---

My rationale for the chosen products:

---

CPU:

• Intel quad-core, hyper threaded, locked CPU clocked at 3,4GHz with a turbo boost up to 3,8GHz.
  This is pretty much an i7 without on-board graphics (not required). Which means that the price is a bit lower. It's an older generation, since we have a new one out, but the price increase pushed me over the $1500 limit.
  
  Check out the videos above: "i3, i5 & i7 / hyperthreading explained & what CPU to buy?" to understand why I suggest this Xeon.
  
  

  CPU Cooler:
  

• Not required to buy, since you do get an intel stock cooler that will keep the temperatures in check. But those stock coolers tend to get a bit loud, which I personally can't stand. So that's why I suggest this $15 cooler. Absolutely not a must and if you don't mind the "whiny" noise that the stock cooler can produce, you can leave it out.
  I did went for a case that got some noise reduction features build into it, to help reduce the noise.
  
  

  Motherboard:
  

• Cheapest motherboard with 4 RAM slots that accepts the Xeon to be placed in. While it is relatively cheap, it's not bad at all and a fan favorite. The only downside it got is that it only got 1 fan case header on it. Meaning that you have to buy a fan splitter when you add more fans into it.
  If you do want to add a fan later on to reduce the temperatures, then I would advise this Arctic F9 fan.
  
  

  Memory:
  

• RAM is RAM. Speeds does not matter much, the only thing that matters is capacity. 16GB is an awesome amount of RAM which allows you to run (multiple) games, streaming software, skype video calls, music, lots of chrome tabs, all at the same time without running into any issues.
  
  

  Storage:
  

• Review (SP550)
  Now, no.. this SSD does not win any prices in terms of performance. But it absolutely destroys value market. It's an amazing SSD and you won't notice much of a difference compared to the more expensive options out there. 240GB is a good chunk, but you'll lose about 30GB because of the OS & formatting.
  Watch the "SSD vs HDD" video to learn more about the difference between an SSD & HDD!
  
  The HDD is just a standard 2TB HDD, which should give you plenty of storage for a start. If you later need more, you can always buy more HDDs and install them. The motherboard supports up to 4 more HDDs.
  Note: you want to connect the SSD with SATA3 (6Gbps) ports on the motherboard, not the SATA2 (3Gbps) ports. The HDDs can be connected in the SATA2 no problem, since HDDs don't reach the maximum speed that SATA2 is capable off.
  
  

  Video Card:
  

• Review (video)
  

• Review (written)
  

  
  

  Now this is a beast of a card. It really is, it's about.. price to performance. The GTX1080 is the big brother, which costs almost 40% more, yet only provides about 18.2% on avarage extra performance based on 7 games @ 1440p in DX11, DX12 & OpenGL.
  

  The custom cooler from Zotac also helps to cool the GPU even better.
  

  
  

  
  

  Game @ 1440p (ultra settings)|API|FPS GTX1080| FPS GTX1070|% Difference
  

  ----|:----|:----|:----|:----
  Rise of the Tomb Raider | DX12 | 90 | 71 | 21.1
  Hitman (2016) | DX12 | 81 | 65 | 19.7
  Doom (2016) | OpenGL | 112 | 91 | 18.7
  Far Cry Primal | DX11 | 80 | 65 | 18.7
  Fallout 4 | DX11 | 103 | 85 | 17.4
  GTA5 | DX11 | 114 | 101 | 11.4
  The Witcher 3 | DX11 | 82 | 65 | 20.7
  Average | | 94.6 | 77.6 | 18.2
  
  Source
  
  ##Case:
  

• Review
  This is again a part where it really got a great value / performance aspect to it. It's under $40 and comes with sound dampening foam to reduce the noise, 1x120mm silent fan & enough room for all your parts. It's even a little bit tiny. But SilverStone also provide you with an awesome manual to help you build the PC.
  You should have no problem at all to build the PC inside this case if you follow the video guides & the manual.
  
  
  

  Power Supply:
  

• 5 year warranty, 80+ gold, semi-modular, 550W PSU from Rosewill made by SuperFlower.
  That last part is important! "SuperFlower" is the OEM of this PSU and they're together with SeaSonic, Delta & a few others that you rarely see the top of the line in terms of quality. Now yes, even those OEMs have bad PSUs, but this one is absolutely not one of them. Of course there are better PSUs, but then you do start to pay a lot more as well.
  In terms of value, this PSU is probably the best you can get right now. Especially considering that the case is rather small, you'll love the modular part of it. Meaning that you only need to plug in the cables that you need & nothing else extra.
  
  

  Monitor:
  

• Review
  While not a very scientific review. It does tell you what I also believe is the key point of this monitor, value. At this price, it's a no brainer. While still a fair amount of money for a monitor, I am certain that you will feel that this is absolutely worth it.
  It is a 2560x1440p, 60Hz, IPS display. I highly recommend you to watch the videos above that I marked as ← Important! The panel types & resolution are the most important ones. I still find 60Hz, 1440p absolutely amazing for gaming almost all games. The ONLY key game where a 144Hz, 1080p monitor would be the better choice for would be CS:GO. A game that you did list, so.. I leave it up to you to decide, if CS:GO is really an important game to you, then sure get this 1080p, 144Hz, TN monitor. It's the same price, so you lose resolution, viewing angles & color reproduction for the gain of a higher refresh rate and "smoother" gameplay. Which only really is "useful" in CS:GO.
  If you don't play on a high level and are more a casual gamer, I would highly recommend the 1440p monitor. I can provide you with a visual representation of the difference between 1080p & 1440p. Click!
  The pink monitor is my 1080p & the baby blue is my 1440p monitor. I've opened up a text file twice and they're the exact same size. I've only moved them to roughly the same location on the monitor. To show you the difference of real estate / workspace that 1440p gives you.
  
  

  Keyboard:
  

• Cheap one, because I did not have the budget left and it's an easy thing to upgrade down the road. But this keyboard does have some alright reviews and it got a couple of different LED colors in it.
  
  

  Headphones:
  

• Review
  
• Review
  Yes I give you 2 reviews, just in case you aren't sold after the first video. This headset is actually amazingly good considering the price. I went for the black & white version, which is the only change that's made with the "Pro" version, which is black & red. If you like that color, go ahead and get that one instead.
  
  I don't recommend the "II" version because all you get is a "3D" virtual surround card. Which.. in my opinion does not really make a difference.
  I can give you surround sound with ANY cheap headset or even earbuds that you have.. right now! It works a bit better with a headset/headphones then earbuds, but both options work. Just make sure that you have your sound setup set in stereo. headphones or 2.0 speaker mode. Then listen to this with your eyes closed!
  
  
  

  Hope you like it and If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Looks like a really good build. I will put part links in the end of the post. Here's some tips to save a bit of money if you're open to it:

1. Power supply: 550 watts is a great amount for this system. You could save some money by passing on the 80+ gold rating (although it's great to have a super efficient power supply, you don't need 80+ gold) and get a power supply that has an 80+ bronze efficiency rating. A power supply being fully modular isn't a must either, for me at least. A good semi-modular pick would be the Rosewill Hive 550, I have it and it has has sleeved black cables for about $55. If you want to save more money on the PSU, though, the EVGA basic 550W unit has all black cables and goes for around $43. Otherwise, the 600B from EVGA is a great 600W unit for around $50. Changing your power supply with these options might save you around $30-$40.
   
2. RAM: there are 16GB kits out there that are cheaper than the ones you selected, some are even in red to match your color scheme. I know there is a kit from Corsair that goes for around $80, so that might save you $20-$30 there. Otherwise, if you can't afford 16GB at the beginning of the build, 8GB will suffice until you upgrade. Just make sure if you get 8GB, get a single stick so you can throw another one in later. 8GB instead of 16 GB may save you $30-$40.
   
3. CPU cooler: The i5 6500 comes with its own stock cooler, so you can save around $25 by not paying for a CPU cooler right away. Otherwise, the 212 Evo is a superb cooler and also comes in a red LED fan version for a few bucks more :D
   
4. GPU: The GTX 1060 is a great option for a video card, but the RX 480 from AMD might be able to save you a few bucks right now and down the road. When you look to purchase another monitor, options with FreeSync (AMD adaptive sync) are normally cheaper than monitors with G-Sync (Nvidia adaptive sync). Adaptive sync monitors will make your gameplay smoother. Also, if you get a motherboard that supports crossfire, you can throw another RX 480 in your rig in the future. I will recommend you a motherboard for this at the end, and it won't cost you much more than your current one. An RX 480 8GB starts at around $230. Also, RX 480's are said to be better in DX12, another "future proofer".
   
5. Motherboard (minor): H110 is a budget chipset, and a Micro ATX one will save you a bit of money. BUT, if you want another RX 480, you'll need a motherboard with 2 PCIe slots to house them. An ATX motherboard will fill your case better, not look as awkward as a mATX one, and will let you put another RX 480 card in your rig in the future. A good ATX motherboard that would work for this build would be the Asus B150-PLUS for $95. This may be a bit expensive, but you could spend your saved money on this part. I highly suggest you exercise this option.
   
6. Storage: if 250GB is enough for you, then you could save some money by not getting a Samsung SSD. An SSD comparable to this would be the Crucial MX300 275GB for around $80. Also, the SanDisk z400s is $75 and is 256GB. If you want more storage, though, I would recommend a 120GB SSD like the PNY CS1311 for $40 and a 1TB hard drive like the WD Blue for $50.
   
   TL;DR: cut back on PSU efficiency ratings, look for different 16GB or even 8GB RAM kits, ditch CPU cooler (or keep if you want), get an RX 480 for saving money on future monitors, you can also put another RX 480 in your build in the future with a different motherboard; an ATX motherboard would fill your case and add capability for a second RX 480, a non-Samsung SSD could save you some money, while for $100, you can get an SSD and a 1TB hard drive.
   
   Links:
   EVGA 550W "basic" http://amzn.to/2gbEbeQ
   Rosewill Hive-550 http://amzn.to/2gbBtGe
   EVGA 600B http://amzn.to/2gtvZcH
   Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO LED http://amzn.to/2fJ7mHM
   RX 480 http://amzn.to/2gbIUgI (choose which one you like)
   Asus B150-PLUS http://amzn.to/2eVnuqj
   Crucial MX 300 275GB http://amzn.to/2fidOoq
   SanDisk Z400S 256GB http://amzn.to/2fifFtk
   WD Blue 1TB http://amzn.to/2fJcPhK
   
   I hope my advice helped you and that this didn't overwhelm you. If you save enough money, you could throw in a red LED PWM fan, which adjusts its speed based on your computer's needs. I had a lot of fun making this, thanks for posting, and happy gaming :D
   
   
   

Testing new things, I need your help.

> /r/theydidthemath has a neat 'points' system that I feel would be super awesome to have in our Daily Simple Questions thread. If you ask a question, and someone answers it correctly, reply with a thank you, but include this checkmark: ✓ ( or if you cannot enter Unicode, use !check instead )

> This will score the user whose comment you replied to a 'point'. I don't know what these points will be used for or if this feature will be a permanent thing. This is where you come in. If there's a good response and it works like I want it to, this could be a great way to incentivize people helping.

Now, get out there and help some people!

-\/u\/eegras

----

In case you missed it, click here for yesterday's Daily Simple Questions thread. There may be some questions still unanswered! Below are a selection of questions with no replies. See if you can help them out.

If you don't want to see this comment click the little [-] to the left of my username to collapse this comment.

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> I have a 1TB HDD for mass storage (and 128gb for OS), being the PC enthusiast that I am, I want to run on SSD only storage from this point on.
> I want to get a 500GB SSD (750 EVO) this month, and the coming few months 1 SSD of 500Gigs at a time.
>
> Is this a smart idea or am I better off saving money for 1 big 1TB or 2TB SSD?
>
> In the netherlands, the 750 EVO 500GB is around 120 euros

/r/pcmasterrace/comments/52wajw/daily_simple_questions_thread_sep_15_2016/d7p6jnr

----

> I've just installed Windows 10. What are some things that I should remove? I found this thread but it's like a year old so I don't know if the same things still apply https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3f10k0/things_to_removedisable_in_windows_10/

/r/pcmasterrace/comments/52wajw/daily_simple_questions_thread_sep_15_2016/d7p5ss4

----

> hello
> i've got a problem with my pc but i'm not sure what it is
> my setup is
> 970 gtx
> i5 4590
> 2x8gb ram
> b85 mb
> anyway, its nothing unusual
> When i play overwatch on high settings my pc turns off after really short duration of playing. I don't get any fps drops or any weird things going. Same happend in word of tanks beta hd.
> Ive got OCZ 600W stealth stream 2 PSU, the power seems to be enough but as far as i looked for answers everyone says its psu. When i did a stress test in furmark it didn't turn off, my psu is a bit older then rest of my pc.
> Is there a way to check if its psu or any other component failing?

/r/pcmasterrace/comments/52wajw/daily_simple_questions_thread_sep_15_2016/d7p5iyg

----

> Are there any really clear UV reactive dyes I could use for my system? I just have clear distilled water in my loop but I'd love for it to also be UV reactive without making it also colored.

/r/pcmasterrace/comments/52wajw/daily_simple_questions_thread_sep_15_2016/d7opu5s

----

> What's an, or some, ideal rectangular tables for this space right here: http://i.imgur.com/y6KBwP1.jpg
> As you can see it's a pretty garbage table and I'm willing to get rid of it as quick as possible, as well as organize the things on the table.

/r/pcmasterrace/comments/52wajw/daily_simple_questions_thread_sep_15_2016/d7oni4l

----

> Anyone know if the AM1M-A board supports hot-swapping?
>
> Also - how do you set a particular drive to be marked as external? is it done by the bios or os?
> Thanks

/r/pcmasterrace/comments/52wajw/daily_simple_questions_thread_sep_15_2016/d7ojsn9

----

> Sata power cable on this CX 500 is too fat to be able to plug into the SSD, any recommendations on extensions?

/r/pcmasterrace/comments/52wajw/daily_simple_questions_thread_sep_15_2016/d7oe85n

----

> Good place for buying custom sized mousepads?

/r/pcmasterrace/comments/52wajw/daily_simple_questions_thread_sep_15_2016/d7odl76

----

> Where is AMD Catalyst Control Center saved by default? I want to overclock my monitor and can't figure it out.
>
> Edit. Advanced settings through AMD Preferences.

/r/pcmasterrace/comments/52wajw/daily_simple_questions_thread_sep_15_2016/d7oc2w8

----

> EA is asking me to verify my game (BF4) but when i bought it didnt come with a verification code since i bought via origin store, is this normal?

/r/pcmasterrace/comments/52wajw/daily_simple_questions_thread_sep_15_2016/d7o8bmp

----

> so I own the Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case and I really want my setup to start going a color theme or something like that do I need to buy a new case with a window. Im kinda wanting to go black and red a little because of my brand new HyperX Cloud 2s any one have suggestions? Is there anything I can do to my current setup to make it start following a theme? here is my current build PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
>
> Type|Item|Price
> :----|:----|:----
> CPU | Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor | $110.99 @ SuperBiiz
> Motherboard | MSI H110M Pro-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard | $55.99 @ SuperBiiz
> Memory | Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory | $35.98 @ Newegg
> Storage | Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $45.89 @ OutletPC
> Video Card | EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card | $220.00
> Case | Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case | $54.99 @ Newegg
> Power Supply | EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply | $43.49 @ SuperBiiz
> Operating System | Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit | $0.00
> Monitor | Samsung 2333T 23.0" Monitor | $100.00
> Keyboard | Razer BlackWidow Chroma Wired Gaming Keyboard | $145.28 @ B&H
> Headphones | Kingston HyperX Cloud II 7.1 Channel Headset | $91.99 @ Newegg
> Other| Tax| $60.00
> Other| Dell Premium 6-Button USB Laser Scroll Mouse J660D| $0.00
> | Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
> | Total (before mail-in rebates) | $979.60
> | Mail-in rebates | -$15.00
> | Total | $964.60
> | Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-15 14:53 EDT-0400 |

/r/pcmasterrace/comments/52wajw/daily_simple_questions_thread_sep_15_2016/d7o6g5c

----

> http://pcpartpicker.com/list/46wfyf
> Will these parts fit in the case? It's a Mini ITX build.

/r/pcmasterrace/comments/52wajw/daily_simple_questions_thread_sep_15_2016/d7o5liu

----

> Is it better to use a fan splitter cable like this https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Sleeved-Splitter-CPF01/dp/B00B46XKKQ that connect directly to the board or get direct PSU fan cables/passthroughs like this https://www.amazon.com/Alpha-Omega-148-0027-Adapter/dp/B000BSJGL0/ref=pd_sim_23_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BVYPBTJHZB4KKFH4C2HJ to add more fans than there are mobo fan headers? (Note: I'm not sure if either brand is reliable and will do research on what company makes the best of those cables)
>
> Also, why are LED fans cheaper than non LED fans?

/r/pcmasterrace/comments/52wajw/daily_simple_questions_thread_sep_15_2016/d7o5aw2

----

> I'm using my mouse with a bungee cord (for cable management) and the mouse cable is developing a small kink. Any tips for straightening these out?

/r/pcmasterrace/comments/52wajw/daily_simple_questions_thread_sep_15_2016/d7o4ngp

----

> I am using an NZXT Grid V2 fan controller, does anyone know if I have to actually be running CAM in order for my fan profiles to be active?
>
> And does anyone have any recommendations for a monitor mount/stand for a 27 and 24 inch pair of monitors?

/r/pcmasterrace/comments/52wajw/daily_simple_questions_thread_sep_152016/d7o0x4k

----

User | Points
-----|-------
Trazac | 14
Flying_Spaghetti\ | 7
thatgermanperson | 6
rehpotsirhc123 | 6
Xolandi | 3
TehThyz | 3
saldytuwas | 2
ImpatientPedant | 2
ITXorBust | 2
Buxton_Water | 2
iiNt3rV3nTiiOnZ7 | 2
Sayakai | 2
Rivin2e | 2




----

I am a bot - This action was done automatically. Please direct any questions or concerns ( or bug reports ) to \/u\/eegras - About /u/PCMRBot

Our mutual friend asked me to help you out. Sorry its kinda long but hope it helps.

General Thoughts about building your own computer:
IMO buying computer hardware is all about future proofing. If your not a hardcore enthusiast you want to buy what you are not going to need to upgrade for a long long time. For example my friend JUST upgraded his gtx8800+ to the new 780. His 8800 lasted him like 10 years. However, doing this usually means purchasing the top of the line hardware at the time which ofc is not always possible to do this with your budget. IMO If you are going to spend the money, spend a little more so that you are super happy and wont have any regrets. This is why if your budget doesnt fit a lot of people upgrade piece by piece. usually the video card is the last bit to be upgraded because they are the largest cost white being the quickest to go out of date. For example the same friend who recently upgraded to a 780 upgraded his case, cpu, motherboard, and ram 2 years ago to a decent i52500k & held off upgrading the video card till now. Also it is worth mentioning that the reason he opted for the 780 over anything else is because not only is it (arguably) the best video card it has improvements over the last generation chips. for example the 770 is just a beefier 680. The 780 runs the gk110 chip and also has larger bandwith etcetc (these things have been discussed to death on countless forums and i am just stating my opinion on it). I think that the 780 provides better future proofing and value retention.

Build Recommendations:
Now that my own general mindset has been given here are some recommendations to your build.

1. Instead of the 670 get a 770 for only a little more $ (link below)
   
   
2. You will need a larger watt power supply! i also recommend future proofing yourself with this. I personally purchased a 1200 watt corsair 4 years ago and it has lasted me through 2 builds and will last me quite a few more. Computer Cases follow this principle as well - they will last you numerous builds so get one that can scale with you. But i would recommend at least a 700w power supply. I believe the 670 requires around a 600w anyways. and you always want to have more than less.
   
   
3. Please also do not get home premium get at least Pro. Also you can probably download a cracked version of ultimate for free and can save some money this way. (cough ask someone for a copy cough).
   
   
4. A common thing first time builders forget is also a cpu heatsink. Do not use the stock one that comes with your cpu. i would recommend the Corsair h60 an all in one easy watercooling solution which i myself use. Easily allows you to overclock without all the hard work and money for conventional watercooling - and not a whole lot more expensive than the better aircooling solutions that i would recommend you get (2nd link below. its newer version than the one i have)
   
   
5. Last and least important. I would recommend getting a larger SSD. It is a pain in the ass not having enough storage for typical daily use, but maybe thats just me because i set all my default download locations to the desktop and i often find myself running out of space on my 256gb ssd. You can double the capacity of the crucial m4 for only another $20. Remember that windows will be about 30gb. and your ssd will only really be 59 gb.
   
   Company Opinions
   I hate Newegg and have had nothing but crappy experiences with them. I only purchase from them if absolutely necessary and cross my fingers. I almost buy exclusively from Amazon now as i have amazon prime and amazons customer service is unparalleled. I also usually get bad cases of buyer remorse and amazons no quibbles 30 day return with no restocking fee is awesome. + free shipping with prime.
   
   As for choice of mouse and keyboard im a razer fan =P.
   
   Final Remark:
   This is probably going to have you go over budget. I would recommend doing a piece by piece upgrade as you get the funds instead of compromising. At the end of the day do what you personally will be happy with and that wont give you regrets. A good friend of mine thinks way different from me about choosing of hardware and that is why i want to give you background on my thinking. If you have any questions feel free =].
   
   http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-SuperClocked-Graphics-02G-P4-2774-KR/dp/B00CZIQXBA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373609361&sr=8-1&keywords=evga+770+acx
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Hydro-Performance-Liquid-Cooler/dp/B00A0HZMGA/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1373610614&sr=1-1&keywords=corsair+h60

> Thanks in advance for answering my questions.

• How long have you had your Flashforge, and how much have you printed on it?
  
  I purchased it last August. (781 hours logged) It's almost litterly been printing out of the box since day one. The only issue I had out of the box is that the one screw on the build plate got bent as a result of the 2 free spools bouncing into it. I ordered a box of them from McMaster and had it fixed by the end of the week. I contacted Lisa on their google chat form and from what I understand, they now come with the screw as a result of my support ticket. This was an annoyance yes, but I've had more issues with my reprap and that costed me more than this pritner when I bought it. (I originally had a Makergear Prusa)
  
  
• What do you like the most and the least about this printer?
  
  Most: I love the fact that it prints 100% of the times I try to print something. I rarely, and I mean RARELY have a failed print. I love that I can hit print before I go to bed and wake up to a completed part in the morning.
  
  Least: This is small, and it took a while but I have since out grown the build platform (9x6x6 inches). I recently ordred an 8x12 plate from McMaster and that arrives on monday and we'll see how that works. (PSA this requires removing one of the extruders - if you want more info on this let me know)
  
  
• Have you printed with ABS?
  
  Yes, no issues. Just close up the printer with the included panels.
  
  
• If so, did you experience any problems such as curling?
  
  No, I use a glass build plate and a thin coat of purple glue stick. I then spritz water on the plate before each print. I never have a sticking issue and I never have warpage. I personally prefer PLA though since Hatchbox has come to light and makes GREAT PLA
  
  
• Have you had any problems with the metal bed warping or with leveling the bed?
  
  Like I said just above, I use a glass build plate, so I haven't had any warpage issues with the bp. Leveling the bed is a bit of a challenge but I'm fussy about it and I want it within 0.0005 or less so it takes me a while. The reason I'm fussy is because I've only had to level the bed 2 or 3 times since owning it.
  
  The first was when I got it
  
  The second was when I added the glass build plate
  
  The third was when I removed one extruder and added an aluminum carriage.
  
  That's it. It never lost it's level and it's gone through 3 moves (like I moved apartment to apartment)
  
  
• Finally, how is the customer service or community support for this printer? Thanks again!
  
  The only experience I had was with that screw initially. I contacted Lisa on their Google Chat forum and she handled it mostly. Sadly, it wasn't as 'perfect' as I wanted since their solution was to send the printer back instead of sending me a new screw. Never the less, they did try to help on the matter and told me how I could go about getting money for the screw if I so desired. In the long run, it's a screw and I just ordered them from McMaster. I have zero regrets from it and I think I know my printer a bit beter because of it.
  
  single extruder carriage (PSA: their single extruder block is not FF compatible.
  
  My Thingiverse for example prints
  
  Some things I would buy shortly after getting the printer:
  
  Spare Extruder fan : I tend to slip and put a screw drive in the path of this, shattering the blades. If you're a clutz like me, get it. I've needed 4 so far. ::hangs head in shame::
  
  Glass Build Plate : Best purchase I've made for my FF. Works great, easy to install and use. Also get thermal sheets and purple elmers glue, and print the spacer found on my Thingiverse page under "Flashforge Upgrades". Also get a spatula, and dikes
  
  Simplify3D : A lot people tend to spend $X,XXX on a printer and then try to use free software with it and complain when it doesn't print right. To me that's like buying a car without tires. A Corvette ain't shit without a decent set of tires. It's kind of pricy compared to free, I know, but at real CAM programs (which is what this basically is) cost $8,000 or more. It truely is a great printer program and I wish I had purchased it much MUCH sooner than I had.
  
  Last and most importantly, get the an active cooling fan. I originally printed this, and purchased a 12v power supply and added some fans to it. I have since moved on to the offical one from FF. It's not as good but I haven't really ran into an issue. If I had to print from my right extruder, it would be an issue though. What I liked about it, is that it's a plug and play added on. No "modifications" needed to added.
  
  TL;DR / Closing thoughts: I would buy this printer again in a heartbeat. ESPECIALLY if they came out with one similar to the Replicator 2 with the 11.9" build plate. Instead it looks like they went a different way judging by CES but oh well, there's always next year. Further more, I think this is a great entry level printer for someone looking to have a printer help with projects and not be one of them. That doesn't mean you can't mod it or upgrade or whatever, it just means you don't have to if you don't want to.
  
  
  Hope this helps and answers any questions you might have. Feel free to ask more though!
  

Your google-fu is weak;
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00D3IKKVA/ref=asc_df_B00D3IKKVA18250740?smid=A5Y5ZDGV1AKXL&tag=pricerunner-ce-3p-21&linkCode=df0&creative=22242&creativeASIN=B00D3IKKVA&ascsubtag=uk,27816,SEO,35,google;f0120409ba673673d3b6c8cdf09c7ccf

For reference, I paid 115$ for mine, and at 79 pounds the conversion rate is equal to about 133$.

You said you were planning on overclocking in another reply of yours, if that's the case I recommend the i5 4670k (Pretty sure you said you added it to your parts list in the other reply). If that's the case, I would recommend either the NZXT Kraken X40; http://www.amazon.co.uk/NZXT-Technologies-Premium-Performance-RL-KRX40-01/dp/B00ANJRTYS (98£) if you want to use a closed loop CPU cooler (you'll need a case that has 140mm fan mounts for the X40, but other CLC's use 120mm fans which makes them quite a bit louder, so it's a fair trade-off)

Or, the Noctua NH-D14; http://www.amazon.co.uk/NH-D14-Processor-LGA1366-LGA1156-LGA1155/dp/B002VKVZ1A (66£) if you want to go the air-cooling route. The NH-D14 comes with two 140mm fans and has mounts for 120mm and 140mm fans should you decide to change them out; personally, I wouldn't recommend doing that, since the two fans that come with it are some of the best 140mm PWM fans on the market, and because they too will be quieter in operation than their 120mm alternatives.

In reality, an NH-D14 will be fine for overclocking. It may max out at 95c in synthetic benchmarks, but in reality, you could game in the high 70's/low 80's, depending on ambient temperature, at 4.2-4.4Ghz, depending on how your chip performs. As long as the core voltage isn't over 1.25, you'll be fine. If you want something with a little bit better temperatures, or with more headroom to overclock, the NZXT Kraken X40 is the way to go.

