Worthwhile case upgrade?

schumi84

schumi84

schumi84

Soldato
Joined
5 Sep 2006
Posts
3,553
Location
West Ewell, Surrey
Hi there. Having had my Antec Plusview 1000 case for well over 4 years (maybe longer) i fancy a bit of a change. This is down to 2 reasons, the first being i just want something new, as have upgraded the bits inside twice without changing the case.

The second reason and probably most important is the noise factor. Only being able to have 80mm fans is a bit of a pain so would like to be able to have good cooling but without the noise to go with it.

This is my current set up:





Now i have been looking around for a little while at what case to replace it with and i have seen the Thermaltake VA7000WA Shark. After checking the dimensions it will be slightly bigger (which it doesnt really need to be as the Antec is already pretty big) but is a bonus, and also the 120mm fans is what i am looking for.

Any comments are welcome regarding whether this would be a beneficial upgrade, or any suggestions on what case other than the Shark to get. Price wise i dont really want to be spending any more than about £85 really.

Thanks for reading.
 
I feel your pain! i had that case for a very long time and ended up upgrading to a Lian li V1000 which i would recommend but its a little out of your price range.

Everyone seems to love the Antec P182 i don't but you might :p. I would recommend most cases made by Lian Li. :D
 
I would really like to stay with Antec, as said before i have really enjoyed owning this case (though it was a bit of a mission taking round my mate's house for a LAN party.) I have looked at both the 900 and the P182, and noticed they are very popular amongst the OCUK community (and also a certain Jacob Billing, lol). Out of those 2 Antecs i would probably go for the P192 as it looks very stylish, is it possible to get it with a window?

With those being so popular, that is another reason why i would like something a bit different.
 
The coolermaster 690 is a very nice case that can be had for about £60 including delivery. Runs extremely cool. I had heat issues with my old Lian-Li case (think it was PC7 - but not sure). Google some reviews.
 
Akasa Eclipse 62 I hear people sell theirs and go back to them time and time again.
 
The Armour does look very good, esp for cooling potential, but a little out of my price range really. Looking at the Coolermaster 690, that is a very nice price for what looks a very well thought out case. Have looked on the Coolermaster website and they do a windowed side panel as well:

http://www.coolermaster.com/products/product.php?language=en&act=detail&tbcate=65&id=3168

I reckon now it is between the 690, the Shark and the P182. I am leaning towards the 690 now, and wouldnt mind in the future going back to water cooling (had a kit on my old XP2500 in my Antec). Would all these cases be able to accomodate a custom kit?
 
Ok, after a lot of debating i think i am going to go for the Coolermaster 690 and buy the aftermarket windowed side panel. Over the next few months i may well change the innards of the machine, as i am not able to overclock as well as i was hoping and for some reason the CPU is running hotter than i was expecting (currently at idle 42,36,34,42) at 2.4GHz and anything above this and UT3 is unstable.

With the new bits i may go for some watercooling as well but will have to see how the funds go.

Thanks very much for the help in deciding on the case, it is very much apreciated.
 
You won't regret buying the CM690. It's a lovely case to work with. I know it's each to their own taste, but the looks really impress me. I've just ordered a whole kaboodle of water cooling kit to fit in here. I know it's going to be a tight squeeze, but I just couldn't replace this case yet as I'm so in love with it, and fancied giving the water cooling a go. Will post pics once done.

I too plan on buying the windowed side panel. It's fairly cheap to get hold of, and although i know it isn't as big as most, it shows what's necessary, and it still allows for a 120mm fan to blow over the GPU.

At the moment, I have fully loaded the case with 120mm fans, however, using the zalman black 6 way fan controller I have silenced them all. I have ditched my media PC altogether now as my main rig runs so quiet when all fans set to low!

Enough rambling!

Edit: By the way, your system is very similar to mine. I'm sure you'll get a nice result with the new build.
 
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I am hoping so, cheers for the words of advice. I am stumped though as to why my CPU isnt stable at higher clocks and why it is so warm.

May have to try another relap of the CPU and make sure that the Tuniq is definitely flat. Otherwise the only other reason why the cores are such different temps is something to do with the actual heatspreader not making good enough contact with the cores themselves.
 
lmfy2k said:
looking into the CM690 myself, let us know how you get on mate
Click to expand...

I will do indeed, i think i am gonna buy the damn thing now :D, Just to get it over and done with and give me something else to play with.

Also it will give me a chance to reseat my CPU and check to make sure there is good contact and both the CPU and Tuniq are flat.
 
That is a very smart watercooling setup killersheep, especially considering it is your first attempt.

Looks nice and roomy on the inside of the case, mine should be here today at some point so will be posting pics of before and after the install.
 
Thanks. Really enjoyed doing it. To be honest, it's no better then my original Air Cooling solution (Thermalright Ultra), but I thouroughly enjoyed building it and I'm kind of proud of the work. lol
 
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