Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: BritishShivans on July 31, 2012, 07:29:04 am
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So, HLP, my comp is starting to die on me, and I need a new gaming computer. I've got three things in mind: Quadcore, Windows 7 and using a GeForce GTX 580.
But what I want is a super-duper gaming comp that is powerful, can run all current games out there with good FPS, load things speedily and to fit within a budget of about $1500-$2000.
However, I'm stumped as to what is compatible, and what would offer me the closest to what mentioned wanting above. So, could you guys help me compile a shopping list that will give me the above? :)
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http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3458091
SA's hardware recommendation thread. Just build a new computer with stuff from there. Seems pretty solid. :yes:
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Tom's Hardware is a pretty decent place to get started, too. In the end, though, only YOU can prevent fore...I mean, only you can decide which parts you'd like to stuff in there. That's the fun part! Actually putting it together isn't even as fun as LEGOs because you can't build cool spaceships.
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But what I want is a super-duper gaming comp that is powerful, can run all current games out there with good FPS, load things speedily and to fit within a budget of about $1500-$2000.
1500 - 2000 $ is more than enough for a System that runs all current games.
Some things to consider when building a new PC:
1.) buy a good Case.
PSU mount a the base of the Case: PSU will suck in cold air an will run cooler.
At least mountings for 2 Fans with 120mm: one at the front as intake, one as out-take at the back of the case. Filters at the intakes to reduce the dirt in the case
Rubbermounts for Harddisks to reduce noise
Long GFX-Cards should fit inside the case, in some cases it's possible to remove parts of the HD Cage
Both Sides of the Case should be removable, and the Mainboardtray should have openings to rout the cables.
Example: http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=2&prod=58
2.) don't buy a cheap PSU
It should have a modular Cable Management and at least 550 - 750 Watts. Important is the Current on the 12 Volt rails, more is better
3.) get a good Mainboard:
Even if you don't want to overclock: don't buy a Mainboard without reading a Review. A thing to consider is for example the number of fans the board is able to control, and the software / Bios of the Board.
4.) buy a good CPU cooler:
at least a 120 mm fan, read Reviews about the noise. Most Cooler can keep a CPU cool, but not everyone is silent.
5.) If it should be fast, you have to buy a SDD
120 GB are enough for Win 7 and Games
6.) If you have a SDD, you need a HDD for Stuff
Don't save MP3, .docs , Pictures or Movies on the SDD, get a 2 GB HDD for that.
7.) Be a pro, buy Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit
The Professional Version has some useful features that the Home Version doesn't have, like the remote desktop host.
8.) Look for a silent GFX Card
Read the Reviews of the Cards you want to buy, and keep an eye on the noise level in Desktop Mode.
Things you don't need:
A Sound Card. Since Windows Vista there is no benefit for a Gamer any more to have one.
More than 8 GB of RAM
SLI or Crossfire, Dual GPU GFX Cards.
Nice to have:
Water Cooling (Silent, but nor cheap)
A Wireless Headset - no Cables, and most of them have a good Surround Sound Emulation.
And for the FreeSpace Gamer:
If you don't spend all of the 1500 $ get a HOTAS Joystick ;)
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2.) don't buy a cheap PSU
It should have a modular Cable Management and at least 550 - 750 Watts. Important is the Current on the 12 Volt rails, more is better
Being modular does not make a PSU more efficient, but in regards to not making a mess of your case, yes, it is nice.
SDD
Solid State Drive, not Solid Dtate Drive.
Don't save MP3, .docs , Pictures or Movies on the SDD, get a 2 GB HDD for that.
2 TB?
8.) Look for a silent GFX Card
Read the Reviews of the Cards you want to buy, and keep an eye on the noise level in Desktop Mode.
This. After two years, I'm still reasonably tolerable of my GPU, apart from the friggin fan that could probably cut down trees, judging by the sound under stress.
Things you don't need:
A Sound Card. Since Windows Vista there is no benefit for a Gamer any more to have one.
Uh, I don't think Vista (or 7) magically makes any audio awesome. Separate sound cards still kick integrated ass at least in most cases.
SLI or Crossfire, Dual GPU GFX Cards.
Well, it would offer more performance, if the budget allows for it.
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Personally, I still recommend a decent sound card to anyone who has a half decent sound system to go along with the computer, as it will still make a noticeable difference to audio quality for many things (including FSO and other openAL based games).
SLI and Crossfire both carry the risk of microstutter. I would recommend seeing if you can see an SLI or Crossfire in action for yourself before you decide whether or not to employ such a setup.
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If you don't mind the wall of text, happy reading.
TL;WR? Research everything.
1.) buy a good Case.
PSU mount a the base of the Case: PSU will suck in cold air an will run cooler.
At least mountings for 2 Fans with 120mm: one at the front as intake, one as out-take at the back of the case. Filters at the intakes to reduce the dirt in the case
Rubbermounts for Harddisks to reduce noise
Long GFX-Cards should fit inside the case, in some cases it's possible to remove parts of the HD Cage
Both Sides of the Case should be removable, and the Mainboardtray should have openings to rout the cables.
- A microATX case is perhaps the minimum size for the amount of hardware a gamer wants. Anything lesser is leaning towards making a network computer.
- It makes no significant difference where the PSU mounted (top or bottom) as far as thermal efficiency goes. It does however makes the computer a bit more stable standing up and is harder to tip over.
- It also makes no difference the placement of your case fans, unless you have a large number of HDD's in a RAID array. In this case, a fan at the front may be helpful to reduce the speed of all other case fans.
- Minimum required fans is 1, and that's for your CPU. The PSU usually comes with its own fans on beefier model and should be sufficient for most motherboards.
- The exception to this of course when your motherboard is a "high-performance" or "gaming edition" motherboard, in which the southbridge has a big heatsink attached to it.
- Being able to remove left and right panels does not appear to me to pose any significant advantage
2.) don't buy a cheap PSU
It should have a modular Cable Management and at least 550 - 750 Watts. Important is the Current on the 12 Volt rails, more is better
- Buy a PSU that is certified to be energy efficient. Platinum+ if you can get it.
- The more energy efficient it is, the cooler your house will be vs. how powerful your computer is
- Use a power calculator (supplied by vendors such as newegg) to determine your how much Wattage you need.
- If your planning on getting SLi or CrossFire graphics card, look for PSU's that are certified for them.
3.) get a good Mainboard:
Even if you don't want to overclock: don't buy a Mainboard without reading a Review. A thing to consider is for example the number of fans the board is able to control, and the software / Bios of the Board.
- The motherboard should be compatible with the CPU you are buying. If there's a newly released CPU socket, consider getting a motherboard that supports it.
- Look for motherboards that have the highest number of RAM slots, as well as look for Dual and Triple-channel support
- Don't purchase a motherboard just because it looks cool. Compare all boards for their hardware and capabilities, not cosmetics
- Remember to get a case to fit the motherboard you want. Don't buy a motherboard to fit a case
- Take in account of the customer reviews. If you feel confident enough in your abilities, you can ignore a "poor" review at your discretion.
4.) buy a good CPU cooler:
at least a 120 mm fan, read Reviews about the noise. Most Cooler can keep a CPU cool, but not everyone is silent.
- Fans should be sufficient, liquid cooling systems are not necessary if your not going to be playing day in and day out in a room that's >90F before you turn on the computer.
- Fan noise may be mitigated through the use of rubber or felt padding between the fan and where it mounts up against the case.
- Keep an eye out for fan efficiency, some vendors state a ratio of moved air vs. dB noise
5.) If it should be fast, you have to buy a SSD
120 GB are enough for Win 7 and Games
6.) If you have a SDD, you need a HDD for Stuff
Don't save MP3, .docs , Pictures or Movies on the SDD, get a 2 GB HDD for that.
- SSD's are unnecessary, RAID arrays of HDD's can perform just as well
- SATA 6Gb/s HDD's are not particularly better than SATA 3Gb/s HDD's, unless they have a very fast RPM
- I've found that a total of 80GB of HDD space is more than enough for my needs.
- I don't save movies onto my HDD (there's DVD's and BD's for that)
- I don't save music albums (CD's, MP3 players, and webRadio's for that)
- I keep the HDD fairly clean by only keeping the files and directories that I'm currently working on, and transfer/archive the stuff I'm not working on nor using to an external 1TB drive or my 4GB jumpdrive
- SSD's should have only have programs installed on them.
- This is so as to prolong the life of the SSD, as it has a limited number of writes per memory block
- If possible, ensure that the page file system (in the OS your getting) does not use the SSD
- Win7 and later should have built-in tools to adequately handle SSD maintenance by itself, research this a bit.
