Free Ultra UV Wizard Case (AR) Just pay shipping

a nice cheap solution if you are building a standard rig for your parents / siblings to do small games, research, or writing on..., but not for OCing or performance... the case is small and made of steel instead of aluminum, everything will be kept nice and warm unless you watercool, and even then it'll be a challenge since the PSU is gonna heat that thing up like a toaster... the heat vent they built into the case for the CPU is not a feature but a necessary addition or ppls CPUs would fry when everything is that close together... allso doesnt come with fans or wires...
 
Iria said:
a nice cheap solution if you are building a standard rig for your parents / siblings to do small games, research, or writing on..., but not for OCing or performance... the case is small and made of steel instead of aluminum, everything will be kept nice and warm unless you watercool, and even then it'll be a challenge since the PSU is gonna heat that thing up like a toaster... the heat vent they built into the case for the CPU is not a feature but a necessary addition or ppls CPUs would fry when everything is that close together... allso doesnt come with fans or wires...
Click to expand...

Are you looking at the same case as I am? Everything that close together? This is just a standard midtower. I like the addition of the rear 120mm fan, but would have liked them to go for 120 in the front also. I have a similar case, layout wise, with a 120mm up front. Also, as far as I've known, power supplies have ALWAYS pushed air OUT of the case, not sucked it in, preventing the psu's heat from building up inside the case. Then again, there once was a time even they didn't have a fan.

As for watercooling, there's plenty of space in my case for an eheim 1250, reservoir, 2x120mm fan (for reference) heatercore, and all the waterblocks/tubing to cool what I want. Add to that 2 capture cards, 3 NICs, video, 2 optical drives, and 3 160/250GB harddrives. Still kept everything pretty cool on air with a cheap $20 heatsink and a single intake fan. Computers have gotten by with a lot worse. Now try a minitower (or in some cases, midtowers), with the power supply hovering above the cpu. THOSE things were cooling nightmares. *shudders*

About it not being aluminum? Who cares? It doesn't change temperatures much and this is a FREE after rebate chassis. For a long time cases never came with fans. If I was needing a case right now, I'd be all over this, TD or not. It does look cheaply made (by looking at the rear), but what isn't these days.
 
I laugh whenver I see people say stuff like "Its steel instead of aluminum, so its going to be really hot".

AN ALUMINUM CASE DOES NOT DISSIPATE HEAT FASTER THAN A STEEL/PLASTIC/SPIDER CARAPACE CASE.
 
Tengis said:
I laugh whenver I see people say stuff like "Its steel instead of aluminum, so its going to be really hot".

AN ALUMINUM CASE DOES NOT DISSIPATE HEAT FASTER THAN A STEEL/PLASTIC/SPIDER CARAPACE CASE.
Click to expand...
Nah, I think there was a review on Tom's Hardware about spider carapce being able to dissipate more heat than both steel and aluminum, COMBINED! :p

But yea, aluminum cases dont dissispate more heat... unless u've got ur case rigged up as some kinda huge heatsink....
 
But the shipping isnt free.
This is a $30 that I'm paying $25 shipping for. :rolleyes:
 
SGSeeker said:
Are you looking at the same case as I am? Everything that close together? This is just a standard midtower. I like the addition of the rear 120mm fan, but would have liked them to go for 120 in the front also. I have a similar case, layout wise, with a 120mm up front. Also, as far as I've known, power supplies have ALWAYS pushed air OUT of the case, not sucked it in, preventing the psu's heat from building up inside the case. Then again, there once was a time even they didn't have a fan.
Click to expand...

Until a couple of years ago, when companies starting putting out silent power supplies, I don't recall EVER seeing an x86 box that didn't have a fan cooling the power supply. Then again, when I started building computers for a living, the 80386 hadn't been release yet, so I'm probably senile by now.
 
aluminum does release heat better than steel, that's why they make cheaper heatsinks out of aluminum and not steel or iron.

granted the processor heatsink/powersupply does not directly touch the case, but havin the heat touch the faster cooling aluminum walls makes a difference.

I remember reviews of the old thermaltake cases showing the aluminum version being a couple degrees C* cooler than their steel counterpart...so your loud mouth bashing of steel being the same temp as aluminum is INCORRECT
 
Archaea said:
aluminum does release heat better than steel, that's why they make cheaper heatsinks out of aluminum and not steel or iron.

granted the processor heatsink/powersupply does not directly touch the case, but havin the heat touch the faster cooling aluminum walls makes a difference.

I remember reviews of the old thermaltake cases showing the aluminum version being a couple degrees C* cooler than their steel counterpart...so your loud mouth bashing of steel being the same temp as aluminum is INCORRECT
Click to expand...

