Some AMD 970 chipset motherboards may need a BIOS update prior to using Vishera CPUs

[TheSolidMoose]

I was building my first PC but then this incompatibility note comes up, I have searched a little bit and my question is what if they don't have an update? This is my build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FD9LnQ

 

[TheSolidMoose]

Ya, it's $250

 

[madmatt30]

If you had that extra budget you'd he going with an i5 4460 & a gtx 970 anyway.

 

[TheSolidMoose]

Yea, thanks

 

[damric]

A guy told me to use this build. Is it better than the one you suggested me?
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Lm3QYJ
Thanks in advance!

That build is rubbish, just all around rubbish but at its core is an unreliable EVGA PSU that is actually manufactured by Compucase using really low end electronics. It will burn down the house. Besides that only the CPU is slightly faster. Everything else is much slower in that build.

 

[TheSolidMoose]

Wow! Great response, thanks!

 

[TheSolidMoose]

But isn't the PSU on both rigs the same? EVGA right?

 

[MeteorsRaining]

EVGA doesn't actually make the units. The one in damric's rig is made by Super Flower and is very high quality wise. Compucase is well, a low end OEM and that PSU in the other rig is a budget model for office PCs.

 

[madmatt30]

The 600b is in no way a bad psu - what it is is a decent 8/10 budget PSU.

Tier 3 PSU's are still decent quality
The reason super flower & seasonic get top marks is because as OEM builders they quite simply don't produce any subpar units at all.
All the other decent PSU manufacturers - corsair/hec/FSP/compucase are entirely capable of producing high end units as good as seasonic or super flower but they also produce mid tier stuff & some absolute dire low end models.

You just have to be careful what you're looking at.

70% of psu's are dire quality ,20% are decent,10% are excellent.
The evga b series are in that 20% region IMO.
Sometimes budget or location means those OSU's in that top 10% may not be available for you.

 

[damric]

The 600b has inferior secondary caps that will fail to filter ripple once warmed, leading to graphics card instabilities. The caps are only rated for 30C operation, compared to about 100C in good PSUs.

 

[madmatt30]

The 600b has inferior secondary caps that will fail to filter ripple once warmed, leading to graphics card instabilities. The caps are only rated for 30C operation, compared to about 100C in good PSUs.

'burn down the house' is massively over dramatic though mate & completely untrue - comments like that force people into panic buying/upgrading when there is no need -if you can afford a seasonic or superflower all fine - If youre on a budget these mid range psu's are still a decent option

seeing as most of the tier list specs come from reviews by jonnyguru -heres his take on the 500b (the 600b is a superior unit with a more stable 12v rail & slightly better ripple suppression


looks decent enough to me - dont see any comments about exploding parts etc

 

[damric]

At least Oklahoma Wolf did a correspondance course. Jonny G. isn't accredited at all. I can talk smack because I graduated the most difficult electronics technician school in the world. I've seen plenty of caps explode. Some look like confetti, but some are more like firecrackers. Don't trust the "PSU Tier List" as it is inaccurate hearsay based on some kid's list over at Newegg.

But if you are a diehard JG fanboy, this is his personal tier list, and that unit is tiered 7 of 9, pretty far to the bottom:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qaSSCWjC11ArO8WyBb_wTvFU_Ez9488F6ARkbag1e14/edit#gid=0

Here is better reading:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1500086/why-you-should-not-buy-an-evga-430-500-500b-600b-psu

 

[madmatt30]

At least Oklahoma Wolf did a correspondance course. Jonny G. isn't accredited at all. I can talk smack because I graduated the most difficult electronics technician school in the world. I've seen plenty of caps explode. Some look like confetti, but some are more like firecrackers. Don't trust the "PSU Tier List" as it is inaccurate hearsay based on some kid's list over at Newegg.

But if you are a diehard JG fanboy, this is his personal tier list, and that unit is tiered 7 of 9, pretty far to the bottom:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qaSSCWjC11ArO8WyBb_wTvFU_Ez9488F6ARkbag1e14/edit#gid=0

Here is better reading:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1500086/why-you-should-not-buy-an-evga-430-500-500b-600b-psu

I dont personally hold with the tier list at all ,it drives me nuts when people use it to be honest.
Ill recommend psu's based entirely on budget & location in the world - some people are simply unable to source what you would call top end psu's where they live which is where these budget mid range ones come in over some of the generic non branded ones with 'gold 750w' in the model name that are less than 70% efficient & have the 12v output of a 400w max.
At least with a branded model like this you can be sure youre getting a real 600w psu that has a reliability factor & real 600w output.
Ill stand by that statement 'burn down the house' is just entirely over the top & untrue seriously.
Take any consumer electronics item apart from maybe panasonic & sony & youll find a plethora of cheap chines/taiwanese manufactured caps & resistors to downrate the minor voltages.
theyre plenty good enough for this purpose as they are in the majority of psu's ( as long as theyre only used on the secondary filtering stage)

 

[TheSolidMoose]

I just had a thought about buying 7 fans for my PC since my case can hold that much, but I don't know which is the best fan controller and should I still be using the Sickflows (Cooler Master) as the fans or downgrade to fans with lower RPM?
Please include the links to the products in your response. Thanks!

