Originally Posted by JBaz As far as case goes, either one will work. I personally don't like the Rosewill Challenger look, but for $30 can't complain. I'd also look at the $44 NZXT Tempest 210. Its a no frills black case but its very nice for the price, specially considering it comes with two 120mm fans, USB 3.0 and can house 8x 3.5" drives internally. I've built a workstation using this for a client and its tucked away as a sleeper power house. Just by looking at it, you wouldn't have guessed it would house a XEON and a Quadro. As for the HAF 912, its an excellent case, but I'd shop around. $60 is normal price. I picked the 912 w/ 500w CM power supply last year for $45 AR. Even people have gotten just the case for $30 with coupon from MC. In terms of routers, I would recommend the Netgear N300 for $20. Not sure if the one listed on newegg is v1 or v2, but its a fantastic no frills router that will work and still has loads of great features. I have the v2 that I picked up from TigerDirect for $20 refurbed about 6 months back and its been very good. Not sure how well the wifi works since I use a commercial level wifi access point, but of what I've read, its got some distance on it and it doesn't look like a crappy alien space crap that's odd to find a flat place for it.

The sad thing is that when I first saw the HAF 912, there was something I couldn't put my finger on. Only after seeing it again today, while I considering case options, did I realize it may have been that feeling when you think that's "the one". I really like the look of it, just stinks that there aren't any real sales. I take it the coupon isn't valid anymore? Because if so, I can always go out of my way to make another trip to microcenter. TT_TT

yeah, the MC coupon was very YMMV and required you to practice your anti-salesmanship to get the deal... lol It was on sale BF for $40 AR from a few places like newegg and amazon. My only complaint about the HAF cases is that they look too fat, which isn't exactly a bad thing, but for some, the width may not fit in a pc cabinet or shelf properly.

Originally Posted by glennfrank That wasn't me, I have no Microcenters even remotely close to me, unfortunately. I never actually pulled the trigger on any of my orders. Saturday night, the mobo I wanted went OOS at newegg - killing the $15 discount on Win7. And yesterday the CPU did the same - killing another combo discount. The fact that I wasn't finding anything that was an improvement on the GPU for a decent price really held me back. I might have had unrealistic expectations on Black Friday price reductions. I'm still going to do this.. but I guess it will take a month or two to find the best deals on parts.

They had plenty of gpu's that are better than the 275 you had, namely the 6870 for $120; but for the most part, you are right, very limited amount of actual good mass sales items. Mostly flash sales of a few things that went OOS uber fast.

I kind of wished I went in with the 3TB seagate drives, but screw trying to coordinate 3 or 4 other friends to buy drives for me to get enough for an 8 drive raid setup. A bit disappointing that 4TB drives didn't move an inch in price at all.

any good deals on GPUs on amazon.... i finally got 90$ in trace credit in...and now i think the deals are gone.

and again, im looking to spend no more than 150$, but i was aiming for somethign like 6870's. something with xfx if i can.

I bought the last one of these for 189$ with a 30$ rebate? good deal?

Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7850 2 GB GDDR5 DVI-I/HDMI/2x mini-Displayport PCI-Express 3.0 Graphic Card GV-R785OC-2GD

If anyone is in the market for a monitor:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236174

Originally Posted by j-cart If anyone is in the market for a monitor: Asus VS Series 23.6" 2ms LED LCD monitor $120 AR AC @ newegg

You need to learn how to add links properly. Everytime you post something, its always broken and the very least provide some basic info about the link with price.

Originally Posted by chibilaharl I bought the last one of these for 189$ with a 30$ rebate? good deal? Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7850 2 GB GDDR5 DVI-I/HDMI/2x mini-Displayport PCI-Express 3.0 Graphic Card GV-R785OC-2GD

Pretty good, didn't beat the $140 price a few days ago, but nonetheless a fantastic find for all the lame gpu sales lately, specially for cyber monday and post encore sales.

Also, if anyone else cares, Newegg's post CM sales include the nice Corsair Hydro H60 cpu all-in-one water cooler for $40 AR, AC. Very nice cooler, specially at this price.