It all depends on how much you want to spend, but the cheapest overclocking setup I could recommend to you, with the Asrock H87 Fatal1ty motherboard, i5-4670k, and NH-D14, buying all of these components off of Amazon, (Link for the i5 4670k; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Graphics-BX80646I74770-Generation-Technology/dp/B00CO8TBOW (167£) would be an extra 125£ cost for your budget, bringing your total to 685£. Not to mention you'd need a higher-wattage PSU, something in the 700-750 watt range, like the Seasonic X-750 Fully Modular PSU; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seasonic-X-750-module-ATX12V-Supply/dp/B002VAFDQS/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1397013585&sr=1-1&keywords=SeaSonic+SS-750KM3 (140£)

So, to build an overclocking system, with solid, name brand, quality components all the way around, it'd cost you 230£ extra, bringing your total cost to 790£, or 1325$ american. And that's if you get the NH-D14. With the NZXT Kraken X40, with another fan on it along with the fan it comes with, would be 840£, or 1400$ american. Without the extra fan it'd be 820£; 1375$

And with the PCI wireless card it'd be 855£; add a blu-ray combo drive and a 770 instead of a 760, and it's 950£

Or, you could just get the i5 4670, the fastest locked quad-core i5 at 3.4Ghz, for 158£, which with the PCI adapter would bring your build total to 595£, or just under one thousand dollars american. With the Blu-ray drive also it'd run you about 645£, bringing your grand total to 1080$ american.

The reason I spent the last two hours reading reviews, looking up links, and sorting through statistics, is because I wanted to show that overclocking is not cheap. You'd be paying another 320$ american, or 192£, for another 10-20% performance. I'm not saying don't do it, I'm just trying to illustrate the true cost associated with it. Not to mention that for the NH-D14 or the NZXT x40, you'd need to move up to a full-size case, which would add further to the cost. My point is, that if you're new to this and just want a capable gaming machine for 1080p, you'd be much better off just getting the 4670, wireless card, and blu-ray combo drive; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-BC-12D2HT-Blu-ray-Combo-Drive/dp/B00F0SQL6O/ref=sr_1_6?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1397014362&sr=1-6 (50£).

If this is something that really interests you, that you know you're going to invest a lot of hours in and not get bored of, then go ahead and pull the trigger on the overclocking build. If you do, it'd be worth it to save up enough to get a 770 instead of a 760, since it's about 10-20% ahead of the 760, performance wise. Your total cost would be 950-1000£.

tl;dr If you want a nice rig, use the i5 4670, get the wireless card and blu-ray combo drive, and have fun. If you want to turn this into a hobby, and you're willing to spend time (and a whole lot more money) on it, then get the 4670k, AsRock Fatal1ty H87, NH-D14, Seasonic X-750, and 770. And the wireless card and Blu-ray combo drive.

I hope I've fully illustrated the pros and cons of overclocking. It's not for everyone, and to be totally honest it can be the motherfucking-est pain in the ass at times (from mounting big-ass heavy heatsinks and spending hours researching technical details, and ultimately developing a huge knowledge and understanding of the subject that you can't talk about with anyone besides people on the internet) but in all honesty, I love it. You might too. I just wanted to be totally honest and up-front about the extra cost and difficulties, because it's totally fine if it's not something you'd want to get into.

If it helps, I bought the MonoPrice Maker Select a few months ago. I absolutely love tinkering, so it was perfect for me. I have had more fun figuring out what's going on. It took some time and effort, but I now have a solid printer (relatively speaking, as it's my first printer). :)


If you do end up going with this printer, I recommend searching for standard duplicator i3 mods. It's essentially the same, but already has some decent upgrades, such as the x-axis dampers. Here are the mods that have made a huge difference for me:

• Z Braces - This has, by far, made the biggest difference in my prints. The printer is super solid now, and made my bed considerably more level.
  
• Glass Bed - My experience has been that the aluminum bed is a little too thin and flexes more than I'd like, creating an uneven surface. This helps offset that. You'll need to move your z-stop up, though. There are already screw-holes that should work for this. I also used a few thermal pads under the bed at each corner.
  
• This is a really good post for the rest of the things I looked at. Make sure that if you do anything, it hasn't already been done by the manufacturer.
  
  
  Overall, I'm super happy with the $350 + $50-$75 I've spent on the printer. It does a pretty damn good job. I've certainly learned that it requires patience, knowledge, and tweaking to create the prints you want. Take this as you will, though. It's my first printer. Still saving for something higher end. :)
  
  A couple other nice-to-haves:
  
  
• Blower fan mod - Had to turn my fan speed down significantly in my slicer to prevent the hot-end from cooling too much too quickly, but it cools all around the plastic instead of from one direction.
  
• Four of these in combination with some M3 nylocks are fantastic. You'll hurt your fingers screwing them on, but once in place, they really help in fine-tuning your bed-leveling. When you print them, I recommend starting with a lighter filament, and pausing to switch to a darker filament just as the numbers start forming. It gives it a nice look, and makes it a little easier to see the movement.

Your upgrade looks like it will be way cheaper than mine was.

I got the Rift on sale for $350, but my PC was like 10 years old with only a new SSD in it.

Ended up getting an i5-9600K + MSI Z390 Gaming Edge for $470, 16 GB of RAM, Cooler Master 212 EVO which turned out to be huge and a huge pain in the ass to install (I recommend watching the video on that page that I didn't notice until after I installed the thing with only it's Ikea-like instructions.), but that big fan means it's far quieter than the tiny stock fans processors usually come with. The i5-9600K does not come with a fan either, so I had no choice and this was the most popular one on NewEgg.

Also got myself an MSI Gaming X GTX 1070 used on Ebay for $270. And because it only has one HDMI port, I decided to use that for the RIFT because it was less risky, and got a Displayport to HDMI cable which supports audio for my monitor which has the speakers built in and does not have a Displayport connector. Only afterward while taking my PC apart however did I realize I had the HMDI cable plugged into my old card with a DVI adapter, and the Gaming X has a DVI port as well, so I could have saved the money on the cable. :(

Also at the last minute I had to run out and grab a Corsair 750W power supply because my perfectly good Coolermaster 750W power supply did not have an 8 pin connector for my CPU. Of course, when I got it home it did not have the 4 pin connector and the motherboard has both a 4 pin and 8 pin and I assumed both would be needed, but I gave it a shot and just having the 8 pin was fine. But now I wonder if just having the 4 pin would also have been fine. The damn manual doesn't have a thing to say about it being okay to just use one of them, but being an electrical engineer I have to assume they're both tied to the same rail on the board, so I'm just gaining a bit more copper to lower the voltage drop if I were to connect a 4 pin as well, and the system seems perfectly stable, so perhaps they included the second connector to help with overclocking. I dunno.

Anyway, final tally including the Rift without a third sensor was $1,339.

And if you're wondering why I didn't go with AMD, well, I could have but when I priced it out, I wasn't actually going to save that much. And the Intel seemed like it would perform better with both games and applications and would just be less likely to have any issues like the Vive and its wireless solution do with AMD processors.

Part of the reason the AMD was not much cheaper is the same MSI motherboard would have been more expensive as an AMD variant and while the AMD included a cooler, the Cooler Master one was only $30 and had a bigger fan which meant it would likely be quieter. Though the AMD does run at a lower wattage, so it could be a toss up. All I know is my old PC sounded like a jet engine when I started doing any heavy lifting with 3D graphics, and it was still kinda noisy otherwise, but now its super quiet and even when running 3D apps that MSI card which I specifically chose because it's one of the quietest, was indeed really quiet.

Speaking of the 1070, my god that is a monster of a card! I barely fit it in my case. And my case is a full size tower. But it has extra 3.5" bays down the bottom where I have my hard drives installed and I had to move them down some more to get it to fit and it only barely slid in behind the metal frame of the drive bay.

Only other thing to mention is while I had no problem fitting my two ram sticks on the motherboard, that Cooler Master cooler's fan would probably collide with one of the ram sticks if I were to install four in there. I think the fan can slide up and down on the cooler though, so perhaps as long as you have low profile ram, you could slide it up a smidge or two to make it fit. Something to consider if you think you may eventually want 32 or 64GB of ram.

Hey! It looks like you've got a pretty solid build started here! I just want to point out a few things to make your life just a little bit easier.

1. The motherboard you have will NOT work with the CPU that you've chosen. You picked a Z170A board, which works with the 6th and 7th generation (if BIOS is flashed) of Intel CPU's, and you're buying an 8th generation. So I would recommend this board or this one instead. Either will work, it just depends on how much money you want to spend.
   
2. Don't buy the power supply you've picked. It puts out way more wattage than you'll use, so I would recommend saving some money and maybe picking up this one. As a bonus it has an RGB fan, so that's kinda cool. It's also fully modular, meaning that you only need to plug the cables into the PSU that you need instead of having extras to hide in your case.
   
3. I'd also save some money on your RAM. This set is cheaper, faster, and only requires that you use two of your RAM slots instead of all four. More upgradeability in the future!
   
4. Think about if you really need 2TB of storage right now. The 1TB SSD you have picked out is going to be great, and if you're new to PC gaming it's going to have plenty of space for awhile. You can always pick up a new HDD (like the Seagate one you have in your cart) later down the road.
   
5. With the money that you've saved, I think that you could upgrade your graphics card from your 1060 (a GREAT option, don't get me wrong) to a 1070 like this one. (EVGA is a great company in my opinion, and I love their graphics cards.) It's a great contender for both 1440p and 1080p gaming!
   
6. Others have said to get a cheaper air cooler instead of opting for the water cooler that you've picked. If you decide to go that route (completely fine) I would maybe go with something like this if you want something extra beefy to keep your CPU cool, or this less beefy one. Either way, 8th generation CPUs run hot, so the water cooler you have would work great.
   
   So there ya go! I hope that you enjoy your new build, it's going to be amazing! If you PM me I'll add you on Steam and we can play some games together when your build is all set!

Don't be so sad my friend. Performance hasn't increased that much over the past couple of generations of Intel cpu's since Sandy Bridge. Yes a 4690K is an decent upgrade but overall 2500K is not a bad CPU at all. It's still better than almost every AMD CPU in many gaming scenarios.

My recommendation to you is to upgrade your GPU to GTX 970 or similar for amazing value, and then buy an aftermarket cooler for your cpu, so you can overclock your CPU to hefty speeds. Something like the Thermalright True Spirit 140 Power is incredible good for the size and prize. Link to Amazon. Or the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO is also very capable for overclocking, though the Thermalright True Spirit 140 power is still quite a bit better.

Here are some video tutorials for overclocking the i5 2500K if you are new to this. It's not as hard as many people think. You don't have to overclock it to extremes, but maybe just a slight overclock like 4.2 or 4.3 GHz with slight voltage increase should be enough and give a decent boost. This small of an overclock might not even require an aftermarket CPU cooler(you can try), but I would recommend it anyways since it is less noisy than the stock cooler, and you can maybe use it for your next CPU too for overclocking.

This will give you a lot of performance increase combined with a GTX 970 upgrade. Though overclocking might not be necessary at first, unless you notice some performance issues.

This was immensely helpful, thank you very much.

To comment on your points,

Very good to know about the fan controller. I suspected it wouldn't be able to power the fans. That seemed a little too easy. However, I will likely go for a 1 > 4 splitter so there is no wires that are unconnected. That would bother me.

https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-System-Cables-Black-CPF04/dp/B00VNW556I/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1495948300&sr=1-8&keywords=fan+splitter

Would something like that work for the 4 fans? Then I would use the CPU fan header for the 5th that was attached to the CPU cooler?

Also thanks for the heads up on Corsair PSU > Silverstone. I was actually already planning on that, but for some reason, Corsair SF6000 isn't showing up in PCPP right now, and I wanted a placeholder so I knew where I was at financially. So I will be getting the Corsair SF600 + ATX -> SFX adaptor.

In regards to the front panel/header, I was going off comments like this that I had read:

"Nice but USB headers 3.0 and 3.1 not a good combination with Fractal Nano S (3.0) and Corsair H80i v2(USB 2.0). Z170i is better if you are going with these two items."

"But you can't use the front USB right now because new 3.1 to 3.0 adapter is not yet available AFAIK."

So yeah it didn't make sense to me, but since I heard a few people mention something about it I just figured there was something I was missing.

Thanks for the heads up on the RGB header. So that is a header that is in place specifically 100% for people who want to add aftermarket RGB lighting, and they would plug it in to that header?

I will not be getting an NVME SSD, as of right now I am getting the 850 evo 500g. Shortly after I build my computer and get another paycheck I will likely go back and get the Crucial MX300 1TB M2, so lessen the wires and get a good bit more storage.

And noted on the amount of accessories. I am not really bound by specific budget. I could upgrade to the 1080ti and still keep everything else if I thought there were a legitimate reason to spend another 200$ on a GPU. I am getting a 27'' 1440p 144hz G Sync monitor, and from what I can tell the 1080 should handle that at high settings pretty easily If it can do that then I really don't need to dish out the extra money for a 1080ti imo.

Plus part about building a PC (for me at least) is the aesthetics. Having parts that you love, and love to look at. I will have an open window case, so I wanted to use parts that I liked and made the computer look good - without compromising on space. So after looking at every Define Nano S build on PCPP I decided the one I linked above best represents what I'm trying to do on a computer (both aesthetically speaking and performance wise).

Thanks for letting me know about the 3 main cables I'll need too. What does the 4+4 EPS CPU cable connect, and what does the 6+2 PCI-E cable connect?

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS

I have a Maker select. It's my first and only 3D printer so my review compared to others is unreliable.

Here's a copy/paste of a review I did on it about a month ago. It's long but detailed with links:

I will give you my background before my opinions. As everyone has different goals, opinions, and experiences.

I got my printer near the end March of this year. I have something like 2500m of filament run though it, and no idea how much print time.

When I received my printer, my test prints failed and I was pissed. But this community helped improve my Cura settings and started producing usable parts. I then went nuts and printed out a BUNCH of mods. This is by far my most favorite thing. There's always something I can print to improve the quality of the prints.

THe down side is I went too far and got to a point where I couldn't produce anything of quality. So, 2 weeks of tweeking and researching later I'm printing in PETG with beautiful quality and very minimal visible layers.

My most recent project in PETG:
http://i.imgur.com/sVf7S2D.jpg?1

So, now to answer your question...

> How do you like your Maker Select?

I love it. It allowed me to buy a cheaper printer (One of the cheapest at the time @ $350) that produced amazing results. It also has upgrades you can purchase or print to improve the quality, so investing smaller amounts over time to make it better and better. I highly recommend it to anyone who is starting because it does require tweaking which forces you to learn and understand how exactly 3d printers work. A major plus was that this community has a lot of Maker Select users for support, which was a MAJOR plus for me.


As of today, I've purchased the following upgrades:

• IKEA enclosure - $115
  
• LEDs for Inside enclosure - $25
  
• MK-9/10 Extruder Gear - $9
  
• Micro Swiss All Metal hot End - $50
  
• Micro Swiss Lever - $18 (Totally not necessary, but Micro Swiss's support was AMAZING to deal with, and I wanted to support them so I purchased this as well.
  
• Misc. M3 and M4 Screws, etc. - ~$25 in total between Amazon Orders and Lowe's for things needed for mods.
  
• New 40mm fan because I broke the blade on the one I had. There are cheaper ones than this. - $14
  
• 50mm blower fan - $8
  
  So, in the last ~3 months I've spent an additional $264... Oh god, don't tell my wife! All are totally not necessary, mind you. The only thing I'd 100% recommend you do are print out the following to mods:
  
  DiiiCooler along with buying the 50mm blower fan. There are cheaper options out there, I just wanted it faster so I bought it through Amazon to get free 2 day shipping.
  
  z-Brace - This is key, and will run you maybe $15 worst case scenario to get enough M4 screws and the threaded rods.
  
  Edit: Forgot a couple more things I bought.
  
  
• Lowe's glass - $4 for 2 pieces of 7.9"x7.9" glass
  
• Borosilicate Glass - $12 - Amazing adheasing with PLA and ABS. Don't use it right now, though because I'm printing in PETG and I read on here that PETG eats borosilicate glass.
  
• Lithium Grease - $7. When I changed my bearing blocks, I had issues with sticking so I purchased some of this to help smoothing out the bearing movement on the polished rods.
  
• 3D print removal tool - $5. Printer comes with a larger scraper, but I needed something a bit more fine (thin) and this thing is perfect.
  
• Spare bearings - $13 because I broke one of them when swapping to 3d Printed bearing blocks.
  
• Digital Calipers - $18
  
  That's another $59, so $323... I have a problem. again, 95% of this is NOT NECESSARY. I'm just addicted to modding.
  
  

That looks great. I'm not sure what sort of cooling fan mods there are for that model printer, but you could check out Thingiverse. I once had a Printrbot and I had an improved fan shroud that I 3D printed and then added a larger fan to.

I'm not sure if the stock fan is 30mm or 40mm, but if you get a 40mm fan shroud, then it'll help with air flow on print cooling.

I like Noctua fans (they are popular with PC modders and quiet) - but if you want to save $8 or so, you can get a cheaper 40mm x 20mm size 12v fan (the 20mm thick ones will be louder than 10mm):

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-Cooling-Blades-Bearing-NF-A4x10/dp/B009NQLT0M/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1500093919&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=noctua+12v+40mm

If you mod the fan, there are some easy soldering tutorials online, and you can do something called a "lineman's splice" that makes it pretty easy. A little heatshrink or electrical tape and you can wrap up the soldered wires cleanly.

The Mini Select is a very popular printer - so mods will be constantly be made that you can 3D print and improve the printer, so check Thingiverse frequently to see what people are modding.

Just my opinion, I am no expert, but these seem like the best choices as they are popular, and consideration how much work it would take to design them.
Also check the most popular on Amazon, Newegg and PC part picker.

CPUs from one socket look almost the same right?
So a LGA 1151 and AM3+ CPUs.

For RAM, classic PCB with black chips, maybe another one with a very simple heatspreader in different colors, as it would take quite a lot of work to create realistic heatspreaders for little benefit IMO.

Any HDD, they all look similar.

For SSDs, Samsung are the most popular and very simple to do.

Three most popular CPU coolers prolly are CRYORIG H7, Hyper 212 EVO, and Corsair H100i, maybe with addition of a single fan AIO like Corsair H55.

GPUs are tougher:

• definitely MSI twin frozr, they use them for most cards
  
• ASUS new strix
  
• Gigabyte G1 Gaming as for 1070 and 1080 and Windforce for smaller cards
  
• EVGA hates you, it seems like they have a different design for every card, but the most popular for enthusiasts could be ACX 3.0 used with 1070 and 1080
  
  Motherboards and cases: the hardest parts to pick, almost every one part is completely different from the other.
  Just go by the most popular.
  
  Anything I forgot?

> AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor

You could get the Ryzen 5 3600. It has 75% of the cores, but costs about 60%. It will give similar performance in high-resolution gaming.

> MSI MPG X570 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard

That is a fine choice. You could save money by buying a B450 motherboard (MSI MAX has new BIOS). You could also wait until January, when we expect new releases. These releases will include a B550 chip set and the motherboards that would go with them.

> hence the ultrawide 1440p display

I did not find that monitor because it is curved. I have not found that curved monitors work well. They catch the glare in the room, at every angle.

> Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Good power supply. You do not need that much power.

> quietness [...] be quiet! SilentWings 3 pwm 59.5 CFM 140 mm Fan

A ok choice, but not optimized. All fans are quiet when they are slow. The trick is being quiet at high speeds. I would move up to NF-A12x25 PWM, or step down to multi-pack fans from ARCTIC.


The Noctua A12x25 fan costs 50% more money then other fans because it moves 50% more air at the same noise levels. The new high-tech plastic blades have tight tip clearance, the fan bearings are quiet, and they have a circuit to smooth the PWM signals to the motor.

Sound Test Video: Noctua's NF-A12x25 - Magic on Radiators!

Testimonial Video: Noctua NF A12x25 Fan Review

Review Page: Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM Fan Review Conclusions

Arctic F14 PWM PST - Value Pack

ARCTIC F12 PWM PST - Value Pack 5pc

> Phanteks Evolv X ATX Mid Tower Case

It is hard to know what is the right choice for other people. I have a short list of cases that I recommend. Almost none of them come with fans, but that might be a coincidence.

• In Win 303 (ATX)
  
• In Win 301 (micro-ATX)
  
• Fractal Design Focus G Mini (micro-ATX, comes with fans)
  
• Ncase M1 (mini-ITX)
  
• Silverstone SG13 (mini-ITX)
  
  > Noctua NH-D15 CHROMAX.BLACK 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler
  
  I would move to the 120mm fan versions. If you want normal cooling, choose the Noctua NH-U12S. If you want extreme cooling and silence, get the Noctua NH-U12A. That will also let you get a normal-sized case and a almost any motherboard. (The height and width of the NH-D15 often force the video card out of the top slot.)
  
  Linus Tech Tips tests the NH-U12A: Why you shouldn't water cool your PC
  
  > Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory
  
  If I was going to pay for Corsair premium memory, I would buy the "RGB Pro" versions. If I was not buying for looks, I would get G.skill memory (or whatever is cheap). I have Corsair for price, but it is not a RGB kit.
  
  It looks like your kit is not RGB, so nevermind

Yeah I believe that H7 would be a step to right direction, but honestly I would go with somethin like this
https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-D15-heatpipe-NF-A15-140mm/dp/B00L7UZMAK

Or this https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00HPX7J4K/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494584874&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=be+quiet+dark+rock+pro+3&dpPl=1&dpID=41f-YJuctCL&ref=plSrch

They are really expensive, that is true, but they pack serious cooling power. You have quaranteed silent operation and possibility of overclocking as much as you want. These two coolers THE best ones around beating all of the $150 aios too. It's just cool to have that I7 running over 5ghz with good temps and silently. But yeah that cryorig is surely going to let you oc till something like 4,6ghz still staying reasonably quiet. Choise is yours.

Your pc just literally has the best components available, I feel like it would deserve good cooler to keep it cozy;)

Ps funny thing about those noctua fans is that they alone cost 20 bucks a piece, and are seriously awesome fans, quiet, efficient and long lasting, I'm running two of the indusrial versions on my build

The PSU case needs some love, too. It's like Creality shopped around for the loudest fans it could find, and that's what shipped with the Ender. Anyway, these two things make the PSU much better: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3384875 WellFan Noctua 60x25 remix https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2967389 WellFan PSU case mod and for fun https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2987473 cause, well, just cause (60mm fan guard) oh, and the fan: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B009NQMESS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Heyyyyy, you've added a buck converter and have 12v now, time to change the main board fan! It's a noisy bugger too! It ends up being the same fan as what comes on the factory hotend cooler. Annoyinggggggggggg. Like a mosquito in my ear!!! https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B009NQLT0M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Noctua 40x10mm fans are bolt in replacements for both of those, if you don't want to change the hotend cooler. I could have used a 40x10 on the Hero Me cooler I used - but the 40x20 looks cooler.

This is the LED strip lighting I used, it was expensive though, and I'm sure you could find much less expensive alternatives. https://www.rpelectronics.com/55-7160w-0-led-strip-outdoor-ip65-white-1m.html (white and red! z-rail and top rail!)

I printed a handle, and really like it, but it won't work without some love. Instead of modifying the 3d model I'm probably just gonna heatgun it into the shape I need it to be. Currently, it hits the Y-axis rail. It's here, if you wanna take a stab at it: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3313306

The Z-axis stepper is by far the loudest - I'm going to try to see if I can make a damper work, like this: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07CL356J5/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A28ZWXW3ZSVNZU&psc=1 ** disclaimer note: I haven't done this yet. I haven't received the dampers.

I printed a zillion links from this thing: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2920060 but didn't like the result after putting it all together. It motivated me to try and do something for cable management, though. I DID end up using a bunch of the start and end mounts, though, and cut off the link nubs. They worked super great for cable management.

I'm still not 100% happy with the cabling - I'm ordering these: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B074GZFYM1/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A23BY812APN9IU&psc=1 and will be trimming/cutting/hiding/wrapping them so it looks nicer. Don't get me wrong, it works fine the way it is, but I don't like that flat ribbon cable stuff. It's too... ugly. It's either these cables or I'm going to build my own, which I like doing anyway. This will be soon. I don't think it'll look much different, but I think individually wrapped cables running to the stepper motors would look cooler. More space-ship-ie.

There's probably more. For this list, there's another list like it of failed/ugly/discarded parts - it took some trial and error for sure. It's worth it though. I've actually printed more stuff for my printer than I have for projects I'm working on. 3d printing is so funny that way!

If you have questions, I'm happy to help :) I have pictures of all this if you need them. I haven't figured out imgur, but will add photos to this album as time goes on: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AEXNqvTXE5ZZhnhi8.

-Tunder

PS. Man this is a really big post. I didn't realize I did so many things. Rabbit hole, this thing is.

The best and relatively easiest ways to address poor aesthetics in the CPU are a modular or semi-modular PSU and replacement sleeved and color coordinated cables from said PSU, or if they are too expensive (and they are) sleeved cable extensions look just as good and are way cheaper, but create additional cable management.

​

Regarding a cooling system you should definitely still have one even if you are not OC'ing. If you want to go cheap, get a solid air cooler like the Hyper 212 Evo. If you are more concerned about looks, maybe consider an AIO, like the EVGA CLC240. It's more expensive, but looks nice.

​

Not 100% sure what you mean about the front facing fan, but if you are asking about fan placement, then yes at the front of the case is fine just make sure it isn't going against the airflow of other fans. If you mean fan orientation, like intake/exhaust, then that is also fine, with the same caveat. Generally speaking you want your airflow coming in the front/bottom and exhausting out the top/back.

​

PSU:
EVGA 600BQ Semi-Modular (MB power is the only non-modular) https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Bronze-Modular-Warranty-110-BQ-0600-K1/dp/B01MTJTO2O/ref=sr_1_1?crid=244UIDUJ0IXE&keywords=600+watt+power+supply&qid=1556624118&refinements=p_85%3A2470955011%2Cp_36%3A2500-6000%2Cp_89%3ACorsair%7CEVGA%7CSeasonic%7Cbe+quiet%21%2Cp_n_feature_keywords_two_browse-bin%3A6906985011&rnid=386442011&rps=1&s=pc&sprefix=600+watt+p%2Caps%2C136&sr=1-1

One thing to keep in mind about PSU's is they tend to go on sale more frequently and at better discounts (percentage wise) than many other PC components.

​

Cable Extensions:

Antec Sleeved PSU extension cables

https://www.amazon.com/Antec-Supply-Sleeved-Extension-Length/dp/B07C6CLXW8/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_3?keywords=antec+psu+cable+extensions&qid=1556624318&s=electronics&sr=1-3-fkmrnull

​

CPU Cooler:

Hyper 212 Evo (Air cooler-Cheap and functional, not pretty)

https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-RR-212E-20PK-R2-Direct-Contact/dp/B005O65JXI

CLC 240 (AIO water cooling- Pretty and functional, not cheap)

https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Liquid-Cooler-Cooling-400-HY-CL24-V1/dp/B074WH52BW/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=clc+240&qid=1556624855&s=electronics&sr=1-1

​

​

Hope this helps!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD - Ryzen 7 1700X 3.4GHz 8-Core Processor | $337.89 @ OutletPC
CPU Cooler | Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler | $19.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard | MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard | $93.98 @ Newegg
Memory | Corsair - Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3200 Memory | $94.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $104.64 @ OutletPC
Storage | Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $46.88 @ OutletPC
Video Card | EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB SSC GAMING Video Card | $279.99 @ SuperBiiz
Case | NZXT - S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case | $64.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply | SeaSonic - S12G 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply | $56.89 @ Newegg
Monitor | HP - 22cwa 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor | $89.99 @ Amazon
Keyboard | Cooler Master - Devastator II Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse | $25.49 @ OutletPC
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1260.72
| Mail-in rebates | -$45.00
| Total | $1215.72
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-05 12:05 EDT-0400 |

This is my PC with only a few differences. Works perfectly for photoshop/adobe/FL studios (which I use daily) and games like a champ.

