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Need help: Finishing touches on first custom built computer
Okay hey, first a little background, went through various threads here gathering info and came to a conclusion. I want an AMD motherboard/processor for the upgrade path/budget friendlyness. I've pretty much picked out most of the parts but i can't decide what mobo/cpu to get which is mainly what i need you guys help with.
My -wanted- budget was like 800-1100 total. I've blown it out the water by a tad if i add in the keyboard i wanted to get. Anyway, here's what i have chosen so far. But so long as total comes up to like 1300 give or take a 100 or so, that'll be my going budget.
HDD- $55 Seagate Barracuda 1TB
SSD- $200 Crucial M4 128GB SATA 3
Case- $140 Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower
Video Card- $230 EVGA Geforce 560
DVD Burner- $21 ASUS DRW-24B1st DVD Burner
Power Supply- $90 Cooler Master GX Series 650W
Motherboard - Help please
CPU - Help please
I picked out a Keyboard Mouse i liked, mouse was 60 bucks, keyboard was ...to much but 170, was thinking about getting earlier version for 110 tho anyway thats non-important.
About the Power supply: I read from someone with a flashy/colorful avatar that the gfx card you have determines generally how much Watt you need so is 650 good for my system and if i decide to upgrade to say zambezi processor?
About fan/cooling systems: With the case i chose, it comes with 4 fans. Will i need additional cooling products for what i have chosen thusfar? Or will i be fine with the basic fans it comes with?
About the DVD burner: Will it fit in the case i chose? I tried finding the size of the dvd drive and matched with the size of the case but i dont know if i was looking at the right numbers or not.
About the motherboard/cpu: Again, i would like an AMD(or any Socket AM3+ mobo) with an AMD processor(really processor doesnt have to be AMD but assuming for compatibility reasons. Also extra bonus if the mobo chosen has 2 usb 3.0 in the front panel to fit the case i chose.
About noise: given that the case has 4 fans and the other choices i've come to pick and once i get some feedback on which cpu/mobo to buy, anyone knowledgable able to give me some idea of how loud the system will be when idle/playing a game? The current computer i have sounds terribly loud when taxxed which is definitely not something i want.
Thanks in advance, hope i gave enough information and asked all the questions i have.
PS: If you think i could get something else of same quality(while being compatible with everything else) for a lesser price, please feel free to recommend that to me as well, i'm all for cutting pricing.
PSS: All the prices i listed are from tigerdirect.com, i wanted to pick all the pieces i was going to get first and foremost before doing price comparisons with newegg or other physical stores in my location.
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Comments
Check Newegg.com if you haven't, sign up for their daily special email and watch the site many times a day for their "shell shockers". I bet you could shave some money off of all those components, and they are quite often running good deals on SSD's and mobo/case/processor combos.
All looks good, though. Your priorities are pretty good... just being smart enough to go SSD means you'll probably be fine if you keep using yer brain!
You probably don't need to spend that much on a case as long as it's good for ventilation and has enough room for your drives; Even most micro-atx cases have enough room for what you're talking about, though you might consider a half tower. As far as your dvd drive fitting goes, that's rarely an issue even in the smallest cases, let alone a full tower. Don't worry about that a bit. Matter of fact, a dvd drive in my P160 full tower was problematic because... it was hard to find a cable long enough to go from the MB toward the bottom, to the drive toward the top. Again, if you don't need room for several drives(2 or more DVD + 3 or more hard drives), you don't need a full tower case.
Processors, honestly, I haven't read up, lately. My AMD Phenom 9850 X4 from 2008 with an ATI 5770 runs full 1080P gfx full on with brand spankin new games at about 30+ fps reliably, so I haven't been eyeing the market. lately. I hope they've stopped making 32 bit processors by now, but if not, definitely go 64 bit and at least 4 gb of memory. 4gb will do for a while yet, but leave room to expand.
Mobo's of the same generation have little to do with speed; they're more about features and potential upgrading. Most good name brands (ASUS, MSI, etc.) have comparable performance. Check reviews for overclockability(if you plan to) and reliability.
