Help me deccide please.

kidloco

kidloco

kidloco

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help me decide please.


Right, im after a new case. my P160 is beginning to irritate me no end, the platic front is now begining to resemble something from buck rogers.

seen these cheap

Lian-Li PC-60 PLUS Silver Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (also in black)

or

Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case

now I know the antec has got excellent reviews and has shed loads of space but the flimsy looking door is puttting me off.

the Lian - Li has a really simplistic quality to it that just look sright i think but is it any good.


here is what im after, something that looks great, is pretty quiet and has room to fit in the following with out toasting the insides

room for 2 x 120mm fans

3 hard drives

1 dvd writer

6800GT with zalman cooler

artic freezer pro heat sink.



any ideas people




edit - just noticed the weird blower device on the Lian - li , this things looks huge and as though it will interfear with the artic freezer ! anyone run this combo ?
 
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kidloco said:
edit - just noticed the weird blower device on the Lian - li , this things looks huge and as though it will interfear with the artic freezer ! anyone run this combo ?
Click to expand...


It doesn;t come as standard.

If your not worried about a mobo tray then I'd go for the PC7+ with 2 x 120 fans for cooling and less noise.
 
was looking at the PC-7 its just that the PC-60 is available for £20 less.

am i right in thinking that that the PC-60 doesnt have the 120mm fan on the rear liek the PC -7 does ?
 
kidloco said:
was looking at the PC-7 its just that the PC-60 is available for £20 less.

am i right in thinking that that the PC-60 doesnt have the 120mm fan on the rear liek the PC -7 does ?
Click to expand...
You can get the PC-60 for £30 O.o
 
yeah, its on the b grade on OCUK, but seeign as it doesnt have the rear 120mm fan then its out of my list. thinking I may just plump for the PC-7 instead now.


simple classic design with good cooling. found it for £57 inc P&P
 
The PC7+ (or 007 as ocuk ship) is a GREAT case, built brilliantly, simple, will cool any rig and can be made silent.

If you do not mind its subtle looks (I love them) then there really is no better case for value for money. It offers £150 case quality, at 1/3 of the price.
 
was hoping you would pop up yewen as you seem to know your cases ;)

im getting a bit baffled by the sheer number of different models of the PC-7, as far as i can tell the 007 is the latest yes?

Can OCUK guarentee me a 007 if I order from them?
 
The cannot, BUT 99% of the cases they are selling with the PC7 (first edition branding) are the PC007.

The latest PC7's are the:

PC7+II (adda fans, 120mm/120mm with the new Lian Li badge)
PC007 (Blue LED fans, 120mm/120mm with the new Lian Li badge)

They are the current models that Lian Li are shipping out, but the older badged models with 120mm/120mm are still about.

If your really unlucky there still may be a 120mm front and 80mm rear PC7+, but I have not heard of one since about this time last year so you should be safe.
 
right , thats sealed it i think. 1 final question.

I know the V1000 comes with a free CD bezel, dont suppose the PC - 7 does ? just that I want to keep the simple look.


oops make that 2 questions

the included fans, are they quiet or are replacements needed. I have a 120mm vantec stealth I can take out of my p160 ( the other 120mm that came with it is a right nosey bugger that need a fan controller to calm it down)
 
They are ok but you might want to swap them, try it.

And no, unfortunately on a £55 case you do not get a £10 bezel, you have to buy it seperately, OcUK have it in the lian li accessories as the C-01
 
oh well its ordered :)

as per normal me trawaling for a bargain ( a £30 bargain of a case ) has ended up with me spending £76.20 :rolleyes:

Mint Antec p160 with additional windowed panel will be on MM very soon for anyone intereested :cool:
 
well the case arrived yesterday. took it home last night and begain work on it.

1st impressions wernt that good to be honest. 1st of all it seems its the older version without the neon fan, i know its only a little thing but there you go.

Not totally sold on the looks, I personally dont think the carbon fibre piece on the top looks right, and the position of the front USB headers is a bit poor.

Build quallity is pretty good, but once again I wasnt blown away, if anything slightly below the standard of my P160 it replaced. very good overall but little things like the hard drive tray let things down.

Sound wise I really hoping for great things here, as this was one of my main objectives. errr its louder then my p160 :( think ill have to play with the fans. I have vantec stealths in my old case. think I will swap them out.

I would also like to point out that internally this is a pretty small case. building was really a exorsise in planning and patiance. you really have to plan out the order at which your components go in or you are screwed and out they will have to come again as there is no room to get around them. airflow is also not as good, mainly because its so hard to get a tidy case with the thing being so cramped.

So overall am I happy ? well yes and no, it does look nice, especally with the extra CD bezel that really does look great. temps are also quite good but not as good as the bigger case. it really was a pain in the arse to build, although a lot of that is my fault not planning properly. the standard fans are not very quiet.

