So, it's no secret that I'm not rich, far from it in fact. But I still like to have a fast computer that is also quiet and looks nice. Recently I upgraded to a Q6600, and my budget £18 case just had virtually zero airflow. At first I was a bit reluctant to buy a case, thinking I'd have to spend a fair bit to get anything half decent. This is where the Zalman Z9 plus comes in, for £45 it's an absolute bargain, and ticked all the boxes for my needs.
So this morning as expected I had a box arrive
Just a couple of shots of how it looks straight out the box.
Here's the old case I've put up with far too long, cheap and nasty really!
A comparison of the two
Cable management was non-existant too!
While it was in bits I decided to change the fan on the PSU, it's by far the noisiest thing in there. I swapped the fan connector over however the PSU has a variable fan speed, and at the lowest setting it didn't spin at all.
The solution was to solder in a +12v wire (the green one) so it runs at full speed all the time. It's not great but it does the job, I hope to get another corsair PSU at some point as this thing lets the whole computer down really.
This is a fantastic idea, connectors to split the wires from the front panel
Dust filters in the expansion slots too
Now time to get building, mobo in.
HDD in, the anti-vibration mounts are very good indeed.
I had a spare 120mm fan, I plugged it in and it was dead silent so strapped it to the trusty old 8800GT.
The cable management in this case is very good, my PSU lets it down a bit though. Eventual everything will be braided
Everything now in
A couple of arty shots (the front USB ports have a nice tight fit )
I was very lucky here, the fan just touches on the GPU cooler!
Tried to get pictures in the dark but they turned out horribly
It looks absolutely fantastic though.
Best £45 I've spent in a very long time
Future plans:
PSU change
Motherboard change (Can't adjust vcore on this one)
GPU upgrade
So this morning as expected I had a box arrive
Just a couple of shots of how it looks straight out the box.
Here's the old case I've put up with far too long, cheap and nasty really!
A comparison of the two
Cable management was non-existant too!
While it was in bits I decided to change the fan on the PSU, it's by far the noisiest thing in there. I swapped the fan connector over however the PSU has a variable fan speed, and at the lowest setting it didn't spin at all.
The solution was to solder in a +12v wire (the green one) so it runs at full speed all the time. It's not great but it does the job, I hope to get another corsair PSU at some point as this thing lets the whole computer down really.
This is a fantastic idea, connectors to split the wires from the front panel
Dust filters in the expansion slots too
Now time to get building, mobo in.
HDD in, the anti-vibration mounts are very good indeed.
I had a spare 120mm fan, I plugged it in and it was dead silent so strapped it to the trusty old 8800GT.
The cable management in this case is very good, my PSU lets it down a bit though. Eventual everything will be braided
Everything now in
A couple of arty shots
(the front USB ports have a nice tight fit )
I was very lucky here, the fan just touches on the GPU cooler!
Tried to get pictures in the dark but they turned out horribly
It looks absolutely fantastic though.
Best £45 I've spent in a very long time
Future plans:
PSU change
Motherboard change (Can't adjust vcore on this one
)GPU upgrade
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