The Ultimate 'Build-A-PC' Thread. Complete With Pricings & Recommendations (06/06/10)

You have a crappy video card compared to the rest of your build.

Most people here would tell you to downgrade the processor to a 3570k, and spend at least as much money on the video card as the cpu.

Unless you're not going for a gaming computer, but then you need to tell us.
 
Eh, that card is fine. I have a 5850, and I still can play most games on full settings.

As for a case.. Thermaltake Level 10 GT, or the Cooler Master Cosmos. I personally think an expensive case is the way to go.
 
Phew, I'm almost done shopping for this computer. I just need a little more advice for the final lap.

Sadly, I haven't found any worthwhile Cyber Monday deals in terms of what I still need. I should have bought the Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply last night when I had the chance, the price went up a bit. Unless a random CM deal I missed turns up, I'll probably go with that unless anyone has other recommendations.

I'm also debating between two cases right now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._-7-_-N82E16811147153-_-na&nm_mc=CyberMon2012

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233

I missed better sales on these two as well since I wanted to pick out my case last. Which would you guys recommend? I know the HAF 912 has a 2 year warranty rather than only a year. It also looks quite sturdy and has a nice design for good airflow. However, the other offers a nice bit in terms of savings and has an extra pre-installed fan. I just need a decent case for cheap.

And lastly, while it's technically not a part of "building" the computer, I've been long overdue for a new router. Mine is at the very least 6 years old, probably older. I just bought this wifi adapter: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704045

Would this be a decent/affordable replacement router to go with it?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...145-_-N82E16833124412-_-na&nm_mc=CyberMon2012
 
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I own the HAF 912 and it is awesome. Plenty of airflow, can house two 200mm fans and two 140mm fans for the rest.

You won't have heating issues with the HAF 912. Just a dust issue because of the venting design, so just be prepared to clean it every 6-7 months.
 
[quote name='JBaz']

Stick with the cheaper i5 quad core over the i7 you picked, while the i7 is a better cpu with HT, you really don't need to spend an extra $100 for 4 extra HT threads that you would barely see worked when playing games. Good for content creation or number crunching, hardly does much for BF3. Pair the cpu with the cheap $15 CM 212+ cpu cooler so you can easily OC the snot out of it without needing to spend $$$ on something to keep it cool. Don't be fooled, the 212+ is the best value money can buy for a cpu cooler; specially for 15 bucks.

The Asrock z77 Extreme 3 is a comparable motherboard to the bigger sister of the Asus that you picked for good reason... Asus owns Asrock. The Extreme 3 has everything you'd want from the more expensive Asus budget board without compromising quality of the components. The nice thing about Asrock is that they upped all of their newer mobo warranty's from 2 years to 3 years recently.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the feedback! I don't know anything about CPU coolers, but should it worry me that the CM 212 cooler says "compatible with sandy bridge" if I'm looking into the i5 3570k ivy? The CM 212 also doesn't list i5 on CPU support. I just want to make sure since I don't know a darn thing about those.

Thanks for the tip on Asrock too, didn't know they were owned by Asus. I'm very tempted by this one, don't know if it's a cyber monday deal or not.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157330

I also don't really see any decent GPU deals today, at least anything in the 660 range. Anyone see any GPU deals?
 
[quote name='WongTongSoup']Processor: i7-3770K - $250
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...NLUofAv__qJL_Q

MOBO: ASUS P8Z77-V LX LGA 1155 - $119
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-P8Z77-V-L...rds=asrock+z77

RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231489
or this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231560
Still undecided on which one

Power Supply: Corsair Professional Series HX 650 Watt -$111
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

VG Card: XFX HD-687A-ZHFC - $149
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150561
Any suggestions on the VGA card? I want a XFX for sure but just not sure which one with my gaming rig.

SSD: http://us.ncix.com/products/?usaffil...1500&sku=71145

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820167127

Cases: Any suggestions?[/QUOTE]
Most of your links don't work, but this is what I'd pick at your bone of a list.

Unfortunately, you missed a lot of the pc parts sales; this cyber monday hasn't been as exciting or good value all around compared to last year. Truth be told, Black Friday in general has been very lack luster for pc parts compared to last year. Most of the stuff that's been on sale were targeted towards the entry or budget minded levels with very few sales on actual performance level, mid tier or higher parts; the few that were went OOS faster than you could click on the links.

Doesn't mean you couldn't find deals.

