# Yet another gaming/editing build



## El_Mayo (Jul 6, 2014)

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/PLnmFT

I'm looking to work with DaVinci Resolve mainly, as well as Premiere Pro (I know nVidia GPU deffo works with DaVinci) The guide/manual suggests a GTX 680 but I've gone for a single GTX 770. I don't realistically think I'm going to go with SLI at any point so if anyone can suggest a good single PCI slot board that's just as good for less money I'll be more than open to that. 

I also considered a non-windowed Fractal R4 Define @ £65 to save a few £££ but I don't know how well that case copes with a high-end, hot build. 

Had my eye on the 4790K but it's not the same price as the 4770K as Intel said it would be. If I can get it up to 4.4Ghz that'd be nice

budget is £850


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## Norton (Jul 6, 2014)

A Fractal R4 should do fine with tha build- I had an overclocked and water cooled FX-8350 and 7970 in mine with no issues 

On the cooler I would suggest a Noctua U14S rather than the BeQuiet one on your list.


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## El_Mayo (Jul 6, 2014)

Norton said:


> A Fractal R4 should do fine with tha build- I had an overclocked and water cooled FX-8350 and 7970 in mine with no issues
> 
> On the cooler I would suggest a Noctua U14S rather than the BeQuiet one on your list.



Ahh you're watercooled so it might help that the heatsink is attached to an exhaust fan. I'm looking for a cheap, effective solution and aircooling ticked that box as under £50. There aren't really any good AIO options at that price range as far as my research has found (except maybe the Seidon 120V which is also fucking loud)

I'd been looking at this (synthetic) test looking for how it coped with heat. It doesn't look good compared, the H440 was even worse. Obviously it's synthetic though, and I find their method a bit weird but it kinda makes sense I guess?


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## Norton (Jul 6, 2014)

Those tests of the R4 are likely in "silent" mode with the fan covers still installed and the stock configuration of 1x140mm front fan and 1x120mm rear fan. My R4 has all of the fans (2x140mm front, 2x140mm top, 1x140mm bottom, and 1x120 rear and side... 7 total). It runs plenty cool for me and the fans are at low speed (appr. 900-1000rpm) so it's also not that loud.

Short version- add a few fans, even a cheap set of 120mm ones, and the temps drop right away


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## El_Mayo (Jul 7, 2014)

Norton said:


> Those tests of the R4 are likely in "silent" mode with the fan covers still installed and the stock configuration of 1x140mm front fan and 1x120mm rear fan. My R4 has all of the fans (2x140mm front, 2x140mm top, 1x140mm bottom, and 1x120 rear and side... 7 total). It runs plenty cool for me and the fans are at low speed (appr. 900-1000rpm) so it's also not that loud.
> 
> Short version- add a few fans, even a cheap set of 120mm ones, and the temps drop right away



I want a case that's good stock, I could get some good fans for the R4 but that would take it up in price to the 450D if I buy 3-5 extra fans. Maybe it won't actually get louder but it'd still be not as good to look at as the 450D 
Is the sound dampening stuff really good on it then? Did you notice a change in sound level when you added 5 more fans? I know you have to remove sound dampening slabs on the top and side to install fans there, do you get sound leaking out of those?


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## Norton (Jul 7, 2014)

There's a lot to like about the 450D and if you prefer the look of it then go for it 

In my experience with Corsair cases (350D) and Fractal ones I would go back to Fractal's every time..... not that there's anything wrong with the 350D that I had it's just that I prefer the solid build of the Fractal Define. Probably the reason why I own the Define Mini, the R4, and the XL R2 

My $0.02

P.S. The sound dampening they use is heavy and bonded to the panels. It works well but like all sound dampening, it's not perfect...


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## BarbaricSoul (Jul 7, 2014)

If you like the look of the 350D, you'll also like the Silverstone cases.


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## El_Mayo (Jul 7, 2014)

BarbaricSoul said:


> If you like the look of the 350D, you'll also like the Silverstone cases.


Damn a lot of em expensive cos they're aluminium. They got anything sub £90?


