Good case for my rig??

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Depends on your needs. I think that the Mini P180 is the perfect mATX case, especially considering how many HDDs it can hold. I don't know of any mATX that can hold more.

Don't get me wrong I like the mini-P180 myself but if I had to lug it around a lot without use of a car I would choose one of the Silverstone cases or a Shuttle.

[12GaugeShotty]

Don't get me wrong I like the mini-P180 myself but if I had to lug it around a lot without use of a car I would choose one of the Silverstone cases or a Shuttle.

Not sure why anyone is lugging around a desktop PC anyway. Get a laptop if you are mobile all the time.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Not sure why anyone is lugging around a desktop PC anyway. Get a laptop if you are mobile all the time.

Well in the UK gaming laptops are expensive. Not everyone is willing or has £1000 to £1500 to spend on a gaming notebook and they are a waste of money and have rubbish graphics cards for the price. They have very limited upgradeability too meaning in the long term they are very poor value for money.

I just like having the smallest PC that can do the job. Not everyone needs 5 hard drives!

Even the OP finds their case heavy at 9.8KG which is not far off a mini-P180. My answer about the weight of the mini-P180 was relevant to the question which was about size and weight - I actually checked the weight of the CM690 beforehand and its dimensions too. It was not meant as some attack on your personal choice.

TAKTAK has an ATX case which weighs 4KG and the OP wants a lighter and smaller case - I wonder why??

[Pob255]

Your current case, the CM690 is a midtower, it's not a small mid tower, yet still a midtower.

Without swapiing motherboard to a mATX or simular you'll not really get a much smaller case.

By removeing a load of drive bays and fitting the psu in the front Lian-Li have shaved off a chunk of the total volume.
The Panzorbox is very nice but by moving bits around NZXT didn't reduce the volume that much, what lost on height is made up by extra width.

If your specs are correct and you have a Xigmatek s963 cooler then that actually an advantage as it'll fit in a narrower case than a 120mm fan based tower cooler.

You could look at the Casecom 6788, not much smaller but it is lighter. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172779
I'll drop mine on the scales tomorrow to see what the total is if you want.

The other one I'd consider is this extra value one http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150284

As you can see it uses a front PSU like the Lian-Li, so like the Lian-li it's a bit longer in length, but shorter in height, also it's narrower.
Being a cheap case, this is going to be thin steel and plastic, so the quality will not be great however it will be light weight.
Only has 80mm fan slots at the back but with the layout there should be plenty of room to fit a 120mm or 140mm fan at the top, probably two, If you don't mind modding a case.

I'd also check the weight of your PSU, PSU tend to be the heaviest thing inside a case.
Cheap PSU's tend to use low grade components that are far lighter, reduceing the weight of the PSU, but that would be asking for trouble.
However getting a lower wattage PSU that could still cope would probably reduce the total.

Question, have you pulged your pc into one of the power monitor things? if you knew what you're pulling under load you'd have a better idea to what you could get away with.
I'm thinking the Corsair CX400w would probably be able to cope with an overclocked c2d and 4850.

Oh and the miniP180 is a very nice mATX case, however it's not small, it's the size of most normal mid-tower cases and it's very heavy.

[12GaugeShotty]

I just like having the smallest PC that can do the job. Not everyone needs 5 hard drives!

I have 2 1TB Samsung F1 drives and a 1.5TB Samsung F2. I need more. Until 2TB drives drop in price to where I can consolidate drives I will be forced to buying the smaller 1TB and 1.5TB drives for storage.

I have debated a NAS but they are far too pricey for the performance you get (the ones that support RAID 5).

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I have debated a NAS but they are far too pricey for the performance you get (the ones that support RAID 5).

Some of the CPUs they use have shockingly bad performance. RAID creation can take hours and the read and write speeds are terrible!

It would probably be cheaper to build your own NAS and use FreeNAS.

[mikemikemi]

Looking at it now, i might chop the HDD bay out and rotate it 90 deg so that the cables go out towards the back, to make it tidier

That's a good idea, I might look into doing that with mine as well if I need the extra drive space.

