j2Hydro
Description
Olivia S340. Yellow
I was looking at cases and I stumbled on the S340 from NZXT in black and yellow. I have not seen a case like this, the black and yellow scheme or the S340 and the practical no drive bay and a basement look, WOW, I began my rebuild based on that case. Most parts came from my current build with a new PSU and voila, Olivia Is my new daily driver, I use this for whatever I need it for. This box is fast and I am very pleased. I have the 8350 OC to a stable 4.5 Ghz. I never actually build a new box every time, I just keep upgrading a part at a time when I can for the past 10 years, I guess that's what this is all about. I watch some of that Linus Tech guy on You Tube, he is quirky but I do agree with him on one thing. Buy quality components from quality companies and you will be fine.
Part Reviews
CPU
AMD, Hard to argue the price / performance on this chip. Yes an i5 skylake is faster, but its also $100 more.
Motherboard
ASUS, in opinion, is the premiere motherboard and this board had everything I needed at the time, USB 3.0 header on a AM3+ was not common a few years ago, and I am very pleased with this board. The onboard RAID is a bit simplistic but so far no issue.
Memory
16GB of 1866 dual channel and that blue matched the mobo, I never use all 16GB even with multiple VMs running. The blue is quirky but it matches the mobo.
Video Card
Got this on super sale for $169. Fast enough for what I do, I don't play the cutting edge games and this will run my dual monitor setup with any hassle. I have played those Lego games with my kids and it does it all on Ultra setting, so nothing to worry about. I loved the Green light and color, I plan to paint the green yellow at some point. MSI makes a great GPU and the GTX 960 is a great price / performance build. I like the r9 cards as well, but the extra heat and power use for very similar performance is hard to justify.
Case
I can not find a better looking, more practical case at any price. I really think this is the perfect case. I now own (2) NZXT cases and I cant be happier with either. My buddy was like, there are only 2 hdd slots and no DVD slot. This is 2016, we don't need that anymore. I know you can buid a PC in a shoe box, but for $60 at after Crissy sale, it is really a good looking case.
Power Supply
EVGA is premiere brand and when I say this for $50 bucks, I jumped all over it. sometimes being patient and building a box one part at a time pays off. The two parts I feel are most important are the PSU and the storage, hard to skimp on those.
Comments