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Need to build a new system. Performance wise my current rig performs well enough, however in some games (Crysis 3 especially), the CPU will get up to 74 centigrade in some areas. Pretty much need a system that performs like this one, but is much cooler. Budget is $600 excluding tax, but is it possible? Necessities would include:

Highest clocked Haswell i3 possible
MSI, Asus or GigaByte LGA 1150 mobo
8GB DDR3
1TB 7200 RPM HDD (1.5 TB is overkill for me)
Radeon R7 265
NZXT Phantom 240 case
500w PSU (in case I do wish to upgrade down the line)
Windows 8.1 Professional

ultima_trev wrote:

Performance-wise my current rig performs well enough, however in some games (Crysis 3 especially), the CPU will get up to 74 centigrade in some areas. Pretty much need a system that performs like this one, but is much cooler.

Do you really need a new system, or do you just need to clean out and upgrade the cooling on your existing PC? A new CPU cooler and some decent fans could be installed for less than $40. I believe that this is what you need.
$ 20 -5MIR CoolerMaster Hyper TX3 (with 92mm PWM fan)
$ 11 Rexus DF129225BM 92mm 3-pin case fan
or $ 11 CoolerMaster R4-BM9S-28PK-R0 92mm PWM (4-pin) case fan - if your motherboard's chassis fan connector is PWM.

ultima_trev wrote:

Existing gaming PC
Core i7 860 2.8/3.46 GHz hyper-threaded quad-core LGA1156 processor
Dell H57 micro-ATX motherboard
8GB DDR3-1333
Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850
1.5TB 7200rpm HDD
Dell Studio XPS 8100 micro-ATX case with one 3-pin system fan
350W PSU
Acer 20" LED monitor (1600*900)

Wishlist
Highest clocked Haswell i3 possible
MSI, Asus or GigaByte LGA 1150 mobo
8GB DDR3
1TB 7200 RPM HDD (1.5 TB is overkill for me)
Radeon R7 265
NZXT Phantom 240 case
500w PSU (in case I do wish to upgrade down the line)
Windows 8.1 Professional

Budget is $600 excluding tax, but is it possible?

For that sort of money, you're not going to get an upgrade over what you already own unless you're willing to re-use most of the pieces from your existing PC. What do you think of these components?

$ 99 Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 ATX motherboard (will not fit into a micro-ATX case)
or $116½ MSI Z97M-G43 micro-ATX motherboard
or $135 -10MIR Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 micro-ATX motherboard

$ 75 -15 combo Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz/unlocked dual-core LGA1150 processor
or $160 Intel Core i3-4360 3.7 GHz hyper-threaded dual-core LGA1150 processor
or $240 Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz/unlocked quad-core LGA1150 processor
or $340 -75 combo Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0 GHz/unlocked hyper-threaded quad-core LGA1150 processor

$35 -10MIR CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo CPU cooler (too tall for the two small micro-ATX cases linked below)
or $ 20 -5MIR CoolerMaster Hyper TX3 (not as tall as the 212)
or $ 0 stock Intel CPU cooler

$ 76½ 2x4 GiB PC3-14900 G.Skill F3-1866C9D-8GAB (DDR3-1866, CAS 9, 1.5 V) memory
or $ 0 re-use existing PC3-10666 memory

$150 -10MIR Sapphire 100365L Radeon R9-270 2GB graphics card + 2 free games
or $135 -20MIR MSI N750TI-2GD5/OC GeForce GTX750Ti graphics card
or $ 0 re-use eixsting Radeon HD7850

$110 0.256 TB Crucial MX100 SSD
$ 76½ 2.0 TB Toshiba DT01ACA200 7200 rpm HDD
or $ 0 re-use existing 1.5 TB 7200 rpm hard-drive
$ 60 LG WH16NS40 Blu-ray burner
or $ 0 re-use existing optical drive

$ 50 -10MIR Corsair Carbide 200R ATX case
or $ 35 -10MIR Fractal Design Core 1000 micro-ATX case
or $ 43 -5MIR Silverstone PS08B micro-ATX case

