How to Build the ULTIMATE 4K Gaming PC Build Guide
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
4,792 words · ~23 min read
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4k displays just got affordable and i'm not talking about those 4k tvs with the 30 hertz
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inputs i'm talking about single tile 4k desktop monitors that offer fast enough response times
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and low enough input lag that pc enthusiasts and gamers are going to want to take a serious
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look at them but the upgrade particularly the budget allocation part of it is not as simple
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as grabbing that new monitor plopping it on your desk and expecting you to get the best gaming
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experience on it right off the bat unless you're already living on like the bleeding edge of
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available pc hardware it's very unlikely that you'll be running modern games at that massive
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3840 by 2160 native resolution without making some changes so you'll be stuck with one of two
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solutions run at native resolution with significantly reduced frame rates remember
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this is four times as many pixels as 1080p and well over twice as many
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of the same resolution as the 2080p and the 2080p and the 2080p and the 2080p and the 2080p and the
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2080p is 1440p or run at a lower resolution and deal with the blurriness and artifacting
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that exists when running a monitor at anything other than the native res or upgrade so prepare
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your wallets and prepare your minds for our 4k gaming rig ultimate build guide
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we need like an explosion effect in the back like all of our build guides it all starts with a safe
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static free workstation and anti-static strap i actually like to keep mine on my
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ankle to keep it out of the way all we really need for assembly is a multi-bit screwdriver but
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a pair of side cutters can be handy for cable management and you never know when some little
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needle nose pliers will come in handy before you begin i always recommend plugging all the
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components in and powering the system up once outside of the case to ensure everything works
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while it's nice and easy to reach the motherboard box makes a handy
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non-conductive test bench but for now let's just get into it with all the noise getting
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made about proper multi-core support in games with mantle like battlefield 4 and thief 2014
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and directx 12 and upcoming games in 2015 it's as good a time as any to pick up a CPU that supports
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more threads our choice was the Intel core i7 4930k and while it does have plenty of pci express 3.0
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lanes for high bandwidth graphics cards and other future expansion cards and support for 64 gigs of
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ddr3 memory with relatively inexpensive in-game storage and a lot of storage space and a lot of
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storage space and a lot of storage space and a lot of storage space and a lot of storage space
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and a lot of storage space and a lot of storage space and a lot of storage space and a lot of storage space
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8 gig unbuffer dims it simply came down to the fact that it's Intel's least expensive 6 core 12
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thread CPU and we really wanted all them cores so lift up both retention arms one on each side
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of the socket then pull up the hold down plate orient the CPU by matching the corner of your
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CPU with a triangle with the corresponding triangle corner on the socket then insert it
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gently ensuring that the little plastic nubbins in the socket align with the ones that are on the
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CPU itself i usually give the CPU a slight wiggle to ensure that it is seated correctly
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the whole process should not require any force up to this point next lower the hold down plate
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and lower first the retention ARM that locks down the hold down plate
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then the second one and the little cover will pop off just like that our memory selection won't
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surprise anyone who watched my overview of g skills rip jaw z quad channel ddr3 2400 megahertz RAM we
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went with high speed memory because it's becoming more affordable and some games are actually
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starting to benefit from it and we threw in overkill for gaming 32 gigs of it in here for
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content creators who also want to do some media work with large files when they're not gaming say
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for example recording and editing game streams start by identifying the color matched slots on
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your motherboard and opening up the retention clips on either side i recommend using the ones
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furthest away from the CPU socket first for a lot of games that don't come with a CPU socket so i'm
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going to go ahead and do that first for marginally better airflow around the socket area align each
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dim according to the plastic key in the slot and the notch in the bottom of the memory module
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then it first insert one side into the side without the clips then the other side with the
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clips do a quick double check to make sure it's aligned correctly then press down firmly on both
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sides of the module until the retention clip snaps back into place on its own repeat for the
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second slot on this side then move over to the other side and put in the additional
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two modules. Four matched sticks are recommended for LGA 2011 CPUs for extra memory bandwidth.
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Now when I first laid eyes on the Corsair
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760T at CES 2014, this 4k build guide was still a twinkle in my eye,
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but I decided at that moment that this case, with its ample airflow,
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solid build quality, and out-of-this-world looks, was gonna be the case for it. True story.
