What's A Decent Case and PSU???

[Kalgregor]

I'm looking at buying a new system but dont know how powerful the PSU is and would also like some recommendations on a good, low priced case

I'm planning on buying:
Athlon XP 1.6GHz
Alpha PAL 8045
nForce 420-D
512Mb DDR SDRAM
40Gb 7200rpm IDE
CD-RW
DVD-ROM
and maybe a GeForce 3 Ti 500 in 6 months or so

I don't really want a full tower, and I dont want to pay too much for the case. I dont mind paying for a good PSU, but i dont want to buy one with more wattage than i need. If its AMD recommended all the better too.:confused:

[The Overclocker]

to get a good psu you have to buy it seperatly, go for an eniemax and for the case i suggest you look round at local shops first, unluke mobos and hard disks you can tell they are good by just feeling around

[Kalgregor]

its kind of hard to find any cases being sold dont come with a PSU in them around here

[KeyboardCowboy]

it all depends on how much you want to spend, you can find a case online for around 150, but you can usually find sonething sutiable at a local retailer for about half that

[batboy]

Antec and Enermax both make very good cases and power supplies. By the way, there is no such thing as a power supply that has too much wattage. Overclockers need a powerful power supply to run all those fans we put into the cases. For that Athlon, I'd get a 350 or 400 watt power supply. A good Antec model SX635 mid tower case with lots of cooling features and a 350 watt PS for about $100 U.S. delivered can be found at the link listed below. I just bought one from them recently and I love this case. It has places for three 80mm fans (including one in front of the hard drive bay to cool your harddrives). In addition to the three case fans (only comes with one, you need to purchase the other two separately), the power supply has two 80mm fans, one sucking and one blowing. This is a well made case for a reasonable price. Do a search and read a couple of articles about it. The hardware reviewers like it too.

http://www.etoyou.com/default.asp

[JetMech]

In todays hodge podge of cpus and changing specs you have to make up your mind what type of system you want, chose the cpu that will best support you, and then buy a case and psu that meet the manufactures specs for that cpu. A perfect example is the P4. The spec for mounting the hsf require that you either have a case that provides the points to screw in the standoffs for the hsf or buy a motherboard that provides a backplate with the standoffs on it. Then you need a power supply that is ATX12V compliant to provide all the juice you'll need to overclock it or in some cases run it at all. The latest AMD specs follow the same idea but are not interchangeable with Intel. You want a case that puts your heatsink at the top of the case allowing you access to the cpu and memory which a good clocker does with regularity. You want rounded edges in the case or have a red cross bloodmobile standing by to replace the blood you lose through cut (be sure your tetinus shots are up to date). In the case of the P4 The Inwin S-508 at $75.00 fills the bill nicely PSU included. I like a full tower because I have big hands and like the space up top for keeping the heat above the cpu. Whew! I'll let someone else finish this. Yall can jump in any time now.:D

[Yodums]

Well my first option would be Vapor Chill...:p if you want to spend that money hehehehe

Like batboy said Antec and Enermax make good psu and case I'm seeing lots of Antec out being used alot now... :)
Get a full tower and a 400w PSU

[batboy]

He didn't really want a full tower, that's why I recommended the Antec SX 635 mid tower, which by the way is an ATX standard, plus both P-4 and Athlon compliant. There is no sharp edges either. Jet made some good suggestions in what to look for. Actually, my first choice would be a Cooler Master aluminum case, but those are over $250 with power supply. Decided I could spend that extra $150 on other components.

[train22]

if you're on a a short budget, there is a very nice case for 70 bucks that even includes the psu:
Fong Kai FK-603
Want a review?
Click Here (http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.html?i=1138)
cheers.

[nihili]

Originally posted by train22
if you're on a a short budget, there is a very nice case for 70 bucks that even includes the psu:
Fong Kai FK-603
Want a review?
Click Here (http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.html?i=1513&p=3)
cheers.

I've got one of those. The power supply seems to be pretty good, though it's only 250 watt. My 5 rail never dips below 4.92. However if you're thinking of doing case mods, I'd stick with a metal case.

nihili

[Kalgregor]

One of my friends runs his T-Bird 1.4 on a 235W el cheapo case, and i was just wondering how much wattage is overkill.
I like the antec and enermax cases and know that amd recommends them, the only cases around here with an amd recommended PSU are AOpens. R these any good, or should i shop around and see if there are any Antex, Enermax in Oz that dont cost too much.

This is a bit of a n00bie question, and i'm guessing i'd probably get fried or something but anyway, is there anything wrong with just taking one side panel of your case off, then u wouldnt really need an aluminum case or a case fan would u?

[batboy]

Leaving one side off a cheapie generic case is one option, but a good case is designed to work with the covers on if you have good ventilation. I've built a couple computers for friends that were on tight budgets using AOpen cases. Not a bad case for the price, but the power supplies are wimpy.

[Kalgregor]

What Wattage were the AOpen cases u made?

[CrystalMethod]

For the mid towers, the KF45, HT45, HX45 come with 250W PSU's. The KF45D comes with a 300W PSU. All the Aopen full towers come with 300W PSU's. I don't particularly like the Aopen PSU's. I swapped mine out for a Enermax even before I had left work. If you relly don't care about looks, and are going to go with an Aopen mid-tower, I'd say get the HX45. It's got the better out of the two 250W PSU's Aopen puts in their cases. The chassis is also made of thicker sheet metal than the KF series, and it's cheaper than the HT, or KF. The only thing is that the front panel is butt ugly.

[batboy]

Most of the AOpen cases I've seen (including the two I built) had 250 watt power supplies. At least they're rated at that, but they are wimpy. Besides, that's not enough for one of those power hungry AMD chips and several fans. Not to mention stuffing the case full of components like multiple harddrives, CD burners, several PCI cards, etc, etc. Really, a 300 watt would be the absolute minimum I'd get nowadays and really I'd recommend a good 350 or 400 watt power supply. Trust me, you'll thank me later. If you're on a really tight budget, you could get one of the AOpen cases and then plan to ungrade the power supply to a more powerful Antec or Enermax later once you save up some more money. I wouldn't try doing much "extreme" overclocking until then though. Good luck.