I need help on choosing a gaming case....

[simmsa]

I'm looking for a case with the best looks as well as how quiet and how cool it runs.

I have to chose one of theses cases for my new gaming rig, any suggestions??

Thermaltake Armor Gaming Case w/25cm Fan Side Panel Windows, 420W Power Supply Black [+ $118]
Thermaltake Armor Jr. Gaming Case w/420W Power Supply Black [+ $72]
[$20 OFF Mail-In Rebate] NZXT TANK Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Black [+ $112]
Standard ATX Mid-Tower Case w/350W Power Supply [no side window] Black/Silver 2-Tone
[$15 OFF Mail-In Rebate] NZXT Trinity ATX Mid-Tower Case w/400W Power Supply Black More Options [+ $22]
Coolermaster Ammo-533 Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply [+ $31]
[New !!!] Nzxt Lexa Blackline Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Black [+ $48]
[$25 OFF Mail-In Rebate] Nzxt Lexa Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply
[$50 OFF Mail-In Rebate] Camouflage Color Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply [+ $230]
[$15 OFF Mail-In Rebate] Nzxt Apollo Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Black More Options [+ $23]
Tuniq Symmetry Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Black More Options [+ $38]
[$15 OFF Mail-In Rebate] NZXT DUET ATX Mid-Tower Case w/400W Power Supply Black More Options [+ $33]
Eagletech Sidewinder Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Silver/Black 2-Tone [+ $18]
Eagletech Dragon Aluminium Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Black More Options [+ $72]
Eagletech Viper II Aluminium Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Red/Black 2-Tone [+ $63]
[New !!!] Nzxt Hush Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Black More Options [+ $21]
[New !!!] Xion Dazl Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply [+ $22]
[New !!!] Tuniq 3 Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply [+ $52]

 

[maverick7]

you could always wait for the thermaltake armor plus (+) (if you do go with a thermaltake armor i highly suggest you go with the one that has the huge fan on the side, because for whatever reason those cases have a problem with airflow without it because its so damn large)

or you could go for the coolermaster CM Stacker 832 which has very good cooling because of the 4 fans on the side.

i wouldnt bother with any other cases to be quite honest, maybe the antec 900

 

[simmsa]

How do you know if the thermaltake armour has the huge fan on the side before you buy it, and is the armour a really good case, Do other have it and like it??????

 

[Annisman]

Get the XCLIO A380 srsly. I have one, very nice.

 

[Guest]

I love my Antec Nine Hundred case. Great airflow, plenty of room.

 

[fatcat]

I own both the Antec 900 and the Armor (the one with no huge side fan) and both are top notch. The armor is more spacious and the Antec has more airflow which makes it a good candidate for Over clocking. The Armor, as a decent airflow as well. If you go with the Armor make sure you got plenty of space because it's a huge case.

 

[aevm]

All the cases listed there come with 420W PSUs or worse. They won't be any good for a serious gaming rig these days. You'd have to use video cards like 7900GS or something like that. Tell us a budget for the entire PC and the resolution of your monitor and your favourite games.

 

[simmsa]

Aevm, I am not planning on using the 420w PSU instead I will substitue in a Thermaltake Toughpower W0117RU Power Supply Quad SLI.

Basically my current list for my new gaming pc is

Thermaltake Armor Gaming Case w/25cm Fan Side Panel Windows
Q6600 Maybe with a cooling system for Overclocking
8800 GTX
Evga 680i Sli MoBo
2 GB DDR-2 800 RAM
Hard drive and DVD player im not concerned about, I already have these

My monitor is the Dell E228WFP 22" 1680x1050 and my fav games include halflife 2, Total war, Bioshock etc...

 

[aevm]

Nice!

I've got something similar (Q6600, 8800 GTX) and I picked the Silverstone TJ09. CAD $330 was a bit painful, but worth every cent. Since you got a SLI motherboard, I'm guessing you'd like a case with a fan that blows right between the video cards. Just in case you add a second card, you know.

You could also look at Lian-Li PC-V2000, if you want the absolute best. That was CAD$370, by the way. If you're in the US you can probably get it cheaper.

If you'd prefer to keep the case price around $200 or less then I'd recommend the Thermaltake Armor indeed.

The P182 is very nice too, but a bit small for an 8800 GTX. Too small for two 8800 GTX cards IMO, so with this case you lose the SLI option. It is very quiet, on the other hand.

