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nfn, you know, i am not sure. I will open the case and check. The i7 is a production line machine and is running right now, so I am reluctant to open it up. I will check later tonight.
When I built the computers, they were side by side and I assembled them at the same time. I would be surprised if I did anything differently between the two but I will check. Good thought on the slot.
Didn't realize that this thread existed! Thank you for making. I'd like to share my last build from 6 years ago and the most current build in the making.
I've been a huge Alienware fan. Ever since 1999, seeing the Area-51 computers in some gaming magazines, I was hooked! In 2001 I was a proud owner of an Area-51 in cyborg green metallic color. Big thanks to my family for giving me this a gift. Since then, I've upgrade the system 2x. The most current setup was indeed advanced for it's time. 6 years ago I pieced together a build that was all the hype. I upgrade a few things along the way like the ram, video cards with HDMI and a new HD HDMI super wide screen.
My build setup 6 years ago to current.
MOBO::Asus Striker 2 extreme
CPU ::E6850 Core 2 Duo 3.0+ (3505)
Graphics (SLI) ::2x Geforce 9600 GT 512mb Overclocked (New setup (2x) geforce GTX960 SLi setup)
Ram ::Corsair 4GB DDR3-1888 Mgz (New setup Corsair 8GB DDR3-2000 Mgz)
Audio ::Creative X-FI Fatality professional series
POwer supply:: Silver stone 950 Watt
CPU Cooler ::Asus Slight knight 2
HD ::2x Raptors 150gig @ 10,000 RPMS
Fans :: 12 Fans/ 6 way fan controller / Temp,volt and UV gauge.
Asus Ram coolers
Sound ::Logitech THX 5.1
Mouse ::Microsoft HABU razor 2000 DPI (New setup 2015 Alienware gaming mouse)
Keyboard ::Eclipse 2 Illuminated (Blue)
Upgraded my LCD screen to a LG 29" IPS LED HD Wide screen 21:9
Fast forwarding. I had an amazing deal on the next generation Alienware Area-51 case in Cyborg green. This is before they made the case smaller. It is an exact full sized tower as I currently have. It needs some TLC and it will get some pearl metallic vinyl and maybe carbon fiber vinyl in the side vents. I will have either blue or green LED lighting placed inside those grills. The case I got looks like this:
The new case has paint damage and it's not worth trying to touch up. so vinyl it is.
My newest setup (I had to relearn everything all over again)
Motherboard: ASUS RAMPAGE V EXTREME/U3.1 LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard
Video Cards: (2x) MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G GeForce GTX 970 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support G-SYNC Support Video Card
Power supply: EVGA 220-P2-1200-X1 80 PLUS Platinum 1200 W 10 yr Warranty ECO Mode Fully Modular NVIDIA SLI Ready and Crossfire Support
CPU cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan
Hard drive: Western Digital WD VelociRaptor WD3000HLHX 300GB 10000 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Case fans: (5x) Antec LED80XFAN 80mm Blue LED Case Cooling Fan
Bay drivers:
-ASUS Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive Model
-Rosewill RDCR-11003 - 3.5" 74-in-1 Internal Card Reader with USB 3.0 Port
-ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner
- Thermaltake Commander FT Touch Screen 5 Channel Single 5.25” Bay Fan Controller
That's it for now. Please let me know how this will rank with Windows 7 ultimate-64 bit. I'd love to keep this setup going for another 6-8 years without having to upgrade. I also didn't do water cooling again because there is no 120mm fan port on this new case. All of the water coolers require some form of a 120mm fan port. Any input, suggestions let me know.
Last edited by 04WDPSeDaN; Jul 4, 2015 at 02:42 PM.
Going with Avery SW900 Light Green Pearlescent for the case.
Going with Di-Noc Carbon fiber gloss black for the vent grills and base.
Going with Di-Noc Silver and or white carbon fiber for the alien emblems.
The wife and I are going to take our time to wrap the case. This is my 1st time doing wrapping. Ordered from Metrostyling.com
Forgot to mention about the sound card. I ended up with Creative Sound Blaster Z PCIe 116dB SNR Gaming Sound Card instead of using the on board sound. I read a lot of mixed review on using the mother board sound system.
