Post your gaming setup!

[Organoth]

IMHO the HDD trays are flimsy and a pain to use. (at least compared to the ones in my CM690 II Advanced) Half of the ones I got in my Define XL had to be bent so the clips would actually catch and hold the thing in place. Also, the first Define XL I got shipped to me every plastic pin holding the front of the case on broke so the only thing attaching it to the rest of the case was the front panel connection wires. I will say that I prefer sitting next to my Define XL than I did when my PC was in the CM690II, it's nicer to use on a day to day basis and is quieter... even though it was slightly easier to build in the CM690. My next machine (Ivy Bridge + 7000/600 series if I have a new job by then, if not then the next generation) will most likely be M-ATX though, so I'll have to see what I'll get then.

I can definitely agree that I do not like the HDD cage. The rubber grommets on retention pins are too small and flexible that they to sit in place very well making the HDD difficult to install. I have 3 drives in my system and after getting so frustrated with the first two I put the 3rd one into one of the hot swap bays since the regular screws were easier to deal with. The 3rd drive is only SATA II so I'm not losing any speed on it.

The only thing I've said is better on the HAF X is the cooling, and to me that is one of the most important things on a case and trumps things like a nice HDD cage. I've only tried to point out that other cases that people have claimed have better cooling in fact do not beat the HAF X in terms of air cooling ability or options. That is not an opinion, it is fact. You have more and better fan options on the HAF X then any other case, especially when it comes to air cooling your GPUs. The HAF X is the only case I know of that has the ability to have 3 fans dedicated specifically to GPU cooling.

Other cases can be good in terms of their cooling options be the fact still remains that no case has as much to offer for air cooling as the HAF X. Other cases either lack dedicated GPU cooling, have less efficient front intake or fewer options for exhaust. Some cases in just one of those areas while others lack in several. Again that is not opinion, it's fact, those other cases offer less air cooling options.

[Wries]

you don't have that? Huh. I would get 8000 from csn if I chose to. Without studielån that is. Fairly okay. I mean I can life off of that.

http://www.csn.se/hogskola/hur-mycke.../belopp-heltid

that is my sweden :P

granted if you call a loan for "getting paid", sure lots of monniz.

[Drunkenvalley]

Other cases can be good in terms of their cooling options be the fact still remains that no case has as much to offer for air cooling as the HAF X. Other cases either lack dedicated GPU cooling, have less efficient front intake or fewer options for exhaust. Some cases in just one of those areas while others lack in several. Again that is not opinion, it's fact, those other cases offer less air cooling options.

It's easy to tell this isn't fact, sorry.

[Rennadrel]

(Warning: I'm drunk by now)
Really, the hddtrays? I wouldnt have figured. Seeing as they are quite rigid. Sorry to hear about the front. That's a fault of shipping and not the case itself, though. As mine is still intact.

I would recommend a FD Arc Mini for mATX tbqh. I'm coloured and impressed by it, I admit. But it is a fantastic case /shrug
The GTX 600 series are also looking quite amazing.
If Nvidias words are true (= don't count on it. Afterall the GTX 580 was what the GTX 480 was announced to be in terms of CUDA cores enabled and TDP value and performance, before they had to strangle its performance) the GTX 660 equiv will be quite a significant improvement over the GTX 580.
Seeing how nVidia are slated to build their Kepler bottom up, it's a very very good move by them.

I will wait until mid june or whenever and try to go for the GTX 680 in SLI if the funds continue to tick in at the pace they currently are (ie, I got a job. And in Sweden, you get paid to study rather than pay to. Even if it's only 1200 USD a month)

The Define cases are generally like that though, my Define Mini is a bit of a bugger with the HDD trays as well, though they aren't really that bad.

[Drunkenvalley]

Man, I didn't realize SSDs were that tiny! It's literally a 1/4th the size of the normal 3.5" HDD I have!

[Cyanotical]

Man, I didn't realize SSDs were that tiny! It's literally a 1/4th the size of the normal 3.5" HDD I have!

generally they are the same size as 2.5" laptop drives, they can be smaller, but 2.5" is a good standard form factor

[Asera]

you don't have that? Huh. I would get 8000 from csn if I chose to. Without studielån that is. Fairly okay. I mean I can life off of that.

Hooray socialism?

[blech]

[Xuvial]

Since we're on the topic of SSD's....
So I received the laptop (finally) and I boot it up, only to be faced by the store demo screen that required a password to remove - with no instructions on the CD or anything that came with it to tell me the password. Got into safe-mode and got rid of the store demo.

