Overclocking / best value water cooling solution for QX9770

[daw123]

Hello,

I'm new to this and this is the first forum I've joined, so anybody's personal experience / recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Anyway, I'm in the process of building a new high end PC.

The current technology is new to me, although I have carried out quite a bit of research. I've built a PC before, but it was about 8 years ago, so obviously technology has moved on significantly from then.

I will be building this PC next weekend (once all the component have arrived).

The current spec is:
CPU: QX 9770 Quad Core Extreme Processor (I was opriinally going to buy a QX 9650, but received a bonus and thought what the hell. btw I got a good deal on the chip for England, which influenced my decision)
CPU HSF: TYphoon Big Typ 120VX (this has generally got good reviews)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 DDR3 (I understand from reviews / forums that this MB is good for overclocking and has had good reviews, although getting the right bios version is a pain in the a*se)
RAM: OCZ Gold Edition DDR3 1333Mhz 2 x 1Gb modules (I know I should have got the 1600MHz platinum edition, but I bought the RAM on holiday before buying the chip - that's what you get for an impulse buy. I will replace the RAM if I feel that it is not good enough once the system is built)
PSU Antec 1000W TruePower Quattro (certified for the graphics card (see below) and I believe this will deliver enough power)
Graphics card: Sapphire ATI HD4870 X2 2 Gb
Sound card: Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme Audio (PCI Express card)
Case: Coolmaster Praetorian 731 (2 x 80mm dia fans in the front, ditto for the back and 120mm dia fan in the side which lines up perfectly with the HSF on the CPU). I like this case; it is not as ott as a lot of the gamers cases on the market

None of the above components are OEM, so they have manufactuerer's warranties, etc.

I know Intel recommend liquid cooling for the QX9770, although there have been numerous people on forums who have used air cooling.

I will run the chip at stock speeds and monitor the core temps to begin with until I upgrade to liquid cooling (next month).

The reason for posting this forum is that I want to over-clock the chip to over 4.0GHz (ideally 4.2GHz) and I want to know which liquid cooling system is best for the bucks (I plan to spend around £120.00 (or approx. $220.00)). I was thinking about using the Swifttech H2O 220 Compact. This system is recommended by Intel and judging from reviews the best available that is Intel certified. I also want to eventually add additional heat plates for the graphics card, etc.

I do not want to lap the CPU because it is expensive to replace the chip if I get it wrong and it will also void Intel's 3-year warranty. I hope to keep this PC for about 4 years, which is why I am buying high end components, although I obviously want a system which is stable and will achieve this longevity.

Are there any obvious c**k-ups that you can see, which I have made with the core components (except those already mentioned above)?

Also, what are people's experience's of overclocking a QX9770 on this gigabyte MB?

btw thanks for the over-clocking guide provided by graysky - very informative. This bloke obviously knows what he is talking about.

Thanks for your time and any help you can give.

Cheers

 

[mpilchfamily]

This is the wrong section. You need the case and cooling section. This is the PSU section.

But you don't need water cooling for that CPU. But if you want a really good OC on it then its recomended you have better then air cooling.