Which case which psu

FreeBradleyM

FreeBradleyM

FreeBradleyM

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Gents;

I'm planning on building myself a nice new PC based around a Sabertooth TUF P67 MoBo, a sandy bridge i5 2500k quad core processor and the nvidia HD 560 Ti graphics card. The cooling will most likely be the 'Be quiet! Dark rock advanced'.

I've hit a snag however, in that i have no idea which case or PSU to buy to be compatible with all these parts. My fear is getting a case in that simply doesn't fit, or finding that my choices in hardware don't fit into standard cases.

I'm not looking for anything flash as i'm aiming to customise the case to look awful and therefore unstealable.

I'm reckoning my power output will be about 600W maybe? I'm not sure: this seems to be the most complicated step so far!

Any pointers will be greatly appreciated!
Cheers x
 
Well, if you say customising the case to look awful, then I wouldn't get anything silverstone or lian li, because defacing those cases would be sacrelige. :p

What do you want from a case?
Lots of bling/LEDs? A window to show off your hardware? Something subtle and unobtrusive - something you don't want to see/hear when you're using it?
How many hard drives? Will you use an internal optical drive?

Price?

With your specs, no need for a high end case and crazy number of fans.
PSU - something ~600 to 700W allowing room for upgrades.
 
I'm not wanting to commit sacrilege- I'm making the box look rough as the proverbial so when (and i mean when) the local G*s break into my house they skip twokking my hardware and instead go for my flatmate' s 3 year old but *shiny* laptop :D
A few LEDs wouldn't be out of the question, and unobtrusive is the way forward but in terms of noise i don't mind too much. I just need it kinda cool 'cause most of my parts are going to be overclocked. I don't mind taking a drill to it if it'll need 'optimizing', btw.
My budget for case and psu is around 100-150. I want a budget but functional PSU that won't 'fry my parts', but the case just has to exist, not blow anyone away.
 
Well someone here has that TUF board in a white fractal define R3, which is pretty nice, and when it's all sealed up it looks very sober.
I've got a define mini, and can certainly vouch for its functionality while not attracting unwanted attention.
~£85 for that leaves you £60 ish for a PSU such as this one.

There's also the coolermaster CM-690, which has a lot of good reviews.

Corsair 600T is on TWO, which might be worth a look.

Otherwise you could get an even cheaper case like an antec 100, which gives you more to spend on a nice PSU like a corsair AX or HX series (~650W).

Others to consider - Lian li A05, bitfenix shinobi.
 
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Will all of those recommendations be compatible with my mobo? My issue lies in all of the parts fitting together. Are psu modules standard or do they only work in certain cases?
 
Should be no problem at all.
The only issues arise when you want to use some ridiculously long video card, or a long (1000+ W) PSU, or say an eatx or larger motherboard, etc...

But a GTX560 will barely extend beyond the width of the board, i5 2500k doesn't need crazy cooling if you only go for a mild overclock. All pretty standard stuff, so case compatibility isn't much of a worry.

Oh and all the decent ~600W psus are relatively short - around 15/16cm long, so should be no problem to fit into any case.
Modular cables are a bonus, but not really a necessity for any decent mid tower.

Here - scroll down the page to post #5006 which has a white fractal R3 and that motherboard in it.
 
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Thanks, brother. That's just what I wanted to hear :)

The i5 is destined to be overclocked to 4.7Gz. It *should* be able to handle most high spec games with that (hopefully).

Good tip off about the R3 on that post but its just too *nice*- i couldn't mess that up; it'd break my heart. Tempted by the Antec 300 and nice psu idea at the moment. Maybe an Antec TruePower New TP-650-; it comes highly rated and its less than £100. That sound sensible?
 
No problem. :)

If you're looking at that antec psu, I'd rather spend less than £5 more and get a corsair hx650 with the 7 year warranty. The antec psu is very good though, so fine to go for it.

Also looking at the pictures, the bitfenix shinobi looks quite a bit nicer than the antec 300, seeing as they're pretty much the same price.
Antec 300 is a solid case though - I've used one, and no complaints for a mid range build.

And I forgot to mention - the xigmatek asgard. Very cheap, looks decent as well. I might go for that over the above two.

Difficult to pick a case which is suitable for beating up! :D
 
Oh hell yeah: the Xigmatek Asgard looks like a winner. I'll keep looking in terms of the psu, but that corsair is pretty damn nice! Not so nice i feel bad masking tape-ing the hell out of it though...

Thanks for all your help by the way mate :)
 
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