PC case Dilema

[Pilotasso]

Apparently Xclio A380 and Aplus TWIN ENGINE are exactly the same case but with just a different name depending on what country you are. Here thay are Aplus, on US its XCLIO and I found it on newegg reviews. The aditional fan you need to purchase seperatly brings its cost on par with the NXT case, aparently the fans are quiet so I ll take this one as another candidate THX!

 

[Pilotasso]

UPDATE:

 

After reading several reviews I came across a few that realize a problem:

The front fan has a design flaw. Its almost completely blocked and airflow is thrown through the front fan frame. The duct behind it is only big enough to house a 120mm fan and additionaly it is blocked by the har drive mounts and a redundant rubber tool compartment (last pic on the post above), dont know where that idea came from. :huh:

 

 

If i get it I would probably try to screw off those obstructions, but I would have to have it in my hands. A bit of a risk here but the reviews also say it still has plenty ventilation. It has looks over the NZXT ZERO granted, and the NZXT has flawless design out of the box. Buying that extra 120mm fan for the rear exaust in the Xclio case brings it to almost the same price tag as the NZXT, tying both cases on that score.

It rests to be seen wich case has more airflow. If they are comparable for my intents the then NXZT zero will hold a slight edge for having dust protection. Ill keep investigating.

On a final note if the rest of the PC components pirces drop enough I might go crazy and get the Thermaltake Armor with that 25mm fan panel addon.

[haze]

I would look into the SilverStone TJ06. It is a nice looking case and has great airflow and cooling properties. It is somewhat like the Antec 180 in that the power supply is mounted in a seperate upper compartment along with the hard drives to reduce heat. It has a 120mm intake fan sucking air in directly over the ram and cpu and a 120mm fan sucking air out directly behind the cpu which is very effective. Another 80mm intake fan sucks air in across the video card. Their is space to put another 120mm fan if desired to vent air out of the hard drive/power supply bay but would require cutting a vent hole in the case but I have not found this necessary. The only issue is that the power supply cable feeds need to be long since the motherboard is mounted in a seperate compartment. My main 24 pin cable from the power supply to the motherboard was long enough but I had to splice and lengthen the 12v 4 pin connector which was no big deal....2 12 volt wires and 2 ground wires. I have a Ninja cpu cooler on a e6600 2.4 ghz dual core overclocked to 3.2 ghz and it runs cool even under max load. I would recommend this case to anyone.

[thereminqblank]

I would look into the SilverStone TJ06. It is a nice looking case and has great airflow and cooling properties. It is somewhat like the Antec 180 in that the power supply is mounted in a seperate upper compartment along with the hard drives to reduce heat. It has a 120mm intake fan sucking air in directly over the ram and cpu and a 120mm fan sucking air out directly behind the cpu which is very effective. Another 80mm intake fan sucks air in across the video card. Their is space to put another 120mm fan if desired to vent air out of the hard drive/power supply bay but would require cutting a vent hole in the case but I have not found this necessary. The only issue is that the power supply cable feeds need to be long since the motherboard is mounted in a seperate compartment. My main 24 pin cable from the power supply to the motherboard was long enough but I had to splice and lengthen the 12v 4 pin connector which was no big deal....2 12 volt wires and 2 ground wires. I have a Ninja cpu cooler on a e6600 2.4 ghz dual core overclocked to 3.2 ghz and it runs cool even under max load. I would recommend this case to anyone.

 

 

 

That case does look pretty neato. Plenty of air flow. Looks classy too!

[Pilotasso]

I would look into the SilverStone TJ06. It is a nice looking case and has great airflow and cooling properties. It is somewhat like the Antec 180 in that the power supply is mounted in a seperate upper compartment along with the hard drives to reduce heat. It has a 120mm intake fan sucking air in directly over the ram and cpu and a 120mm fan sucking air out directly behind the cpu which is very effective. Another 80mm intake fan sucks air in across the video card. Their is space to put another 120mm fan if desired to vent air out of the hard drive/power supply bay but would require cutting a vent hole in the case but I have not found this necessary. The only issue is that the power supply cable feeds need to be long since the motherboard is mounted in a seperate compartment. My main 24 pin cable from the power supply to the motherboard was long enough but I had to splice and lengthen the 12v 4 pin connector which was no big deal....2 12 volt wires and 2 ground wires. I have a Ninja cpu cooler on a e6600 2.4 ghz dual core overclocked to 3.2 ghz and it runs cool even under max load. I would recommend this case to anyone.

