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Thoughts on my SFF Build

R

rogsmitty

n00b
Joined
Mar 16, 2013
Messages
3
Hey guys. I'm having a bit trouble deciding on a couple things for my SFF build which you can take a look at here:

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Rogsmitty/saved/1ruo

I've already purchased pretty much all of the components with the exception of the mobo, ram, cpu, and vid card. As far as background info for you, I'm intending on using this as a living room pc hooked up to an old Pioneer Kuro plasma (1080p). It will primarily be used as a gaming pc and possibly some HTPC stuff (haven't done a lot of research on that one yet). I'll be trying to max perform this build and overclock as much as possible, but will be limited because the airflow around the box itself probably won't be that great. The front will be wide open, but the back end will be somewhat close to a wall that is about 1.5 feet away. Trying to keep the build as quiet as I can too since it will be in the living room. Finally, I'm currently on a deployment right now with a return date around the beginning of June. I plan on finishing up the build at that time, but I've been keeping my eye out on the parts just in case a great deal comes along.

The main questions I have are as follows:
1) How much will the release of Haswell have on the price of my system? If I wait another month or so past June, will it be worth it? And by worth it, I mean will it save me a $100 or more? I'm not planning on switching the build over to Haswell, because from what I've read it doesn't sound like CPU performance will increase by a large margin. Also, Z87 does not appear to have any crazy new "must have" features (or am I missing something here?). Besides, most games aren't CPU bound at all right now at 1080p, so Ivy Bridge should give me at least a few years, right?

2) Having a really really difficult time on the video card. I specifically chose the Asus 7950 due to its monster cooler with the hopes of overclocking the crap out of it. I don't want this to turn into an AMD vs Nvidia thread at all, but the consensus seems to be that the 7950 will have more headroom and overall performance than a 660ti. I've also considered 2x 650ti Boosts in SLI, but can't find much performance data on that. Any suggestions? Trying to keep the vid card(s) as close to $300 as possible.

3) Just looking for random critiques on the build itself. Already bought the H80i, but people seem to be split on that one. I've heard the firmware update fixes most of the issues people were having, but should I go ahead a buy a couple better fans and toss the ones that came with it? Maybe use the Gene V's on board fan headers instead of the Corsair software? How about noise from this beast? Will it be louder than the old xbox 360s? (Please say no)

Anyways, I appreciate you guys taking the time to read the post and look forward to reading your replies. Let me know if you need any additional info.

Thanks!
 
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1) Release of Haswell will not suddenly drop prices of current chips nor motherboards. Gaming performance increase is probably not a reason to wait. New things on Haswell chip are better iGPU, but you are using a discrete card. A more underestimated improvement is that the number of floating point pipelines has doubled, but unless you are using some rendering software, or folding@home then you won't notice this.

2) 660ti v 7950: http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...e-GTX-660-Ti-and-Radeon-HD-7950/Battlefield-3
650ti boost is apparently a great card for the money, but given the recent revelations about how poorly SLI performs (and Xfire doesn't perform at all) then you'd likely be better off with a single card. But I haven't seen any tests of this either.

3) If you've already bought it, first test on your system, and then decide if you need other fans.
 
I always prefer to go one higher performance card than two lower performance cards in SLI/Crossfire. Sure, sometimes you can benchmark higher for a lower cost with the two cards, but you will need more power, a more expensive motherboard in some instances and often the cards run hotter (especially top card) and thus noisier.

Loud fans are due to three things.
1) High RPM. This leads to vibrational noise and sometimes the "whine" you hear.
2) High CFM (often from high RPM). This leads to the "whoosh" you hear.
3) Rough bearings. This leads to the grinding noise you hear.

1 and 2 can be fixed by lowering the RPM. No need to buy a lower RPM fan. 3 can be fixed with a replacement fan as it is usually caused by damage (sometimes dropping a fan) or more commonly by age and dust contamination.
 
Thanks guys for the replies. It has been several years since I've built a pc (was distracted by the mac craze and gaming interest took a plunge for me), but ready to jump back on the horse again. I am still amazed at how much power a $1k build can get you, and, if you go a bit further with some quality components, you can build a machine with quite a bit of staying power.

I've also been quite taken aback by the shenanigans going on in the sli/xfire world. Never had a build utilizing that myself, but always assumed it would be an option once the single card setup started to get long in the tooth. Oh well, 7950 it is then. Thanks for the input, @WiSK and @Zap.

Anyone know why that Asus 7950 card is kind of hard to find right now? It's not even listed at the egg.
 
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