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GTR GT3-BH Case

N

nray

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 20, 2006
Messages
316
Just saw this review, and though it's expensive, I really respect the case design:

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/gt3/

It's one of the most compact ATX cases I've seen, and pretty stylish as well (I would have preferred a nice aluminum front to the faux carbon fiber, but it's not too bad).
 
Interesting but not for me.

Non-standard power supply.
No possibility of running SLI, how can they advertise this as a LAN case? :rolleyes:

- JT
 
W6FO said:
Interesting but not for me.

Non-standard power supply.
No possibility of running SLI, how can they advertise this as a LAN case? :rolleyes:

- JT
Click to expand...

Not every gamer wants or needs to run SLI. I'd rather have two gaming computers (one for me, one for my girlfriend or a friend to use) than two cards in SLI in one computer. Considering you only need SLI if you run really high resolution, unless you have a 30" monitor you're better off upgrading to a single 8800 than adding a second card anyway.

I could be wrong, but judging from the pictures it appears to me that the power supply is a standard MicroATX type. I'm really happy to see they included an FSP model with the case, which is one of the best brands. But if you needed more power, you could pick up something like the Athena Power AP-MP4ATX40 400W for $33, which is a hell of a lot more power supply flexibility than you'd get with most SFF cases out there.

So I think both your points are moot.
 
Hey, I just said it wasn't for me. But, then I have very picky requirements. For me, those are very VALID cons. Now, if you buy one, send the power supply over to JonnyGURU and have him put it through some testing. Maybe then I'll change my mind about the PSU.

Also, a LAN party isn't just for gaming. It's also for showing off your rig and seeing who has the biggest penis. I'd get laughed at if I walked into a LAN carrying that silly thing.

- JT
 
W6FO said:
It's also for showing off your rig and seeing who has the biggest penis.
Click to expand...

When I'm at a party and we want to know who has the biggest penis, we just unzip and slap our dicks on the table. ;)
 
Meh I think the Lian li PC-A05 is better. Its a little bigger but you can fit good heatsinks in it.
 
kingdomwinds said:
Meh I think the Lian li PC-A05 is better. Its a little bigger but you can fit good heatsinks in it.
Click to expand...

I have the Lian Li PC-A05 and Antec NSK1300, and I have no plans to get the GT3-BH case, but I still think it's a good effort and does some things that no other case out there does.
 
that would require making the case larger, which is kind of against what this case is all about... right?
 
W6FO said:
Also, a LAN party isn't just for gaming. It's also for showing off your rig and seeing who has the biggest penis. I'd get laughed at if I walked into a LAN carrying that silly thing.
Click to expand...

You go to some odd lan parties... Around here, it's about playing computer games. We generally don't want to see the other guys goods...

But in any event, you obviously go to odd lan parties where people laugh at other peoples cases and don't play computer games.


About the case now... It's kind of nifty Though it looks a bit cramped and has some funky way of using your cards which could be a pain. Looks wise it's not bad, but it looks like it would be a pain to build in.
 
The ironic thing, the computers I would laugh at seems to be what 90% of what i've seen at lan parties - cases packed with lit up fan controllers, windows everywhere with tonnes of uv reactive components and lighting, lighting, lighting. Am I the only one that likes subtle, simple cases without lights and excessive knobs?

I like that case though. I would like to see a trend towards small cases with well designed air flow patterns etc. I see no reason why a small well engineered case could have better thermal characteristics than a standard behemoth.

Edit: Yeesh, this things volume is smaller than an Antec NSK-3300 / 3400. Antec = 24.69 Liters, GTR = 13.58 Litres. Pitty the GTR is a) Darn expensive and b) Not avaliable in the UK. Argh, this always happens.
 
timothius said:
The ironic thing, the computers I would laugh at seems to be what 90% of what i've seen at lan parties - cases packed with lit up fan controllers, windows everywhere with tonnes of uv reactive components and lighting, lighting, lighting. Am I the only one that likes subtle, simple cases without lights and excessive knobs?

I like that case though. I would like to see a trend towards small cases with well designed air flow patterns etc. I see no reason why a small well engineered case could have better thermal characteristics than a standard behemoth.

Edit: Yeesh, this things volume is smaller than an Antec NSK-3300 / 3400. Antec = 24.69 Liters, GTR = 13.58 Litres. Pitty the GTR is a) Darn expensive and b) Not avaliable in the UK. Argh, this always happens.
Click to expand...

I don't go to many LAN parties, I really don't like case bling, however I think the GT3 is a pretty slick case despite it's lit up logo. (I ended up getting a Lian Li PC-A05B, which I then de-badged and got two Pioneer all-black DVD writers for, so there are no visible logos at all on the front, and also a Lanbox Lite, which I wish I could debadge easily but overall is fairly understated to begin with.)

I'd like to see what else the GTR Tech company could do, I thought the company profile/personal history here was interesting:

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/gtr_tech/

I agree with most of the observations there about the industry.
 
I have been to more than a few lan parties. Yes there is the "light-show" crowd, and if you don't expect that type to be at a lan, well you are mistaken. Many of them are fanboi's of one brand or another, so its just like a car show, if its pretty (to them of course) then its cool. If you are running a datsun-like case, they will laugh at you (regardless of what is under the hood).

I have been running SFF machines for the past 3 years, and have come to prefer having 2 machines. An SFF for lan gaming, and a larger full-sized machine. I do like the project goals of the GT3, but I don't like the drawbacks (like the 8800 not being approved for installation). The one thing that must advance and rapidly in lan gaming situations is the video card. The exclusion of the cards on the high-end is a very big no no for my lan gaming needs. Hell even a Shuttle SN25P can run a 8800 GTS. I think this case should have been no different.

Also why would I want to put a full size ATX MB in a machine that I cannot use half of the slots due to case design requirements? I can't use all the SATA ports, the drives would not fit. I understand that in an SFF you make some concessions for size, but there are some here that don't hold much water.

Pros: Great for Transport
ATX Board support (not really a pro, but I added it anyway)
Diminutive size (this is a big plus)

Cons: High-end, High Power cards no dice (a big deal)
Certain ram is not going to work due to height
Small fans (not noisy, but not large)
Compact CD required (not that big of a deal)

Since its a lan party capable machine, I cannot deny it has niche, but I would want the ability to install higher end video cards in my lan chassis. If a 8600/7900/X1900XT is what you are putting in this chassis, it should work well. Just get a nice large Hard drive for all the LAN Pron!
 
The nice part about a full size board (At least prior to the G33 boards) would be that you can put a board that overclocks very well into a small case.

However now with the G33 boards out and kicking ass, that's moot point.


As for lights and stuff. I like UV. But tasteful use of UV. I have a distinct hatred for blue lighting in PC's due to it being everywhere. Eventually I'll get a new lan box setup in a acrylic case or something. But there are no UV mobo's really anymore since DFI didn't continue it's proliferation of them into other chipsets and sockets. Oh well.
 
Wow, lots of Ranting here!!

I applaud the designers of this case, it is very innovative. I wish more companies played around like this. These guys have created a lean, mean gaming machine. They made some compromises that will not affect most people. Now if they could just lower the price :)

The PSU is from FSP so you know it will be a solid 350 watt; and without SLI, you don't need more power than that.
I think we should all get slim-DVDs instead of the old 5.25 drives.
I wish they had space for 3 HDDs or so.
Finally, the PCI-express riser is a great idea to make things skinny, but it kills your options for other cards (from 7 cards to 3) ...plus you probably loose 0.1% performance ;). Then again, not many people need more than 3 cards.
Regarding GF8800's. Well, this was a goof. They should have made them compatible. But, since this case took over a year to design (and build?), they could not have known that Nvidia was going to come out with such HUUUUGE boards. Personally, I blame Nvidia :p


I can't wait for them to make a mATX case!!
 
Ozone77 said:
I can't wait for them to make a mATX case!!
Click to expand...

I agree. I would love to see a truly small uAtx case without sacrificing pci slots etc. All the cases smaller than the NSK3400 seem to use half size pci slots - with this riser type arrangment one could use full size cards while still maintaing the slim form factor.
 
So a 8800GTS won't fit in this box either?

I was considering this case until I saw it would cost another $40+ dollars for a slim dvd r/w drive bumping the case to $300.
 
samduhman said:
So a 8800GTS won't fit in this box either?
Click to expand...

The 8800GTS will fit - its the same length (229mm) as the 7900GTX, 7900GTO, X1900XT, and X1950XT, and here is what the GTR-BH3 case will fit:

http://sportcompactpc.com/web/faq.aspx

"GT3 is designed to support the vast majority of high-end video cards in the market, full height add-in cards(4.376”)with lengths up to 9.25”, or 235x111mm."

So that rules out the 8800GTX and HD 2900XT.
 
WintersFury said:
The nice part about a full size board (At least prior to the G33 boards) would be that you can put a board that overclocks very well into a small case.

However now with the G33 boards out and kicking ass, that's moot point.
Click to expand...

That is close to what I concluded - I was seriously considering the GT3-BH case with the AOpen i975Xa-YDG motherboard, which is the greatest Mobile Core Duo/Core 2 Duo overclocking board ever, but two things made me pause - one was the fact that I didn't know if the board would ship with the version 1.06 BIOS from 2006/7/14 which introduced Merom (Core 2 Duo) support, which would mean that I'd have to borrow a Mobile Core Solo or Duo CPU to flash update the BIOS before being able to boot with a Core 2 Duo CPU, and the other was that as easy as it is to overclock with the AOpen i975Xa-YDG, a desktop Core 2 Duo CPU with an 800Mhz bus can be easily overclocked as long as you have a 1:1 memory multiplier and can do a 1333Mhz FSB, and I knew that the ASUS P5K-VM was coming.

However, I do think that the Mobile Core 2 Duo would be the best CPU for an SFF case like the GT3-BH. And with the AOpen i975Xa-YDG, you can use any socket 478 heatsink/fan, of which there are many effective (and not gigantic) solutions which would go great in that case and cool an overclocked mobile CPU really well. And it was really tempting that you can get the i975Xa-YDG for $169 now, when it used to be over $300. (I think it's crazy that Shuttle only uses the Mobile CPUs in their SFF systems that are super-thin and only have on-board video, when I think they'd be a better choice for their regular SFF systems than the LGA775 processors.)
 
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