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Schmoo
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Testing a new mATX build

Thu Nov 24, 2016 10:54 am

Guys,
         I'm just about to put together a machine for a friend's wife with the following main components:

Jonsbo V4 mATX case - http://www.jonsbo.com/en/products_13_1.html
Asus Z170M-Plus mATX motherboard
Core i5-6600K Processor
Noctua NH-L12 Low Profile CPU Cooler
EVGA GTX 1060 Gaming 6GB video card
3 x Noctua NF-R8 80mm PWM case fans (Driven from motherboard 4 pin headers)

Neither the CPU or GPU will be overclocked so I'd like to set up fan curves that keep the machine nice and quiet most of the time. Once I have it all together I'd like to confirm that I've got the right balance between noise and cooling so can you please point me in the direction of some software I can use to load up both the CPU and GPU and monitor their temperatures to make sure it's not going to either cook itself or scream with fan noise unnecessarily ?
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: Testing a new mATX build

Thu Nov 24, 2016 11:35 am

Asus' own Thermal Radar 2 software worked well to customize fan profiles for me in a previous build with the Gryphon Z97 motherboard.  Combine that with CPU-Z and/or GPU-Z and a few actual game sessions to stress the system.  Install Folding @ home if you really want to maintain maximum heat generation.  Note that you must run the auto-tune feature for each fan before TR2 will let you set extremely low rpm thresholds.  In a Silverstone Temjin TJ08-E case, I was able to achieve near-silence at the desktop and while browsing the web, but maintain adequate cooling while gaming or folding with a Core i7-4770K and Radeon R9-290 or GeForce GTX980Ti.  Besides using TR2 for the case and CPU fans, I spent some time tweaking the power and cooling profile for the Radeon R9-290 to achieve the perfect balance.
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Chrispy_
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Re: Testing a new mATX build

Thu Nov 24, 2016 11:53 am

If you're not overclocking, why pay the large premium for a K-variant processor and Z-series motherboard? 

Do you already have these parts? If not, get an H-series or B-series board and put the savings towards an i7 instead.
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nico1982
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Re: Testing a new mATX build

Thu Nov 24, 2016 12:16 pm

Chrispy_ wrote:
If you're not overclocking, why pay the large premium for a K-variant processor and Z-series motherboard?

Couldn't agree more.

Providing adequate thermal headroom, you don't even get an extra 200 MHz bump with the K. Check the turbo boost bins per core load:

*-------------------------------*-------------------------------*
|            i5-6600K           |            i5-6600            |
*---------------------------------------------------------------*                                    
|  4 C  |  3 C  |  2 C  |  1 C  |  4 C  |  3 C  |  2 C  |  1 C  |
*---------------------------------------------------------------*
|   1   |   2   |   3   |   4   |   3   |   4   |   5   |   6   |
*---------------------------------------------------------------*
|  3.6  |  3.7  |  3.8  |  3.9  |  3.6  |  3.7  |  3.8  |  3.9  |
*---------------------------------------------------------------*

Top to bottom: model, core load, turbo bins, freq. (GHz)
 
EndlessWaves
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Re: Testing a new mATX build

Thu Nov 24, 2016 12:44 pm

All three fan mounts on that case are on the rear panel, so I suspect it may work best with just the lowest one being used as an intake fan and the other two left off.

Also, I'd swap the GTX 1060 out for an RX 480. 30W isn't going to make much difference but freesync support may do.
 
Chrispy_
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Re: Testing a new mATX build

Thu Nov 24, 2016 12:59 pm

nico1982 wrote:
Chrispy_ wrote:
If you're not overclocking, why pay the large premium for a K-variant processor and Z-series motherboard?

Couldn't agree more.

Providing adequate thermal headroom, you don't even get an extra 200 MHz bump with the K.


You don't even have to provide extra headroom, since the 6600K is a 91W part and the 6600 is a 65W part.
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Schmoo
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Re: Testing a new mATX build

Mon Nov 28, 2016 1:40 pm

JustAnEngineer wrote:
Asus' own Thermal Radar 2 software worked well to customize fan profiles for me in a previous build with the Gryphon Z97 motherboard.

Are you saying that Thermal Radar 2 is a piece of downloadable software that runs under Windows or is that some feature in the BIOS of your board ? Going to the page you linked I don't see any download links (for that software) and searching around I find some mentions of Asus AI Suite so is that actually what I'm looking for here ?
 
Schmoo
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Re: Testing a new mATX build

Mon Nov 28, 2016 2:01 pm

Chrispy_ wrote:
If you're not overclocking, why pay the large premium for a K-variant processor and Z-series motherboard? 

Do you already have these parts? If not, get an H-series or B-series board and put the savings towards an i7 instead.

Yes, I already had the parts and I've now put most of it together. I don't know what the price differential is where you are but here it wasn't really that significant. Between the K and non-K versions of that processor was only AUD$15 difference. The Z170 board I used was AUD$185 locally and the H170 version of it was AUD$149 so only AUD$36 difference. Stepping down to the B150 version dropped the price down to AUD$129 but that meant trading one PCIe x 1 slot that might be used at some point in the future for a PCI slot which would never be used. I guess I could have saved a bit more by ditching the aftermarket CPU cooler as the non-K CPU would have included one however I didn't know for sure how hot this thing was going to get in a fairly crammed small case and I figured the larger CPU cooler would allow the fans to run at a slower speed so would be quieter anyway.

Stepping up to an i7-6700 would have been AUD$109 more so a bit over twice the motherboard and non-K i5 CPU savings.
Last edited by Schmoo on Mon Nov 28, 2016 2:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
Schmoo
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Re: Testing a new mATX build

Mon Nov 28, 2016 2:24 pm

EndlessWaves wrote:
All three fan mounts on that case are on the rear panel, so I suspect it may work best with just the lowest one being used as an intake fan and the other two left off.

Also, I'd swap the GTX 1060 out for an RX 480. 30W isn't going to make much difference but freesync support may do.

I did debate myself how I would arrange the case fans but in the end I decided to run all 3 as exhaust fans. The case doesn't have any dust filtering so you can't set up an "ideal" positive case pressure with filtered air and it has air vents on the left side and the underneath so I thought it would probably be best to make all 3 rears exhaust fans so that it will suck air in through the left and bottom and allow it to pass over the HDD cage, bottom mounted SSD, CPU cooler and GPU on it's way out the back. I may not really need 3 fans on the rear however they are only 80mm so I thought if it ended up being overkill at least they could spin at low RPM and be quiet.

This machine's primary purpose at the moment will be office duties with some AutoCAD thrown in so VRR won't really be of any use. The only reason it has a GTX 1060 in it is to allow them to run dual 4K monitors if they want and to make it a bit future-resistant for when it gets passed on down the line in a few years. Here that EVGA 6GB 1060 card was AUD$375 whereas an 8GB RX480 would have been between AUD$409 to AUD$459 depending on the card chosen. I know this is the reverse to the pricing situation in the US but AMD is not as competitive here and since the 1060 seems to come out a bit ahead in performance and power consumption it didn't make sense to pay more for an RX480. The RX480 may have been a bit noisier too although dumping any hot air out of the rear bracket would have been nicer than spraying it around the inside of the case like the 1060.

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