I would swap out the motherboard for the equvilanent Asrock version for $20 less; its basically the same board and Asus is Asrock. As for RAM, you don't need 16GB, you can go 8GB which is still more than enough for most people and for gaming. Very few games go past 2GB of RAM use, or even 1GB for that matter. I'd also look at the timings when buying the 8GB sticks as many will have much slower timings (cas10 or 11) compared to 9 or less. Does it matter? not really that much in performance drop to the average user. Try to stick with cas9, 1.5v and 1600 speeds; don't need to waste money for anything higher for a budget box for 1 or 2% increase in speed.

The Corsair HX 750w was on sale for $90; just missed that and there are other PSU's to look at even now that won't break the bank. Also for the 6870, you can still find it for $120 AR. The SSD Intel 180GB is in stock for $102 at newegg now unless you want to go for the 240GB size.
[quote name='elessar123']You have a crappy video card compared to the rest of your build.

Most people here would tell you to downgrade the processor to a 3570k, and spend at least as much money on the video card as the cpu.


Unless you're not going for a gaming computer, but then you need to tell us.[/QUOTE]
[quote name='The Crotch']Compared to a 3770k, yes, his video card is shit.[/QUOTE]
The AMD 6870 is not a crappy video card; even compared to the rest of his build list. It's one of the best performance/price budget gaming card on the market for the last year. It will still play every new game on high in 1080p with no issues.

Don't be fooled with the idea of "needing" to spend at least as much money on a video card as the cpu. This is a terrible generic way of thinking. I would also assume since the user is on a "gaming" forum, the build is more purpose minded towards this specific task of playing computer games. But you are right and people do look silly if they assume; would need to know what the user expects out of this build as well as budget or any other requirements/restrictions.

As for the advice on downgrading from the i7 3770k to the i5 3570k, in most cases, the value holds true to this statement, however now that most sale prices are back to normal except for the TigerDirect i7 3770k deal for $250, its hard to suggest to downgrade for $30 and loose your HT threads. UNLESS... WongTongSoup lives near a Microcenter and can still pickup in store the i5 3570k for $170, but again, lets assume this as no considering MC only has a handful of stores peppered mostly on the East coast.

[quote name='gnarlyeggs']As for a case.. Thermaltake Level 10 GT, or the Cooler Master Cosmos. I personally think an expensive case is the way to go.[/QUOTE]
Each to his own... I personally think the Level 10 GT case is uber ugly, way too heavy, not a lot of room, limited features/upgrade path compared to competition; specially if you want to do water cooling down the road (not something most people need anyhow). At $200, there are way better cases. Silverstone Raven for $160 comes to mind first or the NZXT switch 810 for $170, but you can easily spend half that or even a quarter and still find a box to fill all the parts in with good features and quality for a budget gaming rig.

As for the CM Cosmos, you have to be joking... Beautiful case? Bet your ass. Worth it for $350 when WongTongSoup listed a 6870 in his build? HELL NO. Its also a very featureless case compared to its $300 competitors and its some how has less space internally than the NZXT switch 810 that's half its price! Although every owner will say they love the case, but they are also throwing in a few gpu's and a high end cpu, plus they never plan on moving it once its planted in their rooms being around 50lbs JUST FOR THE CASE!!!

What's sad is that you can't even fit a 4x120mm radiator if you wanted that option; you'd have to cut out a hole and mod the $350 case... with a smile though because you can't show any weakness or shred of self doubt that you were a sucker in the first place for a blonde of a case that doesn't have a whole much else going for it.


Anyhow, here's a list you could start with; pick and choose what you want, but this is a base line.
PCPartPicker part list

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($249.99 @ TigerDirect)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel 330 Series 180GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($102.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($158.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Gunmetal/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.88 @ Outlet PC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($79.98 @ Outlet PC)

Total: $1002.76
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-26 14:57 EST-0500)

The only thing I will mention with this list of what I omitted out when talking about your list above: memory, video card and case.

Like I said above, the memory is a no thrills base level 8GB (2x4GB) set that will be enough for most people. Still cas9, 1.5v and 1600 speed. If you want to spend double for the 16GB sets, go ahead since they are cheap right now.

For video card, I bumped you up to the 7850 1GB card and its about the same speed as the older GTX 570. The down side is that you only get 1GB of VRAM, but in terms of performance/price and a tier above the cheaper 6870 1GB, this is the next best thing. Although, you did miss the 7850 2GB for $150 and the GTX 560 ti 448 for $140, but those were flash sales. I would also check out the GTX 660 vanilla 2GB for $190 @ NCIX now. Its a little bit faster than the 7850 for $30 more with double the VRAM. It's also the ASUS OC version with an aftermarket two fan cooler. Anything beyond this is a $50+ price jump to the next tier.