CPU: Works absolutely great for multimedia tasks, allowing me to swiftly do most tasks I throw at it. Games great maxing out my monitor (only 60hz, though.)

CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 EVO is a great cooler which I started with, I have no upgrades to a Noctua.

Motherboard: Perfect piece of kit, allows for high speed RAM.

RAM: 16GB of DDR4 3200hz RAM allows for fast use for rendering games. Especially open world games.

Storage: 250GB of quality SSD storage, samsung are the best make for SSDs imo and I use this drive. Yes it's a bit more expensive, but you're paying for quality. I also have the WD blue which is perfect.

GPU: I bought the 1070 when it was around $300, if you're buying in a month 1070's could be going for around $300. And would highly suggest that card over the 1060 6GB as it is still inflated.

Case: Just the one I use, it's great.

PSU: 550W will be fine for a PC of this kind.

Monitor: 60hz IPS display. I suggest looking for deals on monitors. $200 monitors go on sale all the time, often 50% off.

Keyboard/Mouse: Quality cheap piece of equipment.

Here's a $1000 build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor | $197.88 @ OutletPC
CPU Cooler | Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler | $19.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard | MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard | $93.98 @ Newegg
Memory | Corsair - Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3200 Memory | $94.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $46.88 @ OutletPC
Video Card | EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB SSC GAMING Video Card | $279.99 @ SuperBiiz
Case | NZXT - S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case | $64.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply | SeaSonic - S12G 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply | $56.89 @ Newegg
Monitor | HP - 22cwa 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor | $89.99 @ Amazon
Keyboard | Cooler Master - Devastator II Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse | $25.49 @ OutletPC
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1016.07
| Mail-in rebates | -$45.00
| Total | $971.07
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-05 12:15 EDT-0400 |

CPU: Is now the R1600, 6 cores will still be great at Photoshop, and same with gaming. Just the R1700X is a lot better for multitasking.

Storage: Dropped the SSD.

With a better monitor?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor | $197.88 @ OutletPC
CPU Cooler | Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler | $19.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard | MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard | $93.98 @ Newegg
Memory | Corsair - Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3200 Memory | $94.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $46.88 @ OutletPC
Video Card | EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB SSC GAMING Video Card | $279.99 @ SuperBiiz
Case | NZXT - S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case | $64.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply | SeaSonic - S12G 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply | $56.89 @ Newegg
Monitor | Acer - H257HU SMIDPX 25.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor | $336.99 @ Amazon
Keyboard | Cooler Master - Devastator II Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse | $25.49 @ OutletPC
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1263.07
| Mail-in rebates | -$45.00
| Total | $1218.07
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-05 12:17 EDT-0400 |

Monitor: 1440p 60hz will make games look great. With deals, you should be able to find 120hz monitor for this price/cheaper.

REMEMBER TO LOOK FOR DEALS! This is how to get a great PC for your budget.

Glad I could help. (Maybe? ;)

Good turning down the accelerations and jerk I had to do the same thing and it does help.

So for the glass bed, I bought [this one] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QQ5Q3BI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) which has been excellent for me despite some of the bad reviews. I also bought this thermal pad. It has to come from china which is kinda a pain but it delivered pretty quickly and is HUGE compared to some of the other ones on amazon. That means I can use it for other projects and have replacement pads, which is nice.

Here's a great guide for this and for most things related to this printer

I also went ahead and upgraded to a Micro Swiss nozzle which has been a really nice upgrade for me. I also upgraded the filament feed lever because I like fancy aluminium replacement parts and the plastic one didn't seem like it was going to make it in the long run.

A note about shipping: They are FAST. I hit order and within fifteen minutes my order was out their door and on it's way.

The final thing I did was purchase a shim set. At my work, we do a LOT with 3D printing. We've found that using shims to set the nozzle exactly .2mm off the bed is the best way to get the printer to excel on the first layer. If you are confused on how to use the shims to achieve this, I can take a picture.

EDIT: When using the glass bed you're going to have use Elmers Disapearing Purple School Glue to get prints to stick. It's cheap and has been giving me excellent results. I may switch to Elmers Glue-All which we were using at work for Nylon prints and Gahddamn is that stuff great for nylon prints.

EDIT: RECALIBRATE YOUR ESTEP. This fixed a lot of my infill and layer problems because now my extruder is laying down the correct amount of filament.

Got any ideas for budget? Also, what software will you be using and what bitrate, resolution and general quality settings are you planning on encoding at? Is it also a necessity for 32GB of RAM? You would probably be able to save a good chunk of money to put towards other parts if you went with 16 or perhaps 24.

---

I'm not sure on the display outputs of the GTX 480, however running 3 monitors off of that and one off your onboard graphics chip you should be good to go (aslong as the connections aren't VGA, as corpnewt mentioned; it's quite hit-and-miss). For onboard graphics I'd recommend a motherboard with a HD530 chip, they're pretty well supported and off the top of my head require 2 bootflags to get working.

---

In terms of motherboards it's not particularly my forte, so I may be wrong on some of these things. I think it's generally accepted that Gigabyte motherboards are the best for hackintoshing and are all round great boards, so I'd definitely recommend one. As I said you'd probably want a board with a HD530 chip, or another chip with similar support. Assuming you want 32 gig of RAM you're gonna need support for that, and if you go for 16 for now you still might want to go for a board that supports 32 incase you decide to upgrade in the future or if 16 is not enough. I'd also recommend the 115x chipset as imo is going to give you the most choices on CPU with the best compatibility. After some talks with /u/CorpNewt he suggested this Gigabyte board. It's got enough PCI-E slots, supported onboard graphics (HD530), support for 64gb of RAM, ThunderBolt and good hackintosh support which should check all the boxes.

---

CPU? 6700k; 4 cores, 8 threads, 4.0Ghz clock speed, it's overclockability gives you some headroom if you ever need a bump in performance, the most powerful CPU you can get on Skylake currently (yes the enthusiast CPU's are round the corner but they are silly money and this should be plenty of power), great longevity, and most of all have good OSX support.

---

The CPU can be found here. You're gonna want a cooler such as a Hyper 212 Evo or a Corsair H55 AIO (I can vouch for this cooler, have one myself and it's great). If you plan on overclocking or want to just in case, you should probably look at something a bit beefier like a Corsair H100i AIO.

The mobo can be found here.

---

Feel free to fire away with any questions you have.

Ok, so I hadn't really planned on making this a long response, but here we are with a nice little wall.

TL;DR at the bottom if you don't care about the smaller details.

Turbo is a processor-based function. I used to have a non-K processor and that still turbos. The K model processors also have turbo stats. Overclocking refers to pushing the processor's base speed(in your example: 3.2Ghz) past the manufacturer recommended specs. After overclocking, you can still acheive higher speeds with the Turbo functionality, but it doesn't tend to kick in as often since you already have it overclocked.

K processors have unlocked multipliers which makes overclocking much easier. However, you can still overclock a non-K processor, it is just more difficult, usually less stable, and takes a good bit more technical knowledge since it requires manually adjusting voltages and other settings from the advanced menu on your motherboard(if applicable). With K processors, many newer motherboards(especially higher end ones, gaming ones, etc.) have either a hardware or software(within the BIOS) button/switch which will attempt to automatically calculate a safe and stable operating clock speed above the manufacturer recommended spec.

Depending on your processor and how "well" it overclocks, you may see a large boost in performance. For example, a common budget overclocking CPU(Intel-based) is the Pentium G3258 Anniversary edition. In most cases, you will see a pretty substantial boost to your clock speed(each board and CPU combo will work slightly differently due to each manufacturer's programming). I used to use the above mentioned Pentium CPU until I was able to save up for an i5. IIRC, it's base clock is also 3.2GHz, and with an aftermarket cooler I was able to overclock it to 4.0/4.1GHz using my motherboard's auto-overclock function. With manual tuning, I was able to jump it up to 4.3 and still have it be stable. I now use an i5 4690(non-K) and a water cooler. I have not yet overclocked my i5 since I've had great performance out of it and haven't seen the need to apply any tweaks.

TL;DR, You're kinda right in that Turbo increases clock speed(this is a processor function), but overclocking is actually a separate function related to your motherboard and its power settings.

For $2,000, you can score a pretty excellent VR dev rig.

If you're already using UE4, and you've got got your DK1, you're probably relatively familiar with the basic demands— The faster your CPU, the faster everything compiles, and more ability you have to get things done simultaneously outside your IDE. RAM is a similar story, as well letting you play with more polys and textures in whatever modeling program you use. For the GPU, various Oculus people have dropped the hint that you pretty much want a GTX 770 as a baseline for advanced apps [source]. That's consistent with what benchmarks have had to say about what it'll take to drive the (probably) 1440p CV1.

With regards to the OS, there are very few reasons to use Windows 7. You can read some reddit discussions about that here or here, but the moral of the story is that everything works better on 8 except maybe the layout, which you can change.

$2,000 is a good spot— it's pretty much where the bang-for-buck curve becomes a cliff. Here's about how that build looks:

Full-Featured VR Kit

| part | link | | price |
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|cpu|Intel Core i7-4770K Quad-Core Desktop Processor (3.5 GHz, 8 MB Cache, Intel HD graphics, BX80646I74770K)|amazon|$299.99|
|video card|EVGA GeForce GTX780 SuperClocked w/EVGA ACX Cooler 3GB GDDR5 384bit, DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI,DP, SLI Ready (03G-P4-2784-KR)|amazon|$509.99|
|ram|G.SKILL Value 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C11D-16GNT|newegg|$127.99|
|motherboard|ASRock Z87 PRO3 LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard|newegg|$94.99|
|power supply|CORSAIR RM Series RM750 750W ATX12V v2.31 and EPS 2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply|newegg|$129.99|
|case|Corsair Carbide Series Black 400R Mid Tower Computer Case (CC-9011011-WW)|amazon|$79.99|
|ssd|Crucial M500 240GB SATA 2.5" 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter) Internal Solid State Drive CT240M500SSD1|newegg|$114.99|
|hard drive|Western Digital WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive, Blue - OEM|newegg|$59.99|
|disc drive|Lite-On Super AllWrite 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive - Bulk - IHAS124-04 (Black)|amazon|$20.65|
|operating system|Windows 8.1 System Builder OEM DVD 64-Bit|amazon|$92.00|
|fans|Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan (RR-212E-20PK-R2)|amazon|$32.00|
|monitor|LG IPS234V-PN Black 23" 14ms (GTG) HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor IPS 250 cd/m2 5,000,000:1x2|newegg|$299.98|
|||||
| |See current build price with shipping and tax| total | $1862.55|

Learn more and customize this build at kit.computer.


This leaves you with wiggle-room, to make a couple decisions based on your uses and preferences. You could bump one of the monitors up to 27" 1440p, you could bump the very capable GTX 780 up to a 780 Ti, you could move up to 32GB of RAM, increase the size of the SSD, or just pocket the change. It really depends on what apps you're trying to produce, and what your workflow looks like— if it were me, I'd lean towards the 1440p screen, just for workflow reasons.

If you have any questions (or anything to teach me), let me know!

Are you gonna liquid cool? I ask because that case is generally for liquid cooling. The airflow of that case it not that great. Here's another option, a lot better suited for air cooling: HAF X.

For CPU cooler, here's a pretty good one, the Hyper 212 Plus. It's not much more than the one you listed and it's regularly considered one of the best air coolers, especially for the price. If you can, try to pick up a 2nd 120 mm fan and do push/pull with it.

Also if you are doing serious heavy duty video editing, I'm always a proponent of getting as much RAM as you can. May want to think about getting the 16 gb kit.

Besides that it looks pretty good. Some might say it'd be better (and cheaper) to get 2 Samsung F3 1 tb drives and run it in RAID. Also there's people out there who might have some issue with the 590 card (either say it's overkill, or better to get two 580s) but I don't have a particularly strong stance on either position so I'll leave that to them.

Just a sidenote though, if you can afford to add it to your system, I'd highly recommend getting a SSD as a boot drive/program drive. It was the most noticeable change I ever got from a single component upgrade. I'd recommend at least a 128 gb if you're gonna put all your programs + windows on it. You could probably get away with 64 gb but you'd always have to be super frugal about space. My personal recommendation is the Crucial M4. Just make sure you update the firmware to revision 9 before you start installing anything on it (google it, it's super easy to do).

EDIT: Also was looking at your motherboard. From everything I could see, this Gigabyte board seems to be pretty much the same features wise and cheaper to boot.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3GHz 8-Core Processor | $279.49 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler | Corsair - H110i 113.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler | $109.99 @ Amazon
Thermal Compound | Arctic Silver - 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste | $7.25 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI - X370 GAMING PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard | $116.16 @ Amazon
Memory | G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory | $238.50 @ Amazon
Storage | Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $349.99
Storage | Samsung - 960 EVO 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive | $445.41 @ Amazon
Case | Corsair - Crystal 460X RGB ATX Mid Tower Case | $131.99
Power Supply | EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | $119.99 @ Amazon
Case Fan | Corsair - SP120 RGB High Performance 52.0 CFM 120mm Fan | $19.98 @ Amazon
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $1818.75
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-24 12:03 EDT-0400 |

PCpartpicker didn't find all the amazon links.

Case Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Crystal-Tempered-Glass-Compact/dp/B01LA2LB7W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1521906800&sr=8-2&keywords=460x%2Bcorsair&th=1

SSD Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Inch-Internal-MZ-76E1T0B-AM/dp/B078DPCY3T/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521906876&sr=8-1&keywords=860+evo+1tb

With some pretty easy overclocking, messing around with XMP settings in BIOS and voltage, you can very easily push the CPU to 3.8 Ghz, People claim to push it to 4.0 Ghz though say it seemed to be a little unstable.

If you haven't cleaned out your PSU, you should. If it's younger than 5 years it's definitely still good. 100$ saved.

Windows can be obtained for free, only disadvantage is a small Windows 10 watermark on the lower right corner, and some of the OS customization settings are locked. It doesn't bother me, and it certainly doesn't convince me to spend 100$ for customization.

M.2 nvme SSDs are many times faster than a SATA SSD, for a boot drive you won't see a huge difference in boot time, but file transfer and such it definitely shines.

The extra fan is for an exhaust for the back of the case. You'll need a fan hub Here: https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-System-Cables-Black-CPF04/dp/B00VNW556I/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1521908068&sr=1-3&keywords=fan+hub Forgot about it :/

Ive built with this case before, and it comes with a nice SSD mounting array behind the motherboard, a kinda annoying but spacious PSU basement and great air flow. tempered glass oooo

Buy zip ties. like 50. Zip ties are your friend and so is your fully modular PSU

If you want help with your CPU overclocking, you can pm me, or look up a guide on overclockers forum. Really helpful people over there.

I made it all Amazon, because of prime, which is can save you a lot of shipping. With the cheaper vendors, its cheaper for the part, but the shipping would put you over budget.

I'm looking to build a new PC soon. I currently have ~$1700 saved towards it. It's mainly going to be used for WoW, Overwatch, and ARK: Survival Evolved, with the occasional RPG like the Witcher 3.

I'm pretty set on an i7 7700k, a Phanteks Enthoo Luxe case ( https://www.amazon.com/Phanteks-Enthoo-Tower-Chassis-PH-ES614L_WT/dp/B00LW3X1P0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1505347791&sr=8-2&keywords=phanteks+enthoo+luxe ), and a corsair liquid cooler for it, since I've heard the 7700k runs hot (something like https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Extreme-Performance-Liquid-Cooler/dp/B019EXSSBG/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1505347894&sr=1-2&keywords=corsair+liquid+cooling ). I was also considering a 1TB SSD to go along with the HDD, but people keep telling me I don't need that much (I'd put most of my games on it, as well as my OS, ARK alone is like 100gb).

I plan on getting a 1080p 144hz monitor around/after the time I build it, I don't mind continuing to use my ancient HP monitor for an extra week or two if it means getting a better PC sooner.

What should the rest of the build be? I was looking at a 1080, but would it be worth saving a little more for a 1080ti? I know next to nothing about actually building a PC, I'm mostly trying to pick the parts out, and my friend will build it for me. (I'm a very shaky person, on top of being super hairy and having a lot of static). I just don't know if I should wait a little longer to get some better parts, stuff like how much RAM I'll need for gaming (I was thinking 16gb would be good, but some people suggest 32gb?), what kind of MOBO I'll need, etc. I'm really lost, and am just super excited about finally upgrading to something really good.

Sorry for the wall of text and all the questions. Again, first time I'm spending THIS much on a PC.

Let me first say im not an expert in Air coolers for cpus, I have always used All in one(AIO) water coolers. AIO are definitely more expensive, but easier to install, have better cooling ability, but can be louder than Air coolers.

Air coolers tend to have better price/performance and are cheaper but tend to be harder to install.

These two below are two of the most popular due to price/performance so they are worth looking at on the AUS side of things to.

https://www.amazon.com/CRYORIG-Tower-Cooler-Intel-CPUs/dp/B00S7YA5FQ
https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Hyper-212-RR-212E-20PK-R2/dp/B005O65JXI

This article also has some good info on both types and good suggestions at different price points
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-cpu-coolers,4181.html

The only other thing would be to try and get a EVGA G series psu or a Seasonic G series(What i have, caught it on sale tho). If you cant find one of them Corsair makes some cool ones too. You want to get a Bronze 80 rated PSU at the very least. They are one of the most important parts of the pc and one going bad can cause damage or a lot of instability once your gpu/cpu starts kicking in.

Im not familar with the cases you choose but its important to look at the manufacturers website of the case to see how much clearance each case provides for air coolers since they can be big as hell.

That all being said I think the UMART build is the best out of the three with the PC CASE GEAR coming in second.

The UMART is only $100 AUS more than the others according to the image but with that build you get better performance with the ability to overclock later down the line if you need more power eventually.
Plus you get slightly faster ram so overall it looks better.

Remember that you can upgrade to a better case, GPU or cpu fan etc down the line if you outgrow your current selection but the CPU/PSU, and Motherboard will be fine for a lot of years so its worth spending a little more on them now.

Also sheesh man those AUS prices are no joke, that 470 would only be around $160-180 in the states

Just a few suggestions here:

• HD 6950 2 GB for roughly the same price, which you can unlock to a HD 6970 relatively easily.
  
  
• You're probably better off just getting 2 of these, as it'll perform roughly as well as the Western Digital Caviar Black for a lower price, and the Seagate you chose is really mediocre. Also, you could even try to get an SSD and a relatively slow 2 TB HDD for storage. I don't know much about SSDs though, so I won't make any uninformed suggestions.
  
  
• That memory is extremely overpriced, and the differences between 1333, 1600, and 1866 (crazy..) are more or less negligible. Here's 4 GB of DDR3 1600 RAM for a good price.
  
  
• 850 watts is overkill unless you plan on Crossfiring two of the HD 6950s. If you're just gonna use one (which will perform admirably at 1920x1080), you're better off with a cheaper power supply >500 watts. This is a good power supply at a decent price after rebate.
  
  
• Here's a cheaper ~~23" monitor ~~better 23" monitor which should be just fine.
  
  
• Here's a cheaper wired mouse with very good ratings.
  
  
• Here's the same HAF 922 case, for cheaper and with free shipping. The only difference is that the case fan LED is red instead of blue.
  
  
• You really only need the six-core Phenom II if you mess around with multi-threaded applications a lot, and you would be better off going with a Core i5 or i7 in that situation anyway. That said, the Phenom II x6 is still a great CPU. If you feel like downgrading just a tad bit, a Phenom II x4 955 is still an amazing CPU, which can be overclocked easily to 3.7 GHz or higher. A recommended heatsink would be the Cooler Master Hyper 212+, which will guarantee low temperatures.
  
  EDIT: There's currently a pretty decent 5% off, with a $10 gift card deal, for the Phenom II x4 1090T.

I second the MacBook recommendation. I am on one now, and it is perfect. I think the best part is that it already comes with Unix installed so you can play around with stuff that you want right from the start. If you build a pc and put linux on it, then you're good anyways. Windows is a no-go.


If you want to build a computer, (its a good idea, you might learn quite a bit) I'll help you out.
Since you seem to not know much about computers, I must fill you in. This is not a good time to do it. Ram shortages combined with super high GPU prices due to mining, and you have yourself a costly computer.

That being said, here you go. A couple things about it:

1. That processor is overkill for probably anything you would be doing. You could be saving a good bit of money by using another one. But since that is what you requested, I'll throw it in. The plus is that you probably won't have to upgrade it for a while.
   
   
2. You don't 'need' a gpu, but the 1050ti is pretty inexpensive, and if you decide to play some games it will be able to handle them.
   
   
3. 16GB of ram is plenty. 32GB is overkill. I only have 16 and I can have multiple VMs at a time, and its fine. And if you want to upgrade later, you can do it pretty easily.
   
   
4. I gave you a M.2 SSD. They are much faster than a regular sata and WAY faster than a hdd. Do you need it? Not at all. But especially for a beginner, it will be easier not having to route more cables. I have multiple sata ssds and multiple hdds, and cable management is a pain. The total comes to like $1280 but if that is too much get a 256GB ssd instead of a 500GB one. You can always add more storage later. It is very common for people to have a M.2 for booting and then all of their applications on a sata ssd or a hdd.
   
   
5. I gave you a case with places to put hdds if you want them.
   
   
6. The power supply (psu) should be plenty. I gave you 650w but you really only need 400w. I have that same psu and I have two GPUs and I'm fine. I know you'll want to get some crazy 1000w one but you don't need it.
   
   
7. The motherboard isn't the lowest level mobo, but it isn't the best. It should allow you to overclock pretty well if you care to (you won't now, but you will, and it will be a pain if you have to upgrade your mobo in a few months). It has onboard wifi, so you don't have to worry about that.
   
   
8. You don't need water cooling. At all. That processor is hot, but you won't be doing enough for it to be stressed anyways. That being said, I would go for a cryorig h7 instead. Easy to install, comes with thermal paste, and works very well for the price. I'm not at my computer now, but I have that cryorig cooler and I have my processor overclocked and it has no problem.
   
   
9. Take this all with a grain of salt. Do your own research. You should be doing plenty of research about anything you hear on the internet always, especially if it is regarding you spending money.
   
   
   Regardless of if you get a laptop or you build your own, enjoy your computer. Seems daunting to build one at first, but it is really easy. Like Legos. I was terrified at first, but I've done it so many times now that I don't even have to think about it.

Decent machine however few bits and pieces:

Cryorig H7 is 10 bucks more but is a lot better (and much easier to install) than the 212. It'll run cooler, quieter, and generally better than the 212 for 10 bucks. Unless you're super stretched thin, I'd recommend it.

The 970 is an interesting choice but I think I'd recommend either the r9 390 if you want to buy something now (gives you 8gb of vram and great performance for $300) or if you can wait a few weeks, the rx 480 is coming out. I'd wait for benchmarks to come out but at $200 for the 4gb model and $250 for the 8gb model, it looks like a beast of a card. If you can wait, that's a great card to pickup.

A lot of mid-sized towers (and specially designed compact ATX towers) support both, so I guess a large portion of it is user preference. Take for example the following compact designed case designed to fit full ATX boards:

Amazon Link

I can't really attest to the quality of this case, but just as an example, as long as you find a tower with supporting ATX board sizes, it'll work (also good to consider the size of your CPU cooler, that's why they can't get too small - in the example of this case, your current fan wouldn't get the clearance it needs, but you could go with an alternative like...

Amazon Link)

Although that might be more than you want to spend, so just check the CPU cooler clearance required in the case you get, and it should be fine!

As for the CPU, if hyperthreading isn't a big deal to you, it's totally fine - that's one of the core differences between this one and say... the i7-6700k. If you want a higher clock speed out of the box too without having to OC, that's one thing to consider. But if those aren't that important to you, I'd say your choice is a sound one (many, many people will argue for the merit of hyperthreading these days though - and I can't say they're incorrect in their reasoning). However, if you're comparing dollar-to-dollar value, invest that extra savings into your GPU.

And finally, onto your GPU, pretty solid choice. Especially if you're not considering options like the 1070 or 1080. I lean more towards GTX cards, but that's entirely my biased choice, and so I won't influence you that way. There's a number of arguments that go both ways, so I'd say for sanity sake (you could literally dig for hours on the comparisons), that you'd be safe going either route (and if DX12 is the big factor for you, AMD seems to be doing better in some games, not as good in others, and around the same in even other games, so there seems to be a LOT of variability in regards to this factor - AMD seems to be excelling better on more recent games, but it's hard to say if that will remain the trend or if it will shift).

Again, hope this was helpful :)

The picture you found is a bit blurry. That "IT856SE" you are seeing could actually be "IT8665E"?

There is an extended version of the it87 driver that's not in the normal kernel, and it has an "IT8665E" in its device ID list:

https://github.com/bbqlinux/it87

It is not mentioned in the README text, but the IT8665E support is inside that "it87.c" file.

Sadly, the person that worked on extending the it87 module gave up recently, he felt he had no time to do a good job. I don't know if there's someone else actively working on it somewhere.

Anyway... on Arch you have this special version of the it87 driver in the AUR as:

it87-dkms-git

This AUR package should be easy to use if everything works right. Before you install it, you just have to make sure you have the "...-headers" package for the kernel you are using installed. For example, if you use "linux" then install "linux-headers", or if you use "linux-lts" install "linux-lts-headers".


If nothing works, you could do a hardware solution. A simple way to solve this is to wire the PWM signal from the CPU fan header to all case fans. You then go and set the fan curves in the motherboard's BIOS menus, and you are done.

There's inexpensive fan hub products to do this. If your case fans are 4-pin PWM fans, the products are quite cheap, but there's also versions that can translate a PWM signal into voltage control for 3-pin fans, so 3-pin case fans can be made to work as well.

Here's two examples of what I'm thinking about:

https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-System-Cables-Black-CPF04/dp/B00VNW556I/

https://noctua.at/en/products/accessories/fan-control/na-fc1

This one here can drive 3-pin fans, it translates the PWM signal into different voltages so it's more expensive:

https://www.amazon.com/Phanteks-PWM-Fan-Controller-PH-PWHUB_01/dp/B00M0R05WE/

All of those products get power from a cable that's connecting to the PSU. This is so they won't overload the motherboard fan header. They only connect to the motherboard fan header to get the PWM speed signal but won't draw power from there.

You can also make the graphics card drive case fans in hardware. There are adapter cables that can connect into that tiny 4-pin fan header that graphics card have. You can then get the fan signal from the graphics card to one or two case fans. Those adapters cables are a bit hard to find. You could do a setup where the motherboard's CPU fan header drives a case fan or two, and the GPU drives a case fan or two.

Reviews on that first linked Silverstone seem to suggest that it'll control PWM on all fans, but use the tach from only one fan, so it's a good fit for multiple same fans. It'll also run 3 pin (non PWM) fans at 100%, so that's a big caveat.

If you're looking to jump from 1 PWM-controlled fan to 2 same model PWM-controlled fans on one fan header, you might just wanna get a simple splitter.

If you want a fan controller that supports PWM and 3 pin fans via voltage control you'd be better off looking for a controller that uses that method - NZXT Sentry lineup does that, takes up a front drive bay, but it's similar to that Silverstone, only difference is the knobs up front and the ability to control both 4 pin (PWM) and 3 pin via voltage control.