7.) Be a pro, buy Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit
The Professional Version has some useful features that the Home Version doesn't have, like the remote desktop host.
- Which is pretty useless unless:
- your not confident in your abilities to fix problems yourself, or
- you need to access your computer from a remote location to access a file or do some work (that can't be done on the computer your currently on... for whatever reason)
Things you don't need:
A Sound Card. Since Windows Vista there is no benefit for a Gamer any more to have one.
More than 8 GB of RAM
SLI or Crossfire, Dual GPU GFX Cards.
Nice to have:
Water Cooling (Silent, but nor cheap)
A Wireless Headset - no Cables, and most of them have a good Surround Sound Emulation.
And for the FreeSpace Gamer:
If you don't spend all of the 1500 $ get a HOTAS Joystick ;)
- Sound-cards are generally unnecessary for stereo or 2.1 sound, but they are useful when you want a surround sound system or want to play games that have A LOT of sounds going on at once
- Get as much ram as you possibly can.
- 32-bit systems generally work well with up to 4GB of RAM, but I think Win7 can handle more. Check the specifications.
- 64-bit systems should work well up to 18EB. (2^64)
- SLi, CrossFire graphics cards are generally unnecessary, unless you want to run games on their very highest quality
- Take note that AMD sells CPU's that have embedded CrossFire support.
- Wireless headsets can hinder audio quality in noisy RF environments. Research which type wireless technology they use.
- I've found that most joysticks sold today are not designed for 6DOF games. You may be able to map the lateral and vertical thruster controls to a 4-way Hat if the Throttle has it. Throttles embedded on joysticks are largely useless.
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I'd actually avoid NVidia for the time being (shocking, considering my firm advocacy of them), because there's this weird hardware error (according to their forums) that causes the latest cards (certainly in my 560 gtx ti) to lock-up, and render a bunch of red/blue/green lines randomly on the screen. If you're lucky, the display drivers crash and you can keep running stuff.
Last time I checked (a couple of months ago), there was no response on this issue that's been affecting thousands for well over a year.
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What do you plan on using for a monitor? If you want to be awesome with regards to your computer monitor, many flatscreen TV's can function as a computer monitor.
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I'd actually avoid NVidia for the time being (shocking, considering my firm advocacy of them), because there's this weird hardware error (according to their forums) that causes the latest cards (certainly in my 560 gtx ti) to lock-up, and render a bunch of red/blue/green lines randomly on the screen. If you're lucky, the display drivers crash and you can keep running stuff.
Last time I checked (a couple of months ago), there was no response on this issue that's been affecting thousands for well over a year.
Sounds like an overheating issue to me?
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GTX 670 (especially the Gigabyte Windforce version) is an excellent choice of video card. Almost as good as a GTX 680, but $100 less. Even one of them can crush almost any game on the maximum settings. I'd recommend not going for a GTX 580 because the GTX 670 is a far superior option.
Also, if your integrated chip is not that great or if you have expensive headphones or if you have monitor or surround speakers, you want a sound card. Trust me, the extra $175 makes a gigantic difference in sound quality. Don't even bother, though, if your speakers cost you less than $200 or your headphones were sub-$100.
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I'd actually avoid NVidia for the time being (shocking, considering my firm advocacy of them), because there's this weird hardware error (according to their forums) that causes the latest cards (certainly in my 560 gtx ti) to lock-up, and render a bunch of red/blue/green lines randomly on the screen. If you're lucky, the display drivers crash and you can keep running stuff.
Last time I checked (a couple of months ago), there was no response on this issue that's been affecting thousands for well over a year.
Sounds like an overheating issue to me?
It's not an overheating issue. Seems to happen with flash videos, more than anything.
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Also, if your integrated chip is not that great or if you have expensive headphones or if you have monitor or surround speakers, you want a sound card. Trust me, the extra $175 makes a gigantic difference in sound quality. Don't even bother, though, if your speakers cost you less than $200 or your headphones were sub-$100.
Show me a normalized frequency response curve for your high-dollar speaker/headphone system and lets compare it against a "sub-par" system.
I'd actually avoid NVidia for the time being (shocking, considering my firm advocacy of them), because there's this weird hardware error (according to their forums) that causes the latest cards (certainly in my 560 gtx ti) to lock-up, and render a bunch of red/blue/green lines randomly on the screen. If you're lucky, the display drivers crash and you can keep running stuff.
