How far off is my 3.5 year old HTPC? I may soon be able to take it out of the living room and use it as an IRacing/gaming rig....not that I would be trying to play the latest/greatest FPS or anything.

ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - Newegg.com

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Deneb 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX - Newegg.com

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL - Newegg.com

SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Newegg.com

Just a fresh video card and more RAM? I do also have an SSD that Win7 is on.

 

That should be able to already play iRacing maxed out on one monitor, and just need more video card to move up to more monitors.

 

Any suggestions for a video card that will work with my current MOBO and do three screens maxed out?

 

Holy ****, we have the same computer, lol
Same mobo and CPU, and a similar GPU. I had that same RAM at one point but ended up putting it in another computer and putting 8GB or Corsair 1600 in mine.

What are your temps like with that mobo/cpu? Stock cooler?

You might already be able to run 3 monitors, but performance would suffer. I have an XFX 5860 (or maybe its a 5850, I cant remember). It can run 4 monitors, but one of them is just a duplicate.

 

I'm posting this from my new computer. but OMFGGGGGGGGGGG the cpu fan is WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY tooooooooooooooooo loud. it's like going to kill me dead.

I think maybe it's defective or something it's running at full blast constantly and sounds like death. I'll record it.

anyways, I gotta reinstall windows because for some reason my pre-activated ult is not activated like it did on my laptop.

blargh.

 

Your lack of excitement for me is deafening. oh wait no, that's the cpu fan.

 

You posted a link to cheap ****.

We said "Oh, noes! Don't buy that cheap ****!"

You bought the cheap ****.

You're unhappy with the cheap ****.

You post a message bitching about the cheap **** to the people who told you not to buy it.

(Sound of crickets chirping.)

Butthurt.



Have I pretty much got it all?




Sidebar:

The CPU Cooler which I have in the i5 machine is similar to these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103099
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835106213

I don't remember exactly who made it, but it's of that general style. It's been running continuously for over three years at this point, and is still dead-quiet and perfectly reliable.

When it comes to fans, two things are important:

1: Go big. For a given airflow, larger diameter = lower RPM = less noise.

2: Avoid cheap fans which are not speed-controllable- get a four-wire fan with both PWM speed control and RPM feedback. Better motherboards will drive the fan only to that speed which is necessary to maintain the desired temperature. (I've no idea if the POS motherboard which you bought will do this, but if it has a four-pin fan connector, then it probably doesn't suck so badly that it's incapable of closed-loop fan control.)

 

I added a case fan at the rear after I took this. but yeah, I'll replace the CPU fan.

 

Hahahaha, Seriously? That looks like the fan I had on my 66 Mhz 486DX. Holy ****, if that's what AMD CPUs are shipping with stock, no wonder the ******* are overheating all the time.

There goes $35 + shipping of the money you saved.

I mean, seriously. The fan on my CPU is 120mm in diameter. That's 4.7 inches. It barely fits in the ******* case. I can literally put you ear right up next to it and not hear the thing over the sound of how awesome I am.

What's that fan, like 2"? God damn, that's gotta sound like a ******* jet engine at idle.

 

Stock coolers are often loud, they like to see low little cooling headroom they can give you.

How much you wanna spend to make it quiet brain? I have options for you.

 

I'll probably get this:

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 2011/1366/1155 and AMD FM1/FM2/AM3+ - Newegg.com

seems to be the most coveted on reddit.

the heat sink is pretty hefty though, i was surprised, but yeah the fan on my duo core 2 is bigger and quieter. oh well.

 

That was one of my suggestions. Its not super quiet, but it is the value king.
What you will probably want to do if use software to manually turn the fan down on it, since you wont be overclocking.

That is the cooler I currently have in my computer. It performs similar to my old H50.

 

True, but at the risk of A vs. 1, I have to say that I've been impressed with the OEM coolers on the Core and i-series processors. I'm using the stock coolers on several of my machines, and while they are a *tiny* bit louder than the fancy cooler on my "big" i5 machine, they are by no means loud, and they do a reasonable job of cooling even my power-hog 90nm Prescott P4.

In other words, I wasn't spouting BS when I praised the virtues of "Company 1" over-engineering their products, while "Company A" tended to skimp and run as close to the edge as possible in order to save a buck.


I *think* that is the current-gen version of the exact same cooler that I have on my i5. If so, it's an excellent unit.

 

Hyper212 is what I have on my i7. Pretty decent. I cant hear it over my silverstone 120mm case fans, to be honest those are really loud.

Speaking of which, does anyone have a good auto fan controller? I have some rice one with a pretty display that pretty much just runs the fans at 60% all the time no matter what the thermocouples are reporting when in auto mode.

 

Yet another advantage of buying an Intel motherboard. All that **** comes built-in, along with a nice widget / tray application to manage it.

 

I dont really trust the mobo to handle the amperage of these fans. And my mobo only has spots for 2 case fans, I have 3 (if anything is worth doing its worth overdoing).

 

Do you understand how electrical engineering works?

Hyper 212 fan at 100% DC = 220ma, or 0.22 amps.

In other words, you don't trust the mobo, which is supplying 50-100 amps to the CPU itself, to supply 0.03% of that power to the fan which is cooling it.

Uhm... No.


Yes. Two case fans, plus one CPU fan. That's pretty typical. Does your motherboard not have a dedicated connector for the CPU fan?

(If not, then you're going to make me sound like a broken record here vis-a-vis buying from Company 1.)

 

No it actually has 2 4 pin connectors for the cpu fan and 2 4 pin connectors for case fans. And these fans do pull 0.4 amps. And these fans only have 3 pin connectors for that style. I did try driving them with this motherboard but it only wanted to drive them at what it called 100% which seemed more like 80%.

 

Rig up a mosfet that uses mobo fan pwm but sources power from 12v from a molex?

 

If I'm going to do that much work I'll just skip the step of making the current fans a bit quieter and go straight to the setup I want.