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madness777 madness777
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  • Posted on: 2013/7/13 14:58
~Frosty~ #1
Hello you guys!

I'm new here on these forums. And I'm just gonna post a build I did recently.
I finally got an order from a friend, and he requested a shiny new gaming computer going up to 1100€! Now, with the release of Z87 chipset and new 7xx nvidia series graphics cards, the choices were hard! I had a hard time gathering up all the hardware that will go in the rig!
The new series graphics are too expensive, so we had to go with 6xx series!
The final decision was:

i5 4670
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H
G.Skill RipJawsZ 8GB 2x4GB 2400MHz
Gigaybte GTX660 OC
Samsung 840 Pro 128GB
WD Caviar Green 1TB
SEASONIC G-550
PHANTEKS PH-TC12DX Blue
CD/DVD rom
All nice and tidy in a Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl w/o window

The unboxing was amazing! After so long, I finally unboxed some sweet hardware!
Now, when I was putting it all together, with the mobo, CPU, RAM, CPU cooler, GPU and CD/DVDrom drive already sitting inside, it was time for the PSU to go in. This is where I realized the 8pin CPUpower cable and sata power cable aren't going to reach their destination! The CPU cable was so short, I couldn't even pull it to the top hole on the other side of the case! The sata power was ever so slightly too short! SEASONIC MAKE LONGER CABLES!!!!!!!!!!
Now, we can't have cables dangling everywhere in the case, so I extended them. No, not with extenders, I clipped and soldered on extension wires! After breathing a lethal amount of solder gas, I finally put the PSU in and did the cable managing!


I won't spam the thread with pictures, so I'm just going to put in a few shots of the unboxing!

(right click>view for bigger pic!)
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All the components ready to be unboxed!


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Love the matt black PCB!!


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This cooler is just awesome looking and so are the fans!!!!


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Looking at the parts, I could just imagine the system in my eyes! I was so excited how the final thing will look like!



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The heatpipes ruin the look IMHO. would be good if we went with ASUS GTX660 but it's much more expensive.


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A look from the other side!

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It's not the tidiest thing in the world, but I'm very happy with it! It will be going to my friend after extended testing!
I must say Haswell is very fast! It's flying! Though it is quite hot, reaching 60°C+ at stock running prime95 blend! CPU fans are barely hitting 1100RPM and are very very quiet! Case fans are spinning at ~500RPM. The GPU isn't that hot, barely reaching 60°C in Crysis with the fans spinning at 1700RPM, and surprisingly, they're not that loud at those speeds! You can hear a hum out of the case, but not much, and they move a hell lot of air through the heatsink!

The system is almost inaudible in idle, it's amazing!
All in all, a great system for the money, I bet the dude is going to be happy with it!


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LucaRocchi LucaRocchi
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  • Posted on: 2013/7/13 15:06
Re: ~Frosty~ #2
Hi Sebastjan, welcome here

Really nice build and I love your perfect color scheme, then I like the design of Phanteks cooler, you know

Windforce cooler is very silent, I have 660Ti with same cooler and I know how it works.

I have never had a Seasonic PSU, good to know if have short cables like OCZ.

Thanks for posting btw
Christian Ney Christian Ney
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  • Posted on: 2013/7/13 15:46
Re: ~Frosty~ #3
Interesting choices and nice build
LucaRocchi LucaRocchi
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  • Posted on: 2013/7/14 9:25
Re: ~Frosty~ #4
Quote:

madness777 wrote:

The heatpipes ruin the look IMHO. would be good if we went with ASUS GTX660 but it's much more expensive.


ASUS or MSI:
GeForce GTX 660 Market Overview
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BTW, imho looks good also now
rewarder rewarder
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Re: ~Frosty~ #5
Hi and a very warm welcome madness777!

That's a very nice build! I also like you description! Imo the case is a great choice and sure, I also like the cooler Like Luca already said, the matching colors is always great!

Another really good choice is the board. In that price range it is hard to find anything better. The really compelling ATX offers from ASUS are starting at 165 Euro, so Gigabyte is the way to go in this segment.

There is only one thing I would have done differently. Instead of the 2400MHz memory I would have gone for 1600MHz sticks and the money you would have saved in this case, I would have spent it on a GTX 660 Ti.
LucaRocchi LucaRocchi
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  • Posted on: 2013/7/14 11:21
Re: ~Frosty~ #6
Yup, because in daily use there isn't so much difference between 1600 and 2xxx Mhz
madness777 madness777
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  • Posted on: 2013/7/14 11:48
Re: ~Frosty~ #7
Quote:

rewarder wrote:

There is only one thing I would have done differently. Instead of the 2400MHz memory I would have gone for 1600MHz sticks and the money you would have saved in this case, I would have spent it on a GTX 660 Ti.


Well, those sticks were +10€ over the 1600 vengance sticks, and they're the cheapest here. I personally hate corsair vengance because they fail a LOT! Also, this card was 200€, a 660ti starts at 240€ with the stock model, so we wouldn't have pulled it off...
Thrust me, this build is thought through carefully.
And I think I noticed a slight difference between 1600 and 2400, it's quite a jump you know... let's say, Crysis, it loads quicker and pulls out 66FPS, with 1600MHz, it 'only' does 63FPS.
rewarder rewarder
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  • Posted on: 2013/7/14 11:56
Re: ~Frosty~ #8
Quote:

madness777 wrote:
Quote:

rewarder wrote:

There is only one thing I would have done differently. Instead of the 2400MHz memory I would have gone for 1600MHz sticks and the money you would have saved in this case, I would have spent it on a GTX 660 Ti.


Well, those sticks were +10€ over the 1600 vengance sticks, and they're the cheapest here. I personally hate corsair vengance because they fail a LOT! Also, this card was 200€, a 660ti starts at 240€ with the stock model, so we wouldn't have pulled it off...
Thrust me, this build is thought through carefully.
And I think I noticed a slight difference between 1600 and 2400, it's quite a jump you know... let's say, Crysis, it loads quicker and pulls out 66FPS, with 1600MHz, it 'only' does 63FPS.


When I was checking with geizhals, I found that the 1600 sticks were between 20 and 25 Euro cheaper and the ASUS DirectCU II GTX 660 Ti was 30 Euro more than the 660 OC you're using. That's what my reasoning is based on. Btw I'm aware that this is a very well thought build!

So ... in other words, writing an articles where we show the influence of memory clocks on gaming performance could be interesting you say?
madness777 madness777
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  • Posted on: 2013/7/14 13:59
Re: ~Frosty~ #9
Quote:

rewarder wrote:

So ... in other words, writing an articles where we show the influence of memory clocks on gaming performance could be interesting you say?


Games, and also windows boot times, program loading (like PS, CAD,...) and synthetic benchmarks like cinebench....
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  • Posted on: 2013/7/14 18:31
Re: ~Frosty~ #10
I guess in a first article we're going to have a look at gaming performance.
~Frosty~ [Build Logs / Projects] - ocaholic