Maximum PC

I'm doing my first mod this summer on a HAF 932, and was looking for some suggestions. anything under 300 bucks would be appreciated. please keep in mind that im new to this.

thanks.

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Also planning to get this:
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/ ... s_id=20600

And a little later to get CoolIT Freezone Elite.

get a cheaper ugly case then modify it,. that case looks great and your wiring looks great. only sujestions is maybe swap the fans for high performance or diffrent led fans. also get a better cpu cooler. Zalman isn't doin that good as of recent and the coolit setup might be nice. i have one but i think a tower style cooler would work better.

I don't know what your smoking, but Zalman makes some of the best air coolers you can get. Coolit makes water cooling kits which is is much different than air, and much more expensive.

If this is your first mod, start with something cheap or something that has no real value to you so that you can get a feel to modding and the tools and what not, then work form there. Also, about the display, you might want to change the fans to blue some how by replacing the LED's or replacing the whole fans so that the colors don't screw with each other, unless you like it like that; it's only a suggestion.

Zalman's been dethroned by a lot of new diffrent coolers. And the coolit system the low end ones are just as capable as a good air cooler. Proven. But here. http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/core-i7-coolers-roundup.html you can check the other messages pertaing to cooling and you get the same answer Zalman is not as good as they use to be with cpu coolers!

how did you get your wiring so nicely tucked away? maybe i just have too much stuff plugged in. i still have stuff hanging behind the optical drives.

Umm...Max PC gave the newest one (CPS9900 or whatever) an 8 or a 9. It was better than most of them. Not sure how xbitlabs got their results. It was a few issues ago, but the Zalman got a good review. And if m1keth3pwn3r is getting good temps, then he should leave it.

But I'm agreeing with others here. Find a crap case and do some things to it and get experience. The HAF doesn't need to be touched unless you have a really impressive idea and experience to do it.

AJ

I just used zip ties and took a little longer to plan out the layout.

The answer to your question is that MaxPC tests coolers with a stock CPU speed while other reviewers test it on stock speed AND overclocked. This way, it show consumers what they can expect if they want to overclock (actually people do buy these types of coolers to OC, otherwise they would use a box fan/heatsink).
Max PC should consider testing CPU Coolers on stock and OC processors.

First thing I did to mine the moment I pulled it from the box was disassemble it.





Then I painted the inside of that sucker! Can't stand that awful grey inside that otherwise gorgeous case.

not bad- you probably should have used satin black instead of gloss though. and did I just see a 9800 on an 1100W PSU? that's kinda epic overkill lol.

I know, I thought about keeping it more to the industrial look of the outside, but I decided I wanted some crazy POP with the inside. Going to have cold cathodes in there. I used automotive black metallic with clearcoat.

And it's just poof can, I never claimed to be an expert paint guy! lol It looks damn sweet in person, if I do say so myself

nevertheless, it looks awesome. those lights will bounce all around in cool ways with that gloss

Maybe ~30% of its rated output is being used at load.

That is called future proofing I am planning to add more components (hdd, DVD-RW, LCD, Water Cooling) and all of them need power. Also for overclock I'll need at least 100W for CPU and even more for the GPU. Plus, I am waiting for GT 300.

even for crazy overclocking, you won't need more than 150 extra W- right now you're probably using about 300W, and adding ten hard drives and ten optical drives and putting a new GT300 GPU and water cooling in might push it to 800W. but this isn't the place to argue that, so whatever.

What about two 300s in SLI? thats gonna eat up 1100W.

maybe, maybe not. at any rate, this isn't the place to discuss it.

I suppose

I just bought the HAF 932 for my new build and your wiring job is so much better than mine is! After looking at your pictures I decided I need to do some serious cable management.