NamelessTed

I would recommend looking into the Overlord Tempest. I haven't seen one, but it is one I am considering myself once I save up for it. The Tempest OC line of displays are use A grade IPS panels from LG, single DVI with no on screen display for minimum input lag, and a board which allows for overclocking. Some might not overclock as far, but it sounds like most people get 96-120Hz. Some of the box openings and reviews on youtube and elsewhere online seem to be of an earlier model. The newer ones have a slightly different frame (pictures look extremely similar to the Monoprice monitor) and a sturdier stand that allows for height adjustment, and rotation of monitor for vertical use. And they carry a 1-year warranty. I would really like to see Linus or Logan (tek syndicate) get one of these monitors for review so I can hear an opinion of someone that I am familiar with and find reputable.

No matter what fan header that I connect the splitter to, the UEFI gives an N/A in the settings field. It doesn't allow me to change any settings nor does it report the RPM of any of the fans connected. I spent hours trying to get the thing to work with absolutely no progress.

The way I had it attached was directly to the motherboard cpu header. The H220 does ship with a fan splitter but that has been a complete disaster to work with. It plugs into a header on the motherboard and then gets its power from a 4-pin molex. The problem that I have had is that anything that I plug into it runs at full speed. The pump runs, but at full speed which makes quite a noise. Same with fans, whether they are 4-pin or 3-pin, full speed. I appreciate the inclusion of the fan splitter, the problem is that it just doesn't work the way I think anybody would actually want it to work. Full speed 24/7 is just completely unacceptable. And in terms of long term effect, I don't know what it would have on the pump. I would expect that it would work, but who knows.

So, I thought I was lucky enough to get a hold of an H220 just a couple of weeks after it launched. I was quite excited to receive it and get it all hooked up. The noise lever and performance of the unit is solid, that part I really liked. The bad part is that at this point I have had to RMA two separate units. The good part is that Swiftech's support is top notch, no problems on that side. But the product itself has not been reliable at all. My first pump died slowly. The pump would completely stop for just a second or two, and then start up again. At first it was only doing it a couple of times a day, and then it would do it every couple of minutes. I called tech support and they offered me some specific setting in the motherboard bios/uefi. This seemed to work as it didn't have a problem for about 2 or 3 days, until the pump itself just completely stopped and wouldn't turn back on no matter what I tried. So I got it exchanged for a new one, no problem. My second unit didn't have any of the pump issues of the first one. I was really happy that I had a nice working cooler. Then today I heard a couple of pops, and some sizzling noise, immediately followed by smoke blowing straight out the top of my case. I turned the thing off as fast as possible. It wasn't until I got my computer opened up that I could see that it was the H220 and not some other components. Thankfully I don't need to replace mobo, cpu, or GPU. that would have been worst case scenario. But, my pump is totally fubar. The plastic around the cables coming out of the pump is totally melted and bubbled, not good. I don't know if I am just having terrible luck with these units. Both times I called support I was advised that the pumps have problems with specific motherboards or power delivery. Apparently using voltage control will absolutely ruin these units. From everything that I can tell the CPU Pin on my ASUS P8Z77-V Pro is PWM so that shouldn't be the problem. Even still, it seems a bit crazy to me that a company would release a product that simply doesn't work with a certain set of motherboards on the market and not very specifically define those and let their customers know this. If it is an issue between the CPU header on my motherboard and the pump, I really don't want to use the new unit if it is just going to break again. Is it normal for water pumps to have these kinds of problems? Again, maybe I have just had crazy bad luck with these units. Am I wrong in thinking that the 4-pin CPU fan header on my motherboard is PWM? Should I give the H220 one more shot or should I just abandon it for an air cooler and be worry free?

Sweet. I have been using Windows 8 for a couple of months now and actually find myself liking it. I am using "Start is back" of course, but some of the other changes to the OS are actually quite nice. If I could win this it would save the the ~$130.

In that case I would say you should go with the Fractal Design Define XL R2 if you are buying now, or the Arc XL if you are going to wait a couple of months (not sure of the exact release date). . Looks pretty sweet.

If it is the H100i you are going to be using then I would recommend taking a look at Fractal Design. Both the Define R4 and the Arc Midi R2 will fit it perfectly. Or you could go with the Define XL R2 or the soon to be released Arc XL which will give you all of the newest features from Fractal (new SSD mounts being one of the major upgrade IMO)

I would get something like the ASUS RT-N66U or if you want wireless AC they have RT-AC66U if you require it, but most devices still don't support it.

