Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Cases and PSUs - New Recommendations!

12-25-2012:  A lot of this information is taken directly from the previous post on the subject, but I feel like there's enough new information to justify a new post.

Choosing a case and PSU for your new PC build is often something of an afterthought. It's easy to make the mistake of focusing in hard on your sweet, sweet CPU and GPU purchases, buying the best performing components you can afford, then sticking them in whatever case you can buy with what's left of your budget, along with the cheapest PSU you could find that would (supposedly) power your build.

The reality is that Cases and PSUs are, in a way, the most important part of any PC build. A case with poor cooling performance might result in long term (or, in extreme cases, even short-term) damage to your components. The harder it is to build in your case, the more likely you are to accidentally damage the case, your components, or yourself (the cheaper the case, the sharper the edges) trying to force things. And if the case was hard to build in, it won't be easy to upgrade components in, or clean. Keep in mind that a great case is an investment. Unlike a processor or graphics card, which can go from cream of the crop to just 2nd (or 3rd) best in the time it takes to get it shipped to your door, your case can be around for a long time, and be home to many upgrades and new builds, as long as you buy a solid model that gives you room to grow. It's worth the extra expense. A PSU is even more significant. A quality, enthusiast grade PSU is a solid, efficient, purpose built piece of electronics, and if you keep things reasonable, it will serve you well through upgrades, and even new builds. A quality PSU can do all you ask of it and more, and while you shouldn't go crazy, you'd be surprised by what a nice Seasonic or Corsair or Antec (etc.) can do for you. Of course, if you choose poorly, you could turn your multi-hundred dollar PC build into a paperweight fashioned of smoldering silicon trapped within sheet metal.

Below you'll find information and guidelines on Case and PSU choice, as well as some recommendations on what might be a good buy for your budget.

Cases

When looking at cases, I recommend looking for the following features as a baseline:

1. Cable Management - At this point, reasonable cable management features are so common in cases at all budget levels that there really isn't any reason to buy a case without them. Sometimes the case will have a large void on the right side of the motherboard tray (many older Cooler Master cases like the CM Storm Sniper use this method), others will have cutouts (sometimes with rubber grommets) to bring cables back through. Ideally the case will feature a cutout for your 8 pin CPU power cable as well, but some cheaper cases with cable management don't have them. If you're lucky and careful, you might be able to thread your 8 pin under your motherboard and through the CPU backplate cutout to mimic the effect. Regardless of the style or number/location of cutouts offered, the basic idea is always the same, moving cables behind the motherboard tray as much as possible and bringing them out right where they need to be. Cable management doesn't just make your case innards look pretty, it helps your case stay cool.

2. Bottom-mounted PSU w/ Vent - Once again, this feature is very common on quality cases of all budget levels, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding something you like. Basically this feature improves case layout by placing your PSU at the bottom of the case, where it can intake cool air from under the case and exhaust it. It largely removes your PSU from the thermal equation. It's nice if the vent is filtered.

3. Good Thermal Options - At the very least your case should have mounts for a front intake fan, and a rear exhaust fan. These should be at least 120mm fan mounts. Ideally you'll have options side intake and top exhaust fans as well (2 fan mounts for each location is fairly standard in a good enthusiast level case). If you have multiple front intake fans (or a single larger, say, 200mm fan) the side intake is less important. Filtered intakes are a plus.

4. General Good Design - I always look for a few additional good design decisions in a case. A good case should feature at least some tool-less/screwless options for hardware mounting. Understandably, tool-less mechanisms are less numerous the lower the price of the case, but the best budget options still often feature thumbscrews, and/or a single tool-less mount on the 5.25 bays. The HDD cages should be oriented to place the "back" of the drive, where your SATA and Power connectors are, toward the side of the case with the motherboard tray, to facilitate cable routing. Keep an eye out for a nice sized CPU backplate cutout, it'll make attaching an aftermarket cooler immeasurably easier. Finally, most cases worth your time will have at least 2 front panel USB 2.0 ports to go with the HD audio hookups.

Naturally, these baselines can't cover everything, depending on your budget or intended usage (HTPC cases are usually pretty short on cable routing possibilities, for example) you might find that some of those features aren't necessary to you. But, for a standard tower for the computer enthusiast and/or gamer, that's the stuff you want.

After you've taken a look at what's available and eliminated those cases that just don't make the cut, buy within your budget, and keep aesthetics under consideration. You'll be less inclined to take care of something you can barely stand to look at. There are a number of unique touches and additions that can increase the value of the case for your particular build, so be thorough and make sure you've found something you can live with. If you're having trouble figuring out where to start, check the list below for some good starting points at various budget levels.

