The (new) Official PC building thread!

sammorris,

The important thing is where that heat goes. Almost 100% of it goes outside the case, an easy thing to do with a Peltier unit! If it was staying around inside the case I could see a valid point, but it doesn't even mix with the case air at all. Would you care to guess how much power Soph's Air Conditioned case uses? And the computer is water cooled as well! Sure, it's all external but still far more energy being used! As long as the heat doesn't wind up contributing to the case air, I see no harm at all unless you figure the energy is being wasted to run it. It still can't be much worse than 10 fans running and loads better than with a true AC case! I'd gladly spend the 100 watts of energy for the quiet!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Oh, I figured as much - I wasn't saying it would heat up the case (that would be pretty crazy) but 100W of extra heat actually warms up a room significantly...
I haven't had to resort to anything that uses extra power to get my PC silent, and I think you'd be the first to agree, my case isn't one that screams silence!

 

Hey do any of you guys have any (personal) experience with ASUS P5E?
I'm coming across TONS of hardware compatibility issues. Thinking I should maybe crap out the extra dough for the rampage....but $290...daym...

 

Unfortunately no - I don't have any experience with expensive Asus boards, though all the cheap ones I had have been universally poor. Typically Asus' more expensive offerings are alright though, what sort of compatibility issues are you having? Stuff like that would probably be more related to the chipset than the board.

 

Actually I'm hanging back on building, and reading up first, which is how I came across thousands of ppl w/ problems. It's pretty much been things like RAM voltage problems, BIOS problems where CPU won't work until an update (which would need an older cpu), cooler incompatibility (WTF?), and I've seen more DOA's on the mobo than any other i've looked at. And I don't wanna buy it, have a problem, and not be able to return it.

 

Hmm fair enough. Three out of my three Asus boards have gone dodgy in less than 18 months, so I generally don't buy them myself any more - however, it's usually just their cheaper offerings that suffer poor build quality. You'd be pleasantly surprised by Gigabyte's offerings generally, they're not quite as adept at extreme overclocking as the high end Asus boards, but certainly proficient, getting Core 2 Duos to 3.6Ghz and beyond is a piece of cake, and they're usually relatively inexpensive, like the GA-EP35-DS3R for example.

Of course that's not to say you should discount MSI or DFI either, they make some pretty good boards, though the DFI ones are a bit complex for the average user. All the MSI boards me and my friends have owned have been very solid, but we've never tried any of the enthusiast grade ones.

 

Yeah, I looked at the Gigabytes, and I want something high end so no upgrading later. Came up with GA-X48-DS4. Got pretty good reviews and same price as P5E! Just don't know the difference between that and the GA-X48-DQ6...

 

sammorris,

Oh I quite agree. Still, it's a lot better approach than the Vigor Gaming Peltier CPU Cooler. A lot of it's heat has to go through the case. This idea looks a lot better thought out than any of is predecessor's!

The truth of the matter is that all these fans you add to the side of a lot of cases do more harm than good. It doesn't do a lot of good to blow a fan right at the top of the CPU cooler with a side fan, if that airflow is going to interfere with the airflow of the cooler fan, as is often the case. I just wonder when these case manufacturers are going to get wise and reduce the number of fans needed by putting a little brain power in the airflow design of the case. The main goal is to keep the air flowing over the components from front to back. Cross flow ventilation normally doesn't seem to work very well in most instances!

NZXT realizes that and has 3 120mm fans completely inside the case, mounted in front of the drive bays on their new high dollar case. No outside air supply, so no problems created for the case's internal airflow. The 3 fans blanket the motherboard right where it does the most good with the case's own air and contributes a good deal to cooler running! I'm glad to see someone's finally getting smarter! LOL!!

It was 105F here today and between the AC and the Swamp Cooler, the temps inside stayed about 85F in my room (about 29C) and my computer ran all afternoon at 31-32C. That's with 1 80mm intake and 1 80mm and a 120mm exhaust! The front room was a bit warmer at 27-28C and the AMD ran 33-34C all afternoon too! Not too shabby a performance using just a single 92mm rear fan! And with flat IDE cables to boot! Once I add a DVD-Rom drive, I'll change to the round ones I have already!

