andrevautour
New member
Nice, clean.
1st Time Builder Project: Goldilocks (aka HAL 4500 JR)
- Thread starter spenzalii
- Start date
Mgutierrez33
New member
looksgoodman.jpg. A solid choice with that video card as well!
Lystfiskern
New member
Looks sweet 
I would remove the sliders from the drivecage(s)
I would remove the sliders from the drivecage(s)Thank you all. Choosing that card was the hardest piece of the puzzle. I was originally torn between the XFX 7870 or a EVGA 660 Sig2 for weeks, but the Sapphire card was just about the same price, give or take $15 or so. So for performance that is just below or at some of the early 7950 cards (driver and overclock depending) it seemed to make sense from a price/performance standpoint. The only thing that really grinds my gears is I don't qualify for the Never Settle Reloaded bundle, as I ordered the card through Amazon, who then ordered it through TigerDirect (who didn't have the Sapphire card listed when I went to order it). Since it wasn't sold directly, it doesn't qualify, so I'm out 2 free games.
The original build specs were going to be mostly passive, as I wanted the computer to be as quiet as possible, since my last rig had more fan noise than I could handle. While my final spec isn't quite silent, it's pretty quiet and worlds quieter than the last setup. If I do anything else in the room, I can't hear it. If I'm sitting at the desk with the computer right under me at the table, I just hear wind for the most part.
The lights were purely vainity, but I'm glad I assed them. With the verticle card slot on the R4 it made a perfect place to put the on/off switch (though it is recessed a bit further back than I like)
The original build specs were going to be mostly passive, as I wanted the computer to be as quiet as possible, since my last rig had more fan noise than I could handle. While my final spec isn't quite silent, it's pretty quiet and worlds quieter than the last setup. If I do anything else in the room, I can't hear it. If I'm sitting at the desk with the computer right under me at the table, I just hear wind for the most part.
The lights were purely vainity, but I'm glad I assed them. With the verticle card slot on the R4 it made a perfect place to put the on/off switch (though it is recessed a bit further back than I like)
Performance update:
It's now been a month of running the computer through it's paces. I decided to get a few games to test out the computer's graphic chops, so I grabbed Sleeping Dogs and Tomb Raider (managed to fins a pre-release discount. It wasn't free like it should have been with the 7870XT, but it wasn't full price either). Ran into 2 problems, both of which I chalk up to being an admitted nOOb with PC gaming and oveclocking in general. After loading up the latest drivers for the GPU, I went to the OverDrive section. Most threads I've read say the card easily overclocks to 1200 )base clock). I set it to 1125 to be a little conservative, which was fine. However, in an effort to keep the computer quiet, I locked the fan speed at 25%. This caused thermal lockup anywhere from 5-20 minutes into a game session. Originally I took it as a game crash, until it happened on a regular basis and figured it had to be something else. So, after doing some reading and having a "D'oh!" moment, that was fixed. Second issue was similar. I had downloaded the Trixx overclock app from Sapphire and made the fix on the fan settings (for some reason I thought the problem was with the Catalystprogram. Again, nOOb here...). While in Trixx, I boosted the voltage a bit, thinking that may help the card a bit, which was fine. The problem was, I also adjusted the memory clock, which was a no-no. At that point, every game was completely unstable. Tomb raider would crash at the menu, Arkham City would have flicker and onscreen artifacts, sometimes crashing and recovering midgame and Sleeping Dogs was a total crapshoot as to whether it would run or not. After figuring out that mistake, I reset everything, bumped the base clock back to 1125 and have had zero problems. Played Tomb Raider with just about everything on extreme/ultra with the TressFX for about 6 hours yesterday without one crash. Reading is fundamental...
The only other mid-quibble I have is with the fans on the H80i. The stock fans were OK, but still a little louder than I wanted. So I swapped them for a set of SP120 Quiet Edition. Partly because of they are slightly better constructed (the SP120s have the nice rubber grommets where the screws mount, for instance) and partly for vanity's sake. However, the Quiet Editions don't work with CorsairLink. My guess is they are already locked in to spin at 1450rpms. When plugged in, CorsairLink reads them around 1150, no matter what setting I apply or if I force them at a fixed RPM. I believe the Performance series may not have that issue, but I haven't had the time to go to Microcenter and pick up a set. Then again, I may just try and source some Gentle Typhoons and use those. Then I could use either the SP120s or the stock 120s in the bottom and top of the case. Could do the same with the front 140 fans, but they really are pretty quiet at 7v, so that wouldn't be that big a deal.
Now to work on another mechanical keyboard and a dual monitor setup...
It's now been a month of running the computer through it's paces. I decided to get a few games to test out the computer's graphic chops, so I grabbed Sleeping Dogs and Tomb Raider (managed to fins a pre-release discount. It wasn't free like it should have been with the 7870XT, but it wasn't full price either). Ran into 2 problems, both of which I chalk up to being an admitted nOOb with PC gaming and oveclocking in general. After loading up the latest drivers for the GPU, I went to the OverDrive section. Most threads I've read say the card easily overclocks to 1200 )base clock). I set it to 1125 to be a little conservative, which was fine. However, in an effort to keep the computer quiet, I locked the fan speed at 25%. This caused thermal lockup anywhere from 5-20 minutes into a game session. Originally I took it as a game crash, until it happened on a regular basis and figured it had to be something else. So, after doing some reading and having a "D'oh!" moment, that was fixed. Second issue was similar. I had downloaded the Trixx overclock app from Sapphire and made the fix on the fan settings (for some reason I thought the problem was with the Catalystprogram. Again, nOOb here...). While in Trixx, I boosted the voltage a bit, thinking that may help the card a bit, which was fine. The problem was, I also adjusted the memory clock, which was a no-no. At that point, every game was completely unstable. Tomb raider would crash at the menu, Arkham City would have flicker and onscreen artifacts, sometimes crashing and recovering midgame and Sleeping Dogs was a total crapshoot as to whether it would run or not. After figuring out that mistake, I reset everything, bumped the base clock back to 1125 and have had zero problems. Played Tomb Raider with just about everything on extreme/ultra with the TressFX for about 6 hours yesterday without one crash. Reading is fundamental...
The only other mid-quibble I have is with the fans on the H80i. The stock fans were OK, but still a little louder than I wanted. So I swapped them for a set of SP120 Quiet Edition. Partly because of they are slightly better constructed (the SP120s have the nice rubber grommets where the screws mount, for instance) and partly for vanity's sake. However, the Quiet Editions don't work with CorsairLink. My guess is they are already locked in to spin at 1450rpms. When plugged in, CorsairLink reads them around 1150, no matter what setting I apply or if I force them at a fixed RPM. I believe the Performance series may not have that issue, but I haven't had the time to go to Microcenter and pick up a set. Then again, I may just try and source some Gentle Typhoons and use those. Then I could use either the SP120s or the stock 120s in the bottom and top of the case. Could do the same with the front 140 fans, but they really are pretty quiet at 7v, so that wouldn't be that big a deal.
Now to work on another mechanical keyboard and a dual monitor setup...
