Need new cooling/graphics card for ibuypower older machine, help please

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ann97

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Jun 14, 2013
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My son has an ibuypower with intel i5 standard cooler installed, no clue of the motherboard as I think it is generic maybe? The room is super hot, and the card/s are now starting to go.

How do I figure out what cooler to put in the system? never taken this system apart. I know it has the stock i5 cooler on it.

As far as graphics cards it is running on 2 Zotac GeForce GTX 275 cards so it is reasonable the cards are almost dead. What card would you all rec in the $150-$175 price range? Is this price range even possible for him to continue gaming? He plays stuff like league of legends etc. Also, would you change both or can I just change 1?

Obviously I have never built a computer, but been watching a lot of videos (going to build my own soon), but figured I would attempt changing out my son's stuff and see how that goes.
 
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markwp

markwp

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Jan 22, 2013
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Get a Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo or a Xigmatek GAIA for the cooler. For the gpu, if you feel the old cards are really going, get a GTX 660 or Radeon 7850. Both of these are slightly over your $175 budget, but will go well for the next 2-3 years with the I5.

Check you power supply make and model - it's going to be important to have a quality unit in there. If you can post what you have, we can give you some insight on if it will be sufficient, or if you should consider an upgrade.

Mark
 
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markwp

markwp

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Your psu will be fine for upgrade. I always recommend a single card solution over sli/xfire. The issues with drivers, etc. are just too much of a pain for casual (not hardcore) gaming.

That being said, the 275 is a pretty good card and in sli they are good for gaming. Before you decide to upgrade the video, buy the cpu cooler and install that to see if it helps your temps. Also check to be sure your case fans are operating properly, especially with the 275's - they throw some serious heat.

On your rig, I would suggest at least 2 - 120mm high cfm intake fans and 2 - 120mm exhaust fans. Make sure your wiring is neat as possible to avoid air flow restrictions and blow out any dust bunnies that may be hiding in the case.

Download and run hardware monitor to check your temps - once you put the cpu cooler on and get good airflow, your temps on the cpu should idle ~35c and max at ~65-70c. The gpu's may idle at 40-50 and even if they max around 90c, that's ok - they run really hot.

Mark

 
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ann97

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Mark, thanks. I may do what you said and get the new cpu cooler and see. I know he is satisfied with the 275's if we can get everything running cooler in there maybe the cards will be ok, not sure. As far as the 275's throwing heat, that is no lie.. the bedroom he has the system in gets so hot even the a/c at 70 does not cool the room down.

As far as the fans, it's a bit difficult, I should take a photo of the interior, it's tight! Maybe if I take a few photos the suggestions may be easier to make. I would love to add a way for the system to run cool enough so that he is not overheating himself while gaming. (he games about 6 hours a day).
 
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markwp

markwp

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Take the side cover off the case and take a pic of the rear, top, and in front of the drive cages. If the case has a make/model, that would be helpful.

Also, if you know the model of the pc from ibuypower, we can probably find the components.

Mark
 
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markwp

markwp

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That pc uses 2nd generation Intel (we are now in 4th generation), but is still a good machine. I can't find specifics on the motherboard, but I suspect it is either Asus or Gigabyte, both of which are well respected.

From what I could find, there should be four fans already installed and that should be sufficient.

The system is probably 4-5 years old, and near end of life. Motherboards for this platform are still available on ebay and amazon, but without knowing which board you have, finding an exact match (should it ever be needed) may be difficult.

I think your heat issues are mostly from the video cards. They are known to run very hot, and with two of them, they are probably the prime source of heat in the room. The cpu cooler is not going to give you relief from the video card heat, but it will help protect the cpu from thermals created by the video cards.

The only practical way to reduce the cause of the heat would be to replace the video cards. A single card solution like the GTX 660 I noted earlier would be slightly faster, but with a lot less heat. A gtx670 would give you ~1.4x the power of the current setup, but is substantially more expensive (~$350).

Mark
 
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ann97

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thanks Mark for all the help. I will just change out the video cards then to one 660 or 670. Keeping it cooler will extend the life of the entire machine so in a way it kinda pays for itself to a degree. :)
 
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