Widescreen Gaming Forum

Had to edit the above post. The Element S was on sale recently, not last holiday season, as it came out after that. I think it was $80 at Newegg.

Lian Lis were great when they were the first and only alu cases available, but anymore they are just a boutique brand that is hard to get value out of. To get the features that Element S has, you'd have to pay way more with Lian Li and it would probably be one of their all alu cases.

To give you an example, here are several of their cases sold in the states in a similar price range. Many are too cramped for long GPUs and/or inferior at air flow. Often they have fan cables that are too short as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010090007%2050001375%204017&StoreType=-1&CompareItemList=N82E16811112198%2cN82E16811112194%2cN82E16811112164%2cN82E16811112192%2cN82E16811112239%2cN82E16811112231%2cN82E16811112195&bop=And

Don't get me wrong, Lian Lis are quality cases if you get one of their good ones, but IMO you have to pay too much for their full featured cases.

Ill agree with Frag, they are nice once you get into the high end, where you are spending 150-200USD plus and you are debating between them and something like a silverstone. If you are going for the quality and willing to pay more it *may* be worth it, but otherwise element S probably does the job just as well.

Newegg.com combo deal (Element S case + Intel 80GB SSD for US$289)


nevermind. Useless post. See below

Sorry, hate to point this out:

NewEgg links to someone in Europe are useless... ;)

I was advised that my posts were too aggressive so let me try this a different way . . .

The Newegg.com combo deal (Element S case + Intel 80GB SSD for US$289) presented above by me might be useful for a price check. It might be useful for comparison shopping. It might be useful in X-Warrior's ongoing analysis of pricing trends. It might be useful for asking his local vendor to price match. It might be useful for someone with relatives, friends, or some other hookup in the USA who could ship or hand carry to him. Some people travel internationally and shop internationally with the means to make such a purchase a viable option.

Since this prominent 5-page thread has much valuable information discussing many options for anyone planning a build, Paradigm Shifter, don't you suppose it has attracted other readers (some in the USA) who could benefit from reading about a good combo deal?

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Calling someone's contribution useless discourages participation. It sets a very discouraging atmosphere. I'm very surprised and disappointed at such a statement, especially coming from an Administrator.

My apologies if the forum authorities may think this post also is too aggressive. That is not my intent.

My intent is to highlight how some distinguished forum members can block useful information and actively alienate new members with criticism when the harmless information and contributions offered may be useful to others. It reinforces a sour atmosphere, IMHO.

My post above is directed to ANYONE following this discussion who may possibly be interested in a SSD + case at a very good price, regardless of location.

I'm trying to help the guy, regardless of location ("In front of his monitor" is what's written in his profile).

But since you think it's useless then I'll erase it. Is that better?

you can't disregard location unfortunately so this "anyone" is rather "any america resident" :wink:

plus you aren't really helping him here, location was already an argument in previous posts against buying a megahelem ...

overall if you really want to suggest good deals like that, you might as well create your own thread

Location is not always an obstacle for everyone, nor is Customs.

. . . I enjoy 75% discount on shipping with a prominent express courier and I have the means to have items hand-carried internationally. I was going to help X-Warrior by offering a hookup on shipping and/or hand carriage, simply as a good gesture. I do this on a regular basis for my friends, and customs is not an obstacle, either.

He's a good listener, he courteously weighs the options and advice presented, and he expresses appreciation for the advice given so far. He seems like a good guy, the kind of person I wouldn't mind helping, just because I can.

My post above is useful to anyone following this discussion who may possibly be interested in a SSD + case at a very good price, regardless of location.

+1

It's a public thread, any advice for passers by can be useful imho.
And sorry about that location bit - I'm in the Netherlands ;)


The main thing I'm looking for though is the parts required, the hardware part. After that's determined I'll look into deals at the time of buying, which is still at least a few weeks off (Win7 release), maybe a few months. Before the end of the year might be financially efficient though... ;)
Tbh, I do think I've got it pretty much covered now, thanks very much to all the people who posted here :)


Let's see what the SSD prices are at now...
€199 again. They've been at €189 for about a week, but it went up again. Hmmm... guess it won't be plummeting as fast as I hoped. Also read that generation 3 will be a while, so G2 it'll have to be.

