Help me choose a case/PSU

[merrimackjay]

Hello,

I am going to be building a new system from scratch soon - AMD Barton 2500+, ASUS A7N8X Deluxe, 512mb memory, either an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro or an ATI Radeon 9700,probably a SB Audigy2. I have never overclocked before, but I am interested in trying it out, so I would like to have all the right parts to be able to do it. Everything was pretty easy to decide what I want (I am going for value not top of the line) but I cannot seem to find a good case!

Just about every case I can find either looks silly, doesn't come with a good power supply, or is way too expensive. All I want is a nice looking case (preferably black or maybe some funky color, anything besides boring tan/beige), that doesn't way a ton, has front usb2.0, has a clear side window, with a good (although, I don't think I need more that 350W) power supply, and a good fan system. I really like the cases that have a temperature display on the outside, but thats not a deal breaker. Come to think of it, I guess the windowed side panel isn't a deal breaker either (but damn, they are cool )

Can anyone help me out?

I'd prefer to pay less than $100 total for the case/PSU/fans. I don't mind if its a case that includes everything all in one or if its a cheaper case and then I would buy a seperate PSU and fans.

I am going to be buying everything else from newegg.com so it would help if I got the case from there too.

My goal for this computer (besides the fact that I need to upgrade from my ancient K6-II 450mhz) is that I want to be able to play Doom3 on it when it comes out. Intensive gaming like that will require the inside of my case to be pretty cool, right? Does that mean I should definitely get one with 2 front and 2 rear fans? Do the cases that come with fans on the side really help, or do they just mess up the front to back air flow? What about the cases with the top fans? Do they help?

Thanks a lot in advance for any help you can give me. Its really driving me crazy trying to find a good case. Especially since as soon as I do I can order my parts, since I've figured out everything else.

Thanks again!

-J

 

[Gunjin22]

Hmm, well in your case, I would recommend, you just look at what design you like. Personally I would look for cases with 120mm fan holes,however I havent found too many cases like that. Alot of the cases, like from newegg.com have 80mm fan holes. But just plug your info in to the selection for cases and what you want and choose from that. It shouldnt be that hard. I actually like alot of the outside design of the cases. But personally I want my next case to have 120mm fan holes -back-front-top. That way you can have high cfm and low db. And u would only need 3 case fans. Not 5 or more. But like I said, plug in your selections at newegg and decide from there. You seem to have everything figured out, so this shouldnt be to hard for you man.
By the way, after reviewing the recent review of intel vs. AMD, it was very disappoiting to see the AMD XP3200 beat up from the 2.6ghz or higher Intel CPU's. If you wanna read the very depressing review here it is....
http://anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1834

 

[nebula]

Maybe this one or this one.

I have personally seen the first one, I liked it. The second one I threw on here 'cause it's black. Both have nice Antec PSU's in them too.

EDIT: Or look at the cheap Raidmax units with no PSU, they seem to have good comments, then add a decent PSU.

 

[merrimackjay]

Hey thanks guys, I think I found the case that has everything I'm looking for:

The Enermax CS-3181L-BBS.

Here

Pictures

Any opinions on this case? Or Enermax cases in general?

Any opinions on this power supply? According to the picture, it handles 28A @ +3V, 30A @ +5V, 15A @ +12V, 2A @ +5VSB.

Is that good for overclocking, or should I buy a seperate power supply with more amps on the 12V rail?

Thanks again.

-Jay

 

[GAZZA]

Either the Enermax or this classic Chieftec case.

CHIEFTEC Server Chasis (Aluminum Workstation Tower with Plastic Front Cover) Blue w/acrylic window - 450Watt Foxconn Power Supply **Now with 2 x Front USB2.0 and 1 x Firewire IEEE1394 ports** $89 free shipping !

Chieftec

 

[sniperruff]

i recommend antec as case/PSU quality goes. too bad there isn't many ALUMINUM cases (LANBOY...and..?) offered by antec but they are of high quality

chieftec's are nice and essentially the case of antec. get a nice PSU and you're set

however nice air flow in a case usually means a noisy case. here are some suggestions to look for in a case:

1) front USB
2) aluminum
3) side panel door

just remember name brands are usually good. read customer reviews on newegg and throw in some quiet case fans and a nice PSU and it will make you happy for a long time. case is not the opponent that you want to skim on since you might be using it for years

 

[merrimackjay]

OK Cool, I was planning on getting a bunch of Coolermaster blue l.e.d. fans

COOLER MASTER TLF-R82 (TLF-R82-E1) ( Blue )Neon L.E.D. Fan

The fans appear to be quiet as well based on the reviews at newegg.

The Enermax case I want has 2 rear fans, a side fan, a front fan, and a top fan. A bunch of those coolermaster fans in those slots should cool it off well, right?

The only thing I'm concerned about with this case is the Enermax PSU that comes with it... hoping somebody on this board can give me some opinions on it.

-Jay

 

[nebula]

The fans look good. I looked at your case selection the other day, I didn't comment on the PSU b/c I'm unsure about something that I haven't found out for sure yet... According to AMDs tech. docs, the XPs use the 12v line for power. I mentioned this in another thread and someone said that's the spec., but his mobo used the 5v line, so I haven't gotten a definite answer to this yet. But that PSU looks fine and it will work. My PSU has 18A on the 12v line, not much different than yours, and everything is fine, XP1800+ And since the PS comes with the case you want, might as well use it, you can always replace it later if need be, but Idon't think you need to right away, it'll be fine.

 

[nebula]

I forgot to mention, those exhaust fan holes look kinda restrictive. You may want to cut them out. Maybe someone else can comment.

 

[merrimackjay]

Awesome, thanks for your input nebula.

I'm gonna use the PSU for the time being and if I need more power in the future I'll upgrade it then.

I noticed the same thing about the small exhaust holes for the rear case fans - There is a guy at work here who cuts them out and replaces them with better grills all the time, so I will probably have him do that to my case for me.

Thanks again, and any more opinions on the case/PSU are welcome...

-Jay

 

[driggers]

this is a pretty sweet looking case, http://www.frozencpu.com/cgi-bin/frozencpu/cas-112.html

im going to do about the same setup as you and im looking myself, i want to add a fan and window on top, and try to get it as quiet as i can...trick it out with biohazard etchings and fan grills, with blue leds and uv reactive cables and what not

 

[ethebubbeth]

I just built a computer for my friend using that exact same case. The power supply is made by powerup and is a fairly decent OEM 350w powersupply. It can hold it's own against most cheap power supplies of the same wattage and is prolly at least as good as an antec or enermax 300w (however, it does run fairly warm and is not as quiet as an antec or enermax, i replaced its fan with an led one). Yes, the fan grills in the rear and front are extremely restrictive, slowing airflow to a crawl. However, once you remove them, the case becomes an excellent cooler. I stuck a panaflo L1A 120mm in the front as an intake (very tight fit, make sure you put in the fan first before you put in your drives, especially if it's a thicker 38mm fan) and used led fans for the four 80mm mounts. I set all the other fans to exhaust, because i tried using the side fan as an intake but it actually made temperatures rise in the case. You end up with massive negative pressure, but the case does remain pretty dang cool for one of such small stature. It requires some work, and you might want to swap out the power supply, but it is an excellent small case and is nice and cheap. Try ebay, you can find it at rediculous prices sometimes.