ATCS cases - rose tinted glasses?

[Hades]

Rather than take the "door / no door" thread off topic I thought I'd start a new one about the old skool ACTS cases. There seems to be quite a following for these amongst some of the members here. I include myself in that and love my 111 to bits.

But are we looking at them through rose tinted glasses? What I mean by this is that the cooling on them, while sufficient, is not up to the standards of modern top-end cases by Lian Li and Silverstone (in some models). Some of these top end modern cases have several 120mm fans and compartments to contain airflow for specific components (e.g. V series).

While the ATCS's are lovely cases and the quality is hard to rival except with a few cases now, it would be hard to get good cooling and quiet cooling, although not impossible. In the "door / no door" thread Harib0 mentioned that even 110's are now falling in price. Is this because of this very reason? Are they becoming like a very old Rolls Royce - lovely to look at, built well, full of nostalgia, but harder to live with day to day?

 

[Yewen]

You hit it on its head, things with second hand pricing move one stage slower than hardware usually.

The prices will go back up, once it is established that the heat requirements are going down on graphics cards aswell as processors.

Also the fact is, everyone who wants them just about has one now!

Cracking cases, the best in my opinion but yes they have suffered from old age a bit recently but they are as good as the day they were made.

I would take a new ATCs 110 over a v1000+ anyday, not for anything more than my love of the case, its just 'right'.

Plenty of option, what I would love to think of is what ATCs would make in this case generation, with the total disregard for financial stability due to making £200+ cases, where £200 was their entry level model.

Just imagine a 120mm 201 style design, the Eclipse would be troubled by that!

 

[lozza]

But are we looking at them through rose tinted glasses? What I mean by this is that the cooling on them, while sufficient, is not up to the standards of modern top-end cases by Lian Li and Silverstone (in some models). Some of these top end modern cases have several 120mm fans and compartments to contain airflow for specific components (e.g. V series).

Personally i'm not looking through rose tinted glasses, i only descovered the ATCS range of cases 12-18 months ago, already old cases by then (i know i'm behind the times).

I don't overclock and i don't have high performance components so i'm not worried by the 80mm fan senario. It's all about how the case looks for me, and in my opinion the ATCS range are the best (100/200/201/111/110)

 

[shadowscotland]

Just got my 620c and really like it - sits with my hifi separates perfectly.
It's cooling does need some attention (thanks for the heads up yewen) as 1x60mm fan is not enough for my OCed 805 - Now just need a conroe conpatable mATX mobo so that I can use it

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n167/shadowscotland/atcs.jpg

 

[lozza]

Jhttp://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n167/shadowscotland/atcs.jpg

Why do you need so many DAB tuners?

Quick Edit: not all DAB Tuners - just all look the same on a quick glance!

 

[Yewen]

Like your choice in case but not in HiFi seps.

Shadowscottland if you could add me to msn to discuss the cooling of your case it would be beneficial to both of us I think.

 

[shadowscotland]

OT/

Like your choice in case but not in HiFi seps

This is my second setup Best bang for buck stuff - but acutally quite reasonable considering - beats most 'hifi systems' upto twice the price hands down /OT

if you could add me to msn

Don't use msm - got enought distractions as it is (that and only a dial up at present) but happy to start a thread on the 620c and what I'm planning on doing to it/with it

edit: sorry for the delay uploading some WU for Folding@Home and 4mb over a this connection is slow

 

[squiffy]

Like your choice in case but not in HiFi seps.

Dads just picked up those Acoustic Solutions stuff, seems alright build for £40. Going to see how it fares against Audiolab/Tag/Ruark setup.

 

[koolpcs]

I disagree with the thread starter. The Old Coolermaster ATC cases are the best ever made. I have a 201 and it is awesome at keeping everything cool. Thing is, i don't have any case fans in it either! Just the PSU, CPU fan and VGA fan. I do overclock too and my temps are always low.

It is all about how hot your PC room is too. Also, good cable management is important aswell. My PC is very very quiet and has superbly low temps. I don't see the point in people saying you need a case that can house 120mm case fans to have good temps, that is rubbish. Also, when someone has loads of case fans running to get the temps down then that is all down to probably bad cable management, ambient room temps and poor design of case.

As far as i am concerned, the old ATC Coolermaster cases are the best and have been superb in helping to keep my system cool and stable and good at overclocking.

 

[Dr House]

I love my cooler master 101 to bits, I think I paid something ridiculous amount of money for it back in the day but would not trade it for anything. They just don’t make them like that anymore.

 

[Arc]

it would be hard to get good cooling and quiet cooling, although not impossible.

Its actually pretty easy .

My CM200 is running with only two case fans, stock A64 cooler and a passive X800XL, its rather silent. With the 200 and 201 series you have twin 80mm intakes that are stacked on top of each other, perfect for directing airflow over the HD/graphics card area. The 80mm exhaust just above the CPU area is again perfect to reduce the temps around the CPU area.

