The Personal Computer Thread

[Aparajith]

Chose the cabinet!!

Hey guys,

After lots of searching, considerations etc I have chosen this cabinet: The NZXT Tempest. Check the specs here: NZXT. Products. Costs 6K+shipping. Much better than CM cabinets anyday..

[gold_heart007]

CM 690 would suffice. Sufficient spacing for separate PSU and Mobo installations. Capable of accommodating 7 120mm fans. The most interesting part of cooling is that u can even install a 80x15mm fan at the back of mobo, for the optimum cooling. All in all, 690 is one large cabinet! And thats why, ample of room and support for big CPU coolers like V8 or V10.
As for Antec, look out for Antec 900 Black Steel ATX tower. This is one cool looking cabby, i say. Built for maximum air flow within cabinet and flaunts 200mm fan on top with flexi glass side panel. The pricing however could be a bit steep!
As for temperatures, try checking with RealTemp @ idle operating state. It gives the most accurate temperature reading for i7 processors. Btw, try benching with few stress applications and note the temperature variations.
44 degrees @ idle in typical indian summer environment is just fine!
As for CPU cooling, i would say go for Aqua cooling if u plan to overclock limits. However, for sane O/Cing here are few suggestions:
1. Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 (Best performing cooler for I7)
2. Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme 1366
3. CM Gemini IIS (Good for mild overclocks and provide cooling for mobo also)

[anvancy]

Hey guys,

So here's the drift. I got the following i7 config:

1. i7 920 processor
2. GIGABYTE UD5 board
3. 6GB G-SKILL DDR3 1600 MHz RAM
4. Corsair TX750W PSU
5. ATi HD4850 graphics card
6. 1 160 GB SATA2 HDD at 7200 rpm
7. 1 80 GB SEAGATE IDE HDD at 7200 rpm
8. 1 LG DVD - RW

I have a Zebronics DRACULA cabinet. It has the following for air circulation. 1 120mm fan at the rear for intake, 1 80 mm fan at the front - intake, 1 80 - mm fan at top for exhaust, 2 80 mm fan at sides for exhaust. I assembled the PC on this cabinet. I have a tube of AS5 and used it for the processor.

The current cabinet temperaure consistently stays at 40 - 45 degrees C. From the BIOS I am able to get the following: System temperature - 52 degrees C, Processor temperature - 44 degrees C, MCH temperature - 54 degrees C. All temperatures were during idle

Need help to decide on the following:

1. Are the above temperature values normal?

2. I might overclock, but not immediately but after a few months. Is this cabinet sufficient? As of now I really had trouble managing the cables although I managed to tuck them here and there to make it clutter free

3. Which is more of a priority, an aftermarket cooler for the CPU or a new cabinet?

4. As of now I have enough cooling fans to fix in the cabinet. So can u guys suggest me a good cabinet that is upto the job. No frills needed, am not for showing off. Anything that satisfies the purpose and does the job well will do. And please suggest something with a decent price tag, not something that will cost 10 - 15K!!!

5. Can this cabinet be used as a stop gap till I get a new cabinet?

After lots of searching around a few of the following cabinets seem to be good choices:

1. Antec 900
2. CM 690
3. CM Gladiator 600
4. CM Centurion 590

The CM cabbies cost ~5K and are good choices. Can u guys suggest some other models from competitive brands as well, probably ANTEC(cos going by the looks of it the Antec 900, 1200, 902 etc should cost upwards of 8K!!) ? And will these cabbys interfere with after-market CPU coolers, say the CM v8 etc?

And a few after market CPU cooler suggestions are also required.

P.S: Please do tell me where to get the respective cabinet/CPU cooler from(shops at Chennai/Bangalore)

ideal solution is the evergreen cm690.the most famous among pc builders.expansion for 7-8fans which is enough.getting a cabinet do check after putting stuff there is enough room above for the air to play on ur stuff.even if we put fans and there is no room for the incoming air to do a circulation circuit then the temps will not decrease but fluctuate.

i have my rig in the VIP ZB02 server cabinet.nothing fancy.toolless installation 2 120 fans intake exhaust,2 side fans for added vga cooling.but combining the palit cooling,coolermaster cooling and the fans with a lot of space,the temps are down.

thing is nobody buys vip since its indian make.

anvancy.

