Ready for a new PC [Archive] - classicamiga.com Forum

Demon Cleaner

27th April 2010, 06:28

So I finally decided to build a new PC once again, since mine is already 5-6 years old (P4 2,8GHz). It will surely not be for gaming, but I definitely need a faster one, as mine is struggling if it has 2 different tasks to do, f.ex. extracting a .rar file when burning a DVD or copying a file to another disk.

This will also be used to stream HD material to the PS3, as now, most of the time, if the video is 720p or more, the .mkv files are jerking on the screen, making them unwatchable.

And of course I will need more storage, as all my disks are full, so I will make sure that I have more space, which at the moment is even a bit less than 1TB.

So this is what I intended to get:

Case
ANTEC P183 140€
(Seems to be a top case, YouTube video here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVmkI5chufc))

Mainboard
ASUS P7P55D-E LX 135€
(This already features USB 3.0 and SATA III, so at least I will be up to date for future hardware, and don't need to upgrade again in 1 or 2 years)

CPU
INTEL Core i5-750 170€
(I wanted to get an i7-860, but it's 85€more expensive, and I think for my needs, the i5 will be enough)

CPU Cooler
SCYTHE Mugen 2 Rev. B 45€

Memory
G.SKILL DDR3 1333 Kit 4GB F3-10600 CL8D-4GBHK (XMP) 130€
(This one is compatibility tested with the ASUS mainboard)

GPU
ASUS ATI Radeon HD5770 1024MB 145€
(Don't think I will need a more powerful card, and this already has DirectX 11)

PSU
COUGAR 700 CM 120€
(These PSU's get the best reviews from all, don't know if 700 Watt is perhaps too much though)

HDD
3x SAMSUNG (1.5TB) Spinpoint F3 EcoGreen 95€ (each)
(I know that some will perhaps now discuss which brand of HDD is better, but price/performance of the Samsung disks is the best, and I'm also pretty happy with all of my Samsung disks so far)

Any suggestions?

Harrison

27th April 2010, 09:19

Great selection of components.

At the moment the i5 750 is the best CPU to buy for price to performance, and the HD5770 is a very good graphics card, which isn't that far behind the higher end HD5870, but a lot cheaper.

Samsung HDDs are also very good. I've been running some 1TB F1 drives for some time now and they perform fast and are very quiet.

A 700W PSU is definitely needed also. With that Graphics card you are going to be using it will draw quite a lot of power, plus multiple HDDs put a lot of strain on a PSU, and the CPU will need a fair bit too. I would say a 700W PSU is the minimum to go for. I don't know the Cougar make my self, but as long as it is a well known make of PSU that will be fine. It is good to pay more for a good make PSU as it is one of the key parts of the system.

Only things I would pick differently would be the case, CPU cooler and memory.

For the CPU cooler my personal favourite is the "Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2". I've got these in 3 of my systems for some time now and they are a great cooler at a very good price. They are very quiet and do a very good job of reducing temps. The problem I've heard with the Scythe is it can be very noisy when running fast.

As an example of how good the Freezer 7 Pro is. My main PC's Intel Quad core CPU idles at under 20 deg C, and never goes over 30 Deg C under load. And even the oldest system I have with one of these coolers, running an Athlon 64, saw a 10 deg C drop when I added this cooler instead of the stock one.

For memory, what you have picked is good, but I would personally pick Corsair DDR3 1333MHz XMS3 ram. And they do a 4GB kit (2x 2GB) for less than the one you quoted. This is because I've been using their XMS range ram in lots of systems for the past few years and it is very good. And if you wanted the best performing ram their XMS3 DHX with special heatsinks is very good.

Finally the case. This is always personal choice as everyone likes something different. The P183 is a very nice case, and is one of my favourites. I love the dual chamber design, keeping the PSU at the bottom away from the motherboard and other components to make everything cooler. But I think it is actually too small for current system builds. The main reason is the length of current graphics cards, plus the tower style CPU coolers are quite huge these days.. The P183 case is smaller than my current main system's case, which is a Thermaltake Tsunami, and I struggle to get everything into my case, and it doesn't have enough room to work in. In the video you link to he shows the length of space for a graphics card which is about 11.5 inches and that is the same as my Thermaltake case. And I have to remove the graphics card to get to the SATA sockets on the motherboard and 2 of the HDD drive slots cannot be used because the graphics card power connectors need that space, which is very annoying.

I think if you do buy the P183 you might have to remove and not use the upper HDD cage/draw to give enough room for the graphics card.

They make a larger version called the P193 which is just like the smaller P183, but with more room and a huge quiet side fan. Take a look at the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_yyr8l4K74

Personally at the moment my favourite cases are the Antec 300, 900 and 1200 range. The Antec Nine Hundred Two is a big case with brilliant cooling thanks to a huge top fan and front and rear large fans and it still has the PSU position at the bottom of the case. The only thing you would lose over the P183 would be the dual chamber design.

If you really want the P183 then I would suggest getting some measurements for the graphics card length, and also making sure the PSU you pick is compatible because a lot of PSUs do not have long enough cables for the design to reach the motherboard power sockets. And if the case isn't big enough but you want this design, then the P193 is there with a 15" space for graphics cards and easier access to the motherboard.

Demon Cleaner

27th April 2010, 09:51

For memory, what you have picked is good, but I would personally pick Corsair DDR3 1333MHz XMS3 ram. And they do a 4GB kit (2x 2GB) for less than the one you quoted. This is because I've been using their XMS range ram in lots of systems for the past few years and it is very good. And if you wanted the best performing ram their XMS3 DHX with special heatsinks is very good.The problem is that I didn't find these Corsair in the memory list of Asus. I really wanted to take the RAM which description exactly matches with the ones on the list.

