Rig getting old, replace/hadware advice

Make sure you are using 2 identical sticks of RAM so you can run in dual channel mode. 1X8GB will underperform vs 2x4GB. Also, with Haswell, you might as well go for (barely more expensive than 1600Mhz) 2133Mhz RAM. It makes a slight difference in performance.

You want a 4690K, not a 4670K. I'd up the mobo budget to $150 so you can choose an entry level premium board (Z97).
Choices include Gigabyte Z97XUD4H, ASUS Z97-A, ASRock Z97 Extreme6 (best value IMO)

I agree with Darknecron about getting a GTX 970. Great value vs performance there. After you add the 2x4GB DDR3 2133 you'll be a hair or two over $700 (before tax/shipping). To aleviate some financial strain you can go down to a non-K variant i5 at about 3.2Ghz ($190) and a B85 Chipset motherboard ($65). This will lose you a hair of performance in certain scenarios but it should be barely noticeable.

Keep in mind that if you go with a B85/H97 board, you will be limited forever and always to 1X PCIE X16 gen 3.0. Boards that even have a second full length slot to begin with have it limited to a very pitiful PCIE X4 Gen 2.0. That'll bottleneck the snot out of any modern card. If you go with a Z97 board you'll be able to run 2 cards at X8/X8 Gen 3.0. If dual cards/overclocking aren't things you want to do, all the more reason to buy the $65 B85 board and cheaper non-K CPU, and save some coin.

If you do go with the 4690K (which is a great CPU and is what I would buy if I had your budget, but I'm an overclocking afficionado) and a Z97 board, you'll want to budget an aftermarket cooler. I'd go with at least a Cooler master Hyper 212 ($30-35). That way you can overclock the CPU. If you want to overclock the CPU even higher than what the 212 will allow, look at a Corsair H80i or H100i, or a Noctua NHD14.

Great advice, thank you guys. I picked up two 290's today for 250$, almost new. So...I'm going to run one of those for a while! Should cover my needs for the next couple years, although the heat issues they seem to have concern me. The 970 would be really nice, but we'll see how the 290 works out.

My local retailer has three combos (save about 50$) for the 4690K.

-Asus Z79-A,
-Sabertooth Mark 2 (only 40$ more)
-Maximus Hero

The Maximus and sabertooth are significantly more $$ then the Asus, is there much advantage? I'm willing to spend that if there is.

As soon as I get everything up and running, cooling is the next concern. I'll get the cpu cooler right away when I pick the parts up.


I'm always amazed at how much time you guys take to respond, to yet another guy doing a medium range upgrade.

We respond fast because we want everybody to get the best PC at the best price. We care.

Z97-A is fine. It's all you need. For air or prebuilt liquid cooling it will not hold you back on overclocking, and it has all the features 99% of users will need. The Sabretooth and Maximus are more advanced boards with beefier power delivery and you just don't need it. I would argue that both boards look better than the Z97-A but most people don't buy boards for looks, they buy them for features and price point.

For a build with a 4690K there's no sense in pairing it with anything more expensive than a Z97-A unless you plan to use dry ice or liquid nitrogen to get some extreme overclocks.
You got a sweet deal on those GPUs.

Just wondering- why don't you run both? Get an 850W power supply or higher and run both cards is what I would do. They'll run @ 8X/8X gen 3 on the Z97-A which might lose you a frame or 2 vs 16X/16X but it'll definitely be a lot more horsepower than a single card. If you want to run 16X/16X you'll have to go to X99 or stick with Z97 and pick a board with a PLX chip on it. Those boards are very costly though, and pairing one with a 4690K is sort of wacky IMO.

Cool, z97-a is the only one in stock too. I might OC slightly in the future, but not for now. Although I do have access to free dry ice....

As for cooling, the 290 is the single fan, and apparently to run incredibly hot. I want to keep the damn warranty for now, is there anything I can do other then switching the card cooler? I'm going to start learning what a basic liquid circuit would involve, after I set this whole rig up.


I might run both...but for now, I gave one to a buddy, his card was showing its age as well.

AndrewKluger said:

Cool, z97-a is the only one in stock too. I might OC slightly in the future, but not for now. Although I do have access to free dry ice....

As for cooling, the 290 is the single fan, and apparently to run incredibly hot. I want to keep the damn warranty for now, is there anything I can do other then switching the card cooler? I'm going to start learning what a basic liquid circuit would involve, after I set this whole rig up.


I might run both...but for now, I gave one to a buddy, his card was showing its age as well.

Click to expand...

Honestly, liquid cooling is an enthusiast's hobby. It's not practical. Pre-built liquid cooling is affordable, and practical. There are very good quality prebuilt kits like Swiftech's H220X which has a very good block/pump/rad/res. It's ugly and unsightly in my opinion, however. Below that you have more attractive, but lower quality options like Corsair's H100i and H80i, and at around the same cooling capacity as the H80i you have large dual tower air heatsinks like Noctua's NHD14.

