Bit Phoenix Prodigy Build vs Military Corsair Vengeance C70 Build

Infam0us

Infam0us

Infam0us

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Hi guys,

Hoping people can help me make a decision here. I'm looking to build a new more up to date PC in a month or two that will be able to handle BF4 and ArmA 3.

I'm torn between making a ITX build in a Bit Phoenix Prodigy as I love the case design and its portability and size.

Or whether I should make a military themed full tower build inside a Green Corsair Vengeance.

The only thing holding me back on the Prodigy is that it has no room for a soundcard and I'm concerned that the a USB X-Fi won't be as good as what I'm used to in my current rig (Asus DX2) that and also can it be possible to build a powerful enough PC inside one for todays latest games? I'm also a fan of the relatively less expensive parts for the case too.

If I were to make a build inside a Vengeance C70 with the window I'd want everything inside to be matching so that it looks the part, but looking at builds on here that seems quite expensive if you want to go down that route.

What are peoples opinions on here? :)
 
The advantage of itx is size, the.advantage of ATX is upgradability.

You could set up an ATX rig so you can just add a second GPU in six months time and see a massive increase.

You can make a nice black and dark blue build..

You got any bits you can reuse?
 
Doomedspeed said:
The advantage of itx is size, the.advantage of ATX is upgradability.

You could set up an ATX rig so you can just add a second GPU in six months time and see a massive increase.

You can make a nice black and dark blue build..

You got any bits you can reuse?
Click to expand...

True, I just love the look of that prodigy! I'd imagine upping the CPU and GPU in a case like that would'nt be too difficult over the years, only the mobo would cause an issue?

My current rig is as follows ...

AMD FX-4100
8GB Kingston Hyper X DDR3
M5A78L Asus Mobo
GTX570 PNY
128GB Kingston SSD
Asus DX2 Sound
3 Storage HDD
Corsair CX 600W Non Modular PSU
Lancool K58 Case


I'm hoping to buy a single 1 or 2TB HDD so I can ditch having 3 HDD that I've collected over the years and just merge them all into one and maybe adding another SSD for games storage. I'll be looking at getting a Modular PSU to go with this build too as the current one I have does'nt and its a pain having to hide all those wires individually and make it tidy.

I'd like the build to look as clean as possible inside if its going to have a sidewindow so I was even considering buying sleeved cables.

In this regard a C70 is probably a lot easier to work with. Its just I can't choose between either of them :p
 
Difficult choice! :D

I am not that keen on a ITX build because I dislike being limited to that size and lack of features (like a multi GPU). The prodigy is a very good looking case but you could possibly loose out on some upgradeabilty and compatibility with some things.
 
Smoogels said:
Difficult choice! :D

I am not that keen on a ITX build because I dislike being limited to that size and lack of features (like a multi GPU). The prodigy is a very good looking case but you could possibly loose out on some upgradeabilty and compatibility with some things.
Click to expand...

True, I probably won't be having 2 GFX cards though :) I keep swaying back and forth between the two as I've seen some fantastic builds in the Prodigy but I really like the styling of the Vengeance.

Just seen the new colour designs for the Phoenix too which are trying to help me into making my decision :p
 
A budget would have helped bud. In a couple of months Haswell should be out so any specs we do now will be obselete. However I'll take a crack at styling something.....

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x MSI Z77 MPower Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 ATX Motherboard with FREE F1 RC Car & MSI HDD Enclosure £149.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD250BW) ** Cash Back Promo ** £131.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance C70 Midi Tower Gaming Case - Military Green £109.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £99.98
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 1220 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (LGA1155 / LGA1156 / LGA1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM2+ / AM3+) £97.58
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (S (HD-255-SE) £62.40
1 x Avexir MPower Yellow Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CM) £40.00
Total : £886.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Mobo has wifi and bluetooth included along with some other nice freebies thrown in as extras. It can Xfire/Sli properly hence the 850W silver rated PSU.
 
