REVIEW: CAPS pipeline on budget

[Ali Alizadeh Weshky]

first of all, i wuold like to thank everone who has contributed by advice or suggestions in this and various forums.

the goal off this build was to create a silent pc that was suited for general use (browsing, text editing, photoshop) and at the same time had to serve as an htpc system. below you can find my chosen parts and why.

 

case: streacom silver fc10 ( large, flexible to future updrages with hdd, larger mb,...) + it can dissipate 95W of heat

mb: gigabyte H81N ( simple mb with standard connections and a dedicated DAC usb port

cpu: intel i5 4590s with a TDP of 65W (powerfull enough for photo editing and heavy multi tasking

ram: 8GB crucial ballistix sport 1600 ( standard value ram)

hdd: intel 120GB ssd + 500GB 2.5" spinning hdd

disc drive: apple macbook pro 2012 slim cd/DVD drive (for ripping my cd collection)

psu: dell 240w laptop adapter (from alienware m17x R4 laptop) + HDPLEX 250W Hi-Fi DC-ATX Power Supply

accessories: arctic silver 5 thermal paste + slim sata to sata adapter + arctic silver thermal paste remover

total cost: +-800 euro

 

the packaging of the products were very good. the installation was not as easy as i thought, it would be. i had a difficult time setting the heatpipes correctly and applying the paste correctly. with 2 people it is a lot easier.

the thermal paste that was included with the streacom case was really bad, the temps were reaching 90°C during stress test. by replacing the paste with the hi quality paste from arctic silver the temps droped dramaticly. 35-37°C during dle and 66-70°C during full load.

 

the performance is great, no lag in hd and blue ray playback with red october enabled. the audio qualty is EXCELLENT with uncompressed wave and AIFF playback. it is connected with a usb dac (chord chordette) via the dedicated usb dac port.

The placement of the 250W DC convertor is optional, there is plenty of romm with a itx mb. although i have trouble with mounting the psu input to the case. (the screw holes of the psu inpu don't match the holes of the plates from streacom.

 

 

 

 

everything works perfectly and i am really happy with the end result. future upgrades could be a linear psu, intel wireless card, a mini pcie to internal usb 3.0 port, and maybe a GPU

 

i hope it was a ok review, (it's my first one ) , if you have any questions, please don't hesitate

 

regards