What Black Case to get?

[Midnight]

I just bought a planar LCD in black and want to get a case to match, at the moment i have a supermirco 750a i think with a 300 watt sparkle power supply.... i have heard that this is from pc power and cooling and a good power supply to have. right now all my drives are beige i would prefer not to have to replace the bezels or get new drives, looking around i have only seen 1 case with a hydralic door that covers the drives and would eliminate the need for drive replacements.

the case is the SF860 or the SF860B i have looked on thortek and direction and think i am looking at the same case with the only differece the power supply wattage. the case from thortek costs $119 and the case from direction costs $43 why is there such a huge price difference for 50 watts? and anyone know anything about the power supplies or ordered from either vendor? should i swap out the one that comes with the cases and add in the sparkle from the supermicro?

thanks.

 

[Fastball]

Why the huge price difference? Because Thortek is a ripoff! There's really no telling which power supply you'll get with these cases. I've done business with Directron many times and they are a reputable company. Their prices are good too. Some items are overpriced, but for the most part they are pretty competitive.

I've looked at the black hydralic case in the store before and it's a good case for the money. As far as the PSU, I would stick with the Sparkle that you have unless you want to buy an Enermax Whisper (which Directron could install in the case for you before they ship it).

 

[illafied]

I ordered my black hydraulic case from Directron. its great. Don't be fooled by that huge price difference. I must say that the other place is a ripoff. Plus with directron, you can configure the case so that they remove the included power supply (some cheapo 250 watter) and use yours instead. That's what i did. Saves you a few bucks. Its a great case and covers up the beige drives nicely.

 

[mchammer187]

U can always paint the case urself, Just same Sandpaper and spray paint. My friend did his and put some blue led's in and it looks good, i'm going for a blue fer mine.

 

[junthin]

I personally would stay away from the Black Hydraulic Case (SF860B) since it has horrible air-flow. I also own a supermicro 750a case on my main rig. The Black Hydraulic Case is my secondary computer. (Check sig below for my rig link)

Unless you are running an Intel chip or under 1Ghz AMD chip, I would highly advise you to stay away from the case since it only has room for an 80mm intake and a 60mm exhaust, which in my opinion, isn't good enough for AMD 1Ghz+ chips. Besides the air flow problem, the Black Hydraulic Case is not worth the money since the inside is not quality and some of the drive bays are a bit off. I'd prefer to stay with my Supermicro 750A.

However, if you are looking for a black case to match your Planar LCD (from that Dell 20% off Deal, I assume ) then go with either an Antec SX1030B (Charcoal Black, not exactly Black, but a dark grey) or goto Directron and buy their SX1030 copy I think it's called a D03 File Server or something, but it's Jet Black (which is a true black, and you can find it by going to the SX1030B page on Directron and there's a related link for this case). Also, another consideration is the Fong Kai 320B. Both cases offer execptional cooling, and have the much desired 5.25 drive bay door to cover your biege components. However, they are about twice the price of the Hydraulic Case.

As the saying goes...

You get what you pay for.