For TT Armor users, a question about filtration

[raknarius]

Hi all, im looking for a case that is very well filtered, from the pictures it seems these cases have a million holes in the front, are those all filtered, easy to change, does your case stay pretty much dust free?

 

[raknarius]

bump

 

[pengwin]

the foles have dust filters behind them i believe, i dont own an armor but thats what i've heard

 

[illinikevin]

Yea there filtered but probably not easy to clean as you would have to remove each individual cover. I have 2 130mm fans drawing air in through the front and about once a week I just brush the dust off the front of the case that builds up there. It's not much but it can be seen. As far as dust build up inside, I've had it running 24/7 for two months now and don't have any yet but my house is always air conditioned so it is pretty dust free.

 

[clue69less]

Yea there filtered but probably not easy to clean as you would have to remove each individual cover. I have 2 130mm fans drawing air in through the front and about once a week I just brush the dust off the front of the case that builds up there. It's not much but it can be seen. As far as dust build up inside, I've had it running 24/7 for two months now and don't have any yet but my house is always air conditioned so it is pretty dust free.

I am also set up with 2 fans in front (12cm) of my Armor and I have seen the same kind of trend. Mine is 8 months old and I have pulled the foam and hand washed it once. It's a bit of a pain so when I put together an Armor Jr. (different than the full size Armor above) I picked up one of the Scythe Kama Bays. Pengwin recommended it! I had to mod a bit to make it work and it's still not trivial to clean but since it's over triple the size of the Armor filters, it's faster and offers better flow per total frontal surface area.

 

[pengwin]

Yea there filtered but probably not easy to clean as you would have to remove each individual cover. I have 2 130mm fans drawing air in through the front and about once a week I just brush the dust off the front of the case that builds up there. It's not much but it can be seen. As far as dust build up inside, I've had it running 24/7 for two months now and don't have any yet but my house is always air conditioned so it is pretty dust free.

I am also set up with 2 fans in front (12cm) of my Armor and I have seen the same kind of trend. Mine is 8 months old and I have pulled the foam and hand washed it once. It's a bit of a pain so when I put together an Armor Jr. (different than the full size Armor above) I picked up one of the Scythe Kama Bays. Pengwin recommended it! I had to mod a bit to make it work and it's still not trivial to clean but since it's over triple the size of the Armor filters, it's faster and offers better flow per total frontal surface area.

hehe, ty ^_^

 

[JollyTime]

A bit of topic, but you who've used the TT Armor for a while: how much noise does the case let out at the front?

I'm really mixed up about my feelings for the Armor, cuz I'm semi-neurotic when it comes to noise levels from my systems. I was gonna go for the Armor, but I changed because of the open front on it. In stad I went for the Antec P180 because of its reputation for being silent.

However, I still have time to change my decision. So what's the verdict on the sound coming out from the front?

 

[clue69less]

A bit of topic, but you who've used the TT Armor for a while: how much noise does the case let out at the front?

I'm really mixed up about my feelings for the Armor, cuz I'm semi-neurotic when it comes to noise levels from my systems. I was gonna go for the Armor, but I changed because of the open front on it. In stad I went for the Antec P180 because of its reputation for being silent.

However, I still have time to change my decision. So what's the verdict on the sound coming out from the front?

I don't think it's bad. I posted some numbers here back when I swapped out the TT fans and put in 14dB SilenX fans. In effect, putting in ~100 bucks worth of case fans dropped about 5dB and made the CPU HSF the loudest source when under load. I use a Zalman 9500 so it's not like that's an obnoxious fan by any means. If quiet is a big priority and you want to air cool, then you could do fine with an Armor. There are other quiet fans available that cost about half the price of the SilenX. You can also go with a quieter CPU HSF like the Scythe Ninja or depending on if you OC and what CPU you have, you could use a passive CPU HS.

