New Component Advice After CPU Cooler Epic Fail

[freefaller]

Hi all,

I obtained my PCS PC in October 2010. Recently my CoolIt Eco CPU cooler burst and I have RMA'd the PC to check what is still alive and what is not. Clearly I require a new CPU cooler, and most likely a new GPU. Hopefully everything else escaped unscathed, and I should know more shortly.

So, what CPU cooler would you recommend, which GPU, and generally any other upgrades you would recommend while my PC is in the tender care of PCS.

I use my PC for gaming and general tasks.

COOLERMASTER HAF-X FULL TOWER GAMING CASE (£149)
OverClocked Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-950 (3.06GHz @ max 3.8GHz)
ASUS® P6X58D-E: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, 3-Way SLI
6GB KINGSTON HYPER-X TRI-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (3 x 2GB KIT)
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
CORSAIR 850W PSU (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£100)
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£59)
ARCTIC COOLING MX-3 HIGH THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

 

[keynes]

Sorry to hear that. Are you planning to overclock your cpu? what is your budget for both components?

 

[freefaller]

Sorry to hear that. Are you planning to overclock your cpu? what is your budget for both components?

Hopefully my CPU will still be intact and not require replacing, in which case it will remain OC'd as performed by PCS on purchase. I haven't really set myself a budget as yet, but I can't see needing to spend more than £400 if it is just a CPU cooler and GPU that is required. If I need a new CPU I'd be as well buying a new PC I think.

 

[vanthus]

If your budget covers it I would recommend the GTX 670,if not maybe the 660Ti.

 

[freefaller]

If your budget covers it I would recommend the GTX 670,if not maybe the 660Ti.

I had a wee look at NVidia's website and was swithering between the 660Ti or the 670, is the 670 really worth the price difference over the 660Ti?
Also, as my CPU is OC'd PCS don't have any air CPU coolers currently availabe. So, which of the Corsair H60, H80i or H100i would you recommend? To be honest I wish I could move to an air cooler to remove the risk of having another liquid cooler bursting, but I'll have to live with it it would seem.

 

[keynes]

I had a wee look at NVidia's website and was swithering between the 660Ti or the 670, is the 670 really worth the price difference over the 660Ti?
Also, as my CPU is OC'd PCS don't have any air CPU coolers currently availabe. So, which of the Corsair H60, H80i or H100i would you recommend? To be honest I wish I could move to an air cooler to remove the risk of having another liquid cooler bursting, but I'll have to live with it it would seem.

For £400 you should be able to get a gtx 670 and the h80. If you want an air CPU cooler you could consider a noctua cooler and send it to PCS.

 

[freefaller]

For £400 you should be able to get a gtx 670 and the h80. If you want an air CPU cooler you could consider a noctua cooler and send it to PCS.

Thanks for the reply Keynes, I will certainly look into the Noctua.

From my current spec, anything else you personally would consider upgrading, as my system is nearly 3 years old it is about that time again.

 

[Rakk]

From my current spec, anything else you personally would consider upgrading, as my system is nearly 3 years old it is about that time again.

Personally I'd probably think about upgrading the HDD, the Caviar Greens are perfectly fine for storage drives, but tend to be a bit slow as boot drives and main drives, but remember there does come a point where you're upgrading so much you have to take a step back and think about upgrading or replacing - I'm having those exact thoughts given my machine is slightly older than yours now

 

[Grimezy]

I can vouch for the GTX670. Benchmarks show that it only performs 2-3fps less than a 680 on quite a lot of games. £80 cheaper than a 680 as well! It's always up in the top 3 on benchmarks anyway (for single monitor use anyway).

 

[freefaller]

Personally I'd probably think about upgrading the HDD, the Caviar Greens are perfectly fine for storage drives, but tend to be a bit slow as boot drives and main drives, but remember there does come a point where you're upgrading so much you have to take a step back and think about upgrading or replacing - I'm having those exact thoughts given my machine is slightly older than yours now

Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions. I think if required I will be getting the GTX 670. I had a look at the Noctua DH-14, while it would appear to do the job, it is massive! Would it fit inside my HAF-X with my current components? However, I am concerned with the portability aspect as I have moved house a couple of times for work recently and will have to do so in the near future. With that in mind, I will probably opt for the Corsair H80i and hope that this doesn't burst!

Regarding upgrading the HDD Rakk, are you suggesting an SSD (something I've never had and would require to learn how to maintain after reading the sticky on this forum), or another HDD? I already have another smaller HDD salvaged from an older PC, so with three HDD's in my case, if I bought a new one, together with my prospective new GPU and CPU cooler, would my PSU still cope and have a significant margin to keep everything running cool and optimally?

 

[tom_gr7]

hey, I have a d14... Yeah its massive cools pretty well and is very quiet. BUT you will get better temps with the h80i/h100i. So i'd probably opt for that.

But i'd also wait and see what PCS says about your rig and whats damaged etc etc. If you were to buy a new system, I believe intel haswell is just around the corner so may be worth waiting for that.

 

[freefaller]

So I received an update on my component situation on Friday 26th April after my liquid CPU cooler burst on 15th April as follows:

Component/Action

MOBO/faulty and in warranty, ETA is around two weeks to obtain a replacement.
CPU/may be faulty, requires futher testing, and is out of warranty.
GPU/faulty and out of warranty, requires replacing.

