need feedback on case

[MoTHA_NaTuRE]

i was looking thru directron for cases and i came upon this one
<a href="http://www.directron.com/301t3s.html" target="_blank">Blue/Silver Directron 301T-S All-Aluminum Computer Mid-tower Case w/ 2 Side & Top Windows, 5 Case Fans</a>
it is selling for $109, so im wondering if this will be a good purchase or not. if not, can you please recommend a good one around $100 or less. thank you. :p

[Geeky1]

Ugh. Mid-towers baaad, full towers gooood.

This thread may help:
http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6825

[Thrax]

Full tower bad. Mid good.

I ****ing hate full towers.

Typically they're the most gaudy, ill-gotten designs ever.

And to be perfectly frank, my Chieftec is a mid, but it features four fan slots JUST as a good mid should. Good airflow JUST as a mid should. Good HDD system (Sorry geeky, I like it, I disagree with you entirely).

And it's just generally that much easier to keep a case tidy if it's a mid.

My teacher's Coolermaster is a mid, and it features five fan slots, just as good mid should and all the features as my chieftec.

Seems people have it in their minds that mids are crappy, simply because most of them ARE crap. Obnoxious.

[MoTHA_NaTuRE]

i just personally always found full towers to be so, how do i put this, BIG!
oh and ugly

[csimon]

nice case ...great price! what psu do you plan to use?
I've seen similar cases for around $150

[MoTHA_NaTuRE]

i was reading one of these threads here about ghoosdum and cheap power supply.
saw that the thermaltakes are cheap and found this one on new egg, i dont know how to link just the product, so ill just put the name here

Thermaltake W0010+PFC Silent Purepower 480W with Black housing - Xaser Edition ATX 2-Fan Power Supply

$69, funny how the power supplies these days are this expensive

[csimon]

MoTHA_NaTuRE had this to say
i was reading one of these threads here about ghoosdum and cheap power supply.
saw that the thermaltakes are cheap and found this one on new egg, i dont know how to link just the product, so ill just put the name here

Thermaltake W0010+PFC Silent Purepower 480W with Black housing - Xaser Edition ATX 2-Fan Power Supply

$69, funny how the power supplies these days are this expensive
personally I'd just order it from directron along with the case ...there's quite a selection of psu's there at the bottom that you can select from.

[MediaMan]

It's obviously a Lian Li knockoff and Lian Li cases are great. This is the knock off the PC67 (etc) series. This particular case is made by a company called Super Flower.


http://www.super-flower.com.tw/sf-301t3-s.htm


It's a thinner aluminum than Lian Li. Yes it may appeal to some and it does have the same "features" as a Lian Li but it is 70 bucks cheaper than this similar Lian Li

http://www.directron.com/pc65.html

There will be a difference in quality. My recommendation would be a knockoff of the Chenming/Antec/SX series.

Like this one

http://www.short-media.com/article.php?46.0


Yes it's the same as thermaltake but you don't have to pay for the extra plastic badging and stuff. Hunt around for a good deal.

[Gobbles]

big cases bad...

mid cases good...

Ive got a larger antec case and throughly dislike it. Its large, bulky and weigths a ton...

The only thing I did not like about that case was.....
Im into the new side mount drives like in the antec sonata case...

http://www.antec-inc.com/images/400/Sonata_opencase.jpg

Gobbles

[MoTHA_NaTuRE]

wouldnt side mounting make things a little messy?

oh, mediaman do have a point, i wonder if i buy this case, and lets say i happen to have a dumbbell laying around, so i put it on top of the case, maybe the case might squish down like a coke can. have to go check into that

[Geeky1]

Gobbles, Thrax, Motha_Nature:

You guys suck. Why? Because now I'm going to have to grab the drivers for my wacom tablet so I can do a proper photochopped diagram to educate yo' asses on why mid-towers suck. :D

[DogSoldier]

I'll vouch for the big case, more room+4 case fans = better ventilation. I have an Enermax FS-710 with that dandy red ENERMAX POWER INSIDE sticker that Geeky pines for. I paid a little over $100 Cdn for it and I couldn't be happier. Weird thing was, it didn't come with a Enermax PSU, nor any PSU for that matter.

Edit// Yeah, the thing does weigh a ton. I carried it the 4 blocks home after I bought it and realized it might be a good time to quit smoking. I happened to have a 50lb dumbell lying around and the case took the weight superbly. Nary a buckle.

