choices choices - ram and cooling help

[noah]

i cant choose, please help

ive just bought a dfi ut nf3 250gb board and a 3200 clawhammer for a nice price secondhand.

now i need some memory and a quiet but good heatsink. mem wise im after a gig for now but im a little worried about the future req of games like battlefield 2 that are reported to need 2gig. although im happy with 1 gig for now.

choices are:
dabs value ram pc3200 £57 for a gig stick
corsair pc3200 2-3-3-6 single stick for £87
corsair pc3200C2 i think thats 2-3-3-6 2*512 for £80 odd
twinmos pc3200 bh-5 2*512 for £74

i realise that the twinmos will be the fastest esp with my dfi board and some volts but what about issues overclocking with 2 dimms over 1? (not a massive concern but might be fun) and if i got 2 dimms would it be happy running another gig in the 3rd slot in the future given that its not dual channel etc. that value ram is very nice and cheap too and apparently may do 220mhz with reasonable timings

for a heatsink i quite fancy the artic cooling silencer 64 as its cheap as pie and seems to be good, also considering a zalmann 7700.

thoughts please


edit: forgot to mention i do like my photoshop and will be using a 7 megapix cam so i'll prob need lots of ram sooner or later.

[StormPC]

Twinmos and a Venus 12.

[noah]

cheers for the suggestions, but a venus 12!! thats 48db!!!!!!!!!!!! will sound like my machines taking off. was thinking more like 20db from a cooler, is the silencer 64 not as good as the reviews say?

[Smokey21]

if you can cool it with a fan, get the bh-5. a xp-120 is still the best sink as far as i know, and it fits fine.

[noah]

does the bh-5 really need a fan?! might steer clear as i need silence what with the computer in the same room.

xp-120 looks good, very expensive tho, i think i'll get one, but will take a little saving

ta

[Smokey21]

well the bh-5 does need very high volts to o/c, and then you need to be able to provide the power from your psu.

probly easier getting some other stuff.

[Gipo]

Geil value I say

[Rave]

You don't need any serious airflow for overvolted BH-5, a slowed down 120mm fan over it should be fine. They just need a bit of airflow over them.

[StormPC]

I don't understand this obsession with quiet. Do you sleep while gaming or benching?

The Venus 12 has this little knob that allows you to turn the fan down when you want to sleep. That way you have the best of both worlds.

[kushtibari]

I don't understand this obsession with quiet. Do you sleep while gaming or benching?

The Venus 12 has this little knob that allows you to turn the fan down when you want to sleep. That way you have the best of both worlds.

Agreed. Run a Venus 12 on a 3500 for my works machine. The only thing I did was to take out the 3 blade fan and put in an older 4 blade thermaltake. Just can't get away with the particular sound of the 3 blade. Did try out a 80-120mm adapter with a 21db fan. It was fine when it wasn't doing much but temps went up to 50c when it was working. (admittedly the temp in the office was 96f at the time)

[noah]

sounds fair enough, just my experiences have warned me of noisy hsf's. im very tempted by the xp120 to be fair, and the reviews for it are great. would something that big not provide enough cooling for the bh-5 as it would circulate plenty of air?

oh and will my antec 380w be enough to power all this (inc overclocked bh-5 and cpu) in your experiences? psu calculators say yes, but what about real world.

thanks

[StormPC]

The XP-120 is a super high performance HS, but it's much more expensive than the Venus 12 so it's not really comparing apples to apples. It's a little more difficult to install also, and it won't fit some motherboards and cases. The Venus 12 fits everything.

[Smokey21]

The XP-120 is a super high performance HS, but it's much more expensive than the Venus 12 so it's not really comparing apples to apples. It's a little more difficult to install also, and it won't fit some motherboards and cases. The Venus 12 fits everything.

but he is botherd about noise, so respect that for once. yes you can turn it down, but it will be ****.

an xp-90 with a nice fan would be 10quid cheaper and still be way better.

the xp-120 fits the dfi easily and the xp-90 fits everything.

[noah]

hello again guys

i bought a cheapo cooler to do me till can afford an xp-120 so thats sorted for the min.

so the question is back to the ram. out of the original choices the bh-5 seems to be the best, but with games lie bf-2 out now do you think i'd be more sensible buying 2 gig? esp as it will cost from £120 for cheap stuff to £140 for some corsair 2-3-3-6 stuff? i only have 3 slots so buying the bh-5 then buying more isnt an option, but if you really think that 2 gig is silly and i'll get better performance from 1 gig of fast stuff then let me know.

thanks