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Choosing a Good Case
Sir Joltalot writes "There's a great
guide at Tom's Hardware about choosing a good
case. They also look at a few very interesting and
slick cases you can get and discuss recent trends
in modding. A good read if you're new to building
computers or thinking about modding a case for
the first time." I've been planning to build a new machine
for a few months now, so this is timely for me.
Tom's Hardware continues to be one of the best sites for this sort of information. Keep up the goodwork guys
Would have to be the Chieftec Dragon. It Looks amazing and comes in all sorts of silly colours (Mine Is bright green). Although it's not beyond the capability of anyone here to spray a case. They have Loadsa places to stick fans with little and even throw in a side panel fan (although it sounds like a lawnmower).
I'm a big fan of the Addtronics case line. If I can sit on my tower and it doesn't even slightly buckle, I'll trust my hundreds of dollars hardware in there. Plus they have the most convenient drive rail system I've ever seen. Plus they're decently priced. *shrug* Just my opinion...
Australian Overclockers have great ideas for cases. Some of them innovative.
60623
siliconghetto
What I really need is a case big enough to fit Tom inside it so that he can continually keep my machine up-to-date without my needing to waste so much time reading all these hardware websites.
At the very least, he'd probably be quieter than my fan.
Scroll down to the "PC Cases" section of this Silent PC resources page for some good ideas about choosing a case when its noise qualities are a factor.
We wouldn't read Slashdot.
None are QUIET! All are noisy! That is a biased site.
:"Chimney column effect"
That site promotes multiple noisy fans in every case!
Hilarious! While apple products strive to make a noiseless machine lacking any fans (except if temperatures spike too high) Apple 2, Mac plus, Mac Cube, iMac, apple laptops, etc, the pc world not only likes noise they design their cases to lack the
They also have sites like the one in this article link written by people who like noisy load boxes!
hilarious!
Try to find any hardware tweakers site that even thought of a quiet box or REDCUCING the fan noise. You won't.
Thats because "They dont' get it".
Even Steve Jobs loudest computer, the 12 thousand dollar NeXT cube had a 10 foot set of cables so that you could place it in a closet and never need to go near it or listen to its fans. We had ours decked out to 42 thousnad dollars of components and addons but were too proud to hid it so we put it on the other side of the room. It was silent compared to the persitent drone promoted by sites such as this article.
They think a few firewire ports up front or aluminum boxes are "cool". Sheesh...
One case the combines a lot of his "required features" is the PC-60 by Lian Li. ( http://www.lian-li.com )
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This is by far the best case I have purchased and one of the lightest as well (http://www.lian-li.com/product.php?action=viewPD
Tom's site is okay, but some of their reviews / guides seem as if they were hurried as they don't have many example items, this case review is one of them.
Anand has a handy index of all of his case reviews, ( http://www.anandtech.com/searchresults.html?topic
Finally Dan's Data did a good write up on these cases http://www.dansdata.com/llmisc.htm
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
A couple of links:
Codegen ATX-9001 server case (rather inexpensive for what you get)
Lian Li PC-6 and PC-5 (fairly cheap Lian Lis - whoever woulda thunk it? This review links to various other Lian Li reviews of mine)
Look at all the computers sitting in a pile (at the linked site). What a waste! Those should be in a beowulf cluster!
I know, I know, it just had to be said...
Like pi? Try 10,000 digits.
I've read journals that have fewer pages!
Has someone got any software to automatically download the entire set of pages and construct something readable from Tom's site?
I haven't visited it in ages because I just don't have the time to click next a million times, especially when its slashdotted or I'm on my modem connection.
Blech!
Someone who does computer salvage/recycling was telling me that given two power supplies of equal "wattage", the heavier one is the better one. Sounds reasonable and intuitive, anyone know if it actually makes a good rule of thumb?
Samsung took back my unlocked bootloader because Google wants me to rent movies. They're both evil.
I thought only Linus himself did!
I placed an order for this Doggie Case from Nikao a few days ago. $45 and $10 to ship via Pricewatch.
Now, a bunch of you are probably going to ask me why or call me a fag or say that I don't understand the meaning of case modding. What I'd really like to know is why there aren't more humorous/non-manly styled cases. There are plenty of girls out there as well as guys who just appreciate asian culture and random cute things. I think after I get this case I'll get a review up. -Steve PS: And no, I'm not talking about the damn Barbie computers. Remember those?
One of the forgotten things about choosing a case is its weight. Get a light one. Some are much heavier than others - if you plan on ever carrying one, the tonweight ones are best advoided.
Basically anything thats put on a case that dosen't help performance or is informative in anyway rates right up there with these mongoloids.
Why do all these freakin' hardware sites put their articles on ten linked pages? I didn't see a "single page view" anywhere. Don't they realize we might want to save/print?
