My build thoughts. (Need advice/opinions.)

[MilitiaMasterV]

Hi folks, I'm new around here, and I have quite a few questions. Sorry for the long-winded narrative that follows.

I've only ever built one computer and that was with my brother's help and was many many years back. That computer died after I moved over 900 miles across the country (Too much rattling or something. The hard drive died a few months after I got here.) I never really had the money to throw down for a computer after that since my money was dried up during the move and my mom had just inherited a pile of money so she ordered me a laptop 'to make due' with. I've been stuck on this dual core laptop using 'low' settings in games for about 2 years now while I saved every bit I could.

I finally have enough to actually start throwing a computer together myself, and I've been researching computer parts off and on for the past month (Kept looking into things every once in awhile previously.).

I happened across this website a couple of times while looking into different motherboards so I figured this would be a good place to start asking some of the questions I have.

I've never overclocked or messed with water-cooling, and I am interested in trying some of it out.

I originally wanted to build AMD again, since my previous build was AMD Athlon, but after quite a bit of research and digging around on the internet I've realized that it might not be prudent.

I was originally considering buying the FX-8150 series Zambezi 8 core processor and kept trying to find a motherboard that would support it and came across the Crosshair V Formula but then while reading specs I noticed that it didn't support the PCIe 3.0 spec, and after a whole lot more digging and talking to folks I realized there literally was no motherboard that supports PCIe 3.0 for AMD processors right now.

Apparently a lot of the new graphics cards are running on 3.0 bus though, and I want to end up with a top end graphics card down the road and not be making a build that's already totally out-dated or will be soon.

So then I started looking around at Intel's products and found the i7 3770K. It looks like it runs about like the Zambezi, so I guess that works (I'm not a fan of Intel, but apparently I have to make due with what's out there.).

So I started looking for a motherboard that supports it, and happened across the Maximus V Formula (A second time, I found it first when I was previously looking and thinking 'I want that!') and it has that fancy new Fusion Thermo solution.

My main problem right now is that I'm unsure of whether the case I'd been eye-balling could handle that board, since it's an 'Extended' ATX board. I don't have the capability/know how/tools/what have you to mod the case.

So I guess my first question is, could that board fit in this case?

The case I've been looking at is the Antec Twelve Hundred V3 Black Steel ATX Full Tower.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129100

I was thinking about going with the Antec High Current Pro HCP-1200 for a PSU. (Mainly because I want enough power in there to maybe do Crossfire/SLI someday, and figured Antec's PSU would fit in their own case.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371043

RAM seems cheap as heck right now, so I was first looking at 32 GB of Corsair Vengeance 1600, but everyone I talk to keeps telling me 'you'll never need that much' so I went digging and found the 16 GB set, which would leave it open for upgrading down the road. (This is kinda flexible since I don't know about OC'ing stuff.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233299

I probably don't need it, but....HDD =

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148907

Also had a SSD that I might purchase. (Newegg recommended it. I don't really know a lot about SSD's.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147134&Tpk=20-147-134

I was pondering this water-cooler before I saw the motherboard and the fact that it wouldn't be a closed loop.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181017

But that got me to pondering options for doing my own loops. Which brings me to another question I had. On the Maximus V Formula page just below 'Fusion Thermo solution' it shows a clear windowed piece with 4 point metal bits over the processor with 2 red tubes coming out of it. Where can you find this piece to buy? I would do something similar, but with clear/blue tinted tubing.

I was looking through Antec's website, and they apparently sell a big radiator piece for under the top fan in that case that allows you to hook up water-cooling kits...

http://www.antec.com/productPSU.php?id=837&pid=20

...and I'd need to find the rest of what you require to complete the set. Anyone have some good options?

This is kind of where I'm stuck at on my pondering for a build. Choosing the motherboard, water-cooling, whether it all would even fit in my case I chose.

Or should I just start re-thinking it all? Motherboard choice seems to have me stumped right now.

I have a few options for other pieces, but that's as far as I've made it for choices. (I hate decisions.)

Nothing is purchased yet. So my options are all over the place.

[MilitiaMasterV]

Oh, I forgot to mention. The reason I want to go water-cooling is because back when I was running my rig, I actually over-heated one of the Nvidia graphics cards I was running so badly that it burnt a capacitor off. (On the world with the flying manta thing in KOTOR...all of a sudden my screen fritzed out with green lines and I literally heard the capacitor fall off.)

So I'm kinda hard on computers and like to play games with heavy graphics. (Currently playing Guild Wars 2 on this computer and it's causing some weird unrecoverable blue/black screen error anytime I go near flowing water. Keep having to literally turn the power off because it won't even alt + tab/cntrl + alt + del out to manager. Like 7 times per day. This will probably end up killing the computer.)

Was doing a test drive of Aion before this game and it wasn't even loading the character screen in properly and/or lagging the NPC's and my characters in. So I'm hitting a hardware wall for games now.

