Just cant make up my mind. Self Build i7 6700K or custom HP Z640 E5 1650 Ver 3 Workstation.

Submariner wrote in post #17832646
OMG how do you find out if Noctua PWM fans are supported by Asus motherboards?

Pretty much all current motherboards support 4-pin and PWM fans, Asus leads the pack in this area. Asus has the best onboard and software I have used for fan control. My two newest boards are Gigabyte and the fan control software is just not as good. I would have went with Asus but they have lagged behind getting certain motherboards launched.

-dave-m- wrote in post #17833101
Pretty much all current motherboards support 4-pin and PWM fans, Asus leads the pack in this area. Asus has the best onboard and software I have used for fan control. My two newest boards are Gigabyte and the fan control software is just not as good. I would have went with Asus but they have lagged behind getting certain motherboards launched.

My new Gigabyte (for an old i7 2600K so not that new) isn't great with fans either. It's all 4 pin fans, but there's only CPU and case, I need more for hdd and such. I got fans with a built in manual speed control and set them to medium.

tim wrote in post #17833196
My new Gigabyte (for an old i7 2600K so not that new) isn't great with fans either. It's all 4 pin fans, but there's only CPU and case, I need more for hdd and such. I got fans with a built in manual speed control and set them to medium.

My Z97 and Z170 Gigabyte boards have all 4-pin fan headers, it's the software that is lacking. Haven't powered up the Z170 yet, so not sure how fan control in the UEFI BIOS will be. Will find out later today or tomorrow.

tim wrote in post #17832816
Count the number of wires on the headers and on the fan cable.

Thanks the Corsair ones were not pwm, and were 3 pin. I ordered Noctua ones as they are pwm and have 4 pins.
So I can relax,for a moment I thought you were going to tell me , that there were different 4 pin pwm controller conventions

I've built a handful now and enjoyed all exce;t last build. It ended up being great BUT why cant MoBo makers ship with it upgraded enough to run last year's graphic's cards without having to update. Also I never did get but 3 of the 4 Ram slots recognized. This was a hex core with 16 GB Ram. Used this machine for several years.

Then I decided I wanted custom liquid cooling but was scared to do on my own so actually spent like 3X what I could have done myself for a Digital Storm Apollo case with next to top of line Intel CPU, nice graphics card, 32 GB Ram, fancy lights, lots of storage, really beefy power supply. COuld have built for 3k or less, spent closer to 6k+

Have it running on 8.1 configured to act just like 7 and have 4 monitors--one being a 4K panel.

Either way custom or self build is fun. I could just never go with something like Dell or HP or that ilk again.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/rXY1​7u

This thread has gone on far too long for me, so I'm out. Buy an i7 6xxx (K not required), midrange motherboard, midrange RAM (DDR3/4, frequency unimportant), SSD drive (partition it) and hard drive. Replace when it's too slow. Don't try and buy expensive parts to make it last twice as long, it'll cost twice as much and will on average give you worse price/performance than buying a new machine every few years.

Good luck.

Super overkill for photography.

kpjsy wrote in post #17860065
Super overkill for photography.

Well ordered it - £1,950 total.
Hopefully its very fast [for me] and will last 4 years and still be fast, with the case, psu, RAM, fans and SSDs lasting even longer.

OK it could be way over-kill [Sure hoping that] and I think I could have cut down on everything and done it for about £1500. But I might have run the risk that some elements couldn't perform with the 160MB 5DS R files and the 4K screen.

So hell, amortised that's £2.50 a week.

As long as I can make it work :-/ I can live with that!

Submariner wrote in post #17865593
Well ordered it - £1,950 total.
Hopefully its very fast [for me] and will last 4 years and still be fast, with the case, psu, RAM, fans and SSDs lasting even longer.

OK it could be way over-kill [Sure hoping that] and I think I could have cut down on everything and done it for about £1500. But I might have run the risk that some elements couldn't perform with the 160MB 5DS R files and the 4K screen.

So hell, amortised that's £2.50 a week.

As long as I can make it work :-/ I can live with that!

I can't imagine you'd need to replace any component (as long as they don't break) in 4 years... I don't see any reason a PC speced like that wouldn't last 6+ years.

