Is there no case for me? Deciding on case!

YiuKorochko

YiuKorochko

YiuKorochko

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Joined
19 Jul 2011
Posts
126
Location
Scotland
Hey all. I've had a swatch through OCUK for cases, but I'm finding things rather annoying for 2 reasons:

1) I already have a Cooler Master CM II 690 and there aren't too many cases bigger than that without a huge price increase.

2) Way too many of these cases have 5+ 5.25in drive bays. I have ONE BluRay ROM drive. I'll buy a BluRay-RW drive when that one fails. I'd preffer to have 3.5in bays for more hard drives.

On just OCUK, I've narrowed my choices to three cases:

NZXT Phantom
Antec 1200
Corsair Obsidian 800D

Now truth be told, I really, really want the Corsair case. But, it's out of my budget.
Pro: Perfect size and ease of use.
Con: Price.

The Antec case had what I was looking for in point 2: less 5.25in bays, more 3.5in bays.
Pro: Huge, has more 3.5in bays.
Con: Unsure about the level of ease of use, seems less spacious between the back and the drive bays.

The NZXT case as I've researched actually has 7 3.5in bays, but I worry about airflow in such a system.
Pro: Has all the HDD spots I'll need for a while.
Con: Airflow seems much more restricted compared to the other cases due to size.

After doing some research, I've found that NZXT are also about to release a new case called the Switch 810.
The introductory video stole me. I'll be spending my time saving up for the Corsair Obsidian 800D, but if OCUK can give me an ETA or even just a yay or nay on the Switch 810, I'll be going for that.

Seems the perfect balance between airflow, spaciousness and budget.
Can anyone give any opinions on what I should do here? I'm thinking that waiting for the Switch is the best option, but I don't have any clue if and when OCUK add it too their stock.
 
If you could give us your needs it would be quite useful. Water or air cooling?

A simple solution to the 5.25 vs 3.5 would be a 5.25 to 3.5 drive bay adaptor. Would mean you could use your optical drives as HDD.

What reason do you have for wanting a larger case? The CM690ii is hardly a poor case. So yeah, more requirements would be a nice idea :)

Competition for the Switch 810 though is the Xigmatek Elysium and the Bitfenix Shinobi XL (yet to come out). The Switch 810 has actually been released, however I'm unsure when OcUK will get some in stock. You'll have to ask in the OcUK customer service forums.

Going on your to get in sig, you'll need something to support an H100, and an eATX motherboard. Personally I'd say try full watercooling. However, thinking about it, as you've gone for H100, the Shinobi XL is currently my choice, although reviews may change that. I think however, you can fit the Rampage IV extreme into a Corsair 600t, or a Corsair 650d. Not sure on the 650d, but I've seen one in a 600t, both of which will fit a H100.

Edit: Here's the Rampage IV in a 600t:
Shows it properly at 7:58

kd
 
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King Damager said:
If you could give us your needs it would be quite useful.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm getting the Asus Rampage IV Extreme, Corsair H100 and either the Gainward GTX580 3GB Edition or a similarly priced/performing GTX 6xx and I already have 5 hard drives (3x2TB, 1x1.5TB, 1x120GB SSD) none of which are in RAID or have any form of back-ups at the moment.
Considering replacing my 1.5TB 5400RPM disc with another 2TB 7200RPM drive, but I'm still going to need plenty room for data expansion.

A Drobo would be good right about now...

So yeah I'm going to need quite a hefty case. I'm not saying the CM 690 II isn't a good case, it's just that with my old i5 750 1156 + H50 set-up I wasn't left with a lot of room and cable "management" around the back was rather useless.

Despite all that, I idled at 26 Celsius and maxed out 60 Celsius at 100% load after days on an overclock to 3.2GHz.

EDIT:
Ah, and to be specific it's the CM 690 II Advanced Dominator which I still have but want to replace with something more spacious.
And scratch the 5 hard drives part, I'm still to buy the SSD. Gonna keep the Agility 3 I have in my laptop.
The Cooler Master HAF X looks like it may fit rather well, it's just not as flashy as the others.
 
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So basically we're looking for something that'll support an H100, has solid air flow, and can hold a behemoth of 3.5 inch drives :)

Shinobi XL definitely looks like a solid choice for you. They say when it goes on sale - mid March, it will have included in the accessories a single 5'25 to 3.5 adaptor, which would increase HDD capacity to 8.

If you went aircooling quiet instead, I'd maybe throw in a Fractal Design Define XL, as it has support for 10 HDDs.

CM Storm Trooper is a solid choice as well. Supports H100 and has support for 8 HDDs, won OC3d case of the year.

Xigmatek Elysium supports 8 HDDs.

So yeah, there's some more ideas for you :)

kd
 
King Damager said:
So yeah, there's some more ideas for you.
Click to expand...
Ah, I hadn't noticed OCUK having two categories for Cooler Master.
The Trooper looks rather interesting actually, though the shear size of the Elysium may be more what I'm looking for!

Ah well, I've got them both added to my bookmarks anyway, I'll get savin' for the day of reckoning and make the choice when it comes.
I'mma keep the Switch 810 there as well, hefty room in the top, 7 HDD bays, hybrid fins for ventilation/silence, quick-release top and front panels, LED lights at the back for when you're hooking up your gear and plenty dust filters.

The Switch has everything I need and has tons of little nifty features I've not seen elsewhere so far, but I also recognize that their build quality won't quite be the same as that of say Cooler Master. It's a considerable trade-off, but I'll not know what my game plan is until it's time to buy.

It's about time some new cases came around, I've been getting bored of a lot of them just seeing them online all the time!
 
do not not go for the nzxt phantom :eek: i ordered one when it came wasnt as big as i thought it would be and the build quality is horrid,i decided on the cm stormtrooper and i love this case its big,well built great cooling options ( i too have used a h100 ) my last case was a haf x which was a great case and big but this is the best case for the money imo,i paid £119 for it :D
 
baldmonk said:
do not not go for the nzxt phantom
Click to expand...

What's funny is I had a PS3 repair job about 15 minutes away from my house.
The guy had his PS3 and Xbox 360 next to his desk where he had the NZXT Phantom. The build quality is't bad, it's the materials they use. I don't care what it's made of, so long as the main inner chassis is some form of metal and it has a good airflow design I'm not bothered!

The Switch looks good though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba7k1R9Aues
 
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