Anybody have good reviews/recommends on Flex/micro ATX cases and P3 motherboards? I want to make a small router/gateway PC and so far I've found el-cheapo cases and Soldam. The Soldams are nice but too nice. I want something like this:
Small and flat, no vents on top if possible.. think of a shrunken-down 2U rack server. No cubes.
space for a floppy, CDROM, one PCI card, one HD.
built in VGA graphics of any quality
built-in 10/100 ethernet and one serial port
quiet would be nice..would like to run it with just the PS fan.. probably I'd underclock it.. it's replacing a 486 so there's no problem with speed
Anybody built something like this?
Too bad that soundproofing doesn't do shit because the vibrations travel along the case frame down to the table or floor which acts as a resonator and only amplifies the noise. Furthermore, the soundproofing hinders the cooling of your case, thus making all the temperature sensitive fans run even faster.
I won't even go to the horrible kludginess of the water cooling.
All the cooling tricks, starting from heat sinks, are just that: tricks. They all address the consequences of the fundamental problem but not the problem itself. Desktop CPUs that produce 70 Watts of heat (Athlon XP2100) are the epitome of the laissez faire energy consumption oriented culture of the western societies. It's about time to do something about this.
Can you hear that? It's the sound of my IQ increasing 20 points for reading your spectacular review! Keep up the goodwork, hs81, for the good of the world!
Point being, if there is a problem, then the owner has a place they can drive to, which is important. This qualifies as the equivalent of a ford or chevy solution (vs a yugo solution)
PC Power and Cooling has attracted advocates with a religious level dedication, especially the quality of their power supplies.
They also have this chart on what various components draw is very useful for figuring out how much power you need. Worth a bookmark in itself.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
My 2 yr old child enjoys hitting the reset button, removing and smudging up cds. I've seen the Antec 1040B (I think), with locking front, which encloses the power/reset and cdroms. Does anyone have any other recommendations?
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
One thing this article seems not to mention (unless I missed it) is that you want a power supply with an intake fan on the bottom, not the front. This does a lot to draw heat away from the processor. I actually had an Athlon-based system that was locking up regularly until I switched to a new case and power supply.
The Antek KS388 is cheap, easy to work with, and comes with the "right kind" of power supply. It's the best case I've ever worked with (though to be fair, I've never bought a top-of-the-line case.)
http://www.colorcases.com/ has a veritable cornucopia of cases. Personally I have a Lian-Li case and have been very happy with it.
Why is this these computer cases are all looking more-or-less the same ?
are these "case designers" that narrow-minded as to think i actually want a case like what they offer ?
It seems that attention to asthetics has not been ignored by some rack server manufacturers, making some cool looking 19" rack stuff (usually hidden from view) but they seem to think the regular consumer wants an ugly oblong box in a _____ colour that makes a lot of noise under my desk !
I would love a case that looks like a piece of hi-fi, something i could place in my component stack (as a media/coms device) and it wouldnt look out of place,my dvd,amp,cd,video,console etc are not in big ugly boxes so why should my computer be any different ?
At least Apple are trying to think "outside the box" and redefine how we see computers visually
now why cant the pc-case manufacturers take a leaf out of their book and try and innovate case design instaed of churning out the same visual styles for 15 years
This is somewhat OffTopic, but I'll risk the karma hit.
I'm interested in having a custom computer built for me. If I were to pick out all of the components I wanted, where would be the best place I could go and have them build it? I am not a hardware person at all, and building a computer for scratch seems to me to be about as fun as being kicked in the balls. Are their and companies out there that allow you to pick all of the components (read: don't force you to use items they nessecarily carry) and build the box for you. Preferably I would like someplace that has a fair price, but really anywhere would be ok.
Give me a nice beige or black full size AT case none of this mini Star Trek crap...
http://www.englishfirst.org
If you would examine exhibit A (the front page of Slashdot) you would notice that all the articles point to another site. That is where the term slashdotting came from. Perhaps you have heard of this.
I've had an Antec case similar to the one reviewed in Tom's Hardware Guide for about a year. Yes, it is pretty well-engineered, rugged, quiet and ergonomic.
There is a serious problem, however. The fans seem to pull dust in through the 5" drive bays. Whenever I open my white CD burner tray, it's coated with dust. If you put your hand right in front of the drive bays, you can feel the air getting sucked right through the drives. Air flow past a hard drive is one thing, but a CD burner is un-sealed, motorized, and requires a clean laser to work properly... I would never think of mounting an internal tape drive in this case for fear of dust issues.
It strikes me as a major flaw in this case, and one I have not experienced with any other case.
try www.mwave.com ive had my two machines and my laptop built from them, they give you a lot of options on what you want. If you go the "barebones system" page, it lets you assemble a case, MoBo, CPU, and memory...they put al of that together for you, then you just need to add the HDD and pci cards (if any...i always picked the MSI K7N420 mobo...coz it has built in LAN/audio/video...and im not looking for anything fancy..then you can pick what other parts you want...and the prices are the best ive seen on the net..
arstechnica has lots of reviews on cases. I've killed 5 power supplies in the last 5 years, so if anything get a good power supply. The other stuff you can skimp on. After all, isn't the power supply the most important part of a case?
