Ordering tonight but 2 outstanding questions before I press the buy button

stuartmanton

stuartmanton

stuartmanton

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17 Jul 2006
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About to order loads of stuff for a new non gaming rig

1st Question - I can't decide on the PSU

BeQuiet Pure Power L8 530W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - 59.99
Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - 49.99
Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-500CXUKV2) - 52.99

I like modular PSUs, I have some concerns with the Cooler Master with the comment on the cables lengths. The case will a BitFenix Shinobi.

2nd Question - Thermal Paste

I will be installing a Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz OEM onto a Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 MB and will be overclocking. Should I: -

a) get a new tube of Arctic Silver 5 paste
b) use the stuff which comes with the CPU
c) use the tube of Geil that I found from a previous build that I found laying around?

Thanks
 
Dont buy the OEM, spend the extra few £££ and get an extra 2 year warranty....plus with an OEM chip, all you get is the chip. Personally, unless the paste is under 6 months old, Id buy another. Ive had many tubes going dry and horrible after about 6 months (Zalman, Antec and CM to name 3)


I cant answer the PSU question as I dont know about the CM model....although out of them Id go for either the Be quiet or Corsair models.
 
Rik1254 said:
Dont buy the OEM, spend the extra few £££ and get an extra 2 year warranty....plus with an OEM chip, all you get is the chip. Personally, unless the paste is under 6 months old, Id buy another. Ive had many tubes going dry and horrible after about 6 months (Zalman, Antec and CM to name 3)


I cant answer the PSU question as I dont know about the CM model....although out of them Id go for either the Be quiet or Corsair models.
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its £10 difference between oem & retail not a few pounds.

stuartmanton if you're buying oem you'll need a 3rd party cooler unless you already have one thats 1155/1156 compatible.

the paste you currently have test it by taking a small amount out to see if its hardening, I have 5/6yr old arctic cooling mx-2 which I checked and felt it was hardening so ordered ac mx-4. the mx-2 I used in a few build/rebuilds over 2/3 years, not used in a few yrs tho.

any graphics card?

would say if your budget allows it then go with the antec truepower new modular.
 
fowler002 said:
its £10 difference between oem & retail not a few pounds.

stuartmanton if you're buying oem you'll need a 3rd party cooler unless you already have one thats 1155/1156 compatible.

the paste you currently have test it by taking a small amount out to see if its hardening, I have 5/6yr old arctic cooling mx-2 which I checked and felt it was hardening so ordered ac mx-4. the mx-2 I used in a few build/rebuilds over 2/3 years, not used in a few yrs tho.

any graphics card?

would say if your budget allows it then go with the antec truepower new modular.
Click to expand...

Found another supplier selling the retail cpu at almost the same price as the OEM here. They also have the Antec TruePower 650w for 59.99.

The GPU will be a HIS ATI Radeon HD 5450. So no great demands from that.

Does the CPU come pre-pasted? I remember having some in the past which did. Is the general best practise to remove this and the reapply something better?
 
the cpu isn't what has the paste pre-applied, its the cpu cooler that has the paste.

getting a i2500k I would suggest getting a 3rd party cooler so you can overclock it(well you can overclock using the stock cooler but the temps and noise will be high), the gelid tranquilo is generally the preferred choice on here unless going to be pushing over 4.6ghz. if getting a 3rd part cooler some come with paste pre-applied while others come with a small tube/bottle in the box.

you'll be fine with the pre-applied paste tho if you want a different paste to the pre-applied one the ac mx-4 is the one to get.
 
fowler002 said:
the cpu isn't what has the paste pre-applied, its the cpu cooler that has the paste.

getting a i2500k I would suggest getting a 3rd party cooler so you can overclock it(well you can overclock using the stock cooler but the temps and noise will be high), the gelid tranquilo is generally the preferred choice on here unless going to be pushing over 4.6ghz. if getting a 3rd part cooler some come with paste pre-applied while others come with a small tube/bottle in the box.

you'll be fine with the pre-applied paste tho if you want a different paste to the pre-applied one the ac mx-4 is the one to get.
Click to expand...

The Gelid Transquilo cooler is already in the basket. I am going to get some ac mx-4 anyway as I have another machine to build in the not too distant future.

Right out with the credit card.
 
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