Large Cheap Case

Eocene

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 21, 2004
Messages
446
Hey there,

I want to try to get a large case.... something cheap. What do you guys recommend? I want to keep it under $80.



I'm not sure if my PSU cables will reach.. they seem standard (BFG EX-1000 1000W Modular).



Currently I have a really small cheap case that hardly fits 4 hard drives, gtx480+8800gt, Core i7. Because of this I keep 2 external HDs over USB. I always wonder why cases have 4+ optical drive bays...


I was also thinking with a cheap heatsink

I heard this one was really good:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002G1YPH0/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER


Not sure if I can get 4ghz (930) with that...


This seems to get great reviews:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103011

But then I find things like this on ebay:


http://cgi.ebay.com/E-ATX-FULL-SERV...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230630cb69


I'm in northern california and the temps seem to get a bit hot.
 
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That eBay case would be $100+ after shipping, and it looks like a piece of junk.

Why do you need a big case? It sounds like your setup would fit easily in just about any mid-tower, with room to spare for expansion. If you need more HDD room there are plenty of 5.25" to 3.5" adapter bays around; I have one that converts 2 5.25" bays to 3 3.5" HDD bays and has a fan in it. There are some 3 in to 4 and 3 in to 5 adapters available too, from Silverstone, Lian Li, and Thermaltake. $20 or so on one of those would make a lot more sense than bothering with a whole new case, or even if you did get a new case, you could focus on something that looks nice / has the featureset you want (and good airflow -- something these big old-design E-ATX monstrosities won't have) and get the harddrives in that way.

Take a look at these Lian-Lis. They're at least well made and will last for you. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010090007 50001375 4808&name=Lian-Li
 
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You can try checking ebay/craigslist for the rocketfish case. It's a Lian Li full-tower rebrand.
 
Hmm, can't find the rocketfish case.


Maybe the ebay case I posted is expensive for you guys but shipping for me shows up as $25. So it would be $68 total
 

Ugly, but nothing really wrong with it. Rear 120mm fan, and it looks like space for one up in front of the HDD rack. Get a 4 HDD in to 3 5.25" bay adapter and another 120mm fan and you should be good, unless you just want to get rid of it cause it's not very attractive.

The Titan would in some ways be a step down -- 92mm fans up front instead of 120mm. Shows it's an older design. Definitely better built and better looking, though, and $60 isn't a bad price.
 
I don't really care about looks. It just seems everything will get hot if I put the other 2 HDs inside and make it 6 total.
 
I don't really care about looks. It just seems everything will get hot if I put the other 2 HDs inside and make it 6 total.

HDDs don't really produce that much heat, and you'll almost certainly see your temps drop if you install a front 120mm fan in the free spot in your case. Also many 5.25" bay adapters that allow you to mount multiple harddrives include a fan of their own to help offset the additional heat.
 
do you need your optical drive? with 3 5.25" bays, you can pop a hot-swap cage in and have room for 4 more drives. granted, for what the cage costs you could probably buy a new case with as many slots as you want.
 
I'm in northern california and the temps seem to get a bit hot.

If all you're concerned about is cooling, the CoolerMaster Centurion 590 is a damn good case. It's a midtower, but your temps are going to be better in that than in most other cases of any size-especially if you get a second hard drive cage (or one of those Scythe 120mm 5.25" fan things), leave it empty and let the fan in it blow directly across your GPUs. And if noise is important to you, you'll be able to keep things cool fairly quietly just due to the sheer number of fans you can put in it and their mounting positions.

The toollless mounting system for the cards sucks, but it can be removed easily enough and the one for the optical drives (which is also easily removed) isn't as bad as some of the other ones on the market.

I'm in northern CA as well and the 590s that I have have no problem handling keeping my Phenom box (sig)-which pulls about 870w @ the wall under full load-or my file server cool.

If you really want a big case, this thing is big and not that much more expensive than your price range. I had the older version of that with 5 80mm fans and 1 120 about 10 years ago; they're solid, well-built cases. You'd need to do some modding (or put up with a hell of a lot of noise) to get the same kind of airflow through that that you would with the 590, but it'd be pretty straightforward to do it.
 
$29 shipping on that Chieftec kills it. There are a lot better options for $125+.

For the most part, I agree with you, although it depends on what you want out of a case. As far as something you can just throw your system in and run it, hell yes you can do a lot better for $125. If you're going to be making some mods I think you're actually better off starting with a blank canvas, so to speak, than with a system that's already got fan mounts all over the place and whatnot. Just depends on what your plans for the case are.
 
Not sure of the price right now but the Coolermaster CM690 is a great case. The hyper212+ is a good hs just not for 4.0 ghz
 
http://www.directron.com/serverr910.html

Very simple nicely equipped FULL Tower case for $59.99
I checked the shipping for KY it was $29, so might be in your range, or just a few bucks over depending on shipping.
---
I've always used full tower cases, and I used to get these great deals at servercases.com but they are closed, really bummed me out, got my last full tower for like 30 bucks.
 
Here is an even better deal on a great case, ready to have some personality added to it:

http://www.pcrproinc.com/servlet/the-1425/10-BAY-AT-FULL/Detail
$39.99

atatx1_572_1.jpg

Image from pcrproinc, not me!
 
^^^
That's an ancient AT case. It'd take a good bit of modding to even mount an ATX board in. Not at all worthwhile.

There's one that looks very similar except it claims to be convertible between AT and ATX, but given the 80mm fans I'd stay clear of it too. (think that cage in the front is for an 80mm)
http://www.pcrproinc.com/servlet/the-1367/5-BAY-FULL-TOWER/Detail

There are a few InWin server cases for $50, too.
 
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Here is an even better deal on a great case, ready to have some personality added to it:

http://www.pcrproinc.com/servlet/the-1425/10-BAY-AT-FULL/Detail
$39.99

Have you dealt with PC R Pro or whatever before? I've got a bad habit of collecting dual/quad socket boards, and I have a bunch of AT socket 7 and 8 boards that need cases, and those would be perfect.

As far as the OP's search goes... the one that silent-circuit linked to would work, as long as he keeps in mind that these things are cheap, low quality cases. Like you (hitman) said, though... They're a good starting point if you're planning on modding the hell out of it.
 
I don't really care about looks. It just seems everything will get hot if I put the other 2 HDs inside and make it 6 total.

As you have figured out, all the drives right behind the lower front intake fan just blocks and kills the intake airflow and the whole case heats up.

Not making a specific recommendation but you want the older style cases without any fancy drive bays etc. you want to be able to have some empty bays between the drives.

Another option is a couple of adapter rails so a couple of the lesser used drives could go up into the 5 1/4 bays.

Not recommending this case but you want something like this for drive mounting, (or buy a 2 TB drive and get rid of the problem that way.

--- holy crap cannot find the old style cheap server full tower cases that would accomodate 8-10 HDs. --- :(

So. $80 bucks shipped (~$60 for a case) - I think this is your best way out.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ption=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=


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