AEROCOOL Touch2000 and new case suggestion request

[Idontcare]

So right now I've got one of these COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 housing:

• 6 hard-drives (two raptor x's, two 7200rpm 500GB's, and two 7200rpm 1TB drives)
  3 DVD drives
  Q6600 @ stock everything
  8GB DDR2-800 (4x2GB)
  Areca 1280ML
  GeForce 8600GT (practically never used for gaming, just drives 2 x 2407 dell screens)

I use the DVD drives to rip and transcode my kid's DVDs, mostly to do simple things like change the menu so they auto-start the movie when the DVD is inserted into the DVD player in our minivan so I'm not screwing around navigating menu system while driving, etc. Lots of thomas and dora, etc. My wife's side of the family buys these things in bulk I swear so its not uncommon for me to sit down and "do" 10 DVD's in a couple of hours every month or two months.

Now recently I noticed that when I pulled a DVD out of the tray after a rip session the DVD felt really warm, not "burned my hand" hot, but that kind of warm where you immediately go "hmmm, that can't be too good for the DVD or my DVD reader..." warm.

So then I bought one of these AEROCOOL Touch2000 fan controller and temperature reading setups. First let me just say to anyone considering buying one of these that they are freaking cool looking and fun to play with. Totally worth the $60.

At any rate I wedged one of the thermo-probes in between two of my DVD players, and distributed the other three probes between my hard-drives, the fins on my HSF and one at the very top of my case near the dead-space created by the PSU.

What I found is that during the rip-session the space in between my DVD burners is getting up to 49°C (120°F) which does seem unacceptably hot for a DVD to be exposed to while spinning at however many thousand rpms these things spin at when ripping at 22x.

So I'm thinking it is probably "new case" time. My current case is definitely maxed out. Every bay internal/external is occupied and the internal temps are high.

So naturally the next question that comes to mind is what case is a good case to put this hardware into? Obviously I'd rather spend $60 versus $300, and this is about function not form, so I'm hoping there is a fugly but effective $100 case out there that will serve my needs.

(in case anyone is wondering "why not remove a side panel", going back to said kids above, they won't keep their fingers out of the case whenever I do have the sidepanel removed so I need a "kid friendly" solution here)

I need a minimum of 5 external 5.25" bays for the DVD readers and the Touch2000.

I'm wondering if something like the ENERMAX Uber Chakra ECA5001B or the Rosewill Conqueror WBK Triple or the AZZA Solano 1000 Black would serve my needs?

Anyone have experience with these cheap $100 cases, or suggestions on a different case to get?

 

[yh125d]

Yeah, you're definitely going to want a new case. 6 hard drives alone are putting out a lot of heat, I bet they're running hot too. Of those cases I'd get the azza. Good HD cooling, intake not being restricted by a stupid door, plenty of drive bays, and good exhaust. Cut the LED wires and hook up your fan controller and G2G

 

[Idontcare]

Thanks for the recommend!

One thing I realized on doing further homework is that for my current components I'd need a minimum of 11 bays total (with min 5 external), so those 9-bay cases without any additional 3.25" internal bays won't cut it.

6 HDDs + 3 DVDs + 2slot fan control = 11 total bays.

So something like the ENERMAX Uber Chakra ECA5001B would do but the Azza was a poor candidate in hindsight on my part, as was the Rosewill Conquerer.

So I've now narrowed/expanded the candidates down to:

ENERMAX Uber Chakra $70 w/MIR + shipping

XCLIO A380BK $90 + shipping

Thermaltake Spedo VI90001N2Z $110 w/MIR & free shipping before sept 7

Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003BWS $130 w/MIR & free shipping before sept 7

ABS Aplus ABS-Black Pearl $130 & free shipping

Antec Twelve Hundred $170 + shipping

Do any of these have a bad rep around here such that I could immediately eliminate them?

