Computer build questions - uh oh

[Couperin47]

it appears to be acting exactly like a mb where the cpu isn't connected to a working heatsink and instantly shutting off, do they ship the Intel HS these days with a plastic film covering the strips of grey (crappy) thermal compund they use ? sure you removed this before attaching (it's been quite a while since I did any build using the stock HS...)

 

[Couperin47]

Those clips are supposed to keep the leads from interfering (many as i told you wind up with the leads coming off much further away, then they pull them out of the clips and often do wind up getting in the way of the blades...)

 

[Yaz4Ever]

no plastic over it.  I removed the fan to double-check that we didn't miss it.  Saw smeared thermal compound on both the cpu and the bottom of the fan assembly.  I didn't add any compound - would that make a difference?

 

[Couperin47]

OK lets go another route, though it's unlikely: remove all the minileads to the case leds etc, just leave the connection to the power switch

 

[Yaz4Ever]

Those clips are supposed to keep the leads from interfering (many as i told you wind up with the leads coming off much further away, then they pull them out of the clips and often do wind up getting in the way of the blades...)

Yeah, that's what I assumed.  Strange that his problem sounded similar to mine and he got his working quickly.  I've also read that some people have a bad cpu fan header on the motherboard.  If they change the fan wire to another header, it'll often work.  Not sure if that screws anything up in the BIOS, though, if the CPU fan header isn't registering a fan.

 

[Yaz4Ever]

OK lets go another route, though it's unlikely: remove all the minileads to the case leds etc, just leave the connection to the power switch

just power switch mini lead, mb power and cpu power, and the cpu fan wire.  I'll try that now.

 

[Couperin47]

No, it should have smeared itself...btw if we remove this and refit more than 1 or 2 times, the stuff they use will become useless and you will have to use better aftermarket compound...a tiny syringe of Artic Silver (a standard) will run you all of 6-$8

 

[Couperin47]

All the fan headers should default to be ON...that's the next thing to try, you will have to take the leads out of the clips for that.. all fan headers are 12v and 12v is 12v

 

[Couperin47]

The mb isn't that intelligent, it doesn't "sense" a cpu fan, except that in ther BIOS you can control the speed of some or all the fans, sometimes individually, based on what they call each header. In fact, the Intel hs/fan is so marginal it's not a good idea to have that fan running anything other than 100% all the time, esp in a room where the temps will ever go over 75 F.

 

[Yaz4Ever]

I tried it on one of the sys fan headers and no luck.  Same thing.

 

[Couperin47]

Well we have a mb, a cpu, a hs/fan and a power supply. It's not the PS, the fan shudders and 12v is the easiest to deliver and bad PS are rare. I'm going to assume you inserted the cpu properly, they make it prretty hard to get that wrong these days. Either the mb has issues or you really screwed up the mounting of the HS and it's shutting off because it's overheating.....

 

[Couperin47]

I have about 30 other hs and fans lying around here, I'd plug one into the other headers and see if we're getting steady 12v to them...I'm guessing you don't have any spare parts lying around...

 

[Yaz4Ever]

No, I don't have any spare parts.
 
Based on that, I'm going with a mb issue.  The CPU was fairly straight-forward and simply as was attaching the fan to it.
 
One thing - one of the holes on the mb didn't have a corresponding hole in the case.  I know I have the mb situated correctly as the backpanel usb drives, etc can only go one way.
 
If you look at this picture:
 

it's the one between the Gigabyte covering and the RAM (the lower of the two).  All 6 of the others lined up perfectly and allowed me to use the risers without issue.

 

[Couperin47]

LOL I noticed that, that hole is VERY non-standard. Here's the deal: the other 6 holes are standard and have been so for all "ATX" mb for a decade. If you look at the case there is another set of 3 holes further out, those are for what is a "Full  Size ATX" format... which almost no one makes anymore except for server mb... the kind that need the room for dual cpus. This has led to most mb overhanging the existing supports by quite a bit... and at the worst possible edge: the one where you need considerable force to insert the 24 pin connector. Smart folks insert something under that edge for the minute it takes to plug that in. Give Gigabyte props for attempting to add a support near that point... the problem is it's completely non-standard and virtually no cases will have the mounting hole it requires...
 
