Silent and Cold: Weird Demands on a Gaming/Media Hybrid

[GreatWiseBob]

It's been 15 years since I last built a PC, and now after the distractions of college and kids, I'm totally out of touch. I've got a tricky project on my hands, and I'm throwing myself on the kindness and expertise of the Internet to get me out of this one alive.

My PC just died, and I'm tasked with putting together a hybrid media/gaming rig that will be the beating heart of our nerdy little family.

THE CHALLENGE: Create a hybrid media/high-ish-end gaming PC that is ice cold and bone silent for under $2000 CAD. Bonus points for USB3 in the front, wireless/Bluetooth, and HD cable-in recording capacity.

Performance Demands:
- Must run top or very high-quality graphics for the next generation of games (> 5 years)
- Must run and record seamless HD video, streaming and from memory
- Display is a 42' flatscreen Samsung UN46D6000
- Must accommodate USB3 in front
- Photoshop (up to 1GB files) and HD video editing (non-professional)
- Because this is the media centre of the house, and in a small space, it must be whisper-quiet AND well cooled despite being in cramped quarters. (Current PC fans are louder than the video, and if we turn it up the baby wakes. It is pretty much misery incarnate.) We WILL sacrifice performance for lower dB if necessary. Not sure if liquid cooling is the way to go.

Soft Spots:
- Because of the small space and young kids, we can sacrifice sound quality.
- We can do without optical drive, wireless, Bluetooth and aux cable-in.

Budget goals:
- Value my man-parts, do not want wife to see a sticker over $2,000 after tax ($1,750CAD or $1,550USD)
- Save cash where possible but performance is primary

Didn't want to be a slacker making you do all the work, so I took my best shot at it. You'll see right away that I have no idea what I'm doing, but hey, I tried my sad best. Hope it's good for a laugh!

Thanks so much for your help everyone. Looking forward to seeing where I've gone wrong. (What do you think? D+? F-?)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($247.98 @ DirectCanada)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($26.79 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Killer ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($171.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($169.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($124.98 @ DirectCanada)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($108.95 @ DirectCanada)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290X 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($399.99 @ NCIX)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290X 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($399.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Corsair Air 540 ATX Mid Tower Case ($126.83 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($179.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.95 @ Vuugo)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($36.99 @ NCIX)
Total: $2014.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-03 00:21 EDT-0400

 

[DonkeyOatie]

Problems with driver support is a common flaw with newly released GPUs.

Have you looked in other places to see if this is a common problem. Since the 980 is so new few places, by themselves, even the Brains Trust here, have enough specific experience.

 

[DarkSable]

Well, folks, the big day has arrived and the rig is a thing of beauty. It really is completely silent, which is incredible, and I've yet to notice more than just a whisper of heat off it, which is perfect. I've got to say, you guys really know your stuff!

*issues*

Glad to hear that you like it. Now then, as for the issues, let's make sure you haven't done something silly that'll take 30 seconds to correct. (All of us make mistakes like that.)

Is the monitor plugged into the motherboard instead of the graphics card?

Have you gone to Nvidia's website and downloaded the latest graphics drivers?
(It seemed like you did, but hey, worth double-checking.)

 

[GreatWiseBob]

I am juuust competent enough not to have made those mistakes. I'm running at 1920x1080 and there are certainly glimmers of stellar performance, so it's kind of working. It's just the level of performance that's been disappointing. My operating theory is that there must be some calibration software or something on the installation disc that I haven't had the benefit of, and that's what's reining the beast in for the time being. That is, there might be some software OTHER than just the latest driver that should be installed.

If that's not it, I'm a bit broke for ideas. I'm confident there's just some human error going on here, because when it DOES perform well (especially with hi-def video), the whole rig is a thing of beauty.

 

[GreatWiseBob]

I've run the software, updated all drivers and ancillary manufacturer software, and nothing has changed. Skyrim is unplayable with the amount of lag between input and graphical response, even at medium settings. Civ V and Kerbal Space Program, for example, have to be run at medium graphical settings just to function. These steps have resolved the HD video issues, though, and it's stunning.

Does anyone have any idea about where to start looking for answers? I have significantly less capacity to play games now than I did with the old PC... I'm sure it must be something obvious I'm overlooking; everyone is raving about how well these games perform on this GPU. Maybe it's something else?

 

[DarkSable]

Hmmm...

Go grab Furmark and your preferred temperature monitors (I personally use CPU-z and GPU-z), and see what's happening to temperatures when you're stressing out the graphics card.

I feel you in that this is a terribly frustrating issue, but it's also bloody hard to diagnose without being there.

When you open the Nvidia Control Panel, under 'System Information' in the bottom left, could you give me a screenshot of the 'display' tab?

 

[GreatWiseBob]

It appears I have been overhasty. A second, massive wave of Windows updates came falling through this morning and after some messing around in the nVidia Control Panel, some combination of these events has fixed absolutely everything.

WHAT A MACHINE GUYS! I'm intentionally trying to coax some sound out of this thing and I just can't do it --- and I'm tabbing between three different games running on Ultra! DS, you and your crew here really know your stuff. This is incredible, and exactly what I was looking for! Once someone invents a way to send a virtual pint through message boards, look me back up. I definitely owe you a beer for this one!

 

[DonkeyOatie]

Glad to hear that it was software, not hardware, or wetware,

 

[DarkSable]

It appears I have been overhasty. A second, massive wave of Windows updates came falling through this morning and after some messing around in the nVidia Control Panel, some combination of these events has fixed absolutely everything.

WHAT A MACHINE GUYS! I'm intentionally trying to coax some sound out of this thing and I just can't do it --- and I'm tabbing between three different games running on Ultra! DS, you and your crew here really know your stuff. This is incredible, and exactly what I was looking for! Once someone invents a way to send a virtual pint through message boards, look me back up. I definitely owe you a beer for this one!

That's an interesting one. I was actually going to suggest you see if the machine was fully updated, but then didn't think that it would affect performance to that degree... I guess it does.

Glad to hear that you're satisfied - that machine is going to be an absolute beast for a long time to come.