First Gaming Build under $2000 - please help

[Hameister]

To STARIK:
I will just say that i am also against what Accurate says. so you can see we are 4 poeple against 1.
He is wrong about the 2500K CPU and he's hate against SLI is ridicules. Yup!

The i5-3570k is noticeable faster then the 2500k. The 2500k might overclock slightly better (and i do mean slightly), the end result will still be that the 3570k will smash the 2500k for only 20$ extra. Buy the 3570K, trust os. it's the better choice. Very true.

My thoughts on SLI and Crossfire:
I would not buy 2 cards for SLI at once because i "personally" don't need that much Horse power and i am concerned about the extra noise and heat.
however it might be a GREAT idea to add an extra card down the road when the card is getting older. instead of taking an 670 out and replacing it with the next 770, then buy an extra 670 (which would be cheaper at the time). that setup will be faster then a single 770.
SLI and Crossfire are awesome. it's for kick ass performance or for money saving when it's time to upgrade (by buying a cheaper soon to be outdated card for SLI). Absolutely, you'll notice that no one suggested SLI now. Most folks get into SLI a year or two down the road when adding a second identical card, will often outperform the single newest latest greatest and most expensive.

For my favorite coolers: that would be the Hydro coolers from Corsair. i like the looks and the performance.I might buy an H80 soon. If you can afford the H100 it's awesome.^^

Here's a screenshot of my machine running all cores & threads, at 100% load with Prime95 using the H100.

Notice the idle temps are 28c to 31c, and the full load max temps are 63c to 72c, at a 4.5GHz over clock with an ambient temp of 77F. You'll love it!

EDIT: One side note. Corsair is using a special Dow Corning TIM on their liquid coolers. Some folks are automatically wiping the thermal block clean, and then applying their favorite paste. I wouldn't suggest doing that, because the Dow Corning paste is excellent with that metal cooling block.

 

[BikerEcho]

it's great that we can agree. i hope STARIK does not see his visit on our forum as a bad experience because of this discussion with Accurate.

i see you are getting some good results with the H100. that's great. i have actually been considering it. it is a kick ass cooler.
I might tight in a H100 to the budget. ^^

nice. it's great that corsair already have applied some paste they know works good on there coolers.

 

[starik]

it's great that we can agree. i hope STARIK does not see his visit on our forum as a bad experience because of this discussion with Accurate.

Absolutely not a bad experience. I asked for help and I got lots of it fast. I'll come back here if/when I have more computer-related questions. Thanks everyone.