I honestly thought I would not upgrade my current rig (See my sig below). Last year I sold my CH stuff and was not going to get anymore flight sims. Well, that didn't work. I had pre-purchased DCS A10-C last year so when it was released I downloaded it and hooked up my old Saitek X52. Then I decided to buy the TM HOTAS Warthog and Saitek rudder pedals. Well apparently that wasn't enough so I decided to upgrade my PC. So my new rig will be:

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz
ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 AMD 890FX mobo
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
XFX HD-697A-CNFC Radeon HD 6970 2GB
Thermaltake Black Widow W0319RU 850W PSU
Have to buy a new PSU becuse the HD 6970 requires a 6 pin and 8 pin plug. My current PSU only has 6 pin plugs.

Will probably upgrade to Win 7 64 bit soon also.

I will use my existing HDD's, sound card and case. I measured the case and it looks like the video card will fit. Order it later this week and I'll have everything next week when I have 3 days off to put it together.

I’d Swap out the G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (4 x 2GB), for G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB),
Mainboards all have quirks with running 4 dimms. 2 Dimms vs 4 Dimms, 2 Dimms wins, less power, more memory per address.

I’d also drop the SB-X-Fi as WindowsVista/7 there isn’t a large enough difference between onboard and discrete audio.
I merely keep my X-Fi because I utilize all the ports on the 5.25 expansion drive, if I didn’t need all those for studio work I’d drop it and use on board sound.

Note the similarity of my system. No doubt, I think your making a wise choice

Agree with Skate Zilla. I have 4x4GB that I paid about $175 for on sale (8GB for $99 followed by 8GB more for $75) pays to watch the sales. Only need 8GB these days -- put the money into the GPU. And, I did have a couple hiccups with the extra 8GB -- though it works smooth now (didn't do anything but shut down and restart a couple times).

Don't need an FX890 motherboard to OC or do anything else of worth. Can save some money there with an ASUS like mine or the Gigabyte equivalent at about $135 (again, these go on sale -- got my $150 ASUS for $125 at Newegg).

Tried two aftermarket coolers. Both worked the same within 1C. The one in my signature is great but cost nearly $90 with the extra fans. The COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 was the cheap one at about $23 delivered when I bought it on sale. Now its $41 delivered which is higher than the regular price used to be. I guess they figured out they were selling it too cheaply. I recommend it. I tried both just as an experiment -- I figured the extra cost would not result in extra performance, and it didn't -- similar size/shape/design/fans gave nearly equal performance regardless of cost (just tested those two). BTW, the stock cooler is a good one. But, if one is trying to OC to 4GHz it might be iffy (can try and see before changing out).

Note all the stuff in my system and note the PSU. 650W is enough for OC CPU and Crossfire OC -- as my experience shows. 750W is plenty if one is concerned. I try for a PSU significantly under $100. Good ones can be had for $50 to $60 on special sale sale (I watch the sales closely -- over a period of 3 or 4 weeks one can "pick off" some good deals).

FWIW

P.S. 1333 speed memory is all one needs for the hex-core AMD CPU -- its what it supports. I got higher speed because it was cheap -- I run it at 1333. BTW, according to my experiments there was no real difference in FPS between 800 and 1333 speed with AMD. Long ago, the test reports were saying that AMD went with DDR3 simply because that's where the world was headed. DDR3 and 1066 or 1333 would not be more than a percent or so different from 800 speed -- i.e. never notice it in your game FPS. With AMD its the CAS timing that is more important -- but not worth losing sleep over.

Same here DDR31600 was cheap, but I run it at DDR1333 in my brother's system.

Thank you both for your advice. I will certainly consider those options. I've always been one for overkill though so who knows.



I wasn't sure about on-board audio. I still remember back in the day when it wasn't reliable. I have it on my current motherboard but never used it but I'll give it a shot with the new one though.

Another misconception of mine was I thought it was better to populate all 4 DIMM slots so I'll save some money there.

I think overkill is fun and perfectly justified when done knowingly. I certainly went overboard during the last 12 months

Now, I'm "cooling it" until the next group of products are released (HD7xxx GPU and Bulldozer CPU). Thing is, my current system will probably last a couple years without being stressed. So, in upgrading before its really needed, I'll be in overkill mode yet again

right behind you, I'll be building me another $2500 Box this Summer/Fall

To make a point about watching sales:

16GB 4x4GB of the same GSKILL memory I have is currently on "shell shocker" sale for $150 (I paid $175 which was already a steep discount).

