Time to build a new computer ...

[Jackalope]

I'm surprised the RAM is an issue with 16gig. Is it the speed of it that's the issue?

I don't have 16g in my gaming unit. I was speaking in general terms - i.e. all else being equal, you're better off throwing more money at RAM and video hardware than at CPU.

Mostly I'm going for the i5 because of how much I've hated my AMD 6200. It's not awful but whenever I play anything processor heavy I have a nightmare. I'd like to have something I know is more than enough. Plus the idea of overclocking it sounds like fun to me.

Yeah, the AMD 6200 is not exactly a fast proc. Even an i3 would run circles around it.

I haven't bothered overclocking anything since.... probably the P100. Playing the "how fast can I make it go" is kinda fun, but pushing to random reboots and BSOD isn't.

[Nine]

I don't have 16g in my gaming unit. I was speaking in general terms - i.e. all else being equal, you're better off throwing more money at RAM and video hardware than at CPU.

Ah, I see. I was wondering how the hell 16gig would struggle with any game :p

I'm considering getting a 770 to use till the 880 is available. The 770 is enough but I can put the 770 into my current PC then with a new processor my old PC would be pretty good itself. I'd like to keep it for video/photo editing to save my new build getting cluttered with 1000's of photo's and video files.

I haven't bothered overclocking anything since.... probably the P100. Playing the "how fast can I make it go" is kinda fun, but pushing to random reboots and BSOD isn't.

I'm looking forward to it. From what I've seen so long as you are sensible with them you can't go that far wrong. I'll probably keep it well within its limits seems I'm just doing it mostly out of curiosity.

[Jackalope]

One bit of advice for overclocking that can't be said often enough: monitor your temperatures (use something like hwinfo). Make sure you stay well within operating temps. Stock coolers are pretty good but may not be up to aggressive overclocking.

You may very well find that with a fast CPU, you won't be able to max out the CPU even at standard clock rates.

[Aractus]

Save the $51 and build it yourself, it's just like Meccano/Lego. Also, don't want to get into the Intel/AMD debate, but you could probably get a 6 core AMD CPU and MB that supports 1866 DDR3 for similar price.

I'll pay for the convenience, it's not like the components are jacked up in price they're very competitive.

As for AMD - it's a bit subjective, but I live in Canberra and I've had PC's switch off on me in 40 degree heat before (in fact I'm pretty sure this one has done that), so the fact that Intel runs cooler is quite important.

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I don't have 16g in my gaming unit. I was speaking in general terms - i.e. all else being equal, you're better off throwing more money at RAM and video hardware than at CPU.

Depends what you want it for - gaming yes, but that's not a priority for me the only game I play is dota2 and that's very demanding on hardware. Eventually I'll have 2 monitors plugged in - not 3 or 4 or some other crazy number, the main job of the graphics card is of course to take the burden of the display off the CPU so it can run other tasks.

[Nine]

One bit of advice for overclocking that can't be said often enough: monitor your temperatures (use something like hwinfo). Make sure you stay well within operating temps. Stock coolers are pretty good but may not be up to aggressive overclocking.

I'll probably be going with an all in one liquid cooler. I was tempted with the cheaper after market air coolers but they are just so big and ugly.. It kind of defeats the point in a windowed case.

You may very well find that with a fast CPU, you won't be able to max out the CPU even at standard clock rates.

I'm almost certain it will have no practical effect on anything I actually do with it. I'd be surprised if I even gained like 1-2 FPS in a game. Its just something that I want to try out.

[ignoramus]

I've had custom liquid cooling for about 10 years now.
I have it for one main reason. Quietness!

[Jackalope]

I've had custom liquid cooling for about 10 years now.
I have it for one main reason. Quietness!

Liquid cooling is cool, yes (see what I did there?).

There are ways to quiet noisy fans, however. The system that houses my RAID array sits in my bedroom a few feet away from my head when I'm sleeping. Can't hear a peep out of it. The secret is to have a solid case with no ill-fitting panels to rattle, a little sound dampening foam, and running high-cfm fans at low speeds. In addition to the CPU cooler and the power supply fan, I have three big variable speed fans gently pushing high volumes of air through the case. It's very cool, and very quiet.

I notice the front panel LED a lot more than the fans (and a piece of electrician's tape solves that problem).

With that build, the problem with liquid cooling is that I have to keep four drives cool as well, and there's nothing like moving air to do that. A typical desktop isn't going to have that problem unless you're doing something sick like running 15K rpm drives.

[Aractus]

Right so now my D: (my newest HDD in this conp.) didn't load today. I'm hoping it's not actually dead, but I'll see tomorrow when I set up my new PC. I already have 1 dead HDD I don't want 2! At least before I have a chance to back them up to the 2x brand new HDD's...

[Nine]

Hehe.. you broke your D.. get it..

* Nine is ashamed of himself

That seriously sucks though. Dead HDD's are a pain in the ass.

[ignoramus]

Make sure the bios settings are correct.
The data port may be turned off or set to ahci or raid, etc.
It's unusual it would just die if it was working before...