You perhaps convinced me with the tower though, I will change for the Antec Twelve Hundred, which comes with 5 fans already, and a huge inside, for any further upgrade. It's also a bit cheaper than the P183.

EDIT: I saw that the P183 and the P193 have exactly the same dimensions: 514x205x590, whereas the 1200 has 513x213x582, which is almost the same size than the P models.

For the cooling I could also switch to the Arctic one, it's at least more than 50% cheaper than the Scythe one. Will investigate that further ;)

Harrison

27th April 2010, 10:17

The Antec Twelve Hundred will definitely make it much easier for future upgrades, and also very easy to add or swap HDDs in future.

The exterior dimensions may be similar, but the internal layouts make a big difference.

And that is fair enough about the ram. If you want to be 100% sure it will work perfectly with the motherboard then it is best to pick something from their Asus list. There are always some motherboards that don't like certain types so is better to be safe.

Phantom

27th April 2010, 14:21

I believe always ASUS has the best motherboards. Mine is ASUS too, and I use only AMD, not Intel. Don't ask me why. :p

Demon Cleaner

27th April 2010, 14:47

I will also change the 1.5TB with 2TB HDDs, as the 1.5TB are not in stock yet. They only have the F2 models, but the F3 ones are 1/3 faster. The 2TB only costs 25€ more.

Harrison

27th April 2010, 15:13

Definitely worth it for 2TB models at that price difference. 500GB for €25 can't be passed on.

@Phantom. Same here mate. I've only bought Asus for some time now. I always used to buy MSI, but after having config issues with every board I got from them, I switched to Asus and never looked back. :)

As for AMD. You probably guessed from my Amibay discussions with Kin (I do like to wind him up) where I stand with that. AMD/ATI for graphics cards and Intel for CPUs at the moment for the best price to performance at the moment in my view.

Phantom

27th April 2010, 15:21

Well said Dave. :thumbs: (I had MSI in the past...)

I forgot also, ATI for graphics. :)

J T

27th April 2010, 16:09

I'm looking at getting a laptop, and have been tempted by the i5 range (likely the 520m).

My sister in law's partner has a watercooled i7-920 with (I think) 12 gig ram (I'd say overkill) and an SSD. Man, it is fast :ninja:

Harrison

27th April 2010, 16:32

Only overkill if you are not going to use its full potential. If he is gaming then it will get more out of the system. However, now the i7 980X is released with its six core and hyperthreading (so 12 threads), it makes even a watercooled 920 look slow.

I never bother with watercooling as the amount of money you would spend on the setup, you could save and upgrade 6 months later to a newer CPU that is faster on air cooling.

Demon Cleaner

28th April 2010, 04:17

Btw, what do you think about getting immediately 8GB of memory, so I don't have to upgrade later? I just checked, and saw that a GeIL memory kit of 4GB only costs 105€, which is quite cheaper than the G.SKILL I wanted to get. So instead of getting 4GB for 170€, I would get 8GB for 210€.

I lately only used GeIL memory, which I found to be very good and reliable. I can give you the latencies if you want to compare them:

GeIL: CL7 7-7-24 (model GV34GB1333C7DC)
G.SKILL: CL8 8-8-21 (model F3-10600CL8D-4GBHK)

And as I noticed just now, from today on, the G.SKILL memory is out of stock :(

The GeIL memory is also supported by the mainboard.

EDIT: With some further investigation I read that some people have problems with the GeIL memory. I found now memory from Patriot, which seems to be top, but it's quite expensive, 140€ for 4GB. But I also saw that there's Kingston Hyper X memory, and "only" 219€ for a quad kit (8GB), but it's not on the qualified vendors list of Asus.

Harrison

28th April 2010, 09:57

GeIL ram is good, but maybe that motherboard doesn't like certain latency.

Have you looked at Crucial ram? I've used that quite a lot in the past, and it is very good. The Crucial website lets you search by motherboard for recommended and tested ram. And you can order from their website directly with next day special delivery.

For the motherboard you want the following link is all their compatible ram types:

http://www.crucial.com/eu/store/listparts.aspx?model=P7P55D-E%20LX

In answer to your question about getting 8GB. Unless you are planning to do video editing, post production or 3D rendering, then I can't see a reason for more than 4GB of ram at the moment. No games require it or really need more than that. And with 2x 2GB ram in the system you would have 2 slots free for more later if you ever did need more.

Demon Cleaner

29th April 2010, 08:38

I ordered the stuff now, and I only changed few things:

- got the Antec 1200 case
- got the Patriot memory, 4GB
- got the Arctic cooler you mentioned Harrison
- got the Cougar S700 PSU, not the 700CM, which is a bit more expensive but has an 80+ silver certificate (the other has "only" bronze :))
- had to change the 5770 Asus card, as Asus cards and many others were out of stock, so I got the Sapphire model (still 5770)

- kept everything else, the CPU, took 3x 2GB HDDs, and the Asus mainboard

Harrison

29th April 2010, 11:02

Sapphire or XFX are actually the best makers ATI cards, so you will be happy with that one.

Demon Cleaner

12th May 2010, 10:59

And here is the beauty put together:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y184/cioprgr/P1020372.jpg

Now I have to install and copy stuff over from the "old" PC. I got a nice Sharkoon Quickport Combo HDD docking station (http://www.sharkoon.com/html/produkte/docking_stations/quickport_combo/index_en.html) (SATA + IDE) to do so.

Harrison

12th May 2010, 15:29

That looks great. Very nice neat job you did.

