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On September 25 2011 12:16 Myrmidon wrote:
Terrible to me is like...out of spec operation at half load, Fuhjyyu or similar caps and otherwise failure-prone components, lack of reasonable protections, and so on. We need to keep things in perspective since there are much much worse out there. 80+ is whatever, and most computers will never see 300W draw anyway. His might take 150W on a really bad day.
Actually I made the mistake of calling it the Cooler Mater Elite 460W. It's the Cooler Master Elite 460. Model number of 460. As they say on the label, "The +3.3V & +5V & +12V total output shall not exceed 377.9W."
i5-2300 price is a little bit high but almost fair in comparison to the i3-2100. However, unless you need a quad core for something other than games, the i3-2100 is fine. For gaming you're better off upgrading the GPU to a GTS 450, HD 5770, or HD 6770 (or HD 5750 or HD 6750 if the price is right). Those go for around $100-110 in the US, compared to about $70 for the HD 5670, and performance is roughly double.
Well they market it as 460W. But you're correct, I guess I should reserve the "absolutely terrible"s for the 20$ Logisys PSUs that are rated at 500W and explode in flames at 300W load.
Reading bad PSU reviews is one of my favorite things to do, though.
Conclusions
We are amazed to discover that power supplies with fake wattages are still being sold in the United States and, of all places, at Newegg.com. We thought it was illegal to sell this kind of junk in America.
The Apevia Turbolink ATX-TL450W-BK is sold as a 450 W unit, but it can only deliver 240 W. Having a fake wattage is the smallest of its problems: it is a piece of junk that can damage your computer, since it provides noise/ripple levels above the maximum allowed, as it doesn’t have the required filtering coils in its secondary. Efficiency was between 65% and 74%, which will make your computer to spend more electricity than necessary (higher electricity bill). And the cable configuration is a joke, with only one SATA power connector and no video card power connector (if it had, users would fry the power supply as soon as they run a game).
This is an excellent review to understand that trying to save by buying a USD 20 power supply makes no sense.
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Shikyo; thank you as well. Regaurding your suggestions earlier, I'de like to go with the Antec 300. Which brings me to my next dilemma; The Antec case has 5 fan positions and comes with four already mounted. Also the build skyR so graciously donated mentioned a xigmatek Giai fan, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233082, (I cant post the link because i have a popup blocker on and this isnt my computer to mess around with). Sooo the 5th fan slot is an exhaust fan, should i keep the xigmatec and can it be used for the exhaust, should i replace on of the pre-installed fans with the xigma and use the stock fan as the exhaust? or are there unique fans designed for exhaust? (cant just reverse the blades?) Finally they sell what appears to be the same fan that comes in the case for 8$ more
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140 Posts
The Antec Three Hundred is still a good case, especially considering its price, and I personally like its aesthetic, however, in terms of cable management, the Three Hundred trails behind cases like the Cooler Master HAF 912 in its price range when it comes to cable management, because of its lack of routing options.
Also consider that by the time you outfit a cheap case with that many fans, it may have been worth it just to buy a more expensive case.
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5930 Posts
Also keep in mind the Antec 300 doesn't have dust filters and it goes bareback with the hard drive mounting. In fact, the only reason I recommend it at all is because its cheap for case that uses 0.8mm thick chassis.
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does newegg not sell bitfenix cases? i cant find the outlaw anywhere there
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Hello I was wondering if a Gtx 460 1gb would be a good match for an i3 2100 or should I get a 768mb. I play Starcraft, League of Legends, Dirt 3, Skyrim, and various indie games. I have a 30in. 1080p tv for it to power. What do you think any help is very apreciated.
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On September 25 2011 14:44 Pigbimping wrote:Shikyo; thank you as well. Regaurding your suggestions earlier, I'de like to go with the Antec 300. Which brings me to my next dilemma; The Antec case has 5 fan positions and comes with four already mounted. Also the build skyR so graciously donated mentioned a xigmatek Giai fan, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233082, (I cant post the link because i have a popup blocker on and this isnt my computer to mess around with). Sooo the 5th fan slot is an exhaust fan, should i keep the xigmatec and can it be used for the exhaust, should i replace on of the pre-installed fans with the xigma and use the stock fan as the exhaust? or are there unique fans designed for exhaust? (cant just reverse the blades?) Finally they sell what appears to be the same fan that comes in the case for 8$ more
The Antec Three Hundred Illusion comes with four mounted fans, two front intakes, one top exhaust, and one rear exhaust. You do not need more fans in an Antec Three Hundred Illusion lol unless you are going a multi-GPU configuration than the side fan which should be mounted as an intake may be useful.
