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Thermaltake V9 Black Edition vs Cooler Master CM 690 II Basic w/ extra


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Hi,

After 4 years of college science and 10 years of computer building, it actually donned on me that airflow matters for keeping my hardware cool, and no amount of zalman coolers will fix the heat issues created by a 2000 beige mid-tower with 2 hard drive bays and no air flow. So, between it being so cramped I can barely change hardware, and the heat issues, I'm in the market for a new case. Now I don't want to spend too much, since it is just a box, but I've narrowed it down to two options.

 

Thermaltake V9 Black Edition Mid-tower ~ $70 It has a 120mm front intake and rear exhaust, 230mm exhaust on top, and 230mm intake on the side panel. Essentially it seems it has no room for more fans except for a 70mm fan to cool the region of the mobo from behind. My only real concern with this case is that it won't have enough air flow. Although it has the right fans and good sizes, most of them seem to be kinda slow and not pushing a great volume of air. TT specs the 230mm's as 800rpm with a max air flow of 97.5CFM (whatever max means, idk if that's where it is normally). The exhaust fan is a 120mm turbo fan I believe rated at 50cfm/1000rpm. I'm also mildly concerned about the seeming lack of a dust filter on the 230mm side panel intake fan. I know the TT cases are generally thought to be of inferior quality, but hey, if the toolfree stuff breaks ill just use screws, and im not really planning to move it. I just want an air flow box. I may upgrade to 4890CF or GTX275 SLI in the future, so it would be nice if that fit, supposedly this case takes 10.5 inch cards, and gtx 275's are 10.5 inches, so that'd be a squeeze, though I doubt I will end up with that setup.

 

Cooler Master CM690 II Basic + 4x120mm fans + 2x80mm fans = $55 (case) + $24-32 (fans) ~=~ $70-87 This case comes with 120mm front intake and 120mm rear exhaust (probably putting 60cfm each minimum.) Then I was planning on adding 4 120mm fans (either 1500rpm or 2000rpm, I need advice on if the 2000 rpms are too loud,) two on top for exhaust and 2 on the side panel for intake. The 2000 rpm 120mm coolermaster fans each push 90CFM at 20db supposedly (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103063), but I would tend to think a fan like that would be loud. Would I need a fan controller to make the noise level from this setup bearable? I have a spare zalman fanmate, if the fans can be daisychained. It seems the TT case is all molex, so it probably can't really be controlled. I can also go with 1500rpm 60cfm mass cool fans for $6 each, and masscool stuff has been wonderfully quite in my experience. So yeah, this case probably has the airflow advantage, and dust filters all around, but is it going to be too loud, and will that airflow advantage actually translate to lower temperatures?

p.s. I know this case will take 140mm, that will just bump the cost higher than I feel like paying, and I couldn't find any 140mm running close to 90cfm.

 

 

I'm running a phenom 9850BE w/ Zalman 9700 and 4850CF w/ VF900 on one and VF700 on the other, all hot running hardware, with zalman coolers that seem to demand good airflow to work well.

 

Thanks for your input!

Edited by shindaiwa21

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Avoid the Thermaltake V9 at all costs. TERRIBLE case. I've gone through two via warranty. The top fan breaks constantly and the design as a whole is flimsy and cheap feeling. There is NO cable management or dust filters. Everything is in just the wrong place and it is just a NIGHTMARE to use. :/ I hate my V9. On the other hand, I've heard very nice things about the CM690II and was thinking about getting one until I decided that a different case suited my particular needs better (fulltower).

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just built my brand new rig in a CM690 II basic and I couldn't be happier! The great cable management options that this case provides is one of the reasons I love it so much. I am actually using 3 of those 120mm cooler master fans u were talking about and they are pretty great. I liquid cooled my build (an already hot 3.2Ghz phenom II 955 that i OC to 4Ghz) and wanted to get the best flow/noise/price ratio possible to cool that scorcher. These things move a ton of air for what they cost and what noise they put out... can you hear them, yes... are they annoying, no.

Edited by hrdrockr21

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Got to admit, I have the V9 Black edition, and it's okay. However It leaves me REALLY wanting more right now, especially since after I installed my Corsair H50 inside I was forced to remove the 230mm fan, which actually hurt my GPU a bit. It's true the fans run at a low rpm but they do actually move a ton of air, after removing that fan I noticed a 5-8 degree temp change in my GPU, something I never noticed before. I am either grabbing the HAF 922 or the CM 690 II Advanced Package as my next case. However after working on the basic version and the Advanced I noticed the basic front fan doesn't support 140mm which was kinda odd, seeing as the advanced does, I don't see why they just left them the same but without the Hot Swap feature for the Basic.

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its not just a box.. it holds all ur hardware, cools it all down and keeps it dust free if its a good one, and on top of that, will outlast whatever u put inside it many times over..

 

whatever u get.. try to not be a cheapo n get something that is good and WILL last u a long time :)

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