[Thrax]

Geeky1 had this to say
Gobbles, Thrax, Motha_Nature:

You guys suck. Why? Because now I'm going to have to grab the drivers for my wacom tablet so I can do a proper photochopped diagram to educate yo' asses on why mid-towers suck. :D

Freud would say you buy big cases to compensate for something else.

But sure, photochop away, not like I give a care. I transitioned QUICKLY away from full tower cases, and I shan't be going back. :D

[SimGuy]

Antec's, Chieftec's & Chenming's are so common now, they are sickening to look at.

Functional yes, but there's way too many of them now.

Antec has one up on the competiton that their cases come with the legendary Antec TruePower PSU's, which helps offset the cost of a new case/psu upgrade. :)

Full-Towers are beautiful. They may be a pain in the royal ass to move, but they sure do their job correctly. Lots of space. Lots of fans. Even better for watercooling. :)

[Thrax]

I think full towers are ugly.

I LAN, I need portability.

I don't like all that damn space. Cable tidying is a bitch and a half.

I have plenty of fan slots.

Watercooling is not in my near future.

[MoTHA_NaTuRE]

well, this is my view on full towers.

.
.
.
.
.
what view? this damn thing is blocking my entire view

[SimGuy]

I hear ya on the cable tiding. Even the SX1080 series still poses cabling nightmares on where to route everything.

Is the SX1080 (you know the case) actually considered a mid-tower? It's like a mini-full-tower. It's larger than most mid-towers (the usual 3 5.25" and 3-4 3.5" drive bays), yet not as large as the SX1240 or PC70.

As for fan slots, none of the ones on the SX1080 series are any good unless they are chopped out to remove those airflow-impeding covers. Same with every case though..

I love to LAN, but portability comes second to proper functionality.

[madmat]

Thrax...after watching "The Cat In The Hat" I think you need to make your mantra rhyme, it looks like it should :)
I'm with you on the full tower thing though and since I have a bad back and I tend to shove as much stuff in my cases as I possibly can wedge in there I need to lose case weight where ever possible so that's why I wanted an alloy mid tower.

[Templar]

The one bad thing about towers is they can be heavy. The Alienware case I have weighs at least 25lbs. Alright, yeah, that isn't alot, but for a PC it is :\ It is made of steel after all.

My next purchase will be a mid tower case. Probably an Aluminum midtower from CompUSA (Surprise!). Black, Acryllic front, 4 3.5" slots, 4 5.25" slots with gold highlights over it.. Unless you need more 3.5" bays for HDDs or something, then there really isn't a point in getting a tower besides looks. You can cool a CPU well with smart fan setup, a relatively cool environment (70*F ish), and good HSF/grease contact. These towers look cool IMO, but are too damn heavy, because I often LAN now.

[Geeky1]

Wimps. I can, will, and have taken my Antec SX1240 full tower (~40lbs empty, ~70lbs full) to LANs without a problem.

Anyhow, here's the photochop. The translucent red areas indicate the approximate "dead air" spaces that are created in the various cases (although it will vary somewhat with the fans used). The exception is the Antec SX-835; the only decent pic I could find was red-tinted, so in that case (no pun intended), the "dead air" is represented by translucent blue.

The reason I like full towers becomes rather obvious when you look at the picture... more fans + more room for the air to move around in = better cooling.

The G5's case is basically ideal from a cooling standpoint, btw.

Aaaaanyhow, here's the image (sorry to all of you using dialup; it's a big image... ~276k, so it'll take a bit to load.

Image:

----Edit----

Forgot to mention: The board in the pic is an NF7-S; IT has been scaled to fairly close to the right size for each case. It's not absolutely, 100% accurate, but it's pretty damn close.

The last case (the 1240) is simply my SX1240, which (conveniently) houses my NF7-S; I couldn't find a decently-sized pic with the proper perspective, so I just took one of mine...

[MoTHA_NaTuRE]

you know geeky1, it took you about 3hrs from when you said you were going to pull out your photoshop skills, to these lovely pictures, didnt think you were gonna do it.

[Geeky1]

lol. "photoshop skills" should be in quotes... ;D I've got a tablet that I have now used 3 times... since X-Mas '01. And my windows install for the NF7 was being difficult, so I had to switch the tablet over to the dually, and install photoshop, and find the pics and blah blah blah blah blah...

[MediaMan]

Well...you can see by the responses that there are some BIG case fans...and some mid case fans here. Leaving you with the same questions...is the case you suggested for $109 bucks any good?

