Slashdot Mirror
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.
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?
What does it take for a website to be "the best" to you? You've heard about them rigging benchmarks in the favor of their highest paying sponsor (which switches from Intel to AMD all the time), taking credit for articles written by other people (Van Smith has had his name deleted from countless numbers of his articles), and just generally being assholes, right?
Dr. Tom Pabst is one of the least respected people in the hardware community.
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"
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.)
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.
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..
It takes some planning. The quietest cases are those with 120mm fans as opposed to 80mm. Using a heatsink like the Swiftech monsters with a 120-80mm converter and a 120mm fan is very quiet - same airflow at lower RPMs. Right now I'm using:
:-)
LiteOn FS-020 case (3 120mm fan mounts)
Athlon XP 1900+ with Silverado heatsink
"Magic Fleece" noise insulation from plycon.com - _really_ works.
Seagate Barracuda IV drives
All fans (including power supply) replaced with Papst fans (also from plycon.com)
It's much more expensive and time consuming to get all this together. But it's so quiet I have to keep looking down at the drive activity light
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.