I hope I helped, at least a wee bit. Loke may chime in later if not already; his ideas are better than mine, so if we contradict, he wins by default.
Let's start with the most important point. Do not get that power supply. It is garbage.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/11/22/cooler_master_gx_650w_power_supply_review/9
If you're paying enough to get a good power supply, then get a good power supply. Try this instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020
Next, $230 for a GeForce GTX 560 is just too much. For that kind of money, you could get a markedly faster GeForce GTX 560 Ti or Radeon HD 6950:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102949
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133377
Or if a GeForce GTX 560 is the level of performance you want, then you could get it or a Radeon HD 6870 for much cheaper:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133397
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948
For what it's worth, at the same price, I'd rather have a 6870. That it's so much cheaper makes it a pretty good value.
You don't need to spend $140 on a case. If you'd rather chop your budget down some, then that's an easy place to cut. A Cooler Master HAF 932 will keep a typical pair of video cards in CrossFire or SLI properly cooled, but you don't need that for a single card. If you'd rather get a pretty nice case for much cheaper, then here are a couple of options:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119240
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129097
Note the promo code on the latter case.
Getting a cheap AMD processor with a Socket AM3+ motherboard for an upgrade path makes sense in a smaller budget. But you've got a big enough budget to just get a nice processor and motherboard in the first place.
If you're not into overclocking, then this will do:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128487
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115073
You probably need an OS license, too, in which case, you can save money by getting it in a combo deal with the processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.723030
If you want the processor to stay cool and quiet, then you might want a relatively cheap aftermarket heatsink and fan, like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103074
If you want to overclock the processor, then you'll need some stronger components to handle that. For reasonable overclocks, you could try this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130573
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
If you need an OS license, you can likewise get that in a combo deal with the processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.723046
You'll also need a better heatsink and fan, though what you need depends on how far you intend to push the processor. If you want to go for perhaps 4.2 GHz and call that good enough, then this will do:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065
If you want to try for something like 4.5 GHz, then you may want a better cooler than that. And if you want to see if you can push 5 GHz and fry the thing, you'll need a much more powerful cooler, and also a better motherboard.
If the reason you wanted to go with AMD is that you strongly prefer AMD to Intel, then you should probably just wait for Zambezi to launch and get that.
I also don't see any memory listed there.
There's no need for a $170 keyboard, or even a $110 keyboard. For most purposes, including most games, a good $20 keyboard is just as good. If you want programmable keys or backlighting or various fancy features like that, then yeah, you do have to pay more.
I really like the Sandy Bridge 2500k, good price, but the kicker is to get the unlocked one, i overclocked mine to 4.3 and its not let me down yet!
The Deep Web is sca-ry.
first off, thanks a ton for the detailed response, its indepensible help to me.
ok, scrapped the power supply i had done and will go with your choice.
scrapped the gfx i had as well, but i'm not sure between the radeon hd 6870 or the 6950, looking on the details page, the 6950 has a lot of features the 6870 does not have, though im guessing since you said you'd still rather the 6870, those extra features aren't worth the extra price right? so i'll probably end up with the radeon hd 6870 for gfx card.
part of the reason i was getting the haf 932 was because i always invisioned at some point when i had a lot of money that i'd like to get a 2nd gfx card and 2nd monitor even and having that big of a case would definitely be needed then, i was getting the case for future upgrades. plus i thought it looked badass, but so does that antec 902 v3 you linked, not sure which i'll decide between the two, possibly the antec cause it is 40 dollars cheaper after rebate, which means more money to get fancy keyboard(i didnt even know keyboards had led screens, and customizable lights on the keys to see in the dark, its just to awesome to pass up)
now for the cpu/mobo, i have a question which will decide what i end up doing. is overclocking somewhat simple to do provided you follow instructions/tutorial? or is it something you really have to be a technical guru to do? i'm by no means a complete noob otherwise i wouldn't try to be building my own computer but i never did get into overclocking, so i have no idea how hard it is or what it actually entails. if it's simple enough that i could do it then i'd like to get the mobo/cpu thats tailored to it that you suggested(along with the cooler/heatsink you picked to and i'd probably just oc it to 4.2 and call it a day)
however if its not as simple as i hope it to be, then i'll just choose the gigabyte/sandybridge combo and that should complete my system.
