Antec 1200 replacment?

[nascasho]

Been getting bored of this Antec case and its fans and been looking for a decent replacement, but no matter what I look for I can find nothing.

The cases that catch my eye have side facing HDD mounts, like Lian Li cases, either black or aluminum. I like decent cooling since I will be air coolinga dn MUSt have a side window because I like to show it off. No matter what I search for I can find nothing... or maybe there is nothing... yet anyways.

Any of you guys know something you can recommend me?

 

[Eye7]

Very happy with my Silverstone RV02!

Just wish it had more then 3 hard drive bays...

 

[nascasho]

I have the Raven RV02 in my other machine because I wanted to swap from my Antec, I hated the temps. Knight and day compared to the Antec. CPU temps were good, it was just that the doesn't seem to do too well in multi-GPU setups. My avg card temps went up 10C!

But I found a nicer case I think: http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...=product_info&cPath=103_125&products_id=26789

 

[E.T]

But I found a nicer case I think: http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...=product_info&cPath=103_125&products_id=26789

You sure you want to get bored to more of the same as in Antec?

MUSt have a side window because I like to show it off.

Lian Li doesn't have windowed side panels as default but there are few different styles available as accessory.
(W75s for A-serie full towers)

 

[nascasho]

Lian Li doesn't have windowed side panels as default but there are few different styles available as accessory.
(W75s for A-serie full towers)

Ahhh, didn't know that. Now for cooling and gettin a seperate side panel, which case you you recommend for a multi-gpu setup?

 

[E.T]

Most people yell more loudly than airfcraft in take off that case has to have thousand and one holes without any clear internal airflow pattern for it to cool well but in real world it's lot more complicated.
Side intake fan's airflow is like crossing traffic being introduced suddenly into highway. As overall it messes airflow moving in the widest plane of the case and airflow from it has solid wall aka motherboard in front of it and can't really go easily to anywhere.
In some situations it helps but in others it just messes it up.
This is good example about peculiarities of airflow: Stopping side fan dropping GPU temp and if you remove side panel (again breaking laminar case airflow) temp goes again upwards:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14713412&postcount=5

Different types of cooling systems in cards and number of (various) cards surely has effect to outcome from introduction of side fan's case airflow messing impact. Also spacing of cards has effect, if fan of one card is completely blocked by some other card then changes in surrounding case airflow won't have much effect to temperature of that card.
As overall only sure thing for helping in cooling is increasing airflow over hot components without breaking existing case airflow...
(having those not so well themselves cooling RAID and sound card in there I got this Lian Li's PCI cooling kit for guaranteeing some airflow between all cards)

Also noise aspect (quiet or not) is one point whose requirements can have major effect to best type of overal case design, literally as big as stylish requirements.
So what are requirements in there?
For example PC-A77 would have that same all 5.25" style but acoustically it's quiet as appartment house without walls between neighbours.
Then there are traditional case looking designs without fully open front and still without that much better acoustics. As last group there are acoustically good designs with door blocking direct noise escape path.
(V2000-serie dual chamber models aren't great for air cooling)

 

[nascasho]

Here's my current setup:

I hate the SATA and power connectors near the PSU, pisses me off sometimes trying to clean there. And I'm at the point where I feel the case is too big and hard to manage due to weight and its location (floor).

 

[Triz08]

Thats a beautiful setup! I think your crazy for wanting to replace that. Looking into buying an antec 1200 myself.

 

[Smasherbasher]

Why not keep it simple and just get a Cosmos? Or a Rocketfish? Or an Obsidian?

 

[E.T]

I hate the SATA and power connectors near the PSU

Yeah, compared to E-ATX cases hundred serie Antecs are rather small cases if you actually use device bays.
http://www.nordichardware.com/skrivelser_img/532/A71_20.jpg

E-ATX size cases definitely aren't any smaller but at least Lian Li's Alu construction would take away fair one third from "empty weight" compared to Antec.
(because of size I've added "carrying" handle to two E-ATX cases for easing their handling)

Nice job with cable sleeving.