cases and your opinions on planned rig, video card

[ben8128]

Hey everyone I noticed that we don't have any "case" section under components and whenever I build a system I always wonder about the case and its quaity as well as the quality of the power supply (usually built in). My planned system:
AMD Tbred (when they come out)
Epox or Asus mobo (with the latest 166 fsb, probably VIA KT333)
around 120 GB HD (prob Maxtoror some other company)
All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV or Radeon 8500 + TV Tuner card
256 MB DDR PC2700
16x DVD Drive
24X write CD-RW
Water Cooling (either Innovatek or self-made)

I am a power user and a gamer but I perfer not to overclock. Anyways my question is: What cases do you guys like an use? Please link if possible. I know a common fav. is the Antec 1030 and 1040. What is any of your experinces with this case and others? FYI I found a deal on a Antec 1030B (black) equivalent (some case under a diff. name) It is made by Chieftech at NewEgg: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=11-125-107 . Also is the Antec 300W PSU unit in this case sufficient. I always use only a 300W for AMD systems and I am yet to have any problems. I know people here like the Enermex PSUs but I have also heard good things about the Antec PSUs. Any opinions there?

My last question is about the video cards. I am currenty using an All-In-Wonder Radeon and I love the TV and all of the features. For my new system I wanted to go with either the All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV (which has a very cool RF remote) or a Radeon 8500 plus a seperate TV Tuner. I have seen and used dual monitor support and I love it so that is what I like about the latter config. as well as the slightly lower price and slightly better performance. Any experinces with those?

Thanks in advance for any info. It will help me out a lot. And AMDMeltdown and Intel_Inside please don't get near this board, AMD is better end of that disscusion and it will not melt : )

Ben

 

[Crashman]

Hauppauge has a nice TV tuner with FM tuner if your interested for around $100 that is probably better than what ATI provides on their AIW 8500, you might consider it. They also have a version that does HDTV, something to consider since the entire nation is being forced to switch to this standard soon.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[Guest]

Hmmm I personally would go with a g3 and a seperate TV tuner. Also, why water cooling if you are not overclocking? Seems like a waste of time and money for nothing since your CPU will always be within acceptable temps with approved equipment. I wouldn't bother with water unless you overclocked. I'd suggest 512mb ram, even 384mb would be good. I also only use SCSI for the hdds, but they cost a we bit more.

I'm offended if anything I've said offended you.

Athlon XP 1600+
MSI K7T266 Pro2

 

[ben8128]

I like the 8500 over the GeForce 3 for 2 resons: price and dual monitors. I usaully use HSF cooling but I'm so god damn sick of noisy systems and water cooling seemed like one of the better solutions, also my current system (T-Bird 1.0GHz) is always at about 55 degrees celsius, so water cooling would keep that temp. down quite a bit more on my new system. I might start with 256mb then go up to 384 (due to current high prices), does anyone know of any applications that will benefit from more then 256mb? I was hopeing(sp?) to use IDE ultra133 because I'm just using this system as a home system with data that is not extremely important so the extra cost for SCSI sould most likely not be justifiable.

Keep more comments coming.

Ben

 

[o1die]

I wouldn't waste your money on water cooling. Get a swiftech or thermalright copper heatsink and a fan with adjustable rpm to run quieter.

 

[Guest]

Like he and I said, don't waste your money on water cooling.

For WinXP, 256mb ram is fine, but it's ideal is actually in the 350mb range.

I'm offended if anything I've said offended you.

Athlon XP 1600+
MSI K7T266 Pro2

 

[AMD_Man]

Well, I'll tell you this:

If you get a separate TV Tuner, don't get the ATI TV Wonder. It's not exactly the best TV Tuner ever.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[Faceman]

I was looking for a case section and noticed there isn't one as well, suppose this thread is good enough as any for my question then.

I currently have a 250watt AOpen midi-tower with a Celeron 300A and want to upgrade to an AMD Athlon XP 1600. So I was told I'll need to upgrade my case to a 300watter (at least). So I was wondering, can't I keep my case and just upgrade the power supply to a 300watt one? This would be a cheaper alternative wouldnt it, and I could keep all my stuff where it is (like HDD, CDROM, floppy, etc)?

