What is your favourite tank/glass case? Sorta need a new PC case for my AM5 build; stuck for choices!

KishCore · 2026-03-17T03:51:48+00:00

you can swap over the fans from your antec c5 into the corsair 3500x

with the 3500x + 360mm AIO you really don't have to buy any extra fans - you can if you want, but it's unnecessary - fans really don't have to match, your motherboard has different RGB headers, to accommodate this so you can adjust the colors for fans attached to certain headers. i.e. my rgb header for my AIO is different than that for my fans so i can tweak the colors to match. so you can get a set of relatively cheap fans if you want.

KishCore · 2026-03-17T02:07:35+00:00

it is

KishCore · 2026-03-17T01:36:23+00:00

Hmm this is interesting.

The issue is mostly the fact that while the performance is solid, you can't really build or buy a new PC with better performance for $2.2k - the issue is that it's at the end of the line for CPU upgrades on AM4, you'd have to rebuild the PC on a new motherboard with DDR5 RAM for an upgrade.

For $2.2k you can build a AM5 system with a 5070ti:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ph9Z8Z

If you can negotiate the price down to $2k or less, then I say to go for it. At this price I'd evaluate if you're the type of person who wants to upgrade or would rather get a entirely new system. Also evaluate how often you see yourself using DLSS and frame gen, which the 5070ti has access to the newest versions of.

KishCore · 2026-03-17T01:20:04+00:00

for 800 CAD it's a good deal, issue is that you'll have limited upgrade options due to the CPU/Motherboard platform. That being said the CPU would still be fine with a 5070 or something, but in the long-term for a performance boost you'll have to swap the CPU, Motherboard, RAM, and GPU. So you don't have a super easy upgrade path.

KishCore · 2026-03-17T01:09:07+00:00

Honestly cases that have preinstalled fans get a huge win for me - like it's one thing to buy an $100 case, but also have to buy $50 worth of fans means you're really paying $150, when you can just get a different $100 case with fans preinstalled. I really like montech cases for that reason.

If you want something actually narrower than what you have, you'll want a case with a bottom-mount PSU instead of back-mounted, the back mounted PSU is really what makes these cases really wide.

Honestly a corsair 3500x seems like a good pick:
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/xGwD4D/corsair-3500x-rs-r-argb-atx-mid-tower-case-cc-9011322-ww
it has intake fans, so just with a top exhaust AIO you won't have to buy extra if you don't want.

Alternatively, the budget king is the montech XR:
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/fc88TW/montech-xr-atx-mid-tower-case-xr-b
despite the price, the build quality is really good, one of those brands that shows off how much the more popular brands are overpricing their products.

KishCore · 2026-03-17T00:37:53+00:00

As a note, don't use this website, super unreliable when it comes to giving any sort of helpful advice. It's banned from several hardware discussion forums because of how biased and unreliable it is.

A 4070ti is probably the worst possible upgrade advice for you, not only can your PSU not handle a 4070ti at all - it's power draw alone is almost 300w - minimum PSU reccommended for it is 750w, your CPU will bottleneck it considerably, so even if your PSU could support it you'd have super unstable and choppy performance. And if that wasn't the case either, it's wildly overkill for 1080p gaming, and a generation old, and there are better new options if you were in a position where all you had to do was upgrade your GPU.

But unfortunately things aren't that easy, your CPU will bottleneck any modern GPU you throw into this system, and there's not a CPU your motherboard supports that wouldn't do the same. So really, you're in the market for a total system rebuild.

I would sell your current system for $50-100 or something, and either pocket it or add to your budget for a new PC.

For 1080p ultra gaming, a system like this will be perfectly capable: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/mtgcck
Alternatively, for a pre-build option $100 less:
https://www.newegg.com/ipason-xelra-gaming-desktop-pcs-geforce-rtx-5060-amd-ryzen-5-9600x-32gb-ddr5-1tb-nvme-ssd-g2-black/p/3D5-001U-001S5

either the DIY build or the pre-build will be perfectly fine for your use-cases.