oh yea, for the memory, i was thinking about getting Corsair XMS 8gb DDR3 RAM. Hopefully that's not a bust of a product either xD though i expect you could probably link me an even better buy, your links saved me literally over a hundred dollars while getting better quality stuff(taking your word for it but i trust you given how much you go into detail)
all in all, i'm still a bit leary for not getting an am3+ socket mobo and being forced to buying not only a new processor at a later date(admittedly probably 2+ years in the future) but having to replace the mobo too to keep with the times but...eh, oh well, i guess i'll just give intel a try. no matter what i do it'll be 20x better than the piece of crap system i have now and for that i'll be infinitely happier.
Thanks a ton for all the advice and to the other 2 posters as well, thanks for your inputs.
Edit: another question popped into my head, both the antec 902 and haf 932 cases have ports for 3.0 usb in the front panels, if the mobo i choose doesn't have a front panel 3.0 usb ports(or any at all for that matter) then they will be rendered useless right?
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<<IF>> you EVER intend to go with a dual card solution, then you WILL need a bigger powersupply. the 650 watt is safe bet for a single card solution, however it WON'T reliably drive 2 high end vid cards over the lifetime of your build.
that being said, I'd still pick the storm enforcer. it's a MUCH better designed case from an aiflow/thermal solution/noise/dust point of view.
from your description of the keyboard, you are looking at a logitech G15 or something close to it. all i can say is it's not really worth the $. when you are getting fragged, you dont have time to take your eyes off the monitor to look at the perrrdy LCD keyboard display... nor would you care what color your key's are:D the only real useful application i can find for that LCD on the keyboard is to link your AIM/Yahoo chat on it so you can see when someone sent you a quick tell.
Note the promo code on the Antec Nine Hundred Two. That's $40 cheaper than a HAF 932 before rebate, or $60 cheaper after rebate. It comes with four fans, one of which is 200 mm, so that's a lot of airflow. If you wanted to use two cards in SLI or CrossFire in the future, you could with that case, though you may want to add a side fan for that, in order to blow air right at the video cards.
I'd advise against planning on going with SLI or CrossFire eventually if you're not going to do so up front, however. You'd need to pay extra for a higher end motherboard and stronger power supply, in addition to the case, in order to merely have the option for CrossFire or SLI later. That can easily come to an extra $100 just to have an option that you'll probably never use. That's a waste of money.
If you want to run multiple monitors, then you don't need multiple video cards for that. Most modern cards can run two monitors at a time. If one of them is showing something simple (e.g., the desktop, a web browser, e-mail, a spreadsheet, etc.), then that isn't a meaningful graphical load, so it doesn't meaningfully affect gaming performance on the other. The Radeon HD 6950 and 6870 that I linked actually support three monitors right out of the box, though you'll need a ~$30 adapter in order to add a third monitor. (A second monitor doesn't need any such adapter.)
On processor upgrades, I'm expecting Zambezi to be about as good for gaming purposes as a Core i5 2500. Getting a Core i5 2500 together with a decent P67 motherboard and a heatsink for it can easily push $350. Getting a cheap Socket AM3+ motherboard together with an Athlon II X3 can cost as little as $150. For someone who can't afford the $350 today, going with AMD and keeping the option to upgrade in the future makes sense. But if you can afford the $350 today, then it's cheaper to buy a Core i5 2500 and a P67 motherboard today then it would be to go AMD with a comparable quality 970 or 990X motherboard and eventually add a Zambezi or Komodo processor.
Overclocking a Core i5 2500K is pretty easy to do. You leave the base clock alone, turn off turbo boost, and only change the multiplier and voltage. Or if you want to be safe, you only change the multiplier, and leave the voltage alone. Add 1 to the multiplier, run Prime95 for a while (with four threads), and see if it crashes. If it doesn't, then add 1 to the multiplier again, run Prime95 again, and see if it crashes. If you eventually manage to crash it, then you conclude that you've overclocked it too far, and subtract one back off of the multiplier. You can increase the multiplier further if you also increase the voltage, but that runs a much higher risk of frying the processor.
Now, if you want to push the processor as far as it can possibly go, and think the difference between 4.8 GHz and 4.6 GHz is a big deal, then it gets a lot more complicated. But if you don't want to risk frying things, it's not that complicated.
There is, however, also the question of whether there's a point in overclocking the processor. If the processor is plenty fast enough at stock speeds, then why mess with it? I'd advise against getting a computer, overclocking it immediately, and leaving it overclocked forever. Maybe you overclock it when you get it to mess with it and see what sort of overclock it can easily handle. But then I'd revert to stock speeds until you run into a program where a faster processor would actually benefit you. Turbo boost already gets you some of the benefits of overclocking while nominally at stock speeds, and without the drawbacks.
For memory, I'd look at what's cheap that day. With promo codes, 8 GB for $40:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311
Or if you want 1600 MHz, add $5:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148421
For a price premium of $5, I'd go with 1600 MHz. You'll have to adjust something in the BIOS to make it run at 1600 MHz, and it is nominally overclocking, but it's not a danger at all, especially with only two modules. The second memory kit does have latency timings of 10-10-10-28, which are higher than the 9-9-9-24 of the first kit, and lower is better. But latency timings are in numbers of clock cycles, so a latency timing of 12 at 1600 MHz means exactly the same waiting time in the real world as a latency timing of 10 at 1333 MHz. The latencies on the 1600 MHz memory are thus a little better than on the 1333 MHz memory. You could add another $5 to get 9-9-9-24 latency timings at 1600 MHz:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233144
I don't know this for certain, but I would assume that USB 3.0 front ports can take USB 2.0 motherboard headers and run at USB 2.0 speeds. USB is backward compatible, so if you plug a USB 3.0 device into a USB 2.0 port, or a USB 2.0 device into a USB 3.0 port, it will work, but be limited to USB 2.0 speeds either way.
~in reply to psy's post~
i may consider getting a 2 TB hdd, but the reason i chose 1 TB is my current is 500gb(actually i think its 100gb, cause thats the capacity of my C: drive) and i still have 10gbs left, so jumping to 1 TB is more than enough, 2 is just crazy but i may get it anyway to dl a couple animes to watch instead of streaming when i feel the itch.
as for the SSD, i thought i read somewhere that OS took up 60gigs, and rest was for game, but i would have wanted to put at least 3 or so games on the SSD(i generally play 2 at a time) and the lowest i could find was 64GB which wouldnt have been enough, but i may be mistaken about how much an OS(windows 7) takes up, how much does the OS take up? if its somethin like 40, then i'd definitely downgrade to the 64GB and save me 100 bucks.
yea i really like the antec quizzy linked so i'm 90% likely to get that, but at the same time the HAF is big enough if i ever wanted to get 2 gfx cards for 2 monitors so i wanted the option open in case i ever decided to do that at a later date. i dont know what i want to do at this point. leaning towards the antec though.
as for the keyboard, this beauty here
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=4835388&sku=L23-0034&srkey=g19&SRCCODE=LINKSHARE&cm_mmc_o=-ddCjC1bELltzywCjC-d2CjCdwwp&AffiliateID=iFudSkud_Rc-ciDNPFMymk879F1kuFeA0Q
probably overpriced since quizzy found cheaper stuff of most of what i linked on newegg, i may get the g10 instead of g19, cheaper by about 60 bucks. the main features that im loving is the keys backlight so you can see the keys in the dark(i dont look at the keys to type but im wierd, if its dark i make more mistakes, i think i do need to see the keys with peripheral vision to really type effectively)
honestly i was only getting the dvd to install shit that i ever needed, as for one that i may already have, for some reason the dvd drive opens on its own and opens/closes in infinite loop until i force it shut(and keep forcing it shut for a little bit) till it stops, does this maybe once a day or every other day but its annoying and i'd rather not bring something like that over to a brand new system, but i like your idea of just getting an external dvd drive, i may look into doing that.
