Need A Midtower Recommendation

liquidfluidity

liquidfluidity

2[H]4U
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Dec 28, 2006
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It's time to retire the Antec 900 and move to something a little more updated. Looking for a midtower that has cable management and can support some water cooling. Not asking much , right? ;) I have always liked the NZXT Panzerbox but don't really like the psu placement or all of the mesh panels. I wonder how loud it is and how clean it stays on the inside. I'm really tired of dust and noise! The width is what really catches my eye. Seems like it would work well and cool nicely.

Is there a medium sized Mountain Mods case to fit my needs? Also like the Raven series but that's starting to get a little large.

Suggestions and linkage would be highly appreciated. X-mas is coming........ :)
 
I have a raven 3 and love it, plenty of room, plenty of cooling power, however it does take proper thought for wiring, and most certainly takes some time to do it well :p

Xigmatech Midgard II would be a good choice, as well Fractal Define R3, Corsair 400R/500R are very nice cases, Coolermaster HAF 922/932, are some other choices.

The only thing I can point out I suppose, is make sure whatever case you go with you have at least 160mm cpu cooler clearence, as well as enough room for a 6950-6970, say 12-13inch clearence, not many midtower can offer this, however this is starting to change, as alot of lower end cases are now allowing hard drive bay to be taken out, sometimes in 2 seperate pieces, giving you oodles of room :p

I think, for myself, though the raven 3, is a little time consuming for the build process, it is well worth it, I am using it with a hyper 212+ cooler push/pull HX750, Radeon 6870 with S1 Rev 2 cooler, there is plenty of space for cooling options, I suppose the nice thing about it is, even though I have just as many fans as I did in my Centurion 590, it is noticeably quieter and approx 10-15c cooler load temps, so it does its job.

Hope this helps.
 
I have settled on the Lian Li PC-Z60B after much debate and anguish of giving up my Antec 900. I don't liquid cool, but I will miss the mesh on the 900 because I liked the fact that I could swipe my hand across it and clean 80% of the dust without having to remove anything. The other case I was really considering was the Antec Solo II, I like the solid side and the sound dampening material already installed, but do not care for the front panel ports down the side of the case. I mush prefer them up top.

http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=574&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=62&g=f
 
So many decisions. I am planning on doing my cooling at the same time and would like to be able to have at least a 2x120mm radiator inside comfortably. Too much to ask from a midtower?
 
Just to add weight to his recommendations, I pretty much agree with the case suggestions by dragonstongue.
 
I have always mounted my radiators on the outside of the case, why would you want to introduce all that heat inside the case? Maybe I have been out of the loop to long in water cooling... I would be tidier inside but the job of the radiator is to remove the heat, I always thought they would work better outside, with a fan inside pushing air through them.
 
well with using rads, it doesnt matter if it is in or out side of the case,what ever fits, besides you can always mod some bad ass shroud for the rad if you wanted to, but either way if it is in the case or on the out side there will be no difference in temperature, just it will look better inside, rather than out side, unless you have it mounter on top of the case, then it doesnt look too bad., and also computers can look awesome, but who says they need to be tidy >:D
 
umm, temps most certainly would start to add up if rad is left inside case, heat has no real place to go, fans can only do so much, after all, surface area is key, considering how much liquid most setups have, heatsoak, or the point where liquid begins to not be able to wick the heat away can become a problem(well depending on parts used)

If one were concerned with looks, you could always have it outside the case, ample liquid, put it on the side, but hide it behind a "fake wall" or even get a taller fanless unit like those V2 rads or even make your own, I am sure one of those fancy 5 gallon bottles wtaer bottles, filled up, and lit up would look real cool, kinda like a frankenstein feeding machine :p with that amount of liquid I am 100% sure it can be fanless provided there is enough ambient cool air to help it, if not, the cooler it sits on, can be turned on(and regulated)
 
I have the Coolermaster CM 690 II. It is by far, the best case I have ever owned. I can't even think of anything bad to say about it off hand.
 
If you're looking for a midtower, go with the Corsair 600T. I PROMISE it won't let you down. Here, take a look at my rig:

29aeb550_31.jpeg


I've got two rads in there, a full water cooling system with two separate loops, and a bunch of other shit.
 
Thats a sick look crash.

600T is a very nice case, I have a buddy whom has a ver high end build, with air cooling, for him it took alot of fiddling around with the fans, cfm of those fans, direction or air and such to get reasonable cooling for his dual 590 gpu and 2600k overclocked/overvolted.

I suppose its way different if one is water cooling, the top 2 fan spot is perfect place for a rad and back wall can also serve as this if need be, but for air cooling, 2 fans up top just is not the greatest spot, I myself, would rather see 1 fan set at an angle at the top back, this way here no issues with wiring and such, and can easily provide a very good air directionality, for the second fan spot maybe just have it blanked off unless using a rad for liquid.
 
IIIIICRASHIIIII said:
If you're looking for a midtower, go with the Corsair 600T. I PROMISE it won't let you down. Here, take a look at my rig:



I've got two rads in there, a full water cooling system with two separate loops, and a bunch of other shit.
Click to expand...

What kind of lighting are you using in that case?
 
That Cubitek was definitely worth a look but I think Corsair is going to be a winner.

Crash - did you do all of the work yourself? Very sweet looking! Probably have to get a hold of you when I'm ready for the swap. ;)
 
The corsair cases are nice but my only pitfall with them, like my current case it does not have ample fan filters to keep a nice dust free environment. So constant cleaning is needed, every 2 weeks.


I personally like the antec p 280, Will likely be my next case.

However i feel right now i might just go full custom case and get to building.
 
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