As for cases, this is a huge topic upon to itself. Budget and features will dictate what you want since there's so much on the market from the cheap $30 boxes all the way up to the $700 silverstones. For a $1000 budget box, I always recommend the NZXT Phantom's for $100ish; they look good, comes with lots of great features, USB 3.0 now and comes with 4 fans stock (good fans to boot since NZXT makes their own). The other value boxes I'd recommend first or second as well would be the Cooler Master HAF series, such as the $100 922 or the $140 932; even the $60 912 is a great case.

But don't forget to look around. $80 NZXT Phantom 410, $82 Corsair 400R, $85 Cooler Master CM 690 II, $90 Antec Eleven Hundred, or the $133 Silverstone RV03B raven; plus many many more in this price range.
 
[quote name='Trace17']I also don't really see any decent GPU deals today, at least anything in the 660 range. Anyone see any GPU deals?[/QUOTE]

Not in the high-mid range that you'd want. I have a 670 myself, and it's a beast.
 
[quote name='Prota']Phew, I'm almost done shopping for this computer. I just need a little more advice for the final lap.

Sadly, I haven't found any worthwhile Cyber Monday deals in terms of what I still need. I should have bought the Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply last night when I had the chance, the price went up a bit. Unless a random CM deal I missed turns up, I'll probably go with that unless anyone has other recommendations.

I'm also debating between two cases right now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._-7-_-N82E16811147153-_-na&nm_mc=CyberMon2012

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233

I missed better sales on these two as well since I wanted to pick out my case last. Which would you guys recommend? I know the HAZ 912 has a 2 year warranty rather than only a year. It also looks quite sturdy and has a nice design for good airflow. However, the other offers a nice bit in terms of savings and has an extra pre-installed fan. I just need a decent case for cheap.

And lastly, while it's technically not a part of "building" the computer, I've been long overdue for a new router. Mine is at the very least 6 years old, probably older. I just bought this wifi adapter: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704045

Would this be a decent/affordable replacement router to go with it?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...145-_-N82E16833124412-_-na&nm_mc=CyberMon2012[/QUOTE]
Yup, you should have bought the Corsair 430w PSU for $17 AR... I bought another one even though I have no personal use for it and I have a stack of used 500w's sitting in my work room. But never know when I need a good small wattage PSU for another build. The caps in it are worth $2 each... lol

As far as PSU deals, you are SOL, don't even seen any cheapo Cooler Master or Antec's for less than $30. Not even older OCZ Modx's. At this point, I'd see if you can find a combo deal with case & psu.

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.

[quote name='Trace17']Thanks for the feedback! I don't know anything about CPU coolers, but should it worry me that the CM 212 cooler says "compatible with sandy bridge" if I'm looking into the i5 3570k ivy? The CM 212 also doesn't list i5 on CPU support. I just want to make sure since I don't know a darn thing about those.

Thanks for the tip on Asrock too, didn't know they were owned by Asus. I'm very tempted by this one, don't know if it's a cyber monday deal or not.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157330

I also don't really see any decent GPU deals today, at least anything in the 660 range. Anyone see any GPU deals?[/QUOTE]
Sandy and Ivy bridge use the same socket... 1155, so the mounting holes will be the same. Intel has no plans on changing the mounting holes even when they unveil the next socket change in 2013. Even if they did, CM would just come out with an additional bracket hardware to work with it like they did with 2011 socket.

As far as the Asrock extreme 3, its normal price tends to hover around $130. You can check out the past prices on pcpartpicker. They give you a 6 month price history.

As far as a mid tier gaming gpu sale. This is about as close as you can get right now:
$190 Asus GTX 660 OC 2GB
 
Well, I ended up not buying anything this weekend/today. (It didn't help that both the mobo and cpu I was interested in both went OOS at newegg.) I appreciate all the help and advice though. I just didn't see much in the way of savings between Black Friday/CyberMonday this year. I will look for individual sales over the next month or two and hope some of the prices come down.
 
[quote name='glennfrank']Well, I ended up not buying anything this weekend/today. (It didn't help that both the mobo and cpu I was interested in both went OOS at newegg.) I appreciate all the help and advice though. I just didn't see much in the way of savings between Black Friday/CyberMonday this year. I will look for individual sales over the next month or two and hope some of the prices come down.[/QUOTE]
Wait what? I thought you were going with Microcenter cpu/mobo deals? What did you end up getting this BF in terms of parts or what did you need to upgrade from your c2d/275 machine?
 
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.
 
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[quote name='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.[/QUOTE]

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.

[quote name='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.[/QUOTE]
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.
 
[quote name='j-cart']If anyone is in the market for a monitor:

Asus VS Series 23.6" 2ms LED LCD monitor $120 AR AC @ newegg[/QUOTE]
You need to learn how to add links properly. Everytime you post something, its always broken and the very least provide some basic info about the link with price.
[quote name='chibilaharl']I bought the last one of these for 189$ 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[/QUOTE]
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.
 