and even though i was asking for the AMD route, i'm not particularly PRO AMD, i just wanted whatever gave me the best options for upgrading at a future date, though quizzy's half convinced me to just go with intel since i guess i have enough money to get a system to last me long enough that i could just start over in 3 years or so and the system will still be decent even that far from now, which decent = 10x better than what i have right now. this rig im using literally sux balls, which is why i really dont want to wait for zambezi/southern island because that could be up to a month or so away and i've already been waiting patiently since june to start buying parts but ugh.....im getting antsy.
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If you let Windows 7 do everything it wants, then it will take about 30 GB. If necessary, you can cut that back somewhat.
If you get a 60 GB SSD, then you can install Windows and a few main programs on it, but you'll have to run some stuff off of the hard drive. If you get a 120 GB SSD, then you'll probably have plenty of room to put all of the programs that you use much on the SSD, and not have to juggle things around.
Just from looking at your parts...your skimping out on exactly the things that you don't want to skimp out on...Hard drive and power supply are two really common things to die, and you're going as cheap as you can...650 watts is nothing bro, and you picked a piece of doodoo at that, go bigger.
Your harddrive - if you need a SSD then cool, but that seagate has got to go...
Also - just make sure your processor and motherboard are compatible and within your price range...I currently run with a 2.9 ghz AMD quad core and it works fine, I'd like it to be a bit faster but I can still run anything that I want to run.
Seriously though bro, go bigger on your power supply and don't go with seagate, their shit is cheap.
Your argument is like a two legged dog with an eating disorder...weak and unbalanced.
i7 2600k tbh. Best CPU I ever bought.
Under extremely heavy loads, he's looking at 150-200 W for a video card, and 95 W for a processor, or maybe 150 W if he gives it a sizeable overclock. If a 650 W power supply can't handle that, then the problem isn't the "650 W" part. If New Egg's price on the Antec High Current Gamer 520 W hadn't just gone up, I'd have recommended that instead if he wasn't going to overclock.
I dont know if anyone caught this, so I will try and do so.
The 6950 is a very very fine card, and a better card at the price range you originally had, going with a 560 at $230.00.
It is a better card than the 6870.
I believe what Quizicall said, was that he would pick the 6870, over the 560. I believe he would pick the 6950 over the 6870, as the 6950 is superior to both.
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Live a lifetime in every minute.
Yes, that's what I meant. The choice between a Radeon HD 6870, a GeForce GTX 560 Ti, and a Radeon HD 6950 is largely one of budget. The 6870 wins on performance per dollar at the prices I linked, though, as it offers perhaps 80%-90% of the performance of the other two cards.
The Radeon HD 6870 and 6950 have most of the same features. Internally, they're fairly different, so it's entirely plausible that a 6950 could beat a 6870 by much more in some games than in others. The internal differences could plausibly give the 6950 some major advantages for GPGPU purposes, but it's unlikely that that will matter to you in the useful lifetime of the machine.
The one important feature difference is PowerTune, which the Radeon HD 6900 series of cards has, and no others, whether AMD or Nvidia. PowerTune measures power consumption of a card in real time. If the card tries to pull more than 200 W, then PowerTune will catch it and reduce clock speeds to limit power consumption to 200 W. This rarely happens in real games, but it does mean that if a program unexpectedly tries to push your card much harder than expected, the card will clock itself down by far enough to be safe.
PowerTune can adjust clock speeds very quickly. If a program tries to pull far too much power, it will adjust clock speeds within a fraction of a second. Other cards can try to do this based on temperatures, but that means not doing anything until after the card has overheated. If the problem is that you're going to fry power circuitry, then that means not doing anything until it is too late. PowerTune can adjust quickly enough to reduce the power draw before problems happen, so that the card doesn't overheat in the first place. Once the load lightens up, PowerTune can return clock speeds to normal within a fraction of a second.
