Quizzical. I'm not saying this to be malicious at all. I am glad to see that even people with far more knowledge than me have the same sorts of trouble that I had when working the kinks out of my new system. Hope you get stuff sorted to your liking! I also have been watching this thread and thanks for the progress updates. Just interesting to read even though I got nothing I could honestly add to benefit the thread.
This is the exact thing that ran through my head when I read the thread. I was actually a bit shocked and surprised because I figured it was always just me, no how matter how much research I put in, that runs into these hurdles. It was very cool that Quizz posted the bumps along with the good. I got to the point where I got sick of building things a few years ago and figured that manufacturer builds would be more solid. My last Acer purchase has shot that idea all to hell. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do for my next build, but this thread really helped put things in perspective.
Even hardware reviews from professionals who review hardware professionally say that this or that didn't work right. They get stuck on trying to make stuff work right, and they have massively more experience with it than I do. Some things, especially the motherboard problems I had, can be dismissed as a simple case of bugs happen.
The trouble with the front case fans was really a problem of a lack of documentation. It's the sort of thing that's fine to do if you document it well, but Corsair didn't. I don't expect that I'll buy another Corsair case if they don't document it any better than that. I understand how failing to document things happens, but that doesn't excuse it.
But the enormous screw holes in the case for the fan mounts are just plain baffling. Large screw holes aren't intrinsically bad, but if you're going to ship a case for which the screws that come with case fans typically won't fit, you'd better ship your own screws with the case. Corsair didn't, and there's no good excuse for that.
That's what I am saying though. I am definitely not faulting you. I run into problems just as well that stumped the shit out of me. Something that I knew must have had a simple solution. All I am saying is that it's nice to know I am not the only person who has teething problems with a new system. If that's even a good way to put it.
Not mocking or making fun of you for any of the issues you have had. No need to explain. I been there. I learned that choosing a case is just as important as the components from my last build. Think the next case I look it might be something like what.... what's the guys name.. Miag .... talked about in the past on these boards. really simple looking metal cases. But I guess good quality.
My last case purchase was a Corsair, and it's all right - I didn't have any issues with installation, but I had replaced all the factory fans anyway, so there wasn't much to review other than if all the mounting holes lined up (which they did).
Before that, I used Lian Li cases almost exclusively, and would have for this build except I had heard good things about the Corsair cases and wanted to give one a shot. Lian Li are usually just nice, clean no frills cases. They are all aluminum, so you pay a bit of a price for that compared to one with a steel frame and lot of plastic trim, but that makes them light weight, easy to mod, and they conduct heat out pretty well - apart from having good installation runs internally.
Would I use a Corsair again? Maybe, but Lian Li remains on my short list.
BIOS problems are a pain, and every motherboard is a little bit different, even those from the same manufacturer. But I can't think of any motherboard where settings are software-exclusive and you can't get into them from the BIOS - this would be the first I've heard of a company doing that, but honestly I'm surprised they haven't started doing this earlier or more often. Motherboard software is usually a mixed bag - it often looks great, but with a lot of bloat. I usually install it once, say "Wow" and then uninstall it and never look at it again.
I was skeptical on the prefab water cooling solutions from coolmaster, until I tried them. Will never go back to air cooling. They have several different styles from one fan to two fans.
I'm a purist with AMD so I will not comment on anythng else ;D
Alot of the CPU prefabs look alright. Some of the gpu prefab solutions look horrible. Using a cpu cooler mounted in a frame which leaves parts out in the air. Horrible. I want to build a loop just to keep heat (wear down) but I am not sure if it's over kill or not given the cost vs. how much my pc cost. It's a I5 4670k with a GTX 770 I built in dec. I think if I fork out for a top tier gpu at some point I'll probably do it then. Not sure I can justify it currently. I guess I could get a prefab cpu cooler until gpu upgrade time.
I was skeptical on the prefab water cooling solutions from coolmaster, until I tried them. Will never go back to air cooling. They have several different styles from one fan to two fans.
I'm a purist with AMD so I will not comment on anythng else ;D
Alot of the CPU prefabs look alright. Some of the gpu prefab solutions look horrible. Using a cpu cooler mounted in a frame which leaves parts out in the air. Horrible. I want to build a loop just to keep heat (wear down) but I am not sure if it's over kill or not given the cost vs. how much my pc cost. It's a I5 4670k with a GTX 770 I built in dec. I think if I fork out for a top tier gpu at some point I'll probably do it then. Not sure I can justify it currently. I guess I could get a prefab cpu cooler until gpu upgrade time.
I love water cooling. For the record.
I have done water cooled GPUs in the past. They are a good deal more difficult than CPU installs, because the GPU card is removable, the CPU is pretty solidly mounted into the motherboard. Also, factory heatsinks aren't made to be easily removable off cards - a lot of times the VRAM or VRMs are epoxied to the heat sink, and it's extremely difficult to get off without breaking the card - and of course if you do anything with the factory heatsink you void any kind of warranty support. You can get factory water jackets, if you are willing to pay a good premium for them.
But for a GPU - there are only a few of situations where I would recommend it: Because you just wanna play with it - there's always a case for that. Because you are putting a lot of GPU/Power Draw in a small footprint - this is why AMD has largely shifted to integral water coolers on their higher end products. Because you are trying to cram 3 or 4 double-slot cards into a single motherboard, and can get away with single-slot water jackets instead of double slot air coolers.
Comments
Not mocking or making fun of you for any of the issues you have had. No need to explain. I been there. I learned that choosing a case is just as important as the components from my last build. Think the next case I look it might be something like what.... what's the guys name.. Miag .... talked about in the past on these boards. really simple looking metal cases. But I guess good quality.
Before that, I used Lian Li cases almost exclusively, and would have for this build except I had heard good things about the Corsair cases and wanted to give one a shot. Lian Li are usually just nice, clean no frills cases. They are all aluminum, so you pay a bit of a price for that compared to one with a steel frame and lot of plastic trim, but that makes them light weight, easy to mod, and they conduct heat out pretty well - apart from having good installation runs internally.
Would I use a Corsair again? Maybe, but Lian Li remains on my short list.
BIOS problems are a pain, and every motherboard is a little bit different, even those from the same manufacturer. But I can't think of any motherboard where settings are software-exclusive and you can't get into them from the BIOS - this would be the first I've heard of a company doing that, but honestly I'm surprised they haven't started doing this earlier or more often. Motherboard software is usually a mixed bag - it often looks great, but with a lot of bloat. I usually install it once, say "Wow" and then uninstall it and never look at it again.
I have done water cooled GPUs in the past. They are a good deal more difficult than CPU installs, because the GPU card is removable, the CPU is pretty solidly mounted into the motherboard. Also, factory heatsinks aren't made to be easily removable off cards - a lot of times the VRAM or VRMs are epoxied to the heat sink, and it's extremely difficult to get off without breaking the card - and of course if you do anything with the factory heatsink you void any kind of warranty support. You can get factory water jackets, if you are willing to pay a good premium for them.
But for a GPU - there are only a few of situations where I would recommend it:
Because you just wanna play with it - there's always a case for that.
Because you are putting a lot of GPU/Power Draw in a small footprint - this is why AMD has largely shifted to integral water coolers on their higher end products.
Because you are trying to cram 3 or 4 double-slot cards into a single motherboard, and can get away with single-slot water jackets instead of double slot air coolers.