Gaming_Groove

80%

Contact Fractal's customer support, they might be able to hook you up. I know they have the Define R5 windowed side panel listed on their site. They may be able to sell you the R6 window.

Contact Fractal's customer support, they might be able to hook you up. I know they have the Define R5 windowed side panel listed on their site. They may be able to sell you the R6 window.

Contact Fractal's customer support, they might be able to hook you up. I know they have the Define R5 windowed side panel listed on their site. They may be able to sell you the R6 window.

Raw GPU performance might be slightly better on a GTX 580, however with its limited VRAM you're going to be hitting system memory with most current games and negating any possible benefit. Also it uses a whackton of power. For $40 it might be worth it if you didn't already have the RX 460, but since you already have the RX 460 it doesn't make any sense to get the GTX 580.

Hello! Just wanted to share the (mostly) final results of some upgrades I've been doing over the past year.
 
Before
 

 
Intel Core i5-3330 
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz memory 
OEM mATX b75 motherboard 
1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD 
Nvidia GeForce GT 630 2GB 
Dual-band wireless network adapter 
FSP 350-watt Power Supply 
Acer OEM mATX Case
 
After
 

 
Intel Core i5-3330 
16GB DDR3 1600Mhz memory 
OEM mATX b75 motherboard 
240GB SanDisk SSDPlus Drive 
1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM HDD 
1TB WD Blue 7200 RPM HDD 
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 
Dual-band wireless network adapter 
EVGA 500 BQ Power Supply 
Fractal Design Define Mini C
 
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out visually and performance-wise. The other changes I'm looking at are upgrading to a second hand i7-3770 (non-k) for a bit of a performance bump, and an aftermarket CPU cooler like the Cryorig H7 for quieter operation.
 
Full write-up on it can be found on PCPartPicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/cNxG3C 
 
Let me know what you think!

Hello! Just wanted to share the (mostly) final results of some upgrades I've been doing over the past year.
 
Before
 

 
Intel Core i5-3330 
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz memory 
OEM mATX b75 motherboard 
1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD 
Nvidia GeForce GT 630 2GB 
Dual-band wireless network adapter 
FSP 350-watt Power Supply 
Acer OEM mATX Case
 
After
 

 
Intel Core i5-3330 
16GB DDR3 1600Mhz memory 
OEM mATX b75 motherboard 
240GB SanDisk SSDPlus Drive 
1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM HDD 
1TB WD Blue 7200 RPM HDD 
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 
Dual-band wireless network adapter 
EVGA 500 BQ Power Supply 
Fractal Design Define Mini C
 
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out visually and performance-wise. The other changes I'm looking at are upgrading to a second hand i7-3770 (non-k) for a bit of a performance bump, and an aftermarket CPU cooler like the Cryorig H7 for quieter operation.
 
Full write-up on it can be found on PCPartPicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/cNxG3C 
 
Let me know what you think!

Hello! Just wanted to share the (mostly) final results of some upgrades I've been doing over the past year.
 
Before
 

 
Intel Core i5-3330 
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz memory 
OEM mATX b75 motherboard 
1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD 
Nvidia GeForce GT 630 2GB 
Dual-band wireless network adapter 
FSP 350-watt Power Supply 
Acer OEM mATX Case
 
After
 

 
Intel Core i5-3330 
16GB DDR3 1600Mhz memory 
OEM mATX b75 motherboard 
240GB SanDisk SSDPlus Drive 
1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM HDD 
1TB WD Blue 7200 RPM HDD 
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 
Dual-band wireless network adapter 
EVGA 500 BQ Power Supply 
Fractal Design Define Mini C
 
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out visually and performance-wise. The other changes I'm looking at are upgrading to a second hand i7-3770 (non-k) for a bit of a performance bump, and an aftermarket CPU cooler like the Cryorig H7 for quieter operation.
 
Full write-up on it can be found on PCPartPicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/cNxG3C 
 
Let me know what you think!

