What are people using in terms of cases? I'm looking for a good mid-tower case to replace my old, crappy cheap cases, and currently I'm leaning towards the Lian Li PC-7 case. Does an aluminum chassis make a significant difference in heat dissipation? (like does anyone have "scientific" data?) Is the increase in heat dissipation through the case generally enough to offset the reduced airflow through the case when you throttle back or eliminate fans?

I'm looking at chassis replacement as the first step in quieting my machines, as I can use this project as an excuse to get a better case. Gotta have a good case to hang the other components off of, right?

Thanks!

I wish I could point to hard data, but I have heard and read several places (generally in case reviews) that Aluminum cases radiate heat much better and therefore lead to a cooler interior. I know there's such a thing as "source amnesia" but I'm quite sure I read this comparing two cases whose only difference was one was aluminum and one was plastic. If I find evidence, I'll post it here.

Anandtech did a test with the same case as aluminum and steel here: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1726&p=6

The reviewer kept all the components inside the same except for the case fans, so it's hard to say if it's the fans or the case that affects the results.

In short, there's a large improvement for the HDs with aluminum (10C) and a small improvement for everything else (1 - 2C) .

The general consensus seems to be that aluminum cases are louder than steel cases so you might want to think about that. An excellent choice would be the good 'ol Antec SX10x0 series of cases. These cases are made of pretty thick steel, have very good ventilation and an unbeatable reputation. I've built lots of systems using these cases and am very happy with them.

My current favorite case is the new Antec SLK3700. It takes 2 120mm fans for good, quiet cooling, rubber mounted HDD cages, front USB ports, drive rails, easily removable drive cages and a door to cover the drives. All this for about $75 with an Antec 350W PSU. This is the best case I've ever worked with. I posted some pics about this case and my rig here in the General Gallery.

Hey Ralf,

I noticed your case. Nice clean setup. Does the SLK3700 come with a metal wire grill on the rear as stock? I found that the punched metal grill on my 1040 was hindering airflow enough to increase my CPU temps by 1 - 2C. If the 3700 has a wire grill stock, then that's a step forward...

yea i just noticed that myself, in ur pick there is no stamped case fan grill but on the new egg site the pics have it with the stamped grill, did u cut it out yourself?

Hm. Is there a thread somewhere that discusses the acoustic differences between steel and aluminum? In the bicycle world, aluminum is known for being very stiff compared to steel, so I can see that an aluminum case would be less likely to absorb sound.

I cut out the grill myself. The stock grill is pretty restrictive, certainly worse than an regular Antec SXxxx fan grill. Look at the pics of my case and you can see the front grill. That's what the back grill looked like before I removed it. The system that I built using this case was designed to be a very quiet server. I wanted to get rid of the grill to improve the airflow and reduce the noise from air turbulence.

Hello Ralf:

Did you put something over the edge of the cut round hole? It looks like some sort of rubber/plastic edge protection. If so, it to reduce noise, or "just" to cover a sharp edge?

I'm glad you mentione this case: I have been eyeing it on New Egg, and those grills were my only reservation. I guess I own a Dremel for a good reason!

Now, if Antec wanted to make it near perfect, they should either do stamped grills like most of their other cases (or like Dell's!) or they should put wire ones in! My only other beefs is that it's only availble in gray (you can't match your drives without painting them) -- gimme black; and I'm sure that front door would get annoying...

i like the door, i think that it might block some cd noise, and its not like im gonna be opening and closing it all day, plus it looks cool.

The door is good. It let's you do a mod like I did to quiet my CD/DVDhere.

Yes, I put black rubber window molding over the edges. Just for looks, not performance. I got it from Caseetc.com, it's $0.99/foot.




I put off getting my first Antec SX1030 just for that reason but when I finally bit the bullet and bought one I found that the door is no trouble at all. It does tend to keep the noise from the optical drives down a little. The only thing you have to train yourself to be aware of is to leave it open while you're burning CDs, if it's one of those burning programs that automatically ejects the CDr when it finishes a burn.

I bought the GlobalWIN YCC-61F1-B, though, I like it's steel, almost clone, the Antec SLK3700AMB. I went with the GlobalWIN because I like the front door, spacious interior, black aluminum and the mirror polished stainless steel removable mainboard tray.

Here's some reviewage:
http://www.burnoutpc.com/index.php?page ... view_id=21

http://www.amdmb.com/article-display.php?ArticleID=161

http://www.overclockercafe.com/Reviews/ ... index.html

http://www.overclockercafe.com/Reviews/ ... index.html


Some of the things I don't like:
1) Getting it used from the manufacturer (working on a amiable solution)
2) Sharp edges inside the case
3) No indentations for sliding the side panels back, for ease in removal

The sharp edges I'll probably file or polish with a dremel and buffing wheel and/or cover with molding. I'm still waiting to see if I'll return the case or keep the one I have, due to issue #1, stated above. The material seems hard and may be difficult to file down manually.

The side panels I'll live with since I will not have to get into the case often enough to worry about it, hopefully.

Otherwise, this is a really nice case, I love the front bezel, with it's push button release auxillary door with the two USB ports and the slot up front. I'll probably modify a Firewire slot that comes with my new motherboard to have additional inputs for audio for the slot adapter.

I'll also probably replace the fans with Pabst 4412FGL fans to help keep things cool and quiet.

I've been using a Lian Li PC-7 for about 6 months now. It seems that it does radiate heat a bit better to the outside air. Definitely, it is louder than a steel case. Because the aluminum is "flimsier" than a steel case would be, vibrations are easily channeled into sound. Case in point, the DVD-ROM drive. When it spins up to full speed, it vibrates like crazy. Also, you want to place your subwoofer away from the case, as the bass often times causes the thin side panels to vibrate loudly.

However, I must say that Lian Li designs wonderful cases. They're laid out very thoughtfully and I have absolutely no gripes with my PC-7, especially since I was coming from Inwin steel cases, the A500 and Q500, where it was painfully obvious that compromises were made.

OK, I'm almost sold on this one. Followed all your links, etc. Problem: where the he** did you buy it. I can't seem to find them for sale anywhere.

I went ahead and shot an email to Global Win.

http://www.computernerd.com/ycc-61f1.html there

Thanks GamingGod!

I had gotten to their home page from Global Win's site, but it was so hideous that I didn't take enough time to figure out which link to click.

How about an update on your case progress?
- did you work out a resolution getting a used case
(was it Computer Nerd's fault or Global Wins, btw)
- do anything about the edges
- fans, quiteness, etc.

Did you order it with the power supply or without? How was dealing with Computer Nerds (hopefully their web design is worse than their service)?

Ok, so I ended up getting the Lian Li PC-7. It is a very nice case, certainly better than the ancient enlight case I had. The aluminum feels "flimsy", but aluminum alloys are actually much, much stiffer than steel, so I think people's experiences with aluminum being louder is due to that difference, since the stiff material cannot inherently absorb vibrations and instead just transmits it outside.

I also swapped the disk (which was going bad) and the PS, and now the computer is the quietest I own. Quieter than my iMac, in fact.

Does anyone know the stock fans specs for this case?