Another PC build - $4000+, 4770K, GTX Titan, Phantom 630

[savage1987]

Along the same lines as last time (http://antilag.com/forums/showthread.php?59361-Build-thread-gunmetal-Phantom-410-mid-budget-gamer), instead of copy/pasting an entire thread I will post a couple of pics and the specs. If you want to see the build you can check it out here on overclock.net (http://www.overclock.net/t/1425960/4770k-maximus-vi-hero-gtx-titan).



Basic specs:

Matte black NZXT Phantom 630
4770K
ASUS RoG Maximus VI Hero
Swiftech H320
4x8GB G.Skill Trident X 2400MHz 10-12-12-31
Galaxy GTX Titan 6GB
Corsair AX860
512GB Samsung 840 Pro Series SSD
2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD



Feedback welcome as always!
Sam





http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1718065/width/500/height/1000

http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1718069/width/500/height/1000

http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1718070/width/500/height/1000

http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/1694716/width/500/height/1000/flags/LL

[cplagz]

So how about I bring you my mess of cables and you make it pretty for me :P

[savage1987]

Yeah deal, long walk to Townsville though.


Here's another tidy up I did the other day actually, turned out OK: http://www.overclock.net/t/1431678/bit-of-a-tidy-up-4670k-upgrade

[mod]

Why do people buy Titans when a GTX780 will do it just fine..

[evo5aurus]

same reason people spend 500k on a car when a 100k car will do just fine?

[GhostFc3s]

except your overpriced video card wont get the bitches.

[savage1987]

Guessing the 6GB VRAM might do something for a big array of screens in FSX and probably moreso other games, I don't know.

I actually recommended a 780 for the build but he elected to go for the Titan, and who am I to argue? :)

[ELUSIV]

Nice work, 630 is great case for water cooling too.

R9 290X is out soon too, be keen to see how it goes with Mantle vs Titan/780 on Battlefield 4.

[mod]

was there enough space to do a push/pull config on the radiator?

I was looking into a 630 for my next case but that looks like it might be bit small

[Gr3mlin]

was there enough space to do a push/pull config on the radiator?

I was looking into a 630 for my next case but that looks like it might be bit small

Cosmos II, you know you want too!

[winstor]

Nah bro, Cosmo II is like $400, just get the HAF X for ~$190, thing is fucking massive.

[savage1987]

was there enough space to do a push/pull config on the radiator?

I was looking into a 630 for my next case but that looks like it might be bit small

There is space to push/pull the H320 I have here, yes. That's with the whole assembly mounted UNDER the case's metalwork. With a little notching and trimming I could have mounted the upper fans above the case's metal frame and had even more room. There's plenty of space for it, just the design of the H320's end tank meant notching was necessary and I decided, since I had the space, to avoid it.


Nah bro, Cosmo II is like $400, just get the HAF X for ~$190, thing is fucking massive.
The 630 was only $190 :) and it is really amazing to build into. I love the black wiring, the integrated fan controller with a hub for 10? fans behind the motherboard tray, and the two SSD mounts behind there as well really neaten things up.

[ELUSIV]

If you are going push-pull build there isn't a lot of options other than the massive cases with lower bays like the Silverstone TJ11:

http://www.silverstonetek.com/images/products/tj11/TJ11-Inside.jpg

Expensive as all hell, but the limitation with push/pull in normal cases is the length of video cards imo. Think the jury is still out on whether there are 'significant' gains with push/pull anyways, plus it is bulk noisy.

I'm looking at a rebuild next year or whenever Haswell-E / DDR4 / PCIe 4 / SATA Express comes in (Broadwell seems to have disappeared and Skylake is 2015-2016). Will do nice big water loop with the Magicool triple 180mm radiator, only requires really minor case mods otherwise fits in perfectly to the Silverstone FT02:

http://i.imgur.com/38c9C.jpg

[savage1987]

If you are going push-pull build there isn't a lot of options other than the massive cases with lower bays like the Silverstone TJ11: I just said there's room in the top of the 630 for a push/pull on this rad, perhaps not so much with a thicker rad but it's pretty good!!

[ELUSIV]

I just said there's room in the top of the 630 for a push/pull on this rad, perhaps not so much with a thicker rad but it's pretty good!!

Ah sorry dude missed that! 630 is definitely a beast of a case for water cooling and great value/quality. I'd be interested to see what thickness rad could be run with push/pull in the 630 before (if any) issues occur as far as fitting it all. If not it might end up being a push/pull with slim rad vs push only with a thicker rad. Can't see in the photos well enough, but would the second row of fans potentially hit the RAM?

