Silent big case with a front door that has good clearance

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 6:47 am

I'm still looking for a replacement case for my Antec 1080 lookalike.

I have the following requirements:

- preferably 120mm intake
- 120mm exhaust
- minimum 4 x 5,25" external bays
- minimum 2 x 3,5" external bays
- has a cover door that covers all external bays, plus it must
have enough clearance from the bays to fit a good thickness
sound insulation material to the inner side of the door (Antec
1080 can do this and it helps tremendously)
- preferably with a way to mount hard drives with rubber
grommets without having to do a MOD myself
- all metal construction (no see through windows)
- not flimsy

I've been looking at the Lian Li PC-6070, but it lacks 120mm holes and cannot be retrofitted for those.

Any tips or info on upcoming cases?

regards,
Halcyon

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 7:37 am

What's wrong with the Antec SLK3700? Fits all your criteria except maybe the inulation-on-the-door issue. The door is slightly curved and has 1/4" clearance at the edges and 1/2" in the center.

I came to this case after using SX10x0 cases for years. I would never consider another case until I saw the pictures of the SLK3700. I like this case better than my SX10x0s. There's as much interior room for drives even though the 3700 is about 2" shorter than an SX10x0 because there's less wasted space in front at the bottom of the drive cages.

One more stream of conciousness kind of thought. I'm fairly sure (in my surfing) I've seen an SX10x0 knock-off with 120mm fans and some sort of door on it. The door had mesh or some sort of intricate molding on it, but that's all I can remember.

miker · Post by **miker** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 8:40 pm

Yep Ralf, I was thinking the same thing as I was reading his requirements. Sounds like an SLK3700 spec sheet.

Gooserider · Post by **Gooserider** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 10:34 pm

Silent big case with a front door that has good clearance
I'm still looking for a replacement case for my Antec 1080 lookalike.

How big do you want??? If you want a REALLY big case, you might want to consider the case I'm using for my system. It is an AMS CK1100B 'Server Cube' style case. Think two largeish mid-tower cases side by side, mounted on casters. One case holds the mobo, and up to three external drives(0ne 3.5", two 5.25"), the other holds the PSU, up to 8 more 5.25" external drives and 5 internal 3.5"s

You can see it at Servercase.com, which also had the best price I was able to find on the case. (It isn't cheap, $195, w/o PSU, plus S&H)

I have the following requirements:

- preferably 120mm intake

nope, comes with a panel having 3x80mm on the front of the mobo chamber. There is also an additional 80mm mount built into the ESD cover for each pair of 5.25" bays. Unfortuneately all the included fans are 2 wire generic asian fans, I haven't tested them but would expect them to be noisy and disposable. It would be an easy mod to replace the intake panel with a cutout for one or more 120mm's. (I'm replacing it with the rad for my WC system)

- 120mm exhaust

Two, one on each chamber. The PSU side has a 25mm thick 120 included. (regretably all the fan grills are of the stamped steel variety, which would need to be removed and possibly replaced w/ wire grills.)

- minimum 4 x 5,25" external bays

I see your 4, and raise you 6 for a total of 10 external 5.25" bays.

- minimum 2 x 3,5" external bays

only got one, but I'm sure you could do something with an adapter...

- has a cover door that covers all external bays, plus it must
have enough clearance from the bays to fit a good thickness sound insulation material to the inner side of the door (Antec
1080 can do this and it helps tremendously)

The front bezel has 4 sections, 3 of which have doors. The entire bezel is hinged, and has about 1.5-2" clearance between the bezel and the front of the case itself. The doors probably have about an inch between their insides and the bezel. You could put several layers of insulation over everything but the installed drives and whatever intake you arranged.

- preferably with a way to mount hard drives with rubber
grommets without having to do a MOD myself

Sorry, you'd be on your own here, but have lots of options.

- all metal construction (no see through windows)

Nope, no windows. Two of the doors are dark smoky translucent plastic, but you could put insulation behind them without being noticed as they look black when closed. There is a row of vent holes along the top and bottom of the side panels, but these can easily be taped over.

