What case would you recommend?

T

Theultimateeye

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 29, 2012
Messages
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So i'm getting tired of hauling this 50+ lb. Switch 810 to work all the time. The other reason would be so my bosses don't notice i'm bringing my computer into work -___- . I'm looking for recommendations on a smaller case that would be able to fit everything I have currently (see sig for components). I'm guessing the biggest issues would be the Phanteks cooler, the 2x 7970's, and the motherboard. I'm willing to buy a new cooler and a mini-atx motherboard just not sure which ones yet. In this forum I see a lot of nice builds but always wonder about heat. Obviously with the Switch 810 and the billion fans (which i'll probably have to get rid of since they're 140mm) I have in it, heat isn't an issue. Price on the case is not an issue. I don't even care what it looks like with the exception of something extreme and gaudy looking. Thoughts?
 
First off, why are you bringing your tower to work?
Second, have you looked at the Corsair C70?
 
So, you want to keep the ATX mobo? Not exactly small form factor :p

If you are willing to swap to a mATX mobo, you should check out this thread about compact mATX cases :)

[edit]lol, it seems that thread turned into a push for ITX, which won't work for you... if you can go mATX, I'm a big fan of the Silverstone TJ-08E, I've built several systems with that case, it's quite tiny[/edit]
 
HAF XB i feel is really your only option... but i went M-itx and got a prodigy case.
 
Sounds like the SilverStone SG09/S10 is best for your phanteks and your 2xGPU if you just get a micro-atx board. Can't do much about the hard disk, either change to 2x4TB ones or leave two of them outside.
 
Resurrecting this thread. It looks like the SG10 would suit my needs. Just deciding on which self containing liquid cooler i should get. Thanks for the help guys. Oh, i bring my computer to work because i play games when it's slow.
 
Theultimateeye said:
Resurrecting this thread. It looks like the SG10 would suit my needs. Just deciding on which self containing liquid cooler i should get. Thanks for the help guys. Oh, i bring my computer to work because i play games when it's slow.
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I know what you mean. I went to a matx set up and now planning to switch from a SG03 matx case to a mitx case. Waiting on the NCASE M1 to go into production. I don't use a huge screen though. Just a 20.5 inch lcd. Everything I have must fit into a standard school type locker. Completely hidden away from everyone. There are a few mitx cases that do this now whereas before there wasn't.
 
If you really want to keep as much of your current hardware as possible, here are a few case choices which would also necessitate a mATX motherboard (with the proper spaced Crossfire support), and in some cases ditching a HDD. You can either use a HDD externally, or replace the two 1.5TB with a single, bigger drive. You need to check, but your CPU cooler may or may not fit these cases - would be close.

Fractal Design Arc Mini - Currently $70 shipped at Newegg. This one can hold all your drives. Has room for a second front 120mm fan.

Corsair Obsidian Series 350D - Can be had with or without a side window. Around $100 so not the cheapest. Single 140mm fan in front, but kind of restrictive airflow. Very few 3.5" drive bays, so this may not be an option for you.

In Win Dragon Slayer - Bit cheaper than the Corsair. Case has a strangely nice rough finish. Narrow, but the side mesh sticks out a lot so it clears many big heatsinks. The bottom drive bays hold three 3.5" drives (not mentioned in most product listings). Single 140mm intake fan but front is mesh so very clean airflow. Another 80mm intake fan strictly for the three bottom HDDs. One issue might be the PSU length. Longer PSUs can hit the HDD cables since this case is very small in front-back depth.

Cooler Master N200 - Cheap at $50, and Newegg already has had it on sale for $40 shipped a few times even though it is a new case that just came out this year. Can hold two 120mm fans in front with great airflow for graphics cards. Only has three 3.5" bays. If I needed to build a mATX gaming rig today, this case would be on my short list. I just checked out a review which said you can use 160mm/6.3" tall heatsinks and 355mm/14" graphics cards.
 
good luck finding a smaller case if you plan on keeping those 7970's. i had to throw out my antec sonata and buy a cooler master haf 932 to fit those in the case.
 
Zap said:
If you really want to keep as much of your current hardware as possible, here are a few case choices which would also necessitate a mATX motherboard (with the proper spaced Crossfire support), and in some cases ditching a HDD. You can either use a HDD externally, or replace the two 1.5TB with a single, bigger drive. You need to check, but your CPU cooler may or may not fit these cases - would be close.

Fractal Design Arc Mini - Currently $70 shipped at Newegg. This one can hold all your drives. Has room for a second front 120mm fan.

