MasterDex Posted December 30, 2011 Report Share Posted December 30, 2011 It's more about functionality with me but I like to get something stylish while I'm at it too, especially since I keep my PCs raised up at eye level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Posted December 30, 2011 Report Share Posted December 30, 2011 I have never seen a PC case that wasn't either a minimalistic box or something insanely obnoxious-looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterDex Posted December 30, 2011 Report Share Posted December 30, 2011 I have never seen a PC case that wasn't either a minimalistic box or something insanely obnoxious-looking. I'd say those cases you've never seen make up the bulk of the market. I wouldn't call the Storm Trooper or Thor OTT or minimalistic, I think they strike a nice balance between the two. Similarly, the other popular choices of the Antec 900, 1200 and 300 along with the HAF series lie either side of the scale with the HAF cases being a bit more boisterous than your average case and the Antecs being more subdued but still having some pizzaz. I guess it's all down to personal taste though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted December 30, 2011 Report Share Posted December 30, 2011 (edited) My current case is a big black steel antec box, but I need a new one for my next build. I want something that won't scare away folks who possess two X chromosomes since this new PC will be chilling in my living room. But I also want something sleeker than my current case, and I hear new cases have all sorts of amenities, like breakaway panels for easy access and cable solutions of all kinds. Edit: MasterDex, anything with a handle on top is OTT IMHO. At least it seems female-repellent. Edited December 30, 2011 by Mr. GOH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Posted December 30, 2011 Report Share Posted December 30, 2011 This is what a PC case should look like IMO. Most cases I find with good room seem to be designed by a 10-year-old transformers fan 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterDex Posted December 31, 2011 Report Share Posted December 31, 2011 (edited) Edit: MasterDex, anything with a handle on top is OTT IMHO. At least it seems female-repellent. I wholeheartedly disagree. I think a handle on top should be standard. Why do you think it's over the top? It serves a purpose and one that anyone with a full, fitted tower should be glad of. Let's face it, carrying a hulking rig to and from it's station to work on it and clean it can be a pain and always carries the risk that a slip could happen. A handle on top, while not eliminating that risk altogether, certainly mitigates the chances of it happening. This is what a PC case should look like IMO. Most cases I find with good room seem to be designed by a 10-year-old transformers fan That's 100% minimalistic and not very functional from the looks of it. First off, it has a door on the front, eliminating a good amount of possible ventilation and foiling many hopes of adding front panels for something like an audio card, etc - unless of course you don't mind keeping the door open all the time but then what's the point of it in the first place? I'm going to assume that both sides don't have any ventilation based on the side shown, making it even more impractical for a serious gaming system. Granted, it's a fine case for a workstation but not for a gaming PC. As for the transformers comment, take a look at the Haf series. They're 99% function - apart from the LEDs and window but the case design itself is designed primarily for function over form, I believe the same is true of the Storm Trooper. I understand the aesthetic appeal of minimalistic design but I find it a bit narrow-minded to label anything that's not of a minimalistic/traditional design as OTT. /nerdrant over. Edited December 31, 2011 by MasterDex 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted December 31, 2011 Report Share Posted December 31, 2011 The types I like are like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139001 However they are usually about $100 more than the other stuff. Last time I couldn't spend that $100 more but maybe next time when I replace my case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted December 31, 2011 Report Share Posted December 31, 2011 I would guess that the one Johnny posted has a vent on the other side, but I agree that it needs space for ventilation on the front. Here's mine, Antec Nine Hundred: Aside from the LEDs I don't think it's OTT, everything about it is very functional. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Posted December 31, 2011 Report Share Posted December 31, 2011 Oh, I agree, add vents. I just couldn't find one that added vents without adding weird bad-sci-fi-spaceship-looking details and LEDs all over the place and whatever else. EDIT: I think I have found the most ridiculous PC case there is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterDex Posted December 31, 2011 Report Share Posted December 31, 2011 I remember that one! I like it, I wouldn't buy it myself but it's a very modern looking case. I looked up that case you pictured earlier. It does have fans at the front behind the door so it's got some ventilation anyway. It does have noise-reducing foam though which I find traps heat inside the case. The last case I had that had that was terrible for heat dissipation...until I ripped out all that foam. It also had a door to it, as did my current one. They were taken off as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted December 31, 2011 Report Share Posted December 31, 2011 I think the problem is that for years a PC was nothing more than a beige box. Now many PCs are a black or white box. Apple struck a nice balance in terms of minimalism as style (ripping off Braun designs from the 60s but that's another story.) A friend of mine owns this case which I think is a bit crazy but I give the company an A+ for effort. If we're gonna go classic cool, I'd be more apt to be inspired by a Scott 299C Hi-Fi Stereo receiver. But in the real world, my case sits below the desk so I rarely see it. If I build a HTPC in the future, I want a stylish case that looks at home in the living room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterDex Posted December 31, 2011 Report Share Posted December 31, 2011 If I build a HTPC in the future, I want a stylish case that looks at home in the living room. The first case you have there would be nice for a living room, especially since it can double up as a TV/Monitor stand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteer01 Posted January 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2012 Not sure whether the 7950 will be worth it, yet. I'd wait to see how it performs. http://www.guru3d.com/news/amd-radeon-hd-7950-delayed-to-february-week-1/ Or...maybe not wait now? Not sure if that's legit or not...but I wouldn't be surprise. It'll be interesting to see what the 7970 (if there is no 7950 released along with it) does to 580 and 570 pricing... lol, glad I'm not the only one who instantly thought "storm trooper". No. You can count me as well. You guys get super fancy cases. I tend to get cheap boxes and add a good PSU and some fans to them. That was my initial plan, but then I started reading some reviews and thinking, "If I'm going to spend the money on a decent CPU cooler, I should also get a decent case that will keep things cool! (That review had some persuasive bar graphs) I got a fancier case this last time I built a computer. The time before I'd cheaped out on the case and there was barely enough room inside (especially for the video card) and it hardly had any places to put fans, and I didn't want to repeat that mistake. But I didn't go as fancy as any of that, I still only spent $100 on it. I know it's not $100...but $109 is pretty close, and that's what the one day NewEgg e-mail price for it was. That's actually the component (that and the 2500K were both on sale on the same day) that I first added to my cart before deciding to just build the whole PC. The Thor is definitely not as abonoxious as it could be. I would have been happy with something minimalistic and functional...but for what I paid and how well it functions, I probably would have bought it if it was a lime green version of the case Johnny posted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteer01 Posted January 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2012 Everything is put together and works! My friend came over yesterday with his 6970 and we plugged it in to make sure everything works. Another friend is sending me (it's in transit now) his old Radeon 8800 so I have a graphics card to use until I pull the trigger. As I mentoned in my post above (which was long when it was just replies to people) it looks like the 7950 may be delayed until February, so I'm likely going to order a graphics card after the 7970 is released, and see how pricing looks on everything that's available. I'd probably be happy with a ATX 570, but if some combination of mail-in-rebate, instant savings, NewEgg special and/or price drops can get a 580 near $400 (I'd say $419 and below is near, and $429's not), and the 7970's +$500 and the 7950's isn't out yet...I'll probably buy a 580. Anyway, new monitor is awesome. Only 23"...nothing crazy, but for what I spent, I'm thrilled with it. The memory doesn't quite fit without moving it forward just a few millimeters to fit the giant heatsink fan on the EVGA Supercooler, but it does fit and work fine...it's just making contact with the fan case at the top of the memory/bottom of the fan case. I'm not worried about it. The four case fans on the Thor are way quieter than I expected...and by that, I mean that the CPU fan and GPU fan will almost certainly make it impossible to tell the difference between high and low on the case fans. The motherboard has four ports for case fans, so I'm tempted to plug all four case fans directly into the motherboard and either run them at high or set behavior based on the internal temperature. (Still need to play around with all the BIOS options when I get a video card back in this thing.) We ran Windows Experience scores (or whatever they're called), and came up with 7.5, 7.8, 7.9, 7.9, 7.9...without overclocking anything, and I'm thinking that since CPU with 7.5 and RAM with 7.8 are the off scores, with some overclocking, I could possibly hit all 7.9s. To which, of course, my reaction would be: (Am I the only one who thinks of figure skating when looking at the Windows scores?) Anyway, the other thing I need to share is that the SSD makes a night and day difference. I absolutely could not believe what an impact it made, and I thought I had high expectations before it blew them away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteer01 Posted January 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 FYI: I've been gaming on my new PC using a friend's old 8800GT for the last five days or so. It's good enough that I'm not rushing to purchase something at midnight tonight, but I'm definitely interested to see what the 7970 release does to graphics card prices. If anyone sees a good deal on a reasonably high end card in the near future, please keep me in mind. (My motherboard means that SLI/Crossfire is not an option, so while I know those setups can provide good bang for the buck, they're not for me...for the next few years at least.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteer01 Posted January 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 So I celebrated destroying my Cisco exam by destroying my computer budget. I went home and ordered this: With that, I should be completely good to go. In addition to the first two orders in the initial post, I got a G13, web cam, 72-in-1 (or whatever crazy number they're using these days) card readers for the 2.5" bay and a SL231DPB 23" 1920x1080 monitor. With the 7970 being powerful enough for single card eyefinity, who knows, maybe I'll pick up another two monitors after we move into a house with room. For now, I'm just super excited about putting this final piece of the puzzle in my PC and playing some games with beautiful graphics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteer01 Posted January 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2012 (edited) Alright, that'll be my last post in this thread unless someone else wants to talk about my PC or something else relevant to this thread. (Edit: Updated images) Edited January 21, 2012 by peteer01 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterDex Posted January 12, 2012 Report Share Posted January 12, 2012 Did you benchmark any games on your new PC yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteer01 Posted January 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2012 (edited) Did you benchmark any games on your new PC yet? Not yet. Just downloaded 3DMark2011, which I'll run this evening, but I am on my way back to work. I own DX:HR, Portal 2 and L.A. Noire...any of those a particularly good choice? How would I benchmark a game? I've got the 2500K set to 4.5GHz (x45). Intel Burn Test standard run (x10), maxed out at 68C, which is acceptable, with 4.5GHz. No problems whatsoever. My computer is chillin' like a...well, like a computer that's below it's 72.8 recommended level, and should be stable at 4.5GHz for all my purposes. The 7970 also works like a charm. I've tried overclocking that too, but I don't even know how to turn on FPS output, and maxing out everything, including 3x AA (max) and 4x Anisotropic Filtering with Ambient Occlusion (max) doesn't slow it down any without overclocking. Since I can't slow the frame rate at stock settings, and I don't know how to benchmark or measure FPS, I don't know what the best way to benchmark things would be. Any suggestions? Edit: http://3dmark.com/3dm11/2535268 P8998 3DMarks 3DMark Score P8998 Graphics Score 9304 Physics Score 8178 Combined Score 8215 GraphicsTest1 40.69 FPS GraphicsTest2 46.83 FPS GraphicsTest3 57.07 FPS GraphicsTest4 28.23 FPS PhysicsTest 25.96 FPS CombinedTest 38.21 FPS Is that good? Double Edit: Super ghetto (three monitors of different resolutions and two different sized) Eyefinity in Deus Ex was surprisingly fun! Super trippy. Not sure how much I'll want to play that way regularly, but enough that I'm considering picking up another two monitors of the same make as my 23" if they go on sale again. :-P http://3dmark.com/3dm11/2591443 (P9046 3DMarks) Edited January 21, 2012 by peteer01 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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