New Case

[girlD6]

I need to purchase a new case for my son he really likes this one:

ASPIRE X-CRUISE -AL Silver Computer Case With Side Panel Window

Aspire Case

Has anyone here had any experience with this case?

Thanks

 

[pengwin]

well many reviews foudn that the sound gague didnt work and tha tit was kinda cramped inside

maybe u should get him an Xnavigator or an Antec PlusView

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129164


15more dollars for a good case from a good company

 

[Rugger]

Just so you know - neither of those cases has a power supply included. The PSU will need to be purchased separately if you don't already have one to use in the case. What are the system components and is this just an upgrade for case appearance?

 

[girlD6]

Motherboard: Gigabyte 8KNXP, 1.x

Processor Pentium 4 2.80 Northwood

Kingston DDR-SDRAM PC3200 -2x 512 Mbytes

Sound Blaster live

eVGA 256-A8-N397-TX Geforce 6800GS (AGP)

NEC 16X DVD±R DVD

This is for an 11 year old. I was planning to use the generic 400w power supply from his old case.

The video card and DVD are the upgrades.

 

[Rugger]

This is for an 11 year old. I was planning to use the generic 400w power supply from his old case.

Nice rig for an 11yo! Are you getting an upgrade for yourself?

Front doors like the X-Cruise have tend to be rather flimsy plastic and break with even nominal usage. The place ment of the front ports on the bottom side would be annoying to me. Although the case can take 120mm fans, the mfr only provides a couple of 80mm fans.

Take a look at the Coolermaster RC-531. Better rail system/layout for drives, comes with a 120mm fan (I would switch it to the rear and use as an exhaust), options for side window or PSU. Here is a Coolermaster RC-531 Review.

A generic 400W PSU puts me on edge. It may work perfectly, but I've seen a lot of PSU related issues - especially lately. I would actually spend a little less on the vid card - get something like this Sapphire X800GTO and put the leftover money in a better PSU. For $110 you can get the Coolermaster RC-531 w/450W PSU and side window. That's about the same price as the case w/o PSU and the 6800GS. Your decision, but it is worth considering.

 

[girlD6]

Thanks for responding.

He wants something with lots of lights something he can show off to his friends. The problem is finding a case that he likes and a good quality. I will get rid of the generic power supply are the two listed here any good.


Aspire

Aspire

The coolermaster RC-531 would be perfect for me since I am build a system for me.

Thanks

 

[girlD6]

I hope you are still here. I order the 6800 from newegg I still have time to cancel. Is the card you have listed here a better choice?


Thanks

 

[Rugger]

Still here - the 6800GS would be a little faster, but I don't think the 6800GS would give him a significant performance increase. Take a quick look at some of THG's vid card comparison charts.

 

[girlD6]

Yes I am building a new system for myself. I am still working on the details for that.

 

[Rugger]

He wants something with lots of lights something he can show off to his friends. The problem is finding a case that he likes and a good quality. I will get rid of the generic power supply are the two listed here any good.

There are options to mod a case after you buy it. It might be a good project for him. It would build more pride/ownership in his rig and give him bragging rights to his buddies. FrozenCPU and Heatsinkfactory.com have a lot of modding options: UV lights, lighted fans, etc. These are relatively easy installs and may be a good project for the two of you to take on together.

 

[Rugger]

Let me know if you want some help with specs on your rig.

 

[girlD6]

What a great idea.

He would love to do something like this. You must be a parent. This is a lot of stress of my shoulders. I can't thank you enough.


Thank You

 

[Rugger]

It's my pleasure. I'm not a parent, but I love doing this kind of thing with my nieces/nephews.

Let ms know how the project goes and if you want any more help...

 

[angry_ducky]

What a great idea.

He would love to do something like this. You must be a parent. This is a lot of stress of my shoulders. I can't thank you enough.


Thank You

I wish my parents were so supportive of my computer/modding/taking stuff apart habit. My mom is clueless about computers, but my dad knows enough to give me a hard time about overclocking my gfx card.

 

[angry_ducky]

Oh, yeah. I like this case (cause I have it), and your son could probably mod the side panel pretty easliy. It's a good price, and a quality product:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119074

It's also available in silver. I wouldn't get an Aspire product, because they're not a well-known brand, and I have some doubts about their quality.

 

[girlD6]

This is the first time since I started this project that I have been excited about it. It's been really stressful three weeks. I want him to be really happy with his new system because he earned it.

I will list the products that I am considering for his new case before I purchase them.

Thanks a million.

 

[angry_ducky]

Yay. Good for you.

 

[Rugger]

Really glad I could help. Your enthusiasm will be infectious! Has he ever helped you assemble a PC before? If not, then this could be his first build. You two get some quality time and he gets to tell his buddies he built his own PC and then show it to them...

 

[Wulf]

Thermaltake and Antec are better quality cases...

 

[girlD6]

This is this our first build together. He is really excited about building his first computer. Last weekend he bought his toolkit from CompUSA he said that he needs his own tools now that he was going to build his computer, it was so cute.


The power supply that comes with the COOLER MASTER Centurion 531 RC-531-SWR2 Silver is it ok or do I need to change it?

I was looking at getting the same case for me but I already purchased this psu:
FSP Group (Fortron Source) FX600-GLN ATX12V/ EPS12V 600W. This case looks like the same case without the psu Cool Master but it’s not PCI express compatible or is it? My video card is PCI-E.


Thank to all of you for your help.

 

[doolittle]

It is great fun, my son is 6 (almost 7) and all he wants to do is help my w/ my builds. So far it is just me holding the power screwdriver and he pushes the button - anything beyond that is more of a hinderance than help if you know what I mean at that age.

Just a comment about the X cruise, my coworker has a black one and it looks nice and some of the parts are cheesey but working. The gauges are a nice touch (and they all work).

this is your power supply? Nice! it looks like it has the pcie in the bundle of conectors... if not the retail box of your gpu should have an adaptor for the HDD 4-pin molex --> pcie connector.

 

[Rugger]

The PSU in the RC-531 is a good PSU. It is not top of the line, but it is dependable and will operate at its rated capacities - something that a lot of generic PSUs can't accomplish.

You must have read the review from the one guy that had issues with the Asus A8N SLI Premium. The only "flange" that I could see from the pics that would have a remote possibility of interfering with a connector going into the top slot was the angled portion of the back panel just below the 120mm fan. Look at this pic. Even then I think it would take a large/cumbersome connector if that angle prevented the connectors installation.

That FSP is really nice. You shouldn't have any issues with powering your system with that beast. Interesting article about some 2 high-power PSUs, including the 700W version of yours. What video card will you be putting in your rig?

 

[girlD6]

SAPPHIRE Radeon X1800XT 100154 Video Card.

 

[Rugger]

Sweet card! I had a Sapphire X800GTO, Fireblade edition, but the GPU fan was LOUD. I replaced it with an HiS IceQII and now the rig is near silent. Another option for reducing the noise is to get an Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 - same people that supply HiS with their quiet HSFs.