Build for Beginner at Overclocking

[rwiepking]

Hey Guys,

Im fairly experienced at bulding pcs but I am looking to upgrade my rig and do some overclocking with it. I think I can use salvage a fair amount of parts from my current setup to build a pretty good gaming/media machine but I wanted to get some advice on what I should keep and what I should replace. Right now I've got it running to a receiver and then to a 55in plasma tv. I like to play FPS and RPG games mostly, right now I'm in the middle of playing the Witcher 2 (getting like 20-30 FPS on High @1080p) and Skyrim. I didn't realize how low my fps was for the witcher til i ran FRAPS earlier, guess i should try lowering the settings and see if i can get it to run better, but I have to admit it looks pretty gorgeous when I'm not in combat.

 

Current Machine:

i7 860 @ 2.8ghz

Gigabyte P55-UD3A

8GB GSkill ddr3 1333

EVGA GTX 460

Coolmaster Hyper Plus 212 Cooler

Corsair 90GB ssd (Boot Drive)

Inter 80GB ssd (Steam Drive)

3 Assorted HDDs 

Corsair 650D Case

Corsair TX 650 PSU

BD-Rom Drive

 

Based on my research I think I can keep the drives, case, PSU, and possibly the ram. As for the upgrades I have narrowed it down to:

i5 3579k

ASRock Extreme 6 Mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157295

Sapphire 7950  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006

Corsaid H90  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181036

 

How does this build look to you guys? Is there anything that I should replace as well, like the ram? Anything I'm replacing that I should keep? I hear the 7950 is an awesome bang for your buck card, im just a little gun shy of going the amd route since ive had nvidia for quite a while now. Any advice you guys can give me is greatly appreciated!

 

[Jenova69]

I would skip the the cpu/board upgrade as you already have plenty of cpu for gaming. If you haven't oc'ed your current processor you could definately hit around 4ghz with a good cooler. I would grab a H100i over the H90 since your case should fit it without issue and then just get the 7950 to tear up the witcher and skyrim.

 

Welcome to OCC

Edited March 3, 2013 by Jenova69

[Shurman292]

I would skip the the cpu/board upgrade as you already have plenty of cpu for gaming. If you haven't oc'ed your current processor you could definately hit around 4ghz with a good cooler. I would grab a H100i over the H90 since your case should fit it without issue and then just get the 7950 to tear up the witcher and skyrim.

 

Welcome to OCC

+1 you do not need to upgrade anything but your graphics card and CPU cooler.  If you want serious AIO cooling, go with the H110 over the H90 since your case should be able to fit a dual 280 rad.  The H100i is very nice though too.

[rwiepking]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the advice on upgrading my PC. The other thing I want to accomplish is getting some good cable management and better cooling in the case itself. Do you have any advice regarding that?

 

[DnaAngel]

I would recommend a Case like the Cooler Master HAF 922, 932 Advanced or HAF X to supplement cooing. 

 

I wouldn't agree with getting the H90/100/100i as coolers. They are great coolers in their own right, but not needed. Keep your hyper and OC happily. There's only slight differences in performance between H100/90 opposed to high end air coolers like the Noctua D14 or even better the Xigmatek Dark Knight II (50$). You can easily OC just as hard with those air coolers. Unless you going for "The Look". Closed Loop cooling from my experience only really benefits when your pushing extreme OCs for benchmarks. Not something that your going to have for a 24/7 OC for 1.5+ years as your not going to push 1.5v+ on a 3570k for any length of time, unless 200$ a pop when it dies dosent phase you. 

 

Cable management is easily done on the HAF 932 advanced / HAF X cases or any higher end cases with cable "cutouts". Good cooling in case will better help Air Coolers that much more as well. I personally run both the HAf X and 932 Advanced now with Air coolers and I can push some really ridiculous OCs and barely break a sweat (Xigmatek Dark Knight II on both now).

 

Ive used H60/80i/100, Noctua D14, Hyper 212+ EVO and Frio OCK coolers. From my experience the Dark Knight II only 4 degrees warmer on my i7 at 5.1ghz then my ole H100. 120$ compared to 50$ and <5 degrees.

