Building my first gaming PC

[ninjabubbles3]

The corsair 780T is a nice looking yellow case.

 

[tylerjrb]

Yeah i agree. And would have been interesting when you tried to mount the cpu cooler XD.

Are you still planning a water loop?

If so look at this . Imagine that in white and yellow :0. Skip to about 22:50.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJiYl2WAN-0

I plan something like than in 1-2 years, but in blue . Looks pretty damn awesome.

 

[spinnnerrr]

That Corsair 780T is a very nice case :good: but I already bought CM's Storm Stryker in white

I probably would of tried super gluing the CPU cooler haha

I don't think I'm gonna water cool everything right off the bat. Just gonna get the H100i for now.

That's a very nice build indeed :good::good::good:

 

[Okedokey]

Just a point, based on most western world electricity tariffs, you'll never get a pay back by spending the money on extra efficiency on a PSU, so don't get too excited or spend massively more money on a gold etc...

 

[tylerjrb]

It would maybe save you $20-$30 per year depending on how much you play and how much of its full power you use.

 

[Okedokey]

It would maybe save you $20-$30 per year depending on how much you play and how much of its full power you use.

Ok, lets use worst case scenario, a computer running 100% load, 24.7 per year on the highest tariff in the USA mainland of $0.178/kWh.

The difference between bronze, gold and titanium is about $60 -$100 per year in electricity costs ONLY if you run the computer at 100% load every second of the year. Applicable to miners may be, but everyone else would be running at 1/10th of that or less with a lower tariff.

So yeah, for gaming and normal pc's its about $10 per year if you're lucky. You'll never get a return on investment.

AL = maximum wattage required by computer (e.g. 800W)
AW = power (W) consumed from the grid
Tariff = 17.8c / kWh
T = 24/7 operation (8760 hours per year)
Ef = PSU efficiency (e.g. 82%)

Calculation (82% efficiency (bronze)):

AW = ((1-Ef) * AL) + AL

AW = ((2 - 0.82) * 800W))
AW = (1.18 * 800W)
AW = 944 W

Cost ($) = (T * Tariff * AW) /1000
Cost ($) = (8760 * $0.178 * 944 W) / 1000
Cost ($) = $1,472 per year

Calculation (87% efficiency (gold)):

AW = ((1-Ef) * AL) + AL

AW = ((2 - 0.87) * 800W))
AW = (1.13 * 800W)
AW = 904 W

Cost ($) = (T * Tariff * AW) /1000
Cost ($) = (8760 * $0.178 * 904 W) / 1000
Cost ($) = $1,410 per year


Calculation (90% efficiency (titanium)):

AW = ((1-Ef) * AL) + AL

AW = ((2 - 0.90) * 800W))
AW = (1.10 * 800W)
AW = 880 W

Cost ($) = (T * Tariff * AW) /1000
Cost ($) = (8760 * $0.178 * 880 W) / 1000
Cost ($) = $1,372 per year

 

[tylerjrb]

Ok let's say. 1000w full power 4 hours a day. That's 1kW hours per hour. Or in that 4 hours 4kw hours in a day.

So per year you will do 365x4 kW hours which is, 1460 on full power full 100% efficiency.

Let's say a bronze is 80% efficient so it has to pull an extra 20% to make up for its loss so 1460+20%= 1752kw hours equivalent.

Let's say a gold 90%, 1460+10%= 1606

Platinum 95%, 1460+5%= 1533

So,

Bronze=1752*0.178=$311.16

Gold=1606*0.178=$286

Platinum=1533*0.178=$272.16

 

[Okedokey]

Ok let's say. 1000w full power 4 hours a day. That's 1kW hours per hour. Or in that 4 hours 4kw hours in a day.

So per year you will do 365x4 kW hours which is, 1460 on full power full 100% efficiency.

Let's say a bronze is 80% efficient so it has to pull an extra 20% to make up for its loss so 1460+20%= 1752kw hours equivalent.

