Cases around the £80 mark

Werewolf · 24 Oct 2012 at 00:40

I finally got round to moving my stuff over to the 280 this afternoon (whilst trying hard not to sneeze/drip snot onto the parts

), and I'm really impressed by it.

The fans it comes with are pretty close to silent, and even though i'm using a stock Q6600 cooler it's barely audable.
CPU temps are (slightly) better than the Sonata despite me not adding the front fans, HDD's are running at a reasonable enough temp (about 28-33c, roughly the same as the sonata with it's front fans), and the amount of space in there is lovely

I've managed to get most of the cables away tidily, including the main motherboard one, but at the moment I'm having to pull the ATX 8 pin motherboard connector fairly tightly over the video card as that's too short to reach otherwise (Antec Neopower 550 PSU), but I've ordered an extension for that.

One nice surprise was how much room you have behind the HDD's for their cables, no bother at all with them scrunching up or anything

olivier renault · 24 Oct 2012 at 20:53

Yeah, it's a XL-atx case (?), so reaching that 8 pin CPU power is gonna be tricky for me too. Considering an extension, or more careful routing. Maybe through the front behind the graphics card along the side of the case. We'll see!

BTW, not sure if my fan controller (ZM-MFC1+) will fit behind the door, the knobs are protruding, which was fine with my PCA71-B, but this one seems to have less space behind the door. May need to recess the fan controller if possible

Idleman · 31 Oct 2012 at 10:05

Can`t believe it, the P280 has gone up £20, glad I got mine when I did.

IC3 · 31 Oct 2012 at 10:13

I got mine for 65 pounds, working with this case is awesome! P280 OFC

I was thiniking of R3 but than had a rethink and bought p280 since its larger.

Idleman · 13 Nov 2012 at 12:10

Well, actually got round to swapping all my gear into the P280, the other week. Very impressed with the temps all round, although I replaced the rear fan with a NB Black Silent Pro 1400rpm and connected it to the mobo. Now I need an extension cable so I can install the Antec fan in the front. The only fault I can find is with the fan controller, unless you have long finger nails, it is a nightmare trying to slide the switch from side to side as they don`t protrude out of the case. Might actually look at getting a proper fan controller, I am getting fed up having to get on my knees under the desk, every time I need to change the fan speed.