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.

Comments

Good Case - Good Site

[hs81]

Tom's Hardware continues to be one of the best sites for this sort of information. Keep up the goodwork guys

Re:Good Case - Good Site

[Spazntwich]

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.

Re:Good Case - Good Site

[Anonymous Coward]

No more tomshardware for me since the Vanshardware scandal.

Re:Good Case - Good Site

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

I do hope you realize that most, if not all, of the articles you are referring to aren't actually written by Tom. Tom is actually a smart guy but unfortunately lets total morons write stories for his site, which morons like you read and think, "Crappy article on tomshardware.com! Must be written by Tom, because I can't read the author's name! Tom sucks!"

Re:Good Case - Good Site

[jo42]

Yeah, got to love it when they state something like the "AMD blew the Intel P-thing away", yet, when you look at the numbers in the benchmarks, the AMD thing was only better 3 out of 10 times only by 2 or 3 percent. When I started noticing shite like this, they lost all creditability.

Re:Good Case - Good Site

[MadKeithV]

Tom is actually a smart guy but unfortunately lets total morons write stories for his site

Which makes him a total moron.
He condones the shitty reviews, faking, and Van Smithing, so the only reason he is a "smart guy" is because he's taking in lots of money from *ntel sponsoring.

The Best Case I've Used

[greg2000]

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).

Re:The Best Case I've Used

[ElCagado]

this bastard ate my sister!

Re:The Best Case I've Used

[Rob.Mathers]

FYI, the Chieftec Dragons are actually just rebadged (and in his case painted) Antec cases. I'm just guessing here, but if you're looking for one of these cases (and don't mind beige or a self-paint job), you could probably get it a little cheaper if you bought it as an Antec rather than a Chieftec.

Re:The Best Case I've Used

[rehannan]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think you've got it reversed. Chieftec is the original manufacturer. This same case design is also sold under some other badges too (can't think of the names right now...). Also, I got my Chieftec case at Newegg for considerably cheaper than the Antec version.

Re:The Best Case I've Used

[therealmoose]

...(Mine Is bright green). Although it's ...

You should edit for /.

Re:The Best Case I've Used

[Grishnakh]

You've got this backwards. Chieftec manufactures the cases, and Antec just rebadges them. However, when you get a Chieftec case, you usually just get the case. When you get an Antec, you get the case plus one of Antec's high-quality power supplies installed.

Re:The Best Case I've Used

[Anonymous Coward]

Like eveyone else pointed out antec rebadges chieftec cases, NOT the other way around.

Re:The Best Case I've Used

[Anonymous Coward]

Cheiftec, Antec, Enermax, and all the rest are all rebadgers. The cases are manfactured by Chenming...

Re:The Best Case I've Used

[Anonymous Coward]

Chenming and Chieftec are the same company.

Re:The Best Case I've Used

[ncc74656]

However, when you get a Chieftec case, you usually just get the case. When you get an Antec, you get the case plus one of Antec's high-quality power supplies installed.

This varies from one reseller to the next. I have a couple of Chieftec DX-01WDs at home. The one purchased at PC Club came with an Enermax 330W power supply and two or three case fans. The one purchased from Newegg came with some power supply I'd never heard of (replaced it with the Enermax 330W supply from the system that was moving into it) and no case fans (bought a couple @ PC Club to fix that).

(Then again, the price out the door @ PC Club was a little under 2x what I paid for the same case @ Newegg...)

Spouting My Opinion

[handsomepete]

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...

Re:Spouting My Opinion

[rigelstar]

$300 for a atx case seems to be overly priced. I wouldn't pay more then $50 for a case. Just don't sit on it!

Re:Spouting My Opinion

[handsomepete]

I guess it depends on your opinion of expensive... I'll spend 50 bucks on a stinkin power supply alone. Coinceidentally, they only have three cases over a hundred bucks (w/o power supplies) and all three are pretty huge.

Besides, if I don't sit on it, how am I supposed to know if it's any good?

Re:Spouting My Opinion

[MonkeyBoy]

Addtronics doesn't make many products themselves, they repackage other people's stuff pretty much across their entire line of products (cases or otherwise).

That said, a couple of those full-size towers are identical to ones I've purchased in the past from other vendors. Not only can you sit on them (and I'm no fly-weight), you can lay them on the side and sit on them on that axis too. In other words, damn sturdy.

However, I don't think their entire line is that bulletproof. I've got some serious stinkers from them in the past, but then again, this makes sense given that they are just repackaging other people's goods.

Re:Spouting My Opinion

[RestiffBard]

Second that. My addtonrics case is just rock frickin solid. First thing I did was sit on it. And I love the various features. The swing out doors, the drive rail system, the mobo tray, etc... Addtronics is just great. I don't see why they don't get more press. go buy one folks.

OMG Camping fagot!

[Rock 'N' Troll]

