• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Need the PERFECT case!

V

Vermicious Knid

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 5, 2003
Messages
222
I'm looking for a new case, but im having trouble finding the perfect one.

'Perfect' in my mind would have as many as possible of the following features:

-Full size tower (or a VERRY spacious Midtower) : needs to be able to hold at least 4 RAIDed hdds 2optical drives, fancontrollers, etc, etc, MUST have room for Watercooling down the line.

-All aluminum construction(in silver or black preffered)

-Removable MOBO tray (this is one of the biggest im looking for as swapping mobos in my current case is a royal pain in the you know what)

-Premodded side window(this would be really nice but not totally nessisary as my modding skills are not yet at the point i would trust myself to install one)

-Should have good looks but not to the point of being cheesy(cheezy defined as in thermaltake Xaser cases)


any suggestions that meet these criteria?
 
I would recommend the Lian Li PC-75b, except it doesn't have a removable motherboard tray :\
 
If you can find it, the coolermaster atc 101b is exactly what you're looking for. Exactly.

Better build quality than lian li, about the same as silverstone
all aluminum, very light
high quality, thick side window made of perspex (better than plexi and lexan)
removable mobo tray
thumbscrews EVERYWHERE including pci card slots
great looks
watercooling room (mines watercooled right now)


IMHO quite simply the best case ever made. actually, in many others humble opinions too. :p
 
Praetorian, and you can buy an extra side panel with a window from newegg.
 
Chieftech would work, also pc-75 lian li, or even silverstone if you are willing to dish out the cash.
 
my life is incomplete without that case chenbro case...i'm serious...
Click to expand...

You know, I was going to say the EXACT same words...Where can I find them? :eek:

I want the black one, RIGHT NOW!!! :eek:
 
the outside is decent, but look @ the inside in this pic...

post-41-1086198527.jpg


It looks very cheaply made. Tons of holes in the aluminum or steel or whatever it is in the HD bays, the aluminum isn't that thick, you're going to have a LOT of wind noise with the back grill cutout (that kind of holes are the WORST; I had the same cutout on my old generic case and took a dremel to it the damn whistling noise was so loud); kinda reminds me of a thermaltake xaser case. Plenty of bling but it just can't sing. For $75, you're just not going to get the same quality that you will get in a $150-300 case. Its not "The ultimate case" so to speak. NOw I'm not saying its horrible, or even bad. It looks like the best budget case I have ever seen. It looks loads better than my old verre v770 that was total crap for $80. But its NOT a silverstone, coolermaster, or even lian li.

Compare to this:

Good5.jpg

Good4.jpg

7.jpg

4.jpg

30.jpg

15.jpg

18.jpg

19.jpg

24.jpg



See what I'm getting at?
 
YES, i do! wow, what case is that?
Click to expand...
Mine :D :p

Its a coolermaster atc-101b. It was discontinued along with the rest of the coolermaster line when the company shifted to more mass production instead of a niche company kinda, but you can still find them. I bought mine roughly two months ago. The cheapest you'll find one is around $150 shipped, but most run $180-220. One website had it for $300 :p .

The last generation coolermasters were simply some of the finest cases ever made.
Here's a shot of the show-quality Black Widow with its 6 layers of automotive paint and high-temperature glaze finish:

MACH+2+SIDE.jpg


You see what I mean? Quite simply there is no other manufacturer on par with them less Silverstone. And the only reason silverstone is as good is because they are the SAME people. Yep, you read that right, Silverstone hired away Coolermasters old design team lol.

The case is really something. IT has sooooo many intelligent features that you have to see to believe. Plus its quiet, runs cool, and has enough room for watercooling in it (as you can see from the first two pics that I took; thats my watercooled rig).

It ain't a chenbro ;)
 
DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!