? hey jbaz, will the gpu work with my mobo iI posted a page back? ithe gpu sauys pciI e3.0

Originally Posted by JBaz You need to learn how to add links properly. Everytime you post something, its always broken and the very least provide some basic info about the link with price.

Ugh, I can't do anything right by you :(

ASUS VS Series VS247H-P Black 23.6

ASUS VS Series VS247H-P Black 23.6" 2ms LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 50000000:1 (ASCR)

$20 off w/ promo code TSAXLAY14, ends 11/27

$159.99 ($139.99 after $20.00 rebate card)

Originally Posted by chibilaharl ? hey jbaz, will the gpu work with my mobo iI posted a page back? ithe gpu sauys pciI e3.0

pcie 3.0 cards are backwards compatible with 2.0 slots. You will "suffer" with 1/2 the bandwidth potential.

Will you notice a performance difference? Nope. You'll need a triple SLI 680 to even remotely get near saturating the pcie bus at 8x,8x,4x 2.0 slots running at 5760x1200 with FXAA and 16x AF of most modern games. Even then, most of the crosstalk between the GPU's are handled by the SLI bridge connections for faster parallel communications.

Contacted Amazon and complained about packagaing of my shipments and they gave me a few discounts, so here is the updated costs on my parts.


CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 AM3 3.4Ghz 512KB 45NM 125W 4000MHZ 75$ -19$
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard 46$ -14$
Memory: Corsair Vengence 8gb 32$ -8
Storage: Samsung 830 128gig 60$
Case: HAF 912 30$
Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7850 2 GB GDDR5 DVI-I/HDMI/2x mini-Displayport PCI-Express 3.0 Graphic Card GV-R785OC-2GD 149$ (179-30MIR)

I figure this is probably the best place on CAG to ask...

So I got a new computer on Black Friday via Newegg. Today I finally had all the parts so I hooked it all together. The tower powers up fine, lights come on, fans start running, etc. The lights on the keyboard do a little dance, the mouse lights up. The only issue is that there seems to be no signal getting to the monitor. I know it isn't the monitor's fault because I hooked it up to my PS3 to test it. I guess my next step is to contact the manufacturer unless someone here knows some voodoo. I opened up the case but nothing seemed out of place or loose. I tried both the VGA and HDMI ports and neither work.

One that you built, or a pre-built? I'd try re-seating the video card first.

Originally Posted by Halo05 I figure this is probably the best place on CAG to ask... So I got a new computer on Black Friday via Newegg. Today I finally had all the parts so I hooked it all together. The tower powers up fine, lights come on, fans start running, etc. The lights on the keyboard do a little dance, the mouse lights up. The only issue is that there seems to be no signal getting to the monitor. I know it isn't the monitor's fault because I hooked it up to my PS3 to test it. I guess my next step is to contact the manufacturer unless someone here knows some voodoo. I opened up the case but nothing seemed out of place or loose. I tried both the VGA and HDMI ports and neither work.

Parts information would be vital to know for troubleshooting on the internet... I maybe Asian, but I'm not god.

Originally Posted by chibilaharl CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 AM3 3.4Ghz 512KB 45NM 125W 4000MHZ 75$ -19$ Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard 46$ -14$ Memory: Corsair Vengence 8gb 32$ -8 Storage: Samsung 830 128gig 60$ Case: HAF 912 30$ Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7850 2 GB GDDR5 DVI-I/HDMI/2x mini-Displayport PCI-Express 3.0 Graphic Card GV-R785OC-2GD 149$ (179-30MIR)

Hey Jbaz, I was wondering if , based on the parts i have already, if you could recommend a good PSU. Also wondering if you have any parts i am missing that you think i should get.

Long story short, the video card is broken. It boots up fine without the card installed. I just have to send the part back to the manufacturer. Thanks for the help guys.

Originally Posted by chibilaharl CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 75$ Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ AMD 970 46$ Memory: Corsair Vengence 8gb 32$ Storage: Samsung 830 128GB 60$ Case: HAF 912 30$ Video: Gigabyte 7850 2 GB 149$ Hey Jbaz, I was wondering if , based on the parts i have already, if you could recommend a good PSU. Also wondering if you have any parts i am missing that you think i should get.

