Help me choose between Marauder and Slade builds

Hi Bahger...   Between the two builds, I would go with the Slade config, considering your environment.    Either will cool to just about the same degree, with the intake and rear exit fans, but the Slade is quieter and with the top and sides all closed in, I would think better at keeping the dust down inside.  Can't say for sure, but less points of entry couldn't hurt.  Neither case offers any better gaming performance over the other. 

Not sure what peripherals you have but for a single card, the 1050Hx seems much more than you need.  The EVGA 750w would handle this just fine unless your periphs are energy hogs.

If your environment is hot ambient temps with no AC then I would stay with the reference 770 4GB card and not the ACX version. The ACX, dual fan setup dumps a lot of its heat into the case instead of out the back of the case like the reference single fan card.   

Change the HDD to the Western Digital Caviar Black for another $19.  A better drive with longer warranty.

Grab the free t-shirt.

Hope this helps and good luck.




Edited by bprat22 - 01 Mar 2014 at 7:17am

Your flight gear will use little juice from the rig's psu.  The force feedback wheel, printer, monitor,etc all use their own power supply.  The CH HOTAS, at least my Thrustmaster Cougar,  uses the USB power , but not very much at all. 

The Marauder, actually the Corsair C70 and the Slade, the Corsair 550D, in case you want to research them, all have a solid right hand panel so can hug a wall.  Front to back cooling is the most important with these two with the Marauder also needing room on the left and top.    Both also have the option to add more fans if you ever felt the need, but probably not needed. 

Benches I've seen show both have nearly identical cooling under load and idle, with the Slade doing it much quieter.  






Edited by bprat22 - 01 Mar 2014 at 10:27am

$200 ?   Make sure you changed to the 4GB 770 and not the 2GB card.    The 4GB you might not need, but doesn't hurt.

Good Luck and stay in touch. 

Originally posted by bprat22 $200 ?   Make sure you changed to the 4GB 770 and not the 2GB card.    The 4GB you might not need, but doesn't hurt.Good Luck and stay in touch.

Oh, whoops, let me go back in and check. Thank you.

EDIT: Right, that card brings the price up again but I really appreciate the intel about how the 4GB variant I originally chose would have vented so much heat into the case.



Edited by Bahger - 01 Mar 2014 at 11:33am

Here is the amended build:

Thanks again for all your help.

I will check that case out but cooling and dust protection are priorities for me.

And, yes, it would be foolish not to get the T-shirt!

You can upgrade the 120mm liquid cooler with the stage 2  H100i 240mm sealed liquid cooler.   But, it does require the top acoustic panel on the Slade to be removed permanently.  The 240 mm radiator would mount under the top panel instead of against the back wall.  It works great but does open it up and might be a little noisier.

The HydroLux, true water cooler, I don't think would fit in the Slade. Room for a seperate reservoir, etc would be needed.  But not 100% on that.  Water cooling as in the HydroLux is more a luxury than really needed.  It is nice, cools great and can be quieter if the video cards are water cooled, but is more $$.   The liquid coolers like like Vortex 120 and h100i are sealed units with no maintenance at all.  No way to add fluid. 

FWIW, this is the build I just bought.  In case the information is of any value to you, i.e. especially if you are prospective buyers, I upgraded the chassis fans (best possible airflow is critical for me) and went from the reference PSU to the 760W Corsair AX760.  This is not because of the extra 10W but because, as the tech explained to me, this is a more efficient, platinum-rated PSU that has a better input/output ratio, in other words, it delivers more of the power from the wall to the PC.  I think this justifies the extra $100 and explains the difference between CX and AX PSUs from Corsair.  It's not very much bulkier and does not put out more heat.

Edited by Bahger - 03 Mar 2014 at 12:51pm

Excellent rig. I think they just added that psu. Nice pick.

Gulp!Gulp! Thanks for the beer.

