Gigabyte Aurora 3D case (oldie)

Scougar · 8 Sep 2011 at 16:36

Well.. a colleague had an Gigabyte Aurora 3D case in black that he was wanting to move, as it was taking up too much room, so it looks like I'll be getting that towards the end of the month :-)

Should be a nice little upgrade from my Jeantech phong case, which has served me really well.. and still does, accept the current motherboard places the CPU cooler about 1mm away from the PSU intake, and blocks half of it.. so the psu run's too loud.

I shouldn't need to remove the drive bay cage just yet as I only have a GTX 460 1GB which isn't that long, but I may tinker and see what I can do.

Are there any airflow mod's that can be done to this case? Especially the front vent intake?

Scougar · 9 Sep 2011 at 12:15

Looked into this, and it looks like the best mod is simply to modify or remove/move the hard drive cage at the bottom. Will help airflow from the front fan massively, and allow bigger cards to be fit :-)

REALLY looking forward to this case now. The only thing that is an issue, is that when I get the case, my P35 board will feel really inadequate inside it lol. I am pretty sure I will get the upgradeitis bug.

wonderlust · 9 Sep 2011 at 14:08

Is it the 570 version or the earlier version?

The 570 will take longer cards a lot easier.

My Non 570 as it was:-

Not got an updated pic, but I now have my drives mounted in a Silverstone CFP51 in the 5.25" bays.

Another old pic when I had a P35 board and a GTX260, not much clearance!

Scougar · 9 Sep 2011 at 14:59

The 570 is the later version and is slightly bigger I believe. Seems crazy that they had a case that big and then didn't allow slightly more room, but anyway... I'm getting it for a reasonable price I believe, so will be more than happy.

Out of interest, have you now removed the drive cage? (By drilling it out or something?)

wonderlust · 9 Sep 2011 at 20:56

Not as yet, I am planning to exchange the board and add 4 more hard drives (making the total 7) and make this into a Server/Media centre as I currently am running 2 machines 24/7 so I could reduce that to one.

I am considering a few mods to the case to help when I do that.

I want to cut out the area behind the drive bays to run the Sata cables that way (similar to the CM690)

Also to cut out some cable holes to make the cable management a lot better.

I've been thinking about removing the grill that is behind the front fan too help with Air flow.

topgun06 · 10 Sep 2011 at 19:43

Just upgraded from this case the other week. My 260GTX JUST fitted in. Probably around 3mm clearance.

pieplough · 11 Sep 2011 at 00:35

Used to have this case also, got it 2nd hand from a friend. It's a solid good looking case, the only problems I had was the complete lack of cable management options and it didn't like longer cards. As long as you have a modular PSU you should be able to keep it tidy inside

Scougar · 11 Sep 2011 at 00:46

topgun06 said:
Just upgraded from this case the other week. My 260GTX JUST fitted in. Probably around 3mm clearance.

Strange isn't it, my phong case easily takes twin 260's, and can handle 4870x2/5850 without issue, but this 'bigger' case can't. It's just the drive bay getting in the way. I will see if I can either move the cage too the right slightly and re-attach, or move it to another location entirely (up by the PSU perhaps).

pieplough said:
Used to have this case also, got it 2nd hand from a friend. It's a solid good looking case, the only problems I had was the complete lack of cable management options and it didn't like longer cards. As long as you have a modular PSU you should be able to keep it tidy inside

Looks like there is more than enough room for cable management? (or do you mean it lacks places to hide/route cables behind the board etc?). I don't have a modular PSU. I sold my modular psu, got another modular one, and that blew up, so had to quickly buy a non-modular one :-(

I'm thinking that with the drive bay removed, it will be a significantly cooler case than my present one. I will probably also put in my Kama-bay 120mm grill to help out with an extra 120 fan in the front :-)

I also know the case will be much quieter than my present one :-)

pieplough · 11 Sep 2011 at 00:51

Yeah, there are no cutouts on the tray nor any space to hide cables behind it.

Still, its a great case and if your getting it for a bargain price then all the better

Scougar · 11 Sep 2011 at 01:05

Well, whichever way I look at it, it's a massive upgrade, and one I badly need given how noisy my PSU fan is being at the moment (thanks to the heat from the HSF block the intake).

pieplough · 11 Sep 2011 at 11:36

After a quick Google for "Jeantech Phong" I can only agree, will be a good upgrade.

What I loved about my Aurora was gow little dust it let in, the mesh on the side panel kept it out well and kept my 4870 cool.

One mod I've seen is removing the grill from by the intake fan to increase airflow into the case + removing the HDD rack.

Anyways enjoy the new case

Scougar · 12 Sep 2011 at 12:57

What is odd is that as the GTX 260 fits, just about every other card should do as well (max of 10.5" long). Only problem I see is possibly the cards with pci-connectors on the ends rather than on top, that would make the total length of the card too much to fit in.

Anyway.. just confirmed it's still 'on' for the case, and I'm still very excited as I haven't had a new case in about 7 years! (Yes.. the Phong lasted that long!).

I will definately be trying to make the airflow better from the front fan by removing it's cowling, and then see what happens with the drive cage.

Scougar · 29 Sep 2011 at 10:35

Well... wish luck I should be picking the case up today, along with another akasa apache fan :-)

I'm just waiting for the H20 Extreme (H80 basically) to turn up and then I can do a trial installation on my P35 board before the Foxconn Blackops X48 arrives (Trying to resist Sandybridge until Bulldozer comes out lol).

EDIT: H20 Extreme literally just turned up.. might have to try it in my old case lol.

Scougar · 29 Sep 2011 at 22:54

I have transferred the p35 board into the new case even though it went wrong earlier today just to see if I could squeeze the h20 extreme in. Thankfully, after removing the plastic handle from the addin card holder, the rad and two fans just fit. i have to remove the rad to open it and change cards, but i can live with that as long as the cooling is good. I have used Akasa Apaches btw.

Case feels cramped with the drive bay in the way, and the non-modular cables are making things difficult.

A little off-topic but I think the board is working again as i got all green lights on the leds....unfortunately I took the monitor to my new place so cant tell if its working lol.

Getting the SB board in there will help the layout I imagine as the power sockets on this p35 board are in odd places.