Windows 8 Release Preview Plan

Just a small update. Windows 8 Release Preview has hit the streets and I will download it today. I am thinking of installing it on a empty hard drive I have and using it. Will post my review and comments on it hopefully by the weekend. So look forward to it! ^_^ Today was a busy day and I did not have time to post anything so apologies on that. But it's Friday tomorrow and that means... The weekend is coming! The weekend is coming!

Till then,
Kiyoshi out! ^_^

KarachiDevil's Core-i5 Build

Hi Folks!

So today was my day off and after I slept for the majority of the morning, I am now awake and refreshed and wanted to post a build that I thought would be good for any games that are out right now and you should be able to play them at max settings. I will also list the prices for everything and the totals. I will be posting more builds in the near future as well as some other exciting posts that you should stay tuned for!

Today's build will be a Intel-Nvidia build. This should ensure some serious performance and room for a lot of overclocking.

CASE:


NZXT Phantom 410

The Mid-Tower brother of the Phantom, it has an adjustable interior pivot fan slot for directional air flow.

Dimensions : 20.94in x 8.46in x 20.31in.
Price : US$ 99.99










CPU:


Intel Core i5-3570K

The replacement for the phenomenal i5-2500K, it draws less power than it's predecessor and has a little bit more headroom for performance.

Stock Clock : 3.4 Ghz
Price : US$ 239.99











MOTHERBOARD:


ASRock Z77 Extreme6

Features 2 PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots and 4 SATA III Connectors, the Extreme 6 is a very good Z77 board.

Dimensions : 12.0in x 9.6in
Price : US$ 174.99









VIDEO CARD:


EVGA GeForce GTX 560-Ti 448 Ultra Classified

The 448 Cores version of a very good card, EVGAs version is going be a very good and a very stable card to buy.

Dimensions : 10.5in x 4.68in
Core Clock : 810Mhz
Memory : 320-bit 1280MB GDDR5
3-Way SLI Capable
Price : US$ 299.99










SOUND CARD:


CREATIVE Sound Blaster Recon3D

One of my favorite gaming centered sound card, the Recon 3D has a Quad-Core Audio Processor for gaming audio and crystal-clear voice communications. It is engineered for low-power consumption.

Connector: PCI-E x1 Slot
Price : US$ 99.99















RAM:


G.SKILL Sniper Series

One of my favorite RAM. It is Intel XMP Ready.

Speed : DDR3 1866
Capacity 8GB (2 x 4GB)
Timing : 9-10-9-28
Voltage : 1.5V
Price : US$ 59.99






POWER SUPPLY:


CORSAIR TX750M

The Modular Version of my PSU, It is a great Power Supply with very quiet operation and long life. Modular helps keeps air flow open and uninterrupted.

PCI-E Connector : 4 x 6+2-Pin
SATA Connector : 8
Dimensions : 5.9in x 3.4in x 6.3in
Price : US$ 119.99








CPU COOLER:


AIR COOLING:


COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO

The next iteration of the incredibly popular and efficient Hyper 212, The EVO has four direct contact heat pipes.

Dimensions : 120mm fan, Heatsink 120mm x 80mm x 159mm
Price : $33.99









LIQUID COOLING:


CORSAIR H80 Liquid CPU Cooler

The newer i5 gives an incredible amount of heat and as such, a liquid cooler might be better for your build if you want do extreme overclocking or want your cpu to operate at very low temperatures. It includes a double-thick radiator and two 120mm fans.

Radiator Dimensions : 230mm x 152mm x 38mm
Price : US$ 104.99








HARD DRIVE:


Western Digital 1TB

THE WDC Black Edition is designed for high performance and such would be a perfect fit for your gaming computer.

Speed :  7200RPM
Interface : SATA III (6.0Gb/s)
Cache : 64MB
Price: US$ 119.99
















MONITOR:


ACER G235H Abd

A Great monitor to go with your build, it is a perfect fit with your 560Ti 448.

Max Resolution : 1920 x 1080
Response Time : 5ms
Features VESA Wall Mounting : 100mm x 100mm
Price : US$ 139.99









TOTALS:


Total with Air Cooling : US$ 1148.92 (No Monitor)
Total with Liquid Cooling : US$ 1219.92 (No Monitor)

That is one of the builds in my mind that would give you stellar performance all across the board. Of course when making your build, you can substitute parts as you desire, however this will give you a good reference to base your build upon.

That is all for now folks, as always please +1, subscribe, spread the word if you like what you read and any comments are always welcome.

Kiyoshi out.

Hard Drives

Hi everyone,

Today I will be talking about hard drives and what to keep in mind when buying one. I am also in the market myself for a couple of hard drives and as such the ideas I will give are the ones I myself am using.

