Case advice - anything else than P280, R4, 550d ?

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spwul62
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 7:30 am

Case advice - anything else than P280, R4, 550d ?

Post by spwul62 » Sat Jan 12, 2013 8:26 am

Am planning to have a new pc assembled. Looking forward to a good advice on the best case to use.

Right now I own a Lian Li PC-7010B
http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/pr ... s_index=95

It's a decent case but am considering to go for a mid-tower.
There are a few important things to be considered:
1. I should be able to easily slide out the harddisk sideways myself
(in case of I need to replace it, so I donot need to bring the entire pc to the shop)
2. Good airflow - in summertime it tends to be pretty hot in my room (27-28 degr c)
3. As silent as possible.

Donot have the skill of building the pc myself, replacing memory makes me nervous already :)

Have spent a _lot_ of time on reading reviews of P280, R4 and 550d.
I am not in favour of the 550d - think it has some temperature issues(?)

In case I have to decide between the P280 and R4 I tend to go for the P280 - though I am a bit worried
about the lack of front fans and Antec's focus on negative pressure only.

Question
Are there any decent alternatives for the P280 ?
The choice looks a bit limited as it is P280 all over.
(Price isn't too much of an issue)

I think the case should not be too small.
Don't know whether it makes any difference though:
a small case = less volume of warm air
a bigger case = maybe the overall temperature remains lower?


PC will include:
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V DELUXE
Power: Corsair AX760i
Memory: Kingston - HyperX Predator 32GB DDR3-1600 CL9 XMP quad kit
CPU: Intel - Intel® Core™ i7-3770K
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 412S
SSD: Samsung - 512GB - 840 Pro Serie
RAID controler: 3ware SAS 9750-4i
HDDs: Western Digital - WD2003FYYS (4x RE4 - 2x RAID,0)
Graphic card: Asus - HD7850-DC2T-2GD5-V2

TIA for suggestions.
=

mkk
Posts: 687
Joined: Sun Sep 05, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Gefle, Sweden
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Re: Case advice - anything else than P280, R4, 550d ?

Post by mkk » Sat Jan 12, 2013 5:18 pm

Those three are the ones I'd generally consider/recommend for such builds. The 550D probably more if the end user fancies the look of its front face, leaning to either of the P280 or Define R4 otherwise. Any of those three will be fine with quiet parts. I'd lean towards the P280 for systems with a lot of harddrives or especially 7200 RPM drives (vibration), while on a personal preference the Define R4 for other builds(looks, venting modularity, smart features, dampening material).

Add one or two slowly rotating fans to the front of the P280, like perhaps Scythe Slip Stream 120mm 800RPM running at 5V. Or try with moving one of the included top fans (both top fans won't be necessary and the empty slot can be covered to block some noise slipping out) to the front and see how it fares noise-wise. Even in a hot room this system will be easy to cool. Even the white P280 that has no top opening would work, with two front fans used to increase the overall airflow. I think the white looks a whole lot better, although the cooling is more limited in case a much hotter running graphics card or two would become interesting in the future.

spwul62
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 7:30 am

Re: Case advice - anything else than P280, R4, 550d ?

Post by spwul62 » Sun Jan 13, 2013 2:09 am

Thanks a lot for your advice. There is quite an extensive review on the P280 cooling
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articl ... -122/page3
where somewhere they wrong
"It's odd to think of a chassis doing better without a front intake fan, but this chassis has been optimized by Antec to operate under negative pressure (more exhaust fans than intake) which these results fully support."

Maybe by adding just one slow rotating fan at the front (bottom) is suffiently enough.
e.g. Noctua NF-S12B ULN

Image

I hesitate as to whether I should replace the top fans by more silent Noctua-fans.
(they are doing around 20-25 euro each)

Thanks again
=

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