 

 

 

 

EDIT: ive dug up my old testing stats from my coolers. Maybe no one cares but here they are:

 

 

(Temps opposed to H100 at 1.53v on I7 3770k 5.1Ghz after 9 hours of Prime)

 

* Arctic Silver 5 was used*

 

H80i 2 Degrees warmer

Dark Knight II: 4 degrees Warmer

Noctua NH-D14 5 Degrees Warmer

H60: 7 Degrees Warmer

Frio OCK: 8 Degrees Warmer

Hyper 212+ Evo 8 Degrees Warmer

Edited March 7, 2013 by DnaAngel

[Tjj226_Angel]

I would recommend a Case like the Cooler Master HAF 922, 932 Advanced or HAF X to supplement cooing. 

 

I wouldn't agree with getting the H90/100/100i as coolers. They are great coolers in their own right, but not needed. Keep your hyper and OC happily. There's only slight differences in performance between H100/90 opposed to high end air coolers like the Noctua D14 or even better the Xigmatek Dark Knight II (50$). You can easily OC just as hard with those air coolers. Unless you going for "The Look". Closed Loop cooling from my experience only really benefits when your pushing extreme OCs for benchmarks. Not something that your going to have for a 24/7 OC for 1.5+ years as your not going to push 1.5v+ on a 3570k for any length of time, unless 200$ a pop when it dies dosent phase you. 

 

Cable management is easily done on the HAF 932 advanced / HAF X cases or any higher end cases with cable "cutouts". Good cooling in case will better help Air Coolers that much more as well. I personally run both the HAf X and 932 Advanced now with Air coolers and I can push some really ridiculous OCs and barely break a sweat (Xigmatek Dark Knight II on both now).

 

Ive used H60/80i/100, Noctua D14, Hyper 212+ EVO and Frio OCK coolers. From my experience the Dark Knight II only 4 degrees warmer on my i7 at 5.1ghz then my ole H100. 120$ compared to 50$ and <5 degrees.

 

 

 

 

EDIT: ive dug up my old testing stats from my coolers. Maybe no one cares but here they are:

 

 

(Temps opposed to H100 at 1.53v on I7 3770k 5.1Ghz after 9 hours of Prime)

 

* Arctic Silver 5 was used*

 

H80i 2 Degrees warmer

Dark Knight II: 4 degrees Warmer

Noctua NH-D14 5 Degrees Warmer

H60: 7 Degrees Warmer

Frio OCK: 8 Degrees Warmer

Hyper 212+ Evo 8 Degrees Warmer

 

 

......no

 

Keep the case. If you want some beast overclocking, go with a full water cooling loop. http://www.frozencpu.com/products/16891/ex-wat-219/XSPC_Raystorm_750_RS240_Extreme_Universal_CPU_Water_Cooling_Kit_New_Rev_4_Pump_Included_w_Free_Dead-Water.html?tl=g30c321#blank

 

Just get some deionized water from CVS or something and you are good to go. 

 

The cable management on the 650D is far superior to anything that cooler master has produced so far.

 

If anything just throw a pic of your current build up on this thread and we shall take a look to see what can be done better.  

[rwiepking]

Thanks guys for all the help. Right now my setup is mildly embarrassing as I've got SATA cables going all over the place and frankly they need to be replaced with longer ones and rerouted properly. I really like the case and since it cost me a fairly large chunk of change, I wont be replacing it anytime soon. After double checking the case it looks like my options for increasing the cooling on it would be pretty much limited to adding a second large fan on top, however putting an h110 on my machine would eliminate that option. My big concern is that I have about 6 HDDs in my machine and combining that with a 7950 and an OC'd cpu would cause a heat build up. Would this not be a big concern if I were to go the watercooling route? What about if I were to use an aircooling method like the Dark Knight II? 

[ccokeman]

Stick with the 650D as your case. I can fit just about everything I need in it.  As for the upgrades your CPU and memory are decent. The 650D can hold up to the H110 and H90 although both must be mounted to the top of the case.  The H90 is a pretty solid cooling solution IMHO. You biggest bang for your buck is to upgrade the GPU. If you must upgrade the CPU the combo you have chosen is a significant upgrade in terms of efficiency and overclocking. The 7950 is not a bad choice either but it all depends on whether or not you like using the PhysX options in games since you are currently running a GTX 460. Running the the HD7950 and using the GTX 460 as a PhysX card is not a bad option either.

[DnaAngel]

 

I would recommend a Case like the Cooler Master HAF 922, 932 Advanced or HAF X to supplement cooing. 

