Upgrade for my gaming computer

[VirtualLarry]

60C under load is a great temp.

My Core2Quad Q9300 CPU, overclocked from 2.5 to 3.0Ghz, at stock voltage, gets up to 74C under 100% load doing DC. GPU gets to 67C.

That's WITH my new Rosewill Blackhawk case, with five fans and bottom-mounted PSU.

Previously, with both the CPU and GPU going, my CPU temps got up to 85-86C, with the GPU at 73C. WAY TOO HOT.

That's before, with my CoolerMaster Elite 330, with only one rear exhaust fan and top-mounted PSU.

Conclusion? The Blackhawk was a very worthwhile investment, lowering my CPU temps by around 10-12C.

I am using a HyperTX2 heatsink for LGA775.

 

[Veriitas]

Looks fine to me. Upper 60's is perfectly normal for a Sandy Bridge at load.

The reason the different cores are at different temperatures is probably because the HSF isn't mounted with equal pressure on all four corners. Since the TX3 uses pushpins, it is really damn hard to get the mounting to be perfect.

A bolt-through cooler like the Hyper 212+ is much easier to mounted evenly because you can just torque the screws down the same amount on each corner.

Yes, it wasn't easy to install the TX3, came off a couple of times had to redo the thermal paste.. but i guess it's fine now. Thanks!

I'll buy a hyper 212+ in the future

 

[Veriitas]

Hey guys,

I got a little problem with Sony vegas. When I try to put a HD video into Sony Vegas it takes a while untill he recognizes it. I thought it would be solved with my new i5 2500k overclocked to 4.5 GHz. But it's still kinda slow..

Could this be because of my hard disk?
It's a WDC WD10EADS-00L5B1 ATA Device.. i can't really find much about it on the internet.. I know it is a western digital...

Hope you guys can give me some advice.. maybe a new hard disk? If so, which one?
i'd like atleast 1 TB. I've heard the Samsung F3 series are great?

 

[lehtv]

That's a Caviar Green 5400RPM drive. Samsung F3 1TB is going to be faster, being 7200RPM. But I can't really say if you'll notice the difference in Vegas. HD video files are big and take time to load no matter what.

 

[Veriitas]

That's a Caviar Green 5400RPM drive. Samsung F3 1TB is going to be faster, being 7200RPM. But I can't really say if you'll notice the difference in Vegas. HD video files are big and take time to load no matter what.

So no need to upgrade really?

 

[lehtv]

I honestly can't say for sure if you'd benefit from it enough justify the cost of the extra HDD. The choice would be easier if your current HDD was almost full.

 

[Veriitas]

I honestly can't say for sure if you'd benefit from it enough justify the cost of the extra HDD. The choice would be easier if your current HDD was almost full.

Nah still have 400gb left. I'll keep mine then. thanks

 

[Rainey]

Are you wanting to go sli or not? If you don't want to go SLI I would go with Asus Z68 LE, that is what I'm going with on my new build and If you have a case that supports front usb 3.0 it also supports that. Your 750 watt power supply is def enough. I say go for the 2500k for the fact that you can OverClock it to 4.4-4.5 and it will still be stable if you have a good cpu cooler. BF3 I have been reading and its going to be very graphic intensive so....my say is I would look more into the GPU as well. Rumors and posts that I have read are saying that they are running the beta on PC with a 570 and running 30-40 fps on high settings.

 

[Veriitas]

I'm going to go with the AMD HD6950 2GB CrossFire..
Will the 750watt still be enough?

 

[lehtv]

Which PSU is that again and how long have you had it ...? And are you sure you actually need crossfire and can't wait until 7xxx series?

If you unlock the shaders and overclock the cards, they'll use around 200W per card. Add 100W for the rest in a gaming scenario, or 200W if the overclocked CPU is at 100% as well. And you're looking at 500-600W load. A quality 750W PSU will handle it fine but 850W would be optimal.

If you keep the 6950's at stock settings, 750W is perfect.