Were you happy with all the components and the case?

Phantom

12th May 2010, 15:57

Everything is really nice and very settled inside. :thumbs:

Although I have to admit, that's the first time I see the PSU's place at the bottom of the case.

Harrison

12th May 2010, 16:09

All Antec cases have thier PSUs at the bottom. I quite like that instead of the normal top position as it does reduce clutter. Their P range of cases go further with dual chambers, isolating the PSU completely from the rest of the components to keep the heat separate. But those a re a bit limiting in internal space for current long graphics cards.

Demon Cleaner

14th May 2010, 06:35

That looks great. Very nice neat job you did.

Were you happy with all the components and the case?Thanks. I still didn't install my stuff yet so far, only Windows, as I gave my old PC to my father, who still had an Athlon Barton with 512MB memory and 40GB HDD :) But I had to install it for him from scratch, as he wanted the Windows in french, so that took me some time, plus to copy and install all his stuff again.

One problem I only noticed is that the CPU cooler is quite big and reaches over the last RAM expansion, so that you cannot upgrade memory without removing again the cooler.

Teho

14th May 2010, 08:32

One problem I only noticed is that the CPU cooler is quite big and reaches over the last RAM expansion, so that you cannot upgrade memory without removing again the cooler.

Have the exact same issue with mine. That was the only one sensible way to install that huge thing when I built mine as well. If I'll ever really need that last RAM-slot I'll have to get a different cooler, plain and simple.

J T

14th May 2010, 10:07

Is it a big case or a small motherboard?

I may be a 'little' behind the curve with PC things.

(The only PC I ever really open up is my one that I built 3-4 years ago. I think it was 4).

Demon Cleaner

14th May 2010, 11:10

It's a big tower with a normal sized ATX mobo. My older PC was 6-7 years old already, and annoyed me lately whilst multitasking, and also streaming HD material to the PS3.

I also only had 760GB of HDD space (IDE disks), and had to backup everything on slow external USB drives. Now with 6TB (SATA/300 --- reading at 135MB/s) I can do that internal, and a lot faster.

Harrison

14th May 2010, 16:52

Sharingan

17th May 2010, 15:41

PC pr0n! Nice! :)

Have you considered getting a Solid State Drive as the system drive? You can get 250+ MB/s transfers out of that, and if you put it in a RAID, things will really fly.

There was an experiment a while ago by a couple of guys who put 20 SSDs in a RAID. That was some sick shit ... they got several GIGABYTES/s transfer rates.

Demon Cleaner

19th May 2010, 13:31

One problem I only noticed is that the CPU cooler is quite big and reaches over the last RAM expansion, so that you cannot upgrade memory without removing again the cooler.

You got the Freezer 7 Pro CPU cooler in the end, didn't you?

If so, the fan can easily be unclipped from the front of the heatsink via the rubber frame that holds it all in place and reduces vibration. Makes it fairly easy to then reach the ram. I also have this problem with mine.Yes, I got that one. The problem is that the RAM I have, the Patriot GSeries, is quite large (look here (http://www.alternate.de/html/product/Arbeitsspeicher_DDR3-1333/Patriot/DIMM_4_GB_DDR3-1333_Kit/349530/?tn=HARDWARE&l1=Arbeitsspeicher&l2=DDR3&l3=DDR3-1333)), because it has a heatsink, and the fan reaches over the last RAM expansion. So only RAM without a heatsink would fit under the fan.

Harrison

19th May 2010, 16:50

That is annoying, but would happen with all tower style heatsinks, which are the most efficient type these days.

Submeg

26th May 2010, 08:43

Wow, I really know nothing about building PCs these days...

Harrison

26th May 2010, 11:21

It isn't that different building a PC from the past 10 years really. You still have a case, motherboard, ram, CPU, cooler, PSU and graphics card as the main parts.

The big differences are the need for a powerful PSU, graphics cards are now much bigger and longer so need larger cases for them to fit, and good after market CPU coolers are much bigger, with tower style ones being the current popular and most efficient design.

Submeg

26th May 2010, 11:40

I guess, but I just have no idea what is out there anymore!

PS Tis good to be back and posting :)

Demon Cleaner

27th May 2010, 06:41

I ran the Windows 7 experience test (WEI) yesterday, and I get an average of 7.5, only the hard disk test (disk data transfer) gives me 5.9 points, thus giving me a rating of 5.9, as the lowest subscore counts.

As I read so far it seems very difficult to get a higher score for the hard disk test, unless you have an SSD.

Hard drive performance was always a difficult one: even with the last WEI, you had to opt for a Western Digital 10,000RPM Raptor, a RAID solution or be very picky with your main drive selection to hit the magical 5.9.

Even with two RAID0 SSD drives, we didn't achieve anything higher than 6.5. And frankly that's not the sort of solution we expect anyone to be regularly running even by the start of 2010.
Anyway, the system runs so slow, I can barely hear it running, although there's 6 fans on the case plus CPU,GPU and PSU fans! The HDDs are really silent too, that's why I got the Samsung F3 EcoGreen models, they also run only at 5.400.

I also updated the BIOS and all other motherboard drivers, which were all a bit older already. No I still need to install most of my software, currently I'm copying my files back from my old HDDs.

But at the moment I'm very pleased with my new system :):thumbs:

Demon Cleaner

29th July 2011, 21:10

I ordered more RAM for the PC, lately when I'm doing stuff like copying, converting video, extracting, downloading... together, my memory usage goes up to almost 100% and the PC almost freezes. I checked today and I saw that the RAM dropped a lot in price. I go now 2x4GB Corsair for 50€. It's the Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1333 CL9 (9-9-9-24). My 2x2GB RAM I bought with the system were almost 150€.

