Hi, I'm building a new PC for my gf (suprise gift) and I could do with a second opinion. She mostly just uses facebook but she does enjoy the odd game of TF2 (and she's starting to play other games as well). She also uses it to watch films, listen to music etc as well She loves shuttles so that's what i'm building. Spec: Shuttle sz68r5 8GB RAM ATI 7850 2gb Dell u2412m Crucial M4 256mb ssd Blu-ray drive One of the more important aspects of the build is the noise level, which brings me to my question. The CPU I'm looking at is either an Ivy Bridge 3570k or a Sandybridge 2500k. I'm leaning more toward the 2500k because they run cooler (therefore the hsf doesn't have to work as hard so its quieter) but it just feels a little strange buying a CPU that's been superseded. Any thoughts?
Why not just build your own PC in a shuttle style case ? There are many around.... And I highly rate the crucials as i own one, but have been using samsungs in recent builds and prefer them over the crucials.
I would get the 3570K - or even a non-K chip as she's unlikely to be overclocking. The temps on IB don't matter until you start overclocking anyway - my 3770 is sitting at a mere 29C right now, which is hardly hot. Even if you OC for her, a decent air cooler (ie: not the retail unit) will do a fine job. Plus, the 2500K is now end of life, and I just don't see the point in buying one new.
I've been buying some components for a few weeks now (spreading the cost) and the last two components to buy are the CPU and shuttle itself. I'm aware there are cases out there that are very like shuttles but she just really likes shuttles and any alternatives I've shown her in the past she doesn't like. I thought I was on to a winner with the bitfenix cases (i like them) but I showed her one when we were at i47 and she didn't like them at all. Cei - What cooler do you have on your 3770? The reviews i've been seeing all put the idle temps way higher than that, i get the impression they seem to be something in the region of 15- 20C more than sandybridge
If you're after a great low profile cooler I can recommend the Scythe series, I have this http://www.scan.co.uk/products/scythe-big-shuriken-2-revb-low-profile-cpu-cooler-scbsk-2100 in one of my rigs.
The shuttle comes with it's own cooler which will be fine for now (I may swap it later on down the line for an all in one liquid cooler depending on temps/noise)
I have a Corsair H80 sealed loop on the 3770 (quietest setting), but previously used a Thermaltake Frio air cooler on lowest fan settings that was only a few degrees warmer. IB is not 15-20C higher than SB, unless possibly when using the stock cooler or pushing the limits of an overclock. I'll post some links up in a bit, just on my way out. EDIT: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1924/8/ http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2251837 So a 3770K at stock, under full load, hit 54.5C, which is a perfectly respectable temperature. It's only when you're overclocking that heat becomes more of an issue, rising to 92.5C when at 4.7Ghz (which is one hell of an overclock). Sandy Bridge runs cooler when overlocked to the same levels, but remember that IB is natively faster, so you need the SB to run 200Mhz or so faster to reach the same performance. Basically, IB temperatures are manageable as long as you're not overclocking the nuts off the CPU, and you get a faster CPU to boot.
