DressToImpress

thats like the complete opposite of a recommendation you should give with a PSU. there are many areas you can skimp on in a Custom PC, but the PSU is not one of them. now if by cheapest you mean you dont need to get a 1200W PSU then yes. you dont need to overkill on Wattage. 600W is usually enough for most PCs. however, if you mean to actually find whichever one is the cheapest, then i hugely disagree. the PSU runs your entire PC. a cheap PSU could potentially ruin your entire PC. a cheap 600W PSU might only really be able to put out 500W. a cheap PSU is probably horribly unefficient. a cheap PSU will explode if pushed at all, and a cheap PSU wont be able to handle a power surge or something....on the other side, a good quality 600W PSU could probably handle up to 700W (not saying you should do that, but they can) and by handle i mean they are stable and usually still very effience at those loads. efficiency is also key. when buying a PSU you should be looking for something that is 80 Plus certified. it just means its efficient under load, and is at least a decent quality PSU..a good PSU also will not explode if pushed to its limits, and can handle power being cut off abruptly or being surged. ofc there is always exceptions and whatnot. you could buy a crappy Chinese PSU and never have problems, or you could buy a quality Seasonic PSU and have it die in a week. but tis the world of computers. good PSUs are Corsair and Seasonic. i personally have a Seasonic... The case says it supports standard size PSUs, it also says it only supports up to 140mm long, so that's definetely something to keep in mind. Also, I realized that I don't need 600 watts of power! The estimated wattage is under 400 watts so a 550 watt psu is plenty! This is the one I think I'm getting at the moment : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016 It says the dimensions are 3.4" x 5.9" x 6.1", but I'm only assuming its L x W x H so correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't think you need 600W, 550 should be enough but it'll definitely work on 600. When it comes to PSUs, my recommendation is always the same - take the cheapest one, that's how I do it and I never had a problem. As for the cooler, so far I haven't seen a CPU shipped along with a heatsink, do you have more info on that? I discovered that the stock cooler that comes with the CPU is under 80mm tall, so that's enough I think. And the cheapest PSU is a Raidmax one, but everyone on Newegg says it breaks after a few months!

Does anyone know how tall the stock CPU cooler is that comes with the Xeon 1230 v2? (It needs to be less than 80mm otherwise I have to buy an aftermarket one).

An AMD CPU with a mobo that can fit inside that case? Hmm, questionable. You may be able to get an AMD with an F1 or F2 socket, I think there are small mobos for that one, a lot cheaper than Core i7 (about half the price or less of i7 4770k, cheaper mobos too) but it's inferior when compared to it. Though personally, getting an i7 is either making sure that the PC performs as well as possible for as long as it can, or you're trying to compute potato, cause that thing is the most powerful and expensive CPU on the market, no games today can even utilize it fully. You'd be better off with a Core i5 or an older i7, Intel has plenty of small mobos that support good CPUs, AMD not so much. As for GPUs, I'd stick with Nvidia's 660/670, 770 is just a more powerful GeForce 680, 660/670 series can be clocked well so I'd go with those. I wouldn't get ATI if I were you, you'll be running Linux with, I assume, proprietary drivers and Linux doesn't like ATI drivers much (like using 30-50% CPU on idle without a lot of tweaking, even your i7 4770k would take a beating). If you want better for cheaper, you'll have to get rid of a small case, then you can go beyond your current limit, like get a cheaper AMD CPU/mobo and get 4 cheap 4GB RAM modules, even SLI two cards if you buy other parts smart. Speaking of which, you can save some money by getting 8GB RAM, 16GB is only useful if you run multiple virtual machines or try to store an antire cow into RAM. Useful if you intent to use RAM as storage space, but as far as I recall, only Debian can utilize that effectively. You can also save up some money by getting a cheaper PSU, you can get same wattage for half the money. If you think it'll die, I went through 3 PCs, they all had cheap piece of crap PSUs and none of those died in 3 years I used each. One burned out a fuse when I made a short circuit while cutting wires inside the case (while the PC was on, genius) but that's about it. I think I found a really nice CPU, it's the Intel Xeon 1230 v2. It's slightly cheaper than the i5 4670k ($1 ;p), with better performance plus it has hyperthreading! Here's the 4670k vs the 1230 v2: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-E3-1230V2-vs-Intel-Core-i5-4670K The only bad thing is it is locked, but I wasn't planning on overclocking anyway, and if I did I would probably overclock the GPU instead. About the PSU, could you recommend me one maybe? The case I'm getting supports standard ATX PS/2 size PSUs, and I would like at least 600 watts just to be safe. Thank you.

