The (new) Official PC building thread!

Note - that's only possible with cases that don't have support struts - the Lexa, for example does. The Lexa Blackline, however, doesn't.

 

Sammorris:
At what temp does your pc run again and how do you do it with all that clumped cabling? That thing looks like you just stuffed everything in without caring.

theonejrs:
That thing is huge! But then again, so is the one I was thinking about. I was originally going to go with a Thermaltake V1, before I posted in afterdawn. Is it good?

OK.....if I asked any of you what cooler you would recommend, what would be your first automatic response???

 

The Thermalright Ultra-120 series. That probably goes for a few of us here. I've read the reviews of the Thermaltake V1 and it's alright, but it's a noisy beggar, and that's not what you're after.

As for me, right now my CPU runs in the fifties because I dropped the case fan speeds down for silence. When I had a fan on my CPU it ran at 43C full load. As for the cables, well, let's say I've still yet to get round to doing the job properly. It could be a lot worse, and that's when they start affecting temperatures.
As for not caring, that's certainly not the case. I'm very fond of my PC and as such spend a lot of time keeping it in good shape. One of the downsides of that is that I change how the hardware is set up on a regular basis, and it's for that reason really that the cables aren't tucked away neat and tidy. it can be done, this is what my PC used to look like:

 

The Xigamtek cooler.

 

Those too. However, in a low noise (and therefore low airflow) environment, the gap between the Xigmatek and the T.R.U.E. widens, significantly.

 

sammorris,

Did you happen to notice that the first Newegg picture of the Blackline shows a support strut? None of the other pictures do! LOL!!

Russ

 

I guess I'll have to go with the Thermalright Ultra 120 then if the noise level is that low. But for some reason, all thermalright products are not for sale on newegg. WTF? Can you give me a link to the one you have?

As for the case, which lexa do you have, the one with the red pic on newegg or the blue? And where the hell is the front external ports? They seem expensive though, so I think I will have to go with the CM Mystique.

 

mrk44,

Newegg didn't include a picture of the right side of the case. I've gotten used to checking the manufacturer's product page as Newegg often makes mistakes in specs and things like that! The ports are located on the right front panel below the door! LOL!! 1 Firewire, 2 USB and Audio jacks.

As far as the price goes I think the Lexa Blackline has enough nice features to warrant the price difference, plus they include 3 120mm fans. I also don't care much for full length doors, as I would have to find someplace else to put my coffee cup, and you have to reach around the open clamshell doors from either side! LOL!!

Russ

 

Theone: lol it's probably a shop of the other version. I've seen that done before...
Mrk: Newegg don't sell Thermalright stuff, they stopped doing it ages ago. NCIX, however, do - link in my signature.
I have the original Silver/Black lexa, and the Red Lexa Blackline. The front external ports are on the right, down the bottom. While the positioning could be better, it's at least preferable to the bottom middle of some cases.

Important to note: not that it makes too much of a difference to most, but the Blackline is not sold with the carrybag. I asked NZXT on their forum if I could buy one separately, however, and they sent me one free of charge, along with a t-shirt, international postage.

 

Which case are you talking about? The Mystique? The full-length doors are not much of a problem for me and I would never put coffee on the top. I'm screwed if it spills.

Sammorris: You have both of the lexas? Which one is better? And it looks like NZXT has good service. NCIX is cheap as hell, thanks for the link. They have Q9450 for 338 as opposed to 360 on newegg! crap...its OEM.

Similar to my last question: If I asked any of you which of the following cases you would recommend, what would be your FIRST response?:
Antec P182
CM Mystique
Lexa Blackline
Enermax Chakra

 

That's not so easy. For absolute quietness, the P182. For an all round nice looking performance case, the lexa.