First of all let's cover the types of hard drives available. One of course is the classic Hard Drive which you see in every computer. Faster SATA technology have enabled them to read and write data at a very fast speed and the fact that the technology has been around for a very long time, means that the hard drives of today are very stable and can give you years of safe and worry free operation.  The other type or hard drives are SSD (Solid State Drives.) They are built on flash memory and as such have no moving parts like conventional drives. This gives them a very long life, very fast read/write speeds but comes at increased cost as Flash Drives are expensive to make compared to a conventional Hard Drive.

So what should you keep in mind? Well first is the available ports on your motherboard which can tell you how fast of a hard drive you can buy. My motherboard has both SATA II and SATA III ports and as such, I am looking to fill first the SATA III ports. The difference between the two is that SATA II is capable of supporting up to 3.0 Gb/s data transfer rates while SATA III can support up to 6.0 Gb/s data transfer rates. Next in case of the conventional hard drives, the speed of the disk. There are several speeds you can select from such as 5400 RPM, 5900 RPM, 7200 RPM with some going up to 15000 RPM. If you are gaming, it would be best two get at least a 7200 RPM disk which can deliver data at a fast enough rate that you will not face lag or wait time as your data loads. If however you want a media disk or one that uses less power and is more "eco-friendly" go for slower RPM disks like a 5400 RPM disk.

In a ideal world, I will have one drive for all my media and one for gaming.

So what will you do with an SSD? SSDs since they have no moving parts and are built on flash technology have little to no lag when it comes to seeking, reading and writing data. Capable of blistering speeds, a SSD is perfect to put your Operating System on as well as games which are very demanding of your hardware. The price however will make you think long and hard about what size to get. As a comparison a 1TB SATA III 7200 RPM Seagate Barracuda is selling for $99.99 right now. Whereas for the same price, a SATA III  OCZ Solid 3 has only 120GB of space. You can also find 60GB SSDs for the same price from some companies. An even faster type of SSD comes with a PCI-E connector instead of SATA and the cheapest one you can find is for $249.99 and it has 110GB worth of space (An OCZ RevoDrive.)

However with your OS on the SSD, you can see very fast load times and very fast operation for everything that is on it.

In an idea world with both an SSD and a HDD, I will have one HDD for data, one for gaming, one SSD for my OS and if possible, one SSD for my most demanding games (or possible one bigger SSD for both things.)

Because there are so many sizes and varieties of hard drives out there, I am giving links for SATA III HDDs, SATA II HDDs, SATA III SSDs, SATA II SSDs and PCI-E SSDs

In the HDDs, my favorite companies are Western Digital, Seagate and Samsung. In SSDs my favorites are OCZ, Kingston, Samsung, Corsair and Intel. All of these companies are very good and my money will be wisely spent on any of them.

Ideally I would get a 1TB 5400 RPM SATA III drive for my media, a 1TB 7200 RPM SATA III for my games, a 60-90 GB SATA III SSD for my OS and another 60-90 GB SATA III SSD for my games. I know my idea may seem excessive and you can just as well get two drives and be good and I agree. My personal idea is that the more spread out my data is among my hard drives, the less overall each drive will be used and as a result the longer they will last. Also if one of my Hard Drives goes bad, I don't lose everything. You can of course back up your important data to ensure you don't lose it all and I intend to do the same, however if I have enough money, I will buy drives like I have mentioned. But for now I will probably buy one 7200 RPM SATA III 1-2 TB Hard Drive and one 90-120GB SATA III SSD.

I realize this was a very wordy post and I do apologize for it, but I thought it was important to understand the significance of buying drives and how I am going about it.

My next post will cover some dream builds I have come up with, complete with pictures!!

Till then,
Kiyoshi Out.

Sound Cards

Hi folks!

Today I will be covering the audio card. I am wrapping up all the components that go inside your computer and the only things that are left are hard drives and peripherals (Mouse & Keyboard). There are of course other accessories you can include like headsets, speakers, fan controllers, lcd displays but those are not necessary for your basic build to be complete so I will talk about them in other posts as I encounter them myself. Remember I myself don't earn a lot of money so budget sometimes stops me from getting the stuff of my dreams ^_^. Also if you guys want me to talk about something in particular, please feel free to ask and I will post my opinions and suggestions about them.

So why would you need an Audio Card? Audio Cards are very good at giving you that depth of experience to truly enjoy your games, movies and musics. Motherboards all come with on board sound options but since they are on the board, you end up sacrificing some power and capabilities to put them on board. Detaching it from the board gives you more power and more capabilities.

Two of my favorite companies in this are Asus and Creative. My opinion is that if you want a sound card more for gaming, go for Creative and if you are interested in music more, go for the Asus ones.

ASUS (http://usa.asus.com/Multimedia/#Audio_Cards)

ASUS Xonar Essence STX

One of the best audiophile cards you can find out there. It comes with a built in headphone amp to deliver amazing sound to your headphones. Will give you better sound no matter what headphones you are using. Comes with 6.3 mm headphone jacks for high-end headphones (Adapter for 3.5mm connectors also included) Selling for $189.99. It uses the PCI-E x1 slot on your motherboard.