Fractal Design, either the Define or the Arc. I had a corsair 300R and thought it was a pretty good case for the price. Then I got a Define R4 on sale for $80 (retail is usually at $99) and it blows the 300R out of the water. Overall WAY better build quality. Thick heavy steel.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($349.99 @ Newegg) CPU Cooler: Swiftech H220 55.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($150.98 @ Newegg) Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Hero ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($238.49 @ Newegg) Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($154.99 @ Newegg) Storage: Samsung 840 Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($373.98 @ Newegg) Storage: Seagate Desktop HDD 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($189.99 @ Newegg) Storage: Seagate Desktop HDD 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($189.99 @ Newegg) Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card ($663.98 @ Newegg) Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N53 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($35.99 @ Newegg) Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($122.98 @ Newegg) Power Supply: SeaSonic Platinum 1000W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($233.98 @ Newegg) Total: $2690.34 (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.) (Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-16 04:45 EDT-0400) So this is what I came up with. If I had that budget, this is what I would do, or at least where I would start. There is flexibility in this build as well. I will try to keep this short, but I want to explain a couple of my decisions that are a bit different from where you started with this build idea. First, SSD/HDD. I would go with the Samsung 840 500GB because it is the best storage/$ on the market right now. From my experience, and from most reviewers the real-world difference between a wide range of SSDs is minimal. I personally use the 840 500GB and love it. It might seem like a lot of storage for the primary drive, but games are getting big fast. I just checked, my steam folder is at 100GB right now, and it could be a lot higher. As for the HDDs, the 4TB honestly are priced amazingly. Having that much storage is going to be great. It means you don't have to upgrade as soon, and when you do, you can just keep adding 4TB drives into the system which will just get cheaper and cheaper as time goes on. If using Windows 8, the Storage Spaces might be a great option for you. So, the motherboard is ASUS, has the color scheme you want, and is a gaming oriented board. From what I have read, it has great audio for on-board. At least much better than the generic options available on most boards. You can always upgrade to a $150 dedicated card down the road if you decide that even higher quality audio is worth it. And for wireless, I would just go with the PCE-n53. It is better than any integrated wireless that I have seen. I use one and have never had a single issue with it; rock solid. As far as RAM goes, the Corsair Platinum is quite a bit more expensive than the performance deserves, but screw it. Those things look sick. As far as cooling. I know a lot of people like the H100i. But the H220 will both perform quieter AND at lower temps. Of course, you don't initially plan to overclock. But when you realize how easy it is to do (literally clicking a setting in the motherboard UEFI) the H220 will still perform at the same low volume. The 900D is a cool case, but it is crazy overkill. It is a case built for having water cooling. And not just basic water, absolutely crazy water cooling. I personally recommend Fractal Design, especially considering the desire for silence. The Define R4 gives you a high quality case with a nice side panel window to show off the system, as well as the emphasis on silence with its padding and thick steel. You can mount the H220 right in top with no problem. And I have just taken the exhaust 140mm fan and popped it in front with the other one for dual intake. The front-panel controller makes it easy to run them at silent. Of course, you can always buy some fancy Noctuas or whatever other fans you want to put in front and still take advantage of the fan controller. So I am probably going a bit extra with the power supply, but I have a reason. A TweakTown article shows that a GTX780 SLI setup that is overclocked and running a single SSD has a total system power consumption of about 770W. But also consider the water pump, fans, HDDS, any additional HDDs that might be added down the road, or anything else that might be added you are going to be drawing that much more power. You should be able to get by with something like the Seasonic 860W but the jump to the 1000W unit isn't that crazy of a price, especially considering the overall budget and parts of the build. The Seasonic is crazy efficient. Part of this means that when it isn't under full load, it can run with the fans off since it doesn't generate that much heat. Not to mention the benefit of having clean stable power going to all of your components reducing risk of killing anything. This is just my take on it. I am sure there are a lot of other people that would recommend differently or even tear apart some of my suggestions. And they might be right to do so.

