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  1. #41
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    Hey guys, I built my computer last year. Basically I just got what I needed at the time to play FFXI, FFXIV and Sims 3 moderately. However, my boyfriend built a computer recently and decided he didn't like his motherboard and processor so he gave them to me and bought himself new ones. Anyway to get to the point, he gave me a Phenom II x2 3.5GHz processor (I have a coolermaster aftermarket heatsink on it now) and a Sapphire Radion HD 6870. Now here's the problem, tempertures are fine when my computer is idling, but when I play FFXI or Sims 3 my temps spike like crazy and my case feels extreemly hot. My case really isnt built for airflow, mostly aesthetics (It was a cheap $30 case). I didn't really get the case for gaming/performance... My boyfriend suggest I buy a new HAF case to keep temps down... But which one would be the best? There are a lot of cases on newegg and if I'd have my choice I'd go with one I just thought looked good rather than practicality. Which one would y'all recommend? Or do I even need a new case?

    My temps stay around 32 C for the processor which is great, but everything else inside the case is 47+ C and the graphics card when playing a game peeks around 89 C! I have a spot cooler on the graphics card which helped it a little, but just isn't enough. Suggestions?

  2. #42
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    I'd say first reexamine your existing airflow. Are the fans present all working, are they pushing air through the case properly, could you install more? Do you have any oddities like a PSU pushing air into the case? Typically you will want front/lower fans pulling air in, and the rear/top fans pushing air out.

    6870s don't tend to run extremely hot, but it does sound like that's where your temperatures are coming from. Is the cooler on that working correctly?

    If everything is in order, then a better case would probably be a good investment. You can get something functionally solid that isn't too pricey - Antec 300, CM HAF 912, or similar. A HAF 922 is a little more, but it'd be hard to go wrong with that.
    Just remember that you may need to add more fans to it. Finding something that matches your aesthetic taste, however, may wind up being more expensive.

  3. #43
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    Lil bit confused here - are you saying you removed the stock cooler on the video card & replaced it?

  4. #44
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    Been planning to upgrade for a while now from my c2d system, here's mainly what I've selected; note, I do intend to wc. I've considered buying a 580 but I'm not sure if its worth the $600ish with water block from my 5870 with current games, I only plan on playing Rift and battlefield 3 when it comes out. Although, I do play at 1680x1050 and I can't max Rift anywhere with stable frames on my 5870. I pretty much want be able to fraps anything in game with stable (30ish frames) on high/max and my 5870 fails hard right now with it but I'm sure my biggest issue now is my ancient e6750 dual core, even if it's running 3.5ghz.

    http://img18.imageshack.us/i/build1.png/http://img18.imageshack.us/i/build1.png/http://img18.imageshack.us/i/build1.png/http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v724/fuzen/build1.png

    http://www.jab-tech.com/XSPC-Rasa-75...t-pr-4780.html

  5. #45
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    Looks fine, I pretty much have the same system. You'll probably want to pick out an aftermarket CPU cooler if you plan to overclock, the stock heatsink that comes with the 2600K sucks. I like the Thermalright Venomous X.

  6. #46
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cephius View Post
    Looks fine, I pretty much have the same system. You'll probably want to pick out an aftermarket CPU cooler if you plan to overclock, the stock heatsink that comes with the 2600K sucks. I like the Thermalright Venomous X.
    That's what this is for, http://www.jab-tech.com/XSPC-Rasa-75...t-pr-4780.html. I'd want to push the cpu to around 4.7. I can certainly make my own custom loop but from what I've gathered this kit will give me very competitive temps for less money having to part out a res/pump/etc..

  7. #47
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jintu View Post
    Been planning to upgrade for a while now from my c2d system, here's mainly what I've selected; note, I do intend to wc. I've considered buying a 580 but I'm not sure if its worth the $600ish with water block from my 5870 with current games, I only plan on playing Rift and battlefield 3 when it comes out. Although, I do play at 1680x1050 and I can't max Rift anywhere with stable frames on my 5870. I pretty much want be able to fraps anything in game with stable (30ish frames) on high/max and my 5870 fails hard right now with it but I'm sure my biggest issue now is my ancient e6750 dual core, even if it's running 3.5ghz.

    http://img18.imageshack.us/i/build1.png/http://img18.imageshack.us/i/build1.png/http://img18.imageshack.us/i/build1.png/http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v724/fuzen/build1.png

    http://www.jab-tech.com/XSPC-Rasa-75...t-pr-4780.html
    As has already been said in this thread a few times... for a gaming PC save the $100 on getting a 2500K instead and re-invest it somewhere else. You will see ZERO difference between a 2500K and a 2600K for gaming. Even with the combo deal, it's still cheaper to get a P8P67Pro and a 2500K. 2600K is not any better of an overclocker, and once overclocked there is practically zero difference between the two except when you can take advantage of hyperthreading (video encoding, database serving, etc.). The extra cache does almost nothing, since the Sandy Bridge branch predictor is made of pure black magic and the rate of cache misses is absurdly low.

