General questions about my first build

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
V

vaconcamp

Honorable
Sep 1, 2012
113
0
10,690
I just ordered my build on Amazon 2 days ago and it should arrive tomorrow (6/18), but I still have a lot of questions, mainly regarding my motherboard and fan placement.

My build:

Mobo - Gigabyte G1.Sniper B5 (B85 chipset)
CPU - i5-4590
- CM 212 Evo
GPU - R9 280x Toxic Edition
RAM - HyperX Black 8gb RAM
Case - Corsair 300R Windowed

Questions:

1) What is the ideal fan placement for my case? I bought four 120mm case fans but was wondering if they should blow air in/out and where they should be placed. Is there a guide for this somewhere?

2) How do I know if the fans are compatible with my motherboard, and how do I connect them to my motherboard? Do I need extra cables? The specs for my motherboard say it includes "3x system fan headers". Is that where they plug in?

3) Would it have been worth it to spend $20 more for the Asrock Z87 Pro4 motherboard if I'm not planning on overclocking/crossfiring? Are there any performance benefits in gaming between the two?

4) I purchased a PCI-Express wifi adapter to go in my motherboard. Will I need to plug that in before I boot my computer for the first time, or after?

5) If I have a pre-OCed card (R9 280x Toxic), will this board give me the same performance as another board that supports overclocking GPUs? I don't plan to overclock more than it already is, but does this board support pre-overclocked cards?

Sorry if these seem obvious but it's my first build.
 
Solution
logang
Actually you don't lose as much as you would think when using a 4 lane PCIe slot compared to a 16 lane one. Of course I always think you should go with 1 really powerful card versus two cards in crossfire/sli
Sort by date Sort by votes
logang

logang

Honorable
Mar 29, 2012
503
0
11,160
traditional fan placement is front/bottom intake, top/rear exhaust.

the fan headers are indeed where the fan plugs in, there are 3 and 4 pin fans depending on whether they are PWM or not, both should work in a 3 pin header

I don't see any advantages to that board

I believe you can do it either the first time or any subsequent time after that

The GPU should perform close to the same in all boards, only difference should be whether it is PCIe 2.0 or 1.0 (or I guess 3.0 for some GPUs)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
V

vaconcamp

Honorable
Sep 1, 2012
113
0
10,690
I picked Corsair because of the price (4 for $17). I actually wasn't even planning on using extra fans on my case, but I saw that offer and figured I might as well.

Another question:

My motherboard has 3 system fan ports, but they are 4 pin. If the fans are 3-pin, would they still work on those headers?

If so, then would I plug the fan into the first the first 3 pins (pin 1, 2, 3) or into the next set of 3 (pins 2, 3, 4)?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
V

vaconcamp

Honorable
Sep 1, 2012
113
0
10,690
I also have one more question:

It'd be a waste to crossfire with this motherboard or the Asrock z87 Pro4, right? I think they both have a second PCIe x16 slot, but it runs at x4. Since it runs at x4, is it worth it to crossfire or should I not attempt it?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
logang

logang

Honorable
Mar 29, 2012
503
0
11,160
Actually you don't lose as much as you would think when using a 4 lane PCIe slot compared to a 16 lane one. Of course I always think you should go with 1 really powerful card versus two cards in crossfire/sli
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom