Budget Case

[Burty88]

@ £5 more than the Antec you have the Xigmatek Midgard, which has much better cooling potential and much better cable management.

- Cooling: Front Fan 120mm white LED with orange blades x 1, Rear Fan: 120mm white LED with orange blades x 1 (Preinstalled), Side Fan: 80/90/120/140mm fan x 1 (optional) 120/140mm fan x 1 (optional), Bottom Fan: 120/140mm fan x 1 (optional), Top Fan: 120/140mm fan x 2(optional),

- Cable managment

 

[Big.Wayne]

will there be any difference/disadvantage of using non-tri-cool fans

The Tri-Cools allow you to choose different speeds, not many fans can do that . . . it's not a huge point but a nice touch none the less . . .

what the difference between the 3pin and 4pin connectors

3-pin attach and draw their power directly from the mobo, 4-pin(molex) attach direct to the PSU or fan-controller . . . there is also a new style fan known as 4-pin PWM which is similar to the 3-pin but allow slightly more precise control of fan rpms . . .

can i only fit 120mm fans at the front or side?

two 120mm at the front (filtered, this is a huge plus) and a single 120mm fan on the side panel . . .

 

[bifday2k]

The tri cool fans are nothing special, just they have 3 settings, and a little switch for each fan, allowing u to run them at different speeds.

When i had my antec 300, i personally replaced all the tri cools with the same fans all round, all cheap yate loons, and ran them all off a fan controller. But the stock tri cools are good, just i preferred to have all the same fans, that was just personal choice.

Out of the box, without adding anything to both the antec or the zalman, the zalman wins, as it comes with 3 fans, over the antecs 2. But then thats it for cooling for the zalman, no upgrade space for fans.

Where as u get upgradeable cooling with the antec.

Don't forget to check your trust e-mail, for that link i sent u, u can get the Antec delivered for less then the zalman from here hehe.

Yup u can only fit 120 fans all around, expect the top which can have 120/140.

 

[Big.Wayne]

@ £5 more than the Antec you have the Xigmatek Midgard, which has much better cooling potential and much better cable management

That looks ok!

Sadly just a single front 120mm intake? and no fan filtering?

• Front Fan 120mm white LED with orange blades x 1
• Rear Fan: 120mm white LED with orange blades x 1 (Preinstalled)
• Side Fan: 80/90/120/140mm fan x 1 (optional) 120/140mm fan x 1 (optional)
• Bottom Fan: 120/140mm fan x 1 (optional)
• Top Fan: 120/140mm fan x 2(optional)

Where does the second side panel fan fit Burty88? . . . also I'm not sure if a floor fan is a good idea? . . .does it not surn your PC into a "Hoover"

 

[Big.Wayne]

Out of the box, without adding anything to both the antec or the zalman, the zalman wins, as it comes with 3 fans, over the antecs 2

Really, even with both the Tri-Cools (120mm/140mm)in "HoverCraft" mode!

Where as u get upgradeable cooling with the antec

Well that was my original arguement when someone else stated the Zalman had "better" cooling than the Antec 300 . . . better cooling "out-The-Box" would have been a better statement . . oh well!

 

[bifday2k]

Really, even with both the Tri-Cools (120mm/140mm)in "HoverCraft" mode!

Ok maybe not then, but by god i remember them on that setting, man are they loud, before i replaced mine, think highest i set them to was mid, generally on silent lol. Even then that was more then enough to keep it all cool.

 

[Burty88]

That looks ok!

Sadly just a single front 120mm intake? and no fan filtering?

Where does the second side panel fan fit Burty88? . . . also I'm not sure if a floor fan is a good idea? . . .does it not surn your PC into a "Hoover"

There's two fan mounts on the one side panel, one over the CPU the other over the GPU. And providing an adequate dust filter is used and there is adequate clearance provided by the case stands I think a floor intake fan would be very useful.

Although I'm sure you could "mod" it and replace the stands with casters if you wanted a Xigmatek Henry.

 

[bifday2k]

Problem is, he dos'nt get free shipping here, so the xigmatek comes to £63.86 delivered.

Iv spotted and e-mailed him a link where he can get the antec 300 for £48 delivered. IF he could get the xigmatek for closer to that, then id say get that, as it does have far better cable management, not saying its impossible in the antec, but is abit harder, just takes abit more time really.

 

[Jony27]

@bifday
no worries,i can get it somewhere for £46 free delivery when bought with another item.(antec)

@burty
thanks for the suggestion but i think these two got me hooked up to the antec

ahhh!!i still have so many questions..
how can you change/control the tri-cool without a fan controller because i read on another thread that the tricools wont change speed automatically

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=17220236

would it matter much if i was to use a modular psu on the antec?