[quote name='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.
[/QUOTE]


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)
 
[quote name='chibilaharl']? hey jbaz, will the gpu work with my mobo iI posted a page back? ithe gpu sauys pciI e3.0[/QUOTE]
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.
 
[quote name='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.[/QUOTE]
Parts information would be vital to know for troubleshooting on the internet... I maybe Asian, but I'm not god.
 
[quote name='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)[/QUOTE]

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.
 
[quote name='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.[/QUOTE]
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.
 
[quote name='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.[/QUOTE]

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?


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002FRLEIS/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002FRLEIS/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00
 
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.
 
[quote name='Sinfulfate']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.[/QUOTE]


12000 resolution ...wow are you from the future?
 
[quote name='chibilaharl']@ 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.[/QUOTE]
Intel's unlocked K chips in the i5 and i7 series are stupid easy; just requires you to go into BIOS/UEFI and change the multiplier. As long as you aren't doing crazy bumps, you can get away with having all the other settings for voltages set to auto in most motherboards.

AMD chips require a little more work for settings, but there are so many tried and true solutions that it requires finding someone's similar setup and matching their settings. You can always play around with the settings to find the "best/stable" solution for your machine, but so many people have done OC on all these processors that you don't need to reinvent the wheel here.

Now, I wouldn't recommend doing extreme OC, that requires a lot more technical knowledge and proper hardware & cooling, but for the average joe that's looking to push an extra 5-15% from the cpu or gpu, its a lot easier than 10 years ago.

All this is of course assumes that one has a motherboard capable of actual overclocking. Most entry level chipsets leave that feature out.
[quote name='chibilaharl']I also forogt to mention i snagged one of these for a few bucks.

Cooler Master MegaFlow 200mm Blue LED 5$[/quote]
Good deal, should fit nicely with your 912.

[quote name='Sinfulfate']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.[/QUOTE]
You have the original entry level i5 cpu that's only a dual core with HT; still considered a decent processor despite it not being that much powerful than the cheap i3 chips today. While its 2 years old, I would say that its still more than powerful enough to power a budget gaming box so no need to change that anytime soon.

Of what I can see, its 4 sticks of 2GB DDR3 1333 speeds. Not sure of what the timings are, but since they are 2gb sticks, they shouldn't be terrible. You do have upgrade abilities with throwing more and faster ram sticks, but 8gb is enough and 1333 isn't terrible; you'd best be spending or saving your money else where.

The good thing about getting an Asus desktop is the fact that they make their own good motherboards; even cheap pre-built's like this have a proper motherboard. What you have is the older socket 1156 microATX OEM board based on the Asus P7H55-M.


If you are looking for better gaming performance, then I concur with your original thought; just replace the gpu as a stop gap before building a new box. With a $300 budget, I'd say spend half that on a budget/value gaming gpu like the 6870, 7850 or the gtx 560 ti. I wouldn't exactly spend all 300 on a graphics card to an almost 3 year dual core cpu. While its a good cpu, it will hinder the performance of more modern gpu's pretty significantly; by as much as 40% in some games.

[quote name='elessar123']Probably doable now with 10 screens across.[/QUOTE]
You mean stacked high. It would still be 1920 resolution wide.
 
[quote name='JBaz']
You have the original entry level i5 cpu that's only a dual core with HT; still considered a decent processor despite it not being that much powerful than the cheap i3 chips today. While its 2 years old, I would say that its still more than powerful enough to power a budget gaming box so no need to change that anytime soon.

Of what I can see, its 4 sticks of 2GB DDR3 1333 speeds. Not sure of what the timings are, but since they are 2gb sticks, they shouldn't be terrible. You do have upgrade abilities with throwing more and faster ram sticks, but 8gb is enough and 1333 isn't terrible; you'd best be spending or saving your money else where.

The good thing about getting an Asus desktop is the fact that they make their own good motherboards; even cheap pre-built's like this have a proper motherboard. What you have is the older socket 1156 microATX OEM board based on the Asus P7H55-M.


If you are looking for better gaming performance, then I concur with your original thought; just replace the gpu as a stop gap before building a new box. With a $300 budget, I'd say spend half that on a budget/value gaming gpu like the 6870, 7850 or the gtx 560 ti. I wouldn't exactly spend all 300 on a graphics card to an almost 3 year dual core cpu. While its a good cpu, it will hinder the performance of more modern gpu's pretty significantly; by as much as 40% in some games.
[/QUOTE]
Thanks I'll pick up a 7850. Any suggestions on what case I should get?
 
