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New...err...rebuilt system.


stormhawk31

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OK, so...I had a decent system built and running when, out of the clear blue, my power supply, motherboard, and processor all blew. I think it may have been a lightning strike, but that hardly matters now. Then, when I went to get new parts, I dropped my case and destroyed it. Grrr... Anyway, after getting over my initial shock, I decided that this would be a good opportunity to upgrade, and this is what I have now:

 

Motherboard: MSI 970 Gaming

Processor: AMD FX-8320

RAM: Patriot 16gb 1300mhz

Video: 2X MSI GTX 960 2gb, in SLI

SSD: SanDisk 128gb

Storage: 1 Internal 3tb HDD, 1 Internal 1tb HDD, 1 Internal 750gb HDD, 1 External 3tb HDD, and 1 External 1tb HDD (nothing in RAID)

Drive: 1 Internal Blue Ray writer

Power Supply: Corsair CX 850 M

Cooling: 5 120mm fans (not counting the OEM CPU cooler and the power supply fan)

Case: Antec P-100

 

This thing runs REALLY quiet and yet plays most games on ultra high settings (The new Tomb Raider is an exception. I can only play that on high without running into frame rate issues).

 

Now here's the question:

 

I have an aftermarket MSI CPU cooler on the way. (I want to stick with air cooling, as water cooling introduces too many possible points of failure for me.) I was hoping to find MSI branded RAM, but no such luck, so I'll have to find another company that has a similar color scheme. But, what I want to know is, aside from replacing the video cards eventually, what more can I do with this thing? Also, the whole point of this site is overclocking; can anyone walk me through this (for both CPU and RAM)? I have never overclocked ANYTHING before. I want to milk as much performance out of this beast as possible.

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You will want to upgrade your OEM CPU cooler, and install latest BIOS version M.4 2015-12-23 first,..

 

you can also upgrade your memory to 2X8GB DDR3 2133MHz kit. 

 

And follow this AMD FX-8320 & MSI motherboard beginners overclocking guide,.. that covers the basics to get you started.  :)

 

 

Edited by Braegnok

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Annnnd....here's what the thing looks like now. The weird slime on the front of the case marring that finish is the inevitable result of having toddlers. I think it's milk...?

 

The green and gold memory in the case has got to go. I'm trying for a theme here, and that... irks me. LOL

 

 

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Now, on one other subject: Cable management. Can anyone help me out with cable management best practices? As you can see from the pics I posted, my cable management situation isn't HORRIBLE, as I've taken care to try to properly route wires, etc. But, it's not exactly beautiful, either. I'd like to know about the best ways to manage cables, and also, sleeving. Every beautiful system I've ever seen has the wires sleeved in these braided cables that make them all the same color and make them not look so...cheap and cheesy. Can anyone help me with that kind of thing? Thanks!

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You can buy sleeved extensions so that they'll work with any future system/power supply you buy.  Thermaltake has some decent ones for ~$50 with a red and black theme on Amazon (other sellers).  This will come with your 24pin CPU, 8pin CPU, 2x 6pin GPU and 2x8pin GPU extensions.  Corsair also makes full kits for their power supplies and you can find the specific model for your PSU if you want it official.  There are other websites out there like Ensourced that will allow you to custom order specific extensions with specific patterns, but they obviously cost more.  The quality on the custom ones are top notch, though - So if you want the best of the best without worrying about cost, that's your best bet.  I think there's a massive thread on another forum that lists a bunch of sites to order sleeved cables from but idk what the rules are here about linking to other communities so I'll let you google that one.

 

Best practice I've realized is to just make sure you have EVERYTHING routed behind the motherboard tray before you try plugging anything in and that way you can easily figure out where everything should be placed behind the tray so that you don't have too much in one spot and can't put on your side-panel.

 

Also, there are really only 3 big players when it comes to memory, Samsung, Hynix and Micron - Whether or not MSI 'makes' any memory is irrelevant, just get some that fit your theme.  There may be 30+ different 'brands' of memory but they're ALL from one of those 3 manufacturers.

Edited by xenkw0n

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