Thermaltake Tsunami vs. Coolermaster Wavemaster

[shadykidd]

For the longest time I have wanted to own a Wavemaster. Lately, many people have told me to stay away from 80mm fans (which the Wavemaster has), and I will have to do at least some modding (dremeling the front intake and/or top mount fan). Also, I wouldn't use the stock fans, so I would have to buy 4 new fans.

The Tsunami cosmetically looks nice and similiar to the Wavemaster, but comes with quality 120mm fans for far superior cooling/airflow. I still am partial to the look of the Wavemaster though....

There is also a pricing difference. The Wavemaster is about $130 + $30 for fans, so $160. The Tsunami could be had for about $100.

I know this is very much a personal preference choice, but I would like to hear some opinions on my dilemma.

By the way, this case will be housing a C2D E6600 and a BFG 7900GT OC. I plan on experimenting with some overclocking, but nothing hardcore (this will be my first time OCing). I will most like buy after an after market fan for my GPU and a HSF for my CPU as well.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[savvy]

Tsunami seems like it's cheaper, looks better, better quality. It seems that you might like the Wavemaster though and it might be best since you've wanted it for so long.

 

[gramboh]

Tsunami no question, 80mm fans are brutally loud, 120mm are near silent even at 1800-2000 RPM. Smaller fans = smaller blades = faster spinning with less air.

 

[cleverhandle]

Make your choice about whether you want to overclock or not. If you do, then buy a case with good, wide-open cooling - IMO, neither the Wavemaster nor the Tsunami are really very good for that. Get something with a true, unimpeded 120mm fan like a LL 7B or something similar. If you don't want to overclock, then get the Wavemaster - it's fans are certainly not "brutally loud" as gramboh suggests, especially if you volt them down using a Fanmate or something similar. My wife's PC is built in a Wavemaster - it sits a few feet behind me and I never hear it.

But you've got to make the choice - if you want to overclock your machine, the Wavemaster is just not a good choice, despite how sexy it is.

 

[Effect]

AFAIK, the wavemaster's 80mm (rear) fan is only there because of the removable mobo tray, so you get something in return for the noisy fan(s). If you're not one to add/remove components often, then the mobo tray would be useless. I'll just throw out another choice.....the CM WaveMaster 2 (otherwise known as the CM Mystique). 2x 120mm fans, but no mobo tray.

 

[w00t]

both of the cases are bad

for the price of them you should be able to get a better case IMO