Gaming Build Check

honosuseri · 30 Jul 2012 at 14:23

There is a foam backing on the mesh bay covers if you look, these act as the dust filters.....they do work

You could add a wifi card to that top slot if you wanted. The wifi card would be cheaper than a soundcard....unless you feel you really need the soundcard

Conclusion · 30 Jul 2012 at 14:31

honosuseri said:
There is a foam backing on the mesh bay covers if you look, these are the dust filters.....they do work

I only remove the foam backing from the expansion slots and not the expansion slots cover?

If I buy a sound card to fit in the first expansion slot, will I feel any difference of the sound from the Gigabyte Z77-D3H onboard sound?

Currently I have Logitech X-140 2.0 speaker but will upgrade to a 5.1 speaker later on which I use for music, gaming and movies

honosuseri said:
You could add a wifi card to that top slot if you wanted. The wifi card would be cheaper than a soundcard....unless you feel you really need the soundcard

I'm using a Ethernet cable to connect to the internet, don't generally use WiFi on a computer

Conclusion · 31 Jul 2012 at 13:51

Conclusion said:
I only remove the foam backing from the expansion slots and not the expansion slots cover?

If I buy a sound card to fit in the first expansion slot, will I feel any difference of the sound from the Gigabyte Z77-D3H onboard sound?

Currently I have Logitech X-140 2.0 speaker but will upgrade to a 5.1 speaker later on which I use for music, gaming and movies

I'm using a Ethernet cable to connect to the internet, don't generally use WiFi on a computer

Sorry for the bump, can someone help me please

tamzzy · 31 Jul 2012 at 18:56

Conclusion said:
If I buy a sound card to fit in the first expansion slot, will I feel any difference of the sound from the Gigabyte Z77-D3H onboard sound?

depends on how golden your ears are

Conclusion · 1 Aug 2012 at 10:32

honosuseri said:
There is a foam backing on the mesh bay covers if you look, these are the dust filters.....they do work

I only remove the foam backing from the expansion slots and not the expansion slots cover?

Currently I have Logitech X-140 2.0 speaker but maybe later, I will upgrade to a 5.1 speaker later on which I use for music, gaming and movies

Is the Logitech X-140 good speaker?

honosuseri · 1 Aug 2012 at 10:44

Conclusion said:
I only remove the foam backing from the expansion slots and not the expansion slots cover?

Currently I have Logitech X-140 2.0 speaker but maybe later, I will upgrade to a 5.1 speaker later on which I use for music, gaming and movies

Is the Logitech X-140 good speaker?

No, leave the foam there, that's what acts as a dust filter. It's the metal plates you have to remove for the optical drive to fit in, that I remove from every bay.,

Conclusion · 1 Aug 2012 at 13:14

honosuseri said:
No, leave the foam there, that's what acts as a dust filter. It's the metal plates you have to remove for the optical drive to fit in, that I remove from every bay.,

So I remove 1-4 that is labelled on the image?

http://i.imgur.com/LerM0.jpg

Currently I have Logitech X-140 2.0 speaker but maybe later, I will upgrade to a 5.1 speaker which I use for music, gaming and movies

Is the Logitech X-140 good speaker?

honosuseri · 1 Aug 2012 at 15:32

Conclusion said:
So I remove 1-4 that is labelled on the image?

http://i.imgur.com/LerM0.jpg

Currently I have Logitech X-140 2.0 speaker but maybe later, I will upgrade to a 5.1 speaker which I use for music, gaming and movies

Is the Logitech X-140 good speaker?

The entire front panel has to be removed, it pulls away easily enough. Once the panel is removed you will see what I mean. You can actually just make out the vented metal blanking plates through the mesh in that pic you posted. The plates are secured by two screws (each), once removed you have to wiggle the plate back and forth till it eventually pops out.

You will have to remove the front panel anyway as the power button comes disconnected, you'll see the cables once the panel is off. I also suggest moving some of the fans (definately get the one OFF the side panel), i have 2 exhaust fans on the ceiling of the case, air definately is drawn in through the front panel, removing those blanking plates does make sense.

A 5.1 speaker set is a good investment. I'm still using an analogue Cambridge soundworks (Creative) 5.1 set which is over 10 years old. Ok it cost me around £100 back then but it was certainly money well spent

Conclusion · 2 Aug 2012 at 06:48

honosuseri said:
The entire front panel has to be removed, it pulls away easily enough. Once the panel is removed you will see what I mean. You can actually just make out the vented metal blanking plates through the mesh in that pic you posted. The plates are secured by two screws (each), once removed you have to wiggle the plate back and forth till it eventually pops out.

Is it the four metal blanking plates that I labelled in the image that I need to remove after taking the front panel off?

http://i.imgur.com/LerM0.jpg

honosuseri said:
You will have to remove the front panel anyway as the power button comes disconnected, you'll see the cables once the panel is off. I also suggest moving some of the fans (definately get the one OFF the side panel), i have 2 exhaust fans on the ceiling of the case, air definately is drawn in through the front panel, removing those blanking plates does make sense.