Corsair Obsidian Series 350D - Can be had with or without a side window. Around $100 so not the cheapest. Single 140mm fan in front, but kind of restrictive airflow. Very few 3.5" drive bays, so this may not be an option for you.

In Win Dragon Slayer - Bit cheaper than the Corsair. Case has a strangely nice rough finish. Narrow, but the side mesh sticks out a lot so it clears many big heatsinks. The bottom drive bays hold three 3.5" drives (not mentioned in most product listings). Single 140mm intake fan but front is mesh so very clean airflow. Another 80mm intake fan strictly for the three bottom HDDs. One issue might be the PSU length. Longer PSUs can hit the HDD cables since this case is very small in front-back depth.

Cooler Master N200 - Cheap at $50, and Newegg already has had it on sale for $40 shipped a few times even though it is a new case that just came out this year. Can hold two 120mm fans in front with great airflow for graphics cards. Only has three 3.5" bays. If I needed to build a mATX gaming rig today, this case would be on my short list. I just checked out a review which said you can use 160mm/6.3" tall heatsinks and 355mm/14" graphics cards.
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Thanks for your suggestions i'll take a look at each one. It's really hard finding a case kinda like the HAF XB that will not only fit everything, but allow me to re-use my 140mm fans. Those damn fans were so expensive...
 
The new Bitfenix Prodigy M just got announced/released and it's basically the same size as the mITX version but for mATX with 5 expansion brackets (for spaced SLI/Crossfire). It als has "easy carrying handles" built-in which you might consider important if you need to transport your PC a lot.
 
One more thing... the Dragon Slayer is a 5 slot case, so you can run dual graphics with Gigabyte motherboards and their 1-4 PCIe x16 spacing.

Theultimateeye said:
Thanks for your suggestions i'll take a look at each one. It's really hard finding a case kinda like the HAF XB that will not only fit everything, but allow me to re-use my 140mm fans. Those damn fans were so expensive...
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Haha, that's why I don't use "expensive" fans. 3X the cost and only 0.3x better? No thanks.
 
I have the Dragon Slayer from a previous build and am not particularly happy with it. I originally got it also for the 5-slot capability but in the end never utilized it. I always felt the case was too big for what it offered, and the design never grew on me either - both exterior and interior.
 
Well you obviously can't go ITX because you have two graphics cards, so mATX is the smallest possible form factor. But even if the 7970's can fit, they will need good cooling...have you considered building a custom liquid cooling loop?

Silverstone's TJ08 is an excellent mATX case, btw.
 
vipz said:
I have the Dragon Slayer... I always felt the case was too big for what it offered, and the design never grew on me either - both exterior and interior.
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I kind of know what you mean. I like a "cleaner" look (which is why I own several Lian Li :p ) plus I'm not particularly fond of the drive bay treatment and the bulge to "fix" the case being too narrow. I would have liked the case to be a bit wider, then the bottom drive bays be only for 3.5" and not some strange combo 3.5" sled going into two 5¼" external bays. Also, turn the drives sideways. Then can make the case smaller front-back, or allow for longer PSUs. Also can then use two large fans instead of one of the front fans being 80mm.

Really though, it is probably my fault. :(

I met with some In Win reps at Quakecon way back in 2007 and talked to them about SFF systems. Here is a snippet of an actual email I received from one of them after the event.
Also thanks for your advise for our chassis. Actually I already passed the advise you gave me in last time regarding to the mATX gaming chassis to our HQ in Taiwan, and they are doing the evaluation now.
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At Quakecon I had shown them my modded mATX gaming rig from back then, and they were impressed and said they didn't even imagine "smaller gaming rigs." This was my system back then.
gr4.jpg


I am both proud and embarrassed. Just looking at it now makes me wince at how immature I was back then, but the system weighed under 15 pounds, chassis was aluminum and used an SFX PSU, custom side window with some custom aluminum work (my first time playing with rivets), some lights for bling bling, overclocked A64 on a Biostar TF6100-939 motherboard and I don't even remember what graphics card was in there. So it was pretty wild looking and didn't have a coherent design.
 
Yeah, I don't like the mesh side panel either. In fact I actually ended up swapping the sides so the mesh was behind the mobo. The one really good thing about the case was the single 180mm fan in the front that I swapped out for an AP181, but then I probably should have just gone with the TJ08 in the first place.

Regarding the InWin reps: I wonder if they had ever seen a Shuttle box in action. I never owned a Shuttle, but I did have a similarly sized Biostar S754 system - it ran like a champ.

All you needed for that box was a can of black spray paint or plastidip ;) I'd still say, for LANs, especially something that you can't just drive to, weight > all.
 
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