If you were to properly liquid cool your CPU/GPU(s) with quality aftermarket parts (block, blocks for cards, tubing, radiators, pump, reservoir, connectors, clamps, etc, you'd be out a LOT of money. It makes more sense to put that same money towards superior parts in the first place. A 4690K properly liquid cooled will cost more than a 5820K with an H100i, but it'll never best the 5820K in performance. Know what I mean?

Also, I would advise against going dry ice on the Z97-A. I would also advise against it altogether as super high overclocks with super high voltage degrade (and can kill) chips. Better to keep it long term at a reasonable voltage. Dry ice and liquid nitrogen are not 24/7 solutions for a couple of reasons. One is that you have to constantly add fresh ice/LN2, and the other is that for 24/7 usage you'll degrade the chip down to a withered cashew in no time at that kind of high voltage. People overclock on these extreme solutions, get a screen shot, and post it on the internet. They don't keep the CPU at these insane levels for a long time.

If you don't think you'll overclock very high (maybe just a hair past 4Ghz), the Hyper 212 will be fine for you, and is very affordable, and good value for the money. If you don't think you'll overclock at all, you can still go with that cheap B85/H97 option and get a non-K CPU and save a good amount of money. Nothing wrong with a $65-$90 board if you don't overclock the CPU.

HTH

Thanks OC.

Alright, 4690k, Z97x-sli, XfX 290 (maybe 2!), 8gb Vengance 1600, 212 cooler, ready to clip together. Might need to find a bigger case, this Antec 900 is going to be cramped.

Should I clean off the stock HSC on the 212, and use Arctic sliver? Or is that way more work then its worth...

On to monitor research...

AndrewKluger said:

Thanks OC.

Alright, 4690k, Z97x-sli, XfX 290 (maybe 2!), 8gb Vengance 1600, 212 cooler, ready to clip together. Might need to find a bigger case, this Antec 900 is going to be cramped.

Should I clean off the stock HSC on the 212, and use Arctic sliver? Or is that way more work then its worth...

On to monitor research...

Click to expand...

You shouldn't use arctic silver on anything. It has highly inferior thermal performance and it's capacitive so if you get it in the socket etc it's going to cause some damage and brick the part. MX-2/MX-4/NTH1 are better and the same price if not cheaper. AFAIK the 212 does not come with any compound pre-applied but rather includes a tube of (blargh quality) compound.

Why are you looking at the Z97XSLI now? That's not a very good board. Did you pick it just because it says SLI? It has a weak power delivery section. I don't like it. Gigabyte Z97XUD4H/ Asus Z97-A/ ASRock Z97 Extreme6. Pick one. That's my advice. OR, get a non-K cpu and get the Gigabyte Sniper G1 H97 (no SLI/XFire though).

The Antec 900 will happily hold all that stuff. It won't be very cramped. Don't worry about it. Make sure you have good case airflow since you will be using 2 GPUs.

Board got mixed up when I picked it up, I didn't want the Sli. I'm going back to swap it.

Unfortunately, none of those three boards are available. I can wait the three weeks to get the Z97-a. But also don't mind spending a bit more on a board.

Z97M GAMING
Z97X GAMING 5
UD3H BLACK
Z97I-PLUS

these are the "recommended" boards. Should I order one of the 3 you mentioned, or are these a good choice?

UD3H and Gaming 5 would both be good choices. The other two boards are MATX and ITX respectively. Not the droids you're looking for.

Have all the parts now, I'm going to build it all this week when I have some time. Thank you for all the help.

I'm ordering the Heat-sink compound you recommended, but out of curiosity, has Arctic Silver 5 always been a poor choice? It seems to be recommended everywhere still.


Do you game at 21:9? I'm looking for a new display, and the ultra-wides definitely have my interest. I can get a killer deal on the Dell U2412m IPS, as well as the its 21:9 brother, the U2913WM. It definitely seems like a killer option over a 3-monitor eyefinity setup.

AndrewKluger said:

Have all the parts now, I'm going to build it all this week when I have some time. Thank you for all the help.

I'm ordering the Heat-sink compound you recommended, but out of curiosity, has Arctic Silver 5 always been a poor choice? It seems to be recommended everywhere still.


Do you game at 21:9? I'm looking for a new display, and the ultra-wides definitely have my interest. I can get a killer deal on the Dell U2412m IPS, as well as the its 21:9 brother, the U2913WM. It definitely seems like a killer option over a 3-monitor eyefinity setup.

Click to expand...

With dual higher end GPUs you can do ultrawide or dual 1080 if you want to. Get whatever is going to make you happy.

AS5 has always been a poor choice. For some reason, a lot of people got hooked on it and recommend it without shopping around or doing research to see if there's better compound out there. Not only is AS5 capacitive, it actually doesn't transfer heat as well as some other NON capacitive, equal priced options. Definitely not a smart buy.

Also, when it's time to change heatsinks, AS5 can get hard and "glue" the CPU to the HSF, making getting the two apart a pain in the arse. MX-2/4 on the other hand stays soft and comes apart like buttered toast. It's 10X easier to wipe away with alcohol too.