Help me decide on a mid sized ATX case

[bravacentauri83]

Looking along the lines for a mid sized ATX case Looking for something light enough to bring from school to home without breaking my back, and one that has the functionality of holding a good amount of gear. I have been looking at the Antec Super Lanboy case (hear it is very light, and has room for a lot of gear), but I would like to hear other suggestions. (Please, no mATX suggestions.)

 

[TrevorRC]

I'd normally reccomend a PC-60B; but in this case I'll do the opposite--stay away!

It scratches far too easily to carry around regularly.

Also, note that the full system will be 30-40lbs when it's finished, regardless of the case weight.

Wouldn't reccomend regularly carting it from home school.

 

[bravacentauri83]

Originally posted by: TrevorRC
I'd normally reccomend a PC-60B; but in this case I'll do the opposite--stay away!

It scratches far too easily to carry around regularly.

Also, note that the full system will be 30-40lbs when it's finished, regardless of the case weight.

Wouldn't reccomend regularly carting it from home school.

I do realize the weight after installation will increase. I want to shed as much off as I can before hand.

I kinda have to bring my computer to school. (I hope you aren't thinking high school; I'm referring to a university resident.)

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Budget ? Fan size ? Door or no door ? Steel or aluminum ? Color ? Window ?

I looked at a Super LAN Boy and found it kind of fragile. I'm not sure how it holds up
to constant transport. CompUSA has them at $40 AR often.

Steel w/120 fans=Antec SLK3000, about $60.

This one is on Zepper's short list. No door and 3-80mm fans.
http://store.yahoo.com/directron/casigloo1.html


...Galvanized

 

[bravacentauri83]

Price isn't an issue. No preference on color, door, side panel window, etc... (just nothing out of the ordinary "fashion statement" case).

The Lanboy looks sort of "crappy" when I looked at it myself, but some others have said it's a good case for portability. I'm assuming you can buy a handle strap for any PC case as well.

 

[The Sly Syl]

I have the Super Lanboy, it's a wonderful case for portability.
The carrying strap makes it very easy to lug around in one hand, and its a relatively easy case to work with. Stock fans are incredibly quiet as well.

My Super Lanboy has been hauled just about everywhere using that strap, up stairs, ladders, in and out of cars nearly that had to slam on the breaks, people sitting on it, etc. and it's help up perfectly fine. It may seem a bit flimsy, but once you get everything installed it holds up quite well. The "brushed" aluminum also hides scratches incredibly well, shame that the door doesn't.

Also - that little "tool door" actually comes in handy.

It even has extra space to spare for easier wire management so that you won't be insulted by your innards at a LAN party. =p

 

[bravacentauri83]

Originally posted by: The Sly Syl
I have the Super Lanboy, it's a wonderful case for portability.
The carrying strap makes it very easy to lug around in one hand, and its a relatively easy case to work with. Stock fans are incredibly quiet as well.

My Super Lanboy has been hauled just about everywhere using that strap, up stairs, ladders, in and out of cars nearly that had to slam on the breaks, people sitting on it, etc. and it's help up perfectly fine. It may seem a bit flimsy, but once you get everything installed it holds up quite well. The "brushed" aluminum also hides scratches incredibly well, shame that the door doesn't.

Also - that little "tool door" actually comes in handy.

It even has extra space to spare for easier wire management so that you won't be insulted by your innards at a LAN party. =p

Thanks for the review! Another thing I liked about it was the hard drive cage and how it was positioned. Finally one case realizes that having seven CD-ROM drives and only two slots for hard drives means nothing. What are your temps like with the case?

I'm still open to suggestions for other cases.

 

[The Sly Syl]

My temps aren't the best to guesstimate with, as my room tends to be annoyingly warm due to poor ventilation.
Also, i've replaced the stock fan with a panaflo (and fan speed controller)

Still, I idle at roughly 32-35c, load is about 40-44c (with all my fans on low)

Videocard idle is roughly 50c, load is 70ish C (Always keep it at high)

The stock fans are quite silent, but they didn't push enough air for my wrongly-attached original heatsink. I think if you get an adequate heatsink (and if your lan parties don't end up turning into 90'c+ sweatbaths) then they should more than suffice. Also, a non 6800 series GPU would definately help the internal temps.

 

[bravacentauri83]

Thanks for the heads up. If I was to decide on the Lanboy, I would replace the front fan with a non-LED one since I'm picky about the LED fans. Normally the areas I play in (home, school, lan parties) are in reasonable temps (70ish). Do you know off hand how much air the stock fans move and at what dB rating?

