Choosing a case?

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darkz179

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Messages
507
Hey guys i am in need of desperate help on choosing a case. I do not like my current mini p180 because it is way to big and heavy. I LAN almost every weekend and size/weight is very important to me. I have had my Vinster M@X(picture 1) for about 4 years and have loved it, although it was extremely loud due to the 1u server psu. I got bored of it and bought a bigger case specs are in my sig. I was looking at the x58 shuttle but it has alot of cooling issues (unless someone can sway my decision), i also really like the fact of staying matx form factor.

Case Requirements:

-Matx form factor
-Future proof to a point
-if possible ATX psu
-3 hard drives if possible
-dont need an optical drive
-room for future gfx cards.
-quiet if possible would be great.

Picture 1
207.jpg


Current Rig
Picture012.jpg
 
Silverstone SG04B? Mine was good, but it vibrated to much for my liking, but it was light. Now im using a mini P180

Picture177.jpg
 
Sounds like you'll want something that will take the long GPU cards. That will narrow down your choices considerably consider many SFF cases cant take them. In recent years they have been getting longer instead of shorter. Hopefully ATI and nVidia will change direction. Off the top of my head the Silverstone SG02F and SG03 will take the big cards. Btw, did you know the new socket 1156 i7 CPUs come out next month?
 
Just wondering, What are those cases that are in the Picture 01?
I like the looks of it.
 
I'm a big Silverstone fan and wish they made something like the Raven 02 in a matx form factor.

looking at Lian Lis right now:
LIAN LI PC-A05NB
LIAN LI PC-A03B is my preferred.
If you want to go slightly bigger but more conveniant for LANs the coolermaster scout works.
For LAN parties only I have a SG05 with itx setup. You are limited but I carry a smaller monitor and can make it to and from the car in one trip without a cart.
 
I have a Lian-Li PC-A05 silver case with an mATX system in it. I love the case. It's JUST big enough to hold full ATX boards, so it's not going to be the smallest mATX case you'll find, but it definitely fits in the mini-tower category. Plus, it's ALL 120mm fans, so you get lots of air flow and hardly any noise, especially if you swap all the stock fans for low noise units like Yate Loons. I have 4 120mm fans going in there and I usually can't hear them over the sound of the DVD drive spinning.

Here's a pic of my system:
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff131/yuritau/004.jpg
Yeah I know, I really ought to at least try to manage the cables. special note: the 120mm fan you can see on the top right is a top-side exhaust fan that I modded in myself cause Lian-Li didn't include any way to actively remove that hot air that comes off the video card. Well.. I think they have goofy lil exhaust fan you can buy that occupies the vent above the expansion slots, but reports indicate that the thing was pretty loud, so I didn't go for it.

Only thing I don't like about this case is the power LED. Jeebus.. that could be the brightest LED I've ever seen! I had it in my bedroom for a while, and that one little LED cast off so much light that I was doing shadow puppets while I tried to fall asleep. Oh, just remembered, the gfx card issue. My 8800GT, 9" length with the power connector right on the end of the card, JUST fits. If you have a card that's longer than that, you might be able to get it in if you don't use HD slot 1 and maybe clip a corner off the HDD cage. Or if your mobo's PCI-E slot is like a quarter of an inch further away from the CPU, heh.
 
Last edited:
JonDoms said:
I'm a big Silverstone fan and wish they made something like the Raven 02 in a matx form factor.

looking at Lian Lis right now:
LIAN LI PC-A05NB
LIAN LI PC-A03B is my preferred.
If you want to go slightly bigger but more conveniant for LANs the coolermaster scout works.
For LAN parties only I have a SG05 with itx setup. You are limited but I carry a smaller monitor and can make it to and from the car in one trip without a cart.
Click to expand...

That's what I wanted lol. FT02 in a smaller package would be awesome. Maybe kill the optical bays and use slim slot somewhere to make it even smaller! Not too high, not too long.
 
darkz179 said:
-Matx form factor
-Future proof to a point
-if possible ATX psu
-3 hard drives if possible
-dont need an optical drive
-room for future gfx cards.
-quiet if possible would be great.
Click to expand...

i think the SG03 / 04 answers all of these

its matx
it can fit the largest of hardware in it
ATX psu and you can use those long PSU without issues
3 HDD bays, 2 at the bottom and 1 using the external 3.5" bay
it can fit long GPU with the accelero extreme installed
it can be as quiet as you need it with after market GPU cooling and WC with H50
 
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