LIiNUUhkS suckagezor! Ll1Nûx suxx! LliNûXx sUks! LlIiNüX sux0rz L1|\|üXx sux0rz 1IinUUhkS suxx! L1NnûkS zux LINUUhX asssuck lLiNUux sux0rz LiNûkS suxx! lLinUKs sux0rz
1INUx buttsucks! LlïNhUUhkS suxx! lINUuXx goatsuck! lïNnüx asssuck lL1NhUuKs goatsuck! LIiNnUuX sux0rz lînüX sux0rz LlîNhUkS lolloscucks! LIiNUx zux 11nUUhkS goatsuck! 1ïNüX lolloscucks!
1IiNüx suckagezor! LîNnûX sUks! lLiNüKs zux lLINûKs zux LïNhûXx sUks! LlINUkS buttsucks! LliNnUuKs suckagezor! lLINûX suckagezor! lIiNüX asssuck 1IiNhUUhX sucks! LlIiNhüX buttsucks!
LinUks buttsucks! LïNnuks asssuck LiNUUhks asssuck lLîNUx goatsuck! lIiNUks sUks! LI|\|ux buttsucks! LiNUuks sUks! LlINûXx sux0rz LïNUuks suxx! lLIi|\|üx buttsucks! lInUUhKs suckagezor!
LINUkS asssuck LlIiNnüx sux0rz 1INüx zux LlIiNnüXx suckagezor! lïNhuKs sux0rz LlINûks suxx! lïNüX goatsuck! L1|\|ûKs sucks! lLîNhUkS sucks! lîNnUuKs asssuck LlîNükS sucks!
1iNüX buttsucks! lIinukS suckagezor! lL1nUUhks suckagezor! lLîNhUks goatsuck! L1NnûkS zux 1î|\|UUhKs goatsuck! Llî|\|üKs suxx! LINUx zux lL1NhUUhXx goatsuck! 11NnUukS goatsuck! Li|\|ux buttsucks!
Ll1NUkS asssuck 11|\|üks suckagezor! LiNUUhkS suxx! LIi|\|Uux asssuck Ll1|\|uXx suxx! lîNûKs buttsucks! 1iNûKs sucks! Ll1NUX suckagezor! 11NhUukS asssuck 1i|\|uX sux0rz Ll1NhUXx buttsucks!
LINnUUhx buttsucks! lLInuKs lolloscucks! 1îNnUukS suckagezor! 1îNûx zux LlINnUux sUks! lïNhüks sucks! lL1NnUuKs goatsuck! LlI|\|UuXx suxx! 1INnUKs buttsucks! LI|\|UukS buttsucks! Ll1NnuXx suxx!
l1NUx asssuck LlîNnuKs suxx! lLINnUuX sUks! LïnUX suxx! lîNhUUhX lolloscucks! lîNuXx lolloscucks! 1iNhUUhXx suxx! lL1NnUUhx asssuck LlI|\|UukS goatsuck! lL1|\|UukS sUks! lLINhUuX asssuck
LlïNnûXx goatsuck! 1INukS suxx! lLiNUUhkS lolloscucks! LiNnUux goatsuck! LINUUhkS goatsuck! LinUUhXx sUks! lLIiNnUx asssuck LîNhUuks lolloscucks! Lï|\|UXx zux LInûKs sux0rz LINhüKs suckagezor!
Ll1NhUUhKs sux0rz lînUuX sux0rz lLIiNhUuKs suckagezor! LIiNuXx goatsuck! lIiNhUukS lolloscucks! 1INhUuks lolloscucks! 11NUUhKs zux 1iNhUuX buttsucks! 1ïNhûKs asssuck LlîNUUhXx zux LïNux asssuck
11NnUuX suckagezor! L1nUukS suxx! 1ïNnûXx asssuck lLIiNnûX sucks! LINnUuks suxx! LïNhüks suckagezor! LIiNUUhx lolloscucks! LîNhux suckagezor! LINUx sux0rz lLIi|\|ûKs asssuck LINnûKs buttsucks!
lLïNhüx sux0rz lïNhUUhXx suckagezor! 1I|\|uks suxx! LlI|\|Uux sux0rz Li|\|UUhkS zux 1îNnUUhkS suckagezor! LlInüx zux Ll1NUx lolloscucks! LîNhüX zux 1îNhUX zux 11Nhüks goatsuck!
LINnUks buttsucks! Ll1NUUhKs zux 1IiNnuXx sux0rz lIiNhüKs sUks! Lï|\|uks goatsuck! lLIi|\|UUhx goatsuck! 1IiNUKs goatsuck! LïNhux suckagezor! lîNhUuks suckagezor! l1NUuX zux 1ïNûks asssuck
LinUUhX buttsucks! LïNnüks zux lïNnUuX asssuck lInUuKs sucks! LiNUuXx lolloscucks! LINüx zux 1INnüXx sUks! LïNhuX sux0rz LlIiNUUhkS zux LîNüks buttsucks! lîNUUhXx zux
Lïnux sUks! lLiNUkS zux l1|\|Ux buttsucks! LlïnükS zux LINûx buttsucks! LiNUXx suxx! 1inUks sucks! lï|\|UKs sucks! LlINhûx asssuck LïNnUKs zux LlînükS suckagezor!
LINhUuKs lolloscucks! 1INnUUhX suxx! Llï|\|UUhX zux LlI|\|UUhkS suckagezor! lLIinukS sUks! LlîNnux buttsucks! 11NUUhX buttsucks! LïNhUks asssuck Llî|\|üX lolloscucks! LlinUUhKs asssuck LlIinUXx goatsuck!
liNnUUhXx suckagezor! LIi|\|UUhX asssuck lînux lolloscucks! LïNûKs lolloscucks! lL1|\|üKs sUks! lI|\|uks zux LlINhux lolloscucks! lLinUkS sUks! 11|\|UUhXx suxx! lLiNhuKs goatsuck! 1îNukS goatsuck!
lLIiNnUux sUks! Llî|\|UUhXx goatsuck! l1NhûXx lolloscucks! LIi|\|ükS zux LlîNUUhx lolloscucks! 1înUUhkS suxx! LlINûx suckagezor! lLIiNUuX asssuck 1îNUUhXx sucks! LiNüks suxx! lInUXx suckagezor!
LI|\|ûXx sUks! Ll1NnUuKs sUks! lI|\|UkS suxx! L1nukS suckagezor! 1IiNhux suxx! L1Nnûx sux0rz lL1Nüks asssuck LIinUUhks asssuck LîNnüXx zux LinUUhXx suxx! L1NhUKs suckagezor!
LïNhûKs lolloscucks! LIiNhûX asssuck lLIi|\|ûkS suckagezor! LiNnUUhx suckagezor! LINûKs sux0rz lLIi|\|UUhx asssuck LïNhûkS zux LINhüX sUks! LîNnükS suxx! lLIi|\|üXx asssuck LIi|\|ûks asssuck
lI|\|UUhkS suckagezor! lîNnUuks lolloscucks! LIiNnUuKs goatsuck! LliNnUkS buttsucks! LînUux goatsuck! lîNhûks suckagezor! Lli|\|üx sucks! lIinUUhXx goatsuck! Lï|\|UkS lolloscucks! 1Ii|\|ukS goatsuck! LîNukS suckagezor!
lLîNüX suckagezor! 1ïNUKs buttsucks! lInüx goatsuck! LïNUUhXx asssuck LlïNUUhx sUks! L1NhükS zux Llî|\|ûx zux lî|\|UkS sUks! LINüX goatsuck! lLïNnuKs lolloscucks! lLINnüKs lolloscucks!
lînûXx zux LlI|\|ükS sux0rz 11|\|UukS sucks! 1inUx goatsuck! LINhUUhks sux0rz LIinUUhXx sUks! lLIiNUux lolloscucks! l1NuKs sucks! lINnükS sUks! 1îNUUhx buttsucks! 1iNUuXx suxx!
Ll1|\|UkS sUks! lIinUXx asssuck LliNnUukS buttsucks! 11Nuks goatsuck! 1îNUuks asssuck LlïNUKs suxx! Li|\|UXx lolloscucks! lINnUuXx sUks! lLinUuks sucks! LîNhûKs suxx! lLîNUuX sUks!
Lî|\|ükS asssuck lîNhûks sUks! LIinûKs buttsucks! 1inUux asssuck LîNUUhx sucks! Llï|\|UUhX zux LliNhUUhx sUks! 1iNUukS sux0rz lLIiNhUuks suxx! LïNnUuks suckagezor! LIiNnUks sucks!
1IiNnUkS suxx! Ll1Nnûx suckagezor! 1IiNûXx suckagezor! lInUUhKs lolloscucks! 11NnükS goatsuck! LI|\|ukS goatsuck! 1ïnüks suckagezor! l1NhuKs goatsuck! liNüx sucks! lL1NUUhKs asssuck LiNUuXx sUks!
LîNüX zux l1NUuX goatsuck! LIiNhûks zux lIiNUx lolloscucks! lLinûKs sux0rz 1îNhûXx goatsuck! LlîNUUhx goatsuck! lIiNUX suckagezor! lL1NükS zux 1IiNükS asssuck L1NUuX buttsucks!
LliNükS asssuck LïNüx sux0rz LîNhUUhks lolloscucks! lLINnüKs buttsucks! LliNUuXx sux0rz LiNUKs buttsucks! LlINUX sux0rz 11nUux goatsuck! L1|\|ûks sux0rz LïNnUuKs sUks! LI|\|UuXx lolloscucks!
lLïNUuXx buttsucks! 1INnUuKs buttsucks! LiNûks lolloscucks! l1Nnüx sux0rz LINUkS buttsucks! LîNnûx suckagezor! LînükS sucks! LlîNnuKs suxx! 1INüX suckagezor! 1ïNUks buttsucks! liNUux buttsucks!
1î|\|Uuks lolloscucks! lLINhûKs lolloscucks! 1ïNUks buttsucks! lL1NhUUhks sucks! 1IiNhUUhks sux0rz Llï|\|üXx zux LïNUX buttsucks! l1NüKs sucks! 1îNnûks sucks! LiNhüx buttsucks! 1iNûks suxx!
LlInUks zux lïNnUXx suxx! l1nUkS suxx! 1INUuX asssuck l1|\|Uux sUks! 1înûks suxx! lIiNhUX suckagezor! LlîNhûkS suckagezor! L1NûKs sucks! LiNUKs sUks! lINnuX sux0rz
lLiNûkS suxx! 1ï|\|UXx zux 11NüXx sux0rz LlîNnuks suxx! LlïNûkS buttsucks! lîNUUhKs lolloscucks! 1iNUUhKs zux lLinuKs suckagezor! 1Ii|\|üx buttsucks! LiNnUXx suckagezor! LîNnûXx suckagezor!
lLIiNhUuXx asssuck Ll1|\|ûX sUks! LiNhuks lolloscucks! 1InüKs sUks! LINhUUhX asssuck lîNnUks asssuck lL1Nhüks sux0rz L1NUX buttsucks! LlïNüx suckagezor! L1nUKs suckagezor! LIiNnüx sucks!
lL1Nûx lolloscucks! lîNnüx sux0rz 1inükS asssuck LlïnUUhx asssuck lINUXx buttsucks! lLINUuKs asssuck lLINnukS sux0rz LïnUXx suckagezor! L1NUX goatsuck! lLINhûXx suxx! LlïnûKs buttsucks!
lL1|\|UUhks sux0rz Li|\|UXx suxx! lLINhüx buttsucks! 1Ii|\|UkS sUks! L1NUX zux LïnUx goatsuck! LiNhuks suxx! LIiNUUhXx sucks! LINnUUhXx buttsucks! LlînûkS zux LlînûXx sUks!
LlIiNüks asssuck 1INnUukS buttsucks! 1INûks suckagezor! LîNhux asssuck 1iNhUUhkS lolloscucks! L1NUx zux L1NhUUhx lolloscucks! LlîNUUhx suckagezor! LïNüKs zux LIiNUuXx sux0rz 1î|\|uks suxx!
lLî|\|uX asssuck LlInuks suxx! LliNnüX sux0rz LlïNüX buttsucks! l1NhükS sUks! LliNnUUhKs buttsucks! 11|\|UkS suckagezor! lLINUuKs sUks! LînüXx sUks! lLïNhüx lolloscucks! lINnûX sux0rz
11Nnux asssuck LIi|\|ux sUks! LînUukS suxx! LINnUKs goatsuck! 1INûX zux LïNUkS buttsucks! lLINUUhKs sUks! LîNUUhXx suckagezor! LlînUuX asssuck lîNUkS sUks! lïNhUkS suxx!
1INüKs suckagezor! lLINhûKs suxx! LlINUUhKs sucks! 1ïNûXx zux Lînuks sUks! lïNuX lolloscucks! Lli|\|ukS buttsucks! 11|\|ûKs sucks! LINüXx sux0rz 1inüXx suxx! LlïNnüks sUks!
LîNUX sucks! LIiNUukS lolloscucks! lLînükS sucks! liNnukS suxx! LIinûKs asssuck LInux goatsuck! Ll1NhUks suxx! lLIiNUuXx goatsuck! lLInUX suckagezor! 1IiNuks lolloscucks! LlI|\|UUhKs goatsuck!
lInûkS sucks! LI|\|UuXx lolloscucks! LIiNhüx buttsucks! lInuX asssuck LINûXx asssuck LINUx buttsucks! LinUUhXx sux0rz Linux asssuck lLIiNüKs zux LïNûks goatsuck! lIiNûx asssuck
L1nüX zux LInUX sux0rz lInûks suxx! lINnUUhx buttsucks! lIiNhükS asssuck 1îNnUUhXx sucks! LîNUuXx asssuck 11nUuX goatsuck! lLïNukS goatsuck! L1NhüXx zux LIinûXx buttsucks!
lINûKs lolloscucks! 1I|\|ûKs sUks! lIiNnUX zux 1IiNhüXx goatsuck! 1Ii|\|ükS asssuck lLïnuKs sUks! LîNhüKs goatsuck! LïNhUks suxx! lLïNûks asssuck 1ï|\|ükS suckagezor! L1NuX sUks!
lLIiNhûks lolloscucks! LlînUuKs goatsuck! lï|\|UUhkS sucks! L1NüX asssuck lLIiNûKs buttsucks! 1î|\|ûx suxx! LINUKs sUks! lLINhUkS sux0rz LïNûKs suxx! LlInUX zux linUuX sucks!
LlînUx goatsuck! L1nüks sucks! LINnUuX zux 1iNhUuKs sucks! LlINhUUhXx buttsucks! Ll1|\|ûXx sUks! lIiNhUUhX asssuck LiNux sucks! L1NnUks buttsucks! 1îNnUUhKs sux0rz lïNûXx suxx!
lLïNUuks buttsucks! 1INUUhkS suxx! lLIiNnuXx sux0rz lîNnüks suxx! lIiNûKs sUks! LIinUUhXx buttsucks! LiNhüx sucks! 1INUks sux0rz LINhûks suxx! lI|\|UUhks suxx! 1îNhUukS lolloscucks!
lïNnükS asssuck linUux asssuck Ll1NhuKs goatsuck! lLiNUuKs sucks! lLïNUUhX buttsucks! Lînûx suckagezor! LîNUuKs suxx! LlInUuks suxx! 1i|\|ûx buttsucks! lIi|\|ûX sux0rz LlîNux sux0rz
l1NhUux lolloscucks! lLiNUXx sucks! LïNnUUhXx suckagezor! 1i|\|UX sUks! LlI|\|uKs lolloscucks! LliNUXx goatsuck! lLïNnukS zux lîNüks goatsuck! LIiNhUXx sux0rz LïnüXx asssuck l1nUXx sucks!
LïnUX goatsuck! lLïNnûkS buttsucks! 1IiNhUuKs sux0rz L1NüKs sUks! 11NUux lolloscucks! Ll1NûX sux0rz LiNUUhkS lolloscucks! 1îNhüks asssuck LInuXx suxx! Lî|\|ûXx goatsuck! l1NûXx sucks!
LîNükS goatsuck! lIiNhUkS zux LiNUuks sUks! LliNhükS buttsucks! lIiNhUKs asssuck lL1NUUhx asssuck Li|\|Ux suxx! lînUXx sUks! LiNnüx suxx! LliNüks goatsuck! lL1|\|ûX sucks!
