1-1.3k gaming PC

[dkmech]

The Windows 8 policy of allowing OEM licences to be used as personal use licences now no longer holds (they changed it with the 8.1 release in fact). The current licence agreement states you can only go for an OEM licence if you're building the machine to sell to someone else, otherwise you need to pay a couple of quid extra for the retail version.

Good to know, thanks. Although perhaps I could build and sell it to my wife so she can give it to me as a birthday present?

Why such a high end cooler? I'd go for something mid-range, £20-30. The Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo at £25 is popular at the moment.

The benefits of spending three times as much seem minimal. You might get another 100Mhz out of the CPU, then again you might not.

I've always had to be very sensible before, so there is a note of a little splashing out and overcompensating coming through for this one as I can afford a few nice things, which is why I thought I'd get you guys to voice some opinions.

To be honest am not entirely sure i need 16 gb either, but might be awkward trying to match another 8gb later on so might as well...

[dkmech]

Mobo, CPU, RAM, Case, Cooler, PSU ordered.

I am spending too much time choosing the stupid R9 brand.

[KeyboardDemon]

Yeah, Windows 10, although not sure if much point to go for retail as I end up keeping my previous pcs for a while and they have to keep some sort of windows on. I am assuming a certain amount of upgrading is permissible... I expect this will have to last me 5-7 years with an interim upgrade.

When I built this rig I was upgrading from a Phenom II X4 965 to this 3770K, that was 3 years ago and even now that Skylake has come out my rig still holds it's own, the newer parts are not pulling massively ahead with regards to frame rates or general gaming performance though I would expect to see processes that are more heavily CPU bound to show much bigger gains with the Skylake parts. I see no reason at the moment for me to change my mobo and CPU in the forseeable future, other than for personal e-peen style bragging rights, I still have 2 years left on my mobo warranty and feel confident that the rig will outlast that warranty. I see no reason to suspect that you won't be able to get that same length of service if not more from your selection of hardware.

Mobo, CPU, RAM, Case, Cooler, PSU ordered.

I am spending too much time choosing the stupid R9 brand.

Congrats, are you going to be posting a build log?

What is it that you getting hung up on with choosing your R9 brand? Is it looks, price, manufacturer/service arrangements/warranty or some other factor?

If warranty is one of your main concerns, check this out before hitting your credit card.

[dkmech]

Congrats, are you going to be posting a build log?

I'll probably take a few pics. This isn't however one of those colour coded beauty queens but I'll try to do it justice.

What is it that you getting hung up on with choosing your R9 brand? Is it looks, price, manufacturer/service arrangements/warranty or some other factor?

If warranty is one of your main concerns, check this out before hitting your credit card.

Will have a look at warranty info later on, thanks.
Don't care about looks (inside PC anyway, hence no window).
Price and warranty do matter, although I may be too hung up on wanting to make sure that if I pay 15 quid extra for a few mhz or something that I get 15 quids worth of value for it, which is a remnant of the skinter days.

Most reviews I've seen seem to say that the card they bought is lovely and quiet when they are not using it (duh!) but sounds like a rocket ship when it gets hot.

I don't expect it to be dead quiet as I know a bit about physics, but I don't want to get something that is abnormally noisy either.

I am basically over-thinking it

[dkmech]

It is done.

This is what it ended up as (ignore shops and prices to an extent, some of them were different). Windows 10 pro in the end too.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/NPDMNG

Sandisk based on a hexus review.

Will now be trickling over the next week to be built the weekend after this one (as I can't get everything here in time for Saturday).

[Marcvs]

Because the noctua will be quieter; and you can ever re-use it on unreleased sockets . If you need anything you can just email them and they are super-helpful.

I suspect it will be 300-400Mhz actually; but I will be testing it later with my CPU that can do 5Ghz (on custom water loop).

I also went with the DH14 because its a little bit smaller than the DH15, and the DH15 (while being a fantastic cooler) can have some issues with motherboard clearance and the define R4 isn't the biggest case around.

I can give Sapphire a solid thumbs up - ri X R9 290s (Flashed to 290Xs) working happily for about 1.5 Years, and they are nice and quiet.

PPS: Did you end up going with Skylake i5?

The Windows 8 policy of allowing OEM licences to be used as personal use licences now no longer holds (they changed it with the 8.1 release in fact). The current licence agreement states you can only go for an OEM licence if you're building the machine to sell to someone else, otherwise you need to pay a couple of quid extra for the retail version.



