Just sold my dvd collection, therefore I'm looking for a new CPU/Mobo combo. Basically looking at i5 type stuff because I've heard that provides the best cost/performance ratio. Is Sandybridge worth looking at?

I'd like to overclock but its not a primary concern. There are so many different i5/i7 cpus doing the rounds I've got no clue what is gonna be the best for me. Cheers.

Personally i'd go for the latter cooler, or if you can afford £10-20 more you can look at the Noctua range (Mattscott can confirm which one he has), don't forget system fans if your room is warm!

All noctua stuff kicks ass really, as long as it fits, you can't go wrong 

NH-U12p is what I have, but I think there's a 'newer' one 

Thanks for the advice. Can the IGP be disabled? Or is there an option without it? I have a decent enough GPU right now.

Quote from: Adrock on January 26, 2012, 14:44:40 PM
Thanks for the advice. Can the IGP be disabled? Or is there an option without it? I have a decent enough GPU right now.

Yes.

Some boards don't even use it, I've had both types, it's no big deal to offski it.

Quote from: Adrock on January 26, 2012, 14:44:40 PM
Thanks for the advice. Can the IGP be disabled? Or is there an option without it? I have a decent enough GPU right now.

Its part and parcel with Z68 based boards, doesn't mean to say you gotta use it, and the Z68's get recommended over the P67 all the time now.

Sounds fine by me. Ta very much for the help. Now all I have to do is explain the expenditure to the missus.

Would an Asus M2A-VM + CPU + Mem have any second hand value? Got 6GB of various memory stuffed in the board.

Quote from: Adrock on January 26, 2012, 17:44:15 PM
Sounds fine by me. Ta very much for the help. Now all I have to do is explain the expenditure to the missus.

Would an Asus M2A-VM + CPU + Mem have any second hand value? Got 6GB of various memory stuffed in the board.

Could be worth something, post cpu details and ram details and ill let you know.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Socket AM2 2.6GHz Energy Efficient L2 1MB (2x512KB) Cache Retail Boxed Processor - Thats what the order history tells me I bought.

As for the memory, I had a 2 x 1GB sticks and 2 x 2GB sticks. I'm not entirely sure what the brand is but I think Crucial for the 2gb sticks rings a bell.

I've been browsing stuff out of interest and was wondering what all the different models of Gigabyte mobo are about? There are tons of em.

The 5000+ and Mobo and Ram you could sell as a bundle on Ebay quite easily, do a search of completed listings to check prices or put up here on the forums as a Dual core Athlon is still a capable system so someone might buy it, although i would be tempted to get the other bits cheap and build a system to sell to someone in the family that needs an upgrade!

As for the different motherboards, they will differ from features, the board i linked you has all you need to OC, it might not have Firewire but the next model might, it might not have 110 sata ports but the next model might etc.

I've been looking at coolers and the Corsair H60 intrigues me. Anyone had any experience with these? I have a fear of hanging 1kg+ of heavy heatsink from a mobo.

I wouldn't really bother with it tbh....

the whole idea behind water cooling is to take the heat from your tiny cpu and spread it over a massive radiator... the radiator on the H60 isn't really big enough for that....

if you want water cooling you could probably buy yourself a heat sink, pump, pipe and radiator for not a lot more.... but it would run quieter and keep your cpu a lot cooler than the H60 would/could


as long as your case temps are cool, you'll do just as well with air cooling - the only real advantage of the H60 system over air cooling is that the radiator is attached to the case side so always gets cool fresh air :-)

The H60 isn't very good tbh forgot about overclocking if you do, the H100 is worth having and get's good reviews.

I wouldn't worry too much about having a big cooler, modern sockets are designed to take them, it's not like the old days where they are hanging off a couple of small lugs on the side of the socket  and slightest rocking on installing could very easily damaging your CPU.

I currently have one of the biggest coolers available a Noctua NH-D14, it was a doddle to install and is rock solid with no chance of going anywhere ( Pic's here.)

Jesus christ, That cooler is stupidly big 

My next worry is will this stuff fit in a midi tower or am I looking at buying a new case too? I never realised how big the coolers were.