[Aparajith]

New cabinet suggestion

Hey guys,

So here's the drift. I got the following i7 config:

1. i7 920 processor
2. GIGABYTE UD5 board
3. 6GB G-SKILL DDR3 1600 MHz RAM
4. Corsair TX750W PSU
5. ATi HD4850 graphics card
6. 1 160 GB SATA2 HDD at 7200 rpm
7. 1 80 GB SEAGATE IDE HDD at 7200 rpm
8. 1 LG DVD - RW

I have a Zebronics DRACULA cabinet. It has the following for air circulation. 1 120mm fan at the rear for intake, 1 80 mm fan at the front - intake, 1 80 - mm fan at top for exhaust, 2 80 mm fan at sides for exhaust. I assembled the PC on this cabinet. I have a tube of AS5 and used it for the processor.

The current cabinet temperaure consistently stays at 40 - 45 degrees C. From the BIOS I am able to get the following: System temperature - 52 degrees C, Processor temperature - 44 degrees C, MCH temperature - 54 degrees C. All temperatures were during idle

Need help to decide on the following:

1. Are the above temperature values normal?

2. I might overclock, but not immediately but after a few months. Is this cabinet sufficient? As of now I really had trouble managing the cables although I managed to tuck them here and there to make it clutter free

3. Which is more of a priority, an aftermarket cooler for the CPU or a new cabinet?

4. As of now I have enough cooling fans to fix in the cabinet. So can u guys suggest me a good cabinet that is upto the job. No frills needed, am not for showing off. Anything that satisfies the purpose and does the job well will do. And please suggest something with a decent price tag, not something that will cost 10 - 15K!!!

5. Can this cabinet be used as a stop gap till I get a new cabinet?

After lots of searching around a few of the following cabinets seem to be good choices:

1. Antec 900
2. CM 690
3. CM Gladiator 600
4. CM Centurion 590

The CM cabbies cost ~5K and are good choices. Can u guys suggest some other models from competitive brands as well, probably ANTEC(cos going by the looks of it the Antec 900, 1200, 902 etc should cost upwards of 8K!!) ? And will these cabbys interfere with after-market CPU coolers, say the CM v8 etc?

And a few after market CPU cooler suggestions are also required.

P.S: Please do tell me where to get the respective cabinet/CPU cooler from(shops at Chennai/Bangalore)

[anvancy]

^^Dude, thats nothing to worry about. U have a real killer config. And ur right about getting stuff from US man. I tried to get the RAMs from there but could not as customs were restricting the shipments. So had to sit it out for 3 weeks and wait for my friend to get it personally by hand. Moreover its better to get the MBoard and Proccy from local so that u dont have to RMA it for every teeny-weeny issue!

Actually its we, i7 owners who need to be worried about. Look at this article: AnandTech: Intel's 32nm Update: The Follow-on to Core i7 and More

Intel's product strategies really suck!

P.S: Whatever config u have is anyway outdated in the next 2 months, so what the heck??!!! As long as ur PC leaves headroom for upgrades ur safe!!

thats the disadvantage of tech!outdated yes.but software has not yet reached that tech level.dx10 is not fully utilised and now dx11 is already here.

[Aparajith]

^^Dude, thats nothing to worry about. U have a real killer config. And ur right about getting stuff from US man. I tried to get the RAMs from there but could not as customs were restricting the shipments. So had to sit it out for 3 weeks and wait for my friend to get it personally by hand. Moreover its better to get the MBoard and Proccy from local so that u dont have to RMA it for every teeny-weeny issue!

Actually its we, i7 owners who need to be worried about. Look at this article: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...oc.aspx?i=3513

Intel's product strategies really suck!

