Case Recommendations

J

Joe DeFuria

Legend
Hi All,

Anyone have any case recommendations? Here's my basic criteria:

1) Mid-Tower
2) Black or Black with silver
3) "Elegant / Clean"....NOT "hot-rodish". (No case windows, not going to mod it in any way...)
4) At least 2 USB and 1 Firewire port in the front.
5) Closable Drive door is a plus, but not mandatory
6) The quieter the better.
7) Working Functionality. (Easy to get around in, removable trays, etc.) I'm not going to be in and out of my case all that much...just mostly for the initial installation. So this is perhaps surprisingly not a very high priority.

Currently, I'm looking at this case:

http://www.arstechnica.com/reviews/003/cases/sonata/sonata-1.html

What I like:
* Acceptable price: $100 including an antec 380 Watt TruePower power supply.
* Black "Piano Finish" on the sides
* Quiet

What I don't like
* Antec vent holes in the side
* Front face doesn't quite match the elegance of the sides, IMO
* Would prefer 4 external 5 1/4" bays, instead of 3

Anyone else recommend any particular models or case brands to look at?
 
Although I've no experience of the Sonata itself, I've seen nothing but good reviews for it.

If the noise level is very important, it is a good idea to get a case which supports 120mm exhaust fans (such as the Sonata). These things move so much air compared to standard 80mm fans, you can slow them right down until they are all but inaudible. Then you'll need to stick a Zalman heatsink on the processor and one of the fanless Zalman GPU heatsinks on your graphics card! ;)
 
I grabbed the CoolerMaster Wavemaster Aluminum case about 6 weeks ago. It's in a league of it's own, superb build quality, a design that fits in with modern TV/ Hifi / DVD etc equipment rather than the usual PC cases that are more at home in industrial workshop.
Besides the pullout motherboard shell it also has a removable PSU plate so that you can fit ATX or redundant PSU's. The side panels, motherboard shell and PCI blanking plates all use thumb screws, the hard drive bays are sufficiently spaced apart for good ventilation and there's 2 fans blowing air onto them.

Here's a bit more info.... and piccies
http://www.vr-zone.com/reviews/Cases/Coolermaster/Wavemaster/
 
Take a look at the Antec SLK3700BQE, it's their new 3700/Sonata hybrid case, which pretty much fixes your gripes w/ the Sonata. It's also cheaper.
 
The Antec Sonata has a nice way to place the hd's, but i dont like the paint on it. It shines bright but after a while, you start seeing finger prints, dust ..

Chieftec has decent midi towers to, and are very pratical to work in.

But my favorite is still Lian Li. Light, full aluminium, no screws needed ( except for placing the motherboard ), adjusteble fan speed of the front fans, .. Some peaple dont like the looks of it, i'm not one of them. Own the PC6087 myself.

Hope you find something you like. :)
 
keegdsb said:
Take a look at the Antec SLK3700BQE, it's their new 3700/Sonata hybrid case, which pretty much fixes your gripes w/ the Sonata. It's also cheaper.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip...unfortunately, no front FireWire port, and that's a must for me.
 
I've had the Sonata for a while, and I'm pretty happy with it. I'm wondering about the Power Supply being able to handle an upgrade to a 9800 XT on top of my SATA RAID array (WD 10k RPM) + 3rd hard drive, 1 Gig, P4.

My case temperature is usually around 34 degrees C (42 C CPU with F@H running), according to monitoring software, which is something you might want to keep in mind. BTW, this is with the Zalman CNPS-7000 Cu with full speed fan...reduced speed goes up to 44 C on the CPU...and there are a few other heatsinks which it seems might offer even better performance.

I remember looking at the Wave Master as well, but the Sonata's "quiet" feature collection was more appealing to me. Other than that, I think the Wave Master is a pretty damned fine looking case...and you can always put in some DIY sound dampening features and a quiet PSU like the Sonata's (which can control case fan RPM based on power demands). Maybe go with a "True Control", which I think might let you dial them down more for two smaller, but lower RPM and hopefully very quiet, fans.
 
