Gaming rig needs an upgrade. But what to spend the £120/$160 on?

[7up]

...This is all good.

Yate Loons seem to be a great price. Should I get two?

On another note, having just checked:

Not including the cooler fan, I have a total of 5 fans blowing IN (4 in a 2x2 square on side, 1 at front),

and only one blowing OUT (at the back, exhaust style).

Temps are always steady- but should I flip another to OUT, perhaps near the top?

 

[alienware]

TAT is good for temps on Intel chips. I used to use it on my E4500. Doesn't work on AMD though haha.

 

[alienware]

...This is all good.

Yate Loons seem to be a great price. Should I get two?

On another note, having just checked:

Not including the cooler fan, I have a total of 5 fans blowing IN (4 in a 2x2 square on side, 1 at front),

and only one blowing OUT (at the back, exhaust style).

Temps are always steady- but should I flip another to OUT, perhaps near the top?

I would leave it. That will only confuse the air flow causing dead spots. Cold air is your friend. It's a lot harder to get more cold air in that getting the warm air out. Is your rear fan 120mm yes? and is your case meshed or vented anywhere?

Oops missed a bit. If your cooler supports two fans then hells yeah, fit two. I don't do this whole quiet thing tbh. Performance causes heat and that heat needs dissapating.

I use Yate fans in my silver machine and they're pretty good. I swapped them out in my black one for slightly ever so less noisy though I used Arctics which were really cheap (like £5 for a 120 and £4 for a 92mm). Only thing I could really see on them that looked cheap was the wire used, but that makes no difference to how fast they move or the CFM generated.

 

[tinytomlogan]

...This is all good.

Yate Loons seem to be a great price. Should I get two?

On another note, having just checked:

Not including the cooler fan, I have a total of 5 fans blowing IN (4 in a 2x2 square on side, 1 at front),

and only one blowing OUT (at the back, exhaust style).

Temps are always steady- but should I flip another to OUT, perhaps near the top?

Can you take a few pictures of your case for us dude and Ill see whats best to do about airflow for you as all that air in and 1 out is actually a bad thing. You need airflow otherwise the fans that air blowing in will just be making noise and not able to actually move any air.

 

[AMDFTW]

its best to have more air going out than in.

prolemtech megahalms with some of the fans mentiond (i would have noctua)

and then see were your up to,as you might be ok with some samsung f3's

 

[alienware]

its best to have more air going out than in.

How is it scientifically possible to have more air going out than in? Fans set to intake bring it in from outside. Fans set to exhaust create suction and flow. That air has to come from somewhere otherwise the case would implode. In which case it's better to be bringing more cool air in.

 

[tinytomlogan]

its best to have more air going out than in.

prolemtech megahalms with some of the fans mentiond (i would have noctua)

and then see were your up to,as you might be ok with some samsung f3's

Read the posts he has a TRUE. Yawn.

How is it scientifically possible to have more air going out than in? Fans set to intake bring it in from outside. Fans set to exhaust create suction and flow. That air has to come from somewhere otherwise the case would implode. In which case it's better to be bringing more cool air in.

You cant magically get more air IN a case just cos the fans are turning. you need air FLOW.....

Flow is also the quietist option as you dont have fans fighting to push air any more than they need to (thus just creating extra wind noise)

 

[alienware]

You cant magically get more air IN a case just cos the fans are turning. you need air FLOW.....

Flow is also the quietist option as you dont have fans fighting to push air any more than they need to (thus just creating extra wind noise)

I didn't say that. What I said was that the air had to be going somewhere. Through mesh, out of a gap, anywhere. Air brought in must go somewhere

Getting all sciencey for a moment now.. From what he has described I would imagine his system is working something like this. 4 fans in (I only drew two in 2d but imagine two below) and one out. So I am imagining it looks something like this.

Fig 1 is the system in its current state with Fig 2 being what will be occuring should he change two of the fans.

Personally I would rather stick with fig 1. Simply as yes, you are bringing air in faster than the rear fan can get it out but that air has to go somewhere. With that kind of flow even if it works its way out of the cracks or vents in the case it's still more cold air.

I'd like to see some photos though

 

[7up]

*Absorbs knowledge*

Here's pics of my current setup. (One less fan than I thought, actually. 6 total)

All 6 fans appear to be 120mm.

(Also; 3 small fans attached to ATI 4870x2. Standard issue, I believe).

 

[alienware]

Personally speaking I would leave them on intake. Just my opinion. If you set any of those to exhaust they will simply take the air straight out that is coming in. They're too close together.

I think your cooling is more than adequate. It's far more than mine I'll say that much and I am running a 400mhz (or about 12%) overclock with hardly any rise in temps.

Oh, lovely case btw looks like it's built like a coal bunker

 

[alienware]

One of these days I will stick one of these on my cooler Just for the pure laffage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCGJ42w02EU&feature=related

 

[7up]

One of these days I will stick one of these on my cooler Just for the pure laffage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCGJ42w02EU&feature=related

Ha! Enough to pull the cat through the grille

 

[tinytomlogan]

Ive got a normal thickness 220cfm delta. Comes out for special occasions! Its noisier than my hoover!

 

[alienware]

Ive got a normal thickness 220cfm delta. Comes out for special occasions! Its noisier than my hoover!

awesome. I soooo nearly got one before when Scan were selling them but I know I would end up putting a finger in by accident

 

[7up]

Looks like I can fix an additional fan to my Thermalright with an extra set of clips.

So how about a pair of these before I get cracking on the OC?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Yate-Loon-D12...ponents_Fans_Heatsinks_SR&hash=item4ceffe7fdb

 

[alienware]

Yeah they seem fine.

Consider these though.

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/120mmfans/zm-f3

As they're probably slightly better quality. They also spin @ 200rpm lower than the Yate so make far less noise and shift over 70CFM.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Get the yateloons mate zalmans are terible.

 

[7up]

Thanks Alien!

OK, I've been getting my head around OC basics, as it relates to my setup.

Based on tonight's research, I understand these to be the areas I'll need to study and understand to OC my system safely:

OCing Motherboard: tweak from BIOS settings (Wolfdale P5K Premium wifi)

-RAM timings, fanspeeds, temp etc

OCing the Processor: tweak from BIOS Settings (Intel E8400 C2D)

-Voltage etc

OCing the VideoCard: tweak from BIOS Settings + various software (AMD, 4870x2)

-Tools etc http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?18-ATI-Overclocking-Tools

-ATI tweak guides

Other required software:

-Rivatuner

-Ati Tray Tools

-GPU/CPU benchmarking software

-Prime95

-HWmonitor

Next step:

-Use OC guides relating to P5K Premium + E8400 OCs, then start tweaking incrementally and benchmarking results, noting recommended settings and closely monitoring temps of all components.

Is that correct? What have I missed?

 

[7up]

Get the yateloons mate zalmans are terible.

The Yates have the RPM edge for a similar price. Sold.

 

[7up]

Any thoughts on fans/airflow since I uploaded those pics, btw?