RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Games and Tech New computer time

Finally got sick and damn tired of my old buggy machine, so I whored myself out for some coin and bought a new one. Certainly not the highest of the high-end machines, but it's high enough for me.

ASUS Z97-DELUXE ATX DDR3 2600 LGA 1150 Motherboards Z97-DELUXE


Originally, I was going to grab Asus' Intel-based X99 Deluxe motherboard because I wanted to be able to use DDR4 RAM, but I later found out that it would only work with fifth generation i7 CPUs--which are expensive as fuck. So I went the z97 route instead.

Intel Core i7-4790K Haswell Quad-Core 4.0GHz LGA 1150


$300 was as much as I was willing to spend on an i7. Fourth generation should be decent enough for the rig.

Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory


LG WH16NS40 Super Multi Blue Internal SATA 16x Blu-ray Disc Rewriter


CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD


Corsair gives you a shit ton of stuff with which to maintain your power supply. I wasn't expecting a custom pouch with a series of detachable power cables and zip ties. Nice.

Sapphire Radeon VAPOR-X R9 290X 8GB GDDR5


The GPU is the crown jewel of the machine. I wasn't originally going for something this high end, but I found this--typically $650 dollar monster--for $350 and I just couldn't resist.

Rosewill Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case CHALLENGER-U3 Black


Whatever case I got, USB 3.0 front paneling was essential. Little did I know there would be complications with the size*.

I might add two more fans to the side vents. Not sure yet.

Acer S241HLbmid Black 24" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor


I went the Bmid route for the internal speakers. Maybe I should have gone a little wider though. I'm not certain.

Logitech Speakers Z130


Cheapy $25 5-watt speakers. All I really need since I'm not a sound connoseiur.

Razer DeathAdder Chroma - Multi-Color Ergonomic Gaming Mouse
Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth Edition Elite Mechanical Gaming Keyboard


I didn't plan on spending a lot of bucks on high quality interfaces, but the $15 generic infrared mouse stopped working right after only a month of use and the chiclet keys on the $12 keyboard keep causing typing errors--and lack of a backlight was infuriating when I had to do work in the dark.


*If you didn't already notice, the Sapphire R9 290x is a little under a foot long--easily the largest graphics card I've ever owned. The thought had occured to me before I bought it that there would be some crowding issues, but I didn't consider for a moment that Sapphire would design a card that wouldn't fit in at least a standard ATX....



The card was just long enough to overlap with the 3.5 bay and the top lefthand corner of the HDD storage tower. The card would not seat under those conditions.

A friend suggested that I get another card or another case. My response: "Fuck off."



I drilled the rivets out of the 3.5 bay with a titanium steel bit and very carefully pulled the damn thing out after two frustrating hours of trying to get a correct angle on each one. Hard part done.

After that I took a powered handsaw to the bottom tower. The process of cutting it took about forty-five minutes. I took about fifteen minutes to smooth out the jagged edges with only relative success. Finally, I put the HDDs in the tower to make sure I got the right distance before applying the zip ties. Worked like a charm.

good rig, but why radeon?

I've had two Nvidia cards and an XFX GeForce onboard GPU throughout my computer-building career. All of them had issues and died by the four year point.

I've never had as many problems with AMD builds as I do Nvidia builds.

interesting. were either of them gtx 400-series?

Yeah, actually. GTX 480....PNY, I believe.

Don't get me wrong, the GTX 970 had my attention throughout most of the build process due to its price point (which was taken off the table by this particular card's vendor's low asking cost), its ability to outperform the 290x's clockspeed (it's a marginal issue from my perspective though), and its efficient power consumption.

I realize the 290x typically runs hot, but Sapphire's TRI-X technology is unprecedented when it comes to both cooling and decibel level. The only thing that has me worried is AMD's history of poor driver compatibility. If anything ends up punking me in the end, it'll be the drivers.

I do wish AMD would embrace a more power-efficient model though.

the 400 series was kind of a mistake. the fermi architecture was superb at number-crunching, but it was absurdly power-hungry and threw off ungodly levels of waste heat. it's interesting because the aptly-named 'volcanic islands' GPUs such as the 290x actually post power-draw and thermal numbers not too far off from the 460 or 480, but since radeon has already established they don't give a flying fuck about TDP nobody gives it any thought. the sapphire tri-x isn't bad (which is funny considering most of sapphire's entry-point and mid-tier products are absolute shit), but you might get better thermal numbers by prying off the tri-x and using a bracket like the nzxt kraken g10 to slap an asetek-compatible closed-loop cooler onto your GPU.

That's a whole lot of power for watching tranny porn

And it's still not enough.

tranny porn requires more power because there's more pixels to render

Thumbs up for going with an ASUS, but why did you choose the Z97-Deluxe specifically? I'll agree that a Z97-based build will provide FAR more bang for your buck than a X99 build right now, but you could have gone with the Z97-A and saved a buttload of money or bought the Maximus Hero VII and saved less money but also gotten your hands on a few gamer-centric features.

