Need a new good air cooling case

[Ayoralyn]

I haven't done THAT much research. Last time I looked around it seemd the Antec Three Hundred was a good choice for someone on the budget. I have a better budget now, so I was thinking of giving this some serious thought now to get a better air cooling case.

As I said, I haven't done that much research. I have however been looking at some of the reviews in here, of the Antec Three Hundred Two and a new Silverstone TJ04-E Evolution case. The latter has already been removed the the forums it seems, but it's the Silverstone I like the best so far.

Thinkgs I value highly:

1. VERY good air flow. I want a COLD interior. It doesn't HAVE to be air. The thing keeping me to air cooling is the price. As I understand, if you go for watercooling, or maybe a custom oil cooling system or a 3rd option, it tends to get expensive very fast.

2. Noise. Low noise is also pretty high for me.

3. Cable management.

4. 6-8+ Harddrive slots would be very nice. It leaves me room for expanding, without throwing away older harddrives. And a couple of SSD slots wouldn't hurt either.

I'm using a EVGA GTX 570 SuperClocked video card, so there has to be room for that. I guess it's pretty standard these days, but it actually almost couldn't fit into my current case!

I would like to avoid a full tower, but it doesn't really matter. I'm not going to be carrying it around or anything. They are just so big and clumsy

My budget is around 175 USD. I can go a bit higher, but I'd actually prefere something more in the lines of 100-150 bucks. I guess that's it, thanks for the suggestions in advance!

Oh, I can't order from Newegg (I'm from Europe), so any deals they might have, doesn't benefit me.

 

[swatX]

Check out corsair cases. [H] Corsair gallery

Other cases to look at, Antec P280, CM HAF series.

 

[zero2dash]

1. VERY good air flow. I want a COLD interior. It doesn't HAVE to be air. The thing keeping me to air cooling is the price. As I understand, if you go for watercooling, or maybe a custom oil cooling system or a 3rd option, it tends to get expensive very fast.

2. Noise. Low noise is also pretty high for me.

Very hard to get both unless you spend a lot of money on good fans.

Even with a Define R3 (a case built primarily for quiet while still having a lot of fan possibilities) and S-Flex SFF21E's in only a few spots (2 front, 1 bottom, 1 rear.....the 1 side Moduvent and 2 top Moduvents are still in place and I am not using fans in those spots)....my case still has an audible noise of airflow. It's not like my Three Hundred, but it's definitely still not as quiet as I thought it might have been.

Long story short - don't set the bar too high on the quiet if your intention is to have more than a few fans mounted for airflow. The best quiet you're going to get is from a case with a door, and (again) good fans throughout. Anything with a perforated "cheese grater" design (ie any Antec other than the P series, or any HAF)....it's not going to be that quiet. All those holes in the case - the noise will easily get out.

 

[DougCBJ]

Well I have an nzxt phantom case, and my gtx 570 sc gets up to 64 degree celicius max when playing video games ( I have it slightly overclocked at 820/1640/2000 with no changes to voltage). My i5 2500k overclocked to 4.6 only reaches into the mid 50's at max temps but it has a corsair h100 watercooler attached. I'd say the NZXT Phantom case would be great for your needs, but it is a giant case, so it does fail your desire for not having a full size tower.

 

[Ayoralyn]

Check out corsair cases. [H] Corsair gallery

Other cases to look at, Antec P280, CM HAF series.

Thanks for the suggestion. I was just looking over the Corsair 600T. It seems to be pretty popular, but it does seem like a very nice case as well, that would fit most of my needs nicely.

Very hard to get both unless you spend a lot of money on good fans.

Even with a Define R3 (a case built primarily for quiet while still having a lot of fan possibilities) and S-Flex SFF21E's in only a few spots (2 front, 1 bottom, 1 rear.....the 1 side Moduvent and 2 top Moduvents are still in place and I am not using fans in those spots)....my case still has an audible noise of airflow. It's not like my Three Hundred, but it's definitely still not as quiet as I thought it might have been.

Long story short - don't set the bar too high on the quiet if your intention is to have more than a few fans mounted for airflow. The best quiet you're going to get is from a case with a door, and (again) good fans throughout. Anything with a perforated "cheese grater" design (ie any Antec other than the P series, or any HAF)....it's not going to be that quiet. All those holes in the case - the noise will easily get out.

Yeah, I can't say I knew someone would say that, but I had a feeling the noise level might be a problem with too many fans. I suppose that even with a lot of low noise fans, I mean, a lot of low noise still makes noise. What fans would you suggest? I suppose I will be buying a couple of those as well anyway when time comes. Although I kinda like the Corsair 600T right now, the budget is already breached haha.

Well I have an nzxt phantom case, and my gtx 570 sc gets up to 64 degree celicius max when playing video games ( I have it slightly overclocked at 820/1640/2000 with no changes to voltage). My i5 2500k overclocked to 4.6 only reaches into the mid 50's at max temps but it has a corsair h100 watercooler attached. I'd say the NZXT Phantom case would be great for your needs, but it is a giant case, so it does fail your desire for not having a full size tower.

