A config parts to review to your experienced eys

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Radunor
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Joined: Fri Feb 14, 2014 2:52 pm
Location: Belgium

A config parts to review to your experienced eys

Post by Radunor » Fri Feb 14, 2014 6:19 pm

Guys,

After a long long period, I'm back and willing to build a pc.

The objective is:
1) silent PC when doing broswing, mailing, office, (vitual machine) etc. But no video processing stuff, except viewing a mkv :-)
2) casual top quality gaming with PC (nothing than an 1h-2h session once a week or so) but not ready to go for noisy environment while playing.

Constraint: PC on the floor under a desk (700mm max); Room during summer goes up to 28° some time.

Case : BitFenix Shinoby XL
MB : ASRock Z77 Extreme4
PSU : Seasonic G560
CPU : INTEL CORE I5-4670K (3.4 GHZ)
RAM : G.Skill Ares Blue Series 16 Go (2 x 8 Go) DDR3 2400 MHz CL11
CPU-Cooler : Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.C
+ (2x) Ventilateur PC Noctua NF-P14 FLX (running at 550rpm)
GPU : Sapphire Radeon HD 775 Ultimate Edition 1 Go (fanless)
SDD : SanDisk Ultra Plus 128Gb
HDD : Seagate Desktop SSHD 1 To

Other: BitFenix Superspeed USB 3.0 Card Reader; Nice cables (but I guess they come with the Bitfenix)

Config is just below 1000€.

Could you please give a look and share your thought?
Thanks.

Links of the parts: http://www.bitfenix.com/global/en/produ ... i-xl#specs; http://http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z ... dex.fr.asp; http://www.seasonicusa.com/G-series-450-550-650.htm; http://ark.intel.com/products/75048/; http://www.gskill.com/en/product/f3-2400c11d-16gab; http://www.prolimatech.com/en/products/ ... asp?id=887; http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=prod ... =33&lng=en; http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentatio ... 471&lid=1#; http://www.sandisk.fr/products/ssd/sata/ultra-plus/; http://m.seagate.com/fr/fr/internal-har ... ive/#specs; http://www.bitfenix.com/global/en/produ ... ard-reader; http://www.asus.com/Optical_Drives/BC12D2HT/#overview
Last edited by Radunor on Sat Feb 15, 2014 1:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

CA_Steve
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Re: A config parts to review to your experienced eys

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Feb 14, 2014 7:45 pm

Welcome to SPCR.

First, your motherboard isn't compatible with Haswell Socket 1150 CPUs. Look at Asus' Z87 boards (if you plan to overclock or need the features) or the H8x seiries if you don't.

What games are you looking to play and at what resolution? That will drive the gfx card requirement.

You won't need 16GB of RAM. 2 x 4GB is more than enough.

Not sure the BitFenix case is ideal for your use. Is there a big reason for it?

Radunor
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Feb 14, 2014 2:52 pm
Location: Belgium

Re: A config parts to review to your experienced eys

Post by Radunor » Sat Feb 15, 2014 1:47 am

CA_Steve wrote:Welcome to SPCR.
Thanks!
First, your motherboard isn't compatible with Haswell Socket 1150 CPUs. Look at Asus' Z87 boards (if you plan to overclock or need the features) or the H8x seiries if you don't.
Oh damned. You're dead right. I started with a Core i7 with the P7X79 and drawed it back in the middle of the post (with all the reading I've been through yesterday). Basically (combo MB+i7 CPU was double the price of MB+i5 CPU -> I felt it was probably overkill for my need compared to the price.
I've updated my initial post to adjust that gross error.
What games are you looking to play and at what resolution? That will drive the gfx card requirement.
Game title: I don't know to be honnest but I casually get invited by friend to play a game like those you find on the Steam platform. What is sure, it will not be for hardcore/intensive gaming cession.
But If I'm in well I then want to play decently
You won't need 16GB of RAM. 2 x 4GB is more than enough.
You are right, I need to evaluated that again, (16MB was with the idea of running a virtual machine for testing purpose, I then went for the save but easy chose, 1 machine 8GB+ 1 virtual machine 8MB)

Code: Select all

 Not sure the BitFenix case is ideal for your use. Is there a big reason for it?[/quote]
PSU at the bottom was the idea, I started thinking about a seasonic fanless. This would probably mean adding an exhaust fan or an intake nearby, so I felt I was probably going for a more conventionnal approach to have a PSU with an integrated fan, though aiming toward quiet PSU.
I liked the large fan of the shinoby. It should then rotate slowly (low noise). 
I could certainly go for a smaller case. The idea was: more room then heat better spread (which might be a wrong perception; you, guys, could tell)
However I wish to keep a quality level in the case build. BitFenix (a brand I discovered only recently) seems to be a good choice as a brand. does a "Shinoby not XL" exist?. 
I do not want to choice a "geeky-blinky" case with the led, the panel mirror and the fluff.

