Help with I5 750 build._.

rhystic · Post by **rhystic** » Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:18 pm

Hey guys, I've been checkin out this website, dangerden, and hard forums extensively the past few days, and am still a bit lost. Ok, I am very lost.

The rig is mainly for photoshop, 3d modeling (non animation mainly), and some video editing (light video editing); however I do plan on utilizing it for everyday use (openoffice, web browsing etc) and also plan to play games on it during weekends(random free games online like perfect world and what not but mainly looking at UT3 as I had so much fun with UT 2k4 and the endless mods that were released for it)

I also want to keep it relatively small, light, and not so noisy. At first I was looking at x58, but after reading a bunch of arguments and then tomshardware articles and xbitlabs and what not I came to decide that since I don't want to be spending so much cash (trying to keep this around 1500) I'd be better off going with a p55 chipset (especially since I don't plan on going SLI).

Alright so heres the build currently :

Case: LIAN LI PC-A05NB
PSU: SeaSonic X650 Gold 650W
HDD (OS and main programs): Corsair Extreme Series CMFSSD-32D1
HDD (Scratch and filestorage): Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500 (250 gb sata I have 4 of them already so I'm not buying these and I was only planning on implementing 1 into the computer)

MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3
CPU: Intel Core I5-750
CPU aftermarket cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2
RAM: 8 GB (4 x 2GB) G.Skill Ripjaw DDR3 PC 12800
Case Fans: Cooler Master MegaFlow 200
GPU: BFG Tech BFGEGTX260MC896OCDE GeForce GTX 260 896MB
case dampening foam: ThermalTake Noise Dampening Kit
Sound Card: SIIG, Inc IC-710012
Dvd Drive: Sony Optiarc DVD Burner
OS: MS win 7 Home 64 bit

I also have some plastic mount for the SSD that will allow me to stick it in a 3.5 bay.

and a copy of unreal 3

Some questions that I'm still lack confidence on:

- I think the 650 watt psu is to much for this build. I think I can maybe get by with a 450 watt? if so is there a good quiet psu you would recommend that's preferably modular?

- I have never tried utilizing the onboard sound audio on any of my builds, but people always said onboard sound has a slight hiss in the background, I don't know if this card is good enough but the old desktop has a SB audigy 2 ZS so I thought this was a little bit better. (I mainly only use headphones and occasionally a 2.0 channel speaker set so I don't really need the fancy X-Fi 7.1 channel stuff but I do wish for marginally crisp sound)

- I realize the gpu is also outdated (somewhat) compared to the newly released 295's but I don't think I need that much power as I don't plan on playing games that much and mainly just UT 3 and those free online download-able games like perfect world once in a while. (mainly just ut 3 at that). Further more my lcd native resolution is like 1440 x something or similar to that so yea.

-I read in another thread that some people don't recommend Corsair SSD's but then I read in another thread that the Extreme's controllers are alright... I am unsure about this, should I just go with another SSD? The OCZ's are priced a bit high in my opinion but there's a clear difference then I can pick one of those up.

- I believe the case is as small as I can get while not becoming to constricting. (Initially was looking at microatx but felt that the case I was looking at wouldn't be able to fit the gpu)

-The case fan specs seem like bs to me and from reading other threads many people believe them to be to; I'm unsure what to do about this.

-The thermaltake damping kit is just some soft foam I believe. I also have high density foam that I was going to use but then I realized that would be the dumbest thing to use :/

So yea any suggestions? again mainly looking to keep it light,small, and less noisy; will be using it for photoshop, 3d modeling, and everyday use as well as occasional gaming. I hope to purchase the stuff by tomorrow if possible. Also I tend to like to buy from one place but if there's a clear difference in price from one place to another Ill buy separately if the shipping and tax all works out.

boost · Post by **boost** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 6:29 am

Here's my recommendation for a small and quiet system:
Case: Antec Mini P182 revied here:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article810-page5.html
PSU: Any 400 Watt model wil do fine, i.e. Nexus 430 watt, here is recommended list:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_PSUs
SSD: Intel X-25 M G2, if it's too expensive an OCZ Vertex 30GB.
Mobo: MSI P55M-GD45, mATX obviously, low power draw has firewire and eSATA.
CPU aftermarket cooler from the recommended list, Scythe Ninja 2 and Mugen 2 have a good price/performance ration, YOU NEED REV.B FOR SOCKET 1156 COMPATIBILITY:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_Heatsinks
Case Fans one or two from the recommended list, i.e. Scythe S-Flex SFF21D/SFF21E:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article63-page1.html
Case dampening foam: none, the case is well dampened.
GPU: unless there is a reason why you need one from nVidia, I'd recommed an ATI 5750 with a passive cooler from Power Color. It is fast enough for all gaming at 1440x900.
CPU, RAM, Sound Card, Dvd Drive, OS: same

