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Treasures or Trash, 5 PC Cases for Gamers
An anonymous reader writes "Tom's Hardware has a look at 5 different customized PC cases and a few peripheral devices that may be of some interest to gamers. From the article: 'Those who believe it is impossible to make any missteps when buying a gaming case are sadly mistaken. In most cases, you get too much plastic for your hard-earned money. Case components, covers and door panels break off far too easily, and are hard to use besides. That's why we advise savvy buyers to spend a few more dollars on their cases, and make sure they're getting quality components - especially where plastic covers or door panels are present.'"
They have flashy lights and windows! That's all that matters, right, guys?
29 pages? No printer-formatted single page? I'd rather not give my wrist an RSI by all that clicking or waste my allotted amount of bandwidth downloading all those ads.
I would think the hardware in the case is more important for a gamer. A case doesn't provide power and storage, it just provides a place to put it. Go buy a metal slide on case with a a plastic face plate, perferably a decently large one, and cram all your hardware in that. I never really understood why to pay $100 or more for a case with a window and lights. Even @ LAN parties...the hardware is more important.
That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable.
my god, thats a lot of pages to scroll through... I'm inclined to be a little lazy when buying a case; I only put my feet on it so it doesn't really matter what it looks like. Inside they are all pretty much the same so long as they have enough room, and a construction which will allow you to put your feet on it safely.
I've had a friend who had a case with really bright blue lights on his computer; all that that meant was we had to stick post-it notes over them when we wanted to watch something to avoid blinding us. I wouldn't want lights on my case...
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
Those little touches are incredibly easy to do, but no one ever adds them. I'd much rather be able to swing out my power supply so I don't have to disassemble my computer to add RAM or whatnot, rather than have my case look like it's got eyes on.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
It'd be the one I just picked up, the Antec P180. Actually I opted for the P180B, the black version (the normal 180 is silver) but either way same case, different finish. It's a case that has it all, if you asked me. It's got the setup for extremely effective cooling, yet runs very quiet for all that. Plenty of interior room, good design, etc. The only real gripe I have is it takes a long time to properly install all your components what with the special mounts and such. However, you do that once and you've got a great case.
Of course it also looks stellar. It's extremely sleek and clean the whole way around. It's the kinds of subdued good looks that make you want to leave it alone, rather than put stickers on it and rice it out.
These cases I'd liken to a riced out Civic. You are going for flash to try and distract and wow people. The P180 is more like an Audi sedan, it looks so good it needs no modification.
Either way if you are willing to spend the cash on cases like this (the $100+ market) give these overly flashy jobs a miss and have a look at a P180. It will look good in just about any room and they really put some thought in the engineering of it. It's the first case I've seen that really seemed to think someone might want to have a system that's quiet AND high performance, but not want to screw with water cooling.
Why get a Civic with a spoiler and fart pipe if you could get an S4 without for the same price?
Drum roll please. On May 29, 2003, I entered a new phase of PC ownership. That was the day that my Chenbro SR101 21 bay server case arrived. Perhaps you didn't hear me. I said it was a 21 bay case! It's 14.5" wide and 25" tall! (The 25" includes the caster wheels.) It's a monster and unless you're one of the lucky few who own a case like this, it would most likely eat your case for an after dinner snack!
It's a masterpiece of case design! There are holders for wires in it to reduce clutter. It's like running a network inside the PC.
It has spaces for up to 15 fans.
It has caster wheels.
The motherboard is on a removable platter so I was able to just take the platter out and put the motherboard on it instead of having to put it into the case directly.
It has 12 external 5.25" bays and 8 internal 3.5" bays and 1 external 3.5" bay for the floppy drive.
The floppy drive bay has a removable platter so you can attach the drive to it and then attach the platter to the case.
The case comes with rails for the 5.25" bays. You attach the rails to each 5.25" device (CDROM, removable hard drive, etc.) and you can just slide the device into the bay and it snaps in place. You just squeeze the sides to pull them back out. There's no need to have to screw each one in and out when you want to move them around!
There's room in the back for 3 power supplies (I have 2 installed right now) and it's possible attach power supplies into the 5.25" bays if desired which theoretically means you could have 7 power supplies in it, but you wouldn't have much room left over for anything else.
The back, sides, top, and front panels are all removable, so if I want to I can remove them and have them painted or even paint them myself! (I was thinking of maybe having the entire thing painted shiny dark black with 1 big yellow pacman on each side.) I wonder if they sell spoilers for PC cases... Actually, I think I may have no choice but to add neon lights to it.
Cow Cube
What are you people doing to your computers that you're breaking the plastic bay covers? I've been working on computers for at least 12 years and have never had one break on me. Sure, the occassional one pops off, but even though it's plastic it's pretty heavy plastic.
:)
As for the doors, I can't stand them to begin with. I guess if you're going for looks and can't trouble yourself to paint the faceplates of your components it's one thing, but wouldn't you aim to buy the proper color to begin with?
As for everything else when it comes to cases, the main difference I've found is that the high quality ones bend the inner edges an extra time to prevent cuts, have heavier metal drive racks, and better air flow. That's it.
People who spend insane amounts of money on cases are the same as people that modify their cars to gain 5 extra HP... it just doesn't make much sense. The one exception is server cases, but this article is about gaming cases, so that's not applicable.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
They want to try and impress others. I mean suppose you have a small economy car. If you want to improve it's performance, #1 thing you can probalby do for it is turbocharge it. Most engines that aren't TC'd can be. Problem is that just makes it perform better, it doesn't let everyone else know you did anything. So instead people add fart pipes (loud mufflers) and pretend they improve horsepower (they don't you need to redo more than just the end to make any difference), stickers for things like Vtec that they don't really understand but assume are good, and a massive spolier.
Well, same kind of idea with computers. In an unassuming case, there could be a 486 or a dual Opteron, you just don't know. So people go for flashy cases. They want you to see their system and be impressed.
According to (a 30 page bonanza of mostly pictures) TFA, I own a something that could qualify as a 'gaming' case. And my vote for the "Treasures or Trash?" conundrum is: trash. Why?
LEDs on the front of the case
Yeah, they look cool. For about 5 minutes. They are dim enough not to illuminate, but bright enough to catch your eye. Hardware equivalent of a flash ad. Also, if you keep your PC in your bedroom, you'd better find something to put in front of the LEDs.
"Cheap plastic USB port covers"
Yup, cheap is right. I snapped mine off literally about half an hour before reading the article. How's that for irony? To be fair, the cover was fine until now, just a bit superfluous. I won't miss it.
Side panels
I have seen about 3 PCs in my lifetime that get sidepanels right: easy to take off, but fit snugly and stay on well in spite of semifrequent access. For my last few boxes, I hav mostly kept my sidepanel off, but laying up against the case. Well, it helps cooling...
Sliding front / moving bits
I said the cheap plastic USB port covers were superfluous? My mistake. Any moving parts such as the case front are entirely superfluous and downright annoying. My last case had a sliding front. Up, it blocked the optical drives. Down, it blocked the USB ports. Argh...
