Buying a new case

[Bradtechonline]

Want better airflow than my current case offers *Powmax POS*.

Here are some of the ones I found that look good. I'd like for this thing to last me for a while. I've narrowed it down to a couple budget, and more expensive choices. I know there can be some good deals around 40-60 bucks that can offer good cooling.


*Budget*COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811119068

*Mid-Range* Enermax Chakra
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811124114

*Mid-Range* Xion Stacker
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811208022

*Higher-End*
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811129021


Anyone have any other recommendations?

 

[Zepper]

I like the Chakras and take a look at my Rosewill thread here - some of those are surprisingly good. And the 900 has been at a decent price at Provantage.com relative to what others are charging - even less at some places if you wanna mess with a rebate - I think Fry's had a good AR price.

.bh.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

theres a Antec P180 floating around here and FW for $50.. try to get ur hands one one somewhere.. they're usually on sale now, the centurion 5 is half decent for the money but only has 1 x 80mm fan in the front, all case's bought these days should have 2 x 120mm fans for good airflow, enermax is a good PS company but isn't know for its case's, XION looks ridiculous and if you're into bright blue lights and bling then get the Antec 900. i'd suggest a Lian Li for high quality construction and a case that'll retain its value for years.. but u dont have any listed

 

[Bradtechonline]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
theres a Antec P180 floating around here and FW for $50.. try to get ur hands one one somewhere.. they're usually on sale now, the centurion 5 is half decent for the money but only has 1 x 80mm fan in the front, all case's bought these days should have 2 x 120mm fans for good airflow, enermax is a good PS company but isn't know for its case's, XION looks ridiculous and if you're into bright blue lights and bling then get the Antec 900. i'd suggest a Lian Li for high quality construction and a case that'll retain its value for years.. but u dont have any listed

Yeah I've been looking at the Lian Li's also. I have my eyes on the one that has the fans right on the Video card, and CPU. I think it's a patent design they have. Looks like a really good idea. Plus I love how the 80 or 120mm fan on their cases have no grill on the back to restrict airflow. It's like they used common sense, and made a case.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

haha oh there is a fan filter on the back of all their case's for all i know.. if they didn't lian li would have a bunch of lawsuits pending right about now.. we all know how stupid some people are.

on the other hand, the LL's with the fan's on the side right next to the GPu is a great idea since high end gpu's run much hotter than high end CPU's... they need more cool air coming in from the outside of the case. and thats why they also have the mb's mounted upside down in some of their case's since hot air rises... you wouldn't want the hot air from your gpu rising to further heat up your CPU/other components

 

[Skott]

I have the Chakra (in sig below) and I love it. Havent had any issues with it yet. She's one quiet case and keeps everything cool inside. The only downside you might have is if you want a big hsf like a Scythe or Tuniq. The Chakra can fit up to a Zalman 9700 hsf. So keep that in mind. An extra plus is that it can fit a 8800GTX card if you feel the need for one of those bad boys.

 

[coolpurplefan]

I have a Coolermaster Centurion 5 case.

A couple of pluses for the case: the "proper" airflow from the mesh front and the 120mm fan in the back and the front audio panel actualy makes sense.

I don't know if a lot of cases are like that but I know I had an Enermax case a couple of years ago that was pretty strange. The front audio panel connectors were rather strange and difficult to figure out. With the Coolermaster Centurion 5, you have one cable that ends with two connectors. I've used either one on two different motherboards and they worked.

Also, the mesh front has a kind of sponge behind it that acts as a filter. That's very different from my old Enermax case that brought some dust right directly onto the CPU heatsink.

The odd points though are the fact that the case has a tooless design thing that you can take off an use the regular way for the DVD-RW drive bays but you can't do it for the hard drive bays. If you try to take off the plastic thingy for the hard drive bay, what is left is not enough metal to securely install a hard drive. I find it odd because you have to measure correctly where the little pins will go into the hard drive.

And for cable management, you have a smaller area to shove your extra PSU cables on the side. That's because they connected the sheetmetal from the DVD-RW drive bays to the motherboard tray and it leaves you with less room to hide cables.

I can tell you when it comes to desktops, I can't think of many models that would beat the Silverstone LC20. It has slots for two 80mm fans in the back, one on the side close to the CPU and you can put some in front of where the hard drives go. The only problem you might have with that case is the video card cannot pass a certain length. I'm too lazy to measure it right now but I know my Geforce 6600 fits in there with some space left.

Even with the drawbacks of these two cases, I wouldn't bother getting other cases. First, because a lot of cases are a lot more expensive or they just don't have the features I want.

 

[ForumMaster]

i love my Cooler Master Centurion 5. tooless design. i must admit that i haven't had any trouble like coolpurplefan has had with the HD. works fine for me. the mesh front keeps the case clean from dust. and it looks great.

 

[coolpurplefan]

I just realized something from messages posted in the general forum. The Coolermaster Centurion 5 without the window on the side has holes on the side panel. I don't like that since it allows dust to get inside.

Anyway, I have the one with the window on the side and I like it.

I didn't check to see if you can place a 120mm in the front instead of the 80mm that's already there. It would be better that way I think. In any case, like I said I took the 80mm out of case and I wouldn't even use a 120mm one because the only sound I can hear from my computer is low noise coming from the Scythe 120mm fan in the back and with the window open, I noise from the traffic drowns it out. But, having a 120mm fan in the front would be just a little more audible and I'd rather not have that.

OK, that last sentence was way too long.

 

[DerComissar]

The Antec 900 is selling for $76.73 at NCIX (US Site) right now. That's with a $20 mir, offer good till the Fourth of July. That's a great price, I just bought one there a couple weeks ago but it cost me about $110.
If you are looking for great airflow and a good, versatile layout this case rocks. I am replacing my Coolermaster Centurion because I want to maximize my aircooling. I had a Lian-Li PC-60 before that. None of these cases compare for the cooling the Antec 900 provides.

Antec 900

 

[SinfulWeeper]

http://www.svc.com/rc-534-kwn1.html

It is virtually the same as the case you linked. The interior near identical. The exterior is different. First a window is added in being the most obvious. It does not have the silver trim. And they relocated the firewire/usb/sound...
The window helps as it can let you know when to clean the case. Same price as your coolermaster too.