Help required on a new setup.

[staffsMike]

Around 65 degree's is about as far as you want to go. Hopefully you will be running a fair bit lower than that though with the decent cooler

Oh btw, fit that cooler to the motherboard with the mobo out of the case else you are for a world on misery lol .. and make sure it on properly! I do this by picking up the motherboard by the cooler (do it over a bed or something just in case).

[Webby]

Temperatures will depend on what voltage you need to use to get the stable speed, I would expect with a decent cooler you will probably find that temperatures will not be the limiting factor.

Putting the multi down will reduce temps but only because you will be reducing your clock speed.

As to what temps are reasonable I would be happy with temps up to 65°C when running Prime95/Orthos as then in normal operation you should never see 60°C much past that is asking for trouble.

[phurbs]

Thanks for the info on the temp/multi, I will report back when I have it all running!

Good building tip lol, that could have been irritating.

Thanks again for the help.

[phurbs]

Ok, A quick bump to make a final check before I hand over my hard earned money!

The setup is:



This is to go with the 256MB PowerColor HD 3850 I got on Today Only for £40!

This will make the total PC about £300. Not bad at all!

My only questions are:

a) The PSU only has 4 SATA lines. This is fine for now, but in the future I dont want to be stuck! What do you guys think about the Molex - SATA converters you can buy? Are the as good as a native SATA or am I best upgrading PSU to get 6 SATA lines?

b) Getting slightly ahead of myself. Will XP(32) recognise 4G of RAM, or should I upgrade to Vista(64).

Thanks once again guys. When I have 20 posts, I will thank you all!

[staffsMike]

Looks good to me No comment on the wireless card but It will probably be fine.

I believe the corsair 450W VX (still a seasonic) has 6 sata powers, I have one but can't check right now lol. The molex adapters are fine though.

The graphics card isn't too bad especially for £40

32bit won't see all of the 4GB but it won't hurt to run it on XP if that is what you already have.

EDIT: corsair does have 6.
http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=644038

[phurbs]

Yeah, I hate buying Wireless PCI cards, it is a total guess really. I will see what else is about, I just know DLink are ok so . . .

As for the PSU, I want that Corsair, but it is not in stock lol. I will see tmrw before I buy it all though. If not I will stick with the Seasonic and get the converters if needed in the future.

The GFX card is a bit of a risk, especially when I (eventually) upgrade to 24" HD monitor, but if it struggles, I will just spend a little more on an upgrade. Them's the breaks!

Oh, and I have access to Vista64 so I am just going to go for that and hope SP1 has ironed out the Vista kinks!

Thanks again mike!

[staffsMike]

SP1 has made my laptop far more acceptable to me and on a decent desktop such as yours it works well

[phurbs]

Does anyone know if the E5200 comes with pre-applied thermal paste?

[Webby]

No, no thermal paste on the actual CPU, the stock cooler will have it applied but you won't be using that!

Get some Arctic Silver 5 or Arctic cooling MX2

[phurbs]

Done. I have never had to apply my own thermal paste lol.

This and the overclock is new ground for me!

Thanks!

[Pob255]

The heatsink will come with some, the key to getting thermal paste right in not to use too much.
You might want to consider the zalman thermal paste http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=388704
It's in a bottle with a brush (like nail varnish) makes it very easy to put on.

Here's a tip for you, before you fit the clip bracket on the ninja, put some paste onto the cpu then just place the cooler on top and push it down by hand. you can now lift it off and inpect the paste.
You should have a nice even layer without excess being pushed out of the sides, if there's not enough you can add a little more and repeat the push down and inspect.
While too much paste can effect your temps, it's often not by that much, what is more problematic is excess getting pushed out the sides which can then work it's way down into the socket.

Now depending on the paste you can often wipe the cooler base clean of excess (nothing complex here just a bit of kitchen roll, no need for any cleaning compounds as you're not trying to remove "cooked" on paste) and enough should be left on the cpu to form an even thin layer.