~$40:  NZXT Source 210 - There are several options for cases at around this price level but frankly none of them really float my boat.  In the dim and distant past NZXT sold a pair of well-equipped but bare-bones cases (the NZXT Gamma and Beta Evo) for around $40 which I would normally recommend here.  Their replacement, the Source 210, looks more staid, and is at least (if not more) functional in terms of fan setups, but has HDD orientation issues and, weirdly, I miss the funky styling of the Gamma and Beta Evo.

~$60:  Cooler Master HAF 912 - Let's be real for a minute: there are definitely better looking cases to be had for $60.  I'm of the opinion, though, that there aren't any *better* cases for $60.  Yes, the front is chunky, plasticy and flared.  Yes, the unpainted steel interior is blah at best, ugly at worst.  But look past that and you'll find a spacious case with good cable routing features, removeable drive cages, and a small cage just for 2.5'' drives.  The included fan setup is basic but competent with included front and rear 120mm fans.  Fully loaded the case will allow for one of Cooler Master's honking 230mm fans up front, or dual 120mm fans, ditto for the top.  There's also room for a single 120mm fan on the side if your video card really needs some fresh air.

~$80:  Cooler Master Storm Enforcer - The Storm Enforcer is basically just a HAF 912 with a black interior, covered 5.25'' bays, and a different weird plasticy protrusion on the front.  Aside from the obvious aesthetic differences, the case includes a superior default fan setup (230mm fans at the top and front, 120mm at rear).  Once again, if you can deal with the looks, you're getting a great case with what I would definitely say are $20 worth of extras over its more basic cousin.

~$100:  Corsair 400R - Corsair has engineered some of the best case interiors around.  This one isn't much different, with great cable routing features, plenty of room, and loads of (unfortunately unremovable) 3.5'' drive bays.  The default fan setup is solid (2x120mm up front and 1x120mm in the back) with lots of space to grow (2x120mm up top, 2x120mm on the side, 2x120mm on the other side of the drive cages).  It even comes with additional extras like a built in fan controller.

~$120:  Fractal Design Define R4 - The R4 is the bigger, better successor to the already well-liked Define R3.  Like the R3, the R4 is designed for quiet operation, with built in noise-deadening foam and use of quiet 140mm fans.  It's not much taller than its predecessor, but it is wider, which helps make up for the room that the foam takes up and makes cable routing easier.  Some small irritants from the R3 (the loose grommets in the cable routing cutouts, for example) have been resolved, and there's a new fan controller up front.  Additional features include loads of fan ports (2x140mm up front, same up top, 1x140mm in the back, 1x140mm on the bottom, 1x140mm on the side) as well as removable 3.5'' drive cages and a pair of 2.5'' drive mounts on the back of the motherboard tray.

~$140:  Cooler Master HAF XM - The Cooler Master HAF XM is one hell of a mid tower.  It comes with 230mm fans up front and up top, with a 120mm fan in the back.  There are 2 3.5'' hot-swap bays accessible from the front of the case, below the 5.25'' bays.  Inside there are removable 3.5'' drive cages, along with tons of internal space, grommeted cable cutouts, and a 2.5'' drive tray on the back of the motherboard tray, which is pretty cool.

Can you spend more money?  Absolutely.  There are some pretty spectactular cases available, from high end aluminum cases, to completely custom jobs.  The real question is whether or not your *should* spend more.  Most people don't need the space offered by a really big, expensive case, so the answer to that question is generally "no," but if you're looking at a custom water cooling loop, or something even more insane, you'll be looking to spend more than is reasonable.  Drop by the thread to let us know what you're planning and we'll see if we can help.

Power Supplies

Buying a power supply is a crucial decision, and it doesn't respond well to the kind of "pop it in our test rig and benchmark it" style of reviewing that most PC component review sites tend to favor. In many cases, a power supply that runs a test rig just fine can be less efficient than advertised, unable to pull its rated peak wattage, and have out of specification electrical ripple and noise that can damage your components. Fewer sites than you'd think actually test power supplies correctly, below are 3 of my favorites:

johnnyGuru
[H]ardOCP
Hardware Secrets

All of these sites are very transparent about their methodology, which is good because I've found that legitimate power supply reviews are very important in determing the correct supply to buy. For example, reviews might help you find out that while some Antec PSU lines are very solid (True Power New, original Earthwatts below 650W), others are mediocre to terrible (new Earthwatts, original Earthwatts from 650W and up, Basiq). This hodgepodge of awesome, acceptable, and awful product lines occurs largely because most major PSU vendors sell PSU lines that are rebadged (and sometimes modified) power supplies from other companies (Seasonic, CWT, and many others). So, while one line might benefit by being based on a solid Seasonic platform, another might be crippled by being based on a (literally) explosive Huntkey PSU. Because you don't have time to deconstruct a boatload of power supplies, your best option is to let good, reputable reviewers do the legwork for you.