Hono, for once you didn't take your theme far enough:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x MSI Z77 MPower Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 ATX Motherboard with FREE F1 RC Car & MSI HDD Enclosure £149.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance C70 Midi Tower Gaming Case - Military Green £109.99
1 x Akasa Venom 850w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £89.99
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £82.99
1 x Akasa Venom Medusa Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £60.35
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) HDD £56.99
1 x Avexir MPower Yellow Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CM) £40
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 24pin ATX extension 30cm - Black £8.99
1 x DimasTech Push Button Switch (16mm) Alternate Action - Yellow LED £6.98
1 x Lian Li SATA-ST90Y SAS / SATA II 90cm Cable - Yellow £4.99
Total : £806.24 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
honosuseri said:
A budget would have helped bud. In a couple of months Haswell should be out so any specs we do now will be obselete. However I'll take a crack at styling something.....
Click to expand...

Infam0us said:
Sorry should have added that my budget will be around £800ish
Click to expand...
:)

I take it you are both of the opinion I should buy a C70 :p Would it be worth sticking some Corsair fans in there rather than the stock ones? I'd like it to be fairly quiet too :)
 
haha fair enough bud. Each to their own, I had no budget to balance to and as I said he might well build on a different socket anyway ;)

I used the large CLC as it will look nice through the window, a large heatsink will hide the "military class" branding. With the waterblock and pump being so low profile it allows you to see more of the internals. He can upgrade the stock fans in time (push/pull) to get even better cooling performance.

He'd be in a similar situation for a prodigy build as some tower heatsinks can overhang the PCI-E slot for the GPU on the tiny mobo (not good). So a CLC or watercooling is very popular in Prodigy builds.
 
I would get an ATX case as it allows more room for components thus easier to work with :)

If you're going to LAN meets etc then a Prodigy might be worth considering :p
 
It seems you have decided for me then :P

Is the C70 easy to cable manage? Are the Front Header connectors all black too as I can't see on the screenshots of it. I'd consider buying sleeving for all the visible cables on the front to match the colour scheme.

Also is there any reason you chose that CPU cooler honosuseri above a Corsair one? I was just wondering as I find the Corsair one better to look at and matches the case :)
 
You can use the H100i if you want. The Antec is the same really with the LED on the pump but the fans should be quieter. If you think you'll upgrade the stock fans then sure go with the corsair CLC if you wanted.

I do a few Prodigy specs. Thing is the Z77N mini-itx mobo (£90ish) is voltage locked. This limits overclocking potential, to get a mobo with the voltage adjustment you are looking £150ish. I think I'd rather have the larger mobo myself with better features and expansion possibilities but each to their own.
 
The c70 is definetely the right choice, for an ITX case the prodigy is really quite big.
i have the C70 and it is very easy to cable manage there are plenty of cable tie hooks on the rear and big clips to keep the bigger cables together i'll have to check the header cables can't remember if they're all black.

*EDIT* the cables for the power button hdd led etc are black and white.
 
Last edited:
Well the Phoenix build was just because I could see its potential as a small, discreet gaming rig with a lot of power. But the C70 is more likely to be a long term investment with the option to upgrade and change in future years so probably more sensible.

Dom are the cables noticeable through the window for the front headers or do they blend in because they are black cables on a black background? I would buy sleeves for them but I'm not sure you can. I'll be looking to sleeve the rest though :)

Looks like I'll be going with the green C70 with a Black and Yellow theme on the inside then! Would you guys recommend any LED lights or is that taking it too far? Also what Yellow and Black GFX are around at the moment to match the Z77, I'll probably stick a new one in soon if I'm doing the rest.

Also my last question for now is, is there a large jump in performance from a AMD FX-4100 to a 3570K?

Thanks :)
 
I can't see the cables tbh the best thing is that there is a cable management hole right below where they need to be on your motherboard.

Yeah there is quite abit of difference between the two in favour of the 3570k in games anyway.

With the LED's in the case i'm not a big fan of them but it's all down to personnel taste.
 
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