New PC Build :) Gaming Orientated :)

[Evildead666]

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Just to whet your appetite

I'll get down to showing all the Photo's when its actually able to start up.
I'm still missing some water-cooling connectors for the GPU loop, and some fan connectors, for all 8 fans, and an external 12V power brick to independently power all the cooling systems, fans and pumps.

I have Pictures of the whole build, showing some of the caveats of this case (IE : The SR-1 radiator squeaks in the front only just, exchanging paint in the process), and the equipment I chose, which I'll post when its booting.

Overall really happy, and can't wait to get it benching .

CASE :Fractal Design Arc Mini R2
CPU : i5-3570K
Mobo : ASRock Extreme4-M
RAM : 4x4Gb GSkill RipJawsZ DDR3-2133 CL9-11-10-28@1.65V
Boot Drive : Intel 335 180Gb SSD
Apps Drive : 2xWD Black 7.2Krpm 2.5in 750Gb HDD (Stripe)
GPU : AMD R9-290
PSU : Seasonic X-Series 850W Gold
Cooling : Corsair H100i for CPU, HardwareLabs Black Ice SR-1 240/Laing DDC + EK Block for R9-290, with 8x Corsair SP120 Fans for Push-Pull on both 240 Radiators.

Will probably add a Nvidia GPU for PhysX later (A 650 GTS/GTX would be fine), for Star Citizen .

[Umfriend]

Nice build! Wonder how well it would do at Rosetta@Home.

[Evildead666]

Well, seeing as during the winter, the cooling is going to be on 24/7, and so the TIM doesnt get too cold, its going to be needed probably to be kept at 50% load to stay warm, I might give Rosetta a go.
Ambient where the PC is can drop to 5°C. I'll put a thermometer to check when its up.

[ZokesPro]

I love a nice clean build. And with an R9-290, it makes it a sweet machine indeed.
My gaming rig is equipped with a 3870 X2, bet your jealous now eh? LOL!

[ZokesPro]

I love a nice clean build. And with an R9-290, it makes it a sweet machine indeed.
My gaming rig is equipped with a 3870 X2, bet your jealous now eh? LOL!

[TransformX]

Here's the machine I've ordered for my wife a few months ago:

• Intel Core i7-4770‬‬
• ‫‪Scythe Kozuti
• ‬‬‫‪Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI‬‬
• ‫‪G.Skill DDR3 16GB (2x8GB) 1866MHz 10-11-10-30 Ares
• ‫‪Samsung 840 Pro 2.5" 7mm 256GB SATA3 SSD
• ‫‪WD Caviar Black 2TB 64MB SATA3
• ‫‪Sapphire Radeon HD7970 3GB
• ‫‪Thermaltake Smart SE 730W‬‬
• ‫‪Lian Li PC-Q25 Black
• Dell 27" U2713HM
• Microsoft SideWinder X4‬‬
• CoolerMaster Sentinel Advance‬‬

Yes, it did cost an arm and a leg. She's using it mainly for photo editing with Adobe Lightroom.

155272.jpg155270.jpg

[Umfriend]

Me want pics of the intestines of that beast.

I have the U2713HM. I just wish my laptop could drive two of them so that I could get rid of that old 2407.

Edit: It'll be a great contributer to Rosetta! Even if you give it 2 threads/procs max.

[ZokesPro]

Here's the machine I've ordered for my wife a few months ago:

• Intel Core i7-4770‬‬
• ‫‪Scythe Kozuti
• ‬‬‫‪Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI‬‬
• ‫‪G.Skill DDR3 16GB (2x8GB) 1866MHz 10-11-10-30 Ares
• ‫‪Samsung 840 Pro 2.5" 7mm 256GB SATA3 SSD
• ‫‪WD Caviar Black 2TB 64MB SATA3
• ‫‪Sapphire Radeon HD7970 3GB
• ‫‪Thermaltake Smart SE 730W‬‬
• ‫‪Lian Li PC-Q25 Black
• Dell 27" U2713HM
• Microsoft SideWinder X4‬‬
• CoolerMaster Sentinel Advance‬‬

Yes, it did cost an arm and a leg. She's using it mainly for photo editing with Adobe Lightroom.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6244[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]6245[/ATTACH]

Wow, I hope she appreciates you giving up an arm and a leg for a computer!

