University - [A Desktop Upgrade] / New Laptop

[Grape]

Well, I am living in Malaysia (Singapore if you dunno Malaysia) and it is summer all year long. A good CPU cooler is always needed.

However, I am going to studying in Tokyo University in March 2012.

(For those who are interested of knowing why, Japanese girls are hotter than USA chicks)

 

So anyway, I trusted Overclockers Club and had my PC Desktop built in December 2011.

Argh, I am gonna travel to Japan soon, my desktop is just a year old and capable of playing all games in ultra-high settings.

I do not know where should I post this topic, System Builds or Miscellaneous Hardware?

But one thing I am sure is System Builds had more supports and better response, while my topic is more related to 'Desktop Upgrades'.

But still, hoping to get some advice like should I get a new laptop?

 

Before anything, my budget is up to $3000 for new laptop and $500 for Desktop Upgrades.

 

My current PC build is:

CPU: Intel i7 950 3.07GHz (I overclocked it to 3274.18 (133.64*24.5) stable, but sometimes it goes to 3.33)

Motherboard: Asus P6T SE T(Supports Triple Channel)

Memory: Corsair 12GB DDR3 (1333MHz 2GB X 6)

PSU: Silent Pro 600W (It is 600W but even equipped with 4 Desktop Fans, 1 CPU Fans + 1 Exhaust Fan, well, 600W is really okay)

GPU: Asus ENGTX 460 TOP (Well, do not underestimate this little graphic card. It is pre-overclocked, I had LAGLESS experience playing it with ANY games with ultra-high/highest settings, even with the latest Battlefield 3)

Casing: Cooler Master USP-100 Black with Side Windows (Argh... I wish I had a casing with radiator for liquid cooling)

Storage: Intel SSD 40GB + 1TB HHD + 1.5TB External HHD (Seriously... 40GB is just... too little... I still have 10GB Free!)

Extra: 2 DVD Drive with Blu-Ray + Razer Mouse + Razer Keyboard + 8 Speakers... (Dun ask me why) + 27" Samsung Monitor + 24" Monitor Dell Monitor (From my old Dell Desktop)

 

More Info:

1. My family recommended me to get a laptop for better mobility, well, it is difficult but I guess I can save cost by taking the whole desktop with me + Razer Keyboard + Razer Mouse + 27" Monitor >.<!!!

 

Question #1: Should I take my whole desktop (upgraded version) or get a new laptop for studying overseas? If so, what is good laptops you guys recommend?

 

2. My CPU temperature NEVER goes over 70 degree Celcius, normally 40~60 degree Celcius only but I am using Cooler Master's basic CPU cooler.

I wanted to upgrade my CPU cooler to NH-D14, I hoped for liquid cooling, but I do not know where to find those tubes and let it shines >.< Oh I love those shiny + colorful water tubes~

 

Question #2: If I had decided to take the whole desktop with me, what should I upgrade for my current build?

Question #3: What CPU Cooler? I hope for NH-D14~

 

3. I personally love Desktop for than Laptop, it is cheaper and better in many aspects, just... no mobility... ARGH!! I had already some good accessories so I really do not wish to change one.

However, my little brother is still using Windows XP and lagging a lot, full with viruses and such. My family is supporting $3000 for me to get a new laptop and surrender my old desktop to my little brother (He's 15 btw)

I had gone to Alienware and see a WONDERFUL laptop but according to my personal build, it came out to be $5000, what the $%#!

I had done some research Alienware is .ing overpriced so let it pass.

 

Personal View on Desktop Upgrade:

I. Upgrade CPU Cooler to NH-D14

II. Overclock D0 950 to 4.2GHz (Is 600W enough? ARGH! If not... a new power supply? I should get a bigger power supply in the beginning...)

 

 

EDIT: I had focused this topic on Desktop Upgrade, I compared a few ASUS Laptops and hope you Pros can give some comment, the topic focus on my laptop comparison is on http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=188458

 

Finally, I still cannot decide between a desktop upgrade or a new laptop. So please give advice on both system.

I hope you guys can tell me what should I upgrade with my desktop and recommend me a good laptop.

 

-----------------REFER TO http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=188458 FOR FOCUSING ON LAPTOP BUILD------------------

Edited November 11, 2011 by Grape

[Tjj226_Angel]

Ah, the old laptop vs desktop debate. Lets start off with you desktop upgrade.

 

I too have a i7 950 and I have a great way for you to see what sort of cooler you should go with. What you should do is first upgrade your PSU to a corsair 700w with a gold power efficiency rating, then overclock the thing to see what sort of voltages you can achieve a 4ghz overclock. I know a lot of people can overclock their 950 to 4ghz with 1.25 v, but I can only get it stable at 1.38 v. If you can get it to post (NO PRIME 95 WITHOUT A GOOD HEAT SINK) at 4ghz with 1.35v or below go with the noctua. If it is above 1.35 volts then go with a XSPC rasa water cooling kit. They are cheap full water cooling kits. No closed loop nonsense, just good old fashion water cooling. The kits come in a variety of different radiator sizes suited for any case, just pick out the one that suits your case and you are all set. I would also recommend that the PSU should probably be changed one way or another if you are planing to do any overclocking or upgrades.

 

Let us pretend that you have a 240mm top fan mount and that you need water cooling. I would spend 130 USD on the rasa kit, 170 USD on a PSU, 150 for an extra gtx 460 for sli, and use the extra 50 bucks for shipping or something. You can save money on the PSU and video card if need be, but then use that money and get a 128gb OCZ synapse and cache your hard drive for an awesome computer.

 

Next comes the laptop. Just go with the 17 inch alienware. Customize it to have the highest end processor and the gtx 580 video card and let it be at that. Do not touch anything else other than color and personal touches. Then when you get it, slap 2 120GB SSDs in there with raid 0 and upgrade the ram yourself. that should come in around 3000 dollars and then you would have an awesome laptop. You can even take your screen with you and use the HDMI output to route it to your screen for some serious gaming.

 

Personally, it depends on how long you will be spending in tokyo, and yes Japanese girls are way hotter , so don't be surprised if you never leave. However, lets pretend it is for a year. Why not just get a regular laptop, upgrade it with some ram and an SSD and then get a PS3 or Xbox? I know it isn't the best for gaming, but if you can get by with a 1K tech budget for a year, then when you get home use the other 2K and build a brand new desktop.

 

The last option you have is to build a new desktop while you are in japan. Japan is the tech capitol of the world in my opinion. Stuff there is easy to get, cheap, and freaking awesome. Just get a 1K laptop and build a 2K gaming machine.

[Grape]

Ah, the old laptop vs desktop debate. Lets start off with you desktop upgrade.

 

I too have a i7 950 and I have a great way for you to see what sort of cooler you should go with. What you should do is first upgrade your PSU to a corsair 700w with a gold power efficiency rating, then overclock the thing to see what sort of voltages you can achieve a 4ghz overclock. I know a lot of people can overclock their 950 to 4ghz with 1.25 v, but I can only get it stable at 1.38 v. If you can get it to post (NO PRIME 95 WITHOUT A GOOD HEAT SINK) at 4ghz with 1.35v or below go with the noctua. If it is above 1.35 volts then go with a XSPC rasa water cooling kit. They are cheap full water cooling kits. No closed loop nonsense, just good old fashion water cooling. The kits come in a variety of different radiator sizes suited for any case, just pick out the one that suits your case and you are all set. I would also recommend that the PSU should probably be changed one way or another if you are planing to do any overclocking or upgrades.

 

Let us pretend that you have a 240mm top fan mount and that you need water cooling. I would spend 130 USD on the rasa kit, 170 USD on a PSU, 150 for an extra gtx 460 for sli, and use the extra 50 bucks for shipping or something. You can save money on the PSU and video card if need be, but then use that money and get a 128gb OCZ synapse and cache your hard drive for an awesome computer.

 

Next comes the laptop. Just go with the 17 inch alienware. Customize it to have the highest end processor and the gtx 580 video card and let it be at that. Do not touch anything else other than color and personal touches. Then when you get it, slap 2 120GB SSDs in there with raid 0 and upgrade the ram yourself. that should come in around 3000 dollars and then you would have an awesome laptop. You can even take your screen with you and use the HDMI output to route it to your screen for some serious gaming.