 

That case does look pretty neato. Plenty of air flow. Looks classy too!

 

 

 

Even better looking and functional is the SILVERSTONE TJ09 silver (looks like its made of platinum all over and inside of it) but I found these cases with less cooling capabilities and much more expensive than the candidates I mentioned.

Im still yet to find another case that has better cooling and overal features than the NZXT Zero for that price tag. There are better ones like the Thermaltake armor (with 250mm fan addon) and the Coolermaster stacker but as I said thay are on the next level of inaffordability.

[Pilotasso]

Re-reading the thread and the reviews on the net, the Antec P180 is eliminated as well. It looks as its aimed at midrange PC's with cooler and lower rated CPU's and GFX's. It will choke with summer temps here just like my current rig.

 

The Xclio A380 is out of the race too:)

Found out that thanks to its frontal fan duct design flaw makes its cooling capabilites to be slighly worse for the same price tag as the ZXT Zero, or more expensive than the Antec 900. On top of that doesn include exaust fans as oposed to the 900 and the ZERO, both include a complete collection of silent fans out of the box.

[3Sqn_Fudd]

Pilotasso...

 

Dont get caught up in the dust thing... a few seconds of blowing out with compressed air will handle it, something everyone should do every month anyways.

 

Go for something that has the room you need and you can live looking at (95% of cases suck to look at.)

 

Air flow wise, if you're into it, start thinking about how you could mod a nice looking case for better airflow. I cut a blow hole in my Coolermaster Praetorian and it dropped temps 8c. It took 1 hour to do.

 

P180 is hard to cut... plastics are in between aluminum

[Pilotasso]

Speaking of dust, I opened my current rig and pulled a mat of dust out of my Thermaltake silent tower. :D Could have made a coat out of that :D

The case is still awfully dirty everywhere inside, no dust filters at all. It was a crappy 30 Euro case because I underestimated the importance of a good case and I chosen it to cut on the total system price (1100 Euros back then).

 

This time I have a much bigger budget that I ver had before (unlikely to repeat it again responsabilities migh grow from now on) and I can afford to pay attention to every component. One such aspec is slowing down the rate of dust accumulation so I dont have to clean it as many times nor having its inside look like an archeological dig. :D

 

About moding the case, Im realy not looking into that by cutting stuff up, I had to with my current rig because some things simply didnt fit. I had cut my cooler external cover up to screw the fan backwards intead upwards (colided with PSU) in turn the brand PSU I got later required me to cut some parts of the internal chassis, and I obtained a somewhat dented and twisted looking case. If I have enough money I can still buy one of those Thermaltke cases I have under consideration wich allow numerous modifications by design. No more cutting and bending, ever. It just degrades the whole apearence of the system.

 

On an aditional note I have seen some conservative suggestions on these boards from poeple in countries more to the north of mine, and Id like to point out that sometimes ambient temperatures here reach 40 Celsius clean as a wistle (or more) in the summer. you can imagine what that will do to a PC. I wont even dare swiching on my current one in August during the day.

I have to have LOTS of airflow. No water cooling here. Its expensive and complex. I can only buy cases with at least 3 frontal fans or 4 on the sides (plus some more at the front).

 

Thermaltake 250mm side fan MOD'ed case and the NZXT Zero provides this to me, even if the Zero costs significanly less with all the kit included, the TT case doesnt. will see what will hapen to my savings next month before I decide.

[Pilotasso]

Some of the final contenders:

 

 

This is the result of dozens of hours gazing at the price lists. Its been almost an adiction this past week.

Im torn apart with Functionality VS Aestetics features. None of these cases is perfect for me.

Either they have excellent cooling and have these horrible frontal doors with Lamborggini looks

that always gets in the way or they are drop dead gorgeous (that look more like a PC not a spaceship)

but have less cooling than what I would find ideal for summer temps.

 

My perfect case would look like more with the older CoolerMaster STC-T01 (on the uper right picture)

but with fans on the side and upper panels like the NZXT Zero (on the uper left)

or the Cooler master Stacker 832 (lower right).

[hitman]

You suck!! Hope you choke on the dust bunnies that accumulate in your "vastly superior rig compared to mine".