Does anyone have a link to something that explains the new graphics cards and if/how they are cooled with water? I don't really understand how the newer ones function with all this "GPU" or "cuda cores" or 'stream processors' or whatever talk.

[kkn]

ssd i would use it for OS, mabye one for games, for storage i would do a hdd.
try not to instal too mutch on the OS drive ( large programs for example ) mabye make a folder or partition on the hdd or a gamer disk if your investing in that ( 2'nd ssd )
os = 120gig or more, up to you
game = 120 gig ssd ( or more ) ( fast loading of games ) hdd ( slow loading of games )
storage = 1TB??
for what ive been told, the I5-3570k gives you more bang for the bucks.
but for the case i cant say mutch since i dont know it.
and your smack on when thinking forward when it comes to psy, cudos on that.
menny are starting on a 550 - 650W psu and get burned on it in the end when they want to upgrade the gpu later.
amd or nvidia is up to you, some like nvidia some like amd cards.

[kkn]

you have cards that comes finnish whit waterblocks on them like the EVGA 690 ( http://eu.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=04G-P4-2699-KR&family=GeForce 600 Series Family&uc=EUR ) ,
or you can buy waterlocks ( http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_971_240_999&product... )and mount them on to the cards after ( witch will void your waranty ) since you have to dismount the coolers and so on.
cpu, look at the 1155 wateblocks ( http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_971_498_490&product... ) and fint one that you think will fitt nice for your system.
radiator, you have 120 x 3 ( 360 rad ) the 120 is for fan and the 3 is how menny fans will fit on it on one side.
or the 140 x 3 ( same here )
then you need a pump and a reservoar, we all have our options on pumps, and reservoar is up to each and every one how they want it.
you can get a reservoar that have pump or pumps intergated in them, that way you dont have to twitch your brain on where to mount it and so on, you can get a reservoar that fits in your dvd slots if thats bether option ( http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_367&products_id=351... ) ( this is combo pump and res )
pump: http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_201&products_id=349...
reservoar: http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=59_318_659
radiators: http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_457_667_668&product...
and the tubes you have clear, you have uv ones, you have colored ones.
the fitting on the M5F is 10mm ( 3/8 ) OD so you need a 10/13mm tube ( ID/OD ).
and coolant you have normal clear, colored, UV reactive ones.
fittings, you have compression fittings ( http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_346_393_614&product... )
barbed fittings ( http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_346_830_826&product... )
remeber, this is just examples of what you need when your gona go custom loop, and its gona be expensive.
look around on the modding tread and look around there and then you will get a point of how things are done in a way.

[MilitiaMasterV]

First, I wanted to thank Kkn for the info earlier.

So, I ended up changing out the case for a Corsair 800D full tower, and since I was changing brands I swapped to a Corsair PSU.

I went with 16 GB RAM, and the Maximus V Formula MOBO with i7 3770K processor.

I also realized I had to buy a new optical drive because my old one was IDE (Thought it was SATA but I was wrong.) so I found a Blue Ray burner.

Also, since I'd been trapped on a 15 inch laptop forever I splurged on a 27" monitor.

Same HDD and SSD I'd been planning on buying.

I ended up going with a nVidia GeForce GTX 680 graphics card.

And after waiting around forever for a copy of Windows 7 Full (The store I ordered it from online jerked me around for almost a month before I ordered it from someone else.) I got to work building it.

I didn't snap photos while building (I have two nosy cats who would've been jumping in the case while I worked on the tile floor if I'd stepped away for a few seconds), but I snagged the before/after photos.

Pile of goodies :

A little after first boot :

Looking in the side window (Yeah, there was still plastic on it.) :

I'll have more photos when I get the rest developed, those were just taken with my laptop webcam.

I haven't invested in the water-cooling yet. (Had to save a bit more.) Just went with the stock Intel fan/heat-sink that came with the processor and the stock case fans. I just recently got a temp monitor warning that my CPU hit 70 C though so I'm beginning to research the cooling stuff before I accidentally fry it.

That's where I'm at now. I kind of need some advice on triple radiators/the fans/how the pumps work/whether it's advise-able to go with a combo res and pump or should I split em and buy separate/controllers and temp monitors for the cooling/how one goes about lighting it up since I want either blue LED or blue UV reactive/what kind of fittings are required.

I'm going to have to build a custom loop (Res/pump - waterblock - MOBO - radiator - res/pump). I'm still looking through the options for it all, but some advice would be much appreciated.

[Krindor]

The water block you liked was probably EKWB supremacy plexi, while not being the best performing block it's one of the best looking ones imo. For radiators I recommend the Alphacool nexxxos series, they are currently the best performing series and when it comes to rads they all look about the same.

Res/pump combos can be great, 1 year ago the XSPC dual bay res/pump combo was the best top for DDC pumps. I would recommend it, it also comes with blue leds.

For tubing either 13/19 mm or 10/13 mm ones. Due to a screw up by Asus the fusion thermo only supports 10/13 mm tubing, if I'm not wrong.

For fittings Bitspower are the best looking imo, though they are premium fittings.

