New PC build

VitalyT

VitalyT

Posts: 6,833   +8,117
Just ordered a new desktop PC (parts from Amazon).
Main PC use: VS2010, VS2012, VMW, occasional gaming in SC-2, Unreal 2007.
Previous purchase: Monitor DELL U3014.


CASE: Corsair Obsidian Series 550D
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006L6ZSWC/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

PSU: Corsair HX850 Professional Series
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008O0RTFC/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Mainboard: Asus Maximus VI Hero
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00D41V69Q/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

CPU: i7-4770K
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CV3E3XE/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i04?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Memory: 32GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-19200 2400MHz
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0080GKCV8/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Video: NVidia GTX 780. Tried to get ASUS, but Amazon wouldn't deliver any of those to Ireland.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CY5GP26/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

SSD-s: 2 x Samsung 840 Pro 256GB
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009LI7CTY/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

HDD-s: 2 x Western Digital Caviar 3TB
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004RORMF6/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Wireless: WNIC WIRELESS DUAL-BAND WIFI PCI-E
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009YCGHB6/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It all came to about 2800 euro or $3600.

It all should arrive within one week. Can't wait to get my hands on all the goodies. Also scared to think if anything comes DOA, particularly the memory. The rest should be fine :)

I hope the choice of components is good. Any comments are welcome.
 
LukeDJ said:
Damn son! That's a sweet rig.

One question though. Why no aftermarket cooler?
Click to expand...

That's a good question :) I was looking around to find one with good reviews for Haswell, but none came up. I am looking around for one right now. Any suggestions? I'm not looking to get too greedy on the account of CPU overclocking, but let's say, 4.5GHz should be achievable on such system with a good aftermarket cooler?

P.S. I don't trust water-cooling systems, many start showing problems after a year of use, like corrosion.
 
I think most 1155 coolers are compatible with Socket 1150.

In which case, the Noctua NH-D14 would be my choice (the Noctua Site lists it as compatible with Haswell).
 
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GhostRyder said:
Hey I noticed you were getting 2 256 gb 840 pros, but it's cheaper to just get one 522 840 pro.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B009LI7CYE/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1373376110&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX112_SY192
Click to expand...

It's not about the cost, it is about reliability of the system and its data. I usually have the system on one SSD and all my projects and personal data on another. The system I'm retiring was the same, only I had Intel X25-M 160GB for the OS and same but 80GB for the other stuff. None ever showed any problem ever since purchased in late 2009.

System SSD-s are a lot more likely to die than ones used for personal data. In my case a system SSD would be addressed at least 10 times more.
 
GhostRyder said:
Hey I noticed you were getting 2 256 gb 840 pros, but it's cheaper to just get one 522 840 pro.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B009LI7CYE/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1373376110&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX112_SY192

I did not notice you said you already ordered lol, well it does not matter, the machine is kick ***.
Click to expand...
This is not primarily a gaming machine like vitaly said. He is a developer, so this will be a workstation. He will most likely put the drives in raid 1 (what is your plan VitalyT?).

Nice build overall man. I think you could have downgraded the gpu since sc2 is not that demanding. But after all, you are gonna be gaming at 2560x1440. Best of luck.
 
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JC713 said:
This is not primarily a gaming machine like vitaly said. He is a developer, so this will be a workstation. He will most likely put the drives in raid 1 (what is your plan VitalyT?).

Nice build overall man. I think you could have downgraded the gpu since sc2 is not that demanding. But after all, you are gonna be gaming at 2560x1440. Best of luck.
Click to expand...


I did raid 1 configuration in my previous rig, and decided I will no longer be needed it. Samsung 840 Pro should perform roughly two times faster than Intel X25 I had, but even that one was so fast, I never wanted any more out of it. For things like Visual Studio 2010/2012 and VMW such SSD as Samsung 840 Pro is more than sufficient. I prefer using extra SSD just to keep system and personal data separate. It is more reliable and safer that way.

As I noted before, I use DELL U3014, which is 2560x1600, so even in SC-2 I can appreciate perfect FPS at ultra settings. My other nostalgic favorite is Unreal 3. Both games can can put a good load on GPU in 2560x1600 at ultra settings, and GTX 780 is the right card to get good FPS out of both games.
 
VitalyT said:
Just cancelled order for the WiFi adapter that I ordered by mistake: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009YCGHB6/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And ordered the one that I had in mind when buying it: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BB3D8Y0/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This one is a kick-*** WiFi-AC, one that makes sense to buy for a new and fast desktop. The other one was WiFi-N on steroids - a good product, but a little out of date.
Click to expand...

Good catch.

