Going to a Smaller Form Factor - 2550K

[KieranThePCGuy]

Hi guys,

After being told my 2550K is perfectly okay still for my gaming and rendering needs I decided to keep it instead of upgrading to Z87/Haswell.

Anyway, my current computer is so loud and heavy I plan to head to University in September going for a Computing Degree.

So my question is, is their any good Z77 M-ATX/M-ITX boards for me to upgrade too?

I want to replace my CPU cooler and GPU for either 280X or 290. It's them and the Zalman fans that are causing the bloody racket. Plus I don't want to carry massive computer round with me if I head off.

Case wise I was thinking a 350D from Corsair!

Love to get peoples opinions however so wanted to ask the fellow community!

Thanks,

Kieran

[coen113]

hardon

i mean the evga hadron

[kristaps552]

Node 304? But it's an itx case...

[Bloodyvalley]

So my question is, is are their any good Z77 M-ATX/M-ITX boards for me to upgrade too?

Cheapest motherboard should be fine, but I don't understand why you can't use your current motherboard.

 

Corsair make the best cases/

[KieranThePCGuy]

Cheapest motherboard should be fine, but I don't understand why you can't use your current motherboard.

Corsair make the best cases/

Because my current mobo is ATX and I would like to go to M-ATX

[Bloodyvalley]

Because my current mobo is ATX and I would like to go to M-ATX

But if you're going for an ATX case, it doesn't make a difference.

[Morgo_mpx]

I am always partial to Lian Li Cases.
Motherboard: ASRock Z77E-ITX was a great little beast. http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77E-ITX/

The extreme 4 is also good.

 

[KieranThePCGuy]

hardon

i mean the evga hadron

Ha! Will have to have a look at that completely forgot. Is there any good Z77 ITX boards?

[KieranThePCGuy]

Node 304? But it's an itx case...

Will have a look at that, thanks! Need to find a Z77 ITX board!

[KieranThePCGuy]

I am always partial to Lian Li Cases.

Motherboard: ASRock Z77E-ITX was a great little beast. http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77E-ITX/

The extreme 4 is also good.

That thing looks great! Thanks, will read up more about it!

[KieranThePCGuy]

But if you're going for an ATX case, it doesn't make a difference.

Isn't the 350D M-ATX though?

[coen113]

Ha! Will have to have a look at that completely forgot. Is there any good Z77 ITX boards?

how about the evga stinger? that will fit nicely

[Cryptonite]

Hi guys,

After being told my 2550K is perfectly okay still for my gaming and rendering needs I decided to keep it instead of upgrading to Z87/Haswell.

 

it's more than ok LOL. the 2500k and 2550k are beasts.

[tpoar]

it's more than ok LOL. the 2500k and 2550k are beasts.

Damn your running yours at 5GHz what are you using to cool it a custom loop?

[Grave]

Forum keeps breaking when I try to post FFS!! OMG, third attempt, almost 1 hour of attempting to post/write shit out. Posts keep getting shorter and shorter...

 

Corsair 350D is my vote for your case.

 

Gigabyte R9 290 for 310 pounds or so on Amazon is my recommendation unless you don't wanna take chances with it being one of the faulty heat pipe mount cards (Asus has same problem). It's literally the only one I've found in stock for a decent price anywhere for non-reference. Reference 290/X cards run hot and loud - don't get it unless custom loop watercooling. I really don't know if the Gigabyte/Asus cards were recalled from vendors, otherwise it should be perfectly fine.

 

Secondary options: Sapphire Dual-X OC or Gigabyte Windforce X3 OC for ~230 on Amazon. Virtually the same performance (Windforce X3 likely better performance w/OC, louder fans at 100% RPM but quieter otherwise), so just pick whichever is more suited towards your fancy. These are a bit too much for 1080p in my opinion, but not great for 1440p across all games, so I recommend 290 if possible. They're a far better deal than a GTX 770, though, so this is the 2nd best option.

 

CPU cooler I recommend the Dark Rock Adv. C1 http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-cpu-cooler-bk014. This will cool your CPU no problem, even if overclocked. It's one of the quietest air coolers on the market, specs: http://www.bequiet.com/en/cpucooler/235 ~40-45 pounds, will fit your case. There's probably other coolers that are great but this one is a great price and very, very good imo (I love Be Quiet!).