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## rtwjunkie (Jul 7, 2014)

Norton said:


> Those tests of the R4 are likely in "silent" mode with the fan covers still installed and the stock configuration of 1x140mm front fan and 1x120mm rear fan. My R4 has all of the fans (2x140mm front, 2x140mm top, 1x140mm bottom, and 1x120 rear and side... 7 total). It runs plenty cool for me and the fans are at low speed (appr. 900-1000rpm) so it's also not that loud.
> 
> Short version- add a few fans, even a cheap set of 120mm ones, and the temps drop right away


 
I second this!  I use two 140mm fronnt intake, One top exhaust and one rear exhaust on my Frankerig system below with the Fractal Define R4, and I can tell you the cooling power is phenomenal, and it is quiet!  You cant go wrong!


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## El_Mayo (Jul 7, 2014)

rtwjunkie said:


> I second this!  I use two 140mm fronnt intake, One top exhaust and one rear exhaust on my Frankerig system below with the Fractal Define R4, and I can tell you the cooling power is phenomenal, and it is quiet!  You cant go wrong!



will definitely consider it if I need to trim £££ off the final price as I've got a 120mm fan lying about  
I'm still trying to find a 4790K for the same price as the 4770K but I think UK guys have been shafted on that one


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## El_Mayo (Jul 8, 2014)

What size SSD should I be looking at installing? It's good to install your OS and programs to it I believe, but will the speed also be good as a scratch disk to hold video files whilst I edit or grade them?


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## LaytonJnr (Jul 8, 2014)

El_Mayo said:


> What size SSD should I be looking at installing? It's good to install your OS and programs to it I believe, but will the speed also be good as a scratch disk to hold video files whilst I edit or grade them?



I would suggest 120GB SSD + 1TB+ HDD if you are dealing with a lot of video files most of the time (saving the video files on the HDD), and your game library isn't too bloated with large game files (e.g. not having Titanfall). If you plan to only deal with a few video files every now and again, then 240GB/256GB SSD and perhaps still a HDD for other files, and save on the SSD. One thing to watch out for - doing lots of writing and rewriting of an SSD when dealing with video files often drastically decreases the life of the SSD.

I would personally be happy with a 120GB + 1TB setup.

Layton


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## El_Mayo (Jul 8, 2014)

LaytonJnr said:


> I would suggest 120GB SSD + 1TB+ HDD if you are dealing with a lot of video files most of the time (saving the video files on the HDD), and your game library isn't too bloated with large game files (e.g. not having Titanfall). If you plan to only deal with a few video files every now and again, then 240GB/256GB SSD and perhaps still a HDD for other files, and save on the SSD. One thing to watch out for - doing lots of writing and rewriting of an SSD when dealing with video files often drastically decreases the life of the SSD.
> 
> I would personally be happy with a 120GB + 1TB setup.
> 
> Layton



I *do* have Titanfall haha. So I should only put read only stuff on the SSD (Windows and applications/games) and files on the 2TB hard drive?


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## BarbaricSoul (Jul 8, 2014)

El_Mayo said:


> Damn a lot of em expensive cos they're aluminium. They got anything sub £90?



http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/silverstone-case-sstkl04b

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/silverstone-case-sstrv03bwa

and if you can stretch it a little- http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/silverstone-case-ssttj04be


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## El_Mayo (Jul 13, 2014)

Which brands tend to make quieter graphics cards? I want a GTX 770 or GTX 780


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## THE_EGG (Jul 13, 2014)

EVGA's ACX cooler, Gigabyte's Windforce cooler and Asus DCII are all quiet, high performing coolers. Personally I'd go for either an EVGA card or Gigabyte card.


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## FreedomEclipse (Jul 13, 2014)

The MSI cards are quite quiet compared to reference cards.

Since youre trying to save a little cash too i recommend looking at a few 'B-Grades' (Open box/Customer returns) on OCuK. They always have some gigabyte ones going cheap and if youre only after one 780Ti (which is what i recommend too if youre not going SLi) then Its worth the gamble to get anywhere between £20-60 off the RRP and you still get the full years manufacturers warranty. 


