What cooling is best for overclocking my i7 860?

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brodexcius

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Feb 17, 2014
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Hey folks,

First of all, heres my rig:

PSU
Inter-Tech Energon EPS-650W
CPU
Intel Core i7 860 @ 2.80GHz
RAM
4,00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 666MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. P55M-UD2 (Socket 1156)
GPU
1024MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 5800 Series (XFX Pine Group)
Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811294002


Now I'm looking to upgrade, and I've decided that I would go for a GTX 780 or 780 Ti, not 100% sure yet.

I've also thought about OCing my CPU, as I think it would be required, before it would even be able to run with a 780 or 780Ti, but I'm not sure how to go about it.


First of all, what cooling is best to use? I got room for a 120mm cooler - I've looked at both liquid and air cooling, but I'm not sure what willl make my CPU perform best with the GPU?
Would it even be possible to OC with my current case?

Also, my PSU, is it gonna be able to pull this off? Or should I get a new one too?

Thanks for the answers in advance :)
 
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burdenbound
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Spectre694

Spectre694

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Feb 28, 2014
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Water cooling is best for maximum performance requires more room than you have.
Air cooling CM 212 would be a good start for air cooling or noctua if you have the money. Your real bottleneck is your GPU it is much weaker than your CPU.
 
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brodexcius

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Yeah, as i mentioned in the text, im thinking about upgrading for the 780 or 780 Ti, and thats why i need optimal overclocking from my CPU, to not make it bottleneck the GPU - So I guess I need to know if the air cooling would be sufficient enough to clock my CPU, to not bottleneck my upcoming GPU, or if I need to buy a new case, to get liquid cooling fit in, and then overclock my CPU from there.
 
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burdenbound

burdenbound

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I don't think you are going to get enough performance from over clocking to offset a 780 or 780ti. Both of those are serious cards and your CPU is simply dated. Over clocking might get you 10 more percent but a new CPU would see your numbers come up greatly in tandem with a new GPU.

If your using a single 1080p display I don't believe you need the 780, I say grab a GTX 770 and upgrade your CPU/mobo/ram along with it.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Good cpu cooling will only get you so far.
How well you can oc is mostly determined by your luck in getting good chip.
I think a simple $30 cooler like a cm hyper212 would be about as good as you need to be.

A GTX780 or ti would be a massive upgrade.
If your psu can deliver 42a on the +12v rails, you should be good to go.
Check the data plate to see. A top quality 650w psu can deliver around 54a.
 
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brodexcius

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Well - My end goal is really to get good performance in games like Arma 3, titanfall, and in general the new titles coming out. Would I be able to upgrade my way to a good performance, maybe by utilizing overclocking, or do I need to go out and invest in a whole new rig?


 
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burdenbound

burdenbound

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With over clocking your current CPU should still offer good performance in games. I think the biggest reason members will point you toward a new system is because you would be investing a lot of money in a 780 or 780ti which would not be fully utilized by your CPU. You would see an enormous improvement over your current GPU but I feel that with your current setup the 780 is overkill. You will want to grab at least another 4GB stick of RAM and if you are using a single 1080p screen you are spending more money than necessary to achieve a smooth frame rate.
 
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brodexcius

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I kinda felt like that too.. Either I spend like, a couple of hundred bucks on some upgrades, or I go large and spend 2K on a new system.. But I do feel like my current CPU should still have some life in it :)

What would you recommend for me? I would obviously buy 8GB new ram, preferably 1600 Mhz or higher - But what graphic card? And should I buy a hyper 212 evo to try to overclock a bit? or wouldn't it help? Again, my main goal is to have a decent performance in newer titles.
 
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burdenbound

burdenbound

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I say grab a GTX 770, new RAM, and the 212, I don't know much about the overclockability and temperatures of your CPU so you may want to look up what is an easily achievable over clock and whether the 212 will do the job. The new heat sink will allow you to over clock some but beyond that makes your computer a ton more quiet.

Remember be careful about getting RAM with a large hat spreader because it might be difficult to fit with a large heat sink. Alternatively there is water cooling if your case has a spot for a radiator. I would recommend water cooling if you want to push a decent over clock on the CPU, the H90 water cooler is probably the smallest I would recommend because anything lower and you may as well stick with a noctua air cooler(massive air cooler). Those last couple options are a bit more pricey though, so if you want a moderate over clock and don't want to spend much money then the 212 is a great choice.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Good gaming comes first from a good graphics card.
A good graphics card will be easily transferrable to a new or upgraded pc.
I recommend that first and see how you do.
If you are gaming on a single monitor, I think a GTX770 2gb card would be about right.
At most, a GTX780.

No game, by itself will use more than 4gb. But, ram is cheap. Adding 4gb would be good.

Intel cpu's do not benefit much from faster ram, Just adding the same spec as what you have would be fine.
Read this:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3

If you are currently using a stock cooler, you will appreciate a decent aftermarket cooler. Not so much for the cooling, as for the reduction in fan noise as your cpu load ramps up. The $30 cm hyper212 is a good pick here.

Your i7-860 was a great chip in it's time, and really still is. I would see how far you can go with a conservative oc.

You might want to run some tests to clarify your options:

a) Run your games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.


Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
set to 70% and see how you do.


You could also experiment with removing one core in the bios. This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many cores.

If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.

It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system, and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.

If you do want a cpu upgrade, a i5-4670K and a Z87 based motherboard will set you back about $350-$400.



 
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