AWKWARD ZOMBIE

I tried to buy a case for my new computer when I was building it and I wound up with a piece of junk. Side panel already had the transparent windows falling out, speaker ports were busted from the start, the grill on the back was set too far in to accommodate any PCI cards(!), the package had obviously been opened, etc.

At that point I realized that I will probably never have a legitimate reason to get rid of the sturdy plain black case I'm using now, unless it breaks.

easy to work with on the inside is pretty essential for me yeah. i haven't ever built a computer before (i know how just never did it,) so i'd like to be able to put my guts in easily haha. my case i have now is pretty simple and has some red accent lights so it's not PLAIN but it's not over the top either haha. i've seen the phantom case around before (and it has red/white unf) but do you have experience with it? it looks pretty nicely layed out and easy but i figure i'd ask haha.

I need a ton of space inside the case, that's the biggest thing. Good video cards are not small.

I don't. The Corsair case I'm ordering is supposedly easy to work with and has plenty of space inside despite it's compact interior. The Phantom has a pretty good reputation in general as well tho, so it shouldnt be horrible in those regards.

I'm looking to get a new computer in a few weeks and wondering if anyone has any comments on the sets they have here at a local shop.

http://otvtech.com/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=848&vmcchk=1&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=240

Looking to get a tier 3.

Any words of advice from someone more knowledgeable on this? Is it a decent deal?

Note, it's in CDN currency.

That Tier 3 one is a good mid-high build but more expensive than if you were to build it yourself. Also they don't list the PSU's or motherboard's models which probably means they cheaped on out those.

Edit: actually, I assembled a sample build with ca.pcpartpicker.com and the total came up as $975 without an OS. I had to estimate the motherboard's and PSU's prices. So they're charging like $60 for building it which isn't half bad.

It has an older generation gpu though, I feel that around that pricemark you should be looking at a 760 if the intention is gaming.

daisies, tier 3 just happens to be almost identical to my system - only difference is I have a 2tb HDD instead of 1 plus an SSD, and that my graphics card is just slightly weaker. My system wasn't close to $1000, are you sure those prices are reasonable Mete?

Another thing worth noting is that it might have a reference card as GPU instead of an aftermarket with superior cooling.

I threw together this comparable build in pcpartpicker with ATX instead of mATX that comes out to 831$ or 880$ without whatever a mail-in rebate is.

These are Canadian dollars. Prices were according to ca.pcpartpicker.com and I don't know what they base their prices on.

Yeah, converting those prices to Canadian Moose bucks usually equals out.

One more thing, any word on windows 8 actually being 'better'? I had windows 7 home last time, wondering if 8 is worth a go.

From a technical standpoint, 8 is better, I think, but it does take some getting used to.

it's best suited to touchscreens. i have a tablet pc for a laptop and it's pretty great actually - takes a bit of getting used to the start screen and how to find things but once you get that down it's pretty much just like 7. now if i didn't have a touchscreen i'd probably hate it. so take that as you will.

I just switched to 8 and I do understand the aversion to it. When you first boot it up it's strange and confusing. If you set it to boot to desktop though it's pretty much the same without the start button, which is a big miss. However you don't really need it anymore when you get used to using the hotkeys (WIN+X and WIN+S are your friends), or you can mod it back in. I'd say it isn't worth it to upgrade, but if you're buying a new OS anyway, you might as well go with the newer one that'll be supported for longer.

In all honesty, I would not go for Windows 8. Windows 9 is slated for release in fall/winter this year. While it's a bit of a timestretch, buying Win 8 is stupid when Win 9 will feature a similar desktop experience as the standard Win 7. Also, with the speed people are changing hardware, long support isn't all that important anymore. XP was an oddball, but Win 7 is probably going to last for a while as corporate users are just now finishing upgrades. It is going to take a while before a new OS is going to be widely used in the commercial sector.