The Doctor answers your questions about gaming mobos, multiple GPUs, boot delays, oversized towers, and home-brew PCs
Life in the Fast Lanes
I’m a gamer looking to upgrade soon. I’m running an Intel Core i5-2500K overclocked to 4GHz with a Corsair H55 liquid cooler on an Asus P8Z68-V Pro mobo, with 32GB RAM, 1TB HDD, and a 120GB SSD, with two Nvidia GTX 760s in SLI overclocked to 1,300MHz. I’m looking to upgrade my mobo and CPU because LGA1155 is outdated. I really want to find a mobo that’ll give me the most for those graphics cards because right now mine is PCIe 2.0 x8/x8. Is there a mobo that can run PCIe 3.0 x16/x16? I’ve a $400 budget, so should I get one now or wait ‘til SATA Express comes out? —Tim Toavs
The Doctor Responds: You can upgrade for $400, but you won’t be getting dual x16 SLI action, at least not on the Intel platform. That type of bandwidth is reserved for the “big boy sockets” like X79 and X99 chipsets, and they need Intel’s Core i7 CPUs. To get the full 40 lanes of PCIe the X99 chipset offers, you’ll need to move up to the Core i7-5930K, which is $600. You’ll have to stick with the consumer-grade chipset, which is Intel’s new Z97.
You can get a mobo from all the usual suspects for $150, and then grab a Core i5-4690K “Devil’s Canyon” CPU for $210 and you’ll be set for at least a few years, as these motherboards (LGA 1150) are compatible with Intel’s upcoming Broadwell CPUs, too. This chipset (and CPUs) only offer 16 lanes of PCIe, so you can run one card at x16 or two at x8. It shouldn’t impact performance much, as most modern videocards aren’t handicapped by x8 bandwidth.
As for SATA Express, our guess is M.2 will become the favored interface—it’s simple and offers the same performance as SATAe. Even better, you can buy an M.2 SSD now, though selection is very limited. Our tip is don’t wait for SATAe. Get a board with an M.2 slot and you’ll be set.
One GPU or Two?
My system is about two years old. I’ve an EVGA GTX 670 superclocked 4GB videocard. It runs great and plays all the latest games with no issues. I’d like to buy another GTX 670 and run them in SLI. Currently I can buy a slightly used one for about $150 or new for $300. My system is an Intel Core i7-3770K, 32GB of Patriot memory, an Asus P8Z77-V LE mobo, and a Samsung 256GB 840 Pro SSD running Windows 8.1. Should I buy the second GTX 670, or look into a GTX 980 instead? I’d like to keep this system at least two more years and want my videocard to run current games until then. — Jim Catan
The Doctor Responds: This is a tough call, Jim, but we’d probably stick with a second GTX 670 SLI as it will be very close to a GTX 980 in performance, and cost you a fraction of the price. Plus, since you have the 4GB version, you’re all set for 4K gaming. Of course, SLI has always been a bit more problematic to run than a single card, though both AMD and Nvidia have done a generally excellent job of providing driver profiles for AAA games the day of launch, so those concerns have gotten easier to deal with. Perhaps the biggest question is whether you can handle double the heat and noise in your case, and whether your power supply is capable of running SLI? These are all issues that SLI-runners must deal with, which is why many people just want to run a single GPU, as there are zero hassles taking that route. If you decide a single card is your future, but you’re on a budget, consider the Maxwell-based GTX 970 as it’s an absolute bargain at $330. It will offer probably about the same performance as your dual cards, with less than half the noise and heat.
Optical Delays
I upgraded my Asus Z77 WS gaming computer to a Z87 WS MOB and Devil’s Canyon CPU. After the upgrade I was getting long boot times with a Samsung 850 SSD boot drive. All drivers, BIOS, and Windows 7 were up to date. I systematically removed the USB devices to see if they were causing the problem, but it persisted. I also checked Microsoft and they had a software update but that didn’t help. I had two DVD/CD internal drives installed and when I went to load up a DVD it didn’t work. I removed the drive and bingo, boot time dropped to 15 to 20 seconds. Could the BIOS searching for this drive be the cause? Side note: the Asus Z87 WS makes for a great gaming board, with two 12v 8-pin CPU sockets and one 6-pin socket on the mobo to provide extra power for overclocks and multiple graphics cards. Has MPC ever used a workstation board for a gaming computer? —Ron Apra
The Doctor Responds: It sounds like you practiced excellent troubleshooting, Ron. As we’ve learned over the years, trying to “fix” issues when the hardware is faulty is an exercise in frustration. As far as your situation goes, yes, the POST process can hang when it finds faulty hardware. Though we’ve seen it in the past with optical drives, we’ve mostly experienced it with hard drives, and lately, SSDs. The system will poll each device on boot, and will wait for a response before either showing an error or moving on. In general, whenever your system is hanging during the boot process, it’s hardware-related. As an aside, we’d test to make sure the drive is really dead before tossing it. Either swap the SATA port it’s using or try a different cable.