Hi X-Warrior,

I almost went with the Thermaltake Element S case but really didn't care for the Red line thing on the front, so I went with the Element T, has the nice wire mess look all black, top controls nothing fancy, and you can always disconnect the stupid led's on the fan that kids seem to think they need. Very quiet case mainly due to the larger fans sizes that move more air at less noise.

If the Element S case is like the T the slots on the back only look like they're the snap out type, when in reality they're not, they actually slip in from the top.

I really like my new rig, as comapred to old rig I was at amd 64 athalon 3700+ and a7900gs vid card.

Gigabyte motherboards IMO are the most stable and have the most USB and SATA Ports, actullay any kind of port you will find more of them on a Gigabyte board.

Yes I do have 2 32GB SSD's in RAID 0, that I use for the OS, as this makes it the fastest. (OS - Vista x64 for now, I have a coupon for win 7 x64)

Took me over a month to decide whether to go Intel or Amd as the i7 920 is priced good enough to get into it. Figuring out what to get is alomst as much fun as putting it all together. :)

Good luck on all your endeaver and remember have fun too.

Deke

Figuring out what to get is alomst as much fun as putting it all together. :)

Oh but I agree, I'm having much fun already and I haven't actually done anything yet :D

On the case, it does look interesting, but I think I'll still be sticking with the S, for the dual SSD slots, and I do like the looks actually ;)


RAID0, that would be the bit where 2x80GB becomes 1x160GB with bigger speed, correct? Does this work properly on motherboard RAID controllers? I've heard some stories about RAID not working well straight from the MoBo...
I think I'll be looking into this raiding thing.

[quote]RAID0, that would be the bit where 2x80GB becomes 1x160GB with bigger speed, correct? Does this work properly on motherboard RAID controllers? I've heard some stories about RAID not working well straight from the MoBo...
I think I'll be looking into this raiding thing.

IMO, don't waste your time with RAID0, if you ever change your motherboard or it dies, you are screwed.

Location is not always an obstacle for everyone, nor is Customs. . . . I enjoy 75% discount on shipping with a prominent express courier and I have the means to have items hand-carried internationally. I was going to help X-Warrior by offering a hookup on shipping and/or hand carriage, simply as a good gesture. I do this on a regular basis for my friends, and customs is not an obstacle, either.He's a good listener, he courteously weighs the options and advice presented, and he expresses apppreciation for the advice given so far. He seems like a good guy, the kind of person I wouldn't mind helping, just because I can.

ho ok I'll eat my words then, it's just that as a french guy, I already checked out many US deals and the price difference is more often than not, too low to be interesting, despite the fact that some of my girlfriend family lives there ...

IMO, don't waste your time with RAID0, if you ever change your motherboard or it dies, you are screwed.

+1, I already checked out & used several RAID solutions, and IMHO one should consider RAID only with real RAID cards with battery + cache

Hmmm... yesterday I was checking out the pc-builder option Alternate's website has.

Very interestingly, it shows warnings if things aren't going to work and other recommendations.


The Element S without sidefan is currently out of stock so I couldn't select it. Chose the one with fan instead and bang: red warning signs - cpu cooler isn't going to fit. Nice way to check if things fit I suppose :)


Aside from this I got a recommendation: the CPU isn't going to utilise 1600MHz memory and instead I could better get 1333MHz versions. Thoughts on this? There has already been mention of easier overclocking possibilities for 1600MHz memory, but I don't think I'll be OCing after all...


The downside of all this is that some of the parts I want are currently out of stock: the case and the PSU. Could of course get the 850HX PSU instead, for an extra €20, if I'm in a real hurry (which I'm not anyway).

