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[Darkone]

See the part where I said, "Someone has checked your parts" If you know everything is compatible, actually putting it together is child's play. The hardest part is either physically getting everything into place (can be a pain to get heatsinks to clip in, sometimes tight spaces, sometimes heatsinks have sharp edges, etc), or hooking up the front headers for the first time.

As for the PSU, looks okay. Three rails on 600w is a bit of an alarm, but otherwise looks okay. Seems to be handling similar systems just fine, though if you have a bottom mounted PSU, apparently the main is a bit short. As for the card, if you meant Palit, it looks okay. I'm not a fan of exhausting waste heat into the case though.

That reminds me, how's the airflow in your case? Important, given that you'll have hot air being manufactured in there

[Aqizzar]

That reminds me, how's the airflow in your case? Important, given that you'll have hot air being manufactured in there

The PSU is top-mounted like most PCs, and incredibly quiet.  The graphics card mounting is worrying, since the built-in fan blows down into the bottom of the case (past the TV tuner card), so all the heat rises up... Into the big air-funnel for the processor fan.  That thing sucks air through a grate in the side of the case, which is kinda large.  Point is, it's a very open case with a big fan on the processor, even is everything is kinda oddly mounted.  Although that means the thing is going to fill with dust and cat hair like the last one.

[lordnincompoop]

Remenber to buy a can of compressed air and use it on the computer (preferably in the garage or something) every few months to rid it of dust buildup; this can dramatically increase the lifespan of a computer.

Also, invest in dust filters. I can't personally attest to them, but apparently they're very useful.

[Rose]

nobody will need 16GB anyways.

Correction: Nobody without my job.

I got 12 right now and run out.

12?  CAD? Hard core graphic design?  Attempting to plot the gravitic waves of black holes?

good guess. I do 3D renderings of buildings.
Also, I'd strongly advise against cleaning with compressed air. The static buildup on those things can be fatal to a computer. Even soap and water is a better idea. Just remember to let it dry for two days before using it again.

[Darkone]

Have to get the good compressed air, or at least one with a nice narrow straw-thing. It takes a LOT of pressure to get dust off sometimes. They also make little mini-vacuums for this that I've had suggested to me. Careful with any sort of filter- CPU fans have low pressure in general, so a filter can heavily impact their airflow (same as dust!). A soft brush does wonders for cleaning things. In the case of my computer, it has many large, slow fans, so cleaning is more of just cleaning, than of airflow/temperature or lifespan.

Also, have you felt the fan in operation? I would have thought that a design like that would push rather than draw.

[Starver]

As for the PSU, looks okay. Three rails on 600w is a bit of an alarm, but otherwise looks okay.

If it is multi-rail[1], you're supposed to take your loads and spread them across each rail.  How you do that depends on what you've got, what demands there are, probably more than that how accurate the literature is when it comes to giving you this information.  But, yes, if your graphics card has two inputs, try to take separate ones from the PSU.

Although most 'multi-rail' supplies are just single-rail pretending to be multi-rail.  A term I've seen used is "Current sharing", which essentially means it's really just one rail after all.  Saves on putting multiple copies of the necessary circuitry in the case, I believe, although a colleague of mine has more experience with that kind of thing (I limit myself to changing PSU fans that fail and some basic examination to make sure no obvious caps are blown, when not just replacing faulty units without wasting time on such minutiae).


[1] I haven't looked at the specs given, and as I'm sure everyone who did and can do so has already given the best information I can't think that it'll help any if I do suddenly decide to.

[Aqizzar]

Okay, this is freaking weird.  I was running Stalker: Call of Pripyat for the first time, and I noticed a whining noise.  I turned off my speakers, and I could tell it was coming from inside the case, near the bottom.  I.E., the graphics card was whining.  The ridiculous thing was, I was going through the game's options menu, and as I shifted from one menu page to another, the card's whining would change pitch, as would scrolling over options.  It was like the more glowy-option-buttons were on screen at once, the higher the pitch, changing instantaneously.  It certainly wasn't doing that in Borderlands, or at any other time.

So yeah, that's scaring the crap out of me.  Anyone else ever seen something like that?

[Rose]

this is your graphics card telling you that it's working extra hard to keep itself cool.

that's the sound of the fan changing speed.

[Aqizzar]

Well yeah, it's self-explanatory that the graphics card is getting hot, but should it be getting hot?  Call of Pripyat isn't exactly out of its spec-range, and everything's got good ventilation.  I don't think the options menu, and only in that game, should make the card-fan sound like it's about to take flight.

[Rose]

From what I know, it has nothing to do with actual heat, and more to do with card usage.

There's a variety of software you can get that will let you adjust the speed of the fan at various GPU levels. I think RivaTuner is one, and MSI makes their own AfterBurner software that is really good, and commonly works just fine on non-MSI cards.

[Nadaka]

I stopped reading at the first post... ATI is not crappy, and hasn't been for a very long time. They are just as reliable, powerful and valueable as NVIDIA cards.

Well yeah, it's self-explanatory that the graphics card is getting hot, but should it be getting hot?  Call of Pripyat isn't exactly out of its spec-range, and everything's got good ventilation.  I don't think the options menu, and only in that game, should make the card-fan sound like it's about to take flight.

From what I have heard Call of Pripyat was a horribly designed game. I would not be surprised at all if the menu's were using a ridiculously processor intensive real time 3d lighting effects.

[white_darkness]

nobody will need 16GB anyways.

Correction: Nobody without my job.

I got 12 right now and run out.

12?  CAD? Hard core graphic design?  Attempting to plot the gravitic waves of black holes?

good guess. I do 3D renderings of buildings.
Also, I'd strongly advise against cleaning with compressed air. The static buildup on those things can be fatal to a computer. Even soap and water is a better idea. Just remember to let it dry for two days before using it again.

Yeah, you can burn that RAM doing 3D modelling.

So now the graphic card fan is whining.  The important question is, is it only that game that it does that? If yes, then it's just Call of Pripyat.  If no, then something is wrong, if the card is still under warranty, get another.

[Simmura McCrea]

Call of Pripyat fried my last graphics card despite it being easily capable of handling the game on max everything.

[Aqizzar]

It made all that noise almost immediately with Call of Pripyat, but it's not the only game.  Empire TW did the same during battle scenes.  At not point did I notice any kind of performance issues or glitches, and I certainly know what they look like.

Now by bigger fear is that the case isn't ventilating properly, which is incredible given how open it is.  The back has a grill-port for an extra case-fan, and there's a grill in the removable sidewall for the processor's funneled fan.  But while playing Empire, I noticed that the front-bottom corner of the case was hot to the touch.  There's nothing actually there, just empty space under the hard drive, but apparently no ventilation, which would make sense because the fan on the graphics card blows down onto the bottom of the box.  I took the sidewall off and blew some air in there, and after a minute the fan slowed down a bit.  But even resting at the desktop, it's warmer than my old computer.

 I could put a fan in that back vent, but I think the architecture of the case and placement of the graphic fan is going to trap a lot of heat in the front no matter what.  I suppose I could drill some holes up there in the sidewall, since it'd be safer than leaving the wall off.

Call of Pripyat fried my last graphics card despite it being easily capable of handling the game on max everything.

I've figured out that it's a pretty system-intensive game for no really good reason.  Hopefully the wealth of graphical fixes in CoP Complete addressed that, since it could only improve performance.

[white_darkness]

Hopefully the extra fan will help out on this.  What's the pre-built model you ended up buying?  There might be some information somewhere about overheating problems/issues for it.