The Desktop PC Building Thread

[Ace Rimmer]

Originally Posted by javyn

I hate to derail, but I have been wondering this. Why do people spend so much money and effort to overclock?


In some (not all) cases you can save money.

Example: last year when the Core i7 chips were just released, you could buy an Intel Core i7 920 (2.3 GHz) for $200 from MicroCenter and overclock it to 3.3 GHz on air, which is about the same as the stock speed of the Core i7 975. The price of the Core i7 975 at the time was $999.

A good air cooler would cost you $60-80. Let's say you also add a few 200mm fans and you also buy a premium case to improve airflow. Call that another $100 over the price of a "standard" mid-tower ATX case.


Cost savings: $999 - ($200+$80+$100) = $619

Obviously this is only one example and not indicative of the entire CPU market. Further, the overclocked i7 920 may not be as stable as a non-overclocked 975, especially in warmer climates during the summer. But you can save some serious bucks!

 

[whiteslashasian]

Originally Posted by Ace Rimmer

In some (not all) cases you can save money.

Example: last year when the Core i7 chips were just released, you could buy an Intel Core i7 920 (2.3 GHz) for $200 from MicroCenter and overclock it to 3.3 GHz on air, which is about the same as the stock speed of the Core i7 975. The price of the Core i7 975 at the time was $999.

A good air cooler would cost you $60-80. Let's say you also add a few 200mm fans and you also buy a premium case to improve airflow. Call that another $100 over the price of a "standard" mid-tower ATX case.


Cost savings: $999 - ($200+$80+$100) = $619

Obviously this is only one example and not indicative of the entire CPU market. Further, the overclocked i7 920 may not be as stable as a non-overclocked 975, especially in warmer climates during the summer. But you can save some serious bucks!

That's why I do it; gain quite a bit of performance on games, encoding, etc. Plus it's fun.

 

[AR_Six]

Update:

Still pretty up in the air on memory and GPU. Looking at this:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16820231311

Alternatively, a single 4gb stick of the same runs 110. I just feel like 2x4gb is a good idea long term.

 

[Milpool]

Originally Posted by Ace Rimmer

In some (not all) cases you can save money.

Example: last year when the Core i7 chips were just released, you could buy an Intel Core i7 920 (2.3 GHz) for $200 from MicroCenter and overclock it to 3.3 GHz on air, which is about the same as the stock speed of the Core i7 975. The price of the Core i7 975 at the time was $999.

A good air cooler would cost you $60-80. Let's say you also add a few 200mm fans and you also buy a premium case to improve airflow. Call that another $100 over the price of a "standard" mid-tower ATX case.


Cost savings: $999 - ($200+$80+$100) = $619

Obviously this is only one example and not indicative of the entire CPU market. Further, the overclocked i7 920 may not be as stable as a non-overclocked 975, especially in warmer climates during the summer. But you can save some serious bucks!

But why are you comparing an overclocked processor with a non-overclocked processor? Shouldn't you compare apples to apples?

 

[KitAkira]

Why would he do that? The question was why would someone want to overclock.

Though if you overclocked a 975 you'd gain even more performance from the chip, still supporting the position (since an overclocked CPU would exceed the performance of the comparable retail)

 

[KenN]

Originally Posted by JD_May

Update:


Holy crap, is the entire front bezel all mesh?

 

[AR_Six]

Originally Posted by KenN

Holy crap, is the entire front bezel all mesh?

Not exactly, here's a better pic unboxed.

 

[whiteslashasian]

To each his own, but I think that case is hideous. Functional for sure, but it is not a looker.

I prefer a cleaner aesthetic and if a large case is needed I would go toward this route:

Unibody Aluminum construction:

That's Three 180mm fans pulling from below and exhausts out the top and sound dampening on almost all the panels:

Not to mention that this is the kind of case you use for many, many years. Totally worth the price imo.

G Skill makes great memory. I wouldn't hesitate to pick up their chips. I ran some of their DDR2 stuff for 2 years with great success. Gave it to my brother when I upgraded to faster OCZ chips.

I've had good experiences with OCZ, but apparently their DDR3 offerings have been abysmal, which is sad to hear because I've had great ram and customer service experiences with them in the past (DDR and DDR2 chips).

 

[whiteslashasian]

Double Poast...

 

[daft]

That case looks good. Would be nice if had some vents on the side. My current case is Antec 900 which looks similar to that cooler master; pretty fugly but does the job.

 

[whiteslashasian]

Originally Posted by daft

That case looks good. Would be nice if had some vents on the side. My current case is Antec 900 which looks similar to that cooler master; pretty fugly but does the job.

Assuming you're talking about the FT02, side vents would really impede the convection. Believe me, if the engineers knew it would help keep components cooler, they would have added one; this isn't a budget case.

Tests show that the FT02 cools much better than the Antec P183, HAF 922, and even better than an open bench! Side vents are superfluous in such a case.

 

[AR_Six]

Originally Posted by whiteslashasian

To each his own, but I think that case is hideous.
Nobody's really going to be looking at it under my desk, but yeah it's more about function than form at a given price point - and it's still prettier than the full-size version, the 932:

 

[whiteslashasian]

^ Wow...

Cooler Master has some great products like their 212+ cooler and the Elite 360 Case (really versatile and functional but understated in looks) but that monstrosity needs to be killed with fire.

 

[AR_Six]

It's the direct competition for the Antec nine hundred (and nine hundred two) and is superior to both in terms of noise and heat management. It's widely used by gamers who want to overclock but are in the sub-175$ range for cases. It's a price point thing. I think the 922 looks a lot better than the 932, but I don't really care either way. With the side panel fan on there's not much to choose between it and cases that cost 4 times as much in terms of heat management, and reviews say the noise is minimal compared to Antec cases so I'm down.

Anyway that's in the past. The GPU and ram are still at issue. Strongly leaning towards that Gskill thanks to your endorsement.

 

[KenN]

Go with the 5700 or 5800 graphics card, you get the benefits of DX11 and will have adequate graphics performance for the near future. Blizzard games do not have high graphics requirements (since lower requirements means more players on B-net) so a 5700 will serve you well. But the 5800 is the better card and will keep its value better if you do wish to flip it in the future for an upgrade. Don't get the 5830 though.