Other cards to consider from ASUS
ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-E x1
Price $89.99
Good for gaming if you are on a budget.

ASUS Xonar DGX 5.2 PCI-E x1
Price $39.99
Good for gaming if you are on tighter budget

ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 PCI
Price $29.99
If you have a PCI slot only and extremely small budget, consider this. Good for gaming.


CREATIVE (www.creative.com)
One of my favorite brands and always a very tempting option for me. Check them out, you will not be disappointed.

Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional

The next generation of Sound Blaster cards, this card is great for gaming and online voice communication. It features a Sound Core3D Quad-Core Audio Processor that will give you enhanced gaming audio and crystal clear voice. It has a dedicated headphone amp to power studio quality headphones and headsets. Selling for $149.99. Requires a PCI-E x1 slot.






For $50 more, you can get a Recon3D Professional card with a Sound Blaster I/O Drive to give you front facing Headphone and Microphone inputs as well as volume and THX TruStudio Pro Controls. Check out these links here and here to find out more about it.











Other cards to consider
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD PCI-E x1
Price $146.99
Has Audiophile components to provide great music and gaming audio.

Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D PCI-E x1
Price $99.99
A Recon3D card for those on a smaller budget. Good for Gaming

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 PCI
Price $29.99
Extreme budget option requiring a PCI slot.

Hey answer something for me. Have you noticed the Fatal1ty thing? Creative has a Fatal1ty named sound card and ASRock has a Fatal1ty named Motherboard. Coincidence? Well no Fatal1ty is actually the gamer name for Jonathon Wendel who is described as the world's most famous PC gamer. Check out his website www.fatal1ty.com to learn more about the product lines that carry his name.

That's it for this post. I will talk about hard drives in general in the next post and then talk about my various dream build ideas and then on to the exciting world of peripherals where, hopefully some exciting and unique things will be presented to you ^_^

Until then,
Kiyoshi Out

Intel CPUs - Ivy Bridge

Hi folks,

Today is my day off so I wanted to use this opportunity to talk about Intel's latest offering in the CPU world, namely, the Intel Ivy Bridge Processors. It represents the "tick" in Intel's tick-tock model. If you are new to the computer components world, you might be wondering what it means. Fear not! for I shall help explain this model to you to the best of my abilities and understanding.

Intel uses the Tick-Tock model to release CPUs consistently without a break. A "tick" represents a refinement of the current micro-architecture by reducing the size and increasing transistor density which may enable new capabilities, higher performance levels and greater energy efficiency. A "tock" is a whole new architecture Intel will build based on the manufacturing technology used in the previous "tick" cycle.

The current Ivy Bridge is therefore the "tick" based on the Sandy Bridge line from Intel. Whereas the Sandy Bridge was based on a 32nm Fabrication Process, the Ivy Bridge is based on the 22nm Fabrication Process.

Intel Core i5-3570K

Set by Intel as the replacement to the ever favorite i5-2500K, the 3570K is a worthy successor to the 2500K. Same as the 2500k it does not feature Hyper-Threading but as before, in most cases you will not feel that the 3570K is under powered in any way. The 3570K is faster across the board than the 2500K with a difference of up to 10% in most benchmarks. It does however feature lower power consumption and combined with the Z77 motherboard, will provide a host of new features. However, it unfortunately also has a higher operation temperature.
So should you get it? That is an interesting question as the 3570K is clearly better but the margin is such that an argument could be made against updating your hardware. My thoughts are as follows. People will 2500K already in there system can safely stay with it unless they are the kind of people who want the newest hardware as soon as it comes out. If however you are building a new system, you might as well get the newer CPU as it is overall better than the 2500K, even if the margin is slim. Selling for $239.99.

Intel Core i7-3770K

The story for the 3770K is pretty similar to the story of the 3570K. Difference between the 3770K and 2700K is marginal at best. The biggest difference is that the video solution provided by the on-chip video is much better. That is a nice feature to think about if you are going for entry level builds and for providing simpler solutions for everyday computer work and, at best entry level gaming. Anything more and you are going to be looking at a dedicated video card anyways. As before if you are a new computer builder or a die-hard enthusiast, go for it but for most of everybody else, you can wait for the "tock". Selling for $349.99.

Intel Motherboard 2

Hi everyone!

I will now briefly return to the world of Intel Motherboards as I had left the post incomplete last time. Today we will be talking about the LGA2011 socket and the LGA1155 (which contains both the Ivy Bridge and the Sandy Bridge.)

LGA2011


The LGA2011 is Intel's Enthusiast Extreme line of CPUs which represent what the Intel platform is truly capable of. The 2011 is also quad channel ram compatible and also supports PCI-E 3.0.