Perhaps I can even fit the new ones next to the others, and keeping also the old ones, remember there was the problem with one RAM slot being blocked by the CPU cooler, making RAM with bigger heatsinks not fit. This new RAM doesn't have a big heatsink, so perhaps it will fit.

Harrison

29th July 2011, 23:40

It should fit and you can have 4 DIMMs fitted at once. I've got 4x 2GB in my main PC, and I've yet to get anywhere close to using up the 8GB for anything other than video preview rendering in After Effects.

Ram definitely had dropping in price a lot recently. A bit surprising as I was thinking the recent Tsunami in Japan might have effected manufacturing and pushed prices up.

Demon Cleaner

30th July 2011, 02:23

It should fit and you can have 4 DIMMs fitted at once.
I know that, I just hope that they will fit, don't want to remove the CPU cooler.

Demon Cleaner

4th August 2011, 21:16

RAM is installed now, fitted without problems, still some milimeters between the plastic of the fan and the memory.

Demon Cleaner

24th August 2011, 11:36

That extra RAM really helps me a lot. When ripping Blu Ray discs or converting video files, it really shows. Whilst doing that, it takes already over half of the memory, like 6-7GB, which was not possible before, that's why it had these freezing problems all the time. It was so bad, that when you wanted to open a program from the taskbar, it took more than 5 minutes to open!!! Making it impossible to work, I always had to reboot the PC to free some memory again.

It's also a big change when having loads of tabs opened in Firefox, that was also slowing the PC down.

And of course extracting huge files kind of brought the PC to a halt.

At the moment I don't have any slowdowns, regardless of what I'm doing. I'm quite happy that I upgraded.

Harrison

25th August 2011, 00:05

With intensive tasks it is always the amount of ram that will help the most. Much more than a faster CPU.

Demon Cleaner

9th April 2019, 11:54

So here we are again. Lately I'm doing a lot again on my PC, reorganizing all my ROM sets and games and movies and series aso. And I noticed that my actual PC is struggling a lot lately, which makes working on it quite a chore, and takes even a LOT more time than eventually needed. If I have downloads running, archiving/extracting, plus copying stuff around and Firefox is open (which was now replaced by Chrome btw), then my PC almost comes to a stop, sometimes freezes then recovers, a bit painful is the least I can say.

So I thought that it's now 5-6 years old, perhaps time to finally get a new one, when I saw, to my surprise, that I bought it already in 2010!! Time passes very fast, didn't think it would have been that long, I remember it as it was yesterday. But then I thought that now would be even more the time to buy a new one, and I still have to check components, what I really want and need, but basically I'm still doing the same stuff on it, and multithreading is probably the most important in my case, gaming is not so much an issue, as I don't play AAA games on the PC, playing them on console, but I have a lot of games which are less resource hungry because they're already a bit older, or just not as demanding.

First I wanted to start with the right CPU, and AMD popped in my eye with their newer CPUs, the Ryzen models. The Ryzen 7 2700X seems to be interesting with it's 8 cores, would definitely not go lower than that. But I also saw their Threadripper (what a name) models, which seem to be ultra performant, the 16 core variant being the most interesting for me, as the 24 and 32 core ones are in a quite high price range still. What I have to do is find some good comparison between those two CPUs, and see if I would actually need a Threadripper. I have to add that the price doesn't matter, I buy a PC, as you probably notice, not on a regular basis, thus I want to have it future proof, and the price isn't so important. So I guess I might go with the 16 core Threadripper CPU.

Any thoughts?

Motherboard wise I think I'll go with the Asus Prime X399-A which seems to be really good. Didn't look and investigate others yet, this one popped straight away into my eye, but I might still do some research.

As I'll do with the RAM, I want to put 32GB, because in my opinion 64GB isn't needed, but of course I could be wrong. Now would be the time to decide anyway, so that I won't need to upgrade later.

GPU wise I guess I'll stick with a RTX 2060, the 2070 and 2080 still being too expensive, although sometimes the price between a 2060 and 2070 is quite small, also depending the maker. I don't know anything yet about the AMD GPUs.

EDIT: Was checking out the AMD GPUs, and I might as well stick with an RX590, first of all gaming isn't that important, and secondly, bigger factor, is that I only have Full HD screens, thus the resolution is lower.

I will also remove all my HDDs out of the case, putting them in an external enclosure, as I only need them as storage, but I have 6 of them, don't need them inside a case anymore. Plus I bought a 12TB HDD as backup for my collection, which will also fit in an enclosure, btw I bought one from Fantec, no RAID (still having my Synology), only the basic JBOD version of it. Will receive it tomorrow.

https://i.imgur.com/r6VmDu7.jpg

So I will only need to buy one disk, SSD of course, and will also have to decide which one. I guess a 500GB one is sufficient, having a 250GB at the moment, still free space, although only around 25%.

Any suggestions and thoughts are very welcome.

P.S.: I also received my new chair today, the amber Secretlab TITAN model, have to say, it's awesome :thumbs:

https://i.imgur.com/h94MYXO.jpg

Harrison

10th April 2019, 12:45

Demon Cleaner

10th April 2019, 21:52

I was now comparing the AMD RX 590 to the NVidia 1660 Ti GPU, don't know if I want to go with a higher end card, my monitors are quite new and I won't probably change them in the near future, and as I'm definitely not into gaming on the PC, I might as well stick with a mid-range card. The 1660 Ti is slightly faster, and only a few bucks more expensive. Like I mentioned before, it's not that the price plays a big role, but I still don't wanna buy components, which are overkill for MY needs.