FWIW I use a Sentry Mix and I love it. I don't use fans with LEDs and it might cause flickering as it's voltage control, but I never checked. 6 banks for the Sentry Mix 2 - you can use splitters for even more fan control - hook up like fans (bottom intake with splitter to bank 1, radiator intake/push fans to bank 5, radiator pull/exhaust fans to bank 6, case back fan to 4, etc, then just jog dials if needed).

But that 1-to-2 splitter hooked up to 2 SP120 PWM in one header should be enough for now... And then you can choose to get a fan controller later, and keep that splitter to run 2 fans off of one bank.

Oh my god please don't do a prebuilt from here and not likes Dell prebuilt like someone built it here. You can learn so much but buying the parts, and researching it can be a bonding experience with your son!
Edit: SORRY IN ADVANCE FOR A WALL OF TEXT!
anyway lets get this build started!
Idk what you want but for a case that looks super sexy the NZXT S340 would be a good start, cheap and nice.
CASE:NZXT S340 Mid Tower Case CA-S340MB-GR Matte Black/Blue https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T4BWUUY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_wR12xbKDZPNE8
Note: $74 Jet.com has it cheaper. (GET THE BLUE AS I MADE IT A BLUE BUILD)
CPU:Intel Core i7-2600 Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 8 MB Cache LGA 1155 - BX80623I72600 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004EBUXSU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_nT12xb7BECNJC
Note: $164
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS P8H61-M LE/CSM R2.0 LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008NA1K0S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_b112xb1T6M7HK
Note: $94
RAM: PNY Anarchy 8GB Kit (2x4GB) DDR3 2133MHz (PC3-17000) CL10 Desktop Memory (BLUE) - MD8GK2D3213310AB-Z https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012DT0IB6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_h412xb3VC5JNW
Note: $45
POWER SUPPLY: EVGA 500 W1, 80+ WHITE 500W, 3 Year Warranty, Power Supply 100-W1-0500-KR https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H33SFJU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_E512xb56068FP
Note: $37
GRAPHICS CARD: ASUS ROG STRIX Radeon RX 460 4GB OC Edition AMD Gaming Graphics Card (STRIX-RX460-O4G-GAMING) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K1JVQI4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_z712xbFGF2Y2T
Note: $140

TOTAL: $554

Edit 2: As your budget is $600 and I don't know how lenient you are with going over or what, but an Asus RX 470 would be a better graphics card and would increase the total to around $650.

Edit 3:
AFTERMARKET CPU COOLER:Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan (RR-212E-20PK-R2) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005O65JXI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_E-12xbR7ZCHBK
Note: $28

Edit 4: If you want peripherals that's gonna be around $1000 in total for decent crap. I would suggest a 1080p 60hz monitor, a mechanical keyboard ( I use a G. Skillz KM780 RGB and it is fabulous), a nice pair of headphones HyperX cloud 2, and a nice set of speakers Logitech Z506. Also idk what you have but get a wifi adapter as well unless you can hook up to Ethernet which is highly recommended.

Edit 5: If any other questions just PM me glad to help you out more.

Edit 6: shit I forgot drives and OS. I'm too tired to link things anymore so I suggest getting a 128gb Samsung PRO SSD for your OS and main shit then get a Seagate 1TB HDD and you're good to go. Hopefully I covered everything.

Honestly 500-600 wouldn't make a very decent computer for a first rig. You can make one and well I made one just right now but that doesn't take into account peripherals. If you wanted 500-600 WITH peripherals that would have been the hardest budget build of my life. To maintain quality and performance, I'm cringing just thinking of it.

Raw storage:

• 72TB (9 x 8TB RAIDZ2)
  
  
• 36TB (9 x 4TB RAIDZ2)
  
  Total 108TB(18 drives)
  
  Actual storage:
  
  
• 48TiB
  
  
• 24TiB
  
  Total 72TiB
  
  Case:
  
  
• Nanoxia Deep Silence 6 Rev. B
  
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DSFDSUS/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  
• Nanoxia Deep Silence 3 for parts
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Nanoxia-Computer-Controllers-Motherboard-NXDS3B/dp/B00M49SNVI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1497552150&sr=8-2&keywords=nanoxia+deep+silence
  
  Used the two bay 3.5" cage, and three bay 2.5" cage from the Deep Silence 3 case.
  
  Fans:
  
  
• 2 140mm top
  
  
• 2 140mm front
  
  
• 2 120mm middle
  
  
• 1 140mm back
  
  
• 2 140mm cpu
  
  Used two 120mm case fans from the Deep Silence 3 case between the two stacks of drives.
  
  Motherboard: Supermicro X10SRA-F
  
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O7ZK10S/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  CPU: Intel Xeon E5-1620 v3 3.5GHz
  
• https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117512&cm_re=intel_1620-_-19-117-512-_-Product
  
  Heatsink: Noctua DH-D15
  
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L7UZMAK/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  RAM:
  
  
• Micron ECC Registered - 8gb x 4
  
  
• Mircon ECC Registered - 4gb x 4
  
  Total 48gb
  
  PSU: Corsair AX1500i
  
  Controllers:
  
  
• Motherboard - 10 ports
  
  
• LSI 9211-8i - 8 ports
  
  • https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002RL8I7M/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
    
    
• Marvell - 2 ports
  
  Total 20 ports
  
  NIC: Mellanox Connectx-2 10g
  
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0178CNZ9U/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  OS Disks: 2 x Intel 330 60GB, mdadm RAID1
  
  Storage Disks:
  
  
• 9 x Western Digital Red 8TB WD80EFZX
  
  • http://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-easystore-8tb-external-usb-3-0-hard-drive-black/5792401.p?skuId=5792401
    
  • https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BYLY4DM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
    
    Seven shucked from Best Buy WD easystore externals and two from Amazon as internals.
    
    
• 9 x 4TB drives, mix of Seagates and HGST NAS
  
  • 2 x ST4000DM000
    
  • 2 x ST4000DX000
    
  • 4 x HGST_HDN724040ALE640
    
  • 1 x HGST_HDN726040ALE614
    
    • http://www.frys.com/product/9112138?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
      
      I originally shucked the Seagates from externals. I have replaced the Seagates as they fail, and I had one fail during this upgrade. Yes, I have had five Seagate failures.
      
      SATA/SAS cables:
      
      
• 10 36" SATA cables
  
  • http://www.frys.com/product/8057794?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
    
    
• 2 24" SATA cables
  
  • http://www.frys.com/product/8057804?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
    
• 2 SAS four port breakout cables
  
  • https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018YHS8BS/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
    
    OS: Fedora 25 with ZFS for Linux
    
    Cost:
    
    
• Around $2800 without storage
  
  
• Around $3200 for storage
  
  
• Around $6000 total
  
  The cost was spread across years. This is more like two builds in one. My old build with the motherboard, memory, heatsink, CPU, and 4tb drives combined with my new 8tb build. With the 4tb drives I have replaced five of nine drives over time, which has driven up the real total cost.
  
  The case is huge, but all the space is nice. You don't feel like you are cramming anything in. I used a Fractal Design R5 for my previous build, and prefer Fractal Design cases to Nanoxia cases. But the biggest Fractal Design case wouldn't quite suit my needs. Even this was a stretch for the Deep Silence 6 case. I wish the Deep Silence 6 had spots to mount 2.5" drives on the back side like the R5. It is a feature I miss.
  
  I have a few issues. The trays and the screw holes on the WD 8tb drives don't match. The WD drives are missing the middle bottom screw holes. My temporary workaround is strong 3M double sticky foam tape with two screws. I may use a drill and drill holes in the sides of the trays. I had to tape down the 2.5" cage, but the drives are so light it is not a big deal.
  
  After building this beast I had the window closed, the door shut, and no room fan for one day. The room was quite warm. I have since opened the window, turned on the fan, and left the door open.
  
  My Kill-a-watt peaked at 450 watts during boot. It idles between 200-220 watts. So I could go back to my AX760 from my previous build with SATA power splitters.
  
  I still have one tray free, but no extra drive or SATA port.
  
  I was originally going to move the four bay 3.5" cage from the Deep Silence 3, but it was just too integrated into the case. I tried adapting it, and it didn't come out well. Even if it had, the bottom tray was going to sit below the lip of the side of the case. So that tray would have been less accessible.
  
  I am currently copying 18tb from the old array to the new array as a burn-in test.
  
  I got the original idea to build with this case from someone else's post. I probably would have just bought another Fractal Design R5, and run two systems otherwise. I have run two systems for storage before, connected them with 10g, and used iSCSI. When I did I used, https://romanrm.net/mhddfs , to merge the filesystems together. I am considering doing the same again.
  
  With the right cages you could probably fit around 26 3.5" drives in this case.
  
  Over time I have gone from 250gb to 500gb to 1tb to 1.5tb to 2tb to 4tb to 8tb drives. I didn't think I would be upgrading to 8tb anytime soon, until the Best Buy easystore deal. In the past I mostly purchased on Black Fridays. In more recent years externals from Costco.
  
  TLDR: I built a new server combining an existing 24TiB ZFS with a new array of 36TiB ZFS for the win!

One additional note on the GPU choice - as PlaysForDays noted, the "standard" RTX 2080 performs only a bit higher (~10%) than the $499 RTX 2070 Super (Gigabyte 2070 Super as an example), but retails for several hundred dollars more. Its successor, the RTX 2080 Super can be found for $699-$730 (eg, this card, or this card), making it a smarter choice than your listed $689 Gigabyte RTX 2080.

Performance differences will vary from game to game, but essentially there's no reason to choose an RTX 2080 at $690 when for ten or twenty dollars more you can pick up an RTX 2080 Super. Conversely, dropping to a 2070 Super can save you two hundred bucks for giving up about ten percent in performance. For a build this powerful, I'd simply step up to the 2080 Super and call it a day. :)

The other observations about the motherboard are also valid. The Gaming X isn't a bad board, but it's not compelling when alternatives such as the Aorus Elite exist for a very minor bump in price.

For a CPU cooler, if you plan on using a traditional air cooler, go with either a Noctua NH-D15 or the Dark Rock Pro 4 from the irritatingly yet aptly named "be quiet!" They're both top tier, very high quality coolers with low noise fans which include mounting hardware for AM4 boards. They'll handle the 3900X's heat with no issues and you'll have some headroom for overclocking if you desire.

I'm pretty new to this too, I bought my Ender 3 Pro around the same time as you. Quiet printing is pretty high on my list as well as being able to print high-temp exotic filaments in the long term while maintaining reliability.

First upgrades I purchased were stiffer bed springs so I would be less likely to throw the bed out of level while removing prints or working around the printer and Capricorn XS tube since it has a more consistent internal diameter, fits closer to the filament, and can work with slightly higher temps. I also picked up a pack of bowden couplers recently as I noticed the end nearest the extruder is sliding past the coupler jaws on de/retraction; don't worry about that unless it's an issue for you. That's about $30 alone since I don't have a supply shop locally and have to order those parts in bulk. I had a Pi 3B laying around unused and flashed Octoprint onto it. Highly recommended. I have a replacement Noctua hotend fan, buck converters, and 5015 blower on order to quiet the fan noise; about $32. Just replaced the Meanwell psu fan with a 60x25mm Noctua I had lying around (Note: there may be better options in the 92-120mm range to replace part of the PSU housing, but that's what I had laying around). Next upgrade coming is the SKR Mini E3 with TMC 2209 drivers ($28) to eliminate almost all of the stepper noise. Also looking into a replacement for the control board fan and some vibration isolating feet for the frame. As far as higher temp printing I haven't made a lot of progress aside from buying a titanium all-metal heat brake ($11) winch I have yet to install or inspect, and looking into enclosure and electronics relocation avenues.

Either way the mods I purchased came in at around $100 US which should quiet the printer and help with reliability. Also looking into picking up a good M3-M4 bolt kit if any exist in the US.

Here are some links to the things I picked up and will, which may be helpful if you're in the US. Mostly from Amazon.

Type | Name | Link | Price
---|---|----|----
Reliability | 8mm x 20mm yellow springs | Link | $6.98
Reliability | Capricorn XS Tubing | Link | $11.49
Reliability | PC4-M6 / PC4-M10 Pneumatic Bowden Fittings | Link | $11.99
Silence | Noctua 40mm x 10mm 3-pin fan | Link | $13.95
Silence/Various | LM2596 Adjustable Buck Converters | Link | $10.95
Silence | 24v 5015 Radial Ball Bearing Fans | Link | $7.19
Silence/Various | SKR Mini E3 w/ TMC 2209 drivers | Link | $28.81
High Temp | Titanium All-Metal Heat Brake | Link | $11.52
TOTAL: $102.88 US + Tax

Parts already purchased/ bought with printer

Type | Name | Link | Price
---|---|----|----
Reliability/High Temp | OEM Ender 3 Glass Bed | Link | $20
Reliability | Feeler Guage Set | Link | $5
Reliability | 608zz Bearings, using with this(My Remix), this, and this, though I like this design a bit better | Link | $5.98
QoL Improvement | Raspberry Pi 3B w/ Octoprint | Link | $34.46
Silence | Noctua 60mm x 25mm 3-pin fan, goes with this mod | Link | $14.95
TOTAL: $80.39 US + Tax

Future planned upgrades

• Bl Touch (Note: if you have a Pi you don't need a separate ISP to flash a bootloader to the stock Melzi control board)
  
  
• Extruder | Zesty Nimble, Bondtech BMG, or SeeMeCNC EZR
  
  
• Cooling Duct | Either Smooth Fang or Hero Me Gen 3 in PETG/ABS
  
  
• Direct Drive | Kit or Printed (this, this, or this)
  
  
• Electronics relocation enclosure and wiring (need to research this more)
  
  
• Vibration Isolation Feet with Yellow Dot Squash Balls
  
  
• Linear rails (maybe)

Depending on what you mean by 'media' that 2500K is pretty overkill. You can get nearly identical gaming performance from the significantly less expensive i3-2100.

I wouldn't call that Zalman cooler superfluous, but I wouldn't pick it over the favored 212+ unless you have solid evidence showing how quiet it is. You should see what sites like SilentPCreview and Guru3D consider the leaders in quiet cooling at the moment.

You can definitely save a good deal of money with any one of these ASRock micro ATX motherboards. That Asus is enormously more expensive than you need.

The GTX 560TI is a good choice. You should consider this MSI twin frozr 6950 2GB card for only ten bucks more. It is the more powerful card in nearly every case. MSI also makes some of the coolest cards around, which is of primary importance for a microATX build like this one.

You probably don't need all 16 GB of that RAM. You should stick with this set instead.

You also won't need that 650W power supply. With a single mid-range GPU, at most you'll need is 500W. I would recommend finding a well reviewed, modular unit around 500W instead.

So, I am here to post my solution. It was the hot end fan, 100%!! Responsible for 85% of the noise I was hearing. I replaced it with a Noctua A-Series Cooling Fan ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NQLT0M/ ) and almost immediately I saw a difference. Not only when printing, but even when the machine is in idle. Thank god, I was running out of ideas.

___

I also printed these: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2557700 which I think help with some of the vibration on the bench (less ghosts in the prints as well). I will probably make these eventually, as I think they will work best: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2742599 I printed this guy also: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2318614 but haven't put it on yet. I am hoping that it helps with the remaining 15% vibration noise.

____

The stock fan they are using now is flawed. I can say this for sure, since I was in the lucky position to have two machine here at the same time (sending the lesser of the two back). They both had the same vibration noise issue coming from the hot end. Well, I am happy now.. since you can no longer hear the printer from every room in my house. I hope this helps someone else going through the same issue.

Not stock, no. Am using:

• Noctua NH-D14
  https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-D14-Heatpipe-Radiator-Bearing/dp/B002VKVZ1A
  
• Phobya HeGrease
  https://www.amazon.com/Phobya-31094-HeGrease-Extreme-1-0g/dp/B008EDXAH0/
  
  My case is a Corsaier Carbide 500R, which is nice and roomy for what I have in there, has great cable management so it's pretty clean looking inside. Also has 6x 120mm fans running in silent mode (thanks random black friday sales!) and a big side-mounted one that's 200mm.
  
  It's probably total overkill, but between that and good dust management, and every couple years do a disassemble + reassemble for maintenance, it's performed really well for the 6 or 7 years I've had it.
  
  Arctic Silver 5 is still pretty good, and my CPU fan is totally overkill. Only reason I have it is that it wouldn't fit in a friend's micro ATX case, and so I swapped out my (sadly, discontinued) EVGA M02 fan - which was fairly similar to a Hyper 212 Evo.
  
   
  
  I was able to get my 3570k "stable" at 4.6 ghz, but the additional voltage required in order to not crash was just stupid and instead of running at around 70C during Prime95, it was running at 96C. Still, 4.52 ghz on a 3570k on air cooling is pretty respectable.
  
  Good luck!

the blue (or any color) dots are called "artifacts".

there is generally 2 reasons why artifacts happen.

1. your gpu, or more accurately your gpu memory is over heating.
   
   
2. the card is defective. (whether it be manufacturer or the user who did it). and usually its not something you can cause by watching movies/playing games and etc. its more like you dropped the card or you spilled something on it, etc type of damage.
   
   Ive heard people say bad/corrupt drivers can cause it, but i myself have never seen such a case.
   
   
   So first thing, if you overclocked you card higher then stock factory overclocks, definitely return it back to stock.
   Even if you didnt overclock the card, and its factory overclocked, try underclocking it (memory more importantly). Just to see if that fixes the problem. i mean running like 20mhz less may fix the problem and not affect performance much and is a free fix.
   
   If that gets rid of it, then its either the card isnt stable at those OC or more likely is that at that clock speed, it is running too hot. (and you can usually only monitor the temp of the gpu itself, and not things like the graphics card VRM and memory chips)
   So your gpu could be running at 50C and your gpus memory chips are running at 90C and you wont have any way of knowing (other then things like artifacts starting to happen).
   
   So another thing to want to do/try is get better case airflow. you definitely want some intake fans blowing on your gpu. (so you can do things like remove the hdd cages on some cases, or just atleast move your hdds down so the fan isnt being blocked by the physical drives).
   
   the 4850 is a pretty old card, and as old cards go, they run VERY hot compared to modern cards. and also because its old, thermal solutions are likely not being as effective as they were (like the thermal tape on your memory is probably shot and the thermal compound on the gpu is probably on its way out aswell)
   
   If you want to keep your gpu, you can try getting some thermal tape and putting it on the memory chips, or better yet get gpu memory heatsinks (the cheaper ones should be fine). something like http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Copper-Cooling-Heatsinks-cooler/dp/B00637X42A/ or http://www.amazon.com/Copper-Memory-Chipset-Heatsinks-Thermal/dp/B00K6YB79I/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1412465127&sr=1-2&keywords=thermal+tape+ram
   
   you may also want to think about removing your gpus heatsink, and cleaning off the stock thermal compound and replacing it with something else. (my personal fav lately has been arctic MX-2 and MX-4)
   
   But know all this could be for nothing too. and if you were to buy heatsinks and compound and maybe an extra fan, you could be out $20-25 for not much in return and still need to purchase another card on top of it.

I haven't looked at the website you linked, but just right off the top :

1. You can definitely go for a cheaper CPU cooler. For example, the Cryorig H7 is plenty good for a lower price (assuming you can get that where you're located). The Hyper 212 EVO is also a very popular budget option.
   
   
2. You don't need 3200 RAM. RAM speed will typically be one of the last things to affect your computer's performance (in terms of bottlenecking). The usual advice is to go with the cheapest set of RAM that matches what you want in number of RAM sticks, amount of memory, and aesthetics.
   
   
3. You'll hear this often, but you should definitely look into getting an SSD for your OS and main programs/games. It's the #1 contributor to making your computer FEEL fast. Load times in games will be much, much quicker, you'll boot your PC up in seconds, and moving around files/copying/installing/etc will be much faster as well.
   
   Basically, I'm recommending you save money by getting a cheaper CPU cooler and cheaper RAM, then putting that towards getting a solid SSD. I'd recommend ~250GB minimum, but 500GB SSDs on sale often offer more storage per dollar and would therefore be a better value. Plus you'll be sad if you run out of space on your SSD for your most often used programs/games.
   
   Good luck!

Motherboard: That will work just fine. I believe the quote you listed is telling you to buy an add-on card which connects to your motherboard through a PCI slot and gives you extra USB ports like this. That mothboard has 4 USB 2.0 ports and 2 USB 3.0 ports and your case has two front panel USB ports. This brigns your total USB ports up to 8. If you need more than 8 then you can buy an add-on card or back plate that attaches to the USB connections on the motherboard. The latter looks like this. The black thing obviously goes to the motherboard.

CPU: Depending on how much video editing you do you might be able to drop down to the 2500K. The 2600K will be better for video editing, but if you really need to save money and don't edit enough to justify the price increase then you can get the 2500K.

GPU: The 570 is pretty good and you would want to get an EVGA card because they have a lifetime warranty. You can also get the 6950 which is slightly worse (maybe 10% less FPS) but costs about $80 less.

Hard drive: Switch to the Samsung Spinpoint F3. It's cheaper, faster (the 6 Gb/s on the WD is crap, HDD can't even get up to 3 Gb/s), and more reliable. If you have extra money then get an SSD. One of the best upgrades you can give your computer. They are crazy fast

Everything else looks good. Make sure to get an aftermarket CPU cooler if you overclock. The Cooler Master Hyper 212+ is great.

Temps seem high but safe. Not familiar with game but that seems too high. I think I got to 75C on CPUZ stress test. What power plan are you on? Ryzen balanced or Windows Power saver could help idle. I am using Noctua NH-U12S (on 3700x, mid-tower case with 3 intake in front and 1 outtake in rear, going to add 2 on top), have not heard case or cooler fans once and getting good temps. I highly recommend it and no worries about liquid. Because of where chiplet sits in CPU, sometimes air coolers provide better heatsink coverage for chiplet hotspots. Would recommend putting two intake fans in front, and one outtake on rear and one on top. Make sure on latest BIOS and AMD Chipset drivers. Ryzen Master can be set to show temps/cpu speeds with history graph, also very useful. Hope that helps and good luck!

What's your total budget? I'm assuming right around 2000.

If that's the case, I highly recommend a water cooler with your 7700k. I personally have a Corsair h100i because those chips are notorious for running hot due to shitty ihs paste. I also got mine delidded after I realized that I'd go over 80C at full load. Once the process was done, my chip never saw over 50C. While the h7 is a great cooler for the money, I just wouldn't be comfortable with it on this chip.

Not to advertise, but I purchased my 7700k from the silicon lottery, which basically tests chips and pushes them as far as they'll go. I purchased mine with a stable 4.9GHz overclock. I especially recommend that if you're going to sport a 1080ti. It would be a shame to be gaming and be throttled back because of the excessive heat. Just something to keep in mind. You could be lucky and get a cool and powerful chip, or you could get a shitty one. It's all luck. With the SL, you get one guaranteed to work as advertised. For example, you can buy this one already delidded and ready to OC to 5.0GHz.

Also, try to opt for a bigger storage drive. 1TB is nice, but if you're planning on gaming and as such, that thing fills quick. I had to upgrade already from a 1TB to a 4TB.

Everything else looks great.

EDIT: You swapped out the i7-7700k for the i5-8600k. I still recommend everything I said above. Several friends of mine went through these guys and they're fantastic.

EDIT2: You can still get this chip from the SL guaranteed to hit 5.0 here.

PCpartpicker seems to err on the side of caution, but I don't trust it 100%. Newegg is probably the best in terms of parts specifications, they list cooler and ram heights and how big of a cooler each case can accept. Amazon will tell you too but sometimes you have to dig through the questions. The best source is probably the specifications at the manufacturers website.
I just built a gaming pc a few months ago, and like you I wanted function over form. 8700k processor with the best performing air cooler I could buy - https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-D15-heatpipe-NF-A15-140mm/dp/B00L7UZMAK
If you end up getting that you need low profile ram. I bought two of the better cooling cases from that gamersnexus link to test the cooler fit, the Silverstone RL06 and Rosewill Cullinan. Supposedly the RL06 was like 5mm too narrow to accept the D15 cooler, but it actually does fit (however it touches the window). The Cullinan I bought as a backup because it was slightly deeper and that was the one I ended up using but it didn't like my tall Strix video card, had to fight it.

This looks like a really solid build.

I would however recomend air cooling instead of water cooling, water cooling can be tricky to put together and it's not a whole lot better, plus it's more expensive. I recomend the ''Hyper 212 EVO'', It's the most efficent cooler for the money out there, it's only 35$ and keeps my I7-4790K around 70 degrees while overclocked to 4.7Ghz.

Hyper 212 EVO: http://amzn.com/B005O65JXI

Also, I don't know about you, but if you want to be able to put dvd's and such into your pc, which can be really helpful for installing drivers and such, you shouldn't forget the optical drive, they are only 20$!

Asus Optical Drive: http://amzn.com/B0033Z2BAQ

Other than that this looks like a really strong build, will max out almost everything, if you want more storage I would recommend the 4 Tb Western Digital Green, the green is twice as cheap as the black and sees almost no difference, (in my opinion). 750GB won't last forever, and if you want to be comfortable being able to record and download how much you want, mass storage can be a good thing.

WD Green 4TB: http://amzn.com/B00EHBEUZO

Welcome aboard the pc master race!

My Maker Select came with a small putty knife. Maybe don't need the removal tool. Definitely skip on the z brace kit. That's too much. Hardware stores have the parts you need for < $5. Glass and thermal pad are slightly cheaper on Amazon (I used https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007PPEW52 and https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QQ5Q3BI).

I seem to recall seeing some issues with Inland filament, though I can only find this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/4owjlc/inland_microcenter_brand_pla_issues_is_this_not/

I <3 BAMtack. It's inexpensive, prints well, doesn't have any strange odors (or much of an odor at all, for that matter), and is packaged well (vacuum bag with desiccant inside). I print mostly with their natural color PLA (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016EFX8Y4), but I have a friend that prints with their colored PLAs all the time and he loves it.

I had a hard time with the DiiCooler mod, mainly because I still couldn't see the part printing very well. I opted for http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1246425 instead. Uses the same fan and everything, but it's a much easier print, and it gives you complete visibility in the front.

You may also be interested in taking a look at the mod list on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS8u_oqNH7A. It's pretty impressive.

I'll just preface this by saying I spent a lot of time browsing the Octane Render forums when I was trying to figure out my build. I don't have links to any threads but there are plenty there discussing system requirements for the renderer.

These are just some of the glaring mistakes. I would recommend you spend way more time researching parts as it is clear that you have spent very little time doing so. It took me around a week of extensive researching to put my build together. Expect to spend the same time doing so.

Get a Noctua cooler. Look at the Amazon review breakdown of this one. 92% 5-star reviews our of 409 reviews. I'm not sure if this one will fit for you though.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00L7UZMAK/

You're wasting money on that memory. Your motherboard only supports up to 3200 MHz memory. Your CPU only supports up to 2133 MHz.

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/X99DELUXE/specifications/

http://ark.intel.com/products/82931/Intel-Core-i7-5930K-Processor-15M-Cache-up-to-3_70-GHz

Get this memory instead.

http://gskill.com/en/finder?cat=31&series=0&prop_3=2133MHz&prop_4=0&prop_1=0&prop_14=DDR4&prop_2=64GB+%288GBx8%29

ASUS has a new version of your motherboard anyway. I wouldn't buy the old one.

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/X99-DELUXE-II/specifications/

Do you need the Deluxe? Look at the non-Deluxe version below.

