Please pick to bits my planned PC Upgrade

Les McLean

Les McLean

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Les
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I've been running an I7 860 machine with 16GB of memory for around 3 years so it's time to upgrade.

The components I'm planning to keep are:-

Case- Cooler Master ATX
Graphics Card-GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1024 MB
Power Supply-700 watt
SSD-Sandisk 120GB (Boot drive)
2x2TB sata drives

Planned upgrade components:-

ASUS Sabertooth X79 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) Motherboard
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...s/intel2011x79chipset/90-mibgw0-g0eay00z.html
Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/processors/intelcorei72011socket/bx80619i73930k.html
Corsair Vengeance 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 PC3-15000 C10 1866MHz XMP Quad Channel Kit
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...0/1866mhzplus/cmz32gx3m4x1866c10.html#reviews

My main use is Photoshop, bit of video editing, web browsing (no gaming)

I did think about water cooling as I plan to moderately overclock the system, although my present air-cooled system ( coolermaster+6 fans) do a good job of keeping my present overclocked I7-860 temps under control.

Anyway, these are my initial plans, please feel free to demolish my ideas, and add anything else I may have missed.
 
Looks good... I'd be tempted to add a second SSD in - either as a cache drive (I think the X79 can do that) or as a staging drive for fast access. To be honest, you're probably going to have to wait a while for Haswell to come out with hexcores, so that'll be king of the heap for a while.

@Neil... struggling?? it's probably just time to upgrade ;)
 
Seems pointless to upgrade if you're not being held back by it imo...
 
neil_g said:
Sounds capable already, what's it struggling with?
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It isn't particularly struggling, but it's time for an upgrade, at the moment the i7-860 is our main computer, with an even older dual core as the second machine, once I upgrade the i7 860, the i7 MB/memory will replace the creaking dual core MB/memory.

arad85 said:
Looks good... I'd be tempted to add a second SSD in - either as a cache drive (I think the X79 can do that) or as a staging drive for fast access. To be honest, you're probably going to have to wait a while for Haswell to come out with hexcores, so that'll be king of the heap for a while.

@Neil... struggling?? it's probably just time to upgrade ;)
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That's a good idea regarding a second SSD, will include that.
Regarding power supply, is 700w sufficient? recognising that apart from monitor (x2) keyboard/mouse/card reader there won't be loads of peripherals plugged in.
 
The PSU doesn't drive the monitor, so you will be fine with the PSU - assuming it's a well known brand. What normally drives power supply requirements is people who SLI their high end graphics cards....
 
Did I hear a mention of watercooling?
An excellent method of controlling core temperatures, air just doesn't cut the mustard when the speeds and voltages go up, especially in the summer.
The lower the cpu/gpu temps the better, especially if you like to overclock things, although I would say for web browsing and photo editing it's a bit over the top, but if you want a good clock it's certainly worth considering.

The last rig I cooled with water was an early Intel quad and an ati x1950gpu on an Asus p5k mobo, to this I fitted waterblocks to cpu and gpu, used 1/2 pipework with a 120mm three fan rad with the fluid pumped around by an Eheim 1260 pump, I built it about 6years ago and have really only just turned it off due to having to move to another room, it never leaked and was so reliable.

I've also toyed with refrigerants and compressors to cool the processors but we are now getting into geek territory :D
 
Thanks Martin, I'll probably start of with the air cooling system I have now and see how it goes, if I find the temps aren't behaving I'll invest in water cooling, although probably something a bit more modest than your wizzo cooling system.

I agree , overclocking is a bit over the top for what I want to use it for, but it's fun to do :)
 
That motherboard is probably massively over specced IMHO. I'd be looking at something a lot cheaper and spending the spare money elsewhere if it was my machine.
 
