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Hardware

Choosing a Good Case 225

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stuff-to-read dept.
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.
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Choosing a Good Case More

Choosing a Good Case

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

      • 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.

  • The Best Case I've Used (Score:3, Informative)

    by greg2000 ( 558606 ) on Sunday May 26, 2002 @12:01PM (#3587354)
    Would have to be the Chieftec [chieftec.com] 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).
    • 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.
      • 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 [newegg.com] for considerably cheaper than the Antec version.
      • 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.
        • 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 (Score:3, Informative)

    by handsomepete ( 561396 ) on Sunday May 26, 2002 @12:04PM (#3587360) Journal
    I'm a big fan of the Addtronics [addtronics.com] 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...
    • 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.

  • Australian Overclockers (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Australian Overclockers [overclockers.com.au] have great ideas for cases. Some of them innovative.

    60623
    siliconghetto

  • The Ideal Case (Score:5, Funny)

    by donnacha ( 161610 ) on Sunday May 26, 2002 @12:06PM (#3587369) Homepage


    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.

  • Information about cases from a noise angle... (Score:5, Informative)

    by wherley ( 42799 ) on Sunday May 26, 2002 @12:07PM (#3587372)
    Scroll down to the "PC Cases" section of this Silent PC resources page [swipnet.se] for some good ideas about choosing a case when its noise qualities are a factor.

  • Toms (Score:1, Insightful)

    by 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.

    • 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.

  • None are QUIET! All are noisy! Biased site. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26, 2002 @12:09PM (#3587378)
    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...

    • 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.

  • Kind of limited "examples" (Score:4, Informative)

    by Shivetya ( 243324 ) on Sunday May 26, 2002 @12:09PM (#3587383) Homepage Journal
    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
    • 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.
    • 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 (Score:3, Informative)

    by Daniel Rutter ( 126873 ) <dan@dansdata.com> on Sunday May 26, 2002 @12:10PM (#3587385) Homepage
    I checked out a couple of the "Hydraulic" cases (here [dansdata.com], 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 [dansdata.com] (rather inexpensive for what you get)

    Lian Li PC-6 and PC-5 [dansdata.com] (fairly cheap Lian Lis - whoever woulda thunk it? This review links to various other Lian Li reviews of mine)

    • 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...

    • These guys [3dcool.com] sell some pre-modded versions of the "hydraulic" cases you metioned. Here [3dcool.com] and Here [3dcool.com].
  • 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...
  • 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 (Score:5, Informative)

      by handsomepete ( 561396 ) on Sunday May 26, 2002 @12:23PM (#3587418) Journal
      Here ya go... From Directron's website [directron.com]:

      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.
    • 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.

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

  • Cute / Funny Cases (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nuxx ( 10153 ) on Sunday May 26, 2002 @12:22PM (#3587416) Homepage
    I placed an order for this Doggie Case [nikao.net] 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?
    • Wouldn't this one [nikao.net] be more appropriate?
      • 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
    • 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
      • 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 [marathoncomputer.com] page for a variety of different ways that discs will run sideways.

  • 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 [soldam.com]. 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?

    • Don't know about the case, but a good motherboard might be the Asus TUSI-M [asus.com] - 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.
      • 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 [a-top.com]. 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 [lowendpc.com].

    • As a side note, thanks for that Soldam link? Those Prism [soldam.com] cases - er, tables are neat (even they are $477 U.S. - yipes).
    • I've had my eye on this case [colorcases.com] for a while, for a set-top box. Dunno if it's what you had in mind, but take a look.
    • 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...
    • Doesn't Shuttle [shuttle.com] build barebone-systems in mini-aluminium cases ?
      If Shuttle had a website that worked without JavaScript, I'd give a better link...

  • including a nice chart (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Alien54 ( 180860 ) on Sunday May 26, 2002 @12:41PM (#3587472) Journal
    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 [pcpowercooling.com] has attracted advocates with a religious level dedication, especially the quality of their power supplies.

    They also have this chart [pcpowercooling.com] on what various components draw is very useful for figuring out how much power you need. Worth a bookmark in itself.

    • 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.
    • 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.

  • 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?

  • Another note on power supplies (Score:3, Interesting)

    by vslashg ( 209560 ) on Sunday May 26, 2002 @12:49PM (#3587493)
    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.)

