Any kind person with Processor knowledge.

[BrendanFace]

Excuse my n00bishness... I understand most things about RAM and VRAM, but I don't know jack all about processors...

For example, if my processor says it is 2.97 GHz, and yet it is duel core, does that mean it is infact 6 GHz? I mean, I have ran games such as Crysis and Fear 2, which say they need a minimum of a 3.2 Gh processor, on medium to high settings.

Also, this will probably seem like a stupid question, but would upgrading my processor also mean upgrading my cooling system, or will my pathetic little fan adapt to survive a quadcore?

[dosbox]

Excuse my n00bishness... I understand most things about RAM and VRAM, but I don't know jack all about processors...

For example, if my processor says it is 2.97 GHz, and yet it is duel core, does that mean it is infact 6 GHz? I mean, I have ran games such as Crysis and Fear 2, which say they need a minimum of a 3.2 Gh processor, on medium to high settings.


No, it's a 2.97 GHz processor with two cores. It will however be able to outperform the 3.2 GHz processor in some cases.


Also, this will probably seem like a stupid question, but would upgrading my processor also mean upgrading my cooling system, or will my pathetic little fan adapt to survive a quadcore?

New boxed processors come with a heatsink and fan.

[Kibblesman]

Also, this will probably seem like a stupid question, but would upgrading my processor also mean upgrading my cooling system, or will my pathetic little fan adapt to survive a quadcore?

All the new CPUs come with a stock heatsink, but if you're going to do some overclocking, then you will want to buy a better heatsink.

[Bugs Bunny]

it depends on if the processor is "OEM" or not.
The same processor usually is cheaper when it's OEM but does not come with a heatsink.
This can be good if you plan to get an aftermarket cooler anyway to save some money.

(so you might not need a new cooler even if you buy an OEM processor, but you can get a semi decent air one you can overclock with for 20-30 bucks so I highly recommend it)

[VAC Angel]

Some good cooling systems can always be found from corsair, xigmatek, coolermaster, and sometimes thermaltake.

[cructo]

Some good cooling systems can always be found from corsair, xigmatek, coolermaster, and sometimes thermaltake.

Zalman has very good cpu and gpu coolers too.

[Phayze1337]

Lol vac, You completely disregarded Noctua which currently has the best air coolers you can buy. They are also the most silent and least power consuming due to the low RPM fans they use.

The Noctua NH-D14 blows away any other socket 1333 and lower heatsink excluding water cooling(even beats corsairs hydro series) completely out of the water. It's not a contest. Even the NH-U12P SE2, the very silent version outperforms the Corsair H70 Hydro.

Plus noctua has superb build quality, nothing like your entry corsair hydro which will leak coolant all over your processor and video card (and althought it's not conductive it will corrode everything it touches if not cleaned up veryyy well with rubbing alcohol). the corsair tech forum is filled with leakage RMA posts.

To the OP, No having a dual core 3ghz processor does not mean your processor is 6Ghz. It means that it can calculate two individual threads at a frequency of 3ghz. If it's an i7, this means that each core can calculate two threads much like the old Pentium 4's. an i7 quad core and do 8 calculations simultaneously, at a frequency of the clock of the processor. Ie, my 4.2Ghz i7 950 with hyper threading enabled does 8 separate calculations at any time with each thread having a frequency of 4.2Ghz. I get like 54Gflops of calculations. For example, a Q9650 at 4.2 Ghz only gets 40ish Gflops of calculations, yet it also being a quad core at the same clock. This is how multiple threading has improved processor power.

[VAC Angel]

Ooooh phayze. You don't want to argue with me on this kind of thing. I simply forgot to mention noctua, zalman and prolimatech. My "entry" corsair h70 with dual silverstone air penetrators keeps my i7 960 ocd at 4.2ghz at 50C full load. And they don't cover ram slots and put stress on my my motherboard. Hop off your bandwagon and do some research before you debate with someone that does this stuff for a living

[Phayze1337]

Dont know where you get your info, but the H70 only outperforms the D14 when you stick on high rpm fams, making it unbearably loud for even the enthusiast (who would just go for full water cooling). It's not even close stock to stock comparison of the h70 vs the d14. I bet you still use AS5

[VAC Angel]

I don't use as5. I used the pre cured material that came with it because it is known to be excellent. Look up the air penetrators, not high rpm at all. 1500 rpm. That's the stock for many noctua fans

[Darkravenbw]

Ooooh phayze. You don't want to argue with me on this kind of thing. I simply forgot to mention noctua, zalman and prolimatech. My "entry" corsair h70 with dual silverstone air penetrators keeps my i7 960 ocd at 4.2ghz at 50C full load. And they don't cover ram slots and put stress on my my motherboard. Hop off your bandwagon and do some research before you debate with someone that does this stuff for a living

Everyone has brands they prefer its best for the OP to research their own based on reviews and write ups on the equipment.

