New build

[John Connor]

I just bought an i7 3820 on eBay and will be putting this computer together within the next couple a months. Right now I need a case, heat sink, RAM and motherboard. I have decided on the following parts.

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128562

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-402-_-Product I may go for a 32 GB kit since I would like to utilize quad channel. This RAM was listed in the compatible list for the MOBO.

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811139040

Now as far as the heat sink goes I'm stuck on whether to get a liquid cooler or a ARCTIC Freezer. I have read reviews on that motherboard and someone noted that the 1st GPU slot is very close to the CPU which I can see from the pics. So liquid cooling seems like an answer I'm not sure.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186093

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835146027


Does the current case I chose support the liquid cooling fan mounted in the back or on top? The cooler is 140mm and the case has two 140mm fans, where I'm not sure.

I like the MOBO I picked for the RAM capacity and I have always like Gigabyte. The Dual BIOS is great and the double clad copper. I also like tha ability to do quad SLI in the future.

Edit- Damn! looking at this I see the 140mm fans are at the front so I'm SOL on a liquid cooler in this case and I really like that case. I seen that there was a liquid cooler in the picture so I tried to find Corsair's cooler and they only have a 140mm. I found this. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835214056

 

[lehtv]

As always: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=80121

You've been on the boards long enough... why do I need to tell you this ?

 

[Ken g6]

I haven't seen your answers to the questions Lehtv linked to yet. But you're going for that expensive mobo and that huge amount of RAM just because you bought a processor on Ebay? That's a quad-core, non-overclockable processor - not a good deal. You'd be better off buying a new Haswell of some sort.

 

[MongGrel]

You're going places I don't want to look at, personally.

Does seem a Haswell for a newer one for what you're doing would be better.

The RAM looks fine at any rate.

Gigabyte in general I haven't used in a long time as I had past failures on the boards over time, so I'm clueless there.

The Carbides seem to have gotten good reviews and never tried one, used this last one I did.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119233

Comparable I imagine.

I'd still just do this for a cooler, but that's me I guess.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835608024

My two cents.

 

[DSF]

The easier you make it for people to help you the more help you'll get. I would recommend that you list the parts in your OP rather than just providing nameless links.

 

[mfenn]

I haven't seen your answers to the questions Lehtv linked to yet. But you're going for that expensive mobo and that huge amount of RAM just because you bought a processor on Ebay? That's a quad-core, non-overclockable processor - not a good deal. You'd be better off buying a new Haswell of some sort.

Agree. The i7 3820 is basically an i7 2600 with 200 MHz higher clock speed and 2MB more L3. It's not worth the additional cost of the X79 motherboard at this point.

 

[John Connor]

Well, I only payed $175 for the CPU and I'm coming from a Q6600 so to me this is a huge upgrade. I need all the clock speed I can get because FS2004 is mostly CPU driven. I saw in the CPU sub forum that the CPU was overclockable, but if it ain't no problem. Here! This guy's post said it was overclocked. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2366541&highlight=3820

All I want to know at this point as to what kind of heat sink I should use. I'm preety firm on my parts. Here's another case I was interested in. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119263

 

[John Connor]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Gaming , video editing. Older games mostly.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

$500

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

USA

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

Intel, Gigabyte, nVidia

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

I will be recycling a GTX 560 TI and a SATA II HDD and SATA II SSD. I will replace to SATA III later. An Antec 520.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

If possible I may over clock providing my PSU can handle it.

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?

IDK. I have one monitor.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.

I plan on putting everything together by July. I am doing research now. Maybe sooner.

X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?

No.

 

[lehtv]

What is the exact PSU model you plan to reuse, and how old is it?

Does your $500 budget include the cost of the CPU you already bought?

What software are you going to be using for video editing, and how serious/enthusiastic are you about it relative to gaming?

If you're going to be building in July, you shouldn't be buying anything just yet. What you need is just an outline of the sort of thing to aim for, and then start hunting deals on specific components a week or two before you plan to have it sitting on your desk.

If it were me, I'd sell the i7-3820 and try to get back what I paid for it. $175 is a high enough cost that it would've made much more sense to just go with a $200 Haswell CPU that's both faster for gaming and consumes less power. Motherboards for LGA2011 are obscenely expensive and lack features that newer generation boards offer.

 

[John Connor]

What is the exact PSU model you plan to reuse, and how old is it?

I said an Antec 520.

Does your $500 budget include the cost of the CPU you already bought?

No.

