Do u have a Z9 honosuseri, Do u recommend it?
I do like the 612s. I think if that fit in the Z9 I would go with that combo?
But the more I look at that Antec GX the more I think I like it. Damn you Stulid
I take it most coolers would fit in the Antec no matter how large?
Case is very much a personal preference. At the £50ish budget there are loads of choices for midi towers, none of them will be perfect though....... Brace yourself now for some waffle to help you choose
Yes I have the Z9 Plus, paid £40ish for it ages ago and was a bargain. The U3 is the improved version now with USB3 ports, a proper side window (Z9 plus has mesh), dust filter on the PSU vents but has one less fan over the Z9 plus which came with four 120mm fans.
Yes I would and do recommend it, I've done many builds in the chassis, loads of stuff is bundled with it. I bought it as a stop gap for doing a HTPC and figured I'd strip the parts out (fans and P4/8 power extension for sure) and upgrade but it's such good value I kept it in service. I had a card reader to put in the front 3.5 inch bay (some cases have lost this), I also have a Bitfenix Hydra Pro fan controller. It can toggle the LEDs on or off on the Bitfenix range of fans, I have two 140mm Spectre Pros in the ceiling of the case, still using the three 120mm LED fans I got with the Z9 Plus.
I can list some "negatives" about the Z9 U3 but keep in mind that other budget cases can be just as guilty.....
* Not a lot of room behind the mobo tray but few budget cases do, I hope you have a modular PSU
* USB3 ports on the U3 have to be run out of the case via a PCI bracket included and plugged into the rear of the mobo. A 19pin mobo header adapter for £5ish would internalise the USB3.
* PSU vents are filtered but the vents aren't great. Makes more sense to mount PSU fan up so you see it through the window (nice looking touch). In turn this does put the heavy duty cables from the PSU closer to the cable management, giving you more length to play with and hides them easier.
* Max supported GPU length is 290mm. So it can take cards like a 7950 but you have to check the length of the GPU you buy. The Bitfenix Shinobi can take 320mm for example.
* The non LED fan is a molex connector, you need to either pass it round the back of the mobo tray and daisy chain it with the digital temp display and fan controller molex blocks. Or do as I do and move it to the front as an intake, it's near the HDDs then and their power cables. You then have two LEDs fans to light the internals, if you hook them upto the fan controller you can manually adjust the speed and in turn the brightness of the LEDs
The 612S does fit I promise in the Z9 or the Shinobi but she is a hefty cooler, although again it's great value for £30ish. I think the barebones H60 is tempting even if you have to buy some paste. If you read reviews for retail units the main argument is that they are too expensive and the stock fans can be loud under heavy load and so some people do replace them. The barebones kit is cheaper and could be hooked upto any 120mm case exhaust fan really just be realistic with the overclocking, because the Z9 has two identical fans "spare" I would do push/pull......the H60 usually just has one fan attached which is static pressure and does have a higher rpm (upto 2500rpm). If you don't like the blue LED and/or want better performance, these fans can be upgraded later to static pressure or just to change the LEDs to red to suit your colour scheme on the mobo, it's just to get you up and going on a budget.
Talking of mobos, running SLi on a mATX mobo isn't ideal to be honest, the 460 still is a great budget gaming GPU (I own one too). In SLi on the mATX they will be ontop of each other though so the top GPU has less room to breathe which will limit overclocking. Shame as the 460s do OC well but even at stock they are still better than say a 7770, two cards will be better but remember you still only have 1GB of VRAM across the two GPUs.
If you still are struggling to pick RAM to the budget, remember with a CLC cooler (like the stock intel cooler it's tiny) you don't have to worry about the height of the RAM. Tall heatsinks on the RAM are just for show to be honest and are a faff for some air coolers. It would be nice to have low profile RAM but if tall well spec'd stuff is going cheap and will look better on the mobo because it's black or red then why not.......
YOUR BASKET
1 x
Zalman Z9 USB 3.0 Midi Tower Case - Black £54.98
1 x
Kingston HyperX Beast 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX16C9T3K2/8X) £35.99
1 x
OcUK Tech Labs - Corsair H60 Performance Intel Liquid Cooling Solution (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366) £34.99
- 1 x No Fan Required £0.00
- 1 x No Fan Required £0.00
- 1 x No Thermal Paste Required £0.00
Total : £139.46 (includes shipping : £11.25).
Think I'd pay the little extra for 16GB of the Viper as it's not really very tall and does overclock very well. Ideally you want 1600mhz C9 but the 8GB Geil Black dragon if it was £30ish (it comes on offer a lot) would be ok, even though it's C11 it makes little odds in the real world and it would tie in with your colour scheme and is low profile.
So yes a lot of it is personal preference, go with what you like. It's a shame you just missed the offer on the i5 3570K OEM for £160 on last weeks offers. There is no harm in thinking things through, maybe next weeks offers or prices would be kinder on your pocket
