Upgrading the guts of my PC and this is what I'm planning on: Intel-P760 Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3, Intel P55 Express, S1156, PCI-E 2.0, DDR3 2200, SATA 6Gb/s, RAID, USB 3.0, ATX [28 day installation damage insurance with Scansure available on this product] 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.65V 520W Seasonic M12II-520 Bronze, Modular, 87% Eff', SLI/CrossFire, EPS 12V, 20/24 pin M/B connector Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro v2.1 - S1366/S1156/S775/AM3/AM2+/AM2/939 Up to 130 Watts! I use my PC for gaming (1920x1200). I currently have an ATI 5770 (I lust after an nVidia 460, but it will have to wait - maybe when I've sold my current bits). I already have 128gb Vertex SSD, 2 (rather elderly but good enough) Samsung 500mb HD, optical drive, Lian Li case etc. I am a quiet freak! My 5770 has a quiet cooler. My 6yr old Seasonic psu is getting noisy now and is a bit limited for graphics cards. The cooler I've chosen is much cheaper than I've bought before - is it quiet enough? Unlikely to overclock - or if so, very slightly. I have to ensure that Scan flash the mobo to the latest BIOS so it will recognise the P760. I've already spoken to them and it doesn't seem a problem. But RAM still confuses me - I think I've got a compatible set! Would be honoured if any of you would care to comment. Caroline
Oh, forgot to mention I also considered the Asus P7P55D-E motherboard but decided on the Gigabyte. Would you agree? (I want USB 3 and Sata 6gps for future-proofing) Caroline
The Gelid Tranquilo is a much quieter CPU cooler for only a few pounds more than the Freezer 7: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Geli...l-S775-1366-1156-AMD-754-939-940-AM2-AM2plus-. The RAM is fine. The PSU is a good brand, should be nice and quiet and is modular to boot. Other good choices are the Corsair HX520w, the Corsair HX650w or the Antec TruePower New 650w. If you are not overclocking and are only going to use a single GPU then 520w is more than sufficient. Looks like a good build.
Thank you! (Especially for the heads-up on the cooler.) EDIT: Actually that's the cooler I have now, I've just realised. Fantastic cooler - can't seem to get fittings for an 1156 socket. Those sockets didn't exist when I bought it. Caroline
It isn't a Gelid after all. Went to order my parts from Scan yesterday. CPU had gone out of stock. Went back to try again today. CPU and motherboard had gone out of stock. Anyway, spoke to a very nice chap called Lee who promised me they would both be in today or Monday. As I need the BIOS flashing, stuff will probably arrive Monday or Tuesday. As my planned build day is likely Thursday, that's fine. Caroline
I got that gigabyte board last week have been quite impressed with it so far. According to the manual enabling the sata 3 or usb 3 1/2's the pcie lanes to the 16x pcie 2.0 slot (this seems to be standard for most of the 1156 boards with usb/sata3 due to the cpu limit). Though I don't currently have a ssd I hope to get one. While it did cut the lanes to 8x it made no difference to the fps on my gtx260 and I don't think it will for most single gpu cards. I'm currently using a freezer pro 7 on mine (reused from last pc), with an i5 760. Not overclocked very much yet but maxed out with prime95 i'm getting temps of 53c max. I would say the gelid tranquilo is quiter and probably cools slightly better. So if you want something really quiet then i'd go with that as its not much more.
Thanks for the feedback. I must have spent an age trying to choose between the Gigabyte board and an Asus one. Eventually I realised I was finding it so difficult because there was actually very little to choose between them (given I only ever run a single graphics card). In the end, the Gigabyte having an 'always on' USB port for recharging stuff swung it. Even my bluetooth earpiece for my mobile has USB recharge. I seem to have a ton of stuff that wants USB recharging. I was a bit concerned about the 16x, 8x stuff. And I do have an SSD. But the conclusion I read many times was that it won't really affect a single GPU card. Caroline
My stuff arrived this morning. The GA-P55A-UD3 is still revision 1.0 (despite being new stock). I think I've read that reviewers seem to prefer 1.0 over 2.0 on these Gigabyte boards. In any event, do you think I should be concerned about it? Thanks Caroline
You might be thinking of the X58A-UD3R - CPC reviewed the Rev 2 version in the last magazine. The BIOS wasn't stable. EDIT: what is that CPU in your spec (P760)? I presume you're talking an i5-760? I quite like Gigabyte boards myself, I think you've done well.
I have no idea what a P760 is... it's those gremlins typing on my keyboard when I'm not looking. So, yes, it is of course i5-760. (P760....what WAS I thinking as I typed it..??!) Caroline
Entirely possible as the day after I blew all this money on PC parts my fridge-freezer up & died. What a shedload of hassle (And expense)
