Built a new PC and jumped into Ryzen ship

It's been a very long time since I've posted something, so here goes.

In December 2018, I built a new PC because I just wanted to. The old one wasn't terribly slow or anything. Just wanted to have some fun.

This time I went with an AMD CPU. Last time I had an AMD chip was in 2006.

Not all parts were brand new though. The video card and the display were bought from Overclockers Australia trade forums second hand.

Specs

New parts

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700 3.2 GHz
• CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S
• Motherboard: MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC
• Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CMK16GX4M2Z3200C16
• Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB SSD
• Case: Fractal Design Meshify C
• Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 850 W

Second-hand parts

• Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 GAMING X 8G
• Monitor: Asus PG279Q ROG Swift 27.0" 2560x1440 165 Hz (I've added a second monitor since then)
• Case Fans: Fractal Design X2 GP-12 (x2)

Old parts

• Keyboard: Corsair K70 LUX
• Mouse: Logitech G602 Wireless (I've upgraded it since then along with the mousepad)
• Headphones: Audio-Technica ATH-AD500X
• Storage: Western Digital Green 4TB  x2

I have never won the silicon lottery and it's same this time too. The CPU barely goes past 4GHz without ludicrous volts. The GPU core also doesn't overclock that much. So are the memory. Not the happiest camper, but love the change.

Upgrade plans for my desktop PC

The Small Form Factor PC that I built last year is quite fast for almost all the things I do with it. But I love upgrading my PC just to experience what the latest and the greatest hardware has to offer. Sadly, things do not usually live up to my expectations, but that is a different story.

This story is about the potential upgrade path this particular PC offers.

Sadly, my options aren't vivid. The PC is built in such a way that a tangible increase in performance requires a substantial amount of spending, which sometimes defies the reasoning behind "building" a desktop PC.

Let me explain.

Video card

Let's look at the video card first, because as you probably know, I am a gamer. The video card is the most important component in a gaming PC. But, I am not the typical gamer you would find elsewhere, but that is for another discussion.

Right now, I have an overclocked MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G in my PC. To see a tangible increase in performance, I have to at least get a GTX 1070 and overclock it, which would give me 50% performance gains over my current card. But it would cost me close to $700 if I want to buy locally. $100 or so cheaper if I buy it from outside Australia, but it will make claiming for warranty painful. The GTX 1080 would give me twice the performance but it would cost me a whopping $1000 if bought locally! I am not going to spend that sort of money on a single piece of computer hardware, probably ever! But the GTX 1080 can be bought for less than $900 if I look to import it from outside.

Bad Skype video quality from my PC but not from the phone?

AI live in Australia, so I have to keep touch with family back in Sri Lanka via Skype. Ever since moving here, I had been getting complaints about the video they receive being terrible.

The obvious culprit is the internet connection at my current apartment. It is using ADSL2+ and practically I get a bandwidth of about 16Mbps down and 1Mbps up. While it is substantially slower what I got in Japan, it is still similar to the speeds your get on the family package back in Sri Lanka.

But the video I get from the other side is clear!

My precious is alive!

On 16th of April, my family finally arrived in Australia. With them came the display of my desktop PC, namely the Qnix QX2710.

In the previous posts I mentioned how I got ready to welcome the monitor. The PC was placed on the desk, the speakers were placed so that they would stand up from the two sides of the monitor had it been there. The mouse and the wireless receiver plugged into the extender cable was peeking through the small gap between the right speaker and the PC. All the cables on the IKEA Signum cable management tray were laid properly and only the Dual DVI-D cable was visible, which needs to be plugged into the display. My family was supposed to bring an old PS/2 keyboard that was collecting dust, with them. If they did not have this with them, I would have bought a mechanical keyboard as well. That day can wait now.

Sadly, I had to wait till the end of the day to unpack the display. But luckily, it was still in one piece when I opened the package.

I hooked up everything and turned on the PC. The fans started spinning, but no display! The display was behaving as if it did not receive any signal. The fans on the GPU was spinning initially, but they halted. It was probably because the fans do not spin when the temperature is below 60C. The Gentle Typhoon AP29 fan that I had on the Kuhler 620 radiator was spinning at full speed.

I reset the power to the PC, but still nothing. It was demonstrating exactly the same behavior. Yikes!