What software are you going to be using for video editing, and how serious/enthusiastic are you about it relative to gaming?

Minor video editing using Sony Vegas.

If you're going to be building in July, you shouldn't be buying anything just yet. What you need is just an outline of the sort of thing to aim for, and then start hunting deals on specific components a week or two before you plan to have it sitting on your desk.

I am doing as much research now so I know what to buy.

If it were me, I'd sell the i7-3820 and try to get back what I paid for it. $175 is a high enough cost that it would've made much more sense to just go with a $200 Haswell CPU that's both faster for gaming and consumes less power. Motherboards for LGA2011 are obscenely expensive and lack features that newer generation boards offer.

I don't see any 1150 boards support 64GB of RAM and 4 GPU's. I want to create a RAM drive.

I just looked at comparisons with Passmark scores and at the $200 price range in Haswell it would be an i5 and they score lower than the i7 3820 I bought. If I wanted to make it worth my while I would get an i7 Haswell, but I can't afford $ 300 for a CPU. Th lower wattage is nice though.

 

[lehtv]

I said an Antec 520.

That's just the brand and the rated wattage. Antec has two different 520W units in the HCG lineup and three different 520W units in the Neo Eco lineup. My point here is that if you have the first Neo Eco 520W from 2008/2009 or thereabouts, it might be worth replacing at this point.

I am doing as much research now so I know what to buy.

That's good. Just don't get locked on to any specific parts just yet. It's best to build within 2 weeks of buying everything because if anything's DOA, it's hassle-free to handle the returns with newegg.

I don't see any 1150 board support 64GB of RAM and 4 GPU's. I want to create a RAM drive.

Interesting. Can you explain why you want a RAM drive? You don't seem to have any need for it, as far as I can tell, nor do you have the budget for it.

Why do you want support for 4 GPUs? For your purposes, I don't see why you'd need more than one GPU. And again, you don't have the budget for that sort of thing.

I just looked at comparisons with Passmark scores and at the $200 price range in Haswell it would be an i5 and they score lower than the i7 3820 I bought

Haswell i5 cores are faster than Sandy Bridge-E cores (i7-3820 being a SB-E processor), therefore you'll get better results with Haswell in any game or application that isn't heavily multithreaded. In applications that are heavily multithreaded, the i7-3820 will only pull ahead slightly because the lower performance per core is still holding its performance back. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/837?vs=523

 

[John Connor]

That's just the brand and the rated wattage. Antec has two different 520W units in the HCG lineup and three different 520W units in the Neo Eco lineup. My point here is that if you have the first Neo Eco 520W from 2008/2009 or thereabouts, it might be worth replacing at this point.

I bought the PSU two years ago.

That's good. Just don't get locked on to any specific parts just yet. It's best to build within 2 weeks of buying everything because if anything's DOA, it's hassle-free to handle the returns with newegg.

I thought Newegg offered 30 days?

Interesting. Can you explain why you want a RAM drive? You don't seem to have any need for it, as far as I can tell, nor do you have the budget for it.

RAM drive would be great for Flight Simulator. The add-on scenery and all my add-ons would load faster. People do create RAM drives... I will maybe buy 32GB of RAM at fisrt and latter buy more.

Why do you want support for 4 GPUs? For your purposes, I don't see why you'd need more than one GPU. And again, you don't have the budget for that sort of thing.

Future proofing.

Haswell i5 cores are faster than Sandy Bridge-E cores (i7-3820 being a SB-E processor), therefore you'll get better results with Haswell in any game or application that isn't heavily multithreaded. In applications that are heavily multithreaded, the i7-3820 will only pull ahead slightly because the lower performance per core is still holding its performance back. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/837?vs=523

It looks like my CPU is better according to those stats. And I could save money and buy an i7 4960x. LOL

 

[lehtv]

I thought Newegg offered 30 days?

You're right, it's 30 days for most DOA items. Maybe it changed at some point. Either way, it usually isn't worth it to buy stuff so much in advance. It's worth it if you know exactly what you need and you know you're unlikely to find a similar deal closer to when you're buying the rest of the parts

RAM drive would be great for Flight Simulator. The add-on scenery and all my add-ons would load faster. People do create RAM drives... I will maybe buy 32GB of RAM at fisrt and latter buy more.

Your budget is still barely enough for even a 32GB RAM drive. 32GB of RAM costs $250. Is it really worth it? You'll get almost as fast performance with a modern SSD that costs 1/3.

Future proofing.

