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I'm going to build a new gaming/working pc soon...

specs:

AMD Phenom II X4 955, 3.2 GHz, 125 Watts, not planning to overclock, using stock cpu cooler
ASUS M4A79XTD 790X motherboard
Radeon 5750 (not entirely sure about video card just yet, but currently leaning towards this)
WD Caviar Green 640GB 7200rpm
4GB DDR3
cd/dvd/burner

I was planning on getting the Antec Sonata III case, which comes with a 500 Watt power supply.

Someone else in the System Builders Anonymous forum suggested a different case, and a name-brand power supply.

Unfortunately, money is a factor, and I'm bumping into the upper range of what I want to spend. What's my best bet for a case/psu for around $150, but absolutely under $200? I'd like to minimize noise as much as I can.

Thanks in advance!

Newegg has the xlico wind tunnel with a 650w modular psu right now for $160.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.276144

Also out of curiosity why amd? Right now (I've been looking to upgrade also) you can get i5, mobo, case, psu and ram for under $600.

maditude wrote:

I'm going to build a new gaming/working pc soon...

specs:

AMD Phenom II X4 955, 3.2 GHz, 125 Watts, not planning to overclock, using stock cpu cooler
ASUS M4A79XTD 790X motherboard
Radeon 5750 (not entirely sure about video card just yet, but currently leaning towards this)
WD Caviar Green 640GB 7200rpm
4GB DDR3
cd/dvd/burner

I was planning on getting the Antec Sonata III case, which comes with a 500 Watt power supply.

Someone else in the System Builders Anonymous forum suggested a different case, and a name-brand power supply.

Unfortunately, money is a factor, and I'm bumping into the upper range of what I want to spend. What's my best bet for a case/psu for around $150, but absolutely under $200? I'd like to minimize noise as much as I can.

Thanks in advance!

The Antec Sonata III is a nice case with a nice PSU. I used this case to build my wife's computer, a Q9450 CPU with 9800GTX+ videocard a year or so ago. Runs like a champ. I also like the Ante 300 case if you're on a budget. This is a smoking deal http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129065

The 430Watt PSU will easily handle your build.

Also, any Case/PSU combo from this list with 430W or better PSU should be good. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... rder=PRICE


I now see the Sonata III has free shipping, which makes it cheaper than the Antec 300... I vote Sonata III.

Here's two combos to consider:

Antec Three Hundred with Antec TruePower New TP-650 650W $150

Antec Two Hundred with Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W $140

Gerbil Jedidiah wrote:

The Antec Sonata III is a nice case with a nice PSU. I used this case to build my wife's computer, a Q9450 CPU with 9800GTX+ videocard a year or so ago. Runs like a champ. I also like the Ante 300 case if you're on a budget. This is a smoking deal http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129065

The 430Watt PSU will easily handle your build.

Also, any Case/PSU combo from this list with 430W or better PSU should be good. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... rder=PRICE


I now see the Sonata III has free shipping, which makes it cheaper than the Antec 300... I vote Sonata III.

Another vote for the Sonata III. It's said to be much quieter than the 300, too.

eric93se wrote:

Here's two combos to consider:

Antec Three Hundred with Antec TruePower New TP-650 650W $150

Antec Two Hundred with Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W $140

That seems like power overkill though.

maditude wrote:

Someone else in the System Builders Anonymous forum suggested a different case, and a name-brand power supply.

Since you are not going to overclock, the 500W of the Sonata should be good enough. The guy in SBA just stated his personal opinion without looking at your build. The 5750 is not a power hog.

There's a combo right now for the Antec 300 and the Phenom II 955. That should leave more than enough $ for a nice, quiet PSU. Not sure how quiet the 300 is compared to the Sonata though.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.281855

Thanks for the input/suggestions everyone.

After a good deal more reading, I'm now kind of leaning towards the Antec P183 ($140) and a OCZ ModXStream Pro 500 W, 80+% efficient p/s ($65, but a $25 rebate). Pushing the upper edge of my budget a bit, but if it will make a significant difference in noise levels, will be worth it, I think.

There are very few cases as quiet as a Sonata III in stock form, and the included PSU should be fine for any moderately sane build. I'm actually considering getting a Sonata III myself to replace my somewhat-worse-for-wear Solo (I cart it about to LANs a lot). The Sonata has the advantage of not being quite so...monolithic as the P18x cases too, IMO.

You would be better off getting a higher quality PSU like Seasonic, Corsair or Antec.

Just saw this combo today..... Nice simple little case, comes with a 480watt NZXT PSU... probably not amazing, but when your looking at things in that price range you have to compromise. Looks like with this combo you don't have to compromise much at all.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811146059 - 49.99 with PSU

The case looks nice, blacked interior (if only it had a clear side) 120mm fans on the side and the top, the area the motherboard sits on as you can see even has an opening so you can remove HSF's off of your CPU without having to take the motherboard out, cable management holes rubber moldings for water cool cables *odd on this level of case*, side mounted hard drive racks (I like this some don't) and then metal mesh/grating on the front (makes for a nice snappy look) and of course your audio/usb and even eSata on the front. If shipping wasn't so expensive to Alaska I would buy a few of these to keep on stock for little system builds, decent little backup rig combo i guess.

Update: Not sure about that PSU... I figured it would be a NZXT PSU... its a Logisys.