Deleted member 94233
Deleted member 94233
Hi,
I currently have the spec in my sig and it has served me well but I’m finding it is starting to struggle a bit with newer games at higher settings, certainly have trouble running at 1440p. I’ve never had to drop settings enough to bother me unduly but I think it’s time for a bit more horsepower for games coming later in the year.
Now I’m not looking at any platform change as quite frankly for my uses Ivy Bridge and Haswell have only been incremental improvements. I run my 2500K at 4.2GHz without issue but I know it will do at least 4.6GHz but due to the cooling limitations of my case, the Lian Li A04, and the small HSF it allows due to being so skinny, I don’t keep it at this level due to noise and temps.
I’m only going single GPU so cannot see a 2500K at 4.6GHz+ bottlenecking a new GPU in any meaningful way, certainly not enough to justify £300 on new CPU and MB. Will probably do a full platform refresh around Canonlake launch time when DD4 and PCIe storage is mainstream and established.
Just looking for a critique of my plan. My thoughts were to get the following:
New GPU
Not a fan boi for either green or red, owned both, but never had an issue with my 6950 and the R9 290 prices are hard to beat considering they best the 780 in many cases and have an extra GB on VRAM which may be useful as my screen is 1440p.
Probably going to go with the Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB which OcUK have for £269.99 as it seems to have a decent cooler and factory OC and is a bargain.
I’ve got a good quality Antec 650W unit so can’t see any issues with the increased power draw of the 290 over my current card. The case I’m looking at below isn’t launched until September so unless nVidia announce some higher end Maxwell cards before then I’ll likely go with the 290.
New Case
Really like the look of the soon to be released Corsair Carbide Air 240. I’ve got an mATX board so may as well get a nice compact case. Cooling potentially seems very good and I can hide all my PSU cables and drives in the separate compartment as the case is windowed and I’d like a tidy look.
Obviously I’ll wait for some early reviews and if there is some major issue I was also considering the Corsair 350D or a Fractal Design case, probably an R4.
New Cooling
As I’ve stated my current cooling is a bit rubbish so needs replacing. From the pictures on the OcUK website it appears the Carbide Air 240 can take an H100i with push pull setup so should take a H105 with a single set of fans.
I don’t need or want Corsair Link so I’m thinking of the H105 due to its slightly better cooling potential over the H100i.
I have considered a large air cooler like a Noctua D14 but I much prefer the look of the AIOs and although I know it's fine I just don't like the idea hanging over a kilogram off of my motherboard lol
Thoughts?
Thanks
I currently have the spec in my sig and it has served me well but I’m finding it is starting to struggle a bit with newer games at higher settings, certainly have trouble running at 1440p. I’ve never had to drop settings enough to bother me unduly but I think it’s time for a bit more horsepower for games coming later in the year.
Now I’m not looking at any platform change as quite frankly for my uses Ivy Bridge and Haswell have only been incremental improvements. I run my 2500K at 4.2GHz without issue but I know it will do at least 4.6GHz but due to the cooling limitations of my case, the Lian Li A04, and the small HSF it allows due to being so skinny, I don’t keep it at this level due to noise and temps.
I’m only going single GPU so cannot see a 2500K at 4.6GHz+ bottlenecking a new GPU in any meaningful way, certainly not enough to justify £300 on new CPU and MB. Will probably do a full platform refresh around Canonlake launch time when DD4 and PCIe storage is mainstream and established.
Just looking for a critique of my plan. My thoughts were to get the following:
New GPU
Not a fan boi for either green or red, owned both, but never had an issue with my 6950 and the R9 290 prices are hard to beat considering they best the 780 in many cases and have an extra GB on VRAM which may be useful as my screen is 1440p.
Probably going to go with the Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB which OcUK have for £269.99 as it seems to have a decent cooler and factory OC and is a bargain.
I’ve got a good quality Antec 650W unit so can’t see any issues with the increased power draw of the 290 over my current card. The case I’m looking at below isn’t launched until September so unless nVidia announce some higher end Maxwell cards before then I’ll likely go with the 290.
New Case
Really like the look of the soon to be released Corsair Carbide Air 240. I’ve got an mATX board so may as well get a nice compact case. Cooling potentially seems very good and I can hide all my PSU cables and drives in the separate compartment as the case is windowed and I’d like a tidy look.
Obviously I’ll wait for some early reviews and if there is some major issue I was also considering the Corsair 350D or a Fractal Design case, probably an R4.
New Cooling
As I’ve stated my current cooling is a bit rubbish so needs replacing. From the pictures on the OcUK website it appears the Carbide Air 240 can take an H100i with push pull setup so should take a H105 with a single set of fans.
I don’t need or want Corsair Link so I’m thinking of the H105 due to its slightly better cooling potential over the H100i.
I have considered a large air cooler like a Noctua D14 but I much prefer the look of the AIOs and although I know it's fine I just don't like the idea hanging over a kilogram off of my motherboard lol
Thoughts?
Thanks
You also get peace of mind with the warranty, as OCUK deal with it directly. You can also remove the cooler without voiding the warranty should you ever want to watercool it.