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Thread: Looking for a nice "cube" case

  1. #1

    Question Looking for a nice "cube" case

    Hey all,


    Just joined this site. Looks like there's a lot of great information here! Anyway, I wanted to start planning my 1st build for my step-daughter. She's mainly a gamer and not a huge fan of PCs, but starting to turn around after seeing that PC games are just as good; if not better; than game system games. I want to try to build a semi-powerful computer with a small footprint. I already know she's not a fan of large computers. I really like the look of the "cube" computer cases, but wanted some advice from those who may have built using a "cube" and how it came out. My budget is pretty tight; I can probably max out at $600 - $650 tops. I know that I can't get top of the line components for that amount, but I'd like to get the best that I can for what I can afford.

    Any suggestions as to what brand "cube" case I should go with and maybe a good list of components to get?

    Any and all suggestions, advice, help, etc. is greatly appreciated!


    Jim - reactorman

  2. #2

    Default Re: Looking for a nice "cube" case

    Just looking around online and found what I think is a nice looking case; Aerocool QX-2000. I like the look of it, but I'd really like to hear from anyone who used this case for a build. Anyone?

    If anyone has any other suggestions for a case, please respond. I'm looking for a case around the size of the above mentioned. Thanks!

  3. #3
    Administrator OvRiDe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for a nice "cube" case

    Welcome to TBCS! That looks like a case that will fit right in with your plans. Some other good options, in my opinion, would be to go with a MiniITX motherboard as opposed to a MicroATX. There are some really nice MiniITX cubes and cases out there, such as...

    Cooler Master Elite 130 - Mini-ITX



    drag.n.drop did a sweet mod with the Cooler master Elite 120 in this thread..

    http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...1-Project-Moab



    Cooler Master Elite 110 - Cube Style Mini-ITX



    Rosewill Legacy V3 Plus-B Black Aluminum Alloy Mini-ITX



    There are lots to choose from out there. Do you have any preferences on case size? If you are not looking for something on the smallish side there is always the Cooler Master Half XB ...

    With some slight modification.. I managed to fit a Gigabyte G1-Assassin EATX motherboard in there along with a 1200W PSU, Nvidia GTX 670, and a Corsair H-100 in there for cooling.



    There are several other examples of HAF-XB mods in the Works in Progress section...

    TGS's Miracleman mod -- http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...n-XB-completed

    SXRGuyinMA's Circuit Box -- http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...Box-HAF-XB-Mod

    Lots of options out there in all sizes, keep us posted, would love to see what you end up with.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Looking for a nice "cube" case

    Hi OvRiDe and thanks for the warm welcome! I might consider going with a m-ITX format, but I'm not sure if that would be "powerful" enough for decent gaming. I think that's why I was leaning towards an m-ATX build. I guess that would be another good question. Are there any m-ITX boards capable of decent gaming?

    As always, I greatly appreciate any suggestions, advice, help, etc.!


    Jim - reactorman

    P.s. By the way, I do like that HAF-XB case. Are they really that large?

  5. #5
    Administrator OvRiDe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for a nice "cube" case

    mITX isn't really less powerful than an ATX or mATX. They still use the same chipsets, processors, and RAM as the others. The big difference is size, but to get that size they usually have less stuff, for the lack of a better word. For instance.. instead of having 4 RAM slots, they might only have 2, instead of having 4 PCIe slots they have just the one, instead of having 6-8 SATA ports, they may only have 2 or 4, it just depends on the model and manufacturer. At CES many of the "SteamBox" preview machines were mITX, and they were plenty powerful enough for gaming. So, say you're just going to use 1 full size graphics card and no other add-on cards, you really don't need a big board with extra PCIe slots. With 2 RAM slots you can still affordably put 4-8 GB's in there, even 16GB's isn't outrageous. 2-4 SATA ports is more than enough to provide storage for gaming, etc etc.. Its all about what your requirements are going to be. MSI, ASUS and Gigabyte all have some very nice gaming mITX boards. I would check the reviews at Newegg, Amazon, and TigerDirect. They can give you some insight on issues and benefits. Also one of my gotos when evaluating hardware is YouTube. There are lots of great video reviews out there. Just search for a make and a model on Youtube, and most of the time there will be several videos.

    The Half XB isn't huge, but its not small either. 17.4" x 16.7" and 13" tall. It does have alot of nice features.

    Hope this helps!

  6. #6

    Default Re: Looking for a nice "cube" case

    Thanks again, OvRiDe! I think I'll start looking up some info on m-ITX cases and see what type of components I could get. Options.....options.


    Jim - reactorman

  7. #7
    Why must hard drives fail together? TheMainMan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for a nice "cube" case

    Welcome to the site!

    Another useful tool for putting together a complete build is PC Part Picker. It's nice as it gives you price comparisons from a few different sources so you can get the best price on the components you're buying. It will also check some of the obvious issues, such as picking the wrong frequency RAM or a motherboard that is too big for the case, but it's not perfect.

    If you're thinking m-ATX, you might want to check out the Bit-Fenix Prodigy-M, Phenom-M, or Colossus-M as they are all cubes with a variety of different styles.

    As far as help with parts, do you have a preference for Intel/AMD and ATI/Nvidia?
    TheMainMan

  8. #8

    Default Re: Looking for a nice "cube" case

    Hi MainMan and thanks for the welcome! As far as processors go, I'm leaning towards AMD simply for a better price point. As far as video cards go, I'm not sure yet considering that it would depend on which motherboard I get and also the size of the case.

    I have visited PC Parts Picker. That is a great site for helping people decide on which components to go with. Right now, I'm trying all different kinds of options between cases, motherboards, processors, and graphics cards. The biggest thing I'm trying to achieve is to get the biggest bang for the buck. Right now, it looks like I can only put between $600 - $650 altogether, but I might be able to put a little more towards it as time goes by.


    Jim - reactorman


    P.s. I've been looking around on this site and I'm amazed at how people can mod their case or even make a case from scratch! Unfortunately, I really don't have any tools or knowledge for that matter to do that sort of thing, so my hats off to all of those who can! Simply amazing work!

  9. #9
    Administrator OvRiDe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for a nice "cube" case

    Just out of curiosity I threw some parts together on Newegg last night. It came out to just under 680 bucks, but there are probably better deals to be had, so 650 it pretty doable.

    ASRock FM2A78M-ITX 84.99

    AMD Athlon X4 750K Trinity Quad-Core 3.4GHz
    Socket FM2 100W Desktop Processor - Black Edition 79.99

    CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin
    DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 92.99

    SanDisk Ultra Plus SDSSDHP-256G-G25 2.5" 256GB
    SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) 109.99

    COOLER MASTER Elite 110 RC-110-KKN2
    Midnight Black Steel / Plastic Mini-ITX Tower 49.99

    Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus - 600W Power Supply 59.99

    SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100364VXBF4L Radeon R9 270X
    2GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 199.99

    Total 677.93

    But you can see there is lots of places to save, I didn't really spend any time comparing pricing.

    Good hunting, and looking forward to what you come up with.

  10. #10

    Default Re: Looking for a nice "cube" case

    Hey OvRide, that's a pretty nice list there! And considering that you weren't even really looking for savings, this build is looking very promising indeed! Thanks!


    Jim - reactorman

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