So, you have some good resources that will let you know what to look for, but when you find it, you find that it has 2 12V rails, and your good buddy told you that quality PSUs should only have a single 12V rail. Or, it's modular, and that same buddy told you all about how that's bad and not as good as hardwired cables.

Your buddy is an idiot.

Apologies for my bluntness, but there are numerous myths/semi-myths that you hear all the time about PSUs that can really interfere with the buying process. Let's take a look at some “conventional wisdom” that is simply incorrect:
  • Modular cabling increases resistance/is another point of failure/is at increased risk for corrosion: The first and second points are technically true, but in the first case, the added resistance is entirely negligible, it's roughly equivalent to a few additional inches of cabling. Modular cables are, in theory, at slightly increased risk for failure, but the risk is very slim in a quality supply, and if you use PSU cable extensions (for example) you're essentially assuming the same risk, just slightly further down the cable. The third claim is just untrue. Modular cabling, either in fully or partially modular supplies, is really helpful in maintaining a clean build. It's a nice feature to have that usually comes at a price premium. Don't spend loads of additional money on it, but it is worth a reasonable amount of cash to have on a quality supply.
  • Single Rail/Multi Rail designs are superior to Multi Rail/Single Rail designs: The objections here are slightly different. Single rail designs get boosted by many because of issues multi-rail supplies had 4-5 years ago with load balancing. Since then, design has improved and those problems are a thing of the past (at least in quality supplies). Multi-rail supplies are “superior” because Single-Rail supplies above a certain wattage (around 600W) have OCP (over current protection) that is set so high out of necessity (because all of the current on the 12V rail is on a single rail) that it's likely that, in the event of a short circuit that the SCP (Short Circuit Protection) doesn't catch, you'll sustain serious to catastrophic component damage before the OCP kicks in. Now, it's really unlikely that such a short circuit would occur, so really Multi-Rail vs. Single-Rail is a non-issue, but if you really want the absolute safest supply and you need more than 600ish Watts, go with a quality Multi-Rail unit.
  • Headroom! More Headroom!: Okay, so often I'm the first person to buy more than I need, but a quality PSU is a well-designed, precision engineered, ass-kicking beast with as many safety precautions built in as the manufacturer can fit onto a PCB.  Buy enough PSU to run your PC at full bore and no more.  You'll hardly ever use that much PSU, and you'll be burning money in electricity bills if you buy a PSU where your normal usage doesn't fall roughly in the area where the PSU is most efficient.

So with all that said, here's a few manufacturer recommendations/warnings to keep in mind as you buy your PSU:

The Good

Corsair – Corsair has made something of a name for itself in the PSU sector, and they do make some of the better PSUs available today (their AX series, mostly). Many of their older lines are still favorites among enthusiasts, though other companies have come out with competing/superior lines. Still, those are completely solid supplies, even if they aren't the best performers anymore. With the exception of the current “Builder Series” (PSUs labeled CX430, CX500, CX600, which are labeled at higher wattages than they probably should be), and the new Gamer Series (which are solid, but probably overpriced, and mostly exist to be sold at brick and mortar outlets like Best Buy) I would recommend a Corsair supply without hesitation.

Seasonic – Seasonic makes some of the best PSUs in the world, including most of the best PSUs in the world from vendors like Corsair and Antec. You see, Seasonic is both an OEM vendor, and a Retail vendor. Most of their retail supplies are clustered around lower wattages, usually under 650W, but they make high quality, efficient supplies.

Superflower - Superflower doesn't actually make PSUs for the retail market in the US.  This is a shame, because they have a new 80+ Platinum platform coming out, and their 80+ Gold platform, the aptly named "Golden Green," was brilliant, with strong performance and unusually good scaling.  Fortunately for American consumers, multiple companies have rebadged Golden Green PSUs for sale in America, including NZXT's Hale90 series, Rosewill's Lightning series, and Kingwin's Lazer Gold units.

Silverstone - As far as I know, Silverstone is the only company that retails a good selection of SFX PSUs.  They're even releasing an 80+ gold version of their 450W SFX unit that is fully modular.  Silversone also makes a range of standard ATX PSUs, many of which are fully modular.  Silverstone usually uses Enhance as their OEM.

