Is there any reason to not buy the cheapest computer case I can find?

[Lissa]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Once again, you have all been extremely helpful.

If you are planning to get a new MB along with case, let me know and I can suggest a couple things (because of my looking to shrink footprint of my machines).

I'm actually planning on building two new (mostly) identical computers. My son is getting old enough that he's not happy with gaming on his really old computer, and I'm not terribly happy with what I currently have. Since I'm splitting my budget for two separate computers this time, I really need to save a lot of money.

My budget is about $800 for both machines. I can re-use a lot of stuff from current computers (PSUs, optical drives, hard drives, video cards), so I can save a lot of money that way. I pretty much only need to buy two new cases (I don't want to re-use old cases), two new motherboards, two new CPUs, and two new sets of RAM.

My expectations for these systems aren't very high - I'm really only looking to build a couple of computers that have at least dual-core CPUs and 8GB of RAM. More would be better of course. If I can get decent Diablo 3 performance, I'll be happy.

One sticking point is that I also want to include the price of two copies of Windows in my budget.

edit: I totally forgot to address the case size issue! In short, I would actually prefer bigger cases. I'm not looking for a small footprint and bigger cases are easier to work with.

Ok, here's a couple suggestions since you have the PSU, Video Cards, and drives:

Case: Cooler Master Elite 120 $50, mini-ITX case, room for 3 3 1/2 drivers along with an Opttical Drive, unlike most mini-ITX cases, this one takes normal sized PSUs (so you can move those over) and can take double slot Video cards up to a foot in length (yes, even the NVidia GTX 690 or AMD 7990

Case Fan: OPTIONAL The Elite has room for one more 120mm case fan, you probably won't need it, but you if you want to put a fan in there, Xigmatek eXTREME SILENT is a good choice at $8 (on sale) to $11 (not on sale)

MB: AMD Build - ASRock A75M FM2 $90 This works with the latest APUs from AMD (which mean the CPU has a dedicated video processor, a good one actually, equivalent to an AMD 7660 and works really good if you splurge on RAM or can overclock the RAM)

MB: Intel Build - ASS P8H77 $100 This is designed for the Ivy Bridge line of Intel processors and can have decent onboard graphics (not as good as AMD). Overall, works better when dealing with an add on card instead of using the internal graphics of the processor for playing games.

CPU: AMD Build - A10-5800K - $120 With this processor combined with the above MB, unless you turn your graphics all the way up, this will handle just about any modern game right now fairly easily, especially if you splurge on some higher speed RAM for it.

CPU: Intel Build - i3 3220 - $120 With an add in video card, you get the advantage of a cooler running CPU (Intel cornered the market here as AMD chips tend to run a little hotter and use a little more power, not a huge amount, but if you're a penny pincher on electric costs or have a heavy "green" complex, Intel is better in that reguard).

RAM: AMD Build - G.Skill Sniper 2133 $50 and will boost your gaming performance using the on chip graphics for the A10.

RAM: Intel Build - Samsung $35 this is some top notch RAM made directly by one of the RAM chip makers. It also, supposedly, overclocks like crazy, but with the Intel system, you don't need to do that.

Heatsink: AMD Build - The heatsink that comes with the CPU is low profile, so will work.

Heatsink: Intel Build - Noctua NH-L9i $48 this is designed for small form factor cases and Noctua is one of the best heat sink makers in the business. The cooling delivered is exceptional.


Total cost of each build:

AMD: $310 to $321 (depending on if getting additional fan).

Intel: $353 to $364 (depending on if getting additonal fan).

You could splurge more on the processor on the intel side, potentially going up to a i5 like i5 3350P, but this increases the price of the CPU up to $190 tacking another $70 onto the Intel build (bringing it up to $423 to $434 depending on the optional case fan).

So, you end up with a nice smal footprint machine (can go on your desk) and you can use your old PSUs and your old Video card along with the old drives with ease and comes in under budget as well.



Missed that you would want a larger case, in that case:

You can stick with the CPUs and MBs above and can drop the heatsink for the Intel processor.

For a good midtower case, APEVIA X-Trooper gives you two fans (with an optional third) to begin with and plenty of space in it. It can fit a video card up to 12" and has plenty of space for optical and hard drives. It's also only $39 with a rebate dropping it to $29 (but that will cover the shipping for the most part). You could also go with less expensive cases, but they typically come without fans, so you end up paying the difference in adding case fans to them.