Black/Green BF4 Rig

[Gekko12482]

Hey there folks!

While I'm new to this forum, I'm not new to pc hardware. I have been on the dutch hardware.info forums for over 5 years but now I feel like I'm getting too much of a die-hard to stay there. I really feel like this is the place where the more advanced pc-builders come together so, hello there! ^_^

I have been playing Battlefield 3 for around 350 hours and loved every minute of it. However, my old rig was a bunch of cheap second hand hardware put together as I had no money to buy something nice and it looked like absolute rubbish. Last summer during my holidays from college I have been working full-time for a few weeks and had some money "left over". Battlefield 4 was coming, so I built a pc to have an awesome BF4 experience. Playing on ultra I wanted 60fps and nothing less, even on the very demanding 64 multiplier conquest maps. And so, here is what I built:

CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K @ 4,4Ghz 1,36V (yeah, worst cpu ever... stock VID was 1,186V)
RAM: Kingston HyperX Beast 2x4GB @ 2400Mhz 11-13-13-30-2T
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87 Sniper M5
GPU: MSI nVidia GTX780Ti @ 1255MHz/1750MHz (stock cooler)
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB
HDD: None
PSU: Corsair RM550
Case: Fractal Design Mini R2
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master TPC-800 + Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition
Casefans: 3x Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition @ 490rpm (PWM controlled up to 1200rpm)
Keyboard: Old PS2 Sweex thingy
Mouse: Logitech MX518 (big feet/1800dpi version) with Hyperglides
Mousepad: Steelseries QCK
Monitor/TV: LG M2252 (11m2 room, so I HAD to get a monitor that could serve as a tv...)
Soundcard(s): Onboard while gaming, Schiit Modi/Magni for music, FiiO E10 for digital output to the reciever and speakers
Headphones: Sennheiser HD 600 with ghettomodded mic

Good news is, I'm moving to a bigger place, so I might replace the tv/monitor for a future 144Hz g-sync BenQ one. Ultra settings might become a problem, but SLI is not an option with this case/motherboard combination. However, I don't regret this motherboard purchase AT ALL. It looks amazing, is rock stable and the soundcard is awesome. I am used to a Xonar DG, but this soundcard just does the virtual surround stuff so much better. I wish I chould let that soundcard do the 7.1 -> 2.0 scaling and sent the created signal to the Schiit stack, that would be audiophile heaven

Anyways, pics?

And it all started like this, oh god that feeling when these parts arrived:

Yes that fractal fan has been pulled out of the build. The 140mm fan in my dad's pc broke down.

Few bonus pic, first the problem with the RAM not fitting under the cpu cooler fan. For now it runs in single channel mode, but I might swap the RAM in the future for some low profile sticks.

The Sennheiser HD 600 + Creative Fatal1ty mic + 3,5mm extension cable

And the main disadvantage of removing the 5,25" drives, you've got nothing to hide the cables behind.

Tom, you asked for a full rig gallery when I posted a picture in the night shot thread, so here it is!

 

[CrazyTeeka]

Awesome looking Rig, tidy cables. ^_^

I can recommend Topaz Denoise to remove any photo noise.

 

[mod_ex]

awsome rig dude good setup, what are them boards like as considering a sniper for my next board ??

 

[RamboOC]

Looks nice, slick and tidy. Love that green and black with conjunction with white leds. How are the improvements with the lapped CPU?

 

[Gekko12482]

awsome rig dude good setup, what are them boards like as considering a sniper for my next board ??

I haven't had any blue screens or anything even with the current overclocks running. That's how stable it is. As for the BIOS, it only took about 30 minutes to get used to it (coming from Asus motherboards with the old blue/yellow BIOS style) and the options have good explanations most of the time. The software is where I stopped liking it... I began to love it. I wanted a silent rig, that's why I hooked all of the casefans to the CPU_OPT header. I installed easytune to set my own fancurves. I went to smart fan, clicked advanced, click something I don't remember and it started measureing at what RPM the fans spin at certain PWM Duty cycle settings. After that, I set a fancurve and bam, silent rig:

Then there is the soundcard driver. I set it to headphone mode at speakers/headphones segmet, adjusted the slider of the "amount" of surround effect and I was done

And guess what? It works amazing. It really just adds a directional effect with a tasteful bit of reverb. The Xonar DG I am used to had wayyy to much reverb to my taste. You can compare it for yourself here



Also, the amp is quite strong. I am usually at 15-25% volume with the power hungry beast the HD600 is. However, it lacks a bit in the very low frequencies so it is not that powerful.

Looks nice, slick and tidy. Love that green and black with conjunction with white leds. How are the improvements with the lapped CPU?

Thanks, I lapped the CPU just straight out of the box so I can't compare it. The hottest core maxes out at about 80 degrees now, which seems not that bad to me considering the voltage I put on this thing.

 

[wassupdoc]

Dude you can SLi on that motherboard no problems at all? Very nice rig You should definitely think about getting an SSD to install Battlefield on, it improves your load times no end!

 

[Gekko12482]

Then I have to use the bottom PCI-e slot, which in the R2 mini means that you have to have a slngle slot card. I yet have to see a singleslot 780Ti :/ Also, I forgot to put the storage in specs indeed. The only storage I put in this is the Samsung 840 Evo 120GB SSD. I have been on the SSD wagon since the very fist Vertex SSD so yeah, I really can't live without anymore.