Casing choices 2

[mmenarry]

Hi folks!
Having bought a cheap packard bell iMedia about six months ago (P4 2.4GHz, 256Mb ram, 60gig HDD, DVD/CD-RW combo), I'm now at the stage where I'm seriously considering upgrading the casing thanks to the addition of:

512Mb ram (750 total)
120 gig HDD
CD-RW
Soundblaster Audigy2
Geforce4 MX440se (agp version)
Round IDE cables (it was getting cramped in there!)

Any suggestions as to casing choices?
I'm looking to find a nice large case, with room for expansion. Ideally, something that would take the existing Columbia GX mobo, more fans to provide proper cooling, and an extra 5 1/2" bay at the front for expansion. I may also look to change the mobo if I change the chip in the future, as there are some limitations in the Columbia GX mobo.

Any thoughts or warnings in advance would be greatly appreciated!
Michael

 

[pitlover]

I recently purchased an Antec Sonata. It's as little(!) as $110 delivered, but comes with a 380watt antec tru-power supply. Quality throughout, and has a big ol' 120mm fan in back.
No problems keeping my p4 2.53ghz @ 533mhz cool, even with the gig of ddr ram, geforce4 t14800, audigy2, and 3 special edition western digital hard drives inside. I'd get 1 extra 120mm fan for cooling, and round cables (1-24" and 1-36" did the job perfect).
It's specially designed to be quiet, and does the job admirably. Rubber grommets keep HDD vibration down to a minimum, and the oversized fans don;t have to work as hard to keep everything cool. I did the classic "putting my ear to the side when I powered it up" to make sure it was really running.

3 year warranty on the power supply. Not too gawdy either. An excellent paint job, and low key blue led's in the front.
A closing, lockable front door keeps everything looking very clean from the front.

And everyone that passes my office @ work takes notice! Even if it was nothing but crappy parts in it, I would still get "OOOOO.... THAT'S a nice computer" for the case alone.

Read some reviews for antec sonata on google or something, you may be another future owner!

 

[Tarwn]

Other decent to good case companies include:
Lian Li
Chenming/Chieftec
KingWin
Coolermaster
AMS
Vapochill - heh...if you have $600...I wouldn't mind having one of these

-Tarwn

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[mmenarry]

Thanks, Pitlover. I've checked out the Sonata, looks like a decent piece of kit. The sideways mounting for HDD leaves an awful lot more room. My first impression of it, though, was "argh! mid-tower - no room!", but it does seem to have a lot of space inside. Noise isn't a problem for me, but it's looking like a very good case. It's gonna cost me about $130 euro, so I won't break my neck just yet to get out there and get it, but it's about the best I've seen so far.
Michael

 

[CitrixEngineer]

I like the Thermaltake Xaser range - those side windows and blue neon logos are (arguably!) cool, these cases come with 5 fans as standard, are large and designed with cooling in mind, including a front panel LCD thermometer, not to mention the additional sound, USB and FireWire ports. I've got one

http://www.thermaltake.com/products/Xaser3Menu.htm

Check out the reviews, too - tomshardware.com seem to include a Xaser in all their case round-ups, and there was a good one on anadtech recently (anandtech tend to be more objective and less "rah-rah" in their reviews than tomshardware);

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1792

CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[mmenarry]

Uhmm, the thermaltake is a bit garish for my liking. Although no doubt it does a good job on the cooling front (it would want to with that amount of fans!), I prefer the look of the Sonata. The fact that the Sonata uses large, slower moving fans seems more serene, graceful!
Thanks for the heads up guys!
Like I said, not about to splash out just yet, but the Sonata looks like a definate one for consideration.
Michael

 

[Tarwn]

If your looking for a rather plain case, ie sophistication in simplicity, I would suggest something along the lines of a Lial-Li Pc 60 or 61. After comparing my main server (X-Studio) with a black PC-60, I was impressed that that more functional look of the PC-60 way outclassed my pretty reflective swinging door. You also get two filtered fan intakes and a decent number of bays. If you wanted to go really crazy you could go the direction of a Lian-Li warrior case (window pre-mod, 7 fans, etc etc) which appears to basically be a premodded PC 60 or 61.

If your looking for a somewhat larger case and not wanting a classic tower case I would suggest something like the Lian-Li 6070 or if you really want to go crazy the MegaCube (16 5.25"'s, 7 3.5"'s, 6 120mm fans, 1 80mm fan) course it is rather heavy (over 70 lbs) and a bit pricy.


As far as classic towers, chieftec makes a pretty solid line (alienware was using them as the base for their cases, not sure if they still are), lian-li (of course) has a solid line also using the concept of simple lines,...

or you could go a little crazy and get one of these:

http://www.frozencpu.com/cgi-bin/frozencpu/cas-94.html

-Tarwn

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[mmenarry]

I knew there were a good few case designs out there, but not the extent that it's gone to!!!!!!
This has really opened my eyes!!
I knew there were some people into case modding, but there seems to be plenty of manufacturers out there willing to feed the need! Good stuff here guys, I'm not into case modding myself, but I'll never settle for a plain case again! I have to say that the frozencpu all wood case looks very classy, it would put the rest of my apartment to shame (and my wallet into the emergency room!).
In all honesty, this is going to cost me a small fortune. I'll get a decent case, then the monitor will have to be done, then the keyboard, and then and then and then!!!!
Thanks for all the info, guys.
(I'm just going to sut my credit card in half now, I'll be back in a minute)
Michael

 

[adkmom]

Hey there-

I may be laughed out of here, what with all the big price tags & "flash" floating around, but-

http://www.compgeeks.com

They have a lot of nice cases at very low prices. If you can't ship from them, you could at least check the cases & specs & perhaps find it in your area?

Mom

 

[dakota81]

This is the case I've been purchasing of late:

http://maxtop.com/product.asp?product_id=27&category=Chassis&color=gold&display=

It's stylish, but not stupid looking, lots and lots of places to put things, and a mere $60 shipped price tag.

 

[BotCow]

Looking for cases depends on your budget. It really depends. For instance, Coolermaster and Lian-Li Aluminum cases run from $79-200+. They make quality boxes though (slide out motherboard tray, excellent paint finishes, rolled edges). Lower end steel cases are heavy. However they still do the trick. You should look into the classic Chenming/Chieftec/Antec clones. Those are excellent cases. If you can afford a Lian-Li or Coolermaster, they have yet to let down the public, offering great cases. SVC.com has a great selection at a cheap price. Look at newegg.com also and browse the reviews, that'll help you also.

 

[Fishguy]

Hey,
I would reccomend the Aspire X-Dreamer case, it is a pretty stylish but functional case, and to top it off, it has a built in thermal monitor Oh ya, and the price is only $70 Canadian, so that means about $55 US....
Here is a link:

http://www.memoryexpress.com/FrameCases.php#Aspire

-----------------------
Fishguy

 

[zepper]

You must not be in the States as they stopped selling Packard Hell here years ago - so a lot of what has been posted here has probably been of little use to you.
. I hope that P-B are better now than they used to be...

http://www.tomshardware.com

tested the Athenatech 747 case recently (actually they have done several large batch case reviews lately that you might want to check out) so it should be available there. Very reasonably priced here and comes with an excellent Sparkle/Fortron PSU, at least as equipped by the US distributor or reseller. YMMV. You can see it on the

http://www.newegg.com

site as well as a multitude of other models. If you don't have the "Browsing with Image" mode enabled, just click on "See It" near the end of each description. If you have enabled BwI, just click on the thumbnail pic to see multiple views of each case. A surfeit of excess...
..bh..

He who dares not offend cannot be honest. -- Thomas Paine.