Hi guys, (long post, apologies) First post here, and although I may sign up to some other forums to gauge varied advice, this is the first one I picked out of many as it looks friendly here I'd really like some thoughts on what I've picked out, and if anything could be better, by all means post what you think could suit my needs better First of all the use of my computer is effectively a custom spec'd workstation for 3d rendering, ie decent processor speed, lots of ram and a fairly good gpu. I'm a freelance CG lighting and matchmove artist, and I recently had a job which crippled my current machines so it's time for new bits n bobs. Also I've been chucking computers together since around 1994, so I'm not scared to build them myself, although having one built somewhere is certainly appealing (my cable management was/is dire) My BIGGEST conundrum is actually the cooling, and what to go for (water/air/both). I need a fairly quiet computer as the machine is in my bedroom for now, and I sometimes have to leave the thing rendering for a week or two. So noise/heat etc. have always been a massive problem for me when I'm trying to sleep. (I'll be moving again soon so hopefully noise issue may subside for a while) The last 'desktop' computer I built was quite some time ago now (2006), and I used a Zalman Reserator 1+. Despite all of the bitching I've read on other forums about it, I've not had 1 single problem with it and actually I even used it to help with a job a couple of weeks ago Yes it's still working, I've not replaced a single thing except the water/coolant every now and then. The main thing I love about it - very quiet, and works fine for the old parts. The main thing I hate about it - physically huge, takes up too much room and I'm paranoid about all of the tubing. So this is the main area I'm stuck with. I'm going to give the old machine to my Dad, so it'll still be in service but I'm going to start from scratch, and I'm happy to use the latest watercooling or go with one of these huge air cooled fans like the Noctua NH-D14. Budget - £1500ish it can go up more if I think the outcome will be worth it. (since they get replaced every few years I don't like to go mental on a build) These are the parts I've picked out, although I may use another company like scan or computerplanet etc to get a build as close as possible - potentially. I definitely HAVE to overclock this sucker. CPU = Intel Core i7 2600K RAM = 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance Blue DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) CAS 9-9-9-24 ? I actually would rather have 24Gb of RAM but I can't seem to find a deal on that. OS HD 1 = SSD 120GB Corsair Force Sries 3 HD 2 = 3TB Western Digital WD30EZRX Caviar Green (or 2Tb caviar black) PSU = Corsair TX850 V2 850W or Silverstone SST-ST75F-G Strider 750W GPU = Nvidia 2GB MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II/OC Case = Corsair Carbide Series 500R or something else? (not into flashing lights and all that jazz ) CPU/GPU Cooling = Noctua NH-D14 or water cooled ? Motherboard = Asus P8Z68-V Blu-ray writer = LG, 10x Blu-ray Writer (bog standard jobbie) I think that's the lot right? In the near future I'm likely to purchase 1 or 2 of those little cube machines based on the 2600k to help out with the rendering as well, at around £500ish or so it's worth it for what I do.
hi and welcome to bit-tech. i have no idea about water cooling, but the only advise i can give is when i was looking for a quieter pc i bought the Fractal R2 case, and sharkoon gold ball fans. The fans are really quite but when i play games my case does make more noise, not sure if thats my gpu fan, case fans or cpu heatsink fan. The good thing about the case is it has vents and doors which you can close to keep it quite but then i guess it will get hotter. So what i am trying to say is, read up and check this case out and the gold ball fans where good. Water cooling can also be used with the fractal case too. I know its not much help, but better then nothing
A fractal R2/R3 case with a good intake fan and a solid exhaust fan, site your cpu cooler so its pushing the air out the back of the case. Not too sure about the twin frozor and the noise of the fans, hard drives can be quite loud.
Hey guys, Thank you for checking out my proposal ! The noise from the GPU & 2nd hard drive don't worry me. The GPU doesn't do anything when the computer is rendering, and the 2nd hard drive is for storage, so when I'm rendering out sequences they will be written to the SSD. The R3 case is on my shortlist I made but you're saying it'll be worth replacing the intake and exhaust fan for it ? Obviously fitting the Noctua D14 will be a bit simpler (maybe quieter?) than going the water cooling route again BUT I'm still looking for a comparison against a good water cooling kit, and how much better one is over the other. (as I mentioned, I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty building machines)
Thought I'd bring a mini update to this. I'm fairly sure now the case is going to be the big Xigmatek Elysium as I'm going to watercool the machine. Either with Specialtech's XSPC Rasa 750 RS360 or RX360 kit - OR - figure out the parts and customise my own list.
Not sure if you've seen it or not but here's a good guide on water cooling http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=201254 Also can I have some of your money?
Unless you want to do the water-cooling as a hobby kind of thing your better of just buying a top-end air/integrated water loop cooler and good quality aftermarket on the GPU. The gain nowadays in reduced noise is very very slight for the costs involved.
A good h100 with some Scythe gentle typhoon might do the trick, at least in terms of silence. All I can say for sure is that I have my rig watercooled with a massive 480mm rad cooling CPU, VRMs, NB and SB in a single loop using some arctic cooling f12 (as efficient as an asthmatic octogenerian) and my CPU rarely goes above 55C, GPU never goes above 50C, all this with 700RPM which I really cannot hear... I have an Antec CP850 PSU which is veeeryyy silent inside a p180, which is good for silence too... If you want to overclock and silence, watercooling might be a good option. And it is so very very bling!
the h100 gets my vote as well, or even the h80....some good fans and ur set...the end result is how loud are the fans on the rad regardless of the system, and the corsair kits are pretty well regarded...then you wouldn't need the xigmatek monster...the corsair force series i believe uses asynchronous ram, so take into account that it will be slower in some "consumer usage" situations than say the vertex 3 or the like...the ax corsair psu's are very quiet, both because the fan is solid, and it never spins up...twin frozr cards are solid, and under average load are fairly quiet, so for your usage that sounds like a good choice
Hey guys, many thanks for all of the replies ! I've read and watched a few guides, so I'll check that one out as well tomorrow, cheers for that ! (I barely make enough at the moment, need the new machine so hopefully can make more money without soo many issues!) Yep it's fine. I'll get another SSD later if I think I need it. Rendering to the 3Tb or 2Tb drive is always an option as well, speed of the drive will barely effect the render times. True but what about in terms of OC capability ? Ideally I'd like to be around 5Ghz, surely that little machine won't run cool enough ? Thanks for the kit tips in there, what fans are you using in the case and on the rad ? Good to know, and once again, the same deal about the H100 - will it cope with 5Ghz on the CPU ? Thanks guys !
about as well as anything else would...sure a full-fledged kit might do a better job by a degree or two...
If that literally is the case for cooling of the CPU then of course it would make more sense to get the H100 but is there a comparison anywhere for that kind of thing ? Looks like quite a difference to me: http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cases_cooling/corsair_h100_review/1 I still think I'm more tempted for a custom loop or on the 360RX kits.
sometimes i assume people are on the same train of thought as me...and i end up looking retarded in the process i always compare apples to apples...for the price ($120 vs $180+ isn't the same), comparable kit (240 rad vs 360) and so on...since there are few apples to apples comparisons to be had, then i personally would go to price/performance...which is the most available comparison in this situation probably. one way to look at it is temp reduction over stock or lowest common variable vs price...so saying it was off by a few degrees is probably not the best way to say it...to modify, for the money, not much out there will do better, and for the extra money, not much out there will do a better job price for performance...but ur needs dictate alot of the perceived value too, so...
