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case for smallish business machine

F

flenser

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 15, 2004
Messages
324
Hello,

I need to build my wife a small home office computer and I'm looking for recommendations for the case. I'm envisioning a microATX mobo, i3 or i5 cpu, and a low-mid end ATI desktop graphics card that can drive up to 3 large format (24" widescreen) monitors. I'd like room to fit one full size 3.5" hard drive and a full size optical drive.

I need to keep costs reasonable, but I'm not afraid of spending an extra $25 here or there to get quality parts.

So, any suggestions for a decent smallish case that is reasonably unobtrusive?
 
Rosewill Blackbone is $37 shipped at the moment (school DIY ad, newegg), could use a fan upgrade. Sentey offers some good cases, as does Compucase/HEC.
Cooler Master 343, 370, or 430.

Lian Li PC-A05 (b=Black, A= Aluminum), $100 my favorite.

Silverstone SUGO SG02..
Basically expect to pay extra for a good small case.
BitFenix Shinobi is probably the classest looking at $60.
InWin BUC $94- $30 mir...
Haven't figured at tags .
 
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I'd say any of the Fractal Design MATX cases might interest you.
 
So far that coolermaster elite 341 looks the closest to what I'm looking for. The only thing I don't like about it is that the hard drive mount isn't right in the airflow from the front fan mount so the HD won't get direct airflow cooling. But otherwise it looks pretty close to what I want. It's about $15 more at newegg than the cheapest cases, but the construction looks a bit nicer.

I wish case manufacturers would hurry the heck up and standardize on front panel usb 3.0, but I guess I'll have to live with either an add-on card reader to get front ports or just do without and use the rear ports.
 
flenser said:
So far that coolermaster elite 341 looks the closest to what I'm looking for. The only thing I don't like about it is that the hard drive mount isn't right in the airflow from the front fan mount so the HD won't get direct airflow cooling. But otherwise it looks pretty close to what I want. It's about $15 more at newegg than the cheapest cases, but the construction looks a bit nicer.

I wish case manufacturers would hurry the heck up and standardize on front panel usb 3.0, but I guess I'll have to live with either an add-on card reader to get front ports or just do without and use the rear ports.
Click to expand...

The hard drive mount above the fan on the front has enough airflow.
 
mannyman said:
The hard drive mount above the fan on the front has enough airflow.
Click to expand...

That's what I was hoping. I'm going to spend a little extra and get a modular power supply as well, to help with airflow. I really need this to be quiet so I want a quiet PSU and only one case fan. I'll move the case fan from the back to the front so the front fan will blow cool air past the HD onto the mobo, and the psu will exhaust the hot air. There are tons of vent holes for any remaining pressure to vent through so I think with an uncluttered interior it should have plenty of cooling without adding more fans.

The mobo I'm looking at should run dual monitors just fine so maybe I can skip the add-on vid card for a while unless my wife demands a third monitor. A new i5 sandy bridge cpu will cost a bit more but should give plenty of performance so I won't need to upgrade it for a long time. Memory is so cheap I may put 8GB in there too, again so I don't have to upgrade it for a long time.
 
Get quiet fans, Some cheap yate loons can move air and do it quietly. get 2 1 front 1 back of the case. it will cool.
 
I plan on building it up with the included fan, and if it doesn't meet my expectations I'll find quieter ones. I'm not overclocking so I don't think I'll need 2 fans. Even one slow/quiet one combined with the PSU fan should be more than enough. It only has to be cool enough to keep the cpu HSF from speeding up unnecessarily, and to keep the HD reasonably cool.

I've never heard of yate loon fans. Where are they sold?
 
Frozencpu sells them, They have a good reputation as solid performing cheap fans. You should be fine with 1 fan the sandy bridge procs run cool.
 
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