 

I wouldn't agree with getting the H90/100/100i as coolers. They are great coolers in their own right, but not needed. Keep your hyper and OC happily. There's only slight differences in performance between H100/90 opposed to high end air coolers like the Noctua D14 or even better the Xigmatek Dark Knight II (50$). You can easily OC just as hard with those air coolers. Unless you going for "The Look". Closed Loop cooling from my experience only really benefits when your pushing extreme OCs for benchmarks. Not something that your going to have for a 24/7 OC for 1.5+ years as your not going to push 1.5v+ on a 3570k for any length of time, unless 200$ a pop when it dies dosent phase you. 

 

Cable management is easily done on the HAF 932 advanced / HAF X cases or any higher end cases with cable "cutouts". Good cooling in case will better help Air Coolers that much more as well. I personally run both the HAf X and 932 Advanced now with Air coolers and I can push some really ridiculous OCs and barely break a sweat (Xigmatek Dark Knight II on both now).

 

Ive used H60/80i/100, Noctua D14, Hyper 212+ EVO and Frio OCK coolers. From my experience the Dark Knight II only 4 degrees warmer on my i7 at 5.1ghz then my ole H100. 120$ compared to 50$ and <5 degrees.

 

 

 

 

EDIT: ive dug up my old testing stats from my coolers. Maybe no one cares but here they are:

 

 

(Temps opposed to H100 at 1.53v on I7 3770k 5.1Ghz after 9 hours of Prime)

 

* Arctic Silver 5 was used*

 

H80i 2 Degrees warmer

Dark Knight II: 4 degrees Warmer

Noctua NH-D14 5 Degrees Warmer

H60: 7 Degrees Warmer

Frio OCK: 8 Degrees Warmer

Hyper 212+ Evo 8 Degrees Warmer

 

 

......no

 

Keep the case. If you want some beast overclocking, go with a full water cooling loop. 

 

Sorry I didn't see his case listed at first. Agreed, keep your current case.  

 

Why would you recommend a 140$+ loop system that is not needed? You can OC just as hard on a good air cooler. Judging by the OPs quote of "some overclocking"  this entails to me he is looking to push 4.2-4.6ghz. Why spend 100$+ on a cooler or cooling solution that has no benefit over air at those speeds/voltages? Unless he was looking to post huge numbers on a benchmark board via ridiculous OCs and/or going for a certain look (which in retrospect would look great in a 650/800D case) then that is just money wasted. I used to be gungho over Closed and Open loop system because I thought the difference was day and night temps wise. After years of tinkering I realized that air coolers have come along way(not counting the many shoddy air coolers that are on the market) and in the end for the average OC'er it really dosent matter what type of decent AM cooling used as new CPUs are more thermal tolerant and upper end air cooling are producing results that are strikingly close to upper end closed loops. The gap only opens up when you really start pushing the chip beyond meaningful conditions, but even at that point the best loop system cannot keep up and you are left with 2 options: TEC or LN2. Keep in mind the title of this thread is "beginner overclock".  

 

I am trying to give advice to the OP in regards to his needs and wants. No point in having him spend X amount of $$ for something that is not essential to what he is looking to get out of it. He already has a Hyper 212+ that more then enough for OCs atleast in the 4.5-4.6ghz range and still stay below 80c under the hardest of stresses.

 

 

EDIT: Im am also very aware that Cooler Master does not make the best cases out there. For whatever reason i was under the impression that he was using a shoddy basic case 

and I offered CM as an option for amazing cooling, expandability and pretty decent cable management at an affordable rate. Especially if going the air cooling route.

Edited March 8, 2013 by DnaAngel

[wevsspot]

Sometimes "silence" can come into the equation as to whether one wants to go with W/C or not.  Not that every water cooling solution is quieter than some of the air coolers out there right now, but it does become a consideration for some.  Plus there is a cool factor for some (cool as in perception - not cool as in greatly better thermal control) when choosing water cooling over air cooling.

[ccokeman]

 

 

I would recommend a Case like the Cooler Master HAF 922, 932 Advanced or HAF X to supplement cooing. 

