Doesn’t make that much of a difference for gaming specifically, but the SSD is a ridiculous upgrade for day to day desktop use.
It depends on the game. Skyrim? Huge difference on loading screens (every time you enter/leave a dwelling), especially if you have the hi-res texture pack installed.
Loading screens yes, gameplay no. I played skyrim on a 7200RPM disk and it was fine, loading screens took a couple seconds at most. It could have been faster, of course, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve seen videos of xbox360 players streaming off the disk. Now that was slow.
Consider liquid cooling, and potentially an external radiator to provide your system with a larger surface area from which to radiate.
The ultimate would be to run your water-cooling out of the computer, through a pipe that leads to the exterior of your home and down into a copper-alloy grid of passive pipes below the frost line.
Yeah, that’s… not great advice.
Low-end liquid cooling, like the cheaper closed loop offerings from corsair, isn’t dramatically better than air cooling. The more expensive closed loop coolers are, but they’re well over $100.
Going into setting up your own liquid cooling, where you buy the block and everything is high-end enthusiast level work. It’s a total pain in the ass. Only do that if you think you’ll enjoy it.
The real answer is that these CPUs can run really hot and do just fine. If you aren’t overclocking and your room is cool enough that you aren’t actually sweating balls, just use the stock retail HSF.
If you don’t mind the noise. Larger fans are quieter… (I agree mega-spending on fans is silly, but…)
ok, I sounded ridiculous there but in one year’s time… YOU WILL SEE.
Not really, but I still think that everyone involved in the PC hardware business will either make a huge push and bring out redesigned PC architectures with vastly superior performance to other consumer devices (the draw being that a PC can do things a tablet can’t), or just give up and start selling smartphones.
So it’s either DDR4 and super duper APUs, or recycled intel/amd workstation cpus resold at premium prices.
Personally, I think it’s the wrong time to buy a PC for the next console generation. I’m going to wait until about one year into the new generation and then enjoy not having to upgrade for the next 7 years.
I use the (relatively) low cost Intel RTS2011LC sealed liquid cooler (an Asetek design, IIRC). It’s better than the default cooler, and better than larger air coolers. Airflow is actually better through the case, because I’ve found that large air coolers actually restrict airflow to some extent.
However, more important to me is noise levels. The Intel cooler is very, very quiet compared to almost all the air coolers I’ve used. Note that I don’t overclock, so that’s not important at all to me.
I have a Zalman CNPS10X-Quiet, costs £25. And it really IS quiet. (They use a detachable 120mm fan…it’s a nice idea). The loudest thing in my case is the OCZ ZS PSU fan.
(You can use the “fan mate 2” to slow it down even more, but haven’t needed to)
I wouldn’t really, as I said, recommend spending much more than that.
(I don’t OC either, since I keep hardware for quite a long time)
Yeah, that costs eighty bucks, and a quick google search says it doesn’t compare well to high-end air cooling. That’s one of the “low end closed loops” I referred to earlier. I’m sure it is quieter, though.
If I was going to dip my toes into water cooling, I would go for something like the corsair H100, which runs $130 but actually offers superior temps when compared to high-end air.
Thing is, you don’t need that level of cooling to overclock a chip to well over 4Ghz these days. Even eighty bucks is crazy expensive. It’s all just unnecessary.
If you enjoy messing around with that stuff, that’s great. But it’s not appropriate to recommend it to someone talking about a warm room, unless he’s computing in a sauna.
Regarding overclocking, I’ve been running an i7 920 (native 2.66Ghz) overclocked to 3.6Ghz for the past 5 years. It doesn’t impact lifetime at all. I do have relatively high-end air cooling on it; as I recall the HSF cost like fifty bucks.
This has reminded me: I can’t stress enough how important it is to get a quiet PSU. The Zalman 850w PSU I have has surprised me in how quiet it is, it even has a switch that cancels th enoise that comes from power supplies on standby. It’s so quiet, SPCR thought the PSU they were reviewing was malfunctioning:
I’ve used Antec, Enermax and OCZ power supplies in the past. Hands down, Zalman beats them by a mile in the noise level dept.
Zalman’s quiet PSU’s are gigantic (21cm), but if you are resourceful enough you can fit them in a PC case. I have mine inside an HTPC:
I bet! Unfortunately I needed a PSU in a hurry last time, and it was the best on offer at the shop I used. (Also I have a 650, which is still probably overkill…can’t see myself needing that! One in 500-550W would be nice :P edit: And apparently exists, but it’s £100, ouch!)
A PC built in 2005 would not be able to match a 360 at 720p even though 2005 gpus were more powerful than what is in the ps3/xbox360. A PC built in 2006 would obliterate ps3/360 though. It’s a fine line, you have to be aware of it.
Get the card that will give you the performance you want now, and worry about the future when it comes. “Want” in this case is not sky high dreams, but be thinking about what sort of resolution your monitor runs at, the degree of AA, etc. Right now, most games aren’t demanding that much GPU horsepower to hit the more popular resolutions.
As for the heat temperatures, I’ve been researching the 3570K myself, since I have one. 85 degrees Celsius is about as high as you want it to go while undergoing stress testing. Theoretically it won’t shutdown to about 110 degress Celsius, but 85 is a nice conservative number. Without any overclocking, it hits low 80’s while under a stress test using the stock cooler. Keep in mind its winter here, so if you want to do any overclocking (which is entirely the point of the “K” series of CPUs), plan on getting a new cooler, but don’t worry, provided your case has reasonable airflow you don’t have to worry about a stock cooler overheating.
I do plan on eventually getting a closed loop liquid cooler, but I want to “get it right.” Its still a young technology, though its kind of exciting whats already available. Dollar for dollar, they aren’t a game changer to beat metal coolers, yet. However, pound for pound they are… as in they literally remove several pounds of heavy metal off a somewhat fragile piece of circuit boarding and put in the a much sturdier metal case. If you plan on moving with your PC (college student?), they are a more attractive option. On the flip side, they are harder to install and need to make sure your case/MB/GPU/etc. combination has the space to let a large radiator with fans attached to it.
I have a H100 but have been slightly disappointed with it. It’s quiet if keeping to stock clock with fan profile on low but it makes too much noise when setting fan profile to medium/high, which is needed when OC’ing.
I never liked future proofing with computers, once I tried it and saw firsthand what really happens.
For instance, a new gen console comes out late 2013. This means real next gen games aren’t coming out till Xmas 2014 at the earliest. The first batch of games accompanying the console will be games rushed out, in the sense that getting those games done in time took priority to making best use of the new console. These will be 360+ or PS3+ titles when you get right down to it. After about a year or so the developers will start making games that will start to wow people by leveraging what the consoles can do. AFTER that, then the PC ports will come. So my estimate is PC ports of ‘real’ next gen games will come in 2015.
Which means buying a ‘future proof’ computer now means guessing what you’ll be playing in 2015, about two and a half years from now. And that’s assuming no delays in any big, anticipated titles. There’s never delaying in game development is there? Good luck!
The only prefilled water cooling kit that is not completely terrible in my opinion, the Swiftech H220:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6716/closing-the-loop-ii-new-liquid-coolers-from-corsair-and-swiftech
Full copper radiator and CPU block, proper anti-kink tubing, refillable through fill port, actual low noise fans that don’t ramp up to full blow dryer obnoxiousness, and a powerful pump.
It’s not even out yet unfortunately.
Well, I have a Corsair H80, and it’s definitely better than my previous air cooling solution, and much quieter. I don’t OC, so the fans almost never ramp up.
if you don’t overclock, the stock cpu HSF from intel is also quiet O.o