Antec – Despite my continued dislike of Antec's Basiq series of PSUs, I've come to the conclusion that Antec is doing much more right than wrong in the PSU market these days. The True Power New line (which appears to be EOLed) is great, as are the True Power Quattro units. The Antec Neo Eco units are really solid Seasonic-based units that are absolutely perfect for budget-conscious builders. The Antec High Current Gamer supplies are, at least at most wattages, built on the Seasonic S12II Bronze platform, so they're also a great budget-friendly choice. Antec also makes one of the best 1200W supplies available, the 1200W High Current Pro. The Earthwatts line is an adequate budget-friendly line of PSUs. I wouldn't use their higher wattage units in a higher-end build, but their low-wattage units are reliable, even if their performance won't wow you.

The Mediocre

Thermaltake – Thermaltake pretty much averages out to mediocre. Their Toughpower and Toughpower XT lines are both solid, if generally overpriced. Their other lines, though, like their TR2 supplies, are generally terrible, with a few thoroughly mediocre units in the mix.

Rosewill - Rosewill has some truly horrid crud, but also has some solid units, and some great units. In particular, their Gold-certified Lightning units are OEM'd by Superflower using their fantastic "Golden Green" platform, and are really solid values with some high voltage options for those who need them.

NZXT - These guys have recently stepped up to the plate with some seriously nice supplies. They have some more "budget-friendly" PSUs OEM'd by Seasonic, and their Hale90 series of PSUs is OEM'd by Superflower, and is a great platform.  Unfortunately some of their more recent "budget" focused supplies have been revealing some issues, despite coming from such a reliable OEM.

OCZ - OCZ has been in the PSU game for a while now, and the good news is that you could definitely do worse.  The bad news is that you could also do better.  Some of OCZ's supplies (the Fatal1ty 750W unit and most of the ModXStream units, for example) are somewhat overrated, at least when looking at their 12V ratings.  They do make a wide range of units, including some fully modular 80+ Bronze models, and higher end 80+ Gold ones as well, but you can often find better performing units at similar price points.

The Bad

Cooler Master – It's surprising, in a way, that a company that makes some really great cases also makes some exceptionally terrible PSUs. Out of all the power supplies that Cooler Master has in their lineup, only the Silent Pro M is really worth your time, and even those supplies aren't particularly good values. Aside from the 4 supplies in that line, avoid like the plague.

Ultra Products – Ultra has had a fairly tarnished reputation for a while, and has made some steps toward redemption recently, but between their fairly frivolous lawsuit regarding modular PSUs, and some recent incidences of them falsely claiming SLI certification, it's really hard to label them as anything other than a cruddy company.

Raidmax - I don't think I've ever met a Raidmax PSU I didn't hate.  They have a distressing tendency toward taking old, obsolete designs, adding enough modern touches to get by (fancy lights! PCI-E power leads!) then overrating their wattage at unreasonable temperatures and labelling them deceptively.  They're basically used car dealers, but for PSUs.

Diablotek - I don't know who makes the insides of these PSUs, but if I find out the authorities should probably be notified.  Any company making PSUs like this is either incompetent or evil.  If the former, they're a danger to themselves and others, stupidity like that will get someone killed.  If the latter, I guarantee you they're also war criminals.

Generics – God help me, don't use the power supply that came with your case.

As for specific purchasing recommendations...well it's hard to say. PSU choice is heavily dependent on what particular wattage, feature set, and connector demands you have. Buy a good supply from a good company, and be prepared to spend at least 50 to 60 bucks, even if you're looking at something in the 500W range. It sucks to spend money, but this is one of those instances where you will pay significantly more later if you try to save 20 bucks now.

Graphics: The Ever-War Continues!

For most systems, graphics hardware is the star of the show.  Sure, you need a processor and RAM, but that's all integers and floating points and blah, blah, blah, booooring.  For the purposes of gaming, the rest of your system is mainly an effort to get out of your video card's way.  The price of a solid video card reflects that; for gaming PCs the video card will be the most expensive single component you purchase.

Because the video card is so important to the performance of a gaming PC, and because you'll be spending a healthy chunk of change on one, you need to know what you're looking at.  The consumer graphics market is (for the moment) a continuous competition between AMD and NVIDIA.  Both of these companies design cards and create drivers and other software, then license this to other vendors who actually assemble and sell cards to consumers.  These vendors tend to produce at least 1 model each of the various card designs, and often more due to having factory overclocked versions, and/or versions with "non-reference" (that is, different from the standard design supplied by AMD/NVIDIA) coolers.  It's easy to get confused by all the different models, and having multiple vendors and versions of each card doesn't help.  Below I've included a basic breakdown of the models currently on offer from each company.