OK so here's what you do: You return the mb immediately for swap. You buy this http://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Silver-Thermal-Compound-Grams/dp/B000OGX5AM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402625203&sr=8-1&keywords=artic+silver. When the new mb comes in here's how you clean both the HS and the cpu: 1. you take a soft cloth (old tee shirt is best) you spray a small amount of WD40 on the cloth and it will clean off the grey gunk almost instantly. Now take a fresh part of that cloth, dampen with pure isopropyl alcohol, the 70% stuff is ok, I prefer the 91% for this sort of stuff, that will remove the WD 40. You put an amount of the AS barely larger than 2 big grains of rice in the dead center of the HS copper core, and reattach. AS is more liquid, the Intel stuff is almost like a thin clay, the AS will spread more evenly and much thinner and do a far better job.

 

[Yaz4Ever]

LOL I noticed that, that hole is VERY non-standard. Here's the deal: the other 6 holes are standard and have been so for all "ATX" mb for a decade. If you look at the case there is another set of 3 holes further out, those are for what is a "Full  Size ATX" format... which almost no one makes anymore except for server mb... the kind that need the room for dual cpus. This has led to most mb overhanging the existing supports by quite a bit... and at the worst possible edge: the one where you need considerable force to insert the 24 pin connector. Smart folks insert something under that edge for the minute it takes to plug that in. Give Gigabyte props for attempting to add a support near that point... the problem is it's completely non-standard and virtually no cases will have the mounting hole it requires...
 
OK so here's what you do: You return the mb immediately for swap. You buy this http://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Silver-Thermal-Compound-Grams/dp/B000OGX5AM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402625203&sr=8-1&keywords=artic+silver. When the new mb comes in here's how you clean both the HS and the cpu: 1. you take a soft cloth (old tee shirt is best) you spray a small amount of WD40 on the cloth and it will clean off the grey gunk almost instantly. Now take a freah part of that cloth, dampen with pure isopropyl alcohol, the 70% stuff is ok, I prefer the 91% for this sort of stuff, that will remove the WD 40. You put an amount of the AS barely larger than 2 big grains of rice in the dead center of the HS copper core, and reattach.

Got it.  I will follow those directions to the "t", I promise
 
I was seriously very careful with the parts, but I'm not going to say there's no way I did something wrong.  Do you think it was just defective or something I did?  When the new one comes in, I'll be out of state, so we'll continue this build in about two weeks.  My son is very disappointed, but it's a good learning experience for him.

 

[Couperin47]

Got it.  I will follow those directions to the "t", I promise

btw bad motherboards are not all that rare, after bad memory it's the 2nd most common thing to arrive 'wrong'....

 

[Couperin47]

Intel CPU can be completely tested totally automatically and they are...there's always a chance you got a bad hs/fan. I have several extras lying around here. PM your address, I'll throw an extra into the mail for you.

 

[Yaz4Ever]

Doing the exchange paperwork now.  New one should arrive long before I get back into town, but not likely in time for us to do anything before I leave.  We'll go through the proper steps the next time.

 

[pmb116]

Just to double check, you used the back posts between the motherboard and case as well when you mounted it right? Surprisingly enough I've seen a couple motherboards short out from inexperienced builders making that mistake.

 

[SpacemanzGerbil]

Figured I'd piggyback this thread. The time has come for a new build and this time I am looking to do a smaller, more powerful machine. I do not like my choice of monitor, so any recommendations would be welcome there. I will also pick up the CPU at Microcenter and save a few bucks, unless anyone recommends a different CPU Microcenter doesn't carry on the cheap.
 
Any critiques are welcome.
 
