Re: Help on building small foot print gaming PC
Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 11:03 am
Well, if size was my biggest concern I would opt for a much smaller ITX case like Lian-Li's PC-Q08 or PC-Q11. If I had enough space for the Prodigy and was building a gaming-capable HTPC I would go with an mATX case & mobo for the extra PCI/PCI-E and DIMM slots.
wrt the CPU: did you get an OEM one? It looks like Newegg is only selling boxed (retail) versions, which should come with Intel's limited 3-year warranty.
The EVO cooler works as well as any of the innumerable tower-style heatsinks out there (give or take a few degrees C), and if you go with an Asus board you'll be able to control the fan's behavior to get it where it's comfortable and safe (and you could go really low with it if you underclock). I don't imagine the fan is of particularly great quality, given that it's on a $30 product, but if you don't like it you could just swap it out for a nicer model. The heatsink itself is nice.
wrt the CPU: did you get an OEM one? It looks like Newegg is only selling boxed (retail) versions, which should come with Intel's limited 3-year warranty.
The EVO cooler works as well as any of the innumerable tower-style heatsinks out there (give or take a few degrees C), and if you go with an Asus board you'll be able to control the fan's behavior to get it where it's comfortable and safe (and you could go really low with it if you underclock). I don't imagine the fan is of particularly great quality, given that it's on a $30 product, but if you don't like it you could just swap it out for a nicer model. The heatsink itself is nice.