Need advice Gigabyte 3D Aurora

[toostrike99]

I have been considering this case for my new build.Newegg has this for 139.00 bucks.I know thats not cheap,but quality comes with a price.I have read alot of reviews on this case,and most of the reviewers give this case 9 out of 10 stars.

The biggest flaw I can see is trapped or dead are space were the video card is installed.The harddrives are cooled through the front bottom 120cm intake,but air flow is restricted by the expansion slots.The left side does have a mesh grill for air intake,but with I high end video card it wont matter much.

The positive

The 3 120's are a nice feature.I plan on adding an additional 12cm blow hole(on top of case) for exhaust.I think that will pull a good amount of air for cooling.

front bottom 120 =intake

2 back 120's=exhaust

1 top 120=exhaust

 

[WCES Ryan]

I have that case on air, it's awesome, I'm very happy with it, it runs very cool, far more than my previous case. I was going to go water with it, but to save a long story, it's on air. I think it has great airflow thanks to the front intake fan, and everything runs super cool. I say go for it. What video card do you have?

 

[vanilla_guerilla]

i have this case since christmas. you are right, there is a big dead air space by the vid cards and chipset. the hdd cage blocks the airflow, leaving just about zero ventilation (especially if you have the one with the window, like i do). also, the fans spin at something like 800rpm, quiet, but doesnt move too much air. i swapped all my fans for tt thunderblades, which spin up to 2200 rpm and have them on a fan controller. i cut a 120mm suckhole in the window next to the vid cards and installed a tt smartfan 2. you may not need this with the mesh side panel, but maybe you do. this would be a better mod than the top blowhole. now it is an excellent case and i think its prob the best out there for less than a deuce.


before i cut suckhole

disregard the cheap catmod i nailed on to the top. it never worked right so i threw it away.

 

[matt00926]

Yea it is only quiet because the fans barely move and along with that air barely moves. Its great at least theirs still setup and room for 2 x 120mm exhaust but i would deff replace them. Not worth the price tag though imo

 

[dcbiii]

I was going to buy this case, but I decided to just pick up the Lian Li v1000 for 30 more dollars.

The aurora is SOLID as a rock, but fairly big. I cannot seem to find the acrylic side window cases anymore, all of them have that mesh siding now. It's a nice case, but I would also suspect some airflow issues.

 

[vanilla_guerilla]

you are right. some guys drilled out the rivets on the hdd cage and turned it 90 degrees to let the air flow unimpeded, but thats just too much work for me. the suckhole works fine. i had already done the coolermaster and lian li thing, so i wanted to try something new. its a big quiet case, i can fit a 2x120mm rad on the inside when i go to water, and i can do a lot more work with components inside the case than i have ever been able to. with the wavemaster, i had to remove my bottom video card and unplug some drives just to clear the cmos.