Have a few criteria for new case, but overwhelmed! Help me:)

I'm pretty new here, so I've been reading a lot and asking questions when I have them, but I'm still having a lot of trouble picking a case.

I've learned a few things, like you generally shouldn't trust a supplied PSU, water cooling isn't for me, and this thing is gonna be way more expensive than I thought. I don't know anything about overclocking, but I'd like to learn, so a quality cooling case is important.

I have a budget that tops out around $100, especially considering I'll have to buy a PSU seperately for another ~$100. Originally it was my hope to get both wrapped up for $60-$80, but it doesn't seem like that option provides well with a decent system inside.

That said, here's my planned system:

AMD 64 "Venice" 3200+
eVGA 256mb 7800 GT
unknown mobo, probably DFI LanParty
unknown ram, probably 2x1gb Crucial ValueSelect
unknown hdd, probably 2-300gb Seagate Barracuda
unknown disk drive, some kind of dvd/cd rw

So.. I have a lot more work to do, hehe.

The main requirement I have for the case is simply that it be black and silver with blue LEDs, if any, to match the rest of my computer. I only plan on using 1 disk drive, 1 hard drive, and probably no floppy so don't need tons of room for that stuff. I would like some front/top USB ports and a headphone jack, if possible.


I like the Aspire X-Navigator, it looks great and with that PSU, is a nice price. Also, the AeroCool SpiralGalaxy that wusy has been talking about is cool too, now that I've figured out how it works. I wish the silver and black were switched though, heh.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any and all help!

Skip the BTX case. You'll fin good value and price in the Coolermaster RC-531. It is avail with or without the PSU. For $99 you get the case with side window and the Hipro 450W PSU and that PSU is a good option with your rig.

Thanks. And I just realized the AeroCool case is ATX, not BTX like some dumb review said that got me all worried.

If you buy the eVGA 7800GT from www.zipzoomfly.com or www.tigerdirect.com you can get it with a free motherboard. A reasonably good, well performing, stable free motherboard.

LIES! I've NEVER had to use a floppy to load Windows on an SATA drive. Never.

All versions of XP support nVidia's SATA controller with their own generic drivers. I'm fairly sure 98 does too, using the generic dual-FIFO IDE controller driver. That only leaves you as the problem, so you're the only person in the world that needs a floppy to instal an SATA disk in non-RAID mode using the nForce4 SATA controller.

I got a few others here, ATI's SATA controller is also supported by XP using built-in generic drivers. So is the controller on the 875 and 865 chipsets. And ULi's integrated disk controller.

I haven't tested most of the other controllers, just ATI, Intel, ULi, and nVidia.