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It's available in black or this version, and I suppose it's obvious at this point which one I like better.
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Prepare your case by lifting both of the uniquely designed acrylic side panels off their hinges and
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stashing them somewhere safe where they won't get scratched.
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We're gonna be replacing the stock fans later on with some Bitfenix Spectre Pro green LED fans,
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so now is a good time to remove the ones that come with the case.
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Just press on the front fan filter to pop it off and
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undo the four screws holding these down.
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Then put them aside for now.
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Next, take out the four screws at the back that hold in the rear fan. This one we're gonna replace right away.
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So just align the fan with the three pin lead coming out as close to the motherboard tray as you can for easy cable management
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later. Then put the anti-vibration mounts that come with the fan in like so.
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Make sure you put the hardware, the screws that came with the original fan,
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safely in a tray with all of your other screws that were included with your case, so you're less likely to lose them.
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That way, well, okay, well, that is to say unless you lose the whole tray, but either way, if that happens,
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there's nothing I can do for you. So this should help most people.
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The motherboard is often a complicated choice even for experienced techies.
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There are the useful features that matter, and then there are many others that are just pure marketing.
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Fortunately for us, this choice was made relatively simple because ASUS only released three motherboards that were truly optimized for Intel's Ivy Bridge E,
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LGA 2011 CPUs, and only one of them is less than $500. So we went with the X79 Deluxe.
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It's got all the stuff that matters, like AC, Wi-Fi,
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multi-graphics support, strong CPU, and RAM overclocking support, automated fan control, and robust build quality
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without having to spend a fortune on stuff that doesn't really help your system run better. From the box,
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you'll need the I.O. shield, the board itself, Wi-Fi antennas, a couple straight-ended SATA cables, the two-way SLI bridge, and the
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manual. Everything else you can pretty much leave in the box until you need it another time.
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Correctly orient the I.O. shield at the back of the case, then press firmly on each of the four corners until they snap into place.
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Corsair kindly pre-installs the standoffs in their cases.
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So just poke the back of the board through the I.O. shield, then lower it into place. Corsair also kindly
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replaces the screw threads of the middle standoff with a little post that holds the motherboard there for you while you do
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up the eight screws around it here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
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For the front panel I.O., power and reset are not affected by orientation,
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so just check the spots for them in the motherboard manual and plug them in. The power and drive activity LEDs do need the positive
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pin to correspond to the correct wire, however, so if they're not working, just try flipping them around. Don't worry,
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you won't damage anything.
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Front USB 3 only goes in one way, thanks to the keyed connector, while front USB 2 and
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audio are a little bit trickier. Just look closely for the blocked-off pin on the cable and the missing pin on the header.
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The wire for that fan that we installed at the back can be either managed behind the fan frame or
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looped up to be shorter, then plugged into the nearest fan header.
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Don't worry that there are four pin fan headers on the board. Three pin fans will work just fine on them. Now,
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I'll be the first to admit that I don't know enough about electrical engineering to properly evaluate a power supply
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on
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that level, and even if I did, I don't have anything resembling the necessary equipment to do it anyway.
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But, what I do know is where to find the best power supply reviews on the internet, johnnyguru.com.
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So, why did I choose the Cooler Master V850 power supply? Well, because I want rock-solid efficiency, a nice sexy ID,
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nice cables on a modular interface, and one more thing,
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I want the power supply that had absolutely nothing listed in the cons section at the end of a Johnny Guru review. End of story.
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850 watts will be enough for
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our rig, but if we wanted some growing room, the V1000 is an option as well.
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We're using a modular power supply, so rather than worrying about cables right off the bat,
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we're just going to slide the PSU into its position,
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fan side down at the bottom of the case, where there's a filtered intake.
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Then, use the four screws included in the box to secure it at the back.
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Next, grab the 24 pin cable, 8 pin EPS cable, two PCI Express power cables, a couple SATA power cables, and a 4 pin
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Molex cable. This should be enough for us to power the whole system.
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Plug the 24 pin and 8 pin EPS connectors into your motherboard, then route them behind the motherboard tray through the nearest holes.
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Put the others aside for now. We won't need them until later.