Given that you should be able to pick up a usb/firewire drive bay pretty cheaply, I would remove that from your list of requirements.

I have a bigass Chieftec case (can't remember which one). Nice hammered silver finish. The buil quality is excellent, it is a very solid case, no sharp edges. Drive bays click into place very solidly, plenty of extra places for fans.

All the ones listed here look to be good quality so just get the one that you like the look of most :)

CC
 
Hi Joe, The fan noise is very low, I guess they're 2000rpm fans, it's certainly one of the quietest cases I've used. It's 1mm Aluminum throughout with 6mm strengthening plates so rather than echoing any sound it's dampening. It's not a "light" case - weighing in at 22lbs as apposed to the more typical 10 - 12lbs Aluminum PC cases.
I didn't even need a new case but I purchased it because it's the 1st PC case that actually fits in with the rest of my home furnishing while at the same time is of a high quality build.
 
Captain Chickenpants said:
Given that you should be able to pick up a usb/firewire drive bay pretty cheaply, I would remove that from your list of requirements.
Click to expand...
I now agree, & I have 2x Sonatas. I thought front 1394 would be invaluable, but I just use a compact plug via a rear bracket. No need to plug/unplug...

The Chieftek & derivatives (Antec, etc) are all good value cases IMO. The Antec is hard to pass up given the price with PSU & availability. If you're going to add a "front" 120mm fan, don't get the Antec version with thermistor control. Grab a ~1900RPM Panaflo & connect via "fan only" power. The front vents are relatively discrete. I would have preferred the 420W PSU, though.

LianLi & derivatives (Coolermaster,etc) are fabulous cases, but lack PSU & come at a price. I preferred to put the $$ into the HW...

One inexpensive case I considered was the Task TK-6600. Plenty of drive bays, 4 color choices, front USB/1394 & 400W PSU. I'm told it's not your average yum-cha PSU... Clear window & neon stuff is optional. No drive door. I was going to run dual front/rear 80mm fans in series for low noise but good ventilation.
 
The anatec cases are DAMN heavy because they are made from rolled steel but they are reasonably nice UNLESS u wanna put a CF fan in but sounds like you don't ( fan mount interfere with tube ).
 
This site has some decent reviews on silent cases and mods:

http://www.silentpcreview.com


I think they primarily endorse Antec's 3700BQE:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/modul...s&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=116&page=1


I also like the Lian Li PC-6070, it's just a little too expensive for me :)
http://www.dansdata.com/llpc6070.htm
http://www.lian-li.com/product.php?action=viewPD&prdid=1106


Oh, and the NeoClassic, just reading about this one now:
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=7745
http://gmc.co.kr/english/good_e_neo.htm
 
Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

I'm really having a tough time deciding... but I think I may have found my answer:

Antec P160

At about $120 (withOUT power supply) it's certainly more than I wanted to spend. It's apparently brand new, (expected to appear on shelves in about a week) and prettly highly anticipated, so I'll hopefully be able to see some reviews of it soon.

What I like:

1) Aesthetics. Purely subjetive...I happen to like this...a lot in fact.
2) Drive cover bezels: as long as they work properly, I prefer them to a drive door.
3) There is some emphasis on silence built into the case: (2 120 MM fan mounts, silicone/rubber mounting, plus rubber grommets for mounting the hard drives.
4) All the front mounted ports that I want.

What I don't like

1) Price.

Considering that this is the only case I've found, "on paper" that appears to meet all of my needs, I'll probably shell out the extra cash for it.
 
I'm buying a Sonata on Monday for a computer at my dad's office that I'm putting together (yes, Susie, Dell really sucks at putting together an AV machine with a gig of RAM for under $1200). Anything I should know about it? Specifically, with an Abit NF7-S and stock HSF on a Barton 2500? No clearance issues?
 
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