Solved 5 Questions about graphics card,overclocking,temperature,RAID and case

[Dre Globbyglob]

Hello all, I have built a homebaked pc with the following(only provided for detail, not to show off)

ASUS H81M-PLUS Motherboard
8GB Mushkin (what sort of electronics company is that!?) DDR3 RAM
4 TB SeaGate HDD 6gbps
Zalman Z9 case
Intel Haswell i5 With Intel HD 4000 graphics

Question 1: Which is a good graphics card that is worth the value and quite cheap, I would like good fps in games like Minecraft and would like to be able to play more stronger games like call of duty. Not too expensive though at 1080i.

Question 2: How do I overclock this? It's at 3.00 GHz and I would like to push it a little further

Question 3: Is 37 degrees bad (video conversion ~100 files 80mb each) and I got a thermal sensor with my case and would like to put thermocouple sensor to get CPU temperatures

Question 4: How can I mirror drives with this? Do I need to buy a controller?

Last but not least: How can I remove the zalman logo from the front of the case , like sanding it etc and what would be a good way and colour to change the colour of it?

 

[Dre Globbyglob]

Also my pci-express ports aren't aligned with the back part, even though the io ports and screws for the motherboard are

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Dre Globbyglob,
Welcome to SF.
I'll let the real gamers answer the GPU question. Personally I've been very happy with my xfx 7870....do you have a budget in mind?
Regarding over clocking Haswell chips run hot when pushed so quality aftermarket cooler are highly suggested.
Temperature wise your running very cool and as far as sensors you can place them almost anywhere except under the CPU. Much better programs available for monitoring temps.
For the raid options you may want to consult the mobo manual for the data ports available for raid arrays.
For removal of the logo can you provide a picture or more details as to how its applied? If its a stick on then heat and a fine single edge razor could work best.

 

[madcratebuilder]

ASUS H81M-PLUS Motherboard
8GB Mushkin (what sort of electronics company is that!?) DDR3 RAM
4 TB SeaGate HDD 6gbps
Zalman Z9 case
Intel Haswell i5 With Intel HD 4000 graphics

I recently assembled a very similar system, the hd400 imbedded gpu works pretty good for everyday stuff but it's not up to good game play other than cards or chess.

Question 1: Which is a good graphics card that is worth the value and quite cheap, I would like good fps in games like Minecraft and would like to be able to play more stronger games like call of duty. Not too expensive though at 1080i.

A GeForce GTX 650 Ti or a HD 7790 are both good budget gpu's. Pick a price point then check reviews.

Question 2: How do I overclock this? It's at 3.00 GHz and I would like to push it a little further

Your BIOS should have some basic OC abilities, you can find info online and in your mobo manual. You should have OC software that shipped with the mobo install CD. OC needs better cooling than comes oem for the cpu, figure about $40-50 for a good air cooler and fan.

Question 3: Is 37 degrees bad (video conversion ~100 files 80mb each) and I got a thermal sensor with my case and would like to put thermocouple sensor to get CPU temperatures

Good temps, you can use the temp probe anyplace you want other than between cpu/gpu and heatsink. You can use it for case air temp or tape it on most any devise.

Question 4: How can I mirror drives with this? Do I need to buy a controller?

Windows 7’s mirroring – which is only available in Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions – is a software implementation of RAID 1, which means that two or more disks are holding the exact same data. If you have the drives you can setup a RAID, or use software.

Last but not least: How can I remove the zalman logo from the front of the case , like sanding it etc and what would be a good way and colour to change the colour of it?

Sandpaper and paint. You could getto it and just blackout that Zalman name with a touchup pen of black paint, Matte black comes close to matching most cases.

 

[Dre Globbyglob]

@madcratebuilder and @linnemeyerhere Thanks very much ill look into your solutions, there are no
instructions for raid in my mobo manual and my oc software only makes it go to 3.2 ghz :|. Also my case looks like this @