PowerTune also accomplishes the clock speed adjustments far more smoothly than temperature-based adjustments. If a video card is overheating at 800 MHz, then it has no clue whether 700 MHz would be fine. Instead, it has to assume the worst and slash clock speeds to something like 100 MHz, which completely kills your frame rates. And then it can't return to normal until the temperatures drop. PowerTune is able to say, 800 MHz is too much, but 750 MHz would be fine, so even if it does have to reduce clock speeds in a game, you may never notice.
The 200 W cap is adjustable by the end user, to anywhere between 160 W and 240 W. For most people, I'd recommend leaving it at 200 W. You may want to decrease it if you need lower power consumption for some reason, or increase it if you want to overclock the card.
PowerTune does not improve performance. It does, however, improve reliability. If AMD and Nvidia didn't do anything to throttle back OCCT, that could kill quite a few cards, for example. AMD and Nvidia are aware of OCCT, and do things in their drivers to greatly reduce clock speeds if they detect that particular program running. But sometimes programs show up in the wild before AMD and Nvidia are aware of it. The title screen of StarCraft II was blamed for killing a number of Nvidia cards, for example. PowerTune means that even if AMD hasn't the slightest clue about a program that could have killed your video card by pushing it way too hard, the video card can detect that the load is too high and clock itself down far enough to make the program safe to run.
Okay, with lots of changes made to my system, i'm almost done.(largely in part to Quizzical)
Here are my final(90% final) choices as of now
Mobo - MSI-P67A GD55 LGA 1155 with the Processor- Intel Core i5 2500K Sandy Bridge
GFX Card- Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 with a GOOD 650W Power supply- Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650W v2
RAM- Corsair Vengeance 8gb DDR3(2 4gb) and heatsink/cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
My Case, is where i have a question. It's between The Antec 902 v3 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower link below:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129097
or the Cooler Master Storm Enforcer link below:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119240
If the difference between the two is completely negligible then i'll go with the Antec because i like the way it looks a lot more than the Storm Enforcer, but is there any deciding factors to choose the Storm Enforcer over the Antec? My main concerns is noise related, as in if the Antec would be loud, and Storm quiet, i may get Storm instead.
Also, someone said the HDD i had picked out was a bad one(Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200rpm), so can someone suggest me a good one to get instead? I'm willing(and able) to go up to a 2TB HDD as well, might not need quite that much space but its good to have around in case.
Also, can someone point out a good internal/external DVDRW drive? I'd prefer internal just for asthetical reasons, but not unopposed to getting an external as psy said something to the extent that an external one won't need to spend time loading up during boot up.
And lastly, anyone that uses gaming mice/keyboards, able to suggest a decent(and somewhat mid-low priced) mouse/keyboard to get? I have 2 in mind but willing to defer to others that have actual experience with them rather than go by the desc of what i think is cool but really probably isn't as cool when you actually get it.
TL;DR Got everything ready to order(in my shopping cart) except HDD(need help picking a good one out), Case(deciding between 2), and a DVDRW drive(internal or external, i'm impartial, but could use help picking out a not crappy one).
Big thanks to everyone involved helping me refine my choices to make this as good as it can be within my price range. Once i get these last few indecisions/questions answered i'll be buying the parts today and let you know how it turns out in a couple-few days whenever i receive all the parts
.
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1) Western Digital Caviar Black - whatever size you want/can afford. There isn't anything wrong with Seagate really, but the Caviar Black (not Blue or Green) will be somewhat faster for about the same price.
2) They are all pretty much the same. Get whatever is cheapest, plugs into SATA, and matches the color of your case. Time looking for a CD/DVD during boot up for an internal drive can be fixed in the BIOS if it really bothers you that much...
