- Nov 27, 2001
- 30,383
- 912
- 126
Well, as you may've read before on various posts or whatever, I recently purchase a lot of nice parts to built a relatively high-end system. Now, what I'd like to do, is to give the consumer my opinions on these parts as a relatively highly tech savvy person.
Core 2 Duo E6600
As you might expect, I had absolutely no problem with this. I did not use the stock HSF as you'll see later. It was my first LGA (I believe that's the right acronym) that I've ever installed, so it was a bit different. Used to the pins on the processor
.
Gigabyte P965-DQ6
Well, I knew from the get-go that I was going to have some issues with my HSF and this Mobo, but I'll talk about that under the HSF section. I really didn't have any problems with the motherboard itself. I did kind of have some issues with the motherboard's I/O shield though. It definitely gave me a tough time trying to install it as it just wouldn't go in right. After cursing Gigabyte's name a many times, it finally went in correctly. Note that this system also booted up with no problem with my ram. I know a lot of NewEgg reviews said it wouldn't boot at all, but mine booted without a hitch or a CMOS reset.
Zalman CPNS-7700CU
Alright, like I said, I knew I'd have problems once I went to install this HSF on the mobo. I originally started cutting apart the back support to use just the four pegs but conventional cutting tools were worthless. So I took that sumb**** out to the garage, threw it in a vice and cracked each corner off. Well, then I realized I needed the file them down to a square shape instead of a round shape. So, I did so and it worked just fine. Although, when actually connecting the heatsink/fan to the retainer, I had soooooooo many problems getting it to finally screw in that it just wasn't funny. Not only is it hard to get to the screws, the other side had part of the super-cooling system that made it even harder! Also, the heatsink/fan came without any sort of protective tape on the bottom of the heatsink... I was pretty disappointed with that lack of quality assurance. I also had some issues when I did not use the speed controller. Maybe I missed a wire in the fan blades, but the fan wasn't spinning without the controller and when I attached it, it spun up. Kind of annoying but I'm glad I noticed it quickly.
PC Power and Cooling 750W Silencer
Here's where it gets interesting. This product, I expected quite a lot from and was utterly disappointed. First off, every review I've seen for this product said there's a test page in the box. I open my box.. 3 year warranty... product sheet for other crap they want me to buy... and no test page. Well, that's a bummer. I go to install the PSU and plug some fans in... I notice one of my connectors is severely borked! The wire's loose and I could probably pull it out with a tiny bit of force. Severely disappointed at the lack of quality control on this product, especially with the good reputation that PCP&C has.
Lian-Li PC-V1200 Plus Black
Now, this is one sexy case, I'm not gunna lie. But it has a severe downfall... it's the most complex fricken' case I've ever had the pleasure of working on! They try to make things efficient and just end up messing up horribly. Only the front panel connetors (i.e. Power Switch, Speaker, LED, etc) are marked. You have to try to read the small little connectors to figure out which one is USB or Firewire. It wasn't hard, but I mean c'mon... it's just a little text that says "USB." Then to install TWO USB headers, you have to install the second one wire by wire. Sorry, I only connected one. The bags aren't marked well and to understand exactly what something is for, you better try to find where it's mentioned on that single sheet of paper they give you with English and .. umm Korean? instructions on it.
Oh, we aren't done with this case just yet. To get the top optical bezel out... you have to take EVERY bezel out, including the floppy drive bezel. Not only is this annoying, it's very tedious and simply something that should've been redesigned.
I will give it some kudos, this case is very quiet. It uses 3 120MM fans and I can't hear my PC at all over my current PC that I'm typing on or the new PC's DVD+/-RW drive while it's installing windows. Also, the mechanism to remove the side panels is nice. You simply cannot lose the thumbscrews. Also, the completely inversed order really helps to alleviate the bottom-oriented PSU problem that some motherboards have. Although, I think connecting drives to the SATA ports may prove troublesome if I don't eventually buy some longer cables.
Also, this case has friggen wheels... how much cooler (aka nerdier) can you get?
EVGA GeForce 8800GTX
No problems as of yet. Easy to install, although it is kind of long, this case is more than adequate to fit it. It's also very quiet. Like I said, I can't hear the PC over my current one.
Zalman Thermal Paste
No problems with this stuff either... was easy to apply and we'll see how well it does (although every review I've seen shows it does very well).
OCZ DDR2 800 Platinum
Worked just fine, haven't had a problem with it yet. Booted up just fine in my motherboard like I mentioned above.
