budget case = tight squeeze?

[zytok]

was thinking about buying either an Akasa Zen or Coolermaster 335 to replace my Antec Sonata as I've had to remove the front 12cm fan to squeeze in my new 4870.
a) which is the better case?
b) would either of them be too small to fit the 4870 (+3 HDD's)
c) any better alternatives?
The Antec 300 seems well reviewed but I was trying to stick to £30-40.

 

[zytok]

would be great if you could check if the 4870 fits ok. Presumably I'm gonna need to be picky about which HDD bays to use?

ps. what the hell happened to the pricing of the 300? Reviews on OcUK are stating around £35!!!

 

[zytok]

The exhange rate happened. Credits have been crunched!

doesn't help to rebuild the economy though when stuff costs 50% more than it did a month or two ago......

 

[zytok]

I had the akasa Zen for my first, to be honest i wasnt impressed, front panel was damaged inside but managed to make it fit, had to have been factory damaged as still had original seals.

Dvd drive at top is great how its hidden untill you want to reinsert the disk tray and the button is hidden, im not a fan of pushing the tray.

the side mounts for holding drives wasnt great either i ended up taking them of and screwing the drives in

Plus the fans are loud

Don't mind pushing the tray, I do that now tbh.
Also the 12cm fans will be replaced by Noctua's regardless of which case I go for.

 

[zytok]

Decided to push the boat out a bit and go with the 300..
Sounds like I'm likely to get a much tidier build which is very important to me. Can't stand cables.

 

[zytok]

well bought the 300 and have to say I'm slightly disappointed with the results. The case looks ok but is pretty flimsy and the internal layout makes it pretty much impossible to get a tidy build.

1) The cables from the front USB and audio connectors are a little too short which means they cannot be hidden from view.

2) The "cable-management" compartment is just a gap behind the hard drives. OK there's a couple of cable ties bolted to it. Was expecting something a little more sophisticated.

3) The hard disk mountings are lengthwise so all the SATA and power cables end up sticking out the back. I know this appears to be the norm but the Sonata fitted them widthwise with the cables towards the rear of the case so you just slid them in and out on the supplied fittings. If I want to remove an HDD in this, I have to unscrew the fan cage first.

4) Whilst I appreciate the idea of the PSU being at the bottom, a lot of the motherboard connectors are toward the top of the board (particularly the 12V ATX connector) which has meant me having to stretch the cable over the side of the graphics card rather than route it round the case. Presumably this (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-022-AK&groupid=701&catid=48&subcat=153) would help?

5) The paint finish is a little odd. Can anyone else with a 300 confirm that the paint is kind of a mottled effect (like there's tiny air bubbles in it) rather than smooth?

The plus points are that the air flow is phenominal (2xPF12's gulping air in at the front. Haven't even bothered fitting the CPU fan, just left it on the heatsink and it's around 5 degrees cooler than before. The mobo is around 7-8 degrees cooler with all that cool air blowing straight at the northbridge.

Overall though, kinda wishing that I could somehow get the front intake fan to fit on my old Sonata as it's overall a much better case imo. Weird thing is, it used to fit on my old 4850 and the 4870 doesn't appear to be any longer

 

[zytok]

I was pushing the boat out with the 300 price-wise as it was a birthday present. Think the 300 will be fine, I've purchased an Akasa 30cm meshed extension lead for the 12V mobo connector which was my main concern as currently it's stretched across the board, the position of the connector and the length of the cables on the Hyper modular psu are as much at fault tbh.
Also purchased some 15cm orange SATA cables with clips which should help to avoid the current SATA spaghetti situation.

Need to volt-mod the front 12cm Noctua's as they are currently plugged into molex connectors and hence are at full whack and surprisingly noisy though I have no idea what kind of revs they are doing. Will connect them to the mobo I think. Could someone tell me what the different colour volt mod leads do on the Noctua PF12's?

 

[zytok]

bit of a thread revival to update my progress.

After a lot of fiddling and substantial loss of blood, I have got my case looking a lot more how I expected it. Bought the extension lead for the 4/8pin mobo lead so it can be run around the edge of the board rather than over the top

Reconnected the SB X-Fi which has the front panel connector nearer the front of the case so the cable doesn't have to stretch so far.

Have replaced the rear 12cm fan with a Noctua to keep the noise down a bit and benefit from the nice meshed lead connecting it to the mobo connector nearby rather than the ugly red and black 3ft thing that comes with the original. The lead to the top 14cm fan has been tucked away out of sight.

Have moved the DVD drive down a bay to allow me to use the top bay for cable management. Have bent back a drive mounting to give me a hole big enough to get the cables through and down the side into the cable management area rather than by the side of the mobo. (cue blood-loss).

Have tucked the 24 pin mobo connector around the back of the mobo and under the notch in the sound and graphics cards. It is a tight squeeze and I hope won't cause any problems but the connector is in an unusual place on the Asus.

Main thing though is that I've turned the hard drives through 180 degrees so that the cables are pointing out of the front of the bottom fan area rather than out the back near the psu. A bit of cable tidying allows the cables to go through one of the holes at the side of the fan area and then back into the cable managament area. This cuts down the amount of cable on view significantly.

Have also replaced the Sapphire 4870 with a budget 260 which has a much neater enclosure as well as being a tad faster in a few games.

If anyone's bothered I can post pics. Quite tempted now to spray the interior black to match the board and other components. The gold coloured heatsinks on the p5q would stand out quite nicely I reckon (sad I know). Might even spray paint the thumbscrews gold to match

Have to say that the 300 is actually growing on me though it's not the easiest case to work with.

 

[zytok]

 

[zytok]

Finally took the plunge and sprayed the interior matt-black yesterday and I must say it looks awesome. Used a can of straight to metal from Wickes (cost about £8) which seemed to do the trick. Only thing is that the paint does scratch off very easily. Don't know if a primer or some kind of sealer would prevent this.
All in all though, I'm very happy with the results and can put some piccies up later if anyone's bothered.
Considering some Xigmatek case fans to replace the Antec/Noctuas to maintain the black and orange theme. They do apparently do a 14cm version. come on OcUK, get em in stock!!!!
Also thinking about spraying the thumb screws gold. Would this look good or a bit tacky?