PC Build

Hey

Not a huge build but a build for my budget.

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L Intel G41 (Socket 775) DDR2 microATX (New)
CPU: Q6600 quad core running at 3ghz (Second Hand)
Ram: 4gb dual channel (New)
GPU: HD5830 (New)
Cooler: Venom CPU Cooler (New)
Case: Commodore Gaming Case (New)

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/9852/1001311u.jpg
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2053/1001312o.jpg
http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/1706/1001313u.jpg
http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/9902/1001314i.jpg
http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/7126/1001315.jpg
http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/2479/1001316v.jpg
http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/6319/1001317w.jpg
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/350/1001318ok.jpg
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/1886/1001319s.jpg
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/8703/1001320yp.jpg
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/4477/1001321t.jpg
http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/4428/1001322.jpg
http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/4363/1001323i.jpg

The only problem I had with this build was the side fan on the Commodore case had to come of otherwise the case would not close with the venom.

Stock Fan temps:
Idle 39c
Prime95 3 hours 65c

Venom temps
Idle 33c
Prime95 3 hours 49c

So venom has made a big change in the temps. Dont forget above temps at with the 3.0ghz overclock.

If anyone is interested I have a spare LGA775 heatsink and fan and the side fan from the commodore case which has all the leds.

Thanks for looking

Lookin' good mate, thats a crazy CPU Cooler LOL :ninja::thumbsup:

Cheers m8, yeah that cooler is a beast. Was shocked when the box turned up, thought I needed another brand new case just to fit the cooler :)

I messed the pics up. I will fix them asap so they are not as big.

Cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jimbo1979

I messed the pics up. I will fix them asap so they are not as big.

Cheers

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he he, yeah 1024x768 is a good size :thumbsup:

Pictures Fixed :thumbsup:

excellent build. Have a quick question though... Did you find the 5830 for a great price? I only ask because around here the 6870 is roughly the same price and it's about 15% faster on average. Just curious.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nathanieltolbert

excellent build. Have a quick question though... Did you find the 5830 for a great price? I only ask because around here the 6870 is roughly the same price and it's about 15% faster on average. Just curious.

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Hi m8

Sent you a PM as I am not sure if I can say the price I got it for. Price is in PM.

But overclockers had a sale on them last month so I got mine rather cheap I think :thumbsup: I would not pay full price for these cards. But they are good cards, plays everything new so far. That will be another upgrade in a few months I think, this is really just to get me started with something half decent you know.

Cheers

EDIT:

Are you sure you are lookign at the same card, 6870 seems to be almost double the price of the 5830.

Yeah I was looking at the correct card. Your pricing is different from ours. Granting I was taking into consideration that here the 6870 and 6850 cards have very nice big mail in rebates on them locally and the 5830 doesn't. And I agree better idea not post the prices in the thread as that could be construed as price leading.

My new speakers turned up today as well. I cant have surround sound in my corner as nowhere to attach the back speakers :(

Got the xbox 360 wireless pad and the wireless part for the PC for Force Unleashed 2 and Batman (My fav games). Keyboard/mouse are also wireless.

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/1234/1001326nr.jpg

Pretty happy right now, until a few months when I am forced to upgrade GPU again ;)

Cheers for looking

How is Hunted? I haven't heard much about it yet. Is it any good?

Nice work, I keep an eye on overclockers, new site to me :) Thanks could do with a few things myself.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nathanieltolbert

How is Hunted? I haven't heard much about it yet. Is it any good?

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Its really really good m8. People keep saying its to much like Gears Of War with swords. This is rubbish IMO, its a great little game. The only thing like Gears Of War is the run feature.

Cheers

I've got a venom on my x6 it's a lovely cooler..wth some mx-3 ofc ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DonAmiga

Nice work, I keep an eye on overclockers, new site to me :smile: Thanks could do with a few things myself.

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i boycotted them not just because the screwed me about by selling me a second hand sony netbook they said was new then tried to bullshit me for a month but because they are way dearer than lots of other places and their postage options suck..i moved to scan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skellionz

I've got a venom on my x6 it's a lovely cooler..wth some mx-3 ofc ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DonAmiga

Nice work, I keep an eye on overclockers, new site to me :smile: Thanks could do with a few things myself.

