mainboard and hsf for 3770K xfire

Memphis Raines

Memphis Raines

Memphis Raines

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Been trying to build up a decent upper mid range gaming pc.. but i dont know enough about the new boards and cooling to make a solid choice..

skt2011 is out of my price range so i i am going with hte i7 3770K which I assume Z77 is the only chipset to look at..

I am getting a 7850 card with the aim to get another one further down the line keeping my budget in check...

but i cant seem to pin down which mainbaord to go for .. looking at around £100-£150, most seem to be 16x+8x for the PCI-e is that going to be ok for 2x 7850 cards? (maybe a limit for future cards?)



also i have been looking at the corsair H80i or H100i for cooling, but i have heard they are quite noisy when run with a oc'd i7 ?

is one of these massive air coolers going to be better like the Thermalright Archon? but they are massive and heavy things..

any experiences would be a great help!.. or i will still be searching and reading reviews this time next year! hah!
 
a 3820 with an X79-UD3 would cost about the same as a half decent 3770K + board combination, and the 2011 socket will support Ivybridge-E (or Haswell-E or Haswell-E and a couple more Sandybridge-E CPU's, depending on what Intel decide to do) in the future, whereas the 3770K is the most powerful chip that will ever be released for 1155. So I would personally consider the i7 3820 :)

16x + 8x will be fine for two cards yes. The X79-UD3 does have two 16x slots though :D

And personally I would look at getting a Kuhler 920 Series 4 or a Kuhler 1220 if you want to go down the sealed watercooling loop route, because a-lot of people seem to be having problems with the new Corsair H-i coolers not fitting tightly enough to the CPU and drastically under-performing. I have had that issue with two in client builds and both have gone back to be replaced with Kuhler 620 Series 4's. :)

Personally I would go for a single 7950 to start off with, but if your budget does not allow for that, then there is no problem with your HD7850 plan, as long as you get 2GB models, not 1GB ones.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £249.95
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £149.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 1220 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (LGA1155 / LGA1156 / LGA1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM2+ / AM3+) £99.98
Total : £669.91 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
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The best air coolers are much cheaper and perform the same if not better and if you look on the forum a bit, you will find there are quite a lot of people having issues with the hxxi's. Depending on which air cooler, they can be quieter too.

x16 and x8 is absolutely fine for xfrie 7850's or 7950's. There are quite a few reviews comparing the difference and its literately like between 1 and 3% performance drop. This is nothing if you take into account the cost of higher boards and the increase in performance when you xfire or sli anyway.

What i suggest is you get a top end air cooler that your case can accommodate and add the cash you save (that you would have spent on the h100i) and add that to your GPU budget. 7850's may be good cards but if your planing to xfire eventually anyway, its best to go for a beefier GPU in the first place, if you play on 1080p you will probably be laughing with just one 7950 and will never feel the need to upgrade it any time soon.
 
Avenged7Fold said:
The best air coolers are much cheaper and perform the same if not better and if you look on the forum a bit, you will find there are quite a lot of people having issues with the hxxi's. Depending on which air cooler, they can be quieter too.

x16 and x8 is absolutely fine for xfrie 7850's or 7950's. There are quite a few reviews comparing the difference and its literately like between 1 and 3% performance drop. This is nothing if you take into account the cost of higher boards and the increase in performance when you xfire or sli anyway.

What i suggest is you get a top end air cooler that your case can accommodate and add the cash you save (that you would have spent on the h100i) and add that to your GPU budget. 7850's may be good cards but if your planing to xfire eventually anyway, its best to go for a beefier GPU in the first place, if you play on 1080p you will probably be laughing with just one 7950 and will never feel the need to upgrade it any time soon.
Click to expand...

This would be a good start:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £279.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
Total : £464.33 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Then if you have the cash, go for x/fire on a pair of 7950's and if you don't already have one, get a nice 24/27" 1080p monitor.
 
haha i am just trying to keep up here lol..

I completely missed the i7 3820 chip being much cheaper then the other 2011 ones.. so i am extremely tempted to go with the first reply option.. X79 + 3820 chip.. the price is similar and as said future upgrade options!

I also made a typo/brain error and i meant to say 7870 for the card
the gigabyte windwave one i like..

(how are you people doing that shopping list thing? :confused: )

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7870 OC Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £199.99
(£166.66) £199.99
(£166.66)
Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
(£141.66) £169.99
(£141.66)
Antec Kúhler H2O 1220 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (LGA1155 / LGA1156 / LGA1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM2+ / AM3+) £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Sub Total : £391.64
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £80.33
Total : £481.97
 
Still worth upgrading from a 7870 to a 7950 if you can stretch it. The gigabyte 7950 wind force has great temps and you can really push the clock on it.

Do you need everything? like case and PSU and such?