120mm fans are good but dont get sucked into thinking they will solve all your cooling and noise problems. With newer CPU's, e.g. energy efficient A64's and Conroes, we dont really need a lot of airflow inside a case, things are almost regressing .

 

[Yewen]

I disagree with the thread starter. The Old Coolermaster ATC cases are the best ever made. I have a 201 and it is awesome at keeping everything cool. Thing is, i don't have any case fans in it either! Just the PSU, CPU fan and VGA fan. I do overclock too and my temps are always low.

It is all about how hot your PC room is too. Also, good cable management is important aswell. My PC is very very quiet and has superbly low temps. I don't see the point in people saying you need a case that can house 120mm case fans to have good temps, that is rubbish. Also, when someone has loads of case fans running to get the temps down then that is all down to probably bad cable management, ambient room temps and poor design of case.

As far as i am concerned, the old ATC Coolermaster cases are the best and have been superb in helping to keep my system cool and stable and good at overclocking.

Agree completely with what you are saying, but your after a silent PC, to get silence and very good performance you can only use 120mm, 80mm just do not cut it.

Have you tried a bungee mod if your going for low noise?

 

[Alu_ATC]

I think in a way we all look through rose tinted spec's when it comes to anything we like, especially anything very aesthetic. But I've found that now I own one, I'm content with it, but also realise that it is just an aluminium case. Wonderful design, great built quality and imo a very important part of the computer, but I could live with other cases. Things just change and I enjoy owning the older cases, but also experiencing the newer cases too.

 

[Hades]

Agree completely with what you are saying, but your after a silent PC, to get silence and very good performance you can only use 120mm, 80mm just do not cut it.

Have you tried a bungee mod if your going for low noise?

Another thing to try is to remove the screws holding the fans in and use silicone sealant instead (it takes a few hours to dry to you have to leave the case upside down, etc). I tried this on an old Globalwin 802 case years ago by accident. I'd lost the screws and thought I'd try it as a stop-gap until I found them. I found it so good I left it like that.

Once dry it's quite strong stuff but can also be removed easily with a bit of pulling. But what it does is prevent any contact between the fan and the case, which cuts down vibration and resonance. I may try it on my 111 next time I strip it down.

 

[koolpcs]

Agree completely with what you are saying, but your after a silent PC, to get silence and very good performance you can only use 120mm, 80mm just do not cut it.

Have you tried a bungee mod if your going for low noise?

Disagree totally mate. I have near silence and superb performance! And all with no case fans! I do have a 120mm fan in the case but that is on my SI-120 Heatsink.

I overclock and have always got great results. I can hardly hear my PC. It is almost silent.

Sorry mate but load of rubbish to say you have to have 120mm fans to get silence / performance when i don't use any case fans at all and i get awesome performance. As i said before, room temp, cable management and a well designed case all go to how things work out in a PC. The old Coolermaster cases were well designed, great at keeping things cool with good airflow. Some of the newer cases are rubbish at keeping a system cool, i know as i have built quite a few.

 

[Arc]

Agree completely with what you are saying, but your after a silent PC, to get silence and very good performance you can only use 120mm, 80mm just do not cut it.

Like the poster above I disagree. I've built and also heard plenty of machines using only 80mm fans that run quiet yet have high performance.

Tbh though its a bit of a non argument with respect to case fans, you just use whatever your case can accomodate.

Another thing to try is to remove the screws holding the fans in and use silicone sealant instead.

You can get some silicon fan mounts, they look a bit like an ear plug, that do the same thing. Must admit that decoupling the fans from the case using them is by far one of the best things that I did on my CM200.

 

[james.miller]

if you need airflow and you want quiet, its 120mm simple as. Yeah we've all run high spec systesm on no case fans - i had my opteron 148 churning away @ 2.7ghz in a silverston ssc lc-03 with no case fans. it also ran at 68c load with my north bridge sitting in the low 60's. with an x800gto2 in there also, things just got too hot. sawp to a thermaltake suprano with 120mm fans front and back and im running ~50c full tilt @ 3ghz with system temps of ~36c. and its just as quiet.

 

[Yewen]

What are you going on about?

I have silent rigs with 60mm and 40mm fans yet alone 80mm, of course you can get a silent 80mm rig, just it wont cool anywhere near what a 120mm rig would, please read what I post before commenting.

120mm is the only size you can get that offers good airflow with inaudable noise output, period basically.

You both missed out me saying; silence and very good performance you can only use 120mm.

I run passive computers, all my computers are silent most of the time; and I have used around 50 201 rigs so I know what they are capeable of, but passive it will never compete with a case with airflow, it just can not.

Cable tidying can reduce temperatures by what, 2deg tops. having no airflow at all means no need for cables out of the way of the airflow either.

But I never said you could not get silent on 80mm, never said it at all.

 

[james.miller]

thats what i said

 

[Yewen]

thats what i said

Two posters above you sorry.