Older case with newer components?

T

TSx

Gawd
Joined
Jan 11, 2004
Messages
647
I've been using the same case since my parents got it for me as a birthday present 6.5 years ago, and it's still one of, if not the coolest cases I've ever seen.

The Foxconn Diabolic came out in late 2003 and at the time, was a fantastic case.

The tool-less design is still flawless, and the best I've ever worked with. The layout is phenomenal, and the case is incredibly sturdy and well constructed. The bezel design and general look of the case are the true appeal, which was what sparked my interest and got me talking about how cool it was at a Christmas party with my family. It was a complete surprise when it showed up from my parents, and it has been a virtual show-piece ever since. I still get comments on how great/cool it looks when people see it for the first time.

That being said, I'm on my first major upgrade since 2006, and heat from faster and faster components is becoming more of a concern. The case, while designed with adequate cooling for 2003-2004, is limited by only having one 120mm exhaust fan in the rear, with no intake fans at all.

My current system is an Intel E6600 with an Nvidia 7800GT and a couple of ide/sata hard drives generating heat. The average temps from Everest are as follows:

Motherboard 46 °C (115 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #1 48 °C (118 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #2 50 °C (122 °F)
GPU 63 °C (145 °F)
IBM IC35L180AVV207-1 44 °C (111 °F)
SAMSUNG HD103SJ 37 °C (99 °F)

My primary HD is a SSD but the IBM does get a workout when playing games and such off of it. The Samsung is a 1TB drive primarily for storage.

The new system will be running an Intel i7 870 with an MSI Nvidia 470 GTX. The hard drives will remain the same. I'll be running it all off of an OCZ700MXSP 700W power supply. The comp runs all the time, and is in an upstairs home office, along with another system (that will have the parts from my old build) that also stays running.

My question now is; is my old, sturdy case sufficient? Newegg has this case on a 24 hour sale and the price is definitely right, and I'm just concerned about heat with the faster components.

Potential case: Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel

I won't be overclocking at all, and have no plans of running SLI, but it does get hot (Nevada) and the computers run all the time.

Thoughts?
 
Are you comfortable doing any modifications to it? You could add a spot for another fan or two to help with cooling.

The Three Hundred on the other hand has fantastic cooling and is a very nice case. Your taste seems to span from the plain to extreme...
 
The only spot I could really see to add a fan on the Diabolic is on the left side panel, which would be easy...except that where the case sits, the left side is directly against a desk (about 1/2" of space). The front bezel doesn't really give you any room to do anything with as the front usb are on the bottom, and the hd bays are right inside with the hd's pulling out to the side of the case instead of into it like they traditionally would. I'm already using the inside of the 5.25 bays for custom mounts for SSD's since they generate no heat and are fine up there out of the way.

I didn't know if an 80-120mm fan (80 would be real easy, 120 would take some work) blowing from the left side in would help much if the case was that close to a desk/wall on the left side.
 
I was thinking possibly in the bottom (might have to get taller feet) and possibly in between the PSU & top 5.25 bay. The top fan may require you to have the top bay free (may not be possible with a larger PSU).

It would help on the left side, but you would probably notice a larger amount of noise due to the low clearance.
 
If you like the 600T that seems to be a reasonable midtower thats coming out.

Do you have space constraints? Do you have any problems buying used?
 
Meh, I'm still using the original Chieftec Dragon. Granted, it's a full tower and I'm water cooling my GPU. Still, cases haven't really changed all that much, have they? Sure, another fan here or there maybe, but like others have mentioned, you can just add those yourself! :p
 
If you want better cooling you will love the Antec 300. I've built 2 systems for others and it is an awesome case to work on. Bottom mounted power supply helps a lot for temps i find. If you want aesthetics then stick with your current case since you like it. Personal suggestion id get a Corsair power supply over the OCZ.
 
1. I think the current case will work, but the newer cases will be even better.
2. Do you have the OCZ psu already? If not, consider another one.
 
The only reason I was looking at the OCZ power supply was because it was a combo, with sale, and a mir at newegg, making it a total of $14.99 shipped. It seemed like a rough step up from my Antec TP3-650 650 watt PSU that I've had in for a few years. The power estimator showed something like 590-630w required for the system I'm going to be using, so I figured 700w might be better. The Antec PSU I'm using didn't have the best reviews, but it's seemed to work alright for me.