This thing came loaded with literally 20-25 pointless programs. I've heard of "laptop bloatware" but seriously? So much?? The entire Cyberlink suite, an MS Office that hasn't been activated, Google Chrome, Bing/Google/Yahoo/Ask toolbars (are you fking kidding me?) and countless other stuff I can't remember. The CPU runs at 68-78c under WoW (apparently that's quite cool for a laptop) and already felt super-sluggish compared to my desktop in terms of speed/responsiveness.

This laptop is literally crying out for a clean rebuild on an SSD, so I'm hunting for a 120-128gb. I have the following options, going in price/per GB from lowest to highest:

Kingston SSDNow V100 128GB
Kingston SSDNow V200 128GB
Intel 320 Series 120GB
Corsair Force 3 Series 120GB
Crucial M4 128GB

Now before you yell "hurr durr go for the M4/Force3 of course!", there is a very high chance I'll be limited to Sata II speeds, I don't expect this laptop to be running a 6gb/s interface inside, so an M4/Force3 will be choked on the interface. SSD's aren't about raw sequential speeds anyway. Anyone have any input on those SSD's, especially the Kingston? I've heard very little about Kingston.

[Asera]

Since we're on the topic of SSD's....
So I received the laptop (finally) and I boot it up, only to be faced by the store demo screen that required a password to remove - with no instructions on the CD or anything that came with it to tell me the password. Got into safe-mode and got rid of the store demo.

This thing came loaded with literally 20-25 pointless programs. I've heard of "laptop bloatware" but seriously? So much?? The entire Cyberlink suite, an MS Office that hasn't been activated, Google Chrome, Bing/Google/Yahoo/Ask toolbars (are you fking kidding me?) and countless other stuff I can't remember. The CPU runs at 68-78c under WoW (apparently that's quite cool for a laptop) and already felt super-sluggish compared to my desktop in terms of speed/responsiveness.

This laptop is literally crying out for an SSD, so I'm hunting for a 120-128gb. I have the following options, going in price/per GB from lowest to highest:

Kingston SSDNow V100 128GB
Kingston SSDNow V200 128GB
Intel 320 Series 120GB
Corsair Force 3 Series 120GB

There is a very high chance I'll be limited to Sata II speeds, I don't expect this laptop to be running a 6gb/s interface inside (hence no Crucial M4). Anyone have any input on those SSD's, especially the Kingston? I've heard very little about Kingston.

Force 3 would be limited by the interface as well.

Also, you should see the awful amount of programs HP put on my DM1z... enough to considerably slow it down. ><

[Xuvial]

Force 3 would be limited by the interface as well.

You're right, but I'm getting great price/GB for it.

[tetrisGOAT]

Honestly, I'm surprised the 320-series is less than the Force 3 over there.
Either way, I run the 320-series 160GB in my notebook.
Don't get fooled by performance numbers alone. It feels more responsive and faster than my Corsair Force F60 (~= Vertex II) sitting in my desktop despite having worse numbers to show for it, in everything except wow-loadingscreens, where it's only about twice the speed of my Spinpoint f3

[Asera]

You're right, but I'm getting great price/GB for it.

True, they are very well priced. xD

I got my 120GB Force 3 for a little over $120 CAD. xD (Refurbished, but it's working fine after a few months now!)

[DeltrusDisc]

Xuvial, I'm pretty sure that usually a SATA III SSD on SATA II will still perform better than most SATA II SSDs. Plus if you can get one for a great deal, why not?

[Asera]

Xuvial, I'm pretty sure that usually a SATA III SSD on SATA II will still perform better than most SATA II SSDs. Plus if you can get one for a great deal, why not?

Eh, my old Vertex II performs about the same as the Force3 did in my notebook. Might be a limitation of the system itself though, since it's an E-350. Force 3 performs miles ahead on the desktop though.

[tetrisGOAT]

Xuvial, I'm pretty sure that usually a SATA III SSD on SATA II will still perform better than most SATA II SSDs. Plus if you can get one for a great deal, why not?

I'm pretty sure, no. :P With overhead, it's still ~the same.

[Drunkenvalley]

Oh, wow. I was wondering why I had so much money.

You guys wanna know why? Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere we go:
I ordered my goods on the 17th. But they never actually took my money... till yesterday. What the bleeding motherf--?!

And I have yet to go get my new monitor, because goddamn mail were being twerps about it. Sent from Oslo two days ago early in the morning. But it didn't get sent from Stavanger to my city before the day after. Then finally, despite there being a literal 2 hour ride between here and Stavanger, and it being shipped from Stavanger 9:30 AM, they still didn't receive it... before today.