 

[Matisaro]

Yes faceman, if the case it atx it should be able to support the new mobos.

"The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark"
No Overclock+stock hsf=GOOD!

 

[AndrewT]

Get the Antec <A HREF="http://www.antec-inc.com/product/cases/wkstion.html" target="_new">SX840</A> case, it' so sweet I just want to get one now. My next case.

<font color=red>Handsome A7V133 looking for long term relationship with a XP CPU. Prefer non smoker.</font color=red>

 

[ben8128]

AndrewT: why would the SX840 be better then a SX1030:<A HREF="http://www.antec-inc.com/product/cases/sohoser.html" target="_new">http://www.antec-inc.com/product/cases/sohoser.html</A>?

Any more comments? Thanks

Ben

 

[ben8128]

*BUMP* because I need more help !

 

[ben8128]

Another *BUMP* please help! Or as Adam Sandler put it in Happy Gilmore "a little tap tap tappy tap taperu"

Ben

 

[uraniborg]

I have the antec SX830, and i think its great. im sure the SX840 would be great for an aircooled system, but if you want water cooled, you should get a taller case. the SX1030 series are the same height as the SX830 (20 inch). The full tower SX1240 is 26 inch., and would be better suited to house the radiator/pump if you wanted to have it all inside the case.



<b>uraniborg
<font color=purple>"Brilliant thinkers have often met violent opposition from mediocre minds."

 

[sjonnie]

I have an <A HREF="http://www.aopen.com/products/housing/hq08.htm" target="_new">Aopen HQ08</A> tower case. First case I had with a completely removeable MOBO tray and backplane. This is great, you can simply assemble the whole MOBO and PCI slots out of the case, slide the tray in, attach the cables, and away you go. Much better than trying to squeeze delicate components into a case filled with cables and drives etc. There are fancier (and more expensive) cases, but I think the Aopen is probably a good buy. Comes in smaller sizes also although not sure if this has same MB tray feature. Also no sharp edges to ruin your hands on, assembled a computer in an old case recently and ended up with cuts all over my hands!

 

[Faceman]

"Yes faceman, if the case it atx it should be able to support the new mobos."

Umm, how do I find out if it is atx (and on the subject, what does atx mean)? All I know is it's a midi-tower Aopen 250watt case that houses my Abit BH6 with Celeron 300A CPU and some 128mb PC100 SDRAM.

 

[ben8128]

Another *BUMP*

 

[Faceman]

Thanks
Here's another one, *BUMP*

 

[ben8128]

Faceman...ATX is just a motherboard/case size agreement. Any more recent regular desktop will be ATX as well as a regular motherboard. There is also FlexATX that is used for really small systems as well as Baby ATX and uATX. Sometime they will say ATX, if not you will have to look at the arangement of the conectors. Good luck. Why aren't there more people responding?

 

[arsend]

MOre than likley, the reason most people do not respond as fast to messages is that we all spend most of our time in the other Forums, and this one normally gets forgotten.

To answer the case question, Yes, if you are running a Celerion, you have an ATX case and MB, so purchasing any ATX sized MB will work fine for you. Also, I anyone is looking for great cases, any of the Antec Professional series are great, as well any of the Lian Li cases (If you wan to spend $20-$30 more. I highly recommend a 350-400 Watt Antec, Sparkle or Enermax Powersupply as these will not give you any problems with AMD Multimedia systems; and the 400W version will cost you around $75-$90.

If you plan on having digital recording, want to input HDTV, get the Radeon 8500 with any DTV/HDTV decoder card (these will cost you around $300-$400) If the HD TV is not that important to you know, just get the Radeon AIW 8500-D.

On your HD issue, I recommend buying 3-4 40 GB ATA 133 7200 RPM drives from Maxtor, placing one as the primary (for the OS), and the rest setting them up as a Software enable RAID array following the instructions <A HREF="http://www4.tomshardware.com/howto/01q3/010906/index.html" target="_new">here at Tom's Hardware Guide</A> These same instructions work for Windows XP Professional as well.

I aggree with everyone else that you should avoid watercooling, and purchase a Lian Li case instead, it offers very good cooling and the fans that it uses are top notch and quiet.

If it works for you then don't fix it.