All other components (PSU, HDD, RAM etc.) are working correctly. So as things stand I should receive a replacement MOBO free of charge, and will have to pay for a replacement GPU and CPU cooler. I may also have to buy a replacement CPU, which due to the MOBO will have to be of the same i7-900 generation chips.

The GPU and CPU cooler will cost me probably around £300, while I think an i7-950 will now cost around £240.

I think I have two options 1. I buy the replacement parts and run with a mixture of older and newer hardware having spent around half the cost of a new PC or; 2. I buy a new PC, retaining any parts from my current PC such as PSU, HDD, and obviously the case and OS, while selling the replacement MOBO and the RAM I originally had which is still functional.

What do you guys think is the best option, as I'd appreciate any advice you can give me? I really am unsure as to what is the best way to proceed.

Cheers.

 

[freefaller]

A possible replacement rig, assuming that I can transfer in my existing PSU and Windows 7 OS I should be able to take another £99 off of the price quoted.

Case
Send In Your Own Case - (HAF-X)
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Quad Core i7-3820 (3.6GHz @ max 4.4GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® SABERTOOTH X79: SOCKET 2011, R.O.G - (Unsure on best MOBO, says it's best for cooling)
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT) - (reckon this should be enough, but would consider 16GB if required or 8GB of faster clock speed)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm) - (I have a 1TB Caviar Green and an older SATA drive already, this would be for backup purposes only so I can system image my Caviar Green boot drive)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM - (May upgrade to Blu-Ray)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£99) - (May not be required)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H80i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£69)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD) - (Unsure of best buy for sound card)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED - (Already have Windows 7, unsure if I can transfer)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour) (£135) - (Given what I've experienced with my previous system this would pay for itself)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days
Miscellaneous
FREE METRO: LAST LIGHT GAME with GTX 660 & UPWARDS GPUs!
Quantity
1

Price: £1,396.00 including VAT and delivery.

I may also upgrade my monitor and wouldlike suggestions on the best buy. Likewise speakers and gaming keyboard/mouse.

 

[steaky360]

If you get in touch with PCS to ask about swapping the PSU etc. not sure if you can do that or not (you'd certainly have to call them to order it as I don't think you can configure a PC with no PSU...). Same with the HDD unless you were planning on using it as an 'additional drive' and still getting one from PCS.

I assume you'd be able to send them in to them (if getting a new PC), although given your PSU might be out of warranty soon (if it isn't already), I'd almost recommend downgrading from Platinum to Gold warranty and getting a new PSU too... If that goes, you would be goosed, especially if something hideous went wrong and it took other components out with it... not that I'm trying to 'scare you' into buying a new PSU, I just don't know if I'd take the risk.

 

[tom_gr7]

tell you what i'd do,

- call PCS and ask if you can use those parts that are fine towards a new intel haswell build in june, (if you are willing to wait) and get a new 700 series card when they are released too.

 

[freefaller]

Thanks for the help and advice so far one and all. My PC is still with PCS so they would be able to cannibalise the parts from my existing system to put towards a new build, if that is indeed possible and sensible. I appreciate the logic in buying a new PSU for the new build, should I go that way. I did have a MOBO fried by a faulty PSU once before with a slimline PC. I'm also usnure if I'd be able to use my existing OS key on a new system.

Unfortunately PCS would seem to have only one test board in order to test my CPU. They are therefore waiting for my replacement MOBO to arrive before testing my CPU with that board. Given that I was told it may take two weeks to receive the replacement MOBO, if the CPU is faulty I could be looking at a similar wait again! In that case it looks like I would be getting closer to that June date for the Haswell, GTX 700 series build. Having read a little on both Haswel and the GTX 700 series, I'm not sure if they are going to be superior to the currently available hardware given what I'd expect to be the asking price for the new hardware in comparison to the old.

Would you buy replacement parts for £500-£600 and run a mixture of new/old components in a system, or spend the £1400 on the new build above? Is the new build good as is, or should I alter it? I guess I could sell my existing RAM and the replacement MOBO to contribute towards buying the new build.

I want my PC back!

 

[tom_gr7]

well, if the replacement mobo comes back and your cpu is fine, then stick with that mobo/ram/cpu.

Then look at getting a new GPU. ya could get a nice 660ti for about 200 quid, very decent card for the price.

Is your psu dead? If not dont bother getting a new one till it is.

 

[freefaller]

So, after waiting since 26th April, having been told my MOBO has been sent away to ASUS and that I could expect to receive a replacement MOBO under warranty, I received an email from PCS telling me I was unable to receive one. I have called since and asked why, but was not given an explanation as to why that was the case.

I was also previously informed that PCS was having trouble establishing if my CPU was faulty or not with their test board, and that I would have to wait until my replacement MOBO arrived before the CPU could be tested again. As no replacement was received, I was told in the same email that PCS managed to get hold of another test board and found the CPU to be faulty.

Long story short, my CPU cooler burst 15th April, PC collected 16th April, total damage is CPU cooler, GPU, CPU and MOBO.

That being the case I'll obviously need to replace the bulk of the system, and so I will continue the discussion on the "Possible Spec for New Gaming" thread I started previously: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?25072-Possible-Spec-for-New-Gaming-PC

I would appreciate it if you could look at the thread and help check the component selections I've made, cheers!