As for the issue with the cooler. I recommend an Antec 920 of a Corsair H80i and replacing the stock fans with 1850rpm Gentle typhoons. Ive had both AIO coolers and they work amazing. Currently running a H80i on my overclocked 3930k and it does a pretty good job. temps wont get even close to 70'c unless its retardedly hot in my room which it often gets due to the hot water pipes running underneath my bedroom floor....

And when i say retardedly hot. im on about 30-32'c ambient temps. Right now with most of my windows open and a breeze blowing through my room is still 26'c which is pretty warm to say the least.... Idling at 40'c at the moment but i dont have all the fans turned up at the moment because Im not gaming. Normall my CPU idles at 35'c


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## El_Mayo (Jul 13, 2014)

FreedomEclipse said:


> The MSI cards are quite quiet compared to reference cards.
> 
> Since youre trying to save a little cash too i recommend looking at a few 'B-Grades' (Open box/Customer returns) on OCuK. They always have some gigabyte ones going cheap and if youre only after one 780Ti (which is what i recommend too if youre not going SLi) then Its worth the gamble to get anywhere between £20-60 off the RRP and you still get the full years manufacturers warranty.
> 
> ...



I don't know how much the fans are but the h80i is £63 on amazon. The H90 is actually cheaper at £61 
The Dark Rock 3 is £50 with delivery on Aria though, and is quite close to the H110 in this TPU review so I imagine it's either on par or better than the H80/90 for less

the Kuhler 920 is also fucking expensive!


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## FreedomEclipse (Jul 13, 2014)

H90 is good so long as you can find 140mm fans with good static pressure and there are a lack of those, same goes for any AIO that requires 1-4 140mm fans.

If your case can support a 280mm rad - id just go all out and grab the H110. you can run the fans at a lower speed to get decent results so its not much of an issue...

I would go with a H100i or something with my own system but unfortunately i have the first gen Define XL which didnt really give a lot of consideration for water cooling unless you were gonna take a dremel tool to it.


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## El_Mayo (Jul 16, 2014)

FreedomEclipse said:


> H90 is good so long as you can find 140mm fans with good static pressure and there are a lack of those, same goes for any AIO that requires 1-4 140mm fans.
> 
> If your case can support a 280mm rad - id just go all out and grab the H110. you can run the fans at a lower speed to get decent results so its not much of an issue...
> 
> I would go with a H100i or something with my own system but unfortunately i have the first gen Define XL which didnt really give a lot of consideration for water cooling unless you were gonna take a dremel tool to it.



h100i is around £80. But I've just seen the h100 for £45 refurbished here...
if it has a manufacturers warranty I might get it, although at the same price the the h100 is only about 3 degrees ahead of the Dark Rock 3 at 85W and 6 at 150W on benchmarks and quite a lot louder, I'd be willing to spend £10-£20 on some good fans if they were also quieter


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## GhostRyder (Jul 16, 2014)

El_Mayo said:


> h100i is around £80. But I've just seen the h100 for £45 refurbished here...
> if it has a manufacturers warranty I might get it, although at the same price the the h100 is only about 3 degrees ahead of the Dark Rock 3 at 85W and 6 at 150W on benchmarks and quite a lot louder, I'd be willing to spend £10-£20 on some good fans if they were also quieter


I would say refurb liquid coolers are not to bad but they can be a bit of a chore to deal with hence why they are so cheap.  They all come with manufacturers warranty (That I see) but in all honesty I feel the fail rate becomes around 50/50 for those (In my experience).  I have had many people I have helped or know in general buy refurbs from microcenter, frys, or the likes and have had them fail or not work out of the box.  However since they carry a manufacturer warranty, you can then just send them in and get a new one cheap which is great for saving money.  Just be prepared that this may happen (Most of the time I would say the problems is a failed pump).

With fans, its hard to decide on because each manufacturer lists noise levels based on different methods of testing.  With 140mm fans I would say just stick to some 1500RPM fans if you want to keep noise down with fluid filled bearings.  I like Cougar, Aerocool, and Corsair fans personal preference.


