Male seeks case - must have good looks, quiet and easy to manage.

Loobz

Hi all.

Im in the market for a new case. It has to meet the following criteria:

1) Must be easy to manage. ie. easy installation of motherboard and drives etc.

2) 120mm fans are a must. Im trying to keep things as quiet as possible.

3) And it must look good. Perspex side panel or any pre modded accesories welcome. (without being to tacky). I have a few cold cathodes already.

The case must be a midi tower as Im gonna transfer my existing hardware to the new case
So what do ye think? Ive noticed that the case market has become saturated since my last rummage around for a case about 18 months ago. so I need someone to point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance.

Endurance Man

Well im in the same position as u at the moment. I have been looking for a new case for around month and a half and it aint easy :eek: . I have gone through piles of reveiws, including many of gamemans video reveiws which btw are awsome .
I THINK i have settled on this.
http://www.thermaltake.com/xaserCase/tsunami/swa/swa.htm
At the moment it seems to be dropping in price and is 1 of the cheapest all alluminium cases i could find. The installation of all hardware is simple, mobo and hdd rack are removable and the front bezel swings open to give acces to the front panels.
If u want a good overveiw of a bunch of cases go here:

http://www.3dgameman.com/videos_case_main.html

This is a great resource!!

Hope this helps u, i will hopefully order mine 2nite if i pluck up the courage , its a hard decission .

DemonOfTheFall

Hahaha! 3dgameman is the most biased site ever. Half of that guys reviews are of thermaltake kit and he *always* says that theyre "just great". EVERY single review of a thermaltake product he says is just great. Even when he's pointed out massive glaring flaws in the products design. It's always just great....

That said though it is good to see the case in video and get a feel for it. I say watch the videos on his site then find an actual review of the case to see if it's any good.

One review I remember he has to practically wallop the drive into the case on its rails then he goes on to say that the build quality was good.... :rolleyes:

As for a case recommendation, the Antec superlanboy on komplett is really easy to work with, has a window, has leds, is aluminium, comes with a carry strap and has low to average noise fans. pretty good case.
antec sonata is the same design chassis, just steel instead of alu, comes with a *really* quiet powersupply and really quiet fan. No window, plain black. Depends what tickles your fancy taste wise

Endurance Man

Yes i agree that he does seem a bit bias, but then i dont watch the review to get his apponion, i watch it to see the all the angles of the case . He does LOVE giving out those "kick ass product" tags
With that siad go watch the review on the thermaltake shark, he does not give that a kick ass, and shows us a majot flaw.

I also looked at the lanboy, and read sooo many reveiws, most of it was positive but it is a little small inside. The front bezel is also plastic. Just a bit to tight inside for me.
What kind of budget do u have for the case ??

Loobz

Endurance Man wrote:

I THINK i have settled on this.
http://www.thermaltake.com/xaserCase/tsunami/swa/swa.htm

I had a look at that case and is on top of my list. Meets all my needs also.
Anything like this or better?

Edit: Budget = 150 at a push. Although most cases are sub 150 me thinks.

DemonOfTheFall

the lanboy is actually quite roomy due to good design though. A 6800 Gt, 2 hard drives, 2 opticals, an XP-120 ?

po0k

Coolermaster Stacker.
Original And Best.
Accept no substitute.

It's the fúcking Cornflakes.

Endurance Man

The stacker is only good if u have a lot of hardware, like 5 harddrives. If u dont have a lot of stuff to fill it with its a waste, just big and bulky. Not great for lans either, very heavy.
Loobs, ye that is a good case i think. I have researched it for weeks now and i think the overall response has been that its great
This is also good for the money.

http://www.thermaltake.com/xaserCase/shark/black/black.htm

Very similar to the tsunami, al alluminium with side mounted hdd which may suite u a bit more.
There are other cases which i might prefer but finding them in ireland is impossible and i dont want to get stuff from uk as its more complicated and shipping is a joke :eek: .
How much do u want to spend ??
If u have a bigger budget there could be sumting better

tonkpills

Coolermaster Centurion 531 €80 pixmania.com

Loobz

SyxPak wrote:

Coolermaster Stacker.
Original And Best.
Accept no substitute.