[quote name='Sinfulfate']Thanks I'll pick up a 7850. Any suggestions on what case I should get?[/QUOTE]
Depends on how much you are willing to spend on a case and what features you want. Lets say that you do get the 7850 for under $200; we'll say a case of $50-120 is what you would probably budget for.

Any space requirements of where your current case is located right now (as in a pc cabinet or desk shelf)? You primarily want a decent budget value case or one that is just better looking with better features? Flashy or more subtle designs?

Since your current computer uses a microATX board, you can look at getting similar microATX cases if you prefer them over the larger ATX mid and full size cases on the market; honestly, I'd stick to ATX since its a much larger market and some microATX cases cost double of its ATX brothers from the same maker. This is a huge subject to talk about so I'll just group some products from a few manufacturers with prices.

Antec has been one of the top tier name brands in the business. The list above are all good cases and picked from the huge selection that they have right now. The Antec One and Eleven Hundred cases are all new designs.

The One is their base value line that's nice quality for the price that looks modern and conservative at the same time. It is a bit compact in terms of space since you'll have a hard time squeezing in anything beyond a 10" card, but it makes up for offering front mounted USB 3.0 in a $50 case.

The Three Hundred's (v1 and v2) are generally the same and offer a good amount of features for the price. The v2 pretty much just offers USB 3.0 front conenctors for the added $10 price difference. Compared to the One, it offers more cooling abilities and its slightly larger all around; it also supports GPU's of 12.5" long, so anything modern besides a GTX 690.

The Eleven Hundred is a very nice looking case that keeps the same front face styles of the other cases, but adds a window. It's also slightly bigger as well with even more cooling options. It replaced the Nine Hundred case as a full sized ATX tower.

Cooler Master, another big name in cases, is honestly my first to go brand for great value and features. They've just have too many good offerings for any price points and most look pretty damn good IMHO. I'm a huge fan of the HAF cases since I've built PC's in all of them and always impressed with their value. The storm series offer a different style, but offers the same features as the HAF.

The HAF 912 is the entry level gaming case that really sets the standard of all cases in the $50 range; gaming or not. When it came out, it was a knock out in features that you'd usually only see in the 80-100+ price range. It's also not super thin rolled steel that many cases happen to be made out of; its very sturdy, good construction and still compact and light. It can house even the biggest GPU, offers removable hdd bays, supports 2.5" ssd drives (it was new when it came out), and offers a lot of cooling.

If you are lucky, you can find the 912 on sale for under $50. I got one for $45 w/ 500w cooler master PSU last year. Usually comes on sale every month or two. I've built about a dozen computers using this case for budget builds and its the reason why I constantly buy them when they go on sale and keep them in stock for friends when they ask me to build a new pc.

The HAF 922 and 932 cases are also great value cases with more gaming specific features. The 922, 912's bigger brother, is a great value for $100, but you can find them sometimes on sale for $80 or 90. It comes with two 200mm fans (one on top and one in front) with still more cooling options. The latest version of the 922 now includes USB 3.0 front connectors, so you'll have to make sure which version you are getting.

The 932 is a full sized case and is even more feature packed for only being $130 ($110 @ newegg right now). It's actually the re-branded older HAF X case before they turned HAF into a series. Let me tell you, its a HUGE case with features that you'd expect to see in a $200 case. It can house 2 PSU's as well as a large assortment of liquid cooling radiator placements. The Adv version just adds USB 3.0 ports in a 3.5" housing, so they kinda got lazy there.

The Storm series is another set of good cases with similar subset features without the huge 200mm fans. I've only played with the cheap Storm Scout, but I find it pretty decent for the price. I personally don't like the looks of the series, but that's my opinion. The features is still pretty good internally. It's got a decent amount of space between the mobo tray and the back side door to route and hide cables since its a windowed case; the huge handle on the top is also a good feature if you plan on lugging the thing around from LAN party to the next, but in reality, you'll never use case handles since I find it the most awkward way to move a large heavy item that smacks into the side of your knee every 2 steps.

I'm sure the rest of the Storm series offer nice features and styling for the price, reason why I included them into the list. Some people love the HAF and hate the Storm's, then you find people who love the Storm's and hate the HAF.

Lastly, the lone 690 II case is an adaptation of the older 690 case that's something like 6-8 years old now. I have one from my Pentium D/Core2duo days sitting in my room right now. An oldie, but still a very decent case, specially for that price.

Corsair 300R - $50
Corsair 400R - $90
Corsair 500R - $100
Corsair 600T - $130​
Corsair, another great brand in the PC industry. They aren't too big in the case building sector, but the few cases they have are very nice, specially since they offer great value for not costing very much now days. I honestly haven't build a PC in the corsairs, only because most builds I do tend to use other cases in the same price range and they become an after thought after I build (as in... oh shit, forgot Corsair made cases too! dammit!). I think they are stunning cases that aren't flashy.