 

Personally, it depends on how long you will be spending in tokyo, and yes Japanese girls are way hotter , so don't be surprised if you never leave. However, lets pretend it is for a year. Why not just get a regular laptop, upgrade it with some ram and an SSD and then get a PS3 or Xbox? I know it isn't the best for gaming, but if you can get by with a 1K tech budget for a year, then when you get home use the other 2K and build a brand new desktop.

 

The last option you have is to build a new desktop while you are in japan. Japan is the tech capitol of the world in my opinion. Stuff there is easy to get, cheap, and freaking awesome. Just get a 1K laptop and build a 2K gaming machine.

 

Thanks for replying. I had calculated through the PSU calculator and it states that I would need 613W to get to 4.2GHz with 1.35V.

If that so, can I save money on PSU and just overclock to 3.8GHz? (Or somewhat lower)

But on the second thought, my little brother's computer is already 8 years old. I guess the power supply is half dead too. Should I just give him my 600W and buy a new one (like 800W or 1000W) for myself? I am evil... ARGH!

 

Sorry for being a noob. However, what is Rasa Kit? I found it on youtube that it is a set of water cooling tool. (Old fashioned one)

Hmm, sorry again... but... what is 240mm top fan mount?

Is it mean 240mm fan mounted on CPU? Or mounted at case? My case is USP-100 Black with Side Windows, it does not have radiators pre-installed.

 

For PSU, mine is pre-overclocked 460, ENGTX460 Top, it is 1GB (I guess... the dedicated memory stated 1GB and its casing is blue in color, its 768mb version is green + black in color)

Since it is not GTX460 but ENGTX460 Top, should I get the exactly same ENGTX460 Top or normal GTX 460 is fine?

My first gpu is on #1 pci bus, can I put the second one on #3? because it is really big and it comes with fan, so... you know...

 

For the SSD, does "cache your hard drive" means that the SSD is syncing with HHD and became the new system drives or whatever.

Erm, if I really get a SSD, I do not know what cache means but... I will transfer all softwares and information to my external hard drive, reformat my current SSD and HHD, give my SSD to my little brother, install a fresh os on new SSD and transfer all information back to my hhd.

I know it is a long process... btw, what does you mean by "cache your hard drive"? >.< Sorry for being a noob X3

 

For laptop, please go to http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=188458, I have more questions to ask. Sorry and Thanks!

Hmm, so you mean that I can really install the SSD myself huh...

The processor it offers are actually same but with different clock speed and different price.

Your highest end processor mean the best processor with the lowest clock rate and overclock it ourselves?

 

Well... you are wrong in the way that japan is a high tech city and its technology stuffs are easy to get and cheap. Well... it is actually more expensive.

Very weird I know, however, do you know Japan brands sell at a much lower price outside Japan?

For example, A Toyota Car cost around $30,000 in USA may gets to $100,000 in my country (Damn corrupted...) and $80,000 in Japan?

It is nearly 3x more expensive in its own country! An ice cream cost $5 in Japan. A noodle cost $12 in Japan. Same goes to its technology stuffs.

References: Lived in Japan for a year back in 2004.

 

I lived there once for about 10 months and 2 months in USA, hmm... I still prefer Japanese chicks...

That aside, I will be living in Japan for the next 5 years... Universities in Japan force you to take at least 4 years of courses. 2 Years for Basic and 2 Years for Major.

THEY DO NOT CARE HOW MANY CREDITS YOU TAKE! So for example, if you can finish everything in 3 years, you are still forced to study 4 years.

What about the last year? You already got what you need, well... you are forced, so if you really are that smart and finished everything in 3 years, just get another Major.

 

Well 5 years for me? Well... I will be taking Master...

 

:-) Truly appreciated what you had taught me, and really thanks for replying. (Of course, grateful that you helped me out)

 

EDIT: PS3 in Japan is cheaper and I am planning to get it XD

Edited November 11, 2011 by Grape

[Tjj226_Angel]

Full of questions are we? Let me answer this in the order you have posted.....