[Umfriend]

I might give Rosetta a go.

We're waiting...

..for you.


:-)

[TransformX]

Me want pics of the intestines of that beast.

I have the U2713HM. I just wish my laptop could drive two of them so that I could get rid of that old 2407.

Edit: It'll be a great contributer to Rosetta! Even if you give it 2 threads/procs max.

Sadly the intestines of the machine are boring as hell. Most of what you get to see it the hard drive in the mostly empty cage, the power supply covering most of everything and the graphic card at the bottom. Really boring. The fun part happens on the monitor as it does take some muscle to drive 3.5MP in games
For her it was quite a change doing her image editing there, moving from a quad core low end AMD processor with 8GB ram and a Radeon 6850 (our HTPC).

[Evildead666]

We're waiting...

..for you.


:-)

heh
I got it booting, just to check everything was OK, and it all seems to be.
Win7 installed fine, and I had time to copy over my Steam Folder from my current machine.

The H100i seems to be working OK. Without changing the TIM, just putting it on the CPU and adding the fans.
I set the 4-core mutliplier to 44, and left all the voltages to be sorted out by the CPU/Mobo.
Fans were at 100% through the fan controller, and at 4.4GHz in Prime95 (FFT's for Max Heat) it hit 82°C. Not too happy about that temp, might go for another 240 rad and CPU block and just add it into the GPU loop.
The H100i pump isn't as powerful as the Liang ones, due to its size obviously, and that shows.
When Prime95 is stopped, the temp drops back to 23-26°C in about 1 second or less.
Then again, the CPU is in no way the limiting factor of a Games machine, I could just leave it at 4.0 or 4.2 and it wouldn't chage the FPS much.

The memory won't just work in XMP mode, the PC refuses to boot, quite simply. I will be trying an increase in the Integrated memory controller voltage to see if that helps.
I don't want to be faffing for days getting the memory timings right, and benchmarking the memory.

The GPU isn't water cooled yet, thats for tomorrow (could be tonight, depends on how much beer is left from this weekend ) I'll also be re-seating the H100i, and applying some of the thermal paste that came with the EK waterblock for the GPU.

[Evildead666]

Here's the machine I've ordered for my wife a few months ago:

• Intel Core i7-4770‬‬
• ‫‪Scythe Kozuti
• ‬‬‫‪Gigabyte GA-Z87N-WIFI‬‬
• ‫‪G.Skill DDR3 16GB (2x8GB) 1866MHz 10-11-10-30 Ares
• ‫‪Samsung 840 Pro 2.5" 7mm 256GB SATA3 SSD
• ‫‪WD Caviar Black 2TB 64MB SATA3
• ‫‪Sapphire Radeon HD7970 3GB
• ‫‪Thermaltake Smart SE 730W‬‬
• ‫‪Lian Li PC-Q25 Black
• Dell 27" U2713HM
• Microsoft SideWinder X4‬‬
• CoolerMaster Sentinel Advance‬‬

Yes, it did cost an arm and a leg. She's using it mainly for photo editing with Adobe Lightroom.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6244[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]6245[/ATTACH]

Thats a sweet mini-ITX build
I'm planning (hoping) to not touch the PC once built, and build another complete system in 2-3 years.

I might get the itch before then, will just have to resist. and hide the credit cards.

[Evildead666]

So.
Got the Watercooling for the GPU up and running yesterday evening.
Almost didn't happen, due to the reservoir having threads that were slightly off compared to the pump top it was being mated to.
I ended up just forcing the screws a bit harder, and the two perspex parts came together nicely, albeit with a few creaks and pops.
No leaks though
I did a quick Furmark test at stock settings, and idle temps were 23°C, with load at 36°C. VRM temps were 51°C for the hottest.
Ambient was about 12°C (a guess, it was in the garage).

Just have one last thing to fix (bubbles in the reservoir), and I'll be able to get started to optimising the machine

[Evildead666]

And here it is working
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Just have this to put in and its finished.
sIMG_1854.jpg

[Umfriend]

Nice work. Where are the HDs and the SSD?