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i boycotted them not just because the screwed me about by selling me a second hand sony netbook they said was new then tried to bullshit me for a month but because they are way dearer than lots of other places and their postage options suck..i moved to scan

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Yeah awesome coolers to say the least. I used mx-4 on mine which helps even more.

Shame you had issues with overclockers, I have always found them very good, also you can get some very good deals on there. But like everything you need to look around if you have a certain product in mind for the best price. I got my new speakers from Scan.

I got my complete system minus CPU and Speakers from overclockers on reduced price and all by DPD next day service, I cant rate them high enough. I also rate Scan high as well, they were next day on my speakers, I have used them in the past for stuff I cant remember right now.

Overclockers do next day DPD courier or smaller items first class royal mail. So postage options are as good as anywhere imo. I dont know if this has always been like this or something they have improved since they messed you around.

But its like everything, every company upsets someone, noone has 100% good record, not even here.

Cheers

Whoooo!!!

A "Full Tower" cooler.... :)

Nice setup mate :thumbsup:

I got some more bling. I know most people won't like this kind of stuff but I am a sucker for lights. I am the type of guy who used to have under car neons on all his cars a few years back :thumbsup:

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/7199/1001371v.jpg
http://img863.imageshack.us/img863/240/1001372j.jpg
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/7897/1001373r.jpg
http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/2536/1001374n.jpg
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/2959/1001375.jpg
http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/8526/1001379n.jpg
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/4421/1001380dz.jpg
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/207/1001381.jpg
http://img863.imageshack.us/img863/1703/1001382o.jpg

The keyboard is rather ace, found a youtube review here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf4J0iVbDZE

I do like a bit of bling :) My case Is prob a bit fancy for most weighing in at over 300 quid when I bought it the quite awesome Zalman gt 1000. Beautifully constructed case

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skellionz

I do like a bit of bling :) My case Is prob a bit fancy for most weighing in at over 300 quid when I bought it the quite awesome Zalman gt 1000. Beautifully constructed case

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I just watched a clip of that case on youtube. WOW thats impressive m8, nice one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skellionz

i boycotted them not just because the screwed me about by selling me a second hand sony netbook they said was new then tried to bullshit me for a month but because they are way dearer than lots of other places and their postage options suck..i moved to scan

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Good luck with Scan... They used to be ok but i've had nothing but problems with them after ordering parts for my recent PC build. A few parts from a single order ended up being faulty and Scan would not exchange them, they could only do a refund (which takes around a week to clear) which meant i had to cough up more money to buy the replacement parts while waiting for my refund :thumbsdown:

Scan also have a habit of selling ex-display, opened and customer returned items as new (The faulty case i received had clearly been used and the box had been resealed)... I've personally never had any issues with ebuyer or Novatech and have never used Overclockers after all the horror stories i keep reading.

Also, keep an eye on Scans warranty terms and return policies... I bought an Acer TV/monitor and it turned out to be faulty but Scan refused to refund or exchange it because i had owned it for longer than 5 days... Thats right, they'll only refund or replace the monitor if i had it for 5 days or less otherwise they send it off for repair (a screen which is less than a week old being sent off for repair!!).

Here's an absolute BS quote from Scans RMA page:

'The Industry average on component failure rates is 1% or less , and in many instances hardware is wrongly diagnosed as "faulty" by customers due to their inadequate knowledge.'

1% or less? Thats a joke right? :blased:

very nice m8 and almost like my pc inside although i think your heaksink is a bit overkill as i have the same cpu chip running at the same speed on a stock heatsink and fan and it dont go over 35c.

Loving the keyboard and mouse though

Quote:

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Originally Posted by morcar

very nice m8 and almost like my pc inside although i think your heaksink is a bit overkill as i have the same cpu chip running at the same speed on a stock heatsink and fan and it dont go over 35c.

Loving the keyboard and mouse though

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Hey man,

Yeah the heatsink is very very overkill lol, BUT overclockers had it on offer for a week, I saw it and thought I might as well have that hehe. Would not pay full price for it.

