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- 20 Jul 2006
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OK all those Case Experts out there have a long read...
Looking for a Tower Case to replace my exisiting Silverstone Sugo so I can help cool down my CPU/System, want to use this hardware, Pentium D 830 "130WATT!!!", 2* Crucial Ballistic DDR2 667 Dimms.., 3 * Hard Drives, 2 Optical Drives, floppy, Audigy 2 ZS, Terratec TV Tuner, Radeon X1800XT fitted with VF900, Tagan 480W Modular PSU, MATX Motherboard.
Basically looking for a tower case to fit this all in, wouldn't mind if it had 2 extra 5 1/4 bays and an extra floppy bay..., must have front case fan to cool hard drives, top exhaust fan and rear exhaust fan as well as Expansion card cooling and Side CPU Air Intake vent, this is what is recommended by Intel to cool a CPU of this type...
I prefer all 120MM fans, as long as there are mounts I can buy my own fans to put in there....so far I have looked at loads of cases and reviews, both cheap cases and high end cases from Silverstone, Coolermaster, Lian Li, Gigabyte, Asus, Thermaltake, Enermax, Antec..but seems that only a few of them meet up with the intel Case requirements.
The Antec P180 has been tested by Intel and it was not capable of handling the heat output of a 130Watt CPU, mostly cause of the fact of no Side Air Intake vent, so there was no way of getting cold air into the case so the cpu fan could use to cool down the heatsink, instead the only intake fan was the front one, and like most cases, the air from it passes over the hard drives becomes warm and basically all the CPU fan is doing is recyling warm air around the case/cpu, which is not a good thing..
Seems like the only cases with side air vent are the cheap ones under £50 form the likes of EZ Cool, Asus and Enermax.., The CPU Air vent is useful if using a Stock Intel cooler or one with Verical mounted fan as it can pull cold air in, but those with Horizontal mounted fans like the Zalman 9500AT can not use this CPU air vent, so really need a case with a 120MM blowhole cut in the side of the case where the memory is located, this way cold air can be pulled in via a fan and then used by the CPU cooler...pretty logical huh?
Why maunfacturers like Antec/Silverstone/Lian Li don't think like this is beyond me.., Side Air Vents is a must for an Intel Based System...so far the only case which has this airvent over the memory card is the Alpine EZ Cool range or the Coolermaster Stacker 830...the Gigabyte Aurora has a side air vent but does not have it over the memory card slot, nor does it have a top exhaust fan, the Lian Li V1000 does not have either, just the rear intake fan, ...so what other case is there..?,
The Stacker 830 seems like the only case to suit my needs just a shame the price is so high, I like the Alpine, but it looks cheaply built and does not stand steady, but the Coolemaster 830 is rock steady and Strong....so anyone have any thoughts, is the Stacker 830 the best case to go for thermal performance wise?...
I plan on putting a top exhaust fan in, it already has front and rear exhaust fans, i plan on putting three fans in the side, one over the cpu, one over the expansion cards and one over the memory...that way the CPU will get enough cool air to to cool down the heatsink and the 120MM exhuast fan and PSU fan/Top Fan should be sufficient enough the exhuast the warm air...
Think the Zalman 9500AT should do a great job at drawing the heat from the CPU..so all in all should be a cool running system.., anyway give me your thoughts...oh and for all those who favour the Antec P180, just remember it has no way of getting cool air into the case for the CPU to use and is not fit enough to Handle a Dual Core CPU as tested by Intel.
Also note the Antec has a pretty flims front Panel, seen it in person..the Stacker 830 has a really strong front Bezel..It's rock solid...so that P180 vs..Stakcer 830 thread is just a Joke, the Stacker will own it, you can't have a Quiet and Cool case..well not for a Dual Core System..
Looking for a Tower Case to replace my exisiting Silverstone Sugo so I can help cool down my CPU/System, want to use this hardware, Pentium D 830 "130WATT!!!", 2* Crucial Ballistic DDR2 667 Dimms.., 3 * Hard Drives, 2 Optical Drives, floppy, Audigy 2 ZS, Terratec TV Tuner, Radeon X1800XT fitted with VF900, Tagan 480W Modular PSU, MATX Motherboard.
Basically looking for a tower case to fit this all in, wouldn't mind if it had 2 extra 5 1/4 bays and an extra floppy bay..., must have front case fan to cool hard drives, top exhaust fan and rear exhaust fan as well as Expansion card cooling and Side CPU Air Intake vent, this is what is recommended by Intel to cool a CPU of this type...
I prefer all 120MM fans, as long as there are mounts I can buy my own fans to put in there....so far I have looked at loads of cases and reviews, both cheap cases and high end cases from Silverstone, Coolermaster, Lian Li, Gigabyte, Asus, Thermaltake, Enermax, Antec..but seems that only a few of them meet up with the intel Case requirements.
The Antec P180 has been tested by Intel and it was not capable of handling the heat output of a 130Watt CPU, mostly cause of the fact of no Side Air Intake vent, so there was no way of getting cold air into the case so the cpu fan could use to cool down the heatsink, instead the only intake fan was the front one, and like most cases, the air from it passes over the hard drives becomes warm and basically all the CPU fan is doing is recyling warm air around the case/cpu, which is not a good thing..
Seems like the only cases with side air vent are the cheap ones under £50 form the likes of EZ Cool, Asus and Enermax.., The CPU Air vent is useful if using a Stock Intel cooler or one with Verical mounted fan as it can pull cold air in, but those with Horizontal mounted fans like the Zalman 9500AT can not use this CPU air vent, so really need a case with a 120MM blowhole cut in the side of the case where the memory is located, this way cold air can be pulled in via a fan and then used by the CPU cooler...pretty logical huh?
Why maunfacturers like Antec/Silverstone/Lian Li don't think like this is beyond me.., Side Air Vents is a must for an Intel Based System...so far the only case which has this airvent over the memory card is the Alpine EZ Cool range or the Coolermaster Stacker 830...the Gigabyte Aurora has a side air vent but does not have it over the memory card slot, nor does it have a top exhaust fan, the Lian Li V1000 does not have either, just the rear intake fan, ...so what other case is there..?,
The Stacker 830 seems like the only case to suit my needs just a shame the price is so high, I like the Alpine, but it looks cheaply built and does not stand steady, but the Coolemaster 830 is rock steady and Strong....so anyone have any thoughts, is the Stacker 830 the best case to go for thermal performance wise?...
I plan on putting a top exhaust fan in, it already has front and rear exhaust fans, i plan on putting three fans in the side, one over the cpu, one over the expansion cards and one over the memory...that way the CPU will get enough cool air to to cool down the heatsink and the 120MM exhuast fan and PSU fan/Top Fan should be sufficient enough the exhuast the warm air...
Think the Zalman 9500AT should do a great job at drawing the heat from the CPU..so all in all should be a cool running system.., anyway give me your thoughts...oh and for all those who favour the Antec P180, just remember it has no way of getting cool air into the case for the CPU to use and is not fit enough to Handle a Dual Core CPU as tested by Intel.
Also note the Antec has a pretty flims front Panel, seen it in person..the Stacker 830 has a really strong front Bezel..It's rock solid...so that P180 vs..Stakcer 830 thread is just a Joke, the Stacker will own it, you can't have a Quiet and Cool case..well not for a Dual Core System..
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