If you're afraid of it being a bit old, I wouldn't worry at all. But another option is the Noctua U14S for ~15 pounds more, might perform slightly better but could be a bit louder (still very quiet). I would definitely not pay those hellish CLC kit prices you U.K. fellas have to deal with for the slight performance gain.

[KieranThePCGuy]

Forum keeps breaking when I try to post FFS!! OMG, third attempt, almost 1 hour of attempting to post/write shit out. Posts keep getting shorter and shorter...

Corsair 350D is my vote for your case.

Gigabyte R9 290 for 310 pounds or so on Amazon is my recommendation unless you don't wanna take chances with it being one of the faulty heat pipe mount cards (Asus has same problem). It's literally the only one I've found in stock for a decent price anywhere for non-reference. Reference 290/X cards run hot and loud - don't get it unless custom loop watercooling. I really don't know if the Gigabyte/Asus cards were recalled from vendors, otherwise it should be perfectly fine.

Secondary options: Sapphire Dual-X OC or Gigabyte Windforce X3 OC for ~230 on Amazon. Virtually the same performance (Windforce X3 likely better performance w/OC, louder fans at 100% RPM but quieter otherwise), so just pick whichever is more suited towards your fancy. These are a bit too much for 1080p in my opinion, but not great for 1440p across all games, so I recommend 290 if possible. They're a far better deal than a GTX 770, though, so this is the 2nd best option.

CPU cooler I recommend the Dark Rock Adv. C1 http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-cpu-cooler-bk014. This will cool your CPU no problem, even if overclocked. It's one of the quietest air coolers on the market, specs: http://www.bequiet.com/en/cpucooler/235 ~40-45 pounds, will fit your case. There's probably other coolers that are great but this one is a great price and very, very good imo (I love Be Quiet!).

If you're afraid of it being a bit old, I wouldn't worry at all. But another option is the Noctua U14S for ~15 pounds more, might perform slightly better but could be a bit louder (still very quiet). I would definitely not pay those hellish CLC kit prices you U.K. fellas have to deal with for the slight performance gain.

Going to mark you best answer for your efforts, especially after how many times you tried! Yeah the 350D looks great and those coolers look great too!

I can get a H220 for cheapish from a friend so what do you think about that? Wants about £70 for it as he's selling his PC. Would like to OC the beans out of this chip

I was thinking the R9 290, the x I don't think justifies the price difference. Plus means it will last a bit longer being higher end, my 6850 is killing me

Again really appriciate the post! That's why I love this forum!

Thanks,

Kieran

[KieranThePCGuy]

how about the evga stinger? that will fit nicely

Will look into it, thanks!

[Cryptonite]

Damn your running yours at 5GHz what are you using to cool it a custom loop?

cooler is in my profile, it's an akasa Venom, even the 212 evo is supposed to be better than it, it's not like my voltages are low either, I think I just applied it perfectly or something, haha. ambient temps here jump around, some days it's like 20 Celsius other days it's 30-40... My CPU under load goes up to around 80 degrees, maybe barely touching 89 degrees (full load stress testing for a few hours) with my fan set to quiet in the bios. I have to add though that I have 2x fans on the heatsink and the 4x copper heat pipes really do their job. I also have to add that LLC is on and that I'm using offset mode so my voltage sometimes go as high as 1.54 volts, though it's rare and I don't really care too much if it dies, if it dies it dies and I use a celeron for a month and buy myself a new mobo and cpu the next. (doubt it will die easily though, it's been stable for almost a year now.)

 

keep in mind that sandy isn't as scared of voltage and heat as ivy or haswell. Sandy is said to have a max voltage (by intel) of 1.55v which few people push it to, yet I've never heard of a single chip dying because of voltage, they rather die because the guy is an idiot and disables heat protection. One guy I know let his run on something like 110 Celsius for almost 3 days on end (stress testing) and he said the temps were fine, obviously it wasn't.

[Grave]

Going to mark you best answer for your efforts, especially after how many times you tried! Yeah the 350D looks great and those coolers look great too!

I can get a H220 for cheapish from a friend so what do you think about that? Wants about £70 for it as he's selling his PC. Would like to OC the beans out of this chip

I was thinking the R9 290, the x I don't think justifies the price difference. Plus means it will last a bit longer being higher end, my 6850 is killing me

Again really appriciate the post! That's why I love this forum!

Thanks,

Kieran

H220 is great, and that's an awesome price. I agree with the 290X, unless you plan on going multimonitor/4k.

Glad you're happy w/my post and the forum btw . Good luck building!