We shall see. Shipping of all my parts should be tomorrow and I should get most of the items by the end of the week.
Update on the CPU cooler. I exchanged it for a Cooler Master V8 GTS. This thing is massive, looks amazing and have great reviews. I might run into an issue with the ram coolers fitting with the cpu cooler installed. I won't find out till everything comes. Anyone ever use this cooler before?
My normal CPU temps of mid 30s to lower 40s stock clock had risen to the upper 60s to upper 70s this week, so I stopped by MicroCenter and picked up a little something. As it turns out it was just one of the Hyper 212 fans had failed, but I went through with installing a Nepton 240M sealed water unit anyway. Quiet as fuck, but then again so was the 212.
Now upper 20s to lower 30s stock. Might finally bite on OC'ing this thing.
Intel Skylake Core i7 3.4GHz
16GB DDR4 2133
Asus Z170-A Mobo (has display port (I'm using Intel IGP), USB 3.0 and 3.1, and sata express)
Corsair H55 CPU water cooler
Samsung 950 Pro PCIe m.2 256GB SSD
Asus TPM chip add-on (for BitLocker)
be quiet! Silent Base 800 PC case
I'm reusing the power supply, blu-ray drives, and WD Black drive from my old PC
Last edited by #1 STUNNA; Feb 28, 2016 at 03:04 PM.
It all finally finished coming in today. Got it mostly up in running. Had an issue with RAM but reseating it fixed it, another issue with output to display but when I plugged it in directly to my monitor instead of going through my KVM it worked.
I was able to install Windows 10 from a flash drive directly to the PCI-E SSD, I told it during install that I didn't have a product key and it still installed. Since it was the Nov 2015 build of 10 once it was installed I entered my Windows 8 pro key I got from TechNet in 2012 and it activated 10 Pro! Suite, I didn't expect it to be that easy.
Only issue I had was the ASUS TPM module doesn't fit on the mobo. Apparently with Skylake mobo's they use a 14-1 pin module while all older mobos use 20-1 pin module. I ordered what I hope is a the correct module from Mac Mall but there's almost no info about the new TPM module on the Internet except people complaining that the old one doesn't work with the Asus Z170 mobos.
Other than that I'm noticing the speed increase from my SATA 3 mobo, I finally have a UEFI system, using a mouse in the BIOS menu is cool and damn this BIOS menu is really advanced, some cool tools in there!
OK, looking for any input on a planned build. Does not need hardcore gaming graphics. On the fence re:water/air cooling so the case gives me both options.
Input welcome
This machine will be a workhorse machine for data intensive tasks:
I'd drop the expensive case for a cheaper one and apply those funds saved towards either jumping to a maxwell series video card or a nicer HSF and some extra nice case fans.
Air > water IMO! It's just not worth it. I'd take my Noctua over any of the corsair water kits any day.
64GB of ram????? I'd save the money and stick with 32. Like that's too much to begin with. Apply those funds towards raiding a second EVO or straight up saving it.
I'd drop the expensive case for a cheaper one and apply those funds saved towards either jumping to a maxwell series video card or a nicer HSF and some extra nice case fans.
Air > water IMO! It's just not worth it. I'd take my Noctua over any of the corsair water kits any day.
64GB of ram????? I'd save the money and stick with 32. Like that's too much to begin with. Apply those funds towards raiding a second EVO or straight up saving it.
Appreciate the input. $ is less of a factor than stability and performance. Lian Li cases are the cat's pajamas IMO, I have a few in the room now and they are 110% of my expectations. I really wouldn't ever consider another case brand even at 50% the cost. In terms of RAM, I can nearly max out 32GB processing data, so the extra room (and MB expandability to 128GB) is nice.
I have just read too many stories of water being louder and not a lot cooler than air, and I cannot worry about these machines. The case venting is there for a top mount radiator in case I decide to try, but for now, probably just air cooled.
Here is a screen grab of the TM for the machine this will be replacing (under actual working load, not benchmarking):
Hey man if money is no issue than throw it at it. Why not!