 

[Veriitas]

Which PSU is that again and how long have you had it ...? And are you sure you actually need crossfire and can't wait until 7xxx series?

If you unlock the shaders and overclock the cards, they'll use around 200W per card. Add 100W for the rest in a gaming scenario, or 200W if the overclocked CPU is at 100% as well. And you're looking at 500-600W load. A quality 750W PSU will handle it fine but 850W would be optimal.

If you keep the 6950's at stock settings, 750W is perfect.

I just wanna enjoy BF3.. and if the 6950 CF are enough, i will settle down for those..

I got the Corsair TX 750Watt

 

[lehtv]

OK, no probs then

 

[Veriitas]

OK, no probs then

Which one should I get?
The twin frozr?

 

[lehtv]

Twin frozr's are open design coolers, they exhaust most of the hot air inside the case. With two cards, you need very good airflow. The reference design cooler (or XFX's single fan cooler) will run a bit hotter and noisier, but it will exhaust most of the hot air out of the back, so you won't need as good case airflow.

In either case I recommend you install a fan to the side of your case to cool the cards themselves, if you haven't done so already. I think your case supports 1x200mm or 2x120mm side fans.

Honestly I'm not really sure which cards are the best for crossfire... I wouldn't like the noise that two single-fan coolers make. XFX dual-fan coolers exhaust air mostly out of the side opposite to the PCIe slot, so the side fan could be more useful as an exhaust than an intake... And I've heard MSI twin frozr's don't work so well in crossfire, as they exhaust air mostly to the PCI slot's side and the heat will just rise to the card above.

Hmm... It's a hard decision :\. Maybe I'd get two of the XFX dual fan versions, a 200mm fan, and then see whether the temps are better with the fan as intake or exhaust.

 

[Veriitas]

Twin frozr's are open design coolers, they exhaust most of the hot air inside the case. With two cards, you need very good airflow. The reference design cooler (or XFX's single fan cooler) will run a bit hotter and noisier, but it will exhaust most of the hot air out of the back, so you won't need as good case airflow.

In either case I recommend you install a fan to the side of your case to cool the cards themselves, if you haven't done so already. I think your case supports 1x200mm or 2x120mm side fans.

Honestly I'm not really sure which cards are the best for crossfire... I wouldn't like the noise that two single-fan coolers make. XFX dual-fan coolers exhaust air mostly out of the side opposite to the PCIe slot, so the side fan could be more useful as an exhaust than an intake... And I've heard MSI twin frozr's don't work so well in crossfire, as they exhaust air mostly to the PCI slot's side and the heat will just rise to the card above.

Hmm... It's a hard decision :\. Maybe I'd get two of the XFX dual fan versions, a 200mm fan, and then see whether the temps are better with the fan as intake or exhaust.

Thank you for your clear explanation. But a fan on the side? Isn't that going to mess with the airflow inside the case? blowing not enough fresh air in and too much out?

 

[lehtv]

It's probably better to use it as intake, yes. That way you don't get negative air pressure. I was just wondering that since the XFX dual fan card blows air in the direction of the side fan, it might be good for the GPU temperatures to immediately exhaust that air instead of pushing it all around the case. But it'd cause negative air pressure

 

[Veriitas]

It's probably better to use it as intake, yes. That way you don't get negative air pressure. I was just wondering that since the XFX dual fan card blows air in the direction of the side fan, it might be good for the GPU temperatures to immediately exhaust that air instead of pushing it all around the case. But it'd cause negative air pressure

So wouldn't it be more practical to put one fan on the top of my case to blow air in. And an extra on the side to push it out?
On top of the ones I already have: front one moving air in and back one moving air out.

 

[lehtv]

Idk, having a top fan blow air in sounds just wrong to me because heat rises... It'd be probably best to just use the 200mm fan to blow air in and exhaust the air out the back and top

 

[Veriitas]

Idk, having a top fan blow air in sounds just wrong to me because heat rises... It'd be probably best to just use the 200mm fan to blow air in and exhaust the air out the back and top

Haha yeah your right! Also a 200mm fan for on top? I should get the Sharkoon Silent Eagles right? I remember you recommending them to me.