Also about the Threadripper I'm still puzzled. Do the 16 cores give me advantage over the 8 cores, is it overkill, I mean I don't work in video editing or such. But how much more does it give it when multitasking, meaning percent wise. Would I notice a difference? Because between those to CPUs is a price gap of 500€, which is considerable. And if I only gain 10% overall more, or if it isn't noticeable at all in my case, then it's definitely a no go. Second "best" is indeed the Ryzen 7 2700X.

Perhaps I should consider the 12 core Threadripper variant 2920X, which is price wise situated between the 2 others.

- - - Updated - - -

After researching and reviewing this whole afternoon, I came to a final (I guess) conclusion.

CPU: AMD Threadripper 2920X with 12 cores.

Going with this one, as it's still considerably faster than a Ryzen 7, although almost double the price, but still 250€ cheaper than the 2950X, plus it comes very close to the 2950X, so value is a lot better.

Mainboard: ASUS Prime X399-A

Negative side of the Threadripper CPU is that there are not yet many TR4 mainboards on the market, and they are double the price of the Ryzen 7 AM4 mainboards.

GPU: Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX Vega 56

The Vega cards are a bit faster than the RX590 models, having also 8GB, and in benchmarks they're even 10-15% faster than an RTX2060. Plus they are 100-150€ cheaper. The Vega 64 models are quite expensive though. And as I mentioned before, I don't plan on playing GPU hungry games, plus I'm keeping my two 27" Dell Full HD monitors.

Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR4-3200 Quad-Kit 4x8GB

Cooling: Noctua NH-U14S

Wanted to go with a be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4, but it has one big disadvantage, I goes over the RAM slots, restricting you to 45mm high RAM, and the Corsair I want are 51mm. Could go with G.Skill Trident Z, but they're 120€ more expensive, for same speed and latency.

PSU: Seasonic FOCUS Plus Platinum 750W

Could also go with Gold and 850W, but I guess that doesn't make a big difference.

SSD: Samsung 860 Evo 1TB

Apparently the Samsung 860 Evo HDDs are still amongst the best on the market, and I think I'll go straight away with the 1TB model, as I don't plan to put any other HDD inside. Having a 250GB at the moment with 25% free space made me consider buying a 500GB only, but if I decide to install some games, it would be better on a long term to stick with a bigger disk, price wise there's not a lot of difference.

Case: be quiet! Silent Base 801 (or 601)

Still checking some reviews here, wanted to go with the big Dark Base Pro 900 rev.2, as it's the only one where you can still fit an optical drive, which I still will buy, as I have many data BluRays laying around, and ripping will be done. Plus it has USB-C 3.1 on the front, which the other don't have. Problem is that the tower is huge, so I'm still looking if I could go with the silent base models 601 or 801. I also have an external BluRay burner, so that's not too much of an issue.

Speakers: Edifier C2XD

I still have older 2.1 Logitech speakers, and I think it's time to change to something better and more performant, and I have the Edifier 2.1 speakers already for a longer time on my list. Great price/value.

Harrison

21st April 2019, 09:01

Sounds like a nice setup. The Samsung SSDs are definitely still the best.

Regarding cpu cores, most people won't see much benefit above 4 cores most of the time. Although obviously if you have web browsers open at the same time as email, downloading things, converting files, copying etc it will always help because a different core can be assigned for each task.

Demon Cleaner

24th April 2019, 15:10

Ok, so in the end I almost completely changed my setup, and ordered the stuff, should arrive next week.

I ditched the AMD setup, as I was talking with some guys at PC Hardware, and they suggested that in my case I could also go with an Intel CPU, because it still has single core superiority, and has a good multi core performance, basically the better option.

I really think you'll be good with a Ryzen 2700x system based on your use-case... But if you say money isn't a huge issue, the 9900k will somewhat offer you the best of both worlds in terms of single core and multi-threaded performance in general. 8 cores 16 threads is nothing to scoff at, and the higher IPC/clock speed on Intel does handily beat out Ryzen, but the cost difference is quite a lot..

Coming from the i5 750, you'll see a massive jump.

Also, AMD is so threatened by the 9900k they're going to launch with 12 core Zen 2. With it's expected 20% faster performance, that will just barely match your 9900k in productivity. We will see if they can actually price it lower.

I expect you'll get at least five years out of the 9900k, if not more. And you can buy it today, instead of six months down the road.

So this will be my setup:

CPU: Intel® Core™ i9-9900K

Mainboard: ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero

GPU: ZOTAC GeForce RTX 2070 AMP Extreme

Memory: Corsair DIMM 32 GB DDR4-2666 Quad-Kit

Cooling: Noctua NH-D15

PSU: be quiet! STRAIGHT POWER 11 CM 750W

SSD: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 250 GB

2nd SSD: Samsung 860 EVO 1 TB

Case: be quiet! SILENT BASE 601

- - - Updated - - -

Harrison

28th April 2019, 22:49

Very nice setup. You will be future proofed with the i9 for a very long time, especially as it has 5GHz turbo boost so even though it's an unlocked K CPU there is really no need to overclock it.

Kin Hell

7th May 2019, 23:56

AMD processors are definitely finally the best gaming and general purpose CPUs again at the moment. I would only really recommend Intel for productivity because they do still offer some advantages for things like video editing, 3D rendering etc. GPU wise try to get a 2070 instead of a 2060 because it's more like a cheaper 2080 and will future proof you if you decide to upgrade to 4k monitors in thr future. However if you can find a reasonable second hand 1080 they actually outperform the newer 2080 in some tests.. although they seem to be commanding more second hand than they were new at the moment.