I know it sounds like im bashing this case, im not really.... honest. i do like the look of it. its just I think people bigged it up that much i was expecting a little more. and yes I know its cheaper then the p160 but people said it matched the quality of cases costing over £100.

pros -

looks really nice, clean lines
pretty good build quality
light as hell
good cooling

cons -

space inside is very limited ( hinders cooling )
standard fans are LOUD
hard drive bay is very cheap (no sign of rubber mounts or mounting brackets)





on a side note, i still have some tweaking to do, the cd bezel needs to be refitted, not happy with the contact its making on the drive, easy fix though. Also I cant get the hard drive LED to work. the pin adaptor on the case is 3 pins wide with the middle empty and the place where it shoul dgo on my mobo is only 2 pins wide. checked my old case and the hard drive LED case thing was only 2 pins wide. is this a common problem ? I have a asrock dual SATA by the way.
 
kidloco said:
Also I cant get the hard drive LED to work. the pin adaptor on the case is 3 pins wide with the middle empty and the place where it shoul dgo on my mobo is only 2 pins wide. checked my old case and the hard drive LED case thing was only 2 pins wide. is this a common problem ? I have a asrock dual SATA by the way.
Click to expand...

I've come across this problem, my solution look at your pins on your mobo, look at how the plug should fit then move the wires, usually on the mobo the led connector is at the end if you can't fit the 3pin, so the 3rd empty pin would just hang over the edge - did you understand that? :confused:
 
Harib0 said:
I've come across this problem, my solution look at your pins on your mobo, look at how the plug should fit then move the wires, usually on the mobo the led connector is at the end if you can't fit the 3pin, so the 3rd empty pin would just hang over the edge - did you understand that? :confused:
Click to expand...


i think i understand what you mean, at the moment the connectors middle pin is empty. you saying to pull out the end one and push it into the middle one ?

can you do that, no special tool needed ?
 
No tool needed, well maybe a pin would help on one side of the connector you will see the metal using a pin lift this up gently and pull on the wire. It may not be as simple as just moving one pin to the middle - iirc on my 201 case i had to take both wires out and swap them to get the possition of the empty hole in the right place, if you don't get it right first time the led wont work - this will not cause any damage at all it just means you have to swap the wires around.
 
thanks, ill give that a go tonight, going to have another go at making the case tidy. its just a struggle with limited space. and i dont have that much inside

1 x dvd writer
3 x hard drives ( 2 sata )
sound card
agp 6800gt
tv card
 
kidloco said:
well the case arrived yesterday. took it home last night and begain work on it.

1st impressions wernt that good to be honest. 1st of all it seems its the older version without the neon fan, i know its only a little thing but there you go.

Not totally sold on the looks, I personally dont think the carbon fibre piece on the top looks right, and the position of the front USB headers is a bit poor.

Build quallity is pretty good, but once again I wasnt blown away, if anything slightly below the standard of my P160 it replaced. very good overall but little things like the hard drive tray let things down.

Sound wise I really hoping for great things here, as this was one of my main objectives. errr its louder then my p160 :( think ill have to play with the fans. I have vantec stealths in my old case. think I will swap them out.

I would also like to point out that internally this is a pretty small case. building was really a exorsise in planning and patiance. you really have to plan out the order at which your components go in or you are screwed and out they will have to come again as there is no room to get around them. airflow is also not as good, mainly because its so hard to get a tidy case with the thing being so cramped.

So overall am I happy ? well yes and no, it does look nice, especally with the extra CD bezel that really does look great. temps are also quite good but not as good as the bigger case. it really was a pain in the arse to build, although a lot of that is my fault not planning properly. the standard fans are not very quiet.

I know it sounds like im bashing this case, im not really.... honest. i do like the look of it. its just I think people bigged it up that much i was expecting a little more. and yes I know its cheaper then the p160 but people said it matched the quality of cases costing over £100.

pros -

looks really nice, clean lines
pretty good build quality
light as hell
good cooling

cons -

space inside is very limited ( hinders cooling )
standard fans are LOUD
hard drive bay is very cheap (no sign of rubber mounts or mounting brackets)
Click to expand...

Cooling wise considering what case you came from the best you could hope for is it matching, and you cant compare non stock fans to stock fans for a start, put the better fans in!

The space is fine, have not come across any trouble with it, might just be because of you using a bigger case and the normal size being a shock. Hindering cooling, it is easy enough to tidy the cables up.

The fans are loud, very loud at 12v! Stick them at 7v and they are ok, but if your going for quiet, the fans that come with a £50 case wont do.

Hard drive bay is the weak point of this case, no rubber mounts but this is not a Antec case, and they hardly ever work in my experience of Antecs and it is more of a sales feature, you can modify the cage in seconds to support a rubber mounting and isolate it from the case just by using a rubber band.

It does match the build quality of cases above £100; silverstones right up to the Nimitz it is on a par with, the stacker, it is better than the antecs as it does not suffer from wear and tear if you look after it.

It is a £50 case, the fans are throw away and you can not compare them to a set of fans costing more than half the case, it is stunning value for money, a good cooler and easy to work with. If you need some help with cable tidying I would be happy to help :)

mekrel0242mm.jpg


If you look there its got the same amount of bits in as yours, they are easy enough to tidy up if you think about the positioning.
 
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