Reset the BIOS it is then. Unfortunately, there was no BIOS reset button on the rear I/O panel on the Z97i Plus board so I had to open up the PC and shorten two pins. I did that with a screw driver but it still was not working.

Probably the pins did not get shorted properly. My father suggested that I take the battery out. I did, waited few seconds and put it back. That did not fix the issue either.

This is bad!

Then I decided to do things I could. Take out the RAM modules and try with just one stick. That brought the PC to life! Phew! I quickly entered BIOS…um…UEFI and loaded default settings. Then I shut the PC down and installed the other RAM. It booted find and I went back to BIOS and set my overclock back to where it was supposed to be. I am not 100% sure if I got them exactly the way they were before though. Time will tell. Perhaps I need to do a stress test some time later.

The PC POSTed fine even with the overclocked settings. Yay!

Now I can forget about the crappy MacBook Air. Or can I? Perhaps not, as I take it to my work place to do research on stuff as we do not have permission to connect the work PCs to the internet.

Yes, I did carry my PC inside checked baggage

We left Japan on the 21st of December, with no plan to return. That's not important. What's important is that I managed to bring the PC inside checked baggage without much trouble. 

The PC easily fit inside wife's suitcase because it is fat, and the display fit inside my suitcase because it is wider. Too bad I forgot to take a photograph of them packed inside the suitcases. I used the original foam covers to protect them. It was the display that required more of the protection. The case would not break due to pressure because it is stronger and the shape is sturdy. The display is too thin and even the pressure from clothes can shatter the screen. Thankfully, my suitcase is very rigid and would not deform due to pressure from external pressure.

I had to buy another suitcase because the two suitcases didn't provide room for the clothes that wife had collected over the last 4 years. Even then, we had to use vacuum bags to make them use up less space as possible. Unfortunately we couldn't bring any chocolates or sweets from Japan. I could have shipped them using a wooden crate but they are expensive. JPY 66,000 per 2 cubic meters. I didn't have much other useful stuff to ship to Sri Lanka anyways. The mains power mismatch is responsible for it mostly though. Otherwise I could have brought down the refrigerator and the washing machine, which were in very good condition. 

Anyways, back to the original topic. The PC survived the trip with no harm. As you can see in the photo on the top, they are safely back at my house. Sadly, there isn't much space for two PCs - mine and the parents'. But it is OK, because the main unit at least, won't stay here for too long. It will be going on another long voyage soon. Hopefully I will have enough baggage space. I would have to think about what I am going to do with the display. I can take it with me, or I can sell it in SL. But people don't want to pay much for second hand products, especially the ones that do not come with warranty. There is a few more weeks to think about it. Today is not the day to think about it.

Do you think that I have upgraded my PC too often in the last 5 years?

I had an idea in the morning. I wanted to know all the PC parts that I have bought during the 5 and a half years I have lived in Japan. I think I have spent a lot of money on the PC!!!

But hey, it is my hobby and just because one might feel that it is a total waste of money, it is called life. And I have sold everything that I do not use, albeit at a much lower price than I bought. I think I probably have wasted like JPY 200,000 if you calculate the deficit between the total amount I have spent on buying these items and the total amount I have sold them for.

There are two ways you can go about buying a PC. Either spend a fortune and get something that might last 3 or 4 years without any trouble. Or buy something spending half that price and keep upgrading the components every year and selling the old components. If you keep the total cost the same, you would definitely have a much faster, efficient and capable system in 4 years than the high-end system you would otherwise have built 4 years ago. I follow the second path.

Anyways, here is the list I came up with.

CPU

1. Intel Core i5 750
2. Intel Core i7 2600K
3. Intel Core i7 4770K
4. Intel Core i7 4790K x3 (Yes, I bought three of them and settled with one)

Motherboard

1. Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3
2. ASRock Z68 Extreme 4
3. Asus Maximus VII Hero
4. Asus Maximus VII Gene
5. Asus Z97i Plus - current

Finally did the PSU upgrade: Silverstone SX500-LG

 

I was delaying purchasing of the new PSU  until I could find it at a reasonable price and until I piled up enough Rakuten points. By 15th of this month, I had a total of 3700 points and sadly about 1500 points were to become expired at the end of the month. So I had to buy something else with that points or buy the PSU now.

