PSU, RAM and CPU Cooler replacement.

[Slomka]

Hi guys!

Just recentry I bought a brand new i7-6700, ASRock Extreme 4, 4x4GB DDR4 HyperX Predator RAM, Kraken X41 and a HDD and SSD.

Sadly there are a few problems with my rig that I wish to solve and I came here to ask you guys for advice and opinion.

1st thing.

My PSU is 5 years old BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 9 750W. So far it gave me no problem with power or anything but for a couple of weeks it started to get the anoying coil whine it's not very serious, but still anoying. Happens only on low load so when I'm not gaming or sth and would like my PC to be quiet.

Because of that I thought of replacing it. I'm concidering 2 PSUs. BeQuiet! Dark Power Pro 11 750W or Corsair RM 750W. I read that BeQuiet is concidered to be a better company and offer quite good quality and I'm willing to buy Dark Power Pro 11, but I wanted to consult it with you guys.

2nd thing.

My Kingston HyperX Predator 4x4GB DDR4 3200MHz seem not to be so "Hyper". When running on XMP 1 aplications such as games crash after a couple of minutes. I get no problems on default settings but I believe they should run on XMP 1 just fine. You think I can RMA them? Is the XMP problem viable for RMA? After I RMA them i plan to sell the new ones I get in replacement and replace my Predators with Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB 3000MHz. I heard a lot of good things about this RAM. Again. Just asking for an opinion and advice.

3rd thing.

Kraken X41 is.... not really satisfying. I bought it and hoped to get quiet and efficient cooling. What I got was pretty decent cooler in terms of performance, but the pump is noisy.... Sometimes I can hear a clicking noise. I read that it could be caused by air trapped inside the pump. I tried tilting it and it seems to be better (but still not perfect) plus the pump creates vibration which transfer to case and to my desk. Anoying as hell. So i thought about replacing it. I had Noctua NH-14D and was pretty happy with it. Now i borrowed it to my friend. Untill he gives it back to me I thought about buying Dark Rock 3 or Dark Rock PRO 3. I read that they are quiet, give good performance and look very nice for me and the looks of my rig is important for me (that's why I got X41 but it turned out to be... crap...). What do you think about those coolers? I think about slight overclock of my i7-6700k in the future. Do you think there coolers are ok? Maybe some other sudgestions? Or maybe I'll push my friend to get my Noctua back and I'll strap some Silent Wings 3 on it to make it look better cuz to be honest it's horrible looking Very good performance thou.

So guys please give me some advice on these 3 problems.

PS I love Linus and his Linus Tech Tips YouTube chanel and decided to give his forum a shot.

[Streetguru]

Hi guys!

On the power supply front you should probably go with the corsair one, or for a bit more step up to an 850W PSU that's gold rated

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182324&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker,%20LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

 

As far as your RAM goes, it's most likely your motherboard that's the issue, but the speed of your RAM doesn't really matter for much of anything anyways so, probably not worth the effort.

 

And on the all in one cooler front, it's really only worth it to get a 240m radiator over air cooling unless you're in an ITX rig where you can't fit a large air cooler.

Otherwise the Nepton 240m is pretty cheap and silent at $105

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-rln24m24pkr1

 

[Guest]

I would look at the EVGA G2 750W for the power supply. 

 

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=380

 

The BeQuiet Dark Rock coolers are very good. The only negative is that they are a bit fiddly to install (I have a Dark Rock 2).

[Slomka]

Yeah I heard that Dark Rocks are tricky to install but that's not a big deal unless i get good performing and nice and quiet cooler.

I have Define R5 so I could mount 280mm liquid cooler on the front. But I don't think I need THAT much performance.

 

On the power supply front you should probably go with the corsair one, or for a bit more step up to an 850W PSU that's gold rated
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182324&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker,%20LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

 

As far as your RAM goes, it's most likely your motherboard that's the issue, but the speed of your RAM doesn't really matter for much of anything anyways so, probably not worth the effort.

 

And on the all in one cooler front, it's really only worth it to get a 240m radiator over air cooling unless you're in an ITX rig where you can't fit a large air cooler.

Otherwise the Nepton 240m is pretty cheap and silent at $105
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-rln24m24pkr1
 

Dark Power Pro I mentioned is also 80 Gold if not Platinum. And even 750W is a bit overkill for me so no point in investing in 850W.

[PrivateSpades]

Hi guys!

I am probably going to use a Corsair RM series psu in my build, they are a bit pricy but are decent, modular etc and get good reviews.

Plausible noob answer, but maybe tone down on the frequency of the ram? 2400Hz perhaps?

If you are okay with air cooling, Cooler Master Hyper 212X is decent and I will be using that in my build for slight overclocking.

