I thought exactly when Falsey posted

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St Nick is my bike thieving buddy brother

The only retail Intel CPUs that don't come with coolers is the Sandy Bridge Extreme (LGA-2011) range but even then the box is quite large compared to the size of the chip:

My new PC will be more or less the recommended build in the OP, only with a GeForce 9800GT for now. I'll be upgrading the graphics card in a few months, but until then it'll do the job.

Hell of a step up from my old computer, anyway. That was a Pentium Dual Core 3.6GHz with 2GB RAM and a GeForce GT220.

Retarded question time. Friend of mine claims her duel Nidea 880GT in SLI are faster than my single 550TI. Is this true or false?

Theres not much in it tbh. 550 has the technology edge.

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New master race build guide | Budget HTPC build

Was looking at some of the motherboards at the AMD Heaven event earlier...side facing SATA ports, wish I knew about those before buying my motherboard! That would have solved all my issues!

Kinda want my Mum's Dell to die a sudden death so I can give her my existing mobo and get her a self build, then get new case and mobo for myself.

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Random Fury!

Side facing sata ports are not uncommon on enthusiast mobos.

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New master race build guide | Budget HTPC build

I had no idea what the advantages of them were at the time. Apart from the SATA ports, literally haven't got a bad word to say about the mobo, which is why it'd be fine as a hand me down if/when my Mum's computer craps out. Hurry up and crap out Dell!

I'm eyeing up this mobo atm: http://www.ebuyer.com/261288-msi-p67a-g ... a-gd53-b3- It seems near enough identical to the one in the first post, but it's in stock. 53 vs 55 in the model name, trying to figure out what I gain/lose between the two.



Picture I took of massive overclock at AMD Heaven event:

The temperature was around -185 or so with a 7.2ghz overclock across all 8 cores.

Looking at multi monitor setups left me feeling a bit meh, I'd rather a single large 2560x1600 monitor than three 1920x1080 monitors side by side.

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Random Fury!

Effectively the issue isn't even with the board so much as the obnoxiously large ASUS card. With a smaller GPU, you'd be able to use the right angled SATA cables to access the ports without incident.

Right then, if I buy these
Part list permalink: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/57ru
Part price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/57ru/by_merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£166.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£80.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£32.00 @ Maplin Electronics)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 6870 1GB Video Card (£136.42 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £416.38
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2012-02-26 10:06 GMT+0000)

Will they install easily into this:

That looks very similar, if not identical, to the PC case I have (Coolermaster 330) and even the huge fatty ASUS 6950 I have fits inside the case. You'll be fine. Just make sure your existing PSU has enough power for the newer components.

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Random Fury!

Looking on the stickers on the PSU it mentions octigen 400w

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Octigen-116196P ... B001V9GDLO

UK mains voltage is 230, I believe.

Hmm, having read this : http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte- ... 0-review/8

It would seem I may need more watts for these new components... if the processor requires 90 watts, the card requires 500w and the mother board requires around 90w I think, does that mean I need 700w PSU? Do I require a modular PSU?

Another £80. It is very expensive this upgrading PC business....and I want a blu ray burner.

New list

Part list permalink: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/57vW
Part price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/57vW/by_merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£166.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£80.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£32.00 @ Maplin Electronics)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 6870 1GB Video Card (£136.42 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Cooler Master 700W ATX12V Power Supply (£79.02 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Lite-On ihes108-29 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer (£75.79 @ Insight UK)
Total: £571.19
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2012-02-26 12:53 GMT+0000)

I don't think the 6870 uses 500w, even when being hammered.

A fully modular PSU will give you the benefit of not having unused cables sitting in your PC case, restricting airflow and looking ugly. Considering the case is small, modular would be a good idea, worth the added expense.

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Random Fury!

A 550-600W PSU is fine. Decent ones around £50 are doable.

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New master race build guide | Budget HTPC build

Deffo get one from a recognised brand - a cheap and shoddy one can kill your PC/explode.

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So uh, don't use Antec TrueQuiets for airflow output. For input, they work fine, but their airflow is far, far too low for outputting the amount of air I need. An old 80mm Coolermaster fan I have (with gaudy blue LEDs ) outputs a fuckton more air and is only about 5dB louder.

Any recomendations for a high airflow, reasonably low dB level, 140mm fan? Was looking at the Akasa Viper for shifting some of the gooseberry fool.

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Taint

Akasa Viper
Akasa Apache
BeQuiet SilentWing USC
Noiseblocker BlackSilentPRO PK-3 140mm

One of these fans undervolted to 5/7v would give you the ideal combination of silence and airflow.

The Coolermaster ones are alright actually. You could go with Xilence redwing (I think) or those Gelid ones that have blue fins.

Colours are questionable but top quality gear.

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New master race build guide | Budget HTPC build