ASRock X79 Extreme6

One of ASRock's best selling 2011 motherboards, the Extreme6 comes with a host of good options and a very nifty color scheme. Supporting a maximum of 64GB Ram in a Quad Channel Setup, The Extreme6 also has 3 PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots. 5 Sata III connectors and 4 USB 3.0 connectors. Selling for $249.99.









Other Good ASRock Motherboards are :
Fatal1ty X79 Champion
X79 Extreme9



Gigabyte G1.Assassin2



The G1 series is Gigabyte's gaming motherboard series and as such is good at overclocking and also features a Creative CA20K2 chip which provides support for X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity and EAX Advanced HD 5.0 Supports a maximum of 32GB Ram with 3 PCI-E 3.0 x16 connectors, 4 Sata III and 2 USB3.0 connectors. Selling for $349.99.







ASUS Rampage IV Extreme

Another great motherboard from ASUS. Supports 64GB of Ram and 5 PCI-E 3.0 x 16 slots, 4 SATA III connectors and 4 USB3.0 connectors. You can never go wrong with ASUS! Selling for $429.99.













LGA1155


For a while now, one of the main complaints against Intel was that they would change their cpu socket with every new release which in turn prompted people to buy new motherboards thereby increasing their expenditure. Intel listened this and when it introduced the 3rd Generation of Intel CPUs, it kept them on the same socket type (LGA1155.)

ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional

The Fatal1ty Professional is a rock solid motherboard which supports 32GB of Ram in Dual Channel mode, 2 PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots, 1 PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot, 6 SataIII connectors and 6 USB3.0 connectors. Retailing for $229.99.











Other good boards from ASRock are
Z77 Extreme9
Z77 Pro4-M (A Micro-ATX Board)



Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H

A good budget option from Gigabyte it supports 32GB of Ram, 1 PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot, 1 PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot, 2 Sata III Connectors and 4 USB3.0 connectors. Retailing for $119.99










Other good boards from Gigabyte are
G1.Sniper 3
GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB WiFi


ASUS Maximus V Gene

An amazing Micro ATX gaming board offering from ASUS. Supports 32GB Ram, 2 PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots , 4 SATA III connectors and 4 USB3.0 connectors. It also boasts a SupremeFX III audio chipset. Retailing for $209.99










Other good boards from ASUS are
P8Z77 WS
P8Z77-V LE
Sabertooth Z77

And there you have it folks! The latest, and in my view great motherboards for Intel. Next post I will talk about the 3rd Generation Intel Processors but until then,

Kiyoshi Out! ^_^

Monitor

Hi everyone!

It's a gorgeous Sunday today in Lawrence (though I am sad that it is almost over..... It's almost 8 and I will be heading to bed in 2 hours, and wouldn't you know, that means tomorrow is Monday! Hate Mondays....) Yeah okay moving on.

Today this will be a brief post but still an important one. Why? It is because you cannot settle for just any old monitor after the amount of money you have spent on your pc. It needs a decent display so you can enjoy all that your computer can give.

So what should you look for in a monitor. Well first and foremost is the size. How big should your monitor be and what resolution it can go up to are going to be of primary concern. For the system I have built, 1080p (1920 x 1080) is the minimum resolution I wanted. Next should be response time which is measured in milliseconds. The lower the number the faster the response time and the less tearing, jagged and laggy the video/game will look. This isn't as big a concern now as it used to be previously since you can find a lot of monitors in the 5ms category which is pretty fast and you should not notice much, if any image problems. Having an LED or LED Backlight monitor is also advantageous as LED technology allows your monitor to be very thin thereby saving space and also makes the monitor very light.

The higher the resolution, the more powerful your hardware has to be and if you want to display in ultra high resolutions (beyond 1080p) you will need more powerful video cards. Look for GTX 570, Radeon HD 6970 or go for NVIDIA SLI or AMD CrossFireX which enables you among other things to use two or more less powerful video cards to give the performance of higher end video cards.

Some good companies which you can opt for are Samsung, Asus, Acer, NEC and HP. Since I wanted to build a multi-display setup, I decided to go for smaller sized monitors. Of course beyond 1080p monitors are expensive so for now I am building a 1080p display setup. Eventually I want 3 monitors and if possible, one of them will be 3D (Why? Umm.... why not!?) The monitors I have now currently are one 20inch Gateway HX2000 which I got on sale for $99 and one 23inch HP 2311x which I got on sale for ~$150.

I plan to get two more HP2311x if possible to make a 3 display setup. Though as of late I am liking more and more the option to buy a desk stand which can support 3 monitors to save space.

This kind of setup will save space though I might need to change monitors as my current ones are not VESA mount capable. I will decide that though when I have more money ^_^. Until then, 3 monitors side by side will have to do.

Well that is it for monitors. Just remember what usage are you expecting for yourself and what kind of display setup you want and buy accordingly. 

