Fun Stuff > CLIKC
The PC-building/hardware knowledge thread
MarkTBSc:
Ok, I might as well address the fan thing here.
The whole point of a fan is to have air moving over a heatsink. That drains the heat out of the heatsink by Convective heat transmission (i.e the sink warms the air around it which then carries that heat away) and keeps the sink at a comfortable temperature. One of the worst mistakes to make is just to think that more fans = better. Too many people just get a bunch of small fans and strap them to every opening of the case, blowing air inwards. The problem there is that if they're all blowing air in then where does it come out?! All you've done is slightly raised the pressure inside the case and probably ruined the cooling. In a situation like that, a single 120mm fan would actually be better than ten 80mm versions. It's not just about the fans, it's about the airflow.
First trick to use? Ducting. If you can construct a simple cardboard duct that connects your single 120mm fan (bigger, slower and quieter) to the CPU heatsink and from there to an outflow vent then you will have great cooling efficiency for very little noise. Same with the graphics card. Ducting kicks ass.
Conventional tower PC cases actually suck from a cooling perspective. They require air to be sucked in and blown out. Much better would be a Chimney design similar to the Mac G4 Cube. A central vertical shaft through the computer that uses the tendency of hot air to rise to cool the PC without the use of fans.
As far as power supplies go, there is only one truely silent one that offers a decent output. Silverstone do a 300w version that is actually a 500w stepped down and uses a massive heatsink. I believe it should be possible to construct a water-cooled PSU, but I doubt you'll ever be able to buy one because of safety concerns.
Fletch:
I'm still working on what to get; everything bar cpu & motherboard is set - does anyone have any good suggestions on what I should be looking for in a gaming pc? should it be different if I want to link a couple of gtx280's together? What stats can I base opinions from with motherboards?
Melodic:
Get an Asus P5B mobo. Or a P5WDH/DX if you're feeling particularly fancy. I love my P5W.
As for CPUs, take your pick. Quad-core seems to be the new big "thing", so get a Core 2 Quad in your price range.
dennis:
--- Quote from: notselfcreated on 22 Jul 2008, 11:09 ---OK, got another one here...
Suppose I wanted to let both an 8800GT and an old MX440 PCI live inside of my PC. Would there be conflicts if I installed the Forceware for both of these cards at once?
As far as why I would do such a thing... FFVII for the PC does not like GF8s, but it would probably play nice with a GF4.
--- End quote ---
Theoretically, no.
Spluff:
--- Quote from: Fletch on 24 Jul 2008, 02:29 ---I'm still working on what to get; everything bar cpu & motherboard is set - does anyone have any good suggestions on what I should be looking for in a gaming pc? should it be different if I want to link a couple of gtx280's together? What stats can I base opinions from with motherboards?
--- End quote ---
Honestly, I wouldn't go for the 280 at the moment, unless you've got an infinite budget. Link up two 4870s and you've got a ridiculously powerful rig for much much less (easily more powerful than a 280 for less money) .
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