The sale only lasts a few hours. So, this link will not show a low price later today.



16GB fast GSKILL $150 for a Short Time

Normally, one gets 8GB of fast memory for this price.

They also have a 600W continuous at 40C PSU for under $50.

The egg has some pretty good promos out right now.

I ordered the parts for my upgrade.

The ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 AMD 890FX mobo was out of stock. I didn't really need it anyway.

So this is what I ordered.

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDE00ZFBGRBOX
GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5 AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
XFX HD-697A-CNFC Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) (missed the Shell Shocker deal on 16GB for $150.00)
Thermaltake Black Widow W0319RU 850W ATX 12V v2.3, EPS 12V v2.91 CrossFire Certified
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus CPU cooler.

I have an Antec 900 case and it looks like the vid card and CPU cooler should fit.

Considering I haven't upgraded in 2 years I felt like I deserved to splurge.

Trust me, that's a great Mobo (check the sig ). The pics online DO NOT do it justice. In person, it looks very handsome. It's also Gigabytes direct answer to the Crosshair. The main difference is GB doesn't charge you the "branding" tax that comes with the higher end ASUS stuff.


Also, as far as the cooler, just got one myself. Coolermaster was at PAX east a few weeks ago, and had some AMAZING sales. I got my 212 for $15 . In fact, I got to see the whole line up, and when I went to ask the guy what was on sale/what does he recommend, without hesitation he pointed me pointed me to the 212. Your gonna want to mount that before you install your mobo though. Let me know if you have any questions with it, I'd be happy to help .

You definitely got a good deal on the cooler. I have the same memory as the Newegg $75.00 deal only mine isn't the x model. Every spec is the same though. I missd out on the G-Skill 16GB for $150.00 Shell Shocker deal New egg had so I just ordered this 8GB $75.00 deal before it went out of stock. If I don't use it I can always return it. Thanks for the offer of help. I'll let you know.

I hope to have everything here by Monday. I'm off Tues, Wed and Thursday so that should give me enough time to assemble everything and have some play time.

I have a question about the CM Hyper 212 CPU cooler. If using one fan is it better to have it push or pull? My guess would be pull but I would like to know for sure.

I did not try both push and then pull. Rather, I tried push, then push-pull. I also tried two different fan CFM -- ~56CFM per fan and 110CFM per fan.

What I found was this (not exactly but within a couple degrees C):

Same CFM gave same cooling if I used one or two fans. Going from about 110CFM to 220CFM (on paper, had no way to measure) was worth about 5C (and a lot of noise) -- when the 6 cores were operating at 100 percent in Prime95 (ran 48C in a 20C room). Sticking with the original single 56CFM (if I remember correctly), was quiet and cool enough to OC my 1090T to 4.0GHz -- 53C-55C range.

At this point, I have decided two fans in push pull can run slower and quieter. So, I have my two 110CFM fans set to half speed (I suppose that might mean one-quarter CFM) -- i.e. about 55CFM (but, that's a guess) is what I am running. In normal operation, I get 32C in a 20C room at normal desktop application. During a normal game, that may go up to the high 30s.

There was no difference in performance between the 212 and the Venomous X-RT when the fan CFM was the same (big price difference). The Venomous is a nice-looking cooler though

Just everything I tried FWIW.

I panicked when i saw that you did not order the crosshair...but then noticed you ordered a gigabyte which is also on the list for BIOS update tobe able to accept the new bulldozer chip.
You pretty much bought the system I spec'd for some one else
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=20447&page=2 post #12

because of the MB you should get a decent life out of the rig.

Only if the motherboard is a rev 3.1 board. I'll know for sure tomorrow.

its a new board so im going to guess that it is 3.1

TBH I dont see how a Push/pull doubles the CFM, since both fans are running the same CFM, and are inline with each other, pushing the airin the same direction, the Pull Fan is simply moving the air that the push fan is pushing in, thus the actual amount of air being moved over the heatsink fins is still gonna be the same with the Pull fan attached or not,, however, with push/pull config it would limit the dust build up.

Maybe it doesn't

I distinguish between two fans with nothing between them and two fans with narrow cooler-slots between them.

A single fan on a CPU-cooler must accelerate the air from a stand-still and into air that is standing still (in the way of the new air). Moreover, the cooler slots provide "friction-like" resistance that must be overcome. The net result is that a 56CFM fan on a CPU-cooler does not actually provide 56CFM. I would not be surprised if it provided less than half that in "genuine" air flow through the cooler.

