£150 to spend on case upgrade

pisto_grih · 5 Sep 2011 at 11:09

Hi All,
I did some work for a friend over the weekend and now have £150 to spend on upgrades for my system. I am mostly looking for a case as performance isn't at the top of my list, whereas looks and quietness are more important!

This is my spec at the moment:

Cooler Master Elite 430 (Inoffensive but much too crowded, no cable management and cheap plastics on the front)

Asus P8P67 Pro
2500K i5
2x2GB Crucial XMS3
Alpenfohn Matterhorn CPU cooler with 120mm alpenfohn fan
1TB Caviar Black (currently empty)
640GB something or other (current boot drive)
MSI 5850 Twin Frozr (noisy at anything above 30% fans)
3 x silverstone 120mm fans (bottom intake, top and rear exhaust), a 140mm alpenfohn fan as front intake, the cheap blue led fan that came with case is side intake
Silverstone fully modular PSU
Scythe Kaze Master fan controller
dvd drive

The PC is more of a hobby machine as I mostly use a Macbook Air as my day-to-day machine, but thinking about doing some light to medium gaming (might need to upgrade gfx card for battlefield 3, otherwise ill stick to xbox), and maybe some photo editing.

Main reason I want to upgrade the case is there is no cable management and its really cramped inside - even with all my fans I still have to crank them up full blast to get cooling similar to other systems.

Had a look at the Corsair 600T and the 650D, something similar to these would be good? 650D is my favourite, but read bad things about noise?

mrk · 5 Sep 2011 at 11:16

Noise is only an issue with the older fan controller.

Solved on newer versions with upgraded fan controller.

You can also replace the fans with quieter ones still and have change left over from 3150.

650D is the obvious choice for:

1: Discreet yet professional "'business' styling.
2: Cable tidying.
3: Low noise, good cooling.

lee20010 · 5 Sep 2011 at 11:22

I agree with the 650D, got it 2 weeks ago, VERY happy with it!

King Damager · 5 Sep 2011 at 11:31

650D seems to be being quite highly spec'd yet others seem to be moaning about the noise it makes due to neg pressure... Personally I'm unwilling to suggest because of this...

650D is a lot like some of the Lian Li stuff, and the Lancool k9 looks a lot like a 650D, although not sure when it'll be released...
http://www.vortez.net/news_story/lancool_releases_stylish_new_pc_k9_series.html

For £150 you could get a Silverstone Raven - Worth looking at?

kd

Schizo · 5 Sep 2011 at 11:32

another vote for the corsair 650d here

mrk · 5 Sep 2011 at 11:34

Mine is as quiet as a decent spec laptop so I don't really see where the noise complaints are coming from.

Like I mentioned above, I just changed the front intake for something that pushes more air and is quieter and control the fans from the mobo.

If people spend some time with stuff and lifted a finger instead of relying on out of the box experiences then those complaints would not exist

pisto_grih · 5 Sep 2011 at 11:38

King Damager said:
650D seems to be being quite highly spec'd yet others seem to be moaning about the noise it makes due to neg pressure... Personally I'm unwilling to suggest because of this...

650D is a lot like some of the Lian Li stuff, and the Lancool k9 looks a lot like a 650D, although not sure when it'll be released...
http://www.vortez.net/news_story/lancool_releases_stylish_new_pc_k9_series.html

For £150 you could get a Silverstone Raven - Worth looking at?

kd

The Raven is too big for me, but it isn't bad looking.

pisto_grih · 5 Sep 2011 at 11:47

Looks like the 650D is winning here, its probably my favourite case on the market at the moment.

I read a thread on here that said you had to cut the front mesh out of the case to get rid of the noise, is this no longer applicable then? Really don't want to have to take a power tool to a case straight out of the box!

antran · 5 Sep 2011 at 11:53

mrk said:
Mine is as quiet as a decent spec laptop so I don't really see where the noise complaints are coming from.

Like I mentioned above, I just changed the front intake for something that pushes more air and is quieter and control the fans from the mobo.

If people spend some time with stuff and lifted a finger instead of relying on out of the box experiences then those complaints would not exist

what fan did you get?

mrk · 5 Sep 2011 at 11:56

CoolerMaster Megaflow 200mm.

You don't have to cut the mesh, cutting it gives some more airflow but increases noise a tiny bit with the dust filter detached as the mesh acted as a sound damper with the stock fan.

Can't say for the CoolerMaster though as it's too quiet to tell...

King Damager · 5 Sep 2011 at 12:20

mrk said:
CoolerMaster Megaflow 200mm.

You don't have to cut the mesh, cutting it gives some more airflow but increases noise a tiny bit with the dust filter detached as the mesh acted as a sound damper with the stock fan.

Can't say for the CoolerMaster though as it's too quiet to tell...

Interesting, as I've said, I can't go on personal experience, just what others have said, but interesting to see what you've said

Will have to take it into account when suggesting cases

kd

pisto_grih · 5 Sep 2011 at 14:16

well I've ordered the 650D today, will attempt to get everything built into it for the weekend and will post up some pics once done.

Don't know if I can be bothered with cable braiding, could anyone let me know where I can get the bitfenix pre-braided cables from?

mrk · 5 Sep 2011 at 14:18

OcUK and they sell NZXT ones too which are just as good.

.Max. · 5 Sep 2011 at 20:20

King Damager said:
650D seems to be being quite highly spec'd yet others seem to be moaning about the noise it makes due to neg pressure... Personally I'm unwilling to suggest because of this...

650D is a lot like some of the Lian Li stuff, and the Lancool k9 looks a lot like a 650D, although not sure when it'll be released...
http://www.vortez.net/news_story/lancool_releases_stylish_new_pc_k9_series.html

For £150 you could get a Silverstone Raven - Worth looking at?

kd

That is nice! But why is it 'grey' inside!

trickycurve · 6 Sep 2011 at 00:38

.Max. said:
That is nice! But why is it 'grey' inside!

There are three versions: grey interior (cheapest), black interior without side window, and black interior with side window. Obviously anyone with taste would go for one of the ones with a black interior.

.Max. · 6 Sep 2011 at 09:12

trickycurve said:
There are three versions: grey interior (cheapest), black interior without side window, and black interior with side window. Obviously anyone with taste would go for one of the ones with a black interior.

Oh there are? Sweet

and lmao.. Yeah definetley

pisto_grih · 8 Sep 2011 at 09:28

Well the 650D arrived at work yesterday but I'll have to wait for the weekend to take it home in the car as there is no way I'm carrying it across London on the tube.

I will put up a separate thread on the removal of guts from the elite 430 and sticking them into the new case, don't think it really deserves a project log, just a bit of cable tidying.