case recommendations?

Chad ghostal

Could anybody recommend a decent case+psu for an a64 3400, 1HD,1gig memory with (probably) nvidia FX5900XT graphics card.

i looking at this one

is it any good? powerfull enough?


any advice would be appreciated,
thanks.

OfflerCrocGod

Right now Jes have a Chembro Gaming Bomb for €37, which is fantastic value! For that price you cannot go wrong - it's a very good case and then a nice power supply for €50 should sort you out.

Jammer

Go with the Antec Sonata, elara have them. They are very quiet, using 2 x 120mm fans at 7v. The also come with a 380W Antec Ultra Quiet PSU!

Chad ghostal

nice one lads,

offlercrocgod: is in not a pain in the ass/expensive to get a whole case shipped?

although both cases do look class ..
sonatas a bit pricey for me though

Venom

Cant praise the Thermaltake Xaser III series enough. Tho Im damm tempted with there new Tusami Dream case

BloodBath

Ya the xaser 3 is great but expensive. I paid 130 euro for mine and another 110 for the psu. A lot of people aren't willing to spend this much money.

I like the new Tsuanmi cases as well but they are just rip offs of the nicer coolermaster wave case.


BloodBath

-oRnein9-

Chad ghostal wrote:

Could anybody recommend a decent case+psu for an a64 3400, 1HD,1gig memory with (probably) nvidia FX5900XT graphics card.

i looking at this one

is it any good? powerfull enough?


any advice would be appreciated,
thanks.

I just installed the same processor, a gig of ram and a Geforce FX 5600(prob the same size as the 5900) into a Chenbro gaming bomb last night. Excellent case on €37 http://www.jes-computer.de/product_info.php?pID=14744 it doesn't come with a psu though but have a look at the thermaltake butterfly I also put one of these in the case http://www.jes-computer.de/product_info.php?pID=14691. Its an absoulute peach of a setup, lovely case and more than enough power.

bringitdown

Forgive my ignorance but I am about to make my first effort at building my own.

I know little, so why is (apart from looks which I think is a silly reason anyway, and quietness) an expensive case better than say a bog standard beige Q-Tec ATX tower with a 300-350w PSU for E44 (komplett)?

Venom

bringitdown wrote:

Forgive my ignorance but I am about to make my first effort at building my own.

I know little, so why is (apart from looks which I think is a silly reason anyway, and quietness) an expensive case better than say a bog standard beige Q-Tec ATX tower with a 300-350w PSU for E44 (komplett)?

Build quality, features like the amount of fans and bay slots and styling are what bumps up the price of the good cases.

Stephen

Do NOT put a qtec PSU into your system, you will regret it later.

bringitdown

I probably should have looked at : http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=152842

Excellent information on why not to use Q-Tec, cheers lads

Mac daddy

The Qtech are weird ones i had one in the gaming rig for about two weeks see sig for what was in system- and the bloody psu was not giving enough power to feed my hungry components- Also when playing Command and conquer generals i used to get weird message that hardware was overheating heating then it would crash - reboot checked the event viewer same thing - swapped psu for a antec 350w system has been running fine since- but i have to get a bigger psu now i have more stuff going into the rig soon

OfflerCrocGod

Chad ghostal it's not such a big deal to get the case shipped - it's just a matter of waiting for GLS ( about one week ) to get it to you from Germany - I'm not the only one recommending the case^^, it is a really good case for the price.

Thordon

is in not a pain in the ass/expensive to get a whole case shipped?

Shipping from jes for the case alone: 25.36 EUR . Thats 62.35 EUR total

Theres this one I was looking at from komplett, its the next version of the chenbro gaming bomb, read some reviews, supposed to be better: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=300412&cks=PRL

Its 77 EUR + 10 shipping, so 87 euro, more expensive than jes, but your spending more on the actual case (dont know if thats just bad value tho).

Celt

Venom wrote:

Cant praise the Thermaltake Xaser III series enough. Tho Im damm tempted with there new Tusami Dream case

I cant say enough bad things of them.

#1: for an aluminium case, it has a ****ty plastic + steel front/door, which means the case is extremely weight biased to the front, not to mention the plastic front doesnt close flush.

#2: Toolless PCI slots, my AGP card(radeon 9800) and my soundcard(sb audigy 2 ZS) are both high enough so that the lever wont close on them, the mechanism is also extremely weak and leaves plenty of movement in my PCI cards.

#3: Side "door" is thumbscrewed, and the latches dont catch very well when putting it back on, resulting in the side warping towards the rear.

There are more, but those are my main problems.

Venom

#1: for an aluminium case, it has a ****ty plastic + steel front/door, which means the case is extremely weight biased to the front, not to mention the plastic front doesnt close flush.

You have a dodgy case then. My door shuts perfectly. The Xaser III is also not an aluminium case.

#2: Toolless PCI slots, my AGP card(radeon 9800) and my soundcard(sb audigy 2 ZS) are both high enough so that the lever wont close on them, the mechanism is also extremely weak and leaves plenty of movement in my PCI cards.

