New Tom's Hardware case review

luminous · Post by **luminous** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 11:51 am

It's not earth shattering news, but good old Tom and his team have reviewed another 8 cases. None are specifically silent orientated, but some do look nice. With the correct mods you may be able to make a good case out of some of these.

All seem to need the Bluefront case fan in the bottom approach for successful modifciation. The front panels on these cases do not look like they could be easily modified without spoliing their nice looks.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20040913/index.html

msm_zgok · Post by **msm_zgok** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 2:14 pm

http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/2004 ... er-11.html
"A large 120-mm fan ensures air intake"
Whoever said this is stupid. Almost everyone uses the rear fan opening for exhaust. The pre-installed fan is also set to exhaust heat.

Their method of testing is absurd. Risk of Injury- do they get some idiot to install parts in the case and see how many cuts he gets?

Lack of temperature readings make this review stink even more.

luminous · Post by **luminous** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 2:21 pm

Yeah, it pretty damn useless from a silencing point of view. But it is nice to see what new cases are hitting the market. I really like the appearance of the one on the top, 3rd from the left. If only it display was better. The one on the bottom second from the left is also really nice. You would have to do a bottom intake with that one though.

I'm just bored of the more normal case appearance

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 3:06 pm

Don't be too harsh - at least we get lots of pretty pictures that will help narrow our search for the perfect case.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 3:10 pm

Well I know what you mean by boring cases.....most of the "recommended" cases around here do nothing at all for me. The way I see it, it's just as easy to setup/modify a good-looking case for silent performance, as to do the same to a "blah" case.

There is something to be aware of when you get a case with a front display panel, such as my latest Ahanix dbox.....

In it's normal operating position (to the right of my desk in this case), the front display panel cannot be seen.....so I cannot use the neat CPU temp LED readout to monitor anything, unless I lean over and look down. I guess most of the cases have this problem. For me it would be better to have the readout on the left side of the case toward the front.

Heh....maybe I'm too picky.

mai9 · Post by **mai9** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 4:55 pm

lenny wrote:Don't be too harsh - at least we get lots of pretty pictures that will help narrow our search for the perfect case.

yep, pictures in this page will really help me decide

the_smell · Post by **the_smell** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 12:09 am

That picture goes up there with warnings of 'hot liquid' when you buy tea!
The phrase 'no s**t sherlock' comes to mind

At least it appears a few more case deigners have finally realised a couple of 120mm fans are what we want instead of ten 80mm

luminous · Post by **luminous** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 10:17 am

Yeah, that could be cool. An SPCR standard case with standard noise meansurment. Useless, but cool nonetheless

Straker · Post by **Straker** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 10:38 pm

errr, that case actually has four pod-like things that the casters come out of, so it's almost impossible to tip over after you move it sideways (without doing something that would also tip an ordinary case)? that's pretty slick