260 replies to this topic

[spectre51]

GraphicX, on 12 June 2015 - 03:45 AM, said:

been reading about the mobo i've ordered, starting to think i may have made a bad decision v the other board i was looking at.  it has more features, slots etc, but it all looks overly complicated for what i want to do, also keeps referring to 'dry ice' & 'nitrogen' cooling along with overclocking the ram & entering overclock comps :S

That board is aimed at over-clocking, it's why it has buttons on it for over-clocking built into the motherboard.
Overall that wont matter though as you'll be able to ignore all of that stuff.

[GraphicX]

i'm intending to get a K cpu later so that's why i went Z97, but this board also has the 4 full size pci slots so that's why i chose it over the other board in the end.  i just hope the 'normal' type overclocking is easy as i have no interest in overclocking ram etc.

[GraphicX]

oooooooooooooooooookay.

i may have had an unforeseen drama in adding the powerful things to my cheapo pc :S

new mobo, it uses:
1x 24 pin ATX plug
1x 8 pin
1x 4 pin
1x 6 pin but it says this is an auxiliary pci-e overclocking only bit for multi card setups so may not need atm

new graphics card uses:
1x 6 pin
1x 8 pin

so that's a lot of spaghetti, spaghetti which i don't think i have lol.

pretty sure i have:
1x 24pin
1x 4x4 (8 pin)
2x 6+2 (8 pin)

i think i'm short at least 1x 4 pin, or ideally a 1x 4 pin & a 1x 6 pin.

does the above look right ?

i've already sold my 660 (still have it but already bought so to speak), mobo i can offload, but no point doing anything to it until i work this out lol.

[Axe99]

So hang on, I thought you said PC gaming was just as easy to get into as console gaming? .  I'm afraid I've got no idea on the pins, I only look at that stuff when I'm actually putting something together (rather than fantasy-browsing new CPUs/GPUs/RAM - mmmm...new GPUs ) - good luck, all being well someone with a clue will drop by and confirm/deny shortly .

[GraphicX]

from what i can tell that little cord in the picture 'should' get me up & running, but i really don't know:



not fantasy building atm, i've got the mobo sitting at home on the kitchen table & picking up the r9 tonight after work, probs won't change anything til the weekend though, just not sure i have enough connectors.

[GraphicX]

reading more, seems the mobo may need either a 4 pin or 8 pin so may not need both there either, still not sure though.

[GasClown]

GraphicX, on 17 June 2015 - 06:01 AM, said:

oooooooooooooooooookay.

i may have had an unforeseen drama in adding the powerful things to my cheapo pc :S

new mobo, it uses:
1x 24 pin ATX plug
1x 8 pin
1x 4 pin
1x 6 pin but it says this is an auxiliary pci-e overclocking only bit for multi card setups so may not need atm

new graphics card uses:
1x 6 pin
1x 8 pin

so that's a lot of spaghetti, spaghetti which i don't think i have lol.

pretty sure i have:
1x 24pin
1x 4x4 (8 pin)
2x 6+2 (8 pin)

i think i'm short at least 1x 4 pin, or ideally a 1x 4 pin & a 1x 6 pin.

does the above look right ?

i've already sold my 660 (still have it but already bought so to speak), mobo i can offload, but no point doing anything to it until i work this out lol.

Doesn't the mobo come with all the spaghetti or was that the PSU or both? Can't remember...

[GraphicX]

got a couple of sata cables with the mobo, psu has all the power wiring on it though.

[GasClown]

GraphicX, on 17 June 2015 - 06:52 AM, said:

got a couple of sata cables with the mobo, psu has all the power wiring on it though.

Yeah - I think it was the PSU that came with most of it.

[Axe99]

GraphicX, on 17 June 2015 - 06:32 AM, said:

not fantasy building atm, i've got the mobo sitting at home on the kitchen table & picking up the r9 tonight after work, probs won't change anything til the weekend though, just not sure i have enough connectors.

Sorry, fantasy-browsing was what I do, not suggesting you were fantasy-building, I know you're the real deal here, with a new mobo and all .

[spectre51]

This review shows only the 8pin plugged in and of course the 24 pin. Like I said its aimed at overlooking so its going to have extra bits and bobs like extra connectors for power.

So you will be good with just a 8 pin(The 4x4) and the 24pin.

The connector in the vid card accessories pic is a molex to what ever number pin it is a cant see from the angle.

[GraphicX]

@ axe: well new mobo might be right, everything else is pillaged from facebook, gumtree & friends lol.

