full tower help

[smackababy]

I am building a PC and wantto go with a full tower for plenty of room. I was wondering what was the best, and most affordable, full tower. I am liking the Antec 1200 but was also liking the Cooler Master Cosmos. Any suggestions would help a lot. Thanks.


Oh, and as far as looks go: I am not that interested in huge side windows or LEDs. Just the best cooling.

 

[videogames101]

Antec 1200 is a beast at cooling, and looks badass, but it certainly has tons of LEDs.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Isn't there any company out there that makes a quality full tower that has good airflow for cooling on air without the ridiculous case windows and LEDs? I mean, they may look cool for some people but not for me. I remember people doing that so when they lug their rig around for LAN parties they have something to show off. If someone keeps their PC in their home/computer room or whatever and doesn't have anyone to show it to...well you see what I mean.

Getting ideas for a friend's build, need a full tower but can't for the life of me find a good one without the window which he doesn't want. At least, I don't know of any off hand.

 

[Zepper]

. As always, there is NO single one best full tower case for all purposes - you just have to settle on the best compromise for your particular conditions.
. The Thermaltake Eureka (hard to find an aluminum case of this size for less - getting harder all the time to find the Eureka in the States) is a fairly large case with little excess bling - its sibling the Shark is easier to find but also blingier. The Tt Armor used to be available w/o the blingy side door, but you're still stuck with LED front fans as the iCage HDD racks come with 'em (of course you can easily swap with plain ones). The Silverstone Kublai KL03 can be had without the side window and doesn't have LED fans (it's my current case). Many Lian Li lack windows and LED fans but the big ones can cost an arm and TWO legs... One doesn't even want to think about the shipping costs on any of the monsters.
. Another to consider is the Ultra m998. It's not a true full tower, but it's on the large side of maxi-mid - very little bling, mostly aluminum but has a stainless steel mobo drawer. TigerDirect and Amazon has had the best price on these recently. Another is the Tagan Monolith - you can turn off the LEDs on the big fans. The Mono. has recently been available for the least cost of all the others mentioned here. Finally you might look at the Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570 (not sure of the bling factors on this one) or an iStar case if you can find not bundled with one of their PSUs (unless the bundled units meet your needs). On the iStar, the model numbering can be confusing as in several series they have both ATX and EATX versions - I don't consider a case to be full tower unless it can handle the EATX size mobos (dual and quad processor). All I can think of off the top of my head unless you really want to break into big buck territory like the Silverstone TJ09/10 etc...

.bh.

 

[smackababy]

So, I've decided I am going to go with the Antec 1200 after talking with a friend about it. Now, I was hoping to replace the case fans with non-LED fans to cut down some of the "bling" as a few of you like to call it. What are some good fans that move a ton of air? Noise level is of no concern to me. I'd rather a cool, loud system than a silent, warm system. I am going to be doing as much air cooled OC as I can squeeze out of this rig so cooling will be a big part. Thank you.

 

[zerogear]

How much are you willing to spend? *Eyes Lian-Li*

 

[smackababy]

I am looking to spend ~$200. I don't really have a budget.

 

[Zepper]

These are very good fans and are low noise - even tolerable at full speed. Unfortunately they come in heavy, oversize, retail packaging, so they cost more than they should to ship. I can usually beat them on bottom line price, but I have only the LED version. Very few places even carry this model. TechIMO still has some sections screwed up from their last maintenance or I could give you a direct link to my review of them, but you can still see it with a google search like this- Y720CCD-25K1-GP zepper -it will be among the top few hits (it's the page at TechIMO, then click on the "Cached" link at the bottom of the hit. Voila. I gotta go collect my reviews as there's no telling when TechIMO will get their s__t together. Praise be to Google for their page caching!

http://www.svc.com/y720ccd-25k1-gp.html

.bh.

 

[SP33Demon]

Originally posted by: Zepper
These are very good fans and are low noise - even tolerable at full speed. Unfortunately they come in heavy, oversize, retail packaging, so they cost more than they should to ship. I can usually beat them on bottom line price, but I have only the LED version. Very few places even carry this model. TechIMO still has some sections screwed up from their last maintenance or I could give you a direct link to my review of them, but you can still see it with a google search like this- Y720CCD-25K1-GP zepper -it will be among the top few hits (it's the page at TechIMO, then click on the "Cached" link at the bottom of the hit. Voila. I gotta go collect my reviews as there's no telling when TechIMO will get their s__t together. Praise be to Google for their page caching!

http://www.svc.com/y720ccd-25k1-gp.html

.bh.

Or you can get a Scythe Slipstream that has the same stats (110CFM, 37dB)

 

[smackababy]

I've been looking at some Lian-Li cases and they seem pretty much what I'm looking for. Sadly, they are a bit more than I was hope to spend. I guess it costs less to have it look retarded. Oh well. I will keep looking for deals on Lian-Li cases to see if I can find one for the same price to replace the LED fans in the Antec 1200.

Thank you for the ideas and suggestions.

 

[Zepper]

Originally posted by: SP33Demon

Originally posted by: Zepper
These are very good fans and are low noise - even tolerable at full speed. Unfortunately they come in heavy, oversize, retail packaging, so they cost more than they should to ship. I can usually beat them on bottom line price, but I have only the LED version. Very few places even carry this model. TechIMO still has some sections screwed up from their last maintenance or I could give you a direct link to my review of them, but you can still see it with a google search like this- Y720CCD-25K1-GP zepper -it will be among the top few hits (it's the page at TechIMO, then click on the "Cached" link at the bottom of the hit. Voila. I gotta go collect my reviews as there's no telling when TechIMO will get their s__t together. Praise be to Google for their page caching!

http://www.svc.com/y720ccd-25k1-gp.html

.bh.