    And hey, if you're already going for a CF capable motherboard, why not consider a CF pair of 5870s (can get ones on closeout for $200 or less) rather than dumping it for a 580? There are times that CF won't work (e.g. playing windowed) or won't scale well, but it's at least worth thinking about.

    That's a decent price on a decent SSD, but just to make sure it's been said... most reviews are of larger drive sizes, and drive size matters for performance. A 64GB C300 will smoke any disk drive for a system drive, but don't expect it to benchmark at the same level (or have quite the same real world performance) as what you read in reviews. It is more than good enough, just make sure your expectations are set properly.

  8. #48
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    So, I've recently hoarded my pennies together and decided to finally start a build and I'd really appreciate any help I can get with getting the most out of what I plan to spend. Because it's going to be a budget build, I'd like to be set up for an upgrade path in the future, which I'm not sure if that'd be sandy bridge or not, but may not be practical for the reasons given below. This is the first time I've been able to do my own build from scratch so interest in pre-built is lacking.

    As for specifics:

    • Looking at an overall hard cap of $800 with flex for anything truly worthwhile
    • Overall budget is including a monitor which I'm guessing will need to be about a 22~ TN panel to give suitable room for component cost. Expecting this to be about $150 leaving $650~ for components
    • OS cost not included
    • Considered starting with a 1-2TB drive to later use for media storage after a future switch to SSD. (Samsung F3's seem to be on sale permanently)
    • Have never overclocked, not sure whether to go this route for value spent or not


    Primary uses don't include any major video editing. As far as gaming goes, I was initially unsure since I've never been able to on any of my computers, but would love to be able to at least play modern games, even if dealing with low settings and lower resolutions. I don't do much multi-tasking, I think the extent is usually Firefox and a media player at once for me. Hopefully this is all realistic.

    Should I start by comparing sample builds from Tom's Hardware? Is the 4chan /g/ guide worthwhile for parts comparison? I'd really appreciate any and all suggestions, monitors included. Included everything I can think of as far as info for this, but happy to provide more.

    edit: actually to expand on that, what info is required or appreciated for requests like this? If we could get a format or checklist going it might make things easier to answer and cleaner.

  9. #49
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jintu View Post
    That's what this is for, http://www.jab-tech.com/XSPC-Rasa-75...t-pr-4780.html. I'd want to push the cpu to around 4.7. I can certainly make my own custom loop but from what I've gathered this kit will give me very competitive temps for less money having to part out a res/pump/etc..
    I'm at 4.6 on air so I doubt you'll have a problem.

  10. #50
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    Should I start by comparing sample builds from Tom's Hardware? Is the 4chan /g/ guide worthwhile for parts comparison? I'd really appreciate any and all suggestions, monitors included. Included everything I can think of as far as info for this, but happy to provide more.
    Arstechnica also recently did a system guide that may be interesting to compare with. Their low end build is about $750 with a 23" monitor, speakers, etc, but no OS (the PSU is kind of lacking, like in the Tom's low end build).

    IMO, your main consideration at the price point given is that you can put together a solid Sandy Bridge mobo/CPU combo, or you can squeak in a decent midrange GPU, but not really both. With that in mind, and depending on your timeline for upgrades, skimping on the GPU for the initial build might make sense.
    If you do go with Sandy Bridge, you probably want to go with a P67 board instead of an H67, which would mean needing to buy/acquire -something- for video. The H67 can use the integrated graphics built into the newer Core CPUs, but can't overclock 'em (only the GPU, ironically), and can only support one discrete GPU. Trading that off for a month or three of being able to use integrated graphics isn't worth it to me.

    On the other hand, if you want to fit a GPU into your initial purchase, then you're probably limited to an i3 2100 or a similarly priced (or cheaper) AMD chip. A 6850, as spec'ed in the Ars and Tom's low end builds, will play most anything at or near max settings on a lower resolution monitor.

  11. #51
    alsohawks

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    Thanks, Isiolia, that really helps. After reading the guide for budget box I think I'm going to attempt to fatwallet and slickdeal the ever living fuck out of an i5 2500 setup, but I feel like that's largely related to it being the big new thing and may temper that urge into an AMD build as I start seeing what actual end totals are gonna be. Do Phenom X4s and i3 2100's stack up well? I feel like if I went the 2100 route I have no idea if I'd be able to upgrade by the time something new dropped that might incur a whole new mobo/cpu/ram purchase.

