In hindsight I would have done a few things differently as this is my first build and I was starting from scratch I didn't realise these little things before, I didn't actually plan on overclocking which is why I bought a non K CPU, but I did get a Z170 mobo. I wouldn't have even considered overclocking as I was under the impression it was disabled with the latest BIOS since Intel jumped on people using the BCLK to O/C their non K CPU's. But I discovered mine is still unlocked so fuck it, it's getting overclocked lol.

Obviously I'm not bothered about things like the turbo boost and integrated graphics, was just stating what the article was saying, I was just a bit worried about not being able to read temperatures afterwards, considering that they were already pretty hot hence me posting this thread in the first place.

Atleast I know for my next build not to make the same mistakes and spend a little extra money in the first place rather than trying to stick to a strict budget and then spending more money afterwards anyway.

I don't know how it works in the UK, but you may still be able to return the CPU for credit, and just get a K version.
I would at least check it out.


/e Even if you can't, you should be able to sell it on an ebay like site, and get a K version.

This post was edited by Ghot on Jul 29 2016 06:07pm

I'm not that bothered about the extra performance, but since I can overclock via the BCLK I fancy having a play with it.


If I decide to go for an AIO water cooler, what's the best way to mount it? My case has space for two front intakes, 1 rear exhaust, and 2 top exhausts. PSU has it's own intake and exhaust. I'm thinking that maybe the best option is to use the rear exhaust as an intake for the radiator, this way the CPU and GPU are not blowing hot air at eachother both of them pull in cool air and all hot air is exhausted via the top of the case. If the radiator is mounted so that it's taking air from inside the case and blowing it out as an exhaust, then it has to use the hot air that's coming out of the GPU.

I would mount it on top, as exhaust.

Even with the hot air coming up from the GPU? Would hot air coming from a GPU @ ~60 degrees C not affect the performance of the radiator? I always thought about this with CPU coolers. With GPU's that blow the hot air into the case, you're basically just re-cycling hot air through anything else above it. I would like to think the flow of air from the front intake fans helps this somewhat, but the GPU fans at full speed really chuck out the air, compared to the soft breeze of the intake fans.

This post was edited by ste91 on Jul 29 2016 07:50pm

Yeah, I know, but most ppl either put them as front intakes or top exhausts...depending on the case layout. Some do top intake, not as many though.


/e You definitely don't want is as rear intake. The PSU and GPU exhaust all that hot air back there.

This post was edited by Ghot on Jul 29 2016 08:21pm

I'll do a diagram to explain it better, give me a few mins lol

I do Top/Front rads as intake.

Fresh air to the Rads, And directly blows over the VRM/etc. of the motherboard.





It also depends on the case layout & all your fans.

There's nothing wrong using a top as an intake though, Some cases are even made for it.

This post was edited by Rikuo on Jul 29 2016 08:28pm

Yeah, I know what they look like.

Hopefully that makes more sense of what I was thinking of doing, each arrow represents where there is a fan, obviously red is exhaust and blue is intake, the wiggly lines are where I expect the air to go, there's nothing really blocking the flow of air, other than the top right corner where the DVD drive is, but that doesn't need cooling anyway, and below that are SSD/HD drives which are horizontal infront of the top front intake, so air flows between them.
The thing at the top left is supposed to be the radiator for the CPU cooler and of course below that is the GPU and then PSU.

Will that setup work or have I missed something? The only potential downside I can think of, is turbulance where the air meets in the middle, but then with two fans pulling it up it should just go upwards anyway I'd assume.

This post was edited by ste91 on Jul 29 2016 08:46pm