 

[simmsa]

Avem I'm glad you have a similar system to the one I want, are you happy with your q6600, does it play old games that don't support quad core well??? is the 8800GTX amazing?????

Anyways I do live in Canada like you and would like to know where you bought all your components because on sites like tiger direct and ncix its like $2000 where as they sell the same kind of system on ibuypower for $1500 even though I know everyone says they have **** customer service... but I dont wanna spend $2000 dollars if its cheaper for someone else to assemble it!!!!!


Anyways I think I will go with the Thermaltake armor...

 

[aevm]

I am very happy with the Q6600. It's way more than I need. For example when shrinking DVDs it's bottlenecked by the hard disk and all cores work at 81%. This means a $999 QX6850 would have done the job in exactly the same time, not faster at all. BTW, 81% on 4 cores at 2.4 GHz is more work than any dual-core CPU can offer even when overclocked. Yeah, for me it's a smarter choice than E6850 or QX6850.

It plays Diablo 2 perfectly, and as far as I know there was no such thing as dual core CPUs or quads way back in 2000 when the game was made. Well, OK, even my old Pentium 3 was almost good enough for Diablo 2, it only started to suffer a bit when I added the Valhalla mod and the game was no longer properly optimized. I guess one core of a Q6600 is still several times faster than a P3/800 MHz.

The 8800 GTX doesn't do much for Diablo 2, because the game doesn't take advantage of it. In Titan Quest it looks amazing, yeah, with all settings maxed, 1680x1050, and I also maxed the settings in the nVidia Control Panel. There are some scenes with waterfalls and waves and some torches burning, wow... I'll try Oblivion and Hellgate next. Based on screenshots I've seen, both will look fantastic on this card.

I got the PC built at a local shop in Ottawa, www.shoprbc.com. They charge $35 for assembling, and TBH it's a major bargain considering that it would have taken me the whole day. Their prices were better than those at several other local shops (I checked the Web sites every week and compared prices, for a couple of months, until the Intel price cuts occurred on July 22).

I think NCIX would have saved me $200, especially because they are in BC and when they ship to Ontario they don't charge PST. That is, add $150 for shipping and insurance but subtract more than that for PST, and prices are a bit lower. However, I didn't want to do the building or RMA paperwork myself, plus I didn't like the idea of receiving a $700 video card by mail where it may end up under some guy's package full of bricks and hammers.

One thing you need to know: if you order from a local shop it may take 2 weeks to actually get the PC done. It depends a lot on what you order. They asked me to choose: get it in 3 weeks with all the parts I had picked (including PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W, Silverstone TJ09), or in 4 days (and cheaper) if I let them give me a PSU and a case that were easier for them to fetch. I waited the 3 weeks and I'm happy I did, but I don't know if that's an option for you.

A good thing: they suggested replacing the memory I had picked (4x1GB Kingston) with a 2x2GB kit from OCZ. Smart idea, saved $100 and I also get the choice to upgrade to 8 GB later this way. You can get some really good advice if you pick a good shop.

Another thing to keep in mind: some shops do price matching. I showed them a $651.02 quote for BFG 8800 GTX OC2 from www.compunation.com and they matched the price. Theirs was $770 if I remember right. Funny thing, ShopRBC would have been cheaper than Compunation anyway because they had much better prices at CPU, disks, etc.

If you live in Ottawa send me a private message and I'll give you my bookmarks for the various shops to look at. If you're in Toronto get a Hub magazine (it's free, and for some reason you can find it in Ottawa). It's full of ads from Toronto companies that build PCs, very very useful if you live in Toronto.

 

[fatcat]

I often buy stuff from NCIX, their prices are pretty competitive in certain fields but not all. For example, their GPU tend to be over priced when compared to other E-tailers. They also have a pretty extensive line of product. I buy quite a bit from Microbytes, I have found their prices to be as good if not better then many E-tailers. I think they got a shop in Orléans. I don't know how far from your home that is but it might worth a peek. Anyways, they got a website so no need to get there in person. One thing needs to be considered when buying online and it's the cost of shipping which often makes the deal less appealing.

 

[aevm]

There's also http://www.orleanscomputers.com/shop/Default.asp, that's one of the best shops in the area. Not very many items to choose from but excellent prices.

 

[plguzman]

Antec Nine Hundred FTW