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
 
CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($185.98 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($74.29 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card  ($169.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Rosewill Line-M MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($39.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($53.99 @ Newegg) 
Monitor: Asus VE247H 23.6" Monitor  ($129.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $814.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-01 16:51 EST-0500

 

[Couperin47]

 
Figured I'd piggyback this thread. The time has come for a new build and this time I am looking to do a smaller, more powerful machine. I do not like my choice of monitor, so any recommendations would be welcome there. I will also pick up the CPU at Microcenter and save a few bucks, unless anyone recommends a different CPU Microcenter doesn't carry on the cheap.
 
Any critiques are welcome.
 
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
 
CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($185.98 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($74.29 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card  ($169.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Rosewill Line-M MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($39.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($53.99 @ Newegg) 
Monitor: Asus VE247H 23.6" Monitor  ($129.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $814.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-01 16:51 EST-0500
 

 
You clearly know what you're doing:
 
Nobody will beat Microcenter prices on the cpu and you've gone for the best bang for buck.
 
There are so many sales on some of this stuff right now:
 
Your price for the ram is excellent (these days you want to spend no more than $60-65 for 8 Gig and Skill is fine...if you see Kingston at the same price, it's the brand that has not given me a bad stick out-of-the-box in several years).
 
Corsair CX stuff is on sale every other week, so are things like the Antec NEOEco 620c... (on sale a week ago after rebate $30) these are equally good, no way you should spend more than $35 for this with rebate.
 
There are so many sales on SSD it's ridiculous atm: Find the best sale on the Samsung EVO, Intel 730, OCZ or Crucial and buy it, the 4 top brands and you'll never tell the difference.
 
I assume you know exactly what that video card is capable of...
 
Unless your primary use for this rig is pure gaming, the Asus monitor is a blah choice: fast TN panel. For more general use an IPS panel is likely to provide better color rendition, guaranteed to give wider viewing angles and almost certainly clearer text. Something like the Viewsonic VX2370SMH-LED is likely to be better:
 
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008RM235I/?tag=extension-kb-20
 
but tell us what you're using this rig for, there are also a ton of serious sales on monitors this time of year.

 

 

[SpacemanzGerbil]

I do some light gaming and, truthfully, I wanted a rig that could run the newest Dragon's Age. With the monitor and gaming, I'm not sure I want/need IPS. The one I listed shows a nice speed, though it has some bad comments regarding ghosting, which turned me off in the end. I'm not sure if a generic 5ms monitor isn't all I need in the end. And to ramble further, while I know there should be a shitload of monitor deals the past week, I haven't really seen much. 
 
The other qualifier is video editing, so I'm not entirely sure whether to suck it up for an i7 or if the i5 can get the job done just fine. 
 
The video card business drives me nuts. I start fully intending to buy a Geforce, look at benchmarks and wind up buying a AMD for $30 less, then find the one game in its generation that has issues with AMD vs Geforce and spend the next several years with buyer's remorse. That said, I don't think I'm going to find a better bang for the buck than a 760 for $170. 
 
Thanks for the advice on the PSU. All the advice one gets is to buy a Seasonic, and while I understand, my dumpy Antec I bought five years ago is still chugging along just fine. I'll probably dump a couple additional spindle drives into the box, but I'm assuming 600 watts won't blink at that. Are there ever any decent sales on PSUs that aren't rebate fueled? I hate rebates.
 
Those OCZ SSDs are super cheap right now and my brother is running one with no problems at the moment but I thought they bankrupted due to shit products? From all the research I've done, the Samsung and Intel SSDs are supposed to be fairly foolproof and fast. The price on that Samsung got me drooling, but the 500 GB drive prices seem to be in freefall. If the Samsung 500 GB EVOs start going on sale for $150 a month after I buy a 250 GB for $100, I could see some serious buyer's remorse setting in. So, the question becomes, the $100 EVO today, the 500 GB OCZ despite the bad rap or wait a month and see what happens?
 