LIiNnûX lolloscucks! lïnuXx sucks! lLïnUUhKs suckagezor! LiNûks buttsucks! lL1NüXx lolloscucks! Lï|\|Uuks sucks! LINnUUhX suckagezor! LlïNhüks asssuck l1NnUukS lolloscucks! lINnUuX sux0rz 1ïNnûKs buttsucks!
1Ii|\|uKs suckagezor! 11|\|ûks asssuck LlIiNUUhXx sucks! lLîNükS asssuck LliNnûXx suxx! l1Nuks lolloscucks! 1i|\|üks suckagezor! lLIiNUXx lolloscucks! LInux sucks! lLiNnux sUks! lINnUkS suckagezor!
Ll1NüKs sUks! LïnüKs buttsucks! L1NnUuks sucks! lLînUUhKs sux0rz LINhuXx suxx! LlinUks sucks! lLîNhuKs lolloscucks! lI|\|UukS suxx! 11NüX buttsucks! lîNüx buttsucks! lLîNuXx asssuck
lînükS suxx! 1InUkS buttsucks! LliNhuks asssuck l1|\|üx sux0rz 1IiNnUKs zux lL1nukS zux L1NUUhx sucks! lLINhUUhXx asssuck LïNhUux asssuck lLiNuX suckagezor! L1NhuXx suxx!
LInuks buttsucks! 1Ii|\|ukS suxx! lLîNUXx sucks! LINUx suxx! lLîNüXx sUks! Linûx sux0rz lLïNuXx asssuck LlïnûX goatsuck! LïNnUx asssuck LlîNnüX sUks! lïNUks zux
LlIiNUx lolloscucks! 1îNuks sucks! LlIiNnUuXx sux0rz lI|\|UXx lolloscucks! 11NhûXx sUks! Lïnûx sUks! LiNUXx zux lïNUuX buttsucks! lîNnukS suxx! lLInUukS sucks! LïNnUkS sucks!
liNUXx buttsucks! 1I|\|uX zux Ll1NUks lolloscucks! lLINnûks sux0rz lLîNhüks sux0rz lLIi|\|ükS sUks! lîNnUUhks buttsucks! Ll1NnUKs asssuck 1IiNûX goatsuck! LINnUuXx sucks! li|\|ûks goatsuck!
lINûx lolloscucks! L1NhûKs suckagezor! LINhUUhx suxx! lLînUUhks suxx! Ll1nüks zux l1NnükS goatsuck! lïNUUhKs zux LïNhUUhXx asssuck lIiNûks zux 1IiNhUuKs sUks! LîNnûks sUks!
lL1NuX buttsucks! 1i|\|UUhks suckagezor! lL1NhuKs zux LlInux suckagezor! L1Nhux zux lL1|\|üXx asssuck Lî|\|UUhX sux0rz LIi|\|üx sucks! lLiNuKs buttsucks! LîNhUux sucks! 1inûX suxx!
LliNUks sUks! lLIiNnUx sUks! lInUux suckagezor! 1îNnUKs buttsucks! lLïNüXx asssuck liNhUUhkS sucks! lLIiNUks sUks! L1|\|UUhXx lolloscucks! lLïNnüKs suxx! LînüXx buttsucks! lLïNUUhkS goatsuck!
LîNUuks lolloscucks! lLïNüX sucks! LIiNux suxx! LIiNUUhx goatsuck! LlîNnuXx suxx! 1ï|\|UX goatsuck! lïNnUkS buttsucks! 1ï|\|UukS sux0rz lLîNûks asssuck Ll1NUUhkS zux Lî|\|uKs sucks!
lLI|\|ûKs sux0rz LIi|\|üXx sucks! Ll1NUuKs lolloscucks! l1NûXx sUks! lL1NUuX goatsuck! lLïNûx suxx! Llï|\|UKs buttsucks! lLîNhUkS asssuck liNhüks sucks! Ll1NUkS lolloscucks! LIiNhûXx zux
LïNhUks buttsucks! LIi|\|UX sUks! lIiNUuks zux lL1Nüx suckagezor! liNuXx lolloscucks! LlIinûX asssuck L1nUKs lolloscucks! L1|\|UKs lolloscucks! lL1Nhûx sUks! LîNhuKs sucks! lLinüks sucks!
LIi|\|UUhx sUks! LïNûks buttsucks! LIiNnükS suxx! LINhUUhks suckagezor! lLïnüKs goatsuck! lLïNUukS buttsucks! LINüks goatsuck! LïNUUhXx asssuck L1Nux sucks! 1îNhüXx sux0rz LlINnüKs lolloscucks!
LînUks sucks! Lï|\|üX sucks! LlIiNhûx goatsuck! lï|\|UKs asssuck LîNuKs suxx! Llî|\|Uux suckagezor! li|\|UKs sux0rz 1ïNUUhks asssuck LlîNnûXx sux0rz LlINhükS zux 1inUUhXx asssuck
1ïNhûKs sUks! LïNUUhx sux0rz LinuX suxx! 1inux sux0rz Llï|\|üKs zux LiNüks goatsuck! 1IiNhUukS goatsuck! lLINnUUhks sux0rz LînUuXx lolloscucks! lîNnuXx goatsuck! lLîNnüKs sux0rz
lLï|\|ûks suckagezor! Ll1|\|Uuks zux lINhüXx sucks! LINûKs buttsucks! LiNnUux suxx! lLI|\|UuKs suckagezor! lLIinüks buttsucks! lLI|\|UX sUks! liNhükS buttsucks! lLIi|\|UukS goatsuck! l1Nhüx sucks!
LînüX suckagezor! LlINnUXx suxx! Ll1nUukS asssuck Ll1NnükS zux 1ïnüKs asssuck L1NUx buttsucks! Ll1NnüKs lolloscucks! lîNûX goatsuck! Ll1NnûXx lolloscucks! 1îNuX suckagezor! lLIiNükS sUks!
LlïNux sUks! LlïNûx lolloscucks! lïNuXx suxx! lLIi|\|üks sux0rz lLî|\|ûkS goatsuck! lINnUUhKs zux 1iNnûXx suxx! LiNüXx sUks! LiNnUX sux0rz LInüKs asssuck lLiNnUuks zux
LInüx lolloscucks! Ll1|\|Ux suckagezor! LI|\|üx sUks! l1nUUhKs zux LlINhUukS lolloscucks! LîNUx buttsucks! LlîNnûkS suxx! LïnUuX buttsucks! lLiNhUx suckagezor! LlïNUUhkS buttsucks! LlIi|\|ûXx suxx!
Li|\|ûkS sUks! lî|\|UukS suxx! 1îNUuKs goatsuck! li|\|ûKs zux LlIiNhUUhX suckagezor! LlIinux suxx! LîNUks zux LînUUhX sucks! LI|\|Uux sUks! L1NukS sucks! LlI|\|uKs sUks!
Lï|\|Uks sucks! Linuks zux Ll1NhUKs sucks! 1IinükS buttsucks! LliNnUks sux0rz LIinUukS goatsuck! 1IiNhUUhX suxx! lL1Nüx sUks! 1î|\|üKs asssuck lLïNukS asssuck lLINuKs zux
liNnüX lolloscucks! lîNnüXx sUks! 1ïNnüX zux 1iNnukS suckagezor! LiNûkS sux0rz LIiNhUuks sux0rz lîNûx zux LlIi|\|uks sUks! Ll1NnUXx sucks! 1iNnUukS sUks! LïNUux asssuck
l1|\|UXx suxx! lLî|\|uKs suxx! LîNUKs buttsucks! 11NhUuks sux0rz Li|\|Uuks asssuck lLîNUUhX sucks! lLînüx zux 1ïNnûks zux lLînUuXx suckagezor! L1nûKs sUks! 11NnUUhKs suxx!
LïNnUuXx lolloscucks! lIiNûKs buttsucks! 1î|\|ûkS buttsucks! LlIi|\|UUhx lolloscucks! Ll1Nnûks sUks! lî|\|üks suxx! lLïNhukS suckagezor! LliNnukS sUks! LîNnüks goatsuck! lLïNükS lolloscucks! lLIiNüx buttsucks!
LlîNûkS asssuck LIiNnükS sucks! 1îNûx sUks! lî|\|UUhXx suckagezor! 1i|\|ûx zux LïNhüKs lolloscucks! lLIiNüx zux Linux suckagezor! 1ïNnUUhkS suckagezor! lLïNUuKs asssuck LlInUuks sux0rz
lLïNûX sUks! LînûkS zux LIiNhüx sUks! LlIiNukS lolloscucks! Li|\|Uks asssuck LIiNnUUhkS suxx! lLînUX sux0rz LïNhUuKs suxx! LIiNUUhKs lolloscucks! 11NuX asssuck LîNnUuks sUks!
LI|\|UKs suckagezor! LlIiNnUUhXx sux0rz LlIiNUUhks suckagezor! Lî|\|UXx sux0rz 1INhux buttsucks! 1InUKs sux0rz LlIiNhux asssuck LïNUXx buttsucks! lîNhûX asssuck LiNûx sucks! 1iNnûXx goatsuck!
lLïNhûXx sux0rz LliNUux suxx! LlINnux goatsuck! LïnüKs suxx! LlînUuX sux0rz lINnux asssuck LlïNhûXx lolloscucks! LiNux suckagezor! Lli|\|uXx sUks! 1i|\|üKs suckagezor! liNnüX asssuck
Llï|\|UKs sUks! lLî|\|UUhXx suckagezor! lLïNUuX goatsuck! LlI|\|uKs sucks! L1NhUXx zux 1iNUks asssuck 11NUX zux Li|\|UUhKs sUks! lLIiNhUX buttsucks! lL1|\|UKs asssuck Lï|\|UukS lolloscucks!
lLï|\|UUhKs sux0rz LlIiNhüks sucks! lLîNükS suckagezor! Li|\|UukS goatsuck! LINnUx suckagezor! Li|\|UUhks zux LlIiNuks sucks! 1inûKs sux0rz LîNUUhx zux LliNUXx suckagezor! LîNUUhkS sUks!
lL1NUuX sucks! lLinUUhkS asssuck lînUks goatsuck! LInUuX asssuck L1|\|ûkS zux LiNüX sUks! 1INhUuks goatsuck! lLîNnUUhkS suckagezor! LiNUkS zux LlîNnûXx lolloscucks! lîNUx sux0rz
11|\|UUhkS zux LINUUhkS sux0rz lîNUUhXx buttsucks! 11NnükS sux0rz LlINhüKs goatsuck! LIinüks lolloscucks! li|\|Ux asssuck LIi|\|üX sux0rz L1Nnux suxx! Ll1Nhüks asssuck LlïNhuXx sux0rz
LïNnUUhX sUks! lLïNhuX lolloscucks! Lînüks sux0rz LlînûXx suckagezor! 11|\|Uks sux0rz lLïNüx sucks! 1IiNhUuKs asssuck 1inUUhks zux lLîNhUukS suxx! lLiNûkS lolloscucks! lLîNhUXx sucks!
lï|\|ukS sux0rz lL1Nûks asssuck Lli|\|uX sux0rz LlîNhUKs suckagezor! lLIi|\|UuX asssuck lLIi|\|ûkS buttsucks! LIiNnUX goatsuck! 1i|\|UuXx suxx! lLiNûXx suckagezor! Ll1NükS buttsucks! LlINhuXx sUks!
lLï|\|ûx suxx! LlîNuKs buttsucks! lîNüKs buttsucks! 1iNUuXx sucks! 1INhüXx zux LINhUUhks zux lïNhûX zux LINhUuXx buttsucks! LinûkS asssuck lînUx suxx! LlIi|\|üXx suckagezor!
lLINuX suckagezor! LINux sucks! LîNükS zux lLI|\|UKs sUks! Llïnüks sux0rz lLîNUUhks sux0rz LINhUx buttsucks! 1îNUUhkS suckagezor! LIiNnUUhX goatsuck! 1IiNnûx buttsucks! lLiNhukS suckagezor!
L1nüKs suckagezor! LIiNhûX suxx! lIiNûks sux0rz liNux goatsuck! Ll1NhUX asssuck lINUux suxx! LïNhûks suckagezor! Lli|\|ûx sUks! lLiNhUuKs lolloscucks! LïNUukS buttsucks! Li|\|UuKs lolloscucks!
LINUUhXx goatsuck! lI|\|UUhkS sUks! L1NhUkS goatsuck! L1|\|UuXx lolloscucks! lLîNuKs suckagezor! Llï|\|ûks sUks! LIiNUkS buttsucks! LIiNhUX goatsuck! LlîNhUkS lolloscucks! L1NüX sucks! Lï|\|uX lolloscucks!
LlINuKs sUks! LlINûX sux0rz lLIi|\|ûx lolloscucks! LIi|\|Uuks sUks! LlIinüks sUks! 1îNUUhkS goatsuck! lLInüx sucks! 1Ii|\|UXx lolloscucks! LiNnUUhXx sux0rz 11NûKs asssuck LliNhux goatsuck!
LîNnûx sUks! lLINûks suckagezor! LI|\|UkS suckagezor! LINhUX sucks! lLiNnuKs suxx! lLi|\|ûkS asssuck lLINnUX suckagezor! LïnuX asssuck LîNhûKs zux 1iNnûX sUks! lLîNnUux zux
1INüKs sucks! L1NnUuX zux LlîNûKs goatsuck! 1îNûXx suxx! LInuks asssuck 1ïNhüX sUks! lIiNhûKs zux 1îNUUhkS buttsucks! lINhUXx suxx! LïNUx sUks! LiNhUkS sux0rz
LlîNnûX buttsucks! lïNüKs asssuck 1ïNUuks buttsucks! LIiNhUuKs buttsucks! LINûx goatsuck! 1înUUhks goatsuck! linüks suckagezor! LlIinûKs suckagezor! LïNhUXx buttsucks! lI|\|UKs lolloscucks! 1IiNuX goatsuck!
1i|\|ukS buttsucks! lL1|\|UukS sUks! liNuXx goatsuck! lLiNUUhx zux LIi|\|UkS sux0rz LI|\|UUhXx suckagezor! LlIinUx asssuck Ll1NUuks lolloscucks! LîNhûXx sux0rz lLïNüKs sUks! LïNUuX sux0rz
1î|\|Uuks suckagezor! LlI|\|uX zux LïNnüKs sux0rz LINUX buttsucks! LîNhüXx sux0rz LlInUukS zux LlîNUks buttsucks! lïNhüKs suxx! lLINnüXx goatsuck! lIi|\|UUhXx buttsucks! LïNnux sUks!
lLîNhUKs zux LlINUuKs zux LîNUux sucks! LïNnUuX suxx! 1IiNuks lolloscucks! LIiNüX zux l1NnUUhx asssuck LîNüKs suckagezor! LlINhûkS sUks! lLIiNhUkS suckagezor! Ll1nUKs buttsucks!
LlïNhUuKs zux 1INüKs sUks! lLï|\|Uks sucks! LInûX goatsuck! LïNnûkS buttsucks! LlI|\|uks buttsucks! Lli|\|UUhKs asssuck 11NhüKs asssuck L1NnUuks suxx! 11NnukS lolloscucks! lLIiNhUXx suxx!
1INûXx suxx! lLî|\|ûXx suckagezor! LI|\|UuX zux lLîNuXx goatsuck! lLINhUuks sux0rz L1NhUUhXx goatsuck! L1NnUks goatsuck! lïNnUux suxx! 1îNUUhx lolloscucks! LiNhuks sUks! lîNhûXx zux
LlïNUUhks zux LïNukS goatsuck! LlînUuks suckagezor! lLïNUuKs buttsucks! 1ïNUuX asssuck L1NUx lolloscucks! Llïnüx asssuck LIiNnûx lolloscucks! LlI|\|UKs goatsuck! LINUux suxx! lLIinüks suckagezor!
lLIiNüks sux0rz lL1NUuKs suxx! lLIiNUUhKs lolloscucks! LIiNhUX suxx! LïNnûXx buttsucks! lIiNUUhks sux0rz LlINUUhXx buttsucks! lL1NükS suxx! lLî|\|UuKs suxx! 1ïNnUukS suxx! 1INûX buttsucks!