I'm planning on an AMD X2 setup (Arctic Cooling Ultra64 Heatsink) with 3 HDDs and a X1900XT. Don't plan on OC'ing since that would only add to the insanity of the temps.

 

[Zepper]

Check out the Beantech Igloo (same as the Kingwin 424 series) cases at directron.com - the silver one is only $48. +sh. These have always been on my short list and the price has been much closer to $100. until now. The new Kingwin 523 is nice. And a lot of the Sky Hawk aluminum cases have been at good prices at either dealsonic.com or newegg.com .
. And there is always the Antec SLK3000-B at under $50. shipped from Provantage.com or the Compucase 6A19 models (basically the 3000-B for those who don't care for doors) from directron.com
.bh.

 

[bravacentauri83]

I like the SLK3000 you mentioned.

So far it's between that and the lanboy.

Any other recommendations are appreciated!

 

[cleverhandle]

I haven't worked with an Antec case in a couple of years, but the old ones were always built like tanks - certainly not something to cart around. I know the LanBoy is it's own lightweight series, but is the SLK3000 lighter weight than the old-school SX series was?

 

[TrevorRC]

Originally posted by: bravacentauri83

I do realize the weight after installation will increase. I want to shed as much off as I can before hand.

I kinda have to bring my computer to school. (I hope you aren't thinking high school; I'm referring to a university resident.)

Scratch what I said then, PC-60 FTW!

 

[The Sly Syl]

The carrying strap on the Lanboy makes it easy to carry in one hand, even with all the components I have in mine. (Two harddrives, two disk drives, 3 PCI slots full, 6800GT+VF700cu, etc)

Does anyone have any experience with that "Ammo" case? I've been loooking at it and wondering how it does, it seems like a nice case.

 

[Zepper]

The Aspire X-Sonic is basically the same as the original Antec Lanboy. Very light, but some find it to be flimsy. The supplied PSU would probably best be closeted for an emergency backup unit. Plus both dealsonic.com and newegg.com are often selling Sky Hawk aluminum cases for excellent prices. A couple of the MSR series that I have here are about 12 pounds net weight. Should easily be able to build out a system and keep the final weight around 20 pounds with either Sky Hawk or X-Sonic.

..bh.

 

[Zepper]

The SLK series are made of 0.8mm SECC steel, where all parts of the older 800/1000 series were at least 1.0mm SECC. And the plastic bezels are thinner too - thus the weak door hinges. So if you get a 3k-B, be careful of the door - keep it closed as much as possible to prevent accidental breakage. But the 3k-B still not a lightweight at 18.9 pounds net.

.bh.

 

[Zap]

Zap's review of the Chenming ATX-301/Antec LANboy/Aspire X-Sonic
Actually just the original Chenming version, but all have the same basic chassis differing only in side panel, front face and color. Unless you want the absolute lightest case possible for a normal ATX sized board (never weighed them, but IMO is lighter than the Skyhawk cases by a bit - no longer have my Chenming but I do have a new/unused Skyhawk in the garage), I wouldn't recommend it at this time because the airflow, while awesome for an 80mm fan, is still an 80mm fan, plus the case is very flimsy - mine became permanently and slightly bowed in at the bottom just from the weight of my complete system (was my "main" rig at one time).

My wholehearted recommendation for your purposes is the Antec Super LAN Boy, especially if you can get it for cheap after rebate (typically CompUSA does that from time to time). It is very lightweight without being flimsy as long as you don't cut up the case from modding and keep the side panels bolted on. The finish doesn't look too terrible if scratched up. It is very compact. It comes with carrying straps which you'd have to pay $10-20 extra for, and these are better than some third party straps that I've seen (and still own). The 120mm fan size is great for ventilation - stock fans are okay, nothing special but not terrible - they do their job and are reasonably quiet for reasonable airflow.

Couple more thoughts on things. Carrying straps will eventually cause wear marks on your case, but the "natural" finish on the SLB case doesn't show wear/tear as much. In an extreme instance you can always refinish the case a bit. The door over the drive bays is removeable. I haven't done that because of my mismatching optical drive and the fact that I'm worried that I'll break the door itself, but the case looks fine without it unlike other cases that do not look right if the door is missing. The biggest beef I had with the way the case looks is the "waffle grill" over the front fan. The easy solution is to remove the grill (really easy) and just install a fingerguard with the stock screws that attach the fan. Indeed my own SLB case has a bling bling finger guard on it from the biggest LAN party I attended - nice touch IMO.

