Favourite Cases?

Darkzy

Darkzy

Darkzy

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Joined
11 Oct 2010
Posts
140
Location
Ashford, Kent, UK
Whats your guys opinion on cases.. Whats your favourites for these catagories: Looks, Cable management, Airflow/Cooling (including watercooling) and Features. and Why

Favourite for looks is either the 800D or there was a case i liked but for a premade PC (Acer Predator)

Features is the NZXT M59 at the moment (My current case) Purely because it has a Light at the cd drives :)



Looking for a new case so..

Budget no issue Won't be getting right away anyway.. just want peoples opinions.
 
Antec p183 v3 is gonna be coming out, if you like shiney things with lights it wont be for you, but it is solid and does a very very good job.

Pre build i loved the look of the HP black bird and would love to find a case if available but apparently they are extremely rare!
 
None, I still haven't found a case that truly has everything that I want from a case, which is:

-Decent position (IE: exhausts air) for 120.3 radiator (and maybe a position for a 120.2 as well, or 2 120.2s), pump and so on.
-Built in reservoir in a good/striking place (maybe make the side window a reservoir?).
-Not humongous (with some decent thinking this is possible), or stupidly heavy. -No 'overkill' drive bays - who needs 5 5.25" bays, and over 5 HDD bays? For those that do, there are many cases available, but for those who will use the bare minimum (like me, 2 SSDs, 1 HDD and an external ODD), it feels like unnecessary weight and space.
-A decent in-built fan controller, which can be controlled through Windows, where you can set temps for the fans to come on/go off and so on. The only things near so far are the Heatmaster, BigNG and Aqueros, all of which are German (so support is a pain, manuals are badly written for English, and no-one has any experience of them), and the Heatmaster and BigNG have terrible software.
-Classic looks. FT02 for-instance. Lian Li V-series. And so on.
-An external finish that doesn't scratch/mark if you look at it (Lian Li!) - Silverstone's is an improvement, but at first it doesn't look as good.
-Covers for those bits that don't look brilliant (PSU and ensuing cable mess, drive bays)
-PSU connectors mounted into the motherboard tray, and are connected to a modular-like panel by the PSU - much easier cable routing - IE, none required. The panel would cover most of the required connectors (maybe 2 8 pin PCI-E, 2 6 pin, 4+4 pin CPU, 24 pin ATX and so on) then conventional connectors could be used if anything extra is required. Short cables would be used to connect the plug on the mobo tray to the relevant connector.

Maybe not all of that, but they are almost all things that just aren't included in any case.
 
Nice write up ;) personally i like to be able to control my fans during a game (I.e a physical fan controller not a software one)

But that sounds good .. how does the PSU Connectors mounted into mobo tray work
 
My phantom, is, by far, the best case I have ever used/seen/jiz... Oh wait :)

But seriously it's a fantastic case, I'm gonna be doing a project log for my water-cooling/ side window mod soon, hopefully Easter :) just a shame I got my ek supreme already :(
 
I know how you feel mate my pump for my WC arrived today :( .. it's such a tease. and wow your going to be project logging same time as me :D
 
Marvin said:
None, I still haven't found a case that truly has everything that I want from a case, which is:

-Decent position (IE: exhausts air) for 120.3 radiator (and maybe a position for a 120.2 as well, or 2 120.2s), pump and so on.
-Built in reservoir in a good/striking place (maybe make the side window a reservoir?).
-Not humongous (with some decent thinking this is possible), or stupidly heavy. -No 'overkill' drive bays - who needs 5 5.25" bays, and over 5 HDD bays? For those that do, there are many cases available, but for those who will use the bare minimum (like me, 2 SSDs, 1 HDD and an external ODD), it feels like unnecessary weight and space.
-A decent in-built fan controller, which can be controlled through Windows, where you can set temps for the fans to come on/go off and so on. The only things near so far are the Heatmaster, BigNG and Aqueros, all of which are German (so support is a pain, manuals are badly written for English, and no-one has any experience of them), and the Heatmaster and BigNG have terrible software.
-Classic looks. FT02 for-instance. Lian Li V-series. And so on.
-An external finish that doesn't scratch/mark if you look at it (Lian Li!) - Silverstone's is an improvement, but at first it doesn't look as good.
-Covers for those bits that don't look brilliant (PSU and ensuing cable mess, drive bays)
-PSU connectors mounted into the motherboard tray, and are connected to a modular-like panel by the PSU - much easier cable routing - IE, none required. The panel would cover most of the required connectors (maybe 2 8 pin PCI-E, 2 6 pin, 4+4 pin CPU, 24 pin ATX and so on) then conventional connectors could be used if anything extra is required. Short cables would be used to connect the plug on the mobo tray to the relevant connector.

Maybe not all of that, but they are almost all things that just aren't included in any case.
Click to expand...


Very good points.

My favourite case is the TJ07. :)
 
I Must say my favouurite at the moment the one that i've heard only good about is the 800D ... i don't like the HAF X its a big box of fugly in my opinion.. well actually some people have made it look nice but only through extensive modding

I will never go back to a mid tower once i get my next case ... ******* tiny things
 
Silverstone FT02, absolutely the best case ive ever owned, lots of space, good cable management, excellent aircooling and looks fantastic. Not for you if you ever want to do a proper WC set up though.

Hawker
 
hawker1986 said:
Silverstone FT02, absolutely the best case ive ever owned, lots of space, good cable management, excellent aircooling and looks fantastic. Not for you if you ever want to do a proper WC set up though.

Hawker
Click to expand...

Why no proper WC Set up ??
 
Darkzy said:
Why no proper WC Set up ??
Click to expand...

Temperatures are quite high for WC (also hot air is taken in rather than exhausted); you have to sacrifice HDD bays to use a 120.4 (with 4 fans), not a great deal of space for pumps and the like (often have to go in the 5.25" bays, meaning even less HDD space). The RV02 is better in the HDD regard, but still not perfect.

Darkzy said:
Nice write up ;) personally i like to be able to control my fans during a game (I.e a physical fan controller not a software one)

But that sounds good .. how does the PSU Connectors mounted into mobo tray work
Click to expand...

The fan controller isn't controlled only through software, but also through hardware - IE: the settings are all saved to the fan controller, so the software is only needed if you want to change anything or monitor temps/fan speeds (or maybe build an LCD into the case, so it can be controlled via software, or touchscreen).

The PSU connector thing is basically like having the connectors from a modular PSU mounted into the mobo tray, with shorter versions of the modular cables connecting from the mobo tray to the components. Then the connectors from the mobo tray are routed to the PSU area at the back (built in, so maybe use PCB with traces), where another modular PSU type panel is. Thus all the cables stay in the same area hidden away, and producing coloured cables to change the look is easy - just purchase a different set for the case, or rebraid the originals without either destroying the PSU warranty, or having to use bulky connectors round the back.
 
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