Last time I checked (a couple of months ago), there was no response on this issue that's been affecting thousands for well over a year.
Sounds like an overheating issue to me?
It's not an overheating issue. Seems to happen with flash videos, more than anything.
Ok, does it happen with any particular file, or codec?
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I don't really want to hijack this thread. Suffice it to say that it's none of the usual suspects. I've had it occur in streaming flash sites and in other random situations (rarely, mind you. It isn't a show-stopper), and it happened once when I closed Terraria. And it's never happened during a stress-test.
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I don't really want to hijack this thread. Suffice it to say that it's none of the usual suspects. I've had it occur in streaming flash sites and in other random situations (rarely, mind you. It isn't a show-stopper), and it happened once when I closed Terraria. And it's never happened during a stress-test.
Curious... I'll have to keep an eye on this. nVidia has been a really good company as far as I can remember, too.
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If their forums hadn't been down for, what, a month now, I would post the link. :/
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hmm. Some good links here.
But seriously. Motherboards. What do you recommend to go with the card I mentioned in the first post? Motherboards really kill my brain when I try to look for them. Oh, and it should have about 4 USB ports, I need at least 4 - 2 front, 2 back.
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hmm. Some good links here.
But seriously. Motherboards. What do you recommend to go with the card I mentioned in the first post? Motherboards really kill my brain when I try to look for them. Oh, and it should have about 4 USB ports, I need at least 4 - 2 front, 2 back.
Since your going with an nVidia card, I'd suggest getting one that has SLi support, and look for one that has a southbridge that'll SLi with it. Other than that, good hunting. :)
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For the money, couldn't you buy a pretty hefty pre-built rig?
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AUGH
What
prebuilt rigs.
What.
Get out.
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Don't tell me it aint pretty :/ (http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=d00amw01&model_id=alienware-aurora-r4&c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1)
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You don't need a prebuilt machine to have a shiny box, if that's what you're trying to say.
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Oh i know that, ;) i'm not saying it's better to buy pre-built/assembled. It's just more convenient. The specs aren't too shabby either now are they ;7
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Also, if your integrated chip is not that great or if you have expensive headphones or if you have monitor or surround speakers, you want a sound card. Trust me, the extra $175 makes a gigantic difference in sound quality. Don't even bother, though, if your speakers cost you less than $200 or your headphones were sub-$100.
Show me a normalized frequency response curve for your high-dollar speaker/headphone system and lets compare it against a "sub-par" system.
I'm talking about retail price, not sale price on Amazon or something. Example: It costs around $70 to buy Sony MDR-V6 headphones, but the retail price is around $110 so it falls under my generalization. Indeed, those headphones are improved significantly by a sound card.
Also, some expensive audio equipment is ****. My price ranges are generalizations; use your brain if you actually buy something.
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120 GB are enough for Win 7 and Games
Oh, my ribs, that was funny
1.75TB will only hold around 350 games so 120gb is going to go anywhere.
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Why would you need 350 games installed I don't even.
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You can easily hit that if you buy Indie bundles on Steam for a single interesting item inside (yes, this is a viable strategy, these bundles are often very cheap, especially during sales). However, the kind of games that come inside such bundles rarely exceed one GB. I guess that if you used that 120GB for games only, and you're not modding (I should most likely get rid of all this old FS2 stuff, it takes up half of my HD and isn't really good for anything anymore), this might be enough.
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You realize that when you buy stuff on Steam you don't have to keep it installed on your computer, right ?
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I can tell you wwhat my rig is..and it is GLORIOUS
1155 ArRock Z77 Pro4 motherboard
Intel I5 3570K processor
8 GB DDR3 Turbo memory
Ati Radeon HD 4870 Sonic graphics card
SSD 60GB HD (for operating system)
500 GB HDD (for games and programs)
300 GB HDD (for music, moves, file bacckup)
Amtech 550W active power supply
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You realize that when you buy stuff on Steam you don't have to keep it installed on your computer, right ?
Everybody should install ALL the games! :drevil:
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You realize that when you buy stuff on Steam you don't have to keep it installed on your computer, right ?
You don't have to, but unless you're tight on drive space (well, it can happen if you only have 120GB, but is otherwise unlikely), it'd rather tedious to install and uninstall games every time you feel like playing them. When I install a game on Steam, I'm not uninstalling it after I complete it.
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Well we were talking about 120GB here. Try to keep up with the conversation.