 

[Big.Wayne]

There's two fan mounts on the one side panel, one over the CPU the other over the GPU

Duh sorry!

I was rubbing the tears out my eyes still after an "amusing" conversation with stulid!

That Xigmatek Midgard is not too bad actually, could be priced a little more keenly and it doesn't appear to offer as good [front] intake potential as the Antec 300, seems the Xigmatek's single 120mm [front] intake "may" lose a lot of its pulling power due to the hard-disks obstructing airflow, on the Antec 300 the same would happen if you installed six HDD's but with only two or three HDD's installed you literally get the top [front] 120mm pulling air directly into the nortbridge/CPu area . . .

a Xigmatek Henry.

Heh, gut feeling is that could ber true although I guess I would have to try one . . . not sure if the airflow would lose its power having to travel all the way from the floor to where it was needed half-way up the case? . . . could be handy if you have a hot running graphics card maybe?

 

[stulid]

you still trying to have sligh little comments I see.

 

[Big.Wayne]

how can you change/control the tri-cool without a fan controller because i read on another thread that the tricools wont change speed automatically

They are manualy mate, you set the speed you want, close the PC and get on with it!

would it matter much if i was to use a modular psu on the antec?

Yeah it would mean less cables to wodge in the cable chamber, not a biggy really, I've used both spaghetti PSU's and modular PSU's with the Antec 300 . . . I can't think of any good reason to buy a non modular PSU these days, they seem to be priced so similarly!

 

[setter]

That Xigmatek Midgard is not too bad actually, could be priced a little more keenly and it doesn't appear to offer as good [front] intake potential as the Antec 300, seems the Xigmatek's single 120mm [front] intake "may" lose a lot of its pulling power due to the hard-disks obstructing airflow, on the Antec 300 the same would happen if you installed six HDD's but with only two or three HDD's installed you literally get the top [front] 120mm pulling air directly into the nortbridge/CPu area . . .

This is a problem i encountered on my old akasa eclipse 62's, once more than two hdd's were installed the front intake fan was severey blocked, had to install a kama bay in one of them to provide an additional fan mounting position.

 

[stulid]

so the only reason you were trying to defend that case is because you own one.

and you said you were here too learn.

sounds like purchase justification complex to me.

 

[Burty88]

Well there is a certain competitor that will do it [Midgard] at £56 w/free delivery - probably one of the only main competitors that does free delivery.

I personally didn't like the (complete lack of) cable managment on the Antec 300, hence I plumped for the Asgard because I prefered the £20 in my back pocket. It really doesn't do too badly, despite some early fan noise issues, which were resolved by bodging the cable to supply less volts.

From the 300s I've seen in various case threads over in the case forum, I'd say I picked right; the out of the box cable management is far better, having a PSU at the bottom of the case is only really significantly beneficial if it's split into a seperate thermal chamber or you're running a million watt PSU which pumps out lava.

I'm upgrading the case soon, but that's only because I'm a shallow ******* and the Corsair 600t looks the dog's.

ETA: Well it loks like you're pretty much decided on the 300. Good luck with it, pretty sure they must be at least half-decent cases seeing as OCUK puts a lot of their builds in them. You never did actually mention the spec that would be residing in the chosen case... hopefuly it's nothing as full on as this!

 

[PermaBanned]

xClio Propeller!

No black interior but you're not going to be putting a window on the side of that

I never was a huge fan of the Antec 300 but it's all personal preference, once you've narrowed it down to a list of well made, decent cases then i think the best thing you can do is pick the one you think looks the best. After all, if it's something that's going to be on your desk for however many years that has to be an important factor.

Depending on your components...

Coolermaster Elite 330/335
NZXT Beta/Gamma
Antec NSK 4000II/300

Up your budget by £10 or so and...

Xigmatek Midguard
Coolermaster Gladiator/Dominator
NZXT M59/Lexa S/Hades

etc. etc.

 

[Jony27]

@burty
yeah i think were talking about the same competitor
so

antec 300 with 2x120mm = antec 300 with 4x120mm tri cool fans with no cable management = £58
vs
midgard = 2x120mm fans with cable management = £56

 

[Big.Wayne]

Old-hat chassis that mount the PSU's at the top of the chassis are not really what we should be recommending anymore now in 2010 . . .

• Having the PSU mounted at the lower/cooler portion of the chassis is a great thing
• Having two big Mama fans surrounding the CPU area is a great thing

Please, save me some undeed posts and lets avoid recommending anymore old-hat chassis for someone building an "enthusiast" style overclocked system!

unless the budget simply doesn't allow or is a simple basic computer . . .

 

[Burty88]

sauce?

 

[beefybarn]

Well i build pc's for a living and use to use the 300 all the time as a budget case, but now the price has gone up and newer cases with better cable management have come out i use them as it saves me time on my builds, and time equals money .