Need a new case

the_syco

So, after Midlans, I'll be looking around for a new case. The reason, the case is a bit cramped, and has poor airflow.
This is my case. Looks ok, but the inside is fairly squashed.


This was after I "tidied" the cables up a bit (put in a new HDD. yeah, it's where you'd fit the 2nd floppy drive).




A close up of the hard drives.


Another close up.




I took a shot of it whilst it's in the dark for the craic. Not many lights

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Any suggestions for a decent case? It has to be reasonably medium size (no hugh monsters), stable with the ability to be lifted (for LANs), and enough space inside for some water cooling equipment (4 or 5 months down the road).

RoyalMarine

wow thats a mess inside!!

get a modular psu and a new case and hide them fugly cables!

antec 900 too big for ya?
ive got the nzxt lexa and its perfect.

Shiminay

+1 for the Antec P900 - it's a thing of beauty The hard drive trays are removable which makes things easier to work on and they have a 120mm fan in front of each tray to keep things cool.

One word of warning though, I have an 8800GTX and it intrudes on the space for hard disks, so I dunno how your 7800 compares in terms of size, but it might be tighter than you'd like.

garthv

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055237469

requiem1

what price range are you looking into? granted antec 900 is a great aircooling case and it has good room but if you're looking to water cool you'll have to consider what size radiator you'll be looking to install, my experience with the 900 and water cooling was that i could only fit a single 120 rad at the back.

Some great cheaper cases have hit the market of late and one great value for money one is the coolermaster 690 and you can get a dual rad into the top and a triple at the top with some modding, see this build log.

i currently use an akasa mirage for my setup and i have pics posted in the tweaking and modding section. Its got good space but and isn't that heavy, If you want to water cool a p180 its going to be tight. just remember that buying a decent case can sometimes be a once off and something like lian li might seem like alot but you can keep it for a long time

Gadgetman496

If it's space you want? this is the job.

You could get into it when working on it

The cooling is no problem either & it even has two grommet access points at the rear for water cooling pipes (Should want to use them)

3 x 120mm blue LED Fans (2 rear & 1 front)

The picture does it no justice at all, it really is a great case.

Available in Black & Silver.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=311890


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Gloopy

Not sure if this is what you're after, but I just received my Lancool K7 case.

It's not LAN friendly in terms of handles etc, but it's very light due to the aluminium panels, but darn sturdy too! It's not the most spacious inside either, but does have cable management and a removeable mobo tray, which is a real boon. And with 2 x 120 front intakes, and 1 x 120 rear exhaust, cooling should be good. There's an optional side fan for direct graphics cooling, if that's your bag.

Haven't built my pc yet (still waiting on E8400s to come back into stock), but I'm very happy with this purchase

the_syco

Seems the Antec 900 would be too small... :eek:

Looking at http://www.overclockersclub.com/vimages/antec_900/20.jpg and comparing it to my current rig http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y111/the_syco/my_pc/away_all_small.jpg you can see I'd have very little room on the side of the HDD's with the video card It may even deny a HDD a space.

http://www.xsreviews.co.uk/reviews/cases/nzxt-rogue/3 looks neat. Don't have any aftermarket cooler (yet) on the graphics card, so no worries there. But I had to go back to the drawing board after I read
"The idea of the tunnel of air over your motherboard is a good one, but if you have a graphics card installed or any add-in card, it sits directly in the way and acts as a massive wind break stopping the tunnel of air in its tracks."
So yeah, planning a cooling system for a gaming system that doesn't have a graphics card is a fairly large design flaw.

gadgetman496, from the reviews, it wuold seems everyone doesn't like the lack of space for the graphics card.

the_syco

Going to get http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=341700
http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/cases/NZXT/Lexa/page3.htm looks nice, esp as the HDD's go in from the side, and a nice bit of room for the graphics card, so looks like a winner. Now to pick a PSU to go in it

the_syco

So, bit the bullet, and bought a Cooler Master Cosmos Silver m/850w PSU from Komplett.

It's basically this, but with only two fans in it, and a Cooler Master 850W PSU. Yea. Hope it comes out soon, so I can it installed, and ready for Midlans :cool: Will probably get other 12cm fans in Maplins.

The case is about 10cm more in diameter, and 10cm more in height, so bigger, anyhoo's. Also the PSU is module, and the case is designed to help hide the cables.

Anti

The Antec 900 will be fine with a 7800gtx its a fair bit shorter then a 8800gtx. Also the hdd cage is moveable so you can stick it anywhere in the front of the case. Its an awesome case, and very light. Would highly reccomend it.