Antec Performance II SX1040BII

[Coherence]

So here's the rig I intend to build soon.

Core 2 Duo E7400 CPU
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L mobo
MSI 4850 OC 512MB graphics (already purchased)
G.Skill HK 2x2GB DDR2 PC 800 RAM
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU cooler
Corsair CMPSU-520HX modular 80-Plus PSU (picking up at Fry's today, $20 less than Newegg)
Reusing my existing drives (160GB SATA with XP Pro, and two SATA-adapted 250GB IDE drives).

Most people I know agree my existing case is still one of the best cases ever made, but I wonder if it's time to retire it. Is there any real advantage to getting one supporting a bottom-mounted PSU, and/or a case with a top-mounted fan?

 

[zagood]

That's a tough one man. I love the look of those cases and they're great to work in, but the 4x80mm fans kill me, and because of the case design they're hard to cut larger holes.

You can always cut out your own blowhole for the top, and/or an intake hole in the side panel.

There's nothing super special about the PSU at the bottom, it's nice that the PSU gets cooler air but creates its own problems (like the 12v ATX cable being too short in a lot of cases).

-z

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Originally posted by: Coherence

Most people I know agree my existing case is still one of the best cases ever made, but I wonder if it's time to retire it. Is there any real advantage to getting one supporting a bottom-mounted PSU, and/or a case with a top-mounted fan?

dont think so...

-that case doesn't look like it'll cool very well with 80mm fans and 120mm fans were in use for how long? at least 8-10 years?
-the outside panel looks to be made of plastic.. eh plastic is the opposite of quality
-the inside looks to be made decently with some sharp edges which will cut hands and wires working inside of it.
-the mounting mechanism of drives doesn't have any rubber grommets or a good way of quick swapping 3.5 drives (very useful to some, especially in a full tower like this) when changing hard drives.
-3 x 5.25 drives are barely enough these days; i know it'll barely cut it with me with 1 x dvdRW, audigy 2 bay, fan controller) and i like to have room for expansion.

far from the best ever made IMO...

the benefits of a bottom mounted PSU are that they dont suck in the hot air created by the CPU, and the rest of the hot air caused by other components. cooler air is at the bottom of the case and temperatures directly vary with PSU efficiency.
-a top mounted fan doesn't change cpu/gpu/hdd fans per-se, but can exhaust some of the hot air thats stuck at the top of the case. any top mounted fan doesn't need to be fast; i dont even have a fan mounted at the top of my case, i just leave the fan grill there to allow the hot air to naturally rise out of the case and it does.
having a top fan affected my cpu/gpu/hdd temps by 0 degrees