Advice please! New Case/ Swap cooling?

Pulse · 19 Oct 2009 at 14:37

A while ago I posted about wanting a new case I had a long list of features that I wanted but I think my budget was a bit tight £120, and nothing wooed me

My spec has since changed and as such so have my needs. Features that I'm looking for..

Removable motherboard tray (optional)
Good/Excellent cooling
Space for a full size motherboard
Anti-vibration for the HDD
Sound proofing
Enough room for crossfire cards

If anything else comes up I'll let you know

My budget for this is £200

Or if you think that changing some internal parts of my current case, Antec 900, is more feasible then let me know. The case is all stock cooling, so I've not changed any fans or hdd cages, which might be something for me to look at, I'm not sure if I'm honest.

But I've got some Akasa Vortexx's on my 4850's and I find them quite noisy even at 7v. I did have a Accelero S1 with a Xilence Red Wing and that was silent but when I added the 2nd 4850 there wasn't space for it, the only other thing I could do is run them passively but then it might run a little hot and I'm trying to get temps down. I've got a thermalright Ultra on my Quad with a Akasa Smokey and that seems to be just fine. Other places I may need to look at is PSU fan, the Coolermaster 620W fan is a bit loud for my liking. And the lack of anti-vibration on the HDD means they're pretty loud. So I could replace the stock cages with one of those lian li ones, but I'd still need to replace the fans on those with new quieter ones.

Before you say anything, yes I am a silence freak!

Thanks in advance for any help.

EsaT · 19 Oct 2009 at 15:34

Pulse said:
Before you say anything, yes I am a silence freak!

Then you should just dump that "quiet as apartment house without walls between neighbours"-case. It's acoustically plain big empty zero... or actually worser than that because of hard HDD mounting to sheet metal parts. (hard HDD mounting would be acceptable in case of HDD cage consisting of inch thick steel slabs)
Much easier to get noise to acceptable level (and retaining component cooling) when case can muffle noises instead of spewing it all out for everyone to hear.

At stock Antec's P-serie is really only one I would call as well dampened/sound proofed design with those thick vibration resisting, airborne noise muffling multilayer panels.
For having working space with graphics cards E-ATX support is good yardstick and as such P193 is actually Antec's most spacious case for long graphics cards: (use width of motherboard for comparing to your 900)
http://www.overclockersonline.net/images/articles/antec/p193/large/an35.jpg
That side fan just easily conflicts with big tower heatsinks and compromises noise containing design by forming direct noise escape path for noise of CPU and GPU coolers. (beside looking not nice)
http://www.overclockersonline.net/?page=articles&num=2831&pnum=5

If you don't need that working space then Antec P183 is good option and also doesn't have that "wart" in side panel:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...18650-antec-p183-mid-tower-case-review-9.html

Again if you're ready to apply some damping (like bitumen mat) if necessary then Lian Li has acoustically properly designed very spacious case which make you wonder about all that talk of graphics cards being long:
http://www.pc-experience.de/Bilder-Reviews/Lian44/lian.32.jpg

Pulse · 19 Oct 2009 at 16:48

Thanks for the reply. The P193 seemed a nice idea until I saw that horrid side fan

Instead I've fallen for the Corsair Obsidian 800D. The only thing is that I'd have to modify my desk for it to fit under there as it's a little too deep. Any other suggestions?

EsaT · 19 Oct 2009 at 17:47

Corsair has (expensive) straight from servers hot swap HDD cage with backplane and you know how noise is last of concerns in that segment... and with lack of clear/simple airflow for main components layout is more fitting for water cooling than air.

Depending what's your definition of quiet (at least on floor case is little farther) a70f with soft hdd mounting might be quiet:
http://www.pureoverclock.com/review.php?id=799&page=5

i'm myself using combination mat lined a71b and direct noise escape path blocking door makes noticeable effect to noise of intake fans and allows keeping them at probably 150-200 rpm higher speed for same noise (also muffling other component noises like seek noises radiated by hdds themselves) so would recommend a71f.
http://www.cpu3d.com/review/8207-7/lian-li-pc-a71f-full-tower-chassis/verdict-and-conclusion.html

PwnDirect · 19 Oct 2009 at 18:59

Based on you needs
+1 Lian Li PC-A71FB

Pulse · 19 Oct 2009 at 22:22

On 2nd look the A71FB looks awesome, but can I ask, in this picture A71B it shows 4 fans around the harddrives, 2 on each side. Is that the difference between the 'B' and 'FB'?

Edit: Seems so. The 'B' version can still be had for a £145, a nice reduction from the £200 price tag of the 'FB'. And that's the only difference I can see.

EsaT · 20 Oct 2009 at 15:27

Pulse said:
On 2nd look the A71FB looks awesome, but can I ask, in this picture A71B it shows 4 fans around the harddrives, 2 on each side. Is that the difference between the 'B' and 'FB'?

Edit: Seems so. The 'B' version can still be had for a £145, a nice reduction from the £200 price tag of the 'FB'. And that's the only difference I can see.

There are few minor differences between original A71(A/B) and A71F(B):
A71F has those fashionable tool-less systems for cards and 5.25" bays (which generally don't work well with short devices like fan controllers) but for covering extra costs they've made cost cuts: Motherboard tray appears to be now permanently fixed, opening direction of door can't be changed and mid case fans behind HDD cage forming push-pull setup have been removed.
Intake fans of A71F again are more fashionable 140mm ones instead of common 120mm but removal of that "pull"-fan behind HDD cage has surely increased airflow impedance so wouldn't be sure at all about cooling having become any better.