Air cooled case.

Julez

I'm looking for a new case for my rig. I want much better cooling than I have now (my current case only has one output fan). I want it to have USB 3.0 on the front panel thats about all other than cooling performance I want. Willing to spend about the €100 mark, and the case will preferably have sufficianat fans installed, but I don't mind buying seperately if I have to. I'm not too concerned about how it looks, but not mad on loads of LEDs.

My system runs with a GTX 770 and FX-8350.

Here are some cases I was looking at...

Antec Eleven Hundred

Cooler Master Storm Scout 2

Corsair Carbide 300R

Corsair Vengeance C70

Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 Bit expensive... and Big, but I'll pay if its worth it and It will fit where I want it.

Other than those few I'm not sure, anyone have any better ideas, comments, suggestions??

Thanks in advance.

raymix

well, here's my 2 cents

Choosing the right case is the biggest pain in the butt, it all still comes down to gear you are using and personal preferences.

You never mentioned what cooling you are using.

From your list I personally went with 1100 (video link in sig) over 300R because it supports giant fans like noctua and silverarrow. Also a side window was a must for me, so that ruled out many other cases. 1100 also supports 9 fans in a case with an optional backplate fan, which is pretty cool idea, imo. I'd suggest setting it in exhaust direction, otherwise it blows dust on back of a mobo.
Air 540 is just too cubic, imo looks a bit ridiculous, like a hi-tech fridge, better off with Thermaltake level 10. But can't argue with taste, right?
Take a look into Aerocool x-predator, its not too space ship-ish and looks really great, imo. Fair price, too.

BloodBath

These are great and come in a few colors. There's the slightly cheaper deep silence 2 model as well. Delivery is €19.

Julez

raymix wrote: »

well, here's my 2 cents

Choosing the right case is the biggest pain in the butt, it all still comes down to gear you are using and personal preferences.

You never mentioned what cooling you are using.

From your list I personally went with 1100 (video link in sig) over 300R because it supports giant fans like noctua and silverarrow. Also a side window was a must for me, so that ruled out many other cases. 1100 also supports 9 fans in a case with an optional backplate fan, which is pretty cool idea, imo. I'd suggest setting it in exhaust direction, otherwise it blows dust on back of a mobo.
Air 540 is just too cubic, imo looks a bit ridiculous, like a hi-tech fridge, better off with Thermaltake level 10. But can't argue with taste, right?
Take a look into Aerocool x-predator, its not too space ship-ish and looks really great, imo. Fair price, too.

I'm using this cooler on my CPU:Alpine 64, nothing flashy, but I'm not OCing so it does the job for the time being. I had actually all but decided on the 1100, but then I thought I'd take a deper look and get a second opinion. The X-predator does look a little on the 'spaceshippy' side, but its not too OTT, airflow looks great.

BloodBath wrote: »

These are great and come in a few colors. There's the slightly cheaper deep silence 2 model as well. Delivery is €19.

Hmmm, a very neat looking case, how many fans do they come installed with? Just watched a video, wow! I love how you press to get your USB ports. Case looks like a good mix of look, air flow, and noise reduction. Do you get good airflow through the top with the chimney open? So I presume while gaming you would have to open the front door for maximum airflow?

Gumbi

It's a nice case. The stock fans are excellent. I have a Deep Silence One myself. The air chimney is more a gimmick than anything else, but it does allow you to mount two top exhausts which is nice.

Julez

Gumbi wrote: »

It's a nice case. The stock fans are excellent. I have a Deep Silence One myself. The air chimney is more a gimmick than anything else, but it does allow you to mount two top exhausts which is nice.

Did you mount any extra fans or did you just go with the stock setup?

Gumbi

Julez wrote: »

Did you mount any extra fans or did you just go with the stock setup?

Yep, I mounted a side fan, and a top exhaust fan. I also mounted a floor fan. Side and floor as intakes, top as exhaust.