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## yogurt_21 (Jul 16, 2014)

any particular reason why the 4770K and not the 4790K? it only appears to be a 6 pound difference from the same etailer (Aria PC)


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## El_Mayo (Jul 16, 2014)

yogurt_21 said:


> any particular reason why the 4770K and not the 4790K? it only appears to be a 6 pound difference from the same etailer (Aria PC)


That only happened a few days ago, it was 250+ before. I got an email from yesterday and have since updated it hehe I'm glad it's dropped now


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## yogurt_21 (Jul 16, 2014)

well I just purchased the same mobo along with the i7 4790K and it runs perfect out of box. No issues with turbo, XMP on my 2400MHZ memory came right up, etc. Seems pretty solid overall.


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## El_Mayo (Jul 16, 2014)

yogurt_21 said:


> well I just purchased the same mobo along with the i7 4790K and it runs perfect out of box. No issues with turbo, XMP on my 2400MHZ memory came right up, etc. Seems pretty solid overall.


What's XMP? also you gonna overclock?  I'd like to know how high you get


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## BarbaricSoul (Jul 16, 2014)

El_Mayo said:


> What's XMP?



from the GSkill Rep on Tom's-



> If you purchase performance
> 
> memory, it allows the motherboard to use the performance values of the memory. The JEDEC memory standard is DDR3-1600 CL11, so when you have memory better than this, an additional profile is added to the memory known as Extreme Memory Profile (XMP). When the feature is enabled in your motherboard BIOS/EFI, the motherboard utilizes this profile from the embedded XMP Profile in the RAM. As a result, you don't have to manually input settings for the memory, everything is ready to go as long as your enable XMP. Enabling XMP allows the motherboard to automatically configure DRAM frequency, timings, and voltage according the the RAM's rated specifications.
> 
> ...



http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/320603-30-profile


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## TheHunter (Jul 16, 2014)

FreedomEclipse said:


> H90 is good so long as you can find 140mm fans with good static pressure and there are a lack of those, same goes for any AIO that requires 1-4 140mm fans.
> 
> If your case can support a 280mm rad - id just go all out and grab the H110. you can run the fans at a lower speed to get decent results so its not much of an issue...
> 
> I would go with a H100i or something with my own system but unfortunately i have the first gen Define XL which didnt really give a lot of consideration for water cooling unless you were gonna take a dremel tool to it.


Yeah there arent many choices..  I own H90 and found few candidates


- Akasa Viper - 3.12mm h2o (i have this atm in P|P, not the quietest though..)
- Akasa Apache - 2.74mm
- Bitfenix Spectre PRO PWM - 2.8mm


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## FreedomEclipse (Jul 16, 2014)

Akasa's stats always tend to be quite exaggerated. With Bitfenix im not sure, but i have heard stories about the motor on the spectre fans literally burning out.

::EDIT::

Aerocool fans tend to be quite exaggerated too for that matter


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## yogurt_21 (Jul 17, 2014)

extreme memory profile allows oc memory speeds at stock cpu. Haven't done much on oc. 4.6GHZ at 1.14v is the most I've done. Too busy gaming.


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## GorbazTheDragon (Jul 17, 2014)

I wouldn't bother with memory over 1866MHz... And considering your budget, you are actually going to have a hard time fitting a decent board (for OCing), i7, 770, and 16GB of RAM.

As a general rule of thumb I avoid CAS10 and 1.6v+ 1600MHz kits, the quality of the chips of those seems to be questionable at times. I usually go 1600C9 or 1866C9/10 depending on the prices.

As for a CPU cooler, again your budget is pretty restrictive. The H55 seems to be pretty decent, especially considering you can get it for under 50 quid. And with it you get an extra fan.