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Strictly speaking, SSDs don't affect the frame rate at which your games will run,
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so my choice of a couple Intel 730 series SSDs in RAID 0 might seem a little strange to some,
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but it's not a purely practical thing for this rig.
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The reason I actually did this is that a while ago, when I did my personal rig update,
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I had a lot of people asking me about running SSDs in RAID 0 for extra performance, and I've had to say,
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well, hold on, no, don't do it the way that I was doing it with eight refurbished drives and all that,
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and then the inevitable follow-up question is, okay then, what way would you recommend doing it?
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So to which I would reply, well, if you must have RAID 0, then this is how I would do it. Intel SSDs are
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legendarily reliable, and the 730 series
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specifically offers outstanding performance consistency, something that's very important for RAID operation,
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where the entire array will slow down to the speed of the slowest drive at any given moment.
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Corsair includes handy-dandy spring-loaded SSD mounts in the front of the case near the right side panel,
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so installing our SSDs is literally a snap.
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Pop them in there, route the SATA data cables as neatly as we can to the motherboard, and then double-check the manual to ensure
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that you're using a SATA 3 6 gigabit per second connector that's running off of the Intel chipset. On this particular board,
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it's going to be the top ones. Then grab a SATA power cable from earlier,
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carefully plug that into each drive without putting unnecessary tension on the connector, and route that back to the power supply.
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Now our GPU choice of dual GTX 780 TIs for a 4K gaming rig is likely to raise some eyebrows,
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but bear with me here for a minute while I explain the choice. First up,
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is why two cards? I'm just still not a strong believer in three- and four-way configurations.
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I don't think the scaling justifies the extra cost, heat, and power consumption.
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This dual card config will be able to run even the most demanding games today at medium to high settings at 4K, and
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while I can, you know, compare screenshots side-by-side and tell the difference between
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high and ultra game settings, when things are actually in motion, I don't really find it that easy to tell,
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so I'm not going to spend a ton more money
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just to turn that dial a little bit higher.
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Another dial, again, because we're only using two cards that we won't be cranking for lack of necessary horsepower, is anti-aliasing,
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but again, justification for that is I don't really find it useful beyond 2 to 4x max at this kind of pixel density anyway.
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Next up is the 3 gig frame buffer limitation. If you need more,
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you're not alone, and for you, there are other options available, such as dual R9 290Xs or dual
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Titan Blacks. I went with this config because nothing that I'm playing
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requires more video memory at the moment, and I'm willing to trade a little bit of future-proofness
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for an exclusive NVIDIA feature that I use a lot. Now, many GPU features are mostly fluff to me.
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I don't use ShadowPlay or Mantle, but one that I do use, and a lot, is Gamestream.
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I have an NVIDIA Shield, and I actually do a ton of my PC gaming in bed with my Shield.
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I'm not willing to give that up by going over to the red team,
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and I'm not willing to spend a bunch more money on Titan Blacks just to get that feature and to have more memory,
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especially if the games I'm using don't need the extra VRAM.
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So given that these perform the same if you don't need it, 780Ti's it is.
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Lastly, and this is a probably half serious and a half joke at this point,
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I am a dad now, and dads everywhere know that you don't waste power.
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The performance is similar between two 290Xs and two 780Ti's,
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but the difference in load power consumption is over a hundred percent.
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And on top of that, much of that extra power will be wasted as heat,
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which has to go somewhere, and my gaming den is on the second floor of the south side of my house,
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where it's warm enough in the summer without the extra heat.
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So I hope the takeaway was this.
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It's a personal choice, not a condemnation of the other available options that I went with 780Ti SLI.
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If you don't have a Shield, and you live in the Arctic Circle, then dual 290Xs might be a better option for you,
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and that's totally just fine.
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Let's all just not fanboy out and respect that different solutions work better for different people.
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With that out of the way, remove two PCI slot covers that each correspond to one of the PCIe 16x physical and electrical slots on the motherboard,
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and stash those somewhere safe in case you ever need to take a card out and need something to fill the gap.
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Position each card over the PCI Express slot, and when it's aligned, firmly push it into place.
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Replace the screws that you took out
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of the slot covers, then grab the PCIe power cables from before, and plug them into your GPUs before routing them back to the power
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supply behind the motherboard tray.
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Put the proverbial cherry on top by installing your SLI bridge, and now it's time to move on to cable management.
