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Good Cases For Newbies

G

GJSNeptune

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Mar 31, 2004
Messages
12,372
I'm desparately looking for a new case that looks sweet but still has good airflow.

I would REALLY like one with a side window with a blue LED fan, as well as one without an external 3.5" drive. I have a 128 MB Dell USB key so I have no need for 3.5" floppies.

At the same time, I want a sturdy case without the need to mod it initially, such as the Maxtop Twilight case I've been interested in and prolly having to cut out the metal strips blocking the fans in the back.

I've been closed-minded to newegg, and I've looked a little at xoxide.

Anyone have any good recommendations?
 
What's with Maxtop and restricting airflow with their stupid mesh?

But I don't think I'm skilled enough to cut it away cleanly. I'm looking for something where I wouldn't need to mod it until perhaps later.
 
Might you have any pictures of the back of your case with the metal removed?
 
I'm liking that Antec case, 'cause I can put an LED fan on the side window.

Are there any handles one can add to a case?
 
Maxtop makes nice cases. I have one for my secondary rig, which is KO'd at the moment. Decent airflow, doesn't look bad, pretty stable for how cheap it was.
 
Such may be true, but I really want one with a side window with a fan option. This Antec case suggested ealrier in the thread seems very promising and appealing to me, although I was hoping for a black or silver case. Right now I have a PowerSpec with a plain ol' beige case. It's boring.
 
How are the noise levels on the 1000 AMG assuming it has a fan in each possible place?
 
Depends on the fan. Lower CFM will produce less noise, faster will make more though you can a bay or rheobus to control the fans to your liking, which is what I do. Higher quality fans like Vantecs, Panflo's and Pabst make less noise in comparison to cheaply made fans.

In my case, I use high speed for gaming, low speed for music or web surfing

newfrontopen.jpg
 
What about ThermalTake's Volcano fans? I was also looking into one of their heatsinks as well.

Do you use an external fan controller? What about a hard drive enclosure, like a CoolDrive 4? I'm kinda worried about getting a huge WD hard drive and having it suddenly fail.
 
I have the volcano 7 and i love it except for the noise. its very loud. but it keeps it cool.
 
Originally posted by DRJ1014
I have the volcano 7 and i love it except for the noise. its very loud. but it keeps it cool.
Click to expand...

Yeah its tooooo noisy. I have a Vantec Areoflow and its pretty quiet and cools way better then the TT Volcano 7+.
 
Im not a big fan of Thermaltakes HSF units, they produce more noise then the cooling. I use a 7000 zalman HSF, and its dead quite, best HSF i've ever purchased.

As you can see in my pictures, the baybus is my fan controller.

HDD coolers really arn't needed for HDD's still. As long as their is ample air movement inside the case, standard IDE or SATA drives are just fine. Now if you got a RAPTOR or used SCSI then use a drive bay cooler would be cool, but even then, people put dual RAPTORS in cases with no problems.

Basically, I find HDD coolers to be nothing more a way to add flash to a case, nothing more.
 
you need precisely zero skill to remove the grill from the back of the maxtop case. When I first got it, I didnt have a dremel, and actually just tore out a circle in the back and pulled the thing out. It's extremely easy with a dremel, no need to worry about it. You can still put LED fans on the side and top.
 
Originally posted by GJSNeptune
Such may be true, but I really want one with a side window with a fan option. This Antec case suggested ealrier in the thread seems very promising and appealing to me, although I was hoping for a black or silver case. Right now I have a PowerSpec with a plain ol' beige case. It's boring.
Click to expand...
Actually, Chieftec makes a case with a very similar design to this one. It comes in different colors, and there's not really much difference between that and the Antec.
 
Whoops, nevermind. They do have ones with fan mounts on the side window, but they're closin' in on $100. I can get an Antec without a PSU for about $80 and buy an Antec 350W for $50. Maybe Chieftech makes decent PSU's, but I would never feel completely secure without the Antec.
 
I was thinking about purchasing a Cool Drive... But the problem that bugged the hell out of me was that (other than the cost) the fan that cools the hard drive, is a puny 4 x 4 cm fan that only pushes 9 CFM of air. IMO, the cool drive is only useful if you have a small case, or a case that does not have a slot for a fan to blow air directly into the case and the hard drives that are mounted.

Anyways, instead of getting that, just mount your hard drive normally with a 80 x 80 mm fan blowing air towards it. That is a lot cheaper, and if noise is an issue just get a fan controller like what IceWind said.

-Nick
 
Aye. Someone (I think IceWind) already convinced me to trash the CoolDrive 4 idea. Hey, it saves me some cash, too.

...even though I prolly won't build my new computer 'til summer.
 
Can you specifically tell me why you prefer Chieftec? The cases ARE very similar, so I'm curious about how one is better than the other physically.
 
Originally posted by GJSNeptune
Whoops, nevermind. They do have ones with fan mounts on the side window, but they're closin' in on $100. I can get an Antec without a PSU for about $80 and buy an Antec 350W for $50. Maybe Chieftech makes decent PSU's, but I would never feel completely secure without the Antec.
Click to expand...
I was thinking more along the lines of a barebones case like this.

$59, with no PSU. I don't know if that Antec you linked has an alumninum bezel, but I'm assuming it dosen't and it's pretty much the same.
 
Heh, what's a bezel?

These cases are so similar. It's so hard to decide! The Antec looks better in my opinion. The front isn't so curved, or maybe it's just the pictures.
 
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