Let's help narrow it down for you and please feel free to join in. :)

1) How much are you stuffing into this case?
2) Do you like to constantly put PC parts in, pull PC parts out of the case? (Do ya like to stick yer fingers in and constantly fiddle with the pc like we all do?)
3) What are you future plans with this 6 mos from now? EG: watercooling, adding more stuff, etc.
4) Is it that the looks of windows all the way round are what you like and you just don't feel like modding a case yourself?

That's a starting point.

[Shorty]

MoTHA_NaTuRE had this to say
you know geeky1, it took you about 3hrs from when you said you were going to pull out your photoshop skills, to these lovely pictures, didnt think you were gonna do it.

We didn't either ;D

He doesn't normally have that kind of attention span :crazy:

Im gonna be a real devils advocate here. Geeky loves full towers, why?

Because he fills those cases to the brim with harddrives and accessories (and cooling).

Thrax prefers mid towers. Why?

Because he keeps his systems lean. No multiple drives in a RAID array and just enough cooling to be effective.

They are two very different scenarios generated by two different mindsets. So analyse what is going into the case and then you will soon clue in which case is most suitable for you :)

I have 5 hard drives in my main rig + a ton of cables.. so a full tower is absolutely essential for me :)

//EDIT// MM beat me to it. I started typing an answer, then posted in another window and came back to this one :banghead: ;D //

[MoTHA_NaTuRE]

well, i was asking for advice on computer parts in the hardware section, so ill list the parts i have come out with, so you guys know just how much im putting into this case

cpu - barton 2500+ im going to overclock this

mobo - nf7-s

memory- by tomorrow ill know if im going to be getting *very* nice deal on some 2x kingston 512 hyperx pc-4000

hsf - slk-800 u with thermaltake smartfan II, already ordered as recommended by thrax and muddok---(sorry i forgot how to spell your name, please forgive me :werr: )

hdd - 2x maxtor 120gb maxtor diamondmax plus 9's will stripe these

floppy, dvd-rom, cd-burner

powersupply - either antec true 430 ( directron got them for $59.00 i think, not bad) or thermaltake 480

video card- ati radeon 9800xt

i don't know if im forgetting anything, but these are what i will be putting into the case.

so im hoping this is a good Mid Tower case for my needs. I don't enjoy modding my own cases, and opening and closing is not so frequent. no water-cooling in this man's future. and im on a budget of around $100 or lower for this case.

sorry for the side tracking :rolleyes2

oh i forgot to say that ill be adding maybe 1-2 more additional hard drives, 7200rpm ones maybe around 60gb.

oh and windows are always good, ive had some cold cathodes lying around for about 1yr now and never used it. that reminds me, my gf wants one of those aquarium lian-li's bad, ugh, now i need more money :banghead:

[Geeky1]

He doesn't normally have that kind of attention span

WHY YOU LITTLE...















Damn. What was the question? :crazy:

Anyhow, I don't consider having to sit on the side panel and/or kick it to shut it "filled to the brim"... ;D

[Shorty]

That should all fit into a mid without pain :)

Only difference in that bunch there?? Keep an eye for the latest +/- DVD writer bargains flying around. For a few $$ more (not much!) you could probably up that CDRW to a DVDRW :)

Either way, that is going to be a VERY powerful rig :D Nice!

[MoTHA_NaTuRE]

it's always a few $$ more, and it's always not much.

[Shorty]

MoTHA_NaTuRE had this to say
it's always a few $$ more, and it's always not much.

How true is that ;D

That's why listening to us is good but also bad.. so bad.

Geeky1 had this to say
He doesn't normally have that kind of attention span

WHY YOU LITTLE...
:thumbsup: ;D

[Geeky1]

For a mid-tower, the case you linked to initially is just about the best you'll be able to get. 2x 80mm exhaust next to the atx i/o plate, 2x 80mm intake (with at least 1 for every 2 HDDs) is the bare minimum, and any additional (properly placed) fans are great. In a mid-tower though, the 2 80mm intake and 2 80mm exhaust is generally the best you'll find. Avoid the cases that have a single 120mm intake and/or exhaust fan, such as the Antec SLK-3700AMB. The cooling in the SLK is absolute, total, complete, utter CRAP. I've got one, and I hate the goddamn thing. It's been relegated to use on my P3 print server, since it can't handle the heat output of anything else.

The one thing I don't like about that case you linked to is that I don't know how much space there is between the hard drives, but 4 of them in there may be a tight squeeze. I realize it has space for 5, but I'm not comfortable with leaving <1/2" or so of space between the drives.