Q6600 temps seem to vary, I have the GO stepping which is meant to be the better Q6600 but mine seems to run a little bit warmer then yours. On the stock fan I was hitting:

Stock Fan temps:
Idle 39c
Prime95 3 hours 65c

Venom temps
Idle 33c
Prime95 3 hours 49c

So I seem to have your temps with the venom but higher temps with stock.

Now when your cooler is bigger than your motherboard, you know you're an overclocker! :lol:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmiNeo

Now when your cooler is bigger than your motherboard, you know you're an overclocker! :lol:

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hehe, that cooler is my pride and joy, case is now fitted with 2 ultraviolet lights around the cooler and board which makes it look wicked through the commodore logo. Shame my camera is only any good with a flash, which defeats the object of trying to show the lights :(

different chips run at different temps ;) and my venom is basically running so slow its silent and im still under 40 stock anyone can turn a fan up and get a cooler chip! though i never use intel chips and am packing an X6 1055T I can get it under 30 if i increase the speed a little but im a freak when it comes to noise, The fact my gtx 580 sounds like a jet engine in some games is a source of great anger to me even with the most aggresive fan profile that gets the temps to low 90's at times :(

oh it's overclocked from 2.8 to 3.5 too..id say the venom is the best cooler ive ever had.
did i say that my memory is running at 1337 mhz :( *cough*

@ Jimbo

There's nothing wrong with that Venom cooler, mate. I have a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus, that is a similar size to yours on my Athlon II X3 440, that has had the 4th core unlocked to become a Phenom II X4 B90. Temperature rarely goes abobe 40 on my setup.

Mahoosive coolers FTW!!

:thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Merlin

@ Jimbo

There's nothing wrong with that venom cooler, mate. I have a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus, that is a similar size to yours on my Athlon II X3 440, that has had the 4th core unlocked to become a Phenom II X4 B90. Temperature rarely goes abobe 40 on my setup.

Mahoosive coolers FTW!!

:thumbsup:

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Typical boys! *sigh* It's not about how big your cooler is, it's how much heat it dissipates that counts! :lol:

Thats fine if it does both :lol:

I like fan's I put one in most of my electronics's TV,monitor,even on my car stereo on the heat sink as a kid I hunk around a TV repair guy he always
stressed that heat is the killer of electronics's..

:coffee:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Merlin

@ Jimbo

There's nothing wrong with that venom cooler, mate. I have a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus, that is a similar size to yours on my Athlon II X3 440, that has had the 4th core unlocked to become a Phenom II X4 B90. Temperature rarely goes abobe 40 on my setup.

Mahoosive coolers FTW!!

:thumbsup:

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I hear good things about those 212's. Over on overclockers forums they are mentioned a lot to people asking what to buy/use.

Good to see others with mahoosive coolers :)

@AndyLandy

Size does matter ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jimbo1979

@AndyLandy

Size does matter ;)

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Oh, for sure, but you know what the next line is, right?

"It's what you do with it that counts!" :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AndyLandy

Typical boys! *sigh* It's not about how big your cooler is, it's how much heat it dissipates that counts! :lol:

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Erm, 40C maximum under 100% stress on all cores running benchmarking programs is pretty darn good in my book.

It's not just about raw benchmarking though; it's also about long-term reliability. If the CPU fan fails for any reason, the Hyper 212 will save the CPU from cooking itself to death, as it will still dissipate enough heat and the case fans in my Antec Three Hundred will cope with removing it.

Fanboi, eh? Sheesh.....:roll:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Merlin

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AndyLandy

Typical boys! *sigh* It's not about how big your cooler is, it's how much heat it dissipates that counts! :lol:

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Erm, 40C maximum under 100% stress on all cores running benchmarking programs is pretty darn good in my book.

It's not just about raw benchmarking though; it's also about long-term reliability. If the CPU fan fails for any reason, the Hyper 212 will save the CPU from cooking itself to death, as it will still dissipate enough heat and the case fans in my Antec Three Hundred will cope with removing it.

Fanboi, eh? Sheesh.....:roll:

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It's all about being perfectly formed, even if it's small:

http://www.proggle.net/%7Eandrew/dow...-25/02-hsf.jpg

All this talk about Hyper 212's and Venoms really makes my weedy stock AMD cooler look quite pathetic lol! But i don't intend on overclocking my AMD rig.