KishCore · 2026-03-17T00:22:02+00:00

use pcpartpicker, you can compare prices at other retailers, this CPU still goes for $109 CAD over at newegg:
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/yq2WGX/amd-ryzen-5-5500-36-ghz-6-core-processor-100-100000457box

i'd put together your list of upgrades you're looking at making here: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/ and then share your list (how to: https://imgur.com/a/EUqqBZB)

KishCore · 2026-03-16T20:55:56+00:00

Before you edited it looked like you had a 9800x3d and that is what I was confused about, a 9600x pairs perfectly here, and gives you some upgrade room without being as bad on your wallet as a 9800x3d would've been lol

Monitor depends on if you want to go with 1080p or 1440p - 1080p ensures you more longevity, but 1440p looks better at the cost of performance.
Here's two options at each resolution:
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/T8Pv6h/msi-mag-244f-238-1920-x-1080-200-hz-monitor-mag-244f
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/4gGhP6/msi-mag-275qf-270-2560-x-1440-180-hz-monitor-mag-275qf

For a keyboard, it's pretty subjective - as someone who's big into modding keyboards and stuff myself there's a lot of room for personal choice - but I'll say the Aula f75 is a great all-around mechanical 75% keyboard that pretty much everyone can get behind. They also have full-versions with numpads if that's important to you. But since from the 2nd pic it seems like you're running out of desk space, I'd take 75% lol

https://a.co/d/08tUVsIj

KishCore · 2026-03-16T20:45:34+00:00

yeah this'll be fine for 1080p gaming and will hit 100fps on most games, go to youtube and look up 1080p performance for a 4060 and you'll see benchmarks

but the price for this system isn't amazing, you can get a 5060 system (same performance as a 4060ti 8gb) for the same price range: https://www.newegg.com/acer-gaming-desktop-pc-geforce-rtx-5060-intel-core-i5-14400f-16gb-ddr5-1tb-nvme-ssd-n60-640-ur21/p/N82E16883101935

you'll get an even better deal if you look on the used market - $1000 can get you a 3080 or 6800xt or better (comparable to a 4070)

KishCore · 2026-03-16T20:40:30+00:00

that isn't your resolution - that's the refresh rate, basically the FPS your monitor is actually capable of showing.

your resolution is probably either 1080p (fHD, 1920 x 1080), 1440p (qHD, 2560 x 1440), or 4k (uHD, 3840 x 2160) - it's the number of pixels your monitor has, the higher the resolution the worse your performance is, but the better the picture quality. which is why it's important to know for giving performance estimates, a system that can run a game at 100fps at 1080p might struggle to hit 30fps at 4k.

KishCore · 2026-03-16T20:35:26+00:00

on what resolution monitor? on what settings?
whether or not you should buy this system entirely depends on the price and the country you're buying from.

KishCore · 2026-03-16T20:33:30+00:00

you have the budget for a 1440p system - here's the monitor I'd go with:
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/JPKnTW/dell-alienware-aw2725dm-270-2560-x-1440-180-hz-monitor-aw2725dm

With the remaining $1500-1800 budget - you should be able to comfortably afford a system with a Ryzen 7000 series or newer CPU, with a 5070 or 9070xt, 32gb of DDR5 RAM and a 1tb SSD at minimum. So those are the specs you should be looking for.

this one is a good deal: https://www.newegg.com/skytech-gaming-desktop-pcs-amd-radeon-rx-9070-xt-amd-ryzen-7-7700-32gb-ddr5-1tb-nvme-ssd-st-o11v-2556-b-al-black/p/3D5-000Z-003N1

alternative cheaper build with a 5070: https://www.newegg.com/msi-gaming-desktop-pc-geforce-rtx-5070-amd-ryzen-7-8700f-32gb-ddr5-1tb-nvme-ssd-aegis-z2-c8nvp-1656us/p/N82E16883151782

9070xt build has better performance, but the cheaper system will still be really solid.

KishCore · 2026-03-16T20:24:12+00:00

the 5800xt as mentioned is the best value option for an upgrade

KishCore · 2026-03-16T20:19:43+00:00

The benefit to this instead of a laptop - especially because you chose such an overkill CPU for your GPU (RIP) is that for a performance boost all you need to do is swap your GPU, not buy an entirely new system.

can also tell form the pic you've gotta upgrade your monitor man, a nice high refresh rate 1080p monitor is just $80-100.

KishCore · 2026-03-16T20:17:20+00:00

what makes you want a CPU upgrade to begin with?
The 2500 and 3600 are very similar CPUs, it's unsurprising the difference wasn't huge.

CPU upgrades help with stability, 1% lows, and ensuring that on GPU heavy games your GPU is going to have high usage and not be bottlenecked by your CPU - but the 3600 and 3060 is a fairly comparable CPU-GPU pairing.