[MoTHA_NaTuRE]

well, unless someone comes and be like, that case is the worse case ever made, you should come check out this one, or you getting ripped off, look they sell it for $1 here. then, i think ill just go ahead and get that case. and crap that $200 for a radeon 9800 is one sweet deal. makes me feel like i wasted an extra $100 for this xt.

[Shorty]

Save a bit here and save a bit there, then blow it on something else :D

[Geeky1]

unless someone comes and be like, that case is the worse case ever made, you should come check out this one, or you getting ripped off, look they sell it for $1 here. then, i think ill just go ahead and get that case.

That case is the worse case ever made, you should come check out <a href="http://www.coolcases.com/cases/sr101107_m_p1.html">this one</a> :D :vimp:

[MediaMan]

Then a mid tower case will be fine...even better for cable management if you go SATA drives which are nice to use and no messy cables...or not as much.

Whatever case you get make sure it has the two fans in the rear...exhausting warm air will be your number one priority if overclocking.

I really like the Zalman CNPS7000A heatsink as it does such a good job plus it's quiet. Make sure the motherboard has mounting holes around the cpu socket though.

This case (http://www.short-media.com/article.php?113.0) wasn't bad...It offered a good bit...read the review and it is cheaper.

And Geeky1 secretly wants one of these.



http://www.short-media.com/images/mm/Reviews/Hardware/Cases/AMK1708/FOCZimages/woodchipper.jpg

[Geeky1]

This case wasn't bad

I dunno. It's a matter of personal opinon, but I don't think it could get much worse.

- 1 exhaust fan (strike 1)
- no hdd cooling (strike 2)
- 1 intake fan (strike 3)
It's out.

As for the AMK thing:

Naah. I've got better. One of these days, I'm going to mount that 16"/2000cfm Mercedes radiator fan I have onto the side panel of one of my cases... :D

[MediaMan]

Oh Geeky...you frighten me sometimes...but in a good way.

[MoTHA_NaTuRE]

you know geeky1 ( and all of us for that matter) all secretly want one of these

[FormFactor]

that case you showed is just fine. I have a very simalar one by a company called icute. Very cool and very cheap. I used the leftover cash i saved and pimped that biatch out with led fans and cold cathodes. Looks super 1337illingus.

and thats the word of the day, leetillingus. everyone say it with me leet-a-lin-gus.

[Thrax]

I have 3 HDDs, 1 CD Burner, 1 DVD Burner. All three drives are 80GB or larger WD JB series drives, and all three of them receive ~40 CFM of airflow due to a fan I have set up right in front of them.

They all stay nice and cool during operation to the touch, and I've even gone so far as to place diodes on the drives in various spots to give it a test and they don't go much over ambient at all.

But yeah, RAID Arrays present more problems than solutions in my mind, so I avoid them.

And I'd rather have 2 huge HDDs than three smaller ones because it's easier to keep the case clean that way.

I'm a neat freak to the extreme. You'll see at the LAN just how tidy I am inside that case.. Bigger cases just make it harder.

All told, my computer has ~200 CFM flowing through it.

[firstinhell]

MoTHA_NaTuRE had this to say
i was looking thru directron for cases and i came upon this one
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.directron.com/301t3s.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Blue/Silver Directron 301T-S All-Aluminum Computer Mid-tower Case w/ 2 Side &amp; Top Windows, 5 Case Fans&lt;/a&gt;
it is selling for $109, so im wondering if this will be a good purchase or not. if not, can you please recommend a good one around $100 or less. thank you. :p

Cool looking case man. It looks like a Lan-li knockoff, but it is a pretty nice looking knockoff. Plus it is $60.00 cheaper than the real deal. Get it.

I replaced my Chieftec full tower for a Antec Lanboy. Large cases suck.

[JAZ]

I bought a case allmost the same made by the same company, mine was a steel one though but made to look like an alu one.
I cant fault it on value as it was only £29 and its really well built and finished for the price, it has almost the same layout as that one (mine has 2x80mm fans at front, 2x80mm or 1x120mm rear, and one 80mm side, + the removable hd holder)
It even came with all the drive plates so I could stealth my cd/dvd drives, the layout seems to work well as my temps dropped from 52c load to 38c compared to my crappy old case.
My only gripe about it was the lack of a slide out motherboard tray but it seems that one has that as well.

[GnomeWizardd]

MoTHA_NaTuRE had this to say






oh i forgot to say that ill be adding maybe 1-2 more additional hard drives, 7200rpm ones maybe around 60gb.





I am selling one Now! 7200 rpm 60 gig Maxtor Check out my garage Sale http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6876