Buying a NEW Gaming PC chassis // My story
So for a couple months now I have been using an old Cooler Master PC tower that I got from my mom, she originally got it back in 2013 when she bought a pre-built system for graphics designing and that sort of stuff. The PC consisted of an Intel core i5-4440 @3.10 Ghz, a Nvidia GT620 2gb GPU, 8GB ddr3 ram, a 450W PSU from Huntkey, and a Gigabyte motherboard (I do not remember the exact model) and of course, the Cooler Master PC case which I'm not entirely sure on the model either. The case has a mesh front panel with a plastic windowed side panel and supports a full ATX motherboard.
Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful case, or at least it was, as the years have not been too kind to it. It has a dent in the top which makes removing and sliding on the side panel a little tricky at times, and the plastic window on the side panel is quite scratched up. This particular case also does not have a lot of air flow, and absolutely no radiator support for liquid cooling. And since I have repurposed the case for my gaming PC, optimum airflow is very important so that the hardware does not overheat. So a few days ago I have decided it is time to part with this case and upgrade to something newer, something... better.
After browsing for some time on various sites, looking for a case that would fit my every need, as well as fit my budget, I came across the V200 TG edition from Thermaltake, on a locally popular site called Takealot.com. The V200 comes with full sized, slightly black tinted Tempered Glass side panel, a full length power supply shroud at the bottom of the case with a removable dust filter for my PSU, as well as mounting for a 280mm radiator in the front of the chassis, as well as for mounting for a 240mm radiator on the top of the case with a magnetic dust filter, for if I ever decided to upgrade to water cooling. This case fulfills all my PC needs, and priced at about R800.00 (Roughly $53 USD) it fits my budget nicely too. So of course, I ordered it, and it is expected to arrive in 3 days time.
My current gaming system is nothing too fancy, but it still plays all my favorite games, such as; Rise of the Tomb Raider, GTA V, Apex Legends, Minecraft, and many more, at decent frame rates. My system consists of an Intel core i7-2600 @3.4 Ghz, 12 GB of Kingston HyperX ddr3 ram, the same 450W PSU from Huntley that my mom used, a Gigabyte GTX 950 2GB (OC Edition) GPU, and an Asus P8P67 Pro Rev 3.1 motherboard. I am booting off of a 240GB Crucial SSD, and have a 1000GB Seagate Barracuda hard drive as my D-drive.
I'm planning to upgrade my GPU to something more recent that has a little more power, like a GTX 1060 6Gb, or even a GTX 1660 Super, when the prices of graphics cards go down eventually, as well as upgrading my motherboard to something a little newer that supports ddr4 when I get a little more money. A CPU upgrade will most likely take place around the same time as the motherboard, for that I am thinking about a ninth gen Core i7, but will most likely have to move over to Ryzen as AMD is currently the cheaper CPU option.
Thank you for reading! I will post more updates when the new Chassis arrives and the PC build is complete, so be sure to stay tuned! Please don't forget to upvote and comment if you enjoyed, every upvote contributes to my gaming/pc addiction.