 

I wouldn't agree with getting the H90/100/100i as coolers. They are great coolers in their own right, but not needed. Keep your hyper and OC happily. There's only slight differences in performance between H100/90 opposed to high end air coolers like the Noctua D14 or even better the Xigmatek Dark Knight II (50$). You can easily OC just as hard with those air coolers. Unless you going for "The Look". Closed Loop cooling from my experience only really benefits when your pushing extreme OCs for benchmarks. Not something that your going to have for a 24/7 OC for 1.5+ years as your not going to push 1.5v+ on a 3570k for any length of time, unless 200$ a pop when it dies dosent phase you. 

 

Cable management is easily done on the HAF 932 advanced / HAF X cases or any higher end cases with cable "cutouts". Good cooling in case will better help Air Coolers that much more as well. I personally run both the HAf X and 932 Advanced now with Air coolers and I can push some really ridiculous OCs and barely break a sweat (Xigmatek Dark Knight II on both now).

 

Ive used H60/80i/100, Noctua D14, Hyper 212+ EVO and Frio OCK coolers. From my experience the Dark Knight II only 4 degrees warmer on my i7 at 5.1ghz then my ole H100. 120$ compared to 50$ and

 

 

 

 

EDIT: ive dug up my old testing stats from my coolers. Maybe no one cares but here they are:

 

 

(Temps opposed to H100 at 1.53v on I7 3770k 5.1Ghz after 9 hours of Prime)

 

* Arctic Silver 5 was used*

 

H80i 2 Degrees warmer

Dark Knight II: 4 degrees Warmer

Noctua NH-D14 5 Degrees Warmer

H60: 7 Degrees Warmer

Frio OCK: 8 Degrees Warmer

Hyper 212+ Evo 8 Degrees Warmer

 

 

......no

 

Keep the case. If you want some beast overclocking, go with a full water cooling loop. 

 

Sorry I didn't see his case listed at first. Agreed, keep your current case.  

 

Why would you recommend a 140$+ loop system that is not needed? You can OC just as hard on a good air cooler. Judging by the OPs quote of "some overclocking"  this entails to me he is looking to push 4.2-4.6ghz. Why spend 100$+ on a cooler or cooling solution that has no benefit over air at those speeds/voltages? Unless he was looking to post huge numbers on a benchmark board via ridiculous OCs and/or going for a certain look (which in retrospect would look great in a 650/800D case) then that is just money wasted. I used to be gungho over Closed and Open loop system because I thought the difference was day and night temps wise. After years of tinkering I realized that air coolers have come along way(not counting the many shoddy air coolers that are on the market) and in the end for the average OC'er it really dosent matter what type of decent AM cooling used as new CPUs are more thermal tolerant and upper end air cooling are producing results that are strikingly close to upper end closed loops. The gap only opens up when you really start pushing the chip beyond meaningful conditions, but even at that point the best loop system cannot keep up and you are left with 2 options: TEC or LN2. Keep in mind the title of this thread is "beginner overclock".  

 

I am trying to give advice to the OP in regards to his needs and wants. No point in having him spend X amount of $$ for something that is not essential to what he is looking to get out of it. He already has a Hyper 212+ that more then enough for OCs atleast in the 4.5-4.6ghz range and still stay below 80c under the hardest of stresses.

 

 

EDIT: Im am also very aware that Cooler Master does not make the best cases out there. For whatever reason i was under the impression that he was using a shoddy basic case 

and I offered CM as an option for amazing cooling, expandability and pretty decent cable management at an affordable rate. Especially if going the air cooling route.

 

If he moves to the 3570 a stock cooler is worthless period, although it keeps the CPU below the TJ max temp at stock speeds and up to the boost clock speed. IVB is a warm beast any which way you go. I use an H100 on a 3770K and see temps over 80C running it at full speed at 4.5 using 1.2v.

[Fogel]

I say just upgrade the graphics card - the 7950 is the best bang for your buck.  If you want to spend a little extra since you won't have to buy a CPU or Cooler than you can jump to the GTX 670.

 

But OCing isn't going to get but a few frames per second.  It isn't worth spending a hundred dollars to replace your already capable cpu cooler.   If you were starting with a fresh build different story.  If you hated the size and sound of current cooler, ok I could see that.  But the 212+ is more than capable to handle a modest OC and the jump in FPS from a modest OC to high OC isn't much.

 

 

TLDR:  Buy a graphics card.  Spending money on a different cooling solution at this point really isn't worth the investment