New build - i5 - need help

Man Manne · 5 Apr 2015 at 05:00

So I'm coming from my Q9550 and 8GB DDR2 6400... I need a new toy, it's been so long.

I will be keeping my current GPU for now as it's doing a cracking job, also I have a Samsung 850 EVO 120GB on standby.

So the I need help where listed in red below. Budget wise, I'm unsure of so far, but definitely PLEASE nowhere near £600!

Case - I really like the NZXT H440

CPU - *HELP* i5 4690 (OEM) - I hear the 'K' variant is the one to get?

Heatsink - *HELP* I want to go for one of the self-contained water units, been looking at the Corsair Hydro H110i GT cooler with dual SP140L fans, but need to check how they'll fit in this case.

PSU - *HELP* I want a modular one to keep the case as empty as possible. No fan/LED colours please, unless GREEN. Then I would be VERY interested!

Fans - I will be rescuing a 120mm Sanyo Denki from my current machine to potential replace the rear 140mm

GPU - Keeping my current one

Memory - *HELP* Want at least 16GB of DDR3 2133 at least.

SSD - 120GB 850 EVO

Optical - *HELP* Want an external USB3 one (not inside the case as case doesn't support!!)

Extras - *HELP* May want a LED also, any recommendations for something that would still keep the case very tidy?

I've been looking but have a headache

Man Manne · 5 Apr 2015 at 05:46

What are the differences between chipsets with the 1150's? There's so many?!?!

Man Manne · 5 Apr 2015 at 06:45

Thanks for that quick reply.

The S340, I take it is the 340? I'm looking at the 440 anyway which looks very similar, bar a few things. If they are so similar, I'll take the hit and go for looks with the 440

I have always had single GPU, but have always had at least 700W PSU's. Strange that when I built last, this "Superflower" or even "NZXT" weren't even around, and now they're quality brands. I will have to have a look into their modular ones.

The 120GB is easily enough. I have done lots of trimming down of un-needed things. I still have 11GB free on my 60GB Vertex 2.

There is no page file, no indexing etc. Although, have to admit, I've forgotten half of the things I did that was recommended back in the day. Is it still savvy to put your page file on a different drive even?

Man Manne · 5 Apr 2015 at 12:40

lude1962 said:
'PSU - *HELP* I want a modular one to keep the case as empty as possible. No fan/LED colours please, unless GREEN. Then I would be VERY interested! '
the 440 has a psu shroud so you cant see it anyway

Leave page file on the ssd, no page file = bad performance
Indexing leave as is,

The LED glow coming from the back I meant mate, apologies.

Also, I do have a PAGE file. As I said, it's on the D drive, not the C Windows install.

Man Manne · 5 Apr 2015 at 13:34

Danny75 said:
Both the S340 and H440 bring massive PSU shrouds under which there is tons of room to hide the excess cables of non-modular PSUs.

The cooling performance of a decent air cooler is generally equal to or better than 120mm liquid AIOs.

Here is an alternative spec, in order to get it down from over £600:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus Z97-K - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £273.58
1 x Avexir Venom Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17200C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U21331104G-2CIG) - Green Light £67.99
1 x NZXT Source 340 Midi-Tower Case- Black Window £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £54.95
1 x Raijintek Ereboss Core CPU Cooler £26.99
1 x Samsung SE-208GB/RSBD External Slimline 8x DVD-RW (TV Connect) - Black £21.98
1 x Silverstone Cable Extension Value Bundle - White £10.80
- 1 x No Molex to SATA Adapter Required £0.00
- 1 x Silverstone 8-pin PCIe 6+2 Pin 25cm PCIe Extension - White £3.29
- 1 x Silverstone 8-pin PCIe 6+2 Pin 25cm PCIe Extension - White £3.29
1 x NZXT CB-LED10-GR 12x Green LED Sleeve - 1m £9.98
2 x Alpenföhn 120mm Wing Boost 2 Plus PWM fan - Green £8.45 (£16.90)
Total : £549.73 (includes shipping : ).

