Upgrades for Dangman!!

Do give consideration to the Silverstone FT02 and FT03 cases.
Never been a fan of the FT03. The look, layout, and pricing of that case just bothers the hell out of me. The FT02 definitely looks great but it's just too rich for my blood. Plus I need a minimum of six 3.5" bays. The FT02 only fits five.

I was thinking the same thing. Dangman can't have a more powerful system than me now! :eek:
sup tiraides! yah, my upgrade itch is comin back, too. I havent been building as often as I used to (for myself nor for others).
Yeeess. It's starting....
 
Upon careful consideration (and remembering my experiences with the Phantom 530 earlier today), I'm dropping the 530 and now the two contenders are the Phantom and the 600T. Those two cases stand out to me in equal ways sadly.

All the edgy plastic around the Phantom turns me off - not as clean looking as the 600T, IMO. The FT02 is beautiful, though; wish I kept mine.

I agree with Easy E that the 600T looks better (IMO) than the Phantom.

Considering that the most I've ever spent on a video card is $177 for the HD 6850, the R9 280 (assuming that it is $250) or the R9 280X (when it gets back to $300) are big leagues enough for me:D

You may be better served with a used HD 7970 or 4GB GTX 770/680 if you're really impatient. I don't believe that the prices and stock of the new R9-series cards will "normalize" before Spring.

sup tiraides!

Hey!

(And here I was thinking that I took too much time away from here last month....)

Yeeess. It's starting....

Starting? Is that a challenge?
 
Well fuck.

Guess what arrived today?:


Yup new Dell 24" 1920x1080 monitor. Saw a fantastic deal for it on Slickdeals that I could not pass up. Definitely going to need a newer GPU now as the HD 6850 is struggling a bit. (Sorry for the blurriness at the edging and the overall quality of the pic. May or may not have screwed my 50mm prime/DSLR during a rather dusty event....)

As for the build, honestly, I've been dragging my feet on it. I've been waiting for an awesome deal on the case so that I only have to build once. So for the time being, the new parts are sitting in a box. But ever other day or so I do take them out of the box for testing just to make sure the system is still functioning.

At least I've got the 3TB drive plugged into my current PC for now. It's going to replace a Seagate 1TB drive in the PC since that particular 1TB drive is one of the oldest drives in the PC. It's still working and I'll more than likely end up putting it into my file server after the new PC is built but I'd rather err on the side of caution. Plus I'm running out of space anyway.

Still though, need to find a good case deal soon. My price limits so far:
NZXT Phantom Black for $100 shipped.
Corsair 600T Grey for $140 shipped.

Whichever one hits those prices first, I'm going to buy right away.
 
After much stupidity and laziness on my part, I've finally gotten this PC built! So what case did I get? :)

My temporary build area while I clean up my lab.

My boss' boss at work hooked me with a discount with NZXT cases. So I managed to get the NZXT Phantom USB 3.0 for $90 after taxes :D. However, I didn't have time to build the PC until today. Due to this damn cold, it took me longer than normal to build and setup the PC. Anyway, here's some pictures of the build-in progress:

Motherboard, CPU, RAM, and HSF all assembled outside of the case. In my cold induced haze, didn't realize I left the mobo on the anti-static bag. I'm using my old Scythe Flex SFF21E fan from the P180's exhaust as the new HSF fan:


My old system placed next to the new so that I can transfer hard drives and the video card over:


Ahh the P180. For a case that I paid about $80 for back in 2007, it sure has served me well these past 7 years.

The finished system:


Some notes:.
- In my haste to buy the motherboard, I completely and utterly forgot that the Z87-A only has six SATA ports. I've already used them all with my four hard drives, SSD, and eSATA. Luckily I haven't used a DVD drive in my main PC for years and already have Windows 7 on a USB drive. Though at least this will hopefully now force me to expand my file server a lot more...

- The NZXT Phantom was/is a pleasure to build in. Lots of space meant it was easier to work inside of and to hide cables. The integrated fan controller also does a pretty good job keeping the system quiet. It's actually just as quiet as the P180. The loudest thing in the PC is still the video card though.

- Holy fuck does a SSD make a big difference. The system definitely feel a lot snappier.

- Still need to do some stress testing before I activate the OS

- My desk is getting worn out as well. Time for a new desk as well...

So far, the total for my upgrades are:
$138 - Intel Core i7 4770K
$136 - Asus Z87-A
$140 - Samsung Evo 250GB SSD
$108 - Seagate 3TB Hard Drive
$90 - NZXT Phantom
$110 - Dell ST2421L 24" LED Monitor
-----
Total: $722 shipped

Still need to get a new video card (damn fuckin' crypto-currency) so total for this upgrade will probably end up over $1000. Still, a very awesome upgrade :D
 
:eek:

Must... not... curse... alo--FUCK!