The Build

Edit : I forgot to list the things out so you can take a look at the specs in case you have not read the previous posts and this was your first read. Sorry about that but it had completely skipped my mind until right now when I was just looking at my blog on a different browser to make sure it was looking ok. Anyways here it is :

CPU :                    AMD FX-8120 8-Core Processor 

Motherboard :        ASUS Crosshair V Formula 

Video Card :          XFX Double D HD-695X-CDFC

RAM :                   CORSAIR Vengeance 8 GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600

Power Supply :      CORSAIR TX750W PSU

CPU Cooler :         COOLER MASTER Hyper N520

Optical Media :      Samsung 22X DVD Burner SATA Model - OEM

Hard Drives :         1 320GB SATA II Western Digital 3.5" (From my old Computer)

                            1 320GB SATA II Hitachi 2.5" (From my old Laptop)

Monitors :             20" Gateway HX2000 Max Resolution 1600 x 900

                            23" HP 2311x Max Resolution 1920 x 1080

=End Edit=
With that post being concluded I have listed everything I have bought that goes inside the case. I did not list hard drives because I am still using my old one, but I will be posting about hard drives and what to consider. I did not list the dvd drive I bought just because they are so cheap and plentiful that you pretty much cannot go wrong with anyone of them but I will be buying a blu-ray drive soon and will talk about that in the near future. I will also talk about the monitors I have but until then, here is a picture of all the components I have bought.

Will take a few pics of the inside after assembly and my setup as well. Till then,

Kiyoshi out.

P.S If you guys feel like it, follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/KarachiDevil)

Computer Cases

Edit: This post originally started last night but I could not finish it as I had to go to work at 4 again today so I slept early.

Hi folks!

Today was a very hectic day for me and after coming home I slept like a log and woke up not too long ago. I wanted to post this before I go to eat food and sleep again. I work at 4 in the morning so I need to sleep soon as well.

So today we are going to be talking about computer cases. Buying a good computer case is essential to your build. Part of it is of course aesthetics as you can show off a really cool looking case but a major thought should be put in to how the parts you have will fit inside your computer. You need to think of about effective cable routing, component size and air flow. Always look at the number of fans it can fit. It should have enough slots for your hard drives, also be spacious enough to house your huge video cards (as most of the time you have to take out a hard drive cage to accommodate them thereby reducing your carrying capacity for hard drives. As always dimensions, dimensions, dimensions! Pay close attention to your video card size, motherboard size, cpu cooler size and make sure they will all fit in to your case. You can either pick your case first and then fit components, or pick your components first and then go for the case. Either way be careful and plan ahead to save headaches later on.

The Companies that I like are Corsair, NZXT, Cooler Master, Antec and Thermaltake but make no mistake, there are a lot of companies and you are more then welcome to try out something else which catches your eye. Just make sure to look at what the case is constructed out of. Metals will last you longer then Plastics and tool less options will save you from pain.

Dimensions are H x W x L (Height x Width x Length)
ANTEC (http://www.antec.com)

Antec has a long list of Cases that you can look at on their website but I will be listing my favorite to keep it simple. Also take a look at their Skeleton Case. Very radical!

Antec Lanboy air

Supporting an awesome modular design, you can position almost all of your components any way you choose. With the ability of having up to 15 exhaust fans, this case will keep cool no matter what. Add to that the open frame mesh panel construction, heat and dust stay out!. Can fit up to a 16 inch graphics card. Selling for $179.99. Comes in Blue, Red and Yellow. It is a ATX Mid Tower and the Dimensions are 20.20 in x 8.70 in x 20.30 in


Other good cases from Antec,

Antec Gaming Series One
Price $49.99
Dimensions : 17.2in x 8.2in x 19.2in
Up to 10.5 inch Graphics Card can be fitted.

Antec Three Hundred
Price $54.99
Dimensions : 18.30in x 8.10in x 18.00in
Up to 11 inch Graphics Card can be fitted

COOLER MASTER (http://www.coolermaster.com)

Top of my list when it comes to computer cases and cooling solutions. Their COSMOS II was featured in the Dream Machine 2011 by Maximum PC.

Cooler Master HAF 922

The ever popular HAF Series (High Air Flow.) It supports 1 x 120mm rear fan, 1 x 200mm front red LED fan, 1 x 200mm top fan (or 2 x 120mm fans) and 1 x 200mm side fan (or 2 x 120mm fans) and a 120mm or 140mm bottom fan.. Can support E-ATX Motherboards. Selling for $149.99. ATX Mid Tower with Dimensions 22.20in x 10.00in x 19.70in.






Other good cases from Cooler Master,

Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced
Price $149.99
Dimensions : 22.70in x 9.00in x 21.50in

Cooler Master HAF 912
Price $59.99
Dimensions : 19.50in x 9.10in x 18.90in
Can fit up to a 15.6 inch video after removing the hard drive cage, otherwise nearly ~10.6inch

NZXT (http://www.nzxt.com)

Makers of some really good looking cases, NZXT greatly held my interest as I was making my build. They also make gaming mice among other things.

