Hey guys, I'm planning building a new rig, primarily for gaming/htpc (size doesn't matter). The highpoints for me are near silence and airflow - the 2 things that usually contradict each other I am planning following parts: CPU - 3930K Mobo - either Asrock x79 extreme 4 or Gigabyte x79-ud3 (I need PCI slot for my Asus Essence ST) Ram - 4x4 gb Gskill Ripjaws 2100 Mhz PSU - Seasonic Platinum 860W GFX - gtx 780, probably Asus DCII OC vers. SSD - samsung 840 250gb or 500 gb HDD - I have 5 3,5'' + 1 new = 6x3,5'' drives ll in all CPU cooler - either air (tower style) or Corsair h90 /h110 (140mm vers) Case - here is the tough part - either Corsair 550D, Fractal R4, Fractal XL R2 or Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 I do not plan on OC at first, but maybe down the road, although nothing extreme. Questions that I have: 1) For watercooling - I see that H90 needs to be mounted as intake, usually that would be on the back and compromise heat distribution, right? H110 I don't know if fits any of the cases mentioned on the top (mobo clearance) or front (hdd cages) 2) The amount of HDD I have influence airflo from the front alot - it seems to me that Nanoxia with displaceable hdd cage is the best for that, but not sure. 3) I might go for second gtx 780 later this year - more heat to deal with, has to be taken into account as well. 4) Asus DCII 780 - does it dump hot air into the case? As mentioned at the beginning, it needs to be as silent as possible - the cases I mention all chosen with that regard. Looking forward to suggestions!
Well, I may be wrong but "IF" you intend to OC down the road and also get another 780, that 860W PSU may be pushing it. As for the H90, it can be placed anywhere really. Google images of H90 and you will see many opt for mounting it to the roof of the chassis. Could be wrong once again, for SLI aren't the reference coolers better or at least any cooler using an exhaust rather than blowing the hot air onto the card above? I don't think the hot air dump will be much of a problem if you have 1 card and decent air flow in the chassis. But if you want to be as silent as possible what about investing in a custom water loop for CPU and GPU rather than closed loop for CPU only? You will definately love the silence then. EK actually provide "sets" which include CPU block, rad, res, and EK fans, pump, tubing and adequate PSC fittings for a decent starter price. You can buy the GPU cooler at a later time or as an extra. the H30 240 HFX for example http://digitalimpuls.no/PC-komponen...FX-Intel-og-AMD--G1-4-117311-p0000052337.aspx Ignore Norwegian price.
The H90 doesn't need to be mounted as intake, it's only better as it will draw cool air. The H110 fits in the top of the 550D, as can be seen at the Corsair 550D webpage. Well, yeah. What do you need that many HDD's for? Maybe you should look for a bigger case? it does. Honestly, for silence and the hardware and sheer number of drivers you're planning on I think you're better off with a full tower case. Maybe get serious with water-cooling?
I don't have the guts to go custom waterloop, although the thought has crossed my mind in the last 10 years Reg . standard gfx cooler (especially gtx 78/titan model) - might be best for air transport out but doesn't provide the gpu temps DCII does... Reg. the PSU - I think the seasonic should deliver (looked at the Extreme PSU calc), but it might be close
Fractal XL R2 is full tower, but doesn't seem to offer the HDD cage placement as Nanoxia DS1 does (both 3 hdd cages can stand on the bottom of the case). I should mention that the current build is in the Antec P180. I might have to reduce the amount of HDD to 4 (atm I have 1x500gb, 1x750gb, 1x1TB,1x1,5tb, 1x2Tb + 1 ssd and planning to add a 3TB) by replacing some with 3tb models - maybe the easiest way to go here!?!?
I was just thinking along the lines of you going SLI in the future. Your temps may get affected by the heat dump of the lower card anyway. For a single card the DC II is a great choice.
Agree, SLI might be overkill for me anyway (1080p screen atm), but that depends on the games to come (hope to be set for a couple of years with this, and that's where eventual SLI comes into play).
After looking around a bit, i might go with Corsair H100i selfcontained WC kit - i will mount it in front (push) in either Fractal R4 or Fractal XL R2 - as this will require removal of one of the HDD cages, I will invest in couple of 4 TB HDD to replace the old ones and bring the HDD count down to 3 + 1 ssd. What do you guys think? The concern I had with H100i was the noise, but it looks like it's not that bad , especially sitting behind sound dampened front door in the above mentioned cases, I recon.
If i was you and you're going to use it primarly for gaming i would get a 4770K togheter with a gtx 780.I use my 2600k more then my 3930K for games it doesn't really matter much.
It's a tough decision, but seeing the ****ty temps on the Haswell and expecting better multicore scaling in the coming games is my reasoning for the SB-E - although at a little higher price IB-E is not far away, as well, but doesn't seem to bring much improvement compared to SB-E
no i don't think i'm going to upgrade to IB-E.I would take something else as a corsair h100I I had a corsair h100 when i bought my 3930K beginning 2012 and with a oc temps weren't that good.
Reviews seem to indicate ok temps, especially with moderate OC (I won't go above 4.2 Ghz if even that) http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/corsair_hydro_series_h100i_review,9.html
Not trying to steal the thread, it's somewhat relevant, in a way! Does anyone know whether a Corsair H110 will fit in a Fractal Design Define XL R2 case? I think that would be a good combination for cooling and silence, if possible, that I was pondering when someone asked me the other day. If it does, maybe that would be a good option in this instance as well.
Was on my list at first but 20mm distance between fans on h110 does'nt go well on the xl r2, at least not in front where I want it. It's possible to drill holes for it to fit but I'm not up to that
n 4.2 or 4.3 is no problem to cool with the h100I but above that and certainly in this summer heat its a different story .And i'm sure you know each chip is different in temp levels.
I don't see better options, H110 doesn't fit, and I am not up to custom WC. I would rather not open the top vents on the XL R2, to avoid excessive noise (in regard to mounting h110 on top for example).