Building a gaming PC

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

The main point is that every fan intake should be filtered, and the filter should have fine enough mesh to catch most dust particles. Plus the pressure should be positive, otherwise the dust will be sucked in through various cracks and small openings all around the case. There are kits for well known cases, including Antec ones.

Example: http://www.demcifilter.com/p0392/Antec-902-Dust-Filter-Kit.aspx

You can put these instead of your internal filters if combining them is too much. Then figure out if you need to redirect some big fans inside rather than outside to make the pressure in the case positive (that what I had to do - reversing one out of two 20 cm fans so both started blowing inside the case). Just avoid making pressure too unbalanced - it would put strain on the fans and reduce the ventilation effect. It should be just slightly positive.

 

[eskiMoe]

@eskimoe

My card is on its way now so I just hope it'll be one of the good ones.

My cards should be delivered to me today or tomorrow. So yeah, fingers crossed..

Just avoid making pressure too unbalanced - it would put strain on the fans and reduce the ventilation effect. It should be just slightly positive.

I just actually put a couple of extra fans inside my case for the SLI setup.

At the moment I have 3 intake fans (Front: 2x140mm, Bottom: 1x120mm) and 2 exhaust fans (Back: 1x120mm, Side: 1x120mm)

I also have my H100i radiator mounted at the top of the case with 2x120mm fans in push configuration. I kind of hope that since they are very low RPM fans the air pressure in the case should still be ever so slightly on the positive side..

 

[goopit]

Graphics Card: Palit GTX970
SSD: M500 240GB
HDD: 1TB
Power Supply: Corsair TX650
Motherboard: Gigabyte 297x
HSF: 212X
RAM: 2x4GB RAM
CPU: i54690

alright guys, so I bought these yesterday and my computer won't start properly. It starts for a few seconds then shutsdown and starts again. The chatrooms say the problem might be how it was built (which wasn't by a professional). What other reason could there be?

 

[shinobi2u]

Graphics Card: Palit GTX970
SSD: M500 240GB
HDD: 1TB
Power Supply: Corsair TX650
Motherboard: Gigabyte 297x
HSF: 212X
RAM: 2x4GB RAM
CPU: i54690

alright guys, so I bought these yesterday and my computer won't start properly. It starts for a few seconds then shutsdown and starts again. The chatrooms say the problem might be how it was built (which wasn't by a professional). What other reason could there be?

My first thought is power, but you should have more than enough here. Does anything display on the screen in the short time it is on? What OS do you have installed?

Nothing more nerve racking than powering on a freshly built PC and hoping everything works.

 

[goopit]

My first thought is power, but you should have more than enough here. Does anything display on the screen in the short time it is on? What OS do you have installed?

Nothing on screen, no OS installed neither. It was freshly assembled.

 

[Luxorek]

To all the chaps here with GTX 970. It seems coil whine is the most prevalent with older games, where FPS go into hundreds. You can encounter it even in modern games, especially in main menus with turned off V-sync.

 

[goopit]

To all the chaps here with GTX 970. It seems coil whine is the most prevalent with older games, where FPS go into hundreds. You can encounter it even in modern games, especially in main menus with turned off V-sync.

I have Palit GTX970 as well heard it has some whining was cheaper though

 

[GuyNwah]

Graphics Card: Palit GTX970
SSD: M500 240GB
HDD: 1TB
Power Supply: Corsair TX650
Motherboard: Gigabyte 297x
HSF: 212X
RAM: 2x4GB RAM
CPU: i54690

alright guys, so I bought these yesterday and my computer won't start properly. It starts for a few seconds then shutsdown and starts again. The chatrooms say the problem might be how it was built (which wasn't by a professional). What other reason could there be?

Is it cycling (start, shutdown, start, shutdown, ...)? Many motherboards will do a normal start, shutdown, restart cycle on first power up, change of hardware, or BIOS reset. But if it repeats, that's a problem.

This motherboard (GA-Z97X?) doesn't have a POST display that I can see. Some things I would try:
1. Watch the monitor during POST for progress codes in the lower right corner.
2. If the monitor doesn't get signal, pull the GPU and use the monitor connection on the motherboard.
3. If this gives you nothing, get a buzzer and plug it in to the speaker terminals (not the audio connector; the speaker terminals are the ones by the front panel connector).

