The most important thing about computing these day is noise. That is the one thing many people overlook! We spend so much money on audio gear and creating a black background while loud PC noises erase all that!
OK. Real quick. CPU and Mobo recommendation. The i5-4670k? Is that a good sweet spot? I could use moar CPU for faster jpg display, un-raring, or video editing of HD porn.I could use moar FPS for SWTOR on a 2560 x 1600 display.Vid card. To SLI or not current GTX670I'm keeping my case. Silverstone FT02. Already have SSDs, at least for the most often used porn.
Aint that the truth. As far as I'm concerned if I can hear the computer from more than a foot away, it's too loud. Running open is an interesting idea, but I wouldn't want to have to deal with the dust build up. Even closed cases that are unfiltered will eventually become just disgusting. I prefer to run closed, fully dust filtered cases with Acoustipack lining to deal with whatever small extra noise I may be introducing with more restricted airflow. It works. Fan choice is everything. There are plenty of quiet fans out there, the trick is a quiet fan that has as much air flow per dB as humanly possible. My favorites are Noiseblocker Multi-frames.
The layout of traditional cases really bothered me. Any type of intake air is almost always blocked by stupid drive bays! Why must have a case have 4+ ODD bays?! ODDs are almost obsolete for me. SSDs can be mounted almost anywhere too! Why must the intake fans be so far away from the CPU and GPU coolers? Why must the PSU block a perfect spot for a fan? Why does a case even have to be that shape or laid out for vertical mobo mounting? All of these questions and I could not find the perfect case at the time. I wanted something minimalistic and compact, but make complete sense in terms of air cooling. Form factor was also important in that I can stack it on top of audio gear too. Open test bench fit that perfectly.
AMD seems to be the sweet spot if you're going that high res, especially the R9 290. 280X or GTX 770 if you want to save $100. Not worth the hassle of multi-GPU, especially on a RAM limited card like the GTX 670. In all honesty, the GTX 670 will probably be fine, but if you can sell it for a decent price + don't mind spending some cash, the new GPUs aren't that bad of a value proposition.
No argument here. The classic ATX design of intake fan on the bottom, hdd bays in the middle and ODD bays on top is absolutely terrible. It's just what everyone knows how to do. Things like side panel intake fans are just hacks to try to get around the problem.
No argument here. The classic ATX design of intake fan on the bottom, hdd bays in the middle and ODD bays on top is absolutely terrible. It's just what everyone knows how to do. Things like side panel intake fans are just hacks to try to get around the problem. The perfect case design would be a two layer cube with PSU, hdd, and ODD bays on the bottom, and mobo tray on top. That would allow the upper front panel to be 100% unrestricted and provide maximum airflow to the CPU and GPU with the shortest possible distance between fans and components. Aerocool and Lian Li and BitFenix are kind of stumbling towards this, but they haven't gotten it right yet. The closest is the Coolermaster HAF XB, but they designed it for max airflow above all else, and it will be a dust nightmare. It's also kind of a fugly mess.
The 4670K is certainly a great sweet spot, just like the two i5s before it. Realistically, HT on the i7 isn't going to make a difference in most applications, but it does in some. The 4770k is at a good price on Microcenter, but you'd have to look up benchmarks to see if the i7 will benefit you in applications you use.You'll notice a nice difference with a new CPU across the board at stock settings, but Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, and Haswell all excel at overclocking. You should be able to get 4.2GHz easily. Some folks delid the IHS and replace the TIM or apply the heatsink directly to the CPU die to help with temps and overclocking. I've been extremely happy with my 2500K, which does 4.5GHz easily.
Yeah, I figured if I OC'd, I'd be turning hyper-threading off. I do convert movies to tablet format for my kids.
To be fair, while it's not an optimal design (the Fractal lets me take out a good chunk of the bays in the middle), you can still get excellent cooling and noise performance from a classic ATX case. That, and it takes up less floor or desk space at the expense of using more vertical space.
