Gaming tower

[Yankee67]

If you had a $1,500 budget for a tower, what would you get?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

If you had a $1,500 budget for a tower, what would you get?

Beer.

[Bizman]

[JimmyD3]

Here's a good one.

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/jdearmore3/saved/#view=G2vCmG

Got mine up and running now, its awesome, everything on and still 60fps.

[Bizman]

Dang I'm SLOW! It wasn't until JimmyD3's reply that I understood what kind of "tower" the OP meant. I kept thinking about chess, Civilization, Warcraft, King.com and other game related things where a tower would be present.

[mikev]

My final tower  input welcome
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/MAVADAKIN/saved/#view=94rXsY

[MrRiplEy[H]]

My final tower  input welcome
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/MAVADAKIN/saved/#view=94rXsY

Looks really good if you plan to do video editing or other activities that require heavy computing. If it's a gaming box you can save 100-200 bucks by getting a cheaper CPU. That i7 is going to sit on idle most of your gaming time.

I would also pick an Asus motherboard personally but that's just my preference. I've had too many times trouble with Gigabyte. Also why get a micro ATX board if your box supports full size? All you get is less expansion slots. Be also prepared that the full tower case is HUGE. I have one sitting under my desk and you can hardly stick a credit card between the case and the bottom of the desk. Personally I would get the Fractal Design R5 for the money (well actually I did as seen in my build tutorial). It's super smooth install and whisper quiet.

[mikev]

lol thanks ripley just noticed i have only a 19 inch space for my case

[Bizman]

Ripley has a point in the motherboard size. Another thing apart from more slots is cooling: A full size board can afford more space between the built in components, each of which produces some heat. And it's also very true that a full size motherboard will fit nicely into a mid-size tower, still leaving plenty of room for airflow. The crucial thing to consider is the depth, not the height, because of the length of some video cards.

My experience with Gigabyte has been positive so far, as is the case with some of my computer savvy friends. I must admit, though, that the Gigabyte mobos in question are/were pretty old. My current one has served for seven years and the others were much older. Most of the salvaged lot found a new life with Linux, the builders being very happy to get exactly Gigabyte.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Ripley has a point in the motherboard size. Another thing apart from more slots is cooling: A full size board can afford more space between the built in components, each of which produces some heat. And it's also very true that a full size motherboard will fit nicely into a mid-size tower, still leaving plenty of room for airflow. The crucial thing to consider is the depth, not the height, because of the length of some video cards.

My experience with Gigabyte has been positive so far, as is the case with some of my computer savvy friends. I must admit, though, that the Gigabyte mobos in question are/were pretty old. My current one has served for seven years and the others were much older. Most of the salvaged lot found a new life with Linux, the builders being very happy to get exactly Gigabyte.

I've also heard and read good things about Gigabyte but the two boards I have owned were both troublesome. Maybe I just had bad luck.

[mikev]

well had to switch the case due to hight limits looked at a few videos on this case and it has a lot of pluses .changed boards to a Asus Z97 PRO GAMER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/MAVADAKIN/saved/#view=94rXsY

my next issue will be the lack of usb 2 connections with only 2 available glad i have a powered 10 port usb 2 but what do we need all the usb 3 connections for

[Bizman]

well had to switch the case due to hight limits looked at a few videos on this case and it has a lot of pluses .changed boards to a Asus Z97 PRO GAMER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/MAVADAKIN/saved/#view=94rXsY

my next issue will be the lack of usb 2 connections with only 2 available glad i have a powered 10 port usb 2 but what do we need all the usb 3 connections for

Mikev, I highly appreciate your attitude towards your next computer! You've come a long way from where you started and your suggestions about what to get have become a lot smarter. Except for the fact that the full size motherboard was mentioned right in the first answer to your first question. Nevertheless, I strongly believe that the final result will serve you long and well.

As for USB3 connectors, they are very nice with a USB3 external hard disk. They're also backwards compatible to an extent: Some older printers may not work properly. At least Win8 informs about that issue reasonably well during the installation.

[mikev]

Mikev, I highly appreciate your attitude towards your next computer! You've come a long way from where you started and your suggestions about what to get have become a lot smarter. Except for the fact that the full size motherboard was mentioned right in the first answer to your first question. Nevertheless, I strongly believe that the final result will serve you long and well.

As for USB3 connectors, they are very nice with a USB3 external hard disk. They're also backwards compatible to an extent: Some older printers may not work properly. At least Win8 informs about that issue reasonably well during the installation.

i have to listen to any advice when it comes to this . as this may be second nature to most of you  it is all new to me. its easy to upgrade a component but building a whole system  requires knowledge i dont posses yet. some parts work well with others where some do not. i have installed new parts but never have i built 1 from scratch . 
  if there is any advice on what would fit better in this build let me know .. i had to lower the case size down to fit inside the compartment which is why i went with the mid size. its still a tight squeeze but i need as much air flow as i can due to the extended use of my system.
  as for the motherboard im still up in the air as to  what is full size or small . they dont give you that aspect . i just need the 1150 cpu  and 32 gigs ram and hopefully at least 2 usb2 ports

[Bizman]

as for the motherboard im still up in the air as to  what is full size or small . they dont give you that aspect . i just need the 1150 cpu  and 32 gigs ram and hopefully at least 2 usb2 ports

In pcpartpicker "Choose A Motherboard" there's the "Filters" section on the left. Simply check ATX only under "Form Factor", that'll do the trick. There's other useful filters, too, like "Chipset" (Intel Z97 at least) and the "max RAM" slider (min. 32), maybe even opting out "Onboard Video" since you're going to use a more powerful video card anyway, and the same for onboard wireless networking if you only are going to use a wire. - Oh, doing all that left only one single option, a Gigabyte! With the onboard video the variety got much larger. Funny!

As for USB2 ports, USB3 still being new a full size motherboard should have enough of the older ones and only a couple of the new. The case determines whether you'd have both variations on the front panel, you might like to recheck your choice using that filter.

[alskahawk]

 $1500 builds a pretty good gaming system. If your only building for AH you can go a lot cheaper and get more beer. Micro boards make sense if your space limited. Intel makes the top chip but in most games the difference between a AMD and an Intel chip is negligible. A AMD chip with a top motherboard could be a plus for later upgrades. And saving money on the MB chip combo leaves more room for a better case and other parts.

 I would suggest a mid tower unless you have a lot of room for a full tower. For most applications a mid tower has plenty of room for dual video cards and still plenty of cooling. For ram 16gig or more. 
Video go with the best you can get right off. One thing to remember is that the this years top card is next years bargain card.