Help a non-gamer build a gaming rig...?

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

Now I can't edit lol!

 

 

I've always had the impression that stock coolers aren't up to much - Is this not the case anymore?

 

 

Been looking at PSUs - How's about Akasa AK-PA085AM05-UK Cobra 850W Hybrid Modular Power Supply?

         Does "6+2 pin" PCIE power mean I can use it for this new card (1 six-pin, 1 eight-pin)?

 

 

Also followed advice and looked at the board / CPU: How's about the Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H and the i5-4670?

I think that an 850W PSU is a bit overkill for your needs, you easily drop to 600W without worrying about power issues. I've never tried an Akasa PSU, so I can't tell you if it's any good or not, but it's not a particularly efficient PSU, so you're wasting your electric bill by heating your case. Here are a few options for cheaper that will still serve you well:

 

• Corsair CX600M (semi-modular, 80+ Bronze Certification)
• XFX 650W (NOT modular, 80+ Bronze Certification)
• EVGA SuperNOVA 650W PSU (Fully modular, 80+ GOLD Certification, slightly more expensive than your chosen PSU)

6+2 pin means that each connector has 6 pins, with two extra hanging off if you need them. a 6+2 can work in either a 6-pin port or an 8-pin port by using the +2 connector as well. In contrast, a simple 8-pin connector will only work in an 8-pin socket, and a simple 6-pin will only work on a 6-pin socket.

 

Board and CPU look fine :)

[TrickyDickie]

I think that an 850W PSU is a bit overkill for your needs, you easily drop to 600W without worrying about power issues. I've never tried an Akasa PSU, so I can't tell you if it's any good or not, but it's not a particularly efficient PSU, so you're wasting your electric bill by heating your case. Here are a few options for cheaper that will still serve you well:

 

• Corsair CX600M (semi-modular, 80+ Bronze Certification)
• XFX 650W (NOT modular, 80+ Bronze Certification)
• EVGA SuperNOVA 650W PSU (Fully modular, 80+ GOLD Certification, slightly more expensive than your chosen PSU)

6+2 pin means that each connector has 6 pins, with two extra hanging off if you need them. a 6+2 can work in either a 6-pin port or an 8-pin port by using the +2 connector as well. In contrast, a simple 8-pin connector will only work in an 8-pin socket, and a simple 6-pin will only work on a 6-pin socket.

 

Board and CPU look fine :)

 

I want the the 3-TB hard drives in as well - I used one of those power calculator tools and it came up at 850 watts.

If less will do, of course I'll go with less lol!

 

Modular on not modular? Does it matter much?

 

Thanks

[TrickyDickie]

Another question (cooler-related)

 

I just realised that the cooler I have will go on this new chip. (Noctua NH-U9B SE2)

The problem is that I was having a clear-out a few weeks ago and threw the box and the Intel mounting stuff out.

 

I was looking on the Noctua site they do a kit (it's also on eBay), but I am confused (yet again) - the listing says it is for Intel's LGA115x sockets. Is this what I need? Everything I have seen about the board and CPU say it is 'socket z87'.

 

Thanks again!

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

I want the the 3-TB hard drives in as well - I used one of those power calculator tools and it came up at 850 watts.

If less will do, of course I'll go with less lol!

 

Modular on not modular? Does it matter much?

 

Thanks

 

I get about 450W for a quick part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/majesticmerc/saved/2Vxv

 

PCPartPicker isn't amazingly accurate, but it's roughly ballpark. Most people can do SLI (dual graphics cards) on 750W, so 850 is a bit high in my opinion. Of course, if you want to go higher for your own peace of mind, I'm not going to stop you :).

 

Modular is better because you can take off the cables you don't use, whereas non-modular PSU's you have to hide the extra cables somewhere in the case, but non-modular is also usually cheaper, so it's a price/convience thing.

 

I don't know much about coolers I'm afraid, so hopefully someone else will be able to help.

[TrickyDickie]

I get about 450W for a quick part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/majesticmerc/saved/2Vxv

 

PCPartPicker isn't amazingly accurate, but it's roughly ballpark. Most people can do SLI (dual graphics cards) on 750W, so 850 is a bit high in my opinion. Of course, if you want to go higher for your own peace of mind, I'm not going to stop you :)

 

Modular is better because you can take off the cables you don't use, whereas non-modular PSU's you have to hide the extra cables somewhere in the case, but non-modular is also usually cheaper, so it's a price/convience thing.

 

I don't know much about coolers I'm afraid, so hopefully someone else will be able to help.

 

Thanks for that - I think I'll go for the EVGA 120-PG-0650-GR SuperNova NEX 650W PSU.

 

For the last cooler question, it is more of the question of whether the 'z87' and 'lga115x' are the same thing.

In reading the board info, it refers to 'z87 chipset', but also calls it a socket z87 board. I remember that there was only one Intel and one AMD mounting kit in the box.

[dafox]

 

I was looking on the Noctua site they do a kit (it's also on eBay), but I am confused (yet again) - the listing says it is for Intel's LGA115x sockets. Is this what I need? Everything I have seen about the board and CPU say it is 'socket z87'.

 

 

Yep thats the part you need as the cpu you are getting is that socket. The Z87 is the chipset version, you will notice the motherboard is  a Z87 motherboard.

 

For your build I would go a cheaper motherboard and put as much funds as possible into a better GPU. That motherboard is high end overclockers board, its very good but overkill for your needs.

 

Something like this or this would free up funds for a better GPU.

 

The Intel core i5 4670 non k model is the best bang for buck gaming cpu thats made by Intel. Only go the K model if you will overclock it sometime in the future.

[TrickyDickie]

Ok, I think I've got it sussed now...

 

Getting the following
- EVGA GeForce GTX 770 Superclocked ACX Nvidia Graphics Card
- Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H Intel Z87 Socket 1150 Motherboard - I like the look

of it lol
- Intel Core i5-4670K - Who knows, I may get brave and try overclocking in

the future, and it is only ?10 difference.
- That mounting kit so I can re-use my existing cooler. (That chip package

is without cooler)
- The EVGA 120-PG-0650-GR SuperNova NEX 650W Power Supply - More than

enough connecters already, so I won't have to worry about splitters!
- Maybe three 3-TB HDD for this Storage Spaces idea of mine. Still unsure there!
 
And will reuse the case, SSDs (though I might remove one so I don't need

to do any RAID), RAM and cooler (with the above-mentioned mounting kit).

 

Seem OK?

 

Thanks a lot for all of your input on this. 
 

[snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member]

It is worth mentioning that the K series unlocked processors are missing VT-d (directed i/o virtualization features) and TSX-NI (transactional memory extensions). It wasn't ever a win-win to buy a K unlocked series processor.

[Decebalvs Rex]

Overclocking is not so beautiful anymore. I would buy a different mobo , a cheap one to hold the ram and the cpu , an i5 non-k and a smaller PSU if you don't SLI. Now if you do it this way you can invest in a more powerful GPU wich is the most important piece for a gamer. Save some money and buy some nice headphones with a nice sound controller and youre set.

Don't invest in things wich won't count , having a powerfull mobo won't bring you any fps improvements.

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

Ok, I think I've got it sussed now...

 

Getting the following

- EVGA GeForce GTX 770 Superclocked ACX Nvidia Graphics Card

- Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H Intel Z87 Socket 1150 Motherboard - I like the look

of it lol

- Intel Core i5-4670K - Who knows, I may get brave and try overclocking in

the future, and it is only ?10 difference.

- That mounting kit so I can re-use my existing cooler. (That chip package

is without cooler)

- The EVGA 120-PG-0650-GR SuperNova NEX 650W Power Supply - More than

enough connecters already, so I won't have to worry about splitters!

- Maybe three 3-TB HDD for this Storage Spaces idea of mine. Still unsure there!

 

And will reuse the case, SSDs (though I might remove one so I don't need

to do any RAID), RAM and cooler (with the above-mentioned mounting kit).

