Dunno if I'd go with the liquid cooling, myself.

Post #350,693 by Another Scott 11/15/11 12:05:33 PM Reply	Dunno if I'd go with the liquid cooling, myself. One of the appealing aspects of Intel chips is their lower power dissipation. Unless he's going to be into heavy overclocking, water cooling probably isn't needed. Liquids like to find ways to get out of even sealed systems... But that's just my gut feeling - no personal experience. The i5 2500K is a nice chip. Note that it doesn't do "hyperthreading" which has its good and bad points. i7 chips do hyperthreading. Just be aware. There are i7 LGA1155 chips so one could potentially do an upgrade, but check the details if you think an upgrade might be in the future. The i7 2700K is about $125 more on Intel's page - http://ark.intel.com...-Cache-3_5-GHz%29 Beware of churn in Intel's parts list. 2 years from now they might not be available. Try to find out more about the power supply. You'd like one that is efficient and has high-quality components. Crappy power supplies are very common, unfortunately, and can cause lots of gremlins. With all that said, it sounds like a nice box. I would think you wouldn't need to do anything to it for a couple of years. Good luck. Cheers, Scott.
Post #350,698 by beepster 11/15/11 1:32:16 PM Reply	i7 adds 100...worth it? Looing for impact on game performance... Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #350,707 by Another Scott 11/15/11 2:19:25 PM Reply	Dunno. Here's a long thread on the topic - http://www.tomshardw...246-28-2500k-2600 Most there say get the i5 and use the rest for a better graphics card if it makes sense. If it takes $200 more to get 10% better frame rates, then it might not be worth spending more on the card. But, if the point is to get the kicking-est machine for $1000, then, well, maybe leaving out everything except the fastest essentials makes sense ($500 graphics card, 1-2 GB RAM, fast CPU, no optical drive, no wireless, no sound card, etc.), and add the rest later. I dunno. The CPU is one of those rarely swapped things (that happens after hard drives, more RAM, etc.). IME, by the time you're thinking about a new CPU, motherboards have moved on so you end up replacing a lot more than the chip. So my general philosophy has always been to get the best CPU for my price-point (which used to be $200, but I haven't bought a new PC in a while). And I'm not a gamer. :-) Presumably if frame rates and latency and all the rest matter most, you can turn down the graphics effects and so forth to prolong the system life for another few months. Bottom line: You're probably set as you outlined the system above. HTH. Cheers, Scott.
Post #350,711 by beepster 11/15/11 2:39:16 PM Reply	Looking like not worth it the hyperthreading won't impact game performance...and I think the vid card should get me through the next gen of games, given its current performance levels...so I think I'm settled. Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.

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