[Dimwitted]

From your build list I see that you must be from Europe. In that case...

 

Instead of the usual advice of looking at the EVGA units, stick with the Be Quiet! 11. It's a FSP based unit, semi modular but it's Platinum, it has some very nice features and should be a better unit than the plain RM's from Corsair. I don't know about the RAM. The Dark Rock 3 is a great unit. Once installed it will perform for quite a while and looks great and is totally silent. Highly recommended! Just check your clearances, especially with tall RAM and with the DR Pro 3. It's big!

[Slomka]

I am probably going to use a Corsair RM series psu in my build, they are a bit pricy but are decent, modular etc and get good reviews.

Plausible noob answer, but maybe tone down on the frequency of the ram? 2400Hz perhaps?

If you are okay with air cooling, Cooler Master Hyper 212X is decent and I will be using that in my build for slight overclocking.

Yeah my friend has RM 750 and it's really nice and quiet (so far), but I read that BeQuiet being a little more pricy gives more solid quality and reliability.

As I said when they run on stock 2133Hz (I believe thats the default speed) it's ok. But when I get them in XMP1 3000MHz they crash and they are advertised for this so they should be working. I will try removing 2 of the sticks so I run on one channel and then test the XMP1. So Steetguru if you say it could be MB fault is it sufficient to RMA it?

And yeah I'm ok with air. I just went with water for cooler looks but now I'm a liitle bit estranged with AIO water cooling and I'm afraid that the next water cooler could make the same noise, so I'm eager to go for a nice looking air cooler such as Dark Rocks.

@Dimwitted

Yes, I'm from Europe Poland, Warsaw. How did you know?

[Guest]

From your build list I see that you must be from Europe. In that case...

 

Instead of the usual advice of looking at the EVGA units, stick with the Be Quiet! 11. It's a FSP based unit, semi modular but it's Platinum, it has some very nice features and should be a better unit than the plain RM's from Corsair. I don't know about the RAM. The Dark Rock 3 is a great unit. Once installed it will perform for quite a while and looks great and is totally silent. Highly recommended! Just check your clearances, especially with tall RAM and with the DR Pro 3. It's big!

 

BeQuiet power supplies are usually very expensive compared to some other brands. I would say that 99% of the time you can get something better for less money. 

[Guest]

I am probably going to use a Corsair RM series psu in my build, they are a bit pricy but are decent, modular etc and get good reviews.

Plausible noob answer, but maybe tone down on the frequency of the ram? 2400Hz perhaps?

If you are okay with air cooling, Cooler Master Hyper 212X is decent and I will be using that in my build for slight overclocking.

 

The RM isn't that great for the price. The newer RMi and RMx are a lot better. You can probably get an EVGA G2/GS for less.

[Slomka]

EVGA PSUs are hard to get in Poland. I found some 550W and 1000W and more but seems like they don't import 750W versions so EVGA is out for me.

[Guest]

EVGA PSUs are hard to get in Poland. I found some 550W and 1000W and more but seems like they don't import 750W versions so EVGA is out for me.

 

XFX, SuperFlower, Seasonic, Antec (High current gamer, Edge) are all good if they are available.

[Slomka]

XFX, SuperFlower, Seasonic, Antec (High current gamer, Edge) are all good if they are available.

Okay. All these are aviable,

In the order of price for 750W version.

Antec HCP-750-EC   ~196,28 USD

Seasonic X-750 80 Plus Gold  ~185 USD

Super Flower Leadex Platinum 750W    ~172 USD

Antec EDGE GOLD 750W   ~142 USD

 

and BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 11 750W Platinium - my favourit is for  ~200 USD

and i don't mind spending this 200 USD on my PSU as long as i get reliable and quiet unit.

[Guest]

Okay. All these are aviable,

In the order of price for 750W version.

Antec HCP-750-EC   ~196,28 USD

Seasonic X-750 80 Plus Gold  ~185 USD

Super Flower Leadex Platinum 750W    ~172 USD

Antec EDGE GOLD 750W   ~142 USD

 

and BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 11 750W Platinium - my favourit is for  ~200 USD

and i don't mind spending this 200 USD on my PSU as long as i get reliable and quiet unit.

 

The BeQuiet will probably be the most silent once the fan kicks in, as it uses a 135mm Silentwings fan. If you look at the review for the 850W version below, you can see that it is 33.1 dBA at full load, which is pretty darn quiet. The 750W version also uses the same fan so results should be very similar.

 

http://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/be-quiet-dark-power-pro-11-850w-psu-review/6/

 

If you are happy to spend the money, then the BeQuiet is a good unit. The other units you listed are all very good though, so it might be an idea to see if you can find reviews that show fan noise before you purchase anything.

