Budget Case Arrived yesterday

[Raw]

I got the NZXT Gamma case in yesterday and I have to say, I'm half-impressed.
I think it looks much better in real life than the newegg pictures depict.
Quality is very good for the price. It is a fairly sturdy case and very light weight. The side panels are a bit on the thin side but well within reason.
I bought 2 more today at the egg for $33.99 each shipped free via 3 day UPS.
There is a 15% off list sale until the 1st. I believe.
You can't buy much for $34.00 now-a-days. I had to take advantage of this sale once I saw the case.

As far as throwing it together, the build went nice.
Lots of room inside for a mid-size case.
It comes with 1 rear fan only so I added 3 additional fans for a total of 4. It will take 6 fans total. I used a 120mm Gentle Typhoon 1850 rpm in the front.
I can add more fans if need be but I doubt I'll be necessary.
My Dark Knight cpu cooler fit but that eliminates me using 1 side fan...no problem (for me). This baby has decent airflow right now.
I still need to do some wiring clean-up but here it is initially.

 

[xBruce88x]

Was looking at these back when i was helping a friend of mine build his case. he ending up getting an InWin case though. black and yellow with a dragon on the side.

 

[Raw]

Was looking at these back when i was helping a friend of mine build his case. he ending up getting an InWin case though. black and yellow with a dragon on the side.

I looked InWin after reading your post, not bad.

 

[JrRacinFan]

Very very nice! Good to see it went without a problem for you.

 

[Raw]

Very very nice! Good to see it went without a problem for you.

Thanks JR...yea, it worked out pretty well and the kid is happy.
Now he wants some horsepower to go with his new case...lol.
It never ends, does it?

 

[JrRacinFan]

Thanks JR...yea, it worked out pretty well and the kid is happy.
Now he wants some horsepower to go with his new case...lol.
It never ends, does it?

LOL

Its pretty tough when you can like 2 cases very much. I see you did end up getting a good deal on it too. Cpu/mobo/ram swap? What's it got in it again?

 

[Raw]

LOL

Its pretty tough when you can like 2 cases very much. I see you did end up getting a good deal on it too. Cpu/mobo/ram swap? What's it got in it again?

Not anything good, that's for sure. But it does run good.
Asus m2n4-SLI mobo, AM2 4800+ Brisbane OC'ed 10%, 4 GB Patriot 800 ram and 2 8800's.

 

[JrRacinFan]

This would give him a little bump

ASRock 970 EXTREME4 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3....
AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Q...
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR...

or
Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65...
BIOSTAR TP67XE (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s ...
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR...

 

[Raw]

Clean up the wiring...how?

Any hints or tips on how I can better clean up the wiring on this machine?
I'm going to but an NZXT 9.84" 8 pin power extension to route the one in there up top and out of the way. And
And a NZXT 9.84" 24 Pin Motherboard Extension Cable.
What else????

 

[Raw]

This would give him a little bump

ASRock 970 EXTREME4 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3....
AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Q...
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR...

or
Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65...
BIOSTAR TP67XE (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s ...
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR...

Thanks for the suggestions JR, you got me looking now...

 

[JrRacinFan]

Thanks for the suggestions JR, you got me looking now...

That's the best I could come up with while keeping the semi decent performing cards & under 300.

 

[f22a4bandit]

Any hints or tips on how I can better clean up the wiring on this machine?
I'm going to but an NZXT 9.84" 8 pin power extension to route the one in there up top and out of the way. And
And a NZXT 9.84" 24 Pin Motherboard Extension Cable.
What else????

It looks kind of tight in that case, so really I think besides what you're planning to do you might be at the limit. You did a good job at it for what space you do have available to hide.

 

[Raw]

It looks kind of tight in that case, so really I think besides what you're planning to do you might be at the limit. You did a good job at it for what space you do have available to hide.

Thanks, appreciated.

 

[Raw]

That's the best I could come up with while keeping the semi decent performing cards & under 300.

Geez, I like that i3...hmmm.

 

[xBruce88x]

I looked InWin after reading your post, not bad.

yea we had the choice of either buying from newegg or drive over to tigerdirct and fry's. We went to fry's first since we were in the area... saw the case and exclaimed SOLD!. I think we got it for less than $50.

We did have an issue with heatsink clearance with the cpu cooler he bought, but we just took tinsnips to the side vent and cut a hole around where the parts of the heatsink was having clearance issues... there was a vent there anyway so a hole wasn't gonna hurt airflow any. we did have to remove the large fan too... for its size it had very little airflow anyway.

ah found the link... ok it was a "griffin" not a dragon, still looks cool though lol
http://www.frys.com/product/6372731

As for hardware, those 2 8800s should be fine for most games and that i3 would be a big boost if you choose to upgrade to it, although you could upgrade the existing cpu. what motherboard is it?