With push-pull the second fan helps move the dead air out of the way of the exhaust (by providing the push at that point). It also provides pull that creates a "partial vacuum" between the narrow blades of the CPU-Cooler that reduces the friction-like resistance. All this help adds up. To what exactly, I don't know. One would need accurate engineering airflow measurements. However, I would not be surprised if the "genuine" airflow were increased to nearly double the original amount -- remembering that the original amount might have been half the fan's rating.

Just some thoughts. Maybe someone has made good measurements and published them on line somewhere.

Anyhow, push-pull with two 56CFM fans definitely lowered the temperature vs one 56CFM fan in my experiment. I got pretty much the same temperature with two 56CFM fans as with one 110CFM fan. But, two 56CFM were quieter than one 110CFM. At the end of the day, regardless of the actual CFM being pumped, the system operated as though two fan CFMs were additive (in my small experiment).

The above is not being sold as absolutely true in an engineering sense. Its just my "hand waving" explanation for what I observed.

Increases the Efficiency of the airflow over the surfaces of the the heatsink basically, makes sense...

I understand from an engineering point how 2 Fans running is better than 1, but I just couldn't see how some articles and sites came up with the "add a 2nd fan and double the airflow" bit. a 2nd fan would decrease airflow resistance and internal pressure between the fans by pulling air out of the heatsink, and allowing the pushing fan to push air in more quickly and cleanly, and the work load is reduced on both fans and the airflow is quieter as a result. so Push Fan brings in Cool Air, as Pull Fan Pulls out hot air, both fans can operate at reduced workloads since 1 fan isnt trying to do the entire job of pushing air in and out the back end. its not doubled airflow, its cleaner more efficient airflow, and cleaner more efficient aiflow also allows more efficient heat dissipation (heat moving from blades to air), which results in more efficient cooling.

And as you mentioned 2x 110 CFM Fans running at 50% is quieter than 1x 110CFM Fan at 100%.

i just unplugged 1 of my 120CFM Fans last night because it was rattling (or the mount was). and the noise output of my system dropped like a brick.

My brother's system runs 4 90CFM Fans and you can barely hear them, my system with the 2 120CFM Fans inline with the CPU heatink (Intake, Zalman9700, Exhaust) sounded like a friggen jet engine.

now my head hurts... lol..

I have a couple extra Antec 120mm 3 speed fans lying around but I don't know what CFM they are. Depending on whether the second fan interferes with the memory slot or not I'll try them in a push\pull configuration. I did order a PWM Y connector also just in case.

On my current system I have 2 120mm fans on the front. 1 120mm fan on the side. 1 120mm fan in the back. 1 220mm fan in the top. Plus the video card fan, CPU cooler fan, PSU fan. Thats 8 fans total. Yes it's loud. All the case fans are 3 speed fans and I have them on high.

Right now the 2 front and the side fans are intake. The back and top and PSU fans are exhaust.

this fan that fan...push...pull just get a Thermaltake’s Xpressar RCS100 and call it a day
http://www.xpressar.com/product/rsc100/rsc100-features.html

Meh, Make sure the air isn't standing still. That way, you can have a push-push-pull-pull airflow going (like I do).



You see, the air gets sucked in from the bottom (through filters) and blown towards the HSF, then blown through and sucked out the top of the case.

I use a Push-Push-Pull Setup, as I cant mount a fan to the back of my Zalman9700, but the 120CFM Exhaust is only 3 inches from it and is inline perfectly with it. so

My system has a similar arrangement (not two heat sinks back to back). Rather, a fan blows into the case towards the heat sink fan, then 110CFM heat sink push, then heat sink, then 110CFM heat sink pull, then a short distance 110CFM case exhaust (plus an overhead exhaust). All the 110CFM fans are actually running at about half maximum RPM (I use ASUS FanExpert to control them).

I really like the idea of refrigeration cooling -- as noted by Thee-Oddball. Even water cooling is limited by air-temperature in most cases. Refrigeration has the possibility of "going low".

Thing is, the refrigeration system has to be "powerful enough" to dissipate the energy -- or things may run hot. I considered using a small room air conditioner in combination with standard water cooling plumbing (AC unit located in basement under my office) -- would cost around $200 total with what I picked out. However, too much trouble for someone not an OC fanatic (I am fanatical about other things ).

Back in the Athlon TBird Socket A days I used to run a hose from my window AC unit to the side of my case, where the CPU Duct was located, removed the duct, but had the fan sucking in 65 ^F air. I eventually stopped using that setup because I didn’t want to risk condensation.