BB wants a new computer - PC this time

[Barrister]

I changed them.
The Noctua fans (they're Austrian, don't know if they sell them in NA?) are very quiet and push a lot of air.
I went for a closed-loop cooler for the CPU, so I have used the space in the ceiling of the case for the radiator. Do you have fans in the floor of the case on the R5? I did not change those, and they work well.

What struck me as very good with the Fractal Design case is the solid build quality and the ease of use when building. It doesn't have the hot-swap bays and stuff like my old CM case, but it's probably the better case.

R5 had one case in the front, one in the rear.  It had space for a 2nd front fan, room for 4 bottom-mounted fans, two or three top mounted fans if you open up the removable covers, and a side vent as well.  I've loaded mine up with 2 front, 1 bottom (all intake), and the one rear exhaust.

Pretty sure Noctua sells in NAm.

[Norgy]

I'd go for one intake fan in the side vent at least. Helps quite a lot for the GPU cooling.

Noctua fans are very good for mounting with just the rubber mounting thingies. They are silent, even at high RPM.

I'd consider, if I were you, utilising the top slots as exhaust should things ever run hot.
Given that you won't overclock, the setup you have is probably frosty enough, though.

[Barrister]

I'd go for one intake fan in the side vent at least. Helps quite a lot for the GPU cooling.

Noctua fans are very good for mounting with just the rubber mounting thingies. They are silent, even at high RPM.

I'd consider, if I were you, utilising the top slots as exhaust should things ever run hot.
Given that you won't overclock, the setup you have is probably frosty enough, though.

We'll see how it all shakes out.  What gives me pause about the side port is that there is no dust shield.

My GPU is significantly less aggressive than yours, so I think I'll be fine.  I'll check out the temps once everything is installed however.  I'm not opposed to changing things up or modifying the setup once it's live.



So I finished up everything I could do up to this point.  Installed the fans, installed the PSU, and the MB supports.  Now I'm waiting for the CPU cooler.

Since I wound up with a "K" processor I'm tempted to try a very modest overclock just because I can.  Don't think trying to take it to the limit is worth it however.

[Norgy]

The newer CPUs can be modestly overclocked from Windows by a fair many different utilities. Your motherboard probably came with the software needed.

Modern GPUs won't overheat and die. They will just run down the clock speeds and the fans will go apeshit. But noise levels haven't been problematic even with SLI setup for me, at least.

Looking forward to reading more about your building experience, Beeb.

[viper37]

Since I wound up with a "K" processor I'm tempted to try a very modest overclock just because I can.  Don't think trying to take it to the limit is worth it however.

Asus as an utility for that, don't know about Gigabyte.  Their basic boards sure do not, it could be different for their gaming boards.
Otherwise, AMD has a utility for that in their drivers...  Oh, wrong card    Nvidia certainly has the same tool, for CPU&GPU.

You can use http://gaming.msi.com/features/afterburner]MSI After burner, it's a great tool to, very easy to use.

If you overclock, your computer will reboot and reset it's clock speed to default.

If you want to do it the enthusiast way, you toy with voltage&clock speed, do some tests, increase again, run some more tests, etc, etc.
If you want to do it the simple way, increase your clock speed by 5-10%, see how it works in game, if it's unstable, reduce clock speed a few mhz.

[Norgy]

The Asus utility is not great, to be honest.
It's better to do some tweaking in BIOS than using it. But I'd worry about the cooler then.

[viper37]

The Asus utility is not great, to be honest.

I did like it.  There's AI Suite, and there was another one, TurboV Evo.  Don't know if it exists anymore, I'm mostly using MSI&AMD tools anyway.

It's better to do some tweaking in BIOS than using it. But I'd worry about the cooler then.

can't vouch for all boards, but mine will reset itself if I overclock it too much.  My main problem is the voltage regulation.  I'm scare to play with that.  I'd have to read a lot more about overclocking.
Also, most of the time, DRAM will prevent your from overclocking too much, it often has a much lower tolerance than a CPU.

[Barrister]

The Asus utility is not great, to be honest.

I did like it.  There's AI Suite, and there was another one, TurboV Evo.  Don't know if it exists anymore, I'm mostly using MSI&AMD tools anyway.

It's better to do some tweaking in BIOS than using it. But I'd worry about the cooler then.

can't vouch for all boards, but mine will reset itself if I overclock it too much.  My main problem is the voltage regulation.  I'm scare to play with that.  I'd have to read a lot more about overclocking.
Also, most of the time, DRAM will prevent your from overclocking too much, it often has a much lower tolerance than a CPU.

The bit I've read on overclocking says you definitely have to start playing with voltage.

[Norgy]

Ai Suite lets me overclock to 4.2 Ghz. It's kind of "safe" overclocking, as it runs stress tests first and decides how much you can clock your CPU based on that.

I wouldn't say it offers that much on performance for gaming, and I think I got a bad 4770k processor as it runs very hot very quickly.

My old 2600k easily ran at 4.8 Ghz.

[viper37]

The bit I've read on overclocking says you definitely have to start playing with voltage.

Only if you want to dramatically increase the speed of your components.  Something between 5-10%, depending on your compononents, it could be achievable without playing with voltage.  AMD cpus have better overclock capabilities than Intel, but they're much slower.  I can overclock my CPU and GPU by around 5%, and my memory too, but then I have some problems, sometimes.  It's like my GPU shuts itself down more frequently but won't come back on unless I unplug and replug the monitor.  Can't find the cause exactly. 

Anyway.  Beyond that, you will likely need better cooler, possibly liquid ones.  You have to take note of base value, idle and under load, what's the temp&the voltage, then start overclocking and compare values.

[Barrister]

Well at least the tracking # for my CPU cooler is working now.  It's sitting clearing Canadian customs.

[Norgy]

I changed them.
The Noctua fans (they're Austrian, don't know if they sell them in NA?) are very quiet and push a lot of air.
I went for a closed-loop cooler for the CPU, so I have used the space in the ceiling of the case for the radiator. Do you have fans in the floor of the case on the R5? I did not change those, and they work well.

What struck me as very good with the Fractal Design case is the solid build quality and the ease of use when building. It doesn't have the hot-swap bays and stuff like my old CM case, but it's probably the better case.

R5 had one case in the front, one in the rear.  It had space for a 2nd front fan, room for 4 bottom-mounted fans, two or three top mounted fans if you open up the removable covers, and a side vent as well.  I've loaded mine up with 2 front, 1 bottom (all intake), and the one rear exhaust.

Pretty sure Noctua sells in NAm.

The first time I built I was wildly confused by intake/exhaust and ended up with something resembling a Finnish sauna. 

[Barrister]

Hey Viper or anyone else:

Since I'm relying on my Win 7 Key, once I get my new system started do I need to install Win 7, then upgrade to Win 10, or is there a way to directly install Win 10?

[Grey Fox]

It is easier to install Win 7 first then update.

[viper37]

Hey Viper or anyone else:

Since I'm relying on my Win 7 Key, once I get my new system started do I need to install Win 7, then upgrade to Win 10, or is there a way to directly install Win 10?

There's not other way to install Win10 the first time.  Once you have done the upgrade though, for this computer, if you ever need to reinstall Windows, you will be able to install Windows 10 only.  For another computer, I don't know...