Going for a new computer - please, some help will be cool

[Nestor]

As you can see in the layout, I will be using PCI 2 and 3 for both Pulsars. PCI 1 will be blocked by the video card, almosts sure, because they take double slots spacem, which is cool, literaly.

[Nestor]

Yeah, I remember when I built the PC I am writing now from. Technology has changed a whole lot since then. I am amazed at the speed so many new additions and interesting technologies came to be. Good for us! But people themselves don’t seem to be progressing at the same speed technology does, in fact, it seems that universal understanding of life is retrograding instate.

I remember that 15 years ago we were not the least concerned about the aesthetics of any piece of hardware. This attitude would have been laughable at the time… You would have never been concerned about something that you would hardly see again for several years, perhaps the first day you would, or for a couple of days at most while you are building your machine. I am surprised, and I rather dislike this new trend of being extremely concerned about the looks of things, for instance: a motherboard, a video card, a stick of ram… Don’t people realize that in this way they are prone to be cheated easily by the wolfs of big multinationals? I think it is ridiculous to pay so much attention to the looks of gear. In every new review I have gone though, there is a good amount of wording dedicated to talk about the colors scheme of a particular new motherboard, and they would even go as far as saying: “I would not get this board, it looks horrible with this yellow and black combination”, and blab bla, things of the like…

If you look at a Pulsar card, it is far from being an aesthetic piece of art, but what it does is really great! It is unbelievable! So what, we should not have it because it doesn’t hold the standards of today pretty gear? Common!

What I feel and fear at, is that this proposal is also getting more and more into people’s minds in a bad way, so comparing and valuing people for how they look like instate of making the effort to sort out who is who, and welcome people for what they actually are whiting themselves. Yes, I know, the latter is not new at all, but it is being more and more pronounced in our society, and this makes me sad.

Compare Brad Pitt with Mahatma Gandhi, and then see for yourself…, you will realize Mahatma Gandhi is in fact a Scope System.

[tlaskows]

Yes, it's true. iPhones are pretty and they sell. I had an iPhone 6, but the battery didn't last, so I changed to a Samsung Galaxy S5. It may not be as pretty, but the battery lasts and is replaceable. Plus, it's kind of waterproof and dust proof. Less money than an iPhone 6, too.

Actually, I think the 15 DSP Pro cards look kind of powerful. All those chips and all that

-Tom

[tlaskows]

Do you need a fast video card? I got a Quadro FX 1700 for 15$ on eBay and it has dual DVI. Works great and takes up little room.

-Tom

[Nestor]

Do you need a fast video card? I got a Quadro FX 1700 for 15$ on eBay and it has dual DVI. Works great and takes up little room.

-Tom

It is true, and there are many of these at similar prices... but I need something much more powerful than that

[tlaskows]

I used to have dual GTX 770 4GB, is that powerful enough?

Then I stopped playing games. Waste of time. But I think you do video editing

-Tom

[Nestor]

Oh yeah..., that would be enough for sure Yes Tom, video and photo editing among other intensive uses.

[tlaskows]

Very well. I hope you can get your machine working soon

-Tom

[stonberg]

Asus Z97_K

or

Asus Z87-C

Based in your experience guys, which one would you take and why? Cheers!

The Z97 chipset supports the newer, fifth generation Intel core CPUs, whereas the Z87 chipset supports up to the 4th gen. You can put slightly faster RAM in the 97 board.

Z97 also provides support for M.2 and SATA Express.

If these cutting-edge technologies aren't important to you, then the 87 is a good bet. If the difference in price is not an issue, you may as well go with the newer board, in case you want to use a latest gen CPU, or the fastest available RAM.

[Nestor]

Thank you Stonberg for your answer

I made my choice, I’ve got the Asus Z87-C motherboard and it will arrive in a few days.

I don’t need for the RAM to be that fast, what I would normally need for multimedia and audio intense jobs is rather LOTS of RAM, yes, that's cool.

The Broadwell that will go with the new Z97 boards it is not worth the money today, and it will not really be that much powerful than current i7s, if at all. It is most of all important for mobile devices and to a certain extent, for some new ways graphic outputs will work.

