[NEW UPGRADE QUESTION] Corsair Heaven (56K warning!) - Page 40

Giving myself a free bump to say that I will hopefully get a new SSD for my computer:P

So I've run into a problem with this rig. As stated throughout the build log my first mobo fried and I had to replace it with an ASUS M4A88T-V EVO/USB3. This has been causing some issues lately, computer freezes, video gets choppy, sound distorts. I took apart the rig and did a complete cleaning and rebuild and then reinstalled Windows, still get some of the freezing but the other problems have cleared up. Today I OCed it 3.6GHz and the freezing stopped completely.

Now the temps are running higher as I think the pump on the modded H60 is not strong enough to handle pushing the water needed to cool the system. After 10 mins of Prime95 my CoreTemp read each core at 57C. I'm not used to it running that hot. Moved to a new apartment and got a huge desk in which the only place for my tower is underneath the desktop. I has about 4 inches of space above the tower and about 3 inches behind the tower. (I hate this desk b/c you can't see my rig!)

In about 6 weeks I'll be getting a stipend check from my school, and talked the wife into buying some new parts for the computer. At first I had my mind set on the XSPC Rasa 750 RX240 kit but during my cleaning one of the SATA ports on my motherboard fell off and it leaves me w/o my optical drive (no big deal), but I also have another 750GB HDD that was salvaged from a recent....Help my computer died!!! Dude it's your mobo.... ok wife bought me a new touch screen computer deal....

I cannot have this machine go down for more than a couple of hours at a time, so a full RMA to ASUS for a replacement board will not work. So I set the WC on a back burner and thought about getting a new board.

ASUS M5A99X EVO AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS ... now this is just a slight upgrade(IMHO), but I would also have to buy new RAM as mine does show that 4DIMMS will work with my current amount of RAM so I had to pick out

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9

As you can probably tell I am getting back a little under $200 and need to spend it as wisely as I can, so here is my question for you.... Get the new WC setup and keep my rig OCed, or get a new mobo and RAM?

With whatever choice you guys help me decide to do, I of course will document everything.

I appreciate the reply on this, gotta stick with the color theme until I build the next rig, also I don't have any plans going x-fire at all (probably the last AMD GPU I ever buy), but the real question was to either get the new mobo + ram or get the new water cooling system.

Well, I don't know when the next build will be. The kids are getting older, the boy is in pre-school now and the other turns 3 in May. I have 2 more years working on my second degree, and I know that with this upcoming tax check we will be paying off the car. So that needs to make this rig last another year and a half at least. Thank you so much for that perspective, that thought had not crossed my mind at all. But if my H60 does crap out I have the stock HSF for emergency and since other aftermarket air-coolers are inexpensive I can purchase one when needed. What I am really hoping is that the funds that are in my account for the college double when I get in my grants/loans and pay for everything. I've already gotten my books and they were super cheap this semester.

I had a little time on my hands today after cleaning my carpets and I sat down with my calculator and previous bills from my college. If everything adds up correctly and I get the financial aid like I am supposed to, I should have a better excess than I had originally hoped for. After cost of tuition, books, online fees (imagine it costing 200$ more per class to take it online, gotta love people's excuses of bleeding a college student dry every term), then adding in the 2 grants and student loan, I should have around $600 to spend. I may have to throw some of that to my car, my wife get's a much bigger check and we gotta get the car's front end looked at, if it costs more than what she gets then I have to help out. But, if I get to spend all the cash on my computer. I have decided to forgo the ASUS M5A99FX and get the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX.

But this board does not match my blue/white/black color scheme!! Got that covered! My wife has been asking me to get her a green computer. So if all goes as planned I will be modding this computer again. New mobo, RAM, Water Cooler, and resleeving the PSU, and painting the case green!

I looked at the Corsair 600T white edition and decided that if I get to paint it, all those parts that are white will be green with the black accents. I've never painted before so I will be doing tons of research for the best methods and paints to use. Then I will, of course, document the whole process with pics and videos!

To the resleeving part of the PSU.... I have tons of white paracord left and don't really feel like trying to do a color match for green. So I'll be sleeving the cords in pure white. Also be using some sort of green coolant that has the anti-microbial already in it. I will of course have to do tons of research to figure out which coolant to purchase.

I am really hoping that the finances work themselves out so I can have a project to do and have some quality mod time. But if it does not, I have seemed to figure out the random freezes on the computer and it's been working well for 2 days OCed at 3.4Ghz, I'll just replace the WC loop and have some fun with it.