With stock fans, I'd guess that the P180 is quieter than the Armor - in part due to the front door of the P180. They both cool well but I'm guessing that a PC loaded up a bunch of HDs, a hot GPU, etc., could be made to run cooler in an Armor because it has so much vent space. My Armor is the steel model and the sound coming from it is very polite - not loud and not made up of the kind of annoying frequencies I associate with some NB and CPU fans. As usual, you set your priorities and use them to make choices. If you really want quiet, go for the Zalman silent case...

 

[pengwin]

as far as sound. Nothing beats a P180. In addition the P180 has very good cooling for a midtower.

But comparing a P180 to an Armor is like Apples to oranges. While they are both PC cases the armor is huge cimpared to the P180, there is more room, but then the P180 is very quiet.

Either case you pick will be good. P180 although would be quieter if you used the same internals for both cases

 

[JollyTime]

as far as sound. Nothing beats a P180. In addition the P180 has very good cooling for a midtower.

But comparing a P180 to an Armor is like Apples to oranges. While they are both PC cases the armor is huge cimpared to the P180, there is more room, but then the P180 is very quiet.

Either case you pick will be good. P180 although would be quieter if you used the same internals for both cases

Is there such a difference in size? I thought the height was almost the same (haven't bothered to check out W and D though).

I'm going for a Scythe Ninja w. Papst , Nexus Real Silent 120 mm and Zalman VF900-Cu...so I'm aiming at a really silent system this time.

My biggest beef with the Armor is the open front, apart from that I love the big beast :lol:

My current rig is going to be based on an E6600, Asus P5W DH, x1900xtx, 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320 Gb.

Further down the road I can see myself buying another graphics card for xFire and 2 more hard drives. This is where I'm suspecting the P180 might start to get "cramped". Or am I being a neurotic worrier here?

 

[clue69less]

Further down the road I can see myself buying another graphics card for xFire and 2 more hard drives. This is where I'm suspecting the P180 might start to get "cramped". Or am I being a neurotic worrier here?

Not cramped. Check out the photos and specs. With 6 HDs and 2 opticals, you'd still have room for some extras.

 

[DaveUK]

P180 FTW, or P150 if your budget doesn't quite stretch

 

[frost_fenix]

careful about mid towers and X-fire. i have a A8R32 MVP and 4 hdds with a x1900xt. problem is the fatass XT is so long i dont have room to put another one in with all my current hdds. i was looking at the armor as a solution to my lack of space. forgot to mention, currently have a TT tsunami dream (and i still love it!)

i dont know of an easy way to check that out without physically seeing the case with your card and Hdds.

just a word of warning...

 

[pengwin]

as far as sound. Nothing beats a P180. In addition the P180 has very good cooling for a midtower.

But comparing a P180 to an Armor is like Apples to oranges. While they are both PC cases the armor is huge cimpared to the P180, there is more room, but then the P180 is very quiet.

Either case you pick will be good. P180 although would be quieter if you used the same internals for both cases

Is there such a difference in size? I thought the height was almost the same (haven't bothered to check out W and D though).

I'm going for a Scythe Ninja w. Papst , Nexus Real Silent 120 mm and Zalman VF900-Cu...so I'm aiming at a really silent system this time.

My biggest beef with the Armor is the open front, apart from that I love the big beast :lol:

My current rig is going to be based on an E6600, Asus P5W DH, x1900xtx, 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320 Gb.

Further down the road I can see myself buying another graphics card for xFire and 2 more hard drives. This is where I'm suspecting the P180 might start to get "cramped". Or am I being a neurotic worrier here?

if u have quiet internals then it'll be fine.

 

[clue69less]

careful about mid towers and X-fire. i have a A8R32 MVP and 4 hdds with a x1900xt.

I'm running XFire in an Armor Jr, which is certainly tighter than the Armor. But the HD in the Jr is in the vertical slot and thus out of the way. I also pulled the 3-drive HD bay out of the way to improve airflow and in the process got some cable-routing space. Too bad TT didn't put a removable mobo tray in the Jr - it would have made things less clumsy for my uncoordinated fingers.