As part of downsizing my rig into a Corsair 600Q thought I'd offer my thoughts on a couple of alternative cases I've also bought recently that didn't prove to be up to the job, at least in my situation.
Firstly to set the scene. After deciding I didn't need as much cooling as I had (1 360 rad loop cooling a 6700k and 1 360 rad loop cooling a GTX 980ti) and wanting a smaller form factor case than the Thermaltake X2 I was using I started looking for a case that would fit 2 240 rads in a single loop and still allow me to run my fans low enough that any noise I could hear wouldn't be annoying. Also I'm quite keen on keeping dust to a minimum which was a big problem with the X2.
This led me to a few hours of research looking for the perfect case (as you will see not enough hours though)
The first case I bought was a Phanteks Pro M. Everything fitted in fine and was working OK with the front pair of rad fans as intakes and the top pair along with the rear fan as exhausts. I decided this wasn't the case for me after all as I ideally wanted positive pressure from my fans in order to reduce dust especially as the Pro M has so many vents and a joke of a front filter so the way I had my fans wasn't any good. I tried the top pair of fans as intakes but this made everything too hot.
I then bought a NzXT H440 New Edition despite it's reputation for poor cooling as it was on sale at the time. I really like the look of it but whatever I did including buying bigger 280mm rads and Noctua fans I couldn't get it to run cool enough to avoid the fans having to run so fast they sound like jet engines. The only solution was to remove both the front and top panels which of course is no sort of permanent solution.
After even more hours research I decided to give the Corsair 600Q a go. I used to have a FT02 back in my air-cooling days so was already a fan of inverse layouts.
I now have everything working fine in the 600Q, it's still early days but it's cool despite the fans not needing to go above 1100RPM whatever load I chuck at it. I have a 280 rad in the front and a 240 rad in the bottom both as intakes and the rear fan as exhaust so it's running positive pressure and all the intakes are filtered as well.
I hope my experiences help some of you as I feel it doesn't matter how much research you do it's not until you actually build your system into a case that you really get an idea of if it's any good or not.
Firstly to set the scene. After deciding I didn't need as much cooling as I had (1 360 rad loop cooling a 6700k and 1 360 rad loop cooling a GTX 980ti) and wanting a smaller form factor case than the Thermaltake X2 I was using I started looking for a case that would fit 2 240 rads in a single loop and still allow me to run my fans low enough that any noise I could hear wouldn't be annoying. Also I'm quite keen on keeping dust to a minimum which was a big problem with the X2.
This led me to a few hours of research looking for the perfect case (as you will see not enough hours though)
The first case I bought was a Phanteks Pro M. Everything fitted in fine and was working OK with the front pair of rad fans as intakes and the top pair along with the rear fan as exhausts. I decided this wasn't the case for me after all as I ideally wanted positive pressure from my fans in order to reduce dust especially as the Pro M has so many vents and a joke of a front filter so the way I had my fans wasn't any good. I tried the top pair of fans as intakes but this made everything too hot.
I then bought a NzXT H440 New Edition despite it's reputation for poor cooling as it was on sale at the time. I really like the look of it but whatever I did including buying bigger 280mm rads and Noctua fans I couldn't get it to run cool enough to avoid the fans having to run so fast they sound like jet engines. The only solution was to remove both the front and top panels which of course is no sort of permanent solution.
After even more hours research I decided to give the Corsair 600Q a go. I used to have a FT02 back in my air-cooling days so was already a fan of inverse layouts.
I now have everything working fine in the 600Q, it's still early days but it's cool despite the fans not needing to go above 1100RPM whatever load I chuck at it. I have a 280 rad in the front and a 240 rad in the bottom both as intakes and the rear fan as exhaust so it's running positive pressure and all the intakes are filtered as well.
I hope my experiences help some of you as I feel it doesn't matter how much research you do it's not until you actually build your system into a case that you really get an idea of if it's any good or not.
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