So I am upgrading again. My E6750 and 8800GT are getting tired, well not that tired, but its time anyways. I never had much luck trying to overclock the 6750 even though it was supposed to be easy, but I'd like to do it this time so I'm planning ahead.

I already have purchased a i5-760 and an MSI P55A-G55 motherboard (package at NCIX). I have nothing else yet. Just looking at coolers and based on price the H50 and H70 are not that much more expensive than the Noctua D-14 or NH-U12. Opinions as to which would be best? I haven't bought RAM yet either, but I am planning on getting DDR3-1600 2x4GB chips. Probably CL9 to keep prices down.

As for cases the Corsair 600T is extremely appealing, but open to suggestions there.

Haven't settled on Video yet either, waiting till well.. tomorrow to see what AMD announces. I have been leaning towards maybe the 6870 and going CF later on. I don't care to overclock the video cards, that has gone even worse for me than trying to overclock CPU's.

600T would be the way the go. Smaller and cheaper than an 800D but not propriatary like Hali-Newf's NZXT stormtrooper case which offers the same features. If ya don't get a case that allows you to route cables behind the tray you're cheating youself.



The H50 is good, but the H70 is better. I like the fact that the big heavy stuff is taken off the motherboard (really who wants 1kg of weight on it?) with the self-contained WC getups.

Hopefully the 6950/70/90 cost and performance are there to pressure NV to lower prices....Everybody wins!

Yeah that 600T is beautiful.. Other than my HTPC case I've always had the cheapest of cases and just left the sides off.

Do you think the longevity of an H70 would be about the same as a fan/heatsink combo?

I'm not holding my breath that the 69xx series will hold much better than the 68xx series, it would just be nice. I almost went for a GTX 570, but I'd actually prefer something a little less power hungry.

Edit: Is there any place I can get a 600T locally?

There's a chance to get a lemon no matter what you buy (same as everything in life). My H50 has been going strong for a year now, last 2 months it's been on 24/7.

I have no reason to believe at the price they charge and Corsair's current reputation, there are many years of flawless performance left in my H70, unless I can't get it to fit on my next system...

Oh wow, just noticed you have an H50 and an H70. I thought you had made a typo.

My whole damn life could be summed up as a typo, but yeah I got both. I take my sig very seriously!

I would say go with the 600T. Its just made right. The only drawback for me personally is the fact thats its an ATX mid tower. I wanted a full tower, but that just me. Other than that the 600T is just simply made right. Alot of thought went into the design and it would shine that fact when you actually do a build, then later, try to clean it.

Yes with my case most of the fans are proprientary , which to me is simply and utterly retarded. But I was able to work around that just fine.

As for coolers, the H70 is the way to go for an inexpensive maitenence free loop. For air coolers I would lean toward the thermaltake V6GT or V8.

So things are set now. I already have new in box:
i5-760
MSI P55A-G55 Motherboard

And just ordered:
G.SKILL F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL Ripjaws 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1333 CL9
Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB
Corsair Graphite 600T

The H70 will have to wait until later. I'll just run it at stock speeds for now with the OEM fan.

Giggity.. I haven't done this big of an upgrade all at once in like 6 years.

holy jebus! make sure to post lots of build shots - I would like to see the internals of the 600T with a card of that size stuck in it.

Nice choices! They all will perform well.

I never really double checked that the card would fit.. I hope it does

I don't think it'll be a problem.. you can move a hard drive cage if the cards are too long.

So most of my goodies got here today. The 600T is massive.. I uh.. had no idea it would be as big as it is (not sure it will fit on my desk shelf ). Good thing though because a 6950 is gigantic and fairly weighty. I'm dying to go home and put some gear together now..

photos dude! photos!

Really? There is like a million of them online. The 600T doesn't look anywhere near as big as it is in real life from those photos though. I just put it back in the box.

Here is the collection.. sitting in my office teasing me to put it together.