Jet_Set_Jim
Established Member
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2005
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- 180
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- Age
- 49
Hi there
After 4 years of staunch service my 3.2GHz P4 Dell 8300 is in need of replacement; so I've been researching the latest developments / kit, but I have a couple of questions if I may:
1) I'm keen on getting a PC that's pretty quiet; that's not to say entirely silent, but my Dell PC has always been terrible in that respect - with moderate ambient temperature it's almost as loud as a dustbuster. This noise is down to the CPU fan... I have read that Core 2 CPUs run pretty cool, but my question is as follows: do the Extreme and Quad Core variants require much more cooling than the Core 2 Duo versions? Also, I'd imagine that purchasing a pre-overclocked unit would have a penalty in this area?
2) Graphics cards - It appears that the 8800GTS and 8800GTX are the current standards, and that dual cards are a fairly common option. Which offers the better performance, a single 8800GTX or dual 8800GTS cards? Once again, would there be much of a difference between the two in terms of cooling requirement?
My budget is c. £2000 for the base unit, with usage being fairly varied and including gaming.
Thanks in advance for any advice that you might be able to offer
After 4 years of staunch service my 3.2GHz P4 Dell 8300 is in need of replacement; so I've been researching the latest developments / kit, but I have a couple of questions if I may:
1) I'm keen on getting a PC that's pretty quiet; that's not to say entirely silent, but my Dell PC has always been terrible in that respect - with moderate ambient temperature it's almost as loud as a dustbuster. This noise is down to the CPU fan... I have read that Core 2 CPUs run pretty cool, but my question is as follows: do the Extreme and Quad Core variants require much more cooling than the Core 2 Duo versions? Also, I'd imagine that purchasing a pre-overclocked unit would have a penalty in this area?
2) Graphics cards - It appears that the 8800GTS and 8800GTX are the current standards, and that dual cards are a fairly common option. Which offers the better performance, a single 8800GTX or dual 8800GTS cards? Once again, would there be much of a difference between the two in terms of cooling requirement?
My budget is c. £2000 for the base unit, with usage being fairly varied and including gaming.
Thanks in advance for any advice that you might be able to offer