What would you change on this build?

[ed^chigliak]

Antec Mini P180 Black MATX Case - No PSU £59.99
Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R iG33 Socket 775 onboard VGA 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard £66.19
Corsair 550W VX Series PSU - 120mm Fan, 5 Year Warranty £55.16
Thermalright Ultra-120 EXTREME CPU Heatpipe Heatsink £34.98
Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache - OEM £48.99
Kingston 2gb Kit (2x1gb) Ddr2 800mhz/pc2-6400 Hyperx Memory Non-ecc Cl4 £28.38
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 2.53GHz (1066MHz) Socket 775 3MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor £77.12
Sapphire HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card £117.95
Pioneer DVR-115DBK 20x DVD±RW Dual Layer Internal IDE Black Bare Drive - OEM £15.73

£504.49 all from ebuyer

I might save some money here with bits from Scan
Thermalright hr-01 £26
320gb samsung F1 £36
I need some 120mm fans too

My Budget: £500
Use: Gaming 1680x1050 22", DVD movie playback & interneting. Must be quiet. No bigger than midi size PC. Excellent cooling. Big enough to fit GTX260/280 sized card.
SLI/Crossfire: No
Overclocking: Yes 3.0Ghz will do just fine. More is good. Less is disappointing,
RMA: Nothing that would need sending to HK or the US or the South Pole.

[staffsMike]

As much as I love that case, and I do really want one, it's about the size of a typical ATX case.

So by all means don't let me put you off if your heart is set but I would probably just go for a typical uATX tower or a normal midi tower (ATX).

I have a silverstone TJ08 and it can fit pretty much any length gfx card and provide good cooler. The antec NSK3480 is also a great uATX tower (comes with a Power supply but it's only £55 for both).

I would probably go for a modular PSU with any of the cases mentioned. It will make life easier. Corsairs 520W HX would be good.

The TRUE is a bit extreme for your needs. Might I suggest a xigmatec tower from scan or the scythe mine/ninja.

I'd also make sure you got the £120 sapphire HD4850 on ebuyer with the dual slot cooler.

[ed^chigliak]

I would like a bolt through CPU cooler after my experience with the plastic push pins. Ideally I get the fan included with the heat sink. Currently HR-01 or Ninja. Can I use a bolt through kit with xigmatec?

Good alternative case. Can't decide. Priority is noise/cooling and not size tbh. Antec solo isn't good for the long GPUs and full towers are overkill. It's not a LAN party thing so standard ATX size is OK.

Agreed swap for dual slot cooling on the HD 4850.

[staffsMike]

I believe there is a bolt through kit that works for the Xigmatec, I'm sure if there is someone will post up. Possibly a thermalright kit that works for the Xigmatec too.

The good thing about the NSK3480 and TJ08 is that the two 120mm fans it uses are so close together you get fantastic cooling for very low speed fans.

The antec 900 is pretty small and can just about fit an 8800GTX so it accomodates longish cards. At that price though and if you are happy to go with uATX motherboards the P180 makes a pretty compelling argument for me.

[ed^chigliak]

NSK3480 is tiny and it's tempting to go this small with a mATX board. Maybe then a modular PSU might be worth the extra to minimize cable clutter. You've helped me narrowed the choice up from one to three and surprisingly the cooling looks fine for all these options. I never had a case with a big fan at the top so maybe I'll stick with the original idea if only because it's a novelty. Small board and biggish case... a bit weird I guess.

Too much window and mesh going on with the Antec 900 for my taste and I imagine mesh is no obstacle for noise.

I'm not going to worry about the mATX vs ATX board so long as it's got solid caps, decent power regulation, a proven overclocker and doesn't cost a small fortune then it will do the job for me right up until I build something different.

[staffsMike]

Well this is my TJ08 just so you have an Idea of what can be crammed in.



I didn't go modular due to the budget but it would certainly have been nice

Both the TJ08 and NSK3480 are well regarded over at SPCR, the NSK being slightly better for hard drives since it has rubber grommets.

The top fan is a nice design feature but you get much the same effect with a PSU like the corsair with the fan on the bottom.

[Mithrandir]

The Silverstone TJ08 is a beautiful little case. It's compact one the outside but good lot of space to use inside.

The Antec looks good too and seems to be 4cm shorter than the TJ08.

You can't go wrong with either of these cases.

[ed^chigliak]

Silverstone TJ08 £55
Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R £66
Corsair 550W VX PSU £55
Xigmatec Air Cooler £22
Samsung 320GB F1 HDD £36
2gb Kit (2x1gb) Cl4 £28
E5200 CPU £60
GTX260 £165
Pioneer DVR-115DBK DVD £16
Total £503

E5200 is more disposable so when the CPU will be upgraded to Quad the pain is less. GTX260 for lower idle power and more RAM. Quarls textures pack for Oblivion springs to mind for >512 RAM. I'll probably go slightly over budget for quality fans and 4GB DDR2 kit.

[Mithrandir]

Quarls textures pack for Oblivion springs to mind for >512 RAM. I'll probably go slightly over budget for quality fans and 4GB DDR2 kit.

Yup definitely, although there is now a modified version to allow for 256mb gpus to make use of the textures. (I use this one on my 2900gt-256mb, but use the full Qtp3 with my x1900 512mb)

[Papipap]

Isn't the iG33 an older chipset? You should be able to get a newer P35 (or P45?) motherboard for the same price.