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## dewdrops39 (Jul 17, 2014)

please help i plan buying a laptop with configuration amd quad core  1.5ghz with 2 mb cache with 512md dedicated graphics  and amd radeon hd 83330 graphics can i able to play warz,gta4 and deadisland


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## rooivalk (Jul 17, 2014)

dewdrops39 said:


> please help i plan buying a laptop with configuration amd quad core  1.5ghz with 2 mb cache with 512md dedicated graphics  and amd radeon hd 83330 graphics can i able to play warz,gta4 and deadisland


Play yes, smooth no (maybe yes in ultra low quality setting). It's a very weak laptop.
Not to mention GTA4 isn't very optimized for PC and Dead Island isn't quite low spec friendly too.


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## HammerON (Jul 17, 2014)

dewdrops39 said:


> please help i plan buying a laptop with configuration amd quad core  1.5ghz with 2 mb cache with 512md dedicated graphics  and amd radeon hd 83330 graphics can i able to play warz,gta4 and deadisland


You need to start your own thread so as not to detract from members helping the OP with his questions.


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## El_Mayo (Jul 17, 2014)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> I wouldn't bother with memory over 1866MHz... And considering your budget, you are actually going to have a hard time fitting a decent board (for OCing), i7, 770, and 16GB of RAM.
> 
> As a general rule of thumb I avoid CAS10 and 1.6v+ 1600MHz kits, the quality of the chips of those seems to be questionable at times. I usually go 1600C9 or 1866C9/10 depending on the prices.
> 
> As for a CPU cooler, again your budget is pretty restrictive. The H55 seems to be pretty decent, especially considering you can get it for under 50 quid. And with it you get an extra fan.



I don't really wanna spend a lot on AIO, I'd rather get a nice heatsink that performs the same as the H50/55 but is much quieter. The only ones that are really good are the 240mm/280mm ones which are pretty expensive. I'm going to get the cheapest RAM kit and they tend to be 1600mhz. What is a board that you would say is good for overclocking? I've edited my part list and removed the SSD (I'll pick that up in a month or two after the main build, or get it as a birthday present) so this is what it looks like now


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## GorbazTheDragon (Jul 17, 2014)

I think the MSi you have in there will probably do fine , but I was thinking some thing along the lines of a Z97-A, but I just checked the prices and it seems to be a lot higher among the other boards in the UK (when compared to the US). For RAM I'd go with this. Other than that, what you have looks pretty good. You might want to add another fan on that case.


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## El_Mayo (Jul 17, 2014)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> I think the MSi you have in there will probably do fine , but I was thinking some thing along the lines of a Z97-A, but I just checked the prices and it seems to be a lot higher among the other boards in the UK (when compared to the US). For RAM I'd go with this. Other than that, what you have looks pretty good. You might want to add another fan on that case.


How come, besides the speed increase? Would 1600 not be enough, or are the more expensive ones more reliable? Also a case fan will probably come after the main build if I feel I need it


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## GorbazTheDragon (Jul 17, 2014)

1600MHz kits with CAS10 are likely less reliable than CAS9. At this point CAS9 kits are the "baseline" for quality. That 1866 MHz kit runs at CAS10 so the quality of the chips is around the same as (if not a tad better than) a 1600MHz CAS9 kit.


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## El_Mayo (Jul 17, 2014)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> 1600MHz kits with CAS10 are likely less reliable than CAS9. At this point CAS9 kits are the "baseline" for quality. That 1866 MHz kit runs at CAS10 so the quality of the chips is around the same as (if not a tad better than) a 1600MHz CAS9 kit.



noted! Would a higher CAS necessarily mean more reliable?


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## LaytonJnr (Jul 17, 2014)

El_Mayo said:


> noted! Would a higher CAS necessarily mean more reliable?



The way that RAM speed works is that you want high frequency speeds but low CAS timings. To work out RAM speed in nanoseconds, there is a rough formula: speed = (CAS timings / RAM frequency) * 1000. So lower CAS timings and higher frequencies mean much faster performing RAM. But of course, there are cases in which the change in RAM speed is so small, you would barely notice it in real life applications.

Basically, CAS timings don't have (much) affect on RAM reliability. That's more a manufacturer-based thing.