 

I was going to buy either the Silverstone SX500-LG or the Sharkoon SilentStorm SFX Gold 500W model. I was leaning towards the latter because it was

• cheaper (much cheaper on Rakuten, like JPY2,500 compared to the Silverstone),
• had more connectors on the SATA power cable (4 vs. 3) and
• had a fan that was always running (compared to semi-silent one on the Silverstone).

But the Silverstone one

• had all Japanese caps,
• had shorter power cables and
• was from a well-known manufacturer (not OEM, mind you) in the field of PSUs.

 

But I decided to wait a bit longer to see if the Silverstone unit would drop in price. I could wait till the end of the month anyways. One day I noticed that there was a new listing for less than JPY14,000 on Rakuten, by a shop called EC-JOY!. Still it was almost a thousand bucks pricier than the Sharkoon unit, but I would trade that amount for peace of mind. (I’ve been burned several times for cheeping out on stuff.) So I decided to go for the Silverstone. I have seen EC-JPY!’s listings on Kakaku.com but I had never bought anything from them.

 

It was mentioned that the delivery charges weren't included in the price but it turned out to be free after all. I ordered it on Thursday the 17th and it arrived on Saturday the 19th. It could have taken longer because of the holidays. (This is the Silver Week in Japan.) It was no one day delivery like Amazon Prime, but I’ve purchases from Rakuten take more than a week.

 

I want to shrink my PC even further!

In a previous post I expressed my dissatisfaction towards the weight of my so-called Small Form Factor gaming PC. At 12.5kg, it is quite heavy for its size. Should I do something about it? Is it even possible?

I was pleased to see Linus do a super high-end build in the Silverstone SG13 case, which is half the size of my SG09 case at only 11.5 litres. I checked price of the case and it is quite cheap at only JPY 6,500. But it requires me to change a lot of components inside the case.

The following list comprises of the necessary changes to the components, listed from the most expensive to cheapest.

1. Graphics card: the Gigabyte GTX 970 Gaming G1 card I currently have in my PC is quite long. It would not fit in this tiny case. Linus had a hard time installing the Titan X GPU inside the case, which is same as the maximum length of the graphics card allowed. My current card extends another 1.7 inches. The price of the GTX 970 hasn't dropped much since I bought my card, but I doubt anyone would want to spend close the current retail price when they are not getting any warranty. I am looking to buy either a second hand GTX 980 with reference cooler or a shorter PCB version of the GTX 970 such as this one or this one. If I go down the 2nd
route, I would be seeing a reduction in performance as it would definitely not overclock as high as my Gigabyte card would, however overclocking doesn't make a huge difference to the gaming experience: just benchmarks.

Was switching to a SFF gaming PC worth it?

 

 

Several months ago, I shrunk down my desktop PC from a case with with 69 litre volume to a measly 23 litre one. The main reason for doing that was to move the PC off the carpet and on to the desk, so that my kid doesn't get access to all the wires dangling from the back of the case. (No, I won't get an iMac instead.) It'll be a couple years before he'll be able to access them with the current arrangement, so it'll do just fine until I leave Japan for good. Just be clear that this was not something I wanted to do, rather a necessity.

 

Would I have shrunken the PC if it wasn't for this particular reason?

 

Probably.

 

There is another reason for making the PC smaller, but I'm not sure about the timing. I intend to ship the PC back to my country when I leave Japan, thus the volume would be a primary concern. Of course, I would be shipping the PC (that's my precious) and if I had the Raven RV03 with me, that would have used up too much space, which could otherwise be used for other stuff.

 

But still, pure usage wise, has shrinking the PC caused any hindrance?

 

There are few issues that were definitely caused by the lack of space inside the small case. Having space for only two hard drives,  ironically, isn't one of them. To be frank, having just two hard drives makes organizing data easier for me. One for the data and the other one for the backup of the first drive. In addition to those two 3.5 inch hard drives, 6 SSDs can be installed as well. With the prices of SSDs dropping, the case seems to be suited for the future.

 

The two biggest issues I'm facing are the inability to install a large CPU cooler and the uncertainty of the upcoming R9 390x WCE's radiator fitting the rear 120mm fan bracket.

 

[Rant] My “realistic” dream PC

I’m sure everyone of you knows by now what my favourite form factor is, right? Mini-ITX. (If you didn’t know, you should follow my blog! Seriously!) Even though it seems that I can use my Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme cooler in the Fractal Design Node 304 mini-ITX case, I might have to buy a new PSU because my current PSU is non-modular and I definitely will have to buy a new RAM kit because I currently have 16GB in 4 sticks. So I cannot say for sure how long this transition to mini-ITX will take, but I really want to build one.

