Is it important that you don't skimp on a case?
- Thread starter Smartazz
- Start date
Since overclocked components generate more heat inside the case , efficient case ventilation - replacing warm internal case air with cooler room ambient air - is an important case attribute.
of course not, I paid $50 for my Chenming 1.0mm SECC steel case. spectacular cases if you don't take it to LAN parties and don't mind 4x80mm fans
doubt there are many Lian-Li with beter airflow than this thing
lmfao, about 400 lbs
seriously, it is incredibly heavy...it's a load to move into another room. I would love an aluminum case, but a decent (non-floppy POS) costs way too much imho
TT armor in here. Another non-lan friendly case. 20kg's without components. Still, it gets me strong muscle when lugging it around, so i dont complain.
As many said above, good cooling is all you need. The $50. shipped Antec SLK3000-B looks pretty good, cools well and is decent at HDD noise isolation for a low price. Some of the CoolerMaster Centurions have 120mm f/r at decent prices. And the Evercase 42x2 (4252, 4272, 4292) series (also sold under the AMS brand) are excellent in the ~$50 shipped range. Look for the ones with 120 f/r or at least 92/120 f/r. Their new 4502 should be good too. You can get rubber HDD isolators for the Ever cases too if they don't come with as they should. I have spare sets hint, hint... The Compucase 6A19 (usually most readily found at mwave.com or directron.com) is the same as the 3000-B but w/o a door. So it is apparent you don't have to spend big bucks for big cooling. And it's not too hard to mod up to equal the above if you find a case that at least posesses some of the above as a starting point. Also look for at least 0.8mm SECC steel or 1.2mm aluminum for helping to keep the noise down. Anything less will also have a flimsy feel to it.
And remember that Newegg seldom has the best bottom line price on cases (unless on special and sometimes not even then) - e.g. Provantage or Amazon have killed the Egg on the 3000-B. But they do have a pretty big selection so you can go there to help decide what you want. IMO, they should cut back on selection (there's a lot of crap in there) so they could buy the good stuff in larger quantities and cut the price on them. Let places like geeks.com carry the cheap crap...
Speaking of geeks.com, they have been running a killer price on some OEM CoolerMaster Wavemaster cases. They'll take a bit of modding to bring them up to current cooling and noise standards, but you'll have a really nice looking rig when done. Ooops, looks like they're gone. Sorry... I was wondering what was taking them so long to sell 'em out.
.bh.
And remember that Newegg seldom has the best bottom line price on cases (unless on special and sometimes not even then) - e.g. Provantage or Amazon have killed the Egg on the 3000-B. But they do have a pretty big selection so you can go there to help decide what you want. IMO, they should cut back on selection (there's a lot of crap in there) so they could buy the good stuff in larger quantities and cut the price on them. Let places like geeks.com carry the cheap crap...
Speaking of geeks.com, they have been running a killer price on some OEM CoolerMaster Wavemaster cases. They'll take a bit of modding to bring them up to current cooling and noise standards, but you'll have a really nice looking rig when done. Ooops, looks like they're gone. Sorry... I was wondering what was taking them so long to sell 'em out.
.bh.
I have 3 LLs and my cpu temps are 36C working and about 44C at load, rendering. Excellent cooling design on my LLs must be helping. (no special cooling other than Yate Loon replacement fans and Generic HSF).
Originally posted by: cw42
pft, running ur PC naked on top of ur desk without a case is 10x better for OCing
does taking the side of the case off during use help too?
Originally posted by: cw42
pft, running ur PC naked on top of ur desk without a case is 10x better for OCing
mine is naked in the case, horizontally mounted TT BigTyphoon
case is so big, the BigTyphoon sits a full 4" from the side window
btw, with this setup and ambient @ 65F, I get load of 32C @ 1.65v 2800mhz after 12 hours of Prime :thumbsup:. no temps in whole system over 40 except mosfets @ 42C
I got a superflower case for 100 bucks AU, its fully black steel case, where the whole case except the botton and back is in holes, sorta like a mesh.
This case is sweet, mounted more fans just by making the holes bigger for the bolts (i positioned one fan to blow on the chipset the other under the gfx card), and the fans suck air through the holes. I dont get dust in the case and it stays really cool. Its not lan friendly as the darn thing is like a box of bricks
There is no need to get a super expencive case, and some of those expensive ones are pretty ugly looking anyways.
nice temp on the voltage regulators, i got fan pushing air through then and it still gets to like 52C easily, used to heat up to 65C with no fan.
This case is sweet, mounted more fans just by making the holes bigger for the bolts (i positioned one fan to blow on the chipset the other under the gfx card), and the fans suck air through the holes. I dont get dust in the case and it stays really cool. Its not lan friendly as the darn thing is like a box of bricks
There is no need to get a super expencive case, and some of those expensive ones are pretty ugly looking anyways.
Originally posted by: the cobbler
Originally posted by: cw42
pft, running ur PC naked on top of ur desk without a case is 10x better for OCing
mine is naked in the case, horizontally mounted TT BigTyphoon
case is so big, the BigTyphoon sits a full 4" from the side window
btw, with this setup and ambient @ 65F, I get load of 32C @ 1.65v 2800mhz after 12 hours of Prime :thumbsup:. no temps in whole system over 40 except mosfets @ 42C
nice temp on the voltage regulators, i got fan pushing air through then and it still gets to like 52C easily, used to heat up to 65C with no fan.
