Advise me on the hunt for a case.

Auraomega

Auraomega

Auraomega

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I'm after a new case and I'm awkward... you have been warned!

I'm done with the whole flashy thing and now I'm looking for something a bit smarter and less in your face and while there are a few very nice cases around I'm also looking for some rather illusive features that I'm hoping someone here might know about.

First (and most important) is ease of drive installation; I'm thinking there might be some form of hub that allows me to just slide my drives in on rails and slot straight into the power and data sockets, no messing with cables. Does such a thing exist? I switch drives pretty regularly for data backup purposes and find having to mess with cables an annoyance.

Second, it has to be large enough to water cool a CPU and a relatively powerful graphics card, possibly a second if I start gaming again. I don't want to be running tubes outside the case and I'd like to make sure there is enough airflow still.

Third (and probably the easiest) is a number of USB ports at the top as I regularly have to plug things in and out.

Forth, I hate seeing bare drives so either a door or something to hide those optical drives is a must.

Budget doesn't really exist as I'm aware I'm really fussy and figure I'll spend high to get what I want (spend cheap spend twice and all that), obviously cheaper the better but I'd rather get all the points covered than save some money.
 
That is a very nice case (and a lot cheaper than I was expecting to pay too), but falls short of the hard drive connector requirement... I'm hoping there is something I can add to that case to do what I'm after.
 
From the top of my head, I don't know of a case that has all (hot swap intenal bays) maybe I can think of a case that has one or two of them, but then hasnt got the door etc.
 
Hot swap bays, that's the term! 1 or 2 should be fine as I swap drives out for backup purposes, the one in the PC is the main, and I have 2 others which I rotate to keep an off site backup at all times.

The Antec case is very nice though and pretty much what I had in mind aesthetically.
 

2 front hot swap bays.

As you can obviously see, you lose the door and the sleeker design of the P280.

I don't think you are going to have your cake and eat it, something will have to give, unless someone knows of something that is suitable.
 
Corsair Obsidian 800D (Corsair Obsidian 800D SATA 3 & USB 3 Upgrade Kits can be had too) or just pick the case you want and use third party hot swap bays they even make individual hdd hot swap bays that fit in to 525 bay slots, one of the best value cases for water cooling seems like the nzxt switch 810 at the moment but you'd have to source your hot swap bay solution it comes with 1x 525 bay slot hot swap shame nzxt don't seem to sell more of them you could always just buy something like the silverstone 525 hotswap caddie or lian li
 
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OCUK sell a number of Lian Li hot swap bays that replace 2 or 3 5.25" bays in their cases all finished in shiny AL. Perhaps you could combine a standard Lian Case with one of these units. Some are hot swap, some are not.

Afraid I haven't had the chance to check which unit fits with which case though.
 
Sorry, also I think Thermaltake did a case with a hot-swap bay in the side of the case, but as with other brands I think it was only a single bay.

*edit* The Level 10 claims it has 6 swappable HDD/SDD trays, this wasn't the case i was thinking of though.
 
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Have you had a peek at the Coolermasster Silencio 650 it has a slide in HHD tray for 2 drives and a switch on top for switching between them

as for water cooling there is room in front for a 240 and room top and back for a 120
radiator

i have one for my office machine very quiet and solid case if you need a pic let me know
 
One of these:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-064-CS&groupid=2362&catid=1489&subcat=

And one of these (or similar):
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-055-XG&groupid=2362&catid=1770&subcat=

Might do the job, watercooling is supported but will probably need some modding to fit the multiple radiators you'd need to cool cpu & gpu. There's the Fractal XL and some Lian Li cases with doors and enough 5.25 bays for a hot swap enclosure but I think you would run into the modding issue with them as well. The NZXT Phantom 820 is probably the best around for out of the box watercooling support but might be a bit flash for you.
 
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