$ 50 -20MIR Corsair CX500 power supply (38 A, 80+ Bronze)
or $ 75 SeaSonic S12G-550 power supply (45 A, 80+ Gold)

$103 Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit OEM
or $143 Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit OEM

$ 17 Logitech MK120 USB keyboard and mouse
or $ 0 Existing Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor and Speakers
==========
$887 -50MIR

Your i7-860 is faster then any i3 CPU you can buy since it has 4 logical cores and HT. You can get a slight boost if you disable core parking.
I do not know what motherboard you have but the Asus P7P55D Deluxe is about the best 1156 socket motherboard made. It is a beast with a 24 phase CPU power system.

vargis14 wrote:

Your i7-860 is faster then any i3 CPU you can buy since it has 4 logical cores and HT. You can get a slight boost if you disable core parking.

The core parking problem should have been addressed in Win8+, which the OP has. Even if disabling core parking boosts performance, I would say that is still workload dependent. The OP, however, is just looking for cooler temperatures not exactly a performance boost.

Flying Fox wrote:

The OP is just looking for cooler temperatures not exactly a performance boost.

Which is why he needs a new CPU cooler, new thermal paste on his CPU and a good case fan rather than a new low-budget PC.

So it would be better to invest in new thermal paste, heat sink and fan rather than a new build?

JustAnEngineer wrote:

$ 20 -5MIR CoolerMaster Hyper TX3 (with 92mm PWM fan)
$ 11 Rexus DF129225BM 92mm 3-pin case fan
or $ 11 CoolerMaster R4-BM9S-28PK-R0 92mm PWM (4-pin) case fan - if your motherboard's chassis fan connector is PWM

Thank you for your suggestions. I will look into these albeit I'm skeptical about any decent fan/heatsink fitting in these cramped Dell cases.

ultima_trev wrote:

So it would be better to invest in new thermal paste, heat sink and fan rather than a new build?

JustAnEngineer wrote:

$ 20 -5MIR CoolerMaster Hyper TX3 (with 92mm PWM fan)
$ 11 Rexus DF129225BM 92mm 3-pin case fan
or $ 11 CoolerMaster R4-BM9S-28PK-R0 92mm PWM (4-pin) case fan - if your motherboard's chassis fan connector is PWM

Thank you for your suggestions. I will look into these albeit I'm skeptical about any decent fan/heatsink fitting in these cramped Dell cases.

Just blow out any dust accumulation and see if you get some improvement. If there is then you know you can do better and start some serious research.

I don't know much about builds or anything, but with that being said if you have the money you could look at doing the thermal paste, new heatsink and so on and just get a better case and move everything from the case you have now to possibly a bigger case? This also could help with the heat issues.

Yep a nice cooler and a nice case with side panel fans instead of a useless window....though NXTX 440 case is nice...I think that is the case Razer is basing their 1st case on. It can hold 3 120mm fans n front, 3 in top and a rear fan. Also it has a nice PSU cover for a super clean build.

How did you get on with the dust cleanout?

Being a Dell it can be problematic trying to change parts or do a case transplant. The last Dell Studio I worked on had a funnel over the CPU cooler so that it could only breathe air from the side panel, the cooler used S775 mounting holes even though it was a S1155 board, and I'm not totally convinced the board had 100% ATX compatible mounting holes, might have been Micro-BTX which should fit in some other cases at least. The PSU was larger than an ATX PSU so I had to drill new holes in the case, Dremel out some tabs, and bend others into new positions to make it fit. I wasn't even sure if the board's 24-pin power was compatible with a standard PSU without looking it up and the Dell PSU sure as hell wouldn't have been compatible with any ATX case on the market either.

It also had a lot of unused plastic retention stuff blocking the front fan - designed as a drive cage holder or something - but if yours has unused drive/card retention cage(s) clogging up the area behind the front intake fan, you could just remove them....