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Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphics & Displays > Graphics Cards > [Solved] Buying a water cooled i7 pc for gaming

[Solved] Buying a water cooled i7 pc for gaming

Forum Graphics & Displays : Graphics Cards [Solved] Buying a water cooled i7 pc for gaming

PowerColor

hi thinking of buying a i7 920 at 3.7 gh water cooled pc with gtx260 graphics card i have already a bliss 8800 gt pcx 512mb graphics card
which is best graphics card thanks

Reply to lonewolfa1

gtx 260 by a wide margin.

Build it yourself though, and 3.7 on water is nothing. You can hit that on air rather easily.

Reply to crosko42

go for a 5850.

and 3.7 is nothing if you have a good air cooler, use water only if you plan to go 4+ ghz

Reply to wiinippongamer

Buy an I7 920 and a good air cooler and the 5850 as the guy above me suggested. OC yourself and spend the remaining $ on your girlfriend or boyfriend , or hookers if nothing available :na:

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Reply to hallowed_dragon

hallowed_dragon wrote :

Buy an I7 920 and a good air cooler and the 5850 as the guy above me suggested. OC yourself and spend the remaining $ on your girlfriend or boyfriend , or hookers if nothing available :na:

I second the hookers option.

Reply to crosko42

how much ram would be best looking at 3gb corsair

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Reply to lonewolfa1

which is best win7 windows vista
spec of computer
ATI Radeon® HD 5850 1GB DDR5
6GB RAM DDR3 1600MHz (3x 2GB)
Mainboard ASUS 1366 P6T X58
1000GB SATA-2 HDD 7200rpm
20x DualLayer DVD±RW Lightscribe
8 Channel High-Definition Audio
Cardreader | Gigabit Ethernet LAN
750 Watt Power | Intel® Box Cooler
data diplay case
cost £850 with out os

Reply to lonewolfa1

Best answer

zirbmonkey wrote :

6GB is the way to go. I'm assuming you'll have Win 7 64 bit?

And don't skimp on the air cooler!
The GTX260 is way better than the 8800GT, but if you're going to put all that effort into your CPU, I sincerely hope you get an ATI 5870, or possibly a 5970 instead.

Should look to spend about $40-50 on a really good air cooler and thermal paste... worth every penny.

Second the 5870 option... 5970 is over $600 so I don't see that as being a realistic investment.

Reply to monsterman

5850 is great for anything you run with it, it can max out every single game at almost any resolution @60+ fps.

what's the res of your monitor? i don't think it's worth getting a 5870 unless you have 1920x1200+, the 5850 will be great for either 1680x1050 and 1920x1080, also it has the best price/penformance ratio right now and it'll penform almost the same as a 5870 if you overclock it to 5870's stock clocks. that'll save you near $100.

win7 is better.

also what brand is the power supply, i've seen some crappy non-branded psus from OEMs before that won't even run a single high end card and keep crashing on you.

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Reply to wiinippongamer

As for graphics cards....

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2491.html

Here's the "winners" from THG's latest (December) GFX Roundup
Best Graphics Cards For The Money: December '09

$50 - HD 4650
$65 - HD 4670 / 9600 GSO
$85 - 9600 GT
$95 - 9600 GT / HD 4830
$110 - GTS 250 512 MB
$120 - GTS 250 1 GB
$155 - HD 5770 / GTX 260
$200 - HD 4890
$240 - 2 x GTS 250
$310 - No winner (HD 5850 Honorable Mention)
$330 - 2 x GTX 260 / 2 x HD 5770
$400 - 2 x HD 4890
$410 - No winner (HD 5870 Honorable Mention)
$465 - No winner (GTX 295 Honorable Mention)
$625 - No winner (HD 5970 Honorable Mention)

As for water cooling....4.4 GHz is easily doable on air with a decent heat sink. My son (Prolimatech Megahalems) runs @ 3.7 GHz 24/365 with all BIOS features enabled and core temps are in the mid 50's. He's at 71-ish average core temp at when he runs at 4.3GHz

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------------------------------ If a man speaks in the forest and no woman hears him, is he still wrong ?
Reply to JackNaylorPE

hmmm... 71 is a little too high already don't you think?

but still acceptable

Reply to wiinippongamer

wiinippongamer wrote :

also what brand is the power supply, i've seen some crappy non-branded psus from OEMs before that won't even run a single high end card and keep crashing on you.

I would argue to just check the capable amps on the power supply itself. The 5850 is pretty reasonable ~500w should be okay. Its rated at 750w so I'm pretty sure its not that far off.

Reply to monsterman

lonewolfa1 wrote :

how much ram would be best looking at 3gb corsair

Here is a 3gb vs. 6gb study:
http://www.corsair.com/_appnotes/A [...] vs_3GB.PDF

A quality PSU should not cost any more, and a marginal one can spell trouble.
Look to Seasonic, Corsair, Antec, PC P&C for quality; there are more.

Reply to geofelt

hi the power supply is 800 ps got 6gb corsair in the end will be running 3.7ghz i7 920 do processor water cooled
so really a cool rig with a gtx 260 and 64 bit vista ultimate thanks for all your help

Reply to lonewolfa1

JackNaylorPE wrote :

If you're going to copy & paste that at least change $95 from 9600GT to 9800GT.

Reply to sabot00

As a suggestion; ditch the water cooling and spend the savings on a stronger graphics solution. A i7-920 at stock can effectively drive a much stronger card than the gtx260.

Reply to geofelt

hi my friend got a i7 920 oc to 3.7ghz 6gb corsair ram gtx 260 graphics card water cooled windows 7 64 bit the problem i am having is it only showing 2.67ghz have i been ripped of or am i missing something thanks your post was very helpfull

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Reply to lonewolfa1

lonewolfa1 wrote :

Windows properties will only show the stock speed. Use cpu-z to verify your overclock.

Reply to geofelt

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