Building a Gaming Pc(#'th Thread)

[Phalanx108]

In fact, 212 Evo (despite my previous incessant pimping it for budget builds) is for now officially off the recommended list for US/CAN, because of:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118059

Zalman CNPS10X Performa for $38 w/free shipping or $28 post-rebate, it just doesn't get better.

 

PSU, just no. It's a good PSU, but it's no Seasonic.

 

RE CPU cooler: I have never followed Zalman at all since way back when. They used to be abhorrently loud and did a better job showing off how much dust was in your case than cooling, but its good to see they seem to be changing that.

Oh, as for the grease, its mainly $10 because you can use the same tube many times. Ive used the tube sitting on my desk 4 times, and its just below half empty at a fair estimate.

 

RE PSU: Brand name is no reason to shut down a particular choice. Seasonic arent even around where I live, they dont ship here, so I've barely even heard of them. I only chose that particular one because it has served the store i work at for many a labourous overclocking session, without even the slightest of "the awful smell".

[FMod]

RE CPU cooler: I have never followed Zalman at all since way back when. They used to be abhorrently loud and did a better job showing off how much dust was in your case than cooling, but its good to see they seem to be changing that.

Not quite sure when it was. Zalmans were the cooler to get starting with their first round heatsinks, these circular stacks of radial plates, a concept they came up with, and that others copied.

This lasted until heatpipe coolers came into the market, but not just any, it took Thermaltek Typhoon (2005). Then Scythe and Thermalright came, Zalman's radials lost to heatpipe coolers, and heatpipes didn't work as well for them. Still, Zalmans weren't loud, they just didn't cool as well.

Then (2009) Zalman got over themselves and released CNPS10X, a boxy stack of plates like everyone else had, but the Performa version simply turned out to be the best in its price range and remains to this day thanks to aggressive pricing.

 

 

RE PSU: Brand name is no reason to shut down a particular choice. Seasonic arent even around where I live, they dont ship here, so I've barely even heard of them. I only chose that particular one because it has served the store i work at for many a labourous overclocking session, without even the slightest of "the awful smell".

Seasonic is a manufacturer, not just a brand name. Their PSU are usually sold by other brands, today mostly by Corsair. The only brand that seriously rivals them is Enermax, but it tends to always be slightly behind in quality and considerably above in price.

 

OCZ ZX is a Great Wall model and really amounts to just another 80+ Gold PSU. It compares poorly with Seasonic 850W model (they say "personal taste" - don't want to offend the maker - but it comes right after bashing its head in with figures), and is at best equivalent to a 750W Seasonic or Enermax 80+gold rated unit. AX750 costs the same, provides the same power, with lower ripple and noise, better stability, less acoustic noise, backed by better build quality and 7-year warranty.

 

But realistically all this build needs is a TX650V2, which is a rebranded Seasonic M12-II, a unit with less stellar performance, but just as well-built and well sufficient for any single-GPU PC, at an affordable price.

[Phalanx108]

Well, you learn something every day I guess. I can honestly say I had no idea.

 

In regards to the Zalman CPU cooler, this was the one I was referencing.

http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=162

Good in reliability, in that it still works today, but it was nowhere near a stellar cooler. As i said above, it seemed to glue dust into itself, in such a bad way that even a compressed air canister had trouble getting it out :\

It had put me into a mindset of "first and last" for Zalman coolers, but it looks like I'll be considering them again from now on.

[ERzine]

Thank you for all the replies, it helps.

Im narrowing down to my "final" build

 

 

Case: Cooler Master CM Storm Trooper Full Tower Gaming Case

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 Socket 1155 Intel Z77

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8gb

Hard Drive: Western Digital Black 32mb 1tb

Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Power Supply (OCZ700MXSP)

CPU Cooler: ZALMAN CNPS10X Performa

 

 

My goal now for the CPU and Graphics card is to be able to run BF3 at a stable 50-60fps+.

Im interested about this SLi thing. do they have to be the same video cards? can i add a third some time in the early future?

Or is GTX 680 2gb GDDR5. im seeing different brands where I get my stuff. EVGA GeForce/Gigabyte/Zotac/Msi/Asus/MSI.

 

For the CPU, any of the i5's in this page.

http://www.canadacomputers.com/advanced_search_result.php?category_id=Desktop%20Intel%20Processors&keywords=intel%20i5&page=1&sort=3d

Or anything cheaper than the Intel i7-980 on this page.

http://www.canadacomputers.com/advanced_search_result.php?category_id=Desktop%20Intel%20Processors&keywords=intel%20i7&page=1&sort=3d

[Erik005]

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=4_65&item_id=045425

 

Just the best CPU at the moment the core i7's are no faster in games.

 

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_559&item_id=048259

 

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_557_559&item_id=048689

 

These are the best 680's cool and quiet, the 670 versions of these card are the best in their class to.

Edited August 9, 2012 by Erik005