Desktop Computers

Tuco_sl said:

I was planning on ripping the guts out of my dad's old computer and putting a new PC in, but he wants a totally new computer and to leave his current one intact.

He and I both currently have:
COOLER MASTER Stacker 830 RC-830-SSN3-GP Silver Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Newegg.com

which I really like. It's currently out of stock everywhere and is honestly too big for what I need anyway. Is there any mid-size case that has a similar setup of a wall of fans that just blow directly on the motherboard? I really like that design. Or a mid-size case that had a big 230mm fan (or something) that blew on it? I think I prefer an array of 4 120mm fans over 1 big one because as fans inevitably die you still get movement.

Click to expand...

I used to have that old CM Stacker 830 Case. It was really well built and laid out for it's day. The only reason I got rid of it was that newer video cards were getting longer and longer in length. Eventually I couldn't fit them in the case without hitting the HD cage. Shame, as I did like that old case.

You probably want a newer case anyway for updated USB3 ports on the top / front panel.

I do think in this day and age though, the Stacker's 4x 120mm side fans are a huge overkill. I have become quite fond of Corsair cases. They look sexy and sleek and are all about form and function. I think this one might be what you are looking for and even has an option for side mount fans:
Obsidian Series® 550D Mid-Tower Quiet Case

I'll just add that my H100i has been running my 2500k @ 4.5Ghz for about a year with no problems as well.

The Carbide series is cheaper, but it isn't their premier quality.

IIRC, it goes:

Obsidian
Graphite
Vengeance / Carbide

Not to say there is anything wrong with it, I just dont find the build quality as nice. Seems like a lot more ugly plastic on that one you linked.

As for the level of cooling, in my experience, unless you are overclocking the living shit out of everything, it just isn't necessary anymore. Pretty much every component in a PC these days is drawing far less power than they used to (crazy video cards excluded). We have processors drawing a fraction of the power (watts = heat) than they used to, not to mention all of the throttling and low power states available.

To put it more into perspective, I have been running my computer with a 4.5GHz 24/7 overclock, 2x SLI nVidia graphics, SSD and traditional HDDs, dedicated sound card, 16GB RAM, and my case doesn't have a side fan at all. Even while running stress tests, I have never worried about general case temp. It has never been an issue.

I am using this case currently:
Special Edition White Graphite SeriesT 600T Mid-Tower Case

Evernothing_sl said:

I just got a Win 8.1 key fromthis guylast night. Very prompt service and the key checked out. He has a ton of positive sales history with no visible complaints as well.

His post says he has office keys.

[H]Windows 8.1 Standard & Windows 8 Pro [W]PayPal $12 - $14 | Cheapest on Reddit | Multiple Confirmed Trades | Bulk deals available

Click to expand...

What do you define as "prompt service"?

Just curious, as I used this guy on your recommendation and he took a day to respond to PM and then gave me his PayPal email to send the funds and promised the key would be delivered immediately upon Payment. The payment was a day ago and I have yet to hear back anything from the guy. I have my new HTPC sitting waiting for a valid key.

He responded to my first PM within 20 - 25mins. Sent me his Paypal info, I payed him, he sent the key all within another 10mins.

Entire transaction from first PM was approximately a half an hour.

Did you send him a PM after you payed with the Transaction ID?

So I put together my new PC last night, took about 2.5 hours from un-boxing to first POST. No problems so far, not bad for my first build I think.

Still need to get the SSD and install Windows, which won't be until the 28th.

Evernothing_sl said:

He responded to my first PM within 20 - 25mins. Sent me his Paypal info, I payed him, he sent the key all within another 10mins.

Entire transaction from first PM was approximately a half an hour.

Did you send him a PM after you payed with the Transaction ID?

Click to expand...

I sent the PayPal payment and replied to his PM stating so all within 5-10 minutes of him giving his info.

Oh well.

btw, Why only one stick of ram in your rig? Surely dual channel memory is the way to go?

Jysin_sl said:

btw, Why only one stick of ram in your rig? Surely dual channel memory is the way to go?

Click to expand...

For gaming, dual-channel is virtually 0% performance increase. I'd value the extra open slot for later expansion over the insignificant performance gain of using 2 sticks. Using 2x4GB you're basically limiting yourself to 16GB of RAM unless you throw out what you have to upgrade in the future.

Who knows if you'll ever actually NEED more than 16GB of RAM before you upgrade processor/motherboard anyways several years down the road, but at least the option is there, you're slightly more future-proof.

I have 32GB of RAM in my PC, but only because I built it 2 years ago when RAM was cheap, got all 32GB of DDR3 1866 for like $120 back in 2012. Totally don't need it, it was cheap, so whatever.

Yeah, what Joe said. He advised the same when he recommended my build, and I went on to read comparisons like this:RAM Performance Benchmark: Single-Channel vs. Dual-Channel - Does It Matter?

Gamers, mainstream users, and office users shouldn't care. Actually, at the end of the day, the same rule applies to everyone, simulation pro or not: It's density and frequency that matters, not channeling. Quad- and better channels theoretically have a more profound impact, but this is in-step with the increased density of kits that are targeted for quad-channel platforms. If you want to push speed, density and frequency should be at the top of your list.
Read more athttp://www.gamersnexus.nethttp//www....tL1WQlwTHqR.99

Click to expand...

The only time anyone would ever see a noticeable difference between a dual channel and single channel RAM setup for gaming would be when using integrated graphics, if you are using your Intel HD graphics then dual channel most definitely makes a big difference. But at that point, higher clockspeed RAM is an even bigger difference. 8GB(1 DIMM) might be 5-10% slower than 8GB (2x4GB DIMMs) with integrated graphics. But upgrading from DDR3 1333 to DDR3 1866 is a 10-15% jump in performance in most games with integrated graphics.

Hopefully, no one here is using integrated graphics for gaming Dedicated GPUs make pretty much all of that a moot point.

Here are some benchmarks in games as well as encoding:
[Discussion] RAM: Single vs Dual Channel speed benchmarks (1x8GB vs 2x8GB) : buildapc

Just an update: My Windows 8.1 Pro key just came through. The guy apologised and said he's quite busy with university. All-in, it was a two day wait from first PM to the key in hand. For $18 on a brand new retail key, I am perfectly happy with that.

[H]Windows 8.1 Standard Windows 8 Pro [W]PayPal $12 - $14 | Cheapest on Reddit | Multiple Confirmed Trades | Bulk deals available : softwareswap

Corsair C70 is awesome. Giant, but awesome.

Big Phoenix_sl said:

I would hardly call it giant.

Click to expand...

I would. So glad that's settled.

So much can be done in smaller builds and my guess is few people are using much of the space the C70 offers. For my personal use, and I believe for most, the C70 looks awesome, and performs awesome, but is giant for what they could have built or needed to build.

It is great to have the flexibility for 2 240mm radiators, 10 fans, 3 disk drives, 6 HHD (quick swap for even more!) and SLIx3, though.

Where does that dude get his windows keys from? He says they're legitimate.. but.. ??