I would remove all the fans from the case as well as the lower hard drive cage. Install one case fan in place of said cage blowing cool air onto the graphics card, and optionally a second one in the back blowing cool air to the CPU. Install the fan from the CPU heatsink so it blows warm air up from the CPU out of the case.

rhystic · Post by **rhystic** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 11:42 am

Ok so I'm changing to:

Case: Antec P180 mini
PSU : Nexus 5000 (Sorry I just feel a little iffy on going less than 500 W from googling even though my common sense tells me this is overkill)
SSD: OCZ Vertex Turbo 30Gb
Case Fans: Nexus Silents
CPU aftermarket: Scythe Mugen 2
Mobo: MSI P55M-GD45

The rest is still the same. I prefer Nvidia over ati just because of poor experiences I had with ati.

anything else I should think about changing or adding? If nothing happens I'm eagar to press in to buy it soon..

danimal · Post by **danimal** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 12:11 pm

i have a gtx260 superclocked, and it's been a great card, especially for $149 last summer, but i'd be looking hard at the 5xxx series of cards at this point in time.

the 5xxx pricing has kept the gtx260's overpriced, you'd be lucky to find one for what i paid months ago.

rhystic · Post by **rhystic** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 1:15 pm

Giving it more and more thought;

I'm still looking into it but I am definitely seriously considering trying to go with the ATI 5xxx series cards. I just hope they run smoothly and not like my previous ati encounters :/. The dx 11 is appealing to just in case if I do decide to try some newer games in the future..

I do have one question... as my previous build was over 6 years back, and I didnt care so much about quiet or space, it was quite large and noisy.

Will the slipstreams or the nexus silent case fans tagged with the mugen 2 provide enough cooling for the entire system (still keeping the 200 mm fan in so thus making to intakes from both ends of the cases and the exhaust coming from top) I know this is kind of off convention a bit as its not taking such a horizontal airflow but I feel this may cool better (at minimal cost to noise)

I'm especially concerned if I use a passive cooler on the ati card. I know I can add a 120 to it and just zip tie it or something but I feel like it would be noisier than just getting a fan card.

So new questions:

Will the airflow be ok and possibly provide better cooling with the two intakes from front and back; and the exhaust on top?

Will the airflow be enough if I have a passive cooler on the ati?
If not would it be better just to get a fanned card rather then fanless?

Would the airflow be enough with just a 120 intake and exhaust (front / back respectively) and no 200mm up top (I could electrical tape the vent or something) with a passive ati card or a fanned?

danimal · Post by **danimal** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 1:45 pm

i would also like to run a passive 5xxx series video card, but without a fan i'd need to have air running over it somehow... for your negative pressure case, there has to be a source of incoming room air that puts the video card between the intake and the exhaust of the case? maybe pull the blanking plates off of the card slots, underneath the video card?

even if you have to add a fan, it'll be a big fan, which should be quieter than the small factory fans that come on these video cards.

i seem to recall that the mini-p180 requires a shorter-than-normal dvd drive up top, if so, take a look at the lite-on drives, the one that i have is slightly shorter than my pioneer dvd drive.

rhystic · Post by **rhystic** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 2:34 pm

the way the case looks and how the mobo would fit in; it looks like If I remove the bottom hdd cage (which I should be able to do since I dont need it anyway; I can have direct intake flow onto the pci area of the mobo (of course the air flow wont be as concentrated which Im unsure of how the lower pressure would affect the cooling...

I also read about the shorter drive needed on top; could not really find specs on drives in terms of dimensions; do you have any specific models? I figured if worst comes to worst I can always just manipulate the case a bit to make it fit in another area or something.

rhystic · Post by **rhystic** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 10:58 pm

Sorry for double posting; I was flipping back and forth on putting this off but in the end... I took the plunge (atm ;_;) (soon maybe ^_^?)

Thanks again danimal and boost.

So heres the final breakdown of what I got:

CPU: intel I5-750 (I actually saw that microcenter had a 920 on sale for 220 but the mobos are still to expensive)
CPU Aftermarket: Noctua NH-U12P SE2 (Was leaning towards scythe mugen 2 but newegg was out of it)
Mobo: MSI P55M-GD45
Case: Antec Mini P-180
GPU: POWERCOLOR SCS3 Radeon HD 5750 (Passive cooling)
PSU: Nexus 5000 R3 (I know overkill ..)
RAM: 8 GB (4x2GB) G.SKILL Ripjaws Series DDR3 PC1600 (they are timed at 9's but I think that it should still be fast enough for the system overall)
Sound Card: SIIG IC-710012
Case Fans: Nexus BASIC D12SL-12 (bought 3 just in case I need to attach some onto the gpu)
HDD (for win and main prog) : OCZ Vertex Turbo 30 GB
HDD(scratch and storage):WD 2500 caviar (got 6 but will only be using one... I figure the esata will come in really handy if I need to back up extra)
Optical Drive: Sony OptiArch dual layer

Windows 7 home premium 64 bit & UT 3

Total price: 1405.71 after shipping and tax.

