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Need Help On Buying A New Desktop..


Sam F

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Put a large amount in the centre of the CPU, about the size of a normal pea, then surround it with 4 smaller ones about the size of a small pea, then mount the heatsink to it by putting it on straight and twisting it slightly from side to side to help push any air bubbles out, then when you screw it down time you should find that a tiny bit of paste is pushed out all the way around the edge.
That sounds like way too much thermal paste! You pretty much want as little as possible. If you are applying your own you are meant to apply a small amount about the size of a grain of rice onto the middle of the CPU chip, push the heatsink on, remove the heatsink then wipe away any paste from the heat sink leaving just the thin layer that is on the CPU chip itself.

Most CPU heatsinks will come with a thin layer of thermal paste pre-applied so its simple enough to just fit the cooler without faffing around applying your own thermal paste.

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Don't go near Coolermaster modular PSU's, got bad reviews in Custom PC magazine (I know ive got one, but didnt know they were bad but oh well haha). Be Quiet! Ones are supposed to be spot on, aswell as corsair ones I think it is. Get yourself some decent thermal paste like Artic Cooling MX-3 paste, pisses all over the Artic Silver 5 and it doesnt contain elements that conduct electricity either so you don't short things out if you accidentally get some on the board.

With the paste, stick literally a gnats chuff's worth on, wack the cooler on, give it a twist a bit to spread it about, then secure it down. Look up how to apply it to your specific CPU as cores are arranged differently on some CPUs. Too much paste will give you the opposite effect your after and can insulate the CPU.

Cooler to go for at the moment is the Titan Fenrir.

Id go for a Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB hard drive also, they are bloody quick and cheap (£60ish)

Another thing I couldnt live without is a dedicated sound card. Creative Fatality gaming one is the one you want to go for.

I'd also go for a Coolermaster CM-690 gaming case. Pretty much rated one of the best around as it has bloody good cooling, is cheap, also the option of a nVidia version too. Can also take all different sizes of fans. Has 2 roof, 2 side, 1 other side, 1 bottom, 1 back and 1 front. Got this case myself, can hold the biggest graphics cards with ease and has tons of room to route cables.

What it can look like inside this case, old photos and its changed now but you get the picture.

Afterinside.jpgBackcablemanagement.jpg

Edited by Si-man
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Don't go near Coolermaster modular PSU's, got bad reviews in Custom PC magazine (I know ive got one, but didnt know they were bad but oh well haha). Be Quiet! Ones are supposed to be spot on, aswell as corsair ones I think it is. Get yourself some decent thermal paste like Artic Cooling MX-3 paste, pisses all over the Artic Silver 5 and it doesnt contain elements that conduct electricity either so you don't short things out if you accidentally get some on the board.

With the paste, stick literally a gnats chuff's worth on, wack the cooler on, give it a twist a bit to spread it about, then secure it down. Look up how to apply it to your specific CPU as cores are arranged differently on some CPUs. Too much paste will give you the opposite effect your after and can insulate the CPU.

Cooler to go for at the moment is the Titan Fenrir.

Id go for a Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB hard drive also, they are bloody quick and cheap (£60ish)

Another thing I couldnt live without is a dedicated sound card. Creative Fatality gaming one is the one you want to go for.

I'd also go for a Coolermaster CM-690 gaming case. Pretty much rated one of the best around as it has bloody good cooling, is cheap, also the option of a nVidia version too. Can also take all different sizes of fans. Has 2 roof, 2 side, 1 other side, 1 bottom, 1 back and 1 front. Got this case myself, can hold the biggest graphics cards with ease and has tons of room to route cables.

What it can look like inside this case, old photos and its changed now but you get the picture.

*image*

I have heard a lot more bad things about OCZ power supplies to be honest. The coolermaster ones are usually fairly highly regarded from what I gather. Though as you pointed out Be Quiet and Corsair are definitely the leaders.

Less is definitely more with thermal paste!

The CM-690 also has a full black edition now which looks the dogs bollox! But I much prefer the look of Lian Li's now, especially the one you have been suggested on Overclockers forum mate.

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That sounds like way too much thermal paste! You pretty much want as little as possible. If you are applying your own you are meant to apply a small amount about the size of a grain of rice onto the middle of the CPU chip, push the heatsink on, remove the heatsink then wipe away any paste from the heat sink leaving just the thin layer that is on the CPU chip itself.

Most CPU heatsinks will come with a thin layer of thermal paste pre-applied so its simple enough to just fit the cooler without faffing around applying your own thermal paste.

I did use a grain of rice first, didn't push any out so I took it off, it had covered about a 5p size of the CPU. Lucky I checked! Took me 4 goes to get it to splurge a bit out of every side.

Don't go near Coolermaster modular PSU's, got bad reviews in Custom PC magazine (I know ive got one, but didnt know they were bad but oh well haha). Be Quiet! Ones are supposed to be spot on, aswell as corsair ones I think it is. Get yourself some decent thermal paste like Artic Cooling MX-3 paste, pisses all over the Artic Silver 5 and it doesnt contain elements that conduct electricity either so you don't short things out if you accidentally get some on the board.

I used MX-3, definately up to the reviews, I've overclocked my AMD 965 to 3.8ghz, it never goes over 50C on full load.

I'd say stick to Corsair for the PSU, they seem to have the highest rep if you ask me.

Cooler to go for at the moment is the Titan Fenrir.

Id go for a Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB hard drive also, they are bloody quick and cheap (£60ish)

I've got both of these, simply wonderful, although the standard fan that comes with the Fenrir is shite, it's really loud and looks tacky. I'll be replacing mine soon.

If you get a Fenrir, you need as much thermal paste as I said! the heat pipes stick out slightly from the block that holds it down, so the gaps take a lot of filling.

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I did use a grain of rice first, didn't push any out so I took it off, it had covered about a 5p size of the CPU. Lucky I checked! Took me 4 goes to get it to splurge a bit out of every side.

Definitely shouldn't need as much as you said though. It's only there to fill small defects and pits on the cpu and heatsink surfaces. If you find it doesn't spread you should use something to spread it evenly across your cpu manually before attaching the heatsink.

My input to what you're buying though, graphics card wise I would hold off on that one and buy a DX11 card. If you're going high end, you will want a card that will last. So either buy one the available dx11 cards (a handful of ATI ones afaik) or buy a cheaper card for the moment and buy a dx11 when there's a few more of them about/when nVidia release their first batch.

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Definitely make sure you go for a modular PSU, it makes keeping the case tidy so much easier! My Enermax PSU has been awesome, its a 3 year old 400w Enermax Liberty, it worked problem free in my old machine and has now been transferred to my new machine. A friend has recently had bad experiences with a couple of Corsair PSU's failing (the originally and warranty replacement failing in quick succession).

In the machine I have just built I am running an Akasa AK-965 CPU Cooler which is great, the Akasa CPU coolers seem to be great value for money and also nice and quiet! I am running two 120mm Sharkoon Silent Eagle case fans, one as an intake and one as an exhaust and they are stupidly quiet and shift a decent amount of air!

I also agree you should go for a Samsung Spinpoint HDD!

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Looks good to me, I'd get a more powerful PSU than that though, from what I can remember off the top of my head, those graphics cards are fairly thirsty.

Other than that it looks good!

Once you've got it and it's running, it will be a good idea to replace the standard fans as they're usually shite, then you can sort the air flow out aswell. A well thought out airflow with that CPU cooler, CPU and motherboard should see you clocking it over 4ghz without too much trouble. I'd be surprised if you don't manage to get it above 4.2ghz.

EDIT: Providing you get a 1366 motherboard of the same level.

Edited by Muel
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