The Hero is ROG (and comes with the ROG goodies) but the more expensive Deluxe is a workstation-esque motherboard with an extra Crossfire slot (which I'll get to). It seems like, considering something I'll get to later, the Hero would have been the better choice.

But I'll be the first to admit that I don't know everything about those two boards. Plus it sounds like you researched your purchases well, so my first sentence really is a question.


Yes. This all day. There is no other choice.

(Except maybe an i5, which is better for gaming, but not better for anything else.)


What did you have before this build? How easy was it to enter XMP your RAM? I heard ASUS makes it very easy.


An optical drive? In 2015? Bleh.

Honestly, I've been considering moving my old optical drive to my new build once I finally get my case, but I would have skipped it altogether if not for the fact that the case I want sports more bays than I'll ever need.


This was why I asked about the motherboard. 3-way Crossfire would kick much ass, but I couldn't see doing it without a little more juice and a liquid cooling rig. Or maybe I'm just assuming AMDs generate more heat and need more power than they really do.

Anyway...


I'm nVidia 4 LYF! but I still give much respect to AMD and what they've done with their cards. Plus, the 290X is killing it right now at its current price point. Please tell me you're planning to put multiple cards in Crossfire.


Rosewill is good stuff. They were on my short list.

One of the reasons I've got a hard-on for nVidia is because I never want to have to add another fan to another side panel. Ever. I hated that one power cable.

It sounded like you were running your desktop without the side fans. If so, how are your temperatures looking so far?


You bought a 290X and didn't go ultrawide or 1440p...or both? Seriously?

Feels like you're wasting that beautiful card's potential.



Me neither. I end up splurging on headphones since I can't really play my media or games too loud otherwise.


I've gotta ask: is the mechanical keyboard worth the premium? I've never used or even touched one, but everywhere I go, gamers are heralding mechanical keyboards as the way of future (the way of the future, the way of the future). Does it really improve things that much?

I considered the Alpha, but it didn't have dual band onboard. That was a big selling point for me.

The ROG series boards are nice, but I wasn't just going for a gaming system. Nowadays, I actually do a lot of work on my computer as well. Also, ROG seemed a tad gimmicky to me.



The UEFI is very easy to use. There's a drop down menu right next to the RAM that lets you load the profile.

That being said, I don't use it. I don't have a great deal of experience with overclocking, and I'm using a stock fan for my CPU, so I'm scared to death I'm going to fry both the RAM and the CPU if I go over 1600 MHZ.



*shrug*

Still good to have for the next 5-10 years before it's completely replaced by flash drives and digital distribution. I still believe though, you're not going to completely get rid of it.



Whoa! I kind of already broke the bank without buying two additional cards and an 850 Watt PSU (would possibly need 1000 for 3-way Crossfire).

I was also conscious of how much I'd be paying over time for power consumption, so...



If I can find another 290x for a better price than I bought this one, I would like to build a CrossFire setup. I'm leery of it though. Because it would with either mean a) Buying a larger case OR b) Mutilating the tower even more than I already have. Neither idea sounds very appealing.



The temperature's decent enough. It hasn't gone above a 45C average.

That being said, I just received my new 120mm Noctua fan. I'm gonna install it as an intake fan on the side. Maybe I should have gone with two. We'll see.



I've already gone over budget dammit!

I wanted to go bigger, but the cost rose exponentially with every few inches of size increase. It's okay though, because I have a 46 inch Vizio M-Series sitting about three feet away from it. I hooked it up to the 290x.



It has for me. I don't know how it is for most other people, but if I don't have a high enough degree of actuation, my fingers become very disoriented, and it's rather frustrating.

If you just bought an emachine in the first place you wouldn't be worrying about updating. They are never obsolete!

Fair enough.


Wait. Hold up.

If you haven't applied a new profile, you're not operating at 1600 MHz. Your RAM will operate at 1333 until you use XMP to bump it up to 1600.


Fair enough. Personally, I can't remember the last time I used my optical drive. I even use my USB Flash drive when I do my annual Windows reinstall.

That said, I'm still going to move my optical drive over to my new build because I have absolutely no good reason not to.


Yeah, I went a little overboard there. I tend to buy power supplies, motherboards, and cases with the assumption that I'm going to add every piece of hardware possible. And then I don't add anything. And then I'm broke for no good reason.


The 290X will come down in price when AMD releases the 300 series this summer.


Sounds like you won't need a side fan...yet. But if you've already got it, might as well use it.


I don't know how much you spent, but I ended up getting a 29" ultrawide from LG. It ain't huge and it's only 1080p, but gaming is so much better on a wider monitor. Plus, it was on sale for only $300.


One of these days I'll head to brick and mortar and actually try one of those.

What!?

Aw fuck!

I'm scared. If I use the XMP profile, am I gonna have to worry about frying my memory?



That would be fucking awesome.



The price escapes me at the moment, but it was around $165. The next size after that jumped about $50-$60.



Another thing that's turning out to be big deal for me is the ease with which I'm able to clean this mother. With other keyboards, it's really hard to get under the keys and clear out the crap, but the elaborate and spacey design makes it a simpler process.