The Xigmatek Gaia is not a case fan. The Xigmatek Gaia is an aftermarket CPU heatsink which is recommended for CPU overclocking: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233082 The fan for this should be mounted so that it pulls air into the fins of the heatsink and leaving your rear and top exhaust fans the job of pulling it out of the fins.
On September 25 2011 16:07 Legatus Lanius wrote:
does newegg not sell bitfenix cases? i cant find the outlaw anywhere there
Why don't you just order directly from them?
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On September 24 2011 18:07 Ruscour wrote:
Add umart.com.au as a retailer for Australia, myself and friends swear by them :D
Price wise they are okay, but service is so so and their range is not that great either. Only good if you are in QLD.
Found www.tftcentral.co.uk/
^ Great review and write ups on monitors, give really good comparisons and stats for IPS models, great place to read up on not just for UK users.
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Alright, thank you guys for all your advice, Here I am again at a brick wall; skyR: your saying that i should be fine with the antec 300 stock untill i decide to overclock or add another gpu? I didnt really shop around because I'm not sure what I'm looking for in a case, However the Cooler master HAF 912 seems to be the better buy and also has a mount for the heatsink sky suggested. I'de like to think that either setup will work but frankly I know nothing  anddd some of those promos end in three days although im sure new cool deals are always right around the corner, so yeah i guess tell me what to do so i dont just make the wrong choice
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You do not mount the heatsink to the case, it is mounted to the motherboard. All the case is there for is housing of the components. Different cases will make it easier to install / upgrade components or offer sound dampening foam or better cable management or w/e. What you should do is up to you but you'll probably never see such good deals again until Black Friday or another grand opening.
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HAF 912 does have dust filters...
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On September 26 2011 00:22 skyR wrote:
HAF 912 does have dust filters...
It does? O_O
Oh yes it does oops it was the 922 and 932 without <.< Well then you can pick either one!
Something to keep in mind is that both of the cases can host only 10.5 inch cards, which is around 26.67 centimeters.
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Hi all! I'm having an internal debate about harddrives. My thoughts are that 1Tb hard drives are usually too much space. I have never come close to filling 500Gb with what I would consider normal use. (80gig of music, 20gig of pictures/video and all the games I can play). I have however had a harddrive wear out and had the headache of salvaging information off of it on to another drive. I can't imagine how much of a pain it would be if I filled a 1Tb drive. I personally now have my OS and game drive (500gb 7200 sata6) and a storrage drive for music and junk (500gb 5000). What are the drawbacks? What are the benefits of having it all on one drive?
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There are no benefits of having everything on one drive besides less noise and less power, both of which are like ... meh.
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On September 26 2011 01:12 DONTPANIC wrote:
Hi all! I'm having an internal debate about harddrives. My thoughts are that 1Tb hard drives are usually too much space. I have never come close to filling 500Gb with what I would consider normal use. (80gig of music, 20gig of pictures/video and all the games I can play). I have however had a harddrive wear out and had the headache of salvaging information off of it on to another drive. I can't imagine how much of a pain it would be if I filled a 1Tb drive. I personally now have my OS and game drive (500gb 7200 sata6) and a storrage drive for music and junk (500gb 5000). What are the drawbacks? What are the benefits of having it all on one drive?
Well, it's difficult for me to say as I fill my HDDs super fast and even this 1.5TB one has only lasted a few months and it's at 75% atm.
That sounds like a decent configuration, although I believe that the most optimal setup would be to have your OS/game/whatever drive just how you have it, but then having your storage in a RAID1.
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On September 25 2011 05:04 skyR wrote:
That could possibly be the problem as you created air bubbles by remounting it without removing the old paste and applying new paste. The other possibility is that you didn't mount the heatsink correctly, I'm leaning towards this.
So my brother put together his computer for the first time, he mounted the intel stock heatsink, decided he wanted to remount it (so he took it off), accidently smudged his fingers on the heatsink, enough to get some paste on his fingers, then remounted it. Is that an issue at all? He hasn't actually powered up his rig yet.
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Yes, it could be an issue.
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EPT