Thanks for the feedback, man.

 

[Couperin47]

I do some light gaming and, truthfully, I wanted a rig that could run the newest Dragon's Age. With the monitor and gaming, I'm not sure I want/need IPS. The one I listed shows a nice speed, though it has some bad comments regarding ghosting, which turned me off in the end. I'm not sure if a generic 5ms monitor isn't all I need in the end. And to ramble further, while I know there should be a shitload of monitor deals the past week, I haven't really seen much. 
 
The other qualifier is video editing, so I'm not entirely sure whether to suck it up for an i7 or if the i5 can get the job done just fine. 
 
The video card business drives me nuts. I start fully intending to buy a Geforce, look at benchmarks and wind up buying a AMD for $30 less, then find the one game in its generation that has issues with AMD vs Geforce and spend the next several years with buyer's remorse. That said, I don't think I'm going to find a better bang for the buck than a 760 for $170. 
 
Thanks for the advice on the PSU. All the advice one gets is to buy a Seasonic, and while I understand, my dumpy Antec I bought five years ago is still chugging along just fine. I'll probably dump a couple additional spindle drives into the box, but I'm assuming 600 watts won't blink at that. Are there ever any decent sales on PSUs that aren't rebate fueled? I hate rebates.
 
Those OCZ SSDs are super cheap right now and my brother is running one with no problems at the moment but I thought they bankrupted due to shit products? From all the research I've done, the Samsung and Intel SSDs are supposed to be fairly foolproof and fast. The price on that Samsung got me drooling, but the 500 GB drive prices seem to be in freefall. If the Samsung 500 GB EVOs start going on sale for $150 a month after I buy a 250 GB for $100, I could see some serious buyer's remorse setting in. So, the question becomes, the $100 EVO today, the 500 GB OCZ despite the bad rap or wait a month and see what happens?
 
Thanks for the feedback, man.

 
All power supply sales are rebate based, unfortunately, only 10 days ago Newegg had a sale on the  Seasonic M12II 620 PS their bronze equivalent, after $10 rebate...$50.
 
OCZ made a ton of SSDs, an array of bewildering models, and their quality control was pure shit, almost all used Sandforce controllers... return rates went thru the roof and they went bankrupt. About 8 months ago Toshiba bought them... Toshiba makes some of the best nand on the planet, they have engineered new controllers based on Marvel designs, this new stuff is all first rate and they are being very aggressive on pricing to gain market share... their stuff is now first rate.
 
Monitors are all over the place...this is a serious step up from what you're looking at: 24" 16:10 1920x1200 quality IPS. I have 2 friends who do some gaming but otherwise use their puters for a variety of applications. Both have been blown away by the quality of this model. Remember you stare at this for hours on end, going for something small and low quality is throttling your entire experience where it matters most: the interface to YOU.
 
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C2ARHSY/?tag=extension-kb-20

 

[SpacemanzGerbil]

Great advice, especially on the monitor.
 
Thanks again.

 

[Nick Kaufman]

Most of the stuff you ve chosen look good to me. The one thing I noticed on your built is the board. The chipset is H87, but if you want to overclock, you want a Z87. I also go for either Gigabyte or Asus, but if you ve got good experiences with AS Rock, go for it.

 

[Nick Kaufman]

Let me get your opinion an a build I am planning of putting together. I ve got some spare parts from previous builds. An  Intel 160GB SSD, a 1T WD Black caviar, 8 gigs of ram, an H50 cooler and an ATI Radeon HD4650 graphic card. And I want buy the rest of the parts to do a build for a friend who will use it for basic office stuff, internet browsing and as an HTPC playing mostly torrented mkv files. 
 
My goal is to make this build as future proof as possible while spending the money as efficiently as possible. All the same, I am a bit of a geek, so i can't help but overprovision for some parts and go for quality where feasible.

So far, after research, I ve settled on a Rosewill Legacy U3 case and an Asus H87 mATX board.