Australian Overclockers

[Anonymous Coward]

Australian Overclockers have great ideas for cases. Some of them innovative.

60623
siliconghetto

Re:Australian Overclockers

[xcomputer_man]

And for some of the weirdest looking, coolest looking, or scariest looking cases you could possibly find, check out their PC Gallery.

That car one is absolutely incredible. :)

--
This space for rent

Re:Australian Overclockers

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

He he.... The car one is deffinitly different. It looks like a 1/5 or 1/4 scale R/C car with it's innards ripped out.

What would be even more impressive was if he had both the R/C stuff and computer in there at the same time. A truly portable computer!...If you don't mind grease/dirt/fuel/oil/exaust getting all over the computer that is ;)

The Ideal Case

[donnacha]

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.

Re:The Ideal Case

[saveth]

That's like trying to fit CowboyNeal inside a soup can. It just isn't going to work.

Even if it did, the mass-to-volume ratio would be too large, and the can would collapse into a singularity.

Re:The Ideal Case

[Spazntwich]

I wouldn't ask him to cool your CPU if I were you. He blows out too much hot air.

Re:The Ideal Case

[packeteer]

he may not be quiter than your fan but the screams of pain from his webservers from a good slshdotting wont.... btw try their other server...
here

Re:The Ideal Case

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that linus does a fine job of blowing.

Information about cases from a noise angle...

[wherley]

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.

Re:Information about cases from a noise angle...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's really weird that trying to build/buy a quiet computer is more like a special order these days.

Everyone I know bitches about how noisy their new Athlon XP2100+ is but it has never occurred to them that they are customers. If they would start insisting on quiet computers the markets would certainly respond. But no...

Re:Information about cases from a noise angle...

[Bilestoad]

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 :-)

Re:Information about cases from a noise angle...

[rapidweather]

Just a thought. One of those new iMac's with Mandrake Linux installed. Anyone have enough bread to be able to afford one of those or know someone who has one, to see if it is quiet or not?

Re:Information about cases from a noise angle...

[Paul Komarek]

Thanks for the Plycon link. When I was looking for Papst fans in the US two years ago, I gave up. You could find the noiser high flow Papst fans from Newark, but you couldn't find the quiet ones on this side of the Atlantic.

I wanted to add something to you your planning list: the power supply. The case you suggest is a good, high quality case, and if a PSU is included it is probably pretty good. In most cases, pun intended and necessary, to really keep the noise down one usually has to replace the stock PSU. For instance, Enermax makes makes some very nice dual-fan power supplies where the backboard fan can run slowly and be quiet, while the inside fan is faster and louder but not particularly audible outside the case. Be prepared to spend at least $50 on a good power supply.

In the last couple years I've tried the Chenbro Genie, Fong-Kai FK320, and the Chenbro Junior. The Fong-Kai came with the worst power supply, and the Antec PSU I ordered for the Genie became loud in a bit less than a year. The Genie and the Junior could probably run with only 120mm fans (except for those in the PSU, of course -- and the Genie can take a 92mm for the drive cage, if desired). The FK-320 needs a 92mm fan in back, which is the most important case fan. Overall the FK-320 is the noisest box. Both of these cases have sides that "slide" off forward or backwards, and both hang up terribly and are a real pain.

The Junior with an Enermax EG365-P-FC, a 120mm NMB on the back (could replace it with a Panasonic 120mm 'L1A or whatever -- I had this one on hand from Mouser Electronics) and also on the 80mm Alpha PAL8045 heatsink (with copper shim and Arctic Silver 3! ;-) is my quietest machine by far. I am extremely pleased with it. I should mention that this machine is an Athlon XP 1900+ with a 10Krpm SCSI drive and ATI Radeon DDR 32 AIW, which I use for gaming and numerics (I'm a grad student). So far I've not come anywhere near heat problems to the best of my knowledge, even has Pittsburgh has (occassionally) skipped Spring and jumped to summer. If I run into trouble, I can always add a front fan. The sides lift off, starting with a handle-driven cam, and work perfectly.

The links I provided are to my favorite case and heat sink/fan vendors, respectively. Directron will let you choose which PSU you want for the case, has a terrific stock of cases, and has some cool case badges (includinge Tux!). 1CoolPC has a small, hand-picked selection heat sinks, fans, and related items; typically responds to email within an hour (including questions about heat sink performance and fan noise); and will refund your money *and* shipping if you don't like your purchase. Note that 1CoolPC's website is a little slow sometimes. To buy a similar setup to what I described above (excluding the CPU, disk, and video), from these vendors, will currently set you back about $240 including the Tux case badge, Arctic Silver, and shipping. That's about the same price as a fast CPU, or a normal CPU plus the motherboard. I believe a quiet, cool system is worth this amount of money.

-Paul Komarek

Toms

[Anonymous Coward]

If we wanted to read about what's on Toms Hardware page, we would read Tom's Hardware Page.

We wouldn't read Slashdot.

Re:Toms

[Anonymous Coward]

You could say that about _everything_ posted on Slashdot. Why not just read all the sites /. has ever linked to? :)

Re:Toms

[An Onerous Coward]

Well, what would you read Slashdot for? I read it because it's easier than keeping up with Tom's Hardware, CNN, The New York Times [registration required], The Register, Kuro5hin, about a dozen science sites, mozilla.org/releases, arstechnica, and MSNBC. Plus, I get to bitch about the moderation, the beowulf cluster posts that stopped being funny so long ago that it's funny, and Jon Katz.

