Why would you spend almost $200 on a case ?! Jesus H, you could buy a second video card for that.

A good case is worth it's weight in gold and will see service for many builds to come. A good video card's value depreciates so fast that in a year you'll be able to buy the exact same thing for six wooden nickels.

Besides, I spent $1600 on the build. It's not like the extra $$ on the case broke my budget or anything.

Meh, I see your point.

I built my case:

(Kinda bad pictures, but what can you expect from a cellphone)

Nice. Is that all acrylic? I know the couple I've seen had huge issues with static because nothing grounded through the case.

I haven't had any issues with static, but then I don't do a whole lot to it. I figure it's grounded through the psupply pretty well, but I can definitely see where someone might be concerned.

I built it out of some home depot acryllic and some aluminum channel stuff. It's a lot rougher than what I had envisioned but it took me so long to build it that I figured I'd just fucking finish it so I could play NS again, heh.

is that a fucking nuclear reactor i see in there?

No, that's just my heatsink.

Seriously, I was bargain basement shopping because the socket am2 I bought didn't come with a heat sink. I went to fry's to buy one, and that was the lowest thing they had that wasn't a cheesy $5 aluminum one. It was $70.

lol you spent 70$ on a heatsink yet you rag on someone for buying an expensive case?

Heatsink = Functional, and given that the Crosshair was designed to be overclocked with an aftermarket cooler, it's fair to say that it's encouraged.

$200 for a case is just *wow* money on something that's just going to look pretty. Spyder has money to burn though, so I could see buying a nice case if it offered some kind of benefit and I already had a second video card.

Case design can often affect system heat more than the heatsinks.

Plus, I'd have to say, in regards to "money on something that's just going to look pretty" your see-through acrylic case is certainly made more with form than function in mind, compared to either Spyder's or mine.
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"Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all." - from Boswell's Life of Johnson
Thothie

Indeed, heatsinks are only half of the whole "air-cooled system" You still have to get that hot air out of the case and replace it with cooler air, and the case design goes a very, very long way in determining that. It's not just a matter of air comes in through the front and goes out through the back, especially as you get more and more high wattage items inside the case.