Potential new build. What do you think?

[Ambroos]

Also, the 4790K already runs at 4.4Ghz by default and probably won't OC much higher without sacrificing stability. You can easily air cool it. I have mine at a constant 4.4Ghz and the air cooling hardly ever speeds up and is barely audible. A Mugen 4 or Hyper212 EVO should really be enough. (I really don't get why people spend so much time squeezing a few hundred extra Mhz out of their CPU, especially not with the 4790K since it's clocked so high by default.

And don't get special gamer expensive mainboards if a mainstream Z97 one has everything you need. Waste of money.

[FiB3R]

Damn you Ambroos, your making my new rig less and less "special" :cry:

 

But then you are saving me money, which can go towards a new monitor :woot:

[Dashel]

I really like that case, been considering it or the 330R. Dat bezel!

[FiB3R]

Wasn't that hard to find the Samsung XP941 M.2 SSD :rofl:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-XP941-512GB-Solid-state/dp/B00J9V521S

 

?199 for the 256GB

 

I was liking the idea of not having a huge heatsink/fan taking up loads of space and getting it the way, but then having the dual rad in the top of the case kinda defeats the point of it being silent, which is quite important at this stage due to the PCs current location.

 

With that in mind, would the Corsair H80i at ?62.47 be a good idea? I'm thinking I could I mount the rad and one of the fans on the outside of the case. Not sure if that would be enough to cool the cpu and be the only exhaust fan.

 

The Crucial 16GB DDR3 1600MHz Ballistix Tactical Memory are a bit cheaper than the ones I listed, at ?129.04 and ?127.84 for the 1.35v and 1.5v versions respectively. They both have the same latency CL8 (8-8-8-24)

 

I would have thought being able to run at lower voltages was a good thing, so I thought the price would have been the other way around.

 

I don't know how to do the math regarding speed/latency, Does CL8 make up for the 800MHz difference?

[FiB3R]

I really like that case, been considering it or the 330R. Dat bezel!

Yeah, there are a lot of things I like about it.

 

I would have loved to have gone down the huge side window route, with water cooling and lit up like an Christmas tree, but currently it has to be tucked away, so that would have been a total wast of time.

 

Having the ports at the front rather than the top, was a must. Thick rubber feet, dampening for the HDDs and the rest of the sound proofing material. Removable dust filters, the door that can open in either direction without having to adjust anything, all good stuff :)

 

Think I would have liked it better if that little front panel was black though.

[FiB3R]

I'm liking the look of the Asus Z97-PRO Motherboard. Pretty sure it can use the M.2 SSD as a boot drive.

 

It has 2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (Single at x16, dual at x8/x8) So that's not great, right? If I was going dual gfx cards, I'd want x16/x16 right?

 

Does using an M.2 SSD have an effect on using dual gfx cards?

 

 

2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (Single at x16, dual at x8/x8)
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode) *1
4 x PCIe 2.0 x1 *2

1 x SATA Express port, compatible with 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports
1 x M.2 Socket 3, , with M Key, type 2260/2280 storage devices support (both SATA & PCIE mode)*3
4 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10
Supports Intel? Smart Response Technology, Intel? Rapid Start Technology, Intel? Smart Connect Technology *4
ASMedia? PCIe SATA controller : *5
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), black

*1 : The PCIe x16_3 slot shares bandwidth with USB3_E12 and PCIe x1_4. The PCIe x16_3 is default at x1 mode.
*2 : The PCIe x1_2 slot shares bandwidth with PCIe x1_3. The PCIe x1_2 is default disabled.
*3 : M.2 Socket 3 shares bandwidth with SATAExpress_1
*4 : These functions will work depending on the CPU installed.
*5 : These SATA ports are for data hard drivers only. ATAPI devices are not supported.

 

Damn, it's 6:30am I need to sleep :|

[neo1911]

Corsair make some awesome low-profile cases.

 

I myself have Corsair Carbide 330R and very happy about it.

 

[Ambroos]

I'm liking the look of the Asus Z97-PRO Motherboard. Pretty sure it can use the M.2 SSD as a boot drive.

 

It has 2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (Single at x16, dual at x8/x8) So that's not great, right? If I was going dual gfx cards, I'd want x16/x16 right?

 

Does using an M.2 SSD have an effect on using dual gfx cards?

 

 

Damn, it's 6:30am I need to sleep :|

 

That's a goodchoice in mainboard. x8/x8 will already be very hard for a GPU to saturate. If you really want more x16 lanes you will have to go up to Haswell-E, Haswell just doesn't have the lanes for it. But I wouldn't. An M.2 SSD uses two or four lanes, so that's maybe just a few less of those 1x PCIe slots. But I think it's worth it (those XP941's are really fast).