It's the fúcking Cornflakes.

hehe, its a bit overkill for me as Ive no need for 11 drivebays etc. Thanks for suggestion.

Loobz

150 eurons is my budget. I should get a decent case for that kind of currency. Not liking the Thermaltake Shark. Somethin about the odd shape of the curves. However it does a good job afaik

Endurance Man

The centurion is a good case but again its a steel chassis. They are just to heavy! If u are going to lans it just dont work. Alluminuim also just looks cool .

Jammer

akasa eclipse?

Endurance Man

150 euro thats enough, u can get the tsunami and have change for a few drinks afterwards .

PS: Jammer can u get the akasa in ireland?? That is also a very good case but they dont have them here

Dundhoone

Jammer wrote:

akasa eclipse?

Great case, got mine couple of weeks ago and I like it. But with the window and shipping & exchange rate it was about €180. The black interior is really nice.

I couldnt find a supplier for the akasa in ireland , i got mine from kustompc.co.uk . Arrived in two days, and no hassle rma with some other bits that werent to my liking. good crowd.

Endurance Man

Ye the akasa is great but i just cant justify adding that much to the price just for shipping, its not fare .

Jammer

Endurance Man wrote:

Ye the akasa is great but i just cant justify adding that much to the price just for shipping, its not fare .

Its life

Endurance Man

Well ill settle for the tsunami, also a great case, and ill have money over for some new headphones .

po0k

What's all this whinging about heavy cases?

Do some weights or something.

Endurance Man

LOL , im looking after my back . Alluminium just looks cool i think. Iv had 4 steel cases and after seeing allu i was hooked, the weight is just an added bonus.

WizZard

What about the Coolermaster Wavemaster. It's the one that the Thermaltake ripped off.
The original & best!


Plus I have one for sale with a side window, literally as new. And I'd let it go for €160 at a push!!

Loobz

WizZard wrote:

Plus I have one for sale with a side window, literally as new. And I'd let it go for €160 at a push!!

Nice case, nice price...no deal. 80mm fans putting me off plus the askibg price for a 2nd hand case. Looks like the Thermaltake has what I want so far. Gonna google the other suggestions and let ye know what I think.

ps. thanks for your offer Wizzard

Endurance Man

Was browsing a few more cases and found this 1. If u wanted sumting with a bit of a different layout this looks unique enough. Steel chassis though :rolleyes:

http://www.systemcooling.com/silverstone_tj06-01.html

sionnach

aluminium cases are loud. If you want a quiet case, make sure it's steel or one of antec's plastic|aluminium composites.

WizZard wrote:

It's the one that the Thermaltake ripped off.

well that narrows it down :rolleyes:

Endurance Man

Steel is quieter than alluminium?? I find this hard to believe :eek: . I have posted threads all over the internet asking people how to make my pc as silent as possible and loads have come back saying that alluminium is the most silent. My steel case that i have at the moment is very noisy with all the fans on a controller and even at there lowest i get a lot of vibration .

sionnach

Endurance Man wrote:

Steel is quieter than alluminium?? I find this hard to believe :eek: . I have posted threads all over the internet asking people how to make my pc as silent as possible and loads have come back saying that alluminium is the most silent. My steel case that i have at the moment is very noisy with all the fans on a controller and even at there lowest i get a lot of vibration .

You were clearly asking the wrong people. Aluminium is light and resonates a lot more easily than heavier steel. An aluminium case will therefore "hum" a lot more than a steel case.

Having your fans on a controller means sfa if the fans are terrible to begin with. Quiet fan companies are nexus, papst, globe and panaflo. Replacing your current fans with some of those would make a huge diffrence.

Also, the single easiest and most effective silencing mod for your computer would be to suspend your hard drive with some fabric elastic. This will stop your hard drive from transferring so much vibrations to the case and cusing it to rattle and hum.

If you really want to go all out towards silencing your pc i could give you a lot more tips.