Regarding your side note, yes we have used workstation boards for gaming, and you’re right, they’re excellent. In fact, if you’re inclined to run multiple GPUs they’re the best, as they provide more bandwidth than consumer-based motherboards. However, you’ll need to run at least three cards before you start seeing a difference. The rest of the differences, such as support for higher core count GPUs and RAM, are just for bragging rights though, and won’t make a difference in games.
Massive Tower Needed
I’m running an old Intel Core i7-920 Nehalem CPU in a Lian Li V1110 case with nine hard drives, two Blu-ray drives and an SSD as a media server, movie-ripping station, and occasional gaming box. I’ve been waiting for the Haswell-E to drop, but having read Maximum PC’s reviews I’m quite worried about CPU heat. In my current rig, I’m using a Thermalright Ultra 120 cooler, and my rig will occasionally reboot due to the heat. I love that my Lian Li case can accommodate many HDDs and is soundproofed, but it won’t accommodate a large water cooler such as the Corsair H100 or H110. If I want to keep my case, but upgrade the motherboard, CPU, and RAM, what is the best cooling solution? Alternatively, is there a roomy case that can accommodate lots of drives, is quiet, and has room to fit a large water cooler? —Charles
The Doctor Responds: Good news, Charles, there are several cases that meet your demands for hardcore storage and cooling. We know the Cooler Master Cosmos II and the Corsair 900D will both hold all that storage and a fat radiator, or at least a closed-loop liquid cooler like the NZXT Kraken X61 or the Corsair H100i. We’ve had both in the lab and can attest to their ability to swallow hardware, though for our money the Corsair 900D gets the nod. The 900D can hold nine hard drives, two power supplies, and a 360mm radiator, so throwing in a Corsair H100i would be like seeing if we could eat a single hot pocket. As far as quiet goes, you have to be able to strike a balance between good airflow and usable temperatures. Insulated cases are great for noise but not the best for keeping temperatures down. For what it’s worth, when we built the Dream Machine in 2013 using the Corsair 900D we had over 17 case fans of the Scythe Gentle Typhoon variety and it only emitted a gentle hum even under load. It was entirely water-cooled though. In our experience, the GPUs are the noisiest components in a PC, so if you can keep those quiet and use good case fans you’ll be well on your way.
Towers can take a ton of hardware, as Dream Machine 2013 showed.
Out of Retirement
I’ve a home-brew PC that’s been sitting unused for about 12 to 18 months. It was working fine when last used but upon starting it up in runs in super slo-mo. I reseated the RAM and videocard and ended up swapping out the VelociRaptor primary hard drive for an extra SSD I had, but it didn’t help. I then tried reinstalling Windows, which took days. Installation of the videocard driver also took days and the motherboard driver setup would not even run as it kept timing out. Any ideas? —Rob
The Doctor Responds: It’s best to go component by component. First just see if it will POST quickly with a single stick of RAM and nothing else, aside from the CPU. Then add the GPU, then a hard drive, etc. And for each component, see if you can test it in another PC. If you can’t isolate an individual piece of hardware it’s very likely the motherboard itself. Our advice is to buy a new one from a place with a generous return policy, and try it out.
[Second Opinion]
Registering MS Office
I read in your Holiday 2014 issue about the problem a reader had with MS Office registering. I work at a community college as an IT guy and we ran into the same problem. And it was only with the 64-bit version of Office 2010. It would initially register, but after doing updates it wasn't activated. Even putting in the same key again failed. One of my coworkers found the solution, so here it is: Run a Command Prompt as administrator (right-click, choose “run” as administrator). Then navigate to the Office14 folder. For a 64-bit version it would be: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14. Once there run the following command, “cscript ospp.vbs /act.” When you run Office again it will be registered. –Greg Furtman
Submit your questions to: doctor@maximumpc.com.
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