Need a case to fit the bill, suggestions?

sharpygsxr

sharpygsxr

sharpygsxr

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Ok im looking for a new case at the moment, my antec 900 needs updating.

Im looking a quieter case first so one thats a full enclosure rather than one with grilles and fans all over the shop.

Second it needs to be able to fit my 280 GTX and also the possibility of a waterloop when the rest of my components are ordered.

Preferably as the case will be on the floor under my desk it needs to be in or around the same dimensions as the Antec 900.

Im quite tempted by Lian Li's simply because if the quality altho im not sure how good they are at acoustics, i.e are they rattly, loud etc.

Only Lian Li i see that fits the bill is the PC-B25B, altho was also lookin at the silverstone TJ90B and coolermaster RC-1000

Isnt it strange that im putting more thought into the case than the rest of my components, i decided on the rest of the rig in about 2 hrs, ive been lookin at cases all weekend and just cant decide lol
 
that looks like its a beast, dont see any dimensions listed on the site so not sure if it will fit in the space i have but ill look into it, cheers.
 
its massive
and one heck of an impressive case

i noticed a few of them squeak whilst building in them

so keep that in mind

please please dont get a cosmos

something of similar size to a 900 - hmmm

perhaps a lian li v1000z [very stylish and well laid out]

silverstone ft01 [i am biased :p]

zalman zmachine [uber high build quality]

akasa omega [lovely case to build in, good watercooling potential]

Lian Li Armorsuit PC-P60B [looks 100 times better irl than in pictures, great to build in]

zalman GS1000 [best case for cable management]

any case from that list would be brilliant

stay clear of thermaltake and you will be onto a winner!
 
rjkoneill said:
its massive
and one heck of an impressive case

i noticed a few of them squeak whilst building in them

so keep that in mind

please please dont get a cosmos

something of similar size to a 900 - hmmm

perhaps a lian li v1000z [very stylish and well laid out]

silverstone ft01 [i am biased :p]

zalman zmachine [uber high build quality]

akasa omega [lovely case to build in, good watercooling potential]

Lian Li Armorsuit PC-P60B [looks 100 times better irl than in pictures, great to build in]

zalman GS1000 [best case for cable management]

any case from that list would be brilliant

stay clear of thermaltake and you will be onto a winner!
Click to expand...

I'll second that, Thermaltake would be a bad option. The Akasa Eclipse/Omega is also a good choice I agree. Head on over to the Eclipse owners thread, pretty sure there's a few there that are watercooled.
 
hadnt factored in the Akasa case at all, might look a bit more into it.

Im sure with my planned setup that it could all fit in a relatively small case no probs.

Plannin on
I7 920 w/Noctuna
P6t Deluxe
6GB Dominator ram
280 GTX (already own)
1 optical drive (already own)
2 HDD's (already own)
Xtreme Gamer sound card (already own)

At some point i plan a loop for the GPU and CPU but that will be a bit down the line, all i need to do is make sure my chosen case wont be redundant once i plan the w/c side.

I am tempted with the thought of gettin OCUK to make my build at the start with w/c then that way it saves my time and future upgrade. Just gotta weigh up the pros and cons, i do love making my own builds but its gonna be an expensive build to try my first w/c on and potentially a lot of money to waste if it goes pear shaped :)

Whats the views on the PC-B25B it looks like a decent case to me, teh V1000z i dunno if i want a case where the PSU sticks half way out the back.
 
V1110, like every E-ATX case, is big in depth:
http://www.lian-li.com.tw/v2/en/pro...210&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=62&g=spec
But it also makes graphic cards look small:
http://lian-li.com/v2/tw/product/upload/image/V1110/v1110f3.jpg

sharpygsxr said:
teh V1000z i dunno if i want a case where the PSU sticks half way out the back.
Click to expand...
Also plastic HDD rails are acoustically bad.
Soft HDD mounting lowers both background humming noise caused by vibration and seek noises and makes damping other vibrations of panels easy and more effective.
Also solid door with airflow holes on sides is quite good at muffling sound of intake fans/components compared to hole in the front cases because it blocks direct noise escape path. (if you can see fans/components so can their noise reach you directly)

A10 is another silencing friendly Lian Li, lack of E-ATX support makes it smaller in depth than V1110, but still better than small B25 which is short for long graphic cards and would struggle to house any kind water cooling.