[Hicks12]

Well in the UK gaming laptops are expensive. Not everyone is willing or has £1000 to £1500 to spend on a gaming notebook and they are a waste of money and have rubbish graphics cards for the price. They have very limited upgradeability too meaning in the long term they are very poor value for money.

I just like having the smallest PC that can do the job. Not everyone needs 5 hard drives!

Even the OP finds their case heavy at 9.8KG which is not far off a mini-P180. My answer about the weight of the mini-P180 was relevant to the question which was about size and weight - I actually checked the weight of the CM690 beforehand and its dimensions too. It was not meant as some attack on your personal choice.

TAKTAK has an ATX case which weighs 4KG and the OP wants a lighter and smaller case - I wonder why??

Yeh agreed, Laptops are way to expensive for what they do and im only getting one of those for use for basic word and occasional browsing so no interest there for me .

And my views on the pc is now similar to yours, i used to want the biggest and best case but i really do feel like i should try and make it easier taking it around to lans cause it barely fits in the car and is a lug to pull out of teh car!.

Im not looking for something well built tbh so the p180 is out of the question, it is too high in terms of quality which also makes it expensive and heavy!. I used to have some old tsunami cases which were extremely basic so im used to them (wish i didnt chuck em now...), i have an old chieftec Dragoon which is a absolute beast and makes my cm690 look small so im also used to bigger cases . They are great cases just not really good for lans...

Your current case, the CM690 is a midtower, it's not a small mid tower, yet still a midtower.

Without swapiing motherboard to a mATX or simular you'll not really get a much smaller case.

By removeing a load of drive bays and fitting the psu in the front Lian-Li have shaved off a chunk of the total volume.
The Panzorbox is very nice but by moving bits around NZXT didn't reduce the volume that much, what lost on height is made up by extra width.

If your specs are correct and you have a Xigmatek s963 cooler then that actually an advantage as it'll fit in a narrower case than a 120mm fan based tower cooler.

You could look at the Casecom 6788, not much smaller but it is lighter. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172779
I'll drop mine on the scales tomorrow to see what the total is if you want.

The other one I'd consider is this extra value one http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150284

As you can see it uses a front PSU like the Lian-Li, so like the Lian-li it's a bit longer in length, but shorter in height, also it's narrower.
Being a cheap case, this is going to be thin steel and plastic, so the quality will not be great however it will be light weight.
Only has 80mm fan slots at the back but with the layout there should be plenty of room to fit a 120mm or 140mm fan at the top, probably two, If you don't mind modding a case.

I'd also check the weight of your PSU, PSU tend to be the heaviest thing inside a case.
Cheap PSU's tend to use low grade components that are far lighter, reduceing the weight of the PSU, but that would be asking for trouble.
However getting a lower wattage PSU that could still cope would probably reduce the total.

Question, have you pulged your pc into one of the power monitor things? if you knew what you're pulling under load you'd have a better idea to what you could get away with.
I'm thinking the Corsair CX400w would probably be able to cope with an overclocked c2d and 4850.

Oh and the miniP180 is a very nice mATX case, however it's not small, it's the size of most normal mid-tower cases and it's very heavy.

I wish it was a small mid tower . I remember seeing the casecom and it does seem smaller than my case, sure its probably only between 5-10cm each measurement but that makes a big difference overall so its certainly a good option.

If you could drop it on the scales id appreciate it, Im hoping its around 5kg cause every little helps to make it lanworthy .

In regards to psu, its not exactly a cheap make so its not light. Not really wanting to spend out on changing components right now unless they break as cash is tight, my system tops around 300W i believe during load (cant remember if this included monitor but thats seperate), i wish i didnt get this board because it simply isnt power effcient although it is a solid board it comes at the cost .


As regard to a simplified list of what the case needs i though id put it in :

1. Smaller than my Cm690
2. Lighter than my Cm690
3. 120mm Fan intake/out take (no 80m/92 as they are too loud)
4. Room for 2 5" bays
5. Room for 2 Hard Drives
6. Room for my 4850
7. Cable management, possible to shove it all behind case? Casecom one allow this maybe?
8. Low Cost.

Thats about it i think, thanks again guys .

