what is an ultra tower

Omar1015

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Nov 2, 2014
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Can someone explain what an ultra tower is and the differences between a mini, mid, full, and ultra and if there's any more and what is and ultra tower
 
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Looking at your parts, it's certainly not the system I would build.
The R9 290 has a TDP or 250W while the GTX 970 is faster and has a TDP of 145W.
The FX-8350 has a TDP of 125W while a Core i5 or Core i7 processor that will outperform this in most situations has a TDP of 84W.
The CX series power supplies are ok, but not great quality.
If you do choose the R9 290 and FX-8350, I...
Mini towers are the really small cases you see people have under their TVs for home theatre pcs, mid towers are the average sized towers a majority of people have. Full towers are the ones that people want if they want to do 2-card or 3-card SLI. Ultra towers are the ones made to be able to handle up to 4-card SLI.
 


Home theatre PCs are usually built in home theatre or small form factor cases. Mini towers are the wrong shape to fit with standard AV equipment.
 


Looking at your parts, it's certainly not the system I would build.
The R9 290 has a TDP or 250W while the GTX 970 is faster and has a TDP of 145W.
The FX-8350 has a TDP of 125W while a Core i5 or Core i7 processor that will outperform this in most situations has a TDP of 84W.
The CX series power supplies are ok, but not great quality.
If you do choose the R9 290 and FX-8350, I would suggest a better quality 650W supply.
With a Core i5 or i7 and a GTX 970, a good quality 500W supply would be plenty.
Some suggestions with the more efficient components:
Any XFX 550W supply, e.g. XFX TS 550, XFX Pro 550, XFX Core 550
Rosewill Capstone 550
Antec HCG 620 or 620M
Seasonic S12G 550 or Seasonic G 550
Seasonic S12II 620
These all have higher rated models for the more power hungry components.

When it comes to your case, these components also make a difference. The more efficient components are dissipating that extra 146W (approximately) as heat. Think of two 60W light bulbs. The CPU and GPU fans have to work a lot harder (i.e. more noise) and then your case has to get rid of this heat.

Having only one graphics card, you could drop down to a micro-ATX motherboard.
My favourite case for a micro-ATX gaming system is the Silverstone TJ08-E. There are competing cases from Bitfenix and Corsair.
Staying with an ATX motherboard, you need a larger case.
The Silverstone Reven RV02-E is very good, and new cases like the RV03 and RV04 offer alternative layouts that may appeal to you.
The Silverstone Fortress FT02 and FT02 are more expensive versions of the RV02-E and RV04 that include aluminium for large parts of the case, sound proofing material and more subtle styling.
The Fractal Design R4 and XL are also larger cases that appear very good.

All the cases I have suggested have good cooling, dust filters and don't make a lot of noise.
 
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