New case, for the "now and".............

ademcg

ademcg

ademcg

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Right, I am building a new rig and having fallen foul a couple of years ago for a Thermalcrap case:p which is not big enough and lets face it is poor quality, I am now looking for a fair sized case, around £100 mark that will last me a few years and house this little lot:

Intel Core 2 Quad LGA775 Q6600 GO SLACR 2.40GHz Retail
Abit IP35 Pro Motherboard
2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500C5 DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
ThermalRight SI-128 Cooler
AS5 Thermal material
Bundle deal
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
NEC AD7170S Serial ATA 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter


Initial thoughts have been around the
Antec P182 Case [Black / Gun metal]

case, but I also like the Akasa Mirage.

I used to build in Antec full tower cases and they had lots of room...both the 182 and the Mirage seem to be a little on the small side going from the external specs....lots of room inside ?

And before someone mentions Lian-Li the only one I find visually attractive is the Lian-Li PC-G70 Aluminum Mid Tower the rest look like Ikea left overs with hospital castors.....just my opinion;)

Thoughts, opinions as always appreciated :)
 
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+1 for the P182. I've got a IP35 Pro, 8800GTX, HX620 & Tuniq 120 in mine and had no problems with the space available.
 
Here is a pic next to my old sonata on the right, you can see straight away that its much bigger!

DSC02364.jpg


and this is it on my desk

DSC02370.jpg


will try and get some when its pitch black, looks nice - just needs a red cathode to allow better visual of the inside.
 
Loving the P182...nice work there on the cabling YipYipboo:cool:

I think I am leaning towards the 182....hmmmmm
 
I'm starting to wish I hadn't bought a Mirage, several of the screw have been ill fitting to the point where it was almost impossible to put them back in once they were taken out, it scratches very easily both inside and out, the riveting on the case is very poor, I've had one rivet pop off at the back of the case.
Now to add to this there is the previously mentioned vibrating front panel (which is held on by crappy plastic clips, the kind that stress and snap off and you have to remove it to get to the front fan filter).
Theres plenty of space inside and the airflow through the case is good but I fear what will go wrong next with it.
 
Sareth said:
I'm starting to wish I hadn't bought a Mirage, several of the screw have been ill fitting to the point where it was almost impossible to put them back in once they were taken out, it scratches very easily both inside and out, the riveting on the case is very poor, I've had one rivet pop off at the back of the case.
Now to add to this there is the previously mentioned vibrating front panel (which is held on by crappy plastic clips, the kind that stress and snap off and you have to remove it to get to the front fan filter).
Theres plenty of space inside and the airflow through the case is good but I fear what will go wrong next with it.
Click to expand...

so apart from that you are content with your Akasa experience:p

I don't know what it is about the eclipse, I just don't like the look of the front. But I guess the downside is the possible problems with a less than adequate door solution as above.

Does the Clear side panel for the Eclipse fit the Mirage? I would have thought if they were extremely similar it should ?:confused:
 
ademcg said:
so apart from that you are content with your Akasa experience:p

I don't know what it is about the eclipse, I just don't like the look of the front. But I guess the downside is the possible problems with a less than adequate door solution as above.

Does the Clear side panel for the Eclipse fit the Mirage? I would have thought if they were extremely similar it should ?:confused:
Click to expand...

Theyre the same, both the clear side panel and the panel with the vent and fan mount will fit either the eclipse or the mirage.

In all fairness it should be noted of my whining that this is my first new case since an ATC-201 so it had a lot to live up to build wise. I think the plastic clips on the front panel are shoddy regardless though, could easily have been mounted by screws.
 
I built one, and helped build another rig in an Antec P182 yesterday.
Both quad core, IP35, 8800gtx setups.
Such a pain to build a rig tidily in it in comparison to my Eclipse, it can look very good when done as seen with yipyipboo's setup.
Its a nicer case than I expected it to be, but it seems over engineered in places, and has even more plastic on it than the Eclipse!
The case weighs an absolute tonne especially with everything in it. My full rig with all the watercooling and approx a litre of water in it is lighter!

I thought the door on the P182 felt flimsy, and the way the door hinges back 270 degrees is very cheap for a case of this price.



I can see why people really like the case, but building in the Eclipse is much nicer ;)
Just want to do a build in a V1000 now to see how that compares :)
 
Having built up a computer in an Akasa Mirage, I can tell you they are huge, exceptionally wide.

They are also made from the thinnest aluminium they could find, rattle whenevr you sneeze in the same room as them and have some interesting design ideas such as having to remove the whole front bezel to take out the "removeable" hard drive caddy... And as has been said, the front bezel is held on by 6 poor plastic clips that wouldnt look out of place on a £25 ebay special... The plastic they use for the bezel is also realy quite poor quality for a case in the upper echolons of the mid market...

It was big though!

On the other hand, my P180 (and im sure P182) is the most solid case I have ever owned, it really helps damped the noise from my fans and the 120mm fans it comes with are the quitest I have ever heard on their lowest setting. But cable management is a tad interesting (v good job by yipyipboo btw, nice idea extending the annoying 6 pin connector at the top of the board) and a PSU with short cables is really going to struggle. You also have to remove the middle HD cage, as per yipyipboo's effort if you want to fit an 8800GTX, though I removed it anyway to aid airflow, as has yipyipboo by the looks of things. it is also quite heavy due to the steel construction. I'm happy to ghave the extra weight though just to remove case rattles...
 
Depends really i payed £78 for my eclipse new i certainly don't think it's worth £100.
As for the caddy once the extra screws are out it just clips in and out and the rattling? erm what rattling don't get any of that here.
 
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His sub causes it to rattle, me stamping on the floor causes it to rattle... it has a slight resonating hum due to a 120mm zalman case fan he has attached (via rubber grommets...)

For the same price, unless the width of the case and a clear interior is absolutely essential to you, the P182 is the better case in my opinion.

The Akasa seems to have a very loyal fan base though, something to be said for that huge interior i guess :)
 
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