Originally posted by Bahger Thanks!    I'll need to play with the case cover installation to figure out what combination of covers on vs. covers off gives me the best balance between cooling and dust protection.   It's my first SSD, so it will also take a little trial and error to make sure that applications like iTunes which need to be installed on the C: drive (the SSD) with the OS read data from the HD (the E: or F: drive in the DS configuration, I believe).  And I think Steam needs to live on the same drive as its games library, so that will be the HD, too.  I don't need to run games from an SSD.     I have a 23" monitor and no desire to go much bigger or to run multiple monitors so I am hoping that I can run graphics-intensive games somewhere close to maxed-out and get good frames/performance with that GPU.    I think I still have a reasonable amount of headroom with that PSU.

Your rig has a more efficient PSU and a slightly less power-hungry GPU than mine, so it should run slightly cooler. My Slade runs perfectly fine fully closed, so I suspect that yours will do the same, except possibly when temperatures hit 80 degrees Fahrenheit indoors. Fingers crossed for you.

As for performance... check out Anandtech's bench figures for the GTX 770 at 1080p Ultra settings:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/829
I think you're going to have some fun.

Hey Bahger, welcome to the DS family (again) and to that little corner nook of us Slade owners.  

One thing I thought I might mention to you is that you can mitigate a small amount of your dust problem by placing your computer on top of some kind of stand about a foot off the floor. This helps because air currents are more pronounced at floor level and so more dust is flowing around the the air intake vents of your computer when you place it on the floor. I don't know that you will see a large difference but then every little bit helps, right.

You're welcome. Anytime I can give help to another Slade compatriot that just makes my day.    Since we are such a small part of the larger DS community we have to stick together, right!   By the way, I think that DS is the only boutique builder that offers a desktop (outside of the small-form-factor builds like the Bolt) that is specifically built to be quiet. If we don't get the word out there that a great gaming computer can also be quiet and in a mid-tower case then there won't be any reason for DS to offer the Slade.  And that would be a shame because there are many people out there that don't want or need a full tower with all the bells and whistles. I'm like you in that I just want to be able to do great maxed out gaming for a few years before I have to start upgrading things. That time will come sooner than either of us wants it to (the Corsair 550D case is easy to take the side panels off and to work inside when that inevitable upgrade time comes) but until then we will have a great gaming computer that also happens to be super quiet. I also do plenty of real world computing (retirement can't come quick enough for me) and the difference between my first DS computer and this Slade is that at the end of the day when I turn my computer off I did not have to listen to all that background noise coming from this computer that I had to listen to all day with the other DS computer. Now my first DS computer only had a hum (fan noise) coming from it and I did not think it would be that big of a difference between the two computers but after just a few days it dawned on me what a big difference it was. Now I don't know if I can ever go back to a normal desktop computer. (even though those full tower cases with the side widows and all the pretty lights look fantastic)

It seems like you have a good plan in place to deal with your dust and sound concerns. I have to pull my Slade out from beside my desk to be able to open the side panels and clean out the interior. Pulling it out is not a problem for me but putting it back has been. All the cables attached to the rear of the computer want to bunch up and go under the computer. I put the computer back in 3 stages so I can move the tangle of cables before I pick it up and move it back another third of the way. 

Hope everything goes smooth with the delivery and setup of your Slade. Good luck!

Originally posted by Bahger Guys, I wanted to stop by here and explain that, while my computer arrived, as eagerly anticipated, yesterday (Tuesday 03/11), after a long illness, my father died last night and I must immediately fly to London for his funeral.  I wanted to let you know that I have enjoyed all your support and companionship here on the DS forums and that I will be back in just over two weeks, to photograph the beast, to install it and to review it.

Sorry to hear about your father Bahger

So very sorry to hear. Thoughts and prayers to you and the family.

News on the computer can wait.

Peace.

Thanks guys.  My fifteen year-old offered to get the Slade up and running for me by the time I get back but my response was "very kind of you but...no thanks".

Sorry for your loss & Safe travels to you...