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This Hardware, which case, and which cpu cooler?

Q

Quality

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 29, 2007
Messages
170
MOBO - GIGABYTE GA-P35C-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX
CPU - Q6600 (after price drop)
RAM - GeIL Esoteria 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
GPU - EVGA 768-P2-N881-AR GeForce 8800Ultra 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
CPU FAN - ?????????????????????
PSU - ?????????????????????????
CASE - ????????????????????????
MONITOR - Probably the dell 24" as I am sick of looking for one that everyone unanamiously agrees on and I know dell makes good monitors in general.

Possible cases I have looked at

Antec P190
Antec P182SE
Antec P182 Gunmetal
Antec 900
Antec P180B
SilverStone TJ09

These are computer cases I have looked at and liked. I don't want a case the size of the Cooler Master Evo, its just too big for my liking. I want sufficient room to work and for the GPU. Money is not an issue for the case as its in my opinion the best part of the investment. I also would like an opinion on a "somewhat" "futureproof" PSU, I don't think I need a 1000w one but I guess we'll see what everyone hopefully recommends. I will be picking up a CD/DVD drive (SATA) and floppy/multi-card reader locally.
 
For a quad core CPU, I'd buy nothing less than the best air coolers on the market. That's going to be either the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme or the Tuniq Tower. Quad core CPUs run very hot and those are really the best option for cooling them.

Also the case really just needs to have decent airflow and looks that you can live with. Cases are highly subjective items so I suggest doing your own research on this. You may however run into issues concerning heat sink and fan clearance on some cases especially if you go with the above mentioned HSF choices.

The Antec P182/P182SE are excellent choices as is the Silverstone TJ-09. Scratch the P190 off your list unless you want to use their Neo-Link PSU setup. The P190 is heavy bastard and a bit noisier than the P180s are and the 200mm fan has clearance issues with some video card cooling setups as well as the power cables. Additionally you can't fit the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme in that case with the 200mm fan installed.

I have owned the Coolermaster Stacker STC-T01, Stacker 830 and though I can recommend the former, the latter I can not. (You didn't like it anyway it seems.)

I currently own the Antec Solo, Antec P182, and Antec P190. The Solo and P182 are excellent choices and should fit your needs, though the Antec Solo might feel cramped to you. The P190 is as I said above a waste of time and money. I doubt you'd be happy with it. Not to say that it isn't a good case, it certainly is but you can do better for less money. The Antec P190 would be the ultimate in steel cases if Antec would make some minor changes. (All of which can be found in my Antec P190 thread.)
 
Thank you,

I was planning on the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and knew about clearance issues, I forgot to mention that, sorry. As far as looks, don't care. Just want the best case for air cooling and space. Unless I here otherwise I will probably get the P182 gunmetal colored as it seems like from what you said it has sufficiant air cooling properties and space form the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme.

PSU - ???
Display - Is the dell 24" a good choice for gaming only and PS3 connection?
 
Quality said:
Thank you,

I was planning on the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and knew about clearance issues, I forgot to mention that, sorry. As far as looks, don't care. Just want the best case for air cooling and space. Unless I here otherwise I will probably get the P182 gunmetal colored as it seems like from what you said it has sufficiant air cooling properties and space form the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme.

PSU - ???
Display - Is the dell 24" a good choice for gaming only and PS3 connection?
Click to expand...

I'd grab the Thermaltake ToughPower 750watt if I were you mainly to give yourself some headroom for future upgrades. As for the monitor, the Dell 24" is a pretty good choice. I don't know if there are any better ones at that price range. Someone else will have to chime in on that.

On the subject of the case, I used to have my rig (without all the water cooling hardware) stuffed inside a P182. I actually got better temperatures in it than I did in my Coolermaster Stacker 830 case which had a shit load more fans. This proved to me that more isn't always better. Granted I did run my fans at full speed in the Antec P182, but I didn't find them all that loud. I only switched to the P190 because I thought it would be easier to water cool. Turns out it is not really any easier to water cool though there are more options for water pump placement.
 
Thanks again Dan, one more question,

The P182 comes with 2, 120mm fans right? How many more fans can it take and were are the locations? I looked at a few reviews for it but none of them give specifics. Do you suggest any particular fan? I want this this cool and like I said I will spend as much money as needed on the case and fans for it. It is in my opinion again the best money spent.
 
The P182 comes with two 120mm fans if I remember correctly. There is one in the top fan hole and one just behind the CPU on the motherboard tray. The third location is in the middle 3.5" drive cage and then there is another place for a fan between the PSU and forward HDD chambers. I'd recommend Yate Loons 120mm fans. They are very quiet and super cheap. Though if you want them to run really quiet they need to be run at 7v instead of 12v. There is an adapter in the package to allow you to do that.
 
Have you looked at any Lian Li cases? There are several that would fit your needs, and many consider them to be a cut above Antec in both looks and features. Some that come to mind would be the V-1000 series, the PC-A10, PC-A16, and PC-7. All have great cooling abilities. How quiet are you looking to make this rig?
 
the quieter the better but not a major concern, like I said just looking for a case that is a good investment, willing to spend almost whatever is necessary now on a case and fans to ensure future upgradeablility.
 
I personally run the PC-7, although modified to make it quieter. The stock hard drive cage in that case is not very good for reducing noise, so I had to make something myself. If you don't feel like doing that, then I'd recommend the PC-A16 or the PC-A10, whichever you like the looks of best. The A16 is very flexible in terms of drive configurations (it's got a moveable hard drive rack, with the possibility of adding a second) and the A10's got a door and fully removable motherboard tray, also with very good cooling. You should also keep in mind what sort of upgrades you'll be doing in the future. Will you go SLI? Add more hard drives? Watercool? Just things to think about.

If I were getting a new case today and I had your system configuration, I'd get the A-16B, but that's just me. Lian Li makes a bunch of other cases and you should really look at all of them, you really can't go wrong.

Also if you really like a case but feel like it's just missing one little thing, head over to performance-pcs.com and see what sort of modifications they offer. They can add blowholes, windows, radgrills, cable sleeving and a bunch of other things to your case and then ship it out to you. They're also very accomodating if you've got other ideas that aren't on their list, just email and ask.
 
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