Evil Monkey
by JonathanwasherePictures taken on my iPhone 4, that has no flash so forgive me if the pictures are dark
Really disappointed with this CPU. Could only reach 4466MHz (bus: 203, multiplier 22). Oh well, it's a pretty fantastic CPU anyway, very quick with audio conversion, the main reason why I went with an 8 core actually. I can't wait until when (if?) mantle becomes main stream, the extra cores will help with fps I'm hoping. Saved money on this instead of an 8350.
Cooler: It does it's job well, there's not much space at all between the heat sink and window, but I'm cool with that. It's quite chunky and plugging fans in can be a bit difficult and results in scraped hands and fingers. I would've gone with the hyper 212, but I'm kinda picky, and I think it's used way too much, I like to be different. One of the pins on the fan snapped so it runs at 100% all the time, it's audible but it's my fault, not worrying.
Thermal Paste: Best paste on here, no complaints. It seems to do its job well.
MOBO: I HATE this board. NOTHING but problems... Poor research led me to believe there was a USB 3 header, there isn't. Not my issue with the board. The CPU voltage is locked at 1.44V, very annoying. Solution: reset bios every time I start the PC (the voltage max then is 1.99V). The voltage shown between CPUz and the BIOS are different by about 0.04V, although CPUz does change to the MOBO BIOS when running IBT. The CPU temp is different by about 20 degrees between core temp and the BIOS. Let's not mention extremely hot NB and VRMs... Doesn't match colour scheme but the cold cathodes drown it out.
RAM: From an old build, nothing fancy. Went mental trying to tighten the timings, but I gave up in the end as their simply wasn't enough documentation. Somewhat disappointed that it doesn't reach 1866MHz. (You can see my progress in the pictures). Was given the 2*2GB kit for free, decided to stick it in, doesn't match the colour scheme but the red cold cathodes drown out everything that isn't red.
HDD: Very slow, boot times can often reach 140 seconds, usually 70 though. I have never seen it change from 28 degrees, so that's all good. Had this from an old build, somewhere along the line it got the nickname "Mt. Reliable", don't remember how but at one point it was super unreliable. Edit: SATA connecter snapped and replaced with an SSHD. I soldered a sata connector onto the drive, except it doesn't show up on File Explorer however it does show up in partition recovery software (accidently installed linux onto it which wiped all my partitions). The SSHD is super fast (10 seconds or so) loving it, no more freezing!
GPU: Should've gotten a 270, oh well. Used to have a gt 630, so this is a huge improvement. I think I managed to overclock it well? I know that it comes pre overclocked, but compared to stock clocks I did well? Disappointed that it doesn't have true audio (which I thought it did). It's really quiet and I like it a lot.
Chassis: Very cheap case, will be selling my 270X to buy a Phanteks Primo (replacing 270X with a 290). In a few areas of the case I managed to scrape a bit of the black paint off which made me wince, made me realise it really was a budget case. It does it's job for now, I won't be sad when it goes. Hardly any cable management, I tried as hard as I possibly good to manage cables. Very difficult to get the other side panel back on, in the end it came down to Sellotape, brute force and bowing. Lost a thumb screw so I replaced the ones of the other side panel with ordinary screws.
PSU: My old PSU was one of those 300w hand grenade ones, so it was very loud. It made me spend the extra money for the hybrid fan design, which I'm very impressed by actually. It doesn't spin, so it's silent. And even when it does, it's very quiet (or other things are drowning out the noise?), because of this, I won't be upgrading the PSU unless it dies, I'm going to try my hardest that all future upgrades are below 650w. No CFX or SLI for me...
Windows 8.1: Better than 8, not as good as seven. Running classic shell, rather upset that they got rid of WEI.
WLAN card: Very good card, shame my internet is terrible. Going to replace my 02 wireless box 2 for a 4 or 5, add a booster (insulation in walls cuts off WIFI upstairs) and move my PC upstairs. Of course I'll portforward it too.
Headset: Used to have a pair (quite literally two sets) of Tritton AX 180s, one pair broke and the other is in my draw upstairs. This headset fits well with my colour scheme and it's made by corsair. Loving the corsair software too. It's microphone is probably the best you get for a headset (after that you go for actual mics like the blue snowball). Hell of a lot better than the previously mentioned Trittons.
