ThatOneGuy
New member
As I might have mentioned, I'm new to this. I can OC the speed at which the CPU reads from the RAM? Or am I misinterpreting this?
Question: Are 3x GTX760's better than 1x GTX780 Ti?
- Thread starter ThatOneGuy
- Start date
NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
Well that's half right. I could explain this but it would be much better if it let Tom do it for me since he already has.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4sx-GuY3CA
You may have a different board and therefore bios but all the principles apply to all boards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4sx-GuY3CA
You may have a different board and therefore bios but all the principles apply to all boards.
Master&Puppet
New member
Chime in again regarding RAMdisking which I do a lot of. I have 32GB myself (s1155 system so that's the max it will support) and my reasons for RAMdisking were probably very similar to yours but decided in a slightly different environment a couple of years back.
When I bought my RAM SSDs were new and very expensive, equally RAM costs were at an all time low and I calculated that it was almost as economical to purchase a few more sticks and just get a 120GB SSD for the OS with a 3TB storage HHD to install games on than jump up to 240GB. This worked wonders and I love the epeen of having the quickest rig to load up anything (I OC'd the 1600MHz RAM to 2133MHZ too for more epeen not that it needs to be that fast at all).
I set aside about 24GB for the RAMdisk and that left a healthy 8GB for the system. If I remember correctly that 22GB was enough for nearly any game I owned however your mileage may vary (Shogun 2 didn't fit on for example and I'm sure there are others) so you'll need to consider which games you play and broadly speaking which direction the size of game installations are going too. Frankly if I were going to build a rig with RAMdisking in mind then I'd have to go s2011 so that I could pop more RAM for when 32GB fell short. That presents a whole different landscape for your build in terms of hardware choice and costs which these days frankly isn't really worth it.
Now that 240GB SSDs are freely available and at very reasonable prices there isn't much point in RAMdisking especially with the new NVMe M.2 and Sata-express forms being released which are even faster than what we have available now. I'm not saying that RAMdisking isn't faster - it is by a huge margin statistically (SATA 3 SSDs read at around 550mbps, NVMe will read at around 750mbps and my RAMdisk reads magnitudes faster at around 8000mbps or something silly.) but online games will always be limited by server connections and your CPU will hold back offline play before the transfer rate of an SSD becomes the issue. SSDs are really fast and you just don't need anything quicker.
So basically what I'm trying to say with all that blurb is just to get your priorities straight. It's mostly a gaming rig with a big budget so start with the GPUs which will be doing most of the work and twin 290x's sound like the perfect start to me.
You'll be wanting an i7 to support your little bit of rendering so that should aim you squarely at an s1150 build with the Devil's Canyon i7 CPU in it. On the RAM side of things I'd suggest 16GB which gives you plenty to work with rendering wise on the whole and you can even fit in a ~10GB RAMdisk (there is great open source software available for this btw) to try out some small/medium sized games on and gives you room to expand to 32GB if you want. Speed isn't hugely important with RAM - personally I'd get some 1600/1866Mhz @ 1.35v and over clock it from there but by the sounds of it you would be more comfortable with getting some 2133/2400MHz which can be setup with one easy click in the BIOS through the XMP profiles. Round it out with a 240GB or bigger SSD and an HDD for storage and that's the platform all sorted and will do everything you want at a much reduced price tag.
If after that you don't think that it's going to be enough for you (and you want to blow some more $$) then you'll need to jump up to s2011 which will allow you to get more CPU cores and stretch out the RAMdisk size. You could go s2011 and get the quad core but that is an expensive way of going about things in my opinion - best to decide if quadcore is enough and go s1150 or decide you need more and go big on s2011.
Lastly, regarding PSUs a dual GPU setup like this with watercooling, fans yadda yadda and even with a s2011 CPU doesn't need a huge power supply. Something above 850W would be fine (Corsair 860axi springs to mind but there are others).
There's obviously a lot of stuff left to discuss regarding water cooling but I'd suggest that you get the components decided on first and then create a new thread in the water cooling section for that or else this will become the mutha of threads!
When I bought my RAM SSDs were new and very expensive, equally RAM costs were at an all time low and I calculated that it was almost as economical to purchase a few more sticks and just get a 120GB SSD for the OS with a 3TB storage HHD to install games on than jump up to 240GB. This worked wonders and I love the epeen of having the quickest rig to load up anything (I OC'd the 1600MHz RAM to 2133MHZ too for more epeen not that it needs to be that fast at all).