Let's say a gold 90%, 1460+10%= 1606

Platinum 95%, 1460+5%= 1533

So,

Bronze=1752*0.178=$311.16

Gold=1606*0.178=$286

Platinum=1533*0.178=$272.16

Congratulation on re-doing the calcs, you example is massively at the worst case scenario as its the highest end of the cost of electricity, the 1% of the population that have a machine that pulls 1kW from the wall and the 1% of those people that will without fail run it 100% load four hours per day every day. Highly highly niche example and worst case. Even then, its only $40 saved.

My computer rarely pulls 1kW from the wall ever so I doubt its a good example. Most people, (aka 90%) wouldn't pull half that. So yeah, if you have a quad SLI system and plan to max it out 100% load four hours per day without fail, every single day of the year. Then yeah, you get $30 saved.

Point is. Not worth it for 90%+ of the population. Most people are more likely to save $2 per year on electricity (with average tariff) and that means that the extra cost is very unlikely to be ever paid off.

 

[tylerjrb]

Like I said before if it's for light gaming I.e pulling 200-300w then yeah it's not worth it. But mine uses 600-700w on high gaming so there's still a saving.

I was putting that in worst case there are not many that would run 1000w. But still if you using say 400-500+ 4-6-8 hours a day then it will still make you a saving. If say a bronze was $60 and a gold was $100 then over say 5-10years if you keep it that long and use quite a bit of power then it will save you well over $40 in that time.

 

[Okedokey]

No. Even at 600W 8hrs per day, you're not going to get the pay back..... sigh.

 

[tylerjrb]

Even 400w load 4hours a day.

0.4x4x365= 584kwhours

82%=689.12kw hours
92%=630kw hours

Loss of let's say 60 kW hours, or around $10 per year.

So over 10years you would save $100 at using only 400w load bronze vs platinum. Allowing the bronze high end of efficiency and the platinum low end of efficiency.

 

[Okedokey]

:good: ok mate, 10 bucks per year

 

[tylerjrb]

:good:

 

[spinnnerrr]

Man, glad that's settled haha I understood about 80% of that conversation

YEAH any way, here's my final part list:

Mobo - ASRock Z97 OC Formula

CPU - i7 4790k w/ Corsair H100i

RAM - Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB

GPU - GTX 980

SSD - Samsung EVO 840 250GB

HDD - WD Black Series 2TB

PSU - Corsair CX600M

OH and all inside a white CM Storm Stryker

and I'll find some optical drive.

How are the stock fans that come with the GTX 980? I may also end up buying some quiet and more powerful after market ones to replace the ones that came with my case.

 

[Okedokey]

great build

 

[spinnnerrr]

Thanks man. I hope it all goes swell and headache free. I'll probably start buying parts this weekend. HOORAAAY!!! YEAAAHH :gun:

 

[Okedokey]

Just build it very slowly, as they say... "measure twice, cut once".

 

[tylerjrb]

Yeah just a bit bored after work haha. Got to start some sort of rant once in a while . But yeah there's not much between bronze vs gold. Nearly all if not all big psu's are gold anyway but...

very nice build. If your looking at the stock reference 980's I'm not sure quite how they perform cooling wise. If you can MSI, gigabyte, EVGA etc all have good aftermarket coolers which look nicer and cool better than the reference

anyway take your time with it and enjoy the build, will be a very nice machine once finished.

 

[ninjabubbles3]

Picking out parts is the hardest.

Building is super fun and easy

Be careful though, don't want to wreck something or the other

 

[spinnnerrr]

Hey guys, long time no post!

Finally got around to buying all the parts and putting it all together Here's some pictures..

https://www.flickr.com/photos/54438886@N08/16267344560/

The build went great. I was so happy when I hit the power button and it started right up

Only issue is the GPU makes a noise. I don't know if it's coil whine or just the fan or something (doesn't come out of the speakers). Here's a video for you to hear. You can really hear it more towards the end of the video..

https://www.flickr.com/photos/54438886@N08/16453831122/

Edit: I'll also add that when I turn on VSYNC in games, it doesn't make that noise anymore. From my understanding, turning on VSYNC makes games run at ~60fps. And having VSYNC off allows games to run at max fps (without any limitations). Don't know if i understood that right..

Should i do a stress test on it? .. if that would even help. Just wondering if it's anything to worry about so I can RMA it before my 30 days are up D: