Given that the Asus Z170 board has excellent fan control facilities which includes PWM chassis fan headers and the facility to set a BIOS profile for each header you may wish to consider replacing the two supplied fans with PWM models. As I'm still waiting for the 6700K chip to fall to more reasona...

CA_Steve wrote:

Ken5d wrote:Scythe's Ninja 4: ...is 155mm tall (vs. Kotetsu's 160mm). I

Fun with math: 5mm < 2cm

Yes, math has always been one of my strengths.

Obviously I didn't read that closely, and thought it was 2mm, not 2cm. Thanks for the correction, Steve.

Scythe's Ninja 4: http://www.silentpcreview.com/Scythe_Ninja_4
is 155mm tall (vs. Kotetsu's 160mm). It slightly outperforms Kotetsu, so if the weight (which isn't terrible, but still heavier than Kotetsu) and width/depth (MUCH fatter than Kotetsu) aren't problems, that would be my pick.

At 3.5ghz, every 100mhz give you 2-3% performance increase, but when the voltage scaling go off, the temp went up much more than that. 2-3% of theoretical performance increase. I run my i7 920 at about a 30% OC (3.48GHz instead of 2.66 at stock). I just repeated the render I mentioned above, it too...

Thank you, Steve, that's exactly what I was looking for (but I didn't know how to do it myself). And I think it validates my best guess stated above (why not give a try and the replace it if it turns out to be inadequate for the job). Abula, I think that's great advice, thanks! I have been trying to...

No one wants to risk sharing their opinion? Well, I'll share mine: Why not just build it with the Kotetsu and then replace it if it proves inadequate for the job? A bit of a hassle, and it means I couldn't return the Kotetsu for a refund, but that's one way of finding out for sure! Though I'm still ...

Thanks! I just received a similar message from Scythe. That's good news for most everyone, I think.

Well, while waiting for the supply of i7-6700K chips to catch up with the demand, I've begun to have second thoughts about Skylake. My main use is for 4K video editing, and I know that the 6-core Haswell-E i7-5820K chip is likely to outperform the Skylake i7-6700K for some of my things I do. There's...

[mod: Moved to the CPU Cooling forum]
Thanks, Mod. Don't know what I was thinking (obviously I wasn't thinking!).

[mod: Moved to the CPU Cooling forum] I hadn't read this anywhere else, but luckily did read it before constructing my Skylake build with my new Kotetsu cooler. In another thread on SPCR, boost wrote: Be careful with Scythe coolers and Skylake! Scythe is replacing their mounting hardware fot Socket...

Currently, I'm looking at a Intel i5 6600K + 16 GB RAM. M.2 for fast SSD Based on what I've read, you'd be better off saving your money and buying a high end SATA SSD (e.g., Samsung 850 Pro) rather than paying the premium for an M.2. If you want to pay a premium, then an i7 over an i5 will probably...

Be careful with Scythe coolers and Skylake! Scythe is replacing their mounting hardware fot Socket 1151. The current version can put too much pressure in the CPU and damage it. Wow. Thanks for this! I had no idea; hadn't read that anywhere. I've already purchased a Scythe Kotetsu for my upcoming Sk...

I was running both Noctua and Phantecs fans in my setup for a while.. Honestly both were really good. My main problem with the phanteks was I could not get it under 600rpm. Now it's a 3 pin fan and I know they have a true PWM version out now but even it is only rated at like 600rpm. OP I have a Fra...

The only PSU that do matter the orientations on the Seasonics are the fanless, the rest really dont matter, if the temp threshold is reached the fan will start, it will probably start less facing up since it will let hot air get out, but at the same time that heat is beign released inside the case,...

I think that does make sense, so I can understand why they say to mount it right side up. However, I intend to run the PSU without Fanless Mode, so my understanding is that means the fan will always be spinning, but silently (unless the PSU ramps it up, of course). In which case, mounting it upside ...

Well, it is confusing unless you state fan up or fan down. Looking at the owner's manual, it states: For Platinum-660/760/860/1000/1200: Depending on the type of computer case, correct mounting of the power supply will result with the fan side top cover facing the mainboard. So what the heck does t...

Nope, the confusion is all mine; I misread your first post. When you said it was "upside down", I took that to mean that the fan was pointing up into the case. I wasn't aware that there were many PSUs or cases where the PSU fan point up was the intended orientation. Ignore me. :wink: Ha; no way. An...

I couldn't confirm for certain either way, but my own gut feeling would be you may actually get a little more hot air rising around the GPU because the fan/vent from the PSU is now open to the inside of the case (i.e. which won't be magically negated by simply having a fan there). You could also lo...

On this PSU I think it would make the logo and cable connector writing upside down, yet the writing on the back plate (the only part visible on the outside of the case) would be right side up. I decided to put it in upside down, since it seemed a "free" improvement even if it doesn't actually make ...

Great, thanks! I like it -- the simpler, the better.

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum to post this question in; I hope so. I'm trying to configure my upcoming build. I'm a semi-novice, having built only 3 or 4 systems in the past (and the last one, in my sig, being over 6 years ago). So I'm sorry if this is a basic question. My system will be...

I'm in a very similar situation. I want to move the rear Fractal fan on my R5 to pair it with the front intake, and get a PWM 140mm for the rear (and possibly another for the bottom; haven't decided yet). No one has mentioned the Phanteks PH-F140HP, which sounded quite appealing in the "First 140 mm...

Thanks, Steve. In my case, I do need 32GB, however at present 2x16gb modules are very scare and much more expensive than 4x8gb modules. I definitely have no interest in OC'ing the memory, only the CPU, and thanks to your article, I'll get whatever speed is on sale. I just wanted to make sure that th...

Thank you! Great article, and strongly reinforces what I had read elsewhere (while adding something I hadn't read before -- that if using the CPU's integrated GPU, speed matters). One thing that wasn't mentioned (probably because it was outside the scope of the article) is what difference does it ma...

Thanks for that link, Barry. Clearly if starting at 1333, a higher memory speed can make a definite difference. However, DDR4 starts at 2133, and 2400s if not 2666s are easily available at around the same prices. So I was thinking more along the lines of 2400 going to 3200 just doesn't seem worthwhi...

All the real-world benchmarks I've seen show that faster ram doesn't make enough difference to justify the higher price (1% = 3%): http://www.anandtech.com/show/8959/ddr4-haswell-e-scaling-review-2133-to-3200-with-gskill-corsair-adata-and-crucial/4 I'm not as clear regarding NVMe SSDs. I thought I'v...

I appreciate your thoughts, QUIET!. Once I have my system built and running, who knows, I may decide not to overclock. For me it definitely hasn't anything to do with bragging rights, just video rendering speed. If it doesn't make a significant enough difference, I won't bother. I've been running my...

Luca, thanks again for all that information. I think you're right that good case airflow is more important than the exact cpu cooler I choose, and the R5 gamer build guide does give some very good info. (I was slightly disappointed that he didn't investigate the bottom vent fan a bit further, but I ...

I'd noticed that height measurement, but hadn't yet done the research to see if it would fit in a Define R5, so thanks for that ("180 or more"). As I never swap components between cases, as long as it fits the R5, that's fine.

Wow, triple fans on the Silver Arrow? Respect!

Thank you, Steve; that's very helpful. I'll go with your (slightly worse) best case scenario, as I wouldn't be likely to overvolt beyond 1.3v. From what I've read, unless I get very unlucky, I shouldn't have a problem getting to 4.5Ghz somewhere between stock voltage and 1.3v. It actually seems like...