- Nov 8, 2013
- 3,903
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- 24,215
After 7 and a half years of using this PC:
and a year of waiting, I finally have some high end parts on my desk. And a big thank you to the Tom's community for this.
I have been planning a high-end build for a couple of years now, and for my birthday yesterday(the 24th), I got the nod for getting the main parts of the PC and setting up a basic rig, and upgrading in increments.
For anyone interested in the specs, here is a link(Some parts had to be changed due to unavailability and phaseout):
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9jkNt6
My apologies if I sound a bit too excited, this is a big moment for me.
The CPU: i5 4690K
Don't get me started on the local shops. Full of i3's and $50 motherboards. No, this was a special rig, and I had decided long ago that I was going to get an i5, and so there was this: the undisputed king of the i5's, and something which would be perfect(If you're wondering about Skylake, I'm going for a Windows 7 based rig, so I couldn't get Skylake) for a gaming-based rig. The i7 4790K was 50% more expensive, and for a rig such as this, there was no point in getting it for that much more.
I have changed the thermal paste on my old CPU once or twice before, so it's not the first time I'm seeing a bare CPU die. But man, this thing's shiny; way shinier than it appears in the photos. And pretty small too(the ruler is six inches); it's hard to believe that thing has four lightning-fast cores in it and consumes 88W of power.
The other thing in the box:
That thing's tinier than I had anticipated. Could be partly because of its copper core(thanks tiny voices), but I think it's smaller than the old all-aluminium CPU cooler. How effective it turns out to be we'll have to see.
Man, that's a lot of thermal paste! I had just imagined there to be three slivers of paste similar to what I had on my old Geforce 210; reminding one of those scratch-and-win tickets inside biscuit packs.
It's pretty. I probably shouldn't leave it like that for too long though.
Anyway, enough of the CPU; on to the board.
The Motherboard: Asus Z97-A
Ah, the sweet smell of electronics!
I won't be able to find time to build for the next couple of weeks, so this baby's staying in its bag. And man, is it heavy! I knew from the technical specs it'd be 6 pounds, but I didn't expect it to be actually this heavy. I intend to put two 970's (Strix) in there eventually, so that's to be expected I guess.
I heard complaints that some people find the round chipset heatsink ugly, but I personally don't find it much of an issue. I guess the Z97-Pro Gamer would have a prettier one, but still(it was my original choice for a red-black theme, and it was a cheaper SLI-capable board).
That SLI bridge is tiny! I expected it to be wider than what I got in there. And no, I don't think I'll be able to substitute that I/O shield with something I carved out of wood, so that's settled(reference here).
The RAM: G.Skill ARES 16GB Kit
The RAM choice was pretty much dual grey Vengeance for most of the planning period, but I decided the Cooler Master 212 Evo might find its way in my case one day, so I had to find some low-profile RAM. This one had a pretty good deal at $93; six months ago the price of a single 8GB Vengeance module was around $65. Plus it's a CAS 9, the Vengeance was CAS 11. I still don't know how much difference the timings really make; I just consider faster freq/lax timing modules to be same as slower freq/tight timing modules.
Besides, it was this or two blue Kingston sticks: link and I didn't like the color, and frankly, I like the color of these.
The Case: Corsair Carbide 500R White
The same argument about local shops as above applies here. Although some local companies have come up with designs that others would call high-end(2.5" bay support, cable management cutouts, 7 expansion slots), they're no match for these cases. For some, this is a cheap case, I know. But trust me, few people here would want to go for a case that costs this much($135).
I was actually surprised to see this listed as a mid-tower case. This thing's positively HUGE in comparison to my old MicroATX case(which is also technically mid-tower), and it's heavy as well.
But man, is it a beauty! I chose white for its contrast with the lighting and with the rest of the paint job, and while I haven't had a chance to build in this case yet, I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy it(I had to literally pry out my CX430 from the old case while I was cleaning one day).
It's been sitting like that for ten months now. It makes me sad. For size reference, the battery next to it is a standard AA-size alkaline battery.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading till the end. I'll update this thread when I get to building, and also post a link on PCPartPicker.