VitalyT said:
I did raid 1 configuration in my previous rig, and decided I will no longer be needed it. Samsung 840 Pro should perform roughly two times faster than Intel X25 I had, but even that one was so fast, I never wanted any more out of it. For things like Visual Studio 2010/2012 and VMW such SSD as Samsung 840 Pro is more than sufficient. I prefer using extra SSD just to keep system and personal data separate. It is more reliable and safer that way.

As I noted before, I use DELL U3014, which is 2560x1600, so even in SC-2 I can appreciate perfect FPS at ultra settings. My other nostalgic favorite is Unreal 3. Both games can can put a good load on GPU in 2560x1600 at ultra settings, and GTX 780 is the right card to get good FPS out of both games.
Click to expand...

2560x1600 is even more demanding, so the 780 is a good choice. As for keeping files separate, that is a good move.
 
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Nice build. :)

Why did you choose Haswell over LGA2011? Slightly newer, etc?

What are you doing with the 3TB platters?
 
An update, after I received all the hardware and put it all together....

First of all, I couldn't get over the fact just how colossal the CPU cooler is, Noctua NH-D14, but then I couldn't believe just how great this thing really, it is one component worth spending on! It is so incredibly quiet, I can absolutely not hear the system, even if I open the side cover. This is the first power desktop I assembled that makes zero noise. And I didn't even think it was possible.

The CPU was easy to set to 4.6GHz, no problems there, but then I ran into issues with something else, and for the sake of keeping everything in check I set it back to its nominal speed.

At nominal speeds on all of the components the system rating is as shown below:

Rating.jpg


The only issue I ran into is with the WiFi card: Asus PCE-AC66 1300Mbps Wireless PCI-E Network Interface Card

This card simply doesn't work. It has serious driver issues (under Win7 and Win8 both). I'm chasing it up with ASUS right now, and will later on try to over-clock the system once again and publish the updated rating here...
 
JC713 said:
WTF, isnt the highest score 9.9? Shouldnt you get at least a 9 xD.
Click to expand...


I understand the joke, but come-on, that's just for i7-4770K @ 3.5 GHz, I haven't rated it when it is @ 4.6 GHz yet :)

It probably will reach 9.0. A higher score would be for the upcoming hexa-core Ivy Bridge Extreme and then Haswell Extreme. But even they should leave couple notches for dual-CPU workstations to top it all the way to 9.9 ;)

I am already in trouble trying to put all that power to proper use. Everything I throw at is just flying without any slow down. I use VS2012, debugging app that's using local SQL2012 Express, plus have VMW running in the background, and I don't bother unloading any of those when switching over SC-2 on a break ;)

One thing bothers me though. I switched off virtual memory, but the memory didn't go up after that, not by a tiny step. I got 32GB of fastest RAM, but even with all the load, I cannot see it go above 4GB. That's odd, I think. Looks like it is still caching stuff somewhere, wasting resources, and I was hoping to actually use the memory.
 
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It should be using at least 8GB :confused:.

As for the CPU score, the highest scores will come from Xeons, which are optimized for number crunching. The CPU score is determined by the speed of number crunching more than real world performance.

VitalyT said:
I understand the joke, but come-on, that's just for i7-4770K @ 3.5 GHz, I haven't rated it when it is @ 4.6 GHz yet :)

It probably will reach 9.0. A higher score would be for the upcoming hexa-core Ivy Bridge Extreme and then Haswell Extreme. But even they should leave couple notches for dual-CPU workstations to top it all the way to 9.9 ;)

I am already in trouble trying to put all that power to proper use. Everything I throw at is just flying without any slow down. I use VS2012, debugging app that's using local SQL2012 Express, plus have VMW running in the background, and I don't bother unloading any of those when switching over SC-2 on a break ;)

One thing bothers me though. I switched off virtual memory, but the memory didn't go up after that, not by a tiny step. I got 32GB of fastest RAM, but even with all the load, I cannot see it go above 4GB. That's odd, I think. Looks like it is still caching stuff somewhere, wasting resources, and I was hoping to actually use the memory.
Click to expand...

It may be caching to the SSD rather than the RAM. I do not know why it would do that though.
 
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Turn paging file back on, it's a myth that turning it off helps performance. Buy a 30GB SSD purely for page file if you're so worried.
 
St1ckM4n said:
Turn paging file back on, it's a myth that turning it off helps performance. Buy a 30GB SSD purely for page file if you're so worried.
Click to expand...

I have plenty of space on my Samsung SSD 840 Pro, but I also have 32GB of DDR3-2400, just seems like a waste that I load up so many apps, but Windows 8 never tries to use more than 4GB.

Switching the swap file off indeed had no effect at all. But then again, 60GB of a useless swap file is utterly pointless also, so I'm leaving it switched off.
 
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