But if I was starting from the scratch, I know what I would be building. Want to know what it is?

Here goes.

Chassis: Fractal Design Node 304

The other contender is Corsair Obsidian 250D. I would have chosen that but it about 50% more taller than the Node 304.

Motherboard: Asus ROG Maximus VI Impact

This is the best mini-ITX board out there, for one particular reason. Audio! Asus says the audio on it is as good as Xonar DG level, which is pretty sweet for integrated audio. But at the same time, it lacks one important feature some of the other boards carry. A dual-link DVI port. Why would I want it? Because the display I use – the Qnix QX2710 – only supports dual DVI inputs. Yes, of course I would be connecting it to the video card, but I would like the board to have a dual DVI port just as a backup. But you know what? Even my current ATX board, Maximus VI Hero doesn’t have a dual DVI port either. So, maybe I shouldn’t worry about it too much.

[Rant] Had to clean up the internals of the PC

A few weeks ago I posted that ASUS's fan controlling software - Fan Xpert II on Asus Maximus VI Hero - could be causing dust to pile up inside the case. I didn't see how bad the situation was, until last Friday. I got the USB 3.0 cable for the motherboard/case combo that I ordered from eBay and I wanted to install it. Since I had to route the cables behind the motherboard tray, I had to take the case out and open it up completely to do it. Only then I got a clear understanding of the amount of dust that was trapped inside. There was a looooot of dust. The source of the dust is unclear to me. We vacuum the carpet everyday and everyday there is dust! It feels as if the carpet or the wooden floor underneath is slowly dematerializing!

Anyways, I didn't want to do a proper, time consuming clean up job. Few year ago I would have done that without hesitation but not anymore. It's not that I don't have enough time. I just don't feel like doing it. 

But I knew I had to do some kind of cleaning. I started with the vacuum cleaner. It sucked up a decent amount of dust. Then with the use of a moist cloth, I could get rid of most of the dust that didn't require me to take the whole PC apart to get to. 

There's more. All this time I didn't have an optical drive nor the front hard drive bays installed in the case. It seems that when you have the optical drive installed, some of the unwanted holes get blocked and the drive bays help channel air from the outside of the case to the inside. So I installed them as well. They sure added some weight to the case. In fact, I cannot believe how heavy my PC weighs now! It must be weighing like 20kg. Or maybe the sheer size of if makes me feel that it is that heavy. Really wish I could make a mini-ITX rig. 

I didn't take photos of the cleanup system. It isn't 100% dust free anyways as I didn't take every part out when cleaning.

[Guide] Building a high-end mini-ITX gaming rig

I wish I went for a mini-ITX rig when I built my PC. When I came to japan, there weren't good mini-ITX cases or motherboards available. But now there are.

I have a recommendation. Would you like to see?

 

Main system:

• CPU: Intel Core i7 4770k “Haswell”
• Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Impact
• The only mini-ITX that I can recommend. Comes with an amazing audio solution. You need one, because you cannot install a sound card in a mini-ITX motherboard as there is only one PCI-E slot in there and we need that for the video card.
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro 2400MHz CL11 8GB x2 kit
• Nothing special. Just fast RAM.
• Video card: NVidia GeForce GTX780 Ti reference
• Went with the reference card because it would put the hot air out of the case. The case isn’t large enough to house a GPU that puts hot air into the case. And no, AMD cards put out too much heat for this little baby.
• SSD: 500GB Samsung 840 EVO x2
• Can go for the 1TB drive, but we’ll RAID-0 couple of them just for bragging rights.
• HDD: None.
• Use a NAS to store data
• PSU: Corsair HX650 Gold
• Nothing special. Just a quality PSU that is enough to power the CPU and GPU when both are well overclocked. Could have gone with a small PSU, but a larger PSU would run quieter and put out less heat. But get a PSU with modular cables for the love of god!
• CPU cooler: Corsair H100i
• I wish we could install a 280mm rad in there, but you cannot. So we’ll stick to the H100i.
• Case fans: Corsair SP120 series fans
• We need fans with high static pressure because the stuff inside would be tight and there would be more restrictions that a spacious case.

