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Cheap Case question

B

BadRobot

Senior member
Looking for a cheap case that doesn't suck at airflow. Trying to spend no more than 60 dollars.

It looked like it was pretty much impossible to get a decent psu included in a case but if anyone knows of a case/psu combo for less than 70 dollars that would be ideal.
 
Here is some more info.

It will be a
2140 with Gigabyte ds3l mobo
ati 3850
seagate barracuda 320gb .10 model
2x2gig ddr2 800

I was looking at the APEX TU150 Black Steel -for about 60 dollars at newegg but it almost definately will need a new psu...i have pretty much no experience at this low of price range with cases...
 
I always recommend the Rosewill R5600 series (be aware that the 5601 has a dedicated floppy drive bay - IOW only a floppy drive will go there, the 04 and 05 have a generic bay in which you can put any 3.5" external device) and the R6A series. Right now they are at the best prices I've seen them for a while with many models at $40. +sh. AFAIC, these are the best cases at the low buck. You'll be glad you spent the extra on down the road. If you expect to use long add-on cards, the 5600 series is a bit better for that with 11" of card space.

And this:
i-Star 500W (they used to have a 400W that I'd recommend, but I don't see it any more - try Froogle) would be a good PSU to go with (unless you can stretch your budged to cover the Enermax I'm selling 😀 ). Remember, the PSU is the cornerstone of a stable system. And just like the case, you will be glad you spent the extra on down the road.

Of course, check the For Sale/Trade section and eBay as you might come up with an excellent PSU that you otherwise couldn't afford. 380 to 450W unit with the power proportioned to the rails properly would be plenty for the system you mentioned.

.bh.
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811119068 first one that came to mind. 60$ buys you a pretty decent case though. If you wait for black friday and/or shop around hard enough I bet you can get your hands on a antec 900 for as little as 60-65$.

Seeing as a decent PSU costs around 60$ you won't be able to find a PSU/CASE combo for 60$. It's just nearly 100% inpossible. Perhaps wait for black friday and see if you can buy a antec sonata III for 100$ or maybe less? Then you get an antec earthwatts 500w PSU with a pretty decent case.
 
yea if i could find a antec sonata III at less than a hundred i guess i could do that seeing as how i was probably going to buy an earth watts anyways.

But how is the airflow for the case?
 
That rosewill case has a good price at newegg and I could pick up an earth watts with it for probably less than a hundred shipped, that is pretty good...

anyone have experience with either of these cases as far as air cooling goes?

Going to overclock the cpu and gpu so...
 
Antec Sonata III should have be good enough, I would throw in 1 extra 120mm casefan though, coz I think it only has ONE in the back. One if the front as well would be nice.
 
Zepper can tell you all you need to know about the Rosewill cases from personal experience.
They're quality cases for the money & have 120mm fans for both intake & exhaust so they'll have good airflow.
The 5601, 5604 & 5605 are all good-looking cases...the 5604 @ $39.99 is $5 cheaper than the other 2 and the 5605 is $1.20 more for shipping ($18.64 vs. $17.44) than the other 2 for some reason.
It's just a matter of your personal preference as far as looks go.
 
Seems like Zepper wins the debate =) Probably going to go with the rosewill and the Istar power supply...

unless the antec sonata III gets a good deal on black friday.

Edit: would it be a big jump in airflow if I buy aftermarket case fans?
 
See my review of the R5600 series here: http://www.techimo.com/reviews...roduct.php?product=431 . I can vouch for it. The R6A series is identical inside to the Antec SLK3000-B - a legendary case. Both rank from 4.5 to 5 on my 5-point Casitude (tm) scale. I've never had my hands on one, but it was a 5 egg case. About the only drawback to the R6A is there is little clearance behind the door for things like a fan controller with long knobs, but they have models w/o the door too.

You have PM - a note is that the SU models may not have a 6-pin connector - I'm still checking.

.bh.
 
You can pickup the CM Elite 330 and a 380WT Earthwatts for around 60 bucks AR. I have one of each and it used to house/power my main rig (including 8800GTS) so there is plenty of room for longer cards.
 
I've got two Coolermaster Centurion RC-532 cases...

They've got great airflow, quality made and are pretty cheap actually.. they've got the tool-less drive bays as well... I like them quite a bit.
 
I hate rebates bleh. However, a rosewill case r604 has free shipping at new egg so total shipped will be 34 dollars with no rebate....

Is r604 pretty much as good as the 5604?

EDIT: I got an e-mail from newegg that has a ton of promo codes in it, some for cases for free shipping. PM me if you want me to forward you the e-mail
 
Hey BR,

What CFM/noise trade off do you want? Have you checked my FS/T listing linked below? I still have the new SIlverstone/Everflow and a few others.

.bh.
 
Yea I wouldn't mind taking 1 of your 120 mm fans off your hands...PM with details on how you want me to purchase it.
 
Oh and FYI I decided to screw my budget for a case and bought a Xclio windtunnel for 98 dollars shipped off newegg =)

not a bad price considering that includes shipping I suppose...
 
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