Poll: S500 or A500?

[Maniac9127]

I'm trying to find a good mid tower case. Right now I've got the Q500N, so I though the S500 or A500 would be cool 'cause it'd match my behemoth . Here's what's keeping me from deciding:

A500
Is small
Doesn't look as good, or resemble the Q500 as much as the S500
Is pretty small
Has no rear fan mount
Is a little wide for what I need (current case is a hair over 175mm (7 and a fraction inches)
Is a little cramped inside

S500
Is thin enough to fit fine in the spot I want to put it
Has no mobo tray (I can live without it)
Has these weird standoffs (I've heard of people having shorting problems with them)

Overall I think I like the S500 better, but I wanna hear from you all. What'd ya'll think about these two cases? What should I go with? Anyone know of a case that would be better than these (I'd rather have a 500 cause they'd match)

 

[Tonec]

The a500 power supply sits right over the cpu.

 

[grillmasterP]

Go with the S500-
I've owned about 5 systems with A500. Now have 4 systems housed in s500.
B/c of Vertically mounted power supply- Anything besides socket 7 becomes a tight fit.
Slot 1 has minimal clearance between cpu and PS- Motherboard tray is cool but removable side panels are much better and frequently used(S500).

email me if you have more questions about either case.

 

[Mikewarrior2]

Go with the S500. The horizontal power supply(versus vertical on the A500) blocks larger heatsinks, and makes cpu switches much, much harder.


Mike

 

[mechBgon]

S500 for sure, having had both. Enlight 7237 is a worthy contender and is easier to get with a 300W power supply, but I see your point about having the two cases styled the same.

By the way, maniac, cool to see you're on the Anandtech RC5 team. You going to be joining us on the Team game server sometime, or have you been following that? Lord Demios will be getting it operational (again) this week... can't wait to frag the boyz from Team SysOpt! Heh, heh... ; )

 

[Maniac9127]

Okay, I guess I'll be going with the S500 then. Thanks everyone.

Verry proud to donate my blocks with team Anand. Go Anand! Down with Slashdot!

Team game server? Never heard of it. What game is it for?

 

[mechBgon]

maniac, you need to hang out in the Distributed Computing area more! We have built a gnarly dedicated dual-Cel550 with 512Mb of RAM with an extremely-high-bandwidth connection that will handle any number of players. Lord Demios has the care of it right now because he works at an ISP in Utah that has got us the bandwidth. We currently have Unreal Tournament, UT Demo, Quake3 Arena, Descent3, HalfLife and I forgot what the last game is. It's having a hiccup but will be up and running once Lord Demios gets a Linux problem ironed out.

Anyway, it's a great fringe benefit of being on the team, so if you are into any of those games, stop in on the chat channel on www.worldirc.org, our channel is #teamanandtech. You can rustle up some of your teammates to play, and get the current passwords for the games. Hope to see more of you in the DC Forum, on the IRC channel, and in the games!

 

[Maniac9127]

Cool. I'll do that. BTW, when you say half life, do you mean normal Deathmatch, TFC or Counter Strike? If it's counter strike than I'd love to join you guys , lay down some smack .

Also UT'd be cool, deathmatch, domination, CTF, assault, but I'm not all that good at it (I'd get my ass wasted ).

 

[mechBgon]

YHPM! : )