Depends on if you plan on overclocking the cpu and/or gpu. Since its a simple, closed box without any windows, you really don't need to spend the extra bucks for modular; while its a compact ATX mid tower, it's also got a lot of room for a regular PSU, plus its got a lot of cooling abilities.

The old x4 itself uses about 130w on load if all cores are maxed, with overclock, that bloats by about 50-60w to something roughly around 190-200w just for the cpu. Honestly, its not too bad in terms of going from 3.4Ghz to 3.9, but you'll need proper cpu cooling to remove and dissipate close to 200w of heat efficiently. Just for reference, the new Ivy Bridge cpu's are 77w on load at stock speeds.

The AMD 7850 GPU is already factory OC by a good bit; 975Mhz vs. 860. The TDP of the 7850 stock is 104w so I'd probably guess that the card pulls around 120-130w max, which is very very low powered anyhow. Together, you are looking at about 300-310w of power usage including motherboard, ram, hdd, ssd, and fans when fully stressed.

If you don't overclock and limit your future hardware expansions (extra harddrives, 2nd gpu), then a simple 400w from a good name will be more than enough power. Although, most sales have fled and parts are going back to MSRP; you'll find better deals and value on a higher wattage 500-650 for about the same cost of a 400. If you can't wait, I'd recommend the Corsair CX500 500w 80+ Bronze for $30 AR, AC (EMCJJHA24) @ newegg. Not as good value as the 430w for $17 last week, but its the best deal right now this week and all you really need.



As far as any other parts, I'd still recommend going with a cheap/value cpu cooler to tack on the 965. During that era of when those cpu's where made, the stock coolers on both Intel and AMD were horrible; Intel has gotten better mainly because they've reduce their tdp wattage. AMD has not; in fact, their FX lines have gotten even more power hungry, specially on load and overclocked.

With the CM 212 plus sale over for $15 (now 24), the next best thing is the CM 212 rippoff: Xigmatek GAIA 120mm for $20 @ amazon. Works the same, even looks the same. Pair it with a good thermal paste like the Arctic Cooling MX-4 4gram for $6.65 @ amazon. Not the best thermal compound, but its within a degree or two and doesn't cost 20 bucks.

I'd also recommend of adding some more case fans to the mix. Personally, I'd spend the few bucks and grab 2-4 Rosewill Hyperborea 120mm fans for $10 a piece if you want a good balance of quiet, performance and value. The Hyper Dynamic ball bearings rotation is a little smoother and quieter than regular ball bearings; effectively whisper quiet if you plan on watching some movies in the same room as the pc.

Although, its a bit daft to suggest $10 fans for a case that's only $30, so I'd say if value is your primary concern, then grab the 4 pack of Cooler Master 120mm Sleeve for $12. Same fans as the two you get already in the 912. Honestly, you could go by with the two stock fans if you don't OC anything, if you want to keep it cheap.

Originally Posted by Halo05 Long story short, the video card is broken. It boots up fine without the card installed. I just have to send the part back to the manufacturer. Thanks for the help guys.

I used to have a case that tugs at the video card, so when you screw it in, it actually becomes unseated, and would have problems like you described.

@ Jbaz

You mentioned to someone that OC is super easy these days, Ive never had an experiance recently with overclocking with the exception of my phone. How easy is it, because overclocking my phone, while easy to set-up is damn near impossible to find a good setting for it.

I also forogt to mention i snagged one of these for a few bucks.

Cooler Master MegaFlow 200mm Blue LED 5$

Also thanks for the reccomendations, I can wait for a good deal on a PSU, ive got most of the major computer parts, But i don't want to build during the holiday season. to hectic right now. IF you see a good deal on PSU's or that CM212+ let me know?

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I want to upgrade my pc but not sure where to start or if I'd be better off just making a whole new build. This is my current pc Asus Essentio CG5275 and I added a HD 5770 gpu and a better power supply a couple years ago. Eventually I want to upgrade all the components but I don't have the money for that so I want to do a couple upgrades now.

How good is the ram, cpu, and mobo in my current pc? Should I focus on upgrading those first? My current plan was to buy a new case and a new graphics card since my 5770 struggles to run games on high at my monitors max resolution(1920x12000) then work on the other components as I get more money. My budget is around $300.