£600-800 upgrade, what would you do?

I did look into it but i found that the 6990 full blocks are very expensive and hard to get one, also i wasent sure it 2 240 rads would be up for the job

Then i though i may get better value by upgrading my system instead of watercooling it
 
I would definitely first, probably due to ocd, get rid of those two small hdd and get one large hdd and a ssd for windows :p

Your CPU and GPU I would say are still really good for gaming - I would for an upgrade go hdd/ssd/monitor/watercooling if you feel you want your system more quiet.

I don't think you would see a massive difference if you upgraded your gpu or cpu
 
I'm going to jump in on this now:)

I had that mobo,CPU and ram before I upgraded to wats in my sig!. Don't bother upgrading your mobo, CPU you won't see any differnts IMO.

Get two nice sata2 SSD raid 0 them.
Get 2tb hdd.
Get the a nice 27" moniotor what you like!.
Get a nice air/water cooler an overclocker your CPU to 4ghz and you will b fine for another 12-18months

Well that's my option.

Merry Xmas
 
So how much am i looking at to watercool my 6990 and i5

A ssd and large hdd is the first on my list

How long will my 6990 last then?
 
honosuseri said:
What you talking about Willis? ;)

The 27 inch screen I spec'd is 1080P the 6990 will run through it just fine, he can still use the old screen as a 2nd display.

Of course we all have different opinions, there never strictly speaking is a "right answer". However I don't know how long he has left warranty wise on the kit he has. What I don't like about the P series mobos is the lack of onboard video output. If there is an issue with the GPU its much easier to diagnose when you have an IGP to use. When you factor in that the LucidMVP (and quicksync) software make clever use of the IGP as I explained it becomes even more useful.

A really good sized fast SSD and the storage HDD was a good safe shout. Although something tells me that his P series mobo doesn't do sataIII.....I could be wrong but if im right a lot of the speed of your suggested SSD is wasted :(
Click to expand...

I wasn't talking about your monitor that you spec'ed, snob lol.

Most decent 27" are 1440p, hence needing a bit of grunt. But if you're going for a 1080p version, then your current 6990 will be absolutely fine.
 
beasty6 said:
So how much am i looking at to watercool my 6990 and i5

A ssd and large hdd is the first on my list

How long will my 6990 last then?
Click to expand...

I think sticking with the SSD and HDD to be a good upgrade. It's apparent that upgrading (unless you are going to SLI) won't give a noticeable difference.

As for how long your 6990 will last (well, considering it performs better than the popular new 7950 that most people go for here), you have a 2-3 years.
 
I would'nt bother changing the cpu and mobo. The performance gain is'nt worth the price you will have to pay. There is also the fact that you would be going from one dead socket to another. Wait for Haswell to come along in Q2 next year.

A SSD should improve thing a bit. Don't get hung up on the fact you will be using a sata 3 drive on a sata 2 board as it's unlikley that you would notice the difference in anything but benchmarks.

Your 760 should hit 4Ghz easy enough with a bit of tweaking so i would push it some more.
 
Ok thanks, if its fine for that long, is watercooling it a good option?

So custom WC loop and ssd and hdd is the best option?
 
ok, so SSD, HDD and 27" monitor it is.

what WCing the CPU? i can then move the loop to another platform if i upgrade.

so this look good?
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus VS278Q 1MS Gaming Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £249.95
(£208.29) £249.95
(£208.29)
XSPC RayStorm D5 EX240 WaterCooling Kit ** WITH FREE WOW EXPANSION ** £239.99
(£199.99) £239.99
(£199.99)
Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £199.99
(£166.66) £199.99
(£166.66)
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £78.98
(£65.82) £78.98
(£65.82)
Sub Total : £640.76
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £130.50
Total : £783.01

i do get free shipping btw :D
 
Really interesting thread this :)

The reason I suggest the W/C loop was mainly to get that monster GPU of yours cooled as the noise of the thing is bugging you. If you are waiting on Haswell it's rumoured that 1155 compatible coolers (water cooling blocks) will fit it but that's a rumour. The kit you are buying doesn't covering cooling the GPU as I'm sure you know. Thing is that loop will require maintenance the H100i you were thinking of using doesn't.