For fans I recommend Sycthe Ultra Kaze fans for high rpm system, or Noiseblocker multiframe fans for low rpm setup.

[kkn]

if you whant to cool the NB the treads there is 10mm, so 10/13 mm tubing is a good go.
i did buy some "clamps" for mine, but not shure how good they are but time will tell 😛
you can use zip ties on them ( one or 2 IF you can fit 2 on it ).
you can try and flash to a newer bios ( but that have to be up to you ) and see if the "alarm" goes away.
i would say that 70+c is high ( IF its idle that is , since you did not state it ).

IF you want to go for fan controller, you can look at NZXT's ones, they arent too expensive but are cheep too ( i would say so ).
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/9543/bus-204/NZXT_Sentry_2_525_Fan_Controller_Touch_Display_Temper...
they are lcd whit touchscreen, 5 channel controller whitch you can connect temp sensors on and controll fans and set profiles ( if i dont remember wrong ).
get fans whit low Amp and Watage, and low V ( volt ) start so you can slow then down.
lets say for example you have 1900RPM fans that have start voltage on 3.4v and max 12v.
on low voltage it could run around 800ish RPM and on high rpm its 1900 ( high performance ( this is just an example ) ).
or you can go whit PMW ( or how they are named ( i have not used fans like this ) ).
temp on water you can get a inline temp and connect to a temp sensor on a controller ( that way you can monitor the temp on the water too ).

[Krindor]

With monitoring I think he meant some kind of OS monitoring program, prolly AI suite. The BIOS won't warn you about heat. A tip to lower the heat is to undervolt the CPU a bit, like 0.1v this will lower the temps considerably. Did this with my CPU before I got my WC loop, It went from 83C during load to 60C.

[TenBlade]

Nice build you´ve got going there. Just a side not, you mention possible memory upgrade down the road. I wouldn´t count on it, adding memory sticks may very likely cause failures. The different memory kits have been tested together for compatibility. So, if you want 32 gigz one day, it´s out with the 16 kit, and in with a whole new 32 kit, but...you won´t need more than 16 unless doing heavy video editing.
Nice choise on GPU, although you already got it, found a little explaino on the CUDA thingy https://developer.nvidia.com/what-cuda (I needed that myself, too long since I read about the CUDA´s, only knew I never had enough 😉 )

Here´s a solid read on SSD´s http://www.overclock.net/t/1179518/seans-ssd-buyers-guide-information-thread

Now, my train is coming to my station, gotta close down for now, good luck with your build, and after waiting so long and saving every penny you´ve earned a killer rig!

[MilitiaMasterV]

The water-block I was referring to earlier was this one :

I just noticed while looking through waterblocks that they are based on the different sockets and not just looks. Will have to look more for one I'd use, but clear plexi or that polished metal look maybe.

I was looking at radiators and I think Black Ice Xtreme 3 X-flow looks like what I'd want. (I also was looking at the stuff on Corsair forums about my case and saw a diagram of someone else's mod that uses it so I know it'll fit up top where I plan to put it.)

Is there not a bunch of options for pump/res with a digital option like this yet?

I was thinking ahead, and wondering, the triple fans up there need plugins and this MOBO has a CPU fan hookup and a Optional CPU fan hookup, so with 3 fans could you hook 2 to those and one to one of the optional fan spots for the case fans? Or do you have to use all 3 on the 3 extra optional fan spots? I assume they are both the same prongs and work the same.

Seeing as you would no longer actually have a CPU fan per se (They are on the rad). If that doesn't work, I'd need a lot of 'play' in one of the wires to reach all the way to the bottom optional fan spot from the top of the case...lol

Yeah, AI suite gave me a warning about the temp, apparently it had a preset at 70 C to warn. I watched my temps with the monitor/sensor that came with the suite software for the rest of the day and I was getting average of 60 C regularly while playing Guild Wars 2 on high graphics with multiple tabbed Chrome in the background. It must've just spiked a bit (It went down to about 45 C average or 37 C or so with me just surfing the net and game closed), but it's still not good to have it that high. (At least in my opinion) It only gave me the warning once. What do you folks average 'on load' temp-wise?

I don't play with the volts because I don't understand any of that stuff and don't want to fry it.

I'm still learning all the 'lingo' for this stuff, so I don't exactly understand it all.

What's the deal with 'compression' and 'barbed' and 'elbow' fittings? Like where in the line do you use each?

I'm realizing that G1/4 or whatever appears to be some kind of industry standard, and I caught on that you measure inside and outside diameter of tubing. But there seems to be multiple options for the fittings. That's kinda leaving me confused as to which pieces I'd need.

Isn't a fan controller basically a on-your-case physical version of Fan Xpert 2 that came with the MOBO software?

I'm thinking about one of those res with a temp feature built in to keep track of water temp. I dunno though, just looking around right now.

Anyway, I'll be digging around looking at options for quite awhile. I'm not one of those headlong into the abyss types. Decisions are hard for me. If you folks have any questions, feel free to ask.