I'm very pleased that I was able to stay below 1500 and on top of that I feel that this should be a strong system.

Still a bit worried as to if the nexus fans will provide enough airflow and how hot the gpu will get but hopefully this will be a relatively quiet (and stable) computer. I do plan on ocing the processor to around 3.2 ghz but dont plan on going further... fingers crossed on this comp to last me at least 5 years (last build lasted me 6 which I felt was pretty good)

What do you guys think? Did I get ripped off ; seems like ok build; build is garbage and im retarded blah blah ...

boost · Post by **boost** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 4:00 am

Congratulations, looks like a nice and very quiet setup, glad I could help.
About the fan configuration, I recommend removing the top fan to fit the optical drive, if both fit at the same time even better.
The direction of the intake fans was chosen to create positive air pressure inside the case, which helps with dust. Changing the orientation is done quickly so you can check if it gives you better temperatures.
The only review of the passive 5750 I could find was on another forum, stating that the temperature of the card in games reached 80-85 degrees centigrade. My card reaches close to 90 degrees and is noisy so I might have to send it back and get a passive card.
Attaching a fan to the card is quick and you can check temperatures with and without it.
Please post pictures and temperatures of your finished setup.

rhystic · Post by **rhystic** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:35 am

ah I see; definitely will do once its all set up;

do have one question. I do have a 2.5 to 3.5" mounting kit thing however its cheap and plastic. I was wondering if anyone had tried taking a SSD and either just propping it up on foam or buying a velcro patch and strap and suspending it... or even weirder thought that prob wouldnt work; buy a washer send a zip tie through it and then through the case and tighten as much as possible to keep it from bobbing to much.

The ssd's are really shock resistant so Id imagine if it fell it shouldnt cause to many problems.

danimal · Post by **danimal** » Wed Jan 06, 2010 5:15 pm

i paid $279 for the i7 920 & msi x58m motherboard at a frys sale a few days ago, the deals can be had, but only if you are able to wait it out... that little i5 should work great, just plan on maybe needing to overclock it if you will be editing avchd.

i hope that dvd drive is short enough, but you could always mount it in the next slot down, like you said.

cb95014 · Post by **cb95014** » Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:59 pm

rhystic wrote:do have one question. I do have a 2.5 to 3.5" mounting kit thing however its cheap and plastic. I was wondering if anyone had tried taking a SSD and either just propping it up on foam or buying a velcro patch and strap and suspending it... or even weirder thought that prob wouldnt work; buy a washer send a zip tie through it and then through the case and tighten as much as possible to keep it from bobbing to much.

The ssd's are really shock resistant so Id imagine if it fell it shouldnt cause to many problems.

The only thing that matters for the SSD is to keep it from falling on the motherboard (creating shorts or breaking components) or disconnecting the power/SATA cables. The metal Intel bracket (or equivalent) is the cleanest, but just about any thoughtful scheme will work fine.

The only thing to watch out for is that some of the cheap 2.5" adapters introduce an additional set of connectors. This should usually work, but introduces an additional point of failure - particularly if the adapter is not good quality.

fpsrandy · Post by **fpsrandy** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 10:52 am

I'm worried about your ssd hard drive capacity. Windows 7 64bit will take up nearly 20gb of hard drive space on its own, and I do not believe corsair ssd's have TRIM Support. Look for an ssd with TRIM support.

If you are concerned about noise, looking to WD Green drives. They use very little power, and make about no noise. You seem to be concerned about a budget, I would suggest not getting an ssd if you concerned about budgets. Look at getting a few green drives and make a raid array if need be.

If you already ordered the parts, well.. Ignore what I said...

rhystic · Post by **rhystic** » Tue Feb 09, 2010 11:26 am

hey sorry for not following up on this;

bought all the parts and built it up but then had to leave for a wedding and just got back last week. I'll be taking pictures later of the build and what not, but its really quiet and plays unreal just fine (100 + fps straight) and coretemp reports 20 C across the cores idling or listening to winamp and browsing the net etc and around 45 C when playing unreal.

I tried stress testing it for a short period of time (half hour) with heavy load and prime95 and the cpu temps never rose past 65 C but they did in fact reach 65 C at 100percent load... This is with the top fan case set to low setting. *also of note is that I turned off EIST and ocd it to 3.5 ghz. the EIST function I may turn back on but it generally keeps the processor down to 1 ghz even while Im playing UT 3 so Im unsure if Im misreading or the function is jacking something up.

In addition I went with the ocz vertex drive instead of the corsair so yea.

Ill take some pictures of the build a little later and post them here. I just thought of a way to get another 120 into the front of the case which may help cool it a little bit more even though right now its perfectly fine.