Layton


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## yogurt_21 (Jul 18, 2014)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> I wouldn't bother with memory over 1866MHz... And considering your budget, you are actually going to have a hard time fitting a decent board (for OCing), i7, 770, and 16GB of RAM.
> 
> As a general rule of thumb I avoid CAS10 and 1.6v+ 1600MHz kits, the quality of the chips of those seems to be questionable at times. I usually go 1600C9 or 1866C9/10 depending on the prices.
> 
> As for a CPU cooler, again your budget is pretty restrictive. The H55 seems to be pretty decent, especially considering you can get it for under 50 quid. And with it you get an extra fan.


http://wccftech.com/haswell-works-high-speed-ram-benchmarks-show-ddr31600-mhz/
http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2014/march/haswellrealworld

Haswell is a different animal than ivy bridge. Seeing as the cost difference between 2400MHZ cas 10 and 1600MHZ cas 9 is almost non existent there is no reason to saddle your rig with cheap or old ram.


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## GorbazTheDragon (Jul 18, 2014)

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-bls2k8g3d1609es2lx0

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f32400c10d16gtx

Almost no cost difference?

On your budget I'd go with an 1866 C9 kit.

Something like this http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f31866c9d16gsr

Or something like this would OC pretty well: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f31600c7d16gtx


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## El_Mayo (Jul 21, 2014)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-bls2k8g3d1609es2lx0
> 
> http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f32400c10d16gtx
> 
> ...



This looks good
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/kingston-memory-khx24c11t3k216x

Obviously there's the concern about clearance with these, but I'm still looking at that getting either a refurbished AIO. If not the Scythe Ashura definitely has good RAM clearance


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## Norton (Jul 21, 2014)

The Noctua NH-U14S has pretty good clearance 

Great performance and nearly silent too!!


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## GorbazTheDragon (Jul 22, 2014)

I'd +1 that cooler if it was cheaper.


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## yogurt_21 (Jul 22, 2014)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-bls2k8g3d1609es2lx0
> 
> http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f32400c10d16gtx
> 
> ...



you can cherry pick all you want, the reality is cost per gig is much closer than that.  The trident X's are renowned for their overclocking capabilities and you pay a premium for that The much cheaper Ares, snipers, and Ripjaws from Gskill are less.  At the same time both microcenter and newegg have a sale on that set of crucial. Being the OP's in the UK that doesn't help him one bit. That 1866 set looks to be the exact same kit as the 2400MHZ snipers here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231673

one is factory clocked for MHZ, the other for latency. Same memory kit overall.  

The fact that it's already set one way or another isn't a deterrent at clocking it whichever way you prefer. It does dictate what the XMP will be set as though.


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## El_Mayo (Jul 25, 2014)

I've decided on the Kingston Beast 2400Mhz set, but I might get clearance issues if I use a heatsink cooler like the dark rock where the fan protrudes close the the 3rd slot 





 Would I be safe if I took the heatsink off the RAM kit? Does RAM overheat?


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## GorbazTheDragon (Jul 25, 2014)

Would probably void the Warranty if anything.

Unless you went for really fast or high voltage kits I doubt you will have thermal issues.


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## El_Mayo (Jul 25, 2014)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> Would probably void the Warranty if anything.
> 
> Unless you went for really fast or high voltage kits I doubt you will have thermal issues.



cool just thinking if I ever needed a 3rd and 4th pair of sticks they couldn't fit without taking the heatsink off 
looks like there's clearance for about 21mm high RAM sticks according to this drawing


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## GorbazTheDragon (Jul 25, 2014)

You might be able to move the fans a bit upwards on the heatsink. The Hyper 212 Evo can do that, but I don't know about the bequiets


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## El_Mayo (Jul 25, 2014)

GorbazTheDragon said:


> You might be able to move the fans a bit upwards on the heatsink. The Hyper 212 Evo can do that, but I don't know about the bequiets





> Clearance for tall memory sticks is a no-go once the fan is attached. With all four DIMM slots populated, the Dark Rock 3 has no room for the likes of Corsair's Dominator Platinums or anything larger than standard-height memory, although the fan can be raised a bit to accommodate the likes of GSKill's Ripjaw Z if the case allows it.



according to the TPU review, so you might be right Gorbaz!


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