Tig.

That case looks good, does it have the same cooling as the other NZXT case?

Hmm, the CM Storm Scout is still looking really good for me, but the $60 dollar case, hmm. This is crazy. lol

__________________

Craiga35

Well Source games are more CPU intensive so I can kind of expect that as my old CPU ran at 2.5 as opposed to your 2.0. Either of the two athlon II or Phenom II will definatley run it easily, I'll reinstall my CS:S and tell you what my FPS are with my setup (yes I know mines better but just to give you an idea)

Like I said before Gigabytes are very good overclocking motherboards. The Foxconn that Tator Tot picked is also good at overclocking. I would recommend either of the two mentioned earlier. However since you are new to overclocking I would suggest the gigabyte because its easier to overclock.

As for the case we are just suggesting the NZXT because of your budget, if you have enough to spring for the Storm Scout you won't be disappointed its a great case.

Yes the Phenom II does overclock easier, but I wouldn't say the old way of overclocking is scary, it just seems like more work but can offer more fine-tuned overclocks. Kind of like the transmission of a car. The phenom II overclocking is like an automatic, and the Athlon II is a manual.

__________________

Tator Tot

The NZXT Beta Evo & NZXT M59 are the exact same except one has a window & door along with the fancy front while the other is more utilitarian.

__________________
Check Out My Sammich!
Aumotocnic"An unfortunate member of the overclock.net insomnia club"
Missouri Overclockers
The ß₤ứə Çřёώ
The Red Tide ATi Owners Unite
nVidia's Gr33N Machine

hermitmaster

I've got my 620 up to 3.25 on stock cooling with no problems. Buy at least DDR3 1600 though, my memory is limiting my OC as I could be closer to 3.5 if my ram could take it.

__________________
The Red Tide

Craiga35

IMO that new NZXT is ugly, but I like more plain designs, for example antec 300/ cm690. As I said before the Storm Scout is a great case. I agree choosing a case can be one of the hardest parts of the build. Its all down to cooling and then personal preference.

__________________

Craiga35

Just did the Stress test,

1440*900 everything maxed 8xAA 16xAF: 217Fps Avg.

You could expect close to those numbers in CS:S because our video cards are so close and CS:S doesn't make use of all the cores.

EDIT: sorry for double post.

__________________

Tig.

At the bottom of my posts (forgot what it is called at the moment.. lol) it has my up to date specs. Should I really upgrade my RAM? I have a tight budget..,if it really is to you guys, so maybe I can keep using this memory?

I probably plan on buying the Gigabyte Motherboard because it will be my first time overclocking, but it's memory standards are DDR3 1666(O.C.)/1333/1066. What does that mean? Does it mean the current memory I have won't work? Wow, I'm bad at this stuff, but I guess I gotta start somewhere. lol

Also, that Gigabyte Motherboard has some pretty good combos with both the CPU's we talked about. Now it depends on which CPU to get... is the Athlon II really that hard to overclock? I'm leaning towards that one instead of the Phenom because the Athlon II has four processors.. for $100.

Thanks so much for all of this information. Wow, that is crazy FPS. Thanks again.
Yeah, I asked my brother about the case and he said it doesn't look that good either. I planned on getting that Green Nvidia version of the CM690, but the Storm Scout is cheaper by a little bit.

__________________

Idiot

Yes you will need to buy new ram DDR2 and DDR3 are incompatible.

__________________
The solution to all of the problems of mankind is suicide. No man = no problem.
I'm not immature! Just clinically insane.

Tig.

Can you please rephrase that? I don't really understand.
I have to buy new DDR2 RAM and DDR3 RAM OR DDR2 and DDR3 RAM are not compatible with the motherboard?

__________________

Idiot

DDR3 is not compatible with a DDR2 motherboard (That acer is DDR2).

__________________
The solution to all of the problems of mankind is suicide. No man = no problem.
I'm not immature! Just clinically insane.