G3258/Z97/Fractal Designs R5 Titanium Media PC

[BigJames83]

Damn, I already wrote out a whole post and messed up... losing it all so this might be a bit more brief!

 

I drunkenly ordered a bunch of parts before I had actually decided which way I wanted to go with this build. Essentially it's going to be a media PC with the ability to game on my TV, but that will have to wait until I decide what I'm doing with my main gaming PC since the EVGA GTX 780 Classified will make it's way into the media PC. Not sure if I should wait for a GTX 980 Ti or just go 980.

 

Anyway, the media PC...

 

I went with the Fractal Design R5 Titanium case and had expected the quality to be similar to the Phanteks Enthoo Pro case I build my gaming PC into last year. I was actually a bit disappointed by the hardware. I had 2 standoffs that had REALLY bad threads so took me ages to get my motherboard set right and had to take it out at one point. Most were fine, but 2 were really bad. I also didn't know that there were white elements internally on the Titanium version (I had assumed it was just the white version that I had seen reviewed).

 

 

The included hardware - this was the biggest let down with this case but in truth wasn't too bad - it could have just been a bit better.

 

For PSU I went with the Corsair RM550. If I had ordered when sober, I would have gone with a 750W option since I plan to use the GTX 780 in this machine.

 

What's in the box?

 

A HUGE feature for a media PC

 

Always good to mount a PSU onto rubber isolators to reduce noise in a media machine

 

My choice of motherboard? I went with the same line as my other PC, the Asus Z97. This time the cheaper Z97-A. I know most people hate the gold, but I freaking love it!

 

What's in the box? Not as much as I had expected in all honesty but then my other Z97 was a deluxe so I was a bit spoiled by that one!

 

I love the gold. Haters gonna ha...

 

So the heart of things? The Intel Pentium G3258 Anniversary Edition. 3.2Ghz Dual core, huge OC potential but you already knew that, right?

 

I used the stock cooler to check everything was ok before I fitted my H100i.

 

One of the components coming off my gaming rig for the media PC was the Corsair H100i AIO. On that machine I had struggled with temps and had to re-seat it a few times, so I swapped that machine to a NZXT Kraken X61 and saw a 10 degree drop. H100i seems to work fine on this rig.

 

Fitted the CPU into the Z97

 

Checked everything booted

 

It's all in the details - junk like these stickers should be on the box, not the ports!

 

My Corsair Vengence 2133mhz 16gb (4x4gb) that I pulled out of my other machine.

 

Started to fit everything into the R5 case. One thing I hadn't expected is that the 8 Pin CPU connector BARELY fits through the gromit on the motherboard tray. Surprising really, since almost ALL motherboards will end up using this hole.

 

Rear I/O panel fitted

 

Another issue I came up against which appears to be from the Z97-A box is that the rear I/O panel doesnt have a cut-out big enough for the DisplayPort connector. Not an issue on this build since my TV will be using HDMI but seriously, how can this be an issue. You can also see that the board doesnt want to sit straight due to the MoBo standoffs. I got this better after some tweaking but didn't get a photo.

 

All fitted in the case

 

Next up I removed the top HDD cage since I have no need for it in this machine and more airflow = better, right?

 

The next step was to remove the lower HDD cage so that I could fit a spare 140mm fan into the front bottom slot. The case only includes one fan in the front which seems odd since there are two slots and that seems to be the main intake for this case from the factore - with the top positions covered from the factory. The lower HDD cage is attached by screws in the base of the case.

 

I used a spare Phanteks 140mm fan from the Enthoo Pro (I used all Corsair AF140s on that build)

 

Time for a storage drive

 

Easy fitting in the drive sleds

 

An old SSD from my gaming PC (I swapped that to a 250gb Samsung 850 Evo M.2 in that rig to free this up!)

 

Time for some wire management!

 

This sound deadening is great, and I wish ALL case manufacturers would include it as standard on the side panels!

 

System posts no problem

 

I've installed Windows 10 to give it a try, and see how things go... This will go to a stable version soon

 

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask, same with constructive criticism!

[Weak1ings]

It really bothers me that you put a G358 with a GTX 780 Classified.  If you have any kids i'd suggest going on integrated graphics (and giving htem the 780) as integrated is good enough for blue-ray and just use steam streaming for gaming as it is quite frankly, Very good with an adequate ethernet connection.

[BigJames83]

It really bothers me that you put a G358 with a GTX 780 Classified.  If you have any kids i'd suggest going on integrated graphics (and giving htem the 780) as integrated is good enough for blue-ray and just use steam streaming for gaming as it is quite frankly, Very good with an adequate ethernet connection.

 

My plan is to upgrade it later on if I end up gaming more on this machine. I've bever had a media/gaming PC hooked up to a big TV so have no idea how much it'll get used right now. The 780 is going to be spare once I upgrade, because I want to run a newer card in my main rig - I've NEVER had a current gen GPU and can afford it at the moment so want to catch up, because I can for once

[TDP_Equinox]

What. The. Fuck.
http://puu.sh/hgv2Z/673dba5aa0.png

[theelitegamer]

Did you have the 780 before this build? Or did you buy it? otherwise it's a good build. I'll ship it  

[BigJames83]

I've had the 780 for a year now... Want to upgrade to a 980 in that PC, and use the 780 in this one so I can try gaming on the big screen at some point...

[BigJames83]

What. The. Fuck.

http://puu.sh/hgv2Z/673dba5aa0.png

 

Constructive. Good job!

[TDP_Equinox]

Constructive. Good job!

I can't form enough words to be constructive, i'm in awe that literally every single part in your computer is more expensive than the CPU. 

The G3258 is terrible. Saying it overclocks well is dumb, because not every cpu overclocks well at all. Some G3258s OC like crazy, and some don't get more than 200 Mhz. 

 *Flips table*

And I hope you're upgrading the CPU when you put the 780 in there.

[BigJames83]

I can't form enough words to be constructive, i'm in awe that literally every single part in your computer is more expensive than the CPU. 

The G3258 is terrible. Saying it overclocks well is dumb, because not every cpu overclocks well at all. Some G3258s OC like crazy, and some don't get more than 200 Mhz. 

 *Flips table*

And I hope you're upgrading the CPU when you put the 780 in there.

TBH I think I'm planning a bit far ahead but my intention is that when Skylake drops, the 4790K from my gaming PC will end up in this rig with the 780, and then I'll upgrade my gaming PC with a 980 (TI?). For now, I got a great deal on the parts and didnt want to run X99 due to costs on a PC that might now end up getting used all that much. I've never been in a position to run 2 PCs at once before, so may end up just constantly reverting to the gaming PC more often than not.

 

So far I've OC'd the 3258 to 4.6Ghz and it seems good. Not Quad core, but so far nothing I'm using this rig for demands it. That may change, and if/when it does, I'll upgrade the CPU.