My New Haswell Rig: A Two-Part Review

Boozad

Prolific Poster
Download Coretemp, it will give you the temperature of each core in realtime in a Windows environment. I just had an hour on Deus Ex with max settings and my 780 peaked at 68°C with the fan at just 33%. I'm sure more taxing games will require a higher fan rate, but the smoothness of the game was lush and I was pretty pleased with temps all round with cores hitting 45°C max. Even with ramping the GPU fan up slightly the rig was still whisper quiet too.
 
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nathanjrb

Prolific Poster
Wouldn't be as interesting as yours! My pictures would just show an identical mobo, gpu, case power supply (750) and cooler :p

but here is the system just setup now next to my desk.

I'm using the BIOS readouts (averaging just now at 33 after running the Nvidia "faceworks" demo http://www.nvidia.co.uk/coolstuff/demos#!/lifelike-human-face-rendering ) View attachment 3262View attachment 3263

I think what makes this whole system all the better, IS the fact you have a near identical setup. Highlights that as a "convergence" or components...it's destined to be!

Do you have your sub placed between your two screens?
 

OneZeoN

Enthusiast
Wouldn't be as interesting as yours! My pictures would just show an identical mobo, gpu, case power supply (750) and cooler :p

but here is the system just setup now next to my desk.

I'm using the BIOS readouts (averaging just now at 33 after running the Nvidia "faceworks" demo http://www.nvidia.co.uk/coolstuff/demos#!/lifelike-human-face-rendering ) View attachment 3262View attachment 3263

I think what makes this whole system all the better, IS the fact you have a near identical setup. Highlights that as a "convergence" or components...it's destined to be!

Nintendo WiiU [rollinglaugh]

Nice pc though :D
 

ragingwhisky

Bronze Level Poster
Don't be so jealous ;-) I'm a huge zelda fan and never got a chance to play skyward so an "HDMI Wii" was too good to pass up.

Besides, the PS3 is only just out of shot.

@Boozad
Downloaded it - much better tool.

I look forward to review part 2 as i've noticed a fan in the box (tracing which one today) has a noticable high/low "whirrrr" during idle operation instead of gradual up and down revving.
 

nathanjrb

Prolific Poster
Yes.....yes I do.

I have hard floors so any bass resonates throughout the house if its on the floor.



Is it wise to place it between the monitors? I'm not sure, but aren't you supposed to place them away from things like that because of the magnets inside?
 

Boozad

Prolific Poster
I look forward to review part 2 as i've noticed a fan in the box (tracing which one today) has a noticable high/low "whirrrr" during idle operation instead of gradual up and down revving.

I'm writing it up in Word when I have five minutes here and there. I may as well make a proper review of the rig and individual components so I'll take my time on it. Open ASUS AI Suite II and go to fan control, you can go through each fan individually and adjust their settings. You should be able to find out which fan it is easier that way.
 

Boozad

Prolific Poster
OK, I didn't want to leave this too long but the review is taking me longer to write up than I thought, so I'm going to do it in installments. Here's the first one, enjoy!

Act IV – The Build (Spec-sy Beast)

I’ll start off by saying I’m not an Alan Carr fan in any way shape or form and it galls me to even reference him, but to not have stolen that title would have been rude. So here we start delving into the components that I’d spent so much time reading up on and deciding on, and seeing as I had put such an emphasis on performance, quietness and internal aesthetics I’m extremely impressed with the final package.
The rig was built by James Dransfield, tested by Garnet Heller and QCd and packed by Adam Kirby. A big shout out to James as the rig looks stunning inside, the 780 and the Z87 really set the look off and the cable management leaves both components more than enough space to be admired and kept cool.

3DMark Results: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/790098

Cooler Master Silencio 650
I chose my fallback option case (Cooler Master Silencio 650) for its sleek minimal look, low noise levels and black interior along with behind-the-tray cable routing options, and it certainly gives great bang for the buck in all departments. It is indeed a very quiet case which works well in unison with the internal components to keep the noise emissions to a bare minimum, even when under load the noise levels are extremely low while temperatures remain very favourable. I’m not utilising the roof fan at the moment, I left that out intentionally to see how temps ran with the stock fitted intakes and exhaust with the option to add later, but the setup seems to be handling temperatures and noise levels just fine so the lid stays shut at the back.
There is plenty of room to upgrade at a later date (I know I’ll fancy throwing another 780 in there at some point), and while it would be possible to add an oversized modded GPU by removing the middle HDD cage it would mean relocating the SSD/HDDs so I I'll be giving those a miss. Plus Palit's 780 has me purring (see below) so that would be my SLI choice.
The only small gripe I have with the 650 is the headphone and mic ports, they are positioned on the top of the case at the front and insertion of the jacks takes some force really which just makes me feel like I’m going to push my top panel in. So I suppose that’s not a gripe at all really, just me being paranoid.