Do newer graphics cards cause more heat than say the 7800GT I'm using? I sort of just figured since it was as much faster as it is, it would generate more heat in the process. I guess they have improved the tech a lot since then and it may not though...

There definitely isn't room for a top fan in the Diabolic, if you have a drive in the top drive bay (which I do). A bottom mounted one is a cool idea, but that's a bit harder, I'll have to look into clearance there. Front mounted doesn't work at all on this case which is what I was thinking would help the most; that's right where the HD drive bays are. The side mounted one should hit right on the GPU though, and that's the single component that was significantly hotter than the rest of the case.

Are the temps I listed in the original post considered high? Or do those seem like they would be in 'normal' range?
 
TSx said:
Biggest problem is the cost. I went over budget on the build itself (the new 23" Asus monitor for $140 was too enticing) so another $100 on a psu is too much right now. This is the one I got for $15 after the rebate:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341018&Tpk=OCZ700MXSP

It didn't seem too bad from the reviews there, but I'll get some more feedback on it.
Click to expand...

Can't recommend it. Especially since it is a Sirfa-made PSU that delivers at best 550W at realistic internal PSU operating temperatures.
 
How does it compare to the Antec I've got in right now?

I should probably make that a new post on the psu forum...
 
The current case you have, even if modified, will not cool as well as the antec 300. For the price the 300 is one of the best cooling cases available in that price range.

The current 650watt antec power supply you have looks to be a seasonic made unit:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...r-supply.php+e176105&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Not sure where you read reviews that put down the PSU, but going by the inturnal pictures in this review it looks to defiantly be made by seasonic. If you ask anyone in the PSU forum about that Seasonic has a great track record behind them on making good quality PSUs. I've had my Seasonic 650watt PSU now for a bit more then three years now. Never had a peep of trouble out of it.

IMHO You're better off keeping the power supply you have now. Save the $15 on the crappy ocz psu and put it towards something else.
 
To answer your question about heat from newer gpu's...yes they do tend to produce more heat (generally speaking) but I would assume your 7800 is a single slot cooler? If that's true, most gpu's you would be upgrading to are dual slot so the heat is ejected out of the case instead of back into it like a single slot solution. Depends on what card you want to upgrade to of course. If you do end up with the 470 you were looking at, that produces a lot more heat than your 7800.
 
The 7800GT was single slot, yes, I forget which model but it was an eVGA 7800GT 256mb. I had significant problems with the card originally, having to send 3 units back doa; turned out to be a bad batch.

The largest number of seemingly helpful reviews on both psu's came from Newegg. Both are 4/5 stars, pretty similar amount of 5 star vs. 1 star, overall they look, on review paper, about the same.

Antec TP3-650: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371001&cm_re=tp3-650-_-17-371-001-_-Product

OCZ OCZ700MXSP: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341018&Tpk=OCZ700MXSP

Is the 650w enough to run the system I listed below, with the added fans from the new case?

New System:

- Intel Core i7 I7-870 2.93 GHz Processor BX80605I7870
- Corsair TW3X4G1333C9A XMS3 4 GB Memory Kit PC3-10666 1333mhz 240-pin Dual Channel DDR3
- GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
- MSI N470GTX-M2D12-B GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
- Kingston SSDNow 64GB SSD (boot, Windows 7)
- IBM 80GB IDE HD (OS backup, windows XP)
- Samsung HD103SJ 1TB SATA HD
- ASUS VH236H Black 23" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen Full HD 1080P LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 20000 :1 (ASCR)
- SoundBlaster Audigy LS
- OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ700MXSP 700W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V PFC Power Supply
- Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-106D ATA CD/DVD RW
 
I would say that 650w would be enough. It might be pushing it though from what I've seen around the forums from people building similar rigs. Especially if you plan to overclock, it looks like 700w is the going average for that kind of build from the people around here. I wouldn't really be able to tell you though, since my sig rig is running on 430w at the moment and has been for about 2 years. Maybe find one of those online PSU needs calculators and see what that gives you. I don't know how reliable they are though.
 
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