First time at building a gaming rig

[Hadashi]

0k, I've bought all the bits and some are on their way. In terms of cooling, though, I'm wondering if I should replace the default CPU paste with Arctic silver as I have heard it is generally better. What does everyone think?

 

[ja6on]

yeap definitely get arctic silver 5

 

[Hadashi]

0k, cool. I'll buy it and the cleaning solution now. :3

I think that I should also rotate the two dedicated HDD fans to the front so they blow through the case. There are instructions for this in the manual and I will only have two or three drives, so I'm guessing this is a good idea as it will mean two extra fans on the case, essentially.

 

[Hadashi]

Hmm, I can see a couple of other compounds on the market and I'm wondering if it might be worth getting one that doesn't conduct electricity, such as:

Arctic Cooling MX-4 Thermal Compound | Ebuyer.com

What do you think?

 

[ja6on]

stick with arctic silver 5, you shouldnt need the cleaning solution tho..

 

[Hadashi]

I was thinking it might be a good idea to get the solution just in case as I think the cooling system or chip has generic stuff pre-applied. By the way, I'm thinking of getting a second drive right away and was wondering what I should get. I thought about one of these two but I'm wondering which would be best. The second one is supposed to be for servers and I think it may have a superior build quality and a cashe, but I'm really not sure what the pros and cons are.

Seagate 3TB Barracuda Hard Drive - 3.5" SATA-III.. | Ebuyer.com

Constellation Cs 3tb Sata - 3.5in 7200rpm 6gb/s 64mb In | Ebuyer.com

 

[ja6on]

yeah the seagate is a good choice.

 

[Hadashi]

Would the Constellation be appreciably better than the Barracuda, do you know? I'm thinking in terms of energy usage and reliability as well as speed.

 

[Hadashi]

0k, well, I have the basic stuff in the case and am wiring it up, but I do have a bit of a problem. In the instructions for the H100i cooling system it says to install the radiator in the top of the case with the fans blowing inwards, but this seems really dotty to me since it is going to be blowing warm air back into the case and the radiator will be sitting right above the rear fan, which I'm sure is set to blow air out. Since I have rotated the front hard drive fans to blow air in (I may have to reverse them), am I right in thinking that having cold air blown in at the front and hot air sucked out at the back and top would be a better idea?

Basically it looks like this, only with the really big fan at the top of the second picture replaced with two smaller fans and a radiator:

That big fan looks really efficient at first glance but most of what is behind it is backing plate.

 

[setishock]

That's why I always want to see good pics of the inside of a case before I buy it.
Take the top fan out and hang the radiator grill side up. Looks punched out for it already.
Suck in from the front, blow out the back...