Wow, good job!
When I saw the first picture, it was like I was looking at a picture of how my PC used to look. I mean look at it.

Just curious what was/is the model of your PC? Mine was/is a Acer Aspire M1930.

Hello! Just wanted to share the (mostly) final results of some upgrades I've been doing over the past year.
 
Before
 

 
Intel Core i5-3330 
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz memory 
OEM mATX b75 motherboard 
1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD 
Nvidia GeForce GT 630 2GB 
Dual-band wireless network adapter 
FSP 350-watt Power Supply 
Acer OEM mATX Case
 
After
 

 
Intel Core i5-3330 
16GB DDR3 1600Mhz memory 
OEM mATX b75 motherboard 
240GB SanDisk SSDPlus Drive 
1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM HDD 
1TB WD Blue 7200 RPM HDD 
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 
Dual-band wireless network adapter 
EVGA 500 BQ Power Supply 
Fractal Design Define Mini C
 
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out visually and performance-wise. The other changes I'm looking at are upgrading to a second hand i7-3770 (non-k) for a bit of a performance bump, and an aftermarket CPU cooler like the Cryorig H7 for quieter operation.
 
Full write-up on it can be found on PCPartPicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/cNxG3C 
 
Let me know what you think!

Yeah. Money is a little tight since the holidays, but I eventually want to grab an i7-3770 if I can manage. Looks like they go for about $120-$140 on eBay.

Very nice! Planning on a CPU upgrade in the future?

Looks way better than before =) 
 
 

Amazing 

Hello! Just wanted to share the (mostly) final results of some upgrades I've been doing over the past year.
 
Before
 

 
Intel Core i5-3330 
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz memory 
OEM mATX b75 motherboard 
1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD 
Nvidia GeForce GT 630 2GB 
Dual-band wireless network adapter 
FSP 350-watt Power Supply 
Acer OEM mATX Case
 
After
 

 
Intel Core i5-3330 
16GB DDR3 1600Mhz memory 
OEM mATX b75 motherboard 
240GB SanDisk SSDPlus Drive 
1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM HDD 
1TB WD Blue 7200 RPM HDD 
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 
Dual-band wireless network adapter 
EVGA 500 BQ Power Supply 
Fractal Design Define Mini C
 
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out visually and performance-wise. The other changes I'm looking at are upgrading to a second hand i7-3770 (non-k) for a bit of a performance bump, and an aftermarket CPU cooler like the Cryorig H7 for quieter operation.
 
Full write-up on it can be found on PCPartPicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/cNxG3C 
 
Let me know what you think!

Hello! Just wanted to share the (mostly) final results of some upgrades I've been doing over the past year.
 
Before
 

 
Intel Core i5-3330 
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz memory 
OEM mATX b75 motherboard 
1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD 
Nvidia GeForce GT 630 2GB 
Dual-band wireless network adapter 
FSP 350-watt Power Supply 
Acer OEM mATX Case
 
After
 

 
Intel Core i5-3330 
16GB DDR3 1600Mhz memory 
OEM mATX b75 motherboard 
240GB SanDisk SSDPlus Drive 
1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM HDD 
1TB WD Blue 7200 RPM HDD 
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 
Dual-band wireless network adapter 
EVGA 500 BQ Power Supply 
Fractal Design Define Mini C
 
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out visually and performance-wise. The other changes I'm looking at are upgrading to a second hand i7-3770 (non-k) for a bit of a performance bump, and an aftermarket CPU cooler like the Cryorig H7 for quieter operation.
 
Full write-up on it can be found on PCPartPicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/cNxG3C 
 
Let me know what you think!

Maybe you can explain better why this is a big deal...in my mind, as long as the intakes are filtered and you have positive air pressure in the case, the vent in the back shouldn't need to be filtered.
 