NZXT Phantom

In my opinion one of the best looking cases out there, the Phantom is a ATX Full Tower capable of holding the most massive of video cards and very spacious on the inside with great cable management and air flow. Capable of holding up to 7 fans and also containing an integrated fan controller. It can support E-ATX motherboards. Selling for $124.99 and has several color options so browse Newegg for the other ones. Dimensions , 24.53in x 8.74in x 21.26in.





Other good cases from NZXT are,

KHAOS Classic Series
Price $249.99
Dimensions :  24in x 8.85in x 23.5in


M59
Price $49.99
Dimensions : 20in x 7.48in x 17.68in

CORSAIR (www.corsair.com)

Relatively new to the computer case scene, Corsair hit the ground running with some awesome cases.

Corsair Graphite Series 600T Special Edition White




 Looks gorgeous in white but is available in other colors as well, the 600T is a Mid Tower ATX case with a spacious inside. Supports Micro ATX and ATX motherboards. Selling for $169.99 and Dimensions are 23.30in x 10.4in x 20in







Corsair Carbide Series 500R White Steel
Price $139.99
Dimensions : 20.5in x 8.1in x 20in

Corsair Obsidian Series 800D
Price $259.99
Dimensions : 24in x 9in x 24in

THERMALTAKE (http://www.thermaltakeusa.com)

One of my favorite companies, Thermaltake has also entered the E-Sports scene with several very good gaming keyboards, mice and headsets (http://usa.ttesports.com/index.aspx) and if you are in touch with Star Craft 2, they sponsor White-Ra.

Thermaltake Level 10 GTS Snow Edition


This gorgeous case is ver good at keeping your components cool with support for up to 5 fans. Four hot-swappable hard drive bays are also available and capable of holding a decent sized video card. Selling for $114.99 and Dimensions are 18.2in x 9.2in x 20.1in.







Other good cases are as follows

Level 10
Price $799.99
Dimensions : 26.22in x 12.52in x 24.17in

Thermaltake Armor A90
Price $94.99
Dimensions : 20.30in x 8.30in x 19.80in

The case I chose was

HAF912

Found it for sale for $30. I will be upgrading in the future as well but for now loving this case and don't have any complains about it.

As always choose any case that you like but make sure meet your needs and have good airflow. I will try to post some more today but as it is the weekend, let's see.

Till then,
Kiyoshi out.

CPU Cooler - Air Cooling

So I was bored and decided to continue writing.

This post will deal with the CPU Cooler. A good heatsink and fan combo is essential for cpu cooling (if you are going for air cooled system,) and you will be needing after market coolers as a lot of them perform better then stock coolers. So with that in mind here are some good ones you can look out for.

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2

Featuring a Fluid Dynamic Cooler, the Freezer 7 is an amazing cooler for the money. Easy installation thanks to push pin mounting system, you can have it installed withing seconds (but please take a few minutes ^_^, be careful.) Extremely quite performance and wide compatibility with both AMD and Intel Socket types. Retailing for $29.99 at the moment.




COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 +

Featuring a 120mm long life sleeve fan, the 212 series has long been the favorite of system builders everywhere. Easy Installation and very good service life makes this a crowd favorite. Also helps that it is cheap! Wide compatibility with all current socket types. Sale Price, $29.99.





ZALMAN CNPS9700

featuring an LED 110mm 2 Ball Bearing Fan, the CNP is also another rock solid choice with very efficient cooling. It does cost more then the Hyper 212+ but its performance makes up for the price. Sells for $49.99.






COOLER MASTER V8

Featuring Eight Heatpipes, mirror finished base for maximum heat absorption and four sets of aluminum fins, The V8 will keep your CPU cooled and happy and it looks amazing in your system. Fan is of the Rifle bearing type. Sells for $54.99.






COOLER MASTER Hyper 212+ EVO

Yes lots of Cooler Master options but only because they are great! The Evo is compatible with the latest socket types and has the same great performance as the other 212+ fans. Selling for $34.99. Features a 120mm sleeve bearing type fan.





XIGMATEK Dark Knight II SD1283 Night Hawk Edition

Featuring Thermal Conductive Ceramic Coating and the ability to mount two fans for even more cooling, it has 3 x 8mm heat pipes for larger heat dissipation. Comes with one 120mm Long Life Bearing Fan. Sells for $49.99




You may have noticed different types of fan bearing and are probably wondering what it means. I will explain it now. You can think of bearings as the way the fan moves and depending on what technology is used, it has different effects.


Sleeve Bearing : The most common and inexpensive type, it uses two surfaces lubricated with oil or grease as a friction contact. Less durable at high temperatures and may have poor performance when mounted in any orientation other than vertical. May become noisy with age.