The case is only a small part of the overall weight of the computer so you'll want to put some thought into the rest of it if you are serious about weight reduction. First, unless you need terabytes of drive space, use only a single hard drive. Get one 500GB drive instead of a couple of 250GB drives. Drives add weight. One optical drive only. No floppy drive. No all-copper cooler on CPU or GPU. If transporting often, consider NOT using a "tower" style heatpipe heatsink - stock HSF is perfectly fine even if overclocking he CPU will still run a lot cooler than video card. One last thing is the power supply. Good PSUs are typically heavy, but the Fortron "Green" PSUs who's part numbers end in "GLN" are really lightweight for their quality because they are so efficient that they don't need to have huge heatsinks in them. Also, you only need "enough" power (as long as good quality) for your system - no need for a monster 600W unit.

 

[The Sly Syl]

I agree with the drive reccomendations, the front end of my case is considerably heavier than the rear because of all my drives.

I also agree with the reccomendations against the "tower" cpu's if you're going to be moving this thing a lot. I can't stand stock (due to the noise), but I had no issues going with things of a similar weight. (XP-90 now, prviously a Gigabyte Rocket Cooler pro).

Less drives = Less wires, which should save you from the inside of your case looking like this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/Sylaran/Comp.jpg
^Old picture, it looks nicer inside now

Still, i like my lanboy better than any other case i've worked with (i've built about ~15 computers). Antec SLK3000b and that Centurion case being second.

Oh, and the NEC 3520a "silver" i have matches the front color perfectly. I'll guess that the 3550a should do the same.

 

[Zap]

Here's all the pictures of my SLB case. I also like the case - may not be perfect (only exists in my mind, like the perfect woman) but it's among the top (and I've built ~300-400 computers).

Sorry The Sly Syl, just had to one up ya twice. Used to work at a small mom&pop computer shop for, oh, just over a decade!!!

 

[bravacentauri83]

Based on Zap's comments, I will rethink the whole case weight priority. My whole intent was to have something that was easy to transport from location to location. The components will probably cancel out the whole "lightweight" objective though.

While I am still interested in the LanBoy, I am now open to looking at other mid-sized cases. I've started to look at other cases and here is a list of what I came up with that I felt were good for me:
ABS Stealth
Thermaltake Tsunami
Antec Sonata II
Antec Super Lanboy
Antec Solution SLK3000

I guess we're back to square one now.

 

[The Sly Syl]

As i said, the carrying strap with the Antec SuperLanboy makes it easy to carry in one hand. I have 2 DVD burners, 2 harddrives, a 6800GT + VF700cu, and 2 PCI slots filled (soundcard, WiFi card) and i have came across no problems.

Just a little front heavy, but nothing difficult to carry with that strap. Hell, i can get this thing up and down a ladder.

 

[Zap]

Building a lightweight computer is like building a quiet computer. You have to start with that goal in mind (sacrificing if needed) and every component plays a part in achieving the goal.

I made some specific recommendations on overall computer weight reduction. Which part of that can you not live with and why? By following my suggestions you may save 10-15 pounds. That's not much if you're just moving a computer from one desk to another, but if you have to walk from one building to another and up some stairs, the difference between 30 and 45 pounds can be a deal breaker.

Besides using some criminally flimsy case, the only other way for a lightweight computer is an aluminum mATX case.

 

[bravacentauri83]

I will be bringing over three hard drives and two optical drives from my current computer to this new setup. Throw in the other components (PSU, Graphics, heatsink, mobo, etc...) and it adds up to a heavier PC.

Thankfully the dorms at my university we have elevators, but the parking lot is a different story. Long walk to and from.

The mATX solution would probably not work for me since I have to sacrifice the components I have in order to fit selected items in a small space. Other issues include a cramped interior/cooling.

 

[Zap]

Why can't you drop an optical drive and buy a single large HDD? Seriously that would reduce weight a LOT. My most recent HDD purchase was a 400GB EIDE Seagate for $160 shipped (after $50 rebate). You can sell off your old drives to fund the new drive.

Saying you want a lightweight computer but [need to have 5 drives total is like saying you want your car to get 30 miles per gallon, but you demand to also have 350 horsepower and be able to do 12 second ¼ mile runs at that gas mileage. What you want is mutually exclusive of each other.

Try this... weigh your computer, then disassemble your computer and weigh the chassis, a hard drive and an optical drive. Then, weigh the remaining parts together (video/mobo/etc). You can probably find out weights of various cases from the manufacturer so you'll know how lighter it is compared to your existing case. Add the parts weight plus new case weight plus one HDD and one optical. Subtract that from the whole weight of your existing system as-is. Ask yourself if you are willing to walk around with that much extra weight. You can even try it out beforehand by borrowing some weights from someone and carrying it around.

 

[TrevorRC]

You can buy carrying straps at Xoxide.
-T