ail45

hey for a case you could get this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811146025

got that case for a build for my uncle and looks sick and good quality.

i would just get another 120mm fan to add in the front to serve as a 2nd intake.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811998121

and as for dvd-rw

i have 2 of these

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827118002

they were recommended to me by my the best pc teacher in my college, which he rips movies constantly, and said those have lasted him the longest so far.

he has 3 400cd case's full of movies/shows atm lol

also pick up a sata cable for it since it didnt bring one. at least mine didnt.

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a pirates life for me arrrgggg

durch

The case you picked out looks pretty good, but the CM 690 is a little more balanced. I've made a build with the 690 and it works very well, and like previously mentioned, CM ALWAYS has rebates out on their cases. Wait around a bit and the CM 690 will be one of the ones with a rebate. Their rebate customer service is absolutely FANTASTIC.

I've also used their cheaper CM Centurion 534 for $40 with great results. The main difference between the 534 and the 690 is the 534 drops the 120mm front intake fan, which isn't a big deal unless you need to keep your HDD's very cool (lot's of reading/writing to them). That same case has a $15 MIR (making it only $25) if you don't mind a silver panel on the front. If you want the side panel window, try the CM Centurion 5 for $30 after a $15 MIR.

You can take the money you saved ($40-55) to buy a better CPU cooler. Slap this AC Freezer 7 Pro on your X2 4000+ and you'll be able to bump the voltage up from 1.30v to 1.45v no problem, and get anywhere from 2.8-3.0GHz out of that CPU. Or this ZEROtherm Nirvana for $38 after a $10 MIR, pushing almost twice the airflow.

I haven't heard of anyone with that motherboard you picked out. Lots of people (myself included) have this Biostar TForce 560 for the same price and LOVE it. It can hit anywhere from 320-350MHz HTT, about 85-95% the performance of the top of the line 590 SLI boards that cost 2x as much. You can read more about that board here.

For an optical drive, I recommend any CD/DVD burner with a SATA interface. IDE (PATA) cables are too wide and can make cable management difficult, hurting airflow in the case. Almost any will work, such as this Samsung drive for $30. It's OEM, so it won't come with the SATA cable, but your motherboard should come with at least one SATA cable.

For the vid card, I like the 2900GT 256MB card for $130 for a budget gaming rig. That's a great price/performance ratio. If you have a little extra $ to spend, instead of going for the 3850 256MB card, I'd get the 2900PRO 512MB card. The 3850 is probably a little faster, but a lot of new games are requiring the greater 512MB of memory to run well. Just my two cents.

kenny1064

Go with the Biostar TF560 and the cm 690. The motherboard has a high front side bus it can reach and is very simple to use. The cm 690 case is awsome for the money. Review after review says that is by far the best case under $100. The good thing about both these products is that they are cheap and reliable.

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I cheer for two teams: UNC or anyone playing DUKE!:

kenny1064

durch is right, you really need to get a video card with 512mem. Games now a days just don't run that well with 256. The 3850 512 would be my choice for the money.

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I cheer for two teams: UNC or anyone playing DUKE!:

reptilematt

256 with 256bit will still hold up fine for most except Crysis.

Holyjunk

** Cases **
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811146018
[url]http://www.provantage.com/antec-nine-hundred~7ANTG049.htm[/url
- good website?? ^
I like the NZXT but reading reviews I guess it is pretty flimsy... I really want a side window though! haha Thanks guys!

ail45

did u see my post?

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a pirates life for me arrrgggg

Holyjunk

Ya, I did. Sorry but I am not digging the front on the bottom at all... I really don't want to wait but I suppose I should save up and get the case I want instead of just getting a cheap one.. Dang it I wish I made more then 5.85 a hour haha.

Holyjunk

**UPDATE**
I have decided to hold off on a video card for now.. I won't be playing many games right now due to school and I just might get one closer to May.. Only game I will be playing will be starcraft haha. So is there I good overclocking board this has integreted graphics? or should i just pop in my old 64mb nvidia something or other mx440? I think... Thanks guys! Also, this might help budget wise cause I am still wanting to spend maybe around $450 without a video card! YEY!

KloroFormd

The motherboard in my sig has been good to me so far with overclocking. Max volt increases of .15v on CPU, and the onboard video is... bearable.

For optical drive, I really recommend anything by Lite-On. I've bought nothing but Lite-On drives since 2001 and have yet to recieve a coaster from any of them (excluding that time I bought CDs from the dollar store...). They're all still 100% functional.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106228

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Current Settings: 2.625GHz

I did Latty's Linux Challenge and I now still use Linux!