So quitcher bellyachin! Spend some time meditating on the contented visage of Tux near the top of your screen, and achieve inner harmony.

Re:Toms

[ozzimark]

"ok"
::I go off to read all of the sites, come back in about 3 months::
"Hey, I read all of the sites that /. is linked to... But wait, sonce that took me so long I have to read it again..."
::I go back to reading::

/. is a good idea, concentrated sources of info, like your chem book back in the days of high school.

None are QUIET! All are noisy! Biased site.

[Anonymous Coward]

None are QUIET! All are noisy! That is a biased site.

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 :"Chimney column effect"

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...

Re:None are QUIET! All are noisy! Biased site.

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree.

I just bought a black Lin Li 71. It's sweet full tower aluminum case. It also came with four 8 cm fans. WTF?! Who the hell wants or even needs FOUR fans? Even a single CPU fan is making too much noise these days (I switched from my dual AMD to a low power Pentium III-S just to reduce the noise).

Re:None are QUIET! All are noisy! Biased site.

[Anonymous Coward]

Regarding dual configurations there really should be a way to synchronize the CPU fans. I really hate the resulting beat vibration.

Re:None are QUIET! All are noisy! Biased site.

[Anonymous Coward]

Then buy a Mac then, if noise is you main concern.

Some people like to overclock their CPUs and video cards and would rather have noise than a deep fried mobo.

No one is forcing you to buy one of these cases or a PC for that matter. If you wanted to you could probably underclock a PC CPU and run it on passive cooling only so you could have you silent box.

Personally I like the white noise made by my system, i find it kinda relaxing.

I suppose you're also into those luxury cars that isolate you from any engine noise as well, the noise of an engine reving up is another one i particulary enjoy, But that's just me.

If you can't grasp why someone like me would like these types of sounds then maybe you are the one that "doesn't get it."

Re:None are QUIET! All are noisy! Biased site.

[yack0]

Umm.. wow... gee... perhaps a visit to http://www.rocheusa.com/products/valium/ is in order. Please see a physician.

The review specifically mentioned a new type of fan (tip something or other with the motor on the outside of the fan) that was supposedly quieter. They mentioned the fact that things were noisy.

We also have to look at the fact that people care more about a 'cool looking case' than a case that doesn't make noise. For some people it doesn't matter as much. For those who do care about noise, there are other alternatives.

Yes, Tom's a biased site - biased to the high end user that wants to tweak their computer to oblivion - and those people would think that a busbar full of fans is more cool (as in 'hip' not as in temperature) than a fanless case.

Wow... if you're in the states, I hope you have Memorial Day off - you need a day off.

Re:None are QUIET! All are noisy! Biased site.

[Anonymous Coward]

Try to find any hardware tweakers site that even thought of a quiet box or REDCUCING the fan noise. You won't.

Found one in like 4 secs on Google.

http://home.swipnet.se/tr/solutions.html

Re:None are QUIET! All are noisy! Biased site.

[yack0]

"Try to find any hardware tweakers site that even thought of a quiet box or REDCUCING the fan noise. You won't."

http://www.ocshoot.com/quietpc.htm

From google:
search for - quiet pc fan and click "I'm feeling lucky" - cause it's the first match. But not that you'd ever find any tweakers trying to work on a quiet box. Nope. Not unless you looked.

Re:None are QUIET! All are noisy! Biased site.

[VVrath]

One hardware tweakers site that features noise levels quite heavily is overclockers.com. When reviewing heatsinks they pretty much always compare performance/noise levels with different makes of fan. A while back some guy submitted a feature on a noiseless PC you may be interested in.

Unfortunately with the increased wattage of modern processors, there's a load more waste heat to be removed - if you want air cooling that means more airflow which means more noise. A decent water cooled setup can be virtually silent, though. Larger fans are a lot more 'noise efficient' for the same flow rate as small fans - a lot of these cases use multiple 80mm fans where one 120mm fan would do the trick. I don't understand why case manufacturers haven't leapt on the market for silent 'off the shelf' parts - a lot of people are interested in them.

I recently upgraded my aging Slot A system, and thought the increase in noise was going to drive me insane until I put a couple of potentiometers in line with the fans. These are really easy to make with even my soldering skills. Okay, so my case/cpu temps are a bit higher, but at least I can listen to music without having to wake my neighbours up drowning out the noise of my fans!

Liam

Re:None are QUIET! All are noisy! Biased site.

[Anonymous Coward]

There is and it would cost you several thosound dollars to measure each fan and design the proper control.

Re:None are QUIET! All are noisy! Biased site.

[Anonymous Coward]

You really don't know what your talking about so I doin't know how you ever got modded up in the first place.There is a huge trend for quieting PC's now. Look up quiet pc,silent pc,or the word panaflo and then tell me how people aren't looking quiet.
People are even putting dynamat in their cases.

Re:None are QUIET! All are noisy! Biased site.

[werschi]

Fans suck.

Use something like this.

This case has NO fans at all, it uses heatpipes and the case itself as an heatsink instead.

Re:None are QUIET! All are noisy! Biased site.

[peter]

I didn't think a fan belt connecting both fans to the same motor would be that expensive. You can get a car for several thousand dollars. You're paying for a lot more than the synchronized moving parts there.

Kind of limited "examples"

[Shivetya]

One case the combines a lot of his "required features" is the PC-60 by Lian Li. ( http://www.lian-li.com )

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& prdid=367 )

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= 201&action=listarticles )

Finally Dan's Data did a good write up on these cases http://www.dansdata.com/llmisc.htm

Re:Kind of limited "examples"

[zero-one]

I wondered if the Directron/Super Flower - 201S was a modified Lian Li PC60 case. A lot of the details (apart from the front and side) look very similar.

Re:Kind of limited "examples"

[mad_viking]

I agree. The Lian-Li PC60 all aluminum case was probably one of the best purchases I've ever made.

Re:Kind of limited "examples"

[sunhou]

I just build a PC using the PC-601 case by Lian Li. It's an aluminum case, I guess similar to the PC-60, but it has a bunch of ports in front (keyboard, mouse, USB, firewire, and audio in/out). It's the first time I've built a PC from parts and so the first time I bought a case separately. I like it; the case is easy to open with thumbscrews, and the hard drive cage is pretty easy to slide out. Much better than the other hard-to-open cases I've had with various pre-built PC's.

I also got an Enermax EG365P-VE 350W power supply which has a switch that controls the speed of its fan. There are three settings, so I can adjust the speed of the fan based on the tradeoff I want between temperature and noise.

More cases

[Daniel Rutter]

I checked out a couple of the "Hydraulic" cases (here, along with some fancier cases from the same company), and I've recently reviewed some other generally available boxes, as well.

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)

Re:More cases

[El_Nofx]

I own the Black Hydraulic case reviewed by Tom. Overall it is an "OK" case, I wouldn't recommend it though, the internal hardware is way too cheap, and I had to become a contortionist to fit 4 harddrives, 5 pci cards, 1 agp card, 4 sticks of ram and two processors in there. Granted it is a mid-tower. Modding is pretty easy, i had to carve a hole in the side to put in an extra fan, and one in the back. Overall beware, for $36, you get what you pay for...

Re:More cases

[rchatterjee]

These guys sell some pre-modded versions of the "hydraulic" cases you metioned. Here and Here.

Re:More cases

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would anyone "mod" their computer case. Are they going to computer case shows? I think that this is the result of too many rednecks getting computers. The next thing will be lowered cases with big wings, and there will be motorized compartments, and built-in subwoofers, and talking alarms, and remote controls, and . . .

Re:More cases

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, go watch Pleasantville and come back and respond this this post. I'll be waiting, and watching...

waste of computers

[swg101]

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...

24 pages?

[Anonymous Coward]

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!

Re:24 pages?

[Palmguy]

i wish there was! i've tried but I haven't been able to.

Heavy power supplies

[visualight]

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?

Re:Heavy power supplies

[handsomepete]

Here ya go... From Directron's website:

Why Weight Matters?

The more appropriate question is why size matters.

The weight of a power supply is directly related to the quantity, quality, and size of the material (thus cost) used to build the power supply. We opened a light and a heavy 300W-labeled power supplies. The heavy one has larger capacitors, thicker wires, larger transformer, larger heat sinks, more connectors, and more capacitors than the light one, all of which are important factors for the overall cost and quality of a power supply. The difference is illustrated below:

Lots of pics and interesting info. Go look if you're interested.

Re:Heavy power supplies

[RatOmeter]

The only scientific basis I can think of to support that idea is that the main transformer is larger and has more headroom, ie. it doesn't have to deliver as close to its capacity as the lighter one. That could translate into longer life and higher reliability in general.

More likely, in my opinion, the rule of thumb might work because the heavier power supply is just more likely to have been built better; better transformer, better chassis, larger capacitors, etc.

Re:Heavy power supplies

[Kancer]

Yeah, usually better quality capacitors with more electrolytic in the heavier power supply(if they are new).

Re:Heavy power supplies

[Anonymous Coward]

more electrolytic

You better put that crackpibe away, you have know idea what you are talking about.

Re:Heavy power supplies

[Anonymous Coward]

The answer is maybe. If there was no attempt to alter the weight of the power supply by any other means, It may be a usefull rule of thumb, but as soon as a company learns the rule of thumb, they will start putting a lead slug in each power supply.

Re:Heavy power supplies

[Grimmtooth]

All OTHER things being equal, that has some merit. But just because some hack working out of his basement got a special on used military components doesn't mean he understands power systems at all. For all you know, he read this post and added a bunch of fishing weights in the bottom of the shell.

Power quality, capacity, and MTBF are the ONLY valid benchmarks IMO.

Trolling with the Truth

[Anonymous Coward]

Case modding is unequivocally idiotic.

Re:Trolling with the Truth

[s10god]

Give me a nice beige or black full size AT case none of this mini Star Trek crap...

You have a fan?

[delphi125]

I thought only Linus himself did!

TROLLING IS DYING! L0L0L0L0L0L!

[Anonymous Coward]

Trolling is dying AND GAY!

L0L0L0L0L0L!

Cute / Funny Cases

[nuxx]

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?

Re:Cute / Funny Cases

[cymen]

Wouldn't this one be more appropriate?

Re:Cute / Funny Cases

[Anonymous Coward]

Fag

Re:Cute / Funny Cases

[nuxx]

That case isn't too bad, but the problem I have with it is that for the most part it just appears to be a plain mid tower with a penguin painted on to the front. I can't tell if there are any mold lines to give it any depth. (Does anyone have this case or better pictures of it) It just simply looks like they adapted an existing case to be a penguin. Now if there was a full-size cute penguin case out there, I know at least two people (not counting me) who would be desperately waiting for the UPS person to deliver it.

