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
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