Case upgrade choice - can't choose

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faugusztin

2[H]4U
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Mar 9, 2008
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For the start, my current case is a modded Lian Li PC-A05, but i want to reuse it for other computer plus i have personal issues with the very thing sheets of aluminium used for this case.

My requirements are pretty much a space for ATX board, space for graphic card with length of HD5870 or a little bit more, space for the Seasonic X-750 PSU, one SSD and a small T-Balancer bigNG. Ideally with internal paint, not just a blank aluminium/steel. The color scheme of my components is black/red (black EVGA P55 SLI board, black/red Dominator GTs, black/red HD5870, red/black Enermax Magma fans, red/black single sleeve cables from FrozenCPU).

Now, what i'm thinking about are these cases :
  • Lian Li PC-X900 - my ultimate favorite. Yes, it's nearly 60cm high, but nearly everything else is perfect - size just for a ATX board with some extra space to spare, if i seen correctly then removable bottom HDD rack. The window is something i don't need, but i won't fight against it. Yes, i get some useless space at top because i don't have a DVD drive, but there is no perfect case. Biggest issue is the price - ordering from germany is 335€+30€ shipping, ordering from my country will cost me 394€.
  • Lian Li PC-X1000. Pretty much same as PC-X900, except some things i don't like - the 14cm fans, the divider between PSU and motherboard area and the internals are not painted. The price is lower, "only" 352 €.
  • Fractal Design Define R3 Arctic White - exact opposite of the previous cases, it's white and very cheap, only 107€. It uses very thin sheets for panels, but compensates it with dampening material which adds a lot of weight to all panels, so they don't rattle at all.
  • Corsair Obsidian 650D - i like the internal layout, the possibility of hard drive rack removal. I dislike the plastic parts and i especially dislike the 20cm fands and the panel mechanism with those things on side panel, as i really like clean side panels (the only exception to this rule are windows). It has no european pricing either, and it comes only in April, so long wait if i decide for this case.

From these links, you can see i prefer clean, minimalistic cases in terms of design (this removes lot of the cases), and also like them to have small footprint. That is the reason my Lian Li PC-V1110A is in his box unused - because over the time, i realized how superbig that case is for my needs (the only storage drive i use is one SSD and no optical drive, no fan controller in drive bay, so i don't need space for 5 optical drives and 6 HDD :D - that removes pretty much the whole Lian Li PC-V line, the Corsair Obsidian 700D/800D, the Temjin TJ07/11, Raven series, Fortress series. I also don't want case with thin panels, that removes the whole Lian Li PC-A/PC-B line, cheap cases etc etc.

Only if PC-X900 wouldn't be nearly 400€... For 300€, i would buy it instantly, but 100€ more is a lot. For that price, i can buy the Define R3 case and one very good SSD at top of it, or make a upgrade to Sandy Bridge without selling my original components.
 
If you are looking at the 650, perhaps the mid tower Lian Li PC-7FNWX might be for you.
 
If you think the V1110A is big, then scratch the 650 off your list as its just as big if not bigger :p
 
@zukihara: PC-7 has same thin panels as every lowend Lian Li cases. I had PC-A9, PC-A17, PC-A05N, PC-V350. PC-X900 and PC-V cases have only about 1mm aluminum panels, while PC-V series have ~2-3mm panels, and if i seen it correctly then PC-X is same in this part.
@Empty_Quarter: well, yeah, 600T is 265 x 507 x 592 vs 210 x 542x 569mm for PC-V1110.

As i said before, the best choice would be PC-X900, but i'm simply unable to justify the cost to myself :D.
 
So, i decided to take the Fractal Design Define R3 Arctic White. Now the question is where i can good white fans. Need 4 of them - 2 intake, 1 CPU fan, 1 outtake. I searched through the local shops and pretty much come up with only these options.

First the major contenders :
  • Silverstone Air Penetrator AP-121-WL (19.39 €)- silver casing, transparent blades, white LEDs. The question is can be LEDs turned off ? Is this fan good for CPU cooler (Prolimatech Mega Shadow) ?
  • Enermax Cluster UCCL12 PWM (17.76 €) - it's white, it has LED on/off switch. It's PWM fan, but that is acceptable, i use T-Balancer bigNG to control fans, so PWM/voltage control doesn't matter. Question is how comparable are these fans to Air Penetrators ?
  • Silverstone FM121 (15.56 €) - cream white, which will be probably a bit different than arctic white of the case, but this one is closest to the requirements in terms of color. Question is again how it compares to the rest.
  • Silverstone FM123 (16.12 €) - same as before.

Now the rest of the pack :

This is pretty much all all-white fans (or close to them) on my market.

EDIT: Enermax Cluster is a problem, as it is a 4-pin PWM and bigNG does PWM only through 3-pins :(
 
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