Case Recommendation

[Kasparov]

I’m venturing away from Dells for the first time, and since I don’t have my system yet, I’m posting from results of two months of research, and not actual experience with this case, but I’ve chosen the Antec SLK3000 as my case. At Newegg, I brought up a comparison between the SLK3000 and the case you have, and if you scroll down to where you see the case dimensions, you will see the SLK3000 is a tad bit larger. Not much larger, but maybe enough. It has a 120mm fan in the rear and a place for a 120mm fan in the front. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductCompa...2&SubCategory=7

 

Coolermasters were very high on my list. Sure hope I'm not bustin a forum rule since I don't have actual experience with these cases.

 

This is exactly the case I want! But... I wish I knew someone with it and if it could fit all of my sig plus water cooling (as I will be using water for an upgrade, mabye even in a few months).

 

Does anyone have a large-medium case that holds similiar items?

[Smoken Joe]

This is exactly the case I want! But... I wish I knew someone with it and if it could fit all of my sig plus water cooling (as I will be using water for an upgrade, mabye even in a few months).

 

Does anyone have a large-medium case that holds similiar items?

 

 

It has ben done but it is a very very tight fit with watercooling. I have done it with the soho servercase though even that seems small unless you are willing to mod or just use a single120. If you go watercooling I would just go for the biggest case you can stand ie stacer etc unless you want to put the rad outside the case even then it will be tight.

 

That is a great case for most people though.

[Kasparov]

It has ben done but it is a very very tight fit with watercooling. I have done it with the soho servercase though even that seems small unless you are willing to mod or just use a single120. If you go watercooling I would just go for the biggest case you can stand ie stacer etc unless you want to put the rad outside the case even then it will be tight.

 

That is a great case for most people though.

 

Yeah, I will be throwing the radiator outside of the box with a radbox. But you guys are very whise indeed, no need to play the guessing game and find out the hard way. I decided on a Chenming server case.

Thanks everyone!

[Thasp]

Antec P160

 

It has lots of room, temp sensors, it comes with rubber screws for the exhaust 120mm fan so that it remains quiet. It has a dust filter right where the intake fan is. It tested as one of the most qiet and cool cases on anandtech. Lastly, the blue lights on the front, if you choose to use them, match sunbeam's fan controller lights.

[Onsightsmith]

I just got my Stacker a week ago and this thing is awesome. As AG said, I will never use another case! The size and the options as well as being able to watercool with room to spare. If you want mod friendly and room to grow, go Stacker.

[Gipse]

Hi,

Chieftec (Big) Mesh Series :nod:

No problems with internal watercooling setups and good quality. Lots of space for hdd´s and optical drives; perfect for me.

Gipse

[Kasparov]

Hi,

Chieftec (Big) Mesh Series :nod:

No problems with internal watercooling setups and good quality. Lots of space for hdd´s and optical drives; perfect for me.

Gipse

Would help if some of you read the entire thread.

 

I wonder if I could fit an external custom danger den kit in that Antec p180.

[GutBuster]

Would help if some of you read the entire thread.

 

I wonder if I could fit an external custom danger den kit in that Antec p180.

Can you fit an EXTERNAL custom danger den kit IN the antec??? Am I missing something??

 

My vote goes for anything Lian Li.

[bob_lahblah]

I have the Silverstone Tj06 case in black, I am very satisfied with this case. Plenty of space.

[HarryTaco]

I know im a little late to the party but this case impressed me today.

Here

[Guest LithoTech]

Allow me to shamelessly plug teh Antec P180!

 

It's not too large, compared to server towers (only 21" high), and offers a lot of flexibility as far as cooling and component layout is concerned.

 

Good review w/ great pics:

 

http://www.silentpcreview.com/news452.html

 

You'll see it has two compartmental zones. If you keep your drives all in the upper zone, and remove the lower zone drive tray, there is plenty of room for many types of water cooling components.

 

Conversly, keeping your drives in the lower chamber and removing the upper drive tray affords another huge void in which to fill with liquid cooling components.

 

You've still got 3 x 5.25 drive bays to work with for resevoirs etc.

 

Do a quick google for "Antec P180" + "water cooling" and then click on images above the text enter field, and you will get a ton of pics giving you the idea!