YOU HAVE VAPOR COOLING?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
DROOOOOOOOOOOOL

that pretorian case looks fuckin sweet
 
the phase change aint mine; thats just a pic of what the black widow looks like. but yeah, its pretty sweet :D
 
OMG THAT IS SO FRIGGIN AWESOME

yes that IS EXACLTY waht i need!

any linkage to sites that still have them in stock???(the ATC)

trying all my usually online retailers is comming up with squat
 
Took me a while to find mine lol. I thought I got the last one in the US, apparantly, there is one more.

Here's a link. This is the version without the window, which you can purchase seperate.

http://store.yahoo.com/tonyh/coolalmidtow.html
here's the best part:

Availability: Usually ships the same business day.
Click to expand...

I'd move fast on it, I know as soon as I bought mine from circotech.com, it dissapeared off their website.

Here's the link for the window:

http://www.sundialmicro.com/cgi-bin/sundial/atcspbfv.html

The case is $220 and the window is $38. Thats about right.
It may seem expensive to some, but, after all:

'Perfect' in my mind would have as many as possible of the following features:

-Full size tower (or a VERRY spacious Midtower) : needs to be able to hold at least 4 RAIDed hdds 2optical drives, fancontrollers, etc, etc, MUST have room for Watercooling down the line.
Click to expand...

-check

-All aluminum construction(in silver or black preffered)
Click to expand...

-check

-Removable MOBO tray (this is one of the biggest im looking for as swapping mobos in my current case is a royal pain in the you know what)
Click to expand...

-check

-Premodded side window(this would be really nice but not totally nessisary as my modding skills are not yet at the point i would trust myself to install one)
Click to expand...

-check

-Should have good looks but not to the point of being cheesy(cheezy defined as in thermaltake Xaser cases)
Click to expand...

-check :D

Its truly the perfect case!


Enjoy, and when you get it, post pics!
 
qdemn7 said:
UmaxPC is the only place I've found. Note the price.
Click to expand...

thats the smaller, less feature rich, 110, not the 101b. Damn numers :p Its also, VERY overpriced lol. Those cases go for around $150-200 usually.
 
computerpro3 said:
And the only reason silverstone is as good is because they are the SAME people. Yep, you read that right, Silverstone hired away Coolermasters old design team lol.
Click to expand...

correction, their design team didn't like the way CM was doing things and a few of them branched off and started their own company. :)
 
revan said:
If thats perfect, what's wrong with the Wavemaster?
Click to expand...
Poor front air intake, and still using 80mm fans.

The perfect case IMO should be:

(1) All Aluminum

(2) Have a removeable motherboard tray

(3) Have front AND rear 120mm fans.

If it doesn't have all three then it's not a perfect case. That's my 2 cents. The Coolermaster ATC were some beautiful cases. But I always put off buying one since i had a Lian Li PC-65B with 80mm fans, and saw no reason to invest in a $200+ case that still used small fans. If the ATC-1XX series had F&R 120mm fans THAT would have been the perfect cases and I would have bought it in a minute no matter what the cost.

For those interested in the Chenbro Case, Team Chenbro is supposed to be at Quakecon.
 
computerpro3 said:
For $75, you're just not going to get the same quality that you will get in a $150-300 case. Its not "The ultimate case" so to speak. NOw I'm not saying its horrible, or even bad. It looks like the best budget case I have ever seen. It looks loads better than my old verre v770 that was total crap for $80. But its NOT a silverstone, coolermaster, or even lian li.

See what I'm getting at?
Click to expand...
You didn't read that link further. IT is NOT going to be a $75 case. The poster from Chenbro states "We expect the suggested retail price to be $200 USD, but the street price will be less of course.". So I venture to say it's going to be a very nice case that WILL be in line with a Silverstone, Coolermaster or Lian Li.
 
computerpro3 said:
Took me a while to find mine lol. I thought I got the last one in the US, apparantly, there is one more.

Here's a link. This is the version without the window, which you can purchase seperate.

http://store.yahoo.com/tonyh/coolalmidtow.html
here's the best part:



I'd move fast on it, I know as soon as I bought mine from circotech.com, it dissapeared off their website.