I am not sure what to do with:
 
1. The CPU processor. Go for an i3 for which the lowest price I ve found is $100, or stick with a Pentium G3258? My inner geek says to go for the i3, because, you know.... POWER and HT. But I am not sure it's worth it.
 
2. Relatedly, is the HD4650 useful or will the processor's integrated graphics do the job and I should just sell the card on ebay? If I go with integrated graphics is there a difference then between the i3 and the pentium?
 
3. Last, but not least, I am looking for a wireless PCIe card and looking at newegg, there's an Asus PCE-N15 that seems to have the most positive reviews (albeit with a decent slate of complaints) and an Intel 7260 wireless card which is $20 more expensive but seems to be better (having a cable that leads into a receiver that can be put into a more visible place seems to improve the chances of getting a good signal) and have Widi capabilities that might prove useful in the future. What do you think? Any other suggestions?

 

[rembrat]

I'll throw this in here since we don't seem to have a catch all thread for discussing PC parts but how often do you guys go through video/graphic cards? 
 
I got this about 2 years ago and I'm just wondering how much longer I can use it? 

 

[SumnerH]

I'll throw this in here since we don't seem to have a catch all thread for discussing PC parts but how often do you guys go through video/graphic cards? 
 
I got this about 2 years ago and I'm just wondering how much longer I can use it? 

 
The answer varies wildly depending on what you do.  If you're not a gamer, you can often just use on-board graphics and pretty much never upgrade (unless you get into running 4k monitors or something); that's what I do.  Super heavy gamers may update yearly or more if they're trying to stay bleeding edge max frame rate/settings on the heaviest new games.

 

[rembrat]

True. I game a few times a week and keep the settings somewhere in the middle so I'm not a heavy user. I guess I'm just curious as to how quickly folks on SoSH run through their cards.

 

[Couperin47]

 
The answer varies wildly depending on what you do.  If you're not a gamer, you can often just use on-board graphics and pretty much never upgrade (unless you get into running 4k monitors or something); that's what I do.  Super heavy gamers may update yearly or more if they're trying to stay bleeding edge max frame rate/settings on the heaviest new games.

 
Amen, I don't game, my overclocked Q6600 box (3.2 Ghz) I built 5 years ago is still running it's ATI 3850 which is still more powerful than current Intel 4400 or 4600 graphics, not that it matters for what it does in my office pushing a pair of 1920x1200 24" IPS monitors.

 

[Couperin47]

Let me get your opinion an a build I am planning of putting together. I ve got some spare parts from previous builds. An  Intel 160GB SSD, a 1T WD Black caviar, 8 gigs of ram, an H50 cooler and an ATI Radeon HD4650 graphic card. And I want buy the rest of the parts to do a build for a friend who will use it for basic office stuff, internet browsing and as an HTPC playing mostly torrented mkv files. 
 
My goal is to make this build as future proof as possible while spending the money as efficiently as possible. All the same, I am a bit of a geek, so i can't help but overprovision for some parts and go for quality where feasible.
So far, after research, I ve settled on a Rosewill Legacy U3 case and an Asus H87 mATX board.
I am not sure what to do with:
 
1. The CPU processor. Go for an i3 for which the lowest price I ve found is $100, or stick with a Pentium G3258? My inner geek says to go for the i3, because, you know.... POWER and HT. But I am not sure it's worth it.
 
2. Relatedly, is the HD4650 useful or will the processor's integrated graphics do the job and I should just sell the card on ebay? If I go with integrated graphics is there a difference then between the i3 and the pentium?
 
3. Last, but not least, I am looking for a wireless PCIe card and looking at newegg, there's an Asus PCE-N15 that seems to have the most positive reviews (albeit with a decent slate of complaints) and an Intel 7260 wireless card which is $20 more expensive but seems to be better (having a cable that leads into a receiver that can be put into a more visible place seems to improve the chances of getting a good signal) and have Widi capabilities that might prove useful in the future. What do you think? Any other suggestions?

