MrStingerr writes:
> ... How can to tell how much fans your case can handle for cooling. ...
Read site reviews of the case in question and of course check the manufacturer specs. Also worth
seeing if there are dedicated forums threads for the case, eg. I think overclock.net has a thread about
the HAF 932 which I found very useful.
When you look at pictures of a case, check the rear view images, see how high up the mbd backplate
hole is compared to the top of the case. If it's too high up, a water cooler might not fit. The HAF 932
is one model which does have plenty of room for a 240mm water kit with four fans, but alas it doesn't
have enough rear expansion slots to support 4-way CF/SLI. I moved my own 3930K setup into an
Aerocool XPredator case to have 4-way GPU support, but alas the I/O shield hole is too high up to
allow for an internally positioned water cooler. Thus, I set up the H110 so that two of the Nanoxia 140mm
fans were inside the case, while the radiator unit and two upper fans were outside the case. Looks a
bit weird, but it works ok.
I'm still trying to find a case that has at least 8 rear slots but also could hold an internal water
cooler with 4 fans.
> ... And what would be the best fans to keep your case cool with good air flow? ...
People will argue back & forth about this. Many will mention Noctua fans, but please note:
although they do work well, they're expensive and (IMO) look horrible (brown & biege? Really??).
> Any recommendations on cases themselves( Full Size ). Also, I would prefer good cable management
> for the case, If possible. ...
It'll vary depending on the case of course, but here's an example of what I did (you can extrapolate
to other cases).
I used a Cooler Master HAF 932 for a 3930K setup as follows:
- Replaced the built-in top 23cm fan with a Corsair H100i for the CPU, configured as an intake.
This is because, with 3 internal GPUs, I didn't think using internal air for cooling the H100i
would work so well.
- Replaced the 2 fans that come with the H100i with four Nanoxia Deep Silence 120mm PWM.
Note that the two connections to the pump are grouped vertically, ie. each PWM pair is one fan
above, the other below (one should avoid two fans next to each other running at different speeds).
- Replaced the front intake Cooler Master 23cm fan with a Bitfenix Spectre Pro 23cm for 3X
better airflow but still very little noise. Direction reversed so it acts as an exhaust (this is
because the case was to include two GTX 580s inside, which vent heat backwards; the primary
GPU was a Quadro K5000, the two 580s were for CUDA).
- Replaced the built-in side panel 23cm fan with four Nanoxia Deep Silence 120mm PWM.
Note though that if you're only going to have one or two GPUs, then a single Bitfenix 23cm
as above would probably be ok.
- Replaced the rear Cooler Master 14cm exhaust fan with a Nanoxia Deep Silence 140mm PWM.
Note that I've done a build like this before using a Noctua fan for the rear exhaust and Gelid Wing
Blue for everything else; this Nanoxia-based setup was worked out much better. The end user was
amazed how quiet it was (and quite frankly, so was I).
> Do you have any recommended screens for gaming and another for multitasking. ...
Alas I'm not that knowledgeable about gaming screens, plus I'm terribly biased towards
IPS models because most of my time is spent doing work stuff, not gaming. Many gamers
will recommend TN panels because they have a faster refresh, or support very high frequencies
for smoother screen updates (assuming one has the GPU power to drive such speeds). I was
happy with a 1920x1200 IPS, though I did buy a 2560x1440 IPS so I can well understand why
someone might wish for something better than 1080p.
Cheers!
Ian.