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/X99-A-II/specifications/

If you're using Octane you could use up to 4 video cards with a different motherboard.

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/X99E_WS/

Although, if you went that route you would have to do liquid cooling and it would probably only fit in the biggest CaseLabs case. A system like that would run you over $10,000. Such a system would only be necessary if you were working and rendering by yourself on a single system. If that is not the case, 2 cards will suit you just fine.

Western Drives are more reliable. Read the Amazon reviews of this one.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011LVAVEQ/

The choice of power supply is great.

If I was going to do an air cooled system, I would go with this case. I'm not sure if you need it though.

https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-HAF-Computer-RC-942-KKN1/dp/B003S68Q0Y

EDIT:

With all that money you're saving on memory you could get a better CPU.

http://pcpartpicker.com/product/NXyxFT/intel-cpu-bx80671i76900k

This CPU supports up to 2400 MHz memory, meaning you could also upgrade your memory.

http://pcpartpicker.com/product/YK8H99/gskill-memory-f42400c15q264grk

I'm not sure about the case or how you're cooling the GPUs. I know from researching on the Octane forums that anything above 2 cards needs to be water cooled otherwise your cards will overheat and you will lose performance. Look into the founders edition because of its blower-style cooler.

EDIT:

I forgot to mention that when I was looking into this for myself I was trying to build a system for animation. If you're only using Octane for stills 2 cards will be great.

Sure bud, here is the cooler and here is the fan I put on the rad, completely optional but I'm certain makes a big difference in noise, as Noctuas are top end.

Also, here is the video tutorial for installation, an easy installation that takes a little over an hour if you have the right tools, but is pretty simple. Here is the tool set I used, and it gave me any size or fit that I needed to do this easily, plus is great if you ever do any computer customizing in general and need a nice set.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

Definitely stick with PC fans. I'd go with 120mm because the larger fan moves more air while moving slower, so it can stay quieter but still cool your box.

I bought this pack of 4 on amazon, they're almost silent, but you will need 2 or more to cool the cfls. I use 2 of these in my veg cabinet, with some duct on the back of them to lightproof it, to cool 3-4 cfls at the moment, but I don't have to worry about smell from the veg cabinet.

You need to figure out what you are going to do if smell will be a problem. If you need zero smell, then you need to think about a DIY carbon filter and how you will move air through it (more powerful fans would be needed).

For a no-wiring-splicing-needed solution, you can get molex (one type of connector pc fans use) power adapters like this one, and use splitters and adapters, etc to power however many fans you need, or even buy a pc fan speed controller like this one and plug it right in.

note: pc fans have two different kinds of connectors typically, larger molex 4 pins (like I mentioned earlier) and some have smaller 3 pin connector. The ac adapter I linked has a 4 pin molex, and so does that fan controller for power in, but it has the 3 pin for power out to each fan that it controls, and the fans I linked also have small 3 pin connectors. Just something to keep an eye out for if you decide to get more powerful fans than I linked, for example.

To wire mine up, I grabbed a 12v AC-DC adapter (a wall-wart, like a plug for an old router, it says the voltage on the label) and cut the plug on the end off, and cut the connectors on the fans off, then it's one wire to red, one wire to black, if it doesn't work switch them. Some adapters have a white stripe on one of the two wires, that one goes to red. (although I think for most fans it would spin them backwards, arrows on the edges of the fan usually point direction of airflow). Heatshrink it all together (or just electrical tape it really securely) and plug it in.

• 750 Watt Power Supply. $89.98
  
  
• Generic Corsair Case. $64.99 You can shop around for something better looking for a little more money.
  
  
• DDR4 3200 RAM (2*4GB Sticks) for $147.99 and DDR4 3200 RAM (1*8GB Stick) for $160.32. You can also drop to 3000MHz and save like $5-10 but not worth it in my opinion.
  
  
• GTX 1060 3GB for $304.99 or GTX 1060 6GB for $389.99.
  
  
• i7 8700k for $449.99 or i7 7700k for $422.96. 8700k is 8th gen and 7700k is 7th gen. You can drop to any processor around an i7 7700 (No "k") without seeing issues I'd assume. WoW is a processor heavy game though. Still my i7 8700k only ever reaches maybe 30% useage that I see.
  
  
• Heat Sink + Fan. Cooler Master is good. $34.99
  
  
• i7 8700 will require a 300 Series Motherboard like ASUS ROG for $141.50 or ASUS Prime for $84.99. The 7700s will take a 200 series motherboard like this one for $129.61 or this one for 149.99. Basically just make sure it has all the hook-ups you need (sound and USBs and shit) with the proper chip set and supports DDR4 RAM with minimum 1 PCI Express slot for your GPU.
  
  
• Samsung 860 Evo 500GB SSD for $179.94 or the 250GB for $109.94. Any decent SSD will do. Make sure it has enough room for your OS and the game(s) you play. You can use any regular HD to store other stuff on. Samsung is a good brand for them.
  
  When trying to decide on what power your PC needs a good website to use is http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/ - it'll give you a general idea since I get confused with all the "i7/i5/i3 XXXX gen X" nonsense too.
  
  That'll build you a tower. Then you just need external components. Monitor, keyboard, mouse, headset, chair, desk, etc. Depending on what you have available and stuff it can vary so I'll let you price out that stuff.
  
  $1,358 pre-taxes if you go with i7 8700k, and GTX 1060 3 GB. For the tower. Taxes in, plus all the other components you're still looking at pushing close to $2000. That's CND I think. If you do a little shopping around you might get a decent deal on a few items and look into different price points between AMD and Intel if you choose their Board/Chip/GPU combos.

lets start by downsizing everything on your list meaning it will be hot and loud, ok first we need a smaller power supply our primary contenders are compressed and squashed to be honest they barely have enough juice to run the system, moving on definitely need a smaller mobo, here is one of the best Mini ITX boards, now thats out of the way you can't really have air cooling in that small space best option would be the compact Corsair H60(i would also rig one for the gpu to save space and hassle and get lower temps but thats optional)could go for the H80i if it fits or take off a fans and replace it with one noctua, a few side notes you can probobly fit 1 3.5 HDD in there but i would recomend going SSD especialy in that case. you can keep the ram but the CPU is a bit overkill yeah its fast but you don't need that much in games (as long as it doesn't bottleneck) and its not that good even for rendering it doesn't even have Hyper-Threading you could save a few bucks and go with the locked version of it or the Intel Core i3-4160 if you really want to save some cash go with the Intel Pentium Processor G3258 and overclock it you will lose like 10 frames though and of course use the small form factor version of the video card you want, now this might not be needed but a 16X PCIe riser cable might come in handy if its too cramped. i know you said you want to make it bigger but you want the smallest parts possible because even one thing can stretch the project allot

EDIT:could possibly fit a larger but better PSU

This build looks good. I built myself a similar rig last year, and it performs well. I basically agree with everything /u/MrTesla said, mutatis mutandis.

• If you want to perform GPU computing just make sure this GPU is CUDA-enabled.
  
  
• I'd get a 1 TB solid state; they are only ~$250 if you went with Crucial instead of Samsung.
  
  
• I have that same CPU cooler. It looks awesome in pictures, when it's by itself, but in retrospect I wish I would have went with something much smaller and simpler. The problem is that it's a brick, and will stick out directly normal from your CPU, and takes up a ton of space. Let me take a picture of mine... here ya go. It makes cable management and everything else happening around your mobo more difficult. If you go with something like this Corsair Hydro, you get the same copper plate with liquid cooling, but move the fan element out of center of the tower, to a location where it should be. I'd highly consider this since you are only going with a mid, and not full tower.
  
  
• I like the modular PSU, but I'd almost want to beef that up a little, to like 800W.
  
  
• CPU looks good. For $50 more you get a decent benchmark bump for the 3.6 i7-6850K. Then again, you might have already said that, a few times.
  
  Overall though, pretty solid build. MATLAB is just an excuse to build this right? No shame in that. When it comes time to actually use MATLAB for analyses I would highly recommend converting whatever you can to MEX files. Like MrTesla mentioned, MATLAB is not the fastest tool available, and may not be the right tool if you're concerned about how long it will take to process your data. Optimizing the lang/software/code used to process your data will result in speed-ups orders of magnitude greater than simply running the same code on a more powerful machine. I experienced this first-hand; I was simulating particle diffusion on ruffled membranes in matlab using standard functions. To run one simulation (~20k steps for 1k particles) it would take about 10 minutes. I went out and build a new rig, and it went down to ~6 min. I converted some of my functions to MEX/C and it dropped to about 45 seconds.

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Title: [SG] [H] Mini-ATX build, i7 6700K 4 core 4.2GHz, 32GB 3200 MHz DDR4, Samsung 850 EVO 250GB, ASUS Pro gaming board, Liquid cooling, 6 months old [W] PayPal / £ pickup London
Username: /u/my13s
Original Post:
Item Name: Mini-ATX build, i7 6700K 4 core 4.2GHz, 32GB 3200 MHz DDR4, Liquid cooling, 6 months old

Condition: Mint condition, babied (the Canadian way)

Timestamps: https://goo.gl/photos/QEBackVQdKxD1pL88

Price: £949 ono (reasonable offers considered, no parting out)

Postage and Payment: £20-30 via UPS/Fedex (don't trust Royal Mail) or pickup N65XG London

Any additional information:

6 months, March 1st build. Used less than 4 months. Been sitting around in the box since July.

It was to be my ongoing project but unfortunately I'm selling as I've had to buy a laptop to work in the city half the week and really don't need two high spec machines in the house (some photos in the gallery at the end).

Clean install Win10 currently loaded, if you're looking for a high spec machine or want to get into gaming/VR just drop a video card in and you're off to the races (which is what I was going to do). Otherwise the machine works amazing as is.

Google the case NZXT Manta some really cool stuff you can do with this mini tower. I had it on my desk as it's a real beauty.

Drop me any questions or photo requests.

Specs/Prices:

*Current 'Price' listed from Amazon subject to change via Amazon

ASUS Z170I Pro Gaming Motherboard - Grey/Red/Black

RRP: £167.99 - Current price: £151.02 - I paid: £151.24
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B015FY4HLS/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

• • -
    
    Corsair CW-9060025-WW Hydro Series H100i V2 240 mm Extreme Performance All-In-One Liquid CPU Cooler - Black
    
    RRP: £134.99 - Current price: £104.97 - I paid: £109.99
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B019EXSSBG/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
    
    
• • -
    
    EVGA SuperNova P2 650 W Platinum Fully Modular Power Supply Unit
    
    RRP: £129.99 - Current price: £125.47 - I paid: £107
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0151DNTLM/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
    
    
• • -
    
    Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB 2.5 inch Solid State Drive - Black
    
    RRP: £94.99 - Current price: £94.30 - I paid: £86.69
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00P736UEU/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
    
    
• • -
    
    NZXT Manta Mini ITX Case for PC - Black
    
    Current price: £119.99 - I paid: £110
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01B4RPWTG/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
    
    
• • -
    
    Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) 3200 MHz DDR4 Memory Kit - Red
    
    RRP: £439.99 - Current price: £318.36 - I paid: £208
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01ARHF6Z4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
    
    
• • -
    
    Intel Core i7 6700K Processor (4 GHz, 4 Core, 8 Threads, 8 MB cache, LGA1151 Socket Box)
    
    RRP: £418.99 - Current price: £287.00 - I paid: £308
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B010T6DQTQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
    
    Note: the ASUS gaming board has some awesome BIOS overclocking GUI and some apps you can install as well to switch up modes, beginner to advanced. I had this up at 4.5Ghz when I was playing about once with a few clicks. Someone invested could prob get a little more out of it.
    
    
• • -
    
    RRP: £1500 - Current price part by part: £1200 - I paid: £1100 (plus love and labour right?)
    
    All manuals, extra parts are in the original boxes. Keep or leave the boxes, I can pack the extras in the main tower box no problem.
    
    I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

This is the wrong take, OP didn't ask for best bang for the buck PC, he asked for the best PC.

Cooler: Air is usually cooler and quieter than AIOs, in your machine you want the noctua nh-d15 though.

Your memory is not the best it can be for Ryzen (you want 3200c14 or 3600c16). Remember you have 4 DIMM slots, you can go 4x8 if you want, but I don't think they are cheaper than the 2x16 kits.

3600c16

or

3200c14

I personally have the latter one, Samsung b-die for good overclocking potential.

Storage: Don't put mechanical in this build for the love of god. Your "boot drive" is fine w/ the 860 evo, consider the m.2 version for slight (and I mean slight) performance gains and less wires:

also consider it's bigger brother the 970 Evo

For your "data drive", get a 2tb mx500, If you buy a mechanical drive for this build you will be banned :).

The video card situation is a weird one right now. nVidia keeps the good bins of their cards and sells the rest to AIBs. If you want the best 2080ti, you want the founders edition

But nVidia has probably the worst customer service, and 3rd party cards offer better cooling. It's a decision that's up to you. I personally went with a Founders Edition card for my build (2080 Super though).

Get an 80+ platinum power supply

This is a hot take, but consider a wireless mouse. The offerings today have no lag and gaming without cable drag is fantastic. Some suggestions:
Logitech G Pro Wireless


Logitech G703

CPU Cooler: Buy the Cyrorig H7. It's the best in it's price point at the moment, and looks amazing. You won't need a better cooler for anything unless you want to overclock, which you really don't need to do with a CPU as good as yours.


Video Card: For 1080p@60fps, I would advise the GTX 1060 or the RX 480. Both will crush 60fps at 1080p, but if you want extra future-proofing at a higher price, go for the GTX 1070. The 1060(try for 6GB), and the RX 480(try for 8GB) are excellent cards that will run any modern game well, even at 1440p. The 1070 is even better, but only really needed if you want something like Hairworks for The Witcher 3 or intensive mods for Skyrim.

RAM:Since you have a motherboard with 4 RAM slots, get another 2 4GB sticks of your current RAM and run it in quad channel, 16GB in quad channel is amazing for modern games, although your RAM's speed isn't probably high enough nowadays.

PSU:Upgrade if you want to(I'd advise it), but I won't go advising you on any because PSU's can be so inconsistent. Just try for one above 600w that gets good reviews and few failures, unless you feel OK about your current one.

~$100 Solid state drive (Sandisk extreme, Crucial m4 or Samsung 840 [pro] depending on exactly how much you want to spend). Throw the OS on it and some games/programs to speed up load times.

Then get a ~$250 GPU. You should be able to get a GTX760 for that easily. Perhaps a 7950 instead, the performance between the two at standard 1920x1080 has the 760 winning, but at higher resolutions the 7950 wins out (plus they have more VRAM for stuff like Skyrim).

Maybe it's time to grab an aftermarket cooler and try your hand at overclocking. The 2500K overclocks insanely well, better than the 3570K from Ivy and the 4670K from Haswell. Might be worth it to squeeze a bit more out of the CPU.

Were it me, I'd get the GPU and a really nice aftermarket CPU cooler. Something like this or a Frio.

I've compiled all the parts I recommend in a PCPartPicker list below for your convenience. Now, allow me to go into a bit more detail. I didn't include a cooler because the Ryzen 5 2600 comes with a rather good cooler in the box for stock operation and modest overclocking. If you want something with a bit more power, you can't go wrong with the [Hyper 212 EVO](Cooler Master Hyper RR-212E-20PK-R2 LED CPU Cooler with PWM Fan, Four Direct Contact Heat Pipes https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005O65JXI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_.8VKBb7PKEQBB). You mentioned you were planning on purchasing a GTX 1070 as well, so I included that in the list as well.

As for Ryzen and emulation, Intel does tend to be slightly better with emulation due to having faster single thread performance, but the advantage is slim. Emulators are beginning to to take advantage of more threads as of late, and that's where Ryzen excels. Take CEMU and RPCS3 as examples. While Intel is a bit faster in Cemu, Ryzen actually outperforms their chips in RPCS3. With every said, Ryzen is just fine for emulation. Price/performance wise, AMD reigns surpeme.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor | $165.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard | Asus - PRIME B350-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard | $84.99 @ Amazon
Storage | Kingston - A400 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $28.99 @ Amazon
Storage | Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $44.00 @ Amazon
Video Card | EVGA - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB SC GAMING ACX 3.0 Black Edition Video Card | $409.99 @ Amazon
Case | Cooler Master - MasterBox Lite 5 ATX Mid Tower Case |-
Power Supply | SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | $89.99 @ Amazon
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $823.95
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-07 18:46 EDT-0400 |

5820k is still a good CPU no doubt, but it's a couple generation old now. For around the same money, you can get 8700k if you can find one. Even if that's not available, you can also go 7800x, as that's the most recent in the similar lineup. 8700k is the best choise right now though.

Maybe you have the motherboard and the CPU, in which case, just stick with those two and you'll be fine.

And don't aim for 30+ fps at any resolution. I highly suggest aiming for at least 80~100+ fps with that kind of budget. GTX 1080 will do its job just fine.

GPUs have their own VRAM, and GTX 1080 has 8GB on its own. Your 16 GB ram choise is fine, and that's independent of what GPU you go for.

And lastly, get a differernt CPU cooler. I see that Hyper 212 EVO recommended to everyone and their brothers and sisters, but there are better coolers for the same money. I actually hate people going for that one with a budget closing in on $2000. Get a better one. Your budget is not a 600~800 range which would make me understand for that cooler.

Get something at least like this thing for i7 CPUs that can overclock. Better thermals, better acoustics, and better looks. Or you can also choose this if you still want to cheap out on cooling.

My first thoughts are:

• Did you make sure to clean off the CPU well with a high % isopropyl alcohol and what did you use to wipe off the old paste? Usually Microfiber towels, toilet paper or q-tips work well enough.
  
• What method did you use to apply the paste? The "pea-method", the spread method, or an X?
  
• Did you make sure the cooler was fastened down tight enough?
  
  If you have done these things, either way, I'd recommend trying to reapply the paste and make sure you are using the right amount. If you get the same results again, then I'd recommend getting an aftermarket cooler. There is a very good chance that the cooler is the problem. Many people use the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO because of the awesome price/performance you can get with it. This would be the best next step to solving your issues. Just make sure your case has enough room for it first.

ok...the install was a bit complicated due to the fact that these cards have vrms on 2 sides of the board. the vrm that are near the IO end of the pcb are very close to some resistors, making it very difficult to find heatsinks that can fit in the narrow gap.

​

for the vram and the majority of the vrm, I used this: https://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Copper-Cooling-Heatsinks-cooler/dp/B00637X42A

​

for the vrm in the narrow lane, I was able to use this old aluminum heatsink I had for my AMD 290 when I had the kraken on that. I do not know if they make it anymore, but it was a perfect fit. the plate of the long aluminum sink was skinny enough to fit on top the vrm without being blocked by the nearby resistors.

​

I used an old thermal pad (fujipoly...which seems a lot more sticker than phobia, which was very oily, but maybe because the phobia was new and unused...now that I think of it maybe the phobia would've worked well too if I heated it and evaporated the oils) on the bottom of that aluminum heatsink and then used seksui thermal tape to attach it to the card, and secure it even more with zipties (though this was an extreme precaution).

​

I also used seksui thermal tape on the copper heatsinks as well, even though the heatsinks come with an adhesive. In the past, no tape was strong enough to hold the weight of the heatsink, except for the seksui tape, which has very strong adhesive and great thermal properties.

​

This is the aluminum heatsink (I just used the long piece): https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835426042

​

This entire problem existed because it was not possible to mount the g12 bracket and retain the pcb plate which would've acted as a heatsink for the vrm near the IO end of the card. Later I realized I could've used my old g10 bracket and just gotten longer screws, and retain the pcb plate.

​

You can also avoid this issue by going to a local electronics store, or measuring the gap (once you have your card), and find a narrow heatsink that fits. I used my aluminum one because I had it stored away, on hand.

​

I also ended up buying a pci fan bracket, to cool the vrm on the far left of the card (near IO board, where aluminum heatsink is.

​

Here is a close up photo of where the aluminum heatsink is. you can also see the low profile ram heatsinks perfectly clear the water block. https://imgur.com/gMwQGu3

​

Here is a summary picture of everything I just said:

https://imgur.com/Mqcmxjw

​

Thanks for your input, I haven't decided on Intel or AMD, I think i'm either going to go with the i7 8700k or R7 2700x. The SSD was recommended by another Reddit user, this is what they said:

> The Inland SSD is a super affordable, super quality choice. It's not 860 Evo, but it gets the job done incredibly well for its price. And the P300 HDD is great. Barracudas tend to be pretty noisy under load. Toshiba's P300 drives are rebranded Hitachi drives, so you're getting the best on the market.

They also recommended the following coolers:

> Macho Rev. B or the H5 Universal.

Logical increments suggests the following:

Noctua NH-U12S

Noctua NH-U14S

be quiet! BK021 Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler Fan Extremely High Cooling Performance 135mm (200W TDP)

Do you have any suggestions?

​

​

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | €214.94 @ PC Componentes
Thermal Compound | ARCTIC MX-4 2019 Edition 4 g Thermal Paste | €6.44 @ Amazon Espana
Motherboard | MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC ATX AM4 Motherboard | €145.15 @ PC Componentes
Memory | Crucial Ballistix Elite 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory | €101.87 @ Amazon Espana
Storage | Sabrent Rocket 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | €119.99 @ Amazon Espana
Video Card | Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 8 GB PULSE Video Card | €379.89 @ Amazon Espana
Power Supply | Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply | €74.90 @ Amazon Espana
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | €1043.18
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-07 18:35 CET+0100 |

cpu: ryzen 5 3600, best price for performance gaming cpu

cpu cooler: stock cooler is just fine here (no reason to upgrade due to case used so noise shouldn't be a problem)

thermal paste: recommended for all ryzen 3000 series builds, requires removing the stock thermal paste from the cooler

memory: ddr4 3600mhz 16Gb 16 latency, about as good as it gets, anything better is a lot more expensive, ryzen 3000 series benefits from fast memory in gaming

storage: a better than mid-range m.2 1tb ssd, doesn't slow down when over 1/2 full

motherboard: I went with msi b450 gaming pro carbon a premium b450 full atx motherboard that has 8.1 audio, wifi, bluetooth, usb-c, and gigabit lan included. Is fully upgradeable to 3950x. Note: You might have to flash the bios to be ryzen 3000 compatible. This motherboard can be flashed without a cpu. By and large though because of the massive sell rate of AMD products in the last few months this is most likely not necessary (they are being sold with the bios updated now). This is a premium part choice, lower budget considerations are available, but with less features. This is a great motherboard.

videocard: the Amd rx 5700, a 1440p capable video card, can do 4k upscale with a 4k monitor in gaming, can be overclocked to 5700xt performance, here is a video series with the 5700. Although Red Dead Redemption 2 is an extremely demanding game (and poorly optimized currently) this gpu and cpu combo should produce 60+ frames at near ultra settings in 1440p. 1080p is probably your current monitor configuration though, and it should max ultra playable at that resolution.

power supply: a gold rated (very power efficient), 550 watts(plenty of watts), semi-modular (some cables detach for easy building), five year warranty

fine to reuse the case: if you want some nice quality additional case fans, here is a suggestion for a 5 pack.

If you have a full version of windows you can use it on the new motherboard. If not I suggest a new oem windows 10 pro disk with code for about 30 euros. This will be a one computer license that will be bound to the motherboard.

Earlier this year I helped someone with a Spanish build, and did a side by side assembly next to PCComponentes. The cost and build quality was the same. So if you want to have it assembled through PCComponentes then the price will be about the same +30 euros for the assembly. If you need help with PCComponentes let me know and I'll do a build through them.

Let me know if you have any questions!

I contacted PrintrBot about this and while I didn't get an answer about repairing the 13, they are shipping me a 13S. So props to PrintrBot support! The 13S construction appears to be all-metal up into the extruder block (I guess transferring heat to the extruder turned out not to be a big deal?) which means that weak spot is eliminated. They also sell parts for the 13S, unlike the 13, so I can fix things going forward if need be. It uses the same tips, so my tip collection is safe. I'll lose about 35C of heating capability (270C max on the PTFE-lined 13S vs 305C max on the all-metal 13), but if it is compensated for by reliability it will be well worth it. I don't print any exotic or filled materials, but I do print PETG and Nylon on occasion which can get up around 250C depending on the blend. As an example, as the injection-molded plastic clamps holding the linear bearings on my Play have cracked, I've replaced them with more pliable and stronger nylon replacements that I printed myself. To compensate against meltdowns I think I'll move up to a more reliable 40mm fan on the heatsink. I'll probably print the below duct in PETG, since it is more heat-resistant than PLA:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1640957

And I'll use the best 40mm fan I can find:

https://www.amazon.com/40x10mm-Bearing-Premium-Cooling-NF-A4x10/dp/B009NQLT0M

Still haven't figured out a lower fan solution that would work with the above on the Play, yet.

Sorry, don't have any before / after shots. Yes, there is some reduction in need for supports, but certain models will still have to have them. Very effective overall, that's why they're so popular.

Get the LATEST Cura (3.2.1) as it has new supports that work much better. See this article: https://ultimaker.com/en/blog/52484-discover-ultimaker-cura-32

Here's my Fang setup:
https://imgur.com/dl26HJZ

I used this Fang:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2473423

The front Hotend fan guard (Yellow) is this:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2505568

The fans are one of the must do upgrades on the CR-10 series machines. They're cheap noisy things. Get good ones like Noctua.

Here's' my Hotend 40x10mm:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NQLT0M


and my 40x20mm Parts fan on the Fang:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B071W93333


Here's a discussion about fans:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CR10/comments/7rznq8/looking_for_best_5015_fan/

Another major (but cheap) mod is to put dampeners on the X & Y stepper motors. Big noise reduction, minor print quality improvement.

https://tiny-machines-3d.myshopify.com/collections/awesome-upgrades/products/stepper-dampener


But the biggest thing you can do to make your life with your new printer easier is to FLATTEN your bed. NOT level, FLATTEN.

These are precision machines, but they need some tuning up to work right.

/u/beachandbyte is right, you need to print some bed adjustment knobs:


https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2534990

Here's a post about Flattening the bed (look for my comment):

https://www.reddit.com/r/CR10/comments/7rpq2x/can_i_simulate_a_print_without_damaging_the/

Two other critical things - First, if you haven't done so, go over every screw and bolt and snug them up, don't forget the hotend, you have to remove the fan cover, two screws on the left.

Second, you must get those black plastic rollers setup right. They are purposely left loose during shipping, and most people adjust them wrong.

See this thread for how to adjust them properly:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CR10/comments/7s1ych/maintenance/

Well, you've got some work to do, stop reading Reddit and get to work! LOL :-)

Let us know how the battle goes, K?

PuterPro

You could, but your bottleneck is without a doubt your CPU. Fortunately, you can upgrade to another LGA 775 compatible chip for a modest cost. Here is a modified QX9650, which seems like a great upgrade over what you've got. Or you can pick up a Q6600 for a slightly lower cost. Actually, I think the Core 2 Extreme processors may not be compatible with your motherboard, I'll leave that in there until I know otherwise (Core 2 Quad Q6600 would definitely work). It should work, the ASUS P5QL manual states that it does (page 28).

I would highly recommend the QX9650 over the Q6600 at that price (far better performance, don't even consider the Q6600 if you can get the QX9650).

You'll probably also want either a new cooler, or at the very least new thermal paste for your upgraded LGA 775 processor (the old stuff on it will be rock hard and unusable). For example, the CM Hyper 212 EVO ($38 Amazon, also available w/ $10 Mail-in rebate on Newegg but +$6 shipping) is compatible with the LGA 775 chipset, but will also be compatible with all modern motherboards (LGA2011 & AM4 with an extra bracket) for when you do your full upgrade in the future. Or if you think you might get a CPU with a fan already included (such as the non-k variant Intel processors, or the non-x AMD AM4 Ryzen processors), you can simply buy new thermal paste and re-apply it when you install your upgraded LGA 775 processor.