 
These are the sort of existential questions and feature creep (well that's only $40 more and next thing you know the build is now more powerful.. and $250 more than when you started...) that we inflict upon ourselves. Just a few observations, afaik the HD4650 is marginally more powerful than the best Intel 4600 graphics, which means it's better than any i3 and way way better than the graphics in G3258 (that chip's reason to exist seems to be simply a very cheap dual core that you can overclock the living hell out of, but it's graphics are still meh...not overclocked it's not very exciting).
 
This chart is roughly accurate and the pentium G graphics well...look for yourself: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html
 
SmallNetBuilder is the site where someone really tests this stuff, unfortunatrely he's never done any real tests on PCIe equipment, but this thread in their forums discusses the issues and, in fact, as you already suspect, control of antenna placement is probably the most important issue: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9732

 

[Nick Kaufman]

Thanks, I am think I am tentatively going for the graphics card and the intel pcie. I ll have to mull it over in regards to the cpu.

 

[Nick Kaufman]

File this under things I should have asked before hand, but what the heck. When I tried buying the cx500 on newegg, the rebate had expired, plus the small case I was going for made the purchase of a modular supply a good idea. So I ended up going for the CS-450M. I did check some power supply calculators and tested a couple of realistic scenarios of future use. At the very worst, the setup I am building now won't need more than 280 W. Use only explodes when you get a cutting edge video card.

I am not missing anything right? 450W is plenty enough and I won't have a problem neither with underpowering nor with excessive sound due to the psu getting on maximum load often, correct?

 

[Couperin47]

File this under things I should have asked before hand, but what the heck. When I tried buying the cx500 on newegg, the rebate had expired, plus the small case I was going for made the purchase of a modular supply a good idea. So I ended up going for the CS-450M. I did check some power supply calculators and tested a couple of realistic scenarios of future use. At the very worst, the setup I am building now won't need more than 280 W. Use only explodes when you get a cutting edge video card.

I am not missing anything right? 450W is plenty enough and I won't have a problem neither with underpowering nor with excessive sound due to the psu getting on maximum load often, correct?

 
You're going to be fine. No combo of HD and SSD would make that supply sweat, nor will any Quad i5, the only thing that could strain it would be a really serious video card.

 

[kelpapa]

I never bought a graphics card for my build from last year, and I'm probably going to pick one up now. I don't do any gaming. I use it for photo shop, editing some video, Google Earth Pro and possibly some GIS stuff down the line (QGIS for now).
 
Any ideas or deals on what I should be looking for or deals that I should move on? I've never bought a graphics card before, and I'm not sure what I would need.

 

[Couperin47]

I never bought a graphics card for my build from last year, and I'm probably going to pick one up now. I don't do any gaming. I use it for photo shop, editing some video, Google Earth Pro and possibly some GIS stuff down the line (QGIS for now).
 
Any ideas or deals on what I should be looking for or deals that I should move on? I've never bought a graphics card before, and I'm not sure what I would need.

 
What's the current build ? Motherboard  (PCIe version it has), power supply, cpu, case. Clearly you don't absolutely need to upgrade... what are you expecting ? Support for more or different monitors ? Doing a lot of transcoding where a good gpu can help ? Tell us more.
 
Edit: I see QGIS can take advantage of serious gpu power...

 

[kelpapa]

I figured I should probably post the motherboard details.. I'm not going to be in front of it for several days, but I'll post it when I get back to it.
 
I want support for multiple monitors. I posted about this in a thread a few months back and Sumner pointed out that my CPU may be possible to do this without a GPU, but I haven't been able to figure it out. I, admittedly, haven't spent much time looking into that, though.

 

[kelpapa]

It took longer than I expected but this is my motherboard. 
2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8) 
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x2 mode) 
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 
2 x PCI
 
All of those slots are available.
The power supply is 600 watts, and I have an I7 processor, but I'm not sure which one. I believe it was a 4th gen Haswell series.
 