I set aside about 24GB for the RAMdisk and that left a healthy 8GB for the system. If I remember correctly that 22GB was enough for nearly any game I owned however your mileage may vary (Shogun 2 didn't fit on for example and I'm sure there are others) so you'll need to consider which games you play and broadly speaking which direction the size of game installations are going too. Frankly if I were going to build a rig with RAMdisking in mind then I'd have to go s2011 so that I could pop more RAM for when 32GB fell short. That presents a whole different landscape for your build in terms of hardware choice and costs which these days frankly isn't really worth it.
Now that 240GB SSDs are freely available and at very reasonable prices there isn't much point in RAMdisking especially with the new NVMe M.2 and Sata-express forms being released which are even faster than what we have available now. I'm not saying that RAMdisking isn't faster - it is by a huge margin statistically (SATA 3 SSDs read at around 550mbps, NVMe will read at around 750mbps and my RAMdisk reads magnitudes faster at around 8000mbps or something silly.) but online games will always be limited by server connections and your CPU will hold back offline play before the transfer rate of an SSD becomes the issue. SSDs are really fast and you just don't need anything quicker.
So basically what I'm trying to say with all that blurb is just to get your priorities straight. It's mostly a gaming rig with a big budget so start with the GPUs which will be doing most of the work and twin 290x's sound like the perfect start to me.
You'll be wanting an i7 to support your little bit of rendering so that should aim you squarely at an s1150 build with the Devil's Canyon i7 CPU in it. On the RAM side of things I'd suggest 16GB which gives you plenty to work with rendering wise on the whole and you can even fit in a ~10GB RAMdisk (there is great open source software available for this btw) to try out some small/medium sized games on and gives you room to expand to 32GB if you want. Speed isn't hugely important with RAM - personally I'd get some 1600/1866Mhz @ 1.35v and over clock it from there but by the sounds of it you would be more comfortable with getting some 2133/2400MHz which can be setup with one easy click in the BIOS through the XMP profiles. Round it out with a 240GB or bigger SSD and an HDD for storage and that's the platform all sorted and will do everything you want at a much reduced price tag.
If after that you don't think that it's going to be enough for you (and you want to blow some more $$) then you'll need to jump up to s2011 which will allow you to get more CPU cores and stretch out the RAMdisk size. You could go s2011 and get the quad core but that is an expensive way of going about things in my opinion - best to decide if quadcore is enough and go s1150 or decide you need more and go big on s2011.
Lastly, regarding PSUs a dual GPU setup like this with watercooling, fans yadda yadda and even with a s2011 CPU doesn't need a huge power supply. Something above 850W would be fine (Corsair 860axi springs to mind but there are others).
There's obviously a lot of stuff left to discuss regarding water cooling but I'd suggest that you get the components decided on first and then create a new thread in the water cooling section for that or else this will become the mutha of threads!
Last edited:
ThatOneGuy
New member
Okay, after reading through all of the comments (seriously, you guys are awesome), I think I've more or less figured out what I'd like to build.
My budget is about $3k USD. I've already got a case and a cooling loop, so I'm basically going to be replacing the guts. With that, though, I've got a few questions.
1) You've mentioned getting 16GB of RAM to start with, and then upgrading to 32GB if it's not meeting my needs. Would a set of RAM (for example a 32GB kit) offer better performance than two smaller kits purchased seperately? I can't remember who told me this, but I was led to believe that there could potentially be issues when mixing and matching RAM, even if they're from the same manufacturer and the same speed, but different production lots. Is this true, or bad information?
2) I've pretty much decided on the MSI 290x Lightning. Amazing out of the box, and I can only wait to see what it will do when I get around to OC-ing it underwater. Can you think of anything better suited to gaming at that price? ($670 USD / £390)
2a) Follow-on question: The Lightning comes with a backplate, and it looks rather sturdy. Should I invest in a backplate from the manufacturer of the waterblock, or would stock be sufficient?
3) Is there any reason, other than its price or the fact that it's more power than I need, why I should choose an s1150 over the s2011 and the 4930k?
These questions aside, I think I've nailed down the build. It is for gaming at 1440p resolution, along with occasional rendering operations. The parts list is as follows:
Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme X79
CPU: Intel i7-4930K
Power Supply: Ultra X4 850W (Currently owned, otherwise the Corsair 850d)
RAM: Kingston Beast 32GB 2400MHz
GPU: MSI 290x Lightning
Waterblock for MB: EK ASUS RIVE Full Board Cooling Block Kit - Nickel
OS Drive: ADATA 256GB SSD / SATA 6.0Gb/s
Storage Drive: WD Black 3TB HDD SATA 6.0Gb/s (Owned)
Various Other Bits: 6 Meters of Acrylic tubing, starter kit for bending rigid tubing, 18 compression fittings, 270mm cylindrical reservoir, and a D5 pump to push it all.