ASUS Sabertooth Z87
I’m so glad I opted to re-order and choose this board, so far it’s blown me away. The look of the board is stunning against the black internals of the 650, and it looks as if the components and cables are all integrated into the case itself which was the effect I was looking for.
The performance reflects the look of the board and starts to justify the price beyond being just aesthetically pleasing. The addition of the thermal armour and assistant board fans is a massive bonus, the air flow around the board really helps to keep temperatures down and the fans aren’t even audible. Hats off to ASUS there for that design, and coupled with the fan control section of AI Suite III it’s extremely easy to find an excellent low noise/high cooling setup that seems to have no trade off on either aspect.
I did have some trouble with the USB 3.0 setup at first, speeds were around USB 2.0 levels to my Touro Mobile but downloading the latest drivers from the ASUS website partially sorted that. I now have two of the six ports working at 3.0 speeds, I just need to figure out what’s controlling the other two banks of two ports. I also installed the latest LAN drivers as my connection seemed a bit glitch, but that may have been down to my ISP.
Overall I love this board, it’s most probably overkill in my rig but I had my heart set on it and it’s not disappointed one bit. If you fancy treating yourself to an expensive, awesome looking board just for the hell of it, go for this one.

EDIT: I've still to get the front two USB ports to work at 3.0 speeds (although all four on the back are working at proper speeds now), but I presume that's down to the header. I'll get to the bottom of it and it's not taking the shine off the board in the slightest.

GTX 780
Stunning. That really does sum up this card quite fittingly; the 780 looks stunning in every way. The Titanesque casing stands beautifully over the Z87 and demands respect, and so it should as the performance certainly matches its dominating appearance. Admittedly I’m not using the card to its full potential at the moment as I’m gaming on a single 1080p 60Hz monitor (Samsung SyncMaster S24B300), but so far in Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Grid 2 the card has delivered silky smooth gameplay with constant frame rates on Ultra settings. I’ve yet to stress it with Last Light or Crysis 3, but I may get onto that this weekend.
It will certainly be interesting to hear the card when it’s taking on the more graphically intensive games as so far it’s been a quiet revelation. With fans running at 50% it’s definitely audible, but it’s a level that’s more than acceptable in anybody’s rig, in fact it’s so quiet even the missus hasn’t moaned about it. Not once. That’s testament to nVidia’s cooling system and I can see why it’s being praised so highly in so many reviews, and on top of the distinct lack of noise levels it also keeps the card at around the (very pleasant) 65°C mark while under load.
So my first ever dip into the GTX GPU world has been an inspiring, pleasantly surprising one. I’ve fallen in love with the card almost immediately, and given I was set on only buying ASUS aftermarket cards from now on, that’s certainly some feat for a reference card. Add in the GeForce Experience software and this package looks like a very astute buy, and the whole package makes me feel inclined to give it a 9.5/10. Let’s see what happens when the big boys put it to work…

Corsair Pro Series HX850-80 Gold Modular
I’ve got to admit that I never really looked at top end PSUs before starting to spec up this rig, and the last time I ordered I went for a 450W PSU just because it had ‘quiet’ in the name. That caused problems a few weeks down the line as I looked to upgrade my GPU and of course I was extremely limited to what I could buy due to power restrictions. So this time round a much higher wattage PSU was needed.
I read into the Gold Modular series for quite a while and there was nothing to dislike, they’re extremely efficient with surprisingly low noise levels, and being modular they really assist cable management. I haven’t measured power draw yet but I’ll trust Corsair’s specs and the many reviews I read that this PSU is performing as it should with regards to efficiency, and as for noise levels it’s a breath of fresh air with an absolutely tiny output.
It may not be a cheap PSU, but in spending that extra I’ve got exactly what I wanted in terms of performance and looks.

Intel 520 Series 240GB SSD (Plus Caviar Black & Green)
This is my first venture in the world of SSDs, and I’ll admit I’ve been blown away. I was a bit sceptical to say the least about needing faster boot times and quicker access to files and programs, but having seen the drive in action I can now see what all the fuss is about. I have the disk set as my OS drive and have loaded just a few programs on that I use on a regular basis; VM Security, Office 2010, Adobe CS2, and I’m already seeing the benefits. My rig is up and running now in around 15 seconds, and having VM Security on the SSD has probably made the most noticeable difference as it runs at startup and does normally take a while to load. On my old rig I’d power up, turn the kettle on, have a smoke, make a coffee and then sit down to the rig just finalising its boot, now with this SSD I barely have time to sit down and get comfortable before I’m away and working.
I can also see a huge difference with the Office application, Outlook in particular which now starts in a matter of a couple of seconds and no longer appears to be the resource hog it never was. Opening Excel documents with Macro keys are instant, it’s wonderful to watch spreadsheets open literally at the touch of a button.
And of course one huge bonus for the people yearning for a quiet rig is no moving parts equals a completely silent drive. My last rig bought a few months ago had a Caviar Black as its OS disk, and while its performance was unquestionable for an HDD, it tended to grumble away constantly as the OS performed its background tasks and installing programs was extremely noisy, and that is eliminated with the SSD. I’ve read it said that once you’ve gone with an SSD there’s no going back, I’m now firmly in that camp.