 

1. As for the PSU and your brothers computer, yeah give him the 600 watt PSU and get yourself a 750w from corsair. 1000w is just overkill for your current system, and the 750w will cover your overclock and your 2nd gtx 460.

 

2. The XSPC rasa kit is this....XSPC RASA 750 240 kit However, after looking at your case I learned that it doesnt matter because you dont have the space required to mount the radiator.

 

3. A 240mm top mount for fans refers to the number and size of fan you can mount on the roof of your case. 240mm means that you can have two 120mm size fans mounted to the top of your case. Since your case does not have such capacity, I would recomend going with the corsair H70 and then buy two of these to put in push pull configuration. If you mount it as an intake for that rear fan mount, you will see some great cooling performance. The noctua NH-D14 is what I have on my CPU. It is a great cooler too, but it isn't pretty to look at though a side window .

 

4. If you want to sli your ENGTX 460 then yes, you will need the exact same card in order to prevent BOSDs.

 

5. Caching a hard drive is a very complex and techy thing to explain, so to keep it simple using and SSD to cache your hard drive means that you will be giving SSD speed to your HDD. Watch this video..youtube . As you can see the SRT technology is 1 slower than a full HDD but it is 1 whole TB of storage. However, since SRT technology isn't available with either of our systems, OCZ made the synapse drive. This allows you to use your 1tb of storage as a super fast SSD. However, you can not have a SSD boot drive. This would have to be it for an SSD for you, but with less than a second of a delay....who can honestly notice that in their daily lives?

 

6. Yeah, with the alien ware you can install 2 SSDs in raid 0 for 240GB of data storage and at about half the cost. You can do a lot to upgrade a laptop on your own. For instance the one I am on right now (mine) I bout with 2gb of ram and a 250gb of storage. I bought it because it had an i5 sandybridge processor with intel integrated 3000 graphics, and it was about 500 bucks. I upped the ram to 8gb and put in a 120gb SSD and now the thing is creaming fast with a 12 second boot time .

 

7. NOOOOOOOO. Those processors are not all the same. Go with the one with the highest clock speed. The reason why is it has more processor cache. For the sake of not wanting to explain what that means, please just trust me on that one.

 

8. WHAT!!!!!!!!! That wasn't the way it was last time I was there...13 years ago. When I was there, you could pick up a brand new computer for half the price it was in the US. That is really messed up if that is the way it is now.

 

9. 5 year for a masters huh. Yeahhhhhhh.....here is what you do for that. Get any asus U series laptop. Asus has a lot of really high-end laptops at a good price, and the U in the model number means that it is light and potable. I would shoot to spend at max about 750 and then about 1K total with upgrades. Then obviously upgrade the ram and put in an SSD yourself. This adds about an hour to your battery life. On my laptop I can have it running all day at max brightness and the battery doesn't even care because of the same upgrades I did to it. With the extended battery life, you can use it for class. It would basically be a work horse. Get the extra 2K and use it to build a gaming machine, but wait until 2012. This is when Ivy bridge and the new video cards will be out. From there you can post back and we will be able to set you up with a good system.

[Grape]

Full of questions are we? Let me answer this in the order you have posted.....

 

1. As for the PSU and your brothers computer, yeah give him the 600 watt PSU and get yourself a 750w from corsair. 1000w is just overkill for your current system, and the 750w will cover your overclock and your 2nd gtx 460.

 

2. The XSPC rasa kit is this....XSPC RASA 750 240 kit However, after looking at your case I learned that it doesnt matter because you dont have the space required to mount the radiator.

 

3. A 240mm top mount for fans refers to the number and size of fan you can mount on the roof of your case. 240mm means that you can have two 120mm size fans mounted to the top of your case. Since your case does not have such capacity, I would recomend going with the corsair H70 and then buy two of these to put in push pull configuration. If you mount it as an intake for that rear fan mount, you will see some great cooling performance. The noctua NH-D14 is what I have on my CPU. It is a great cooler too, but it isn't pretty to look at though a side window .