As far as Fractal's quality control I can't speak to that since I haven't bought a huge number of cases from them, but I just built a PC in the Define Mini C the other day and it is a really solid case. The only problem I had was the bottom of the case where the power supply slides in was slightly warped in shipping...UPS bashed the box hard enough to tear the cardboard, so getting the power supply in was a little rough until I realized what the problem was.
 
 It's not the smallest case you can get though, so if small form factor is what you are going for, you may want to look elsewhere.

The biggest regret I have of a hardware purchase was an XFX R7 240 core edition. I had been out of purchasing hardware since about 2004 and should have done more research, but I needed a decent card for my girlfriend's PC for under $100 that wouldn't require a power supply upgrade, and that's what my local CompUSA had. I also didn't want to wait, which was a huge mistake.
 
The thing was terrible. It was a low profile card, so the fan on the cooler was a little 30mm thing that got very loud under any sort of load. As far as performance, even gaming at 720p low settings was a challenge. It did generally alright in WoW and other older games, which is what she needed it for at the time, but it became a huge bottleneck once she started trying to play more recent games.
 
Linus was right in his cheap video card rant, I'd have been better off waiting another paycheck and buying a GTX 750 Ti or R7 260X.

Get a 1050 Ti. My girlfriend has an A8-5500 and they work well together. For comparison, I'm running the same GPU with an i5-3330 and we get similar performance on most games. CPU bound games like strategy games reveal the bottleneck on her machine, but we're generally happy with the performance. Anything above a 1050 Ti is probably a waste with that CPU. 

You also have to consider the part in comparison with current hardware. For example, the 960 launched at about $200 US but is now basically matched by the $140 1050 ti. Someone building a brand new PC with a Ryzen 5 and a 1050 ti can probably get equal or better performance for about $700 with brand new hardware that is still under warranty. That being said, I would agree that $600 is probably the most you can reasonably expect to get. I know I'm not adding much to the conversation, just wanted to include this so people who might be trying to sell hardware can understand the common buyer's perspective. Sellers tend to overvalue their stuff because they just think about how much they paid and don't consider the march of progress. 

My first thought is always, "Kamina". 

They were already so hard to keep in stock that I went with a G4600 in a recent gift build I did for a friend. Just counting my lucky stars that I managed to get a 6GB 1060 for him before the market went nuts as well.
 
It's a terrible time to custom build right now. Most of the other cost increases are outside of manufacturer control like miners, DRAM shortages, and NAND shortages. If this is true, I think it's crazy that Intel are intentionally creating a shortage on entry-level CPUs to pad their bottom line... especially in the face of a looming Ryzen 3 launch. 

They were already so hard to keep in stock that I went with a G4600 in a recent gift build I did for a friend. Just counting my lucky stars that I managed to get a 6GB 1060 for him before the market went nuts as well.
 
It's a terrible time to custom build right now. Most of the other cost increases are outside of manufacturer control like miners, DRAM shortages, and NAND shortages. If this is true, I think it's crazy that Intel are intentionally creating a shortage on entry-level CPUs to pad their bottom line... especially in the face of a looming Ryzen 3 launch. 

They were already so hard to keep in stock that I went with a G4600 in a recent gift build I did for a friend. Just counting my lucky stars that I managed to get a 6GB 1060 for him before the market went nuts as well.
 
It's a terrible time to custom build right now. Most of the other cost increases are outside of manufacturer control like miners, DRAM shortages, and NAND shortages. If this is true, I think it's crazy that Intel are intentionally creating a shortage on entry-level CPUs to pad their bottom line... especially in the face of a looming Ryzen 3 launch. 

No, try to think of it this way: regardless of the cooler, your CPU is still using (and therefore releasing as heat) the same amount of energy. So it'll still be putting out the same heat. Actually, it'd probably be the opposite effect that you think, since the delid makes the heat transfer more efficient. Meaning more thermal energy is going to the cooler (and therefore the air), and less stays in the CPU making it heat up. Which means the air would be warmer.