PC Build (Desktop Upgrade)

[Greg]

Had to look up what my current motherboard is, it's the Intel DH77KC. Can't seem to find a whole lot of info out there on this specific board and overclocking. After seeing some of the other motherboards that were suggested to me here, it doesn't look like this one is really the best one out there.

I think this is because the Intel DH77KC isn't designed for and doesn't really support overclocking. At least this is what I'm finding when searching for this motherboard.

[Guest]

After researching more on the topic, it looks like the Intel DH77KC rests on the bottom step of that particular product line. I've attached a photo with the layout of my current board, which appears to only have a single heatsink on the motherboard which happens to conveniently be located right behind the sole PCI Express 3.0 port. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's kind of hard to judge the height of the heatsink from the photo, but it rests right underneath my current 660 TI's case/fan with barely any room to spare. I'm afraid that if I upgrade my GPU to the 970 that it will rest just a little bit lower (possibly touching it) as most of those cards appear to have heatsink pipes running underneath of them. I've come up with several different possible options and was curious what you guys thought about them:

 

• Purchase a different LGA1155 motherboard: Doesn't look like there's a huge selection out there at this point, there's an ASRock one for around $125 which I think is a overpriced due to its age.
• Purchase the current 1150 socket motherboard/CPU: More pricey option that doesn't benefit my system much, other than allowing more space for the GPU and not paying for outdated hardware.
• Purchase the latest 2011 socket: The priciest option that introduces 6-8 CPU cores/DDR4 RAM. Once again, doesn't benefit gaming at all, but does future-proof my system with a new motherboard that can support the latest hardware for the foreseeable future, at a cost.

[Shadriss]

I think you may be overthingking this a bit. The X16 PCI connection is going to be the same on any card that uses it, so whatever room you have now, you should still have afterwards. The card is bigger, of course, but it's bigger in the lenght or height venue. Just my two cents... which you heard a few seconds ago, live, before I typed it so others can stay with us. :)

[GrantSP]

Necroing this for my own use!!

 

Does anyone still use a dedicated sound card anymore?

 

Years since I've built a system and back then CD-ROMs where all the rage! Most systems I've used since then have a sound card on the MB so I just figured we either got lazy with sound quality or the onboard chips were good enough.

[phazer11]

I don't. My needs are satisfied by my HDMI out of my graphics card and the onboard soundcard on my Maximus VI Hero mobo is decent. I'd probably upgrade to a discrete card if I were going to be doing Let's Plays or something but I don't see a need for one otherwise if you have bitstreaming support through your graphics card.

[GrantSP]

As I expected, thank you. I'm looking over your rig at the moment, is there anything you would change?

[phazer11]

Yeah to be honest. I would have waited six months for the Devil's Canyon CPU's this damn CPU get so hot, I literally wouldn't be able to operate it without a watercooler (though I might be able to if I delidded it and replaced the TIM, but I'll let my mom handle intel if this cpu dies due to heat). Other than that it's pretty much future proof for gaming, just needs a gpu upgrade along the line plus any replacement parts. I'm currently looking at cases and parts for my watercooling loop to help with temperatures in the room. I would like more monitors but that would require a better desk and I haven't found one so that'd probably require some fabrication.

[TechAngel85]

Most on-board sound is efficient in most cases these days.

[Nozzer66]

The only time you'd need/want a sound card these days if probably if you were doing pro sort of video and or sound editing. The guy I know who's in a few bands has one for his sound engineering.

[Spock]

I'm currently looking at cases and parts for my watercooling loop to help with temperatures in the room.

That would be the miracle cooler ;)

The heat always has to go somewhere. Unless you build the radiator into the wall (a friend of mine is actually planning to do this), the heat will stay in the room. You could get air condition for the room though.

 

Since you seem to be ok with spending a lot of money on parts, I would also suggest an intel 750 ssd (pcie 3.0 version). That thing is a beast.

[phazer11]

Well aren't you prickly and assumptive. The room (as well as the entire house) IS already air conditioned. I was in fact planning on piping the water outside to an exterior mounted radiator setup (in a similar manner to Linus Tech Tips but on a much smaller scale and with insulated pipes) because 34C in an air conditioned room is unacceptable. However, I think I'll have to content myself with the case and radiator upgrade to help achieve a better OC and quieter (and add my gpu to the loop) due to an electrical fire in one of my walls (I'm convinced it's the internet companies fault as the last time that wall was opened was when they were upgrading the line) that I fortunately caught in time and having to replace one of my AC units.

[Spock]

Well aren't you prickly and assumptive.

 

I'm not really sure what prickly means since I'm not a native speaker. But you would not be the first person to assume water cooling helps with room temperatures because it's 'cooler', your comment just looked like you do.

On a second read 'being ok with spending a lot of money on parts' is poorly worded, I meant you seem to be into high end builds. The 750 series SSDs certainly are expensive but SSD performance is still something your system experience might benefit from.

Water cooling performance is very much tied to volume throughput, a parallel setup for all the blocks (always put pumps in line) is desirable. Since most waterblocks have different resistances you would have to adjust the flow with screws, e.g. while monitoring temps on your running system.