(Some days I wish I could keep my builds under that amount. Like yesterday....)
 
:eek:

Must... not... curse... alo--FUCK!

(Some days I wish I could keep my builds under that amount. Like yesterday....)
LOL! ...wait new build?
Very nice. I like that case. ;)

Thanks! I've always liked that case ever since it debuted a few years back. It's actually designed by someone who use to be a part of this forum.
 
Congrats on the finished build bro!!

Long overdue eh?

All that's missing now is a video card upgrade (and yes, *shakes fist at crypto-currency bubble, ruining prices for us "normal folk")
 
thanks for the pix! :D it's much easier to tuck and hide cables with these new cases compared to the good ol' P180...
 
thanks for the pix! :D it's much easier to tuck and hide cables with these new cases compared to the good ol' P180...

Yeah, they did release an update version of the P180 that made it easier to hide cables but alas, it was one year too late for me. Though, as you can tell from the pics, my P180 was getting worn down anyway so it would have been time for a change even if i did get that updated P180.
 
Almost a year later since I first built this gaming PC. I've done two upgrades since then:
IMG_7904 by dangman4ever, on Flickr
IMG_7907 by dangman4ever, on Flickr
IMG_7912 by dangman4ever, on Flickr

The first upgrade was that XFX R9 280 3GB card (top) in June 2014. It was a very good upgrade over my HD 6850 and was more than enough for my current gaming needs.

But then that itch happened. I thought I satisfied that itch with building my new mITX Bitfenix Prodigy HTPC. Apparently it didn't because a week ago I was on SPCR.com, saw a blog post about a new site selling refurbished HD 7950 3GB cards with two year warranties for $140. A sudden impulse took over me and I bought that MSI HD 7950 3GB card.

I don't need R9 280 + HD 7950 3GB Crossfire. I can't think of a solid justification for it. I only game at 1080P! I'm not even playing that many AAA games anymore. But I want it!

That damn itch.
 
Yeah, I saw that amazing deal at SPCR and was about to pull the trigger, but the card is too long for my ancient Sonata 3, and I can't justify a new case just for a cheaper video card.

I figure a card in the $200-range under 9.5 inches will come along at some point, but I need to upgrade my GTX 460 soon.
 
I was literally just talking with someone about the itch....

I'm bleeding-out from scratching over here!

CG on the new card. Now, sell me your 280 lol
Nope. I still need that 280 for Crossfire :D

The itch is satisfied for now....I think. With R9 280 + HD 7950 3GB Crossfire, I could always go for 4K or Eyefinity.....
Yeah, I saw that amazing deal at SPCR and was about to pull the trigger, but the card is too long for my ancient Sonata 3, and I can't justify a new case just for a cheaper video card.

I figure a card in the $200-range under 9.5 inches will come along at some point, but I need to upgrade my GTX 460 soon.
There have been a few sub 9.5" cards out there in the $200 range but they're overpriced for the performance you're getting, bad quality control, and/or out of stock.

A solid new case is only $50 to $70.
 
Nope. I still need that 280 for Crossfire :D

The itch is satisfied for now....I think. With R9 280 + HD 7950 3GB Crossfire, I could always go for 4K or Eyefinity.....

There have been a few sub 9.5" cards out there in the $200 range but they're overpriced for the performance you're getting, bad quality control, and/or out of stock.

A solid new case is only $50 to $70.

I'm a silent nut, so a good atx case would run me more around 100 (like the r5), unless you know something better? My 2500k + 16gb.ram is plenty for the next four years, so I just need a gpu that will fit

That's the whole reason the 7950 is so attractive - it's a twin frozr and a fairly efficient card

I may end up buying a new case anyway, but I'm going to wait to see how powerful and small the Gtx 960 is, since the rumored 128 bit bus will make small cards easy
 
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I'm a silent nut, so a good atx case would run me more around 100 (like the r5), unless you know something better? My 2500k + 16gb.ram is plenty for the next four years, so I just need a gpu that will fit
Well damn. The Fractal Design R4 was $70 shipped about week or two ago from Newegg.

That's the whole reason the 7950 is so attractive - it's a twin frozr and a fairly efficient card

I may end up buying a new case anyway, but I'm going to wait to see how powerful and small the Gtx 960 is, since the rumored 128 bit bus will make small cards easy
Good luck with that.
 
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