Why 6 meters of tubing? Because I'm a slow learner, and I'd rather not have to wait for a second package of tubing to arrive, because I am not patient. And I had to buy 18 of the compression fittings because they come in a 6-pack, and I needed 14. As configured, the grand total is $2994 USD, plus approximately $40 USD for shipping and misc. taxes.
So, feedback? I think this is a more realistic build for what I'll be using it for. Though, I have to admit, I'm still probably going to treat myself to the Rampage IV Black edition at some point in the future. I'm a fan of the color scheme, not to mention the onboard sound card.
Again, I'd like to extend a genuine Thank You to all of the people who have contributed their knowledge. Honestly, I was sort of expecting something along the lines of "you're an idiot" or similar. So, to all of you, Thank you again for being patient with the new guy.
My budget is about $3k USD. I've already got a case and a cooling loop, so I'm basically going to be replacing the guts. With that, though, I've got a few questions.
1) You've mentioned getting 16GB of RAM to start with, and then upgrading to 32GB if it's not meeting my needs. Would a set of RAM (for example a 32GB kit) offer better performance than two smaller kits purchased seperately? I can't remember who told me this, but I was led to believe that there could potentially be issues when mixing and matching RAM, even if they're from the same manufacturer and the same speed, but different production lots. Is this true, or bad information?
2) I've pretty much decided on the MSI 290x Lightning. Amazing out of the box, and I can only wait to see what it will do when I get around to OC-ing it underwater. Can you think of anything better suited to gaming at that price? ($670 USD / £390)
2a) Follow-on question: The Lightning comes with a backplate, and it looks rather sturdy. Should I invest in a backplate from the manufacturer of the waterblock, or would stock be sufficient?
3) Is there any reason, other than its price or the fact that it's more power than I need, why I should choose an s1150 over the s2011 and the 4930k?
These questions aside, I think I've nailed down the build. It is for gaming at 1440p resolution, along with occasional rendering operations. The parts list is as follows:
Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme X79
CPU: Intel i7-4930K
Power Supply: Ultra X4 850W (Currently owned, otherwise the Corsair 850d)
RAM: Kingston Beast 32GB 2400MHz
GPU: MSI 290x Lightning
Waterblock for MB: EK ASUS RIVE Full Board Cooling Block Kit - Nickel
OS Drive: ADATA 256GB SSD / SATA 6.0Gb/s
Storage Drive: WD Black 3TB HDD SATA 6.0Gb/s (Owned)
Various Other Bits: 6 Meters of Acrylic tubing, starter kit for bending rigid tubing, 18 compression fittings, 270mm cylindrical reservoir, and a D5 pump to push it all.
Why 6 meters of tubing? Because I'm a slow learner, and I'd rather not have to wait for a second package of tubing to arrive, because I am not patient. And I had to buy 18 of the compression fittings because they come in a 6-pack, and I needed 14. As configured, the grand total is $2994 USD, plus approximately $40 USD for shipping and misc. taxes.
So, feedback? I think this is a more realistic build for what I'll be using it for. Though, I have to admit, I'm still probably going to treat myself to the Rampage IV Black edition at some point in the future. I'm a fan of the color scheme, not to mention the onboard sound card.
Again, I'd like to extend a genuine Thank You to all of the people who have contributed their knowledge. Honestly, I was sort of expecting something along the lines of "you're an idiot" or similar. So, to all of you, Thank you again for being patient with the new guy.
Kaapstad
Active member
Don't bother watercooling the motherboard, it is more hassle than it's worth with very little benefit.
A RIVE BE has just about every option you could want for overclocking, they are really nice motherboards but there are cheaper options if you are not going to use all the features. Having said that if you want one for the hell of it, then go for it but save some money by not watercooling it.
Also if you go down the overclocking route 16gb of fast memory is better than 32gb.
A RIVE BE has just about every option you could want for overclocking, they are really nice motherboards but there are cheaper options if you are not going to use all the features. Having said that if you want one for the hell of it, then go for it but save some money by not watercooling it.
Also if you go down the overclocking route 16gb of fast memory is better than 32gb.
This does hold some truth and Corsair will always state do not mix memory kits even of consecutive serial numbers. It's not at all a question of manufacturing but instead of testing and rating. It is possible for instance that two pairs of modules are stable at 2400 on their own but when combined and used together they are not. Hence why memory is sold in pairs and quads etc as that is the way it has been tested and it is guaranteed to be capable of its rated specifications when running in that kit.
This doesn't mean however when you combine two kits they will be unstable or perform worse, they will probably get along fine but the manufacturer will not care if they fail to achieve the rated specification when running together. I hope that clears up your question and it's entirely up to you what you do about it. But one personal piece of advice I would give is don't mindlessly buy more than you need because memory always sells for very close to it's new value so if you want a bigger kit one day just sell what you have and buy again. I find that 16GB is the perfect overkill starting point and you will probably never want more unless for a specialist application.