EverydayGetaway wrote in post #17865634
I can't imagine you'd need to replace any component (as long as they don't break) in 4 years... I don't see any reason a PC speced like that wouldn't last 6+ years.

He will because it is going to be outdone then lapped in 3 years and the desire for more power will come in. Someone else will be able to use the latest software and hardware that will inevitably be better than this machine and shortly after that it's specs will become a baseline in this sub-forum.

I know that you know overspeccing a PC for today does not mean a PC that will last longer . "Future proofing" is used to get someone to buy up from budget crap computers that is outdated the day it arrives.

Bleufire wrote in post #17866132
He will because it is going to be outdone then lapped in 3 years and the desire for more power will come in. Someone else will be able to use the latest software and hardware that will inevitably be better than this machine and shortly after that it's specs will become a baseline in this sub-forum.

I know that you know overspeccing a PC for today does not mean a PC that will last longer . "Future proofing" is used to get someone to buy up from budget crap computers that is outdated the day it arrives.

That depends entirely on what you use it for though. For games I think that's absolutely true... for photo editing though, I don't see it. I'm not saying it was wise of him to spend as much as he did, quite the opposite actually, but I do think it'll last at least 6 years for his intended purpose (but so would a machine a third of the cost)... heck, my CPU is about 6 years old and it works excellently with LR and PS (AMD 1090T).

Nothing beats the satisfaction of building your own rig! Congrats and good luck with your build

EverydayGetaway wrote in post #17865634
I can't imagine you'd need to replace any component (as long as they don't break) in 4 years... I don't see any reason a PC speced like that wouldn't last 6+ years.

Well I hope so, as long as I can get it working lol.
After all my laptop was overkill at the time (for a laptop) and I was still really happy with it until I got the 5DS R, those big files crucified it!
I Had the 5D3 before and still dont see why the hell it needs so much more power to handle the bigger files and that was without going to a 4K monitor.
But my point being I was really happy with the laptop and that was 5 years old! The only thing I changed was put in a £120 Samsung 850 Evo SSD. Fab upgrade from the stock 5,400 rpm sony drive.

People say desktop stuff is so much more powerful - so I hope it makes 6 years. I am also hoping even at the end of that, many items could be reused e.g. Case, psu, ram??? , cooler etc.

Bleufire wrote in post #17866132
He will because it is going to be outdone then lapped in 3 years and the desire for more power will come in. Someone else will be able to use the latest software and hardware that will inevitably be better than this machine and shortly after that it's specs will become a baseline in this sub-forum.

I know that you know overspeccing a PC for today does not mean a PC that will last longer . "Future proofing" is used to get someone to buy up from budget crap computers that is outdated the day it arrives.

Hmmm think not, e.g. my stereo is Sony ES Range (when sony were the sonic kings THD 0.0015 ) Its in perfect condition, flawless sound - earth shaking 2,700 watts true RMS - zero distortion. And guess what it was bought in July 1990!
So no gear Fever here.

All I will say is I moved from a Sony SLT to a 7D to a 5D3 and had zero interest or need to touch the computer. I notice you have a 5D...... Wait till you get a 50 MPS sensor and I think you will see my point! Those files especially detailed clothing examples murder a pc, well they do a laptop.
Hell yes I am splashing out on a 4K monitor, but why not see some of the 8700 x 5,800 pixels eh? but I am pretty sure that wont help matters pc wise.
Well the laptop couldnt have the onboard gpu upgraded anyway - so pretty much no options there.

EverydayGetaway wrote in post #17866436
That depends entirely on what you use it for though. For games I think that's absolutely true... for photo editing though, I don't see it. I'm not saying it was wise of him to spend as much as he did, quite the opposite actually, but I do think it'll last at least 6 years for his intended purpose (but so would a machine a third of the cost)... heck, my CPU is about 6 years old and it works excellently with LR and PS (AMD 1090T).

Well thats the position I want to be in. Plus I want to be able to upgrade easily - nothing major but say stuff like the ac wifi. In the new build it was a £37 card. Withthe Sony laptop it was a whole new laptop - no thanks.
Laptops are a pain, all the research to find out what drives and caddies and crap. Now I can just open the door, stuff an ssd in one of the empty bays and connect 2 sata cables.
Hopefully the OS will just recognise it ... And bingo.