Rifle Bearing : Similar to Sleeve bearings, but are quieter and have as much lifespan as ball bearings. The bearing has a  spiral groove that pumps fluid from a reservoir. As a result can be mounted in a different alignment.

Ball Bearings : More expensive but do not suffer from orientation handicap and are far more durable at higher temperatures.

Fluid Bearings : Near silent operations and high life expectancy. Works on Fluid Dynamics (wiki link here for further explanation.) Generally the most expensive option.

Be careful when installing and be sure not to over tighten screws as this may crack your motherboard and leave you in a pool of tears over your ruined build. Also be sure to take the size in to account as some are surprisingly big. Make sure the width of your Computer case can accommodate the length of the cooler. Also periodically open your case and clean any and all fans you have to increase their life and decrease operational temperatures as dirt and all can become a Insulator. I chose something I found for $10 and will be very shortly replacing it as it keeps my cpu more warm then I would like it to be. Nevertheless here it is

COOLER MASTER Hyper N520

The fan is smaller than I would like but it was not until I installed it and ran it that I thought I would need a bigger one. The best way to learn is through experience. I will probably get the Hyper 212+ EVO next with one more fan. Bought it on sale for $14.99 way back when. Actually it was my first purchase.

Kiyoshi Out!

Power Supply Unit (PSU)

Hi everyone!

Today is my day off from work so I woke up rather late. Hopefully today I will be able to post both about the PSU and the Computer Case.

Buying a PSU is something you may want to spend a little time thinking about. There are a couple of things you have to mindful about which I shall list here.

A) Always keep in mind how much power you actually need in the system. The obvious question that arises is how do you know? There are several tools on the internet which can help you calculate the power requirements of your build.
1. ASUSTeK
2. Thermaltake
3. Extreme Outervision

You can go to any of these links and start entering all the information it requires. Now here is a pro tip. After you see your recommended wattage, sit and think how much future upgrades you want to do. Now I, for example have one video card in my system at the moment but I intend on getting maybe more or maybe a newer more powerful one which may require more power. So let's say your recommended wattage come up as 450W. You can search for a 450W psu and you can get them pretty cheaply too, but if you do upgrades in the future, you will have to buy another psu because now suddenly your computer cannot provide enough power to all of your components. I would suggest going at least 100-150 Watts above your recommended wattage.

Of course you could go all out and buy a 1200 Watt PSU and not have to care about it all, but I would not recommend you do so. Firstly because you will not be using a huge portion of the power it can supply and basically will be under utilizing your psu. Secondly they cost more and if something goes wrong and your warranty does not cover it, you will just have lost quite a bit of money. I personally tend to look more for efficient usage and will try to buy things keeping that in mind. Of course if you want to by all means do it but I was just stating my personal opinion.

B) Noise. Noise is something you may not think off when building your pc but you will notice it when you are using your system regularly. It can become a bit annoying if you keep hearing a constant buzz in the background  . I would suggest reading a few reviews about the component and see if some people mention noise. I would also caution against over analyzing comments because the more you read, the more likely you are to run in to problems people ran in to because generally people resort to reviewing things only when something goes wrong. Take everything with a grain of salt.

C) Power Cables. What do I mean by power cables? When you buy PSUs, you will notice they come with a huge number of cables which you use to connect various things inside you computer. Make sure you have enough cables to power everything and also some extra cables left so you can expand in the future should you want to. Always make sure the PSU has cables for the video card because newer video cards all require their own direct connection to the PSU.

D) Clutter. Buy a PSU with a million cables and after you set up everything, you may notice that the inside looks cluttered with wires. Wire clutter can also impede air flow which in turn will raise the internal temperature and looks plain messy. I just love it when I open my case for cleaning and everything looks neat and organized. To solve that problem, manufactures also sell Modular Power Supplies which have the option of disconnecting power cables which you are not using thereby reducing clutter.

E) 80 PLUS Rating. What is 80+ ? 80+ is an initiative to promote and increase energy efficiency in PSUs. It certifies that products have at least 80% efficiency at 20%, 50% and 100% of rater load and a power factor of 0.9 or greater at 100% load. For you it will mean lower electricity bills,less waste of electric energy and less heat generation. There are several levels of this certification which are as follows

		115V			230V
Loads	20%	50%	100%	20%	50%	100%
80 PLUS	80%	80%	80%	-	-	-
80+ Bronze	82%	85%	82%	81%	85%	81%
80+ Silver	85%	88%	85%	85%	89%	85%
80+ Gold	87%	90%	87%	88%	90%	88%
80+ Platinum	90%	92%	89%	90%	94%	91%
80+ Titanium				94%	96%	91%

  

Brands I love in this category are : Corsair, Antec, Cooler Master, OCZ and SeaSonic.