P.S: Whatever config u have is anyway outdated in the next 2 months, so what the heck??!!! As long as ur PC leaves headroom for upgrades ur safe!!

[anvancy]

Whats the complete specs mate? BTW am just setting up my new system.... Pics coming up hopefully by tonight or morrow night!!!

i didnt venture into the i7 field.too costly for me at current stage.
my budget was tight.real tight.
also pune has a 3% octroi on goods.so the actual pricing comes to MRP+3% octroi+4% VAT.that makes goods of every type in pune costly.

initially my plan was to get things from US.but then the risk was if it was caught by customs and they are not in a happy mood then it will go to waste.so buying here was my decision.

i am not rich by having moolah in my pocket and going places buying stuff.rather i sat with my compwalah,discussed issues and finalised things.

and i know that people have got way better systems than me.but what the heck.i am happy with mine.

the new config.
INTEL C2D E6300 1.86
GIGABYTE EP-45-DS4P REV 1.0
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB 800MHZ DDR2 RAM+OLD TRANSCEND 1GB RAM
CORSAIR VX550W POWER SUPPLY
COOLERMASTER HYPER N520 DUAL 92MM FAN CPU COOLER
PALIT ATI RADEON 4850 512MB GDDR5 SONIC SPECIAL(basically an underclocked 4870)
HITACHI DESKTAR 160GB+WD 200GB HDDS
ASUS DRW-2014S1 DVD WRITER
GIGABYTE DVD WRITER.

am i missing anything else?kept the old processor.asus p5q pro was also in options but price was 1.5k more than the gigabyte.ud3p was also in consideration but again price was high.

games and applications are smooth now.

anvancy.

[Aparajith]

yup.sahi jawab!

Whats the complete specs mate? BTW am just setting up my new system.... Pics coming up hopefully by tonight or morrow night!!!

[anvancy]

@anvancy: pardon my ignorance or tolerance to browse around the pages...is this you new system?

yup.sahi jawab!

[insanebiker]

Vista service pack 2 is out?

[leon_nerd]

if u check VISTA ULTIMATE SERVICE PACK 1 it is a lot more stable with fixed bugs,...just like xp..and the compatibility issues have been resolved to some extent...still some applications won't run on it..,...its a good buy if u have xp..so u can dual boot them and use accordinglly...

regarding that dual booting factor....ther will b no problem if u dual boot with vista...the only prob u will face is if u installed xp and then vista ,,if something happens and u need to format and reinstall XP ..if u do that..then ther will be xp booting in the next boot..vista's boot loader will be deleted/overwrite by xp's ..MBR of vista will be deleted..now if u insert the vista's bootable cd and chose the option to repair ..it will repair the MBR..in the mean time XP's boot loader will get deleted....so there will be vista booting the next time...

to solve one software is there can't remeber the name..but it does half job..

and yaeh VISTA ULTIMATE SERVICE PACK 2 is realeased i think it promise to resolve the issues to a larger extent ..read it somewhere on popular PC magazine

I think you can fix this by editing the boot.ini in the OS. I have done that while having problems with XP and Win 2k.

@anvancy: pardon my ignorance or tolerance to browse around the pages...is this you new system?

[anvancy]

this was what i was speaking.

















at the current stage..everything is butter smooth and i am really satisfied.

anvancy.

[anvancy]

new ERA has started now!

anvancy.

[Aparajith]

what are the views on the corsair VX550 and the HX520?

If ur looking at the differences, the basic thing is to do with the single-rail and double-rail stuff. Plus HX is modular. Basic architecture remains same. TX is more VFM IMHO.

[anvancy]

^^Incase u are looking for 550W PSU, look out for CM RealPower 550W! Costing around 5K! (Excellent performance and service) HX series are meant for high end gaming PCs. Plus, quite costly in comparison to VX series.

even i read HX series of corsair is a premium target.

and reading reviews i found that the price friendly corsair VX550W is beating the CM.

will check with my dealer.

anvancy.