Peripherals:

• Display: Qnix QX2710 27" 1440p PLS display
• Best display you can get for the money I guess.
• Keyboard: Logitech G710+ mechanical gaming keyboard
• Mouse: Logitech G602 wireless gaming mouse
• Speakers: Logitech Z623 2.1 speakers
• I have this and I like it
• Headset: Audiotechnica ATH-AD500X audiophile headphones
• I have this and I like it
• Webcam: Logitech C920

 

 

[Rant] Buying PC parts in Japan

If you are thinking of buying a PC in Japan, the first place that comes to your head is Akihabara. That's where I bought my first PC from. But that was a mistake. Why? Because you can buy one for much cheaper if you buy online.

Why is it cheaper?

Two simple reasons.

Firstly, you can find the cheapest prices for the items that you want to buy via websites like Kakaku. One items could be cheaper at one shop but another item could more expensive at the same shop than another shop. You cannot go to every shop and not down all the prices. However, there are shops that are not registered in Kakaku.

[Rant] How do you guys manage the cable clutter behind your PC?

One of the advantages of buying an Apple iMac or any other all-in-one desktop is that you don't get the cable clutter behind your PC which you would otherwise get with a typical desktop PC. In my PC, I have like dozen cables behind the desk. Some desks have a board at the back that would hide most of that clutter, but mine doesn't. You. Can see all those cables and it looks ugly. 

Couple of days ago, I moved the computer desk to a slightly different place. While the new place allows me to show off the internals of the PC unlike before, the cable clutter also became more visible. So I had to do something about it.

I bundled cables that went to the same direction together. Some I routed along the edge of the floor and wall. The display power cable and the main speaker cable were routed along a leg of a desk and taped. The main bundle consisting if the HDMI cable, keyboard cable and the webcam cable were routed right in the middie and that's what's visible mainly. However, there is still the two iPhone cables, headphone cable and the LeapMotion cable which I haven't been able to take care of. The headphone cable is so darn long. Maybe I should completely remove the headset and keep it elsewhere when in not using it. 

Before

After

(The iPhone 5S camera didn't seem to do a good job there! Too lazy to pull up the Canon S95.)

Perhaps I should get a USB hub and connect all those USB cables to it? Maybe I should get a dock? Maybe I should get a Roccat Apuri which is a USB hub + mouse cable holder (to reduce the drag with the desk or mouse pad or whatever the cable comes in contact with, when you are playing games.

Or perhaps this is good enough. It is night and day better than what it was like before. 

[Unboxing] Got my Leap Motion controller and it’s time to unbox it

When I came home from work today, I was greeted with a package. At first I didn’t recognize what it was. In a few seconds, I figured out it was the Leap Motion controller. I thought they only dispatched it on 23rd and it would take a few days to receive it. I had preordered it (a year ago in fact) and they seems to have shipped it to us first.

I will review it in a few days after using it. The first impressions aren’t that great actually, and the reviewers also seems to agree with that, mostly because I didn’t really know what to use it for. I love my trusty keyboard and mouse. It needs a better control panel.

But for now, you will have to be satisfied with an unboxing photo-shoot.

		Leap Motion Controller -Unboxing VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

That last pic shows how I am currently using it. Keeping it between the monitor and keyboard makes it not that effective because of the distance. I would have to lean forward to operate it if I keep it there. That is a very uncomfortable experience. Ideally, I believe this should be integrated to keyboards. Perhaps that area where the Logitech logo is placed on the keyboard. (refer last pic) That would not only make it out of the way, but also lessen the cable clutter. After all, it is another USB port wasted and a new cable added to the grand haul of half a down cable on the desk.

Upgrade SandyBridge to IvyBridge-E this September?

Haswell for desktops was a flop. Now it is time to leave that sad incident behind and move on. Moving on means, looking forward to the next launch. The next launch from Intel is IvyBridge-E. IvyBridge-E CPUs are coming out this summer - September to be precise. That's only couple of months away from now. Fun times!

 

The IvyBridge-E CPUs

 

There are 3 models announced. The Core i7 4820K, 4930K and 4960X. Contrary to SandyBridge-E, all the CPUs are fully unlocked this time around. If you remember, Core i7 3820 was only partially unlocked.