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The thing I like about the H110 from Corsair is that unlike other all-in-one liquid coolers,
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it is purely performance oriented.
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You give up better mounting and software control compared to other options,
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but our 6-core CPU needs
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all the help it can get, especially if you plan to do any overclocking.
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So I paired this cooler and positioned it at the front intake. This has two effects.
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Number one is it allows the CPU to be cooled by nice fresh air coming right into the case, and number two is that it
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lets me leave the clean-looking top on the 760T versus taking it off for mesh in order to do a top radiator install.
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We do sacrifice slightly higher temperatures for the rest of the components in the case, but it's really not that big of a deal.
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Start by locating the correct mounting hardware for LGA2011 in the box.
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If you've got good eyes,
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you can do this pretty easily by looking for the ones with the more coarse threading. If you need some help, check the manual.
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Orient the plastic fillers so the hole is closer to the outside of the hold-down bracket and put the screws through.
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They should stay in place.
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The cooler includes thermal compounds, so you won't need to apply your own.
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So all you need to do is secure the hold-down plate with the included plastic ring,
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then
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screw in all four of the mounting holes into the back plate that is included on all LGA2011 boards.
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Corners lightly, then all the way to avoid applying uneven pressure to your CPU.
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Next, we need to clear space at the front of the case by removing the front three and a half inch drive cage.
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Undo the two screws on the bottom of the case, then just pop it out.
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We are only using SSDs in this build, so we could remove the second cage if we wanted,
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but if we leave that in, it gives us
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three bays for future drive expansion.
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Position the front 140 millimeter fans using the long screws included with your radiator,
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then, being careful not to accidentally put any strain on your memory modules or anything else,
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position the radiator carefully behind them and start threading the screws in.
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If it takes a couple of tries to get it aligned, don't worry.
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It's a bit tricky. Just be gentle and be patient.
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Plug the fan connectors into the nearest ports available on the motherboard,
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then plug the pump connector on the CPU block
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into the CPU header on your motherboard.
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Moving on to some last-minute cable management,
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it's just a matter of laying everything down flat enough that we can close the side panels easily without any interference.
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Something that's a little bit more difficult on this case than it is on some other ones
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due to that plexi back panel that will easily flex and bow out if you have anything that's stacked up too high.
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The good news is that you've got almost a full inch of clearance back here,
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so even things like this can be easily removed.
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Even things like a 24-pin connector are easy to hold in place.
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I recommend using twist ties instead of zip ties.
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And if you just built a computer, which you just did, you should have some.
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They come wrapped around things like your power supply cables in the box.
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Then use those to tie down to the little cable management loops on the back of the case because they're reusable and
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a little bit more convenient to remove because you don't have to use snippers to get them off.
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I think that's pretty much it.
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Stash the unneeded ones.
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We've got two wires for the fan controller up in the top left.
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We didn't end up using that because we're going to be using our motherboard's onboard fan control,
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so that means we don't even have to plug in the SATA power for it.
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And...
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Looks not bad, hey?
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So the tower is pretty much done now,
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but we still need some things before this bad boy will fire up.
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Now when it comes to peripherals, there's a lot of personal taste involved.
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So take all of these recommendations with a grain of salt.
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The one thing I think we can all agree on though is that
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when it comes to a 4K gaming rig, you are going to need a 4K monitor.
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There aren't a ton of options out there.
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I mean, up until very recently, for a high-quality, color-accurate, you know,
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reasonably gaming capable monitor, the PQ321Q that's like
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$3,000 was pretty much all there was, or one of the other ones using the same panel.
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But just recently,
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Samsung released a value-priced TN-based, but still using a pretty decent panel,
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U28D2.
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U28D2.
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so that's a 4K monitor that came in and basically went
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Okay. Yeah, it's only a single tile so it's
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you're not gonna have to contend with any, you know multiple tile
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you know
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stuttering issues or anything like that.
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But the bad news about that one and it
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was a deal-breaker for a lot of people was that it has no
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VESA mount and the included stand is really not that great.
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But there's good news two days before we finished filming the segment right here.
