Building new rig and Raid 0

Cavallino · 28 Oct 2013 at 12:44

Ok firstly, many many thanks Doomed this is a nice start and tbh very much on the higher side as you said.

1. I have a 750W PSU already (I think its an Antec also), so we can drop that from the list.

2. I have NEVER done any water/liquid cooling in my life. My current rig has Noctua ultra quiet fans (I have always prefereed quietness over overclocking). Not sure how liquid cooling fairs these days?
Are they relatively easy to install? (are they an enclosed system? i.e. dont need to faf around with liquid etc?).

3. I have lost track of the CPU roadmaps, any link to somewhere which explains the latest? Is the 4770K the best of the i7s?
Also why is it called "4770K?" exactly? Or is it just a label?

4. Love the case. Is that a recommendation by you? Any better ones?

5. We can drop the Hard Drive (as I mentioned I have plenty of HD space).

6. Monitor. Dont want 3D monitor tbh (I assume it involves wear some kind of glasses?).

ubersonic · 28 Oct 2013 at 13:08

The H100 is a sealed unit, no maintenance required, just mount the CPU bit to the CPU, the rad/fans to the case, plug it in and away.

As for roadmaps, its a bit like:

4770K > 3770K > 2700K >> 9xx/8xx >> Q9xxx > Q6xxx

The 4 at the start shows its a 4th generation i7, the 770 is the model number, the K means the multiplier is unlocked for easy overclocking, and the i7 (in this case) means it have four cores with hyperthreading.

Cavallino · 28 Oct 2013 at 13:11

ubersonic said:
The H100 is a sealed unit, no maintenance required, just mount the CPU bit to the CPU, the rad/fans to the case, plug it in and away.

As for roadmaps, its a bit like:

4770K > 3770K > 2700K >> 9xx/8xx >> Q9xxx > Q6xxx

The 4 at the start shows its a 4th generation i7, the 770 is the model number, the K means the multiplier is unlocked for easy overclocking, and the i7 (in this case) means it have four cores with hyperthreading.

Eye opener. Many many thanks.
Are the H70/80 not sealed units? Whats the difference between them and the 100?
EDIT: No thermal compound required these H80/100s? I can see there is some preapplied?

Doomedspeed · 28 Oct 2013 at 13:27

The difference between the H80 and H100 is size..

The H60/H70 Comes with a thin 120mm rad and 1 fan

The H80 comes with a Thick 120mm rad and 2 fans

The H100 comes with a thin 240mm rad and 2 fans.

They all come with paste.

Monitor wise: 3D isn't for everyone though you don't have to use it.

I was looking at this iiyama one but its Out of stock, if you wanted 1440p you'd be looking at this dell:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2713HM 27" Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £439.99
1 x Iiyama Prolite G2773HS 144Hz 27" Widescreen LED 1MS Monitor - Black £275.99
Total : £730.98 (includes shipping : £12.50).

(i much prefer the iiyama (quality and price)

Also with the CPU's 'K' means the chip has an unlocked multiplier which makes overclocking possible and really easy.

Yeah the 750D is one of my favourite ever cases.

Cavallino · 28 Oct 2013 at 13:29

Whats better a thick or thin radiator in your opinion?
To be honest I dont want to overclock too much, Im looking for quietness than out and out performance.
What kind of overclocks can I expect at a basic level?

teknokid · 28 Oct 2013 at 13:32

Going back to the original question quickly - if you're moving from one system to another, you won't be able to keep your program files/windows install anyway as it'll be a nightmare with driver issues...

Doomedspeed · 28 Oct 2013 at 13:33

Thin 240mm > Thick 120mm > Thin 120mm.

Cavallino · 28 Oct 2013 at 13:33

teknokid said:
Going back to the original question quickly - if you're moving from one system to another, you won't be able to keep your program files/windows install anyway as it'll be a nightmare with driver issues...

No I will reinstall ofcourse, but thanks for the headsup!

Cavallino · 28 Oct 2013 at 13:41

Doomedspeed said:
The difference between the H80 and H100 is size..

The H60/H70 Comes with a thin 120mm rad and 1 fan

The H80 comes with a Thick 120mm rad and 2 fans

The H100 comes with a thin 240mm rad and 2 fans.

They all come with paste.

Monitor wise: 3D isn't for everyone though you don't have to use it.

I was looking at this iiyama one but its Out of stock, if you wanted 1440p you'd be looking at this dell:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2713HM 27" Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £439.99
1 x Iiyama Prolite G2773HS 144Hz 27" Widescreen LED 1MS Monitor - Black £275.99
Total : £730.98 (includes shipping : £12.50).

(i much prefer the iiyama (quality and price)

Also with the CPU's 'K' means the chip has an unlocked multiplier which makes overclocking possible and really easy.

Yeah the 750D is one of my favourite ever cases.

Must be missing something here.

Are all 27" +120Hz monitors only 1920x 1080? Doesnt that mean the screens will be quite, blocky?

And just coming back to the H100, I mean, how loud are the fans on this thing? Bear in mind I currently have Noctua fans in my rig at lowest RPM setting.

zola25 · 28 Oct 2013 at 14:04

Cavallino said:
Good advice will do this I think.

But to be honest, I dont think its too much trouble to break up the RAID (its a games drive).

So worst case scenario will problably format them.
Do I need to "unRAID" before formating or can I just unplug from old rig, plug in new rig and format/RAID 0?

