Budget Machine Thread Of Joy™

No1Jew · Post by **No1Jew** » August 2nd, 2008, 19:30

Cheers Berk you just made my mind up for me. Had a phone call today and the monies are on the way so i'm gonna go for the fast option with the 4850.

However this has recently come to my attention a HD 4850 2GB !!!

http://news.digitaltrends.com/news-arti ... packs-2-gb

Post by **HereComesPete** » August 2nd, 2008, 21:12

Powercolor stuff is imo shite. Plus 2gb? I forgot what OS you had lined up but if it isn't a fista 64 flavour then that card is a waste of time and money.

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » August 16th, 2008, 20:59

New products to look at for a budget case:

Coolermaster Centurion 590 (sans PSU) ~ £54.99 @ ebuyer.com

Just purchased to upgrade from my old school full AT steel plated "I'd survive a nuclear bomb" case, which held the innards of my uni PC, which quite frankly wasn't up to the job of cooling with it's poxy 60mm at the front and dual 80mm's at the back, not to mention it weighs a fucking ton.

This coolermaster is big and light, paintwork is cheap but thick enough that it won't scratch too easily, not impressed with the quick snap thingies for the actual drives (only on one side anyway), but the quick snap thingie is pretty solid for expansion cards.

It's a midi case, but not small, perhaps about an inch shorter than an antec p180, but easily about 2 inches wider.

The front is made up of individual meshes with dust covers behind said meshes instead of the drive blanks you'd normally get and comes with a coolermaster 120mm screwed to the front of the hdd caddy, and another screwed at the back. The side panel AND the top of the case supports 2 (TWO) fans with each panel with screw holes for 80, 90, 120 and a massive 140mm. The bottom of the case has a meshy type thing under where the now common psu with 120mm fan sits giving the psu a nice supply of cold air. It also has nice pre cut rubber lined slots for an external water cooling system.
Or to put it bluntly, if you have cooling issues with this case, you're doing something very wrong.

Summary

Pros:
Cooling
Space
Cooling
Built fairly solidly
Lightish
Nice layout

Cons:
Had to fiddle to get my new 3850 to fit, but that could have been solved by loosening the mobo and moving it back about 0.5mm (to the other edge of the screw holes), ended up pulling off a bit of springy metal by the expansion slots.
The quick fit on the drives is useless and won't be used.
Mesh isn't removable easily from behind the mesh drive blanks so probably not washable, however the front is easy to remove, so vacuum access will be good.
Not finished as well as my Antec P180 (or my previous Lian Li), but it's not really a con as it's to be expected when those cases cost £40+ more and were top of the line models.

:starfull::starfull::starfull::starfull::starfull::starfull::starhalf::starempty::starempty: 7.5/10

Well worth it for a budget machine, or even a machine where you want cooling.

Post by **HereComesPete** » August 16th, 2008, 22:03

Does look good. £13 more will get you the antec 900, a case with so much air movement it creates localised storms. But it is big and a bit ugly, the coolermaster looks neater and less blue, it's slightly smaller in dimensions too.

GHas you any trouble fitting the gpu? some cases despite labelling themselves full atx 2.0 are a bit short and something like a gtx will scrape the hdd enclosure a bit when put in.

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » August 16th, 2008, 22:11

Space isn't an issue:

In construction, currently missing the front cover, and the HDD caddy is in the bottom right of the picture, the end of the single hdd is obscured by the IDE cable running to the dvd drive and dvd writer.

Post by **HereComesPete** » August 16th, 2008, 22:32

What gpu do you have? It's teeny! (twss)

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » August 16th, 2008, 22:38

That would be a Powercolour 3850 in AGP flavour, it measures 9 and 2/16th inches (~23cm), so it's not small small (tnwss arf)

Fear · Post by **Fear** » August 16th, 2008, 23:39

buzzmong wrote:it measures 9 and 2/16th inches

Imperial, at your age. *spits*

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » August 17th, 2008, 16:41

Imperial is better for some things, bloody Europeans.

amblin · Post by **amblin** » August 17th, 2008, 17:06

Post by **Dog Pants** » August 17th, 2008, 17:10

amblin wrote:rack <strike>mount</strike> measurements

Few blokes understand that one. I do though, I studied it a lot.

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » August 17th, 2008, 18:16

I think most of us understand that one

amblin · Post by **amblin** » August 17th, 2008, 19:04

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » August 17th, 2008, 19:05

I though we were on about metrics, not applied science

Anhamgrimmar · Post by **Anhamgrimmar** » September 9th, 2008, 19:11

Righty-o, After an 'incident' involving some lovely AMD blue smoke, i now have to get a new desktop in a hurry:

So, criticise my spec, bitches!

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L mobo

Core Duo E8400

OCZ 2gb memory stuffs

Corsair 650w psu

Cheap and ugly case is cheap and ugly. and cheap

Yes, it was time for a new board anyway. and cheap and functional always trumps flashy and expensive!

I've never had above 120gb storage between all my harddrives, so this will be a novelty!

I shall be keeping my x1950 pro, until i can afford a bettar card. but it'll keep me going. Any comments on the above spec? suggestions? Try to keep it about the same sort of price (~£360) if you have a better idea though

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » September 9th, 2008, 19:15

looks good to me, if you can, stretch to a modular PSU.

oh, and 800mhz ram if you can, that'll make a fair difference.

Anhamgrimmar · Post by **Anhamgrimmar** » September 9th, 2008, 19:29

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:
oh, and 800mhz ram if you can, that'll make a fair difference.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-072-OC wrote:800MHz DDR2
- CL 4-4-4-15 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS)
- Platinum Mirrored XTC* Heatspreader
- OCZ Lifetime Warranty
- 1.9-2.0 Volts
- 240 Pin DIMM
- OCZ Enhanced Latency Technology
- 2.2V EVP**

Or did you mean something in a 1066MHz flavour?
Like This?

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » September 9th, 2008, 19:37

nope, carry on, brainfart

amblin · Post by **amblin** » September 9th, 2008, 19:41

Post by **HereComesPete** » September 9th, 2008, 19:43

The man makes a good point. The 300 is a very nice case for it's price.