You didn't listen what I said. Even if you just install Windows and Ubuntu alongside it, they cannot fit onto a 32GB SSD. Ubuntu takes up cca 6GB upon installation and Windows takes up 23, that's 29GB total and you get 3GB free If you think that's enough, remember that Windows uses C:/ for dumping config files and bloats the darn thing up pretty quickly. Not to mention that you cannot install drivers onto any partition other than C:/. Unity is a desktop environment, just like GNOME, KDE, LXDE, XFCE, MATE, Cinnamon, etc. Ubuntu is the OS. And run it in Windows, I don't think there's a native 3DS Max for Linux and running it in Wine while having Windows installed would be, well, dumb. Not to mention that it would have pathetic performance compared to running 3DS Max on Win7 or compared to performance of native Linux 3D tools like Blender. Regardless of that, you need a powerful CPU if you intend to sculpt at high poly-counts or make large renders of scenes, doesn't matter which OS or DE it's running on. Also, after taking a glance at your build, I'd make some suggestions. Personally, I'd go with an AMD CPU, they're less expensive, AMD FX 8350 is cca 200$ around here (4.0GHz 8-core). Then I'd get a mobo with SLI/Crossfire support and 4 RAM slots, also get two cheaper cards that cost less overall than the GeForce 760 you have there, like 2 GeForce 650 cards. I'd also swap out the 2x8GB RAM with 2x4GB since 4GB modules are a lot cheaper than 8GB ones and 16GB RAM is unnecessary. Unless you're using it for professional 3D works (which I guess you don't, judging by the fact that you got no idea about CPU power in 3D modeling), or you intend to run Crysis 3 on ultra high with uber-HD texture mods, I'd say more than 8GB RAM is unnecessary, so you can go with 2x4GB. If you really want 16, go with 4x4GB, it's usually cheaper than 2x8GB. With that you get nearly the same thing for less money, it's a bit weaker than what you linked but it would save about 100$ or more to allow for a bigger SSD cause, as I said, 32GB is not even enough for Windows alone. Delay that, I forgot you need portability, half this stuff can't even fit in your case. As far as Antiviruses go, you dont always have a choice to install it elsewhere. some AV programs need to be installed on C:. like Microsoft Security Essentials for example. at the very least you will be a 64gb SSD. for two operating systems and bloat. and thatll be cutting it close, but should be doable. but honestly, just spend the little extra on a 128gb. youll have to worry a little bit less about bloat, about keeping your drive in perfect shape 24/7 and you can stick a few things on there on top of it. itll be worth it i promise. a 128gb SSD now is >$100. Alright, I found a 64gb SSD for $50 so I'll use that instead. Also, I know a lot of people are going to disagree with this completely, but I probably won't even install an antivirus. I've had this laptop for almost 4 years, never have had an antivirus, and have never gotten a virus! It just makes annoying popups appear IMHO. I will have Malwarebytes Anti-Malware which I will scan maybe once a month just to be safe, but nothing like McAfee or Norton. As for the CPU, I want one that I won't have to replace for a while and can render stuff quickly, so I'll stick with the 4770k I think. Here's my current build (still subject to change): http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1kJD9 If there's any AMD CPUs or Raedon GPUs that give the same performance or better for cheaper please tell me because I don't know much about those. Thank you.