If you want more RAM, you'll have to find out if you're currently using DDR2 or DDR3 RAM, documentation on P43 boards is really weak I'm having a tough time figuring out what your board supports (conflicting information all over the place). Then you can add more. Your board supports up to 1066MHz DDR2.

Also, while you're finding out whether you have ddr2 or 3 try and find out which dual core CPU you have, and your current graphics card. Thanks.

tl;dr: Buy a refurbished/pre-owned QX9650, get new thermal paste or a new cpu fan, find out what the speed and timings are of your current ram and then try and match that when you add more (or just buy a new/pre-owned set of 2x4gb DDR2 1066MHz ram).

It can be another model, there's nothing inherently wrong with mixing and matching brands and models as long as they're of a size configuration that your computer supports. I think most people generally like to keep their fans consistent, but that's mostly an aesthetic thing. If you want to stick with the same fan model that came with the case, the fan that comes mountaed on the front of the Meshify C is this one: http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/casefans/dynamic-series/dynamic-x2-gp-12. The case can support up to 3 120mm front fans, so you could add two more on the front with little difficulty.

One point to consider if you're thinking of adding a bunch of fans is that past a certain point your mobo may not have enough sys_fan connectors to support all of them. This is easily fixed, though, by getting either a fan controller or however many fan splitter cables you may need to get easy inputs for all of your fans (I used https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Sleeved-Splitter-CPF01/dp/B00B46XKKQ on one of my builds and it worked well enough).

I ended up getting the Hyper 212 Plus because I read some reviews that said it was quieter than the Evo. I've never had an Evo, so I have no basis of comparison, but I just installed the Plus last night, and it was definitely quieter all day today than the stock cooler I took out of there.

On a separate but related note - I have a quad monitor setup, with 2 GPUs, 3770k, and WD Black, so my office gets pretty hot. The old fan I was using to cool the room was too loud for me to keep it on when having meetings on Skype. So I ordered a Vornado 660. On the lowest setting, it keeps me nice and cool, and is damn near silent, even from up close. So quiet in fact, that after I bought it, that's when I decided to replace the stock CPU cooler, as that was then the loudest thing in the room. So, I definitely recommend that Vornado - worth every penny.

AMD 2700 vs 2600 - more cores

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo vs Stock HSF - Can overclock 2700 to 2700x levels with ease

MSI vs Gigabyte motherboard - Gigabyte is a failing company, I would be surprised if they still exist without being bought out 2 years from now. MSI quality is vastly superior to Gigabyte. Mobo also has wireless built in

G. Skill vs Team - name brand vs new brand

1TB EX920 SSD vs 512GB SATA SSD + 2TB HDD - EX920 is 5-10 times faster vs the Devo + the HDD you selected is from a 3rd party seller on Amazon selling used drives as new. Wait and get a good 4TB or bigger. A cheap route is to "shuck" a western digital external drive. You can get an 8TB for around $120 that way.

Cases - Just chose something that would fit an ATX motherboard since your choice was mATX only

PSU - Better deal, similar quality

Monitor - Better deal + LG is a better brand for QC

Keyboard - Better deal, both Cherry MX Brown

Mouse - G602 is the best budget wireless gaming mouse, period

You WILL need case fans. This is kind of a hidden expense with building a PC.

Cheap options:

5 Pack of good fans

Fan Hub

Wow, I'm literally about to order the same build. I'm getting a H100i cpu cooler, the Maximus VI Hero instead of the Z87 pro mobo, and a Seagate Barracuda 1TB instead of a Caviar Blue 1TB HD. I'm also getting the red/black version to match my mobo. Everything else is the same even the same brand GTX 770. Please let me know how it runs, especially how quiet it is.

You have a lot of fans and an overclockable CPU. I would recommend you get an aftermarket CPU cooler to take advantage of these features. As I said above, I'm gonna try the Corsair H100i, but it is pretty expensive. Some less expensive air coolers that I think would look good in this build are

[Phanteks TC12DX](http://www.amazon.com/Phanteks-U-Type-Heat-Sink-Cooler-PH-TC12DX_BK/dp/B00AXUTKEE/ref=sr_1_10? fs=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1393992252&sr=1-10&keywords=phanteks+ph-tc14pe) for $60 on [sale for $40 + shipping] (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7616870) right now

Enermax ETS-T40 for $50 (also has leds on the stock fans)

And of course, the [Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo] (http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Hyper-212-RR-212E-20PK-R2/dp/B005O65JXI/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1393992767&sr=1-1&keywords=hyper+212+evo) for $35 which doesn't match as well but is cheap.

Great job on cable management (it's supposedly easy in this case) and I agree that it need a light on the inside. Let me know what light you end up getting because now I want one too.

This will help a bit

Also, make sure to use Intel Burn Test, Aida64, Prime95. I use all of these while I was OC'ing, you should stress test with each program for around 1-2 hours and do around a hundred runs of IBT. Do not run these programs at the same time! Make sure you have a good cooler! I'd recommend:

Air cooler - CM Hyper 212 Evo I have this one, amazing bang for your buck.

Noctua NH-D15

AIO Water coolers - NZXT Kraken X61

Corsair H100i

I'd recommend getting a temperature app like Real temp, but it has been known to be a bit wrong (check your motherboard for temps and the idle temperature will be different) As a safety precaution I always made sure my CPU's temp stayed under 80°C (give myself a good 10°C) Anyway, try and run your chip on a 1.25V at 46X multiplier and if it boots to windows you've got a average chip, if it keeps BSODing drop the multiplier/raise the voltage or do both, then just fine tune it.

It took me a good 7 hours to do my first OC (i5 4670K 4.5GHz @ 1.232V) it's not been optimised yet, anyway good luck and have fun overclocking!

https://www.amazon.com/CRYORIG-H7-Tower-Cooler-Intel/dp/B00S7YA5FQ

Can't tell you why it says preorder I bought mine from amazon and it's been out since last year but yea amazon has it for 35 which is what I paid for it. To give some context on its efficiency my cpu at idle sits at 25-30c which is amazing. When under a heavy load like watching a stream and playing a triple A title game at max settings I haven't seen it get past 60c which is super amazing.

If you do have the money now I would pull the trigger on this build its very solid. If you only have enough to get a few parts now and the rest in a couple weeks immediately get the 1070 because that will be the first thing out of all those parts to go out of stock. I've been watching the 1070/1080 stock get demolished as soon as a store has some.

So I'd do two things right off. Install some temperature monitoring software like hwmonitor or openhardwaremonitor (both are free and lightweight). Start it up, check your temps, then yank the fan (you can just disconnect the wire from the motherboard while it's running, no harm). Then watch the temperatures, preferably while you do audio stuff on the computer. It's entirely possible that the very loud fan is doing less for the temps than you think. It's also possible that that's not the fan making the noise.

If it is that fan and disconnecting it makes an unacceptable difference in temperature, Noctura makes very quiet 120mm fans for not a lot of money. Other common culprits would be GPU fans (almost always loud, and unnecessary in audio workstations) and sometimes CPU fans. If you're overclocking and the cpu fan is loud, go back to a stock clock and see if the fan gets quieter.

There's a lot to say about keeping PCs quiet, but that'd at least be a start. I'd definitely start with just yanking that fan and see what happens, might be you can get some peace and quiet for free.

If you want a quick and more expensive solution, check out Fractal Design cases. They're nicely soundproof with quiet fans and can be had fairly cheaply on sale.

• I say stick with the 7700k if you have the money, it might be overkill but also may buy you another year or two before needing to upgrade again.
  
• Not sure how much you want to spend but the Asus z270E is usually only $20 more and has built-in WiFi and Bluetooth.
  
• I'd drop the CD Writer. You really won't need it. If you do find you need a CD writer then just purchase an external like this.
  
• Also, for another $20 or so you could get an AIO watercooler like the Corsair H100i V2 or the Thermaltake Water 3.0 which will help you take advantage of overclocking that 7700k. I also think they are easier to install in their own way.
  
  Micro Center has great deals on processors and mobos with an automatic $30 off for matching cpu to mobo. Good luck building!
  

This small guide is only for CPUs, for GPUs all you have to do is download a program, I'll link that at the bottom

--

First off, you gotta make sure your board is capable of overclocking, chances are you have a Z-series board because you have a k series processor.

K Series processor = overclockable

Z Series motherboard = overclockable

Those are just the basics, I assume you know them.

So to overclock, you're going to need to go into your BIOS, again depends on your motherboard, but while booting up you should press either, F1, F2, F10, Delete or Escape. Once you've figured out the key to get into your BIOS, you can start tweaking.

A really important thing if you're going to overclock is an aftermarket cooler, such as a Hyper 212 (Great value) or a Corsair H115i (Top of line watercooler, pricey) or an equivelent air cooler, like the Noctua NH-D15 (My personal favorite, it's what I hit my 4.9 GHz OC on)

If you already have an after market cooler, that's perfect, and you can continue. But if you don't, I highly recommend picking up a Hyper 212, it's only $25 and will get you a huge amount of performance out of your PC, until then I'd highly reccomend not OCing.

Here are the next steps, I would type them all myself, but that article summarized perfectly, and it's very recent too.

--

As for overclocking your GPU, just download your GPU's Brand-specific program, like MSI Afterburner, EVGA Precision X, etc. They really all work on any GPU, but it's nice to use the one "made" for your specific GPU.

(Note, these only work on Nvidia cards, you'll have to download completely different stuff for AMD)

I hope this helps, don't be afraid of pushing your system, just don't push it too far. Either way, the worst that would happen if you OC "too" hard is you'll BSOD on startup and you'll just have to set your multiplier/voltage lower. It won't affect the longevity of your PC in any way, Enjoy!

Looks good to me, only thing missing is an SSD, they can be had dirt cheap now and shouldn't be overlooked even in a budget build. Here is a great option with free shipping, another larger option with free shipping.

The 7700K and Kaby Lake friends should be released around the end of this year, you may find yourself having to upgrade sooner than later before the 6700K goes out of stock. I would reconsider putting the money for the 6500 towards the 6700K now unless the budget is super tight, in which case I would go i3 6100 since you are planning on upgrading anyway. 6700K cheapest with free shipping I could find. I believe you also get another $5 off when signing up a new account. Keep in mind the 6700K doesn't come with a cooler, so a 212 EVO would be a solid option.

You could save some money on the case as well, here are some sale options. Make sure what you get is full atx compatible.

• 
  CPU: check
  
• 
  CPU cooler: I have and love this one
  
• 
  Motherboard: check
  
• 
  Hard drive: I have and love the 64gb version of that hdd!
  
• 
  Video Card: I have and love this one. I suggest you get this one since you want more power. EVGA is always the best way to go for graphics cards.
  
• 
  Case: I have and love the red version of that case. It reaallly keeps everything cool. I have never seen my graphics card go above 75c, even after hours of gaming.
  
  PS: Keep on keeping on destiny! As a gold level player, the most valuable lesson I got from your stream was "forget about everything, focus on mechanics". Glhf!

Good work, your cable management is excellent!

I have a couple of recommendations for you build:

I'd recommend buying a new CPU cooler when you can. The Intel ones are good, but there are so many better ones on the market.

Try this one - I used it in my build for like 3 years. Keeps temps down and fans quiet.

Another thing you may consider is an SSD. You'd be surprised by how cheap they are right now. Here is a 480Gb SSD for only $118 USD.

And as /u/nolo_me said, definitely flip that PSU if it's not too much trouble. Better performance, better sound, better temps.

Update for everyone:

• Watched this video on the Hero Me system.
  
  
• Watched this video on the Hero Me system.
  
  
• Watched this video on replacing the Ender 3 hot end fan.
  
  
• Watched this video on replacing the Ender 3 hot end fan with this quieter option (I don't need it to be quiet, so I'm not going to do it).
  
  
  Conclusion:
  
  
• I'll use the Hero Me system with this hot end fan guard.
  
  
• I'll replace the filament fan (I believe that I have my fan names correct) with the dual 5015 Hero Me setup using these 5015 fans. Here's a video I found that is basically a step-by-step guide for it.
  
  Hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll be back with a successful picture!
  
  /u/hockeyhippie and /u/johnedwa if you have any input.

For 20$ you should get a cooler master hyper 212+, it has a bigger fan (120mm vs. 92) and will easily allow you to reach the max "on air" overclock of that chip. The stock heatsink will easily allow 3.4 GHZ, possibly more. throw in a coolermaster 4 pack of 120mm case fans, put one on the other side of the hyper 212+, and three in the case. all your cooling needs taken care of for 30$ shipped

for 30$ you might as well get 2x4GB ram. these ones are great

the case and psu are good quality, though you can get the antec bp550w, which is modular, for 10$ more.

170$ for that video card seems pretty standard, with 140$ being even better if you get the rebate to come through.

Reading reviews of that mobo, it seems that the compatible ram list is pretty small, and ram issues seem to happen a lot to that board. in the 100$ range there are several am3+ mobo's which would fit your needs. I suggest going with one that has 2 pci-e x16 slots and runs them at (x16, x8) in crossfire or sli. the one you currently have is x16,x4 which will give less performance if you sli/crossfire down the road. if you don't think you'll crossfire, don't worry about that.

• The H7 won't be enough to sustain heavy overclocking on a 7700k. Consider a $46 Scythe Fuma when it goes back in stock (or from eBay)? That thing outperforms almost every other boxed cooler on the market right now for a very good price.
  
  
• You'll need a bios update to use that motherboard with a Kaby Lake CPU. That's not an overclocking motherboard either, though it'll be perfectly adequate for casual overclocking. I'd probably be looking at an ASRock Z270 Extreme 4 or Gigabyte Aorus k5 or k7 for budget overclocking and aesthetics.
  
  
• The MSI Armor cards don't have backplates, so the back of the card (the part that you actually see most of the time) will just be a blank PCB. You might want to consider an EVGA FTW or ASUS Strix for a good-looking back. GPU's are a part you could probably save $50 or so on by using Jet.com instead of Amazon.
  
  
• Cases are very much down to aesthetics, but you can get very nice tempered glass cases for less than that Corsair thing. At your price point and with your aesthetics, I'd probably be looking at an Enthoo Evolv.
  
  
• That PSU isn't going to help you with overclocking. Get a G2/G3, RMx, Seasonic, etc. If you're serious about overclocking or longevity. This is a part you can potentially save ~$20 on with Newegg.
  
  
• You don't need a wifi card that nice. Most people don't even have home internet fast enough to fully use a card like that. If you really need wifi, it might be cheaper to just get a motherboard that has it out of the box.
  
  
• Those are static pressure fans, not designed for case airflow. If you want more case fans, consider a value pack of Arctic F12's. They're probably the most acoustically efficient unrestricted airflow fan at low speeds, which is what you want for case fans.
  

Three suggestions:

1. If you plan on doing high overclocking get a Asrock Extreme 4 motherboard. If not, you can keep the one you picked. The Asrock MoBo has more power phases and will give you a more stable overclock.
   
2. If you're looking to hit 5GHz get the new Corsair H115i Extreme CPU cooler for ~9K. Its new, and extremely good for the price. If you only want to do a mild overclock, you can go with something like this new Cooler Master 620P (H=165mm) which is nearly as good as a Cryorig H5 Universal (H=160mm) and priced at a very decent 3.7K.
   
3. If you go for an air cooler, then instead of Corsair 200R (CPU clearance 165mm), you could get this Cooler Master Masterbox 5 (CPU clearance 167mm) with that beautiful front grille to suck in loads of air. Just discovered it today and am going to recommend it to everyone who has a case budget of ~6k. If you go for the AIO cooler, then I'd personally recommend getting a case with top 280mm radiator placement possible. From what I search last time, these are you options that do allow top mounted 280mm rads:
   
   Thermaltake Suppressor F31
   
   Thermaltake View 31
   
   Phanteks Enthoo Pro M (out of stock so this is the white version)
   
   Thermaltake Core X31
   
   They all sit in the medium range cost wise, but they'll give you an important option of freeing up the front of your case so you can put your case fans and draw outside air in.
   
   Other than this, the Sickleflow fans you picked are fine, you can go with them. If you're tight on budget, then let me know what you have to work with so I'll try to suggest the best option within that. Also let us know how much you're looking to overclock that CPU. It is very regularly known to hit 5GHz if enough cooling is given.
   
   Edit:
   
   If all this is sounding very costly to you, and you were not much interested in overclocking anyway, I'd suggest you to go for the i7 8700 processor (Rs. 22K), a Gigabyte Aorus 3 Gaming B360 motherboard (Rs. 10K), and a Cooler Master Hyper 212 CPU cooler (Rs. 2.8K) and call it a day. At stock speeds the 8700 is better at gaming than the 8600K.

Your core system is still solid. The only thing I'd add is an SSD:

Crucial

Western Digital

Samsung

An SSD will improve every aspect of your PC.

Further down the road, you could add an i7-7700K for a 67% increase in multi threaded performance. Additionally, single core performance goes from somewhat pokey to blazing fast.

I don't see any cooling solution here, so that could be another avenue of improvement. TBF though, the stock cooler is adequate, but it's loud and cheap looking. You could improve the looks of your pc and get better cooling to boot. I'm really fond of the NH-L9i

If you're interested in more perfection, you could upgrade your PSU to an 80+ Gold unit. They run cooler and quieter than bronze units, and this has a ripple effect throughout your system because there's much less heat to contend with. My SF450 rarely even starts the fan...

If you are concerned about noise and want to spend that much on a CPU cooler I would suggest either the Noctua NH-D15 or the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 which is my personal favorite and in my current rig though it seems to be hard even to get here in the states right now so I'm guessing availability in Canada will be even tougher. If you will not be doing lots of video editing or heavy processing things then I think the 6600k will be fine. If you just want a quiet PC and some light overclocking and want to bring the price down then I would also suggest you look at something like the Cryorig H5 cooler which is about a sub $50 cooler in the U.S. but PCPartPicker seems to not be able to find any Canadian retailers for it. It would be my midrange suggestion for a cooler. The H7 has been very popular lately as well and that goes for about $35 USD or for less than that there is always the fan favorite Cooler Master 212 EVO. I see nothing wrong with the motherboard. I own a similar Gigabyte motherboard myself and it is great. All you really miss out on with that one is no SLI support. As for monitors in the future I would personally go for 144Hz over 1440P but that is personal preference. IPS would also be preferable to TN for photoshop but a 144Hz IPS will be very pricy (like $500+ and that's looking at prices here in the U.S.) and since it sounds like gaming is your primary use and Photoshop is your secondary use I would go with a 144Hz TN over a 60Hz IPS.

Thermalright's TY-127s fill every checkmark on your list. Great fan by a great manufacturer. I think they are only available in Europe though.

Phantek also has some good black/white ones as well. Also could be worth checking out gentle typhoons though I think those are gray rather than white.

If you're want something a bit cheaper you can actually get a five pack black/white arctic f12s which are pwm. Amazing value here.. They are legit good fans.

Glad I helped.

Your temperatures seem to be completely safe. 71 degrees is absolutely fine for your components, and you shouldn't worry about it. You should only be concerned if temperatures start exceeding 75-80 degrees.

As /u/Dyzleksi suggested, you could move the PC out of the furniture if you have room. This most likely will make the PC slightly cooler, and therefore a little quieter. If you want to make a huge difference to noise and heat, there are many options for cheap but quality fans:

You should start with a CPU cooler like this. This is one of the most popular ones on the market, I have one myself and it is silent.

Any aftermarket case fans will typically do the job much more effectively and quietly. Noctua is a good choice, as is Corsair. If you aren't willing to spend that much, cheaper options will also be a large improvement.

Bear in mind that case fans greatly affect overall performance. How many case fans do you currently have? (These are the fans attached to the case itself, not to components.) Most cheaper cases come with only 1 fan on the front (intake). You should install at least 1 more on the rear or top of the case as exhaust, for a total of 1 intake and 1 exhaust fan.

Grounding should not affect the temperatures or cooling at all. It is a precaution you can take while handling the components to avoid damaging them with static electricity. Many people (myself included) do not bother with grounding and get on just fine. In future, though, you should tap a metal object such as the side panel of the PC before touching any hardware.

If you have any more questions, I'm always here to help.

I would get [this water cooler instead of yours] (http://smile.amazon.com/Corsair-Hydro-Performance-Liquid-Cooler/dp/B00A0HZMGA/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1407431857&sr=1-1&keywords=liquid+cooler) it's cheaper and I believe it'll be better overall. If you want to save more money, AMD right now has a better price/performance ratio than Nvidia does at the moment, so I'd recommend a [R9 290] (http://smile.amazon.com/XFX-Double-947MHz-Graphics-R9290AEDFD/dp/B00HHIPM5Q/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1407431962&sr=1-2&keywords=XFX+R9+290) or even a [R9 290x] (http://smile.amazon.com/XFX-Double-1000MHz-Graphics-R9290XEDFD/dp/B00HHIPN5A/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1407431986&sr=1-1&keywords=XFX+R9+290x). Unless you have a strong Nvidia preference I would go with AMD, better bang for your buck. I have the XFX R9 290 and it is an amazing card for the price. For your PSU go with a better brand like [this Corsair one] (http://smile.amazon.com/Corsair-Modular-Bronze-ATX12V-EPS12V/dp/B00ALK3KEM/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1407432062&sr=1-1&keywords=PSU) it's cheaper and has more power to offer. Otherwise it looks good.

The cooler you chose doesn't appear to be 1155 compatible; I'd recommend the other Cooler Master cooler.

$200 is a bit much for a system at this budget level. This is a much more reasonably priced SLI MB.

You can get a much faster Spinpoint F3 for the same price.

For that kind of money, you can get a much better case, like a Lian Li Lancool, Antec Dark Fleet DF-10 -- or use that money saved on the motherboard to bump up to a HAF 922, NZXT Whisper, a CM690 II Advanced, Thermaltake Armor, Dark Fleet FD-30, or a higher-grade Lian Li.

Corsair's CX series power supplies have a mixed reputation. For that price range, I'd recommend something like an XFX Core Edition. But we'd still have money left over after switching to that MSI board and getting a better case. So you can just get a nicer Corsair if you like, or take advantage of a July 4th sale and get this Antec HCG for $55 after a rebate and promo code EMCKCKJ43.

I also agree about bumping that video card up to a 560 Ti.

Checkout:

• https://www.serverbuilds.net/
  
• /r/JDM_WAAAT
  
  The build above is more expensive than I would spend for a home media server, but everyone has a different budget. You might want to consider alternatives to some parts that are just as good, but cheaper. For example, do you really need those noctua 120mm fans? You can get a 5 pack of Arctic fans for $27 and do just as good a job cooling. There are other things you could do without or find cheaper alternatives for. Below are a couple of things that jumped out at me:
  
  I'm not sure about the 10 gb ethernet adapters. I get your desire to link your PC, but check to see what other bottlenecks you have and if the 10 gb adapters will do anything (e.g. hard drive / ssd read and write speeds).
  
  While we are talking storage, I always try to challenge peoples assumptions that they need RAID. RAID is not a backup solution. RAID is about up-time. RAID is not easy to expand. For media storage you might be better off using a pooling solution like mergerfs or stablebit drivepool.
  
  Is the ethernet cable going outside? If not, then you don't need the direct burial / waterproof cable.
  
  The netgear switch seems unnecessary if you only have two devices with 10gbe and you can connect them directly.
  
  The rosewill drive cages are nice, but if you don't need hot swap you can save ~$80 by switching to Norco 5 x 3.5" HDD Hard Drive Cage.

You can save $5 by grabbing your mobo and OS together. Alternatively, buy it from Superbiiz along with your HDD and use the coupon code CHEERS to get $20 off the order.

Save yourself some more and grab the Hyper 212+ or Corsair A70. If you're buying your CPU from Newegg, grab the i5/A70 combo.

You can save yourself some money by grabbing a nice 8GB RAM kit and 6870 combo.

If you're dropping that much on a case, you might as well grab the nicer Antec P280.

Your PSU is overpriced. You can save money and get a better PSU with this FSP Aurum.

Lastly, if you really want to save some more, you can cut out the CD drive and install your OS with a flash drive.

> Despite being a bad time to build a PC

Be brave! It's a GREAT time to build a PC! It's just a really crappy time to pay for the parts. Good luck, you'll have a blast.

Order a set of these. Gotta be the number one annoyance when building. Maybe one of these too. They're cheap and handy.

Hitachi's drive business (HGST) is now owned by Western Digital, and yet HGST drives still substantially outperform WD for reliability and cost less. That's gotta be awkward at the company Christmas party.

The 860 EVO is a newer model SSD than the 850 EVO. Longer life, etc., and costs a bit less. If you're lazy like me, get the M.2 version rather then the 2.5" so it mounts directly to the motherboard rather than having to muck round running power/sata to the drive.

Good choice on getting the full version of Windows rather than the OEM version. The potential headaches aren't worth the $30 difference.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor | $333.00 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler | NZXT - Kraken X62 Rev 2 98.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler | $147.32 @ OutletPC
Motherboard | EVGA - Z370 FTW ATX LGA1151 Motherboard | $198.06 @ OutletPC
Memory | G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory | $196.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Samsung - 860 Evo 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $149.99 @ Amazon
Storage | Hitachi - HGST Ultra 8TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $317.89 @ Amazon
Video Card | EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB SSC GAMING Video Card | $515.00 @ Newegg Marketplace
Case | NZXT - H700i ATX Mid Tower Case | $179.99 @ SuperBiiz
Power Supply | SeaSonic - PRIME Titanium 750W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply |-
Operating System | Microsoft - Windows 10 Home Full 32/64-bit | $119.00 @ Newegg Business
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $2157.24
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-19 15:17 EDT-0400 |

As kentbrodie said, you do not want to skimp in power wattage, mostly since you are using a i7-7700k AND a GTX 1080, both of which can be overclocked pretty well (depending on the silicon lottery). I usually recommend people to get at least a 600W on a Gaming PC, and no more than a 750W unless you are planning to do some HEAVY workstation work or SLI/Crossfiring. Also... you don't have a lot of good quality options in your market, if you were in the US, you'd have better options. I was looking for a PSU that is 80+ Gold for power efficiency, and Semi/Full Modular to give you more room in your ITX case.

Air Coolers are better price/performance. A Cryorig H7 is AMAZING for it's price (remember to use the thermal compound that it comes with). If you really want to use a liquid cooler, you can get a Corsair Hydro H100i v2, but it really isn't necessary.

I really just chose a different GTX 1080 in the ITX case to give you more room to build around.

Also note: That Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ITX case can use:

Front

• 2 x 120/140mm fan
  
• 1 x 200mm fan
  
  Top
  
  
• 2 x 120/140mm fan
  
  Rear
  
  
• 1x 120/140mm fan
  
  I personally like Noctua (Rated , Phanteks (Phanteks PH-F140SP_BK_BLED <3 <3), and be quiet! I do have 1 Corsair AF120 currently in my case, and it isn't bad either. But to each their own, you can do some research on case fans before you buy them.

