New Build! My Thoughts; And Yours?

[dadof1hunter]

CPU:I5 2500k
MOBO:Asrock Extreme7 Gen3
CASE:Cosrair 650D
PSU:Corsair 850w Modular Gold
MEM:G.Skill 8g 2133mhz
VIDEO:Sapphire 7970
SSD:Samsung 830
COOLER:Corsair H100
DVD:LiteON DvD 24x


What I like.
I like the clean look of the Corsair products, thats why theres quite a few of their products. The Asrock MoBo is very nice, the Bios is very easy to understand, and there was no reason to open the manual. The Video Card runs flawlessly and crushes any game I've tried with settings maxed (1900x1200). The H100 was a buy based on looks more then heat, however I can't imagine a cooler doing a better job. With the CPU EASILY overclocked to 4500mnz, My temps have remained below 60c with 24 hours of Prime. I could go much higher in the OC, but I like to leave the Voltage low, 4500 is the lowest OC I've tried, and eventually I'll try for a bit more, but for now I'm going to leave it with this modest OC. The Case appears(See What I Don't Like) to be of unmatched quallity. I've build with Antec, and CoolerMaster HAF products befor, and the Corsair 650D puts them both to shame.

What I don't Like The Case, So I love the case aside from 1 small feature. The High-Medium-Low fan controller switch died after less then 1 week leaving my 4 CPU Radiator Fans OFF. I didn't even notice it, and played some games and noticed my Temps going up to 70c which was higher then I would like it... Thats when I noticed it. The Motherboard/Case selection didn't allow enough space for me to use Push/Pull fan combination inside the case, as the RAM slots got in the way. I ended up putting 2 fans on the outside of the case which I do NOT LIKE. I will likely be buying 4 SLIM 120mm Fans so that I can put them all inside. I had to cut a small hole in the mess on the top to pass the connectros for the 2 external fans.. I'm a huge fan of CLEAN and organized look, and this part drives me half mad. I wish I would have known.. Lastly everything in my base is black and red, besides my memory... its blue... a small consideration, which I've thought a mistake for more then the astetic reasons.. I've read that memory speed does little to help proformance. I could have gotten 1600mhz ram in red for half the price.

What are your thoughts

 

[guavasauce]

i wouldnt pay $100 for an h100, i say either go full water, or full air. just an opinion though. high end air coolers are just as good but a bit cheaper.

 

[alvine]

hello
the build looks solid
you are missing a hard drive and a windows 7 OEM 64bit

another case suggestion
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146068

look for cases with a lot of holes on the motherboard tray, that will let you have all the power cables go behind the motherboard tray for that nice clean clean look good luck

 

[Northwestern]

hello
the build looks solid
you are missing a hard drive and a windows 7 OEM 64bit

another case suggestion
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146068

look for cases with a lot of holes on the motherboard tray, that will let you have all the power cables go behind the motherboard tray for that nice clean clean look good luck

It seems he would rather have a SSD drive over a HDD. I can't blame him.

 

[g-unit1111]

i wouldnt pay $100 for an h100, i say either go full water, or full air. just an opinion though. high end air coolers are just as good but a bit cheaper.

Agreed - I don't touch liquid cooling on any build and while a closed block is safer than a custom rig, it's still not nearly as safe as a standard air cooler like a Noctua D14 which will give you the same results: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

The Case appears(See What I Don't Like) to be of unmatched quallity. I've build with Antec, and CoolerMaster HAF products befor, and the Corsair 650D puts them both to shame.

Yeah I have the 600T and it's been really amazing - the build quality is unmatched on a lot of cases I've used and everything about it from the cable management system to the HD cages are top notch, even 5.25" drives are really easy to install.

The Case, So I love the case aside from 1 small feature. The High-Medium-Low fan controller switch died after less then 1 week leaving my 4 CPU Radiator Fans OFF. I didn't even notice it, and played some games and noticed my Temps going up to 70c which was higher then I would like it...

Wow? 70'C? I'm surprised a PC would run at those temps - most modern motherboards are designed to fail after 60'C - sounds like one of your case fans is mis-routed.

I'm a huge fan of CLEAN and organized look, and this part drives me half mad. I wish I would have known..

You'll never get a *COMPLETELY* clean and organized look as there will usually be a connector or two that you will not be able to route behind the motherboard as the cords will be too short.

I could have gotten 1600mhz ram in red for half the price.

I never recommend RAM above 1600 as if you have to return your CPU for any reason Intel will void your warranty if they find you've been using speeds beyond what the motherboard can handle. I generally don't build around color schemes either - to me that seems kind of pointless unless you're actively showing off your system.

 

[azeem40]

I never recommend RAM above 1600 as if you have to return your CPU for any reason Intel will void your warranty if they find you've been using speeds beyond what the motherboard can handle. I generally don't build around color schemes either - to me that seems kind of pointless unless you're actively showing off your system.

I think you mean speeds that the CPU can handle. Most modern motherboards can handle up to 2133MHz.

 

[g-unit1111]

I think you mean speeds that the CPU can handle. Most modern motherboards can handle up to 2133MHz.

