Has anyone got a monolith case? (looking for a large, well ventilated, quiet case)

[Werewolf]

Hi I'm looking at a new build in the near future, and one of the case options I'm looking at is the OCUK Monolith, but I don't know how it stands up to the likes of the Antec P280, and CM 690 II.

I've been a great fan of the Antec cases for the past 6-8 years (I've built a number of machines in Sonata's of various types), but the Sonata's are really too small for my main machines, especially with modern video card lengths.

So I'm looking for a case that would be
Large enough to take plenty of drives, and be nice to work in (cable tidying is nice*, and at least 4+ HDD bays).
Quiet - already partially soundproofed/dampened like the Sonata's (the composite side panels seem to make a big difference).
Able to take large fans - both for noise reduction, and airflow.
Good quality construction.

And I like the the idea of the external drive slot on the 'Lith, and the 690, as it would save me mucking around with an external SATA adaptor when trying to sort out friends machines, and make backups to one of my spare drives easier.

I've played around with a couple of 690's, and I like the amount of room they have, but I'm not sure on the noise levels as I tend to have the PC in my on all the time.



*By the time I upgrade my machines the insides look like someone has let some snakes nest in there.

 

[Werewolf]

I like the idea of the 690 with the foam, but I'm not 100% on it, especially as I don't know how the foam compares to the natural deadening in the Antec's (and I can add foam to them to enhance that).

The slightly limited airflow in the 280 doesn't really bother me that much, as I tend not to have massively high performance videocards (and only ever the one), but I do want/need better airflow than the Sonata has (I've ended up using at least 3 variants of the Sonata in different builds - I've got the original one as a media PC, and the 550 for my current machine).

I guess I'm both a little spoiled for choice for large cases now, but also very wary of getting one I don't get on with.

 

[Werewolf]

I don't even get a deal on it