 

mrk44,

the TR U120 and TR U120E do not come with fans. you need to buy a 120mm x 25mm fan to mount on them. I recommend the scythe SFF21F.

just google for them. I bought my TR U120E prelapped at crazypc. directron.com sells them too but not prelapped. you can usually get a discount on the fan if you buy them togather.

once again, unless you are intending on doing some major OC'ing, that much cpu hsf is not needed. the arctic cooling freezer 7 pro or the OCZ vendetta would probably do ya.

 

Indeed, but what cooling prowess you don't use for overclocking can be used to quieten the PC down.

 

very true but a TRU or TRUE is really overkill if not intending on overclocking. heat will not a factor and a smaller hs and fan will suffice. apply that $20-30 somewhere else.

really either of the cpu hsf's I mentioned earlier or the one abuzar mentioned should be more than sufficient for stock or mild OC and quiet enough as well. if not OC'ing there won't be any heat issues thus you can slow the cpu hs fan way down.

 

Mort,
The thing is I want a quiet fan as well. Are the ones you recommended (Vendetta and Arctic freezer pro) quiet? I am gonna OC my Q9450 to maybe 3.00 GHz at the most. And which case do you think is better of the ones in my previous post?

 

Difference is retail usually comes with stock fan/heatsink while OEM doesnt. If you will change any settings or OC, you will want a better than stock fan so you would want the OEM anyway.
I'm not much of an OC'er, but my Q9450 starts getting a little unstable with my EX38-DS4 around 435-440FSB (stock 333), I could pump the voltage a little more but core1 got to be around 60°C after a half hour of OCCT (the other 3 were 6-12° less) so I lowered it and rock stable and cool at 3.44Ghz.

 

I paid half as much for my TRUA as a TRUE normally costs, far less than a Zalman heatsink will usually set you back, so as far as I'm concerned I did well. The only cheaper cooler really would have been the Freezer 7 Pro, which at the same noise level is very mediocre.

 

SWEEEEEEET!!! @ DeadRum!!! Good going buddy and glad you finally got your problems sorted..

@mk44,
Here are some links to TR products and one Scythe... I think the TR products are about as good as you can get and always TOP the comparison charts when it comes to cooling your cpu.... Of course you'll have to get a fan to go along with it but most aren't that expensive.

TR ultima-90 $43.99

TR Ultra 120 Extreme $57.99

TR HR-01 $49.99

Scythe SCINF-1000$44.99

There are other cpu coolers out there but these will do what you want and more!!! I would seriously consider one of these and look no further. These are the ones that I would consider for myself. I have the TR Ultra 120 and TR Ultra 90 and both do an excellent job!!!

Here's a fan to consider at svc.com too. linky to Nexus D12SL-12 PWM

Here's a couple more to look at as well. I don't know that much about fans but these seem ok. If you decide on the Ultima 90 you'll have to find a fan for it.

Sammy is the real fan aficionado when it comes to helping in that arena, well at least it seems that way.. ... good luck again buddy...

....gm

 

Note that the Nexus fans I recommend are NOT the PWM ones. That's not to say the PWM ones will be bad, but I haven't tried them, and the Silentpcreview in me tells me they won't be as good - this is because they have a transparent frame like LED fans have. The material used for transparent (or translucent) frame fans is more brittle than normal fans, and as such vibrates more, thus the fans will not be as quiet. Additionally, the Nexus PWM fans are Broad range high speed units. They can be quiet, or very loud but very fast. Fans that can be fast can usually never be silent.

 

This is getting stressful. I have chosen everything for sure except the cooling fan and the case (P182 or CM Mystique???).

There are waaaaaay too many fan options. All I want is a quiet and efficient hsf that doesn't have too much hassle and stays efficient when overclocking. My first choice was always the Scythe Zipang (SCZP-1000), but everyone is saying there are better ones. I've been on frostytech.com for the past hour looking for a good cooler, and still can't decide......

Thanks for all of the links greensman. I hope I can finally choose one and get on with it.

Which is the better combo of hsf/case!?!?!?!? I going insane over here.