Was nice of Tackleberry to weigh in with his experience. Although he has the i5 2500K and a Z68 not the 3570K and the Z77, I was still interested to hear his thoughts. The Z68 has lucid virtu NOT Lucid MVP and IVY has a better IGP than Sandy. I can't see Lucid disappearing and I'm sure it will be seen on the Haswell mobos too. (lucidMVP demo)

The reason I spec'd the i5K and Z77 (which is close to the cost of that W/C kit) was because if it was me (with your kit) that would provide a better all round rig. As they say in the demo of LucidMVP for general use only the IGP is used, this saves power (and noise) as the GPU isn't being used until you start gaming. When you are gaming and there are explosions going off all around it's easier to drown out the noise with speakers or a headset now the GPU is kicking in. Quicksync (which the i5 760 doesnt have) I also love as it really makes a difference when doing video encodes. This might not interest you but I have a HTPC and I rip all my movies to storage for playback on my network. On a i5 2500K clocked @4.2Ghz (overclocking is sooo easy as you basically just up the multiplier) I ripped a 2hr movie on the fly from the optical drive in 20 minutes (2 pass encode).....which frankly blew my socks off.

Now please dont think im trying to twist your arm to buy my basket, I just wanted to explain my reasoning behind it. Your rig is far from shabby, although if you are looking to overclock it and push for higher clocks people will suggest turning off some CPU features.......speed step being one. I like to keep that enabled as the CPU idles lower when not being taxed (again saving power and keeping temps low) and will throttle up to the max OC clock as and when it's required.

In short your basket looks good but im not convinced by the loop unless you get a block for the GPU. If you are waiting on Haswell that's cool but maybe just consider getting a couple of good fans to sandwich the Antec 620 rad between if you are using the stock fan, it will be loud when under heavy load. Again with the screen, the review I saw wasnt brilliant but look around and see what's on offer and read reviews. Like I said my 3DTV didn't get amazing reviews but actually I think they were being overly critical.

P.S I would love to see some pics of this rig. I can tell you take pride in the thing :)
 
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I dont want to have a h100i and a loop for the gpu, would rather put the cpu into the loop aswell

So lets say leave the monitor and focus on the rig itself

What about getting a x79 board and waiting for the new 2011 cpus?

As the cpu blocks will fit without issues and i can add the 6990, which will solve the noise and heat issues
Will two 240 rads be up for it?
 
Im just saying the loop will need maintenance, that can put people off. I dont mean to confuse you just trying to point out all the pros and cons.

X79 isn't cheap and you want the RAM in quad channel. I dont know what RAM config you have now.

I can't really say what's what for cooling the 6990, you'd have to hop in the watercooling part of the forum and hope someone has done it or do some googling.
 
I have dual channel xms3 ram

Ill proberly get the ssd and hdd and some new fans for the case and see how i feel then
 
beasty6 said:
I have dual channel xms3 ram

Ill proberly get the ssd and hdd and some new fans for the case and see how i feel then
Click to expand...

Sounds wise to me bud.

Is the Antec 620 just using the stock fan? Think i'd look for a couple of good fans to sandwich the rad between for push/pull if thats the case
 
Nope i got rid of that thing lol, im using a single aerocool shark fan pulling air from outside the case through the rad
 
For the grand price of a tenner you can get a pair of Yateloon D12SM-12D 120x38mm fans to try in push pull on your 620's rad. They are reasonably quiet but can easily be silenced with a fan controller or by using one of Zalmans 12v/7v fan splitters or resistors. They have excellent static pressure and shift a decent amount of air as well. I have three on each of my rads in pull configuration.

A full custom loop does'nt require that much maintenance by the way. As long as you stick with de-ionised/distilled water with no dyes all you need to do is top up occasionally. I have been watercooling for around seven years now and previously went four years without even stripping down. I went through several mobo/cpu and gpu upgrades (was using universal blocks on the gpu at the time) and all i had to do was unbolt the blocks from the mobo/gpu, clean them up and fit them to the new ones. No draining down needed. If you use coloured fluid that is when the maintenance kicks in.
 
So guys what do i do?

Leave the khuler 620? Or go xspc wc kit or h100i?

And fhe only way of solving the heat and noise of the 6990 is wcing it

Atm im thinking of ssd hdd and watercooling, unless convinced otherwise
 
It's not worth changing 6990 performance wise. Watercooling is the way to go I think. 2x 240 rads will be fine. if you think 120 for CPU. 240 for gpu and 120 over.

SSD would be an incredible change as boot drive. The best upgrade I've done.
 
I would go for the watercooling. As long as you go for a cpu block with universal compatibility such as the EK Supreme HF/Supremacy that fits all current sockets (or if sticking with Intel, all current Intel sockets) you should be fine. As Intel's 1150 will only be 5 pins less than 1155 i doubt that they would change the cooler mounting hole spacing meaning you should be ok for the future upgrade.

The big question is how thick a rad can you fit in the top of the case? Whats the distance between the roof of the case and the top edge of the mobo?

Another thing to take into account is the price of the block for your 6990. The cheapest i can find is the XSPC Razor 6990 at £100.79.
 
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