  • make it look like my HI-FI damnit ! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sh0rtie ( 455432 ) on Sunday May 26, 2002 @12:57PM (#3587505)

    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
    • There are companies doing this already. below are a few examples This one is Mac-ish looking [directron.com] and these could pass for stereo components. One [digitalconnection.com] Two [pc-gehaeuse.com] Three [psivideo.com]
    • 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.
    • 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 [dansdata.com] (its even avaliable in black as the 'Delux' model with IR keyboard & mouse/remote [dansdata.com].

      Or you can buy Book PC cases in LPX, NLX, MicroATX or FlexATX format, & build the bugger yourself. Many companies make them, including Enlight [enlightcorp.com] ( 7180-mATX [enlightcorp.com], EN-7396 [enlightcorp.com]) & Asus/ElanVital [elanvital.com.tw]

  • A Question... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by KingAdrock ( 115014 )
    This is somewhat OffTopic, but I'll risk the karma hit.

    I'm interested in having a custom computer built for me. If I were to pick out all of the components I wanted, where would be the best place I could go and have them build it? I am not a hardware person at all, and building a computer for scratch seems to me to be about as fun as being kicked in the balls. Are their and companies out there that allow you to pick all of the components (read: don't force you to use items they nessecarily carry) and build the box for you. Preferably I would like someplace that has a fair price, but really anywhere would be ok.
    • try www.mwave.com ive had my two machines and my laptop built from them, they give you a lot of options on what you want. If you go the "barebones system" page, it lets you assemble a case, MoBo, CPU, and memory...they put al of that together for you, then you just need to add the HDD and pci cards (if any...i always picked the MSI K7N420 mobo...coz it has built in LAN/audio/video...and im not looking for anything fancy..then you can pick what other parts you want...and the prices are the best ive seen on the net..
  • 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.
    • you could try fan filters [ocaddiction.com] 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
      • 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... [quietpc.com]

    • 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 [pointclark.net], 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
    • 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.
    • 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!

  • arstechnica [arstechnica.com] 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?
    • 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.

  • Apple's G4 flip open cases are still a joy to own (Score:5, Insightful)

    by crovira ( 10242 ) on Sunday May 26, 2002 @01:41PM (#3587653) Homepage
    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?
  • 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!
  • 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 [mac.com]
  • At least the pictures are dead..anyone got 'em mirrored?
  • ...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.
  • 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 [tomshardware.com]
  • 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).

  • Not mentioning the cool look of an aluminium case (I called the host "DeLorean"), it is also way cooler (in temperature, thank you LM78) than the cheap Tellus I used before, quiter,adjusted to a precision beyond my dreams (easy opening is nice, but what if you have to use a hammer to put everything back in place ? ). Same difference than in between a Lada and a classic Mercedes in terms of feeling. A good power supply (at about $80) is also very important to ensure durability.
  • I'm a big fan of a case no one has ever heard of. My personal favorite enclosure at the moment is the Compucase 6812 "Piano" model [compucase-hec.co.uk]. Two thumbscrews for easy access to either side of the case, finished interior with a sensible assembly, and both inexpensive and very quiet when mated with an AMD-approved AGI power supply. I buy them ten at a time @ US$33 apiece. Probably deployed 150 systems in that enclosure. No idea why no one else has heard of them. My other favorite is the AOpen HX45, but the compucase is a bargain at twice the price.
  • One brand that is a little on the expensive side, but makes great cases is Coolermaster. [coolermaster.com] I purchased an ATC 101 [coolermaster.com] about a year ago and have been really satisfied. If you not willing to fork down that much money for a case, Lain LI [lian-li.com] makes some great alluminum cases that are relativly inexpensive.

  • 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 [opendreams.net]

    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 [aopen.com]

    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/ [opendreams.net]

  • bubble wrap silencer? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Mao ( 12237 )
    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.
  • 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.
  • Oh no! It's the infamous "stuff-to-read" department! It's the most populous department on all of /.!
  • I was thinking of taking College level metal shop and building my own computer case. I would make it out of aluminum and make grids in the entire case like a HUGE heatseak. Then I would attach more aluminum, or a more condenser metal, to the power supply, CPU, HDD, and maybe the ram and have them all fead to the outside of the case, distrubting the heat. Does anyone see anything wrong with this idea? Should I use another metal?
  • I'm looking at an aluminum case, probably the Lian-Li that everyone is so fond of. Anyway, I read Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manor Column up at Byte [byte.com] religously, and noted that he had a bad experience with a flimsy motherboard tray at one point (see this [byte.com] article). Anyone have any opinions? Did he just suffer because he bought some "el cheapo" knockoff?
  • ...is that it's heavy enough that nobody would steal your computer when your roommate's Compaq is so close by.

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