Thanks for your first input.

CA_Steve
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Re: A config parts to review to your experienced eys

Post by CA_Steve » Sat Feb 15, 2014 5:39 pm

Steam games run the gamut from "takes very little cpu and gpu to play" to "can tax the most impressive system". So, without knowing the games, it's tough to help you size the graphics card. Also, need to know your monitor resolution.

mobo: You are getting closer...still not the correct mobo. You need a Z87 for the Haswell socket 1150 CPUs, not the Z77.

Favorite ATX sized cases are the Fractal Define R4 (see my signature), Corsair 550D, Antec Solo II.

Abula
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Re: A config parts to review to your experienced eys

Post by Abula » Sat Feb 15, 2014 6:07 pm

If you are going with the Prolimatech Megahalems Rev C and AsRock Z87 motherboard, from what i have seen AsRock has very good BIOS PWM fan control, so my suggestion is to go with Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex, pretty good fans for the megahelms, you do need to get the Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 14 Fan Wire Clip Set - Megahalems Series, ill leave you the graph of them in case you are interested where you can see the opration range, on FanXpert2, when i tested it, they usually idle at 460rpms where they were very quiet, you can still ramp them up to 1300+rpms in case you want to, really good range of operation.

Image

You do need to enter the bios and setup the PWM to 25% or around there i would guess to have the same low rpms as the pic above on the AsRock mobo.

boost
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Re: A config parts to review to your experienced eys

Post by boost » Sun Feb 16, 2014 12:39 am

Radunor wrote:MB : ASRock Z77 Extreme4
Try the ASRock Z87 Extreme 4
Radunor wrote:CPU-Cooler : Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.C
+ (2x) Ventilateur PC Noctua NF-P14 FLX (running at 550rpm)
That combination is almost 100€!
A Scythe Mugen 4 is 35€ comes with a good fan and has a similar performance to the Megahalem, a 1° higher temperature won't cause an audible difference in fan noise. If you want to overclock you can add a second fan to increase the performance or decrease noise.
Radunor wrote:GPU : Sapphire Radeon HD 775 Ultimate Edition 1 Go (fanless)
The same card is sold under a new name: Sapphire Radeon R7 250 Ultimate.
The HD7750/R7 250 is not very fast.
A PowerColor Radeon R9 270 SCS3 with a Scythe Gentle Typhoon 500 for safety is twice as fast, has 2GB Vram and doesn't add appreciably to the noise level of the system.
If you buy the less expensive CPU cooler and the more expensive graphics card, the computer will be twice as fast in game and there should't be an audible difference in normal usage when the fans spin at their lowest RPM for both configurations.

tim851
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Re: A config parts to review to your experienced eys

Post by tim851 » Sun Feb 16, 2014 2:51 am

Radunor wrote:2) casual top quality gaming with PC (nothing than an 1h-2h session once a week or so)
What do you mean by "top quality gaming"?

If you want to play Battlefield 4 with maximum details at Full HD or more, you will need a Radeon R9 270X at the very least, a Radeon R9 280X to be sure.

And it doesn't matter if you game 1h hour per week or 12h hours a day, all that matters is what games you play and what your expectation of visual quality is.

Also, the Shinobi XL is a monster of a case and the way I see it you have 1 HDD and 1 SSD and 1 graphics card.
You could put those in a Mini-ITX system like the SG05 if you wanted.
In your place I would consider at least a Micro-ATX setup.

Radunor
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Location: Belgium

Re: A config parts to review to your experienced eys

Post by Radunor » Tue Feb 25, 2014 8:52 am

Fractal Define R4, noted. I like this tour. Shinoby XL was oversized indeed.
For the GPU, I keep forgetting the embedded GPU, so for my day2day needs I would not need the external GPU.
So I guess a GPU with a fan would not be killing my quest of quietness as long as I don't play. and will be of use when occasionnaly play a game.

Mugen 4, Ok that sounds as a good plan.

Regarding to GPU, no plan for SLI or similar thing. R270 could be a good track.

At a general level, I'm not going to mess up with overclocking (maybe a gentle one but definitely nothing advanced or high overclocking)

CA_Steve
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Re: A config parts to review to your experienced eys

Post by CA_Steve » Tue Feb 25, 2014 4:43 pm

You might want to check out the GTX 750 Ti thread in the video card forum.

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