For thermal paste, always use
Arctic Silver 5. It's about the same price as the coolermaster and it's the best. Period.
Anyway, about the quest for a case. It all started back in early October when I decided I was gonna build my own computer. I went onto Newegg (saw their ad in a free issue of PCmag) and looked through a bunch of cases. Picked out a few that looked aesthetically blinding, such as Kingwin's
Mutant X and Foxconn's
Minotaur.
Then I dropped the case subject for a while and went into researching about the parts for a few weeks. Finally, after finishing my compilation of parts (vid card, CPU, motherboard
😉), the case was the last thing left.
You know how sometimes you look at something and in the beginning it looks awesome but the next day it looks terrible? It's a lot like marriage. Anyway, I couldn't stick with a case I liked, one day I'd like a case, the next day it looked like crap. It was very annoying.
Acrylic cases. Loved em. I loved how you could see into the computer and see all the parts, not to mention it looks smoother than a lot of cases. Of course, the research came along and totally killed it. Breaks easily, static = dust magnet, scratches all the time, no EMI protection, etc etc etc. Back to square one.
My friend said I should get an aluminum case, since they're lighter and dissapate heat better. So I looked into a few of those and hated them all. He also liked a lot of the Coolermaster, particularly the Wavemaster, which I looked into, and it wasn't a bad case. Just not [pause] THE [/pause] case. He recommended the Xaser cases, which I hated and still hate today, they just look way too gaudy and flashy. The forumers recommended Antec Sonata. Nice case, but looked terrible to me for some reason. So I was stuck. Couldn't find something I liked.
One brand I particularly hated was Lian-Li. I had browsed through their cases many times, and hated the square, plain look to them. But one day it hit me. It totally hit me. These cases looked awesome. With a few secluded lights, a Lian-Li case could look absolutely perfect. I don't know how this mindset came about me, it just, you know, did.
My budget was 2000 bucks. I had a lot of money left to spend. So I spent it on the case:
Lian-Li
V1000B with window, top 120mm drilled blowhole, and floppy drive. 278 bucks.
I read into it. The Lian-Li V1000 was one of the best air-cooled cases you can get. With something like 4 passive cooling vents, two, and in my case (no pun intended), three 120mm blowholes, BTX form factor (to optimize airflow), all in a Mac-esque case, this was THE case. I woke up the next day, it was still the same case. A week later, still the same case, so I figured it was safe, I wouldn't change my mind, and went ahead and ordered it. I placed my order two days ago, haven't received it yet (but UPS tracking says it's on its way), I can't wait.
So theres there story of my quest to find the case. I can't really recommend a case to you, everyone likes different things, and if you're like me, people are gonna have a tough time recommending cases to you. First pick what you need. LAN? Aluminum. Quality? Antec or Lian-Li. Flashy? Thermaltake or Aspire. After that, pick one you like the looks of, read into it (reviews, specs, forums, etc). Give yourself a week to change your mind, then go for it. Good luck!
I hope you read all this. I put a lot of time into it
😀