The following is a detailed list of specifications of the upcoming IB-E CPUs. (image courtesy of Xbitlabs article)

 

 

Some more facts

The heat spreader is soldered to the die:

IB-E CPUs will have the die soldered to the heat-spreader. (Well, they have only confirmed it for the 4960X) IB didn't. IB simply had a thermal paste interface between the die and the heat-spreader. This caused IB to become hotter than SB when overclocked. Hence IB-E will have more thermal headroom for overclocking, which means it would be possible to overclock it higher than IB. Having a larger die (i.e. more surface area to dissipate heat) and having no iGPU would also help.

No x89 chipset:

It looks like there is no X89 core-logic coming out with IB-E. Intel's chipset roadmaps show X99 after X79 and X99 is for Haswell-E. The issue with X79 is that it lacks a lot of newer tech, such as native USB3.0 and more than two SATA-III ports. And a die Shrink would have improved thermals as well. This is good news for people who are running a Core i7 3820 because they can upgrade to a 4930K and enjoy a massive performance increase without spending a lot of money. You'll only need a bios upgrade at worst case. People running 3930K's or 3960X's won't see much of an improvement though.

 

So, upgrading to IB-E would be worth it?

 

The question remains. Is IvyBridge-E going to be a worthwhile upgrade from SandyBridge? You can receive a 50% increase in core count, unless you are stupid enough to get the 4820K. And there is 10% or so IPC boost. That would translate to about 60% more performance boost.

You will lose QuickSync support, which is not a big deal because Handbrake doesn't support QuickSync yet.

There will definitely be newer motherboards but sadly with the same old X79 chipset. I prefer having the controllers integrated with the chipset. I always disable the 3rd party controllers because they are not fast enough and I don't need that many ports in the first place.

But for most people, other than for bragging rights, this won't be a necessary upgrade. Games wouldn't benefit much for having two extra cores. But it would, if you are using quad GPUs, because the x79 platform provides 40 PCI-E lanes from the chipset (but this would be CPU in the case of IB-E), which allows you to use Quad GPU setups with hardly any performance drop or lag. Generally speaking, only the video editors will benefit from the added horsepower.

I guess I will wait and see how badly these Japanese shops will price the new CPUs. If I've learned something from the history, the pricing would be really bad. A 3930K costs ¥58,000 these days. That's about $580. Even if Intel releases 4930K at the same price, these bastards would sell them for like ¥70,000. Spending that much money only on the CPU is not going to happen in my book. When you think of it, I'd probably be stuck with my 2600K for eternity. The ugly truth!

Wait! I will have to renew my Internet connection in January. That means, I will get like ¥40,000 or so discount on select items when purchased with the internet connection. I hope the 4930K will be in that group of select items. :)

Building a Corsair powered PC (Why isn't Corsair making Corsair branded PCs?)

Remember when Corsair was a company that was just selling RAM for PCs? In the last 3-4 years, they have really upped their game and now they are selling almost all the computer peripherals you would need to build your entire PC. The only things that they are not making yet are the CPU (not a chance), motherboard, HDD, video card (these three probably would not be made by them) and display (might happen someday!). They make everything else. It won't be too far from the day that they will make Corsair branded PCs, like Dell and HP.

But let's beat them to it, shall we? We'll make a very high-end PC with all the Corsair components, less the CPU, motherboard, HDD, video card and display. Sure, those 5 components comprise of pretty much 75% of the cost of the entire PC. But it's not Corsair's fault. 

Here's the Corsair item list.

Case: Carbide Air 540
This case comes with a unique design and is fully optimized for cooling your toasty components.

CPU cooler: H110 close loop liquid cooler
This is the only closed loop water cooler that doesn't compromise noise for cooling performance.

SSD: Neutron GTX 240GB or 480GB

The only SSD that comes with the enterprise grade LAMD 'Amber' LM87800 controller aimed at the regular consumer.

RAM: Vengeance Pro DDR3-2400 CL10 16GB
The new Vengeance Pro RAM gives high performance without sacrificing looks. Comes with many colors to match your own color scheme.

PSU: AX760i digital 80Plus Platinum PSU
The least expensive all digital power supply unit from Corsair. We are going with the least expensive one because we don't need a lot of power. If you intend to use multiple GPUs in your rig, go for 860i or even 1200i. For a single GPU, even a 760i it more than enough.

Keyboard: Vengeance K95 mechanical gaming keyboard

Corsair's highest-end mechanical keyboard. Shame that it doesn't come with an LCD like the G19.

Mouse: Vengeance M95 laser gaming mouse
Corsair's highest-end laser mouse that comes with lots of buttons.