[Slomka]

Thanks. That makes the PSU topic clear for me.

About CPU cooling. I read a few Dark Rock 3 and PRO reviews. Their performance is nearly identical on base clocks. Dark Rock is a bit quieter and smaller. The difference in temp on stock clock is 1 degree only. It goes up to about 5 degees when overclocked so i think I'll go for noPro since its much cheaper, quieter and smaller.

But what about RAM? Should I RMA my motherboard? I think I'll test it on 2 sticks XMP1 and we will see if it crashes. But I want this 16BG. Can it be the 2 chanell issue? So once i get 16GB on one channel (2x8GB) it should be running ok?

[Guest]

Thanks. That makes the PSU topic clear for me.

About CPU cooling. I read a few Dark Rock 3 and PRO reviews. Their performance is nearly identical on base clocks. Dark Rock is a bit quieter and smaller. The difference in temp on stock clock is 1 degree only. It goes up to about 5 degees when overclocked so i think I'll go for noPro since its much cheaper, quieter and smaller.

But what about RAM? Should I RMA my motherboard? I think I'll test it on 2 sticks XMP1 and we will see if it crashes. But I want this 16BG. Can it be the 2 chanell issue? So once i get 16GB on one channel (2x8GB) it should be running ok?

 

I just noticed in your opening post that you have Kingston HyperX Predator Ram. I assumed you had the normal HyperX Fury. The Predator Ram is very tall, so it won't go under the BeQuiet cooler. If you can RMA the Ram then the Corsair Vengeance LPX will fit under no problem. You can then go with a 2 x 8GB set.

 

If for any reason you can't change the Ram then you would need either a water cooler, or a cooler that doesn't cover the Ram slots. The Noctua D15S for example doesn't cover any Ram slots. You can always swap the fans for BeQuiet or some other Black fans to make it look nicer.

 

 

As for your current Ram, I am not sure why it won't work at 3200 speed. Maybe as you say try a couple of sticks just to see if it makes any difference. Also 4 x 4GB is still dual channel so that can't be the issue. 

[Slomka]

I just noticed in your opening post that you have Kingston HyperX Predator Ram. I assumed you had the normal HyperX Fury. The Predator Ram is very tall, so it won't go under the BeQuiet cooler. If you can RMA the Ram then the Corsair Vengeance LPX will fit under no problem. You can then go with a 2 x 8GB set.

 

If for any reason you can't change the Ram then you would need either a water cooler, or a cooler that doesn't cover the Ram slots. The Noctua D15S for example doesn't cover any Ram slots. You can always swap the fans for BeQuiet or some other Black fans to make it look nicer.

 

 

As for your current Ram, I am not sure why it won't work at 3200 speed. Maybe as you say try a couple of sticks just to see if it makes any difference. Also 4 x 4GB is still dual channel so that can't be the issue. 

That's my point. There may be an issue with dual chanel 3200MHz speed. I'll try single channel.

And that's what I planned to do. Buy Vengeance 2x8GB, RMA Predator and sell it when I get it back.

 

[Dimwitted]

As I said, stick with Be Quiet! Not only are they a good unit but your support options are much stronger with them over probably anyone else in Europe. With the RAM issue, 3000 or 3200 is pretty aggressive for DDR4. That fast is usually a particular kit beyond the standard versions for sale. Look at the Corsair Platinum DDR4. It's even a unique colour. So it's probably your RAM choice and not the board. Maybe. Keep experimenting before you return it. Overall, even with DDR4, there really isn't a huge upside to ocing RAM. Stable is far more important than a couple of mHz.

[Slomka]

So I run some experiments with my RAM. At first I took out 2 modules and run on just 2 left on 1 channel. They run with no problems on XMP1. I then switched them to different sockets. No problems again. I then swaped modules with the 2 unchecked. They ran ok on 3000MHz on all slots on 1 channel. Then I mounted all 4 modules and tried to boot on XMP 1 (3000MHz). And this is where problems began. The post showed a message like "The system has failed to boot several times. Go to uefi to change settings" or something like that. After this message the Windows started up. I checked the RAM speeds in CPU-Z and it was 1076 (CR2T), so it run on default 2133MHz. When I changed the XMP Profile back to "Auto" so it run on default frequency it booted just fine. But as you sair Dimwitted, 3000MHz is a lot but this RAM is advertised for this speed so I would expect it to work. I'll try boot it on XMP2 (2666MHZ) later and we will see if it runs. Is this a problem with my mobo and 2 channel RAM? Should I RMA?

[Slomka]

Any sudgestions and comments to my little experiments?

[Slomka]

I will add that I have updated to the latest ASRock BIOS 1.5 version. Could it be a BIOS problem? Should a newer version once it comes out solve this? Or is this hardware issue?