I purchased my PC in December of last year with the help of someone here on Tomshardware. Needless to say I was happy with the price/performance (still am), but the one thing that I haven't listened to in regards to advice was the case.
As a new (first time) PC builder I wanted something more flashy with lots of lights on it. What I didn't really take into consideration were more important things such as cable management, airflow and future upgrades.
That's why I purchased the NZXT Apollo.
Fast forward a few months and I bought myself an HD Radeon 7870 XT. The card barely fit in the case as the drive bay is not removable. Furthermore, airflow was another problem. The NZXT Apollo might not look bad, but it only has two fans. One of them for intake on the left side and the other for air output in the back.
On a good day with my ambient room temperature of 22 degrees Celsius it will hit up 60 degrees, but in the summer when the temps in my room are close to 30 degrees it might possibly hit 70 or more.
I did install MSI Afterburner to help out the temps, but now it will run loudly at 2300 rpm just to top out at 60 degrees and that's on a good day.
The same has been happening with my CPU fan. I replaced it when an aftermarket cooler and it will run quietly, but on a hot day it seems like the case can't get the heat out fast enough. Therefore it will go up to 1700 rpm or more, even though I have it set up to run quietly.
So, at this point I kind of wonder whether or not I should upgrade the case. I had the HAF 912 in mind, but I'm open to suggestions.
Here is what I'm looking for:
Good cooling
Good temperatures if I decide to go crossfire in the future
Good cable management
Future proof* as in if I ever want to upgrade most of my parts I can reuse this case and not have to worry about cooling, space, etc.
That last thing made me wonder whether I should just wait a little longer and buy a full tower case, but if there is little difference other than size between the two then I'll just go with the mid-tower built.
Thanks for reading guys and please let me know how much of a difference do you think a case with better cooling would make for me, or do you think it's worth purchasing?
Here are the current specs BTW:
CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory
Storage: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 XT
Case: NZXT Apollo Black SECC Steel Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply
As a new (first time) PC builder I wanted something more flashy with lots of lights on it. What I didn't really take into consideration were more important things such as cable management, airflow and future upgrades.
That's why I purchased the NZXT Apollo.
Fast forward a few months and I bought myself an HD Radeon 7870 XT. The card barely fit in the case as the drive bay is not removable. Furthermore, airflow was another problem. The NZXT Apollo might not look bad, but it only has two fans. One of them for intake on the left side and the other for air output in the back.
On a good day with my ambient room temperature of 22 degrees Celsius it will hit up 60 degrees, but in the summer when the temps in my room are close to 30 degrees it might possibly hit 70 or more.
I did install MSI Afterburner to help out the temps, but now it will run loudly at 2300 rpm just to top out at 60 degrees and that's on a good day.
The same has been happening with my CPU fan. I replaced it when an aftermarket cooler and it will run quietly, but on a hot day it seems like the case can't get the heat out fast enough. Therefore it will go up to 1700 rpm or more, even though I have it set up to run quietly.
So, at this point I kind of wonder whether or not I should upgrade the case. I had the HAF 912 in mind, but I'm open to suggestions.
Here is what I'm looking for:
Good cooling
Good temperatures if I decide to go crossfire in the future
Good cable management
Future proof* as in if I ever want to upgrade most of my parts I can reuse this case and not have to worry about cooling, space, etc.
That last thing made me wonder whether I should just wait a little longer and buy a full tower case, but if there is little difference other than size between the two then I'll just go with the mid-tower built.
Thanks for reading guys and please let me know how much of a difference do you think a case with better cooling would make for me, or do you think it's worth purchasing?
Here are the current specs BTW:
CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory
Storage: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 XT
Case: NZXT Apollo Black SECC Steel Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply
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