Looking to buy new case.

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Supreme [H]ardness
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Mar 2, 2010
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I have had my trusty PC-V1200BW+ for years now and i love it to death but i would like some better cooling. I have not taken a real look at cases since i bought the one i have now and it seems to me that there are just tons of higher end cases these days compared to before.

I plan on sticking with air cooling (well i have an h50 but you know).

What i have mostly been looking at is the FT02 fortress and the ATCS 840. I have a few questions on these cases though.

How is the cable management on the FT02 and where and how would i mount my H50? I saw someone mention that because its all positive air pressure dust is less of an issue is this true?

On the ATCS 840 i have read that the side panels are flimsy and can vibrate making some noise, any truth to that?
 
i have heard about the atcs side pannels, some sound dampaning will fix it im not sure for the h50 in the silverstone, and i like the atcs i own a atcs 100 lol
 
Looking like the ft02 might be the best option. Reading people complaining about the side doors on the 840. I honestly have yet to find anyone making any sort of complaints about the ft02 on the other hand.
 
no doubt its a great case but if your planning on using the h50 i dont think it is the best, possible put it on one of the bottom fans? but that would blow heat inside the case, idk
 
Would really like some more input on this. Such a tough decision since i plan on using it for about 4 years.

Didnt Kyle say he used an H50 with the ft02 on tekzilla?
 
I had considered buying both the 840 and the ft02 in the past and have had hands-on with both cases so hopefully some of this helps your decision.

The panels on the 840 are not flimsy IMO. Sure they're not as thick as the stuff you see on some Lian Li cases, but the 840 is also a humongous all-aluminum full tower that costs a LOT less than $200. Heck, the 840 even has a removable mobo tray (that is a bit flimsy)! Not a bad tradeoff getting all those features for such a low price. As long as you're not rough with your case or hauling off to LANs every weekend, the 840's side panels will not be a problem. By comparison, the ft02 is a freakin' tank both in durability and weight, but it's only a mid-tower in terms of what you can stuff inside (admittedly, the distinction is blurry these days). The ft02 is NOT all-aluminum; only the unibody frame is made from aluminum. The rest of it is steel including the side panels. Cable management is easier on the ft02 partially because the layout forces you to take advantage of the cutouts and routing options. The 840 isn't bad at cable management, it's just not as easy.

You can use an h50 just fine in the ft02, but tempwise it's not as good as using a traditional heatsink. Not that the h50 is bad, it works well, just not as great as a beefy heatsink. Check the [H] thread and you'll see plenty pics with people mounting the h50 up top at the 120mm exhaust point, and at the bottom on top of the 180mm fans via an adapter.

Next, keep in mind you're comparing two cases that are in very different price segments. The ft02 rarely goes on sale and usually costs $240-275 depending on tax/sh. The Cooler Master ATCS 840 on the other hand goes on sale several times a year and costs ~$170-200 with tax/sh. That's a lot of coin to buy a heatsink or better vid card. As a side note which may not matter to you, the CM 840 will probably never see an update to usb 3.0 for the front I/O ports. The ft02 still doesn't have usb 3.0 either, but at least their forum rep has at least hinted that there might be an upgraded cable available for purchase in the future.

All in all, I'd probably break it down like this; buy an ft02 if:
  • you don't mind the price difference
  • "quiet cooling" is important to you
  • you don't need a true full-tower for dual CPUs, watercooling etc

Otherwise, consider the CM 840. It still does a great job of cooling without being loud, and it has a ton of room. Both cases are freakin' gorgeous to look although your pc-v1200 prolly tops 'em both in that dept. :cool:

Oh yeah, almost forgot. If the panels of the 840 do end up being a problem for you due to vibrations or whatever, that kinda stuff isn't too tough to fix. Adding some weight to the panels via Dynamat, suspending/sandwiching hdds and other ideas work great. Hit the silentpcreview forums for more help on that kinda stuff.


Edit: here's a pair of reviews from Bit-tech covering both cases.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2008/10/31/cooler-master-atcs-840-classic-review/1
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2010/08/12/silverstone-ft02r-w-review/1
 
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