Gaming PC build under $450 on Facebook

Just placed my order at Micro Center... they should have it all built up by Monday!
Thanks for the help, everyone...
Here's the loot...
1 x Zalman Z1, USB3.0 black, 2x120mm
1 x XFX R9 270A 2GB DDR5
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.5Ghz (4.1GHz) box
1 x GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P, AM3+
1 x LC POWER LC-CC-95, socket 775/1155/1156/AMD
1 x Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600 Mhz (PC3-12800) CL11
1 x XFX TS 450W, 80+ Bronze
1 x HDD SEAGATE Barracuda (3.5",1TB,64MB,SATA III)

coastaltiger2 said:Just placed my order at Micro Center... they should have it built by Monday.
Thanks everyone...
Here's the loot:
1 x Cooler Master Z1, USB3.0 black, 2x120mm
1 x XFX R9 270A 2GB DDR5
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.5Ghz (4.1GHz) box
1 x GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P, AM3+
1 x LC POWER LC-CC-95, socket 775/1155/1156/AMD
1 x Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600 Mhz (PC3-12800) CL11
1 x XFX TS 450W, 80+ Bronze
1 x HDD SEAGATE Barracuda (3.5",1TB,64MB,SATA III)

👍 Nice, glad you stepped up to a decent case. That Cooler Master is a solid choice.

Sean Garcia3 said:👍 Nice! So glad you finally upgraded to a decent case. That Corsair is killer.

Overall $1423...

coastaltiger2 said:totaling $1423...

So, did you end up grabbing that USB adapter for the internet too?

Sean Garcia3 said:So, did you end up grabbing that USB internet adapter?

Nah, didn't grab it... I've already got one like that. I was thinking about getting an internal card... but honestly, I don't really need it. If things get hairy, I'll just plug in the USB one...

Quoting some guy from an American tech forum:

I don't know if we're planning on writing full-on reviews ourselves, but here’s a quick rundown on the Zalman Z1

PROS:

- You get a ton of value for roughly $73
- 3 front-facing USB ports (including one USB3)
- Looks pretty solid
- Toolless HDD mounting... fits four 3.5-inch drives and one 2.5-inch drive above them
- Comes with 2 fans included
- Dust filters in all the right spots (even if the quality isn't top-tier)
- Cable management space (not amazing, but hey, at least there's some)
- A handy little spot on top for your phone or an external hard drive

CONS:

- The metal is super thin... I actually dented one side trying to close it up, but luckily I could bend it back without too much drama
- One of the two fans uses a Molex connector (-.-) so it's insanely loud... I swapped it out for a "normal" Arctic fan almost immediately after buying it
- The feet don't have rubber on the bottom, so I had to DIY something to stop the vibrations
- Not much room for cable management in the back... if you've got thick cables or just a lot of them, you might run into trouble
- The power button is finicky... you have to hit it just right for it to register. Wondering if I should return it or just deal with it

Overall, I'm happy with it, though I kind of wish I'd dropped a few more bucks to grab the Z3 / Z3
hedgehog is offline Reply with Quote

So yeah...

Look, let's talk about the money here. This case offers way more value than it actually should. You can't really expect much more from a chassis at this price point, right? Honestly, you could probably find something better for $8.25 if you look around, maybe even a Zalman Z3 http://www.amazon.com/zalman-z3/

Sean Garcia3 said:Man, listen, for that kind of cash, you're getting way more than what's strictly necessary out of a case. You can't expect miracles! Honestly, for $8.25, you could probably grab a Zalman Z3 later on at Amazon and be set.

But hey, it's already too late now... whatever, no biggie. If the fan noise starts driving me crazy, I'll just swap it out later.

Anyway, once the PC shows up, let me know how it runs. Make sure you get Windows 8.1 Pro 64 installed right away, then grab Malwarebytes and CCleaner. You can just stick with Windows Defender for your antivirus—that’s exactly what I use, and honestly, everything works perfectly fine.

Sean Garcia3 said:Bottom line: once that rig shows up, let me know what you think! Definitely grab Windows 8.1 Pro 64 first, then get Malwarebytes and CCleaner on there. For an antivirus, just stick with Windows Defender—that’s exactly what I run on my setup and it works like a charm. Everything stays smooth.

Wait, why Windows 8??? I haven't even seen what that looks like... My wife is gonna lose it if she has to learn a whole new interface. What's wrong with Windows 7?

Just install whichever version of Windows works for you—I mean, why bother installing the ones everyone else tells you to use? 🙄

coastaltiger2 said:why even bother with Windows 8??? haven't even seen what it looks like. is your wife gonna lose it if she actually has to learn a new interface? what's wrong with Windows 7?

