New computer build.

[sirch345]

I'm hoping to be building a new desktop pc for myself if things go to plan.

I have been looking at pc cases and I have a question or two about Zalman Z9 U3. On this model there are two buttons on the front panel that I can't seem to find out what they are for (HDD on one and Reset on the other), so I was wondering if any of you would know I have arrowed them in red in pic below. I have emailed Zalman, but I've not heard from them yet.



Chris.

[Virt]

The HDD is an LED used to show activity, and the reset button I presume restarts the computer? Or resets the fan controller that's built in?

http://Techgage.com/article/zalman_z9_p ... sis_review

Sent from my GT-I9505, written in ASCII using an even parity bit and spoofing the IP of the White House

[darkember]

Yes HDD is defo an LED

[sirch345]

Thanks Young Virt for trying to help.

Here's another pic below showing the front better.

The HDD is definitely a button and not an LED as I was operating it, as I was looking at it in Maplin's, well I say I was looking at it, that is not exactly true. The one I was looking at was the Z9 plus (that's the same one as in your link. The one I'm after is the Z9 U3, the difference is the U3 has two USB3 (blue) I/O sockets on the front panel. The Z9 plus has four USB2 I/O sockets on the front instead. The buttons are the same on both.





Chris.

[sirch345]

Well perhaps I'm wrong, I'll have to go back to Maplin and have another look as I see in your link Young Virt that they say the HDD button is a LED as you have both pointed out. I was 99% sure I actually pushed both of those buttons in, now you've got me wondering. May be it was the Reset button only I actually tried

To the right is the first set of USB 2.0 ports with another set on the other side of the 3.5mm headphone and microphone jacks that support HD audio or AC ’97. Having the USB ports separated like this will allow larger, thicker flash drives to be used at the same time as other USB devices instead of blocking off ports. On the right are the hard drive activity LED and reset button with the power button up above in the center

Chris.

[Virt]

I was gonna say from the picture the HDD led is definitely depressed, rather than sticking out like the reset button

Old age is creeping in

Sent from my GT-I9505, written in ASCII using an even parity bit and spoofing the IP of the White House

[sirch345]

yeah that's my excuse old age

You're right now you mention Virt, you can definitely see that there is a difference in the levels of the two, especially in my first picture.

My main concern is the reset button. I don't have one on my current pc, and as it's (like me ) getting on a bit, every time it freezes I have to do a hard restart (by holding the start button in) which I know is not good for it So I'm just checking this out before ordering one of these.

Chris.

[Virt]

If you have a better excuse you're more than welcome to prove me wrong

In a couple of the reviews I read from general consumers, the power button was a bit dodgy so many people just rewired it into the reset button... no one actually explained it's use though

If you're thinking of getting something else, check out
http://www.scan.co.uk

Huge selection of stuff, friendly staff and good payment options. It's how I help my friends build their ridiculous gaming PC's

Sent from my GT-I9505, written in ASCII using an even parity bit and spoofing the IP of the White House

[Hairy biker]

Yes HDD is defo an LED

And the BLT is is a sandwich- a good one at that
There ends my computer knowledge

[sirch345]

If you have a better excuse you're more than welcome to prove me wrong

In a couple of the reviews I read from general consumers, the power button was a bit dodgy so many people just rewired it into the reset button... no one actually explained it's use though

If you're thinking of getting something else, check out
http://www.scan.co.uk

Huge selection of stuff, friendly staff and good payment options. It's how I help my friends build their ridiculous gaming PC's

Sent from my GT-I9505, written in ASCII using an even parity bit and spoofing the IP of the White House

I'll let you know the out come on that

Thanks Virt for the link, the only trouble is there are too many goodies in there, I'm like a kid in a sweet shop
I also read about a user having a problem with the power switch, apparently that was to do with the connection on the back of it and not actually the switch. I hadn't read about anyone bypassing it, so cheers on that. The trouble is with me, I like to see something like a pc case before buying it, rather than just going by a photo online. Living where I live we're a bit limited for that without travelling miles and miles.

Yes HDD is defo an LED

And the BLT is is a sandwich- a good one at that
There ends my computer knowledge

nothing wrong with a BLT sandwich H/B

Chris.