Loobz

sionnach wrote:

If you really want to go all out towards silencing your pc i could give you a lot more tips.

Im intrigued by yor silencing know-how Sionnach. I know this topic has been covered before through previous threads. I also realise that this may be slightly off topic, but if you could elaborate here for me (and others) it would be greatly appreciated. Share your knowledge Sionnach as I will take this into consideration when looking for a new case. Id prefer to have what I need before I start shifting my existing hardware to a new case rather than later.

Thanks bud.

sionnach

k i'll get to work on a guide of sorts and post it up after work tomorrow.

Loobz

sionnach wrote:

k i'll get to work on a guide of sorts and post it up after work tomorrow.

I can see it now, Sionnachs Silencing Solutions Stickified!
Might be worth it as people seem to have queries on silencing PC's throughout the forums.

Loobz

Endurance Man wrote:

Was browsing a few more cases and found this 1. If u wanted sumting with a bit of a different layout this looks unique enough. Steel chassis though :rolleyes:
http://www.systemcooling.com/silverstone_tj06-01.html

I think this case looks fairly large. I would like to get a smaller case if possible. The case I have at the moment is a Chieftec Dragon. And the main reason Im changing this is cos its too big for my needs.

CSSource God

Endurance Man, I have the Tsunami. Great case looks the business! But its noisy- so noisy i had to modify the 120mm fans on it I love it, wouldnt recommend it for carrying around either though. My pics are in the case mods section here(Page10). Best prices are on jes.de, both for wavemaster and Tsunami

jozi

My mate has a Antec P160, its (aluminium) pretty quiet only thing you hear is the stuppid little fan on his gfx card screaming. Also one of the recomended cases on www.silentpcreview.com if i remember right, which is also a good place to start looking.
Antec have a new case (coming) out P180 i like the look of it and its designed to give good airflow and low noise but i think its going to be very expensive

EDIT: P160 is also handy enough to work on, mobo tray, removable hd trays etc much more comfortable than my sonata (would also recomend it)to work with.

Seen a silverstone recomended, very nice to. Lian-Li do a few nice cases to

Endurance Man

Endurance Man, I have the Tsunami. Great case looks the business! But its noisy- so noisy i had to modify the 120mm fans on it I love it, wouldnt recommend it for carrying around either though. My pics are in the case mods section here(Page10). Best prices are on jes.de, both for wavemaster and Tsunami

Yes i have heard that the stock fans can start to get a bit noisy. Im not to worried about that though, i have a bunch of new 120mm fans lying around that are very quiet. I also have a few of those rubber gasket things, meant to make vibration zero. My gpu is cooled with a heatpipe so that is silent. I got a zalman cpu cooler and we no those are silent . I think it should be silent enough, my case at the moment is like a vacum cleaner so this should be a huge improvement.

Endurance Man

Oh. forgot to ask something. Sourcegod u say that jes.de is where u got yours. How much did u pay including postage and how long ago? Thanks 4 any info

Loobz

Endurance Man wrote:

my case at the moment is like a vacum cleaner so this should be a huge improvement.

I hear ya :rolleyes:

CSSource God

OOps sorry its loobz looking for a case i thought it was endurance man! I got mine from Peats in Dublin when on Special offer at the time, around e130 a few months back. Jes i think is e99. Great price ive never dealt with them but many others in boards have! I got it in Peats coz i was too impatient to wait for delivery etc LOL! Modified the fans with soft rubber to stop the loud vibrations off the aluminium case, case never fails to impress. The reflective piano black paint is very impressive! Fans are so powerful they cool my room down around my desk Honestly. 2*120mm and side 80mm!

Endurance Man

Well i looked at peats but they only have the black with no window :rolleyes: . I emailed to check if they would be getting windows but they wont so cant go there. I checked jes and it looks like they dont stock them anymore, they had a few thermaltake cases but no tsunami's. Think im going to have to go to these people.

http://www.pcn.ie/productdetails.asp?PID=4721&processtype=1&MaincatID=5&CatID=34

Its not bad for 127 and i have been told they can deliver for 10euro.