# A better case or a better graphics card for my build?



## Einholt (Aug 8, 2008)

So as the title says the Xigmatek Asgard or a Coolermaster 690 II Advanced or a better g-card?

Basically I am making a budget build for playing WoW, CSS, SC2 and league of legends, the Xigmatek Asgard has the features I want but the CM 690 II advanced just looks...gorgeous, mainly the difference here is I can either afford the nice Case *OR* a better graphics card, like a Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 1024MB: 

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=42170

How would my system (with the 768 mb and 1024 mb g-cards respectively) stand up to top and upcoming titles like Black Ops, crysis 2 etc, ie is it worth putting a 1 gb g-card in an OCed i3 machine as is my CPU going to bottleneck the card?

The reason why I am asking these questions mainly is because I have an xbox 360 so if the performance of these top titles was not going to be very good I would just get those games for my 360 and get the cheaper g-card.

So what do you guys think and most importantly why? 

Here is my build at the moment:

Gladiator Core i3 540 Pre-Built Overclocked Bundle
• Intel® Core™ i3-540 Overclocked @ 4.20GHz - Dual Core CPU 
• 4GB Mushkin Silverline 1333MHz 9-9-9-24 
• MSI H55M-ED55 Micro-ATX Motherboard 
• Coolermaster Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler 
• Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound 
• Pre-Assembled & Tested 
• 1 Years Warranty 

Xigmatek Asgard Black Edition+1 extra rear fan

Corsair TX Series 650W ATX2.2 SLI/Crossfire Compliant Power Supply

1TB Samsung HD103SJ SpinPoint F3 SATA-II 3.5" Hard Drive

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Operating system:Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit OEM

Thanks

Einholt


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

I'm not sure how much this bundle is going to cost you but I'm almost certain you could get an i5 for the same price. If you leave an i3 overclocked to 4ghz your just going to fry it.

As for the case and gpu ,if the case has good airflow then get a better gpu definitely , a case really won't help with performance unless the one it comes with has terible airflow.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Good quality hardware that will do what you need and live a long time should be your primary concern. You can always purchase a case you like later on.


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## Einholt (Aug 8, 2008)

emosun said:


> If you leave an i3 overclocked to 4ghz your just going to fry it.


Really, can anyone confirm an i3 will fry if left at 4-4.2 GHz?
From what I have read the i3's run extremely cool and Overclock very well and very stable aswell, I have been getting advice on this build for a good few weeks now on various forums and no one has said anything like that before, also bear in mind they cherry pick the CPU and if it will not go to 4 GHz they try another etc etc, then they do a 48 hour stability test.

Btw I will not get an i5 for my budget, tried and failed, I am paying £220 for the mobo, cpu, ram and CPU cooler including the overclock.


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

What is your budget for this machine total? You could easily be loosing some dough from it being a preassembled machine rather then building it yourself.

Also , I i3 may run cool but it's gonna get how when you overclock it. Even if it stays cool it's going to have to be heavily overclocked to reach an i5's speed but it life will be shorter then the i5 simply because your stressing it more. Aslo those i3's are not much faster then socket 775 cpu's so really at this point you might as well buy a 775 system if your saving money.


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## Einholt (Aug 8, 2008)

Ok I am sorry if I sound ungrateful here but that sounds like a load of cods-wallop, nothing I have seen,read or heard leads me to believe the i3's are not worth getting, yes the lifetime is reduced, from about 20 years to 10-12, many people run i3's at that overclock and keep them cool no problem, I have done my research.

And about the 775's, no just no, no one anywhere has recommended to me to save money by getting a last gen (several gens old now) processor and that I would get comparable performance, this build has been thrown around various forums for a good few weeks now so I am sure someone would have said something (including the retailer I am buying from when I went over my build with them).

The total for this system currently is £560 delivered.


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

I say go for it then.

I was merely saying the i3 is simmilar in speed to a last gen cpu so the mentioning of simply getting a last gen machine was just a figure of speech. Usually when you get a new machine you want it to be relatively better then your previous one , course I have no idea what your previous machine was so who knows an i3 might be a lot faster then what you currently have.


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## GZ (Jan 31, 2010)

To be blatantly honest, you are probably going to fry that board first. µATX boards are compact in size and usually hold more componentry than their full sized bretheren. Running a heavy OC on that board is going to stress it out. µATX boards that are built for "OCing" is a crock. Twice as much current running through much smaller, compressed traces in a very crowded environment to begin with. µATX boards were originally intended for low power consumption use in smaller, more "friendly" cases. 