Thank you for the suggestion. The issue with big cases won't be what keeps me from buying one. If it has everything else I want. With it being NZXT though, that might put me a bit on guard. But I will check it out anywho.

 

[zero2dash]

Yeah, I can't say I knew someone would say that, but I had a feeling the noise level might be a problem with too many fans. I suppose that even with a lot of low noise fans, I mean, a lot of low noise still makes noise. What fans would you suggest? I suppose I will be buying a couple of those as well anyway when time comes. Although I kinda like the Corsair 600T right now, the budget is already breached haha.

Well I learned the hard way that just because you buy fans that are rated for 49CFM@20dB (in the case of the SFF21E's)....once you have more than 1 of them, there's more than 20dB being put out. The actual ratios and figures, I honestly don't have an idea how to figure that.....my dumb guesstimate is just to either buy as low as you can (but still get respectable airflow) or just buy whatever you think and then control the speed with a fan controller or undervolt the fans to 7v with resistors/adapters.

I've been out of the "good fans" market for awhile; when I was a buyer there were S-Flex and Noctuas (specifically the P12's and the S12's, but moreso the P12's). Having owned probably 6 P12 Noctuas and owning the bunch of E S-Flex's that I do (I think I have probably 10 total scattered throughout all my systems)....there are better fans out there *now*. Most people rant and rave about Scythe GT's (Gentle Typhoons). I wouldn't mind replacing all my S-Flex with those, given the reviews and praise throughout the tech world....but then again, my S-Flex' still work fine and they do the job, so I put up with the low amount of noise that they do produce.

At a minimum - I would get a fan controller and a bunch of Yate Loon D12SL-12's. You can run those at 7v and they're real quiet. Obviously (being rated for 49CFM@28dB), once you run those at 7v you're probably lowering the airflow by a good 1/3 or so (to go along with the lower amount of noise). I don't know what they're going to run you in Europe; here in the US the "knock off" Yates run $3 and the "direct from Yate Loon" Yates run around $5-$6. My entire Yate experience has been with the supposed "knock offs" and I've been very happy with them; arguably the best bang for the buck fan available. Their 'high' model (D12SH-12's) routinely test as one of the best fans for rads especially for the price.

If you have the money to spend....I would get some GT's. Depending on the case, obviously you might need only 2-3 or you might decide to go crazy and put them in every mount point which could give you 5-6+.

On another note - one more choice to consider -
one of the best airflow cooling cases available are the Silverstones with the 90* internal rotation...specifically I'm talking about the FT02 and the RV02. I've owned an FT02 before and it was a fantastic case....they are very quiet because the 3 intake fans are so large (@ 180mm) that they don't require a lot of CFM to get the job done, so they are very low on noise. Now those cases come with the AP-181 fans; when I had my FT02, the AP-181's were not available yet, so in my case I had the weaker fans and they STILL did a good job. (The AP-181's have been reviewed as doing an even better job on cooling.) If I wasn't such a case swapper I probably would have bought another FT02 (or at least the cheaper RV02) but instead I wanted something different when I sold my SR-2 so I went with the Fractal R3 that I have now. In hindsight - I almost wish I had bought an RV02 instead (especially since I haven't had one of those yet ). Maybe check out the RV02 in your neck of the woods (or the FT02 if you don't mind spending more on that one, for arguably a better looking outer design...although that's IMHO). RV02 is a fantastic case for the price....they're generally $150 here in the States though I've seen them cheaper than that before (and even less used).

 

[MissJ84]

FT02 gets my vote. I really miss it

 

[blood]

If the orientation, size, money isn't the issue. Raven2 and FT02 would be your best bet, especially where cooling is concerned. They are just terribly Long (As opposed to Tall) and throw all heat upwards (can heat up your desk if you are running crossfire / sli).

 

[skeeder]

First of all the 300 while a cheap case does offer alot of room and airflow that can be changed and modified. Rather than spending $175 on a new case I'd recommend changing just modding it.

Check out what this guy did...
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=60019.

Otherwise, I can recommend the Antec P183, or the Corsair Carbide series for silence.

 

[Ayoralyn]

Well I learned the hard way that just because you buy fans that are rated for 49CFM@20dB (in the case of the SFF21E's)....once you have more than 1 of them, there's more than 20dB being put out. The actual ratios and figures, I honestly don't have an idea how to figure that.....my dumb guesstimate is just to either buy as low as you can (but still get respectable airflow) or just buy whatever you think and then control the speed with a fan controller or undervolt the fans to 7v with resistors/adapters.