Specced white cables to be illuminated by the green leds, which just looks nicer than green-coloured cables, imo. I believe your present GPU has 2 x 6 pin connectors, however if you get that bundle and select 6+2 pin cables instead then you'll be sorted when/if you upgrade GPU to one that may need 8 pin.

You could move the rear and top case fans that the S340 brings, to the front 2 x 120 mounts, and use the Alpenfohns for the cooler and rear fan mount.

If you go for a H440 instead:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus Z97-K - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £273.58
1 x NZXT H440 Midi-Tower - Black / Green £89.99
1 x Avexir Venom Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17200C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U21331104G-2CIG) - Green Light £67.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £54.95
1 x Raijintek Ereboss Core CPU Cooler £26.99
1 x Samsung SE-208GB/RSBD External Slimline 8x DVD-RW (TV Connect) - Black £21.98
1 x Silverstone Cable Extension Value Bundle - White £10.80
- 1 x No Molex to SATA Adapter Required £0.00
- 1 x Silverstone 8-pin PCIe 6+2 Pin 25cm PCIe Extension - White £3.29
- 1 x Silverstone 8-pin PCIe 6+2 Pin 25cm PCIe Extension - White £3.29
1 x NZXT CB-LED10-GR 12x Green LED Sleeve - 1m £9.98
1 x Alpenföhn Wing 140mm Boost 2 Plus PWM Fan - Green £9.95
1 x Alpenföhn 120mm Wing Boost 2 Plus PWM fan - Green £8.45
Total : £581.23 (includes shipping : ).

Just changed the case and swapped a 120mm fan for a 140mm.

Can add more RAM later if you really need it.

These leds come with three brightness options and a PCI adapter thingy (which you can tuck away under the PSU shroud instead of mounting it to a PCI slot, to keep things tidier).

If you want liquid cooler and 16GB RAM, it's probably going to go over £600, unless you don't bother with green theme etc.

I currently have the Tuniq Tower 120 in my case and have seen how that is starting to "lean" away from the board as it gets on, I wanted the radiator / liquid cooler just as new for myself and also to try keep it more clean inside the case.

The specs are great, I can't PM you, so I'll ask here...

Why are the extra cables required?
The sleeve LED is that to cover ones running around the case? - I don't really like the fact I have to plug something into the back of the machine. I have an exhaust fan on this current build and it's yet another molex.

These are being nasty or negative, just trying to understand more as I've been out of the game for ages.

Also, is there anything bad with the Gigabyte Sniper Z87 B6? I hear it's great for overclocking and of course, Green / Black.

Man Manne · 6 Apr 2015 at 02:03

Quartz said:
A 7870?! You're going to be far better advised to upgrade the GPU rather than the CPU. A Geforce GTX 970 or Radeon R9 290X will make far more difference to your gaming experience than a more powerful CPU.

The system I have, I don't run everything on ULTRA anyway. 50-60FPS is achievable easily. Gaming is a huge part of a PC build, but it's the hub for pretty much everything I do away from work (with a little work involved). Whilst it would be nice for a game to look pretty, if I wanted visuals, I have a Playstation that I use for a laugh. I like lighter settings on BF so explosions or motion blur don't get in my way etc.

The GPU will be updated at some point, which will cause me to either go FREESYNC or GSYNC and considering I brought a new Asus VN247 monitor a few months back, I'll be keeping this till like BF5 or 2342 (which if you check the website of the KevinSimpsons1942 thing, you'll see why I say that and believe it).

Man Manne · 6 Apr 2015 at 02:25

Danny75 said:
Fair enough. The Raijintek Triton can suffer from build quality issues as pointed out (a friend ordered one and it was leaking). I'd go with CoolerMaster Nepton or Corsair (various).

Purely aesthetical reason. The connectors on that SuperFlower 550W are blue and red and some of the coloured cables show as the braid doesn't cover them completely. As Sweols pointed out, you can go for an all-black cabled EVGA. The EVGA G1 650W comes out to around the same price as the SuperFlower Golden Green 550 + those extensions. It isn't as good as the G2 750W but is considerably cheaper and still has a 10-year warranty.

