Future build: Victor

[Chief]

are you willing to maybe try watercooling? not sure whether you would want to build it or have someone you know who has watercooling do it, but ive heard nothing but good things for when it works correctly

[Eightball]

I considered watercooling for a long time, but it seems that for the level of overclocking that I plan to do (<1000Mhz), it won't really be worth it. There is also, of course, that slight risk of leakage, and also most of the all-in-one systems seem to have potential for coolant evaporation over time. It probably wouldn't be disastrous, but I probably shouldn't go for watercooling for the same reasons that I was talked out of the V6 GT.

Having reviewed this video, I'll be picking up an EVO.

EDIT: Oh, also will probably grab this, as it's on sale and cheaper than any other Blu-ray drive I've seen.
EDIT2: The case and CPU fan have been ordered. The way I'm going, this build may happen in December.
EDIT3: Oh fuck. I missed an Amazon lightning sale; they were selling i5-3570k for $190...

[Versus]

just do it now nerd

[Eightball]

Made some updates, tweaked my budget. I should be able to build for <$1000 if I can get Windows from someone...

[Eightball]

Paid a visit to a Micro center today, picked up an i5-3570k for $170+tax! Saved like $35 over the Newegg price! However, I stupidly bought a Caviar Black 1TB for $100+tax, and overpaid by like $22 over the Amazon price. Also got some fans, including one to replace the stock 120mm which is apparently godawful.

Oh yeah, and everything except the SSDs I ordered has arrived. I just need to buy memory (<$100), a video card (~$200), and maybe an optical drive (<$50) and this computer will be ready to build! For less than $1k, too.

[Versus]

lol @ buying a hdd smaller than 3TB

[HeK]

Why would anyone need any more then 200-300gb in their PC?

Zoom zoom.

In related news for Eightball: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/11/c...0-pc-case/

[at0m]

Why would anyone need any more then 200-300gb in their PC?

because not everyone has a working fileserver

[Chief]

looking forward to final product and stuff as i will probably base my new computer off of this because i trust your great mind eightball

[Eightball]

I cheap'd out and only bought 8GB of RAM using a discount coupon I got from ordering my PSU. Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600, but it's at cas latency 8!! Okay, 8-8-8-24 timings, vs the 9-9-9-24 timings of the bread and butter sticks. Might not be so bad though, there is apparently a known clearance issue with the 212 EVO and this RAM's tall-ass heatsink when placed into the closer slot. If there's not, maybe I can just re-order some more. I guess.

Paid $47, now I just need a video card (and maybe a verdict on Win7 vs Win8).

EDIT: Wow, that $88 Caviar Black on Amazon deal is already gone, now it's $98. Deals on computer parts are really ephemeral, at least this time of year...

[HeK]

1600 @ cas 8 is a 10 ns delay, that's about the same as 1866 @ cas 10 or 2133 @ cas 11.

[Eightball]

Hmm, maybe that 1866 kit at cas 9 would have been better then. Oh well, shut won't arrive for a week or two then.

Sent from my Android using Tapatalk

[Eightball]

Been browsing mechanical keyboards. I'm pretty sure I want Black keyswitches (tried Blue, found it way too light). But finding a good keyboard with black keyswitches that was sub-$100 was getting challenging (especially if I wanted any extra features above the bare minimum). I was really eyeballing the CM Storm Trigger, since it comes in Red, Blue, Brown, and Black MX. Was going to buy it on Amazon for $100, but then I found it on (of all places) the manufacturer website for $70! Okay, shipping costed $10, but I still managed to save $40 from the retail price of $120. Bam!

Also still agonizing over operating system. I already bummed Win7 Pro from HeK, which is going towards a clean install on my current PC (as my girlfriend will inherit it). Now I am looking at buying a copy for myself. It's either going to be Win7 HP or Win8...reviews say they're about equal for gaming. I need to look at what new features Win8 offers and if they'll be useful.

[Eightball]

Woo, triple post! Two updates, and one major dilemma: I purchased a Logitech M500 for Deb, meaning that the peripheral side of her soon-to-be computer is done. Immediately after completing Victor, I will backup my files, physically clean/reorganize the interior of Tango, and reinstall Windows 7. Which brings us to the other update and dilemma.

I'm going Win7, since I found my current product key (Win7 Ultimate). But I'm not sure if I can re-use it. Here's the full situation: I will be using Win7 Pro (provided by HeK, thanks again) on Victor. So that's that. For Tango, I am running Windows 7 Ultimate. I don't think I ever purchased a full version of Win7! When I first built, I used the release candidate, which was free and more or less fully featured. That is, until 7 was released and I was prompted to buy a legit copy. I used my school's discount system (woo 15% off!!) to purchase a Win7 Ultimate upgrade. Now, I was not supposed to be able to go from the RC to full Win7 using an upgrade, but I was able to fix that by...changing a certain value on the upgrade disc.

So, I sit with a product key and am uncertain what I can do with it. Does it matter that I didn't have a full copy of Windows before this one? Can I use the key from my upgrade when reinstalling? Is there actually a difference between a license key paired with a full version vs an upgrade?

I figure worst case scenario: I try to use the key, windows 7 says no, then I have 30 days to buy or otherwise acquire a proper license key. Thoughts?



____

Oh, and Scar's build is now complete, he finished it up last night:
i5-3570k
Cooler Master HyperN something or other fan/heatsink
ASRock Z77 Extreme4
8GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1600
128GB OCZ Vertex4
1TB WD Caviar Black
Gigabyte 7870 (??? I don't know Ati cards)
Generic DVD-burner
OCZ 750W Fatal1ty Modular PSU
CM Storm Scout

(bold indicates that parts that my build has in common)
EDIT: It's worth noting that that fucker boots fast. So fast that the "Starting Windows" animation gets cut off.

[at0m]

To use the Win7 upgrade, install XP/Vista with any (or no) key, then install over it with Win7. Upgrade key should then validate and work.

If you install Win7 without something else first, the upgrade key will fail to validate after the install is complete and you'll be forced to reformat to get it to work.

There may be a faster way, but that's the way I've had to do it on my rig.

[K2]

If you're just reformatting a drive that has Windows 7 already installed, I doubt you'll run into a problem. If you do, then try at0m's solution, which I have also heard works.

[HeK]

Or just do this: http://winsupersite.com/article/windows-...dia-128512

[Eightball]

Mm, okay. I'll try just installing off the disc initially. It sounds like Microsoft is pretty good about getting you a new activation code if that doesn't work. If that doesn't work, regedit, and if that doesn't work, the double-install. That'll be sometime around New Year's.

Now, I need a PC stand (seriously).

[Chief]

Now, I need a PC stand (seriously).

come up to winnipeg, we have an ikea now

[at0m]

Or just do this: http://winsupersite.com/article/windows-...dia-128512

Several of the methods he describes are basically what I just said. But knowing the registry hack is nice,

[quote author=Eightball link=topic=6589.msg257956#msg257956 date=1354738122]
Now, I need a PC stand (seriously).

come up to winnipeg, we have an ikea now
[/quote]they have at least one in Chicago too yanno