CM HAF 932 vs Antec p182 vs ?

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kartu
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CM HAF 932 vs Antec p182 vs ?

Post by kartu » Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:50 am

Greetings,

I am looking for a "silent case" for a moderate power gaming (SLI/Crossfire unlikely) that would serve me for a few years.

So far I've come down to 2 cases mentioned above, both cost about 130 euros in my country. I like HAFs audio/video/usb ports being on the top of the case. I am a bit worried about:

1) HAF 932 being rather unpopular on this forum, is it too loud? (I actually find it's look to be fine and I like the ports being on top of the box)
2) p182's graphic card cooling performance

Could you comment on these 2 cases or maybe suggest an alternative?

P.S.
Sorry for my English.

kartu
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Post by kartu » Mon Feb 02, 2009 3:23 am

Nobody knows or I am asking wrong questions in a wrong subforum? :?

MikeK
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Post by MikeK » Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:37 am

Hmm, I would like to hear about something on the HAF 932 as well.

PudinPops
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Post by PudinPops » Mon Mar 01, 2010 12:07 pm

I'm in, somewhat, the same boat. But I'm looking at the mid tower HAF.

Trying to decide between a P one series or something with lots of big fans to stay cool.

Would love to hear some thoughts on this.

corrion
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Post by corrion » Mon Mar 01, 2010 2:33 pm

I can give you my opinion of my friend's HAF-922 (midtower case).

1) When all three fans are on, it produces a nice, quiet, whooshing sound (to me anyways) without any annoying pitches or whines. My friend even bought an extra 120mm fan to point straight at the video card. Ventilation is definitely good in this case.

2) But the open side panel and the open front panel leaks out a lot of sound. I think the loudest component for his machine is his stock Intel cooler on his Core i5, which is audible if you pay close attention to the noise coming from the computer. If you have quiet components, I'm sure it wouldn't be an issue.

3) The hard drive mechanism seems a little cheap, but I haven't been around the computer long enough to let you know if it dampens the hard drive at all.

4) I'm a big fan (no pun intended) of dust filters, and the only one in this case is so hard to reach and clean that it might actually discourage people from doing so.

Again, this is just my personal opinion. I helped him build the computer, and his only criteria was that it had to be housed in this case, so he's in love with it. It's definitely a very good case, it's just not right for me. :P

PudinPops
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Post by PudinPops » Mon Mar 01, 2010 2:47 pm

^ So the HAF would not be ideal for a silent setup.

How good is it at sheer cooling power?

I always have cooling problems in the summer.

JamieG
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Post by JamieG » Mon Mar 01, 2010 2:48 pm

The HAF932 looks like it has far too many open vents to house a quiet system. Extra large fans aren't necessarily quiet - I'd be wary of those.

I'm pretty happy with my P182 and the temps I get on my 8800GTX OC'd.

If you are willing to trade off quietness for slightly higher temps, the P183 will be good for your system, particularly if you go with an aftermarket CPU cooler and swap the included case fans for something quieter.

Unless you plan on an OC'd i7 system or change your mind about SLI/Xfire, the P183 would be better IMO, particularly if you add a front middle intake fan to point at the graphics card - most review sites just review cases with the stock fans that the case comes with, so this could lead to comparatively bad graphics card temp results for the P183.

corrion
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Post by corrion » Mon Mar 01, 2010 2:56 pm

PudinPops wrote:^ So the HAF would not be ideal for a silent setup.

How good is it at sheer cooling power?

I always have cooling problems in the summer.
It's really good. His stock i5 750 idles at 25C (77F), stock 8800GTS 320MB idles at 47F (full load at around 60F), and the fans are constantly blowing out cold air. Ambient temperature is pretty low because of California weather (maybe around 50-60F), so that definitely helps.

Vicotnik
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Post by Vicotnik » Mon Mar 01, 2010 7:18 pm

corrion wrote:It's really good. His stock i5 750 idles at 25C (77F), stock 8800GTS 320MB idles at 47F (full load at around 60F), and the fans are constantly blowing out cold air. Ambient temperature is pretty low because of California weather (maybe around 50-60F), so that definitely helps.
I hope you realize that 47F on that 8800GTS with an ambient temp of 50-60F is impossible. I also cannot understand why so many people seem to care about temperature. As long as it's not very high, causing instability, artifacts or premature death temperature is really not that important. It's nice if stuff have some kind of temperature sensor you can check if you suspect that something might be overheating, but many people seem to think that the readings are accurate. They are not, and in most cases it's not even possible to calibrate the sensors.

Sorry about the rant. :)

corrion
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Post by corrion » Tue Mar 02, 2010 2:47 pm

Well, short of driving 15 minutes to his place with a thermometer in hand, I wasn't really going to know what his ambient temperature will ever be, nor do I know what conditions any of the fans are running at (he told me later he had all the fans running full blast including the video card when he gave me his readings). I was simply stating what he remembered, and obviously you caught the discrepancy.

The fact still stands that the case cools the video card very well, and will definitely cool the video card much better than the P182.

MikeK
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Post by MikeK » Fri Mar 05, 2010 11:14 am

Thanks for the input. My fiancee's dad is filling this case with a monster system. He's not the silent enthusiast I am but thought I'd check on it since he values my opinion on computer components. It's too late anyway, he already got the case, but I'm sure it will be fine. The thing is basically completely open and looks pretty awesome. I did see how the hard drive holders work and it's pretty neat - along with the optical drive mounting also. Very cool.

I imagine he'll have this against or under his desk so hopefully the window sound isn't that much.

Those fans are huge! Time to update the SPCR recommended list for fans, the biggest ones on there are 120mm. :)

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