The best way to future proof is to save money and spend it on future components ((C) Ken g6). Buying overkill tech you may or may not need is a sure way to get bad value for your money.

It looks like my CPU is better according to those stats. And I could save money and buy an i7 4960x. LOL

Notice that in many of the benches, lower is better (because it measures time taken to finish a certain task). Overall, the Haswell i5 is faster in the link I posted.

If your budget is much higher than stated, then obviously that changes things. Alot. If you have the budget for a quad SLI with an Ivy Bridge-E hexacore rig and 64GB RAM drive, I'm not going to stop you. I'm just here to advise what you should do if you want to get the most for what you have, given the needs you've stated.

 

[mfenn]

$500

I don't see any 1150 boards support 64GB of RAM and 4 GPU's. I want to create a RAM drive.

Whether or not the board can support 64 GB of RAM and 4 GPUs is kind of a moot point since you don't have the budget for either. If you sold the 3820 back for $175, you'd have $675 total budget. That's enough for the following:

Xeon E3-1230 V3 $250
ASRock H97 Pro4 $84
Corsair DDR3 1600 32GB $260
Corsair Carbide SPEC-03 $60
Hyper 212+ $20 AR
Total: $674 AR

So for the same money, you could get 32GB today rather than buying something which you might someday hope to get to 64GB.

 

[mfenn]

The best way to future proof is to save money and spend it on future components ((C) Ken g6). Buying overkill tech you may or may not need is a sure way to get bad value for your money.

:thumbsup: x 11ty billion

The best way to build an under-performing PC is to spend a lot of money "well maybe someday I'll want to..." parts.

 

[John Connor]

Wow! I had to look at that Anandtech benchmark again because my browser didn't show the color code and had to use my plain vanilla Firefox instead of my add-on laden Pale moon which blocked the color code. I assumed the bottom bars were the CPU I bought, but looking at it again it appears the i5 is a better CPU.

 

[John Connor]

Okay, I'm now thinking about going Haswell. I need as much clock speed as I can as Flight Simulator is based on clock speed more than anything. I have read this and then I seen a post at my sim forum that the i7 4790k will come out in September. http://www.kitguru.net/components/c...osts-default-clock-rate-of-the-core-i7-4790k/

In the mean time I might shoot for a 4770k. Which means that when I get the CPU I will relist it on eBay and sell it and add money for the 4770k.

 

[John Connor]

I just read this:http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2384543&highlight=4790k

So the 4790k doesn't have good single thread performance? FS2004 is single threaded and so is FSX I do believe. I need a good high clock single threaded CPU.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I just read this:http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2384543&highlight=4790k

So the 4790k doesn't have good single thread performance? FS2004 is single threaded and so is FSX I do believe. I need a good high clock single threaded CPU.

... ... ... ...

That's the best single thread performance you're likely to see before Skylake. It has as turbo of 4.1GHz (possibly even 4.4GHz). Still not enough? Slap a large tower cooler on, and overclock that thing. Its an unlocked chip, that's the whole point of the K-series...

 

[lehtv]

As far as I know, hyperthreading does nothing for FS2004 / FSX. You'll get the same results with four i5 cores, given the same clock speed. http://jetlinesystems.com/performance.php

I'd go with 4670K, a mid range Z97 board and a decent cooler for a midrange OC.

 

[John Connor]

That's really not a bad choice. I have never used a UEFI BIOS so overclocking on that is going to be a PITA unless I see a guide. I was looking at this motherboard. Keep in mind I like Gigabyte. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-704-_-Product

That is an overclocking board. Will Gigabyte's gaming MOBO's overclock as well?

 

[mfenn]

That's really not a bad choice. I have never used a UEFI BIOS so overclocking on that is going to be a PITA unless I see a guide. I was looking at this motherboard. Keep in mind I like Gigabyte. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-704-_-Product

Why do you thing that UEFI makes overclocking harder than the old BIOS? It's basically the same options in a different skin.

That is an overclocking board. Will Gigabyte's gaming MOBO's overclock as well?

Spending a ton on money on super-expensive overclocking board kind of defeats the purpose of overclocking in the first place. You don't need a $200 board unless you're going for WR extreme overclocks and have the cooling to back it up. Needless to say, all concept of value is gone at that point. A normal $120 board like the GA-Z97-D3H will get you 90% of the way there for half the price.

 

[John Connor]

How's this cooler? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-195-_-Product

 

[Charlie98]

How's this cooler? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-195-_-Product

You are better off with air....

 

[John Connor]

Why?