Windows 7 uses 23.7 GB upon fresh installation on my PC, once you get the drivers and basic stuff (antivirus, web browser, etc.) set up it takes up about 27-28GB And then you need at least 15-20% free space on your partition, with only a basic setup it would require a 40GB SSD just for Windows alone, and that is if you plan to install only the basic stuff and leave it as-is without using it. Ubuntu, on the other hand, I'd say about 12-15GB is pretty good for a root partition, you can mount a HDD partition for /home so you have a lot of storage. Or just leave home on root and mount important folders like Music and Videos from the HDD through fstab using the bind option, it'll load up the ~/.config and ~/.local from the SSD, making the login and program startup significantly faster by doing so. In any way, add another 10-12GB for Ubuntu to 40 I mentioned already and you need an SSD with at least 64GB. Unity 3D require at least (but won't run well on) Pentium IV, on Pentium IV it's as slow as sloth and tends to crash a lot. But for running it, along with Compiz 3D effects, my C2D E4500 and Radeon 4350 with proprietary drivers are making it fly. It's only CPU-demanding if you use open-source drivers, and even that can be handled by my CPU. Yup, it says standard ATX PS/2 size is supported by the case, and your PSU fits the description. I wouldn't need any space for the antivirus/web browser etc. on the SSD because I'll put all of that stuff on the HDD. Also, for Unity, do you need a good CPU for 3d modeling in 3DS Max?

Windows only takes about 20gb doesn't it? I plan on installing Windows and Ubuntu (Dual Boot) on the SSD, then have all the files on the hard drive. As for the processor, I might do some video editing but the main reason I want to get a really good one is because I'm going to make a game in Unity 3D which (I think) requires a good processor. Correct me if I'm wrong though. Also, personally, I prefer the old case, but I need one that supports a full size GPU, and this was the nices one I could find. One last thing, on the case's website it says it supports up to a 140mm PSU. Is the PSU I have now 140mm or less? Thank you.

I would like to make it small because I travel a lot, but I think I found the perfect case. I do know it is expensive, but I'm willing to spend it. Here's a link to the product's page: http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-tu200/ It's a rather small Mini ITX case that supports a full size (300mm) GPU, is very light (3.15kg), is made entirely of aluminium and has a handel on the top! Here is my build currently (still subject to change): http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1krMA Please note I will be using this for more than just gaming. Could you please send me a link to that Antec one with wheels?

Sorry, double post.

I know what you all mean, but what about the Alienware x51? It's tiny, powerful, yet overpriced ;c Basically I would like to build my own x51 if possible. http://cdn3.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/2961377/alienware-x51-main_large_verge_super_wide.jpg

I do know about the Bitfenix case but that one's a lot bigger than this one. I want it to be about the size of an xBox 360 (if possible).

Hate to say it, but you won't ever get that. Even if money wasn't an issue, higher end components, like videocards, take up a very large amount of space. As with the whole Laptop/Desktop thing, portability means usually means losing performance or paying 3-4 times as much. What about the setup I have now?

Hello, Currently I have a $120 laptop that runs Minecraft at lowest settings at about 15fps. Yeah. Anyway, I'm getting quite a bit of money and I would like to make a gaming PC. The only problem is I am a COMPLETE noob. I've never done anything like this ever. Some requirements are it has to be able to pretty much play any game at ultra settings, and it needs to be VERY compact (like a console) because I need it to be portable. Here is what I've got so far: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1jVrp but I don't know if everything will work! The only thing I do know is that the 90 watt PSU that comes with the case isn't good enough, but I can get another one (correct me if I'm wrong). Also, if there is a part that is really bad, tell me please. Thank you. PS. I really like the case, so if it's possible, try and make it so I don't have to replace the case.

Do you know if there's a way to make all the NPCs look like that (or similar)?

Hello, I was looking at some ENBs and I found this one. So, I started looking at the screenshots and I saw that the girls look A LOT nicer! They don't look like gorillas anymore! Could anyone tell me what mod is used to make the girls look like that?