You my friend are a moron. Aluminum fans must work better than plastic ones too, because uh... the CFM they output can... uh.. cool faster, because its special CFM. It creates an aluminum vortex, ya, thats it.

The heat on the inside of a case is nowhere near hot enough to have the case act as a heatsink its self... I have multiple aluminum/steel cases and I have never touched one of them and had the case feel like anything hotter than room temperature. The case would literally have to have ZERO cfm for the case its self to effect any type of cooling.

http://www.systemcooling.com/alum_steel-01.html

Like it says on that page, its not making any type of direct contact with anything that outputs heat... so... good luck cooling your computer through a motherboard standoff.
 
the only benifit to aluminum is light weight. it will not cool any better, it will not make yout cpu temp any lower

the only thing that matters is the layout of fans and how restricted air flow is
 
did not mean to start a flame war here over a "free" case... but Archaea is right Tengis, there was a review of aluminum vs. steel for heat despersion and the fact is the molecular lineup of steel is different...

most steel is not pure (otherwise it would be mad-heavy) it is a carbon / steel compound to make the steel stronger, it makes it stiff and aligns the molecules closer together for strength... this however does not help with heat... the exception is stainless steel where its actualy flexible but even less conductive than carbon steel which while more conductive is prone to rust... where as aluminum has its molecules less packed together, and no carbon, making it flexible and more heat shedding than steel. To note allso, i've had to carry plenty of computers around my university from classroom to classroom, and my own pc, and the top and sides of the cases are plenty warm if the PC has been runing, especialy if you touch the top by where the PSU is.

The weight is another issue as well. My personal rig is a full server box made of aluminum, and I know it gets hot, so I would not dare take a chance on steel. This case however is an ok value for those seeking to build a rig for their grandpa.
 
kohan69 said:
But the shipping isnt free.
This is a $30 that I'm paying $25 shipping for. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Then don't buy one. :p Your going to have to pay shipping on any other case you buiy as well and it isn't always as cheap as 25 bucks.


I took one. I'm building my daughter a comp for christmas and this will be it's new case after a paintjob.
 
I have this case. I bought it at fry's B&M for $9.99AR (no shipping ;)) a few weeks ago. The case is very lightweight and it feels kind of cheap, but airflow is very good.

I put a silent Zalman 80mm on the front and a 9.5v modded 120mm fan (silent) on the back.
 
Iria said:
did not mean to start a flame war here over a "free" case... but Archaea is right Tengis, there was a review of aluminum vs. steel for heat despersion and the fact is the molecular lineup of steel is different...

most steel is not pure (otherwise it would be mad-heavy) it is a carbon / steel compound to make the steel stronger, it makes it stiff and aligns the molecules closer together for strength... this however does not help with heat... the exception is stainless steel where its actualy flexible but even less conductive than carbon steel which while more conductive is prone to rust... where as aluminum has its molecules less packed together, and no carbon, making it flexible and more heat shedding than steel. To note allso, i've had to carry plenty of computers around my university from classroom to classroom, and my own pc, and the top and sides of the cases are plenty warm if the PC has been runing, especialy if you touch the top by where the PSU is.

The weight is another issue as well. My personal rig is a full server box made of aluminum, and I know it gets hot, so I would not dare take a chance on steel. This case however is an ok value for those seeking to build a rig for their grandpa.
Click to expand...
He never said that aluminum and steel have the same thermal properties, but in a case, it doesn't matter. Good grief, people who buy Aluminum cases for cooling drive me insane.
 
Tengis said:
You my friend are a moron. Aluminum fans must work better than plastic ones too, because uh... the CFM they output can... uh.. cool faster, because its special CFM. It creates an aluminum vortex, ya, thats it.

The heat on the inside of a case is nowhere near hot enough to have the case act as a heatsink its self... I have multiple aluminum/steel cases and I have never touched one of them and had the case feel like anything hotter than room temperature. The case would literally have to have ZERO cfm for the case its self to effect any type of cooling.

http://www.systemcooling.com/alum_steel-01.html

Like it says on that page, its not making any type of direct contact with anything that outputs heat... so... good luck cooling your computer through a motherboard standoff.
Click to expand...


hey jackass

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=1726

generic steel case vs. aluminum case

"Each machine is equipped with the same amount of fans, (2 intake in the front, 2 exhaust in the rear and one side panel fan.) Both cases are using the standard fans shipped with the case. Since the Xaser II did not come with a power supply, we used the same TurboLink 420W supply in each machine. To duplicate a production system as close as possible, we kept the cases closed during the entire testing period."

