Warm: 300W Midtower with front USB/sound/joystick ports for $48

[Hgabriel]

Deal is here

Monarch Computer rates a 5.7 out 7 at Reseller Ratings. Seems like a decent buy. Stated that the PSU is not supported with AMD, but niether is the PSU that came with my Enlight 7237. At 300w this seems like a good deal. Warm, enjoy!

 

[Sesopedalian]

It says shipping weight is 10lbs. If that is correct, be forewarned that the metal in this case has to be paper thin. Maybe that is just the shipping weight rate, but I would check that out for sure if anyone has intentions to order.

 

[Petey00]

If that picture is correct, it looks like a modified InWin case or one with a difference face plate. What do u guys think?

 

[FrankRizzo]

It sure does look like an InWin with some holes chopped at the bottom.

 

[Cybordolphin]

Looks great from the pic!!! Has (4) external 5 1/4 bays! Like the USB's up front too. Looks like there is plenty of room up front to drill lots of holes for the front fan.... so front ventilation should not be a problem.

All in all..... I think it must be a pretty good case for the $$.
I will probably get one. Just want to find out how the PS is mounted inside.. and if there is room for a rear fan to be mounted.

Thanks!

Hmmmmm looks like they have limited shipping options ($17 to have shipped Fedx)...

 

[Dantzig]

The sound/joystick ports will only be useful if you have a mobo with onboard sound (ick!), correct?

 

[takhyon]

17.75 Fed Ex Shipping.

 

[thereaderrabbit]

It looks good, but should I assume that "Power supply not approved for AMD Athlon" means it doesn't work with an Athlon? Is Athlon 'approval' an issue?

-Reader

 

[Hork]

If you check out the site, there is also a similar case with the USB, game port, speaker and mic outputs on the side of the front panal instead of the bottom. Just another option that might be a preference for some people.

Can someone clarify what the issue is with the PS not being certified for use with the Athlon? I'd love a case like this, but I'm also getting an Athlon.

Has anyone also checked out the case at CompUSA that has USB and a couple of other outputs on the front? This is a screwless case and if I'm not mistaken, the side with the motherboard folds down for easy access.

Here's a link.
CompUSA FMI Case

Hork

 

[Rabb]

Anyone have any experience with this case:

fulltowercase

Only $55, gotta be too good to be true? They charge $23.35 to ship fedex 2-3 day to Houston.
A full tower with a Not-AThlon approved 300watt power supply looks pretty good. They say shipping weight is only 17lbs, I doubt that. Just curious if anyone has seen this cases construction, inside sharp edges, or anything like that? Also, it looks to have 3 led lights on the front, which is nice for those scsi users to play with (one led for power, one for IDE, one for scsi bus).

 

[Hgabriel]

If the PSU is an issue, look at it this way. You'll have a 300w PSU you can sell to some Intel lover. You can always pick up an AMD PSU for around $20-30 anyway. And when they say "not certified" that is a cheap way of saying, "Hey, we didn't send it to AMD labs for certification.".

I'd bank on the PSU working with AMD boards and chips.

 

[thereaderrabbit]

Thx for the info Hgabriel

-Reader

 

[coolcar]

Electroseller offers similar case (7 bays) at 38. It also includes one case fan in the price. Shipping is 16. But there are no front USB mountings.

Note also regarding comment on shipping wt. On the same site, the Enlight 7237 w/300w PS is also shipping weight of 10lbs. So i guess this shd be ok case.Thougha ph call before ordering might help.

 

[Lanyap]

Electroseller also has the same case as the original post except it has an AMD approved power supply - $47.99 plus $16 shipping.
http://electroseller.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=electroseller&Product_Code=4305%2BC&Category_Code=008

 

[yodayoda]

concerning "AMD approved power supply" remark, the AMD website contains a list of all the power supplies that have been tested by their engineers or been submitted to AMD to be approved. if a power supply is not approved, it does not mean that it will not work, it just means that it is not recommended for use with the duron/athlon class of processors and may void any warranties you have on the chip. you're on your own on this one: it is 300W so it should work and maybe they were just too cheap to submit to amd to get approved, but it also might not have passed amd's qc and does not have approval. your call =)

Link to ATX power supplies approved for Athlons

 

[dowxp]

Lanyap, that looks like a phat case. i would buy it for some of the systems im selling..

 

[Cybordolphin]

Lanyap.... THANKS! Lets me see the innards!

The PS does not sit over the MB (cover the CPU).... nice.

One more thing. My motherboard has a "front" panel USB connector as well. I might be able to get (4) USB hookups out of this.

 

[perry]

Saw a really similar looking case at a bunch of vendors at a computer show a couple weeks back for about this same price.. IIRC, most were $50, and if they were out of state there was no sales tax.

 

[step-dawg]

The case looks kinda cool but I'm a bit confused as to how you would connect your ports to the front? Anyone have experience with this. Sorry newbie sounding question. Thanks.

 

[Ejunior2]

Step-Dawg

On my Mobo (MSI K7T Pro2A) there are the normal two USB soldered to the PCB out the back. Then there is a second 2 port connector near the front of the board. It's a 4 pin connector so your should be able to just plug in the cable from the front of the case. If your Mobo doesn't support a second USB hub on-board you should be able to add a PCI card for it.

 

[Hork]

step-dawg,

On the Electroseller site it looks like an internal cable from the front plugs goes to a slot in the back of the computer. Then a special cable that apparently comes with this comes out the back of the slot and plugs into the USB, sound and game ports in the back of the computer.

I was kind of disappointed in this. I thought I might be able to have my regular devices hooked up to the back, and then *also* be able to plug in other devices in the front and somehow switch between the two. This would be especially handy if I wanted to switch between speakers and a desktop mic (always plugged into the back) and a headset/mic (that I plug into the front when I need to use it).

Sounds like with motherboards that support it you can hook up the two front USB ports and get four in your system instead of two.

Does anyone know of a way to easily switch between speakers with a desktop microphone and a headset/mic?

Hork

 

[apunahus]

Hork, i tried using a Y-splitter i picked up from amazon for $0.88. i ended up getting distorted sound from my speakers... even started picking up some radio station.

 

[Hork]

Right now we're using the cord extender/control thingy from our Creative Nomad II to switch between the speakers and the headphones. The nomad thingy brings the jack around to the front of the computer where we can easily unplug the speakers and plug in the headphones.

It'd be a lot nicer if someone made an actual switch for this. Maybe I'll make one and get rich. :-D

Hork

 

[CyBrShRk]

I had a 300w PS prior to going Duron awhile back. PS ran fine. I then upgraded to Duron 700 with all the assorted toys any computer geek would have in his PC. The power supply got louder from that point on. I opened the case to find the source of the noise and it was the PS and fan. I left the case off because I was changing out CD-burner the next day. Next day fired my machine up and within 20 secs the PS exploded in my face. Chunks of hot plastic crap flew out the vent holes and one or two hit me in the face. Needless to say an underwear change was in order, and my puter was dead. Figured it all to be dead when I bought my new 450W PS, but fortunately everything has worked fine since then. Don't think the Duron had anything to do with it, but I can say I have built over 8000 computers and that is the first PS that ever exploded like that one me, scared the crap out of me. Just wanted to share that experience.

 

[RobsTV]

When they say not Athlon approved, they are mainly referring to the old Slot A Athlon, NOT the newer T-Bird or Duron socket A CPU's. The old Slot A's had tough power supply requirements. The new AMD's work fine with even a 200w supply, as proven by the dozen or so economy units I've built and sold. Even at the AMD approved power supply site, they list many 250w and some 235w supplies as being certified for Athlon.