Just take off the pci slot adapter and your ready to rock.

#3: Side "door" is thumbscrewed, and the latches dont catch very well when putting it back on, resulting in the side warping towards the rear.

Side panel on mine shuts fine and fairly easy to close as well.

ViperVenoM

im with Venom on that 1

Ok mines a different type but its still a Thermaltake one, my door closes nicely everytime not cheap but a big heavy steel one , mines not aluminum, its nice and beefy which does me fine, i dont intend to move it anyway

My side panel closes neatly and is on properly with no gaps or it sticking out or anything

anddd my 9800xt is a big bugger so i just took the little plastic thing of like Venom said and..its in, no more problems!

all in all i quite love my case despite what other people may thing about thermaltake just being cheap rip offs or whatever

Celt

ViperVenoM wrote:

im with Venom on that 1

Ok mines a different type but its still a Thermaltake one, my door closes nicely everytime not cheap but a big heavy steel one , mines not aluminum, its nice and beefy which does me fine, i dont intend to move it anyway

My side panel closes neatly and is on properly with no gaps or it sticking out or anything

anddd my 9800xt is a big bugger so i just took the little plastic thing of like Venom said and..its in, no more problems!

all in all i quite love my case despite what other people may thing about thermaltake just being cheap rip offs or whatever

My metal door closes fine, however the PLASTIC it closes on to isnt flush with the aluminium front.

If you take the plastic thing off, you risk breaking your card and AGP slot every time you plug your monitor in, and that wont work with PCI cards(already lost a sb audigy 2 to the ****ing case)

Celt

Venom wrote:

You have a dodgy case then. My door shuts perfectly. The Xaser III is also not an aluminium case.

The Xaser III comes in aluminium and steel, the alu being more expensive.

As I already said, the steel door closes fine, its the plastic it closes on to that isnt flush, as its hinger to the aluminium case, there is a noticable gap just after the hinge.

Just take off the pci slot adapter and your ready to rock.

Rock by breaking several hundred euro worth of hardware?

Or rock by pulling out the PCI cards every time you move your case?

Side panel on mine shuts fine and fairly easy to close as well.

Mine shut perfectly for 10 months, then one day it decided not to.

BloodBath

Depends what model of the xaser 3 you ll have. There are quite a few. I have the vm2000 Lanfire and it's an excellent case. I have had none of the trouble listed above and the pci locking mechanism works perfectly.

The case is all aluminium except for the front which is plastic but it's not cheap plastic. It's ABS plastic which is very light and very strong. The case without psu weighs only 4kg.

It has two 92mm fans and 2 80mm fans located on front, rear and both sides. The airflow is excellent. My case temp atm is 25c and that's with a hot prescott and 9800xt inside. The case was worth the money for the build quality and the extra features like fan controllers for the 4 fans and a temp sensor and display.

My only gripe with it is that it only takes four 3.5" drives and i'm using 3 atm already for floppy and two hardrives. I'll be buying another hd soon so it will be full but I think it's possible to replace it with one that supports 6 drives.


BloodBath

Celt

BloodBath wrote:

Depends what model of the xaser 3 you ll have. There are quite a few. I have the vm2000 Lanfire and it's an excellent case. I have had none of the trouble listed above and the pci locking mechanism works perfectly.

The case is all aluminium except for the front which is plastic but it's not cheap plastic. It's ABS plastic which is very light and very strong. The case without psu weighs only 4kg.

It has two 92mm fans and 2 80mm fans located on front, rear and both sides. The airflow is excellent. My case temp atm is 25c and that's with a hot prescott and 9800xt inside. The case was worth the money for the build quality and the extra features like fan controllers for the 4 fans and a temp sensor and display.

My only gripe with it is that it only takes four 3.5" drives and i'm using 3 atm already for floppy and two hardrives. I'll be buying another hd soon so it will be full but I think it's possible to replace it with one that supports 6 drives.


BloodBath

Xaser III Silver Aluminium v2000 w/ window that cost me €215 last year.

Venom

Celt if you take off the pci mounting bracketts by unscrewing 2 screws, the pci slot become the same as a normal case and all your cards can be slotted in as normal and screwed in as normal. They wont come out.

As for your side panel not shutting it may be not sloted in correctly.

Speaking of Xaser III cases, can 120mm fans be added with ease?

Celt

Venom wrote:

Celt if you take off the pci mounting bracketts by unscrewing 2 screws, the pci slot become the same as a normal case and all your cards can be slotted in as normal and screwed in as normal. They wont come out.

As for your side panel not shutting it may be not sloted in correctly.

Speaking of Xaser III cases, can 120mm fans be added with ease?

No, you need a washer for each slot, and an unstandard screw size.

ViperVenoM

my case must just be odd then

i removed the bracket thing in the case, and it left me with a nice size screw hole that just takes a normal size screw..fits perfectly ..wont move at all..neither will my cheap soundblaster card..but this MSI board soon to be in action..has 7.1 onboard..so i guess i dont need that in anymore anyway....

but no my stuff cant fall out..screwed in very tightly..my vid card is my baby!