AMD Radeon HD Cards
  • Current Generation: 7000 Series Cards
    • 7900 Series: Best Enthusiast performance.  Preferred for multi-monitor setups and/or high resolution monitors (~1440p).
    • 7800 Series: Strong Enthusiast performance, but significantly more affordable, excellent for full HD (1080p) resolution and similar.
    • 7700 Series: Basic Enthusiast performance, powerful enough to provide acceptable FPS with lowered detail at 1080p, with stronger performance at 1680x1050 and other comparable/lower resolutions.
    • At the moment, there aren't any lower-end 7000-series cards available for retail.  It may be possible to find one, but they would be resold OEM cards, so support would be limited, if not non-existent.

Nvidia GeForce Cards
  • Current Generation: 600 Series Cards
    • GTX 680: Best Enthusiast performance.  Preferred for multi-monitor setups and/or high resolution monitors(~1440p).
    • GTX 670: Best Enthusiast performance.  Slightly lower performing than the GTX 680, but still excellent for multi-monitor setups and/or high resolution monitors.
    • GTX 660 Ti: Strong Enthusiast performance.  Excellent performance at or around full HD (1080p).
    • GTX 660: Strong Enthusiast performance.  Similar in performance and price to the Radeon HD 7870.
    • GTX 650 Ti: Basic Enthusiast performance.  Stronger performance than Radeon HD 7770, but lower than Radeon HD 7850.  Acceptable performance at 1080p.
    • GTX 650: Basic Enthusiast performance.  Stronger performance than Radeon HD 7750, but lower than Radeon HD 7770.  Acceptable performance at 1080p.
    • GT 640: Strong general performance.  Acceptable budget gaming performance at low resolutions, strong performance in general applications and media playback.
    • GT 630: Good general performance.  Unimpressive gaming performance, good performance in productivity applications and media playback.  Preferred for for media playing (Home Theater PC) and slim PC applications due to availability of passive and/or low profile versions of these cards.  Multiple versions of this card exist, based on differing architectures, with differing memory configurations.
    • There are some lower end cards available, but for the most part I'd say those cards aren't worth your time unless you wanted to keep a backup/testing video card for trouble-shooting purposes, or need a passive or near-passive card that can support multiple monitors (maybe in an office environment) and you anticipate little to no demands being made of it.

This is an exciting generation of video cards.  Nvidia has reversed, in commanding fashion, a somewhat distressing trend toward hotter, more power hungry GPUs.  Kepler (their new architecture) is very efficient, along with being extremely powerful.  AMD is staying in the game as well, much like a few years ago, when the 5000 series cards were so well regarded, the 7000 series cards are competitive both from a price and performance perspective, along with continuing AMD's recent efforts of keeping heat and electricity usage at reasonable levels.

Below are some individual recommendations:

Extremely high end:  If you have a 1440p monitor, you'll need muscle to drive it.  The GTX 670 and Radeon 7970 (non-GHZ version) strike the right balance between price and performance.  Both have the large amounts of VRAM and pixel-pushing muscle necessary to drive your games at 2560x1440.

High end:  Most people game at or around 1080p (1920x1200 isn't as common as 1080p, but it's still out there) and the best cards for this come in at around $300, the Radeon 7950 and the GTX 660 Ti.  Both should give you eye candy to spare at 1080p.

Mid-Range:  As I said, most people game at or around 1080p.  Most people also don't want to spend $300 on a video card.  Fortunately, great performance at these resolutions can be bought for less.  The GTX 660 and Radeon 7870 are great cards that often retail for close to $200.

Low end:  The economy being what it is, who wants to spend 2 Benjamins on a video card?  For people with lower resolution monitors, or who are willing to turn down the detail settings a bit, there are still great cards to be had for less than $200.  Prices on the Radeon 7850 are plummeting, some are available for around $175, a spectacular value (in my opinion).  If you're looking to spend less, the GTX 650 Ti is probably now your best option

Generally speaking, most people won't need to spend more than $300 for great performance, because most people game at 1080p.  People with 1440p monitors will be well served by the cards recommended above, but may have to compromise a bit on detail settings in some games (1440p is so many pixels).  If you have a high resolution monitor, or are interested in a multi-monitor setup, you may want more horsepower than is accounted for above.  If so, drop by the thread and we'll see what we can do for you.