I had one of these 'Noctua' beasties in my old power hungry and potentially volcanic Core i7 940 rig:

http://www.bjorn3d.com/Material/revi...366/noctua.jpg

I sold my old i7 PC while it was still worth something as it was just being wasted... I built a relatively small budget AMD gaming rig (Athlon II X4 645) with some of the money and still had plenty left over (my electricity bill is now cheaper and my small gaming room doesn't heat up as much:)). I may venture into Bulldozer territory for my next build or wait for Intel's Sandy Bridge... I just hope they are more easy on my electric bill than my old pimped out i7 rig.

Most people these days will never need an i7 until probably around the time the next lot of consoles start appearing. A good Quad core should still run everything you chuck at it with a top end graphics and I cant see them being a bottleneck for any cards just yet. My 2.33GHz core2duo is only a slight bottleneck when you use ATI Radeon 4890 level cards which disappears with a small overclock. Unles your a complete graphics enthusiast with a huge budget, a dual / quad core w/ a single mid - high range graphics card will keep you gaming for a long time to come and wil save you a few hundred a year on your electric! :lol:

That Venom heatsink is one huge monster! In my view a little overkill, but each to their own.

@AmiNeo. I fully agree. My main PC is still running a Q6600 (Go) at 3GHz using a Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro v2 heatsink and I've yet to have it struggle with any games.

For me the Freezer 7 Pro has been my favourite heatsink of choice for some time now. I've got a version of it fitted in all my systems and it runs quietly and keeps everything at nice temps.

http://www.testseek.com/labs/wp-cont...zer7pro-v2.jpg

It isn't just the CPU heatsink the matters though. A good case with well positioned fans and good layout is also crucial to getting the best temperatures. You could have the best heatsink in the world, but stick it in a bad case and you won't get the best out of it. Also a PSU mounted at the bottom improves things greatly as it allows the PSU to draw cold air from outside (under) the case and not from within the main compartment of the case, and expel the hot air out the back, keeping it away from the rest of the system completely.

My main system is housed in a CoolerMaster Storm Sniper Black Edition Case.

http://pcwizkidstechtalk.com/images/..._sniper-10.jpg http://www.pc-offensive.com/home/ima...left_back1.jpg http://www.pc-offensive.com/home/ima...ft_inside1.jpg

This has an amazing design for airflow. A lot of the case is honeycomb mesh to allow as much ventilation as possible, and it is fitted with top and side 200mm fans, and front and rear 120mm fans, with a front mounted fan speed control. PSU mounted at the bottom with underside vents with filters. Sliding side mounted HDD caddies. Tool less design throughout and designed for cables to all be routed behind the motherboard to keep them completely out of the way. If anyone is looking for a new case take a look at this one. It's the best case I've owned. A bit expensive but worth it.

With this case, and the Freezer 7 Pro v2 heatsink, my Q6600 idles between 18-22 degrees. ;)

I have however been tempted by the Sandy Bridge i7 2600K but have managed to resist so far. :lol:

There is a difference between gaming Amineo and gaming at full spanking detail and ultra smooth framerates!! yeah ok so maybe the price of that is a ultra expensive card but what the hell..If i spend 150 quid on an amiga accelerator i can justify 400 quid on a pc card..

Then again pc gaming is prob my first love (sorry) :whistle:

+thats even more poncy than my case harrison :P prob doesn't cost as much though. Also that case looks a bit like a dust magnet, and i read that the filters are a ***** to get too..is this the case? but at least it has filters
you would expect after paying 300 quid for a case it would have dust filters on the intake fans, ah well small mercy that it doesn't get that dusty inside anyway but still.

Cor! It's been ages since I built a PC gaming rig. I'm so completely lost with what CPUs and chipsets etc. are desirable.

Still, Harrison is spot on with his comments. It was true when I last built a system and I'm sure it's true today, but it's all about using decent components throughout. A decent cooler in a case with no airflow isn't going to win you much. Equally you want to get a CPU and a graphics card that aren't going to bottleneck each other.

Hmm, I wonder if it's time to build another PC rig, it's been a while.