I looked up Rob's case and the ventilation sucks! The hard drive bays completely block the front intake fan, so an intake is needed on the case bottom, which of course makes the air flow the wrong direction. Cooler Master really did a half assed job on the HDD ventilation too! It's pointless to put the drive bays smack in front of the intake fan, and then not provide a better means of getting air to flow through them. A totally wasted effort, in my opinion!

In contrast, eMachines tried to cut material costs by making swiss cheese out of the entire front of the case on the model I have. The metal behind the cover is riddled with holes. What they wound up accomplishing is terrific airflow throughout the case from front to rear! The Freezer 64 intakes it's air smack in the middle of the case's airflow and exhausts almost dead center of the 92mm rear fan, which even helps to contribute to the case's natural front to back airflow. It just amazes the hell out of me that a single 92mm stock (cheapest for sure, from eMachines) fan can do that good of a job! The best thing is that the cooling is right in line with other 4800+ owners when it comes to the temps they report! I'm even thinking of punching the back of the case out so I can replace that noisy 92mm fan with a slower turning 120mm one! Should be super quiet!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

I'm tickled with mine.

 

mrk: Can't say much about the X48-DS4, but I use the X38-DS4 and it's been superb so far. Not to say you should exclude the Rampage, after all the only two people I know who use it are very satisfied, but it's hard to pony up all that extra cash unless you're going for broke with overclocking.

theone: There's more to the design of the Khaos than you realise Russ... It's the first case I've seen where the PCI bracket tray is removable with the motherboard tray! It's a genius case, shame it's not that pretty... Still, opinions vary!

I see Abuzar was busy downplaying the Khaos to his beloved Raidmax Smilodon - and to be honest, the latter is far better value for money, but then so would be a hundred dollar block of cardboard - 250 pounds for a case is well above the border of ridiculousness.
In the sector of the Raidmax case though, I'd probably take the NZXT Alpha, for looks primarily, since it's similarly featured. My only hope is that the Khaos isn't plagued by NZXT's recent downturn in build quality. You wouldn't believe the difference between my 2006 Lexa and 2008 Lexa Blackline.

 

sammorris,

There have been other cases with that feature a good ways back. I just gave one away in fact. When you removed the side cover the tray slid out with everything attached. You just needed to be careful about the wires. The only down side is the screws went through the top of the tray into the frame, but through the side cover first. When you took the cover off, the tray was always loose!

As far as looks with the Khanos, I would still rather have the Lexa Blackline! LOL!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

So would I....

 

That doesn't sound too good....

 

hey guys hows it going?? anyway whats you opinion on the X3 PSU///for an SLI ready system it should be around 680-750 watts right( for SLI)? am skeptical about the way the system is setup, am afraid a molex/sata power could come right off the psu....anybody know if its got a nice'n'snug connection??

thanks guys!

-tripplite

 

corsair hx520 can SLI 8800GTXs. thats all you need (with an OCed c2Q)

 

tripp I think shaf brings up a good point but remember you'll need more power if your gonna run more than 1 or 2 ODD's and more than 1 or 2 HDD's. I think that having a little to much power is better than NOT having quite enough. NOTHING wrong with that psu he mentioned, it's a TOP NOTCH unit. ;D

I don't know much about the X3 units so sorry there. There are plenty of good units to be had but I like Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, Cooler Master Pro's, Antec Quattro's, some ABS/Tagan, Seasonic, and a few others. Remember that NOT all products from every manufacturer is good.

Good psu hunting.

...gm

 

sammorris: When you say "NZXT's recent downturn in build quality", exactly how much worse is it? If I get a Lexa Blackline today, is it that much worse than your version from '06?

 

It's still a good case, and still far better than most out there, but there are a few little things that I just were as well made as they used to be, primarily the front USB ports and the side panel material.

 

so im only going to be running ONE GPU currently but i foresee another in my future that PSU has 2x 4-pin so it seems set....SLI here i come hehehe.....

ohh another question....i've noticed this "honeycomb" pattern on PSU's for a while now.....does this allow for better air flow or is it merely to allow us to see inside lol!??

thanks shaffaaf & greensmen!!

-tripplite

 

I'm building another Computer, any thoughts for improvements over these selections would be Appreciated
Motherboard ....128.00 or 225.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128086
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128336

CPU 209.99
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

Power Supply 110.00
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005
Or maybe how to save a little $