# Frustrated with cases



## rdodd (Jan 21, 2005)

Hi, I am brand new here and this is my first post!

I am about to build my own computer in the next few months and I am frustrated with the cases that are out there on the market, it seems like if a case has one desireable attribute it won't have others, there's no case that seems to put it all together for me. I have even contemplated building my own case, even though that would be expensive and a hassle.

Here's what I am looking for in a case, and maybe some of you know of cases out there that get close to this:

1. Doesn't look like a plastic oriental dragon face or similarly jacked up.
2. tooless access to drives
3. either comes with a 450 watt power supply or one can be put in.
4. Side window, small is okay
5. At least 4 and preferably more 5.25" drive bays.
6. Designed as much as possible like a big heat sink for passive cooling

The only case I have seen that seems at all designed for passive cooling is Zalman's $1000 case, which is a little TOO much passive cooling for my budget. I thought about building a case around an aluminum automotive radiator, but I think welding on aluminum is difficult and creates toxic gasses or something. I could make the whole thing out of copper or brass, but both are kind of expensive. In a perfect world, I wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel here, there should be some reasonable compromise around. Ideally I would like to spend less than $200. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Robert


----------



## MotleyCrue (Jan 21, 2005)

Have you tryed Ebay?


----------



## rdodd (Jan 21, 2005)

Is Ebay a good place to find cases? I wouldn't think so but ya never know. I look on Newegg mostly, they seem to have the largest variety.

Another case pet peeve of mine are doors over the optical drive bays. I forgot to mention that one. There are good cases that meet most of my specs, but they have those doors over the CDROM drives, which to me is like putting 2 doors on a single entrance bathroom. There are a lot of otherwise good cases that I might like if they didn't have those dumb doors in the way of the optical drives. I could remove them of course... in which case there would still be hinges there. They're useless.


----------



## 95five-0 (Dec 7, 2004)

Have you looked at xoxide.com/


----------



## rdodd (Jan 21, 2005)

THanks for the link, I'll check them out. Have you done business over the internet with them before (are they reputable)?

Thanks,

Robert


----------



## Sarkast (Sep 12, 2004)

Xoxide.com is excellent.

http://www.resellerratings.com/seller2254.html

It'll still be hard to satisfy your point 6 - because passive cooling doesnt seem to be of interest for most case designers/ builders. I dont even think xoxide has much to offer in that direction.


----------



## rdodd (Jan 21, 2005)

<b>"It'll still be hard to satisfy your point 6 - because passive cooling doesnt seem to be of interest for most case designers/ builders. I dont even think xoxide has much to offer in that direction."</b>

Yeah, I don't expect much in that direction, the only case I have ever seen that does passive cooling is Zalman's and their case is a thousand bucks and is ONLY passively cooled, designed not to have a fan in it at all, intended for recording studios and such. Still, the current state of case design is frustrating to me and makes me wish I were a case designer. I am tempted to learn how to braze aluminum or weld steel so that I could build my own.

Newegg has the largest variety of cases I have seen, but it's difficult to search for just the features you want and none of them are really what I want. The Coolermaster Centurion is one of the closest so far, but it comes with a 350 watt PSU and I want at least a 400, 450 would be ideal. I might mod the Centurion to fit with a larger PSU, but then I'm spending money on a PSU that I am not needing.

Robert


----------



## Midnight Tech (Dec 31, 2001)

Robert, you shouldn't have to mod a case to put a bigger power supply in it...all the power supplies I've seen are standard dimensions.
Inquire where you get your case from...you may be able to order it either without a p/s or upgrade to the one you want.


----------



## mattaku (Dec 18, 2004)

Too bad I didn't know about the xoxide site earlier!

I bought the Cooler Master Centurian 5 case and have been relatively happy with it. I also wanted more power, so I swapped the 350W(?) PS with a 480W.

Some bad things with this case, the PS is mounted only on the screws in the back. Most cases are made this way (I believe). I wish they would have some sort of mounting option on the other side to give more stability.

Another thing I didn't like about the case: the audio & mic jacks up front were labelled wrong (they were switched). One thing that clued me into this is that the mic jack is usually red & the red socket was labelled headset. Not a big deal, but annoying.

Other than that, the Centurian is well built and looks nice. Don't know if I would buy it now, but am happy with it.


----------



## Sarkast (Sep 12, 2004)

Just my 2 cents:

When you look for a case dont even take the PSU into consideration that comes with the case. Unless you buy a 150$+ high end brand name case that comes with a PSU from the same brand name company you end up with a piece of $#@%.
Look at the specs - some of the cheap "400-450W" PSUs in the cheap cases dont even have enough output on the 12V rail to be called P4 compatible. My experience is to ALWAYS switch out the PSUs and get something decent. Otherwise you'll have trouble for a while - spend lots of time troubleshooting and then spend the money for the better PSU anyways. There are at least 5 posts a day in this forum where problems get solved when posters get rid of their cheap PSU.

Besides - i assume you are looking for a quiet PC. The cheapo PSUs are loud, their fans are cheap and make horrible noise etc. When you spend the money to buy a good one (doesnt need to be more than 50-60$) you can pick one with a 120mm fan thats temperature controlled (or manually) - which can make it impossible to hear most of the time.