 

4. If you want to sli your ENGTX 460 then yes, you will need the exact same card in order to prevent BOSDs.

 

5. Caching a hard drive is a very complex and techy thing to explain, so to keep it simple using and SSD to cache your hard drive means that you will be giving SSD speed to your HDD. Watch this video..youtube . As you can see the SRT technology is 1 slower than a full HDD but it is 1 whole TB of storage. However, since SRT technology isn't available with either of our systems, OCZ made the synapse drive. This allows you to use your 1tb of storage as a super fast SSD. However, you can not have a SSD boot drive. This would have to be it for an SSD for you, but with less than a second of a delay....who can honestly notice that in their daily lives?

 

6. Yeah, with the alien ware you can install 2 SSDs in raid 0 for 240GB of data storage and at about half the cost. You can do a lot to upgrade a laptop on your own. For instance the one I am on right now (mine) I bout with 2gb of ram and a 250gb of storage. I bought it because it had an i5 sandybridge processor with intel integrated 3000 graphics, and it was about 500 bucks. I upped the ram to 8gb and put in a 120gb SSD and now the thing is creaming fast with a 12 second boot time .

 

7. NOOOOOOOO. Those processors are not all the same. Go with the one with the highest clock speed. The reason why is it has more processor cache. For the sake of not wanting to explain what that means, please just trust me on that one.

 

8. WHAT!!!!!!!!! That wasn't the way it was last time I was there...13 years ago. When I was there, you could pick up a brand new computer for half the price it was in the US. That is really messed up if that is the way it is now.

 

9. 5 year for a masters huh. Yeahhhhhhh.....here is what you do for that. Get any asus U series laptop. Asus has a lot of really high-end laptops at a good price, and the U in the model number means that it is light and potable. I would shoot to spend at max about 750 and then about 1K total with upgrades. Then obviously upgrade the ram and put in an SSD yourself. This adds about an hour to your battery life. On my laptop I can have it running all day at max brightness and the battery doesn't even care because of the same upgrades I did to it. With the extended battery life, you can use it for class. It would basically be a work horse. Get the extra 2K and use it to build a gaming machine, but wait until 2012. This is when Ivy bridge and the new video cards will be out. From there you can post back and we will be able to set you up with a good system.

 

Thanks for replying. I was kinda busy these days and maybe for the next few days. I am having the final exam of the pre-university courses starting tomorrow morning. There's still some hours and I am quite confident of it and wanna reply.

Haha, I got your info.

 

1. Get 750W Power Supply.

2. Get NH-D14, I know it is ugly but it seems like it is the coolest cpu cooler around!

3. Overclock my CPU to 4.2GHz! (Biggest project)

 

I will get a laptop at Japan, my friend told me that Japan produces their own unique laptop but they are not sold outside Japan, they are about the same spec as alienware but with a much lower price.

 

I will consider about changing the whole casing and get a water cooling device like Rasa Kit, wow, its reviews state that it is outstanding product, just 2X the price of NH-D14...

 

I will deal more about these things after my exam, haha. Ya, I really had passed the exam for the university, this exam is just like... having some fun? >.<

 

So teach me more about overclocking after exam, it will be 1 Dec 2011 then. ;-)

[Tjj226_Angel]

I would go for water cooling if you can. Unless your room is heavily air conditioned I don't think air cooling will get you to your 4.2 ghz. Last time I went to Malaysia (9 years ago) it was freaking hot......all the time. I remember it was like 28C in my room with the fan and air conditioner (we had a crappy air conditioner). If you have that sort of ambient heat, air cooling might be a bit of a stretch for you if you want to hit 4.2 Ghz. Jut a heads up.

 

Next, you could get a custom water loop for a 120mm rad which would fit your case for about 150. I know its the same price as the 240 rad, but it would cool your CPU better than a corsair H cooler.

Edited November 14, 2011 by Tjj226_Angel

[Grape]

I would go for water cooling if you can. Unless your room is heavily air conditioned I don't think air cooling will get you to your 4.2 ghz. Last time I went to Malaysia (9 years ago) it was freaking hot......all the time. I remember it was like 28C in my room with the fan and air conditioner (we had a crappy air conditioner). If you have that sort of ambient heat, air cooling might be a bit of a stretch for you if you want to hit 4.2 Ghz. Jut a heads up.

