Case suggestions needed! New build pending!

[AaronJ89]

Hey everyone! Looking to replace my 7 year old build with a new up-to-date rig.
My last build all fit quite nicely into the Raidmax Smilodon and was easily manageable due to the features of that case. But it's getting old and needs replaced.

My new Specs are as follows -
MOBO - ASUS M5A99FX PRO - ATX board
PSU - EVGA 220-G2-0850-XR 80 PLUS GOLD 850w Fully Modular
CPU - AMD FX 8350 Vishera 8-core 4.0 GHz
RAM - G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2x4GB) @ 2133
GPU - Sapphire Radeon R9 380x 4GB GDDR5
SSD - Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
HDD - WD Blue 1TB HDD 5400RPM
Heatsink - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

Now, my issue is that I was needing to find a case that will fit all of this and have plenty of space for cable management and later expansion for Crossfire with another 380X.

My real clearance issue is that of the Hyper 212 EVO, and I'm not sure of how much space is needed, due to using the stock cooler with my previous build.

I'd prefer a black or black/blue case with LEDs and plenty of fans... I was considering the NZXT Guardian 921RB, but have seen that cable management and fitting for the GPU is a real pain...

Help would be MUCH appreciated. This is going to be used as my new gaming and media rig, and liquid cooling isn't really in the plan at the moment and I would like to not have to deal with it. So, airflow would be needed, and I have a 3 year old niece running around, so something that is mildly child-proof would be optimal.

I'd like to keep the case at/around $100 USD, less if possible. This build alone is just over $900, so I'm trying to keep it under $1000. If I have to go over that, I'm not really worried about it, I just want a new rig that will last for a while and be worth the money I put into it.

[jeonjaeng]

I love my mastercase pro 5. Even the just mastercase 5 would be fine for your use but it is a great case with a great design. It has amazing cable managment as well

[AaronJ89]

2 minutes ago, jeonjaeng said:

I love my mastercase pro 5. Even the just mastercase 5 would be fine for your use but it is a great case with a great design. It has amazing cable managment as well

That looks viable, and I could always get some LED setup like the HUE to provide the lighting... I'll consider it, thanks!

[Telebubbies]

5 minutes ago, jeonjaeng said:

I love my mastercase pro 5. Even the just mastercase 5 would be fine for your use but it is a great case with a great design. It has amazing cable managment as well

Same here. I have a coolermaster mastercase pro 5 and it is amazing. Great airflow and just a fantastic build! It is easy to hide cables at the back, but there is a bit of a hassle put the back of the case back on as all the cables are pushing on it. But it is worth it. When your build is done, you will hardly see any cables and it will look like a majestic PC.

 

This may exceed your budget. You never told us what your budget is. :3 

[jeonjaeng]

1 minute ago, AaronJ89 said:

That looks viable, and I could always get some LED setup like the HUE to provide the lighting... I'll consider it, thanks!

I dont even see the use in the HUE, NZXT makes long led strips for like 15 bucks http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0046Y1622/ref=twister_B00COII2M4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

that is what i have

[jeonjaeng]

1 minute ago, Telebubbies said:

Same here. I have a coolermaster mastercase pro 5 and it is amazing. Great airflow and just a fantastic build! It is easy to hide cables at the back, but there is a bit of a hassle put the back of the case back on as all the cables are pushing on it. But it is worth it. When your build is done, you will hardly see any cables and it will look like a majestic PC.

 

This may exceed your budget. You never told us what your budget is. :3 

Yeah that is why i suggested the just baseline 5, notice there is no window, but its cheaper and has similar features

[AaronJ89]

1 minute ago, Telebubbies said:

Same here. I have a coolermaster mastercase pro 5 and it is amazing. Great airflow and just a fantastic build! It is easy to hide cables at the back, but there is a bit of a hassle put the back of the case back on as all the cables are pushing on it. But it is worth it. When your build is done, you will hardly see any cables and it will look like a majestic PC.

 

This may exceed your budget. You never told us what your budget is. :3 

True! I never did! I apologize and will edit the post with a preferred price. I'd like to keep it at/around $100 USD, less if possible. The Guardian 921RB I was looking at was $70 USD.

[NumLock21]

Your new specs is about the same as your 7 year old PC. Get a Intel Skylake build.

[Dingus]

The Fractal Design Define S makes for a nice clean looking build as well with room for the hyper 212

 

[ImBleu]

2 minutes ago, Dingus said:

The Fractal Design Define S makes for a nice clean looking build as well with room for the hyper 212

 

 

I agree with this. As a Define S owner, you can not go wrong with the Fractal Design Define S.

[AaronJ89]

2 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Your new specs is about the same as your 7 year old PC. Get a Intel Skylake build.

Not really, My old build only has a Phenom II X4 3.2GHz, 8GB of 1666 RAM and a Radeon 7770 1GB GDDR5, so this would be a step up, with Crossfire in the future as my budget can afford the extra 380X.

[ImBleu]

6 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Your new specs is about the same as your 7 year old PC. Get a Intel Skylake build.

I very much agree with this too. The Vishera 8350 released in mid-2012 and is now 4 years old and doesn't keep up with the Current Intel Skylake series CPUs, by a very large margin. Please consider an Intel i5-6600k unless you plan to wait a few months for AMD's ZEN CPUs which should hopefully restore order, because currently AMD has no place in the high-end CPU market.

 

The 8350 and 6600k are close in price (although Intel is more expensive, but offers way more of a performance bump) and still allows you to go xfire with the 380x.