- not flimsy

Definitely solid. Weight is over 50lbs w/o PSU. The steel feels like thick stuff. Construction is riveted, but the case doesn't seem to have any twist or racking tendency. I haven't tried sitting on it, but it feels like I could. Even the side panels don't seem to have much flex. All the metal edges seem to be well folded or rounded, I did not find any 'razor blades' in this case other than those edges where I did cutting myself.

If you want a really really big case, this is one that I highly reccomend.

Gooserider

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Sat Aug 09, 2003 11:40 pm

Thanks for the tips!

I can't really remember anymore why I had struck SLK-3700 off my list. Probably somebody told me that the door doesn't have enough clearance. I should really go and see this case myself, if I can find it locally.

The server case tip also sounds useful. Maybe a little too big for me, but certainly fills my requirements

SLK-3700 looks to be exactly the same as the upcoming AcoustiCase C6607B, which would mean I could get a good insulation kit ready made for that case

http://www.acoustiproducts.com/en/popup ... lkopen.asp

If you have more tips, keep them coming!

regards,
Halcyon

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sun Aug 10, 2003 4:15 am

halcyon wrote: SLK-3700 looks to be exactly the same as the upcoming AcoustiCase C6607B, which would mean I could get a good insulation kit ready made for that case

http://www.acoustiproducts.com/en/popup ... lkopen.asp

If you have more tips, keep them coming!

regards,
Halcyon

I just looked at that "AcoustiCase C6607B" It is the SLK3700/D8000/6A19 depending on whether or not it has a door. Door = SLK3700. No door = D8000/6A19.

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 1:55 am

I've had to raise the bar on the external 5.25" bays to six (preferably 8).

The case I'm now looking at is this Lian LI PC-78, which is very expensive, but looks good with 120mm exhaust and multi 80mm intake options:

http://www.ngasis.com/Articulos/PC78/

It looks like it has enough space for everything I could imagine and the kitchen sink too. Front door seems to have sufficient space for some padding, but could be better.

The trouble with these expensive cases is that I can never see them in real life before buying them. So, it's quite a gamble ordering something like this based on a few images on the net :)

regards,
Halcyon

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 5:16 am

halcyon wrote:I've had to raise the bar on the external 5.25" bays to six (preferably .

The trouble with these expensive cases is that I can never see them in real life before buying them. So, it's quite a gamble ordering something like this based on a few images on the net

regards,
Halcyon

Daayuum, what are you going to put into that thing?

You should consider one of the tall versions of the Chieftec Dragons. 6 external bays + the door + the security of knowing that it's just a taller version of the SX1080 that you're using now + you can get it in about 80 kajillion colors (in case that matters

).

Downside:

1) No 120mm fans, but ( as MikeC suggests) a couple of quiet 80mm fans can be as quiet or quieter than a single 120mm fan and flow as much air.

2) That funny stiffening plate that runs through the middle of the case. The hole in it is fairly small which bunches up any cables going through it and hampers the airflow to the top of the case.

Well, that's my extra 2¢ now that you've thrown a monkey wrench into your original plan.

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 10:34 pm

Ralf, thanks again for comments!

I had been looking at Chieftec (esp. Scorpio maxi tower) cases as well.

I still haven't seen one in real life, but it remind me of my old AOpen full tower (with different type of side panels).

The problem with that AOpen case was just like you described: too small clearing through which one had to drag all the cables from motherboard to the upper 5.25" bay slots. Very annoying.

Otherwise it was a decent case, very sturdy, although not much room for padding material though.

Chieftec is still on my list though

thanks!

regards,
Halcyon

PS Lots of optical drives and at least one bay bus controller is going to be fitted into those slots. Four just isn't enough

Silent big case with a front door that has good clearance

Silent big case with a front door that has good clearance

Now if you REALLY want *B*I*G*...

Now if you REALLY want BIG...