Hey Tom's Hardware Community,
My GPU and CPU temps have been running really high lately (CPU runs 70-80*C under full load and GPU runs 80-90*C under full load) and my mATX case has very poor circulation and has no space for an aftermarket cooler. My hope is to upgrade the case and reuse that case for a later build. I plan on purchasing / putting together my very first PC in Decemberish, and I have all the parts planned out. I could buy the case now, disassemble the PC I currently have and reassemble it in the new case. I figured it'll give me some practice building it and will help me fully understand how the innards work and stuff. I've had this pre-built Gateway FX Gaming PC for almost four years now, and the temps have been scaring me a little bit. I've doing tons of research regarding how to build PCs...
But anyways - My plan is to buy the Antec Three Hundred from Fry's Electronics ($55). I was looking at the case and I know it says it's mATX compatible, but it seems as though two standoff holes don't line up / aren't there.
See this picture:
That's a Foxconn G33m motherboard I have, and the Antec Three Hundred case (and all other cases I've looked at for that matter) don't have those two bottom right standoff holes, (circled in red) but have all the other ones (circled in green / blue). Is this normal? My mobo dimension is 9.6 x 9.6inches. Will the motherboard be okay leaving those two standoffs unscrewed / unsecured? I've read that the mobo can snap when installing the GPU / RAM.
Also, is this a good choice for a case? I narrowed it down to this versus the Rosewill Challenger ($50) and the Haf 912 ($60) My budget is ~$60, preferably on the cheaper side. The pros for the Antec 300 / Haf 912 is that they're in stock at the local Fry's and I'll be able to return them easily if something goes wrong. The Haf912 & Antec 300 was very well received. The downside is the price. The Challenger comes with three fans, which is a nice plus, it's the cheapest, has good reviews and a good size. I don't want anything too bulky. I'm on a very tight budget here.
ALSO, here's the new build parts I chose, will the PSU be sufficient? Antec NEO ECO 520watt. Any other suggestions?
Build 1:
CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE ($120)
Mobo: Asus M5A97 ($100)
RAM: Wintec AMPX 4gb (2 x 2gb) DDR3 @ 1333mhz ($27)
GPU: Nvidia [MSI] GTX 460 ($160)
PSU: Antec NEO ECO 520watt ($55)
Optical Drive: Lite-On Black Sata 18x ($25)
HDD: Western Digital 500gb @ 7200rpm ($45)
Case: Rosewill Challenger ($50)
=$582
Thanks for reading. I figured I'd put all my questions into one nice thread
,
-Penn
My GPU and CPU temps have been running really high lately (CPU runs 70-80*C under full load and GPU runs 80-90*C under full load) and my mATX case has very poor circulation and has no space for an aftermarket cooler. My hope is to upgrade the case and reuse that case for a later build. I plan on purchasing / putting together my very first PC in Decemberish, and I have all the parts planned out. I could buy the case now, disassemble the PC I currently have and reassemble it in the new case. I figured it'll give me some practice building it and will help me fully understand how the innards work and stuff. I've had this pre-built Gateway FX Gaming PC for almost four years now, and the temps have been scaring me a little bit. I've doing tons of research regarding how to build PCs...
But anyways - My plan is to buy the Antec Three Hundred from Fry's Electronics ($55). I was looking at the case and I know it says it's mATX compatible, but it seems as though two standoff holes don't line up / aren't there.
See this picture:
That's a Foxconn G33m motherboard I have, and the Antec Three Hundred case (and all other cases I've looked at for that matter) don't have those two bottom right standoff holes, (circled in red) but have all the other ones (circled in green / blue). Is this normal? My mobo dimension is 9.6 x 9.6inches. Will the motherboard be okay leaving those two standoffs unscrewed / unsecured? I've read that the mobo can snap when installing the GPU / RAM.
Also, is this a good choice for a case? I narrowed it down to this versus the Rosewill Challenger ($50) and the Haf 912 ($60) My budget is ~$60, preferably on the cheaper side. The pros for the Antec 300 / Haf 912 is that they're in stock at the local Fry's and I'll be able to return them easily if something goes wrong. The Haf912 & Antec 300 was very well received. The downside is the price. The Challenger comes with three fans, which is a nice plus, it's the cheapest, has good reviews and a good size. I don't want anything too bulky. I'm on a very tight budget here.
ALSO, here's the new build parts I chose, will the PSU be sufficient? Antec NEO ECO 520watt. Any other suggestions?
Build 1:
CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE ($120)
Mobo: Asus M5A97 ($100)
RAM: Wintec AMPX 4gb (2 x 2gb) DDR3 @ 1333mhz ($27)
GPU: Nvidia [MSI] GTX 460 ($160)
PSU: Antec NEO ECO 520watt ($55)
Optical Drive: Lite-On Black Sata 18x ($25)
HDD: Western Digital 500gb @ 7200rpm ($45)
Case: Rosewill Challenger ($50)
=$582
Thanks for reading. I figured I'd put all my questions into one nice thread
,-Penn
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