Headset: Vengeance 2000 Dolby 7.1 surround wireless headset
Wireless headsets is the way to go when you are buying one for gaming. With 7.1 "virtual" surround, you can easily pinpoint where you enemy is coming from.

Speakers: SP2500 high power 2.1 gaming speakers

Corsair made two speakers for gamers. The SP2200, which was a failure, and the SP2500 which was not. SP2500 is up there amongst the best 2.1 PC speakers out there.

Case fans: fill every hole with a AF120/140 quiet edition fan
Corsair AF series fans are also amongst the best case fans out there.

The rest of the components are for you to decide really. But since these are all high-end components from Corsair, you should match them with high-end components as well. I'll recommend some for you. (I'm keeping the number of different brands to a minimum, hence I chose Asus because they make displays as well. Nothing against Gigabyte, MSI and the rest.)

Haswell Build
CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Hero
GPU: Asus GTX780 Direct CUII
Display: Asus PB278Q 1440P display
HDD: Seagate ST3000DM001 (x2)

SandyBridge-E Build
CPU: Intel Core i7 3930K
Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Formula
GPU: Asus GTX780 Direct CUII
Display: Asus PB278Q 1440P display
HDD: Seagate ST3000DM001 (x2)

I don't understand why Corsair doesn't make Corsair branded PCs yet. Maybe they don't see too many margins in that business?

Choosing a proper graphics card for your gaming PC

The most critical part of a gaming PC is the graphics card. Graphics card prices range up to $1000 but that does not mean you have to save $1000 to get a good gaming experience. As with everything, at the lower scale of the spectrum, you are getting very bad performance (only slightly better than integrated solutions from Intel and AMD) and at the higher scale of the spectrum, you are getting diminishing returns. Midrange is where the sweet spot lies for most people. I said "for most people" because it is not always the truth. Sometimes you have to bend the rules and go for the absolute highest end cards.

 

AMD vs. NVidia - which one is better?

This is a sensitive matter. You cannot go wrong with either brand. Here's a comparison between the two, and I suggest that you match up your requirements with those and see which one suits you best.

Advantages of going with AMD

• Gives better performance for the money you spend. (Might not be true in some parts of the world.
• You get an amazing free games bundle with the card.
• Has less performance drop when Anti-Aliasing is enabled/increased the level as well as resolution is increased.
• All next generation consoles are using AMD GPUs, and the games will probably be more optimized for AMD's GCN architecture. This is just an assumption.
• Usually overclocks a bit better than NVidia cards.
• Has much better general purpose compute performance.

 

Advantages of going with NVidia

• SLI works much, much better than Crossfire (at least as of now)
• Adaptive V-Sync support
• Ability to overclock the Pixel Refresh Rate of your display (how far your can overclock, depends on your display. I've managed to increase it from 60Hz to 69Hz on my Iiyama 27" display.)
• Has a little bit better power efficiency.
• People believe that NVidia drivers are usually more stable. But both companies put out buggy drivers every now and then.
• GeForce Experience service, which automatically sets the graphics settings in each game for the best gameplay experience. On top of that, you are getting a cool feature called Shadow Play in a few days.

To upgrade to Haswell from Sandybridge or not! That’s the question.

With Intel’s Haswell release being right around the corner, the upgrade itch is crawling back into me. I currently use a Intel Core i7 2600K CPU and ASRock Z68 Extreme4 motherboard (i.e. Sandybridge) in my PC and they are quite capable even in the demanding tasks. The CPU is overclocked to 4.5GHz, which makes it way faster than the current (3rd) generation flagship CPU in every task. Probably, it would remain the same when Haswell CPUs come out as well, because the rate of increase in performance with each new generation of CPUs has dropped to single digit percentage numbers in the last few years. If the rumors are true, Haswell won’t be any different (this, this and this). If you checked that last link, you will see that most of the performance improvements come from the GPU side. I don’t care about that because I would always be using a discreet graphics card. (But knowing that Handbrake would get QuickSync support in the future, makes things a bit more interesting.) All in all, my CPU at 4.5GHz would still own the flagship member from Haswell at stock – at least in most benchmarks.

