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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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 ?
 
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
 
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?
 
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)
 
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.
 
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 ?
 
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
 
u got any pics with the door off mate, im using a tagen PSU and hiding the main mobo plug line is a major pain in arse.

yours look svery tidy. would be good to see where you have stashed your cables
 
seems like the mobo power plugs on that motherboard are very well laid out. mine are inbetween the PCU and the rear 120mm fan. so i have a bloody big lead and plug in the middle of the air flow,

rebuild time coming on i feel. i will not be beeten :p



oh yewen, with regards to the HDD LED problem. heres the manual for my mobo. can you see where the heck the 3 pin Lian-li plug can go anywhere else then on the 2 pin mobo connector. or is the trick with thte plug the only way

http://www.asrock.com/Drivers/Manual/939Dual-SATA2.pdf
 
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well iv finished, rebuild number 2 and its a lot better.

totally gutted the thing and started from scratch, managed to do a pretty good job bar the odd wire.

swapped the front standard fan for a vantec stealth one and put the rear standard one on 7v instead of 12v also put the zalman cooler on my 6800GT on 7v too. its pretty quiet now, prob about the same maybe a bit quieter then the P160 :)

Temp wise its now running the same as the 160 too, the cable tidy exorcise knocked around 5-7 degrees off so well worth it.

things didnt go totally without hitch though. all the faffing with the sata cables led to one of the platic mobo sata guides to snap, still works though. oh and i managed to get my finger stuck in the fan :eek: one of the blades flew off nearly taking my finger with it :(

oh well, its all good now, and the design is even growing on me, the hard drive bay is still the week spot, they are defo a lot louder then in the 160, going to put some rubber mounts in when i can be bothered. wont be for a while though as the missus is getting sick of me sat in the computer room messing about for hours on end.

and haribo, cheers for the tip, pulled out the wire from the 3 pin and moved it over one. worked a treat, all LEDs working now ;)
 
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