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http://www.nzxt.com/new/products/alu...ssis/panzerbox
Has anyone used one of these? What are your thoughts?
I've been looking around for a while and they seem like a very good case for my requirements (an ATX case more suitable for LANs than my current Cosmos - 17kg and huge). As I understand the main points against them are that they have no filters for the 190mm fans and the fans can get a bit noisy, but I presume you could get by that with any half decent fan controller.
Not seen this case before actually, but presuming the fans have 3pin connectors then yes a fan controller will sort out the noise and tbh getting a pair of your mum/sister/your?? old tights and sticking them round fans works a treat to stop dust getting in. If you really like the case you ought to be able to fix those negatives with little issue.
Hawker
I was chatting to Bill Owen the other day about this case.
here's Bill's review of it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSdJZyrsj1g
lissen her at 3:14 for the production version fans http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkOcuBDap0s
The layout is a little odd and dust is an issue, but shouldn't be much of an issue if you're just going to use it for lan's.
The other thing about this is cable management is a bit of a knightmare.
The fans are 3pin so you could use a fan controller on them.
Still a really nice sized and solid welded aluminium case, I'd try not to procrastinate too long over it because NZXT has now closed down the factory which made these and NZXT's other aluminium cases so once current stocks are gone it's going to be very hard to find one.
The NZXT Vulcan would be good but only for mATX
the other thing I'd sugest is some thing like the antec 300 and a couple of heavy duty handles, fitting handles just involves drilling a couple of holes, that's not hard to do.
something like this http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/70116931
you'll probably want a couple of very large washers as well to help spread the load, or a sheet of metal same length as the handle and a couple of inches wide to fit on the inside.
EDIT: and while I'm on NZXT how about the old Khaos case (again the factory is now closed down so getting hold of them might get hard) it's not small or that light weight, what they did do was put casters on the front and a handle at the back so you can drag it around like a suitcase.
If you want something with wheels I'd go for the trunki; Gruffalo is definately the nuts.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg
I like the look of the panzerbox; The lack of any cable makes a modular PSU a must IMO. The cooling is not so good on the GPUs apparantly due to being stuck next to the PSU. I'd get one if it was cheap. Trunki first though.
Oooh, want Trunki! That would make an awesome mod!
Going back to the Panzerbox, I might have to bung it on the credit card rather than wait for my next pay cheque then, if they're going to run out soon!
Just thought I'd update this, bought a Panzerbox and it would seem that all the reviews have it pegged very well. It's an excellent case, abeit rather noisy and prone to dust but nothing too troublesome.