Opinions On My New/Upgraded Computer

[Brannigans Law]

ASUS HD7870 Radeon. I liked this one because it has a great price/quality/noise ratio. On load it's a mere 37 DB's, and silent while doing desktop activity. http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX40143

3 TB WD Caviar drive. Nothing special. http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX34380


http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX38590
P8Z77-V LX w/ Dual DDR3, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, CrossFireX

It's ASUS and reviewed well online so good enough for me. USB 3 and has good onboard audio it seems.



Noctua CPU cooler. Again insanely low DB rating, basically a silent fan for my CPU. http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX34316

The heart of the computer is the i5-3570K. Good for gaming and a newer CPU compared to my old POS. Nothing fancy but still a nice little chip.

And now for the case... the part of my new comp I'm happiest about. It's a Fractal Design R4 case. It's simple and beautiful and has a lot of noise cancelling features. My favourite thing besides the noise cancellation foam and attention to detail on DB's is the air filters designed to keep the inside of my CPU clean. I'll have to remember to clean that every month or two tho but a small price to pay.

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX40045





I picked up the case today and will be dropping it off at memory express tomorrow to get this thing built. I'll be considering going with a faster CPU tonight. I'm thinking I want to keep this machine for a while and spending an extra hundred or so now may be worth it. Thoughts on something in an i7 that is worth the uprgrade in price over the i5?

And there she is. My computer starting next week.

Edit: After some more reading I think I'll stick with the same i5 as it's best for gaming even over i7's and I'll spend an extra 50 bucks and get this for my video card:


http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX37641

ASUS 7950

[PsYcNeT]

Yeah I posted a big rant in some other thread a few weeks ago about why an i7 is a waste of cash if all you're doing with it is gaming. So good on yah, the build looks good and the 7950 is a great card.

[Brannigans Law]

Actually pretty glad that memory express didn't have that card in stock. I wound up with this:

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX41704



ASUS GTX 660 OC.

23 decibels surfing and other desktop activity, 26 or 25 on load in a game. for 40% less than the 670 I was looking at with only 8% drop off in Skyrim. Crazy good value and the card is basically silent. So pleased.

[PsYcNeT]

Eh not to bag on it too much, but you might be thinking of the 660ti (which is good), not the 660 (which is okay).

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/550?vs=660

The 7950 handily beats a 660, but is similar (worse or better by ~10% depending on the game) than a 660ti.

Either way, still good, but solidly mid-range, while I'd call a 7950/660Ti mid-high.

[Brannigans Law]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Eh not to bag on it too much, but you might be thinking of the 660ti (which is good), not the 660 (which is okay).

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/550?vs=660

The 7950 handily beats a 660, but is similar (worse or better by ~10% depending on the game) than a 660ti.

Either way, still good, but solidly mid-range, while I'd call a 7950/660Ti mid-high.

According to the site 660 (not ti) gets 86 fps in skyrim. The 7950 gets the same 86. For dx 11 batman arkham the 7950 gets 82. The 660 gets 75. And that site measured the regular 660 not the oc. Considering how much cheaper and quieter it is the 660 was the easiest decision I made for my new computer besides the i5

[Brannigans Law]

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX40404

vs

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX34380

I didn't want to go with the 7200 RPM Seagate cuz of the chirping issue which wasn't fixed at all by the firmware for my 2 TB drive

Is NAS appropriate for ahome use if I'm not using RAID or networking? If I use it just as a regular drive? Or should I save the 30 bucks and go with the 5400 RPM?

My use of the drive will be for backup purposes, and media like movies and tv shows to stream.

edit: After doing some googling it seems the NAS drive is the same thing just has opimized firmware for RAID but can be used just as a regular SATA. According to people on tomshardware anyways.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX40404

vs

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX34380

I didn't want to go with the 7200 RPM Seagate cuz of the chirping issue which wasn't fixed at all by the firmware for my 2 TB drive

Is NAS appropriate for ahome use if I'm not using RAID or networking? If I use it just as a regular drive? Or should I save the 30 bucks and go with the 5400 RPM?

My use of the drive will be for backup purposes, and media like movies and tv shows to stream.

edit: After doing some googling it seems the NAS drive is the same thing just has opimized firmware for RAID but can be used just as a regular SATA. According to people on tomshardware anyways.

I'm not super up on NAS functions, but from what I've seen you're basically paying more for a drive at the same speed. 5400rpm drives can be achingly slow if you are running any kind of executables off of them however.

I generally recommend WD Black drives, but they can be expensive and are audible when reading. If this is just for storage, then the Green should be fine. If you plan on sticking any programs at all on it, get a 7200rpm drive or a Hybrid like http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX36731

[Brannigans Law]

The NAS is 7200 tho

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

The NAS is 7200 tho

I guess it begs the question then, why buy a Red drive over a Black drive?