Andy if you do decide to built a new rig I would wait for a bit. It is the start of the new generation CPU's being released, everyone right now is waiting for bulldozer, even though it keeps being delayed. But if you are thinking of a brand new uber beast. I would wait and see what this new CPU does, even if you dont go with the new CPU's due out, it will sure push the price down of older ones.

Cheers

No no no :D it's all about noise reduction!! Screw cooling lol my fans are barely turning I can't stand a noisy pc

And jimbo there is always some new uber beast around the corner :p upgrade today outdated tomorrow

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skellionz

And jimbo there is always some new uber beast around the corner :p upgrade today outdated tomorrow

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Actually CPU wise it is not as bad as it used to be. GPU wise for sure you will never be up to date.

Thanks for the PM :) made me feel special when I saw it glowing red :)

Lol no problem, tbh I took out a damn loan to afford my current pc. I won't be able to upgrade it for at least 4 years so it has to be good enough to last

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skellionz

Lol no problem, tbh I took out a damn loan to afford my current pc. I won't be able to upgrade it for at least 4 years so it has to be good enough to last

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I think with your setup you will be good for ages. Hell I can even play todays games, you can almost run nasa :thumbsup:

To be honest my humble AMD rig can run all of todays games with maxed out details at a resolution of 1920x1080... The only game i've played that can get a bit slow with everything cranked up is 'Metro 2033' but then again that even made my old i7 rig sweat which had dual Radeon 5850 GPU's in crossfire.

My current rig is:

*AMD Athlon II X4 645 CPU (3.1Ghz stock speed - 95W)
*4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600 RAM - 1.5V
*1GB XFX Radeon 6870 Black Edition (dual fans)
*Asus M4A88TD-M EVO/USB3 motherboard (Micro ATX)
*1TB Hitachi Deskstar SATA-II HDD
*Sony DVDRW combi drive
*600W (720W peak) Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold Modular PSU (a nice 90% gold energy efficiency rating)
*LG W2442PE-BF monitor (24" 1080p and it's a brilliant screen!)
*IN WIN Dragon Slayer Micro ATX case (this has plenty of cooling and space for a small case).
*Windows 7 64-bit.

This rig was cheap to build and does exactly what i need it to do... It's also very reliable and runs cool whilst staying quiet :)

I bought a 6870 and resold it after the 6850 flash farce..i was well angry. this nvidia 580 i have is the first non radeon card i've bought in about 10 years thats how ****ed off i was. Plus the performance wasn't what i hoped anyway

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skellionz

...that case looks a bit like a dust magnet, and i read that the filters are a ***** to get too..is this the case? but at least it has filters

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The front filter is very easy to get at. You just put your hand under the front and gently full it forward and it pops off. Washable so easy to clean and put back in. The bottom one is harder, but that is because it is between the PSU and bottom of the case. The front filter is really the only one you normally need to clean regularly so it isn't that important to have access to the others so much.

My older Thermaltake Tsunami case is similar, but that case's filter is behind a locked/hinged front door and pops off in a similar way.

I definitely wouldn't buy a case any more without dust filters as they catch most of the larger particles before they ever get inside the case.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Powerpie5000

All this talk about Hyper 212's and Venoms really makes my weedy stock AMD cooler look quite pathetic lol! But i don't intend on overclocking my AMD rig.

I had one of these 'Noctua' beasties in my old power hungry and potentially volcanic Core i7 940 rig:

http://www.bjorn3d.com/Material/revi...366/noctua.jpg

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Ooh, a Noctua NH-D14... *lusts* :drool: :inlove:

I hope to aspire to one of these beasts one day; these are the pinnacle of CPU coolers and no mistake......

Yeah I like it with the double fans. You can do that with the Venom as well but if I added a second fan it would hit my ram :(

I looked at some temp tests on the venom when adding a second fan and it had barely any impact on cooling. So it was deemed not worthwhile ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skellionz

I looked at some temp tests on the venom when adding a second fan and it had barely any impact on cooling. So it was deemed not worthwhile ;)

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Ah right, thats pretty pants then. But tbh I would have added it anyway cause I think it looks better with two fans. The yellow fan with UV lights is something else to look at. Even the top edge of the ram glows real nice ;)

It's lucky you aint a moth jimbo :P