First off, is there no cheapish case that won't light up like the Blackpool Illuminations?! I want something unobtrusive and quiet. I don't want to hear it, but at the same time I don't want to SEE it either. If it's lighting up the corner of the living room it's going to annoy me.
I'm building a box to act as a TV server backend for MediaPortal, a fileserver for MP and XBMC, a music server for my logitech doo-dah, a video encoding machine and a few other always-on services. Mostly very low usage apart from a few bursts of activity each day for maybe 30 minutes at a time while it's encoding something.
I have PSU/CPU/RAM/Drives/MOBO but now I need a case to put it all in.
The box will be in the living room, so I want it to be as quiet as possible. This means good airflow, probably with large-ish fans at low rpm.
I've set a budget of £40-ish for the case.
I've narrowed it down to a few at scan.
Xclio Godspeed One Advanced Black Mid Tower Case with 2 x180mm Side Fans, w/o PSU - £36.04
This has speed controls for the fans, looks go have pretty good airflow options (2x18cm in the side which will be sucking in and 2x8cm at the top which will be sucking out)
Xclio Godspeed Two Full Black Mid Tower Case with 80mm Side Fan w/o PSU - £30.07
This is the same as the first one, but with a single 8cm side fan instead of the two 18cm side fans.
Xclio NightHawk Extreme, Mid Tower Case, Black, 10 Front Bays, 18cm Side Fan - £41.54
18cm fan at the top, 18cm fan at the side, twin 12cm at the front.
Z7-PLUS - Zalman Z7 Plus (inc Side Fan) ATX Mid Tower PC Case - £44.63
Speed controlled side fan. Much better looking case, but with only one fan, and more expensive...
To be honest, the looks aren't important. It'll be hidden from view for its entire life. I just want something that I can setup and forget all about.
I want something I can put one optical drive and 6+ 3.5" drives into. I have a spare coolermaster 4in3 so if the case doesn't have enough 3.5" bays but has 3 5.25" bays I can convert, that's fine.
The thing that bothers me most is the noise. These cases have speed adjustable fans, but will they go low enough to be more or less silent?
I've got a Shuttle SG33G5M-Deluxe in the bedroom, and it's more or less silent. You can hear a very low hum from the fans, but it's at its loudest when accessing the HDDs. That's what I want for the server.
Does anyone have any experience of any of these cases? Or can recommend an equivalently sized case with comparable cooling options, within my budget?
I'm considering getting the Corsair H50-1 or the Noctua NH-U12P to cool the CPU. These are both meant to be pretty quiet. I'd expect the rest of the system to be no louder.
If I did get the Corsair, I'd need to have the PSU at the top of the case. Corsair recommend having the fans on it sucking into the case, so if the PSU was blowing out hot air below it...
See, I've gone and rambled on when all I wanted was to know if anyone had experience with these cases.