What is your overall budget on this build? What are you primarily using it for? I think it would be a good idea to get an idea of the scope of what you are wanting to do. Do you want to build and then leave it and likely not upgrade it at all? Or do you want to add to the build over the next couple of years? Do you want to get into custom water cooling at all? Or are you focused on silence? Is size important to you? Audio? I think there are a lot of areas where you can save money on components that aren't going to be useful to you. If you aren't overclocking then you are going to spend WAY too much money on a motherboard if you get the Maximus VI. ASUS as well as other mobo manufacturers have some great boards out that will have all the features you will need without making you pay for expensive overclocking features that you aren't ever going to use. Same with CPU. It might save you $100 to get the 4670k instead of 4770k. Of course I haven't read into any benchmarks on those chips yet, so the difference might be bigger than previous Intel generations between the i5 and i7s. And I am not saying you shouldn't pay more money for quality if you can afford it. I am all about quality. Biggest reason I recommend Fractal Design cases is that I love their quality. But, you should never throw away money just because you can afford it. Why pay $2000 for a machine that performs the same as something that might only be $1500? Additionally, any money you can save in one area allows you to spend that budget on parts that make a bigger difference. The money you would save on buying a more appropriate mobo, cpu, and PSU, and then dropping then Titan for a 780 could probably let you buy a second 780. And two 780s are certainly going to outpower a single Titan.

I think the biggest problem is the direction of the tubing. The connectors come straight out of the card. If you see the rig that was put together, the tubing is seriously long and sticks out pretty far. You would either need a really wide case with plenty of clearance or you might end up having to bend the tubing a bit. There is a reason water blocks have the tubing connectors parallel to the side panel and not perpendicular to it.

I don't understand why Logitech designs their mice this way. In terms of buttons I want to get a G400s. It just has the standard mouse wheel, nice clicky left and right buttons, and the forward and back. BUT, I want a wireless mouse. The problem is the G700s has a bunch of extra buttons that I absolutely don't want to have on my mouse. 4 thumb buttons that look like they are all crammed together? No thanks. 3 giant macro buttons next to the left click? Absolutely no way in hell. Not to mention that it uses a laser sensor instead of optical. Wouldn't it make way more sense to have SKUs like a G400s, and a G400w (wireless) and then a G700s and a G700w? This seems to be a problem from every single mouse vendor. Wireless mice are either made for laptop use or have 12 more buttons than I would ever want to use. Anybody else share my pain?

Even though the One isn't in the giveaway that One X+ would be a totally sweet phone.

These look like some serious prizes. I hope everybody watches these vids so the community can get the most prizes available.

I don't understand the box design at all. Its not like anybody is going to look at the box and decide to get a new Intel CPU because of it. But at the same time if I were buying a new rig and I got all my parts in the mail and started unboxing everything and I saw that box, I would have a moment where I would be like "seriously? I bought this?" But then again, it is about performance. And the new chips sound like they are going to perform as expected. Just the same incremental steps we are used to seeing from Intel over the last 4 years or so.

Check out the Fractal Design Arc Midi R2. The overall design is very similar to the Define R4 with more of an emphasis on airflow rather than on silence. I have a Define R4 and absolutely love it, but if you aren't as concerned about sound and want more airflow the Arc Midi is exactly what you are looking for. The interior design is identical as far as I can tell and you get the same amazing build quality that you get from Fractal Design. The exterior has a few changes, the major one being direct filtered intake from the front, rather through side grills. I can't speak for what the real world difference is in terms of system temperature, but there is more airflow with this design. And you get a cool smoked window instead of just clear. Yes, the Tempest will save you money and has good airflow. But, if you are willing to spend $100 on a case I fully endorse the decision. After owning this Define R4 I will never buy a "budget" case again.

Sent you a PM. Enjoy. Turn the lights off and have some fun :)

Totally awesome. I bought Alan Wake for full price on Xbox 360 when if first came out and LOVED it. Pre-ordered it on Steam when it came out. Just bought it again on Humble and am downloading all of the bonus content. Totally awesome. Anybody want my steam keys for the two games?

Oh sweet. I see you have a 280mm rad in the front. I currently have a Swiftech H220 and was thinking that in 6 months to a year whenever I might get a new GPU I would add to the loop and put a radiator in the front. How easy was it to install the rad? I know the shroud has holes and shit for a 240mm rad but I have read/heard that a 280mm requires modding. Is it as simple as just drilling a couple of extra holes through the plastic? Or did you have to do anything else? Also, I really like the build. I love how clean a good Define R4 build can look. I really like that you removed the plastic HDD bracket from the top of the 5.25" bays. I took mine out right away. Much cleaner.