Were I to use this 'pc-builder', there's a catch. They charge €55 for putting it together (which I suppose would be reasonable, as it includes software installation), and I'd get a sealed case, which will have to remain sealed for warranty. Since there's this soundcard and harddisk I need to transfer, that's not going to work.

So due to the limited stock availability and building conditions, I'll be ordering seperate parts when available and putting it together myself. No biggie, I've been there before. Just take my time and do what the manuals tell me.
Anyway, I assume this means I'll be stuck with a retail Windows version... any specific advantages of retail over OEM, other than the ability to put it on a new computer when upgrading again?
And since retail means I'll be paying the jackpot anyway, I might as well go Ultimate, if the price difference is relatively small.
Just checked that: click for list. Looks like it's €199 for HP vs. €299 for Ultimate. Worth the extra 50% (€100)?

you get bitlocker, xp virtualisation mode and a couple of business related network features. not worth it IMO.

just FYI, my preorder one cost £65 for HP. Would of been nice if you could of jumped on the pre-order one :)

Ultimate not really worth an extra 50%, no.

If you not overclocking, 1600MHz RAM isn't really needed.

Don't order kit if you're not going to test it within a few days of it arriving. Seriously. Order the whole lot, and ask for it to be shipped when everything is in.

You don't want to be waiting, only to discover that something that arrived first is DOA. :)

Good points. I'll order everything in one go then... maybe I'll have to do it by telephone though, otherwise they might be splitting the order anyway :roll:
This may also entitle me to the OEM version of Windows 7, which will save me another €100 probably.

In fact, I may just be taking my car for a drive and pick everything up myself. Long drive, but hey, my car needs some of that every once in a while, so disregard the petrol cost. No way they can send seperate packages then :)

Buy anything like a motherboard, HDD or GPU, you're entitled to OEM licensed Windows. MS used to have really loose OEM licensing, where you could get an OEM copy with the purchase of a €10 stick of RAM or a €5 keyboard, but they've tightening it up since XP. A lot.

:doh


just...
:doh


Seriously, I am such a *insert your favourite insult here*.

Why? Oh, I don't know, maybe because finally after more than two years I figured I'd have a look in the BIOS to see if I could find some CPU fan controls. And guess what? There they were, just waiting for me to enable them. No longer blowing full throttle all the time. Oh the relative quietness... but why, WHY didn't I just bother to do it two years ago instead of mere days/weeks before buying a new rig!?

I'm sorry for my rant. I am just such a... never mind. PC Probe says it's keeping pretty cool. I set it to 'optimal' so I'm just going to assume it'll go faster when gaming, which is ok I suppose.


Let's see how availability stands... Element S without fan still out of stock. But the Corsair 750HX is in stock now. 160GB SSD still at €399, 80GB went up to €209. Guess which I'll choose...
The case is the only problem that seems to be persisting. I'm considering the TT Armor instead if the Element S remains out of stock. Seems fine, and at least it has sufficient fans - the pc builder is warning me that the processor (i7 950 still selected so far) may require additional case fans. Not as an essential warning, but a recommendation.

did some reading recently...

the seasonic X series might be what you are looking for noise output wise...

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/09/25/seasonic_x_series_x750_power_supply_review/

amazing efficiency ratings :O

i would personally go for an 80 GB drive depending what is needed to be put on it, and i would still 100% go for the 920 cpu.

the side fans also are SHIT generally.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2009/10/09/whats-the-best-supersize-case-fan/1

I will say your PC does need cooling, the more the better IMO, but the side fan wont help too much, unless you have more air going out then the air could build up. I have a 120mm fan on my PSU (modified myself) and a 120cm case fan, running stock E8400 and stock X1900 cooler just at the moment, the case front has been designed to pull air over the 2 hard drives (will replace the raptor later), and it works well.

efficiency is related to percent load of the power supply
so that means that efficiency will be a lot worse if this powersupply isn't loaded enough ...
so 750W might be a bit too much unless you really go extreme


on the other side of the fence, seasonic power supplies are known for their silence