Recommendations on fan controllers?
Going to pick up some Gelid Wing 12 and 14s tomorrow for cheap. Figured I might as well replace my exhaust on the top and keep the 14s for the eventual radiator.
Gentle Typhoons were twice the price of the Gelids lol![]()
So, anything you guys think I could do regarding my cable arrangement? Will it have much of any effect on airflow and temps? My main problem is that a lot of the cables are just too short to wrap around anything.
A new case that has a bottom mounted PSU with rear panel cable management space, the Fractal ARC (midi/mini) is great for it.
I mean in my current case. This isn't a computer I built it's store-bought but I upgraded the GPU back in March.
Lamptron FC5 V2 is pretty amazing. So amazing, it almost prevented me from buying a Fractal case (from needing two bays for the XSPC Rasa pump/res combo).Recommendations on fan controllers?
Going to pick up some Gelid Wing 12 and 14s tomorrow for cheap. Figured I might as well replace my exhaust on the top and keep the 14s for the eventual radiator.
Gentle Typhoons were twice the price of the Gelids lol![]()
You're never going to be able to make it pretty. What you should focus on is routing them as close to either panel as possible, removing them from the middle of the case. Use lots of masking tape and zip ties. That case, motherboard, and PSU certainly seem to be designed to make that basically impossible though. Try as much as you can.So, anything you guys think I could do regarding my cable arrangement? Will it have much of any effect on airflow and temps? My main problem is that a lot of the cables are just too short to wrap around anything.
The current HDD prices make me sad. They're at least about double what's listed in the OP.
I'm checking out parts again since I want to play SWTOR, but I'm pretty sure my laptop could only barely handle it, if at all, after looking at the Tom's Hardware benchmarks. Trying to get something maybe cheaper than I would prefer, but the totals now are almost the same, with worse parts, as the build I was looking at a few months ago.
Friend is looking to use a TV as a monitor.
What type to buy? Hes looking in the 32" size department. He found some but the resolution is 1366x768 on the TVs (which I believe does scale to 720/1080).
Any tips?
FC5 V2 is voltage control.TBH, I prefer the Scythe Kaze to the Lamptron. The Lamptron is PWM, and as a result control is rather difficult, as you get a very small range of control with PWM compared to voltage control. The Lamptron does look better, though.
My Lamptron FC6 also died on me. It beeps incessantly if I plug it in now.
I made a similar upgrade once myself. Went from a 9850 to a 970, and it was a nice upgrade. Though, at the same time I bought a Crosshair IV and DDR3, which allowed me to OC to 4.0Ghz.Quick question - am I going to see a big difference in stuff exploding in games and in physics tests in 3DMark Vantage going from a Phenom X3 8650 to a Phenom II X4 955? Here's my motherboard.
Right now I am failing physics tests super-hard (which is supported with some of the choppiness I'm seeing at some places when I'm playing games). I have a Radeon HD 6870 so I don't suspect that's the issue.
I don't think it's worth it for me to go X6 with what I'm planning on doing with it. Thanks!
I have a 60 gig SSD and haven't had to worry about space issues really, granted I don't keep any games on there. 120+ for SSD is just a more logical decision at this point however.I'm on a 120GB SSD. I have tried in vain to create a smaller Windows 7 install using RT7Lite - even with a 'safe' tweak it just refused to update to SP1. A shame, because it would have saved about 7GB.
I resorted to a vanilla install, and after doing the usual tweaks of reducing page file size and disabling hibernation, the footprint was about 15GB. Once graphics and sound drivers were on there plus all the usual suspects (firefox, winrar etc) you're hitting 20GB before you know it.
Then Photoshop... Office... depends on how many big programs you want to run regularly as well as games. If you're setting it up just for games, you'll probably have at least 90GB of space for game installs, which is not all that much especially if most of your stuff is on Steam and you like everything downloaded ready to go.
You also have to be very careful to direct everything else to your other drive. Photos, Music, Video must stay off the SSD. Whenever you save a document, photoshop project, etc... must be on the HDD. Your default 'Downloads' folder that your browser uses needs to be changed to somewhere on the HDD too.
It's just something you have constantly think about and you have to be very organised with your files and folders. If you're careful, it can work very well. I really wouldn't want to go for less than 120GB though. It's already on the edge of being uncomfortable.
But games are just gonna get bigger... 20GB per game will be the norm soon...
Really, if you have money to spend on upgrading a processor, just put in your savings account and save up enough for a SB (or IB). It's worth every penny.
You're talking about a difference of $225. If you go with a 955, thats another $100-120 stacked on to that number to get to SB. If it is that is too much too stomach, then go ahead with the 955. Been there.This is just a stop-gap for a few years until I need to get a completely new rig. This is the last part that needs upgrading before I go full-out. If I pick up SB/IB CPU I'd need a new motherboard and I'm not ready to do that just yet.![]()
Depends on your situation. If you really want that performance now, you probably won't miss out on much. 2500K isn't going to be a bottleneck anytime soon for regular gaming rigs.Is it better to wait for Ivy Bridge CPU and mobo at this point of the cycle?