You will have problems with newer 3d games at native 24" resolutions (1920x1200) on that card esp as it's the 256mb version. that said football manager and civ should be fine
To run newer 3d games you'll have to play around with the settings and/or play below native res but if you're prepaired to run without everything turned up to max it should be fine and you'll not need stupidly high wattage psu and any decent 450ish watt psu will be good.

afaik the corsair TX450w is a rebranded seasonic s12 430w I seem to remember that inside they are identical

EDIT: Oh and I must say my experence with wireless network pci cards is not great and they can smoetimes be very tempremental, you might want to consider a USB one instead.
At work I've used one of these to fix a problem of a belkin wireless pci card refuseing to connect http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=588512
to make sure it doesn't go "walking" I used the sticky backed velcro to attach it to the back of one of the 5.25" drive bay blanks and ran a usb extension through the case to a rear usb port. It worked first time and still is

[phurbs]

Thanks for the tips Pob.

I have swapped the thermal paste for the easy application stuff! I should be ok, just take my time lol!

As for the GPU, I am a little worried, but if it doesn't hold up I will just replace it in 6m time when I get my new monitor. As I say, I think it is worth the punt at that price! Especially since I dont play any modern 3D games tbh.

I am getting all this stuff today, I am just waiting for Today Only to refresh, just in case

Thanks again for all the help!

[Maccer101]

OK, my 2 cents:-

1. The Corsair VX450w does indeed have 6 sata connectors, it is quiet though not silent.
2. To tighten the budget you could get an Akasa 965 CPU cooler, its only about £11 and should be quiet and can fit your overclocking needs. I believe there is a favourable Hexus review comparing it to coolers twice the price.
3. The £20 saved on the cooler you could get a E7200 chip, only a 9.5 multiplier but they are reportedly great on power consuption due to being 45nm, and should go to the high 3.XXghz.
4. I would try the Pioneer DVD 20x DL, as I just built a system with one of these and the drive is very quiet, much more so than my Samsung 22x DL writer.

all this stuff should be available on the Scan site

[staffsMike]

OK, my 2 cents:-

1. The Corsair VX450w does indeed have 6 sata connectors, it is quiet though not silent.
2. To tighten the budget you could get an Akasa 965 CPU cooler, its only about £11 and should be quiet and can fit your overclocking needs. I believe there is a favourable Hexus review comparing it to coolers twice the price.
3. The £20 saved on the cooler you could get a E7200 chip, only a 9.5 multiplier but they are reportedly great on power consuption due to being 45nm, and should go to the high 3.XXghz.
4. I would try the Pioneer DVD 20x DL, as I just built a system with one of these and the drive is very quiet, much more so than my Samsung 22x DL writer.

all this stuff should be available on the Scan site

To point 1 I would say that depends on how much power you put through it but a modest power requirement will allow it to run silent, mine is as quiet as my HX to the unassisted ear.

To point 3 the E5200 is 45nm. It's only disadvantage is a small amount of cache which shouldn't be a problem. It also overclocks very well into the 3.5Ghz and above arena.

Point 4 sounds good I have older samsung drives.

[Webby]

OK, my 2 cents:-

1. The Corsair VX450w does indeed have 6 sata connectors, it is quiet though not silent.
2. To tighten the budget you could get an Akasa 965 CPU cooler, its only about £11 and should be quiet and can fit your overclocking needs. I believe there is a favourable Hexus review comparing it to coolers twice the price.
3. The £20 saved on the cooler you could get a E7200 chip, only a 9.5 multiplier but they are reportedly great on power consuption due to being 45nm, and should go to the high 3.XXghz.
4. I would try the Pioneer DVD 20x DL, as I just built a system with one of these and the drive is very quiet, much more so than my Samsung 22x DL writer.

all this stuff should be available on the Scan site

1. Nothing with a fan is ever going to be silent, my brothers VX450 is not audible through the case over the sound of the case fans (which are all quiet low speed).
2. Price is not a good basis to compare a CPU cooler the Zalman CNPS9700-NT for example costs £40 and would struggle to beat the cooling of me blowing on the CPU (maybe a slight exaggeration) equally other £30 coolers (the Scythe Ninja 2 among them) will out perform the Akasa and be quieter while doing it.
3.The E5200 is a 45nm chip as well but with a 12.5x multiplier, the only benefit the E7200 has is its extra 1MB of L2 cache
4. If you say so don't have a Pioneer to compare to.

[staffsMike]

I think all points made now are pointless anyway...
http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...t-working.html