The only case I've seen in person is my friends Corsair 650D case that's super nice. I believe he got it for $100 on sale about 8 months ago. I routinely see Corsair 400 and 500's on slickdeals.net almost monthly for $60-70. Almost tempted to buy one to see how nice it is for the price, then offload it to my brother or something at cost.

Fractal Design is a very small case company that popped up a few years ago. They make some really nice brushed Aluminum and sleek cases that mirror that of more expensive Lian Li cases. This is another series I've yet to lay my hands on, but hopefully soon I'll snag the Arc Midi for a build one day.

The $50 Arc Midi is a very nice mid sized tower, a nice box to build in for a media center in your living room. When if first came out, it was one of the few sleek looking cases that came with USB 3.0 in the $50 price range. The nicest thing about the case is the removable drive bays with up to 8 drives. A very good contender if you need a media server/home NAS. The Define R4 and XL are also great looking cases that are styled between each other.

NZXT is a relatively new case maker that took the industry by storm with the Phantom's. They make stunning cases that are still feature rich without the huge price; really set the bar for case makers of being beautiful without spending apple prices for one.

To start off, the entry level mid sized ATX cases of the Source series are great value cases for those who just need a simple case for a very cheap build. The 210's may look bland, but they have extremely good cooling abilities and can house 8 3.5" hard drives internally. The 210 Elite is the same as the 210 but with USB 3.0 front mounted port.

The 220 is my favorite of the series with its steel mesh front grills from top to bottom; styled more like a server/workstation case. I've used these to build home servers and over glorified NAS boxes for my photography friends. Personally, I plan on building a new NAS server in the near future and its between the Source 220 and the Fractal Design Arc Midi.

You can routinely find the 210 and 220's on sale for $40 shipped.

The Phantom and Phantom 410's are styled pretty much the same with similar features. The only real difference between the two is that the Phantom 410 is the smaller version of the Phantom full sized case. It's a fantastic looking case that really reminds me of the styling cues from the alienware gaming cases from a decade before, but with more edge and attitude.

The biggest drawback with the Phantom is that they are as deep as they are tall, so its a fairly large case even though the actual internal height is roughly the same any other ATX sized case. You don't get a window to showoff your parts that you put into it, but who needs a window when the outside looks god damn sexy!

The Phantom 410's came out about a year after the original Full sized case and still looks the part without being so huge. They also come with USB 3.0 ports before the normal Phantom's started to be updated with USB 3.0. That's one thing to make sure with the full sized case; they have like 20 different SKU numbers with tons of different colors and pretty confusing which one has USB 3.0 or not. I ordered one from amazon a while back right before the case update and got mine with 3.0 instead of 2.0; a good surprise, but no where on the product page on amazon mentioned it nor did they update NZXT website at the time.

Phantom 410's tend to be more on the $80 shipped price and the larger Phantom in the $100-110 shipped most of the time. This week is a bit higher in terms of pricing.

One thing I do have to mention before I move on: The NZXT 810 Switch case for $180 is their mother of all cases in terms of features and styling. It's their next winner after Phantom and most likely my next gaming case, specifically for the large amount of space for liquid cooling.

I'm not knowledgeable about newegg's brand, the Rosewill, but I've heard pretty good things about their cases. I personally never took a liking to them because of their stylings, but ones listed above are keenly placed in your price range that you should check out.

I just find the Challenger but ugly and the Thor way to massive and crude looking for my tastes.

Silverstone is a high end case maker that rivals Lian Li. They aren't known for making cheap cases and the only case under $150 I would ever think about would be the Raven 3.

The front style looks pretty cool and reminds me of my Dainese back protector, part of my motorcycle racing gear. The case itself is the most unique of all of the cases listed because of the fact that's its a 90 degree motherboard mounting design where the gpu's will "hang" from the top. It's very weird indeed, but its a pretty nice and open case with great features from a top tier brand for not too much money compared to its other products. I've only seen this in person at my friends LAN party last month and its a very long case.

My biggest complaint of what I saw is that they should have made the rear panel hold more than 1 fan; it would have been an ideal place to maybe house a 2 fan radiator for liquid cooling. Or the very least mount points to hold a reservoir or pump without having to drill and mod the case. Then again, its not a case centered around liquid cooling at all; only air.


Hope that helps! LOL
 
[quote name='chibilaharl']@ jbaz: Do you happen to know if my MOBO is capable of such?[/QUOTE]
Yes, your board is capable of overclocking. Its a 970 chipset.
[quote name='chibilaharl']Also, just curious but when is the next time pc parts usually go on sale?[/QUOTE]
Pretty much the week before and after Christmas; not to mention after new years sales.
 