No - most are rated at 2133 - if you look closer at, say the Gigabyte board I use - most will only support up to 2133 through overclocking:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128506

 

[azeem40]

Nvm, I missed that. You're right.

 

[dadof1hunter]

This is already built...

And 70c is not VERY high for an i5. The Default Mobo Shutdown temp for it is 80c.

Generally Speaking 60c's is Ideal.. 70c is often where people end up with 4.7+ mhz Overclocking and a lot of people are OK with under 75c.

Exepecting trouble at 70c is just not the case.. a lot of people get 70 with a stock cooler while at load.

 

[g-unit1111]

This is already built...

And 70c is not VERY high for an i5. The Default Mobo Shutdown temp for it is 80c.

Generally Speaking 60c's is Ideal.. 70c is often where people end up with 4.7+ mhz Overclocking and a lot of people are OK with under 75c.

Exepecting trouble at 70c is just not the case.. a lot of people get 70 with a stock cooler while at load.

I don't know how the Asrock board works but my Gigabyte board has a feature that will start giving CPU temp warnings as low as 60'C (maximum 90'C) and has an automatic CPU and power fan fail warning feature.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I prolly wuda grabbed the Corsair HX850 ...same jonnyguru 10.0 performance rating, cheaper price
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011&Tpk=HX850

Case - I like the Corsair 500R ... so does a lot of reviewers
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=100006519&isNodeId=1&Description=500R&x=0&y=0

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=767&Itemid=61&limit=1&limitstart=5

GFX - I can't justify the cost per frame of the 7970. With 675 fps in Guru3D's game test suite and a $550 cost, that's a whopping $0.81 per frame.

- For $420, I can get 862 outta twin factory OC'd 560 Ti's ..... that's $0.42 per frame or about half the cost per frame of the 7970.

- For $480, I can get 759 fps outta twin factory OC'd 6950's ..... that's $0.63 per frame or about 3/4 the cost per frame of the 7970.

The 7850's are looking very attractive in this regard and I expect them to make a big splash once they get the bugaboos, as reported in the THG article, worked out.

I'm also of the opinion that water inside a puter is not worth it unless you getting a significant advantage from it ... and the 100 doesn't give ya that. The Phanteks, Silver Arrow and DH-14 are within a fraction of a degree of performance and are much quieter.

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/phanteks_ph_tc14pe_cpu_cooler_review,14.html

 

[azeem40]

Not everyone is after price/frame. AMD has an advantage if he ever wants to run a multi-monitor setup. Until Kepler is out, I don't see a need to buy NVIDIA GPUs.

 

[g-unit1111]

Not everyone is after price/frame. AMD has an advantage if he ever wants to run a multi-monitor setup. Until Kepler is out, I don't see a need to buy NVIDIA GPUs.

That plus I'm not recommending anything until I see some actual numbers. The 7870 is already being proven to outperform the 570 and even comes close to matching the 580 in some cases. Of course the 7970 that the OP has is the reigning champ of GPUs right now.

 

[nevertell]

If you use SLI to get the great bang for the buck, you will be able to have 3 monitors.
At the moment, it is hard for me to think of a scenario where you'd have your gaming machine handle more than 3.

 

[g-unit1111]

If you use SLI to get the great bang for the buck, you will be able to have 3 monitors.
At the moment, it is hard for me to think of a scenario where you'd have your gaming machine handle more than 3.

It's always best to go with a single stronger card than two weaker ones, only use SLI / Crossfire as a last resort unless you've got the top of the line - which the OP does. With the Radeon 7970 - you can actually run 3 (some designs allow 4) monitors off a single card - no need for SLI there.

 

[dadof1hunter]

I went with a 7970, which is overkill for my 23" 1900x1200, but I thought I may want a second monitor. I've done it in the past with s 19" but didnt like that set up as much.. I just didnt want to regret buying this.


UPDATE
My Corsiar Fan controller built into the case died.. So I bought a Scythe 5.25 Bay 4 Fan Controller w/ LCD

I like it... but, fan 3 doesn't show the RPM's on the LCD.. I'm still trouble shooting this, to find out if its the fan or the controller, I just did all my wire management again, and it's quite nice and would lothe to have to pull it apart, but i will do as I must. Controlling the 4 fans to my h100 helps with the noise. At about 40% on my 2 PUSH Scythe Ultra Kaze and 30% on my 2 Corsair PULL fans only raises my temps 1c vs 100% but makes it about 1/4 of the sound... I would prolly recomment that people avoid Push/Pull from the H100 in leiu of 2 good push fans like the Ultra Kaze with a fan controller. More air doesn't really = lower temps in my experience with the H100.

 

[obsama1]

Great build. But buy the i5 at MicroCenter for $180. And you get $50 off any Z68/P67 mobo with the purchase of an i5. Buy it a MC, and you'll save and have more headroom to spend on the other parts.

 

[dadof1hunter]

Great build. But buy the i5 at MicroCenter for $180. And you get $50 off any Z68/P67 mobo with the purchase of an i5. Buy it a MC, and you'll save and have more headroom to spend on the other parts.

I did buy at MC, but that deal was over 4 weeks ago... The only deal they had like that was with the 2700k.