I've tried to go the Phenom route but unfortunately, the shop where my friend works at (can get a small discount there) does not have the mobo I need in stock. Also, it looked like most of the 790X/790GX mobos I have seen have the CPU socket positioned dangerously close to the side opposite from the back I/O panel. I was worried that the CPU heatsink would block the optical drive so I ended up getting a E8400, Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R and 4GB of OCZ DDR2 800.
As you can see, it is really cramped inside the case and I have just enough space for the PSU and the optical disc drive. Also, I'm glad that I choose a mobo with the CPU socket placed closer to the back I/O panel like this Gigabyte board.
I haven't worked with a case as cramped as this one in a long time and installation was more difficult than I've expected. The difficulties were made worse by the F5 mobo BIOS loaded by the factory. I've used no less than 7 attempts at installing Vista. Installing Catalyst would FUBAR the Vista install everytime. After trying various Catalyst drivers and installing SP1 before Catalyst, I've finally found out many
Newegg customers reported that the factory BIOS is unstable and requires immediate flashing. Luckily, things seem to be working after I've flashed to F9 and I was finally able to get it up and running in the end.