That's the thing. My case is a mid-tower and only allows for 161mm of clearance. And so far, I've found a lot of great CPU coolers, some of which look good too (like the ones you just linked), but they don't fit in my NZXT S430 Elite :/ I've found it incredibly hard to find the right CPU cooler. I want my build to look nice, since the S340 Elite has a side window of tempered glass. This one seems like a good product, but again, it's made by Noctua and (in my opinion, at least) looks like complete trash. The colour they use for their fans is just so mediocre-looking... and just ugly in general: https://www.amazon.ca/noctua-NH-U12S-Noctua-CPU-Cooler/dp/B00C9EYVGY/ref=zg_bs_11036281_9?tag=amazon0064-20

I chose the Black and Red version of the S340 Elite, so I'm going for that same colour combination for my components, and having a big light brown metal thing inside would just look really crappy. Also, how many millimetres would you recommend for a fan if the clearance is 161mm ? Does the 161mm take into account the minimum amount of space you would obviously want to have between the top of your cooler, and the case window ? I would certainly not want the cooler to come in contact with the tempered glass! To rest easy (and if it's possible), I'd like to have a reasonable amount of free space between the cooler and the tempered glass.

E3D V6 hotend

Noctua fan for hotend cooling (I hosed the original using a heat gun to assist bed temps for ABS) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NQLT0M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cheap as hell 5015 2 pack part cooling blowers https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071WMHNG5/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This kickass heavy duty customizable mount https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2494642 printed in PETG

I replaced my hotend with a microswiss right away and jacked up both it and the original, but learned a lesson and added plugs to everything. Hotends usually come with crimpable plugs, but they're all different so I standardized on these for fans https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M5AHF0Z/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And this type (xt60) for the hotend cuz current https://www.amazon.com/Female-Connector-Housing-Silicon-Battery/dp/B073QJWVVK/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1517496061&sr=8-5&keywords=xt60+connectors

All of the plugs made my wiring kinda fat, so when you join the Bowden tube, the wiring, and the ezabl cord its just heavy enough to droop lower than the gantry and get rubbed back and forth during prints. I designed a chain link style support in blender that anchors at the extruder and velcro'd the bundle to it. It allows free xy movement but not z. It works really well but could prolly be optimized. 😃

My printer came with the bed heater wiring strain relief already printed and installed, definitely do so. Also, get a dial gauge. Seriously. Print a gantry mount for it and slip it on to use it when needed.

Eh, it's more like they gave you a cheap cooler. It's probably ok, but as you can see you're hitting the max temps in some situations (100C).

Depends on what you want to spend really. Noctua is considered the best for air coolers.

This is like the most popular noctua model I think:

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-D15-heatpipe-NF-A15-140mm/dp/B00L7UZMAK

And then there are all in one (AIO) water coolers for $100 (but noctua is on par with them and beats many of them). Here is the one I have for my 9900k:

https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Liquid-Cooler-Cooling-400-HY-CL28-V1/dp/B01N16CAKN/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=evga+clc+280&qid=1574222298&sr=8-1

There are definitely cheaper options that should be solid especially if you're not going to be pushing an overclock and all that. I'm not an expert on coolers but if you search 'cpu cooler 9700k' on /r/buildapc you can probably find a lot of good recommendations.

you've got a good start, there are a couple of easy upgrades you could make to optimize your build.

you can upgrade your hard drive to a samsung f3 1TB for $5, and you could upgrade your graphics card to a GTX 560 for $20. both of those upgrades are worth it, and neither costs alot.

if you're planning on overclocking your 2500K, i would definitely add a CPU cooler like the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus. even if you're not overclocking, it's a good upgrade to keep your system's temperature down.

Don't forget to get a optical drive, especially if you plan on installing your OS from a disc. this is a cheap read/write drive, however if you want to play blu-rays; you'll need something like this. but you won't be able to burn discs with that drive.

if you're looking to save some money, you won't need 8GB of RAM unless you plan on dealing with large/complex files. 4GB is plenty for gaming. if you're going to be doing heavy video/photo/vector/3D editing, then 8GB is worth it. However; RAM is cheap right now; 8GB is no longer unreasonable for average users.

If you want to connect to a wireless connection, you'll need an adapter

don't forget your peripherals! unless you already own them, you'll need a keyboard, mouse and monitor.

you'll also need an OS; newegg carries all versions of windows 7. they have a good deal on 64-bit home premium OEM. I don't recommend getting a 32-bit operating system, 64-bit systems can emulate a 32-bit OS to run any 32-bit applications you may need. it is possible to install apple software, but it is a legal gray area. consult /r/hackintosh for more information.

have fun building, let me know how it goes!

So yeah you have three ports available to plug fans directly in to the motherboard. What I would recommend over a Molex adapter would be a hub like this.

SilverStone PWM Fan Hub System Cables, Black (CPF04) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VNW556I/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_rh0Zxb68PGZVT

Still plug your cpu fan directly into the cpu fan hub on the mobo, but plug all the other fans into the hub, with the hub plugged into one of the system fan ports. And voila, now you have support for 7 more fans.

Glad I can help, feel free to ask for clarification on anything else.

Good choice on the cpu. It is fantastic for gaming but you are paying for the K at the end.

You probably know already, but if you do not, intel's K series have an unlocked core multiplier meaning you can easily over clock them.

But in order to do so safely, you will need an aftermarket cooler. I suggest the CM-212 Plus. If you don't plan on the overclock, the locked core i5-2500 saves you a little bit.

I have that ram, and its great but if i did it again I would go with something like Crucial Ballistix which have better timings.

And finally, I would highly suggest the crucial m4 of Plextor m3 instead of the corsair.

EDIT: Here is my go-to $600USD list which might equate to around the price you are looking for.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i3-2120 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor | $116.99 @ SuperBiiz
Motherboard | ASRock Z77 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard | $102.55 @ Newegg
Memory | Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $41.99 @ Amazon
Hard Drive | Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk | $118.99 @ eCost
Video Card | XFX Radeon HD 6870 2GB Video Card | $179.99 @ Newegg
Case | Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case | $49.99 @ SuperBiiz
Power Supply | Antec 450W ATX12V Power Supply | $34.98 @ Amazon
| | Total
| Prices include shipping and discounts when available. | $645.48

First off, thank you a ton. I asked a friend of mine to look at the build (sorry, but I like to check things :P, I'm paranoid), and he said it looks great. I was curious though if you had the time to verify a few things for me. I couldn't find a few of the things you had suggested so I checked on some other things... Could you verify that they are just as usable for me please?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GQMHBI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A34FFV8YYDM571

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064GOQ86/ref=ox_sc_act_title_6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DHW4HXY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_7?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0088PUEPK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_8?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055QYKQO/ref=ox_sc_act_title_9?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1XBPHGHAXLHDG

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005O65JXI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_10?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QBUL1C/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0033Z2BAQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A30YNTVQ04HG16

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003HE260I/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

And sorry for the late reply. I've been trying to ensure that I have the money together so that I can actually pay for it without running into issues haha.

That's definitely a closed-loop system. These are supposed to last 4-5 years, but they have been known to break before that. There's a propylene glycol/water antifreeze fluid (just like a car) inside them, and a little pump (powered by the blue/green/yellow/black cable) pushes warm water from the CPU to the radiator, where is is cooled down and returned to the processor. When they fail they go one of two ways, either they get a crack in them and the water leaks, or the pump quits working.
It's possible that for some reason your motherboard has decided to not run the CPU fan (which is actually the pump) at 100% even though it's overheating (things like quiet mode can do this) and it's possible that when it's running at say 85% that it's not enough juice to start the pump... Check your BIOS for any quiet/silent mode settings and see if you can disable them. If the CPU fan is showing an RPM rating, this is actually the rating of the pump.

If you have gigabyte's tuning software installed, make sure you max out the CPU fan speed. Pumps are not fans, and it's possible that the pump just isn't getting enough power.

If the pump has gone bad, you can replace it with something similar (expect about the same life span and noise level). Personally, I'd switch to air cooling, as there's less that can go wrong. /r/buildapc could probably make suggestions... The only thing you need to be sure of with your next solution is that it works with AM3 processors. Your motherboard is compatible with standard 3-pin fans and 4-pin PWM fans, so you can pretty much use anything.

Personally, I have this a Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo. It's big. Very big. My case side almost doesn't fit on, but it's super quiet and doesn't depend on a pump. When idle, my CPU fan doesn't even need to run. It relies on heatpipes, which are VERY different from water cooling systems.

If you wanted to, you could switch back to a stock heatsink as well. The one that comes with your processor looks like this, but you may have a problem, it clips to a piece of plastic that appears to be missing from your motherboard (see here). You may have problems fitting OEM parts. I believe the Coolermaster fan I listed above will work even though that bracket is missing, but I'm not 100%

*edit: it looks like there's another black cable going into the heatsink in your top picture... Where does that go?

Be quiet is good, but at that price you might as well go for the Corsair H100i. Intel processors generally run hot the 8700k specifically can run high temps when gaming. I dont see how an air cooler would be better than a water cooler. In general water transfers heat better than air.

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-CW-9060025-WW-Radiator-Advanced-Lighting/dp/B019EXSSBG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522512787&sr=8-1&keywords=Corsair+H100i+v2

Either way if you really want to do air cooling be quiet would be a great choice. I'm not trying to push you in either direction just trying to put my .02, At the end of the day it's whatever you're happy with.

Cheap option, get this (might be a tight squeeze, requires removing the side panel fan): https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-RR-212E-20PK-R2-Direct-Contact/dp/B005O65JXI

Best option, get this (also requires removing that side panel fan, but might be a tiny bit easier to fit in as it's 2mm shorter): https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-U12S-Premium-Cooler-NF-F12/dp/B00C9EYVGY

unless you don't want to remove the side-panel fan at all, then get this, still great cooling: https://www.amazon.com/noctua-Premium-Cooler_Retail-Cooling-NH-C14S

It would also be helpful to know your motherboard model to check the compatibility list. But I'm fairly certain these coolers should fit regardless.

They include decent thermal paste, but the FX8350 is one of the hotter chips and it might be worthwhile to squeeze a few extra degrees out with this paste: https://www.amazon.com/Thermal-Grizzly-Kryonaut-Grease-Paste/dp/B011F7W3LU

EDITED:

Save $110 by getting a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo instead of the Liquid Cooler. I saw a few youtube benchmarks (comparing the 212 Evo to the h100i) that the 212 Evo only lags behind the liquid cooler by 1*C. If you don't want to use the stock CM fan on the 212 Evo, just buy one Corsair SP120 for $13 on Amazon, and you'll still save $97. Liquid cooling is great until it leaks all over your $3000 setup Google-> h100i leaks (and other models).


....
You also wouldn't need the Thermal Compound if you buy the 212 Evo siince Cooler Master ships you some (Saves $6)

....
Also save $420 and get the EVGA GTX 1080 Ti instead of the Titan Xp. EVGA is the best brand for NVidia cards.

....
You would save a total of ~$536 and have extremely similar performance (basically unnoticeable).

LinusTechTips did a video on positive vs negative air pressure and found the difference in temperature settings was negligible at most. Positive air flow, however, should reduce the dust that enters your pc, assuming you have dust filters over your intakes.

Liquid cooling should not be remotely necessary. Yes, it will improve performance over air cooling, but for most users air cooling is plenty good. /u/smgswattted, are you using the stock cooler? if so, get an inexpensive aftermarket (hyper 212 evo probably still best value) instead. Make sure you also have at least one case fan.
As far as airflow, this video shows that the key factor is having an adequately sized heat sink.
Personally, I'd wager your problem stems from bad/old thermal compound (and possibly using a stock heat sink). [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2p6Hk4IfqI} video explains what thermal compound is, and this video talks about how to apply it most effectively.
That said, /u/desuemery's list is very comprehensive/covers all the bases, but personally I'd suggest just getting that hyper 212 cooler and some new paste before getting liquid cooling or anything fancy unless you just want to be cool. That and get dust filters.

Looks solid to me, not familiar with Solid Works though so I can't comment on that. You probably won't see more than a few dollars savings dropping to a lower wattage PSU and the 750w does give you the option of adding a second card for SLI in the future without having to upgrade it as well. Well worth the extra $5-10 in my opinion.

For keyboards, I have a
Microsoft Sidewinder X4 and for me at $40 with free shipping it would be tough to beat. It's not mechanical, but mine has lasted 3 years and still works beautifully (and I'm not that much of a fan of mech keyboards)

Mouse, I have a Roccat Kone that I love and at $40 is a decent price as well. Especially for the features that you get.

If you can squeeze it into your budget, a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO would help keep noise down and is only $30 on Amazon

1. The water cooling fan header can be used for a case fan. I believe the pump fan header can too, but I'm not sure. Keep in mind that your motherboard may treat those headers as PWM controlled or DC voltage controlled, and you may have to change fan speed settings in the BIOS.
   
   
2. See 3.
   
   
3. See 2. Just kidding, see 4.
   
   
4. Easiest way would be to buy a fan splitter. Make sure that, if you have 4 pin PWM case fans, you get a 4 pin fan splitter. If you have a lot of fans, you can consider a fan hub. It can get power from your PSU via SATA or Molex, depending on the fan hub. Plus, if you get a PWM fan hub you can turn non-PWM fans into PWM fans, though all fans connected to the hub will run at the same speed.

Noctua has a good reputation for having some of the best performing fans though they are a bit pricey maybe because of the demand for them if spending $20 or more per case fan is too much going for cheaper fan's wouldn't be the worse idea as replacing a fan is easier these fan's are pretty cheap and it comes with 3 of them Noctua also has some of the best CPU Coolers

Here's a couple of CPU coolers if they cost too much there's a couple others I can think of

Noctua NH-D15 one of the best coolers by noctua the FSP case may have trouble mounting this.

Noctua NH-U14S a more budget cooler but still capable might be a bit louder then the D15 the FSP case may have trouble mounting this

Dark Rock Pro 4 one of the most recommended CPU coolers I've seen at the moment probably because of it's price for a dual heat sink tower cooler the FSP case may have trouble mounting this

​

Corsair H115i a very high end Liquid cooler it's expensive but it'll definitely get the job done might have better overclocking performance as AIO cooler's don't suffer from stark changes in temperatures with an air cooler you may see temperature spikes for example your CPU is sitting at 40 C and it jumps up to 50 C for a second and then quickly climbs back down this is pretty rare for an AIO Liquid cooler

with all the clearance issue's with the FSP case you could look into this case it would be wide enough to fit all cooler's I mentioned here while also not being too expensive

I originally had bad thermal issues on my 17R4 i7-7700HQ w/ 1070, but I did a "re-paste" stacking solution that has worked great for me. Temps were hitting 95c while playing Monster Hunter World even while lifted off surface before "re-paste". Currently I can play games for hours on end switching between Monster Hunter World, Forza Horizon 4, and Elder Scrolls Online with temps very rarely hitting above 65c. Temps usually hover around 55c - 60c and might hit 65c - 70c if it's warm in the room from the heater being on. I am also running the Alienware Graphics Amplifier with 1080ti for monitors and gaming. Those temps were CPU temps before the "re-paste" stacking. I did a "re-paste" stack on the internal 1070 as well, but I have not gamed using the internal graphics yet. I use the quotation marks on "re-paste" as I used the IC Graphite Pad, a 0.5mm Copper Shim, and another IC Graphite Pad stack on both CPU and GPU and no actual paste was used. I used this video for reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujffb2gIsS0 but instead of Liquid Metal, I used the Graphite Pad instead. The stacking process is shown at the 19:50 mark if you want to see what I mean by stacking. Hope this helps with on view because before I did this my CPU was HOT AF! Also, here are links if interested in what I used. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CKVW18G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OUJQX8K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-System-Cables-Black-CPF04/dp/B00VNW556I?th=1&psc=1 this is cheapest small fan hub I know of.

The only one smaller is the aquacomputer quadro, but it's pretty expensive and uses molex, that being said you can download their software to finfigure any fan to any RPM you want. It's more of a fan controller than a fan hub. it's also about 3x the price.

If you plan to go dual aio at some point, I'd recommend the Quadro, because you can easily control RPM of each individual fan (or even use a splitter for 2 fans on one header so they run at the same RPM)

>What is the theory of fan placement and different kinds of fans going in different parts of the case?

/u/dweller_12 provided the fan size and locations for your case. Using this information, you'd do a 120mm intake for the front and a 120mm exhaust in the back at the minimum. If you feel like you need additional airflow, add 2 120mm fans up top as exhaust and 2 120mm fans on the side as intake. This is overkill though.

If you have a 240mm AIO for your CPU, I'd recommend mounting it to the top as an intake and using the front and back fans as exhaust. Bringing cool air into the case will reduce CPU temps better than pushing warmer air out of the radiator.

> What happens if I put a HF fan in the front instead of a SP? are all front intake fans SP? Are SP fans louder?

The whole HF vs SP isn't worth worrying over (especially when it's a single degree of difference. You're better off using decent PWM fans or 3-pin fans connected to a fan controller like the Silverstone PWM Fan Hub.

> Is there a cooling/noise performance boost with bigger fans (120 vs 140)?

Larger fans can push the same amount of air as smaller fans with less noise. They can also push more air at the same noise level as smaller fans. This doesn't apply to you since you cannot fit 140mm fans in your case.

If noise is a concern, I mounted a 120mm basic Cooler Master fan in front of my 5.25" drive bays to cool my HDDs and SSD (used 3.5" to 5.25" brackets, did this to remove the 3.5" drive bays for better air flow). There is no noticeable noise difference with the additional fan, but all 3 drives have dropped 10°C.
> What other factors should I be concerned about?

Dust. Get fan filters and clean them out regularly. I don't have any pets, but I do have carpet in my bedroom that gets vacuumed never rather infrequently.

> I'm planning on getting budget Corsair fans with LEDs (not rgb because I have no mobo headers). Anything I should know?

Keep them clean.

Here is what I built last month.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor | $369.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler | Corsair - H100i PRO 75.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler | $109.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard | ASRock - Z370M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard | $126.88 @ OutletPC
Memory | Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory | $142.99 @ Amazon
Storage | Western Digital - Blue 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive | $149.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card | EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB SC2 Video Card |-
Case | Phanteks - Enthoo EVOLV ITX TG (Black) Mini ITX Desktop Case | $86.98 @ Newegg
Power Supply | SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply | $78.20 @ B&H
Operating System | Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit | $94.89 @ OutletPC
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1209.81
| Mail-in rebates | -$50.00
| Total | $1159.81
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-17 09:12 EDT-0400 |


I originally had the Hyper 212 EVO just as you do on your list but found it to not be sufficient enough for the 8700K, especially if you overclock it (otherwise just get the 8700). You can get an NH-D15 or something similar from CRYORIG or be quiet! but they'll be bulky and make getting in to replace RAM or do other things more difficult, as you will most likely have to take off the cooler to get to your components. I found the H100i Pro from Corsair to be easy to install and it makes the inside look much more appealing than having a huge heatsink in the middle of everything. This was my first time using water cooling and it being an AIO, made everything hassle free and much easier to install than the Hyper 212 EVO, whose brackets make it a pain sometimes to install. I also like that using the iCUE software, you can have the H100i PRO change color according to its temperature, so it makes monitoring temps during games easy, as you can just look at the color of the AIO and you know if it is staying cool or hot. Lastly, and most importantly, the temps are much lower using it than the Hyper 212 EVO so if you have the extra money, you might want to go that route as it has many advantages.

I would recommend changing out the WD Blue drive for a WD Black for the bit of performance increase over the Blue series.
Maybe try looking into going for a all-in-one water cooling solution like the Corsair H100i v2, though it has a significant price increase over the Hyper 212 EVO, for a build with a large budget, water cooling would be a good idea.
Other than that, it doesn't look bad, nice build OP.

If its a reference model, your level of risk is going to equal the reward of repasting / reseating the fans. Powercolor, in particular, is guilty of not always having molded dies, which sits a portion of the die lower than the rest--meaning you need MUCH more thermal paste, if you go that route.

​

If its a reference...you can go the Morpheus 2 mod route, and get a few static pressure fans to drastically drop the temps. That's gonna cost you, the aftermarket cooler/etc isn't cheap. https://www.amazon.com/RAIJINTEK-MORPHEUS-Superior-High-end-Cooler/dp/B071VZ7M4K

​

For thermal pads--IC Graphite is some of the best on the market, but its conductive, so you have to be SUPER careful how you cut it to make sure it fits perfectly. Works amazingly well though: https://www.amazon.com/Innovation-Cooling-Graphite-Thermal-Pad/dp/B07CKVW18G

​

With all of this--your level of investment / work is going to really equate to what you get out of it. These things are probably better geared to overclockers or gamers, but hell--the community recognizes it works really well for a reason.

For cooling, if you're going with an air cooler, you can get the Noctua NH-D15 for about 90$, which is pretty much the best air cooler on the market. But with the Zen 2 chips really not running that hot, you can go a step down and get a decent cooler like CoolerMaster's Hyper 212 RGB at 40$ish, or if you still want closed-loop liquid cooling, you can probably get away with something like the Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML120L RGB AIO at around 60$.

Links:

Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4: https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-D15-heatpipe-NF-A15-140mm/dp/B00L7UZMAK/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=noctua+nh-d15+se-am4&qid=1563487740&s=gateway&sr=8-4

CM Hyper 212 RGB: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/hHDJ7P/cooler-master-hyper-212-rgb-black-edition-573-cfm-cpu-cooler-rr-212s-20pc-r1

CM MasterLiquid ML120L: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/3P2rxr/cooler-master-masterliquid-ml120l-rgb-667-cfm-liquid-cpu-cooler-mlw-d12m-a20pc-r1

​

For the RAM, looking around it seems like a lot of the good kits are currently sold out, which makes sense with everyone building their systems with the new Zen 2 CPUs.The one good kit I've found is this one: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/yCVBD3/gskill-tridentz-series-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3600-memory-f4-3600c15d-16gtz

It's slightly more expensive at 172$, but 3600Mhz at CAS Latency 15 means it's definitely using Samsung B-Die, which is known to overclock very well with Ryzen, meaning you could easily tighten the timings on it considerably.You could also go with lower-clocked memory that is still Samsung B-Die (like https://pcpartpicker.com/product/gT38TW/gskill-tridentz-rgb-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-memory-f4-3200c14d-16gtzr) and overclock it to 3600, but that requires much more fiddling with the BIOS and memory training, may not work for all memory sticks, and honestly the price difference isn't worth it in my opinion.

120mm + bracket is $80, and you really want a 240mm AIO for the best temps, which means $100-130.
You should not need a copper shim for a 390X.

Just search for copper heatsink. Keep in mind the R9 390X has 16 VRAM modules, and they need to be low profile heatsinks to fit under the G12 bracket.

https://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Copper-Cooling-Heatsinks-cooler/dp/B00637X42A

Yes, the noise reduction will be significant. Just make sure to use a good quality fan on the radiator.

Definitely not worth using a custom loop on an R9 390X.

IMO, just sell the card, and use the money you would spend on mods to get something better. A GTX 1660 for $210 is a decent bit faster, and far more power efficient.

Stock intel cooler is NOTORIOUSLY awful. I mean, it's laughed it for how bad it is. Honestly, you would be best off just buying a Hyper 212 Evo. It is THE value budget cooler, and it performs great. You have a 4690k, so it's unlocked for overclocking... why not get a cooler that can allow it to do that competently?

The cooler will allow it to stay at the overclock when folding, and have pretty decent temps to boot. Additionally, you may eliminate some throttling in gaming that you may never know you had.

Regardless of any of this, CPUs generally like to be kept at the lowest temp possible, and if you are planning on helping the Folding@Home cause (which you should!), you are gonna want a beefier cooler to prevent any possible lifespan shortening, no matter how rare that may be with modern CPUs today. It will be quieter too, which I always find is a major plus.

Good luck!

More quick googling...

>CPF04 is designed for enthusiasts with need for controlling numerous system fans.It is capable of expanding one motherboard PWM fan header to support up to eight fans. Powered directly by SATA cable from the computer power supply and filtered through a built-in 2200μF capacitor, the CPF04 can provide clean, stable voltage to any fan for optimal performance. Equipped with speed detection sensors for accurately controlling eight PWM fans simultaneously, it is an excellent solution for system fan expansion.

$13 USD on Amazon

Someone can correct me if i'm wrong, but that seems like what you're looking for. I think you just need to make sure that you plug that hub into the one controllable port.

I'd recommend doing a little research because i'm not 100% on that, though it sounds pretty good to me.

Edit: See my other comment. No PWM fans, no control.

The below may be some of the reasons as to why it is heating so much.

The heat given off from the CPU and GPU can be accumulating inside the case more than it can clear up and causing the GPU to heat up more than usual. (Also, GPU generates more heat than CPU)

If you had a bigger case, may help or if you get a liquidcooling for the CPU or the GPU or even both if you can get it fit.

GPU Bracket for Cooler: GPU BRACKET

CPU and GPU Liquid Cooling you can use: This should work for your CPU - Might be a tight fit for your case but you can figure it out

This should work with the GPU Bracket Link i put up on top

The GPU Liquid Cooling may fit if you put the fan and heatsink to the front of the tower where the fan is.


Using this, you can do more research if using any of the above would work and fit your case. If you get a Full Tower, it will definitely work if you find the right one.


Also, if you're room is hot, that would increase heat generated from PC.

Shipping a case is usually free through amazon or newegg.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor | $194.89 @ OutletPC
CPU Cooler | CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler | $34.88 @ OutletPC
Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-H170-GAMING 3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard | $99.67 @ Amazon
Memory | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory | $91.99 @ Amazon
Storage | Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $58.79 @ Amazon
Video Card | Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Windforce OC Video Card | $379.99 @ Newegg
Case | NZXT S340 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case | $66.99 @ SuperBiiz
Power Supply | SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply | $44.99 @ Newegg
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $987.19
| Mail-in rebates | -$15.00
| Total | $972.19
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-06 23:01 EST-0500 |

Made some changes for better value/performance.

Change cpu to 6500 instead of 6600k. You don't have a z170 board for overclocking so it's wasted. The 6500 is nearly identical unless you overclock with a 6600k+z170.

Changed psu to much better seasonic modular gold. It's on sale on Newegg for 60 bucks. A steal.

Changed gpu to more popular gigabyte model, cheaper.

Added case since I was still under 1k. Very popular s340 but you could use anything under 100 bucks and stay under budget.

Changed cooler to Cryorig H7. The 212+ is nice but needs a break and the H7 looks way better.

I know you mentioned staying with Amazon but much of this wasn't in stock and Newegg has free shipping. Just a thought.

Edit: The cooler is cheaper and is on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/CRYORIG-Tower-Cooler-Intel-CPUs/dp/B00S7YA5FQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478491544&sr=8-1&keywords=cryorig+h7

I am starting a PC build and my friend linked me two amazon deals that sound interesting

RAM

and

Cpu Cooling

My question is, would these both fit properly together on a motherboard (cooling is pretty big), and if yes what type/example of motherboard would be a good choice?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Phantom 410.. Probably the 240 I think? If so I had that case. Yeah with phantom that's the only way you only have one fan in front but the front fan doesn't do much other than cool the hard drive bays imo if you removed some of those bottom bays it'd let cool air go into the case more. H100i fan was loud af in my (410).

Yeah also change out corsair imo the stock are alright but!
https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NF-F12-PWM-Cooling-Fan/dp/B00650P2ZC and the cables that come with it limit the rpm to 3 different levels depending on how loud you want them and these are for radiators because they push more air than the other and much more quiet. If you don't care about rgb you can replace all other with 140mm and 120mm quiet editions noctua. If you want rgb for the others I recommend thermaltake riing fans (quiet edition) actually doesn't matter because if I remember they are all 4 pin so you can adjust in bios


Or

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00KG8K5CY/ref=pd_aw_fbt_147_img_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=4WJBQAR06PMYQFMBRPGX

You could try these cables to the fans and they will lower the rpm depending on which one you use so it's not as loud. If it's the 410 there should be the fan controller on top if it's the 240

Honestly, I don't see a benefit in getting new hotend fans to replace the stock one. the only exception to this is if the old one is broken/damaged, or you want to silence your printer, in which case you would want to get a high quality noctua fan. but you need a buck converter. Teaching Tech made a step by step process on using a noctua and a buck converter, here


you can get a better part cooling fan, you can use the stock 4010 fan, new 5015 fans, or regular fans like the stock hotend fan. if you buy a 5015 fan and it blows your prints down for cools them too much, just turn down the fan speed in your slicer

Air cooled stuff then but keep in mind it would be good to blow it out every once in a while with an air can to clear that dust out, as that's a good thing to do even if you own a console (or other electronics, I blow my monitor vents every so often too for example) keeps things cool and whatnot. Noctua this is by a quick search really good but expensive otherwise the Evo 212 is good too and way cheaper.