I've been out of the "good fans" market for awhile; when I was a buyer there were S-Flex and Noctuas (specifically the P12's and the S12's, but moreso the P12's). Having owned probably 6 P12 Noctuas and owning the bunch of E S-Flex's that I do (I think I have probably 10 total scattered throughout all my systems)....there are better fans out there *now*. Most people rant and rave about Scythe GT's (Gentle Typhoons). I wouldn't mind replacing all my S-Flex with those, given the reviews and praise throughout the tech world....but then again, my S-Flex' still work fine and they do the job, so I put up with the low amount of noise that they do produce.

At a minimum - I would get a fan controller and a bunch of Yate Loon D12SL-12's. You can run those at 7v and they're real quiet. Obviously (being rated for 49CFM@28dB), once you run those at 7v you're probably lowering the airflow by a good 1/3 or so (to go along with the lower amount of noise). I don't know what they're going to run you in Europe; here in the US the "knock off" Yates run $3 and the "direct from Yate Loon" Yates run around $5-$6. My entire Yate experience has been with the supposed "knock offs" and I've been very happy with them; arguably the best bang for the buck fan available. Their 'high' model (D12SH-12's) routinely test as one of the best fans for rads especially for the price.

If you have the money to spend....I would get some GT's. Depending on the case, obviously you might need only 2-3 or you might decide to go crazy and put them in every mount point which could give you 5-6+.

On another note - one more choice to consider -
one of the best airflow cooling cases available are the Silverstones with the 90* internal rotation...specifically I'm talking about the FT02 and the RV02. I've owned an FT02 before and it was a fantastic case....they are very quiet because the 3 intake fans are so large (@ 180mm) that they don't require a lot of CFM to get the job done, so they are very low on noise. Now those cases come with the AP-181 fans; when I had my FT02, the AP-181's were not available yet, so in my case I had the weaker fans and they STILL did a good job. (The AP-181's have been reviewed as doing an even better job on cooling.) If I wasn't such a case swapper I probably would have bought another FT02 (or at least the cheaper RV02) but instead I wanted something different when I sold my SR-2 so I went with the Fractal R3 that I have now. In hindsight - I almost wish I had bought an RV02 instead (especially since I haven't had one of those yet ). Maybe check out the RV02 in your neck of the woods (or the FT02 if you don't mind spending more on that one, for arguably a better looking outer design...although that's IMHO). RV02 is a fantastic case for the price....they're generally $150 here in the States though I've seen them cheaper than that before (and even less used).

Thank you for the long input. I was considering buying a new case a year ago or so as well, but decided on changing a few other things first. The FT02 and the RV02 were actually on my list back then of candidates. I do think that the FT02 has a far better looking design for my taste as well, but the price is also very much out of my budget. I have the money for it, but it is rather expensive compared to the RV02. Is the only real difference between the two, the design? I mean are there any significant pros that would make the FT02 far superior to the RV02?

As far as the GT's go, I found 5 different kinds of them. I haven't studied the details, but the price is about 25 USD if I buy them in my own country. A quick glance though tells me the difference between them is CMF (I'm not exactly sure what that is still), RPM, and in hand with that, of course the noise level. I'm not looking to overkill my cooling needs just yet, so I think that 2-3 additional fans would be more then enough. Especially if I buy a case where there might already be 2-4 fans installed. (I'm thinking the one with 1150 RPM and a 16 dBA noise level would be suffecient for me, correct me if I'm wrong).

Well, the Corsair 600T you'll get under $175 at least and that that's a good choice I have to chime in:
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Graphite-Mid-Tower-Computer-CC600TM/dp/B004X63JWS

Good luck!

Thank you for the input. I'll probably order it from Amazon if I decide on that case!

FT02 gets my vote. I really miss it

Thank you for the input!

If the orientation, size, money isn't the issue. Raven2 and FT02 would be your best bet, especially where cooling is concerned. They are just terribly Long (As opposed to Tall) and throw all heat upwards (can heat up your desk if you are running crossfire / sli).

I'm not sure I understand you correctly. The way I understand it though, is that it's actually a compoliment. Thanks for the input.

First of all the 300 while a cheap case does offer alot of room and airflow that can be changed and modified. Rather than spending $175 on a new case I'd recommend changing just modding it.

Check out what this guy did...
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=60019.

Otherwise, I can recommend the Antec P183, or the Corsair Carbide series for silence.

Thanks for the tip. However, I am one of those people who have 10 thumbs, and I tend to break things more when trying to fix them. So I'd say modding is definitely out of the question haha.

 

[Ayoralyn]

The lifetime on threads here is real short

 

[magoo]

I can say that the Silverstone FT02 is probably the best all-around air cooling case I've ever had.

I have run GTX 480s and now GTX 580s in this case and it has been stellar at cool and quiet.

This case could use another 15-20mm of space in the back for cables, but that's about my only gripe.

It is kind of big and heavy, but the build quality and cooling design make up for that easily.

The case is quiet, very quiet. It would not be too friendly for watercooling unless you modify it pretty heavily.

I did have to buy some cable extenders though......one 8 pin for the ATX plug, and one set of PCI-e 12" (6 pin and 8 pin, but depends on the GPU) so I could route the cables appropiately.