High Performance Gaming on a Budget: Building a Value PC with Cooler Master

The Value Series:

We plan to break this series into several parts – although we may combine or expand the categories along the way (and the benchmarks will be published as soon as they are finalized):

1. The case
2. The power supply
3. The CPU and CPU Cooler
4. The motherboard and system RAM
5. The video cards and setting up
6. Overclocking and fine-tuning performance
7. The Benchmarks
   

Why Cooler Master?

We have come to appreciate Cooler Master during the 10 months that ABT has been reviewing hardware. They stand out as a company that is dedicated to creating great cooling solutions and their innovations are impressive. What this editor finds to be especially refreshing is that they are so responsive to comments and even constructive criticism from the end user. As an example, when I suggested that their entry-level cooler Hyper N520 was time consuming to change out in this review because you had to remove the motherboard – and I said I was even considering cutting a hole in the motherboard tray to allow access – they actually did this with their newer series of cases, including Gladiator 600 reviewed in this series!

The Case: Cooler Master’s Gladiator 600

-$70

The first thing we note about this Cooler Master design is its classic look. This is not a kid’s PC, nor is it cheap in any way. It complements any décor. I was in total shock when I opened the Gladiator 600 box; I thought surely that Karan had made a serious mistake when I asked him to get me a “value” case from Cooler Master. I even argued with him about the price – as it was not available yet – as there was no way I imagined they could make such a great value for under $70. It took a very thorough examination to find out the differences between this awesome value case and their much more expensive line of cases. Cooler Master did an incredible job of saving money in the right places – without compromising style, cooling or quality. We will tell you their secret in that part of our series and I believe you will also be impressed with Gladiator 600 in providing a great value in a superb mid-tower case.

The second thing that a PC builder will appreciate – besides Gladiator 600’s reasonable price – is its attention to detail. The very worst thing is sharp edges inside a case and there were none in this one. The other thing that is important to consider when building a PC is not to grab the cheapest budget case you can find. Technically, you don’t even need a case; you can set everything up on a workbench. However, a well-designed case properly holds the components in exact relationship to each other; there is no mismatch or straining anything anywhere to add or remove hardware. In addition, if designed properly – a good case will help to keep cool air circulating around your expensive components and help to prolong their life by keeping them as cool as possible. Heat is an enemy of your hardware and Cooler Master understands this. All of this became critical to our project where we must overclock our budget CPUs to perhaps attain the performance of those many times their price.

Gladiator 600 comes packed well in a tough cardboard box that also advertises its features. Although it looked like UPS used it for target practice for training their drivers, the precious contents were perfectly preserved. We give ‘thumbs up’ for minimal but effective packing – and much less to recycle and/or reuse. The case guarantee is 2 years. We have been using Gladiator 600 for nearly a month – switching hardware in and out almost daily – and we love it! There are some time saving features that make us very happy. We will justify the “Value” and “Editor’s Choice” awards that we are giving it when we get to it in our review shortly as the case review is first. In fact, we like Gladiator 600 so well that we are creating a new “Kick Ass” award category for it!

The Power Supply: Cooler Master 600 M

–$100

This editor believes that a choice of a power supply (PSU) is critical to any PC build. The power supply should never be cheap or generic. Too much depends on it to go bargain bin or generic hunting. I would recommend that you instead look for sales and perhaps even rebates to save money. Just remember that your PSU will likely last through several builds if you plan ahead. Another thing to consider is “noise” – ideally you do not want your power supply’s cooling fan adding any.

Silent Power 600

We are not out of order by insisting on Cooler Master’s Silent Power 600M. Although we are planning a budget build, we must plan for at least 4870-X2 or perhaps a later CrossFire configuration and we require absolute stability from our power supply unit (PSU). We also plan a test of this PSU’s stability that will blow your mind; something that we do not recommend that you attempt for yourself. Stay tuned for part 2 of our value series.

For us, a 5 year warranty is important. Cooler Master’s Silent Power 600M is installed with rubber fittings on the sides to keep it from conducting vibrations to the case and it really works to keep noise down. This is an extraordinarily quiet PSU and gets an “Editor’s Choice” Award which we shall justify in our upcoming review of it.

We note that the PSU can be installed so that the intake fan can be up or down. There are advantages and disadvantages either way. We have dropped screws inside the PSU when the fan faced up.

If the fan is down, it draws air in from below the bottom of the case and exhausts it out the back of the PSU – outside of the case airflow completely. If the fan is facing up, it draws warm air from inside your PC and exhausts it out through the PSU back grille. The Silent Power 600’s supplied dust filter only works properly with the PS fan facing downward. Facing downward with the fan drawing air in, the screen does not allow the PSU to become clogged with dust; however to keep the PS cool and with good air flow, the dust filter itself may need to be cleaned – especially if you are in a dusty environment. There is an easy way to clean it that we will be glad to share with you.