Just stick with 7 if it works for you. I used Windows 8.1 for maybe two weeks before jumping right back to 7.

I ran 7 for two years without a single hiccup, then installed 8 and was getting 3 or 4 blue screens a day. Put 7 back on and I've had zero issues for three months now.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:Look, just go ahead and install Windows 7 if that's what you want! Honestly, I only messed around with Windows 8.1 for less than two weeks before I jumped right back to 7. It just wasn't my vibe.

Man, I’ve been dealing with this headache for two years now. My rig was running Windows 7 perfectly fine, but then I decided to upgrade to Windows 8. Suddenly, I'm getting hit with three or four blue screens every single day. It was driving me insane! So, I just wiped it and went back to Windows 7. Been running it like this for three months straight now and haven't seen a single blue screen. Problem solved!

It’s not even about whether it fits my setup or whatever... I haven't even met Larry Ortiz5 in person yet, but I've already started picking up some of his stuff. Still, I'm feeling pretty skeptical. Honestly, maybe I was just the last person on Earth to jump from Windows XP to Windows 7, so maybe history is repeating itself with Windows 7 and Windows 8. Until then, I'll just wait for Windows 10 to actually stabilize. Might give it a shot eventually, but probably not right now! 😁

Honestly, just upgrade to Windows 10 and skip this half-baked Windows 8 mess, unless you want your wife to actually kill you with something 😁

You probably have about a million YouTube videos out there covering Windows 8 and 8.1—you could easily find a dozen reviews to watch... If you realize you aren't feeling it, why not just toss the whole thing in the trash and move on? It's really not that deep.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:Look, just install Windows 7 if that’s what works for you. Honestly, I only messed around with Windows 8.1 for less than two weeks before I jumped right back to 7.

So, I had this machine running Windows 7 for like two years straight without a single hiccup. Then, I decided to jump up to Windows 8, and suddenly I’m getting hit with three or four blue screens every single day. Total nightmare. I ended up rolling it back to Windows 7, and honestly? It's been rock solid for three months now with zero blue screens. Turns out, sometimes "upgrading" is just a fancy word for breaking things.

I actually had the exact opposite experience. For me, the week after I installed Windows 8, everything was just broken—it was constantly acting up on me. Eventually, I made the jump to Windows 8.1 Pro and honestly, it’s been perfect for a year now. Not a single issue. At the end of the day, half the trouble usually comes down to whatever shady torrent you decide to download.

Sean Garcia3 said:Anyway, let me know what you think once the PC arrives!

Alright, first impressions incoming!!!

THERE'S NO DVD DRIVE 😠😠😠

Seriously, what were they thinking? And yeah, I'm totally on their side here! Man, what a headache.
Gotta fix this tomorrow... but since I have zero clue how to install one myself... I'll just lug this rig over to Indianapolis... maybe hit up Best Buy or even a General Mills service center... whoever's free to plug it in for me... 😠😠

Who even uses DVDs anymore? It's kind of a relic. You just grab an ISO, burn it to a thumb drive using Rufus, and you're good to go. Installing from a USB is way faster and smoother—honestly, I haven't touched a disc for a Windows install in years, unless we're talking about some ancient piece of junk hardware.

fadedorca66 said:Who even uses DVDs anymore? Seriously! You just grab a thumb drive, use Rufus to burn the ISO onto it, and you're good to go. It's way faster and smoother. Honestly, I haven't touched a DVD for installing Windows in years—unless we're talking about some ancient piece of junk hardware.

Yeah... true... I actually have Windows on a USB ready to go... but still... I really need a DVD drive. What's even a PC without a DVD drive??? How did I miss that...
Man, I spent all day yesterday trying to download Windows... finally grabbed the SP1 from Maherz... but I couldn't get it onto my USB to save my life. Tried Rufus, tried Wintoflash, even tried that CMD method... nothing worked. Total nightmare. Those two programs kept throwing errors, and CMD just kept saying "access denied"... so frustrating. Finally, I took some advice from a guy on a random forum and just copied the ISO contents directly onto the USB (after making sure the drive was set to primary), but I haven't tested if it actually works yet. Might just have to install the base version and upgrade later... I'll check tomorrow once I get the DVD drive installed... just don't have the time right now.
I'm mostly just mad at myself... more for being so scatterbrained than anything else... 🙂🙂

That’s a dead end. It’ll be obsolete like floppy disks before you know it.

Anyway, I believe I already mentioned this to you (at least to my face).

Timothy Kim60 said:
Here is a suggestion that skips the SSDand the burner, focusing strictly on maximizing gaming performance.

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...ows+7+from+usb