I got the OEM wavemaster for $64 a while back,and just got the supplies to mod it for better cooling, namely an Arctic Cooling AC12025 with grille and weatherstripping. If Geeks.com ever gets a re-stock on those, it's a killer deal.
Also basically any case will offer good cooling with a bit of modding if that is needed. I think it's much more important to focus on other cooling components like the heatsink and fans while overclocking in addition to core components such as the motherboard.
Also basically any case will offer good cooling with a bit of modding if that is needed. I think it's much more important to focus on other cooling components like the heatsink and fans while overclocking in addition to core components such as the motherboard.
skooma
Senior member
- Apr 13, 2006
- 635
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Well, expensive is a relative term obviously.
I'd have no problem spending $115 or more on a case if it had the functionality I wanted. If you're spending $115 on a case because its purdy, well then you're probably overpaying.
But a good case is very future proof in comparison to other components. A well built case with good functionality and low noise will last you several builds/upgrades.
Determine your budget and the features you want (fan size and number, removeable mobo tray, hdd bays etc) and then take a look around. You should be able to find some very nice cases in the $100 range. Then search out reviews on google (spcr does some nice case reviews) and I'm sure you'll find some nice cases.
I'd have no problem spending $115 or more on a case if it had the functionality I wanted. If you're spending $115 on a case because its purdy, well then you're probably overpaying.
But a good case is very future proof in comparison to other components. A well built case with good functionality and low noise will last you several builds/upgrades.
Determine your budget and the features you want (fan size and number, removeable mobo tray, hdd bays etc) and then take a look around. You should be able to find some very nice cases in the $100 range. Then search out reviews on google (spcr does some nice case reviews) and I'm sure you'll find some nice cases.
On Newegg, there are ~450 cases at $100 and less, there are under 200 priced over $100. So, yes, $115 is relatively expensive...
.bh.
.bh.
I really like the thermaltake armor, I won't need to take it to lan parties, but I'm not sure if I can justify the price, if I get it, I'll probobly get it by Sunday because it's $30 off right now so it's $120. The case is definatly upgradble and the cooling is great.
You'll have more fun buying something cheap and modding it to awesomeness. Just look out for decent construction material, and the rest you can really do yourself.
Eg, the front of my case had room to 4x80mm intakes at the bottom in a square, so, ripped that sh!t right outta there and hung a 140mm fan in there instead. Hehe.
Eg, the front of my case had room to 4x80mm intakes at the bottom in a square, so, ripped that sh!t right outta there and hung a 140mm fan in there instead. Hehe.
I ended up picking up an Ultra Aluminus case. It looks rather nice, might have some trouble with the front intake fan having to blow through the hard drive cage, but it seems like a rather sturdy case. Especially for how light it is.
Got the version bundled with the Ultra X2 550-watt power supply since I wanted the modular cables, but I think the one with the non-modular 600 watt power supply might be a bit cheaper. Tiger Direct is where I got it. Considering the case is usually about 100 and the power supply is around that too, 130 for the combo isn't too bad a deal.
But that's just my taste and I kinda would have liked to not have the window, but since it does have such a nice big window, I'm going to have to get some lighting or something for it now...
Got the version bundled with the Ultra X2 550-watt power supply since I wanted the modular cables, but I think the one with the non-modular 600 watt power supply might be a bit cheaper. Tiger Direct is where I got it. Considering the case is usually about 100 and the power supply is around that too, 130 for the combo isn't too bad a deal.
But that's just my taste and I kinda would have liked to not have the window, but since it does have such a nice big window, I'm going to have to get some lighting or something for it now...
The X2 550 watt power supply is SLI certified, has dual 12v rails, and flat modular cables.
I've not gotten it up and running yet as my CPU doesn't get here till tomorrow so I'm not sure how well the cooling is or how loud the case will be. At least when I get home from work today, I'm hoping to have all of my other supplies delivered so tomorrow I'll only have to slap in the CPU.
The case has a removeable mobo tray which is nice, plus the tray has a cutout in the back which supposedly will help with routing cables out of sight. Since I've not put anything in it yet, hard to say how well it works. But the case is rather pretty in my opinion. It's pretty plain with just a few details here and there that just make it look great to me. Just with the front bezel was aluminum instead of plastic.
Just a note though, they call it a mid-tower, but it's borderline full tower in my opinion. It sits slightly taller than the nightstand my monitor sits on. Biggest case I've ever had except for an old IBM PC-Server. But man the thing is the lightest case I've ever had too.
All in all, the case pretty much comes down to what you like. But try and get something with 120mm fans if you want to be able to sleep next to it. Mine currently sits right next to my bed, so that was an important thing for me.
How about the Armor Jr. (aka VC3000 series). Not so excessively big, looks similar and starts at under $100. The silver version is all aluminum, while the black ones have an aluminum bezel and 0.8mm SECC chassis.
And don't limit yourself to Newegg. Consider that you will be paying sales tax in NJ on top of shipping. ewiz will beat them pretty well on the silver Armor Jr., figuring both shipping and sales tax into the equation.
.bh.
And don't limit yourself to Newegg. Consider that you will be paying sales tax in NJ on top of shipping. ewiz will beat them pretty well on the silver Armor Jr., figuring both shipping and sales tax into the equation.
.bh.
I've seen the case before, but I'm not sure whether or not to get the ultra psu, I might consider SLI, long decision process.
good catch! those of us not in Jersey/Cali/Tennessee forget this sometimes. bummer, kind of makes Newegg much less the bargain for those folks.
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