2013 State of Hardware Affairs

[caption id="attachment_416" align="alignleft" width="300"] Naw, it's still good for a few more years[/caption]

So, your current computer is pretty old?

Are historical museums calling your phone off the hook? (Do phones still have hooks?)

DO YOU OWN THIS?

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Here is the guide for you, oh soon to be computer upgrading person.



For all of you who don't know, I'm pretty good at this hardware selection thing, despite my horrible luck with the mail system. (Another post right thar). This is my build.

As everyone knows, but I'm going to list redundantly anyways, for the rare off chance you don't know, the core computer components are as follows.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)
This thing does stuff, makes things beep, and makes whirlies whirl.

Motherboard(Not a daughter board)
This is the beepboop conductor.

Random Access Memory (RAM)
It allows you to like, remember things, err what were we talking about?

Graphics Chipset (Graphics Card)
MOAR GAMES, oh yeah, and that openCL/CUDA CPU offloading thing

Audio Chipset (Soundcard)
Get your jam on.

Storage (Hard Drive, Solid State Drive)

Well you need some kind of programs to run, now don't you?

Power Supply
Not enough Mana?

Computer Case
Need more Minerals.

Cooling Computer Fans and CPU Cooler
I just want it to be cooler, the color is fine, the shape is fine, it just needs to be about 20% cooler.

Now that you know the basics, here are the parts.

CPU: Intel Core i5 3570k currently clocked at 4ghz even.

Reason: i7s only advantage over i5 is when you have a cache intensive process, or a task that uses more than 4 threads. I'm sorry, but no AMD chips can keep up with the single (really, 4 or less) threaded (read Gaming) performance of an Ontel.

You might be able to get a 5ghz overclocked AMD 8core Vishera chip, but it will simply not game as well as a 4ghz Ivybridge (or even last generation sandybridge)
Given that the CPU is plenty fine for anything I need that's more than 4 threads, jumping to the i7 is actually pointless, and in cache limited tasks, actually detrimental (less than 2% difference though).


Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-m

A lot of people have given me flak for using a microATX motherboard with only 4+1 power phases. There actually is a bit of logic here. I went back and did an evaluation of every motherboard I've ever owned. I never needed more than one PCIE slot (or APG or PCI slot for you old timers), and full ATX boards simply cost more with little no no benefit. MicroATX boards typically use less power as well.

As to the 4+1 power phase, I've been able to successfully overclock well beyond 4ghz, but to maintain anything beyond 4.2ghz requires overvolting that I simply just don't really care for doing. If you don't overvolt, more powerphases just increases your idle power consumption with no gain.

The audio chipset in this board sucks, but I use a discrete audio card anyways. Why pay for things you won't use?

Storage: Samsung 830 SSD 128GB,Samsung f3 1TB hard drive (from previous build)

Samsung 830 is an absolutely rock solid amazing solidstate drive. In my opinion, the only drive on the market that's better, is the Samsung 840 PRO. Btw, the Samsung 840 non pro has issues with it's write performance (it's 1/3rd of the Samsung 830). My current Recommendation is a 128GB or larger Samsung 840 Pro.

A lot of people will say "But 128GB is so tiny!". I'd agree with you, except for the fact that I currently have 70 gigs free, with all of my applications besides games installed on my C:\\ drive, with 64 bit version of windows 8. I have about 400GB of games on my D:\\ drive.

The Samsung F3 1TB is no longer easily available on the market. My current alternative recommendation is the Western Digital Black 1TB or Western Digital Black 2TB.

Ram: 16 GB of Samsung 30nm 'Green' RAM

This stuff is well known on Overclock.net as the best low cost ram in the business. I'm a frequent poster there. Unfortunately all of y'all, these things were a limited production run, and eventually became very expensive. At the time, amazon had them for 16.49 per 4GB stick. These are the shortest ram sticks you will ever find. RAM THE SHIPS, FULL OVERCLOCK AHEAD. Actually, ram speed is pretty unimportant. Anyone who says otherwise is stupid, or is using integrated graphics.
Here is a viable alternative: 16GB Corsair Vengeance or 8GB Corsair Vengeance

I've done 2400mhz overclocks on them, but I typically run them at 1866, at a very low voltage for power reasons. 2400 is pointless.

A lot of people question using 16GB or more for gaming. While the games themselves can not use that much ram, if you have windows 7, windows 8, or linux (Yay steam), the operating system maintains a file cache of recently used files, as well as predictive preloading to load things faster.

This is useful for loading textures as you enter a new area, and in general reduces strain on your computer. Anyone who thinks it doesn't make a difference doesn't understand how ram works. Plus, I use a 4GB ramdisk for %temp%, %tmp%, as well as my firefox and chrome profiles/cache.