Or you can get a Scythe Slipstream that has the same stats (110CFM, 37dB)

Of course the Scythe doesn't come with the two controller kit. The Antec Hundred series cases come with 3-speed fans operated by a switch local to the fans. But I use a 3rd-party controller on the Y720s anyway (I really like my C-M Aerogate-3 which is long since discontinued).

.bh.

 

[smackababy]

So I almost ordered the 1200 but I thought about saving a few dollars and buying the 900. Is there a huge difference between the two? It is worth the extra $60 for the Antec 1200 (Currently available for $159.99 with free shipping and I can get the 900 for $88.00 plus shipping). Am I just being a cheapscate? I do wish I had taken advantage of the Black Friday sales though, I hear I could have gotten the 900 for $60 shipped. Thank you for the help so far.

 

[videogames101]

Originally posted by: smackababy
So I almost ordered the 1200 but I thought about saving a few dollars and buying the 900. Is there a huge difference between the two? It is worth the extra $60 for the Antec 1200 (Currently available for $159.99 with free shipping and I can get the 900 for $88.00 plus shipping). Am I just being a cheapscate? I do wish I had taken advantage of the Black Friday sales though, I hear I could have gotten the 900 for $60 shipped. Thank you for the help so far.

The 900 has no fan filters, comes with several fewer fans, very limited behind-mobo wiring space, less room/space, and generally looks worse than to the 1200.

Thats not to say the 900 is bad, it's better then most mid-towers for cooling and looks, so really, if gaming performance is your goal, the money is better spent kicking your GPU up a notch, because that will probably help you more then the slightly increased cooling in the 1200. (HD4850 -> HD4870, or, GTX 260 -> GTX 280, for example)


(I own a 1200, my buddy owns a 900, which is where I judge looks from)


All that being said, the 900 is lighter, and I nearly die every time I go to a LAN with my 1200.
(It's certainly weighs more than 50 pounds, the 1200, that is)

 

[zerocool84]

I have the 900 and it cools very well even with every fan set on low. I have an extra fan installed on the side window. To me, it's quiet with every fan on low but you have to have a quiet psu and videocard also. It's cramped on the inside. I have a Corsair 650TX which has very long cables and many of them so organizing them was a hassle. Also removing harddrives sucks cus you have to unscrew the harddrive cages and then you have to unscrew the harddrives with the crappily designed little holes that are a pain to reinsert. It does cool very well though which is why I bought it in the first place.

 

[Chronoshock]

Although somewhat over your budget, if you're looking a nice, all aluminum case, you can't go wrong with choices from Lian-Li (A70/71, A77, A7010/A7110), and Silverstone (TJ07, T09/TJ10). I have the A7010 and it's an awesome case. It has great airflow, it's stylish, quiet, easy to work with and very well laid out. The SATA cage is also a very cool addition

 

[Rabbits]

Cooler Master Cosmos.
Sexiest tower on the market, it keeps your PC quiet (literally).

 

[smackababy]

I have never seen the 900 up close. How much rooom does it have? I don't want it to be too tight. It is a mid-tower case so I am a little concerned about the space. If it can hold full size video cards without being too cramped, I would go with it and save the money.

 

[Zepper]

I can tell from the pix on Newegg that a 10.5" vid card will be tight if it fits at all. You can tell by the last row of mobo mounting holes - you'd need at least an inch and a half beyond those for minimal clearance. From what I understand, there are some kind of fan brackts on the back of the HDD cages. I understand those have to be scrubbed for the long cards. Any decent review of the case should clarify for you. If I want to be able to use any card I want, I look for a case that supports EATX mobos (12x13") like the ones I listed above. The N-H is only mATX/ATX... Although some ATX cases have enough room for most like the C-M 590/690 or the Rosewill R-5600 series (has 11" of measured card space), etc. And the measurements of the case can give some evidence as well. I use 19" as a minimum depth for potential to hold long cards.

.bh.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: Zepper
I can tell from the pix on Newegg that a 10.5" vid card will be tight if it fits at all. You can tell by the last row of mobo mounting holes - you'd need at least an inch and a half beyond those for minimal clearance. From what I understand, there are some kind of fan brackts on the back of the HDD cages. I understand those have to be scrubbed for the long cards. Any decent review of the case should clarify for you. If I want to be able to use any card I want, I look for a case that supports EATX mobos (12x13") like the ones I listed above. The N-H is only mATX/ATX... Although some ATX cases have enough room for most like the C-M 590/690 or the Rosewill R-5600 series (has 11" of measured card space), etc. And the measurements of the case can give some evidence as well. I use 19" as a minimum depth for potential to hold long cards.

.bh.

Yep I have a 9800GTX which we all know is long and approximately 1.25" from the harddrive bays. Yes you have to remove a fan bracket to fit in a card of that size. The card is long and while routing my long psu cables, it made it kind of a pain but I have the old 900 without any holes to allow to route cables to the side of the case which the new one has to make cable routing easier.

 

[daw123]

My new Lian li A70A arrived today at the office. Christ this thing is huge and it's not the biggest full tower you can buy.

It has decent build quality and understated looks. Plus you can easily fit a 240mm and 360mm long rad and two separate pumps and res inside if you want to liquid cool.

Anyway, my Lian li cost about £160 in the UK shipped. I have found it for $210 exc. shipping at newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...)-_-Lian-Li-_-11112140

I don't know what the shipping costs would be.

 

[PCTC2]

The 900 is very small. I have the original version and without modding, it was extremely hard to do any cable management.

Other cases with a lot of room and airflow are the Cooler Master Stacker 810, Cooler Master HAF 932, and I second the Antec 1200.