I'd probably recommend all the parts I got here regardless of the small details. Just for some of the quality I got.. it definitely doesn't represent the price I paid!
Core 2 Duo E6600
As you might expect, I had absolutely no problem with this. I did not use the stock HSF as you'll see later. It was my first LGA (I believe that's the right acronym) that I've ever installed, so it was a bit different. Used to the pins on the processor
.Gigabyte P965-DQ6
Well, I knew from the get-go that I was going to have some issues with my HSF and this Mobo, but I'll talk about that under the HSF section. I really didn't have any problems with the motherboard itself. I did kind of have some issues with the motherboard's I/O shield though. It definitely gave me a tough time trying to install it as it just wouldn't go in right. After cursing Gigabyte's name a many times, it finally went in correctly
. Note that this system also booted up with no problem with my ram. I know a lot of NewEgg reviews said it wouldn't boot at all, but mine booted without a hitch or a CMOS reset.Zalman CPNS-7700CU
Alright, like I said, I knew I'd have problems once I went to install this HSF on the mobo. I originally started cutting apart the back support to use just the four pegs but conventional cutting tools were worthless. So I took that sumb**** out to the garage, threw it in a vice and cracked each corner off. Well, then I realized I needed the file them down to a square shape instead of a round shape. So, I did so and it worked just fine. Although, when actually connecting the heatsink/fan to the retainer, I had soooooooo many problems getting it to finally screw in that it just wasn't funny. Not only is it hard to get to the screws, the other side had part of the super-cooling system that made it even harder! Also, the heatsink/fan came without any sort of protective tape on the bottom of the heatsink... I was pretty disappointed with that lack of quality assurance. I also had some issues when I did not use the speed controller. Maybe I missed a wire in the fan blades, but the fan wasn't spinning without the controller and when I attached it, it spun up. Kind of annoying but I'm glad I noticed it quickly.
PC Power and Cooling 750W Silencer
Here's where it gets interesting. This product, I expected quite a lot from and was utterly disappointed. First off, every review I've seen for this product said there's a test page in the box. I open my box.. 3 year warranty... product sheet for other crap they want me to buy... and no test page. Well, that's a bummer. I go to install the PSU and plug some fans in... I notice one of my connectors is severely borked! The wire's loose and I could probably pull it out with a tiny bit of force. Severely disappointed at the lack of quality control on this product, especially with the good reputation that PCP&C has.
Lian-Li PC-V1200 Plus Black
Now, this is one sexy case, I'm not gunna lie. But it has a severe downfall... it's the most complex fricken' case I've ever had the pleasure of working on! They try to make things efficient and just end up messing up horribly. Only the front panel connetors (i.e. Power Switch, Speaker, LED, etc) are marked. You have to try to read the small little connectors to figure out which one is USB or Firewire. It wasn't hard, but I mean c'mon... it's just a little text that says "USB." Then to install TWO USB headers, you have to install the second one wire by wire. Sorry, I only connected one. The bags aren't marked well and to understand exactly what something is for, you better try to find where it's mentioned on that single sheet of paper they give you with English and .. umm Korean? instructions on it.
Oh, we aren't done with this case just yet. To get the top optical bezel out... you have to take EVERY bezel out, including the floppy drive bezel. Not only is this annoying, it's very tedious and simply something that should've been redesigned.
I will give it some kudos, this case is very quiet. It uses 3 120MM fans and I can't hear my PC at all over my current PC that I'm typing on or the new PC's DVD+/-RW drive while it's installing windows. Also, the mechanism to remove the side panels is nice. You simply cannot lose the thumbscrews
. Also, the completely inversed order really helps to alleviate the bottom-oriented PSU problem that some motherboards have. Although, I think connecting drives to the SATA ports may prove troublesome if I don't eventually buy some longer cables.Also, this case has friggen wheels... how much cooler (aka nerdier) can you get?
EVGA GeForce 8800GTX
No problems as of yet. Easy to install, although it is kind of long, this case is more than adequate to fit it. It's also very quiet. Like I said, I can't hear the PC over my current one.
Zalman Thermal Paste
No problems with this stuff either... was easy to apply and we'll see how well it does (although every review I've seen shows it does very well).
OCZ DDR2 800 Platinum
Worked just fine, haven't had a problem with it yet. Booted up just fine in my motherboard like I mentioned above.
I'd probably recommend all the parts I got here regardless of the small details. Just for some of the quality I got.. it definitely doesn't represent the price I paid!
Facebook
Twitter