Suggestions/Recommendations for Tower Cases

[ShinMech]

Could y'all recommend or suggest a quality tower case with best airflow? Doesn't necessary have to be the BEST but just good enough to provide airflow in and out.

I was thinking of CM Stacker but i'm sure there are alot of options you guys can provide.

Anyway, my budget is 200-300$.

 

[VinDSL]

How about a nice little ThermalTake Eureka Home Server?

Here's a review...

 

[krotchy]

If your willing to spend 200+ dollars, check here:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/...zenid=453373b398a1865c5136e3dfccd3add4

My personal Recommendations

PC-201 (Ive worked with one, best case I have ever touched, Period, and very quiet.)
V2000 Plus 2 (same interior as PC-201)
PC-S80 (Lian-Li's newest case. Early reviews rate it very well)
V2100 Plus 2 (same interior as PC-201)

Also check out the Silverstone TJ07
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant...e=M&Product_Code=101053&AFFIL=FRG&NR=1


If you are going Stacker's I would definitely recommend the Stacker 830 out of all of them

http://www.provantage.com/coolermaster-rc-830-ssn1~7COOL016.htm

 

[LOUISSSSS]

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/...zenid=453373b398a1865c5136e3dfccd3add4
should be on the top of your list for quality and airflow
silverstone full towers are nice also, maximum pc seems to like them for their dream machine cases

 

[The Mailman]

Originally posted by: krotchy

If you are going Stacker's I would definitely recommend the Stacker 830 out of all of them

http://www.provantage.com/coolermaster-rc-830-ssn1~7COOL016.htm

+1

that would be my pick as well.

i was going to get one for months until I recently decided to go HTPC rather than power tower

 

[Zepper]

I think the original Stacker (STC-T01) is still the most geek'O'licious - the newer ones are flash over cash. The Aerocool Masstige (BayDream)/CoolView are poor man's Stackers. The CoolView is a super deal as they have been discontinued and have a $30. rebate on them. The CV is basically the Masstige with a door and a free Gatewatch display and I like that the ports panel is on top rather than way down at the bottom.

.bh.

 

[ShinMech]

Thanks guys.

It seems that tower cases are limited compared to mid-towers and what not.

 

[warbean]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/...zenid=453373b398a1865c5136e3dfccd3add4
should be on the top of your list for quality and airflow
silverstone full towers are nice also, maximum pc seems to like them for their dream machine cases

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=37&threadid=1910621&enterthread=y

I disagree veemently.

 

[Zepper]

There are plenty of others. Thermaltake has lots of them: Armor, Shark, Kandalf, TaiChi, Circles, Eureka, some of the old Xasers, etc. Silverstone has several: TJ-05, -06, -07. Aerocool has both the Masstige/Coolview and the Spiral Galaxies. Enermax has several: the 10182 and one based on the same design as the Tj-06/Sprial Galaxies plus several server cases you'll never see on Newegg. XClio recently added the 380. Chenming and Antec have some but the designs are getting long in the tooth except for perhaps the P180 - but that has some materials problems. Lian Li has a number of them. Etc...

You can use the Newegg case finder to locate their list, but they define 19" and up as full tower so you'll have to weed the list a bit to get to the real full towers. They cough up 64 models, but many are just color variants. Narrow your list to 3 or 4 and we can nitpick them for you. Try the "Server" case type there too as it finds some that the "Full Tower" category doesn't. And Newegg's sloppy descriptions let some into the "Full Tower" category that aren't.

These companies have some you don't see on the mass consumer reseller sites like Newegg: BTOS, ServerCase, KeyPower, Bow Systems. Plenty of options if we only knew what you really need... YeongYang makes lots of interesting cases, you just need to dig out a place to buy one...

Besides, choosing a case based on height is not thinking too well. If you had defined your needs more thoroughly, I'm sure cases from 19" up could suit - maybe even some mid-tower boxes. Lots of tower cases don't hold a lot of drives if that is really what your need is. The more tightly defined the need, the more accurate our suggestions can be. So don't complain if you don't give us much to work from...

.bh.

 

[warbean]

What about the Gigabyte Aurora 3d? One of the most popular on Newegg. Wondering if anyone has had any luck with it.....

-W

 

[Zepper]

The Aurora is basically a stretched Centurion for the WCing market. Doesn't quite meet the 21" tall minimum I set for a "full tower" case and way shorter than the old 23" standard. Not really worth twice what a Centurion costs, but it does hold a good number of drives. Capable of massive air flow when used as an AC case. No HDD vibe isolation, but I suppose that could be modded in. I suppose it's worth a look.

.bh.

 

[warbean]

Originally posted by: krotchy
If your willing to spend 200+ dollars, check here:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/...zenid=453373b398a1865c5136e3dfccd3add4

My personal Recommendations

PC-201 (Ive worked with one, best case I have ever touched, Period, and very quiet.)
V2000 Plus 2 (same interior as PC-201)
PC-S80 (Lian-Li's newest case. Early reviews rate it very well)
V2100 Plus 2 (same interior as PC-201)

Also check out the Silverstone TJ07
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant...e=M&Product_Code=101053&AFFIL=FRG&NR=1


If you are going Stacker's I would definitely recommend the Stacker 830 out of all of them

http://www.provantage.com/coolermaster-rc-830-ssn1~7COOL016.htm

How does the Lian Li 201B get intake air from the outside when the front door is closed? Krotchy can you comment on the cooling of the system? (I too am looking for a case for a new build, but temps are more important to me than noise, although both would be nice...

 

[Zepper]

re. LL 201B - slots on both sides of door, vent at bottom of door.

.bh.

 

[dustmann]

I can vouch for the Silverstone tj06. It's a sharp looking case and mounts the motherboard upside down to create a wind tunnel (via 2 120mm fans) for the cpu. My cpu temp has dropped nearly 10c since switching from a cheap generic case. System temp is about 5c lower. You can pick one up for ~140

 

[krotchy]

heres some pics of how I setup my PC-201 interior, my 2 Opteron 280's idle at 32 degrees.


Right Side Open
Hard Drive Rack Closeup
PCI area with side exhaust removed
Main Chamber, Exhaust Removed

One thing to note is that I removed the middle fan rack from the hard drive chamber, because the PCP&C 1000W power supply was excessively long, and bumped into it. However with virtually any other power supply you should be fine.

Air flow actually runs in 2 seperate patterns. First is 120mm intake through the slots in the door for the hard drives. This goes out through and below your power supply (or above depending on mounting). Theres 2 80mm exhaust fan mounts if you choose to put them in (the blue fans in my pic).

The main chamber actually intakes air through the rear 120mm fan, then exhausts it on the side mounted fan (removeable with thumb screws). This design surprisingly allows for good airflow, as it runs air over your processors, around the bottom PCI card to cool the PCI area and then out the side. I have seen many people switch the oreintation of both fans in the main chamber, with good results, so that is obviously up to the owner. Also if you mounted a 3 Optical drive slot slot 120mm cooling kit in the main chamber for further intake, im sure it would provide stellar results.

 

[Zepper]

Several places having specials on STC-T01: ZZF has silver, SVC has blue, Newegg - silver, Provantage has silver and black at excellent normal prices. If you can use one of ZZF's rebate forms on one bought from Provantage, it'd be a knockout. isitoday.com also has good prices, but they're OOS on them right now. Check my HOT DEALS thread for more info.

.bh.