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Computer Experts, Lend Me Your Ears!

post #1 of 19
4/3/10 at 5:05am
Thread Starter 
...Or considering this is in writing, lending me your eyes would probably be more effective.

Anyhow, I'm in need on a nice shiny sexified computer case. My current one is a load of colon potatoes in both the cooling, loudness and build quality areas. It's a Thermaltake Strike.

I'm aiming for around $200, mid-tower ATX, sleek and sexy and quiet yet with highly efficient cooling-- I know, right? I like to game, so my video card heats up like an octopus in a microwave and that's posing a large issue as my case itself gets hot to the touch.

The first thing that came to mind was Lian Li-- Man, I should have bought one instead of this piece of crap. What really caught my eye was the Corsair Obsidian 800D (nice thermal region system, excessive support for cable management, shiny and sleek!), but the thing is basically the size of a Smart Car and would not fit where I want it. If you know something that is identical to that case, but in a mid-tower format, I will buy you a mighty fine drink and I'll even drink it for you.

Recap of requirements:

- $200ish
- Shorter than 24" tall, appx. 19" long, width is manageable.
- Great cooling to quiet ratio
- Similar sleek brushed aluminum looks to the Corsair Obsidian or Lian Li cases (window doesn't matter)
- Support for cable management
- Does not kill all humans

I have no experience with Lian Li cases and I don't necessarily trust New Egg reviews and so on as a few comments were made about my case as being quiet.

Thanks for any help!
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post #2 of 19
4/3/10 at 5:08am
buy new fans with your $200
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post #3 of 19
4/3/10 at 5:20am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by momomo6789 View Post
buy new fans with your $200
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post #4 of 19
4/3/10 at 5:24am
HAF 932, 922, antec 1200. They are considered kings when it comes to airflow.

The 800d is a huge case but I love mine. If you wait a little longer, the 700d is something you might be looking for.
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post #5 of 19
4/3/10 at 5:51am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Solid Snake View Post
HAF 932, 922, antec 1200. They are considered kings when it comes to airflow.

The 800d is a huge case but I love mine. If you wait a little longer, the 700d is something you might be looking for.
I want to try to balance cooling and quietness. The HAFs are too colourful and big (going for sleek, professional and mid-tower) and the Antec is incredibly loud.

I don't think the 700D is going do the job any better as Corsair's website just says it's a windowless and HDD hot-swap-free version of the 800D.
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post #6 of 19
4/3/10 at 6:42am
Well you don't have to be stuck with the stock fans they give you. I believe a large number of cases can be quiet and offer great cooling performance if you take the necessary steps and add your own fans, grommets and silicon mounting screws. The first thing I did with my 800d was replace my fans and added an intake fan for the front. The cooling/silent factor are excellent if you ask me. Fan controllers are another option to balance out silence/performance ratio.
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post #7 of 19
4/3/10 at 6:57am
What abou the Antec Solo?
Comes with damping panels, cable management system, and my personal favorite: an extremely cool harddrive mounting system to suspend harddrives in midair without any contact to the case.
Looks good, too - if you like piano gloss finish that is!

I like mine - airflow is good with a bit of effort and for me the above feature really helped with harddrive noise.
Its dimensions are a bit small for a case labelled as Midtower, though, so if you have a lot of components to cram in there, it might get a bit crowded...
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post #8 of 19
4/3/10 at 8:06am
Be careful with aluminium and windows, Aluminium help heat dissipation some but they really don´t help isolation. Windows also can increase the sound levels.

You haven´t considered water cooling? It increases the cost somewhat but make it easier building a quiter gaming system. Just make sure you get energy efficient soundcards as possible and CPUs that does well at low voltage and don´t run to hot.
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post #9 of 19
4/3/10 at 2:37pm
Newegg.com - Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases

Quiet, sleek, cool. Bit of a pain to install, but no biggie. It's my case.
21.3'' x 8.1” x 19.9”(HxWxD)

Bottom mounted PSU makes cooling more efficient.