Here's the link for the window:

http://www.sundialmicro.com/cgi-bin/sundial/atcspbfv.html

The case is $220 and the window is $38. Thats about right.
It may seem expensive to some, but, after all:



-check



-check



-check



-check



-check :D

Its truly the perfect case!


Enjoy, and when you get it, post pics!
Click to expand...

The only thing about the memorylab site is: *Product may differ from image shown
 
qdemn7 said:
The perfect case IMO should be:

(1) All Aluminum

(2) Have a removeable motherboard tray

(3) Have front AND rear 120mm fans.
Click to expand...

Silverstone

Check out the Temjin series...

Think Lian Li quality and good-looks with better cooling.

Would get one in an instant if I had money and didn't have a perfectly good PC-70 right next to me.
 
Stang Man said:
correction, their design team didn't like the way CM was doing things and a few of them branched off and started their own company. :)
Click to expand...

I would say not just a few, but nearly the entire case team (ATCS) left the company for SilverStone. The only guy that is still with CM (he almost went to SilverStone as well) is the creator of Praetorian who was one of the most experienced case engineers they had. In essence, Cooler Master's current case team is a shell of its former self. This is not necessarily a bad thing though, as ATCS cases were starting to look all alike (save for the Wave Master) and were too expensive for most consumers.
 
Falls Included said:
it uses the process of evaporation to cool the processor/gpu/your mom j/k
Click to expand...
Should I assume it doesn't actually consist of water vapor encompassing electric components?
 
gullyrip said:
The only thing about the memorylab site is: *Product may differ from image shown
Click to expand...

tons of sites say that; its to prevent them from being liable in some situations. Still though, its not a newegg.
 
GJSNeptune said:
Should I assume it doesn't actually consist of water vapor encompassing electric components?
Click to expand...
Check out this review of the Asetek VapoChill LightSpeed. This will give you and idea of how a phase change cooling works. Note that Asetek is the only company still in this business. Nventiv maker of the Prometeia unit shown above is out of business. There are links to Asetek;s site if you want more info.
 
qdemn7 said:
You didn't read that link further. IT is NOT going to be a $75 case. The poster from Chenbro states "We expect the suggested retail price to be $200 USD, but the street price will be less of course.".
Click to expand...

My bad, I got the info from one of the posters there that I assumed worked for chenbro because he was like "You'll see the case go at laucnh for $100, then we will drop it to $75"...

Even if it retails for $200 though, they admit street price will be less. I'm guessing $150-175 then. Thats not a $260-300 last generation Coolermaster or Silverstone by any stretch of the imagination.

So I venture to say it's going to be a very nice case that WILL be in line with a Silverstone, Coolermaster or Lian Li
Click to expand...

It may be in line with some of them, like the pc-65 or praetorian. But I doubt it will touch the atc-101b, 110b, pc-75, or nimiz. No way. Not for $150-75 actual street price. They use a lot of plastic in the chenbro case, the aluminum is thinner, its less solidly built, etc, etc, etc.
 
The CM Stacker is not made of aluminum (someone recommended it above and I know that one of the thread author's requirements), just the bezzel. From a function point of view I'm loving the design Silverstone TJ06 that was just reviewed at Anand but it's not Al either.

I guess meeting the structural requirements of their designs was just far too expensive for most Silverstone cases to be done in Al (or far too expensive to actually sell well :p ), the TJ03 is the only one that's still Al I think (and $200+).

If Intel wasn't looming over the horizon threatening everyone to move to BTX I wouldn't have qualms about dropping $200 on a quality case that would last, but if by this time two years down the road I can't use it anymore I'd be pissed... BTX isn't even looking like that much of a design improvement but Intel's market muscle moves mountains. :(
 
Silverstone TJ-03

It's a beautiful case. Very easy to work with. I love mine. :)

But, I'm selling mine. :( I'm making the move to SFF. Want to buy mine? I'll give you a good deal on this sweet case.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top