Monitor: A good upgrade from 768p. Wish it was HDMI though.
Monitor 2 (Acer): It's not as good as my other monitor, but it's excellent for free. My second-uncle (?) gave it to me (Nan's brother). Will have to adjust the colour settings a bit so they're the same, not bothered at the moment really. Buttons are somewhat difficult to use and annoying however.
Speakers: Given to me by the same person. Sound quality is terrible when its at high volumes, but I hardly use them, and when I do, rarely at high volume. Sometime so prefer to use in ears rather than my headset (long gaming sessions make my ears sore), so I plug my in ears into the speakers so I can control tone, and volume on the go rather than pausing the game.
Mouse: Not bad, but not good. Very cheap and I'm only using it till I can afford a trackball (or decent mouse).
Keyboard: The gamepad is quite good but it's difficult to get used to, because of that I've stopped using it. Was given this by my dad, you can't purchase this anymore and it's super old, I want to change it but I can't bring myself to do so, going to wait until it dies and get a mechanical backlit keyboard (Gamdias Hermes looks good).
CD Reader: Does it's job, does what I want it to do.
Cold Cathodes: Brought these ages ago. Would go for NZXT hue next time. They look pink when you look at them normally, but appear red inside the case and in pictures so that's pretty good. I stupidly put the Velcro things on my old case without dusting so they didn't work, should probably take them off now, considering gravity holds them in place. Proper getto switch mounting, it's inside one of the Expansion slots, assuming it's meant for one of the water cooling grommet holes, but getto FTW!
Generic fan: Was given this too, doesn't move much air, not really bothered, it was laying about so I just stuck it in.
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/9pam5/
Planned upgrade: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Jonathanwashere/saved/n6MV3C
Edit: Removed the second GPU, added more RAM, put an SSHD in haven't updated picture but they exist in the PC.
| Component | Selection | Owner Rating | Price | Where | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core | £117.40 | (Purchased) | ||
| CPU Cooler | Phanteks PH-TC12DX_RD 68.5 CFM | £39.74 | (Purchased) | ||
| Thermal Compound | Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g | £6.46 | (Purchased) | ||
| Motherboard | MSI 990FXA-GD65 ATX AM3+ | £83.99 | (Purchased) | ||
| Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 | £0.00 | (Purchased) | ||
| Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 | £38.45 | (Purchased) | |||
| Storage | Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid | £27.50 | (Purchased) | ||
| Video Card | Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X 2GB WINDFORCE | £155.12 | (Purchased) | ||
| Case | Cooler Master K380 ATX Mid Tower | £38.86 | (Purchased) | ||
| Power Supply | Corsair 650W ATX12V / EPS12V | £85.98 | (Purchased) | ||
| Optical Drive | Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer | £11.79 | (Purchased) | ||
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro (OEM) (64-bit) | £69.99 | (Purchased) | ||
| Wireless Network Adapter | TP-Link TL-WN881ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 | £13.19 | (Purchased) | ||
| Headphones | Corsair Raptor HS40 | £35.99 | (Purchased) | ||
| Custom | Asus VS228NE | £83.06 | (Purchased) | ||
| Altec Lansing VS2320 | (Purchased) | ||||
| Ideazon Zboard MERC | (Purchased) | ||||
| VGA to DVI converter | (Purchased) | ||||
| Acer X223HQ | (Purchased) | ||||
| Generic 92mm fan | (Purchased) | ||||
| Generic Cold Cathodes | £8.19 | (Purchased) | |||
| Total: | £815.71 | ||||
| Date Built | Dec. 9, 2013 |
| AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor | |
| CPU Clock Rate | 4.47Ghz |
| CPU Temperature While Idle | 34.0° C |
| CPU Temperature Under Load | 73.0° C |
| Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card | |
| GPU Core Clock Rate | 1.18Ghz |
| GPU Effective Memory Clock Rate | 6.0GHz |
| GPU Temperature While Idle | 33.0° C |
| GPU Temperature Under Load | 73.0° C |
| Extreme Preset Score | X2671 |
| Performance Preset Score | P8619 |
| Entry Preset Score | E11518 |