[photon]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6157/w...th-the-premium

EDIT: Full Disclosure, I have Red drives in my NAS

[Brannigans Law]

Memory express doesn't have a black 3 Tb

[PsYcNeT]

NCIX has a 4 TB Black on for $50 off, but it's still damn expensive.

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=78374&...D&promoid=1302

[Hack&Lube]

What do you need a black for?

I stopped buying blacks in favor of greens since SSDs came out. If you RAID 0 two greens, they'll be faster an a black also.

[PsYcNeT]

I honestly haven't bought a mechanical HDD in 4+ years, but they're what I used to buy. I've been giving Crucial a lot of business in the last 2 years.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by photon

All reviews I've ever read of water cooling have the water cooling being nosier. You can get a quiet fan, but the pump will still make noise (unless they've managed to make silent pumps now).

Plus it's added complexity for no gain, a air supercooler will let you overclock quite a bit while keeping your CPU cool an still remain quiet.

The review I linked uses a Core i7 3.33GHz OCed to 4.41GHz for their tests, and both the Noctua and Thermalright keep the CPU at or below 80 degrees while being near silent.

If you are paying $80-90 for an air-cooled solution, it is my opinion that you might as well get an all in one water-cooling solution (such as the Antec Kuhler 920 mentioned in the first post in this thread).

I have found it's actually less complex and makes mounting CPUs easier and it takes stress away from the board because you don't have a large weight hanging off of it.

It's Apples vs Oranges but I greatly prefer my Kuhler to the giant Thermalright 120 coolers I was using previously.

The pump is pretty much silent unless I have my head in the case. I'm about 10° cooler at load and it can run hotter for much longer with slower fan speeds. One reason this works well is also because radiators normally mount to your case and intake or exhaust directly to the outside while most air coolers will recycle air from inside your case.

[photon]

Increased complexity I just meant it's more things to fail. Rather than 1 fan failing, now there's two or more plus a pump plus the risk of leakage (and I don't know if there's a lifespan on the coolant, if it needs to be replaced or monitored).

The Silent PC Review review of the Kuhler has it hotter at the same noise level compared to a big tower cooler.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1214-page7.html

My definition of quiet though I think is different than many, my PC is quieter than people talking outside down the street, I can hardly tell the difference between on and off.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by photon

Increased complexity I just meant it's more things to fail. Rather than 1 fan failing, now there's two or more plus a pump plus the risk of leakage (and I don't know if there's a lifespan on the coolant, if it needs to be replaced or monitored).

Closed-loop coolers in theory should have a lifespan as long as a socket is usable. So ~5 years or so.

[Brannigans Law]

Glad I had a closer look apparently the red is on fact 5400 not like memory express lists. Boo.

Does anyone have any experience with the 3tb Seagate drives and any chirping?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by photon

Increased complexity I just meant it's more things to fail. Rather than 1 fan failing, now there's two or more plus a pump plus the risk of leakage (and I don't know if there's a lifespan on the coolant, if it needs to be replaced or monitored).

The Silent PC Review review of the Kuhler has it hotter at the same noise level compared to a big tower cooler.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1214-page7.html

My definition of quiet though I think is different than many, my PC is quieter than people talking outside down the street, I can hardly tell the difference between on and off.

The SilentPC review uses an open test bed instead of a case which actually makes a big difference here even though it might not seem intuitive at first. My rad actually intakes INTO the case (and that's what most manufacturers instructions tell you to do) so only fresh cold air hits the radiator first...but you could achieve the same with an air cooler with a duct inside a case. The case also dampens a lot of the noise and vibration from fans and pump.

Another interesting fact is that Corsair's coolers are engineered by CoolIT which is a Calgary company. A disappointing note is that I originally went with a Corsair unit but returned it and later bought the Antec because of knocking from air bubbles in the pump. Also, I was lucky I got a CSR that didn't know much as I was able to return it because apparentely, MemEx has a no-return policy on watercooling. I'm not sure why this is.

Originally Posted by Memory Express

All Software, Movies, Special orders, Water-Cooling and Projector sales are Final.

But if silence and not overclocking with high voltages is your primary concern, then by all means, a standard heatpiped aluminum cooler is all you need. One thing that explains the increased noise is because of the density of radiator fins and their corrugated structure requires fans with greater static pressure than that of fans that typically push air through the wider-spaced fin structure of a traditional heatsink.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Another interesting fact is that Corsair's coolers are engineered by CoolIT which is a Calgary company. A disappointing note is that I originally went with a Corsair unit but returned it for the Antec because of knocking from air bubbles in the pump. Also, I was lucky that I could return because apparentely, MemEx has a no-return policy on watercooling!!! I'm not sure why this is.

The H100i block looks a lot like the old CoolIT designs, and IMO seems to work much better. Shame about the terrible stock fans though.