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Ami89E1234

RAM Question

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Hey all, 

 

finally decided to get around to building a new gaming rig to replace my old (4 years now, damn) Alienware. Haven't got all the parts yet, but I'm well on my way. Some specs:

 

Case: Rosewill THOR V2 (Black)

CPU: Intel i7-4770k

Motherboard: MSI Z87 MPOWER MAX (I know that MSI products can be questionable in terms of quality, but I'd like to stick with it)

GPU: SAPPHIRE ATI Radeon R9 290

HDD: 2 TB 

SSD: 128 GB

PSU: Rosewill 1000W (enough room for later expansion plus OC)

Will probably install an after-market heat sink and maybe liquid cooling at some point.

 

Now, I have a question about which memory to get. While the default RAM (without OC) the GPU and Motherboard can handle is DDR3 1600, it seems a bit foolish to get that instead of something like 2400 or 2600 when your components are designed specifically for overclocking. I'm looking into getting 16 GB (2 8 GB sticks) from G.SKILL's TridentX series. Any thoughts on what I should go with? The lower one to begin with and buy faster RAM when I decide to OC or just buy faster now? Thanks in advance.

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Although your computer can handle DDR3 1600, if it's not overclocked, I doubt that they are running at that speed. 1600, 2400, and 2600 are maximum speed values and the only way you will reach those speeds is through overclocking. Check what your RAM is running at now (use CPU-Z). If it is running at 1600 without overclocking, AND you intend to overclock in the future, then go ahead and get the faster RAM. Reaching 2600 would require some mad overclocking (I hope you have adequate cooling).

 

*My experience is based on when I built and overclocked my own PC. Things may or may not be different since I'm using different hardware.

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I know it's to late but for others that might want to get ideas from your build, I have a few suggestions.

 

MSI Mobo - Yeah questionable is an understatement imo. I had 3 DOA MSI's on my last upgrade. I have gone gigabyte now and not looking back.

HDD - Western Digital is the best bet imo. Seagate second and Samsung was making quality drives for awhile but I believe they sold them off.

SSD - Intel may not make the fastest SSDs but they have the most reliable controller on the market. Intel seems to have the least failure rate on the market. Samsung would be a good choice as well. They make great NAND these days but again the controller software/firmware is not the absolute best.

PSU - Major over kill. A quality 700 or 800 watt would have been fine and still left you head room. I am running a Core i7 2600K with a Raedon HD 7700, 8 GB RAM, 4 WD HDDs and 2 Intel SSDs. This is off a Corsair 520 Watt PSU. Plus it uses a single 12v rail unlike the Rosewill 1000w PSUs I glanced at. A single 12v rail is always better then multiple. On this I love Corsair! This thing has held up through a mini fire(reversed wiring when trying to fix a fan wire) and 7 years of 24/7 abuse.

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Well thanks for the input, both of you. 

 

Some updated specs:

 

Case: Rosewill THOR V2 (Black) - - - Bought - MSRP $120-150, got mine for <$15 on Amazon due to gift cards

CPU: Intel i7-4770k - - - Bought - MSRP $260-$350 (depends on if you buy at Microcenter or on something like Newegg), got mine for $250 on Amazon with gift cards

Motherboard: MSI Z87 MPOWER - Decided against getting the MAX version since it's more money (that I ended up not having anyway lol) for not much extra. Even though MSI is pretty much hit and miss in terms of quality, I've heard very few negatives about this particular mobo. MSRP: $185-$205 Got it on Newegg for about $174.99 with a $10 rebate.

GPU: SAPPHIRE ATI Radeon R9 290 Tri-X OC 4GB - - - Glad I waited for Sapphire to come out with this beast. The non-reference cooling means it'll run at ~70ºC instead of 90ºC+, plus it matches my mobo color scheme and has much better memory and other enhanced performance. ONLY problem is the insane price-gouging due to those stupid crypto-currency miners. MSRP is around $550, but it's basically impossible to find under $600 now. Luckily managed to get mine on order for $470.10 before that amazing deal went away - only problem is the back order means I won't get it till mid June minimum. Oh well.

HDD: Went with a 3TB Seagate Barracuda at 7200 RPM. More than enough space for me lol. Picked it up for $108 on Amazon.

SSD: 120GB Samsung 840 EVO. Managed to goad my parents into buying it as an early birthday present, since it's currently on sale on Amazon for under $90.

PSU: Rosewill BRONZE 1000W I got on Newegg on sale for $89.99. I agree, it is WAY overkill, but oh well. Had I known more about PSU's at the time I bought it I probably would've gone with a Gold-rated 750-850W Corsair.

RAM: Ended up buying 16GB (2 x 8GB) G Skill 2400 MHz. Was gonna actually get 2133 but they sold out just before I was gonna buy my RAM so I went back to my original 2400. Got it for $189.99 (which is about what MSRP is).

OS: Windows 7 64 bit. Just missed having my precious 7 on my computer. Got it at Newegg when under $90.

Optical Drive: Guess I should mention this. Got an ASUS BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS 12x Blu-ray player for $69.99 on Amazon.

 

Total I spent: $1535.99. Not bad at all considering my Alienware cost $2000 and this is probably at least 10 times the system that was lol.

 

At this point I don't have ANY money left over haha so no after-market cooling of any sort for the time being but that's perfectly fine. Won't be OC'ing for a while at least and since it's a full tower case there'll be plenty of air flow.

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Well, got my build done and set up and running just fine this past Saturday (in fact, I'm writing this on it right now haha). Build went pretty smoothly except for cable management - good lord did that turn out to be godawful. Big part of the problem was the power supply only being modular and not fully modular - had to REALLY stretch the supplemental CPU power cord up there to get it to go in. 24-pin connector was also being a little finicky, but I had much less problems with that. Lesson learned though - never again will I buy anything other than fully modular lol.

 

Power SATA connectors got on my nerves as well, as did the fan connectors - I have fan controllers on the front panel but no idea how to connect them with the fans to actually use them as intended. Somewhat of a minor issue though, as I managed to get the speeds to adjust automatically through my control center.

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Ugh sorry for the REALLY late reply but I've been super busy. 

 

Meh, I had a few chances to work on the fan speeds, but tbh it's not really that big of a deal to me. They scale up nicely enough with just the command center software, so I'm not all too worried about not being able to use the front panel controls.

 

Figure some time in the future when I actually have some money again I'll get a second monitor and maybe a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO as the CPU cooling option, because at this point I highly doubt the radiator would fit unless I could get extensions for some of the mobo power cables.

 

Some news though: managed to find a used version of my GPU on Amazon and with gift cards was able to get it for just a little over $400, which was an absolutely fantastic find. Came with the warranty and an unused copy of BF4 as well. Went home this past weekend and (somehow) managed to install it - good god, if I thought the mobo power connectors were under tension before I definitely didn't like it after I installed it. Had to remove them both and a fan cord to even get the card lined up with the PCIe slot (which it really didn't wanna go into at first, but I managed), and then had to route the 24-pin sort of behind the GPU to get it to reach. It did, but barely. And don't even get me started on how hard I had to wrestle with the supplemental CPU cord to get it up to the top and in... ugh! Guess no Crossfire for me lol.

 

But so far, it's worked exceptionally. I thoroughly enjoyed the 6 or so hours I was able to play Skyrim on Ultra with literally sub 2 second load times haha. Also enjoying the basically 100 FPS minimum in Kerbal Space Program - good lord, does that 4770k do its job right for KSP. Not as impressed with how well World in Conflict performed, though - during the benchmark, I averaged about 60 FPS with a minimum of 27 or so and a max of 128 I think. Granted, I set everything to just ludicrously high detail settings, but man... for a 7 year old game I'm impressed at how it can still kick a modern GPU's ass lol. 

 

Some pictures:

 

Basically right after I assembled it. Told you, cable management turned out to be HORRID. Tried to route as much as I could behind, but man, those SATA connectors just would not cooperate with orientation so I had to use two, and those power cables... believe me, I tried desperately to get them routed another way but it wasn't happening - they are really friggin short. Come to think of it, I don't remember why I didn't route more of the front panel crap through the back, since it looks like I definitely could (and should) have. Got lazy I guess. Never, EVER buying anything but a fully modular PSU again. Ugh. Maybe I'll fix it all someday...

post-1059-0-34085800-1396845366_thumb.jp

 

GPU, with my freakishly large hand to scale:

post-1059-0-79472100-1396845387_thumb.jp

 

Later in the year (when I have some money again lol) I'm definitely gonna buy some extension cables for both mobo power cables so I can actually route them from behind and not over my GPU, and I might as well get a fan splitter cable and do some SERIOUS spring cleaning on that cabling crap. Seriously considering getting a second monitor as well, and will definitely buy me a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU cooler once I get those damn cables outta the way and have some room for the radiator.

 

Edit: Wow... I'm an idiot lol. Just realized why the fan controllers weren't working - there was a second molex cable from the front panel that I plugged in but I never found out what it powered. I just assumed it was lights, since the Thor logo lights were powered by a molex... makes sense now haha. This should help when I clean the cables since I could route them all through the fan speed control cables and actually use the case's knobs if I wanted to, though the mobo does have the "smart" fan connectors so they're not totally necessary.

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