Going for a new computer - please, some help will be cool

[Nestor]

The stock cooler will last you a while if you're not overclocking. They're pretty quiet if you're not using much CPU. I think the fan speed varies.

I went for water because I had my 4770k running at 4.4GHz. I don't anymore. I'm in Canada BTW, so what I actually paid was closer to 150 CAD

-Tom

Ufff, even cheaper than I thought, great!

[Nestor]

intel would have already made a change to the massive number of shipments made constantly.

Exactly...

Hey, you have an i5… tell me please, do you think I am going the wrong path getting an i7 instate of an i5 so? I will, it seems, just as you do, be forced to switch hypertheading down, but I expected to use the extra power of the i7 nevertheless, becaus even with hyperthreading switched off, the i7 is still much more powerful. If you compare an i7 4790 with or without the “K” unlooked factor with an i5 4690-K, you will find that there is, overall, about 25 to 40 % of increased power, depending on the task.

Then don't forget the 8mb i7 versus the 6mb L3 Cache i5, this is a very important difference!

For multimedia, the i7 is unbeatable compared with the i5, going as far as a 50% faster work in some video editing tasks.

Finally, I will not upgrade for a really long time, if ever again..., the world is going crazy...

I am just in time to refrain myself if necessary. Guys, I am opened and ready to listen to your arguments, if I can spend less money to do the same, let it be welcomed!

[Nestor]

My cooler doesn't have LEDs, I am a bit sad now

-Tom

[Nestor]

the stock fans are perfectly fine and last the life of the processor, usually. if you use stock settings for the CPU, the stock fans are quiet and provide more than adequate cooling.

It has always been my experience, cheers Gary.

Crazy overclockers... Haaa!

[Nestor]

Yes, the stock coolers are fine.

This was my stock cooler for a i7 980x 6 core

I still have it. Never used it lol.



-Tom

wow, this is a tank man... you should sell the metal and it will give you a new Fender guitar or something...

[tlaskows]

I think it was a 1st gen core i7. They ran HOT!!! lol

-Tom

[jksuperstar]

Honestly, I was trying to get the TDP down to be able to either go fanless, 1U high cooler, or at least a quiet cooler. So I ended up comparing an i7-4790S (65w, 3.2Ghz) to the i5-4690K(up to 88w, 3.5ghz), which the i5 I could under clock for low power, or overclock if I needed. And paid far less than for the i7 at the time (7months ago). It's a screaming machine. I don't even bother with an external gpu, its so damn fast...with no impacts to my daw performance, and a lot less heat and fans running.

You won't go wrong with either, and you will notice the difference in the response of your system.

[Mr Arkadin]

I posted this in another thread but it got difficult to find. Here was the spec I ended up with as a reference:

Fractal Design R5 Case
Intel Core i7 4790K processor overclocked to 4.2GHz
Noctua NH-D14 Ultimate Performance Quiet CPU Cooler
Asus Z97-PRO Motherboard
16GB Corsair 2400MHz DDR3 memory (2 x 8GB)
Chillblast NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Graphics Card
2x 500GB Samsung 850 EVO Solid State Drive (One for Kontakt and sample libraries, one for BFD3 libraries)
2x 1000GB 7200RPM Hard Disk - 6Gbps
BeQuiet 750W Dark Power Pro Cable Managed PSU
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

The R5 case is large but silent - I think I have extra insulation in mine which makes it even quieter. I forget this system is on it's so quiet. I never had that with my old computer. I don't think the Noctua was necessary but I got it as a package so didn't really add much to the cost.

Like you I will not upgrade for a long time. I had my XP system for ten years and hope for as much out of this, so I didn't mind spending a bit more now to get a long-lived system.

[Nestor]

Jksuperstar, Mr Arkadin, thank you for your kind answers and for taking the time to give me some light on the choice of my processor

This is a well balanced response you give me between the two of you, as one has taken the i5 path and the other the i7 path, and both are happy with a DAW.

Because of the answers, it comes into consideration a third contender, the i7 4790. In my experience, I have never overclocked much anything but just as you do Arkadin, I give my system a twist, just a couple of hundreds or less. Now, with such a big processor as an i7 K, if you are only getting 200 GHz more, is it worth the step forward in price?, probably not. In that case, the i7 4790 is perhaps a good choice, and I could increase the amount of ram instate with the extra cash saved there.