CORSAIR (www.corsair.com)

Corsair has several award winning PSUs and I greatly admire this company and the hard work it puts in to create quality products. They have 5 series of Power Supplies which you can choose from

1. CX Series

 Builder series for basic system builds. Carries 80+ Certification and comes in 430 Watts, 500 Watts and 600 Watts.








2. GS Series


Balanced between Price and Performance. Carries 80+ and 80+ Bronze Certifications and comes in 500W, 600W, 700W and 800W.







3. TX Series


Hardcore PC Gaming, Performance Enthusiast Level and affordable. Carries 80+ Bronze Certification throughout the series. Comes in 550W, 650W, 750W, 850W and 950W and has both Modular and Non Modular options.





4. HX Series

For Gaming Rigs and Overclocking Systems. Very stable and carries 80+ Bronze and 80+ Silver Certifications. Comes in 650W, 750W, 850W and 1050W. All Modular.






5. AX Series

Top of the line AX Series boasts top performance, reliability and energy efficiency. Carries 80+ Gold Certification throughout the range and comes in 650W, 750W, 850W and 1200W. Fully Modular.






ANTEC (http://www.antec.com/)

They make amazing Computer Cases and they also make amazing Power Supplies. They have a very big line of PSUs to choose from so I will be listing a few of them but you can go to their website and check them out. They also have a few 80+ Platinum PSUs in the mix. A small note. Read descriptions very carefully as they have a few power supply series that are exclusively compatible with Antec cases so they might not fit readily in your build.

1. VP Series


The entry level series from Antec with very good stability and a few of the models carry 80+ certifications as well. Good for budget builds. Comes in 350W, 430W, 450W, 500W and 550W.








2. Neo Eco

Economical, High Efficiency Power Supplies. The Neo Eco series has 80+ Certification throughout the series with Active Power Factor Correction (automatically switches to your voltage type, Universal Input) and quiet, solid operation. Available in 400W, 450W, 520W and 620W. Does not come with a power cable so you have to use your old one.





3. EarthWatts Series

Antec's environmentally friendly PSU series. 80+, 80+ Bronze and a few are 80+  Platinum Certified! Some of their PSUs are also SLI and CrossFireX Certified. Comes in 380W, 430W, 450W, 500W, 550W, 650W AND 750W. You can use them to power some good gaming rigs.






4. High Current Gamer

Antec's Gaming lineup features 80+ Bronze Certification throughout the line, special High Current connectors and heavy duty cabling all designed to give you high efficiency, excellent cooling and loads of power. Some also feature SLI and CrossFire certifications. Modular options also available. Comes in 400W, 520W, 620W, 750W and 900W.





5.  High Current Pro

Antec's top of the line series boasting 80+ Gold PSUs and one Platinum Certified PSU. Supporting Modular Cable Management, the HCP comes in 750W, 850W, 1000W and 1200W. A very solid choice to consider.







COOLER MASTER (www.coolermaster.com/)

Makers of some of the best Computer Cases, Cooler Master also makes some good Power Supplies. Chief amongst them is the Silent Pro Gold  Lineup

Featuring an 80+ Gold Rating, The Silen Pro Gold is a very good lineup of PSUs that you can consider from. Comes in 800W, 1000W and 1200W. Good noise reduction capability as well.







Make sure that your motherboard also supports the PSU by looking up the PSU Type. For example my Cosshair V mother board requires for a fully configured system to use a PSU that complies with ATX 12V Specification 2.0 (or later version.) Make sure it has a decent number of SATA power connectors (to connect your hard drives now or in the future,) and PCI-E Connectors (to power up your video card.) Check dimensions to make sure it will fit in your system. Generally PSUs are of a similar shape but just pay attention when you are buying so you can avoid having to send it back in because it could not fit in to whatever Case you ended up buying.

You can check out Newegg and browse through their huge collection to see which one you like but for my money, you can't go wrong with Corsair or Antec PSUs. In the end the PSU I chose was

Corsair TX750W PSU.
Type : ATX 12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92
Max Power : 750Watts
PFC (Power Factor Correction) : Active
PCI-E Connectors : 4 x 6+2 Pin
Sata Connectors : 8
80+ Bronze

My recommended power came up as ~430W. With that in mind and my future build ideas I selected 750W as my PSU power and I went for this PSU out of all the others chiefly for price. It is retailing right now  $104.99 but I bought it for $80 at a ridiculous sale I found one day.

My next post will be about the CPU fan and Case choices. As things are wrapping up for the Computer Build blog, I have quite a few ideas in mind for the next phase of my blog. I am confident that you will like the new direction it will be headed in. I will still discuss current components in the market and my thoughts on them but I will also be adding several new things in the mix and I hope you all keep reading to see them. Please subscribe if you like what you see so far and as always comments are welcome to help me get better at this as well as any kind of discussions you would like to have.

Kiyoshi out.