GPU reccomendation for small case gaming

[Dark Shroud]

For the heck of it I'm going to just throw this case out there as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811154094

 

[Spike]

For the heck of it I'm going to just throw this case out there as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811154094

Wow... it's so ugly yet so cheap. I will mention this one to him as well... if he can get past the looks.

Thanks for the link!

 

[Zap]

His specifications were to get a small case to which he is leaning towards the x-qpack 2. He wants it small so it's easy to carry around and there is something about a cube case he likes.

Having been the owner of at least four cube style cases (two MicroFly, one Chenbro, one X-Qpack2) and having used two of them as portable LAN party rigs, I can say that they are NOT as easy to carry around as you think. The handle is flimsy. A friend had a tower case with plastic handle break as he was carrying it into the last Zion LAN, dumping his rig in front of a huge crowd of gamers. I personally would not trust most handles that are built into cases. Also, the "cube" style cases are unwieldy to carry under one arm because they are wide. It is much easier to carry even a mid-tower case under one arm (if weight was the same) because it lays flat against your side. Also, straps won't fit snugly because of the width; as you lift the straps on top will pull away from the case making it less stable versus a slimmer tower chassis.

Here's my recommendation: Cooler Master Elite 341 (If you live near a Micro Center, will be cheaper there)

I've tried literally multiple dozens of different micro ATX cases personally, and have spent countless hours studying pictures of other micro ATX cases online. With a few caveats, the Elite 341 is my current top pick for a LAN party case. I've personally used one for a while, and the person I sold it to is still using it. He's running socket 1366 with an overclocked Core i7, two GTX 260 in SLI and an 800W power supply.

The case is pretty lightweight, but reasonably sturdy if you have the sides securely fastened. It has spots for front/rear 120mm fans and two side panel 120mm fans. Front grill is very open, but is still filtered. Only comes with one fan. It can fit large video cards and has tons of airflow if you need it and add the appropriate fans.

Caveats: Case is a bit small. Not too bad, but will take some time to assemble. PSU is right against the motherboard so you can't really have a CPU fan that hangs too far off the side or else it will hit the PSU. You will need to install drives before installing the CPU cooler. One HDD mount is on the bottom and if you have a long card there (like my friend with two GTX 260) then you can't use that HDD spot.

BTW I still own two more Elite 341 cases. They are unused at this time because I went mini ITX (Lian Li PC-T7R case) for my LAN rig.

At this point I'm going to recommend the 460 768mb, now it's just about picking the right one. I would prefer he goes with an eVGA as they have the lifetime warranty (they have replaced my 8800GTX 512 twice so I know it works) but anything with a 2 year or above would probably work as well.