I'm still seeing 2/3 of 64GB being unused though...under load. Lol
Lian's are nice, don't get me wrong. I too am a plain case kind of guy. I just don't see why one plain case is three times the cost of the next other than minor build quality differences. But if you've got a history with them, it's been a long time since I've had a Lian, then rock it.
Completely agree about water/radiators. Air FTW. My Noctua compared to a h100i was like a single degree difference in temperature.
Hey man if money is no issue than throw it at it. Why not!
I'm still seeing 2/3 of 64GB being unused though...under load. Lol
Lian's are nice, don't get me wrong. I too am a plain case kind of guy. I just don't see why one plain case is three times the cost of the next other than minor build quality differences. But if you've got a history with them, it's been a long time since I've had a Lian, then rock it.
Completely agree about water/radiators. Air FTW. My Noctua compared to a h100i was like a single degree difference in temperature.
Totally agree, but I have it consider future issues. The current i7 is ~4 years old, so I tend to keep these things a while. Processing 500GB of data is turning into processing 1.5TB and I need moar powah!
Why are you going for haswell instead of skylake processor? If video doesn't matter why not use the gpu built into the processor and get a mobo with multi video ouptut? Do you have a spare 7/8/8.1 license lying around? If so, install the latest build of windows 10 (Nov 2015 build 1511) during the install process when it asks for a product key, you can skip that screen, then once 10 is installed input the spare Windows key and it should activate just fine. That's what I did when I just rebuilt my PC, I used the OEM 8 key I had and it activated 10 on my new PC.
Haswell versus skylake because I am planning to run the machine hard for the next four years and don't want to buy the technology that has been out for a while, but rather the technology that will keep up for the next four years. Is there a skylake chip I could get that would outperform the chosen haswell for the same price?
I certainly could forgo the video card, but with the levels I put the processor to work, I want to remove as much work from the onboard systems as possible, plus it's only $100.
Haswell versus skylake because I am planning to run the machine hard for the next four years and don't want to buy the technology that has been out for a while, but rather the technology that will keep up for the next four years. Is there a skylake chip I could get that would outperform the chosen haswell for the same price?
I certainly could forgo the video card, but with the levels I put the processor to work, I want to remove as much work from the onboard systems as possible, plus it's only $100.
You can get the top of the line skylake 4GHz for less than you're paying for the slower haswell.
I'm still rocking my 5-year old i7 2600k with a 660 Ti.
Probably another 4-5 years (if the cpu doesn't start bottlenecking the GPU too much in the near future, not too bad I heard with the overclocking ability of the 2nd gen i7s) before I jump into another big upgrade again
What EXACTLY are you doing stogie? SQL work? De/encoding? Photoshop?
For me as a gamer the better choice would be fewer cores at higher clocks. For say a decoder more cores at lower clocks would be better.
The main thing gained there is the new socket with upgrade capabilities for the future and newer memory options. The actual differences between the two processor families is small.
Also I'm not sure how well the Skylakes are being overclocked.
There's really no way to know if you need more GHz or more cores...
Now you have me thinking, though about the speed gains form the newer architecture (skylake)...
It really comes down to how the program is developed. How good it is with multi-threaded processes, that's going to vary from app to app. The program you run looks like it handles multi-threaded pretty well so 50% more cores seems better than an 18% increase in GHz plus whatever performance you get from going skylake instead of haswell which probably isn't enough to make up for the 32% difference.
What EXACTLY are you doing stogie? SQL work? De/encoding? Photoshop?
For me as a gamer the better choice would be fewer cores at higher clocks. For say a decoder more cores at lower clocks would be better.
The main thing gained there is the new socket with upgrade capabilities for the future and newer memory options. The actual differences between the two processor families is small.
Also I'm not sure how well the Skylakes are being overclocked.
This machine will spend it's days collecting and analyzing data, mainly indexing the content of large data sets, MD5 hashing, compressing, searching the indexes and the raw data, etc.
The data sets generally range form 500GB to 5,000GB.
NO overclocking at all. Stability and power is the goal.