3) Depends mostly on your preference, a $4 mouse will move the cursor the same as a $120 one, and the letter "X" is the same no matter if you type it on a $5 or $125 keyboard. What will make a difference is how comfortable you are in using them, and if you need features (extra buttons, macros, higher resolution) that some models provide.
from a performance point of view, they are negligible so you can pick whichever case you prefer. the difference is how much maintenance you'll have to do over time years down the road.
with that said, I prefer the storm enforcer because the fan configuration is more "balanced". a large intake fan vs a small exhaust fan. it's "balanced" because most people neglect the fact that powersupply and videocards BOTH have exhaust fans and the large intake fan balances them out.
the antec has 2 intake fan and 2 exhaust fans (not to mention one of the exhaust fan is a large fan) together with powersupply fan and video card fan, the case becomes negatively pressured which means additional dust inside the case which degrads thermal performance over time.
the key to silence is to have as few moving parts as possible. on top of that, large and slow spinning fans also contribute to a quieter build. a large fans(at lower RPM) is capable of supply the same amount of cooling air as smaller fans at high RPM. the KEY is to determin how much airflow you ACTUALLY need to keep the system operating normally. alot of people go overboard on cooling and they end up with a machine that sounds like it's built by pratt and whitney.
to keep the machine worry free, you want ALL of the air going into the case through a filtered source. that can only be accomplished through a positive pressure case. negative pressure case will suck air/dust in from any/all opening air can come in from. if you have ever examined a old computer, you'd find dust in all kinds of places that you wouldn't want dust in. CD ROM player, floppy drives, even USB and audio plugs are all sources where dust can accumulate in a negatively pressured case. and this is just an "external" account of dust. internally, dust accumulate on fans, video card fan/heatsink, CPU fan/heatsink, and inside the powersupply. in drastic cases, the dust can actually catch on fire inside the powersupply:D
I see you had your eyes on a pretty pricey keyboard. Most have adviced against that. But I myself bought an expensive keyboard a couple of years ago and I haven't regretted it.
I'm not for LCD and macros, but I wanted a quality gaming keyboard. So I bought the top of the line from steelseries.
http://steelseries.com/products/keyboards/steelseries-7g
Now I'm writing this because the keyboard is a fire and forget sort of thing. You won't be upgrading it any time soon and so it can be seen as a sensible buy, to go for longevity and quality when in use. It certainly adds to the feel, when using the computer. Just like getting some good audio, and a good screen does too.
hehe the keyboard and mouse technology i'm looking forward to is currently under development at MIT
check out the speed and resolution of the movement on this thing:D
it's been 16 years since Johnny Mnemonic, but I think they are finally getting close with that glove and OLED 3D technology:D maybe another 4 years? and i'll be able to make that phone call to Bei Jing the way Johnny did:D
bought all my parts and waiting for them in the mail but the OS
quick question about that.
OEM windows 7 seems to be the cheapest i can buy it for, still freaking 100 bucks. anyway.
is it really true that you can only install it and activate it on 1 computer only? and if you try to do it on a 2nd it wont work(rather you can install it without activating but it'll not work after 30 days)?
is that the same for retail version? and is it the same for a windows 7 upgrade copy?
Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!
You can install a retail version on more than one computer, but not simultaneously. If you buy a retail version, and then replace your computer, you can uninstall Windows from the old computer and install it on the new one instead. The retail version costs twice as much as the OEM version, though.
You know how you buy a bunch of different parts and then assemble them? Think of buying the OS license as paying for all of the parts to magically work together and run the software you want, as that's largely what the OS does. We take it for granted today, but it's actually very hard to do, and Microsoft is very good at it. Try running Linux on your new computer if you don't believe me.
well.... google is definately taking a really hard whack at it:D if google is smart, they'd encurage more game development on the android platform using openGL and openCL and maybe get a jump on the early adapters. if they play their cards right, they'll give microsoft a real run for their money:D
IMO the market is prime for a "gameOS". no i'm not talking about a console or a handheld, but a full blown OS that has a primary focus on games. if android can tap into that market, i think it will compete very well with microsoft.