Buying a Case and Later a Z97 Motherboard

[Gachr]

Hello, I gave my Phenom back a week ago and soon I will have 500DKK back (~90$). Also I have 900DKK (~160$) on my own, I want to make some shopping.

I could spend it all on a new case but I don't want to. I already had 3 Bitfenix cases so I don't want a fourth one. I picked ITX because of my old desk, now I have a new one which can handle pretty much any case. Then I will buy a motherboard suitable to the case.

 

First I was thinking about Arc Mini, it is nice, cheap and has got a fan controller - my mobo supports only one chassis connector.

Meanwhile I really fell in love with Corsair 540, it is great, but very expensive.

I don't really like the typical tower cases, I would like to have something different

 

Later on I will buy a Z97 motherboard, this fall I guess, so I can buy a Broadwell CPU in 2015. If I picked mATX, I wanted to go with Z97 Gryphon, if ATX then with Z97 Sabertooth Mark 2. I was looking at other motherboards, also Gigabyte (I don't have a good past with them) and they seem better in pricing than ASUS.

 

Remember that less is better, but the max budget for the case is about 500-1000DKK (~90-180$) and for the motherboard (in the fall) about 750-1500DKK (~135-270$).

Can you give me any suggestions? Thanks.

[Zeke]

Arc Mini is a lovely little case, it gets my vote.

[brownninja97]

Gigabyte are priced a lot better then asus currently and msi is locked inbetween for some, each has their benefits but msi and gigabyte are higher on my list because both at least in the uk have far superior customer service and furthermore asus has the highest failure rate of motherboards, its around 3.5% just below asrock and biostar.

[Trik'Stari]

Check out the Cooler Master Haf xb evo, it costs about 35 bucks less than the Corsair 540. I do have the corsair 540 and it is nice, but not super great if you want room for expansion, the dual drive bays arent very good on it (thats its only problem)

[Gachr]

Gigabyte are priced a lot better then asus currently and msi is locked inbetween for some, each has their benefits but msi and gigabyte are higher on my list because both at least in the uk have far superior customer service and furthermore asus has the highest failure rate of motherboards, its around 3.5% just below asrock and biostar.

I always prefer to spend a little bit more for something similar because then I know that it will go for stuff like quality, software and customer service.

 

Check out the Cooler Master Haf xb evo, it costs about 35 bucks less than the Corsair 540. I do have the corsair 540 and it is nice, but not super great if you want room for expansion, the dual drive bays arent very good on it (thats its only problem)

I don't like the design of CM cases, especially this one.

[brownninja97]

I always prefer to spend a little bit more for something similar because then I know that it will go for stuff like quality, software and customer service.

 

I don't like the design of CM cases, especially this one.

I guess that makes sense, just remember that asus seems to be a bit rocky in the quality sector and as you have had bad service with gigabyte in the past then id recommend msi or asrock which both great choices, just a note for asus, stay away from the low end rog motherboards, they are rip offs just with fancy branding.

[Gachr]

I guess that makes sense, just remember that asus seems to be a bit rocky in the quality sector and as you have had bad service with gigabyte in the past then id recommend msi or asrock which both great choices, just a note for asus, stay away from the low end rog motherboards, they are rip offs just with fancy branding.

Thanks for the advice. I had a lot of software issues with the motherboard.

I don't really like MSI, they really go for "uber extra gaming dragons and knights" and ASRock isn't available in Denmark.

 

Edit: Another good thing about Gigabyte is that their motherboards work good with OSX.

[Gachr]

Okay, I think I'll go expensive and first get 540, then ASUS Z97-Pro. Any suggestions are very welcome.