One of the reasons I want to go a full water cooler is to quieten down the system and still have good performance. Did more reading and it seems that a push/pull config on the same radiator vs push only yields about 2 degrees better temperatures. For some that may be worth it but the trade-off is twice the noise!

Nice work on the build though! Haven't done one for a while keen to build up another PC with someone else's money :P

[savage1987]

I just quickly slotted a fan in that spot to see - you're correct, it fouls on the RAM. I can see two clear ways around that though - bump the radiator forward in the case (away from the motherboard - this would mean drilling some new mount holes but surely it could be done) or raise the upper fans into the case's 'roof cavity', which would be the better way to go about it I'd think. There's a TONNE of room in the top there that remains totally unused in this build. Probably close to two inches but with the curve of the top it's hard to tell.

You're right about the noise vs results thing, I've read a lot of material to similar effect... I'd personally never do it therefore I always recommend buyers not to opt for it in their setups. I love silent PCs, they are very ... polite ... I think. This one is quiet as anything, with the fan controller on the low setting the cooling performance really doesn't change at all in Prime95 Blend, which is a huge testament to the H320's design. It's a beautiful cooler and I will happily use it again.

Building systems with other people's money - that's exactly where I was at 12months or so ago. I started to offer to build systems for people at work, then popped a couple of ebay ads up, making sure to outline that it's just a hobby so no warranty support etc, and the more I built the more interest it generated. I'm still not doing huge amounts (maybe one every couple of months currently) but the interest is there. I don't make any money off them to speak of, just doing it because I enjoy the building. The other thing is I've been putting in a shitload of effort even on the cheaper builds just to give them that little extra 'something' when you look at them, and the result there is the trend has been toward building more and more powerful and expensive systems because people like what I've done with the 'cheapies'.

Here's a quick example - the last few I've actually done write-ups for (I missed out on documenting a few through time constraints etc)
My own build (http://www.overclock.net/t/1070287/amd-gamer-first-pc-i-have-ever-built)
A 'cheapie' $1500ish setup for a friend at work (http://www.overclock.net/t/1298878/ivy-bridge-i5-hd7850-ssd-budget-gamer-build-photo-log)
Bit bigger setup for another work mate (http://www.overclock.net/t/1419911/gunmetal-red-phantom-410-build-mid-budget-gamer)
Then there's the one here in the OP.


That's a much less impressive list than I thought I had written up :p but it still shows a nice trend I think.

[ELUSIV]

I just quickly slotted a fan in that spot to see - you're correct, it fouls on the RAM. I can see two clear ways around that though - bump the radiator forward in the case (away from the motherboard - this would mean drilling some new mount holes but surely it could be done) or raise the upper fans into the case's 'roof cavity', which would be the better way to go about it I'd think. There's a TONNE of room in the top there that remains totally unused in this build. Probably close to two inches but with the curve of the top it's hard to tell.

You're right about the noise vs results thing, I've read a lot of material to similar effect... I'd personally never do it therefore I always recommend buyers not to opt for it in their setups. I love silent PCs, they are very ... polite ... I think. This one is quiet as anything, with the fan controller on the low setting the cooling performance really doesn't change at all in Prime95 Blend, which is a huge testament to the H320's design. It's a beautiful cooler and I will happily use it again.

Building systems with other people's money - that's exactly where I was at 12months or so ago. I started to offer to build systems for people at work, then popped a couple of ebay ads up, making sure to outline that it's just a hobby so no warranty support etc, and the more I built the more interest it generated. I'm still not doing huge amounts (maybe one every couple of months currently) but the interest is there. I don't make any money off them to speak of, just doing it because I enjoy the building. The other thing is I've been putting in a shitload of effort even on the cheaper builds just to give them that little extra 'something' when you look at them, and the result there is the trend has been toward building more and more powerful and expensive systems because people like what I've done with the 'cheapies'.

Here's a quick example - the last few I've actually done write-ups for (I missed out on documenting a few through time constraints etc)
My own build (http://www.overclock.net/t/1070287/amd-gamer-first-pc-i-have-ever-built)
A 'cheapie' $1500ish setup for a friend at work (http://www.overclock.net/t/1298878/ivy-bridge-i5-hd7850-ssd-budget-gamer-build-photo-log)
Bit bigger setup for another work mate (http://www.overclock.net/t/1419911/gunmetal-red-phantom-410-build-mid-budget-gamer)
Then there's the one here in the OP.