CPU I'm not 100% sure on the best AMD ones to get at thr moment because they keep releasing new models. If I were going Intel I would only invest in an i7 or i9 because they offer far more over the i5. But you are paying 3 sometimes 4 times thr prices of a similar performing AMD CPU so it really isn't worth it.

Ya know H....

I still canna believe your Banging on about AMD & Gaming. - Proper Tosh in every manner. :shades:

If you want a Gaming Rig with Stunning Productivity, Intel & nVidia all the way.

@ DC

Well done & special thank's for me not seeing your AMD suggestion earlier on. - It saved me & Harrison having another boring discussion about Intel with nVidia & AMD with ATI or nVidia; - Yuck!
The only thing I would have suggested would have been to go for a 1080Ti. - Infinitely more Cuda Cores & a much higher FPS rate than the the RTX2070 when gaming. You could have a grabbed a good 2nd hand Zotac Extreme Core Edition for the cost of the RTX2070.

GTX1080 Ti - 3584 Shading Units with 11GB DDR5 Ram giving Memory Bandwidth of 492.8GB/Sec on a 384Bit Architecture.

RTX2070 - 2304 Shading Units with 8GB DDR6 Ram giving Memory Bandwidth of 448GB/Sec on a 256Bit Architecture.

1080 Ti Pixel Fill Rate & Texture fill rate is 151.4 G/Pixels & 385.5 G/Texels

2070 Pixel Fill Rate & Texture fill rate is 103.7 G/Pixels & 233.3 G/Texels

To add, 384Bit Memory Architecture is like Butter compared to 256Bit (where's the 512Bit nVidia promised years ago??) & the 3GB of less Ram means you can't load as many textures onto the card.

Don't get me wrong, the RTX cards are awesome in terms of Real Time Ray Tracing, but it's only ever 60FPS @ best when doing so with the 2080 Ti's.

All I'm trying to say here is the 1080 Ti Smokes the 1070 in every manner. The 1080 Ti is approximately 50% faster on the best FPS you will see from the 2070.
I was lucky enough to buy mine from a guy that had two & he didn't even play games on them; - One was a spare, as he just re-codes Video & was gutted @ buying a 2080 Ti to see an identical Render rate comparing it to his 1080 Ti.

He did say I could have his 2nd card being an SLI nut, though I suggested he hung onto it as a back up card just in case. - I have a HB SLI Bridge on standby for the day he calls me to offer his 2nd 1080 Ti. - I'll be all over it like a rash. :sly:

The CPU you went for is simply awesome, so I'm more than sure you'll be floored with your new Rigs performance, & better still.....it's all brand new. :thumbs:

Pah, Bah & Meh @ AMD/ATI Harrison. :tease:

Harrison

8th May 2019, 07:05

@Kin. AMD hadn't been worth buying for years. But their current range has simply pushed their CPUs right up there again. Great performance, at a great price point, often a third of the price to similar equivalent Intel CPUs.

Would I currently buy an AMD CPU? No. Mainly because I'm not just needing one for gaming, so would stick with an i7 or i9 combined with an nVidia GPU for Cuda support.

BTW, GPU specs are a bit lost on DC because he's not really using the system for gaming at all. Although utilising the nVidia cuda cores and GPU for accelerated video rendering and transcoding will be a bonus.

Demon Cleaner

8th May 2019, 13:49

I have everything together now, spend some time uninstalling stuff on my old one, to see what programs I'm running, making backups of everything I could, and wrote down a list on what to install on the new one. Everything is ready now to install the new one under my desk, and remove the old. Gonna do that now straight away. And probably coming days I'll spend with installing, I like to do that thoroughly, so it always takes me some time.

Went with the RTX2070 as I bought the Intel CPU, but in the beginning I wanted even a lower priced one, like the RTX2060 which I considered, but already thought that it would be too much for my usage, like I said, I wanted a Vega 56 or perhaps Vega 64, or a 1660Ti, but in the end I decided to go with the RTX2070. And I definitely didn't wanna buy a used card, if I want something new, then everything should be new, so I didn't go with a 1080Ti, and in the end I went with the newer model GPU.

Kin Hell

8th May 2019, 23:51

If it's any help RE 2nd hand stuff DC, I bought 2 x Zotac 780 Ti's over four years ago January 6th just gone & both of them cost £540 brand new. - They were end of the line & it was literally buy one, get one free when they were selling @ nearly £600 each in their hey-day.
The 2nd hand 1080 Ti I bought was barely 12 months old, cost £520 & completely blows the 780 Ti's out of the water.

I guess the 780 Ti's work out at about £135 a year & hope I'm as lucky with the 1080 Ti but of course, a 2nd one will ramp my yearly cost up.

Seeing Battlefield 5 maxxed out with ULTRA settings and holding over 100fps is mental Gaming & looks stunning on an nVidia G-Sync IPS panel @ 2560 x 1440. :cool:

You couldn't have bought a better CPU though & (I'm almost slightly envious 'cos I want one) the i9 9900K is simply a Monster & you will get the best from you 2070 possible. - I'm still banging an i7 3770k on an Asus P8 Z77 Premium board @ 4.7GGhz under water. She's been happy @ this speed for the last 6 years now & I know I'm not getting the best out of the 1080 Ti in any manner.
As a matter of interest, how are you cooling the 9900K?

Harrison, the issue with AMD/ATI for many years has always been around the drivers, or the lack of. - Can't speak for Freesync now that I'm a GSync guy, but back in the VSync days, ATI was very wrong in every manner.
RE AMD's CPU's tho, they have always chased Intel & never quite got there.