    Really wish I could pinpoint where my use and where a system's capability meetup because I'm betting I'll get swept up in buying nice, fancy shit for the sake of having nice, fancy shit.

  12. #52
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    Do Phenom X4s and i3 2100's stack up well? I feel like if I went the 2100 route I have no idea if I'd be able to upgrade by the time something new dropped that might incur a whole new mobo/cpu/ram purchase.
    Neither stack up especially well in the overall scheme, but both are viable chips with good bang for the buck. 'course, the difference between an i3 2100 and an i5 2500K is about $100, and there are a couple bumps on the road between that if you won't be overclocking (i5 2400 and 2500).
    Here is a review from the Sandy Bridge launch that has some performance comparisons, which has a few AMD chips in the benchmarks as well.

    IMO, the overall value is squarely on the i5 2500K right now. I'd try to work that in if you can.

  13. #53
    alsohawks

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    I definitely agree with you on that after reading the article. From that and the Virtu article on the front page, I think I may actually wait for the Z68 chipset boards to drop because that decision between integrated and discrete is hard to make right now given I can only think of very few things I'd be doing currently that would merit the added cost when the integrated graphics seems to be at least somewhat capable. I don't really want to waste that capability, nor do I want to make additional and seemingly unneeded sacrifices if it just means waiting a little longer.

    I'm also incredibly fucking cheap thrifty so that is a plus, lol. I think I'll throw a mention of virtu in the RQThread to garner opinion on it. Thanks again!

  14. #54
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    Just dropping in to say thanks for the advice I got, parts started arriving today and I managed the most risky part of fitting the CPU without destroying anything

  15. #55
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    I'll admit, my inner nerd died a long time ago, and I have failed to keep up with processors and motherboards, memory, and all the other shit that I used to track years ago. So, now that I am completely lost and out of touch with how CPUs stack against each other, I face a dilemma: does anyone know if an Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9550 2.83GHz 1333MHz 12 MB LGA775 will give me a substantial increase in power over an Intel Core 2 Duo E8600?

    I ask because I find myself doing more and more AVCHD video editing (very very heavy CPU-intensive video compression algorithm) and I just purchased Vegas Pro 10.0 which allows for multi-camera editing. The problem is, doing multi-cam AVCHD editing is bringing my current CPU to its knees. I am getting perhaps 5 FPS while playing back 3 simultaneous video streams. So, if anyone has advice on whether it would be worth upgrading to the Core 2 Quad to boost the frame rate to something manageable I'd love to hear it.

    Thanks!

  16. #56
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    I can answer your question with a link from Toms Hardware.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...on,2866-5.html (You usually want to upgrade to something 3+ tiers higher than what you're currently using.)

    This will answer in terms of raw speed like for gaming. IMO I would upgrade newer but if you're doing things like encoding and the programs are multi-core enabled I would say it would be a decent but probably not substantial increase.

  17. #57
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    Dammit... more evidence to justify a 2500k that my wallet is saying NO to. ><

  18. #58
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    What would it be replacing, and what do you spend most of your PC time doing?

    Also, if your wallet is the one voting no, what does it have its priorities aimed towards?

  19. #59
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fhqwghads View Post
    I'll admit, my inner nerd died a long time ago, and I have failed to keep up with processors and motherboards, memory, and all the other shit that I used to track years ago. So, now that I am completely lost and out of touch with how CPUs stack against each other, I face a dilemma: does anyone know if an Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9550 2.83GHz 1333MHz 12 MB LGA775 will give me a substantial increase in power over an Intel Core 2 Duo E8600?

    I ask because I find myself doing more and more AVCHD video editing (very very heavy CPU-intensive video compression algorithm) and I just purchased Vegas Pro 10.0 which allows for multi-camera editing. The problem is, doing multi-cam AVCHD editing is bringing my current CPU to its knees. I am getting perhaps 5 FPS while playing back 3 simultaneous video streams. So, if anyone has advice on whether it would be worth upgrading to the Core 2 Quad to boost the frame rate to something manageable I'd love to hear it.

    Thanks!
    Upgrading to any quad-core CPU will make a difference in your video editing, but going with one of the newer platforms (particularly Sandy Bridge with its onboard video encoding/decoding instructions) will make a greater difference.

    Edit: That chart came out all screwed up. This link has a full comparison chart for AVCHD encoding.

  20. #60
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    Awesome find, Olo. I wound up going with the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650. According to that benchmark I'll save over an hour during renders, but I'm really interested in multicam work, so we'll see how that goes once I get the new CPU installed.

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