Any Case Recomendations?

[SaberDicer]

I have around 150$ to spend on a case, I'm going to be running a A64 3500 and probably OC'ing a bit but not extreme, I want something with good cooling but not extremely loud. I was considering a Thermaltake Tsunami Drea, but a lot people says its horribly loud, so if anyone can affirm or deny that, It'd be apreciated, thx in advance

 

[BW86]

Silverstone TJ05-B $146
Antec P160 $120

 

[akira34]

I've used the P160... Nothing special, if anything I'd avoid it. Side panels are very flimsy, the plastic front takes away from it too. Not to mention that one that I used came with a defective curcuit board that caused all sorts of problems. Replacing the entire case took care of that, but delayed the build due to needing to RMA the bad one and get a good one (newegg).

 

[imported_DaveA]

antec p160. best case i have ever used. i bought mine from compusa for 140. yeah its 20 bucks more but i got to examine the case before buying, cant do that with newegg.

 

[akira34]

Originally posted by: DaveA
antec p160. best case i have ever used. i bought mine from compusa for 140. yeah its 20 bucks more but i got to examine the case before buying, cant do that with newegg.

You must have used some real crap cases before that one. The removable mobo tray on the p160 is a royal pain in the balls (as is the method they use to secure it to the rest of the case). Getting the floppy drive cover to line up with your drive is hit or miss. Same with the optical drive cover provided with the case.

In my own opinion, after using one p160 for my own system, another for a client (had to rma that one) I won't ever use it again. Even if the person is dead set on having it, I'll get them to get a different/better case. Even if I have to eat the cost difference. The way I see it, the p160 shouldn't be priced over $60. That's with the way it's made and the very few decent points it has...

BTW, the side mount drives are done poorly. There's not enough room between the drives and the side of the case. The cables are either too bloody tight (PATA) or bend too sharp (SATA) for comfort.

 

[Jeraden]

Despite akira's objections, I was interested in the P160 also. The main problem is I've seen a lot of reviews that state its actually fairly noisy, as it makes a resonating sound of some sort. For those that have it, whats the noise like, especially if you add a front 120mm fan?

 

[imported_DaveA]

Originally posted by: akira34

Originally posted by: DaveA
antec p160. best case i have ever used. i bought mine from compusa for 140. yeah its 20 bucks more but i got to examine the case before buying, cant do that with newegg.

You must have used some real crap cases before that one. The removable mobo tray on the p160 is a royal pain in the balls (as is the method they use to secure it to the rest of the case). Getting the floppy drive cover to line up with your drive is hit or miss. Same with the optical drive cover provided with the case.

In my own opinion, after using one p160 for my own system, another for a client (had to rma that one) I won't ever use it again. Even if the person is dead set on having it, I'll get them to get a different/better case. Even if I have to eat the cost difference. The way I see it, the p160 shouldn't be priced over $60. That's with the way it's made and the very few decent points it has...

BTW, the side mount drives are done poorly. There's not enough room between the drives and the side of the case. The cables are either too bloody tight (PATA) or bend too sharp (SATA) for comfort.

i dont have any of the issues you listed. the floppy and cdrom drives fitted perfect on the first attempt. hard drives are mounted so the cables go behind the drives.

 

[imported_DaveA]

Originally posted by: Jeraden
Despite akira's objections, I was interested in the P160 also. The main problem is I've seen a lot of reviews that state its actually fairly noisy, as it makes a resonating sound of some sort. For those that have it, whats the noise like, especially if you add a front 120mm fan?

the noise level is a low hum for me. nice and quiet. i have two antec 120mm blue led fans in the case along with 2 western digital hard drives, a zalman 7000alcu cpu heatsink running at full speed, and a ati x800 pro. very quiet.

 

[akira34]

DaveA: I've had some drives line up fine, but others didn't line up with the cheap plastic front bay covers. The front IS cheap plastic. I'm not the only person to get a p160 with a bad circuit board either. With the hard drives mounted normally there's barely enough room for the interface cables to bend before they hit the side of the case.

As quiet as you might think the p160 is, the Lian-Li V1100 makes it sound like a jet turbine. The aluminum panels on the V1100 are a full 2mm, where the p160 has paper thin panels. The motherboard tray on the p160 IS a royal pain to install/remove except with the system completely empty.

Bottom line, the p160 isn't even close to being in the same league as the V1100. Granted, you'll pay about $200-$235 for the V1100, BUT it's money well spent. Anything over $60 for the p160 is a rip-off.

 

[racolvin]

Originally posted by: Jeraden
Despite akira's objections, I was interested in the P160 also. The main problem is I've seen a lot of reviews that state its actually fairly noisy, as it makes a resonating sound of some sort. For those that have it, whats the noise like, especially if you add a front 120mm fan?

I've got one loaded down (see sig below) and the thing is quiet as a church mouse. I use SATA and the cable bend (which aren't bad) don't bother me. I don't use a floppy so I can't comment on that, nor do I use the "stealth" front plates for the CD/DVD - I bought a black Plextor and took the stealth plate off and it looks great. Sweet case IMHO and assembly was simple and straightforward.

R