need feedback on case
MoTHA_NaTuRE
All over this bizzatch called FL
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.
<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.
0
Comments
This thread may help:
http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6825
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.
oh and ugly
I've seen similar cases for around $150
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
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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what view? this damn thing is blocking my entire view
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
We didn't either
He doesn't normally have that kind of attention span
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:
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
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:
WHY YOU LITTLE...
Damn. What was the question?
Anyhow, I don't consider having to sit on the side panel and/or kick it to shut it "filled to the brim"...
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
How true is that
That's why listening to us is good but also bad.. so bad.
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.