New homemade build: is it stable?

[arajigar]

Hi, I have built my PC from scratch, finally, after some time searching and buying parts and finishing the pc case opening the top,etc. (it was a crap, an AIRIS case worn and dirty). The total price wasn't so high, probably 70€. The parts I used are:

2x160 GB Fujitsu HDD
Core 2 quad q9550 2,86 Ghz
4gb DDR2 ( i forgot to check the brand,sorry)
Motherboard Gigabyte ga-g31m-es2l_1x
Gigabyte Geforce GT740 2Gb DDR5
PSU CoolBox-Powerline-Black-500 watt
CPU cooler Arctic Freezer 7 PRO Rev.2

Then I have put 4x12 cm fans:

Front intake (blue led for cool air)
Top Exhaust (red led for hot air)
Internal blowing towards CP and GPU
Side intake ( blue led for cool air)

8 cm fan as side intake (blue led for cool air)
9 cm fan as rear exhaust (taken from a Cooler Master X Dream i117CPU cooler)

It's running Windows 7 ultimate 64 bits.

All cables are tidy and placed so no one ore few parts are in the middle of the air flow, even if the PC case is not prepared to hide nothing unfortunately.

This is a photo of the original (not mine, mine was dirtier and in a worst state)...

And here's the new one... (blue leds are not fully visible).

I have also put in a LG dvd rewriter, but I think this part is irrelevant. I want to add an Aerocool F6XT front panel to keep fans under control.

My question is, even if the machine works fine(with cpu idle temperatures around 32-34 degrees celsius and case temperatures of 20 on idle with an ambient temperature of 26 degrees celsius)

Did you see something that could be problematic?, like bottleneck, temperature management, fan placement, PSU, etc.
Is the fan placement right or wrong?
Do you think that the fan controller is necessary?
Should it be a stable system or is it some kind of conflict between components?

It's the first PC I've built and I want it'll last long as my other PCs ( one 16 year old Win98 system Athlon 1 Ghz 396 MB RAM with a VooDoo 3 3000 and a 8 year old P4 3,4 Ghz with 3 GB RAM and a GT210 1GB), as you can see I like to care my PCs.

Thanks in anticipation!!

 

[BadActor]

You did a lot with a little. I doubt you will get 16 years out of it as it's pretty outdated even now, but it should last awhile. With your temps seeming to be pretty good, I would say your fan placement is working. If the noise isn't bothering you, no need for a fan controller. The CPU and GPU are pretty well matched, so no real bottleneck issues.

 

[superninja12]

that pc isnt able to play any triple a game. its onlyusefull fot dota csgo and even than it struggles to get 60fps.

 

[arajigar]

Thanks!, noise is not a problem, I use headsets, even if it´s not very noisy ( the first startup I thought I didn´t connected some of the fans!!). I was afraid of making a wrong mix of components, even if I have taken care of every review I see. Obviously, one thing is theory and another thing is when you put your hands on the pieces and mount everything, because then is when problems arrive when you have little idea of what you´re doing!!...

Anyway, what you will add to make the system better? (liquid cooling, better CPU cooler, RAM cooling, better PSU...).

 

[BadActor]

There's really not going to be much you can upgrade on it. The CPU is one of the top ones for that socket, and you will run into bottlenecking issues if you try adding more powerful graphics cards. A gtx 750 Ti or a GTX 950 would work OK, just not sure id it's worth it for that system. I would think about adding 4 more GB's of RAM which you should be able to do cheaply, and an SSD which will really make it feel more responsive. You can always use the SSD in your next machine.

 

[arajigar]

that pc isnt able to play any triple a game. its onlyusefull fot dota csgo and even than it struggles to get 60fps.

Oh, well, I have tried to play some actual games and it doesen´t give problems.. until now.

I tried the following games, I didn´t measure the FPS, but I didn´t see any hang-ups or pauses (except for checkpoints):

Metro 2033 (HIGH settings)
Metro Last Light (HIGH settings)
Wolfenstein Old Blood (HIGH settings)
Wolfenstein New Order(HIGH settings)
Aliens Colonial Marines(HIGH settings)

and some oldies

DOOM 3 (ULTRA Settings)
QUAKE 4 (ULTRA Settings)
F.E.A.R (ULTRA Settings)

The GPU temps are 45ºC for the first, not more than 37 ºC for the oldies
The Cores moved between 42-39ºC
The CASE temp moved from 23 to 30ºC

So you think the hardware will fail if I use it to play, lets say, for 4 hours? or if I use it to compile maps?, As you say this Pc is not very resistant. :/

 

[arajigar]

There's really not going to be much you can upgrade on it. The CPU is one of the top ones for that socket, and you will run into bottlenecking issues if you try adding more powerful graphics cards. A gtx 750 Ti or a GTX 950 would work OK, just not sure id it's worth it for that system. I would think about adding 4 more GB's of RAM which you should be able to do cheaply, and an SSD which will really make it feel more responsive. You can always use the SSD in your next machine.

SSD, Ok!, never think about it!, the problem will be putting the OS on it and left the SATAs for storage. :/

 

[superninja12]

Metro 2033 (HIGH settings)
Metro Last Light (HIGH settings)
Wolfenstein Old Blood (HIGH settings)
Wolfenstein New Order(HIGH settings)
Aliens Colonial Marines(HIGH settings)

high settings ur lucky if u can get 20 fps on low.

 

[arajigar]

Mmm, I'll use FRAPS to see what is happening, maybe I am pushing too much the hardware...

 

[arajigar]

Well, this is what I've got after using FRAPS, values are for FPS max, FPS min, Core1 temp, Core2 temp, Core3 temp, Core4 temp, Game settings, Case temp. All data was captured with 23 degrees Celsius ambient.

Aliens Colonial Marines: 62, 55, 39, 32, 39, 37, High, 25
Wolfenstein Old Blood: 62, 43, 45, 39, 39, 37, High, 27
Wolfenstein Last Order: 60, 37, 44, 35, 39, 37, High, 26
Carnivores Reborn: 52,37,43,35,39,37,Max,23
Metro 2033: 49, 38, 40, 33, 39, 37, Very High, 26
Metro 2034: 30, 23, 41, 33, 39, 37, High, 30
Metro 2034: 52, 42, 39, 32, 39, 37, Norm, 25

The last test was done to see how much FPS I'll get using few effects, and I was surprised of the result, anyway, why the two last cores, 3 and 4, always show the same temp? , I have seen that those temps are present even on idle, will it be caused because a bad config?, I didn' t touched the bios except for putting the temp alarm on 62 degrees celsius (I've read that's the max temp a quad core could getbefore being damaged, maybe I am wrong :/ ).

I have planned to add a Cooler Master SEIDON 120 rev2 with two fans (push-pull), but oppinions vary from hate to love, so : what is your opinion/experience about this cpu cooler? will it benefit the system?