I have yet to find another case as easy to open, get at all the components and make whatever mods are required and flip closed than the Apple tower cases.
Man I hate opening up my PC case to get at stuff. The Mac case just flips open and everything's exposed. There's no reason for it either. I'm sure PC makers could offer the same convenience. Why do we secure our drives on BOTH sides of the unit? An L shaped snap-in plate that hangs on to ONE side would be just as effective.
And the handles molded into the unit make moving it around securely, specially when lifting it up on a higher shelf, a real breeze. Ever dropped a PC? Ever come close and only scraped a couple of knuckles?
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Something that I always think is really cool is Maximum PC's featured case mod of the month. They have a whole page dedicated to somebody's cool mod, how they did it, and link to where you can find the pieces.
Check it out!
PayPal $$ if you sign up for free offers (eBay, cred cards, e
...sell the fucking kid.
Many cases do. I've had plenty of cases to work with that were a breeze to open. Single thumbscrew, single panel, everything exposed, drive bay on a qwik-release arm so you can replace drives easily, etcetera.
3dcool.com has some cool pre-moded cases. They also offer the new Steath Fans,so they don't sound like 747's.
For my last system, I ended up using steel wire cubical closet shelving instead of a case. These things come in squares which can be joined together with plastic junctions. I opted to join them with plastic "zipper" ties instead, much neater. The shelf units are slightly larger than an AT mobo, and have several advantages:
- No closed case = minimal cooling required.
- Components bolt on to the sides of the case directly with plastic eyelet connectors. No hard drive bays.
- Cheap. 6 shelf squares per cube, 12 squares per pack, under $20.
- Can be broken down and re-purposed for storing socks and underwear.
Ugly as hell, but who cares?
See "cage.jpg" here
I've had my eye on this case for a while, for a set-top box. Dunno if it's what you had in mind, but take a look.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
At least the pictures are dead..anyone got 'em mirrored?
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
...because it will be from www.calmpc.com (beware of the funny Korean English. Yikes!)
It doesn't get any more quiet than that.
Slashdot had a story about them a while ago, but now they have released the second version that can cool even the newest CPUs.
Opinions stated are mine and do not reflect those of the Illuminati
...for most people (many don't need huge expandability), wouldn't that be the new iMac? I think it's the best and most sensible piece of industrial design in a long time.
ciao, Tom
For a large cases, Centrix Inernational carries NOS and discontinued cases for a song. I recent purchased an EMC Aviion 2800 Case (really an Acer Altos 12000) for about $250. For the money, you get 3 430 watt hot swappable power supplies, 4 hot swappable fans, 8 hot swap scsi drive trays, scsi backplane, and room for 3 5.25 devices. These case will easily accomodate a full size 13" X 16" ATX board. All the fans have sensors that can report fan speed to the motherboard if desired.
About the only downside is that the cases weigh about 90 lbs.
I have tried several times going to the posted URL at the top of the article, but all I get are 404 errors.
d ex.html
Here is a better link that will bring up the article directly:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/02q2/020521/in
I haven't seen any references to my favorite case here, the Supermicro SC-750. So here's a few quick tidbits about it. I chose this one because I got tired of having to move cables around when I changed anything (video card, new drive, etc.) It's a full tower, with the bottom half for the motherboard, and upper half is reserved for drives. It's got 6 5.25 bays, and a mounting bracket for 2 3.5 hard drives, with a mount point for another 2 3.5 hard drives. The front pops off, then you loosen a screw, and swing the side open like a door. I love working on my system ever since I got it. It was kinda pricey at about $200, but they've come out with a new version (SC-760) and it can be found for close to $100 if you look.
---- The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. -Thomas Jefferson
I can't speak of all their cases, but if you're not some sort of lunatic with a dremel and you're not overclocking that Athlon XP 1800 to ridiculous speeds, their Zeus case, frankly, rocks.
;)
Solid steel construction, really sturdy. Comes with a window built in on the left panel. Front USB/speaker ports, top fan vent, lots of holes for ventilation.. Inside, there's tons of room, with enough drive bays to easily fit a RAID array.
Comes in silver and a few other colors, and comes with two optical-disc type and one floppy drive cover so you don't have to worry too much about ugly beige components.
Thumbscrews in the back, of course.
The only gripe some people might have is that the corners and such aren't 'safety' cut inside. This is a case that'll make you bleed. Which I consider a good thing, but hey.
Computer Reseller Ratings
Some of these places will just sell you parts, but others do build complete custom systems. Read through the reviews and visit the sites to see if any of them will build what you want.
One type of case I'd have liked to see reviewed is cubes like the Chenbro's or Yeong Yang's. I think Enermax does some also. Basically, instead of having a full tower, you have have something twice as wide, but half as high, with the same (actually, probably more) room inside for 3 1/2 and 5 1/4 devices.
