Hey everyone! So a month or two ago I convinced my friend to switch over to PC gaming instead of buying one of the new consoles. As of now all he wants/has to play on the PC is Skyrim (modded) and Civilization V, and he wants it to be a tiny PC so he can take it with him when he visits family (like he currently does with his PS3). He is sold on the Fractal Node 304 case and I was wondering if you guys could look over the rest of the parts list.
Link to the list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/J36M4D
I chose the i3-4130 since Civilization V is a CPU intensive game and Skyrim can be at times, so the i3 would perform better in those games than the 760k and later on I/he/we can upgrade the CPU to an i5, i7 or a Xeon 1230 v3 (since it is i7 performance at an i5-ish price and he doesn't want to OC).
Also would a normal semi-modular ATX PSU like the CX 430w fit in this case without being too cramped or should we use a smaller sized PSU?
Thanks in advance for any help/advice/constructive criticism, I appreciate it!
Glad to hear you like it! Was it easy to build in and manage cables?
Also I'm happy to hear that the PSU will fit in the case. What is the main difference between the H81 and B85 chipsets?
Is AsRock a reliable brand? I remember that there were a lot of problems with some of their AM3+ boards and its made me wary of using them. I went with the Asus motherboard because they are typically high quality parts (the adapter they have for the front panel connections is pretty nice too lol) and I have had my Asus motherboard for about a year now and have had no problems with it.
Have you ordered anything from mwave before? I have never really heard much about them or their customer support before and am kinda worried. I don't want my friend to get screwed over, you know?
Cable management was ok, especially considering the size of the case and how I had a 550w non-modular power supply.
H81 and B85 really won't make much of a difference, but the ASRock board was in the same price range. ASRock is a pretty good brand, and the problems they had with AM3+ don't really apply with Intel. If you really want to stick with Asus, you can. The Asus has 3 eggs at newegg, and seems to have a higher failure rate:success rate than the ASRock board.
Mwave is a pretty good shop. They have relatively quick customer service as well.
Glad to hear that mwave is a good shop! Seeing as the Asus board seems to have a higher failure rate than the AsRock board I think I'll give AsRock a shot.
Glad to hear the cable management is ok, was worried it would be awful.