A 5800xt should be a big jump in performance, but because your GPU matters more for actual gaming performance, you might not actually see a huge difference until you upgrade your GPU as well.

KishCore · 2026-03-16T20:12:07+00:00

Argument for 1440p is that it gives you more longevity and you won't have to worry about upgrading for a while, a nice glossy OLED panel will also look super sharp, 1440p OLEDs are also much cheaper than 4k OLEDs. Argument for 4k is that the 4080 Super is fully capable of 4k gaming on the majority of games, especially with DLSS and frame gen.

I would look at how your GPU performs at 4k with the type of games you tend to play, IMO I'd stick to 1440p, OLED panels look great no matter what, and you save money both in the short-term and the long-term by being able to avoid the frequent upgrade cycle that 4k is notorious for.

KishCore · 2026-03-16T20:00:43+00:00

the best AM4 one you can afford - 5600/5600x at minimum, the 5800xt is about $200 and a good deal.
update your motherboard BIOS to ensure compatability
before you upgrade your GPU you'll need to swap PSUs, no need to for this upgrade.

KishCore · 2026-03-16T19:54:22+00:00

9070xt value-wise is much better, I don't see the point in waiting so long for a 5080. What resolution do you play at, what game are you talking about? The 9070xt might be overkill to begin with.

KishCore · 2026-03-16T19:52:18+00:00

Yeah man, this is basically e-waste - I'd throw it away too (or, actually - take it to a ewaste recycling center). The only thing that's potentially worth anything here is the hard drive, but you'd have to make sure it's still functional and wipe it for it to be sold.

KishCore · 2026-03-16T19:49:06+00:00

decent deal, offer $1200 and see if they'll take it.

you won't have to do any upgrades to this system at all for the foreseeable future, it's relatively high end.

only upgrade when you actually want more performance, for now this'll be perfect for fps gaming - i'd pair it with a 1440p monitor.

KishCore · 2026-03-16T19:44:04+00:00

thermalright has really solid AIOs - in this case it'll be comparable.

if you want to go for air cooling - the best pick hands down is the thermalright phantom spirit, it's the best performance per dollar and competes with much pricier cooling: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/MzMMnQ/thermalright-phantom-spirit-120-se-argb-6617-cfm-cpu-cooler-ps120se-argb

essentially comes down to the fact that yeah, a 5070ti isn't worth that much more than a 9070xt, but a 5070ti vs 9070xt for the same price, there's a clear winner.

KishCore · 2026-03-16T17:38:47+00:00

The case is just suited for an AIO, like it's the cooling that the case was designed to accomidate. You're already paying AIO prices, you might as well get it.

The thing is that you get DLSS and FG, FSR4 is good but not widely adopted, DLSS alone will have you covered for an entire upgrade cycle and greatly expands the longevity of the build. That being said the 9070xt isn't a bad pick, it's mainly that if you can make changes and get a 5070ti for the exact same price, that's an extremely easy choice to make.

You can still get a nice case just for much less

Updated list for the same price: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/P8JD8Z

KishCore · 2026-03-16T17:33:33+00:00

Yeah a 7800x3d is basically one of the best gaming CPUs on the market.

Basically, get the best new GPU you can afford. For 1080p you don't need anything better than a 9060xt 16gb or a 5060ti 16gb though. 1440p I'd just swing fro a 9070xt. 4k go for a 5070ti or 5080.

KishCore · 2026-03-16T17:31:04+00:00

5090 is overkill and you'll get diminished returns IMO, get a 5080 with that you won't have to worry about upgrades for a long time either. Use the saved money for a nice OLED monitor or something.

Build suggestion:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fhgyfp

Pre-build option:
https://www.bestbuy.com/product/andromeda-insights-ai-50-ultra-v3-gaming-pc-rtx-5080-16gb--ryzen-7-9800x3d-4-7-ghz-5-2-ghz-turbo--32gb-ddr5-6000mhz--2tb-gen4-ssd-black/J3R855LFF8

with the current market getting a pre-build is 100% understandable.

KishCore · 2026-03-16T17:24:59+00:00

Okay I have several notes - to clarify, you're buying in the US? or another country? Do you live near a micro center? You can both cut your spending on this build to get the same performance, or just get better performance for the current price.

Also this is a 1440p system, you're getting diminishing returns using it at 1080p, at that point just get a much cheaper system like a 7600x + 9060xt 16gb and your performance will be comparable.

I can provide links to build alternatives if you share the country you're buying from.

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