Personally, I bought a YY-0221. Although it's quite heavy, it's easier to move around (comes with casters) and to carry than a full tower of the same weight. And it fits easily under my desk (which was a reason to go with it). The only drawback is from a cooling POV. There's no exhaust fan around the CPUs, and since the PSU is in the drives compartment, it can get quite hot. Solution: put a fan through the top (not done yet, probably today).
Would any of the case-mod folk like to get involved in the rackmount game?
Howabout a *nice* 19" rack?
Or puting as much attention and care into rackmount cases?
Andrew
It's not a crack pipe. He's deliberately trolling. Anyone who is smart enough to know that capacitors have electrolytic is smart enough to know that the quantity is not an issue.
The people who say that heavier power supplies are better are trolling, also. To get a sure impression of quality, it is necessary to examine the components inside, and know what you are seeing.
If people begin judging power supplies by weight, manufacturers will just use thicker metal in the power supply cases.
I mean, hell, the only people who have a valid argument on the noise of a PC are sound engineers and recording artists.
Since when is the noise of a PC bothersome anyway? I can fucking hear the fridge of my house that is 30 feet away louder than my PC with 4 fans in it.
eesh.
Also (and more to your point) few if any companies will build with just "any" component the customer specifies because of the time it would take to micro-test each configuration for hardware/software/driver conflicts. There's no way to anticipate every possible problem (not all of which are known, or if known then well-documented) for every component combination. People who home-build often spend weeks querying forums and scrutinizing manufacturer FAQ's -- ask anyone who's tried to enable all the cool features on their Abit KT7-A RAID motherboard. It's just more than a real business would have time for. Better to stick with known parts and supply a CD with drivers known to work.
For the same reason, I wouldn't recommend having your machine built by a friendly enthusiast, unless you're confident they'll be available for substantial support on the chance trouble arises. Any twit can plug the parts together, but that's where the hard part typically begins.
Take a look on the net for a "how-to" build guide, I just built a couple of new P4 system, first new systems I've built since the introduction of the "slot 1" P2's. But even after all that time, things are pretty simple and you really can't screw it up or anything, but if you do want, contact me with your e-mail and I'll see if I can dig up someone in your neck of the woods.
Om, nomnomnom...
Quote from the article at Tom's Hardware: "As with almost everything else in the world today, it is obvious that quality costs money, but over the long haul, if you can continue to recycle your case every time that you build a new system you will not only help the environment, but have a case that is more like an old familiar friend that you have come to count on."
Not only is this poor writing (because of the pontificating about quality), but it's wrong. You should keep your old computer. It probably represents many hours of tweaking. You may need it if you have problems with your new computer. Quite possibly you will need a new power supply because of new power requirements, as with the Pentium IV. Probably you are upgrading almost all your components, so you will only pay a little extra to keep your old computer.
Here is another quote from the article: "If cost were the overriding factor, we would most likely purchase the Antec 1080, but would have rather purchased the Direction 201S, which is what we ultimately would have rather purchased to begin with."
A lot of writing on Tom's Hardware is just filler. It is an attempt to take up as many pages as possible, so you will see as many ads as possible. Someone should write a Perl script to process Tom's pages into something sensible.
We need comparisons of features. It is enormously laborious to do the comparisons ourselves. So, we accept the poor quality of Tom's Hardware.
I've considered cases from 40 manufacturers, and I've never seen a good case. All cases I've seen have a problem with fit. Antec cases don't have fan filters, so in a few months your components are covered with heat insulating dust. The Antec drive mounting system is poor. Their replacement power supplies are expensive, and some of them don't have switches on the power supply to turn off the power in case nothing else is responding. (This is a hassle when you are putting a new computer together, and you have a component installation problem.)
Another manufacturer I considered has a good fan filter, but their power supplies go bad after about two years.
One brand that is a little on the expensive side, but makes great cases is Coolermaster. I purchased an ATC 101 about a year ago and have been really satisfied. If you not willing to fork down that much money for a case, Lain LI makes some great alluminum cases that are relativly inexpensive.
The Antec is awesome! Space for LOTS of fans and removeable bays for your 3.5" drives, and a locking side door. You can get it for under a $100 w/ a good power supply off of pricewatch.com Email me if you want to know more.
Can you put a generic MB into a Dell case? I know they goobered up the power connector, but are there other things to consider? I'm thinking about buying a used 300MHz Dell, and want to upgrade it to something reasonable.
I got your cute animals.
What I want to know is why someone hasn't come out with a decent PC case that emulates Apple's approach to case design. You can tell, just by looking at one, that Apple has their shit together. I mean, you don't even need to remove panels or get out a screw driver to do something like add memory or change out the processor; it just swings open with the pull of a latch. Sure, it may not be as expandable as some of the full tower ATX monsters (of which I am an owner), but, in my opinion, it is far superior for its lightness and ease of use.