What is your TOTAL budget for everything?

Also if it is just going to be a high end gaming system would you be swayed to getting a 1155 set up?
 
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Avenged7Fold said:
Still worth upgrading from a 7870 to a 7950 if you can stretch it. The gigabyte 7950 wind force has great temps and you can really push the clock on it.

Do you need everything? like case and PSU and such?

What is your TOTAL budget for everything?

Also if it is just going to be a high end gaming system would you be swayed to getting a 1155 set up?
Click to expand...

Also, make sure you get a good cooler. The CLC's look great, but the temps if overclocking are not as good as an air cooler like the K2.
 
 
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Your last spec didnt have any RAM in. The processor you specced was also OEM, mainly it has only 1 year warranty instead of 3, definitely fork out of 3 years. To be honest i dont see much reason for you to go for a 2011 socket. A decent i5 rig will perform the same if not better than what you have specced above(i believe the 3820 doesnt have an unlocked multiplier).

This rig has a different PSU because i dont know who makes 'Be Quiet' PSU's but i know Seasonic makes this one and so is super reliable and perfect for when you xfire. I put in a top end air cooler instead of an AIO loop to save cash and for performance/noise reasons. I dont know too much about this motherboard but it says it has PCIe 3.0 x16 and a PCIe 2.0 x16, which gets rid of your worries on pci lanes affecting xfire when you buy that second card!

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £199.99
1 x XFX Pro Series 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £84.98
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Black (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £69.98
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £64.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £37.99
Total : £812.93 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
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hah.. this aint so easy these days!

the beQuiet PSU's are very good.. german inhouse made, had no problems with them and are really.. quiet! lol

i know the 3820 cpu isnt unlocked.. but its 3.5 stock so its quick already..

the X79 boards have 2 x16 3.0 slots and more sata6/usb3 ports, plus quad channel ram.. which is interesting..

as for Ram, i was looking at something beasty.. like 2133mhz with some respectable timings.. like ..
TeamGroup Xtreem LV 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3
2133MHz RAM Speed, CAS 9-11-11-28 Timings, 1.50-1.60v VDIMM, Lifetime Warranty

i assume it would be noticable boost over stock 1600 ddr3 dual chan


the price difference between z77 + 3570K and x79 + 3820 isnt huge.. and in the future upgrades for the 1155 will only be the 3870K (that i could go for now tbh) where as the 2011 will be getting IB-E and maybe more after that
 
Careful with memory heat spreaders. If you do that, you'll have to go with an all in one water cooling. The boost won't be that noticeable tbh, not in the same amount as CPU overclocking anyway.

You can overclock the 3820. Probably around 4.6, 4.8GHz with a good cooler. It's about the same performance as a 2600K.
 
thinking about a slighty different idea.. save a bit on the cpu, go for some decent ram and a good spec board on z77 and can afford the better gfx

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £199.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £133.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 730W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £89.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38192M2133HC9NDC-L) £69.95
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £64.99
Total : £833.90 (includes shipping : £12.50).



the i5 is a chuck less power and heat, even overclocked, as is the 7950 with that windforce, throw in a huge cooler (that i need to check will fit the 300r) and i finally come in under budget hah
 
My thoughts on it is when it comes to gaming then graphics card is king so if on a budget then i would sacrifice the cpu a bit ie the 3570k and go for a better gpu
 
 
 
righty then... just got the cpu heat sink to sort out now..

going to be running a overclocked i5 3570K chip in the fractial designs ARC midi case.. so it gives me 180mm air cooler hight and 240mm water cooled rad options, so pretty much anything!

ideally i would like it to be fairly quiet when under gaming load

price tag where possible around £50 or so but open to ideas...

seen the Thermalright HR2 linked above, also the K2, and the Silver Arrow.. but there seems to be half a dozen varients of that one..

as for water.. i have been looking at the Antec Kúhler H2O 920 and 1220.. but theres no reviews for the 1220... so a bit cautious about diving in with that..
the intel water cooler looks decent too..
 
My personal choice, if I could choose any one piece CPU cooler (i.e not custom watercooling) would be either the 1220 Series 4 or the 920 Series 4. Purely because I have had the original 620 for a couple of years having picked it up for a measly £37, and it has been a real surprise. I never expected it to keep 4.7GHz in check using just the included fan and my rear case fan, but it did.
 
acme15 said:
My personal choice, if I could choose any one piece CPU cooler (i.e not custom watercooling) would be either the 1220 or the 920. Purely because I have had the original 620 for a couple of years having picked it up for a measly £37, and it has been a real surprise. I never expected it to keep 4.7GHz in check using just the included fan and my rear case fan, but it did.
Click to expand...

i am tempted by the 1220 but there are no reviews of it anywhere.. apart from 1 where it was faulty and get returned.. not a good start..
 
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