Does anyone own a Gigabyte 3D Aurora case?

[cotswoldcs]

I'm looking at buying this case but I need it to fit my 4 Icydock hard drive caddies (link). The problem is that they stick out quite a bit (10mm) at the front, compared to a standard flat optical drive. Do you think the front door would shut OK if I installed the drives? If not could I fix the caddies slightly further back in the chassis or are there predefined places for fixing drives (my existing case has a series of holes for screw mounting).

Can the feet at the bottom be removed and would it be OK without them? I want to place the case on a CPU trolley.

Finally, I've seen the case advertised on Scan's website (link) but they suggest the case comes without any case fans. All of the website reviews say that fans are standard. Any ideas?

I'd really appreciate your help.

[Hans Voralberg]

Feets can be removed.

The front can close with quite a bit of protruding part as i has it (last year) with 2 fan controller, sticking out ~1.5cm, but the they dont protrude all the way towards the edge so Im not 100% sure.

It use screw-free mounting for the optical slot, so if you push it in, might not fit. Also there is not much clearance between the end of the optical drive and the mobo.

[Rack]

Mine came with fans, but they are not very good.
Also the hdd bay is in front of the intake fan, and hence it is not very efficient at bringing air in. Add a dust filter and it does almost nothing.

[cotswoldcs]

It's a 120mm fan though, and I thought that a fan placed in front of the HDD will help keep it cool. I would only install 1,000rpm fans as I'm aiming for a quiet system. It only needs to cool a Sempron 2800+ at present.

I thought that the Gigabyte case would be a good choice for my needs but you both don't seem very enthusiastic!!! :-(

Any other recommendations? My requirements are:

5 x 5.25" front bays
1 x 3.5" external bay
A front door with enough clearance for the protruding parts of my IcyDock HDD cages
room for 2 x 120mm fans
Enough room for upgrades etc.
Silver colour but not fussed

Budget - up to £95 inc

[Rack]

I bought it because I wanted to fit a dual rad easily, and it's almost the only case in the price range that does.
Plus I bought it second hand for £40...

Things I don't like about it:
Door on case - annoying for accessing Power button and optical drive

Front fan is difficult to access, and is blocked by front panel and sideways-mounted hdd bay. If the hdd bay was mounted front-to-back style then airflow would be a lot better.

Positives:
Looks good, has 3 120mm fan bays, door covers unsightly optical drives, easy to use internally, decent room inside... except for the dual-rear fans I can think of better cases eg: P160 from Antec, Lian-Li PC-7Plus - not sure if they have enough drives for you though. Oh, you want a door.... CM Stacker Aluminium is a bit over budget, but great case - I bought one for a friend, great roomy case.

I prefer Lian-Li tbh, I had a PC-7 Plus and that was really nice - was sad I got rid of it, but didn't have the room for watercooling

[cotswoldcs]

Thanks for your opinions Rack.

I agree with you on the power button. I hate having to open a door to switch on a PC. The door should hide the drives, etc, which you very often don't access that regularly, whereas the power button needs to be very handy.

I do need a door, hence am looking at the following:

Gigabyte 3D Aurora
SilverStone TJ05S (Silver) (only 4 5.25 external bays)
Antec P180 (seems like everyone has one of these now !!!)

Hmmm....