The sleeve contains the actual leds, yes. Not sure what you mean about plugging something into the back of the machine. Whichever leds you go for, they'll typically require power from either a molex or SATA. Not sure what the problem is with that - plenty of power to spare.

A Z87 board would need a BIOS update to run an i5-4690K. And that would require a compatible CPU to carry it out.

It would be compatible as is with an i5-4670K (slightly older Haswell).

The Z87 is out of the window then, buying 2 CPU's to flash a board is bloody useless. I thought the B6 revision would support Devil's Canyon 4690K. But thanks for that.

Won't the extensions just cause more looms of wire being down the bottom end though (hidden or not) with the Golden Green 550? - I'd probably go for the G1 for cost and the power I need etc. It confuses me how it has 4 VGA ports on the modular, that's for 2 GPU's, surely that would be pushing 650W then with high end? Back when I remember looking, it was important for like 18v on 12a rails. Is that still the case?

Regaring the braiding cables, love the idea, really do, I could hide a molex, that's fine, just about the slot in the rear PCI panel that needs filling in https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pimg/CA-060-NX_43805_350.jpg

It would be nice to find a AIO WC like that one the Triton. I thought I'd found a nice one, the reviews are good enough on the site, but if they are leaking a lot, then, well that's not good. 2 have raised it in here as "hearing" about it, maybe I'll dig more

A couple of other questions... I've had good experience with Gigabyte boards and love their Dual BIOS, is there one of those around the price of the Asus Z97-K? It'd be nice with initial OC pushings to see. Although I'd go safe, I'd have to find that sweet spot after testing and the DB on Gigabytes assisted in any screw ups. - Is this a decent enough contender? https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-504-GI

Also, is it a common thing to have to push the memory on these boards as they always seem to state (O.C.) for the memory clocks above what seems to be 1800MHZ?

Are the FSB straps important? 1:6 / 1:8 is what I have run before. I always heard 1:1 was golden, but really dunno if that's achievable / a big player these days.

Again, thanks everyone. Working out the £££ to budget for around £600 right now so I can factor in a few other things.

I was offered a Coolermaster HAF XB case for a straight swap with my 850 120GB Sam EVO SSD. If I did that I was thinking of going for an M.2 card for the OS and a smaller or cheaper SSD for game installs and Photoshop... Dunno though to be fair.

Man Manne · 7 Apr 2015 at 03:27

Might be able to sell some of my current machine, which was unexpected...

Just looking at a monitor, is this: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-022-AO&groupid=17&catid=948 a decent shot if I get a new GPU? and if so, whats the best bang for buck out there on that front? Perhaps sub-£200 - Something that would be worth replacing the 7870 I have for (was checking a couple of GTX 960's and they don't fill me with confidence)

For the record, I'm happy @ 1080p rather than 1440. So that is ok. Also hope the G-Sync would make up for any 960 being crap

Man Manne · 7 Apr 2015 at 03:42

I read a lot about the stock fans on AIO WC's needing replacing. I'd like to just find one that seems to have solid build quality. Someone recommended the CoolerMaster Nepton's above, the review on the 240's of those are negative.

NZXT Kraken's seem to have good feedback though?

@Danny75 - The replacement Alpenföhn fans you listed are those purely for aesthetic (Black/Green) reasons or are they rated as decent air shifters and quiet like?

Man Manne · 7 Apr 2015 at 13:00

Danny75 said:
Those actually have a quiet and good reputation, and happened to have a black/green version. In threads asking for fan suggestions a lot of owners of those Alpenföhns highly recommend them.

Sweet, I'm still considering whether to take a Sanyo Denki off mine and replace with the old H440 case ones.

sweols said:
With radiators you want a fan with as high static pressure as possible. Obviously within reason and budget. Corsair does some nice high static performance fans, but there's many fans out there that could be better and quiter.