Secondly, note their construction. These aren't just steel boxes. They're made out of bullet-proof plastic. In fact, we just wired one of my school's computer labs with network cable and used one of the new G4 towers as a stepping stool for those hard-to-reach areas up in the panelled ceiling. They're light, well-ventilated (not that you'd need much ventilation in a cool-running Mac), and, most of all, they're nearly indestructable.
Finally, these things look good. They're unquestionably the best looking cases in the industry. They aren't some cheap-looking riced-up "modded" case that you're likely to find for sale on eBay, they're professional and tasteful. They certainly beat the hell out of ugly beige metal boxes.
The only thing I'm waiting for is for Apple to start selling cases without the expensive computer hardware.
"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." - George Bush
Nuclear power is clean and safe. There is a nuclear plant twenty miles from my home, and I assure you that it is much better than a coal/oil burning smoke chugger. Yea, Yea, I know what you are thinking "wind power", "solar power", "hydroelectric power". . . The simple fact is that I am a poor man; I can not afford to pay for power at the rate that I would pay from thoes types of plants. I am gratefull for my local power being nuclear.
warning link above - goatse
yeah but obviously naming a few of them is too much trouble.
Thanks for your considerate language.
Your suggestion does not work in a commercial environment. Customers must be able to remove and clean the filter from outside the case.
Also, good filtering requires consideration of all the airflow, not just one fan.
About a year ago I started looking for a new computer case to replace my old computer case. My old computer case was an AOpen HX08, which is a huge full tower beige case. It was too big for what I needed -- IDE cables were too short to reach from the top most 5.25 inch drive bay to the IDE ports. The case had poor cooling, was terribly heavy, was an ugly yellow-beige color, and had poor noise isolation. In general, the HX08 was not a good case for me.
I looked at cases from AOpen, Enlight, generic mystery websites and eBay auctions, Elan Vital, In-Win, ATop, and others.
My two PCs that use this case employ Windows 2000 and Debian Linux as their operating systems, named Aspiration (Windows) and Anxiety (Debian). Both systems now use the AOpen H600A.
Anxiety has a single IDE DVD drive, a 1.4MB floppy disk drive, an Asus K7V motherboard, an AMD Athlon 650 Slot A processor, some RAM, NIC, sound card, AGP video card, and a single IDE hard disk drive. Anxiety is a Linux desktop and provides your typical Linux desktop functions. I have two separate unixy servers.
Aspiration has an IDE DVD drive, an IDE CDRW drive, a 1.4MB floppy drive, a 3.5 inch smart card reader and USB port bay, uses the Soyo K7V Dragon Plus motherboard, Athlon processor, RAM, sound card, video card, network card, TV card, and a single IDE hard disk drive.
I chose the AOpen H600A mini tower case for a number of reasons. I am happy with this purchase. Here are my reasons for buying this case, and what I think of it now that I own two of them.
The AOpen H600A is a modern case. It was first released sometime in the late summer of 2001.
The AOpen website provided satisfactory pictures and information about the case to help me make an informed purchase -- something that the majority of case manufactures do not do.
The case supports full sized ATX motherboards. In addition, it also supports AT motherboards, and Pentium 4 motherboards.
The case supports four 5.25 inch drive bays -- more than many other mini tower cases of similar size.
The case supports two 3.5 inch drive bays.
The case supports three internal 3.5 inch hard disk drive mount points, plus the other two 3.5 inch disk drive bays which can be used.
All hard disk drive mount points are near the bottom of the case, where cooler air comes in.
Seven expansion slot bays in th rear of the case.
Comes default with a very good power supply, though I exchanged one of mine with an Enermax, which required some hacking to get in.
Requires only two screws to be removed in order to access each side panel. Some other's have screwless entry, but this is okay.
A nice beige color face with minimal "stupid look". Looks plain and nice. Not like some kind of freak box.
Good front panel LED lights, which are unfortunately biased for left of monitor placement of computer case.
Good cooling design, though not the best. Two large vertical vents near the front sides of the case. Air inlet from the front bottom of case. Two optional fans can be mounted in the rear of the case, and two in the front.
Some bad things about this case;
Cost is a little high. I think that myopen.com had the lowest price, along with newegg.com, last time I checked.
The front panel accessible USB and sound ports is an option and does not come default with the case.
The feet as shown with most case pictures do not come default with the case. Instead they supply short round feet, which work just as well. This case has few tipping problems.
Enermax power supplies will not normally fit into the case due to their dust filter found on the external bottom of the power supplies. In order to make these power supplies fit into the case, you must remove this dust filter and put it on the inside of the power supply, requiring some hacking, or just removing it entirely, which also requires hacking and some washers. See here; http://opendreams.net/jesse/images/20011221.comput er.upgrade/28.empty.chassis.4.jpg
Overall, I am happy with this case. It is not something that I think about a lot, but that is the idea. It is not too noisy, it does not get too hot. I keep doing my work and it does it's own. Here is the AOpen product page for this case;
http://www.aopen.com/products/housing/h600a.htm
You can see pictures of this case in use during my last computer upgrade. Find images here;t er.upgrade/
http://opendreams.net/jesse/images/20011221.compu
No, really, I'd like to hear you get started about heat put out of ATA vs. SCSI drives.