@ spec: thanks for that dude, confirms what i was thinking, but wasn't sure enough to gut the machine to find out.

well i've got the card as well now, so a quick tally of what the pc owes me:

so that's ... well my last add up at $770 was short $100 so that's not a good start lol ... $1,050 just to play games :S

i'm not really keen on how much it's cost now since it's just for games, i'm REALLY hoping it'll not need much at all spent on it for at least another year !!!!!!!!  atm it's a tax claim i guess.

i'm fairly happy with going with this card though.  i was real close to buying a pair of evga gtx660s to sli (as individuals they aren't as good as the msi unit i already have), but i would've only been chasing my tail again in the near future.  the card i got is used, but was bought new with receipt on 9th of this month so it's a lot more current & i got it for hundreds less than new so that's good.  also leaves the door open to add another later (not in the near future thought ffs !!!).

damn fallout 4.

anyway pics;

 Untitled-1.jpg   145.05K   9 downloads

 2015-06-17 20.21.41.jpg   148.28K   9 downloads

[GasClown]

GraphicX, on 17 June 2015 - 11:39 AM, said:

$1,050 just to play games :S

lol - don't ask what I've spent thus far then (including peripherals)... and I'm hardly even gaming on it.

[GraphicX]

yeah but you had hopes of doing your paid work on it also so could justify it ... those peripherals are another story though lol.

[GraphicX]

will post pictures later, but have the card & mobo in, some random stuff;

- hate my case, it's terrible.  it's huge on my desk, but there's stuff all room inside.  literally removed both my old platter drives as they're in the say & only have the 3 ssds in there now.  also cable management is impossible in there due to where the drives are & how they sit, argh.

- mobo has lots of annoying lights on it that flash like a hdd busy light, thankfully can't really see them with the side on (they're orange & annoying as hell)

- windoze did what windoze does.  had to reactivate on the phone, then no kb/mouse, had to boot to bios to do lots of jerking off to safe mode, bios is actually a nicer OS than windoze lol, full res, full kb/mouse support (including my special character keys on the kb that don't work in windoze lolol).  windoze is now slow & clunky, guessing it has the sh!ts with me for upsetting the apple cart, but its only there until i can fresh install win 10

- played serious sam 3 for a moment (only game i have installed lol), lowest fps recorded was 110, average 160, highest over 200 with everything on ultra so i'm guessing everything is working

- overclocked the card, only to the msi 'oc' speed anyway.  was just so i didn't have to run the msi widget thing for it to be there, iirc 1007mhz on the gpu

- card runs at about 80º constant, apparently 92º is normal (freezing here atm so that would account for the difference).  it's quieter than the 660 was (far as fans go) but i'm still not excited at those temps so will just have to learn to ignore them (& the 300+ watts it can draw)

- amd catalyst software is sh!t, nvidia experience just craps all over it.  thankfully it's an msi card so i can still use afterburner, but as far as it auto setting game settings etc i'm not confident in it.  was so easy/lazy letting gforce experience do it all for me before but now i dunno

[GasClown]

GraphicX, on 18 June 2015 - 10:25 AM, said:

bios is actually a nicer OS than windoze lol

TROLROFLOL

[GraphicX]

ok, so no doubt many, if not all of you, have been laying awake at night losing sleep stressing over whether my pc is still overheating or not.  well it has been, but i've not really been playing as much since finishing fallout 4 (which is totally awesome btw despite what everyone including me says).

so the fan was on the fritz & the cooler as you'll see below had the water pump & the fan in one assembly making the whole thing fritz too.  for some reason i could get the fan to spin on low & medium speeds, but on high speeds it'd either stop turning, or just kinda chug.

i've now bought a 240mm radiator twin fan job, not for overclocking or anything, but simply because it gets so damn hot in my office at home !!!!

the old cooler is still just under warranty so it'll be going off to be replaced & likely given to a mate =)

here's some pics, old antec cooler feels much more substantial & was far less complicated to fit compared to the new unit (can't even remember the name of it off the top of my head lol, it was rated 2nd best in all the reviews i could be bothered reading so hopefully it ok).  i've also got it running off 3 different fan controllers (pump, fan 1, fan 2) so full control over it & able to swap fans should they give up.

old cooler, as i said it feels as though it's much better quality than the new unit, although running flat out it's substantially louder than the twin fan job;
 2016-01-20 19.52.05.jpg   260.95K   8 downloads

side by side of the radiators;
 2016-01-20 20.04.29.jpg   215.06K   12 downloads

new unit on the left, this is actually a water block & pump in one, the other is just a water block with the pump located at the back of the fan;
 2016-01-20 20.04.40.jpg   240.27K   10 downloads

one is red, other is white, interesting stuff;
 2016-01-20 20.12.10.jpg   210.95K   10 downloads

all installed, it left enough room for another 120mm system fan at the rear where the old radiator was fitted.  the new radiator is also not centred in the case but actually closer to the opening door to clear the mobo.  was really worried about this as if it didn't fit it wouldn't have fitted ;D
 2016-01-20 20.51.15.jpg   306.81K   8 downloads

so now i can play games again, not that i wasn't with the pc overheating badly anyway lol.

[GasClown]

Good work.

[Axe99]

Nice work Graph .  Maybe the fans being red mean they'll spin faster?

[GraphicX]

so the fan my mate bought at the same time as me, on the same invoice has also died.

on mine the fan doesn't spin, on his the pump doesn't work :/

so basically stay away from antec kuhler, both are being returned for store credit with pc case gear.