As my Intel Q6600 overclocked from 2.4GHz to 2.93 GHz was showing its age, it was time to replace this ~13 year old system that had been through many graphic card upgrades. It has also lasted thru 3 fan failures/replacements (cpu fan, back fan, and side panel fan) and the 200mm fan at the top of the Antec 900 was causing weird noises so I had it unplugged.
I have been looking at replacing it for some time (since Intel 9th gen), but had never pulled the trigger.
I purchased the Be Quiet 500FX case during their anniversary sale, as it met most of my criteria:
- Good quality interior fans with at least 2 for intake and 1 for exhaust
- USB C on the front panel
- Glass side panel
- Bottom mounted PSU with shroud for hiding/managing cables
- Affordable price ($119.99, cheaper than the 500DX at the time)
- The included RGB fans were a bonus
- The one miss was no 5.25" bays for an optical drive, but I can use an external one
- Intel 11700K + Asus Z590-Plus TUF WiFi for $299.99 (recently dropped to $249.99)
- Intel 12700K + Asus Z690-Plus TUF WiFi DDR4 for $349.99
- Ryzen 5600 + Gigabyte X570S AORUS Pro for $329.98
- Ryzen 5700X + Gigabyte X570S AORUS Pro for $399.98
- Ryzen 7700X + Asus X670E-Plus TUF WiFi + 32GB G.Skill DDR5 6000 CL36 for $679.99
- Scythe Fuma 2 Rev. B - $65.99 @ Microcenter
- Dual tower with 2 fans
- 8 heat pipes
- Western Digital SN750 SE 1TB - $99.99 @ Microcenter ($79.99 after bundle discount)
- TLC flash
- DDR4 cache
- Corsair HX750 Platinum - $109.99 @ Newegg
- Asus BW-16D1X-U - $124.99 @ Microcenter
- No Bluray playing software, but I will use VLC
- MSI Radeon RX 480 4GB transfered over from my existing build
- The power supply cables could use an extra inch or two to make building easier (or perhaps cable extensions)
- The 24 pin motherboard power cable was too stiff to route like normal through the cable bar and had to go diagonally through the top
- cable extensions could solve this "problem"
- I had to move one of the fans to fan header 1 on the Be Quiet fan controller to get the motherboard to detect the PWM control
- I had to remove the back fan to be able to not scrape the motherboard on the standoffs while installing it
- I should have plugged in the 2x 8 pin EPS cables before mounting the motherboard