[sirch345]

You guys were right and I was wrong, that HDD is an LED as you said, I popped into Maplin's today to see if I was going off my head, and I can confirm that I am In my defence it was in a dark part of the shop, and both the LED and reset button on this case were both protruding the same amount, no excuse I know

I also considered a PC that Aldi had on offer, but decided against it, as (A) it was loaded with windows 8 (although I could probably get used to that with a push) and (B) It has an AMD processor, as I don't know very much about them I prefer to stick with an Intel CPU.

Even so I didn't think this was a bad price for a pc tower (plus keyboard and mouse, although I don't necessarily need them) with 3yrs warranty for £350.00. A friend of mine has a medion pc that is still going strong and is 13yrs old
Take a look for yourself:-
https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/t ... 7-19_15-04

Chris.

[Virt]

You guys were right and I was wrong, that HDD is an LED as you said, I popped into Maplin's today to see if I was going off my head, and I can confirm that I am In my defence it was in a dark part of the shop, and both the LED and reset button on this case were both protruding the same amount, no excuse I know

I also considered a PC that Aldi had on offer, but decided against it, as (A) it was loaded with windows 8 (although I could probably get used to that with a push) and (B) It has an AMD processor, as I don't know very much about them I prefer to stick with an Intel CPU.

Even so I didn't think this was a bad price for a pc tower (plus keyboard and mouse, although I don't necessarily need them) with 3yrs warranty for £350.00. A friend of mine has a medion pc that is still going strong and is 13yrs old
Take a look for yourself:-
https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/t ... 7-19_15-04

Chris.

You can download a taskbar and start button for windows 8 that essentially makes it a modern version of W7 And AMD cpu's are most efficient per pound spent, as they also come with some pretty impressive GPU's (think AMD 6870, capable of still running modern games at decent settings) instead of stupidly crap integrated graphics. Just gotta be careful with their cores, some of their series (most notably with quad and octo cores) share a cache between the cores, which pretty much makes it equivalent to an Intel CPU with half of the cores. They overclock very nicely though...

Just checked the link, should have done that first but effort to delete all that. Comes with a 7560 GPU. Either way, that's a very competitively priced and fast computer. 3.2Ghz is more than enough for anything bar 3D rendering, on a quad core, as it's a decent quad core too.

[Jazzscot]

I agree with young Virt, that is a decent machine for the money. Windows 8 ain't as bad as so e people make out BTW my Mrs has a windows 8 laptop and she has no problems with it.

Put it this way best keep moving forward with operating systems as they ain't gonna return to windows 3.1 any time soon.

I remember my first windows 95 installation I sat for 3 hours with about 50 floppy discs, ah those were the days.

[Tweety]

I agree with young Virt, that is a decent machine for the money. Windows 8 ain't as bad as so e people make out BTW my Mrs has a windows 8 laptop and she has no problems with it.

Put it this way best keep moving forward with operating systems as they ain't gonna return to windows 3.1 any time soon.

I remember my first windows 95 installation I sat for 3 hours with about 50 floppy discs, ah those were the days.

Oh... Thanks for reminding me about those bad old days... I did that, and had disc no 39 corrupted (actually a bought an paid for copy!) That pissed me off to no end, and of course the friggin sales guy wouldn't take my word, so we ended up doing it in the store on a computer there, and then once I got a new disc, I had to re-do it at home...

[sirch345]

Young Virt, I did know about the start button for W8, but didn't know about the task bar option, so cheers for that. I don't know very much about AMD cpu's, so I have learned a bit more from your reply. One thing I did read is that a 3.2Ghz quote for an AMD processor is less speed than 3.2Ghz for an Intel processor. So AMD must use a different method than Intel for working that figure out which could be misleading I feel. That Medion PC from Aldi has a integrated graphic's card as I understand it, integrated into the motherboard. Although not all AMD pc's have that type of motherboard.

Jazz, my thoughts on W8 are it's more to do with a new learning process that put people off, plus with it being so new at the launch there were bound to be issues that needed ironing out. I agree you have to move with the times, or you get left behind. My first pc that had the Internet had Windows 98, it had a wait for it......................................6.44GB hard drive

Chris.