I swear to god my childhood self can't hold a candle to the rage I've got now. :|
/cleaving time

[Asera]

Oh, wow. I was wondering why I had so much money.

You guys wanna know why? Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere we go:
I ordered my goods on the 17th. But they never actually took my money... till yesterday. What the bleeding motherf--?!

And I have yet to go get my new monitor, because goddamn mail were being twerps about it. Sent from Oslo two days ago early in the morning. But it didn't get sent from Stavanger to my city before the day after. Then finally, despite there being a literal 2 hour ride between here and Stavanger, and it being shipped from Stavanger 9:30 AM, they still didn't receive it... before today.

I swear to god my childhood self can't hold a candle to the rage I've got now. :|
/cleaving time

Did you happen to get it shipped via UPS? Because over the last few days I've come to realize just how awful they are.

I ordered a squishable narwhal, and UPS decided to ship it to Dartmouth College, near Boston, Massachusetts instead of Dartmouth, NS. Now I am waiting for the real delivery which was supposed to be yesterday, but they never came.

[Xplodgift]

Intel core i7-2600k @ 4.4GHz - Stock Cooler
Asus Maximus IV Gene Z68 skt1155 - RoG MB
2x4GB (8GB) G.Skill DDR3 12800 (1600) Sniper 1.25v
XFX HD 6870 Black Edition 1GB OC'ed
Thermaltake LitePower 700W
Western Digital 500GB Caviar Black Sata III 6gb/s
Logitech G5 LaserMouse
Logitech Standard Keyboard
TV Acer LCD 27" AT2758ML FullHD LED
Logitech Z5500 5.1 Dolby Digital

[DeltrusDisc]

Bare with me here, want to help this guy make his rig even better. :P

Stock cooler on a 2600K@4.4GHz.... RoG motherboard... Thermaltake LitePower 700w... 6870.... Acer 1080p 27"....

Why? Stock coolers not only look dumb, but they are terrible at heat dissipation, and for 4.4GHz I would not suggest anyone use a stock cooler. Stock coolers are for going up to 4.0GHz if you simply don't have the budget to get yourself a Hyper 212+ or Corsair A70. It's apparent to me that I don't think you really know what you were buying when you made this purchase (if you already made it.)

A 1080p 27" monitor is generally frowned upon, much less it being a TV...

Seeing as how this is likely a gaming build, I think you really made some poor choices when it came to certain parts, certain parts whom you'll never make full usage of.

For instance, an i7-2600K, for $100 less you can have a CPU that is just as powerful in games, the i5-2500K. That $100 alone could go towards a Radeon 6950 or an NVidia GTX 560 Ti, either of which would be improvements over a 6870, which, while a good card and even better Xfire'd, just does not pair up well with a 2600K+Maximus IV, it will bottleneck the CPU, no doubt.

We then get to the incredibly overkill motherboard, which while is an mATX, is still rather expensive for the form factor and I know I and some others feel the Maximus IV Gene-Z mATX seems like a fake Maximus, since they are supposed to be big, honking motherboards with tons of features and PCIe slots for expansion, but this pretty much takes that all away yet still asks some $170, whereas you could get just as good an mATX motherboard for far less.

I personally would not have gone for that power supply for 2 reasons, one I don't trust Thermaltake for almost anything, especially power supplies as I hear about more issues with theirs than anyone else's. 2 because 700 watts is a ridiculous amount of wattage for a 2600K+6870... so I'm really wondering why you opted for this, it almost feels like it's an ibuypower.com system. I would suggest a good 550-650 watt PSU from Seasonic, Silver Stone, Corsair, or Antec, personally.

I really would urge you to either switch to a 2500K+6950/560 Ti, or if you drop to a different mATX motherboard you could even up to a 6970 or 570, which would be an even nicer pairing with the CPU. Hell a 2500K+6870x2 system would actually work really well here, since you have the 2xPCIe 8x lanes available to you. Course you could just drop the CPU to the 2500K, keep the 6870, and drop the motherboard down a bit and get yourself a sweet 60-90GB SATA III SSD. Hope it's not too late for these changes, I think you'd be much happier! Unless you plan to do rendering, then half the stuff I suggested is moot.

Edit: Woohoo post #5,000 in the Post your gaming setup thread!

[Drunkenvalley]

Did you happen to get it shipped via UPS? Because over the last few days I've come to realize just how awful they are.

This would possibly have been the case if Norway was a part of the States, but it's not.