[quote name='JBaz']Depends on how much you are willing to spend on a case and what features you want. Lets say that you do get the 7850 for under $200; we'll say a case of $50-120 is what you would probably budget for.

Any space requirements of where your current case is located right now (as in a pc cabinet or desk shelf)? You primarily want a decent budget value case or one that is just better looking with better features? Flashy or more subtle designs?

Since your current computer uses a microATX board, you can look at getting similar microATX cases if you prefer them over the larger ATX mid and full size cases on the market; honestly, I'd stick to ATX since its a much larger market and some microATX cases cost double of its ATX brothers from the same maker. This is a huge subject to talk about so I'll just group some products from a few manufacturers with prices.Antec has been one of the top tier name brands in the business. The list above are all good cases and picked from the huge selection that they have right now. The Antec One and Eleven Hundred cases are all new designs.

The One is their base value line that's nice quality for the price that looks modern and conservative at the same time. It is a bit compact in terms of space since you'll have a hard time squeezing in anything beyond a 10" card, but it makes up for offering front mounted USB 3.0 in a $50 case.

The Three Hundred's (v1 and v2) are generally the same and offer a good amount of features for the price. The v2 pretty much just offers USB 3.0 front conenctors for the added $10 price difference. Compared to the One, it offers more cooling abilities and its slightly larger all around; it also supports GPU's of 12.5" long, so anything modern besides a GTX 690.

The Eleven Hundred is a very nice looking case that keeps the same front face styles of the other cases, but adds a window. It's also slightly bigger as well with even more cooling options. It replaced the Nine Hundred case as a full sized ATX tower.Cooler Master, another big name in cases, is honestly my first to go brand for great value and features. They've just have too many good offerings for any price points and most look pretty damn good IMHO. I'm a huge fan of the HAF cases since I've built PC's in all of them and always impressed with their value. The storm series offer a different style, but offers the same features as the HAF.

The HAF 912 is the entry level gaming case that really sets the standard of all cases in the $50 range; gaming or not. When it came out, it was a knock out in features that you'd usually only see in the 80-100+ price range. It's also not super thin rolled steel that many cases happen to be made out of; its very sturdy, good construction and still compact and light. It can house even the biggest GPU, offers removable hdd bays, supports 2.5" ssd drives (it was new when it came out), and offers a lot of cooling.

If you are lucky, you can find the 912 on sale for under $50. I got one for $45 w/ 500w cooler master PSU last year. Usually comes on sale every month or two. I've built about a dozen computers using this case for budget builds and its the reason why I constantly buy them when they go on sale and keep them in stock for friends when they ask me to build a new pc.

The HAF 922 and 932 cases are also great value cases with more gaming specific features. The 922, 912's bigger brother, is a great value for $100, but you can find them sometimes on sale for $80 or 90. It comes with two 200mm fans (one on top and one in front) with still more cooling options. The latest version of the 922 now includes USB 3.0 front connectors, so you'll have to make sure which version you are getting.

The 932 is a full sized case and is even more feature packed for only being $130 ($110 @ newegg right now). It's actually the re-branded older HAF X case before they turned HAF into a series. Let me tell you, its a HUGE case with features that you'd expect to see in a $200 case. It can house 2 PSU's as well as a large assortment of liquid cooling radiator placements. The Adv version just adds USB 3.0 ports in a 3.5" housing, so they kinda got lazy there.

The Storm series is another set of good cases with similar subset features without the huge 200mm fans. I've only played with the cheap Storm Scout, but I find it pretty decent for the price. I personally don't like the looks of the series, but that's my opinion. The features is still pretty good internally. It's got a decent amount of space between the mobo tray and the back side door to route and hide cables since its a windowed case; the huge handle on the top is also a good feature if you plan on lugging the thing around from LAN party to the next, but in reality, you'll never use case handles since I find it the most awkward way to move a large heavy item that smacks into the side of your knee every 2 steps.

I'm sure the rest of the Storm series offer nice features and styling for the price, reason why I included them into the list. Some people love the HAF and hate the Storm's, then you find people who love the Storm's and hate the HAF.

Lastly, the lone 690 II case is an adaptation of the older 690 case that's something like 6-8 years old now. I have one from my Pentium D/Core2duo days sitting in my room right now. An oldie, but still a very decent case, specially for that price.
Corsair 300R - $50
Corsair 400R - $90
Corsair 500R - $100
Corsair 600T - $130​
Corsair, another great brand in the PC industry. They aren't too big in the case building sector, but the few cases they have are very nice, specially since they offer great value for not costing very much now days. I honestly haven't build a PC in the corsairs, only because most builds I do tend to use other cases in the same price range and they become an after thought after I build (as in... oh shit, forgot Corsair made cases too! dammit!). I think they are stunning cases that aren't flashy.