That's a much less impressive list than I thought I had written up :p but it still shows a nice trend I think.

Thought as much, but good to hear there is still room in the top of the case to move it upwards for those that want to go nuts with a push/pull set-up.

H320 is awesome, got a friend onto the NZXT Kraken X60 for his Define XL build. Closed loop water systems definitely the go for non-tech people as it is unlikely they will do the maintenance for a normal water loop. Only downside is it is restricted to just CPU cooling at the moment.

If I switch over to watercooling with my current rig (i7 930, 2x5850's, Noctua pushl/pull cpu cooler) I'd get rid of 4 fans which would make a huge difference for noise, particularly because when the GPU fans throttle up they make a crap ton of noise.

Might have to be a bit more active and see what people want built. I've designed some systems for guys that have the know-how to build PC's and I've done the legwork on maximising the budget/performance ratio and reading reviews to find best quality components to use then sending them a completed list.

Would like to give a smaller form factor build a go (did a Silverstone Shugo one a couple years back but it was very basic and not performance oriented), maybe with the new Bit Fenix Prodigy M, or the Corsair Carbide 540 (not that small, but interesting case).

[savage1987]

For sure :) start building them for people if you enjoy doing it. That's the only reason I got into it - certainly not making me any decent money, haha!

Just for interest's sake:
I have this build stable at 4.6GHz / 2400MHz RAM, but the Vcore is a little high for the result... if I'm pushing to 1.37V I really want to make sure I've maximised potential of the CPU, so I'm going back to ground zero and trying a different approach. Fingers crossed I can pull at least 4.7 out of this system with a nice high RAM clock, that'd be great.

[ELUSIV]

For sure :) start building them for people if you enjoy doing it. That's the only reason I got into it - certainly not making me any decent money, haha!

Just for interest's sake:
I have this build stable at 4.6GHz / 2400MHz RAM, but the Vcore is a little high for the result... if I'm pushing to 1.37V I really want to make sure I've maximised potential of the CPU, so I'm going back to ground zero and trying a different approach. Fingers crossed I can pull at least 4.7 out of this system with a nice high RAM clock, that'd be great.

Yep, just pieced together a $2000-2500 small form factor, mATX build with Bit Fenix Prodigy (lots of colours for people to choose from), latest R9 280X and lots of other nice bits. Anyone want to drop the money my way will be happy to build :P

Decent OC! Vcore is a little high but still fine, might just have lucked out in the die lotto. Same with the i7 920/30's depending on stepping could get a fair bit more out of them. Kind of like RAM speed binning and same deal for video cards, can get more/less depending on luck!

Gl pushing it to the 5 GHz if ya game :P

[savage1987]

It's really making me work for 4.7... can't get it any lower than 1.42V and even then it's failing on me after ~20min Prime blend

I'm going to try a few more things, then move to a different BCLK and see if I have better luck. I have the time, the lighting for the case still hasn't bloody arrived from the UK. Horrendous postage time.

[savage1987]

Unfortunately, not only will 4.7GHz not play the game, I tested a previously 'stable' OC (4.6, 2400RAM) on a different stress test (AIDA64) and it hung the system up after an hour or so. This was a configuration that could pass hours on end of Prime95 blend. I'll play with the IMC-related voltages etc and hopefully smooth things out a little bit.

[evo5aurus]

think I remember reading somewhere that less than 10% of 4770k's will overclock beyond 4.7ghz

for a 4k+ build that's being overclocked wouldn't a 2011 socket CPU be the better choice?

[savage1987]

At face value, probably yes. For FSX, not so much apparently. Seems the Flight Sim gurus (http://www.simforums.com/forums/the-fsx-computer-system-the-bible-by-nickn_topic46211.html) recommend the 4770K pretty strongly.

[savage1987]

Added a couple of updated pics to the OP. Added a heap of pics to the thread on oc.n (http://www.overclock.net/t/1425960/4770k-maximus-vi-hero-gtx-titan/20#post_21062803)

[Thychiz]

I made the mistake of dropping 5k on an alienware system. Never again. This thing looks beastly!

[savage1987]

Alienware setups are by all accounts fantastic systems, it's just a shame they are a little on the pricey side. Perhaps a bit too much money spent on 'wank factor', or perhaps they are just making a killing on their setups. This build actually started out as a price match on another US company's prebuilt system. Ended up saving the owner just under $1000 by the end of it I think, and the components in this one are of higher quality in a lot of cases.