Following the "modesty is best policy" principles I would recommend a few things here:

• Go with the really good main monitor, looks like you got the 27 inch 1440p 144hz Acer. (This is freesync btw. I recommend the Dell S2716DGR for the G-Sync - AMD vs Nvidia) and pick up a 1080p side monitor.
  
  
• Ditch the liquid cooling. It's an unnecessary hassle for anyone other than PC enthusiasts in the OC communities. A Cooler Master or the Noctua (if you have enough room in your case.) Both will provide ample cooling and your CPU will last just as long as with a liquid cooling kit.
  
  
• In combo with the above, my favorite case so far (after 4 PC builds for myself and family) is the Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube. Lots of room for cables in the back and gives your components a nice display with LOTS of airflow.
  
  
• I would, however, recommend going to an M.2 SSD, which is significantly faster than a standard SSD. Not much of a price jump there.
  
  I see others have spoken about overclocking your CPU and such already. My opinion is to skip overclocking. For the standard gamer wanting a quality experience that is getting a top of the line CPU, there's zero need to OC. I went with the i7-7700 non 'k' version and have been plenty happy. It saved some money too.
  
  Keep in mind your peripherals. Usually those are overlooked when upgrading your PC, but maybe it's time for a new mouse/keyboard, new controller, headphones, etc.
  
  Also if you're dad is giving you a budget, is he giving you the money to spend, or buying the stuff for you? If you don't get the remaining money from $3k, maybe you should include those things now instead of later.

Okay, one thing at a time:

1 - Your motherboard seems to only have one fan port for case fans, and the one for your CPU cooler. You don't necessarily need to plug in both of your case fans, but if you want to, you'll need to grab a splitter cable to turn that one plug into 2, [like this one on amazon.] (http://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-Tek-Sleeved-Splitter-CPF01/dp/B00B46XKKQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417755776&sr=8-1&keywords=fan+splitter) (Probably available more conveniently and cheaper at an electronics store, but I don't know what those stores are in the US [assuming you are] as I'm in the UK).

2 - Your motherboard's fan ports have 4 ports because they support PWM fans that can be speed controlled by software. Your fans don't have cables to support that, so they'll just run at 100% the whole time unless you remove them and replace the case fans with PWM case fans. Again, not a problem, won't harm them to run at 100% really, just might be a bit noisier than necessary. The plastic connector on the fans and the motherboard will likely only fit together one way around, if not, check the motherboard manual and that'll tell you which pin is the PWM pin, connect the cable so that that pin isn't connected to anything.

3 - Which audio cable? The one for the case audio ports? That should slide on as easily as the rest of the case cables for the power button etc, make sure you're putting it in the right place but it should go in fairly easily. Some parts do just take quite a push to get in at times.

4 - Your case might not have a firewire port, and nothing uses firewire these days anyway, you'll likely never use the port, don't worry about that.

5 - If the power cords melt, you've got bigger problems, things shouldn't get that hot in the case. Just tuck them out of the way somewhere, if you have cable management slots in the case on the less-open side, then pull them through there and just leave them out of the way.

> I came to the realization that the PCI slots don't all have the same bandwidth (so I'm hoping this discovery may be a good thing)

It is! You'll now be able to use your SLI more efficiently. Just make sure there's no other damage to the board, but from what you said it seems ok now.



>Now, the big question for me: are these video cards too close together?.

Yeah, the top one is blowing hot air directly onto the PCB of the other one, hindering the top one's cooling and cooking the other. Look into getting them watercooled. I would stop using SLI until then if I were you.



>And a follow-up question: does anyone know of a better CPU fan than this.

Yes.



BONUS

This case is pretty much wife-proof especially if you swap out it's mesh top panel for a plexiglass one. Those are kinda hard to find but not impossible. Coolermaster may sell them directly.

Hey there, if this is the fan for the heatbreak I replaced mine with this silent one, best part no solder needed.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NQLT0M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It comes with an omni join bead, you cut the wires to old fan and the wires to the noctua, place the connection wires to the mainboard in the bead and then the noctua fan wires and press down, it forms a connection. You'll need some plyers to get the pressure on that little bead but honestly been using it 2 months now and have had no issues, quiet and keeping the heat break at temperature.

https://noctua.at/en/omnijoin_adaptor_set

And yeah broken fan blades there seems to be a common problem, this guy made a pretty nice fan guard/fang you might be interested in that looks like it's using the same noctua fan also.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2473423

I have the RS815 and the RS214, and they're really not bad. There's an option in the configuration to favor fast or cool, which varies the fan speeds to reduce noise. I had them in a cabinet (open back, definitely not sealed) in a bedroom for a while. I did eventually go so far as to replace the fans but I wouldn't strictly say it's necessary. Heavy load you're definitely going to notice it, but even at that it's still quieter than most 1U full depth servers, and I hardly noticed it under normal load, and nice and quiet idle. I was really happy when they came out with the shallow depth RS815, much easier to find a home for it.

Here's a copy/paste of a PM I sent somebody yesterday in regards of building a budget build. It may be worded weirdly since it was a direct message to him, buy you get the idea

_____

CPU

(and motherboard)

Are you familiar with Sandy/Ivy bridge processors? They're a godsend for budget computers (2500k/3570k). At 1080p gaming they perform near all the newer generation Intel processors.

Best thing? You can easily grab a 2500k from /r/hardwareswap for ~$100-$110. Hopefully you could find a 2500k/3570k motherboard combo for ~$180 shipped.

Pair that with a Cryorig H7 from Amazon ($35) and overclock the processor to 4.0-4.5ghz and you have a processor booming in performance for cheap!

So, to recap, look into getting 2500k or a 3570k . Both are LGA 1155 processors and share the same motherboards. Buy from /r/hardwareswap and get your motherboard there, too

PSU

It's best to buy PSU new.

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
Power Supply | SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | $61.99 @ SuperBiiz

Priced great for a terrific PSU.

#CPU cooler $35

Cryorig H7

Keeps my 2500k @ 4.5ghz cool at low temps at low noise. I can't suggest this cooler enough.

#Storage

Hopefully you can find a SSD on /r/hardwareswap. I suggest this route: Get a 250gb SSD now and hold off on getting a HDD. The 250gb will hold you for a while and the money you would have spent on the HDD can go elsewhere. You can add a HDD in a few months when you actually need more storage.

#Case

You're going to be hard pressed to find a case on /r/hardwareswap due to high price in shipping. Keep an eye out on /r/buildapcsales or take a look over at Corsair refurbished (notice the tabs on the left side for components) or just but new

#RAM

Ram is cheap enough. I've noticed RAM prices over at /r/hardwareswap is near the price of new. So, your call there. If you're using a case with a window, and since you'll be using DDR3 RAM, and want some type of color scheme I suggest these (and I do suggest getting 8gb of RAM, you'd be wasting money on more and you can always add more RAM later)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
Memory | Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $36.99 @ Amazon
Memory | Kingston HyperX Fury Red 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory | $34.99 @ Amazon
Memory | Kingston HyperX Fury Red 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $40.98 @ PCM
Memory | Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $29.99 @ SuperBiiz
Memory | Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory | $35.89 @ Amazon
Memory | Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory | $33.99 @ SuperBiiz
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $212.83
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-03 00:49 EDT-0400 |

There is a 1600mhz and 1866mhz variant of the three colors. I linked all of them so you'd see all the prices. Right now the 2x4gb 1600mhz blue is $30 which is a nice price, and the 1866mhz 2x4gb Blue
is $34 (Sandy/Ivy bridge love fast ram, might be worth the extra $4)

#GPU

This is where things are kinda in the grey area. Current generation GPUs are about to fall in face value like the USA housing market did in 2009. I highly suggest building the entire computer first minus the GPU. Once AMD releases the Rx 480 at $200, all current GPUs will be forced to fall in price. If the Rx 480 performs like it is marketed to, we could see the R9 390 get sold on /r/hardwareswap for like ~$180, which is insane.

So, to recap, build the PC now taking your time on /r/hardwareswap scoping out for good prices on stuff, and by the time you have the PC built GPU prices should be in your favor.


Pretty sure I covered everything there. If I missed anything or if you have any questions let me know. Again, 2500k/3570k is your ticket to performance on the cheap.

You'd be surprised how close in performance the new Skylake processors are to the older Sandy/Ivy (2500k/3570k) are. Watch this video (note: those are the i7 variants, but makes the same difference with the i5's) Used 2500k/3570k (both basically sdame processor, the 3570k vbeing a little better) i5 is the best bang for buck processor on the market.

When it comes to gaming, DDR3 and DDR4 make almost no difference, in some cases DDR3 does better with gaming. Here is Linus saying so

Sounds good my friend! Yeah, hopefully the i7 Skylakes normalize.

I prefer Noctuas myself, and I'm not sure if you've heard of Cryorig, they're a newcomer in the CPU cooling business. I sound like a salesman but I'm actually considering one of their coolers called the H7, it's almost similar to performance to Noctua U12S, but priced close to the CM 212 EVO @ $34.99, while looking great with a black top-plate. I was browsing builds on PCPartpicker with the Cryorig and I've been drooling at the aesthetics. But you can't go wrong with Noctuas! I've used the L9i & U9S and they're amazing!

Cryorig H7 on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S7YA5FQ?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=A2ZKSOM6XK2G3G

Here's what I would do: MSI Krait edition motherboard + Corsair Dominator Platinum Series RAM sticks. It is a better overclocking mobo and you get the style points for a black/white build. Also, the RAM is faster so you're a little bit more futureproofed. The Cryorig H7 is replacing the 212 in terms of the go-to air cooler, otherwise the Corsair water cooling kit is a great option as well (also fits color scheme). I'm personally recommending 240GB since I've filled up my 120GB with games and programs twice now before I had to do some cleaning. I also like this case better, plus you can remove drive bays to make room for larger GPUs, if you are still undecided about which one you want. I wouldn't worry about M.2, I got that SSD and never ended up using it. If you do end up building this, please do take pics :)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor | $345.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler | CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler | $34.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI Z170A KRAIT GAMING 3X ATX LGA1151 Motherboard | $149.99 @ Amazon
Memory | Corsair Dominator Platinum Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz | $109.99 @ Amazon
Storage | Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $49.99 @ Amazon
SSD | Kingston SV300S37A/240G | 67.86 @ Amazon
Video Card | Sapphire Radeon RX 480 8GB Video Card |-
Case | Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case | $54.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply | EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | $89.99 @ Amazon
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | ~$903.80
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-14 19:36 EDT-0400 |

Oh great, I can get away with a 620W PSU? That card looks like it will fit what I'm doing perfectly.


For the air cooler, will a $20 fan cause any noise?

Thanks for your suggestions!

edit: Would this fan do well?

After mounting it your thoughts will be along the lines of "That's it?". I was fairly respectful when it came to mounting the cpu cooler, but noctua made it super simple. Also the performance is really great. I've read tons of reviews and I was also amazed about the crazy good reviews on amazon.

You won't regret it.

I have had mine for a few weeks. I could not consistently produce anything until I did the glass bed mod. To me this is the MOST important mod to do as soon as you get your printer.

A couple notes on this :

Here are the parts I used specifically for my maker select v2.1
Glass:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QQ5Q3BI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thermal pad:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007PPEW52/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

When you start this mod you will have to remove the buildtac pad that comes on the bed. This was the hardest part of the installation. I warmed up my bed and tried to peel the surface off but no matter how I went at it I ended up leaving all of the glue on the plate with only the pad coming up. Hopefully you will get lucky and at least some of the glue will come up.

After removing the pad I had a TON of glue to clean up, I used a citris based goop off solution and spent well over a half hour scraping glue. if I did it again I would have used a plastic scraper instead of the metal one that comes with the unit because the metal one put scratches on the bed. I don't think there is a functional issue with that it just looks ugly.

One thing to note about removing the glue. There is a hole in the middle of the plate and if you use a adhesive remover liquid it will get into this hole, which then drips into the the pocket created by the tape that is holding the heating element on. In other words you might want to cover the hole.

After you get all the glue off, just cute a bunch of squares out of the thermal pad. using someone else's tutorial I measured out 2 inch squares and found I had an uneven pattern when I put them on. This didn't seem to make a difference.

Make you you adjust the Z endstop. If you are facing the front of t he machine it is on your left behind the support. I adjusted mine up one notch of what appeared to be 4 available.

I didn't shop around for deals, but get something like this for PSU (I just pulled this randomly from Amazon, may be cheaper elsewhere):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-RM550x-Modular-Power-Supply/dp/B015PWMRI0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505751416&sr=8-1&keywords=corsair%2Brm550&th=1

Your build doesn't use that much power & that PSU will go silent for low usage loads. I'd also probably get a quiet-oriented case, though some people love their windows. For cooler I'd probably save some money by going for a good air cooler I can re-use over and over. Like this classic:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/noctua-NH-D15-Noctua/dp/B00L7UZMAK/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1505751584&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=noctua+d-15

1. Hey guys planning on upgrading my fans for my case, is this a good deal and/or reputable fans? Would like all noctuas but im just not rich enough sadly lol. my current cpu case is the nzxt source 530 also, been using for about 4 years and i clean it monthly but the ambient temps are starting to go up https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00NTUJTAK/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&psc=1
   
2. I'm thinking of parts for my next rig, currently waiting on zen 3, any good board recommendations? I've read that the bf450 tomahawk is good and the msi am4 carbon gaming mobo is good too, should I just wait in case new boards get launched? Trying to snag some deals
   
   ​

I agree that at least another fan would be worth it, but I might suggest these fans <ARCTIC F12 PWM PST - 120 mm PWM PST Case Fan - Five Pack | Cooler with Standard Case | PST-Port (PWM Sharing Technology) | Regulates RPM in sync https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NTUJTAK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ud18BbKFFXBFA>. I haven't used them myself, but they are a great price and have good reviews both on Amazon and independent reviewers.

I as well just bought this case this week. same sale . And for $40 off how can you say no. It has all features you'd ever want and more.

Plenty of room and looks great in your house. 3 WHITE LED's make everything look awesome. Keeps the temps nice. Even though it isn't very neccessary since i dropped about $70 on a Noctua NH - D14 It keeps my temps nice and low.

Great Buy +1

I figure some people will reccomend more expensive options, but I have been totally pleased with my Cooler Master fans that I picked up.

Here is the Amazon link (They come in 4-packs)

When I did research on fans to replace the stock ones in the Fractal R4, these ones seemed to present the best price / performance.

I am running 2 120mm and 1 140mm and, with a Scythe Gentle Typhoon on my H60 with a GTX 780 and my case is very very quiet.

I'm not overclocking or anything so I didn't need them to push tons of air, just to be efficient and quiet.

1. Control - PWM (4pin) vs Voltage based controllers (3pin and molex)
   
   
2. PWM Fan hubs are small and cheap, I personally have 2 in mine and have 14 fans running off of them. Since they are PWM controlled, they increase in speed according to a fan curve that I have set, if the CPU and GPUs heat up. I use this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VNW556I
   
   
3. RGB fans are pretty expensive, and I honestly don't like that most are not PWM controllable. I would rather use a single LED fan, or no LED fans and use other sources for lighting. Corsair AF 120 quiet editions, or SP 120 quiet editions are nice, effective, quiet, and cheap.
   
   
4. 120mm are fine, what you want is a good balance of CFM and dB. CFM being how much airflow is pushed, dB meaning how loud they are.
   
   

There's a few things, first of all Intel K series cpu's don't come with a cooler in the box, so you will need one. A good (but pricey) cpu cooler is the Noctua NH-D15. If you would like something more affordable the Cryorig H7 will work, although the temps will be higher than the former.

Yes, all desktop ram will fit into all desktop motherboards (sodimm or laptop ram will not).

The hard drive you selected doesen't have great reviews, for $8 more you can get a [WD Blue](https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Cache-Desktop-Drive-WD10EZEX/dp/B0088PUEPK

/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1537074431&sr=1-1&keywords=western+digital+-+caviar+blue+1tb+3.5%22+7200rpm+internal+hard+drive) or a Seagate Barracudda, both more reputable.

The cases you linked are good for their price, but you will most likely need 1-2 more case fans as they only come with 1. If you would like some cheap fans these will do, but they wont be as good as something like the Noctua NF-F12

Dont worry about asking questions! It's what we are here for :) I'm sure I missed something, so if you have any other questions make sure to ask!

Edit 1: Do you already have windows? If not make sure to but it, as you wont have an Operation System without it (Unless you want to run linux).

Thank you so much for the response and info!

I saw this review on Amazon. What do you think?

That person also links to the following products. How essential/necessary do you think they would be to the node-804? I've read some other review that don't highlight suggestions as the review above does. What are your thoughts?

• SilverStone Technology 3.5-Inch to 2 X 2.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive HDD / SSD Bay Converter, Silver (SDP08)''
  
  
• Monoprice 108794 24-Inch 4-Pin Molex Male to 4 15-Pin SATA II Female Power Cable Net Jacket
  
  
• StarTech.com 4x SATA Power Splitter Adapter Cable (PYO4SATA)
  
  
• SilverStone Technology All Black Sleeved 1-to-2 Sleeved PWM Fan Splitter Cable (CPF01)
  
  Unfortunately I'm in a strange situation where I don't have as much time as I'd like to review/research for the absolute best route to go -- and I'm in need of making a decision very soon.
  
  I'm totally cool with building, although I must say that I'm not as experienced as I would like -- however, I will have time on my hands to learn what is needed to build the setup I decide to purchase.
  
  Any and all info/feedback is most welcome! Thanks!

I've had this machine now for about 4 or 5 years, and it went unused for a little over 2 years because I wound up with a clogged PTFE tube and decided that I would just change the hot end for the all metal. I went out and bought the hot end, put it on a shelf, had a baby and been running around until about 3 weeks ago when I finally found some time in my schedule to rip into the printer and replace the hotend. The prints are decent (I wish I could push it a bit faster) but I still have problems with bed leveling (more like annoyances that I actually have to relevel it every so often).

The upgrades I've done (both before and now) are:

• Z-Brace
  
• MicroSwiss all metal hot end
  
• mirror print surface
  
• Printer Enclosure
  
• Spool holder (is that even really an upgrade?)
  
• bed nut retainers to make leveling a bit easier
  
• MOSFET for heat bed
  
• Upgraded the Y carriage plate to something substantially thicker
  
• added a 120mm PSU fan to the control box (makes it so much quieter, it's insane)
  
• upgraded extruder cooling fan (the one that blows on the heatsink) to a quieter fan that pushes more air
  
• Changed belt tensioners to remove springs
  
• use thermal pad to hold glass in place
  
• Added OctoPi (last night) and it's a gamechanger
  
  I mostly print ABS (trying PETG and it's driving me crazy) so cooling hasn't really been an issue as the fans are usually off (maybe I need a better cooler for the PETG?) and find that the glass (now mirror) is definitely the way to go and forget the binder clips, those things are a damn nuissance. The thermal pad holds the glass so tight when it's warm it's not going anywhere, and it doesn't let go too easily when it's cool either.
  
  What I really want to add next is an auto bed level, but I keep finding people complaining about how hard it is to add to the Melzi board. Hopefully I find something soon, that's probably about the last "major" change I want to make (until I find a new annoyance).

Honestly, I would just buy a new fan. It's probably not worth the trouble to fix the cheap Chinese loud fan. I bought the Noctua NF-A4x10 FLX. It works fine, super quiet, no issues. Super easy to install, just follow this video. Hope I helped.

No problem. If you upgrade to a 1050 or 1060, you’ll probably be good for about 2 more years.


If you didn’t buy a fan, then yes, you have the stock fan. You could spend $30 ($20 after $10 rebate) on a Cooler Master like this from Amazon. Or (and I highly recommend) an AIO (All In One) cooler along the lines of NZXT’s Kraken. They’re cheaper ones out there. But, be wary of what you buy. What I do know for fact is NZXT stands by their product and if their product fails to keep your cpu cool, they will replace your cpu. A friend of mine works at Micro Center and he’s told me about some of his customers having good customer service with NZXT. Corsair is another good company for AIO’s.

Also, the fan and/or the AIO will be usable on your next pc. You just might need to buy a $5 bracket.

Imo, don’t worry about the CPU. It’s still a good cpu. Invest in a proper fan.. save the money for now and get the cooler master and a 1060. You’ll be able to recycle that fan (or AIO if you go that route) into your next build.


Edit: only get the AIO if you plan on trying to get the max over clock you can and still plan on building a new pc in a couple years. Otherwise, it would be a waste.

My best recommendation is the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo, according to the manufacturer of your case and the manufacturer of the cooler it will fit just fine inside your case.
It has better cooling capabilities than the Noctua and it's also cheaper. Hope this helps you out and good luck!
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-RR-212E-20PK-R2-Direct-Contact/dp/B005O65JXI/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2A2GA6J7P609D&keywords=hyper+212+evo&qid=1554571326&s=gateway&sprefix=hyper+&sr=8-1
Newegg:
https://m.newegg.com/products/N82E16835103099

Hey Brother,

A few points of interest. You are cooling a 6700k and even that baby will get hot with after effects if you start using things like Particular and C4D. You may want to upgrade to a Corsair Liquid Cooler. Liquid can seem scary for a first build, but the H100 series is completely self contained and I have one in my personal gaming rig.

Corsair Cooler Link

A word of caution on your OS, the OEM version of Windows 10 is a completely different license than the full retail version. The OEM versions bind to your build, and cannot be transferred, so If you start swapping out too many parts your license can become invalid. Also there is no Microsoft support with the OEM version, if that means anything to you. I would recommend a full retail version for your first build for sure.

I tend to agree with Emerald, get you a 1070 (if you can find one) get some neat new features with arguably superior performance. That said, if you are wary of buying current gen (completely reasonable) then the Ti will do you just fine.

1070 vs 980Ti Benchmarks

CPU upgrades are more complicated then it seems. If you buy a Ryzen 3000 now and say 2-3 years down the line you want to upgrade it's going to be a little hard. First the new AMD cpus aren't going to work on your existing board (AM4 is on it's last gen right now). So unless you can find a used higher SKU Ryzen 3, you're going to need to update your mobo as well. Maybe even RAM? That's a whole system upgrade there. If you plan to upgrade you're going to need to upgrade fairly often and quickly to expect to be able to reuse parts.


If you're just talking about the act of building a computer, there are lost of great guides on YouTube and it's not as hard as it would seem.

If you don't want to deal with paste I highly recommenced thermal pads like:
https://www.amazon.com/Innovation-Cooling-Graphite-Thermal-Pad/dp/B07CKVW18G/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=thermal+pad&qid=1569897016&s=electronics&sr=1-4 OR
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PHLJYWK/ref=psdc_2998409011_t3_B07CKVW18G
It's going to preform close to the best thermal paste but saves so much headache.

x570 has great features but you're never going to use them in a server (pci-e 4.0, overclocking features). But the same really goes for an x470 board as well (Multi-gpu. I say save money on a B450 board.

Go over to r/buildapc for more advice.

I've got an i5-750 (yes old but it's doing well) with the stock cooler on it and I'd love a new aftermarket cooler so I can try some overclocking. Gigabyte P55A-UD3 mobo.

SHould I get this cooler? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S7YA5FQ/ref=psdc_11036281_t1_B01IBSR18G

I think it will fit my mobo socket and I think it should work well.

Or is there something of better value?

I've added a second fan to my build to help cool the lower half (the GPU is long enough that there isn't ample airflow between upper and lower) but my MOBO only has one system fan connection. I bought a fan hub (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VNW556I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) that says it supports fan control, but only monitors speed of 1 fan, it doesn't control speed at all and as a result both of my fans are spinning at 100% all the time. Does anyone else have this product and could give me some insight on how to control the fans with it, or have suggestions for another fan controller/method of controlling both fans with 1 sys_fan connection?

I suggest upgrading your CPU cooler to something possibly like the Cooler Master Hyper Evo, use some ArctiClean to clean up the CPU before the install after you remove the old cooler. I suggest using coffee filters to clean it up because they are lint free and work very well. You can find tutorials online on how to install a new cooler if you have any issues with it. You can either use the thermal paste the cooler comes with or get some Arctic Silver 5, I think Radioshack repackages it and sells it.

I also suggest setting it up so the fan is pushing air through the cooler towards the back of the case and if you can afford it, get a second fan for the other side and do a push/pull config and that will help temps a lot.

Or if you have enough room and want a good solution to lower CPU temps I suggest getting something like the Cooler Master Seidon 120XL. I have one in my build and helps the CPU temps since my case is so small


Also get some cable ties, that shit is a mess

hello FoghornLegporn, in my opinion you should not get an nvr for the fact that they are expensive and you can not upgrade them down the line, what i recommend is building a pc base nvr and use the blue iris softwere, my recommendation and my current set up is:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018QDIO2S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005O65JXI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FN9QT34/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J8E8Y5C/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TR8YL4W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

if you have an old computer you can save some parts and moeny by reusing the power supply, hdd and maybe the case. all that will be around 250-300, the you will have 200 to buy 4 poe 1080p cameras 50 each, and good things is that you can add more later on, best of the luck,
you do need few more parts so let me know if you interested and i will put them together for you. you can take a look at mine at http://mymun2.25u.com:81 demo/demo for username and passowrd.

I got pretty lucky with no backlight bleed and minimal IPS glow. TBH right now everything I read before I bought it the Acer predator series and the Asus series g-sync monitors are pretty equivocal in terms of performance and quality so I would just base your decision between the two brands off of the stand/design you like better.

Yeah with a 60" desk you should be fine (even more-so if you mount the monitor with the VESA mount and get rid of the huge stand).

Other than that the rest of your build looks good. The PSU could be downgraded to save some money but I'm a pretty firm believer in investing in a good quality PSU that will last you several builds which yours is - on the wattage side I also wouldn't want to go lower than 650 with a 1080TI because then you'd have little headroom if you want to overclock etc.

I would get a different CPU cooler though. Something like:

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B002VKVZ1A?psc=1

Slightly more expensive but much better performance (best for an aircooler). And since your case doesn't have a glass side panel the ugly noctua colors won't show =P

This is the heatsink I purchased, it is a set of 8 but they are pretty affordable even if you are only using 1.

Heatsink

The link you shared regarding Nidec vs Delta is correct. If you have 12 holes you are using a Delta fan at this time. 8 holes is for the Nidec fans.

Ordering and receiving the Nidec fan took about a month, I ordered it from China through this listing -

Nidec Fan

For the pads I picked up this set, yes they are 1mm-

Pads

The available sellers for that one on Amazon are gouging it like crazy.... I spent $11.75 when I ordered them, you may want to find a comparable alternative.

Are you aiming for a specific budget? Under $500?

You should really consider getting an SSD. You can get 500 GB SDDs under $150 now. 3x as much as the 1TB HDD you have listed, but its worth it.

This Corsair liquid CPU cooler is only $10 more than that bulky heat sink.

That CPU has some bang for the buck, but will be better suited for programs that are optimized for multi-core CPUs. Anything that relies on single core performance would benefit from a better CPU.

For $40 for 8GB of RAM, I'd double it, but that's just my opinion.