Hey everyone,

I just got the Antec 300 for my birthday present today so I transferred my relatively new build into it. Attached are some pics.

The antec 300 is very nice for cable management especially the bottom mounted PSU, i highly recommend it! Make sure your PSU has reasonably long cables though... Corsair PSU's do well. The 2 Tri-Cool fans do a great job of keeping it cool.

Specs:
AMD Athlon II X2 240 - 2.8 Ghz (oc'ed to 3.5 ghz (14*250) dual core 2x1MB L2 cache, Socket AM3.. notice temps 17-26 !
Mushkin HP2-6400 DDR2-800 (oc'ed to 1000 mhz @ 5-5-5-18) 4GB CAS 4-5-4-11
Western Digital 250GB * 2 - Raid0
Western Digital 640GB - Backup
MSI Radeon HD 4830 - 640 SP, 1 GB DDR3 @ 256 bit, DX 10.1 (oc'ed to 700/1000 mhz, from stock at 585/900)
Gigabyte MA78GM-US2H motherboard - AMD 780 G chipset
Corsair 550w PSU - 41 Amps on single 12v rail
Sony DVD-RW - Sata, 20X read/write
OCZ Vendetta 2 Triple heatpipe CPU cooler (size does matter, dropped 12deg C under load from stock hsf)

Was going for a budget PC, overall i only paid about 550$ earlier this summer. I might mod it with some blue LED's in the front panel, will see if i have the time over the holidays.

(** Note to system builders, a common misconception, you dont need a 1000w PSU, QUALITY is better then QUANTITY. This computer uses at most 200 watts (and a triple crossfire 5870 is still < 500w)! You should however not use more then 75% of a PSU rated capacity).

Pictures:
http://www.maclanclub.com/kevin/outside.jpg
http://www.maclanclub.com/kevin/inside.jpg (cant really see the red cathodes cuz of the bright camera flash)
http://www.maclanclub.com/kevin/backpanel.jpg

Edit: just added the OCZ cooler, and some red cathodes at the top.

Niiiiiiice. How is the 4830 for gaming? Can it run newer games on the higher settings? I've used a 4850, and that was amazing.. As much as the 3870 and works just as well.

Thanks, yea the 4830 was 50$ cheaper at the time and i have not found a game i cant play at 50+ FPS at 1680x1050 res at max quality.... Tom Clancy's Hawx, Wic, Left 4 Dead, etc... Good enough for me....

Have you seen the 5870? Would be insane! Anything over 60 fps is a moot point though as the monitors dont refresh faster then that.

edit: i spoke too soon, GTA IV kicked my ass (see below)... need a quad core Phenom II 965!

Check out the 5870x2 on 3 monitors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPCJh8tYri0

Originally Posted by nawedc

Check out the 5870x2 on 3 monitors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPCJh8tYri0

or check out this pic, triple crossfire 5870 ! Wish i did hardware reviews for a living, would be fun.

GTA IV benchmark (this game takes a LOT to run, mostly cpu bottleneck, really wants a quad core)... Originally before overclocking, i could only get 30 fps.

Now i finally had a reason to OC my rig... with only a small bump in some voltages i managed a 250 FSB (up from 200), for a 25% overclock to 3.5 Ghz! That mushkin DDR800 is king, it is stable at 1000 mhz no sweat. The 4830 also overclocks really nicely (700/1000 mhz), easily clocking faster then a stock 4850 (625/1000 although with 160 more sp's)...

New benchmark after oc:
Average FPS: 40.50
Duration: 37.13 sec
CPU Usage: 86%
System memory usage: 59%
Video memory usage: 81%
Video Mode: 1680 x 1050 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filter Quality: High
View Distance: 26
Detail Distance: 51

compared to a quad core Intel i7 @ 3.2 Ghz and HD 4870 X2 only getting 64.49 fps!

other then lack of performance, the game is pretty fun i must say... some pros and cons compared to San Andreas though.