 

Next, you could get a custom water loop for a 120mm rad which would fit your case for about 150. I know its the same price as the 240 rad, but it would cool your CPU better than a corsair H cooler.

 

Really that bad? >.< okok, custom water loop for a 120mm rad... =.=...... I really dunno anything about water cooling, but, i think it is like installing something that fit onto your cpu, two loops are connected to cpu, one goes to rad, another one... to gpu?

=.=... What is the best water cooling kit around? Rasa Kit? If it really is, I will really change the whole casing for that.

[Tjj226_Angel]

Really that bad? >.< okok, custom water loop for a 120mm rad... =.=...... I really dunno anything about water cooling, but, i think it is like installing something that fit onto your cpu, two loops are connected to cpu, one goes to rad, another one... to gpu?

=.=... What is the best water cooling kit around? Rasa Kit? If it really is, I will really change the whole casing for that.

 

You could mod your case for water cooling. I would give it a try before you buy a whole new case. I am working on some simple windows paint schematics to show you how you could do it, but until then, get comfortable with the idea of cutting into your case.

[Grape]

You could mod your case for water cooling. I would give it a try before you buy a whole new case. I am working on some simple windows paint schematics to show you how you could do it, but until then, get comfortable with the idea of cutting into your case.

 

Wow, you are like Mother Teresa in my computer world. I would really be interested in seeing those schematics.

 

I had done some intensive research on water cooling and know what is water blocks, reservoirs, radiators and such. What I am gonna say is... water cooling is COOL! I love those colorful coolants and those super beautiful reservoirs.

 

I am willing to spend about USD$700 on these upgrades.

 

My considered upgrades are:

1. A new casing, will drop down if I can get a cut on my current casing.

2. Water cooling kits with custom loops, reservoirs and liquid cooling parts bought separately. Any recommendation? I do not really order outside country because these products always lost in posting.

3. 1000W Gold Power Supply. Because I will want to have one more Hard Drive, HHD, to save money, maybe 2TB, my 3.5TB is finishing up... I dunno how can I use 3.0TB in a year... Oh yeah, maybe for pumps too.

4. Not gonna buy a new graphic card. Erm... I am okay and really happy on my current graphic card. Maybe try overclocking it to 1GHz.

 

BTW, would love to make those water cooling cool up my GPU too! I heard RAM can be overclocked, mine is 12GB at 1333MHz. Don't them already overkill? Do I need to overclock that...

 

My country's posting service really... sucks. I had bought a few parts like USD500 and all of them gone into the sea.

 

So I usually go to the computer stores and ask them for these parts, however, they do not usually carry these brands.

I just asked my friend (he was a schoolmate together back in 2009), he will try to ask for the RASA kits. I will tomorrow go to the computer enthusiasts' stores nearby my house. (There is only 1 in the WHOLE state, the state I mean here is Penang Island)

I will see if I can find some parts.

 

I will ask questions about overclocking after I get my water cooling done. I saw someone goes 4.8GHz at 1.32V with a i5!

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154161

Holy cow... mine is i7 and hes a i5. This is unfair, why i5 can run at a lower voltage at higher clockrate? I am crying.

Haha, just kidding, I hope mine can run 24/7 stable at 4.2GHz with 1.35V. (Preferably below 55 degree Celcius)

If possible... 24/7 with 4.5GHz at V lower than 1.4V, I saw some successful stories on the net, dunno if they are true or not. I trust only OverclockersClub. Woohoo!

For your information, I do not really know how to overclock. My last 3.3GHz Overclock is done by a friend and he is already in England now.

Going BIOS and everything... I will try learn more after I get those wonderful water cooling parts.

