Help on Case with good airflow.

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
T

TheAnonymousGamer

Honorable
Nov 12, 2013
177
0
10,690
Hey there! I am making a gaming pc. And have decided on the zalman z11 plus case. I am not sure which case is the best. as i am a first timer. I am looking for airflow here, and do not care for looks. my maximum price is going to be £70 on the case. I will order the case form PcPartpicker/uk/ only. thanks!
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
RedJaron

RedJaron

Splendid
Sep 20, 2011
4,225
0
23,160
I think a Cooler Master might have slightly better airflow. Looks like most of the HAFs are out of your price range, except the XAF XB and 690. The Antec Three hundred Two also deserves mention.

If you can up your budget a bit, the Silverstone Raven 3 ( RV03 ) at £88 is unsurpassed in cooling and airflow, IMNSHO.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RedJaron

RedJaron

Splendid
Sep 20, 2011
4,225
0
23,160

Ahh, yes, the extra cores could come in handy there. May I suggest these alterations?

PCPartPicker part list

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£172.44 @ Scan.co.uk)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS5X Performa CPU Cooler (£13.06 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4-M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£59.60 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£60.25 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£63.00 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£77.70 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card (£104.99 @ Aria PC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N15 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£15.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Two ATX Mid Tower Case (£54.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£48.99 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£13.18 @ Scan.co.uk)
Monitor: ViewSonic VX2370Smh-LED 23.0" Monitor (£129.89 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £814.08

Swapped your RAM for some slightly sheaper Kingston ( but still great stuff, ) the SSD for a slightly cheaper but more reliable Crucial model, lost the case fan, upped your GPU to a 7850, and picked a much more solid, yet cheaper PSU. A few notes on this:

  • ■ I don't think you need as much airflow as you think. The Xeon can't overclock and doesn't put out a lot of heat as it is. However, I think the Antec case here is a little better than the Zalman.
    ■ You may want to rethink the CPU cooler. That one uses a 92mm fan, which tend to get noisy. A cheap 120mm cooler might be a better way to go for a few more pounds.
    ■ If you're ok dropping to a 2TG HDD, you can fit in the Raven 3 case for a lot of great cooling ( and a very quiet case. )
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RedJaron

RedJaron

Splendid
Sep 20, 2011
4,225
0
23,160
Because XFX makes a much better PSU than OCZ does. And again, you're getting unecessarily caught up in airflow. The letover cables from a non-modular PSU can be tucked in a drive ba or many other paces in the case that won't hamper airflow at all.

You might also lok at semi-modular PSUs. The main power cables that every build uses are hard-wired in and the auxilliaries are modular so you can pick what cables you need. They're typically cheaper than fully modular ones.

And I just looked at your change from the Xeon to the i7. I'd recommend you go with the Xeon. You don't have the necessary coling to OC the i7 right now. And OCing it won't get you much better gaming performance anyway, so I say you may as well save some money.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom