Stuck on what component's to purchase?

[ZakMoon]

Hey guys

So , eventually I built my rig! 😀 But my there are some things about it that I would like to tweak.
First off , the CPU run's hot whilst gaming (around 50-60 degrees) , I looked at some looped water cooling and came across the Corsair Hydro Series CPU coolers and I thought about the H40 and H50 because I'm not going to overclock and they're within my price range. The second problem is my CPU is only an i3 and gets a big sluggish on battlefield 3 , I cannot decide whether to get a new CPU either :/
And last , I was thinking of getting another 660 Superclocked for my system but I'm not sure my 600W PSU could handle it and I'm not sure if it's better than the 680 or even if it will be bottlenecked from the i3!

Thanks for reading ,
Zak

 

[geofelt]

1. 50-60c. Is not all that hot. TJMAX is >100c.

2. A i3 is not a hot chip. The stock Intel cooler should be fine. Do verify that you have it mounted properly. Are all 4 pins through the motherboard and locked?

3. Benchmarks show BF3 to not be particularly cpu intensive in single player. But, in multiplayer, with lots of players, the cpu can be a bit limiter.
If you are playing multiplayer, and you can afford it, buy a quad; the stronger the better.

4. sli with GTX660 and a 600w psu may be marginal unless your psu is top quality.
You could run a GTX680 with a 600w psu just fine. Ane... you would avoid any microstuttering issues.
Read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html

5.
To help clarify your options, run these two tests:

a) Run your games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 50%.
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.


Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
set to 50% and see how you do.


If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.

It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system, and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.