Is 3rd party Cooling necessary for i7-920 and PS4 use

excellent question - i only read your title

i
we are a nano builder!



the i7 is very hot chip, we ship computers running far hotter then we have ever!

keep in mind the big players like cyberpowme and others, have reduced speed. they have changed form cooler master junker to thermalright!
i have used thermalright since 2004 or is it? 2003? xp-90

they just caught on!

temperature is key!

with the i7, with hyperthreading, with apps that run 8 synthec cores yes! YES YOU NEED AFTER MARKET COOLER

I SUGGEST PEOPLE LOOK INTO WATER COOLING!

my claim to fame is the fastest air cooed computers since 2003


the i7 need water cooling, swiftech gtx, double rad is the way to go to 4.2hz!

The supplied cooler will be sufficient. If you find it's too noisy (I'm not saying you will), then you could install a third-party cooler instead.

Just ignore dragon, he is our adbot...

Edit: spelling, damn typing on my blackberry!

stick with the original cooler to begin with, if you find CPU gets too hot, replace it.

Its fine, my stock cooler is running my i7 920 @ 3.6 with no problem.

Stock cooler is fine if you don't plan to overclock, even a little bit of overclocking and it can take it, so you may as well take it to 3.0ghz with ease (you'll need to overclock the memory anyway) however I found the stock fan to be a little noisy in comparison to my other components.

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Stock cooler is perfectly fine for the i7. Why would intel ship a cooler that is not adequate for the stock speed? They DO run hotter than the Core2's however they are quad core hyperthreading chips with a memory controller included. The stock cooler is also ok for a moderate OC.

I do suggest decent case airflow. But an antec 1200 will give you no issues with that.

The ASUS P6T is a GREAT motherboard. It gives you alot of flexibility for a good price.

an 850W PSU seem overkill. What GPU will you be running? a good 500-600W PSU will be fine.

Thanks for your input jay2tall. For Cs4/PS4, the accepted wisdom is "run a i7 cpu with ram over 3gb (I'm installing 6gb) and you can get away with a run of the mill GPU..." because PS4 does not access the GPU. So I haven't decided, but wont be anything to write home to mama about.

However, I will be getting into HD video later [I use a Canon 5d MKII ;-) - FYI for the photographic enthusiasts here] and who knows what gpus I will need for other apps like Premiere / Final Cut etc....

That's why I decided to go for a larger psu so that I dont have to upgrade that when I upgrade my video card.

Any opinions on this anybody?

Sorry, bit lost here Rain, why do I have to overclock the memory?
As I said, I'm a photog with reasonable tech knowledge/skills, but not a speed enthusiast. Once i can get smooth panning/zooming without much hassle, I'm happy. Not into the tweaking and refining bits of tech ;-)

Thanks everyone for the prompt input...much appreciated;
Would still like any other advice, opinions, specially related to PS4/CS4 rigs

This was exactly my logic. Intel don't want their product to fail and create negative PR for themselves. They don't gain any revenue from aftermarket cooling systems since all the add-on coolers are made by other manufacturers...

So, is this add-on cooling mania like adding tail-fins on a Ferrari - which doesn't actually add performance. Or, is it like adding mag wheels and performance tires on the car - which actually improves performance over stock wheels/tires. Btw, am not a car mod enthusiast either...although i used to review cars. ;-)

The i7 supports the stock 1066MHz memory. However you can get memory rated at 1333,1600,1800,1866,2000 all of which are "technically" overclocked memory. When overclocking you want to reach that magical sleep where your CPU is OCed to max and so is your memory. Because the CPU (exept the Extreme version) has a locked multiplier it limits the speed profiles your memory can use, so faster memory give you the flexibility when OCing. In my opinion 1600 is the sweet spot, it lets you OC without high cost. DDR3 has what is called an XMP profile as well. In the BIOS you just set it to use this profile and it sets all your settings for you to run at the rated speed. Otherwise it will just run the stock intel 1066 speed.


The only reason you would need aftermarket cooling to if you are overclocking past a point where the stock cooler isn't sufficient. Heat is ultimatly the enemy of electronic components and you start to reach temps that will decrease the lifespan and efficiency of the CPU. Big coolers disperse heat better for higher clocks. That is why you would need an aftermarket cooler. If you run stock, stick with the stock cooler. Even a moderate OC is fine with it.


To be honest you want a dedicated video card with a little bit of Umph to is. Even just for Vista itself. I have always put together PC's with video that give people a little flexibility. I know Adobe doesn't really need the GPU but it helps with large displays. Not sure about the other applications but my Favorite GPU for this sort of setup is the ATI HD4670. It doesn't require a PCI-E power connector, but delivers the power most visual apps need. ATI cards are the midrange kings. It has Audio build in if you choose to use the HDMI output connector so your audio runs through the same cable which is nice if you use a TV on it. (not that many use this) Regardless it give the Nvidia 9600gt a run and is pretty cheap at $60 after MIR. Just watch the small fans, they can be noisy. THe HIS is my personal pick and I have used this card in a build already. it has a nice cooler which is VERY quiet.

This is my suggestion: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

^ to jays reply