So I'm gonna build my wife and I 2 new computers some time in the next 5-6 months. I'm trying to budget 1500 apiece with monitor & wireless kbd/mouse combo. (My laptop's feeling its age and her frankenbox, although it runs things fine, is too loud and hot for our 1 bedroom apartment)
What I'm looking to put together is the best compromise of speed, and quiet but effective heat dissipation. I do however have some concerns/ideas:
Ideally, I think I *should* be able to put together something without a reserator or water cooling that relies on maximizing the use of heatsinks with a modest but well-organized airflow scheme.
1. Must have SLi. We're gamers and this looks to be the way to go. At the same time, we're not hardcore and I've seen a few passively cooled (no fans) models at the low end of the chipsets. Anyone seen reviews on how these handle?
2. Whose dual cores are running hotter? AMD or Intel? I know AMD's had the low-heat side of the market for a while, but the last computers I've built were a sock 478 p4 and an athlon 2800, so I'm not sure how the two companies have grown into the dual-core scene.
3. do the non-reserator water cooling systems do anything to quiet the system or do they just reroute heat faster/better but ultimately dump it to an HS and blow it away with the same noisy fans.
What I'm looking to put together is the best compromise of speed, and quiet but effective heat dissipation. I do however have some concerns/ideas:
Ideally, I think I *should* be able to put together something without a reserator or water cooling that relies on maximizing the use of heatsinks with a modest but well-organized airflow scheme.
1. Must have SLi. We're gamers and this looks to be the way to go. At the same time, we're not hardcore and I've seen a few passively cooled (no fans) models at the low end of the chipsets. Anyone seen reviews on how these handle?
2. Whose dual cores are running hotter? AMD or Intel? I know AMD's had the low-heat side of the market for a while, but the last computers I've built were a sock 478 p4 and an athlon 2800, so I'm not sure how the two companies have grown into the dual-core scene.
3. do the non-reserator water cooling systems do anything to quiet the system or do they just reroute heat faster/better but ultimately dump it to an HS and blow it away with the same noisy fans.