 

[lehtv]

Your case can't fit a 200mm on the top, only on the side.... You'd be fine with one 140mm fan on the top-rear slot, and a 200mm fan on the side. I doubt a second 140mm on the top is needed.

On the whole it doesn't matter a lot which fans you get, there are cheap fans that do the job fine and there are more expensive fans that may or may not be worth it. I think the Sharkoon Silent Eagle 800 are great but you can probably find 140mm fans for a bit cheaper than that.

Sharkoon also makes a 250mm fan but I'm not sure if the screw holes are 200mm apart or 250mm... You could email them Or just buy a coolermaster 200mm LED fan.

 

[Veriitas]

Your case can't fit a 200mm on the top, only on the side.... You'd be fine with one 140mm fan on the top-rear slot, and a 200mm fan on the side. I doubt a second 140mm on the top is needed.

On the whole it doesn't matter a lot which fans you get, there are cheap fans that do the job fine and there are more expensive fans that may or may not be worth it. I think the Sharkoon Silent Eagle 800 are great but you can probably find 140mm fans for a bit cheaper than that.

Sharkoon also makes a 250mm fan but I'm not sure if the screw holes are 200mm apart or 250mm... You could email them Or just buy a coolermaster 200mm LED fan.

Thanks!! I found the 120mm Sharkoon silent eagle 1000, I hope those will do the job too?

I will go with these (sorry it is in dutch):
http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/137984/sharkoon-silent-eagle-1000-120mm.html#tab:info

and on the side:
http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/252391/cooler-master-megaflow-blue-200mm-200mm.html#tab:info

And the XFX AMD Radeon HD6950 2048 MB GDDR5 GPU, approved?

 

[lehtv]

Since you can fit a 140mm fan on the top you should go with a 140mm fan obviously, they move more air with less noise. The 120mm fan does 37CFM at 19dBa while the Sharkoon 140mm does 55CFM at 12.4dBa...

http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/287566/sharkoon-silent-eagle-800-140mm.html

 

[Veriitas]

Since you can fit a 140mm fan on the top you should go with a 140mm fan obviously, they move more air with less noise. The 120mm fan does 37CFM at 19dBa while the Sharkoon 140mm does 55CFM at 12.4dBa...

http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/287566/sharkoon-silent-eagle-800-140mm.html

Thanks! you even got a link for me in dutch haha!
And 19db is normal for a 200mm fan? (the cooler master one)

BTW a total different issue; I switched my VGA cable with a DVI-D Dual link. I noticed I am getting black flashes now and then in windows. And white flashes in games. My monitor is from 2006. Is this the reason I get those flashes? Maybe it doesn't support dual link? Or is it my GPU?

 

[lehtv]

And 19db is normal for a 200mm fan?

Yes probably at full speed that's about right

BTW a total different issue; I switched my VGA cable with a DVI-D Dual link. I noticed I am getting black flashes now and then in windows. And white flashes in games. My monitor is from 2006. Is this the reason I get those flashes? Maybe it doesn't support dual link? Or is it my GPU?

Uhh. Maybe you should just switch back to the VGA cable. I don't know if a dual-link cable is supposed to work with a single-link interface, this would make it seem the answer is no

 

[mfenn]

Uhh. Maybe you should just switch back to the VGA cable. I don't know if a dual-link cable is supposed to work with a single-link interface, this would make it seem the answer is no

A dual-link cable works fine with a single-link interface. The extra pins just go unused because they aren't physically connected to anything. That being said, it's not surprising that a monitor from '06 would have issues with DVI because (a) DVI wasn't as common back then or (b) it could have broken in the past 5 years without anyone noticing since it wasn't in use.

WRT Crossfire, are you sure that you need it at your resolution? It's a hell of a lot to drop on GPUs that will be outdated in 12 months.

Also, it's generally recommended to go with fully exhausting coolers in a Crossfire setup so that the top card doesn't bake the bottom one. It's going to be loud as hell regardless.