 

[yh125d]

To be honest I was hoping you'd up your budget so I could recommend the ABS Black Pearl 😉


I got one a few weeks ago and I love it. 8 removable HD bays, 2 false door DVD bays, 4 normal DVD bays, and a 3.5/5.25 bay. Included fan controller that works well if you ever need more channels than with the controller you have, or want an additional temp probe. Classy aluminum build, rebadged Lian Li so its quality, good cable management. You're going to want to make sure your PSU cables can stretch to the top though, SATA also. But that's going to be the case with most full towers anyway. The only real caveat it that it only has one fan blowing over all 8 HDs, but they are isolated from the other heat sources and it would be easy to place another fan on the side blowing on them if they're running warm. Toolless rubber HD mounts is nice


The xclio only has 6 dedicated HD bays and is ugly as sin, I'd stay away from it. The TT Spedo is weird, it has 4 DVD bays up top and 3 more on bottom... again only 6HD bays. The TT armor says it has 10 DVD bays but several are taken for HD space since they double for that purpose.also it puts another three up by the PSU which is odd. The 1200 has good HD cooling, but is kind of pricey

 

[Rhoxed]

The ThermalTake Armor is great, has 3 internal by the PSU up top 3.5's 3 in front behind 120MM fan, and a 5.25 bay add-on plus many many 5.25 bays, i would also reccomend the CoolerMaster HAF 932, it has just enough room for your 6HD's 3DVD drives and Double DIN fan controller, plus ample amount of cooling with VERY quiet stock fans, if you need more cooling the 230MM fans can be replaced by up to 8 120MM fans of more CFM (obviously louder)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811119160 - CM HAF 932 - $139.99 + free shipping

 

[Idontcare]

Rhoxed I appreciate your inputs, I see you have a TT Armor in your sig. Yeah I liked the fact that there was a 3-HDD cage with that 90mm fan parked up by the PSU.

My only dislike for the HAF 932 is that it's only got 5 internal 3.25" bays plus the one external. If I have options for roughly the same money then my preference would fall to the case that won't be maxed out (or as close to it) as soon as I get it. But dam that's got to be near-perfect cooling with the fan arrangement on that case.

So that's one thing I like about the ABS Black Pearl and the TT Armor, both of those will take my current hardware and leave me with space to still add more drives down the road.

Not that I have any intention of maxing it out, but that 1280ML gives me 24 sata connects.

I think I've narrowed it down now to a toss-up between:

Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003BWS $130 w/MIR & free shipping before sept 7

ABS Aplus ABS-Black Pearl $130 & free shipping

Antec Twelve Hundred $170 + shipping

Heavily leaning towards that ABS Black Pearl (thanks yh125d for the healthy recommend on it :thumbsup🙂.

The A1200 is not likely but I keep it there because other than price it seems really nice.

Rhoxed can you tell me whether or not that 250mm side fan on the TT Armor has clearance for my Tuniq Tower120? If it doesn't then that will eliminate the TT Armor for me.

edit: I went with the Black Pearl. Really like the HDD bays down low like that and I have the extra 120mm fans already to outfit the case for nice airflow. Thanks everyone who gave me help here and for taking time to read the thread.

I want to say again that the Touch2000 is pretty swanky, touchscreen is really nice. Only thing I wish they added was an ability to store a couple profiles (quiet versus loud) as I tend to find myself manually turning up the fanspeed when my cpu is fully loaded (naturally).

 

[yh125d]

+1 IDC. You won't be disappointed

 

[Rhoxed]

ah a bit late, but yes, the Armor will fit the tuniq with the side fan on, TBH i have never seen the ABS case mentioned, looks great, i might need to use one in a future build =]

 

[Idontcare]

Thanks guys for the vote of confidence :thumbsup:

And thanks rhoxed for the follow-up on the TT Armor, I've got six rigs with tuniq's here so chances are high that I'll be back for another case in due time so I really appreciate knowing my options.

I didn't really give you much time to respond to my question before I pulled the trigger, guess I got a little anxious despite the fact my case isn't going anywhere with a 3day weekend coming up.