As my backup drives I have a 2TB Caviar Black which is split into three partitions; 1TB for Steam, Origin and other program files, 500GB for files I’m working on and 500GB for movies and TV shows to be streamed. I also have a 2TB Caviar Green (having the same partition setup as the black) which is used solely for storage and backup.
The black performs superbly in this role giving excellent response and loading times for games, and as the OS isn’t constantly working it the grumbly noise levels have dropped right away. I’m glad I paid a lot of attention to how the drive configurations were set up as I’m reaping the rewards right now.
 
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Boozad

Prolific Poster
OK, I couldn't fit this last bit into the first post so here's the final piece.

Intel i5-4670k
There's not much I can say about this chip at the moment other than it's pretty brilliant. When I researched the A10 before buying one AMD advertised it as offering 'blazing fast computing' and it certainly was an improvement on my old Athlon II, but while the chip never let me down in anything more than a slight bottleneck when sprinting in Bioshock Infinite, it's now apparent that the APU just isn't in the same league as the new Haswell. That may well be an unfair comparison in real terms, but those are the exact chips I had running against each other over the past two weeks.
The 4670k is smooth, really smooth. The PC runs like an absolute dream whether it's processing data, rendering graphic work or playing games, the Haswell chip is handling everything that's being thrown at it so far, no bottlenecks and it seems completely in tune with the 780 during gaming sessions. It's my first time with an Intel CPU and again I'm pleasantly surprised. I've just got to get my head round all the extras you get in an Intel system that AMD don't do, whether they're a good thing remains to be seen, but as it stands I couldn't ask for more than the 4670k.


Summary
I know I've babbled on a bit during this review but I felt I really wanted to share exactly how I felt about this rig, I sacrificed a lot to be able to afford it so quickly and ultimately it hasn't disappointed me one bit. I've always dreamed about owning a high end PC, one that you could literally feel the power oozing out of, and between the CPU, GPU and SSD this delivers that in spades. I have been surprised by the sheer speed of the thing, even though I was expecting a marked improvement from my last rig you just have to see it to believe it really. I get a huge buzz when programs load in a fraction of the time they used to and files open instantly with the touch of a macro key. Adobe CS2 has received a huge performance boost in loading and rendering times which will make my life just that little bit easier, Office is a pure pleasure to work with and games are slick, smooth, responsive and gorgeous to look at.
It seems my component homework paid off too in the end, I was slightly worried toward the end of the rig's stint in QC that it would be impossible to keep so many high end components quiet in any case, but the Cooler Master 650 has outdone itself, factoring in the sheer brilliance of the 780's cooling system and the nifty additions ASUS have made to the Z87, and of course the SSD operating disk, the rig runs so quietly overall I honestly did not believe it possible. I've kept my eye trained on temperatures as well as that would be the obvious trade off with a quiet case, but they've honestly been very well behaved so far leaving me sitting playing games on Ultra settings without a care in the world.

So to sum it all up I’d have to give the rig and the whole PCS experience a solid, well deserved 10/10, from moosEh’s handling of my call, through the building and testing phase down to getting the machine up and running and optimised to give me maximum pleasure and supreme performance.
 
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Boozad

Prolific Poster
Mate it's a dream rig, it really is. I know it's sad but I actually sit there sometimes just opening files and programs just to see how quick it is.
 

ragingwhisky

Bronze Level Poster
I can second your review,

Had mine since saturday and the only differences between our rigs are that I opted for the standard 4770 and had the 750 Gold PSU (pretty much).

It's when you look into the build and you realise "where the hell have the wires gone!", when I'm at work, I'm so used to having to deal with wires trailing all over the place, especially within my home microserver so to have a system that looks that clean and clutter free is pleasant change.

Fun feature i've never had before as well - hidden amongst the "yuffy" BIOS is the feature to enable you to use the Integrated "HDMI" on the motherboard so I was able to use the 780 for my main 24" monitor, and the iGPU HDMI for the 32". Likely old hat to most desktop PC users, but for someone like me used to being singled to a single HDMI within laptops it was a revelation!

Oh and Running 6 instances of W2K8R2 barely scratched the CPU performance!

Kudos on the build and enjoy!
 

Boozad

Prolific Poster
Had a couple of hours on Crysis 3, and what an experience. The 780 has been pumping out a solid 60fps without fail with settings on very high, the game looks absolutely stunning and plays as smooth as butter. The GPU is running around 80°C with the fan at 50%. Very happy so far, this is where I realise how it was money really well spent.

Crysis 3 #1.jpg Crysis 3 #2.jpg Crysis 3 #3.jpg
 

ragingwhisky

Bronze Level Poster
Very impressive...the annoying thing is that I already owned C3 on the playstation so in terms of games to "stress" the GPU the best i had available was Shogun 2.
 

Boozad

Prolific Poster
Pick up Metro: Last Light, you can get it for £16.99 from SimplyCDKeys. That'll give your 780 a run for its money.
 
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