Aaaaaack! :Q Don't pay $179 at TigerDirect like you linked to in your original post. You can buy the silver WaveMaster at SVC for $129! See it
here.
🙂
And you can get the black one for $144.99.
Incidentally, you may want to consider getting a black one (although the silver one is equally beautiful looking) because finding silver-faced optical drives to match can be a challenge. Black drives are more ubiquitous than silver ones. CM does make a snap-on silver face plate for optical drives, but it doesn't look that great in my opinion. The silver case is really beautiful though, I'll admit.
I don't own one of these cases yet, but I intend to soon. I've seen them in person and they are simply stunning in terms of fit, finish, and overall build quality. And you could stand on top of one and not bend it an inch. There are some aspects of the inside that could be improved upon, like the front mounted fan sitch that gotensan01 mentioned in his post. But as for cooling, which was your original question, that kinda depends on how hot your components are gonna get. If you're running a hot vid card, more than one HD, and other 'hot' things, your cooling needs are obviously gonna need to be a concern. While I'm not an expert on cases on cooling, I personally think most of the elaborate cooling schemes that some guys get into are utterly ridiculous. There was one guy on here awhile back that said he had 7 (!) Thermaltake Volcano fans in his computer. And he truly believed he needed all of them. He's simply ignorant, and his computer no doubt sounds like a jet taking off. Most credible reviewers for the reputable computer magazines say that intake fans are often not even needed at all on most computers. They just suck in dust, which causes more problems than the fans are designed to mitigate. Having said that though, you may need outside air coming in if you're gonna have really hot running components. If you're running an A64 chip (with Cool 'n Quiet), a modest vid card and one hard drive, you prolly don't need even need to worry about intake fans at all. Just disconnect them and leave the dust outside.
As for noise, you can always replace the stock fans with Panaflo fans, or PC P&C Silencers, or SilenX fans. They will move enough air and do it quieter than the stock WaveMaster fans. Cheap and easy fix for whatever noise the stock WaveMaster produces.
😀
does anyone know what the size of the top fan slot of the wavemaster is? i'm thinking it's 80mm
Yes, it is for an 80mm fan (if you get the kit to use the hole for a fan instead of the stock ports). I intend to do just that when I get one of these cases.
If you haven't already, you might wanna check out
this review of the WaveMaster. It's pretty decent and should answer your questions.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
🙂
