can someone please point me in the right direction?

[Whootsinator]

edit - Macedonian, that case is SWEET, and the one that is used for my personal tower.

Hell yeah man! I've got my tower and server in one of those, as well as my parent's build and two of my friends' builds! One of the best designed cases I have EVER seen. I've got five of those fans in there and I could cool a drink by placing it on the case. I call it //THE_FRIDGE

HA, that's awesome. I haven't taken full advantage of the sheer number of 120mm fan brackets yet. For now there are no overheating issues (even with everything overclocked), so I'll probably wait until I have to rebuild her to throw more in. The thing is just CRAZY cool and CRAZY quiet, even with only the two stock fans. They push a really incredible amount of air.

 

[mrmacedonian]

When it comes to computers you need to buy JUST below the absolute best available to REALLY make it worth it. The best of the best that is available is crazy expensive at a super premium, because it's 'the best'. One step down is much more affordable, and nearly as good as 'the best'. Build your own computer to be one step below the best and you can expect it to last 5 years as a computer capable of running everything anyone should be able to produce (software wise). After five years it will still be a fine working computer, but not 'on the leading edge'.

Actually, the key is to be constantly changing components out. It may sound like you're spending a lot of money all the time, but it really isn't. I'll give you an example.

Say he puts this together right now, 500$.

In 6 months, he can buy 4 more gigs (2x2GB) - 50$ by then for the same model.

6 months after that, he can get a Phenom II X4 (since he just bought the X2 now).

6months after that, he can buy a Mobo that'll handle >1600 RAM, still use the Phenom X4 and 8gigs of 1600RAM, but have the next socket available and next RAM speed available.

12months after that, he swaps the 8gigs of 1600RAM to 8gigs of (say) 3200Mhz RAM

6-12 months after that, a Phenom II X8

In this scheme, you've always got pretty much the JUST UNDER and its always evolving. The KEY here is you're only spending 50-100$ per 6month or 12month period, so you never incur a large cost! Once you've got a solid case/PSU the rest is constantly progressing

I've used this scheme for 5-7 years now and I just put my old components into older PCs as Servers, Media Centers for my TV, you name it. Heck, since you're replacing components per 6months, you can recover costs and sell on EBay... Its the same business model as cars; you buy 6months-18months old and sell @4-5years old. you recover costs for new one, you save costs of fixing cars over 4-5years old, you maintain a standard of quality and "newness," other than starting Capital, which is the initial hit, you save a good deal of cost and frustration later on.

 

[mrmacedonian]

The thing is just CRAZY cool and CRAZY quiet, even with only the two stock fans. They push a really incredible amount of air.

Fer sure.

I haven't taken full advantage of the sheer number of 120mm fan brackets yet.

Yeah, I threw the four HDDs down into the lower HDD "caddy" and put two fans in opposite directions in the top space (the manual shows how to do this). This created a push/pull wind tunnel of air right at your Vid Card.

I changed the top fan to pull air into the heat sink and the rear one to push out, I've also got a massive copper heatsink thats also pushing air to the rear. By default the case has both top and rear pushing, and I swapped the top to create an Lshaped airflow right at the HeatSink, keeping the processor at like 30degrees, lol.

The HDD fan just serves to cool two 500gig running in mirror raid as a backup for photos/documents, a 1tb media drive for software/video/general torrent, and the 180GB 10k rpm Windows 7 64bit/Windows XP 32bit/ Ubuntu 10.04 tripleboot - thought they still seems to run pretty hot. In addition in the warmer months I take the case side off and put a walmart BoxFan as the side, lol.

 

[Whootsinator]

When it comes to computers you need to buy JUST below the absolute best available to REALLY make it worth it. The best of the best that is available is crazy expensive at a super premium, because it's 'the best'. One step down is much more affordable, and nearly as good as 'the best'. Build your own computer to be one step below the best and you can expect it to last 5 years as a computer capable of running everything anyone should be able to produce (software wise). After five years it will still be a fine working computer, but not 'on the leading edge'.

Actually, the key is to be constantly changing components out. It may sound like you're spending a lot of money all the time, but it really isn't. I'll give you an example.

Say he puts this together right now, 500$.

In 6 months, he can buy 4 more gigs (2x2GB) - 50$ by then for the same model.

6 months after that, he can get a Phenom II X4 (since he just bought the X2 now).

6months after that, he can buy a Mobo that'll handle >1600 RAM, still use the Phenom X4 and 8gigs of 1600RAM, but have the next socket available and next RAM speed available.

12months after that, he swaps the 8gigs of 1600RAM to 8gigs of (say) 3200Mhz RAM

6-12 months after that, a Phenom II X8

In this scheme, you've always got pretty much the JUST UNDER and its always evolving. The KEY here is you're only spending 50-100$ per 6month or 12month period, so you never incur a large cost! Once you've got a solid case/PSU the rest is constantly progressing

I've used this scheme for 5-7 years now and I just put my old components into older PCs as Servers, Media Centers for my TV, you name it. Heck, since you're replacing components per 6months, you can recover costs and sell on EBay... Its the same business model as cars; you buy 6months-18months old and sell @4-5years old. you recover costs for new one, you save costs of fixing cars over 4-5years old, you maintain a standard of quality and "newness," other than starting Capital, which is the initial hit, you save a good deal of cost and frustration later on.

Everyone has different methods. I usually tend to do better financially making a few big purchases rather than upgrading incrementally over time. I guess it doesn't help that I don't sell ANYTHING.

But, for the initial purchase, I would highly recommend saving as much as you can, and then following either method.

 

[mrmacedonian]

Yeah, my point was by doing this he spends near the same money and always have a much better product.

If you go to BestBuy and buy a 1,500$ tower you've got a machine that'll start to be old 12months into it. Buying a machine for 500 and having a 1,000$ to upgrade components over a 3year period and always have a better product. my opinion at least /shrug

 

[matt62485]

definitely going to look into this. pretty pumped about building one now. so what about cooling?

 

[mrmacedonian]

your case will come with its case fans, your CPU will come with a standard heatsink. anything advanced you'll get as you go, i can recommend fancier heatsinks as you get closer to doing this, but the one included with the processor is sufficient, esp. on a budget

 

[DirtyDFeckers]

Matt, if you aren't interested in building a computer for yourself, I can tell you that I use an iMac, and I've been very satisfied with the performance of the computer. Yes they are a little more expensive, beginning around 1200 bucks, but IMOP they are well worth it. The display is amazing, the operating system is very stable, and the computer runs my software as fast as lightning. This is just my opinion...

 

[mrmacedonian]

Not spam. Example of a Woot.com Deal relevant to the OP

Woot® : One Day, One Deal?