Reccomendations for Case, Mobo

[Biohazzard56]

I have noticed the air flow on my HP box isnt all that good and it can get quite hot, for my birthday (May 18th). Ill have enough money to get a new case and mobo, the mobo is for the future so I can get a new CPU and RAM later on (Christmas). If a PSU is a concern here is what I have in my machine.

AMD Athlon 2400+
Radeon 9600XT
2x512 MB of PC2100 DDR RAM
120 GB HD
1 CD-RW Drive
1 DVD-ROM Drive
lots of USB and Firewire devices.

Im thinking maybe a 400 watt PSU just to be safe. So looking foward to the future, what is a good mobo, and case. My budget is $200 total, probably more

[Rbstr]

Mobo:
http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/sock...d/overview.htm

Voted the best Athlon mobo 2 or 3 years in a row

go to www.frozencpu.com and xoxide.com for cases most of those are nice

[Biohazzard56]

I found both for 80 bucks, but that case is nice so do some of the customized stuff so it looks nice. Good Find

[Ait'al]

Case: http://www.xoxide.com/chenbro.html one of these. 53.99 and supposedly some very good cooling.

http://www.frozencpu.com/cgi-bin/frozencpu/cas-168.html The above chenbros at frozenCPU with customized water cooling. its in all 3 colors. expensive though. But they have all the water cooling stuff from there site available for it basically. http://www.frozencpu.com/cgi-bin/fro...xtpage=results

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...BD&Brand=ARTEC the first three are cool looking. I dont know how the cooling is. It doesnt sound like it has alot of fans. http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=173260 if the first link isnt working here it is in black. It comes in black blue and silver that ive seen.

Edit: http://store.yahoo.com/xoxide/guardian.html here are some better specs. its comes in blue black yello green and silver.

Mobo: Dont know, but the P4C800-E is only 169.99 on ZipZoomFly.com untill the 14th i think. Its a promotional thing. Right now its normally 174.99 on newegg.com Edit: DERRRRR,...NM

PSU: http://www.xoxide.com/noname24.html if the link doesnt work. Its the Aspire 500w It looks good and up there in quality if not very up there from reveiws. Its only 59.99 on newegg.com

[Rbstr]

I don't realy like the Xspider, thogh alot of peopel say they like it

[Electrofreak]

As for the case, personally I'd suggest mine. I LOVE the thing to DEATH. Its got a 500w PS too so you shouldn't have any problems. Plus... the thing just looks beautiful. Make sure you don't get it in the same color as me tho, lol, I can't have everyone copying me :-p

ASPIRE (Turbo Case)X-Superalien Blue Aluminum Server Case

Make sure you click on the photo and see the pics

PS: That case comes with the same 500w PS that Ait'al suggested, and I'm tellin you, its great! Its clear so you can see inside, has 2 LED fans, and a control knob on the back that allows you to make your powersupply ROAR, or whisper!

[Rbstr]

server cases dont have the goo of airflow

[Electrofreak]

Hmm dunno, air flow is pretty good in my case. I just turn up 2 knobs on the front of my case and that thing's 6 fans push air like a mofo...

I prolly should get some rounded cables tho :-\
...and a non-stock heatsink+fan...

[NoSurrender]

dude i got a Antec 1080 AMG and it has some great airflow. i love my case.

[Phaelon]

Server cases can have amazing Airflow, just depends on what type of case and who makes it. HP DL 380 G3's have 6 fans insisde for SCSI airflow followed by 3 Fans in the back. UNreal airflow there.

[Cyanide]

Yes, (i assume that when you say "server case" you mean full tower, and not rackmount) bigger cases have better airflow. Air flow depends a lot on the placement of fans and the orginization of your cables. I like to put 2 intake fans in the front of the case, towards the bottom, then one exaust in the back and one exaust on the top.

BTW, if you don't have a window in your case there's a less expensive way to round your IDE cables. What you do is fold the cable in half long ways, then fold each half in half long ways, so that if you were to cut across the cable (perpendicular to the wires), the cross section would resemble a W. Then you tape them up and you've essentially rounded your cables (as far as airflow is concerned anyway). Much cheaper than buying rounded cables.

BTW, if you want maximum cooling for your case, an exaust fan in the top of the case helps a lot with moving heat out of the case.

[Phaelon]

Interesting Idea with the W for IDE cables Cyanide, I generally don't do that because DMA cables always seem to fall apart on me, but that seems like a golden Idea.

When I say server I mean Rakcmount, rackmount servers have crazy Airflow. The Proliant ML370 G1 in my basement has crazy airflow, I can actually here it upstairs if I don't have the tv on. It also has 6 15k Scsi drives in it so it needs that airflow.

[Sentrosi]

The Antec SuperLanboy and the P160 are both great cases. Both have only 2 120mm fans, thus lessening the noise you'll hear from 5 or 6 80mm fans. Also, they're aluminum inside and around the case, except for the front bezel, as it's plastic. Sharp looking too, and last time I priced them out they were around $80 and $110.

Mobo: Abit NF7-S. You can get one for around $100.

To search for these, go to my favorite website: Pricewatch

[Biohazzard56]

Ill be getting a Black Gamer-X Case from FrozenCPU, along with that mobo rob mentioned come may. Thanks for all your help

[Jimbo]

I like the new Kingwin case the KT-424-S-WM that I recently bought.