I am about to build a budget gaming PC for a friend. I normally build on a ATX size MB. This friend of mine has several old PCs with mini towers. Should I try to re-use the mini tower and go with a Micro ATX MB or just have him buy a new Mid tower? He is on a budget so I have to save money where I can. I figure the mini tower, cd-rom, and hard drive could be used in the new PC. This combo looked like a pretty good start : Suggestions? I just built a PC for myself and I did not have quite this budget so it is hard for me to think cheap...
First of all, no motherboard/CPU combinations, they're rarely good quality motherboards. Get the two separately, contrary to what some people believe, the CPU does NOT come preinstalled. if you're using any high end stuff such as a gaming grade graphics card you should get a new case for cooling reasons. While MicroATX boards will suffice, since you'll have the room, you may as well get a proper size one to support more memory and PCI slots, as well as have better overclocking features / any at all!