Moving on from an i3 3220

Gibbo3771

Gibbo3771

Gibbo3771

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Joined
5 Sep 2010
Posts
758
Hi all,

I am looking to put some money into my girlfriends PC, but I am unsure of the path to take.

I recently got a hold of a 970, which is in there now but the CPU is starting to show it's age now and she is a big Heroes of the Storm player, a game that really thrives on a good CPU.

I am not sure if I should look for a used 3570k (this was the original plan when we bought this on a budget) or go with a new motherboard + CPU.

I am not sure how much cash I would even need, £300 for CPU and Mobo?
 
mickyflinn said:
3570k or a 3770k is what i would do then you could get new speakers, sound card, monitor or engagment ring. ;)

Do you have acess to the members market theres a 3570k there.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18717103
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Already got a ring :p, just not used to calling her Fiance haha.

seanyp88 said:
Not sure if this is allowed but I'm trying to sell my 3570k if there's a way I can contact you ?
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Appreciate you guys offering that, however I just managed to score a brand new 4770k for £100 :D.

I am now officially in the market for a motherboard + SSD + HDD (current one is 10+ years old) + RAM (16GB) Case (current too small) and a nice CPU cooler + silent fans.

I have between £300-500 for this and would appreciate if people could suggest options that span the entire budget rather than just ones at the £500 range :p.
 
 
mickyflinn said:
At the lower end of your budget so room for improvemets.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £367.20
(includes shipping: £12.30)
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Would anyone like to build on this? Benefits of going from MATX to fullsize? I am looking to get super silent fans with a fan controller in the future if that helps, so I think a bigger case might be beneficial.
 
Gibbo3771 said:
Benefits of going from MATX to fullsize?
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Really depends on the specific board. On average ATX boards have more slots, more space between slots, better cooling, and better power regulation, than mATX. But there are plenty of strong mATX boards too.

I'm not sure why you're asking though, mickyflinn mentioned some nice mATX hardware. More than sufficient for a single GPU and gentle tweaking (oo-er).
 
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joeyjojo said:
Really depends on the specific board. On average ATX boards have more slots, more space between slots, better cooling, and better power regulation, than mATX. But there are plenty of strong mATX boards too.
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It is the cooling aspect I am concerned about, small and hot room. At the moment with the current build it even gets hot inside the case. The small case is appealing, I might just go for it.
 
mickyflinn said:
There are so many options for you, what temps you geting now. whats your case, cooling at the momment ?
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So temps right now are.

GPU - 85c full load (currently not possible to achieve while gaming, as the CPU seems to be throttling the GPU, CPU can be at 100% and gpu barely scratching 50-60)
CPU 70c full load (dust most likely, sink does get dusty in a month or so)

I am running stock cooler on the i3, the case I have is quite a basic £30 cooler master case I got 3+ years ago. Not sure on the model.

120mm Front + Rear + Side fan.

The machine is pretty damn loud (no control over fan RPM) and we have to sleep in the same room as the thing lol. The fans/case get pretty much mobbed with dust after a month, and yes the fans are pulling air from front and pushing out the back, made this mistake once in my life :p.

Like I said I do have £500, I am ok going to it if is worth it (keyword being worth :p). If it makes the machine cooler and more silent, I am ok with a premium price for that. I just don't want to end up with another radiator in the room :(.

EDIT: The ability to make the machine almost silent would be great actually, I am not sure how safe it is to literally turn off (or at least 500rpm which is basically silent anyway) all the fans in a small case, I can imagine in a larger case with a full size stacked heatsink you could do it and still be ok to watch a movie without it burning up.
 
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Gibbo3771 said:
The machine is pretty damn loud (no control over fan RPM) and we have to sleep in the same room as the thing lol. The fans/case get pretty much mobbed with dust after a month, and yes the fans are pulling air from front and pushing out the back, made this mistake once in my life :p.
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It's pretty straightforward to sort the dust problem out. You need more airflow into the case than out of it, and all the airflow in should be through dust filters. Should then last years without getting dusty. If it's not filtered then you need a better case.

The main trick to sorting loudness is to have fewer, larger fans running. You probably don't need front, rear, and side, try unplugging all but the (dust-filtered) intakes. Also any mechanical HDD should be isolated from the chassis (on rubber grommets or suspended). Those sound-proofed cases don't make much difference in my experience.
 
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