Julez

Think I'll go for the deep silence one so... Any advice on good fans? Thinking one side, one bottom and two for the top 140mm each, they don't seem to have the deep silence branded ones in stock Wouldn't really want to spend more that a tenner a pop, what about these or these?

BloodBath

Hmmm, a very neat looking case, how many fans do they come installed with? Just watched a video, wow! I love how you press to get your USB ports. Case looks like a good mix of look, air flow, and noise reduction. Do you get good airflow through the top with the chimney open? So I presume while gaming you would have to open the front door for maximum airflow?

It comes with 3 stock fans. 2 front intakes and a rear exhaust. All 140mm. No need to open the Chimney unless you install fans up there. No need to open the door either. There are vents at the front side and bottom that feeds those fans air.

I'd avoid sleeve bearing fans and try to get ones that are 3 pin connections as well. The built in fan controller in the case takes up to 6 fans but with 3 pin connections. That rules out both of those other fans.

Gumbi

The two front intakes are 120mm's.

Julez

BloodBath wrote: »

It comes with 3 stock fans. 2 front intakes and a rear exhaust. All 140mm. No need to open the Chimney unless you install fans up there. No need to open the door either. There are vents at the front side and bottom that feeds those fans air.

I'd avoid sleeve bearing fans and try to get ones that are 3 pin connections as well. The built in fan controller in the case takes up to 6 fans but with 3 pin connections. That rules out both of those other fans.

Ah, I'm little confused, I've never had speed controlled fans, so they need to have three pin connector, do they plug straight into the motherboard [EDIT: Just figured this out, fan controller gets power and then feeds out to fans, that right?]? Didn't even this of the sleeve bearing thing, so looking into it I see I can get a few different types of bearing! Whats wrong with sleeve bearing?

These any use? Or will I have to spend a bit more? 20 dBA looks a little louder.

If the case supports 6 fans that can be controlled am i better just getting one on the bottom, one on the side and one on top, so thats 6 including the 3 pre installed.

Thanks again for all the help, bit lost when it comes to the cooling.

raymix

Hi, yes speed controller is just a variable resistor that reduces speed by increasing resistance with a dial.

BloodBath

Sleeve bearing fans are not designed to be mounted horizontally. They wear out really quickly when they are. They also wear faster than other bearing types and get louder over time as they begin to wear.

Those Bitfenix fans are fine. My only fault with them would be the lack of a braided cable but they are reasonably cheap. I'd say you would be fine adding 2 fans. You want positive airflow so you're better off having 3 intakes and 2 exhausts.

Julez

BloodBath wrote: »

Sleeve bearing fans are not designed to be mounted horizontally. They wear out really quickly when they are. They also wear faster than other bearing types and get louder over time as they begin to wear.

Those Bitfenix fans are fine. My only fault with them would be the lack of a braided cable but they are reasonably cheap. I'd say you would be fine adding 2 fans. You want positive airflow so you're better off having 3 intakes and 2 exhausts.

OK, sounds good. I'll mount an intake at the bottom and exaust on top. Should give me good airflow, I'll go with that so.

smacl

BloodBath wrote: »

Sleeve bearing fans are not designed to be mounted horizontally. They wear out really quickly when they are. They also wear faster than other bearing types and get louder over time as they begin to wear.

Interesting. I've a couple of old workstations here running legacy apps which are getting noisy, never thought just to replace all the fans. Pretty obvious really, but thanks.

smacl

Julez wrote: »

OK, sounds good. I'll mount an intake at the bottom and exaust on top. Should give me good airflow, I'll go with that so.

I found the following article from Toms Hardware very useful when designing the cooling on my recent build.

Julez

Do hardwareversand normally take long to ship? I ordered on Monday and my status is still "Your payment conclusion via PayPal was confirmed us.". Haven't heard anything else since.

Gumbi

Julez wrote: »

Do hardwareversand normally take long to ship? I ordered on Monday and my status is still "Your payment conclusion via PayPal was confirmed us.". Haven't heard anything else since.

Maybe shoot an email to be sure. Something might be out of stock an waiting to come back in stock.