Soon there will be a new chipset, the Intel 100, and immediately after a new series of processors Intel will call Skylake. This is the never ending story, we know, there will always be something new. For those looking for a new system but already having a powerful new system with Z87 boards and i7 processors, should wait until Skylake and Intel 100 are available, otherwise it is spending lots of money for more of the same, or perhaps a minimal increace in performance.

I have been able to do so much with an XP system with a mere 4GB or DDR2 RAM and a 2.6 dual core for so many years... How much more will I be able to do with a new system like the one I am building? It really is way more than enough for me. I have been doing some interesting math comparing both systems - my present XP and the future Win 7 one - , and it will be about 12 times more capable, at least, in general terms. This is the cool side of not upgrading for such a long time... when you upgrade now, it is like going from a mini to a ferrari.

In the other hand, the Asus Z87-C vs the Asus Z97-K, it is a better build, it has a higher level of quality as a bord, and it is cheaper because it is a little old. Then there are a few shared resources problems with the Z97 that could eventually cause some trouble, in most cases, as I have read, do not but... In the Z87, resources are better handled, you have some more freedom of configuration and BIOS are as good as any other new board, which is very important.

I am not interested in the M.2 technology either.

I do not intend to overclock the new system, I will use it for working, not for gaming, but it is nice to know your board can be overclocked very well and in a stable fashion, that means that all the avenues of information, the way current flows and it is handled between the components and bridges, the general bandwidth of your board, will provide this big thing we all love so much called: STABILITY.

[Nestor]

I have been reading many reviews about processors, and many guys out there will tell you the stock fans for Intel’s i7s are crappy. I tend to not believe their statement, but it could be wrong, I don't know. Anyway, I rather think these comments come from young overclockers that get too hot their processors with their experiments, but if you use them normally they should be fine, unless they are too noisy for us. Which is your experience Z people? Do I need a special fan? Thank you guys for your answers.

By the way, I already got the Asus Z87-C

[tlaskows]

I'm using a cheap Corsair water cooler. I think it was around 100$. Big fans, very quiet.

-Tom

[Nestor]

I'm using a cheap Corsair water cooler. I think it was around 100$. Big fans, very quiet.

-Tom

Cheers Tom, cool that you use one of those, but you didn’t answer my question

Well, what is happening is that I'm in a VERY tight budget right now. Prices for us in Argentina, coming from USD conversions are about 4 times as expensive as what you would pay in your country..., so any addition not strictly necesary you add to a new PC, it really is a pain in your ass...

I will ask you more precisely my question: Do I necessarily need a new fan because the offered by Intel is of poor quality, or you have changed yours because you overclock your system? Cheers

[petal]

No.

Start with the stock fan - if it's too noisy for you, start looking for a better cooler

[Nestor]

No.

Start with the stock fan - if it's too noisy for you, start looking for a better cooler

This is what I suspected, how Intel would sell something so important and expensive as a processor, and then not add a decent fan? That would go against them. It has always been like this with the other processors, why not with the i7? Cheers

[tlaskows]

The stock cooler will last you a while if you're not overclocking. They're pretty quiet if you're not using much CPU. I think the fan speed varies.

I went for water because I had my 4770k running at 4.4GHz. I don't anymore. I'm in Canada BTW, so what I actually paid was closer to 150 CAD

-Tom

[jksuperstar]

The gaming tweakerz will spout all over the web how you are supposed to replace the stock fan with some fancy liquid copper led-lit monster. You can safely ignore them (if you are running stock frequency).

I've never had issue with the stock fan, even the latest cores with the different thermal conductor they use to mate the CPU to the cooler. It's not a big issue, or intel would have already made a change to the massive number of shipments made constantly.

I have a 4th gen i5 (i5 because I disable hyperthreading anyway...so no need for an i7), and have even pushed the clock rates a little (for the memory controller, and the cpu cores are simply locked at full rate, no speed stepping allowed!). And I have no issues whatsoever. In fact, it's my most stable and smooth system ever (using windows 8.1 admittedly )

[tlaskows]

My cooler doesn't have LEDs, I am a bit sad now

-Tom

[garyb]

the stock fans are perfectly fine and last the life of the processor, usually. if you use stock settings for the CPU, the stock fans are quiet and provide more than adequate cooling.

[tlaskows]

Yes, the stock coolers are fine.

This was my stock cooler for a i7 980x 6 core

I still have it. Never used it lol.



-Tom