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Total War: Shogun 2 is a 26GB (not the 16GB it claimed) download from Steam, so it's more like four games at a time (don't forget that Windows takes up a ridiculous amount of space for an OS).
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My Games HD, where I also keep some FRAPS recordings and a few backups of valuable files, is ~500 GB. I just yesterday had to uninstall a bunch of games that I didn't have a particular likelihood of playing anytime soon in order to clear up space.
If you play a lot of games, I would recommend at least 500 GB to avoid frequent downloading and uninstalling. 600~800 GB would be a nice bit of room to be comfortable with.
At least 60 GB for your OS, and if it's a SSD, keep your page file somewhere else.
Then I would recommend a separate HD or partition for your various programs/applications and files (like music and pictures), space varies depending on your needs, but ~50 GB should cover it pretty well, unless you keep a bunch of HD movies and stuff around. Or you could just keep that on the big HD, but it gets very cluttered so I like to keep it separate
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Dear god you reminded me... I'm overdue a defrag :shaking:
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Dear god you reminded me... I'm overdue a defrag :shaking:
You or your hard drive? :drevil: ;7
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Doesn't your win 7 does it on his own.
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Doesn't your win 7 does it on his own.
not all that effectively.
i got defraggler running on my pc and i've had it replace windaz' one. 9% fragmentation on the 200GB partition, 2% on the 930GB one.
5.9 gigs of fragmented files, for a count of 2500 fragments for one and 18.9 gigs on the other for 83 fragments. and i'm pretty sure thats the guild wars 2 file, as its 16 or so gigs...
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Why would you need 350 games installed I don't even.
Obviously just an example 350 is not nearly enough
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Can't remember if it's relevant to this topic-- Defraggling my freespace folder, ETA, 22 hours :jaw: not surprised seeing as I've basically kept the EXACT SAME ONE since 1999. Still got my old pxo. Configs too.
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I know a lot of previous posters have said that watercooling is not necessary, but if you plan on overclocking, especially on the Ivy Bridge CPUs, I'd recommend it (really, there's no reason NOT to overclock, it's not difficult if you do your homework, and you can drastically increase the performance of your CPU). I've got a Corsair H60 cooling my i5 and I've been very happy with it. I got it for $50, whereas the Hyper 212+ (if you're sticking with air-cooling, the Hyper 212 is excellent - for the love of all that's holy don't use the cooler that comes with the CPU) is $20. Given your budget, $30 isn't going to be a big deal. In my humble opinion, it's well-worth the peace of mind when overclocking heavily.
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well beyond the $30 extra in price, it's a much more complicated install. a good air cooler like the aforementioned hyper 212+/evo will do just fine for all but the craziest of overclocks.
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Don't do WC if you're not confident.
Do if you are.
If you're british I honestly suggest picking through the configurator at overclockers, probably not on the most expensive machine, but the next one along.
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well beyond the $30 extra in price, it's a much more complicated install. a good air cooler like the aforementioned hyper 212+/evo will do just fine for all but the craziest of overclocks.
The H60 is just as easy as a stock cooler to install, although I could be biased because I tend to have an intuitive understanding of how stuff fits together (I used to love LEGOs, and not the sets, just a big tub of 'em). Not saying it's a better option because of that, but like I said, the OP has the money to spend, it couldn't hurt. The Ivy Bridge chips get pretty hot (disclaimer: I actually have a Sandy Bridge i5, but the assertion that the Ivy Bridge chips get a lot hotter under similar overclocking is based on research I did while building my system - I'm assuming OP will probably wind up with Ivy Bridge since cost doesn't seem to be much of a problem). I don't like to push chips over 60C, even though I know the modern ones can handle it. Mine doesn't get over 50C unless I'm deliberately trying to burn it. If this is something that matters to the OP, the H60 is also very quiet.
That being said, the Hyper 212+ is a heck of a cooler and there's nothing wrong with it at all.
Edit: forgot to mention - OP, if you do plan on getting aftermarket fans, get Noctua. They're ugly but whisper-quiet and very good.
Edit2: One other thing to mention about watercooling is the coolers are low-profile - not trying to plug the H60 some more, actually, but it reminded me to say make sure to do research on your chosen motherboard to make sure the RAM slots won't get blocked.
