Need help choosing new case for current components

[Sniff]

Hello, i am new to pc building and am looking to upgrade, i recently had an alienware x51 r3 and am looking to change case  and graphics card as i no longer want the compact looking case, here are the specs:

• 16Gb Dual Channel (2x8 Gb DIMMS) DDR4 PC4-17000 Non-ECC only (2133 MHz)
• Intel® Z170 Chipset (Intel® GL82Z170 PCH) (Skylake)
• NVIDIA Geforce GTX 960 2GB GDDR5
• Alienware™ 330 Watt Power Supply
• 2 TB Toshiba HDD Running at 7200 RPM
• Samsung SSD PM951 M.2 256GB PCIe
• Intel I7-6700K overclocked to 4.4Ghz
• Custom water cooling

I want to upgrade to the Nvidia 1060 6gb Gddr5 and am wondering what case would be best to fit all of these parts and the new graphics card.

[jetnoodles]

The corsair 5000 series case are very good

[Sniff]

13 hours ago, NOV654 said:

The corsair 5000 series case are very good

okay thank you , do you know if my current components will fit this case?

[Sniff]

13 hours ago, comander said:

So some things to point out. 

1. Videocards (especially anything that's even half good for mining) are hard to get these days. You might be better off looking at a 980 or 980Ti than a 1060. Be sure to check prices. This assumes you can even use such a card with your system... 

2. Cases usually don't matter THAT much. If you can make a profit flipping your current Dell case that might be great. Don't expect any real improvements from changing the case though - even a cardboard box can work. Also be aware that your Dell motherboard looks a bit wonky (at least what I saw from looking up your computer) - it might not be able to fit into normal cases. 

3. Your 330W Dell power supply is really really weak. You'll probably want to swap this out before any video card upgrades (it is possible that the 1060 COULD work - though 970/980/980Ti would be pushing it). Be warned that your Dell motherboard looks like it's proprietary - you might not be able to readily replace the PSU with normal parts this would require either an adapter (make sure you get the right one) or a proprietary Dell PSU (make sure you get the right one). Using the wrong power supply WILL instantly fry your equipment by sending the wrong voltages to the wrong places. I don't personally know if "a dell power supply is a dell power supply" it might change by year/model. One warning - low wattage usually means "not enough" but that doesn't mean a 2 ounce 2000W PSU from some off label can actually deliver enough power. It's not as bad as it used to be (80+ certification helps by actually creating a bar that needs to be passed) but there are still companies that buy garbage 150W PSUs and literally just slap a random label on the unit. There are PSU tier lists out there that help. Anything B tier (possibly C tier) or higher is likely fine (assuming the manufacturer didn't cheap out on the unit after the fact and start swapping out parts - rare but it happens). 

 

But yeah... you got a Dell. Dell often (but not always) uses its own weird parts which makes upgrades and repairs harder. I don't know why, it's not like it saves them much money. This is probably something the EU or the FTC should make illegal for desktops. 



You legitimately might be better off trying to part everything out and getting a whole new system. Your motherboard fetches a pretty penny on ebay ($160ish). Your CPU does too ($200ish). You can get a CPU+board (11400 + board will be like $300-350ish total) at a similar combined price that'll be a fair bit faster. No idea what the case would sell for but I have this odd feeling there's still people who think Alienware of 2020 as being as good as Alienware of 2002 used to be. 



Some general case suggestions

 

As far as cases are concerned - https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-pc-cases,4183.html

My usual strategy is to look at reviews if doing a general build. When I do "specific" builds I'll usually look at resources specific to that use case (e.g. I'm currently using a Cerberus-X which I found rave reviews on the smallformfactorPC subreddit). 

thank you , i’ll deffo make sure to have a look at sizes of gpu before i buy to make sure 

[jetnoodles]

5 hours ago, Sniff said:

okay thank you , do you know if my current components will fit this case?

Yes but just to make sure try making your config on pc part picker to see compatibility