I have seen many µATX boards of better quality than that MSI, fry from a light overclock because they just can't handle it.


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## grimx133 (Jan 15, 2008)

Have to agree there, though I haven't seen the bios options on that board, generally, mATX just don't have the overclocking options that full ATX boards do. If your case and budget allow it, you're always better off with ful ATX for overclocking.

And speaking of overclocking the i3, depending on your "luck of the draw" with the chip, you may get some great results. I lucked out with an i3 530, ran 4 threads of FAH for two weeks (24/7) at 4.4Ghz. However, don't expect great results, each chip is different, they're binned, so you can get one from just barely making the grade, up to one that's almost good enough to be one model higher.


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

I have to agree with my teamates on this one. Those boards cannot handle the throughput that a Atx board can and while your Cpu may last "20 years", your board will not! The boards chipset is going to run extremly hot on such overclocks. Oh and the retailer is there to sell the new line of products, so of course their not going to say buy a Core 2 Quad! Check out Passmark Cpu ratings and the i3 falls behind many "older" generation Cpu's!


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

Thinner conductors are nice from a miniaturization standpoint but they do come at a cost -- increased resistance. The resistance of an electrical conductor is inversely proportional to its cross-sectional area and directly proportional to its length. Therefore, all other factors taken into account, shorter and fatter wires are often better.

Resistance also factors into power loss, which is dissipated as heat. Any kid who has shorted a thin wire across the terminals of a battery understands this concept instantly (and often painfully).

Personally, I'm quite impressed by Gygabyte's use of double thickness (70 µm vs. 35 µm) circuit traces in their current line of motherboards.


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## Xyfer117 (Feb 17, 2010)

Personally, I always go for performance over looks.


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## Einholt (Aug 8, 2008)

The advice I have got else where on the motherboard issue was:

Remember its an i3, as such, the voltages to do such overclocking will be much lower with lower temps than say a i7. Hell the highest I have got my i7 on water is 4.7ghz and that was a cpu-z job. Today I had my i3 at 5.1Ghz happily benching away, although is watercooled.

The board is a cracking board, and one of the best for the i3's.


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

You got that advice from somebody using water cooling.. not only that but also has an i7 so he probably doesn't care if his i3 fries.

I don't think there is a single team member here that recommends water cooling , unless you live in a desert and HAVE to have water cooling to keep the pc running , then it's a terrible way to run a machine.

The difference between this forum and others is we have standards and actually try to give you the best possible advice , good advice so you won't have more problems down the road. That guy that gave you that specific advice couldn't care less if you fry your machine.


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## Einholt (Aug 8, 2008)

emosun said:


> You got that advice from somebody using water cooling.. not only that but also has an i7 so he probably doesn't care if his i3 fries.
> 
> I don't think there is a single team member here that recommends water cooling , unless you live in a desert and HAVE to have water cooling to keep the pc running , then it's a terrible way to run a machine.
> 
> The difference between this forum and others is we have standards and actually try to give you the best possible advice , good advice so you won't have more problems down the road. That guy that gave you that specific advice couldn't care less if you fry your machine.


 I am confused, you claim to want to give sound advice.yet you are making very broad generalisations, how can you claim hewould he not care if I truest my chip? why would someone with an i7 not care about their i3? That logic is just flawed as is the comments about water cooling, by wc most people now mean a coraair h50 or h70 which is not a terrible solution at all.

How long would the motherboard last before frying runnning at that overclock?


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

Could last 6 months , could last a week. I definitely know it won't last as long as a cpu at stock speeds. Overclocking only shortens the life of the products , it doesn't extend it in any way.

As for water cooling it's completely unneeded in electronics. It's expensive and a hassle to maintain. I see no use for it unless the actual air temperature was so incredibly hot that fans could not keep the machine cool.

