I'm officially building my Rig! one part at a time, help required

[Spock]

@mg729 - as Ayien and I said, ENB works better for Nvidia users than AMD.

 

Does "work better" mean less wonky or better fps? Because technically the AMD cards have way more shader power and ENB's performance drop is mostly due to shaders. But if they are heavily NVidia optimized those could still be faster. I'd be interested in a comparison.

[Kelmych]

If you get a Haswell CPU make sure to get a power supply rated for Haswell. Most PSU manufacturers have only list a subset of their PSUs for compatibility with some of the power demands in the new hibernate states that Haswell introduced.

[Aiyen]

@mg729 - as Ayien and I said' date=' ENB works better for Nvidia users than AMD.[/quote']

Does "work better" mean less wonky or better fps? Because technically the AMD cards have way more shader power and ENB's performance drop is mostly due to shaders. But if they are heavily NVidia optimized those could still be faster. I'd be interested in a comparison.

 

It means that Boris develops for Nvidia first and foremost, and cba to deal with various AMD issues half the time, and the other half he does it reluctantly. Essentially it has been like this since I started back in january with ENB´s... That AMD works (most of the time) is just a side benefit. 

As for getting more FPS etc. nobody have really done any indepth analysis of it... since it depends so heavily on other settings, mods etc. 

[WilliamImm]

It means that Boris develops for Nvidia first and foremost' date=' and cba to deal with various AMD issues half the time, and the other half he does it reluctantly. Essentially it has been like this since I started back in january with ENB´s... That AMD works (most of the time) is just a side benefit.[/quote']

 

Exactly right. While the brand doesn't really matter that much typically, for ENB, you'll just have a better experience with Nvidia cards over AMD. That's the way it is

 

@Dweedle - any feedback? I've gave you some quite comprehensive recommendations in one of my previous posts on the thread.

[Spock]

Well "better experience" sounds a little subjective to me tbh. So far I didn't have a single ENB problem that NVidia users didn't have that wasn't fixed within a few days.

 

While I do like NVidia and their inventiveness in the gaming sector I currently wouldn't advice anyone to buy an NVidia card. The 99th percentile frame performance of r9 280x vs gtx 780 is very slim but the price difference is huge. Some of that price difference might show up on your electricity bill though.

 

The AMD cards currently eat more power and produce more heat though so choosing the right custom cooler can be difficult. Asus' DirectCU II seems to be the best custom cooler for AMD cards atm (I so much hope the 290 won't be too expensive).

 

If you go for air cooling make sure to get the Noctua NH-U14S. It's currently the best out there, so good in fact it becomes difficult to justify water cooling.

 

What's also missing in the setup is a SSD drive. I'd advice the Samsung evo 840 if you can get it (choose the data amount you want). The 850 seems to have a cheaper controller with shorter lifespan.

[phazer11]

To be honest H60's are amazing coolers, so are Noctua DH14 and though I've never used one or heard as much about them the one Spock mentioned seems solid.

 

Of course if you're going for air cooling just throw on a Cooler Master 212 EVO that's about as good as air cooling gets and it's about half the cost of the Noctua's.

 

CPU cooling wise I'd recomend either the 212 EVO or the H60(at least)

H60 >--- 212 EVO

[Aiyen]

The latest cloud shadow feature is a perfect example. Upon release Boris said that he would expect AMD cards to have issues with it, and so far I have only had people with AMD cards that does not like the feature, so true enough. However most of those are older cards, and probably also older drivers...

But it shows the kind of headaches that you might have. He will probably figure out how to fix it down the road... but well the waiting can be annoying.

 

I in general never suggest people to get the largest and meanest card from either vendor, it is normally much better to get the one with the best performance/cost ratio, since games have not yet gone truly into the next generation, and even when they do the resolution of choice is still 1080p so they should be able to last a few years still.

 

Edit: Also water cooling is always going to be at least 30% more effective then Air cooling I think it is... just due to the physics involved alone (I cba to look up the heat transfer coefficients etc. atm. so dont shot me if I have the wrong number!). Granted they do cost a bit more, and any safety issues are kinda long gone, unless you really mess up.

[deathneko11]

For the record, I have a 212 evo on my amd 6100 fx chip, and amd chips usually run a bit on the hot side. with the 212 evo I keep between 22C and 35C depending on load.

[Spock]

@Aiyen: Yes, that is very true. I just thought the "have a better ENB experience" sounded a little to general while there are very good arguments to buy an AMD card atm. I'd also always rather buy a card for ~250€ and another for 250€ in 2-3 years then buy a 500€ card now. That card will be totally sufficient.

The reviews for the Noctua NH-U14S I saw actually suggest it's (pretty much - depending on the reviewer) on par with the corsair h110. I'm not that much into water cooling but the h110 seems to be the way to go. But those heatpipes can probably be described as passive water cooling without a pump :)

 

@deathneko: 35° under load is incredibly chilly! My I7 920 @ 3.7 GHz hits 73° under a Noctua NH-U12P (Prime Blend) and 34° in idle.

[deathneko11]

whups, I misspoke here. I meant 35C under LIGHT load. it will reach up to 55 when prime95 testing. but generally it never goes above 35C-38C when gaming.

[phazer11]

Oh yeah I'd like to mention that the H60 weighs less than a pound IIRC and the Noctua air coolers mentioned weigh 2 pounds and up. The NH-D14 weighs almost 3 pounds IIRC, the more weight the more stress on the motherboard.

The 212 EVO weighs about a pound and a quarter.

[Aiyen]

Well the only reason those air coolers are effective is because.... as phazer points out.. they are MASSIVE!

The sheer amount of cooling elements make it so that they can take up a lot of heat. However when compared to the H60/H110 and their cooling element size... then yeah.. the efficiency difference speaks for itself.

 

Atm I am quite satisfied with my intel stock cooler... it actually performs quite well, even under full game load! But I also do not OC my CPU at all.

[phazer11]

Oh another thing, for the best air coolers on the market (especially the NH-DH14) you'll have to (in most cases) have a Full Tower case such as the Cooler Master HAF 932 or NZXT Phantom since they're so tall they'd easily hit the panel. Some Mid Tower cases might depending on their dimensions just barely squeak by so you'll have to take that into account as well. The H60 should fit in jut about any case, if not in the top then in the rear exhaust port.

[Spock]

Afaik the motherboards are laid out for such weights. I wouldn't consider it when choosing a cooler.

Height shouldn't make that much of a difference either, I got a midi tower with one of those (little older model but same dimensions) and there is plenty of room left. My CPU cooler is about the height of my GPU, from the pictures the NH-U14S seems ~1cm higher. If you cannot fit that you bought the wrong case, not the wrong cooler (airflow will be bad in such a crammed case).

 

@Aiyen: I'd consider an upgrade, those Noctua coolers don't only cool much better, they are also close to unhearable :)

All the fans in my system except for GPU are Noctua, they are ridiculously quiet.

[Aiyen]

Once I become rich and stuff I will get a full passive water cooled rig... They are going down in price each year.

 

I would also actually hurt my air flow if I install a cooler with that massive a cooling element on it. I have a 25cm fan on the side of my case, it keeps everything in order. And since it is so huge you can hardly hear it... what I hear is the CPU cooler under heavy load.... and then the other case fans.