What cases come with motherboard speakers these days? I bought one for something like $2 at Fry's. The kit should fit in the front of the case. You will have to remove the 140mm fan. But the front mounting shroud has fan holes for 240mm rads. Depending on how think your kit is you might have to remove the drive bay entirely, but it will likely work if you remove the middle piece, and then just move the bottom piece. The case has a second set of holes on the bottom of the case to give more space in the front.

The way the fans are located, it is sort of recessed into the case. Meaning that air comes in the side of the front panel, where the slits are, but all that air will feed through the filters, and not the sides of the fans. It is a whole housing unit where solid plastic rounds around the entire outside, and only allows air through the filter. The door the clicks open and folds down looks like it is removable, but it might be a bit tricky. It probably wouldn't make any difference in airflow if you removed it. The Define R4 is designed around silence. It has solid airflow, but not the best. If you really want airflow you should check out the Arc Midi R2. The internal design is basically identical to the Define R4. The biggest difference between the case is that the Arc Midi R2 intakes air directly from the front, there is no panel that covers the two front intakes, just some mesh and a filter. I think my only complaint about the case would be the SSD mounting mechanism behind the motherboard tray. It works, but it requires you to screw the SSD directly into the tray, which means you have to remove the entire motherboard to access it. Outside of that I absolutely LOVE my Define R4. Crazy thick metal, crazy good build quality. I highly recommend it.

I do like Corsair products. I have owned a handful of them, and still own a few things from them. Obviously there is the balance of how good of a product a company can deliver vs how much it costs. And Corsair has expanded a lot over the last 2 or 3 years and it just feels like a lot of their products are just 90% there. Though I will admit some of my complaints have to do with personal preference, and not specifically quality of product. One major thing that kills me is their keyboards. I have a K90 for about a week before I had to return it. I absolutely loved the aluminum panel, and the feel of the keycaps were amazing. But they took a huge dump by making the a bunch of the keys rubber dome. But the biggest thing that I couldn't get used to were the Cherry MX Red switches. Just way too sensitive for me and I was constantly mistyping and hitting wrong keys. Their two new keyboards look sick and they actually made all the keys mechanical, which is progress. But again, they use Cherry MX Reds, just blows my mind. If Corsair released their K70 keyboard in different switches, and different backlighting (i hate red light) then I think they would hit a much larger market. I would say outside of their lighting and switches they have some of the best build quality of the major keyboards on the market, and at a reasonable price. I absolutely can't comprehend their headset decisions. I would absolutely never purchase any of the headsets that they have simply because they are all USB devices. Anybody that has a dedicated sound card has absolutely no use for their headsets. Their RAM is obviously solid. I have 16GB of Vengeance LP and love them. I would really love to get some Dominator Platinums just because they looks absolutely gorgeous. Note, white led, love it. I think they took one step forward and one step back with their AIO water coolers. I had the H80, which had to be RMAd and replaced with the H80i. I would definitely prefer the H80. Corsair Link is absolutely worthless software. The thicker tubes theoretically offer better cooling performance but they are much bulkier than the previous tubing and it was notable more difficult to install compared to the H80. I think Corsairs strongest areas are cases and PSUs. Obviously their PSUs are just branded by them, but most, if not all, of their units are made by quality manufacturers. My biggest regret with my brothers build I did for him years ago with an i7-920 was not getting the HX750. I currently have the Corsair AX850 and love it. I also had a 300R up until a month ago or so. My Fractal Design Define R4 is so much nicer of a case, but it was a bit more expensive, and totally worth that cost, IMO. I think the 200R and 300R are great cases at a lower price point, and great for somebody new to building computers if they don't have a large enough budget to fit a $100 case. I have kind of gone on a long rant now, sorry. I really do like Corsair. Some of their products are absolutely great. Some of them have some faults. Most of the time I wouldn't care about problems with products but I think because I do like Corsair it makes me that much more frustrated when some of their products don't meet the standards that most of us come to expect from them. *edit* I guess the Corsair Vengeance 1300 is a higher end headset use analog input to work with a sound card.

Mine didn't have any wrapping on it. Everything was in great condition inside, however.

I haven't used any sort of ad blocker for years now. Most sites that I go to on a regular basis have ads that aren't intrusive to the content of the website and I understand that those ads can help that site continue functioning, at least partially. Anytime I visit a site that has any sort of intrusive ads, I just leave. If a website requires me to have an ad blocker to be capable of sorting through their bullshit then they aren't worth my time and the quality of their content is almost certainly far below what anybody should expect.