First of all, you must let us all know when you can get a 10K or 15K ATA drive. Because when you compare 7200rpm drives, Apples to Apples so to speak, the heat output of drives in the same family are virtually identical.
I've put an IBM ATA drive and the SCSI flavor of that drive in a case and the things run at the same heat level. And no, they were not side by side, they were seperated by a good foot, and with adequate ventilation.
If you're talking about 10K or 15K SCSI drives, well yes, the things run hot. Gosh, what a surprise, since 7200rpm drives run hotter than 5400rpm drives. And, frankly, I remember cutting-edge 7200rpm drives that ran hotter than the current generation of 10K drives. Hell, I *have* one of those drives, and it's still running.
The IDE drives that age have all died, since they were not designed to be run 24x7, much like the current generation (unless you've been living in a ditch, IBM's had a little reliability "issues" lately).
BTW, the fluid cooling systems are not silent, they DO have moving parts (good luck getting water flowing without any moving parts). I can hear when my mini-fridge's "silent" compressor kicks on and off, and I have a couple fan-loaded systems sitting a few feet away...
Check out these cases from Directron and A-Pro. Same appearance and they both have 860 in the model number. Wonder who really makes the case.
a hoo.com/directron/860busb.html
http://www.a-pro.com/ASP860.htm
http://store.y
It's not the feature of easy-open, but the way the PowerMac case was designed to facilitate servicing. Apple's PowerMac cases are distinguished from PC cases because they flip open while the machine stays standing up. Nothing needs to be repositioned; the door just flips open. The distinction is that only the mainboard moves; the single thumbscrew, single-panel, everything exposed PC cases don't move the mainboard.
The two cases (hah) for PC tower casings are standing up vertically (case 1) or lying flat horizontally (case 2).
In case 1, the mainboard remains vertical, unless you lay the case down on its side. Adding memory or cards becomes a three-hand operation (two to hold the card and one to apply negative pressue on the other side of the casing, or else the tower will flip over). (Yes, you could use your leg but then it looks like you're humping your computer!)
The case 2, the normal orientation of the machine is horizontal already. These are either the old-style "put monitor on computer" or "slide-out rack-mounted". The "put monitor on computer" has the disadvantage of having to relocating the monitor before and after servicing. The "slide-out rack-mounted" cases have to be pulled from the rack in order to be serviced; PowerMac cases can be opened and serviced right where they are standing (unless there's something to the right of the case that prevents the door from opening flat). The PowerMac case stays in the position it was -- the mainboard opens flat against the surface.
Furthermore, if you do have to reposition the case, there are convenient handles on the four short edges of the box. And these are REAL, sturdy handles, not some hollow-plastic thing.
Contrast this with the old Beige G3 and Dell Precision cases that flip the powersupply and drive bays to expose the mainboard. Although easy (if you know the switches to pull), the machine still has to be repositioned with the large end flat a level surface before servicing.
Supercooling the PowerMac case is easier as well! Because the mainboard flips open flat, you can place fans all around the front and (norminally) top edges of the mainboard without any air obstruction.
I find it amazing that an intellegent group such as slashdotters get a buzz out of cutting holes in their pressed steel piece of shit computer case, and putting in neon lights and plexiglass. If you want to do something skiullful, create a case out of 32 different types of wood, or machine a case out of a solid block of aluminium or copper. But cutting holes in the thing and adding lights? come on. Get real.
I've been reading messages on this topic, about people wanting more fans, more power supply capacity. I grew up in a rural place. We had an 8KW DC welder Genset - there's your power supply. Get a few of those to provide the different voltages. The fan? I had a 3/4 HP blower taken from an old fume hood. There's your fan. Now, you've got a machine that fills a building, and generates more noise than a Boeing 747 taking off from a N*Sync concert full of screaming prepubescent girls - and the price is right! Hell, just dip the whole motherboard assembly in varnish a few times, and submerge it in a 45 gallon drum full of coolant.
The InWin IW-Q500 is a older case with 11 bays. It's not as big as the supermicro cases, but it's got 5 5.25" exposed, 5 3.5" bays internally, and 1 3.5" for the floppy. There are positions for 3 fans, but only 1 by the CPU. Because it's an older case, it's now discontinued, but because it is discontinued, the pricing on the case is now around $65-$75 through pricewatch, etc.
I'm writing with experience using the older ATC-200. The structure of these cases are made of thick aluminium and are very very sturdy. The plating faces are thin, however. Thumbscrews are used for everything that opens and closes the case, so getting in and closing up is really easy.
