New i7 Gaming rig - what do you think?

[StrikeDaMic]

Hi all

After a lot of consideration (and saving money), I have decided to upgrade my PC significantly.
Due to financial limitations, I stuck with all of my periphery and the case yet swapped the motherboard, CPU and its cooler, RAM and GPU. The following is a list of components I am going to assemble today.

Case: Cooler Master RC-690-KKN1-GP
PSU: Be Quiet! Straight Power BQT E6-700W 80plus
Motherboard: Asus Z87 PRO LGA1150
CPU: Intel Core i7 4770 3.4Ghz, stock cooler
GPU: Asus GTX-770 DirectCU II 2GB GDDR5
RAM: 2x8GB Kingston HyperX Blu DDR3-1600, CL10@1.5V
System: Samsung 840 SSD 250GB (connected by SATA3 cable)
Storage: 2TB WD Green 5400 (Data), 2TB WD Green 5400 in Swap Bay (Backup)
OS: Windows 7 x64 Ultimate

I'll mainly use it for gaming. Apart from that, I use photoshop a lot and I do some video editing (hence the HT-capable CPU and 16GB or RAM).

Q1: What do you think of my rig? Any optimization via BIOS etc. you'd recommend?

Q2: Should I already go with Windows 8 at this point (since 8.1 is bound to come out soon and I hate the Metro UI stuff), or stick with Windows 7? I am going to do a completely fresh installation on the new system.

Q3: I have a Creative Soundblaster X-Fi ExtremeMusic. The Z87 has onboard 7.1 sound. Apart from the X-Fi's ASIO support, would you stay with the onboard sound or definitely use the X-Fi? Is it "much" better?

Thank you!

 

[Marcopolo123]

I5-4670k is plenty.

If you dont overclock, get i5-4570 and h87/b85 motherboard.

Whats your budget ?
Where do you live ?

 

[TheBigTroll]

just wasted 100 bucks on a i7, another on the z87-pro, another on windows useless ultimate (assuming you didnt have it before). you could have also used a better psu

 

[StrikeDaMic]

I'd appreciate for you to elaborate why exactly I "wasted" money on the CPU and the Motherboard.
The PSU was pre-owned.

 

[TheBigTroll]

the i5 and i7 perform exactly the same in gaming. no difference

there is no reason to get a z87 board when you cant overclock. if you wanted to run SLI, there are waaaaay cheaper options that perform the same

 

[StrikeDaMic]

OK, thank you.
Could anyone please answer my original three questions? Thanks!

 

[TheBigTroll]

first question: it could have been way better if you did what i recommended. set up your fan curves in ai-suite 3 and you should be good
second question: windows 8 has no benefits other than the ability to pause file transfers and that it takes less time to boot
3rd question: use the sound card. onboard sound comes no where close

 

[StrikeDaMic]

Thanks, TheBigTroll. I just finished the installation.
Q1: They seem to be very silent as is, I'll leave it for the moment.
Q2: I used Win7 x64 after all since it's probably more stable and then there's the Metro thing
Q3: Can't - it's PCI, and that doesn't fit on my motherboard anymore never would've thought that would happen...

There's just one thing that bothers me: The BIOS and Windows recognize my RAM as DDR3-1333, while it's actually 1600. The Z87 PRO should be capable of 1600Mhz RAM. What gives?

 

[TheBigTroll]

well then use the onboard

 

[StrikeDaMic]

Hi all
I have another question regarding my rig.
I am using the stock cooler for the 4770. It had pre-affixed thermal compound which I used because I read it was pretty good.
On SpeedFan, though, the CPU idles around 35 to 50°C, while on Prime95, it reached a worrying 84°C.
Did I somehow botch the installation? Is this normal? Can I do anything against it (turn up the fan speed etc, and if so, what's the best way to do so)?
Thank you!

 

[TheBigTroll]

that seems normal. stock coolers are crap for the most part anyways.

 

[StrikeDaMic]

I usually get around 75°C on DayZ. Little cooler on BF3 @ Ultra 1080p60 though ... well. I read on multiple sites that Haswells are getting extremely warm yet anything below 90°C should be okay, I hope.
On my new system, DayZ frequently crashes to desktop (ArmA 2 OA has stopped working), yet I don't know why. There is no FPS drop or anything before that happens, GPU is on approximately 70°C, so that shouldn't be the problem. Another Steam game, Chivalry, crashed once yet. Just straight to desktop.
Maybe it's the nVidia driver? (320.18)? I read it was really bad...
Also, is it true that 1155 coolers fit for 1150?

 

[TheBigTroll]

you should be fine. the 1156, 1155, and 1150 coolers have not changed. they are the same ones used over and over

 

[StrikeDaMic]

Great, thanks a lot!
Any idea about the crashes?

 

[TheBigTroll]

some steam games like to crash on you once in a while. if its continuous, you may want to try to do a reinstall

 

[StrikeDaMic]

Well, I run DayZ over Steam, yet DayZ Origins via the DayZ Commander. Chivalry was the other Steam game that crashed once; and now, BF3 (which ran perfectly on Ultra) crashed once when I changed a graphics setting and another time when I started recording with DxTory - it just froze. What is going on? Is this such a bad build? CPU Temperatures were still in the regular area of 60 to 70, GPU went up to 70 to 80.
Maybe I'll have to try to revert to the older nVidia driver?

 

[TheBigTroll]

just try a older driver then

 

[StrikeDaMic]

LOL - nVidia just updated the driver to 320.49 and specifically addressed "stability issues in games" as a big fix. I'll try it again.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Or try the 326.01 driver.

 

[StrikeDaMic]

Or try the 326.01 driver.

nVidia Update Tool didn't give me that one. I'll check.
EDIT: Just saw it's for Win8.1. I am on 7.1 so it's probably no good.

 

[Mousemonkey]

It works on W7 as well, that's what I'm on and I've got it installed.

http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/geforce_326_01_driver_download.html is the one I'm using but its only for W7 64.

 

[StrikeDaMic]

I had the chance to get a Cooler Master 120XL water cooler with a huge discount. Since the reviews were okay, I thought I'd get it.
While my CPU reached 85 degrees Celsius with loads of 50 to 60% with the stock cooler, Prime95 can't make it go over 73 degrees with the Cooler Master. Awesome