Unless you'll keep case under the table heigh of the case shouldn't be problem and there would be other both cheaper and more spacious choises.
 
unfortunately thats where i plan to keep it under the table so the dimensions are very important to me.

If need be i could relocate the case to above the desk but this would then make power cables etc be a nightmare to route so atm im looking at a case to fit under the desk on the floor, i can go a bit taller than the 900 but not by a lot so thats why im limited for choices a bit.

Decisions decisions lol
 
Check my sig. It's a brill case and better than the a10. My cousin has one and is nowhere as spacious as my b25. I've had a gtx295 in it and an x2 and both fit fine.
 
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It's fairly quiet although when the door is opened, you it is slightly louder. It's more like a gentle hum of air being pushed rather than the fan being loud though. There are absolutely no rattles whatsoever. The only con i can thing of is that the front fans can't be changed. Or I don't think they can be as far as I can see. I went for this case for the same reason as you, ie relatively small case with decent cool and noise levels and I haven't been disappointed :).

Edit: I actually changed the psu in the pic (pc power and cooling) to a slightly bigger enermax one and it fits fine. Cable management wasn't too bad as you can see, even with a non modular psu.
 
Wow that B25 looks amazing. I hadn't seen one before, and I'm not much of a fan of the other lian-li cases, but I like that. I'd get one if I hadn't already spent all my recent PC budget.
 
When I first saw a picture of it, I just thought lian li had started making tacky cases but how wrong was I! After reading a review on bit tech, I was pretty much sold on it and well...it sure is sexy!!
 
just build one of those lian Li B25B for my bro and it looks awesome, hdd mounting is a breeze and secure, plenty of room, has 2 holes if you want to WC, removable mobo tray (although not as easy to put back in with huge cpu cooler), enough room on back side for tidy cable mgt (including some clips). And contrary to what has been said above, plenty of room for long gfx cards -> fitted a 4870X2 in there ;)

However, I could hear the HSF (zalman 9500) running at full 2400rpm (but that's really loud cooler at that speed, but CPU was OC so needed the high rpm) I have urged my bro to consider a better and quieter Noctua cooler.

Helios how is it with noise with the noctua?

Otherwise you could go for Lian Li V1110 series. I am using the older V1100 Plus II version which is it's elder brother. The newer V1110 has
- new HDD mounts, (better)
- additional fan inside to channel more air to CPU cooler (dont need that on the V1100 since the mobo is inverted and CPU is below hot GFX card + rear fan is an intake blowing directly onto CPU ;) and using side case fan next to GFX card as an exhaust)
- slightly bigger (better coz if you have many HDD, big PSU and some WC this is always nicer - on my V1100 i had to sacrifice one of the HDD racks to fit big PSU, but I only use 2Hdd)
- GFX card holder bracket (not sure about this feature tbh; nice to have support for big GFX card, but it will also limit accessibilty)
- some PCI backcover plates with holes for airflow (hehe I took a couple from my bro he no longer needed with GFX and wireless card)
- removable mobo tray (usefulness limited with large CPU coolers)
- pre-drilled WC holes

overall both B25B and V1110 cases are very good and totally recommend them.

The B25B does win it in the looks dept though (looks even better than helios's picture in rlf - no offence intended to your photo skills helios;)).

So far, (until we switch the CPU cooler) I would say the V1100 (by extension V1110) is better for less noise.
 
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The noctua is absolutely brilliant in the b25, it is very quiet and easy to fit in as well with the motherboard tray. I saw that bit tech had some trouble as well with their cooler but I can't say that I did. It was a breeze to install and work with :).
 
Helios1234 said:
The only con i can thing of is that the front fans can't be changed. Or I don't think they can be as far as I can see.
Click to expand...

yes they can but you need to remove the hdd racks, a pain, but i guess you would do it once.

otherwise a pain was access to front filters, need to unscrew the front of case basically, easier access would have been nice, since I regularly clean filters.

PS - to the OP, if you plan on doing a full WC, probably best to get a full tower like V2110, so you can have it all inside the case ;)
 
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