But the question remains, why am I even considering upgrading to Haswell? That’s because Haswell itself will overclock and once overclocked, it would leave my current overclocked CPU in the dust. If the rumors are true, you might be able to hit 6GHz with proper cooling with a Haswell CPU. That would make it about 50% faster than my current CPU. No concrete information is available about the overclockability of Haswell CPUs so I cannot really make a decision until the official reviews are out. But I am hopeful. We’ll find all about it in a month.

Haswell is not only about performance. It is also about power efficiency. Haswell CPUs will be able to do more work with less power. And the idle power usage seems to have dropped by 10 times. This is not anymore a rumor, but it seems that most of the crappy CPUs won’t be able to deliver the low currents required for Haswell CPUs when at idle. We always looked at how the PSU copes with high power demands and never at how the PSU copes with low power demands. Seems that crappy PSUs cannot deliver low power “stably”. That would probably give BSODs. I checked on Intel’s website and seems like my PSU is supported after all (Corsair 75-001311 aka 850TX). So I don’t need to change the PSU. But even if I had to, I wouldn’t be to displeased about it because I get to buy a PSU with modular cables and also something more efficient that the one I have.

But, an important question remains: how important is power efficiency improvements in a desktop environment? Not so much, right, because there are so many other things that would be using up the power. The video card is the biggest culprit. Then there is RAM, hard drives, audio card and fan.

Then there is this USB issue with the early chips. With the buggy chips, when your PC goes into standby and you have a storage device plugged into USB3.0 ports, you will have to disconnect and reconnect the device to make it work after you resume from standby. It’s a nasty bug, but it is fixed in the latest chips. But the bug fixed chips won’t make it to the first motherboards. Rumor is that it would take about a month before the bug fixed versions of the motherboards hit the market. I would definitely wait for that.

When Haswell CPUs go on sale in Japan, the second hand market value of my current CPU and the motherboard would drop. I don’t know by how much, but it will definitely drop. I will have to evaluate the situation against those figures. I don’t want to receive only 1/3 the price of what I’m paying for the Haswell upgrade when I sell my current CPU and motherboard. That just doesn’t seem right.

All of these have to align, if I am to go ahead with the upgrade. The CPU has to overclock well; the bug fixed motherboards have to hit the market; I need to get something valuable from selling off my old stuff. I’m mostly concerned about the latter. Because even right now, I’m getting only about JPY 22,000 if I sell my CPU and mobo. :(

One important thing I forgot to mention. I currently use the Zalman CNPS9900MAX-B air cooler, and it is not the best out there, especially because it is so loud when the fans are running at full speed. I might upgrade this cooler to something decent with the Haswell upgrade. All depends on the overclockability. Too bad this case doesn’t support most of the hot (not literally) coolers out there. :(

Finally, let me list up the reasons for the upgrade.

• 50% performance improvement over my current gear – when overclocked
• Reduced overall power consumption
• Better Windows 8 compatible hardware (motherboard site perhaps)
• I only have to upgrade the CPU and the motherboard. (unless speed of RAM makes a difference; I only have ones running at 1600MHz)
• Native USB 3.0 support (IvyBridge brought this to the table, but I don’t have an IvyBridge rig, do I?)
• PCI-E 3.0 support. (Again, IvyBridge brought this to the table, but I don’t have an IvyBridge rig, do I? Besides, I already have a PCI-E 3.0 graphics card.)

Mobile Internet usage is growing fast, or is it?

ArsTechnica has published this new article about increase in cellular internet usage and I just remembered what Anand and the guys discussed in episode 16 of Anandtech podcast.

"Cellular data traffic keeps doubling every year"

Or is it really? Maybe it is not the actual case.

We all know that the iPhone is on top of that list, right? But, how many of you that use an iPhone have noticed this "driving me nuts" kinda thing that happens when to try to switch to a tab that currently has a webpage loaded but wasn't accessed in a while? Safari would try to load the webpage from the scratch. It would fetch the data "completely" from the web server. This not only increases web traffic which would actually put iPhone at a wrongfully top position. This is same with Chrome browser on iOS as well. Funny thing is, the tab might be only about 5 minutes old!!!! It's not as if it has been left open for hours and hours without touching. Seems to me it is related to the amount of free RAM left.

If this is a memory related, what about the iPhone 5, which has double the amount of RAM any previous iPhone had? Does it not have this issue? Feel free to post what you know in the comments section.

Is it same on Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry? I hope not. This is utter nonsense. If there isn't enough memory, cache the darn webpages in the main flash storage.

This never happens on a PC. Shame!