Here's the inside of mine

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post #10 of 19
4/3/10 at 3:37pm
I will second the P182 recommendation or any of the Antec P18x series. They're essentially the quietest case out there IMHO.
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post #11 of 19
4/3/10 at 4:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Landis View Post
I want to try to balance cooling and quietness. The HAFs are too colourful and big (going for sleek, professional and mid-tower) and the Antec is incredibly loud.

I don't think the 700D is going do the job any better as Corsair's website just says it's a windowless and HDD hot-swap-free version of the 800D.
I have the HAF 932. It's easily the best case I've owned and I've been through many over the years. I'm not sure about the "too colorful" comment. There is only one red light near the bottom and that is it. It can easily be disabled if that is your thing. It also fits your height requirement by being two inches shorter (22") that your max. My GTX275 never exceeds 75 degrees and the CPU (i7 920) idles at 35 and never tops 70 under load. This all with the stock fans. For a full tower it is quite sleek in form and function. It's barely wider than my former mid tower. Couple that with the ease of use and massive amount of room for wire tucking I'll honestly never go back to a mid.

If you have a Microcenter near you go by and check them out in person. Initially I was set to go with the Antec 1200. After seeing them in person I quickly changed my mind for the 932. Cooler Master just knows how to make an amazing looking case that exudes quality. Sure there is no doubt that Lian Li make a fantastic product, but I'd rather put that extra $100+ towards a component in my system.
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post #12 of 19
4/3/10 at 5:13pm
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Storm Sniper SGC-6000-KXN1-GP Black Steel, ABS Plastic, Mesh bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases

My brother just got this for his computer. It's not set up yet but looking at the case, this thing has plenty of airflow and overheating will not be a problem. This also has some support for cable management (see: Amazon.com: Cooler Master SGC-6000-KXN1-GP Storm Sniper ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case (Black): Electronics).

I have an Antec P180 and to be honest, I hate it. There is very little room inside and the layout is garbage. Heat doesn't dissipate quickly enough and my components overheat a lot (my harddrives have overheatted and been damaged, forcing me to get them replaced by WD).
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post #13 of 19
4/3/10 at 5:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by demoNMaCHiN3 View Post
I have an Antec P180 and to be honest, I hate it. There is very little room inside and the layout is garbage. Heat doesn't dissipate quickly enough and my components overheat a lot (my harddrives have overheatted and been damaged, forcing me to get them replaced by WD).
Did you take the fan out from in front of the hard drives? Drives have quite a broad range of operating temperatures (the WD 1tb Black has an operating temperature of 32° F to 140° F / -0° C to 60° C). As long as you have some sort of airflow a drive should not fail due to heat.
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post #14 of 19
4/3/10 at 5:20pm
I have the Antec Three Hundred, no thrills but has excellent air cooling, running a 2.53 at over 4Ghz.

revolink24 why is your cpu fan pointing down and not out? I have the heatsink and it works well but it's mounted the other way.

Quote:
Originally Posted by revolink24 View Post
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post #15 of 19
4/3/10 at 7:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Graphicism View Post
revolink24 why is your cpu fan pointing down and not out? I have the heatsink and it works well but it's mounted the other way.
I'd have to guess that it's because heatpipes tend to work most efficiently if they're parallel to the ground- if the heatsink were mounted the other way, the cooling liquid in the bottom heatpipes wouldn't be able to travel back to the base of the heatskink as efficiently. I believe some of it still makes it back due to capillary action along the material in the inner lining of the heatpipe (if I recall correctly).

The manual for my Scythe Mugen 2 rev. B suggests that the HSF should be mounted with the heatpipes parallel WRT the ground. I think the difference is only a few degrees C. However, for a thinner heatsink like revolink24's that can only have the fan mounted on one side I would probably elect to have the fan blow as you suggest.
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