noob needs case advice help! what should i get?

[lokijux]

hello everyone! i am in the market for a new case for my 1800xp athlon. i only need 3-4 5.25 bays (all showing), and 2-3 3.5 bays (1 showing). my case right now runs HOT, even though i have a front 80mm intake, side 80mm intake onto cpu, top 60mm blowhole, rear 80 exhaust, swiftech mcx370-0a heatsink with stock papst fan. i am starting to think that side holes and blowholes are a bunch of B.S. can anyone tell me,

#1 does a case really need extra holes, or are they counterproductive? i would think the basic front to rear airflow design should be good enough.

#2 do i need aluminum? i think the steel antec 1040 design looks awesome, but it makes sense that the aluminum lets heat out faster.

#3 about how much cooler do pentium chips run compared to athlon?

#4 based on #1 and 2, can anyone give me a good link to your best case choice?

thanks for any help!

 

[mechBgon]

Welcome to the forums! 😀

It's strange that your case runs hot, because the side and top holes should help a lot. Can you give an estimate of how hot it is in the case?

1) Extra holes may serve some purposes, like spot cooling of a video card. If you're looking at a 1040 or similar, the front-to-back flow is quite effective IMHO and extra holes are almost a disruption of the front-to-back airflow.

2) An equivalently-designed aluminum case is probably not going to make much difference. Think about this: with four quiet-running low-speed fans, the air in a 1040 is completely turned over in under ten seconds. It doesn't have much "resident" time inside the case to be transferring heat from a heat source to a side/top panel, so it shouldn't make much difference if the panels are aluminum. Hype. Now, if you want to carry the case around, aluminum will be lighter, and it does look trick.

3) The Intel Pentium4 chips put out approximately as much heat as AthlonXP. You can dig around http://www.sandpile.org for the data if you're curious. Multiply the Pentium4's "Thermal Design Power" by about 4/3 to get its peak output.

4) If you like the 1040 design, an Antec SX1040 or Antec PerformancePlus1060 or 1080 would be nice (the PPlus have front USB, FireWire, side intake fan and really nice power supplies, and all Antecs have 3-year warranties) and you can also find Antec-alikes by Chieftech and Chenming, some of which come in colors and/or have side-panel windows and intake fans. There are aluminum variants in colors now, too. Vendor. Disclaimer: I have no idea if this vendor is reputable/honest, just using their page for examples of what's out there.

By the way, the front door on the SX1040 and PP1000-series does come off if it's a problem (for instance, if your CD burner auto-ejects the finished CD and hits the door

).

 

[lokijux]

hi, thanks for responding. i am running idle at about 48-52 celsius, and mobo is at 29-32. this is with the ac on in the room. i think this is hot. maybe it's not...but without the ac on, it goes up to 55 idle, 60 maxed!

btw, thanks for the aluminum link, i might at well get it since it's actually less expensive than the steel one at most sites!

 

[nemo160]

i reccommend a case with a removable mobo tray(trust me..this is veeeeery nice when building/repairing/upgrading)
removable hd cage
room for plenty of case fans(you can add blowholes later) preferably room for larger than 80mm (120s can move a ton of air and the noise from a 120 is lower pitched and mainly just the sound of airflow)
and if you can find it removable 5.25" cage
basically the more pieces you can break the case down into the better 😉
aluminum cases don't really help cooling...if you buy an aluminum case buy it for looks, features or weight(all valid reasons)..not cooling