You may refer to my quote to you in the previous thread.

Your build above has Idealtech's signature all over it.

Very solid indeed, but what happened to your monitor? You require one right?

Graphic card is sadly, overpriced. Also, overpriced motherboard as well. What is your max budget?

Here you go.

Intel Core i5 4440 - RM579
Asrock B85M Pro4 – RM279
Corsair Value Ram 8GB DDR3 1600MHz - RM239
Zotac GTX 760 2GB – RM799 (Cycom)
FSP Hexa 500W PSU - RM149
WD Caviar Blue 1TB HDD - RM189
Cooler Master K380 Casing - RM149
Viewsonic VX2370S 23" IPS LED - RM499
Lite-On 24x DVDRW – RM59

Total - RM2941 (prices are from Viewnet)

Actually, Asus GPUs tend to be more expensive, but it is often for a good reason. They are usually very solid, have superb cooling solution and an extra year of warranty from what we usually recommend here.

It's sad that our local pricing for Asus is on the high side here, hence most of the time we need to stick to recommending those more affordable brands like Sapphire, Leadtek or Gainward. But if there is very marginal difference in pricing compared to Asus, then the choice is really clear.

Actually MSI's TwinFrozr IV is also another excellent cooler, along with Windforce 3X and Sapphire Tri-X. Some of the better ones I can recall at the moment.

OC'ing abilities is really sometimes like a silicone lottery. Sometimes the chip just wouldn't go any higher. And also may be due to Nvidia's restrictions on pumping in more voltage.

I think that is probably a design limitation on their part. Noticed that the clock speed isn't any faster than the regular DCUII 290X, but how come temperature increased by so much? Really mind boggling.

Overall, DCUII are among the better ones out there and I stand by this point, having run so many cards before, I really find them to be significantly superior when you compare them with those more economical solutions that I mentioned earlier. You try comparing DCUII with Dual-X and you will understand what I mean.

Edit: Just recalled something on top of my head. Problem with the latest gen DCUII cooler used on Hawaii cards is that it is actually a respin from existing DCUII used on bigger Kepler GK110 chips (e.g GTX 780 / Ti). So you will see that 2 of its 5 heatpipes doesn't contact fully with the slightly smaller die size of the Hawaii chip, so that is waste, really. But fully understandable on Asus' part, creating a new cooler purely just for Hawaii may create unnecessary excess inventory. That's why you see them do what they do.

This post has been edited by rav3n82: Mar 24 2014, 11:36 AM

Nah, all that matters to them is dollars and cents, and unlike any of us, they don't favour anyone.

Nvidia came out first with the GPU upon which the latest gen DCUII was based upon, so I do not think they will purposely create another design just for Hawaii. They just adapt the cooler so that it can be used for Hawaii as well. They would indefinitely do so even if it's the other way around.

Alright, here is what I can optimize for you. Basically, close to a RM3.8k budget will get you a nice GTX 770 paired with a superb 23" IPS monitor. Best of all, it even includes a 128GB SSD. Well, speed is a luxury they say, so if you are tight on your budget, you can just omit the SSD for some precious bucks.

Intel Core i5 4440 - RM579
Asrock B85M Pro4 – RM279
Corsair Value Ram 8GB DDR3 1600MHz - RM239
Gainward GTX 770 Phantom 2GB – RM1199 (lingloong / IdealTech)
Seasonic S12 II 620W PSU - RM299
WD Caviar Blue 1TB HDD - RM189
Plextor M5S 128GB SSD - RM289
Cooler Master K380 Casing - RM149
LG 23EA53V 23" IPS LED - RM519
Lite-On 24x DVDRW – RM59

Total - RM3800 (prices are from Viewnet)

From what I see, those Vengeance RAMs are purely optional since they will not affect you much, in terms of gaming performance per se. But if you're looking to match to a certain theme in your rig build, then no harm going for them. They are a tad pricy, just for you to know.

The Thermaltake cooler looks awesome, so it's entirely up to you. For the record, you don't really need a 3rd party cooler considering that your CPU is locked and has little to no overclocking capabilities. If you would want it just for the sake of quietness and lower temps, then going for cheaper solutions e.g Hyper 212X or Dark Knight would probably make more sense. But all in all, it's all really up to you.

Actually, you could have the rig built here in West Malaysia and then have it shipped back to you, with some charges of course. Companies like Ideal Tech (zhen^wei) do shipments to whole of Malaysia, you can check them out in Garage Sales. Or they may have already caught you on their radar and will approach you shortly.

I believe they would only install for you if you buy everything from them. Either way, hate to break your bubble, but mounting a CPU cooler is not.....easy, at least for the first time. Read the manual properly and try it slowly. It shouldn't be that difficult after a try or two.

The video posted above is on a CM Hyper 212 Evo, if not mistaken. And I personally find this cooler to be one of the easier ones to install. I would suggest that you actually first mount the heatsink to your processor first (outside the chassis), then screw the entire motherboard to your chassis. Only after that, you can fix in the fan mountings.

Think of it as a HDD on steroids. Though they come in smaller capacity (120GB should be fine), the speed gain is pretty worth IMHO. OS boots up faster, accessing files is faster, games load faster too.

PSU can go with above suggestion. Monitor also can consider LG 23EA53V, RM519.

A GTX 760 is pretty much the best card that can fit into your budget. Above that level would be either R9 280X or GTX 770, and this typically costs around RM1.2k above.

There are a few other GTX 760s that you can also consider, Zotac GTX 760 AMP! Edition, Leadtek GTX 760 OC or Palit GTX 760 Jetstream.

You're right, the Phantom is an overclocked version of the GTX 760. The performance difference shouldn't be that much. But what you're getting is a slightly better cooling solution compared to the reference solution.

Yes, they have increased quite significantly over the past 1 year.

You can also consider Lite-On.

I personally think they are all solid. I have 1 LG nearly 9 years and still kicking. And I have two Lite-On under 4 years and still kicking.

You could try the below upgrades. However, do you know what PSU is bundled together with the rig?

Intel Pentium Dual Core G645 Intel Core i3 3220 - RM349
Saphire 7770 Vapor-X Sapphire R9 265 - RM599
Gigabyte B75M-D3V
Kingston 4GB DDR3 1333mhz
Xigmatec Casing
AOC 23inch monitor

Total - RM948 (prices are from Viewnet)