i7 930, 920 or 860?

[xe-cute]

Ah, of course - you will want it as quiet as possible, that makes sense.

In that case, I will modify my spec a bit:

Change the GPU to this Passively cooled 4650.

And for the case fans use two of these.

For the CPU cooler, use this heat sink and this fan (use the black voltage reducer).

I would also suggest not overclocking too high. The higher you overclock, the more heat is produced and the faster the fans spin. I'm sure that 3GHz of i7 power should be enough for your workload.

With these changes you will have a very quiet system without having to go to the expense and effort of watercooling.

That sounds brilliant having a passively cooled GFX card. I never realised they existed.

Also them fans, already have two in current system build (I'd forgot there name, hence why not mentioning them earlier, was going to try and describe them by colour but felt silly trying to do so), So I can use them in new build I remember I did a lot of research last time and they where the best. Amazing to see they are still the best after so many years. But yeah they are very silent.

Thanks for the Heat sink recommendation, as I was completely lost on that aspect.

Thanks for your help again.

 

[bifday2k]

1156 came out as P55, now its H55 and H57, the newest 1156 chips need the H55 and H57 motherboards.

Only if u want to use the onboard gpu, otherwise u can easily use the P55's if u just want the cpu part of it.

 

[xe-cute]

Been looking around and starting to get a bit greedy and pushing my money barriers.

Is there any passive cooling Direct X 11 cards yet?

I would start a thread in the Graphics Card section, but wasn't too sure whether just to add it on to this thread which has turned in to more of a system build than my original question.

Thought I may keep everything in one thread. But suppose I can ask in there if this thread is going too far off-topic to original question (not sure on forum etiquette here).

 

[xe-cute]

Also seen this new thread which is making me think about going in a different direction due to on-board GFX card on the 890GX chipset MoBos. However, even though my old build is an AMD system, I've been following Intel so closely due to the i5 & i7 that I don't know much about AMD current options & upgrade paths compared to intel's.

 

[cmndr_andi]

Aye, there are a few passive DX11 cards. The cheapest is the 5450 - but from what I can see, OCUK don't stock the passive versions yet. Also, there are several passive versions of the 5750, again none on OCUK yet. I suggest you have a try with google.

The performance in games of the 5450 is rather poor, but for simply displaying windows/Aero it will do fine and be silent and consume little power. The 5750 however is actually not bad in games, and will play modern games at HD resolutions with solid framerates.

 

[xe-cute]

Yeah, seeing as I am using my HD TV top resolution will be 1080p

I'm thinking I may buy from OcUk without the GFX card atm and get that at a later date in the hope that the new build accepts my old X1800XT and it somehow starts working with Windows 7. As atm it crashes it, but it may be due to a number of faults on this old dodgy ship wreck of a system.

Just them new 890GX chipset motherboards announced today really has knocked me for six. bah, always the same... Have my mind set on something and all decided when something new gets announced. Typical, lol.

Thanks for your help again mate.

I'll do some head scratching then put an order in later today or tomorow after a bit more double checking stuff.

You've been a great help though getting me up off the ground running quicker than I expected to absorb everything.

P.S. 9 more posts for my free P&P I think... hehe.

 

[cmndr_andi]

What about the 890X has impressed you? The native USB3 and SATA 6G is nice and all, but not a killer app. The integrated graphics seem to be the same as the 790GX. All the while the CPU power is no better than before, with the X4 965BE as the most powerful CPU.

Here is a good review of the 890GX from AnandTech.

No doubt, this is a good system. But if you want the best CPU power, i7 is still the king and will continue to perform better than AMD in CPU intensive apps (which i'm guessing music production software falls into).

 

[xe-cute]

Yeah it was basically just with it being fresh & new, along with the integrated GFX chip for silent running and all at just over £100 (roughly half the price of mobo + gfx card).

I trust your judgement more than mine though & TBH Ihave been looking at the i7 range for ages now and it would feel weird for me to do a U-turn at this late stage as I would always be 2nd guessing my last minute change of direction.