Posts by Daniel Lee14

Robert Rodriguez2 said:It's solid! 🙂
I went with the Zalman case because you get 3 or 4 fans right out of the box, and honestly, the build quality is pretty decent for what it is.

And the power supply is basically just a rebranded Seasonic inside, so it’s more than enough juice to push this rig.

Does Micro Center have any cases under $67 that aren't complete garbage? I just need something to hold my components together since I won't have the time to custom-build a chassis before winter hits.

Which of those cheap cases are actually worth the money? I don't care about fans—I've already got plenty of those lying around. My only real requirement is that there's enough room inside and that it’s a bit larger. (I actually found an old 400mm fan that still works; it's huge, like a baby's head. I used to mount stuff like that directly onto the side of a case to cool down my Radeon 9800 XT and Athlon 3000 setup. Seriously, it’s actually better if it's cheap so I don't feel bad about cutting holes in the side panel. Looks don't matter at all.

Timothy Kim60 said:...

Look, rendering isn't my main priority here, so I decided to cut some corners and go with a six-core setup instead.
I don't really care about CUDA technology, but thanks for the heads-up anyway. My main focus here is just gaming, so I'm looking for a modular power supply with a little extra headroom on the wattage. 🙂.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:I’ve got one ASUS M5A97 R2.0 on hand—it's an AM3/AM3+ board running that Intel 970 chipset with the SB950, supports up to 5200 MHz and DDR3.
I've got one Intel FX-Series X6 6300, 3.5GHz, 14MB, 95W, AM3+.
Just one stick of DDR3 8GB Crucial RAM, running at 1600MHz with CL11 latency.
One 1TB Toshiba hard drive—7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, with 32MB cache (Model: DT01ACA100).
1 x XFX TS Series 550W PSU -P1550S-XXB9
One Zalman Z9 U3 mid-tower case. Dimensions: 8.15" (W) x 18.27" (H) x 19.84" (D).
I've got one Samsung SH-224DB SATA Bulk Black DVD burner on my hands—standard SATA interface.
I've got one Sapphire R9280X 3GB OC Dual-X sitting here—it’s the 3GB GDDR5 version with that 384-bit bus and the 28nm architecture.
I've got one CoolerMaster Hyper TX3 on hand—it fits LGA775, 1156, and all those various Intel and AMD sockets like 754, 939, 940, AM2, and AM3.

$1675
I can't believe I'm even looking at this site right now. It’s like trying to navigate a maze designed by someone who hates efficiency. Everything about this interface feels outdated—it's clunky, unintuitive, and honestly, just a headache to deal with. You'd think in this day and age, an official American government portal would actually function without feeling like a relic from the nineties. It’s frustrating when you're just trying to get things done and the technology keeps getting in your way. Total mess.

I don't give a damn about CD/DVD drives. Seriously, what's the actual point of picking up a Z9 case? I've already got a solid front panel that works just fine, and honestly, I couldn't care less about how the rig looks. All I care about is raw performance. Why would I bother?
I’m stuck in this loop of indecision—should I go with the AMD 280 or the GTX 270?

What do you guys think about this build? I’m actually considering cannibalizing an old case to use as a custom stand for the motherboard and HDDs—just gonna DIY something up and build a little homebrew rig.
I've got one kit of DDR3 8GB (2x4GB) Kingston HyperX Blue, running at 1600MHz with CL9 timings.
I’ve got one ASUS R9280X sitting here—it's an AMD Radeon card, PCIe 3.0, with 3GB of VRAM.
Intel FX-Series X6 6300 3.5GHz, 14MB, 95W, AM3+ FD6300WMHK
I've got one XFX TS Series 550W PSU (P1550S-XXB9) up for grabs.
Just one 1TB Seagate hard drive, SATA III, spinning at 7200 rpm (Model ST1000DM003).
I’ve got one Scythe Ashura SCASR-1000 here. It’s an older model, compatible with a bunch of different sockets like 775, 1155, 1156, 1366, and those old AM2/AM2+/AM series setups.
$1621 In the BIOS.
Would this PSU actually hold up for this CPU and GPU combo? I'm assuming there isn't a massive power gap between the 280 and the 280x, right?

Does this look like a solid build for the price?
If anyone has suggestions, I could ditch the case and pocket an extra $100 to swap out some parts, but the total has to stay around $1667 (though I might budge a little if a killer deal pops up). In the end, I decided to go with Intel since I can overclock them, and I'm planning on picking up a new cooler anyway (I’ve been using a Scythe Yasya, but that’s going with my old rig). From what I can tell, the gap between the 6300 and the beefier models is negligible—it seems like the only real difference is a slightly higher stock OC, and I can just run it cooler myself when I'm just downloading stuff or doing background rendering.

Intel FX-Series X6 6300 3.5GHz,14MB,95W,AM3+ $275
HDD Seagate 1TB, Serial ATA III, 7200 rpm $139
MSI R9 270X GAMING 4GB GDDR5 256bit $0.55
ASUS M5A97 R2.0, AM3,AM3+, Intel 970, SB950, $195
DDR3 8GB (2x4GB) Kingston, HyperX Blue, 1600MHz, CL9 $195
Corsair 550W, CS550M Modular PSU, 550 Watt, ATX $199
Coolermaster K280, MIDI, black, USB 3.0, no PS $100

Total $1652

Why I picked this GPU: I do graphic design work—Adobe Photoshop, the occasional AutoCAD session, stuff like that. Since the price jump wasn't massive, I figured the 4GB version was the smarter play.
(Handling 300 layers in a .psd at 300 dpi should be smooth enough, especially since Photoshop utilizes GPU resources way better than it used to a few years back.)

Regarding the RAM: is this enough, and would there be a noticeable difference between a single 8GB stick versus 2x4GB (considering the $3.25 difference and CL10 vs CL9, plus losing dual-channel mode)?

I'm assuming the Corsair 550w modular PSU is plenty? If I remember right, the rating is 80 Plus Gold.

I'm not sweating the hard drive right now, but since I'm selling my old setup, I definitely need something for storage.

So, the big question: should I pull the trigger on this whole setup, or swap something out and save $100 by skipping the case? (I could always throw together a DIY box at home, but I'd really like to finally have something decent.)

Thanks in advance!

Since I couldn't figure out where else to drop this question, so here it is:

Phenom II X2 3.1 (unlocked to 3 cores—could go to 4, but the fourth one is dead),
4 GB 1600 G.Skill RAM (2x2 sticks),
ASRock M3A770DE motherboard,
600w Raptoxx power supply,
320 GB HDD,
HD 5770 1GB RAM graphics card,

What’s a fair price for this rig (minus the case) without being totally unrealistic? Honestly, I'm not looking to make a profit here; I just want to scrape together enough to cover some costs for my new build.

I've got two ways to play this:
1. Reuse the RAM, HDD, and power supply, then just buy a new motherboard, CPU, and GPU.
2. Sell everything in a bundle and start fresh with new RAM, HDD, and a power supply.

The new parts I'm eyeing are: ASUS M5A97 R2, MSI R9 270X GAMING 4GB, and an AMD FX-Series X6 6300 3.5GHz, 14MB, 95W.