-Steve

Re:Cute / Funny Cases

[Anonymous Coward]

only for fags.

Re:Cute / Funny Cases

[BtAFMB]

If offensively cute is what you want: here. It's pink, it's furry, and here's the kicker.... it's HELLO KITTY!

Re:Cute / Funny Cases

[No Such Agency]

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.

Hey fag! You don't understand the meaning of case modding. Go back to your fag computer shop and ask them to explain it to you, if they can find the time in between painting their nails and burning discs of Barbra Streisand mp3's.

Seriously, the orange doggie is a cool looking case, but are those SIDEWAYS 5.25" bays?! How the hell am I supposed to mount a CD-ROM drive or burner in those? The discs will fall out of the trays! I am all for cool/cute cases but they also need to be practical :-P

Re:Cute / Funny Cases

[cdrudge]

If you look at almost any CD/DVD-ROM drive built recently, you will notice on the tray that there are several different ways that will hold the disc in place. The two most common that I have seen are little tabs that pop out to hold the disc, or a little lip (similiar to a Playstation 2 drive) that "cradles" the disc.

Scroll down on this page for a variety of different ways that discs will run sideways.

Re:Cute / Funny Cases

[No Such Agency]

I stand corrected :-) Since I've never run a CD-ROM in the vertical position, I never noticed those little tabs. Clearly, my powers of observation need a little rejuvenation.

Re:Cute / Funny Cases

[JahToasted]

What is the deal with Hello Kitty anyway? The girl I'm dating now has those decals on everything she owns... I just don't get it... mumbling incoherntly....

Re:Cute / Funny Cases

[ZenCrawler]

I don't think that the drive bays are sideways, because down in the specs list it shows this. * Folding Teeth hides CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or CD-RW So you won't have to worry about any child who sees that case trying to feed it peanut butter through the 5 1/4 drive bays :)

Cool!

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been planning to build a new machine for a few months now, so this is timely for me.
Hey, me too! Mod me to +5 so nearly every single person who reads this article will get share in my serendipity...

Consider weight

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Consider weight

[greg2000]

I'm not sure, if you're going to be moving it around then maybe, but I wouldn't like to sacrifice build quality for weight. The thing that really turns me off a case is sharp edges.




BTW. What does everyone think here about drive rail brackets, as opposed to just screwing them into the drive bay?

Re:Consider weight

[Warin]

I would never sacrifice build quality for light weight. Antec cases are monsters, but whenever I build a system for anyone, I always recommend Antec. They provide excellent cooling, lots of room to work and very few sharp corners to rip your hand open on.

The only time you need a light case is if you plan on doing a lot of LAN parties. But for those systems, I'd likely want something like the shuttle micro systems, tweaked up just for gaming. After all, the newest one will actually take a decent AGP card.

Drive rails...some people love em, some hate them. If you have a decent storage method for the extra rails, they make life so much easier. Faster to install, and faster to do a change out if something goes dead. So I guess you could say that I love em.

Agree with the troll

[Kancer]

Basically anything thats put on a case that dosen't help performance or is informative in anyway rates right up there with these mongoloids.

format

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Re:format

[Anonymous Coward]

Ad.. Impressions.

small cases?

[Dr. Awktagon]

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?

Re:small cases?

[handsomepete]

Don't know about the case, but a good motherboard might be the Asus TUSI-M - it seems to have everything you're looking for and Asus has always been one for stability (IMO). Why not just get a 1U rackmount case or something along those lines? They can be kinda costly, but you'll probably be able to use it for a loooong time. I built a small PC but I just grabbed an old 386/486 IBM case and drilled new holes for the mobo. It was very thrown together, but it works and it's tiny.

Re:small cases?

[handsomepete]

As a side note, thanks for that Soldam link? Those Prism cases - er, tables are neat (even they are $477 U.S. - yipes).

Re:small cases?

[MsGeek]

I'm in progress on a new project...I want to build a small, compact computer to bring places. Not just to LAN parties, but also to LUG meetings and at teaching engagements. So here's what I've done so far case-wise:

Case itself: A-Top 777. It's not exactly what I was looking for, but turned out to be decent for what I intend to do. This case would be great as a set-top box case..it's that ugly beige but that's nothing a spray can can't fix.

Power Supply: PC Power And Cooling SFX-S form-factor power supply. Get rid of the PS in this box...it looks like something that eMachines would throw into their POS boxen. There is an econo 145W version which is what I got...this is a PIII-based system, not an Athlon or P4. They also make a very decent AMD and P4 approved 180W PS that can handle the ABit NV7M nForce-based mATX motherboard without breaking a sweat.

Anyway, the combo of the A-Top 777 case and the PCPC power supply should be a fine one for my purposes. Will document the entire build at Low End PC.

Re:small cases?

[Papineau]

Take any minitower, put your stuff in it (the older the better or almost for heat), and forget about it in a corner. I'm toying with the idea of buying a VIA CPU ~800MHz to put in such a rig. With a motherboard which has video/lan, an old cdrom and 128MB SDRAM, you can get it (around here) for less than $CAN185 (including 15% tax), which is roughly $US115. Before tax, it's $CAN170 ($US105). Not very expensive for a computer.

The other use for such an otherwise wimpy CPU is in small personal clusters. Now if I only could get a reason to actually buy a couple of those...

Re:small cases?

[nn4l]

I have built two Spacewalker computers: the SV-24 and the SV-25. They match all your requirements, with the exception of "flat" (they are cubes).

They come with rather cheap and noisy fans. I replaced all of them with Verax fans for the case and CPU and a Papst fan for the PSU.

The SV-24 has a Cyrix 900 MHz CPU. I plan to try passive cooling, as this CPU uses only about 10 W and can take about 80 C, much better than a Celeron or Athlon/Duron. On the other hand, these Verax fans are so quiet that you do not hear them anyway, so it is somewhat pointless to remove the fan.

Re:small cases?

[sahuaro]

Check out the LinkWorld 616 Flex-ATX case or the AOpen slim cases at myaopen.com. The AOpen cases are of slightly better quality IMHO and being a little deeper you are not restricted to a CD-ROM less than 205mm deep. It also takes standard mATX boards as well as the smaller, but harder to find Flex ATX mainboards.

I'm running SuSE 8.0 on the PCChips M787 mainboard with the VIA 1GigaPro (733MHz) chip. The air exiting the housing is barely above room temperature.

For a mATX tower the is the best case I've found. Being slightly deeper than other mATX cases you have the room to substitute a better, quieter power supply.

I'm looking forward to case built around the VIA EPIA Mini-ITX board and cases like the Cubid 2677. Anyone know dealers selling these yet?

sahuaro

"All I really need to know I learned from /."

Re:small cases?

[rainer_d]

Doesn't Shuttle build barebone-systems in mini-aluminium cases ?
If Shuttle had a website that worked without JavaScript, I'd give a better link...

Re:small cases?

[SectoidRandom]

Smaller is better, i so much agree with you! I've been planning my own tiny pc for a while, basic requirements for me (which most other posters so far have far exceded) are; maximum size XBox size, even that is huge! So im looking at FlexATX / NLX at most, perhaps something like this: http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/oem/thin-800e.htm

What im thinking is slot loading DVD, laptop HDD, no floppy, with hopefully something along the lines of a nForce board inside.. I once found a manufacturer of a case which was far smaller than an xbox, probably about 2/3 the size, exactly what i was looking for, even came in black. Perfect for that setup unit! I only wish i could find that link.. :(

Buying quiet computers is impossible

[Anonymous Coward]

My experience is that if you try ordering a quiet computer they'll just deliver you a standard setup and call it a quiet one or they'll line the case with soundproofing and bill you extra for it.

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.

Re:Buying quiet computers is impossible

[Anonymous Coward]

You do not understand the types of sound proofing. First there is material that can absorb sound waves. Second there is material that will not transfer sound waves. You want both. The case should be lined with a heavy material (or made of lead) and lined with fiberglass. This will make your case very quiet.

Well horray for Cmdr Taco!

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been planning to build a new machine for a few months now, so this is timely for me.

What do you know, so it is! I am now happier to hear that it is timely, and will in time throw up and die!

Thank you, superman!

Whoa!

[Anonymous Coward]

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!

including a nice chart

[Alien54]

I sort of like the current Antec cases with the extra space, quick access side panels, etc. I use them for some systems I have built for people because of easy availability via the chain stores and local outlets.

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.

Re:including a nice chart

[DaveAtFraud]

Just put together a dualie Athlon system using an Antec case (SX1040B). This has to be the sweetest case I have ever worked with in terms of easy accessibility, well thought out design, little extras (e.g., there are holders in the bottom of the case for the extra drive rails so you can keep them with the case and find them when you add another drive sometime later), etc. Its also doing a great job of keeping two Athlon 1900+s cool and supplied with juice.

So far the only complaint I have is that I can't get their EasyUSB front panel USB adapter in black to match the case.

Re:including a nice chart

[volsung]

I just wanted to agree with the Antec recommendation. In January I put together a new system and for the first time decided to buy a nice Antec case online rather than buy the cheapest thing sold at the local Fry's.

I was very impressed with how easy the case was to work in. I was constantly surprised by little features like quick release side panels, included drive rails, a removable hard drive bracket, and easily movable fans. The case was definitely worth the $90.

child-resistant case?

[simetra]

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?

Re:child-resistant case?

[Anonymous Coward]

Teach your child the difference between right and wrong?

Re:child-resistant case?

[greg2000]

The Chieftec Dragon my good man. It also comes in Mauve, Yellow, Bright Green, Blue, Brown, Black and Silver.

Re:child-resistant case?

[simetra]

Oh, okay. You obviously aren't familiar with the reasoning ability of 2 year olds.

Re:child-resistant case?

[Spuggy]

Aside from the color, that's nearly the exact same Antec case to which he is referring to.

The same goes with those cool looking Alien Ware cases you see at Best Buy on display. Looks great, but they run around $200.

I got an Antec Case at CompUSA with a 350W power supply for $100. It's a massive case so take heed if you're limited in the amount of space where you can put your desktop. If space isn't an issue, then I'd highly recommend this beast--aside from the front-locking panel to which you are referring, it's also one of the easiest cases to work with that I've ever seen--it has all the features of the Chieftec Dragon case that greg2000 linked to.

Here's the link to it on CompUSA's website:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp ?p roduct_code=286479

It may not look flashy, but it's essentially the same case as all these designer ones and it's a helluva lot cheaper.

-Greg

Re:child-resistant case?

[Anonymous Coward]

Put your dumb-shit kid in an old case you've got lying around.

Re:child-resistant case?

[wik]

I'd disconnect the reset button from the motherboard, if possible. A pair of scissors can also help render the reset button useless. I do this to protect against myself. :-)

As far as the CD-ROM drive goes, you might be able to write a little program that locks the drive. If you're doing this under Windows, this documentation looks helpful (beware, the lameness filter added spaces to the URL):

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=k b; EN-US;q168180

Re:child-resistant case?

[Equinox]

I'm sorry, I can't help it, but...I'm thinking "very large capacitors." :)

Another note on power supplies

[vslashg]

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.)

Re:Another note on power supplies

[eander315]

It's more likely that the first power supply couldn't handle the power draw from the Athlon, which would cause frequent lockups as you described. Although I'm just guessing, I'd say your second power supply was larger and could handle the power needs of your new system.

The likelyhood that the location of the vents on your power supply could cause problems is low. Most cheap power supplies have only the exhaust fan, which is probably not going to drastically affect your CPU temp based on the location of the interior vents on the power supply. Usually the fan has enough problems keeping the power supply cool, let alone your CPU.

Re:Another note on power supplies

[vslashg]

That's a possibility I hadn't considered. I feel like defending myself, though: the advice on bottom-inlet fans comes straight from AMD's Builder's Guide:

With the vertical case, a power supply with ATX-style bottom air intake vents maintains
a better thermal environment than a power supply with only a front air intake vent.

For the indecisive

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.colorcases.com/ has a veritable cornucopia of cases. Personally I have a Lian-Li case and have been very happy with it.

make it look like my HI-FI damnit !

[sh0rtie]

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

Re:make it look like my HI-FI damnit !

[brightloudnoise]

There are companies doing this already. below are a few examples This one is Mac-ish looking and these could pass for stereo components. One Two Three

Re:make it look like my HI-FI damnit !

[Grishnakh]

Well one big reason is they're pretty limited by the form factors of all the components: ATX motherboard, 5.25" drives, 3.5" drives, ATX power supply, etc. All these components have standard sizes, and there's only so many ways you can arrange them and not run into fitment problems. Everyone points to Apple as an innovator here, but Apple also gets control of all these internal components. They don't have to make their new case model fit their older motherboard sizes. They also don't have all the drive bays that PC users expect for their multiple optical drives.

Face it, modularity and industry standards make it pretty much impossible to change the layout of a PC case too much.

Re:make it look like my HI-FI damnit !

[wizardhat]

Perhaps you want something like this or this.

Re:make it look like my HI-FI damnit !

[Teutates]

Apple uses 3.5 and 5.25 drives...

don't be fooled into thinking apple creates their own DVD r/w's or zip drives...

Apple has to comply, and they do...and it works so why can't anyone else do it?

Re:make it look like my HI-FI damnit !

[frozenray]

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 ?

The FutureClient by Signum Data looks interesting. Cool looks (IMO), heatpipe cooling, near-silent. Now if the price came down a little...

The current PC hardware platform is in dire need of redesign, and I'm not even talking about "features" like the infamous A20 gate. Most cases on the market are badly designed knockoffs with bad EMI and sound insulation and lousy looks. Yes, this goes even for all the expensive aluminum cases I've seen.

Why does the inside of a typical PC look like the site of an explosion in a wire factory?

Why do we still have those stupid power connectors that can be a royal pain to pry off instead of a unified power bus?

Where are those cool slide-in media bays which were part of the PC99 (IIRC) design?

Why do I have to stock sets of metric and imperial screws? (BTW, Torx rules, forget Phillips!)

Does a typical PC really need upwards of 6 fans of varying diameter, RPM and noise emission in order to keep its parts from frying? An intelligent air-duct design would keep down costs and noise emissions.

Wouldn't it be better to have a standard connector for front-panel switches and LEDs instead of the tangle of wires and unkeyed connectors which I always manage to get working only on the second try?

Why do my hands look like I tried to wrestle a porcupine after a motherboard and drive switch?

Intel and Microsoft claim leadership on hardware and software design of the PC platform, and they're both screwing it up badly. I won't even start to bitch about Microsoft, but hey Intel, what happened to those futuristic case designs? (warning - site needs Flash)

Re:make it look like my HI-FI damnit !

[Grishnakh]

Because Apple doesn't use ATX motherboards. Have you looked at one lately? There's no way you could get one to fit in an imac. It's fit in a G4 tower, but then again, the G4 tower looks just like a PC tower case except that it's fancier and has handles. The drives aren't the problem.

Worse yet, not all ATX motherboards are the same. If you have an small case where they saved some space by putting part of the 5.25" drive bay over the motherboard, it might work for some motherboards, but other motherboards may have tall capacitors there which prevent you from fully inserting your CD drives. Apple doesn't have to worry about stuff like this since they control all the hardware components so strictly.

Re:make it look like my HI-FI damnit !

[Teutates]

While I agree, there are more than just standard ATX boards out there. MiniATX, flexATX, micro-ATX, ad nauseum.

Standard components work with these boards. The company I was working for is using a flex-atx board in a 9x9x11 cube, as well as a flex-atx board in a 2u x 5.25 x 11 (i think) casing.

It's possible to be inovative with PC cases, but no one seems to be doing that. Sure you get the little cubes once in a while, but most people don't stray from the beige or black towers you see nowadays.

A Question...

[KingAdrock]

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.

Re:A Question...

[An Onerous Coward]

Assembling a computer probably isn't hard enough to warrant paying someone. Just find someone reasonably competent. If this isn't you, try and bribe someone with pizza and beer. Be sure not to zap the system with static. Wrist straps work well, though when I'm working on my own stuff I just touch the case metal a lot. Generally, if you get something in backwards, it won't blow up. It'll just fail to power on. No blood, no foul.

A couple hours with a PC upgrading book or a tech-savvy buddy, and you'll be up and running. I have faith in you.

Right...

[Iberian]

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.

Air flow and Antec cases

[tomRakewell]

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.

Re:Air flow and Antec cases

[martissimo]

you could try fan filters out.

they do cut back on your airflow slightly, but if your box is adequately cooled they shouldn't pose any major concerns. you would be amazed at how much dirt these things suck up

Re:Air flow and Antec cases

[trelaneopn]

I have the koolance pc2-601 which is a modified "antec" case, in actually neither company makes these cases. A few suggestions: first I have dropped 90mm fans in every spot that would support them, and perhaps dust does enter the case but after 4 months solid running there is not a TRACE of dust anywhere in the box. Frankly with good aiflow dust should NEVER be an issue, and again after the time in a dusty carpeted room I feel I could eat off the case. A view of my ENTIRE system, from top to bottom is available at my box, and pretty much will give you a good indication of what I'm running.

again the key to lack of dust is proper airflow, if you have that you won't have dust. Anyone with questions about building with anything I used can also feel free to e-mail me, and I'll answer as I get time. Rolling your own is a very rewarding experience. tre

Re:Air flow and Antec cases

[nigelo]

I wonder whether it's wise to use a magnetised screwdriver near a computer case, as ocaddiction.com seems to suggest... seems like the same kind of problem as having permanent markers near a white-board - it's only a matter of time before someone uses the wrong tool for the job...

Oh, and "buy a decent case" seems like pretty good advice to me - I certainly prefer my Antec over the several cheap-and-nasty cases I also have, even though it's not quiet - try here for components with less-noise-more-money...

Re:Air flow and Antec cases

[Papineau]

That means that your flow is not balanced. In your case, you seem to have more flow outwards than inwards.
The normal air flow in a case is to go in at the front of the case, then cooling whatever is in the path (HDD, RAM, CPU), then thrown out by the rear (mostly by the PSU, but more and more with a second fan below the PSU, just after the CPU).
Could you verify if the fan(s) in the front are actually pulling air in the case? It may be that it is (they are) reversed, so there's negative pressure inside the case, which then sucks air through all the holes it can. If not, your exhaust fan(s) might be too powerful for the intake fan(s), achieving the same problem.

Re:Air flow and Antec cases

[tomRakewell]

The Antec case came with 2 fans blowing out of the rear (in addition to the power supply fan) and none in the front. I attempted to remedy the air-getting-sucked-through-the-CD-devices problem by installing two additional fans in the front of the case (blowing inward). I have not noticed a significant improvement. Maybe I'll try disconnecting one of the rear fans to balance the air flow a little bit more.

Still, I have owned over a dozen cases, and currently maintain 7. The Antec is the only one that seems to have this problem. I believe it is due to the fact that all three rear exhaust fans are located at the top of the case, directly opposite the 5" drive bays. The front intake fans are located at the very bottom of the case, and it makes it impossible to get good cross-ventilation.

My final beef with this case is that it is quite difficult to remove the plastic face plate from the metal chassis (only one side of the plastic tabs is accessible).

Re:Air flow and Antec cases

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to think that magnetized screwdrivers were a bad idea, but then Compaq shipped a $30,000 server system that came with a magnetized torx screwdriver (for Compaq's funky screws). So I figure it's OK.

Re:Air flow and Antec cases

[Reziac]

That's not an Antec problem per se; it can happen with any case; in fact it is a problem to some degree with ALL cases that have only the standard exhaust fan in the power supply. The trouble is you've got more exhaust fans than intake fans, so you're sucking dust INTO the case.

All you need to do is reverse one or more fans so you have more intake fans than exhaust fans. The trick is to have higher air pressure *inside* the case than outside -- then air will flow OUT thru the floppy drive, CDROM, tape drive, etc., and thereby tend to keep dust out of these units.

Having a majority of intake fans also brings more air INTO the case than can be drawn in by exhaust fans alone, so keeps the temperature lower as well, and makes it more likely the system will survive intact the unnoticed death of a power supply fan or CPU fan. (Yes, this IS the voice of multiple such experiences.)

I live in the desert, with two cats, so I have plenty of dust and hair floating around ALL the time. Since I have intake fans in all my cases, they stay very clean inside despite the environmental hazards :)

BTW my next case will be an Antec -- I've been eyeing them at shows for some while, and lately got to work inside one owned by a client. Purely a pleasure!

well its not TOTALLY custom...but close to it..

[eRhino]

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..

For those who care about cases...

[f00zbll]

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?

Re:For those who care about cases...

[sheldon]

How are you killing power supplies?

In the past 12 years of building PCs for myself I have never fried a power supply. I've had fans go bad in them, which required some surgery and solder to replace but never a complete failure.

You must have one hell of a lot of stuff in your case to overload it that bad, and I thought I was bad.

Re:For those who care about cases...

[f00zbll]

well, I killed power source in 4 separate systems. One was actually a bad power source, since it actually made a poping sound and started smoking. The other ones the fan died and ended up frying the circuits. When I build systems now, I only get 350 watt or better. I like power source with two fans :)

Boycott Finland!

[Anonymous Coward]

Last week the Finnish parliament made a decision to build a new, fifth nuclear power plant. This decision goes against the recent enlighted mood in rest of the Western European countries. It is, however, sadly in line with countries like Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.

I urge you environmentally conscious Slashdot readers to start boycotting Finnish products like paper, high tech (Nokia's cellphones) and software like Linux and SSH (use FreeBSD and OpenSSH instead!).

Re:Boycott Finland!

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Apple's G4 flip open cases are still a joy to own

[crovira]

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?

Case mods

[ZaBu911]

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!

Perfect solution...

[NineNine]

...sell the fucking kid.

Re:Apple's G4 flip open cases are still a joy to o

[mindstrm]

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

[Anonymous Coward]

3dcool.com has some cool pre-moded cases. They also offer the new Steath Fans,so they don't sound like 747's.

The best case is none at all

[Comrade Pikachu]

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

Re:The best case is none at all

[An Onerous Coward]

This is sheer genius. My search for a new case is officially over!

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Re:small case

[Rayonic]

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.

slashdotted...

[NeoSkandranon]

At least the pictures are dead..anyone got 'em mirrored?

My next case will be _silent_

[CyberDruid]

...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.

The best case ever...

[Anonymous Coward]

...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

Thermo-Electric-Cooler

[AnonymousCowheard]

AKA Peltier effect...

Tom used to present benchmarks based on over-clockability and now I see none.

At the same rate, Tom's older overclocking-howto articles showed his massive 150watt water-cooling behemother that stood 1 foot tall on your CPU and pushed the silicon's temperature back to the recesses of antarctica. And it was all quiet and didn't use moving parts to cool it down (fans).

I have a 54watt peltier and a larger-than-average heatsink and tiny 12vdc fan on my Athlon system and it don't make a peep. Harddrives truly are the source of heat in a computercase. SCSI drives...don't get me started about the performance and heat dissipation ratios of SCSI harddrives compared to EIDE/ATAP harddrives.

Re:Thermo-Electric-Cooler

[Anonymous Coward]

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...

Re:Thermo-Electric-Cooler

[AnonymousCowheard]

I own a couple High-Voltage-Differential SCSI drives, made by Quantum, and I can't touch them they get so hot. They spin at 5400 RPM. I have a lowly Maxtor EIDE Harddrive that also spins at 5400 RPM and after 3 hours of equally intense opearation as my HVD SCSI drives, it is only a little warm. About 1 year ago, my second Quantum HVD HDD developed some bad sectors because it got too hot. Since, I've installed all my harddrives in 5.25" drive bays with Harddrive Heatsinks with Fans, and front-mounted Harddrive Fans and I've been able to supress heat and prevented any bad sectors from further forming.

It makes me happy that my Maxtor EIDE HDD performs poorer than the HVD SCSI, yet the Maxtor HDD is more energy efficient and less prone to failure while the HVD SCSI gets hot as a grill and they don't tell you. They don't even tell you to use any kind of Heatsinks and Fans for all the newer harddrives and that just isn't honest business!

discontinued cases

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

A better link here...

[BlueJay465]

I have tried several times going to the posted URL at the top of the article, but all I get are 404 errors.

Here is a better link that will bring up the article directly:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/02q2/020521/ind ex.html

I like's em big

[Kyaphas]

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.

Re:I like's em big

[Anonymous Coward]

I gotta agree, i read this whole thread only looking to see if anyone would suggest supermicro's line. I have a SC750 ( mostly because the tyan dluan i got at the time was too large for any other reasonably priced case ) and i must say i am in love. It currently houses my linux box and im looking to get a SC760 probably this week or next for the winbox. Of course the winbox might be becoming a linux box real soon as well being that slack 8.0.1 is almost out :)

Nikao.

[Anonymous Coward]

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. ;)

dig through this site

[unsinged int]

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.

Cube cases (not Apples...)

[Papineau]

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).

Rackmount cases?

[gafferted]

Towers are ugly, even with windows and blue lights.

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

Sometimes manufacturers are trolls.

[Futurepower(R)]

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.

Re:Sometimes manufacturers are trolls.

[unitron]

Capacitors don't have electrolytic, they are, in some cases, electrolytic capacitors, depending upon what they use as a dielectric.

who the fuck cares if it's quiet?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:who the fuck cares if it's quiet?

[Anonymous Coward]

if you listen to ANYTHING on a PC, games, movies, online crap, music --> the extra noise is bothersome.

you just don't realize that its better to have a quiet PC because you've never had a quiet PC.

Re:who the fuck cares if it's quiet?

[Erik K. Veland]

Uhm... why don't you try turning it off for a change? And you need to fix that fridge of yours too...

getting a custom computer made

[edgarde]

A lot of online vendors have web-based "configurators" (for example, here are Dell's and Penguin Computing's) that let you select the features you desire. However I don't know any that tell you exactly what brand your getting for each part, which is what I would want in this case. Also, the major vendors often have custom components that aren't what you'd expect -- a 3Com NIC in a Dell computer probably isn't identical to the one with the same model number you'd buy at a computer store.

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.

Pretty simple man...

[Mashiki]

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.

Bad Case -- Bad Site

[Futurepower(R)]

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.

Re:Bad Case -- Bad Site

[Anonymous Coward]

Put a fucking filter on the fan if that is what you want.

Yep, them Asiatics are kinda cute-happy

[NRAdude]

I've been eye-balling a Penguin computercase on eBay sold by "baberdirect" A HREF="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIte m keep it american. The people over at Home Depot would love to sell you $50 in materials and it's always good to do something with your family, that is, if slashdot trolls have one. lol. My neighbor is Chinese and by GOD he is quite brilliant and it is great that he sends money back to his struggling family he left in China.

Re:Yep, them Asiatics are kinda cute-happy

[Anonymous Coward]

I got your cute animals.

Coolermaster

[asv108]

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.

I recommend the Antec

[baxshep]

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.

Dell cases

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Dell cases

[VampireByte]

You'll need to replace the power supply because the connectors will not match what you need for your "generic" MB. You can get around this by rewiring the connector but it is not worth the time involvement. Also, the front panel buttons and LEDs won't match up with the motherboard's connectors so you have to do some meddling here too. All in all it is not worth buying the old Dell and putting new stuff in it unless you have time to kill... just buy a new case.

And so too rounded SCSI cables and flames on cars.

[AnonymousCowheard]

and those super-models that undress themselves and have someone "paint" a bathing suit on their naked body(just gimme a water-hose please).

Why does this keep coming up?

[Anomolous Cow Herd]

It's almost as regular a feature on Slashdot as MPAA bashing and touting the latest "geeky" multi-million dollar movie. Case design and selection does not have to be this hard. There are obviously many cases that are simply inexcusably poorly-constructed and poorly-designed and, most of all, ugly. It doesn't take an expert to notice these things.

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.

warning link above - goatse

[Anonymous Coward]

warning link above - goatse

Re:Apple's G4 flip open cases are still a joy to o

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah but obviously naming a few of them is too much trouble.

Filters

[Futurepower(R)]

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.

The AOpen H600A

[lanner]

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;
http://opendreams.net/jesse/images/20011221.comput er.upgrade/

Same case by different companies

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

http://www.a-pro.com/ASP860.htm
http://store.ya hoo.com/directron/860busb.html

It's not just flip-open, It's flip-open-horizontal

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

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.

Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Why not...?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

It's like the InWin IW-Q500

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Why I don't like Coolermaster ATC series

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

A Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

It's called look-and-feel

[Anonymous Coward]

It's possible somebody could "innovate" an Apple PowerMac-style case, but I'm sure they will be sued. It happened with the iMac.

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....

You'd be better off...

[FlippyBoy]

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).

one complaint

[dangermouse]

The hard drive mounts in the G4 cases blow. They stack the hard drives, which is all well and good except that for some reason they made the top drive mount too wide for any of my drives.

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?

bubble wrap silencer?

[Mao]

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.

you don't know what your missing

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Two comments on this...

[Anonymous Coward]

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...)

OT Re:small cases?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Verzx fans look great. Any idea where you can purchase them in the US?

LOL

[BoneFlower]

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.

Quiet PC recommended

[paj1234]

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.

Is it too much to ask...

[Nameles]

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?

Stuff to read!

[andy@petdance.com]

Oh no! It's the infamous "stuff-to-read" department! It's the most populous department on all of /.!

How about building a case?

[DanThe1Man]

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?

Re:How about building a case?

[ealar dlanvuli]

aluminum isn't horribly conductive, you would be much better off attaching a more conductive metal to the great majority of your heatsink, then running that over to a side of your case.

Also remember, your going to want to be able to insert/take stuff out without a tourch..

Aluminum Cases? Mobo Trays?

[Hollinger]

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?

Re:Aluminum Cases? Mobo Trays?

[ealar dlanvuli]

my brother had one of those, I did a little playing with my tourch last weekend, and it's all good now.

It was really really bad to, you could literally rock the mobo back and forth, disconecting the various cards, without unscrewing anything.

it was some no-name case I bought years ago from computer renisance (I liked the outside, I wish I had opened it up back then), and they don't get my buisness anymore =p

top drive mount

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:top drive mount

[dangermouse]

I did install a drive in the upper mount, and I did bend the arms to do it; it just left me wondering if I was missing a spacer piece.

Best case

[sewagemaster]

it's made out of latex, and it's called a condom

Information from someone who wrote the book:

[Futurepower(R)]

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.

Re:Information from someone who wrote the book:

[unitron]

They may have electrolyte but they don't have electrolytic. One's a noun, the other is an adjective.

The most important quality of any case...

[micahjd]

...is that it's heavy enough that nobody would steal your computer when your roommate's Compaq is so close by.

buy a 'book pc' & spray it black

[DABANSHEE]

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

AOL

[KjetilK]

Yeah, I got a demo model server tower some time ago. There's nothing better to build in, and the design is pretty appealing too. My case has a millimeter of steel everywhere, and might survive some fire.

I've dropped Chieftec a note once or twice, and they are very responsive. I'll definately recommend Chieftec to anyone.

Re:one complaint - G4 Drive mounting

[DaphneDiane]

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.

Re:A Question... try esc technologies

[Anonymous Coward]

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)

Shindengen

[Anonymous Coward]

...made power supplies for the Amiga 1000. I opened mine up, and saw heavier everything. I suspect their power supplies were/are extremely reliable.

Enby in Waltham

Supermicro

[TibbonZero]

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.

Enlight looks fine

[Anonymous Coward]

The 7237 isn't fancy, and as a matter of record, I hate the front of the 7237 so much that I have told vendors that I would do just about anything to replace the fronts of all of the 7237's in the lab.

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).