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here ASUS's pb287q based on the same panel but with a better height adjustable pivotable you
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know everythingable stand and a vase amount is now in our hands and holy crap this is pretty much
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the one to go for right now for a 4k gamer that well wants to game at 4k for our mouse we went
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with the Corsair m45 it's the one that i'm using now personally it's got what's known as a perfect
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sensor that is to say there's no forced acceleration or other weirdness and the dpi is high enough for
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it to perform well at 4k something you do have to consider because with such a high resolution
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monitor you're going to want to have faster mouse movements in order to have it seem like a normal
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speed for our keyboard choice we went with a ducky shine 3 it's something that i've recommended quite
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a few times before it uses cherry mx switches whatever
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you're going to want to have a ducky shine 3 it's something that i've recommended quite a few
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colors that you like and comes with a variety of different colors of backlight as well as some
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really cool lighting effects this will hold out for us as long as we're still waiting for Corsair's
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RGB backlit cherry mx keyboard for our gaming headset we're going with the audio technica
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ath ag1 it's basically a high quality closed back headphone with very good noise isolation
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with an absolutely outstanding microphone attached to it with the elastic band mod
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It's comfortable, lightweight, and aside from being extremely expensive, basically the ideal headset.
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Although, since I scripted this video, we actually had the ModMic 4.0 land in our studio,
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and I've spent a little bit of time with it, and holy crap, guys,
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the whole option of just buying headphones and attaching a ModMic to it
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might be a lot more feasible in the future with that new microphone.
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So, guys, peripherals are changing all the time, but at least this hopefully gives you a starting point.
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Press Delete while booting up the system for the first time to go into the UEFI BIOS,
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load optimized defaults to just get everything kind of mostly set up,
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change your memory to XMP mode, set your fans to quiet mode one by one,
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then configure your onboard SATA controller to RAID mode.
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That's the basics, but there's lots of other stuff in here you can play with if you want to tweak and tune.
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I'd recommend starting at Linus-techtips.com if you want to get some help from our fantastic community.
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For now, press F10 to reboot.
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Then press F6 when prompted to configure your two drives in RAID.
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We're using RAID 0 for maximum speed with all of the default settings.
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Then put the system aside for now.
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Use the guide that we made a while ago to create a bootable USB drive,
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then reboot while mashing F8 repeatedly to get into the boot device selection menu where you'll pick your USB drive.
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Once the setup process for Windows has begun,
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it's basically a matter of clicking Next until you land on the Windows desktop.
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At the desktop, grab the latest drivers off the manufacturer websites for each of your components,
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rather than relying on the ones that are on the disks in the boxes.
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Then, hit up ninite.com for your essential free software.
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You can choose from all kinds of useful stuff, including antivirus installers, alternative web browsers, and great system utilities.
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Just select all the things you want, and it'll install them all automagically without the bloatware that can sometimes be included with these kinds of apps.
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You might also want to run some basic software.
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There are some basic utilities to make sure your system is running correctly.
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I recommend AIDA64, Memtest86, Prime95, and some good old-fashioned gaming to ensure that everything is hunky-dory.
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With all that done, it's time to fire up some games and benchmark the system.
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So we took some of the most demanding games in our test suite and ran them at the highest settings that we could,
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while still achieving smooth, playable frame rates at 4K.
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Absolutely fantastic.
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Everything is running at a nice, comfortable temperature, and we stayed within the limits of our 850-watt power supply.
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I consider this machine a huge success.
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But the journey is not over.
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It'll be another product generation or two before IPS 4K displays with better color accuracy reach affordable levels,
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and reasonably-priced graphics cards are able to drive modern games at 4K.
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But, if nothing else, what we achieved today was a glimpse into the future of PC games.
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And let me tell you guys, the future looks pretty darn good.
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While you guys enjoy some glamour footage of our finished system that we worked really hard on,
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I want to take another opportunity to extend a huge thank you to Intel for making this video possible.
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These build guides are incredibly time-consuming for us to produce,
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and without sponsors like Intel to foot the bill, we wouldn't be able to set aside the week-plus that it takes for my team to script, film, and edit them.
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So thanks, Intel, for supporting the DIY folks who want high-quality guides
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that enable them to confidently build their own PCs.
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I hope you guys enjoyed this video as much as we enjoyed making it.
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Hit that subscribe button now if you haven't already, and until next time, peace out.