New Autumn Build - thoughts welcome

[Tatty_Two]

Hi all, for the first time in my PC life I have owned a motherboard and CPU for over 3 years and I have to say the relationship has been a fantastic one, I got lucky when the I7 920's first came out as I got the origional C1 stepping and it overclocked really well and ran cool on very low volts.

Its time for a refresh both visually and to generally update, to be honest I am not looking for any substantial performances increases as I am pretty happy with what i already get, I just need a change. I only really surf the net with the odd bit of gaming (World of Tanks and BF3 mainly but only have time for 2-4 hours a week). I do overclcok pretty much everything but not to the semi competative level that I used to, age and time dictate "quick" results these days. So anyways, I want to go MATX for a change and having seen BP's new build I like white too!

I have uploaded a shopping basket of my choices, I wont get this lot until I get back from my family Florida holiday in a few weeks but I would welcome any useful feedback you may want to throw in, of course I am limited in an MATX build so......

1. Cooler just fits, max for the case is 165mm height, this one is 160mm.
2. I need a MATX board but want a PCI slot also (many forgo the PCI slot).
3. I need low profile memory and I like cheap!
4. it has to look nice!

 

[Aquinus]

I do overclcok pretty much everything but not to the semi competative level that I used to, age and time dictate "quick" results these days.

That CPU might be faster but keep in mind what you're dropping. No hyperthreading, this CPU won't overclock to the same clocks you have now, less CPU cache, and it's not unlocked so you're going to get no more than 400mhz out of the CPU, and you lose the triple-channel memory. The i5 gives you integrated graphics (always a plus to have just in case,) and a faster architecture that uses less power, plus a stronger IMC.

All in all, unless you get a k-edition 1155 chip, I think whatever you get will tail behind what you have now, granted not by much. I just feel it won't be any faster and could be slower.

 

[Tatty_Two]

That CPU might be faster but keep in mind what you're dropping. No hyperthreading, this CPU won't overclock to the same clocks you have now, less CPU cache, and it's not unlocked so you're going to get no more than 400mhz out of the CPU, and you lose the triple-channel memory. The i5 gives you integrated graphics (always a plus to have just in case,) and a faster architecture that uses less power, plus a stronger IMC.

All in all, unless you get a k-edition 1155 chip, I think whatever you get will tail behind what you have now, granted not by much. I just feel it won't be any faster and could be slower.

I hear what you are saying, I would have kept my CPU if I could get a decent choice of MATX S1366 boards but there is just not enough around in the UK these days for obvious reasons, I might take a look though at a higher spec CPU, not too bothered about the HT TBH as I do little to benefit but I would like to be running at 4gig 24/7 at least, just to feel I am gettin some real value out of it!

Edit: Did some reading, basket updated to 3570K! For the sake of about 25 quid it seemed silly not to.

 

[Aquinus]

No more complaints from me. Looks good.

 

[Fourstaff]

Would recommend you go for the power saving route instead, given that the electricity is daylight robbery in UK right now. That is round about the only thing you can reliably see between the 920 and SB/IVB

 

[Aquinus]

Would recommend you go for the power saving route instead, given that the electricity is daylight robbery in UK right now. That is round about the only thing you can reliably see between the 920 and SB/IVB

IVB is pretty energy efficient. It's a benefit over the older Nehelem chip, that is for sure. You'll probably cut your power usage (by the CPU) at least in half after overclocking both.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Might have to rethink cooler, with the couple of protruding pipes at the top it apparently comes to 163mm, thats a bit too close for comfort Looking at the Prolimatech Panther its a few millimetres shorter and gets very good reviews.

 

[Aquinus]

Might have to rethink cooler, with the couple of protruding pipes at the top it apparently comes to 163mm, thats a bit too close for comfort

I've been pretty happy with my ZALMAN CNPS9900MAX-B 135mm Long life bearing CPU C... . It should be short enough, it's plenty quiet and it cools my overclocked SB-E pretty well.

Guru3d's conclusion to their review says this:

Performance overall is very comparable to the performance of Noctua's NH-D14 coolers. That cooler of course is completely silent though. The CNPS 9900 MAX also has a lot of additional capacity, we like that very much. The result as such is that the cooler becomes even more impressive when you start to overclock. In combo with this fan we overclocked our poor little 2.67 GHz processor to 4.2 GHz @ 1.5 volts. At that 1.5 GHz overclock we started to stress all processor cores 100% once again and we did not even reach 65 Degrees C, that is impressive stuff to witness.

That was with a skt1156 i5, but you get the idea. I run my SB-E at about 1.4v to get a CPU temperature of about 63*C if you want another idea of how well it cools. Not everyone likes the look of it, but it's definitely a good cooler. The review says at full speed that it is loud, but it has always been quieter than the rest of my rig.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Looks good and on checking, a little smaller so more headroom, similar price also, def worth some consideration.

 

[Norton]

One of these would look great in a white case:

XIGMATEK Dark Knight II SD1283 Night Hawk Edition ...

Clearance shouldn't be an issue- I put a Xig Gaia, which is nearly the same, in one of the black versions of that case w/o a problem.