*****THE OFFICIAL "SPEC ME" THREAD*****

NCIX sell the Thermalright Ultra-120 coolers, but you will need to buy a fan separately for those. As for the PSU, you can use a Corsair VX unit if the HX is too expensive, the only difference is modular cables, which are handy, but not $30 handy, not for most people anyway... haha

 

I see the VX series has a 450W and a 550W model. Would the 450W have enough pull for the quad core and a single 4870?

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX18183(ME).aspx

What is the difference between modular and non-modular PSU's?

 

Yes, that will be fine, but it may not be very quiet, the VX units get quite loud when stressed. The HX units on the other hand remain silent even when pushed to ridiculous levels. I run a 4870X2 and OC'ed Quad on one and it still makes almost no noise.
Modular PSU cables are ones you can remove if you don't need them, rather than leaving them dangling somewhere in your case.

 

What the hell I've gone this far, I'm going to shell out the extra for the HX, and order the Tuniq from NCIX. From how good I hear it is it will be well worth the wait. Some reviews say the base of it isn't exactly flat and could use lapping, which I understand to be sandpapering your CPU cooler and even the CPU top itself? Overclocking I'm comfortable with trying out, taking a pad of sandpaper to my CPU... not so much. I'm hoping it'll just work well enough without lapping.

 

They do, I use the basic version of the Ultra-120, which while still an excellent cooler, is probably towards the bottom of the tower coolers in terms of performance, the Tuniq is close to the top, I haven't lapped my cooler, and when I ran an E4300 overclocked from 1.8 to 3.2Ghz, overvolted from 1.325 to 1.45, I still had full load temperatures of less than 45 Celsius. Tower coolers are incredible compared to the rubbish CPUs normally come with.

 

the VX450 would be able to power it, BUT i wouldnt do it as it doesnt have 2 PCI-E connectors.

 

That's true actually, though the HD4870 comes with an adapter for that purpose, I'd still rather give dedicated power to a card.

 

Have some new stuff to throw at you guys. While I was ordering from NCIX I noticed some surprise specials, but it looks like it involves going for some cheaper brands.
Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition 775MHZ 512MB GDDR5 2XDVI Display Port PCI-E Video Card for 239$ after deals/rebate vs the $275 HIS one I was looking at which may or may not even be in stock in which case the others are all sitting around 300$ CAD. How is palits reputation?

For RAM:
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-6400C5 4GB DDR2 2X2GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL 5-5-5-18 240PIN Memory Kit for 60$. However those timting look pretty horrendous. Originally was looking at some 4-4-4-12 sticks that would set me back 108$ for the same capacity/speed.

Thoughts? These things are selling out quickly so I have to act fast.

 

ok firstly go fort he cheapest 4870 you can find.

esp the palit one is good, non ref board, brilliant cooling amazing connectivity.

as for the ram, just increace the voltage a bit and tighten up the timing, but in a c2d system, timings will not make a difference at all, AND you will never notice the difference, either in gaming, or even in benches.

 

I'm picking up a C2Q not a C2D but I assume the same thing applies?

Edit: Saw some benchmarks on some reviews and pulled the trigger, forked out for the quick shipping as well, hopefully get it by weeks end.

 

Same applies, yes.

 

If you're going to lap the Tuniq Tower, make sure you back your sandpaper with a flat piece of glass as to have a perfectly flat surface. When lapped, the Tuniq is one of the best coolers out there and beats out some mid-range water cooling. I got my Q6600 to 3.4GHz easily with it. Even if you don't have the 1.25VID like mine has, it should still be well within reach at ~1.4v

 

What level of sandpaper did you use?

 

start with 400 and move up.

here is a brilliant guide:

part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVXuZTuoEuE

part2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L1s1-nXj0o

wathc the rest of his videos, they are amazing.

 

I remember one guy saying how he did it really fast and got fantanstic results.

Start with 200 grit and make it really flat. Then do 800 and then 1200 or 2000. Should only take 45 mins instead of 6 hours.

 

fastest way would be to get a mouse sander

 

I started with 400 grit and ended with the 2500 grit my dad uses for finishing body work on cars. It took me maybe 2-3 hours while watching some TV.

Another tip: DO NOT POLISH YOUR FINISHED SURFACE UNTIL YOU CLEAN IT WITH ALCOHOL!!! It adds impurities to the finish and grinds the little bits of metal sanded off back into the surface. After it is cleaned though, you can go ahead and polish. Use a lint free cloth to apply the alcohol and wipe the surface. I use coffee filters.

Some will go so far to say don't even polish at all. The difference is negligible at best. I wanted both the cooler and CPU to have a mirror shine. And just look at my temps

 

I don't think my temps are that far away from those... Unless you mean IntelBurntest of course...

 

he is at 3.4

 

and so was I until recently, no real reason I can't be at 3.42 again, if I follow the 'it doesn't have to pass a burn test' mentality.