Power supplies
Gaming cases tend to get these right, assuming they include a PSU with the case. No real complaints here in my experience.
----
I'd say that unless you are shallow and/or a showoff at LAN parties you'd be better off with a standard case. The money you save on the case can go on a bit of better quality RAM, or at the very worst, a round of beers. So if you have a big budget to blow on a computer you are going to be showing to a lot a people, then sure, get a cool-looking case. But make sure it's cool looking 'features' don't compromise its rather more important 'functions'.
If all you have is a grenade, pretty soon every problem looks like a foxhole -- MightyYar
get a cheap noname case, take out the included PSU and smash it with a hammer (the PSU, not the case).
mine is decent, classic looking, doesn't screws for the cards and drives, and has enough room inside. then, enjoyed the $50 or $100 you spared!
I just want a good case with good cooling. I don't want a door that I to open to get the CD / DVD divers I also want a lot of front ports on it and I don't want to pay $100+ for it.
29 pages for five cases? You've got to be kidding!
I hate to be the token apple fanboy, but these cases are amazingly ugly. all of them are significantly uglier than anything apple's produced, dating all the way back to the blue and white G3s.
that's not to say that OEM PC cases have to be ugly. IBM's produced some slick-looking cases, and so has Dell (for their small-form factor business stuff at least).
Lian-li's cases are also reasonably attractive, even if they somewhat appear to be knockoffs of the G5.
Industrial design seems to be an art lost to many theese days, which is a real shame... the G5's case was beautiful, functional, and able to cool several ridiculously hot G5 processors silently.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
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Sometimes I wonder if what drives people to buy cases with lights, strange logos and other gimmicks is the same thing that drives people to drive giant SUVs and wear expensive clothes. It sure seems like conspicuous consumerism to buy an expensive case that doesn't actually work well. Sort of like buying something for the sake of buying something, even if it isn't really needed.
Register the editry.
that people buy cases over the net. So flashy pictures count for more than solid engineering.
When we are able to evaluate the engineering quality of something via the net, shops will finally cease to exist. But until then...
Yeesh! Those are some fucking ugly, pre-riced cases. All they're missing is the oversized superflous fin, a coffee can-sized exhaust and gratuitous "Type R" and similar stickers, and they could be props in "The Fast and the Furious: Friday Night LAN Party."
I made a huge mistake the time before the last time I bought a computer case and picked a black one with one blue LED on it... It made me unable to sleep and was very annoying to look at. Never again. Now, my case (which I've had for quite a while) is back to good old semi white/grey. It doesn't have any stupid bullshit on it and that's the way it should be. Servers look nice in black, though...
Their only real disadvantage is their weight. Many people forget to consider that a ~19 kg (40 pound, empty) case isn't exactly easy to take to LAN parties. Though with that weight comes a high degree of robustness that has often shown to be very valuable.
:/- spoon(_).
as long as you go with a name brand, you are *usually* ok... I'm using a cheap case I got on sale at newegg for 35 bucks... nothing fancy about it, but its a midsize and holds my water cooling just fine.
When I did desktop support in college, I spent many an hour cursing the engineer at Acer (which is where IBM OEM'd the Crap-tiva from), who decided that flathead screws with shallow screw slots had ANY place in a computer case. I got "bit" by my screwdriver several times trying to install network cards in those damn things. (Don't even get me started on what those boxes did once you actually tried to get Novell working on them.)
IBM's (err... Lenovo's) current "business" desktop cases are an intesting study in constrasts. Tool-free design, decent access, and a very sturdy all-metal chassis. However, the two bays intended for hard drives are too far apart to string an ATA cable between them. For newer models that use SATA, this isn't a problem, but it was more than a tad frustrating when I went to install a second drive in my two-year old P4.
I don't know anything about those new Lenovo consumer cases.
Server cases are something else entirely. For all the customer-replacable parts, cases from all three major vendors (IBM, HP, and Dell) are pretty much a piece of cake.
SirWired
People like shiny things, heck *I* like shiny things. But when I buy a case I look for some specifics that make things handy for me as a gamer:
-As mentioned earlier, cooling. The number and placement of fan mounting brackets is important to gamers.
-Flexibility. The reason why most gamers don't use those old beige cases is because we can't cram a terabyte of HDD, one or two video cards or a sophisticated cooling rig (water cooled, giganto Zalman, etc)
-Durability. Your case is going to be dragged around to various LAN parties, so you better be prepared to hit all sorts of trouble and survive.
-Weight. Again, if you are hauling your PC around to LAN parties you don't want to be dragging Godzilla's Pocket PC with you (at least I don't).
Looks is kind of a secondary thing, but for me I just want something simple, functional and hassle-free. Unecesarry doodads like plastic doors just get in the way, you really want front USB ports and other gizmos that will help you out AND look cool (if possible).
My case is the GMC Noblesse SE, which I have been dragging back and forth to events like Fragapalooza and home brew LAN parties for a couple of years now. Durable, easy to work in, not too gooped-up, a little heavier than I would like but otherwise great. And yes, there is a plastic door on this one I know but it doesn't get in the way or break off etc.
GMC makes a great line of cases.
crazy dynamite monkey
I was going to post the full text of the article, but there's no real point. Most of the "pages" just have three or four photos of parts of the case. The meat of the article is on page 26 for those who are actually interested. Ignore the last 2 pages, they're basically ads for "input devices that light up". Two entire PAGES with no relevance to the article topic at all. Man, what the hell happened to Tom's Hardware? You guys used to be good.
A case keeps in all the hotair, for best ventilation, just let your motherboard lay on the ground. I gave mine a cardboard case so it doesn't feel completely naked. Of course it could catch fire, so I never leave it on overnight.
God spoke to me.
It's called "materialism"..
Supermicro.
The more P.C. cases I see, the more I appreciate my Mac.
Check out my foes list to see who is so retarded that they can't use the signature line!!!
Attractive design holds some merit with the gaming crowd but most however don't want to lug these overdone designs around to lans. Want to sell a good gaming case? Make it small, portable, easy to work with using standard parts, and cooling a big consideration. Even if it looks somewhat bland, it will be a guaranteed sell. They will mod it.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
In my experience, Antec makes really good cases in general. I have 2 sonatas and a lanboy.. they're all awesome. However, you do have to pay for the quality.
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
29 Pages?!?
An article like this calls for Anti-Pagination!
I have that case(orig. version), via a different named company. It's total shite. The hinge plastic broke the second day. They wanted twenty dollars and shipping to replace it. I said screw it and put the trim peice on instead. As nice as that system looks with its USB and hard drive switch, I can get all that put into one 5.25 slot and into the unused 3.5 slot for ten bucks or so. I'll never buy anything from Ahanix again.
77 HITS
Really Long Off Topic Combo
Well, there's conspicuous consumption, but then there's plain old bad taste. Pink Flamingos and Polyester.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
I'm inclined to think the article itself is trash. Twenty-nine damned pages pages that are all exceedingly short on content, no printer-friendly single page, and oh yeah, ads EVERYWHERE, even when using AdBlock.