The only case I've seen in person is my friends Corsair 650D case that's super nice. I believe he got it for $100 on sale about 8 months ago. I routinely see Corsair 400 and 500's on slickdeals.net almost monthly for $60-70. Almost tempted to buy one to see how nice it is for the price, then offload it to my brother or something at cost.Fractal Design is a very small case company that popped up a few years ago. They make some really nice brushed Aluminum and sleek cases that mirror that of more expensive Lian Li cases. This is another series I've yet to lay my hands on, but hopefully soon I'll snag the Arc Midi for a build one day.

The $50 Arc Midi is a very nice mid sized tower, a nice box to build in for a media center in your living room. When if first came out, it was one of the few sleek looking cases that came with USB 3.0 in the $50 price range. The nicest thing about the case is the removable drive bays with up to 8 drives. A very good contender if you need a media server/home NAS. The Define R4 and XL are also great looking cases that are styled between each other.NZXT is a relatively new case maker that took the industry by storm with the Phantom's. They make stunning cases that are still feature rich without the huge price; really set the bar for case makers of being beautiful without spending apple prices for one.

To start off, the entry level mid sized ATX cases of the Source series are great value cases for those who just need a simple case for a very cheap build. The 210's may look bland, but they have extremely good cooling abilities and can house 8 3.5" hard drives internally. The 210 Elite is the same as the 210 but with USB 3.0 front mounted port.

The 220 is my favorite of the series with its steel mesh front grills from top to bottom; styled more like a server/workstation case. I've used these to build home servers and over glorified NAS boxes for my photography friends. Personally, I plan on building a new NAS server in the near future and its between the Source 220 and the Fractal Design Arc Midi.

You can routinely find the 210 and 220's on sale for $40 shipped.

The Phantom and Phantom 410's are styled pretty much the same with similar features. The only real difference between the two is that the Phantom 410 is the smaller version of the Phantom full sized case. It's a fantastic looking case that really reminds me of the styling cues from the alienware gaming cases from a decade before, but with more edge and attitude.

The biggest drawback with the Phantom is that they are as deep as they are tall, so its a fairly large case even though the actual internal height is roughly the same any other ATX sized case. You don't get a window to showoff your parts that you put into it, but who needs a window when the outside looks god damn sexy!

The Phantom 410's came out about a year after the original Full sized case and still looks the part without being so huge. They also come with USB 3.0 ports before the normal Phantom's started to be updated with USB 3.0. That's one thing to make sure with the full sized case; they have like 20 different SKU numbers with tons of different colors and pretty confusing which one has USB 3.0 or not. I ordered one from amazon a while back right before the case update and got mine with 3.0 instead of 2.0; a good surprise, but no where on the product page on amazon mentioned it nor did they update NZXT website at the time.

Phantom 410's tend to be more on the $80 shipped price and the larger Phantom in the $100-110 shipped most of the time. This week is a bit higher in terms of pricing.

One thing I do have to mention before I move on: The NZXT 810 Switch case for $180 is their mother of all cases in terms of features and styling. It's their next winner after Phantom and most likely my next gaming case, specifically for the large amount of space for liquid cooling.I'm not knowledgeable about newegg's brand, the Rosewill, but I've heard pretty good things about their cases. I personally never took a liking to them because of their stylings, but ones listed above are keenly placed in your price range that you should check out.

I just find the Challenger but ugly and the Thor way to massive and crude looking for my tastes.Silverstone is a high end case maker that rivals Lian Li. They aren't known for making cheap cases and the only case under $150 I would ever think about would be the Raven 3.

The front style looks pretty cool and reminds me of my Dainese back protector, part of my motorcycle racing gear. The case itself is the most unique of all of the cases listed because of the fact that's its a 90 degree motherboard mounting design where the gpu's will "hang" from the top. It's very weird indeed, but its a pretty nice and open case with great features from a top tier brand for not too much money compared to its other products. I've only seen this in person at my friends LAN party last month and its a very long case.

My biggest complaint of what I saw is that they should have made the rear panel hold more than 1 fan; it would have been an ideal place to maybe house a 2 fan radiator for liquid cooling. Or the very least mount points to hold a reservoir or pump without having to drill and mod the case. Then again, its not a case centered around liquid cooling at all; only air.


Hope that helps! LOL[/QUOTE]

I think Im gonna go with the cool master HAF 912. Thanks again.
 
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