Hey guys,
I'm feeling old and my mortgage deposit flees laughingly ahead of me, so obviously the only solution is new PC parts. Specifically, I need a case and motherboard to sustain a 2500K or 2600K with a moderate overclock and not too much noise. And I'm bored of my moderately large Akasa Zen, would like to shave some inches off if possible.
Motherboard needs...
- 1x PCI-E: SLI/x-fire not required, but won't moan if it's available
- 1x PCI, as I'm rather in love with my old X-Fi soundcard
- Ready for Ivy Bridge next year. Let's not waste the only time Intel are being nice with sockets!
- Any chipset that'll overclock the CPU
Optimally the case would be as small as an mATX case can be and:
- 2x 5.25" bays (blu-ray and front plate for X-Fi)
- 1x 3.5" floppy bay would be a bonus for a fan controller, but not vital
- not have vents on the top, as I have a habit of sitting my A4 Wacom tablet on it. (I'd negotiate a new location if this were a major cooling issue
)
- having quiet cooling options (big, slow fans?)
- being able to fit an MSI Twin Frozr 6870 (in the region of 10.5-11 inches I think)
*edit* Also might need a cooler! I have a Zalman 9700A at the mo, which I think fits on 1155 but may well not. And might not fit in an mATX case...
Thanks for thoughts!
I'm feeling old and my mortgage deposit flees laughingly ahead of me, so obviously the only solution is new PC parts. Specifically, I need a case and motherboard to sustain a 2500K or 2600K with a moderate overclock and not too much noise. And I'm bored of my moderately large Akasa Zen, would like to shave some inches off if possible.
Motherboard needs...
- 1x PCI-E: SLI/x-fire not required, but won't moan if it's available
- 1x PCI, as I'm rather in love with my old X-Fi soundcard

- Ready for Ivy Bridge next year. Let's not waste the only time Intel are being nice with sockets!
- Any chipset that'll overclock the CPU

Optimally the case would be as small as an mATX case can be and:
- 2x 5.25" bays (blu-ray and front plate for X-Fi)
- 1x 3.5" floppy bay would be a bonus for a fan controller, but not vital
- not have vents on the top, as I have a habit of sitting my A4 Wacom tablet on it. (I'd negotiate a new location if this were a major cooling issue

- having quiet cooling options (big, slow fans?)
- being able to fit an MSI Twin Frozr 6870 (in the region of 10.5-11 inches I think)
*edit* Also might need a cooler! I have a Zalman 9700A at the mo, which I think fits on 1155 but may well not. And might not fit in an mATX case...
Thanks for thoughts!

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