Hardware PC Hardware Buyer's Guide: August/September 2012

My 3770K IB sits at 4.7GHz and runs no hotter than my old i7 920. Its stupidly quick at laughs at everything I throw at it. I have no complaints at all with it, however Ive not had chance to play with a SB K series chip.

 

*Swaps the dual GPU ATI offering in and adds the standard 40% increase in watts to any bit-tech PSU suggestion*

Otherwise good picks.

 

If you did you would find SB would be laughing at your IB temps.

 

If you did you would find SB would be laughing at your IB temps.[/QUOTE]

Obviously its water cooled at that speed, as you'd prob have to invest in high end cooling to OC a SB chip to that speed anyway too. As I said no hotter than my 920 but miles faster, I had that for over 3 yrs and loved it. An IB CPU outperforms a SB chip anyways clock for clock.

 

Yeah realistically 4.8GHz is about the limit for IvyB as thermals are starting to get way out of control, and granted because of better ipc it will match a SandyB at about 5GHz......but where as that is the limit for IvyB it is not for SandyB many of which will go another 0.5GHz and more further...effectively leaving Ivby well behind.

 

Considering how many people will included additional fans and/or swap out the case included fans, can I ask why you never include case fans in the builds? After all they can effect the budget by £20-£60 right?

 

not many sandy chips will hit 5ghz even people who overclock heavily in these forums have struggled to hit 5ghz with temps sky rocketing into the 90s which is no good for long term.

ivy and sandy are as hot as each other at 4.8 ghz 5ghz. Its at 4.5ghz where ivy suffers vs sandy as the sandy will be cooler running chip.

once your passed a set point voltages(1.4v + which is generally whats required to take sandy and ivy above 4.8ghz ) take any heat savings away.

ivy also wins on power consumption

 

a HTCP is fine with a F1 CPU and no you do not need more CPU grunt for any games. Most all games are GPU dependent with 2-4 RTS exceptions like Supreme Commander with 1000 units and shadows on.

 

I'm glad there is a mini-itx section now, i'm tempted to build a mini system myself now

 

How come they chose the BitFenix and not the Define Mini?

They mentioned it was a fairly flimsy case and lacking in build quality....how does it compare to the Define Mini, anyone know? Thanks!

 

Define Mini is a microATX case, the BitFenix is a miniITX case. I don't think that bit-tech have reviewed the Define Mini, but they wouldn't choose it over the BitFenix for the miniITX build because they're trying to get as small as possible.

Hope that helped.

 

It's amazing how little stuff has moved on recently - cpu's, memory, mb have barely changed since the i2500K hit the scene (sure names are different but performance/£ and features are about the same). Still recommending 120gb SSD + HDD of similar size - crucial m4 is a pretty old SSD too.

Only thing that has taken a step forward is graphics, but even that's not huge - there are faster cards but they cost even more, performance/£ is only a little better then the last gen gave.

 

I see! Checking up on the specs though, the Feix is 250x359x404 whereas the Define Mini is 210x395x490 so it's not massively different in size given that the Fenix is wider?

I'm stuck on choosing a Micro-mini atx case haha :-D

 

Hi guys this is my first post been lurking for a long time

I was thinking of building the Mini-ITX Gamer August 2012 as per article.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2012/08/31/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-august-2012/6

Do you think I could swap out the Zotac's GeForce 660 Ti for a GTX 670 ? Not planning on OC'ing the GPU.
I know I have to remove the hard drive bay, just worried about heat.

Regards

 

Yeah, there's not a lot in it, but I suppose that if someone's going miniITX then I'd assume they're gonna want as small a case as possible, otherwise (like I've done) you'd go with a microATX build, as I'd prefer a slightly larger case with more expansion options (and choice of motherboard etc). I'd assume that getting it as small as possible was the reason for only considering a miniITX case.

EDIT: Tbh if people wanted a microATX build then they could use the Gaming Workhorse or Premium Player suggestions (possibly bar the CPU Cooler, the i30 might have clearance issues in some cases) with a microATX case. It's nice that it's easy to make that choice and not feel like it's a compromise.

 

Where have you guys seen a 7870 for £185?

Cheapest I can find is £200 on scan.

 

Hi Everybody,

I'm putting together a combination of the Affordable All Rounder and the Enthusiast Overclocker. This is what I've bought:

Gigabyte Z68AP-D3
8GB 1,600MHz DDR3 (single 8GB stick of RAM)
ThermalTake SP-530PCWEU
3.4GHz Intel Core i5-3570K
Arctic Freezer i30

I'll be reusing some old components - e.g. Antec P180, Samsung HDD, etc

I'm toying with a SSD and I've seen this item on eBay for £48:

OCZ 120GB Solid 3 SSD - 2.5" SATA-III - Read 500MB/s Write 450MB/s
Item # = 271064174427

Would it be a sensible purchase? Should I wait for 256GB drives to drop in price?