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I had another look around at cases and I think this is the ideal case for your needs:

http://www.coolermaster-europe.com/p...roduct_id=5426

It is under £30 too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?W...source=froogle

The case weighs 4.4KG,has enough drive bays and can take 120MM fans too!

There is also this cheaper iG43 based motherboard too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...-Micro-ATX-VGA

There is also the Asus P5Q-VM for under £70:

http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...ib4y0-g0eay00z

[scaryjim]

I've just bought that casecom for a mates build, it's pretty lightweight - dead easy to carry the case and a box of random bits from the neighbours (where UPS had left them). It's not that small though - it's definitely bigger than the budget mid-towers my other PCs are built into. On the other hand, it looks incredibly damn cool

Oh, P.S. @ CAT: The elite 341s mATX only, no? That'd mean a new mobo for the OP to shell out on too...?

p.p.s @ Hicks: this is a bit out of leftfield, but what about a 4U Rack Mount case? Dead easy to carry with those chunky front handles...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Oh, P.S. @ CAT: The elite 341s mATX only, no? That'd mean a new mobo for the OP to shell out on too...?

Yep!

It would be better for the OP to sell their existing case and motherboard and then use the funds to buy a mATX case and a decent mATX motherboard.

[kmac]

I quite like this one - its not that light 8.4kgs even though its aluminium (I guess its all the steel cages inside). The handles wouldmake it convenient to carry around though, no?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Chenb...U-Ultra-Hi-End

before Xmas Scan had this at around £45 - don't know if it was an error but now its £93

[Lee H]

I didnt realise my case weighed 9.8KG!.

Feel sorry for me then as my casetek 1018 chassis weighs in at 15 Kg unloaded and with the PSU, CPU, 8 HDD's and optical drives and what not it is probably closer to 20-25 Kg and lugging that around can be fun at times

If your going to be lugging your PC around quite a few times then I would personally recommend a case such as one of the scout series from coolermaster as this has handles and is easier to carry around. However, its hard to recommend cases to people as one persons ideal of a good/nice case is another persons version of ugliness.

[mycarsavw]

or

[Hicks12]

I had another look around at cases and I think this is the ideal case for your needs:

http://www.coolermaster-europe.com/p...roduct_id=5426

It is under £30 too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?W...source=froogle

The case weighs 4.4KG,has enough drive bays and can take 120MM fans too!

There is also this cheaper iG43 based motherboard too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...-Micro-ATX-VGA

There is also the Asus P5Q-VM for under £70:

http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...ib4y0-g0eay00z

Thanks for the info cat, i dont know what ill do yet cause i didnt really want to change motherboards but that case seems great for what it is!.

Would it be worth me selling my mobo and cpu then switching to AMD? I always wanted to go to an AMD rig but havent seen a need to change but if i can get a mATX board and cpu then might aswell, if it would offer an advantage over the current setup?.

Feel sorry for me then as my casetek 1018 chassis weighs in at 15 Kg unloaded and with the PSU, CPU, 8 HDD's and optical drives and what not it is probably closer to 20-25 Kg and lugging that around can be fun at times

If your going to be lugging your PC around quite a few times then I would personally recommend a case such as one of the scout series from coolermaster as this has handles and is easier to carry around. However, its hard to recommend cases to people as one persons ideal of a good/nice case is another persons version of ugliness.

Haha unlucky i guess!. My system weighs in at 18KG on the scales including case so i think that knocking off 4kg is gunna help .

Its more of the size than weight thats annoying me, i can take my case around no problem but something to grip at the front would be nice and its quite long so its awkward .


Thanks guys.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for the info cat, i dont know what ill do yet cause i didnt really want to change motherboards but that case seems great for what it is!.

Would it be worth me selling my mobo and cpu then switching to AMD? I always wanted to go to an AMD rig but havent seen a need to change but if i can get a mATX board and cpu then might aswell, if it would offer an advantage over the current setup?.

The E8400 is a great CPU and also the mATX motherboards I suggested either have the G43 or G45 chipset so you could always plonk in a Q9550 at some point when the E8400 is not fast enough.

The X2 555BE is around the same speed as an E8400.