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Edit: forgot to mention - OP, if you do plan on getting aftermarket fans, get Noctua. They're ugly but whisper-quiet and very good.
i'll throw a vote against Noctua here and for Scythe and Xilence. if only because xilence's hydrodynamic bearings are ****ing glorious and they are durable (i've got a few pushing almost 4 years without a horrid whirr or anything) and scythe's because they are not overpriced.
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Doesn't your win 7 does it on his own.
not all that effectively.
i got defraggler running on my pc and i've had it replace windaz' one. 9% fragmentation on the 200GB partition, 2% on the 930GB one.
5.9 gigs of fragmented files, for a count of 2500 fragments for one and 18.9 gigs on the other for 83 fragments. and i'm pretty sure thats the guild wars 2 file, as its 16 or so gigs...
lol scrub
My storage drive managed to get up to 44% fragmentation before I finally got around to defragging it.
44% fragmentation. I mean, what the ****. There's got to be some upper limit to that ****. One of the larger files was in several hundred fragments, too.
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I know a lot of previous posters have said that watercooling is not necessary, but if you plan on overclocking, especially on the Ivy Bridge CPUs, I'd recommend it (really, there's no reason NOT to overclock, it's not difficult if you do your homework, and you can drastically increase the performance of your CPU).
Watercooling can be silent, and overclocking maybe drastically increase the performance of your CPU, but:
Most Games aren't limited by the CPU.
If you only cool the CPU you will still have to look for silent Fans on the Radiators and a silent and fast GFX Card.
Overclooking the CPU won't give you any benefit, if your GFX Card is to slow.
If money is no matter cool the whole system including the GFX Card with water, if money matters spend it on a good and silent (in Windows) GFX Card.
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I know a lot of previous posters have said that watercooling is not necessary, but if you plan on overclocking, especially on the Ivy Bridge CPUs, I'd recommend it (really, there's no reason NOT to overclock, it's not difficult if you do your homework, and you can drastically increase the performance of your CPU).
Watercooling can be silent, and overclocking maybe drastically increase the performance of your CPU, but:
Most Games aren't limited by the CPU.
If you only cool the CPU you will still have to look for silent Fans on the Radiators and a silent and fast GFX Card.
Overclooking the CPU won't give you any benefit, if your GFX Card is to slow.
If money is no matter cool the whole system including the GFX Card with water, if money matters spend it on a good and silent (in Windows) GFX Card.
This is very true, although a faster CPU is useful for things other than gaming. It's also worth mentioning that a lot of games are terrible at using multiple cores - in that case, overclocking greatly increases the speed of the one core the game utilizes. Sins of a Solar Empire comes to mind first on this one.
OP can do some overclocking with any good cooler, really. The new UEFI BIOS interfaces these days make it very, very easy. :D
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Edit: forgot to mention - OP, if you do plan on getting aftermarket fans, get Noctua. They're ugly but whisper-quiet and very good.
i'll throw a vote against Noctua here and for Scythe and Xilence. if only because xilence's hydrodynamic bearings are ****ing glorious and they are durable (i've got a few pushing almost 4 years without a horrid whirr or anything) and scythe's because they are not overpriced.
i got one of the "silent" scythe fans a while back for my old build. it moved a lot of air, but it was the loudest fan i've ever heard, including the warp-speed 80mm ones that were in my REALLY old build. the quietest fans i've ever had are the stock cooler master ones that come with their cases. except for one that has started humming faintly, the only noise that comes from them is the whoosh of the air.
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Edit: forgot to mention - OP, if you do plan on getting aftermarket fans, get Noctua. They're ugly but whisper-quiet and very good.
i'll throw a vote against Noctua here and for Scythe and Xilence. if only because xilence's hydrodynamic bearings are ****ing glorious and they are durable (i've got a few pushing almost 4 years without a horrid whirr or anything) and scythe's because they are not overpriced.
i got one of the "silent" scythe fans a while back for my old build. it moved a lot of air, but it was the loudest fan i've ever heard, including the warp-speed 80mm ones that were in my REALLY old build. the quietest fans i've ever had are the stock cooler master ones that come with their cases. except for one that has started humming faintly, the only noise that comes from them is the whoosh of the air.
Besides my one Noctua fan that blows air over my motherboard, the other fans I have are Cooler Master. Will second this - they're quiet, and good enough at what they do. My case has 8 fans installed, plus the PSU's fans, and it still doesn't make a whole lot of noise. I was pleasantly surprised. I expected it to sound like a Space Shuttle launch.