[AaronJ89]

3 minutes ago, AaronJ89 said:

Not really, My old build only has a Phenom II X4 3.2GHz, 8GB of 1666 RAM and a Radeon 7770 1GB GDDR5, so this would be a step up, with Crossfire in the future as my budget can afford the extra 380X.

Also, I really prefer to stay with AMD/ATi, as I'm an AMD fanboy. Nothing against Intel, but they are about the same as Apple for the pricing. You pay more for a name and can get the same performance from an AMD for a portion of the price.

[Telebubbies]

7 minutes ago, AaronJ89 said:

True! I never did! I apologize and will edit the post with a preferred price. I'd like to keep it at/around $100 USD, less if possible. The Guardian 921RB I was looking at was $70 USD.

The outside seems amazing! First time I ever heard of this case actually. But after looking at some pictures, I can see that it does not have good airflow. 

 

[AaronJ89]

1 minute ago, Telebubbies said:

The outside seems amazing! First time I ever heard of this case actually. But after looking at some pictures, I can see that it does not have good airflow. 

 

Yeah, that's another problem I noticed. My RAIDMAX Smilodon has been a champ ever since I started to use it and the GPU arm and built in fan for the GPU have been a boon. I'm considering just buying another Smilodon, but the Black/Green Edition to counter the Black/Silver/Blue one I have now.

[NumLock21]

16 minutes ago, AaronJ89 said:

Not really, My old build only has a Phenom II X4 3.2GHz, 8GB of 1666 RAM and a Radeon 7770 1GB GDDR5, so this would be a step up, with Crossfire in the future as my budget can afford the extra 380X.

 

Double the core count, does not equal to more performance. You will need to look at the architecture of the cpu. You will probablynot see much of a performance gain, going from your Phenom II to that FX, and 2133 on DDR3 offers no improvement compare to your current DDR3 1666. Only DDR4 on skylake shows a difference when running with faster ram. The other will be AMD's APU, where faster ram speed benefits for its built in iGPU.

 

 

[AaronJ89]

1 minute ago, NumLock21 said:

 

Double the core count, does not equal to more performance. You will need to look at the architecture of the cpu. You will probablynot see much of a performance gain, going from your Phenom II to that FX, and 2133 on DDR3 offers no improvement compare to your current DDR3 1666. Only DDR4 on skylake shows a difference when running with faster ram. The other will be AMD's APU, where faster ram speed benefits for its built in iGPU.

 

Maybe so, but the only issue I'm having with the current build is in graphical performance with gaming. The new Doom and the new Need For Speed barely run, and not well with my current build. Other than the gaming, I mostly use my computer for internet browsing and media. No video rendering, so the most intense load that I put on my PC is majority GPU stress, not CPU.

[NumLock21]

2 minutes ago, AaronJ89 said:

Maybe so, but the only issue I'm having with the current build is in graphical performance with gaming. The new Doom and the new Need For Speed barely run, and not well with my current build. Other than the gaming, I mostly use my computer for internet browsing and media. No video rendering, so the most intense load that I put on my PC is majority GPU stress, not CPU.

Then just upgrade your GPU.

Still want a AMD build, then wait for ZEN or wait for Bristol Ridge, this runs on socket AM4 and uses DDR4. Bristol is a APU. Now if Zen uses AM4, then you can upgrade to Zen when it comes out without doing any major hardware changes.

[AaronJ89]

1 minute ago, NumLock21 said:

Then just upgrade your GPU.

Still want a AMD build, then wait for ZEN or wait for Bristol Ridge, this runs on socket AM4 and uses DDR4. Bristol is a APU. Now if Zen uses AM4, then you can upgrade to Zen when it comes out without doing any major hardware changes.

I will look into that, thank you. But I'm mostly just wanting to be able to upgrade my whole build, considering that it has years of use on it and I don't know if any certain piece is about to go out. The 8-core will do for now, until that comes out, then I will look into switching. And I try to stay away from the APU's, as I don't see the purpose of combining the processors for a pure gaming build. I understand it as a convenience to builder's making rigs to handle simple things like LoL and such, but I play much more intensive games than that.

[NumLock21]

1 minute ago, AaronJ89 said:

I will look into that, thank you. But I'm mostly just wanting to be able to upgrade my whole build, considering that it has years of use on it and I don't know if any certain piece is about to go out. The 8-core will do for now, until that comes out, then I will look into switching. And I try to stay away from the APU's, as I don't see the purpose of combining the processors for a pure gaming build. I understand it as a convenience to builder's making rigs to handle simple things like LoL and such, but I play much more intensive games than that.

It's said Bristol Ridge might be revealed and this years Computex (which has just begun) and there might be more info on it.

I suggest the AM4 is so you can grab a Zen, but in the mean time, it will be the Bristol Ridge APU because Zen won't be here until much later on.

 

[AaronJ89]

1 minute ago, NumLock21 said:

It's said Bristol Ridge might be revealed and this years Computex (which has just begun) and there might be more info on it.

I suggest the AM4 is so you can grab a Zen, but in the mean time, it will be the Bristol Ridge APU because Zen won't be here until much later on.

 

Thanks, but I'm really just posting this for recommendations or ideas for a case for my build, not for suggestions on the build itself.

[piromane666]

what aboput a nzxt phantom 410 ?

[AaronJ89]

So, just an update for everyone, I went with the Phantom 410, and it's great! I also scrubbed the Hyper 212 EVO in place of an H80i GT in a push-pull config.

This thing is a monster! It eats up games like Doom and the newest Need For Speed. Thanks for all the help everyone!