I'm pretty sure I overbuilt the computer for my needs, but I wanted to build something that would last a while, and my uses may change over time.

 

[Couperin47]

You have PCIe 3.0 slots and a PS that can easily power ANY single video card, in short you will get full max benefit of any high end current card, so you can go as wild as your wallet will allow. The gamers here can tell you what's the current best bang for buck atm (my impression is Nvidia has leapfrogged AMD atm), but your interest is rather more specialized....
 
http://robertoblake.com/blog/2014/01/best-video-graphics-card-photoshop/   sounds like he knows what he's talking about but I'm betting you can find other suggestions in the many user forums for Photoshop.

 

[kelpapa]

Sweet. Thanks, Coup.

 

[SuperManny]

I'm finally getting around to my first PC build and thought I would resurrect this thread to get some feedback from those much more knowledgeable than myself before buying anything. My budget is in the $1300 range but is flexible if there are any upgrades that would make sense.
 
I'm looking to use the computer for gaming and some work related things. The only thing I've really done any research on are the CPU and Video Card. I know the i5 is a better value but I don't mind splurging on the i7 since Micro Center has it at a decent price. I have no idea about the motherboard and have a feeling that I went overboard with it but Micro Center is running a deal with $40 off any motherboard when buying an Intel CPU so I picked out a decent one. 
 
PCPartPicker part list
 
**CPU** | [Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor] | $279.99 @ Micro Center 
**CPU Cooler** | [Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler] | $59.98 @ OutletPC 
**Motherboard** | [Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard] | $134.99 @ Newegg 
**Memory** | [Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory] | $117.99 @ Amazon 
**Storage** | [Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive] | $189.99 @ Amazon 
**Storage** | [Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive] | $87.99 @ NCIX US 
**Video Card** | [EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card] | $329.00 @ NCIX US 
**Case** | [Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case] | $42.99 @ Micro Center 
**Power Supply** | [EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply] | $54.99 @ NCIX US 
**Wireless Network Adapter** | [TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter] | $36.27 @ Amazon 
 
**Total**  **$1334.18**

 

[Couperin47]

There is absolutely nothing wrong at all with this selection: The cpu, 97Z mb and the Crucial memory are all an excellent match for overclocking. If you don't intend to overclock, the K cpu and Z97 chipset mb are overkill. The one weak point is the Corsair H60 cooler: it's their bottom end liquid cooler, it has a lousy reputation for reliability and it also doesn't cool all that well, the CoolerMaster Hyper212 EVO is the brute force hulking answer, far more reliable and will actually allow a greater stable overclock. If you really want liquid cooling, you're going to have to spend more for an equal overclock. You can, of course, do better on prices, especially on sale. My one last comment is not a current fan of Seagate drives, the 3 Tb Toshiba 7200rpm (actually an HGST product now owned by WD), preferably in the retail box with 3 yr warranty also performs better.
 
Newegg or Amazon, esp on sale, always beat NCIX, but I'm aware the Partspicker site is heavily biased to NCIX, I assume because they support it financially.

 

[SuperManny]

There is absolutely nothing wrong at all with this selection: The cpu, 97Z mb and the Crucial memory are all an excellent match for overclocking. If you don't intend to overclock, the K cpu and Z97 chipset mb are overkill. The one weak point is the Corsair H60 cooler: it's their bottom end liquid cooler, it has a lousy reputation for reliability and it also doesn't cool all that well, the CoolerMaster Hyper212 EVO is the brute force hulking answer, far more reliable and will actually allow a greater stable overclock. If you really want liquid cooling, you're going to have to spend more for an equal overclock. You can, of course, do better on prices, especially on sale. My one last comment is not a current fan of Seagate drives, the 3 Tb Toshiba 7200rpm (actually an HGST product now owned by WD), preferably in the retail box with 3 yr warranty also performs better.
 
