Case advice

[Zhou Yu]

Hello,

Following a recent purchase of new i7 bits for my desktop, I realised that I actually had enough old pieces to completely build a new (old) pc.

The only thing I'm missing is a case. I'm headed off to uni in a week or two, so I thought it might be time to finally retire my faithful thermaltake armour to the new (old) pc, and get myself a new smaller and lighter case that will be a bit more manageable when I move out. I can then leave my old stuff at home for the family to enjoy (and for me when I cba carting computers from Leeds to London ).

Anywho, current system:

i7 920
asus p6t
6gigs (3x2gb) corsair xms3
4hdds
295GTX
1000w coolermaster real power pro
Corsair H50 cpu cooling (with push/pull)
creative xfi music


What I'm really looking for in a new case is to be as light and manageable (small) as possible while retaining (very) good airflow, ease of use and the ability to fit the damn components in. I would also like to remain around or below the £100 price point. While I am at it, it would also be nice to have a case that doesn't have too many issues with dust/has decent filtering, as I'm not sure what student digs will be like in that regard and I don't enjoy mucking out cases .

That sort of fits into the general category of mid-tower case, and I have a couple of contenders lined up:

Coolermaster HAF 932:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...r-Case-w-o-PSU
£119.59
pros:
airflow
build quality
ease of installation
looks decent

cons:
big
heavy
expensive
out of stock currently
possible dust issues


Coolermaster HAF 922:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...nt-Fan-w-o-PSU
£90.82
pros:
airflow
build quality (generally)
ease of installation
looks decent (if a touch garish)
competitive price
competitively light (9kg)

cons:
big (its 253x502x563 w/h/d)
big open mesh on the left side looks like a dust trap if you attach a fan =/


Coolermaster 690 (detecting a theme here?):
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...-Panel-w-o-PSU
£60.36 (the budget option)
pros:
cheapest
airflow(ish, could do with more fans I think)
looks good
light
small

cons:
massive dust trap, lots of open mesh everywhere with no filters to be seen (or bought on scan =/)
not sure about build quality, lots of tool-less stuff (I tend to be a screw man)
not 100% about some H50/295GTX fitting comfortably



Coolermaster scout:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/CM-St...U-%28Gaming%29
£74.97
pros:
relatively cheap
light
strong
small (219/495.5/489)
good airflow (mostly, some reviews have issues with GPU cooling until they add a side fan)
looks ok
well-filtered
made to be moved about (handle)

cons:
build quality is apparently somewhat shoddy (mostly tool-less stuff)
possible issues with fitting H50 under low roof
possible issues with fitting 295 GTX (need to measure)


antec 900-2:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=963034
£90.83
pros:
apparently amazing airflow
very good build quality
smallest case on the list (if measurements are correct)
all-round well reviewed

cons:
ugly as sin
all my friends already have a 900 or p-series ^^
quite heavy
loud


Mostly this has been useful to sort pros and cons out in my own mind, but I would also appreciate any advice on these models, or any other good cases you think I have missed and should be investigating. I make a lot of dust on the pros/cons list, but to be fair I don't know how much of a problem this will really be. Sound isn't hugely important, but quieter is better.

My main priorities for buying are:
good airflow - I do plan to have a 3.5ghz overclock or thereabouts and cooler is always better
will fit my components (especially the H50 on the back exhaust fan spot as I use push/pull fans)
remains under or around £100
light and small
not eye-searingly ugly/obnoxious

Any help you can give would be much appreciated.
Thank you for your time,
Zhou Yu.

[simonw]

If you want "light and small", there is the Lian Li PC-A05, it is light because it is made from aluminium and small because it is a mini tower design but still fits ATX motherboards.

The main criticism is that there can be a build-up of heat from the graphics card at the top of the case but if your gpu has an exhaust cooler, then it should be ok. If you are a modder, then you can always cut a blow hole on the roof of the case, that will definitely help with the heat issues.

[Zhou Yu]

Its a nice case for lightness, style and size but it looks a little small and hot for my ideal usage and I'm not savy enough to mod it out for better cooling myself.

Nevertheless, thanks for the reccomendation.

[Pob255]

Antec 400

If you want the h20 on the top forget both the cm690 and cm590 as there is little room above the motherboard with just fans fitted.

you're going to find it very hard to tick all the your boxes as some are basically in opposition

the Hiper Osiris might be a very good case for you, but it seems very hard to find now
http://www.bigbruin.com/2008/hiperosiris_1

However NZXT PanzerBox
Good: Full AXT, full length graphics cards, great cooling, 6.3kg
Bad: Dust, not the best Hard drive mounting system/position, great for 1 or 2 HD's only.
Other: Layout is a little odd for some, the case is short but wide, top end budget for you.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/NZXT-...r-Case-w-o-PSU

Silverstone Raven2
Good: Cooling, filters, full ATX, full sized graphics
Bad: Slightly over budget, heavy 12.5kg
Other: you may not like the styling, while not massively tall it is long.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Silve...Window-w-o-PSU

[Zhou Yu]

Still procrastinating over this (as I have been all day).

At the moment it looks like its going to be a ho-down between the scout and the HAF 922, mostly because the majority of other cases I looked at had rubbish hard drive capacity. Sure, some can fit four (the raven peters out at a truly crappy three), but then you block *all* airflow from that fan =/.

Both the HAF and the scout look to be able to happily seat 3 with 1-0-1-0-1 spacing in their hard drive bays and another one in a converted 5.25 bay.


In any case, whichever enclosure I go for I think I'm going to want at least one extra 120mm fan (two for the HAF 992 unless I can find a 200mm fan).
So therefore I ask, what on earth is the difference between:
The Scythe gentle typhoon:
£11.73
50 CFM
21db

and the

Akasa "near silent" budget-o-fan
£4.01
49.74 CFM
18db

?

Is the brand difference really enough to justify 3x the price? Is akasa making up numbers? Will the akasa fan turn out to be made of used chewing gum?

Any assistance with these questions would be much appreciated, as I profess myself stumped.

Edit: turns out scan is making these numbers up, the akasa site says the near silent fans have 40CFM or thereabouts.

[Pob255]

The Raven 2 does take only 3 drives per cage, however they are one their side so they don't block the air flow coming up and by only useing 3 pre cage it leaves space around each drive if you have 3 in there.
You can also get additional cages for more hard drives.

Scan as with any e-tailor just use the numbers given to them by the manufactor/supplier
However there is no standard test for fans so no number from a manufactor can be fully trusted or compaired, best you can do is compair numbers from different fans from the same manufactor.

I've used the 80mm and 92mm versions of that Akasa fan and it wasn't great, although people have said that the 120mm model is good.

Scythe S-FLEX fans have the best build quality I've seen on a fan (granted I've not looked at a nocturn which many people rate)
However for half the cost you can get good fans.

[no_numb]

I have the askasa fan and its not bad pretty damn quiet have not tried the scythe one.

[Zhou Yu]

Ah, rather lost track of this thread.

I ended up getting the CM scout case because of the nice mix of size/portability/airflow/hdd space.

In terms of fans thank you for the info, in the end I chose a silverstone 12cm which was both cheap and quite highly rated on some massive german fan roundup (huzzah for google translate).

Again, thank you all for your help.

Zhou