After 10 Minutes
CPU
Video
Heatsink
Mobo 1
Mobo 2
HD

TT Xaser II Aluminum
55.0
37.2
38.1
25.3
30.2
37.0

Generic Steel Tower
55.0
38.1
38.3
26.4
30.8
46.1


After 30 Minutes
CPU
Video
Heatsink
Mobo 1
Mobo 2
HD

TT Xaser II Aluminum
55.5
37.7
42.4
27.4
32.1
40.3

Generic Steel Tower
56.0
38.5
42.6
28.5
34.0
50.5

It took me about 30 seconds to find this old review and it wasn't even the one I was remembering. So looks like you and penguin are the "moron"






If you want some details on why this is here is a copy paste
density of aluminum = 2,643 kg/cubic meter
density of steel = 7,850 kg/cubic meter

Heat conductivity of aluminum: 160 W/(m·°C)
Heat conductivity of steel: 61 W/(m·°C)

These are general numbers since different kinds of aluminum grades and steel processes result in slightly different kinds of characteristics, but you can see generally that aluminum weighs 1/3 as much as steel and conducts heat 2-3 times better (note that our measurement for heat conductivity is W/(m·°C) so by better we simply mean it conducts more watts of heat per unit of volume... this doesn't necessarily mean that Aluminum dissipates heat 2-3 times faster than steel).

Knowing this and based on observations of aluminum cases in generation you can definitely make these conclusions:


Aluminum cases will have the opportunity of conducting more heat
Aluminum cases with the same sheet metal thickness will be around 1/3 as heavy as a similarly designed steel case.

Aluminum cases actually tend to use THINNER sheet metal, further widening the weight gap between a steel and aluminum case

Aluminum cases tend to be more expensive, and they are easier to damage


Now granted...if you have a lot of airflow in your case there won't be much difference if any, but if you prefer a silent, or even just normal standard fan setup to try to avoid all the super high CFM, super loud excess fans, then you are far better off going with aluminum case....PERIOD.
 
Archaea, that test from Anand proves absolutely nothing when it comes to aluminum cooling better than steel. The tests used the same # of fans, but they are the fans shipped with the cases. Therefore the fans for the Thermaltake case do not equal the fans from the generic case. This could easily account for the temperature differences seen.
 
braamer said:
Archaea, that test from Anand proves absolutely nothing when it comes to aluminum cooling better than steel. The tests used the same # of fans, but they are the fans shipped with the cases. Therefore the fans for the Thermaltake case do not equal the fans from the generic case. This could easily account for the temperature differences seen.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
 
I disagree

A quick look at typical 80mm fan CFM numbers reveals that the Thermaltake's 32 CFM case fans are pretty standard for 80mm fans - even the cheapies.

http://www.svc.com/standardfans.html

I believe most standard "Chieftec" cases use Sunon fans

linked here
http://www.svc.com/kd1208ptb2-3-86.html
here
http://www.svc.com/kd1208ptb2-4-86.html
and here
http://www.svc.com/kd1208pts2-4-86.html

all of which have higher cfm ratings than the thermaltake fans used in the Xaser II.

The reason I intially looked up reviews on the Xaser II aluminum vs. steel is because I bought the Xaser II several years back and still use it. At the time I found a review that stated - like this one does - that the aluminum case ran a couple degrees C cooler on average. I thought the review was on tomshardware, but I can't find it now. Either way, anandtech is every bit as thorough and accurate in their reviews as Hardocp or Tom's Hardware and I would trust their measurements.

Just for the record, the generic steel cheiftec case that was used has identical fan placement, and the PSU used was the exact same in both cases as mentioned in the article. Make your own call as to what fans are in the generic case, but as you can see on SVC's site...32 CFM is pretty darn average, and by no means a high airvolume moving fan. My exp. with cases I've purchased have shown Sunon to be a pretty popular OEM model, and as shown in the links above, the standard Sunon shows higher CFM's than the thermal take fans used in the Xaser II, that the anandtech article is referencing.
 
The bottom line is that aluminum is more conductive than steel, whether or not that demonstrates a measurable or even noticeable difference (IE >1*C/F for most PC temp. monitors) is difficult to calculate.

However if two exact same systems, with exact same components were assembled into identical cases in a controlled environment the aluminum setup would run cooler. It's likely to be less than 1* however, so whether or not you're willing to bank on saving that half degree is up to you, but don't let it be your selling point.

Buy it for it's prettiness and lightweight. :D
 
Jumped on this. Needed a cheepo case for my in-laws. Shipping to MN was $14.75...
 
See the picture of the drive cage? See how the fan is in the cage right in front of the drives? Now look at the numbers. The only significant difference is in the hard drive temps. Airflow in a case is much more important than the material the case is made of. A case made of perforated metal won't have lower temps than a well designed case, because there's no control over air movement.
 
