Building a computer, looking to catch any nuances or tips I missed...

T

Tiger Boi

New Member
Ordered it all. About half has arrived, the rest will be here by the end of next week. Parts include:

Case: Phantom 530
Mobo: Asus Maximus VI Hero
CPU: Intel i7-4770k
GPU: EVGA GTX 780
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16gb (2x8)
PSU: Corsair CS-750w Gold Certified
SSD: Samsung 840 evo 750gb
HDD: Two Toshiba 2tb SATA III 7200rpm
Bay 1: Asus DVD/CD writer
Bay 2: 5.25'' Card Reader
Card 1: PCE-N15 wifi card
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro
Mouse: Digital Innovations 5 button wireless mouse
Keyboard: Steelseries Apex keyboard
Speakers: Logitech 6 piece 5.1 channel surround sound
Display: Aoc 27'' 2ms monitor

I also purchased stardock objectdock, object desktop suite, and am planning on purchasing xpadder and fraps.

Now, my questions, are as follows:


1. I've researched the general build process, but I would like to discuss certain nuances. Specifically, fan placement and utilization in the case, temperature monitoring tools and/or programs, when and which drivers/bios things to update, and any other more obscure but still important steps.

2. Once the machine is all together... And windows 8.1 pro is installed, fresh out of the box... What are the best, advisable tweaks or tweaking programs/tools/utilities to use? My old routine is dated from xp, and a lot of it is obsolete. What are good settings to change? Processes to disable? Programs to run? 'features' to disable? Etc. I like to remove as much as I can from the pre-defined user folders and etc, and build my own folder structure. This is greatly aided when I have a good way to control navigation pane links, context menu items, and etc. Windows 8 does not seem to offer these features out of the box however.

3: What are the best programs available, both free or paid, for desktop recording, video/audio encoding, video editing, picture editing, and various common tasks?

4. What are the realistic limits I can expect from this PC? At what point, for example, would the ram choke? Running how many programs for example... And how about the gpu and cpu? What kind of stress would make them show their limits? Is the power supply enough? If so, does it have limits as to how many peripherals it can handle?

5. As I have been offline for a while... What are some good sites for catching up? News, tech news, game news, desktop customization, freeware sites, best p2p network, biggest security threats these days, etc... I need some new bookmarks to active sites. Also, are there any other worthwhile search engines besides google? If so, what are they good for and where do they shine?


Thank you in advance for any help, comments, or suggestions.
 
1. For fans front and bottom intake and back and top exhaust (Positive Air pressure.) To monitor you can use speedfan, msi afterburner, EVGA precision. Since you have a Nvidia card Geforce experience is good to have.

3. Fraps for recording desktop and gameplay. Audacity for sound recording. If you don't feel like paying for Photoshop I've heard good things about gimp

4. You have a really good PC so don't expect it to really show its age until a few years down the road. Your PSU is good and it can probably handle 2 780's, but don't expect to do 3

5. I don't really follow any websites for news besides Youtube, but there's Kotaku, tom's hardware usually has interesting articles. Guru3D has contains a lot of freeware. On YouTube I find Linus Tech Tips very interesting if you've never heard of him.

-As far as question 2 goes I use windows 7, so my comment would just be bias.
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To elaborate on the cooling:

The phantom 530 comes with a basic front intake and rear exhaust installed. I will also be using the intel stock cpu cooler out of the box, to at least give it a chance and see how temps run.

I also will be installing a 140mm side fan, and 2 120mm underfans that align with a third underside fan from the psu. That leaves 3 120 or 140 mm slots on the top open. I was wondering if this, plus the rear, would make for too much exhaust and not enough intake?

There is also room for an extra front fan, but as it's completely behind the plastic case I am not sure if it would actually help airflow or not. Additionally, there is a slot for an internal pivot fan that I guess helps prevent stagnant air. Not sure if it would do that, or just mix things up more.


Point is, what would be a good route to go for setting up the case fans? 2 on bottom, stock front and rear, and 2-3 on top? Yes or no on the internal 120mm pivot fan?


Next off, I'm familiar with both fraps and audacity... I just wanted to be sure they are still the best way to go. I did see some internal cards that were supposed to capture video, but ultimately I figured fraps would be just as good.


Beyond that, thanks for the bout of confidence. I will certainly be glad to have some up to date hardware at my disposal.
 
I'm no expert on case fans but I say start off simple and put one back exhaust and another top exhaust. Then one bottom intake and one or two front intake. As for the pivot one, it is connected to the extra HDD tray, and you'd be better off taking that entire thing out. If you want to achieve better temps then just add more fans, but I'd say just start off simple.
 
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