Ignore that, just realised its a socket 2011 processor you're upgrading to. Didn't realise the x79 boards were so expensive.
 
cpuk1983 said:
Ignore that, just realised its a socket 2011 processor you're upgrading to. Didn't realise the x79 boards were so expensive.
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That's OK :), I thought I'd pay a bit more so (hopefully) once the system is set up, it will be good for the next 3 years, and prevents me having the occasional upgrade urge.
 
I would rethink the water cooling, it will make the unit virtually silent.
 
zlinuk said:
I would rethink the water cooling, it will make the unit virtually silent.
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Thanks Paul, I never considered the noise factor :bonk:
 
I wasn't keen to use watercooling so noise was a bit of a challenge for me, although using an SSD helped. The biggest noise maker was the heatsink fan. I basically ended up trying lots of different airflow combinations until I got the right one sorted that suited my case and components inside and what with using six fans I can run them at low rpm's so the noise level is kept low. I also went for quiet fans and at least 120mm ones.
 
I'm running my server which is a 95W TDP AMD Athlon device entirely passively. Simply good convection airflow and a mahoosive heatsink. You won't be able to get there with your 3930K, but even quite high TDPs can be managed passively.

Well, when I say passively, there are two quiet 120mm fans blowing air over the disks, but that's all. The PSU has a fan that doesn't cut in until the power draw is above the power needs of the complete system running flat out....

The loudest PC in my office (which has 4 computers in) is my works laptop - unless the 2600K is recoding video when the temp. controlled fan kicks in.
 
arad85 said:
mahoosive heatsink
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My case prevented this with me, mind it was doing my head! haha Although the one I ended up with is quite big and does an excellent job yet was incredibly cheap! :)
 
For cooling water cooling still uses fans just on the radiator instead of the processor. I agree with arad85 re fans. A decent cooler on the processor skimmed and with quality thermal paste eg article silver then some big case fans 120mm fans running slowly move more air than 80mm ones running quickly plus make less noise. My PC has 3 150mm fans running at something like 2000rpm and it is silent (passive GPU cooling too and with quiet hard drive in rubber mounts).
 
To minimise noise, it all depends on the case and its airflow design.

I have Silverstone FT02 case, it runs 3 180mm fans along the bottom pushing air into the case. I run them at only 400rpm with a passively cooled Noctua D14 CPU cooler and no other case fans. The Corsair Ax850 PSU fan doesn't even move. Only source of noise is my gaming graphics card GTX 580.

Water cooling will not make a system silent. it adds more moving parts, more noise, and also more point of failure.
 
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wuyanxu said:
To minimise noise, it all depends on the case and its airflow design.
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Agree 100%.

My preferred cases now have PSUs at the bottom and typically side AND top vents. This takes away the CPU heating the PSU affect and allows convection to play a good part in sustaining cooler CPU temperatures.

Until last year, my way of keeping PCs cool tended towards silencing and quiet cases with a number of low speed fans in them. Now I am finding myself using lighterweight cases with excellent convection cooling properties as well as PSUs that have very high efficiency ratings (I have 3 fanless PSUs driving moderate machines and a Corsair AX 760 in my server (which is also moderate current draw but has up to 10 HDDs in at any one time....)

I will probably upgrade when Haswell comes out in which case I'll probably try and go passive (assuming sub-95W TDPs) for my main PC with a single low speed fan for disk airflow. I really do like the NoFan coolers :D
 
Finally got round to ordering my bits and pieces, and I've gone with

Asus Sabretooth X79 MB with I7 3930 processor, 16GB memory (32 GB is probably overkill), 750 watt Corsair Modular Power supply, and liquid cooler (Corsair Hydro Series H60)

The main difference is the case, I've decided to mod a 2004 Mac Pro G5.
1DSL0346.jpg


Managed to pick a good clean (non working) G5 for not a lot of money, and now I've gutted it (they are well put together), now I've got a stripped case, I'll be putting all the bits I've ordered into the case in a neat and orderly fashion.:gag:

1DSL9907.jpg


I'm taking images of the process, so I'll be starting a new thread detailing the build, including both progress and pratfalls.
 
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