Looking for a case

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 6:52 am

I'm looking to buy a new case in the near future. I've taken a look over the recommended list, but none of them seem to quite have what I'm looking for.

I want a case that:
1) Has grommet mountings for the hard drives
2) Has grommet mountings for 5.25 bays (CD-ROMS, etc)
3) Is made out of aluminum
4) Has a motherboard tray
4) Has good airflow (after cutting out fan grills, if necessary)

I'm not concerned with the price too much right now. I'm also planning on picking up Acoustipak v2, so I don't need a window on the side or anything. I'm also not adverse to a full or server tower, but I need at least 4 external 5.25 bays.

miker · Post by **miker** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 7:01 am

I've not seen anything with grommet mountings on the 5.25 bays.

Post by **Rusty075** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 7:09 am

Nor have I. That may be a DIY kind of thing. If you take that requirement out you should have alot more cases to choose from.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 12:09 pm

No case that I'm aware of has requirement #2 at all.

Discounting requirement #2, no case that I'm aware has all the rest of those features either. The removable MoBo try is going to be a sticking point.

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 1:52 pm

Do you guys have any recommendations that fufill SOME of my requirements? What about a quiet aluminum case with a mb tray?

Katana Man · Post by **Katana Man** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 3:23 pm

Yes, the Global WIN YCC-61F1 meets your needs except for the rubber grommet mounting.

Necroz · Post by **Necroz** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 12:47 pm

Shadowknight wrote:Do you guys have any recommendations that fufill SOME of my requirements? What about a quiet aluminum case with a mb tray?

check out the Kingwin KT424 Aluminum
anandtech just reviewed it.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1846

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 2:58 pm

By the way, I've searched the archive and haven't seen much on the Lian-Li PC-6070. Anyone have any direct experience using this case?

Justin_R · Post by **Justin_R** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 9:13 pm

You may be able to add grommeted hard drives to any case. Read this thread, and try contacting Evercase. They may sell you just a removable hard drive bracket, and two sets of grommets to accompany it.

The removable hard drive bracket (from the Evercase 4252) is also sold at newegg for $6 shipped. It can be found under the "Accessories -- Case" category. The pre-drilled grommet holes may accomodate the EAR elastomer hard drive grommets available from mcmaster.com (part 9311K138), but you'll have to get someone with an Evercase to measure the holes to be sure.

In case you're wondering, the mounting bracket for the drive cage would be attached to the inside floor of your case via two screws, and the drive cage slides into the mounting bracket.

This may be more effort than you're willing to spend for grommeted hard drives. It seems that it's just as complicated as creating a bracket to suspend them with elastic rope, and I've gotten the impression that suspension is a more effective silencing technique.

Liquidated · Post by **Liquidated** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 8:57 pm

the global win has it all except the grommets which are DIYable.

the grills are clean stock and the front plastic bezle is easily dremeled/modmeshed for maximum airflow. Case is not that big, surely not a tower

My RL is like overflowing with RL stuff right now so my katana alike globalwin mod is on hold so I can enjoy building the new pc instead of merely cramming it into a nonexistant day off.

Regardless I really love the globalwin ycc 61f1 case even if it's a bit boring looking.

Cheers!
-Liq

oldabelincoln · Post by **oldabelincoln** » Sat Aug 30, 2003 2:13 am

An earlier post in this thread pointed at the Anandtech review of the Kingwin 424.

I'm in much the same state as the originator of this thread, Shadowknight, and I've spent a lot of time reading case reviews. It appears that the Kingwin 424 is a repackaged BeanTech Igloo case

If you have any interest in this case, the Kingwin 424, you'll find an incredible number of reviews of this case and its sibling BeanTech "Igloo" cases (which appear to differ only in details like doors and windows) all over the various hardware review sites.

BeanTech has a real presence in the UK under its own name, but almost none in the US, and it appears that at one point they sent out a deluge of cases under their own name to US reviewers. This looked like almost what I've been looking for, so I read every damn review I could find, and not a one pointed to a site that sold them. Eventually, I found them sold variously as BeanTech (http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content ... alu&page=1 - review and sales), Victor (http://www.computergate.com/products/it ... d=HTMVMT10 -sales), and of course, Kingwin 424 (other Kingwin models are made by Super Flower), which is readily available from many on-line retailers.

There are too many reviews to even begin to list them. If interested, Google

"beantech igloo" review
and
"bean tech igloo" review

as no one seems entirely sure if there is a space in there or not.

The higher number BeanTech Igloos have doodads like windows and doors, but otherwise are the same as the simple Igloo 1 (silver) and Igloo 3 (black), which have no doors or windows. I'm not sure which Igloo model matches the Kingwin in the Anandtech review, as I have been looking for windowless models - probably something like the Igloo 7,

Me, I'm torn between the Global Win's 120mm fans and the Beantech/Victor/Kingwin drive rails.

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Sat Aug 30, 2003 4:05 am

The higher number BeanTech Igloos have doodads like windows and doors, but otherwise are the same as the simple Igloo 1 (silver) and Igloo 3 (black), which have no doors or windows. I'm not sure which Igloo model matches the Kingwin in the Anandtech review, as I have been looking for windowless models - probably something like the Igloo 7,

Me, I'm torn between the Global Win's 120mm fans and the Beantech/Victor/Kingwin drive rails.

Hmm... thanks for the info. The only thing is, I'm finding myself more and more drawn to the Black version of the Lian-Li 6070. I don't want to buy it because of the heating problems, but it looks VERY nice (so... as one person said, the 6070A looks like a silver monolith, so would the black one, being a black monolith, require you to put the 2001 theme on Windows startup, with a really long, boring screensaver?).

The only thing about these two cases is that 120mm fans push more air for better cooling, but aren't as quiet as 80mm fans, and drive rails can lead to more vibration. Is ANY company willing to get some input on making the perfect quiet case?

[/quote]

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sat Aug 30, 2003 4:21 am

Shadowknight wrote:Is ANY company willing to get some input on making the perfect quiet case?

Did you miss the Noiseblocker thread + poll a few weeks ago? You can still exercise your right to vote and give them some more input.

Looking for a case

Looking for a case

what katana said

Kingwin 424 alias Beantech Igloo