limits.

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For someone knocking me for overspending on a MOBO it's funny you recommend a CPU I obviously don't need and one that costs ~$230 bucks more than the 4770k. I'm not going to be spending hours editing shite all day.

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Of course you don't need that CPU, but putting the money towards that is a hell of a lot smarter than putting it towards 32GB of premium RAM because it has LEDs and you think games are even going to come close to needing even half of that anytime soon. I was just trying to help you achieve the goal of high-end without doing it foolishly, but I wouldn't recommend ANYONE waste that kind of money on socket 2011 to be honest. It's going to be replaced soon. The fact that you don't intend to edit shite all day further solidifies that you don't need that much RAM.

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And my previous board that just failed was an ASRock Z68 Extreme4. I'd like to try ASUS this time around.

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Fun fact: ASRock was a spin-off from ASUS. ASUStek broke itself up into ASUS and Pegatron, and ASRock is Pegatron's brand. Pegatron allows ASRock to compete with ASUS in multiple market segments. You'd be surprised how incestuous things are when it comes to sourcing components for motherboards and the like. But everyone has their brand preferences, so no issue with wanting ASUS.

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As for the different 80+ ratings, it's really not complicated. A gold or Platinum is going to pull less power from the wall than a Silver or Bronze. Since I basically have my computer running 24/7 it makes sense to go for Platinum as it will inevitably save me money over time.

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Correct. If you stressed that PSU to its fullest capacity (GPU benchmarking and CPU Stress testing) 8 hours a day at full load every day for a year, and your energy costs were $0.15/kwh, you’d save about $15-20 with an 80-Plus Platinum PSU vs. a Bronze.


Maybe I'll type more later after I pick up my daughter from daycare, but jesus dude. I was here to help and still am if you would listen. You can ultimately spend the money however you want, but don't try to convince me you know even half of what I know about this shite just to justify your decision.

The $300 board we are talking about is actually a Haswell board, which has an increased cost because of the built-in Wi-Fi and the overclocking features that he most certainly will never even come close to taking advantage of with a chip like that. I redid his part list with a socket 2011 platform, because he wants high end for the sake of high end and I was keeping his budget intact, but I totally agree that it would be a waste of money at this point. Just not quite as big of a waste of money as spending $400 on 32 GB of 1600 MHz RAM.