DescentBB

First, Thanks from (as always) for the advice.

Here is a box that I'm thinking of putting together.

https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySa ... D=25168906

Not sure this link will work for you. the monitor, memory, and vid card can be dropped saving over $700 right off the top.

I have in my current box:

mobo: Asus P7P55 LX
CPU: Intel i3 540 (3.07GHz)
VID: XFX ATI HD7870 (FX-787A-CDFC)
Mem: 16 Gig Mushkin DDR3 1333
Sound: SB Recon 3d (-----)
OS: Win 7 Pro (64 bit)
Mouse: R.A.T.7

I get pretty good frames with my current box, but I'm getting the itch to build. I'm also going to throw together a micro for the TV. Probably an i5 and run the output from the mobo.

Can't see the list, sorry. In the meantime here's some chit-chat about small PC's.

*edit* << Obsolete build, current on link below>>

Rosewill Galaxy-02 Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
ASUS MAXIMUS VI HERO LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
XFX Double Dissipation R9-290A-EDFD Radeon R9 290 4GB 512-Bit GDDR5
XFX P1-750X-XXB9 750W ATX12V 2.2 & ESP12V 2.91
Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz LGA 1150 84W
SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE250BW 2.5" 250GB
CORSAIR Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 Desktop Memory Model CMY16GX3M2A2133C11R
Seagate Barracuda STBD2000101 2TB 7200 RPM
ASUS VS Series VS247H-P Black 23.6" 2ms
ASUS Black 16X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 12X BD-ROM SATA Blu-ray Burner BW-16D1HT
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
SILVERSTONE AR04 80mm CPU Cooler
Total: $2,168.69

Modified it a bit. Went to a mini design. Saved a fair bit of money as well.

Link

Pretty good, but keep in mind while the H100i should fit in that case, it will by no means be an easy installation. It barely fit in my Carbide 300R (top mounted), actually it probably wouldn't have if I hadn't been using low profile memory and I had to move my Bluray burner to the lowest 5.25" bay to get the clearance I needed for the hose. Also, Asus motherboards seem to be a bit thinner than the mounting brackets for the corsair hydro coolers were designed for (or they were designed with tolerances to handle abnormally thick boards), in order to get a snug fit on mine I had to create about 1-1.5MM worth of plastic washers to put on the back side of the motherboard. It'd probably be a good idea to have some 5/32" ID plastic washers (or create your own) to shim it up if needed.

For a single GPU system you only need a ~450-550w PSU unless you plan on some pretty extreme overclocking, and even then anything past about 650w is questionable from a realistic power draw standpoint (you're likely to run into some other limit before a single CPU/GPU system pulls that much current). My system is a single GPU gaming system at stock clocks, I have more drives and more fans and even at peak loading during a busy game I can't get it to pull much over 300w at the outlet (I have it hooked up to a kill-a-watt meter). Going modular is a good choice though, because space is a serious premium in a mini-ITX build.

I watched a vid of the Corsair guys installing that cooler into the case along with a MB that's similar. And yeah, it's tight. I'm going to do a step by step picture build. Soo.. I need to get a tripod. I only have to wait for the case come back into stock now. This case has been pretty popular so I'm imagining that there is a lot of back orders for it. It might be a while before I can get it. Might just order it through Fry's. 10 bucks cheaper.

I wasn't sure about the power supply. The vid card has a fairly high requirement for power so I went with the 850. (just checked the FXF recommends a 850w for a single card. I have a 700 in my current box and have not had an issue. And yeah. I've really grown fond of the modular Ps's. why would you NOT make them modular..er.. besides cost and easy of mfg.

here's that vid.:
[youtube]AxaJVRayA8M[/youtube]

Thanks for the advice on the cooler. I'll do a prefit and see if it's needed.

Well, the reason I say 850 is overkill is because the R9 280 is a 250w GPU that you have combined with a 84w CPU which gives 334 watts. Throw in a couple drives and 3-4 fans, and you might be pushing 350w. Now that is at stock clocks, but even with some overclocking there are some predictable power consumption numbers you can go with, for instance the raw limit on power delivery to the GPU with 1x 6 pin + 1x 8 pin power plugs and the PCIe slot is 300w, most likely the GPUs power circuits are hard coded to throttle before it exceeds that amount of draw. The CPU on the other hand usually has a pretty extreme power delivery limit (I've seen some motherboards that could push 2000w through the socket), but realistically you would probably hit some other limit before the CPU pulls more than 150w (barring more exotic cooling like phase change or LN2 anyway). So that would put your power budget somewhere around 500w with overclocking.

Now if you were to throw in a second GPU in crossfire, that is another 250-300w so an 850w PSU would definitely make sense for that.

Ahhh Ok.. yeah.. I didn't do that kinda math.

And obviously a crossfire isn't going to happen in that case; not to mention the MB only has 1 SLI slot.

Krom, thanks for taking the time man. I appreciate it.

Ok, everything on its way, except the case. It's on backorder. I'll be doing a step by step shoot on this. Should be interesting. ^_^ Got some of it already; formatting HD's and transferring files from back drive.

Well, half done. Got Late.
Krom, you were right. The stand-off sockets for the cooler bracket were a bit too long. A set of nylon washers with adhesive were included, but still weren't quite enough. I had to get another set. Everything is fine now.

M6I -- great board Good to know I was right ;P

Ahh. I'll do that then. I was reading through the instructions last night and was wondering why all the connections. I'll just do the same thing Krom did and buy-pass it to the MB.

Thanks Gren for the link.

I'm wondering. There is factory paste on the Cooler pump. Should I scrape that off and apply regular or trust Corsair's will be ok?


Thanks for the input guys.

Factory thermal paste is fine, Corsair didn't want the review flak that would come from having crap thermal paste on a $100 cooler.

Ok. It's together, running, and just about everything reinstalled ..man there was a lot of stuff...

Benchmark requests?

btw, This motherboard's bios is for tweaker. There are settings in here I've never seen before. ..but then I've never been one for overclocking as I've not had the money to replace a component if I goof.

I posted the images on another board.

Click