You should just be able to format the drives on the new PC. If they do appear raided on the new machine, then just either switch to AHCI mode, or enter the RAID settings in the bios and remove the two drives from the array.

Doomedspeed · 28 Oct 2013 at 14:05

Cavallino said:
Must be missing something here.

Are all 27" +120Hz monitors only 1920x 1080? Doesnt that mean the screens will be quite, blocky?

And just coming back to the H100, I mean, how loud are the fans on this thing? Bear in mind I currently have Noctua fans in my rig at lowest RPM setting.

Thats why the 120/144hz is important as the refresh-rate is double that of stanard monitors.. This negates the blocki-ness of 1080p in my opinion.

The H100 fans will be louder than your noctua's..If you can replace the H100's with your notuca's that'd be ideal..

Cavallino · 28 Oct 2013 at 14:11

Doomedspeed said:
Thats why the 120/144hz is important as the refresh-rate is double that of stanard monitors.. This negates the blocki-ness of 1080p in my opinion.

The H100 fans will be louder than your noctua's..If you can replace the H100's with your notuca's that'd be ideal..

Hmm ok.

I can see the H100i comes with SPL120s?
Cant you run those at a much lower RPM?

And (sorry just one more question

) how far can I overclock the 4770k (safely)?

biuro74 · 28 Oct 2013 at 14:30

Just my 2p:
* plug new SSD into "old" hardware and quick format it to 1 partition (or hovewer you want), but thing is to get it pre-formatted before installing Windows, otherwise you will get 100MB of unused free space = it's not big, but always this is some space not to waste

* before install Win check the newest firmware os SSD and eventually update it,
* do not connect RAID drivers before Win is installed on SSD, otherwise you might get EBR and some files located on RAID volume which might cause no SSD boot when RAID is unplugged from any reason.

Cavallino · 28 Oct 2013 at 14:33

Thanks biuro.

Cavallino · 28 Oct 2013 at 14:45

So Im close to wanting to place an order but I have a few more questions about:

1. Mobo. Is the MSI mobo the way to go? I would like to at least crossfire two 280s, possibly 3 in the future so want to ensure full bandwidth is available.

2. Sound. Am I better off using the onboard mobo audio?

3. RAM - Ive never heard of the Patriot Venom. Is there any other known brand such as Corsair or OCZ? Or is this Patriot Venom the dogs danglers today?

4. Monitor - Whatabout a 3 monitor 120/144Hz setup? Any recommendation?

5. If I didnt want to go the watercooled route, whats the quietest/best heatsink/fan combo at the moment?

Cavallino · 28 Oct 2013 at 17:39

Any input appreciated

Doomedspeed · 28 Oct 2013 at 18:48

Cavallino said:
So Im close to wanting to place an order but I have a few more questions about:

1. Mobo. Is the MSI mobo the way to go? I would like to at least crossfire two 280s, possibly 3 in the future so want to ensure full bandwidth is available.

The G45 will handle that at x8/x8..

another option is the gigabyte Z87X-D3H

Cavallino said:
2. Sound. Am I better off using the onboard mobo audio?

On board is good.

Cavallino said:
3. RAM - Ive never heard of the Patriot Venom. Is there any other known brand such as Corsair or OCZ? Or is this Patriot Venom the dogs danglers today?

The patriot company was/is owned by intel.. Good RAM brand.

Cavallino said:
4. Monitor - Whatabout a 3 monitor 120/144Hz setup? Any recommendation?

That will suck up a lot of GPU and CPU power.. Not worth it IMO. Either 3 standard 1080p's or one 120/144hz/1440p.

Cavallino said:
5. If I didnt want to go the watercooled route, whats the quietest/best heatsink/fan combo at the moment?

H100i with Sp120's (performance)

Cavallino · 28 Oct 2013 at 19:30

Thanks Doomedspeed.
One question concerning point 4... I must have missed something here...

Are you saying that higher refresh rate is driven by the graphics card as well as the monitor? I.e. its a GPU driven factor? So having 3 X 120Hz monitor will grind the CPU/GPU to a halt? (I always though refresh rates are settings on the monitor rather than the GPU hardware).

Doomedspeed · 28 Oct 2013 at 19:51

Cavallino said:
Thanks Doomedspeed.
One question concerning point 4... I must have missed something here...

Are you saying that higher refresh rate is driven by the graphics card as well as the monitor? I.e. its a GPU driven factor? So having 3 X 120Hz monitor will grind the CPU/GPU to a halt? (I always though refresh rates are settings on the monitor rather than the GPU hardware).

Yeah, the GPU will work harder (in a sense).. let me try and explain..

On a 60Hz monitor the best you'll see is 60 FPS (any more is just for fun)

On a 120Hz monitor 120 FPS is the best you can see, so your GPU will have to be more powerful..

It won't make your GPU work harder as such, but to get the right results you'll have to get 120FPS on a 1080p screen (which, when i think about it, is why 120hz screen are no bigger than 1080p) which is achieveable with top-end graphics in all/most games.

120FPS on a 5760 x 1080 (3 x 1080p screens) resolution will be a lot harder than a 1920 x 1080p display.

Basically the differnce with a 120/144 hz screen is you'll see those extra FPS.. Without looking worse than a 1080p (so don't worry there)..

Cavallino · 28 Oct 2013 at 19:57

So the question is, why do I need that extra grunt if I don't do a 3 monitor setup? Surely I can get away with just upgrade my current PC with 2 X 280s which should do the trick?
(At 1920 x 1080 I take it?)