Legit Reviews

So, as the title stats, i am upgrading my system. as of the end of the month i will be ordering my system upgrades which are as follows:
i5 3570k planning to overclock to 4.0ghz
ASRock Extreme 4 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance Pro 1600mhz 2x4GB

I already have a psu and gpu however what i would like is a nice case with a 200mm side fan and red leds for sub £100. any help?

Edit asrock extreme 6 now

CM N600 but you'll have to buy the 200m fan
CM HAF (most will allow 200m fans on side panel)
TT Armor Revo (again have to buy the 200m fan)

I'd have to look around for others, sadly don't think they're all that common on the side panel.

One thing I would caution on your build, is the ASRock MB. I've never had a problem, but I know many people have. From what I've heard, their customer service really sucks if you have an issue.

i like the armor revo but it costs £130 here in the uk and not over keen on the n600. i do like the haf series but again all but the haf 912 is over £100 i understand the asrock extreme 4 is a great board but due to poor customer service it could be a bad idea. however, a friend of mine purchased the extreme 4 last year (10 or so months ago) and said the board is fantastic and hasn't run into any problems yet

You don't need a 200MM fan unless you have a 200MM fan exhausting too. Or do you prefer a positive pressure setup (positive vs negative airflow)? Are you planning on reusing your Zalman HSF with the new CPU? Send a couple of links where you shop at in the UK and I'll poke around and see what I find for cases.

Well i got lucky and found a coolermaster haf 932 for £100 Major, i currently have positive airflow in my system 3 120mm intake 1 140 exhaust. but the haf will do nicely

Good case DJ. Haven't had a need for another since I got one. I've got mine in a positive airflow config too so as you said..it does nicely

What are you going to use to cool the processor? Keep in mind that Haswell is the hottest running of the 3 i series processors (Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, Haswell). With that said though I think you might be low balling yourself with 4GHz. My 2600K will do 4.5GHz with stock voltages.

Major_A wrote:What are you going to use to cool the processor? Keep in mind that Haswell is the hottest running of the 3 i series processors (Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, Haswell). With that said though I think you might be low balling yourself with 4GHz. My 2600K will do 4.5GHz with stock voltages.

Yea, my 3570k goes to 4.5 easily, no tweaks to voltages or anything extreme. Just a change to the FSB and it goes there. You might be surprised what you can get the 3570k up to. I've had mine up to 4.7 but felt that was pushing it (even though it ran fan after a 24 hour stress).

i'm going air cooling with a zalman 9900max as i got it for a really nice price at £30 down from £45. well i was aiming for 4.5ghz but i thought that i may be pushing that limit but after a little searching it seems 4.5 at stock to 1.3 vcore is easily done. so 4.5 here i come i hope

Mine was on the Zalman 9900CNPS so the MAX you shouldn't have any issues

ok so i have all my new hardware right here in my hands now i'm going to build the system and will report back with pictures of the final result.

Have fun. If you're like me I have to take breaks when wiring it up. I tend to run out of patience when trying to hide the wires.

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ok so i have finally got my new system up and running. i came across 3 problems during the build.

Problem 1: the cpu cooler backplate was an absolute nightmare to screw into place. took me and a friend to help to apply enough downward force to screw in place
Problem 2: i had to re-install my OS in order to install the mobo drivers as they didn't like the old embedded driver
Problem 3: After re-installing my whole system again i had a sudden brainwave. would my current OS vista 64 (OEM) that i have just installed activate now that i have a new system? of course in wouldn't as it is stating already used. now i have 3 days to get a new OS before i can't use this system

On the plus side my cpu temps that i expected to be high, due to the cooler installation errors i had, were in fact suprising low at 60, 62, 62, 53 during occt linpack test. the wierd thing is core 4 is always around 8-10c cooler than my hottest core. Unable to upload pics just yet as i have yet to find the cable for my camera which i have now ordered

I have a core like that in my 2600K, though its not as drastic (maybe 5 degrees C). Over here in the States most colleges offer students discounts on their software. I had my sister pick me up a copy of Windows 8 Pro for $18 a few weeks back. So if you know someone in university then you might get a good deal. Otherwise grab a system builder edition of the software. Warning though, you can't by the disk by itself so you might have to buy a SATA cable or something with it too.

i have found a windows 7 professional edition 64 bit for £50 but it's a dell recover disc with legit product key that seems to have 26 out of 32 satisfied customers. do you think it's worth it?

I'd say go with a real legit version and call it a day. This might have a Dell specific key and since you don't have a Dell it won't work.

So i just clocked my cpu to 4.2ghz @ 1.2v and upgraded my side fan to bitfenix spectre pro red 230mm and the same one for my top exhaust fan. also changed the rear exhaust to an aerocool shark devil red 140mm. this has lowered my cpu temp by 2c and gpu temp by 2c. cpu during occt linpack using all available memory hits 63 on core 1, 68 on core 2 and 3 and 59 on core 4. what do you guys think of those temps?

Before you touched the CPU voltage what was the max the CPU would clock? Like I said my 2600K will do 4.5GHz with stock voltages. After that it starts to get unstable.

This is unrelated but have you checked for a BIOS update?
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z87%20Ex ... ad&os=BIOS
I see a few revisions ago they updated the BIOS to:

1. Improve overclocking CPU fan behavior.
2. Improve Overclock ability.
3. Improve UEFI stability.
4. Improve UEFI guide string for multi-language.

I was able to get 4.2 on stock then the system would bsod for no reason. I'm trying to push 4.5ghz at 1.2v but no luck so far. there is no bios update for my board needed as 2.80 is the latest.

Edit: I can get 4ghz stable @1.17v stock and up to 4.2ghz @ 1.2v. anything after 4.2ghz and my system fails to post until I put in 1.28v at which I need 1.3v to get stable. at that voltage I can get 4.6ghz before the temps start getting a bit to high for me. so I'm happy to stick at 4.2ghz @ 1.2v with core temps at 58, 62,63,56

I have decided to overclock my memory and can see that the 1866mhz kits run @ 9-10-9-27-2t. so I have it at 1800mhz @ the same timings with 1.5v. I have also got my gtx 570 to 850/2000 @ 1.050v

Edit: Turns out my 1800mhz overclock on my memory was unstable so put it back to 1600 MHz at 9-9-9-24 and my gtx 570 is now at 840mhz at 1.037 to help with cooling. 2c lower than at 850mhz

Edit 2: Been looking at a beast of a card that I can pick up for £180 brand new. What do you think? http://www.kfa2.com/GTX670_EXOC.shtml