Hodor!
I recently killed my Xbox One and built up a computer of following specifications:
- H81M-E Motherboard
- Core i7 4790s
- Radeon R9 290 Stock
- 6GB DDR3 1600 MHz
- Corsair GS600 PSU
- Corsair 240 Air Flow Chassis
- Seagate 2TB 7200RPM HDD
So far I’m astounded by the change that I witnessed, but there are some concerns as well! First of all, I’m running Windows 8.1 x64 and don’t know which drivers I need to install and how?!
Secondly, I’m reading up some dreadful stories about PCs heating up and dying on people. I’ve been a console gamer for about 10 years and never faced such an issue so it’s a huge concern for me because I invested a lot of hard-earned money and time in it.
Where I live, it’s normal for temperature to rise up to 49 Degree Celsius in summers. I recently played Far Cry 4 on Ultra 1080p for about half-an-hour and checked my system temperature which was somewhere from 60 to 75 and I don’t have air-conditioning in my room. Any tips regarding this issue?
Should I buy a CPU cooler? Can anyone of you recommend a decent yet cheap cooling solution that would prolong my computer’s life?!
Lastly, which are some of the most-have applications and games for a newbie? Thank you!
PS: Mods! Can you please move it to the right section; I'm new to the forum.
You download your drivers from the manufacturer's website. I am assuming the H81M-E is Asus. You can download the drivers for your motherboard here. I would only worry about chipset, audio, LAN, and SATA.
You can download your GPU's drivers here. Make sure to get the 15.4 beta.
Your temperatures are fine. I would only start to worry once it hits mid 80s and above. You can get the CM Hyper 212 EVO for $30. It works really well.
Only programs I can recommend are CCleaner, Malwarebytes, and either Bitdefender or Avira for an antivirus.
1 Like
Thanks, Kyauubi! Appreciate the response.
So the way I see it; I’ll download LAN, Chipset, Audio, VGA, and SATA drivers from the ASUS H81M-E website? Moreover, do you think I should change my MOBO down the road (3-4 months)? Although I don’t plan on Crossfire or anything like that, someone told me that this MOBO will not maximize my Processor’s true potential; especially in gaming and video editing?
First of all, I like the way you speak!
From what you've said, it seems this is your first PC to ever build and own yourself. If so, awesome! I'm going to advise some stuff here and if you are not actually that new to computers and I offend you by making you feel dumb I'm very sorry.
Once you get your essential drivers and your GPU driver installed, that's all you have to worry about. GPUs typically have rolling updates, though, so be mindful of that. Ask @Kiyuubi for anything regarding your Radeon, it's been a few years since I've owned one. NVIDIA has an app for that, so to speak, I'm not sure about Radeon, but I'd assume they do too.
If you don't plan on overclocking or doing SLI, that mobo will probably be fine. My one suggestion on your build is to get a SSD whenever you can and put your operating system and utility programs on it. Keep media on the hard drive. The SSD will speed up your OS immensely.
I assume you'll use your computer for more than just games. Here's some things I recommend with a short description in case you don't know their uses.
- VLC (you've probably heard of this one. It's the go to for movies and video clips of various formats)
- MusicBee (if you are a music fan, this is a good start. It's customizable but not as nerdy as foobar2000. It even has built in lyric search)
- 7-Zip (a compression/decompression app; you'll need this for a lot of packages you download that are compressed)
- If you have more than 1 monitor, it's convenient to use a few hardware and FPS monitors on the second screen while you game on the first so you can keep an eye on temperatures and such. There a ton of options, so search around.
- If you plan on voice chatting with people on games, the three most common are Mumble, Teamspeak 3, and Ventrillo
- Remember to download Adobe Acrobat Reader so if you ever come across a PDF file, you can read it.
- LibreOffice is a free to use office suite (it's like Microsoft Word, but free. If you ever need office programs and dont' want to pay for Word/Powerpoint/etc, it's there for you)
- Deluge (a torrent program. Note that I can't condone illegal piracy with this program and must tell you to only use it for legal file sharing)
HWmonitor basic 32-bit edition (available on cpuid.com) will help you monitor all your system temps. As a rule of thumb, I never let the CPU climb over 60c, the GPU over 70c, or other system temp over 50-55c. You can set your fan speed on your video card manually where it's the biggest heat source in any gaming rig. Getting good air flow across the main board is really important. In extreme measures you can open the side of the case and blow fan right at it. You have to be cautious about running a machine exposed like that though. If you have access to an air compressor blow out your system including your power supply regularly, but not too harshly where you'd fling off a capacitor. Vacuum your work area aka hot box as well, because filters can fill up fast especially if you have pets. A better or bigger case can improve air cooling, as well as knowing which game settings effect performance. When I start a new game I will first lvl out a fixed frame using native resolution and basic filtering then add options based on my performance and temperatures. A very hands on fail safe method that requires very little advanced knowledge.
You were right to worry about ambient temps. There's only so much you can do in a hot and humid environment with any type of cooling. The addition of a chiller unit or an A/C would dramatically increase stability, but you'll still need adequate air flow and establish attainable game settings for your hardware profile.
As a final edit I would seriously consider a small A/C unit. It's an added expense and requires balancing the power in your home with dryers and microwaves, like my apartment, so that you're not tripping a breaker in your work area, but the benefits far out weight any computer mods. Just for health concerns with air exchange alone make it worth the while. Apart from that a well designed air cooling system will work flawlessly with little effort other than to keep it clean. Even if you can't stick one in a window they sell floor models. They're a lot more efficient than they used to be, but if it's not an option crack a window and blow a walmart fan right into it. GL
I get 4-5 years of punishing games out of my systems and pass on hardware like it was new. It's not difficult to balance just time consuming at first.
You should also get MSI Afterburner to customize your GPU´s fan-curve. And Foxit Reader is my go to PDF reader. With wich you can also copy/paste and create PDF documents - and it´s free.
Is MSI usable on a Radeon card? It's been ages since I downloaded MSI and don't remember.
Yes, Msi Afterburner is usable with Radeon and Nvidia, because MSI sells cards from both.
Ah, shows what you know when you are out of the market for too long.
Was in the same situation, 2 years ago. Learned a lot since then. Props to you, for just doing it :)