Are the Kraken X61 stock fans good enough? I could strap on my 2 sanyo denkis for extreme cooling, but they're like 38mm thick. Would that be a problem on the radiator?

Also, what is best.

16GB Quad channel of 1600MHz C9 memory? https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-040-AR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1392

or

8GB Dual channel of 2133Mhz C11 memory? - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-044-AR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1392

Man Manne · 7 Apr 2015 at 13:51

Will leave those as-is then.

So 8GB is much better then?

Going for the NZXT H440 btw.

Need to make sure of the build I'm buying so going to tot it up now.

Man Manne · 7 Apr 2015 at 14:21

I do use it for other things, but having said that, the 8GB I have now, is fine and I might... MIGHT go for 16GB (2x8GB) as the 2x4GB aren't available (OOS).

I also have upped the budget, I want an M2 card for the OS, and will use the EVO for games and photoshop with data being written to the "de-ice boxed" WD Raptor.

Does the M2 SSD show up as a normal drive from the off like any other hard drive/SSD? - Would it be prudent to still move the Pagefile onto the WD Raptor also?

I can't seem to find a 60/64GB M2 card (as it's only for OS), so which is the best speed vs cost M2 card currently? I dare say I'm going to have to go 120GB on that also, which is disappointing as I wanted to save around £20 for the build.

Man Manne · 7 Apr 2015 at 18:04

stulid said:
Intel have a 80Gb m.2 - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-053-IN&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=2365

For that price I may as well go with 1 of these:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-069-KS&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=2365

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-202-SA&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=2365

Both seem competitive speed wise as well as the 40GB extra?

I'd probably go with the Samsung as my 120 SSD here that will go into the build is also an 850 EVO

Man Manne · 7 Apr 2015 at 18:18

Right ok, I think I'm swayed on that. I will put the page file on the WD HDD too, always done it, will continue to put it on a HDD.

This radiator is the next thing then. I love the look of that Raijintek Triton. Just looks like you'd get good cooling with it and the price is very comforting! - But then there's the whole reliability. It's my first rad, so wouldn't really know what to look for. Bar temps going 70+ ?

When they come with their own compounds, it's best to leave it on? I have some Acrtic Silver still here that has done many a machine and even a PS3. So just wondering.

Man Manne · 8 Apr 2015 at 01:07

Looks like I might search for the Corsair H110 based on the load vs noise here:

The B6 Sniper Mobo I was refering to is a B85 chipset (although they state very overclockable) - http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/gigabyte-g1-sniper-b6-review,1.html

Man Manne · 8 Apr 2015 at 15:20

C64 said:
Go with the noctua nh d14 at £55 wont be disappointed and it plays very well with 2 x 140mm fans have 2 tehrmalright ty-140 on mine performs so much quieter and cooler than having 1x 120mm and 1 x 140mm.It's half the price of the corsair and almost as good if not better with the right fan combo.

Hi,

That'd be great but I don't want an air cooler, my Tuniq Tower 120 is great, don't get me wrong, it's not being forcefully pushed for a weekend of gaming, but it's bent of the board at once side almost. You can definitely see the flex.

I want a clearer case and this is a tech I've been wanting to try, so I will go for water. I can see how that design would easily work. I love the idea of the 2 fans. Definitely something I can see would work.

Man Manne · 8 Apr 2015 at 15:24

Can someone explain anything on the M2 front regarding getting 10Gb/s. Is it possible right now? What devices are even capable of this? I'm reading things about keys on them B/M ones and looking to see any experiences here.

Man Manne · 8 Apr 2015 at 23:04

Thank you for that. Much appreciated.

This is the final piece to the jigsaw for me.

Man Manne · 9 Apr 2015 at 12:56

Anyone know what would be the problem with a B85 chipset vs the Z87/Z97

The B6 Sniper revision is Haswell ready out of the box and is very overclockable

Man Manne · 13 Apr 2015 at 04:29

What about rads