I've got my custom built PC for more slightly longer than 2 years now and I'm thinking of dropping some upgrades in it and pushing my CPU to its limits. I need some affordable suggestions and was going to try get a new video card (single 7970 maybe?), maybe OCing my CPU (hopefully with cheap air cooling?), and will upgrade for more RAM (most probably to 16 GB 1600 MHz). I do alot of gaming and run 2 monitors, and will require some fast processing for engineering calculations on the off-chance that I do bring work home.
I'm not sure what my budget is, considering a 7970 is $410 and extra ram would cost me $85ish.
I will need to check the size of my case, but I was thinking of getting the NZXT Havik, although it seems hard to track down in Perth, Australia. They do sell the D14 SE2011 at $85.
I was also wondering what a safe overclock would be for the i7 950. I was hoping to push it to 4 GHz? According to a few reviews, it seems very possible with either the D14 or Havik. I was hoping someone here would have had experience?
well the 950 is quite a warm chip, but you can achieve the 4 GHZ oc with either cooler but the d-14 will give you better temps, you could even go too 4.2 ghz with the havik but your looking at some temps that are just barely exceptable unlike the noctua, but watch this comparisent vid from ttl or just skip to the temps and conclusion and you will see what i mean... also he benchmarks on a 950 because its pretty much the warmest chip intel has made so this vid is kinda relative to you, just hope logan does'nt hate me for the cooler reference
I've finally upgraded my PC, got a Gigabyte 7970 Windforce OC Edition and some new RAM and bought a Noctua NH-D14. I've also OCed my CPU and I've been playing around with a few clock speeds.
At 4 GHz and 1.33 V it's idling at stupidly high temperatures (~45 to 60°C) and after running prime95 on full load for approximately 20 minutes I'm getting temperatures in the 80s, sometimes moving to the high 80s. I know this is bad so I decided to disable turbo boost, lower voltage and clockspeed; however I'm getting similar temperatures at 3.86 GHz and 1.30 V. My computer was running pretty hot before the OC, now it seems to be just as bad (maybe even worse?). I've tried thermal repasting twice. My case isn't that big and runs 2 fans excluding the D14 (one at the front bottom and one at the back top). It's a Lian Li case I bought with my PC 3 years ago (I can't remember the model), that just fits the D14 and was a bit of a tight squeeze for my hand. I also understand that ambient temperature also does affect CPU and it's been about 38 to 42°C in Perth, Australia.
My friends; consumer whores (aren't we all?!) with big ridiculous cases with lots of fans tell me to come to the dark side and purchase a new case with better air flow. Now, before I do end up spending more money I'd like to try exhaust as many other options first. Thanks.