Mid-range MicroATX

[naturbo2000]

Hello fellow winner! I'm not at the point of actually getting near a build to review: http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware-...mpetition.html

I was settling on a FX6300 build (with Nvidia graphics), but seeing how reasonable your i5 budget is turning out I might have to reconsider. To the spreadsheet!

[tamzzy]

But does mean I'll have to get another Win7 license - anyone know of somewhere cheap and legit for a Win7 pro/ultimate key?

do you know anyone that is in university? they can get windows 8 pro for 50 quid

Think the last delivery is scheduled for Wed/Thurs next week, hopefully the Arc Mini will be here by then !

Hello fellow winner! I'm not at the point of actually getting near a build to review

have you guys heard anything since the pm from DR? i haven't =x

[naturbo2000]

have you guys heard anything since the pm from DR? i haven't =x

Nope - I'm guessing he just sends the info off to Fractal and they'll ship 'em out.

[Bluecube]

They'll be with us this year. That's a fact folks - write it down.

[virtuo]

Hello fellow winner! I'm not at the point of actually getting near a build to review: http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware-...mpetition.html

I was settling on a FX6300 build (with Nvidia graphics), but seeing how reasonable your i5 budget is turning out I might have to reconsider. To the spreadsheet!

I was also surprised at the decent prices - if you are going non-K you'll probably be able to shave a further £50-70 off the total. My build is currently not including a GPU though, looking at £130-£150 to drop in a 270X at some point. I did a fair bit of my shopping on eBay, I know there's a chance it'll bite me in the future, specially if something develops a fault - but got the CPU and motherboard (both brand new, delivered today) for a good £40 less than anywhere else. That's a good chunk off a future water cooler or GPU.


I haven't heard anything further about the cases, assuming they are on their way. Hopefully they aren't coming from Sweden (or wherever it is Fractal are based).

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The M500 240GB is £80. I have a 120GB SSD and you do need to be careful in how you manage the available space.

[virtuo]

The M500 240GB is £80. I have a 120GB SSD and you do need to be careful in how you manage the available space.

I do have a few regrets after buying all the components. The small SSD was #1, not stumping up for an i7 was #2 and not getting a slightly meatier PSU was #3. But I think I'll be fine - that's what upgrades are for!

The only reason I went for the small SSD (other than cost) was the brand/reviews and the fact that storage-wise I'll be pooling in about 12Gb in mechanical disks. So for OS (bringing my 7 pro across and Linux'ing my old desktop) and a few programs (office and an old Adobe Creative Suite), the 120Gb SSD should be okay. I will keep a close eye on usage though.

[naturbo2000]

I do have a few regrets after buying all the components. The small SSD was #1, not stumping up for an i7 was #2 and not getting a slightly meatier PSU was #3. But I think I'll be fine - that's what upgrades are for!

The only reason I went for the small SSD (other than cost) was the brand/reviews and the fact that storage-wise I'll be pooling in about 12Gb in mechanical disks. So for OS (bringing my 7 pro across and Linux'ing my old desktop) and a few programs (office and an old Adobe Creative Suite), the 120Gb SSD should be okay. I will keep a close eye on usage though.

120GB is managable, but you do have to manage it. I like to not think, which is how come my laptop has a 500GB Vertex 4 and the HTPC has a 480GB Seagate 600. Both were around £160 due to offers. If you keep your steam library on regular HDDs and are disciplined with other installs you should be fine. I'd take a bigger SSD over an i7 every time (but then I don't do productivity stuff).
I also value decent PSUs (with decent warranties). I only buy Seasonic (my Corsair AX650 was manufactured by Seasonic). Quiet, and although they still blow up, they stand a better chance of not taking out the rest of your PC on the way. It's easy to overspec the wattage on a PSU, but it's not hard to do the maths on what you actually need (I didn't need 650W, but the price was good).

[virtuo]

120GB is managable, but you do have to manage it. I like to not think, which is how come my laptop has a 500GB Vertex 4 and the HTPC has a 480GB Seagate 600. Both were around £160 due to offers. If you keep your steam library on regular HDDs and are disciplined with other installs you should be fine. I'd take a bigger SSD over an i7 every time (but then I don't do productivity stuff).
I also value decent PSUs (with decent warranties). I only buy Seasonic (my Corsair AX650 was manufactured by Seasonic). Quiet, and although they still blow up, they stand a better chance of not taking out the rest of your PC on the way. It's easy to overspec the wattage on a PSU, but it's not hard to do the maths on what you actually need (I didn't need 650W, but the price was good).

I do have my Steam library on other drives, and aside from the OS, Office and Adobe, there's very little software that I use that doesn't take up more than a few Mb of space. If it does become a problem, I have an escape plan and will just use the 120Gb in my linux laptop and upgrade the desktop SSD to something bigger.

Looking at the CPUs, I think I'll miss the hyperthreading of the i7 for my video encodes, but I'll still be more than happy with the 4670k. Still a massive step up from an Athlon 2 X4 640.

The PSU was a snap buy at the same time as the SSD, but it does seem to be good quality (500w Corsair modular) and shouldn't struggle with a 270x/760. I calculated my wattage with 6 disks running at full draw, which is never the case, specially while gaming.

Everything's been delivered apart from the Case now - wait is unbearable.