What case?

[ombadboy]

Hello there.. Am looking for a new Case for my PC (using a Tsunami Thermaltake atm temporarily) for a rig i built a couple of months back.
Am interested in looks, but mostly airflow/cooling. Atm i got it air cooled, but there's a possibilty of WCing it in the near future, so if possible id like a case that would enable to do that easier (I plan OCing it once summer is over). Here's my rig:

Intel Core i7 920 cooled with TRUE-120
Corsair 750W Modular
Asus P6T Deluxe V2
Sapphire ATi 4890
3x 1TB SATA WD Black HDD


thanks alot for the help.

 

[o1die]

The antec 300 is tough to beat for value. Several venders including fry's.com and newegg have them for around $50; look for free shipping. When shopping at newegg, I select the "free shipping" category for ps; saves you about $18.

 

[Shadow703793]

If going WCing (I mean real WCing and not some cr@ppy H50,CoolIT system. ) you should look in to a full tower or a large mid tower. Note that case modding will be needed 75% of the time to mount a large 320 rad.


Best cases (for WCing) imo:
Antec 900
CoolerMaster HAF 932
CoolerMaster Scout
Antec 1200
CoolerMaster COSMOS
CoolerMaster Stacker 830

 

[ombadboy]

I live in the UK, so the prices are a tad different than the US, but my budget is pretty high.

yes am talking about real WCing.. DYI

What kind of case mod would be needed?

 

[ombadboy]

p.s Would these cases you mentioned above Air Cool sufficiently for an i7 @ 3.6GHz lets say?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Yes, the pc cases mentioned by shadow703793 have very good ventilation, air flow, and cooling.

Here's a link to a recent Tom's Hardware technical review of four pc cases comparing cooling:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/full-tower-case,2105-10.html

I have the Coolermaster HAF 932. Outstanding results with air cooling.

 

[ombadboy]

ahh awesome.. was looking such a review.. nice. ill read it later and see how it goes

do you use stock case fans? or replace them with 3rd party ones ?

 

[sminlal]

I'm very pleased with my Antec P182 case. It's unique feature is an isolated compartment for the PSU and hard drives so that the heat generated by them doesn't affect the CPU/GPU. I chose it because I wanted to build a very quiet system and found this review at Silent PC Review.

 

[Shadow703793]

do you use stock case fans? or replace them with 3rd party ones ?

I prefer to use my own Yate Loon, Scythe fans if needed (mainly for noise reasons). If not, I just use the stock case fans.

What kind of case mod would be needed?

Depends on where/how you plan to mount the rad. If you plan to mount the rad on top,etc you'd need to cur/drill,etc. Or just mount the rads outside on a stand/box.

 

[ombadboy]

I'm very pleased with my Antec P182 case. It's unique feature is an isolated compartment for the PSU and hard drives so that the heat generated by them doesn't affect the CPU/GPU. I chose it because I wanted to build a very quiet system and found this review at Silent PC Review.

just read the review.. i like the fact that they are seperated from the CPU and GPU, altho i doubt it would fit a rad in it.. Any other cases you may know of that could fit a rad, as well as have a isolated PSU compartment?

 

[englandr753]

I have the CM830 Stacker and its an awesome case. If you can still find one, in which you should be able to do so with a little searching, you will be pleased with this one. It was built to upgrade and watercool...

 

[ombadboy]

Looks like a nice case, but i think am going to the Coolermaster HAF 932.. I like the fact that the PSU got seperated air input/output which doesnt affect the temps anywhere else, the extra space on the top for a rad, etc.

Is the liquid tank really useful on it? or will i end up using a seperate one when i WC?

 

[sminlal]

just read the review.. i like the fact that they are seperated from the CPU and GPU, altho i doubt it would fit a rad in it.. Any other cases you may know of that could fit a rad, as well as have a isolated PSU compartment?

I'm not a water cooling kind'a guy, so I can't help you on case selection. I will say that the P182 is quite a large case, and it does have special openings in the rear which I gather are for passing water cooling pipes through.

 

[ombadboy]

Nice to hear.. Ill go throught my options once again, but am leaning more towards the HAF.. for some reason i dont like the looks of the P182 :S Its too simple, yet classy (prefer something more modern/high tech looking)

 

[Shadow703793]

Is the liquid tank really useful on it? or will i end up using a seperate one when i WC?

You'll probably end up using a micro res + D5/MCP655.