The big problem with the ATC cases is that the internal drive bay is monolithic and are not removable. Specifically, and from experience with the ATC-200, it is difficult to service a machine with more than 4 drives in the front side. When you have more than one drive installed, the drives constrict the bay a bit, which makes it difficult to pull one drive out of the drive bays. You end up having to loosen all of the other drives. Furthermore, it's not a very deep case, so it's easy to hit a PCI card when pulling a drive out.
Bottom line: ATC-200 is not worth the money unless you want a sturdy case. It's a darn pain to install many drives.
How about this for a concept -- instead of doing the 'find a cool case' thing, buy one of those sexy 1U rack-mounted PCs (say, for example, an XServe), a 2U UPS, and a 1U rack mounted blower unit. Add a custom built 1 unit status display (a 2x16 LCD, a few leds, etc.), and shove it all in a cool looking 5U desktop rack unit. Now, you have an easy to build, yet sexy looking desktop computer.
But seriously, nobody can do better than Apple because the PowerMac mainboards are custom designed for the PowerMac enclosure. The IDE connectors are positioned to the left of the PCI slots so that very short cables can be used. to hook up the drives. The large internal fan blows directly on the CPU, memory, and video card, reminiscent of the original ATX specification.
You just can't get this kind of merging of mainboard and case design easily when multiple companies do this. The closest thing has been the mainboard standards (AT, NTX, ATX, etc.). Why can't Dell or Gateway or HPQ do this? The dirty secret is that they put together components to build a computer the same way as you or I do....
Asking a friend, or someone you know to help you build one. It may take more time, but the learning experience makes it more than worth it. If you feel brave, there are TONS of sites on the web that give step-by-step howto's on building systems. There are also many forums (forums.anandtech.com is one of the best, IMHO) where you can ask any question, and get an informed, helpful response. Doing it yourself (or with the help of a friend) will leave you better equipped to fix anything, should problems arise down the road (as opposed to the hassle of shipping things around, or waiting forever on the phone for tech support).
Also, there's space (and screw holes) for two of these stack-mounts in there, but they only provide one of the mounting pieces. What's up with that?
Another problem that i have had with my case was not excactly noise, but the vibration caused by various parts of the machine (the fans, the motors in the harddrive, the transformer). This bugs me because the computer is placed on the floor and the vibration actually tansmitts through the floor to my feet. So what i did was I folded up a bubble wrap sheet (the fat beefy kind, not the wussy nipples kind) to the right dimension and put the computer right on top of it. And the problem was solved, no more annoying vibration. Notice this shouldn't affect the heat dissipation too much since without the bubble wrap it would have been the carpet anyway.
I also suspect that the bubble wrap reduces the noise somewhat. The noise from the computer can be caused not just directly from the fans and whatnot. The thin metalic walls of the case may act as a vibratory membrane.
The motherboard itself vibrates a lot if you dont screw it tight completely. Hence I conjecture that several strategically placed cushioning substance may reduce the noise further.
i say strategic because there seems to be a large overlap between material that isolate sound and material that isolate heat. Otherwise wise one can just wrap the whole box in bubble wrap. Thinking of bubble, i think silicone would be an ideal vibration absorber. I think i'd better stop talking now.
saying you like the noise is like a shallow person from LA saying they miss the smog.
also, if your TV made a similar humming sound, you'd shoot the damn thing.
quite frankly, you don't even know what its like to sit in from of a PC and not have it hum, so shuttup.
the Antec case is hands down the absolute best.. the fact that the drive bay pod can easily snap in a fan to reduce drive temps significantly is a major plus... (and you can scab in another drive bay at the bottom without too much effort...)
the big antec case is the only choice... everything else purely sucks.
Second.. these really are only for low end servers or workstations... real servers MUST be in rack mount cases (why? because a rack full of servers is the ultimate in cool... if you dont have a 5 foot rack holdingyour servers in your basement then you are truely uncool...)
The Verzx fans look great. Any idea where you can purchase them in the US?
This comes after struggling with my fiancees case
for half an hour this morning just to get enough
space to install more RAM, and then just getting
off the phone a few minutes ago trying to help her
troubleshoot a boot problem that the case had to
come off twice for us to fix.
Try Quiet PC (http://www.quietpc.com/). I bought two of their ATX power supply units, and one of their processor fans. The power supplies are truly astonishingly quiet. So is the processor fan. When I first turned them on, I couldn't believe how quiet they were.
Before, my girlfriend complained about the noise if I left my computers on during the night. Now, there's almost nothing to hear. All the parts were a bit pricey but they've been the best money I've spent in a long time. Highly recommended.
For a decent looking case that has decent cooling options (so the room that it's in doesn't heat up 10-20 degrees over every other room) as well as being soundproof or sound absorbing. I don't want to do watercooling and other such things because I don't want to turn my case/area into something frankensteinish. I'm looking into small cases (1u or 2u) that can double as set tops, and just throw in a decent processor and underclock it or something. Ideas?
Oh no! It's the infamous "stuff-to-read" department! It's the most populous department on all of /.!