 

Seem OK?

 

Thanks a lot for all of your input on this. 

Seems good to me! The only thing I'll comment on is that I don't think you need to RAID 0 your SSDs. You won't see any significant difference in speed (SSDs are already crazy quick) and 256GB of very fast storage will be much more useful to you than 128GB of extremely fast storage.

If you're unsure about your 3TB "storage spaces" thing you want to try, how about sticking with one 3TB drive for now, and then add additional drives as you need them. You'll save a good ?160, and you can still spend that money if you need it later :)

[primexx]

Sorry - I meant it is already on the board... POST, then RAID setup.

 And, I also meant 'striped' - The system drive already is, and has been for a while.

yea, that's not hardware raid. on-motherboard raid still uses your CPU (unless someone has come out with an actual built-in hardware raid controller, which i doubt since that'll jack up the price hugely). doesn't really matter the hit should be pretty much negligible. the real question is why the hell do you really want to strip your SSDs?

 

It is worth mentioning that the K series unlocked processors are missing VT-d (directed i/o virtualization features) and TSX-NI (transactional memory extensions). It wasn't ever a win-win to buy a K unlocked series processor.

 

this exactly this. so many people on hardware forums jump straight to K models by default even when OP specifically said they won't be overclocking. They're inferior at stock speeds! Only go with the K model if you overclock, otherwise go with the non-K model.

[snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member]

<snip>

 

this exactly this. so many people on hardware forums jump straight to K models by default even when OP specifically said they won't be overclocking. They're inferior at stock speeds! Only go with the K model if you overclock, otherwise go with the non-K model.

 

One reason that there might be a difference in the feature set between K and non-K models is that there could be HW compatibility issues with those features and an unlocked multiplier. It also could just be false segmenting in the market on Intels part. Feasibly it could be simply to force business/corporate customers to purchase higher-end CPU models instead of allowing them to purchase lower end processors and then OC them. Though, I don't exactly think it would be a great idea to run a virtualized server farm on OC'd machines in the first place. Sounds like it is begging for problems. One thing it does for sure though is make it so the only market for overclockers is amateur hobbyists for the most part (I may or may not be purposely trying a bit to pick at overclockers a bit here ;-)).

 

The only reason I went with a K model a few years ago is that it was a bundled with an Intel Mobo with a good amount off (read as: very very much off) via employee discounts from someone I know who was interning there. I do run hyper-v with a Linux (Crapbuntu) guest on it though. I'm not 100% sure that I would have been able to benefit from the VT-d extensions though. I haven't looked close enough at the requirements. The TSX extensions are something worth investigating as a point of research interest for me though. They are actually pretty interesting and clever in how they work in that they essentially yield free performance for no development costs. You just need to wrap some code in them and you can gain really good performance improvements in many cases. See:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6290/making-sense-of-intel-haswell-transactional-synchronization-extensions/4

[TrickyDickie]

@The people above commenting on the RAID SSDs: I just heard somewhere (Defrag show, Channel 9 on Microsoft) that it would be ######-hot.

Seems to run OK - Not that I really notice speed unless the PC is running like a bag of ######!

 

@+Majesticmerc: Yeah, I might just use a single SSD so I don't have to have raid enabled at all. Takes to long to power off and swap cables to get the bloody thing right every time I pull the sata data cables out to clean the inside of the PC.

 

@Decebalvs Rex: Yeah - Have been looking at other mainboards too. And lower-power PSUs.

 

Might still go with the non-k version of the chip - I want to run VMs more than I want to overclock, I think.

And 'virtualized server farm '? - Not quite what I need, but sounds cool! lol

 

I've now got a good idea of what I'm doing - Certainly far better than when I started this thread!

 

Thanks very much again for all of your advice.

[Andre S. Veteran]

Might still go with the non-k version of the chip - I want to run VMs more than I want to overclock, I think.

Keep in mind VT-d also needs to be supported by the motherboard - not a given on Z87 apparently. I don't which do and which don't, you'll have to do your research (or ask someone who knows).