Twenty-nine ad-infested non-pages on top of a site run by one of the most arrogant blowhards on the entire net. Give me a fracking break. I clicked next to go to page two, thinking that MAYBE there would be more content on each following page. Boy was I wrong. After seeing that the second page was similarly lacking, I gave up on TFA. No way in hell will I give that web design abortion any more page views (and thus ad impressions).
As for cases, who the hell needs flashy cases with funky designs and lights all over the place? Certainly not me. I like to keep things simple, understated, and little an eyesore as possible. Having an outrageous case design with flashing lights and all sorts of useless readouts is a surefire way to tell an prospective mate that you care more about your computer than human companionship.
No, what I really want to see in a case are some simple improvements. A completely tool-free design (I don't want to have to pick up a single screwdriver to use the case), a design that's as much at home on the desk as it is tucked somewhere out of the way, and maybe even a power supply with a small battery source connected to some ultrabright white LED's that I can switch on only when I open the case so that I can see what I'm doing. Or better yet, something that can be placed basically anywhere, such as the Shuttle X100. Unfortunately, the price for that system has become far too high ($899) for something that has been gimped from a dual-core to a single-core system.
Bottom Line: Tom can take this article (all 29 pages of it), along with the rest of the site, and shove them up his ass.
"So after all this, you make my case for me. To end this stalemate, you must die..."
The only thing I need access to is a DVD/CD rw and a USB connection. So all I need is an external enclosure with 2 USB connection. That I put on my desk and all the rest I stuff away out of sight as far as possible.
Enclusures enough, just not one with extra USB connections.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
No, they're the same people who buy old Civics and Neons, put giant spoilers, racing stripes, and "fart can" mufflers on them because they think it makes the car go faster. These are the same people who pay extra for flashing LCD's, clear side panels and lighted fans in their cases - they think it makes it compute faster.
Let's call them "Rice Nerds."
Stupid sexy Flanders.
I am unfortunately unable to utilize any of these terrific looking cases, especially the Dragon case, as my application to become a ninja was sadly declined last week.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
That's unfortunate, this case has been through hell and back with the door on for almost three years with no problems at all. :-/
crazy dynamite monkey
Put a paper bag in one of those and you have just built your first vacuum cleaner...
Zere vere zwei peanuts valking down der Straße, and von vas assaulted...peanut
Too much plastic ... that about sums it up. Some came with power supplies but I'm not sure the manufacture is trustworthy, I am not familiar with the ones included. Alternatively you could get an aluminum Lian Li http://www.lian-li.com/main.htmcase like I did five years ago, it still looks like the day I bought it. I won't have to get another case unless form factor changes radically. And the big knurled nuts and sliding modular construction makes installing hard drives, power supplies or motherboards a snap. They cost a little more but they last a long time and don't break.
Many a long talk since then I have had with the man in the moon; he had my confidence on the voyage. Joshua Slocum
Racing stripes DO make cars go faster.
Just like LEDs make my processer run cooler.
It's always confirmation bias!
Oy. I'll leave the car thing alone, but as far as the computers go, most people do it because they a) like how it looks and b) enjoy doing it.
I built my cousin a computer once and he wanted to mod it out. He spent 10 hours custom carving a biohazard logo in the side of it. I think he enjoyed making little tweaks to the appearance over the next few months as much as he liked playing WoW on it once he turned it back on.
So what is wrong with that?
I have purchased probably 15+ cases over the years. I have found two that almost meet my expectations. 1. Enermax - CS10181 Pros: Affordable
Cons: Fan air flow paths not well thought out(requires mods to get good airflow) Cheapo ass front door(I hate doors, especially plastic) No front panel anything connections
2. Antec - Lanboy Pros: Affordable
Cons: Cheap ass front door(god I hate this) Not very sturdy(100% aluminum) No inlet fan filter
I dislike ----> Spaz cases, HUGE cases, tiny cases! Make the damn things functional, clean lines, solid construction and good airflow.
Note to case makers: Doors suck, doors that break really suck! AIRFLOW via 27 fans all just randomly blowing air around is not GOOD AIRFLOW! I want a computer case, not a freaking white noise generator. NO tools Front Panel Connections
Nothing, but that's exactly the point. Your case (or car, for that matter) can look as dull or as flashy as you want it to. It's how it preforms that makes it what it is. Even if I mod my case to have neon lights and a slurpee machine, all that won't matter unless it keeps everything inside working well.
It's always confirmation bias!
Once I ordered a case from newegg. It looked good, it was cheap, and it looked like it could keep a Mexican woman cool after you just told her that her age old family recipe for mole was crappy (Not mole as in the animal. It's pronounced mol-ay, like the last part of guacamole). It arrived in the mail. I opened it up, and before I could put a power supply in it, the bastard blew up!!!
Does this sig remind you of Agatha Christie?
First: Did this article need to be 29 pages long?
I bought a new case recently, for a personal box, and I picked an Sexy Antec Number. In went a 939 board and it's fine and nice.
It's plain, and simple. Pretty practical. When you buy a case with a big fat batman image on it, or whole bunch of lights and crap, you should be able to guess what you're getting into.
Seriously. Who ever had the idea of lumping together several components that dissipate heat poorly inside a big box made of metal or worse, heat-insulating plastic? Computers aren't appliances. You don't have to buy them in a single cute little box. Why hasn't anyone thoght, yet, of lumping the motherboard and assorted off-board peripherals in one small case tucked away somewhere with a large fan and placing the parts you actually need access to - power button, USB ports, peripheral devices and optical disk drives - on your desk?
You can talk about portability, but my computer isn't going anywhere, and I dispute the notion that a huge gaming case with a handle on top is "portable". It's as portable as an Osbourne. If I want something to carry around with me, I'll get a largish laptop and an USB mouse, problem solved, even for gaming.
I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.
I have an Antec case for my personal computer and it sucks. Even my girlfriend's eMachine has a better built case. The best move one can do is to get an old HP machine and gut it out. My server sits in an old Compaq case I got for free, and with the same configuration as my computer, it's strangely much more silent. It's just a case, right?
Mine needs a tripod like a BBQ grill
and it better have 3 little holes at the top for smoke,
with an ash collector underneath for silicon remnants.
From the article:
In this comparison test, Tom's Hardware Guide finds itself unable to recommend any of the products it tested. That is because they're either too fragile or we simply couldn't overcome our reservations about certain features or components.
The article is good in the sense that not everyone has your experience, and can believe that those features are good.
The bad thing, this text was in page 25.
We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.
Back in the day it was easier with cases. Just pick up the cheapest and ugliest case and throw your stuff in. Noise was an issue but it was taken for granted. Some cases had holes for extra fans but nobody bought those. I've never figured out why my 1st atx psu actually blew the hot air into the case and not out. Luckily when the honeymoon was over all I got was a bad smell and no broken parts out of it. If I'd have to mock up a case I'd probably base it on antec's slk3000b. It's quite affordable and pretty quiet too but it has some issues. Plastic door looks ok but if it's rarely closed what's the point besides hiding those ugly beige dvd drives. Cpu duct and vga grill could be optional as well but it has the basics right aka rubber donuts for hds and big enough holes for 120mm fans. Most of all it has spare room between the upper edge of the motherboard and the psu so getting a gargantuan cpu cooler in isn't a problem. I've had few older cases where big typhoon just wouldn't physically fit. Forget neon lights just make sure the case you are interested in has enough room for all the clutter and proper ventilation.
Laugh all you want, but all those blue LEDs make the case look atleast 10 degrees cooler.
It's a techology called 'Perceptual LED Cooling', that's why you see them on fans nowadays.
Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things
Lian-Li makes the coolest cases around, no mods required. A little more $ than the average case, but Lian-Li cases arn't average. Hands down, slickest off-the-shelf style.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
PS: I know why, I'm just lamenting.
I was raised on the command line, bitch
"Nemo me impune lacesset"
When I was rebuilding my cases cooling system with a panel for fan speed control, I decided to expand on the visual mods a bit (they had some stuff REALLY cheap on one of the sites I was buying a heatsink from). I ended up with a lighting control knob that allows no lights, interior lights or interior and exterior lights to be selected. When it is on, combined with the window and the pretty stuff inside the case, it looks pretty good (silver case with mostly blue lights--the bottom ccfl is half red in the area that lights the hdd bays) but I cant remember the last time I actually turned it on. My computer is still powerful where it counts, and I had fun doing the wiring and design of the lighting system. Its even kind of nice to show to people but its never on because it really has no effect on the system.
With the cars, you cant really turn off the visual mods...
Bottles.
I can't think of anything else to say. You probably couldn't hear me even if I did.
Back in the day, i remember when there was only beige boxes. No brushed aluminium, no matte black finishes, and certainly no perspex side panels.
In those days we used to go out and get ourselfs a dremel, and we would make the case look so damn cool, it would put most of the modern day cases to shame. I remember modding a case fan to have larger blades on it, because it was too expensive to buy a bigger fan, and because it weighed more, it would slow the rpm down to make it more quiet. We knew how to paint our own boxes back then, and we could make some of the coolest effects. We also made our own LED arrays to show off our bling. Not any more, the companies do it for you.
The ultimate mobile gaming experience
I searched for redundancy with "spinning wheels" and "spinning rims" and found nothing mentioned yet. Gonna just drop it since it must be a sacred cow among everyone talking about stripes, mufflers, lights, ...
Sometimes I wonder if what drives 900K+ UID Slashdotters to rail against things that they cannot possess is simple jealousy. It sure seems true, they're pretty much all teenagers, using computers and Internet connections that their parents provide for them.
It reminds me of this:
"The Fox and the Grapes
One hot summer's day a Fox was strolling through an orchard
till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine which
had been trained over a lofty branch. "Just the thing to quench
my thirst," quoth he. Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and
a jump, and just missed the bunch. Turning round again with a
One, Two, Three, he jumped up, but with no greater success. Again
and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to
give it up, and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: "I
am sure they are sour."
It is easy to despise what you cannot get."
Oh, and BTW, wetfeetl33t: You're correct - the SAME motivation drives people that "buy cases with lights, strange logos and other gimmicks" as does those that "drives people to drive giant SUVs and wear expensive clothes."
We do it, JUST to piss you off, you see, because we can, and KNOW that it will make you cranky: In fact, we do it for no other reason. We ACTUALLY discuss it, in our monthly meetings - it's an item on our agenda "Is wetfeetl33t still pissed at us?"
We get worried when you're not.
Please, let us know that you're still full of moral outrage against those of us that have more than you? We cannot exist without you, you see.
Ive been using IBM server cases from a IBM repair shop. Most IBM repair shops have heaps of partially/fully gutted cases, they will happily give you one for a few nickel and dimes or in my case I got 3 of them for nothing.
The things are built like sherman tanks and everything is easy to replace or move or modify.
Even the 'cheap' antec cases are great.
I needed a case that a) Didn't look tacky, b) had room for multiple hard drives, c) had a decent power supply, d) didnt cost a fortune, and most importantly e) had a front door than covered the power button. The only maker I could find that made what I needed was Antec. I bought this one for my wife's machines and this one for mine. I needed one with a door because my toddler likes to push buttons. I bought a baby-proof thingy that is designed for cabinets that wraps around the case and our PCs are now "toddler proof".
I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
Oh shit! The fans I bought have red LEDs!
Finally on page 26 I find this - "In this comparison test, Tom's Hardware Guide finds itself unable to recommend any of the products it tested." WTF? That much work to learn they are all crap and I should stay with my cheap $50 Coolermaster case?
could they split up the review into a few more pages for me? I mean I know that, personally, I like to have to hit "next page" every 5 sentences. It gives the review a nice flow. 29 pages? I think 40 pages is an accepted minimum. What are these guys thinking?! *roll eyes* bret
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
These cases are worse than Pink flamingos. Honestly, they are all over priced junk unless you are a 13 or 14 year old male.
Most definitely trash. I think "gamer" cases are designed by monkeys on acid.
Whenever I build a computer, there are a few things that I always look for in a case. Fancy blinkenlights and windows are not among them.
Here are the things I always look for when I buy a case:
Is the case a Full Tower?
I have fairly small hands, and even I find that it's really painful trying to get into a mid-tower, let alone a mini tower. Especially with Video Cards getting bigger, people more likely having multiple hard drives/optical drives, etc. I think a full tower is the only way to go. It helps with airflow, it helps getting everything into the case in the first place, and it makes it easier to get inside and work on the machine later.
Good Side Pannels
Some people don't like them, but good cases with good sidepannels make working on machines much easier. My case, for example, has a latch that locks into place when you snap the sidepannel on. It's sturdy enough that even when transporting the computer to lan parties or similar, I've never had a problem with it comming loose. When I want to get into the case, just pulling on the door latch and sliding it out and I'm into the case. The only problem I've ever had is that it's a slight pain trying to get the side pannel to line back up to snap back into place. I'd much rather mess with that than screws though.
Removable Drive Holder..thingy
I'm not sure what you'd call these, but my case - and a few others that I've worked on, has a little thing that slides in and out of the case from the front where the optical drives and hard drives go. The nice thing about this is that it makes it easier to actually get these things stablilzed well. I don't know how many computers I've worked in where the hard drive was held in by a single screw, because it was too hard to get any of the other screws in because of the case design.
Those are the big things I look at when getting a case. I'm particularly fond of the Antec cases, which aren't necessarily the most stylish looking cases, but in my experience are well built and have the right features.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
Men's answer to women's plastic surgery.
Dude, it's ugly. Even if it's breakable.
Well, I don't really know, but it may have something to do with this:
Editor In Chief and CEO of Tom's Hardware Both Step Down
IMO, tomshardware.com "jumped the shark" several years prior to this (2001?). Seemed like Tom stopped writing articles to focus on starting a corporate empire. Once all of the so called "editors" started putting their hands in the pie, the quality suffered quite a bit. Now it seems like everything on the site is targeted at the clueless newbie and paginated to maximize advertising revenue.
Can we get a mod up or at least some applause for the "Godzilla's Pocket PC" thing? Just the mental picture of Godzilla trying to figure out Pocket PC and cursing Microsoft...
"Curse your sudden, but inevitable betrayal!"
Has it occured to you guys that a lot of these people just don't know any better? That they don't know that a metal case with spaces for more fans is better than a case with space for one fan and a plexiglass window? Go ask people and you'll fidn out that a lot of them don't know. And why not? Because when they shop for them it says nothing about how one fan isn't such a good idea for a high-powered computer or that plexiglass windows can scratch up. Hell, even the metal cases with space for four fans don't even say that -- go look over cases at newegg.com and you'll see. The reviews are one of the best ways to learn but not everyone shops there and even a lot of those who do don't read reviews beyond those on the item's description page.
Give me an ugly old solid case with space for three or four fans any day over those with the plexiglass windows, but the fact is most of them have that now. I don't even look at the cheap plastic cases myself.
I dream of a better world... one in which chickens can cross roads without their motives being questioned.
90% of the time people give me a compliment of my computer, http://www.electronmaster.com/mycomputer.html, when I am out in public they simply say "Wow, thats a nice computer" I hate this. I then procede to ask them why- and they say "I don't know, it looks cool?" Then I tell them it has a PII in it and a 32mb graphics card and show them how my games look ( I really have a 6600 PCIE card in there).6 .JPG
This usualy happened when I brought it into school (its a tech school)
What they should start making is sleeper cases, to fool people - http://www.computercare.ca/catalog/images/DSCN100
> Even if I mod my case to have neon lights and a slurpee machine, all that won't matter unless it keeps everything inside working well.
When you get that done, invite me over, I need my free refill.
Do not downmod posts "overrated" simply because you disagree with them.
Two biggest problems with computer cases for me are that I have physical disabilitles and heat control.
e rs.txt
:)
:)
I have problems moving computers (even minitowers), and opening and closing cases, using screwdrivers (even electronic ones), removing case covers (sliding types still fail for me). Are there any out there work for me so I don't have to get someone to do it for me?
Second, heat!! I have problems keeping my computers stable for every upgrades. My room can go aboev 85 degrees(F) in the heat wave. A/C won't do well since my room is upstair so all heat rises. I don't even overlock.
Here's a sampler of my Web surfing temperatures:
-Athlon 64 754 CPU (3200+) Windows XP Pro. SP2 box: 113F
-ASUS K8V SE Deluxe (1007 firmware): 132F
Note: Have seen CPU go up to 150F during stress like gaming in 85+F room (don't remember the peak temperatures for motherboard).
Idled system in my Linux/Debian box:
-MSI KT4AV-L (Socket A/Socket 462; VIA KT400A) motherboard: 151F
-Athlon XP 2200+: 122F
You can see my system specifications here: http://alpha.zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/comput
No, I am not getting water cooling. Too much work, and my disabilities will not work with that setup.
I am planning to do redo my hardwarwe setups when I get my Athlon 64 x2 in autumn (much hotter than now).
I don't care about the look of the case as long as it is not pink color.
Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
This article is lame, All hail the beige box with higher shipping and handling than price!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!
So the Cray X1 runs Windows now? Look at the reflection on the second (or is it the third?) cabinet from the left.
-- It only takes 20 minutes for a liberal to become a conservative thanks to our new outpatient surgical procedure!
My case has a few of the things people hate, including some unnecessary LED's, a windowed site, etc. However, it was the only case I could find locally that had the feature I wanted the most, which was a handle on top. Since I'm still in college, and move around a lot, I got tired of lugging the thing around without one.
Fear and love.
That's odd. The impression I get from the gamer cases are that the only people who'd be caught dead building a computer in one aren't much different from the riceboys who think a fart-can exhaust, neon lighting (also frequently seen im gamer cases, I might add), and a Type R sticker will make their POS import go faster. All show, no go.
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
Does anyone else think that Tom's hardware seems to use too few words/paragraphs per page? They seem to have *tons* of ads on their pages but their content is crammed into two para graphs at most.
Does an article reviewing 5 PC cases *really* require 29 pages to read? 29 PAGES! FOR 5 CASES! That's 5.8 pages per case!
What an obnoxious thing to say. And so utterly devoid of and positive value at all.
Computers that look like transformers are going out of style, and scare away girls. Be ironic and show that you don't care by using something like the kitty computer case. =^.^=
Best case I ever had ? Chieftec Dragon.
Being using regular pc's now for 10 years (moved "up" from an amiga in 96) and I've been through many cases but my black dragon has lasted three years and I don't see myself getting rid if it any time soon.
It just has so many really nice features. Like the seperate internal and external slide out drive bays. The removable easy access fan mounts. And best of all : You know those case mounting rails for the 5.25" bays that you can never find when you want to mount an new drive ? The dragon has a mounting point for them in the floor of the case so you never lose them.
I wonder why I can't seem to find anyone who sells these anymore ?
why are all of tom's articles always like 50 page mini-novels? the guys to take a class in editing
A good indicator of the quality of Tom's hardware reviews these days is shown quite clearly at the end of 'page' 17; unless this particular case features a new form factor that allows drives to be mounted in the card brackets (last picture that's not an ad, "screwless drive mounts" - uh huh...). Considering how few words there are in the entire article you'd think that any proof readers TH has (wtf are they eh?) might have fit some reading in between pulling one off over the blue LEDs and 250mm fans. With respect to cases - give me HP or Sun workstation cases from the nineties and earlier for some good pointers. Flashing lights? meh - 'tis all bling.
"It's how it preforms that makes it what it is. Even if I mod my case to have neon lights and a slurpee machine, all that won't matter unless it keeps everything inside working well"
and putting a picture up on a wall won't help the wall keep the outside out (infact it may weaken it) but there is a pretty large market in after market mods for walls, some people spend millions on them...
Yeah, they are the same people that hang pictures on the walls. It doesn't make the wall perform better.
Now when it's time to make compromise and manage a budget, that's when the buyer shows 'savvyness' or not.
These days, I'm quite impressed with my Powermac G4 case (my first mac ever, got it used on ebay). The day I decide to get rid of it, I just might keep the case for something else because it is really well thought and built:
- the IDE cables are not hanging from the drives, they are inside "tunnels" from the drive to the motherboard;
- the way the side panel opens is very convenient, no loose screws there;
- the power supply seems standard enough to replace one of these days;
- the hard drive bays can be stacked at the bottom of the case
- it's attractive with a professional look, not some kid fantasy kind of attractive
yep, that's some great technology from the year 2000.No, no it's called "USA".
can't.. stop.. clicking.. ads..
By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes: Open, locks, whoever knocks!
Pictures look better than walls when they are in something called "good taste."
Tacky, puerile pictures make a wall look tacky and puerile, just like flashing lights and goofy plastic shapes make a computer look tacky and puerile.
Fine if you want to look 13 (maybe you *are* 13, and somehow think your coolness is increased by this shit), but hopefully this is a phase you'll grow out of, and transition into a phase where you shower daily, use deodorant, figure out how to wash your face to prevent breakouts, and realize that the appropriate sex is not impressed by how many LEDs shine out of your "gaming rig." Or even that you have a computer you call your "gaming rig."
1. I'm not a Mac fanboy, and I too find most of these "omg, it has lights and windows" cases butt-ugly. You don't have to be a Mac fanboy to have good taste, you know.
I mean, seriously, a window to show... what? An interior with a blue mainboard with yellow slots, a red heatsink (copper), green, black, and blue PCI cards, and cables in all colours known to man. (And some which I suspect would need another species to properly appreciate.) All bathed in some blue cathode glow, with red and green led fans, and cables glowing in various other colours for good measure.
It's supposed to be pretty... how? It looks like a terrorist attack on a paint factory, or clown after a tragic accident involving 5 buckets of paint.
2. What gets my goat is that most of them are _only_ supposed to look funky, but actually have piss-poor airflow or sound dampening.
E.g., I remember the worst offender, my old Xaser 3 case. It featured such idiocies as having 2 nosiy fans on the front, _but_ restricting both their intake _and_ exhaust to the point where maybe 5% of the nominal airflow actually cooled the hard drives or even made its way inside the case. Or side fans which (A) sucked against the side panel, so they had both restricted intake _and_ made the panel vibrate and hum, and (B) did more harm to the airflow inside the case than help. It needed 7 (SEVEN!) fans to actually do a poorer job than my current Lian Li does with just one exhaust fan at 1500 RPM, plus the PSU fan.
3. Lian Li makes good cases, but please. No need to go into the "Apple invented everything" routine. They made some of those cases long before the G5 even existed.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
and putting a picture up on a wall won't help the wall keep the outside out (infact it may weaken it) but there is a pretty large market in after market mods for walls, some people spend millions on them...
Yes, and these case mods are the artistic equivalent of velvet Elvis paintings.
THG has really gone downhill, nothing there these days is worth reading (well maybe the odd networking guide). Look in its archives and you'll find quality stuff they did back in 1999/2000 vs the trash of today.
Well, if the problem is heat, the best thing to do is buy the lowest wattage processor you can and build the system around that. You can buy desktop motherboards for Pentium M and Turion mobile chips. Intel Conroe core comes out soon and people are expecting great power usage from it. Then try to find a video card that uses a passive heatsink, indicating that it runs cooler to start with. I know there are some around.
On the issue of the case... a good case vents as much heat as possible. The better the case, the more heat it will dump into the room. I have a Dual Mac G5 with a great case (probably the best case design ever) - but the heat coming from the rear panel is incredible - I've never felt anything like it. Personally I would recommend Antec cases for anyone building a machine. They usually have rails and removable hard drive cages. Consider just buying a barebones system from Monarch if you are having that much trouble. I think every case around uses a sliding door panel.
Agreed. I love my Lian-Li. Although I have been ricing it up a little lately. For example, I got a side window. But it was mainly in the interest of cooling, since I can easily buy a window with a hole cut for a fan. I also riced up some of my existing fans with LEDs. They're not real bright and they didn't cost any more than I'd pay for regular fans with more airflow than my originals. And soon, I plan to cut two more holes in my case, all in the interest of airflow. Will they have LEDs in them? Most likely. Will it still work exactly the same without LEDs? Most likely. Will my case still be a boring, brushed metal box? Definitely not. It'll be a brushed metal box with blue eminating from all vent holes.
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
Much Better
Red wunz go fastuh!!!
Beware the fury of a patient man
- John Dryden
So what is wrong with that?
We simply disapprove. By our standards, your cousin is worthless.
Defining Statistics and Social Research
I think that was the worst article I've ever read at Tom's Hardware. I really didn't see a whole lot of value there, and the subject matter was terrible. It was like, "Hey, let's grab a handful of the worst cases we can find, and show how bad they are.". Well duh. With that small of a sample, why were 2 of the cases almost identical? I could think of so many other ways to have done that article, like actually had a good case in there to show what to really look for. I think the article was very poorly done. Many pages are nothing more than a series of pictures with a small caption of what the picture obviously is like, "These are the drive bays." or "The fan has a blue LED.". WTF is that all about? That's not a review, it's a description. A review would at least tell me if the freaking fan with the LED would keep my drives cool in those bays.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of SMART?
I agree that the SUV comment was taking it a bit far, but when you want to accuse people of not liking those cases because YOU think they can't afford them... well all I can say is that maybe you'll aquire some taste and sense when you get a bit older. Sorry to break it to you, but those are some NASTY cases. Oh, yeah, I'm sure I'm saying this because I'd secretly rather have one of those than my Coolermaster Stacker.. NOT. In fact the first one shown obiously has a problem itself in that it seems that it wishes it was a Stacker, but it doesn't come close to measuring up.
Sorry to put it to you this way troll, but if you like those cases you just really don't know what to look for in a case yet.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of SMART?
Color may be black...
There are several real good cases out there... but they are usually industry grade (= with a real nice high price tag).
--
I prefere a good large case... if it is too heavy I'll mount some wheels on it... Just think uVAX II in a BA123...
Yeah, I've heard the occasional quip about the PowerMac G5 cases looking like "space heaters" and so on. For that matter though, people gave the flat-panel iMac G4 systems a lot of grief too, for looking like "lampshades".
As time went on though, most people raved about the old iMac G4 design - and the fact that it still fetches more money than its specs would indicate is testimony to its styling. (You can buy a far superior iMac G5 system refurbished from Apple - with full warranty - for only $200 or so less than the typical going rate for the previous-generation iMac G4!)
Being a PowerMac G5 owner myself, I quickly grew to really appreciate its case design. For one thing, the arched "handles" Apple uses on the corners of them are surprisingly practical. Not only do they give you an easy way to pick up the box and move it around, but they help route/contain cabling for external drives and other such devices likely to be placed on the top of the system. The clear plastic inner cover beneath the side panel of the case is a nice touch too. (Notice the PC "copycats" of the G5 case always seem to skip this detail.) It allows someone to look at the insides without having to actually leave the thing open and collecting dust. The many perforations all over the front and back of the case, obviously, help out with cooling too. That may give it a "space heater" look that some people despise - but it's much more functional than throwing a solid faceplate over the front and/or back, and then trying to circulate more air through the case with fans to make up for the lack of ventilation.
Your case must be hot!
I must have a storm front in my case, I have red and blue lights
red at the front blue at the back, dont ask why thats just how it happened
I love the smell of burning karma in the morning...
It's sad to see that the term "gamer" no longer has any meaning in an actually gaming context. With maybe the exception of the Dragon, not one of those cases is suitable for true gaming, and there's a very good reason for that...they simply aren't easily portable. Yes, the Dragon did appear to have a handle of sorts on the top, which might make it easier to lug it around, but the others had nothing going for them. Unfortunately, people respond well to shiny, expensive things. How, precisely, is a case supposed to be suitable for gaming if you can't easily take it to LAN parties?
Let me throw another case into the mix: Aspire Q-Pack
Now THIS is a gaming case. Don't let the MicroATX form factor fool you. This case serves me well as my personal gaming machine, and it is quite the beast. It's very portable, has a simple, non-complex temperature monitor built into the front, and yes...plenty of windows for those of you that need shiny stuff to stare at. The provided PSU has given me no grief thus far. Frontal USB 2.0 and audio are a giant plus. The only drawback I've seen so far is that it only comes with 1 fan slot (a 120mm in the back, over the CPU mount). But it was a fairly simple matter to mod in another 120mm fan on the side. And let me tell you, one intake 120mm and one exhaust 120mm has kept that case incredibly cool. It's not hard at all to move fresh air through that case, given it's small size.
A lot of the Newegg reviews cite that the handle on the case is flimsy. Don't listen to them. It's rock solid. I trust this case with my best hardware, and I've never once been afraid of the handle breaking.
"You will pay for your lack of vision..." - Emperor Palpatine to Ray Charles
Sorry, I am not 5 anymore. My love of Fisher Price ended with the Weebles.
I don't understand how PC case makers constantly get it wrong when designing their cases. I just want a sleek metal box that has much attention to details like thumb screws and no sharp edges along with a pleasing design.
Instead, half of the computer stores in town sell garish plastic monstrosities with see-thru side panels so you can attach all kinds of bling and neon lights to your computer.
Honestly, custom computers have become almost as bad as those Honda Civic drivers with the fart cannons and the neon license plate frames. Completely useless and I never understand how these people think they are cool when they look like a joke. The same people that think its cool to make their civic sound like a Ferrari with loud booming exhaust tips (honestly, your diving a friggin civic hatchback) probably think its cool to put neon spinner fans and stickers all over their cases.
The problem is, the moment I find a case that I like, its $300.
PC cases are truly like cars, you can buy cheap ass models and dress them up to look like BMWs and Mercs, but in the end you can't hide the fact its a Civic hatchback. I prefer the Bimmers and Mercs myself, and will pay extra so I don't have to be a poser.
If you have a Batman PC case and are older then 5 years old, move out of your Mother's basement and get a life.
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- Don't mod me down for speaking the truth.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Also Known as: Ad Hominem Abusive.
Description of Personal Attack
A personal attack is committed when a person substitutes abusive remarks for evidence when attacking another person's claim or claims. This line of "reasoning" is fallacious because the attack is directed at the person making the claim and not the claim itself. The truth value of a claim is independent of the person making the claim. After all, no matter how repugnant an individual might be, he or she can still make true claims.
Not all ad Hominems are fallacious. In some cases, an individual's characteristics can have a bearing on the question of the veracity of her claims. For example, if someone is shown to be a pathological liar, then what he says can be considered to be unreliable. However, such attacks are weak, since even pathological liars might speak the truth on occasion.
In general, it is best to focus one's attention on the content of the claim and not on who made the claim. It is the content that determines the truth of the claim and not the characteristics of the person making the claim.
I'm not arguing that it's not functional or anything. I just don't find the G5 asthetically appealing. I wasn't trying to troll or anything but when I saw it for the first time I thought "eek that looks horrible". Then again I said the same thing to the cases on display in the article.
Incidentally I found a pretty bad error in my original message - I meant to say "(note that this..." instead of "(not that this...". Sort of entirely changes the meaning.
it is probably not a good one...
Well, the problem is that I play the newest games. :) Those processors won't work.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Give me an ugly old solid case with space for three or four fans any day over those with the plexiglass windows, but the fact is most of them have that now. I don't even look at the cheap plastic cases myself.
Function over form is my motto.
Antec's cases caught my eye a few years back. For example, the p160 is silver aluminum, 120mm exhaust, 120mm intake over the 4 internal rubber-grommet tray-mounted hard drive bays, 4 external 5.25" bays and a pair of temperature sensors with front panel display. Since I was looking to (a) quiet down my home server and (b) get better cooling for the drives I found the p160 to be a good fit.
It's also a nice case from a service P.O.V., easy to open and the side-oriented hard drives on trays makes it quick/easy to swap a drive out. The all-aluminum construction feels solid and it has a good "fit" to it. Even after a few years of use, that side door is still going to be easy to get on/off without finagling. (I own 5 or 6 of these cases now, having used them regularly for various machines along with a trio of the Sonata cases.)
Now, there are a few things that the p160 doesn't do well.
1) The size of the motherboard tray precludes putting an even slightly oversized ATX motherboard in the enclosure. The newer p180/p180b cases don't have a motherboard tray and seem to allow slightly larger MBs. The Sonata can also fit a slightly oversized ATX motherboard, but the case size results in thermal issues if you're trying to put a dual-CPU motherboard into the case. (A lot of the dual-CPU motherboards are slightly larger then ATX standard.)
2) Air flow over the bottom hard drive bays is only so-so. This could be user-error (not using the right 120mm fan) or a design issue. The Sonata case seems to suffer the same issue, or I could be making the same mistake on both (sometimes I use thermal controlled fans down there which are 120mm fans with a thermistor that controls the RPM automatically). The newer p180/p180b case changes the interior design quite a bit and looks like a "cleaner" air flow over the drives.
3) The flashy front on the p160. Looks a little out of place in a business environment. The newer p180b is a lot tamer in comparison.
I've also looked at the Lian Li cases, but I'm more familiar and comfortable with the Antec products currently (Sonata, p160, p180/p180b).
Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
I too am disabled and I agree with the previous post on the cases. I own an Antec full tower with a rock solid power supply and latching side door that removes very easily. I am running 4 HDDs in it and have it loaded with 5 fans including the one in the side door directly above the CPU. It comes with screwless mounted rails for the 5.25 in. drives and a lot space for easy configuration. These are neither F4n B01z cases or industrial behemoths, just rock solid and well designed. I have neuropathy and I understand the need for ease of access. Unfortunately I have yet to find a screwless mounting system for HDDs. Good luck, I hope this helps.
Step 1: Just go down to your local Tigerdirect, or whatever refurb shop is near you, and take a look at the cases that don't appear damaged, can be easily opened without bending or breaking something and have all the right connectors, hopefully a nice powersupply included.
Step 2: Put it all together and check it for heat and any obvious problems. If it tends to run a little hot, chuck in a second fan where the cutout you already ignored is. Hopefully you can stand the noise.
Step 3: Now that it's running cool enough or at least as cool as it's going to w/o some fancy schmancy heatpipe watercooler system. You're done.
Step 4: If not then pick up one of those PCI slot fans, plug it in and off ya go.
Antec p160, p180 or p180b. The p160 has an excellent side-panel that flips on/off and has two large easy-to-use rotating thingies that hold it in place on the upper edge. (The thumbscrews along the back edge are optional, the built-in turny-thingies... where's my thesaurus?... hold the panel in place just fine.)
The hard drives down below are tray-mounted, easily removed on the p160 (I have yet to get my hands on the p180 case).
But if you're really concerned about hard-drive cooling, put your hard drives in the 5.25" bays using a 3:2 or 4:3 bay cooler.
My home office also gets up to 85F during the summer months (no insulation in the walls). So I am very conservative when it comes to cooling. I've used the 3:2 unit for many years (1998-ish?) and have never lost a drive due to heat failure. (OTOH, I've killed a few drives that weren't in a cooler block like that.)
Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
Honestly, why is it that someone who makes their computer flashy, is considered an idiot. Mine is a plain case, but I have to admit that some cases out there look pretty cool, and I have to give credit to the time and effort that those people put into their cases.
And people that do up their cars, that looks pretty damn cool too. It just means that they happen to be more visual than those that don't.
Just because it's not your view, doesn't mean it's stupid.
Just because it's got a window doesn't mean it doesn't have fans.
n _1899_8029394
http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/directro
Just because it's not your view, doesn't mean it's stupid.
Hi, my name is Anonymous Coward, but you can call me AC. Let me introduce you to Slashdot, as you most obviously are new here.
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You'll submit to SOME flameware here.
I only buy rack mount now-a-days. I am tired of computers of every shape and size all over my computer desk. A small rack and a couple rack mount cases keeps everything out of the way. A usb and video cable are the only things you need extending from the computer to wherever you actually work. Maybe some people spend the majority of their computer time looking at their computer. I spend most of mine looking at my monitor.
I do security
Don't forget the Decepticon and V-TEC stickers.
You are all a bunch of idots.
Why don't they just call it "tom's adware" now? The site is so overrun with ads and disinteresting crap now that it's difficult to know where site content and navigation start, and everything else ends. Too bad, I remember when it was actually good/useful.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
I'll also toss in my 10 cents in favor of Lian-Li. I researched parts for my last pc obsessively and went with their PC-60B. It is a beautifully simple case with lots of effort put into the important areas and the fluff left out. It is a simple black which many drive manufactures have as an option so you can find matching parts easily. It would be easy to fix scratches on the black paintjob also.
It has plenty of external and internal space for the vast majority of builders and the construction (aluminum) feels solid. Parts come together snugly with no sloppy joints and thumb screws are included. Construction was painless (literally with the edge guards). The front fan is filtered and sits directly in front of the drive cage which is good design. It doesn't have a motherboard tray but how often do most builders swap out motherboards anyway? There is space for an extra fan on top (back and front fans included) and it has also the basic external ports in a hidden panel on the bottom-front.
If I had to give any criticism of it I'd have to say I wish it was a bit deeper so there was more room for cables to pass between components. I'd also like to have some sort of gasket for the power supply hole since my Aerocool power supply leaves a 1/5" gap between the case and itself in the back.
I'll also eventually add some sort of light behind the front power switch to make it stand out from the case (black on black).
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
what's wrong with that?
this is slashdot where only super-obnoxious-and-reactionary nerds reside. so, obviously, everything is wrong with that. anything you like is wrong.
duh.
I'm sorry, but is there anyone else who thinks money should be spent making the computer actually "faster", as compared to making it pretty? I mean, a grey box which really cranks is so much nicer than some crap with a dragon or some neon? Anyone? Moojamboo
~ In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king ~ | Tom Waits
Have you seen these cases? HSPC Tech Station computer workbench
Nope, which case(s) am I looking at? The exposed one without covers? That will be bad for me since my room is a dust magnet. Heh.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Plenty of RnD is going to makes chips faster. I would like to see case RnD go into making them smaller and silent(not quite, silent)
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Try a desktop and not a tower.
Crack a window so the heat has somewhere to flow to.
Don't screw on the cover.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Yes they will. There is no game out today that needs the top of the line processor.
:)
Until a month ago, I ran World of warcraft, on its highest setting, using a 1.8G Celeron.
can't use water cooling? Is you disabilty that you are green and disolve in water?
You could conmsider just running the computer without a cover. My computer is actually quiter if I do that.
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Desktop. I used to have one (IBM PS/2 Model 30 286 10 Mhz). They took too much space on my tiny desk and heavy. So, this won't work well.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I'm withya on the article. got to page two, noticed it was 1 sentence long, and left.
I have a plain box. The HD led slips out very easily. Ss I pull I out and use that for light.
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1. Try FEAR, Call of Duty 2, HL2: Lost Coast, Oblivion, etc. My computer doesn't give smooth FPS with those games at 1152x864 with everything cranked up. WoW = old game. That doesn't count. Of course, it is smooth.
:(
2. Water cooling is messy. Lots of maintenance. I don't have time to keep it maintained. What happens if it leaks?
3. Without cover would work, but my room is a dust magnet.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
When checking out cases about 6 years ago, I got turned on to the PC-6 case. Couldn't afford a PC-7 (with a snazzy removable motherboard tray) but I liked the idea of an all-aluminum case.
To date, the only hardware that has stayed constant throughout my changes is my floppy drive - and my case. I recently broke out the dremel and added a blowhole to the top of the case to compensate for the elevated temps that my new x850XT puts out, but when gaming hard my temps never get above 35c (95f)
It's still as solid as the day I got it - and it's not going anywhere soon.
BIGstan!
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29 pages (ad impressions x 29.) No "print" or all-in-one link. Fewer than 100 words on the first page.
No thanks.
everything in moderation
Jesus H Christ. A slurpee machine?
That is exactly what my case has been missing. I'll be the coolest kid on the block now!
While I can do without the shiney eyes and batman-like monograms, the big fans seem like a good idea to me.
Big fans tend to push more air at a lower RPM, and are generally less noisy. Of course, the real problem is that finding someplace stocking a fan bigger than 12" could be a real pain, so I'd bet they're pricey to replace. But if they're good quality fans and you clean 'em regularly, they'll probably do a lot of good for reducing the noise of your case.
On the other hand, I got one of those 'spiffy looking' cases because it was on the bargain bin and with PSU came out pretty cheap (local store bought out another computer store). However, the damn thing is really noisy as it uses thin, rattly metal. It also has issues fitting things properly behind the little doors and windows etc on the front. Annoying.
Give me a nice solid case with some easily accessible USB-slots on the front (or in my case I just use a header), easily-removal anti-noise brackets on the drive (rubber surrounds on the screws), large fan ports, and perhaps a decent PSU (though you're generally better to buy your own). That's what a real 'gaming' PC is about. If you want fancy lights and monograms, hire somebody with skill to paint the thing custom for you and then add some LED's.
p.s. Does anyone actually do PC art? It would be a neat sideline.
buy yourself a G15. Even if your not a gamer you will love the macro keys, the backlight, the display for system info, the media controlls, the cable manegement. i used to have a saitek gamers keyboard, but now i just have that hooked up to my 360. you will never buy a 10 dollar keyboard again.
-schwal "Hanging is too good for punners, they should be drawn and quoted"
You are supposed to put the components in a case??? Of course, that makes total sense. Boy do I feel stupid, I've had them in the lower left drawer of my desk for years.
Lost in space at an early age. Survived the vacuum. Now rebuilding castle in air.