I was thinking of taking College level metal shop and building my own computer case. I would make it out of aluminum and make grids in the entire case like a HUGE heatseak. Then I would attach more aluminum, or a more condenser metal, to the power supply, CPU, HDD, and maybe the ram and have them all fead to the outside of the case, distrubting the heat. Does anyone see anything wrong with this idea? Should I use another metal?
I'm looking at an aluminum case, probably the Lian-Li that everyone is so fond of. Anyway, I read Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manor Column up at Byte religously, and noted that he had a bad experience with a flimsy motherboard tray at one point (see this article). Anyone have any opinions? Did he just suffer because he bought some "el cheapo" knockoff?
Michael C. Hollinger
Either you only have 2.5" drives or you have never tried to properly install a drive in the upper mount. The arms of the upper drive mount will bend when the hard drive is secured using screws. The other edge of the drive rests on the bent part of the metal. Once you see it you properly installed will realize that this is an ingenious way of making a two-level hard drive mount that supports both full-height and half-height drives.
it's made out of latex, and it's called a condom
my blog
Electrolytic capacitors have electrolyte: Electrolytic Capacitors, Chapter I. Some electrolyte is made available inside the capacitor so that, if there is a short between the plates, the insulating film can be re-formed.
Here is VERY valuable advice: If you have something with electrolytic capacitors inside, and it has not had power for a year or more, find some way to raise the voltage very slowly so that the insulating film can be re-formed. Otherwise, a capacitor may be shorted, and the application of full power will cause overload and destruction of other components.
-- 2 + 2 = 5, for very large values of 2
Just use that spray on vinyl dye that car detailers use to change the colour of car interiors.
.
Afterall the vast majority of computers have plastic bevels, while the metal sides are painted with acrylic paint.
You can buy a PC Chips S370 'bare bones' book PC (its even avaliable in black as the 'Delux' model with IR keyboard & mouse/remote
Or you can buy Book PC cases in LPX, NLX, MicroATX or FlexATX format, & build the bugger yourself. Many companies make them, including Enlight ( 7180-mATX , EN-7396 ) & Asus/ElanVital
I've dropped Chieftec a note once or twice, and they are very responsive. I'll definately recommend Chieftec to anyone.
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
The top mount in the G4 is adjustable.... you just have to screw the right side in place first, and then the left edges will bend as necessary. (To be honest it took me a few minutes to figure this out, and then I saw it was in the manual lol) The other two plates are single drive mounts and attach to the bottoms of drives. I've never thought of mounting drives by their bottom side before even if I 'knew' they had mount points there. In general I've found Mac's very convenient once I unlearned some of my PC based assumptions.
try http://www.esctech.com - it's a great website
I've purchased individual components for them in building my own systems, and they've always shipped me quality stuff that they test before shipping. For my last system, I bought the case from them, as well as the components, and they assembled and tested the whole thing for me without charge.
Their website didn't list the specific case and power supply I wanted, so I asked them if they could get the one I wanted, and they did, at a good price! They've been very helpful for the 3 systems I've done. (I have no connection to them other than being a satisfied customer)
Enby in Waltham
Supermicro cases and motherboards, while very expensive in comparision to others at times, have proven very good. While not covered on gaming sites much do to their lack of support for overclocking and being geared towards server equipment, they are great products.
They have proven to be expandable beyond all dreams of mine. I personally am using a Supermicro P6DGU mobo, which has SCSI onboard, a raidport expansion, dual processor support up to dual gigs, 2 gb memory support, and all the PCI expansion that I need.
I am also using a Supermicro 760A case, which has proven to be great (although quite heavy for gaming and lans). The weight, while it may seem like a problem, is really a benefit. I have many other cases of simalar sizes (all of which get comments when people see my computer for the first time, esp if they have a half foot tall Dell), and this has the strongest metal as well as the best construction. My case has only a 300watt power supply, but it has room for more, with modification of course. I sit my UPS on top (which is a beast), and it don't flinch. Its a great system.
My only notes about their stuff, would be that it isn't made for your average user. They don't have an forums on their site, or anything like that. They don't have USB ports on the front (although its a simple mod, and just use a USB hub). My board doesn't have 4x AGP, Firewire, or 64-bit PCI slots. Although many of their boards today have most of those. Anyway, where else are you gonna pick up a doublewide case, with 8 Xeon processors and 8 gb of ram? Well, that's not my system, but its great.
I am currently trying to 'make' a rackmount case for an extra server for Csound (www.csounds.com) and a few other things. Also with supermicro you can get rack cases of all sizes.
Tibbon
tibbon.com
What is he talking about---the Enlight case looks fine. I don't want a tricked-out look. I want a look that's minimalistic, clean, and unobtrusive. The 7237 delivers, don't mess with it. (No, I have no business relationship with Enlight, just a satisfied customer.)
Also, I really like the drive rails. Not because it's easy to swap components; I rarely do that. But it's great to be able to put on the screws while the drive is outside the case, instead of having to bend over the case while holding the drive (feels like I need 3 hands).