Spec me... a watercooled mixture of old and new

Ucof

Ucof

Ucof

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Wales.
I have recently been given some money by an aunt as I am buying my first house, and she said she will help out with a little funding. However, I will have some money left over, so I will have a good amount for upgrading my PC, which (in my opinion) is perfectly useable but a little outdated ( Dual core 2.2Ghz AMD, 4gb RAM, ATI 4870, Xonar D2X, Silverstone Fortress case).

  • I will be gaming primarily - current PC will not play Battlefield 3 :(
  • I want it to be "futureproofed" for at least 3-4 years.
  • I want the motherboard to be primarily black in colour.
  • I want to go watercooled - CPU and GFX, possible MoBo as well but not essential.
  • Colour scheme will be UV green (watercooling) and black (components).
  • This is NOT a "ultimate spec" build - I don't want Quadfire and I don't want dual CPU.
  • I will need a SATA DVD-RW as current one is IDE.
  • I have never watercooled before.
  • Watercooled blocks must be see through acrylic!
  • AMD and not Intel/ nVidia

Current components to replace:
ASUS A8n-SLI SE motherboard (to replace)
AMD 2.2Ghz Dual Core (to replace)
4 Gb mixed RAM (to replace)
IDE DVD-RW (to replace)
ATI Radeon 4870 1Gb (to replace)

Current components to keep:
BeQuiet! 650w modular PSU
ASUS Xonar D2X
2x 1Tb (RAID 0) storage (music, films and so on)
1x 120gb Sata boot drive (Windows 7 x64 installation)
1x 180 IDE application installation drive (mainly for games) - can use Sata -> IDE convertor to keep this
Silverstone Fortress FT-01 case
Muygen Scythe 2 heatsink and fan (if not going watercooled)


I was contemplating something like this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 6950 IceQ X Turbo 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £199.99
1 x Asus Crosshair V Formula AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £199.99
1 x AMD Bulldozer FX-8 Eight Core 8120@8150 Black Edition 3.60Ghz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £149.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX) £69.95
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £647.90 (includes shipping : £10.00).



I have no idea where to begin with the watercooling!

Please gents, you are the experts, I come to you for help!
Thanks in advance.
 
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First off, go Intel, their processors (25/6/700k) are far superior to AMD's, especially faildozer. Secondly, you would do better to have this thread as a "spec me some hardware" thread and start a new thread in the watercooling section just for that as that is where the expertise lies :)

Edit: It does not matter whether you pair and AMD or Intel processor with an AMD or Nvidia gfx card
 
Thanks for the feedback - wanted AMD as I believe that they are cheaper. In my opinion that applies to both CPU and GPU. Happy to be proved wrong however! :)

Mods - can you change the title as suggested please?
 
No budget at the moment, I'll have plenty left out of what I am being given to spend, but I need to make sure that I am not just buying the most expensive everything for the sake of it.
I think I have just always had a personal preference for AMD, based entirely on my hatred of the Intel advert noise. It has annoyed me for years!

However, I think it's time to probably let it go and get over it. Its sort of the same with ATI or nVidia. Just always been an ATI kind of person with no real reason to change.

Again, will consider changing if the price is right however.
 
ok, I think about 600 to 650 should be enough for everything, then a further 200 for watercooling kit.
Not a fan of ASRock due to previous motherboards, I prefer Gigabyte or ASUS.
Thanks!
 
Definitely go for the 2500k. Intel are absolutely demolishing AMD in the CPU market, and the i5 2500k is an amazing middle spec processor that is much better than bulldozer.

kd
 
HIS 6950 @ 199.99
Intel i5-2500k (Retail) @ 175.99
Asus Maximus Gene Z68 @ 143.99
Kingston HyperX RED Limited Edition 8GB @ 38.39
Sony Optiarc @ 15.98

Total: £589.34 (£10 for shipping)

I would replace the HIS 6950 with an ASUS 6950 Direct CU top, to make it aesthetically pleasing.
 
Then 2 it will be!
Budget mentally upped to reflect that.

edit: what would be cheaper; 2 in partnership or one of a different card?
 
one card > two, generally. But BF3 scales pretty well I think.
What res you playing at? at 1680*1050 one high end card will probably play it fine tbh, but at 1920 you "might" need two to get 60 fps (i havent looked at benches) at 2560*1600 one gtx 480 fails miserably, 2 gives nice (only idpping down to 45-50 and 3 do it nice and silky smooth :D
2500K is the way to go for cpu
at least 8gb or ram, more if your unwilling to upgrade it in the 3-4 years to plan to use it.
A nice shiny mobo that allows you to plug it all in.

Not sure of the equivilent ati but meh, im sure benchmarks/people will tell you.