Demon Cleaner

9th May 2019, 13:05

I’m probably not even using full power of the 2070 as I’m still with 2 HD only monitors, Dell2714.

Cooling of the CPU is done by a Noctua NH-D15.

https://i.imgur.com/PRnu0UC.jpg

Harrison

9th May 2019, 16:06

Harrison, the issue with AMD/ATI for many years has always been around the drivers, or the lack of. - Can't speak for Freesync now that I'm a GSync guy, but back in the VSync days, ATI was very wrong in every manner.
RE AMD's CPU's tho, they have always chased Intel & never quite got there.

I can't comment either as I've been running nVidia 970s for years too, plus an i7. I agree AMD GPUs did have some driver issues back in the day, but they were pretty fast to update when there was an issue. I remember for Star Wars The Old Republic the game wouldn't boot on release. You could hear the intro music and see the pointer, but blank screen. Next day driver update fixed it. nVidia drivers have had issues too over time. I think both are pretty even these days. Just depends what you want and need from a card.

I also have no experience on current AMD CPUs because their model ranking and numbering is bloody confusing! But in all reviews and the couple of friends who own them they perform quite impressively for the price.

Kin Hell

16th May 2019, 09:28

I’m probably not even using full power of the 2070 as I’m still with 2 HD only monitors, Dell2714.

Cooling of the CPU is done by a Noctua NH-D15.

https://astri.ee/assets/medias/231767/noctua-noctua-nh-d14-140120mm-ventilaatoriga-1493019523953-arvutitark.jpg

WOW! - Monster CPU, .....Monster Cooler I guess. - What sort of Idle/Full Load CPU Temps are you seeing DC?

Demon Cleaner

16th May 2019, 16:32

Didn't test full load yet, at the moment I'm copying huge chunks of data, so here's the result:

https://i.imgur.com/gFLPUgw.jpg

Kin Hell

19th May 2019, 08:44

Go get Prime95 from here: https://www.techpowerup.com/download/prime95/

32 & 64 Bit versions. - This program stresses your CPU & Memory & should warm things nicely for you.

You'll get to see how HOT your new CPU really gets & also how quickly it can recover under that Behemoth Cooler. :thumbs:

Demon Cleaner

5th January 2021, 11:34

Got a new PC again for gaming and living room use. I wanted to buy it in October already, but the RTX 3080 were sold out straight away. Then I was waiting for AMDs answer to Intel, but with their GPUs and CPUs it was exactly the same. One week ago I saw that the shop I usually buy my stuff had then one of the RTX 3090 in stock, and instead of again waiting for probably months to get my hand on a RTX 3080, I eventually bought that one, a bit expensive, but loads of power. Got a 500€ voucher for that shop for my birthday last year, so that compensates a bit. Plus I'm gonna sell my HADES Canyon now.

So here's my newest PC setup:

CPU: Intel® Core™ i9-10900K

Mainboard: MSI MEG Z490 Unify

GPU: ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3090 Trinity

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX DIMM 32GB DDR4-3200 MHz C16 (2x16GB)

Cooling: Noctua NH-D15

PSU: Cooler Master MWE GOLD 850 - V2

1st SSD: Samsung 970 EVO 500GB NVMe M.2

2nd SSD: Patriot Viper VPN100 M.2 2TB

3rd HDD: Seagate Exos X16 16TB

Case: MSI MPG Gungnir 110M

Harrison

6th January 2021, 02:29

Wow! That's quite a beast.

Might even manage to run Cyberpunk! Lol.

Demon Cleaner

6th January 2021, 12:55

Might even manage to run Cyberpunk! Lol.
:lol:

Kin Hell

6th January 2021, 17:42

Demon Cleaner

21st January 2021, 09:06

Everything should arrive today, as it was delivered yesterday morning to my PackUp in Germany. Had to send it to my PackUp station, as the RTX3090 was not available for Luxembourg. And usually our Post picks it up from there next day in the morning, and brings it then to our post office in my hometown where I get an sms and can pick it up, usually early in the morning. But unfortunately I didn't receive any sms yet :dry:

Demon Cleaner

22nd January 2021, 14:45

Finally everything comes together, made some pictures but unfortunately you don't see a lot, the huge Noctua fan hides everything.

https://i.imgur.com/U6HP5aY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/keFdIPV.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/un1NE2T.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/KdIXaoP.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/l1CC2L6.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/XxIvQhG.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NSZ1Zp5.png

https://i.imgur.com/Y0A9RC3.png

https://i.imgur.com/pmwikt4.png

https://i.imgur.com/rhLyTcB.png

https://i.imgur.com/E5kvjvb.png

https://i.imgur.com/epZcxIg.png

https://i.imgur.com/nPRDY2b.png

https://i.imgur.com/eVzJb5I.png

Harrison

24th January 2021, 10:27

Demon Cleaner

25th January 2021, 11:09

Well, this is annoying. The MOS fan is running all the time at full speed, 12.000rpm. I couldn't manage to resolve this, not through software like Dragon Center or Afterburner, nor through the fan control settings in the BIOS. Setting is set to silent mode, and even putting it to manual doesn't change anything, continues turning at full speed.

So I called MSI in the end, they asked me about the BIOS, it has the latest version, so they guessed that it's a fan controller issue and that I have to send it back. That's just great, damn.

Harrison

29th January 2021, 12:14

A friend has a similar fan issue with a 3080 GPU. The fan was just running constantly full speed. The fan was connected via internal USB so he unplugged it to reset the fan and the GPU really didn't like that and started causing Windows errors, so he's got to send the GPU back.

So could it be a GPU hardware fault with these 30X0 cards?

