Your Guide to a Magic PC - Guide in First Post [2012/03/05]

[LiquidRain]

The problem is P/H/Z60 series boards are drying up as we lead up to the launch of the Z70 series this month.

Here's the blurb from the OP, diablopath, on liquid cooling:

Avoid watercooled solutions like Corsair H-series, Antec Hydro series, and CoolIT EVO. They're a lot of money, make buzzing-pump noises, and (anecdotally) have high failure rates. They're a cool idea but you're really better off with an air cooler.

They are easier to install, but I much prefer air coolers. Guaranteed performance and reliability. Less moving parts. Less things to go wrong. If you're not planning on going above 4GHz it won't make a lick of a difference to just get a Hyper 212+, performance wise, and I guarantee you it'll be quieter.

[diablopath]

Originally Posted by LiquidRain

The problem is P/H/Z60 series boards are drying up as we lead up to the launch of the Z70 series this month.

Does this mean this setup will have no possibilities for upgrades in a couple of years? Should we splurge on a board to ensure an extended lifetime?

I went ahead and swapped out the the liquid cooling for at Hyper 212. We had both assumed that liquid cooling would be quieter, as we are fools and have never seen a liquid cooled PC. I mentioned the buzzing, so he opted for the 212. Brought the price down, too, which is always good.

[LiquidRain]

You can drop a new Intel CPU coming out in a month in an existing motherboard, if the motherboard gets the ability in a BIOS update. You'll be missing out on native USB3 and native Thunderbolt, though, so it's more future-proofing the PC's external device functionality than for the CPU itself.

And yeah, the noise floor on a water pump is the pump, which is a very distinct sound compared to the woosh of a fan. (plus, if you're unhappy with the quality of the bundled Cooler Master fan, there is always the option of replacing it with a better fan, some of which are linked and listed in the OP)

[Slack3r78]

Re: case - the 300's a decent case. Should fit a 560 Ti fine. I'm a fan of more sealed up cases, but that's mostly preference. The 300's certainly a very solid case for the money.

[Slack3r78]

On the case front, has anyone done a build with the Fractal Design R3? Newegg has it for $80 shipped this weekend, and I'm seriously thinking about it. I've been using a P180 since shortly after it was first released and it may be time to change things up. Almost 7 years is a long time to keep the same case.

[Suave Peanut]

I'm using the R3. I paid a lot more than that but have nothing but praise for it, especially at that price. Their customer service has been great to me, too, if you ever have issues.

[BrassGecko]

Agreed, the R3 is excellent. Quieter, sturdier, and much nicer to work with than the crappy one I'd had previously.

[Reverant]

My God. I swapped out my GTX 275 for the 680 and went from Medium settings in BF3 with unplayable slowdown to smoothing sailing on Ultra (w/o post processing effects)... and that's not swapping out any of the other components I bought in 2008/2009. Maybe I won't upgrade anything else after all .

[Slack3r78]

I managed to do something really stupid tonight.

A glass of water got knocked off my desk and landed directly on top of my PC. And poured directly into the top fan opening that I've always hated.

God. Dammit.

On top of everything, I'm on-call the week of the 23rd, which means no going out, and my PC is basically the entirety of my entertainment when I'm at home. I may have to give up waiting on Ivy Bridge for my sanity's sake.

This fucking sucks.

[Reverant]

*slides tower fully under the desk*

That really, really blows. On the upside, motherboards with Intel's 7-series Ivy Bridge tech are on sale starting yesterday! Newegg's list of Z77s.

[LiquidRain]

Been waitin' for those so I can update the guide. Good prices on some of them too.

[Reverant]

Also, many of them have gone on sale since I last checked earlier today. The sales on the Z77 boards at Newegg go to 4/16... I'm tempted to grab one, but it'd be weird to have the motherboard sitting around the house while waiting for the CPU to release!

[Slack3r78]

Fuck it.

[Reverant]

I'm deathly curious what the surprise special is!

[Slack3r78]

Ha, yeah. I almost didn't order there because NCIX pulls some nonsense tacking on shipping insurance as an additional fee even though they had by far the best online prices on the 2500k and 7850.

Then I realized I could decline the fee and just pay with my AmEx and they'd bring down the hammer if anything happened during shipping.

[evilgoodwin]

I always imagine "Surprise Specials" to be nothing but spiders. That way, if it's not, you feel great. But if it is...

[Reverant]

...what? You get to tell your brain "I told you so!" as you throw yourself into a fireplace to rid your body of the spiders that exploded out of the surprise special box?

I'd been telling myself that this new GPU's performance in BF3 is so good I don't even need to bother upgrading anything else... except for one problem. It takes so long to actually load a BF3 match on my machine, the first couple MCOMs have already been destroyed in a Rush match by the time I drop into a game. It must take a minute or two for me to load a level!

[bryan]

An SSD is the best upgrade right after a fast video card.

[Shadowstorm]

Got my Gigabyte 7950 3GB Windforce edition in the mail today. I've overclocked it a bit from default settings until I have time to test higher clocks while maintaining stability.

[PathMaster]

That keyboard is too bright.