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The current Intel option gets my stamp of approval. I'd even spend the extra $22 and get a 3TB HDD (best value per TB right now).

Well, I've ordered the Intel option today, and I feel pretty darn good about it. Not apprehensive at all.

Within 6 months, I think this will be the best PC I've ever owned, relatively speaking.

Super excited.

4-7 days is way too long.

If I move again, I'm moving to a place that has Google Fiber and a NewEgg will call.

Thanks for all the help!

Awwww, my $75 AsRock Formula OC open box didn't make the cut

DPete27 wrote:

Awwww, my $75 AsRock Formula OC open box didn't make the cut

Why take the risk of missing parts, deal with the hassle of rebates and still pay more (if the rebate ever arrives) to gain a z-series chipset that offers nothing of value over the H97 when used with an i3?

I kind of know what you mean, in that a Z-series chip is useful down the road for a drop in CPU upgrade, but given how long Titan's last system ran for, I doubt that'll be happening before Z97 is thoroughly, utterly, laughably obsolete

Titan, if you've never assembled an LGA-socketed system before, the most common problem I see (by far) with systems that don't power on first time is misaligned pins in the LGA socket. Inspect the socket, put the CPU in as carefully as you can, starting from the corner with the triangle mark and your odds of a first-time boot are greatly enhanced. Or maybe it's just that I work with careless, fat-fingered baboons (though they doth protest that is not the case). I seem to need to fix bent LGA pins with an exacto and some profanity in a build at least once or twice a quarter.

I figured I should report back on my experience with this system thus far.

I booted successfully the first time. So, yay!

I am still a bit wary of the OEM HSF. It's all plastic screw/bolt/connector/whatever, and 1 of the 4 didn't snap (which actually sounded like I broke things rather than secure things) like the other 3.

All the hardware is supported by Linux, too, without having to do anything more advanced than enable the proper options in the kernel configuration. I didn't have to hunt down any firmware or drivers, or perform any black magic rituals. And, even though it does have the UEFI thing, proceeding as if it has a classic BIOS is all that's necessary.

The performance of this system is quite good. Several of the storage-dependent installation steps that took 15 minutes (according to my perception) finished in the span of time it took me to grab a coffee from the kitchen. Emerging webkit, which takes 4-6 hours on my laptop, finished in under an hour on this system.

With EVE Online, starting with the same low settings as my laptop and using the same monitor, I was getting more than 60 FPS. Cranking everything up to high plunges the frames to ~20 FPS, but it isn't noticeable as there is little to no stuttering.

The system has stayed quite throughout all of the tasks thrown at it. I'm not even sure the PSU fan has turned on yet. At least, I can't hear anything over the window AC unit.

All the cables are long enough to reach were I need them to go, but I might need to look at some custom cables for cleaner runs, especially for the SSD mounted in the front panel of the Node 804 case. Oh, and the case is easy to work with, too.

In the Node the board is horizontal anyway so even if only 3 of the 4 retention pins is properly locked the HSF isn't going anywhere.

Google how to release and remount the HSF if you're worried, the mechanism is pretty simple (twist & pull up on each corner to release, twist the other way to reset the barbs). Personally I'd just ignore it unless you plan to transport the PC anywhere where it could end up on its side or upside down.

Chrispy_ wrote:

In the Node the board is horizontal anyway so even if only 3 of the 4 retention pins is properly locked the HSF isn't going anywhere.

Google how to release and remount the HSF if you're worried, the mechanism is pretty simple (twist & pull up on each corner to release, twist the other way to reset the barbs). Personally I'd just ignore it unless you plan to transport the PC anywhere where it could end up on its side or upside down.

In the Node 804 it's vertical. The Node 304 is horizontal. I'm pretty sure it's secure. It just doesn't seem as secure as the Socket A retention clip I've used previously.

Well, in a vertical board I'm always worried that the HSF will fall off, land on the back of the graphics card and cause all manner of fatal shorts (I have seen this happen in person to an old AMD Duron system where a single-clip HSF actually snapped off the dog/tooth it was clipped to, killing an expensive-enough Geforce-256. I've also read enough instances of other people suffering similar issues with Intel push-pin HSFs that I'm now paranoid!)

Since you don't have a dGPU to worry about you can probably ignore it as even if the HSF does fall off, it will swing by the fan cable, and probably come to rest with a grinding fan noise against the heatspreaders on your RAM. There's not much to short against on the topside of a motherboard, it's the backside of PCBs that have all the exposed solder points. Things like plastic slots, heatsinks and solid caps will get in the way of a detatched HSF most likely.

The paranoia in me would:

• twist the suspect post 90 degrees anticlockwise
• pull up to release the black pin inside the white/clear barb
• reset the post by twisting the leg 90 degrees clockwise
• pushing down on the white/clear base of the barb with one finger to make sure the barb's head is through the motherboard hole
• whilst still pushing down on the barb, push the black post down firmly to lock.

Even if you don't hear a solid click, you can be sure the barb is properly engaged if the base was touching the board as the black post went down. OCD satisfied, paranoia and worries assuaged etc

That's why I recommend to install push-pin HSF's before actually putting the motherboard in the case. One can look to find out immediately if all four pins have made it through to the backside of the board and locked.

Yeah, I installed the HSF before mounting the board. It looked like it was poking through the same as the others. Just didn't have the same satisfying click.