i'm almost resigned to buy an antec case
seems that for the past year there is no decent alternative
most other cases i see today are generally just "bling-tastic"

but before i do go and jump on the p150/solo/sonata/etc bandwagon, does anyone have any experience with this one?:

http://www.nexustek.nl/NXS-nexusclodius ... system.htm

stumbled across it when looking up the caterpillar (and nexus fans in general)

Looks ok I guess, but mods will be necessary. The HD cage looks riveted in, but probably removable for a drive suspension system. The fans are the 1000 rpm version, but the fan controller says 1000-1700 ? They list an available filter for the front fan, but with all the vent holes much air just by-passes the filter. Worth a try anyway.

Certainly different from a boring Antec.....

how about an arctic cooling case?

completely different no-antec airflow design. the first edition of my rig was built in such a case (in the first release of the ac-case; it's improved in the mean time). it cooled excellent and was silent after a psu mod. the only reason for changing to a solo was the lack of cable-management possibilities in the ac-case and the lack of a second vibration-free hdd-mount (now they have). the first edition of the ac-case was tested in spcr.

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/pc_case1.php

i like this nexus case. would be ideal for your ducted-case design? 2 large 140mm sharkoons on the bottom, a duct and then exhaust through the rear 120mm, the psu and the top-panel.

That's exactly what I was thinking. But using 140mm fans on the bottom....much of the airflow will be blocked by the cards, unless the case is very wide. A width of at least 7.8" seems to be the minimum using 120mm fans on the bottom. You can't locate the bottom holes too close to the outer edge....the case frame gets too weak. About 1/2" is as close as you should get.

The case looks pretty narrow to me....

Hello,

It has more intakes than any case other than one of those screen cases. It could work, I suppose. It looks like the carcass is the same as a bazillion other cases, and it may be, like those, made out of thin steel (0.5mm?).

If the steel is that thin it would remove the advantage of steel IMHO, making it vibrate, rattle and hum just like any aluminium ditto, albeit to a lower price.

the case is indeed 2 cm smaller than a solo. 18cm instead of 20cm. but with halfheight cards (or no cards at all: choose a fully featured matx board) and a reinforcement strip along the edge it might be possible.

Dunno why Nexus has jumped to the swamp of low-priced cases To me that looks exactly like most cheap cases, holes everywhere, drive cages riveted in place etc.

If you're looking to go the Nexus-way then I'd suggest you to get Caterpillar over that. It has no dust filters, but atleast to me it seems like a better choice. Even with that you're better off removing the original drive cage and replacing it with somehow suspended one and the gfx card may get too hot. Maybe there is a reason for people buying Antec.

EDIT: ofc the price is rather tempting as well. I guess the Caterpillar costs around 50-60 € here and the fans bought separately are about 40 €. Thus the case actually costs ~10 € and for that money it's great.

Anyone owning this chassi thats wanna give his two cents about it? I'm currently quite interested about it.

It's quite a new case, so don't count on it.
Don't even seen a review of it...

Yet.

Yeah... Same goes for me. But someone should have bought it?

As I said a few minutes ago in another thread. I love my P150! I've had it for a year now.

I can see staying with the Solo/Sonata Designer line for a long time precisely because I haven't seen anything better (or even close) come along, Antec included.

If Solo etc. ends up being the best case that works for you, I don't see why you would be "resigned" to it.

no soft mounting of drives? that's a glaring oversight for a case going after Antec's dominance in silent cases.

Well, you could always get rubberscrews or something.