Why such a high end cooler? I'd go for something mid-range, £20-30. The Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo at £25 is popular at the moment.

The benefits of spending three times as much seem minimal. You might get another 100Mhz out of the CPU, then again you might not.



Which ever company you prefer support-wise really. They hardware is so close you're never going to notice any difference.

[dkmech]

Yes I went for skylake.

Everything other than Windows has arrived, although I have decided to do a mirror array with two WDs - the second should arrive tomorrow. Seeing as this will be a long term pc worth investing £60 from the start into some extra piece of mind.

Went with a gigabyte r9 as warranty seems alright and they are all much of a muchness.

Will be building it on Friday night. Hope windows turns up on Friday or it will be a slightly tense weekend. Considering slapping linux on to try it out if windows don't get here.

[KeyboardDemon]

Yes I went for skylake.

Everything other than Windows has arrived, although I have decided to do a mirror array with two WDs - the second should arrive tomorrow. Seeing as this will be a long term pc worth investing £60 from the start into some extra piece of mind.

Went with a gigabyte r9 as warranty seems alright and they are all much of a muchness.

Will be building it on Friday night. Hope windows turns up on Friday or it will be a slightly tense weekend. Considering slapping linux on to try it out if windows don't get here.

I think Gigabyte are an excellent choice for the GPU.

For the HDDs, I would consider adding a third drive and going RAID 5 for a performance boost as well as redundancy/data integrity etc...

[dkmech]

It's built but no windows so only basic checks so far. Photos to follow.

[Bonebreaker777]

I think Gigabyte are an excellent choice for the GPU.

For the HDDs, I would consider adding a third drive and going RAID 5 for a performance boost as well as redundancy/data integrity etc...

Doesn't RAID 5 increases read speed but has reduced write speed? Just asking. Not like in a regular environment anybody would notice.

It's built but no windows so only basic checks so far. Photos to follow.

Couldn't you install a trial and enter your code once it arrives? I think you should get a good 3 days out of it without activation. Enough to get down drivers and testing (and if any instability is present).

[KeyboardDemon]

Doesn't RAID 5 increases read speed but has reduced write speed? Just asking. Not like in a regular environment anybody would notice.

I think you would lose a little performance over a fully striped array using 3 drives during write operations, but I think it is still faster writing than using a 2 drives with a mirrored array, potentially 2x times the write speeds, but I don't fully know how the data and parity block are written, I just understand that the parity block uses an xor process to build the data that protects the drives against loss through data redundancy. Compared to a mirrored array you only lose 1/3 of your total drive capacity while a mirrored array loses 1/2 of your total drive capacity and offers no performance increase in read or write speeds.

Couldn't you install a trial and enter your code once it arrives? I think you should get a good 3 days out of it without activation. Enough to get down drivers and testing (and if any instability is present).

I thought that the trial versions run for 30 days.

[dkmech]

I did have some minor snags.
The CPU power cable is only just about long enough.
The 2.5" cages on the back plate were too tight for the Sandisk, so had to mount it above the hdds in the end.
One stick of ram didn't sit properly so after it wasn't found I had to re-seat it.
Other than that - the case is well thought out. Just need to get my head around RAID and getting it to boot. I did install ubuntu to see it working, but it won't let me chose the right boot drive.

As far as raid 5 - yeah, that would be great, but it's another 60 quid... I'll think about it. Also would mean sticking the 5 bay cage in instead of the 3 drive one as with the SSD in place there is no more room there.







I did have a little help. Those SATA cables need watching!

[dkmech]

Oh, and the biggest snag is the power button. Unlike the awkward one on my CM 690 it is lovely, round, beautiful (although a little scratched) and right in the eye-line of my 22 month daughter who just loves to press it... I may need to work out another solution. Can I rewire the reset button to the power switch? At least until she gets bored of pressing it. Which will be never.

[Bonebreaker777]

What a nice kitty

[dkmech]

Hehe. Yes he is.

Update.

Ordered the 3rd drive and two external power buttons. So problem solved hopefully.

[dkmech]

It appears that I was mounting the ssd on the wrong side of the bracket. This means I will have the space for the 3rd drive without swapping the cages. Had to find an ide to sata power adapter though as not enough sata power cables provided with the power supply.