Newegg or Amazon, esp on sale, always beat NCIX, but I'm aware the Partspicker site is heavily biased to NCIX, I assume because they support it financially.

 
I forgot to mention that part, I am planning on overclocking which is why I went with that CPU. As for the cooler, I had seen it in another build so I added it to the list. I don't have a preference either way about having a liquid cooler. I made the two changes you recommended, the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO and the Toshiba hard drive which actually saves some money. Do you have any recommendations on number of fans for a build like this?
 
That's good to know about the prices with NCIX, I will make sure to check out the prices before ordering. 

 

[Nick Kaufman]

I don't know how silent the 212 is, although it's got a very good reputation. For an air solution, also check the Noctua NH14. For a water solution, the Corsair H80 or H100.

The Skythe Gentle Typhoons are good silent case fans to be matched with any cooler you may choose.

 

[Couperin47]

I don't know how silent the 212 is, although it's got a very good reputation. For an air solution, also check the Noctua NH14. For a water solution, the Corsair H80 or H100.

The Skythe Gentle Typhoons are good silent case fans to be matched with any cooler you may choose.

 
The Noctua has 2 issues, though it is an excellent cooler... 1. The 14 model includes a 140mm fan, is substantially bigger than the 212 Evo and this becomes a problem in many midsize cases. 2. It's more than twice the price of the CoolerMaster and gains you at best 2C in cooling.
 
I believe you mean Scythe, the Gentle Typhoon is excellent if a bit overpriced. Cougar makes a series of quiet fans for about half the price, their bright orange/black color is more than a bit garish.  Understand: all 'quiet' fans are only truly quiet at low/medium rpms, in many/most cases 4 pin speed control is unnecessary as you will run these mostly continuously anyway. Ball bearing fans have a longer life but hydrosleeve designs can be a bit quieter and I have sleeve bearing fans on cpu coolers that are 7 years old and running as good as the day I bought them. As soon as you start really moving air, the design of the case, fan grills and dust filters become as important as the fan itself as to what it sounds like.
 
Almost any sleeve fan can be made to last by relubing every few years: Carefully remove the fan label. Cheap fans this will reveal the bearing, you'll see a small single bright silver ball in the center. Currently what I use for lubing pretty much everything from these tiny fans to big 2 HP water pumps or furnace blowers is Synthetic 80W/90 gear oil, a bit more viscous than standard utility oil, it adheres better, about the only place it's probably wrong is inside fine antique watches. If you don't see the bearing, there may be a rubber stopper/cap that has to be pried off with a tiny screwdriver. A single large drop of oil is all it takes. Many/most fan labels have lousy adhesive and won't restick to the fan, black electrical tape solves the problem.

 

[Couperin47]

http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/Feb-0-2015/CatWidePromolt-26/index-landing.html?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=IGNEFL022615&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL022615&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL022615-_-EMC-022615-Index-_-E0-_-PromoWord&et_cid=16029&et_rid=2267858&et_p1=
 
Includes 20% off a large assortment of fans and 10% off CoolerMaster cases and power supplies, also 15% on memory...all relevant to your build....

 

[rembrat]

Silly question but would the PC I built magically come with a WiFi adapter? A quick google search of the motherboard says it does not come with WiFi. What's my next best option? 

 

[Nick Kaufman]

No, you need to buy either a usb dongle or a pci card.

 

[rembrat]

Thanks!
 
And while I'm here, why is it so darn hard to find a mechanical gaming keyboard with blue switches? Is there a rhyme or a reason to this? Preferably a Ducky Shine or at least a solid tenkeyless.

 

[Couperin47]

Thanks!
 
And while I'm here, why is it so darn hard to find a mechanical gaming keyboard with blue switches? Is there a rhyme or a reason to this? Preferably a Ducky Shine or at least a solid tenkeyless.

 
Blues are loud/clicky and most gamers detest that, hence the lack of popularity.
 
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=9433
 
Unlikely you'll beat this price when back in stock.