Sidescrapper,

The cheiftek case they used, and the Xaser II case are the EXACT same case. One is steel(generic), one is aluminum with different external cosmetics(thermaltake) If you haven't been around PCs for a while then you wouldn't know this, but they are, go look at any of the old Xaser 1 and 2 reviews to validate this fact. The fan layout is the EXACT SAME in both cases, which you should have noted had your read my earlier posts all the way thorugh. Meaning in that steel case...yeap, the fans are right there by the hard-drives as well.

EVERYONE HERE agrees aluminum disappates heat quicker/more efficiently than steel.

And hardware guru's will admit that the hard-drives are an actually surprisingly strong heat source. They are actually screwed into the contacts on the aluminum in at least four places with contact pretty much assured contact along both left and right for the full length of the drive.

Wouldn't it be sensible to come to grips with the fact that the aluminum drive enclosure of the Thermaltake has much more do do with the 10 degree cooler airtemperatures in an identical generic steel case with a steel drive enclosure where all the other temperratures only fluctuate by a degree or two?

No one here has ever suggested that the difference in an aluminum case and steel case is night and day...The very first few posts have been quoting a degree or two, and I feel anandtechs article quite clearly proves that.

The fact that some of your "touch" your case and cannot feel any hotspots and say that's why they know that steel is just as cool as aluminum is laughable. Why not let it go and admit that the tests done with real quipment by anandtech hold their obvious validity over your finger tests.
 
This actually looks like a pretty spiffy fileserver case. Basically the same features as my trusty SLK3000AMB.
 
All arguing about aluminum vs. steel..

Please shut the fuck up.

I'm not siding with anyone, but the difference you're talking about is less than a degree most of the time, the only real difference was the hard drive temperature.

Now take your whining to another thread in a different area.

Nice find aldy.
 
Archaea said:
Aluminum cases actually tend to use THINNER sheet metal, further widening the weight gap between a steel and aluminum case
Click to expand...
I don't know what cheapo aluminum cases you've looked at, but my Coolermaster ATC-110's sheet metal is about 2 to 3 times as thick as a steel cases. Now granted, it is pretty thick for an aluminum case, but I've never seen an aluminum case with thinner sheet metal than a steel one.
 
Got mine today. It's actually a decent case for the price, and the UV reactive window isn't hideous looking. Some of the manufacturing is subpar (screw holes not lining up right, etc), but it works well enough for what I'm using it for.
 
<SARCASM>
I don't know if I can jump on this. It's a good deal and all but I don't think my liquid nitrogen cooling system will fit into this case. Aside from that, I don't know how well it'll launch into space so I can get the vacuum enviroment I like to have my systems work in.
</SARCASM>

If people are so worried about cooling conductivity of the case material, why do they not worry about that big plexiglass window? Wouldn't that be the biggest insulator of them all?

Anyway, I already have a plethora of cases that I don't need. I wish I had seen this one before I had bought that last SkyHawk for $10. I like this one more for it's style and it might even be a better case. I've seen this case before and played around with it a bit so I'm tempted to get it. However, does anyone really need five backup cases? Oi, the decisions to make.

 
^^That article just owned a bunch of you mineralogists and physicists.

Good find OP. Wish it didn't have that window.
 
whew, getting pretty warm in here with all the flaming.

but good deal. thanks OP. I might snag one to practice painting on. :D
 
so who to trust

anandtech?
or
systemcooling?

:rolleyes:

I've never heard of system cooling - but I know I can trust anandtech.
 
Archaea said:
so who to trust

anandtech?
or
systemcooling?

:rolleyes:

I've never heard of system cooling - but I know I can trust anandtech.
Click to expand...


I've never heard of them either, but the process behind thier experiment was sound.
Anandtech on the other hand admitted there were outside things that could influence the temps. Such as non-identical fans, different manufactures, etc.

I have no reason not to trust either of them, they were just testing different things.
System cooling definately seemed more sound.
Testing materials instead of different cases.

I say the evidence points one way, you don't trust the tester, so be it.
 
Archaea said:
I've never heard of system cooling - but I know I can trust anandtech.
Click to expand...
waffles

i needed a good laugh today.
 
thanks for the link, my mom SERIOUSLY needs a better case... this doesn't look to shabby either, and for FREE what more could you ask? :)

I figured hey it can't be so bad, i'll get my $40 back eventually... after the purchase it tells you to go to the rebate website to file it. OK no problem.

then it gives you the option of payment by check (8-10 weeks) or paypal. cool i'll take paypal payment. paypal has 2 flavors.. a) free, 2-3 weeks or b) $4.50 fee for 2-3 days.

cool, the quicker the better, and what's $5 out of $40 anyway. I'll take it. so I submit it, and it sends me to the rebate form which is still REQUIRED to be printed/filled out/and mailed in. god they got me good.

I thought the whole point of filing it online was to NOT have to deal with the whole snail mail thing. meh /rant.
 
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