As for the rest of the build I would seriously forget S2011 and go for a new devils canyon chip and a cheaper motherboard and put more money into graphics and SSD's as that's will benefit games and every day use far more significantly than having a 2-generation old hexacore. If I was building right now on your budget I would get a 4790k or hold out for X99 if I was feeling minted.
Completely contrary to my previous advice, if you desperately want a Black Edition and full board blocks get one right now. There would be nothing worse than getting an Extreme investing in blocks to then in 4 months time decide you needed a black edition all along and not be able to sell it well because X99 is out and also Black Edition water blocks might not be available anymore.
^ In addition I second whatever Kaapstad says. Unless he says i'm gay.
JR
Last edited:
ThatOneGuy
New member
Okay, That's a good point, the processor is a bit old.
I'm choosing a different motherboard to support the s1150 on the 4790K. Right now, the Maximus VI Formula is the leader. It's got the onboard sound card as well, which was one of the main draws of the Black Edition for me. Plus, it's got the CrossChill cooler over the portion of the MB near the IO ports. That's called a North Bridge, right? Either way, it works with either air or water, and I don't have to buy any other parts. Beyond that, it's also got the ROG Armor, which I find very nice to look at.
According to Intel, the 4790K can handle memory speeds of DDR3-1333/1600. That's not a hard limit, is it? With a bit of messing about, I should be able to experience faster memory speeds, right?
As it sits now, I'll be changing the CPU, MB, and RAM from whatever they were to the following:
CPU: Intel i7-4790K
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Formula
RAM: Kingston HyperX Beast 2400Mhz 16Gb
This has had the added benefit of dropping the price quite considerably. By almost $500, in fact. Time to add another SSD, or is there something else that would benefit me more?
I'm choosing a different motherboard to support the s1150 on the 4790K. Right now, the Maximus VI Formula is the leader. It's got the onboard sound card as well, which was one of the main draws of the Black Edition for me. Plus, it's got the CrossChill cooler over the portion of the MB near the IO ports. That's called a North Bridge, right? Either way, it works with either air or water, and I don't have to buy any other parts. Beyond that, it's also got the ROG Armor, which I find very nice to look at.
According to Intel, the 4790K can handle memory speeds of DDR3-1333/1600. That's not a hard limit, is it? With a bit of messing about, I should be able to experience faster memory speeds, right?
As it sits now, I'll be changing the CPU, MB, and RAM from whatever they were to the following:
CPU: Intel i7-4790K
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Formula
RAM: Kingston HyperX Beast 2400Mhz 16Gb
This has had the added benefit of dropping the price quite considerably. By almost $500, in fact. Time to add another SSD, or is there something else that would benefit me more?
It's starting to sound more in-line with your requirements but still keeping super high end e-peen aesthetically orientated stuff! The extra $500 could be a real game changer too.
If what you have selected GPU wise is appropriately overkill for your resolution and you already have a sufficient amount of fast storage then maybe it would be wise to change case and get your cooling just exactly so and try to make it really stand out? What is the cooling situation at the moment by the way, what radiator space do you have and is there room for more? Also are you still thinking a pair of cards?
No the processor memory speed isn't fixed, most boards support up to 3000 MHz but your CPU most likely won't make it that high and nor will your wallet lol.
If what you have selected GPU wise is appropriately overkill for your resolution and you already have a sufficient amount of fast storage then maybe it would be wise to change case and get your cooling just exactly so and try to make it really stand out? What is the cooling situation at the moment by the way, what radiator space do you have and is there room for more? Also are you still thinking a pair of cards?
No the processor memory speed isn't fixed, most boards support up to 3000 MHz but your CPU most likely won't make it that high and nor will your wallet lol.
ThatOneGuy
New member
That's what I figured, heh. The case is an NZXT Switch 630 Windowed edition, and I've currently got a 360mm radiator mounted on the roof, and a 240mm one mounted in the front, under the drive bays.
Here's a picture of when I was bleeding the loop in my current setup.
If I ever decided to get froggy and add the MB to the loop, I'd have to get another 240mm to go up top, since the one that's there now pretty much blocks one of the ports on the MB cooler.
As it is, I'm going to be adding a D5 pump and a 270mm cylindrical reservoir and getting rid of the bay mounted pump/res combo I have now.
Here's a picture of when I was bleeding the loop in my current setup.
If I ever decided to get froggy and add the MB to the loop, I'd have to get another 240mm to go up top, since the one that's there now pretty much blocks one of the ports on the MB cooler.
As it is, I'm going to be adding a D5 pump and a 270mm cylindrical reservoir and getting rid of the bay mounted pump/res combo I have now.
