I have that exact CPU cooler on my non-overclocked Lynnfield i5. It's exceedingly heavy, but very well-made. I chose it principally because large fans can be run at very low RPM (quiet) and the design allows you to orient it such that the exhaust is pointing at the rear of the case, where presumably you have another large, slow fan pushing all that warm air straight out the back, rather than having much of it recirculate around the inside as is the case with flat, OEM-style coolers.

Sweet, I appreciate the advice. All the guys over at /r/buildapc recommend that cooler so when I saw it had a rebate I figured I'd jump on it. These two open box GPUs are tempting me now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814125419R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814121651R

Like I said above a bit more then I want to spend, but a pretty darn good deal for both. I may leave off a second hard drive for now and get one.

7850 is what I went with. I can get good frame rates in DayZ/Arma2 even when recording. It's quite good. I got the 1GB version of that XFX one you were looking at before.

Thanks for the data point. As tempting as those are, I'm going to resist the urge to spend money haha. I talked to my friend who is co-oping for intel in they're graphics validation department and he said I should be fine with the onboard graphics which is what you guys were saying as well. So I'll build and then if I really need something ill search out deals then. So now I just need a case and storage. I'm gonna get my CPU and mobo at microcenter along with a monitor and keyboard and mouse. You guys have been beyond helpful, I really appreciate it

Sounds like a good plan. Best-case, the onboard GPU is sufficient and you save money. Worst-case you spend the same money on a graphics card later.

Not to be contrary, but the 212 is actually quite light as cpu coolers go :p

Newegg.com - Phanteks PH-TC14PE 140mm UFB (Updraft Floating Balance) CPU Cooler

Newegg.com - Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 140mm and 120mm SSO CPU Cooler

Those are heavy coolers, and VERY good ones.

This one's even heavier:

Ultimate CPU Cooling Solutions! USA

But not as good.

Crikey! 1900 grams = 4.2 lbs, and that's without any fans!

Put a machine with that fan upright in a car and transport it a few miles over rough roads, and that'd probably crack the motherboard.

Ok. So the Coolermaster is a Ford F150, and the ThermalRight is GMC 3500.

An OEM cooler is still a Vespa.


The amount of money that some people are apparently spending on fancy-looking CPU heatsinks makes us turbo guys look like a bunch of miserly fiscal conservatives. How the hell can a CPU heatsink justifiably cost more than a car radiator?

Overclocking

What is funny is you are still looking at air cooled setups to. At one point in time I had $400-500 into a water cooling setup for my desktop.

This lol.

My current $250 water loop is pretty mid/low end. I've got an XSPC bayres/pump, XSPC Rasa cpu block, Swiftech MCW82 gpu block, and rs240+rx120 rads in push/pull.

Current cpus and gpus are getting so efficient that you can get away with very little radiator space now.

Yeah, but here's the part that I don't understand, and this seems to be as true today as it was 20 years ago.

By time time you've got $300 or more invested in a really heavy, complex cooling system, wouldn't it have been cheaper and easier to just buy the CPU which was actually rated for the speed you wanted to run it at?

So wouldn't it be cheaper to not turbo our miata's and just spend that money on buying a faster stock car?

A lot of the times you are are trying to go faster then what is available. I know the 2700k I7 I have stock is 3.5GHZ, with proper air cooling you can get them running fine at 4.5GHZ which is faster then what I could buy.

You cannot buy a cpu faster than my 5ghz 3570k for my uses.

It's true, I could've gone with a 3930k for the amount I spent on cooling, but then I'd have a 6 core 12 thread cpu running at 3.2ghz (3.8 turbo) vs 4 cores at 5ghz.



Overclocking has really changed from 10-20 years ago. Back in the day you bought a low end cpu and overclocked it to match or beat the high end. Now you buy a high end cpu to get unbuyable performance. Overclocking used to be about saving money, now it's about more performance.

Except nothing the majority of people do with their pc's is worth trading stability for a few extra mhz. Its pretty pointless these days IMHO unless you are 15 and like to brag on forums.

Its all about the GPU these days. You could be running a 6 year old CPU, as long as your GPU is up to snuff you can run any game at max settings.

That's not really true, in most games a modern gpu would be massively bottlenecked by a 6 year old cpu.

Overclocking really does provide noticeable and measurable gains in both gaming and productivity.

I also guarantee my 5ghz 3570k is just as stable as whatever you're running at stock clocks. ;)


Edit: also a 1.4ghz oc isn't "just a few more mhz"
My gtx 670 is also overclocked (1400mhz core from 1019mhz) and I still can't max out @ 60fps in a handful of games atm my res (1440p). It'd be even worse if I didn't overclock.

I've been contemplating getting a more expensive case. I was only gonna spend $40, but I figured it might be worth it to get a really nice case since it's what I will see whenever I use my computer. Plus if I get a nice one I should never have to buy another one again unless I get another rig. Currently looking at these:
Newegg.com - Corsair Obsidian Series 550D Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Newegg.com - Fractal Design Arc Midi Black High Performance PC Computer Case w/ USB 3.0 and 3 x Fractal High Performance 140mm fans
Newegg.com - Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Gunmetal Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

They all seem to having good cooling performance, they all look nice and not ridiculous, and they all have provisions for water cooling (I'll probably never need it, but might as well make sure I don't need a new case if I want to use it).

If anybody has any thoughts or suggestions, fire away. I'm leaning towards the 550D right now

All 3 of those are good choices, personally I'd take the Arc Midi just because its a fantastic watercooling case, and I'm all about watercooling.

What makes it better for water cooling then the other two? I'm still learning about all this stuff on the fly

*Edit: after doing some research it seems as though corsairs strong point is not airflow while fractals is. I think the c70 is now off the list, but the Antec P280 is. The 550d and the p280 are the front runners*

Strongly considering this monitor for $125 right now: Newegg.com - ASUS VH232H Glossy Black 23" 5ms Widescreen Full HD 1080p LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 ASCR 20000:1 w/Speakers & HDMI

Also leaning towards the Arc Midi. The 550D is nice, but I don't think it's 1.5x the price nice

Also bought one of these: Intel 330 180GB Solid State Drive - 180GB, SATA 6Gb/s, Read-500 MB/s, Write-450 MB/s, 2.5 at TigerDirect.com

It's big enough that I shouldn't need an HDD. If I do, I have a 500GB external