This thread is off track , your original query was about the case/gpu , I say upgrade gpu. As for using an i3 it's my opinion you should at least use an i5 , however you don't HAVE to take my advice it's just advice


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## Einholt (Aug 8, 2008)

emosun said:


> Could last 6 months , could last a week. I definitely know it won't last as long as a cpu at stock speeds. Overclocking only shortens the life of the products , it doesn't extend it in any way.
> 
> As for water cooling it's completely unneeded in electronics. It's expensive and a hassle to maintain. I see no use for it unless the actual air temperature was so incredibly hot that fans could not keep the machine cool.
> 
> This thread is off track , your original query was about the case/gpu , I say upgrade gpu. As for using an i3 it's my opinion you should at least use an i5 , however you don't HAVE to take my advice it's just advice


Interesting that when you took this topic off topic you now want to put it back on track when you cannot properly back up your claims, I think this quote from another forum of what I have been told here sums up what I think pretty well:

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Personally, I think the folks over on whatever forum you are getting that info are full of it (you fill in the first 2 letters ). That processor has a 73 watt TDP at stock speed and overclocking it to 4.2 won't double the TDP on it. And that board is designed to handle 130 watt TDP i7 (1156) processors that have a 130 watt TDP at stock speeds. So I think that board will be fine with that Clarkdale processor even at 4.2. As for mATX boards not holding up with overclocking, well that isn't necessarily true any more. I think that in today's world the build quality of mATX boards in general is much better than it used to be. I looked the mobo up on Newegg and I see they use all polymer caps on the board, plus they have heatsinks on the power circuitry too. I'm not a big MSI fan, but the board looks beefy enough to push that 540 to 4.2 easily.

************************************************

Now all I see from you is going back and forth saying the cpu / the mobo will fry, bold claims that others elsewhere do not care about me or my system (I went to well known overclocking boards to ask advice, ones where people actually run these types of systems, not just speculate)

Also the bundle comes with a 12 month collect and return warranty and full support, I doubt they would offer that if what you are claiming is true now would they?


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

You can buy whatever you like. If you do not like our opinions then you need not ask for them simply put.


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## GZ (Jan 31, 2010)

Hello again Einholt,

Please do not take our advice the wrong way. We are merely outlining issues you may have should you choose to purchase this bundle. Our advice is based on experience. I, personally, have not been active with overclocking for quite some time, but I do understand the allure to it. Getting something more for less has it's appeals for all of us.

Most people who overclock do it for the challenge, or to eek a bit more performance out of an aging system. Some do it so they say that they did. Some do it to make money. Whichever way you look at it, overclocking is doing one thing... Stressing your components beyond their designed tolerances. When building a rig, specifically for overclocking, it is important to purchase components of higher than standard quality.

We are merely pointing out issues that could cause you problems in the future, so you can make an informed decision. The issues pointed out with stressing the i3 and µATX boards are to be informative. No more, no less. 

Please understand this when posting on the forum. We are not being nay-sayers, we are just being truthful. 

As for the initial question posed in this thread, I agree with emosun, and upgrade the GPU. But foremost... I suggest you look into building and customizing your new computer, to prevent spending unnecessary money on upgrades right out of the box.

GZ


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## MPR (Aug 28, 2010)

The techs on this forum trend toward recommending high-quality, stable systems that maximize the performance/price ratio and which will serve the end-user well for years to come. The overclocking forums, conversely, are more about getting the highest performance out of a system right now. It's a difference in philosophy. Some of the overclockers really know their stuff; however, if you dig a bit deeper you will find that this forum has far more posters who are certified professionals. Many, especially younger, people think that enthusiasts know more than professionals but I've found this is generally not so.


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

Einholt said:


> Also the bundle comes with a 12 month collect and return warranty and full support, I doubt they would offer that if what you are claiming is true now would they?


Not when you overclock and use water cooling. Overclocking voids any Cpu's warranty. Read your Cpu's documentation and it will say as such. We give advice from many years of experience and some person that can get the highest overclock is the last person I'd take advice from on the affects of doing so.


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## Einholt (Aug 8, 2008)

Amd_Man said:


> Not when you overclock and use water cooling. Overclocking voids any Cpu's warranty. Read your Cpu's documentation and it will say as such. We give advice from many years of experience and some person that can get the highest overclock is the last person I'd take advice from on the affects of doing so.


I decided against getting the bundle but please read what I said properly in the first place, the company who sells the bundle givers you a one year warranty, nothing whatsoever to do with the manufacturer, also yes it does void the warranty but then again how do they know it was overclocked?
The OC settings are on the mobo not the CPU.


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

I read it and I also took the liberty of reading the company's warranty which you would have voided by such an overclock. The overclocking settings are in the motherboards BIOS, but overclocking stress the CPU and the motherboards chipset, hence shortning its life.


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