Need Case Recommendation for New i7/Asus P6T Deluxe Box

lbeachmike · Post by **lbeachmike** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 5:04 pm

Hi there -

This will be only the second PC I've ever built, so I have some experience, but not very much.

My goals, aside from keeping things quiet and cool, is also to make things easy for me to work with - and to accommodate 6 internal 3.5" drives as well as a Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU cooler.

These are cases I've been considering -

Silverstone TJ10 (or TJ09)
Cooler Master RC-840
Cooler Master Cosmos RC-1000
Lian Li - a wide variety, though PC-V2110B catches my attention

I currently own a Lian Li case, so I'm familiar with the sturdy high-quality construction, but also found the one I have a bit tight on space and tricky to work with.

I've been able to see the Cooler Master RC-840 first-hand, and it looks incredibly spacious and easy to work with - sturdy, but I have reservations about the top and bottom plastic parts.

Also, it would be preferable if the case already has sound insulation so that I don't need to install my own - it seems many of the Lian Li do - but not a deal-breaker either way.

I'm also open to suggestion.

Again, I'd like something that will make life easy. I don't intend to do much beyond the initial build, other than very minor improvements (ie. upgrade case fans, add hard drives, optical drives, etc.)

I do expect to run 6 drives, 4 of which will initially be Seagates - they run hot, so hard drive cooling is a concern as well.

Thanks.

Mike

speedkar9 · Post by **speedkar9** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 8:06 pm

lbeachmike wrote:I do expect to run 6 drives, 4 of which will initially be Seagates - they run hot, so hard drive cooling is a concern as well.

Maybe a P182 with a slow turning bottom fan to help cool the HD's? Its got sound insulating panels and just enough room for 6 HD's (on silicon grommets).

lbeachmike · Post by **lbeachmike** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 8:11 pm

Thanks. Although the P182 seems to be a bit on the smaller side.

Is the P182 so particularly popular and highly recommended because it uses steel construction instead of aluminum, or for overall quality and ease of use?

Thanks.

Mike

psyopper · Post by **psyopper** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:29 pm

lbeachmike wrote: Is the P182 so particularly popular and highly recommended because it uses steel construction instead of aluminum, or for overall quality and ease of use?

Yes, and yes.

And you are the first person I think I've heard who says they think the P182 is small. Personally I think it's enormous.

lbeachmike · Post by **lbeachmike** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 1:26 am

I was planning to use the Noctua CPU cooler, which is 6.22" in height. The case width for the A182 is listed at 8.1", so it seems like that will be too tight of a fit. It would probably be difficult for me to get the interior dimension from the mobo to the side panel and I don't want to cut things too tight.

What do you think of the Lian Li cases? They are very well constructed. Is the concern that they are aluminum construction and not steel?

Thanks.

Mike

maf718 · Post by **maf718** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 10:30 am

Tower coolers in this height range fit in a P182 no problem. Don't let this issue put you off.

lbeachmike · Post by **lbeachmike** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 10:45 am

Thanks - that's helpful. Do you happen to know if the Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 fits in this case without a problem, even if Acoustipack sound dampening is installed on the side panel? I'm not sure how much room there is to work with and it looks like it's cutting it very close.

Thanks.

Mike

Ross1 · Post by **Ross1** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:45 am

I found you could only put 3 hard drives in the bottom chamber of the p182. A fourth one blocked airflow and all the drives got a lot hotter.

The middle chamber has the issue of a big graphics card being in the way, in the end I took the whole chamber out. At best I reckon you can only get 1 hard drive in there.

I did end up putting a couple of hard drive amongst the 5.25 drive bays, like so:
http://hdimage.org/images/dq0zwzui6svr3 ... ure009.jpg

Basically i ended up with 5 internal drives. I bought a lian-li pc-a77b to cope with some more internal hard drives.

As for the a77, its overall a good case, but the main faults are:
-Power button can be pressed too easily
-its too light, and needs dampening to ease vibration
-the front comes off too easily
-the fan controller is not as useful as you would think (no manual speed control), and its quite brightly backlit, which can be annoying in a darker room.
-the stock fans are not great (about 1200-1300 rpm, but a bit louder than the s-flex 1200)
-You have to remove the mobo tray to remove the top hdd module
-You cant put the top hdd module at the front, it only swaps with the psu
-you have to remove the fan controller and the sides to take the top off, and even then you cannot access much

Dont be too put off by all that, most of them are really petty and i found more wrong with the p182!

lbeachmike · Post by **lbeachmike** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 9:30 am

I went with the Lian Li A71A, which appears far better suited for hard drive cooling than the Antec 182. There are four fans surrounding the hard drive bays.

I just received it today and will be doing my build over the weekend. Hopefully all will work out as well as expected. I do expect that I'll need to swap out the six fans for quieter versions and add resistors or a fan controller, but that's alright as long as this turns out to be the right solution.

I think that a lot of people are paying so much attention to sound dampening, that they are overlooking proper hard drive cooling, which seems to be deficient on so many cases. I'd figure this to be of critical importance, being that all of one's data is stored on the hard drives, and they are therefore the most important component.

mrk

Compddd · Post by **Compddd** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 12:51 pm

Lian Li Tyr PC-X500 if you can afford it.

Need Case Recommendation for New i7/Asus P6T Deluxe Box

Need Case Recommendation for New i7/Asus P6T Deluxe Box

Re: Need Case Recommendation for New i7/Asus P6T Deluxe Box