 

[TheSolidMoose]

Also, is cooling the PC too much bad? Will it start having issues when the temp go to a certain low point?

 

[damric]

I just had a thought about buying 7 fans for my PC since my case can hold that much, but I don't know which is the best fan controller and should I still be using the Sickflows (Cooler Master) as the fans or downgrade to fans with lower RPM?
Please include the links to the products in your response. Thanks!

Also, is cooling the PC too much bad? Will it start having issues when the temp go to a certain low point?

You won't need to worry about getting too cold.

One of my friends just got this Aerocool fan controller. I was very impressed. This will power 5 fans, and your motherboard can power the rest.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Fan Controller: Aerocool Strike-X-X1000 Fan Controller ($39.99 @ Directron)
Total: $39.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-03 19:11 EDT-0400

You could spend a lot more money on fancy looking touch screen LED fan controllers if you want to do that.

 

[damric]

Another THW forum member who built a similar rig with that same MX300 case decided to fill it with Aerocool Sharks. I must admit they look very badass, but a bit pricey considering you might buy up to 7 of them:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Case Fan: Aerocool Shark 120mm Red 82.6 CFM 120mm Fan ($14.33 @ Mwave)
Total: $14.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-03 19:17 EDT-0400

Good old Sickleflows will certainly get the job done if you would rather save a few bucks

 

[damric]

At least Oklahoma Wolf did a correspondance course. Jonny G. isn't accredited at all. I can talk smack because I graduated the most difficult electronics technician school in the world. I've seen plenty of caps explode. Some look like confetti, but some are more like firecrackers. Don't trust the "PSU Tier List" as it is inaccurate hearsay based on some kid's list over at Newegg.

But if you are a diehard JG fanboy, this is his personal tier list, and that unit is tiered 7 of 9, pretty far to the bottom:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qaSSCWjC11ArO8WyBb_wTvFU_Ez9488F6ARkbag1e14/edit#gid=0

Here is better reading:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1500086/why-you-should-not-buy-an-evga-430-500-500b-600b-psu

I dont personally hold with the tier list at all ,it drives me nuts when people use it to be honest.
Ill recommend psu's based entirely on budget & location in the world - some people are simply unable to source what you would call top end psu's where they live which is where these budget mid range ones come in over some of the generic non branded ones with 'gold 750w' in the model name that are less than 70% efficient & have the 12v output of a 400w max.
At least with a branded model like this you can be sure youre getting a real 600w psu that has a reliability factor & real 600w output.
Ill stand by that statement 'burn down the house' is just entirely over the top & untrue seriously.
Take any consumer electronics item apart from maybe panasonic & sony & youll find a plethora of cheap chines/taiwanese manufactured caps & resistors to downrate the minor voltages.
theyre plenty good enough for this purpose as they are in the majority of psu's ( as long as theyre only used on the secondary filtering stage)

Fair enough Matt. I think we both understand.

 

[TheSolidMoose]

I'm thinking about getting a usb head splitter since there are only two USB ports for the motherboard. Is there a delay or longer response time when using the usb splitters?
Do you know any good usb splitters? Please send me the link if you do

 

[damric]

And for the motherboard, I was disappointed since there was only 2 USB ports.
If I had bought this usb splitter, will it have any delays or longer response time?
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/usb-splitter-cable
Do you know any better usb splitters? Please send the link if you do

What? I see 2x USB 3.0 on the rear, 4x USB 2.0 on the rear, 3x USB 2.0 onboard headers for front panel, and 1xUSB 3.0 USB header for front panel. It's advertised as 4 x USB 3.0 (2 Front, 2 Rear), 8 x USB 2.0 (4 Front, 4 Rear)

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H97M%20Anniversary/

But yeah, if that's not enough you can always split them. That fan controller ^^ also acts as a USB splitter.

 

[TheSolidMoose]

Oh ok, thanks!

 

[TheSolidMoose]

Did the price rise or something? Damric's build was $660 but it's now $730.

 

[damric]

pcpartpicker prices change often, sometimes several times per day. If you are close to ordering, I can look up similar parts and prices again.

 

[damric]

It was the graphics card. I switched to another R9 290 that's on sale now.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($61.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($96.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: HIS Radeon R9 290 4GB IceQ X² Video Card ($252.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cougar MX300 ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Directron)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Other: Windows 10 Preview ($0.00)
Total: $674.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-04 00:58 EDT-0400

 

[TheSolidMoose]

Can you notify me when it is fairly cheap? Because it rose like $70 in a time period of less than a week. Do you think it will ever be below $600? I have until summer to build my PC, also I heard that a lot of people say the Sickleflows are really loud, I'm going to try 7 120mm fans with low rpm and really quiet, you know any good ones that are cheap?

 

[TheSolidMoose]

But which r9 290 is better? I don't mind waiting