 

The case comes with outstanding air cooling, even though it's missing two fans. I've added those two fans, and thus have:

 

Top chamber:

120mm rear exhaust (will mount a TT Big Water radiator externally here - eventually)

120mm top blowhole exhaust (the proximity of these two 120's were MADE for DFI mobos! They are fronyt and center of the CPU and Ram!)

120mm intake (up front, with filter, and it works! I have to clean it every 2 weeks)

80mm duct mounted cpu/video fan (intake for me, added a home made filter, blows directly on vid card and partially on cpu)

 

Lower Chamber:

Huge thick 120mm intake (mounted inbetween HD tray and PSU, filtered).

 

With a decent PSU, the lower chamber doesn't get very hot. HD heat is exhausted via the huge quiet 3-speed 120 fan that pushes the air towards the PSU that will then force it out as exhaust.

 

The upper chamber is roughly the size of a mid tower, or even smaller (14" or so) and sports 3 x 120mm fans, and 1 x 80mm fan. Not many cases that size would have that many 80mm fans, let alone 120s!

 

All the fans are Antec Tri-Cool, very quiet even at high speed. I leave my upper chamber fans at low unless overclocking. I've replaced a couple of the fans with Tri-Cool LED fans to get some light on the cool DFI slots and rounded cables. I've found they make more noise, but still quiet at low speeds. Small price to pay for coolness factor. Plus, it leaves me with two GOOD fans as spares.

 

This case is extremely quiet. I can't hear a thing from it when other computers (or the TV) are running in the same room. And it's not like the other comps are really loud. This case was designed to dampen sound, and it does. It was designed to run cool and it does. It was designed to be flexible for the many options people will have, and it is.

 

There are a couple things I ran into about it that I didn't like, and to be fair, I'll warn about them. It is not a perfect case, not everyone will like it, and it can be improved. I certainly hope they continue to revise and improve it, as I would buy another one if they did.

 

1) The aluminum surface on the outside is very soft! When I first moved my rig into this case, I was so careful, I had all the panels and front door off and carefully stored away from any chance someone would bump or touch them. Once finished, when putting the panels back on, the door slipped from where it lay, and lightly bumped against a hard object. Lightly enough to put a scratch in it. I was quite pissed at first, then realised that in a year or so, it'd be covered in scratches. Like a car, the first door-ding is a classy lady.

 

2) There's been some problems with the lamination of the plastic and aluminum for the side panels and door. Either the aluminum tends to bow out a bit, sort of delaminating in areas, or like in the door the whole thing bows or warps a bit and then the door won't sit flush along the whole edge when closed, unless you use the lock to hold it closed. Antec is aware of these issues, and has apparently fixed the problem, and will ship new parts to anyone that is having problems.

 

3) It is a long reach from the PSU in the lower chamber to the mobo ATX connection. Not so bad in nForce4 939 boards, but certainly worse in Socket A boards. While you will probably not have a problem reaching the ATX connection, you will definately have problems hiding the wires like you may be used to doing in other cases. Cable management is a challenge in the P180, to say the least.

 

4) The front door seems a little flimsy compared to the rest of the case which is quite robust. The damn thing wieghs a ton, empty! It's odd that the door is so weak. However, the hinge is a slick system, opening all the way around till it hits the side of the case (careful!! scratches!!). If I'm doing a lot of CD loading, I take the door right off -- a very simple method takes 2 seconds to completely remove the door, same to put it back on.

 

Other than those 4 points, I really haven't run into anything else about the case that I simply do not love. I am super happy with it, and only wish I could have forked out the extra $50 for the black SPCR version.

 

I jokingly call this case "The Fridge" when talking with my brother, a budding PC enthusiast himself. I tell him he can cool his beer in it when he comes over. To be honest, I coined it that nickname from the look, not it's cooling prowess. Damn thing looks like a fridge... just needs a proper handle and a water/ice dispenser!

[Smoken Joe]

You ought to write a review LithoTech not optimal for watercooling though and if you dont mind the extra space the stacer is often more quiet in a over the top high end system from some people.

I am happy tto see this case though they put a lot of good thought in to it.