SPCR

Long story short, decent case, could be improved by replacing more rivets with screws. Found that I couldn't take out the lower drive cage, only the upper one because it's riveted in. Cable management is pretty good, but then again considering the case is fatter/wider than most micro-ATX towers that's a given. If Fractal used more metal it'd make the case pretty solid - if only the front panel was formed out of aluminum.....

This is meant to be a budget-ish most bang for buck build for a friend that barely games but wants to stay competitive for at least 5 years (hence the 4th gen Haswell chip/board). We lucked out and managed to get our i7 via Intel's Retail Edge program for a mere $99, which formed the backbone of our system. Total net cost tax in is a tad under $700. We are using onboard graphics for now, but will probably upgrade when the mining craze dies down and people start en masse reselling their used cards. I didn't think we could do better. Sure it isn't well-rounded when it comes to graphics or storage capacity, but if should do everything he asks for and more. We are throwing in a few hard drives from his previous computer and possibly a Blu-Ray burner later on hence the extra SATA and power cables (along with the PCI-e connector tucked away on the back).

Specs:

-Intel i7-4770K
-Gigabyte Z87M-D3H
-2X8GB G.Skill Sniper DDR3-1866
-Intel 120GB 530-Series SSD
-Corsair CX430
-Fractal Arc Mini
-Scythe Ninja 3





















Brendan

No grafic card?

Nope, we're picking one up later after the mining subsides, the onboard should last until then.

Nice build.
But it looks so empty without HDDs, GPU, etc.

Why did you go with this size?
for future upgrade?

Could you tell me the distance between the very end of the heatsink to the panel the motherboard is screwed into?

Sorry for the weird question, I'm trying to work out if I can fit that into a mini itx case.

Thanks