What PSU to get and What case to get?

[tiger102]

HI, i just need help with my decision on what psu to get and case? for both of these i want to spend around 100 maybe max at 120. I already have these items:

P5LD2 Deluxe motherboard
Intel pentium 3.4 ghz 800 mhz
soon i'm going to get SAPPHIRE Radeon X850XT
probably two hardrives at 160 gig, SATA II
2 x 512mb ram in dual channel, probaly ddr400 or ddr533
two dvd drives

probably in the feature i'm going to add new stuff, or probably upgrade to a dual core process or get the extreme edition of intel.

This system will be used for school, gaming, suring the web, watching movies, compressing files and uncompressing, maybe some other stuff as well.

So what do you guys recommand as a case and a psu that won't die on me or mess up my motherboard or whole system as a whole. thank you all.

 

[fishmahn]

Case? I like the $20 generic ones, so I wont' recommend one. Others have their preferences - Lian-Li, Superflower, Antec, etc. so I'm sure you'll get those details from others.

PSU: 450w or 500w high quality will give you the headroom to upgrade in the future. Enermax, Fortron Source, Antec (Truepower series), OCZ, and I think it was Seasonic all make good ones (and some others - PCPower&Cooling, etc.). Fortron Blue Storm 500w can be found for under $100, and I think it was the Enermax 535w that's about the same price.

Mike.

<font color=blue>Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside the dog its too dark to read.
-- Groucho Marx</font color=blue>

 

[tiger102]

The generic cases, do you know of any that would keep the system cooled down? or maybe you can recommend some? thank you.

 

[fishmahn]

I really don't have a recommendation. 3 of the last 4 PC's I put together I used whatever case was cheapest. The most recent one was I think the 2nd or 3rd cheapest because I didn't like the look of the cheapest ones.

<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811154017" target="_new">this</A> is the one I bought. However for your CPU, I would buy one with a side panel fan because your CPU needs a bit more cooling than mine, maybe <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811156002" target="_new">this one</A> or <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811190063" target="_new">this one</A>. These are not endorsements, just grabbed 2 cases with side panel fans from the first page of ATX Mid-towers at Newegg. Although... I kindof like the look of the last one.

Mike.

<font color=blue>Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside the dog its too dark to read.
-- Groucho Marx</font color=blue>

 

[ChipDeath]

The generic cases, do you know of any that would keep the system cooled down?

I used to have a generic case which I modified to increase airflow a bit. Even so, sticking all my stuff in an Antec P-160 has dropped my CPU temp by 8-10*C, at <i>higher</i> settings than in the old case.

I've always bought cheap cases. Buying the Antec has changed my opinion, and I now will never again do so.

You could take that as a recommendation, but there are cheaper cases that may better suit your needs.

All that said though, with that sort of budget you'll have to compromise on either the case or the PSU, and given that choice I'd much rather have a crappy case with a decent PSU than a decent case with a crappy PSU. A decent PSU is about the most important thing for a stable system.

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<font color=red>"Life is <i>not</i> like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapeńos - what you do today might burn your a<b></b>ss tommorrow."