In any case, there is an interesting balance between “noise” versus “power”. If you get an i5 for less noise and heat it is interesting. I personally am inclined to more power than less noise, because I need the extra power for creative contents of all sorts. Now, if you get a “K” to not overclock it, it is a waist and a constant temptation too…

Seriously, i7 4790 should be studied too in this unresolved case.

[tlaskows]

My old 4770k goes up to 4.4 max. That's 800MHz extra. But you will not will be able to do that on an air cooler.

-Tom

[Nestor]

I made my mind. I’m going for the 4790-K. I know it is interesting for you to know why, as you are participating in these decisions with me, so I am sharing them with you, my beloved friends.

Will I use the extra power the i7 4790-K gives me over the i5 4690-K? Yes

Do I care about the extra watts the i7 asks me? No

Do I care about the extra noise attached to bigger processors? Of course I would prefer not to have the extra noise, but I privilege power over noise in my needs.

Why 4790-K instate of i7 4790? Because the difference in price between the i7 4790 and the i7 4790-K is rather small. The “K” gives you, out of the box, 16% more raw power. In terms of efficiency in multimedia tasks and some multitasking, it offers you, roughly, 25% faster results, this is a lot more. It is open for more available power if you need it under overclock, and being a bigger processor, it will cope better for more years to come. What was kind of stopping me to decide it before today as a sure choice, was the fact that I was mentally linking the “K” to the overclock world saying “this is not for me, I will not overclock”, but you don’t necessarily need to think in this way. Every review and word said about the K was “overclock”, “overclock”, “overclock”… so it was difficult to think about it detached from these ideas. Understanding better my own needs and what these two processors offer, the K is not about overcloaking anymore, I understand it as a bigger processor, not as a different unlocked version of the same thing, they are different things, period, problem solved.

Do I want to pay the extra cash for the K version? Yes, it is very clear for me now, it is a bigger processor, so it is slightly more expensive.

Thank you for make me think! There we go... I'll let you know how it goes...

[tlaskows]

Good choice!

I'm still rocking 1st gen core i5 dual core on a 2010 MacBook Pro. Don't make fun of me

Good enough for iOS development until Apple fixes my retina.

-Tom

[Nestor]

Good choice!

I'm still rocking 1st gen core i5 dual core on a 2010 MacBook Pro. Don't make fun of me

Good enough for iOS development until Apple fixes my retina.

-Tom

The point is having what you need

[Yogimeister]

Good informative read ....

Thanx all

[Nestor]

There is a silly problem to be solved. Asus Z87-C board, do not have the BIOS to accept out of the box a i7 4790-K, you have to update the BIOS “before” you install the CPU. There are boards that will allow you to do a flash bios install through a new strategy which uses a pendrive, but this model, and several others Z87 do not have this flash utility. How to solve it? You have to do it through Windows… yeahhh, so as I don’t have any other processor 1150, I will have to get, for instance, the cheapest Celeron 1150 that I can find, and with it install Windows, then update the BIOS, then install the new processor. Not a big deal, but it is good to know it beforehand, or you may have a heart attack

[tlaskows]

All the stores here let you take the item back within 14 days, but sometimes you have to pay up to 10% fee.

-Tom

[Yogimeister]

Lol ....

I got a 4790 waiting for me at the shop - though after initially reading the post I was going to ask them if they have a K model .... Now reading this I might just stick to the regular one ...

Good luck !

[yayajohn]

Yup therein lies one of the risks of building you own computer rather than buying pre-assembled or having a shop build you one. I remember the first time I built my own, did my homework to buy compatible parts, had them shipped and assembled it no problem. Flipped the switch and .....nothing! So as the room started closing in on me I came to the realization that if one of the parts was defective that I would have no way of testing to find out which one. Turned out to be operator error luckily.

[tlaskows]

Never had a problem with my own builds. Been doing this for almost 20 years. When you use quality parts, you won't have issues. The prebuilt computers are usually not a good choice if you plan on upgrading in the future.

-Tom

[Nestor]

Never had a problem with my own builds. Been doing this for almost 20 years. When you use quality parts, you won't have issues. The prebuilt computers are usually not a good choice if you plan on upgrading in the future.

-Tom

this has also been my experience, and for about the same period of time, a little less than that, and I second what you say totally, the best way to go, regardless of the problems, is to build you own machine, in this way, also, you will always know what to do if you have any problem, you will know you system better than anyone else