Building a new system - need advice picking a case

spiki · 24 Aug 2008 at 17:39

I am building my first system in many years around a Q9550, P5Q-E and HD4870. I had thought of the Antec 1200, although not a looker, for its air cooling. I have a budget of around 100-110 quid (sorry pound sign is knackered!) and will not be doing any water cooling. Not immediately interested in crossfire or sli. From the budget end I was thinking of the Coolermaster CM690 but not sure how quiet or cool it is.

Not sure what exactly to buy but want to make the right choice as this has to do me for next couple of years. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Tetsu · 24 Aug 2008 at 18:19

Well for that budget a 1200/mirage/eclipse would be perfect. I favor the latter as I'm not in to the looks of the 1200.

Tetras · 24 Aug 2008 at 18:48

Coolermaster CM690 but not sure how quiet or cool it is.

Which one of the two is most important? If you really want silence the P182 is good but with the Mirage/Eclipse I'd suggest you work some way of silencing the hard drives (whether with bungee, CD/DVD bay silencers or whatever).

beefybarn · 26 Aug 2008 at 07:47

Another option is the Nzxt tempest which cools great and loads of room but the look is not to everyones taste.

nft_99 · 26 Aug 2008 at 08:01

i have a cm690 and i had to replace the stock fans as i found them to noisy but easy to tidy the cables for good airflow and temps are good...

spiki · 26 Aug 2008 at 18:54

Thanks everyone. I am leaning towards the 1200 - its not as cool looking as other cases but I read an article recently on system building and the bit on cable management in a 1200 was particularly helpful as this is the thing which worries me most. I liked the Lian Li A17B but was concerned cooling would not be great and would limit me if I wanted to go crossfire in the future. The 690 is obviously towards the budget end and the cost of replacing fans suggests I should just fork out a bit more now.

nft_99 · 26 Aug 2008 at 20:49

Not that expensive to get four more fans for the cm690 and still leave you well under budget

heres pic of mine not as tidy as some people's but for me its very tidy inside !

spiki · 26 Aug 2008 at 23:29

Looks good and I would be very happy with that cabling. Do you find your 690 noisy idle and when gaming with your new fans? With my system (p4, 6800GT etc) it sounded like a jet engine sitting in the room so really trying to avoid that. BTW how are the fan speeds controlled on that case? Thanks

nft_99 · 27 Aug 2008 at 08:18

system noise is not to bad actually the nexus fans really made a difference from the stock. Actually its 4 x nexus and 1 x lianli fan all plugged into the board did plan to get a fan controller of some sort but not done yet. When gaming i tend to speed up the zalman 9700 i have the fanmate on the back of the case.

Kelt · 27 Aug 2008 at 08:50

spiki said:
I am building my first system in many years around a Q9550, P5Q-E and HD4870. I had thought of the Antec 1200, although not a looker, for its air cooling. I have a budget of around 100-110 quid (sorry pound sign is knackered!) and will not be doing any water cooling. Not immediately interested in crossfire or sli. From the budget end I was thinking of the Coolermaster CM690 but not sure how quiet or cool it is.

Not sure what exactly to buy but want to make the right choice as this has to do me for next couple of years. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Cooler Master HAF 932!

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Innovations like three 230mm fans as standard, and a design geared to high airflow, the HAF 932 is worthy of my recommendation and an Editor’s Choice award. The only negatives I can find are the lack of a motherboard tray that is removable and the small negative of an all steel construction due to the fact that I prefer aluminum in my cases construction. The case is very solidly built and will likely outlast most of the system components that are put in it. Cooler Master’s HAF 932 case has many features found on much pricier cases including the IO area having both four USB 2.0 and external SATA ports. Thrasher2 our resident system builder liked the case so much he took it home to use in a personal system of his, and this over other cases we have here in the lab."

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17901845