 

Be careful when picking a mainboard with an M.2 slot, as they have to support the right speeds. There's a few different variants. That Z97-Pro will use 2 PCIe lanes so you'll still be limited to around 800-900MB/s. And there's some reported issues with the XP941 (although now resolved as long as you update the BIOS/UEFI before installing Windows). If it's not too expensive I'd really consider getting this: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8045/asrock-z97-extreme6-review-ultra-m2-x4-tested-with-xp941 - but read the intro carefully, as using an M.2 SSD at the "ultra" speed will reduce your PCIe lanes to x8/x4 and you won't be able to SLI. If you put the M.2 in the non-ultra slot you'll get x8/x8 though, but then you're better off with the Asus Z97-Pro. It all depends on how important multi-GPU is for you. I'd recommend you to stick to single GPU and to get a nice fast nVidia one (much better drivers). But my gaming is limited to TF2 and I run that on integrated graphics, so you could ignore me there :p

 

Case-wise I'm personally a big fan of the Fractal Design Define R4, super-easy to install, really quiet and looks amazing. But that's personal preference of course.

 

For RAM latency; look in the table here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAS_latency#Formulas_used_to_calculate_latencies - the "first word" column is good to compare with. CL11 at 2400MT/s is slightly better than CL8 at 1600MT/s, for example. But I'd still just go for that nice low-power Crucial Ballistix. Also because of convenience, they're tiny modules and much less high than most!

[FiB3R]

ASRock Z97 Extreme6 Tests Samsung XP941 M.2 x4, Plextor M6e M.2 x2 and Samsung 840 Pro SATA 3 SSDs

A basic understanding of the connectors helps things along just a bit more. The SSD on the bottom is the 840 Pro with a SATA connector, Samsung XP941 on the left with a M.2 X4 connector, and the Plextor M6e on the top right with the M.2 X2 connector. The space in the XP941 is denoted as the ?M key and only these connectors can pass PCIe 4 lane (X4) speeds

However, it is a very important point to note that, if you have a PCIe X4 M.2 SSD connected, this immediately takes away four lanes, eliminating the possibility of any SLI configurations.

http://www.thessdreview.com/our-reviews/asrock-z97-extreme6-tests-pcie-m2-and-sata-ssds/

So SLI is out the window completely, if I go for the Samsung XP941?

Is there a mobo out there where this isn't the case?

Should I just get a stronger gfx card now to negate the need for SLI down the line? I can't see myself doing any 4K gaming any time soon.

If you have the patients to watch this all the way through (mofo can talk of England), this looks like a great monitor. ?695.99 though :omg:

 

Hearing good things about the QNIX 2710, I could get 3 of those for the same price :rofl: . Actually very tempted to get 2 monitors, really miss having dual screens.

[FiB3R]

Been a bit busy with other stuff, so PC build was on hold for a while, but I've been hunting again for the last couple of days and this is where I am...
 

From Dabs:
 
GFX - MSI GeForce GTX 970 1279MHz 4GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI Gaming TFV - ?279.99
 
Mobo - Asus MAXIMUS VII RANGER S1150 Intel Z97 DDR3 ATX - ?127.99
 
CPU - Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz 8MB S1150 'Devils Canyon' Processor - ?254.98
 
RAM - Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) Ballistix Tactical LP DDR3 UDIMM 240pin CL8 - ?137.72
 
Arctic Cooling MX-4 4gm Thermal Paste - ?3.99
 
Delivery - ?0.99
 
?805.66
- ?40 Dabs discount
- ?35 Intel/Asus cashback
Subtotal = ?730.66
 
 
From eBuyer:
 
CPU Cooler - Corsair Hydro Series H100i Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler Refurbished - ?57.99
 
CPU Cooler (for HTPC) - Scythe Shuriken Rev.B Quiet Low Profile CPU Cooler - ?26.09
 
Case fan (for HTPC) - Noctua NF-B9 PWM 92mm - ?14.52
 
Case fan (for HTPC) - Noctua NF-R8 PWM 80mm x 2 - ?26.62
 
 
From Amazon:
 
OS Drive - Samsung XP941 256GB M.2 NGFF PCIe Solid state drive SSD - ?199.99
 
 
From eBay:
 
Monitor - Qnix Qx2710 Evolution II, 2560x1440p, 120hz 27" perfect pixel monitor - ?295

From ASUS UK: ASUS Hyper M.2 X4 adapter card - ? Free :)

-------------------------------
Total Gaming Rig: ?1358.64 After discounts ?1283.64

Total spend today ?1385.87

[FiB3R]

Offered ?290 for the monitor, accepted the counter offer of ?295 due to it being in the UK.

 

I could have got it for around ?270 after paying import duty and waiting a month for it to arrive from Korea.

 

[FiB3R]

It's happened :woot:

 

All parts listed above ordered.

 

Also spent around ?5 on some capacitors to repair my HTPC motherboard.

[FiB3R]

######. eBay seller has let me down with the screen. :angry:

 

Getting a refund.