I've the same fans setup as in the image,

http://i.imgur.com/rnTWe.jpg

honosuseri · 2 Aug 2012 at 15:00

The pic is pointing at the bay covers on the front panel. Yes there are four metal blanking plates behind the front panel (3 for the optical drives the very bottom is for the 3.5inch bay). Remove the screws then you can pop out the plates.

You don't "need" to do this but it does improve airflow as it allows the case to breathe easier. I have a card reader in "Bay 4" of your pic, you can actually mount SSDs internally here instead, or if you wish behind the mobo tray.

Conclusion · 2 Aug 2012 at 15:50

honosuseri said:
The pic is pointing at the bay covers on the front panel. Yes there are four metal blanking plates behind the front panel (3 for the optical drives the very bottom is for the 3.5inch bay). Remove the screws then you can pop out the plates.

You don't "need" to do this but it does improve airflow as it allows the case to breathe easier. I have a card reader in "Bay 4" of your pic, you can actually mount SSDs internally here instead, or if you wish behind the mobo tray.

I'll remove the four metal blanking plates in front panel to improve airflow, I'll properly buy more fans for the case and add a fan controller, the four fans provided with the Zalman Z9 case is good or replace them with others?

Conclusion · 4 Aug 2012 at 10:10

Conclusion said:
I'll remove the four metal blanking plates in front panel to improve airflow, I'll properly buy more fans for the case and add a fan controller, the four fans provided with the Zalman Z9 case is good or replace them with others?

Can someone help me please

tamzzy · 4 Aug 2012 at 10:11

4 fans are more than enough. temp decrease with >4 fans are marginal at best

Conclusion · 4 Aug 2012 at 10:26

tamzzy said:
4 fans are more than enough. temp decrease with >4 fans are marginal at best

Four fans in the Zalman Z9 Plus case is enough? If so if the fans provided by Zalman are good enough or should I replace them?

Also since the Zalman Z9 Plus fan controller only controls two fans, should I consider a fan controller that controls four fans or more?

Currently I've the Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler, should I also consider replacing the fans as well?

tamzzy · 4 Aug 2012 at 11:21

the mobo has fan headers for the extra fans.
dont really need an extra fan controller
if the noise is tolerable for you then dont change the heatsink fan

Trusty · 4 Aug 2012 at 11:30

Conclusion said:
Four fans in the Zalman Z9 Plus case is enough? If so if the fans provided by Zalman are good enough or should I replace them?

Also since the Zalman Z9 Plus fan controller only controls two fans, should I consider a fan controller that controls four fans or more?

Currently I've the Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler, should I also consider replacing the fans as well?

Your fans are fine, enjoy your rig.

Conclusion · 4 Aug 2012 at 11:48

tamzzy said:
the mobo has fan headers for the extra fans.
dont really need an extra fan controller
if the noise is tolerable for you then dont change the heatsink fan

If I connect the other two fans to the motherboard fan headers, can I control the speed of the fans running using a software like a fan controller?

The heatsink fan is quiet when running normal but only raise abit of noise when running full load, but I was thinking if there's a better heatsink fan out there which will perform better dBA and CFM level

Trusty said:
Your fans are fine, enjoy your rig.

So the Zalman Z9 Plus fans provided with the case is good? As I was thinking of replacing them if needed to perform better dBA and CFM level

tamzzy · 4 Aug 2012 at 11:57

Conclusion said:
If I connect the other two fans to the motherboard fan headers, can I control the speed of the fans running using a software like a fan controller?

auto control via mobo

Conclusion said:
The heatsink fan is quiet when running normal but only raise abit of noise when running full load, but I was thinking if there's a better heatsink fan out there which will perform better dBA and CFM level

gentle typhoon. but if its fine at the moment, dont waste money for an upgrade tbh

Conclusion said:
So the Zalman Z9 Plus fans provided with the case is good? As I was thinking of replacing them if needed to perform better dBA and CFM level

they're not bad, but they're not the best either.
good enough for the job

Conclusion · 4 Aug 2012 at 12:46

tamzzy said:
auto control via mobo

So I don't have control of the two fans?

tamzzy said:
gentle typhoon. but if its fine at the moment, dont waste money for an upgrade tbh

they're not bad, but they're not the best either.
good enough for the job

This is my current build, I was aiming for 4.5GHz under 60-70°C full load with a safe voltage but haven't tried it yet but wasn't too sure if the fans were good enough to hit the target

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ Nexuiz & Dirt Showdown PC Games £194.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £69.98
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Blue Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9B) £44.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99

tamzzy · 4 Aug 2012 at 12:52

4.5ghz at 70c on an ivy is relatively easy with the matterhorn pure
i wouldnt go on a bender wasting money on fans.

ps: your prices are out of date btw. just saying.