Cheers,
cst1992
and a year of waiting, I finally have some high end parts on my desk. And a big thank you to the Tom's community for this.
I have been planning a high-end build for a couple of years now, and for my birthday yesterday(the 24th), I got the nod for getting the main parts of the PC and setting up a basic rig, and upgrading in increments.
For anyone interested in the specs, here is a link(Some parts had to be changed due to unavailability and phaseout):
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9jkNt6
My apologies if I sound a bit too excited, this is a big moment for me.
The CPU: i5 4690K
Don't get me started on the local shops. Full of i3's and $50 motherboards. No, this was a special rig, and I had decided long ago that I was going to get an i5, and so there was this: the undisputed king of the i5's, and something which would be perfect(If you're wondering about Skylake, I'm going for a Windows 7 based rig, so I couldn't get Skylake) for a gaming-based rig. The i7 4790K was 50% more expensive, and for a rig such as this, there was no point in getting it for that much more.
I have changed the thermal paste on my old CPU once or twice before, so it's not the first time I'm seeing a bare CPU die. But man, this thing's shiny; way shinier than it appears in the photos. And pretty small too(the ruler is six inches); it's hard to believe that thing has four lightning-fast cores in it and consumes 88W of power.
The other thing in the box:
That thing's tinier than I had anticipated. Could be partly because of its copper core(thanks tiny voices), but I think it's smaller than the old all-aluminium CPU cooler. How effective it turns out to be we'll have to see.
Man, that's a lot of thermal paste! I had just imagined there to be three slivers of paste similar to what I had on my old Geforce 210; reminding one of those scratch-and-win tickets inside biscuit packs.
It's pretty. I probably shouldn't leave it like that for too long though.
Anyway, enough of the CPU; on to the board.
The Motherboard: Asus Z97-A
Ah, the sweet smell of electronics!
I won't be able to find time to build for the next couple of weeks, so this baby's staying in its bag. And man, is it heavy! I knew from the technical specs it'd be 6 pounds, but I didn't expect it to be actually this heavy. I intend to put two 970's (Strix) in there eventually, so that's to be expected I guess.
I heard complaints that some people find the round chipset heatsink ugly, but I personally don't find it much of an issue. I guess the Z97-Pro Gamer would have a prettier one, but still(it was my original choice for a red-black theme, and it was a cheaper SLI-capable board).
That SLI bridge is tiny! I expected it to be wider than what I got in there. And no, I don't think I'll be able to substitute that I/O shield with something I carved out of wood, so that's settled(reference here).
The RAM: G.Skill ARES 16GB Kit
The RAM choice was pretty much dual grey Vengeance for most of the planning period, but I decided the Cooler Master 212 Evo might find its way in my case one day, so I had to find some low-profile RAM. This one had a pretty good deal at $93; six months ago the price of a single 8GB Vengeance module was around $65. Plus it's a CAS 9, the Vengeance was CAS 11. I still don't know how much difference the timings really make; I just consider faster freq/lax timing modules to be same as slower freq/tight timing modules.
Besides, it was this or two blue Kingston sticks: link and I didn't like the color, and frankly, I like the color of these.
The Case: Corsair Carbide 500R White
The same argument about local shops as above applies here. Although some local companies have come up with designs that others would call high-end(2.5" bay support, cable management cutouts, 7 expansion slots), they're no match for these cases. For some, this is a cheap case, I know. But trust me, few people here would want to go for a case that costs this much($135).
I was actually surprised to see this listed as a mid-tower case. This thing's positively HUGE in comparison to my old MicroATX case(which is also technically mid-tower), and it's heavy as well.
But man, is it a beauty! I chose white for its contrast with the lighting and with the rest of the paint job, and while I haven't had a chance to build in this case yet, I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy it(I had to literally pry out my CX430 from the old case while I was cleaning one day).
It's been sitting like that for ten months now. It makes me sad. For size reference, the battery next to it is a standard AA-size alkaline battery.
That's all for now. Thanks for reading till the end. I'll update this thread when I get to building, and also post a link on PCPartPicker.
Cheers,
cst1992
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