- Aug 21, 2014
- 44
- 0
- 18,540
Hey guys, first off - my current build is at the bottom of my story here. I appreciate everyone taking the time to read this.
As you can probably tell from my lack of activity here, I'm THE casual of casual PC builders. I am coming up on the 5th year anniversary of my first build (of which I've upgraded the power supply within a year, and and RAM/GPU within the last 3).
The system is getting a little more... strange? Quirky? When I sleep it, it wakes up every morning around the same time - like 7:30am. After daylight savings time, it didn't adjust and just woke up an hour later. I've troubleshooted this to no end, and I really have no idea how to make it stop (I've restored to earlier dates, have norton's updated, and have used recommended websites to diagnose... all of which came up empty - I gave up and just started saying hello in the morning - maybe my apartment gets a surge around that time? I have no idea). Other quirks have been sudden overheats until it has a good restart (if it slept too long maybe? shouldn't be...) - this isn't after a certain amount of time or anything and I am a casual gamer running DOTA2, No Man's Sky, and Diablo III as the most "taxing" games I play. Some days (in the AC or a cold apartment - I am conscious of the temp of the room when running) it won't happen once. Some it will happen 3. The build below should chew them up and spit them out.
To make a long story short, I've come to the conclusion I likely need a better cooling system, as currently I have a bunch of case fans just pointing at the hot points and that's pretty much it (the heatsink that comes with the processor as well obviously).
My question to the forum (finally), is that with most of these components aging to 5 years with a total novice taking care of them- is there something else I should do rather than "just cool it better?" I'm sure my i7 is hitting a new life stage (do they do this?). I would also bet if it were under cooled (despite temperature apps never really warning me of such... just freak components or bad apps... likely the latter) I've taxed these instruments a bit.
My case is a bit cramped to upgrade much more - is a bigger case and adding a better heatsink the way to go? I have a budget of $500-$750 that I'd rather not max out for the sake of it - but I do want to preserve what I can as it ages. Maybe it's worth taking it to a pro-shop to clean/maintain/reset in the case for me since I'm such a newbie even 5 years later? I'm in the New York City area, so I can find anything.
Nothing's off the table - please make any suggestions that come to mind to help out an aging system. Sorry for the book I wrote - and thanks so much for your time.
Intel Core i7-4790K Processor - Quad Core, 4.0GHz, 8MB Cache, Up to 4.40 GHz, 2 Memory Channels, 16 Max PCI Express Lanes - BX80646I74790K (unsure if I got this link right as it's way more expensive today vs. 5 years ago when I built it - I'm sure that because it's out of production/uncommon these days?)
Asus Z97 Motherboard - Intel Socket LGA1150, Intel Z97 Chipset, SLI/CrossFireX Support, ATX - Z97-AR
ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 3GB Dual-Fan OC Edition Graphics Card (DUAL-GTX1060-O3G) (Computers & Accessories)
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Intel Z170/X99 Desktop Memory F4-2400C15D-16GVR
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E500B/AM)
Rosewill CAPSTONE Series ATX 12V/EPS 12V 750W 80 Plus Gold Certified Power Supply CAPSTONE-750-M
Thermaltake Versa H23 Mid-Tower Case w/ Window - Micro-ATX, ATX, SPCC Material, 1x 120mm Fan, 7 Expansion Slots - CA-1B1-00M1WN-01
As you can probably tell from my lack of activity here, I'm THE casual of casual PC builders. I am coming up on the 5th year anniversary of my first build (of which I've upgraded the power supply within a year, and and RAM/GPU within the last 3).
The system is getting a little more... strange? Quirky? When I sleep it, it wakes up every morning around the same time - like 7:30am. After daylight savings time, it didn't adjust and just woke up an hour later. I've troubleshooted this to no end, and I really have no idea how to make it stop (I've restored to earlier dates, have norton's updated, and have used recommended websites to diagnose... all of which came up empty - I gave up and just started saying hello in the morning - maybe my apartment gets a surge around that time? I have no idea). Other quirks have been sudden overheats until it has a good restart (if it slept too long maybe? shouldn't be...) - this isn't after a certain amount of time or anything and I am a casual gamer running DOTA2, No Man's Sky, and Diablo III as the most "taxing" games I play. Some days (in the AC or a cold apartment - I am conscious of the temp of the room when running) it won't happen once. Some it will happen 3. The build below should chew them up and spit them out.
To make a long story short, I've come to the conclusion I likely need a better cooling system, as currently I have a bunch of case fans just pointing at the hot points and that's pretty much it (the heatsink that comes with the processor as well obviously).
My question to the forum (finally), is that with most of these components aging to 5 years with a total novice taking care of them- is there something else I should do rather than "just cool it better?" I'm sure my i7 is hitting a new life stage (do they do this?). I would also bet if it were under cooled (despite temperature apps never really warning me of such... just freak components or bad apps... likely the latter) I've taxed these instruments a bit.
My case is a bit cramped to upgrade much more - is a bigger case and adding a better heatsink the way to go? I have a budget of $500-$750 that I'd rather not max out for the sake of it - but I do want to preserve what I can as it ages. Maybe it's worth taking it to a pro-shop to clean/maintain/reset in the case for me since I'm such a newbie even 5 years later? I'm in the New York City area, so I can find anything.
Nothing's off the table - please make any suggestions that come to mind to help out an aging system. Sorry for the book I wrote - and thanks so much for your time.
Intel Core i7-4790K Processor - Quad Core, 4.0GHz, 8MB Cache, Up to 4.40 GHz, 2 Memory Channels, 16 Max PCI Express Lanes - BX80646I74790K (unsure if I got this link right as it's way more expensive today vs. 5 years ago when I built it - I'm sure that because it's out of production/uncommon these days?)
Asus Z97 Motherboard - Intel Socket LGA1150, Intel Z97 Chipset, SLI/CrossFireX Support, ATX - Z97-AR
ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 3GB Dual-Fan OC Edition Graphics Card (DUAL-GTX1060-O3G) (Computers & Accessories)
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Intel Z170/X99 Desktop Memory F4-2400C15D-16GVR
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E500B/AM)
Rosewill CAPSTONE Series ATX 12V/EPS 12V 750W 80 Plus Gold Certified Power Supply CAPSTONE-750-M
Thermaltake Versa H23 Mid-Tower Case w/ Window - Micro-ATX, ATX, SPCC Material, 1x 120mm Fan, 7 Expansion Slots - CA-1B1-00M1WN-01
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram