new case, ye say?

[UArch]

repost from another forum, but decided to put it here too to get some more feedback...

yes indeedy....there comes a time in life when every person must make a choice

my choice is to buy a new case!....and fans to boot if the case doesnt come with them

currently im using a aluminium thermaltake Xaser III (no side window) got it from a computer fair for £15, not bad for the money i guess

its light, the aluminium stays quite cool, its got space for absolutely tons of 80mm fans but the front ventilation is really really crappy, the default fans it came with also couldnt blow an ant

my current fans are getting old and noisy and airflow isnt all that great at the moment

im looking to buy a new case, im not bothered about the looks..simple and stylish is more my thing, i prefer not to have statues of aliens sticking out of the front with fog lights and blinking neon strips

i need a case thats cool and quiet with larger fans (at least two 120mm fans with good front-to-back airflow) preferably screwless design (all cases should be by now right?)

my system specs are:

intel d925xcv socket 775 ATX motherboard
intel pentium 4 dual core 3.6ghz (dumps out a fair amount of heat)
2x512mb ram with heatsinks
bfg geforce 6600gtoc 128mb pci-e
4x hds (though two are not in use at the moment, but they are really suffering due to poor front ventilation)

so!

i do a fair bit of gaming and cpu intensive stuff (like rendering scened in uscript) and have plenty of hds, so good airflow and keeping things cool is my main priority, noise is second, l120mm fans are desirable if possible

if any of you have any recommendations then fire away

in addition to this, if by some magic a pile of money just happens to randomly fall through my letterbox i might go grab a cpu upgrade, i hear the core2duo e6600 is good but i know absolutely nothing about whats good and whats not, so help me out here!

also does anyone here run tec's?...ive been curious about those =P

 

[Haven]

I use two coolermaster stackers (one for saratoga and one for my desktop). If cool, quiet and expandable are on your mind then its a huge case with lots of options. The only downside is that the motherboard tray is not easily removable (its designed so it can be used to change form factors though) and the front filters are a bitch to get off But if you're going to build a system and leave it for a few months then neither of these is an issue.

 

[Wraith]

I'd recommend the Thermaltake Tsunami Dream. It has all the requirements you want (screwless, 2 x 120mm fans, cool and quiet), it is also very roomy inside so easy to install stuff, and it has lots of drive bays. I think there's 4 x external CD/DVD drive bays, 2 x external floppy drive bays and 5 internal HD bays. The black version is very stylish and the 2 blue LEDs on the front give it a bit extra without being tacky.

Cons are that it's fairly expensive and also quite a big case.

[mod]Edit: Repaired linky[/mod]

 

[Birdy]

I have that one!! look on the gallery for pics of it!

It is big, But Ive had mine on a small desk and under my new desk without any difficulty.

Its not a heavy case tho! its bloomin cold too! provides great air con for my room! and the top of it has usb and headphone jack which is uber handy for quick usb access!

Its v sexy! and very quiet. except mine is noisey coz i have extra fans!

here be the link

 

[PsiSoldier]

I'd recomend the Antec Solo. (But that's my personal choice)

Reliable and very good VFM.

 

[BiG D]

Note that that's a mini-tower, so it's probably going to do the opposite of keeping things cool as soon as you've got stuff in it...

 

[UArch]

thanks for the suggestions everyone, ill be looking at some of these cases and see what "fits the bill"