New system time so new case as well.

[davetherave2]

So to cut a long story short. I am in the process of spec'ing out a new system for app/web development work (mainly with the odd game thrown in as well) from an old x48/e6600 based rig and am looking to go down the z77/ivy route as this seems the most suitable upgrade path for me.

Now my system is still in the first case I put it in the coolermaster stacker atc01 which has served me well over the years and has allowed me to expand the system to include all the hardware that I have ever wanted/needed.

So I was thinking of all the new upgrades I was planning which includes the core (mobo,cpu,gfx,mem) as well as a couple of ssd's and new dvd burner (still have ide drives) which I am sad to say this case really isn't geared up for the new tech world and I suspect there are no adapters to get for it due to the age of the case.

The only sort of alteration I did to the case was install a couple of icy dock's 3x5 hot swap bays, so that i could plug in the storage drive I required at the time I was either gaming/developing or rendering some video. But as I have increased the number of storage drives both in numbers and size, I have probably only had to swap a drive once in the last year or two.

So over the past couple of days I have been looking at the bitfenix cases and am really liking the look of the shinobi core/xl case.

Usually I would stick with what I know and stay with coolermaster but I have found their new case ranges to be gastly and too busy and this coming from someone who owned one of the old thermaltake xaser iii cases (what was I thinking )

So I am looking for something elegant and simple but gives me the option to expand with at least 6 hdd's bays 1/2 dvd/blu ray drives and can potentially handle watercooling as I feel that is something that I will want to do in the furture when I have the guts of the system sorted. I also want something that will have decent cable routing as well.

So are the bitfenix cases the ones to go for currently or should I be looking at something else.

Budget is £150 tops for a case. I expect this case to last me at least 5+ years like my current one has.

I think I may be changing my old stacker into a massive nas box anyway so that I can keep the development machine as clean and clutter free as possible but that is a decision I am still thinking about at the moment.

So in short I am after:

Simple elegant case (Windowed be nice if I go water cooling)
Enough space to fit a z77 board (probably looking at either an asus/gigabyte board)
Enough space to fit at least 6 hdd's and 1 dvd drive
SSD mounting
Enough space to fit watercooling
Decent cable management system. (have thought about braiding my current cables but will look at that closer to the time of actually getting the kit)

So any advice/suggestions will be really helpful.

 

[King Damager]

I'll say that if you want to watercool, you can only use a 360 in the roof (slim also I believe) without having to remove the hdd bays.

That said. I'd still say its the best option for the money.

Other options would be switch 810, xigmatek Elysium,

Corsair 650d is another option, but watercooling features are limited to a single 240...

kd

 

[davetherave2]

as I said initially I would need the hdd real estate but I think if I can turn my current rig into a massive nas box then I would only really require the ssd's that I am planning to put in so does that make the task of sticking watercooling in any easier?

I feel that watercooling at this current moment in time is probably overkill but it is nice to have the option available in the future if I decide to make the system more games orientated.