 

[CostinRaz]

Well Zotac for me if I ever get the chance to buy a 980.

I'm wondering how soon I should switch my CPU. Got a I7-3770k, wondering how long I should wait before upgrading.

 

[eskiMoe]

I'm wondering how soon I should switch my CPU. Got a I7-3770k, wondering how long I should wait before upgrading.

That CPU is a beast. Some new motherboard features (like SATA express) might be a reason to upgrade at some point though.

 

[yayodeanno.831]

Graphics Card: Palit GTX970
SSD: M500 240GB
HDD: 1TB
Power Supply: Corsair TX650
Motherboard: Gigabyte 297x
HSF: 212X
RAM: 2x4GB RAM
CPU: i54690

alright guys, so I bought these yesterday and my computer won't start properly. It starts for a few seconds then shutsdown and starts again. The chatrooms say the problem might be how it was built (which wasn't by a professional). What other reason could there be?

Also, what kind of cable are you using to connect the monitor? There's several reports of issues with Displayport (check the official Nvidia forums), If you're not already using it I suggest trying a cable with DVI-D connectors. You can also try connecting the monitor to the mobo's video port. Just to verify the issue isn't caused by the GPU.
EDIT
Guy has already suggested that, of course

 

[luc0s]

Recently upgraded my PC and overlocked it. My PC is an absolute beast now.

Specs:

CPU: Intel i7 3770K Ivy Bridge (overlocked to 4,5Ghz, which is a whole 1Ghz more than the stock clock)
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 970 4GB GAMING EDITION (overclocked with +450Mhz on top of the stock and it's still silent and cool as fuck).
RAM: 4x4GB DDR3 RAM 1333Mhz
SSD: 1x Samsung 830 128GB + 1x Samsung 840 256GB
HDD: 1TB Western Digital 7200RPM

Forgot which motherboard I have but it's a bit of an older one, meaning that my next upgrade is going to be a new motherboard + new CPU.

 

[luc0s]

Well Zotac for me if I ever get the chance to buy a 980.

I'm wondering how soon I should switch my CPU. Got a I7-3770k, wondering how long I should wait before upgrading.

No need to upgrade it anytime soon, especially not for gaming and recording. If you overclock it like I did (which is why you have a 3770K, to overclock it, would be a waste not to do it) you'll be good for another solid 2 years.

 

[volsung]

With games being progressively more multi threaded, having a few fast CPU cores should be good enough. Gamers love buying the hottest and latest hardware all the time but it's not always necessary.

 

[GuyNwah]

Recently upgraded my PC and overlocked it. My PC is an absolute beast now.

Specs:

CPU: Intel i7 3770K Ivy Bridge (overlocked to 4,5Ghz, which is a whole 1Ghz more than the stock clock)
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 970 4GB GAMING EDITION (overclocked with +450Mhz on top of the stock and it's still silent and cool as fuck).
RAM: 4x4GB DDR3 RAM 1333Mhz
SSD: 1x Samsung 830 128GB + 1x Samsung 840 256GB
HDD: 1TB Western Digital 7200RPM

Forgot which motherboard I have but it's a bit of an older one, meaning that my next upgrade is going to be a new motherboard + new CPU.

Not sure I'd be fast to upgrade the motherboard and CPU. Processors all the way back to Sandy Bridge have excellent memory performance, and Ivy Bridge adds PCI-e 3.0. Haswell mostly adds floating point instructions that you need SSL3-capable software to take advantage of; it doesn't improve PCI-e or memory capabilities.

Awesome overclocks. :cheers:

 

[eskiMoe]

Just got these.

Time to put them to the test.

 

[Kinley]

Look at those beauts...

 

[eskiMoe]

Just got them installed:

Once my monitor arrives, time to replay The Witcher 1 & 2.

 

[eskiMoe]

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4633662?

"Better than 99% of all results"

 

[KingHochmeister]

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/4633662?

"Better than 99% of all results"

Then what the hell is that other 1%? hahahahaha