Watercooling wise, I would get a laing d5 with an xspc clear top since you want clear blocks, ocuk equivilent, probably the same tbh but i like the xspc logo on mine lol: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-061-OE&groupid=962&catid=2141&subcat=

Get EK Full cover blocks for whatever cards you get. You could get just gpu die blocks, but then you have to sort out vram cooling and other parts of the pcb, its benefit is that you dont need a new block when you replace the card, but for your first go and the fact that you will keep it for 3-4 years a full cover block is probably best (best performance as well). For instance: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-165-EK&groupid=962&catid=1520&subcat=

EK Supreme HF CPU Waterblock - Nickel Plexi: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-124-EK&groupid=962&catid=1519&subcat=


If your going to have everything on one loop (I assume you are) you will need a big fat radiator, espeially if you are going to have 2 gfx cards on it. At least one 120.3 (360) RAD will be required, maybe more depending on if you want fast spinning (and as such noisy - 30db) fans. Personally I like thermochill but most o fthe big brands (EK, thermochill, black ice, xspc etc) are all pretty damn good and are just slightly better for certain configurations.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-030-BX&groupid=962&catid=1523&subcat=

Resevoir is personal preference really, since they all just kinda hold water and aid in filling/draining depending on where you put them.

Tubing, 7/16 is good, since it holds nice and tight even without hose clips, but I would also get some uv plastic hose clips to put on it to be safe, ive had one tube pop off after 6 months spilling water on my floor :(

Fittings, shinier ones cost more, if you want stealth then get black or black nickel, or just get silver. Get nickel plated ones so that all your blocks and fittings are the same metal, use rotary fittings etc where needed (the drop in flow rate is negligible). I would recommend adding a t connecter into your loop near the bottom of your case, and put a bit of tubing and a "stopper" type fitting on the end of it which you can undo and do up as required, this makes draining the loop nice and easy instead of being a total pain in the ass to do as you dont need to move your case around nearly as much.
Some people prefer colorued water, some people like coloured tubing. Water will eventually (over a year etc) stain your tubing a little, which is why people dislike it. Up to you, if your replacing your fluid every 6 months - year anyway and keeping it the same colour it makes no difference tbh.

Fluids, mayhems is apperently excellent fluid, I currently am using feser F1 black uv and thermochill red stuff. I prefer non conductive fluids as I have split my fluid/had leaks before and its saved me components. Feser fluid does leave a little build up of "something" in one of my res's though, tis only ever been in one loop and not the other one, and all the blocks have been replaced and it still does it though so I dont understand it lol.

If you use coloured tubing, just get the purest clear fluid you can/want, either non electrically conductive or not. It will be superior to the other types by 1-3 degrees, in some situations.


This will cost you a lot, £200 is the cheaper end of a custom WC set up (eg one component). Your looking at £300 easy once you add everything up. Since your going custom, you may as well get it right the first time, the cheaper/lower performing blocks will be similar to pre made solutions and as such are pointless imo.
 
An excellent post, many thanks.

I game at 1080, and try to have everything turned up to 11.
Looks like it'll be 2x 6950s then.

Does anyone else have any further options please?


How does this look by the way?

YOUR BASKET
2 x HIS HD 6950 IceQ X Turbo 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Deus Ex PC Game £214.99 (£429.98)
1 x EVGA Z68 SLI Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - £169.98
1 x Intel Core i5-2550K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £167.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9) £77.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
1 x Akasa AK-178-UV 12" Cold Cathode - Ultra-Violet £9.98
Total : £883.91 (includes shipping : £10.00).




Annoyed that the 6950s are no longer on offer :(
 
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that looks awesome, to get a super bright glow though, id say you want 2 12" cathodes, and maybe one or two 4" ones to fit into spaces where the light doesnt hit, but get the 4" ones afterwards as you might not need them
 
out of all the 6950's you have two choices basically. One with a company that offers warranty which covers replacing the stock cooler, or one that doesnt. Most dont, as such getting a "better" brand that is only better because they offer a longer warranty is pointless. I dont follow amd so I am unsure which/if any brands cover replacing the cooler. OCUK do offer a service where they will install said blocks for you, and I guess they then have at least 30 days warranty
 
Ch3m1c4L said:
out of all the 6950's you have two choices basically. One with a company that offers warranty which covers replacing the stock cooler, or one that doesnt. Most dont, as such getting a "better" brand that is only better because they offer a longer warranty is pointless. I dont follow amd so I am unsure which/if any brands cover replacing the cooler. OCUK do offer a service where they will install said blocks for you, and I guess they then have at least 30 days warranty
Click to expand...

Only EVGA do that as far as i know and they dont make ATI cards unfortunatly.
 
Interesting, thanks for the suggestions there.

Is there any reason that I'm not getting an i7, or even an Ivybridge, or is it just bang for buck?

I also think it would be sorth my while getting an SSD - any recommendations?
 
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