[caption id="attachment_407" align="alignright" width="300"] My videocard makes my soundcard almost invisible.[/caption]

Graphics Card: MSI Geforce 660 OC/2 Just For some variety, here's a new-egg link! Actually it's cheaper there, I'm being nice :) Here is a good deal on a EVGA 660

This is a pre-overclocked model, which I overclocked even further to 1176mhz. MOAR SPEED.

I use EVGA precision X to activate ideal frequency mode, which drops the frequency to whatever frequency is ideal for whatever frame rate target you're using. This makes the card run a lot colder on average, lowering your power bill. At 143 watts (estimated) power usage at max load, it can get costly.

The heat sink on this thing is amazing. It is in-fact 20% cooler.

For a little bit, I had an Asus 7850. It did well, but I decided that I wanted a bit more umpf. There was some short term crazy sale dropping it to 180$, but that has ended, and the Geforce 660 is a better deal.

If you want a bit more umpf, I'd kick it up to using a Geforce 660 Ti or Radeon 7950.

If you're really cheap, a Radeon 7770 actually is a pretty solid card if you overclock it, or a Geforce 650 is another option.

Soundcard: Asus Xonar D1

This thing is fantastic. I'm very picky with my audio. If you have a crappy set of speakers, this is not for you. Many people think integrated Realtek audio is catching up with discrete cards, but those people are just plain deaf. Seriously, grow some ears, dude. If the price tag scares you, consider an Asus Xonar DG, DGX (PCIE DG), DS, or DSX(PCIE DS).

This soundcard makes you want to dance. (You can dance if you want to)

The Xonar DG(X) has a headphone amp which is particularly useful for high impedance headphones, and the DS(X) has swappable operational amplifiers, as well as DTS support. DG(X) and D1/DX both use Dolby sound processing.

There is a PCIE version of this card, called the Xonar DX. The only differences are that the DX requires a connection to your power supply due to lack of power throughput on 1x PCIE, as well as a PCIE to PCI converter chip on the card. That's right, it converts from PCIE to PCI, because the card is operationally a PCI card.

These cards have been tested and proven to drop CPU load while playing audio compared to both Realtek and creative labs alternatives. Their drivers are fantastic, and offer both Windows and native Linux support. This is easily my favorite component.

Power Supply: Corsair TX650

There really isn't much I can say about this thing. When the temperatures are low, the fan shuts off completely on the newer revisions (like mine). Given that my case has the power supply facing downward, sucking air in from under the case, the fan almost never even turns on.

Seasonic is the manufacturer of most of corsair's power supplies. Whatever you do, get a power supply with a single 12v rail, of atleast 500 watts, if you get a dedicated graphics card. The general recommendation is to try to stay near 50% load at peak power. Higher or lower becomes less efficient.

Case: Fractal Design R4 I linked newegg, despite that I bought it from amazon, because I'm trying to help everyone out with the best price.



This case, well simply put, is awesome. It can handle liquid cooling easy enough (I only air cool), and up to 7 140mm fans.

It has dense noise isolation material, much denser than any other case I've ever seen. This case is quiet. It comes with noise blocking standoffs for fan locations you don't use. Currently, I have the 2 front, bottom, and rear locations filled with 1 3 fractal design silent series R2 fans, and one Thermalright x-silent fan. Sadly, the popular Thermalright 141 will not fit.

The case allows wiring to hide behind the motherboard, and you can even mount solid state drives back there, though TBH, I wouldn't, because it can only be done before installing the motherboard, unless you use sticky velcro.

The PSU, as I mentioned earlier, sucks from under (optional, can be flipped), so it runs cooler and more efficiently.

I'd highly recommend this case to anyone. I consider it an investment. A more thorough review will come later.

Cpu Cooler: Hyper 212 Evo

It's 30$, it takes 120mm fans. I have a Noctua NF-f12, back from when they were cheaper, hanging off of it, which works at about 65C. Not much to say here. This is a budget king. 


As you can see, this build was designed to be economical, yet very fast. Buying top end parts is rarely sensible, but buying cheap doesn't work well either. Here is the best balance. You get the best of both worlds.

If anyone has any hardware questions(or arguments), I'd love to answer them. Leave comments below.







Edit: By request, I was asked to add some photos from my build. Here they are! These are taken before I got the fractal design R4, back when I was still using a very sad coolermaster elite 334. More pictures will be added soon. (I've been busy).

[caption id="attachment_440" align="alignleft" width="300"] On the left, my old geforce 260, on the right, my new geforce 660[/caption]