Demon Cleaner

29th January 2021, 13:22

It's not the GPU, it's the MOS fan of the MSI motherboard.

Harrison

29th January 2021, 23:12

He's wasn't the GPU either, but his case system fans refusing to throttle via MoBo and software throttling. The issue however was the GPU blocking the system from slowing down the fans. To me it sounded like either a compatibility issue in either the Bios, the GPU firmware, or somewhere between the GPU drivers and Windows.

Kin Hell

31st January 2021, 06:33

That heatsink is huge! Why not liquid cooling? Would have saved a lot of internal space.

Really like the look of the case.

You are really lucky to have got a 3090. The 3000 cards are completely out of stock in most places globally at the moment. You could make a massive profit reselling online. Some are selling for £4k on ebay!

Harrison is right DC....

A Water Block & Rad setup would have saved you Lots of internal Case space & given you much better cooling on the CPU.

Well, this is annoying. The MOS fan is running all the time at full speed, 12.000rpm. I couldn't manage to resolve this, not through software like Dragon Center or Afterburner, nor through the fan control settings in the BIOS. Setting is set to silent mode, and even putting it to manual doesn't change anything, continues turning at full speed.

So I called MSI in the end, they asked me about the BIOS, it has the latest version, so they guessed that it's a fan controller issue and that I have to send it back. That's just great, damn.

He's wasn't the GPU either, but his case system fans refusing to throttle via MoBo and software throttling. The issue however was the GPU blocking the system from slowing down the fans. To me it sounded like either a compatibility issue in either the Bios, the GPU firmware, or somewhere between the GPU drivers and Windows.

Whilst having the Luxury of a Water Block on my now ageing i7 3770K (OMFG, 8 years old now....) I noticed my 1080Ti's were hugely noisy compared to my old 780Ti's & my Chassis Fans were Ramping. - I have a couple of Zotac GTX1080-Ti AMP Editions in SLI now & yeah, I know I ain't seeing the best from these Girls....
But.... I discovered a solution that was really hard to discover.

Zotac's 1080Ti default Bios setting would spin it's three fans unnecessarily high causing lots of bad ass noise.
On top of this, my Chassis Fans were mis-behaving. They're hooked up to my CPU Fan Headers for convenience because I run a Water block. - Still with me......? :shades:

Run Zotac Firestorm, here's the greet screen:

1196

After clicking on Spectra:

1197

Click on the circled what looks like a slider button but isn't: (Grrrrr) :eyebrow:

1198

Set FAN STOP SETTING to "OFF"

Heh! :sly: - Now Blissfully silent until used/needed & my Chassis Fans now behave as they should. - My SLI'd 780Ti's didn't do this. :nuts:

Zotac may now have changed this on their 20XX & 30XX Series Bios', but wonder if their might be some underlying issue here for you?

*Edit*

If this doesn't work for you, just send me your 3090 & I'll send you my two 1080Ti's. - I'm sure they'll be just fine for you! 1199

Harrison

3rd February 2021, 22:51

I'm sure DC would be up for that exchange! Lol

Demon Cleaner

4th February 2021, 09:37

I wanted to go with an AiO cooling system, the NZXT Kraken X73, but after doing some research and watching this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEjm2fZyaeI&feature=emb_logo), I went with the Noctua (again).

Kin Hell

4th February 2021, 14:45

I'm sure DC would be up for that exchange! Lol

:lol:

I wanted to go with an AiO cooling system, the NZXT Kraken X73, but after doing some research and watching this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEjm2fZyaeI&feature=emb_logo), I went with the Noctua (again).

I can see your reasoning DC. - I did watch the whole video & almost posted a reply suggesting he needed to do some Breathing Exercises..... :dry:

Anyhoo, the video only compares a complete water cooled solution. - Looks great... but is NOT the best when it comes to water cooling.

For starters, a 1/2" bore in your tubing gets way more heat away from the CPU on a good brand of Water block.
The Radiator on that NZXT is only half the depth of my 3 x 120 Rad....
I use a Laing D5 pump, probably the best there is in Water Cooled Computer build terms. You need a good pump to force a good flow though a half inch bore.

This kit will cost you about £300 (Plus a decent Case to house it all) but the temps will be way cooler than the NZXT solution @ ~ 160? -

I'm not knocking the NZXT & dammit, that Noctua is a proper "Munter", but, at least with the NZXT, it looks really really Sweet! :shades:

The guy proclaims these are the best coolers on the market right now, but probably isn't wise or bright enough to know there are better water cooling solutions than NZXT or Corsair ready to go Rad/Block Combo's.

The Ugly cooler helps GPU temps, cos those shitty brown spinny things help get rid of the GPU's heat....

Kind'a makes his review a Tad bias against the whole concept of Water Cooling for me bud. :thumbsdown2:

Does that mean I'm an Enthusiast or just a nutter? :hmmm:

Demon Cleaner

4th February 2021, 17:29

You don't see the insides of my PC, it's almost against the wall, so I absolutely don't care about the looks. The case had to be "quite" compact, as I put it on a shelf next to my subwoofer, and this Gungnir case just fits, anything slightly bigger would not.

This PC was already 4.000€, that was my limit sorts off, it was even a bit lower before, as I wanted to get a 3080 and not a 3090, but due to permanent unavailability, I had to change, so it was already 1.000€ more expensive than initially planned. And to be honest, I never even considered installing any water cooling system, never had one, never needed one.

Plus the Noctua keeps temperature very low, don't need 10 degrees on my CPU, only to post a picture to say "hey guys look, I have the best cooling system, had to spend 500€, but now my CPU is at 10 degrees all the time, even when playing Cyberpunk in 8K".