Buying a water cooled i7 pc for gaming

lonewolfa1

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hi thinking of buying a i7 920 at 3.7 gh water cooled pc with gtx260 graphics card i have already a bliss 8800 gt pcx 512mb graphics card
which is best graphics card thanks
 
Solution
6GB is the way to go. I'm assuming you'll have Win 7 64 bit?

And don't skimp on the air cooler!
The GTX260 is way better than the 8800GT, but if you're going to put all that effort into your CPU, I sincerely hope you get an ATI 5870, or possibly a 5970 instead.

Should look to spend about $40-50 on a really good air cooler and thermal paste... worth every penny.

Second the 5870 option... 5970 is over $600 so I don't see that as being a realistic investment.

crosko42

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I second the hookers option.
 

lonewolfa1

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which is best win7 windows vista
spec of computer
ATI Radeon® HD 5850 1GB DDR5
6GB RAM DDR3 1600MHz (3x 2GB)
Mainboard ASUS 1366 P6T X58
1000GB SATA-2 HDD 7200rpm
20x DualLayer DVD±RW Lightscribe
8 Channel High-Definition Audio
Cardreader | Gigabit Ethernet LAN
750 Watt Power | Intel® Box Cooler
data diplay case
cost £850 with out os
 

monsterman

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6GB is the way to go. I'm assuming you'll have Win 7 64 bit?

And don't skimp on the air cooler!
The GTX260 is way better than the 8800GT, but if you're going to put all that effort into your CPU, I sincerely hope you get an ATI 5870, or possibly a 5970 instead.

Should look to spend about $40-50 on a really good air cooler and thermal paste... worth every penny.

Second the 5870 option... 5970 is over $600 so I don't see that as being a realistic investment.
 
Solution

wiinippongamer

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5850 is great for anything you run with it, it can max out every single game at almost any resolution @60+ fps.

what's the res of your monitor? i don't think it's worth getting a 5870 unless you have 1920x1200+, the 5850 will be great for either 1680x1050 and 1920x1080, also it has the best price/penformance ratio right now and it'll penform almost the same as a 5870 if you overclock it to 5870's stock clocks. that'll save you near $100.

win7 is better.

also what brand is the power supply, i've seen some crappy non-branded psus from OEMs before that won't even run a single high end card and keep crashing on you.
 
As for graphics cards....

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-310-5970,2491.html

Here's the "winners" from THG's latest (December) GFX Roundup
Best Graphics Cards For The Money: December '09


$50 - HD 4650
$65 - HD 4670 / 9600 GSO
$85 - 9600 GT
$95 - 9600 GT / HD 4830
$110 - GTS 250 512 MB
$120 - GTS 250 1 GB
$155 - HD 5770 / GTX 260
$200 - HD 4890
$240 - 2 x GTS 250
$310 - No winner (HD 5850 Honorable Mention)
$330 - 2 x GTX 260 / 2 x HD 5770
$400 - 2 x HD 4890
$410 - No winner (HD 5870 Honorable Mention)
$465 - No winner (GTX 295 Honorable Mention)
$625 - No winner (HD 5970 Honorable Mention)


As for water cooling....4.4 GHz is easily doable on air with a decent heat sink. My son (Prolimatech Megahalems) runs @ 3.7 GHz 24/365 with all BIOS features enabled and core temps are in the mid 50's. He's at 71-ish average core temp at when he runs at 4.3GHz

 

monsterman

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I would argue to just check the capable amps on the power supply itself. The 5850 is pretty reasonable ~500w should be okay. Its rated at 750w so I'm pretty sure its not that far off.
 

lonewolfa1

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hi the power supply is 800 ps got 6gb corsair in the end will be running 3.7ghz i7 920 do processor water cooled
so really a cool rig with a gtx 260 and 64 bit vista ultimate thanks for all your help
 

sabot00

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If you're going to copy & paste that at least change $95 from 9600GT to 9800GT.
 

lonewolfa1

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Dec 18, 2009
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hi my friend got a i7 920 oc to 3.7ghz 6gb corsair ram gtx 260 graphics card water cooled windows 7 64 bit the problem i am having is it only showing 2.67ghz have i been ripped of or am i missing something thanks your post was very helpfull
 

Windows properties will only show the stock speed. Use cpu-z to verify your overclock.