----------



## rdodd (Jan 21, 2005)

I looked at a Centurion at a store I went to, it appears to have some sort of bracket underneath it, didn't notice how the bracket was attached to the PSU but I think it was riveted or otherwise attached to the case wall. Right now I am contemplating getting a cheap PSU-less case and then buying an Antec or Enermax, there was a Zalman that looked nice too and wasn't terribly expensive. Much as I'd like to get a case that has toolless drive access, I am leaning towards a cheap case now, because I doubt I am going to find anything that really fits the bill.

Seems like I have seen PSU's that are not standard dimensions, but I'm not sure. Certainly some have top vents and some do not, so the ones with top vents aren't going to be compatible with every case. Cooler Master's website is less than helpful about cases, but I didn't see any models of the Centurion available without a PSU. The jacks being screwed on the Centurion sure is sloppy, doesn't give me warm feelings about getting the case. I've actually thought a lot about getting some slabs of quarter-inch brass sheet and just building a case, but that sure would be a lot of work, and not cheap either. I've done a lot of work as an artist and designer over the years, and the way cases are designed just makes me want to hurl sometimes, but I guess laziness will probably win out in the end and I'll get some generic case or other. 

Robert


----------



## rdodd (Jan 21, 2005)

Just been checking out Chieftec's cases, http://www.chieftec.com/
They're pretty nice, and not particularly expensive, and don't come with PSU.


----------



## twajetmech (Jul 1, 2004)

You may also want to look at Lian-Li cases. I've got the 6070A and could not be happier with it. FrozenCpu.com carries them stock or pre-modded. Lian-li also has a larger one in the same style if that suites ya !


----------



## Grinch (Jan 29, 2005)

Coolmaster Stacker take a close look at this one.


----------



## Sarge (Nov 3, 2004)

Pair a *NZXT Nemesis Elite* aluminum case with a *Thermaltake Silent Purepower Xaser 480w* Dual Ball Bearing PSU and you've got yourself one sweet case.

Throw in an *Asus P4P800-E Deluxe* LGA 775 MOBO, a *Pentium4 550* (3.4 GHz) core, and some DDR2 533 RAM and it's party time. 

Your only worry then is how to overclock; or more specificly, how to disipate all the heat FROM the overclocking. 
Might I suggest liquid cooling?

BTW: The fact that your case is or is not made of Aluminum should be the LAST thing you consider in terms of cooling potential. What's important is (in order of importance for cooling):
1)The CPU cooler (waterblock, cold plate, heat pipe(s), fan(s), vet duct)
2)The Northbridge cooler (as CPU)
3) The GPU cooler (Waterblock, cold plate, heat sink, fan(s)
4) DDR heatspreaders (and possibly active cooling if you wanna really push the bus speed to the max)
5) Case fans (natch, the more the better, just keep in mind that you have to live with the noise)
6) Fan speed controlers and/or Temp gauges
7) Aluminum vs. Steel case

As you can see, an Aluiminum case really far down on the list of things that are cooling-critical Actualy, there's one thing that should be on the top of that list, but istn't. That would be AMBIENT TEMP! No matter how much money you pour into your carefully modded custom case, it's not gonna make a hair's worth of differtece if you insist on running it outside in July during a heat wave where you can fry an egg on the sidewalk. You might wanna consider investing in some indoor AC. Either that, or move to Canada's far north and live in a permanatly naturaly cooled enviroment. :wink: 

Now, don't get the wrong idea and think I'm against Aluminum cases; I'm not. They are great for reasons beyond cooling potential. Firstly... they weight a lot less than their steel counterparts.This, of course, has absolutly ZERO relevence as far as the machnine as a computer goes. As far as the machine as something you're going to have to pick up and carry... well, you be the judge.
Also, Aluminum is a very easy material to work with from a hobbyist/modder's point of veiw. It lends itself greatly to the addition of extra fan grills, water cooling ports, plexiglass windows, etc, etc. It's just so easy to cut!

The only major drawback to aluminum cases is that they are not as sturdy or hardy as a similar steel case would be. They dent and scratch a bit easier than steel, and they deform under structral stress a lot easier than steel. What that means is that you'll have to give some thought to making sure that you're not compromising structual integrity for the sake of lighter weight. Normaly, this isn't a problem, but when you start cutting holes in the case you have to keep this in mind.

Gentlemen, start your dremmals!


----------



## KuroSatsu (Jan 3, 2005)

rdodd said:


> Here's what I am looking for in a case, and maybe some of you know of cases out there that get close to this:
> 
> 1. Doesn't look like a plastic oriental dragon face or similarly jacked up.


HAHAHAHAHA OMG that's priceless! I know exactly what you mean and I'm currently in the process of writing a rant about how out of hand cases are getting. It's gone from aesthetically pleasing w/ silver and lights to "bling bling biotch!"

Here's a picture of what I thought when I typed that up (and i took care to remove a certain word):









2005 hits me as the era where man will fuse Rice Burners with case design. :werd: 

-Dave


----------