Personally i reccomend Zalman/Corsair for people new to building as they are simple to do and impossible to mess up ;)

paste wise... unless you are overclocking stupidly any will do however zalmans STG paste is easy to apply and no fuss, for the more insane users ;) innovation cooling diamond 7 - used at work and its a tad crazy :D

[madmarten]

I'll be the first one to recommend Scythe.

[Phayze1337]

Vac, as soon as you brought your RL occupation into this you lost. Google H70 vs NH-D14. It's absolutely one sided. The H70 looks good in a case though. Good for the average consumer who like shinies. Kind of like the rat mouse. The h70 is LOUD and performs worse.

[cr1515]

LMAO do what for a living mount coolers? I had a nhd14 for a while and a 930 at 4ghz, load temp never went over 65 in OCCT. corsair should stick to what they do best, RAM and psu's. the h50/70 is fake bling to go in a HAFX.

iirc the nhd14 pretty much slays the corsairs performance wise, and what about the price? Those extra fans must have cost a fair bit on top of the already high price.

Strain on the mobo is a moot point as any half decent 1366 mobo is built to withstand it, and the only ram that wont fit under there is stuff with overly large heatspreaders, which again, may look great in a HAFX but are utterly pointless.

[Phayze1337]

LMAO do what for a living mount coolers? I had a nhd14 for a while and a 930 at 4ghz, load temp never went over 65 in OCCT. corsair should stick to what they do best, RAM and psu's. the h50/70 is fake bling to go in a HAFX.

iirc the nhd14 pretty much slays the corsairs performance wise, and what about the price? Those extra fans must have cost a fair bit on top of the already high price.

Strain on the mobo is a moot point as any half decent 1366 mobo is built to withstand it, and the only ram that wont fit under there is stuff with overly large heatspreaders, which again, may look great in a HAFX but are utterly pointless.
/bow, thanks bro.

[Darkravenbw]

Vac, as soon as you brought your RL occupation into this you lost. Google H70 vs NH-D14. It's absolutely one sided. The H70 looks good in a case though. Good for the average consumer who like shinies. Kind of like the rat mouse. The h70 is LOUD and performs worse.

not really... jobs are a good source of information :) i'm a freelance ICT contractor :rolleyes: doesn't make me any smarter than anyone else on here but i do have a wide base of knowledge combined with industry experience and everyones best friend - wanting to learn! however acting all supreme ;) well that's just been an ♥♥♥♥ and doesn't require a job

it is starting to head off track with the OP's requirements.


For example, if my processor says it is 2.97 GHz, and yet it is duel core, does that mean it is infact 6 GHz? I mean, I have ran games such as Crysis and Fear 2, which say they need a minimum of a 3.2 Gh processor, on medium to high settings.

- Never multiply them :) just because it says 2/4/8 cores doesn't mean you get X amount of cores times the clock speed.

you want to look up performance measures such as flops and well it gets kind of boring then the best idea is to learn processor families - which ones are budget (quick intel examples here) e.g. core i3/QXXX series processors for intel

which ones are mid range e.g. the Q9XXX/i5 series

high end e.g. i7 and the "extreme" range

Also, this will probably seem like a stupid question, but would upgrading my processor also mean upgrading my cooling system, or will my pathetic little fan adapt to survive a quadcore?

Custom cooling is for when you are paranoid, have a cramped case, enjoy tinkering with things or have high temp's or want low temps :)

(or all of the above)

Generally a fan + heatsink is included with a processor only time i haven't had them included is at work when ordering in a replacement for a fried CPU from HP directly (warranty job).

on the plus side a cheap custom cooler will work better than most stock coolers (£15/20 is usually a good price to look at for a budget cooler)

[Phayze1337]

Dark, It is true your occupation can definitely impact your computer knowledge. It's just childish using your proposed "IRL profession" to win a blatantly moot argument --- that is lost by typing just the model numbers into google. It's the internet. No one cares who you work for if you are arguing a garbage perspective.

And yes, if you are not planning on overclocking a third party heatsink is completely pointless. Even if you are doing overclocking, a mild overclock is perfectly capable on a stock heatsink (With exception to the i7 series, which run very hot on stock voltages but thankfully you can substantially undervolt many of these and get some good overclocks under stock voltages while staying completely stable). Rule of thumb is, If you arent changing the voltage, stick with the stock cooler (ie if your FSB is limited by your ram) but if you want some great performance or are an enthusiast a heatsink is the way to go to give your processor the maximum life possible with the most performance.

[Darkravenbw]

Dark, It is true your occupation can definitely impact your computer knowledge. It's just childish using your proposed "IRL profession" to win a blatantly moot argument --- that is lost by typing just the model numbers into google. It's the internet. No one cares who you work for if you are arguing a garbage perspective.

not going to argue this one ;) although people tend to argue "till the end" when no one accepts their point of view (even if they are wrong - just come back with solid evidence it sharp changes their point of view unless they are crazy!) also you'll notice i might of referenced the butt area when mentioning a certain personality trait :p

anyway i think the OP needs to enjoy the read and come back with more questions :)