Which case to buy

[egale]

Currently have an Antec Solo case. The real weak point are the buttons on the front and the reset button has already broken. Time for a new case.

Looking for something similar in size, a tad bigger is ok but not smaller. Dont want a huge full tower case.

Dont want or need a cut out side panel or tons of bling. Dont want a front door that covers the DVD drives.

Want something nice looking, well made, easy to install everything.

Budget is up to $150.

Lian Li styling is something I like but the prices are way high.

Any suggestions come to mind?

 

[Zepper]

The new Lancool by Lian Li gives you the L-L without the $-$ - PC-K7 w/o door, PC-K10 w/ door. Newegg is having a great sale on the K7 right now.
. Enlight is finally up to the second half of the 1990s:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811116037 -- but they still call it an entry-level server...
. Or maybe the NZXT Hush or Duet. And the Silverstone TJ04 "Gloria" is still out there at a reasonable price - a very clean looking unit, IMO. And they have the KL02 too, which is also a clean looking box with a few new ideas inside - see my review of the KL01 here:
http://www.techimo.com/articles/ --they are basically the same except for the bezel.

.bh.

 

[egale]

The K7 looks pretty good! So does the K10! is there any difference between the two besides the door?

 

[Zepper]

I don't think there are any significant differences except for the fancy front on the K10. There's a good amount of extruded aluminum in that door. There are reviews of them out there - search engines are your friend. If I had one, I'd rotate the HDD cage 180 deg so all work can be done from the left - I don't like to have to move my whole computer to work on it...

.bh.

 

[FreedomGUNDAM]

Antec P182

 

[egale]

P182 is huge. I think it is too big for what I need. Still leaning towards the K7. Found the Lian Li V1010B. Very nice looking but almost $200 more than the K7.....nope. One thing I have read about the K7, if you have a PSU with a fan on the bottom, they say you have problems and need to mod the case. Is there any truth to that?

 

[Zepper]

Where did you read that? I'd like to see the rationale for that. It looks like it would be the same as with any midtower case with a top mount PSU. The fan will be downward and intakes air from the area above the CPU and rear fan. PSUs seldom move much air these days so it shouldn't have significant effect on any other nearby fan. I do like to have a universal PSU mount so you can mount upside down (normal these days) or right side up, but you seldom see such in top mounted PSU mid-tower cases. My KL03 does have a reversible/removable mount plate for ATX size PSUs (remove for a compact redundant PSU), but it is not exactly a mid-tower either.

.bh.

 

[egale]

It was here http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2138967&enterthread=y.

In any case (no pun intended), I ordered the K7 from Newegg.

 

[Zepper]

Geez, I guess they did blow that one somewhat - the floor of the PSU cage has large holes in it so it shouldn't strangle the PSU fan too badly - as I said the PSUs don't draw much air except in extreme circumstances anyway. I suppose one could get an Earthwatts PSU with their old-school, straight thru air flow. You can see the holey PSU cage floor in the video review on 3dgameman.com or youtube. I see they put the cheap, hard plastic feet on it too - just like on the Rocketfish. Performance-PCs has some nice replacement feet - I particularly like the TJ09 feet. Maybe that's why the Egg is blowing it out - a revised version on the way???

.bh

 

[egale]

That would be just my luck. The replacenment will be twice as good at half the price too!!!

I will take a look at replacement feet. Also thinking about replacing the stock fans. I guess I could always cut out enough of the grill under the power supply so it doesn't block air flow too.

Should have the case Wednesday or Thursday. I will see then.

 

[egale]

Got the case. I am very pleased. It has enough extra room so that you can work easily. I replaced the included fans with Noctua fans. The case is slightly more noisy than the Solo. Its not horrible but I am thinking about getting some accoustic padding for the side panels. All in all though, very nice.

 

[Zepper]

Yup, in general, aluminum (or plastic) panels don't contain the noise as well as steel ones. A lot of the noise reduction materials out there aren't dense enough to do any real good (e.g. Akasa Paxmate and similar). Caveat emptor! The SPCR forums have lively discussions on these products and some reviews are there as well. Dansdata.com also has some articles on this stuff.

.bh.