I have these parts so far
GPU: EVGA 275GTX/570GTX (depends if I make this trade)
SSD: Crucial M4 128GB SSD
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
Advice appreciated
Recommendations on fan controllers?
Going to pick up some Gelid Wing 12 and 14s tomorrow for cheap. Figured I might as well replace my exhaust on the top and keep the 14s for the eventual radiator.
Gentle Typhoons were twice the price of the Gelids lol![]()
That does look quite nice, especially for the price.I have the NZXT Sentry Mesh. Awesome fan controller, works well with my Scythe fans. If you have a mesh-front case, it blends in perfectly. 30w x 5 channels. Only $25 too.
Depends on your situation. If you really want that performance now, you probably won't miss out on much. 2500K isn't going to be a bottleneck anytime soon for regular gaming rigs.
Is this at all a good monitor?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009266
Seems like a really good deal.
you should have him post his specs, try using everest free edition which will list the pc's full specs. Mainly need to know what kind of processor, ram amount, and graphics card hes using
FC5 V2 is voltage control.
Man, so playing Skyrim puts my GPU up to an average of aorund 80 Celsius, but The Witcher 2 actually brings it up to a constant 95C. That high? Safe?
That seems pretty crazy to me. What card do you have? You should setup a custom fan profile. I freak out if my cards go above 75c (on stock cooling).
By the way, I've been able to keep my GPU temps down in the 40's when idle, but watching a video or loading up Firefox brings it back up to around 50c. This is stock cooling with a stock case and custom fan profile.
IB and SB are officially on the same socket. No worries if you want to upgrade later.
What are your guys thoughts on these two graphics cards? http://t.co/tt7W4kI http://t.co/I37ao3k is the extra $100 worth it to go with the lightning? How does the twin frozr ii handle battlefield 3? Could I sli these 2? I'll be playing in 1920x1080.
I love my Lightning but if I was looking to buy a card right now, I'd go with the radeon 7900s that should be coming out soon. No point in paying more for less unless you're an Nvidia lover.
Agreed, there is no reason to buy a GTX 580 anymore. The crown has been passed.
Hello PC-GAF,
My laptop has recently kicked the bucket, so I've brought an older desktop out of retirement. I'd forgotten that it was actually a fairly nice PC, and super-silent, but it is about 3 years old now I think.
It is a Intel P35-Express based system. This is the motherboard. The motherboard accepts, I think, up to 4 sticks of DDR2 or 2 sticks of DDR3. There's currently one (lol) stick of 2GB DDR2 in there. The CPU is currently a Intel Core 2 6420 @ 2.13Ghz. The GPU is a 8800 GT. It has a 650W PSU.
I'm thinking of spending a little money - as little as I can get away with - to upgrade this for better games playing. I do not need super high resolutions (in fact, I kind of need a new monitor because at the moment I'm stuck on a crappy small Dell one). I am thinking to upgrade to 4 or 8 GB of DDR3 and to upgrade the GPU. Would the CPU be OK or is it pointless to upgrade the others without doing the CPU also? GPU wise I'm looking for something low-cost but that's great value...I'm thinking <150. So I'm thinking a GTX550 or 460 perhaps?
TL;DR:
Core 2 6420 2.13Ghz -> Unchanged
2GB DDR2 -> 4 or 8GB DDR3
8800GT -> GTX550 or 460
Make sense? Could I play Skyrim and other games nicely? Thx
Hello PC-GAF,
My laptop has recently kicked the bucket, so I've brought an older desktop out of retirement. I'd forgotten that it was actually a fairly nice PC, and super-silent, but it is about 3 years old now I think.
It is a Intel P35-Express based system. This is the motherboard. The motherboard accepts, I think, up to 4 sticks of DDR2 or 2 sticks of DDR3. There's currently one (lol) stick of 2GB DDR2 in there. The CPU is currently a Intel Core 2 6420 @ 2.13Ghz. The GPU is a 8800 GT. It has a 650W PSU.
I'm thinking of spending a little money - as little as I can get away with - to upgrade this for better games playing. I do not need super high resolutions (in fact, I kind of need a new monitor because at the moment I'm stuck on a crappy small Dell one). I am thinking to upgrade to 4 or 8 GB of DDR3 and to upgrade the GPU. Would the CPU be OK or is it pointless to upgrade the others without doing the CPU also? GPU wise I'm looking for something low-cost but that's great value...I'm thinking <€150. So I'm thinking a GTX550 or 460 perhaps?
TL;DR:
Core 2 6420 2.13Ghz -> Unchanged
2GB DDR2 -> 4 or 8GB DDR3
8800GT -> GTX550 or 460
Make sense? Could I play Skyrim and other games nicely? Thx
Sounds like the stock cooling can't keep up. Unless you have an airflow problem I'm not exactly sure what you can do to resolve it. Are you running multiple monitors?
Trying to decide if I should go for top exhaust... best case scenario they help a little... worst case they do nothing?