Edited November 26, 2011 by Grape

[Tjj226_Angel]

The black rectangle is your case, and the other thing is a radiator. I haven't attached pics to this website before, so I don't know if they will show. I have them attached to the post if they don't show and you are wondering where they are. Basically the idea is you want to cut two holes at the top of your case. You want it to fit the 120mm fans so what you do is you find what radiator you want, and you find the total length and width of the radiator. Mark out a rectangle on your case with blue painters tape of the shape. You want the inside edge of the tape to meet the outside edge of the radiator. This will tell you if the rad. (I got tired of saying radiator) will fit or not and give you a general idea of where the fans should be. If you think the rad fits, then order just the rad, nothing else. Since it is only about 50 bucks, it won't be the end of the world if you choose a different radiator. When you get it, find screws at a hard ware store that match the thread size of the rad.

 

Now here is where I have come up with some pretty clever ideas. If you get the screws at a hardware store and NOT the ones included with the rad, you can screw them on the rad WITH OUT THE FANS and NOT on the case and cut the screw heads off. Then, you put more painters tape on the case and you mark out the edge of the rad and you paint the tips if the screws with paint, sharpie, or something that will make a mark. Hold the radiator above your case and painters tape, and line up the radiator with the outline you made. Lower it slowly onto the tape, and if you put enough marking solution at the ends of those screws, you should get 8 dots. You can take out the screws using a pair of pliers. Then you can drill out the holes with a drill bit. Remember to start with a small bit first and work your way up.

 

Now that you have the oles out, you can cut the fan holes. There are so many different ways to do this, but I prefer to match up the holes I cut with a 120mm fan, and with a pencil I trace the inside circle of the fan. It is a bit cumbersome, but it gets the job done. Then, with a sharpie, you make the same mark a bit easier to see with out using the fan as a guide. With a drill, you want to make a hole in the center. This will make it easier for the jig saw. Next, you take a jig saw and you cut A LITTLE BIT AWAY FROM THE MARK YOU MADE. That is very important. You don't want to get too close the the mark you made, because if you screw up, your screwed. If you cut a little but away, you can go back with a file and file the excess metal from your cut away to meet your mark. You do that twice for your two fans obviously.

 

The last cut is super simple. Just make a rectangular cut for your hoses. Use your judgment to make the cut big or small enough.

 

Lastly, you want to get a fan shroud. You could easily build on yourself. In essence after you put your rad and fans on the top of the case, you just get some wood and make yourself a box to cover up to about 2 cm above the fans. Then you can drill holes at the top and buy some small dowels (wooden rods). Cut them to the length of your box and basically use them as rails so that you protect your fans from foreign objects, or you protect your foreign objects from your fans, either way. With the wood, you could either pint it, you could carbon fiber it, or you could stain it. There are a lot of different options, but the whole fan shroud should only cost about 40 USD. I would say anything more than 75 and you should rethink what sort of wood and materials you are using.

 

Hopefully you understood everything I said, and that my pictures came through. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Grape]

That's cool! The pictures showed up. ;-)

 

Mm, I know what are you trying to saying about the wooden shroud. Hmm, will try to make a hole after I get a radiator.

 

BTW, I am having trouble choosing between Cooler Master Gold 1000W and Cooler Master Hybird 1050W.

 

Gold is at around $220 and Hybird is around $240. The price included tax and there's 10% discount if I buy it before next weekend. :-D

 

 

Thanks for telling me that I have an option of just cutting the case. That saves money.

[Tjj226_Angel]

That's cool! The pictures showed up. ;-)

 

Mm, I know what are you trying to saying about the wooden shroud. Hmm, will try to make a hole after I get a radiator.

 

BTW, I am having trouble choosing between Cooler Master Gold 1000W and Cooler Master Hybird 1050W.

 

Gold is at around $220 and Hybird is around $240. The price included tax and there's 10% discount if I buy it before next weekend. :-D

 

 

Thanks for telling me that I have an option of just cutting the case. That saves money.

 

I would say the hybrid one is nice, but if you could, go with a corsair PSU. They are usually better. The other option is the Seasonic 1K W. It is a little bit more expensive, but it has a platinum efficiency rating. If I had a choice, I would go with the Seasonic, and if you just couldn't afford it, go with a corsair one. Obviously I don't know Malaysian prices that well any more, so I could be wayyyyy off on how much the difference is in these PSUs.